Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s7.t1.98

v1.c20.s7.t1.98

defection : of these, Salumbar, the hereditary premier, at first espoused, but soon abandoned, the cause of the Pretender ; not from the principle of loyalty which his descendants take credit for, but from finding the superiority of intellect of the heads of the rebellion ¹ (which now counted the rival Saktawats) too powerful for the supremacy he desired. Basant Pal, of the Depra tribe, was invested with the office of Pardhan to the Pretender. The ancestor of this man accompanied Samarsi in the twelfth century from Delhi, where he held a high office in the household of Prithiraj, the last emperor of the Hindus, and it is a distinguished proof of the hereditary quality of official dignity to find his descendant, after the lapse of centuries, still holding office with the nominal title of Pardhan. The Futuri ² (by which name the court still designates the Pretender) took post with his faction in Kumbhalmer ; where he was formally installed, and whence he promulgated his decrees as Rana of Mewar. With that heedlessness of consequences and the political debasement which are invariable concomitants of civil dissension, they had the meanness to invite Sindhia to their aid, with a promise of a reward of more than one million sterling ³ on the dethronement of Arsi.