Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c42.s2.t1.140

v3.c42.s2.t1.140

Relations with Marāthas and Pindāris.—It will readily be conceived that the labours of his administration were quite sufficient to occupy his attention without intermeddling with his neighbours; yet, in order to give a direct interest in the welfare of Kotah, he became a competitor for the farming of the extensive districts which joined his southern frontier, belonging to Sindhia and Holkar. From the former he rented the Panj-mahals, and from the latter the four important districts of Dig, Pirawa, etc.,³ which, when by right of conquest they became British, were given in sovereignty to the regent. Not satisfied with this hold of self-interest on the two great predatory powers, he had emissaries in the persons of their confidential ministers, who reported every movement; and to ‘make assurance doubly sure,’ he had Mahratta pandits of the first talent in his own administration, through whose connexions no political measure of their nation escaped his knowledge. As for Amir Khan, he and the regent were essential to each other. From Kotah the Khan was provided with military stores and supplies of every kind; and when his legions mutinied (a matter of daily occurrence) and threatened him with the bastinado, or fastening to a piece of ordnance under a scorching sun, Kotah afforded a place of refuge during a temporary retreat, or ways and means to allay the tumult by paying the arrears. Zalim allotted the castle of Shirgarh for the Khan’s family, so that this leader had no anxiety on their account while he was pursuing his career of rapine in more distant scenes.