The patriarchal simplicity of the Jat communities, upon whose ruins the State of Bikaner was founded, affords a picture, however imperfect, of petty republics—a form of government little known to eastern despotism, and proving the tenacity of the ancient Gete’s attachment to liberty. Amber, and its scion Shaikhavati, possess a still greater interest from their contiguity to our frontier. A multitude of singular privileges is attached to the Shaikhavati federation, which it behoves the paramount power thoroughly to understand, lest it should be led by false views to pursue a policy detrimental to them as well as to ourselves. To this extensive community belong the Larkhanis, so utterly unknown to us, that a recent internal tumult of that tribe was at first mistaken for an irruption of our old enemies, the Pindaris. Haraoti may claim our regard from the high bearing of its gallant race, the Haras; and the singular character of the individual with whose biography its history closes, and which cannot fail to impart juster notions of the genius of Asiatics [x]. So much for the matter of this volume—with regard to the manner, as the Rajputs abhor all pleas _ad misericordiam_, so likewise does their annalist, who begs to repeat, in order to deprecate a standard of criticism inapplicable to this performance, that it professes _not_ to be constructed on exact historical principles: _Non historia, sed particulae historiae_. In conclusion, I adopt the peroration of the ingenuous, pious, and liberal Abu-l Fazl, when completing his History of the Provinces of India; “Praise be unto God, that by the assistance of his Divine Grace, I have completed the History of the Rajputs. The account cost me a great deal of trouble in collecting, and I found such difficulty in ascertaining dates, and in reconciling the contradictions in the several histories of the Princes of Rajputana, that I had nearly resolved to relinquish the task altogether: but who can resist the decrees of Fate? I trust that those, who have been able to obtain better information, will not dwell upon my errors; but that upon the whole I may meet with approbation.”[i.34] YORK PLACE, PORTMAN SQUARE, _March 10, 1832_. Footnote i.34: [_Āīn_, ii. 418.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN BOOK I GEOGRAPHY OF RAJASTHAN OR RAJPUTANA =Boundaries of Rajputana.=—Rajasthan is the collective and classical denomination of that portion of India which is ‘the abode[1.1] of (Rajput) princes.’ In the familiar dialect of these countries it is termed Rajwara, but by the more refined Raethana, corrupted to Rajputana, the common designation amongst the British to denote the Rajput principalities.