Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/174

 RAJAH OF SEETAMHOW AND. DURBAR. (378)

HE Seetainhow family belong to the Rahtore tribe of Rajpoots. The central figure is the Rajah Maharajah Raj Singhji, whose age is between eighty and ninety; on his proper right is his son, Maharaj-ji Ruttun Singh, and next to him Bomharji Bhowani Singh, grandson of the Rajah. Bhowani Singh has a son, about two years old (in 1862), so that there were four generations living. The two sitting figures on the Maharajah’s left are ministerial officers. The state is a very small one, its revenue being from one lac to one lac and a half; £10,000 to £15,000 a year; but the affairs are well administered by the Rajah. He was heavily taxed by Sindia, and under the treaty this state was assessed at Rs. 60,000 per annum, of which Sindia has remitted Rs. 5,000, and it is hoped may consent to a further reduction, though at the present he has declined. In his report for 1869–70, the Political Agent recommends a loan for irrigation purposes to the Rajah, which would enable him to bring more land into cultivation. During the famine in Rajpootana, in 1869, the Rajah, in spite of his narrow means, was most charitable to the starving crowds who betook themselves to Seetamhow for relief. Lieut. Waterhouse, in 1862, mentions also his great hospitality and kindness.