246

INDIA

Maratha states—IJaipur, Jodhpur (or Marwar), Udaipur
(or Mewar), Gwalior, Indore (Bhopal), Bikanir, and many
other smaller states, which, with Baroda on the western
coast, and the Muhammadan state of Bahawalpur on the
Indus, occupy an enormous area stretching from Sind
and the Indus to the Narbada, and from the west coast to

Fic. 70

Native States. Central Indie

the Jumna. In the midst of this vast independent tract,
about half of which is desert-—the other half including
some of the loveliest tracts in the central highlands—the
little British district of Ajmere is set in the map like a red
island in a yellow sea.
The Sikh states— Patiala, Kapurtalla, &c.—are collected
 in a group in the north of the Punjab under the
Himalayas, and some of the smaller Rajput principalities
are enclosed (like Chamba) within the hills. Simla is