Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 6.djvu/22

HIS HIGHNESS MEER YAH MAHOMED WITH ATTENDANT. rais, and the whole forming a family confederacy, under the appellation of the 'char var,' or 'four friends.'"

His Highness Mahomed Khan was the son of Meer Morad Ali, formerly ruler of the Hyderabad portion of the province. He left four sons, and two of them shared the power of the State. After the battle of IMeeanee, he, with his brothers, submitted to Sir Charles Napier, and were sent to Calcutta as political prisoners. Subsequently, however, the political influence of the Talpoors being extinct, he was allowed to return to Sind, and now resides, as a private gentleman, near Hyderabad, on the pension allowed him by the British Government. The subject of the Photograph is his brother, who shared his fortunes. It is stated of him, that, though in ill health, he is an agreeable companion; is much in the society of English officers, and has made a very interesting collection of coins of different periods in Eastern history. The Talpoor family claim the distinction of Meers, or Syuds, descendants of Mahomed, and follow the tenets and practices of that sect of the Mahomedan faith. The Sind costume, it will be observed, does not materially differ from the Mahomedan dress of India, except in the cap, which, richly embroidered or plain, is peculiar to the Belochees and other inhabitants of Sind.