4. The Sahai. He is secretary both for home and foreign correspondence. He draws out the royal grants or patents of estates, and superintends the deeds of grant on copper-plate to religious establishments. Since the privilege appertaining to Salumbar, of confirming all royal grants with his signet the lance, has fallen into desuetude, the Sahai executes this military autograph.[[14]]
To all decrees, from the daily stipend to the patta, or patent of an estate, each minister must append his seal, so that there is a complete system of check. Besides these, the higher officers of government, there are thirty-six karkhanas, or inferior officers, appointed directly by the Rana, the most conspicuous of which are the justiciary,[[15]] the keepers of the register-office, of the mint, of the armoury, of the regalia, of the jewels, of the wardrobe, of the stables, of the kitchen, of the band, of the seneschalsy, and of the seraglio.
There was no want of aspirants to office, here hereditary; but it was vain to look [481] amongst the descendants of the virtuous Pancholi, or the severe Amrachand, and the prediction of the former, “Dust will cover the head of Mewar when virtue wanders in rags,” was strictly fulfilled. There appeared no talent, no influence, no honesty; yet the deficiency was calculated to excite sorrow rather than surprise; to stimulate exertion on their behalf, rather than damp the hope of improvement; though all scope for action, save in the field of intrigue, was lost, and talent was dormant for want of exercise.
Incapacity of the Rāna.
Such were the materials with which the work of reform commenced. The aim was to bring back matters to a correspondence with an era of their history, when the rights of the prince, the vassal, and the cultivator, were alike well defined—that of Amra Singh.