pothesis that should explain the emblematic genealogy of the children of fire and the children of the sun as indicating the original faith of their ancestry? Several expressions which occur in the native annals, favour this theory. When the Father of Creation' regenerated the warrior race, it is said, the fire-fountain (anhul-coond) was lustrated with the waters of the Ganges.' (p. 440.) This may be understood to mean that either by intermarriage with the daughters of the Hindoo race, or by renouncing their original superstition for the Brahminical faith, these fire-sprung warriors were purified and brought over to the pale of Hindooism. Such is the interpretation which we find Colonel Tod putting upon these singular expressions.

These warriors, thus regenerated to fight the battles of Brahminism, and brought within the pale of that faith, must have been either the aboriginal debased classes, raised to moral importance by the ministers of the pervading (prevailing?) religion, or foreign races who had obtained a footing among them. The contrasted physical appearance of the respective races will decide this question. The aborigines are dark, diminutive, and ill-favoured: the Agniculas (fire-race) are of good stature and fair, with prominent features, like those of the Parthian kings. The ideas which pervade their martial poetry, are such as were held by the Scythian in distant ages, and which even Brahminism has failed to eradicate; while the tumuli containing ashes and arms, discovered throughout India, indicate the nomadic warrior of the north as the proselyte of Mount Aboo.' p. 442.

Of the four Agnicula races, the Chohans, the progenitors of the Hara rajpoots, were the first who obtained extensive dominion. The original seat of their sovereignty was that part of Central India bordering upon the Nerbuddah, whence they are stated to have extended their conquests to Delhi, Lahore, Cabul, and even Nepaul. Ajipal, whom the Rahtores drove from Canouj, was probably a Chohan; as a prince of the same name, and of the Chohan dynasty, having established himself at Ajimeer, laid the foundation of that state; and at the time of the earliest Mohammedan invasion, Ajimeer had become the chief seat of Chohan power.

At this period, the close of the twelfth century, and, according to Colonel Tod, for centuries previous, Hindoosthan Proper comprised four great kingdoms; viz., 1. Delhi, under the Tuars and Chohans; 2. Canouj, under the Rahtores; 3. Mewar, under the Ghelotes; and 4. Anhulwarra, under the Chauras and Solankhies. To one or other of these states, the numerous petty princes of India paid homage and feudal service. The kingdom of Delhi' extended over all the countries westward of the Indus, 'embracing the lands watered by its arms, from the foot of the 'Himalaya and the desert to the Aravulli chain;' being divided

6

from Canouj by the Cali-nuddee (black-stream), the Calindi of the Greek geographers. The reigning monarch, at the time of the invasion of Shahab-ud-deen, was the Rajah Pithowra, or Pirthiraj, of the Chohan race, whose romantic adventure, referred to by Colonel Tod, is given more at length in the "Ayeen Akbery". According to the Mohammedan authority, the Ghiznian monarch was invited to invade the dominions of the Chohan monarch of Delhi, by his incensed foe, Jeichund, the Maharajah of Canouj; who is moreover represented to have been of so tolerant ' a disposition, that many natives of Persia and Tatary were en'gaged in his service.' The Rahtore sovereign who reigned at Canouj at the time of Sultan Mahmoud's invasion, is even stated by some, Ferishta says, to have turned true believer. The Parthian or Scythian origin of this dynasty renders the statement the more credible. The kingdom of Canouj is supposed to have extended, at this time, northward to the Himalaya, eastward to Casi (Benares), westward to the Cali-nuddee, and southward to Bundelkhund and Mewar *. The latter kingdom, the proper name of which (Medya-war) signifies, according to Colonel Tod, the central region', had for its boundaries, the Aravulli chain on the north, Anhulwarra on the west, and the Dhar principality on the south it seems to answer very nearly to Malwah. Anhulwarra extended southward to the ocean, westward to the Indus, and northward to the desert, and must therefore have comprised Gujerat. But if these four kingdoms were the only Rajpoot empires, it must not be supposed that they were the only great Indian kingdoms. In the east, the empire of Magadha, under the Andhra dynasty, appears to have vied in wealth and importance with any of the western kingdoms; and to the south of the Nerbuddah, the empire founded by Shalivahan, about A.D. 77, whose accession forms the Mahratta era, comprised an extensive region. In fact, the Brahmins divide India into ten great kingdoms; which included several smaller states more or less independent.

6

Of the early mixture of the Scythic and Hindoo races, there is abundant evidence; and the Institutes of Menu speak of the Sacas (Saca), Yavanas, Pahlavas (ancient Persians), Paradas, &c., as kindred races of the warrior caste, distinct from the Brahminical tribes. The precise situation of Yavana-dwipa, the land of the Yavans, it is difficult to determine; but it most probably included Bactria; and although the Bactrian Greeks may not have been the original Yavans, they were considered as belong

Jeichund is stated, in the Chohan annals, to have defeated twice Sidraj, King of Anhulwarra, and to have extended his dominions south of the Nerbuddah.

ing to the same Titanic race. Saca-dwipa, the country of the Saca, has been placed near the fountains of the Oxus, in Bokhara; but it perhaps denotes Sacastiana. Waving these geographical and etymological inquiries, the most curious and interesting subject of investigation that presents itself in connexion with these ancient annals, is the original seat and fountain, not of this race or that nation, but of the Rajpoot feudalism on the one hand, and of the Brahminical hierocracy on the other; both of them foreign from the primitive democracy of Hindoo society, which is still found existing among the Mahrattas. The interior constitution and condition of each township in the Mahratta countries, has, amid all the fluctuations of territorial boundaries and the transfers of political power, remained unchanged. And such, Colonel Wilks affirms to have been the primitive component parts of all the kingdoms of India.' Each village is a little republic, with the potail, or mokuddum, at its head, who is at once magistrate, collector, and head farmer; answering, in several respects, to the Syrian sheikh. This system goes back as far, at least, as the age of Menu. India is a mass of such republics; and while the village remains entire under its potail, the passive natives give themselves little concern about the breaking up and division of kingdoms. Although Brahminism has been grafted upon this primitive social constitution, it appears to be not only quite distinct from it, but to have originated in a totally different state of society; and its first seat in India, was, according to tradition, Cashmeer, where a dialect is spoken which comes nearest to the sacred language. The Brahminical faith has also been received by the martial Rajpoot tribes; but their priests are the Charuns and Bhats (Bards), who, to the direction of their superstitious devotions, add the office of chroniclers of their fame. The Celtic Druidism and the Scandinavian feudalism exhibit the same marked opposition. But we must resist the temptation to pursue these seductive analogies. In the midst of Rajpootana, there is found a race distinct from the feudal tribes who have established their ascendancy in that region, and whom Col. Tod supposes to be the Get of European history; ascribing to them a patriarchal simplicity of polity and a tenacious attachment to liberty. They are known under the names of Jits, Juts, or Jauts, and far surpassed in numbers, three centuries ago, any other tribe or race in India. It is a fact,' our Author adds, that they now constitute a vast majority of the peasantry_of 'western Rajwarra' (Rajpootana), and perhaps of northern In'dia.' The present Seik Rajah is a Jit; and the bulk of the population of the Punjaub, both proselytes to Islam, and followers of Nanuk, are also of this tribe.

At what period these Jits established themselves in the Indian desert, we are entirely ignorant; but even at the time of the Rahtore invasion

of these communities, their habits confirmed the tradition of their Scythic origin. They led chiefly a pastoral life, were guided, but not governed by the elders, and, with the exception of adoration to the universal mother (Bhavani), incarnate in the person of a youthful Jitni, they were utter aliens to the Hindu theocracy. In fact, the doctrines of the great Islamite saint, Sheikh Fureed, appear to have overturned the Pagan rites brought from the Jaxartes; and without any settled ideas on religion, the Jits of the desert jumbled all their tenets together. The period of Rahtore domination over these patriarchal communities, was intermediate between Timoor's and Baber's invasion of India. The former, who was the founder of the Chagitai dynasty, boasts of the myriads of Jit souls he "consigned to perdition," on the desert plains of India, as well as in Transoxiana: so we may conclude that successive migrations of this people from that "great store-house of nations" went to the lands east of the Indies. The extent of their possessions justifies this conclusion; for nearly the whole of the territory forming the boundaries of Bikaner was possessed by the six Jit cantons.

p. 181.

We must confess, however, that stronger evidence is requisite, than we find in these pages, to establish the identity of the Jauts of Moultan and Agra, with the Jits or Getes of Bikaneer, and again, the identity of the latter with the Yuti, alias 'the Scythic Yadu.' This is a labyrinth into which we dare not venture without a safer clew. One fact, incidentally mentioned, strikes us as important, not only as denoting a diversity of national origin, but as throwing some light upon the probable origin of the distinction made by Mohammedan writers between Hind and Sind*.

< The natives of these regions' (bordering on the Garah) 'cannot pronounce the sibilant; so that the s is converted into h. As an example, the name Jahilmér becomes "the hill of fools," instead of "the hill of Jasil." Sankra, in like manner, becomes Hankra.'—p. 187, note.

The Balooch tribes, who give name to Baloochistan, are supposed by Col. Tod to be of the Jit or Gete race; and he expresses his conviction, that the Afghans or Patans are descended from the Yadu or Jadoo race, the progenitors also of the Bhatti rajpoots of Jessulmeer. The word Yadu, converted into Yahudi, Jew, or confounded with it, may have given rise, he thinks, to the supposition, that the Afghans are of Jewish descent. Whe'ther these Yadus are, or are not, Yuti, or Getes, remains to be 'proved.' In another place (p. 231), our Author seems disposed to make them the ancestors of the Jagatai Toorks. But these conjectures are supported by no historical or philological evidence;

May not Sheba and Seba have been distinguished by a similar shibboleth?

and furnish only hints for further investigation. It is but justice to the Author, to remark, that he offers his work only as a collection of materials for the future historian. We must now turn to what will be deemed the most entertaining portion of the volume; the Personal Narrative.

In January 1820, circumstances rendered it expedient that the Author should visit the principalities of Boondi and Kotah, which were placed under his political superintendence. These two principalities, named from their chief towns, comprise the region properly called Haravati (corrupted into Harowtee), or the country of the Hara rajpoots. The Chumbul, which intersects this territory, forms the mutual boundary. On the 29th of January, the Author broke up his head-quarters at Oodipoor, and traversing Mewar, reached, on the 13th of February, the Pathar or plateau of Central India, which forms the grand natural rampart of Mewar on the east.

As we approached it, the level line of its crest, so distinct from the pinnacled Aravulli, at once proclaimed it to be a table-land or rock of the secondary formation. Although its elevation is not above 400 feet from its western base, the transition is remarkable; and it presents from the summit one of the most diversified scenes, whether in a moral, political, or picturesque point of view, that I ever beheld. From this spot, the mind's eye embraces at once all the grand theatres of the history of Méwar. Upon our right lies Cheetore, the palladium of Hindooism; on the west, the gigantic Aravulli, enclosing the new capital, and the shelter of her heroes; here, at our feet, or within view, all the alienated lands now under the barbarian Toork" or Mahratta, as Jawud, Jeerun, Neemuch, Neembaira, Kheyri, Ruttengurh. What associations, what aspirations, does this scene conjure up to one who feels as a Rajpoot for this fair land! The rich flat we have passed over,—a space of nearly seventy English miles from one table range to the other, appears as a deep basin fertilized by numerous streams, fed by huge reservoirs in the mountains, and studded with towns, which once were populous, but are for the most part now in ruins, though the germ of incipient prosperity is just appearing. From this height, I condensed all my speculative ideas on a very favourite subject,—the formation of a canal to unite the ancient and modern capitals of Méwar, by which her soil might be made to return a tenfold harvest, and famine be shut out for ever from her gates. My eye embraced the whole line of the Bairis, from its outlet at the Oodiságur, to its passage within a mile of Cheetore; and the benefit likely to accrue from such a work appeared incalculable. What new ideas would be opened to the Rajpoot, on seeing the trains of oxen which now creep slowly along with merchandize for the capital, exchanged for boats gliding along the canal; and his fields, for many miles on each side, irrigated by lateral cuts, instead of the cranking Égyptian wheel, as it is called, but which is indigenous to India!' pp. 626, 7.

Surely the means for carrying so noble a project into execution