Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/141

Rh downfall of the upstart British Ráj, had led to active communication between the three disaffected States of Alwar (or Macheri, as it was the custom to call it then), Jaipur, and Bhartpur. The Játs, as a caste or rather tribe, are well known throughout many of the western districts of the present North-West Provinces as singularly industrious agriculturists, but at Bhartpur the Ját house ruled in sovereign state, and held itself no whit the inferior of the Rájpút chivalry. The prince of the day had, with characteristic shrewdness, recognized the wisdom of making terms with the English after the overthrow of the Maráthás and the Pindárís. It was at the instance of Rájá Baldeo Singh that Sir David Ochterlony, as Political Agent at Delhi, had presented to his young son Balwant Singh, a Khilat, that is to say, a ceremonial dress, the presentation of which by a political superior is, by the immemorial usage of India, generally understood to be a recognition of the right to succeed. Early in 1825, a year after the investiture, Rájá Baldeo Sing died while on pilgrimage to the holy town of Gobardhán, near Muttra on the Jumna, not very far from Bhartpur. The little lad, whom the careful father was so anxious to secure against possible intrigue, was not then six years old. At first there was no sign of opposition to his succession, under the tutelage of his maternal uncle. Only a few weeks, however, had passed when Dúrjan Sál, the son of the younger brother of the late prince, gained the adhesion of the army of the State, attacked the