1919.] The Rajput Kingdoms of Mediaeval Chhattisgarh. 227 
to petty chieftainships inside Sambalpur. Yet the latter is 
the true interpretation. This throws, as I have said, an 
interesting sidelight on the character of our evidence. And I 
trust the character which is thus revealed will be accepted as 
my excuse for so frequently in these pages condemning evidence 
as unreliable and yet accepting some portion of it as the basis 
ot my argument. 
CHAPTER VII. 
CHHATTISGARH BEFORE AND AFTER THE Rajput CONQUEST. 
52. We 
tisgarh proper. Having in earlier chapters described in some 
detail the system on which in mediaeval times the country 
comprised in the Rajput Kingdoms of Ratanpur and Raipur 
and by comparison with adjoining territories where primitive 
tribal conditions still prevail to form some faint idea of what 
Chhattisgarh was like before the Rajput conquest. 
have seen in Chapter II that the Kharond or Kala- 
Khonds, of whose primitive organization we chance to possess 
particularly full information. ‘‘ The population of Kharond 
‘‘(Kalahandi),” Elliott says, “may be approximately stated 
“at about 80,000. About two-thirds of this number are 
are described in Elliott’s Report, and its “‘ origin is attributed 
“to a covenent said to have been entered into between some 
former Rajah (name unknown) and the Khonds of the country. 
5 
? 
of which adjoins the North-East corner of Kalahandi. Bat 
it describes the Khonds at a much earlier stage of develop- 
ment while still in practically independent occupation of their 
country. The legendary alliance between the Khonds and 
the Raja of which Elliott speaks in Kalahandi is, in Bod and 
Gumsar, a reality. As Macpherson writes (page 61) the “ in- 
