Recapitulation.

The curious prominence of the serpent or "Nága" element in the nomenclature both of places and families in Gondwána seem to show that a Nág a race must have played an important part in the history of this part of India, and as the claim to N á g a descent, though indifferently made by chiefs of such opposite origin as the Kolarian Múndas and the Dravidian Gonds, had seemingly never penetrated down to the body of the aboriginal peoples, the natural inference is that the Nágas of Central India were a separate race, powerful enough to be an object of imitation and aspiration to the more ambitious of the aboriginal chiefs, and probably connected with the Nág a dynasties, of whom there are traces in the Vindhyan* country. Lastly, the absorption of the Central Indian Ná gas, admitting them to have been a separate people, is shown to be at least possible by the existence to this day of Nágbansí chiefs unconnected even by suspicion with any of the known aboriginal races, and of subdivisions among the aboriginal tribes claiming a Nág a descent, and admittedly distinct from the body of their adopted people.+

*Narwar, where General Cunningham places the nine Ná gas of the coins, is in the Vindhyan country, and the Yavana dynasty, which allied itself with the Nágas, spring from a founder bearing the probably allegorical name of "Vind hy asakti."

† Since the above was written Fergusson's "Tree and Serpent-worship" has been received. From the sculptures at Sanchi and Amravati he finds evidence of the co-existence with Hindús in the first centuries of the Christian era of a race of bearded serpent-worshippers, probably aborigines. The superior race, whom he calls Hindús, are never represented as worshipping the snake, but certain sections of them seem to have had the snake as their emblem or tutelary genius, and are invariably shown with the cobra hood canopying their head. "The distinction between people with snakes and those without," says Fergusson, "is most curious and perplexing. After the most atten"tive study I have been unable to detect any characteristic, either of feature or costume, "by which the races can be distinguished beyond the possession of this strange adjunct. "That those with snakes are the Nág a people we read of can hardly be doubted" (p. 192). His conclusion is that snake-worship was an aboriginal faith, and that the Aryans adopted it "in proportion as they became mixed with the aborigines, and their blood became less and less pure" (p. 114). May it not be that the people represented in the sculptures with the N á ga emblem was the N ág a race which has been inferred to have been an object of imitation and respect to the aboriginal tribes of the country? It would not be unnatural that a savage people should carry their reverence for the national symbol of their conquerors so far as to worship it.

CHAPTER V. .

HISTORY UNDER THE GONDS AND MARATHA'S.

Commencement of history in Gondwana-The Kherlá dynasty-Circumstances under which the Gonds rose to power-The dynasties of Garhá-Mandla, Chándá, and Deogarh-The character of the Gond rule-Extracts from Sleeman-Remarks of an eye-witness in the last century-Prosperity of the Gond kingdoms-The Gond people under their own princes and under the MaráthásPosition of the aboriginal Chiefs after the Marát há conquest-Demoralisation of the hill Gonds-Their pacification under our rule-Marát há period-Character of the Marát há rule-The best days of the Bhonslás-Deterioration of the Government-The Pindhárís-Their rivals, the Tax collectors-The spoliation of the land-by direct violence,-by form of law-Devices for obtaining contributions from bankers-Ingenuity of general taxation-Forced benevolences-Exhaustion of the country-Errors of our early administration-Improved system and its effects-Constitution of Central Provinces.

in Gondwá na.

It has already been said that history proper does not commence in Gondwana until the sixteenth cenCommencement of history tury. It was then that Sang rám Sá, the forty-eighth Rájá of the Gond line of Garhá-Mandla, issuing from the Mandla highlands, extended his dominion over fifty-two garhs or districts, comprising the country now known as Bhopál, Ságar, and Damoh on the Vindhyan plateau; Hoshangábád, Narsinghpúr, and Jabalpúr in the Narbadá valley; and Mandla and Seoní in the Sátpurá highlands. In the same century the Haihai-Bans í line of Chhattisgarh emerges from a darkness, only lighted up by occasional inscriptions, into the general history of the country, and in the succeeding century the Gond princes of Deogarh transformed themselves from obscure aboriginal chiefs into a powerful Mohammadan

dynasty. The annals of Chándá are difficult to reduce to history, but it may be gathered from them that up to the sixteenth century the Rájás of this line paid tribute to some stronger power.

It is true that the Garhá-Mandla dynasty dates its sovereignty from A.D. 358, but even their own annalists do not claim any extended dominion for them during the first twelve centuries of their independent existence, and the vestiges of powerful cotemporary dynasties, now only extant in the inscriptions quoted above, are conclusive in limiting the extent of Gond supremacy down to so late a period as the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Haihai-Bansís of Chhattisgarh are far older, and might perhaps be traced to times of unknown antiquity, if history could even feel its way through the inanimate era of inscriptions to the more living, if less real, legendary age which lies beyond it. It has been seen that some of the oldest Hindú legends relate to the supremacy of this powerful branch of the lunar race in the Narbadá valley, and that their earliest inscriptions carry them back to the first centuries of our era. The traditions of the Ratan púr branch ascend even higher, and there seems to be little doubt that eighteen or nineteen centuries ago they held all the eastern part of what is now known as the Central Provinces. The Kshattriya king of K o s a la, visited by Hwen Thsang* in the seventh century, was in all probability one of this line, and it has already been mentioned that Professor FitzEdward Hall identifies their kingdom with the Puranic realm of Chedi. This identification supplies a link, if one were needed, between the kings of Chhattisgarh and the dynasty of the same race, commemorated by the Jabalpur tablets, as both are called rulers of Chedi in their respective inscriptions. But though there may be in these rude indi

*Hwen Thsang (Julien's Translation, book iv. p. 185, Edn. Paris, 1853) speaks of him as a devout Buddhist, and from the Buram Deva inscription referred to above (p. lxv.) it would seem likely that the Hai hai-Ban sí kings were Buddhists in the earlier centuries of our era, as a Bráhmanical prince, even of a different sect, would hardly oppose the construction of a Saiva temple by main force.

+ See above, p. liii.

cations of a dynastic history, extending not over centuries but over thousands of years, the frame-work for a very curious and interesting sketch, they must be passed over here with the bare mention which is all that necessarily limited space can spare to them.

Before, however, the simultaneous dominion of the three great Gond houses of Garhá-Mandla, DeoThe Kherlá dynasty. garh, and Chándá united, for a time, almost the whole of Gondwán a under the sway of aboriginal princes, a dynasty which is usually called Gond*-had risen to temporary place and power at Kherlá, on the Sátpurá plateau, in the fifteenth century. The only written record now forthcoming of these princes is in the pages of Firishta,t by whom they are said to have had "great wealth and power, being possessed of all the hills of Gondwana and other countries." They first appear in A.D. 1398, when Narsinha Ráya, the Rájá of Kherlá, is represented as instigated by the kings of Málwá and Khán desh to invade the Báhmaní territories. A hill chief fighting against the most powerful of the then vigorous Mohammadan dynasties of Southern India had of course little chance, and Narsinha Ráya had to buy peace from Firoz Shah, the Báhmaní king, by large presents of money, forty-five elephants, and the hand of his daughter. But lying as he did between two far more highly organised powers, not even his highland position could ensure to the Kherlá Chief a long immunity from invasion, and about twenty or twenty-five years after, the king of

* The Kher lá princes have been generally set down as G on d, but I cannot find on what authority. There seems to be quite as much, if not more, reason for considering them to have been Kshattriyas. The local legends certainly attribute that dignity to them, and in a very legendary account of the death of a Rahmán Shah Dulha, who sacrificed his head in order to take the Kherlá fortress with his headless trunk, and to whose head there is a monument at Kher lá, while his body has similar honours at Ellich púr in Berár, may perhaps be traced the story of the capture of K her lá by the Bahman í commander-in chief (whose name is not given), and his subsequent assassination by two Rájputs of the garrison, as related by Firish ta-(Briggs' translation, vol. ii. p. 480).

Briggs' Firishta (Edn. 1829), vol. ii. pp. 371–378.

Málwá, having failed in his attempt to employ the aboriginal principality as a weapon of offence against his powerful southern rival, determined to take advantage of it as a place of refuge in the event of his being hard pressed by his equally dangerous neighbours, the Mohammadan kings of Gujarát. Narsinha Ráya got together an army of 50,000 men, but his attempts at defence were unavailing, and he was defeated and slain. A large booty, including eighty-four elephants, fell to the victors, who also imposed a tribute on Narsinha Ráya's successor, and left a garrison in his fortress of Kherlá. But their grasp on their new acquisition could not have been very firm, for some six years afterwards Sultán Hoshang of Málwá is recorded as again invading Kherlá, though this time with less success. He was three times repulsed, and in the interval which was thus gained the besieged prince was able to appeal to the Báhmaní king for help. Ahmad Shah Báhmaní showed the usual readiness of these predatory foreign kings to embark in what promised to be a profitable war, but half-way on his expedition a pious doubt occurred to him whether "hawks should pyke out hawks' een," and true believers should embroil themselves with each other for the sake of an infidel. His movements were, however, quite misinterpreted by the king of Mál wá, who, less capable than his enemy of fine conscientious scruples, put down his hesitation to simple cowardice. Finding his forbearance so ill appreciated, the Báhmaní king threw the whole weight of his power into the scale of the Kherlá Chief, and defeated Sultán Hoshang's army with great loss. This was, however, but a temporary respite for Kherlá, which a few years afterwards, in 1433, again fell before Sultán Hoshang, and was at last confirmed to him by treaty with the B á h m a ní kings.§ This was renewed after a war between the Báhmaní power

* The date is differently given in the Báh man í and M á 1 w á histories. Briggs' Firishta, vol. iv. (Edn. 1829), pp. 178, 180.

The accounts differ with regard to Narsinha Ráya's death. In Firishta's Bábmaní history (vol. ii.) he is recorded as living through this war.

Briggs' Firishta, vol. ii. pp. 407 ff, vol. iv. pp. 183, 184.

§ Ibid, vol. ii. p 415.