Maharao Guman Singh—Zalim Singh—His birth, ancestry, and progress to power—Office of Faujdar becomes hereditary in his family—His office and estate resumed by Guman Singh—He abandons Kotah—Proceeds to Mewar—Performs services to the Rana, and receives the title of Raj Rana, and estates—Serves against the Mahrattas—Is wounded and made prisoner—Returns to Kotah—Mahratta invasion—Storm of Bakhani—Its glorious defence—Sacrifice of a clan—Garrison of Sohet destroyed—Zalim Singh employed—His successful negotiation—Restoration to power—Rao Guman constitutes Zalim guardian of his son Ummed Singh, who is proclaimed—The Tika-daur, or ‘raid of accession’—Capture of Kelwara—Difficulties of the Protector’s situation—Cabal against his power—Destruction of the conspirators—Exile of the nobles—Sequestration of estates—Conspiracy of Aton—Predatory bands—Aton surrenders—Exile of the Hara nobles—Curtailment of the feudal interests—Conspiracy of Mohsen—Plan for the destruction of the Regent and family—Mohsen chief takes sanctuary in the temple—Is dragged forth and slain—Maharao’s brothers implicated in the plot—Their incarceration and death—Numerous projects against the life of the regent—Female conspiracy—How defeated—The Regent’s precautions 1534 CHAPTER 7 Zalim regarded as a legislator—His political views on Mewar—Kotah sacrificed thereto—His tyranny—His superstition—Makes a tour of his dominions—Establishes a permanent camp—Trains an army—Adopts European arms and discipline—Revises the revenue system of Haraoti—The Patel system described—Council of four—Extent of jurisdiction—The Bohras described—Their utility in the old farming system of India—Patels usurp their influence—Depression of the peasantry—Patels circumvented, imprisoned, and fined—Patel system destroyed—Return to the old system—Moral estimation of the peasant of Rajputana—Modes of realizing the land revenue described—Advantages and disadvantages 1547 CHAPTER 8 Farming system of Zalim Singh—Extent to which it has been carried—Its prosperity, fallacious and transitory—Details of the system—Soil of Kotah—The Regent introduces foreign ploughs—Area cultivated—Net produce—Value—Grain-pits—Prices, in plenty and famine—Zalim sells in one year grain to the amount of a million sterling—Monopoly—The tithe, or new tax on exported grain—The Jagatya, or tax-gatherer—Impolicy of this tax—Gross revenue of Kotah—Opium monopoly—Tax on widows—On the mendicant—Gourd-tax—Broom-tax—The Regent detested by the bards—Province of Kotah at this period, and at assumption of the government, contrasted—Question as to the moral result of his improvements 1559 CHAPTER 9