great drum used in festivals or processions,
lest the spirits of the old Chandel chiefs who there repose should be
roused to vengeance;[35] and a kingdom could not tempt one of the
Bundelas, Pawars, or Chandels to accept the government of the parish
['mauza'] in which it is situated. They will take subordinate offices
there under others with fear and trembling, but nothing could induce
one of them to meet the governor. When the deadly struggle between
these two tribes took place cannot now be discovered.[36]

In the time of Akbar, the Chandels were powerful in Mahoba, as the
celebrated Durgavati, the queen of Garha Mandla, whose reign extended
over the Sagar and Nerbudda territories and the greater part of
Berar, was a daughter of the reigning Chandel prince of Mahoba. He
condescended to give his daughter only on condition that the Gond
prince who demanded her should, to save his character, come with an
army of fifty thousand men to take her. He did so, and 'nothing
loth', Durgavati departed to reign over a country where her name is
now more revered than that of any other sovereign it has ever had.
She was killed above two hundred and fifty years ago, about twelve
miles from Jubbulpore, while gallantly leading on her troops in their
third and last attempt to stem the 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 neighbo