RANOJEE SCINDIA. 
217 
The Mahratta power after the death of Sevajee 
gradually extended and rose upon the ruins of the 
Mogul to he the most formidable in Hindostan. Many 
distinguished warriors sprang up among this warlike 
people, on whom the mantle of Sevajee seems to have 
fallen ; of these the family of Scindia was not the 
least conspicuous. The first of this family who dis- 
tinguished himself was Ranojee Scindia, said origi- 
nally to have held a very menial office in the house- 
hold of the Paishwa, whose armies he afterwards 
commanded. It was in the degrading situation of a 
servant of the lowest order that he first fixed the 
notice of his master by his diligence and attention to 
his servile duties, and thus laid the foundation of his 
future greatness. The manner in which he then at- 
tracted the Paishwa’ s attention is stated to have 
been as follows. One day, as that prince was pass- 
ing through one of the apartments of his palace, he 
discovered Ranojee asleep with his master’s slip- 
pers clasped to his breast, and so tightly that the 
Paishwa tried in vain to remove them. Struck with 
his servant’s extraordinary care of a charge so insig- 
nificant, the master wisely judged that he who had 
been so jealously careful of a trifle could not fail to 
prove faithful if intrusted with a charge of im- 
portance. He consequently took the first opportunity 
of appointing him to a station in his body-guard ; nor 
did Ranojee disappoint the expectations of a generous 
master. From that period his rise was rapid : he 
became an enterprising soldier, and laid the foundation 
of his family’s greatness. 
He is said to have claimed descent from the tribe 
u 
