The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.22

v4.c22.22

The position of a chief depended partly on the accessibility of his territory, and partly on the strength of his clan. In broken country, remote from an administrative centre, even a petty chief might maintain himself for an indefinite period merely or mainly because his possessions were not worth annexing; in the open plains a chief who was the head of a numerous and martial clan settled in a compact area might survive because his fighting strength made him a dangerous enemy but a valuable ally. The chronicles tell us little of such chiefs, but their importance in the Muslim period can be inferred from the number who survived into the nineteenth century, not only in Rājputāna and Central India, where many of them were accepted as princes, but also in large areas in Bihār and the United Provinces, where they usually became landholders.