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



they had fled under stress of hunger. Such facts as this show 

 how the native of India clings to his land and home, and what 

 a great amount of wrong is required to drive him away for 

 good, yet it also points on the whole to a just and paternal 

 treatment. 



What tended most to preserve such a rule was a common 

 religion, which, while it allowed much elasticity in some ways, 

 such as variety of sect and local practice, did not usually 

 persecute for such divergencies, and its very humane nature 

 which permitted a man to do so many personal things without 

 hindrance that, in perhaps better regulated and more straitlaced 

 communities, are prohibited. Thus, for example, a man will 

 shut up a street if he wishes to give a caste feast on some 

 family occasion ; he will get the loan of horses, elephants, camels,, 

 furniture, and even of a few soldiers when he lias a marriage 

 in hand, and desires to shine a little before his neighbours; and 

 he will have the right to a, seat, or at least a standing place, in 

 the little court of the noble, even if he is only a small shop- 

 keeper : and he may as the head of his guild or fraternity, sit in 

 judgment on his caste men in petty disputes, and lastly, his 

 body may be carried sitting up instead of in a recumbent 

 position to the cremation ground, his chief being present. Then, 

 again, if he is one of the nobles or officials, he will have some- 

 thing to say when his sovereign dies as to the succession. 



The rules of succession to position and property in Kajputana 

 have had very much to do with the permanency of Eajput rule. 

 Unlike the Mohammedan Emperors, whose rules for themselves 

 and their nobles as well as officials were most irregular, the 

 Eajput had fixed principles which were followed at every 

 succession both of a chief and of his nobles. 



All were therefore equally interested in keeping these 

 regulations and in preserving the system which admitted them. 

 Mohammedan successions were far from regular. The strongest, 

 or most unscrupulous, won in the almost inevitable struggle 

 which followed upon the death of the last sovereign, and his 

 death was not always waited for, as for example in the case of 

 even the great Akbar himself, whose grandson Khusru strove 

 to obtain the empire to the prejudice of his father Jehangir. This 

 scheme some authorities say even the emperor attempted to stay 

 by giving the rebel's own supposed supporter Eaja Maun Singh of 

 Jaipur, poisoned pan or betel with his own hand, which, however, 

 he took by mistake himself, thus causing his own death. So also 

 Aurangzeb, by cunning and fighting, won the empire from his 

 brothers and actually deposed his father Shan Jehan, the deed 



