torrent of Muhammadan invasion.  Her tomb is still to be seen where she fell, in a narrow defile between two hills; and a pair of large rounded stones which stand near are, according to popular belief, her royal drums turned into stone, which, in the dead of night, are still heard resounding through the woods, and calling the spirits of her warriors from their thousand graves around her.  The travellers who pass this solitary spot respectfully place upon the tomb the prettiest specimen they can find of the crystals which abound in the neighbourhood; and, with so much of kindly feeling had the history of Durgavati inspired me, that I could not resist the temptation of adding one to the number when I visited her tomb some sixteen years ago.[37]

I should mention that the Raja of Samthar in Bundelkhand.[38] is by caste a Gujar;[39] and he has not yet any landed aristocracy like that of the Bundelas about him.  One of his ancestors, not long ago, seized upon a fine open plain, and built a fort upon it, and the family has ever since, by means of this fort, kept possession of the country around, and drawn part of their revenues from depredations upon their neighbours and travellers.  The Jhansi and Jalaun chiefs are Brahmans of the same family as the Peshwa.

In the states governed by chiefs of the military classes, nearly the whole produce of the land goes to maintain soldiers, or military retainers, who are always ready to fight or rob for their chief.  In those governed by the Brahmanical class, nearly the whole produce goes to maintain priests; and the other chiefs would soon devour them, as the black ants devour the white, were not the paramount power to interpose and save them.  While the Peshwa lived, he interposed; but all his dominions were running into priesthood, like those in Sagar and Bundelkhand, and must soon have been swallowed up by the military chiefs around him, had we not taken his place.  Jalaun and Jhansi are preserved only by us, for, with all their religious, it is impossible for them to maintain efficient military establishments; and the Bundela chiefs have always a strong desire to eat them up, since these states were all sliced out of their principalities when the Peshwa was all-powerful in Hindustan.

The Chhatarpur Raja is a Pawar.  His father had been in the service of the Bundela Raja; but, when we entered upon our duties as the paramount power in Bundelkhand, the son had succeeded to the little principality seized upon by his father; and, on the principle of respecting actual possession, he was recognized by us as the sovereign.[40] The Bundela Rajas, east of the Dasan river, are descended from Raja Chhatarsal, and are looked down upon by the Bundela Rajas of Orchha, Chanderi, and Datiya, west of the Dasan, as Chhatarsal was in the service of one of their ancestors, from whom he wrested the estates which his descendants now enjoy.  Chhatarsal, in his will, gave one-third of the dominion he had thus acquired to the strongest power then in India, the Peshwa, in order to secure the other two-thirds to his two sons Hardi Sa and Jagatraj, in the same manner as princes of the Roman empire used to bequeath a portion of theirs to the emperor.[41] Of the Peshwa’s share we have now got all, except Jalaun.  Jhansi was subsequently acquired by the Peshwa, or rather by his subordinates, with his sanction and assistance.[42]