Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c18.53

v1.c18.53

Influence of Caste.—Caste has for ever prevented the inferior classes of society from being incorporated with this haughty noblesse. Only those of pure blood in both lines can hold fiefs of the crown. The highest may marry the daughter of a Rajput, whose sole [140] possession is a ‘skin of land’:¹ the sovereign himself is not degraded by such alliance. There is no moral blot, and the operation of a law like the Salic would prevent any political evil resulting therefrom. Titles are granted, and even fiefs of office, to ministers and civil servants not Rajputs; they are, however, but official, and never confer hereditary right. These official fiefs may have originally arisen, here and in Europe, from the same cause; the want of a circulating medium to pay the offices. The Mantris ² of Mewar prefer estates to pecuniary stipend, which gives more consequence in every point of view. All the higher offices—as cup-bearer, butler, stewards of the household, wardrobe, kitchen, master of the horse—all these are enumerated as ministerialists ³ at the court of Charlemagne in the dark ages of Europe, and of whom we have the duplicates. These are what the author of the Middle Ages designates as “improper feuds.” ⁴ In Mewar the prince’s architect, painter, physician, bard, genealogist, heralds, and all the generation of the foster-brothers, hold lands. Offices are hereditary in this patriarchal government; their services personal. The title even appends to the family, and if the chance of events deprive them of the substance, they are seldom left destitute. It is not uncommon to see three or four with the title of pardhan or premier.⁵