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these, and the vast varieties of game in India, has given rise to numerous gangs of professional hunters, whose constant experience, and great dexterity, have enriched their art with many contrivances unknown in the western world.

"In feats of agility and legerde. main, the Indians seem also to enjoy an incontestable superiority over us, which probably arises from the same cause of pursuing these arts as a distinct and constant profession. The jugglers seldom erect a stage in any part of the east that is not soon crowded with numerous spectators; and the feats they perform, it were much more easy to relate, than to command the reader's assent to their reality and truth. Their feats in the management of some snakes exceed all credibility and the cruel amusement of fighting some of the poisonous kinds with the mongoose is attended with a circumstance which I have heard denied by one of the greatest naturalists in your country. The mongoose, when bit, utters piercing cries, occasioned by the pain of his wound, till he reach a kind of grass, which he no sooner tastes than he is relieved; when he instantly returns to the combat. The conflict continues sometimes for an hour, in the lapse of which he may have been bitten twenty times and cured as often; till, taught by experience, he seizes the snake by the back of the neck, and from the impossibility of its then biting him he is enabled to squeeze it to death. The field of battle, after the closest

examination, did not exhibit on its surface any peculiar grass-the most prevalent was the doob, or common grass of the plain.

"In balancing, the most surpri sing feats are performed; because they are the effect of mere skill without any possibility of deception: a frequent exhibition is that of placing five of the common earthen water pots upon a man's head; a girl mounts upon the uppermost, and thus, balancing the pots and the girl, the man dances round the field. The same person balances a pole of sixteen feet long, the bottom of which is fixed into a thick cotton sash or girdle: another man gets upon his back, and from thence runs up the pole, his hands aiding his feet, with the nimbleness of a squirrel. He then proceeds, first, to extend himself on the pole upon his belly, and then upon his back, his legs and arms both times spread out. He next throws himself horizontally from the pole, which is all the while balanced on the gir dle, holding only by his arms. This attitude among the tumblers is called the flag. Thirdly, he stands upon his head on the top of the pole, holding below the summit with his hands. Finally, he throws himself from this last position backwards down the pole, holding by his hands, then turns over again holding by his feet; and this is repeated over and over, till he reaches the ground. These and a thousand other feats constitute the amusement of the idle, and the subsistence of a numerous class of strollers."

ORIGIN of the MARHATTA EMPIRE.

[From MARQUIS of WELLESLEY'S HISTORY of the MARHATTA WAR.]

"THE

HE Marhatta empire was founded by Sevajee towards the middle of the seventeenth century. Sevajee was the great grandson of Bhaugha Bhooslah, an illegitimate son (by an obscure woman of a tribe called Bhooslah) of Rana Bheem, a rana of the Rajpoot state of Oudipoor, who was descended from the rajahs of Chit tore, the most antient of the Hindoo princes; Bhaugha Bhooslah assumed the name of his mother's tribe, which has since that period continued to be the family name of his descendants, the rajahs of Sattarah and of Berar.

"Bhaugha Bhooslah, being neglected and despised by his family on account of his low origin on the female side, retired in disgust from Oudipoor to the province of Candeish in the Dekan, where he entered into the service of a zemindar named rajah Ali Mohun,, and became guardian to the rajah's son until he had attained the age of manhood; Bhaugha Bhooslah subsequently quitted Candeish, and purchased a tract of land near the city of Poonah, of which he became the zemindar: in this situation he died, leaving issue Mauloo Jee, who entered into the service of a Marhatta chief named Jaddoo Roy, under whom he acquired great rank and influence.

"Soon after this period Mauloo Jee's son, Shah Jee, was married to Jee Jaec, the only daughter of Jaddoo Roy, without the consent of the latter from this marriage was born, in 1628, Sevajee, the founder

of the Marhatta empire. A dispute ensued, in consequence of this marriage, between Jaddoo Roy and his son-in-law; and Shah Jee, being compelled by Jaddoo Roy to quit Ahmednuggur, (forming at that time the territory of Nizam Shah,) entered into the service of Ibrahim Adil Shah, king of Beejapoor, who gave him a jagheer in the Carnatic, with the command of 10,000 horse.

"In consequence of some dispute with his first wife (the daughter of Jaddoo Roy), Shah Jee separated from her, and married Toka Baee, by whom he had one son, Ekojee, afterwards king of Tanjore. Shah Jee was killed in 1667 by a fall from his horse in hunting at Badnore, where a splendid mausoleum was erected to his memory by his friend Rundowla Khan, minister to the king of Beejapoor, whose intercession, on a former occasion, saved Shah Jee from being buried alive, which punishment he had been condemned to suffer by the king of Beejapoor.

"Shah Jee was succeeded by his son Sevajee, who, disdaining the condition of a subject, revolted, and, availing himself of the convul sions which at that time disturbed the kingdom of Bejapoor, became independent. He died on the 5th of April 1680, leaving the inheritance of his domains to his son Sambajee. At the period of Sevajee's death, his territory extended from near Surat, along the sea coast, to the vicinity of the Portuguese di stricts of Goa, and as far inland

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as the range of hills which terminate the Table Land, and form the eastern boundary of the Kokan.

"Sambajee, the second rajah of Sattarah, being at Parnala when his father died, a faction endeavoured to secure the succession to rajah Ram, a son of Sevajee by another wife. But Sambajee, supported by the greatest part of the troops, who had been the companions of his contests with the forces of the emperor of Hindostan, established his sove reignty, and reigned until the end of June 1689, when he was barbarously murdered by order of the emperor Aurangzebe.

"To Sambajee succeeded his son Sahojee, whose minister (the peishwah) Ballajee Bishwanaut, gained such an ascendancy over the mind of his master, as to persuade Sahojee to delegate to him the exercise of all authority and power in the state; all orders and every detail of government issued immediately from the peishwah, who received from the rajah the title of Mookh Perdhaun, or chief civil minister. This form of government has subsisted to the present period, and on the death of a peish, wah, his successor is invested by the rajah of Sattarah with the ensigns of office. During the latter part of Sahojee's reign, Sahojee shut himself up in Sattarah, and his person and government were almost forgotten. Sahojee married a person named Tara Baee; but having no children by her, he adopted his brother Purjee's great grandson, Moodajee Bhooslah, whose disposition, however, was considered to be so tyrannical, that Sahojee was compelled to dismiss him; and he therefore sent for Janojee, the elder brother of Moodajec, who was on his way to Sattarah, when Sahojce

died in 1740, after a reign of fifty years.

During this period, the Marhattas, after having overrun and plundered almost every part of Hindostan, excepting Bengal, ex. tended their territories from the Western Sea to Orissa, and from Agra to the Carnatic, forming a tract of near one thousand miles long, by seven hundred wide, and including some of the richest and most fertile provinces of the peninsula of India. The capital of the empire was established at Sattarah, a fortress situated about fifty miles south-east of Poonah, and near the 18th degree of north latitude. The descendants of Sevajee have since been distinguished by the title of the Rajahs of Sattarah.

"Sahojee was succeeded by his cousin, Ram Rajah, the fourth rajah of Sattarah, and son of Rajah Ram, who has already been noticed as a competitor for power with Sambajee, the son of Sevajee. Ram Rajah was also the adopted son of Sahojee's widow Tara Baee. Ram Rajah being a very weak prince, the peisliwah Bajee Rao, the son of Ballajee Bishwahnaut, already mentioned, usurped the whole pow er of his master. At that time Ragojee Bhooslah, the ancestor of the present rajah of Berar, was the bukshi, or commander in chief of the forces, and as such held the province of Berar in jagheer.When Bajce Rao usurped the authority of the rajah of Sattarah, Ragojce Bhooslah proceeded to Berar, and there established an independant government. It ap pears, however, that he continued to acknowledge the supremacy of the rajah of Sattarah, and the authority of the office of peishwah, as the civil executive authority of the

state.

"This violent partition of the

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"empire by its principal ministers encouraged the usurpation of others, so that in a few years the state, from an absolute monarchy (as ́established by Sevajee), became a mere confederacy of chiefs, the principal of whom are the peishwah, the rajah of Berar, and the families of Scindiah, Holkar, and the Guikwar. There are some jagheerdars and chieftains of inferior note, to the southward of Poonah. The family of Scindiah established then selves in Malwa and Candeish, and afterwards extended their conquests over a great part of the Rajpoot principalities, and of the northern parts of Hindostan. The largest part of Guzerat was seized by the Guikwar family, while the Holkar family established themselves in those parts of the province of Malwa which did not belong to the families of the peishwah and of Scindiah.

"Although the chieftains enumerated in the preceding paragraph are independant of each other, they all acknowledge the of fice of peishwah to be the legitimate executive authority of the Marhatta empire, and admit the supremacy of the rajah of Sattarah. Since the ascension of Bajee Rao (the first peishwah), however, the rajah of Sattarah has never been a party to any public acts or alliances; and foreign states, finding the peishwah in possession of the executive power and authority of the 'state, have, in all the transactions of the Marhatta state, treated him as the legitimate head of the empire.

"The descendants of Sevajce, however, are still treated with attention and respect. No peishwah can enter upon the execution of his office without receiving a dress of honour from the rajah of Sattarah. When the peishwah takes the field

in person, he must previously receive an audience of leave from the rajah of Sattarah. The country in the vicinity of Sattarah enjoys an exemption from military depredations of all kinds; and whenever any chief enters this district, all the ensigns of power and command are laid aside, and the nagara, or great drum of the empire, ceases to bit. These marks of respect alone distinguish the condition of the nominal sovereign of the Marhatta empire from that of a prisoner of state. The rajah of Sattarali has long been confined in the fortress of that name, upon a contracted allowance.

"By the constitution thus established, the exclusive right of concluding treaties and engagements with foreign powers in the name of the Marlatta empire, must be considered to be inherent in the supreme executive authority of the state; and the peishwah, acting in the name and under the ostensible sanction of the nominal head of the empire, has undoubtedly a right to conclude treaties which shall be obligatory upon the subordinate chieftains and feudatories, without their concurrence. tains have acquired power by the weakness of the peishwah's govern ment, and are in fact become independant, although they continue to acknowledge the peishwah as the executive minister of state.

But these chief

"They possess no acknowledged right however to conclude separate engagements with foreign states, unless the tacit permission to make conquests should be thought to confer that right; but even in this case it must also be inferred, that they have not the right to conclude engagements affecting the peishwah's supremacy. They are bound to pay allegiance to the peishwah, and

Ꮐ Ꮞ

are,

are, to every intent, officers and subjects of the Marhatta state, of which the peishwah is the supreme executive authority.

"Under these circumstances, the least which can be inferred is, that the peishwah has a right to conclude engagements with a foreign state without consulting the feudatory chieftains, provided those engagements do not affect the separate rights and interests of those chieftains. If the constitution of the Marhatta empire, as established by Bajee Rao, the first peishwah, be referred to as the standard for deciding the question, the peishwah's rights may be considered even more extensive. On the other hand, in proportion as the feudatory chieftains disclaim the supremacy of the peishwah, they have less right to interfere in any degree in the peishwah's concerns; and the peishwah must be considered as an independant state, at liberty to contract with a foreign power any engagements which he may deem beneficial to his own interests. In both cases, the feudatory chieftains con have no pretence to interfere in i arrangements, or to control his intercourse with foreign states.

"The situation of Berar however, with relation to the peishwah, certainly differs from that of the other provinces comprehended in the Marhatta state. The province of Berar formed a part of the dominion of Sattarah under Ram Rajah. That province was then assigned to the bukshi, or commander in chief of the forces, for the payment of the army. At that period of time Ragojee Bhooslah, the first rajah of Berar, held the office of bukshi; and it does not appear that he ever chose to consider himself as totally independant of the state of Sattarah. This was dictated partly by

on

policy, and partly by a dread of the superior power of the peishwah. Ragojee had pretensions (founded his descent) to the state of Sat tarah, after the death of Ram Rajah, who had no issue. The preservation of his nominal subordination to the state of Sattarah favoured the eventual accomplishment of those pretensions, but the dread of the superior power of the peishwah prevented their ultimate success.

"Under these circumstances, it cannot be supposed that the rajah of Berar considered himself to be subordinate to the peishwah, although it was his interest to act with hinhon important occasions as a member of that empire, of which the peish wah was the executive civil authority. On occasions of meeting between them, the rajah of Berar was treated, in consequence of his descent, as a superior in rank; and, in the capacity of the first constituent member of the empire, claimed the right of sending to the peishwah a dress of honour on his accession to office.

"The same system has continued until the present period.. The rajah of Berar still maintains his pretensions to be rajah of Sattarah, and, à fortiori, to the office of peishwah, on the same grounds as the first rajah of Berar. On these grounds, the rajah of Bera. also founds his pretensions to be consuited in the conclusion of an alli ance between the peishwah and any foreign state.

"The justice of these pretensions however has never been admitted. The rajah of Berar must be considered either as the commander in chief of the forces of the empire, or as an independant power.

"As commander of the forces, Ragojee Bhooslah, the first rajah, could not claim the right to be con

sulted

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