Second. To guard the western frontier against the irruption of the Bhattis [183].
Third. To hold the rights and privileges of the community inviolable.
On the fulfilment of these conditions they relinquished to Bika and his descendants the supreme power over the Godaras; assigning to him, in perpetuity, the power to levy dhuan, or a ‘hearth tax,’ of one rupee on each house in the canton, and a land tax of two rupees on each hundred bighas of cultivated land within their limits.
Apprehensive, however, that Bika or his descendants might encroach upon their rights, they asked what security he could offer against such a contingency? The Rajput chief replied that, in order to dissipate their fears on this head, as well as to perpetuate the remembrance of the supremacy thus voluntarily conferred, he would solemnly bind himself and his successors to receive the tika of inauguration from the hands of the descendants of the elders of Shaikhsar and Ronia, and that the gaddi should be deemed vacant until such rite was administered.
In this simple transfer of the allegiance of this pastoral people we mark that instinctive love of liberty which accompanied the Getae in all places and all conditions of society, whether on the banks of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, or in the sandy desert of India; and although his political independence is now annihilated, he is still ready even to shed his blood if his Rajput master dare to infringe his inalienable right to his bapota, his paternal acres.
Former Owners conferring Titles on their Successors.
Besides this periodical recognition of the transfer of power, on all lapses of the crown, there are annual memorials of the rights of the Godaras, acknowledged not only by the prince, but by all his Rajput vassal-kin, quartered on the lands of the Jat; and although ‘the sons of Bika,’ now multiplied over the country, do not much respect the ancient compact, they at least recognize, in the maintenance of these formulae, the origin of their power.
On the spring and autumnal[[16]] festivals of the Holi and Diwali, the heirs of the patriarchs of Shaikhsar and Ronia give the tika to the prince and all his feudality. The Jat of Ronia bears the silver cup and platter which holds the ampoule of the desert, while his compeer applies it to the prince’s forehead. The Raja in return deposits a nazarana of a gold mohur, and five pieces of silver; the chieftains, according to their rank, following his example. The gold is taken by the Shaikhsar Jat, the silver by the elder of Ronia.
Conquest of the Johya Tribe.
The patriarchal head of the Johyas resided at Bharopal;[[19]] his name was Sher Singh [185]. He mustered the strength of the canton, and for a long time withstood the continued efforts of the Rajputs and the Godaras; nor was it until “treason had done its worst,” by the murder of their elder, and the consequent possession of Bharopal, that the Johyas succumbed to Rathor domination.