urs and travellers. The Jhansi and Jalaun chiefs
are Brahmans of the same family as the Peshwa.

In the states governed by chiefs of the military classes, nearly the
whole produce of the land goes to maintain soldiers, or military
retainers, who are always ready to fight or rob for their chief. In
those governed by the Brahmanical class, nearly the whole produce
goes to maintain priests; and the other chiefs would soon devour
them, as the black ants devour the white, were not the paramount
power to interpose and save them. While the Peshwa lived, he
interposed; but all his dominions were _running into priesthood_,
like those in Sagar and Bundelkhand, and must soon have been
swallowed up by the military chiefs around him, had we not taken his
place. Jalaun and Jhansi are preserved only by us, for, with all
their religious, it is impossible for them to maintain efficient
military establishments; and the Bundela chiefs have always a strong
desire to eat them up, since these states were all sliced out of
their principalities when the Peshwa was all-powerful in Hindustan.

The Chhatarpur Raja is a Pawar. His father had been in the service of
the Bundela Raja; but, when we entered upon our duties as the
paramount power in Bundelkhand, the son had succeeded to the little
principality seized upon by his father; and, on the principle of
respecting actual possession, he was recognized by us as the
sovereign.[40] The Bundela Rajas, east of the Dasan river, are
descended from Raja Chhatarsal, and are looked down upon by the
Bundela Rajas of Orchha, Chanderi, and Datiya, west of the Dasan, as
Chhatarsal was in the service of one of their ancestors, from whom he
wrested the estates which his descendants now enjoy. Chhatarsal, in
his will, gave one-third of the dominion he had thus acquired to the
strongest power then in India, the Peshwa, in order to secure the
other two-thirds to his two sons Hardi Sa and Jagatraj, in the same
manner as princes of the Roman empire used to bequeath a portion of
theirs to the emperor.[41] Of the Peshwa's share we have now got all,
except Jalaun. Jhansi was subsequently acquired by the Peshwa, or
rather by his subordinates, with his sanction and assistance.[42]

Notes:

1. December, 1835.

2. In the Orchha State. This seems to be the same town which the
author had already visited on his way to Tehri on the 7th December.
_Ante_, Chapter 19 note [15].

3. _Ante_, Chapter 12 following note [9].