Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/49

 HAR in war. The great mistake made by those who assume that in Western Oudh a ráj or a taluqa was the natural form which landed property assumed, the first crystallization from chaos, so to speak, is an historical one. They assume that a Rajput clan headed by its chief invaded Oudh from Mangi Pátan or some other Patan in Wostern India; that this chief conquered a principality for himself, and that he maintained in peace the same abso- lute power over the persons and property of his clan which was necessary Now the traditions of no clan, not even the Bais, the Ahban, the Kanhpuria, the Sombansi, the Bachgoti, which number hundreds of thou- sands of members, point to any such wholesale immigration and conquest. What took place was as follows :—A single individual, or three brothers at most settle in the country and prosper ; they commence in all cases by dividing the property equally among all the sons, showing that the idea of a ráj, one and indivisible, bad not entered their minds; they succeed by some process of natural selection or freak of fortune; other families give place to them; they multiply and continue subdividing their property. If it happens that any call is made on the military prowess of the The development of family now become a clan, if they have constantly, to feudal power, fight for their property, or are successful in seizing that of others, it is not unlikely that their natural leader, the head of the elder branch, may either be nominated a rája by his clan, or be granted the title by the supreme authority. Once granted or admitted, there is no doubt that the title, and the power which accrues to it, are apt to be per- manent. Custom and hereditary names are all-powerful in Oudh; but the writer's point is that ráj is not the natural form which property takes in Western Oudh at all. Ráj has hardly anything to do with landed property; it represents sovereignty, military control, and will only develop into allodial property as a military usurpation in troublous times for the good of the commonwealth. The rája will call in war time for a war contribu- tion from all the subjects of the state ; he does that, not for his personal gain, but as the head of the commonwealth and for its weal. Nor does it by any means follow that a clan will see the necessity of having a rája even for military matters; there are clans in Hardoi who have their un- titled chiefs whom in all times of turmoil their obedience is absolute. On the banks of the Ganges in Kachbandan there lived a Chandel, a yeoman chief of this kind; he was the master of only one village, but his power and influence over the whole clan was unbounded. When Rája Hardeo Bakhsh of Katiári had no power to protect the Fatehpur fugitives, he secured the good offices of this old man, who pledged his word for the Englishmen's safety; he embarked in their boat, and his answer to the hoarse challenges from the river bank was always received and obeyed as a command not to use hostile measures; for many a mile down the Ganges his presence secured absolute safety. Very probably, if the Oudh anarchy had continued a few generations, this man's grandson might have become a rája, got the whole property of the clan into his clutches, and antedated his ráj, as having come in with the conquerors. It is very true that when a ráj was once established, the power of the clan under its new head would be directed to conquest from other clans, and the new acquisitions so made would very probably be regarded mainly as the allodial property of the 6