OUDEYPOOR, a Rajpoot principality in the province of Ajmeer, of which it occupies the south-eastern quarter. It is situated between the 24th and 26th degrees of north latitude. This territory formerly bore the appellation of Mewar or Meyar, and its chief is frequently styled in history the Rana of Chitore. So disorderly has for a long time past been the state of the country, that it is difficult to fix the real extent of the Oudeypoor territories, though they may be considered generally as comprehending the districts of Chitore and Mewar. In this view, they are bounded on the north by the Joudpoor territories; on the south by many native principalities in the provinces of Gujerat and Malwah: on the east by the territories of Kotah, Boondee, and Sindia; and on the west by the large district of Sarawy, nominally subject to Joudpoor. The whole area in 1818 might be estimated at 7300 square miles. The chief, who is of the Rajpoot or military tribe, the children of the sun, is esteemed to be of the proudest lineage in Hindustan. He is considered as the most noble of the Rajpoot chiefs, though he is much inferior in temporal power to the rajahs of Jeypoorand Joudpoor. He is said to be descended in the female line from Noushirvan the Just, who was sovereign of Persia at the birth of Mahommed; and thus he claims a common origin with the Seids, descended from Hossein the son of Ali. On this account he is much revered by the Mahommedans. The face of the country is in general rather hilly than mountainous, but when properly cultivated it is extremely fertile. It is watered by many streams, independently of the periodical rains; and yields in abundance sugar, indigo, tobacco, wheat, rice, and barley. It also possesses iron and sulphur mines, and abundance of fuel. It is a strong country, full of wild fastnesses and intricate paths. The country formerly possessed tin mines, which produced about three lacs of rupees annually, besides rich copper-mines in various parts. It is mentioned by Colonel Todd, that great riches were formerly extracted from these mines; but the miners are now dead, and the mines filled with water; and though a recent attempt has been made to work them, it was so unprofitable that the design was soon abandoned.

The Rajpoots form the aristocracy of the country, and are esteemed one of the purest of the Hindu tribes, and the most elevated in rank. The rights by which property is held in Oudeypoor, as well as throughout Northern India, [7:16:675] and everywhere, indeed, except where they have been obliterated by conquest, are defined with singular perspicuity by Lieutenant-colonel Todd, in his great work on Rajasthan, in which the lights of philosophy are combined with the most laborious research, and a deep skill in the mysteries of Hindu literature. In the article Hindustan we have endeavoured to give a view of the state of landed property throughout India; and in this province, where the ancient laws and customs still survive the rage of conquest, the ryot or cultivator is the original proprietor of the soil. This is, according to the learned writer referred to, an inherent right, which force only can destroy; whilst the title of the government is confined to a fixed rent; so that it is a common saying, “The government is owner of the rent, but I am master of the land.” It is under this title that the land is held by the great chieftains and military vassals; the only claim of the crown being for a quit-rent, which in many cases has been commuted for military service. Land, however, is held by other tenures, as by a grant from the crown in lieu of services; and this grant may be recalled. But so sacred has the grant from the ryot been considered, that even monarchs have held lands on this tenure from their subjects. In the confusion and civil wars which distracted the country, many of these rights were lost; even the government dues were rarely levied, except by force; and the feudatories as rarely obeyed the summons of the chief to appear at his court. The province of Oudeypoor, together with Northern India, shared in the general confusion; and the repeated invasions ofScindiahad spread such disorder throughout the country, that the revenues could not be collected. That of the rana had declined to eight or nine lacs of rupees; whilst petty states, such as Shahpoorah, Sherghur, and others, everywhere set up claims of independence. In consequence of these depredations, and the general disorder that reigned in die country, the rana was reduced to great poverty. His lands were usurped by predatory bands, and by the more systematic encroachments of Scindia and Holkar. A convention was agreed upon by the different chiefs, by which all extortion and plunder were to be suppressed. But though the most sacred oaths were exchanged in ratification of this treaty, the old scenes soon recommenced with increased violence. From this degrading bondage the rana of Oudeypoor was rescued by the interference of the British, who, as usual, exacted for their good offices a large tribute. His condition was, however, somewhat improved; his chiefs and nobles, and former feudatories, daily repairing to offer him their obeisance. But his poverty still continued, whilst his subjects were oppressed by his rapacious officers, who came in place of the plundering banditti who had been expelled by the power of the British government. The destruction of that predatory system under which Central India, and Oudeypoor amongst the other states, was so long oppressed, disorderly bands of Pindarries plundering the country, and connived at or assisted by Scindia and Holkar, was effected in the short campaign of 1817, when the Indian armies were all directed to march on Central India, and, not content with a defensive war, to attack the plunderers in their remote haunts, and entirely to root them up. The success of this war restored peace to Central India, and delivered the different rajahs and feudatories from the merciless exactions of the military banditti who had desolated the country.

“Of all the princes who obtained succour at this momentous crisis in the political history of India,” says Colonel Todd, “none stood more in need of it than the rana of Oo- <lipoor. On the 16th January 1818 the treaty was signed; and in February an envoy was nominated, who immediately proceeded to the rana’s court to superintend and maintain the newly-formed relations. The right wing of the grand army had already preceded him, to compel the surrender of such territory as was unjustly held by the lawless partisans of Scindia, and to reduce to obedience the refractory nobles, to whom anarchy was endeared, from long familiarity.” The strongholds of the country were soon surrendered to the victorious army, and tranquillity was restored. But an awful scene of ruin was exhibited. The rana, in his passage from Jehajpoor to Romulmer, a space of about 140 miles, at the time when he re-entered on the possession of his territories, found only two thinly-peopled towns, which acknowledged his authority. “All,” says Colonel Todd, “was desolate; even the traces of the footsteps of man were effaced. The babool (mimosa Arabica) and gigantic reed, which harboured the boar and the tiger, grew upon the highways; and every rising ground displayed a mass of ruin.” He adds, that he passed through Bhilwara, the commercial entrepôt of Rajpootana, in May 1806, when it was comparatively flourishing, and contained 6000 families. In 1818 it showed not a vestige of human existence. “All was silent in her streets; no living thing was seen, excepta solitary dog, that fled in dismay from his lurking place in the temple, scared at the unaccustomed sight of man.” Oudeypoor, the capital of the country, which formerly contained 50,000 houses within its walls, had not now 3000 occupied; the rest were in ruins, the rafters being taken for fire-wood. The produce to the revenue from the spring harvest of 1818 was only L.4000. Grain sold for three times the price at which it could be purchased within a distance of eighty miles; and the rana, whose ancestors had opposed Baber, Akbar, and Aurungzebe, during the splendour of the Mogul sovereignty, had not fifty horse to attend him, and was mainly indebted to Zalina Sing of Kotah for the means of subsistence. It was out of this state of confusion that order was to be restored. But the elements of prosperity, though scattered, were not extinct. The first point was the recognition of the prince’s authority by his nobles, the surest sign of which was their presence in the capital; and such was now the paramount influence of British authority, that in a few weeks the rana saw himself surrounded by a court such as had not been known for half a century, and the whole feudal association of Mewar was embodied in the capital. Colonel Todd, in liis great work already referred to, gives a striking picture of the restoration of order and prosperity in this country.

“To recall the exiled population,” says he, “was a measure simultaneous with the assembling of the nobles; but this was a work requiring time. They had formed ties and incurred obligations to the societies which had sheltered them, which could not at once be disengaged or annulled. But wherever a subject of Mewar existed, proclamations penetrated, and satisfactory assurances were obtained, and realized to an extent which belied in the strongest manner the assertion that patriotism is unknown to the natives of Hindustan. The most enthusiastic and cheering proofs were afforded, that neither oppression from without, nor tyranny within, could expel the feeling for the ‘ bapota, ’ the land of their fathers. Even now, though time has chastened the impressions, we should fear to pen but a tithe of the proofs of devotion of the husbandman of Mewar to the solum natale ì it would be deemed romance by those who never contemplated humanity in its reflux from misery and despair to the sweet influences of hope. He alone who had witnessed the day of trouble, and beheld the progress of desolation, the standing corn grazed by Mahratta horse, the rifled towns devoted to the flames, the cattle driven to the camp, and the chief men seized as hostages fi r money never to be realized, could appreciate their deliverance. To be permitted to see these evils banished; to behold the survivors of oppression congregated from the most distant provinces, many of them strangers to each other, and the aged and the helpless awaiting the lucky day to take possession of their ruined abodes; was a sight which memory will not part with. Thus, on the 3d of Sawun(July), a favourite day with the husbandman, three hundred of ail [7:16:676]conditions, with their waggons and implements of labour, and preceded by banners and music, marched into Kupasun; and Ganésa was once again invoked, as they reconsecrated their dwellings, and placed his portrait as the Janus of their portals. On the same day, and within eight months subsequent to the signature oLthe treaty, above three hundred towns and villages were simultaneously re-inhabited; and the land, which for many years had been a stranger to the ploughshare, was broken up. Well might the superstitious fancy that miracles were abroad; for even to those who beheld the work in progression it had a magical result, to see the waste covered with habitations, and the verdant corn growing in the fields where lately they had roused the boar from his retreat. It was a day of pride for Britain. By such exertions of her power in these distant lands her sway is hallowed. By Britain alone can this fair picture be defaced; the tranquillity and independence she has conferred, by her alone may be disturbed.”

To give effect to all the measures necessary for the improvement of the country, proclamations were issued by the rana, inviting foreign merchants and bankers to establish connections in the chief towns throughout the country; branch banks were everywhere formed, and mercantile agents fixed in every town in the country; the shackles that bound external commerce were at once removed, and the multifarious posts for the collections of transit levies abolished; in lieu of which chain of stations, all levies on goods in transit were confined to the frontiers. Under this system, of which peace was the object, the country improved. Bhilwara, the chief commercial mart, rose rapidly from ruin, and in a few months contained 1200 houses, half of which were occupied by foreign merchants. In 1822 it contained nearly 3000 dwellings, inhabited by merchants, bankers, or artisans. Notwithstanding various obstacles to the prosperity of the country, from an impoverished court, avaricious and corrupt officers, the discontent of the head men of the village, and bad seasons, the general prosperity advanced rapidly; and of this the increase of the revenue and population, as exhibited below, is a sure index.

Abstract of the land and commercial revenues of Mewar in the following years: Spring harvest of 1818, 40,000 rupees; of 1819, 451,281; of 1820, 659,100; of 1821, 1,018,478; of 1822, 936,640. Comparative population of the chief towns before and after four years of peace :—
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