ans conspicuous for
lofty sentiments of honour or morality. An Indian proverb avers that "one
native of Bundelkhand commits as much fraud as a hundred Dandis" (weighers
of grain and notorious rogues). About Datia and Jhansi the inhabitants are
a stout and handsome race of men, well off and contented. The prevailing
religion in Bundelkhand is Hinduism.

The earliest dynasty recorded to have ruled in Bundelkhand were the
Garhwas, who were succeeded by the Parihars; but nothing is known of
either. About A.D. 800 the Parihars are said to have been ousted by the
Chandels, and Dangha Varma, chief of the Chandel Rajputs, appears to have
established the earliest paramount power in Bundelkhand towards the close
of the 10th century A.D. Under his dynasty the country attained its
greatest splendour in the early part of the 11th century, when its raja,
whose dominions extended from the Jumna to the Nerbudda, marched at the
head of 36,000 horse and 45,000 foot, with 640 elephants, to oppose the
invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni. In 1182 the Chandel dynasty was overthrown by
Prithwi Raj, the ruler of Ajmer and Delhi, after which the country remained
in ruinous anarchy until the close of the 14th century, when the Bundelas,
a spurious offshoot of the Garhwa tribe of Rajputs, established themselves
on the right bank of the Jumna. One of these took possession of Orchha by
treacherously poisoning its chief. His successor succeeded in further
aggrandizing the Bundela state, but he is represented to have been a
notorious plunderer, and his character is further stained by the
assassination of the celebrated Abul Fazl, the prime minister and historian
of Akbar. Jajhar Singh, the third Bundela chief, unsuccessfully revolted
against the court of Delhi, and his country became incorporated for a short
time with the empire. The struggles of the Bundelas for independence
resulted in the withdrawal of the royal troops, and the admission of
several petty states as feudatories of the empire on condition of military
service. The Bundelas, under Champat Rai and his son. Chhatar Sal, offered
a successful resistance to the proselytizing efforts of Aurangzeb. On the
occasion of a Mahommedan invasion in 1732, Chhatar Sal asked and obtained
the assistance of the Mahratta Peshwa, whom he adopted as his son, giving
him a third of his dominions. The Mahrattas gradually extended their
influence over Bundelkhand, [v.04 p.0798] and in 1792 the peshwa was
acknowledged a