ceased to intermarry with other Rajput families who had formed
such alliances. But Amar Singh II. (1698-1710) made a league with
the Maharajas of Jodhpur and Jaipur for mutual protection against
the Muhammadans; and it was one of the conditions of the compact
that the latter chiefs should regain the privilege of marriage with
the Udaipur family which had been suspended since they had given
daughters in marriage to the emperors. But the Rana unfortunately
added a proviso that the son of an Udaipur princess should succeed
to the Jodhpur or Jaipur States in preference to any elder son by
another mother. The quarrels to which this stipulation gave rise led
to the conquest of the country by the Marathas, at whose hands Mewar
suffered more cruel devastation than it had ever been subjected to by
the Muhammadans. Ruinous war also ensued between Jodhpur and Jaipur
for the hand of the famous Udaipur princess Kishen Kumari at the time
when Rajputana was being devastated by the Marathas and Pindaris;
and the quarrel was only settled by the voluntary death of the object
of contention, who, after the kinsman sent to slay her had recoiled
before her young beauty and innocence, willingly drank the draught
of opium four times administered before the fatal result could be
produced. [572]

The Maharana of Udaipur is entitled to a salute of nineteen
guns. The Udaipur State has an area of nearly 13,000 square miles
and a population of about a million persons. Besides Udaipur three
minor states, Partabgarh, Dungarpur and Banswara, are held by members
of the Sesodia clan. In the Central Provinces the Sesodias numbered
nearly 2000 persons in 1911, being mainly found in the districts of
the Nerbudda Division.

Rajput, Solankhi

_Rajput, Solankhi, Solanki, Chalukya._--This clan was one of the
Agnikula or fire-born, and are hence considered to have probably been
Gurjaras or Gujars. Their original name is said to have been Chaluka,
because they were formed in the palm (_chalu_) of the hand. They
were not much known in Rajputana, but were very prominent in the
Deccan. Here they were generally called Chalukya, though in northern
India the name Solankhi is more common. As early as A.D. 350 Pulakesin
I. made himself master of the town of Vatapi, the modern Badami In the
Bijapur District, and founded a dynasty, which developed into the most
powerful kingdom south of the Nerbudda, and lasted for two centuries,
when it was overthrown by the Ra