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



by threatening them in their dearest aims. One of the measures 

 which has tended, perhaps, more than any other to ensure the 

 lasting loyalty of the Eajput has been the grant of the right of 

 adoption to the chiefs of that race, and the anxiety of the great 

 families was extreme when the failure of direct heirs at 

 Karauli before the great Mutiny led to this matter being 

 thoroughly threshed out, and an ultimate decision being given 

 in their favour. Had it not been so, even in my own time, 

 many of the great Eajput chief ships would have been at the 

 disposal of the paramount sovereignty. Even the loyal and 

 wise chief of Jeypore, Maharaja Ram Singh, felt it necessary 

 on his deathbed to say to me, when nominating his successor, 

 that he looked to the Government, in recognition of his uniform 

 loyalty, to see that his wishes were carried out, and that the 

 independence of his country was maintained, and his line 

 preserved. Nor indeed is this fixity of tenure confined to the 

 ruling race, which numbers only about five per cent, of the 

 whole population, but it is the rule throughout all classes. 



There are, for example, bankers in the northern parts of 

 Jaipur, in Bikanir, and in Marwar, whose ancestors have been 

 settled in or near the same places for many centuries. The 

 facts which I have mentioned point to community of interest, 

 to fixity of tenure, and especially to preservation of land in 

 the regular line of succession, but there are other privileges 

 which are of equal value to the ordinary human being which 

 the Eajputctna system ensured. Provided a man did not interfere 

 in high politics, he could do many things which fostered his 

 love of independence in his own home and affairs which a less 

 elastic and, perhaps, over-legislated rule would not admit of. 



He could till his own lands without much interference, 

 especially if he bribed a tax-collector, and, with the exception 

 of caste control to which all were accustomed, he could do 

 pretty much as he liked, and then too, there was the chance, 

 under personal rule, of rising even to the position of a prime 

 minister by natural acuteness, rather than by the arts of the 

 scribe, which all in their hearts abhor. Crowning all was the 

 mutual aid which every one was prepared to render if the 

 interests of the clan, or of the immediate lord, were attacked. 

 On the side of the Eajput noble there were many things which 

 tended to keep him up to the mark. The bard recited deeds of 

 honour, but on the other hand he could describe in scathing 

 verse any acts which were contrary to the accepted standard of 

 uprightness. I remember how the name of a noble was 

 execrated because in a time of dire distress from famine he 



