CHAPTER 65
Marriage of a Jat Chief.
ON the 19th[1] we came on to Balamgarh,[2] fifteen miles over a
plain, better cultivated and more studded with trees than that which
we had been coming over for many days before. The water was near the
surface, more of the field were irrigated, and those which were not
so looked better--[a] range of sandstone hills, ten miles off to the
west, running north and south. Balamgarh is held in rent-free tenure
by a young Jat chief, now about ten years of age. He resides in a mud
fort in a handsome palace built in the European fashion. In an
extensive orange garden, close outside the fort, he is building a
very handsome tomb over the spot where his father's elder brother was
buried. The whole is formed of white and black marble, and the firm
white sandstone of Rupbas, and so well conceived and executed as to
make it evident that demand is the only thing wanted to cover India
with works of art equal to any that were formed in the palmy days of
the Muhammadan empire.[3] The Raja's young sister had just been
married to the son of the Jat chief of Nabha, who was accompanied in
his matrimonial visit (barat) by the chief of Ludhaura, and the son
of the Sikh chief of Patiala,[4] with a _cortege_ of one hundred
elephants, and above fifteen thousand people.
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