Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/211

 HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJAH HOLKAR. (387)

HE Maharajah Tukajee Holkar is the present representative of the family which for several generations has provided the most eminent and illustrious men and women among the Mahrattas. The family itself is of obscure origin. Holkar's progenitors were shepherds and cultivators in the village of Hull, in the Deccan, from which their surname Holkar, or more properly, perhaps Huilker, is derived. Mulhar Rao was the son of Khundajee, and was born in the year 1693 or thereabouts, and, in consequence of some dispute, his mother took him to his uncle Narainjee, who resided in Khandesh, and they abode there. Here the young Mulhar watched his uncle's sheep, and a legend is related of him, that as he lay asleep in a field, a cobra de capella snake raised its hood between his face and the sun, to keep off its rays. From this strange circumstance great glory was augured, and his uncle placed him in command of a small body of horse, in the service of Kudum Bandee, a Mahratta leader, where he soon very highly distinguished himself by acts of valour; and eventually the then Peshwah, Bajee Rao, took him into the service of the state, and gave him the command of 500 horse. In the conquest of the Concan, and war with Nizarn Ali, he gained higher fame and promotion; and in 1728 was appointed to the charge of districts in Malwah, which were augmented in 1731, and the general interests of the Mahrattas in Malwah confided to him. Subsequently, and till his death, which occurred in 1769, at the ripe age of seventy-six, Mulhar Rao continued with great success the predatory system of warfare, which formed the basis of the Mahratta policy, and for which his daring valour peculiarly qualified him. He was also a distinguished and merciful administrator, and if not, according to Sir John Malcolm, so great a politician as Dowlut Rao Sindia, surpassed bun as a warrior.

Mulhar Rao had one son, Khundee Rao, who was killed, before his father's death, at the siege of Kamthere. This prince had married Ahlia Bye, who had one son, Khiundee Rao, and one daughter; but Khundee Rao the younger was insane, and as long as he lived his mother acted as Regent of the state, and conducted the