1897.] 
277 
R. Burn — The Bajrarjggarh Mint and Coins. 
excess of religious zeal in the worship of Hanuman. The last-mention¬ 
ed point is confirmed by the coins, on which he calls himself Pavan- 
putra, a well-known epithet of Hanuman. 1 After Sindia had made peace 
with the English, he proceeded to annihilate those of the Rajput chiefs 
whose territory he wished to seize. General Baptiste took Bajraqggarh 
and, after a siege, Raghugarh, but Jai Simgh managed to retake the fort 
of Qiopur in 1816, which had been previously subdued by General 
Baptiste, and he actually made the family of the latter prisoners, besides 
obtaining much booty. Jai Simgh, when expelled from his state, became 
“ a prince of camel-riding caterans,” but he did not degenerate into the 
highway robber, levying contributions as a rule from officers of Sindia 
only, and several times he pressed Baptiste very hard, and for five years 
a considerable portion of Sindia’s forces were wholly occupied against 
him. He had great hopes from the British, and wrote to Colonel 
MacMorine who commanded a corps on the frontier a most remarkable 
letter, 2 offering to pay six to eight annas in the rupee on collections, if 
Sindia’s country were made over to him, and saying that if five lakhs, 
or enough to raise fifteen thousand horsemen, were advanced to him, 
he would crush the Pindaris with their 30,000. The letter concludes 
with a request for an immediate advance of a quarter of a lakh. It 
was of course impossible to accede to this, and Jai Simgh was preparing 
to renew the attack alone, when he died in 1818 of cholera. 
From the coins we get the regnal year 19 which would correspond 
with A.D. 1816, and the superior execution of the coin dated that year 
would support the idea that it was struck in a town, before Jai Simgh, 
was driven to live where he could, the later coins being much cruder in 
design and finish. There is no symbol on the earlier coin, and that of 
the lotus on the second specimen seems to indicate a connection with 
Kota and Bundi. 3 After the death of Jai Simgh the succession was dis¬ 
puted. One of the chief Ranis adopted a boy named Bakhtavar Simgh, 
who was raised to the gaddi under the name of Ajit Simgh, but the 
aunt of Jai Simgh supported one Dhogkal Simgh, who claimed to have 
been appointed successor by Jai Simgh, in the usual way, by receiving 
his horse and spear. He belonged however to the Bijavat branch of 
the family (descended from Bijai Simgh, younger son of Gharlb Das 
the founder of the principality), which is reckoned inferior to the 
Lalavat branch (descended from Lai Simgh the eldest son), and Dhoijkal 
Simgh was finally imprisoned at Gvaliyar, after defeat by Sindia’s troops 
1 Croolte, Introduction to Folklore of Upper India, p. 52. 
2 Malcolm, op. cit., pp. 482, 483. 
8 Prinsep’s Antiquities, pi. XLVI, Nos. 55, 56 and 59; p. 67. In the plate the 
stalk of the lotus turns to the left, while on the coins it is to the right. 
J. i. 36 
