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traordinary fluctuations of the war period apart. And, as a matter of fact, the burden to the State is nil ; while the indirect benefit that every place is bound to receive from such a fortuitous conjuncture as the visit of thousands of pilgrims is bound to grow. Why, then, has the Hon. Mr. Watson accorded this phenomenal windfall to the revenues of the State, which aggregate, as things stand, some seven lakhs per annum.
There is absolutely no case for this unjust decision on such grounds as these. There is still less no considerations of contractual obligations, ---obligation which have been solemnly undertaken and acted upon for two hundred and seventy-five years. The Jain community has been recognised by Imperial Mughal Furmans as being in sovereign possession of the Hill and its appurtenances; the ancestors of the present Thakore had never questioned the sovereignty of the Jains on the Hill and in respect of the temples, kunds, and the fort on the Hill; it remained for a Watson to pose as a reincarnation of a new Daniel, and award this monstrous increase to the Durbar. What did it cost him but a stroke of the pen ? Why need he worry that the Durbar demand was in itself a contravention of the most sacred principle of imperial statesmanship in India, ever since the day that the greatest of the Indian Emperors abolished the hateful taxation of pilgrims, even
