RAIDING IN JHALAWAD

Jhala of Wankaner, made continued raids on Halwad
territory. After some time Amarsinhji allied himself to
the Kathis, and the Parmar Rajput chief of Muli, who
carried the warfare into Wankaner territory, and on one
occasion carried off a number of cattle. Sultanji, how-
ever, pursued them as they were retiring, but, being
reinforced by some of Amarsinhji's troops, they turned
round and made a stand. As a result Sultanji was killed,
and the battle was commemorated by the erection of a
temple on the site. After Sultanji's death, Amarsinhji
ruled in peace until he died in A.D. 1645.

In past times one of the most fruitful sources of
troubles in the dominions of the many semi-independent
rulers in Saurashtra and elsewhere was the introduction
of spurious male children into a chief's family,  if he
happened  to  be  without  male  offspring and  without
probability of being blessed with any.   Such a course
sometimes appeared necessary, either to assure succes-
sion of the line or to guard against the succession of
a collateral.   In the latter case two motives usually
prompted   such   measures.   Firstly,   a  Rani   after  her
husband's death (unless she burnt herself on his funeral
pyre) knew she would be   supplanted in her position
and would become a very unimportant personage;  while
secondly, those retainers and dependents of a childless
chief stood a great chance of losing their posts should a
collateral succeed, in which case he would almost certainly
surround  himself with his own friends  and  servants.
One, or perhaps both, of these motives was responsible
for the introduction of a spurious male child into the
family of Jam Ranmalji of Nawanagar before he died
in A.D. 1661.   The Jam had married a lady of the Jodhpur
family, and the union had not resulted in any offspring.
Consequently, with the aid of a servant named Malik Isa
and her brother, Govardhan Rathod, she managed to
procure from outside a newly born male child, which

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