488 OUDH. fell before the Hindu onslaught, and Tilok Chand established his own supremacy over the neighbouring chieftains. For a hundred years the land had peace, and the ruling Hindu clans established themselves more firmly in their hold, both by the erection of central forts, and by the planting of new colonies among the uncultivated tracts under the leadership of their younger branches. Bábar's invasion of Oudh has left little historical record, owing to the mutilated state of the conqueror's memoirs. But a mosque at Ajodhya, on the reputed site of the birthplace of Rána, preserves the name of the Mughal leader, and suggests the idea that the Hindu princes may probably have rallied around the most sacred site of their religion. In the troubled times which followed the death of the first Mughal Emperor, Oudh became the focus of disaffection against the reigning house. After the final defeat of the Afghán dynasty, and the firm establishment of Akbar, it settled down into one of the most important among the imperial viceroyalties. Akbar's great Revenue Survey contains full details of the fiscal divisions in Oudh. The parganás into which the country is still divided afford ample proof of the vitality inherent in the Hindu system, as they almost always coincide with the dominions of a i Rájá. Under the Mughal dynasty in its flourishing days, the Hindu chieftains accepted their position without difficulty. The empire was too strong for them to dispute its sway, and they were too strong for the empire to attempt their suppression. The revenue divisions preserved the limits of their petty States; and their authority, founded on the national creed, and engrained in the mental constitution of the people, could not fail to reassert itself on any change of government. The Mughals therefore endeavoured rather to conciliate the native princes than to drive them into rebellion. Their leaders received court appointments or commands in the army, while high - sounding titles and varying grades of dignity soothed the personal vanity of a people singularly impressible by such external signs of respect. The chieftain of Hasanpur Bandhua, descended from an ancient and honourable Kshattriya family, adopted the court religion, and obtained the recognised headship of the southern chiefs, with the right to confer the title of Rájá. But while the Mughal court thus secured the loyalty of the Hindu aristocracy, the strength of the central Government proved disastrous in another way to the power of the native clans. The younger branches of the ruling houses were enabled to throw off their allegiance towards the heads of their families, and to carve out for themselves petty principalities from the ancestral estates. When the Hindu element again asserted its independence, the ancient Rájás are found to have yielded to the more vigorous amongst the cadets, while the petty States have disintegrated into still smaller baronics, upon which the modern system of taluks or divisions presided over by feudal landowners bases itself.
