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This page is an extract from <br/>
ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES <br/>
OF <br/>
'''RAJASTHAN '''<br/>

OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN <br/>
RAJPUT STATES OF INDIA <br/>

By <br/>
LIEUT.-COL. JAMES TOD <br/>
Late Political Agent to the Western Rajput States <br/>

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by <br/>
WILLIAM CROOKE, CIE. <br/>
Hon. D.Sc. Oxon., B.A., F.R.A.l. <br/>
Late of the Indian Civil Service <br/>

In Three Volumes <br/>
VOL. IV: ANNALS OF MEWAR<br/>
[The Annals were completed in 1829]<br/>

HUMPHREY MILFORD <br/>
Oxford University Press <br/>
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York <br/>
Toronto Melbourne Bombay <br/>
1920 [The edition scanned] <br/>
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=Mewar 29: Overthrow of the predatory system= 

==Degraded Condition of the Rajputs==
The history of the Rana's 
family has now been traced through all the vicissitudes of its 
fortunes, fi-om the second to the nineteenth century, whilst 
contending for existence, alternately with Parthians, Bhils, 
Tartars, and Mahrattas, till at length it has become tributary 
to Britain. The last chapter portrays the degraded condition 
of their princes, and the utter desolation of their country, in a 
picture which embodied the entire Rajput race. An era of repose 
at length dawned upon them. The destruction of that vast 
predatory system, under the weight of which the prosperity of 
these regions had so long been repressed, was effected by one 
short campaign in 1817 ; which if less brilliant than that of 1803, 
is inferior to none in political results. The tardy policy of the 
last-named period, at length accomplished, placed the power of 
Britain in the East on an expugnable position, and rescued the 
Rajputs from a progressing destruction. 

==Alliances with the British==

To prevent the recurrence of this 
predatory system it was deemed politic to unite all these settled 
States, alike interested with ourselves in its overthrow, in one 
grand confederation. Accordingly the Rajput States were 
1  Bapu Sindhia shortly outhved his expulsion from Ajmer, and as he had 
to pass through Mewar in his passage to his future residence, he was hooted 
by the population he had plundered. While I was attending the Rana's 
court, some one reporting Bapu Sindhia's arrival at his destination, men
tioned that some pieces of ordnance formerly  taken from Udaipur had, after 
saluting him, exuded a quantity of water, which was received with the utmost 
gravity by the court, until I remarked they were crying because they should 
never again be employed in plunder : an idea which caused a little mirth. 
invited to shelter [472] imder our protecting alliance ; and with 
one exception (Jaipur), they eagerly embraced the invitation. 
The ambassadors of the various governments followed each other 
in quick succession to Delhi, where the treaties were to be negoti
ated, and in a few weeks all Rajputana was united to Britain by 
compacts of one uniform character ; 1  insuring to them external 
protection with internal independence, as the price of acknow
ledged supremacy, and a portion of revenue to the protecting 
government. By this comprehensive arrangement, we placed a 
most powerful barrier between our territories and the strong 
natural frontier of India ; and so long as we shall respect their 
established usages, and by contributing to the prosperity of the 
people preserve our motives from distrust, it will be a barrier 
impenetrable to invasion. 

==Treaty with Mewar==

Of all the princes who obtained succour 
at this momentous crisis in the political history of India, none 
stood more in need of it than the Rana of Udaipur. On January 
16, 1818, the treaty was signed, and in February an envoy was 
nominated ; who immediately proceeded to the Rana's court, 
to superintend and maintain the newly formed relations.2  The 
right wing of the grand army 3  had already preceded him to 
compel the surrender of such territory as was unjustly held by 
the lawless partisans of Sindhia, and to reduce to obedience the 
refractory nobles, to whom anarchy was endeared from long 
familiarity. The strongholds in the plains as Raepur, Rajnagar, 
etc., soon surrendered ; and the payment of the arrears of the 
garrison of Kumbhalmer put this important fortress in our 
possession. 

In his passage from Jahazpur, which guards the range on the 
east to Kumbhalmer on the Aravalli west, a space of 140 miles, 
the limits of Mewar, only two thinly peopled towns were seen 
1 See Appendix, No. VIII., for treaty with the Rana. 
2 Commanded by Major-General Sir R. Donkin, K.C.B. 
3  The author had the honour to be selected by the Marquess of Hastings to 
represent him at the Rana's court, with the title of ' Pohtical Agent to the 
Western Rajput States.' During the campaign of 1817-18 he was placed 
as the point of communication to the various divisions of jthe ^northern 
army ; at the same time being intrusted with the negotiations with Holkar 
(previous to the rupture), and with those of Kotah and Bundi. He con
cUided the treaty with the latter State en route to Udaipur, where, as at the 
latter, there were only the benefits of moral and political existence to confer. 
which acknowledged the Rana's authority. All was desolate ; 
even the traces of the footsteps of man were effaced. The babul 
{mimosa [acacia] Arabica), and gigantic reed, which harboured 
the boar and the tiger, grew upon the highways ; and every 
rising ground displayed a mass of ruin. Bhilwara, the commercial 
entrepot of Rajputana, which ten years before contained six 
thousand [473 J families, showed not a vestige of existence. All 

no living thing was seen except a 
sohtary dog, that fled in dismay from his lurking-place in the 
temple, scared at the imaccustomed sight of man.1  

==Cession of Kumbhalmer==
An envoy was dispatched by the 
Rana to congratulate the Agent, who joined him in the British 
camp at Nathdwara ; and while he returned to arrange the 
formalities of reception, the Agent obtained the cession of Kum
bhalmer ; whicii, with the acquisitions before mentioned, paved 
the way for a joyful reception. The prince, Javan Singh, with 
all the State insignia, and a munerous cortege, advanced to 
receive the mission, and conduct it to the capital. A spot was 
fixed on in a grove of palmyras, about two miles from the city, 
where carpets were spread, and where the prince received the 
Agent and suite in a manner at once courteous and dignified.^ 
Of him it might iiave been said, in the language applied by 
" His countenance carried 
the impression of his illustrious extraction." 
We entered the city 3  by the 
gate of the sun ; and through a vista of ruin the mission was 
inducted into its future residence, once the abode of the fair 
Ramijiyari.4  Like all the mansions of Rajputana, it was a 
quadrangular pile, with an opefi paved area, the suites of apart
ments carried round the sides, with latticed or open corridors 

1 The author had passed through Bhilwara in May 1806, when it was 
comparatively flourishing. On this occasion (Feb. 1818) it was entirely 
deserted. It excited a smile, in the midst of regrets, to observe the practical 
wit of some of the soldiers, who had supphed the naked representative of 
Adinath with an apron— not of leaves, but scarlet cloth. 
2  The Agent had seen him when a boy, at a meeting already described ; 
but he could scarcely have hoped to find in one, to the formation of whose 
character the times had been so unfavourable, such a specimen as this 
descendant of Partap. 
3  A description of the city and valley will be more appropriate elsewhere. 
4  See p. 508. 
extending parallel to each suite. Another deputation with the 
mehmani, consisting of a hundred trays of sweetmeats, dried 
fruits, and a purse of one thousand rupees for distribution amongst 
the domestics, brought the Rana's welcome upon our arrival in 
his capital, and fixed the next day for our introduction at court. 

At four in the afternoon, a deputation, consisting of the 
officiating prime minister, the representative of the Chondawats, 
with mace-bearers and a numerous escort, came to announce the 
Rana's readiness to receive the mission ; which, with all the 
' pomp and circumstance ' peculiar to these countries, was 
marshalled in front of the residency, thronged by crowds of 
well-dressed [474] inhabitants, silently gazing at the unusual 
sight.1  The grand Nakkaras having announced the Rana in 
court, the mission proceeded through streets which everywhere 
presented marks of rapine, hailed by the most enthusiastic 
greetings. " Jai ! jai ! Farangi ka Raj ! " " Victory, victory 
to the English Government ! " resounded from every tongue. The 
bards were not idle ; and the unpoetic name of the Agent was 
hitched into rhyme. Groups of musicians were posted here and 
there, who gave a passing specimen of the tappas 2  of Mewar ; 
and not a few of the fair, with brazen ewers of water on their 
heads, welcomed us with the suhelia, or songs of joy. Into each 
of these vessels the purse-bearer dropped a piece of sUver ; for 
neither the songs of the suhelia, the tappas of the minstrel, nor 
encomiastic stave of the bard, are to be received without some 
acknowledgement that you appreciate their merit and talents, 
however you may doubt the value they put upon your own. As 
we ascended the main street leading to the Tripolia, or triple 
portal, which guards the sacred eficlosure, dense masses of people 
obstructed our progress, and even the walls of the temple of 
Jagannath were crowded. According to etiquette, we dismoimted 
at the Porte, and proceeded on foot across the ample terrace ; on 
which were drawn up a few elephants and horse, exercising for 
the Rana's amusement. 

==The Palace at Udaipur==
The palace is a most imposing pile, 
1  The escort consisted of two companies of foot, each of one hundred men, 
with half a troop of cavalry. The gentlemen attached to the mission were 
Captain Waugh (who was secretary and commandant of the escort), with 
Lieutenant Carey as his subaltern. Dr. Duncan was the medical officer. 
2  [Modes in music] 
of a regular form, built of oranite and marble, rising at least a 
hundred feet from the ground, and flanked with octagonal towers, 
crowned with cupolas. Although built at various periods, 
uniformity of design has been very well preserved ; nor is there 
in the East a more striking or majestic structure. It stands upon 
the very crest of a ridge running parallel to, but considerably 
elevated above, the margin of the lake. The terrace, which is 
at the east and chief front of the palace, extends throughout its 
length, and is supported by a triple row of arches from the de
clivity of the ridge. The height of this arcaded wall is fully 
fifty feet ; and although all is hollow beneath, yet so admirably 
is it constructed, that an entire range of stables is built on the 
extreme verge of the terrace, on which the whole personal force 
of the Rana, elephants, horse, and foot, are often assembled. 
From this terrace the city and the valley lay before the spectator, 
whose vision is bounded only by the [475] hills shutting out the 
plains ; while from the summit of the palace nothing obstructs 
its range over lake and mountain. 

A band of Sindis guarded the first entrance to the palace ; 
and being Saturday, the Saktawats were on duty in the great hall 
of assembly. Through lines of Rajputs we proceeded till we 
came to the marble staircase, the steps of which had taken the 
form of the segment of an ellipse, from the constant friction of 
the foot ; an image of Ganesha guarded the ascent to the interior 
of the palace, and the apartment, or landing, is called Ganesha 
deori, from the Rajput Janus. After proceeding through a 
suite of saloons, each filled with spectators, the herald's voice 
amiounced to ' the lord of the world ' that the English envoy 
was in his presence ; on which he arose, and advanced a few paces 
in front of the throne, the chieftains standing to receive the 
mission. Everything being ruled by precedent, the seat allotted 
for the envoy was immediately in front and touching the royal 
cushion (gaddi) : being that assigned to the Peshwa in the height 
of Mahratta prosperity, the arrangement, which was a subject 
of regular negotiation, could not be objected to. The apartment 
chosen for the initiatory visit was the Surya mahall, or ' hall of 
the sun,' so called from a medaUion of the orb in basso-rilievo 
which decorates the wall. Close thereto is placed the Rana's 
throne, above which, supported by slender silver columns, rises 
a velvet canopy. The Gaddl or throne, in the East is but a huge 
cushion, over which is thrown an embroidered velvet mantle. 
The chiefs of the higher grade, or ' the Sixteen,' were seated, 
according to their rank, on the right and left of the Rana ; next 
and below these were the princes Amra and Javan Singh ; and at 
right angles (by which the court formed three sides of a square), 
the chiefs of the second rank. The civil officers of the State were 
near the Rana in front, and the seneschal, butler, keeper of the 
wardrobe, and other confidential officers and inferior chieftains, 
formed a group standing on the extreme edge of the carpet. 

The Rana's congratulations were hearty and sincere : in a few 
powerful expressions he depicted the miseries he had experienced, 
the fallen condition of his State, and the gratitude he felt to the 
British Government which had interposed between him and 
destruction ; and which for the first moment of his existence 
allowed him to sleep in peace. There was an intense earnestness 
in every word he uttered, which, delivered with great fluency of 
speech and dignity of manner, inspired deep respect and sympathy. 
The Agent said that the Governor- General was no stranger to 
the [476] history of his illustrious family, or to his own immediate 
sufferings ; and that it was his earnest desire to promote, by 
every means in his power, the Rana's personal dignity and the 
prosperity of his dominions. After conversing a few minutes, 
the interview was closed with presents to the Agent and suite : 
to the former a caparisoned elephant and horse, jewelled aigrette, 
and pearl necklace, with shawls and brocades ; and with the 
customary presentation of essence of rose and the pan leaf the 
Rana and court rising, the envoy made his salaam and retired. 
In a short time the Rana, attended by his second son, ministers, 
and a select number of the chiefs, honoured the envoy with a 
visit. The latter advanced beyond his residence to meet the 
prince, who was received with presented arms by the guard, the 
officers saluting, and conducted to his throne, which had been 
previously arranged. Conversation was now imrestrained, and 
questions were demanded regarding everything which appeared 
unusual. After sitting half an hour, the Agent presented the 
Rana with an elephant and two horses, caparisoned with silver 
and gilt ornaments and velvet embroidered housings, with twenty
one shields ^ of shawls, brocades, muslins, and jewels ; to prince 
Amra, finable from sickness to attend his father, a horse and 
1 The buckler is the tray in which gifts are presented by the Rajputs. 
eleven shields ; and to his brother, the second prince, Javan 
Singh, a horse and nine shields ; to the ministers and chiefs 
according to rank : the whole entertainment costing about 20,000 
rupees, or £2000. Amidst these ceremonials, receiving and 
retiuning visits of the Rana, his chiefs, his ministers, and men 
of influence and information commercial and agricultural, some 
weeks passed in silent observation, and in the acquisition of 
materials for action.1  

==Political Divisions of Mewar==

For the better comprehension 
of the internal relations, past and present, of Mewar [477], a 
sketch is presented, showing the political divisions of the tribes 
and the fiscal domain, from which a better idea may be formed 
of Rajput feudal economy than from a chapter of dissertation. 
The princes of Mewar skUfully availed themselves of their natural 
advantages in the partition of the country. The mountain
barriers east and west were allotted to the chiefs to keep the 
mountaineers and foresters in subjection, whose leading passes 

1  If we dare compare the moral economy of an entire people to the 
physical economy of the individual, we should liken this period in the history 
a pause in moral as in 
physical existence ; a consciousness thereof, inertly awaiting the propelling 
power to restore healthful action to a state of langxiid repose ; or what 
the Rajput would better comprehend, his own condition when the opiate 
stimulant begins to dissipate, and mind and body are alike abandoned to 
helpless imbecihty. Who has hved out of the circle of mere vegetation, and 
not experienced this temporary deprivation of moral vitality ? for no other 
simile would suit the painful pause in the sympathies of the inhabitants of 
this once fertile region, where experience could point out but one page in 
their annals, one period in their history, when the clangour of the war 
trumpet was suspended, or the sword shut up in its scabbard. The portals 
of Janus at Rome were closed but twice in a period of seven hundred years ; 
and in exactly the same time from the conquest by Shihabu-d-din to the 
the reign of 
Numa has its type in Shah Jahan, while the more appropriate reign of 
Augustus belongs to Britain. Are we to wonder then that a chilling void now 
occupied (if the solecism is admissible) the place of interminable action ? 
when the mind was released from the anxiety of daily, hourly, devising 
that enervating calm, in 
which, to use their own homely phrase, Bher aur bakri ekhi thali se-piye  ' The 
wolf and the goat drank from the same vessel.' [Another, and more usual 

Aj kal, sher bakri ek ghat pani pile liain, ' Nowadays the tiger and 
the goat drink from the same stream.'] But this unruflBed torpidity had its 
limit : the Agrarian laws of Mewar were but mentioned, and the national 
pulse instantly rose. 
were held by a lord -marcher, and the quotas of his quarter ; and 
while strong forts guarded the exposed northern and southern 
entrances, the crown-land lay in the centre, the safest and the 
richest. The exterior, thus guarded by a cordon of feudal levies 
composed of the quotas of the greater fiefs ; the minor and most 
numerous class of vassals, termed gol, literally ' the mass,' and 
consisting of ten thousand horse, each holding directly of the 
crown independent of the greater chiefs, formed its best security 
against both external aggression and internal commotions. 

==Desolation of Mewar==

Such is a picture of the feudal economy 
of Mewar in the days of her renown ; but so much had it been 
defaced through time and accident, that with difficulty could the 
lineaments be traced with a view to their restoration : her in
stitutions a dead letter, the prince's authority despised, the nobles 
demoralized and rebellious, internal commerce abandoned, and 
the peasantry destroyed by the combined operation of war, 
pestilence, and exile. Expression might be racked for phrases 
which could adequately delineate the miseries all classes had 
endured. It is impossible to give more than a sketch of the state 
of the das sahas Mewar, ' the ten thousand townships ' which 
once acknowledged her princes, and of which above three thousand 
still exist. All that remained to them was the valley of the 
capital ; and though Chitor and Mandalgarh were maintained 
by the fidelity of the Rana's servants; their precarious revenues 
scarcely sufficed to maintain their garrisons. The Rana was 
mainly indebted to Zalim Singh of Kotah for the means of sub
sistence ; for in the struggle for existence his chiefs thought only 
of themselves, of defending their own estates, or buying off their 
foes ; while those who had succumbed took to horse, scoured the 
country, and plundered without distinction. Inferior clanships 
declared themselves independent of their superiors, who in their 
turn usurped the crown domain, or by bribing the necessities of 
their prince, obtained his patent for lands, to which, as they 
yielded him nothing, he became indifferent. The crown-tenants 
purchased of these chiefs the protection (rakhwali) which the 
[478] Rana could not grant, and made alienations of the crown 
taxes, besides private rights of the community, which were often 
extorted at the point of the lance. Feuds multiplied, and the 
name of each clan became the watchword of alarm or defiance 
to its neighbour : castles were assaulted, and their inmates, as 
at Sheogarh and I^awa, put to the sword ; the Meras and Bhils 
descended from their hills, or emerged from their forests, and 
planted ambuscades for the traveller or merchant, whom they 
robbed or carried to their retreats, where they languished in 
durance till ransomed. Marriage processions were thus inter
cepted, and the honeymoon was passed on a cliff of the Aravalli, 
or in the forests on the Mahi. The Rajput, whose moral energies 
were blunted, scrupled not to associate and to divide the spoil 
with these lawless tribes, of whom it might be said, as of the 
children of Ishmael, '' Their hands were against every man, and 
every man's hand against them." Yet notwithstanding such 
entire disorganization of society, external commerce was not 
stagnant ; and in the midst of this rapine, the produce of Europe 
and Kashmir would pass each other in transit through Mewar, 
loaded it is true by a multiplicity of exactions, but guarded by 
those who scorned all law but the point of honour, which they were 
paid for preserving. 

==The Condition of Udaipur==

The capital will serve as a specimen 
of the country. Udaipur, which formerly reckoned fifty thousand 
houses within the walls, had not now three thousand occupied, 
the rest were in ruin, the rafters being taken for firewood. The 
realization of the spring harvest of 1S18, from the entire fiscal 
land, was about £4000 ! Grain sold for seven sers the rupee, 
though thrice the quantity was procurable within the distance 
of eighty miles. Insurance from tiie capital to Nathdwara 
(twenty-five miles) was eight per cent. The Kotharia chief, 
whose ancestors are immortalized for fidelity, had not a horse 
to conduct him to his prince's presence, though his estates were 
of fifty thousand rupees annual value. All were in ruins ; and 
the Rana, the descendant of those patriot Rajputs who opposed 
Babur, Akbar, and Aurangzeb, in the days of Mogul splendour, 
had not fifty horse to attend him, and was indebted for all the 
comforts he possessed to the liberality of Kotah. 

==Reorganization ofthe State==

Such was the chaos from which 
order was to be evoked. But the elements of prosperity, though 
scattered, were not extinct ; and recollections of the past, deeply 
engraved in the national mind, became available to reanimate 
their moral and physical existence. To call these forth demanded 
only the exertion of moral [479] interference, and every other was 
rejected. The lawless freebooter, and even the savage Bhil, felt 
awed at the agency of a power never seen. To him moral opinion 
(compared with which the strength of armies is nought) was 
inexphcable, and he substituted in its stead another invisible 
that of magic : and the belief was ciurent throughout 
the intricate region of the West, that a single individual could 
carry an army in his pocket, and that our power could animate 
slips of paper cut into the figures of armed men, from which no 
precaution could guard their retreats. Accordingly, at the mere 
name of the British power, rapine ceased, and the inhabitants of 
the wilds of the West, the ' forest lords,' who had hitherto 
laughed at subjection, to the number of seven hundred vUlages, 
put each the sign of the dagger to a treaty, promising abstinence 
a single individual 
of no rank the negotiator. Moreover, the treaty was religiously 
kept for twelve months ; when the peace was broken, not by 
them, but against them. 

To the Rajput, the moral spectacle of a Peshwa marched into 
exile with all the quietude of a pilgrimage, effected more than 
twenty thousand bayonets, and no other auxiliary was required 
than the judicious use of the impressions from this and other 
by never doubting the issue, success was insured. The British 
force, therefore, after the reduction of the plans enumerated, was 
marched to cantonments ; the rest was left for time and reason 
to accomplish. 

==Form of Civil Government==

Before proceeding further, it 
may be convenient to sketch the form of civil government in 
Mewar, and the characters of its most conspicuous members : 
the former we shall describe as it was when the machine was in 
regular action ; it will be found simple, and perfectly suited to 
its object. 
There are four grand officers of the government : 
1. The Pardhan, or prime minister. 
2. Bakhshi, commander of the forces. 
3. Suratnama, keeper of the records. 
4. Sahai, keeper of the signet.1 
 
The first, the Pardhan, or civil premier, must be of the non
1  Or rather, who makes the monogrammatic signet Sahi ('correct') to 
all deeds, grants, etc. 
militant tribe. The whole of the territorial and financial arrange
ments are vested in him. He [480] nominates the civil governors 
of districts, and the collectors of the revenue and custom ; and 
has fourteen thuas, or departments, under him, which embrace 
all that relates to expenditure. 

2. The Bakhshi must also be of a non-militant tribe, and one 
different from the Pardhan. His duties are mixed civil and 
military. He takes the musters, and pays mercenaries, or rations, 
to the feudal tenants when on extra service, and he appoints a 
deputy to accompany all expeditions, or to head frontier-posts, 
with the title of Faujdar, or commander. The royal insignia, 
the standard, and kettle-drums accompany him, and the highest 
nobles assemble under the general control of this civil officer, 
never under one of their own body. From the Bakhshi's bureau 
all patents are issued, as also all letters of sequestration of feudal 
land. 

The Bakhshi has four secretaries : 
1. Draws out deeds. 
2. Accountant. 
3. Recorder of all patents or grants. 
4. Keeps duplicates. 
3. The Suratnama 1  is the auditor and recorder of all the 
household expenditure and establishments, which are paid by 
his cheques. He has four assistants also, who make a daily report, 
and give a daily balance of accounts. 
4. The Sahai. He is secretary both for home and foreign 
correspondence. He draws out the royal grants or patents of 
estates, and superintends the deeds of grant on copper-plate to 
religious establishments. Since the privilege appertaining to 
Salumbar, of confirming all royal grants with his signet the lance, 
has fallen into desuetude, the Sahai executes this military auto
graph.2  

To all decrees, from the daily stipend to the patta, or patent of 
an estate, each minister must append his seal, so that there is a 
complete system of check. Besides these, the higher officers of 
government, there are thirty-six karkhanas, or inferior officers, 
1  [Properly Suratnavls, ' statement-writer.'] 
2  The Salumbar chief had his deputy, who resided at court for this sole 
duty, for which he held a village. See p. 235. 
appointed directly by the Rana, the most conspicuous of which 
are the justiciary,1  the keepers of the register-office, of the mint, 
of the armoury, of the regalia, of the jewels, of the wardrobe, 
of the stables, of the kitchen, of the band, of the seneschalsy, 
and of the seraglio. 

There was no want of aspirants to office, here hereditary ; but 
it was vain to look [481] amongst the descendants of the virtuous 
Pancholi, or the severe Amrachand, and the prediction of the 
former, " Dust will cover the head of Me war when virtue wanders 
in rags," was strictly fulfilled. There appeared no talent, no 
influence, no honesty ; yet the deficiency was calculated to excite 
sorrow rather than surprise ; to stimulate exertion on their 
behalf, rather than damp the hope of improvement ; though all 
scope for action, save in the field of intrigue, was lost, and talent 
was dormant for want of exercise. 

==Incapacity of the Rana==

The Rana's character was little cal
culated to supply his minister's deficiencies. Though perfectly 
versed in the past history of his country, its resources, and their 
management ; though able, wise, and amiable, his talents were 
nullified by numerous weak points. Vain shows, frivolous 
amusements, and an ill-regulated liberality alone occupied him ; 
and so long as he could gratify these propensities, he trusted 
complacently to the exertions of others for the restoration of 
order and his proper authority. He had little steadiness of 
purpose, and was particularly obnoxious to female influence. It 
is scarcely to be wondered that he coveted repose, and was little 
desirous to disturb the only moment his existence had presented 
of enjoying it, by inviting the turmoils of business. No man, 
however, was more capable of advising : his judgment was good, 
but he seldom followed its dictates ; in short, he was an adept 
in theory, and a novice in practice. The only man about the 
court at once of integrity and efficiency was Kishandas, who had 
long acted as ambassador, and to whose assiduity the sovereign 
and the country owed much ; but his services were soon cut off 
by death. 

Such were the materials with which the work of reform com
menced. The aim was to bring back matters to a correspondence 
with an era of their history, when the rights of the prince, the 
1  Niyao, Daftar, Taksala, Silah, Gaddi, Gahna, Kapra-bandar, Ghora, 
Rasora, Nakkar-khana, JalelD, Rawala. 
that of Anira 
Singh. 

==Relations ofthe Rana with his Nobles.==

The fust point to effect 
was the recognition of the prince's authority by his nobles ; the 
surest sign of which was their presence at the capital, where some 
had never been, and others only when it suited their convenience 
or their views. In a few weeks the Rana saw himself surrounded 
by a court such as had not been known for half a century. It 
created no small curiosity to learn by what secret power they were 
brought into each other's presence. Even the lawless Hamira, 
who but a short while before had plundered the marriage dower 
of the Hari queen [482] coming from Kotah, and the chief of the 
Sangawat clan, who had sworn " he might bend his head to woman, 
but never to his sovereign," left their castles of Badesar and 
Deogarh, and " placing the royal rescript on their heads," hastened 
to his presence ; and in a few weeks the whole feudal association 
of Mewar was embodied m the capital. 

==Return of the Exiles==

To recall the exiled population was a 
measure simultaneous with the assembling of the nobles ; but 
this was a work requiring time : they had formed ties, and in
curred obligations to the societies which had sheltered them, 
which could not at once be disengaged or annulled. But wherever 
a subject of Mewar existed, proclamations penetrated, and satis
factory assurances were obtained, and realized to an extent which 
belied in the strongest manner the assertion that patriotism is 
unknown to the natives of Hindustan. The most enthusiastic 
and cheering proofs were afforded that neither oppression from 
without, nor tyranny within, could expel the feeling for the 
bapota, the land of their fathers. Even now, though time has 
chastened the impressions, we should fear to pen but a tithe of 
the proofs of devotion of the husbandman of Mewar to the solum 
natale : it would be deemed romance by those who never con
templated humanity in its reflux from misery and despair to the 
'sweet influences ' of hope ; he alone who had witnessed the day 
the standing 
the rifled towns devoted to the 
the cattle driven to the camp, and the chief men seized 
as hostages for money never to be realized— could appreciate 
their deliverance. To be permitted to see these evils banished, to 
behold the survivors of oppression congregated from the most 
distant provinces, many of them strangers to each other, and 
the aged and the helpless awaiting the lucky day to take possession 
of their ruined abodes, was a sight which memory will not part 
with. Thus on the 3rd of Sawan (July) 1 a favourite day with 
the husbandman, three hundred of all conditions, with their 
waggons and implements of labour, and preceded by banners and 
music, marched into Kapasan ; 2  and Ganesha was once again 
invoked as they reconsecrated their dwellings, and placed his 
portrait as the Janus of the portals. On the same day, and within 
eight months subsequent to the signature of the treaty, above 
three hundred towns and villages were simultaneously reinhabited ; 
and the land, which for many years had been a stranger to the 
plough-share, was broken up. Well might [483] the superstitious 
fancy that miracles were abroad ; for even to those who beheld 
the work in progression it had a magical result, to see the waste 
covered with habitations, and the verdant corn growing in the 
fields where lately they had roused the boar from his retreat ! 
It was a day of pride for Britain ! By such exertions of her power 
in these distant lands her sway is hallowed. By Britain alone 
can this fair picture be defaced ; the tranquillity and independ
ence she has conferred, by her alone may be disturbed ! 

==Attraction of Capital==

To these important preliminary 
measures, the assembly of the nobles and recall of the population, 
was added a third, without which the former would have been 
nugatory. There was no wealth, no capital, to aid their patriotism 
and industry. Foreign merchants and bankers had abandoned 
the devoted land ; and those who belonged to it partook of her 
poverty and her shame. Money was scarce, and want of faith and 
credit had increased the usury on loans to a ruinous extent. The 
Rana borrowed at thirty-six per cent ; besides twenty-five to 
forty per cent discount for his barats, or patents empowering 
collection on the land ; a system pursued for some time even 
after his restoration to authority. His profusion exceeded even 
the rapidity of renovation ; and the husbandman had scarcely 
broken up his long-waste fields, when a call was made by the 
harpies of the State for an advance on their produce, while he 
himself had been compelled to borrow at a like ruinous rate for 

1  [Sawan sudi tij, third of the bright half of the month Sawan (July 
to August), a festival celebrated throughout North India.] 
2  [About 45 miles north of Udaipur city.] 
seed and the means of support, to be paid by expectations. To 
have hoped for the revival of prosperity amidst such destitution, 
moral and pecuniary, would have been visionary. It was as 
necessary to improve the one as to find the other ; for poverty 
and virtue do not long associate, and certainly not in Mewar. 
Proclamations were therefore prepared by the Rana, inviting 
foreign merchants and bankers to establish connexions in the 
chief towns throughout the country ; but as in the days of 
demoralization little faith was placed in the words of princes, 
similar ones were prepared by the Agent, guaranteeing the stipula
tions, and both were distributed to every' commercial city in India. 
The result was as had been foreseen : branch banks were every
where formed, and mercantile agents fixed in every town in the 
country, whose operations were only limited by the slow growth 
of moral improvement. The shackles which bound external 
commerce were at once removed, and the multifarious posts for 
the collections of transit duties abolished ; in lieu of which chain 
of stations, all levies on goods in transit were confined to the 
frontiers. The scale of duties [484] was revised ; and by the 
abolition of intermediate posts, they underwent a reduction of 
from thirty to fifty per cent. By this system, which could not 
for some time be comprehended, the transit and custom duties 
of Mewar made the most certain part of the revenue, and in a 
few years exceeded in amount what had ever been known. 

==Trade at Bhilwara==
The chief commercial mart, Bhilwara, 
which showed not a vestige of humanity, rapidly rose from ruin, 
and in a few months contained twelve hundred houses, half of 
which were occupied by foreign merchants. Bales of goods, the 
produce of the most distant lands, were piled up in the streets 
lately overgrown with grass, and a weekly fair was established 
for the home manufactures. A charter of privileges and im
munities was issued, exempting them from all taxation for the 
first year, and graduating the scale for the future ; calculated 
with the same regard to improvement, by giving the mind the full 
range of enjoying the reward of its exertions. The right of 
electing their own chief magistrates and the assessors of justice, 
was above all things indispensable, so as to render them as in
dependent as possible of the needy servants of the court. A 
guard was provided by the government for their protection, and 
a competent authority nominated to see that the full extent of 
their privileges, and the utmost freedom of action, were religiously 
maintained. The entire success of this plan may at once be 
recorded to prevent repetition. In 1822, Bhilwara contained 
nearly three thousand dwellings, which were chiefly inliabited by 
merchants, bankers, or artisans. An entire new street had been 
constructed in the centre of the town, from the duties levied, 
and the shops and houses were rented at a moderate rate ; while 
many were given up to the proprietors of their sites, returning 
from exile, on their paying the price of construction. But as 
there is no happiness without alloy, so even this pleasing picture 
had its dark shades to chasten the too sanguine expectation of 
imparting happiness to all. Instead of a generous emulation, a 
jealous competition checked the prosperity of Bhilwara : the base 
spirit of exclusive monopoly desired a distinction between the 
native and the stranger-merchant, for which they had a precedent 
in the latter paying an addition to the town-duty of metage 
{mapa). The unreasonableness of this was discussed, and it was 
shown to be more consonant to justice that he who came from 
Jaisalmer, Surat, Benares, or Delhi, should pay less than the 
merchant whose domicile was on the spot. When at length the 
parties acquiesced in this opinion, and were intreated and promised 
to know [485] none other distinction than that of ' inhabitant of 
Bhilwara,' sectarian differences, which there was less hope of 
reconciling, became the cause of disunion. All the Hindu mer
chants belong either to the Vaishnava or Jain sects ; consequently 
each had a representative head, and ' the Five ' for the adjudica
tion of their internal arrangements ; and these, the wise men of 
both parties, formed the general council for the affairs of Bhilwara. 
But they carried their religious differences to the judgement-seat, 
where each desired pre-eminence. Whether the point in dispute 
hinged on the interpretation of law, which with all these sects is 
of divine origin, or whether the mammon of unrighteousness was 
the lurking cause of their bickerings, they assuredly did much 
harm, for their appeals brought into play what of all things was 
least desired, the intrigues of the profligate dependents of the 
court. 

It will be seen hereafter,1 in visits to Bhilwara, how these 
disputes were in some degree calmed. The leaders on both sides 
were distinctly given to understand they would be made to leave 
the place. Self-interest prevented this extremity ; but from the 
1 In the Personal Narrative. 
withdrawing of that active interference (which the state of the 
alliance did not indeed warrant, but which humanity interposed 
for their benefit) together with the effect of appeals to the court, 
it is to be apprehended that Bhilwara may fail to become what 
it was intended to be, the chief commercial mart of Central India.1