1919.] The Rajput Kingdoms of Mediaeval Chhattisgarh. 245 
CHAPTER IX. 
BEFORE AND AFTER THE MARATHA CONQUEST. 
80. It will have been made obvious, from what has been 
written in the preceding chapter that, even by the 16th and 
17th centuries, the ‘‘ theory”’ of the administrative system as 
outlined in the 2nd Chapter of this paper had been consider- 
ably modified in practice in the more open parts of Chhattis- 
garh. The original subdivisions of the country which came 
into existence during the tribal period must have lost their 
Hindustan. The outlines of the old organization too were 
altered. The limits of the Garhs were changed and sometimes 
whole estates seem to have been broken up and redistributed. 
But amid all that was changing and uncertain one character- 
istic feature of the system remained unaltered. Though the 
1 y away, and the tribal system pure 
v 
against the Hindustani, yet the devolution of authority per- 
sisted. No attempt was made to centralize control in the 
Raja’s hands, and what may be called a sort of feudal system 
Chisholm says (Report, para. 64). “If at the time the whole 
‘*resources of Chhattisgarh and Sambalpur had been exercised 
‘by one central authority the Marathas might have encoun- 
‘‘ tered a really formidable resistance. But as it was there was 
“no central authority possessing any vigour, and the Hathai- 
“bansis merely stood at the head of a number of petty Rajahs 
“and Chiefs each of whom was to a large extent independent and 
“ among whom the whole country was div as i - 
“ tially weak system adapted to-a peaceful state of society alone 
‘and must have fallen long previously had any well-orga- 
‘‘ tained the allegiance of all the surrounding states. 
81. Vans Agnew writing in 1820 has much the same 
