CHAPTER 4

=The Patār Plateau. Kanera=, _February 13_: nine miles.—A new feature in the face of Mewar was this day disclosed to us. At the termination of our short march, we ascended the Patar, or plateau of Central India, the grand natural rampart defending Mewar on the east. As we approached it, the level line of its crest, so distinct from the pinnacled Aravalli, at once proclaimed it to be a tableland, or rock of the secondary formation. Although its elevation is not above four hundred 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 [627] ever beheld. From this spot the mind’s eye embraces at once all the grand theatres of the history of Mewar. Upon our right lies Chitor, the palladium of Hinduism; on the west, the gigantic Aravalli, 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 Turk’ or Mahratta, as Jawad, Jiran, Nimach, Nimbahera, Kheri, Ratangarh. What associations, what aspirations, does this scene conjure up to one who feels as a Rajput 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 Mewar, 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 Berach, from its outlet at the Udaisagar, to its passage within a mile of Chitor, and the benefit likely to accrue from such a work appeared incalculable.[11.4.1] What new ideas would be opened to the Rajput, on seeing the trains of oxen, which now creep slowly along with merchandise 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 Egyptian wheel, as it is called, but which is indigenous to India![11.4.2] If the reader will turn to the map, he will perceive the great facilities for such an undertaking. He will there see two grand reservoirs within six miles of each other, the Pichola, or internal lake, having an elevation of eighty feet above the external one, the Udaisagar, whose outlet forms the Berach River; but for which the valley of the capital would be one wide lake and which, for want of proper regulation, once actually submerged a third of it. The Pichola may be called the parent of the other, although it is partly fed by the minor lake at the villa of Suheli-ki-bari. Both are from twelve to fourteen miles in circumference, in some places thirty-five feet deep, and being fed by the perennial streams from the Aravalli, they contain a constant supply of water. From the external lake to Chitor, the fall is so slight that few locks would be required; and the soil being a yielding one throughout, the expense of the undertaking would be moderate. There is plenty of material in the neighbouring hills and forests, and by furnishing occupation for the wild population, the work would tend not a little to reclaim them. But [628] where are the means? With this difficulty, and the severe blow to our incipient prosperity in this untimely frost, our schemes dissipate like the mist of the morning. But I cannot relinquish the conviction that the undertaking, if executed, would not only enable the Rana to pay his tribute, but to be more merciful to his subjects, for whose welfare it is our chief duty to labour.[11.4.3]

The summit of the Patar has a fertile soil, well-watered and well-wooded, and producing the mango, mahua, and nim; and were the appearance of the crops a criterion, we should say it was equal in fertility to the best part of Mewar. In ancient inscriptions, the term Uparmal is applied, as well as Patar, to this marked feature in the geological structure of Central India: the first being rendered exactly by the German _oberland_; the other signifying ‘flat,’ or table-land.

In the indented recesses of this elevated land, which covers an immense portion of Central India, there are numerous spots of romantic beauty, which enthusiasm has not failed to identify with religious associations. Wherever there is a deep glen, a natural fountain, or a cascade, the traveller will infallibly discover some traces of the ‘Great God’ (Mahadeva) of the Hindus, the creator and destroyer of life.

=Shrine of Sukhdeo. Human Scapegoats.=—By the stupidity of my guide, and the absence of the indefatigable Balgovind, my Brahman antiquarian pioneer, I lost the opportunity of seeing the shrine of Sukhdeo, situated in a dark cleft of the rock, not two miles from the pass where I ascended. In excuse, he said he thought, as my camp was near, that it would be easy to descend to the shrine of the “ease-giving” god, Sukhdeo (from _sukh_, ‘ease’);[11.4.4] but _revocare gradum_ was an evil which, added to the necessity of extracting all the information I could from some of the opium-growers in attendance, deterred me. The abode of Sukhdeo is in a deep recess, well-wooded, with a cascade bursting from the rock near its summit, under a ledge of which the symbolic representative is enshrined. Around it are several _guphas_ or caves of the anchorite devotees; but the most conspicuous object is a projecting ledge, named Daitya-ka-har, or ‘Giant’s-bone,’ on which those who are in search of “ease” jump from above. This is called the Vira-jhamp, or ‘warrior’s-leap,’ and is made in fulfilment of vows either for temporal or future good.[11.4.5] Although most of the leapers perish, some instances of escape are recorded. The love of offspring is said to be the principal motive to this pious act of [629] saltation; and I was very gravely told of one poor woman, whose philoprogenitive bump was so great, that she vowed to take the leap herself with her issue; and such, says the legend, was her faith, that both escaped. A Teli, or oilman, was the last jumper of Sukhdeo, and he was no less fortunate; to him the ‘giant’s-bone’ was a bed of roses. So much for the faith of the oilman of Jawad! There are many such Leucotheas in this region of romance:[11.4.6] that at Omkar, on the Nerbudda, and the sacred mount Girnar, are the most celebrated.

Until the last sixty years, the whole of the plateau, as far as the Chambal, belonged to Mewar; but all, with the exception of Kanera, are now in the hands of Sindhia. Kanera is the chief township of a small district of twenty-two villages, which, by the change of events, has fortunately reverted to the Rana, although it was not extricated from the grasp of the Mahrattas without some difficulty; it was taken first, and the right of repossession argued afterwards. Would we had tried the same process with all the rest of the plateau; but unhappily they were rented to old Lalaji Balal, a lover of order, and an ally of old Zalim Singh! But let me repeat, for the tenth time, that all these lands are only held by Sindhia on mortgage for war-contributions, paid over and over again; and when an opportunity occurs, let this be a record, and the Patar west of the Chambal be restored to Mewar.

I was delighted to see that the crops of Kanera had only partially suffered from the ravages of the frost of the 3rd, 4th, to 25th, which extended over Malwa, and that although the gram was destroyed, the wheat, barley, sugar-cane, and poppy, were abundant and little injured; though we could have wished that the last-named pernicious plant, which is annually increasing all over these regions, had been sacrificed in lieu of the noble crops of vetches (gram).

That the culture of the poppy, to the detriment of more useful husbandry, is increasing to an extent which demands the strong hand of legislative restraint, must strike the most superficial observer in these regions. When the sumptuary laws of this patriarchal government were in force, a restraint was at the same time imposed on an improvident system of farming which, of course, affected the prince, whose chief revenues were derived from the soil; and one of the agrarian laws of Mewar was, that there should be to each _charas_, or skin of land, only one bigha of opium, and the same quantity of cane, with the usual complement of corn. But the feverish excitement produced by our monopoly of the drug has extended its culture in every direction, and even in tracts where hitherto it has never entered into their agricultural economy. Whatever [630], therefore, be the wisdom or policy of our interference in this matter, of the result there can be no doubt, namely, that it converted the agricultural _routinières_ into speculators and gamblers.

=The History of Opium.=—A slight sketch of the introduction and mode of culture of this drug, which has tended more to the physical and moral degradation of the inhabitants than the combined influence of pestilence and war, may not be without interest.[11.4.7]

We are indebted to the commentaries of the imperial autobiographers, Babur, Akbar, and Jahangir, for the most valuable information on the introduction of exotics into the horticultural economy of India; and we are proud to pay our tribute of applause to the illustrious house of Timur, whose princes, though despots by birth and education, and albeit the bane of Rajputana, we must allow, present a more remarkable succession of great characters, historians, statesmen, and warriors, than any contemporaneous dynasty, in any region of the world.[11.4.8]

Akbar followed up the plans of Babur, and introduced the gardeners of Persia and Tartary, who succeeded with many of their fruits, as peaches, almonds (both indigenous to Rajputana), pistachios, etc. To Jahangir’s Commentaries we owe the knowledge that tobacco was introduced into India in his reign; but of the period when the poppy became an object of culture, for the manufacture of opium, we have not the least information. Whatever may be the antiquity of this drug, for medicinal uses, it may be asserted that its abuse is comparatively recent, or not more than three [631] centuries back.[11.4.9] In none of the ancient heroic poems of Hindustan is it ever alluded to. The guest is often mentioned in them as welcomed by the _munawwar piyala_, or ‘cup of greeting,’[11.4.10] but nowhere by the _amal-pani_, or ‘infused opiate,’ which has usurped the place of the _phul-ra-arak_, or ‘essence of flowers.’ Before, however, the art of extracting the properties of the poppy, as at present, was practised, they used the opiate in its crudest form, by simply bruising the capsules, which they steeped a certain time in water, afterwards drinking the infusion, to which they give the name of _tijara_, and not unfrequently _post_, ‘the poppy.’ This practice still prevails in the remote parts of Rajputana, where either ignorance of the more refined process, prejudice, or indolence, operates to maintain old habits.

The culture of opium was at first confined to the _duab_, or tract between the Chambal and Sipra, from their sources to their junction; but although tradition has preserved the fact of this being the original poppy-nursery of Central India, it has long ceased to be the only place of the poppy’s growth, it having spread not only throughout Malwa, but into various parts of Rajputana, especially Mewar and Haraoti.[11.4.11] But though all classes, Kunbis and Jats, Banias and Brahmans, try the culture, all yield the palm of superior skill to the Kunbi, the original cultivator, who will extract one-fifth more from the plant than any of his competitors.

It is a singular fact, that the cultivation of opium increased in the inverse ratio of general prosperity; and that as war, pestilence, and famine, augmented their virulence, and depopulated Rajputana, so did the culture of this baneful weed appear to thrive. The predatory system, which succeeded Mogul despotism, soon devastated this fair region, and gradually restricted agricultural pursuits to the richer harvests of barley, wheat, and gram; till at length even these were confined to a bare sustenance for the families of the cultivator, who then found a substitute in the poppy. From the small extent of its culture, he was able to watch it, or to pay for its protection from pillage; this he could not do for his corn, which a troop of horse might save him the trouble of cutting. A kind of moral barometer might, indeed, be constructed, to show that the maximum of oppression in Mewar was the maximum of the culture of the poppy in Malwa. Emigration commenced in S. 1840 (A.D. 1784); it was at its height in S. 1856 (A.D. 1800), and went on gradually depopulating that country until S. 1874 (A.D. 1818). Its consumption, of course, kept pace with its production, it having found a vent in foreign markets.

The districts to which the emigrants fled were those of Mandasor, Khachrod, Unel [632], and others, situated on the feeders of the Chambal, in its course through Lower Malwa.[11.4.12] There they enjoyed comparative protection and kind treatment, under Apa Sahib and his father, who were long the farmers-general of these fertile lands. It could not be expected, however, that the new settlers should be allowed to participate in the lands irrigated by wells already excavated; but Apa advanced funds, and appointed them lands, all fertile though neglected, in which they excavated wells for themselves. They abandoned altogether wheat and barley, growing only _makkai_ or ‘Indian corn,’ for food, which requires no irrigation, and to which the poppy succeeds in rotation; to these, and the sugar-cane, all their industry was directed.

But to proceed with the process of cultivation. When the crops of Indian corn (_makkai_) or of hemp (_san_) are gathered in, the stalks are rooted up and burned; the field is then flooded, and, when sufficiently saturated, ploughed up. It is then copiously manured with cow-dung, which is deemed the best for the purpose; but even this has undergone a preparatory operation, or chemical decomposition, being kept in a hollow ground during the rainy season, and often agitated with long poles, to allow the heat to evaporate. In this state it is spread over the fields and ploughed in. Those who do not keep kine, and cannot afford to purchase manure, procure flocks of goats and sheep, and pay so much a night for having them penned in the fields. The land being ploughed and harrowed at least six or seven times, until the soil is almost pulverized, it is divided into beds, and slight embankments are formed to facilitate irrigation. The seed is then thrown in, the fields are again inundated; and the seventh day following this is repeated to saturation. On the seventh or ninth, but occasionally not until the eleventh day, the plant springs up; and on the twenty-fifth, when it has put forth a few leaves, and begins to look withered, they water it once more. As soon as this moisture dries, women and children are turned into the fields to thin the plants, leaving them about eight inches asunder, and loosening the earth around them with iron spuds. The plant is at this stage about three inches high. A month later it is watered moderately, and when dry, the earth is again turned up and loosened. The fifth water is given in about ten days more; two days after which a flower appears here and there. This is the signal for another watering, called ‘the flower-watering’; after which, in twenty-four or thirty-six hours, all the flowers burst their cells. When about half the petals have fallen, they irrigate the plants sufficiently to moisten the earth, and soon the rest of the flowers drop off, leaving the bare capsule, which rapidly increases in bulk. In a short period, when scarcely a flower remains, a whitish [633] powder collects outside the capsule, which is the signal for immediate application of the lancet.

The field is now divided into three parts, in one of which operations commence. The cutting-instrument consists of three prongs, with delicate points, around which cotton thread is bound to prevent its making too deep an incision, and thus causing the liquid to flow into the interior of the capsule. The wound is made from the base upwards, and the milky juice which exudes coagulates outside. Each plant is thrice pierced, on three successive days, the operation commencing as soon as the sun begins to warm. In cold mornings, when it congeals rapidly, the coagulation is taken off with a scraper. The fourth morning each plant is once more pierced, to ascertain that no juice remains. On each morning this extract is immersed in a vessel of linseed oil, to prevent it from drying up. The juice being all collected, there remains only the seed. The capsules are therefore broken off and carried to the barn, where they are spread out upon the ground; a little water is sprinkled over them, and being covered with a cloth, they remain till the morning, when the cattle tread out the seed, which is sent to the oilmen, and the refuse is burnt, lest the cattle should eat them, as even in this stage they are poisonous. Poppy oil is more used for the _chiragh_ (lamp) than any other in Mewar. They calculate a maund (of forty sers, or about seventy-five pounds weight) of seed for every two sers of milk. The price of seed is now twenty rupees per _mauni_ of one hundred and twelve (_kachha_) maunds.

One bigha of Malwa land, of the measure Shahjahani (when the _jarib_, or rod, is one hundred cubits long), will yield from five to fifteen sers of opium-juice, each ser being forty-five Salimshahi[11.4.13] rupees in weight: the medium is reckoned a good produce. The cultivator or farmer sells it, in the state described, to the speculator, at the price current of the day. The purchaser puts it into cotton bags of three folds, and carries it home. Having obtained the leaves of the poppy, he spreads them in a heap of two or three inches in depth, and thereon deposits the opium, in balls of fifteen rupees’ weight each, which are allowed to remain five months for the purpose of evaporation. If the milk has been thin, or treated with oil, seven parts in ten will remain; but if good and pure, eight. The _beoparis_ (speculators) then sell it, either for home-consumption in Rajputana, or for exportation.

From the year S. 1840 (A.D. 1784) to S. 1857 (A.D. 1801), the market-price of the crude opium from the cultivator ran from sixteen to twenty-one Salimshahi rupees per _dari_, a measure of five _pakka sers_, each ser being the weight of ninety Salimshahi [634] rupees. I give the price of the drug by the grower in the first stage as a better criterion than that of the manufacturer in its prepared state. In the year S. 1857 it rose to twenty-five rupees; in S. 1860 to twenty-seven, gradually increasing till S. 1865 (A.D. 1809), when it attained its maximum of forty-two, or an advance of one hundred and seventy per cent above the price of the year A.D. 1784. But some natural causes are assigned for this extraordinary advance; after which it gradually fell, until S. 1870 (A.D. 1814), when it was so low as twenty-nine. In S. 1873 it had again risen to thirty-three, and in S. 1874-75, when its transit to the ports of Sind and Gujarat was unmolested (whence it was exported to China and the Archipelago), it had reached thirty-eight and thirty-nine, where it now (S. 1876, or A.D. 1820) stands.

In Kanthal[11.4.14] (which includes Partabgarh Deola), or the tracts upon the Mahi River, opium is cultivated to a great extent, and adulterated in an extraordinary manner. This being sold in China as Malwa opium, has greatly lessened the value of the drug in that market. The adulteration is managed as follows: a preparation of refined _gur_ (molasses) and gum, in equal proportion, is added to half its quantity of opiate coagulum; the mass is then put into cauldrons, and after being well amalgamated by boiling, it is taken out, and when sufficiently dry is well beaten, and put into cotton bags, which are sewn up in green hides, and exported to Maskat-Mandavi. The Gosains of these parts are the chief contractors for this impure opium, which is reckoned peculiarly unwholesome, and is never consumed in Rajputana. Rumour says that it is transported to the Spice Islands, where it is used as a manure in the cultivation of the nutmeg. The transit-duties on opium, in the Native States, are levied on each bullock-load, so that the adulterated pays as much as the pure. The Gosains smuggle great quantities.

Such is the history, and I believe a pretty correct one, of the growth and extension of this execrable and demoralizing plant, for the last forty years. If the now paramount power, instead of making a monopoly of it, and consequently extending its cultivation, would endeavour to restrict it by judicious legislative enactments, or at least reduce its culture to what it was forty years ago, generations yet unborn would have just reason to praise us for this work of mercy. It is no less our interest than our duty to do so, and to call forth genuine industry, for the improvement of cotton, indigo, sugar-cane, and other products, which would enrich instead of demoralizing, and therefore impoverishing, the country. We have saved Rajputana from political ruin; but the boon of mere existence will be valueless if we fail to restore the [635] moral energies of her population; for of this fine region and noble race we might say, as Byron does of Greece—

'Tis Greece—but living Greece no more!

or the mind is decayed, and the body often palsied and worn out, in the very meridian of life. As far as my personal influence went, I practised what I preach; and, as I have already stated, exacted a promise, from the Rana on the throne to the lowest Thakur, that they would never initiate their children in this debasing practice. But as mere declamation can do very little good, I will here insert a portion of the Agrarian customary code of Mewar and Malwa, which may be brought into operation directly or indirectly. The distribution of crops was as follows.

=Distribution of Crops.=—To each _charas_, _charsa_, or skin of land, there is attached twenty-five bighas of irrigated land for wheat and barley, with from thirty to fifty bighas more, called _mar_, or _mal_, dependent on the heavens for water, and generally sown with gram. Of the twenty-five bighas of land irrigated from the well, the legislature sanctioned one bigha of opium, and ten to fifteen biswas (twenty biswas are a bigha) of sugar-cane. But in these days of anarchy and confusion, when every one follows his own view of things, they cultivate two of opium and three of cane, and perhaps two of barley, instead of twenty-five, to feed the family! What an unnatural state of agricultural economy is this, when the cultivator sometimes actually purchases food for his family, in order that he may bestow his time and labour on this enervating exotic! But should the foreign markets be closed, and famine, as is not unusual, ensue, what must be the consequence, where the finest corn-country in India is converted to a poppy-garden! In Haraoti they manage these things better; and although its old politic ruler makes use of the districts in Malwa, which he rents from the Mahrattas, for the culture of opium, being himself a trader in it, yet I do not believe he permits its demoralizing influence to enter within his proper domain. It is pleasing to see some traces of the legislative wisdom of past days, and old Zalim knows that it is by the more generous productions of the plough that his country must prosper. But our monopoly acted as an encouragement of this vice; for no sooner was it promulgated that the Compani Sahib was contractor-general for opium, than prince and peasant, nay, the very scavengers, dabbled in the speculation. All Malwa was thrown into a ferment; like the Dutch tulip-bubble, the most fraudulent purchases and transfers were effected by men who had not a ser of opium in their possession. The extent to which this must have gone may be imagined when [636], according to the return, the sales, in the first year of our monopoly, exceeded one million sterling, in which I rather think we gained a loss of some £40,000! It is to be hoped the subject is now better understood, and that the legislature at home will perceive that a perseverance in this pernicious traffic is consistent neither with our honour, our interest, nor with humanity.

If the facts I have collected are confirmed on inquiry, the late measures of Government,[11.4.15] in whatever motives originating, will only augment the mischief. Even admitting their expediency in protecting our Patna monopoly, and their justice as affecting the native governments (the contractors and cultivators of the drug), still other measures might have been devised, equally efficacious in themselves, and less pregnant with evil consequences.

Footnote 11.4.1:

[Irrigation projects in Mewār have recently been studied by Sir Swinton Jacob and Mr. Manners Smith. “Among the most promising projects are a canal from Nāogāon on the Banās, two reservoirs on the Kothāri, and a reservoir on the Banās at Amarpura which, if carried out, will be one of the grandest works of the kind in India” (Erskine ii. A. 47).]

Footnote 11.4.2:

[Usually known in India as the Persian wheel, represented in Egypt by the Sākīeh (Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, 5th ed. ii. 26).]

Footnote 11.4.3:

Even now, as I transcribe this from my journal, I would almost (when “The Annals” are finished) risk a couple of years’ residence in “the happy valley,” where I scarcely ever enjoyed one day of health, to execute this and another favourite project—the reopening of the tin-mines of Jawara.

Footnote 11.4.4:

[Sukhada, ‘giving pleasure,’ an epithet of Vishnu.]

Footnote 11.4.5:

[_Vīra_, ‘a hero’; Skt. _jhampa_, Hindi, _jhapat_, ‘a spring, leap.’ In Rājasthāni, as Sir G. Grierson writes, the _m_ may easily have been preserved, or more probably the _a_ would be long, and the _m_ converted into a pure nasal, Jhāp being written _Jhamp_. Another common form is _Bhairava Jhamp_, ‘the leap in honour of Bhairava,’ a form of Siva. (For human “scape-goats” of this kind see Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore_, 2nd ed. i. 256; Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, 3rd ed., _The Scapegoat_, 196 ff.).]

Footnote 11.4.6:

[Ino Leucothea, when Athamas, in a fit of madness, killed Learchus, their son, fled with her other son, Melicertes, across the plain of Megaris and threw herself with the boy (or, according to Euripides (_Medea_, 1289) with her two sons) into the sea. A. B. Cook, _Zeus_, i. 674.]

Footnote 11.4.7:

[For a good summary of the history of opium cultivation see Watt, _Comm. Prod._ 845 ff.]

Footnote 11.4.8:

In all the branches of knowledge which have reference to the comforts, the elegancies, and the luxuries of life, they necessarily bore away the palm from the Rajput, who was cooped up within the barriers of superstition. The court of Samarkand, with which the kings of Farghana were allied, must have been one of the most brilliant in the world for talents as well as splendour; and to all the hereditary instruction there imbibed, Babur, the conqueror of India, added that more useful and varied knowledge only to be acquired by travel, and constant intercourse with the world. When, therefore, his genius led him from ‘the frosty Caucasus’ into the plains of Hindustan, the habit of observation and noting in a book, as set before him by Hazrat Timur, all that appeared novel, never escaped him; and in so marked a transition from the highlands of Central India to the region of the sun, his pen had abundant occupation. No production, whether in the animal or vegetable kingdom, which appeared different from his own, escaped notice in his book, which must be looked upon as one of the most remarkable contributions to literature ever made by royalty; for in no age or country will a work be found at once so comprehensive and so simple as the Commentaries of Babur; and this in a region where everything is exaggerated. Whether he depicts a personal encounter on which his life and prospects hinged, or a battle which gave him the empire of India, all is in keeping; and when he relates the rewards he bestowed on Mir Muhammad Jaliban, his architect, for successfully executing his noble design of throwing a bridge over the Ganges, “before he had been three years sovereign of Hindustan,” and with the same simplicity records his own “introduction of melons and grapes into India,” we are tempted to humiliating reflections on the magniloquence with which we paint our own few works of public good, and contrast them unfavourably with those of the Transoxianic monarch, not then twenty-five years of age! Nor let the reader who may be induced to take up the volume fail to give homage to the translator,[11.4.8.A] whose own simple, yet varied and vigorous mind has transferred the very soul of Babur into his translation.

Footnote 11.4.8.A:

William Erskine, Esq., of Blackburne, who honours me with his friendship, and has stimulated my exertions to the task in which I am engaged, and another in which I trust to be engaged, some of the Books of the Poet Chand, so often alluded to in this work. [The _Memoirs_ of Bābur or Bābar, translated by J. Leyden and W. Erskine, were published in 1826, and a reprint, edited by Sir Lucas King, is about to be issued by the Oxford University Press. An abridged version by Lieut.-Col. F. G. Talbot appeared in 1909. A new translation from an improved text, by Mrs. H. Beveridge, is now in course of publication.]

Footnote 11.4.9:

[For a statement of the evidence see Watt, _op. cit._ 845 ff.]

Footnote 11.4.10:

[_Munawwar_ means ‘illuminated, bright, splendid.’]

Footnote 11.4.11:

[In S.E. Mewār, near Mālwa, opium used to be almost as common as wheat and barley, but the area has greatly decreased since 1899, with the fall in the price of the drug (Erskine ii. A. 44). Sir G. Watt, writing in 1908, says it was then restricted to Mālwa, Bihār, and the United Provinces (_Comm. Prod._ 851 ff.). Since then, under arrangements with the Chinese, the cultivation has been still further restricted.]

Footnote 11.4.12:

[Mandasor in Gwalior State, about 95 miles S.E. of Udaipur city (_IGI_, xvii. 150); Unel, 20 miles N. of Ujjain; Khāchrod, 45 miles S.S.E. of Mandasor.]

Footnote 11.4.13:

[The Sālimshāhi rupee takes its name from the Partābgarh chief, Sālim Singh, who issued them for the first time, A.D. 1784 (W. W. Webb, _Currencies of the Hindu States of Rājputāna_, 23 f.; Malcolm, _Memoir of Central India_, 2nd ed. ii. 85).]

Footnote 11.4.14:

[The Kānthal tract, now in Partābgarh State, was so called because it formed the border or boundary (_kāntha_) between Mewār on N., Bāgar on W., and Mālwa E. and S. (Erskine ii. A. 197).]

Footnote 11.4.15:

It is to be borne in mind that this was written on the spot, in January, A.D. 1820.