THE INDEPENDENCE OF CENTRAL INDIA

365 mising guarantees, we retained, as has been said, cer- tain great states within the sphere of our surveillance; but we left almost all Central India, including Rajpu- tana, to take care of itself. All round our own terri- tories we drew a cordon of rigid irresistible order; while outside this ring-fence, in the great interior region that BAKHLAWAR SINGH'S CENOTAPH AT ULWAR IN RAJPUTANA. contained the principalities of the Maratha families and of the ancient Rajput chiefs, we allowed a free hand to Sindhia, Holkar, and the predatory leaders. Scat- tered among the Maratha territories were a crowd of tribal chiefships and petty feudatories in various stages of dependence. Beyond the Maratha border, toward the great western desert, lay the Rajput states, too weak and disunited to oppose the exactions and dilapidations of great predatory armies.