1919.] The Rajput Kingdoms of Mediaeval Chhattisgarh. 257 
as a system, and superimposed a centralized organization (which 
we in our turn have maintained and strengthened) having prac- 
tically no political hoe whatsoever with that for which it 
was substituted. must be content then to examine these 
fossil remains of mediante Chhattisgarh. asain skele- 
ton as far as possible, and give it its proper place in the 
museum of bygone political phenomena. Historically it seems 
to me that this political formation is of a very early date. It 
represents the first compromise between the tribal life and the 
monarchy by conquest. And is logically not only prior to the 
more centralized system of the ordinary mediaeval Hindu state 
but anterior even to some of the Dravidian kingdoms, e.g. 
Deogarh and Chanda, which preceded the Maratha conquest 
in other parts of what is now known as the Central Provinces. 
98. The Hindu and pales of the later Gond kingdoms 
comprised an extensive territory under the king’s control which 
was administered by the king’s officials. This khaisa formed “ the 
central and usually the sities part of the country’ while the 
subordinate chiefs were relegated to the outlying tracts around 
it. This is the typical mediaeval Hindu kingdom (Baden 
Powell’s Village Community, PP. 195-197). Thus of the old Hindu 
kingdom of Orissa we read that “‘ the whole country was divi- 
" “ ded, exclusive of the vast tracts held in jaghir tenure into 
‘numerous circles or allotments afterwards the Pergunnahs of 
“the Moguls. Each of these petty districts was managed by 
«2 classes of officers, the one had the chief superintendence 
‘‘and direction of affairs and conducted the Police duties with 
“the aid of an officer called the Khundait ; and the other was 
prearanieary and kept a Renter of all the particulars of 
“ the lan 
e There were besides these common revenue and _ police 
“ officers, the great military Jagheerdars styled Maha Naik, 
“ Sawunt, Khandait, Bhooputees and more commonly Bhooyan 
cetehio ts held, as hereditary fiefs, the mountainous and wood lan 
, tracts on either frontier with some portion of the open sla 
and likewise the ministers and servants of the Rajah, the 
‘“ Bewurta, Senaputtee Raee Gooroo, ete., who derived their 
“ emoluments from extensive grants of unassessed lands. 
“‘The above was the state of affairs found by Rajah ae 
“ment of the Province somewhere about A.D. 1580.” (Stir- 
ving: s Minute of October 10th, 1821, on Tenures in Orissa, P- 
‘Similarly the Gond Administration, as described by Major 
Lucie Smith in Chapter VII of his Settlement Report on the 
Chanda District, divided the Khalsa of the Chanda kingdom 
