=Rāo Rām Singh, A.D. 1686-1707.=—Ram Singh, who was with his father when he was killed, succeeded to all his dignities, and was inferior to none in the contests which fill the page of imperial history, and in opposing the rise of the Mahrattas. In the war of succession, he embraced the cause of Prince Azam, the viceroy in the Deccan, against the elder, Muazzam, and was slain in the battle of Jajau, in S. 1764. In this memorable conflict, which decided the succession to the throne, the Kotah prince espoused the opposite cause to [508] the head of his house of Bundi, and Hara met Hara in that desperate encounter, when a cannon-shot terminated the life of Ram Singh in the very zenith of his career. =Rāo Bhīm Singh, A.D. 1707-20.=—Bhim Singh succeeded; and with him Kotah no longer remained a raj of the third order. On the death of Bahadur Shah, and the accession of Farrukhsiyar, Raja Bhim espoused the cause of the Sayyids, when his mansab was increased to “five thousand,” a rank heretofore confined to princes of the blood and rajas of the first class. The elder branch of the Haras maintained its fealty to the throne against these usurping ministers, and thus the breach made at the battle of Jajau was widened by their taking opposite sides. The disgraceful attempt of Raja Bhim on the life of Rao Raja Budh of Bundi has already been recorded. Having completely identified himself with the designs of the Sayyids and Jai Singh of Amber, he aided all the schemes of the latter to annihilate Bundi, an object the more easy of accomplishment since the unmerited and sudden misfortunes of Rao Budh had deprived him of his reason. Raja Bhim obtained the royal sanad or grant for all the lands on the Patar, from Kotah west, to the descent into Ahirwara east; which comprehended much land of the Khichis as well as of Bundi. He thus obtained the celebrated castle of Gagraun, now the strongest in Haraoti, and rendered memorable by its defence against Alau-d-din; likewise Mau Maidana, Shirgarh, Bara, Mangrol, and Barod, all to the eastward of the Chambal, which was formally constituted the western boundary of the State. The aboriginal Bhils of Ujla, or ‘pure’ descent, had recovered much of their ancient inheritance in the intricate tracts on the southern frontier of Haraoti. Of these, Manohar Thana, now the most southern garrison of Kotah, became their chief place, and here dwelt ‘the king of the Bhils,’ Raja Chakarsen, whose person was attended by five hundred horse and eight hundred bowmen, and to whom all the various tribes of Bhils, from Mewar to the extremity of the plateau, owed obedience. This indigenous race, whose simple life secured their preservation amidst all the vicissitudes of fortune, from Raja Bhoj of Dhar to Raja Bhim of Kotah, were dispossessed and hunted down without mercy, and their possessions added to Kotah. On the occasion of the subjugation of Bhilwara, the latter assigned tracts of land to the Umat