RAJPUTS AND THE HISTORY OF RAJPUTANA. 



of any of the modern states. The chiefs of Meywar, when they 

 were driven from the plains of Gujarat, settled in the innermost 

 recesses of the Aravalli mountains ; they then conquered the 

 Mori chief of Cheetore, and for a thousand years his fortress 

 remained their capital, from which, when they were opposed 

 to the disciplined hosts of the Moghul Empire, they had, after 

 a very hard struggle, extending over many years, to withdraw 

 again into the rugged district in which they founded the new 

 and present capital of Udaipur, the City of the Eising Sun. So 

 also at Jeypore the earliest capitals were Kho and Kuntalgarh, 

 in almost inaccessible hills, then at Amber, still in the hills, 

 and finally at Jeypore in the plains, but even now under the 

 shadow of the mountain range, which is crowned with forts for 

 the protection of the city. Again, the capital of Marwar, when 

 it first became an important state, was at Mundore in the hills, 

 and it was then removed, more space being required, to the 

 plains beyond, though it was there also dominated by a noble 

 fort high up on a grand scarped rock. Without exception the 

 Eajput chiefs, even if their present capital does not stand in the 

 hills, have some inaccessible fastness to which they can retire, 

 as well as some game preserve in the hills close by. The homes 

 of the nobles are similarly situated, and if there are no moun- 

 tains there are wide extents of sand which serve a similar 

 purpose, or, as at Kotah, a broad river which admits of easy 

 defence of the place. Of course in process of time it became no 

 longer so easy to provide for those who separated from the parent 

 stem, so that they had to be satisfied with less typical sites, but 

 the traveller will be surprised to find in Eajputana how few are 

 the villages of the nobles which have not close by some 

 stronghold, which is built on a rock or near some low hills, or 

 some woodland out of which to make a game preserve. Villages 

 in the open owned for their lord him who had the longest arm,, 

 and when the inhabitants were in danger or were oppressed 

 they withdrew to his fort for shelter. 



Tod refers to seeing near Eeah in Marwar the cenotaph of the 

 Thakur of that place, who fell in 1749 in defending the town 

 walls against the Mhairs, having first put to death his wife in 

 order to save his honour, and he adds that " there was scarcely 

 a family on either side of the Aravallis whose estates lay near 

 them which had not cenotaphs bearing similar inscriptions, 

 recording the desperate raids of the mountaineers ; and it may 

 be asserted that one of the greatest benefits we conferred on 

 Eajputana was the conversion of the numerous banditti . . . 

 into peaceful tax-paying subjects. We have now, moreover, 



