CHAPTER XXIX.

FEUDATORY NATIVE STATES.-WESTERN INDIA.

Baroda-Kolapore-Sawant-Wari-Jinjiri-Cutch-Katiawur-Pahlanpore-Mahi Kanta-Rewa Kanta.

Baroda.-The Native States in Western India outside Scinde are very numerous and of all sizes, from a petty chiefship of a few square miles to Baroda with an area of 4,399 and a population of about two millions. This latter State includes part of Kándéish and Kátiawár with the bulk of Gujerát. Its founder, Dámajee Gaikwár (Herdsman), a successful Mahratta officer, who died in 1720, was succeeded by his nephew Pílaee who perished at the hands of assassins employed by the Rájah of Joudhpore. His son Dámajee fought at Páneeput, but lived to strengthen his hold on Gujerát. In 1780 his successor entered into close alliance with the English, who helped to make him independent of the Peishwa. Subsequent treaties brought Baroda within the circle of States dependent on the British power. In the fight for empire between the English and the Mahrattas, the Gaikwár dynasty remained true to its treaty engagements; and in 1857 Khandí Ráo Gaikwár did loyal service to his friends in need, who rewarded him with the right of adoption and the remission of certain claims

on his revenue. His brother, who succeeded him in 1870, was the Mulhar Ráo whose continued misrule, followed up by an accusation of attempting to poison the British Resident, compelled the Viceroy in 1875 to depose him from the Guddee, and send him a State prisoner to Madras. branch of the same family was installed as Gaikwár in his stead, and the conduct of affairs has meanwhile been entrusted to Sir Mádhava Ráo, a statesman who had already proved his worth in the government of Travancore and afterwards of Indóre. The revenue is £1,150,000. The Gaikwár's salute is 21 guns.

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Kolapore.-While Sattára, the old seat of Mahratta power, has long been absorbed into British India, Kolápore on the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats, between Ratnagíru and Belgaum, is still ruled by a descendant of the famous Sívajee. In the last century Kolápore was given to acts of piracy which provoked the interference of the Bombay Government. By the treaty of 1811 the Rájah agreed to keep the peace with his neighbours, and yield up his forts in return for the British guarantee. Fresh breaches of the peace provoked sterner measures on our side, and at last in 1844 a general rising in the South-Mahratta country had to be put down by a British force. From that time the government of the State was retained in British hands until 1862, when Rájáh Sívajee, who had stood our friend during the Mutiny, was allowed to govern for himself. His successor, a promising youth, came over to England in 1871 and died at Florence on his way home in the following year. During the minority of the present Rájah, the country is administered by

the Political Agent. Area 3,184 square miles; population, 802,691; revenue, £304,724; salute, 19 guns.

Sáwant- Wári.-The chief of Sáwant-Wári, a State of 800 square miles in the southern part of the Concan, is a Mahratta of the Bhosla family which once gave rulers to Nágpore. In 1730 one of his ancestors formed an alliance with the English against the pirate lords of Kolába. During the last century Sáwant-Wári and Kolápore were engaged in fighting each other whenever their taste for piracy found no sufficient food elsewhere. More than once the Indian Government had to interfere with a high hand, and in 1819 the ruler of Sáwant Wári yielded up a part of his dominions in exchange for the protection assured him by the agents of Lord Hastings. Fresh disturbances called for fresh displays of our authority in 1839 and 1844, and for many years the State was ruled by British officers. In 1867 a new Rajah was allowed to rule in fact as well as name; but after his death the country passed again under British management, the present Rajah being still a mere boy. Of the minor chiefships in the Southern Mahratta country Sánglee is the largest and most important. The Chief of Nurgúnd, whose ancestor had fought stoutly against Tippoo, was hanged in 1857 for the murder of the Political Agent, and his Jágeer was confiscated to the Paramount Power.

Jinjira.-On the Western coast, a little to the south of Bombay, lies the small Muhammadan State of Jinjíra, ruled by a Habshee, or Abyssinian Sídee, whose forefathers held their fief as admirals of the Sultán of Beejápore, and engaged in frequent wars with the countrymen of Sivajee.

In 1733, the Sídee of that time entered into a close alliance with the English, which has never since been broken.

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Cutch.-The Ráo of Cutch, that singular tongue of land which stretches from the delta of the Indus to Gujerát, with the Raun of Cutch on its northern, and the Gulf on its southern side, rules over an area of 6,500 square miles, peopled by half a million souls. The Raun itself, a desert of salt and sand at one season, comes a vast though shallow lake at another. Low volcanic hills run across the land of Cutch, the greater part of which is little better than a desert, fringed by grassy plains and fields of rice, cotton, sugar-cane, or millet. The inhabitants are mostly Hindoos with a sprinkling of Muhammadans, and the Jháréjas, a Rájpoot tribe from Scinde, form the ruling class. The present dynasty was founded in the fifteenth century, but the title of Ráo is younger by a hundred years. In the first years of this century, rival rulers, Hindoo and Muhammadan, shared the country between them. Their quarrels and piracies brought English influence, armed or peaceful, into frequent play, in the early years of this century. In 1819, the Ráo was dethroned, and his State administered for his child-heir, until 1834, when the reins of government were handed over to that heir. In 1860 the latter was succeeded by Ráo Prágmul, an able ruler, who did his best to put down infanticide and the slave-trade, which his subjects carried on with Zanzibar. On his death in the early part of 1875, the State once more passed under British management. Under the Ráo of Cutch there are some two hundred chiefs or barons, each of whom wields almost sovereign

power within his own domains. The present Rao has a revenue of £210,000, is eighteen years of age, and has two sons and a daughter, is a G.C.S.I. and has a salute of 17 guns.

Kátiawár.-To the south of the Gulf of Cutch, lies the peninsula of Kátiawár, with Ahmedabad and the Gulf of Cambay for its eastern boundary. Within its area of 21,000 square miles, a crowd of chiefs rule over some two million subjects in all, mostly Hindoos of various tribes, with a sprinkling of Patháns in the towns and of aboriginal Bheels and Kátees in the central highlands. Of these chiefs, who are said to number 216, the Nawab of Júnagurh, descended from a soldier of fortune who rose to power in the last century, may be held to rank first. He pays tribute both to the Gaikwar and the Indian Government. The Jám of Nawánagar, a Jharéja Rajpoot whose line dates from the sixteenth century, holds a part of his domains under Júnágurh and Baroda. The Thakure of Bhaunagar, whose Rajpoot forefather settled in Kátiawár in the thirteenth century, has the largest revenue - £80,000-of any chief in the peninsula. Two other chiefships, Púrbandar and Drángdra, make up the list of those whose rulers have the power of life and death over all but British subjects. For the trial of capital offences in the remaining states, and of crimes committed by petty chiefs, there is a special criminal court, over which presides the Political Agent.

Páhlanpore.-The Páhlanpore Agency controls a group of eleven States, four Muhammadan and seven Hindoo, lying between Rájpootána and Baroda, and covering an area of 6,041 square miles. Of these, the largest is Páh