After this they spread to various places in northern India, and to
the Central Provinces and Bombay. The modern state of Dhar is or was
recently still held by a Panwar family, who had attained high rank
under the Marathas and received it as a grant from the Peshwa. Malcolm
considered them to be the descendants of Rajput emigrants to the
Deccan. He wrote of them: [384] "In the early period of Maratha
history the family of Puar appears to have been one of the most
distinguished. They were of the Rajput tribe, numbers of which had
been settled in Malwa at a remote era; from whence this branch had
migrated to the Deccan. Sivaji Puar, the first of the family that can
be traced in the latter country, was a landholder; and his grandsons,
Sambaji and Kaloji, were military commanders in the service of the
celebrated Sivaji. Anand Rao Puar was vested with authority to collect
the Maratha share of the revenue of Malwa and Gujarat in 1734, and he
soon afterwards settled at Dhar, which province, with the adjoining
districts and the tributes of some neighbouring Rajput chiefs, was
assigned for the support of himself and his adherents. It is a curious
coincidence that the success of the Marathas should, by making Dhar
the capital of Anand Rao and his descendants, restore the sovereignty
of a race who had seven centuries before been expelled from the
government of that city and territory. But the present family, though
of the same tribe (Puar), claim no descent from the ancient Hindu
princes of Malwa. They have, like all the Kshatriya tribes who became
incorporated with the Marathas, adopted even in their modes of thinking
the habits of that people. The heads of the family, with feelings more
suited to chiefs of that nation than Rajput princes, have purchased
the office of patel or headman in some villages in the Deccan; and
their descendants continue to attach value to their ancient, though
humble, rights of village officers in that quarter. Notwithstanding
that these usages and the connections they formed have amalgamated
this family with the Marathas, they still claim, both on account
of their high birth and of being officers of the Raja of Satara
(not of the Peshwa), rank and precedence over the houses of Sindhia
and Holkar; and these claims, even when their fortunes were at the
lowest ebb, were always admitted as far as related to points of form
and ceremony." The great Maratha house of Nimbhalkar is believed to
have originated from ancestors of the Panwar Rajput clan. While one
branch of the Panwars went to the Deccan after the fall of Dhar and
marrying with the people there became a leading military family of the
Marathas, the destiny of another group who migrated to northern India
was less distinguished. Here they split into two, and the inferior
section is described by Mr. Crooke as follows: [385] "The Khidmatia,
Barwar or Chobdar are said to be an inferior branch of the Panwars,
descended from a low-caste woman. No high-caste Hindu eats food or
drinks water touched by them." According to the Ain-i-Akbari [386]
a thousand men of the sept guarded the environs of the palace of
Akbar, and Abul Fazl says of them: "The caste to which they belong
was notorious for highway robbery, and former rulers were not able to
keep them in check. The effective orders of His Majesty have led them
to honesty; they are now famous for their trustworthiness. They were
formerly called _Mawis_. Their chief has received the title of Khidmat
Rao. Being near the person of His Majesty he lives in affluence. His
men are called Khidmatias." Thus another body of Panwars went north
and sold their swords to the Mughal Emperor, who formed them into a
bodyguard. Their case is exactly analogous to that of the Scotch and
Swiss Guards of the French kings. In both cases the monarch preferred
to entrust the care of his person to foreigners, on whose fidelity he
could the better rely, as their only means of support and advancement
lay in his personal favour, and they had no local sympathies which
could be used as a lever to undermine their loyalty. Buchanan states
that a Panwar dynasty ruled for a considerable period over the
territory of Shahabad in Bengal. And Jagdeo Panwar was the trusted
minister of Sidhraj, the great Solanki Raja of Gujarat. The story
of the adventures of Jagdeo and his wife when they set out together
to seek their fortune is an interesting episode in the Rasmala. In
the Punjab the Panwars are found settled up the whole course of the
Sutlej and along the lower Indus, and have also spread up the Bias
into Jalandhar and Gurdaspur. [387]