The genealogical tree was of enormous significance not only to princes but at every level of Hindu society, because 'your blood loyalties in India are colossally important'. It also reinforced the hereditary principle whereby 'a mahant (priest) normally takes over his father's duties, the son of a Muslim pir will look after the tomb that his father has looked after, the son of a baniya (money-lender) takes over that function. The same thing applied to the princes, because Raja ka ladka hai - a king's son is a king. And what does Rajput mean but "a king's sons"?

The Rajputs were the most widespread and tenacious ruling group in India. They constituted almost two-thirds of the Princes and Chiefs recognised by the British when they established their suzerainty over the subcontinent, their state being concentrated mainly in the regions of Rajputana (or Rajasthan)

To be a Rajput, to have the right to be bear arms and lay claim to at least one hide of land, one had to belong to one of the thirty-six 'royal races' of the Rajputs whose pedigrees were preserved by the Barots in their charts. Each of these races or clans had its own antecedents and was divided into a number of branches. Some had withered into extinction, others had produced several ruling families, each with its own-well documented family tree reaching back into the mists of legend and antiquity. Many claimed a relationship with the sun by way of the warrior-god Rama and called themselves Suryavanshis of 'the race of the sun'; most notably, the rulers of Mewar (better known today by its lake-side capital, Udaipur) whose banner was a gold sun on a crimson field. Others, such as the ruling families of Kutch and Jaisalmer, claimed descent from the moon through the God Krishna and were known as the Chandravanshis or 'the race of the moon'.

Famous Indian poet Kalidas described kingship fifteen centuries ago as being like the sun which sucks up the water in summer from the ocean and from vegetation but in the monsoon gives back fourfold what it has sucked. That is the Indian monarch, who if he takes something gives it back fourfold to the people'. This relationship was symbolised in the way in which a ruler was addressed by his subjects - either as Bapu (father), Bapuji (honoured father), Ma-Baap (mother and father) or even as Annadata (giver of food).

'They were a warrior race whose job was, firstly, to protect and preserve and, secondly, to rule and administer, and this is an instinct which is very, very strong in many of us.

Another aspect of Hindu monarchy that the Rajput rulers took up was the notion of ruling as God's representative or as His Dewan or chief administrator. 'This is the Hindu tradition in which we submerge the individual to the Supreme Being'.

When a ruler is installed he does not sit on the gadi', explains Maharani Pravinba of Rewa. 'It is the deity who sits on the throne, while the Raja takes a vow of being a servant of the deity and looking after the public. So when my husband's coronation took place, it was Ramchandraji's murti (image) that sat on the throne, a solid gold murti that had been in the family for generations. When there is a procession the deity leads and the Maharaja goes behind as a servant. So right from the time of his coronation my husband understood that he was merely a servant of God, serving the people as his representative'.