Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.243

v3.c43.t1.243

Hamirgarh,² 22nd.—This town belongs to Biramdeo, Ranawat, the son of Dhiraj Singh, who was the chief adviser of the Salumbar princes in the rebellion of S. 1843, during which he obtained it. The present chief is an oaf, always intoxicated; and as he did not discharge the Baoris, or professional thieves in his service, on the return of these days of peace, he was deprived of two towns amounting to seven thousand rupees annual rent. He ought, indeed, by the treaty of A.D. 1818, to have lost Hamirgarh, but he contrived by various indirect means to elude it, and to retain this, one of the most thriving places in Mewar. It contains about eight hundred inhabited houses, tenanted chiefly by manufacturers of chintz and dopattas, or ‘scarfs,’ such as are worn by all the Rajputnis. It has a fine lake, filled with a variety of wild duck, which live unmolested amidst the singhara¹ and lotus. The more ancient name of this place is Bakrol, as I found by two inscriptions, which again furnish specimens of sumptuary legislation.