rmed. He addressed her always as 'dear and virtuous
sister.' He also won the regard of Raja Bihari Mall of Amber, father
of the Bhagwan Das, so often mentioned in these pages.

[Footnote 3: _Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han_, by
Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod, second (Madras) edition, pp. 262,
282-3.]

Akbar subsequently married his daughter, and becoming thus connected
with the House of Amber (Jaipur), could count upon Bhagwan Das and
his nephew and adopted son, Man Singh, one of the greatest of all his
commanders, as his firmest friends. Writing in another page of
Bhagwan Das, Colonel Tod describes him as 'the friend of Akbar, who
saw the value of attaching such men to his throne.' He adds, and few
men have ever enjoyed better opportunities of ascertaining the real
feelings of the princes of Rajputana, 'but the name of Bhagwan Das is
execrated as the first who sullied Rajput purity by matrimonial
alliance with the Islamite.' Prejudice is always strong, and, like
the dog, it returns to its vomit.

Rajputana never produced greater or larger-minded princes than
Bhagwan Das and his nephew. Their intimate union with Akbar
contributed more than any other circumstance to reconcile the Rajputs
to {183} the predominance of the Mughal. The union was further
cemented by the marriage, already referred to, between Prince Salim
and a daughter of Bhagwan Das. What the real influence of Akbar's
administration was upon that chivalrous race may be gathered from the
short summary which Colonel Tod, himself, more Rajput in his
sympathies than the Rajputs themselves, devotes to his career.

'Akbar,' writes that author, 'was the real founder of the empire of
the Mughals, the first successful conqueror of Rajput independence.
To this end his virtues were powerful auxiliaries, as by his skill in
the analysis of the mind and its readiest stimulant to action, he was
enabled to gild the chains with which he bound them. To these they
became familiarised by habit, especially when the throne exerted its
power in acts gratifying to national vanity, or even in ministering
to the more ignoble passions.' Unable, apparently, to comprehend the
principle which underlay the whole policy of Akbar, that of
conquering that he might produce union, and regarding him as he
rightly regarded his Afghan and Pathan predecessors, Colonel Tod
attacks him for his conquests. Yet even Colonel Tod is forced to add:
'He finally succeeded in healing the wounds his a