ABDICATION OF THE RAJA OF JODHPUR. 179 CHAP. IV. 1815. After some altercation, the Mohammedans appeared BOOK II. to become indignant, and, pretending ungovernable wrath, drew their swords and put both the Jaypur functionaries to death. They then secured themselves in the building, which the Rajputs attempted in vain to force, and remained on their defence, until Amir Khan came to their rescue, threatening to fire and plunder the city if his men were harmed. The chiefs who had instigated the perpetration of the crime were also earnest with the Raja to sanction the dismissal of the murderers, lest the city should be sacked; and Man Sing, alarmed for his own safety, allowed them to act as they pleased, and they restored the troopers to their chief. The Rajput nobles paid the Amir a portion of the stipulated sum, and prevailed upon him, by entering into engagements for the remainder, to march out of the Jaypur territory. Man Sing, conscious that he was surrounded by domestic enemies, more dangerous than those he had encountered in the field, thenceforth simulated intellectual imbecility, and withdrew from all participation in the government in favour of his son, Chatur Sing; abdicating the sovereignty of Mewar until the death of the prince, and his alliance with the British, restored him to personal security, to his senses, and revenge.1 1 According to the report of the Resident at Delhi, the Vakils of Jodhpur asserted that the murder of Induraj and Deonath was perpetrated with the knowledge and concurrence of the Raja, but they belonged to the usurping party. Tod, in his Personal Narrative, adverting to a surmise that Man Sing was privy to the murder, observes, that there are but two who, in this life, can reveal the mystery-the Raja and the bourreau-enchef of Rajputana, Amir Khan; the latter has spoken out in his Memoirs, and exonerated the Raja. Man Sing, when he thought it safe to lay aside his assumed idiotcy, inflicted severe punishment upon the members of the faction, as we shall hereafter have occasion to notice.-Memoir of Amir Khan, 433.-Tod's Rajasthan, i. 715, ii. 150. BOOK II. 1816. From Jodhpur, the Amir led his forces into the Shekawati country, where he levied contributions, and then returned towards Jaypur. The administration of affairs was here, also, the object of dispute between two powerful factions, at the head of one of which was the Purohit, or family priest of the Raja: his competitor for the ministry, and the nobles opposed to him, repaired to Amir Khan and encouraged him to advance to the capital. The minister, Manji Das, with Amir Khan's former opponent, Chand Sing, made a vigorous defence, and resolutely refused to purchase the Amir's retreat, and calling upon the Thakurs for their contingents, they collected a respectable force, and harassed the besiegers with repeated, and often successful, sallies. Irritated by their opposition, Amir Khan ordered a bombardment of the town, by which extensive injury was done to the besieged, and the shot reached even the palace of the Raja. Jagat Sing was now seriously alarmed, and was preparing to evacuate his capital when his Rani, the daughter of Man Sing, of Jodhpur, availing herself of the connexion which had subsisted between her father and Amir Khan, sent an humble message to him to supplicate his forbearance. Not sorry, in all probability, to have a fair excuse for desisting from a siege in which success was distant, if not doubtful, Amir Khan retired from before Jaypur, and placed his troops in cantonments for the rains. The following season witnessed a repetition of the same course of predatory warfare, but the operations of Amir Khan, with his principal division, were confined to the siege of Madhurajpur, a dependency of Jaypur. STATE OF RAJPUTANA. 181 CHAP. IV. After several repulses in his attempts to carry the BOOK II. fort by storm, the siege was converted into a blockade, which had lasted for nine months, when the policy of the British Government interfered to put an end to the sufferings of Rajputana. The state of affairs had come to a crisis. Central India presented a chaotic mass of social disorganization; order was no where attempted, and the only semblance of substantial power that remained was exercised by roving armies, belonging to no one government, but controlling and distracting all. In Malwa, the troops of Sindhia and Holkar acted independently of their nominal masters; and, provided with assignments on the revenues of the provinces, in liquidation of their pay, employed them as an excuse for despoiling the agricultural and commercial classes of the products of their industry. Whatever scanty residue was spared by them, was gleaned by the dependents and tributaries of the state, armed to defend themselves from the extortionate demands of the prince, and his unsparing instruments, to lay waste the lands of which they had been despoiled, or to inflict retaliation upon the spoilers. The princes of Rajputana were in a still more helpless condition, and aggravated the evils of political humiliation by personal incompetency. The Raja of Udaypur, indolent and improvident, was bearded in his capital by military adventurers, and robbed of his domains by his own feudatory chiefs and clansmen. The Raja of Jodhpur, affecting idiotcy, abandoned the reins of Government to the hands of a dissolute prince, whose career was soon after cut short by the hand of an assassin. The Raja of Jaypur, a slave to 1816. 182 CHAP. IV. BOOK II. an infatuated attachment to a Mohammedan dancing girl, preserved only a portion of his hereditary 1816. possessions, by the sufferance of Amir Khan. All three princes were objects of contempt to their nobles, who were split into factions, and struggled with their sovereign, or each other, for the miserable relics which the rapacity of the Mohammedans had left to be scrambled for. The country was everywhere a prey to numerous bands of merciless marauders, who, moving about in all directions, demanded the revenues which were due to the crown, and appropriated or wasted the resources from which the revenues were payable. Every vestige of regular and orderly government had disappeared, and a complete dissolution of the bonds of society must have ensued, had not the Government of British India obtained, by persevering representation and remonstrance, from the authorities in England, a reluctant and qualified permission to effect the extirpation of that part of the predatory system which consisted in the peculiar organization of the plunderers, termed Pindaris, as preliminary to the overthrow of the whole scheme of military depredation. HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA. 183 CHAPTER V. Organized plunderers termed Pindaris.-Their ori- |