. Imperial India; an artist's journals. -teristic a bit of India as I could imagine. There is no bastardclassic or ridiculous Gothic here ; all is true Indian; and although,of course, full of absurd inconsistencies—the squalid jostling thesplendid, as is usual in the East—the whole is somehow pic-turesque and original. Yet was all this done within the lastthirty years ! Mangol Sing, the present Rajah, is a young man of only called to his throne two years ago, he plays theRajah to the life. He seems to have dropped into it without anytrouble. He talks English very well, yet n
. Imperial India; an artist's journals. -teristic a bit of India as I could imagine. There is no bastardclassic or ridiculous Gothic here ; all is true Indian; and although,of course, full of absurd inconsistencies—the squalid jostling thesplendid, as is usual in the East—the whole is somehow pic-turesque and original. Yet was all this done within the lastthirty years ! Mangol Sing, the present Rajah, is a young man of only called to his throne two years ago, he plays theRajah to the life. He seems to have dropped into it without anytrouble. He talks English very well, yet nothing will make himlearn to read or write; while the two hours a day he spends instudy utterly exhaust him. Sitting he thinks a nuisance. But heis a good-natured, good-looking little chap, and delights in riding,driving, and shooting, playing at racquets and such other day he was married. He doesnt think much of thesociety of ladies, however; for, to my certain knowledge, he was CHI7ORE, AGRA, MVTTRA, AND ULWAR. I8S. HIS HIGHNESS MANGOL SING, RAJAH OF ULVVAK. two days without even seeing his wife. I hear, when he goesdown to the palace in the city, his adopted mother and grand-mother make him pooja or pray, and he doesnt Hke it. Life in a Zenana must be dull indeed. Each wife has hersettlement, and manages the villages forming that settlementthrough a vakeely and very good managers some of them this they have no connection with the out-door world,never even leaving the walls of the Zenana, except on rare occa- 186 IMPERIAL INDIA. sions when they are allowed to perform a pilgrimage. The Ze-nana itself is ruled by the principal wife, or more generally bythe mother. This lady is supreme ; and I am told by ladies whohave penetrated into the Zenanas of the great, that when therajah comes into the room all the wives rise and veil themselves,the head ranee alone remaining seated and uncovered. Theother wives, however, in some courts are allowed to receiv
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