78 COL. T. HOLBEIN HENDLEY, C.I.E., ON THE 



metamorphosised several corps of them, from breakers, into 

 keepers of the peace." The work of building strong forts and 

 town walls was much facilitated by the abundance of excellent 

 building materials. In North India, below the Himalayas, 

 Eajputana alone fulfilled the important conditions which I have 

 named. These are found, however, in other parts of the 

 Peninsula, and in such situations the Eajputs, or the people who 

 resembled them, also established themselves ; thus, for example, 

 in the neighbourhood of Eotasgarh, on the Soane river in 

 Bengal, and in the adjoining hill states of Chota Nagpur, there 

 are many petty chiefs, who assert their descent from the 

 genuine Eajput stock, though it is no doubt very much diluted 

 by admixture with inferior aboriginal blood. The great 

 Mahratta Chief, Sivaji, and the Eulers of Nepal also claim 

 Eajput origin, and that from the noblest stock, none other than 

 the royal house of Udaipur. The rule is almost universal, 

 though it is true that in early times, when they became para- 

 mount, the great chiefs of India, from whom the present rulers 

 believe they are descended ; even the deified king Kama himself ; 

 and the lords of Balabhi and Kanauj, respectively the reputed 

 ancestors of the chiefs of Jaipur, Udaipur and Marwar, lived in 

 the plains, but they did not thoroughly establish themselves 

 there. Thanks to their possession of Chitor, the famous rock 

 fortress, and of the hill countries near it, the chiefs of Meywar 

 after Eana Hamir were paramount for more than two hundred 

 years in Eajputana, notwithstanding that they had against them 

 the power of the great sovereigns of Delhi. 



I will now quote at length from one of the appendices 

 to the famous Eajasthan, or "History of the Rajputs" a 

 remonstrance which was addressed to Colonel James Tod, its 

 author, when he was Political Agent in Meywar, by the Sub- 

 vassals of Deogarh, because it is most typical of the ideas of 

 the Eajputs as regards their duties to their liege lord, and still 

 more so of his obligations to them, and then I propose to give 

 some illustrations of the peculiar qualities of the race, qualities 

 both good and bad, to which, in my opinion, they owe not only 

 their successes, but their failures. 



Eemonstrance of the Sub-vassals of Deogarh against their 

 chief, Eawat Gokal Singh. (Appendix, Tod's Eajasthan.) 



1. He respects not the privileges or customs established of 

 old. 



2. To each Eaj put's house a Charsa or hide of land was 

 attached ; this he has resumed. 



3. Whoever bribes him is a true man, who does not is a thief. 



