Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c30.t2.197

v2.c30.t2.197

The Maldot Tribe.—The Maldots, the Kailans, the Birsangs, the Pohars, and Tejmalots, are all Bhatti tribes; but, from their lawless habits, these names have become, like those of Bedouin, Kazzak, or Pindari, synonymous with ‘robber.’ The first are descended from Rao Maldeo, and hold the fief (patta) of Baru, consisting of eighteen villages, adjoining the tract called Khari-patta, wrested from the Bhattis by the Rathors of Bikaner, who, to confess the truth, morally deserve the perpetual hostility of this Bhatti lord-marcher, inasmuch as they were the intruders, and have deprived them (the Bhattis) of much territory. But the Rathors, possessing the right of the strongest, about twenty-five years ago exercised it in the most savage manner; for, having invaded Baru, they put almost the entire community to the sword, without respect to age or sex, levelled the towns, filled up the wells, and carried off the herds and whatever was of value. The survivors took shelter in the recesses of the desert, and propagated a progeny, which, about the period of connexion with the British, reoccupied their deserted lands. The minister, it is asserted, beheld the revival of this infant colony with no more favourable eye than did their enemies of Bikaner, whom, it is alleged, he invited once more to their destruction. The lawless habits of this tribe would have been assigned by the minister as his motive for desiring their extermination; but if we look back (p. 1232), we shall discover the real cause in his having incurred the lasting enmity of this clan for the foul assassination of their chief, who had been a party to the views of the heir-apparent, Rae Singh, to get rid of this incubus on their freedom. The opportunity afforded to take vengeance on the Maldots arose out of a service indirectly done to the British Government. On the revolt of the Peshwa, he sent his agents to Jaisalmer to purchase camels. One herd, to the number of four hundred, had left the Bhatti frontiers, and whilst passing through the Bikaner territory, were set upon by the Maldots, who captured the whole and conveyed them to Baru. It is scarcely to be supposed that such an aggression on the independence of Bikaner would have prompted her extensive armament, or the rapidity with which her troops passed the Bhatti frontier to avenge the insult, without some private signal from the minister, who was loud in his call for British interference ; though not until Nokh ¹ and Baru, their principal towns, were levelled, the chief killed, the wells filled up, and the victorious army following up its success by a rapid march on Bikampur, in which the fiscal lands began to suffer. The minister then discovered he had overshot the mark, and claimed [277] our interference,² which was rapid and effectual ; and the Bikaner commander the more willingly complied with the request to retire within his own frontier, having effected more than his object.