ations of subordinate and tributary chiefs to their
superiors so as to prevent all further disputes or encroachments; and to
settle the claims of the ousted landholders, who had resorted to pillage
or blackmail, by fixing grants of land to be made to them, or settling
the money allowances to be paid to them. The general result was to place
all the privileges, rights and possessions of these inferior chiefs
under the guarantee or protection of the British government, to whom all
disputes between the superior and inferior states must be referred, and
whose decision is final upon all questions of succession to hereditary
rights or rulership. The states have no general ethnological affinity,
such as exists in Rajputana. Their territories are in many cases neither
compact nor continuous, consisting of a number of villages here and
there, with a nucleus of more or less importance round the chief town.
Their relations to the government of India and to each other present
many variations. Ten of them are under direct treaty with the government
of India; others are held under _sanads_ and deeds of fealty and
obedience; while a third class, known as the mediatized states, are held
under agreements mediated by the British government between them and
their superior chiefs.

_Population._--The total population of the Central India agency in 1901
was 8,628,781, showing a decrease during the decade of 16.4%.
Considerable losses were caused by the famines of 1897-1898 and
1899-1900, which were severely felt, especially in Bhopal and Malwa. The
greater part of the population of Central India is of the Hindu
religion, but a few Mahommedan groups still exist, either traces of the
days when the Mogul emperors extended their sway from the Punjab to the
Deccan, or else the descendants of those northern adventurers who hired
out their services to the great Mahratta generals. Of the first Bhopal
is the only example, while Jaora is the only notable instance of the
other. Roughly there are four great sections of the population: the
Mahratta section, who belong to the ruling circles; the Rajputs, who are
also hereditary noblemen; the trading classes, consisting chiefly of
Marwaris and Gujaratis; and lastly, the jungle tribes of Dravidian
stock. The Mahrattas are foreigners, and, though rulers of the greater
part of Central India, have no true connexion with the soil and are
little met with outside cities, the vicinity of courts, and
administrative