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240 THE STORY OP AN INDIAN PRINCESS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* The Press Has Teemed Of Late Years Wit...
honour ; but trusting * little to the effect of words she made ready . also to oppose force by force . The Malwa soldiery espoused her
cause enthusiastically , and she heightened their ardour by appearing in . public with a bow and quiver of arrows affixed at each
' . corner of the howdah or seat on her favourite elephant , and appealing to them like our own Elizabeth at Tilbury , announced that if
needful she was ready to lead them in person to the combat .. . Ragbbah / s followers , on the contrary , showed great reluctance in
, seconding their leader , though he was himself willing to proceed to any extremitiesand several other chieftains whom he invited to
unite with him , , positively refused to do so , partly perhaps for justice' sakeand partlyit may bebecause Alia was employing
the resources , of her full treasury , to aid , in securing their friendship , referring her cause meanwhile to the supreme authority of the
Peishwa , who ere long pronounced in her favour , and wrote to his uncle to bid him desist from all interference with the widow , whose
, sole right to manage affairs he declared to be indisputable . He was obeyed ; and Alia thus re-assured in her positionsoon amply
, showed her ability to fill it , the first proof of her sound judgment being given in the choice she made of a coadjutor in the
government to perform those military functions for which her sex was . really a disqualification . The man she selected was a chief named
_, Tukajee Holkar , of the same tribe as her late father-in-law , though not related to himand who had been entrusted by Mulhar Rao
who greatly esteemed , him , with the command of the household , troops . He was now appointed by Alia to be commander-in-chief of
the army , and adopted to succeed as sole ruler of Malwa should he survive her , the style engraved on his seal by her command being
" Tukajee , the son of Mulhar Rao Holkar ; " while the plain _,, unaffected soldierin grateful recognition of his advancement being
due to her , althou , gh much , older than herself , always addressed her as " mother . " _Ragobah happening soon after to be passing
through that part of the country , she invited him to Mhysir , the capital of Malwa , where she ordinarily resided ; and having
entertained him there most hospitably , then sent Tukajee to accompany him to the Mahratta capitalin order that he might in person
receive from the Peishwa the honorary , dress which symbolized his recognition as an associate with her in the government ; and when
her plans were thus all satisfactorily carried out , the noble-hearted princess took her discomfited minister once more into favour .,
magnanimously allowing his high character and former services to outweigh his having formed a mistaken estimate of his mistress ' s-
powers and resources . It is not often that a divided kingdom prospers , jealousy in the
weaker or ambition in the stronger party , tending mostly to make it " divided against itself , " and all the less was the arrangement
likely to succeed where the subordinate place was assigned to the
240 The Story Op An Indian Princess.
240 THE STORY OP AN INDIAN PRINCESS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1863, page 240, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061863/page/24/
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