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Title: Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 3 of 3 - or the Central and Western Rajput States of India Author: Tod, James Language: English As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available. Copyright Status: Not copyrighted in the United States. If you live elsewhere check the laws of your country before downloading this ebook. See comments about copyright issues at end of book. *** Start of this Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book "Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 3 of 3 - or the Central and Western Rajput States of India" *** This book is indexed by ISYS Web Indexing system to allow the reader find any word or number within the document. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. The text is annotated with numerous footnotes, which were numbered sequentially on each page. On occasion, a footnote itself is annotated by a note. In the previous two volumes, these were referenced using symbols (e.g. *, †), which have been converted to an alphabetic sequence (e.g., A, B). In this volume, however, the ‘subnotes’ appear in one instance as numerals. For the sake of consistency, the convention used in the previous volumes has been adopted. Since there are over 900 notes in this volume, they have been gathered at each chapter’s end, and resequenced for each chapter, using a dot notation for chapter and page (e.g. 10.4.2). Notes to the appendixes are prefaced by 'a' (e.g. a.1.1 for the first note in Appendix I.) The notes are a combination of those of the author, and of the editor of this edition. The text of the latter are enclosed in square brackets. The bold-faced phrases that begin each topic were also added by the editor, and spelling of Hindi or Sanskrit words may vary between those phrases and the author’s text. The pagination of the original edition, published in the 1820's, is preserved for ease of reference by including those page numbers in the text, also enclosed in square brackets. Crooke’s plan for the renovation of the Tod’s original text, including a discussion of the transliteration of words other than English, is given in detail in the Preface. Several tables spanned multiple pages, with sums totaled before the page break as “Carried forward”, and repeated on the following page. These have been removed, given the nature of the current text. Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Given the history of the text, it was thought best to leave all orthography as printed. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. A complex genealogical chart appears on p. 1457, inserted in mid-paragraph spanning pp. 1456 and 1458. It has been moved to precede that paragraph. ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN [Illustration: COLONEL TOD AND HIS JAIN GURU. (From a painting said to be the work of the Author’s native artist, Ghāsi.) _Frontispiece._ ] ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN RAJPUT STATES OF INDIA BY LIEUT.-COL. JAMES TOD LATE POLITICAL AGENT TO THE WESTERN RAJPUT STATES EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY WILLIAM CROOKE, C.I.E. HON. D.SC. OXON., B.A., F.R.A.I. LATE OF THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. III. HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY 1920 CONTENTS PAGE BOOK VIII SKETCH OF THE INDIAN DESERT CHAPTER 1 General aspect—Boundaries and divisions of the desert—Probable etymology of the Greek _oasis_—Absorption of the Ghaggar river—The Luni, or salt-river—The Rann, or Ran—Distinction of _thal_ and _rui_—_Thal_ of the Luni—Jalor—Siwanchi—Machola and Morsin—Bhinmal and Sanchor—Bhadrajun—Mewa—Balotra and Tilwara—Indhavati—Gugadeo-ka-thal—Thal of Tararoi—Thal of Khawar—Mallinath-ka-thal, or Barmer—Kherdhar—Juna Chhotan—Nagar Gura 1257 CHAPTER 2 Chauhan Raj—Antiquity and nobility of the Chauhans of the desert—Dimensions and population of the Raj—Nagar—Bakhasar—Tharad—Face of the Chauhan Raj—Water—Productions—Inhabitants—Kolis and Bhils—Pitals—Thals of Dhat and Umrasumra—Depth of wells—Anecdote—City of Aror, the ancient capital of Sind—Dynasties of the Sodha, the Sumra, and the Samma princes—Their antiquity—Inferred to be the opponents of Alexander the Great, and Menander—Lieutenant of Walid takes Aror—Umarkot: its history—Tribes of Sind and the desert—Diseases—Narua or Guinea-worm—Productions, animal and vegetable, of the desert—Daudputra—Itinerary 1275 BOOK IX ANNALS OF AMBER, OR DHUNDHAR CHAPTER I Designations given by Europeans to the principalities of Rajputana—Dhundhar known by the name of its capitals, Amber or Jaipur—The country of the Kachhwahas an aggregate of conquests by the race so called—Etymology of Dhundhar—Origin of the Kachhwahas—Raja Nal founds Narwar—Dhola Rae expelled, and founds Dhundhar—Romantic legend of Dhola Rae—His treachery to his benefactor, the Mina lord of Khoganw—Marries a daughter of a Bargujar chief, and becomes his heir—Augments his territories, and transfers his government to Ramgarh—Marries a daughter of the prince of Ajmer—Is killed in battle with the Minas—His son Kankhal conquers Dhundhar—Medal Rae conquers Amber, and other places—Conquests of Hundeo—Of Kuntal—Accession of Pajun—Reflections on the aboriginal tribes at this period—The Mina race—Pajun marries the sister of Prithiraj of Delhi—His military prowess—Is killed at the rape of the princess of Kanauj—Malesi succeeds—His successors—Prithiraj creates the Barah-kothris, or twelve great fiefs of Amber—He is assassinated—Baharmall—The first to wait on the Muhammadan power—Bhagwandas the first Rajput to give a daughter to the imperial house—His daughter marries Jahangir, and gives birth to Khusru—Accession to Man Singh—His power, intrigues, and death—Rao Bhao—Maha—Mirza Raja Jai Singh, brother of Raja Man, succeeds—Repairs the disgraces of his two predecessors, and renders immense services to the empire—Is poisoned by his son—Ram Singh—Bishan Singh 1327 CHAPTER 2 Sawai Jai Singh succeeds—Joins the party of Azam Shah—Amber sequestrated—Jai Singh expels the imperial garrison—His character—His astronomical knowledge—His conduct during the troubles of the empire—Anecdote illustrative of the evils of polygamy—Limits of the raj of Amber at the accession of Jai Singh—The new city of Jaipur—Conquest of Rajor and Deoti—Incidents illustrative of Rajput character—Jai Singh’s habit of inebriation—The virtues of his character—Contemplates the rite of Aswamedha—Dispersion of his valuable manuscripts—His death—Some of his wives and concubines become Satis on his pyre 1341 CHAPTER 3 The Rajput league—Aggrandizement of Amber—Isari Singh succeeds—Intestine troubles produced by polygamy—Madho Singh—The Jats—Their Rajas—Violation of the Amber territory by the Jats—Battle—Rise of Macheri—Decline of the Kachhwaha power after the death of Madho Singh—Prithi Singh—Partap Singh—Intrigues at his court—The stratagems of Khushhaliram, and the Macheri chief—Death of Firoz the Filban, paramour of the Patrani—Broils with the Mahrattas—Partap attains majority, and gains the victory of Tonga—His difficulties—Exactions of the Mahrattas—Jagat Singh—His follies and despicable character—Makes Raskapur, his concubine, queen of half Amber—Project to depose him prevented by a timely sacrifice—Mohan Singh elected his successor 1356 CHAPTER 4 Jaipur the last of the Rajput States to embrace the proffered alliance of the British—Procrastination habitual to the Rajputs, as to all Asiatics—Motives and considerations which influenced the Jaipur court in declining our alliance—A treaty concluded—Death of Jagat Singh—Effects of our interference in the intrigues respecting the succession—Law of primogeniture—The evils attending an ignorance of Rajput customs—Violation of the law of succession in the placing of Mohan Singh on the _gaddi_—Reasons for departing from the rule of succession—Conduct of the British authorities—The title of Mohan Singh disputed by the legal heir-presumptive—Dilemma of the Nazir and his faction—The threatened disorders prevented by the unexpected pregnancy of one of the queens of Jagat Singh—Birth of a posthumous son 1366 SHAIKHAWAT FEDERATION CHAPTER 5 Origin of the Shaikhavati federation—Its constitution—Descent of the chiefs from Balaji of Amber—Mokalji—Miraculous birth of his son—Shaikhji—Aggrandizes his territory—Raemall—Suja—Raesal—His heroism—Obtains grants from Akbar—Gets possession of Khandela and Udaipur—His exploits and character—Girdharji—Is cut off by assassination—Dwarkadas—His extraordinary feat with a lion—Falls by Khan Jahan Lodi—Birsinghdeo—His authority usurped by his son—Bahadur Singh—Aurangzeb directs the demolition of the temple of Khandela—Bahadur deserts his capital—Shujawan Singh Raesalot flies to its defence—He is slain, the temple razed, and the city garrisoned—Kesari—Partition of the territory between Kesari and Fateh Singh—Fateh Singh assassinated—Kesari resists the regal authority—Is deserted in the field and slain—His son Udai Singh taken to Ajmer—Khandela retaken, and restored to Udai Singh, who is liberated—He resolves to punish the Manoharpur chief—Is baffled by that chief’s intrigues—Is besieged by Jai Singh of Amber—Khandela becomes tributary to Amber 1378 CHAPTER 6 Bindrabandas adheres to Madho Singh in the civil wars of Amber—Partition of lands annulled—Self-immolation of the Brahmans—Consequences to Bindraban, in his contest with Indar Singh, the other chief of Khandela—Civil war—Prodigal expiatory sacrifice of Bindraban—He abdicates—Govind Singh—Is assassinated—Narsinghdas—Rise and devastations of the Mahrattas—Siege of Khandela—Terms of redemption—Murder of deputies by the Mahrattas—Indar Singh perishes in the attempt to avenge them—Partap Singh—Rise of the Sikar chief—Transactions between Partap and Narsingh, his co-partner—Partap obtains the whole of Khandela—Narsingh recovers by stratagem his share of Khandela—Domestic broils and feuds—General assembly of the Sadhani and Raesalot chiefs, to counteract the encroachments of Amber—Treaty between the Shaikhawats and the court of Amber—Violated by the latter—The confederacy assault the town of the Haldia faction—Narsingh refuses tribute to the court, and Khandela is sequestrated—Narsingh and Partap treacherously made captive, and conveyed to Jaipur—Khandela annexed to the fisc 1395 CHAPTER 7 Bagh Singh opposes the faithless court of Amber—He is joined by the celebrated George Thomas—Desperate action—Bagh Singh placed in the fortified palace at Khandela—His garrison, with his brother, slain by Hanwant Singh, son of Partap—Bagh regains the palace—The lands of Khandela farmed by Amber to two Brahmans—They are expelled by the feudatory Barwatias, who resist the court—They become a banditti—Sangram Singh, cousin to Partap, their leader—He avoids the treachery of the court—His death—The confederacy unite in the league against Jodhpur—New treaty with the Amber court—Liberation of Partap and Narsingh—Grand union of the Shaikhawats—Abhai Singh succeeds in Khandela—Treachery of the court—Hanwant regains Govindgarh, Khandela, etc.—Restoration of Khushhaliram to the ministry of Jaipur—New investitures granted to the feudatories of Khandela—Abhai and Partap inducted into their ancestral abodes—Incident illustrative of the defects of the Rajput feudal system—Khandela assailed by Lachhman Singh, chief of Sikar—Gallant defence of Hanwant—His death—Surrender of Khandela to Lachhman Singh—The co-heirs exiled—Power and influence of Lachhman Singh—Foils the designs of the Purohit—Present attitude of Lachhman Singh—Subordinate branches of the Shaikhawats—The Sadhanis—Their territories wrested from the Kaimkhanis and Rajputs—The Khetri branch of the family of Sadhu attains superiority—Bagh Singh of Khetri murders his own son—The Larkhanis—Revenues of Shaikhavati 1408 CHAPTER 8 Reflections—Statistics of Amber—Boundaries—Extent—Population—Number of townships—Classification of inhabitants—Soil—Husbandry—Products—Revenues—Foreign army—The feudal levies 1428 BOOK X ANNALS OF HARAVATI BUNDI CHAPTER 1 Haravati defined—Fabulous origin of the Agnikula races—Mount Abu—The Chauhans obtain Mahishmati, Golkonda, and the Konkan—Found Ajmer—Ajaipal—Manika Rae—First Islamite invasion—Ajmer taken—Sambhar founded; its salt lake—Offspring of Manik Rae—Establishments in Rajputana—Contests with the Muhammadans—Bilandeo of Ajmer; Guga Chauhan of Mahra; both slain by Mahmud—Bisaldeo Generalissimo of the Rajput nations; his period fixed; his column at Delhi; his alliances—Origin of the Hara tribe—Anuraj obtains Asi—Dispossessed—Ishtpal obtains Asir—Rao Hamir—Rao Chand slain—Asir, Alau-d-din—Prince Rainsi escapes to Chitor; settles at Bhainsror, in Mewar—His son Kolan declared lord of the Pathar 1441 CHAPTER 2 Recapitulation of the Hara princes from the founder Anuraj to Rae Dewa—He erects Bundi—Massacre of the Usaras—Dewa abdicates—Ceremony of Yugaraj, or abdication—Succeeded by Samarsi—Extends his sway east of the Chambal—Massacre of the Kotia Bhils—Origin of Kotah—Napuji succeeds—Feud with the Solanki of Toda—Assassination of Napuji—Singular Sati—Hamu succeeds—The Rana asserts his right over the Patar—Hamu demurs, defies, and attacks him—Anecdote—Birsingh—Biru—Rao Banda—Famine—Anecdote—Banda expelled by his brothers; converts to Muhammadanism—Narayandas puts his uncles to death, and recovers his patrimony—Anecdotes of Narayandas—Aids the Rana of Chitor—Gains a victory—Espouses the niece of Rana Raemall—His passion for opium—Death—Rao Surajmall—Marries a princess of Chitor—Fatal result—Aheria or Spring-hunt—Assassination of the Rao—His revenge—Two-fold sati—Rao Surthan—His cruelty, deposal, and banishment—Rao Arjun elected—Romantic death—Rao Surjan succeeds 1466 CHAPTER 3 Rao Surjan obtains Ranthambhor—Is besieged by Akbar—The Bundi prince surrenders the castle—Becomes a vassal of the empire—Magnanimous sacrifice of Sawant Hara—Akbar bestows the title of Rao Raja on the Hara prince—He is sent to reduce Gondwana—His success and honours—Rao Bhoj succeeds—Akbar reduces Gujarat—Gallant conduct of the Haras at Surat and Ahmadnagar—Amazonian band—Disgrace of Rao Bhoj—Cause of Akbar’s death—Rao Ratan—Rebellion against the emperor Jahangir—The Hara prince defeats the rebels—Partition of Haraoti—Madho Singh obtains Kotah—Rao Ratan slain—His heir Gopinath killed—Partition of fiefs in Haraoti—Rao Chhattarsal succeeds—Appointed governor of Agra—Services in the Deccan—Escalades Daulatabad—Kalburga—Damauni—Civil war amongst the sons of Shah Jahan—Character of Aurangzeb by the Bundi prince—Fidelity of the Hara princes—Battles of Ujjain and Dholpur—Heroic valour of Chhattarsal—Is slain, with twelve princes of Hara blood—Rao Bhao succeeds—Bundi invaded—Imperialists defeated—Rao Bhao restored to favour—Appointed to Aurangabad—Succeeded by Rao Aniruddh—Appointed to Lahore—His death—Rao Budh—Battle of Jajau—The Hara princes of Kotah and Bundi opposed to each other—Kotah prince slain—Gallantry of Rao Budh—Obtains the victory for Bahadur Shah—Fidelity of the Bundi prince—Compelled to fly—Feud with the prince of Amber—Its cause—Ambitious views of Amber—Its political condition—Treachery of Amber—Desperate conflict—Rao Budh driven from Bundi—Bundi territory curtailed—Rao Budh dies in exile—His sons 1480 CHAPTER 4 Rao Ummeda defeats the troops of Amber—Conflict at Dablana—Ummeda defeated and obliged to fly—Death of Hanja, his steed—Takes refuge amidst the ravines of the Chambal—Redeems his capital—Is again expelled from it—Interview with the widow of his father; she solicits aid from Holkar to reinstate Ummeda—The Amber prince forced to acknowledge the claims of Ummeda—He recovers Bundi—Suicide of the Amber prince—First alienation of land to the Mahrattas—Madho Singh of Amber asserts supremacy over Haraoti—Origin of tributary demands thereon—Zalim Singh—Mahratta encroachments—Ummeda’s revenge on the chief of Indargarh; its cause and consequences—Ummeda abdicates—Ceremony of Yugaraj, or abdication—Installation of Ajit—Ummeda becomes a pilgrim; his wanderings; cause of their interruption—Ajit assassinates the Rana of Mewar—Memorable Sati imprecation—Awful death of Ajit—Fulfilment of ancient prophecy—Rao Bishan Singh succeeds—Ummeda’s distrust of his grandson; their reconciliation—Ummeda’s death—British army retreats through Haraoti, aided by Bundi—Alliance with the English—Benefits conferred on Bundi—Bishan Singh dies of the cholera morbus; forbids the rite of Sati—His character; constitutes the Author guardian of his son, the Rao Raja Ram Singh 1499 KOTAH CHAPTER 5 Separation of Kotah from Bundi—The Kotah Bhils—Madho Singh, first prince of Kotah—Its division into fiefs—The Madhani—Raja Mukund—Instance of devotion—He is slain with four brothers—Jagat Singh—Pem Singh—Is deposed—Kishor Singh—Is slain at Arcot—Law of primogeniture set aside—Ram Singh—Is slain at Jajau—Bhim Singh—Chakarsen, king of the Bhils—His power is annihilated by Raja Bhim—Umat tribe—Origin of the claims of Kotah thereon—Raja Bhim attacks the Nizamu-l-mulk, and is slain—Character of Raja Bhim—His enmity to Bundi—Anecdote—Title of Maharao bestowed on Raja Bhim—Rao Arjun—Civil contest for succession—Shyam Singh slain—Maharao Durjansal—First irruption of the Mahrattas—League against Kotah, which is besieged—Defended by Himmat Singh Jhala—Zalim Singh born—Siege raised—Kotah becomes tributary to the Mahrattas—Death of Durjansal—His character—His hunting expeditions—His queens—Bravery of the Jhala chief—Order of succession restored—Maharao Ajit—Rao Chhattarsal—Madho Singh of Amber claims supremacy over the Hara princes, and invades Haraoti—Battle of Bhatwara—Zalim Singh Jhala—The Haras gain a victory—Flight of the Amber army, and capture of the ‘five-coloured banner’—Tributary claims on Kotah renounced—Death of Chhattarsal 1521 CHAPTER 6 Maharao Guman Singh—Zalim Singh—His birth, ancestry, and progress to power—Office of Faujdar becomes hereditary in his family—His office and estate resumed by Guman Singh—He abandons Kotah—Proceeds to Mewar—Performs services to the Rana, and receives the title of Raj Rana, and estates—Serves against the Mahrattas—Is wounded and made prisoner—Returns to Kotah—Mahratta invasion—Storm of Bakhani—Its glorious defence—Sacrifice of a clan—Garrison of Sohet destroyed—Zalim Singh employed—His successful negotiation—Restoration to power—Rao Guman constitutes Zalim guardian of his son Ummed Singh, who is proclaimed—The Tika-daur, or ‘raid of accession’—Capture of Kelwara—Difficulties of the Protector’s situation—Cabal against his power—Destruction of the conspirators—Exile of the nobles—Sequestration of estates—Conspiracy of Aton—Predatory bands—Aton surrenders—Exile of the Hara nobles—Curtailment of the feudal interests—Conspiracy of Mohsen—Plan for the destruction of the Regent and family—Mohsen chief takes sanctuary in the temple—Is dragged forth and slain—Maharao’s brothers implicated in the plot—Their incarceration and death—Numerous projects against the life of the regent—Female conspiracy—How defeated—The Regent’s precautions 1534 CHAPTER 7 Zalim regarded as a legislator—His political views on Mewar—Kotah sacrificed thereto—His tyranny—His superstition—Makes a tour of his dominions—Establishes a permanent camp—Trains an army—Adopts European arms and discipline—Revises the revenue system of Haraoti—The Patel system described—Council of four—Extent of jurisdiction—The Bohras described—Their utility in the old farming system of India—Patels usurp their influence—Depression of the peasantry—Patels circumvented, imprisoned, and fined—Patel system destroyed—Return to the old system—Moral estimation of the peasant of Rajputana—Modes of realizing the land revenue described—Advantages and disadvantages 1547 CHAPTER 8 Farming system of Zalim Singh—Extent to which it has been carried—Its prosperity, fallacious and transitory—Details of the system—Soil of Kotah—The Regent introduces foreign ploughs—Area cultivated—Net produce—Value—Grain-pits—Prices, in plenty and famine—Zalim sells in one year grain to the amount of a million sterling—Monopoly—The tithe, or new tax on exported grain—The Jagatya, or tax-gatherer—Impolicy of this tax—Gross revenue of Kotah—Opium monopoly—Tax on widows—On the mendicant—Gourd-tax—Broom-tax—The Regent detested by the bards—Province of Kotah at this period, and at assumption of the government, contrasted—Question as to the moral result of his improvements 1559 CHAPTER 9 Political system of the Regent—His foreign policy—His pre-eminent influence in Rajwara—His first connexion with the English Government—Monson’s retreat—Gallant conduct and death of the Hara chief of Koila—Aid given by the Regent involves him with Holkar—Holkar comes to Kotah—Preparations to attack the capital—Singular interview with Zalim—Zalim’s agents at foreign courts—Alliance with Amir Khan, and the Pindari chiefs—Characteristic anecdotes—Zalim’s offensive policy—His domestic policy—Character of Maharao Ummed Singh—Zalim’s conduct towards him—Choice of ministers—Bishan Singh Faujdar—Dalil Khan Pathan—Circumvallation of Kotah—Foundation of the city Jhalrapatan—Mihrab Khan, commander of the forces 1569 CHAPTER 10 The Rajput States invited to an alliance with the British Government—Zalim Singh the first to accept it—Marquess of Hastings sends an agent to his court—Confederation against the Pindaris—The Regent’s conduct during the war—Approbation and reward of his services—Peace throughout India—Death of Maharao Ummed Singh—Treaty and supplemental articles—Sons of Maharao Ummed Singh—Their characters—Sons of the Regent—State of parties—The Regent leaves the Chhaoni for Kotah—He proclaims Kishor Singh as successor of the late prince—His letter to the British agent, who repairs to Kotah—Dangerous illness of the Regent—Plots to overturn the order of succession—The Regent’s ignorance thereof—Intricate position of the British Government—Arguments in defence of the supplemental articles—Recognition of all rulers _de facto_ the basis of our treaties—Kishor Singh refuses to acknowledge the supplemental articles—Consequences—The Regent blockades the Prince, and demands the surrender of his son Gordhandas—The Maharao breaks through the blockade—The British agent interposes—Surrender and exile of Gordhandas—Reconciliation of the Maharao and the Regent—Coronation of the Maharao—Mutual covenants executed—The Regent prohibits _dand_ throughout Kotah—Reflections 1577 CHAPTER 11 Banishment of Gordhandas, the natural son of the Regent—His reappearance in Malwa—Consequent renewal of dissensions at Kotah—The troops mutiny and join the Maharao—The Regent assaults the castle—Flight of the Maharao and party—Reception at Bundi—The Maharao’s second brother joins the Regent—Gordhandas’ attempt to join the Maharao frustrated—The Maharao leaves Bundi—General sympathy for him—He arrives at Brindaban—Intrigues of Gordhandas and superior native officers of the British Government, who deceive the Maharao—Returns to Kotah at the head of a force—Summons the Haras to his standard—His demands—Supplemental article of the treaty considered—Embarrassing conduct of the Regent—The Maharao refuses all mediation—His ultimatum—British troops march—Junction with the Regent—Attack the Maharao—His defeat and flight—Death of his brother Pirthi Singh—Singular combat—Amnesty proclaimed—The Hara chiefs return to their families—The Maharao retires to the temple of Krishna in Mewar—Negotiation for his return—Satisfactory termination—Reflections on these civil wars—Character and death of Zalim Singh 1595 BOOK XI PERSONAL NARRATIVE: UDAIPUR TO KHERODA CHAPTER 1 Departure from the valley of Udaipur—Lake of Kheroda—Ancient temple of Mandeswar—Bhartewar—Its Jain temples—Kheroda—Connected with the history of the feuds of Mewar—Exploits of Sangram Singh—He obtains Kheroda—Curious predicament of Jai Singh, the adopted heir of Sangram—Calmness with which political negotiations are managed in the East—The agricultural economy of Kheroda—Precarious nature of sugar-cultivation—Hinta—Large proportion of land alienated as religious grants—Hinta and Dundia established on church-lands—Mandhata Raja—Traditions of him—Performed the Aswamedha—His grant of Mainar to the Rishis—Grant inscribed on a pillar—Exploit of Raj Singh against the Mahrattas—Morwan, boundary of the Mewar territory—Reflections on that State—The Author’s policy during his official residence there 1621 CHAPTER 2 The chief of Hinta—Difficulty of arranging the separation of Hinta from the fisc—Anomalous character of its present chief, Man Singh Saktawat—His history—Lalji Rawat of Nethara—Origin of the Dudia family—Adventure of Sangram Singh, the Rana of Mewar—His son, Chandrabhan, and Rana Raj—Extraordinary manner in which he acquired Lawa—Decline of the family—Form of deed of conveyance of lands from the lord paramount—Address of Man Singh—Atrocious murder of a Rathor boy—Its singular sequel 1635 CHAPTER 3 Morwan—The solitude of this fine district—Caused by the Mahrattas and their mercenaries—Impolicy of our conduct towards the Mahrattas—Antiquities of Morwan—Tradition of the foundation and destruction of the ancient city—Inscriptions—Jain temple—Game—Attack by a tiger—Sudden change of the weather—Destructive frost—Legend of a temple of Mama-devi—Important inscription—Distress of the peasantry—Gratitude of the people to the author—Nikumbh—Oppression of the peasants—Marla—Inhabited by Charans—Reception of the Author—Curious privilege of the Charanis—Its origin—Traditional account of the settlement of this colony in Mewar—Imprecation of Satis—The _tandas_, or caravans—Their immunity from plunder and extortion—Nimbahera—Ranikhera—Indignity committed by a scavenger of Laisrawan—Sentence upon the culprit—Tablet to a Silpi—Reception at Nimbahera 1646 CHAPTER 4 The Patar or Table-land of Central India—View from thence—Project of a canal—Its advantages to Mewar—Utility of further works to the people—Traces of superstition in the Pathar—Temple of Sukhdeo—The Daitya-ka-har, or 'Giant’s bone'—The Vira-jhamp, or ‘Warrior’s Leap’—Proprietorship of the Patar—Its products—The poppy—Pernicious effects of its increased cultivation—Account of the introduction and mode of culture of opium—Original spot of its cultivation—The manufacture of opium kept pace with the depopulation of Mewar—Process of cultivation, and of manufacture—Its fluctuation of price—Adulterated opium of Kanthal—Evil consequences of the use of opium—Duty of the paramount power to restrict the culture—Practicability of such a measure—Distribution of crops—Impolicy of our Government in respect to the opium monopoly 1660 CHAPTER 5 Dhareswar—Ratangarh Kheri—Colony of Charans—Little Atoa—Inscription at Paragarh—Dungar Singh—Sheo Singh—Law of adoption—Kala Megh—Ummedpura and its chief—Singoli—Temple of Bhavani—Tablet of Rana Mokal—Traditionary tales of the Haras—Alu Hara of Bumbaoda—Dangarmau—Singular effects produced by the sun on the atmosphere of the Patar 1672 CHAPTER 6 Bhainsrorgarh—Cairn of a Rajput—Raghunath Singh of Bhainsror—Castle of Bhainsror—Passage forced by the Chambal through the Plateau—Origin and etymology of Bhainsror—Charans, the carriers of Rajwara—The young chief of Mewa becomes the champion of Mewar—Avenges the Rana’s feud with Jaisalmer, and obtains Bhainsror—Tragical death of his Thakurani, niece of the Rana—He is banished—The Pramar chiefs of Bhainsror—Cause of their expulsion—Lal Singh Chondawat obtains Bhainsror—Assassinates his friend the Rana’s uncle—Man Singh, his son, succeeds—Is taken prisoner—Singular escape—Reflections on the policy of the British Government towards these people—Antiquities and inscriptions at Bhainsror—Dabhi—View from the pass at Nasera—Rajput cairns—Tomb of a bard—Sentiments of the people on the effects of our interference—Their gratitude—Cairn of a Bhatti chief—Karipur—Depopulated state of the country—Inscriptions at Sontra—Bhil temple—Ruins—The Holi festival—Kotah, its appearance 1687 CHAPTER 7 Unhealthiness of the season at Kotah—Eventful character of the period of the Author’s residence there—The cuckoo—Description of the encampment—Cenotaphs of the Haras—Severe tax upon the curiosity of travellers in Kotah—General insalubrity of Kotah—Wells infected—Productive of fever—Taking leave of the Maharao and Regent—The Regent’s sorrow—Cross the Chambal—Restive elephant—Kanari—Regent’s patrimonial estate—Nanta—Author’s reception by Madho Singh—Rajput music—The Panjabi _tappa_—Scene of the early recreations of Zalim Singh—Talera—Nawagaon—Approach of the Raja of Bundi—Splendour of the _cortège_—Bundi—The castellated palace, or Bundi ka mahall—Visit to the Raja—Illness of our party—Quit Bundi—Cenotaphs in the village of Satur—The tutelary deity, Asapurna—Temple of Bhavani—Banks of the Mej—Thana—Inscriptions—Jahazpur—Respectable suite of the Basai chief 1704 CHAPTER 8 Extraordinary attack of illness in the Author—Suspicion of poison—Journey to Mandalgarh—The Karar—Tranquil state of the country—The Minas subsiding into peaceful subjects—Scenery in the route—Sasan, or ecclesiastical lands—Castle of Amargarh—Kachaura—Its ancient importance—Our true policy with regard to the feudatories in these parts—Damnia—Manpura—Signs of reviving prosperity—Arrival at Mandalgarh—The Dasahra—Sickness of the party left behind—Assembly of the Bhumias and Patels—Description of Mandalgarh—Rebuilt by one of the Takshak race—Legend of Mandalgarh—Genealogical tablet of stone—Pedigrees of the tribes—Mandalgarh granted to the Rathors by Aurangzeb—Recovered by the Rana—Taxes imposed—Lavish grants—Baghit—The Author rejoins his party—Birslabas—Akola—Desolation of the country—Inscriptions—Hamirgarh—Siyana—Superb landscape—Mirage—Testimony of gratitude from the elders of Pur—Thriving state of Marauli—Rasmi—Antiquities—Curious law—Jasma—Waste country—Inscriptions—Copper mines—Sanwar—Tribeni, or point of junction of three rivers—Temple of Parsvanath—Deserted state of the country—Karera—Maoli—Barren country—Hunting seat of Nahra-Magra—Heights of Tus and Merta—End of second journey 1716 CHAPTER 9 The Author obliged to take a journey to Bundi—Cause of the journey—Sudden death of the Rao Raja, who left his son to the Author’s care—The cholera morbus, or _mari_—Its ravages—Curious expedient to exclude it from Kotah and Bundi—Bad weather—Death of the Author’s elephant—Pahona—Bhilwara—Gratifying reception of the Author—State of the town contrasted with its former condition—Projects for its further improvement—Reflections on its rise—Jahazpur—Difficulties of the road—Arrival at Bundi—The aspect of the court—Interview with the young Rao Raja—Attentions paid to the Author 1732 CHAPTER 10 Ceremony of Rajtilak, or inauguration—Personal qualities of the Rao Raja and his brothers—The installation—The tilak first made by the Author, as representative of the British Government—Ceremonies—Message from the queen-mother—Balwant Rao, of Gotra—The Bohra, or chief minister—Power and disposition of these two officers—Arrangements made by the Author—Interview and conversation with the Rani—Literary and historical researches of the Author—Revenues of Bundi—Its prospects—Departure for Kotah—Condition of the junior branches of the Haras—Rauta—Grand hunts in Haraoti 1740 CHAPTER 11 Pass of Mukunddarra—View from the summit of the pass into Pachel—Marks set up by the Banjaras—Monastery of Atits, or Jogis—Their savage aspect—The author elected a _chela_—The head of the establishment—His legend of the origin of the epithet Sesodia—The grand temple of Barolli—Conjecture as to its founder—Barolli 1750 CHAPTER 12 The Chulis, or whirlpools of the Chambal—Grandeur of the scene—Description of the falls and rocks of the Chambal in this part—The remarkable narrowness of its bed—The _roris_, or stones found in the whirlpools—Visit to Gangabheva—Its magnificent temple and shrines—The details of their architecture—The main temple more modern than the shrines around it—Dilapidation of these fine specimens of art—Effects of vegetation—The gigantic _amarvela_—Naoli—Takaji-ka-kund, or fountain of the snake-king—Fragments of sculpture—Mausoleum of Jaswant Rao Holkar—Holkar’s horse—His elephant—Bhanpura—Tranquillity and prosperity of these parts—Garot—Traces of King Satal Patal, of the era of the Pandus—Agates and cornelians—The caves of Dhumnar—Description of the caves and temples—Explanation of the figures—Jain symbols on one side of the caves, Brahman on the other—Statues of the Jain pontiffs—Bhim’s bazar 1764 CHAPTER 13 Route over the ground of Monson’s retreat—Battle of Pipli—Heroism of Amar Singh Hara, chief of Koila—Conduct of General Monson—Pachpahar—Kanwara—Thriving aspect of the country—Jhalrapatan—Temples—Commercial immunities of the city—Judicious measures of the Regent in establishing this mart—Public visit of the community of Patan—The ancient city—Legends of its foundation—Profusion of ancient ruins—Fine sculpture and architecture of the temples—Inscriptions—Cross the natural boundary of Haraoti and Malwa—The Chhaoni of the Kotah Regent—Chhaoni of the Pindaris—Gagraun—Narayanpur—Mukunddarra Pass—Inscriptions—Anecdotes of the 'Lords of the Pass'—The Chaori of Bhim—Ruins—Ordinances of the Hara princes—Return to Kotah—Field sports—Author attacked by a bear—Ruins of Ekelgarh 1777 CHAPTER 14 Visit to Menal—Definition of the servile condition termed _basai_—Bijolia—Inscriptions—Ancient history of Bijolli—Evidence that the Chauhans wrested the throne of Delhi from the Tuars—Jain temples—Inscriptions—Saiva temples—Prodigious extent of ruins—The Bijolli chief—His daughter a Sati—Menal, or Mahanal—Its picturesque site—Records of Prithiraj, the Chauhan—Inscriptions—Synchronism in an enigmatical date—March to Begun—Bumbaoda, the castle of Alu Hara—Legends of that chief—Imprecation of the virgin Sati—Recollections of the Haras still associated with their ancient traditions—Quit Bumbaoda and arrive at Begun 1796 CHAPTER 15 Begun—Serious accident to the Author—Affecting testimony of the gratitude of the Rawat—Expulsion of the Mahrattas from Begun—The estates of the Rawat sequestrated—Restored—Basai—Chitor—‘Akbar’s Lamp’—Reflections upon the Ruins of Chitor—Description of the city, from the Khuman Raesa, and from observation—Tour of the city—Origin of the Bagrawat class—Inscriptions—Aged Fakir—Return to Udaipur—Conclusion 1810 APPENDIX 1828 INDEX 1837 ILLUSTRATIONS Colonel Tod and his Jain Guru _Frontispiece_ TO FACE PAGE Raghubīr Singh, Māhārāo Rāja of Būndi 1441 City of Kotah from the East 1521 Country Seat of the Kotah Prince 1530 Palace and Fortress of Būndi 1710 Fragment from the Ruins of Barolli 1752 Outline of a Temple to Mahadeva at Barolli 1754 Sculptured Niche on the Exterior of the Temple at 1756 Barolli Ceiling of the Portico of Temple at Barolli 1758 Remains of an Ancient Temple at Barolli, near the 1760 Chambal Temples of Ganga Bheva in the Forest of Pachail in 1766 Mewar Smaller Group of Temples of Ganga Bheva 1768 Image of the Snake King at the Fountain of the Amjar 1770 Cave Temples of Dhamnar 1776 Entrance to the Sanctuary of a Temple at Chandravati 1784 Sculptured Foliage in Chandravati Temple 1786 Sculptured Ceilings of Temple at Chandravati 1788 Columns of Chandravati Temples 1790 Entrance to the Sanctuary of a Temple at Chandravati 1792 Ruins of Bhīm’s Chaori in the Mukunddara Pass 1794 Ancient Columns in the Mukunddara Pass 1796 Temples of Menāl in Mewār 1800 Second Group of Temples of Menāl in Mewār 1802 Jaistambha, Pillar of Victory 1820 Columns in the Fortress of Chitor 1822 ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN BOOK VIII SKETCH OF THE INDIAN DESERT CHAPTER 1 Having never penetrated personally farther into the heart of the desert than Mandor, the ancient capital of all Marusthali, the old castle of Hissar on its north-eastern frontier, and Abu, Nahrwala, and Bhuj, to the south, it may be necessary, before entering upon the details, to deprecate the charge of presumption or incompetency, by requesting the reader to bear in mind that my parties of discovery have traversed it in every direction, adding to their journals of routes living testimonies of their accuracy, and bringing to me natives of every _thal_ from Bhatner to Umarkot, and from Abu to Aror.[8.1.1] I wish it, however, to be clearly understood, that I look upon this as a mere outline, which, by showing what might be done, may stimulate further research; but in the existing dearth of information on the subject I have not hesitated to send it forth, with its almost inevitable errors, as (I trust) a pioneer to more extended and accurate knowledge. After premising thus much, let us commence with details, which, but for the reasons already stated, should have been comprised in the geographical portion of the work, and which, though irrelevant to the historical part, are too important to be [290] thrown into notes. I may add, that the conclusions formed, partly from personal observation, but chiefly from the resources described above, have been confirmed by the picture drawn by Mr. Elphinstone of his passage through the northern desert in the embassy to Kabul, which renders perfectly satisfactory to me the views I before entertained. It may be well, at this stage, to mention that some slight repetitions must occur as we proceed, having incidentally noticed many of the characteristic features of the desert in the Annals of Bikaner, which was unavoidable from the position of that State. =Description of the Desert.=—The hand of Nature has defined, in the boldest characters, the limits of the great desert of India, and we only require to follow minutely the line of demarcation; though, in order to be distinctly understood, we must repeat the analysis of the term Marusthali, the emphatic appellation of this ‘region of death.’ The word is compounded of the Sanskrit _mri_, ‘to die,’ and _sthala_, ‘arid or dry land,’ which last, in the corrupted dialect of those countries, becomes _thal_, the converse of the Greek _oasis_, denoting tracts particularly sterile. Each _thal_ has its distinct denomination, as the ‘_thal_ of Kawa,’ the ‘_thal_ of Guga,’ etc.; and the cultivated spots, compared with these, either as to number or magnitude, are so scanty, that instead of the ancient Roman simile, which likened Africa to the leopard’s hide, reckoning the spots thereon as the oases, I would compare the Indian desert to that of the tiger, of which the long dark stripes would indicate the expansive belts of sand, elevated upon a plain only less sandy, and over whose surface numerous thinly-peopled towns and hamlets are scattered. =Boundaries of the Desert.=—Marusthali is bounded on the north by the flat skirting the Ghara; on the south by that grand salt-marsh, the Ran, and Koliwara; on the east by the Aravalli; and on the west by the valley of Sind. The two last boundaries are the most conspicuous, especially the Aravalli, but for which impediment Central India would be submerged in sand; nay, lofty and continuous as is this chain, extending almost from the sea to Delhi, wherever there are passages or depressions, these floating sand-clouds are wafted through or over, and form a little _thal_ even in the bosom of fertility. Whoever has crossed the Banas near Tonk, where the sand for some miles resembles waves of the sea, will comprehend this remark. Its western boundary is alike defined, and will recall to the English traveller, who may be destined to journey up the valley of Sind, the words of Napoleon on the Libyan desert: “Nothing so much resembles the sea as the desert; or a coast, as the valley of the Nile”: for this substitute ‘Indus’ [291], whence in journeying northward along its banks from Haidarabad to Uchh, the range of vision will be bounded to the east by a bulwark of sand, which, rising often to the height of two hundred feet above the level of the river, leads one to imagine that the chasm, now forming this rich valley, must have originated in a sudden melting of all the glaciers of Caucasus, whose congregated waters made this break in the continuity of Marusthali, which would otherwise be united with the deserts of Arachosia. We may here repeat the tradition illustrating the geography of the desert, _i.e._ that in remote ages it was ruled by princes of the Panwar (Pramara) race, which the _sloka_, or verse of the bard, recording the names of the nine fortresses (Nau-koti Maru-ki), so admirably adapted by their position to maintain these regions in subjection, further corroborates. We shall divest it of its metrical form, and begin with Pugal, to the north; Mandor, in the centre of all Maru; Abu, Kheralu, and Parkar, to the south; Chhotan, Umarkot, Aror, and Lodorva, to the west; the possession of which assuredly marks the sovereignty of the desert. The antiquity of this legend is supported by the omission of all modern cities, the present capital of the Bhattis not being mentioned. Even Lodorva and Aror, cities for ages in ruins, are names known only to a few who frequent the desert; and Chhotan and Kheralu, but for the traditional stanzas which excited our research, might never have appeared on the map. =Natural Divisions of the Desert.=—We purpose to follow the natural divisions of the country, or those employed by the natives, who, as stated above, distinguish them as _thals_; and after describing these in detail, with a summary notice of the principal towns whether ruined or existing, and the various tribes, conclude with the chief lines of route diverging from, or leading to, Jaisalmer. The whole of Bikaner, and that part of Shaikhavati north of the Aravalli, are comprehended in the desert. If the reader will refer to the map, and look for the town of Kanod,[8.1.2] within the British frontier, he will see what Mr. Elphinstone considered as the commencement of the desert, in his interesting expedition to Kabul.[8.1.3] “From Delly to Canound (the Kanorh of my map), a distance of one hundred miles is through the British dominions, and need not be described. It is sufficient to say that the country is sandy, though not ill cultivated. On approaching Canound, we had the first specimen of the desert, to which we were looking forward with anxious curiosity. Three miles before reaching that place we came to sand-hills, which at first were [292] covered with bushes, but afterwards were naked piles of loose sand, rising one after another like the waves of the sea, and marked on the surface by the wind like drifted snow. There were roads through them, made solid by the treading of animals; but off the road our horses sunk into the sand above the knee.” Such was the opening scene; the route of the embassy was by Singhana, Jhunjhunu, to Chum, when they entered Bikaner. Of Shaikhavati, which he had just left, Mr. Elphinstone says: “It seems to lose its title to be included in the desert, when compared with the two hundred and eighty miles between its western frontier and Bahawulpoor, and, even of this, only the last hundred miles is absolutely destitute of inhabitants, water, or vegetation. Our journey from Shekhavati to Poogul was over hills and valleys of loose and heavy sand. The hills were exactly like those which are sometimes formed by the wind on the seashore, but far exceeding them in height, which was from twenty to a hundred feet. They are said to shift their position and alter their shapes according as they are affected by the wind; and in summer the passage is rendered dangerous by the clouds of moving sand; but when I saw the hills (in winter), they seemed to have a great degree of permanence, for they bore grass, besides _phoke_, the _babool_, and _bair_ or jujube, which altogether give them an appearance that sometimes amounted to verdure. Amongst the most dismal hills of sand one occasionally meets with a village, if such a name can be given to a few round huts of straw, with low walls and conical roofs, like little stacks of corn.” This description of the northern portion of the desert, by an author whose great characteristics are accuracy and simplicity, will enable the reader to form a more correct notion of what follows.[8.1.4] With these remarks, and bearing in mind what has already been said of the physiography of these regions, we proceed to particularize the various _thals_ and _oases_ in this ‘region of death.’ It will be convenient to disregard the ancient Hindu geographical division, which makes Mandor the capital of Marusthali, a distinction both from its character and position better suited to Jaisalmer, being nearly in the centre of what may be termed entire desert. It is in fact an oasis, everywhere insulated by immense masses of _thal_, some of which are forty miles in breadth, without the trace of man, or aught that could subsist him. From Jaisalmer we shall pass to Marwar, and without crossing the Luni, describe Jalor and Siwanchi; then conduct the [293] reader into the almost unknown Raj of Parkar and Virawah,[8.1.5] governed by princes of the Chauhan race, with the title of Rana. Thence, skirting the political limits of modern Rajputana, to the regions of Dhat and Umra-sumra, now within the dominion of Sind, we shall conclude with a very slight sketch of Daudputra, and the valley of the Indus. These details will receive further illustration from the remarks made on every town or hamlet diverging from the ‘hill of Jaisal’ (Jaisalmer). Could the beholder, looking westward from this ‘triple-peaked hill,’[8.1.6] across this sandy ocean to the blue waters (Nilab)[8.1.7] of the Indus, embrace in his vision its whole course from Haidarabad to Uchh, he would perceive, amidst these valleys of sand-hills, little colonies of animated beings, congregated on every spot which water renders habitable. Throughout this tract, from four hundred to five hundred miles in longitudinal extent, and from one hundred to two hundred of diagonal breadth, are little hamlets, consisting of the scattered huts of the shepherds of the desert, occupied in pasturing their flocks or cultivating these little oases for food. He may discern a long line of camels (called _kitar_, a name better known than either kafila or karwan), anxiously toiling through the often doubtful path, and the Charan conductor, at each stage, tying a knot on the end of his turban. He may discover, lying in ambush, a band of Sahariyas, the Bedouins of our desert (_sahra_),[8.1.8] either mounted on camels or horses, on the watch to despoil the caravan, or engaged in the less hazardous occupation of driving off the flocks of the Rajar or Mangalia shepherds, peacefully tending them about the _tars_ or _bawas_, or hunting for the produce stored amidst the huts of the ever-green _jhal_,[8.1.9] which serve at once as grain-pits and shelter from the sun. A migratory band may be seen flitting with their flocks from ground which they have exhausted, in search of fresh pastures: And if the following day they chance to find A new repast, or an untasted spring, Will bless their stars, and think it luxury! Or they may be seen preparing the _rabri_, a mess quite analogous to the _kouskous_ of their Numidian brethren, or quenching their thirst from the _Wah_ of their little oasis, of which they maintain sovereign possession so long as the pasture lasts, or till they come in conflict with some more powerful community. =Oasis.=—We may here pause to consider whether in the _bah_, _bawa_, or _wah_, of the Indian desert, may not be found the _oasis_ of the Greeks, corrupted by them from _el-wah_, or, as written by Belzoni (in his account of the Libyan desert, while searching for the [294] temple of Ammon), _Elloah_. Of the numerous terms used to designate water in these arid regions, as _par_, _rar_, _tar_, _dah_ or _daha_, _bah_, _bawa_, _wah_, all but the latter are chiefly applicable to springs or pools of water, while the last (_wah_), though used often in a like sense, applies more to a water-course or stream. _El-wah_, under whatever term, means—‘_the water_.’ Again, _daha_ or _dah_ is a term in general use for a pool, even not unfrequently in running streams and large rivers, which, ceasing to flow in dry weather, leave large stagnant masses, always called _dah_. There are many of the streams of Rajputana, having such pools, particularized as _hathi-dah_, or ‘elephant-pool,’ denoting a sufficiency of water even to drown that animal. Now the word _dah_ or _daha_, added to the generic term for water, _wah_, would make _wadi_ (pool of water), the Arabian term for a running stream, and commonly used by recent travellers in Africa for these habitable spots. If the Greeks took the word _wadi_ from any MS., the transposition would be easily accounted for: _wadi_ would be written thus وازي, and by the addition of a point وازي, _wazi_, easily metamorphosed, for a euphonous termination, into _oasis_.[8.1.10] At the risk of somewhat of repetition, we must here point out the few grand features which diversify this sea of sand, and after defining the difference between _rui_ and _thal_, which will frequently occur in the itinerary, at once plunge _in medias res_. =The Lost River of the Desert.=—We have elsewhere mentioned the tradition of the absorption of the Ghaggar river, as one of the causes of the comparative depopulation of the northern desert. The couplet recording it I could not recall at the time, nor any record of the Sodha prince Hamir, in whose reign this phenomenon is said to have happened. But the utility of these ancient traditional couplets, to which I have frequently drawn the reader’s attention, has again been happily illustrated, for the name of Hamir has been incidentally discovered from the trivial circumstance of an intermarriage related in the Bhatti annals. His contemporary of Jaisalmer was Dusaj, who succeeded in S. 1100 or [295] A.D. 1044, so that we have a precise date assigned, supposing this to be _the_ Hamir in question. The Ghaggar, which rises in the Siwalik, passes Hansi Hissar, and flowed under the walls of Bhatner, at which place they yet have their wells in its bed. Thence it passed Rangmahall, Balar, and Phulra, and through the flats of Khadal (of which Derawar is the capital), emptying itself according to some below Uchh, but according to Abu-Barakat (whom I sent to explore in 1809, and who crossed the dry bed of a stream called the Khaggar, near Shahgarh), between Jaisalmer and Rori-Bakhar. If this could be authenticated, we should say at once that, united with the branch from Dara, it gave its name to the Sangra, which unites with the Luni, enlarging the eastern branch of the Delta of the Indus.[8.1.11] =The Lūni River.=—The next, and perhaps most remarkable feature in the desert, is the Luni, or Salt River, which, with its numerous feeders, has its source in the springs of the Aravalli. Of Marwar it is a barrier between the fertile lands and the desert; and as it leaves this country for the _thal_ of the Chauhans, it divides that community, and forms a geographical demarcation; the eastern portion being called the Raj of Suigam; and the western part, Parkar, or beyond the Khar, or Luni.[8.1.12] =The Rann of Cutch.=—We shall hereafter return to the country of the Chauhans, which is bounded to the south by that singular feature in the physiognomy of the desert, the Rann, or Ran, already slightly touched upon in the geographical sketch prefixed to this work. This immense salt-marsh, upwards of one hundred and fifty miles in breadth, is formed chiefly by the Luni, which, like the Rhone, after forming Lake Leman, resumes its name at its further outlet, and ends as it commences with a sacred character, having the temple of Narayan[8.1.13] at its embouchure, where it mingles with the ocean, and that of Brahma at its source of Pushkar. The Rann, or Ran, is a corruption of Aranya, or ‘the waste’;[8.1.14] nor can anything in nature be more dreary in the dry weather than this parched desert of salt and mud, the peculiar abode of the _khar-gadha_, or wild-ass, whose love of solitude has been commemorated by an immortal pen.[8.1.15] That this enormous depository of salt is of no recent formation we are informed by the Greek writers, whose notice it did not escape, and who have preserved in Erinos a nearer approximation to the original Aranya than exists in our Ran or Rann. Although mainly indebted to the Luni for its salt, whose bed and that of its feeders are covered with saline deposits, it is also supplied by the overflowings of the Indus, to which grand stream it may be indebted for its volume of water. We have here another strong point of physical resemblance between the valleys of the Indus and the Nile, which Napoleon [296] at once referred to the simple operations of nature; I allude to the origin of Lake Moeris, a design too vast for man.[8.1.16] =Thal, Rūi.=—As the reader will often meet with the words _thal_ and _rui_, he should be acquainted with the distinction between them. The first means an arid and bare desert; the other is equally expressive of desert, but implies the presence of natural vegetation; in fact, the jungle of the desert. =Thal of the Luni.=—This embraces the tracts on both sides of the river, forming Jalor and its dependencies. Although the region south of the stream cannot be included in the _thal_, yet it is so intimately connected with it, that we shall not forego the only opportunity we may have of noticing it. =Jālor.=—This tract is one of the most important divisions of Marwar. It is separated from Siwanchi by the Sukri and Khari,[8.1.17] which, with many smaller streams, flow through them from the Aravalli and Abu, aiding to fertilize its three hundred and sixty towns and villages, forming a part of the fiscal domains of Marwar. Jalor, according to the geographical stanza so often quoted, was one of the ‘nine castles of Maru,’ when the Pramar held paramount rule in Marusthali. When it was wrested from them we have no clue to discover;[8.1.18] but it had long been held by the Chauhans, whose celebrated defence of their capital against Alau-d-din, in A.D. 1301, is recorded by Ferishta, as well as in the chronicles of their bards. This branch of the Chauhan race was called Mallani, and will be again noticed, both here and in the annals of Haraoti. It formed that portion of the Chauhan sovereignty called the Hapa Raj, whose capital was Juna-Chhotan, connecting the sway of this race in the countries along the Luni from Ajmer to Parkar, which would appear to have crushed its Agnikula brother, the Pramar, and possessed all that region marked by the course of the ‘Salt River’ to Parkar. Sonagir, the ‘golden mount,’ is the more ancient name of this castle, and was adopted by the Chauhans as distinctive of their tribe, when the older term, Mallani, was dropped for Sonigira. Here they enshrined their tutelary divinity, Mallinath, ‘god of the Malli,’ who maintained his position until the sons of Siahji entered these regions, when the name of Sonagir was exchanged for that of Jalor, contracted from Jalandharnath, whose shrine is about a coss west of the castle. Whether Jalandharnath [297], the ‘divinity of Jalandhar,’ was imported from the Ganges, or left as well as the god of the Malli by the _ci-devant_ Mallanis, is uncertain: but should this prove to be a remnant of the foes of Alexander, driven by him from Multan,[8.1.19] its probability is increased by the caves of Jalandhar (so celebrated as a Hindu pilgrimage even in Babur’s time) being in their vicinity. Be this as it may, the Rathors, like the Roman conquerors, have added these indigenous divinities to their own pantheon. The descendants of the expatriated Sonigiras now occupy the lands of Chitalwana, near the _furca_ of the Luni. Jalor comprehends the inferior districts of Siwanchi, Bhinmal, Sanchor, Morsin, all attached to the _khalisa_ or fisc; besides the great _pattayats_, or chieftainships, of Bhadrajan, Mewa, Jasola, and Sindari—a tract of ninety miles in length, and nearly the same in breadth, with fair soil, water near the surface, and requiring only good government to make it as productive as any of its magnitude in these regions, and sufficient to defray the whole personal expenses of the Rajas of Jodhpur, or about nine lakhs of rupees; but in consequence of the anarchy of the capital, the corruption of the managers, and the raids of the Sahariyas of the desert and the Minas of Abu and the Aravalli, it is deplorably deteriorated. There are several ridges (on one of which is the castle) traversing the district, but none uniting with the table-land of Mewar, though with breaks it may be traced to near Abu. In one point it shows its affinity to the desert, _i.e._ in its vegetable productions, for it has no other timber than the _jhal_, the _babul_, the _karil_, and other shrubs of the _thal_. The important fortress of Jalor, guarding the southern frontier of Marwar, stands on the extremity of the range extending north to Siwana. It is from three to four hundred feet in height, fortified with a wall and bastions, on some of which cannon are mounted. It has four gates; that from the town is called the Suraj-pol, and to the north-west is the Bal-pol (‘the gate of Bal,’ the sun-god), where there is a shrine of the Jain pontiff, Parsvanath. There are many wells, and two considerable _baoris_, or reservoirs of good water, and to the north a small lake formed by damming up the streams from the hills; but the water seldom lasts above half the year. The town [298], which contains three thousand and seventeen houses, extends on the north and eastern side of the fort, having the Sukri flowing about a mile east of it. It has a circumvallation as well as the castle, having guns for its defence; and is inhabited by every variety of tribe, though, strange to say, there are only five families of Rajputs in its motley population. The following census was made by one of my parties, in A.D. 1813: Houses. Malis, or gardeners 140 Telis, or oilmen, here called 100 _Ghanchi_ Kumhars, or potters 60 Thatheras, or braziers 30 Chhipis, or printers 20 Bankers, merchants, and shopkeepers 1156 Musalman families 936 Khatiks, or butchers 20 Nais, or barbers 16 Kalals, or spirit-distillers 20 Weavers 100 Silk weavers 15 Yatis (Jain priests) 2 Brahmans 100 Gujars 40 Rajputs 5 Bhojaks[8.1.20] 20 Minas 60 Bhils 15 Sweetmeat shops 8 Ironsmiths and carpenters (_Lohars_ 14 and _Sutars_) Churiwalas, or bracelet-manufacturers 4 The general accuracy of this census was confirmed. =Sīwāna.=—Siwanchi is the tract between the Luni and Sukri, of which Siwana, a strong castle placed on the extremity of the same range with Jalor, is the capital. The country requires no particular description, being of the same nature as that just depicted. In former times it constituted, together with Nagor, the appanage of the heir-apparent of Marwar; but since the setting-up of the pretender, Dhonkal Singh, both have been attached to the fisc: in fact, there is no heir to Maru! Ferishta mentions the defence of Siwana against the arms of Alau-d-din.[8.1.21] =Machola, Morsin.=—Machola and Morsin are the two principal dependencies of Jalor within the Luni, the former having a strong castle guarding its south-east frontier against the [299] depredations of the Minas; the latter, which has also a fort and town of five hundred houses, is on the western extremity of Jalor. =Bhīnmāl, Sānchor.=—Bhinmal and Sanchor are the two principal subdivisions to the south, and together nearly equal the remainder of the province, each containing eighty villages. These towns are on the high-road to Cutch and Gujarat, which has given them from the most remote times a commercial celebrity. Bhinmal is said to contain fifteen hundred houses, and Sanchor about half the number.[8.1.22] Very wealthy Mahajans, or ‘merchants,’ used to reside here, but insecurity both within and without has much injured these cities, the first of which has its name, Mal (not Mahl, as in the map), from its wealth as a mart.[8.1.23] There is a temple of Baraha (Varaha, the incarnation of the hog), with a great sculptured boar. Sanchor possesses also a distinct celebrity from being the cradle of a class of Brahmans called Sanchora, who are the officiating priests of some of the most celebrated temples in these regions, as that of Dwarka, Mathura, Pushkar, Nagar-Parkar, etc.[8.1.24] The name of Sanchor is corrupted from Satipura, Sati, or Suttee’s town, said to be very ancient. =Bhadrājan.=—A slight notice is due to the principal fiefs of Jalor, as well as the fiscal towns of this domain. Bhadrajan is a town of five hundred houses (three-fourths of which are of the Mina class), situated in the midst of a cluster of hills, having a small fort. The chief is of the Jodha clan; his fief connects Jalor with Pali in Godwar. =Mewa.=—Mewa is a celebrated little tract on both banks of the Luni, and one of the first possessions of the Rathors. It is, properly speaking, in Siwanchi, to which it pays a tribute, besides service when required. The chief of Mewa has the title of Rawal, and his usual residence is the town of Jasol. Surat Singh is the present chief; his relative, Surajmall, holds the same title, and the fief and castle of Sandri, also on the Luni, twenty-two miles south of Jasol. A feud reigns between them; they claim co-equal rights, and the consequence is that neither can reside at Mewa, the capital of the domain. Both chiefs deemed the profession of robber no disgrace, when this memoir was written (1813); but it is to be hoped they have seen the danger, if not the error, of their ways, and will turn to cultivating the fertile tracts along the ‘Salt River,’ which yield wheat, juar, and bajra in abundance. =Bālotra, Tīlwāra.=—Balotra, Tilwara, are two celebrated names in the geography of this region, and have an annual fair, as renowned in Rajputana as that of Leipsic in Germany. Though called the Balotra _mela_ (literally, 'an assemblage, or [300] concourse of people'), it was held at Tilwara, several miles south,[8.1.25] near an island of the Luni, which is sanctified by a shrine of Mallinath, ‘the divinity of the Malli,’ who, as already mentioned, is now the patron god of the Rathors. Tilwara forms the fief of another relative of the Mewa family, and Balotra, which ought to belong to the fisc, did and may still belong to Awa, the chief noble of Marwar. But Balotra and Sandri have other claims to distinction, having, with the original estate of Dunara, formed the fief of Durgadas, the first character in the annals of Maru, and whose descendant yet occupies Sandri. The fief of Mewa, which includes them all, was rated at fifty thousand rupees annually. The Pattayats with their vassalage occasionally go to court, but hold themselves exempt from service except on emergencies. The call upon them is chiefly for the defence of the frontier, of which they are the Simiswara, or lord-marchers. =Īndhāvati.=—This tract, which has its name from the Rajput tribe of Indha, the chief branch of the Parihars (the ancient sovereigns of Mandor), extends from Balotra north, and west of the capital, Jodhpur, and is bounded on the north by the _thal_ of Guga. The _thal_ of Indhavati embraces a space of about thirty coss in circumference. =Gūgadeo ka Thal.=—The _thal_ of Guga, a name celebrated in the heroic history of the Chauhans, is immediately north of Indhavati, and one description will suit both. The sand-ridges (_thal-ka-tiba_) are very lofty in all this tract; very thinly inhabited; few villages; water far from the surface, and having considerable jungles. Tob, Phalsund, and Bimasar are the chief towns in this _rui_. They collect rain-water in reservoirs called _tanka_, which they are obliged to use sparingly, and often while a mass of corruption, producing that peculiar disease in the eyes called _rataundha_ (corrupted by us to _rotunda_) or night-blindness,[8.1.26] for with the return of day it passes off. =Tararoi.=—The _thal_ of Tararoi intervenes between that of Gugadeo and the present frontier of Jaisalmer, to which it formerly belonged.[8.1.27] Pokaran is the chief town, not of Tararoi only, but of all the desert interposed between the two chief capitals of Marusthali. The southern part of this _thal_ does not differ from that described, but its northern portion, and more especially for sixteen to twenty miles around the city of Pokaran, are low disconnected ridges of loose rock, the continuation of that on which stands the capital of the Bhattis, which give, as we have already said, to this oasis the epithet of Mer, or rocky. The name of Tararoi is derived from _tar_, which signifies moisture, humidity [301] from springs, or the springs themselves, which rise from this _rui_. Pokaran, the residence of Salim Singh (into the history of whose family we have so fully entered in the Annals of Marwar), is a town of two thousand houses, surrounded by a stone wall, and having a fort, mounting several guns on its eastern side. Under the west side of the town, the inhabitants have the unusual sight in these regions of running water, though only in the rainy season, for it is soon absorbed by the sands. Some say it comes from the Sar of Kanod, others from the springs in the ridge; at all events, they derive a good and plentiful supply of water from the wells excavated in its bed. The chief of Pokaran, besides its twenty-four villages, holds lands between the Luni and Bandi rivers to the amount of a lakh of rupees. Dunara and Manzil, the fief of the loyal Durgadas, are now in the hands of the traitor Salim. Three coss to the north of Pokaran is the village of Ramdeora, so named from a shrine to Ramdeo, one of the Paladins of the desert, and which attracts people from all quarters to the Mela, or fair, held in the rainy month of Bhadon.[8.1.28] Merchants from Karachi-bandar, Tatta, Multan, Shikarpur, and Cutch here exchange the produce of various countries: horses, camels, and oxen used also to be reared in great numbers, but the famine of 1813, and anarchy ever since Raja Man’s accession, added to the interminable feuds between the Bhattis and Rathors, have checked all this desirable intercourse, which occasionally made the very heart of the desert a scene of joy and activity. =Khawar.=—This _thal_, lying between Jaisalmer and Barmer, and abutting at Girab into the desert of Dhat, is in the most remote angle of Marwar. Though thinly inhabited, it possesses several considerable places, entitled to the name of towns, in this ‘abode of death.’ Of these, Sheo and Kotra are the most considerable, the first containing three hundred, the latter five hundred houses, situated upon the ridge of hills, which may be traced from Bhuj to Jaisalmer. Both these towns belong to chiefs of the Rathor family, who pay a nominal obedience to the Raja of Jodhpur. At no distant period, a smart trade used to be carried on between Anhilwara Patan and this region; but the lawless Sahariyas plundered so many kafilas, that it is at length destroyed. They find pasture for numerous flocks of sheep and buffaloes in this _thal_. =Mallināth, Bārmer.=—The whole of this region was formerly inhabited by a tribe called Malli or Mallani, who, although asserted by some to be Rathor in origin, are assuredly Chauhan, and of the same stock as the ancient lords of Juna Chhotan. Barmer was reckoned, before the last famine, to contain one [302] thousand two hundred houses, inhabited by all classes, one-fourth of whom were Sanchora Brahmans.[8.1.29] The town is situated in the same range as Sheo-Kotra, here two to three hundred feet in height. From Sheo to Barmer there is a good deal of flat intermingled with low _tibas_ of sand, which in favourable seasons produces enough food for consumption. Padam Singh, the Barmer chief, is of the same stock as those of Sheo Kotra and Jasol; from the latter they all issue, and he calculates thirty-four villages in his feudal domain. Formerly, a _dani_ (which is, literally rendered, _douanier_) resided here to collect the transit duties; but the Sahariyas have rendered this office a sinecure, and the chief of Barmer takes the little it realizes to himself. They find it more convenient to be on a tolerably good footing with the Bhattis, from whom this tract was conquered, than with their own head, whose officers they very often oppose, especially when a demand is made upon them for _dand_; on which occasion they do not disdain to call in the assistance of their desert friends, the Sahariyas. Throughout the whole of this region they rear great numbers of the best camels, which find a ready market in every part of India. =Kherdhar.=—‘The land of Kher’[8.1.30] has often been mentioned in the annals of these States. It was in this distant nook that the Rathors first established themselves, expelling the Gohil tribe, which migrated to the Gulf of Cambay, and are now lords of Gogha and Bhavnagar; and instead of steering ‘the ship of the desert’ in their piracies on the kafilas, plied the Great Indian Ocean, even “to the golden coast of Sofala,” in the yet more nefarious trade of slaves. It is difficult to learn what latitude they affixed to the ‘land of Kher,’ which in the time of the Gohils approximated to the Luni; nor is it necessary to perplex ourselves with such niceties, as we only use the names for the purpose of description. In all probability it comprehended the whole space afterwards occupied by the Mallani or Chauhans, who founded Juna-Chhotan, etc., which we shall therefore include in Kherdhar. Kheralu, the chief town, was one of the ‘nine castles of Maru,’ when the Pramar was its sovereign lord. It has now dwindled into an insignificant village, containing no more than forty houses, surrounded on all sides by hills “of a black colour,” part of the same chain from Bhuj. =Jūna Chhotan.=—Juna Chhotan, or the ‘ancient’ Chhotan, though always conjoined in name, are two [303] distinct places, said to be of very great antiquity, and capitals of the Hapa sovereignty. But as to what this Hapa Raj was, beyond the bare fact of its princes being Chauhan, tradition is now mute. Both still present the vestiges of large cities, more especially Juna, ‘the ancient,’ which is enclosed in a mass of hills, having but one inlet, on the east side, where there are the ruins of a small castle which defended the entrance. There are likewise the remains of two more on the summit of the range. The mouldering remnants of mandirs (temples), and _baoris_ (reservoirs), now choked up, all bear testimony to its extent, which is said to have included twelve thousand habitable dwellings! Now there are not above two hundred huts on its site, while Chhotan has shrunk into a poor hamlet. At Dhoriman, which is at the farther extremity of the range in which are Juna and Chhotan, there is a singular place of worship, to which the inhabitants flock on the _tij_, or third day of Sawan of each year. The patron saint is called Alandeo, through whose means some grand victory was obtained by the Mallani. The immediate objects of veneration are a number of brass images called Aswamukhi, from having the ‘heads of horses’ ranged on the top of a mountain called Alandeo. Whether these may further confirm the Scythic ancestry of the Mallani, as a branch of the Asi, or Aswa race of Central Asia, can at present be only matter of conjecture. =Nagar Gurha.=—Between Barmer and Nagar-Gurha on the Luni is one immense continuous _thal_, or rather _rui_, containing deep jungles of khair, or kher, khejra, karil, khep, phog,[8.1.31] whose gums and berries are turned to account by the Bhils and Kolis of the southern districts. Nagar and Gurha are two large towns on the Luni (described in the itinerary), on the borders of the Chauhan _raj_ of Suigam, and formerly part of it. Here terminate our remarks on the _thals_ of western Marwar, which, sterile as it is by the hand of Nature, had its miseries completed by the famine that raged generally throughout these regions in S. 1868 (A.D. 1812), and of which this[8.1.32] is the third year. The disorders which we have depicted as prevailing at the seat of government for the last thirty years, have left these remote regions entirely to the mercy of the desert tribes [304], or their own scarce less lawless lords: in fact, it only excites our astonishment how man can vegetate in such a land, which has nothing but a few _sars_, or salt-lakes, to yield any profit to the proprietors, and the excellent camel pastures, more especially in the southern tracts, which produce the best breed in the desert. ----- Footnote 8.1.1: The journals of all these routes, with others of Central and Western India, form eleven moderate-sized folio volumes, from which an itinerary of these regions might be constructed. It was my intention to have drawn up a more perfect and detailed map from these, but my health forbids the attempt. They are now deposited in the archives of the Company, and may serve, if judiciously used, to fill up the only void in the great map of India, executed by their commands. Footnote 8.1.2: [Kānod Mohindargarh in Patiāla State (_IGI_, xvii. 385).] Footnote 8.1.3: It left Delhi October 13, 1808. Footnote 8.1.4: “Our marches,” says Mr. Elphinstone, “were seldom very long. The longest was twenty-six miles, and the shortest fifteen; but the fatigue which our people suffered bore no proportion to the distance. Our line, when in the closest order, was two miles long. The path by which we travelled wound much, to avoid the sand-hills. It was too narrow to allow of two camels going abreast; and if an animal stepped to one side, it sunk in the sand as in snow,” etc. etc.—_Account of the Kingdom of Caubul_, ed. 1842, vol. i. p. 11. Footnote 8.1.5: [In Sind, on the N. shore of the Great Rann, about 10 miles from Nagar-Pārkar.] Footnote 8.1.6: _Trikuta_, the epithet bestowed on the rock on which the castle of Jaisalmer is erected. Footnote 8.1.7: A name often given by Ferishta to the Indus. Footnote 8.1.8: [As has been already stated, Sahariya has no connexion with Arabic _Sahra_, ‘desert.’] Footnote 8.1.9: [Jhāl, of which there are two varieties, large and small, _Salvadora persica_ and _S. oleoides_.] Footnote 8.1.10: When I penned this conjectural etymology, I was not aware that any speculation had been made upon this word: I find, however, the late M. Langlés suggested the derivation of _oasis_ (variously written by the Greeks αὔασις, ἴασις and υἅσις, ὄασις, [αὔασις is the only other recognized form]) from the Arabic واح: and Dr. Wait, in a series of interesting etymologies (see _Asiatic Journal_, May 1830), suggests वसि, _vasi_ from वस, _vas_, ‘to inhabit.’ _Vasi_ and ὕασις quasi _vasis_ are almost identical. My friend, Sir W. Ouseley, gave me nearly the same signification of وادي, _Wadi_, as appears in Johnson’s edition of Richardson, namely, a valley, a desert, a channel of a river—a river; وادي, _wadi-al-kabir_, ‘the great river,’ corrupted into Guadalquiver, which example is also given in d’Herbelot (see _Vadi Gehennem_), and by Thompson, who traces the word _water_ through all the languages of Europe—the Saxon _waeter_, the Greek ὔδωρ, the Islandic _udr_, the Slavonic _wod_ (whence _woder_ and _oder_, ‘a river’): all appear derivable from the Arabic _wad_, ‘a river’—or the Sanskrit _wah_; and if Dr. W. will refer to p. 1322 of the Itinerary, he will find a singular confirmation of his etymology in the word _bas_ (classically _vas_) applied to one of these _habitable_ spots. The word _basti_, also of frequent occurrence therein, is from _basna_, to inhabit; _vasi_, an inhabitant; or _vas_, a habitation, perhaps derivable from _wah_, indispensable to an oasis! [The _New English Dict._ gives Lat. oasis, Greek ὄασις, apparently of Egyptian origin; cf. Coptic _ouahe_ (whence Egyptian Arabic _wāh_), ‘dwelling-place, oasis,’ from _ouih_, ‘to dwell.’] Footnote 8.1.11: [See _IGI_, xii. 212 f.; E. H. Aitken, _Gazetteer of Sind_, 4; _Calcutta Review_, 1874; _JRAS_, xxv. 49 ff.] Footnote 8.1.12: [The derivation of Pārkar is unknown; that suggested in the text is impossible.] Footnote 8.1.13: [Nārāyansar, an important place of pilgrimage, with interesting temples, is situated at the Kori entrance of the W. Rann (_BG_, v. 245 ff.).] Footnote 8.1.14: [Or _irina_, Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 774.] Footnote 8.1.15: [_Equus hemionus_ (Blanford, _Mammalia of India_, 470 f.; Job xxxix. 5 ff.).] Footnote 8.1.16: “The greatest breadth of the valley of the Nile is four leagues, the least, one”; so that the narrowest portion of the valley of Sind equals the largest of the Nile. Egypt alone is _said_ to have had eight millions of inhabitants; what then might Sind maintain! The condition of the peasantry, as described by Bourrienne, is exactly that of Rajputana; “The villages are fiefs belonging to any one on whom the prince may bestow them; the peasantry pay a tax to their superior, and are the actual proprietors of the soil; amidst all the revolutions and commotions, their privileges are not infringed.” This right (still obtaining), taken away by Joseph, was restored by Sesostris. Footnote 8.1.17: Another salt river. Footnote 8.1.18: [The Chauhān Rāo Kīrttipāl took it from the Pramāras towards the end of the twelfth century, and Kānardeo Chauhān lost it to Alāu-d-dīn (Erskine iii. A. 199 f.). In Briggs’ translation of Ferishta (i. 370) the place is called Jalwar, and the King Nāhardeo.] Footnote 8.1.19: Multan and Juna (Chhotan, _qu._ Chauhan-tan?) have the same signification, ‘the ancient abode,’ and both were occupied by the tribe of Malli or Mallani, said to be of Chauhan race; and it is curious to find at Jalor (classically Jalandhar) the same divinities as in their haunts in the Panjab, namely, Mallinath, Jalandharnath, and Balnath. Abu-l-Fazl says, “The cell of Balnath is in the middle of Sindsagar”; and Babur (Elliot-Dowson ii. 450, iv. 240, 415, v. 114, _Āīn_, ii. 315) places “Balnath-jogi below the hill of Jud, five marches east of the Indus,” the very spot claimed by the Yadus, when led out of India by their deified leader Baldeo, or Balnath. Footnote 8.1.20: [Bhojak, ‘a feeder,’ a term usually applied to those Brāhmans who are fed after a death, in order to pass on the food to the spirit.] Footnote 8.1.21: [Ferishta (i. 369) calls the Rāja Sītaldeo; Amīr Khusru (Elliot-Dowson iii. 78, 550, v. 166) Sutaldeo.] Footnote 8.1.22: [The population of these towns is now respectively 4545 and 2066.] Footnote 8.1.23: [The old name was Srīmāl or Bhillamāla, which Erskine (iii. A. 194) identifies with Pi-lo-mo-lo of Hiuen Tsiang. But Beal (_Buddhist Records of the Western World_, ii. 270) transliterates this name as Bālmer or Bārmer.] Footnote 8.1.24: [For the Sāchora or Sānchora Brāhmans see _BG_, ix. Part i. 18; Erskine iii. A. 84.] Footnote 8.1.25: [Tīlwāra is about 10 miles W. of Bālotra.] Footnote 8.1.26: It is asserted by the natives to be caused by a small thread-like worm, which also forms in the eyes of horses. I have seen it in the horse, moving about with great velocity. They puncture and discharge it with the aqueous humour. Footnote 8.1.27: [The name Tararoi seems to have disappeared from the maps, the tract being now known as Sānkra.] Footnote 8.1.28: [Rāmdeora is 12 miles N. of Pokaran. The saint is commonly called Rāmdeoji or Rāmsāh Pīr.] Footnote 8.1.29: [Bārmer, the ancient name of which is said to be Bāhadamer, ‘hill fort of Bāhada,’ is 130 miles W. of Jodhpur city; its present population is 6064. Mallināth was son of Rāo Salkha, eighth in descent from Siāhji, founder of Mārwār State.] Footnote 8.1.30: Named in all probability, from the superabundant tree of the desert termed _Khair_, and _dhar_, ‘land.’ It is also called Kheralu, but more properly Kherala, ‘the abode of Khair’; a shrub of great utility in these regions. Its astringent pods, similar in appearance to those of the laburnum, they convert into food. Its gum is collected as an article of trade; the camels browse upon its twigs, and the wood makes their huts. [Kher is a ruined village, not far from Jasol, at the point where the Lūni River turns eastward. Kherālu has disappeared from modern maps, if it be not a mistake for Kerādu, where there are interesting temples (_ASR_, West Circle, March 31, 1907, pp. 40-43; Erskine iii. A. 201).] Footnote 8.1.31: [Khair, _Acacia catechu_; Khejra, _Prosopis spicigera_; Karīl, _Capparis aphylla_; Khep, _Crotolaria burhia_; Phog, _Calligonum polygonoides_.] Footnote 8.1.32: That is, 1814. I am transcribing from my journals of that day, just after the return of one of my parties of discovery from these regions, bringing with them natives of Dhat, who, to use their own simple but expressive phraseology, “had the measure of the desert in the palm of their hands”; for they had been employed as kasids, or messengers, for thirty years of their lives. Two of them afterwards returned and brought away their families, and remained upwards of five years in my service, and were faithful, able, and honest in the duties I assigned them, as jamadars of daks, or superintendents of posts, which were for many years under my charge when at Sindhia’s court, extending at one time from the Ganges to Bombay, through the most savage and little-known regions in India. But with such men as I drilled to aid in these discoveries, I found nothing insurmountable. [The famine of 1812-13 was the most calamitous of the earlier visitations (Erskine iii. A. 125).] ----- CHAPTER 2 =The Chauhān Rāj.=—This sovereignty (_raj_) of the Chauhans occupies the most remote corner of Rajputana, and its existence is now for the first time noticed. As the quality of greatness as well as goodness is, in a great measure, relative, the Raj of the Chauhans may appear an empire to the lesser chieftains of the desert. Externally, it is environed, on the north and east, by the tracts of the Marwar State we have just been sketching. To the south-east it is bounded by Koliwara, to the south hemmed-in by the Rann, and to the west by the desert of Dhat. Internally, it is partitioned into two distinct governments, the eastern being termed Virawah, and the western from its position ‘across the Luni,’ Parkar;[8.2.1] which appellation, conjoined to Nagar, is also applied to the capital, with the distinction of Srinagar, or metropolis. This is the Negar-Parker of the distinguished Rennel, a place visited at a very early stage of our intercourse with these regions by an enterprising Englishman, named Whittington.[8.2.2] =History of the Chauhāns.=—The Chauhans of this desert boast the great antiquity of their settlement, as well as the nobility of their blood: they have only to refer to Manik Rae and Bisaldeo of Ajmer, and to Prithiraj, the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi, to establish the latter fact; but the first we must leave to conjecture and their bards, though we may [305] fearlessly assert that they were posterior to the Sodhas and other branches of the Pramar race, who to all appearance were its masters when Alexander descended the Indus. Neither is it improbable that the Malli or Mallani, whom he expelled in that corner of the Panjab, wrested ‘the land of Kher’ from the Sodhas. At all events, it is certain that a chain of Chauhan principalities extended, from the eighth to the thirteenth century, from Ajmer to the frontiers of Sind, of which Ajmer, Nadol, Jalor, Sirohi, and Juna-Chhotan were the capitals; and though all of these in their annals claim to be independent, it may be assumed that some kind of obedience was paid to Ajmer. We possess inscriptions which justify this assertion. Moreover, each of them was conspicuous in Muslim history, from the time of the conqueror of Ghazni to that of Alau-d-din, surnamed ‘the second Alexander.’ Mahmud, in his twelfth expedition, by Multan to Ajmer (whose citadel, Ferishta says, “he was compelled to leave in the hands of the enemy”),[8.2.3] passed and sacked Nadol (transliterated Buzule);[8.2.4] and the traditions of the desert have preserved the recollection of his visit to Juna-Chhotan, and they yet point out the mines by which its castle on the rock was destroyed. Whether this was after his visitation and destruction of Nahrvala (Anhilwara Patan), or while on his journey, we have no means of knowing; but when we recollect that in this his last invasion, he attempted to return by Sind, and nearly perished with all his army in the desert, we might fairly suppose his determination to destroy Juna-Chhotan betrayed him into this danger: for besides the all-ruling motive of the conversion or destruction of the ‘infidels,’ in all likelihood the expatriated princes of Nahrvala had sought refuge with the Chauhans amidst the sandhills of Kherdhar, and may thus have fallen into his grasp. Although nominally a single principality, the chieftain of Parkar pays little, if any, submission to his superior of Virawah. Both of them have the ancient Hindu title of Rana, and are said at least to possess the quality of hereditary valour, which is synonymous with Chauhan. It is unnecessary to particularize the extent in square miles of _thal_ in this raj, or to attempt to number its population, which is so fluctuating; but we shall subjoin a brief account of the chief towns, which will aid in estimating the population of Marusthali. We begin with the first division. =Chief Towns.=—The principal towns in the Chauhan _raj_ are Suigam, Dharanidhar,[8.2.5] Bakhasar, Tharad, Hotiganv, and Chitalwana. Rana Narayan Rao resides alternately at Sui and Bah, both large towns surrounded by an _abbatis_, chiefly of the _babul_ and other thorny trees, called in these regions _kantha-ka-kot_, which has given these simple, but very [306] efficient fortifications the term of _kantha-ka-kot_, or ‘fort of thorns.’ The resources of Narayan Rao, derived from this desert domain, are said to be three lakhs of rupees, of which he pays a triennial tribute of one lakh to Jodhpur, to which no right exists, and which is rarely realized without an army. The tracts watered by the Luni yield good crops of the richer grains; and although, in the dry season, there is no constant stream, plenty of sweet water is procured by excavating wells in its bed. But it is asserted that, even when not continuous, a gentle current is perceptible in those detached portions or pools, filtrating under the porous sand: a phenomenon remarked in the bed of the Kunwari River (in the district of Gwalior), where, after a perfectly dry space of several miles, we have observed in the next portion of water a very perceptible current.[8.2.6] =Nagar Pārkar.=—Nagar, or Srinagar, the capital of Parkar, is a town containing fifteen hundred houses, of which, in 1814, one-half were inhabited. There is a small fort to the south-west of the town on the ridge, which is said to be about two hundred feet high. There are wells and _beras_ (reservoirs) in abundance. The river Luni is called seven coss south of Nagar, from which we may infer that its bed is distinctly to be traced through the Rann. The chief of Parkar assumes the title of Rana, as well as his superior of Virawah whose allegiance he has entirely renounced, though we are ignorant of the relation in which they ever stood to each other: all are of the same family, the Hapa-Raj, of which Juna-Chhotan was the capital. =Bakhasar.=—Bakhasar ranks next to Srinagar. It was at no distant period a large and, for the desert, a flourishing town; but now (1814) it contains but three hundred and sixty inhabited dwellings. A son of the Nagar chief resides here, who enjoys, as well as his father, the title of Rana. We shall make no further mention of the inferior towns, as they will appear in the itinerary. =Tharād.=—Tharad is another subdivision of the Chauhans of the Luni whose chief town of the same name is but a few coss to the east of Suigam, and which like Parkar is but nominally dependent upon it. With this we shall conclude the subject of Virawah, which, we repeat, may contain many errors. =Face of the Chauhān Rāj.=—As the itinerary will point out in detail the state of the country, it would be superfluous to attempt a more minute description here. The same sterile ridge, already described as passing through Chhotan to Jaisalmer, is to be [307] traced two coss west of Bakhasar, and thence to Nagar, in detached masses. The tracts on both banks of the Luni yield good crops of wheat and the richer grains, and Virawah, though enclosing considerable _thal_, has a good portion of flat, especially towards Radhanpur, seventeen coss from Sui. Beyond the Luni, the _thal_ rises into lofty _tibas_: and indeed from Chhotan to Bakhasar, all is sterile, and consists of lofty sandhills and broken ridges often covered by the sands. =Water Production.=—Throughout the Chauhan raj, or at least its most habitable portion, water is obtained at a moderate distance from the surface, the wells being from ten to twenty _pursas_,[8.2.7] or about sixty-five to a hundred and thirty feet in depth; nothing, when compared with those in Dhat, sometimes near seven hundred. Besides wheat, on the Luni, the oil-plant (_til_), _mung_, _moth_, and other pulses, with _bajra_, are produced in sufficient quantities for internal consumption; but plunder is the chief pursuit throughout this land, in which the lordly Chauhan and the Koli menial vie in dexterity. Wherever the soil is least calculated for agriculture, there is often abundance of fine pasture, especially for camels, which browse upon a variety of thorny shrubs. Sheep and goats are also in great numbers, and bullocks and horses of a very good description, which find a ready sale at the Tilwara fair. =Inhabitants.=—We must describe the descendants, whether of the Malli, foe of Alexander, or of the no less heroic Prithiraj, as a community of thieves, who used to carry their raids into Sind, Gujarat, and Marwar, to avenge themselves on private property for the wrongs they suffered from the want of all government, or the oppression of those (Jodhpur) who asserted supremacy over, and the right to plunder them. All classes are to be found in the Chauhan raj: but those predominate, the names of whose tribes are synonyms for ‘robber,’ as the Sahariya, Khosa, Koli, Bhil. Although the Chauhan is lord-paramount, a few of whom are to be found in every village, yet the Koli and Bhil tribe, with another class called Pital,[8.2.8] are the most numerous: the last named, though equally low in caste, is the only industrious class in this region. Besides cultivation, they make a trade of the gums, which they collect in great quantities from the various trees whose names have been already mentioned. The Chauhans, like most of these remote Rajput tribes, dispense with the _zunnar_[8.2.9] or _janeo_, the distinctive thread of a ‘twice-born tribe,’ and are altogether free from [308] the prejudices of those whom association with Brahmans has bound down with chains of iron. But to make amends for this laxity in ceremonials, there is a material amendment in their moral character, in comparison with the Chauhans of the _purab_ (east); for here the unnatural law of infanticide is unknown, in spite of the examples of their neighbours, the Jarejas, amongst whom it prevails to the most frightful extent. In eating, they have no prejudices; they make no _chauka_, or fireplace; their cooks are generally of the barber (_Nai_) tribe, and what is left at one meal, they, contrary to all good manners, tie up and eat at the next. =Kolis and Bhils.=—The first is the most numerous class in these regions, and may be ranked with the most degraded portion of the human species. Although they _puja_ all the symbols of Hindu worship, and chiefly the terrific Mata, they scoff at all laws, human or divine, and are little superior to the brutes of their own forests. To them every thing edible is lawful food; cows, buffaloes, the camel, deer, hog; nor do they even object to such as have died a natural death. Like the other debased tribes, they affect to have Rajput blood, and call themselves Chauhan Koli, Rathor Koli, Parihar Koli, etc., which only tends to prove their illegitimate descent from the aboriginal Koli stock. Almost all the cloth-weavers throughout India are of the Koli class, though they endeavour to conceal their origin under the term Julaha, which ought only to distinguish the Muslim weaver.[8.2.10] The Bhils partake of all the vices of the Kolis, and perhaps descend one step lower in the scale of humanity; for they will feed on vermin of any kind, foxes, jackals, rats, guanas,[8.2.11] and snakes; and although they make an exception of the camel and the pea-fowl, the latter being sacred to Mata, the goddess they propitiate, yet in moral degradation their fellowship is complete. The Kolis and Bhils have no matrimonial intercourse, nor will they even eat with each other—such is caste! The bow and arrow form their arms, occasionally swords, but rarely the matchlock. Pital is the chief husbandman of this region, and, with the Bania, the only respectable class. They possess flocks, and are also cultivators, and are said to be almost as numerous as either the Bhils or Kolis. The Pital is reputed synonymous with the Kurmi of Hindustan and the Kulambi of Malwa and the Deccan. There are other tribes, such as the Rabari, or rearer of camels, who will be described with the classes appertaining to the whole desert. =Dhāt and Umrasūmra.=—We now take leave of Rajputana, as it is, for the desert depending upon Sind, or that space between the frontier of Rajputana to the valley [309] of the Indus, on the west, and from Daudputra north, to Baliari on the Rann.[8.2.12] This space measures about two hundred and twenty miles of longitude, and its greatest breadth is eighty; it is one entire _thal_, having but few villages, though there are many hamlets of shepherds sprinkled over it, too ephemeral to have a place in the map. A few of these _puras_ and _vas_, as they are termed, where the springs are perennial, have a name assigned to them, but to multiply them would only mislead, as they exist no longer than the vegetation. The whole of this tract may be characterized as essentially desert, having spaces of fifty miles without a drop of water, and without great precaution, impassable. The sandhills rise into little mountains, and the wells are so deep, that with a large kafila, many might die before the thirst of all could be slaked. The enumeration of a few of these will put the reader in possession of one of the difficulties of a journey through Maru; they range from eleven to seventy-five _pursa_, or seventy to five hundred feet in depth. One at Jaisinghdesar, fifty _pursa_; Dhot-ki-basti, sixty; Girab, sixty; Hamirdeora, seventy; Jinjiniali, seventy-five; Chailak, seventy-five to eighty. =The Horrors of Humāyūn’s March.=—In what vivid colours does the historian Ferishta describe the miseries of the fugitive emperor, Humayun, and his faithful followers, at one of these wells! “The country through which they fled being an entire desert of sand, the Moguls were in the utmost distress for water: some ran mad; others fell down dead. For three whole days there was no water; on the fourth day they came to a well, which was so deep that a drum was beaten, to give notice to the man driving the bullocks, that the bucket had reached the top; but the unhappy followers were so impatient for drink, that, so soon as the first bucket appeared, several threw themselves upon it, before it had quite reached the surface, and fell in. The next day, they arrived at a brook, and the camels, which had not tasted water for several days, were allowed to quench their thirst; but, having drunk to excess, several of them died. The king, after enduring unheard-of miseries, at length reached Omurkote with only a few attendants. The Raja, who has the title of Rana, took compassion on his misfortunes, and spared nothing that could alleviate his sufferings, or console him in his distress.”—Briggs’ _Ferishta_, vol. ii. p. 93.[8.2.13] We are now in the very region where Humayun suffered these miseries, and in its chief town, Umarkot, Akbar, the greatest monarch India ever knew, first saw the light. Let us throw aside the veil which conceals the history of the race of Humayun’s protector, and notwithstanding he is now but nominal sovereign of Umarkot, and lord [310] of the village of Chor,[8.2.14] give him “a local habitation and a name,” even in the days of the Macedonian invader of India. =Dhāt.=—Dhat,[8.2.15] of which Umarkot is the capital, was one of the divisions of Marusthali, which from time immemorial was subject to the Pramar. Amongst the thirty-five tribes of this the most numerous of the races called Agnikula, were the Sodha, the Umar, and the Sumra;[8.2.16] and the conjunction of the two last has given a distinctive appellation to the more northern _thal_, still known as Umarsumra, though many centuries have fled since they possessed any power. =Aror, Umarsūmra.=—Aror, of which we have already narrated the discovery, and which is laid down in the map about six miles east of Bakhar on the Indus, was in the region styled Umarsumra, which may once have had a much wider acceptation, when a dynasty of thirty-six princes of the Sumra tribe ruled all these countries during five hundred years.[8.2.17] On the extinction of its power, and the restoration of their ancient rivals, the Sind-Samma princes, who in their turn gave way to the Bhattis, this tract obtained the epithet of Bhattipoh; but the ancient and more legitimate name, Umarsumra, is yet recognized, and many hamlets of shepherds, both of Umars and Sumras, are still existing amidst its sandhills. To them we shall return, after discussing their elder brethren, the Sodhas. We can trace the colonization of the Bhattis, the Chawaras, and the Solankis, the Guhilots, and the Rathors, throughout all these countries, both of central and western Rajputana; and wherever we go, whatever new capital is founded, it is always on the site of a Pramar establishment. _Pirthi tain na Pramar ka_, or ‘the world is the Pramars,’[8.2.18] I may here repeat, is hardly hyperbolical when applied to the Rajput world. =Aror.=—Aror, or Alor as written by Abu-l Fazl, and described by that celebrated geographer, Ibn-Haukal, as “rivalling Multan in greatness,” was one of the ‘nine divisions of Maru’ governed by the Pramar, of which we must repeat, one of the chief branches was the Sodha. The islandic Bakhar, or Mansura (so named by the lieutenant of the Khalif Al-Mansur), a few miles west of Aror, is considered as the capital of the Sogdoi, when Alexander sailed down the Indus,[8.2.19] and if we couple the similarity of name to the well-authenticated fact of immemorial sovereignty over this region, it might not be drawing too largely on credulity to suggest that the Sogdoi and Soda are one and [311] the same.[8.2.20] The Sodha princes were the patriarchs of the desert when the Bhattis immigrated thither from the north: but whether they deprived them of Aror as well as Lodorva, the chronicle does not intimate. It is by no means unlikely that the Umars and Sumras, instead of being coequal or coeval branches with the Sodha, may be merely subdivisions of them. We may follow Abu-l Fazl and Ferishta in their summaries of the history of ancient Sind, and these races. The former says: “In former times, there lived a Rāja named Siharas, whose capital was Alor. His sway extended eastward, as far as Kashmīr and towards the sea to Mekrān, while the sea confined it on the south and the mountains to the north. An invading army entered the country from Persia, in opposing which the Rāja lost his life. The invaders, contenting themselves with devastating part of the territory, returned. Rāē Sahi,[8.2.21] the Rāja’s son, succeeded his father, by whose enlightened wisdom and the aid of his intelligent minister Rām, justice was universally administered and the repose of the country secured.... In the caliphate of Walīd bin Abdu’l Malik, when Hajjāj was governor of Irāk, he dispatched on his own authority Muhammad Kāsim, his cousin and son-in-law, to Sind, who fought Dāhir in several engagements.... After Muhammad Kāsim’s death, the sovereignty of this country devolved on the descendants of the Banu Tamīm Ansāri. They were succeeded by the Sūmrah race, who established their rule, and were followed by the Sammas, who asserted their descent from Jamshīd, and each of them assumed the name of Jām.”[8.2.22] Ferishta gives a similar version. “On the death of Mahomed Kasim, a tribe who trace their origin from the Ansarias established a government in Sind; after which the zamindars [lords of the soil or indigenous chiefs], denominated in their country Soomura, usurped the power, and held independent rule over the kingdom of Sinde for the space of five hundred years. These [312], the Soomuras, subverted the country of another dynasty called Soomuna [the Samma of Abu-l Fazl], whose chief assumed the title of Jam.”[8.2.23] The difficulty of establishing the identity of these tribes from the cacography of both the Greek and Persian writers, is well exemplified in another portion of Ferishta, treating of the same race, called by him _Soomuna_, and _Samma_ by Abu-l Fazl. “The tribe of Sahna appears to be of obscure origin, and originally to have occupied the tract lying between Bekher and Tatta in Sinde, and pretend to trace their origin from Jemshid.” We can pardon his spelling for his exact location of the tribe, which, whether written Soomuna, Sehna, or Seemeh, is the Summa or Samma tribe of the great Yadu race, whose capital was Summa-ka-kot, or Sammanagari, converted into Minnagara, and its princes into Sambas, by the Greeks.[8.2.24] Thus the Sodhas appear to have ruled at Aror and Bakhar, or Upper Sind, and the Sammas in the lower,[8.2.25] when Alexander passed through this region. The Jarejas and Jams of Navanagar in Saurashtra claim descent from the Sammas, hence called elsewhere by Abu-l Fazl “the Sind-Samma dynasty”; but having been, from their amalgamation with the ‘faithful,’ put out of the pale of Hinduism, they desired to conceal their Samma-Yadu descent, which they abandoned for Jamshid, and Samma was converted into Jam.[8.2.26] We may, therefore, assume that a prince of the Sodha tribe held that division of the great Puar sovereignty, of which Aror, or the insular Bakhar, was the capital, when Alexander passed down the Indus: nor is it improbable that the army, styled Persian by Abu-l Fazl, which invaded Aror, and slew Raja Siharas, was a Graeco-Bactrian army led by Apollodotus, or Menander, who traversed this region, “ruled by Sigertides” (_qu._ Raja Siharas?) even to “the country of the Σῶρα,” or Saurashtra,[8.2.27] where, according to their historian, their medals were existent when he wrote in the second century.[8.2.28] The histories so largely quoted give us decided proof that Dahir, and his son [313] Raesa, the victims of the first Islamite invasion led by Kasim, were of the same lineage as Raja Siharas; and the Bhatti annals prove to demonstration, that at this, the very period of their settling in the desert, the Sodha tribe was paramount (see p. 1185); which, together with the strong analogies in names of places and princes, affords a very reasonable ground for the conclusion we have come to, that the Sodha tribe of Puar race was in possession of Upper Sind, when the Macedonian passed down the stream; and that, amidst all the vicissitudes of fortune, it has continued (contesting possession with its ancient Yadu antagonist, the Samma) to maintain some portion of its ancient sovereignty unto these days. Of this portion we shall now instruct the reader, after hazarding a passing remark on the almost miraculous tenacity which has preserved this race in its desert abode during a period of at least two thousand two hundred years,[8.2.29] bidding defiance to foreign foes, whether Greek, Bactrian, or Muhammadan, and even to those visitations of nature, famines, pestilence, and earthquakes, which have periodically swept over the land, and at length rendered it the scene of desolation it now presents; for in this desert, as in that of Egypt, tradition records that its increase has been and still is progressive, as well in the valley of the Indus as towards the Jumna. =Umarkot.=—This stronghold (_kot_) of the Umars, until a very few years back, was the capital of the Sodha Raj, which extended, two centuries ago, into the valley of Sind, and east to the Luni; but the Rathors of Marwar, and the family at present ruling Sind, have together reduced the sovereignty of the Sodhas to a very confined spot, and thrust out of Umarkot (the last of the nine castles of Maru) the descendant of Siharas, who, from Aror, held dominions extending from Kashmir to the ocean. Umarkot has sadly fallen from its ancient grandeur, and instead of the five thousand houses it contained during the opulence of the Sodha princes, it hardly reckons two hundred and fifty houses, or rather huts.[8.2.30] The old castle is to the north-west of the town. It is built of brick, and the bastions, said to be eighteen in number, are of stone. It has an inner citadel, or rather a fortified palace. There is an old canal to the north of the fort, in which water still lodges part of the year. When Raja Man [314] had possession of Umarkot, he founded several villages thereunto, to keep up the communication. The Talpuris then found it to their interest, so long as they had any alarms from their own lord paramount of Kandahar, to court the Rathor prince; but when civil war appeared in that region, as well as in Marwar, the cessation of all fears from the one, banished the desire of paying court to the other, and Umarkot was unhappily placed between the Kalhoras of Sind and the Rathors, each of whom looked upon this frontier post as the proper limit of his sway, and contended for its possession. We shall therefore give an account of a feud between these rivals, which finally sealed the fate of the Sodha prince, and which may contribute something to the history of the ruling family of Sind, still imperfectly known. =The Fate of the Sodha Tribe. Assassination of Mīr Bijar.=—When Bijai Singh ruled Marwar, Miyan Nur Muhammad, Kalhora, governed Sind; but being expelled by an army from Kandahar, he fled to Jaisalmer, where he died. The eldest son, Antar Khan, and his brothers, found refuge with Bahadur Khan Khairani; while a natural brother, named Ghulam Shah, born of a common prostitute, found means to establish himself on the masnad at Haidarabad. The chiefs of Daudputra espoused the cause of Antar Khan, and prepared to expel the usurper. Bahadur Khan, Sabzal Khan, Ali Murad, Muhammad Khan, Kaim Khan, Ali Khan, chiefs of the Khairani tribe, united, and marched with Antar Khan to Haidarabad. Ghulam Shah advanced to meet him, and the brothers encountered at Ubaura[8.2.31] (see map); but legitimacy failed: the Khairani chiefs almost all perished, and Antar Khan was made prisoner, and confined for life in Gaja-ka-kot, an island in the Indus, seven coss south of Haidarabad. Ghulam Shah transmitted his masnad to his son Sarfaraz, who, dying soon after, was succeeded by Abdul Nabi. At the town of Abhaipura, seven coss east of Sheodadpur (a town in Lohri Sind), resided a chieftain of the Talpuri tribe, a branch of the Baloch, named Goram, who had two sons, named Bijar and Sobhdan. Sarfaraz demanded Goram’s daughter to wife; he was refused, and the whole family was destroyed. Bijar Khan, who alone escaped the massacre, raised his clan to avenge him, deposed the tyrant, and placed himself upon the masnad of Haidarabad. The Kalhoras dispersed; but Bijar, who was of a violent and imperious temperament, became involved in hostilities with the Rathors regarding the possession of Umarkot. It is asserted that he not only demanded tribute from Marwar, but a daughter of the Rathor prince, to wife, setting forth as a precedent his grandfather Ajit, who bestowed a wife on Farrukhsiyar. This insult led to a pitched battle, fought at Dugara, five coss from Dharnidhar, in which the Baloch [315] army was fairly beaten from the field by the Rathor; but Bijai Singh, not content with his victory, determined to be rid of this thorn in his side. A Bhatti and Chondawat offered their services, and lands being settled on their families, they set out on this perilous enterprise in the garb of ambassadors. When introduced to Bijar, he arrogantly demanded if the Raja had thought better of his demand, when the Chondawat referred him to his credentials. As Bijar rapidly ran his eye over it, muttering “no mention of the _dola_ (bride),” the dagger of the Chondawat was buried in his heart. “This for the _dola_,” he exclaimed; and “this for the tribute,” said his comrade, as he struck another blow. Bijar fell lifeless on his cushion of state, and the assassins, who knew escape was hopeless, plied their daggers on all around; the Chondawat slaying twenty-one, and the Bhatti five, before they were hacked to pieces.[8.2.32] The nephew of Bijar Khan, by name Fateh Ali, son of Sobhdan, was chosen his successor, and the old family of Kalhora was dispersed to Bhuj, and Rajputana, while its representative repaired to Kandahar. There the Shah put him at the head of an army of twenty-five thousand men, with which he reconquered Sind, and commenced a career of unexampled cruelty. Fateh Ali, who had fled to Bhuj, reassembled his adherents, attacked the army of the Shah, which he defeated and pursued with great slaughter beyond Shikarpur, of which he took possession, and returned in triumph to Haidarabad. The cruel and now humbled Kalhora once more appeared before the Shah, who, exasperated at the inglorious result of his arms, drove him from his presence; and after wandering about, he passed from Multan to Jaisalmer, settling at length at Pokaran, where he died. The Pokaran chief made himself his heir, and it is from the great wealth (chiefly in jewels) of the ex-prince of Sind that its chiefs have been enabled to take the lead in Marwar. The tomb of the exile is on the north side of the town [316].[8.2.33] This episode, which properly belongs to the history of Marwar, or to Sind, is introduced for the purpose of showing the influence of the latter on the destinies of the Sodha princes. It was by Bijar, who fell by the emissaries of Bijai Singh, that the Sodha Raja was driven from Umarkot, the possession of which brought the Sindis into immediate collision with the Bhattis and Rathors. But on his assassination and the defeat of the Sind army on the Rann, Bijai Singh reinducted the Sodha prince to his _gaddi_ of Umarkot; not, however, long to retain it, for on the invasion from Kandahar, this poor country underwent a general massacre and pillage by the Afghans, and Umarkot was assaulted and taken. When Fateh Ali made head against the army of Kandahar, which he was enabled to defeat, partly by the aid of the Rathors, he relinquished, as the price of this aid, the claims of Sind upon Umarkot, of which Bijai Singh took possession, and on whose battlements the flag of the Rathors waved until the last civil war, when the Sindis expelled them. Had Raja Man known how to profit by the general desire of his chiefs to redeem this distant possession, he might have got rid of some of the unquiet spirits by other means than those which have brought infamy on his name. =Chor.=—Since Umarkot has been wrested from the Sodhas, the expelled prince, who still preserves his title of Rana, resides at the town of Chor, fifteen miles north-east of his former capital. The descendant of the princes who probably opposed Alexander, Menander, and Kasim, the lieutenant of Walid, and who sheltered Humayun when driven from the throne of India, now subsists on the eleemosynary gifts of those with whom he is connected by marriage, or the few patches of land of his own desert domain left him by the rulers of Sind. He has eight brothers, who are hardly pushed for a subsistence, and can only obtain it by the supplement to all the finances of these States, plunder. The Sodha, and the Jareja, are the connecting links between the Hindu and the Muslim; for although the farther west we go the greater is the laxity of Rajput prejudice, yet to something more than mere locality must be attributed the denationalized sentiment which allows the Sodha to intermarry with a Sindi: this cause is hunger; and there are few zealots who will deny that its influence is more potent than the laws of Manu. Every third year brings famine, and those who have not stored up against it fly to their neighbours, and chiefly to the valley of the Indus. The [317] connexions they then form often end in the union of their daughters with their protectors; but they still so far adhere to ancient usage as never to receive back into the family caste a female so allied.[8.2.34] The present Rana of the Sodhas has set the example, by giving daughters to Mir Ghulam Ali and Mir Sohrab, and even to the Khosa chief of Dadar; and in consequence, his brother princes of Jaisalmer, Bah and Parkar, though they will accept a Sodha princess to wife (because they can depend on the purity of her blood), yet will not bestow a daughter on the Rana, whose offspring might perhaps grace the harem of a Baloch. But the Rathors of Marwar will neither give to nor receive daughters of Dhat. The females of this desert region, being reputed very handsome, have become almost an article of matrimonial traffic; and it is asserted, that if a Sindi hears of the beauty of a Dhatiani, he sends to her father as much grain as he deems an equivalent, and is seldom refused her hand. We shall not here further touch on the manners or other peculiarities of the Sodha tribe, though we may revert to them in the general outline of the tribes, with which we shall conclude the sketch of the Indian desert. =Tribes.=—The various tribes inhabiting the desert and valley of the Indus would alone form an ample subject of investigation, which would, in all probability, elicit some important truths. Amongst the converts to Islam the inquirer into the pedigree of nations would discover names, once illustrious, but which, now hidden under the mantle of a new faith, might little aid his researches into the history of their origin. He would find the Sodha, the Kathi, the Mallani, affording in history, position, and nominal resemblance grounds for inferring that they are the descendants of the Sogdoi, Kathi, and Malloi, who opposed the Macedonian in his passage down the Indus; besides swarms of Getae or Yuti, many of whom have assumed the general title of Baloch, or retain the ancient specific name of Numri; while others, in that of Zj’at [Jat], preserve almost the primitive appellation. We have also the remains of those interesting races the Johyas and Dahyas, of which much has been said in the Annals of Jaisalmer, and elsewhere; who, as well as the Getae or Jats, and Huns, hold places amongst the “Thirty-six Royal Races” of ancient India.[8.2.35] These, with the Barahas and the Lohanas, tribes who swarmed a few centuries ago in the Panjab, will now only be discerned in small numbers in “the region of death,” which has even preserved the illustrious name of Kaurava, Krishna’s foe in the Bharat. The Sahariya, or great robber of our western desert, would alone afford a text for discussion on his habits [318] and his raids, as the enemy of all society. But we shall begin with those who yet retain any pretensions to the name of Hindu (distinguishing them from the proselytes to Islam), and afterwards descant upon their peculiarities. Bhatti, Rathor, Jodha, Chauhan, Mallani, Kaurava, Johya, Sultana, Lohana, Arora, Khumra, Sindhal, Maisuri, Vaishnavi, Jakhar, Asaich, Punia. Of the Muhammadan there are but two, Kalhora and Sahariya, concerning whose origin any doubt exists, and all those we are about to specify are Nayyads,[8.2.36] or proselytes chiefly from Rajput or other Hindu tribes: Zjat; Rajar; Umra; Sumra; Mair, or Mer; Mor, or Mohor; Baloch; Lumria, or Luka; Samaicha; Mangalia; Bagria; Dahya; Johya; Kairui; Jangaria; Undar; Berawi; Bawari; Tawari; Charandia; Khosa; Sadani; Lohanas. =The Nayyāds.=—Before we remark upon the habits of these tribes, we may state one prominent trait which characterizes the Nayyad, or convert to Islam, who, on parting with his original faith, divested himself of its chief moral attribute, toleration, and imbibed a double portion of the bigotry of the creed he adopted. Whether it is to the intrinsic quality of the Muhammadan faith that we are to trace this moral metamorphosis, or to a sense of degradation (which we can hardly suppose) consequent on his apostasy, there is not a more ferocious or intolerant being on the earth than the Rajput convert to Islam. In Sind, and the desert, we find the same tribes, bearing the same name, one still Hindu, the other Muhammadan; the first retaining his primitive manners, while the convert is cruel, intolerant, cowardly, and inhospitable. Escape, with life at least, perhaps a portion of property, is possible from the hands of the Maldot, the Larkhani, the Bhatti, or even the Tawaris, distinctively called “the sons of the devil”; but from the Khosas, the Sahariyas, or Bhattis, there would be no hope of salvation. Such are their ignorance and brutality, that should a stranger make use of the words _rassa_, or _rasta_ (rope, and road), he will be fortunate if he escape with bastinado from these beings, who discover therein an analogy to _rasul_, or ‘the prophet’: he must for the former use the words _kilbar_, _randori_, and for the latter, _dagra_, or _dag_.[8.2.37] It will not fail to strike those who have perused the heart-thrilling adventures of Park, Denham, and Clapperton—names which will live for ever in the annals of discovery—how completely the inoffensive, kind, and hospitable negro resembles in these qualities the Rajput, who is transformed into a wild beast the moment he can repeat, “Ashhadu an lā ilāha illa allāh! [319] Ashhadu anna Muhammad rasūlu-llāh,” “there is but one God, and Muhammad is the prophet of God”: while a remarkable change has taken place amongst the Tatar tribes, since the anti-destructive doctrines of Buddha (or Hinduism purified of polytheism) have been introduced into the regions of Central Asia. On the Bhattis, the Rathors, the Chauhans, and their offset the Mallani, we have sufficiently expatiated, and likewise on the Sodha; but a few peculiarities of this latter tribe remain to be noticed. =The Sodha Tribe.=—The Sodha, who has retained the name of Hindu, has yet so far discarded ancient prejudice, that he will drink from the same vessel and smoke out of the same _hukka_ with a Musalman, laying aside only the tube that touches the mouth. With his poverty, the Sodha has lost his reputation for courage, retaining only the merit of being a dexterous thief, and joining the hordes of Sahariyas and Khosas who prowl from Daudputra to Gujarat. The arms of the Sodhas are chiefly the sword and shield, with a long knife in the girdle, which serves either as a stiletto or a carver for his meat: few have matchlocks, but the primitive sling is a general weapon of offence, and they are very expert in its use. Their dress partakes of the Bhatti and Muhammadan costume, but the turban is peculiar to themselves, and by it a Sodha may always be recognized. The Sodha is to be found scattered over the desert, but there are offsets of his tribe, now more numerous than the parent stock, of which the Samecha is the most conspicuous, whether of those who are still Hindu, or who have become converts to Islam. =The Kaurava Tribe.=—This singular tribe of Rajputs, whose habits, even in the midst of pillage, are entirely nomadic, is to be found chiefly in the _thal_ of Dhat, though in no great numbers.[8.2.38] They have no fixed habitations, but move about with their flocks, and encamp wherever they find a spring or pasture for their cattle; and there construct temporary huts of the wide-spreading _pilu_,[8.2.39] by interlacing its living branches, covering the top with leaves, and coating the inside with clay: in so skilful a manner do they thus shelter themselves that no sign of human habitation is observable from without. Still the roaming Sahariya is always on the look-out for these sylvan retreats, in which the shepherds deposit their little hoards of grain, raised from the scanty patches around them. The restless disposition of the Kauravas, who even among their ever-roaming brethren enjoy a species of fame in this respect, is attributed (said my Dhati) to a curse entailed upon them from remote ages. They rear camels, cows, buffaloes, and goats, which they sell to the Charans and other merchants. They are altogether a singularly peaceable race; and like all their Rajput brethren, can at will [320] people the desert with palaces of their own creation, by the delightful _amal-pani_, the universal panacea for ills both moral and physical. =The Dhāti Tribe.=—Dhat, or Dhati, is another Rajput, inhabiting Dhat, and in no greater numbers than the Kauravas, whom they resemble in their habits, being entirely pastoral, cultivating a few patches of land, and trusting to the heavens alone to bring it forward. They barter the _ghi_ or clarified butter, made from the produce of their flocks, for grain and other necessaries of life. _Rabri_ and _chhachh_, or ‘porridge and buttermilk,’ form the grand fare of the desert. A couple of sers of flour of bajra, juar, and khejra is mixed with some sers of _chhachh_, and exposed to the fire, but not boiled, and this mess will suffice for a large family. The cows of the desert are much larger than those of the plains of India, and give from eight to ten sers (eight or ten quarts) of milk daily. The produce of four cows will amply subsist a family of ten persons from the sale of _ghi_; and their prices vary with their productive powers, from ten to fifteen rupees each. The _rabri_, so analogous to the _kouskous_ of the African desert, is often made with camel’s milk, from which _ghi_ cannot be extracted, and which soon becomes a living mass when put aside. Dried fish, from the valley of Sind, is conveyed into the desert on horses or camels, and finds a ready sale amongst all classes, even as far east as Barmer. It is sold at two _dukras_ (coppers) a ser. The _puras_, or temporary hamlets of the Dhatis, consisting at most of ten huts in each, resemble those of the Kauravas. =The Lohāna Tribe.=—This tribe is numerous both in Dhat and Talpura: formerly they were Rajputs, but betaking themselves to commerce, have fallen into the third class. They are scribes and shopkeepers, and object to no occupation that will bring a subsistence; and as to food, to use the expressive idiom of this region, where hunger spurns at law, “excepting their cats and their cows, they will eat anything.”[8.2.40] =The Arora Tribe.=—This class, like the former, apply themselves to every pursuit, trade, and agriculture, and fill many of the inferior offices of government in Sind, being shrewd, industrious, and intelligent. With the thrifty Arora and many other classes, flour steeped in cold water suffices to appease hunger. Whether this class has its name from being an inhabitant of Aror, we know not.[8.2.41] =The Bhātia Tribe.=—Bhatia is also one of the equestrian order converted into the commercial, and the exchange has been to his advantage. His habits are like those of the Arora, next to whom he ranks as to activity and wealth. The Aroras and Bhatias have commercial houses at Shikarpur, Haidarabad, and even at Surat and Jaipur [321].[8.2.42] =Brāhmans.=—Bishnoi is the most common sect of Brahmans in the desert and Sind. The doctrines of Manu with them go for as much as they are worth in the desert, where “they are a law unto themselves.” They wear the _janeo_, or badge of their tribe, but it here ceases to be a mark of clerical distinction, as no drones are respected; they cultivate, tend cattle, and barter their superfluous _ghi_ for other necessaries. They are most numerous in Dhat, having one hundred of their order in Chor, the residence of the Sodha Rana, and several houses in Umarkot, Dharnas, and Mitti.[8.2.43] They do not touch fish or smoke tobacco, but will eat food dressed by the hands of a Mali (gardener), or even a Nai (barber caste); nor do they use the _chauka_, or fireplace, reckoned indispensable in more civilized regions. Indeed, all classes of Hindus throughout Sind will partake of food dressed in the sarai, or inn, by the hands of the Bhathiyarin. They use indiscriminately each other’s vessels, without any process of purification but a little sand and water. They do not even burn their dead, but bury them near the threshold; and those who can afford it, raise small _chabutras_, or altars, on which they place an image of Siva, and a _ghara_, or jar of water. The _janeo_, or thread which marks the sacerdotal character in Hindustan, is common in these regions to all classes, with the exception of Kolis and Lohanas. This practice originated with their governors, in order to discriminate them from those who have to perform the most servile duties.[8.2.44] =The Rabāri Tribe.=—This term is known throughout Hindustan only as denoting persons employed in rearing and tending camels, who are there always Muslims. Here they are a distinct tribe, and Hindus, employed entirely in rearing camels, or in stealing them, in which they evince a peculiar dexterity, uniting with the Bhattis in the practice as far as Daudputra. When they come upon a herd grazing, the boldest and most experienced strikes his lance into the first he reaches, then dips a cloth in the blood, which at the end of his lance he thrusts close to the nose of the next, and wheeling about, sets off at speed, followed by the whole herd, lured by the scent of blood and the example of their leader.[8.2.45] =Jat Tribes.=—Jakhar, Asaich, Punia are all denominations of the Jat race, a few of whom preserve under these ancient subdivisions their old customs and religion; but the greater part are among the converts to Islam, and retain the generic name, pronounced Zjat. Those enumerated are harmless and industrious, and are found both in the desert and valley. There are besides these a few scattered families of ancient tribes [322], as the Sultana[8.2.46] and Khumra, of whose history we are ignorant, Johyas, Sindhals, and others, whose origin has already been noticed in the Annals of Marusthali. We shall now leave this general account of the Hindu tribes, who throughout Sind are subservient to the will of the Muhammadan, who is remarkable, as before observed, for intolerance. The Hindu is always second: at the well, he must wait patiently until his tyrant has filled his vessel; or if, in cooking his dinner, a Muslim should require fire, it must be given forthwith, or the shoe would be applied to the Hindu’s head. =The Sahariya Tribe.=—The Sahariya is the most numerous of the Muhammadan tribes of the desert, said to be Hindu in origin, and descendants of the ancient dynasty of Aror; but whether his descent is derived from the dynasty of Siharas (written Sahir by Pottinger), or from the Arabic word _sahra_, ‘a desert,’ of which he is the terror, is of very little moment.[8.2.47] =The Khosa Tribe.=—The Kosas or Khosas, etc., are branches of the Sahariya, and their habits are the same. They have reduced their mode of rapine to a system, and established _kuri_, or blackmail, consisting of one rupee and five _daris_ of grain for every plough, exacted even from the hamlets of the shepherds throughout the _thal_. Their bands are chiefly mounted on camels, though some are on horseback; their arms are the _sel_ or _sang_ (lances of bamboo or iron), the sword and shield, and but few firearms. Their depredations used to be extended a hundred coss around, even into Jodhpur and Daudputra, but they eschew coming in contact with the Rajput, who says of a Sahariya, “he is sure to be asleep when the battle _nakkara_ beats.” Their chief abode is in the southern portion of the desert; and about Nawakot, Mitti, as far as Baliari.[8.2.48] Many of them used to find service at Udaipur, Jodhpur, and Suigam, but they are cowardly and faithless. =The Samaicha Tribe.=—Samaicha is one of the _nayyad_, or proselytes to Islam from the Sodha race, and numerous both in the _thal_ and the valley, where they have many _puras_ or hamlets. They resemble the Dhatis in their habits, but many of them associate with the Sahariyas, and plunder their brethren. They never shave or touch the hair of their heads, and consequently look more like brutes than human beings. They allow no animal to die of disease, but kill it when they think there are no hopes of recovery. The Samaicha women have the reputation of being great scolds, and never veil their faces [323]. =The Rājar Tribe.=—They are said to be of Bhatti descent, and confine their haunts to the desert, or the borders of Jaisalmer, as at Ramgarh, Kiala, Jarela, etc.; and the _thal_ between Jaisalmer and Upper Sind: they are cultivators, shepherds, and thieves, and are esteemed amongst the very worst of the converts to Muhammadanism.[8.2.49] =The Umar Sūmra Tribe.=—Umars and Sumras are from the Pramar or Puar race, and are now chiefly in the ranks of the faithful, though a few are to be found in Jaisalmer and in the _thal_ called after them; of whom we have already said enough.[8.2.50] =The Kalhora, Tālpuri Tribes.=—Kalhora and Talpuri are tribes of celebrity in Sind, the first having furnished the late, and the other its present, dynasty of rulers; and though the one has dared to deduce its origin from the Abbasides of Persia, and the other has even advanced pretensions to descent from the Prophet, it is asserted that both are alike Baloch, who are said to be essentially Jat or Gete in origin. The Talpuris, who have their name from the town (_pura_) of palms (_tal_ or _tar_), are said to amount to one-fourth of the population of Lori or Little Sind, which misnomer they affix to the dominion of Haidarabad. There are none in the _thal_. =Nūmri, Lūmri, or Lūka Tribe.=—This is also a grand subdivision of the Baloch race, and is mentioned by Abu-l Fazl as ranking next to the Kulmani, and being able to bring into the field three hundred cavalry and seven thousand infantry. Gladwin has rendered the name Nomurdy, and is followed by Rennel.[8.2.51] The Numris, or Lumris, also styled Luka, a still more familiar term for fox,[8.2.52] are likewise affirmed to be Jat in origin. What is the etymology of the generic term Baloch, which they have assumed, or whether they took it from, or gave it to, Baluchistan, some future inquirer into these subjects may discover.[8.2.53] =The Zott[8.2.54] or Jat Tribe.=—This very original race, far more numerous than perhaps all the Rajput tribes put together, still retains its ancient appellation throughout the whole of Sind, from the sea to Daudputra, but there are few or none in the _thal_. Their habits differ little from those who surround them. They are amongst the oldest converts to Islam. =The Mer, Mair Tribe.=—We should scarcely have expected to find a mountaineer (_mera_) in the valley of Sind, but their Bhatti origin sufficiently accounts for the term, as Jaisalmer is termed Mer.[8.2.55] =The Mor, Mohor Tribe.=—Said to be also Bhatti in origin.[8.2.56] =The Tāwari, Thori, or Tori Tribe.=—These engross the distinctive epithet of _bhut_, or ‘evil spirits,’ and the yet more emphatic title of ‘sons of the devil.’ Their origin is doubtful, but [324] they rank with the Bawariyas, Khengars, and other professional thieves scattered over Rajputana, who will bring you either your enemy’s head or the turban from it. They are found in the _thals_ of Daudputra, Bijnot, Nok, Nawakot, and Udar. They are proprietors of camels, which they hire out, and also find employment as convoys to caravans. =Johya, Dahya, Mangalia Tribes.=—Once found amongst the Rajput tribes, now proselytes to Islam, but few in number either in the valley or the desert. There are also Bairawis, a class of Baloch, Khairawis, Jangrias, Undars, Bagrias, descended from the Pramar and Sankhla Rajputs, but not possessing, either in respect to numbers or other distinctive marks, any claims on our attention. =Dāūdputra, Bahāwalpur State.=—This petty State, though beyond the pale of Hinduism, yet being but a recent formation out of the Bhatti State of Jaisalmer, is strictly within the limits of Marusthali. Little is known regarding the family who founded it, and we shall therefore confine ourselves to this point, which is not adverted to by Mr. Elphinstone, who may be consulted for the interesting description of its prince, and his capital, Bahawalpur, during the halt of the embassy to Kabul.[8.2.57] Daud Khan, the founder of Daudputra, was a native of Shikarpur, west of the Indus, where he acquired too much power for a subject, and consequently drew upon himself the arms of his sovereign of Kandahar. Unable to cope with them, he abandoned his native place, passed his family and effects across the Indus, and followed them into the desert. The royal forces pursued, and coming up with him at Sutiala, Daud had no alternative but to surrender, or destroy the families who impeded his flight or defence. He acted the Rajput, and faced his foes; who, appalled at this desperate act, deemed it unwise to attack him, and retreated. Daud Khan, with his adherents, then settled in the _kachhi_, or flats of Sind, and gradually extended his authority into the _thal_. He was succeeded by Mubarik Khan; he, by his nephew Bahawal Khan, whose son is Sadik Muhammad Khan, the present lord of Bahawalpur, or Daudputra, a name applied both to the country and to its possessors, “the children of David.”[8.2.58] It was Mubarik who deprived the Bhattis of the district called Khadal, so often mentioned in the Annals of Jaisalmer, and whose chief town is Derawar, founded by Rawal Deoraj in the eighth century; and where the successor of Daud established his abode. Derawar was at that time inhabited by a branch of the Bhattis, broken off at a very early period, its chief holding the title of Rawal, and whose family since their expulsion have resided at Ghariala, belonging to Bikaner, on [325] an allowance of five rupees a day, granted by the conqueror. The capital of the “sons of David” was removed to the south bank of the Gara by Bahawal Khan (who gave it his name), to the site of an old Bhatti city, whose name I could not learn. About thirty years ago[8.2.59] an army from Kandahar invaded Daudputra, invested and took Derawar, and compelled Bahawal Khan to seek protection with the Bhattis at Bikampur. A negotiation for its restoration took place, and he once more pledged his submission to the Abdali king, and having sent his son Mubarik Khan as a hostage and guarantee for the liquidation of the imposition, the army withdrew. Mubarik continued three years at Kabul, and was at length restored to liberty and made Khan of Bahawalpur, on attempting which he was imprisoned by his father, and confined in the fortress of Khangarh, where he remained nearly until Bahawal Khan’s death. A short time previous to this, the principal chiefs of Daudputra, namely, Badera Khairani, chief of Mozgarh, Khudabakhsh of Traihara, Ikhtiyar Khan of Garhi, and Haji Khan of Uchh, released Mubarik Khan from Khangarh and they had reached Murara, when tidings arrived of the death of Bahawal Khan. He continued his route to the capital; but Nasir Khan, son of Alam Khan, Gurgecha (Baloch), having formerly injured him and dreading punishment, had him assassinated, and placed his brother, the present chief, Sadik Muhammad, on the masnad: who immediately shut up his nephews, the sons of Mubarik, together with his younger brothers, in the fortress of Derawar. They escaped, raised a force of Rajputs and Purbias, and seized upon Derawar; but Sadik escaladed it, the Purbias made no defence [326], and both his brothers and one nephew were slain. The other nephew got over the wall, but was seized by a neighbouring chief, surrendered, and slain; and it is conjectured the whole was a plot of Sadik Khan to afford a pretext for their death. Nasir Khan, by whose instigation he obtained the masnad, was also put to death, being too powerful for a subject. But the Khairani lords have always been plotting against their liege; an instance of which has been given in the Annals of Bikaner, when Traihara and Mozgarh were confiscated, and the chiefs sent to the castle of Khangarh, the State prison of Daudputra. Garhi still belongs to Abdulla, son of Haji Khan, but no territory is annexed to it. Sadik Muhammad has not the reputation of his father, whom Bijai Singh, of Marwar, used to style his brother. The Daudputras are much at variance amongst each other, and detested by the Bhattis, from whom they have hitherto exacted a tribute to abstain from plunder. The fear of Kandahar no longer exists at Bahawalpur, whose chief is on good terms with his neighbour of Upper Sind, though he is often alarmed by the threats of Ranjit Singh of Lahore, who asserts supremacy over “the children of David.” =Diseases.=—Of the numerous diseases to which the inhabitants of the desert are subjected, from poor and unwholesome diet, and yet more unwholesome drink, _rataundha_ or night-blindness, the _narua_ or Guinea-worm, and varicose veins, are the most common. The first and last are mostly confined to the poorer classes, and those who are compelled to walk a great deal, when the exertion necessary to extricate the limbs from deep sand, acting as a constant drag upon the elasticity of the fibres, occasions them to become ruptured. Yet such is the force of habit that the natives of Dhat in my service, who had all their lives been plying their limbs as kasids, or carriers of dispatches, between all the cities on the Indus and in Rajputana, complained of the firmer footing of the Indian plains, as more fatiguing than that of their native sandhills. But I never was a convert to the Dhati’s reasoning; with all his simplicity of character, even in this was there vanity, for his own swelled veins, which could be compared to nothing but rattans twisted round the calf of his limbs, if they did not belie his assertion, at least proved that he had paid dearly for his pedestrianism in the desert [327]. From the _narua_, or Guinea-worm, there is no exemption, from the prince to the peasant, and happy is the man who can boast of only one trial. The disease is not confined to the desert and western Rajputana, being far from uncommon in the central States; but beyond the Aravalli the question of “How is your _narua_?” is almost a general form of greeting, so numerous are the sufferers from this malady. It generally attacks the limbs and the integuments of the joints, when it is excruciating almost past endurance. Whether it arises from animalculae in sand or water, or porous absorption of minute particles imbued with the latent vital principle, the natives are not agreed. But the seat of the disease appears immediately under and adhesive to the skin, on which it at first produces a small speck, which, gradually increasing and swelling, at length reaches a state of inflammation that affects the whole system. The worm then begins to move, and as it attains the degree of vitality apparently necessary for extricating itself, its motions are unceasing, and night and day it gnaws the unhappy patient, who only exists in the hope of daily seeing the head of his enemy pierce the cuticle. This is the moment for action: the skilful _narua_-doctor is sent for, who seizes upon the head of the worm, and winding it round a needle or straw, employs it as a windlass, which is daily set in motion at a certain hour, when they wind out as much line as they can without the risk of breaking it. Unhappy the wretch whom this disaster befalls, when, happening to fall into a feverish slumber, he kicks the windlass, and snaps the living thread, which creates tenfold inflammation and suppuration. On the other hand, if by patience and skill it is extracted entire, he recovers. I should almost imagine, when the patriarch of Uz exclaims, “My flesh is clothed with worms: my skin is broken and become loathsome. When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise and the night be gone?” that he must have been afflicted with the _narua_, than which none of the ills that flesh is heir to can be more agonizing.[8.2.60] They have the usual infantine and adult diseases, as in the rest of India. Of these the _sitala_, or ‘smallpox,’ and the _tijari_, or ‘tertian,’ are the most common. For the first, they merely recommend the little patient to Sitala Mata; and treat the other with astringents in which infusion of the rind of the pomegranate is always (when procurable) an ingredient. The rich, as in other countries, are under the dominion of empirics, who entail worse diseases by administering mineral poisons, of whose effects they are ignorant. Enlargement of the spleen under the influence of these fevers is very common, and its cure is mostly the actual cautery. =Famines.=—Famine is, however, the grand natural disease of these regions, whose legendary stanzas teem with records of visitations of Bhukhi Mata, the ‘famished mother,’ from the remotest times. That which is best authenticated in the traditions of several of these States, occurred in the eleventh century, and continued during twelve years! It is erroneously connected with the name of Lakha Phulani, who was the personal foe of Siahji, the first Rathor emigrant from Kanauj, and who slew this Robin Hood of the desert in S. 1268 (A.D. 1212). Doubtless the desiccation of the Ghaggar River, in the time of Hamir Sodha, nearly a century before, must have been the cause of this. Every third year they calculate upon a partial visitation, and in 1812 one commenced which lasted three or four years, extending even to the central States of India, when flocks of poor creatures found their way to the provinces on the Ganges, selling their infants, or parting with their own liberty, to sustain existence.[8.2.61] =Productions, Animal and Vegetable.=—The camel, ‘the ship of the desert,’ deserves the first mention. There he is indispensable; he is yoked to the plough, draws water from the well [328], bears it for his lordly master in _mashaks_, or ‘skins,’ in the passage of the desert, and can dispense with it himself altogether during several days. This quality, the formation of his hoof, which has the property of contracting and expanding according to the soil, and the induration of his mouth, into which he draws by his tongue the branches of the _babul_, the _khair_, and _jawas_, with their long thorns, sharp and hard as needles, attest the beneficence of the Supreme Artist. It is singular that the Arabian patriarch, who so accurately describes the habits of various animals, domestic and ferocious, and who was himself lord of three thousand camels, should not have mentioned the peculiar properties of the camel, though in alluding to the incapacity of the unicorn (rhinoceros) for the plough, he seems indirectly to insinuate the use of others besides the ox for this purpose. The camels of the desert are far superior to those of the plains, and those bred in the _thals_ of Dhat and Barmer are the best of all. The Rajas of Jaisalmer and Bikaner have corps of camels trained for war.[8.2.62] That of the former State is two hundred strong, eighty of which belong to the prince; the rest are the quotas of his chiefs; but how they are rated, or in what ratio to the horsemen of the other principalities, I never thought of inquiring. Two men are mounted on each camel, one facing the head, the other the rear, and they are famous in a retreating action: but when compelled to come to close quarters, they make the camel kneel down, tie his legs, and retiring behind, make a breastwork of his body, resting the matchlock over the pack-saddle. There is not a shrub in the desert that does not serve the camel for fodder. =The Wild Ass.=—Khar-gadha, Gorkhar, or the wild ass,[8.2.63] is an inhabitant of the desert, but most abounds in the southern part, about Dhat, and the deep _rui_ which extends from Barmer to Bankasar and Baliari, along the north bank of the great Rann, or ‘salt desert.’ =Rojh or Nilgae, Lions, etc.=—The noble species of the deer, the nilgae, is to be met with in numerous parts of the desert; and although it enjoys a kind of immunity from the Rajput of the plains, who may hunt, but do not eat its flesh, here, both for food and for its hide, it is of great use.[8.2.64] Of the other wild animals common to India they have the tiger, fox, jackal, hare, and also the nobler animal, the lion. =Domestic Animals.=—Of domestic animals, as horses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, asses, there is no want, and even the last mentioned is made to go in the plough. Flocks (here termed _chang_) of goats and sheep are pastured in vast numbers in the desert. It is asserted that the goat can subsist without water from the month of Karttik to the middle of Chait, the autumnal to the spring equinox [329]—apparently an impossibility: though it is well known that they can dispense with it during six weeks when the grasses are abundant. In the _thals_ of Daudputra and Bhattipo, they remove to the flats of Sind in the commencement of the hot weather. The shepherds, like their flocks, go without water, but find a substitute in the _chhachh_, or buttermilk, after extracting the butter, which is made into _ghi_, and exchanged for grain, or other necessaries. Those who pasture camels also live entirely upon their milk, and the wild fruits, scarcely ever tasting bread. =Shrubs and Fruits.=—We have often had occasion to mention the _khair_ or _karil_; the _khejra_, whose pod converted, when dried, into flour, is called _sangri_; the _jhal_, which serves to hut the shepherds, and in Jeth and Raisakh affords them fruit; the _pilu_, used as food;[8.2.65] the _babul_, which yields its medicinal gum; the _ber_, or jujube, which also has a pleasant fruit; all of which serve the camel to browse on, and are the most common and most useful of the shrubs: the _jawas_, whose expressed juice yields a gum used in medicine; the _phog_, with whose twigs they line their wells; and the alkaline plant, the _sajji_, which they burn for its ashes. Of these, the first and last are worthy of a more detailed notice. The _karil_, or _khair_ (the capparis, or caper-bush), is well known both in Hindustan and the desert: there they use it as a pickle, but here it is stored up as a culinary article of importance. The bush is from ten to fifteen feet in height, spreading very wide; there are no leaves on its evergreen twig-like branches, which bear a red flower, and the fruit is about the size of a large black currant. When gathered, it is steeped for twenty-four hours in water, which is then poured off, and it undergoes, afterwards, two similar operations, when the deleterious properties are carried off; they are then boiled and eaten with a little salt, or by those who can afford it, dressed in ghi and eaten with bread. Many families possess a stock of twenty maunds. The _sajji_ is a low, bushy plant, chiefly produced in the northern desert, and most abundant in those tracts of Jaisalmer called Khadal, now subject to Daudputra. From Pugal to Derawar, and thence by Muridkot, Ikhtyar Khan-ki-garhi, to Khairpur (Dair Ali), is one extensive _thal_, or desert, in which there are very considerable tracts of low, hard flat, termed _chittram_,[8.2.66] formed by the lodgment of water [330] after rain, and in these spots only is the _sajji_ plant produced. The salt, which is a sub-carbonate of soda, is obtained by incineration, and the process is as follows: Pits are excavated and filled with the plant, which, when fired, exudes a liquid substance that falls to the bottom. While burning, they agitate the mass with long poles, or throw on sand if it burns too rapidly. When the virtue of the plant is extracted, the pit is covered with sand, and left for three days to cool; the alkali is then taken out, and freed from its impurities by some process. The purer product is sold at a rupee the ser (two pounds weight); of the other upwards of forty sers are sold for a rupee. Both Rajputs and Muhammadans pursue this employment, and pay a duty to the lord paramount of a copper pice on every rupee’s worth they sell. Charans and others from the towns of Marwar purchase and transport this salt to the different marts, whence it is distributed over all parts of India. It is a considerable article of commerce with Sind, and entire caravans of it are carried to Bakhar, Tatta, and Cutch. The virtue of the soda is well understood in culinary purposes, a little _sajji_ added to the hard water soon softening the mess of pulse and rice preparing for their meals; and the tobacconists use considerable quantities in their trade, as it is said to have the power of restoring the lost virtues of the plant. =Grasses.=—Grasses are numerous, but unless accompanied by botanical illustration, their description would possess little interest. There is the gigantic _siwan_, or _siun_, classically known as the _kusa_, and said to have originated the name of Kusa, the second son of Rama, and his race the Kachhwaha. It is often eight feet in height; when young, it serves as provender for animals, and when more mature, as thatch for the huts, while its roots supply a fibre, converted by the weavers into brushes indispensable to their trade. There is likewise the _sarkanda_, the _dhaman_, the _duba_, and various others; besides the _gokhru_, the _papri_, and the _bharut_, which adhering to their garments, are the torment of travellers.[8.2.67] =Melons.=—Of the cucurbitaceous genus, indigenous to the desert, they have various kinds, from the gigantic _kharbuza_ and the _chitra_, to the dwarf _guar_. The tomato, whose Indian name I have not preserved, is also a native of these regions, and well known in other parts of India.[8.2.68] We shall trespass no further with these details, than to add, that the botanical names of all such trees, shrubs, or grains, as occur in this work, will be given with the general _Index_, to avoid unnecessary repetition [331]. ------------------ ITINERARY[8.2.69] Jaisalmer to Sehwan, on the right bank of the Indus, and Haidarabad, and return by Umarkot to Jaisalmer Kuldra (5 coss).—A village inhabited by Paliwal Brahmans; two hundred houses; wells. Gajia-ki-basti (2 do.).—Sixty houses; chiefly Brahmans; wells. Khaba (3 do.).—Three hundred houses; chiefly Brahmans; a small fort of four bastions on low hills, having a garrison of Jaisalmer. Kanohi (5 do.).┐—An assemblage of hamlets of four or five huts on one Sum (5 do.).┘ spot, about a mile distant from each other, conjointly called Sum, having a _burj_ or tower for defence, garrisoned from Jaisalmer; several large wells, termed _beria_; inhabitants, chiefly Sindis of various tribes, pasture their flocks, and bring salt and _khara_ (natron) from Deo Chandeswar, the latter used as a mordant in fixing colours, exported to all parts. Half-way between Sum and Mulana is the boundary of Jaisalmer and Sind. Mulana[8.2.70] (24 coss).—A hamlet of ten huts; chiefly Sindis; situated amidst lofty sandhills. From Sum, the first half of the journey is over alternate sandhills, rocky ridges (termed _magra_), and occasionally plain; for the next three, rocky ridges and sandhills without any flats, and the remaining nine coss a succession of lofty _tibas_. In all this space of twenty-four coss there are no wells, nor is a drop of water to be had but after rain, when it collects in some old tanks or reservoirs, called _nadi_ and _taba_, situated half-way, where in past times there was a town. It is asserted, that before the Muhammadans conquered Sind and these regions, the valley and desert belonged to Rajput princes of the Pramar and Solanki tribes; that the whole _thal_ (desert) was more or less inhabited, and the remains of old tanks and temples, notwithstanding the drifting of the sands, attest the fact. Tradition records a famine of twelve years’ duration during the time of Lakha Phulani, in the twelfth century, which depopulated the country, when the survivors of the _thal_ fled to the _kachhi_, or flats of the Sind. There are throughout still many oases or cultivated patches, designated by the local terms from the [332] indispensable element, water, which whether springs or rivulets, are called _wah_, _bah_, _beria_, _rar_, _tar_, prefixed by the tribe of those pasturing, whether Sodhas, Rajars, or Samaichas. The inhabitants of one hamlet will go as far as ten miles to cultivate a patch. Bhor (2 do.). ┐ These are all hamlets of about ten huts, inhabited Palri (3 do.). │ by Rajars, who cultivate patches of Rajar-ki-basti │ land or pasture their flocks of buffaloes, (2 do.). │ cows, camels, goats, amidst the _thal_; at Hamlet of Rajars │ each of these hamlets there are plenty of (2 do.). ┘ springs; at Rajar-ki-basti there is a pool called Mahadeo-ka-dah. (See p. 1263 above.) Deo Chandeswar Mahadeo (2 do.).—When the Sodha princes held sway in these regions, there was a town here, and a temple to Mahadeo, the ruins of which still exist, erected over a spring called Suraj kund, or fountain of the Sun. The Islamite destroyed the temple, and changed the name of the spring to Dinbawa, or ‘waters of the faith.’ The _kund_ is small, faced with brick, and has its margin planted with date trees and pomegranates, and a Mulla, or priest from Sind, resides there and receives tribute from the faithful. For twelve coss around this spot there are numerous springs of water, where the Rajars find pasture for their flocks, and patches to cultivate. Their huts are conical like the wigwams of the African, and formed by stakes tied at the apex and covered with grass and leaves, and often but a large blanket of camel’s hair stretched on stakes. Chandia-ki-basti (2 coss).—Hamlet inhabited by Muslims of the Chandia tribe, mendicants who subsist on the charity of the traveller. Rajar-ki-basti (2 do.). ┐ Purwas⓵, or hamlets of shepherds, Samaichas, Samaicha-ki-do (2 do.). │ Rajars, and others, who Rajar do. (1 do.). │ are all migratory, and shift with their Do. do. (2 do.). │ flocks as they consume the pastures. Do. do. (2 do.). │ There is plenty of water in this space Do. do. (2 do.). │ for all their wants, chiefly springs. Do. do. (2 do.). │ Do. do. (2 do.). ┘ Udhania (7 do.).—Twelve huts; no water between it and the last hamlet. Nala (5 do.).—Descent from the _thal_ or desert, which ceases a mile east of the nala or stream, said to be the same which issues from the Indus at Dara, above Rohri-Bakhar; thence it passes east of Sohrab’s Khairpur, and by Jinar to Bersia-ka-rar, whence there is a canal cut to Umarkot and Chor. Mitrao (4 do.).—Village of sixty houses, inhabited by Baloch; a thana, or post here from Haidarabad; occasional low sandhills. Mir-ki-kui (6 do.).—Three detached hamlets of ten huts each, inhabited by Aroras. Sheopuri (3 do.).—One hundred and twenty houses, chiefly Aroras: small fort of six bastions to the south-east, garrisoned from Haidarabad. Kamera-ka-Nala (6 do.).—This _nala_ issues from the Indus between Kakar-ki-basti and Sakrand, and passes eastward; probably the bed of an old canal, with which the country is everywhere intersected. Sakrand (2 do.).—One hundred houses, one-third of which are Hindus; patches of cultivation; numerous watercourses neglected; everywhere overgrown with jungle, chiefly _jhau_ and [333] _khejra_ (tamarisk and acacia). Cotton, indigo, rice, wheat, barley, peas, grain, and maize grow on the banks of the watercourses. Jatui (2 do.).—Sixty houses; a nala between it and Jatui. Kazi-ka-Shahr (4 do.).—Four hundred houses; two nalas intervene. Makera (4 coss).—Sixty houses; a nala between it and Jatui. Kakar-ki-basti (6 do.).—Sixteen houses; half-way the remains of an ancient fortress; three canals or nalas intervening; the village placed upon a mound four miles from the Indus, whose waters overflow it during the periodic monsoon. Pura _or_ Hamlet (1 do.).—A ferry. The Indus (1 do.).—Took boat and crossed to Sewan _or_ Sehwan (1½ do.).—A town of twelve hundred houses on the right bank, belonging to Haidarabad[8.2.71] [334]. Sehwan to Haidarabad Jat-ki-basti (2 coss).—The word _jāt_ or _jat_ is here pronounced Zjat. This hamlet ‘basti,’ is of thirty huts, half a mile from the Indus: hills close to the village. Samaicha-ki-basti (2½ coss).—Small village. Lakhi (2½ do.).—Sixty houses; one mile and a half from the river: canal on the north side of the village; banks well cultivated. In the hills, two miles west, is a spot sacred to Parbati and Mahadeo, where are several springs, three of which are hot.[8.2.72] Umri (2 do.).—Twenty-five houses, half a mile from River; the hills not lofty, a coss west. Sumri (3 do.).—Fifty houses, on the River hills; one and a half coss west. Sindu or San (4 do.).—Two hundred houses and a bazar, two hundred yards from the River; hills one and a half coss west. Manjhand (4½ do.).—On the River two hundred and fifty houses, considerable trade; hills two coss west. Umar-ki-basti (3 do.).—A few huts, near the river. Sayyid-ki-basti (3 do.). Shikarpur (4 do.).—On the river; crossed to the east side. Haidarabad (3 coss).—One and a half coss from the river Indus. Haidarabad to Nasarpur, nine coss; to Sheodadpur, eleven do.; to Sheopuri, seventeen do.; to Rohri-Bakhar, six do.—total forty-three coss. Haidarabad via Umarkot, to Jaisalmer Sindu Khan ki-basti (3 do.).—West bank of Phuleli river. Tajpur (3 do.).—Large town, north-east of Haidarabad [335]. Katrel (1½ do.).—A hundred houses. Nasarpur (1½ do.).—East of Tajpur, large town. Alahyar-ka-Tanda (4 do.).—A considerable town built by Alahyar Khan, brother of the late Ghulam Ali, and lying south-east of Nasarpur. Two coss north of the town is the Sangra Nala or Bawa,[8.2.73] said to issue from the Indus between Hala and Sakrand and passing Jandila. Mirbah (5 do.).—Forty houses; _Bah_, _Tanda_, _Got_, _Purwa_, are all synonymous terms for habitations of various degrees. Sunaria (7 do.).—Forty houses. Dangana (4 do.).—To this hamlet extend the flats of Sind. Sandhills five and six miles distant to the north. A small river runs under Dangana. Karsana (7 do.).—A hundred houses. Two coss east of Karsana are the remains of an ancient city; brick buildings still remaining, with well and reservoirs. Sandhills two to three coss to the northward. Umarkot (8 do.).—There is one continued plain from Haidarabad to Umarkot, which is built on the low ground at the very extremity of the _thal_ or sand-hills of the desert, here commencing. In all this space, estimated at forty-four kachha coss, or almost seventy miles of horizontal distance, as far as Sunaria the soil is excellent, and plentifully irrigated by bawahs, or canals from the Indus. Around the villages there is considerable cultivation; but notwithstanding the natural fertility, there is a vast quantity of jungle, chiefly babul (_Mimosa arabica_), the evergreen _thal_, and _thal_ or tamarisk. From Sunaria to Umarkot is one continued jungle, in which there are a few cultivated patches dependent on the heavens for irrigation; the soil is not so good as the first portion of the route. Katar (4 do.).—A mile east of Umarkot commences the _thal_ or sandhills, the ascent a hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. A few huts of Samaichas who pasture; two wells. Dhat-ki-basti (4 do.).—A few huts; one well; Dhats, Sodhas, and Sindis cultivate and pasture. Dharnas (8 coss).—A hundred houses, chiefly Pokharna Brahmans and Banias, who purchase up the _thal_ from the pastoral tribes, which they export to Bhuj and the valley. It is also an entrepôt for trade; caravans from the east exchange their goods for the _thal_, here very cheap, from the vast flocks pastured in the Rui. Kherlu-ka-Par (3 do.).—Numerous springs (_thal_) and hamlets scattered throughout this tract. Lanela (1½ do.).—A hundred houses; water brackish; conveyed by camels from Kherlu. Bhoj-ka-Par (3 do.).—Huts; wells; patches of cultivation. Bhu (6 do.).—Huts. Garara (10 do.).—A small town of three hundred houses, belonging to Sawai Singh Sodha, with several _thal_ or hamlets attached to it. This is the boundary between Dhat or the Sodha raj and Jaisalmer. Dhat is now entirely incorporated in Sind. A _thal_, or collector of the transit duties, resides here. Harsani (10 do.).—Three hundred houses, chiefly Bhattis. It belongs to a Rajput of this tribe, now dependent on Marwar [336]. Jinjiniali (10 do.).—Three hundred houses. This is the fief of the chief noble of Jaisalmer; his name Ketsi,[8.2.74] Bhatti. It is the border town of Jaisalmer. There is a small mud fortress, and several talaos, or sheets of water, which contain water often during three-fourths of the year; and considerable cultivation in the little valleys formed by the _thal_, or sand-ridges. About two miles north of Jinjiniali there is a village of Charans. Gaj Singh-ki-basti (2 do.).—Thirty-five houses. Water scarce, brought on camels from the Charan village. Hamirdeora (5 do.).—Two hundred houses. There are several _thal_ or pools, about a mile north, whither water is brought on camels, that in the village being saline. The ridge of rocks from Jaisalmer here terminates. Chelak (5 do.).—Eighty houses; wells; Chelak on the ridge. Bhopa (7 do.).—Forty houses; wells; small _thal_ or pool. Bhao (2 do.).—Two hundred houses; pool to the west; small wells. Jaisalmer (5 do.).—Eighty-five and a half coss from Umarkot to Jaisalmer by this route, which is circuitous. That by Jinjiniali 26 coss, Girab 7, Nilwa 12, Umarkot 25—in all 70 pakka coss, or about 150 miles. Caravans or kitars of camels pass in four days, kasids or messengers in three and a half, travelling night and day. The last 25 coss, or 50 miles, is entire desert: add to this 44 short coss from Haidarabad to Umarkot, making a total of 129½ coss. The most direct road is estimated at 105 pakka coss, which, allowing for sinuosities, is equal to about 195 English miles. Total of this route, 85½ coss. Jaisalmer to Haidarabad, by Baisnau Kuldar (5 coss). Khaba (5 do.). Lakha-ka-ganw (30 do.).—Desert the whole way; no hamlets or water. Baisnau (8 do.). Bersia-ka-Rar (16 do.).—Wells. Thipra (3 do.). Mata-ka-dher (7 do.).—Umarkot distant 20 coss. Jandila (8 do.). Alahyar-ka-Tanda (10 do.).—Sankra, or Sangra _thal_. ┌ In the former route the distance from Tajpur (4 do.). │ Alahyar-ka-Tanda, by the town of Jam-ka-Tanda (2 do.). │ Nasarpur, is called 13 coss, or two Haidarabad (5 do.). │ more than this. There are five nalas └ or canals in the last five coss. Total of this route, 103 coss. Jaisalmer, by Shahgarh, to Khairpur of Mir Sohrab Anasagar (2 do.). Chonda (2 do.). Pani-ka-tar (3 do.).—Tar or Tir, springs [337]. Pani-ki-kuchri (7 do.).—No village. Kuriala (4 do.). Shahgarh (20 do.[8.2.75]).—Rui or waste all this distance. Shahgarh is the boundary; it has a small castle of six bastions, a post of Mir Sohrab, governor of Upper Sind. Garsia (6 do.). Garhar (28 do.).—Rui or desert the whole way; not a drop of water. There are two routes branching off from Garhar, one to Khairpur, the other to Ranipur. Baloch-ki-basti (5 do.). ┐ Hamlets of Baloch and Samaichas. Samaicha-ki-basti (5 do.). ┘ Nala (2 do.).—The same stream which flows from Dara, and through the ancient city of Alor; it marks the boundary of the desert. Khairpur[8.2.76] (18 coss).—Mir Sohrab, governor of Upper Sind, and brother of the prince of Haidarabad, resides here. He has erected a stone fortress of twelve bastions, called Nawakot or New-castle. The 18 coss from the _thal_ to Khairpur is flat, and marks the breadth of the valley here. The following towns are of consequence. Khairpur to Larkhana.—Twenty coss west of the Indus, held by Karam Ali, son of the prince of Haidarabad. Khairpur to Lakhi.—Fifteen coss, and five from Shikarpur. Khairpur to Shikarpur (20 do.). Garhar to Ranipur Pharara (10 do.).—A village of fifty houses, inhabited by Sindis and Karars; several hamlets around. A dani, or collector of transit dues, resides here on the part of Mir Sohrab, the route being travelled by kitars or caravans of camels. The nala from Dara passes two coss east of Pharara, which is on the extremity of the desert. Commencement of the ridge called Takar, five coss west of Pharara, extending to Rohri Bakhar, sixteen coss distant from Pharara. From Pharara to the Indus, eighteen coss, or thirty miles breadth of the valley here. Ranipur[8.2.77] (18 do.). Jaisalmer to Rohri Bakhar Kuriala (18 do.).—See last route. Banda (4 do.).—A tribe of Muslims, called Undar, dwell here. Gotru (16 do.).—Boundary of Jaisalmer and Upper Sind. A small castle and garrison of Mir Sohrab’s; two wells, one inside; and a hamlet of thirty huts of Samaichas and Undars; _thal_ heavy. Udat (32 do.).—Thirty huts of shepherds; a small mud fortress. Rui, a deep and entire desert, throughout all this space; no water [338]. Sankram or Sangram (16 do.).—Half the distance sand-hills, the rest numerous temporary hamlets constructed of the _thal_, or maize stalks; several water-courses. Nala-Sangra (½ do.).—This nala or stream is from Dara, on the Sind, two coss and a half north of Rohri Bakhar; much cultivation; extremity of the sand-hills. Targatia (½ do.).—A large town; Bankers and Banias, here termed Karar and Samaichas. Low ridge of hills, called Takar (4 do.).—This little chain of silicious rocks runs north and south; Nawakot, the Newcastle of Sohrab, is at the foot of them; they extend beyond Pharara, which is sixteen coss from Rohri Bakhar. Gumat is six coss from Nawakot. Rohri (4 coss). ┐ On the ridge, on the left bank of the Indus. Crossed Bakhar (½ do.). ├ over to Bakhar; breadth of the river near a mile. Sakhar (½ do.). ┘ Bakhar is an island, and the other branch to Sakhar is almost a mile over also. This insulated rock is of silex, specimens of which I possess. There are the remains of the ancient fortress of Mansura, named in honour of the Caliph Al-Mansur, whose lieutenants made it the capital of Sind on the opening of their conquests. It is yet more famed as the capital of the Sogdoi of Alexander; in all probability a corruption of Sodha, the name of the tribe which has ruled from immemorial ages, and who till very lately held Umarkot. _N.B._—Kasids or messengers engage to carry despatches from Jaisalmer to Rohri Bakhar in four days and a half; a distance of one hundred and twelve coss. Bakhar to Shikarpur Lakhi, also called Lakhisar (12 do.). Sindu Nala (3½ do.). Shikarpur (½ do.). Total of this route, 16 do. Bakhar to Larkhana (28 do.). Shikarpur to Larkhana (20 do.). Jaisalmer to Dahir Ali Khairpur Kuriala (18 do.). Khara (20 do.).—Rui or desert all the way. This is the _thal_, or mutual boundary of Upper Sind and Jaisalmer, and there is a small _thal_ or mud fort, jointly held by the respective troops; twenty huts and one well. Sutiala (20 do.).—Rui all the way. A _thal_ for the collection of duties; six wells. Khairpur (Dahir Ali) (20 do.).—Rui, and deep jungle of the evergreens called _thal_ and _thal_, from Sutiala to Khairpur. Total of this route, 78 do. Khairpur (Dahir Ali) to Ahmadpur Ubaura (6 do.).—Considerable town; Indus four coss west. Sabzal-ka-kot (8 do.).—Boundary of Upper Sind and Daudputra. This frontier castle, often disputed, was lately taken by Mir Sohrab from Bahawal Khan. Numerous hamlets and watercourses [339]. Ahmadpur (8 coss).—Considerable garrison town of Daudputra; two battalions and sixteen guns. Total of this route, 22 coss. Khairpur (Dahir Ali) to Haidarabad Mirpur (8 do.).—Four coss from the Indus. Matela (5 do.).—Four coss from the Indus. Gotki (7 do.).—Two coss from the Indus. Dadla (8 do.).—Two coss from the Indus. Rohri Bakhar (20 do.).—Numerous hamlets and temporary villages, with many water-courses for cultivation in all this space. Coss. Khairpur ┐ 8 ┐ Six coss from the Indus. (Sohrab-ka-) ┘ │ Gumat 8 │ Ranipur 2 │ (See route to │ The coss in this distance seems a medium it from Garhar). │ between the pakka of two coss and the Hingor 5 │ kachha of one and a half. The medium of Bhiranapur 5 ├ one and three quarter miles to each coss, Haliani 1 │ deducting a tenth for windings, appears, Kanjara 3 │ after numerous comparisons, to be just. Naushahra 8 │ This is alike applicable to all Upper Sind. Mora 7 │ Shahpura 3 │ Daulatpur 3 ┘ Mirpur 3 ┌ On the Indus. Here Madari crossed to └ Sehwan, and returned to Mirpur. Kazi-ka-Got 9 ┐ Sakrand 11 │ Hala 7 ├ The coss about two miles each; which, deducting Khardao 4 │ one in ten for windings of the road, Matari 4 │ may be protracted. Haidarabad 6 ┘ —— TOTAL 145 coss. Jaisalmer to Ikhtyar Khan-ki-Garhi ┌ These villages are all inhabited by Paliwal Brahmsar (4 coss) │ Brahmans, and are in the tract termed Mordesar (3 do.) ┤ Kandal or Khadal, of which Katori, eight Gugadeo (3 do.) │ coss north of Jaisalmer, is the chief town of Kaimsar (5 do.) │ about forty villages.—_N.B._ All towns with └ the affix of _thal_ have pools of water. Nohar-ki-Garhi (25 do.).—_thal_ or desert throughout this space. The castle of Nohar is of brick, and now belongs to Daudputra, who captured it from the Bhattis of Jaisalmer. About forty huts and little cultivation. It is a place of toll for the kitars or caravans; two rupees for each [340] camel-load of ghi, and four for one with sugar; half a rupee for each camel, and a third for an ox laden with grain. Murid Kot (24 coss).—_thal_ or desert. Rangarh is four coss east of this. Ikhtyar-ki-Garhi (15 do.).—_thal_ until the last four coss, or eight miles. Thence the descent from the _thal_ or sand-hills to the valley of the Indus. Total of this route, 79 coss. Ikhtyar to Ahmadpur 18 coss ” Khanpur 5 ” ” Sultanpur 8 ” Jaisalmer to Sheo-Kotra, Kheralu, Chhotan, Nagar-Parkar, Mitti, and return to Jaisalmer. Dabla (3 do.).—Thirty houses, Pokharna Brahmans. Akali (2 do.).—Thirty houses, Chauhans, well and small talao. Chor (5 do.).—Sixty houses, mixed classes. Devikot (2 do.).—A small town of two hundred houses; belongs to the Jaisalmer fisc or khalisa. There is a little fort and garrison. A talao or pool excavated by the Paliwals, in which water remains throughout the year after much rain. Sangar (6 do.).—_N.B._ This route is to the east of that (following) by Chincha, the most direct road to Balotra, and the one usually travelled; but the villages are now deserted. Biasar (2 do.).—Forty houses, and talao. Bhikarae 2 coss distant. Mandai (frontier) (2½ do.).—Two hundred and fifty houses. Sahib Khan Sahariya with a hundred horse is stationed here; the town is khalisa and the last of Jaisalmer. The ridge from Jaisalmer is close to all the places on this route to Mandi. Gunga (4½ do.).—_thal_, or post of Jodhpur. Sheo (2 do.).—A large town of three hundred houses, but many deserted, some through famine. Chief of a district. A Hakim resides here from Jodhpur; collects the transit dues, and protects the country from the depredations of the Sahariyas. Kotra (3 do.).—Town of five hundred houses, of which only two hundred are now inhabited. On the north-west side is a fort on the ridge. A Rathor chief resides here. The district of Sheo Kotra was taken from the Bhattis of Jaisalmer by the Rathors of Jodhpur. Vesala (6 do.).—In ancient times a considerable place; now only fifty houses. A fort on the ridge to the south-west, near two hundred feet high; connected with the Jaisalmer ridge, but often covered by the lofty _thal_ of sand. Kheralu (7 coss).—Capital of Kherdhar, one of the ancient divisions of Marusthali. Two coss south of Vesala crossed a pass over the hills. Chhotan (10 do.).—An ancient city, now in ruins, having at present only about eighty houses, inhabited by the Sahariyas [341]. Bankasar (11 do.). Formerly a large city, now only about three hundred and sixty houses. Bhil-ki-basti (5 do.) ┐ Few huts in each. Chauhan-ka-pura (6 do.) ┘ Nagar (3 do.).—A large town, capital of Parkar, containing one thousand five hundred houses, of which one-half are inhabited. Kaim Khan Sahariya-ki-basti (18 do.).—Thirty houses in the _thal_; wells, with water near the surface; three coss to the east the boundary of Sind and the Chauhan Raj. Dhat-ka-pura (15 do.).—A hamlet; Rajputs, Bhils, and Sahariyas. Mitti or Mittri-ka-kot (3 do.).—A town of six hundred houses in Dhat, or the division of Umarkot belonging to Haidarabad; a relative of whose prince, with the title of Nawab, resides here; a place of great commerce, and also of transit for the caravans; a fortified mahall to the south-west. When the Shah of Kabul used to invade Sind, the Haidarabad prince always took refuge here with his family and valuables. The sand-hills are immensely high and formidable. Chailasar (10 do.).—Four hundred houses, inhabited by Sahariyas, Brahmans, Bijaranis, and Banias; a place of great importance to the transit trade. Samaicha-ki-basti (10 do.).—_thal_ from Chailasar. Nur Ali, Pani-ka-Tar (9 do.).—Sixty houses of Charans, Sultana Rajputs and Kauravas (qu. the ancient Kauravas?) water (_thal_) plenty in the _thal_. Rual (5 do.).—Twelve hamlets termed _thal_, scattered round a tract of several coss, inhabited by different tribes, after whom they are named, as Sodha, Sahariya, Kaurava, Brahman, Bania and Sutar, as Sodha-ka-bas, Sahariya-ka-bas, or habitations of the Sodhas; of the Sahariyas, etc. etc. (see p. 1263). Deli (7 do.).—One hundred houses; a _thal_, or collector of duties, resides here. Garara (10 do.).—Described in route from Umarkot to Jaisalmer. Raedana (11 do.).—Forty houses; a lake formed by damming up the water. _thal_, or salt-pans. Kotra (9 do.). Sheo (3 do.).—The whole space from Nagar to Sheo-Kotra is a continuous mass of lofty sand-hills (_thal_), scattered with hamlets (_thal_), in many parts affording abundant pasture for flocks of sheep, goats, buffaloes, and camels; the _thal_ extends south to Nawakot and Balwar, about ten coss south of the former and two of the latter. To the left of Nawakot are the flats of Talpura, or Lower Sind. Jaisalmer to Sheo Kotra, Barmer, Nagar-Gura and Suigam. Dhana (5 coss).—Two hundred houses of Paliwals; pool and wells; ridge two to three hundred feet high, cultivation between the ridges. Chincha (7 do.).—Small hamlet; Sara, half a coss east; ridge, low _thal_, cultivation. Jasrana (2 do.).—Thirty houses of Paliwals, as before; Kita to the right half a coss. Unda (1 do.).—Fifty houses of Paliwals and Jain Rajputs; wells and pools; country as before [342]. Sangar (2 do.).—Sixty houses; only fifteen inhabited, the rest fled to Sind during the famine of 1813; Charans. Grand _thal_ commences. Sangar-ka-talao (½ do.).—Water remains generally eight months in the talao or pool, sometimes the whole year. ┌ Between is the _thal_ or boundary of Jaisalmer Bhikarae (1½ do.) │ and Jodhpur. Bhikarae has one Kharel (4 do.) │ hundred and twenty houses of Paliwals; └ wells and pools at both places. Rajarel (1 do.).—Seventy houses; most deserted since famine. Gonga (4 do.).—Hamlet of twenty huts; _thal_, or small wells and pools; to this the ridge and _thal_ intermingle. Sheo (2 do.).—Capital of the district. Nimla (4 do.).—Forty houses; deserted. Bhadka (2 do.).—Four hundred houses; deserted. This is “the third year of famine!” Kapulri (3 do.).—Thirty huts, deserted; wells. Jalepa (3 do.).—Twenty huts; deserted. Nagar (Gurha) (20 do.).—This is a large town on the west bank of the Luni River, of four to five hundred houses, but many deserted since the famine, which has almost depopulated this region. In 1813 the inhabitants were flying as far as the Ganges, and selling themselves and offspring into slavery to save life. Barmer (6 do.).—A town of twelve hundred houses. Guru (2 do.).—West side of the Luni; town of seven hundred houses; the chief is styled Rana, and of the Chauhan tribe. Bata (3 do.).—West side of river. Patarna (1 do.) ┐West side of river. Gadla (1 do.) ┘ Ranas (3 do.).—East side of river. Charani (2 do.).—Seventy houses; east side. Chitalwana (2 do.).—Town of three hundred houses; east side of river; belonging to a Chauhan chief, styled Rana. Sanchor seven coss to the south. Ratra (2 coss).—East side of river; deserted. Hotiganw (2 do.).—South side of river; temple to Phulmukheswar Mahadeo. Dhuta (2 do.) ┌ North side. On the west side the _thal_ is very Tapi (2 do.) └ heavy; east side is plain; both sides well cultivated. Lalpura (2 do.).—West side. Surpura (1 do.).—Crossed river. Sanloti (2 do.).—Eighty houses, east side of river. Butera (2 do.).—East side; relation of the Rana resides here. Narke (4 do.).—South side river; Bhils and Sonigiras. Karoi (4 do.).—Sahariyas [343]. Pitlana (2 do.).—Large village; Kolis and Pitals. Dharanidhar (3 do.).—Seven or eight hundred houses, nearly deserted, belonging to Suigam. Bah (4 do.).—Capital of Rana Narayan Rao, Chauhan prince of Virawah. Luna (5 do.).—One hundred houses. Sui (7 do.).—Residence of Chauhan chief. Balotra on the Luni River to Pokaran and Jaisalmer. Panchbhadra (3 do.).—Balotra fair on the 11th Magh—continues ten days. Balotra has four to five hundred houses in the tract called Siwanchi; the ridge unites with Jalor and Siwana. Panchbhadra has two hundred houses, almost all deserted since the famine. Here is the celebrated Agar, or salt-lake, yielding considerable revenue to the government. Gopti (2 coss).—Forty houses; deserted; one coss north of this the deep _thal_ commences. Patod (4 do.).—A considerable commercial mart; four hundred houses; cotton produced in great quantities. Sivai (4 do.).—Two hundred houses, almost deserted. Serara (1 do.).—Sixty houses. To Patod the tract is termed Siwanchi; from thence Indhavati, from the ancient lords of the Indha tribe. ┌ Bungara has seventy houses, Solankitala four │ hundred, and Pongali sixty. Throughout Bungara (3 do.) │ sand-hills. This tract is called Thalecha, Solankitala (4 do.) ┤ and the Rathors who inhabit it, Thalecha Pongali (5 do.) │ Rathors. There are many of the Jat or │ Jāt tribe as cultivators. Pongali a Charan └ community. Bakri (5 do.).—One hundred houses; inhabited by Charans. Dholsar (4 do.).—Sixty houses, inhabited by Paliwal Brahmans. Pokaran (4 do.).—From Bakri commences the Pokaran district; all flat, and though sandy, no _thal_ or hills. Udhania (6 coss).—Fifty houses; a pool the south side. Lahti (7 do.).—Three hundred houses; Paliwal Brahmans. Sodhakur (2 do.) ┌ Sodhakur has thirty houses and Chandan fifty; Channda (4 do.) ┤ Paliwals. Dry _thal_ at the latter; water └ obtained by digging in its bed. Bhojka (3 do.).—One coss to the left is the direct road to Basanki, seven coss from Chandan. Basanki-talao (5 do.).—One hundred houses; Paliwals. Moklet (1½ do.).—Twelve houses; Pokharna Brahmans. Jaisalmer (4 do.).—From Pokaran to Udhania, the road is over a low ridge of rocks; thence to Lahti is a well-cultivated plain, the ridge being on the left. A small _thal_ intervenes at Sodhakur, thence to Chandan, plain. From Chandan to Basanki the road again traverses the low ridge, increasing in height, and with occasional cultivation, to Jaisalmer [344]. Bikaner to Ikhtyar Khan-ki Garhi, on the Indus. Nai-ki-basti (4 do.) ┐ Gajner (5 do.) │ Sandy plains; water at all these villages. Gurha (5 do.) ├ From Girajsar, the Jaisalmer frontier, the Bitnok (5 do.) │ _thal_, or sand-hills commence, and continue Girajsar (8 do.) │ moderate to Bikampur. Narai (4 do.) ┘ Bikampur (9 do.) ┌ Bikampur to Mohangarh, _thal_ or desert all Mohangarh (16 do.) │ the way, having considerable sand-hills └ and jungle. Nachna (16 do.).—_thal_, or sand-hills throughout this space. Narai (9 do.).—A Brahman village. Nohar-ki-Garhi (24 do.).—Deep _thal_ or desert; the frontier garrison of Sind; the garhi, or castle, held by Haji Khan. Murid Kot (24 coss).—_thal_, high sand-hills. Garhi Ikhtyar Khan-ki (18 do.)—The best portion of this through the Kachhi, or flats of the valley. Garhi on the Indus. Total 147 coss, equal to 220½ miles, the coss being about a mile and a half each; 200 English miles of horizontal distance to be protracted [345]. ----- Footnote 8.2.1: From _par_, ‘beyond,’ and _kar_ or _khar_, synonymous with _Luni_, the ‘salt-river.’ We have several Khari Nadis, or salt-rivulets, in Rajputana, though only one Luni. The sea is frequently called the Luna-pani, ‘the salt-water,’ or Khara-pani, metamorphosed into Kala-pani, or ‘the black water,’ which is by no means insignificant. [The proposed etymology of Pārkar is impossible, and _Khārā_, ‘saline,’ has no connexion with _Kālā_, ‘black.’] Footnote 8.2.2: [An account of the travels of Withington or Whithington is given in _Purchas his Pilgrimes_, ed. 1625, i. 483. Mr. W. Foster, who is engaged on a new edition, describes the story as interesting, but muddled in history and geography.] Footnote 8.2.3: [Briggs’ trans. i. 69, but compare Elliot-Dowson iv. 180.] Footnote 8.2.4: [See Vol. II. p. 807.] Footnote 8.2.5: [Dharanīdhar, the Kūrma or tortoise, ‘supporter of the earth,’ the second incarnation of Vishnu. At Dhema in Tharād a fair is held in honour of Dharanīdharji (_BG_, v. 300, 342).] Footnote 8.2.6: One of my journals mentions that a branch of the Luni passes by Sui, the capital of Virawah, where it is four hundred and twelve paces in breadth: an error, I imagine. [Sūigām is on the E. shore of the Rann, and the Lūni does not pass by it or by Virawāh.] Footnote 8.2.7: _Pursa_, the standard measure of the desert, is here from six to seven feet, or the average height of a man, to the tip of his finger, the hand being raised vertically over the head. It is derived from _purush_, ‘man.’ Footnote 8.2.8: [Pital is another name for the Kalbi farming caste, Kalbi being apparently the local form of the name Kanbi or Kunbi (_Census Report, Mārwār_, 1891, ii. 343). The caste does not appear in the 1911 Census Report of Rājputāna.] Footnote 8.2.9: [Arabic _zunnār_, probably Greek ζωνάριον The Hindi _janeo_ is Skt. _yajnopavīta_, the investiture of youths with the sacred thread, and later the thread itself.] Footnote 8.2.10: [For a full account of the Kolis see _BG_, ix. Part i. 237 ff.] Footnote 8.2.11: [Iguanas (Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 379 f.)] Footnote 8.2.12: [That is to say, from Bahāwalpur on the N. to Baliāri on the N. shore of the Rann of Cutch, a distance, as the crow flies, of some 380 miles.] Footnote 8.2.13: [The original is condensed. “The lands of the Rāthor, who rules nine districts, are for the most part all sand; they have little or no water. The wells in some places are so deep that the water is drawn with the help of oxen. When water is to be drawn, those who set the animals to work beat a drum as a warning that the pot is at the mouth of the well, and they are about to draw water” (Manucci ii. 432).] Footnote 8.2.14: [About 15 miles N. of Umarkot. See Elliot-Dowson i. 532.] Footnote 8.2.15: [The name Dhāt has disappeared from modern maps, and is not to be found in the _IGI_.] Footnote 8.2.16: See table of tribes, and sketch of the Pramaras, Vol. I. pp. 98 and 107. Footnote 8.2.17: _Ferishta_ [iv. 411], Abu-l Fazl [_Āīn_, ii. 337, 340 ff.]. Footnote 8.2.18: [A better version runs: “_Pirthī barā Panwār, Pirthi Panwārān tāni; Ek Ujjaini Dhār, dūjē Ābū baithno._” “The Panwār the greatest on earth, and the world belongs to the Panwārs. Their early seats were Ujjain, Dhār, and Mount Ābū” (_Census Report, Mārwār_, 1891, ii. 29).] Footnote 8.2.19: [St. Martin fixes the capital of the Sogdoi at Alor or Aror, but Cunningham would place it higher up stream, about midway between Alor and Uchh, at the village of Sirwahi (McCrindle, _Alexander_, 354).] Footnote 8.2.20: To convince the reader I do not build upon nominal resemblance, when localities do not bear me out, he is requested to call to mind, that we have elsewhere assigned to the Yadus of the Panjab the honour of furnishing the well-known king named Porus; although the Puar, the usual pronunciation of Pramar, would afford a more ready solution. [This is doubtful (Smith, _EHI_, 40 note).] Footnote 8.2.21: Colonel Briggs, in his translation [iv. 406], writes it _Hully Sa_, and in this very place remarks on the “mutilation of Hindu names by the early Mahomedan writers, which are frequently not to be recognized”; or, we might have learned that the adjunct _Sa_ to Hully (_qu._ Heri), the son of Sehris, was the badge of his tribe, Soda. The Roy-sahy, or Rae-sa of Abulfazil, means ‘Prince Sa’ or ‘Prince of the Sodas.’ Of the same family was Dahir, whose capital, in A.H. 99, was (says Abu-l fazil) “Alore or Debeil,” in which this historian makes a geographical mistake: Alore or Arore being the capital of Upper Sinde, and Debeil (correctly Dewul, _the_ temple), or Tatta, the capital of Lower Sinde. In all probability Dahir held both. We have already dilated, in the Annals of Mewar, on a foreign prince named “Dahir Despati,” or the sovereign prince, Dahir, being amongst her defenders, on the first Mooslem invasion, which we conjectured must have been that of Mahomed Kasim, after he had subdued Sinde. Bappa, the lord of Cheetore, was nephew of Raja Maun Mori, shewing a double motive in the exiled son of Dahir to support Cheetore against his own enemy Kasim. The Moris and Sodas were alike branches of the Pramar (see Vol. I. p. 111). It is also worth while to draw attention to the remark elsewhere made (p. 286) on the stir made by Hejauje of Khorasan (who sent Kasim to Sinde) amongst the Hindu princes of Zabulist’han: dislocated facts, all demonstrating one of great importance, namely, the wide dominion of the Rajpoot race, previous to the appearance of Mahomed. Oriental literature sustained a loss which can scarcely be repaired, by the destruction of the valuable MSS. amassed by Colonel Briggs, during many years, for the purpose of a general history of the early transactions of the Mahomedans. [This note has been reprinted as it stands in the original text. Many statements must be received with caution. See Elliot-Dowson i. 120 ff.] Footnote 8.2.22: Of the latter stock he gives us a list of seventeen princes. Gladwin’s translation of _Ayeen Akberi_, vol. ii. p. 122. [This has been replaced by that of Jarrett, _Āīn_, ii. 343 ff.] Footnote 8.2.23: See Briggs’ _Ferishta_, vol. iv. pp. 411 and 422. Footnote 8.2.24: [For Minnagara see Vol. I. p. 255.] Footnote 8.2.25: The four races called Agnikula (of which the Pramar was the most numerous), at every step of ancient Hindu history are seen displacing the dynasty of Yadu. Here the struggle between them is corroborated by the two best Muhammadan historians, both borrowing from the same source, the more ancient histories, few of which have reached us. It must be borne in mind that the Sodhas, the Umars, the Sumras, were Pramars (vulg. _Puar_); while the Sammas were Yadus, for whose origin see Annals of Jaisalmer, p. #1185# above. Footnote 8.2.26: [This is very doubtful. See Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 447.] Footnote 8.2.27: [Sora is supposed to represent the Chola Kingdom in S. India (McCrindle, _Ptolemy_, 64 f.).] Footnote 8.2.28: Of these, the author was so fortunate as to obtain one of Menander and three of Apollodotus, whose existence had heretofore been questioned: the first of the latter from the wreck of Suryapura, the capital of the Surasenakas of Manu [_Laws_, ii. 19, vii. 193] and Arrian; another from the ancient Avanti, or Ujjain, whose monarch, according to Justin, held a correspondence with Augustus; and the third, in company with a whole jar of Hindu-Scythic and Bactrian medals, at Agra, which was dug up several years since in excavating the site of the more ancient city. This, I have elsewhere surmised, might have been the abode of Aggrames, Agra-gram-eswar, the “lord of the city of Agra,” mentioned by Arrian as the most potent monarch in the north of India, who, after the death of Porus, was ready to oppose the further progress of Alexander. Let us hope that the Panjab may yet afford us another peep into the past. For an account of these medals, see _Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 313. [Aggrames, King of the Gangaridae and Prasii, also known as Xandrames, probably the Hindu Chandra, belonged to the Nanda dynasty (Smith, _EHI_, 40; McCrindle, _Ancient India in Classical Literature_, 43).] Footnote 8.2.29: Captain, now Colonel, Pottinger, in his interesting work on Sind and Baluchistan, in extracting from the Persian work Mu’jamu-l Waridat, calls the ancient capital of Sind, Ulaor, and mentions the overthrow of the dynasty of ‘Sahir’ (the Siharas of Abu-l Fazl), whose ancestors had governed Sind for two thousand years. Footnote 8.2.30: [The present population is 4924.] Footnote 8.2.31: [In Shikārpur, Sind, near the frontier of Bahāwalpur.] Footnote 8.2.32: [By another story, Abdu-n-nabi Khān, brother of Ghulām Nabi Khān, prince of Sind, assassinated his too successful general, Mīr Bijar, in A.D. 1781 (_IGI_, xxii. 399).] Footnote 8.2.33: The memoir adds: Fateh Ali was succeeded by his brother, the present Ghulam Ali, and he by his son, Karam Ali. The general correctness of this outline is proved by a very interesting work (which has only fallen into my hands in time to make this note), entitled _Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde_, by Dr. Burnes. Bijar Khan was minister to the Kalhora rulers of Sind, whose cruelties at length gave the government to the family of the minister. As it is scarcely to be supposed that Raja Bijai Singh would furnish assassins to the Kalhora, who could have little difficulty in finding them in Sind, the insult which caused the fate of Bijar may have proceeded from his master, though he may have been made the scapegoat. It is much to be regretted that the author of the _Visit to Sinde_ did not accompany the Amirs to Sehwan (of which I shall venture an account obtained nearly twenty years ago). With the above memoir and map (by his brother, Lieut. Burnes) of the Rann, a new light has been thrown on the history and geography of this most interesting and important portion of India. It is to be desired that to a gentleman so well prepared may be entrusted the examination of this still little-known region. I had long entertained the hope of passing through the desert, by Jaisalmer to Uchh, and thence, sailing down to Mansura, visiting Aror, Sehwan, Sammanagari, and Bamanwasa. The rupture with Sind in 1820 gave me great expectations of accomplishing this object, and I drew up and transmitted to Lord Hastings a plan of marching a force through the desert, and planting the cross on the insular capital of the Sogdoi; but peace was the order of the day. I was then in communication with Mir Sohrab, governor of Upper Sind, who, I have little doubt, would have come over to our views. Footnote 8.2.34: [The chief connexion of the Sodhas with Cutch is through the marriage of their daughters with leading Jāreja and Musalmān families. Their women are of great natural ability, but ambitious and intriguing, not scrupling to make away with their husbands in order that their sons may obtain the estate (_BG_, v. 67).] Footnote 8.2.35: See sketch of the tribes, Vol. I. p. 98. Footnote 8.2.36: _Nayyad_ is the noviciate, literally new (_naya_), or original converts, I suppose. [In other parts of India they are known as Naumuslim.] Footnote 8.2.37: _Dagra_ is very common in Rajputana for a ‘path-way’; but the substitute here used for _rassa_, a rope, I am not acquainted with. [For a large collection of similar taboo names for persons, animals, and things see Sir J. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, “Taboo and Perils of the Soul,” 318 ff.] Footnote 8.2.38: [The name cannot be traced in recent Census Reports.] Footnote 8.2.39: [_Salvadora oleoides_ or _persica_ (Watt, _Econ. Dict._ vi. Part ii. 447 ff.).] Footnote 8.2.40: [In Cutch they claim to be Rāthors from Multān, and are said to have been driven by the Muhammadans from the Panjāb into Cutch. In Gujarāt they are Vaishnavas, and are particular about their food and drink, but in Sind they are more lax (_BG_, v. 54 ff., ix. Part i. 122; Burton, _Sindh_, 314).] Footnote 8.2.41: [They are numerous in S.W. Panjāb, where Rose (_Glossary_, ii. 16 ff.) gives a full account of them.] Footnote 8.2.42: [On their connexion with the Bhatti Rājputs see Crooke, _Tribes and Castes N.W.P. and Oudh_, ii. 37; Russell, _Tribes and Castes Central Provinces_, i. 380; _BG_, v. 37 f.] Footnote 8.2.43: [About 45 miles S. of Umarkot.] Footnote 8.2.44: [These desert Brāhmans, whose laxity of custom is notorious, have no connexion with other orthodox Brāhmans, and are probably priests or medicine-men who now claim that rank.] Footnote 8.2.45: [_Census Report, Bombay_, 1911, i. 298.] Footnote 8.2.46: Abu-l Fazl, in describing the province of Bajaur, inhabited by the Yusufzais, says: “The whole of the tract [Swāt] of hill and plain is the domain of the Yūsufzai clan. In the time of Mīrza Ulugh Beg of Kābul, they migrated from Kābul to this territory and wrested it from the Sultāns who affected to be descendants of Alexander Bicornutus” _(Āīn_, ii. 392 f.). Mr. Elphinstone inquired in vain for this offspring of Alexander the Great. Footnote 8.2.47: [These derivations are impossible; the name is possibly connected with that of the Savara tribe.] Footnote 8.2.48: [Nawakot and Mitti in the interior of Thar-Pārkar; Baliāri on the shore of the Great Rann.] Footnote 8.2.49: [The Rājar are recorded as a section of the Saman, an aboriginal tribe in Sind (_Census Report, Bombay_, 1911, i. 233).] Footnote 8.2.50: [See Elliot-Dowson i. 489.] Footnote 8.2.51: [The true reading is Nohmardi (_Āīn_, ii. 337).] Footnote 8.2.52: [Cf. Hindi _lokri_ or _lokhri_.] Footnote 8.2.53: [Max Müller derived Baloch from Skt. _mlechchha_, ‘a barbarian,’ but this is doubtful.] Footnote 8.2.54: [Zott is the Arabic form of Jat or Jāt (Sykes, _Hist. of Persia_, ii. 79).] Footnote 8.2.55: [The ascription of Bhatti origin to the Mers is obviously intended to correspond with the assertion that they are a branch of the Mīna or Maina tribe (Elliot-Dowson i. 523 f.).] Footnote 8.2.56: [In the Panjāb Mor is the name of a Jāt sept which worship the peacock (_mor_) because it is said to have saved their ancestor from a snake (Rose, _Glossary_, iii. 129). There was a settlement of this tribe at Sārangpur on the Kāli Sind River (_ASR_, ii. 228).] Footnote 8.2.57: [_Account of the Kingdom of Caubul_, 2nd ed. (1842) i. 22 ff. For a full account of the Abbāsi Dāūdputras of Bahāwalpur see the _State Gazetteer_ by Malik Muhammad Din (1908), i. 47 ff..] Footnote 8.2.58: [The succession runs: Bahāwal Khān II. (A.D. 1772-1809); Sādik Muhammad Khān (1809-25); Muhammad Bahāwal Khān III. (1825-52); Sādik Muhammad Khān II. (1853-58); Muhammad Bahāwal Khān IV. (1858-66); Sādik Muhammad Khān III., a minor, installed in 1879.] Footnote 8.2.59: This memorandum was written, I think, in 1811 or 1812. Footnote 8.2.60: My friend Dr. Joseph Duncan (attached to the Residency when I was Political Agent at Udaipur) was attacked by the _narua_ in a very aggravated form. It fixed itself in the ankle-joint, and being broken in the attempt to extricate it, was attended by all the evil results I have described, ending in lameness, and generally impaired health, which obliged him to visit the Cape for recovery, where I saw him on my way home eighteen months after, but he had even then not altogether recovered from the lameness. [Guinea-worm (Dracontiasis), a disease due to the _Filaria medinensis_ or _Dracunculus_, known in Persia as rīshtah, infests the Persian Gulf and many parts of India. See Curzon, _Persia_, ii. 234; Fryer, _New Account of East India and Persia_, ed. 1912, i. 175; Sleeman, _Rambles_, 76; _Asiatic Researches_, vi. 58 ff.; _EB_, 11th ed. xix. 361. The disease from which Job suffered (Job ii. 7) is generally believed to be elephantiasis (A. B. Davidson, _The Book of Job_, 13).] Footnote 8.2.61: [Since this was written Rājputāna has suffered from terrible famines in 1868-69, 1877-78, 1891-92, and 1899-1900, besides several seasons of scarcity.] Footnote 8.2.62: [These camel corps have been placed at the service of the Indian Government, and have done excellent service in several recent campaigns.] Footnote 8.2.63: [The wild ass (_Equus hemionus_) seems to have almost entirely disappeared in Jaisalmer. It is seldom seen in Mārwār, and no specimen has appeared in Bīkaner for many years (Erskine iii. A. 7, 50, 311; Blanford, _Mammalia of India_, 470 f.). Herodotus (vii. 86) says that the Indian chariots in the army of Xerxes were drawn by horses or wild asses.] Footnote 8.2.64: [Nīlgāē, _Boselaphus tragocamelus_, is not a deer, but belongs to the order Bovidae (Blanford, 517 ff.).] Footnote 8.2.65: [The fruits or small red berries of the _pilu_ (_Salvadora persica_) have a strong aromatic smell and a pungent taste, like mustard or garden cress, while the shoots and leaves are eaten as a salad (Watt, _Econ. Dict._ vi. Part ii. 449; Burnes, _Travels into Bokhara_, iii. 122).] Footnote 8.2.66: _Chittram_, the name applied to these flats of hard soil (which Mr. Elphinstone happily describes, by saying that it rings under the horses’ hoofs in marching over it), is literally ‘the picture,’ from the circumstance of such spots almost constantly presenting the mirage, here termed _chittram_. How far the soil, so deeply impregnated with alkaline matter, may tend to heighten, if not to cause this, we have elsewhere noted in a general account of this optical phenomenon in various parts of northern India. Footnote 8.2.67: [Sarkanda, _Saccharum sara_ or _arundinaceum_; dhāman, _Pennisetum cenchroides_; dūb, _Cynodon dactylon_; gokhru, _Tribulus lancigenosus_; bharūt, _Cenchrus catharticus_.] Footnote 8.2.68: [The tomato, introduced in modern times into India, generally called _wilāyati baingan_, ‘the foreign egg-plant.’] Footnote 8.2.69: [Many of the places named in this Itinerary are merely temporary halting-places in the desert, which do not appear in modern maps. Hence, in several cases, the transliteration is conjectural, and depends on the method of the Author in the case of well-known localities. A series of similar routes is given by Lieut. A. H. E. Boileau, _Narrative of a Tour through Rajwara in 1835_ (Calcutta, 1837), p. 192 ff.] Footnote 8.2.70: There are two routes from Mulana to Sehwan. The Dhati went the longest on account of water. The other is by Sakrand, as follows: Coss. Coss. Palri 5 Sakrand 3 ┐ [8.2.70.A] Padshah-ki-basti 6 Nala 0-½ │ This Udani 5 Makrand 4 │ appears Mitrao 10 Koka-ki-basti 6 │ very Mir-ki-khoi 6 The Sind 10 │ circuitous. Supari 5 Sehwan 0-½ ┘ Kambhar-ka-nala 9 Footnote 8.2.70.A: Town high road from Upper to Lower Sind. Footnote 8.2.71: Sehwan is erected on an elevation within a few hundred yards of the river, having many clumps of trees, especially to the south. The houses are built of clay, often three stories high, with wooden pillars supporting the floors. To the north of the town are the remains of a very ancient and extensive fortress, sixty of its bastions being still visible; and in the centre the vestiges of a palace still known as Raja Bhartrihari-ka-Mahall, who is said to have reigned here when driven from Ujjain by his brother Vikramaditya. Although centuries have flown since the Hindus had any power in these regions, their traditions have remained. They relate that Vikrama, the eldest son of Gandharap Sen, was so devoted to his wife, that he neglected the affairs of government, which made his brother expostulate with him. This coming to his wife’s ears, she insisted on the banishment of Vikrama. Soon after a celebrated ascetic reached his court, and presented to Bhartrihari the Amarphul, or ‘fruit of immortality,’ the reward of years of austere devotion at the shrine of Mahadeo. Bhartrihari gave it to his wife, who bestowed it on an elephant-driver, her paramour; he to a common prostitute, his mistress; who expecting to be highly rewarded for it, carried it to the raja. Incensed at such a decided proof of infidelity, Bhartrihari, presenting himself before his queen, asked for the prize—she had lost it. Having produced it, she was so overwhelmed with shame that she rushed from his presence, and precipitating herself from the walls of the palace, was dashed to pieces. Raja Bhartrihari consoled himself with another wife, Rani Pingula, to whose charms he in like manner became enslaved; but experience had taught him suspicion. Having one day gone a-hunting, his huntsman shot a deer, whose doe coming to the spot, for a short time contemplated the body, then threw herself on his antlers and died. The Shikari, or huntsman, who had fallen asleep, was killed by a huge snake. His wife came to seek him, supposing him still asleep, but at length seeing he was dead, she collected leaves, dried reeds, and twigs, and having made a pyre, placed the body under it; after the usual perambulations she set fire to, and perished with it. The raja, who witnessed these proceedings, went home and conversed with Pingulani on these extraordinary Satis, especially the Shikari’s, which he called unparalleled. Pingulani disputed the point, and said it was the sacrifice of passion, not of love; had it been the latter, grief would have required no pyre. Some time after, having again gone a-hunting, Bhartrihari recalled this conversation, and having slain a deer, he dipped his clothes in the blood, and sent them by a confidential messenger to report his death in combat with a tiger. Pingulani heard the details; she wept not, neither did she speak, but prostrating herself before the sun, ceased to exist. The pyre was raised, and her remains were consuming outside the city as the raja returned from his excursion. Hastening to the spot of lamentation, and learning the fatal issue of his artifice, he threw off the trappings of sovereignty, put on the pilgrim’s garb, and abandoned Ujjain to Vikrama. The only word which he uttered, as he wandered to and fro, was the name of his faithful Pingulani! “Hae Pingula! Hae Pingula!” The royal pilgrim at length fixed his abode at Sehwan; but although they point out the ruins of a palace still known even to the Islamite as the Am-khass of Raja Bhartrihari, it is admitted that the fortress is of more ancient date. There is a _mandir_, or shrine, to the south of the town, also called, after him, Bhartri-ka-mandir. In this the Islamite has deposited the mortal remains of a saint named Lal Pir Shahbaz, to whom they attribute their victorious possession of Sind.[8.2.71.A] The cenotaph of this saint, who has the character of a proselyte Hindu, is in the centre of the mandir, and surrounded by wooden stakes. It is a curious spectacle to see both Islamite and Hindu paying their devotions in the same place of worship; and although the first is prohibited from approaching the sacred enceinte of the Pir, yet both adore a large salagram, that vermiculated fossil sacred to Vishnu, placed in a niche in the tomb. The fact is a curious one, and although these Islamite adorers are the scions of conversion, it perhaps shows in the strongest manner that this conversion was of the sword, for, generally speaking, the converted Hindu makes the most bigoted and intolerant Musalman. My faithful and intelligent emissaries, Madari Lal and the Dhati, brought me a brick from the ruins of this fortress of Sehwan. It was about a cubit in length, and of symmetrical breadth and thickness, uncommonly well burnt, and rang like a bell. They also brought me some charred wheat, from pits where it had been burned. The grains were entire and reduced to a pure carbon. Tradition is again at work, and asserts its having lain there for some thousand years. There is very little doubt that this is the site of one of the antagonists of the Macedonian conqueror, perhaps Mousikanos,[8.2.71.B] or Mukh-Sehwan, the chief of Sehwan. The passage of the Grecian down the Indus was marked by excesses not inferior to those of the Ghaznavede king in later times, and doubtless they fired all they could not plunder to carry to the fleet. There is also a Nanak-bara, or place of worship sacred to Nanak, the great apostle of the Sikhs, placed between the fortress and the river. Sehwan is inhabited by Hindus and Islamites in equal proportions: of the former, the mercantile tribe of Mahesri from Jaisalmer, is the most numerous, and have been fixed here for generations. There are also many Brahmans of the Pokharna[8.2.71.C] caste, Sunars or goldsmiths, and other Hindu artisans; of the Muslims the Sayyid is said to be the most numerous class. The Hindus are the monied men. Cotton and indigo, and great quantities of rice in the husk (paddy), grown in the vicinage of Sehwan, are exported to the ports of Tatta and Karachi Bandar by boats of considerable burthen, manned entirely by Muhammadans. The Hakim of Sehwan is sent from Haidarabad. The range of mountains which stretch from Tatta nearly parallel with the Indus, approaches within three miles of Sehwan, and there turns off to the north-west. All these hills are inhabited as far as the shrine of Hinglaj Mata[8.2.71.D] on the coast of Mekran (placed in the same range) by the Lumri, or Numri tribe, who though styling themselves Baloch, are Jats in origin.[8.2.71.E] Footnote 8.2.71.A: [The reference is to Lāl Shāhbāz, Qalandar, head of the Jalāli order, who died at Sehwān, A.D. 1274. For a full account see R. F. Burton, _Sindh_, 211 f.] Footnote 8.2.71.B: [Mousikanos was the stiff-necked king of Alor or Aror who opposed Alexander, was captured and executed (Smith, _EHI_, 100 f.; McCrindle, _Alexander_, 395).] Footnote 8.2.71.C: See Annals of Jaisalmer, Vol. II. p. 1256. Footnote 8.2.71.D: This famous shrine of the Hindu Cybele, yet frequented by numerous votaries, is nine days’ journey from Tatta by Karachi Bandar, and about nine miles from the seashore. Footnote 8.2.71.E: These are the Nomurdies of Rennel. [See p. 1299 above.] Footnote 8.2.72: These springs are frequented, despite the difficulties and dangers of the route from the savage Numri, by numerous Hindu pilgrims. Two of them are hot, and named Suryakund and Chandrakund, or fountains of the sun and moon, and imbued with especial virtues; but before the pilgrim can reap any advantage by purification in their waters, he must undergo the rite of confession to the attendant priests, who, through intercession with Mahadeo, have the power of granting absolution. Should a sinner be so hardened as to plunge in without undergoing this preparatory ordeal, he comes out covered with boils!!! This is a curious confirmation that the confessional rite is one of very ancient usage amongst the Hindus, even in the days of Rama of Kosala.—See Vol. I. p. 94. Footnote 8.2.73: This is the Sankra of Nadir Shah’s treaty with Muhammad Shah of India, which the conqueror made the boundary between India and Persia, by which he obtained the whole of that fertile portion of the valley of Sind, east of that stream. Others say it issues from Dara, above Rohri Bakhar. Footnote 8.2.74: See Annals of Jaisalmer for an account of the murder of this chieftain, Vol. II. p. 1233. Footnote 8.2.75: Shaikh Abu-l-barakat makes the distance only nine coss from Shahgarh to Kuriala, and states the important fact of crossing the dry bed of the Ghaggar, five coss west of Kuriala; water found plentifully by digging in the bed. Numerous _thal_, to which the shepherds drive their flocks. Footnote 8.2.76: [_IGI_, xv. 215 f.] Footnote 8.2.77: Considerable town on the high road from Upper to Lower Sind. See subsequent route. ----- BOOK IX ANNALS OF AMBER,[9.1.1] OR DHŪNDHĀR CHAPTER 1 By some conventional process, Europeans in India have adopted the habit of designating the principalities of Rajputana by the names of their respective capitals, instead of those of the countries. Thus Marwar and Mewar are recognized under the titles of their chief cities, Jodhpur and Udaipur; Kotah and Bundi are denominations indiscriminately applied to Haravati, the general term of the region, which is rarely mentioned; and Dhundhar is hardly known by that denomination to Europeans, who refer to the State only by the names of its capitals, Amber or Jaipur, the last of which is now universally used to designate the region inhabited by the Kachhwahas [346]. =Boundaries of Jaipur State.=—The map defines the existing boundaries of this principality, to which I shall indiscriminately apply the terms (as is the practice of the natives) of Dhundhar, Amber, and Jaipur. =Etymology of Dhūndhār.=—Like all the other Rajput States, the country of the Kachhwahas is an assemblage of communities, the territories of which have been wrested from the aboriginal tribes, or from independent chieftains, at various periods; and therefore the term Dhundhar, which was only one of their earliest acquisitions, had scarcely a title to impose its name upon the aggregate. The etymology of Dhundhar is from a once celebrated sacrificial mount (_thal_) on the western frontier, near Kalakh Jobner.[9.1.2] =The Kachhwāha Tribe.=—The Kachhwaha or Kachhwa race claims descent from Kusa, the second son of Rama, King of Kosala, whose capital was Ayodhya, the modern Oudh. Kusa, or some of his immediate offspring, is said to have migrated from the parental abode, and erected the celebrated castle of Rohtas, or Rohitas,[9.1.3] on the Son, whence, in the lapse of several generations, another distinguished scion, Raja Nal, migrated westward, and in S. 351, or A.D. 295, founded the kingdom and city of Narwar, or classically, Naishadha.[9.1.4] Some of the traditional chronicles record intermediate places of domicile prior to the erection of this famed city: first, the town of Lahar, in the heart of a tract yet named Kachhwahagar, or region (_thal_) of the Kachhwahas;[9.1.5] and secondly, that of Gwalior. Be this as it may, the descendants of Raja Nal adopted the affix of Pal (which appears to be the distinguishing epithet of all the early Rajput tribes), until Sora Singh (thirty-third in descent from Nal), whose son, Dhola Rae, was expelled the paternal abode, and in S. 1023, A.D. 967, laid the foundation of the State of Dhundhar [347]. A family, which traces its lineage from Rama of Kosala, Nala of Naishadha, and Dhola the lover of Maroni, may be allowed ‘the boast of heraldry’; and in remembrance of this descent, the Kachhwahas of India celebrate with great solemnity ‘the annual feast of the sun,’ on which occasion a stately car, called the chariot of the sun (_thal_), drawn by eight horses, is brought from the temple, and the descendant of Rama, ascending therein, perambulates his capital. =Origin of Jaipur State. Dhola Rāē.=—A case of simple usurpation originated the Kachhwaha State of Amber; but it would be contrary to precedent if this event were untinged with romance. As the episode, while it does not violate probability, illustrates the condition of the aboriginal tribes, we do not exclude the tradition. On the death of Sora Singh, prince of Narwar, his brother usurped the government, depriving the infant, Dhola Rae, of his inheritance. His mother, clothing herself in mean apparel, put the infant in a basket, which she placed on her head, and travelled westward until she reached the town of Khoganw (within five miles of the modern Jaipur), then inhabited by the Minas. Distressed with hunger and fatigue, she had placed her precious burden on the ground, and was plucking some wild berries, when she observed a hooded serpent rearing its form over the basket.[9.1.6] She uttered a shriek, which attracted an itinerant Brahman, who told her to be under no alarm, but rather to rejoice at this certain indication of future greatness in the boy. But the emaciated parent of the founder of Amber replied, “What may be in futurity I heed not, while I am sinking with hunger”; on which the Brahman put her in the way of Khoganw, where he said her necessities would be relieved. Taking up the basket, she reached the town, which is encircled by hills, and accosting a female, who happened to be a slave of the Mina chieftain, begged any menial employment for food. By direction of the Mina Rani, she was entertained with the slaves. One day she was ordered to prepare dinner, of which Ralansi, the Mina Raja, partook, and found it so superior to his usual fare, that he sent for the cook, who related her story.[9.1.7] As soon as the Mina chief discovered the rank of the illustrious fugitive, he adopted her as his sister, and Dhola Rae as his nephew. When the boy had attained the age of Rajput manhood (fourteen), he was sent to Delhi,[9.1.8] with the tribute of Khoganw, to attend instead of the Mina. The young Kachhwaha remained there five years, when he conceived the idea of usurping his benefactor’s authority. Having consulted the Mina Dharhi,[9.1.9] or bard, as to the best means of executing his plan, he recommended [348] him to take advantage of the festival of the Diwali, when it is customary to perform the ablutions _en masse_, in a tank. Having brought a few of his Rajput brethren from Delhi, he accomplished his object, filling the reservoirs in which the Minas bathed with their dead bodies. The treacherous bard did not escape; Dhola Rae put him to death with his own hands, observing, “He who had proved unfaithful to one master could not be trusted by another.” He then took possession of Khoganw. Soon after he repaired to Dausa,[9.1.10] a castle and district ruled by an independent chief of the Bargujar tribe of Rajputs, whose daughter he demanded in marriage. “How can this be,” said the Bargujar, “when we are both Suryavansi, and one hundred generations have not yet separated us?”[9.1.11] But being convinced that the necessary number of descents had intervened, the nuptials took place, and as the Bargujar had no male issue, he resigned his power to his son-in-law. With the additional means thus at his disposal, Dhola determined to subjugate the Sira[9.1.12] tribe of Minas, whose chief, Rao Nata, dwelt at Machh. Again he was victorious, and deeming his new conquest better adapted for a residence than Khoganw, he transferred his infant government thither, changing the name of Machh, in honour of his great ancestor, to Ramgarh. Dhola subsequently married the daughter of the prince of Ajmer, whose name was Maroni.[9.1.13] Returning on one occasion with her from visiting the shrine of Jamwahi Mata,[9.1.14] the whole force of the Minas of that region assembled, to the number of eleven thousand, to oppose his passage through their country. Dhola gave them battle: but after slaying vast numbers of his foes, he was himself killed, and his followers fled. Maroni escaped, and bore a posthumous child, who was named Kankhal, and who conquered the country of Dhundhar. His son, Maidal Rao, made a conquest of Amber from the Susawat Minas, the residence of their chief, named Bhato, who had the title of Rao, and was head of the Mina confederation. He also subdued the Nandla Minas, and added the district of Gatur-Ghati to his territory. =Hūndeo, Kuntal.=—Hundeo succeeded, and, like his predecessors, continued the warfare against the Minas. He was succeeded by Kuntal, whose sway extended over all the hill-tribes round his capital. Having determined to proceed to Bhatwar, where a Chauhan prince resided, in order to marry his daughter, his Mina subjects, remembering the [349] former fatality, collected from all quarters, demanding that, if he went beyond the borders, he should leave the standards and nakkaras of sovereignty in their custody. Kuntal refusing to submit, a battle ensued, in which the Minas were defeated with great slaughter, which secured his rule throughout Dhundhar. =Pajūn.=—Kuntal was succeeded by Pajun, a name well known to the chivalrous Rajput, and immortalized by Chand, in the poetic history (_Raesa_) of the emperor Prithiraj. Before, however, we proceed further, it may be convenient to give a sketch of the power and numbers of the indigenous tribes at this period. =The Mīna Tribe.=—We have already had frequent occasion to observe the tendency of the aboriginal tribes to emerge from bondage and depression, which has been seen in Mewar, Kotah, and Bundi, and is now exemplified in the rise of the Kachhwahas in Dhundhar. The original, pure, unmixed race of Minas, or Mainas, of Dhundhar, were styled Pachwara, and subdivided into five grand tribes. Their original home was in the range of mountains called Kalikoh, extending from Ajmer nearly to the Jumna, where they erected Amber, consecrated to Amba, the universal mother,[9.1.15] or, as the Minas style her, Ghata Rani, ‘Queen of the pass.’ In this range were Khoganw, Machh, and many other large towns, the chief cities of communities. But even so late as Raja Baharmall Kachhwaha, the contemporary of Babur and Humayun, the Minas had retained or regained great power, to the mortification of their Rajput superiors. One of these independent communities was at the ancient city of Nain, destroyed by Baharmall, no doubt with the aid of his Mogul connexions. An old historical distich thus records the power of the Mina princes of Nain: _Bāwan kot, chhappan darvāja, Mīna mard, Nāin kā rājā, Vado rāj Nāin ko bhago, Jab bhus-hī men vāmto māgo._ That is, 'There were fifty-two strongholds,[9.1.15] and fifty-six gates belonging to the manly Mina, the Raja of Nain, whose sovereignty of Nain was extinct, when even of chaff (_bhus_) he took a share.' If this is not an exaggeration, it would appear that, during the distractions of the first Islamite dynasties of Delhi, the Minas had attained their primitive importance. Certainly from Pajun, the vassal chieftain of Prithiraj [350], to Baharmall, the contemporary of Babur, the Kachhwahas had but little increased their territory. When this latter prince destroyed the Mina sovereignty of Nain, he levelled its half hundred gates, and erected the town of Lohwan (now the residence of the Rajawat chief) on its ruins. A distinction is made in the orthography and pronunciation of the designation of this race: _Maina_, meaning the _asl_, or ‘unmixed class,’ of which there is now but one, the _Usara_; while _Mina_ is that applied to the mixed, of which they reckon _barah pal_,[9.1.16] or twelve communities, descended from Rajput blood, as Chauhan, Tuar, Jadon, Parihar, Kachhwaha, Solanki, Sankhla, Guhilot, etc., and these are subdivided into no less than five thousand two hundred distinct clans, of which it is the duty of the Jaga, Dholi, or Dom, their genealogists, to keep account. The unmixed Usara stock is now exceedingly rare, while the mixed races, spread over all the hilly and intricate regions of central and western India, boast of their descent at the expense of ‘legitimacy.’ These facts all tend strongly to prove that the Rajputs were conquerors, and that the mountaineers, whether Kolis, Bhils, Minas, Gonds, Savaras or Sarjas, are the indigenous inhabitants of India. This subject will be fully treated hereafter, in a separate chapter devoted to the Mina tribes, their religion, manners, and customs. =Death of Pajūn.=—Let us return to Pajun, the sixth in descent from the exile of Narwar, who was deemed of sufficient consequence to obtain in marriage the sister of Prithiraj, the Chauhan emperor of Delhi, an honour perhaps attributable to the splendour of Pajun’s descent, added to his great personal merit. The chivalrous Chauhan, who had assembled around him one hundred and eight chiefs of the highest rank in India, assigned a conspicuous place to Pajun, who commanded a division of that monarch’s armies in many of his most important battles. Pajun twice signalized himself in invasions from the north, in one of which, when he commanded on the frontier, he defeated Shihabu-d-din in the Khaibar Pass, and pursued him towards Ghazni.[9.1.17] His valour mainly contributed to the conquest of Mahoba, the country of the Chandels, of which he was left governor; and he was one of the sixty-four chiefs who, with a chosen body of their retainers, enabled Prithiraj to carry off the princess of Kanauj. In this service, covering [351] the retreat of his liege lord, Pajun lost his life, on the first of the five days’ continuous battle. Pajun was conjoined with Govind Guhilot, a chief of the Mewar house;—both fell together. Chand, the bard, thus describes the last hours of the Kachhwaha prince: “When Govind fell, the foe danced with joy: then did Pajun thunder on the curtain of fight: with both hands he plied the _khadga_ (sword) on the heads of the barbarian. Four hundred rushed upon him; but the five brothers in arms, Kehari, Pipa, and Boho, with Narsingh and Kachra, supported him. Spears and daggers are plied—heads roll on the plain—blood flows in streams. Pajun assailed Itimad; but as his head rolled at his feet, he received the Khan’s lance in his breast; the Kurma[9.1.18] fell in the field, and the Apsaras disputed for the hero. Whole lines of the northmen strew the plain: many a head did Mahadeo add to his chaplet.[9.1.19] When Pajun and Govind fell, one watch of the day remained. To rescue his kin came Palhan, like a tiger loosed from his chain. The array of Kanauj fell back; the cloudlike host of Jaichand turned its head. The brother of Pajun, with his son, performed deeds like Karna:[9.1.20] but both fell in the field, and gained the secret of the sun, whose chariot advanced to conduct them to his mansion. “Ganga shrunk with affright, the moon quivered, the Dikpals[9.1.21] howled at their posts: checked was the advance of Kanauj, and in the pause the Kurma performed the last rites to his sire (Pajun), who broke in pieces the shields of Jaichand. Pajun was a buckler to his lord, and numerous his gifts of the steel to the heroes of Kanauj: not even by the bard can his deeds be described. He placed his feet on the head of Sheshnag,[9.1.22] he made a waste of the forest of men, nor dared the sons of the mighty approach him. As Pajun fell, he exclaimed, ‘One hundred years are the limit of man’s life, of which fifty are lost in night, and half this in childhood; but the Almighty taught me to wield the brand.’ As he spoke, even in the arms of Yama, he beheld the arm of his boy playing on the head of the foeman. His parting soul was satisfied: seven wounds from the sword had Malasi received, whose steed was covered with wounds: mighty were the deeds performed by the son of Pajun.” =Mālasi.=—This Malasi, in whose praise the bard of Prithiraj is so lavish, succeeded (according to the chronicle) his father Pajun in the Raj of Amber. There is little said of him in the transcript in my possession. There are, however, abundance of traditional couplets to prove that the successors of Pajun were not wanting in the chief duties of the Rajput [352], the exercise of his sword. One of these mentions his having gained a victory at Rutrahi over the prince of Mandu.[9.1.23] We shall pass over the intermediate princes from Malasi to Prithiraj, the eleventh in descent, with a bare enumeration of their names: namely, Malasi, Bijal, Rajdeo, Kilan, Kuntal, Junsi, Udaikaran, Narsingh, Banbir, Udharan, Chandrasen, Prithiraj. =Prithirāj.=—Prithiraj had seventeen sons, twelve of whom reached man’s estate. To them and their successors in perpetuity he assigned appanages, styled the Barah Kothri, or ‘twelve chambers’ of the Kachhwaha house. The portion of each was necessarily very limited; some of the descendants of this hereditary aristocracy now hold estates equal in magnitude to the principality itself at that period. Previous, however, to this perpetual settlement of Kachhwaha fiefs, and indeed intermediately between Malasi and Prithiraj, a disjunction of the junior branches of the royal family took place, which led to the foundation of a power for a long time exceeding in magnitude the parent State. This was in the time of Udaikaran, whose son Baloji left his father’s house, and obtained the town and small district of Amritsar, which in time devolved on his grandson Shaikhji, and became the nucleus of an extensive and singular confederation, known by the name of the founder, Shaikhavati, at this day covering an area of nearly ten thousand square miles. As this subject will be discussed in its proper place, we shall no longer dwell on it, but proceed with the posterity of Prithiraj, amongst the few incidents of whose life is mentioned his meritorious pilgrimage to Dewal,[9.1.24] near the mouth of the Indus. But [353] even this could not save him from foul assassination, and the assassin was his own son, Bhim, “whose countenance (says the chronicle) was that of a demon.” The record is obscure, but it would appear that one parricide was punished by another, and that Askaran, the son of Bhim, was instigated by his brethren to put their father to death, and “to expiate the crime by pilgrimage.”[9.1.25] In one list, both these monsters are enumerated amongst the ‘anointed’ of Amber, but they are generally omitted in the genealogical chain, doubtless from a feeling of disgust. =Bahār or Bihāri Mall, c. A.D. 1548-75.=—Baharmall was the first prince of Amber who paid homage to the Muhammadan power. He attended the fortunes of Babur, and received from Humayun (previous to the Pathan usurpation), the mansab of five thousand as Raja of Amber.[9.1.26] =Bhagwāndās, c. A.D. 1575-92.=—Bhagwandas, son of Baharmall, became still more intimately allied with the Mogul dynasty. He was the friend of Akbar, who saw the full value of attaching such men to his throne. By what arts or influence he overcame the scruples of the Kachhwaha Rajput we know not, unless by appealing to his avarice or ambition; but the name of Bhagwandas is execrated as the first who sullied Rajput purity by matrimonial alliance with the Islamite.[9.1.27] His daughter espoused Prince Salim, afterwards Jahangir, and the fruit of the marriage was the unfortunate Khusru.[9.1.28] =Mān Singh, c. A.D. 1592-1614.=—Man Singh, nephew[9.1.29] and successor of Bhagwandas, was the most brilliant character of Akbar’s court. As the emperor’s lieutenant, he was entrusted with the most arduous duties, and added conquests to the empire from Khotan to the ocean. Orissa was subjugated by him,[9.1.30] Assam humbled and made tributary, and Kabul maintained in her allegiance. He held in succession the governments of Bengal and Behar,[9.1.31] the [354] Deccan and Kabul. Raja Man soon proved to Akbar that his policy of strengthening his throne by Rajput alliances was not without hazard; these alliances introducing a direct influence in the State, which frequently thwarted the views of the sovereign. So powerful was it, that even Akbar, in the zenith of his power, saw no other method of diminishing its force, than the execrable but common expedient of Asiatic despots—poison: it has been already related how the emperor’s attempt recoiled upon him to his destruction.[9.1.32] Akbar was on his death-bed when Raja Man commenced an intrigue to alter the succession in favour of his nephew, Prince Khusru, and it was probably in this predicament that the monarch had recourse to the only safe policy, that of seeing the crown fixed on the head of Salim, afterwards Jahangir. The conspiracy for the time was quashed, and Raja Man was sent to the government of Bengal; but it broke out again, and ended in the perpetual imprisonment of Khusru,[9.1.33] and a dreadful death to his adherents. Raja Man was too wise to identify himself with the rebellion, though he stimulated his nephew, and he was too powerful to be openly punished, being at the head of twenty thousand Rajputs; but the native chronicle mentions that he was amerced by Jahangir in the incredible sum of ten crores, or millions sterling. According to the Muhammadan historian, Raja Man died in Bengal,[9.1.34] A.H. 1024 (A.D. 1615); while the chronicle says he was slain in an expedition against the Khilji tribe in the north two years later.[9.1.35] =Bhāo Singh, c. A.D. 1615-21.=—Rao Bhao Singh succeeded his father, and was invested by the emperor with the Panjhazari, or dignity of a legionary chief of five thousand. He was of weak intellect, and ruled a few years without distinction. He died in A.H. 1030 of excessive drinking. =Mahā Singh, c. A.D. 1621-25.=—Maha succeeded, and in like manner died from dissipated habits. These unworthy successors of Raja Man allowed the princes of Jodhpur to take the lead at the imperial court. At the instigation of the celebrated Jodha Bai (daughter of Rae Singh of Bikaner), the Rajputni wife of Jahangir, Jai Singh, grandson of Jagat Singh (brother of Man), was raised to the throne of Amber, to the no small jealousy, says [355] the chronicle, of the favourite queen, Nur Jahan. It relates that the succession was settled by the emperor and the Rajputni in a conference at the balcony of the seraglio, where the emperor saluted the youth below as Raja of Amber, and commanded him to make his salaam to Jodha Bai, as the source of this honour. But the customs of Rajwara could not be broken: it was contrary to etiquette for a Rajput chief to salaam, and he replied: “I will do this to any lady of your majesty’s family, but not to Jodha Bai”; upon which she good-naturedly laughed, and called out, “It matters not; I give you the raj of Amber.” =Jai Singh, Mīrza Rājā, c. A.D. 1625-67.=—Jai Singh, the Mirza Raja, the title by which he is best known, restored by his conduct the renown of the Kachhwaha name, which had been tarnished by the two unworthy successors of Raja Man. He performed great services to the empire during the reign of Aurangzeb, who bestowed upon him the mansab of six thousand. He made prisoner the celebrated Sivaji, whom he conveyed to court, and afterwards, on finding that his pledge of safety was likely to be broken, was accessary to his liberation. But this instance of magnanimity was more than counterbalanced by his treachery to Dara, in the war of succession, which crushed the hopes of that brave prince. These acts, and their consequences, produced an unconquerable haughtiness of demeanour, which determined the tyrannical Aurangzeb to destroy him. The chronicle says he had twenty-two thousand Rajput cavalry at his disposal, and twenty-two great vassal chiefs, who commanded under him; that he would sit with them in darbar, holding two glasses, one of which he called Delhi, the other Satara, and dashing one to the ground, would exclaim, “There goes Satara; the fate of Delhi is in my right hand, and this with like facility I can cast away.” These vaunts reaching the emperor’s ear, he had recourse to the same diabolical expedient which ruined Marwar, of making a son the assassin of his father. He promised the succession to the _gaddi_ of Amber to Kirat Singh, younger son of the Raja, to the prejudice of his elder brother Ram Singh, if he effected the horrid deed.[9.1.36] The wretch having perpetrated the crime by mixing poison in his father’s opium, returned to claim the investiture: but the king only gave him the district of Kama. From this period, says the chronicle, Amber declined. =Rām Singh, Bishan Singh.=—Ram Singh, who succeeded, had the mansab of four thousand conferred upon him, and was sent against the Assamese.[9.1.37] Upon his death, Bishan Singh, whose mansab was further reduced to the grade of three thousand, succeeded; but he enjoyed the dignity only a short period [356]. ----- Footnote 9.1.1: This account of the Amber or Jaipur State is nearly what I communicated to the Marquess of Hastings in 1814-15. Amidst the multiplicity of objects which subsequently engaged my attention, I had deemed myself absolved from the necessity of enlarging upon it, trusting that a more competent pen would have superseded this essay, there having been several political authorities at that court since it was written. Being, however, unaware that anything has been done to develop its historical resources, which are more abundant than those of any other court of India, I think it right not to suppress this sketch, however imperfect. Footnote 9.1.2: The traditional history of the Chauhans asserts, that this mount was the place of penance (_thal_) of their famed king Bisaldeo of Ajmer, who, for his oppression of his subjects, was transformed into a Rakshasa, or Demon, in which condition he continued the evil work of his former existence, “devouring his subjects” (as literally expressed), until a grandchild offered himself as a victim to appease his insatiable appetite. The language of innocent affection made its way to the heart of the Rakshasa, who recognized his offspring, and winged his flight to the Jumna. It might be worth while to excavate the dhundh of the transformed Chauhan king, which I have some notion will prove to be his sepulchre. [According to Cunningham (_ASR_, ii. 251) there is no mound of this kind at Jobner. He derives the name of the territory from the river Dhūndhu—Dhūndhwār, or Dhūndhār, meaning the land by the river Dhūndhu—the river having obtained its name from the demon-king Dhūndhu (see _IGI_, xiii. 385).] Footnote 9.1.3: Were this celebrated abode searched for inscriptions, they might throw light on the history of the descendants of Rama. [For Rohtāsgarh in Shāhābād District, Bengal, see _IGI_, xxi. 322 f.] Footnote 9.1.4: Prefixed to a descriptive sketch of the city of Narwar (which I may append), the year S. 351 is given for its foundation by Raja Nal, but whether obtained from an inscription or historical legend, I know not. It, however, corroborates in a remarkable manner the number of descents from Nal to Dhola Rae, namely, thirty-three, which, calculated according to the best data (see Vol. I. p. 64), at twenty-two years to a reign, will make 726 years, which subtracted from 1023, the era of Dhola Rae’s migration, leaves 297, a difference of only fifty-four years between the computed and settled eras; and if we allowed only twenty-one years to a reign, instead of twenty-two, as proposed in all long lines above twenty-five generations, the difference would be trifling. [The story is legendary. The eighth in descent from Vajradāman, the first historical chief of Gwalior, who captured that fortress from Vijayapāla of Kanauj (_c._ A.D. 955-90) was Tej Karan, otherwise known as Dulha Rāē, the Dhola Rāē of the text, who left Gwalior about A.D. 1128 (Smith, _EHI_, 381; _IGI_, xiii. 384).] We may thus, without hesitation, adopt the date 351, or A.D. 295, for the period of Raja Nal, whose history is one of the grand sources of delight to the bards of Rajputana. The poem rehearsing his adventures under the title of Nala and Damayanti (fam. Nal-Daman) was translated into Persian at Akbar’s command, by Faizi, brother of Abu-l Fazl, and has since been made known to the admirers of Sanskrit literature by Professor Bopp of Berlin [_Āīn_, i. 106; Macdonell, _Hist. Sanskrit Literature_, 296 ff.]. Footnote 9.1.5: [Kachhwāhagār or Kachhwāhagarh, the former meaning the ‘water-soaked land,’ the latter the ‘fort,’ of the Kachhwāhas, is a tract between the Sind and Pahuj Rivers, ceded to the British by the Gwalior State in payment of a British contingent (Elliot, _Supplementary Glossary_, 237, 283, note).] Footnote 9.1.6: [For the tale of a serpent identifying the heir see Vol. I. p. 342.] Footnote 9.1.7: [The hero in folk-tales often wins recognition by his skill in the kitchen, as in the story of Shams-al-Dīn in the _Arabian Nights_; see Tawney, _Kathāsarit-sāgara_, i. 567.] Footnote 9.1.8: The Tuar tribe were then supreme lords of India. Footnote 9.1.9: Dhārhi, Dholi, Dom, Jāga are all terms for the bards or minstrels of the Mina tribes. Footnote 9.1.10: See Map for Dausa (written Daunsa), on the Banganga River, about thirty miles east of Jaipur. Footnote 9.1.11: The Bargujar tribe claims descent from Lava or Lao, the elder son of Rama. As they trace fifty-six descents from Rama to Vikrama, and thirty-three from Raja Nala to Dhola Rae, we have only to calculate the number of generations between Vikrama and Nal, to ascertain whether Dhola’s genealogist went on good grounds. It was in S. 351 that Raja Nal erected Narwar, which, at twenty-two years to a reign, gives sixteen to be added to fifty-six, and this added to thirty-three is equal to one hundred and five generations from Rama to Dhola Rae. [The traditional dates are worthless.] Footnote 9.1.12: [See Rose, _Glossary_, iii. 103.] Footnote 9.1.13: [The tale of the love of Dulha or Dhola Rāē for Mārwan, the Maroni of the text, daughter of Rāja Pingal of Pingalgarh in Sinhaladwīpa, or Ceylon, as sung by the Panjab bards, is told in Temple, _Legends of the Panjāb_, ii. 276 ff., iii. 97.] Footnote 9.1.14: [The family deity of the Kachhwāha tribe, whose shrine is in the gorge of the river Bānganga, in Jaipur State (_Census Report, Mārwār_, 1891, ii. 28; _Rajputana Gazetteer_, 1880, iii. 212).] Footnote 9.1.15: Kot is ‘a fortress’; but it may be applied simply to the number of bastions of Nain, which in the number of its gates might rival Thebes. Lohwan, built on its ruins, contains three thousand houses, and has eighty-four townships dependent on it. [In the third line of the verse Major Luard’s Pandit reads for _vado_, _dūbo_, ‘annihilated’; in the fourth for _vāmto_, he gives _muttha_, ‘a handful.’] Footnote 9.1.16: Pal is the term for a community of any of the aboriginal mountain races; its import is a ‘defile,’ or ‘valley,’ fitted for cultivation and defence. It is probable that Poligar may be a corruption of Paligar, or the region (_gar_) of these _Pals_. Palita, Bhilita, Philita are terms used by the learned for the Bhil tribes. Maina, Maira, Mairot all designate mountaineers, from _Mair_, or _Mer_, a hill. [The ‘Palita’ of the note is possibly from a vague recollection of the Phyllītai or ‘leaf-clad’ applied to some aboriginal tribes by Ptolemy (vii. 1. 66) (McCrindle, _Ptolemy_, 159 f.).] Footnote 9.1.17: [This is probably a fiction of the bards, based on the defeat of Shihābu-d-dīn by Bhīmdeo of Nahrwāla in A.D. 1178 (Elliot-Dowson ii. 294; Ferishta i. 170).] Footnote 9.1.18: _Kurma_, or _Kachhua_, are synonymous terms, and indiscriminately applied to the Rajputs of Ajmer; meaning ‘tortoise.’ Footnote 9.1.19: The chaplet of the god of war is of skulls; his drinking-cup a semi-cranium. Footnote 9.1.20: [The hero of the Mahābhārata.] Footnote 9.1.21: [Ganga, the Ganges; Dikpāls, regents of the four quarters of the heavens.] Footnote 9.1.22: [The serpent which supports the world.] Footnote 9.1.23: I give this chiefly for the concluding couplet, to see how the Rajputs applied the word _Khotan_ to the lands beyond Kabul, where the great Raja Man commanded as Akbar’s lieutenant: “_Pālan, Pajūn jītē, Mahoba, Kanauj larē, Māndu Mālasi jītē, Rār Rutrāhi kā; Rāj Bhagwāndās jītē, Mavāsī lar. Rājā Mān Singh jītē,_ KHOTAN _phauj dabāī_.” “Palan and Pajun were victorious; Fought at Mahoba and Kanauj; Malasi conquered Mandu; In the battle of Rutrahi, Raja Bhagwandas vanquished. In the Mawasi (fastnesses, probably, of Mewat), Raja Man Singh was victorious; Subjugating the army of KHOTAN.” Footnote 9.1.24: ‘_The_ temple’; the Debal of the Muhammadan tribes: the Rajput seat of power of the Rajas of Sind, when attacked by the caliphs of Bagdad [Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 320.] Footnote 9.1.25: The chronicle says of this Askaran, that on his return, the king (Babur or Humayun) gave him the title of Raja of Narwar. These States have continued occasionally to furnish representatives, on the extinction of the line of either. A very conspicuous instance of this occurred on the death of Raja Jagat Singh, the last prince of Amber, who dying without issue, an intrigue was set on foot, and a son of the ex-prince of Narwar was placed on the _gaddi_ of Amber. Footnote 9.1.26: [This is the first mention of the grading of Mansabdārs (Smith, _Akbar, the Great Moghul_, 362). For Rāja Bihārimall and his son Bhagwāndās, see _Āīn_, i. 328, 333; _Akbarnāma_, trans. Beveridge ii. 244.] Footnote 9.1.27: [Akbar had married the daughter of Bahārmall.] Footnote 9.1.28: It is pleasing to find almost all these outlines of Rajput history confirmed by Muhammadan writers. It was in A.H. 993 (A.D. 1586) that this marriage took place. Three generations of Kachhwahas, namely, Bhagwandas, his adopted son Raja Man, and grandson, were all serving in the imperial army with great distinction at this time. Raja Man, though styled Kunwar, or heir-apparent, is made the most conspicuous. He quelled a rebellion headed by the emperor’s brother, and while Bhagwandas commanded under a prince of the blood against Kashmir, Man Singh overcame an insurrection of the Afghans at Khaibar; and his son was made viceroy of Kabul.—See Briggs’ _Ferishta_, vol. ii. p. 258 _et seq._ Footnote 9.1.29: Bhagwandas had three brothers, Surat Singh, Madho Singh, and Jagat Singh; Man Singh was son of the last. Footnote 9.1.30: Ferishta confirms this, saying he sent one hundred and twenty elephants to the king on this occasion.—Briggs’ _Ferishta_, vol. ii. p. 268. Footnote 9.1.31: Ferishta confirms this likewise. According to this historian, it was while Man was yet only Kunwar, or heir-apparent, that he was invested with the governments of “Behar, Hajipoor, and Patna,” the same year (A.D. 1589) that his uncle Bhagwandas died, and that following the birth of Prince Khusru by the daughter of the Kachhwaha prince, an event celebrated (says Ferishta) with great rejoicings. See Briggs’ _Ferishta_, vol. ii. p. 261. Col. Briggs has allowed the similarity of the names _Khusru_ and _Khurram_ to betray him into a slight error, in a note on the former prince. It was not Khusru, but Khurram, who succeeded his father Jahangir, and was father to the monster Aurangzeb (note, p. 261). Khusru was put to death by Khurram, afterwards Shah Jahan. Footnote 9.1.32: _Annals of Rajasthan_, Vol. I. p. 408. Footnote 9.1.33: He was afterwards assassinated by order of Shah Jahan [“under the walls of Azere” (Asīrgarh)]. See Dow’s _Ferishta_, ed. 1812, vol. iii. p. 56. [Elphinstone (p. 563) calls his death suspicious, but refuses to believe that Shāh Jahān procured his death. He died from colic in the Deccan on January 16, 1622.] Footnote 9.1.34: Dow, ed. 1812, vol. iii. p. 42; the chronicle says in S. 1699, or A.D. 1613. [He died a natural death in July 1614, while he was on service in the Deccan, and sixty of his fifteen hundred women are said to have burned themselves on his pyre (_Āīn_, i. 341; _Memoirs of Jahāngīr_, trans. Rogers-Beveridge 266).] Footnote 9.1.35: An account of the life of Raja Man would fill a volume; there are ample materials at Jaipur. Footnote 9.1.36: [Jai Singh died, aged about sixty, at Burhānpur, July 12, 1667 (Manucci ii. 152).] Footnote 9.1.37: [According to Manucci (ii. 153), Rām Singh, as a piece of revenge for the flight of Sivaji, was sent to Assam in the hope that, like Mīr Jumla, he would die there; but on an appeal being made to Aurangzeb, the order was cancelled, and he was banished beyond the river Indus. The real fact is that Rām Singh was appointed to the Command in Assam in December 1667, and arrived there in February 1669. After desultory and unsuccessful fighting he was allowed to leave Bengal, and reached the Imperial Court in June 1676 (Jadunath Sarkar, _History of Aurangzib_, iii. 212 ff.).] ----- CHAPTER 2 =Sawāi Jai Singh, c. A.D. 1693-1743.=—Jai II., better known by the title of Sawai Jai Singh, in contradistinction to the first prince of this name, entitled the ‘Mirza Raja,’ succeeded in S. 1755 (A.D. 1699),[9.2.1] in the forty-fourth year of Aurangzeb’s reign, and within six years of that monarch’s death. He served with distinction in the Deccan, and in the war of succession attached himself to the prince Bedar Bakht, son of Azam Shah, declared successor of Aurangzeb; and with these he fought the battle of Dholpur, which ended in their death and the elevation of Shah Alam Bahadur Shah. For this opposition Amber was sequestrated, and an imperial governor sent to take possession; but Jai Singh entered his estates, sword in hand, drove out the king’s garrisons, and formed a league with Ajit Singh of Marwar for their mutual preservation. It would be tedious to pursue this celebrated Rajput through his desultory military career during the forty-four years he occupied the _gaddi_ of Amber; enough is already known of it from its combination with the Annals of Mewar and Bundi, of which house he was the implacable foe. Although Jai Singh mixed in all the troubles and warfare of this long period of anarchy, when the throne of Timur was rapidly crumbling into dust, his reputation as a soldier would never have handed down his name with honour to posterity; on the contrary, his courage had none of the fire which is requisite to make a Rajput hero; though his talents for civil government and court intrigue, in which he was the Machiavelli of his day, were at that period far more notable auxiliaries. =The Building of Jaipur: Work in Astronomy.=—As a statesman, legislator, and man of science, the character of Sawai Jai Singh is worthy of an ample delineation,[9.2.2] which would correct our opinion of the genius and [357] capacity of the princes of Rajputana, of whom we are apt to form too low an estimate. He was the founder of the new capital, named after him Jaipur or Jainagar, which became the seat of science and art, and eclipsed the more ancient Amber, with which the fortifications of the modern city unite, although the extremity of the one is six miles from the other. Jaipur is the only city in India built upon a regular plan, with streets bisecting each other at right angles.[9.2.3] The merit of the design and execution is assigned to Vidyadhar, a native of Bengal, one of the most eminent coadjutors of the prince in all his scientific pursuits, both astronomical and historical. Almost all the Rajput princes have a smattering of astronomy, or rather of its spurious relation, astrology; but Jai Singh went deep, not only into the theory, but the practice of the science, and was so esteemed for his knowledge, that he was entrusted by the emperor Muhammad Shah with the reformation of the calendar. He had erected observatories with instruments of his own invention at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Benares, and Mathura, upon a scale of Asiatic grandeur; and their results were so correct as to astonish the most learned.[9.2.4] He had previously used such instruments as those of Ulugh Beg (the royal astronomer of Samarkand), which failed to answer his expectations.[9.2.5] From the observations of seven years at the various observatories, he constructed a set of tables. While thus engaged, he learned through a Portuguese missionary, Padre Manuel, the progress which his favourite pursuit was making in Portugal, and he sent “several skilful persons along with him”[9.2.6] to the court of Emanuel. The king of Portugal dispatched Xavier de Silva, who communicated to the Rajput prince the tables of De la Hire.[9.2.7] “On examining and comparing the calculations of these tables (says the Rajput prince) with actual observation, it appeared there was an error in the former, in assigning the moon’s place, of half a degree; although the error in the other planets was not so great, yet the times of solar and lunar eclipses _he_[9.2.8] found to come out later or earlier than the truth by the fourth part of a ghari, or fifteen pals (six minutes of time).” In like manner, as he found fault with the instruments of brass used by the Turki astronomer, and which he conjectures must have been such as were used by Hipparchus and Ptolemy, so he attributes the inaccuracies of De la Hire’s tables [358] to instruments of “inferior diameters.” The Rajput prince might justly boast of his instruments. With that at Delhi, he, in A.D. 1729, determined the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23° 28´; within 28´´ of what it was determined to be, the year following, by Godin. His general accuracy was further put to the test in A.D. 1793 by our scientific countryman, Dr. W. Hunter, who compared a series of observations on the latitude of Ujjain with that established by the Rajput prince. The difference was 24″; and Dr. Hunter does not depend on his own observations within 15″. Jai Singh made the latitude 23° 10´ N.; Dr. Hunter, 23° 10´ 24″ N. From the results of his varied observations, Jai Singh drew up a set of tables, which he entitled _Zij Muhammadshahi_, dedicated to that monarch; by these, all astronomical computations are yet made, and almanacks constructed. It would be wrong—while considering these labours of a prince who caused Euclid’s Elements, the treatises on plain and spherical trigonometry, ‘Don Juan,’ Napier on the construction and use of logarithms, to be translated into Sanskrit—to omit noticing the high strain of devotion with which he views the wonders of the “Supreme Artificer”; recalling the line of one of our own best poets:[9.2.9] An undevout astronomer is mad. The Rajput prince thus opens his preface: “Praise be to God, such that the minutely discerning genius of the most profound geometers, in uttering the smallest particle of it, may open the mouth in confession of inability; and such adoration, that the study and accuracy of astronomers, who measure the heavens, may acknowledge their astonishment, and utter insufficiency! Let us devote ourselves at the altar of the King of Kings, hallowed be his name! in the book of the register of whose power the lofty orbs of heaven are only a few leaves; and the stars, and that heavenly courser the sun, small pieces of money, in the treasury of the empire of the Most High. “From inability to comprehend the all-encompassing beneficence of his power, Hipparchus is an ignorant clown, who wrings the hands of vexation; and in the contemplation of his exalted majesty, Ptolemy is a bat, who can never arrive at the sun of truth: the demonstrations of Euclid are an imperfect sketch of the forms of his contrivance. “But since the well-wisher of the works of creation, and the admiring spectator of the works of infinite wisdom, Sawai Jai Singh, from the first dawning of reason in his mind, and during its progress towards maturity, was entirely devoted to the study [359] of mathematical science, and the bent of his mind was constantly directed to the solution of its most difficult problems; by the aid of the Supreme Artificer, he obtained a thorough knowledge of its principles and rules,” etc.[9.2.10] Besides the construction of these objects of science, he erected, at his own expense, caravanserais for the free use of travellers in many of the provinces. How far vanity may have mingled with benevolence in this act (by no means uncommon in India), it were uncharitable to inquire: for the Hindu not only prays for all those “who travel by land or by water,” but aids the traveller by serais or inns, and wells dug at his own expense, and in most capitals and cities, under the ancient princes, there were public charities for necessitous travellers, at which they had their meals, and then passed on. =Assassination of Farrukhsiyar, May 16, 1719.=—When we consider that Jai Singh carried on his favourite pursuits in the midst of perpetual wars and court intrigues, from whose debasing influence he escaped not untainted; when amidst revolution, the destruction of the empire, and the meteoric rise of the Mahrattas, he not only steered through the dangers, but elevated Amber above all the principalities around, we must admit that he was an extraordinary man. Aware of the approaching downfall of the Mogul empire, and determined to aggrandize Amber from the wreck, he was, nevertheless, not unfaithful to his lord-paramount; for, on the conspiracy which deprived Farrukhsiyar of empire and of life, Jai Singh was one of the few princes who retained their fidelity, and would have stood by him to the last, if he had possessed a particle of the valour which belonged to the descendants of Timur.[9.2.11] Enough has been said of his public life, in that portion of the Annals of Mewar with which he was so closely connected, both by political and family ties. The Sayyids, who succeeded to power on the murder of their sovereign Farrukhsiyar, were too wise to raise enemies unnecessarily; and Jai Singh, when he left the unhappy monarch to his fate, retired to his hereditary dominions, devoting himself to his favourite pursuits, astronomy and history. He appears to have enjoyed three years of uninterrupted quiet, taking no part in the struggles, which terminated, in A.D. 1721, with Muhammad Shah’s defeat of his rivals, and the destruction of the Sayyids [360]. At this period Jai Singh was called from his philosophical pursuits, and appointed the king’s lieutenant for the provinces of Agra and Malwa in succession: and it was during this interval of comparative repose, that he erected those monuments which irradiate this dark epoch of the history of India.[9.2.12] Nor was he blind to the interests of his nation or the honour of Amber, and his important office was made subservient to obtaining the repeal of that disgraceful edict, the jizya, and authority to repress the infant power of the Jats, long a thorn in the side of Amber. But when, in A.D. 1732, the Raja, once more lieutenant for Malwa, saw that it was in vain to attempt to check the Mahratta invasion, or to prevent the partition of the empire, he deemed himself justified in consulting the welfare of his own house. We know not what terms Jai Singh entered into with the Mahratta leader, Bajirao, who by his influence was appointed Subahdar of Malwa; we may, however, imagine it was from some more powerful stimulant than the native historian of this period assigns, namely, “a similarity of religion.” By this conduct, Jai Singh is said emphatically, by his own countrymen, to have given the key of Hindustan to the Southron. The influence his character obtained, however, with the Mahrattas was even useful to his sovereign, for by it he retarded their excesses, which at length reached the capital. In a few years more (A.D. 1739), Nadir Shah’s invasion took place, and the Rajputs, wisely alive to their own interests, remained aloof from a cause which neither valour nor wisdom could longer serve. They respected the emperor, but the system of government had long alienated these gallant supporters of the throne. We may exemplify the trials to which Rajput fidelity was exposed, by one of “the hundred and nine deeds of Jai Singh” which will at the same time serve further to illustrate the position, that half the political and moral evils which have vexed the royal houses of Rajputana, take their rise from polygamy. =Rebellion of Bijai Singh.=—Maharaja Bishan Singh had two sons, Jai Singh and Bijai Singh. The mother of Bijai Singh, doubtful of his safety, sent him to her own family in Khichiwara.[9.2.13] When [361] he had attained man’s estate, he was sent to court, and by bribes, chiefly of jewels presented by his mother, he obtained the patronage of Kamaru-d-din Khan, the wazir.[9.2.14] At first his ambition was limited to the demand of Baswa,[9.2.15] one of the most fertile districts of Amber, as an appanage; which being acceded to by his brother and sovereign, Jai Singh, he was stimulated by his mother to make still higher demands, and to offer the sum of five crores of rupees and a contingent of five thousand horse, if he might supplant his brother on the throne of Amber. The wazir mentioned it to the emperor, who asked what security he had for the fulfilment of the contract; the wazir offered his own guarantee, and the sanads of Amber were actually preparing, which were thus to unseat Jai Singh, when his _pagri badal bhai_, Khandauran Khan,[9.2.16] informed Kirparam, the Jaipur envoy at court, of what was going on. The intelligence produced consternation at Amber, since Kamaru-d-din was all-powerful. Jai Singh’s dejection became manifest on reading the letter, and he handed it to the confidential Nazir, who remarked “it was an affair in which _force_ could not be used, in which wealth was useless, and which must be decided by stratagem[9.2.17] alone; and that the conspiracy could be defeated only through the conspirator.” At the Nazir’s recommendation he convened his principal chiefs, Mohan Singh, chief of the Nathawats;[9.2.18] Dip Singh, Khumbani, of Bansko; Zorawar Singh, Sheobaranpota; Himmat Singh, Naruka; Kusal Singh of Jhalai; Bhojraj of Mozabad, and Fateh Singh of Maoli; and thus addressed them on the difficulties of his position: “You placed me on the _gaddi_ of Amber; and my brother, who would be satisfied with Baswa, has Amber forced upon him by the Nawab Kamaru-d-din.” They advised him to be of good cheer, and they would manage the affair, provided he was sincere in assigning Baswa to his brother. He made out the grant at the moment, ratified it with an oath, and presented it with full powers to the chiefs to act for him. The Panch (council) of Amber sent their ministers to Bijai Singh provided with all the necessary arguments; but the prince replied, he had no confidence in the promises or protestations of his brother. For themselves, and in the name of the Barah kothri Amber ki (the twelve great families), they gave their sitaram,[9.2.19] or security; adding that if Jai Singh swerved [362] from his engagements, they were his, and would themselves place him on the _gaddi_ of Amber. He accepted their interposition and the grant, which being explained to his patron, he was by no means satisfied; nevertheless he ordered Khandauran and Kirparam to accompany him, to see him inducted in his new appanage of Baswa. The chiefs, anxious to reconcile the brothers, obtained Bijai Singh’s assent to a meeting, and as he declined going to Amber, Chaumun was proposed and agreed to, but was afterwards changed to the town of Sanganer, six miles south-west of Jaipur, where Bijai Singh pitched his tents. As Jai Singh was quitting the darbar to give his brother the meeting, the Nazir entered with a message from the queen-mother, to know “why her eyes should not be blessed with witnessing the meeting and reconciliation of the two Laljis.”[9.2.20] The Raja referred the request to the chiefs, who said there could be no objection. The Nazir prepared the _mahadol_,[9.2.21] with three hundred chariots for the females; but instead of the royal litter containing the queen-mother, it was occupied by Ugar Sen, the Bhatti chief, and each covered chariot contained two chosen Silahposhians, or men at arms. Not a soul but the Nazir and his master were aware of the treachery. The procession left the capital; money was scattered with profusion by the attendants of the supposed queen-mother, to the people who thronged the highways, rejoicing at the approaching conclusion of these fraternal feuds. =Bijai Singh entrapped.=—A messenger having brought the intelligence that the queen-mother had arrived at the palace of Sanganer, the Raja and his chiefs mounted to join her. The brothers first met and embraced, when Jai Singh presented the grant of Baswa, saying, with some warmth, that if his brother preferred ruling at Amber, he would abandon his birthright and take Baswa. Bijai Singh, overcome with this kindness, replied, that “all his wants were satisfied.” When the time to separate had arrived, the Nazir came into the court with a message from the queen-mother, to say, that if the chiefs would withdraw she would come and see her children, or that they might come to her apartment. Jai Singh referred his mother’s wish to the chiefs, saying he had no will but theirs. Having advised the brothers to wait on the queen-mother, they proceeded hand in hand to the interior of the mahall. When arrived at the door, Jai Singh, taking his dagger from his girdle, delivered it to an eunuch, saying, “What occasion for this here?” [363] and Bijai Singh, not to be outdone in confidence, followed his example. As the Nazir closed the door, Bijai Singh found himself, not in the embrace of the queen-mother, but in the iron grip of the gigantic Bhatti, who instantly bound him hand and foot, and placing him in the _mahadol_, the mock female procession with their prisoner returned to Amber. In an hour, tidings were conveyed to Jai Singh of the prisoner being safely lodged in the castle, when he rejoined the conclave of his chiefs; who on seeing him enter alone, attended by some of the ‘men at arms,’ stared at each other, and asked “What had become of Bijai Singh?”—“_Hamare pet men_,” 'in my belly'! was the reply. “We are both the sons of Bishan Singh, and I the eldest. If it is your wish that he should rule, then slay me and bring him forth. For you I have forfeited my faith, for should Bijai Singh have introduced, as he assuredly would, your enemies and mine, you must have perished.” Hearing this, the chiefs were amazed; but there was no remedy, and they left the palace in silence. Outside were encamped six thousand imperial horse, furnished by the wazir as the escort of Bijai Singh, whose commander demanded what had become of their trust. Jai Singh replied, “It was no affair of theirs,” and desired them to be gone, “or he would request their horses of them.” They had no alternative but to retrace their steps, and thus was Bijai Singh made prisoner.[9.2.22] Whatever opinion the moralist may attach to this specimen of 'the hundred and nine _gun_' of the royal astronomer of Amber, which might rather be styled _guna_[9.2.23] (vice) than _gun_ (virtue), no one will deny that it was done in a most masterly manner, and where _chal_ or stratagem is a necessary expedient, did honour to the talents of Jai Singh and the Nazir, who alone, says the narrative, were accessory to the plot. In this instance, moreover, it was perfectly justifiable; for with the means and influence of the wazir to support him, Bijai Singh must, sooner or later, have supplanted his brother. The fate of Bijai Singh is not stated. =Services of Jai Singh to Jaipur State.=—The Kachhwaha State, as well as its capital, owes everything to Jai Singh: before his time, it had little political weight beyond that which it acquired from the personal character of its princes, and their estimation at the Mogul court. Yet, notwithstanding the intimate connexion which existed between the Amber Rajas and the imperial family, from Babur to Aurangzeb, their patrimonial estates had been very little enlarged since Pajun, the contemporary of the last Rajput emperor of Delhi. Nor was it till [364] the troubles which ensued on the demise of Aurangzeb, when the empire was eventually partitioned, that Amber was entitled to the name of a _raj_. During those troubles, Jai Singh’s power as the king’s lieutenant in Agra, which embraced his hereditary domains, gave him ample opportunity to enlarge and consolidate his territory. The manner in which he possessed himself of the independent districts of Deoti and Rajor,[9.2.24] affords an additional insight into the national character, and that of this prince. =Limits of Jaipur State.=—At the accession of Jai Singh, the _raj_ of Amber consisted only of three parganas or districts of Amber, Daosa, and Baswa; the western tracts had been sequestrated, and added to the royal domains attached to Ajmer. The Shaikhavati confederation was superior to, and independent of, the parent State, whose boundaries were as follows. The royal thana (garrison) of Chatsu,[9.2.25] to the south; those of Sambhar to the west, and Hastina to the north-west; while to the east, Daosa and Baswa formed its frontier. The Kothribands, as they denominate the twelve great feudalities, possessed but very slender domains, and were held cheap by the great vassals of Mewar, of whom the Salumbar chief was esteemed, even by the first Peshwa, as the equal of the prince of the Kachhwahas. =Rajor.=—Rajor was a city of great antiquity, the capital of a petty State called Deoti,[9.2.26] ruled by a chief of the Bargujar tribe, descended, like the Kachhwahas, from Rama, but through Lava, the elder son. The Bargujars of Rajor had obtained celebrity amongst the more modern Rajputs, by their invincible repugnance to matrimonial alliance with the Muhammadans; and while the Kachhwahas set the degrading example, and by so doing eventually raised themselves to affluence, the Bargujar ‘conquered renown in the song of the bard,’ by performing the _sakha_ in defence of his honour. While, therefore, Sawai Jai Singh ruled as a viceroy over kingdoms, the Bargujar was serving with his contingent with the Baisi,[9.2.27] and at the period in question, in Anupshahr, on the Ganges. When absent on duty, the safety of Rajor depended on his younger brother. One day, while preparing for the chase of the wild boar, he became so impatient for his dinner, that his sister-in-law remarked, “One would suppose you were going to throw a lance at Jai Singh, you are in such a hurry.” This was touching a tender subject, for it will be recollected that the first territory in the plains obtained by the Kachhwahas, on their migration from Narwar, was Daosa, a Bargujar possession. “By Thakurji (the Lord), I shall do so, ere I eat from your hands again,” was the fierce reply. With ten horsemen he left Rajor, and took post [365] under the Dhulkot, or ‘mud walls,’ of Amber. =Attempted Assassination of Jai Singh.=—But weeks and months fled ere he found an opportunity to execute his threat; he gradually sold all his horses, and was obliged to dismiss his attendants. Still he lingered, and sold his clothes, and all his arms, except his spear; he had been three days without food, when he sold half his turban for a meal. That day Jai Singh left the castle by the road called _mora_, a circuitous path to avoid a hill. He was in his _sukhasan_;[9.2.28] as he passed, a spear was delivered, which lodged in the corner of the litter. A hundred swords flew out to slay the assassin; but the Raja called aloud to take him alive, and carry him to Amber. When brought before him and asked who he was, and the cause of such an act, he boldly replied, “I am the Deoti Bargujar, and threw the spear at you merely from some words with my Bhabhi;[9.2.29] either kill or release me.” He related how long he had lain in wait for him, and added that “had he not been four days without food, the spear would have done its duty.” Jai Singh, with politic magnanimity, freed him from restraint, gave him a horse and dress of honour (_khilat_), and sent him, escorted by fifty horse, in safety to Rajor. Having told his adventure to his sister-in law, she replied, “You have wounded the envenomed snake, and have given water to the State of Rajor.” She knew that a pretext alone was wanting to Jai Singh and this was now unhappily given. With the advice of the elders, the females and children were sent to the Raja at Anupshahr,[9.2.30] and the castles of Deoti and Rajor were prepared for the storm. On the third day after the occurrence, Jai Singh, in a full meeting of his chiefs, related the circumstance, and held out the _bira_[9.2.31] against Deoti; but Mohan Singh of Chaumun[9.2.32] warned his prince of the risk of such an attempt, as the Bargujar chief was not only estimated at court, but then served with his contingent. This opinion of the chief noble of Amber alarmed the assembly, and none were eager to seek the dangerous distinction. A month passed, and war against Deoti was again proposed; but none of the Kothribands seeming inclined to oppose the opinion of their ostensible head, Fateh Singh Banbirpota, the chieftain of one hundred and fifty vassals, accepted the _bira_, when five thousand horse were ordered to assemble under his command. Hearing that the Bargujar had left Rajor to celebrate the festival of Ganggor,[9.2.33] he moved towards him, sending on some messengers with “the compliments of Fateh Singh Banbirpota, and that he was at hand.” The young Bargujar who, little expecting [366] any hostile visitation, was indulging during this festive season, put the heralds to death, and with his companions, completely taken by surprise, was in turn cut to pieces by the Jaipur troops. The Rani of Rajor was the sister of the Kachhwaha chief of Chaumun: she was about giving a pledge of affection to her absent lord, when Rajor was surprised and taken. Addressing the victor, Fateh Singh, she said, “Brother, give me the gift (_dan_) of my womb”; but suddenly recollecting that her own unwise speech had occasioned this loss of her child’s inheritance, exclaiming, “Why should I preserve life to engender feuds?” she sheathed a dagger in her bosom and expired. The heads of the vanquished Bargujars were tied up in handkerchiefs, and suspending them from their saddle-horses, the victors returned to their prince, who sent for that of his intended assassin, the young Bargujar chieftain. As soon as Mohan Singh recognized the features of his kinsman, the tears poured down his face. Jai Singh, recollecting the advice of this, the first noble of his court, which delayed his revenge a whole month, called his grief treason, and upbraided him, saying, “When the spear was levelled for my destruction, no tear fell.” He sequestrated Chaumun, and banished him from Dhundhar: the chief found refuge with the Rana at Udaipur. “Thus (says the manuscript), did Jai Singh dispossess the Bargujar of Deoti and Rajor, which were added to his dominions: they embraced all the tract now called Macheri.”[9.2.34] Amongst the foibles of Jai Singh’s character was his partiality to ‘strong drink.’ What this beverage was, whether the juice of the _madhu_ (mead), or the essence (_arak_) of rice, the traditional chronicles of Amber do not declare, though they mention frequent appeals from Jai Singh drunk, to Jai Singh sober; one anecdote has already been related.[9.2.35] In spite of his many defects, Jai Singh’s name is destined to descend to posterity as one of the most remarkable men of his age and nation. =Erection of Buildings.=—Until Jai Singh’s time, the palace of Amber, built by the great Raja Man, inferior to many private houses in the new city, was the chief royal residence. The Mirza Raja made several additions to it, but these were trifles compared with the edifice added[9.2.36] by Sawai Jai Singh, which has made the residence of the Kachhwaha princes [367] as celebrated as those of Bundi or Udaipur, or, to borrow a more appropriate comparison, the Kremlin at Moscow. It was in S. 1784 (A.D. 1728) that he laid the foundation of Jaipur. Raja Mall was the Musahib,[9.2.37] Kirparam the stationary wakil at Delhi, and Budh Singh Khumbani, with the urdu, or royal camp, in the Deccan: all eminent men. The position he chose for the new capital enabled him to connect it with the ancient castle of Amber, situated upon a peak at the apex of the re-entering angle of the range called Kalikoh; a strong circumvallation enclosed the gorge of the mountain, and was carried over the crest of the hills, on either side, to unite with the castle, whilst all the adjoining passes were strongly fortified. =Sumptuary Laws: Tolerance.=—The sumptuary laws which he endeavoured to establish throughout Rajputana for the regulation of marriages, in order to check those lavish expenses that led to infanticide and satis, will be again called forth when the time is ripe for the abolition of all such unhallowed acts. For this end, search should be made for the historical legends called the ‘hundred and nine acts,’ in the archives of Jaipur, to which ready access could be obtained, and which should be ransacked for all the traces of this great man’s mind.[9.2.38] Like all Hindus, he was tolerant; and a Brahman, a Muhammadan, or a Jain, were alike certain of patronage. The Jains enjoyed his peculiar estimation, from the superiority of their knowledge, and he is said to have been thoroughly conversant both in their doctrines and their histories. Vidyadhar, one of his chief coadjutors in his astronomical pursuits, and whose genius planned the city of Jaipur, was a Jain, and claimed spiritual descent from the celebrated Hemacharya, of Nahrvala, minister and spiritual guide of his namesake, the great Siddhraj Jai Singh.[9.2.39] =The Asvamedha.=—Amongst the vanities of the founder of Amber, it is said that he intended to get up the ceremony of the Asvamedha yajna, or ‘sacrifice of the horse,’ a rite which his research into the traditions of his nation must have informed him had entailed destruction on all who had attempted it, from the days of Janamejaya the Pandu, to Jaichand, the last Rajput monarch of Kanauj. It was a virtual assumption of universal supremacy; and although, perhaps, in virtue of his office, as the satrap of Delhi, the horse dedicated to the sun might have wandered unmolested on the banks of the Ganges, he would most assuredly have found his way into a Rathor stable had he roamed in the direction of the desert: or at the risk both of _jiva_ and _gaddi_ (life and throne), the Hara [368] would have seized him, had he fancied the pastures of the Chambal.[9.2.40] He erected a sacrificial hall of much beauty and splendour, whose columns and ceilings were covered with plates of silver; nor is it improbable that the steed, emblematic of Surya, may have been led round the hall, and afterwards sacrificed to the solar divinity. The Yajnasala of Jai Singh, one of the great ornaments of the city, was, however, stripped of its rich decoration by his profligate descendant, the late Jagat Singh, who had not the grace even of Rehoboam, to replace them with inferior ornaments; and the noble treasures of learning which Jai Singh had collected from every quarter, the accumulated results of his own research and that of his predecessors, were divided into two portions, and one-half was given to a common prostitute, the favourite of the day. The most remarkable MSS. were, till lately, hawking about Jaipur. Sawai Jai Singh died in S. 1799 (A.D. 1743), having ruled forty-four years. Three of his wives and several concubines ascended his funeral pyre, on which science expired with him. ----- Footnote 9.2.1: [The dates of the Rājas of Jaipur are uncertain. Those in the margin are given on the authority of Beale, _Oriental Biographical Dict._ 193.] Footnote 9.2.2: For such a sketch, the materials of the Amber court are abundant; to instance only the _Kalpadruma_, a miscellaneous diary, in which everything of note was written, and a collection entitled _Ek sad nau gun Jai Singh ke_, or ‘the one hundred and nine actions of Jai Singh’ of which I have heard several narrated and noted. His voluminous correspondence with all the princes and chiefs of his time would alone repay the trouble of translation, and would throw a more perfect light on the manners and feelings of his countrymen than the most laborious lucubrations of any European. I possess an autograph letter of this prince, on one of the most important events of Indian history at this period, the deposal of Farrukhsiyar. It was addressed to the Rana. Footnote 9.2.3: [For a graphic account of Jaipur city see Rudyard Kipling, _From Sea to Sea_, chap. ii.] Footnote 9.2.4: [For these observatories see A. ff. Garrett and Pandit Chandradha Guleri, _The Jaipur Observatory and its Builder_, Allahabad, 1902; Fanshawe, _Delhi Past and Present_, 247 f.; Sherring, _The Sacred City of the Hindus_, 131 ff. The observatory at Mathura was in the Fort, but it has disappeared; at Ujjain only scanty remains exist (Growse, _Mathura_, 3rd ed. 140; _IGI_, xviii. 73, xxiv. 113).] Footnote 9.2.5: [Ulugh Beg, son of Shāh Rukh and grandson of Amīr Timūr, succeeded his father A.D. 1447, and was put to death by his son, Mīrza Abdul Latīf, in 1449. His astronomical tables were published in Latin by John Gregory, Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and were edited by Thomas Hyde in 1665 (Sykes, _Hist. of Persia_, ii. 218; _EB_, 11th ed. xxvii. 573 f.).] Footnote 9.2.6: It would be worth ascertaining whether the archives of Lisbon refer to this circumstance. Footnote 9.2.7: Second edition, published in A.D. 1702. Jai Singh finished his in A.D. 1728. Footnote 9.2.8: Jai Singh always speaks of himself in the third person. Footnote 9.2.9: [Young, _Night Thoughts_, ix. 771.] Footnote 9.2.10: See “Account of the Astronomical Labours of Jya Sing, Raja of Amber,” by Dr. W. Hunter (_Asiatic Researches_, vol. v. p. 177), to whom I refer the reader for the description of the instruments used by the Raja. The Author has seen those at Delhi and Mathura. There is also an equinoctial dial constructed on the terrace of the palace of Udaipur, and various instruments at Kotah and Bundi, especially an armillary sphere, at the former, of about five feet diameter, all in brass, got up under the scholars of Jai Singh. Dr. Hunter gives a most interesting account of a young pandit, whom he found at Ujjain, the grandson of one of the coadjutors of Jai Singh, who held the office of Jyotishrae, or Astronomer-Royal, and an estate of five thousand rupees annual rent, both of which (title and estate) descended to this young man; but science fled with Jai Singh, and the barbarian Mahrattas had rendered his estate desolate and unproductive. He possessed, says Dr. H., a thorough acquaintance with the Hindu astronomical science contained in the various Siddhantas, and that not confined to the mechanical practice of rules, but founded on a geometrical knowledge of their demonstration. This inheritor of the mantle of Jai Singh died at Jaipur, soon after Dr. Hunter left Ujjain, in A.D. 1793. Footnote 9.2.11: J. Scott, in his excellent history of the successors of Aurangzeb [ed. 1794, ii. 156 ff.], gives a full account of this tragical event, on which I have already touched in Vol. I. p. 474 of this work; where I have given a literal translation of the autograph letter of Raja Jai Singh on the occasion. Footnote 9.2.12: The Raja says he finished his tables in A.D. 1728, and that he had occupied himself seven years previously in the necessary observations; in fact, the first quiet years of Muhammad Shah’s reign, or indeed that India had known for centuries. Footnote 9.2.13: [In Mālwa (_IGI_, xxi. 34).] Footnote 9.2.14: [Kamaru-d-dīn, Mīr Muhammad Fāzil, son of Itmādu-d-daula, Muhammad Amīn Khān Wazīr, was appointed to that office A.D. 1724: killed at Sarhind, March 11, 1728.] Footnote 9.2.15: [Forty-five miles N.N.W. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.2.16: [‘Brother by exchange of turbans.’ Khāndaurān Khān, Abdu-l-Samad Khān, governor of Lahore and Multān, died A.D. 1739.] Footnote 9.2.17: The Nazir is here harping on three of the four predicaments which (borrowed originally from Manu [_Laws_, viii. 159, 165, 168], and repeated by the great Rajput oracle, the bard Chand) govern all human events, _sham_, _dan_, _bhed_, _dand_, ‘arguments, gifts, stratagem, force.’ Footnote 9.2.18: He is the hereditary premier noble of this house (as is Salumbar of Mewar, and the Awa chief of Marwar), and is familiarly called the ‘Patel of Amber.’ His residence is Chaumun, which is the place of rendezvous of the feudality of Amber, whenever they league against the sovereign. Footnote 9.2.19: [An appeal to the deities Rāma and his wife Sīta.] Footnote 9.2.20: _Lalji_ is an epithet of endearment used by all classes of Hindus towards their children, from the Sanskrit _lal_, _lad_, ‘to sport.’ Footnote 9.2.21: [A state litter, generally used by ladies of the Court.] Footnote 9.2.22: I have made a _verbatim_ translation of this _gun_. Footnote 9.2.23: This is a singular instance of making the privative an affix instead of prefix; _a-gun_, ‘without virtue,’ would be the common form. [(?) _guna_ may mean ‘virtue,’ or the reverse (Monier-Williams, _Sanskrit Dict._ s.v.; _Brāhmanism and Hinduism_, 4th ed. 30).] Footnote 9.2.24: [Both now in Mācheri of the Alwar State.] Footnote 9.2.25: [Thirty miles E. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.2.26: [Now in Mācheri, Alwar State.] Footnote 9.2.27: [‘The twenty-two,’ a term originally applied to the Mughal army, because it was supposed to contain twenty-two lakhs of men. The twenty-two nobles of Jaipur were a later creation.] Footnote 9.2.28: A litter, literally 'seat (_asan_) of ease (_sukh_).' Footnote 9.2.29: [_Bhābhi_, ‘sister-in-law.’] Footnote 9.2.30: The descendants of this chieftain still occupy lands at Anupshahr. Footnote 9.2.31: [The betel leaf eaten before battle.] Footnote 9.2.32: [About 20 miles N. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.2.33: [See Vol. II. p. 665.] Footnote 9.2.34: Rajor is esteemed a place of great antiquity, and the chief seat of the Bargujar tribe for ages, a tribe mentioned with high respect in the works of the bard Chand, and celebrated in the wars of Prithiraj. I sent a party to Rajor in 1813. Footnote 9.2.35: Annals of Mārwār, Vol. II. p. 1048. Footnote 9.2.36: The manuscript says, “On the spot where the first Jai Singh erected the three mahalls, and excavated the tank called the Talkatora, he erected other edifices.” As Hindu princes never throw down the works of their predecessors, this means that he added greatly to the old palace. Footnote 9.2.37: [Aide-de-camp.] Footnote 9.2.38: By such researches we should in all probability recover those sketches of ancient history of the various dynasties of Rajputana, which he is said to have collected with great pains and labour, and the genealogies of the old races, under the titles of Rajavali and Rajatarangini; besides, the astronomical works, either original or translations, such as were collected by Jai Singh, would be a real gift to science. Footnote 9.2.39: He ruled from S. 1150 to S. 1201, A.D. 1094-1143. [Hemāchārya, or Hemachandra, was a famous scholar who flourished in the reigns of Siddharāja Jayasingha and Kumārapāla. He is said to have been converted to Islām (_BG_, i. Part i. 180 f., 182 f., ix. Part ii. 26, note.)] Footnote 9.2.40: See Vol. I. p. 91, for a description of the rite of _Asvamedha_. ----- CHAPTER 3 =The Rājput League.=—The league formed at this time by the three chief powers of Rajputana has already been noticed in the Annals of Mewar. It was one of self-preservation; and while the Rathors added to Marwar from Gujarat, the Kachhwahas consolidated all the districts in their neighbourhood under Amber. The Shaikhavati federation was compelled to become tributary, and but for the rise of the Jats, the State of Jaipur would have extended from the lake of Sambhar to the Jumna [369]. =Īsari Singh, A.D. 1743-60.=—Isari Singh succeeded to a well-defined territory, heaps of treasure, an efficient ministry, and a good army; but the seeds of destruction lurked in the social edifice so lately raised, and polygamy was again the immediate agent. Isari Singh was the successor of Jai Singh, according to the fixed laws of primogeniture; but Madho Singh, a younger son, born of a princess of Mewar, possessed conventional rights which vitiated those of birth. These have already been discussed, as well as their disastrous issue to the unfortunate Isari Singh, who was not calculated for the times, being totally deficient in that nervous energy of character, without which a Rajput prince can enforce no respect. His conduct on the Abdali invasion admitted the construction of cowardice, though his retreat from the field of battle, when the commander-in-chief, Kamaru-d-din Khan, was killed, might have been ascribed to political motives, were it not recorded that his own wife received him with gibes and reproaches. There is every appearance of Jai Singh having repented of his engagement on obtaining the hand of the Sesodia princess, namely, that her issue should succeed, as he had in his lifetime given an appanage unusually large to Madho Singh, namely, the four parganas of Tonk, Rampura, Phaggi, and Malpura.[9.3.1] The Rana also, who supported his nephew’s claims, assigned to him the rich fief of Rampura Bhanpura in Mewar,[9.3.2] which as well as Tonk Rampura, constituting a petty sovereignty, were, with eighty-four lakhs (£840,000 sterling), eventually made over to Holkar for supporting his claims to the ‘cushion’ of Jaipur. The consequence of this barbarous intervention in the international quarrels of the Rajputs annihilated the certain prospect they had of national independence, on the breaking up of the empire, and subjected them to a thraldom still more degrading, from which a chance of redemption is now offered to them. =Mādho Singh, A.D. 1760-78.=—Madho Singh, on his accession, displayed great vigour of mind, and though faithful to his engagements, he soon showed the Mahrattas he would admit of no protracted interference in his affairs; and had not the rising power of the Jats distracted his attention and divided his resources, he would, had his life been prolonged, in conjunction with the Rathors, have completely humbled their power. But this near enemy embarrassed all his plans. Although the history of the Jats is now well known, it may not be impertinent shortly to commemorate the rise of a power, which, from a rustic condition, in little more than half a century was able to baffle the armies of Britain, led by the most popular commander it ever had in the East; for till the siege of Bharatpur the name of Lake was always coupled with victory [370]. =The Jāts of Bharatpur.=—The Jats[9.3.3] are a branch of the great Getic race, of which enough has been said in various parts of this work. Though reduced from the rank they once had amongst the ‘Thirty-six Royal Races,’ they appear never to have renounced the love of independence, which they contested with Cyrus in their original haunts in Sogdiana. The name of the Cincinnatus of the Jats, who abandoned his plough to lead his countrymen against their tyrants, was Churaman. Taking advantage of the sanguinary civil wars amongst the successors of Aurangzeb, they erected petty castles in the villages (whose lands they cultivated) of Thun and Sansani,[9.3.4] and soon obtained the distinction of Kazaks, or ‘robbers,’ a title which they were not slow to merit, by their inroads as far as the royal abode of Farrukhsiyar. The Sayyids, then in power, commanded Jai Singh of Amber to attack them in their strongholds, and Thun and Sansani were simultaneously invested. But the Jats, even in the very infancy of their power, evinced the same obstinate skill in defending mud walls, which in later times gained them so much celebrity. The royal astronomer of Amber was foiled, and after twelve months of toil, was ingloriously compelled to raise both sieges. Not long after this event, Badan Singh, the younger brother of Churaman, and a joint proprietor of the land, was for some misconduct placed in restraint, and had remained so for some years, when, through the intercession of Jai Singh and the guarantee of the other Bhumia Jats, he was liberated. His first act was to fly to Amber, and to bring its prince, at the head of an army, to invest Thun, which, after a gallant defence of six months, surrendered and was razed to the ground. Churaman and his son, Mohkam Singh, effected their escape, and Badan Singh was proclaimed chief of the Jats, and installed, as Raja, by Jai Singh in the town of Dig, destined also in after times to have its share of fame. Badan Singh had a numerous progeny, and four of his sons obtained notoriety, namely, Surajmall, Sobharam, Partap Singh, and Birnarayan. Badan Singh subjected several of the royal districts to his authority. He abdicated his power in favour of his elder son, Surajmall, having in the first instance assigned the district of Wer,[9.3.5] on which he had constructed a fort, to his son Partap. Surajmall inherited all the turbulence and energy requisite to carry on the plans of his predecessors. His first act was to dispossess a relative, named Kaima, of the castle [371] of Bharatpur, afterwards the celebrated capital of the Jats.[9.3.6] In the year S. 1820 (A.D. 1764), Surajmall carried his audacity so far as to make an attempt upon the imperial city; but here his career was cut short by a party of Baloch horse, who slew him while enjoying the chase. He had five sons, namely, Jawahir Singh, Ratan Singh, Newal Singh, Nahar Singh, Ranjit Singh, and also an adopted son, named Hardeo Bakhsh, picked up while hunting. Of these five sons, the first two were by a wife of the Kurmi[9.3.7] tribe; the third was by a wife of the Malin, or horticultural class; while the others were by Jatnis or women of his own race. Jawahir Singh, who succeeded, was the contemporary of Raja Madho Singh, whose reign in Jaipur we have just reached; and to the Jat’s determination to measure swords with him were owing, not only the frustration of his schemes for humbling the Mahratta, but the dismemberment of the country by the defection of the chief of Macheri. Jawahir Singh, in A.H. 1182, having in vain solicited the district of Kamona, manifested his resentment by instantly marching through the Jaipur territories to the sacred lake of Pushkar, without any previous intimation. He there met Raja Bijai Singh of Marwar, who, in spite of his Jat origin, condescended to ‘exchange turbans,’ the sign of friendship and fraternal adoption. At this period, Madho Singh’s health was on the decline, and his counsels were guided by two brothers, named Harsahai and Gursahai, who represented the insulting conduct of the Jat and required instructions. They were commanded to address him a letter warning him not to return through the territories of Amber, and the chiefs were desired to assemble their retainers in order to punish a repetition of the insult. But the Jat, who had determined to abide the consequences, paid no regard to the letter, and returned homewards by the same route. This was a justifiable ground of quarrel, and the united Kothribands marched to the encounter, to maintain the pretensions of their equestrian order against the plebeian Jat. A desperate conflict ensued, which, though it terminated in favour of the Kachhwahas and in the flight of the leader of the Jats, proved destructive to Amber, in the loss of almost every chieftain of note[9.3.8] [372]. =Separation of Mācheri or Alwar State, A.D. 1771-76.=—This battle was the indirect cause of the formation of Macheri into an independent State, which a few words will explain. Partap Singh, of the Naruka clan, held the fief of Macheri; for some fault he was banished the country by Madho Singh, and fled to Jawahir Singh, from whom he obtained _saran_ (sanctuary), and lands for his maintenance. The ex-chieftain of Macheri had, as conductors of his household affairs and his agents at court, two celebrated men, Khushhaliram[9.3.9] and Nandram, who now shared his exile amongst the Jats. Though enjoying protection and hospitality at Bharatpur, they did not the less feel the national insult, in that the Jat should dare thus unceremoniously to traverse their country. Whether the chief saw in this juncture an opening for reconciliation with his liege lord, or that a pure spirit of patriotism alone influenced him, he abandoned the place of refuge, and ranged himself at his old post, under the standard of Amber, on the eve of the battle, to the gaining of which he contributed not a little. For this opportune act of loyalty his past errors were forgiven, and Madho Singh, who only survived that battle four days, restored him to his favour and his fief of Macheri. Madho Singh died of a dysentery, after a rule of seventeen years. Had he been spared, in all human probability he would have repaired the injurious effects of the contest which gave him the _gaddi_ of Amber; but a minority, and its accustomed anarchy, made his death the point from which the Kachhwaha power declined. He built several cities, of which that called after him Madhopur, near the celebrated fortress of Ranthambhor, the most secure of the commercial cities of Rajwara, is the most remarkable. He inherited no small portion of his father’s love of science, which continued to make Jaipur the resort of learned men, so as to eclipse even the sacred Benares. =Prithi Singh II., A.D. 1778.=—Prithi Singh II., a minor, succeeded, under the guardianship of the mother of his younger brother, Partap. The queen-regent, a Chondawatni, was of an ambitious and resolute character, but degraded by her paramour, Firoz, a Filban, or ‘elephant-driver,’ whom she made member of her council, which disgusted the chiefs, who alienated themselves from court and remained at their estates. Determined, however, to dispense with their aid, she entertained a mercenary army under the celebrated Ambaji, with which she enforced the collection of the revenue. Arath Ram was at [373] this period the Diwan, or prime minister, and Khushhaliram Bohra, a name afterwards conspicuous in the politics of this court, was associated in the ministry. But though these men were of the highest order of talent, their influence was neutralized by that of the Filban, who controlled both the regent Rani and the State. Matters remained in this humiliating posture during nine years, when Prithi Singh died through a fall from his horse, though not without suspicions that a dose of poison accelerated the vacancy of the _gaddi_, which the Rani desired to see occupied by her own son. The scandalous chronicle of that day is by no means tender of the reputation of Madho Singh’s widow. Having a direct interest in the death of Prithi Singh, the laws of common sense were violated in appointing her guardian, notwithstanding her claims as Patrani, or chief queen of the deceased. Prithi Singh, though he never emerged from the trammels of minority and the tutelage of the Chondawatni, yet contracted two marriages, one with Bikaner, the other with Kishangarh. By the latter he had a son, Man Singh. Every court in Rajputana has its pretender, and young Man was long the bugbear to the court of Amber. He was removed secretly, on his father’s death, to the maternal roof at Kishangarh; but as this did not offer sufficient security, he was sent to Sindhia’s camp, and has ever since lived on the bounty of the Mahratta chief at Gwalior.[9.3.10] =Partāp Singh, A.D. 1778-1803.=—Partap Singh[9.3.11] was immediately placed upon the _gaddi_ by the queen-regent, his mother, and her council, consisting of the Filban, and Khushhaliram, who had now received the title of Raja, and the rank of prime minister. He employed the power thus obtained to supplant his rival Firoz, and the means he adopted established the independence of his old master, the chief of Macheri. This chief was the only one of note who absented himself from the ceremony of the installation of his sovereign. He was countenanced by the minister, whose plan to get rid of his rival was to create as much confusion as possible. In order that distress might reach the court, he gave private instructions that the zemindars should withhold their payments; but these minor stratagems would have been unavailing, had he not associated in his schemes the last remnants of power about the Mogul throne. Najaf Khan[9.3.12] was at this time the imperial commander, who, aided by the Mahrattas, proceeded to expel the [374] Jats from the city of Agra. He then attacked them in their stronghold of Bharatpur. Nawal Singh was then the chief of the Jats. The Macheri chief saw in the last act of expiring vigour of the imperialists an opening for the furtherance of his views, and he united his troops to those of Najaf Khan. This timely succour, and his subsequent aid in defeating the Jats, obtained for him the title of Rao Raja, and a sanad for Macheri, to hold direct of the crown. Khushhaliram, who, it is said, chalked out this course, made his old master’s success the basis of his own operations to supplant the Filban. Affecting the same zeal that he recommended to the chief of Macheri, he volunteered to join the imperial standard with all the forces of Amber. The queen-regent did not oppose the Bohra’s plan, but determined out of it still higher to exalt her favourite: she put him at the head of the force, which post the minister had intended for himself. This exaltation proved his ruin. Firoz, in command of the Amber army, met the Rao Raja of Macheri on equal terms in the tent of the imperial commander. Foiled in these schemes of attaining the sole control of affairs, through the measure adopted, the Macheri chief, at the instigation of his associate, resolved to accomplish his objects by less justifiable means. He sought the friendship of the Filban, and so successfully ingratiated himself in his confidence as to administer a dose of poison to him, and in conjunction with the Bohra succeeded to the charge of the government of Amber. The regent queen soon followed the Filban, and Raja Partap was yet too young to guide the state vessel without aid. The Rao Raja and the Bohra, alike ambitious, soon quarrelled, and a division of the imperialists, under the celebrated Hamidan Khan, was called in by the Bohra. Then followed those interminable broils which brought in the Mahrattas. Leagues were formed with them against the imperialists one day, and dissolved the next; and this went on until the majority of Partap, who determined to extricate himself from bondage, and formed that league, elsewhere mentioned, which ended in the glorious victory of Tonga, and for a time the expulsion of all their enemies, whether imperial or Mahrattas. To give a full narrative of the events of this reign, would be to recount the history of the empire in its expiring moments. Throughout the twenty-five years’ rule of Partap, he and his country underwent many vicissitudes. He was a gallant prince, and not deficient in judgment; but neither gallantry nor prudence could successfully apply the resources of his petty State against its numerous predatory foes and its internal dissensions. The defection of Macheri was a serious blow to Jaipur, and the necessary subsidies soon lightened the hoards accumulated by his predecessors. Two payments [375] to the Mahrattas took away eighty lakhs of rupees (£800,000); yet such was the mass of treasure, notwithstanding the enormous sums lavished by Madho Singh for the support of his claims, besides those of the regency, that Partap expended in charity alone, on the victory of Tonga, A.D. 1789, the sum of twenty-four lakhs, or a quarter of a million sterling. In A.D. 1791, after the subsequent defeats at Patan, and the disruption of the alliance with the Rathors, Tukaji Holkar invaded Jaipur, and extorted an annual tribute, which was afterwards transferred to Amir Khan, and continues a permanent incumbrance on the resources of Jaipur. From this period to A.D. 1803, the year of Partap’s death, his country was alternately desolated by Sindhia’s armies, under De Boigne or Perron, and the other hordes of robbers, who frequently contested with each other the possession of the spoils.[9.3.13] =Jagat Singh, A.D. 1803-18.=—Jagat Singh succeeded in A.D. 1803, and ruled for seventeen [fifteen] years, with the disgraceful distinction of being the most dissolute prince of his race or of his age. The events with which his reign is crowded would fill volumes were they worthy of being recorded. Foreign invasions, cities besieged, capitulations and war-contributions, occasional acts of heroism, when the invader forgot the point of honour, court intrigues, diversified, not unfrequently, by an appeal to the sword or dagger, even in the precincts of the court. Sometimes the daily journals (_akhbars_) disseminated the scandal of the Rawala (female apartments), the follies of the libertine prince with his concubine Raskafur, or even less worthy objects, who excluded from the nuptial couch his lawful mates of the noble blood of Jodha, or Jaisal, the Rathors and Bhattis of the desert. We shall not disgrace these annals with the history of a life which discloses not one redeeming virtue amidst a cluster of effeminate vices, including the rankest, in the opinion of a Rajput—cowardice. The black transaction respecting the princess of Udaipur, has already been related (Vol. I. p. 536), which covered him with disgrace, and inflicted a greater loss, in his estimation, even than that of character—a million sterling. The treasures of the Jai Mandir were rapidly dissipated, to the grief of those faithful hereditary guardians, the Minas of Kalikoh, some of whom committed suicide rather than see these sacred deposits squandered on their prince’s unworthy pursuits. The lofty walls which surrounded the beautiful city of Jai Singh were insulted by every marauder; commerce was interrupted, and agriculture rapidly declined, partly from insecurity, but still more from the perpetual exactions of his minions [376]. One day a tailor[9.3.14] ruled the councils, the next a Bania, who might be succeeded by a Brahman, and each had in turn the honour of elevation to the donjon keep of Nahargarh, the castle where criminals are confined, overlooking the city. The feodal chiefs held both his authority and his person in utter contempt, and the pranks he played with the ‘Essence of Camphor’ (_ras-kafur_),[9.3.15] at one time led to serious thoughts of deposing him; which project, when near maturity, was defeated by transferring “this queen of half of Amber,” to the prison of Nahargarh. In the height of his passion for this Islamite concubine, he formally installed her as queen of half his dominions, and actually conveyed to her in gift a moiety of the personality of the crown, even to the invaluable library of the illustrious Jai Singh which was despoiled, and its treasures distributed amongst her base relations. The Raja even struck coin in her name, and not only rode with her on the same elephant, but demanded from his chieftains those forms of reverence towards her which were paid only to his legitimate queens. This their pride could not brook, and though the Diwan or prime minister, Misr Sheonarayan, albeit a Brahman, called her ‘daughter,’ the brave Chand Singh of Duni[9.3.16] indignantly refused to take part in any ceremony at which she was present. This contumacy was punished by a mulet of £20,000, nearly four years’ revenue of the fief of Duni! =Death of Jagat Singh.=—Manu allows that sovereigns may be deposed,[9.3.17] and the aristocracy of Amber had ample justification for such an act. But unfortunately the design became known, and some judicious friend, as a salvo for the Raja’s dignity, propagated a report injurious to the fair fame of his Aspasia, which he affected to believe; a mandate issued for the sequestration of her property, and her incarceration in the castle allotted to criminals. There she was lost sight of, and Jagat continued to dishonour the _gaddi_ of Jai Singh until his death, on a day held especially sacred by the Rajput, the 21st of December 1818, the winter solstice, when, to use their own metaphorical language, “the door of heaven is reopened.” Raja Jagat Singh left no issue, legitimate or illegitimate, and no provision had been made for a successor during his life. But as the laws of Rajputana, political or religious, admit of no interregnum, and the funereal pyre must be lit by an adopted child if there be no natural issue, it was necessary at once to inaugurate a successor [377]; and the choice fell on Mohan Singh, son of the ex-prince of Narwar. As this selection, in opposition to the established rules of succession, would, but for a posthumous birth, have led to a civil war, it may be proper to touch briefly upon the subject of heirs-presumptive in Rajputana, more especially those of Jaipur: the want of exact knowledge respecting this point, in those to whom its political relations with us were at that time entrusted, might have had the most injurious effects on the British character. To set this in its proper light, we shall explain the principles of the alliance which rendered Jaipur a tributary of Britain. ----- Footnote 9.3.1: [Tonk now in the State of that name; Rāmpura 65 miles E., Phaggi 32 miles E., Mālpura about 50 miles S.W. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.3.2: [Now lost to Mewār, being included in Indore State.] Footnote 9.3.3: It has been seen how the Yadu-Bhatti princes, when they fell from their rank of Rajputs, assumed that of Jats, or Jāts, who are assuredly a mixture of the Rajput and Yuti, Jat or Gete races. See Vol. I. p. 127. [The Author possibly refers to the attack of Cyrus on the Massagetae, whose connexion with the Jāts is not supported by evidence (Herodotus i. 204 ff.).] Footnote 9.3.4: [Sansani about 10 miles N.W. of Bharatpur city: Thūn 12 miles W. of Sansani. For the sieges of Thūn by Jai Singh in 1716 and 1722, see Irvine, _Army of the Indian Moghuls_, 285 ff.; for Sansani, Manucci ii. 320 f. iv. 242.] Footnote 9.3.5: [About 28 miles S.W. of Bharatpur city.] Footnote 9.3.6: [In 1761 he captured Agra, which the Jāts held till they were ousted by the Marāthas in 1770 (_IGI_, v. 83).] Footnote 9.3.7: The Kurmi (the Kulumbi of the Deccan) is perhaps the most numerous, next to the Jats, of all the agricultural classes. [In 1911 there were 7 million Jāts and 3¾ million Kurmis in India.] Footnote 9.3.8: Having given a slight sketch of the origin of the Jats, I may here conclude it. Ratan Singh, the brother of Jawahir, succeeded him. He was assassinated by a Gosain Brahman from Bindraban, who had undertaken to teach the Jat prince the transmutation of metals, and had obtained considerable sums on pretence of preparing the process. Finding the day arrive on which he was to commence operations, and which would reveal his imposture, he had no way of escape but by applying the knife to his dupe. Kesari Singh, an infant, succeeded, under the guardianship of his uncle, Newal Singh. Ranjit Singh succeeded him, a name renowned for the defence of Bharatpur against Lord Lake. He died A.D. 1805, and was succeeded by the eldest of four sons, namely, Randhir Singh, Baldeo Singh, Hardeo Singh, and Lachhman Singh. The infant son of Randhir succeeded, under the tutelage of his uncle; to remove whom the British army destroyed Bharatpur, and plundered it of its wealth, both public and private. [The son of Randhīr Singh was Balwant Singh, who was cast into prison by his cousin, Dūrjansāl. He was captured by Lord Combermere when he stormed Bharatpur in 1826. Balwant Singh was restored, and dying in 1853, was succeeded by Jaswant Singh, who died in 1893, and was succeeded by his son Rām Singh, deposed for misconduct in 1900, and succeeded by his son Kishan Singh, born in 1899 (_IGI_, viii. 74 ff).] Footnote 9.3.9: Father of two men scarcely less celebrated than himself, Chhatarbhuj and Daula Ram. Footnote 9.3.10: Two or three times he had a chance of being placed on the _gaddi_ (_vide_ letter of Resident with Sindhia to Government, March 27, 1812), which assuredly ought to be his: once, about 1810, when the nobles of Jaipur were disgusted with the libertine Jagat Singh; and again, upon the death of this dissolute prince, in 1820. The last occasion presented a fit occasion for his accession; but the British Government were then the arbitrators, and I doubt much if his claims were disclosed to it, or understood by those who had the decision of the question, which nearly terminated in a civil war. Footnote 9.3.11: [The Author’s dates do not agree with those of Prinsep (_Useful Tables_, ed. 1834, p. 112) which are given in the margin.] Footnote 9.3.12: [Najaf Khān, Amīru-l-Umara, Zulfikāru-d-daula, died A.D. 1782.] Footnote 9.3.13: [For these campaigns see Compton, _European Military Adventurers_, 145 ff., 237 ff.] Footnote 9.3.14: Rorji Khawass was a tailor by birth, and, I believe, had in early life exercised the trade. He was, however, amongst the Musahibs, or privy councillors of Jagat Singh, and (I think) one of the ambassadors sent to treat with Lord Lake. Footnote 9.3.15: _Ras-Karpūr_ or _Kapūr_, I am aware, means ‘corrosive sublimate,’ but it may also be interpreted ‘essence of camphor’ [Kāfūr]. Footnote 9.3.16: [About 75 miles S. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.3.17: [The reference is possibly to the text: “That king who through folly rashly oppresses the kingdom will, with his relations, ere long be deprived of his life and of his kingdom” (_Laws_, vii. 111).] ----- CHAPTER 4 =The British Alliance, A.D. 1818.=—Jaipur was the last of the principalities of Rajputana to accept the protection tendered by the government of British India. To the latest moment, she delayed her sanction to a system which was to banish for ever the enemies of order. Our overtures and expostulations were rejected, until the predatory powers of India had been, one after another, laid prostrate at our feet. The Pindaris were annihilated; the Peshwa was exiled from Poona to the Ganges; the Bhonsla was humbled; Sindhia palsied by his fears; and Holkar, who had extensive lands assigned him, besides a regular tribute from Jaipur, had received a death-blow to his power in the field of Mahidpur.[9.4.1] Procrastination is the favourite expedient of all Asiatics; and the Rajput, though a fatalist, often, by protracting the irresistible _honhar_ (destiny), works out his deliverance. Amir Khan, the lieutenant of Holkar, who held the lands and tribute of Jaipur in _jaedad_, or assignment for his troops, was the sole enemy of social order left to operate on the fears of Jaipur, and to urge her to take refuge in our alliance; and even he was upon the point of becoming one of the illustrious allies, who were to enjoy the “perpetual friendship” of Great Britain. The Khan was at that very moment [378] battering Madhorajpura, a town almost within the sound of cannon-shot of Jaipur, and we were compelled to make an indirect use of this incident to hasten the decision of the Kachhwaha prince. The motives of his backwardness will appear from the following details. =Hesitation to accept the Treaty.=—Various considerations combined to check the ardour with which we naturally expected our offer of protection would be embraced. The Jaipur court retained a lively, but no grateful remembrance, of the solemn obligations we contracted with her in 1803, and the facility with which we extricated ourselves from them when expediency demanded, whilst we vainly attempted to throw the blame of violating the treaty upon our ally. To use the words of one who has been mixed up with all the political transactions of that eventful period, with reference to the letter delivered by the envoy at the Jaipur court from our viceroy in the East, notifying the dissolution of the alliance: “The justice of these grounds was warmly disputed by the court, which, under a lively sense of that imminent danger to which it had become exposed from this measure, almost forgot for a moment the temper and respect which it owed to the English nation.” But the native envoy from Jaipur, attending the camp of the gallant Lake, took a still higher tone, and with a manly indignation observed, that “this was the first time, since the English government was established in India, that it had been known to make its faith subservient to its convenience”: a reproach the more bitter and unpalatable from its truth.[9.4.2] The enlarged and prophetic views of Marquess Wellesley, which suggested the policy of uniting all these regular governments in a league against the predatory powers, were counteracted by the timid, temporizing policy of Lord Cornwallis, who could discover nothing but weakness in this extension of our influence.[9.4.3] What misery would not these States have been spared, had those engagements, executed through the noble Lake (a name never mentioned in India, by European or native, without reverence), been maintained; for the fifteen years which intervened between the two periods produced more mischief to Rajwara than the preceding half century, and half a century more will not repair it! A circumstance that tended to increase this distrust was our tearing Wazir Ali from his sanctuary at Jaipur, which has cast an indelible stain upon the Kachhwaha name.[9.4.4] We have elsewhere[9.4.5] explained the privileges of _saran_, or ‘sanctuary,’ which, when claimed by the unfortunate or criminal, is sacred in the eye of the Rajput [379]. This trust we forced the Jaipur State to violate, though she was then independent of us. It was no excuse for the act that the fugitive was a foul assassin: we had no right to demand his surrender.[9.4.6] There were other objections to the proffered treaty of no small weight. The Jaipur court justly deemed one-fifth (eight lakhs) of the gross revenues of the crown, a high rate of insurance for protection; but when we further stipulated for a prospective increase[9.4.7] of nearly one-third of all surplus revenue beyond forty lakhs, they saw, instead of the generous Briton, a sordid trafficker of mercenary protection, whose rapacity transcended that of the Mahratta. Independent of these state objections, there were abundance of private and individual motives arrayed in hostility to the British offer. For example: the ministers dreaded the surveillance of a resident agent, as obnoxious to their authority and influence; and the chieftains, whom rank and ancient usage kept at court as the counsellors of their prince, saw in prospect the surrender of crown-lands, which fraud, favour, or force had obtained for them. Such were the principal causes which impeded the alliance between Amber and the Government-general of British India; but it would have marred the uniformity of Lord Hastings’ plan to have left a gap in the general protective system by the omission of Jaipur. The events rapidly happening around them—the presence of Amir Khan—the expulsion of the orange flag of the Mahratta, and the substitution of the British banner on the battlements of Ajmer—at length produced a tardy and ungracious assent, and, on the 2nd of April 1818, a treaty of ten articles was concluded, which made the Kachhwaha princes the friends and tributaries in perpetuity of Great Britain. =Disputed Succession.=—On the 21st of December of the same year, Jagat Singh died, and the choice of a successor speedily evinced to the ministers the impracticability of their exercising, as in days of yore, that “absolute power over their country and dependants,” guaranteed to them by the treaty.[9.4.8] Our office of arbitrating the differences between the Raja and [380] his vassals on the subject of the usurpations from the crown-lands, was easy, and left no unpleasant feeling; but when we intermeddled with the intrigues respecting the succession, our ignorance of established rights and usage rendered the interference offensive, and made the Jaipur chiefs repent the alliance which temporary policy had induced their prince to accept. =Law of Succession in Rājputāna.=—It may be of use in future negotiations, to explain the usages which govern the different States of Rajputana in respect to succession. The law of primogeniture prevails in all Rajput sovereignties; the rare instances in which it has been set aside, are only exceptions to the rule. The inconclusive dicta of Manu, on this as on many other points, are never appealed to by the Rajputs of modern days.[9.4.9] Custom and precedent fix the right of succession, whether to the _gaddi_ of the State, or to a fief, in the eldest son, who is styled Rajkumar, Patkumar, or simply Kumarji, ‘the prince’; while his brothers have their proper names affixed, as Kumar Jawan Singh, ‘Prince Jawan.’ Seniority is, in fact, a distinction pervading all ranks of life, whether in royal families or those of chieftains; all have their Patkumar, and Patrani, or ‘head child,’ and ‘head queen.’ The privileges of the Patrani are very considerable. In minorities, she is the guardian, by custom as well as nature, of her child; and in Mewar (the oldest sovereignty in India), she is publicly enthroned with the Rana. Seniority in marriage bestows the title of Patrani, but as soon as an heir is given to the State, the queen-mother assumes this title, or that of Maji, simply ‘the mother.’[9.4.10] In the duties of guardian, she is assisted by the chiefs of certain families, who with certain officers of the household enjoy this as an established hereditary distinction. On the demise of a prince without lawful issue of his body, or that of near kindred, brothers or cousins, there are certain families in every principality (_raj_) of Rajwara, in whom is vested the right of presumptive heirship to the _gaddi_. In order to restrict the circle of claimants, laws have been established in every State limiting this right to the issue of a certain family in each principality. Thus, in Mewar, the elder of the Ranawat clans, styled Babas, or ‘the infants,’ possesses the latent right of heir-presumptive. In Marwar, the independent house of Idar, of the family of Jodha; in Bundi, the house of Dagari,[9.4.11] in Kotah, the Apjis of Pulaitha[9.4.12]; in Bikaner, the family of [381] Mahajan[9.4.13]; and in Jaipur, the branch Rajawat (according to seniority) of the stock of Raja Man. Even in this stock there is a distinction between those prior, and those posterior, to Raja Madho Singh; the former are styled simply Rajawat, or occasionally conjoined, Mansinghgot; the other Madhani. The Rajawats constitute a numerous frerage, of which the Jhalai house takes the lead; and in which, provided there are no mental or physical disabilities, the right of furnishing heirs to the _gaddi_ of Jaipur is a long-established, incontrovertible, and inalienable privilege. We have been thus minute, because, notwithstanding the expressed wish of the government not to prejudge the question, the first exercise of its authority as lord-paramount was to justify a proceeding by which these established usages were infringed, in spite of the eighth article of the treaty: “The Maharaja and his heirs and successors shall remain absolute rulers of their country and dependants according to long-established usage,” etc. “_C’est premier pas qui coute_”; and this first step, being a wrong one, has involved an interference never contemplated, and fully justifying that wariness on the part of Jaipur, which made her hesitate to link her destiny with ours. Both the sixth and seventh articles contain the seeds of disunion, whenever it might suit the chicanery or bad faith of the protected, or the avarice of the protector. The former has already been called into operation, and the ‘absolute rulers’ of Jaipur have been compelled to unfold to the resident Agent the whole of their financial and territorial arrangements, to prove that the revenues did not exceed the sum of forty lakhs, as, of the sum in excess (besides the stipulated tributary fifth), our share was to be three-sixteenths.[9.4.14] While, therefore, we deem ourselves justified in interfering in the two chief branches of government, the succession and finances, how is it possible to avoid being implicated in the acts of the government-functionaries, and involved in the party views and intrigues of a court, stigmatised even by the rest of Rajwara with the epithet of _jhutha darbar_, the ‘lying court’? While there is a resident Agent at Jaipur, whatever [382] his resolves, he will find it next to impossible to keep aloof from the vortex of intrigue. The purest intentions, the highest talents, will scarcely avail to counteract this systematic vice, and with one party at least, but eventually with all, the reputation of his government will be compromised. This brings us back to the topic which suggested these remarks, the installation of a youth upon the _gaddi_ of Jaipur. We shall expose the operation of this transaction by a literal translation of an authentic document, every word of which was thoroughly substantiated. As it presents a curious picture of manners, and is valuable as a precedent, we shall give it entire in the Appendix, and shall here enter no further into details than is necessary to unravel the intrigue which violated the established laws of succession. =The Installation of Mohan Singh.=—The youth, named Mohan Singh, who was installed on the _gaddi_ of Jaipur, on the morning succeeding Jagat Singh’s decease, was the son of Manohar Singh, the ex-Raja of Narwar, who was chased from his throne and country by Sindhia. We have stated that the Jaipur family sprung from that of Narwar eight centuries ago; but the parent State being left without direct lineage, they applied to Amber and adopted a son of Prithiraj I., from whom the boy now brought forward was fourteen generations in descent. This course of proceeding was in direct contravention of usage, which had fixed, as already stated, the heirs-presumptive, on failure of lineal issue to the _gaddi_ of Amber, in the descendants of Raja Man, and the branch Madhani, generally styled Rajawat, of whom the first claimant was the chief of Jhalai,[9.4.15] and supposing his incompetency, Kama, and a dozen other houses of the ‘infantas’ of Jaipur. The causes of departure from the recognized rule, in this respect, were the following. At the death of Jagat Singh, the reins of power were, and had been for some time, in the hands of the chief eunuch of the _rawala_ (seraglio), whose name was Mohan Nazir,[9.4.16] a man of considerable vigour of understanding, and not without the reputation of good intention in his administration of affairs, although the system of chicanery and force,[9.4.17] by which he attempted to carry his object, savoured more of self-interest than of loyalty. The youth was but nine years of age; and a long minority, with the exclusive possession of power, suggests the true motives of the Nazir. His principal coadjutor, amongst the great vassals of the State, was Megh Singh of Diggi,[9.4.18] a chief who [383] had contrived by fraud and force to double his hereditary fief by usurpations from the crown-lands, to retain which he supported the views of the Nazir with all the influence of his clan (the Khangarot), the most powerful of the twelve great families of Amber.[9.4.19] The personal servants of the crown, such as the Purohits, Dhabhais (domestic chaplains and foster-brothers), and all the subordinate officers of the household, considered the Nazir’s cause as their own: a minority and his favour guaranteed their places, which might be risked by the election of a prince who could judge for himself, and had friends to provide for. =Objections raised by the Government of India.=—A reference to the “Summary of Transactions” (in the Appendix) will show there was no previous consultation or concert amongst the military vassals, or the queens; on the contrary, acting entirely on his own responsibility, the Nazir, on the morning succeeding the death of his master, placed young Mohan in ‘the car of the sun,’ to lead the funeral procession, and light the pyre of his adopted sire. Scarcely were the ablutions and necessary purifications from this rite concluded, when he received the congratulations of all present as lord of the Kachhwahas, under the revived name of Man Singh the Second. The transactions which followed, as related in the diary, until the final _dénouement_, distinctly show, that having committed himself, the Nazir was anxious to obtain through the resident agents of the chieftains at court, their acquiescence in the measure under their signs-manual. It will be seen that the communications were received and replied to in that cautious, yet courteous manner, which pledged the writer to nothing, and gained him time for the formation of a deliberate opinion: the decision was thus suspended; all eyes were directed to the paramount power; and the Nazir, whose first desire was to propitiate this, entreated the British functionary at Delhi to send his confidential Munshi to Jaipur without delay. This agent reached Jaipur from Delhi six days after the death of Jagat. He was the bearer of instructions, “requiring a full account of the reasons for placing the son of the Narwar Raja on the masnad; of his family, lineage, right of succession, and by whose counsels the measure was adopted.” On the 11th of January this requisition was reiterated; and it was further asked, whether the measure had the assent of the queens and chiefs, and a declaration to this effect, under their signatures, was required to be forwarded. Nothing could be more explicit, or more judicious, than the tenor of these instructions [384]. The replies of the Nazir and confidential Munshi were such, that on the 7th of February the receipt of letters of congratulation from the British Agent, accompanied by one from the supreme authority, was formally announced, which letters being read in full court, “the naubat (kettledrum) again sounded, and young Man Singh was conducted to the Partap Mahall, and seated on the masnad.” On this formal recognition by the British government, the agents of the chieftains at their sovereign’s court, in reply to the Nazir’s demand, “to know the opinions of the chiefs,” answered that “if he called them, they were ready to obey”; but at the same time they rested their adhesion on that of the chief queen, sister of the Raja of Jodhpur, who breathed nothing but open defiance of the Nazir and his junta. Early in March, public discontent became more manifest: and the Rajawat chief of Jhalai determined to appeal to arms in support of his rights as heir-presumptive, and was soon joined by the chiefs of Sarwar and Isarda,[9.4.20] junior but powerful branches of the same stock. Another party seemed inclined, on this emergency, to revive the rights of that posthumous son of Prithi Singh, whom we have already described as living in exile at Gwalior, on the bounty of Sindhia; and nothing but the unfavourable report of his intellect and debased habits prevented the elder branch of the sons of Madho Singh recovering their lost honours. While the paramount authority was thus deluded, and the chieftains were wavering amidst so many conflicting opinions, the queens continued resolute, and the Rajawats were arming—and the Nazir, in this dilemma, determined as a last resource, to make Raja Man of Jodhpur the umpire, hoping by this appeal to his vanity, to obtain his influence over his sister to an acquiescence in the irremediable step, which had been taken “in obedience (as he pretended) to the will of the deceased prince.” Raja Man’s reply is important: “That there could be no occasion for his or his sister’s signature to the required declaration on the right of succession to the masnad of Jaipur, which depended upon, and was vested in, the elders of the twelve tribes of Kachhwahas; that if they approved and signed the declaration, the queen his sister, and afterwards himself, would sign it, if requisite.” The Nazir and his faction, though aided by the interposition of the Munshi, were now in despair, and in these desperate circumstances, he attempted to get up a marriage between the puppet he had enthroned and the granddaughter of the Rana of Mewar. It was well contrived, and not ill received by the Rana; but there was an influence at his court which at once extinguished the plot, though supported at [385] Delhi by the Rana’s most influential agent. It was proposed that, at the same time, the Rana should consummate his nuptials with the Jaipur Raja’s sister, the preliminaries of which had been settled a dozen years back. Money in abundance was offered, and the Rana’s passion for pageantry and profusion would have prevented any objection to his proceeding to the Jaipur capital. To receive the chief of the universal Hindu race with due honour, the whole nobility of Amber would have left their estates, which would have been construed into, and accepted as, a voluntary acquiescence in the rights of the Nazir’s choice, which the marriage would have completely cemented. Foiled in this promising design, the knot, which the precipitate and persevering conduct of the Nazir had rendered too indissoluble even for his skill to undo, was cut by the annunciation of the advanced pregnancy of the Bhattiani queen. =Birth of a Posthumous Heir.=—This timely interposition of Mata Janami (the Juno Lucina of Rajwara) might well be regarded as miraculous; and though the sequel of this event was conducted with such publicity as almost to choke the voice of slander, it still found utterance.[9.4.21] It was deemed a sort of prodigy, that an event, which would have caused a jubilee throughout Dhundhar, should have been kept secret until three months after the Raja’s death.[9.4.22] The mysteries of the Rawalas of Rajput princes find their way to the public out of doors; and in Udaipur, more especially, are the common topics of conversation. The variety of character within its walls, the like variety of communicants without, the conflicting interests, the diversified objects of contention of these little worlds, render it utterly impossible that any secret can long be maintained, far less one of such magnitude as the pregnancy of the queen of a prince without issue. That this event should be revealed to the Nazir, the superintendent of the queen’s palace, with all the formality of a new discovery, _three months_ after Jagat Singh’s death, must excite surprise; since to have been the bearer of such joyful intelligence to his master, to whom he was much attached, must have riveted his influence [386]. At three o’clock on the 1st of April, a council of sixteen queens, the widows of the late prince, and the wives of all the great vassals of the State, “assembled to ascertain the fact of pregnancy,” whilst all the great barons awaited in the antechambers of the Zanana Deori the important response of this council of matrons. When it announced that the Bhattiani queen was pregnant beyond a doubt, they consulted until seven, when they sent in a written declaration, avowing their unanimous belief of the fact; and that “should a son be born, they would acknowledge him as their lord, and to none else pledge allegiance.” A transcript of this was given to the Nazir, who was recommended to forward an attested copy to the British Agent at Delhi. From these deliberations, from which there was no appeal, the Nazir was excluded by express desire of the Rathor queen. He made an ineffectual effort to obtain from the chiefs a declaration, that the adoption of the Narwar youth was in conformity to the desire of the deceased prince, their master; but this attempt to obtain indemnity for his illegal acts was defeated immediately on the ground of its untruth.[9.4.23] By this lawful and energetic exertion of the powers directly vested in the queen-mother and the great council of the chiefs, the tongue of faction was rendered mute; but had it been otherwise, another queen was pronounced to be in the same joyful condition.[9.4.24] On the morning of the 25th of April, four months and four days after Jagat Singh’s death, a son was ushered into the world with the usual demonstrations of joy, and received as the Autocrat of the Kachhwahas; while the infant interloper was removed from the _gaddi_, and thrust back to his original obscurity. Thus terminated an affair which involved all Rajwara in discussion, and at one time threatened a very serious result. That it was disposed of in this manner was fortunate for all parties, and not least for the protecting power. Having thus given a connected, though imperfect, sketch of the history of the Jaipur State, from its foundation to the present time, before proceeding with any account of its resources, or the details of its internal administration, we shall delineate the rise, progress, and existing condition of the Shaikhavati federation, which has risen out of, and almost to an equality with, the parent State [387]. ----- Footnote 9.4.1: [Mahīdpur, in the Indore State, 24 miles N. of Ujjain, when Sir John Malcolm defeated the Marāthas on December 21, 1817.] Footnote 9.4.2: _Vide_ Malcolm’s _Political History of India_, p. 434. Footnote 9.4.3: [The Author, an enthusiastic political officer, ignores the considerations based on the state of the finances of India and the danger of the political situation in Europe which suggested a cautious policy in India. See J. Mill, _Hist. of British India_, ed. 1817, iii. 702; Seton-Karr, _The Marquess Cornwallis_, 178 ff.; J. W. Kaye, _Life of Lord Metcalfe_, i. 326 ff. On the negotiations with Jaipur see Kaye, _op. cit._ i. 348 ff.] Footnote 9.4.4: [Wazīr Ali, the deposed Nawāb of Oudh, murdered Mr. Cherry, the British Resident at Benares, on January 14, 1799. He took refuge in Jaipur, and the Rāja, having made terms with the British, “treacherously delivered him up.” He was confined in Fort William, Calcutta, where he died in 1817 (J. Mill, _op. cit._ iii. 469 ff).] Footnote 9.4.5: Vol. II. p. 613. Footnote 9.4.6: A better commentary on the opinions held by the natives upon this subject could not be given than the speech of Holkar’s envoy to the agent of the Governor-General of India, then with Lord Lake: “Holcar’s vakeel demanded, with no slight degree of pertinacity, the cession of the Jeipoor and Boondi tributes; and one of them, speaking of the former, stated, that he no doubt would continue to enjoy the friendship of the English, as he had disgraced himself to please that nation, by giving up Vizier Alli (who had sought his protection) to their vengeance. The vakeel was severely rebuked by the agent (Colonel, now Sir John Malcolm) for this insolent reflection on the conduct of an ally of the British Government, who had delivered up a murderer whom it would have been infamy to shelter”; though the author of the _Political History of India_ might have added—but whom it was still greater infamy, according to their code, to surrender. See Malcolm’s _Political History of India_, p. 432. Footnote 9.4.7: See Article 6 of the Treaty, Appendix, No. IV. Footnote 9.4.8: See Article 8 of the Treaty. Footnote 9.4.9: [_Laws_, ix. 105 ff. On the general question see Baden-Powell, _The Indian Village Community_, 305 f.] Footnote 9.4.10: In Mewar, simply Maji; at Jaipur, where they have long used the language and manners of Delhi, they affix the Persian word Sahibah, or ‘lady mother.’ Footnote 9.4.11: [Dagāri or Dugāri, about 20 miles N. of Būndi city, with a picturesque palace (_Rājputāna Gazetteer_, 1879, i. 216.)] Footnote 9.4.12: [A short distance S. of Kotah city.] Footnote 9.4.13: [Mahājan, about 50 miles N.N.W. of Bikaner city.] Footnote 9.4.14: Mewar was subjected to the same premium on her reviving prosperity. The Author unsuccessfully endeavoured to have a limit fixed to the demand; but he has heard with joy that some important modifications have since been made in these tributary engagements both with Mewar and Amber: they cannot be made too light. Discontent in Rajputana will not be appeased by a few lakhs of extra expenditure. I gave my opinions fearlessly when I had everything at stake; I will not suppress them now, when I have nothing either to hope or to fear but for the perpetuity of the British power in these regions, and the revival of the happiness and independence of those who have sought our protection. He will prove the greatest enemy to his country, who, in ignorance of the true position of the Rajputs, may aim at further trenching upon their independence. Read the thirty years’ war between Aurangzeb and the Rathors! where is the dynasty of their tyrant? Look at the map: a desert at their back, the Aravalli in front; no enemies to harass or disturb them! How different would a Rajput foe prove from a contemptible Mahratta, or the mercenary array of traitorous Nawabs, whom we have always found easy conquests! Cherish the native army: conciliate the Rajputs; then, laugh at foes! Footnote 9.4.15: [Jhalai, about 42 miles S.S.W. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.4.16: _Nazir_ is the official name, a Muhammadan one, denoting his capacity, as emasculated guardian of the seraglio. Jaipur and Bundi are the only two of the Rajput principalities who, adopting the Muslim custom, have contaminated the palaces of their queens with the presence of these creatures. Footnote 9.4.17: See “Summary of Transactions,” Appendix, No. V. [The Author omitted to print this paper owing to its length.] Footnote 9.4.18: [Forty miles S.S.W. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.4.19: The Khangarot clan enumerates twenty-two fiefs, whose united rent-rolls amount to 402,806 rupees annually, and their united quotas for the service of the State, six hundred and forty-three horse. Megh Singh, by his turbulence and intelligence, though only the sixth or seventh in the scale of rank of this body, had taken the lead, and become the organ of his clan at court. Footnote 9.4.20: [Sarwar, 45 miles S. of Ajmer; Isarda, 60 miles S.S.W. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.4.21: The publicity, on this occasion, is precisely of the same character as marked the accouchement of the Duchess de Berri, who, it is said, not only had the usual witnesses to silence the voice of doubt, but absolutely insisted on the Maréchaux as well as the Maréchales of France being in the room at the moment of parturition. Footnote 9.4.22: Raja Jagat Singh died December 21, 1818, and the announcement of the Bhattiani being in “the eighth month of her pregnancy,” was on March 24, 1819. Footnote 9.4.23: Deeming a record of these transactions useful, not only as descriptive of manners, but as a precedent, inasmuch as they show the powers and position of the different authorities composing a Rajput State in cases of succession, I have inserted it in the Appendix. [As before stated, the Author omitted this paper.] Footnote 9.4.24: No notice, that I am aware of, was ever taken of this second annunciation. [The posthumous son of Jagat Singh, Jai Singh III., who succeeded, lived till 1835, during which period the State was a scene of misgovernment and corruption. He was succeeded by Mahārāja Rām Singh (A.D. 1835-80). His adopted son, Kāim Singh, succeeded under the title of Sawāi Mādho Singh II., and has administered the State with conspicuous ability.] ----- SHAIKHĀWAT FEDERATION CHAPTER 5 We proceed to sketch the history of the Shaikhawat confederation, which, springing from the redundant feodality of Amber, through the influence of age and circumstances, has attained a power and consideration almost equalling that of the parent State; and although it possesses neither written laws, a permanent congress, nor any visible or recognized head, subsists by a sense of common interest. It must not be supposed, however, that no system of policy is to be found in this confederation, because the springs are not always visible or in action; the moment any common or individual interest is menaced, the grand council of the Barons of Shaikhavati assembles at Udaipur[9.5.1] to decide the course of action to be pursued. =The Origin of the Shaikhāwats.=—The Shaikhawat chieftains are descended from Balaji, the third son of Raja Udaikaran, who succeeded to the throne of Amber in S. 1445, A.D. 1389. At this period, if we look back to the political state of society, we find that nearly the whole of the tracts, which now obey the Shaikhavati federation, were parcelled out amongst numerous chieftains of the Chauhan or Tuar tribes,[9.5.2] the descendants of the ancient Hindu emperors of Delhi, who evinced no more submission than the sword and their Islamite successors exacted from them. Balaji, who was the actual founder of the numerous families now designated by the more distinguished name of Shaikhji, his grandson, obtained as an appanage the district of Amritsar,[9.5.3] but whether by his own prowess or by other means, is not mentioned. He had three sons: Mokalji, Khemraj, and Kharad. The first succeeded to the patrimony of Amritsar; the second had a numerous issue styled Balapota, one of whom was adopted into the twelve chambers (_barahkothri_) of Kachhwahas. The third had a son called Kaman, whose descendants were styled Kamawat, but are now early extinct. =Shaikhji.=—Mokal had a son who was named Shaikhji, in compliment to a miracle-working Islamite saint, to whose prayers the childless chief was indebted for a son destined to be the patriarch of a numerous race, occupying, under the term Shaikhawat, an important [389] portion of the surface of Rajputana. Shaikh Burhan was the name of this saint, whose shrine (still existing) was about six miles from Achrol, and fourteen from the residence of Mokal. As the period of time was shortly after Timur’s invasion, it is not unlikely he was a pious missionary, who remained behind for the conversion of the warlike but tolerant Rajput, with whom, even if he should fail in his purpose, he was certain of protection and hospitality. The Shaikh in one of his peregrinations had reached the confines of Amritsar, and was passing over an extensive meadow, in which was Mokalji. The Mangta (mendicant) approached with the usual salutation, “Have you anything for me?” “Whatever you please to have, Babaji (sire),” was the courteous reply. The request was limited to a draught of milk, and if our faith were equal to the Shaikhawat’s, we should believe that Shaikh Burhan drew a copious stream from the exhausted udder of a female buffalo. This was sufficient to convince the old chief that the Shaikh could work other miracles; and he prayed that, through his means, he might no longer be childless. In due time he had an heir, who, according to the injunctions of Burhan, was styled, after his own tribe, Shaikh. He directed that he should wear the baddhiya,[9.5.4] which, when laid aside, was to be suspended at the saint’s dargah; and further, that he should assume the blue tunic and cap, abstain from hog’s flesh, and eat no meat “in which the blood remained.” He also ordained that at the birth of every Shaikhawat male infant a goat should be sacrificed, the Kalima (Islamite creed) read, and the child sprinkled with the blood. Although four centuries have passed away since these obligations were contracted by Mokal, they are still religiously maintained by the little nation of his descendants, occupying a space of ten thousand square miles. The wild hog, which, according to immemorial usage, should be eaten once a year by every Rajput, is rarely even hunted by a Shaikhawat; and though they have relaxed in that ordinance, which commanded the suspension of the baddhiyas at the shrine of Burhan, still each infant wears them, as well as the blue tunic and cap, for two years after his birth; and a still greater mark of respect to the memory of the saint is evinced in the blue pennon which surmounts the yellow banner, or national flag, of the Shaikhawats. It is even gravely asserted that those who, from indolence, distance, or less justifiable motives, have neglected the least important injunction, that of depositing the initiatory strings or baddhiyas, have never prospered. But a still stronger proof is furnished of the credulity, the toleration, and yet [390] immutability of the Rajput character, in the fact, that, although Amritsar,[9.5.5] and the lands around the dargah, are annexed to the fisc of Amber, yet the shrine of Shaikh Burhan continues a _saran_ (sanctuary), while lands are assigned to almost a hundred families, the descendants of the saint, who reside in the adjacent town of Tala. Shaikhji, when he attained man’s estate, greatly augmented the territory left by his father, and had consolidated three hundred and sixty villages under his sway, by conquest from his neighbours, when his reputation and power attracted the jealous notice of the lord paramount of Amber. He was attacked; but by the aid of the Panni Pathans[9.5.6] he successfully withstood the reiterated assaults of his suzerain. Up to this period, they had acknowledged the Amber princes as liege lords, and in token of alliance paid as tribute all the colts reared on the original estate.[9.5.7] A dispute on this point was the ostensible cause (though subordinate to their rapid prosperity), which occasioned a total separation of the Shaikhawat colonies from the parent State, until the reign of Sawai Jai Singh who, with his means as lieutenant of the empire, compelled homage, submission, and pecuniary relief from them. Shaikhji left a well-established authority to his son, Raemall, of whom nothing is recorded. Raemall was followed by Suja, who had three sons, namely, Nunkaran, Raesal, and Gopal. The elder succeeded to the patrimony of Amritsar and its three hundred and sixty townships, while to his brothers, the fiefs of Lambi and Jharli[9.5.8] were respectively assigned. With the second brother, Raesal, the fortunes of the Shaikhawats made a rapid stride, from an occurrence in which the Rajput appears in the position we desire to see him occupy. Nunkaran, the chief of the Shaikhawats, had a minister named Devidas, of the Bania or mercantile caste, and, like thousands of that caste, energetic, shrewd, and intelligent. He one day held an argument with his lord (which the result proves he maintained with independence), that “genius with good fortune was the first gift of heaven, and to be far more prized than a man’s mere inheritance.” Nunkaran warmly disputed the point, which ended by his telling the minister he might go to Lambi [391] and make experiment of the truth of his argument on his brother Raesal. Devidas lost no time, on this polite dismissal from his office, in proceeding with his family and property to Lambi. He was received with the usual hospitality; but soon discovered that Raesal’s means were too confined to bear an additional burden, and that the field was too restricted to enable him to demonstrate the truth of the argument which lost him his place. He made known his determination to proceed to the imperial city, and advised Raesal to accompany him, and try his luck at court. Raesal, who was valiant and not without ambition, could only equip twenty horse, with which he arrived at Delhi just as an army was forming to oppose one of those Afghan invasions, so common at that period. In the action which ensued, Raesal had the good fortune to distinguish himself by cutting down a leader of the enemy, in the presence of the imperial general, which had a decided influence on the event of the day. Inquiries were made for the brave unknown, who had performed this heroic deed; but as, for reasons which will be perceived, he kept aloof from the quarters of his countrymen, the argument of Devidas would never have been illustrated, had not the imperial commander determined to seek out and reward merit. He ordered a grand ziyafat, or ‘entertainment’ to be prepared for the chiefs of every grade in the army, who were commanded afterwards to pay their respects to the general. As soon as Raesal appeared, he was recognized as the individual of whom they were in search. His name and family being disclosed, his brother, Nunkaran, who was serving with his quota, was called, whose anger was peremptorily expressed at his presuming to appear at court without his permission; but this ebullition of jealousy was of little avail. Raesal was at once introduced to the great Akbar, who bestowed upon him the title of Raesal Darbari,[9.5.9] and a more substantial mark of royal favour, in a grant of the districts of Rewasa and Khasali, then belonging to the Chandela Rajputs. This was but the opening of Raesal’s career, for scarcely had he settled his new possessions, when he was recalled to court to take part in an expedition against Bhatner. Fresh services obtained new favours, and he received a grant of Khandela and Udaipur, then belonging to the Nirwan Rajputs, who disdained to pay allegiance to the empire, and gave themselves up to unlicensed rapine. =Khandela, the Shaikhawat Capital.=—Raesal, finding it would be a work of difficulty to expel the brave Nirwans from [392] their ancient _bapota_ (patrimony), had recourse to stratagem to effect his object. Previous to the expedition to Bhatner, Raesal had espoused the daughter of the chief of Khandela, and it is related that a casual expression, dropped on that occasion, suggested his desire to obtain it for himself. Being dissatisfied with the dower (_daeja_) given with his bride, he, with no commendable taste, pertinaciously insisted upon an increase; upon which the Nirwan chief, losing patience, hastily replied, “We have nothing else to give, unless you take the stones of the hill.” The attendant Saguni (augur), immediately turning to Raesal, said, in an undertone, “Tie a knot on the skirt of your garment in remembrance of this.” An expression like this from a prophetic tongue gave birth to the wish to be lord of Khandela; while his services to the king, and the imbecility of its Nirwan possessor, conspired to fulfil it. Watching his opportunity, he marched against the place, and being in all probability supported by his liege lord, it was abandoned without defence, and the inhabitants tendered their submission to him. Henceforth, Khandela was esteemed the principal city of the Shaikhawat confederation; and the descendants of Raesal, using his name as a patronymic, are styled Raesalot, occupying all southern Shaikhavati; while another branch of later origin, called Sadhani, holds the northern tracts. Immediately after the occupation of Khandela, Raesal obtained possession of Udaipur, formerly called Kausambi, also belonging to the Nirwans.[9.5.10] Raesal accompanied his proper liege lord, the great Raja Man of Amber, against the heroic Rana Partap of Mewar. He was also in the expedition to Kabul, against the Afghans of Kohistan, in all of which enterprises he obtained fresh distinctions. Regarding his death, there is no record;[9.5.11] but his history is another illustration of the Rajput character, whilst it confirms the position of the Bania, that “genius and good fortune are far superior to inheritance.” Raesal, at his death, had a compact and well-managed territory, out of which he assigned appanages to his seven sons, from whom are descended the various families, who, with relative distinctive patronymics, Bhojansi Sadhanis, Larkhanis, Tajkhanis, Parasurampotas, Harrampotas, are recognized throughout Rajwara by the generic name of Shaikhawat [393]. 1. Girdhar Had Khandela and Rewasa. 2. Larkhan ” Kachriawas. 3. Bhojraj ” Udaipur. 4. Tirmall Rao ” Kasli and eighty-four villages. 5. Parasuram ” Bai. 6. Harramji ” Mundari. 7. Tajkhan ” No appanage. We shall not break the thread of the narrative of the elder branch of Khandela, “chief of the sons of Shaikhji,” to treat of the junior line, though the issue of Bhojraj have eclipsed, both in population and property, the senior descendants of Raesal. =Girdharji Shaikhāwat.=—Girdharji succeeded to the prowess, the energy, and the estates of his father, and for a gallant action obtained from the emperor the title of Raja of Khandela. At this period, the empire was in a most disordered state, and the mountainous region, called Mewat, was inhabited by a daring and ferocious banditti, called Meos, who pillaged in gangs even to the gates of the capital. The task of taking, dead or alive, the leader of this banditti, was assigned to the chief of Khandela, who performed it with signal gallantry and success. Aware that, by the display of superior force, his enemy would remain in his lurking places, Girdhar put himself on terms of equality with his foe, and with a small but select band hunted the Mewati leader down, and in the end slew him in single combat. The career of Girdhar, short as it was brilliant, was terminated by assassination, while bathing in the Jumna. The anecdote is descriptive of the difference of manners between the rustic Rajput and the debauched retainer of the court. =Assassination of Girdharji.=—One of the Khandela chief’s men was waiting, in a blacksmith’s shop, while his sword was repaired and sharpened. A Muslim, passing by, thought he might have his jest with the unpolished Rajput, and after asking some impertinent questions, and laughing at the unintelligible replies in the Bhakha of Rajwara, slipped a heated cinder in the turban of the soldier: the insult was borne with great coolness, which increased the mirth of the Musalman, and at length the turban took fire. The sword was then ready, and the Thakur, after feeling the edge, with one blow laid the jester’s head at his feet. He belonged to one of the chief nobles of the court, who immediately led his retainers to the Khandela chief’s quarters, and thence to where he was performing his religious ablutions in the Jumna, and whilst engaged in which act, unarmed and almost unattended, basely murdered him. Girdhar left several children [394]. =Dwārkadās.=—Dwarkadas, his eldest son, succeeded, and soon after his accession nearly fell a victim to the jealousy of the Manoharpur chief, the representative of the elder branch of the family, being the lineal descendant of Nunkaran. The emperor had caught a lion in the toils, and gave out a grand hunt, when the Manoharpur chief observed that his relative, the Raesalot, who was a votary of Naharsingh,[9.5.12] was the proper person to engage the king of the forest. Dwarkadas saw through his relative’s treachery, but cheerfully accepted the proposal. Having bathed and prayed, to the astonishment of the king and court, he entered the arena unarmed, with a brazen platter containing the various articles used in _puja_ (worship), as grains of rice, curds, and sandal ointment, and going directly up to the monster, made the _tilak_ on his forehead, put a chaplet round his neck, and prostrated himself in the usual attitude of adoration before the lion; when, to the amazement of the spectators, the noble beast came gently up, and with his tongue repeatedly licked his face, permitting him to retire without the least indication of anger. The emperor, who concluded that his subject must “wear a charmed life,” desired the Khandela chief to make any request, with the assurance of compliance; when he received a delicate reproof, in the desire “that his majesty would never place another person in the same predicament from which he had happily escaped.” Dwarkadas was slain by the greatest hero of the age in which he lived, the celebrated Khan Jahan Lodi,[9.5.13] who, according to the legends of the Shaikhawats, also fell by the hand of their lord; and they throw an air of romance upon the transaction, which would grace the annals of chivalry in any age or country. Khan Jahan and the chieftain of Khandela were sworn friends, and when nothing but the life of the gallant Lodi would satisfy the king, Dwarka gave timely notice to his friend of the hateful task imposed upon him, advising either submission or flight. His fate, which forms one of the most interesting episodes in Ferishta’s history,[9.5.14] involved that of the Shaikhawat chief. =Bīrsinghdeo.=—He was succeeded by his son, Birsinghdeo, who served with his contingent in the conquest of the Deccan, and was made governor of Parnala, which he had materially assisted in reducing.[9.5.15] The Khandela annalist is desirous to make it appear that his service was independent of his liege lord of Amber; but the probability is that he was under the immediate command of the Mirza Raja Jai Singh, at that period the most distinguished general of his nation or of the court. Birsinghdeo had seven sons, of whom the heir-apparent, Bahadur Singh, remained at [395] Khandela; while estates were assigned to his brothers, namely, Amar Singh, Shyam Singh, Jagdeo, Bhopal Singh, Mukri Singh, and Pem Singh, who all increased the stock of Raesalots. While the Raja was performing his duties in the Deccan, intelligence reached him that his son at home had usurped his title and authority; upon which, with only four horsemen, he left the army for his capital. When within two coss of Khandela, he alighted at the house of a Jatni, of whom he requested refreshment, and begged especial care of his wearied steed, lest he should be stolen; to which she sharply replied, “Is not Bahadur Singh ruler here? You may leave gold in the highway, and no one dare touch it.” The old chieftain was so delighted with this testimony to his son’s discharge of a prince’s duties, that, without disclosing himself or his suspicions, he immediately returned to the Deccan, where he died. =Bahādur Singh.=—Bahadur Singh succeeded, and on his father’s death repaired to the armies in the south, commanded by Aurangzeb in person. Being insulted by a Muslim chief bearing the same name with himself, and obtaining no redress from the bigoted prince, he left the army in disgust, upon which his name was erased from the list of mansabdars. It was at this time the tyrant issued his mandate for the capitation-tax on all his Hindu subjects, and for the destruction of their temples.[9.5.16] =Gallantry of Shujāwan Singh.=—To the personal enemy of the Shaikhawat was intrusted the twofold duty of exacting tribute, and the demolition of the temple, the ornament of Khandela, whose chief, degrading the name of Bahadur (warrior), abandoned his capital; and the royal army had arrived within two coss without the appearance of opposition. The news spread over the lands of the confederacy, that Bahadur had fled from Khandela, and that the Turk was bent on the destruction of its shrines. It reached the ear of Shujawan Singh, the chieftain of Chapauli, a descendant of Bhojraj, the second son of Raesal. Imbued with all the spirit of this hero, the brave Bhojani resolved to devote himself to the protection of the temple, or perish in its defence. At the moment the tidings reached him, he was solemnizing his nuptials on the Marwar frontier. Hastening home with his bride, he left her with his mother, and bade both a solemn [396] farewell. In vain his kindred, collecting round him, dissuaded him from his design, urging that it was Bahadur Singh’s affair, not his. “Am not I,” he said, “also of Raesal’s stock, and can I allow the Turk to destroy the dwelling of the Thakur (lord), and not attempt to save it? Would this be acting the part of a Rajput?” As their entreaties were vain, they, to the number of sixty, resolved to accompany him, and share his fate. They were joined by a party of Bahadur’s adherents, and succeeded in entering Khandela. The imperial commander, to whom this unlooked-for opposition was reported, well aware of what a Rajput is capable when excited to action, and perhaps moved by a generous feeling at seeing a handful of men oppose an army, requested that two of their number might be deputed to his camp to confer with him. He told them, that notwithstanding it was the king’s command that he should raze the temple to the ground, he would be satisfied (if accompanied by proper submission) with taking off the _kalas_, or golden ball which surmounted its pinnacle. They endeavoured to dissuade him; offered money to the utmost possible amount of their means; but the answer was, “The kalas must come down.” One of these noble delegates, no longer able to contain himself, exclaimed, “Break down the kalas!” as with some moist clay at his feet he moulded a ball, which he placed on a little mound before him: and drawing his sword, repeated, “Break down the kalas! I dare you even to break this ball of clay!” The intrepidity of this action gained the applause even of the foe, and they had safe-conduct to rejoin their brethren, and prepare them for the worst. =The Siege of Khandela.=—At this time, Khandela had no fortifications; there was, however, a gateway half-way up the hill in the route of ascent, which led to the place of residence of its chieftains, adjoining which was the temple. One party was stationed in the gateway, while Shujawan reserved for himself the defence of the temple, in which he took post with his kinsmen. When the mercenaries of the tyrant advanced, the defenders of the gateway, alter dealing many a distant death, marched upon them sword in hand, and perished. When they pushed on to the chief object of attack, the band issued forth in small detached parties, having first made their obeisances to the image, and carried destruction along with them. Shujawan was the last who fell. The temple was levelled to the earth, the idol broken in pieces, and the fragments thrown into the foundation of a mosque erected on its ruins. There is hardly a town of note in Rajwara that has not to relate a similar tale of desperate valour in the defence of their household gods against the iniquitous and impolitic Aurangzeb. Khandela received a royal garrison; but the old officers, both territorial and financial, were retained by the conqueror [397]. Bahadur Singh continued to reside in an adjacent township, and through his Diwan obtained a certain share of the crops and transit duties, namely, a ser out of every maund of the former, and one pice in every rupee of the latter. In process of time the family residence and gardens were given up to him, and when the Sayyids obtained power he regained his country, though a garrison of the royal troops was retained, whose expenses he paid. He left three sons, namely, Kesari Singh, Fateh Singh, and Udai Singh. =Kesari Singh.=—Kesari, solicitous to hold his lands on the same terms as his ancestors, namely, service to the lord-paramount, assembled his adherents, and with his second brother, Fateh Singh, departed for the imperial camp, to proffer his service. The Manoharpur chief, the elder branch of the family, was in the royal camp, and having regained his lost consequence by the depression of Khandela, was by no means willing again to part with it. He intrigued with the second brother, Fateh Singh, to whom he proposed a division of the lands; the latter lent himself to the intrigue, and the Diwan, seeing that a family quarrel would involve the destruction of them all, repaired to Khandela, and through the mother, a Gaur Rajputni, he advocated the partition. A census was accordingly made of the population, and a measurement of the lands, of which two portions were assigned to Fateh Singh, and the three remaining to the Raja. The town itself was partitioned in the same manner. Henceforth, the brothers held no intercourse with each other, and Kesari preferred Khatu[9.5.17] as his residence, though whenever he came to Khandela, Fateh Singh withdrew. Things remained in this state until the Diwan prompted his master to get rid of the agreement which had secured the ascendancy of Manoharpur in the Shaikhawat federation, by destroying his brother. The Diwan arranged a friendly meeting at Khatu for the avowed purpose of reconciliation, when Fateh Singh fell a victim to assassination; but the instigator to the crime met his proper reward, for a splinter of the sword which slew Fateh Singh entered his neck, and was the occasion of his death. Kesari Singh, having thus recovered all his lost authority, from the contentions at court conceived he might refuse the tribute of Rewasa, hitherto paid to the Ajmer treasury, while that of Khandela went to Narnol.[9.5.18] Sayyid Abdulla,[9.5.19] then wazir, found leisure to resent this insult, and sent a force against Khandela. Every Raesalot in the country assembled to resist the Turk, and even his foe of Manoharpur sent his quota, led by the Dhabhai (foster-brother), to aid the national cause. Thus strengthened, Kesari determined to oppose the royal forces hand to hand in the plain, and [398] the rival armies encountered at the border town of Deoli.[9.5.20] While victory manifested a wish to side with the confederated Shaikhawats, the old jealousies of Manoharpur revived, and he withdrew his quota from the field, at the same moment that the Kasli chief, on whom much depended, was slain. To crown these misfortunes, the Larkhani chief of Danta, basely deeming this an opportunity to consult his own interest, abandoned the field, to take possession of Rewasa. The ‘lion’ of Khandela (Kesari), observing these defections, when the shout of “_Jai! jai!_” (victory, victory), already rang in his ears, could not help exclaiming, in the bitterness of despair, “Had Fateh Singh been here, he would not have deserted me.” He disdained, however, to give way, and prepared to meet his fate like a true Raesalot. Sending to where the battle yet raged for his youngest brother, Udai Singh, he urged him to save himself; but the young Rajput scorned obedience to such a behest, until Kesari made known his determination not to quit the field, adding that if he also were slain, there would be an end of his line. Others joined their persuasions, and even attempted to turn Kesari from his purpose. “No,” replied the chief, “I have no desire for life; two black deeds press upon me; the murder of my brother, and the curse of the Charans of Bikaner, whom I neglected at the distribution of the nuptial gifts. I will not add a third by dastardly flight.” As Udai Singh reluctantly obeyed, while the swords rang around him, Kesari made a hasty sacrifice to Avanimata (mother earth), of which flesh, blood, and earth are the ingredients. He cut pieces from his own body, but as scarcely any blood flowed, his own uncle, Mohkam Singh of Aloda, parted with some of his, for so grand an obligation as the retention of Khandela. Mixing his own flesh, and his uncle’s blood, with a portion of his own sandy soil, he formed small balls in _dan_ (gift), for the maintenance of the land to his posterity. The Dom (bard), who repeated the incantations, pronounced the sacrifice accepted, and that seven generations of his line should rule in Khandela.[9.5.21] The brave Kesari was slain, the town taken, and Udai Singh carried to Ajmer, where he remained three years in captivity. At this time, the chiefs of Udaipur and Kasli determined to cut off the royal garrison in Khandela; but apprehensive of the danger it might occasion to their chief, they sent a special messenger to Ajmer, to acquaint the viceroy of their scheme, previous to its execution, to prevent his being implicated. Khandela was surprised, and Deonath and three hundred Turks put to the sword. The viceroy [399], desirous to recover the place, consulted his prisoner, who offered to reinstate him if he granted him liberty. The Nawab demanded a hostage, but the young Rajput said he knew of none but his own mother, who willingly became the pledge for her son. He fulfilled his agreement, and the viceroy was so pleased with his frank and loyal conduct, that on paying a large _nazarana_, he restored him to his capital. =Udai Singh.=—Udai Singh’s first act was to assemble his brethren, in order to punish Manoharpur, whose treachery had caused them so much misery. The foster-brother, who commanded on that occasion, was again entrusted with the command; but he fled after a sharp encounter, and Manoharpur was invested. Seeing he had no chance of salvation, he had again recourse to _chal_ (stratagem). There were two feudatories of Nunkaran’s line, joint-holders of Khajroli, who had long been at variance with Dip Singh of Kasli, the principal adviser of the young Raja of Khandela. They were gained over to the purpose of the Manoharpur chief, who sent them with a private message to Dip Singh, that no sooner should Manoharpur fall than he would be deprived of Kasli. These treacherous proceedings were but too common amongst ‘the sons of Shaikhji.’ Dip Singh fell into the snare, and at break of day, when the trumpets sounded for the assault, the drums of the Kasli chief were heard in full march to his estate. Udai Singh, thus deprived of his revenge, followed Dip Singh who, aware of his inability to cope with his immediate chief, fled for succour to Jaipur, and Kasli fell a sacrifice to the artifices which preserved Manoharpur. The great Jai Singh then ruled Amber; he received the suppliant chief, and promised him ample redress, on his swearing to become his vassal and tributary. Dip Singh swore allegiance to the _gaddi_ of Jai Singh, and signed a tributary engagement of four thousand rupees annually! =Supremacy of Jaipur in Shaikhawati.=—Thus recommenced the supremacy of Amber over the confederated Shaikhawats, which had been thrown off ever since the dispute regarding the colts of Amritsar, the ancient mark of homage, when ‘the sons of Shaikhji’ consisted only of a few hundred armed men. Shortly after this transaction, Jai Singh proceeded to the Ganges to fulfil certain rites upon an eclipse, and while performing his ablutions in the sacred stream, and the gifts for distribution to the priests being collected on the bank, he inquired “who was present to receive _dan_ that day?” The Kasli chief, spreading out the skirt of his garment, replied, he was an applicant. Such _dan_ (gifts) being only given to mangtas, or mendicants, in which class they put priests, poets, and [400] the poor, the Raja asked, laughing, “What is your desire, Thakur?” To which Dip Singh replied, that through his intercession the son of Fateh Singh might obtain his father’s share of Khandela; which request was complied with. This occurrence was in A.D. 1716, when the Jats were rising into power, and when all the minor Rajas served with their contingents under the great Jai Singh, as lieutenant of the emperor. Along with the princes of Karauli, Bhadauria, Sheopur, and many others of the third rank, was Udai Singh of Khandela. During the siege of Thun, the Shaikhawat chief was reprimanded for neglect of duty, and although he owed a double allegiance to Jai Singh, as his natural liege lord and lieutenant of the king, he would not brook the censure from one of his own race, and indignantly withdrew from the siege. Churaman the Jat, having contrived to make his peace with the Sayyid wazir, when Thun was upon the eve of surrender, and Udai Singh being implicated in this intrigue, Jai Singh, who was mortified at an occurrence which prevented the gratification of a long-cherished resentment against the upstart Jats, determined that the Khandela chief should suffer for his audacity. Attended by the imperialists under Bazid Khan, and all his home clans, he laid siege to the citadel called Udaigarh. Udai Singh held out a month in this castle he had constructed and called by his own name, when his resources failing, he fled to Naru[9.5.22] in Marwar, and his son, Sawai Singh, presented the keys, throwing himself on the clemency of the conqueror. He was well received, and pardoned, on condition of becoming tributary to Amber. He followed the example of the Kasli chief, and signed an engagement to pay annually one lakh of rupees. From this a deduction of fifteen thousand was subsequently made, and in time being reduced twenty thousand more, sixty-five thousand continued to be the tribute of Khandela, until the decay of both the parent State and its scion, when the weakness of the former, and the merciless outrages of the predatory powers, Pathan and Mahratta, rendered its amount uncertain and difficult to realize. Moreover, recalling his promise to Dip Singh, he restored the division of the lands as existing prior to the murder of Fateh Singh, namely, three shares to Sawai Singh, with the title of chief of the Shaikhawats, and two to Dhir Singh, son of Fateh Singh. The young cousin chieftains, now joint-holders of Khandela, attended their liege lord with their contingent; and Udai Singh, taking advantage of their absence, with the aid of a band of outlawed Larkhanis, surprised and took Khandela. Attended by the Jaipur troops, the son performed the dutiful task of expelling his father from his inheritance, who again fled to Naru, where he resided [401] upon a pension of five rupees a day, given by his son, until his death. He, however, outlived Sawai Singh, who left three sons: Bindraban, who succeeded to Khandela; Shambhu, who had the appanage of Ranauli; and Kusal, having that of Piprauli. ----- Footnote 9.5.1: [This Udaipur must not be confounded with the capital of Mewār: it is about 60 miles N. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.5.2: The lovers of antiquity have only to make the search to find an abundant harvest, throughout all these countries, of ancient capitals and cities, whose names are hardly known even to the modern inhabitants. Of the ancient Rajor I have already spoken, and I now draw the attention of my countrymen to Abhaner, which boasts a very remote antiquity; and from an old stanza, we might imagine that its princes were connected with the Kaian dynasty of Persia. I copied it, some twenty years ago, from an itinerant bard, who had an imperfect knowledge of it himself, and I have doubtless made it more so, but it is still sufficiently intelligible to point at a remarkable coincidence: _Rājā Chand-kā Ābhāner Bīahah Sanjog, āyo Girnār. Dekh Bharat līyo bulāi. Kiyo bidit, man bikasāi. Byāo Sanjog, Parmalā barī. Kos sāth-so man chit dharī; “Tū betī Kaikum kī, Nām Parmalā[9.4.2.A] ho. Lekhā huā Kartār ko. Yā jāna sabb ko”_[9.4.2.A] [388] [For the above version of the corrupt lines in the original, the Editor is indebted to Sir G. Grierson, who remarks that the meaning is not clear, and that in the original more than one dialect is used. He offers the following tentative translation: “Sanjog [dwelt] in the midst of Ābhāner of Rāja Chand. He came to Girnār. When Bharat saw him he summoned him. He [Sanjog] made known [his object], and his [Bharat’s] heart expanded. Sanjog married, he chose Parmalā for his bride. From a distance of sixty kos his heart and mind had attracted her. [He said to her] ‘Thou art the daughter of Kaikum. Thy name is Parmalā [_i.e._ “fairy garland”]. It was the writing of the Creator [_i.e._ “it was so fated”], this every one knew.’” There is no reason to suppose that the lady was a Persian.] This is a fragment of a long poem relative to the rivalry of Raja Chand of Abhaner, and Raja Sursen of Indrapuri, who was betrothed to Parmala, daughter of Kaikum, and had gone to Girner, or Girnar, to espouse her, when the Abhaner prince abducted her. Raja Sursen of Indrapuri (Delhi), if the ancestor of the Suraseni, and founder of Surpuri, existed probably twelve hundred years before Christ. That sun-worshippers had established themselves in the peninsula of Saurashtra (whose capital was Junagarh-Girnar), its appellation, in the days of the Greeks of Bactria, as now, proves (see Strabo, Justin, etc.), but whether Kaikum, the father of Parmala, is the Kaiomurs of Firdausi, we shall not stop to inquire. The connexion between this peninsula and Persia was intimate in later times, so as even to give rise to the assertion that the Ranas of Mewar were descended from the Sassanian kings. It was my good fortune to discover Surpuri, on the Jumna, the residence of the rival of Chand of Abhaner, which city I leave to some one imbued with similar taste to visit, and merely add, he will find there an inscription in a kund or fountain dedicated to the Sun. The distance, however, seven hundred coss (_kos sath so_), whether from Indrapuri or Abhaner, to Girnar, even admitting them to be _gao coss_, would be too much. I believe this would make it eight hundred miles, and certainly, as the crow flies, it is not seven hundred. Interwoven with the story there is much about Raja Chambha, prince of Jajnagar, a city of great antiquity in Orissa, and containing some of the finest specimens of sculpture I ever saw. There is also mention of a Raja Saer (_qu._ Sahir or Siharas of Aror) of Parman. In 1804, I passed through Jajnagar, after the conquest of the province of Cuttack, with my regiment. At Jajnagar, my earliest friend, the late Captain Bellet Sealy, employed his pencil for several days with the sculptured remains. These drawings were sent to the authorities at Calcutta: perhaps this notice may rescue from oblivion the remains of Jajnagar, and of my deceased friend’s talent, for Captain Bellet Sealy was an ornament equally to private life and to his profession. He fell a victim to the fever contracted in the Nepal war. The ruins of Abhaner are on the Banganga, three coss east of Lalsont. [The speculations in this note are of no value. For the town of Jājpur in Cuttack, see a full account by Sir W. Hunter, _Orissa_, i. 265 f.; _IGI_, xiv. 10 f.] Footnote 9.4.2.A: _Parī-mālā_ means ‘fairy garland.’ Footnote 9.5.3: [About 15 miles N.E. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.5.4: Strings, or threads, worn crossways by Muhammadan children. [See Herklots, _Qanoon-e-Islam_, 156, 158.] Footnote 9.5.5: The town of Amritsar and forty-five villages are still left to the Manoharpur branch. Footnote 9.5.6: The Pannis are a tribe of Duranis, regarding whom Mr. Elphinstone’s account of Kabul may be consulted. In after times, there was a chieftain of this tribe so celebrated for his generosity and hospitality, that his name has become proverbial: _Banē, to banē Nahīn, Dāūd Khān Panni_: that is, if they failed elsewhere, there was always Daud Khan in reserve. His gallant bearing, and death in Farrukhsiyar’s reign, are related in Scott’s excellent _History of the Dekhan_. [Ed. 1794, ii. 140 ff. The Panni are a sept of the Kākar or Ghurghusthi Pathāns; see Rose, _Glossary_, iii. 198, 223.] Footnote 9.5.7: This will recall to the reader’s recollection a similar custom in the ancient Persian empire, where the tribute of the distant Satrapies was of the same kind. Armenia, according to Herodotus, alone gave an annual tribute of twenty thousand colts. [The statement is made by Strabo p. 529.] Footnote 9.5.8: [Jhārli is about 40 miles N. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.5.9: It is always agreeable to find the truth of these simple annals corroborated in the historical remains of the conquerors of the Rajputs. The name of Raesal Darbari will be found, in the Ain-i-Akbari, amongst the mansabdars of twelve hundred and fifty horse; a rank of high importance, being equivalent to that conferred on the sons of potent Rajas. [In _Āīn_ (i. 419) he is called Rāē Sāl Darbāri, son of Rāēmall, Shaikhāwat. The Author represents him to be son of Sūja, and apparently grandson of Rāēmall. He is mentioned in the _Akbarnāma_ (trans. H. Beveridge ii. 390).] Footnote 9.5.10: The Nirwan is a _sakha_, or ramification of the Chauhan race. They had long held possession of these regions, of which Kes, or Kausambi, now Udaipur, was the capital, the city where the grand council of the confederation always meets on great occasions. This may throw light on the Kausambi mentioned on the triumphal pillar at Delhi; the Nirwan capital is more likely to be the town alluded to than Kausāmbi on the Ganges. [The inscription refers to the city in the United Provinces, of which the site is uncertain (V. A. Smith, _JRAS_, 1898, p. 503).] Footnote 9.5.11: [He died, at an advanced age, in the Deccan (_Āīn_, i. 419).] Footnote 9.5.12: [Narasinha, the man-lion incarnation of Vishnu.] Footnote 9.5.13: [Khān Jahān Lodi, an Afghān, commanded in the Deccan under Prince Parvez. In 1628, suspected of disloyalty, he took refuge in Bāglān, the headmen of which place refused to surrender him. But he was obliged to fly and, with his son, was killed by the royal troops on January 28, 1631 (Beale, _Dict. Oriental Biography_, s.v.; _BG_, i. Part ii. 624 f.; Elliot-Dowson vii. 20 ff.).] Footnote 9.5.14: [Not in Ferishta, but in Dow’s continuation (ed. 1812, iii. 112 ff.).] Footnote 9.5.15: [Parnāla or Panhāla in the Kolhapur District, taken in 1701 (Manucci iii. 257; _BG_, xxiv. 314.)] Footnote 9.5.16: The numerous ruined shrines and mutilated statues in every town and village, still attest the zeal with which the bigot’s orders were obeyed; nor is there an image of any antiquity with an entire set of features (except in spots impervious to his myrmidons), from Lahore to Cape Comorin. Omkarji, whose temple is on a small island of the Nerbudda, alone, it is said, supported his dignity in the indiscriminate attack on the deities of Hind. “If they are gods (said the tyrannical but witty iconoclast), let them evince their power, and by some miracle resist my commands.” Omkarji received the first blow on his head, as if imbued with mortal feeling, for the blood gushed from his nose and mouth, which prevented a repetition of the injury! This sensibility, though without the power of avenging himself, made Omkar’s shrine doubly respected, and it continues to be one of the best frequented and most venerated in these regions. [Numerous accounts of the destruction of Hindu temples by Aurangzeb have been collected by Jadunath Sarkar (_History of Aurangzib_, iii. 319 ff.). The Omkār temple at Māndhāta in the Nimār District, Central Provinces, is served by a priest of the Bhīlāla caste, half Bhīl, half Rājput, illustrating the mode by which aboriginal deities have been imported into Hinduism (_IGI_, xvii. 152; Russell, _Tribes and Castes Central Provinces_, ii. 294).] Footnote 9.5.17: [This is probably the “Kaotah” of the text.] Footnote 9.5.18: [Now in the Patiāla State, Panjāb.] Footnote 9.5.19: [Sayyid Abdulla of Bārha became wazīr of Farrukhsīyar in A.D. 1713, and died in prison in 1723.] Footnote 9.5.20: [About 70 miles S.W. of Ajmer.] Footnote 9.5.21: The fifth, as will be seen hereafter, has been expelled, and authority usurped by the Kasli branch of the family, and unless some fortunate change should occur, the devotion of Kesari was useless, and the prophecy must fall to the ground. Footnote 9.5.22: [About 25 miles N.W. of Jodhpur city.] ----- CHAPTER 6 =Bindrabandās.=—Bindrabandas steadfastly adhered to Madho Singh in the civil wars which ensued for the _gaddi_ of Amber, and the latter, when success attended his cause, wished to reward the important services of his feudatory. At his request, he consented that the partition of the lands which had caused so much bloodshed should be annulled, and that Bindraban should rule as sole lord of Khandela. Five thousand men were placed under his command for the expulsion of the minor, Indar Singh, grandson of Deo Singh, who made a stout resistance for many months; but at length his little castle was no longer tenable, and he fled to Parsoli, where he again defended himself, and was again on the point of surrender, when an unexpected accident not only saved him from exile, but restored him to his rights. =Brāhmans commit Suicide.=—The mercenaries were supported at the sole charge of Bindraban, and as his ancestors left no treasury, he was compelled to resort to the contribution called _dand_ from his subjects, not even exempting the hierarchy. Piqued at this unusual demand, some of the wealthiest Brahmans expostulated with the Raja on this indignity to the order. But their appeals were disregarded by their chief, whose existence depended on supplies. The loss of influence as well as wealth being the fruit of this [402] disregard of their remonstrance, they had recourse to that singular species of revenge termed _chandni_, or self-immolation, and poignarded themselves in his presence, pouring maledictions on his head with their last breath. The blood of Brahmans now rested on the head of Bindraban; even amongst his personal friends he laboured under a species of excommunication, and his liege lord, Madho Singh of Amber, in order to expiate his indirect share in the guilt, recalled his troops, and distributed twenty thousand rupees to the Brahmans of his own capital. Indar Singh had thus time to breathe, and having collected all his retainers, wisely joined the Jaipur army assembling under the command of the celebrated Khushhaliram Bohra to chastise the Rao of Macheri, who was expelled and obliged to seek refuge with the Jats. In this service Indar Singh so much distinguished himself, that, on the payment of a _nazarana_ of fifty thousand rupees, he recovered his lost share of Khandela, by a regular _patta_, or grant, of the Raja. =Tribal Feuds.=—Perpetual feuds, however, raged between these two kings of Khandela, each of whom had his castle, or fortified palace. Each day “there was war even in the gates” of Khandela, and at the hazard of prolixity we shall state how it was conducted, challenging the records of any civil war to produce an instance in which all the ties of blood and kindred were more disregarded than in this _bellum plusquam civile_. Indar Singh had popularity on his side to balance the other’s superior power, and he was briskly pushing an attack on Udaigarh, the castle of his opponent, when he was joined by Raghunath Singh, the younger son of his foeman. This youth, who had the township of Kuchor in appanage, helped himself to three more, to retain which he sided with his father’s foe. Bindraban, in order to create a diversion, sallied out to attack Kuchor; to oppose which, his son, together with his nephew, Prithi Singh of Ranoli and his retainers, withdrew from the batteries to defend it. But the attack on Kuchor had already failed, and Bindraban was on his retreat to regain Khandela when he was intercepted. The battle took place outside the city, whose gates were shut against friend and foe, to prevent a pell-mell entry. At the same time, the siege of Udaigarh was not slackened; it was defended by Govind Singh, the eldest son of Bindraban, while the batteries against it were commanded by another near kinsman, Nahar Singh of Cherana. For several days daily combats ensued, in which were to be seen father and son, uncles and nephews, and cousins within every degree of affinity, destroying each other. At length, both parties were exhausted and a compromise ensued, in which Indar Singh obtained the rights he had so manfully vindicated [403]. =Attack by Najaf Kuli Khān.=—At this time, a dying and desultory effort to regain his lost power was made by Najaf Kuli Khan, at the head of the imperialists, who, conducted by the traitorous Macheri Rao, led the royal army into the lands of the confederacy to raise contributions, for which he was cordially and laudably detested. Nawal Singh of Nawalgarh, Bagh Singh of Khetri, Surajmall of Baswa,[9.6.1] all chieftains of the Sadhanis, unable to comply with the requisitions, were carried off, and retained captive till ransomed for many lakhs of rupees; all eventually raised upon the impoverished husbandman and industrious merchant. The din of civil war having ended, the ministers of religion never ceased pouring into the ears of Bindraban the necessity of expiation and oblations for the murder of their brethren, and he was daily sacrificing the birthright of his children, in grants of the best lands of Khandela, to these drones of society, when Govind, the heir-apparent, remonstrated, which was followed by the abdication of Bindraban, who, appropriating five townships and the impost duties of Khandela for his support, left the cares of government to his son.[9.6.2] =Abdication of Bindraban: Govind Singh succeeds.=—Govind Singh did not long enjoy the honours of chief of the Raesalots. The year of his elevation having produced an unfavourable harvest, at the request of his vassal of Ranoli he proceeded to inspect the crops preparatory to a reduction in the assessment. Less superstitious than his father, he persevered in spite of the predictions of the astrologer, who told him, “to beware the ides (_amavas_) of Pus,“[9.6.3] and not to go abroad that day. In the course of the excursion, one of his personal attendants, a Rajput of Kajroli, had lost some valuable article entrusted to his charge, and the impetuous chief broadly taxed him with theft. His protestations of innocence were unavailing, and considering himself dishonoured by the imputation, which might possibly be followed by some disgraceful punishment, he determined to anticipate his chief, and murdered him that night. Govind left five sons, Narsingh, Surajmall (who had Dodia), Bagh Singh, Jawan Singh, and Ranjit, all of whom had families. =Murder of Govind Singh: Narsinghdās succeeds.=—Narsinghdas, his eldest son, succeeded. In spite of internal dissensions, occasional chastisement, and pecuniary exactions from the imperial armies, or those of their immediate liege lord of Amber, the confederated frerage of Shaikhavati had increased their territory and population. Only the shadow of a name now remained to the empire of the Great Mogul; and their own lord-paramount, satisfied with a certain degree of homage, tribute, and service on emergencies, was little inclined to trench [404] further upon their national independence. But a new enemy had now arisen, and though of their own faith, far more destructive than even the tolerant Islamite. Happy were the inhabitants of the desert who had an ocean of sand between them and this scourge of India, the insatiable Mahratta. After the fatal day of Merta, where the evil genius of Rajputana enabled De Boigne to give the last blow to her independence, the desultory hordes roved in bands through the lands of the confederation, plundering, murdering, and carrying off captive the principal chiefs or their children, as hostages for contributions they could not realise. These were dragged about after their armies, until the hardships and indignities they underwent made them sell every article of value, or until the charge of keeping, or the trouble of guarding them, rendered their prolonged captivity burdensome to the wandering Southrons. =Marātha Inroads.=—Let us follow the path of the barbarians, and trace only one day’s acts of outrage. When the Mahrattas entered the lands of the federation, soon after the battle of Merta, they first attacked Bai.[9.6.4] The inhabitants, knowing that they had no hope of mercy from these marauders, fled, carrying away all the effects they could to the larger towns, while a garrison of eighty Rajputs took post in the little castle, to defend the point of honour against this new assailant. Bai was stormed; not one Rajput would accept of quarter, and all were put to the sword. The enemy proceeded to Khandela, the route marked by similar tracks of blood. When within two coss of the town, the horde halted at Hodiganw, and a Pandit[9.6.5] was sent to Rao Indar Singh to settle the contribution, which was fixed at twenty thousand rupees, besides three thousand in _ghus_[9.6.6] (bribe), for the Brahman negotiator. The two chiefs, who negotiated on the part of the joint Rajas of Khandela, proceeded with the Pandit to the enemy’s camp; their names were Nawal and Dalil. As it was out of their power to realise so large a sum, they were accompanied by the joint revenue officers of Khandela as _ol_, or hostage, when to their dismay, the Southron commander demurred, and said they themselves must remain. One of the chieftains, with the sang-froid which a Rajput never loses, coolly replied, that should not be, and taking his _hukka_ from his attendant, began unceremoniously to smoke, when a rude Deccani knocked the pipe from his hand [405]. The Thakur’s sword was unsheathed in an instant, but ere he had time to use it a pistol-ball passed through his brain. Dalil Singh’s party, attempting to avenge their companion, were cut off to a man; and Indar Singh, who had left Khandela to learn how the negotiations sped, arrived just in time to see his clansmen butchered. He was advised to regain Khandela: “No,” replied the intrepid Raesalot; “better that I should fall before the gates of Khandela than enter them after such disgrace, without avenging my kinsmen.” Dismounting from his horse, he turned him loose, his adherents following his example; and sword in hand they rushed on the host of assassins and met their fate. Indar Singh was stretched beside his vassals, and, strange to say, Dalil was the only survivor: though covered with wounds, he was taken up alive, and carried to the hostile camp. Such was the opening scene of the lengthened tragedy enacted in Shaikhavati, when Mahratta actors succeeded to Pathans and Moguls: heirs to their worst feelings, without one particle of their magnanimity or courtesy. But the territory of the confederacy was far too narrow a stage; even the entire plain of India appeared at one time too restricted for the hydra-headed banditti, nor is there a principality, district, or even township, from the Sutlej to the sea, where similar massacres have not been known, and but for our interposition, such scenes would have continued to the present hour. =Partāp Singh.=—Partap Singh, who succeeded his brave father in his share of the patrimony, was at this crisis with his mother at Sikrai, a strong fort in the hills, ten miles from Khandela. To save the town, the principal men dug up the grain-pits, selling their property to release their minor chief from further trouble. Having obtained all they could, the enemy proceeded to the lands of the Sadhanis. Udaipur was the first assaulted, taken, and sacked; the walls were knocked down, and the floors dug up in search of treasure. After four days’ havoc, they left it a ruin, and marched against the northern chieftains of Singhana, Jhunjhunu, and Khetri. On the departure of the foe, young Partap and his kinsman, Narsingh, took up their abode in Khandela; but scarcely had they recovered from the effects of the Deccani incursion, before demands were made by their liege lord of Amber for the tribute. Partap made his peace by assigning a fourth of the harvest; but Narsingh, in the procrastinating and haughty spirit of his ancestors, despised an arrangement which, he said (and with justice), would reduce him to the level of a common Bhumia landholder. =Devi Singh.=—At this period, a remote branch of the Khandela Shaikhawats began to disclose a spirit that afterwards gained him distinction. Devi Singh, chieftain of Sikar, a [406] descendant of Rao Tirmall of Kasli, had added to his patrimony by the usurpation of no less than twenty-five large townships, as Lohagarha, Koh, etc.; and he deemed this a good opportunity, his chief being embroiled with the court, to make an attack on Rewasa; but death put a stop to the ambitious views of the Sikar chieftain. Having no issue, he had adopted Lachhman Singh, son of the Shahpura Thakur; but the Jaipur court, which had taken great umbrage at these most unjustifiable assaults of the Sikar chief on his weaker brethren, commanded Nandram Haldia (brother of the prime minister Daulat Ram), collector of the Shaikhawat tribute, to attack and humble him. No sooner were the orders of the court promulgated, than all the Barwatias[9.6.7] gathered round the standard of the collector, to aid in the redemption of their patrimonies wrested from them by Sikar. Besides the Khandela chief in person, there were the Pattawats of Kasli, Bilara, and others of Tirmall’s stock; and even the Sadhanis, who little interfered in the affairs of the Raesalots, repaired with joy with their tribute and their retainers to the camp of the Jaipur commander, to depress the Sikar chief, who was rapidly rising over them all. Nearly the whole troops of the confederacy were thus assembled. Devi Singh, it may be imagined, was no common character, to have excited such universal hatred; and his first care had been to make strong friends at court, in order to retain what he had acquired. He had especially cultivated the minister’s friendship, which was now turned to account. A deputation, consisting of a Chondawat chief, the Diwan of Sikar, and that important character the Dhabhai, repaired to the Haldia, and implored him in the name of the deceased, not to give up his infant son to hungry and revengeful Barwatias. The Haldia said there was but one way by which he could avoid the fulfilment of his court’s command, which was for them, as he approached the place, to congregate a force so formidable from its numbers, as to exonerate him from all suspicion of collusion. With the treasury of Devi Singh, overflowing from the spoliation of the Kaimkhani of Fatehpur, it was easy to afford such indemnity to the Haldia, at whose approach to Sikar ten thousand men appeared to oppose him. Having made a show of investing Sikar, and expended a good deal of ammunition, he addressed his court, where his brother was minister, stating he could make nothing of Sikar without great loss, both of time, men, and money, and advising an acceptance of the proffered submission. Without waiting a reply, he took two lakhs as a fine for his [407] sovereign, and a present of one for himself. The siege was broken up, and Sikar was permitted to prosecute his schemes; in which he was not a little aided by the continued feuds of the co-partner chiefs of Khandela. Partap took advantage of Narsingh’s non-compliance with the court’s requisition, and his consequent disgrace, to settle the feud of their fathers, and unite both shares in his own person; and stipulated in return to be responsible for the whole tribute, be ready with his contingent to serve the court, and pay besides a handsome _nazarana_ or investiture. The Haldia was about to comply, when Rawal Indar Singh of Samod,[9.6.8] chief of the Nathawat clan, interceded for Narsingh, and inviting him on his own responsibility to the camp, acquainted him with the procedure of his rival, in whose name the patent for Khandela was actually made out; “but even now,” said this noble chief, “I will stay it if you comply with the terms of the court.” But Narsingh either would not, or could not, and the Samod chief urged his immediate departure; adding that as he came under his guarantee, he was desirous to see him safe back, for “such were the crooked ways of the Amber house,” that if he prolonged his stay, he might be involved in ruin in his desire to protect him. Accordingly, at dusk, with sixty of his own retainers, he escorted him to Nawalgarh, and the next morning he was in his castle of Govindgarh. The precautions of the Samod chief were not vain, and he was reproached and threatened with the court’s displeasure, for permitting Narsingh’s departure; but he nobly replied, “he had performed the duty of a Rajput, and would abide the consequences.” As the sequel will further exemplify the corruptions of courts, and the base passions of kindred, under a system of feudal government, we shall trespass on the reader’s patience by recording the result. =Quarrel between Samod and Chaumūn.=—Samod and Chaumun are the chief houses of the Nathawat clan; the elder branch enjoying the title of Rawal, with supremacy over the numerous vassalage. But these two families had often contested the lead, and their feuds had caused much bloodshed. On the disgrace of Indar Singh, as already related, his rival of Chaumun repaired to court, and offered so large a _nazarana_ as to be invested with rights of seniority. Avarice and revenge were good advocates: a warrant was made out and transmitted to Indar Singh (still serving with the collector of the tribute) for the sequestration of Samod. Placing, like a dutiful subject, the warrant to his forehead, he instantly departed for Samod, and commanded the removal of his family, his goods and chattels, from the seat of his ancestors, and went into exile in Marwar. In after times, his Rani had a grant of the village of Piplai, to which the magnanimous, patriotic [408], and loyal Indar Singh, when he found the hand of death upon him, repaired, that he might die in the hands of the Kachhwahas, and have his ashes buried amongst his fathers. This man, who was naturally brave, acted upon the abstract principle of swamidharma, or ‘fealty,’ which is not even now exploded, in the midst of corruption and demoralization. Indar Singh would have been fully justified, according to all the principles which govern these States, in resisting the iniquitous mandate. Such an act might have been deemed rebellion by those who look only at the surface of things; but let the present lords-paramount go deeper, when they have to decide between a Raja and his feudatories, and look to the origin and condition of both, and the ties which alone can hold such associations together. =Partāp Singh secures Possession of Khandela.=—To return: Partap Singh, having thus obtained the whole of Khandela, commenced the demolition of a fortified gate, whence during the feuds his antagonist used to play some swivels against his castle. While the work of destruction was advancing, an omen occurred, foreboding evil to Partap. An image of Ganesa, the god of wisdom and protector of the arts (more especially of architecture), was fixed in the wall of this gate, which an ill-fated and unintentional blow knocked from its elevated position to the earth, and being of terra-cotta, his fragments lay dishonoured and scattered on the pavement. Notwithstanding this, the demolition was completed, and the long obnoxious gateway levelled with the earth. Partap, having adjusted affairs in the capital, proceeded against Rewasa, which he reduced, and then laid siege to Govindgarh,[9.6.9] aided by a detachment of the Haldia. Having encamped at Gura, two coss from it, and twice that distance from Ranoli, its chief, who still espoused the cause of his immediate head, the unfortunate Narsingh, sent his minister to the Haldia, offering not only to be responsible for all arrears due by Narsingh, but also a handsome douceur, to restore him to his rights. He repaired to Khandela, stationed a party in the fortified palace of Narsingh, and consented that they should be expelled, as if by force of his adherents, from Govindgarh. Accordingly, Surajmall and Bagh Singh, the brothers of Narsingh, in the dead of night, with one hundred and fifty followers, made a mock attack on the Haldia’s followers, expelled them, and made good a lodgment in their ancient dwelling. Partap was highly exasperated; and to render the acquisition useless, he ordered the possession of a point which commanded the mahall; but here he was anticipated by his opponent, whose party now poured into Khandela. He then cut off their supplies of water, by fortifying the reservoirs and wells, and this brought matters to a crisis. An action ensued, in which many were killed on each side, when [409] the traitorous Haldia interposed the five-coloured banner, and caused the combat to cease. Narsingh, at this juncture, joined the combatants in person, from his castle of Govindgarh, and a treaty was forthwith set on foot, which left the district of Rewasa to Partap, and restored to Narsingh his share of Khandela. These domestic broils continued, however, and occasions were perpetually recurring to bring the rivals in collision. The first was on the festival of the Ganggor;[9.6.10] the next on the Ranoli chief placing in durance a vassal of Partap, which produced a general gathering of the clans: both ended in an appeal to the lord-paramount, who soon merged the office of arbitrator in that of dictator. The Sadhanis, or chieftains of northern Shaikhavati, began to feel the bad effects of these feuds of the Raesalots, and to express dissatisfaction at the progressive advances of the Jaipur court for the establishment of its supremacy. Until this period they had escaped any tributary engagements, and only recognized their connexion with Amber by marks of homage and fealty on lapses, which belonged more to kindred than political superiority. But as the armies of the court were now perpetually on the frontiers, and might soon pass over, they deemed it necessary to take measures for their safety. The township of Tui, appertaining to Nawalgarh, had already been seized, and Ranoli was battered for the restoration of the subject of Partap. These were grievances which affected all the Sadhanis, who, perceiving they could no longer preserve their neutrality, determined to abandon their internal dissensions, and form a system of general defence. Accordingly, a general assembly of the Sadhani lords, and as many of the Raesalots as chose to attend, was announced at the ancient place of rendezvous, Udaipur. To increase the solemnity of the occasion, and to banish all suspicion of treachery, as well as to extinguish ancient feuds, and reconcile chiefs who had never met but in hostility, it was unanimously agreed that the most sacred pledge of good faith, the _Nundab_,[9.6.11] or dipping the hand in the salt, should take place. The entire body of the Sadhani lords, with all their retainers, met at the appointed time, as did nearly all the Raesalots, excepting the joint chieftains of Khandela, too deeply tainted with mutual distrust to take part in this august and national congress of all ‘the children of Shaikhji.’ It was decided in this grand council, that all internal strife should cease; and that for the future, whenever it might occur, there should [410] be no appeals to the arbitration of Jaipur; but that on all such occasions, or where the general interests were endangered, a meeting should take place at ‘the Pass of Udaipur,’ to deliberate and decide, but above all to repel by force of arms, if necessary, the further encroachments of the court. This unusual measure alarmed the court of Amber, and when oppression had generated determined resistance, it disapproved and disowned the proceedings of its lieutenant, who was superseded by Rora Ram, with orders to secure the person of his predecessor. His flight preserved him from captivity in the dungeons of Amber, but his estates, as well as those of the minister his brother, were resumed, and all their property was confiscated. =Treaty between the Shaikhāwats and Jaipur.=—The new commander, who was a tailor by caste, was ordered to follow the Haldia to the last extremity; for, in these regions, displaced ministers and rebels are identical. It was expected, if they did not lose their heads, to see them in opposition to the orders of their sovereign lord, whose slaves they had so lately proclaimed themselves: in fact, a rebel minister in Rajwara is like an ex-Tory or ex-Whig elsewhere, nor does restoration to the councils of his sovereign, perhaps in a few short months after he carried arms against him, plundered his subjects, and carried conflagration in his towns, excite more than transient emotion. The new commander was eager to obtain the services of the assembled Shaikhawats against the Haldias, but experience had given them wisdom; and they not only exacted stipulations befitting their position, as the price of this aid, but, what was of more consequence, negotiated the conditions of their future connexion with the lord-paramount. The _first_ article was the immediate restoration of the townships which the Haldia had seized upon, as Tui, Gwala, etc. The _second_, that the court should disavow all pretensions to exact tribute beyond what they had voluntarily stipulated, and which they would remit to the capital. _Third_, that on no account should the armies of the court enter the lands of the confederation, the consequences of which had been so strongly marked in the atrocities at Khandela. _Fourth_, that the confederacy would furnish a contingent for the service of the court, which should be paid by the court while so employed. The treaty being ratified through the intervention of the new commander, and having received in advance 10,000 rupees for their expenses, the chiefs with their retainers repaired to the capital, and after paying homage to their liege lord, zealously set to work to execute its orders on the Haldia faction, who were dispossessed of their [411] estates. But, as observed in the annals of the parent State, Jaipur had obtained the distinction of the _jhutha darbar_, or ‘lying court,’ of the justness of which epithet it afforded an illustration in its conduct to the confederated chieftains, who soon discovered the difference between promises and performance. They had done their duty, but they obtained not one of the advantages for which they agreed to serve the court; and they had the mortification to see they had merely displaced the garrisons of the Haldia for those of Rora Ram. After a short consultation, they determined to seek themselves the justice that was denied them; accordingly, they assaulted in succession the towns occupied by Rora Ram’s myrmidons, drove them out, and made them over to their original proprietors. =Treacherous Arrest of Narsingh and other Chiefs.=—At the same time, the court having demanded the usual tribute from Narsinghdas, which was always in arrear, he had the imprudence to stone the agent, who was a relation of the minister. He hastened to the Presence, “threw his turban at the Raja’s feet,” saying, he was dishonoured for ever. A mandate was instantaneously issued for the sequestration of Khandela and the capture of Narsingh, who bade his liege lord defiance from his castle of Govindgarh: but his co-partner, Partap Singh, having no just cause of apprehension, remained in Khandela, which was environed by the Jaipur troops under Asaram. His security was his ruin; but the wily Bania (Asaram), who wished to seize at once the joint holders of the estate, offered no molestation to Partap, while he laid a plot for the other. He invited his return, on the _bachan_, or ‘pledge of safety,’ of the Manoharpur chief. Narsingh did not hesitate, for rank as was the character of his countrymen in these degenerate days, no Rajput had ever incurred the epithet of Bachanchuk, tenfold more odious than that of murderer, and which no future action, however brilliant, could obliterate, even from his descendants to the latest posterity. On the faith of this _bachan_, Narsingh came, and a mock negotiation was carried on for the arrears of tribute, and a time fixed for payment. Narsingh returned to Khandela, and Asaram broke up his camp and moved away. The crafty Bania, having thus successfully thrown him off his guard, on the third day rapidly retraced his steps, and at midnight surrounded Narsingh in his abode, who was ordered to proceed forthwith to the camp. Burning with indignation, he attempted self-destruction, but was withheld; and accompanied by a few Rajputs who swore to protect or die with him, he joined Asaram to see the issue. A simple plan was adopted to secure Partap, and he fearlessly obeyed the summons. Both parties remained in camp; the one was amused with a negotiation for [412] his liberation on the payment of a fine; the other had higher hopes; and in the indulgence of both, their vassals relaxed in vigilance. While they were at dinner, a party planted in ambuscade rushed out, and before they could seize their arms, made captive both the chiefs. They were pinioned like felons, put into a covered carriage, despatched under the guard of five hundred men to the capital, and found apartments ready for them in the state-prison of Amber. It is an axiom with these people, that the end sanctifies the means; and the prince and his minister congratulated each other on the complete success of the scheme. Khandela was declared khalisa (fiscal), and garrisoned by five hundred men from the camp, while the inferior feudatories, holding estates detached from the capital, were received on terms, and even allowed to hold their fiefs on the promise that they did not disturb the sequestrated lands. ----- Footnote 9.6.1: [Nawalgarh, about 30 miles N.W. of Khandela; Khetri, about the same distance N.E.; Baswa, about 85 miles N.N.W. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.6.2: His second son, Raghunath, had Kuchor in appanage. Footnote 9.6.3: [The Amāvas, or last day of the month, is unlucky for all undertakings, and is kept as a day of rest by traders, shopkeepers, and craftsmen. If the last day falls on a Monday, it is specially taboo, and people bathe in a river or pool and make gifts to Brāhmans (_BG_, ix. Part i. 397). Pūs falls in January and February.] Footnote 9.6.4: [Close to the Jodhpur frontier, about 40 miles N.W. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.6.5: The ministers of religion were the only clerks amongst this race of depredators, and they were not behind the most illiterate in cupidity, and to say the truth, courage, when required; and as for skill in negotiation, a Mahratta Brahman stands alone; keen, skilful, and imperturbable, he would have baffled Machiavelli himself. Footnote 9.6.6: _Ghus_ is literally ‘a bribe’; and no treaty or transaction was ever carried on without this stipulation. So sacred was the _ghus_ held, from tyrant usage, that the Peshwa ministers, when they ruled the destinies of their nation, stipulated that the _ghus_ should go to the privy purse! Footnote 9.6.7: Barwatia is ‘one expatriated,’ from '_bar_' [_bāhir_] ‘out of,’ and _watan_, ‘a country,’ and it means either an exile or an outlaw, according to the measure of crime which caused his banishment from his country. [See Vol. II. p. 797.] Footnote 9.6.8: [About 20 miles N. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.6.9: [About 30 miles N. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.6.10: [See Vol. II. p. 665, for an account of this festival.] Footnote 9.6.11: _Nūn_ or _lūn_, ‘salt,’ and _dābnā_, ‘to dip, bespatter, or sprinkle.’ [Salt, apparently from its power of checking decay, is used in magical rites, and is believed to be efficacious for scaring evil spirits.] ----- CHAPTER 7 =Dīnarām Bohra organizes an Attack on the Sadhānis.=—Dinaram Bohra was now (A.D. 1798-9) prime minister of Jaipur, and he no sooner heard of the success of Asaram, than he proceeded to join him in person, for the purpose of collecting the tribute due by the Sadhani chiefs. Having formed a junction with Asaram at Udaipur, they marched to Parasurampur, a town in the heart of the Sadhanis, whence they issued commands for the tribute to be brought; [413] to expedite which, the ministers sent _dhus_[9.7.1] to all the townships of the confederacy. This insulting process irritated the Sadhanis to such a degree that they wrote to Dinaram to withdraw his parties instantly, and retrace his steps to Jhunjhunu, or abide the consequences; declaring, if he did so, that the collective tribute, of which ten thousand was then ready, would be forthcoming. All had assented to this arrangement but Bagh Singh, brother of the captive prince of Khandela, who was so incensed at the faithless conduct of the court, after the great services they had so recently performed, that he determined to oppose by force of arms this infraction of their charter, which declared the inviolability of the territory of the confederation so long as the tribute was paid. He was joined by five hundred men of Khetri, with which having levied contributions at Singhana and Fatehpur from the traitorous lord of Sikar, he invited to their aid the celebrated George Thomas, then carving out his fortunes amongst these discordant political elements. =Battle of Fatehpur, Defeat of Jaipur Army by George Thomas, A.D. 1799=.—Nearly the whole of the Jaipur mercenary and feudal army was embodied on this occasion, and although far superior in numbers to the confederation, yet the presence of Thomas and his regulars more than counterpoised their numerical inferiority. The attack of Thomas was irresistible; the Jaipur lines led by Rora Ram gave way, and lost several pieces of artillery. To redeem what the cowardice and ill-conduct of the general-in-chief had lost, the chieftain of Chaumun formed a _gol_ or dense band of the feudal chivalry, which he led in person against Thomas’s brigade, charging to the mouths of his guns. His object, the recovery of the guns, was attained with great slaughter on each side. The Chaumun chief (Ranjit Singh) was desperately wounded, and Bahadur Singh, Pahar Singh, chiefs of the Khangarot clans, with many others, were slain by discharges of grape; the guns were retrieved, and Thomas and his auxiliaries were deprived of a victory, and ultimately compelled to retreat.[9.7.2] The captive chiefs of Khandela deemed this revolt and union of their countrymen favourable to their emancipation, and addressed them to this effect. A communication was made to the discomfited Rora Ram, who promised his influence, provided an efficient body of Raesalots joined his camp, and by their services seconded their [414] requests. Bagh Singh was selected; a man held in high esteem by both parties, and even the court manager of Khandela found it necessary to retain his services, as it was by his influence only over his unruly brethren that he was enabled to make anything of the new fiscal lands. For this purpose, and to preserve the point of honour, the manager permitted Bagh Singh to remain in the fortified palace of Khandela, with a small party of his brethren; but on being selected to lead the quotas of his countrymen with the court commander, he left his younger brother, Lachhman Singh, as his deputy. =Hanwant Singh captures Khandela.=—No sooner did it reach the ears of Hanwant Singh of Saledi, son of the captive Partap, that Bagh Singh had joined the army, than, in the true spirit of these relentless feuds, he determined to attempt the castle. As soon as the darkness of night favoured his design, he hastened its accomplishment, escaladed it, and put the unprepared garrison to the sword. Intelligence of this event reached Bagh Singh at Ranoli, who instantly countermarched, and commenced the assault, into which even the townspeople entered heartily, inspired as they were with indignation at the atrocious murder of the young chief. The day was extremely hot; the defendants fought for their existence, for their leader could not hope for mercy. The assailants were served with the best food; such was the enthusiasm, that even the women forgot their fears, and cheered them on as the ladders were planted against the last point of defence. Then the white flag was displayed, and the gate opened, but the murderer had fled. Manjidas succeeded Dinaram as minister of Jaipur; and Rora Ram, notwithstanding his disgraceful defeat and the lampoons of the bards, continued to be collector of the Shaikhawat tribute, and farmed the fiscal lands of Khandela to a Brahman for twenty thousand rupees annually. This Brahman, in conjunction with another speculative brother, had taken a lease of the Mapa Rahdari, or town and transit duties at Jaipur, which having been profitable, they now agreed to take on lease the sequestrated lands of Khandela. Having not only fulfilled their contract the first year, but put money in their pocket, they renewed it for two more. Aided by a party of the Silahposhians[9.7.3] of the court, the minister of religion showed he was no messenger of peace, and determined to make the most of his ephemeral power, he not only levied contributions on the yet independent feudatories, but attacked those who resisted, and carried several of their castles sword in hand. The brave ‘sons of Raesal’ could not bear this new mark of contumely and bad faith of the court,—“to be made the sport of a tailor and a Brahman,”—and having received intimation from the captive [415] chiefs that there was no hope of their liberty, they at once threw away the scabbard and commenced a scene of indiscriminate vengeance, which the Rajput often has recourse to when urged to despair. They at once assailed Khandela, and in spite of the resistance of seven thousand Dadupanthis,[9.7.4] dispossessed the Purohit, and sacked it. Then advancing within the Jaipur domains, they spread terror and destruction, pillaging even the estates of the queen. Fresh troops were sent against them, and after many actions the confederacy was broken up. The Ranoli chief and others of the elder branches made their peace, but the younger branches fled the country, and obtained saran (sanctuary) and subsistence in Marwar and Bikaner: Sangram Singh of Sujawas (cousin to Partap) sought the former, Bagh Singh and Suraj Singh the latter, whose prince gave them lands. There they abode in tranquillity for a time, looking to that justice from the prince which tributary collectors knew not; but when apathy and neglect mistook the motive of this patient suffering, he was aroused from his indifference to the fate of the brave Barwatias, by the tramp of their horses’ feet even at the gates of his capital. Sangram Singh headed the band of exiles, which spread fear and desolation over a great portion of Dhundhar. In many districts they established _rakhwali_;[9.7.5] and wherever they succeeded in surprising a thana (garrison) of their liege lord, they cut it up without mercy. They sacked the town of Koh, within a few miles of the city of Jaipur, from under whose walls they carried off horses to mount their gang. Animated by successful revenge, and the excitement of a life so suited to the Rajput, Sangram became the leader of a band of several hundred horse, bold enough to attempt anything. Complaints for redress poured in upon the court from all quarters, to which a deaf ear might have been turned, had they not been accompanied with applications for reduction of rent. The court at length, alarmed at this daring desperado, made overtures to him through Shyam Singh Sadhani, the chief of Baswa, on whose _bachan_ (pledge) Sangram consented to appear before his liege lord. As soon as he arrived under the walls of the city, his cavalcade was surrounded by all classes, but particularly the Sikh mercenaries, all of whom recognized their property, some a horse, some a camel, others arms, etc.; but none durst advance a claim to their own, so daring was their attitude and so guarded their conduct. The object of the minister was to secure the person of Sangram, regardless of the infamy which would attach to the chief who, at his desire, had pledged himself for his safety. But Shyam Singh [416], who had heard of the plot, gave Sangram warning. In forty-eight hours, intelligence reached the court that Sangram was in Tuarvati,[9.7.6] and that, joined by the Tuars and Larkhanis, he was at the head of one thousand horse. He now assailed the large fiscal towns of his prince; contributions were demanded, and if they could not be complied with, he carried off in _ol_ (hostage) the chief citizens, who were afterwards ransomed. If a delay occurred in furnishing either, the place was instantly given over to pillage, which was placed upon a body of camels. The career of this determined Barwatia was at length closed. He had surrounded the town of Madhopur, the estate of one of the queens, when a ball struck him in the head. His body was carried to Ranoli and burnt, and he had his cenotaph amongst the Jujhars[9.7.7] (those slain in battle) of his fathers. The son of Sangram succeeded to the command and the revenge of his father, and he continued the same daring course, until the court restored his patrimony of Sujawas. Such were the tumultuous proceedings in Shaikhavati, when an event of such magnitude occurred as to prove an epoch in the history of Rajputana, and which not only was like oil effused upon their afflictions, but made them prominent to their own benefit in the transaction. =The War on account of Krishna Kunwāri.=—That grand international war, ostensibly for the hand of the Helen of Rajwara, was on the point of bursting forth. The opening scene was in Shaikhavati, and the actors chiefly Sadhanis. It will be recollected, that though this was but the underplot of a tragedy, chiefly got up for the deposal of Raja Man of Jodhpur, in favour of Dhonkal Singh, Racchand was then Diwan, or prime minister, of Jaipur; and to forward his master’s views for the hand of Krishna, supported the cause of the pretender. =New Treaty with Jaipur.=—The minister sent his nephew, Kirparam, to obtain the aid of the Shaikhawats, who appointed Kishan Singh as interpreter of their wishes, while the Kher[9.7.8] assembled at ‘the Pass of Udaipur.’ There a new treaty was formed, the main article of which was the liberation of their chieftains, the joint Rajas of Khandela, and the renewal of the ancient stipulations regarding the non-interference of the court in their internal arrangements, so long as they paid the regulated tribute. Kishan Singh, the organ of the confederation, together with Kirparam, left the assembly for the capital, where they soon returned with the ratification of their wishes. On these conditions ten thousand of the sons of Shaikhji were embodied, and ready to accompany their lord-paramount wherever he might lead them, receiving _peti_, or subsistence, while out of their own lands. These preliminaries settled, Shyam Singh Champawat (nephew of the Pokaran [417] chief), with Kirparam repaired to Khetri, whence they conveyed the young pretender, Dhonkal Singh, to the camp of the confederates. They were met by a deputation headed by the princess Anandi Kunwar (daughter of the late Raja Partap, and one of the widows of Raja Bhim of Marwar, father of the pretender), who received the boy in her arms as the child of her adoption, and forthwith returned to the capital, where the army was forming for the invasion of Marwar. It moved to Khatu, ten coss from Khandela, where they waited the junction of the Bikaner Raja and other auxiliaries. The Shaikhawat lords here sent in their imperative demand for the liberation of the sons of Raesal, “that they might march under a leader of their own, equal in celebrity to the proudest of that assembled host.” Evasion was dangerous; and in a few days their chiefs were formally delivered to them. Even the self-abdicated Bindraban could not resist this general appeal to arms. The princes encamped in the midst of their vassals, nor was there ever such a convocation of ‘the sons of Shaikhji’: Raesalots, Sadhanis, Bhojanis, Larkhanis, and even the Barwatias, flocked around the ‘yellow banner of Raesal.’ The accounts of the expedition are elsewhere narrated,[9.7.9] and we shall only add that the Shaikhawats participated in all its glory and all its disgrace, and lost both Rao Narsingh and his father ere they returned to their own lands. =Abhai Singh.=—Abhai Singh, the son of Narsingh, succeeded, and conducted the contingent of his countrymen until the ill-starred expedition broke up, when they returned to Khandela. But the faithless court had no intention of restoring the lands of Khandela. Compelled to look about for a subsistence, with one hundred and fifty horse, they went to Raja Bakhtawar Singh of Macheri; but he performed the duties of kindred and hospitality so meanly, that they only remained a fortnight. In this exigence, Partap and his son repaired to the Mahratta leader, Bapu Sindhia, at Dausa,[9.7.10] while Hanwant, in the ancient spirit of his race, determined to attempt Govindgarh. In disguise, he obtained the necessary information, assembled sixty of his resolute clansmen, whom he concealed at dusk in a ravine, whence, as soon as silence proclaimed the hour was come, he issued, ascended the well-known path, planted his ladders, and cut down the sentinels ere the garrison was alarmed. It was soon mastered, several being killed and the rest turned out. The well-known beat of the Raesalot nakkaras awoke the Larkhanis, Minas, and all the Rajputs in the vicinity, who immediately repaired to the castle. In a few weeks the gallant Hanwant was at the head of two thousand men, prepared to act offensively against [418] his faithless liege lord. Khandela and all the adjacent towns surrendered, their garrisons flying before the victors, and Khushhal Daroga, a name of note in all the intrigues of the darbar of that day, carried to court the tidings of his own disgrace, which, his enemies took care to proclaim, arose from his cupidity: for though he drew pay and rations for a garrison of one hundred men, he only had thirty. Accompanied by Ratan Chand, with two battalions and guns, and the reproaches of his sovereign, he was commanded at his peril to recover Khandela. The gallant Hanwant disdained to await the attack, but advanced outside the city to meet it, drove Khushhal back, and had he not in the very moment of victory been wounded, while the Larkhanis hung behind, would have totally routed them. Hanwant was compelled to retreat within the walls, where he stood two assaults, in one of which he slew thirty Silahposh, or men in armour, the body-guard of the prince; but the only water of the garrison being from _tankhas_ (reservoirs), he was on the point of surrendering at discretion, when an offer of five townships being made, he accepted the towns. Another change took place in the ministry of Amber at this period; and Khushhaliram, at the age of fourscore and four years, was liberated from the state-prison of Amber, and once more entrusted with the administration of the government. This hoary-headed politician, who, during more than half a century, had alternately met the frowns and the smiles of his prince, at this the extreme verge of existence, entered with all the alacrity of youth into the tortuous intrigues of office, after witnessing the removal of two prime ministers, his rivals, who resigned power and life together. Khushhaliram had remained incarcerated since the reign of Raja Partap, who, when dying, left three injunctions; the first of which was, that ‘the Bohra’ (his caste) should never be enfranchised; but if in evil hour his successor should be induced to liberate him “he should be placed uncontrolled at the head of affairs.”[9.7.11] When this veteran politician, whose biography would fill a volume,[9.7.12] succeeded to the helm at Jaipur, a solemn deputation of the principal Shaikhawat chieftains repaired to the capital, and begged that through his intercession they might be restored to the lands of their forefathers. The Bohra, who had always kept up, as well from [419] sound principle as from personal feeling, a good understanding with the feudality, willingly became their advocate with his sovereign, to whom he represented that the defence of the State lay in a willing and contented vassalage: for, notwithstanding their disobedience and turbulence, they were always ready, when the general weal was threatened, to support it with all their power. He appealed to the late expedition, when ten thousand of the children of Shaikhji were embodied in his cause, and what was a better argument, he observed, the Mahrattas had only been able to prevail since their dissensions amongst themselves. The Bohra was commanded to follow his own goodwill and pleasure; and having exacted an engagement, by which the future tribute of the Raesalots was fixed at sixty thousand rupees annually, and the immediate payment of a _nazarana_ of forty thousand, fresh _pattas_ of investiture were made out for Khandela and its dependencies. There are so many conflicting interests in all these courts, that it by no means follows that obedience runs on the heels of command; even though the orders of the prince were countersigned by the minister, the Nagas,[9.7.13] who formed the garrison of Khandela, and the inferior fiefs, showed no disposition to comply. The gallant Hanwant, justly suspecting the Bohra’s good faith, proposed to the joint rajas a _coup de main_, which he volunteered to lead. They had five hundred retainers amongst them; of these Hanwant selected twenty of the most intrepid, and repaired to Udaigarh, to which he gained admission as a messenger from himself; twenty more were at his heels, who also got in, and the rest rapidly following, took post at the gateway. Hanwant then disclosed himself, and presented the fresh _patta_ of Khandela to the Nagas, who still hesitating to obey, he drew his sword, when seeing that he was determined to succeed or perish, they reluctantly withdrew, and Abhai and Partap were once more inducted into the dilapidated abodes of their ancestors. The adversity they had undergone, added to their youth and inexperience, made them both yield a ready acquiescence to the advice of their kinsman, to whose valour and conduct they owed the restoration of their inheritance, and the ancient feuds, which were marked on every stone of their castellated mahalls, were apparently appeased. =The Shaikhāwats attack Amīr Khān.=—Shortly after this restoration, the Shāikhawat contingents were called out to serve against the common enemy of Rajputana, the notorious Amir Khan, whose general, Muhammad Shah Khan, was closely blockaded in the fortress of Bhumgarh, near Tonk, by the whole strength of Jaipur, commanded by Rao Chand Singh of Dhani An incident occurred, while the siege was approaching a successful conclusion, which [420] well exemplifies the incorrigible imperfections of the feudal system, either for offensive or defensive operations. This incident, trivial as it is in its origin, proved a death-blow to these unfortunate princes, so long the sport of injustice, and appears destined to falsify the Dom, who prophesied, on the acceptance of his self-sacrifice, that seven successive generations of his issue should occupy the _gaddi_ of Khandela. In the disorderly proceedings of this feudal array, composed of all the quotas of Amber, a body of Shaikhawats had sacked one of the townships of Tonk, in which a Gugawat inhabitant was slain, and his property plundered, in the indiscriminate pell-mell. The son of the Gugawat instantly carried his complaints to the besieging general, Chand Singh, the head of his clan, who gave him a party of the Silahposh (men in armour) to recover his property. The Shaikhawats resisted, and reinforced their party; Chand Singh did the same; the Khandela chiefs repaired in person, accompanied by the whole confederacy with the exception of Sikar: and the Gugawat chief, who had not only the ties of clanship, but the dignity of commander-in-chief, to sustain, sent every man he could spare from the blockade. Thus nearly the whole feudal array of Amber was collected round a few hackeries[9.7.14] (carts), ready to cut each other to pieces for the point of honour: neither would relinquish the claim, and swords were already drawn, when the Khangarot chief stepped between them as peacemaker, and proposed an expedient which saved the honour of both, namely, that the plundered property should be permitted to proceed to its destination, the Khandela prince’s quarters, who should transmit it, “of his own accord,” to the commander-in-chief of the army. The Shaikhawats assented; the havoc was prevented; but the pride of Chand Singh was hurt, who saw in this a concession to the commander of the army, but none to the leader of the Gugawats. Lachhman Singh, the chief of Sikar, who, as before stated, was the only Shaikhawat who kept aloof from the affray, saw the moment was arrived for the accomplishment of his long-concealed desire to be lord of Khandela. The siege of Bhumgarh being broken up, in consequence of these dissensions and the defection of the confederated Shaikhawats, the Sikar chief no sooner saw them move by the circuitous route of the capital, than he marched directly for his estates, and throwing aside all disguise, attacked Sisa, which by an infamous stratagem he secured, by inveigling the commandant, the son of the late Bohra minister. Then making overtures to the enemy, against whom he had just been fighting, for the sum of two lakhs of rupees, he obtained a brigade of the mercenary Pathans, under their leaders Manu and Mahtab Khan [421], the last of whom, but a few days before, had entered into a solemn engagement with Hanwant, as manager for the minor princes, to support whose cause, and to abstain from molesting their estates, he had received fifty thousand rupees! Such nefarious acts were too common at that period even to occasion remark, far less reprehension. =Siege of Khandela.=—The gallant Hanwant now prepared for the defence of the lands which his valour had redeemed. His foeman made a lavish application of the wealth which his selfish policy had acquired, and Rewasa and other fiefs were soon in his possession. The town of Khandela, being open, soon followed, but the castle held out sufficiently long to enable him to strengthen and provision Kot, which he determined to defend to the last. Having withstood the attacks of the enemy, during three weeks, in the almost ruined castle, he sallied out sword in hand, and gained Kot, where he assembled all those yet faithful to the family, and determined to stand or fall with the last stronghold of Khandela. The other chiefs of the confederation beheld with indignation this unprovoked and avaricious aggression on the minor princes of Khandela, not only because of its abstract injustice, but of the undue aggrandizement of this inferior branch of the Raesalots, and the means employed, namely, the common enemy of their country. Many leagued for its prevention, but some were bribed by the offer of a part of the domain, and those who were too virtuous to be corrupted, found their intentions defeated by the necessity of defending their own homes against the detachments of Amir Khan, sent by desire of Sikar to neutralize their efforts. The court was steeled against all remonstrance, from the unhappy rupture at Bhumgarh, the blockade of which, it was represented, was broken by the conduct of the followers of Khandela. =Death of Hanwant Singh.=—Hanwant and some hundreds of his brave clansmen were thus left to their own resources. During three months they defended themselves in a position outside the castle, when a general assault was made on his intrenchments. He was advised to retreat into the castle, but he nobly replied, “Khandela is gone for ever, if we are reduced to shelter ourselves behind walls”; and he called upon his brethren to repel the attack or perish. Hanwant cheered on his kinsmen, who charged the battalions sword in hand, drove them from their guns, and completely cleared the intrenchments. But the enemy returned to the conflict, which lasted from morn until nightfall. Another sortie was made; again the enemy was ignominiously dislodged, but the gallant Hanwant, leading his men to the very muzzle of the guns, received a shot which ended his career. The victory remained with the besieged, but the death of their leader [422] disconcerted his clansmen, who retired within the fort. Five hundred of the mercenary Pathans and men of Sikar (a number equal to the whole of the defenders) accompanied to the shades the last intrepid Raesalot of Khandela. The next morning an armistice for the removal of the wounded and obsequies of the dead was agreed to, during which terms were offered, and refused by the garrison. As soon as the death of Hanwant was known, the Udaipur chief, who from the first had upheld the cause of justice, sent additional aid both in men and supplies; and had the Khetri chief been at his estates, the cause would have been further supported; but he was at court, and had left orders with his son to act according to the advice of the chief of Baswa, who had been gained over to the interests of Sikar by the bribe of participation in the conquered lands. Nevertheless, the garrison held out, under every privation, for five weeks longer, their only sustenance at length being a little Indian corn introduced by the exertions of individual Minas. At this extremity, an offer being made of ten townships, they surrendered. Partap Singh took his share of this remnant of his patrimony, but his co-heir Abhai Singh inherited too much of Raesal’s spirit to degrade himself by owing aught to his criminal vassal and kinsman. It would have been well for Partap had he shown the same spirit; for Lachhman Singh, now lord of Khandela, felt too acutely the injustice of his success, to allow the rightful heir to remain upon his patrimony; and he only allowed sufficient time to elapse for the consolidation of his acquisition, before he expelled the young prince. Both the co-heirs, Abhai Singh and Partap, now reside at Jhunjhunu, where each receives five rupees a day, from a joint purse made for them by the Sadhanis, nor at present[9.7.15] is there a ray of hope of their restoration to Khandela. In 1814, when Misr Sheonarayan, then minister of Jaipur, was involved in great pecuniary difficulties, to get rid of the importunities of Amir Khan, he cast his eyes towards the Sikar chief, who had long been desirous to have his usurpation sanctioned by the court; and it was stipulated that on the payment of nine lakhs of rupees (namely, five from himself, with the authority and force of Jaipur to raise the rest from the Sadhanis), he should receive the _patta_ of investiture of Khandela. Amir Khan, the mutual agent on this occasion, was then at Ranoli, where Lachhman Singh met him and paid the amount, receiving his receipt, which was exchanged for the grant under the great seal. =Lachhman Singh gains Influence at Jaipur.=—Immediately after, Lachhman Singh proceeded to court, and upon the further payment [423] of one year’s tribute in advance, henceforth fixed at fifty-seven thousand rupees, he received from the hands of his liege lord, the Raja Jagat Singh, the khilat of investiture. Thus, by the ambition of Sikar, the cupidity of the court, and the jealousies and avarice of the Sadhanis, the birthright of the lineal heirs of Raesal was alienated. Lachhman Singh, by his talents and wealth, soon established his influence at the court of his sovereign; but the jealousy which this excited in the Purohit minister of the day very nearly lost him his dearly bought acquisition. It will be recollected that a Brahman obtained the lease of the lands of Khandela, and that for his extortions he was expelled with disgrace. He proceeded, however, in his career of ambition; subverted the influence of his patron Sheonarayan Misr, forcing him to commit suicide, ruined the prospects of his son, and by successful and daring intrigue established himself in the ministerial chair of Amber. The influence of Lachhman Singh, who was consulted on all occasions, gave him umbrage, and he determined to get rid of him. To drive him into opposition to his sovereign was his aim, and to effect this there was no better method than to sanction an attack upon Khandela. The Sadhanis, whose avarice and jealousies made them overlook their true interests, readily united to the troops of the court, and Khandela was besieged. Lachhman Singh, on this occasion, showed he was no common character. He tranquilly abided the issue at Jaipur, thus neutralizing the malignity of the Purohit, while, to ensure the safety of Khandela, a timely supply of money to the partisan, Jamshid Khan, brought his battalions to threaten the Purohit in his camp. Completely foiled by the superior tact of Lachhman Singh, the Brahman was compelled to abandon the undertaking and to return to the capital, where his anger made him throw aside the mask, and attempt to secure the person of his enemy. The Sikar chief had a narrow escape: he fled with fifty horse, hotly pursued by his adversary, while his effects, and those of his partisans (amongst whom was the Samod chief) were confiscated. The Sadhanis, led by the chiefs of Khetri and Baswa, even after the Purohit had left them, made a bold attempt to capture Khandela, which was defeated, and young Abhai Singh, who was made a puppet on the occasion, witnessed the last defeat of his hopes. If necessity or expediency could palliate or justify such nefarious acts, it would be shown in the good consequences that have resulted from evil. The discord and bloodshed produced by the partition of authority between the sons of Bahadur [424] Singh are now at an end. Lachhman Singh is the sole tyrant in Khandela, and so long as the system which he has established is maintained, he may laugh at the efforts, not only of the Sadhanis, but of the court itself, to supplant him. Let us, in a few words, trace the family of Lachhman Singh. It will be recollected that Raesal, the first Raja amongst the sons of Shaikhji, had seven sons, the fourth of whom, Tirmall (who obtained the title of Rao), held Kasli and its eighty-four townships in appanage. His son, Hari Singh, wrested the district of Bilara, with its one hundred and twenty-five townships, from the Kaimkhanis of Fatehpur, and shortly after, twenty-five more from Rewasa. Sheo Singh, the son of Hari, captured Fatehpur itself, the chief abode of the Kaimkhanis, where he established himself. His son, Chand Singh, founded Sikar, whose lineal descendant, Devi Singh, adopted Lachhman Singh, son of his near kinsman, the Shahpura Thakur. The estates of Sikar were in admirable order when Lachhman succeeded to his uncle, whose policy was of the exterminating sort. Lachhman improved upon it; and long before he acquired Khandela, had demolished all the castles of his inferior feudatories, not even sparing that of Shahpura, the place of his nativity, as well as Bilara, Bathoti, and Kasli; and so completely did he allow the ties of adoption to supersede those of blood, that his own father preferred exile, to living under a son who, covered with ‘the turban of Sikar,’ forgot the author of his life, and retired to Jodhpur. Lachhman Singh has now a compact and improving country, containing five hundred towns and villages, yielding a revenue of eight lakhs of rupees. Desirous of transmitting his name to posterity, he erected the castle of Lachhmangarh,[9.7.16] and has fortified many other strongholds, for the defence of which he has formed a little army, which, in these regions, merits the title of regulars, consisting of eight battalions of Aligol,[9.7.17] armed with matchlocks, with a brigade of guns to each battalion. He has besides an efficient cavalry, consisting of one thousand horse, half of which are Bargirs,[9.7.18] or stipendiary; the other half Jagirdars, having lands assigned for their support. With such means, and with his ambition, there is very little doubt that, had not the alliance of his liege lord of Amber with the English Government put a stop to the predatory system, he would, by means of the same worthy allies by whose [425] aid he obtained Khandela,[9.7.19] before this time have made himself supreme in Shaikhavati. Having thus brought to a conclusion the history of the princes of Khandela, we shall give a brief account of the other branches of the Shaikhawats, especially the most powerful, the Sadhani. =The Sādhāni Shaikhāwats.=—The Sadhanis are descended from Bhojraj, the third son of Raesal, and in the division of fiefs amongst his seven sons, obtained Udaipur and its dependencies. Bhojraj had a numerous issue, styled Bhojani, who arrogated their full share of importance in the infancy of the confederacy, and in process of time, from some circumstance not related, perhaps the mere advantage of locality, their chief city became the rendezvous for the great council of the federation, which is still in the defile of Udaipur.[9.7.20] Several generations subsequent to Bhojraj, Jagram succeeded to the lands of Udaipur. He had six sons, the eldest of whom, Sadhu, quarrelled with his father, on some ceremonial connected with the celebration of the military festival, the Dasahra,[9.7.21] and quitting the paternal roof, sought his fortunes abroad. At this time, almost all the tract now inhabited by the Sadhanis was dependent on Fatehpur (Jhunjhunu), the residence of a Nawab of the Kaimkhani tribe of Afghans,[9.7.22] who held it as a fief of the empire. To him Sadhu repaired, and was received with favour, and by his talents and courage rose in consideration, until he was eventually intrusted with the entire management of affairs. There are two accounts of the mode of his ulterior advancement: both may be correct. One is, that the Nawab, having no children, adopted young Sadhu, and assigned to him Jhunjhunu and its eighty-four dependencies, which he retained on the Kaimkhani’s death. The other, and less favourable though equally probable account, is that, feeling his influence firmly established, he hinted to his patron, that the township of —— was prepared for his future residence, where he should enjoy a sufficient pension, as he intended to retain possession of his delegated authority. So completely had he supplanted the Kaimkhani, that he found himself utterly unable to make a party against the ungrateful Shaikhawat. He therefore fled from Jhunjhunu to Fatehpur, the other division of his authority, or at [426] least one of his own kin, who espoused his cause, and prepared to expel the traitor from Jhunjhunu. Sadhu, in this emergency, applied to his father, requesting him to call upon his brethren, as it was a common cause. The old chief, who, in his son’s success, forgave and forgot the conduct which made him leave his roof, instantly addressed another son, then serving with his liege lord, the Mirza Raja Jai Singh, in the imperial army, to obtain succour for him; and some regular troops with guns were immediately dispatched to reinforce young Sadhu and maintain his usurpation, which was accomplished, and moreover Fatehpur was added to Jhunjhunu. Sadhu bestowed the former with its dependencies, equal in value to his own share, on his brother, for his timely aid, and both, according to previous stipulation, agreed to acknowledge their obligations to the Raja by an annual tribute and _nazarana_ on all lapses, as lord-paramount. Sadhu soon after wrested Singhana, containing one hundred and twenty-five villages, from another branch of the Kaimkhanis; Sultana, with its Chaurasi, or division of eighty-four townships, from the Gaur Rajputs; and Khetri and its dependencies from the Tuars, the descendants of the ancient emperors of Delhi: so that, in process of time, he possessed himself of a territory comprising more than one thousand towns and villages. Shortly before his death he divided the conquered lands amongst his five sons, whose descendants, adopting his name as the patronymic, are called Sadhani; namely, Zorawar Singh, Kishan Singh, Nawal Singh, Kesari Singh, and Pahar Singh. Zorawar Singh, besides the paternal and original estates, had, in virtue of primogeniture, the town of Chokri and its twelve subordinate villages, with all the other emblems of state, as the elephants, palkis, etc.; and although the cupidity of the Khetri chief, the descendant of the second son, Kishan, has wrested the patrimony from the elder branch, who has now only Chokri, yet the distinctions of birth are never lost in those of fortune, and the petty chief of Chokri, with its twelve small townships, is looked upon as the superior of Abhai Singh, though the lord of five hundred villages. The descendants of the other four sons, now the most distinguished of the Sadhanis, are,[9.7.23] Abhai Singh of Khetri; Shyam Singh of Baswa; Gyan Singh of Nawalgarh;[9.7.24] Sher Singh of Sultana [427]. Besides the patrimonies assigned to the five sons of Sadhu, he left the districts of Singhana, Jhunjhunu, and Surajgarh (the ancient Oricha), to be held in joint heirship by the junior members of his stock. The first, with its one hundred and twenty-five villages, has been usurped by Abhai Singh of Khetri, but the others still continue to be frittered away in sub-infeudations among this numerous and ever-spreading frerage. Abhai Singh has assumed the same importance amongst the Sadhanis that Lachhman Singh has amongst the Raesalots, and both by the same means, crime and usurpation. The Sikar chief has despoiled his senior branch of Khandela; and the Khetri chief has not only despoiled the senior, but also the junior, of the five branches of Sadhu. The transaction which produced the last result, whereby the descendant of Sher Singh lost Sultana, is so peculiarly atrocious, that it is worth relating, as a proof to what lengths the Rajput will go ‘to get land.’ =Bāgh Singh seizes Sultāna.=—Pahar Singh had an only son, named Bhopal, who being killed in an attempt on Loharu, he adopted the younger son of his nephew, Bagh Singh of Khetri. On the death of his adopted father, the Sultana chief, being too young to undertake the management of his fief in person, remained under the paternal roof. It would appear as if this alienation of political rights could also alienate affection and rupture all the ties of kindred, for this unnatural father imbrued his hands in the blood of his own child, and annexed Sultana to Khetri. But the monster grievously suffered for the deed; he became the scorn of his kinsmen, “who spit at him and threw dust on his head,” until he secluded himself from the gaze of mankind. The wife of his bosom ever after refused to look upon him; she managed the estates for her surviving son, the present Abhai Singh. During twelve years that Bagh Singh survived, he never quitted his apartment in the castle of Khetri, until carried out to be burned, amidst the execrations and contempt of his kinsmen. =The Lārkhānis.=—Having made the reader sufficiently acquainted with the genealogy of the Sadhanis, as well as of the Raesalots, we shall conclude with a brief notice of the Larkhanis, which term, translated ‘the beloved lords,’ ill accords with their occupation, as the most notorious marauders in Rajputana. Larla is a common infantine appellation, meaning ‘beloved’; but whether the adjunct of Khan to this son of Raesal, as well as to that of his youngest, Tajkhan (the crown of princes), was out of compliment to some other Muslim saint, we know not. Larkhan conquered his own [428] appanage, Danta Ramgarh, on the frontiers of Marwar, then a dependency of Sambhar. It is not unlikely that his father’s influence at court secured the possession to him. Besides this district, they have the _tappa_ of Nosal, and altogether about eighty townships, including some held of the Rajas of Marwar, and Bikaner, to secure their abstinence from plunder within their bounds. The Larkhanis are a community of robbers; their name, like Pindari and Kazzak, is held in these regions to be synonymous with ‘freebooter,’ and as they can muster five hundred horse, their raids are rather formidable. Sometimes their nominal liege lord calls upon them for tribute, but being in a difficult country, and Ramgarh being a place of strength, they pay little regard to the call, unless backed by some of the mercenary partisans, such as Amir Khan, who contrived to get payment of arrears of tribute to the amount of twenty thousand rupees. =Revenues.=—We conclude this sketch with a rough statement of the revenues of Shaikhavati, which might yield in peace and prosperity, now for the first time beginning to beam upon them, from twenty-five to thirty lakhs of rupees; but at present they fall much short of this sum, and full one-half of the lands of the confederation are held by the chiefs of Sikar and Khetri— Rupees. Lachhman Singh, of Sikar, including Khandela 800,000 Abhai Singh, of Khetri, including Kotputli, given by Lord Lake 600,000 Shyam Singh, of Baswa, including his brother Ranjit’s share of 40,000 (whom he killed) 190,000 Gyan Singh, of Nawalgarh, including Mandao, each fifty villages 70,000 Lachhman Singh, Mendsar, the chief sub-infeudation of Nawalgarh 30,000 Tain and its lands, divided amongst the twenty-seven great-grandsons of Zorawar Singh, eldest son of Sadhu 100,000 Udaipurvati 100,000 Manoharpur[9.7.25] 30,000 Larkhanis 100,000 Harramjis 40,000 Girdharpotas 40,000 Smaller estates 200,000 ————- 2,300,000 ————— [429.] The tribute established by Jaipur is as follows:— Rupees. Sadhanis 200,000 Fatehpur 64,000 Udaipur and Babhai 22,000 Kasli 4,000 ———— 350,000 ———— Thus, supposing the revenues, as stated, at twenty-three lakhs, to be near the truth, and the tribute at three and a half, it would be an assessment of one-seventh of the whole, which is a fair proportion, and a measure of justice which the British Government would do well to imitate. ----- Footnote 9.7.1: _Dhūs_ is an expedient to hasten the compliance of a demand from a dependent. A party of horse proceeds to the township, and are commanded to receive so much per day till the exaction is complied with. If the _dhūs_ is refused, it is considered tantamount to an appeal to arms. [_Dhūsnā_ means ‘to butt like an ox,’ hence ‘to coerce.’] Footnote 9.7.2: Franklin, in his Life of George Thomas, describes this battle circumstantially; but makes it appear an affair of the Jaipur court, with Thomas and the Mahrattas, in which the Shaikhawats are not mentioned. Thomas gives the Rajput chivalry full praise for their gallant bearing.—_Memoir of George Thomas_, p. 109. [The battle was fought early in 1799 at Fatehpur, about 145 miles N.W. of Jaipur city (Compton, _European Military Adventurers_, 146 ff.).] Footnote 9.7.3: [Men clad in armour (Irvine, _Army of the Indian Moghuls_, 164).] Footnote 9.7.4: [See Vol. II. p. 863.] Footnote 9.7.5: The _salvamenta_, or blackmail of our own feudal system. See Vol. I. p. 203. Footnote 9.7.6: [See Vol. II. p. 876.] Footnote 9.7.7: [Such cenotaphs, known as _pāliya_, are common in Gujarāt (Forbes, _Rās Māla_, 691; Tod, _Western India_, 301).] Footnote 9.7.8: [Tribal levy.] Footnote 9.7.9: [Vol. II. p. 1095.] Footnote 9.7.10: [Twenty-five miles E. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 9.7.11: The second injunction was to keep the office of Faujdar, or commander of the forces, in the family of Shambhu Singh, Gugawat, a tribe always noted for their fidelity, and like the Mertias of Marwar, even a blind fidelity, to the _gaddi_ whoever was the occupant. The third injunction is left blank in my manuscript. Footnote 9.7.12: His first act, after his emancipation from the dungeons of Amber, was the delicate negotiation at Dhani, the castle of Chand Singh, Gugawat. He died at Baswa, April 22, 1812, on his return from Macheri to Jaipur, where he had been unsuccessfully attempting a reconciliation between the courts. It will not be forgotten that the independence of the Naruka chief in Macheri had been mainly achieved by the Bohra, who was originally the homme d’affaires of the traitorous Naruka. Footnote 9.7.13: [These corps of militant devotees were commonly employed in Indian Native armies in the eighteenth century (Irvine, _Army of the Indian Moghuls_, 163; Broughton, _Letters from a Mahratta Camp_, 96, 106, 123; Russell, _Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces_, iii. 157).] Footnote 9.7.14: [A corruption of Hindi _chhakra_ (Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 407 f.).] Footnote 9.7.15: This was written in 1813-14. Footnote 9.7.16: Lachhmangarh, or ‘the castle of Lachhman,’ situated upon a lofty mountain [about 75 miles N.W. of Jaipur city], was erected in S. 1862, or A.D. 1806, though probably on the ruins of some more ancient fortress. It commands a most extensive prospect, and is quite a beacon in that country, studded with hill-castles. The town is built on the model of Jaipur, with regular streets intersecting each other at right angles, in which there are many wealthy merchants, who enjoy perfect security. Footnote 9.7.17: [The Ālīgol, ‘lofty, exalted troop,’ were irregular infantry in the Marātha service. Sometimes they were identified with the fanatical Ghāzis of the Afghān frontier (Irvine, _Army of the Indian Moghuls_, 164; Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 15).] Footnote 9.7.18: [Cavalry provided with horses by the State, Vol. II. p. 819.] Footnote 9.7.19: Khandela is said to have derived its name from the Khokhar Rajputs [?]. The Khokhar is often mentioned in the Bhatti Annals, whom I have supposed to be the Ghakkar, who were certainly Indo-Scythic. [The Khokhars and Ghakkars or Gakkhars are often confounded (Rose, _Glossary_, ii. 540).] Khandela has four thousand houses, and eighty villages dependent on it. Footnote 9.7.20: The ancient name of Udaipur is said to be Kais; it contains three thousand houses, and has forty-five villages attached to it, divided into four portions. Footnote 9.7.21: [See Vol. II. p. 680.] Footnote 9.7.22: [The Kāimkhāni or Qāimkhāni are a sept of Muslim Chauhān Rājputs found in the Jīnd State and in Jaipur (Rose, _Glossary_, iii. 257). In the _Rājputāna Census Report_ of 1911, however, they are classed among “Miscellaneous” Rājput septs (i. 286).] Footnote 9.7.23: It must be borne in mind that this was written in 1814. Footnote 9.7.24: Nawalgarh contains four thousand houses, environed by a shahrpanāh or rampart. It is on a more ancient site called Rolani, whose old castle in ruins is to the south-east, and the new one midway between it and the town, built by Nawal Singh in S. 1802, or A.D. 1746. Footnote 9.7.25: The Manoharpur chief was put to death by Raja Jagat Singh (_vide_ Madari Lal’s Journal of A.D. 1814), and his lands were sequestrated and partitioned amongst the confederacy: the cause, his inciting the Rahtis or Ratis (an epithet for the proselyte Bhatti plunderers of Bhattiana) to invade and plunder the country. ----- CHAPTER 8 We have thus developed the origin and progress of the Kachhwaha tribe, as well as its scions of Shaikhavati and Macheri. To some, at least, it may be deemed no uninteresting object to trace in continuity the issue of a fugitive individual, spreading, in the course of eight hundred years, over a region of fifteen thousand square miles; and to know that forty thousand of his flesh and blood have been marshalled in the same field, defending, sword in hand, their country and their prince. The name of ‘country’ carries with it a magical power in the mind of the Rajput. The name of his wife or his mistress must never be mentioned at all, nor that of his country but with respect, or his sword is instantly unsheathed. Of these facts, numerous instances abound in these Annals; yet does the ignorant Pardesi (foreigner) venture to say there are no indigenous terms either for patriotism or gratitude in this country. =Boundaries and Extent.=—The boundaries of Amber and its dependencies are best seen by an inspection of the map. Its greatest breadth lies between Sambhar, touching the Marwar frontier on the west, and the town of Suraut, on the Jat frontier, east. This line is one hundred and twenty British miles, whilst its greatest breadth from north to south, including Shaikhavati, is one hundred and eighty. Its form is [430] very irregular. We may, however, estimate the surface of the parent State, Dhundhar or Jaipur, at nine thousand five hundred square miles, and Shaikhavati at five thousand four hundred; in all, fourteen thousand nine hundred square miles.[9.8.1] =Population.=—It is difficult to determine with exactitude the amount of the population of this region; but from the best information, one hundred and fifty souls to the square mile would not be too great a proportion in Amber, and eighty in Shaikhavati; giving an average of one hundred and twenty-four to the united area, which consequently contains 185,670; and when we consider the very great number of large towns in this region, it may not be above, but rather below, the truth. Dhundhar, the parent country, is calculated to contain four thousand townships, exclusive of _purwas_, or hamlets, and Shaikhavati about half that number, of which Lachhman Singh of Sikar and Khandela, and Abhai Singh of Khetri, have each about five hundred, or the half of the lands of the federation.[9.8.2] =Classification of Inhabitants.=—Of this population, it is still more difficult to classify its varied parts, although it may be asserted with confidence that the Rajputs bear but a small ratio to the rest,[9.8.3] whilst they may equal in number any individual class, except the aboriginal Minas, who, strange to say, are still the most numerous. The following are the principal tribes, and the order in which they follow may be considered as indicative of their relative numbers. 1. Minas; 2. Rajputs; 3. Brahmans; 4. Banias; 5. Jats; 6. Dhakar, or Kirar (qu. Kirata?); 7. Gujars.[9.8.4] =The Mīna Tribe.=—The Minas are subdivided into no less than thirty-two distinct clans or classes, but it would extend too much the Annals of this State to distinguish them. Moreover, as they belong to every State in Rajwara, we shall find a fitter occasion to give a general account of them. The immunities and privileges preserved to the Minas best attest the truth of the original induction of the exiled prince of Narwar to the sovereignty of Amber; and it is a curious fact, showing that such establishment must have been owing to adoption, not conquest, that this event was commemorated on every installation by a Mina of Kalikoh marking with his blood the _tika_ of sovereignty on the forehead of the prince. The blood was obtained by incision of the great toe, and though, like many other antiquated usages, this has fallen into desuetude here (as has the same mode of inauguration of the Ranas by the Oghna Bhils), yet both in the one case and in the other, there cannot be more convincing evidence that these now outcasts were originally the masters. The Minas still enjoy the most confidential posts about the persons of the princes of Amber, having charge of the archives [431] and treasure in Jaigarh; they guard his person at night, and have that most delicate of all trusts, the charge of the _rawala_, or seraglio. In the earlier stages of Kachhwaha power, these their primitive subjects had the whole insignia of state, as well as the person of the prince, committed to their trust; but presuming upon this privilege too far, when they insisted that, in leaving their bounds, he should leave these emblems, the nakkaras and standards, with them, their pretensions were cancelled in their blood. The Minas, Jats, and Kirars are the principal cultivators, many of them holding large estates.[9.8.5] =Jāts.=—The Jats nearly equal the Minas in numbers, as well as in extent of possessions, and are, as usual, the most industrious of all husbandmen. =Brāhmans.=—Of Brahmans, following secular as well as sacred employments, there are more in Amber than in any other State in Rajwara; from which we are not to conclude that her princes were more religious than their neighbours, but, on the contrary, that they were greater sinners. =Rājputs.=—It is calculated that, even now, on an emergency, if a national war roused the patriotism of the Kachhwaha feudality, they could bring into the field thirty thousand of their kin and clan, or, to repeat their own emphatic phrase, “the sons of one father,” which includes the Narukas and the chiefs of the Shaikhawat federation.[9.8.6] Although the Kachhwahas, under their popular princes, as Pajun, Raja Man, and the Mirza Raja, have performed exploits as brilliant as any other tribes, yet they do not now enjoy the same reputation for courage as either the Rathors or Haras. This may be in part accounted for by the demoralization consequent upon their proximity to the Mogul court, and their participation in all enervating vices; but still more from the degradations they have suffered from the Mahrattas, and to which their western brethren have been less exposed. Every feeling, patriotic or domestic, became corrupted wherever their pernicious influence prevailed. =Soil, Husbandry, Products.=—Dhundhar contains every variety of soil, and the _kharif_ and _rabi_, or autumnal and spring crops, are of nearly equal importance. Of the former _bajra_ predominates over _juar_, and in the latter barley over wheat. The other grains, pulses, and vegetables, reared all over Hindustan, are here produced in abundance, and require not to be specified [432]. The sugar-cane used to be cultivated to a very great extent, but partly from extrinsic causes, and still more from its holding out such an allurement to the renters, the husbandman has been compelled to curtail this lucrative branch of agriculture; for although land fit for _ikh_ (cane) is let at four to six rupees per bigha, sixty have been exacted before it was allowed to be reaped. Cotton of excellent quality is produced in considerable quantities in various districts, as are indigo and other dyes common to India. Neither do the implements of husbandry or their application differ from those which have been described in this and various other works sufficiently well known.[9.8.7] =Farming System.=—It is the practice in this State to farm its lands to the highest bidder; and the mode of farming is most pernicious to the interests of the State and the cultivating classes, both of whom it must eventually impoverish. The farmers-general are the wealthy bankers and merchants, who make their offers for entire districts; these they underlet in _tappas_, or subdivisions, the holders of which again subdivide them into single villages, or even shares of a village. With the profits of all these persons, the expenses attending collections, quartering of _barkandazes_, or armed police, are the poor Bhumias and Ryots saddled. Could they only know the point where exaction must stop, they would still have a stimulus to activity; but when the crops are nearly got in, and all just demands satisfied, they suddenly hear that a new renter has been installed in the district, having ousted the holder by some ten or twenty thousand rupees, and at the precise moment when the last toils of the husbandman were near completion. The renter has no remedy; he may go and “throw his turban at the door of the palace, and exclaim _dohai, Raja Sahib!_” till he is weary, or marched off to the Kotwal’s _chabutra_, and perhaps fined for making a disturbance.[9.8.8] Knowing, however, that there is little benefit to be derived from such a course, they generally submit, go through the whole accounts, make over the amount of collections, and with the host of vultures in their train, who, never unprepared for such changes, have been making the most of their ephemeral power by battening on the hard earnings of the peasantry, retire for this fresh band of harpies to pursue a like course. Nay, it is far from uncommon for three different renters to come upon the same district in one season, or even the crop of one season, for five or ten thousand rupees, annulling the existing engagement, no matter how far advanced. Such was the condition of this State; and when to these evils were superadded the exactions called _dand_, or _barar_, forced contributions to pay those armies of robbers who swept the lands, language cannot exaggerate the extent of misery. The love of country must be powerful indeed which can enchain man to a land so misgoverned, so unprotected [433]. =Revenues.=—It is always a task of difficulty to obtain any correct account of the revenues of these States, which are ever fluctuating. We have now before us several schedules, both of past and present reigns, all said to be copied from the archives, in which the name of every district, together with its rent, town and transit duties, and other sources of income, are stated; but the details would afford little satisfaction, and doubtless the resident authorities have access to the fountain-head. The revenues of Dhundhar, of every description, fiscal, feudal, and tributary, or impost, are stated, in round numbers, at one crore of rupees, or about a million of pounds sterling, which, estimating the difference of the price of labour, may be deemed equivalent to four times that sum in England.[9.8.9] Since this estimate was made, there have been great alienations of territory, and no less than sixteen rich districts have been wrested from Amber by the Mahrattas, or her own rebel son, the Naruka chief of Macheri. The following is the schedule of alienations:— 1. Kama[9.8.10] ┐ Taken by General Perron, for his master Sindhia; 2. Khori │ since rented to the Jats, and retained by them. 3. Pahari ┘ 4. Kanti ┐ 5. Ukrod │ 6. Pandapan │ 7. Ghazi-ka-thana │ Seized by the Macheri Rao 8. Rampara (karda) ├ [now in Alwar State] 9. Ganwnri │ 10. Reni │ 11. Parbeni │ 12. Mozpur Harsana ┘ 13. Kanod or Kanaund[9.8.11] ┌ Taken by De Boigne and given to 14. Narnol │ Murtaza Khan, Baraich, confirmed └ in them by Lord Lake. ┌ Taken in the war of 1803-4, from the Mahrattas, 15. Kotputli │ and given by Lord Lake to Abhai Singh of └ Khetri. 16. Tonk ┌ Granted to Holkar by Raja Madho Singh; confirmed 17. Rampura │ in sovereignty to Amir Khan by Lord └ Hastings. It must, however, be borne in mind, that almost all these alienated districts had but for a comparatively short period formed an integral portion of Dhundhar; and that the major part were portions of the imperial domains, held in _jaedad_, or ‘assignment,’ by the princes of this country, in their capacity of lieutenants of the emperor. In Raja Prithi Singh’s reign, about half a century ago, the rent-roll of Amber and her tributaries was [434] seventy-seven lakhs: and in a very minute schedule formed in S. 1858 (A.D. 1802), the last year of the reign of Raja Partap Singh, they were estimated at seventy-nine lakhs: an ample revenue, if well administered, for every object. We shall present the chief items which form the budget of ways and means of Amber. _Schedule of the Revenues of Amber for S. 1858,_ (A.D. 1802-3), _the year of Raja Jagat Singh’s accession. Khalisa, or Fiscal Land._ Rupees. Managed by the Raja, or rented 2,055,000 Deori taluka, expenses of the queen’s household 500,000 Shagirdpesha, servants of the household 300,000 Ministers, and civil officers 200,000 Jagirs for the Silahposh, or men-at-arms 150,000 Jagirs to army, namely, ten battalions of infantry 714,000 with cavalry Total Fiscal Land ———————— 3,919,000 Feudal lands (of Jaipur Proper) 1,700,000 Udak,[9.8.12] or charity lands, chiefly to 1,600,000 Brahmans Dan and Mapa, or transit and impost duties of the 190,000 country Kachahri, of the capital, includes town-duties, 215,000 fines, contributions, etc., etc. Mint 60,000 Hundi-bara, insurance, and dues on bills of 60,000 exchange Faujdari, or commandant of Amber (annual fine) 12,000 Do. do. of city Jaipur 8,000 Bid’at, petty fines from the Kachahri, or hall of 16,000 justice Sabzimandi, vegetable market 3,000 ———————— Total Lakhs 7,783,000 ┌ Shaikhavati 350,000 Tribute ┤ Rajawat and other feudatories of │ Jaipur[9.8.13] 30,000 └ Kothris of Haraoti[9.8.14] 20,000 ——————— Total Tribute 400,000 ——————— Add Tribute 400,000 ———————— Grand Total Rs. 8,183,000 [435]. If this statement is correct, and we add thereto the Shaikhawat, Rajawat, and Hara tributes, the revenues fiscal, feudal, commercial, and tributary, of Amber, when Jagat Singh came to the throne, would exceed eighty lakhs of rupees, half of which is khalisa, or appertaining to the Raja—nearly twice the personal revenue of any other prince in Rajwara. This sum (forty lakhs) was the estimated amount liable to tribute when the treaty was formed with the British Government, and of which the Raja has to pay eight lakhs annually, and five-sixteenths of all revenue surplus to this amount. The observant reader will not fail to be struck with the vast inequality between the estates of the defenders of the country, and these drones the Brahmans,—a point on which we have elsewhere treated:[9.8.15] nor can anything more powerfully mark the utter prostration of intellect of the Kachhwaha princes, than their thus maintaining an indolent and baneful hierarchy, to fatten on the revenues which would support four thousand Kachhwaha cavaliers. With a proper application of her revenues, and princes like Raja Man to lead a brave vassalage, they would have foiled all the efforts of the Mahrattas; but their own follies and vices have been their ruin. =Foreign Army.=—At the period (A.D. 1803) this schedule was formed of the revenues of Amber, she maintained a foreign army of thirteen thousand men, consisting of ten battalions of infantry with guns, a legion of four thousand Nagas, a corps of Aligols[9.8.16] for police duties, and one of cavalry, seven hundred strong. With these, the regular contingent of feudal levies, amounting to about four thousand efficient horse, formed a force adequate to repel any insult; but when the _kher_, or _levée en masse_, was called out, twenty thousand men, horse and foot, were ready to back the always embodied force.[9.8.17] A detailed schedule of the feudal levies of Amber may diversify the dry details of these annals, obviate repetition, and present a perfect picture of a society of clanships. In this list we shall give precedence to the _kothriband_, the holders of the twelve great fiefs (_barah-kothri_) of Amber— _Schedule of the names and appanages of the twelve sons of Raja Prithiraj, whose descendants form the_ Barah-kothri, _or twelve great fiefs of Amber_[9.8.18] [436]. ──────────────────┬──────────────┬──────────┬─────────────────┬─────────┬─────── Sons of │Names of │Names of │Present Chiefs. │Revenues.│Personal Prithiraj. │Families. │Fiefs. │ │ │ Quotas. ──────────────────┼──────────────┼──────────┼─────────────────┼────────┼──────── 1. Chhattarbhuj │Chhattarbhujot│Pinar and │ │ │ │ │Bhagru │Bagh Singh │ 18,000│ 28 2. Kalyan │Kalyanot │Lotwara │Ganga Singh │ 25,000│ 47 3. Nathu │Nathawat │Chaumun │Kishan Singh │ 115,000│ 205 4. Balbhadar │Balbhadarot │Achrol │Kaim Singh │ 28,850│ 57 5. Jagmall his ┐│ │ │ │ │ son Khangar ┘│Khangarot │Thodri │Prithi Singh │ 25,000│ 40 6. Sultan │Sultanot │Chandsar │ — │ —│ — 7. Pachain │Pachainot │Sambra │Sali Singh │ 17,700│ 32 8. — │Gugawat │Dhuni │Rao Chand Singh │ 70,000│ 88 9. Kaim │Kumbhani │Banskoh │Padam Singh │ 21,535│ 31 10. Kumbha │Kumbhawat │Mahar │Rawat Sarup Singh│ 27,538│ 45 11. Surat │Sheobaranpota │Nindar │Rawat Hari Singh │ 10,000│ 19 12. Banbir │Banbirpota │Balkoh │Sarup Singh │ 19,000│ 35 ──────────────────┴──────────────┴──────────┴─────────────────┴────────┴──────── It will be remarked that the estates of these, the chief vassals of Amber, are, with the exception of two, far inferior in value to those of the sixteen great chiefs of Mewar, or the eight of Marwar; and a detailed list of all the inferior feudatories of each Kothri, or clan, would show that many of them have estates greater than those of their leaders: for instance, Kishan Singh of Chaumun has upwards of a lakh, while Beri Sal of Samod, the head of the clan (Nathawat), has only forty thousand; again, the chief of Balaheri holds an estate of thirty-five thousand, while that of the head of his clan is but twenty-five thousand. The representative of the Sheobaranpotas has an estate of only ten thousand, while the junior branch of Gura has thirty-six thousand. Again, the chief of the Khangarots has but twenty-five thousand, while no less than three junior branches hold lands to double that amount; and the inferior of the Balbhadarots holds upwards of a lakh, while the superior of Achrol has not a third of this rental. The favour of the prince, the turbulence or talents of individuals, have caused these inequalities; but, however disproportioned the gifts of fortune, the attribute of honour always remains with the lineal descendant and representative of the original fief. We shall further illustrate this subject of the feudalities of Amber by inserting a general list of all the clans, with the number of subdivisions, the resources of each, and the quotas they ought to furnish. At no remote period this was held to be correct, and will serve to give a good idea of the Kachhwaha aristocracy. It was my [437] intention to have given a detailed account of the subdivisions of each fief, their names, and those of their holders, but on reflection, though they cost some diligence to obtain, they would have little interest for the general reader. _Schedule of the Kachhwaha clans; the number of fiefs or estates in each; their aggregate value, and quotas of horse for each estate._[9.8.19] ─────────────┬──────────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────┬────────── │ Names of Clans. │Number of Fiefs │ Aggregate │Aggregate │ │in each Clanship│ Revenue. │ Quotas. │ │ or Clan. │ │ ─────────────┼──────────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────┼────────── ┌│Chhattarbhujot │ 6 │ 53,800│ 92 ││Kalyanot │ 19 │ 245,196│ 422 ││Nathawat │ 10 │ 220,800│ 371 ││Balbhadarot │ 2 │ 130,850│ 157 ││Khangarot │ 22 │ 402,806│ 643 12[9.8.20] ┤│Sultanot │ — │ —│ — ││Pachainot │ 3 │ 24,700│ 45 ││Gugawat │ 13 │ 167,900│ 273 ││Kumbhani [or Kumani] │ 2 │ 23,787│ 35 ││Kumbhawat │ 6 │ 40,738│ 68 ││Sheobaranpota │ 3 │ 49,500│ 73 └│Banbirpota │ 3 │ 26,575│ 48 ┌│Rajawat │ 16 │ 198,137│ 392 4[9.8.21] ┤│Naruka[9.8.21] │ 6 │ 91,069│ 92 ││Bankawat │ 4 │ 34,600│ 53 └│Puranmallot │ 1 │ 10,000│ 19 ┌│Bhatti │ 4 │ 104,039│ 205 ││Chauhan │ 4 │ 30,500│ 61 ││Bargujar │ 6 │ 32,000│ 58 ││Chandarawat │ 1 │ 14,000│ 21 10[9.8.22] ┤│Sakarwar │ 2 │ 4,500│ 8 ││Gujars │ 3 │ 15,300│ 30 ││Rangras │ 6 │ 291,105│ 549 ││Khatris │ 4 │ 120,000│ 281 ││Brahmans │ 12 │ 312,000│ 606 └│Musalman │ 9 │ 141,400│ 274 │ │ │ │ [438]. ─────────────┴──────────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────┴────────── =Ancient Towns.=—We shall conclude the annals of Amber with the names of a few of the ancient towns, in which research may recover something of past days. =Mora.=—Nine coss east of Dausa or Daosa; built by Mordhwaj, a Chauhan Raja. =Abhaner.=—Three coss east of Lalsont; very ancient; capital of a Chauhan sovereignty. =Bangarh.=—Five coss from Tholai; the ruins of an ancient town and castle in the hills, built by the old princes of Dhundhar, prior to the Kachhwahas. =Amargarh.=—Three coss from Kushalgarh; built by the Nagvansa. =Bairat.=[9.8.23]—Three coss from Basai in Macheri, attributed to the Pandus. =Patan= and =Ganipur=.—Both erected by the ancient Tuar kings of Delhi. =Kharar=, or =Khandar=.—Near Ranthambhor. =Utgir.=—On the Chambal. =Amber=, or =Ambikeswara=, a title of Siva, whose symbol is in the centre of a _kund_ or tank in the middle of the old town. The water covers half the _lingam_; and a prophecy prevails, that when it is entirely submerged the State of Amber will perish! There are inscriptions [439]. ----- Footnote 9.8.1: [The area of the Jaipur State, according to the last surveys, is 15,579 square miles.] Footnote 9.8.2: [According to the census of 1911, the population of Jaipur State was 2,636,647, 169 per square mile.] Footnote 9.8.3: [The proportion of Rājputs to the total population was, in 1911, 45 per 1000.] Footnote 9.8.4: [The present order, in numbers, of the castes is—Brāhmans, Jāts, Mīnas, Chamārs, Banias or Mahājans, Gūjars, Rājputs, Mālis. Dhākar Rājputs are found in the Central Ganges-Jumna Duāb, and in Rohilkhand (Elliot, _Supplementary Glossary_, 263). There are now 89,000 Dhākars in Rājputāna. Kirār is a term generally applied in the Panjāb to traders to distinguish them from the Banias of Hindustān, and the name has no connexion with the Kirāta, a forest tribe of E. India (Rose, _Glossary_, ii. 552; Russell, _Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces_, iii. 485 ff.).] Footnote 9.8.5: [The Mīnas are a notorious criminal tribe (M. Kennedy, _Notes on the Criminal Tribes in the Bombay Presidency_, 207 ff.; C. Hervey, _Some Records of Crime_, i. 328 ff.).] Footnote 9.8.6: [In 1911 there were 96,242 Kachhwāhas in Rājputāna, of whom about two-thirds are in Jaipur.] Footnote 9.8.7: [Reference may be made to the artistic industry in brass-work (Hendley, _Jaipur Museum Catalogue_; _Journal Indian Art_, 1886, i. No. 12, 1891, i. No. 11).] Footnote 9.8.8: [_Chabūtra_, the platform on which the Kotwāl or chief police officer does business. For the cry _dohāi_ see Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 321.] Footnote 9.8.9: [The normal revenue is now believed to be about 65 lakhs of rupees, roughly speaking, £433,000 (_IGI_, xiii. 395).] Footnote 9.8.10: [This may possibly be Kamban in Bharatpur State.] Footnote 9.8.11: Kanod was the fief of Amir Singh, Khangarot, one of the twelve great lords of Amber. Footnote 9.8.12: [_Udaka_ means the rite of offering water to deceased relations; hence, assignments of lands to Brāhmans at such rites (H. T. Colebrooke, _Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus_, ed. 1858, p. 115; Monier-Williams, _Brāhmanism and Hinduism_, 4th ed. p. 304).] Footnote 9.8.13: Barwara, Khirni, Sawar, Isarda, etc., etc. Footnote 9.8.14: Antardah, Balwan, and Indargarh. Footnote 9.8.15: See Dissertation on the Religious Establishments of Mewār, Vol. II. p. 590. Footnote 9.8.16: [See pp. 1416, 1422.] Footnote 9.8.17: [At present the military forces of the State consist of about 5000 infantry, 5000 Nāgas, 700 cavalry, 860 artillery-men, and 100 mounted on camels (_IGI_, xiii. 397).] Footnote 9.8.18: [There have been several changes in this list of fiefs since the Author’s time. A later, but apparently inaccurate, list is given in _Rājputāna Gazetteer_, 1879, ii. 139. An earlier list, made in 1790 by W. Hunter, appears in “A Narrative of a Journey from Agra to Oujein,” _Asiatic Researches_, vi. 69.] Footnote 9.8.19: [A fuller and more correct list will be found in _Rājputāna Census Report_, 1911, i. 255.] Footnote 9.8.20: The first twelve are the Barah-kothris, or twelve great fiefs of Amber. Footnote 9.8.21: The next four are of the Kachhwaha stock, but not reckoned amongst the Kothribands. Footnote 9.8.22: The last ten are foreign chieftains, of various tribes and classes. No doubt great changes have taken place since this list was formed, especially amongst the mercenary Pattayats, or Jagirdars. The quotas are also irregular, though the qualification of a cavalier in this State is reckoned at five hundred rupees of income. Footnote 9.8.23: [Forty-two miles N.N.E. of Jaipur city, the ancient Vairāta (_IGI_, vi. 217; _ASR_, ii. 242 ff.).] ----- [Illustration: RAGHUBĪR SINGH, MĀHĀRAO RĀJA OF BŪNDI. _To face page 1441._ ] BOOK X ANNALS OF HĀRAVATI BUNDI CHAPTER 1 =Hāravati.=—Haravati, or Haraoti, ‘the country of the Haras,’ comprehends two principalities, namely, Kotah and Bundi. The Chambal intersects the territory of the Hara race, and now serves as their boundary, although only three centuries have elapsed since the younger branch separated from and became independent of Bundi. The Hara is the most important of the twenty-four Chauhan _sakha_, being descended from Anuraj, the son of Manik Rae, king of Ajmer, who in S. 741 (A.D. 685) sustained the first shock of the Islamite arms.[10.1.1] =The Origin of the Chauhāns.=—We have already sketched the pedigree of the Chauhans,[10.1.2] one of the most illustrious of the ‘Thirty-six Royal Races’ of India.[10.1.3] We must, however, in this place, enter into it somewhat more fully; and in doing so, we must not discard even the fables of their origin, which will at least demonstrate that the human understanding has been similarly constructed in all ages and countries, before the thick veil of ignorance and superstition was withdrawn from it. So scanty are the remote records of the Chauhans, that it would savour of affectation to attempt a division of the periods of their history, or the improbable, the probable, and the certain. Of the first two, a separation would be impracticable, and we cannot trace the latter beyond the seventh century. “When the impieties of the kings of the warrior race drew upon them the vengeance of Parasurama, who twenty-one times extirpated that race, some, in order to save their lives, called themselves bards; others assumed the guise of women; and thus the _singh_ (horn) of the Rajputs was preserved, when dominion was assigned to the Brahmans. The impious avarice of Sahasra Arjuna, of the Haihaya race, king of Maheswar[10.1.4] on the Nerbudda, provoked the last war, having slain the father of Parasurama [440]. “But as the chief weapon of the Brahman is his curse or blessing, great disorders soon ensued from the want of the strong arm. Ignorance and infidelity spread over the land; the sacred books were trampled under foot, and mankind had no refuge from the monstrous brood.[10.1.5] In this exigence, Viswamitra, the instructor in arms[10.1.6] of Bhagwan, revolved within his own mind, and determined upon, the re-creation of the Chhattris. He chose for this rite the summit of Mount Abu,[10.1.7] where dwell the hermits and sages (Munis and Rishis) constantly occupied in the duties of religion, and who had carried their complaints even to the _khir samudra_ (sea of curds), where they saw the Father of Creation floating upon the hydra (emblem of eternity). He desired them to regenerate the warrior race, and they returned to Mount Abu with Indra, Brahma, Rudra, Vishnu, and all the inferior divinities, in their train. The fire-fountain (_analkund_) was lustrated with the waters of the Ganges; expiatory rites were performed, and, after a protracted debate, it was resolved that Indra should initiate the work of re-creation. Having formed an image (_putli_) of the _durva_ grass, he sprinkled it with the water of life, and threw it into the fire-fountain. Thence, on pronouncing the _sanjivan mantra_ (incantation to give life), a figure slowly emerged from the flame, bearing in the right hand a mace, and exclaiming, '_Mar! mar!_' (slay, slay). He was called Pramar; and Abu, Dhar, and Ujjain were assigned to him as a territory. “Brahma was then entreated to frame one from his own essence (_ansa_). He made an image, threw it into the pit, whence issued a figure armed with a sword (_khadga_) in one hand, with the Veda in the other, and a _janeo_ round his neck. He was named Chalukya or Solanki, and Anhilpur Patan was appropriated to him. “Rudra formed the third. The image was sprinkled with the water of the Ganges, and on the incantation being read, a black ill-favoured figure arose, armed with the _dhanush_ or bow. As his foot slipped when sent against the demons, he was called Parihar, and placed as the _pauliya_, or guardian of the gates. He had the Naunangal Marusthali, or ‘nine habitations of the desert,’ assigned him. “The fourth was formed by Vishnu; when an image like himself four-armed, each having a separate weapon, issued from the flames, and was thence styled Chaturbhuja Chauhan, or the ‘four-armed.’ The gods bestowed their blessing upon him, and Mahishmati-nagari as a territory. Such was the name of Garha-Mandla in the Dwapur, or silver age [441].[10.1.8] “The Daityas were watching the rites, and two of their leaders were close to the fire-fountain; but the work of regeneration being over, the new-born warriors were sent against the infidels, when a desperate encounter ensued. But as fast as the blood of the demons was shed, young demons arose; when the four tutelary divinities, attendant on each newly-created race, drank up the blood, and thus stopped the multiplication of evil. These were— Asapurna of the Chauhan. Gajan Mata of the Parihar. Keonj Mata of the Solanki. Sancher Mata of the Pramara.[10.1.9] “When the Daityas were slain, shouts of joy rent the sky; ambrosial showers were shed from heaven; and the gods drove their cars (_vahan_) about the firmament, exulting at the victory thus achieved. “Of all the Thirty-six Royal Races (says Chand, the great bard of the Chauhans), the Agnikula is the greatest: the rest were born of woman; these were created by the Brahmans![10.1.10]—Gotracharya of the Chauhans, Sama Veda, Somvansa, Madhuvani sakha, Vacha gotra, Panch parwar janeo, Laktankari nikas, Chandrabhaga Nadi, Brighu nishan, Ambika-Bhavani, Balan Putra, Kalbhairon, Abu Achaleswar Mahadeo, Chaturbhuja Chauhan.” The period of this grand convocation of the gods on Mount Abu, to regenerate the warrior race of Hind, and to incite them against ‘the infidel races who had spread over the land,’ is dated so far back as the opening of the second age of the Hindus: a point which we shall not dispute. Neither shall we throw a doubt upon the chronicles which claim Prince Salya, one of the great heroes of the Mahabharata, as an intermediate link between Anhal Chauhan and Satpati, who founded Mahishmati, and conquered the Konkan; while another son, called Tantar Pal, conquered Asir and Gualkund (Golkonda), planted his garrisons in every region, and possessed nine hundred elephants to carry _pakhals_, or water-skins [442]. Let us here pause for a moment before we proceed with the chronicle, and inquire who were these warriors, thus regenerated to fight the battles of Brahmanism, and brought within the pale of their faith. They must have been either the aboriginal debased classes, raised to moral importance, by the ministers of the pervading religion, or foreign races who had obtained a footing amongst them. The contrasted physical appearance of the respective races will decide this question. The aborigines are dark, diminutive, and ill-favoured; the Agnikulas are of good stature, and fair, with prominent features, like those of the Parthian kings. The ideas which pervade their martial poetry are such as were held by the Scythian in distant ages, and which even Brahmanism has failed to eradicate; while the tumuli, containing ashes and arms, discovered throughout India, especially in the south about Gualkund, where the Chauhans held sway,[10.1.11] indicate the nomadic warrior of the north as the proselyte of Mount Abu. Of the four Agnikula races, the Chauhans were the first who obtained extensive dominions. The almost universal power of the Pramaras is proverbial; but the wide sway possessed by the Chauhans can only be discovered with difficulty. Their glory was on the wane when that of the Pramaras was in the zenith; and if we may credit the last great bard of the Rajputs, the Chauhans held _in capite_ of the Pramaras of Telingana, in the eighth century of Vikrama, though the name of Prithiraj threw a parting ray of splendour upon the whole line of his ancestry, even to the fire-fountain on the summit of classic Abu. The facts to be gleaned in the early page of the chronicle are contained in a few stanzas, which proclaim the possession of paramount power, though probably of no lengthened duration. The line of the Nerbudda, from Mahishmati, Maheswar, was their primitive seat of sovereignty, comprehending all the tracts in its vicinity both north and south. Thence, as they multiplied, they spread over the peninsula, possessing Mandu, Asir, Golkonda, and the Konkan;[10.1.12] while to the north, [443] they stretched even to the fountains of the Ganges. The following is the bard’s picture of the Chauhan dominion:— “From ‘the seat of government’ (_rajasthan_) Mahishmati, the oath of allegiance (_an_) resounded in fifty-two castles. The land of Tatta, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar,[10.1.13] the Chauhan in his might arose and conquered even to the hills of Badarinath. The infidels (Asuras) fled, and allegiance was proclaimed in Delhi and Kabul, while the country of Nepal he bestowed on the Mallani.[10.1.14] Crowned with the blessing of the gods, he returned to Mahishmati.” It has already been observed, that Mahishmati-Nagari was the ancient name of Garha-Mandla, whose princes for ages continued the surname of Pal, indicative, it is recorded by tradition, of their nomadic occupation. The Ahirs, who occupied all Central India, and have left in one nook (_Ahirwara_) a memorial of their existence, was a branch of the same race, Ahir being a synonym for Pal.[10.1.15] Bhilsa, Bhojpur, Dip, Bhopal, Eran, Garaspur, are a few of the ancient towns established by the Pals or Palis; and could we master the still unknown characters appertaining to the early colonists of India, more light would be thrown on the history of the Chauhans.[10.1.16] A scion from Mahishmati, named Ajaipal, established himself at Ajmer,[10.1.17] and erected its castle of Taragarh. The name of Ajaipal is one of the most conspicuous that tradition has preserved, and is always followed by the epithet of Chakravartin, or universal potentate. His era must ever remain doubtful, unless, as already observed, we should master the characters said to belong to this race, and which are still extant, both on stone and on copper.[10.1.18] From what cause is not stated (most probably a failure of [444] lineal issue), Prithi Pahar was brought from Mahishmati to Ajmer. By a single wife (for polygamy was then unknown to these races) he had twenty-four sons, whose progeny peopled these regions, one of whose descendants, Manika Rae, was lord of Ajmer and Sambhar, in the year S. 741, or A.D. 685. =Mānika Rāē.=—With the name of Manika Rae, the history of the Chauhan emerges from obscurity, if not fable; and although the bard does not subsequently entertain us with much substantial information, we can trace his subject, and see his heroes fret their hour upon the uncertain stage, throughout a period of twelve hundred years. It was at this era (A.D. 685) that Rajputana was first visited by the arms of Islam, being the sixty-third year of the Hejira. Manika Rae, then prince of Ajmer, was slain by the Asuras, and his only child, named Lot, then an infant of seven years of age, was killed by an arrow while playing on the battlements (_kunguras_). The invasion is said to have been from Sind, in revenge for the ill-treatment of an Islamite missionary named Roshan Ali, though the complexion of the event is more like an enterprise prompted by religious enthusiasm. The missionary being condemned to lose his thumb “the disjointed member flew to Mecca,” and gave evidence against the Rajput idolater; when a force was prepared, disguised as a caravan of horse-merchants, which surprised and slew Dhola Rae and his son, and obtained possession of Garhbitli, the citadel. Puerile as is the transaction, its truth is substantiated by the fact that the Caliph Omar at this very time sent an army to Sind, whose commander, Abu-l-lais, was slain in an attempt on the ancient capital, Alor.[10.1.19] Still nothing but the enthusiasm of religious frenzy could have induced a band to cross the desert in order to punish this insult to the new faith. Whatever were the means, however, by which Ajmer was captured, and Dhola Rae slain, the importance of the event has been deeply imprinted on the Chauhans; who, in remembrance of it, deified the youthful heir of Ajmer: “Lot putra” is still the most conspicuous of the Chauhan penates. The day on which he was killed is sanctified, and his effigy then receives divine honours from all who have the name of Chauhan. Even the anklet of bells which he wore has become an object of veneration, and is forbidden to be used by the children of this race. “Of the house of Dhola Rae of Chauhan race, Lotdeo, the heir-apparent by the decree of Siva, on Monday the 12th of the month of Jeth, went to heaven.” Manika Rae, the uncle of the youth (_putra_) (who is still the object of general homage, especially of the Chauhan fair), upon the occupation of Ajmer, retired upon [445] Sambhar, which event another couplet fixes, as we have said, in S. 741.[10.1.20] Here the bard has recourse to celestial interposition in order to support Manika Rae in his adversity. The goddess Sakambhari appears to him, while seeking shelter from the pursuit of this merciless foe, and bids him establish himself in the spot where she manifested herself, guaranteeing to him the possession of all the ground he could encompass with his horse on that day; but commanded him not to look back until he had returned to the spot where he left her. He commenced the circuit, with what he deemed his steed could accomplish, but forgetting the injunction, he was surprised to see the whole space covered as with a sheet. This was the desiccated _sar_, or salt-lake, which he named after his patroness Sakambhari, whose statue still exists on a small island in the lake, now corrupted to Sambhar.[10.1.21] However jejune these legends of the first days of Chauhan power, they suffice to mark with exactness their locality; and the importance attached to this settlement is manifested in the title of ‘Sambhari Rao,’ maintained by Prithiraj, the descendant of Manika Rae, even when emperor of all Northern India. Manika Rae, whom we may consider as the founder of the Chauhans of the north, recovered Ajmer. He had a numerous progeny, who established many petty dynasties throughout Western Rajwara, giving birth to various tribes, which are spread even to the Indus. The Khichi,[10.1.22] the Hara, the Mohil, Nirwana, Bhadauria, Bhaurecha, Dhanetia, and Baghrecha, are all descended from him.[10.1.23] The Khichis were established in the remote Duab, called Sind-Sagar, comprising all the tract between the Behat and the Sind, a space of sixty-eight coss, whose capital was Khichpur-Patan. The Haras obtained or founded Asi (Hansi) in Hariana; while another tribe held Gualkund, the celebrated Golkonda, now Haidarabad, and when thence expelled, regained Asir. The Mohils had the tracts round Nagor.[10.1.24] The Bhadaurias had an appanage on the Chambal, in a tract which bears their name, and [446] is still subject to them. The Dhanetias settled at Shahabad, which by a singular fatality has at length come into the possession of the Haras of Kotah. Another branch fixed at Nadol, but never changed the name of Chauhan.[10.1.25] Many chieftainships were scattered over the desert, either trusting to their lances to maintain their independence, or holding of superiors; but a notice of them, however interesting, would here, perhaps, be out of place. Eleven princes are enumerated in the Jaga’s catalogue, from Manika Rae to Bisaldeo,[10.1.26] a name of the highest celebrity in the Rajput annals, and a landmark to various authorities, who otherwise have little in common even in their genealogies, which I pass over in silence, with the exception of the intermediate name of Harsraj,[10.1.27] common to the Hamir Raesa as well as the Jaga’s list. The authority of Harsraj stretched along the Aravalli mountains to Abu, and east of the Chambal. He ruled from S. 812 to 827 (A.H. 138 to 153), and fell in battle against the Asuras, having attained the title of Arimurdan.[10.1.28] Ferishta says, that “in A.H. 143, the Muslims greatly increased, when issuing from their hills they obtained possession of Karman, Peshawar, and all the lands adjacent; and that the Raja of Lahore, who was of the family of the Raja of Ajmer, sent his brother[10.1.29] against these Afghans, who were reinforced by the tribes of Khilj, of Ghor and Kabul, just become proselytes to Islam”;[10.1.29] and he adds, that during five months, seventy battles were fought with success; or, to use the historian’s own words, “in which Sipahi sarma (General Frost) was victorious over the infidel, but who returned when the cold season was passed with fresh force. The armies met [447] between Karman and Peshawar; sometimes the infidel (Rajput) carried the war to the Kohistan, ‘mountainous regions,’ and drove the Musalmans before him; sometimes the Musalmans, obtaining reinforcements, drove the infidel by flights of arrows to their own borders, to which they always retired when the torrents swelled the Nilab (Indus).” Whether the Raja of Ajmer personally engaged in these distant combats the chronicle says not. According to the Hamir Raesa, Harsraj was succeeded by Dujgandeo, whose advanced post was Bhatner, and who overcame Nasiru-d-din, from whom he captured twelve hundred horse, and hence bore the epithet of Sultan Graha, or ‘King-seizer.’ Nasiru-d-din was the title of the celebrated Sabuktigin, father to the still more celebrated Mahmud. Sabuktigin repeatedly invaded India during the fifteen years’ reign of his predecessor Alptigin. =Bīsaldeo.=—Passing over the intermediate reigns, each of which is marked by some meagre and unsatisfactory details of battles with the Islamite, we arrive at Bisaldeo. The father of this prince, according to the Hara genealogists, was Dharmagaj, apparently a title—'in faith like an elephant'—as in the Jaga’s list is Bir Bilandeo, confirmed by the inscription on the triumphal column at Delhi. The last of Mahmud’s invasions occurred during the reign of Bilandeo, who, at the expense of his life, had the glory of humbling the mighty conqueror, and forcing him to relinquish the siege of Ajmer.[10.1.30] Before we condense the scanty records of the bards concerning Visaladeva,[10.1.31] we may spare a few words to commemorate a Chauhan who consecrated his name, and that of all his kin, by his deeds in the first passage of Mahmud into India. =Gūga, Gugga Chauhān.=—Guga Chauhan was the son of Vacha Raja, a name of some celebrity. He held the whole of Jangaldes, or the forest lands from the Sutlej to Hariana; his capital, called Mahara, or, as pronounced, Guga ka Mahra, was on the Sutlej. In defending this he fell, with forty-five sons and sixty nephews; and as it occurred on Sunday (_Rabiwar_), the ninth (_naumi_) of the month, that day is held sacred to the manes of Guga by the ‘Thirty-six Classes’[10.1.32] throughout Rajputana, but especially in the desert, a portion of which is yet called Gugadeo ka thal. Even his steed, Javadia,[10.1.33] has been immortalized [448] and has become a favourite name for a war-horse throughout Rajputana, whose mighty men swear 'by the _sakha_ of Guga,' for maintaining the Rajput fame when Mahmud crossed the Sutlej. This was probably the last of Mahmud’s invasions, when he marched direct from Multan through the desert. He attacked Ajmer, which was abandoned, and the country around given up to devastation and plunder. The citadel, Garhbitli, however, held out, and Mahmud was foiled, wounded, and obliged to retreat by Nadol,[10.1.34] another Chauhan possession, which he sacked, and then proceeded to Nahrwala, which he captured. His barbarities promoted a coalition, which, by compelling him to march through the western deserts to gain the valley of Sind, had nearly proved fatal to his army. The exploits of Bisaldeo form one of the books of Chand the bard. The date assigned to Bisaldeo in the Raesa (S. 921) is interpolated—a vice not uncommon with the Rajput bard, whose periods acquire verification from less mutable materials than those out of which he weaves his song.[10.1.35] Chand gives an animated picture of the levy of the Rajput chivalry, which assembled under Bisaldeo, who, as the champion of the Hindu faith, was chosen to lead its warriors against the Islamite invader. The Chalukya king of Anhilwara alone refused to join the confederation, and in terms which drew upon him the vengeance of the Chauhan. A literal translation of the passage may be interesting: “To the Goelwal Jeth, the prince entrusted Ajmer, saying, ‘On your fealty I depend’; where can this Chalukya find refuge? He moved from the city (Ajmer) and encamped on the lake Visala,[10.1.36] and summoned his tributaries and vassals to meet him. Mansi Parihar with the array of Mandor, touched his feet.[10.1.37] Then came the Guhilot, the ornament of the throng;[10.1.38] and the Pawasar [449], with Tuar,[10.1.39] and Rama the Gaur;[10.1.40] with Mohes the lord of Mewat.[10.1.41] The Mohil of Dunapur with tribute sent excuse.[10.1.42] With folded hands arrived the Baloch,[10.1.43] but the lord of Bamani abandoned Sind.[10.1.44] Then came the Nazar from Bhatner,[10.1.45] and the Nalbandi from Tatta[10.1.46] and Multan.[10.1.46] When the summons reached the Bhumia Bhatti of Derawar,[10.1.47] all obeyed; as did the Jadon of Malanwas.[10.1.48] The Mori[10.1.49] and Bargujar[10.1.49] also joined with the Kachhwahas of Antarved.[10.1.49] The subjugated Meras worshipped his feet.[10.1.50] Then came the array of Takatpur, headed by the Goelwal Jeth.[10.1.51] Mounted in haste came Udaya Pramar,[10.1.52] with the Nirwan[10.1.53] and the Dor,[10.1.54] the Chandel,[10.1.54] and the Dahima.”[10.1.55] In this short passage, a text is afforded for a dissertation on the whole genealogical history of Rajputana at that period. Such extracts from the more ancient bards, incorporated in the works of their successors, however laconic, afford decisive evidence [450] that their poetic chronicles bore always the same character; for this passage is introduced by Chand merely as a preface to the history of his own prince, Prithiraj, the descendant of Bisaldeo. A similar passage was given from the ancient chronicles of Mewar, recording an invasion of the Muslims, of which the histories of the invaders have left no trace (Vol. I. p. 287). The evidence of both is incontestable; every name affords a synchronism not to be disputed; and though the isolated passage would afford a very faint ray of light to the explorer of those days of darkness, yet when the same industrious research has pervaded the annals of all these races, a flood of illumination pours upon us, and we can at least tell who the races were who held sway in these regions a thousand years ago. Amidst meagre, jejune, and unsatisfactory details, the annalist of Rajputana must be content to wade on, in order to obtain some solid foundation for the history of the tribes; but such facts as these stimulate his exertions and reward his toil: without them, his task would be hopeless. To each of the twenty tribes enumerated, formed under the standard of the Chauhan, we append a separate notice, for the satisfaction of the few who can appreciate their importance, while some general remarks may suffice as a connexion with the immediate object of research, the Haras, descended from Bisaldeo. In the first place, it is of no small moment to be enabled to adjust the date of Bisaldeo, the most important name in the annals of the Chauhans from Manik Rae to Prithiraj, and a slip from the genealogical tree will elucidate our remarks [451].[10.1.56] =The Delhi Pillar.=—The name of Bisaldeo (Visaladeva) heads the inscription on the celebrated column erected in the centre of Firoz Shah’s palace at Delhi. This column, alluded to by Chand, as “telling the fame of the Chohan,” was “placed at Nigambhod,” a place of pilgrimage on the Jumna, a few miles below Delhi, whence it must have been removed to its present singular position.[10.1.57] CHAUHĀN GENEALOGY [From Anhal to Bilandeo, these are but a few of the leading names. From Bilandeo the chain is continuous to the last Chauhan king, Prithiraj.] ┌ Or Agnipala, ‘offspring of fire,’ │ the first Chauhan; probable period │ 650 before Vikrama, when an Anhal ┤ invasion of the Turushkas took │ │ place;established Mahishmati-nagari │ │ (Garha-mandala); conquered the │ └ Konkan, Asir, Golkonda. Savacha │ ┌ In all probability this is the Malan ┤ patriarch of the Mallani tribe, │ └ see p. 1272. Ganal Sur │ ┌ Or universal potentate; founder of │ │ Ajmer. Same authorities say, in S. 202 Ajaipala Chakravartin ┤ 202 of the Vikrama; others of the │ │ Virat-Samvat: the latter is the │ └ most probable. │ ┌ Slain, and lost Ajmer, on the first Dhola Rae ┤ irruption of the Muhammadans, S. │ └ 741, A.D. 685. │ ┌ Founded Sambhar: hence the title S. 741 Manika Rae ┤ of Sambhari-Rao borne by the │ └ Chauhan princes, his issue. │ ┌ Defeated Nasiru-d-din (_qu._ S. 827 Harsraj ┤ Sabuktigin?), │ └ thence styled 'Sultan-graha. Bir Bilandeo ┌ Or Dharmagaj; slain defending │ └ Ajmer against Mahmud of Ghazni. S. 1065 to │ ┌ (Classically, Visaladeva); his 1130 Bisaldeo ┤ period, from various inscriptions, │ └ S. 1066 to S. 1130. Sarangdeo Died in nonage. │ Ana ┌ Constructed the Ana-Sagar at │ └ Ajmer; still bears his name. ┌────────────────────┐ Jaipal. Harspal. │ ├──────────────┬───────────┐ Ajaideo, Bijaideo. Udaideo. or Ananddeo. ├───────────────┬─────────────┐ │ │ │ Someswar: Kan Rae. Jeth, Goelwal. married Ruka Bai, │ daughter of Anangpal │ Tuar king of Delhi. │ │ Isardas; │ turned Muhammadan. │ ├────────────────────┐ │ │ Prithiraj; Chahirdeo. obtained Delhi; slain by │ Shihabu-d-din, S. 1249, │ A.D. 1193. │ │ Vijaya Raj. ┌ Adopted successor to Prithiraj; │ │ └ his name is on the pillar at Delhi. │ ┌─────┘ │ │ │ │ ┌ Had twenty-one sons; seven of whom were │ │ │ legitimate, the others illegitimate, and Rainsi; │ │ and founders of mixed tribes. From slain in the sack Lakhansi┤ Lakhansi there are twenty-six generations of Delhi. │ to Noniddh Singh, the present chieftain │ of Nimrana, the nearest lineal descendant └ of Ajaipal and Prithiraj. [452] The inscription commences and ends with the same date, namely, 15th of the month Baisakh, S. 1220. If correctly copied, it can have no reference to Bisaldeo, excepting as the ancestor of Prativa Chahumana tilaka Sakambhari bhupati; or ‘Prithiraja Chauhan, the anointed of Sambhar, Lord of the earth,’ who ruled at Delhi in S. 1220, and was slain in S. 1249, retaining the ancient epithet of ‘Lord of Sambhar,’ one of the early seats of their power.[10.1.58] The second stanza, however, tells us we must distrust the first of the two dates, and read 1120 (instead of 1220), when Visaladeva “exterminated the barbarians” from Aryavarta. The numerals 1 and 2 in Sanskrit are easily mistaken. If, however, it is decidedly 1220, then the whole inscription belongs to Prativa Chahumana, between whom and Visala no less than six princes intervene,[10.1.59] and the opening is merely to introduce Prithiraja’s lineage, in which the sculptor has foisted in the date. I feel inclined to assign the first stanza to Visaladeva (Bisaldeo), and what follows to his descendant Prithiraj, who by a conceit may have availed himself of the anniversary of the victory of his ancestor, to record his own exploits. These exploits were precisely of the same nature—successful war against the Islamite, in which each drove him from Aryavarta; for even the Muslim writers acknowledge that Shihabu-d-din was often ignominiously defeated before he finally succeeded in making a conquest of northern India [453]. =Date of Visaladeva.=—If, as I surmise, the first stanza belongs to Bisaldeo, the date is S. 1120, or A.D. 1064, and this grand confederation described by the Chauhan bard was assembled under his banner, preparatory to the very success, to commemorate which the inscription was recorded. In the passage quoted from Chand, recording the princes who led their household troops under Bisaldeo, there are four names which establish synchronisms: one by which we arrive directly at the date, and three indirectly. The first is Udayaditya Pramar, king of Dhar (son of Raja Bhoj), whose period I established from numerous inscriptions,[10.1.60] as between S. 1100 and S. 1150; so that the date of his joining the expedition would be about the middle of his reign. The indirect but equally strong testimony consists of, First, The mention of “the Bhumia Bhatti from Derawar”;[10.1.61] for had there been anything apocryphal in Chand, Jaisalmer, the present capital, would have been given as the Bhatti abode.[10.1.62] Second, The Kachhwahas, who are also described as coming from Antarved (the region between the Jumna and Ganges); for the infant colony transmitted from Narwar to Amber was yet undistinguished. The third proof is in the Mewar inscription, when Tejsi, the grandfather of Samarsi, is described as in alliance with Bisaldeo. Bisaldeo is said to have lived sixty-four years. Supposing this date, S. 1120, to be the medium point of his existence, this would make his date S. 1088 to S. 1152, or A.D. 1032 to A.D. 1096; but as his father, Dharmagaj, ‘the elephant in faith,’ or Bir Bilandeo (called Malandeo, in the Hamir Raesa), was killed defending Ajmer on the last invasion of Mahmud, we must necessarily place Bisal’s birth (supposing him an infant on that event), ten years earlier, or A.D. 1022 (S. 1078), to A.D. 1086 (S. 1142), comprehending the date on the pillar of Delhi, and by computation all the periods mentioned in the catalogue. We may therefore safely adopt the date of the Raesa, namely S. 1066 to S. 1130. Bisaldeo was, therefore, contemporary with Jaipal, the Tuar king of Delhi; with [454] Durlabha and Bhima of Gujarat; with Bhoj and Udayaditya of Dhar; with Padamsi and Tejsi of Mewar; and the confederacy which he headed must have been that against the Islamite king Maudud, the fourth from Mahmud of Ghazni, whose expulsion from the northern parts of Rajputana (as recorded on the pillar of Delhi) caused Aryavarta again to become ‘the land of virtue.’ Mahmud’s final retreat from India by Sind, to avoid the armies collected “by Bairamdeo and the prince of Ajmer” to oppose him, was in A.H. 417, A.D. 1026, or S. 1082, nearly the same date as that assigned by Chand, S. 1086.[10.1.63] We could dilate on the war which Bisaldeo waged against the prince of Gujarat, his victory, and the erection of Bisalnagar,[10.1.64] on the spot where victory perched upon his lance; but this we reserve for the introduction of the history of the illustrious Prithiraj. There is much fable mixed up with the history of Bisaldeo, apparently invented to hide a blot in the annals, warranting the inference that he became a convert, in all likelihood a compulsory one, to the doctrines of Islam. There is also the appearance of his subsequent expiation of this crime in the garb of a penitent; and the mound (_dhundh_), where he took up his abode, still exists, and is called after him, Bisal-ka-dhundh, at Kalakh Jobner.[10.1.65] According to the Book of Kings of Govind Ram (the Hara bard), the Haras were descended from Anuraj, son of Bisaldeo; but Mogji, the Khichi bard,[10.1.66] makes Anuraj progenitor of the Khichis, and son of Manika Rae. We follow the Hara bard. Anuraj had assigned to him in appanage the important frontier fortress of Asi (_vulg._ Hansi). His son Ishtpal, together with Aganraj, son of Ajairao, the founder of Khichpur Patan in Sind-Sagar, was preparing to seek his fortunes with Randhir Chauhan, prince of Gualkund: but both Asi and Golkonda were almost simultaneously assailed by an army “from the wilds of Kujliban.” Randhir performed the _sakha_; and only a single female, his daughter, named Surabhi, survived, and she fled for protection towards Asi, then attacked by the same furious invader. Anuraj prepared to fly; but his son, Ishtpal, determined not to wait the attack, but seek the foe. A battle ensued, when the invader was slain, and Ishtpal, grievously wounded, pursued him till he fell, near the spot where Surabhi was awaiting death under the shade of a _pipal_: for “hopes of life were extinct, and fear and hunger had [455] reduced her to a skeleton.” In the moment of despair, however, the _asvattha_ (pipal) tree under which she took shelter was severed, and Asapurna, the guardian goddess of her race, appeared before her. To her, Surabhi related how her father and twelve brothers had fallen in defending Golkonda against ‘the demon of Kujliban.’ The goddess told her to be of good cheer, for that a Chauhan of her own race had slain him, and was then at hand; and led her to where Ishtpal lay senseless from his wounds. By her aid he recovered,[10.1.67] and possessed himself of that ancient heirloom of the Chauhans, the famed fortress of Asir. Ishtpal, the founder of the Haras, obtained Asir in S. 1081[10.1.68] (or A.D. 1025); and as Mahmud’s last destructive visit to India, by Multan through the desert to Ajmer, was in A.H. 714, or A.D. 1022, we have every right to conclude that his father Anuraj lost his life and Asi to the king of Ghazni; at the same time that Ajmer was sacked, and the country laid waste by this conqueror, whom the Hindu bard might well style “the demon from Kujliban.”[10.1.69] The Muhammadan historians give us no hint even of any portion of Mahmud’s army penetrating into the peninsula, though that grasping ambition, which considered the shores of Saurashtra but an intermediate step from Ghazni to the conquest of Ceylon and Pegu, may have pushed an army during his long halt at Anhilwara, and have driven Randhir from Golkonda.[10.1.70] But it is idle to speculate upon such slender materials; let them suffice to illustrate one new fact, namely, that these kingdoms of the south as well as the north were held by Rajput sovereigns, whose offspring, blending with the original population, produced that mixed race of Mahrattas, inheriting with the names the warlike propensities of their ancestors, but who assume the name of their abodes as titles, as the Nimbalkars, the Phalkias, the Patankars, instead of their tribes of Jadon, Tuar, Puar, etc. etc. Ishtpal had a son called Chandkaran; his son, Lokpal, had Hamir and Gambhir, names well known in the wars of Prithiraj. The brothers were enrolled amongst his [456] one hundred and eight great vassals, from which we may infer that, though Asir was not considered absolutely as a fief, its chief paid homage to Ajmer, as the principal seat of the Chauhans. In the Kanauj Samaya, that book of the poems of Chand devoted to the famous war in which the Chauhan prince carries off the princess of Kanauj, honourable mention is made of the Hara princes in the third day’s fight, when they covered the retreat of Prithiraj: “Then did the Hara Rao Hamir, with his brother Gambhir, mounted on Lakhi steeds,[10.1.71] approach their lord, as thus they spoke: ‘Think of thy safety, Jangales,[10.1.72] while we make offerings to the array of Jaichand. Our horses’ hoofs shall plough the field of fight, like the ship of the ocean.’” The brothers encountered the contingent of the prince of Kasi (Benares), one of the great feudatories of Kanauj. As they joined, “the shout raised by Hamir reached Durga on her rock-bound throne.” Both brothers fell in these wars, though one of the few survivors of the last battle fought with Shihabu-d-din for Rajput independence, was a Hara— Hamir had Kalkaran, who had Mahamagd: his son was Rao Bacha; his, Rao Chand. =Rāo Chand.=—Amongst the many independent princes of the Chauhan race to whom Alau-d-din was the messenger of fate, was Rao Chand of Asir. Its walls, though deemed impregnable, were not proof against the skill and valour of this energetic warrior; and Chand and all his family, with the exception of one son, were put to the sword. This son was prince Rainsi, a name fatal to Chauhan heirs, for it was borne by the son of Prithiraj who fell in the defence of Delhi: but Rainsi of Asir was more fortunate. He was but an infant of two years and a half old, and being nephew of the Rana of Chitor, was sent to him for protection. When he attained man’s estate, he made a successful attempt upon the ruined castle of Bhainsror, from which he drove Dunga, a Bhil chief, who, with a band of his mountain brethren, had made it his retreat. This ancient fief of Mewar had been dismantled by Alau-d-din in his attack on Chitor, from which the Ranas had not yet recovered when the young Chauhan came amongst them for protection. Rainsi had two sons, Kolan and Kankhal. Kolan being afflicted with an incurable disease, commenced a pilgrimage to the sacred Kedarnath, one of the towns of the [457] Ganges. To obtain the full benefit of this meritorious act, he determined to measure his length on the ground the whole of this painful journey. In six months he had only reached the Binda Pass, where, having bathed in a fountain whence flows the rivulet Banganga, he found his health greatly restored. Kedarnath[10.1.73] was pleased to manifest himself, to accept his devotions, and to declare him ‘King of the Patar,’ or plateau of Central India.[10.1.74] The whole of this tract was under the princes of Chitor, but the sack of this famed fortress by Ala, and the enormous slaughter of the Guhilots, had so weakened their authority, that the aboriginal Minas had once more possessed themselves of all their native hills, or leagued with the subordinate vassals of Chitor. =Angatsi, the Hun.=—In ancient times, Raja Hun, said to be of the Pramara race, was lord of the Patar, and held his court at Menal. There are many memorials of this Hūn or Hun prince, and even so far back as the first assault of Chitor, in the eighth century, its prince was aided in his defence by ‛Angatsi, lord of the Huns.' The celebrated temples of Barolli are attributed to this Hun Raja, who appears in so questionable a shape, that we can scarcely refuse to believe that a branch of this celebrated race must in the first centuries of Vikrama have been admitted, as their bards say, amongst the Thirty-six Royal Races of the Rajputs. Be this as it may, Rao Banga, the grandson of Kolan, took possession of the ancient Menal, and on an elevation commanding the western face of the Pathar erected the fortress of Bumbaoda. With Bhainsror on the east, and Bumbaoda and Menal on the west, the Haras now occupied the whole extent of the Patar. Other conquests were made, and Mandalgarh, Bijolli, Begun, Ratnagarh, and Churetagarh, formed an extensive, if not a rich, chieftainship. Rao Banga had twelve sons, who dispersed their progeny over the Patar. He was succeeded by Dewa, who had three sons, namely, Harraj,[10.1.75] Hatiji, and Samarsi. =Rāo Dewa.=—The Haras had now obtained such power as to attract the attention of the emperor, and Rae Dewa was summoned to attend the court when Sikandar Lodi ruled.[10.1.76] He [458] therefore installed his son Harraj in Bumbaoda, and with his youngest, Samarsi, repaired to Delhi. Here he remained, till the emperor coveting a horse of the ‘king of the Patar,’ the latter determined to regain his native hills. This steed is famed both in the annals of the Haras and Khichis, and, like that of the Mede, had no small share in the future fortunes of his master. Its birth is thus related. The king had a horse of such mettle, that “he could cross a stream without wetting his hoof.” Dewa bribed the royal equerry, and from a mare of the Patar had a colt, to obtain which the king broke that law which is alike binding on the Muslim and the Christian. Dewa sent off his family by degrees, and as soon as they were out of danger, he saddled his charger, and lance in hand appeared under the balcony where the emperor was seated. “Farewell, king,” said the Rangra; “there are three things your majesty must never ask of a Rajput: his horse, his mistress, and his sword.” He gave his steed the rein, and in safety regained the Patar. Having resigned Bumbaoda to Harraj, he came to Bandunal, the spot where his ancestor Kolan was cured of disease. Here the Minas of the Usara tribe dwelt, under the patriarchal government of Jetha, their chief. There was then no regular city; the extremities of the valley (_thal_[10.1.77]) were closed with barriers of masonry and gates, and the huts of the Minas were scattered wherever their fancy led them to build. At this time the community, which had professed obedience to the Rana on the sack of Chitor, was suffering from the raids of Rao Ganga, the Khichi, who from his castle of Ramgarh (Relawan) imposed '_barchhidohai_'[10.1.78] on all around. To save themselves from Ganga, who used “to drive his lance at the barrier of Bandu,” the Minas entered into terms, agreeing, on the full moon of every second month, to suspend the tribute of the chauth over the barrier. At the appointed time, the Rao came, but no bag of treasure appeared. “Who has been before me?” demanded Ganga; when forth issued the ‘lord of the Patar,’ on the steed coveted by the Lodi king. Ganga of Relawan bestrode a charger not less famed than his antagonist’s, “which owed his birth to the river-horse of the Par, and a mare of the Khichi chieftain’s, as she grazed on its margin.[10.1.79] Mounted on this steed, no obstacle could stop him, and even the Chambal was no impediment to his seizing the tribute at all seasons from the Minas” [459]. The encounter was fierce, but the Hara was victorious, and Ganga turned his back on the lord of the Patar, who tried the mettle of this son of the Par, pursuing him to the banks of the Chambal. What was his surprise, when Ganga sprang from the cliff, and horse and rider disappeared in the flood, but soon to reappear on the opposite bank! Dewa, who stood amazed, no sooner beheld the Rao emerge, than he exclaimed, “Bravo, Rajput! Let me know your name.” “Ganga Khichi,” was the answer. “And mine is Dewa Hara; we are brothers, and must no longer be enemies. Let the river be our boundary.” =The Foundation of Būndi.=—It was in S. 1398 (A.D. 1342)[10.1.80] that Jetha and the Usaras acknowledged Rae Dewa as their lord, who erected Bundi in the centre of the Bandu-ka-Nal, which henceforth became the capital of the Haras. The Chambal, which, for a short time after the adventure here related, continued to be the barrier to the eastward, was soon overpassed, and the bravery of the race bringing them into contact with the emperor’s lieutenants, the Haras rose to favour and power, extending their acquisitions, either by conquest or grant, to the confines of Malwa. The territory thus acquired obtained the geographical designation of Haravati or Haraoti.[10.1.81] ----- Footnote 10.1.1: [The name is said to be derived from that of the Hāra Hūnas or Huns (_IA_, xi. 5) or from Rāo Hado or Harrāj.] Footnote 10.1.2: See Vol. I. p. 112. Footnote 10.1.3: According to Herodotus, the Scythic _sakae_ enumerated eight races with the epithet of royal, and Strabo mentions one of the tribes of the Thyssagetae as boasting the title of Basilii. [Herodotus (iv. 22) speaks of the Thyssagetae, possibly meaning ‘lesser,’ Getae, as contrasted with the Massagetae or ‘greater’ Getae, but he does not call them ‘royal’; and, in any case, they have no connexion with the Rājputs (see Rawlinson, _Herodotus_, 3rd ed. iii. 209).] The Rajputs assert that in ancient times they only enumerated eight royal sakham or branches, namely, Surya, Soma, Haya or Aswa (_qu._ Asi?) Nima, and the four tribes of Agnivansa, namely, Pramara, Parihara, Solanki, and Chauhan. Abulghazi states that the Tatars or Scythians were divided into six grand families. The Rajputs have maintained these ideas, originally brought from the Oxus. Footnote 10.1.4: [The ancient Māhishmati (_IGI_, xvii. 8 ff.). Sahasra or Sahasra Vāhu Arjuna, ‘the thousand-armed,’ of the Haihaya tribe, is the reputed ancestor of the Kalachuris of Chedi (_BG_, i. Part ii. 293, 410; Smith, _EHI_, 394).] Footnote 10.1.5: Or, as the bard says, Daityas, Asuras, and Danavas, or demons and infidels, as they style the Indo-Scythic tribes from the north-west, who paid no respect to the Brahmans. Footnote 10.1.6: Āyudh-guru. [In the previous version (Vol. I. p. 113) the priest is Vasishtha.] Footnote 10.1.7: My last pilgrimage was to Abu. Footnote 10.1.8: [There is no local tradition corroborating the connexion of the Chauhāns with Garha-Mandla, and it is merely a fiction of the Chauhān bards (C. Grant, _Gazetteer Central Provinces_, Introd. i.).] Footnote 10.1.9: [Another title of the Parihār tribal goddess is Chāwanda Māta, whose temple is in the Jodhpur fort (_Census Report, Mārwār_, 1891, ii. 31). In Gujarāt the Jādejas worship Āsāpūrna; the Jhālas Ādya; the Gohils Khodiyār Māta; the Jethvas Vindhyavāsini; the Pramārs Mandavri; the Chāvadas and Vāghelas Chāmunda (_BG_, ix. Part i. 136).] Footnote 10.1.10: It is by no means uncommon for this arrogant priesthood to lay claim to powers co-equal with those of the Divinity, nay, often superior to them. Witness the scene in the Ramayana, where they make the deity a mediator, to entreat the Brahman Vashishta to hearken to King Vishwamitra’s desire for his friendship. Can anything exceed this? Parallel it, perhaps, we may, in that memorable instance of Christian idolatry, where the Almighty is called on to intercede with St. Januarius to perform the annual miracle of liquefying the congealed blood. Footnote 10.1.11: [This is a fiction of the bards, and the S. Indian burial-mounds have no connexion with the Chauhāns (see _IGI_, ii. 94).] Footnote 10.1.12: [This S. Indian Chauhān empire is a fiction, the object being to provide a princely genealogy for the S. Indian royal families (see _BG_, ix. Part i. 484).] Footnote 10.1.13: The Muhammadan writers confirm this account, for in their earliest recorded invasion, in A.H. 143, the princes of Lahore and Ajmer, said to be of the same family, are the great opponents of Islam, and combated its advance in fields west of the Indus. We know beyond a doubt that Ajmer was then the chief seat of Chauhan power. Footnote 10.1.14: The Mallani is (or rather was) one of the Chauhan Sakha and may be the Malloi who opposed Alexander at the confluent arms of the Indus. The tribe is extinct, and was so little known even five centuries ago, that a prince of Bundi, of the Hara tribe, intermarried with a Mallani, the book of genealogical affinities not indicating her being within the prohibited canon. A more skilful bard pointed out the incestuous connexion, when divorce and expiation ensued. _Vide_ p. 1266. Footnote 10.1.15: [When Alāu-d-dīn stormed Asīrgarh in A.D. 1295 it was a Chauhān stronghold. The existence of this Ahīr kingdom rests on the authority of Ferishta (iv. 287). This is doubtful, but it may be based on a line of Ahīr chieftains in the Tapti valley (Russell, _Tribes and Castes, Central Provinces_, ii. 20).] Footnote 10.1.16: All these towns contain remains of antiquity, especially in the district of Dip, Bhojpur, and Bhilsa. Twenty years ago, in one of my journeys, I passed the ruins of Eran, where a superb column stands at the junction of its two streams. It is about thirty feet in height, and is surmounted by a human figure, having a glory round his head; a colossal bull is at the base of the column. I sent a drawing of it to Mr. Colebrooke at the time, but possess no copy. [The Eran pillar was erected A.D. 484-5, as the flag-staff of the four-armed Vishnu, by Budhagupta (Smith, _HFA_, 174, with an illustration; _IGI_, xii. 25).] Footnote 10.1.17: It is indifferently called Ajaimer, and Ajaidurg, the invincible hill (_meru_), or invincible castle (_durg_). Tradition, however, says that the name of this renowned abode, the key of Rajputana, is derived from the humble profession of the young Chauhan, who was a goatherd; _Aja_ meaning ‘a goat’ in Sanskrit; still referring to the original pastoral occupation of the Palis. [Ajmer was founded by Ajayadeva about A.D. 1100.] Footnote 10.1.18: I obtained at Ajmer and at Pushkar several very valuable medals, Bactrian, Indo-Scythic, and Hindu, having the ancient Pali on one side, and the effigy of a horse on the other. Footnote 10.1.19: [Umar-bin-Khaltāb, the second Khalīfa (A.D. 634-44). The “Abul Aas” of the original text possibly represents Abu-l-lais, “the ancestor of the Laisi Sayyids, Abu-l-lais-i-Hindi, who is mentioned in the _Chachnāmah_, who came into Sind with the Arabs, and was present at the battle in which Rāja Dāhir was slain” (C. Raverty, _Notes on Afghanistan_, 1888, p. 671, note).] Footnote 10.1.20: “_Samvat sāt sau iktālīs Mālat bāli bes Sāmbhar āya tūti sarasē Mānik Rāē, Narēs._” [This quotation is so incorrect that neither Dr. Tessitori nor Major Luard’s Pandit is able to restore it. The latter cannot make any sense of the second line. The date is impossible.] Footnote 10.1.21: An inscription on the pillar at Firoz Shāh’s palace at Delhi, belonging to this family, in which the word _sākambhari_ occurs, gave rise to many ingenious conjectures by Sir W. Jones, Mr. Colebrooke, and Colonel Wilford. Footnote 10.1.22: Called Khichkot by Babur. Footnote 10.1.23: [The Bhaurecha and Bāghrecha do not appear in modern lists of the Chauhān clans (_Census Report Rājputāna_, 1911, _i._ 255 f.).] Footnote 10.1.24: In the Annals of Marwar it will be shown, that the Rathors conquered Nagor, or Naga-durg (the ‘serpent’s castle’), from the Mohils, who held fourteen hundred and forty villages so late as the fifteenth century. So many of the colonies of Agnikulas bestowed the name of serpent on their settlements, that I am convinced all were of the Tak, Takshak, or Nagvansa race from Sakadwipa, who, six centuries anterior to Vikramaditya, under their leader Seshnaga, conquered India, and whose era must be the limit of Agnikula antiquity [?]. Footnote 10.1.25: The importance of Nadol was considerable, and is fully attested by existing inscriptions as well as by the domestic chronicle. Midway from the founder, in the eighth century, to its destruction in the twelfth, was Rao Lakhan, who in S. 1039 (A.D. 983) successfully coped with the princes of Nahrvala. “_Samaya das sai unchālīs Bār ikauta, Pātan pela paul Dān Chauhān ugāvi Mēwār Dhanni dand bhari Tis par Rāo Lākhan thappi Jo arambha, so kari._” Literally: “In S. 1039, at the farther gate of the city of Pātan, the Chauhān collected the commercial duties (_dān_). He took tribute from the lord of Mēwār, and performed whatever he had a mind to.” [This verse is so corrupt that Dr. Tessitori has been unable to correct it.] Lakhan drew upon him the arms of Sabuktigin, and his son Mahmud, when Nadol was stripped of its consequence; its temples were thrown down, and its fortress was dilapidated. But it had recovered much of its power, and even sent forth several branches, who all fell under Alau-d-din in the thirteenth century. On the final conquest of India by Shihabu-d-din, the prince of Nadol appears to have effected a compromise, and to have become a vassal of the empire. This conjecture arises from the singularity of its currency, which retains on the one side the names in Sanskrit of its indigenous princes, and on the other that of the conqueror. Footnote 10.1.26: [Vighraharāja, or Vīsaladeva, who is said, with doubtful truth, to have wrested Delhi from the Tomaras (Smith, _EHI_, 387).] Footnote 10.1.27: Harsraj and Bijai Raj were sons of Ajaipal, king of Ajmer, according to the chronicle. Footnote 10.1.28: ['Destroyer of foes.'] Footnote 10.1.29: This is a very important admission of Ferishta, concerning the proselytism of all these tribes, and confirms my hypothesis, that the Afghans are converted Jadons or Yadus, not Yahudis, or Jews. [The extract in the text is an inaccurate abstract of Ferishta’s statement (i. 7 f.). The Gaur Rājputs have no connexion with Ghor.] The Gaur is also a well-known Rajput tribe, and they had only to convert it into Ghor. _Vide_ Annals of the Bhattis. Footnote 10.1.30: [The account of Ferishta (i. 69) lacks confirmation: see Elliot-Dowson ii. 434 ff.] Footnote 10.1.31: The classical mode of writing the name of Bisaldeo. Footnote 10.1.32: _Chattispun._ Footnote 10.1.33: It is related by the Rajput romancers that Guga had no children; that lamenting this his guardian deity gave him two barley-corns (_java_ or _jau_), one of which he gave to his queen, another to his favourite mare, which produced the steed (Javadia) which became as famous as Guga himself. The Rana of Udaipur gave the Author a blood-horse at Kathiawar, whose name was Javadia. Though a lamb in disposition, when mounted he was a piece of fire, and admirably broken in to all the manège exercise. A more perfect animal never existed. The Author brought him, with another (Mirgraj), from Udaipur to the ocean, intending to bring them home; but the grey he gave to a friend, and fearful of the voyage, he sent Javadia back six hundred miles to the Rana, requesting “he might be the first worshipped on the annual military festival”: a request which he doubts not was complied with. Footnote 10.1.34: See note, p. 1450, for remarks on Nadol, whence the author obtained much valuable matter, consisting of coins, inscriptions on stone and copper, and MSS., when on a visit to this ancient city in 1821. Footnote 10.1.35: We have abundant checks, which, could they have been detailed in the earlier stage of inquiry into Hindu literature, would have excited more interest for the hero whose column at Delhi has excited the inquiries of Jones, Wilford, and Colebrooke. Footnote 10.1.36: This lake still bears the name of Bisal-ka-tal notwithstanding the changes which have accrued during a lapse of one thousand years, since he formed it by damming up the springs. [About A.D. 1150 (Watson i. A. 50).] It is one of the reservoirs of the Luni river. The emperor Jahangir erected a palace on the bank of the Bisla Talao, in which he received the ambassador of James I. of England. Footnote 10.1.37: This shows that the Parihars were subordinate to the Chauhans of Ajmer. Footnote 10.1.38: The respectful mention of the Guhilot as ‘the ornament of the throng,’ clearly proves that the Chitor prince came as an ally. How rejoicing to an antiquary to find this confirmed by an inscription found amidst the ruins of a city of Mewar, which alludes to this very coalition! The inscription is a record of the friendship maintained by their issue in the twelfth century—Samarsi of Chitor, and Prithiraj the last Chauhan king of India—on their combining to chastise the king of Patan Anhilwara, “in like manner as did Bisaldeo and Tejsi of old unite against the foe, so,” etc. etc. Now Tejsi was the grandfather of Rawal Samarsi, who was killed in opposing the final Muslim invasion, on the Ghaggar, after one of the longest reigns in their annals: from which we calculate that Tejsi must have sat on the throne about the year S. 1120 (A.D. 1064). [Tej Singh is mentioned in inscriptions of A.D. 1260, 1265, 1267 (Erskine ii. B. 10).] His youth and inexperience would account for his acting subordinately to the Chauhan of Ajmer. The name of Udayaditya further confirms the date, as will be mentioned in the text. His date has been fully settled by various inscriptions found by the author. (See _Transactions Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 223.) Footnote 10.1.39: This Tuar must have been one of the Delhi vassals, whose monarch was of this race. Footnote 10.1.40: The Gaur was a celebrated tribe, and amongst the most illustrious of the Chauhan feudatories; a branch until a few years ago held Sui-Supar and about nine lakhs of territory. I have no doubt the Gaur appanage was west of the Indus, and that this tribe on conversion became the Ghor [?]. Footnote 10.1.41: The Meo race of Mewat is well known; all are Muhammadans now. Footnote 10.1.42: The Mohils have been sufficiently discussed. Footnote 10.1.43: The Baloch was evidently Hindu at this time; and as I have repeatedly said, of Jat or Gete origin. Footnote 10.1.44: ‘The lord of Bamani,’ in other places called Bamanwasa, must apply to the ancient Bahmanabad, or Dewal, on whose site the modern Tatta is built. [See Smith, _EHI_, 103.] Footnote 10.1.45: See Annals of Jaisalmer. Footnote 10.1.46: All this evinces supremacy over the princes of this region: the Sodha, the Samma, and Sumra. Footnote 10.1.47: Of Derawar we have spoken in the text. Footnote 10.1.48: Malanwas we know not. Footnote 10.1.49: The Moris, the Kachhwahas and Bargujars require no further notice. [Antarved, the Ganges-Jumna Duāb.] Footnote 10.1.50: The Meras inhabited the Aravalli. Footnote 10.1.51: Takatpur is the modern Toda, near Tonk, where there are fine remains. Footnote 10.1.52: Udayaditya, now a landmark in Hindu history. Footnote 10.1.53: See Annals of Shaikhavati for the Nirwans, who held Khandela as a fief of Ajmer. Footnote 10.1.54: The Dor and Chandel were well-known tribes; the latter contended with Prithiraj, who deprived them of Mahoba and Kalanjar, and all modern Bundelkhand. Footnote 10.1.55: The renowned Dahima was lord of Bayana; also called Druinadhar. [The ancient name was Srīpathā (_IGI_, vii. 137). This catalogue of the chiefs is the work of the Chauhān bard, desirous of exalting the dignity of his tribe, and is not historical.] Footnote 10.1.56: [These statements regarding the Chauhān dynasty are inconsistent with the Bijolli inscription, and Cunningham (_ASR_, i. 157) finds it impossible to make any satisfactory arrangement, either of the names of the princes, or of the length of their reigns. The facts, as far as they can be ascertained, are given by Smith (_EHI_, 386 ff.). Cunningham (_op. cit._ ii. 256) points out the author twice ignores the date of A.D. 1163 of Vīsaladeva on the Delhi pillar, to make him an opponent of Mahmūd in the beginning of the eleventh century. “In one place he gives to Hansrāj, whom the Hāra bard assigns to the year A.D. 770, the honour of conquering Sabuktigīn, which in another place he gives to his successor Dujgandeo.” He concludes that the chief cause of error is the identification of two different princes of the name of Vīsaladeva as one person. For his discussion see _ASR_, ii. 256 f.] Footnote 10.1.57: See _Asiatic Researches_, vol. i. p. 379, vol. vii. p. 180, and vol. ix. p. 453. [Nigambhod Ghāt is immediately outside the north wall of Shāhjahānābād, and above, not below, the city of Delhi (_ASR_, i. 136, 161, 164).] Footnote 10.1.58: I brought away an inscription of this, the last Chauhan emperor, from the ruins of his palace at Hasi or Hansi, dated S. 1224. See comments thereon, _Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 133. Footnote 10.1.59: These inscriptions, while they have given rise to ingenious interpretations, demonstrate the little value of mere translations, even when made by first-rate scholars, who possess no historical knowledge of the tribes to whom they refer. This inscription was first translated by Sir W. Jones in 1784 (_Asiatic Researches_, vol. i.). A fresh version (from a fresh transcript I believe) was made by Mr. Colebrooke in 1800 (_Asiatic Researches_, vol. vii.), but rather darkening than enlightening the subject, from attending to his pandit’s emendation, giving to the prince’s name and tribe a metaphorical interpretation. Nor was it till Wilford had published his hodge-podge Essay on Vikramaditya and Salivahana, that Mr. Colebrooke discovered his error, and amended it in a note to that volume; but even then, without rendering the inscription useful as a historical document. I call Wilford’s essay a hodge-podge advisedly. It is a paper of immense research; vast materials are brought to his task, but he had an hypothesis, and all was confounded to suit it. Chauhans, Solankis, Guhilots, all are amalgamated in his crucible. It was from the Sarangadhar Padhati, written by the bard of Hamira Chauhan, not king of Mewar (as Wilford has it), but of Ranthambhor, lineally descended from Visaladeva, and slain by Alau-d-din. Sarangadhar was also author of the Hamir Raesa, and the Hamir Kavya, bearing this prince’s name, the essence of both of which I translated with the aid of my Guru. [For these works see Grierson, _Modern Literature of Hindustan_, 6.] I was long bewildered in my admiration of Wilford’s researches; but experience inspired distrust, and I adopted the useful adage in all these matters, '_nil admirari_.' [Cunningham, while admitting the wild speculations of Wilford, says that important facts and classical references are to be found in his Essays (_ASR_, i. Introd. xviii. note).] Footnote 10.1.60: See _Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 133. Footnote 10.1.61: See Annals of Jaisalmer, for foundation of Derawar, Vol. II. p. 1196. Footnote 10.1.62: In transcribing the Annals of the Khichis, an important branch of the Chauhans, their bards have preserved this passage; but ignorant of Derawar and Lodorva (both preserved in my version of Chand), they have inserted Jaisalmer. By such anachronisms, arising from the emendations of ignorant bards, their poetic chronicles have lost half their value. To me the comparison of such passages, preserved in Chand from the older bards, and distorted by the moderns, was a subject of considerable pleasure. It reconciled much that I might have thrown away, teaching me the difference between absolute invention, and ignorance creating errors in the attempt to correct them. The Khichi bard, no doubt, thought he was doing right when he erased Derawar and inscribed Jaisalmer. Footnote 10.1.63: [The correct dates are as follows: Vīsaladeva, middle of 12th century A.D. (Smith, _EHI_, 386); Jayapāla of Delhi succeeded 1005 (_ASR_, i. 149); Durlabha Chaulukya and Bhīma, respectively 1010-22, 1022-64 (_BG_, i. Part i. 1626); Tej Singh or Tejsi, Rāwal of Chitor about 1260-67 (Erskine ii. B. 10); Bhoja of Mālwa, 1018-60 (Smith, _EHI_, 395).] Footnote 10.1.64: This town—another proof of the veracity of the chronicle—yet exists in Northern Gujarat. [15 miles N. of Baroda. It is doubtful if it takes its name from Vīsaladeva of Delhi. At any rate, it is said to have been restored by Vīsaladeva Vāghela (A.D. 1243-61) (_BG_, i. Part i. 203).] Footnote 10.1.65: [See p. 1328.] The pickaxe, if applied to this mound (which gives its name to Dhundhar), might possibly show it to be a place of sepulture, and that the Chauhans, even to this period, may have entombed at least the bones of their dead. The numerous tumuli about Haidarabad, the ancient Gualkund, one of the royal abodes of the Chauhans, may be sepultures of this race, and the arms and vases they contain all strengthen my hypothesis of their Scythic origin. [See p. 1445.] Footnote 10.1.66: [Grierson, _Modern Literature of Hindustan_, 143, 164.] Footnote 10.1.67: Or, as the story goes, his limbs, which lay dissevered, were collected by Surabhi, and the goddess sprinkling them with ‘the water of life,’ he arose! Hence the name Hara, which his descendants bore, from _har_, or ‘bones,’ thus collected; but more likely from having lost (_hara_) Asi. [See p. 1441.] Footnote 10.1.68: The Hara chronicle says S. 981, but by some strange, yet uniform error, all the tribes of the Chauhans antedate their chronicles by a hundred years. Thus Bisaldeo’s taking possession of Anhilpar Patan is “nine hundred, fifty, thirty and six” (S. 986), instead of S. 1086. But it even pervades Chand the poet of Prithiraj, whose birth is made 1115, instead of S. 1215; and here, in all probability, the error commenced, by the ignorance (wilful we cannot imagine) of some rhymer. Footnote 10.1.69: ‘The elephant wilds.’ [Skt. _kunjari_, ‘a female elephant,’ _vana_, Hindi _ban_, ‘forest.’] They assert that Ghazni is properly Gajni, founded by the Yadus: and in a curious specimen of Hindu geography (presented by me to the Royal Asiatic Society), all the tract about the glaciers of the Ganges is termed Kujliban, the ‘Elephant Forest.’ There is a Gajangarh mentioned by Abul-i-fazl in the region of Bajaur, inhabited by the Sultana, Jadon, and Yusufzai tribes. [This place does not appear in Jarrett’s translation of the _Āīn_, ii. 391 f.] Footnote 10.1.70: See Ferishta i. 75 f. [Mahmūd never reached Golkonda.] Footnote 10.1.71: [Horses from the Lākhi jungle; see Vol. II. p. 1156.] Footnote 10.1.72: Jangales, ‘lord of the forest lands,’ another of Prithiraj’s titles. Footnote 10.1.73: ‘The lord of Kedar,’ the gigantic _pine_ of the Himalaya, a title of Siva. [Kedārnāth in Garhwāl District. The derivation of Kedār is unknown: it certainly does not mean ‘pine or cedar.’] Footnote 10.1.74: He bestowed in appanage on his brother Kankhalji a tenth of the lands in his possession. From Kankhal are descended the class of Bhats, called Kroria Bhat. Footnote 10.1.75: Harraj had twelve sons, the eldest of whom was Alu, who succeeded to Bumbaoda. Alu Hara’s name will never die as long as one of his race inhabits the Patar; and there are many Bhumias descended from him still holding lands, as the Kumbhawat and Bhojawat Haras. The end of Alu Hara, and the destruction of Bumbaoda (which the author has visited), will be related in the Personal Narrative. Footnote 10.1.76: [A.D. 1489-1517.] Footnote 10.1.77: Thal and Nal are both terms for a valley, though the latter is oftener applied to a defile. Footnote 10.1.78: [The ‘appeal to the spear.’] Footnote 10.1.79: The Par, or Parbati River, flows near Ramgarh Relawan.—See Map. Footnote 10.1.80: [This conflicts with the statement above that Rāo Dewa reigned in the time of Sikandar Lodi.] Footnote 10.1.81: In Muhammadan authors, Hādāoti. (_Āīn_, ii. 271.) ----- CHAPTER 2 =Recapitulation of Hāra History.=—Having sketched the history of this race, from the regeneration of Anhal,[10.2.1] the first Chauhan (at a period which it is impossible to fix), to the establishment of the first Hara prince in Bundi, we shall here recapitulate the most conspicuous princes, with [460] their dates, as established by synchronical events in the annals of other States, or by inscriptions; and then proceed with the history of the Haras as members of the great commonwealth of India. Anuraj, obtained Asi or Hansi. Ishtpal, son of Anuraj; he was expelled from Asi, S. 1081 (A.D. 1025), and obtained Asir. He was founder of the Haras; the chronicle says not how long after obtaining Asi, but evidently very soon. Hamir, killed in the battle of the Ghaggar, on the invasion of Shihabu-d-din, S. 1249, or A.D. 1193. Rao Chand, slain in Asir, by Alau-d-din, in S. 1351. Rainsi, fled from Asir, and came to Mewar, and in S. 1353 obtained Bhainsror. Rao Banga, obtained Bumbaoda, Menal, etc. Rao Dewa, S. 1398 (A.D. 1342), took the Bandu valley from the Minas, founded the city of Bundi, and styled the country Haravati. Rao Dewa, whose Mina subjects far outnumbered his Haras, had recourse, in order to consolidate his authority, to one of those barbarous acts too common in Rajput conquests. The Rajput chronicler so far palliates the deed, that he assigns a reason for it, namely, the insolence of the Mina leader, who dared to ask a daughter of the ‘lord of the Patar.’ Be this as it may, he called in the aid of the Haras of Bumbaoda and the Solankis of Toda, and almost annihilated the Usaras. =Abdication of Rāo Dewa.=—How long it was after this act of barbarity that Dewa abdicated in favour of his son, is not mentioned, though it is far from improbable that this crime influenced his determination. This was the second time of his abdication of power: first, when he gave Bumbaoda to Harraj, and went to Sikandar Lodi; and now to Samarsi, the branches of Bundi and the Patar remaining independent of each other. The act of abdication confers the title of Jugraj;[10.2.2] or when they conjoin the authority of the son with the father, the heir is styled Jivaraj. Four instances of this are on record in the annals of Bundi; namely, by Dewa, by Narayandas, by Raj Chhattar Sal, and by Sriji Ummed Singh. It is a rule for a prince never to enter the capital after abandoning the government; the king is virtually defunct; he cannot be a subject, and he is no longer a king. To render the act more impressive, they make an effigy of the abdicated king, and on the twelfth day following the act (being the usual period of [461] mourning) they commit it to the flames.[10.2.3] In accordance with this custom, Dewa never afterwards entered the walls either of Bundi or Bumbaoda,[10.2.4] but resided at the village of Umarthuna, five coss from the former, till his death. =Rāo Napuji.=—Samarsi had three sons: 1. Napuji, who succeeded; 2. Harpal, who obtained Jajawar, and left numerous issue, called Harpalpotas; and 3. Jethsi, who had the honour of first extending the Hara name beyond the Chambal. On his return from a visit to the Tuar chief of Kaithan, he passed the residence of a community of Bhils, in an extensive ravine near the river. Taking them by surprise, he attacked them, and they fell victims to the fury of the Haras. At the entrance of this ravine, which was defended by an outwork, Jethsi slew the leader of the Bhils, and erected there a _hathi_ (elephant) to the god of battle, Bhairon. He stands on the spot called Char-jhopra, near the chief portal of the castle of Kotah, a name derived from a community of Bhils called Kotia.[10.2.5] =Napuji.=—Napuji, a name of no small note in the chronicles of Haravati, succeeded Samarsi. Napuji had married a daughter of the Solanki, chief of Toda,[10.2.6] the lineal descendant of the ancient kings of Anhilwara. While on a visit to Toda, a slab of beautiful marble attracted the regard of the Hara Rao, who desired his bride to ask it of her father. His delicacy was offended, and he replied, “he supposed the Hara would next ask him for his wife”; and desired him to depart. Napuji was incensed, and visited his anger upon his wife, whom he treated with neglect and even banished from his bed. She complained to her father. On the Kajri Tij, the joyous third of the [462] month Sawan, when a Rajput must visit his wife, the vassals of Bundi were dismissed to their homes to keep the festival sacred to ‘the mother of births.’ The Toda Rao, taking advantage of the unguarded state of Bundi, obtained admittance by stealth, and drove his lance through the head of the Hara Rao. He retired without observation, and was relating to his attendants the success of his revenge, when, at this moment, they passed one of the Bundi vassals, who, seated in a hollow taking his _amal-pani_ (opium-water), was meditating on the folly of going home, where no endearing caresses awaited him from his wife, who was deranged, and had determined to return to Bundi. While thus absorbed in gloomy reflections, the trampling of horses met his ear, and soon was heard the indecent mirth of the Toda Rao’s party, at the Hara Rao dismissing his vassals and remaining unattended. The Chauhan guessed the rest, and as the Toda Rao passed close to him, he levelled a blow, which severed his right arm from his body and brought him from his horse. The Solanki’s attendants took to flight, and the Chauhan put the severed limb, on which was the golden bracelet, in his scarf, and proceeded back to Bundi. Here all was confusion and sorrow. The Solanki queen, true to her faith, determined to mount the pyre with the murdered body of her lord; yet equally true to the line whence she sprung, was praising the vigour of her brother’s arm, “which had made so many mouths,[10.2.7] that she wanted hands to present a pan to each.” At the moment she was apostrophizing the dead body of her lord, his faithful vassal entered, and undoing the scarf presented to her the dissevered arm, saying, “Perhaps this may aid you.” She recognized the bracelet, and though, as a Sati, she had done with this world, and should die in peace with all mankind, she could not forget, even at that dread moment, that “to revenge a feud” was the first of all duties. She called for pen and ink, and before mounting the pyre wrote to her brother, that if he did not wipe off that disgrace, his seed would be stigmatized as the issue of “the one-handed Solanki.” When he perused the dying words of his Sati sister, he was stung to the soul, and being incapable of revenge, immediately dashed out his brains against a pillar of the hall. =Hamuji. Alu.=—Napuji had four sons, Hamuji, Naurang (whose descendants are Naurangpotas), Tharad (whose descendants are Tharad Haras), and Hamu, who succeeded in S. 1440. We have already mentioned the separation of the branches, when Harraj retained Bumbaoda, at the period when his father established himself at Bundi. Alu Hara [463] succeeded; but the lord of the Patar had a feud with the Rana, and he was dispossessed of his birthright. Bumbaoda was levelled, and he left no heirs to his revenge. =Mewār attempts to regain Influence in Būndi.=—The princes of Chitor, who had recovered from the shock of Ala’s invasion, now re-exerted their strength, the first act of which was the reduction of the power of the great vassals, who had taken advantage of their distresses to render themselves independent: among these they included the Haras. But the Haras deny their vassalage, and allege, that though they always acknowledged the supremacy of the _gaddi_ of Mewar, they were indebted to their swords, not his _pattas_, for the lands they conquered on the Alpine Patar. Both to a certain degree are right. There is no room to doubt that the fugitive Hara from Asir owed his preservation, as well as his establishment, to the Rana, who assuredly possessed the whole of the Plateau till Ala’s invasion. But then the Sesodia power was weakened; the Bhumias and aboriginal tribes recovered their old retreats, and from these the Haras obtained them by conquest. The Rana, however, who would not admit that a temporary abeyance of his power sanctioned any encroachment upon it, called upon Hamu “to do service for Bundi.” The Hara conceded personal homage in the grand festivals of the Dasahra and Holi, to acknowledge his supremacy and receive the _tika_ of installation; but he rejected at once the claim of unlimited attendance. Nothing less, however, would satisfy the king of Chitor, who resolved to compel submission, or drive the stock of Dewa from the Patar. Hamu defied, and determined to brave, his resentment. The Rana of Mewar marched with all his vassals to Bundi, and encamped at Nimera, only a few miles from the city. Five hundred Haras, ‘the sons of one father,’ put on the saffron robe, and rallied round their chief, determined to die with him. Having no hope but from an effort of despair, they marched out at midnight, and fell upon the Rana’s camp, which was completely surprised; and each Sesodia sought safety in flight. Hamu made his way direct to the tent of Hindupati;[10.2.8] but the sovereign of the Sesodias was glad to avail himself of the gloom and confusion to seek shelter in Chitor, while his vassals fell under the swords of the Haras. Humiliated, disgraced, and enraged at being thus foiled by a handful of men, the Rana re-formed his troops under the walls of Chitor, and swore he would not eat until he was master of Bundi. The rash vow went round; but Bundi was sixty miles distant, and defended by brave hearts. His chiefs expostulated with the Rana on the absolute impossibility of redeeming his vow; but the words of kings are sacred: Bundi must fall, ere the king of the Guhilots could dine. In this exigence, a childish [464] expedient was proposed to release him from hunger and his oath; “to erect a mock Bundi and take it by storm.”[10.2.9] Instantly the mimic town arose under the walls of Chitor; and, that the deception might be complete, the local nomenclature was attended to, and each quarter had its appropriate appellation. A band of Haras of the Patar were in the service of Chitor, whose leader, Kumbha-Bersi, was returning with his kin from hunting the deer, when their attention was attracted by this strange bustle. The story was soon told, that Bundi must fall ere the Rana could dine. Kumbha assembled his brethren of the Patar, declaring that even the mock Bundi must be defended. All felt the indignity to the clan, and each bosom burning with indignation, they prepared to protect the mud walls of the pseudo Bundi from insult. It was reported to the Rana that Bundi was finished. He advanced to the storm: but what was his surprise when, instead of the blank-cartridge, he heard a volley of balls whiz amongst them! A messenger was dispatched, and was received by Bersi at the gate, who explained the cause of the unexpected salutation, desiring him to tell the Rana that “not even the mock capital of a Hara should be dishonoured.” Spreading a sheet at the little gateway, Bersi and the Kumbhawats invited the assault, and at the threshold of “Gar-ki-Bundi” (the Bundi of clay) they gave up their lives for the honour of the race.[10.2.10] The Rana wisely remained satisfied with this salvo to his dignity, nor sought any further to wipe off the disgrace incurred at the real capital of the Haras, perceiving the impolicy of driving such a daring clan to desperation, whose services he could command on an emergency. =Rāo Bīr Singh.=—Hamu, who ruled sixteen years, left two sons: 1. Birsingh; and 2. Lala, who obtained Khatkar, and had two sons, Nauvarma and Jetha, each of whom left clans called after them Nauvarma-pota and Jethawat. Birsingh ruled fifteen years, and left three sons: Biru, Jabdu, who founded three tribes,[10.2.11] and Nima, descendants Nimawats. Biru, who died S. 1526, ruled fifty years, and had seven sons: 1. Rao Bandu; 2. Sanda; 3. Aka; 4. Uda; 5. Chanda; 6. Samarsingh; 7. Amarsingh;—the first five founded clans named after them Akawat, Udawat, Chondawat, but the last two abandoned their faith for that of Islam [465]. =Rāo Banda, _c._ A.D. 1485.=—Banda has left a deathless name in Rajwara for his boundless charities, more especially during the famine which desolated that country in S. 1542 (A.D. 1486).[10.2.12] He was forewarned, says the bard, in a vision, of the visitation. Kal (Time or the famine personified) appeared riding on a lean black buffalo. Grasping his sword and shield, the intrepid Hara assaulted the apparition. “Bravo, Banda Hara,” it exclaimed; “I am Kal (Time); on me your sword will fall in vain. Yet you are the only mortal who ever dared to oppose me. Now listen: I am Byalis (forty-two); the land will become a desert; fill your granaries, distribute liberally, they will never empty.” Thus saying, the spectre vanished. Rao Banda obeyed the injunction; he collected grain from every surrounding State. One year passed and another had almost followed, when the periodical rains ceased, and a famine ensued which ravaged all India. Princes far and near sent for aid to Bundi, while his own poor had daily portions served out gratis: which practice is still kept up in memory of Rao Banda, by the name of Langar-ki-gagari, or ‘anchor of Banda.’[10.2.13] But the piety and charity of Rao Banda could not shield him from adversity. His two youngest brothers, urged by the temptation of power, abandoned their faith, and with the aid of the royal power expelled him from Bundi, where, under their new titles of Samarkandi and Amarkandi, they jointly ruled eleven years. Banda retired to Matunda, in the hills, where he died after a reign of twenty-one years, and where his cenotaph still remains. He left two sons: 1. Narayandas; and 2. Nirbudh, who had Matunda. =Rāo Nārāyandās.=—Narayan had grown up to manhood in this retreat; but no sooner was he at liberty to act for himself, than he assembled the Haras of the Patar, and revealed his determination to obtain Bundi, or perish in the attempt. They swore to abide his fortunes. After the days of _matam_ (mourning) were over, he sent to his Islamite uncles a complimentary message, intimating his wish to pay his respects to them; and not suspecting danger from a youth brought up in obscurity, it was signified that he might come. With a small but devoted band, he reached the _chauk_ (square), where he left his adherents, and alone repaired to the palace. He ascended to where both the uncles were seated almost unattended. They liked not the resolute demeanour of the youth, and tried to gain a passage which led to a subterranean apartment; but no sooner was this intention perceived, than the _khanda_, or ‘double-edged sword,’ of Banda’s son cut the elder to the ground, while his lance reached the other before he got to a [466] place of security. In an instant, he severed both their heads, with which he graced the shrine of Bhavani, and giving a shout to his followers in the _chauk_, their swords were soon at work upon the Muslims. Every true Hara supported the just cause, and the dead bodies of the apostates and their crew were hurled with ignominy over the walls. To commemorate this exploit and the recovery of Bundi from these traitors, the pillar on which the sword of the young Hara descended, when he struck down Samarkandi, and which bears testimony to the vigour of his arm, is annually worshipped by every Hara on the festival of the Dasahra.[10.2.14] Narayandas became celebrated for his strength and prowess. He was one of those undaunted Rajputs who are absolutely strangers to the impression of fear, and it might be said of danger and himself, “that they were brothers whelped the same day, and he the elder.” Unfortunately, these qualities were rendered inert from the enormous quantity of opium he took, which would have killed most men; for it is recorded “he could at one time eat the weight of seven pice.”[10.2.15] The consequence of this vice, as might be expected, was a constant stupefaction, of which many anecdotes are related. Being called to aid the Rana Raemall, then attacked by the Pathans of Mandu, he set out at the head of five hundred select Haras. On the first day’s march he was taking his siesta, after his usual dose, under a tree, his mouth wide open, into which the flies had unmolested ingress, when a young Telin[10.2.16] came to draw water at the well, and on learning that this was Bundi’s prince on his way to aid the Rana in his distress, she observed, “If he gets no other aid than his, alas for my prince!” “The _amaldar_ (opium-eater) has quick ears, though no eyes,” is a common adage in Rajwara. “What is that you say, _rand_ (widow)?” roared the Rao, advancing to her. Upon her endeavouring to excuse herself, he observed, “Do not fear, but repeat it.” In her hand she had an iron crowbar, which the Rao, taking it from her, twisted until the ends met round her neck. “Wear this garland for me,” said he, “until I return from aiding the Rana, unless in the interim you can find some one strong enough to unbind it.” =The Siege of Chitor.=—Chitor was closely invested; the Rao moved by the intricacies of the Patar, took the royal camp by surprise, and made direct for the tent of the generalissimo, cutting down all in his way. Confusion and panic seized the Muslims, who fled in [467] all directions.[10.2.17] The Bundi nakkaras (drums) struck up; and as the morning broke, the besieged had the satisfaction to behold the invaders dispersed and their auxiliaries at hand. Rana Raemall came forth, and conducted his deliverer in triumph to Chitor. All the chiefs assembled to do honour to Bundi’s prince, and the ladies ‘behind the curtain’ felt so little alarm at their opium-eating knight, that the Rana’s niece determined to espouse him, and next day communicated her intentions to the Rana. ‘The slave of Narayan'’ was too courteous a cavalier to let any fair lady die for his love; the Rana was too sensible of his obligation not to hail with joy any mode of testifying his gratitude, and the nuptials of the Hara and Ketu were celebrated with pomp. With victory and his bride, he returned to the Banda valley; where, however, ‘the flower of gloomy Dis’ soon gained the ascendant even over Kamdeo,[10.2.18] and his doses augmented to such a degree, that “he scratched his lady instead of himself, and with such severity that he marred the beauty of the Mewari.” In the morning, perceiving what had happened, yet being assailed with no reproach, he gained a reluctant victory over himself, and “consigned the opium-box to her keeping.” Narayandas ruled thirty-two years, and left his country in tranquillity, and much extended, to his only son. =Rāo Sūrajmall, _c._ A.D. 1533.=—Surajmall ascended the gaddi in S. 1590 (A.D. 1534). Like his father, he was athletic in form and dauntless in soul; and it is said possessed in an eminent degree that unerring sign of a hero, long arms, his (like those of Rama and Prithiraj) “reaching far below his knees.” The alliance with Chitor was again cemented by intermarriage. Suja Bai, sister to Surajmall, was espoused by Rana Ratna, who bestowed his own sister on the Rao. Rao Suja, like his father, was too partial to his _amal_. One day, at Chitor, he had fallen asleep in the Presence, when a Purbia chief felt an irresistible inclination to disturb him, and “tickled the Hara’s ear with a straw.” He might as well have jested with a tiger: a back stroke with his _khanda_ stretched the insulter on the carpet. The son of the Purbia treasured up the feud, and waited for revenge, which he effected by making the Rana believe the Rao had other objects in view, besides visiting his sister Suja Bai, at the Rawala. The train thus laid, the slightest incident inflamed it. The fair Suja had prepared a repast, to which she invited both her brother and her husband: she had not only attended the culinary process herself, but waited on these objects of her love to drive the flies from the food. Though the wedded fair of Rajputana clings to the husband, yet she is ever more solicitous for [468] the honour of the house from whence she sprung, than that into which she has been admitted; which feeling has engendered numerous quarrels. Unhappily, Suja remarked, on removing the dishes, that “her brother had devoured his share like a tiger, while her husband had played with his like a child (_balak_).” The expression, added to other insults which he fancied were put upon him, cost the Rao his life, and sent the fair Suja an untimely victim to Indraloka.[10.2.19] The dictates of hospitality prevented the Rana from noticing the remark at the moment, and in fact it was more accordant with the general tenor of his character to revenge the affront with greater security than even the isolated situation of the brave Hara afforded him. On the latter taking leave, the Rana invited himself to hunt on the next spring festival in the _ramnas_ or preserves of Bundi. The merry month of Phalgun arrived; the Rana and his court prepared their suits of _amaua_ (green), and ascended the Patar on the road to Bundi, in spite of the anathema of the prophetic Sati, who, as she ascended the pyre at Bumbaoda, pronounced that whenever Rao and Rana met to hunt together at the Aheria, such meeting, which had blasted all her hopes, would always be fatal. But centuries had rolled between the denunciation of the daughter of Alu Hara and Suja Bai of Bundi; and the prophecy, though in every mouth, served merely to amuse the leisure hour; the moral being forgotten it was only looked upon as ‘a tale that was past.’ =Murder of Rāo Sūrajmall.=—The scene chosen for the sport was on the heights of Nanta, not far from the western bank of the Chambal, in whose glades every species of game, from the lordly lion to the timid hare, abounded. The troops were formed into lines, advancing through the jungles with the customary noise and clamour, and driving before them a promiscuous herd of tenants of the forest—lions, tigers, hyenas, bears, every species of deer, from the enormous barahsinghae and nilgae[10.2.20] to the delicate antelope, with jackals, foxes, hares, and the little wild dog. In such an animated scene as this, the Rajput forgets even his opium; he requires no exhilaration beyond the stimulus before him; a species of petty war, not altogether free from danger. It was amidst the confusion of such a scene that the dastard Rana determined to gratify his malice. The princes had convenient stations assigned them, where they could securely assail the game as it passed, each having but one or two confidential attendants. With the Rana was the Iago of his revenge, the son of the Purbia, whom the Hara prince had slain. “Now is the moment,” said the Rana to his companion, “to slay the boar,” and instantly an arrow from the bow of the Purbia was [469] sped at the Rao. “With an eagle’s eye he saw it coming, and turned it off with his bow.” This might have been chance, but another from the foster-brother of the Rana convinced him there was treachery. Scarcely had he warded off the second, when the Rana darted at him on horseback, and cut him down with his _khanda_. The Rao fell, but recovering, took his shawl and tightly bound up the wound, and as his foe was making off he called aloud, “Escape you may, but you have sunk Mewar.” The Purbia, who followed his prince, when he saw the Rao bind up his wound, said, “The work is but half done”; and like a coward, Ratna once more charged the wounded Rao. As his arm was raised to finish the deed of shame, like a wounded tiger the Hara made a dying effort, caught the assassin by the robe, and dragged him from his steed. Together they came to the ground, the Rana underneath. The Rao knelt upon his breast, while, with preternatural strength, with one hand he grasped his victim by the throat, with the other he searched for his dagger. What a moment for revenge! He plunged the weapon into his assassin’s heart, and saw him expire at his feet. The Rao was satisfied; there was no more life left him than sufficed for revenge, and he dropped a corpse upon the dead body of his foeman. The tidings flew to Bundi, to the mother of the Rao, that her son was slain in the Aheria. “Slain!” exclaimed this noble dame, “but did he fall alone? Never could a son, who has drunk at this breast, depart unaccompanied”; and as she spoke, “maternal feeling caused the milk to issue from the fount with such force, that it rent the slab on which it fell.” =The Satis.=—The dread of dishonour, which quenched the common sympathies of nature for the death of her son, had scarcely been thus expressed, when a second messenger announced the magnitude of his revenge. The Rajput dame was satisfied, though fresh horrors were about to follow. The wives of the murdered princes could not survive, and the pyres were prepared on the fatal field of sport. The fair Suja expiated her jest, which cost her a husband and a brother, in the flames, while the sister of Rana Ratna, married to the Rao, in accordance with custom or affection, burned with the dead body of her lord. The cenotaphs of the princes were reared where they fell; while that of Suja Bai was erected on a pinnacle of the Pass, and adds to the picturesque beauty of this romantic valley, which possesses a double charm for the traveller, who may have taste to admire the scene, and patience to listen to the story [470].[10.2.21] =Rāo Surthān, _c._ A.D. 1534.=—Surthan succeeded in S. 1591 (A.D. 1535), and married the daughter of the celebrated Sakta, founder of the Saktawats of Mewar. He became an ardent votary of the bloodstained divinity of war, Kal-Bhairava, and like almost all those ferocious Rajputs who resign themselves to his horrid rites, grew cruel and at length deranged. Human victims are the chief offerings to this brutalized personification of war, though Surthan was satisfied with the eyes of his subjects, which he placed upon the altar of ‘the mother of war.’ It was then time to question the divine right by which he ruled. The assembled nobles deposed and banished him from Bundi, assigning a small village on the Chambal for his residence, to which he gave the name Surthanpur, which survives to bear testimony to one of many instances of the deposition of their princes by the Rajputs, when they offend custom or morality. Having no offspring, the nobles elected the son of Nirbudh, son of Rao Banda, who had been brought up in his patrimonial village of Matunda. =Rāo Arjun.=—Rao Arjun, the eldest of the eight sons[10.2.22] of Nirbudh, succeeded his banished cousin. Nothing can more effectually evince the total extinction of animosity between these valiant races, when once ‘a feud is balanced,’ than the fact of Rao Arjun, soon after his accession, devoting himself and his valiant kinsmen to the service of the son of that Rana who had slain his predecessor. The memorable attack upon Chitor by Bahadur of Gujarat has already been related,[10.2.23] and the death of the Hara prince and his vassals at the post of honour, the breach. Rao Arjun was this prince, who was blown up at the Chitori burj (bastion). The Bundi bard makes a striking picture of this catastrophe, in which the indomitable courage of their prince is finely imagined. The fact is also confirmed by the annals of Mewar: “Seated on a fragment of the rock, disparted by the explosion of the mine, Arjun drew his sword, and the world beheld his departure with amazement.”[10.2.24] Surjan, the eldest of the four sons[10.2.25] of Arjun, succeeded in S. 1589 (A.D. 1533) [471]. ----- Footnote 10.2.1: _Anhal_ [_anal_] and _Agni_ have the same signification, namely, ‘fire.’ Footnote 10.2.2: Yuga-Raj, ‘sacrifice of the government.’ [Possibly confused with Yuvarāja, ‘heir-apparent.’] Footnote 10.2.3: [Durlabha Chaulukya of Gujarāt went on a pilgrimage and abdicated. “Such a resignation of royal state seems to have been a constant practice in ancient times, the Rājput princes esteeming a death in the holy land of Gaya as the safe passage to beatitude” (Forbes, _Rāsmāla_, 54). A defeated king was required to resign his throne (Elliot-Dowson ii. 27). See Frazer, _Golden Bough_, 3rd ed. Part iii. 148 ff.] Footnote 10.2.4: Harraj (elder son of Dewa), lord of Bumbaoda, had twelve sons; of whom Alu Hara, the eldest, held twenty-four castles upon the Patar. With all of these the author is familiar, having trod the Patar in every direction: of this, anon. Footnote 10.2.5: [This is a folk etymology, the real name of the Bhīl sept being Khota.] The descendants of Jethsi retained the castle and the surrounding country for several generations; when Bhonangsi, the fifth in descent, was dispossessed of them by Rao Surajmall of Bundi. Jethsi had a son, Surjan, who gave the name of Kotah to this abode of the Bhils, round which he built a wall. His son Dhirdeo excavated twelve lakes, and dammed up that east of the town, still known by his name, though better by its new appellation of Kishor Sagar. His son was Kandhal, who had Bhonangsi, who lost and regained Kotah in the following manner. Kotah was seized by two Pathans, Dhakar and Kesar Khan. Bhonang, who became mad from excessive use of wine and opium, was banished to Bundi, and his wife, at the head of his household vassals, retired to Kaithan, around which the Haras held three hundred and sixty villages. Bhonang, in exile, repented of his excesses; he announced his amendment and his wish to return to his wife and kin. The intrepid Rajputni rejoiced at his restoration, and laid a plan for the recovery of Kotah, in which she destined him to take part. To attempt it by force would have been to court destruction, and she determined to combine stratagem and courage. When the jocund festival of spring approached, when even decorum is for a while cast aside in the Rajput Saturnalia, she invited herself, with all the youthful damsels of Kaithan, to play the Holi with the Pathans of Kotah. The libertine Pathans received the invitation with joy, happy to find the queen of Kaithan evince so much amity. Collecting three hundred of the finest Hara youths, she disguised them in female apparel, and Bhonang, attended by the old nurse, each with a vessel of the crimson _abir_, headed the band. While the youths were throwing the crimson powder amongst the Pathans, the nurse led Bhonang to play with their chief. The disguised Hara broke his vessel on the head of Kesar Khan. This was the signal for action: the Rajputs drew their swords from beneath their _ghaghras_ (petticoats), and the bodies of Kesar and his gang strewed the terrace. The _masjid_ of Kesar Khan still exists within the walls. Bhonang was succeeded by his son Dungarsi, whom Rao Surajmall dispossessed and added Kotah to Bundi. Footnote 10.2.6: [About 60 miles S.W. of Ajmer city.] Footnote 10.2.7: “Poor dumb mouths.” Footnote 10.2.8: [‘Lord of the Hindu,’ a title assumed by the Rānas of Mewār.] Footnote 10.2.9: [This was probably, as in the cases of Dhār and Amber, a form of sympathetic magic to ensure the capture of Būndi.] Footnote 10.2.10: Somewhat akin to this incident is the history of that summer abode of kings of France in the Bois de Boulogne at Paris, called “Madrid.” When Francis I. was allowed to return to his capital, he pledged his parole that he would return to Madrid. But the delights of liberty and Paris were too much for honour; and while he wavered, a hint was thrown out similar to that suggested to the Rana when determined to capture Bundi. A mock Madrid arose in the Bois de Boulogne, to which Francis retired. Footnote 10.2.11: Jabdu had three sons: each founded clans. The eldest, Bacha, had two sons, Sewaji and Seranji. The former had Meoji, the latter had Sawant, whose descendants are styled Meo and Sawant Haras. Footnote 10.2.12: [There was a great drought in Hindustān about A.D. 1491 (Balfour, _Cyclopaedia of India_, i. 1072).] Footnote 10.2.13: [_Langar_ means ‘an anchor,’ then ‘a distribution of food to the poor.’ The most famous instance is that at Haidarābād (Bilgrami-Willmott, _Sketch of H.H. The Nizam’s Dominions_, ii. 875 ff.). The _googri_ of the original text is possibly _gagari_, ‘a little pot.’] Footnote 10.2.14: Though called a pillar, it is a slab in the staircase of the old palace, which I have seen. Footnote 10.2.15: The copper coin of Bundi, equal to a halfpenny. One pice weight is a common dose for an ordinary Rajput, but would send the uninitiated to eternal sleep. [According to Cheevers (_Medical Jurisprudence in India_, 227) in Bengal some wretches eat as much as a rupee weight, 180 grains, of pure opium daily. If his pice was anything like the weight of that of the East India Company (100 grains), the dose of Nārāyandās must have been enormous.] Footnote 10.2.16: Wife or daughter of a _teli_, or oilman. Footnote 10.2.17: [Rāna Rāēmall’s opponent is said to have been Ghayāsu-d-dīn of Mālwa (A.D. 1469-99): but he is reported to have been a debauchee who never left his palace (_BG_, i. Part i. 362 ff.).] Footnote 10.2.18: [Ketu, the demon who causes eclipses; Kāmdeo, god of love.] Footnote 10.2.19: [Deathland, the realm of Indra.] Footnote 10.2.20: [The twelve-tined deer, _Cervus duvanceli_; _Boselaphus tragocamelus_ (Blanford, _Mammalia_, 538, 517 ff.).] Footnote 10.2.21: The Author has seen the cenotaphs of the princes at Nanta, a place which still affords good hunting. Footnote 10.2.22: Four of these had appanages and founded clans, namely, Bhim, who had Thakurda; Pura, who had Hardoi; Mapal and Pachain, whose abodes are not recorded. Footnote 10.2.23: See Vol. I. p. 361. Footnote 10.2.24: _Sor ne kiya bahut jor Dhar parbat ori silla; Tain kari tarwār Ad pātiya, Hāra Uja._[10.2.24.A] Footnote 10.2.24.A: Uja, the familiar contraction for Arjuna. Footnote 10.2.25: Ram Singh, clan Rama Hara; Akhairaj, clan Akhairajpota; Kandhal, clan Jasa Hara. ----- CHAPTER 3 =Rāo Surjan, A.D. 1554.=—With Rao Surjan commenced a new era for Bundi.[10.3.1] Hitherto her princes had enjoyed independence, excepting the homage and occasional service on emergencies which are maintained as much from kinship as vassalage. But they were now about to move in a more extended orbit, and to occupy a conspicuous page in the future history of the empire of India. Sawant Singh, a junior branch of Bundi, upon the expulsion of the Shershahi dynasty, entered into a correspondence with the Afghan governor of Ranthambhor, which terminated in the surrender of this celebrated fortress, which he delivered up to his superior, the Rao Surjan. For this important service, which obtained a castle and possession far superior to any under Bundi, lands were assigned near the city to Sawantji, whose name became renowned, and was transmitted as the head of the clan, Sawant-Hara. The Chauhan chief of Bedla,[10.3.2] who was mainly instrumental to the surrender of this famed fortress, stipulated that it should be held by Rao Surjan, as a fief of Mewar. Thus Ranthambhor, which for ages was an appanage of Ajmer, and continued until the fourteenth century in a branch of the family descended from Bisaldeo, when it was [472] captured from the valiant Hamir[10.3.3] after a desperate resistance, once more reverted to the Chauhan race. =Siege of Ranthambhor by Akbar.=—Ranthambhor was an early object of Akbar’s attention, who besieged it in person. He had been some time before its impregnable walls without the hope of its surrender, when Bhagwandas of Amber and his son, the more celebrated Raja Man, who had not only tendered their allegiance to Akbar, but allied themselves to him by marriage, determined to use their influence to make Surjan Hara faithless to his pledge, “to hold the castle as a fief of Chitor.”[10.3.4] That courtesy, which is never laid aside amongst belligerent Rajputs, obtained Raja Man access to the castle, and the emperor accompanied him in the guise of a mace-bearer. While conversing, an uncle of the Rao recognized the emperor, and with that sudden impulse which arises from respect, took the mace from his hand and placed Akbar on the ‘cushion’ of the governor of the castle. Akbar’s presence of mind did not forsake him, and he said, “Well, Rao Surjan, what is to be done?” which was replied to by Raja Man, “Leave the Rana, give up Ranthambhor, and become the servant of the king, with high honours and office.” The proffered bribe was indeed magnificent; the government of fifty-two districts, whose revenues were to be appropriated without inquiry, on furnishing the customary contingent, and liberty to name any other terms, which should be solemnly guaranteed by the king.[10.3.5] A treaty was drawn up upon the spot, and mediated by the prince of Amber, which presents a good picture of Hindu feeling: 1. That the chiefs of Bundi should be exempted from that custom, degrading to a Rajput, of sending a _dola_[10.3.6] to the royal harem. 2. Exemption from the jizya, or poll-tax. 3. That the chiefs of Bundi should not be compelled to cross the Attock. 4. That the vassals of Bundi should be exempted from the obligation of sending [473] their wives or female relatives ‘to hold a stall in the Mina Bazar’ at the palace, on the festival of Nauroza.[10.3.7] 5. That they should have the privilege of entering the Diwan-i-amm, or ‘hall of audience,’ completely armed. 6. That their sacred edifices should be respected. 7. That they should never be placed under the command of a Hindu leader. 8. That their horses should not be branded with the imperial dagh.[10.3.8] 9. That they should be allowed to beat their nakkaras, or ‘kettledrums,’ in the streets of the capital as far as the Lal Darwaza or ‘red-gate’; and that they should not be commanded to make the ‘prostration’[10.3.9] on entering the Presence. 10. That Bundi should be to the Haras what Delhi was to the king, who should guarantee them from any change of capital. In addition to these articles, which the king swore to maintain, he assigned the Rao a residence at the sacred city of Kasi, possessing that privilege so dear to the Rajput, the right of sanctuary, which is maintained to this day.[10.3.10] With such a bribe, and the full acceptance of his terms, we cannot wonder that Rao Surjan flung from him the remnant of allegiance he owed to Mewar, now humbled by the loss of her capital, or that he should agree to follow the victorious car of the Mogul. But this dereliction of duty was effaced by the rigid virtue of the brave Sawant Hara, who, as already stated, had conjointly with the Kotharia Chauhan[10.3.11] obtained Ranthambhor. He put on the saffron robes, and with his small but virtuous clan determined, in spite of his sovereign’s example, that Akbar should only gain possession over their lifeless bodies. Previous to this explosion of useless fidelity, he set up a pillar with a solemn anathema engraved thereon, on “whatever Hara of gentle blood should ascend the castle of Ranthambhor, or who should quit it alive.” Sawant and his kin made the sacrifice to honour; “they gave up their life’s blood to maintain their fidelity to the Rana,” albeit himself without a capital; and from that day, no Hara ever [474] passes Ranthambhor without averting his head from an object which caused disgrace to the tribe. With this transaction all intercourse ceased with Mewar, and from this period the Hara bore the title of ‘Rao Raja’ of Bundi. =Rāo Surjan in the Imperial Service.=—Rao Surjan was soon called into action, and sent as commander to reduce Gondwana, so named from being the ‘region of the Gonds.’[10.3.12] He took their capital, Bari, by assault, and to commemorate the achievement erected the gateway still called the Surjanpol. The Gond leaders he carried captives to the emperor, and generously interceded for their restoration to liberty, and to a portion of their possessions. On effecting this service, the king added seven districts to his grant, including Benares and Chunar. This was in S. 1632, or A.D. 1576, the year in which Rana Partap of Mewar fought the battle of Haldighat against Sultan Salim.[10.3.13] Rao Surjan resided at his government of Benares, and by his piety, wisdom, and generosity, benefited the empire and the Hindus at large, whose religion through him was respected. Owing to the prudence of his administration and the vigilance of his police, the most perfect security to person and property was established throughout the province. He beautified and ornamented the city, especially that quarter where he resided, and eighty-four edifices, for various public purposes, and twenty baths, were constructed under his auspices. He died there, and left three legitimate sons: 1. Rao Bhoj; 2. Duda, nicknamed by Akbar, Lakar Khan; 3. Raemall, who obtained the town and dependencies of Puleta, now one of the fiefs of Kotah and the residence of the Raemallot Haras. =The Campaign in Gujarāt.=—About this period, Akbar transferred the seat of government from Delhi to Agra, which he enlarged and called Akbarabad. Having determined on the reduction of Gujarat, he dispatched thither an immense army, which he followed with a select force mounted on camels. Of these, adopting the custom of the desert princes of India, he had formed a corps of five hundred, each having two fighting men in a pair of panniers. To this select force, composed chiefly of Rajputs, were attached Rao Bhoj and Duda his brother. Proceeding with the utmost celerity, Akbar joined his army besieging Surat, before which many desperate encounters took place.[10.3.14] In the final assault the Hara Rao slew the leader of the enemy; on which occasion the king commanded him to “name his reward.” The Rao limited his request to leave to visit his estates annually during the periodical rains, which was granted. The perpetual wars of Akbar, for the conquest and consolidation of the universal [475] empire of India, gave abundant opportunity to the Rajput leaders to exert their valour; and the Haras were ever at the post of danger and of honour. The siege and escalade of the famed castle of Ahmadnagar afforded the best occasion for the display of Hara intrepidity; again it shone forth, and again claimed distinction and reward.[10.3.15] To mark his sense of the merits of the Bundi leader, the king commanded that a new bastion should be erected, where he led the assault, which he named the Bhoj burj; and further presented him his own favourite elephant. In this desperate assault, Chand Begam, the queen of Ahmadnagar, and an armed train of seven hundred females, were slain, gallantly fighting for their freedom. Notwithstanding all these services, Rao Bhoj fell under the emperor’s displeasure. On the death of the queen, Jodha Bai, Akbar commanded a court-mourning; and that all might testify a participation in their master’s affliction, an ordinance issued that all the Rajput chiefs, as well as the Muslim leaders, should shave the moustache and the beard.[10.3.16] To secure compliance, the royal barbers had the execution of the mandate. But when they came to the quarters of the Haras, in order to remove these tokens of manhood, they were repulsed with buffets and contumely. The enemies of Rao Bhoj aggravated the crime of this resistance, and insinuated to the royal ear that the outrage upon the barbers was accompanied with expressions insulting to the memory of the departed princess, who, it will be remembered, was a Rajputni of Marwar. Akbar, forgetting his vassal’s gallant services, commanded that Rao Bhoj should be pinioned and forcibly deprived of his ‘mouche.’ He might as well have commanded the operation on a tiger. The Haras flew to their arms; the camp was thrown into tumult, and would soon have presented a wide scene of bloodshed, had not the emperor, seasonably repenting of his folly, repaired to the Bundi quarters in person. He expressed his admiration (he might have said his fear) of Hara valour, alighted from his elephant to expostulate with the Rao, who with considerable tact pleaded his father’s privileges, and added “that an eater of pork like him was unworthy the distinction of putting his lip into mourning for the queen.” Akbar, happy to obtain even so much acknowledgment, embraced the Rao, and carried him with him to his own quarters. =Death of Akbar.=—In this portion of the Bundi memoirs is related the mode of Akbar’s death.[10.3.17] He had designed to take off the great Raja Man by means of a poisoned confection formed into pills. To throw the Raja off his guard, he had prepared other pills which were [476] innocuous; but in his agitation he unwittingly gave these to the Raja, and swallowed those which were poisoned. On the emperor’s death, Rao Bhoj retired to his hereditary dominions, and died in his palace of Bundi, leaving three sons, Rao Ratan, Harda Narayan,[10.3.18] and Keshodas.[10.3.19] =Rāo Ratan.=—Jahangir was now sovereign of India. He had nominated his son Parvez to the government of the Deccan, and having invested him in the city of Burhanpur, returned to the north. But Prince Khurram, jealous of his brother, conspired against and slew him.[10.3.20] This murder was followed by an attempt to dethrone his father Jahangir, and as he was popular with the Rajput princes, being son of a princess of Amber, a formidable rebellion was raised; or, as the chronicle says, “the twenty-two Rajas turned against the king, all but Rao Ratan”: “_Sarwar phūtā, jal bahā; Ab kya karo jatanna? Jātā ghar Jahāngīr kā, Rākhā Rāo Ratanna._ “The lake had burst, the waters were rushing out; where now the remedy? The house of Jahangir was departing; it was sustained by Rao Ratan.” =Partition of Hāraoti.=—With his two sons, Madho Singh and Hari, Ratan repaired to Burhanpur, where he gained a complete victory over the rebels. In this engagement, which took place on Tuesday the full moon of Kartika, S. 1635 (A.D. 1579), both his sons were severely wounded. For these services Rao Ratan was rewarded with the government of Burhanpur; and Madho his second son received a grant of the city of Kotah and its dependencies, which he and his heirs were to hold direct of the crown. From this period, therefore, dates the partition of Haraoti, when the emperor, in his desire to reward Madho Singh, overlooked the greater services of his father. But in this Jahangir did not act without design; on the contrary, he dreaded the union of so much power in the hands of this brave race as pregnant with danger, and well knew that by dividing he could always rule both, the one through the other. Shah Jahan confirmed the grant to Madho Singh, whose history will be resumed in its proper place, the Annals of Kotah. Rao Ratan, while he held the government of Burhanpur, founded a township which still bears his name, Ratanpur. He performed another important service [477], which, while it gratified the emperor, contributed greatly to the tranquillity of his ancient lord-paramount, the Rana of Mewar. A refractory noble of the court, Dariyau Khan, was leading a life of riot and rapine in that country, when the Hara attacked, defeated, and carried him captive to the king. For this distinguished exploit, the king gave him honorary naubats, or kettledrums; the grand yellow banner to be borne in state processions before his own person, and a red flag for his camp; which ensigns are still retained by his successors. Rao Ratan obtained the suffrages not only of his Rajput brethren, but of the whole Hindu race, whose religion he preserved from innovation. The Haras exultingly boast that no Muslim dared pollute the quarters where they might be stationed with the blood of the sacred kine. After all his services, Ratan was killed in an action near Burhanpur, leaving a name endeared by his valour and his virtues to the whole Hara race. =Gopināth.=—Rao Ratan left four sons, Gopinath, who had Bundi; Madho Singh, who had Kotah; Hariji, who had Gugor;[10.3.21] Jagannath, who had no issue; and Gopinath, the heir of Bundi, who died before his father. The manner of his death affords another trait of Rajput character, and merits a place amongst those anecdotes which form the romance of history. Gopinath carried on a secret intrigue with the wife of a Brahman of the Baldia class, and in the dead of night used to escalade the house to obtain admittance. At length the Brahman caught him, bound the hands and feet of his treacherous prince, and proceeding direct to the palace, told the Rao he had caught a thief in the act of stealing his honour, and asked what punishment was due to such offence. “Death,” was the reply. He waited for no other, returned home, and with a hammer beat out the victim’s brains, throwing the dead body into the public highway. The tidings flew to Rao Ratan, that the heir of Bundi had been murdered, and his corpse ignominiously exposed; but when he learned the cause, and was reminded of the decree he had unwittingly passed, he submitted in silence.[10.3.22] =The Fiefs of Būndi.=—Gopinath left twelve sons, to whom Rao Ratan assigned domains still forming the principal _kothris_, or fiefs, of Bundi: 1. Rao Chhattarsal, who succeeded to Bundi. 2. Indar Singh, who founded Indargarh [478].[10.3.23] 3. Berisal, who founded Balwan and Phalodi, and had Karwar and Pipalda. 4. Mohkam Singh, who had Antardah. 5. Maha Singh, who had Thana.[10.3.24] It is useless to specify the names of the remainder, who left no issue. =Rāo Chhattarsāl, A.D. 1652-58.=—Chhattarsal, who succeeded his grandfather, Rao Ratan, was not only installed by Shah Jahan in his hereditary dominions, but declared governor of the imperial capital, a post which he held nearly throughout this reign. When Shah Jahan partitioned the empire into four vice-royalties, under his sons, Dara, Aurangzeb, Shuja, and Murad, Rao Chhattarsal had a high command under Aurangzeb, in the Deccan. The Hara distinguished himself by his bravery and conduct in all the various sieges and actions, especially at the assaults of Daulatabad and Bidar; the last was led by Chhattarsal in person, who carried the place, and put the garrison to the sword. In S. 1709 (A.D. 1653), Kulbarga fell after an obstinate defence, in which Chhattarsal again led the escalade. The last resort was the strong fort of Damauni, which terminated all resistance, and the Deccan was tranquillized.[10.3.25] =Death of Shāh Jahān. War of Succession.=—“At this period of the transactions in the south, a rumour was propagated of the emperor’s (Shah Jahan) death; and as during twenty days the prince (Aurangzeb) held no court, and did not even give private audience, the report obtained general belief.[10.3.26] Dara Shikoh was the only one of the emperor’s sons then at court, and the absent brothers determined to assert their several pretensions to the throne. While Shuja marched from Bengal, Aurangzeb prepared to quit the Deccan, and cajoled Murad to join him with all his forces; assuring him that he, a darvesh from principle, had no worldly desires, for his only wish was to dwell in retirement [479], practising the austerities of a rigid follower of the Prophet; that Dara was an infidel, Shuja a free-thinker, himself an anchorite; and that he, Murad, alone of the sons of Shah Jahan, was worthy to exercise dominion, to aid in which purpose he proffered his best energies.[10.3.27] “The emperor, learning the hostile intentions of Aurangzeb, wrote privately to the Hara prince to repair to the Presence. On receiving the mandate, Chhattarsal revolved its import, but considering “that, as a servant of the _gaddi_ (throne), his only duty was obedience,” he instantly commenced his preparations to quit the Deccan. This reaching the ear of Aurangzeb, he inquired the cause of his hasty departure, observing, that in a very short time he might accompany him to court. The Bundi prince replied, “his first duty was to the reigning sovereign,” and handed him the farman or summons to the Presence. Aurangzeb commanded that he should not be permitted to depart, and directed his encampment to be surrounded. But Chhattarsal, foreseeing this, had already sent on his baggage, and forming his vassals and those of other Rajput princes attached to the royal cause into one compact mass, they effected their retreat to the Nerbudda in the face of their pursuers, without their daring to attack them. By the aid of some Solanki chieftains inhabiting the banks of this river, the Bundi Rao was enabled to pass this dangerous stream, then swollen by the periodical rains. Already baffled by the skill and intrepidity of Chhattarsal, Aurangzeb was compelled to give up the pursuit, and the former reached Bundi in safety. Having made his domestic arrangements, he proceeded forthwith to the capital, to help the aged emperor, whose power, and even existence, were alike threatened by the ungrateful pretensions of his sons to snatch the sceptre from the hand which still held it.” If a reflection might be here interposed on the bloody wars which desolated India in consequence of the events of which the foregoing were the initial scenes, it would be to expose the moral retribution resulting from evil example. Were we to take but a partial view of the picture, we should depict the venerable Shah Jahan, arrived at the verge of the grave, into which the unnatural contest of his sons for empire wished to precipitate him, extending his arms for succour in vain to the nobles of his own faith and kin; while the Rajput, faithful to his principle, ‘allegiance to the throne,’ staked both life and land to help him in his need. Such a picture would enlist all our sympathies on the side of the helpless king. But when we recall the past, and consider that [480] Shah Jahan, as Prince Khurram, played the same part (setting aside the mask of hypocrisy), which Aurangzeb now attempted; that, to forward his guilty design, he murdered his brother Parvez,[10.3.28] who stood between him and the throne of his parent, against whom he levied war, our sympathies are checked, and we conclude that unlimited monarchy is a curse to itself and all who are subjected to it. The battle of Fatehabad followed not long after this event,[10.3.29] which, gained by Aurangzeb, left the road to the throne free from obstruction. We are not informed of the reason why the prince of Bundi did not add his contingent to the force assembled to oppose Aurangzeb under Jaswant Singh of Marwar, unless it be found in that article of the treaty of Rao Surjan, prohibiting his successors from serving under a leader of their own faith and nation. The younger branch of Kotah appears, on its separation from Bundi, to have felt itself exonerated from obedience to this decree; for four royal brothers of Kotah, with many of their clansmen, were stretched on this field in the cause of swamidharma and Shah Jahan. Before, however, Aurangzeb could tear the sceptre from the enfeebled hands of his parent, he had to combat his elder brother Dara, who drew together at Dholpur all those who yet regarded ‘the first duty of a Rajput.’ The Bundi prince, with his Haras clad in their saffron robes, the ensigns of death or victory, formed the vanguard of Dara on this day, the opening scene of his sorrows, which closed but with his life; for Dholpur was as fatal to Dara the Mogul, as Arbela was to the Persian Darius. Custom rendered it indispensable that the princely leaders should be conspicuous to the host, and in conformity thereto Dara, mounted on his elephant, was in the brunt of the battle, in the heat of which, when valour and fidelity might have preserved the sceptre of Shah Jahan, Dara suddenly disappeared. A panic ensued, which was followed by confusion and flight. The noble Hara, on this disastrous event, turned to his vassals, and exclaimed, “Accursed be he who flies! Here, true to my salt, my feet are rooted to this field, nor will I quit it alive, but with victory.” Cheering on his men, he mounted his elephant, but whilst encouraging them by his voice and example, a cannon-shot hitting his elephant, the animal turned and fled. Chhattarsal leaped from his back and called for his steed, exclaiming, “My elephant may turn his back on the enemy, but never shall his master.” Mounting his horse, and forming his men into a dense mass (_gol_), he led them to the charge against Prince Murad, whom he singled out, and had his lance balanced for the issue, when a ball pierced his forehead.[10.3.30] The contest was nobly maintained by his youngest son, Bharat Singh, who accompanied his father in death [481], and with him the choicest of his clan. Mohkam Singh, brother of the Rao, with two of his sons, and Udai Singh, another nephew, sealed their fidelity with their lives. Thus in the two battles of Ujjain and Dholpur no less than twelve princes of the blood, together with the heads of every Hara clan, maintained their fealty (_swamidharma_) even to death. Where are we to look for such examples? “Rao Chhattarsal had been personally engaged in fifty-two combats, and left a name renowned for courage and incorruptible fidelity.” He enlarged the palace of Bundi by adding that portion which bears his name,—the Chhattar Mahall,—and the temple of Keshorai, at Patan, was constructed under his direction.[10.3.31] It was in S. 1715 he was killed; he left four sons, Rao Bhao Singh, Bhim Singh, who got Gugorha, Bhagwant Singh, who obtained Mau, and Bharat Singh, who was killed at Dholpur. =Rāo Bhāo Singh, A.D. 1658-78. Mughal Attack on Būndi.=—Aurangzeb, on the attainment of sovereign power, transferred all the resentment he harboured against Chhattarsal to his son and successor, Rao Bhao. He gave a commission to Raja Atmaram, Gaur, the prince of Sheopur, to reduce “that turbulent and disaffected race, the Hara,” and annex Bundi to the government of Ranthambhor, declaring that he should visit Bundi shortly in person, on his way to the Deccan, and hoped to congratulate him on his success. Raja Atmaram, with an army of twelve thousand men, entered Haravati and ravaged it with fire and sword. Having laid siege to Khatoli, a town of Indargarh, the chief fief of Bundi,[10.3.32] the clans secretly assembled, engaged Atmaram at Gotarda, defeated and put him to flight, capturing the imperial ensigns and all his baggage. Not satisfied with this, they retaliated by blockading Sheopur, when the discomfited Raja continued his flight to court to relate this fresh instance of Hara audacity. The poor prince of the Gaurs was received with gibes and jests, and heartily repented of his inhuman inroads upon his neighbours in the day of their disgrace. The tyrant, affecting to be pleased with this instance of Hara courage, sent a farman to Rao Bhao of grace and free pardon, and commanding his presence at court. At first the Rao declined; but having repeated pledges of good intention, he complied and was honoured with the government of Aurangabad under Prince Muazzam. Here he evinced his independence by shielding Raja Karan of Bikaner from a plot against his life. He performed many gallant deeds with his Rajput brethren in arms, the brave Bundelas of Orchha and Datia. He erected many public edifices at Aurangabad, where he acquired so much fame by his valour, his charities, and the sanctity[10.3.33] of his manners, that miraculous cures were (said to be) effected by him. He [482] died at Aurangabad in S. 1738 (A.D. 1682),[10.3.34] and, being without issue, was succeeded by Aniruddh Singh, the grandson of his brother Bhim.[10.3.35] =Rāo Aniruddh Singh, A.D. 1678.=—Aniruddh’s accession was confirmed by the emperor, who, in order to testify the esteem in which he held his predecessor, sent his own elephant, Gajgaur, with the khilat of investiture. Aniruddh accompanied Aurangzeb in his wars in the Deccan, and on one occasion performed the important service of rescuing the ladies of the harem out of the enemy’s hands. The emperor, in testimony of his gallantry, told him to name his reward; on which he requested he might be allowed to command the vanguard instead of the rearguard of the army. Subsequently, he was distinguished in the siege and storm of Bijapur. An unfortunate quarrel with Durjan Singh, the chief vassal of Bundi, involved the Rao in trouble. Making use of some improper expression, the Rao resentfully replied, “I know what to expect from you”; which determined Durjan to throw his allegiance to the dogs. He quitted the army, and arriving at his estates, armed his kinsmen, and, by a _coup de main_, possessed himself of Bundi. On learning this, the emperor detached Aniruddh with a force which expelled the refractory Durjan, whose estates were sequestrated. Previous to his expulsion, Durjan drew the _tika_ of succession on the forehead of his brother of Balwan. Having settled the affairs of Bundi, the Rao was employed, in conjunction with Raja Bishan Singh of Amber, to settle the northern countries of the empire, governed by Shah Alam, as lieutenant of the king, and whose headquarters were at Lahore, in the execution of which service he died. =Rāo Budh Singh. The Death of Aurangzeb.=—Aniruddh left two sons, Budh Singh and Jodh Singh. Budh Singh succeeded to the honours and employments of his father. Soon after, Aurangzeb, who had fixed his residence at Aurangabad, fell ill, and finding his end approach, the nobles and officers of state, in apprehension of the event, requested him to name a successor. The dying emperor replied, that the succession was in the hands of God, with whose will and under whose decree he was desirous that his son Bahadur Shah Alam should succeed; but that he was apprehensive that Prince Azam would endeavour by force of arms to seat himself on the throne.[10.3.36] As the king said, so it happened; Azam Shah, being supported in his pretensions by the army of the Deccan, prepared to dispute [483] the empire with his elder brother, to whom he sent a formal defiance to decide their claims to empire on the plains of Dholpur. Bahadur Shah convened all the chieftains who favoured his cause, and explained his position. Amongst them was Rao Budh, now entering on manhood, and he was at that moment in deep affliction for the untimely loss of his brother, Jodh Singh.[10.3.37] When the king desired him to repair to Bundi to perform the offices of mourning, and console his relations and kindred, Budh Singh replied, “It is not to Bundi my duty calls me, but to attend my sovereign in the field—to that of Dholpur, renowned for many battles and consecrated by the memory of the heroes who have fallen in the performance of their duty”: adding “that there his heroic ancestor Chhattarsal fell, whose fame he desired to emulate, and by the blessing of heaven, his arms should be crowned with victory to the empire.” =Battle of Jājau, June 10, 1707.=—Shah Alam advanced from Lahore, and Azam, with his son Bedar Bakht, from the Deccan; and both armies met on the plains of Jajau, near Dholpur. A more desperate conflict was never recorded in the many bloody pages of the history of India. Had it been a common contest for supremacy, to be decided by the Muslim supporters of the rivals, it would have ended like similar ones,—a furious onset, terminated by a treacherous desertion. But here were assembled the brave bands of Rajputana, house opposed to house, and clan against clan. The princes of Datia and Kotah, who had long served with Prince Azam, and were attached to him by favours, forgot the injunctions of Aurangzeb, and supported that prince’s pretensions against the lawful heir. A powerful friendship united the chiefs of Bundi and Datia, whose lives exhibited one scene of glorious triumph in all the wars of the Deccan. In opposing the cause of Shah Alam, Ram Singh of Kotah was actuated by his ambition to become the head of the Haras, and in anticipation of success had actually been invested with the honours of Bundi. With such stimulants on each side did the rival Haras meet face to face on the plains of Jajau, to decide at the same time the pretensions to empire, and what affected them more, those of their respective heads to superiority. Previous to the battle, Ram Singh sent a perfidious message to Rao Budh, inviting him to desert the cause he espoused, and come over to Azam; to which he indignantly replied: “That the field which his ancestor had illustrated by his death, was not that whereon he would disgrace his memory by the desertion of his prince.” Budh Singh was assigned a distinguished post, and by his conduct and courage [484] mainly contributed to the victory which placed Bahadur Shah without a rival on the throne. The Rajputs on either side sustained the chief shock of the battle, and the Hara prince of Kotah, and the noble Bundela, Dalpat of Datia, were both killed by cannon-shot, sacrificed to the cause they espoused; while the pretensions of Azam and his son Bedar Bakht were extinguished with their lives. For the signal services rendered on this important day, Budh Singh was honoured with the title of Rao Raja, and was admitted to the intimate friendship of the emperor, which he continued to enjoy until his death, when fresh contentions arose, in which the grandsons of Aurangzeb all perished. Farrukhsiyar succeeded to the empire, under whom the Sayyids of Barha held supreme power, and ruined the empire by their exactions and tyranny. When they determined to depose the king, the Hara prince, faithful to his pledge, determined to release him, and in the attempt a bloody conflict ensued in the (_chauk_) square, in which his uncle Jeth Singh, and many of his clansmen, were slain. =Rivalry between Kotah and Būndi.=—The rivalry which commenced between the houses of Kotah and Bundi, on the plains of Jajau, in which Ram Singh was slain, was maintained by his son and successor, Raja Bhim, who supported the party of the Sayyids. In the prosecution of his views and revenge, Raja Bhim so far lost sight of the national character of the Rajput, as to compass his end by treachery, and beset his foe unawares while exercising his horse in the Maidan, outside the walls of the capital. His few retainers formed a circle round their chief, and gallantly defended him, though with great loss, until they reached a place of safety. Unable to aid the king, and beset by treachery, Rao Budh was compelled to seek his own safety in flight.[10.3.38] Farrukhsiyar was shortly after murdered, and the empire fell into complete disorder; when the nobles and Rajas, feeling their insecurity under the bloody and rapacious domination of the Sayyids, repaired to their several possessions.[10.3.39] =Jai Singh of Jaipur attacks Būndi.=—At this period, Raja Jai Singh of Amber thought of dispossessing Budh Singh of Bundi. Rao Budh Singh was at this time his guest, having accompanied him from court to Amber. The cause of the quarrel is thus related: The Hara prince was married to a sister of Jai Singh; she had been betrothed to the emperor Bahadur [485] Shah, who, as one of the marks of his favour for the victory of Dholpur, resigned his pretensions to the fair in favour of Rao Budh. Unfortunately, she bore him no issue, and viewed with jealousy his two infant sons by another Rani, the daughter of Kalamegh of Begun, one of the sixteen chiefs of Mewar. During her lord’s absence, she feigned pregnancy, and having procured an infant, presented it as his lawful child. Rao Budh was made acquainted with the equivocal conduct of his queen, to the danger of his proper offspring, and took an opportunity to reveal her conduct to her brother. The lady, who was present, was instantly interrogated by her brother; but, exasperated either at the suspicion of her honour or the discovery of her fraud, she snatched her brother’s dagger from his girdle, and rating him as “the son of a tailor,”[10.3.40] would have slain him on the spot, had he not fled from her fury. To revenge the insult thus put upon him, the Raja of Amber determined to expel Rao Budh from Bundi, and offered the _gaddi_ to the chief of its feudatories, the lord of Indargarh; but Deo Singh had the virtue to refuse the offer. He then had recourse to the chieftain of Karwar,[10.3.41] who could not resist the temptation. This chief, Salim Singh, was guilty of a double breach of trust; for he held the confidential office of governor of Taragarh, the citadel commanding both the city and palace. The family dispute was, however, merely the underplot of a deeply-cherished political scheme of the prince of Amber, for the maintenance of his supremacy over the minor Rajas, to which his office of viceroy of Malwa, Ajmer, and Agra gave full scope, and he skilfully availed himself of the results of the civil wars of the Moguls. In the issue of Farrukhsiyar’s dethronement he saw the fruition of his schemes, and after a show of defending him, retired to his dominions to prosecute his views. Amber was yet circumscribed in territory, and the consequence of its princes arose out of their position as satraps of the empire. He therefore determined to seize upon all the districts on his frontiers within his grasp, and moreover to compel the services of the chieftains who served under his banner as lieutenants of the king. At this period there were many allodial chieftains within the bounds of Amber; as the Pachwana Chauhans about Lalsont, Gura, Nimrana, who owed neither service nor tribute to Jaipur, but led their quotas as distinct dignitaries of the empire under the flag of Amber. Even their own stock, the confederated Shaikhawats, deemed [486] themselves under no such obligation. The Bargujars of Rajor, the Jadons of Bayana, and many others, the vassalage of older days, were in the same predicament. These, being in the decline of the empire unable to protect themselves, the more readily agreed to hold their ancient allodial estates as fiefs of Amber, and to serve with the stipulated quota. But when Jai Singh’s views led him to hope he could in like manner bring the Haras to acknowledge his supremacy, he evinced both ignorance and presumption. He therefore determined to dethrone Budh Singh, and to make a Raja of his own choice hold of him in chief. The Hara, who was then reposing on the rites of hospitality and family ties at Amber, gave Jai Singh a good opportunity to develop his views, which were first manifested to the Bundi prince by an obscure offer that he would make Amber his abode, and accept five hundred rupees daily for his train. His uncle, the brother of Jeth, who devoted himself to save his master at Agra, penetrated the infamous intentions of Jai Singh. He wrote to Bundi, and commanded that the Begun Rani should depart with her children to her father’s; and having given time for this, he by stealth formed his clansmen outside the walls of Amber, and having warned his prince of his danger, they quitted the treacherous abode. Raja Budh, at the head of three hundred Haras, feared nothing. He made direct for his capital, but they were overtaken at Pancholas, on the mutual frontier, by the select army under the five principal chieftains of Amber. The little band was enclosed, when a desperate encounter ensued, Rajput to Rajput. Every one of the five leaders of Amber was slain, with a multitude of their vassals; and the cenotaphs of the lords of Isarda, Sarwar, and Bhawar still afford evidence of Hara revenge. The uncle of Bundi was slain, and the valiant band was so thinned, that it was deemed unwise to go to Bundi, and by the intricacies of the Plateau they reached Begun in safety. This dear-bought success enabled Jai Singh to execute his plan, and Dalil Singh, of Karwar, espoused the daughter of Amber, and was invested with the title of Rao Raja of Bundi. Taking advantage of the distress of the elder branch of his house, Raja Bhim of Kotah, now strictly allied with Ajit of Marwar and the Sayyids, prosecuted the old feud for superiority, making the Chambal the boundary, and seizing upon all the fiscal lands of Bundi east of this stream (excepting the Kothris), which he attached to Kotah. =Death of Rāo Būdh Singh.=—Thus beset by enemies on all sides, Budh Singh, after many fruitless attempts to [487] recover his patrimony, in which much Hara blood was uselessly shed, died in exile at Begun, leaving two sons, Ummed Singh and Dip Singh. The sons of Rao Budh were soon driven even from the shelter of the maternal abode; for, at the instigation of their enemy of Amber, the Rana sequestrated Begun. Pursued by this unmanly vengeance, the brave youths collected a small band, and took refuge in the wilds of Pachel, whence they addressed Durjansal, who had succeeded Raja Bhim at Kotah. This prince had a heart to commiserate their misfortunes, and the magnanimity not only to relieve them, but to aid them in the recovery of their patrimony. ----- Footnote 10.3.1: [The dates are uncertain: that in the margin is from _IGI_, ix. 80. Prinsep (_Useful Tables_, 105) gives 1575. Blochmann (_Āīn_, i. 410) says, “he had been dead for some time in 1001 Hijri,” A.D. 1592.] Footnote 10.3.2: [4 miles N. of Udaipur city.] Footnote 10.3.3: His fame is immortalized by a descendant of the bard Chand, in the works already mentioned, as bearing his name, the Hamir-raesa and Hamir-kavya. Footnote 10.3.4: The Raja Man of Amber is styled, in the poetic chronicle of the Haras, ‘the shade of the Kali Yuga’: a powerful figure, to denote that his baneful influence and example, in allying himself by matrimonial ties with the imperialists, denationalized the Rajput character. In refusing to follow this example, we have presented a picture of patriotism in the life of Rana Partap of Mewar. Rao Surjan avoided by convention what the Chitor prince did by arms. Footnote 10.3.5: We may here remark that the succeeding portion of the annals of Bundi is a free translation of an historical sketch drawn up for me by the Raja of Bundi from his own records, occasionally augmented from the bardic chronicle. [This was Akbar’s second attack on Ranthambhor, the first (A.D. 1558-60) having been unsuccessful. It was taken on 19th March 1569 (_Akbarnāma_, ii. 132 f., 494). Smith (_Akbar, the Great Mogul_, 98 ff.) quotes the narrative in the text, which he considers trustworthy.] Footnote 10.3.6: _Dola_ is the term for a princess affianced to the king. Footnote 10.3.7: An ancient institution of the Timurian kings, derived from their Tartar ancestry. For a description of this festival see Vol. I. p. 400, and _Āīn_, i. 276 f. [See the lively account of these fairs by Bernier (p. 272 f.). They were held in the Mīna, or ‘heavenly,’ bāzār, near the Mīna Masjid, or mosque, in the Agra Fort (Syad Muhammad Latif, _Agra_, 75 f.).] Footnote 10.3.8: This brand (_dagh_) was a flower on the forehead [Vol. II. p. 972]. Footnote 10.3.9: Sijdah, similar to the kotow of China. Had our ambassador possessed the wit of Rao Surthan of Sirohi, who, when compelled to pay homage to the king, determined at whatever hazard not to submit to this degradation, he might have succeeded in his mission to the ‘son of heaven.’ For the relation of this anecdote see Vol. II. p. 990. [For the Mughal forms of salutation see _Āīn_, i. 158 f.] Footnote 10.3.10: [The Mahārāo Rāo of Būndi still has a house, somewhat dilapidated, near the Rāj Mandir and Sītala Ghāt at Benares. The right of sanctuary has ceased (E. Graves, _Kashi_, 1909, p. 55).] Footnote 10.3.11: This conjoint act of obtaining the castle of Ranthambhor is confirmed in the annals of the chieftains of Kotharia, of the same original stock as the Haras: though a Purbia Chauhan. I knew him very well, as also one of the same stock, of Bedla, another of the sixteen Pattayats of Mewar. Footnote 10.3.12: [Gondwāna is the term applied to the Sātpura plateau in the Central Provinces (_IGI_, xii. 321 ff.). The campaign was begun by Āsaf Khan in A.D. 1564. The Bāri in the text, a word meaning ‘dwelling,’ possibly refers to Chauragarh, now in the Narsinghpur District (Smith, _Akbar, the Great Mogul_, 69 ff.). Rāo Surjan was governor of Garha-Katanka or Gondwāna, whence he was transferred to Chunār (_Āīn_, i. 409).] Footnote 10.3.13: See Vol. I. p. 393. Footnote 10.3.14: [Akbar began to reside at Agra in A.D. 1558, and built the fort in 1565-6. The first campaign in Gujarāt took place in 1572. Surat was captured in February 1573.] Footnote 10.3.15: [Ahmadnagar was stormed in August 1600. According to Ferishta (iii. 312) Chānd Bībi was killed by her Deccan troops because she was treating for surrender. By another story, she was poisoned (Smith, _Akbar, the Great Mogul_, 272).] Footnote 10.3.16: [There is an error here. Akbar died in 1605; Jodh Bāi died, it is said by poison, in 1619 or 1622.] Footnote 10.3.17: See Vol. I. p. 408. [The tale seems almost incredible, but Akbar did remove some of his enemies by poison, and the story was the subject of Court gossip (Manucci i. 150). Akbar seems to have died from cancer of the bowels (Elliot-Dowson v. 541, vi. 115, 168 f.). Smith (_Akbar, the Great Mogul_, 325 f.) disbelieves the story, but suspects that he may have been poisoned by some one. See Irvine’s note on Manucci iv. 420.] Footnote 10.3.18: He held Kotah in separate grant from the king during fifteen years. Footnote 10.3.19: He obtained the town of Dipri (on the Chambal), with twenty-seven villages, in appanage. Footnote 10.3.20: [Parvez died from apoplexy at Burhānpur, 28th October 1626 (Beale, _Dict. Oriental Biography_, _s.v._ Parwīz Sultān; Dow 2nd ed. iii. 88).] Footnote 10.3.21: There are about fifty families, his descendants, forming a community round Nimoda. Footnote 10.3.22: This trait in the character of Rao Ratan forcibly reminds us of a similar case which occurred at Ghazni, and is related by Ferishta [i. 86 f.] in commemoration of the justice of Mahmud. Footnote 10.3.23: These, the three great fiefs of Bundi,—Indargarh, Balwan, and Antardah,—are now all alienated from Bundi by the intrigues of Zalim Singh of Kotah. It was unfortunate for the Bundi Rao, when both these States were admitted to an alliance, that all these historical points were hid in darkness. It would be yet abstract and absolute justice that we should negotiate the transfer of the allegiance of these chieftains to their proper head of Bundi. It would be a matter of little difficulty, and the honour would be immense to Bundi and no hardship to Kotah, but a slight sacrifice of a power of protection to those who no longer require it. All of these chiefs were the founders of clans, called after them, Indarsalot, Berisalot, Mohkamsinghot; the first can muster fifteen hundred Haras under arms. Jaipur having imposed a tribute on these chieftains, Zalim Singh undertook, in the days of predatory warfare, to be responsible for it; for which he received that homage and service due to Bundi, then unable to protect them. The simplest mode of doing justice would be to make these chiefs redeem their freedom from tribute to Jaipur, by the payment of so many years’ purchase, which would relieve them altogether from Zalim Singh, and at the same time be in accordance with our treaties, which prohibit such ties between the States. Footnote 10.3.24: Thana [about 20 miles E. of Jhalāwar], formerly called Jajawar, is the only fief of the twelve sons of Ratan which now pays obedience to its proper head. The Maharaja Bikramajit is the lineal descendant of Maha Singh, and if alive, the earth bears not a more honourable, brave, or simple-minded Rajput. He was the devoted servant of his young prince, and my very sincere and valued friend; but we shall have occasion to mention the ‘lion-killer’ in the Personal Narrative. Footnote 10.3.25: [For this campaign see Jadunath Sarkar, _History of Aurangzib_, i. 264 ff.; Grant Duff 70. Bidar was stormed in March 1657. The gallantry of Chhattarsāl is commended by Jadunath Sarkar i. 272, ii. 6.] Footnote 10.3.26: The reader will observe, as to the phraseology of these important occurrences, that the language is that of the original: it is, in fact, almost a verbatim translation from the memoirs of these princes in the Bundi archives. Footnote 10.3.27: The Rajput prince, who drew up this character, seems to have well studied Aurangzeb, and it is gratifying to find such concurrence with every authority. But could such a character be eventually mistaken? Footnote 10.3.28: [See p. 1486.] Footnote 10.3.29: [Or Samūgarh, 29th May 1658.] Footnote 10.3.30: [The defeat of Dāra Shikoh at Dholpur preceded the battle of Samūgarh-Fatehābād: it was at Samūgarh that Chhattarsāl was killed (Jadunath Sarkar, ii. 37 ff.).] Footnote 10.3.31: [The temple of Keshorāi, or Kesava Krishna, is on the N. bank of the Chambal, 12 miles below Kotah (_Rājputāna Gazetteer_, 1879, i. 238).] Footnote 10.3.32: [Indargarh about 30 miles N. of Būndi city: Khatoli 20 miles E. of Indargarh.] Footnote 10.3.33: It is a fact worthy of notice, that the most intrepid of the Rajput princely cavaliers are of a very devout frame of mind. Footnote 10.3.34: [Rāo Bhāo Singh died between March 1677 and February 1678 (Manucci ii. 402).] Footnote 10.3.35: Bhim Singh, who had the fief of Gugor bestowed on him, had a son, Kishan Singh, who succeeded him, and was put to death by Aurangzeb. Aniruddh was the son of Kishan. Footnote 10.3.36: It is useless to repeat that this is a literal translation from the records and journals of the Hara princes, who served the emperors. Footnote 10.3.37: This catastrophe will be related in the Personal Narrative. Footnote 10.3.38: _Vide_ Vol. I. p. 473, _et passim_, in which the Bundi Annals are corroborated by the Annals of Mewar, and by an autograph letter of Raja Jai Singh of Amber, dated the 19th Phalgun, S. 1775 (A.D. 1719). Footnote 10.3.39: These subjects being already discussed in Vol. I. would have had no place here, were it not necessary to show how accurately the Bundi princes recorded events, and to rescue them from the charge of having no historical documents. Footnote 10.3.40: This lady was sister to Chamanji, elder brother to Jai Singh, and heir-apparent to the _gaddi_ of Amber, who was put to death by Jai Singh. To this murder the Rathor bard alludes in the couplet given in their Annals, see Vol. II. p. 1059. ‘Chamanji’ ['flower-bed'] is the title of the heirs-apparent of Amber. I know not whether Chamanji, which is merely a term of endearment, may not be Bijai Singh, whose captivity we have related. See p. 1349. Footnote 10.3.41: [About 35 miles N. of Būndi city.] ----- CHAPTER 4 =Mahārāo Ummed Singh, A.D. 1743-1804.=—Ummeda was but thirteen years of age on the death of his house’s foe, the Raja of Amber, in S. 1800 (A.D. 1744). As soon as the event was known to him, putting himself at the head of his clansmen, he attacked and carried Patan and Gainoli.[10.4.1] “When it was heard that the son of Budh Singh was awake, the ancient Haras flocked to his standard,” and Durjansal of Kotah, rejoicing to see the real Hara blood thus displayed, nobly sent his aid. =Jaipur attacks Kotah.=—Isari Singh, who was now lord of Amber, pursuing his father’s policy, determined that Kotah should bend to his supremacy as well as the elder branch of Bundi. The defiance of his power avowed in the support of young Ummeda brought his views into [488] action, and Kotah was invested. But the result does not belong to this part of our history. On the retreat from Kotah, Isari sent a body of Nanakpanthis[10.4.2] to attack Ummeda in his retreat at Burh (old) Lohari, amongst the Minas, the aboriginal lords of these mountain-wilds, who had often served the cause of the Haras, notwithstanding they had deprived them of their birthright. The youthful valour and distress of young Ummeda so gained their hearts, that five thousand bowmen assembled and desired to be led against his enemies. With these auxiliaries, he anticipated his foes at Bichori, and while the nimble mountaineers plundered the camp, Ummeda charged the Jaipur army sword in hand, and slaughtered them without mercy, taking their kettledrums and standards. On the news of this defeat, another army of eighteen thousand men, under Narayandas Khatri, was sent against Ummeda. But the affair of Bichori confirmed the dispositions of the Haras: from all quarters they flocked to the standard of the young prince, who determined to risk everything in a general engagement. The foe had reached Dablana.[10.4.3] On the eve of attack, young Ummeda went to propitiate ‘the lady of Situn,’[10.4.4] the tutelary divinity of his race; and as he knelt before the altar of Asapurna (the fulfiller of hope), his eyes falling upon the turrets of Bundi, then held by a traitor, he swore to conquer or die. =Battle of Dablāna.=—Inspired with like sentiments, his brave clansmen formed around the orange flag, the gift of Jahangir to Rao Ratan; and as they cleared the pass leading to Dablana, the foe was discovered marshalled to receive them. In one of those compact masses, termed _gol_, with serried lances advanced, Ummeda led his Haras to the charge. Its physical and moral impression was irresistible; and a vista was cut through the dense host opposed to them. Again they formed; and again, in spite of the showers of cannon-shot, the sword renewed its blows; but every charge was fatal to the bravest of Ummeda’s men. In the first onset fell his maternal uncle, Prithi Singh, Solanki, with the Maharaja Marjad Singh of Motra, a valiant Hara, who fell just as he launched his _chakra_ (discus) at the head of the Khatri commander of Amber. Prayag Singh, chief of Soran, a branch of the Thana fief, was also slain, with many of inferior note. The steed of Ummeda was struck by a cannon-ball, and the intestines protruded from the wound. The intrepidity of the youthful hero, nobly seconded by his kin and clan, was unavailing; and the chieftains, fearing he would throw away a life the preservation of which they all desired, entreated he would abandon the contest; observing, “that if he survived, Bundi must be theirs; but if he was slain, there was an end of all their hopes [489].” With grief he submitted; and as they gained the Sawali Pass, which leads to Indargarh, he dismounted to breathe his faithful steed; and as he loosened the girths, it expired. Ummeda sat down and wept. Hanja was worthy of such a mark of his esteem: he was a steed of Irak, the gift of the king to his father, whom he had borne in many an encounter. Nor was this natural ebullition of the young Hara a transient feeling: Hanja’s memory was held in veneration, and the first act of Ummeda, when he recovered his throne, was to erect a statue to the steed who bore him so nobly on the day of Dablana. It stands in the square (_chauk_) of the city, and receives the reverence of each Hara, who links his history with one of the brightest of their achievements, though obscured by momentary defeat.[10.4.5] Ummeda gained Indargarh, which was close at hand, on foot; but this traitor to the name of Hara, who had acknowledged the supremacy of Amber, not only refused his prince a horse in his adversity, but warned him off the domain, asking “if he meant to be the ruin of Indargarh as well as Bundi?” Disdaining to drink water within its bounds, the young prince, stung by this perfidious mark of inhospitality, took the direction of Karwain. Its chief made amends for the other’s churlishness: he advanced to meet him, offered such aid as he had to give, and presented him with a horse. Dismissing his faithful kinsmen to their homes, and begging their swords when fortune might be kinder, he regained his old retreat, the ruined palace of Rampura, amongst the ravines of the Chambal. =Būndi recovered by Ummed Singh.=—Durjansal of Kotah, who had so bravely defended his capital against the pretensions to supremacy of Isari Singh and his auxiliary, Apa Sindhia, felt more interest than ever in the cause of Ummeda. The Kotah prince’s councils were governed and his armies led by a Bhat (bard), who, it may be inferred, was professionally inspired by the heroism of the young Hara to lend his sword as well as his muse towards reinstating him in the halls of his fathers. Accordingly, all the strength of Kotah, led by the Bhat, was added to the kinsmen and friends of Ummeda; and an attempt on Bundi was resolved. The city, whose walls were in a state of dilapidation from this continual warfare, was taken without difficulty; and the assault of the citadel of Taragarh had commenced, when the heroic Bhat received a fatal shot from a treacherous hand in his own party. His death was concealed, and a cloth thrown [490] over his body. The assailants pressed on; the usurper, alarmed, took to flight; the ‘lion’s hope’[10.4.6] was fulfilled, and Ummeda was seated on the throne of his fathers. =Būndi occupied by Jaipur.=—Dalil fled to his suzerain at Amber, whose disposable forces, under the famous Khatri Keshodas, were immediately put in motion to re-expel the Hara. Bundi was invested, and having had no time given to prepare for defence, Ummeda was compelled to abandon the walls so nobly won, and “the flag of Dhundhar waved over the _kunguras_ (battlements) of Dewa-Banga.” And let the redeeming virtue of the usurper be recorded; who, when his suzerain of Amber desired to reinstate him on the _gaddi_, refused “to bring a second time the stain of treason on his head, by which he had been disgraced in the opinion of mankind.” =Ummed Singh in Exile.=—Ummeda, once more a wanderer, alternately courting the aid of Mewar and Marwar, never suspended his hostility to the usurper of his rights, but carried his incursions, without intermission, into his paternal domains. One of these led him to the village of Banodia: hither the Kachhwaha Rani, the widowed queen of his father, and the cause of all their miseries, had retired, disgusted with herself and the world, and lamenting, when too late, the ruin she had brought upon her husband, herself, and the family she had entered. Ummeda paid her a visit, and the interview added fresh pangs to her self-reproach. His sufferings, his heroism, brightened by adversity, originating with her nefarious desire to stifle his claims of primogeniture by a spurious adoption, awakened sentiments of remorse, of sympathy, and sorrow. Determined to make some amends, she adopted the resolution of going to the Deccan, to solicit aid for the son of Budh Singh. When she arrived on the banks of the Nerbudda a pillar was pointed out to her on which was inscribed a prohibition to any of her race to cross this stream, which like the Indus was also styled _atak_, or ‘forbidden.’[10.4.7] Like a true Rajputni, she broke the tablet in pieces, and threw it into the stream, observing with a jesuitical casuistry, that there was no longer any impediment when no ordinance existed. Having passed the Rubicon, she proceeded forthwith to the camp of Malhar Rao Holkar. The sister of Jai Singh, the most potent Hindu prince of India, became a suppliant to this goatherd leader[10.4.8] of a horde of plunderers, nay, adopted him as her brother to effect the redemption of Bundi for the exiled Ummeda. =Malhār Rāo Holkar assists Ummed Singh.=—Malhar, without the accident of noble birth, possessed the sentiments which belong to it, and he promised all she asked. How far his compliance might be promoted by [491] another call for his lance from the Rana of Mewar, in virtue of the marriage-settlement which promised the succession of Amber to a princess of his house, the Bundi records do not tell: they refer only to the prospects of its own prince. But we may, without any reflection on the gallantry of Holkar, express a doubt how far he would have lent the aid of his horde to this sole object, had he not had in view the splendid bribe of sixty-four lakhs from the Rana, to be paid when Isari Singh should be removed, for his nephew Madho Singh.[10.4.9] Be this as it may, the Bundi chronicle states that the lady, instead of the temporary expedient of delivering Bundi, conducted the march of the Mahrattas direct on Jaipur. Circumstances favoured her designs. The character of Isari Singh had raised up enemies about his person, who seized the occasion to forward at once the views of Bundi and Mewar, whose princes had secretly gained them over to their views. The Amber prince no sooner heard of the approach of the Mahrattas to his capital than he quitted it to offer them battle. But their strength had been misrepresented, nor was it till he reached the castle of Bagru[10.4.10] that he was undeceived and surrounded. When too late, he saw that ‘treason had done its worst,’ and that the confidence he had placed in the successor of a minister whom he had murdered, met its natural reward. The bard has transmitted in a sloka the cause of his overthrow: _Jabhī chhodī Īsra Rāj karan kī ās, Mantrī moto māriyo Khatri Kesodās,_ ‘Isari forfeited all hopes of regality, when he slew that great minister Keshodas.’ =Jaipur forced to restore Ummed Singh.=—The sons of this minister, named Harsahai and Gursahai, betrayed their prince to the ‘Southron,’ by a false return of their numbers, and led him to the attack with means totally inadequate. Resistance to a vast numerical superiority would have been madness: he retreated to the castle of this fief of Amber, where, after a siege of ten days, he was forced not only to sign a deed for the surrender of Bundi, and the renunciation of all claims to it for himself and his descendants, but to put, in full acknowledgment of his rights, the _tika_ on the forehead of Ummeda. With this deed, and accompanied by the contingent of Kotah, they proceeded to Bundi; the traitor was expelled; and while rejoicings were making to celebrate the installation of Ummeda, the funereal pyre was lighted at Amber, to consume the mortal remains of his foe. Raja Isari could [492] not survive his disgrace, and terminated his existence and hostility by poison, thereby facilitating the designs both of Bundi and Mewar. Thus in S. 1805 (A.D. 1749) Ummeda regained his patrimony, after fourteen years of exile, during which a traitor had pressed the royal ‘cushion’ of Bundi. But this contest deprived it of many of its ornaments, and, combined with other causes, at length reduced it almost to its intrinsic worth, ‘a heap of cotton.’ Malhar Rao, the founder of the Holkar State, in virtue of his adoption as the brother of the widow-queen of Budh Singh, had the title of Mamu, or uncle, to young Ummeda. But true to the maxims of his race, he did not take his buckler to protect the oppressed, at the impulse of those chivalrous notions so familiar to the Rajput, but deemed a portion of the Bundi territory a better incentive, and a more unequivocal proof of gratitude, than the titles of brother and uncle. Accordingly, he demanded, and obtained by regular deed of surrender, the town and district of Patan on the left bank of the Chambal.[10.4.11] The sole equivalent (if such it could be termed) for these fourteen years of usurpation, were the fortifications covering the palace and town, now called Taragarh (the ‘Star-fort’), built by Dalil Singh. Madho Singh, who succeeded to the _gaddi_ of Jaipur, followed up the designs commenced by Jai Singh, and which had cost his successor his life, to render the smaller States of Central India dependent on Amber. For this Kotah had been besieged, and Ummeda expelled, and as such policy could not be effected by their unassisted means, it only tended to the benefit of the auxiliaries, who soon became principals, to the prejudice and detriment of all. Madho Singh, having obtained the castle of Ranthambhor, a pretext was afforded for these pretensions to supremacy. From the time of its surrender by Rao Surjan to Akbar, the importance of this castle was established by its becoming the first Sarkar, or ‘department,’ in the province of Ajmer, consisting of no less than ‘seventy-three mahals,’[10.4.12] or extensive fiefs, in which were comprehended not only Bundi and Kotah, and all their dependencies, but the entire State of Sheopur, and all the petty fiefs south of the Banganga, the aggregate of which now constitutes the State of Amber. In fact, with the exception of Mahmudabad in Bengal,[10.4.13] Ranthambhor was the most extensive Sarkar of the empire. In the decrepitude of the empire, this castle was maintained by a veteran commander [493] as long as funds and provisions lasted; but these failing, in order to secure it from falling into the hands of the Mahrattas, and thus being lost for ever to the throne, he sought out a Rajput prince, to whom he might entrust it. He applied to Bundi; but the Hara, dreading to compromise his fealty if unable to maintain it, refused the boon; and having no alternative, he resigned it to the prince of Amber as a trust which he could no longer defend. Out of this circumstance alone originated the claims of Jaipur to tribute from the Kothris, or fiefs in Haraoti; claims without a shadow of justice; but the maintenance of which, for the sake of the display of supremacy and paltry annual relief, has nourished half a century of irritation, which it is high time should cease.[10.4.14] =Zālim Singh of Kotah.=—It was the assertion of this supremacy over Kotah as well as Bundi which first brought into notice the most celebrated Rajput of modern times, Zalim Singh of Kotah. Rao Durjansal, who then ruled that State, had too much of the Hara blood to endure such pretensions as the casual possession of Ranthambhor conferred upon his brother prince of Amber, who considered that, as the late lieutenant of the king, he had a right to transfer his powers to himself. The battle of Bhatwara, in S. 1817 (A.D. 1761), for ever extinguished these pretensions, on which occasion Zalim Singh, then scarcely of age, mainly contributed to secure the independence of the State he was ultimately destined to govern. But this exploit belongs to the annals of Kotah, and would not have been here alluded to, except to remark, that had the Bundi army joined Kotah in this common cause, they would have redeemed its fiefs from the tribute they are still compelled to pay to Jaipur. Ummeda’s active mind was engrossed with the restoration of the prosperity which the unexampled vicissitudes of the last fifteen years had undermined; but he felt his spirit cramped and his energies contracted by the dominant influence and avarice of the insatiable Mahrattas, through whose means he recovered his capital; still there was as yet no fixed principle of government recognized, and the Rajputs, who [494] witnessed their periodical visitations like flights of locusts over their plains, hoped that this scourge would be equally transitory. Under this great and pernicious error, all the Rajput States continued to mix these interlopers in their national disputes, which none had more cause to repent than the Haras of Bundi. But the hold which the Mahrattas retained upon the lands of ‘Dewa Banga’ would never have acquired such tenacity, had the bold arm and sage mind of Ummeda continued to guide the vessel of the State throughout the lengthened period of his natural existence: his premature political decease adds another example to the truth, that patriarchal, and indeed all governments are imperfect where the laws are not supreme. =Ummed Singh’s Revenge on Indargarh.=—An act of revenge stained the reputation of Ummeda, naturally virtuous, and but for which deed we should have to paint him as one of the bravest, wisest, and most faultless characters which Rajput history has recorded. Eight years had elapsed since the recovery of his dominions, and we have a right to infer that his wrongs and their authors had been forgotten, or rather forgiven, for human nature can scarcely forget so treacherous an act as that of his vassal of Indargarh, on the defeat of Dablana. As so long a time had passed since the restoration without the penalty of his treason being exacted, it might have been concluded that the natural generosity of this high-minded prince had co-operated with a wise policy, in passing over the wrong without forgoing his right to avenge it. The degenerate Rajput, who could at such a moment witness the necessities of his prince and refuse to relieve them, could never reflect on that hour without self-abhorrence; but his spirit was too base to offer reparation by a future life of duty; he cursed the magnanimity of the man he had injured; hated him for his very forbearance, and aggravated the part he had acted by fresh injuries, and on a point too delicate to admit of being overlooked. Ummeda had ‘sent the coco-nut,’ the symbol of matrimonial alliance, to Madho Singh, in the name of his sister. It was received in a full assembly of all the nobles of the court, and with the respect due to one of the most illustrious races of Rajputana. Deo Singh of Indargarh was at that time on a visit at Jaipur, and the compliment was paid him by the Raja of asking “what fame said of the daughter of Budh Singh?” It is not impossible that he might have sought this opportunity of further betraying his prince; for his reply was an insulting innuendo, leading to doubts as to the purity of her blood. That it was grossly false, was soon proved by the solicitation of her hand by Raja Bijai Singh of Marwar. “The coco-nut was returned to Bundi,”—an insult never to be forgiven by a Rajput [495]. In S. 1813 (A.D. 1757), Ummeda went to pay his devotions at the shrine of Bijaiseni Mata (‘the mother of victory’), near Karwar.[10.4.15] Being in the vicinity of Indargarh, he invited its chief to join the assembled vassals with their families; and though dissuaded, Deo Singh obeyed, accompanied by his son and grandson. All were cut off at one fell swoop, and the line of the traitor was extinct: as if the air of heaven should not be contaminated by the smoke of their ashes, Ummeda commanded that the bodies of the calumnious traitor and his issue should be thrown into the lake. His fief of Indargarh was given to his brother, between whom and the present incumbent four generations have passed away. Fifteen years elapsed, during which the continual scenes of disorder around him furnished ample occupation for his thoughts. Yet, in the midst of all, would intrude the remembrance of this single act, in which he had usurped the powers of Him to whom alone it belongs to execute vengeance. Though no voice was lifted up against the deed, though he had a moral conviction that a traitor’s death was the due of Deo Singh, his soul, generous as it was brave, revolted at the crime, however sanctified by custom,[10.4.16] which confounds the innocent with the guilty. To appease his conscience, he determined to abdicate the throne, and pass the rest of his days in penitential rites, and traversing, in the pilgrim’s garb, the vast regions of India, to visit the sacred shrines of his faith. =Abdication of Mahārāo Ummed Singh.=—In S. 1827 (A.D. 1771), the imposing ceremony of ‘Jugraj,’ which terminated the political existence of Ummeda, was performed. An image of the prince was made, and a pyre was erected, on which it was consumed. The hair and whiskers of Ajit, his successor, were taken off, and offered to the Manes; lamentation and wailing were heard in the _ranwas_,[10.4.17] and the twelve days of _matam_, or ‘mourning,’ were passed as if Ummeda had really deceased;[10.4.18] on the expiration of which, the installation of his successor took place, when Ajit Singh was proclaimed prince of the Haras of Bundi. The abdicated Ummeda, with the title of Sriji (by which alone he was henceforth known), retired to that holy spot in the valley sanctified by the miraculous cure of the first ‘lord of the Patar,’[10.4.19] and which was named after one of the fountains of the Ganges, Kedarnath. To this spot, hallowed by a multitude of associations, the warlike pilgrim brought The fruit and flower of many a province, and had the gratification to find these exotics, whether the hardy offspring of the [496] snow-clad Himalaya, or the verge of ocean in the tropic, fructify and flourish amidst the rocks of his native abode. It is curious even to him who is ignorant of the moral vicissitudes which produced it, to see the pine of Tibet, the cane of Malacca, and other exotics, planted by the hand of the princely ascetic, flourishing around his hermitage, in spite of the intense heats of this rock-bound abode. When Ummeda resigned the sceptre of the Haras, it was from the conviction that a life of meditation alone could yield the consolation, and obtain the forgiveness which he found necessary to his repose. But in assuming the pilgrim’s staff, he did not lay aside any feeling becoming his rank or his birth. There was no pusillanimous prostration of intellect; no puling weakness of bigoted sentiment, but the same lofty mind which redeemed his birthright, accompanied him wherever he bent his steps to seek knowledge in the society of devout and holy men. He had read in the annals of his own and of other States, that “the trappings of royalty were snares to perdition, and that happy was the man who in time threw them aside and made his peace with heaven.” But in obeying, at once, the dictates of conscience and of custom, he felt his mind too much alive to the wonders of creation, to bury himself in the fane of Kanhaiya, or the sacred baths on the Ganges; and he determined to see all those holy places commemorated in the ancient epics of his nation, and the never-ending theme of the wandering devotee. In this determination he was, perhaps, somewhat influenced by that love of adventure in which he had been nurtured, and it was a balm to his mind when he found that arms and religion were not only compatible, but that his pious resolution to force a way through the difficulties which beset the pilgrim’s path, enhanced the merit of his devotion. Accordingly, the royal ascetic went forth on his pilgrimage, not habited in the hermit’s garb, but armed at all points. Even in this there was penance, not ostentation, and he carried or buckled on his person one of every species of offensive or defensive weapon then in use: a load which would oppress any two Rajputs in these degenerate times. He wore a quilted tunic, which would resist a sabre-cut; besides a matchlock, a lance, a sword, a dagger, and their appurtenances of knives, pouches, and priming-horn, he had a battle-axe, a javelin, a tomahawk, a discus, bow and quiver of arrows; and it is affirmed that such was his muscular power, even when threescore and ten years had blanched his beard in wandering to and fro thus accoutred, that he could place the whole of this panoply within his shield, and with one arm not only raise it, but hold it for some seconds extended [497]. =The Wanderings of Ummed Singh.=—With a small escort of his gallant clansmen, during a long series of years he traversed every region, from the glacial fountains of the Ganges to the southern promontory of Rameswaram;[10.4.20] and from the hot-wells of Sita in Arakan,[10.4.21] and the Moloch of Orissa,[10.4.22] to the shrine of the Hindu Apollo at ‘the world’s end.’[10.4.23] Within these limits of Hinduism, Ummeda saw every place of holy resort, of curiosity, or of learning; and whenever he revisited his paternal domains, his return was greeted not only by his own tribe, but by every prince and Rajput of Rajwara, who deemed his abode hallowed if the princely pilgrim halted there on his route. He was regarded as an oracle, while the treasures of knowledge which his observation had accumulated, caused his conversation to be courted and every word to be recorded. The admiration paid to him while living cannot be better ascertained than by the reverence manifested by every Hara to his memory. To them his word was a law, and every relic of him continues to be held in veneration. Almost his last journey was to the extremity of his nation, the temples at the Delta of the Indus, and the shrine of the Hindu Cybele, the terrific Agnidevi of Hinglaj, on the shores of Makran, even beyond the Rubicon of the Hindus.[10.4.24] As he returned by Dwarka he was beset by a band of Kabas,[10.4.25] a plundering race infesting these regions. But the veteran, uniting the arm of flesh to that of faith, valiantly defended himself, and gained a complete victory, making prisoner their leader, who, as the price of his ransom, took an oath never again to molest the pilgrims to Dwarka. The warlike pilgrimage of Ummeda had been interrupted by a tragical occurrence, which occasioned the death of his son, and compelled him to abide for a time at the seat of government to superintend the education of his grandchild. This eventful catastrophe, interwoven in the border history of Mewar and Haraoti, is well worthy of narration, as illustrative of manners and belief, and fulfilled a prophecy pronounced centuries before by the dying Sati of Bumbaoda, that “the Rao and the Rana should never meet at the Aheria (or spring hunt) without death ensuing.” What we are about to relate was the fourth repetition of this sport with the like fatal result. The hamlet of Bilaita, which produced but a few good mangoes, and for its population a few Minas, was the ostensible cause of dispute. The chief of Bundi, either deeming it within his territory, or desiring to consider it so, threw up a fortification, in which he placed a garrison to overawe the freebooters, who were instigated by the discontented chiefs of Mewar to represent this as an infringement of their prince’s rights. Accordingly, the Rana marched with all his chieftains, and a mercenary [498] band of Sindis, to the disputed point, whence he invited the Bundi prince, Ajit, to his camp. He came, and the Rana was so pleased with his manners and conduct, that Bilaita and its mango grove were totally forgotten. Spring was at hand; the joyous month of Phalgun, when it was necessary to open the year with a sacrifice of the boar to Gauri (see Vol. II. p. 660). The young Hara, in return for the courtesies of the Rana, invited him to open the Aheria, within the _ramnas_ or preserves of Bundi. The invitation was accepted; the prince of the Sesodias, according to usage, distributed the green turbans and scarfs, and on the appointed day, with a brilliant cavalcade, repaired to the heights of Nanta. =Murder of Rāna Ari Singh.=—The abdicated Rao, who had lately returned from Badarinath, no sooner heard of the projected hunt, than he dispatched a special messenger to remind his son of the anathema of the Sati. The impetuous Ajit replied that it was impossible to recall his invitation on such pusillanimous grounds. The morning came, and the Rana, filled with sentiments of friendship for the young Rao, rode with him to the field. But the preceding evening, the minister of Mewar had waited on the Rao, and in language the most insulting told him to surrender Bilaita, or he would send a body of Sindis to place him in restraint, and he was vile enough to insinuate that he was merely the organ of his prince’s commands. This rankled in the mind of the Rao throughout the day; and when the sport was over, and he had the Rana’s leave to depart, a sudden idea passed across his mind of the intended degradation, and an incipient resolution to anticipate this disgrace induced him to return. The Rana, unconscious of any offence, received his young friend with a smile, repeated his permission to retire, and observed that they should soon meet again. Irresolute, and overcome by this affable behaviour, his half-formed intent was abandoned, and again he bowed and withdrew. But scarcely had he gone a few paces when, as if ashamed of himself, he summoned up the powers of revenge, and rushed, spear in hand, upon his victim. With such unerring force did he ply it, that the head of the lance, after passing through the Rana, was transfixed in the neck of his steed. The wounded prince had merely time to exclaim, as he regarded the assassin on whom he had lavished his friendship, “Oh, Hara! what have you done?” when the Indargarh chief finished the treachery with his sword. The Hara Rao, as if glorying in the act, carried off the _chhattar-changi_, ‘the golden sun in the sable disk,’ the regal insignia of Mewar, which he lodged in the palace of Bundi. The abdicated Ummeda, whose gratified revenge had led to a life of repentance, was horror-struck at this fresh atrocity in his house [499]: he cried, “Shame on the deed!” nor would he henceforth look on the face of his son. A highly dramatic effect is thrown around the last worldly honours paid to the murdered king of Mewar; and although his fate has been elsewhere described, it may be proper to record it from the chronicle of his foeman. =The Obsequies of Rāna Ari Singh.=—The Rana and the Bundi prince had married two sisters, daughters of the prince of Kishangarh, so that there were ties of connexion to induce the Rana to reject all suspicion of danger, though he had been warned by his wife to beware of his brother-in-law. The ancient feud had been balanced in the mutual death of the last two princes, and no motive for enmity existed. On the day previous to this disastrous event, the Mewar minister had given a feast, of which the princes and their nobles had partaken, when all was harmony and friendship; but the sequel to the deed strongly corroborates the opinion that it was instigated by the nobles of Mewar, in hatred of their tyrannical prince; and other hints were not wanting in addition to the indignant threats of the minister to kindle the feeling of revenge. At the moment the blow was struck, a simple mace-bearer alone had the fidelity to defend his master; not a chief was at hand either to intercept the stroke, or pursue the assassin; on the contrary, no sooner was the deed consummated, than the whole chivalry of Mewar, as if panic-struck and attacked by a host, took to flight, abandoning their camp and the dead body of their master. A single concubine remained to perform the last rites to her lord. She commanded a costly pyre to be raised, and prepared to become his companion to a world unknown. With the murdered corpse in her arms, she reared her form from the pile, and, as the torch was applied, she pronounced a curse on his murderer, invoking the tree under whose shade it was raised to attest the prophecy, “that, if a selfish treachery alone prompted the deed, within two months the assassin might be an example to mankind; but if it sprung from a noble revenge of any ancient feud, she absolved him from the curse: a branch of the tree fell in token of assent, and the ashes of the Rana and the Sati whitened the plain of Bilaita.” =Death of Mahārāo Ajīt Singh.=—Within the two months, the prophetic anathema was fulfilled; the Rao of the Haras was a corpse, exhibiting an awful example of divine vengeance: “the flesh dropped from his bones, and he expired, an object of loathing and of misery.” Hitherto these feuds had been balanced by the _lex talionis_, or its substitutes, but this last remains unappeased, strengthening the belief that it was prompted from Mewar [500]. =Mahārāo Bishan Singh, A.D. 1770-1821.=—Bishan Singh, the sole offspring of Ajit, and who succeeded to the _gaddi_, was then an infant, and it became a matter of necessity that Sriji should watch his interests. Having arranged the affairs of the infant Rao, and placed an intelligent Dhabhai (foster-brother) at the head of the government, he recommenced his peregrinations, being often absent four years at a time, until within a few years of his death, when the feebleness of age confined him to his hermitage of Kedarnath. It affords an additional instance of Rajput instability of character, or rather of the imperfection of their government, that, in his old age, when a life of austerity had confirmed a renunciation which reflection had prompted, the venerable warrior became an object of distrust to his grandchild. Miscreants, who dreaded to see wisdom near the throne, had the audacity to add insult to a prohibition of Sriji’s return to Bundi, commanding him “to eat sweetmeats and tell his beads at Benares.” The messenger, who found him advanced as far as Nayashahr,[10.4.27] delivered the mandate, adding that his ashes should not mingle with his fathers'. But such was the estimation in which he was held, and the sanctity he had acquired from these pilgrimages, that the sentence was no sooner known than the neighbouring princes became suitors for his society. The heroism of his youth, the dignified piety of his age, inspired the kindred mind of Partap Singh of Amber with very different feelings from those of his own tribe. He addressed Sriji as a son and a servant, requesting permission to '_darshankar_' (worship him), and convey him to his capital. Such was the courtesy of the flower of the Kachhwahas! Sriji declined this mark of homage, but accepted the invitation. He was received with honour, and so strongly did the gallant and virtuous Partap feel the indignity put upon the abdicated prince, that he told him, if “any remnant of worldly association yet lurked within him,” he would in person, at the head of all the troops of Amber, place him on the throne both of Bundi and Kotah. Sriji’s reply was consistent with his magnanimity: “They are both mine already—on the one is my nephew, on the other my grandchild.” On this occasion, Zalim Singh of Kotah appeared on the scene as mediator; he repaired to Bundi, and exposed the futility of Bishan Singh’s apprehensions; and armed with full powers of reconciliation, sent Lalaji Pandit to escort the old Rao to his capital. The meeting was such as might have been expected, between a precipitate youth tutored by artful knaves, and the venerable chief who had renounced every mundane feeling but affection for his offspring. It drew tears from all eyes: “My child,” said the pilgrim-warrior, presenting his sword, “take this; apply it yourself if you think I can have any bad intentions towards you; but let not the base defame me” [501]. The young Rao wept aloud as he entreated forgiveness; and the Pandit and Zalim Singh had the satisfaction of seeing the intentions of the sycophants, who surrounded the minor prince, defeated. Sriji refused, however, to enter the halls of Bundi during the remainder of his life, which ended about eight years after this event, when his grandchild entreated “he would close his eyes within the walls of his fathers.” A remnant of that feeling inseparable from humanity made the dying Ummeda offer no objection, and he was removed in a _sukhpal_[10.4.28] (litter) to the palace, where he that night breathed his last. Thus, in S. 1860 (A.D. 1804), Ummeda Singh closed a varied and chequered life; the sun of his morning rose amidst clouds of adversity, soon to burst forth in a radiant prosperity; but scarcely had it attained its meridian glory ere crime dimmed its splendour and it descended in solitude and sorrow. Sixty years had passed over his head since Ummeda, when only thirteen years of age, put himself at the head of his Haras, and carried Patan and Gandoli. His memory is venerated in Haraoti, and but for the stain which the gratification of his revenge has left upon his fame, he would have been the model of a Rajput prince. But let us not apply the European standard of abstract virtue to these princes, who have so few checks and so many incentives to crime, and whose good acts deserve the more applause from an appalling _honhar_ (predestination) counteracting moral responsibility. =Colonel Monson’s Campaign.=—The period of Sriji’s death was an important era in the history of the Haras. It was at this time that a British army, under the unfortunate Monson, for the first time appeared in these regions, avowedly for the purpose of putting down Holkar, the great foe of the Rajputs, but especially of Bundi.[10.4.29] Whether the aged chief was yet alive and counselled this policy, which has since been gratefully repaid by Britain, we are not aware; but whatever has been done for Bundi has fallen short of the chivalrous deserts of its prince. It was not on the advance of our army, when its ensigns were waving in anticipation of success, but on its humiliating flight, that a safe passage was not only cheerfully granted, but aided to the utmost of the Raja’s means, and with an almost culpable disregard of his own welfare and interests. It was, indeed, visited with retribution, which we little knew, or, in the pusillanimous policy of that day, little heeded. Suffice it to say, that, in 1817, when we called upon the Rajputs to arm and coalesce with us in the putting down of rapine, Bundi was one of the foremost to join the alliance. Well she might be; for the Mahratta flag waved in unison with her own within the walls of the capital, while the revenues collected scarcely [502] afforded the means of personal protection to its prince. Much of this was owing to our abandonment of the Rao in 1804. =Compensation to Būndi after the Pindāri War.=—Throughout the contest of 1817, Bundi had no will but ours; its prince and dependents were in arms ready to execute our behest; and when victory crowned our efforts in every quarter, on the subsequent pacification, the Rao Raja Bishan Singh was not forgotten. The districts held by Holkar, some of which had been alienated for half a century, and which had become ours by right of conquest, were restored to Bundi without a qualification; while, at the same time, we negotiated the surrender to him of the districts held by Sindhia, on his paying, through us, an annual sum calculated on the average of the last ten years’ depreciated revenue. The intense gratitude felt by the Raja was expressed in a few forcible words: “I am not a man of protestation; but my head is yours whenever you require it.” This was not an unmeaning phrase of compliment; he would have sacrificed his life, and that of every Hara who “ate his salt,” had we made experiment of his fidelity. Still, immense as were the benefits showered upon Bundi, and with which her prince was deeply penetrated, there was a drawback. The old Machiavelli of Kotah had been before him in signing himself ‘_fidwi Sarkar Angrez_’ (the slave of the English government), and had contrived to get Indargarh, Balwan, Antardah, and Khatoli, the chief feudatories of Bundi, under his protection. The frank and brave Rao Raja could not help deeply regretting an arrangement, which, as he emphatically said, was “clipping his wings.” The disposition is a bad one, and both justice and political expediency enjoin a revision of it, and the bringing about a compromise which would restore the integrity of the most interesting and deserving little State in India.[10.4.30] Well has it repaid the anxious care we manifested for its interests; for while every other principality has, by some means or other, caused uneasiness or trouble to the protecting power, Bundi has silently advanced to comparative prosperity, happy in her independence, and interfering with no one. The Rao Raja survived the restoration of his independence only four short years, when he was carried off by that scourge, the cholera morbus. In his extremity, writhing under a disease which unmans the strongest frame and mind, he was cool and composed. He interdicted his wives from following him to the pyre, and bequeathing his son and successor [503] to the guardianship of the representative of the British government, breathed his last in the prime of life. =Death and Character of Mahārāo Bishan Singh.=—The character of Bishan Singh may be summed up in a few words. He was an honest man, and every inch a Rajput. Under an unpolished exterior, he concealed an excellent heart and an energetic soul; he was by no means deficient in understanding, and possessed a thorough knowledge of his own interests. When the Mahrattas gradually curtailed his revenues, and circumscribed his power and comforts, he seemed to delight in showing how easily he could dispense with unessential enjoyments; and found in the pleasures of the chase the only stimulus befitting a Rajput. He would bivouac for days in the lion’s lair, nor quit the scene until he had circumvented the forest king, the only prey he deemed worthy of his skill. He had slain upwards of one hundred lions with his own hand, besides many tigers, and boars innumerable had been victims to his lance. In this noble pastime, not exempt from danger, and pleasurable in proportion to the toil, he had a limb broken, which crippled him for life, and shortened his stature, previously below the common standard. But when he mounted his steed and waved his lance over his head, there was a masculine vigour and dignity which at once evinced that Bishan Singh, had we called upon him, would have wielded his weapon as worthily in our cause as did his glorious ancestors for Jahangir or Shah Alam. He was somewhat despotic in his own little empire, knowing that fear is a necessary incentive to respect in the governed, more especially amongst the civil servants of his government; and, if the Court Journal of Bundi may be credited, his audiences with his chancellor of the exchequer, who was his premier, must have been amusing to those in the antechamber. The Raja had a reserved fund, to which the minister was required to add a hundred rupees daily; and whatever plea he might advance for the neglect of other duties, on this point none would be listened to, or the appeal to Indrajit was threatened. “The conqueror of Indra” was no superior divinity, but a shoe of superhuman size suspended from a peg, where a more classic prince would have exhibited his rod of empire. But he reserved this for his barons, and the shoe, thus misnamed, was the humiliating corrective for an offending minister. =The Ministers of Būndi.=—At Bundi, as at all these patriarchal principalities, the chief agents of power are few. They are four in number, namely: 1. The Diwan, or Musahib; 2. The Faujdar, or Kiladar; 3. The Bakhshi; 4. The Risala, or Comptroller of Accounts [504].[10.4.31] This little State became so connected with the imperial court, that, like Jaipur, the princes adopted several of its customs. The Pardhan, or premier, was entitled Diwan and Musahib; and he had the entire management of the territory and finances. The Faujdar or Kiladar is the governor of the castle, the Maire de Palais, who at Bundi is never a Rajput, but some Dhabhai or foster-brother, identified with the family, who likewise heads the feudal quotas or the mercenaries, and has lands assigned for their support. The Bakhshi controls generally all accounts; the Risala those of the household expenditure. The late prince’s management of his revenue was extraordinary. Instead of the surplus being lodged in the treasury, it centred in a mercantile concern conducted by the prime minister, in the profits of which the Raja shared. But while he exhibited but fifteen per cent gain in the balance-sheet, it was stated at thirty. From this profit the troops and dependents of the court were paid, chiefly in goods and grain, and at such a rate as he chose to fix.[10.4.32] Their necessities, and their prince being joint partner in the firm, made complaint useless; but the system entailed upon the premier universal execration. Bishan Singh left two legitimate sons: the Rao Raja Ram Singh, then eleven years of age, who was installed in August 1821; and the Maharaja Gopal Singh, a few months younger. Both were most promising youths, especially the Raja. He inherited his father’s passion for the chase, and even at this tender age received from the nobles[10.4.33] their nazars and congratulations on the first wild game he slew. Hitherto his pigmy sword had been proved only on kids or lambs. His mother, the queen-regent, is a princess of Kishangarh, amiable, able, and devoted to her son. It is ardently hoped that this most interesting State and family will rise to their ancient prosperity, under the generous auspices of the government which rescued it from ruin. In return, we may reckon on a devotion to which our power is yet a stranger—strong hands and grateful hearts, which will court death in our behalf with the same indomitable spirit that has been exemplified in days gone by. Our wishes are for the prosperity of the Haras! [505]. [Illustration: CITY OF KOTAH FROM THE EAST. _To face page 1521._ ] KOTAH CHAPTER 5 =Formation of Kotah State.=—The early history of the Haras of Kotah belongs to Bundi, of which they were a junior branch. The separation took place when Shah Jahan was emperor of India, who bestowed Kotah and its dependencies on Madho Singh, the second son of Rao Ratan, for his distinguished gallantry in the battle of Burhanpur.[10.5.1] =Rāo Mādho Singh, _c._ A.D. 1625-30.=—Madho Singh was born in S. 1621 (A.D. 1565). At the early age of fourteen, he displayed that daring intrepidity which gave him the title of Raja, and Kotah with its three hundred and sixty townships (then the chief fief of Bundi, and yielding two lakhs of rent), independent of his father. It has already been related, that the conquest of this tract was made from the Khota Bhils of the Ujla, the ‘unmixed,’ or aboriginal race. From these the Rajput will eat, and all classes will ‘drink water’ at their hands.[10.5.2] Kotah was at that time but a series of hamlets, the abode of the Bhil chief, styled Raja, being the ancient fortress of Ekelgarh, five coss south of Kotah. But when Madho Singh was enfeoffed by the king, Kotah had already attained extensive limits. To the south it was bounded by Gagraun and Ghatoli, then held by the Khichis; on the east, by Mangrol and [506] Nahargarh, the first belonging to the Gaur, the last to a Rathor Rajput, who had apostatized to save his land and was now a Nawab; to the north, it extended as far as Sultanpur, on the Chambal, across which was the small domain of Nanta. In this space were contained three hundred and sixty townships, and a rich soil fertilized by numerous large streams. The favour and power Madho Singh enjoyed, enabled him to increase the domain he held direct of the crown, and his authority at his death extended to the barrier between Malwa and Haraoti. Madho Singh died in S. 1687, leaving five sons, whose appanages became the chief fiefs of Kotah. To the holders and their descendants, in order to mark the separation between them and the elder Haras of Bundi, the patronymic of the founder was applied, and the epithet Madhani is sufficiently distinctive whenever two Haras, bearing the same name, appear together. These were— 1. Mukund Singh, who had Kotah. 2. Mohan Singh, who had Paleta. 3. Jujarh Singh, who had Kotra, and subsequently Ramgarh, Rilawan. 4. Kaniram, who had Koila.[10.5.3] 5. Kishor Singh who obtained Sangod. =Rāo Mukund Singh, A.D. 1630-57.=—Raja Mukund Singh succeeded. To this prince the chief pass in the barrier dividing Malwa from Haraoti owes its name of Mukunddarra[10.5.4] which gained an unfortunate celebrity on the defeat and flight of the British troops under Brigadier Monson, A.D. 1804. Mukund erected many places of strength and utility; and the palace and petta[10.5.5] of Anta are both attributable to him. Raja Mukund gave one of those brilliant instances of Rajput devotion to the principle of legitimate rule, so many of which illustrate his national history. When Aurangzeb formed his parricidal design to dethrone his father Shah Jahan, nearly every Rajput rallied round the throne of the aged monarch; and the Rathors and the Haras were most conspicuous. The sons of Madho Singh, besides the usual ties of fidelity, forgot not that to Shah Jahan they owed their independence, and they determined to defend him to the death. In S. 1714, in the field near Ujjain, afterwards named by the victor Fatehabad, the five brothers led their vassals, clad in the saffron-stained garment, with the bridal _maur_ (coronet) on their head, denoting death or victory.[10.5.6] The imprudent intrepidity of the Rathor commander denied them the latter, but a [507] glorious death no power could prevent, and all the five brothers fell in one field. The youngest, Kishor Singh, was afterwards dragged from amidst the slain, and, though pierced with wounds, recovered. He was afterwards one of the most conspicuous of the intrepid Rajputs serving in the Deccan, and often attracted notice, especially in the capture of Bijapur. But the imperial princes knew not how to appreciate or to manage such men, who, when united under one who could control them, were irresistible. =Rāo Jagat Singh, A.D. 1657-70.=—Jagat Singh, the son of Mukund, succeeded to the family estates, and to the mansab or dignity of a commander of two thousand, in the imperial army. He continued serving in the Deccan until his death in S. 1726, leaving no issue. =Rāo Pem Singh, A.D. 1670.=—Pem Singh, son of Kaniram of Koila, succeeded; but was so invincibly stupid that the Panch (council of chiefs) set him aside after six months’ rule, and sent him back to Koila, which is still held by his descendants.[10.5.7] =Rāo Kishor Singh I. A.D. 1670-86.=—Kishor Singh, who so miraculously recovered from his wounds, was placed upon the _gaddi_. When the throne was at length obtained by Aurangzeb, Kishor was again serving in the south, and shedding his own blood, with that of his kinsmen, in its subjugation. He greatly distinguished himself at the siege of Bijapur, and was finally slain at the escalade of Arkatgarh (Arcot), in S. 1742. He was a noble specimen of a Hara; and, it is said, counted fifty wounds on his person. He left three sons, Bishan Singh, Ram Singh, and Harnath Singh. The eldest, Bishan Singh, was deprived of his birthright for refusing to accompany his father to the south; but had the appanage and royal palace of Anta conferred upon him. His issue was as follows: Prithi Singh, chief of Anta, whose son, Ajit Singh, had three sons, Chhattarsal, Guman Singh, and Raj Singh. =Rāo Rām Singh, A.D. 1686-1707.=—Ram Singh, who was with his father when he was killed, succeeded to all his dignities, and was inferior to none in the contests which fill the page of imperial history, and in opposing the rise of the Mahrattas. In the war of succession, he embraced the cause of Prince Azam, the viceroy in the Deccan, against the elder, Muazzam, and was slain in the battle of Jajau, in S. 1764. In this memorable conflict, which decided the succession to the throne, the Kotah prince espoused the opposite cause to [508] the head of his house of Bundi, and Hara met Hara in that desperate encounter, when a cannon-shot terminated the life of Ram Singh in the very zenith of his career. =Rāo Bhīm Singh, A.D. 1707-20.=—Bhim Singh succeeded; and with him Kotah no longer remained a raj of the third order. On the death of Bahadur Shah, and the accession of Farrukhsiyar, Raja Bhim espoused the cause of the Sayyids, when his mansab was increased to “five thousand,” a rank heretofore confined to princes of the blood and rajas of the first class. The elder branch of the Haras maintained its fealty to the throne against these usurping ministers, and thus the breach made at the battle of Jajau was widened by their taking opposite sides. The disgraceful attempt of Raja Bhim on the life of Rao Raja Budh of Bundi has already been recorded. Having completely identified himself with the designs of the Sayyids and Jai Singh of Amber, he aided all the schemes of the latter to annihilate Bundi, an object the more easy of accomplishment since the unmerited and sudden misfortunes of Rao Budh had deprived him of his reason. Raja Bhim obtained the royal sanad or grant for all the lands on the Patar, from Kotah west, to the descent into Ahirwara east; which comprehended much land of the Khichis as well as of Bundi. He thus obtained the celebrated castle of Gagraun, now the strongest in Haraoti, and rendered memorable by its defence against Alau-d-din; likewise Mau Maidana, Shirgarh, Bara, Mangrol, and Barod, all to the eastward of the Chambal, which was formally constituted the western boundary of the State. The aboriginal Bhils of Ujla, or ‘pure’ descent, had recovered much of their ancient inheritance in the intricate tracts on the southern frontier of Haraoti. Of these, Manohar Thana, now the most southern garrison of Kotah, became their chief place, and here dwelt ‘the king of the Bhils,’ Raja Chakarsen, whose person was attended by five hundred horse and eight hundred bowmen, and to whom all the various tribes of Bhils, from Mewar to the extremity of the plateau, owed obedience. This indigenous race, whose simple life secured their preservation amidst all the vicissitudes of fortune, from Raja Bhoj of Dhar to Raja Bhim of Kotah, were dispossessed and hunted down without mercy, and their possessions added to Kotah. On the occasion of the subjugation of Bhilwara, the latter assigned tracts of land to the Umat chiefs of Narsingarh and Rajgarh Patan, with townships in _thali_, in Kotah proper, and hence arose the claim of Kotah on these independent States for the tribute termed tankhwah.[10.5.8] At the same time all the [509] chieftains acknowledged the supremacy of Kotah, under articles of precisely the same nature as those which guaranteed the safety and independence of Rajwara by Britain; with this difference, that the Umats could not be installed without the khilat of recognition of the princes of Kotah. Had Raja Bhim lived, he would further have extended the borders of Haraoti, which were already carried beyond the mountains. Onarsi, Dig, Perawa, and the lands of the Chandarawats, were brought under subjection, but were lost with his death, which, like that of his predecessors, was an untimely sacrifice to duty towards the throne. When the celebrated Kilich Khan,[10.5.9] afterwards better known to history as Nizamu-l-mulk, fled from the court to maintain himself by force of arms in his government of the Deccan, Raja Jai Singh of Amber, as the lieutenant of the king, commanded Bhim Singh of Kotah and Gaj Singh of Narwar to intercept him in his passage. The Nizam was the Pagri badal Bhai, or ‘turban-exchanged brother,’ of the Hara prince, and he sent him a friendly epistle, entreating him “not to credit the reports to his disadvantage, telling him that he had abstracted no treasures of the empire, and that Jai Singh was a meddling knave, who desired the destruction of both; and urging him to heed him not, nor offer any molestation to his passage to the south.” The brave Hara replied, that “He knew the line between friendship and duty; he was commanded to intercept him, and had advanced for that purpose; it was the king’s order; fight him he must, and next morning would attack him.” The courtesy of the Rajput, who mingled no resentment with his hostility, but, like a true cavalier, gave due warning of his intention, was not thrown away upon the wily Muslim. The Nizam took post amidst the broken ground of the Sindh, near the town of Kurwai Borasa.[10.5.10] There was but one approach to his position without a circuitous march, which suited not the impatient Rajput; and there his antagonist planted a battery, masked by some brushwood. At the _pila badal_ (morning-dawn) Raja Bhim, having taken his _amal-pani_, or opium-water, mounted his elephant, and uniting his vassals to those of the Kachhwaha, the combined clans moved on to the attack, in one of those dense masses, with couched lances, whose shock is irresistible. They were within musket-shot of the Nizam; had they reached him, Haidarabad would never have arisen on the ruins of Gualkund,[10.5.11] the ancient Hara abode; but the battery opened, and in an instant the elephants with their riders, Raja Bhim and Raja Gaj, were destroyed. Horse and foot became commingled, happy to emerge from the toils into which the blind confidence of their leaders had carried them; and Kilich Khan pursued the career that destiny had marked out for him [510]. =Loss of the Hāra Tribal God.=—On this occasion the Haras sustained a double loss: their leader, and their titular divinity, Brajnath, the god of Braj. This palladium of the Haras is a small golden image, which is borne on the saddle-bow of their princely leader in every conflict. When the _gol_ is formed and the lances are couched, the signal of onset is the shout of ‘Jai Brajnathji!’ ‘Victory to Brajnath!’ and many a glorious victory and many a glorious death has he witnessed. After being long missing, the representative of the god was recovered and sent to Kotah, to the great joy of every Hara. It was in S. 1776 (A.D. 1720) that Bhim Singh perished, having ruled fifteen years, during which short period he established the affairs of his little dominion on a basis which has never been shaken. =Rāo Bhīm Singh attacks Būndi.=—The rivalry that commenced between the houses, when Hara encountered Hara on the plains of Dholpur, and each princely leader sealed his fidelity to the cause he espoused with his blood, was brought to issue by Raja Bhim, whose attack upon Rao Budh of Bundi, while defending the forlorn Farrukhsiyar, has already been related, though without its consequences. These were fatal to the supremacy of the elder branch; for, taking advantage of his position and the expulsion of Rao Budh, in which he aided, Raja Bhim made an attempt upon Bundi, and despoiled that capital of all the insignia of sovereign rule, its nakkaras, or kettle-drums, with the celebrated ran-sankh, or war-shell, an heirloom descended from the heroes of antiquity. Even the military band, whose various discordant instruments are still in use, may be heard in pseudo concert from the guardroom over the chief gate of the citadel, at Kotah; while the “orange flag,” the gift of Jahangir to Rao Ratan, around which many a brave Hara has breathed his last, is now used by the junior house in all processions or battles. To recover these ensigns of fallen dignity, many a stratagem has been tried. False keys of the city gates of Kotah and its citadel had been procured, and its guards won over by bribery to favour admission; but an unceasing vigilance defeated the plan when on the brink of execution: since which the gates of Kotah are always closed at sunset, and never opened even to the prince. This custom has been attended with great inconvenience; of which the following anecdote affords an instance. When Raja Durjan after his defeat reached Kotah at midnight, with a few attendants, he called aloud to the sentinel for admittance; but the orders of the latter were peremptory and allowed of no discretion. The soldier desired the Raja to be gone; upon which, expostulation being vain, he revealed himself as the prince. At this the soldier laughed [511]; but, tired of importunity, bade his sovereign “go to hell,” levelled his match-lock, and refused to call the officer on guard. The prince retired, and passed the night in a temple close at hand. At daybreak the gates were opened, and the soldiers were laughing at their comrade’s story of the night, when the Raja appeared. All were surprised, but most of all the sentinel, who, taking his sword and shield, placed them at his sovereign’s feet, and in a manly but respectful attitude awaited his decision. The prince raised him, and praising his fidelity, bestowed the dress he then wore upon him, besides a gift of money. The Hara chronicler states, that Raja Bhim’s person was seamed with scars, and so fastidious was he, through the fear of incurring the imputation of vanity, that he never undressed in presence of his attendants. Nor was it till his death-wound at Kurwai that this singularity was explained, on one of his confidential servants expressing his surprise at the numerous scars; which brought this characteristic reply: “He who is born to govern Haras, and desires to preserve his land, must expect to get these: the proper post for a Rajput prince is ever at the head of his vassals.” Raja Bhim was the first prince of Kotah who had the dignity of Panj-hazari, or ‘leader of five thousand,’ conferred upon him. He was likewise the first of his dynasty who bore the title of Maharao, or ‘Great Prince’; a title confirmed though not conferred by the paramount sovereign, but by the head of their own princely tribes, the Rana of Mewar. Previous to Gopinath of Bundi, whose issue are the great feudal chiefs of Haraoti, their titular appellation was Apji, which has the same import as herself (or rather himself), applied to highland chiefs of Scotland; but when Indarsal went to Udaipur, he procured the title of Maharaja for himself and his brothers; since which Apji has been applied to the holders of the secondary fiefs, the Madhani of Kotah. Raja Bhim left three sons, Arjun Singh, Shyam Singh, and Durjansal. =Mahārāo Arjun Singh, A.D. 1720-24.=—Maharao Arjun married the sister of Madho Singh, ancestor of Zalim Singh Jhala; but died without issue, after four years’ rule. On his death, there arose a civil war respecting the succession, in which the vassals were divided. Clan encountered clan in the field of Udaipura, when the fate of Shyam Singh was sealed in his blood. It is said, the survivor would willingly have given up dominion to have restored his brother to life; that he cursed his ambitious rashness, and wept bitterly over the dead body. By these contentions the rich districts of Rampura, Bhanpura, and Kalapet, which [512] the king had taken from the ancient family and bestowed on Raja Bhim, were lost to the Haras, and regained by their ancient possessors. =Mahārāo Durjansāl, A.D. 1724-56. The Marātha Invasion.=—Durjansal assumed ‘the rod’ in S. 1780 (A.D. 1724). His accession was acknowledged by Muhammad Shah, the last of the Timurian kings who deserved the appellation, and at whose court the prince of Kotah received the khilat and obtained the boon of preventing the slaughter of kine in every part of the Jumna frequented by his nation. Durjansal succeeded on the eve of an eventful period in the annals of his country. It was in his reign that the Mahrattas under Bajirao first invaded Hindustan. On this memorable occasion, they passed by the Taraj Pass, and skirting Haraoti on its eastern frontier, performed a service to Durjansal, by attacking and presenting to him the castle of Nahargarh, then held by a Musalman chief. It was in S. 1795[10.5.12] (A.D. 1739) that the first connexion between the Haras and the ‘Southrons’ took place; and this service of the Peshwa leader was a return for stores and ammunition necessary for his enterprise. But a few years only elapsed before this friendly act and the good understanding it induced were forgotten. =Jaipur claims to control Kotah.=—We have recorded, in the Annals of Bundi, the attempts of the princes of Amber, who were armed with the power of the monarchy, to reduce the chiefs of Haraoti to the condition of vassals. This policy, originating with Jai Singh, was pursued by his successor, who drove the gallant Budh Singh into exile, to madness and death, though the means by which he effected it ultimately recoiled upon him, to his humiliation and destruction. Having, however, driven Budh Singh from Bundi, and imposed the condition of homage and tribute upon the creature of his installation, he desired to inflict his supremacy on Kotah. In this cause, in S. 1800, he invited the three great Mahratta leaders, with the Jats under Surajmall, when, after a severe conflict at Kotri, the city was invested. During three months, every effort was made, but in vain; and after cutting down the trees and destroying the gardens in the environs, they were compelled to decamp, the leader, Jai Apa Sindhia,[10.5.13] leaving one of his hands, which was carried off by a cannon-shot. =Birth of Zālim Singh.=—Durjansal was nobly seconded by the courage and counsel of the Faujdar, or ‘commandant of the garrison,’ Himmat Singh, a Rajput of the Jhala tribe. It was through Himmat Singh that the negotiations were carried on, which added Nahargarh to Kotah; and to him were confided those in which Kotah was compelled to follow the [513] general denationalization, and become subservient to the Mahrattas. Between these two events, S. 1795 and S. 1800, Zalim Singh was born, a name of such celebrity that his biography would embrace all that remains to be told of the history of the Haras. When Isari Singh was foiled, the brave Durjansal lent his assistance to replace the exiled Ummeda on the throne which his father had lost. But without Holkar’s aid, this would have been vain; and, in S. 1805 (A.D. 1749), the year of Ummeda’s restoration, Kotah was compelled to become tributary to the Mahrattas. =Death and Character of Durjansāl.=—Durjansal added several places to his dominions. He took Phul-Barod from the Khichis, and attempted the fortress of Gugor, which was bravely defended by Balbhaddar in person, who created a league against the Hara composed of the chiefs of Rampura, Sheopur, and Bundi. The standard of Kotah was preserved from falling into the hands of the Khichis by the gallantry of Ummeda Singh of Bundi. The battle between the rival clans, both of Chauhan blood, was in S. 1810; and in three years more, Durjansal departed this life. He was a valiant prince, and possessed all the qualities of which the Rajput is enamoured; affability, generosity, and bravery. He was devoted to field-sports, especially the royal one of tiger-hunting; and had _ramnas_ or preserves in every corner of his dominions (some of immense extent, with ditches and palisadoes, and sometimes circumvallations), in all of which he erected hunting-seats. [Illustration: COUNTRY SEAT OF THE KOTAH PRINCE. _To face page 1530._ ] In these expeditions, which resembled preparations for war, he invariably carried the queens. These Amazonian ladies were taught the use of the matchlock, and being placed upon the terraced roofs of the hunting-seats, sent their shots at the forest-lord, when driven past their stand by the hunters. On one of these occasions the Jhala Faujdar was at the foot of the scaffolding; the tiger, infuriated with the uproar, approached him open-mouthed; but the prince had not yet given the word, and none dared to fire without his signal. The animal eyed his victim, and was on the point of springing, when the Jhala advanced his shield, sprung upon him, and with one blow of his sword laid him dead at his feet. The act was applauded by the prince and his court, and contributed not a little to the character he had already attained. Durjansal left no issue. He was married to a daughter of the Rana of Mewar. Being often disappointed, and at length despairing of an heir, about three years before his death, he told the Rani it was time to think of adopting an heir to fill the _gaddi_, “for it was evident that the Almighty disapproved of the usurpation which changed the order of succession.” It will be remembered that Bishan Singh, son of Ram Singh [514], was set aside for refusing, in compliance with maternal fears, to accompany his father in the wars of the Deccan. When dispossessed of his birthright, he was established in the fief of Antha on the Chambal.[10.5.14] At the death of Durjansal, Ajit Singh, grandson of the disinherited prince, was lord of Antha, but he was in extreme old age. He had three sons, and the eldest, whose name of Chhattarsal revived ancient associations, was formally “placed in the lap of the Rani Mewari; the _asis_ (blessing) was given; he was taught the names of his ancestors (being no longer regarded as the son of Ajit of Antha), Chhattar Singh, son of Durjansal, Bhimsinghgot, Ram Singh, Kishor Singh, etc., etc.,” and so on, to the fountain-head, Dewa Banga, and thence to Manikrae of Ajmer. Though the adoption was proclaimed, and all looked to Chhattarsal as the future lord of the Haras of Kotah, yet on the death of Durjan, the Jhala Faujdar took upon him to make an alteration in this important act, and he had power enough to effect it. =Mahārāo Ajīt Singh, A.D. 1756-59. Mahārāo Chhattarsāl, A.D. 1759-66.=—The old chief of Antha was yet alive, and the Faujdar said, “It was contrary to nature that the son should rule and the father obey”; but doubtless other motives mingled with his piety, in which, besides self-interest, may have been a consciousness of the dangers inseparable from a minority. The only difficulty was to obtain the consent of the chief himself, then “fourscore years and upwards,” to abandon his peaceful castle on the Kali Sind for the cares of government. But the Faujdar prevailed; old Ajit was crowned, and survived his exaltation two years and a half. Ajit left three sons, Chhattarsal, Guman Singh, and Raj Singh. Chhattarsal was proclaimed the Maharao of the Haras. The celebrated Himmat Singh Jhala died before his accession, and his office of Faujdar was conferred upon his nephew, Zalim Singh. At this epoch, Madho Singh, who had acceded to the throne of Amber on the suicide of his predecessor, Isari, instead of taking warning by example, prepared to put forth all his strength for the revival of those tributary claims upon the Haras, which had cost his brother his life. The contest was between Rajput and Rajput; the question at issue was supremacy on the one hand, and subserviency on the other, the sole plea for which was that the Kotah contingent had acted under the princes of Amber, when lieutenants of the empire. But the Haras held in utter scorn the attempt to compel this service in their individual capacity, in which they only recognized them as equals. =Jaipur attacks Kotah.=—It was in S. 1817 (A.D. 1761) that the prince of Amber assembled all his clans to force the Haras to acknowledge themselves tributaries. The invasion of the Abdali[10.5.15] [515], which humbled the Mahrattas and put a stop to their pretensions to universal sovereignty, left the Rajputs to themselves. Madho Singh, in his march to Haraoti, assaulted Uniara, and added it to his territory. Thence he proceeded to Lakheri, which he took, driving out the crestfallen Southrons. Emboldened by this success, he crossed at the Pali Ghat, the point of confluence of the Par and the Chambal. The Hara chieftain of Sultanpur, whose duty was the defence of the ford, was taken by surprise; but, like a true Hara, he gathered his kinsmen outside his castle, and gave battle to the host. He made amends for his supineness, and bartered his life for his honour. It was remarked by the invaders, that, as he fell, his clenched hand grasped the earth, which afforded merriment to some, but serious reflection to those who knew the tribe, and who converted it into an omen “that even in death the Hara would cling to his land.” The victors, flushed with this fresh success, proceeded through the heart of Kotah until they reached Bhatwara,[10.5.16] where they found five thousand Haras, _ek bap ka beta_, all ‘children of one father,’ drawn up to oppose them. The numerical odds were fearful against Kotah; but the latter were defending their altars and their honour. The battle commenced with a desperate charge of the whole Kachhwaha horse, far more numerous than the brave legion of Kotah; but, too confident of success, they had tired their horses ere they joined. It was met by a dense mass, with perfect coolness, and the Haras remained unbroken by the shock. Fresh numbers came up; the infantry joined the cavalry, and the battle became desperate and bloody. It was at this moment that Zalim Singh made his debut. He was then twenty-one years of age, and had already, as the adopted son of Himmat Singh, “tied his turban on his head,” and succeeded to his post of Faujdar. While the battle was raging, Zalim dismounted, and at the head of his quota, fought on foot, and at the most critical moment obtained the merit of the victory, by the first display of that sagacity for which he has been so remarkable throughout his life [516]. Malhar Rao Holkar was encamped in their vicinity, with the remnant of his horde, but so crestfallen since the fatal day of Panipat,[10.5.17] that he feared to side with either. At this moment young Zalim, mounting his steed, galloped to the Mahratta, and implored him, if he would not fight, to move round and plunder the Jaipur camp: a hint which needed no repetition. The little impression yet made on the Kotah band only required the report that “the camp was assaulted,” to convert the lukewarm courage of their antagonists into panic and flight: “the host of Jaipur fled, while the sword of the Hara performed _tirath_ (pilgrimage) in rivers of blood.xxxx The chiefs of Macheri, of Isarda, Watka, Barol, Achrol, with all the _ots_ and _awats_ of Amber, turned their backs on five thousand Haras of Kotah; for the Bundi troops, though assembled, did not join, and lost the golden opportunity to free its Kothris, or fiefs, from the tribute. Many prisoners were taken, and the five-coloured banner of Amber fell into the hands of the Haras, whose bard was not slow to turn the incident to account in the stanza, still repeated whenever he celebrates the victory of Bhatwara, and in which the star (_tara_) of Zalim prevailed: _Jang Bhatwārā jīt Tārā Jālim Jhālā. Ring ek rang chīt, Chādyo rang pach-rang kē._[10.5.18] “In the battle of Bhatwara, the star of Zalim was triumphant. In that field of strife (_ringa_) but one colour (_rang_) covered that of the five-coloured (_panch-ranga_) banner”: meaning that the Amber standard was dyed in blood. The battle of Bhatwara decided the question of tribute, nor has the Kachhwaha since this day dared to advance the question of supremacy, which, as lieutenant of the empire, he desired to transfer to himself. In derision of this claim, ever since the day of Bhatwara, when the Haras assemble at their Champ de Mars to celebrate the annual military festival, they make a mock castle of Amber, which is demolished amidst shouts of applause.[10.5.19] Chhattarsal survived his elevation and this success but a few years; and as he died without offspring, he was succeeded by his brother [517]. ----- Footnote 10.4.1: [Pātan, about 25 miles E. of Būndi city: ‘Gainoli’ in the text is probably Gondoli, about 10 miles E. of Pātan.] Footnote 10.4.2: [A Sikh sect founded by Nānak, the Sikh Guru (A.D. 1469-1539) (Rose, _Glossary_, iii. 152 ff.).] Footnote 10.4.3: [About 10 miles N. of Būndi city.] Footnote 10.4.4: [Probably Sātur, with a temple of Rakt Dantika Devi, ‘she with the blood-stained teeth’ (_Rājputāna Gazetteer_, 1879, i. 240).] Footnote 10.4.5: I have made my salaam to the representative of Hanja, and should have graced his neck with a chaplet on every military festival, had I dwelt among the Haras. Footnote 10.4.6: _Ummeda_, ‘hope’; _Singh_, ‘a lion.’ Footnote 10.4.7: [On the Nerbudda as a barrier see Vol. II. p. 971.] Footnote 10.4.8: [The Holkar family belonged to the Dhangar, or Marātha shepherd caste, taking their name from the village of Hol on the Nīra River in Poona District (Grant Duff 212; _BG_, xviii. Part ii. 244).] Footnote 10.4.9: See Annals of Mewar, Vol. I. p. 495. Footnote 10.4.10: [10 miles S. of Jaipur city.] Footnote 10.4.11: As in those days when Mahratta spoliation commenced, a joint-stock purse was made for all such acquisitions, so Patan was divided into shares, of which the Peshwa had one, and Sindhia another; but the Peshwa’s share remained nominal, and the revenue was carried to account by Holkar for the services of the Poona State. In the general pacification of A.D. 1817, this long-lost and much-cherished district was once more incorporated with Bundi, to the unspeakable gratitude and joy of its prince and people. In effecting this for the grandson of Ummeda, the Author secured for himself a gratification scarcely less than his. Footnote 10.4.12: [_Āīn_, ii. 102, 274 f. Jarrett writes Sūi Sūpar or Sūi Sopar.] Footnote 10.4.13: [_Āīn_, ii. 132 f.] Footnote 10.4.14: The universal arbitrator, Zalim Singh of Kotah, having undertaken to satisfy them, and save them from the annual visitations of the Jaipur troops, withdrew the proper allegiance of Indargarh, Balwan, and Antardah to himself. The British government, in ignorance of these historical facts, and not desirous to disturb the existing state of things, were averse to hear the Bundi claims for the restoration of her proper authority over these her chief vassals. With all his gratitude for the restoration of his political existence, the brave and good Bishan Singh could not suppress a sigh when the author said that Lord Hastings refused to go into the question of the Kothris, who had thus transferred their allegiance to Zalim Singh of Kotah. In their usual metaphorical style, he said, with great emphasis and sorrow, “My wings remain broken.” It would be a matter of no difficulty to negotiate the claims of Jaipur, and cause the regent of Kotah to forgo his interposition, which would be attended with no loss of any kind to him, but would afford unspeakable benefit and pride to Bundi, which has well deserved the boon at our hands. Footnote 10.4.15: [About 30 miles N.E. of Būndi city: for Bijaiseni Māta see Vol. II. p. 1193.] Footnote 10.4.16: The laws of revenge are dreadfully absolute: had the sons of Deo Singh survived, the feud upon their liege lord would have been entailed with their estate. It is a nice point for a subject to balance between fidelity to his prince, and a father’s feud, _bap ka vair_. Footnote 10.4.17: The queens’ apartments. Footnote 10.4.18: [In early Hindu times a similar performance of mock funereal rites took place in the event of contumacious disregard of the rules of caste (Barnett, _Antiquities of India_, 120).] Footnote 10.4.19: See p. 1463. Footnote 10.4.20: [In the island of Pāmban, Madura District, Madras (_IGI_, xxi. 173 ff.).] Footnote 10.4.21: [Sītakund, in Chittagong District, Bengal (_ibid._ xxiii. 50).] Footnote 10.4.22: [Jagannāth, not “a Moloch”: religious suicides under his car are infrequent (Hunter, _Orissa_, i. 133 f.).] Footnote 10.4.23: [Krishna, at Dwārka.] Footnote 10.4.24: [Kāli, Pārvati, Māta, or Nāni, not Agnidevi, is worshipped at Hinglāj (_IGI_, xiii. 142).] Footnote 10.4.25: [See Vol. II. p. 1170.] Footnote 10.4.27: [Perhaps the town of that name in the Sahāranpur District, United Provinces.] Footnote 10.4.28: [_Sukhpāl_, “happiness-protecting,” a luxurious litter, like the _sukhāsan_ or _mahādol_ (p. 1349).] Footnote 10.4.29: [For a full account of the disastrous retreat of Hon. Lieut.-Col. William Monson see Mill, _Hist. of India_, vol. iii. (1817) 672 ff. He was son of John, 2nd Baron Monson: born in 1760: went to India with the 52nd Regiment in 1780. He shared in the attack on Seringapatam in 1792: in the Marātha war of 1803 commanded a brigade under Lord Lake: led the storming party, and was seriously wounded at the capture of Aligarh, 4th September 1803. After his famous retreat to Agra in 1804 he was again employed under Lord Lake in his campaign against Holkar: was present at the battle of Dīg, 14th November 1804,and led the last of the four assaults on Bharatpur in 1805. He returned to England in 1806, and was elected member for Lincoln. He died in December 1807. (C. E. Buckland, _Dict. Indian Biography_, _s.v._).] Footnote 10.4.30: The Author had the distinguished happiness of concluding the treaty with Bundi in February 1818. His previous knowledge of her deserts was not disadvantageous to her interests, and he assumed the responsibility of concluding it upon the general principles which were to regulate our future policy as determined in the commencement of the war; and setting aside the views which trenched upon these in our subsequent negotiations. These general principles laid it down as a _sine qua non_ that the Mahrattas should not have a foot of land in Rajputana west of the Chambal; and he closed the door to recantation by sealing the reunion in perpetuity to Bundi, of Patan and all land so situated. [In 1847, with the consent of Sindhia, his share of the Pātan district was made over in perpetuity to Būndi on payment of a further sum of Rs. 80,000, to be credited to Gwalior. Under the treaty of 1860 with Sindhia the sovereignty of this tract was transferred to the British Government, from whom Būndi now holds it as a perpetual fief, subject to the payment of Rs. 80,000 per annum, in addition to the tribute of Rs. 40,000 payable under the treaty of 1818 (_IGI._ ix. 81 f.).] Footnote 10.4.31: [Risāla properly means ‘a letter, account.’ Risāladār has, in the British service, the special sense of a native officer commanding a troop of cavalry (Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 761 f.).] Footnote 10.4.32: The truck system, called _parna_, is well known in Rajputana. Footnote 10.4.33: And from the Author with the rest, whose nephew he was by courtesy and adoption. [Rām Singh succeeded his father in 1821. He behaved with apathy and lukewarmness in the Mutiny of 1857, but he was given the right of adoption in 1862, and died in 1889. He was “the most conservative prince in conservative Rājputāna, and a grand specimen of a true Rājput gentleman.” He was succeeded by his son Mahārāo Rāja Raghbīr Singh (_IGI._ ix. 82).] Footnote 10.5.1: [See Elliot-Dowson vi. 395, 418.] Footnote 10.5.2: [Rājputs in early days used to intermarry and eat with Bhīls, who were regarded, not as a menial tribe, but as lords of the soil (Russell, _Tribes and Castes Central Provinces_, ii. 281).] Footnote 10.5.3: He held also the districts of Dah and Gura in grant direct of the empire. Footnote 10.5.4: [‘The defile of Mukund,’ also written Mukunddwāra, ‘door or gate of Mukund,’ about 25 miles S. of Kotah city.] Footnote 10.5.5: [The extra-mural suburb of a fortress (Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 702).] Footnote 10.5.6: [15th April 1658 (Jadunath Sarkar, _Hist. of Aurangzib_, ii. 1 ff.).] Footnote 10.5.7: A descendant of his covered Monson’s retreat even before this general reached the Mukunddarra Pass, and fell defending the ford of the Amjar, disdaining to retreat. His simple cenotaph marks the spot where in the gallant old style this chief “spread his carpet” to meet the Deccani host, while a British commander, at the head of a force capable of sweeping one end of India to the other, fled! The Author will say more of this in his Personal Narrative, having visited the spot. Footnote 10.5.8: This is one more of the numerous inexplicable claims which the British Government has had to decide upon, since it became the universal arbitrator. Neither party understanding their origin, the difficulty of a just decision must be obvious. This sets it at rest. [Tankhwāh, ‘wages, an assignment of revenue.’ For its technical sense _tankhwāh jāgīr_ see Rogers-Beveridge, _Memoirs of Jahāngīr_, 74.] Footnote 10.5.9: [Kamaru-d-dīn, Āsaf Jāh, son of Ghāziu-d-dīn Khān Jang, born 1671, received the title of Chīn Qilīch Khān in 1690-91; governor of Morādābād and Mālwa under Farrukhsīyar; gained supreme power in the Deccan in 1720; died May 22, 1748, the present Nizāms of Haidarābād being his successors (Manucci iv. 140; Grant Duff, _History of the Mahrattas_, 190; Elliot-Dowson vii. _passim_).] Footnote 10.5.10: [On the river Betwa, about 45 miles S.S.W. of Lalitpur.] Footnote 10.5.11: [See p. 1449.] Footnote 10.5.12: In this year, when Bajirao invaded Hindustan, passing through Haraoti, Himmat Singh Jhala was Faujdar of Kotah. In that year Sheo Singh, and in the succeeding the celebrated Zalim Singh, was born. Footnote 10.5.13: [Jai Āpa Sindhia succeeded his father, Rānoji Sindhia. His dates are uncertain, but he was probably killed at Nāgor in 1759 (Beale, _Dict. Oriental Biography_, _s.v._; _IGI_, xii. 421; Grant Duff, _Hist. of the Mahrattas_, 270).] Footnote 10.5.14: [Antha is not on the Chambal: it is about 25 miles E. of Kotah city.] Footnote 10.5.15: [Ahmad Shāh Durrāni defeated the Marāthas at Pānipat, 7th January 1761.] Footnote 10.5.16: [Near Māngrol, about 40 miles N.E. of Kotah city.] Footnote 10.5.17: It is singular enough, that Zalim Singh was born in the year of Nadir Shah’s invasion, and made his political _entrée_ in that of the Abdali. Footnote 10.5.18: [Dr. Tessitori, whose version has been followed, writes: “The second line is quite wrong, and I should not be surprised if it was made up by Col. Tod’s Pandit. I believe there was some other word in place of _tārā_.”] Footnote 10.5.19: [See Vols. II. p. 1199, III. p. 1471.] ----- CHAPTER 6 =Mahārāo Gumān Singh, A.D. 1766-71.=—Guman Singh, in S. 1822 (A.D. 1766), ascended the _gaddi_ of his ancestors. He was in the prime of manhood, full of vigour and intellect, and well calculated to contend with the tempests collecting from the south, ready to pour on the devoted lands of Rajputana. But one short lustrum of rule was all that fate had ordained for him, when he was compelled to resign his rod of power into the hands of an infant. But ere we reach this period, we must retrace our steps, and introduce more prominently the individual whose biography is the future history of this State; for Zalim Singh is Kotah, his name being not only indissolubly linked with hers in every page of her existence, but incorporated with that of every State of Rajputana for more than half a century. He was the _primum mobile_ of the region he inhabited, a sphere far too confined for his genius, which required a wider field for its display, and might have controlled the destinies of nations. =Zālim Singh Jhāla.=—Zalim Singh is a Rajput of the Jhala tribe. He was born in S. 1796 (A.D. 1740), an ever memorable epoch (as already observed) in the history of India, when the victorious Nadir Shah led his hordes into her fertile soil, and gave the finishing blow to the dynasty of Timur. But for this event, its existence might have been protracted, though its recovery was hopeless: the principle of decay had been generated by the policy of Aurangzeb. Muhammad Shah was at this time emperor of India,[10.6.1] and the valiant Durjansal sat on the throne of Kotah. From this period (A.D. 1740) five princes have passed away and a sixth has been enthroned; and, albeit one of these reigns endured for half a century, Zalim Singh has outlived them all,[10.6.2] and though blind, his [518] moral perceptions are as acute as on the day of Bhatwara. What a chain of events does not this protracted life embrace! An empire then dazzling in glory, and now mouldering in the dust. At its opening, the highest noble of Britain would have stood at a reverential distance from the throne of Timur, in the attitude of a suppliant, and now— None so poor To do him reverence. To do anything like justice to the biography of one who for so long a period was a prominent actor in the scene, is utterly impossible; this consideration, however, need not prevent our attempting a sketch of this consummate politician, who can scarcely find a parallel in the varied page of history. The ancestors of Zalim Singh were petty chieftains of Halwad,[10.6.3] in the district of Jhalawar, a subdivision of the Saurashtra peninsula. Bhao Singh was a younger son of this family, who, with a few adherents, left the paternal roof to seek fortune amongst the numerous conflicting armies that ranged India during the contests for supremacy amongst the sons of Aurangzeb. His son, Madho Singh, came to Kotah when Raja Bhim was in the zenith of his power. Although he had only twenty-five horse in his train, it is a proof of the respectability of the Jhala, that the prince disdained not his alliance, and even married his son, Arjun, to the young adventurer’s sister. Not long after, the estate of Nanta was entailed upon him, with the confidential post of Faujdar, which includes not only the command of the troops, but that of the castle, the residence of the sovereign. This family connexion gave an interest to his authority, and procured him the respectful title of Mama,[10.6.4] from the younger branches of the prince’s family, an epithet which habit has continued to his successors, who are always addressed Mama Sahib, ‘Sir, Uncle!’ Madan Singh succeeded his father in the office of Faujdar. He had two sons, Himmat Singh and Prithi Singh. Bhao Singh, left Halwad with twenty-five horse. │ Madho Singh. │ Madan Singh. │ ┌─────────────┴──────────┐ │ │ Himmat Singh. Prithi Singh. │ ┌───────────┴──────────┐ │ │ Sheo Singh, Zalim Singh, born in S. 1795. born S. 1796. │ Madho Singh, present regent. │ Bapa Lall, twenty-one years of age [519]. The office of Faujdar, which, like all those of the east, had become hereditary, was advantageously filled by Himmat Singh, whose bravery and skill were conspicuous on many trying emergencies. He directed, or at least seconded, the defence of Kotah, when first assailed by the combined Mahratta and Jaipur troops, and conducted the treaty which made her tributary to the former, till at length so identified was his influence with that of the Haras, that with their concurrence he restored the ancient line of succession. Though neither the prince, Durjansal, nor his Major Domo, had much merit in this act, it was made available by Zalim Singh in support of his pretensions to power, and in proof of the ingratitude of his sovereign, “whose ancestors recovered their rights at the instigation of his own.” But Zalim Singh had no occasion to go back to the virtues of his ancestors for an argument on which to base his own claims to authority. He could point to the field of Bhatwara, where his bravery and skill mainly aided to vanquish the enemies of Kotah, and to crush for ever those arrogant pretensions to supremacy which the Jaipur State strained every nerve to establish. =Zālim Singh retires to Mewār.=—It was not long after the accession of Guman Singh to the sceptre of the Haras, that the brave and handsome Major Domo, having dared to cross his master’s path in love, lost his favour, and the office of Faujdar, which he had attained in his twenty-first year. It is probable he evinced little contrition for his offence, for the confiscation of Nanta soon followed. This estate, on the west bank of the Chambal, still enjoyed as a fief in perpetuity by the Jhala family, was the original appanage of the Kotah State when a younger branch of Bundi. From hence may be inferred the consideration in which the Jhala ancestor of our subject was held, which conferred upon him the heirloom of the house. Both the office and the estate thereto attached, thus resumed, were bestowed upon the maternal uncle of the prince, Bhopat Singh, of the Bhangrot tribe. By this step, the door of reconciliation being closed against the young Jhala, he determined to abandon the scene of his disgrace, and court fortune elsewhere. He was not long in determining the path he should pursue: Amber was shut against him, and Marwar held out no field for his ambition. Mewar was at hand, and a chief of his own tribe and nation then ruled the councils of Rana Arsi, who had lately succeeded to power, but a power paralysed by faction and by a pretender to the throne. The Jhala chieftain of Delwara, one of the sixteen great barons of Mewar, had headed the party which placed his sovereign on the throne; and he felt no desire to part with the influence which this service gave him. He entertained [520] foreign guards about the person of his prince, and distributed estates at pleasure among those who supported his measures; while from the crown domain, or from the estates of those who were hostile to his influence, he seized upon lands, which doubled his possessions. Such was the court of Rana Arsi, when the ex-Major Domo of Kotah came to seek a new master. His reputation at once secured him a reception, and his talents for finesse, already developed, made the Rana confide to him the subjection in which he was held by his own vassal-subject. It was then that Zalim, a youth and a stranger, showed that rare union of intrepidity and caution which has made him the wonder of the age. By a most daring plan, which cost the Delwara chief his life, in open day and surrounded by attendants, the Rana was released from this odious tutelage. For this service, the title of Raj Rana[10.6.5] and the estate of Chitarkhera on the southern frontier were conferred upon Zalim, who was now a noble of the second rank in Mewar. The rebellion still continued, however, and the pretender and his faction sought the aid of the Mahrattas; but under the vigorous councils of Zalim, seconded by the spirit of the Rana, an army was collected which gave battle to the combined rebels and Mahrattas. The result of this day has already been related.[10.6.6] The Rana was discomfited and lost the flower of his nobles when victory was almost assured to them, and Zalim was left wounded and a prisoner in the field. He fell into the hands of Trimbakrao, the father of the celebrated Ambaji Inglia, and the friendship then formed materially governed the future actions of his life. =Zālim Singh returns to Kotah.=—The loss of this battle left the Rana and Mewar at the mercy of the conqueror. Udaipur was invested, and capitulated, after a noble defence, upon terms which perpetuated her thraldom. Zalim, too wise to cling to the fortunes of a falling house, instead of returning to Udaipur, bent his steps to Kotah, in company with the Pandit, Lalaji Balal, the faithful partaker of his future fortunes. Zalim foresaw the storm about to spread over Rajwara, and deemed himself equal to guide and avert it from Kotah, while the political levity of Mewar gave him little hopes of success at that court. Raja Guman, however, had neither forgotten nor forgiven his competitor, and refused to receive him: but in no wise daunted, he trusted to his address, and thrust himself unbidden on the prince. The moment he chose proved favourable; and he was not only pardoned, but employed [521]. =Gallant Death of Mādho Singh.=—The Mahrattas had now reached the southern frontier, and invested the castle of Bakhani,[10.6.7] which was defended by four hundred Haras of the Sawant clan,[10.6.8] under its chief, Madho Singh. The enemy had been foiled in repeated attempts to escalade, and it furnishes a good idea of the inadequate means of the ‘Southrons’ for the operations of a siege, when their besieging apparatus was confined to an elephant, whose head was the substitute for a petard, to burst open the gate. Repeated instances, however, prove that this noble animal is fully equal to the task, and would have succeeded on this occasion, had not the intrepidity of the Hara chieftain prompted one of those desperate exploits which fill the pages of their annals. Armed with his dagger, Madho Singh leaped from the walls upon the back of the elephant, stabbed the rider, and with repeated blows felled the animal to the earth. That he should escape could not be expected; but his death and the noble deed kindled such enthusiasm, that his clan threw wide the gate, and rushing sword in hand amidst the multitude, perished to a man. But they died not unavenged: thirteen hundred of the bravest of the Mahrattas accompanied them to Suryaloka, the warrior’s heaven. The invaders continued their inroad, and invested Sohet: but the prince sent his commands to the garrison to preserve their lives for Kotah, and not again sacrifice them, as the point of honour had been nobly maintained. Accordingly, at midnight, they evacuated the place; but whether from accident or treachery, the grass jungle which covered their retreat was set fire to, and cast so resplendent a light, that the brave garrison had to fight their way against desperate odds, and many were slain. Malharrao Holkar, who had been greatly disheartened at the loss sustained at Bakhani, was revived at this success, and prepared to follow it up. Raja Guman deemed it advisable to try negotiation, and the Bhangrot Faujdar was sent with full powers to treat with the Mahratta commander; but he failed and returned. =Zālim Singh appointed Guardian of the Heir.=—Such was the moment chosen by young Zalim to force himself into the presence of his offended prince. In all probability he mentioned the day at Bhatwara, where by his courage, and still more by his tact, he released Kotah from the degradation of being subordinate to Amber; and that it was by his influence with the same Malharrao Holkar, who now threatened Kotah, he was enabled to succeed. He was invested with full powers; the negotiation was renewed, and terminated successfully: for the sum of six lakhs of rupees the Mahratta leader withdrew his horde from the territory of Kotah. His [522] prince’s favour was regained, his estate restored, and the unsuccessful negotiator lost the office of Faujdar, into which young Zalim was reinducted. But scarcely had he recovered his rights, before Guman Singh was taken grievously ill, and all hopes of his life were relinquished. To whom could the dying prince look at such a moment, as guardian of his infant son, but the person whose skill had twice saved the State from peril? He accordingly proclaimed his will to his chiefs, and with all due solemnity placed Ummed Singh, then ten years of age, ‘in the lap’ of Zalim Singh. =Mahārāo Ummed Singh, A.D. 1771-1819.=—Ummed Singh was proclaimed in S. 1827 (A.D. 1771). On the day of inauguration, the ancient Rajput custom of the _tika-daur_ was revived, and the conquest of Kelwara[10.6.9] from the house of Narwar marked with éclat the accession of the Maharao of the Haras of Kotah, and gave early indication that the genius of the regent would not sleep in his office of protector. More than half a century of rule, amidst the most appalling vicissitudes, has amply confirmed the prognostication. The retention of a power thus acquired, it may be concluded, could never be effected without severity, nor the vigorous authority, wielded throughout a period beyond the ordinary limits of mortality, be sustained without something more potent than persuasion. Still, when we consider Zalim’s perilous predicament, and the motives to perpetual reaction, his acts of severity are fewer than might have been expected, or than occur in the course of usurpation under similar circumstances. Mature reflection initiated all his measures, and the sagacity of their conception was only equalled by the rapidity of their execution. Whether the end in view was good or evil, nothing was ever half-done; no spark was left to excite future conflagration. Even this excess of severity was an advantage; it restrained the repetition of what, whether morally right or wrong, he was determined not to tolerate. To pass a correct judgment on these acts is most difficult. What in one case was a measure of barbarous severity, appears in another to have been one indispensable to the welfare of the State. But this is not the place to discuss the character or principles of the regent; let us endeavour to unfold both in the exhibition of those acts which have carried him through the most tempestuous sea of political convulsion in the whole history of India. When nought but revolution and rapine stalked through the land, when State after State was crumbling into dust, or sinking into the abyss of ruin, he guided the vessel entrusted to his care safely through all dangers, adding yearly to her riches, until he placed her in security under the protection of Britain [523]. =Zālim Singh Regent of Kotah.=—Scarcely had Zalim assumed the protectorate, when he was compelled to make trial of those Machiavellian powers which have never deserted him, in order to baffle the schemes devised to oppose him. The duties of Faujdar, to which he had hitherto been restricted, were entirely of a military nature; though, as it involved the charge of the castle, in which the sovereign resided, it brought him in contact with his councils. This, however, afforded no plea for interference in the Diwani, or civil duties of the government, in which, ever since his own accession to power, he had a coadjutor in Rae Akhairam, a man of splendid talents, and who had been Diwan or prime minister throughout the reign of Chhattarsal and the greater part of that of his successor. To his counsel is mainly ascribed the advantages gained by Kotah throughout these reigns; yet did he fall a sacrifice to jealousies a short time before the death of his prince, Guman Singh. It is not affirmed that they were the suggestions of young Zalim; but Akhairam’s death left him fewer competitors to dispute the junction in his own person of the civil as well as military authority of the State. Still he had no slight opposition to overcome, in the very opening of his career. The party which opposed the pretensions of Zalim Singh to act as regent of the State, asserting that no such power had been bequeathed by the dying prince, consisted of his cousin, the Maharaja Sarup Singh, and the Bhangrot chief, whose disgrace brought Zalim into power. There was, besides, the Dhabhai Jaskaran, foster-brother to the prince, a man of talent and credit, whose post, being immediately about his person, afforded opportunities for carrying their schemes into effect. =Murder of Sarūp Singh.=—Such was the powerful opposition arrayed against the protector in the very commencement of his career. The conspiracy was hardly formed, however, before it was extinguished by the murder of the Maharaja by the hands of the Dhabhai, the banishment of the assassin, and the flight of the Bhangrot. The rapidity with which this drama was enacted struck terror into all. The gaining over the foster-brother, the making him the instrument of punishment, and banishing him for the crime, acted like a spell, and appeared such a masterpiece of daring and subtilty combined, that no one thought himself secure. There had been no cause of discontent between the Maharaja and the Dhabhai, to prompt revenge; yet did the latter, in the glare of open day, rush upon him in the garden of Brajvilas,[10.6.10] and with a blow of his scimitar end his days. The regent was the loudest in execrating the author of the crime, whom he instantly seized and confined, and soon after expelled from Haraoti. But however well acted, this dissimulation passed not with the world; and, whether innocent or guilty, they lay to Zalim’s charge the plot for the murder of the Maharaja. The Dhabhai died in exile and contempt at [524] Jaipur; and in abandoning him to his fate without provision, Zalim, if guilty of the deed, showed at once his knowledge and contempt of mankind. Had he added another murder to the first, and in the fury of an affected indignation become the sole depository of his secret, he would only have increased the suspicion of the world; but in turning the culprit loose on society to proclaim his participation in the crime, he neutralized the reproach by destroying the credibility of one who was a self-convicted assassin when he had it in his power to check its circulation. In order to unravel this tortuous policy, it is necessary to state that the Dhabhai was seduced from the league by the persuasion of the regent, who insinuated that the Maharaja formed plans inimical to the safety of the young prince, and that his own elevation was the true object of his hostility to the person entrusted with the charge of the minor sovereign. Whatever truth there might be in this, which might be pleaded in justification of the foul crime, it was attended with the consequences he expected. Immediately after, the remaining member of the adverse junta withdrew, and at the same time many of the nobles abandoned their estates and their country. Zalim evinced his contempt of their means of resistance by granting them free egress from the kingdom, and determined to turn their retreat to account. They went to Jaipur and to Jodhpur; but troubles prevailed everywhere; the princes could with difficulty keep the prowling Mahratta from their own doors, and possessed neither funds nor inclination to enter into foreign quarrels for objects which would only increase their already superabundant difficulties. The event turned out as Zalim anticipated; and the princes, to whom the refugees were suitors, had a legitimate excuse in the representations of the regent, who described them as rebels to their sovereign and parties to designs hostile to his rule. Some died abroad, and some, sick of wandering in a foreign land dependent on its bounty, solicited as a boon that “their ashes might be burned with their fathers'.” In granting this request, Zalim evinced that reliance on himself, which is the leading feature of his character. He permitted their return, but received them as traitors who had abandoned their prince and their country, and it was announced to them, as an act of clemency, that they were permitted to live upon a part of their estates; which, as they had been voluntarily abandoned, were sequestrated and belonged to the crown. =Zālim Singh’s Triumph over his Opponents.=—Such was Zalim Singh’s triumph over the first faction formed against his assumption of the full powers of regent of Kotah. Not only did the aristocracy feel humiliated, but were subjugated by the rod of iron held over them; and no opportunity [525] was ever thrown away of crushing this formidable body, which in these States too often exerts its pernicious influence to the ruin of society. The thoughtlessness of character so peculiar to Rajputs, furnished abundant opportunities for the march of an exterminating policy, and, at the same time, afforded reasons which justified it. The next combination was more formidable; it was headed by Deo Singh of Aton,[10.6.11] who enjoyed an estate of sixty thousand rupees rent. He strongly fortified his castle, and was joined by all the discontented nobles, determined to get rid of the authority which crushed them. The regent well knew the spirits he had to cope with, and that the power of the State was insufficient. By means of ‘the help of Moses’ (such is the interpretation of Musa Madad, his auxiliary on this occasion), this struggle against his authority also only served to confirm it; and their measures recoiled on the heads of the feudality. The condition of society since the dissolution of the imperial power was most adverse to the institutions of Rajwara, the unsupported valour of whose nobles was no match for the mercenary force which their rulers could now always command from those bands, belonging to no government, but roaming whither they listed over this vast region, in search of pay or plunder. The ‘help of Moses’ was the leader of one of these associations—a name well known in the history of that agitated period; and he not only led a well-appointed infantry brigade, but had an efficient park attached to it, which was brought to play against Aton. It held out several months, the garrison meanwhile making many sallies, which it required the constant vigilance of Moses to repress. At length, reduced to extremity, they demanded and obtained an honourable capitulation, being allowed to retire unmolested whither they pleased. Such was the termination of this ill-organized insurrection, which involved almost all the feudal chiefs of Kotah in exile and ruin, and strengthened the regent, or as he would say, the state, by the escheat of the sequestrated property. Deo Singh of Aton, the head of this league, died in exile. After several years of lamentation in a foreign soil for the _janam bhum_, the ‘land of their birth,’ the son pleaded for pardon, though his heart denied all crime, and was fortunate enough to obtain his recall, and the estate of Bamolia, of fifteen thousand rupees rent. The inferior members of the opposition were treated with the same contemptuous clemency; they were admitted into Kotah, but deprived of the power of doing mischief. What stronger proof of the political courage of the regent can be adduced, than his shutting up such combustible materials within the social edifice, and even living amongst and with them, as if he deserved their friendship rather than their hatred [526]. In combating such associations, and thus cementing his power, time passed away. His marriage with one of the distant branches of the royal house of Mewar, by whom he had his son and successor Madho Singh, gave Zalim an additional interest in the affairs of that disturbed State, of which he never lost sight amidst the troubles which more immediately concerned him. The motives which, in S. 1847 (A.D. 1791), made him consider for a time the interests of Kotah as secondary to those of Mewar, are related at length in the annals of that State;[10.6.12] and the effect of this policy on the prosperity of Kotah, drained of its wealth in the prosecution of his views, will appear on considering the details of his system. Referring the reader, therefore, to the Annals of Mewar, we shall pass from S. 1847 to S. 1856 (A.D. 1800), when another attempt was made by the chieftains to throw off the iron yoke of the protector. =Conspiracy against Zālim Singh.=—Many attempts at assassination had been tried, but his vigilance baffled them all; though no bold enterprise was hazarded since the failure of that (in S. 1833) which ended in the death and exile of its contriver, the chieftain of Aton, until the conspiracy of Mohsen, in S. 1856, just twenty years ago.[10.6.13] Bahadur Singh, of Mohsen, a chieftain of ten thousand rupees’ annual rent, was the head of this plot, which included every chief and family whose fortunes had been annihilated by the exterminating policy of the regent. It was conducted with admirable secrecy; if known at all, it was to Zalim alone, and not till on the eve of accomplishment. The proscription-list was long; the regent, his family, his friend and counsellor the Pandit Lalaji, were amongst the victims marked for sacrifice. The moment for execution was that of his proceeding to hold his court, in open day; and the mode was by a _coup de main_ whose very audacity would guarantee success. It is said that he was actually in progress to darbar, when the danger was revealed. The paegah or ‘select troop of horse’ belonging to his friend, and always at hand, was immediately called in and added to the guards about his person; thus the conspirators were assailed when they deemed the prey rushing into the snare they had laid. The surprise was complete; many were slain; some were taken, others fled. Amongst the latter was the head of the conspiracy, Bahadur Singh, who gained the Chambal, and took refuge in the temple of the tutelary deity of the Haras at Patan. But he mistook the character of the regent when he supposed that either the sanctuary (_sarana_) of Keshorai,[10.6.14] or the respect due to the prince in whose dominions (Bundi) it lay, could shield him from his fate. He was dragged forth, and expiated his crime or folly with his life [527]. According to the apologists of the regent, this act was one of just retribution, since it was less to defend himself and his immediate interests than those of the prince whose power and existence were threatened by the insurrection, which had for its object his deposal and the elevation of one of his brothers. The members of the Maharao’s family at this period were his uncle Raj Singh, and his two brothers, Gordhan and Gopal Singh. Since the rebellion of Aton, these princes had been under strict surveillance; but after this instance of reaction, in which their names were implicated as having aspired to supplant their brother, a more rigorous seclusion was adopted; and the rest of their days was passed in solitary confinement. Gordhan, the elder, died about ten years after his incarceration; the younger, Gopal, lived many years longer; but neither from that day quitted the walls of their prison, until death released them from this dreadful bondage. Kaka Raj Singh lived to extreme old age; but, as he took no part in these turmoils, he remained unmolested, having the range of the temples in the city, beyond which limits he had no wish to stray. We may in this place introduce a slip from the genealogical tree of the forfeited branch of Bishan Singh, but which, in the person of his grandson Ajit, regained its rights and the _gaddi_. The fate of this family will serve as a specimen of the policy pursued by the regent towards the feudal interests of Kotah. It is appalling, when thus marshalled, to view the sacrifices which the maintenance of power will demand in these feudal States, where individual will is law. The plots against the existence and authority of the Protector were of every description, and no less than eighteen are enumerated, which his never-slumbering vigilance detected and baffled. The means were force, open and concealed, poison, the dagger—until at length he became sick of precaution. “I could not always be on my guard,” he would say. But the most dangerous of all was a female conspiracy, got up in the palace, and which discovers an amusing mixture of tragedy and farce, although his habitual wariness would not have saved him from being its victim, had he not been aided by the boldness of a female champion, from a regard for the personal attractions of the handsome regent. He was suddenly sent for by the queen-mother of one of the young princes, and while waiting in an antechamber, expecting every instant ‘the voice behind the curtain,’ he found himself encircled by a band of Amazonian Rajputnis, armed with sword and dagger, from whom, acquainted as he was with the nerve, physical and moral, of his countrywomen, he saw no hope of salvation [528]. Fortunately, they were determined not to be satisfied merely with his death, they put him upon his trial; and the train of interrogation into all the acts of his life was going on, when his preserving angel, in the shape of the chief attendant of the dowager queen, a woman of masculine strength and courage, rushed in, and, with strong dissembled anger, drove him forth amidst a torrent of abuse for presuming to be found in such a predicament. While bathing, and during the heat of the chase, his favourite pursuit, similar attempts have been made, but they always recoiled on the heads of his enemies. Yet, notwithstanding the multitude of these plots, which would have unsettled the reason of many, he never allowed a blind suspicion to add to the victims of his policy; and although, for his personal security, he was compelled to sleep in an iron cage, he never harboured unnecessary alarm, that parent of crime and blood in all usurpations. His lynx-like eye saw at once who was likely to invade his authority, and these knew their peril from the vigilance of a system which never relaxed. Entire self-reliance, a police such as perhaps no country in the world could equal, establishments well paid, services liberally rewarded, character and talent in each department of the State, himself keeping a strict watch over all, and trusting implicitly to none, with a daily personal supervision of all this complicated state-machinery—such was the system which surmounted every peril, and not only maintained but increased the power and political reputation of Zalim Singh, amidst the storms of war, rapine, treason, and political convulsions of more than half a century’s duration. ----- Footnote 10.6.1: [The Empire was now breaking up, and his dominions were gradually reduced to the region held by the later Tughlak dynasty.] Footnote 10.6.2: This was written in A.D. 1821, when Maharao Kishor Singh [died 1828] succeeded. Footnote 10.6.3: [Formerly capital of Dhrāngadhra State in Kāthiāwār (_IGI_, xiii. 13).] Footnote 10.6.4: Māmā is ‘maternal uncle’; Kākā, ‘paternal uncle.’ Footnote 10.6.5: Not Rāna, which he puts upon his seal. Footnote 10.6.6: See Vol. I. p. 500. Footnote 10.6.7: [About 60 miles S. of Kotah city.] Footnote 10.6.8: The reader is requested to refer to p. 1483, for evidence of the loyalty and heroism of Sawant Hara, the founder of this clan. Footnote 10.6.9: [About 70 miles E. of Kotah city.] Footnote 10.6.10: [Brajvilās, the ‘garden of enjoyment,’ like that in which Krishna sported with the Gopis in the land of Braj or Mathura.] Footnote 10.6.11: [About 40 miles S.E. of Kotah city.] Footnote 10.6.12: Vol. I. p. 516. Footnote 10.6.13: This was written at Kotah, in S. 1876 (A.D. 1820). Footnote 10.6.14: [Kesavarāē, Krishna.] ----- CHAPTER 7 =Legislation of Zālim Singh.=—We are now to examine the Protector in another point of view, as the legislator and manager of the State whose concerns he was thus determined to rule. For a series of years Kotah was but the wet-nurse to the child of his ambition, a design upon Mewar [529], which engulfed as in a vortex all that oppression could extort from the industry of the people confided to his charge. From this first acquaintance with the court of the Rana, in S. 1827 to the year 1856, he never relinquished the hope of extending the same measure of authority over that State which he exerted in his own. To the prosecution of this policy Haraoti was sacrificed, and the cultivator lowered to the condition of a serf. In the year 1840, oppression was at its height; the impoverished ryot, no longer able to pay the extra calls upon his industry, his cattle and the implements of his labour distrained, was reduced to despair. Many died from distress; some fled, but where could they find refuge in the chaos around them? The greater part were compelled to plough for hire, with the cattle and implements once their own, the very fields, their freehold, which had been torn from them. From this system of universal impoverishment, displayed at length in unthatched villages and untilled lands, the regent was compelled to become farmer-general of Kotah. Fortunately for his subjects, and for his own reputation, his sense of gratitude and friendship for the family of Inglia—whose head, Bala Rao, was then a prisoner in Mewar—involved him, in the attempt to obtain his release, in personal conflict with the Rana, and he was compelled to abandon for ever that long-cherished object of his ambition. It was then he perceived he had sacrificed the welfare of all classes to a phantom, and his vigorous understanding suggested a remedy, which was instantly adopted. =Superstition of Zālim Singh.=—Until the conspiracy of Mohsen in 1856, the regent had resided in the castle, acting the part of the Maire du palais of the old French monarchy; but on his return from the release of Bala Rao, in S. 1860 (A.D. 1803-4), when the successes of the British arms disturbed the combination of the Mahrattas, and obliged them to send forth their disunited bands to seek by rapine what they had lost by our conquests, the regent perceived the impolicy of such permanent residence, and determined to come nearer to the point of danger. He had a double motive, each of itself sufficiently powerful to justify the change: the first was a revision of the revenue system; the other, to seek a more central position for a disposable camp, which he might move to any point threatened by these predatory bodies. Though these were doubtless the real incentives to the project, according to those who ought to have known the secret impulse of his mind, the change from the castle on the Chambal to the tented field proceeded from no more potent cause than an ominous owl [530], telling his tale to the moon from the pinnacle of his mansion. A meeting of the astrologers, and those versed in prodigies, was convened, and it was decided that it would be tempting _honhar_ (fate) to abide longer in that dwelling. If this were the true motive, Zalim Singh’s mind only shared the grovelling superstition of the most illustrious and most courageous of his nation, to whom there was no presage more appalling than a _ghugghu_ on the house-top. But, in all likelihood, this was a political owl conjured up for the occasion; one seen only in the mind’s eye of the regent, and serving to cloak his plans. =His Permanent Camp.=—The soothsayers having in due form desecrated the dwelling of the Protector, he commenced a perambulation and survey of the long-neglected territory, within which he determined henceforth to limit his ambition. He then saw, and perhaps felt for, the miseries his mistaken policy had occasioned; but the moral evil was consummated; he had ruined the fortunes of one-third of the agriculturists, and the rest were depressed and heart-broken. The deficiency in his revenues spoke a truth no longer to be misinterpreted; for his credit was so low in the mercantile world at this period, that his word and his bond were in equal disesteem. Hitherto he had shut his ears against complaint; but funds were necessary to forward his views, and all pleas of inability were met by confiscation. It was evident that this evil, if not checked, must ultimately denude the State of the means of defence, and the fertility of his genius presented various modes of remedy. He began by fixing upon a spot, near the strong fortress of Gagraun, for a permanent camp, where he continued to reside, with merely a shed over his tent; and although the officers and men of rank had also thrown up sheds, he would admit of nothing more. All the despatches and newspapers were dated “from the Chhaoni,” or camp. The situation selected was most judicious, being nearly equidistant from the two principal entrances to Haraoti from the south, and touching the most insubordinate part of the Bhil population; while he was close to the strong castles of Shirgarh and Gagraun, which he strengthened with the utmost care, making the latter the depot of his treasures and his arsenal. He formed an army; adopted the European arms and discipline; appointed officers with the title of captain to his battalions, which had a regular nomenclature, and his ‘royals’ (_Raj Paltan_) have done as gallant service as any that ever bore the name. These were ready at a moment’s warning to move to any point, against any foe. Moreover, by this change, he was extricated from many perplexities and delays which a residence in a capital necessarily engenders [531]. =Land Revenue Collections.=—Up to this period of his life, having been immersed in the troubled sea of political intrigue, the Protector had no better knowledge of the systems of revenue and landed economy than other Rangra[10.7.1] chieftains; and he followed the immemorial usage termed _lattha_ and _batai_,[10.7.2] or rent in kind by weight or measure, in proportion to the value of the soil or of the product. The regent soon found the disadvantages of this system, which afforded opportunity for oppression on the part of the collectors, and fraud on that of the tenant, both detrimental to the government, and serving only to enrich that vulture, the Patel. When this rapacious yet indispensable medium between the peasant and ruler leagued with the collectors—and there was no control to exaction beyond the conscience of this constituted attorney of each township, either for the assessment or collection—and when, as we have so often stated, the regent cared not for the means so that the supplies were abundant, nothing but ruin could ensue to the ryot. Having made himself master of the complicated details of the _batai_, and sifted every act of chicanery by the most inquisitorial process, he convoked all the Patels of the country, and took their depositions as to the extent of each pateli, their modes of collection, their credit, character, and individual means; and being thus enabled to form a rough computation of the size and revenues of each, he recommenced his tour, made a _chakbandi_, or measurement of the lands of each township, and classified them, according to soil and fertility, as _piwal_, or irrigated; _gorma_, or good soil, but dependent on the heavens; and _mormi_, including pasturage and mountain-tracts. He then, having formed an average from the accounts of many years, instituted a fixed money-rent, and declared that the _batai_ system, or that of payment in kind, was at an end. But even in this he showed severity; for he reduced the _jarib_,[10.7.3] or standard measure, by a third, and added a fourth to his averages. Doubtless he argued that the profit which the Patels looked forward to would admit of this increase, and determined that his vigilance should be more than a match for their ingenuity. Having thus adjusted the rents of the fisc, the dues of the Patel were fixed at one and a half annas per bigha, on all the lands constituting a pateli; and as his personal lands were on a favoured footing and paid a much smaller rate than the ryot’s, he was led to understand that any exaction beyond what was authorized would subject him to confiscation. Thus the dues on collection would realize to the Patel from five to fifteen thousand rupees annually. The anxiety of these men to be reinstated in their trusts [532] was evinced by the immense offers they made, of ten, twenty, and even fifty thousand rupees. At one stroke he put ten lakhs, or £100,000 sterling, into his exhausted treasury, by the amount of _nazaranas_, or fines of relief on their reinduction into office. The ryot hoped for better days; for notwithstanding the assessment was heavy, he saw the limit of exaction, and that the door was closed to all subordinate oppression. Besides the spur of hope, he had that of fear, to quicken his exertions; for with the promulgation of the edict substituting money-rent for _batai_, the ryot was given to understand that 'no account of the seasons’ would alter or lessen the established dues of the State, and that uncultivated lands would be made over by the Patel to those who would cultivate them; or if none would take them, they would be incorporated with the _khas_ or personal farms of the regent. In all cases the Patels were declared responsible for deficiencies of revenue. Hitherto this body of men had an incentive, if not a licence, to plunder, being subject to an annual or triennial tax termed _patel-barar_. This was annulled; and it was added, that if they fulfilled their contract with the State without oppressing the subject, they should be protected and honoured. Thus these Patels, the elected representatives of the village and the shields of the ryot, became the direct officers of the crown. It was the regent’s interest to conciliate a body of men on whose exertions the prosperity of the State mainly depended; and they gladly and unanimously entered into his views. Golden bracelets and turbans, the signs of inauguration, were given, with a “grant of office,” to each Patel, and they departed to their several trusts. =Possibility of Representative Government.=—A few reflections obtrude themselves on the contemplation of such a picture. It will hardly fail to strike the reader, how perfect are the elements for the formation of a representative government in these regions;[10.7.4] for every State of Rajwara is similarly constituted; _ex uno disce omnes_. The Patels would only require to be joined by the representatives of the commercial body, and these are already formed, of Rajput blood, deficient neither in nerve nor political sagacity, compared with any class on earth; often composing the ministry, or heading the armies in battle. It is needless to push the parallel farther; but if it is the desire of Britain to promote this system in the east to enthrone liberty on the ruins of bondage, and call forth the energies of a grand national Panchayat, the materials are ample without the risk of innovation beyond the mere extent of members. We should have the aristocratic Thakurs (the Rajput barons), the men of wealth, and the representatives of agriculture, to [533] settle the limits and maintain the principles of their ancient patriarchal system. A code of criminal and civil law, perfectly adequate, could be compiled from their sacred books, their records on stone, or traditional customs, and sufficient might be deducted from the revenues of the State to maintain municipal forces, which could unite if public safety were endangered, while the equestrian order would furnish all State parade, and act as a movable army. =A Revenue Board.=—But to return to our subject. Out of this numerous body of Patels, Zalim selected four of the most intelligent and experienced, of whom he formed a council attached to the Presence. At first their duties were confined to matters of revenue; soon those of police were superadded, and at length no matter of internal regulation was transacted without their advice. In all cases of doubtful decision they were the court of appeal from provincial panchayats, and even from those of the cities and the capital itself. Thus they performed the threefold duties of a board of revenue, of justice, and of police, and perhaps throughout the world there never was a police like that of Zalim Singh: there was not one Fouché, but four; and a net of espionage was spread over the country, out of whose meshes nothing could escape. Such was the Patel system of Kotah. A system so rigid had its alloy of evil; the veil of secrecy, so essential to commercial pursuits, was rudely drawn aside; every transaction was exposed to the regent, and no man felt safe from the inquisitorial visits of the spies of this council. A lucky speculation was immediately reported, and the regent hastened to share in the success of the speculator. Alarm and disgust were the consequence; the spirit of trade was damped; none were assured of the just returns of their industry; but there was no security elsewhere, and at Kotah only the Protector dared to injure them. The council of Venice was not more arbitrary than the Patel board of Kotah; even the ministers saw the sword suspended over their heads, while they were hated as much as feared by all but the individual who recognized their utility. It would be imagined that with a council so vigilant the regent would feel perfectly secure. Not so: he had spies over them. In short, to use the phrase of one of his ministers—a man of acute perception and powerful understanding, when talking of the vigour of his mental vision—when his physical organs had failed, _pani pina, aur mut tolna_, which we will not translate. =The Bohra.=—The Patel, now the virtual master of the peasantry, was aware that fine and confiscation would follow the discovery of direct oppression of the ryots; but there were [534] many indirect modes by which he could attain his object, and he took the most secure, the medium of their necessities. Hitherto, the impoverished husbandman had his wants supplied by the Bohra, the sanctioned usurer of each village; now, the privileged Patel usurped his functions, and bound him by a double chain to his purposes. But we must explain the functions of the Bohra, in order to show the extent of subordination in which the ryot was placed. The Bohra of Rajputana is the Métayer of the ancient system of France. He furnishes the cultivator with whatever he requires for his pursuits, whether cattle, implements, or seed; and supports him and his family throughout the season until the crop is ready for the sickle, when a settlement of accounts takes place. This is done in two ways: either by a cash payment, with stipulated interest according to the risk previously agreed upon; or, more commonly, by a specified share of the crop, in which the Bohra takes the risk of bad seasons with the husbandman. The utility of such a person under an oppressive government, where the ryot can store up nothing for the future, may readily be conceived; he is, in fact, indispensable. Mutual honesty is required; for extortion on the part of the Bohra would lose him his clients, and dishonesty on that of the peasant would deprive him of his only resource against the sequestration of his patrimony. Accordingly, this monied middleman enjoyed great consideration, being regarded as the patron of the husbandman. Every peasant had his particular Bohra, and not unfrequently from the adjacent village in preference to his own. Such was the state of things when the old system of _lattha batai_ was commuted for _bighoti_, a specific money-rent apportioned to the area of the land. The Patel, now tied down to the simple duties of collection, could touch nothing but his dues, unless he leagued with or overturned the Bohra; and in either case there was risk from the lynx-eyed scrutiny of the regent. They, accordingly, adopted the middle course of alarming his cupidity, which the following expedient effected. When the crop was ripe, the peasant would demand permission to cut it. “Pay your rent first,” was the reply. The Bohra was applied to; but his fears had been awakened by a caution not to lend money to one on whom the government had claims. There was no alternative but to mortgage to the harpy Patel a portion of the produce of his fields. This was the precise point at which he aimed; he took the crop at his own valuation, and gave his receipt that the dues of government were satisfied; demanding a certificate to the effect “that having no funds forthcoming [535] when the rent was required, and being unable to raise it, the mortgager voluntarily assigned, at a fair valuation, a share of the produce.” In this manner did the Patels hoard immense quantities of grain, and as Kotah became the granary of Rajputana, they accumulated great wealth, while the peasant, never able to reckon on the fruits of his industry, was depressed and impoverished. The regent could not long be kept in ignorance of these extortions; but the treasury overflowed, and he did not sufficiently heed the miseries occasioned by a system which added fresh lands by sequestration to the home farms, now the object of his especial solicitude. =Suppression of the Patel System.=—Matters proceeded thus until the year 1867 (A.D. 1811), when, like a clap of thunder, mandates of arrest were issued, and every Patel in Kotah was placed in fetters, and his property under the seal of the State; the ill-gotten wealth, as usual, flowing into the exchequer of the Protector. Few escaped heavy fines; one only was enabled altogether to evade the vigilance of the police, and he had wisely remitted his wealth, to the amount of seven lakhs, or £70,000, to a foreign country; and from this individual case, a judgment may be formed of the prey these cormorants were compelled to disgorge. It is to be inferred that the regent must have well weighed the present good against the evil he incurred, in destroying in one moment the credit and efficacy of such an engine of power as the Pateli system he had established. The Council of Four maintained their post, notwithstanding the humiliated condition of their compeers; though their influence could not fail to be weakened by the discredit attached to the body. The system Zalim had so artfully introduced being thus entirely disorganized, he was induced to push still further the resources of his energetic mind, by the extension of his personal farms. In describing the formation and management of these, we shall better portray the character of the regent than by the most laboured summary; the acts will paint the man. Before, however, we enter upon this singular part of his history, it is necessary to develop the ancient agricultural system of Haraoti, to which he returned when the pateli was broken up. In the execution of this design, we must speak both of the soil and the occupants, whose moral estimation in the minds of their rulers must materially influence their legislative conduct. The ryot of India, like the progenitor of all tillers of the earth, bears the brand of vengeance on his forehead; for as Cain was cursed by the Almighty, so were the cultivators of India by Ramachandra, as a class whom no lenity could render honest or [536] contented. When the hero of Ayodhya left his kingdom for Lanka, he enjoined his minister to foster the ryots, that he might hear no complaints on his return. Aware of the fruitlessness of the attempt, yet determined to guard against all just cause of complaint, the minister reversed the _mauna_, or grain measure, taking the share of the crown from the smaller end, exactly one-half of what was sanctioned by immemorial usage. When Rama returned, the cultivators assembled in bodies at each stage of his journey, and complained of the innovations of the minister. “What had he done?” “Reversed the _mauna_.” The monarch dismissed them with his curse, as “a race whom no favour could conciliate, and who belonged to no one”; a phrase which to this hour is proverbial, '_ryot kisi ka nahin hai_'; and the sentence is confirmed by the historians of Alexander, who tell us that they lived unmolested amidst all intestine wars; that “they only till the ground and pay tribute to the king,” enjoying an amnesty from danger when the commonwealth suffered, which must tend to engender a love of soil more than patriotism.[10.7.5] It would appear as if the regent of Kotah had availed himself of the anathema of Rama in his estimation of the moral virtues of his subjects, who were Helots in condition if not in name. =Modes of realizing Land-Rent.=—We proceed to the modes of realizing the dues of the State, in which the character and condition of the peasant will be further developed. There are four modes of levying the land-tax, three of which are common throughout Rajwara; the fourth is more peculiar to Haraoti and Mewar. The first and most ancient is that of _batai_, or ‘payment in kind,’ practised before metallic currency was invented. The system of _batai_ extends, however, only to corn; for sugar-cane, cotton, hemp, poppy, al, kusumbha,[10.7.6] ginger, turmeric, and other dyes and drugs, and all garden stuffs, pay a rent in money. This rent was arbitrary and variable, according to the necessities or justice of the ruler. In both countries five to ten rupees per bigha are demanded for sugar-cane; three to five for cotton, poppy, hemp, and oil-plant; and two to four for the rest. But when heaven was bounteous, avarice and oppression rose in their demands, and seventy rupees per bigha were exacted for the sugar-cane, thus paralysing the industry of the cultivator, and rendering abortive the beneficence of the Almighty. _Batai_, or ‘division in kind,’ varies with the seasons and their products: 1st. The _unalu_, or ‘summer harvest,’ when wheat, barley, and a variety of pulses, as gram, moth, mung, til,[10.7.7] are raised. The share of the State in these varies with the fertility of the soil, from one-fourth, one-third, and two-fifths, to one-half—the extreme fractions being the maximum and minimum; those of one-third and two-fifths [537] are the most universally admitted as the share of the crown. But besides this, there are dues to the artificers and mechanics, whose labour to the village is compensated by a share of the harvest from each cultivator; which allowances reduce the portion of the latter to one-half of the gross produce of his industry, which if he realize, he is contented and thrives. The second harvest is the _siyalu_, or ‘autumnal,’ and consists of _makkai_ or _bhutta_ (Indian corn), of juar, bajra, the two chief kinds of maize,[10.7.8] and _til_ or sesamum, with other small seeds, such as _kangni_,[10.7.9] with many of the pulses. Of all these, one-half is exacted by the State. Such is the system of _batai_; let us describe that of _kut_.[10.7.10] _Kut_[10.7.11] is the conjectural estimate of the quantity of the standing crop on a measured surface, by the officers of the government in conjunction with the proprietors, when the share of the State is converted into cash at the average rate of the day, and the peasant is debited the amount. So exactly can those habitually exercised in this method estimate the quantity of grain produced on a given surface, that they seldom err beyond one-twentieth part of the crop. Should, however, the cultivator deem his crop over-estimated, he has the power to cut and weigh it; and this is termed _lattha_. The third is a tax in money, according to admeasurement of the field, assessed previously to cultivation. The fourth is a mixed tax, of both money and produce. None of these modes is free from objection. That of _kut_, or conjectural estimate of the standing crop, is, however, liable to much greater abuse than _lattha_, or measurement of the grain. In the first case, it is well known that by a bribe to the officer, he will _kut_ a field at ten maunds, which may realize twice the quantity; for the chief guarantees to honesty are fear of detection, and instinctive morality; feeble safeguards, even in more civilized States than Rajwara. If he be so closely watched that he must make a fair _kut_, or estimate, he will still find means to extort money from the ryot, one of which is, by procrastinating the estimate when the ear is ripe, and when every day’s delay is a certain loss. In short, a celebrated superintendent of a district, of great credit both for zeal and honesty [538], confessed, “We are like tailors; we can cheat you to your face, and you cannot perceive it.” The ryot prefers the _kut_; the process is soon over, and he has done with the government; but in _lattha_, the means are varied to perplex and cheat it; beginning with the reaping, when, with a liberal hand, they leave something for the gleaner; then, a “tithe for the _khurpi_, or 'sickle'”; then, the thrashing; and though they muzzle the ox who treads out the corn, they do not their own mouths, or those of their family. Again, if not convertible into coin, they are debited and allowed to store it up, and “the rats are sure to get into the pits.” In both cases the _shahnahs_, or field-watchmen, are appointed to watch the crops, as soon as the ear begins to fill; yet all is insufficient to check the system of pillage; for the ryot and his family begin to feed upon the heads of Indian corn and millet the moment they afford the least nourishment. The _shahnah_, receiving his emoluments from the husbandman as well as from the crown, inclines more to his fellow-citizen; and it is asserted that one-fourth of the crop, and even a third, is frequently made away with before the share of the government can be fixed. Yet the system of _lattha_ was pursued by the regent before he commenced that of pateli, which has no slight analogy to the permanent system of Bengal,[10.7.12] and was attended with similar results,—distress, confiscation, and sale, to the utter exclusion of the hereditary principle, the very corner-stone of Hindu society. ----- Footnote 10.7.1: [See Vol. I. p. 535.] Footnote 10.7.2: [_Lattha_, literally a ‘measuring pole’; _batāi_, division of crop between landlord and tenant.] Footnote 10.7.3: [In the United Provinces the _jarīb_ is 55 yards, and one square _jarīb_ = 1 _bīgha_. The standard _bīgha_ is five-eighths of an acre (Wilson, _Glossary of Indian Terms_, _s.v._).] Footnote 10.7.4: [On the prospects of representative government, in Rājputāna see the statement of the Mahārāja of Bīkaner—_The Times_, 10th May 1917.] Footnote 10.7.5: [McCrindle, _Megasthenes_, 41.] Footnote 10.7.6: [_Āl_, _Morinda citrifolia_, from which a dye is made; _kusumbha_, safflower, _Carthamus tinctorius_, also a dye (Watt, _Econ. Prod._ 783 f., 276 ff.).] Footnote 10.7.7: [_Moth_, _Phaseolus aconitifolius_; _mūng_, _P. mungo_; _til_, _Sesamum indicum_.] Footnote 10.7.8: [Juār and bājra are millets; makkai is maize.] Footnote 10.7.9: _Panicum Italicum_ [_Setaria italica_], produced abundantly in the valley of the Rhine, as well as _makkai_, there called Velsh corn; doubtless the maizes would alike grow in perfection. [Watt, _Comm. Prod._ 988.] Footnote 10.7.10: It would be more correct to say that _batai_, or ‘payment in kind,’ is divided into two branches, namely, _kut_ and _lattha_; the first being a portion of the standing crop by conjectural estimate; the other by actual measure, after reaping and thrashing. Footnote 10.7.11: [_Kūt_ means ‘valuation, appraisement.’] Footnote 10.7.12: The patel of Haraoti, like the zemindar of Bengal, was answerable for the revenues; the one, however, was hereditary only during pleasure; the other perpetually so. The extent of their authorities was equal. ----- CHAPTER 8 =The Farming Monopoly.=—Let us proceed with the most prominent feature of the regent’s internal administration—his farming monopoly—to which he is mainly indebted for the reputation he [539] enjoys throughout Rajputana. The superficial observer, who can with difficulty find a path through the corn-fields which cover the face of Haraoti, will dwell with rapture upon the effects of a system in which he discovers nothing but energy and efficiency: he cannot trace the remote causes of this deceptive prosperity, which originated in moral and political injustice. It was because his own tyranny had produced unploughed fields and deserted villages, starving husbandmen and a diminishing population; it was with the distrained implements and cattle of his subjects, and in order to prevent the injurious effects of so much waste land upon the revenue, that Zalim commenced a system which has made him farmer-general of Haraoti; and he has carried it to an astonishing extent. There is not a nook or a patch in Haraoti where grain can be produced which his ploughs do not visit. Forests have disappeared; even the barren rocks have been covered with exotic soil, and the mountain’s side, inaccessible to the plough, is turned up with a spud, and compelled to yield a crop. In S. 1840 (A.D. 1784), Zalim possessed only two or three hundred ploughs, which in a few years increased to eight hundred. At the commencement of what they term the new era (_naya samvat_) in the history of landed property of Kotah, the introduction of the pateli system, the number was doubled; and at the present time[10.8.1] no less than four thousand ploughs, of double yoke, employing sixteen thousand oxen, are used in the farming system of this extraordinary man; to which may be added one thousand more ploughs and four thousand oxen employed on the estates of the prince and the different members of his family. This is the secret of the Raj Rana’s power and reputation; and to the wealth extracted from her soil, Kotah owes her preservation from the ruin which befell the States around her during the convulsions of the last half-century, when one after another sank into decay. But although sagacity marks the plan, and unexampled energy superintends its details, we must, on examining the foundations of the system either morally or politically, pronounce its effects a mere paroxysm of prosperity, arising from stimulating causes which present no guarantee of permanence. Despotism has wrought this magic effect: there is not one, from the noble to the peasant, who has not felt, and who does not still feel, its presence. When the arm of the octogenarian Protector shall be withdrawn, and the authority transferred to his son, who possesses none of the father’s energies, then will the impolicy of the system become apparent. It [540] was from the sequestrated estates of the valiant Hara chieftain, and that grinding oppression which thinned Haraoti of its agricultural population, and left the lands waste, that the regent found scope for his genius. The fields, which had descended from father to son through the lapse of ages, the unalienable right of the peasant, were seized, in spite of law, custom, or tradition, on every defalcation; and it is even affirmed that he sought pretexts to obtain such lands as from their contiguity or fertility he coveted, and that hundreds were thus deprived of their inheritance. In vain we look for the peaceful hamlets which once studded Haraoti: we discern instead the _ori_, or farmhouse of the regent, which would be beautiful were it not erected on the property of the subject; but when we inquire the ratio which the cultivators bear to the cultivation, and the means of enjoyment this artificial system has left them, and find that the once independent proprietor, who claimed a sacred right of inheritance,[10.8.2] now ploughs like a serf the fields formerly his own, all our perceptions of moral justice are shocked. The love of country and the passion for possessing land are strong throughout Rajputana: while there is a hope of existence the cultivator clings to the _bapota_, and in Haraoti this _amor patriae_ is so invincible, that, to use their homely phrase, “he would rather fill his _pet_ in slavery there, than live in luxury abroad.” But where could they fly to escape oppression? All around was desolation; armies perambulated the country, with rapid strides, in each other’s train, “one to another still succeeding.” To this evil Kotah was comparatively a stranger; the Protector was the only plunderer within his domains. Indeed, the inhabitants of the surrounding States, from the year 1865, when rapine was at its height, flocked into Kotah, and filled up the chasm which oppression had produced in the population. But with the banishment of predatory war, and the return of industry to its own field of exertion, this panacea for the wounds which the ruler has inflicted will disappear; and although the vast resources of the regent’s mind may check the appearance of decay, while his faculties survive to superintend this vast and complicated system, it must ultimately, from the want of a principle of permanence, fall into rapid disorganization. We proceed to the details [541] of the system, which will afford fresh proofs of the talent, industry, and vigilance of this singular character. =Agriculture in Kotah.=—The soil of Kotah is a rich tenacious mould, resembling the best parts of lower Malwa. The single plough is unequal to breaking it up, and the regent has introduced the plough of double yoke from the Konkan. His cattle are of the first quality, and equally fit for the park or the plough. He purchases at all the adjacent fairs, chiefly in his own dominions, and at the annual _mela_ (fair) of his favourite city Jhalrapatan.[10.8.3] He has tried those of Marwar and of the desert, famed for a superior race of cattle; but he found that the transition from their sandy regions to the deep loam of Haraoti soon disabled them. Each plough or team is equal to the culture of one hundred bighas; consequently 4000 ploughs will cultivate 400,000 during each harvest, and for both 800,000, nearly 300,000 English acres. The soil is deemed poor which does not yield seven to ten maunds[10.8.4] of wheat per bigha, and five to seven of millet and Indian corn. But to take a very low estimate, and allowing for bad seasons, we may assume four maunds per bigha as the average produce (though double would not be deemed an exaggerated average): this will give 3,200,000 maunds of both products, wheat and millet, and the proportion of the former to the latter is as three to two. Let us estimate the value of this. In seasons of abundance, twelve rupees per _mauni_,[10.8.5] in equal quantities of both grains, is the average; at this time (July 1820), notwithstanding the preceding season has been a failure throughout Rajwara (though there was a prospect of an excellent one), and grain a dead weight, eighteen rupees per _mauni_ is the current price, and may be quoted as the average standard of Haraoti: above is approximating to dearness, and below to the reverse. But if we take the average of the year of actual plenty, or twelve rupees[10.8.6] per _mauni_ of equal quantities of wheat and juar, or one rupee per maund, the result is thirty-two lakhs of rupees annual income. Let us endeavour to calculate how much of this becomes net produce towards the expenses of the government, and it will be seen that the charges are about one-third gross amount [542]. _Expenses._ Establishments—namely, feeding cattle 400,000 and servants, tear and wear of gear, and clearing the fields—one-eighth of the gross amount,[10.8.7] or Seed 600,000 Replacing 4000 oxen annually, at 80,000 20s.[10.8.8] Extras 20,000 ————— 1,100,000 We do not presume to give this, or even the gross amount, as more than an approximation to the truth; but the regent himself has mentioned that in one year the casualties in oxen amounted to five thousand! We have allowed one-fourth, for an ox will work well seven years, if taken care of. Thus, on the lowest scale, supposing the necessities of the government required the grain to be sold in the year it was raised, twenty lakhs will be the net profit of the regent’s farms. But he has abundant resources without being forced into the market before the favourable moment; until when, the produce is hoarded up in subterranean granaries. Everything in these regions is simple, yet efficient: we will describe the grain-pits. =Storage of Grain.=—These pits or trenches are fixed on elevated dry spots; their size being according to the nature of the soil. All the preparation they undergo is the incineration of certain vegetable substances, and lining the sides and bottom with wheat or barley stubble. The grain is then deposited in the pit, covered over with straw, and a terrace of earth, about eighteen inches in height, and projecting in front beyond the orifice of the pit, is raised over it. This is secured with a coating of clay and cow-dung, which resists even the monsoon, and is renewed as the torrents injure it. Thus the grain may remain for years without injury, while the heat which is extricated checks germination, and deters rats and white ants. Thus the regent has seldom less than fifty lakhs of maunds in various parts of the country, and it is on emergencies, or in bad seasons, that these stores see the light; when, instead of twelve rupees, the _mauni_ runs as high as forty, or the famine price of sixty. Then these pits are mines of gold; the regent having frequently sold in one year sixty lakhs of maunds. In S. 1860 (or A.D. 1804), during the Mahratta war, when Holkar was in the Bharatpur State, and predatory armies were moving in every direction, and when famine and war [543] conjoined to desolate the country, Kotah fed the whole population of Rajwara, and supplied all these roving hordes. In that season, grain being fifty-five rupees per _mauni_, he sold to the enormous amount of one crore of rupees, or a million sterling! Reputable merchants of the Mahajan tribe refrain from speculating in grain, from the most liberal feelings, esteeming it _dharm nahin hai_, ‘a want of charity.’ The humane Jain merchant says, “to hoard up grain, for the purpose of taking advantage of human misery, may bring riches, but never profit.” According to the only accessible documents, the whole crown-revenue of Kotah from the tax in kind, amounted, under bad management, to twenty-five lakhs of rupees. This is all the regent admits he collects from (to use his own phrase) his handful (_pachiwara_) of soil: of course he does not include his own farming system, but only the amount raised from the cultivator. He confesses that two-thirds of the superficial area of Kotah were waste; but that this is now reversed, there being two-thirds cultivated, and only one-third waste, and this comprises mountain, forest, common, etc. =Extortionate Taxes.=—In S. 1865 (A.D. 1809), as if industry were not already sufficiently shackled, the regent established a new tax on all corn exported from his dominions. It was termed _lattha_, and amounted to a rupee and a half per _mauni_. This tax—not less unjust in origin than vexatious in operation—worse than even the infamous _gabelle_, or the _droit d’aubaine_ of France—was another fruit of monopoly. It was at first confined to the grower, though of course it fell indirectly on the consumer; but the Jagatya,[10.8.9] or chief collector of the customs, a man after the regent’s own heart, was so pleased with its efficiency on the very first trial, that he advised his master to push it farther, and it was accordingly levied as well on the farmer as the purchaser. An item of ten lakhs was at once added to the budget; and as if this were insufficient to stop all competition between the regent-farmer-general and his subjects, three, four, nay even five _latthas_, have been levied from the same grain before it was retailed for consumption. Kotah exhibited the picture of a people, if not absolutely starving, yet living in penury in the midst of plenty. Neither the lands of his chiefs nor those of his ministers were exempt from the operation of this tax, and all were at the mercy of the Jagatya, from whose arbitrary will there was no appeal. It had reached the very height of oppression about the period of the alliance with the British Government. This collector had become a part of his system; and if the regent required a few lakhs of ready money, _Jo hukm_, ‘your commands,’ was the reply. A list was made out of 'arrears of _lattha_,' and friend and foe, minister, banker, trader, and farmer, had a circular. Remonstrance was not only vain but [544] dangerous: even his ancient friend, the Pandit Balal, had twenty-five thousand rupees to pay in one of these schedules; the _homme d’affaires_ of one of his confidential chiefs, five thousand; his own foreign minister a share, and many bankers of the town, four thousand, five thousand, and ten thousand each. The term _lattha_ was an abuse of language for a forced contribution; in fact the obnoxious and well-known _dand_ of Rajwara. It alienated the minds of all men, and nearly occasioned the regent’s ruin; for scarcely was their individual sympathy expressed, when the Hara princes conspired to emancipate themselves from his interminable and galling protection. When the English Government came in contact with Rajwara, it was a primary principle of the universal protective alliance to proclaim that it was for the benefit of the governed as well as the governors, since it availed little to destroy the wolves without if they were consigned to the lion within. But there are and must be absurd inconsistencies, even in the policy of western legislators, where one set of principles is applied to all. Zalim soon discovered that the fashion of the day was to _parwarish_, ‘foster the ryot.’ The odious character of the tax was diminished, and an edict limited its operation to the farmer, the seller, and the purchaser; and so anxious was he to conceal this weapon of oppression, that the very name of _lattha_ was abolished, and _sawai hasil_, or ‘extraordinaries,’ substituted. This item is said still to amount to five lakhs of rupees. Thus did the skill and rigid system of the regent exact from his _pachiwara_ of soil, full fifty lakhs of rupees. We must also recollect that nearly five more are to be added on account of the household lands of the members of his own and the prince’s family, which is almost sufficient to cover their expenses. What will the European practical farmer, of enlarged means and experience, think of the man who arranged this complicated system, and who, during forty years, has superintended its details? What opinion will he form of his vigour of mind, who, at the age of fourscore years, although blind and palsied, still superintends and maintains this system? What will he think of the tenacity of memory, which bears graven thereon, as on a tablet, an account of all these vast depositories of grain, with their varied contents, many of them the store of years past; and the power to check the slightest errors of the intendant of this vast accumulation; while, at the same time, he regulates the succession of crops throughout this extensive range? Such is the minute topographical knowledge which the regent possesses of his country, that every field in every farm is familiar [545] to him; and woe to the superintendent Havaldar[10.8.10] if he discovers a fallow nook that ought to bear a crop. Yet vast as this system is, overwhelming as it would seem to most minds, it formed but a part of the political engine conducted and kept in action by his single powers. The details of his administration, internal as well as external, demanded unremitted vigilance. The formation, the maintenance, and discipline of an army of twenty thousand men, his fortresses, arsenals, and their complicated minutiae, were amply sufficient for one mind. The daily account from his police, consisting of several hundred emissaries, besides the equally numerous reports from the head of each district, would have distracted an ordinary head, “for the winds could not enter and leave Haraoti without being reported.” But when, in addition to all this, it is known that the regent was a practical merchant, a speculator in exchanges, that he encouraged the mechanical arts, fostered foreign industry, pursued even horticulture, and, to use his own words, “considered no trouble thrown away which made the rupee return sixteen and a half annas, with whom can he be compared?”[10.8.11] Literature, philosophy, and _excerptae_ from the grand historical epics, were the amusements of his hours of relaxation; but here we anticipate, for we have not yet finished the review of his economical character. His monopolies, especially that of grain, not only influenced his own market, but affected all the adjacent countries; and when speculation in opium ran to such a demoralizing excess in consequence of the British Government monopolizing the entire produce of the poppy cultivated throughout Malwa, he took advantage of the mania, and by his sales or purchases raised or depressed the market at pleasure. His gardens, scattered throughout the country, still supply the markets of the towns and capital with vegetables, and his forests furnish them with fuel. So rigid was his system of taxation that nothing escaped it. There was a heavy tax on widows who remarried. Even the gourd of the mendicant paid a tithe, and the ascetic in his cell had a domiciliary visit to ascertain the gains of mendicity, in order that a portion should go to the exigencies of the State. The _tumba barar_, or ‘gourd-tax,’ was abolished after forming for a twelvemonth part of the fiscal code of Haraoti, and then not through any scruples of the regent, but to satisfy his friends. Akin to this, and even of a lower grade, was the _jharu barar_, or ‘broom-tax,’ which continued for ten years; but the many lampoons it provoked from the satirical Bhat operated on the more sensitive feelings of his son, Madho Singh, who obtained its repeal [546]. =Zālim Singh and the Bards.=—Zalim was no favourite with the bards; and that he had little claim to their consideration may be inferred from the following anecdote. A celebrated rhymer was reciting some laudatory stanzas, which the regent received rather coldly, observing with a sneer that “they told nothing but lies, though he should be happy to listen to their effusions when truth was the foundation.” The poet replied that “he found truth a most unmarketable commodity; nevertheless, he had some of that at his service”; and stipulating for forgiveness if they offended, he gave the protector his picture in a string of improvised stanzas, so full of _vish_ (poison), that the lands of the whole fraternity were resumed, and none of the order have ever since been admitted to his presence. Though rigid in his observance of the ceremonies of religion, and sharing in the prevailing superstitions of his country, he never allows the accidental circumstance of birth or caste to affect his policy. Offences against the State admit of no indemnity, be the offender a Brahman or a bard; and if these classes engage in trade, they experience no exemption from imposts. Such is an outline of the territorial arrangements of the regent Zalim Singh. When power was assigned to him, he found the State limited to Kelwara on the east; he has extended it to the verge of the Plateau, and the fortress which guards its ascent, at first rented from the Mahrattas, is now by treaty his own. He took possession of the reins of power with an empty treasury and thirty-two lakhs of accumulating debt. He found the means of defence a few dilapidated fortresses, and a brave but unmanageable feudal army. He has, at an immense cost, put the fortresses into the most complete state of defence, and covered their ramparts with many hundred pieces of cannon; and he has raised and maintains, in lieu of about four thousand Hara cavaliers, an army—regular we may term it—of twenty thousand men, distributed into battalions, a park of one hundred pieces of cannon, with about one thousand good horse, besides the feudal contingents. But is this prosperity? Is this the greatness which the Raja Guman intended should be entailed upon his successors, his chiefs, and his subjects? Was it to entertain twenty thousand mercenary soldiers from the sequestrated fields of the illustrious Hara, the indigenous proprietor? Is this government, is it good government according to the ideas of more civilized nations, to extend taxation to its limit, in order to maintain this cumbrous machinery. We may admit that, for a time, such a system may have been requisite, not only for the maintenance of his delegated [547] power, but to preserve the State from predatory spoliation; and now, could we see the noble restored to his forfeited estates, and the ryot to his hereditary rood of land, we should say that Zalim Singh had been an instrument in the hand of Providence for the preservation of the rights of the Haras. But, as it is, whilst the corn which waves upon the fertile surface of Kotah presents not the symbol of prosperity, neither is his well-paid and well-disciplined army a sure means of defence; moral propriety has been violated; rights are in abeyance, and until they be restored, even the apparent consistency of the social fabric is obtained by means which endanger its security. ----- Footnote 10.8.1: This was drawn up in 1820-21. Footnote 10.8.2: Throughout the Bundi territory, where no regent has innovated on the established laws of inheritance, by far the greater part of the land is the absolute property of the cultivating ryot, who can sell or mortgage it. There is a curious tradition that this right was obtained by one of the ancient princes making a general sale of the crown land, reserving only the tax. In Bundi, if a ryot becomes unable, from pecuniary wants or otherwise, to cultivate his lands, he lets them; and custom has established four annas per bīgha of irrigated land, and two annas for _gorma_, that dependent on the heavens, or a share of the produce in a similar proportion, as his right. If in exile, from whatever cause, he can assign this share to trustees; and, the more strongly to mark his inalienable right in such a case, the trustees reserve on his account two sers on every maund of produce, which is emphatically termed '_hakk bapota ka bhum_,' the ‘dues of the patrimonial soil.’ Footnote 10.8.3: [Now the commercial capital of Jhālawār State, on the Kotah border.] Footnote 10.8.4: A maund is seventy-five pounds. Footnote 10.8.5: _Grain Measure of Rajputana._ —75 pounds = 1 ser [? 1·7 lbs. The standard ser is a little over 2 lbs.] 43 sers = 1 maund. 12 maunds = 1 mauni. 100 maunis = 1 manasa. Footnote 10.8.6: It does descend as low as eight rupees per mauni for wheat and barley, and four for the millets, in seasons of excessive abundance. Footnote 10.8.7: It is not uncommon in Rajwara, when the means of individuals prevent them from cultivating their own lands, to hire out the whole with men and implements; for the use of which one-eighth of the produce is the established consideration. We have applied this in the rough estimate of the expenses of the regent’s farming system. Footnote 10.8.8: [To illustrate the rise in prices, the average value of a plough bullock is now Rs. 40, or about £2:13s.] Footnote 10.8.9: [Jagātya, a Marāthi word derived from _jakāt_, Arabic _zakāt_, the religious alms which a Musalmān is bound to pay.] Footnote 10.8.10: [_Havāldār_, _havāladār_, the officer in charge of the collection of grain.] Footnote 10.8.11: There are sixteen annas to a rupee. ----- CHAPTER 9 =Foreign Policy of Zālim Singh.=—The foregoing reflections bring us back to political considerations, and these we must separate into two branches, the foreign and domestic. We purposely invert the discussion of these topics for the sake of convenience. Zalim’s policy was to create, as regarded himself, a kind of balance of power; to overawe one leader by his influence with another, yet, by the maintenance of a good understanding with all, to prevent individual umbrage, while his own strength was at all times sufficient to make the scale preponderate in his favour. Placed in the very heart of India, Kotah was for years the centre around which revolved the desultory armies, or ambulant governments, ever strangers to repose; and though its wealth could not fail to attract the cupidity of these vagabond powers, yet, by the imposing attitude which he assumed, Zalim Singh maintained, during more than half a century, the respect, the fear, and even the esteem of all; and Kotah alone, throughout this lengthened period, so full of catastrophes, never saw an enemy [548] at her gates. Although an epoch of perpetual change and political convulsion—armies destroyed, States overturned, famine and pestilence often aiding moral causes in desolating the land—yet did the regent, from the age of twenty-five to eighty-two,[10.9.1] by his sagacity, his energy, his moderation, his prudence, conduct the bark intrusted to his care through all the shoals and dangers which beset her course. It may not excite surprise that he was unwilling to relinquish the helm when the vessel was moored in calm waters; or, when the unskilful owner, forgetting these tempests, and deeming his own science equal to the task, demanded the surrender, that he should hoist the flag of defiance. There was not a court in Rajwara, not even the predatory governments, which was not in some way influenced by his opinions, and often guided by his councils. At each he had envoys, and when there was a point to gain, there were irresistible arguments in reserve to secure it. The necessities, the vanities, and weaknesses of man he could enlist on his side, and he was alternately, by adoption, the father, uncle, or brother of every person in power during this eventful period, from the prince upon the throne to the brat of a Pindari. He frequently observed that “none knew the shifts he had been put to”; and when entreated not to use expressions of humility, which were alike unsuited to his age and station, and the reverence he compelled, he would reply, “God grant you long life, but it is become a habit.” For the last ten years he not only made his connexion with Amir Khan subservient to avoiding a collision with Holkar, but converted the Khan into the make-weight of his balance of power; “he thanked God the time was past when he had to congratulate even the slave of a Turk on a safe accouchement, and to pay for this happiness.” Though by nature irascible, impetuous, and proud, he could bend to the extreme of submission. But while he would, by letter or conversation, say to a marauding Pindari or Pathan, “let me petition to your notice,” or “if my clodpole understanding (_bhumia buddh_) is worth consulting”; or reply to a demand for a contribution, coupled with a threat of inroad, “that the friendly epistle had been received; that he lamented the writer’s distresses, etc. etc.,” with a few thousand more than was demanded, and a present to the messenger, he would excite a feeling which at least obtained a respite; on the other hand, he was always prepared to repel aggression, and if a single action would have decided his quarrel, he would not have hesitated to engage any power in the circle. But he knew even success, in such a case, to be ruin, and the general [549] feature of his external policy was accordingly of a temporizing and very mixed nature. Situated as he was, amidst conflicting elements, he had frequently a double game to play. Thus, in the coalition of 1806-7, against Jodhpur, he had three parties to please, each requesting his aid, which made neutrality almost impossible. He sent envoys to all; and while appearing as the universal mediator, he gave assistance to none. It would be vain as well as useless to attempt the details of his foreign policy; we shall merely allude to the circumstances which first brought him in contact with the British Government, in A.D. 1803-4, and then proceed to his domestic administration. =Monson’s Campaign. Gallantry of the Koila Chief.=—When the ill-fated expedition under Monson traversed Central India to the attack of Holkar, the regent of Kotah, trusting to the invincibility of the British arms, did not hesitate, upon their appearance within his territory, to co-operate both with supplies and men. But when the British army retreated, and its commander demanded admission within the walls of Kotah, he met a decided and very proper refusal. “You shall not bring anarchy and a disorganized army to mix with my peaceable citizens; but draw up your battalions under my walls; I will furnish provisions, and I will march the whole of my force between you and the enemy, and bear the brunt of his attack.” Such were Zalim’s own expressions; whether it would have been wise to accede to his proposal is not the point of discussion. Monson continued his disastrous flight through the Bundi and Jaipur dominions, and carried almost alone the news of his disgrace to the illustrious Lake. It was natural he should seek to palliate his error by an attempt to involve others; and amongst those thus calumniated, first and foremost was the regent of Kotah, “the head and front of whose offending”—non-admission to a panic-struck, beef-eating army within his walls—was translated into treachery, and a connivance with the enemy; a calumny which long subsisted to the prejudice of the veteran politician. But never was there a greater wrong inflicted, or a more unjust return for services and sacrifices, both in men and money, in a cause which little concerned him; and it nearly operated hurtfully, at a period (1817) when the British Government could not have dispensed with his aid. It was never told, it is hardly yet known at this distant period, what devotion he evinced in that memorable retreat, as it is misnamed, when the troops of Kotah and the corps of the devoted Lucan were sacrificed to ensure the safety of the army until it left the Mukunddarra Pass in its rear. If there be any incredulous supporter of the commander in that era of our shame, let him repair to the altar of the Koila chief, who, like a true Hara, ‘spread his carpet’ at the ford of the Amjar, and there awaited the myrmidons [550] of the Mahrattas, and fell protecting the flight of an army which might have passed from one end of India to the other. Well might the veteran allude to our ingratitude in 1804, when in A.D. 1817 he was called upon to co-operate in the destruction of that predatory system, in withstanding which he had passed a life of feverish anxiety. If there was a doubt of the part he acted, if the monuments of the slain will not be admitted as evidence, let us appeal to the opinion of the enemy, whose testimony adds another feature to the portrait of this extraordinary man. Besides the Koila chief, and many brave Haras, slain on the retreat of Monson, the Bakhshi, or commander of the force, was made prisoner. As the price of his liberation, and as a punishment for the aid thus given to the British, the Mahratta leader exacted a bond of ten lakhs of rupees from the Bakhshi, threatening on refusal to lay waste with fire and sword the whole line of pursuit. But when the discomfited Bakhshi appeared before the regent, he spurned him from his presence, disavowed his act, and sent him back to Holkar to pay the forfeiture as he might.[10.9.2] Holkar satisfied himself then with threatening vengeance, and when opportunity permitted, he marched into Haraoti and encamped near the capital. The walls were manned to receive him; the signal had been prepared which would not have left a single house inhabited in the plains, while the Bhils would simultaneously pour down from the hills on Holkar’s supplies or followers. The bond was again presented, and without hesitation disavowed; hostilities appeared inevitable, when the friends of both parties concerted an interview. But Zalim, aware of the perfidy of his foe, declined this, except on his own conditions. These were singular, and will recall to mind another and yet more celebrated meeting. He demanded that they should discuss the terms of peace or war upon the Chambal, to which Holkar acceded. For this purpose Zalim prepared two boats, each capable of containing about twenty armed men. Having moored his own little bark in the middle of the stream, under the cannon of the city, Holkar, accompanied by his cavalcade, embarked in his boat and rowed to meet him. Carpets were spread, and there these extraordinary men, with only one eye[10.9.3] between them, settled the conditions of peace, and the endearing epithets of ‘uncle’ and ‘nephew’ were bandied, with abundant mirth on the peculiarity of their situation; while—for the fact is beyond a doubt—each boat was plugged, and men were at hand on the first appearance of treachery to have sent them all to the bottom of the river.[10.9.4] But Holkar’s [551] necessities were urgent, and a gift of three lakhs of rupees averted such a catastrophe, though he never relinquished the threat of exacting the ten lakhs; and when at length madness overtook him, “the bond of Kaka Zalim Singh” was one of the most frequently repeated ravings of this soldier of fortune, whose whole life was one scene of insanity. =Relations with Marāthas and Pindāris.=—It will readily be conceived that the labours of his administration were quite sufficient to occupy his attention without intermeddling with his neighbours; yet, in order to give a direct interest in the welfare of Kotah, he became a competitor for the farming of the extensive districts which joined his southern frontier, belonging to Sindhia and Holkar. From the former he rented the Panj-mahals, and from the latter the four important districts of Dig, Pirawa, etc.,[10.9.5] which, when by right of conquest they became British, were given in sovereignty to the regent. Not satisfied with this hold of self-interest on the two great predatory powers, he had emissaries in the persons of their confidential ministers, who reported every movement; and to ‘make assurance doubly sure,’ he had Mahratta pandits of the first talent in his own administration, through whose connexions no political measure of their nation escaped his knowledge. As for Amir Khan, he and the regent were essential to each other. From Kotah the Khan was provided with military stores and supplies of every kind; and when his legions mutinied (a matter of daily occurrence) and threatened him with the bastinado, or fastening to a piece of ordnance under a scorching sun, Kotah afforded a place of refuge during a temporary retreat, or ways and means to allay the tumult by paying the arrears. Zalim allotted the castle of Shirgarh for the Khan’s family, so that this leader had no anxiety on their account while he was pursuing his career of rapine in more distant scenes. Even the Pindaris were conciliated with all the respect and courtesy paid to better men. Many of their leaders held grants of land in Kotah: so essential, indeed, was a good understanding with this body, that when Sindhia, in A.D. 1807, entrapped and imprisoned in the dungeons of Gwalior the celebrated Karim,[10.9.6] Zalim not only advanced the large sum required for his ransom, but had the temerity to pledge himself for his future good conduct: an act which somewhat tarnished his reputation for sagacity, but eventually operated as a just punishment on Sindhia for his avarice. The scale of munificence on which the regent exercised the rites of sanctuary (saran) towards the chiefs of other countries claiming his protection, was disproportioned to the means of the State. The exiled nobles of Marwar and Mewar [552] have held estates in Kotah greater than their sequestrated patrimonies. These dazzling acts of beneficence were not lost on a community amongst whom hospitality ranks at the head of the virtues. In these regions, where the strangest anomalies and the most striking contradictions present themselves in politics, such conduct begets no astonishment, and rarely provokes a remonstrance from the State whence the suppliant fled. The regent not only received the refugees, but often reconciled them to their sovereigns. He gloried in the title of ‘peace-maker,’ and whether his conduct proceeded from motives of benevolence or policy, he was rewarded with the epithet, sufficiently exalted in itself. “They all come to old Zalim with their troubles,” he remarked, “as if he could find food for them all from 'his handful of soil.'” To conclude: his defensive was, in its results, the reverse of his offensive policy. Invariable and brilliant success accompanied the one; defeat, disappointment, and great pecuniary sacrifices were the constant fruits of the other. Mewar eluded all his arts, and involved Kotah in embarrassments from which she will never recover, while his attempt to take Sheopur, the capital of the Gaurs, by a _coup de main_, was signally defeated. Had he succeeded in either attempt, and added the resources of these acquisitions to Kotah, doubtless his views would have been still more enlarged. At an early period of his career, an offer was made to him, by the celebrated Partap Singh of Jaipur, to undertake the duties of chief minister of that State: it is vain to speculate on what might have been the result to the State or himself, had he been able to wield her resources, at that time so little impaired. =Zālim Singh’s Domestic Policy. Character of Mahārāo Ummed Singh.=—Let us now view the domestic policy of the regent; for which purpose we must again bring forward the pageant prince of Kotah, the Raja Ummed Singh, who was destined never to be extricated from the trammels of a guardianship which, like most offices in the East, was designed to be hereditary; and at the age of threescore and ten, Ummed Singh found himself as much a minor as when his dying father ‘placed him in the lap’ of the Protector Zalim Singh. The line of conduct he pursued towards his sovereign, through half a century’s duration, was singularly consistent. The age, the character, the very title of Nana, or ‘grandsire,’ added weight to his authority, and the disposition of the prince seemed little inclined to throw it off. In short, his temperament appeared exactly suited to the views of the regent, who, while he consulted his wishes in every step, acted entirely from himself. The Maharao was a prince of excellent understanding, and possessed many of those qualities inherent in a Rajput. He was fond of the chase, and was the best horseman and marksman in the country; and the [553] regent gained such entire ascendancy over him, that it is doubtful whether he was solicitous of change. Besides, there was no appearance of constraint; and his religious occupations, which increased with his age, went far to wean him from a wish to take a more active share in the duties of government. His penetration, in fact, discovered the inutility of such a desire, and he soon ceased to entertain it; while in proportion as he yielded, the attentions of the minister increased. If an envoy came from a foreign State, he was introduced to the prince, delivered his credentials to him; and from him received a reply, but that reply was his minister’s. If a foreign noble claimed protection, he received it from the prince; he was the dispenser of the favours, though he could neither change their nature or amount. Nay, if the regent’s own sons required an addition to their estates, it could only be at the express desire of the Maharao; and to such a length did the minister carry this deference, that an increase to his personal income required being pressed upon him by the prince. If horses arrived from foreign countries for sale, the best were set aside for the Maharao and his sons. The archives, the seal, and all the emblems of sovereignty remained as in times past in the custody of the personal servants of the prince, at the castle, though none durst use them without consent of the regent. He banished his only son, Madho Singh, during three years, to the family estate at Nanta, for disrespect to the heir-apparent, Kishor Singh, when training their horses together; and it was with difficulty that even the entreaty of the Maharao could procure his recall. There are many anecdotes related to evince that habitual deference to everything attached to his sovereign, which, originating in good feeling, greatly aided his policy. The regent was one day at prayer, in the family temple in the castle, when the younger sons of the Maharao, not knowing he was there, entered to perform their devotions. It was the cold season, and the pavement was damp; he took the quilt which he wore from his shoulders, and spread it for them to stand upon. On their retiring, a servant, deeming the quilt no longer fit to be applied to the regent’s person, was putting it aside; but, guessing his intention, Zalim eagerly snatched it from him, and re-covering himself, observed it was now of some value, since it was marked with the dust of the feet of his sovereign’s children. These are curious anomalies in the mind of a man who had determined on unlimited authority. No usurpation was ever more meek, or yet more absolute; and it might be affirmed that the prince and the regent were made for each other and the times in which they lived. =Zālim Singh and his Servants.=—It was to be expected that a man whose name was long synonymous with wisdom [554] should show discernment in the choice of his servants. He had the art of attaching them to his interests, of uniting their regard with a submissive respect, and no kindness, no familiarity, ever made them forget the bounds prescribed. But while he generously provided for all their wants, and granted them every indulgence, he knew too well the caprice of human nature to make them independent of himself. He would provide for them, for their relations and their dependents; his hand was ever bestowing gratuities on festivals, births, marriages, or deaths; but he never allowed them to accumulate wealth. It is to be remarked that his most confidential servants were either Pathans or Mahratta pandits: the first he employed in military posts, the other in the more complicated machinery of politics. He rarely employed his own countrymen; and the post of Faujdar, now held by Bishan Singh, a Rajput of the Saktawat clan, is the exception to the rule. Dalil Khan and Mihrab Khan were his most faithful and devoted servants and friends. The stupendous fortifications of the capital, with which there is nothing in India to compete, save the walls of Agra, were all executed by the former. By him also was raised that pride of the regent, the city called after him, Jhalrapatan;[10.9.7] while all the other forts were put into a state which makes Kotah the most defensible territory in India. Such was the affectionate esteem in which Dalil was held by the regent, that he used often to say, “he hoped he should not outlive Dalil Khan.” Mihrab Khan was the commander of the infantry, which he maintained in a state of admirable discipline and efficiency;[10.9.8] they received their _bis roza_, or twenty days’ pay, each month, with their arrears at the end of every second year [555]. ----- Footnote 10.9.1: I may once more repeat, this was written in A.D. 1820-21, when Zalim Singh had reached the age of fourscore and two. [He died, aged 84, in 1824.] Footnote 10.9.2: If my memory betrays me not, this unfortunate commander, unable to bear his shame, took poison. Footnote 10.9.3: It should be remembered that Zalim was quite blind, and that Holkar had lost the use of one eye. [See Vol. II. p. 1234.] Footnote 10.9.4: [Compare the meeting of Alexander I. of Russia and Napoleon at Tilsit on June 25, 1807.] Footnote 10.9.5: [Dīg, in Bharatpur State; Pirāwa, one of the Central India districts included in Tonk State (_IGI_, xx. 151).] Footnote 10.9.6: [Karīm Khān surrendered to the British in 1818, and was given an estate in Gorakhpur District.] Footnote 10.9.7: Jhālarapātan, ‘the city of the Jhāla,’ the regent’s tribe. [Others explain the name to mean city (_pātan_) of springs (_jhālra_): or city of bells, because it contained 108 temples (_IGI_, xiv. 123).] Footnote 10.9.8: Mihrab Khan was the commandant of one division of Zalim’s contingent, placed at my disposal, which in eight days took possession of every district of Holkar’s adjacent to Haraoti, and which afterwards gained so much credit by the brilliant escalade of the Saudi fortress, when co-operating with General Sir John Malcolm. The Royals (_Raj-Paltan_) were led by Saif Ali, a gallant soldier, but who could not resist joining the cause of the Maharao and legitimacy in the civil war of 1821. ----- CHAPTER 10 =Alliance with the British.=—We now enter upon that period of the regent’s history, when the march of events linked him with the policy of Britain. When in A.D. 1817, the Marquess of Hastings proclaimed war against the Pindaris, who were the very lees of the predatory hordes, which the discomfiture of the greater powers had thrown off, neutrality was not to be endured; and it was announced that all those who were not for us in this grand enterprise, which involved the welfare of all, would be considered against us. The Rajput States, alike interested with ourselves in the establishment of settled government, were invited to an alliance offensive and defensive with us, which was to free them for ever from the thraldom of the predatory armies; in return for which, we demanded homage to our power, and a portion of their revenues as the price of protection. The eagle-eye of Zalim saw at once the virtue of compliance, and the grace attendant on its being quickly yielded. Accordingly, his envoy was the first to connect Kotah in the bonds of alliance, which soon united all Rajwara to Britain. Meanwhile, all India was in arms; two hundred thousand men were embodied, and moving on various points to destroy the germ of rapine for ever. As the first scene of action was expected to be in the countries bordering upon Haraoti, the presence of an agent with Zalim Singh appeared indispensable. His instructions were to make available the resources of Kotah to the armies moving round him, and to lessen the field [556] of the enemy’s manœuvres, by shutting him out of that country. So efficient were these resources, that in five days after the agent reached the regent’s camp,[10.10.1] every pass was a post; and a corps of fifteen hundred men, infantry and cavalry, with four guns, was marched to co-operate with General Sir John Malcolm, who had just crossed the Nerbudda with a weak division of the army of the Deccan, and was marching northward, surrounded by numerous foes and doubtful friends. Throughout that brilliant and eventful period in the history of British India, when every province from the Ganges to the ocean was agitated by warlike demonstrations, the camp of the regent was the pivot of operations and the focus of intelligence. The part he acted was decided, manly, and consistent; and if there were moments of vacillation, it was inspired by our own conduct, which created doubts in his mind as to the wisdom of his course. He had seen and felt that the grand principle of politics, expediency, guided all courts and councils, whether Mogul, Mahratta, or British: the disavowal of the alliances formed by Lord Lake, under Marquess Wellesley’s administration, proved this to demonstration, and he was too familiar with the history of our power to give more credit than mere politeness required to our boasted renunciation of the rights of anticipated conquest. A smile would play over the features of the orbless politician when the envoy disclaimed all idea of its being a war of aggrandisement. To all such protestations he would say, “Maharaja, I cannot doubt you believe what you say; but remember what old Zalim tells you; the day is not distant when only one emblem of power (_ekhi sikka_) will be recognized throughout India.” This was in A.D. 1817-18; and the ten years of life since granted to him must have well illustrated the truth of this remark; for although no absolute conquest or incorporation of Rajput territory has taken place, our system of control, and the establishment of our monopoly within these limits (not then dreamed of by ourselves), has already verified in part his prediction. It were indeed idle to suppose that any protestations could have vanquished the arguments present to a mind which had pondered on every page of the history of our power; which had witnessed its development from the battle of Plassey under Clive to Lake’s exploits at the altars of Alexander. He had seen throughout, that the fundamental rule which guides the Rajput prince, ‘obtain land,’ was one both practically and theoretically understood by viceroys from [557] the west, who appeared to act upon the four grand political principles of the Rajput, _sham_, _dan_, _bed_, _dand_; or, persuasion, gifts, stratagem, force; by which, according to their great lawgiver, kingdoms are obtained and maintained, and all mundane affairs conducted. When, therefore, in order to attain our ends, we expatiated upon the disinterestedness of our views, his co-operation was granted less from a belief in our professions, than upon a dispassionate consideration of the benefits which such alliance would confer upon Kotah, and of its utility in maintaining his family in the position it had so long held in that State. He must have balanced the difficulties he had mastered to maintain that power, against the enemies, internal and external, which had threatened it, and he justly feared both would speedily be sacrificed to the incapacity of his successors. To provide a stay to their feebleness was the motive which induced him to throw himself heart and hand into the alliance we sought; and of signal benefit did he prove to the cause he espoused. But if we read aright the workings of a mind, which never betrayed its purpose either to friend or foe, we should find that there was a moment wherein, though he did not swerve from the path he had chalked out, or show any equivocation in respect to the pledge he had given, the same spirit which had guided him to the eminence he had acquired, suggested what he might have done at a conjuncture when all India, save Rajputana, was in arms to overthrow the legions of Britain. All had reason to dread her colossal power, and hatred and revenge actuated our numerous allies to emancipate themselves from a yoke which, whether they were bound by friendship or by fear, was alike galling. If there was one master-mind that could have combined and wielded their resources for our overthrow, it was that of Zalim Singh alone. Whether the aspirations of his ambition, far too vast for its little field of action, soared to this height, or were checked by the trammels of nearly eighty winters, we can only conjecture. Once, and once only, the dubious oracle came forth. It was in the very crisis of operations, when three English divisions were gradually closing upon the grand Pindari horde, under Karim Khan, in the very heart of his dominions, and his troops, his stores, were all placed at our disposal, he heard that one of these divisions had insulted his town of Bara; then, the ideas which appeared to occupy him burst forth in the ejaculation, “that if twenty years could be taken from his life, Delhi and Deccan should be one”; and appeared to point to the hidden thoughts of a man whose tongue never spoke but in parables. There is also no doubt that his most confidential friends and ministers, who were [558] Mahrattas, were adverse to his leaguing with the English, and for a moment he felt a repugnance to breaking the bond which had so long united him with their policy. He could not but enumerate amongst the arguments for its maintenance, his ability to preserve that independence which fifty years had strengthened, and he saw that, with the power to which he was about to be allied, he had no course but unlimited obedience; in short, that his part must now be subordinate. He preferred it, however, for the security it afforded; and as in the course of nature he must soon resign his trust, there was more hope of his power descending to his posterity than if left to discord and faction. But when hostilities advanced against the freebooters, and the more settled governments of the Peshwa, Bhonsla, Holkar, and Sindhia, determined to shake off our yoke, we could urge to him irresistible arguments for a perfect identity of interests. The envoy had only to hint that the right of conquest would leave the districts he rented from Holkar at our disposal; and that as we wanted no territory in Central India for ourselves, we should not forget our friends at the conclusion of hostilities. If ever there were doubts, they were dissipated by this suggestion; and on the grand horde being broken up, it was discovered that the families of its leaders were concealed in his territory. Through his indirect aid we were enabled to secure them, and at once annihilated the strength of the marauders. For all these important services, the sovereignty of the four districts he rented from Holkar was guaranteed to the regent. The circumstances attending the conveyance of this gift afforded an estimate of Zalim’s determination never to relinquish his authority; for, when the sanad was tendered in his own name, he declined it, desiring the insertion of that of “his master, the Maharao.” At the time, it appeared an act of disinterested magnanimity, but subsequent acts allowed us to form a more correct appreciation of his motives. The campaign concluded, and the noble commander and his enlightened coadjutor[10.10.2] left the seat of war impressed with the conviction of the great services, and the highest respect for the talents, of the veteran politician, while the envoy, who had acted with him during the campaign, was declared the medium of his future political relations. In March A.D. 1818, profound repose reigned from the Sutlej to the ocean, of which Rajput history presented no example. The magic Runes, by which the north-man could “hush the stormy wave,” could not be more efficacious than the rod of our power in tranquillizing this wide space, which for ages had been the seat of conflict. The _satya_[559] _yuga_, the golden age of the Hindu, alone afforded a parallel to the calm which had succeeded the eras of tumultuous effervescence. =Death of Mahārāo Ummed Singh. Disputed Succession.=—Thus matters proceeded till November 1819, when the death of the Maharao Ummed Singh engendered new feelings in the claimants to the succession, and placed the regent in a position from which not even his genius might have extricated him, unaided by the power whose alliance he had so timely obtained. And here it becomes requisite to advert to the terms of this alliance. The treaty[10.10.3] was concluded at Delhi, on the 26th of December 1817, by the envoys of the regent, in the name of his lawful sovereign, the Maharao Ummed Singh, ratified by the contracting parties, and the deeds were interchanged at the regent’s court early in January. To this treaty his sovereign’s seal and his own were appended; but no guarantee of the regent’s power was demanded pending the negotiation, nor is he mentioned except in the preamble, and then only as the ministerial agent of the Maharao Ummed Singh, in whose behalf alone the treaty was virtually executed. This excited the surprise of the British representative,[10.10.4] who, in his official dispatch detailing the progress and conclusion of the negotiations, intimated that he not only expected such stipulation, but was prepared for admitting it. There was no inadvertence in this omission; the regent saw no occasion for any guarantee, for the plenary exercise of the powers of sovereign during more than half a century had constituted him, _de facto_, prince of Kotah. Moreover, we may suppose had he felt a desire for such stipulation, that a feeling of pride might have stifled its expression, which by making the choice of ministers dependent on a foreign power would have virtually annulled the independent sovereignty of Kotah. Whatever was the reason of the omission, at a season when his recognition might have had the same formal sanction of all the parties as the other articles of the treaty, it furnished the future opponents of the regent’s power with a strong argument against its maintenance in perpetuity on the death of the Maharao Ummed Singh. It has been already said that the treaty was concluded at Delhi in December 1817, and interchanged in January 1818. In March of the same year, two supplemental articles were agreed to at Delhi, and transmitted direct to the regent, guaranteeing the administration of affairs to his sons and successors for ever. Having premised so much, let us give a brief notice of the parties, whose future fate was involved in this policy [560]. The Maharao Ummed Singh had three sons, Kishor Singh, Bishan Singh, and Prithi Singh. The heir-apparent, who bore a name dear to the recollection of the Haras, was then forty years of age. He was mild in his temper and demeanour; but being brought up in habits of seclusion, he was more conversant with the formulas of his religion, and the sacred epics, than with the affairs of mankind. He was no stranger to the annals of his family, and had sufficient pride and feeling to kindle at the recollection of their glory; but the natural bent of his mind, reinforced by education, had well fitted him to follow the path of his father, and to leave himself and his country to be governed as best pleased the Nana Sahib,[10.10.5] the regent. Bishan Singh was about three years younger; equally placid in disposition, sensible and sedate, and much attached to the regent. Prithi Singh was under thirty; a noble specimen of a Hara, eager for action in the only career of a Rajput—arms. To him the existing state of things was one of opprobrium and dishonour, and his mind was made up to enfranchize himself and family from the thraldom in which his father had left them, or perish in the attempt. The brothers were attached to each other, and lived in perfect harmony, though suspicions did exist that Bishan Singh’s greater docility and forbearance towards the regent’s son and successor, arose from interested, perhaps traitorous, views. Each of them had estates of twenty-five thousand rupees’ annual rent, which they managed through their agents. The regent had two sons, the elder, Madho Singh, legitimate; the younger, Gordhandas, illegitimate; but he was regarded with more affection, and endowed with almost equal authority with the declared successor to the regency. Madho Singh was about forty-six at the period we speak of. A physiognomist would discover in his aspect no feature indicative of genius, though he might detect amidst traits which denoted indolence, a supercilious tone of character, the effect of indulgence. This was fostered in a great degree by the late Maharao, who supported the regent’s son against his own in all their dissensions, even from their infancy, which had increased the natural arrogance developed by power being too early entrusted to him: for when the regent, as before related, quitted the capital for the camp, Madho Singh was nominated to the office of Faujdar, the hereditary post of his father, and left as his locum tenens at Kotah. This office, which included the command and pay of all the [561] troops, left unlimited funds at his disposal; and as the checks which restrained every other officer in the State were inoperative upon his sons, who dared to inform against the future regent? Accordingly, he indulged his taste in a manner which engendered dislike to him: his gardens, his horses, his boats, were in a style of extravagance calculated to provoke the envy of the sons of his sovereign; while his suite eclipsed that of the prince himself. In short, he little regarded the prudent counsel of his father, who, in their metaphorical language, used to express his fears “that when he was a hundred years old” (_i.e._ dead), the fabric which cost a life in rearing would fall to pieces. Gordhandas,[10.10.6] the natural son of the regent, was then about twenty-seven,[10.10.7] quick, lively, intelligent, and daring. His conduct to his sovereign’s family has been precisely the reverse of his brother’s, and in consequence he lived on terms of confidential friendship with them, especially with the heir-apparent and prince, Prithi Singh, whose disposition corresponded with his own. His father, who viewed this child of his old age with perhaps more affection than his elder brother, bestowed upon him the important office of Pardhan, which comprehends the grain-department of the State. It gave him the command of funds, the amount of which endangered the declared succession. The brothers cordially detested each other, and many indignities were cast upon Gordhandas by Madho Singh, such as putting him in the guard, which kindled an irreconcilable rancour between them. Almost the only frailty in the character of the regent was the defective education of his sons: both were left to the indulgence of arrogant pretensions, which ill accorded with the tenor of his own behaviour through life, or the conduct that was demanded of them. Dearly, bitterly has the regent repented this error, which in its consequence has thrown the merits of an active and difficult career into the shade, and made him regret that his power was not to die with him. Such was the state of parties and politics at Kotah in November 1819, when the death of the Maharao developed views that had long been concealed, and that produced the most deplorable results. The regent was at the Chhaoni, his standing camp at Gagraun, when this event occurred, and he immediately repaired to the capital, to see that the last offices were properly performed, and to proclaim the _an_, or oath of allegiance, and the accession of the Maharao Kishor Singh [562]. The Political Agent received the intelligence[10.10.8] on his march from Marwar to Mewar, and immediately addressed his government on the subject, requesting instructions. Meanwhile, after a few days’ halt at Udaipur, he repaired to Kotah to observe the state of parties, whose animosities and expectations were forebodings of a change which menaced the guaranteed order of things. On his arrival, he found the aged regent, still a stranger to the luxury of a house, encamped a mile beyond the city, with his devoted bands around him; while his son, the heir to his power, continued in his palace in the town. The prince and brothers, as heretofore, resided at the palace in the castle, where they held their coteries, of which Gordhandas and Prithi Singh were the principals, moulding the new Maharao to their will, and from which the second brother, Bishan Singh, was excluded. Although the late prince had hardly ceased to breathe, before the animosities so long existing between the sons of the regent burst forth, and threatened ‘war within the gates’; and although nothing short of the recovery of rights so long in abeyance was determined upon by the prince; yet—and it will hardly be believed—these schemes escaped the vigilance of the regent. The death of his friend and sovereign, added to care and infirmity, brought on a fit of illness, the result of which was expected to crown the hopes of the parties who were interested in the event; and when, to their surprise and regret, he recovered, the plans of his prince and natural son were matured, and as notorious as the sun at noon to every person of note but the regent himself. He was not, indeed, the first aged ruler, however renowned for wisdom, who had been kept in ignorance of the cabals of his family. It required a prophet to announce to David the usurpation of Adonijah;[10.10.9] and the same cause, which kept David ignorant that his son had supplanted him, concealed from the penetrating eye of Zalim Singh the plot which had for its object that his power should perish with him, and that his son Gordhan should supersede [563] the heir to his hereditary staff of office. Strange as it must appear, the British Agent acted the part of Nathan on this occasion, and had to break the intelligence to the man who had swayed for sixty years, with despotic authority, the destinies of Kotah, that his sons were arming against each other, and that his prince was determined that his wand (_chhari_) of power should (to speak in their metaphorical style) be consumed in the same pyre with himself whenever the ‘decree of Bhagwan’ went forth. It was then that the supplemental articles, guaranteeing Madho Singh in the succession to the regency, proved a stumbling-block in the path of our mediation between parties, the one called on to renounce that dear-bought power, the other determined to regain what time and accident had wrested from him. Had the emergency occurred while the predatory system was predominant, not a whisper would have been raised; the point in all probability would never have been mooted: it would have been considered as a matter of course, where Amurath to Amurath succeeds, that the Maharao Kishor should continue the same puppet in the hands of Madho Singh that his father had been in Zalim’s. This would have excited no surprise, nor would such a proceeding have afforded speculation for one hour. Nay, the usurper might have advanced to the ulterior step; and, like the Frank Maire du Palais, have demanded of the pontiff of Nathdwara, as did Pepin of Pope Zacharias, “whether he who had the power, should not also have the title, of king”;[10.10.10] and the same plenary indulgence would have awaited the first Jhala Raja of Kotah as was granted to the first of the Carlovingian kings! It, therefore, became a matter of astonishment, especially to the unreflecting, whence arose the general sympathy, amounting to enthusiasm, towards this hitherto disregarded family, not only from chief and peasant, within the bounds of Haraoti, and the foreign mercenary army raised and maintained by the regent, but from the neighbouring princes and nobles, who had hitherto looked upon the usurpation in silence. A short explanation will solve what was then enigmatical, even to those most interested in forming a just opinion. The practice of the moral virtues amongst any portion of civilized society may be uncertain, but there is one invariable estimate or standard of them in theory. The policy of 1817 changed the moral with the political [564] aspect of Rajasthan. If, previous thereto, no voice was raised against usurpation and crime, it was because all hope that their condition could be ameliorated was extinct. But this was to them a _naya samvat_, a ‘new era,’ a day of universal regeneration. Was the sovereign not to look for the restoration of that power which had been guaranteed by treaty—nor the chiefs to claim the restitution of their estates—nor the peasant to hope for the lands now added to the crown domain;—and were not all foreign potentates interested in calling for an example of retributive justice for ministerial usurpation, however mildly exercised towards the prince? With more rational than political argument, they appealed to our high notions of public justice to accomplish these objects. Unhappy position, in which circumstances—nay, paradoxical as it may appear, political gratitude and justice—dictated a contrary course, and marshalled British battalions in line with the retainers of usurpation to combat the lawful sovereign of the country! The case was one of the most difficult that ever beset our policy in the East, which must always to a certain extent be adapted to the condition of those with whom we come in contact; and perhaps, on this occasion, no caution or foresight could have averted the effects of this affiance. =Effects of the British Treaty.=—There is not a shadow of doubt that the supplemental articles of the treaty of Kotah, which pledged our faith to two parties in a manner which rendered its maintenance towards both an impossibility, produced consequences that shook the confidence of the people of Rajwara in our political rectitude. They established two pageants instead of one, whose co-existence would have been miraculous; still, as a measure ought not to be judged entirely by its results, we shall endeavour to assign the true motive and character of the act. If these articles were not dictated by good policy; if they cannot be defended on the plea of expediency; if the omission in the original treaty of December could not be supplied in March, without questioning the want of foresight of the framer; he might justify them on the ground that they were a concession to feelings of gratitude for important services, rendered at a moment when the fate of our power in India was involved to an extent unprecedented since its origin. To effect a treaty with the Nestor of Rajwara, was to ensure alliances with the rest of the States, which object was the very essence of Lord Hastings’ policy. Thus, on general views, as well as for particular reasons (for the resources of Kotah were absolutely indispensable), the co-operation of the regent was a measure vitally important. Still it may be urged that as the regent himself, from whatever motive, had allowed [565] the time to go by when necessity might have compelled us to incorporate such an article in the original treaty, was there no other mode of reimbursing these services besides a guarantee which was an apple of discord? The war was at an end; and we might with justice have urged that ‘the State of Kotah,’ with which we had treated, had, in the destruction of all the powers of anarchy and sharing in its spoils, fully reaped the reward of her services. Such an argument would doubtless have been diplomatically just; but we were still revelling in the excitement of unparalleled success, to which Zalim had been no mean contributor, and the future evil was overlooked in the feverish joy of the hour. But if cold expediency may not deem this a sufficient justification, we may find other reasons. When the author of the policy of 1817 had maturely adjusted his plans for the union of all the settled governments in a league against the predatory system, it became necessary to adopt a broad principle with respect to those with whom we had to treat. At such a moment he could not institute a patient investigation into the moral discipline of each State, or demand of those who wielded the power by what tenure they held their authority. It became, therefore, a matter of necessity to recognize those who were the rulers _de facto_, a principle which was publicly promulgated and universally acted upon. Whether we should have been justified in March, when all our wishes had been consummated, in declining a proposal which we would most gladly have submitted to in December, is a question which we shall leave diplomatists to settle,[10.10.11] and proceed to relate the result of the measure. The counsellors of the new Maharao soon expounded to him the terms of the treaty, and urged him to demand its fulfilment according to its literal interpretation. The politic deference, which the regent had invariably shown to the late prince, was turned skilfully into an offensive weapon against him. They triumphantly appealed to the tenth article of the treaty, “the Maharao, his heirs and successors, shall remain absolute rulers of their country”; and demanded how we could reconcile our subsequent determination to guarantee Madho Singh and his heirs in the enjoyment of power, which made him _de facto_ the prince, and “reduced the _gaddi_ of Kotah to a simple heap of cotton?”—with the fact before our eyes, that the seals of all the contracting parties were to the original treaty, but that of the supplemental articles the late Maharao died in absolute ignorance [566]. All friendly intercourse between the prince and the regent, and consequently with Madho Singh, was soon at an end, and every effort was used whereby the political enfranchisement of the former could be accomplished. The eloquence of angels must have failed to check such hopes, still more to give a contrary interpretation to the simple language of the treaty, to which, with a judicious pertinacity, they confined themselves. It would be useless to detail the various occurrences pending the reference to our Government. The prince would not credit, or affected not to credit, its determination, and founded abundant and not easily-refutable arguments upon its honour and justice. When told that its instructions were, “that no pretensions of the titular Raja can be entertained by us in opposition to our positive engagement with the regent; that he alone was considered as the head of the Kotah State, and the titular Raja no more deemed the ruler of Kotah, than the Raja of Satara the leader of the Mahrattas, or the Great Mogul the emperor of Hindustan,” the Maharao shut his ears against the representation of the Agent, and professed to regard the person who could compare his case to others so little parallel to it, as his enemy. While his brother, Prithi Singh, and Gordhandas formed part of the council of Kishor Singh, it was impossible to expect that he would be brought to resign himself to his destiny; and he was speedily given to understand that the removal of both from his councils was indispensable. =Outbreak at Kotah.=—But as it was impossible to effect this without escalading the castle, in which operation the prince, in all human probability, might have perished, it was deemed advisable to blockade it and starve them into surrender. When reduced to extremity, the Maharao took the determination of trusting his cause to the country, and placing himself at the head of a band of five hundred horse, chiefly Haras, with the tutelary deity at his saddle-bow, with drums beating and colours flying, he broke through the blockade. Fortunately, no instructions had been given for resistance, and his cavalcade passed on to the southward unmolested. As soon as the movement was reported, the Agent hastened to the regent’s camp, which he found in confusion; and demanded of the veteran what steps he had taken, or meant to take, to prevent the infection spreading. His conduct, at such a crisis, was most embarrassing. Beset by scruples, real or affected, the Agent could only obtain ill-timed if not spurious declarations of loyalty; “that he would cling to his sovereign’s skirts, and _chakari kar_ (serve him); that he would rather retire to Nathdwara, than blacken his face by any treason towards his master.” Rejoiced at the mere hint of a sentiment which afforded the least presage of the only [567] mode of cutting the Gordian knot of our policy, the Agent eagerly replied, “there was no earthly bar to his determination, which he had only to signify”; but abhorring duplicity and cant at such a moment, when action of the most decisive kind was required, and apprehensive of the consequences of five hundred unquiet spirits being thrown loose on a society so lately disorganized, he hastily bid the veteran adieu, and galloped to overtake the prince’s cavalcade. He found it bivouacked at the Rangbari,[10.10.12] a country-seat six miles south of the capital. His followers and their horses, intermingled, were scattered in groups outside the garden-wall; and the prince, his chiefs, and advisers, were in the palace, deliberating on their future operations. There was no time for ceremony; and he reached the assembly before he could be announced. The rules of etiquette and courtesy were not lost even amidst impending strife; though the greeting was short, a warm expostulation with the prince and the chiefs was delivered with rapidity; and the latter were warned that their position placed them in direct enmity to the British Government, and that, without being enabled to benefit their sovereign, they involved themselves in destruction. The courtesy which these brave men had a right to was changed into bitter reproof, as the Agent turned to Gordhandas, whom he styled a traitor to his father, and from whom his prince could expect no good, guided as he was solely by interested motives, and warned him that punishment of no common kind awaited him. His hand was on his sword in an instant; but the action being met by a smile of contempt, and his insolent replies passing unheeded, the Agent, turning to the prince, implored him to reflect before the door would be closed to accommodation; pledging himself, at the same time, to everything that reason and his position could demand, except the surrender of the power of the regent, which our public faith compelled us to maintain; and that the prince’s dignity, comforts, and happiness, should be sedulously consulted. While he was wavering, the Agent called aloud, “The prince’s horse!” and taking his arm, Kishor Singh suffered himself to be led to it, observing as he mounted, “I rely implicitly on your friendship.” His brother, Prithi Singh, spoke; the chiefs maintained silence; and the impetuosity of Gordhan and one or two of the coterie was unheeded. The Agent rode side by side with the prince, surrounded by his bands, in perfect silence, and in this way they re-entered the castle, nor did the Agent quit him till he replaced him on his _gaddi_, when he reiterated his expressions of desire for his welfare, but urged the necessity of his adapting his conduct to the imperious circumstances of his position; and intimated that both his brother and Gordhandas must be removed from his person, the latter altogether from [568] Haraoti. This was in the middle of May; and in June, after the public deportation of Gordhandas as a state-criminal to Delhi, and ample provision being made for the prince and every member of his family, a public reconciliation took place between him and the regent. =Reconciliation of Mahārāo Kishor Singh with Zālim Singh.=—The meeting partook of the nature of a festival, and produced a spontaneous rejoicing, the populace, with the loudest acclamations, crowding every avenue to the palace by which the regent and his son were to pass. The venerable Zalim appeared like their patriarch; the princes as disobedient children suing for forgiveness. They advanced bending to embrace his knees, whilst he, vainly attempting to restrain this reverential salutation to his age and to habit, endeavoured by the same lowly action to show his respect to his sovereign. Expressions, in keeping with such forms of affection and respect, from the Maharao, of honour and fidelity from the ‘guardian of his father’ and himself, were exchanged with all the fervour of apparent sincerity. Anomalous condition of human affairs! strange perversity, which prevented this momentary illusion from becoming a permanent reality! =Re-installation of Kishor Singh.=—This much-desired reconciliation was followed on the 8th of Sawan, or 17th August A.D. 1820, by the solemnities of a public installation of the Maharao on the _gaddi_ of his ancestors: a pageantry which smoothed all asperities for the time, and, in giving scope to the munificence of the regent, afforded to the mass, who judge only by the surface of things, a theme for approbation. We leave for another place[10.10.13] the details of this spectacle; merely observing that the representative of the British Government was the first (following the priest) to make the _tika_, or unction of sovereignty[10.10.14] on the forehead of the prince; and having tied on the jewels, consisting of aigrette, necklace, and bracelets, he girded on, amidst salutes of ordnance, the sword of investiture. The Maharao, with an appropriate speech, presented one hundred and one gold mohurs, as the _nazar_ or fine of relief, professing his homage to the British Government. At the same time, a khilat, or dress of honour, was presented, in the name of the Governor-General of India, to the regent, for which he made a suitable acknowledgment, and a _nazar_ of twenty-five gold mohurs. Madho Singh then fulfilled the functions of hereditary Faujdar, making the _tika_, girding on the sword, and presenting the gift of accession, which was returned by [569] the Maharao presenting to Madho Singh the khilat of ultimate succession to the regency: the grand difficulty to overcome, and which originated all these differences. The Agent remained an entire month after the ceremony, to strengthen the good feeling thus begun; to adapt the Maharao’s mind to the position in which an imperious destiny had placed him; and also to impress on the successor to the regency the dangerous responsibility of the trust which a solemn treaty had guaranteed, if by his supineness, want of feeling, or misconduct, it were violated. On the 4th of September, previous to leaving Kotah, the Agent was present at another meeting of all the parties, when there was as much appearance of cordiality manifested as could be expected in so difficult a predicament. The old regent, the Maharao, and Madho Singh, joined hands in reciprocal forgiveness of the past, each uttering a solemn asseveration that he would cultivate harmony for the future. It was on this occasion that the regent performed two deliberate acts, which appear suitable accompaniments to the close of his political life, both as respects his prince and his subjects. He had prepared a covenant of surety for his old and faithful servants after his death, demanding the Maharao’s, his son Madho Singh’s, and the Agent’s signatures thereto, stipulating that “if his successor did not choose to employ their services, they should be free agents, be called to no account for the past, but be permitted to reside wherever they pleased.” The Maharao and Madho Singh having signed the deed, the British Agent, at the desire of the regent, placed his signature as a guarantee for its execution. In this act, we not only have proof that to the last the regent maintained the supremacy of his master, but evidence of the fears he entertained respecting the conduct of his successor. =Reforms in Taxation.=—The other act was a brilliant victory over the most inveterate habits of his age and country,—the revocation of _dand_, or forced contributions, throughout the dominion of Kotah. This spontaneous abolition of a practice so deeply rooted in Rajasthan, is another proof of the keen penetration of the regent, and of his desire to conciliate the opinions of the protecting power, as to the duties of princes towards their subjects; duties regarding which, as he said, “theoretically we are not ignorant”; and on which he has often forcibly descanted before his son, whilst laying down rules of conduct when he should be no more. At such moments, he entered fully and with energy into his own conduct; condemning it; pointing out its inevitable results, and the benefits he had observed to attend an opposite course of action. “My word, son, was not worth a copper,” he would say; “but now nobody would refuse anything to old Zalim.” It [570] was, therefore, as much from a conviction of the benefit to himself and the State which would attend the renunciation of this tax, as with a view of courting golden opinion, that he commanded a stone to be raised in the chief town of every district of his country, on which was inscribed the edict of perpetual abolition of _dand_, with the denunciation of eternal vengeance on whoever should revoke it. The effigies of the sun, the moon, the cow and the hog, animals reverenced or execrated by all classes, were carved in relief, to attest the imprecation. Such was the pacific termination of a contest for authority, which threatened to deluge Kotah with blood. Whether we had a right to hope that such high and natural pretensions could rest satisfied with the measures of conciliation and concession that were pursued, the sequel will disclose to those who judge only by results. ----- Footnote 10.10.1: The Author of those annals, then Assistant Resident at Sindhia’s court, was deputed by Lord Hastings to the Raj Rana Zalim Singh. He left the residency at Gwalior on the 12th November 1817, and reached the regent’s camp at Rauta, about twenty-five miles S.S.E. of Kotah, on the 23rd. Footnote 10.10.2: I allude to Mr. Adam, who divided with the noble Marquess the entire merits of that ever memorable period. [John Adam, political secretary to the Marquess of Hastings (1779-1825) (C. E. Buckland, _Dict. Indian Biography_ _s.v._).] Footnote 10.10.3: Copy of this is inserted in Appendix, No. VI., p. 1833. Footnote 10.10.4: C. T. Metcalfe, Esq., then resident at Delhi, now Sir C. T. Metcalfe, Bart., member of council in Bengal. [Sir Charles Metcalfe (1785-1846): Resident at Delhi; Lieutenant-Governor North-western Provinces (1836-38); Governor of Jamaica (1839-42); Governor-General of Canada (1843-45); raised to the peerage 1845; died 5th September 1846 (Buckland, _op. cit._ _s.v._; _Life and Correspondence_ by Sir J. W. Kaye, 1854).] Footnote 10.10.5: This was the parental epithet always applied to the regent by Ummed Singh and his sons, who it will be remembered mingled some of the Jhala blood in their veins. Nāna-sāhib, ‘sir grandsire.’ Footnote 10.10.6: _Anglicé_, ‘the slave of Gordhan,’ one of the names of Krishna, the tutelary divinity of the regent. Footnote 10.10.7: Let me again remind the reader that this was written in 1820-21; for many reasons, the phraseology and chronology of the original MS. are retained. Footnote 10.10.8: The following is a translation of the letter written by the regent, announcing the decease of his master, dated 1st Safar, A.H. 1235, or November 21, 1819:— “Until Sunday, the eve of the 1st Safar, the health of the Maharao Ummed Singh was perfectly good. About an hour after sunset, he went to worship Sri Brajnathji [Lord of Braj or Mathura]. Having made six prostrations, and while performing the seventh, he fainted and remained totally insensible. In this state he was removed to his bed-chamber, when every medical aid was given, but unavailingly; at two in the morning he departed for heaven. “Such affliction is not reserved even for a foe; but what refuge is there against the decree? You are our friend, and the honour and welfare of those whom the Maharao has left behind are now in your hands. The Maharao Kishor Singh, eldest son of the Maharao deceased, has been placed upon the throne. This is written for the information of friendship.” Footnote 10.10.9: “Nathan spake unto Bathsheba, 'hast thou not heard that Adonijah, the son of Haggith, doth reign, and David our Lord knoweth it not?'” [1 Kings i. 11.] Footnote 10.10.10: Such was the question propounded, and answered as Pepin expected, regarding the deposal of Childeric III., the last of the Merovingian race. [Pope Zacharias (A.D. 741-52), by whose sanction Boniface crowned Pippin King of the Franks at Soissons.] Footnote 10.10.11: The overture for these supplementary articles, in all probability, originated not with the regent, but with the son. Had the Author (who was then the medium of the political relations with Kotah) been consulted regarding their tendency, he was as well aware then as now, what he ought to have advised. Whether his feelings, alike excited by the grand work in which he bore no mean part, would have also clouded his judgment, it were useless to discuss. It is sufficient, in all the spirit of candour, to suggest such reasons as may have led to a measure, the consequences of which have been so deeply lamented. Footnote 10.10.12: ['The Garden of Enjoyment.'] Footnote 10.10.13: The details of this ceremony will be given in the Personal Narrative. Footnote 10.10.14: ‘Anointing’ appears to have been, in all ages, the mode of installation. The unguent on this occasion is of sandalwood and _itr_ of roses made into a paste, or very thick ointment, of which a little is placed upon the forehead with the middle finger of the right hand. ----- CHAPTER 11 =Banishment of Gordhandās.=—The sole measure of severity which arose out of these commotions was exercised on the natural son of the regent, who was banished in the face of open day from the scene of his turbulent intrigue. Gordhandas, or, as his father styled him, ‘Gordhanji,’ was the ‘child of love’ and of his old age, and to his mother the regent, it is said, felt the most ardent attachment. The perpetual banishment of this firebrand was essential to tranquillity; yet, notwithstanding his misdeeds, political and filial, it was feared that the sentiments of the Jewish monarch, rather than the sternness of the Roman father, would have influenced the Rajput regent, whose bearing, when [571] the sentence of condemnation was enforced, was to be regarded as the test of a suspicion that the Maharao had been goaded to his course through this channel by ulterior views which he dared not openly promulgate. But Zalim’s fiat was worthy of a Roman, and sufficed to annihilate suspicion—“Let the air of Haraoti never more be tainted by his presence.” Delhi and Allahabad were the cities fixed upon, from which he was to select his future residence, and unfortunately the first was chosen. Here he resided with his family upon a pension sufficiently liberal, and had a range abundantly excursive for exercise, attended by some horsemen furnished by the British local authority. About the close of 1821, permission was imprudently granted to the exile to visit Malwa, to fulfil a marriage-contract with an illegitimate daughter of the chieftain of Jhabua.[10.11.1] Scarcely had he set his foot in that town, when symptoms of impatience, in lieu of perfect tranquillity, began to be visible at Kotah, and a correspondence both there and at Bundi was hardly detected, before a spirit of revolt was reported to have infected the tried veterans of the regent. Saif Ali, the commander of the ‘Royals’ (_Raj Paltan_), an officer of thirty years’ standing, distinguished for his zeal, fidelity, and gallantry, was named as having been gained over to the cause of his nominal sovereign. This was looked upon as a slander; but too wise entirely to disregard it, the regent interposed a force between the disaffected battalion and the castle, which brought the matter to issue. The Maharao immediately proceeded by water, and conveyed Saif Ali and a part of his battalion to the palace; which was no sooner reported, than the blind regent put himself into his litter, and headed a force with which he attacked the remainder, while two twenty-four pounders, mounted on a cavalier, which commanded not only every portion of the city, but the country on both sides the Chambal, played upon the castle. In the midst of this firing (probably unexpected), the Maharao, his brother Prithi Singh, and their adherents, took to boat, crossed the river, and retired to Bundi, while the remainder of the mutinous ‘Royals’ laid down their arms. By this energetic conduct, the new attempt upon his power was dissolved as soon as formed, and the _gaddi_ of the Haras was abandoned. Bishan Singh escaped from his brothers in the midst of the fray, and joined the regent, whose views regarding him, in this crisis, however indirectly manifested, could not be mistaken; but our system of making and unmaking kings in these distant regions, though it may have enlarged our power, had not added to our reputation; and the Agent had the most rooted repugnance to sanction the system in the new range of our alliances, however it might have tended to allay the discord [572] which prevailed, or to free the paramount power from the embarrassment in which its diplomatic relations had placed it, and from whence there was no escape without incurring the too just reproach of violating the conditions we had imposed. Common decency forbade our urging the only plea we could in forming the treaty, namely, our considering the prince as a mere phantom; and if we had been bold enough to do so, the reply would have been the same: “Why did you treat with a phantom?” while he would have persisted in the literal interpretation of the bond. =British Intervention.=—There was but one way to deal with the perplexity—to fulfil the spirit of the treaty, by which public peace would be ensured. Instructions were sent to the prince of Bundi, that there was no restraint upon his performing the rites of hospitality and kindred to the fugitive princes, but that he would be personally responsible if he permitted them to congregate troops for the purpose of hostility against the regent: while, at the same time, the commander of the British troops at Nimach[10.11.2] was desired to interpose a light corps on the line of Jhabua and Bundi, and to capture Gordhandas, dead or alive, if he attempted to join the Maharao. He, however, contrived, through the intricacies of the plateau, to elude the well-arranged plan; but finding that the prince of Bundi had the same determination, he made direct for Marwar, where being also denied an asylum, he had no alternative but to return to Delhi, and to a more strict surveillance. This, however, may have been concerted; for soon after, the Maharao broke ground from Bundi, giving out a pilgrimage to Brindaban;[10.11.3] and it was hoped that the tranquillity and repose he would find amidst the fanes of his tutelary deity, Brajnathji, might tempt a mind prone to religious seclusion, to pass his days there. While he remained at Bundi, public opinion was not at all manifested; the distance was trifling to Kotah, and being with the head of his race, the act was deemed only one of those hasty ebullitions so common in those countries, and which would be followed by reconciliation. But as soon as the prince moved northward, expectation being excited that his cause would meet attention elsewhere, he had letters of sympathy and condolence from every chief of the country, and the customary attentions to sovereignty were paid by those through whose States he passed, with the sole exception of that most contiguous to our provinces, Bharatpur. The prince of this celebrated place sent a deputation to the frontier, excusing himself on account of his age and blindness; but the Hara prince, knowing what was due from a Jat zemindar, however favoured by the accessions of fortune, repelled with disdain both his gifts and his mission. For this haughty, though not unbecoming maintenance of precedent, the [573] Maharao was warned off the bounds of Bharatpur. Having remained some time among the ‘groves of Vraja,’ there was reason to believe that the canticles of Jayadeva had rendered an earthly crown a mere bauble in the eyes of the abdicated Hara, and that the mystical effusions of Kanhaiya and Radha had eradicated all remembrance of the rhapsodies of Chand, and the glories of the Chauhan: he was accordingly left at discretion to wander where he listed. As it was predicted, he soon felt the difference between his past and present mode of life, surrounded by a needy crew in a strange land; and towards the middle of April he had reached Muttra, on his return from Brindaban to Kotah. But his evil genius, in the shape of Gordhandas, had destined this should not be; and notwithstanding the rigorous surveillance, or, in fact, imprisonment, which had been enjoined, this person found an opportunity to carry on cabals with natives of high rank and office. =The Mahārāo marches on Kotah.=—Intrigues multiplied, and false hopes were inspired through these impure channels, which were converted by his corrupt emissaries into fountain-heads of political control, superseding the only authorized medium of communication between the misguided prince and the paramount power. Accordingly, having collected additional troops about him, he commenced his march to Haraoti, giving out to the chiefs through whose dominions he passed, that he was returning by the consent of the paramount power for the resumption of all his sovereign rights, so long in abeyance. Men with badges in his train, belonging to the persons alluded to, and an agent from the native treasurer of Delhi, who supplied the prince with funds, gave a colour of truth which deceived the country, and produced ardent expressions of desire for his success. As he proceeded, this force increased, and he reached the Chambal, towards the close of the monsoon 1821, with about three thousand men. Having crossed the river, he issued his summons in a language neither to be misunderstood nor disobeyed by a Rajput; he conjured them by their allegiance to join his cause, “that of seeking justice according to the treaty”: and the call was obeyed by every Hara of the country. His conduct afforded the most powerful illustration of the Rajput’s theory of fidelity, for even those closely connected by ties of blood and by every species of benefit, withdrew from the regent, to whom they owed everything, in order to join their hereditary and lawful prince, whom some had never seen, and of whom they knew nothing. Negotiation, and expostulation the most solemn and earnest on the personal dangers he was incurring, were carried on, and even public tranquillity was hazarded, rather than have recourse to the last argument, which was the less necessary, as universal peace [574] reigned around us, and the means of quelling revolt were at hand. An entire month was thus consumed: but the ultimatum[10.11.4] left no means of putting a stop to increasing disorders but that appeal which from various considerations had been so long delayed. The tried troops of the regent could not be depended on; he confessed it; and in this confession, what an evidence is afforded of the nature of his rule, and of the homage to immutable justice in all parts of the world! Every corps, foreign or indigenous, was ready to range on the side of legitimate authority against the hand which had fed and cherished them. So completely did this feeling pervade every part of the political fabric, that the regent himself said, in his forcible manner, on his escape from the danger, “even the clothes on his back smelt of treason to him.” It was hoped that “the wisdom which called aloud (even) in the streets” would not be disregarded by the veteran; that disgust at such marks of perfidy would make him spurn from him the odium of usurpation, and thus free the paramount power from a situation the most painful and embarrassing. Abundant opportunities were afforded, and hints were given that he alone could cut the knot, which otherwise must be severed [575] by the sword. But all was fruitless: “he stood upon his bond,” and the execution of the treaty. The Maharao, his nominal sovereign, took the same ground, and even sent a copy of the treaty to the Agent, tauntingly asking whether it was to be recognized or not. All this embarrassment would have been avoided, had the supplemental articles been embodied in the original treaty; then the literal interpretation and its spirit would not have been at variance, nor have afforded a pretext to reproach the paramount power with a breach of faith and justice: charges which cannot in fact be supported, inasmuch as the same contracting parties, who executed the original document, amended it by this supplemental deed. The dispute then resolves itself into a question of expediency, already touched on, namely, whether we might not have provided better for the future, and sought out other modes of reward for services we had acknowledged, than the maintenance of two pageants of sovereignty, both acknowledged, the one _de facto_, the other _de jure_. It was fortunate, however, that the magnitude of the titular prince’s pretensions placed him completely in opposition to the other contracting parties, inasmuch as he would not abide by either the spirit or the letter of the treaty or its supplement, in the most modified sense. His demand for “a personal guard of three thousand of his kinsmen, that he might allot estates at pleasure to his chiefs, appoint the governors of fortresses, and be head of the army,” was a virtual repudiation of every principle of the alliance; while the succession to the administrative powers of the State, secured to the issue of the regent, was made to depend on his pleasure: rather a frail tenure whether in Europe or Rajputana. Everything that could be done to withdraw the infatuated prince from the knot of evil advisers and fiery spirits who daily flocked to his standard, carrying with them their own and their ancestors’ wrongs, being ineffectual and hopeless, the troops which had been called upon to maintain the treaty moved forward in combination with the army of the regent. As the force reached the Kali Sind, which alone divided the rivals for power, torrents of rain, which during several days swelled it to an impassable flood, afforded more time to try all that friendship or prudence could urge to save the Maharao from the impending ruin. But all was vain; he saw the storm, and invited its approach with mingled resolution and despair, proclaiming the most submissive obedience to the paramount power, and avowing a conviction of the good intentions and friendship of its representative; but to every remonstrance he replied, “what was life without honour; what was a sovereign without authority? Death, or the full sovereignty of his ancestors!” [576]. The conduct of the regent was not less perplexing than that of the prince; for while he affected still to talk of fealty, “to preserve his white beard from stain,” he placed before him the ample shield of the treaty, although he expected that his power should be maintained without any active measures on his own part for its defence: a degree of irresponsibility not for a moment to be tolerated. It was in vain he hinted at the spirit, more than doubtful, of his army; that in the moment of conflict they might turn their guns against us; even this he was told we would hazard: and, it was added, if he desired, at whatever cost, to preserve the power guaranteed to his family, he must act offensively as well as defensively; for it would shortly be too late to talk of reconciling fealty with the preservation of his power. The wily regent desired to have his work done for him; to have all the benefit which the alliance compelled us to afford, with none of the obloquy it entailed. The Agent had some hope, even at the twelfth hour, that rather than incur the opprobrium of the world, and the penalty denounced against the violation of _swamidharma_, in committing to the chance of battle the lives of all those to whom he was protector, he would draw back and compromise his power; but the betrayal of his half-formed designs in hypocritical cant adapted only for the multitude, soon dispelled the illusion; and though there was a strong internal struggle, the love of dominion overcame every scruple. The combination of the troops was discussed in his presence and that of his officers; and in order that unity of action might be ensured, a British officer was at his request attached to his force.[10.11.5] =Battle of Māngrol.=—At daybreak on the 1st of October, the troops moved down to the attack.[10.11.6] The regent’s army consisted of eight battalions of infantry, with thirty-two pieces of cannon and fourteen strong _paegahs_, or squadrons of horse. Of these, five battalions, with fourteen pieces and ten squadrons, composed the advance; while the rest formed a reserve with the regent in person, five hundred yards in the rear. The British troops, consisting of two weak battalions and six squadrons of cavalry, with a light battery of horse-artillery, formed on the right of the regent’s force as it approximated to the Maharao’s position. The ground over which the troops moved was an extensive plain, gradually shelving to a small shallow stream, whence it again rose rather abruptly. The Maharao’s camp was placed upon a rising ground, a short distance [577] beyond the stream: he left his tents standing, and had disposed his force on the margin of the rivulet. The ‘Royals,’ who had deserted their old master, with their leader, Saif Ali, were posted on the left; the Maharao with the élite, a band of full five hundred Hara cavaliers, upon the right, and the interval was filled by a tumultuous rabble. The combined force was permitted to choose its position, within two hundred yards of the foe, without the slightest demonstration of resistance or retreat. The Agent took advantage of the pause to request the British commander to halt the whole line, in order that he might make a last attempt to withdraw the infatuated prince and his devoted followers from the perils that confronted them. He advanced midway between the lines, and offered the same conditions and an amnesty to all; to conduct and replace the prince on the _gaddi_ of his ancestors with honour. Yet, notwithstanding ruin stared him in the face, he receded from none of his demands; he insisted on the _sine qua non_, and would only re-enter Kotah surrounded by three thousand of his Hara kinsmen. During the quarter of an hour allowed him to deliberate ere the sword should be drawn, movements in position on both sides took place; the Maharao’s chosen band, condensing all their force on the right, opposed the regent’s advance, while the British troops formed so in echelon as to enfilade their dense masses. The time having expired, and not an iota of the pretensions being abated, the signal, as agreed upon, was given, and the action commenced by a discharge of cannon and firearms from the regent’s whole line, immediately followed by the horse-artillery on the right. With all the gallantry that has ever distinguished the Haras, they acted as at Fatehabad and Dholpur, and charged the regent’s line, when several were killed at the very muzzle of the guns, and but for the advance of three squadrons of British cavalry, would have turned his left flank, and probably penetrated to the reserve, where the regent was in person.[10.11.7] Defeated in this design, they had no resource but a precipitate retreat from the unequal conflict, and the Maharao, surrounded by a _gol_ of about four hundred horse, all Haras, his kinsmen, retired across the stream, and halted on the rising ground about half a mile distant, while his auxiliary foot broke and dispersed in all directions. The British troops rapidly crossed the stream, and while the infantry made a movement to cut off [578] retreat from the south, two squadrons were commanded to charge the Maharao. Determined not to act offensively, even in this emergency he adhered to his resolution, and his band awaited in a dense mass and immovable attitude the troops advancing with rapidity against them, disdaining to fly and yet too proud to yield. A British officer headed each troop; they and those they led had been accustomed to see the foe fly from the shock; but they were Pindaris, not Rajputs. The band stood like a wall of adamant; our squadrons rebounded from the shock, leaving two brave youths[10.11.8] dead on the spot, and their gallant commander[10.11.9] was saved by a miracle, being stunned by a blow which drove in his casque, his reins cut, and the arm raised to give the _coup de grâce_, when a pistol-shot from his orderly levelled his assailant. The whole was the work of an instant. True to the determination he expressed, the Maharao, satisfied with repelling the charge, slowly moved off; nor was it till the horse-artillery again closed, and poured round and grape into the dense body, that they quickened their retreat; while, as three fresh squadrons had formed for the charge, they reached the _makkai_ fields, amongst the dense crops of which they were lost. =Death of Prithi Singh.=—Prithi Singh, younger brother of the prince, impelled by that heroic spirit which is the birthright of a Hara, and aware that Haraoti could no longer be a home for him while living, determined at least to find a grave in her soil. He returned, with about five-and-twenty followers, to certain destruction, and was found in a field of Indian corn as the line advanced, alive, but grievously wounded. He was placed in a litter, and, escorted by some of Skinner’s horse, was conveyed to the camp. Here he was sedulously attended; but medical skill was of no avail, and he died the next day. His demeanour was dignified and manly; he laid the blame upon destiny, expressed no wish for life, and said, looking to the tree near the tent, that “his ghost would be satisfied in contemplating therefrom the fields of his forefathers.” His sword and ring had been taken from him by a trooper, but his dagger, pearl necklace, and other valuables, he gave in charge to the Agent, to whom he bequeathed the care of his son, the sole heir to the empty honours of the sovereignty of Kotah. It was not from any auxiliary soldier that the prince received his death-wound; it was inflicted by a lance, propelled with unerring force from behind, penetrating the lungs, the point appearing through the chest. He said it was a revengeful blow from some determined hand, as he felt the steeled point twisted in the wound to ensure its [579] being mortal. Although the squadrons of the regent joined in the pursuit, yet not a man of them dared to come to close quarters with their enemy; it was therefore supposed that some treacherous arm had mingled with his men, and inflicted the blow which relieved the regent from the chief enemy to his son and successor. The Maharao and his band were indebted for safety to the forest of corn, so thick, lofty, and luxuriant, that even his elephant was lost sight of. This shelter extended to the rivulet, only five miles in advance, which forms the boundary of Haraoti; but it was deemed sufficient to drive him out of the Kotah territory, where alone his presence could be dangerous. The infantry and foreign levies, who had no moral courage to sustain them, fled for their lives, and many were cut to pieces by detached troops of our cavalry. The calm, undaunted valour of the Maharao and his kin could not fail to extort applause from those gallant minds which can admire the bravery of a foe, though few of those who had that day to confront them were aware of the moral courage which sustained their opponents, and which converted their _vis inertiae_ into an almost impassable barrier. =Devotion of Two Hāras.=—But although the gallant conduct of the prince and his kin was in keeping with the valour so often recorded in these annals, and now, alas! almost the sole inheritance of the Haras, there was one specimen of devotion which we dare not pass over, comparable with whatever is recorded of the fabled traits of heroism of Greece or Rome. The physiography of the country has been already described; the plains, along which the combined force advanced, gradually shelved to the brink of a rivulet whose opposite bank rose perpendicularly, forming as it were the buttress to a tableland of gentle acclivity. The regent’s battalions were advancing in columns along this precipitous bank, when their attention was arrested by several shots fired from an isolated hillock rising out of the plain across the stream. Without any order, but as by a simultaneous impulse, the whole line halted, to gaze at two audacious individuals, who appeared determined to make their mound a fortress. A minute or two passed in mute surprise, when the word was given to move on; but scarcely was it uttered, ere several wounded from the head of the column were passing to the rear, and shots began to be exchanged very briskly, at least twenty in return for one. But the long matchlocks of the two heroes told every time in our lengthened line, while they seemed to have ‘a charmed life,’ and the shot fell like hail around them innocuous, one continuing to load behind the mound, while the [580] other fired with deadly aim. At length, two twelve-pounders were unlimbered; and as the shot whistled round their ears, both rose on the very pinnacle of the mound, and made a profound salaam for this compliment to their valour; which done, they continued to load and fire, whilst entire platoons blazed upon them. Although more men had suffered, an irresistible impulse was felt to save these gallant men; orders were given to cease firing, and the force was directed to move on, unless any two individuals chose to attack them manfully hand to hand. The words were scarcely uttered when two young Rohillas drew their swords, sprung down the bank, and soon cleared the space between them and the foemen. All was deep anxiety as they mounted to the assault; but whether their physical frame was less vigorous, or their energies were exhausted by wounds or by their peculiar situation, these brave defenders fell on the mount, whence they disputed the march of ten battalions of infantry and twenty pieces of cannon.[10.11.10] They were Haras! But Zalim was the cloud which interposed between them and their fortunes; and to remove it, they courted the destruction which at length overtook them. The entire devotion which the vassalage of Haraoti manifested for the cause of the Maharao, exemplified, as before observed, the nature and extent of _swamidharma_ or fealty, which has been described as the essential quality of the Rajput character; while, at the same time, it illustrates the severity of the regent’s yoke. Even the chief who negotiated the treaty could not resist the defection (one of his sons was badly wounded), although he enjoyed estates under the regent which his hereditary rank did not sanction, besides being connected with him by marriage. The Maharao gained the Parbati, which, it is said, he swam over. He had scarcely reached the shore when his horse dropped dead from a grape-shot wound. With about three hundred horse he retired upon Baroda. We had no vengeance to execute; we could not, therefore, consider the brave men, who abandoned their homes and their families from a principle of honour, in the light of the old enemies of our power, to be pursued and exterminated. They had, it is true, confronted us in the field; yet only defensively, in a cause at least morally just and seemingly sanctioned by authorities which they could not distrust. =Reflections on the Outbreak.=—The pretensions so long opposed to the treaty were thus signally and efficiently subdued. The chief instigators of the revolt were for ever removed, one by death, the other by exile; and the punishment which overtook the deserters from the regular [581] forces of the regent would check its repetition. Little prepared for the reverse of that day, the chiefs had made no provision against it, and at our word every door in Rajwara would have been closed against them. But it was not deemed a case for confiscation, or one which should involve in proscription a whole community, impelled to the commission of crime by a variety of circumstances which they could neither resist nor control, and to which the most crafty views had contributed.[10.11.11] The Maharao’s camp being left standing, all his correspondence and records fell into our hands, and developed such complicated intrigues, such consummate knavery, that he, and the brave men who suffered from espousing his pretensions, were regarded as entitled to every commiseration.[10.11.12] As soon, therefore, as the futility of their pretensions was disclosed, by the veil being thus rudely torn from their eyes, they manifested a determination to submit. The regent was instructed to grant a complete amnesty, and to announce to the chiefs that they might repair to their homes without a question being put to them. In a few weeks, all was tranquillity and peace; the chiefs and vassals returned to their families, who blessed the power which tempered punishment with clemency.[10.11.13] The Maharao continued his course to Nathdwara in Mewar, proving that the sentiment of religious abstraction alone can take the place of ambition. The individuals who, for their own base purposes, had by misrepresentation and guile guided him to ruin, now deserted him; the film fell from his eyes, and he saw, though too late, the only position in which he could exist. In a very short time every pretension inimical to the spirit and letter of the treaty, original and supplemental, was relinquished; when, with the regent’s concurrence, a note was transmitted to him, containing the basis on which his return to Kotah was practicable. A transcript with his acceptance being received, a formal deed was drawn up, executed by the Agent and attested by the regent, not only defining the precise position of both parties, but establishing a barrier between the titular and executive authorities, which must for ever prevent all collision of interests; nothing was left to chance or cavil. The grand object was to provide for the safety, comfort, and dignity of the prince, and this was done on a scale of profuse liberality; far beyond what his father, or indeed any prince of Kotah had enjoyed, and incommensurate with the revenue of the State, of which it is about the twentieth portion. The amount equals the household expenditure of the Rana of Udaipur, the avowed head of the whole Rajput race, but which can be better afforded from the flourishing revenues of Kotah than the slowly improving finances of Mewar. =Restoration of the Mahārāo.=—These preliminaries being satisfactorily adjusted, it became important to inspire this misguided prince with a confidence that his welfare would be as anxiously watched as the stipulations of the treaty whose infringement had cost him so much misery. He had too much reason to plead personal alarm as one of the causes of his past conduct, and which tended greatly to neutralize all the endeavours to serve him. Even on the very day that he was to leave Nathdwara, on his return, when after great efforts his mind had been emancipated from distrust, a final and diabolical attempt was made to thwart the measures for his restoration. A mutilated wretch was made to personate his brother Bishan Singh, and to give out that he had been maimed by command [583] of the regent’s son, and the impostor had the audacity to come within a couple of miles of the Maharao; a slight resemblance to Bishan Singh aided the deceit, which, though promptly exposed, had made the impression for which it was contrived, and it required some skill to remove it. The Rana of Udaipur no sooner heard of this last effort to defeat all the good intentions in which he co-operated towards the Maharao, to whose sister he was married, than he had the impostor seized and brought to the city, where his story had caused a powerful sensation. His indiscreet indignation for ever destroyed the clue by which the plot might have been unravelled; for he was led immediately to execution, and all that transpired was, that he was a native of the Jaipur State, and had been mutilated for some crime. Could the question have been solved, it might have afforded the means of a different termination of those unhappy quarrels, to which they formed a characteristic sequel: intrigue and mistrust combined to inveigle Kishor Singh into attempts which placed him far beyond the reach of reason, and the most zealous exertions to extricate him. This last scene being over, the Maharao left his retreat at the fane of Kanhaiya, and marched across the plateau to his paternal domains. On the last day of the year the regent, accompanied by the Agent, advanced to reconduct the prince to the capital. The universal demonstration of satisfaction at his return was the most convincing testimony that any other course would have been erroneous. On that day he once more took possession of the _gaddi_ which he had twice abandoned, with a resignation free from all asperity, or even embarrassment. Feelings arising out of a mind accustomed to religious meditation, aided while they softened the bitter monitor, adversity, and together they afforded the best security that any deviation from the new order of things would never proceed from him. =Arrangements with the Mahārāo.=—Besides the schedule of the personal expenditure, over which he was supreme, much of the State expense was to be managed under the eye of the sovereign; such as the charities, and gifts on festivals and military ceremonies. The royal insignia used on all great occasions were to remain as heretofore at his residence in the castle, as was the band at the old guardroom over the chief portal of entrance. He was to preside at all the military or other annual festivals, attended by the whole retinue of the State; and the gifts on such occasions were to be distributed in his name. All the palaces, in and about the city, were at his sole disposal, and funds were set apart for their repairs; the gardens, _ramnas_, or game-preserves, and his personal guards, were also to be entertained and paid by himself. To maintain this arrangement inviolate, an [584] officer of the paramount power was henceforth to reside at Kotah. A handsome stipend was settled on the minor son of the deceased Prithi Singh; while, in order to prevent any umbrage to the Maharao, his brother Bishan Singh, whose trimming policy had been offensive to the Maharao, was removed to the family estate at Antha, twenty miles east of the capital, on which occasion an increase was spontaneously made to his jagir. The Agent remained an entire month after this, to strengthen the good understanding now introduced. He even effected a reconciliation between the prince and Madho Singh, when the former, with great tact and candour, took upon himself the blame of all these disturbances; each gave his hand in token of future amity, and the prince spontaneously embraced the man (the regent’s son) to whom he attributed all his misery. But the Maharao’s comforts and dignity are now independent of control, and watched over by a guardian who will demand a rigid exaction of every stipulation in his favour. The patriarchal Zalim was, or affected to be, overjoyed at this result, which had threatened to involve them all in the abyss of misery. Bitter was his self-condemnation at the moral blindness of his conduct, which had not foreseen and guarded against the storm; and severe, as well as merited, was the castigation he inflicted on his successor. “It is for your sins, son, that I am punished,” was the conclusion of every such exhortation. It will be deemed a singular fatality, that this last conspicuous act in the political life of the regent should have been on the spot which exactly sixty years before witnessed the opening scene of his career; for the field of Bhatwara[10.11.14] adjoined that of Mangrol. What visions must have chased each other on this last memorable day, when he recalled the remembrance of the former! when the same sword, which redeemed the independence of Kotah from tributary degradation to Amber, was now drawn against the grandson of that sovereign who rewarded his services with the first office of the State! Had some prophetic Bardai withdrawn the mantle of Bhavani, and disclosed through the vista of threescore years the regent in the foreground, in all the panoply of ingenuous youth “spreading his carpet” at Bhatwara, to review the charge of the Kachhwaha chivalry, and in the distant perspective that same being palsied, blind, and decrepit, leading a mingled host, in character and costume altogether strange, against the grandchildren of his prince, and the [585] descendants of those Haras who nobly seconded him to gain this reputation, what effect would such a prospect have produced on one whom the mere hooting of an owl on the house-top had “scared from his propriety”? Soon after the satisfactory conclusion of these painful scenes, the regent returned to the Chhaoni, his fixed camp, and projected a tour of the State, to allay the disorders which had crept in, and to regulate afresh the action of the State-machine, the construction of which had occupied a long life, but which could not fail to be deranged by the complicated views which had arisen amongst those whose business was to work it. Often, amidst these conflicts, did he exclaim, with his great prototype both in prosperity and sorrow, “My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.” But Zalim had not the same resources in his griefs that Job had; nor could he with him exclaim, “If my land cry against me, if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or caused the owners thereof to lose their lives, let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley.”[10.11.15] His yet vigorous mind, however, soon restored everything to its wonted prosperity; and in a few weeks not a trace was left of the commotions which for a while had totally unhinged society, and threatened to deluge the land with proscription and blood. The prince was reseated on the throne with far greater comforts about him and more certainty of stability than previous to the treaty; the nobles took possession of their estates with not a blade of grass removed, and the _ghar-kheti_, the home-farms of the Regent, lost none of their productiveness; commerce was unscathed, and public opinion, which had dared loudly to question the moral justice of these proceedings, was conciliated by their conclusion. The regent survived these events five years; his attenuated frame was worn out by a spirit, vigorous to the last pulsation of life, and too strong for the feeble cage which imprisoned it.[10.11.16] =Character of Zālim Singh.=—If history attempt to sum up, or institute a scrutiny into, the character of this extraordinary man, by what standard must we judge him? The actions of his life, which have furnished matter for the sketch we have attempted, may satisfy curiosity; but the materials for a finished portrait he never supplied: the latent springs of those actions remained invisible save to the eye of Omniscience. No human being ever shared the confidence of the Machiavelli of Rajasthan, who, from the first dawn of his political existence to its close, when “fourscore years and upwards,” could always say, “My secret is my own.” This single trait, throughout a troubled career of more [586] than ordinary length, would alone stamp his character with originality. No effervescence of felicity, of success, of sympathy, which occasionally bursts from the most rugged nature, no sudden transition of passion—joy, grief, hope, even revenge—could tempt him to betray his purpose. That it was often fathomed, that his “vaulting ambition has o’erleapt itself,” and made him lose his object, is no more than may be said of all who have indulged in “that sin by which angels fell”; yet he never failed through a blind confidence in the instruments of his designs. Though originally sanguine in expectation and fiery in temperament, he subdued these natural defects, and could await with composure the due ripening of his plans; even in the hey-day of youth he had attained this mastery over himself. To this early discipline of his mind he owed the many escapes from plots against his life, and the difficulties which were perpetually besetting it increased his natural resources. There was no artifice, not absolutely degrading, which he would not condescend to employ: his natural simplicity made humility, when necessary, a plausible disguise; while his scrupulous attention to all religious observances caused his mere affirmation to be respected. The sobriety of his demeanour gave weight to his opinions and influenced the judgment; while his invariable urbanity gained the goodwill of his inferiors, and his superiors were won by the delicacy of his flattery, in the application of which he was an adept. To crown the whole, there was a mysterious brevity, an oracular sententiousness, in his conversation, which always left something to the imagination of his auditor, who gave him credit for what he did not, as well as what he did utter. None could better appreciate, or studied more to obtain, the meed of good opinion; and throughout his lengthened life, until the occurrences just described, he threw over his acts of despotism and vengeance a veil of such consummate art, as to make them lose more than half their deformity. With him it must have been an axiom, that mankind judge superficially; and in accordance therewith, his first study was to preserve appearances, and never to offend prejudice if avoidable. When he sequestrated the States of the Hara feudality, he covered the fields, by them neglected, with crops of corn, and thereby drew a contrast favourable to himself between the effects of sloth and activity. When he usurped the functions of royalty, he threw a bright halo around the orb of its glory, overloading the _gaddi_ with the trappings of grandeur, aware that— the world is e’er deceived by ornament; nor did the princes of Kotah ever appear with such magnificence as when he possessed all the attributes of royalty but the name. Every act evinced his deep skill in the [587] knowledge of the human mind and of the elements by which he was surrounded; he could circumvent the crafty Mahratta, calm or quell the arrogant Rajput, and extort the applause even of the Briton, who is little prone to allow merit in an Asiatic. He was a depository of the prejudices and the pride of his countrymen, both in religious and social life; yet, enigmatical as it must appear, he frequently violated them, though the infraction was so gradual as to be imperceptible except to the few who watched the slow progress of his plans. To such he appeared a compound of the most contradictory elements: lavish and parsimonious, oppressing and protecting; with one hand bestowing diamond aigrettes, with the other taking the tithe of the anchorite’s wallet; one day sequestrating estates and driving into exile the ancient chiefs of the land; the next receiving with open arms some expatriated noble, and supporting him in dignity and affluence, till the receding tide of human affairs rendered such support no longer requisite. =Zālim Singh and Witches.=—We have already mentioned his antipathy to the professors of “the tuneful art”; and he was as inveterate as Diocletian to the alchemist, regarding the trade of both as alike useless to society: neither were, therefore, tolerated in Kotah. But the enemies of the regent assert that it was from no dislike of their merit, but from his having been the dupe of the one, and the object of the other’s satire (_vish_). His persecution of witches (_dakini_) was in strict conformity with the injunction in the Pentateuch: “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live” (Exod. chap. xxii. ver. 18). But his ordeal was worse than even death itself: handling balls of hot iron was deemed too slight for such sinners; for it was well known they had substances which enabled them to do this with impunity. Throwing them into a pond of water was another trial; if they sunk, they were innocent, if they unhappily rose to the surface, the league with the powers of darkness was apparent. A gram-bag of cayenne pepper tied over the head, if it failed to suffocate, afforded another proof of guilt; though the most humane method, of rubbing the eyes with a well-dried capsicum, was perhaps the most common, and certainly if they could furnish this demonstration of their innocence, by withholding tears, they might justly be deemed witches. These Dakinis, like the vampires of the German Bardais, are supposed to operate upon the viscera of their victims, which they destroy by slow degrees with charms and incantations, and hence they are called in Sind (where, as Abu-l Fazl says, they abound) Jigarkhor, or ‘liver-devourers.’[10.11.17] One look of a Dakini suffices to destroy; but there are few who [588] court the title, at least in Kotah, though old age and eccentricity are sufficient, in conjunction with superstition or bad luck, to fix the stigma upon individuals. =Amusements of Zālim Singh.=—Aware of the danger of relaxing, “to have done,” even when eighty-five winters had passed over his head, was never in his thoughts. He knew that a Rajput’s throne should be the back of his steed; and when blindness overtook him, and he could no longer lead the chase on horseback, he was carried in his litter to his grand hunts, which consisted sometimes of several thousand armed men. Besides dissipating the ennui of his vassals, he obtained many other objects by an amusement so analogous to their character; in the unmasked joyousness of the sport, he heard the unreserved opinions of his companions, and gained their affection by thus administering to the favourite pastime of the Rajput, whose life is otherwise monotonous. When in the forest, he would sit down, surrounded by thousands, to regale on the game of the day. Camels followed his train, laden with flour, sugar, spices, and huge cauldrons for the use of his sylvan cuisine; and amidst the hilarity of the moment, he would go through the varied routine of government, attend to foreign and commercial policy, the details of his farms or his army, the reports of his police; nay, in the very heat of the operations, shot flying in all directions, the ancient regent might be discovered, like our immortal Alfred or St. Louis of the Franks, administering justice under the shade of some spreading pipal tree; while the day so passed would be closed with religious rites, and the recital of a mythological epic; he found time for all, never appeared hurried, nor could he be taken by surprise. When he could no longer see to sign his own name, he had an autograph facsimile engraved, which was placed in the special care of a confidential officer, to apply when commanded. Even this loss of one sense was with him compensated by another, for long after he was stone-blind, it would have been vain to attempt to impose upon him in the choice of shawls or clothes of any kind, whose fabrics and prices he could determine by the touch; and it is even asserted that he could in like manner distinguish colours. =His Gardens.=—If, as has been truly remarked, “that man deserves well of his country who makes a blade of grass grow where none grew before,”[10.11.18] what merit is due to him who made the choicest of nature’s products flourish where grass could not grow; who covered the bare rock around his capital with soil, and cultivated the exotics of Arabia, Ceylon, and the western Archipelago; who translated from the Indian Apennines (the mountains of Malabar) the coco-nut and palmyra; and thus refuted the assertion that [589] these trees could not flourish remote from the influence of a marine atmosphere? In his gardens were to be found the apples and quinces of Kabul, pomegranates from the famed stock of Kagla ka bagh[10.11.19] in the desert, oranges of every kind, scions of Agra and Sylhet, the _amba_ of Mazagon, and the _champa-kela_,[10.11.20] or golden plantain, of the Deccan, besides the indigenous productions of Rajputana. Some of the wells for irrigating these gardens cost in blasting the rock thirty thousand rupees each; he hinted to his friends that they could not do better than follow his example, and a hint always sufficed. He would have obtained a prize from any horticultural society for his improvement of the wild _ber_ (_jujube_), which by grafting he increased to the size of a small apple. In chemical science he had gained notoriety; his _itrs_, or essential oils of roses, jessamine, _ketaki_, and _keura_,[10.11.21] were far superior to any that could be purchased. There was no occasion to repair to the valley of Kashmir to witness the fabrication of its shawls; for the looms and the wool of that fairy region were transferred to Kotah, and the Kashmirian weaver plied the shuttle under Zalim’s own eye. But, as in the case of his lead-mines, he found that this branch of industry did not return even sixteen annas and a half for the rupee,[10.11.22] the minimum profit at which he fixed his remuneration; so that after satisfying his curiosity, he abandoned the manufacture. His forges for swords and firearms had a high reputation, and his matchlocks rival those of Bundi, both in excellence and elaborate workmanship. =Wrestling.=—His corps of gladiators, if we may thus designate the Jethis, obtained for him equal credit and disgrace. The funds set apart for this recreation amounted at one time to fifty thousand rupees per annum; but his wrestlers surpassed in skill and strength those of every other court in Rajwara, and the most renowned champions of other States were made “to view the heavens,”[10.11.23] if they came to Kotah. But in his younger days Zalim was not satisfied with the use of mere natural weapons, for occasionally he made his Jethis fight with the baghnakh,[10.11.24] or tiger-claw, when they tore off the flesh from each other [590]. The chivalrous Ummed Singh of Bundi put a stop to this barbarity. Returning from one of his pilgrimages from Dwarka, he passed through Kotah while Zalim and his court were assembled in the _akhara_ (arena) where two of these stall-fed prize-fighters were about to contend. The presence of this brave Hara checked the bloody exhibition, and he boldly censured the Regent for squandering on such a worthless crew resources which ought to cherish his Rajputs. This might have been lost upon the Protector, had not the royal pilgrim, in the fervour of his indignation, thrown down the gauntlet to the entire assembly of Jethis. Putting his shield on the ground, he placed therein, one by one, the entire panoply of armour which he habitually wore in his peregrinations, namely, his matchlock and its ponderous accompaniments, sword, daggers, staff, and battleaxe, and challenged any individual to raise it from the ground with a single arm. All tried and failed; when Sriji, though full sixty years of age, held it out at arm’s length during several seconds. The Haras were delighted at the feat of their patriarchal chief; while the crest-fallen Jethis hung their heads, and from that day lost ground in the favour of the regent. But these were the follies of his earlier days, not of the later period of his life: he was then like an aged oak, which, though shattered and decayed, had survived the tempest and the desolation which had raged around it. =The Last Years of Zālim Singh.=—To conclude: had he imitated Diocletian, and surrendered the purple, he would have afforded another instance of the anomalies of the human understanding; that he did not do so, for the sake of his own fame and that of the controlling power, as well as for the welfare of his prince, must be deeply lamented; the more especially as his _chhari_ (rod) has descended to feeble hands. He had enjoyed the essentials of sovereignty during threescore years, a period equal in duration to that of Darius the Mede; and had overcome difficulties which would have appalled no ordinary minds. He had vanquished all his enemies, external and internal, and all his views as regarded Haraoti were accomplished. Amongst the motives which might have urged the surrender of his power, stronger perhaps than his desire of reparation with heaven and his prince, was the fear of his successor’s inefficiency; but this consideration unhappily was counterbalanced by the precocious talents of his grandson, whom he affectionately loved, and in whom he thought he saw himself renewed. Pride also, that chief ingredient in his character, checked such surrender; he feared the world would suppose he had relinquished what he could no longer retain; and ruin would have been preferred to the idea that he had been “driven from his stool.” Able and artful ministers flattered the feeling so deeply rooted, and to crown the whole, he was supported by obligations of public faith contracted by a power without a rival. Still, old age, declining health, the desire of repose and of religious retirement, prompted wishes which often escaped his lips [591]; but counteracting feelings intruded, and the struggle between the good and evil principle lasted until the moment had passed when abdication would have been honourable. Had he, however, obeyed the impulse, his retreat would have more resembled that of the fifth Charles than of the Roman King. In the shades of Nathdwara he would have enjoyed that repose, which Diocletian could not find at Salona; and embued with a better philosophy and more knowledge of the human heart, he would have practised what was taught, that “there ought to be no intermediate change between the command of men and the service of God” [592]. ----- Footnote 10.11.1: [Jhābua, in Bhopāwar Agency, Central India (_IGI_, xiv. 104 ff.).] Footnote 10.11.2: [A British cantonment in Gwalior State (_IGI_, xix. 105 f.).] Footnote 10.11.3: [In the Mathura District, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.] Footnote 10.11.4: Letter of Maharao Kishor Singh, accompanying counter-articles, presented to Capt. Tod, dated Asoj badi Panchami, or 16th September, ‘Camp Miyana.’ (After compliments.) Chand Khan has often expressed a desire to know what were my expectations. These had been already sent to you by my wakils, Mirza Muhammad Ali Beg, and Lala Salik Ram. I again send you the Schedule of Articles. According to their purport you will act. Do me justice as the representative of the British Government, and let the master be as master, and the servant as servant; this is the case everywhere else, and is not hidden from you. Articles, the fulfilment of which was demanded by Maharao Kishor Singh, and accompanying his letter of 16th September. 1. According to the treaty executed at Delhi, in the time of Maharao Ummed Singh, I will abide. 2. I have every confidence in Nanaji Zalim Singh; in like manner as he served Maharao Ummed Singh, so he will serve me. I agree to his administration of affairs; but between Madho Singh and myself suspicions and doubts exist; we can never agree; therefore, I will give him a jagir; there let him remain. His son, Bapa Lal, shall remain with me, and in the same way as other ministers conduct State business before their princes, so shall he before me. I, the master, he, the servant; and if as the servant he acts, it will abide from generation to generation. 3. To the English Government, and other principalities, whatever letters are addressed shall be with my concurrence and advice. 4. Surety for his life, and also for mine, must be guaranteed by the English Government. 5. I shall allot a jagir for Prithi Singh (the Maharao’s brother), at which he will reside. The establishments to reside with him and my brother Bishan Singh shall be of my nomination. Besides, to my kinsmen and clansmen, according to their rank, I shall give jagirs, and they shall, according to ancient usage, be in attendance upon me. 6. My personal or _khas_ guards, to the amount of three thousand, with Bapa Lal (the regent’s grandson) shall remain in attendance. 7. The amount of the collections of the country shall all be deposited in the Kishan Bhandar (general treasury), and thence expenditure made. 8. The Kiladars (commandants) of all the forts shall be appointed by me, and the army shall be under my orders. He (the regent) may desire the officers of Government to execute his commands, but it shall be with my advice and sanction. These are the Articles I desire; they are according to the rules for government (_rajrit_)—Mitti Asoj Panchami, S. 1878 (1822). Footnote 10.11.5: Lieutenant M‘Millan, of the 5th Regt. Native Infantry, volunteered for this duty, and performed it as might have been expected from an officer of his gallantry and conduct. Footnote 10.11.6: [The battle was fought at Māngrol, on the left bank of the Pārbati River, about 40 miles N.N.E. from Kotah city, on October 1, 1821.] Footnote 10.11.7: The Author, who placed himself on the extreme left of the regent’s line, to be a check upon the dubious conduct of his troops, particularly noted this intended movement, which was frustrated only by Major Kennedy’s advance. Footnote 10.11.8: Lieutenants Clarke and Read, of the 4th Regt. Light Cavalry. Footnote 10.11.9: Major (now Lt.-Col.) J. Ridge, C.B. Footnote 10.11.10: Lieut. (now Captain) M‘Millan and the Author were the only officers, I believe, who witnessed this singular scene. Footnote 10.11.11: In a letter, addressed by some of the principal chiefs to the regent, through the Agent, they did not hesitate to say they had been guided in the course they adopted of obeying the summons of the Maharao, _by instructions of his confidential minister_. Footnote 10.11.12: The native treasurer at Delhi, who conducted these intrigues, after a strict investigation was dismissed from his office; and the same fate was awarded to the chief Munshi of the Persian secretary’s office at the seat of government. Regular treaties and bonds were found in the camp of the Maharao, which afforded abundant condemnatory evidence against these confidential officers, who mainly produced the catastrophe we have to record, and rendered nugatory the most strenuous efforts to save the misguided prince and his brave brethren. Footnote 10.11.13: The Author, who had to perform the painful duty related in this detailed transaction, was alternately aided and embarrassed by his knowledge of the past history of the Haras, and the mutual relations of all its discordant elements. Perhaps, entire ignorance would have been better—a bare knowledge of the treaty, and the expediency of a rigid adherence thereto, unbiassed by sympathy, or notions of abstract justice, which has too little in common with diplomacy. But without overlooking the colder dictates of duty, he determined that the aegis of Britain should not be a shield of oppression, and that the remains of Hara independence, which either policy or fear had compelled the regent to respect, should not thereby be destroyed; and he assumed the responsibility, a few days after the action, of proclaiming a general amnesty to the chiefs, and an invitation to each to return to his dwelling. He told the regent that any proceeding which might render this clemency nugatory, would not fail to dissatisfy the Government. All instantly availed themselves of the permission; and in every point of view, morally and physically, the result was most satisfactory, and it acted as a panacea for the wounds our public faith compelled us to inflict. Even in the midst of their compulsory infliction, he had many sources of gratulation: and of these he will give an anecdote illustrative of Rajput character. In 1807, when the Author, then commencing his career, was wandering alone through their country, surveying their geography, and collecting scraps of their statistics, he left Sindhia battering Rahatgarh [in Sāgar District, Central Provinces] and with a slender guard proceeded through the wilds of Chanderi, and thence direct westwards to trace the course of all the rivers lying between the Betwa and the Chambal. In passing through Haravati, leaving his tent standing at Bara, he had advanced with the perambulator as far as the Kali-Sind, a distance of seventeen miles; and, leaving his people to follow at leisure, was returning home unattended at a brisk canter, when, as he passed through the town of Bamolia, a party rushed out and made him captive, saying that he must visit the chief [582]. Although much fatigued, it would have been folly to refuse. He obeyed, and was conveyed to a square, in the centre of which was an elevated _chabutra_ or platform, shaded by the sacred tree. Here, sitting on carpets, was the chief with his little court. The Author was received most courteously. The first act was to disembarrass him of his boots; but this, heated as he was, they could not effect: refreshments were then put before him, and a Brahman brought water, with a ewer and basin, for his ablutions. Although he was then but an indifferent linguist, and their patois scarcely intelligible to him, he passed a very happy hour, in which conversation never flagged. The square was soon filled, and many a pair of fine black eyes smiled courteously upon the stranger—for the females, to his surprise, looked abroad without any fear of censure; though he was ignorant of their sphere in life. The Author’s horse was lame, which the chief had noticed; and on rising to go, he found one ready caparisoned for him, which, however, he would not accept. On reaching his tent the Author sent several little articles as tokens of regard. Fourteen years after this, the day following the action at Mangrol, he received a letter by a messenger from the mother of the chief of Bamolia, who sent her blessing, and invoked him, by past friendship and recollections, to protect her son, whose honour had made him join the standard of his sovereign. The Author had the satisfaction of replying that her son would be with her nearly as soon as the bearer of the letter. The Bamolia chief, it will be recollected, was the descendant of the chief of Aton, one of the great opponents of the regent at the opening of his career. Footnote 10.11.14: The battle of Bhatwara was fought in S. 1817, or A.D. 1761; the action at Mangrol, Oct. 1, A.D. 1821. Footnote 10.11.15: Job, chap. xxxi. 38-40. Footnote 10.11.16: [Zālim Singh died in 1824, and was succeeded as regent by his son, Mādho Singh, who was notoriously unfit for office, and he was succeeded by his son, Madan Singh. Maharāo Kishor Singh II. died in 1828, and was succeeded by his nephew, Rām Singh II. (1828-66). Six years after his accession disputes again arose between him and his minister, Madan Singh, and it was resolved to dismember the State of Kotah, and to create the new principality of Jhālawār as a separate provision for the descendants of Zālim Singh (_IGI_, xv. 414; H. H. Wilson, continuation of Mill, _Hist. of British India_, 1846, vol. ii. p. 424).] Footnote 10.11.17: [_Āīn_, ii. 338 f.] Footnote 10.11.18: [Swift, _Gulliver’s Travels: Voyage to Brobdingnag_.] Footnote 10.11.19: [_Kāgla kā bāgh_, ‘The Crow’s Garden.’] Footnote 10.11.20: [_Musa champa_, or _Chīni champa_, the finest of all plantains (Watt, _Econ. Prod._ 787).] Footnote 10.11.21: [_Pinus odoratissimus_, the screw-pine, used for its fibre, and “for, perhaps, the most characteristic and most widely used perfume of India” (_ibid._ 188, 727).] Footnote 10.11.22: There are sixteen annas to the rupee or half-crown. Footnote 10.11.23: “_Āsmān dikhlānā_” is the phrase of the ‘_Fancy_’ in these regions for victory; when the vanquished is thrown upon his back and kept in that attitude. [For an account of the Jethi wrestlers of the Telugu country see Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, ii. 456 ff.] Footnote 10.11.24: See an account of this instrument by Colonel Briggs, _Transactions of Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. ii. [See Vol. II. p. 721.] ----- BOOK XI PERSONAL NARRATIVE: UDAIPUR TO KHERODA CHAPTER 1 =Udaipur=, _January 29, 1820_.—The Personal Narrative attached to the second volume of this work terminated with the Author’s return to Udaipur, after a complete circuit of Marwar and Ajmer. He remained at his headquarters at Udaipur until the 29th January 1820, when circumstances rendering it expedient that he should visit the principalities of Bundi and Kotah (which were placed under his political superintendence), he determined not to neglect the opportunity it afforded of adding to his portfolio remarks on men and manners, in a country hitherto untrodden by Europeans. Although we had not been a month in the valley of Udaipur, we were all desirous to avail ourselves of the lovely weather which the cold season of India invariably brings, and which exhilarates the European who has languished through the hot winds, and the still more oppressive monsoon. The thermometer at this time, within the valley, was at the freezing point at break of day, ranging afterwards as high as 90°, whilst the sky was without a cloud, and its splendour at night was dazzling. =Kheroda.=—On the 29th we broke ground from the heights of Tus, marched fifteen English miles (though estimated at only six and a half coss), and encamped under the embankment of the spacious lake of Kheroda.[11.1.1] Our route was over a rich and well-watered plain, but which had long been a stranger to the plough. Three miles from Dabokh we crossed our own stream, the Berach, and at the village of [593] Darauli is a small outlet from this river, which runs into a hollow and forms a _jhil_, or lake. There is a highly interesting temple, dedicated to Mandeswar (Siva), on the banks of this stream, the architecture of which attests its antiquity. It is the counterpart in miniature of a celebrated temple, at Chandravati, near Abu, and verifies the traditional axiom, that the architectural rules of past ages were fixed on immutable principles. We passed the sarai of Surajpura, a mile to the right, and got entangled in the swampy ground of Bhartewar. This town, which belongs to the chief of Kanor, one of the sixteen great barons of Mewar, boasts a high antiquity, and Bhartrihari, the elder brother of Vikrama, is its reputed founder. If we place any faith in local tradition, the bells of seven hundred and fifty temples, chiefly of the Jain faith, once sounded within its walls, which were six miles in length; but few vestiges of them now remain, although there are ruins of some of these shrines which show they were of considerable importance. Within a mile and a half of Kheroda we passed through Khairsana, a large charity-village belonging to the Brahmans. Kheroda is a respectable place, having a fortress with double ditches, which can be filled at pleasure from the river. Being situated on the highroad between the ancient and modern capitals, it was always a bone of contention in the civil wars. It was in the hands of Rawat Jai Singh of Lawa, the adopted heir of Sangram Saktawat, one of the great leaders in the struggles of the year 1748 [A.D. 1691], an epoch as well known in Mewar as the 1745 of Scotland. Being originally a fiscal possession, and from its position not to be trusted to the hands of any of the feudal chiefs, it was restored to the sovereign; though it was not without difficulty that the riever of Lawa agreed to sign the constitution of the 4th of May,[11.1.2] and relinquish to his sovereign a stronghold which had been purchased with the blood of his kindred. =Tribal Feuds.=—The history of Kheroda would afford an excellent illustration of the feuds of Mewar. In that between Sangram Singh the Saktawat, and Bhairon Singh Chondawat, both of these chief clans of Mewar lost the best of their defenders. In 1733 Sangram, then but a youth (his father, Lalji, Rawat of Sheogarh, being yet alive), took Kheroda from his sovereign, and retained it six years. In 1740 the rival clans of Deogarh, Amet, Kurabar, etc., under their common head, the chief of Salumbar, and having their acts legalized by the presence of the Dahipra minister, united to expel the Saktawat. Sangram held out four months; when he hoisted a flag of truce and agreed to capitulate, on [594] condition that he should be permitted to retreat unmolested, with all his followers and effects, to Bhindar, the capital of the Saktawats. This condition was granted, and the heir of Sheogarh was received into Bhindar. Here he commenced his depredations, the adventures attending which are still the topics of numerous tales. In one of his expeditions to the estate of Kurabar he carried off both the cattle and the inhabitants of Gurli. Zalim Singh, the heir of Kurabar, came to the rescue, but was laid low by the lance of Sangram. To revenge his death, every Chondawat of the country assembled round the banner of Salumbar; the sovereign himself espoused their cause, and with his mercenary bands of Sindis succeeded in investing Bhindar. During the siege Arjun of Kurabar, bent on revenge for the loss of his heir, determined to surprise Sheogarh, which he effected, and spared neither age nor sex.[11.1.3] Kheroda remained attached to the fisc during several years, when the Rana, with a thoughtlessness which has nourished these feuds, granted it to Sardar Singh, the Chondawat chief of Badesar. In S. 1746 the Chondawats were in rebellion and disgrace, and their rivals, under the chief of Bhindar, assembled their kindred to drive out the Sindi garrison, who held Kheroda for their foe. Arjun of Kurabar, with the Sindi Koli, came to aid the garrison, and an action ensued under the walls, in which Sangram slew with his own hand two of the principal subordinates of Kurabar, namely, Guman the Sakarwal, and Bhimji Ranawat. Nevertheless, the Chondawats gained the day, and the Saktawats again retired on Bhindar. There they received a reinforcement sent by Zalim Singh of Kotah (who fostered all these disputes, trusting that eventually he should be able to snatch the bone of contention from both), and a band of Arabs, and with this aid they returned to the attack. The Chondawats, who, with the auxiliaries of Sind, were encamped in the plains of Akola, willingly accepted the challenge, but were defeated; Sindi Koli, leader of the auxiliaries, was slain, and the force was entirely dispersed. Sangram, who headed this and every assault against the rival clan, was wounded in three places; but this he accounted nothing, having thereby obtained the regard of his sovereign, and the expulsion of his rival from Kheroda, which remained attached to the fisc until the year 1758, when, on the payment of a fine of ten thousand rupees, the estate was assigned to him under the royal signature. This was in the year A.D. 1802, from which period until 1818, when we had to mediate between the Rana and his chiefs, Kheroda remained a trophy of the superior courage and tact of the Saktawats. No wonder that the Rawat Jai Singh of Lawa, the adopted heir of Sangram, was averse to renounce Kheroda. He went so far as [595] to man its walls, and forbid any communication with the servants of his sovereign: the slightest provocation would have compelled a siege and assault, in which all the Chondawats of the country would gladly have joined, and the old feuds might have been revived on the very dawn of disfranchisement from the yoke of the Mahrattas. But what will be thought of this transaction when it is stated that the lord of Kheroda was at this time at court the daily companion of his sovereign! Although the dependants of Jai Singh would have fired on any one of his master’s servants who ventured to its walls, and, according to our notions, he was that moment a rebel both to his prince and the paramount protector, not an uncourtly phrase was ever heard, nor could it be discovered that the Rana and the Rawat stood in any other relation than as the gracious sovereign and the loyal subject. These matters are conveniently managed: all the odium of discussion is left to the Kamdars, or delegates of the prince and the chief, between whom not the least diminution of courteous etiquette would be observable, whilst there remained a hope of adjustment. Asiatics do not count the moments which intervene between the conception and consummation of an undertaking as do those of colder climes. In all their transactions they preserve more composure, which, whatever be its cause, lends an air of dignity to their proceedings. I have risen from discussion with the respective ministers of the sovereign and chieftains regarding acts involving treason, in order to join the principals in an excursion on the lake, or in the tilt-yard at the palace, where they would be passing their opinions on the points of a horse, with mutual courtesy and affability. This is no unamiable feature in the manners of the East, and tends to strengthen the tie of fraternity which binds together the fabric of Rajput policy. =Agriculture at Kheroda.=—The agricultural economy of Kheroda, which discovers distinct traces of the patriarchal system, is not without interest. Kheroda is a _tappa_, or subdivision of one of the greater _khalisa_ or fiscal districts of Mewar, and consists of fourteen townships, besides their hamlets. It is rated at 14,500 rupees of yearly rent, of which itself furnishes 3500. The land, though generally of a good quality, is of three classes, namely, _piwal_, or watered from wells; _gorma_, also irrigated land, extending three or four _khets_, or fields, around the village; and _mar_ or _mal_, depending on the heavens alone for moisture. As has been already stated, there are two harvests, namely, the _unalu_ (from _ushna_, ‘heat’), or summer-harvest; and the _siyalu_ (from _sita_, ‘cold’), the winter or autumnal [596]. The share of the crown, as in all the ancient Hindu governments, is taken in kind, and divided as follows:—Of the first, or _unalu_ crop, consisting of wheat, barley, and gram, the produce is formed into _khallas_ (piles or heaps) of one hundred maunds each; these are subdivided into four parts, of twenty-five maunds each. The first operation is to provide from one of these the _serana_, or one ser on each maund, to each individual of the village-establishment: namely, the Patel, or head-man; the Patwari, register or accountant; the Shahnah, or watchman; the Balahi, or messenger and also general herdsman;[11.1.4] the Kathi (alias Sutar) or carpenter; the Lohar, or blacksmith; the Kumhar, or potter; the Dhobi, or washerman; the Chamar, who is shoemaker, carrier, and scavenger; the Nai, or barber-surgeon. These ten _seranas_, or one ser on each khalla, or two maunds and a half to each individual, swallow up one of the subdivisions. Of the three remaining parts, one share, or twenty-five maunds, goes to the Raj, or sovereign, and two to the ryot, or cultivator, after deducting a _serana_ of two maunds for the heir-apparent, which is termed Kunwar-matka, or ‘pot for the prince.’ An innovation of late years has been practised on the portion belonging to the village, from which no less than three _seranas_ of one maund each are deducted, previous to subdivision amongst the ten village officers; namely, one ‘pot for the prince,’ another for the Rana’s chief groom, and a third for his Modi, or steward of the grain department. These all go to the government, which thus realizes thirty maunds out of each hundred, or three-tenths, instead of one-fourth, according to ancient usage. But the village-establishment has an additional advantage before the grain is thrashed out; this is the _kirpa_ or sheaf from every bigha (a third of an acre) of land cultivated to each individual; and each sheaf is reckoned to yield from five to seven sers of grain. The reapers are also allowed small _kirpas_ or sheaves, yielding two or three sers each; and there were various little larcenies permitted, under the terms of _dantani_ and _chabani_, indicating they were allowed the use of their teeth (_dant_) while reaping: so that in fact they fed (_chabna_, ‘to bite or masticate’) upon roasted heads of Indian corn and maize. Of the _siyalu_ crop, which consists of _makkai_, or Indian corn, and _juar_ and _bajra_, or millet, with the different pulses, the process of distribution is as follows. From every _khalla_, or heap of one hundred maunds, forty are set apart for the Raj or government, and the rest, after deducting the _seranas_ of the village-establishment, goes to the cultivator. On the culture of sugar-cane, cotton, indigo, opium, tobacco, _til_ or sesamum, and [597] the various dyes, there has always been a fixed money-rent, varying from two to ten rupees per bigha. =Sugar-Cane Cultivation.=—There is nothing so uncertain in its results as the cultivation of sugar-cane, which holds out a powerful lure for dishonesty to the collector for the crown. But it is asserted here that the ryot had no option, being compelled to cultivate, in due proportion, cane, opium, and grain, from the same _charsa_[11.1.5] or well. A rough estimate of the expense attending the culture of a _charsa_, or what may be irrigated by one well, may not be uninteresting. Let us take, first, one bigha of cane, and no more can be watered with one pair of oxen, premising that the cane is planted in the month of Aghan, and reaped in the same month next year; that is, after a whole twelvemonth of labour: Rupees. Hasil, or rent 10 Seed of one bigha 20 Gor, or stirring up the earth with spuds, eight times before reaping, sixteen men each time, at two annas to each 16 Two men at the well, at four rupees each per month, for twelve months 96[11.1.6] Two oxen, feeding, etc. 18 Paring and cutting forty thousand canes, at four annas per thousand 10 Placing canes in the mill, clothes to the men, besides one ser of sugar out of every maund 20 Shares of all the village establishment; say, if the bigha yields fifty maunds, of which they are entitled to one-fifth 40 Wood 2 Hire of boiler 6 —— A bigha will yield as much as eighty maunds of sugar,[11.1.7] though fifty is esteemed a good crop; it sells at about four rupees per maund, or 200 —— Leaving the cultivator minus 38 It will be observed that the grower’s whole expenses are charged; besides, to make up, we must calculate from the labour of the same two men and cattle, the produce profit of one bigha of opium and four bighas of wheat and barley, as follows: Rupees. Surplus profit on the opium, seven sers of opium, at four rupees per ser 28 One hundred and fifty maunds of grain, of both harvests, of which one-third to the Raj, leaves one hundred maunds, at one rupee each maund 100 —— 128 Deduct deficiency on cane 38 —— Profit left, after feeding, men and cattle, etc., etc. 90 [598] Sometimes, though rarely, the cane is sold standing, at four to five rupees the thousand; but, occasionally, the whole crop is lost, if the cane should unfortunately flower, when it is rooted up and burnt, or given to the cattle, being unfit for the use of man. This may be superstition; though the cultivators of the cane in the West Indies may perhaps say that the deterioration of the plant would render it not worth the trouble of extracting the juice.[11.1.8] I shall here conclude this rough sketch of the agricultural economy of Kheroda, which may be taken as a fair specimen of the old system throughout Mewar, with remarking that, notwithstanding the laws of Manu,[11.1.9] inscriptions on stone, and tradition, which constitute in fact the customary law of Rajputana, make the rent in kind far lighter than what we have just recorded, yet the cultivator could not fail to thrive if even this system were maintained. But constant warfare, the necessities of the prince, with the cupidity and poverty of the revenue officers, have superadded vexatious petty demands, as _khar-lakar_ (wood and forage), and _ghar-ginti_ (house-tax); the first of which was a tax of one rupee annually on every bigha of land in cultivation, and the other the same on each house or hut inhabited. Even the _kaid sali_, or triennial fine on the headman and the register, was levied by these again on the cultivators. But besides these regular taxes, there was no end to irregular exactions of _barar_ and _dand_, or forced contributions, until, at length, the country became the scene of desolation from which it is only now emerging. =Hīnta=, _January 30_.—This was a short march of three and a half coss, or nine miles, over the same extensive plain of rich black loam, or _mal_, whence the province of Malwa has its name.[11.1.10] We were on horseback long before sunrise; the air was pure and invigorating; the peasantry were smiling at the sight of the luxuriant young crops of wheat, barley, and gram, aware that no ruthless hand could now step between them and the bounties of Heaven. Fresh thatch, or rising walls, gave signs of the exiles’ return, who greeted us, at each step of our journey, with blessings and looks of joy mingled with sadness. Passed the hamlet, or _purwa_, of Amarpura, attached to Kheroda, and to our left the township of Mainar, held in _sasan_[11.1.11] (religious grant) by a community of Brahmans. This place affords a fine specimen of “the wisdom of ancestors” in Mewar, where fifty thousand bighas, or about sixteen thousand acres of the richest crown land, have been given in perpetuity to these drones of society; and although there are only twenty families left of this holy colony, said to have been planted by Raja Mandhata in the Treta-yug, or silver age of India, yet superstition and indolence conspire to prevent the resumption even of those portions which have none to cultivate them. A “sixty thousand [599] years’ residence in hell” is undoubtedly no comfortable prospect, and to those who subscribe to the doctrine of transmigration, it must be rather mortifying to pass from the purple of royalty into “a worm in ordure,” one of the delicate purgatories which the Rajput soul has to undergo, before it can expiate the offence of resuming the lands of the church! I was rejoiced, however, to find that some of “the sons of Sakta,” as they increased in numbers, in the inverse ratio of their possessions, deemed it better to incur all risks than emigrate to foreign lands in search of _bhum_; and both Hinta and Dundia have been established on the lands of the church. Desirous of preserving every right of every class, I imprecated on my head all the anathemas of the order, if the Rana should resume all beyond what the remnant of this family could require. I proposed that a thousand bighas of the best land should be retained by them; that they should not only be furnished with cattle, seed, and implements of agriculture, but that there should be wells cleared out, or fresh ones dug for them. At this time, however, the astrologer was a member of the cabinet, and being also physician in ordinary, he, as one of the order, protected his brethren of Menar, who, as may be supposed, were in vain called upon to produce the _tamra-pattra_, or copper-plate warrant, for these lands. =Māndhāta Rāja.=—Mandhata Raja,[11.1.12] a name immortalized in the topography of these regions, was of the Pramar tribe, and sovereign of Central India, whose capitals were Dhar and Ujjain; and although his period is uncertain, tradition uniformly assigns him priority to Vikramaditya, whose era (fifty-six years anterior to the Christian) prevails throughout India. There are various spots on the Nerbudda which perpetuate his name, especially where that grand stream forms one of its most considerable rapids. Chitor, with all its dependencies, was but an appanage of the sovereignty of Dhar in these early times, nor can we move a step without discovering traces of their paramount sway in all these regions: and in the spot over which I am now moving, the antiquary might without any difficulty fill his portfolio. Both Hinta and Dundia, the dependencies of Mainar, are brought in connexion with the name of Mandhata, who performed the grand rite of Aswamedha, or sacrifice of the horse, at Dundia, where they still point out the _kund_, or ‘pit of sacrifice.’ Two Rishis, or ‘holy men,’ of Hinta attended Mandhata, who, on the conclusion of the ceremony, presented them the customary _pān_, or ‘offering,’ which they rejected; but on taking leave, the Raja delicately contrived to introduce into the bira of pan, a grant for the lands of Mainar. The gift, though unsolicited, was fatal to their sanctity, and the miracles which they had hitherto [600] been permitted to form, ceased with the possession of Mammon. Would the reader wish to have an instance of these miracles? After their usual manifold ablutions, and wringing the moisture of their _dhoti_, or garment, they would fling it into the air, where it remained suspended over their head, as a protection against the sun’s rays. On the loss of their power, these saints became tillers of the ground. Their descendants hold the lands of Mainar, and are spread over this tract, named Bara Chaubisa, ‘the great twenty-four!’ We also passed in this morning’s march the village of Bahmania, having a noble piece of water maintained by a strong embankment of masonry. No less than four thousand bighas are attached. It was fiscal land, but had been usurped during the troubles, and being nearly depopulated, had escaped observation. At this moment it is in the hands of Moti Pasban,[11.1.13] the favourite handmaid of “the Sun of the Hindus.” This ‘Pearl’ (_moti_) pretends to have obtained it as a mortgage, but it would be difficult to show a lawful mortgager. Near the village of Bansera, on the estate of Fateh Singh, brother of Bhindar, we passed a _seura_ or _sula_, a pillar or land-mark, having a grant of land inscribed thereon with the usual denunciations, attested by an image of the sacred cow, engraved in slight relief, as witness to the intention of the donor. Hinta was a place of some consequence in the civil wars, and in S. 1808 (A.D. 1752) formed the appanage of one of the Babas, or infants of the court, of the Maharaja Sawant Singh. It now belongs to a subordinate Saktawat, and was the subject of considerable discussion in the treaty of resumption of the 4th of May 1818, between the Rana and his chiefs. It was the scene of a gallant exploit in S. 1812, when ten thousand Mahrattas, led by Satwa, invaded Mewar. Raj Singh, of the Jhala tribe, the chief of Sadri,[11.1.14] and descendant of the hero who rescued that first of Rajput princes, Rana Partap, had reached the town of Hinta in his passage from court to Sadri, when he received intelligence that the enemy was at Salera, only three miles distant. He was recommended to make a slight detour and go by Bhindar; but having no reason for apprehension, he rejected the advice, and proceeded on his way. He had not travelled half-a-mile, when they fell in with the marauders, who looked upon his small but well-mounted band as legitimate prey. But, in spite of the odds, they preferred death to the surrender of their equipments, and an action ensued, in which the Raj, after performing miracles of valour, regained the fort, with eight only of his three hundred and fifty retainers. The news reaching Kushal Singh, the chief of Bhindar, who, besides the [601] sufficient motive of Rajputi, or ‘chivalry,’ was impelled by friendship and matrimonial connexion, he assembled a trusty band, and marched to rescue his friend from captivity and his estate from mortgage for his ransom. This little phalanx amounted only to five hundred men, all Saktawats, and of whom three-fourths were on foot. They advanced in a compact mass, with lighted matches, the cavaliers on either flank, with Kushal at their head, denouncing death to the man who quitted his ranks, or fired a shot without orders. They were soon surrounded by the cloud of Mahratta horse; but resolve was too manifest in the intrepid band even for numbers to provoke the strife. They thus passed over the immense plain between Bhindar and Hinta, the gates of which they had almost reached, when, as if ashamed at seeing their prey thus snatched from their grasp, the word was given, “_Barchhi de!_” and a forest of Mahratta lances, each twelve feet long, bristled against the Saktawats. Kushal called a halt, wheeled his cavaliers to the rear, and allowed the foe to come within pistol-shot, when a well-directed volley checked their impetuosity, and threw them into disorder. The little band of cavalry seized the moment and charged in their turn, gave time to load again, and returned to their post to allow a second volley. The gate was gained, and the Sadri chief received into the ranks of deliverers. Elated with success, the Maharaja promptly determined rather to fight his way back than coop himself up in Hinta, and be starved into surrender; all seconded the resolution of their chief, and with little comparative loss they regained Bhindar. This exploit is universally known, and related with exultation, as one of the many brilliant deeds of “the sons of Sakta,” of whom the Maharaja Kushal Singh was conspicuous for worth, as well as gallantry. =Morwan=,[11.1.15] _January 31_.—The last day of January (with the thermometer 50° at daybreak) brought us to the limits of Mewar. I could not look on its rich alienated lands without the deepest regret, or see the birthright of its chieftains devolve on the mean Mahratta or ruthless Pathan, without a kindling of the spirit towards the heroes of past days, in spite of the vexations their less worthy descendants occasion me; less worthy, yet not worthless, for having left my cares behind me with the court, where the stubbornness of some, the voices and intrigues of others, and the apathy of all, have deeply injured my health. There is something magical in absence; it throws a deceitful medium between us and the objects we have quitted, which exaggerates their amiable qualities, and curtails the proportions of their vices. I look upon Mewar as the land of my adoption, and, linked with all the associations of my early hopes and [602] their actual realization, I feel inclined to exclaim with reference to her and her unmanageable children, Mewar, with all thy faults, I love thee still. The virtues owe an immense debt to the present feudal nobility, not only of Mewar but of Rajputana, and it is to be hoped that the rising generation will pay to it what has been withheld by the past; that energy and temperance will supersede opium and the juice of the mahua,[11.1.16] and riding in the ring, replace the siesta, and the tabor (_tabla_) and lute. I endeavoured to banish some of these incentives to degeneracy; nor is there a young chieftain, from the heir-apparent to the throne to the aspirant to a skin of land (when opportunity was granted), from whom I have not exacted a promise, never to touch that debasing drug, opium. Some may break this pledge, but many will keep it; especially those whose minority I protected against court-faction and avarice: such a one as Arjun Singh, the young chief of Basai, of the Sangawat branch of the Chondawat clan. His grandfather (for his father was dead) had maintained the old castle and estate, placed on the elevated Uparmal, against all attempts of the Mahrattas, but had incurred the hatred of Bhim Singh of Salumbar, the head of his clan, who in S. 1846 dispossessed him, and installed a junior branch in the barony of Basai. But the energetic Takht Singh regained his lost rights, and maintained them, until civil broils and foreign foes alike disappeared, on their connexion with the British in 1818. Then the veteran chief, with his grandson, repaired to court, to unite in the general homage to their prince with the assembled chiefs of Mewar. But poverty and the remembrance of old feuds combined to dispossess the youth, and the amount of fine (ten thousand rupees) had actually been fixed for the installation of the interloper, who was supported by all the influence of the chief of Salumbar. This first noble of Mewar tried to avail himself of my friendship to uphold the cause of his protégé, Barad Singh, whom he often brought me to visit, as did old Takhta his grandson. Both were of the same age, thirteen; the aspirant to Basai, fair and stout, but heavy in his looks; while the possessor, Arjun, was spare, dark, and beaming with intelligence. Merit and justice on one side; stupidity and power on the other. But there were duties to be performed; and the old Thakur’s appeal was not heard in vain. “Swamidharma and this” (putting his hand to his sword), said the aged chief, “have hitherto preserved our rights; now, the cause of [603] the child is in his sovereign’s hands and yours; but here money buys justice, and right yields to favour.” The Rana, though he had assented to the views of Salumbar, left the case to my adjudication. I called both parties before me, and in their presence, from their respective statements, sketched the genealogical tree, exhibiting in the remote branches the stripling’s competitors, which I showed to the Rana. Ever prone to do right when not swayed by faction, he confirmed Arjun’s patent, which he had given him three years previously, and girt him with the sword of investiture. This contest for his birthright was of great advantage to the youth; for his grandfather was selected to command the quotas for the defence of the frontier fortress of Jahazpur, a duty which he well performed; and his grandson accompanied him and was often left in command while he looked after the estate. Both came to visit me at Chitor. Arjun was greatly improved during his two years’ absence from the paternal abode, and promises to do honour to the clan he belongs to. Amongst many questions, I asked “If he had yet taken to his _amal_?” to which he energetically replied, “My fortunes will be cracked indeed, if ever I forget any injunction of yours.” But a truce to digression: the whole village Panchayat has been waiting this half hour under the spreading bar[11.1.17] tree, to tell me, in the language of homely truth, _khush hain Compani sahib ke partap se_, that “by the auspices of Sir Company they are happy; and that they hope I may live a thousand years.” I must, therefore, suspend my narrative, whilst I patiently listen till midnight to dismal tales of sterile fields, exhausted funds, exiles unreturned, and the depredations of the wild mountain Bhil [604]. ----- Footnote 11.1.1: [Twenty-four miles E. of Udaipur city.] Footnote 11.1.2: See treaty between the Rana and his chiefs, Vol. I. p. 243. [Signed A.D. 1818.] Footnote 11.1.3: The sequel of this feud has been related, Vol. I. p. 511. Footnote 11.1.4: The _balahi_ or _balaiti_ is the shepherd of the community, who drives the village flock to the common pasturage; and, besides his _serana_, has some trifling reward from every individual. It is his especial duty to prevent cattle-trespasses. [For a good account of allowances to village servants and menials see B. H. Baden-Powell, _The Indian Village Community_, 16 ff.] Footnote 11.1.5: [Properly the leather bag by means of which water is raised for irrigation.] Footnote 11.1.6: This goes to feed the cultivator, if he works himself. Footnote 11.1.7: [The yield of coarse sugar (_gur_) is now estimated at 30 or 40 maunds (28½ cwt.) per acre; but as much as 50 maunds (36 cwt.) has been recorded (Watt, _Econ. Prod._ 947).] Footnote 11.1.8: [The flowering of the cane is regarded as an evil omen. In India the cane rarely seeds; in fact, it is rarely allowed to flower (Watt, _Econ. Dict._ vi. Part ii. 83).] Footnote 11.1.9: [The king may take an eighth, sixth, or twelfth part of the crop (Manu, _Laws_, vii. 130).] Footnote 11.1.10: [Mālwa or Mālava is derived from the tribe of that name, but the name Mālava-desa, ‘land of the Mālavas,’ is not mentioned in Sanskrit literature before the second century B.C.; and the tract now known as Mālwa was not called by that name till the tenth century A.D., or even later (_IGI_, xvii. 100 f.; _BG_, i. Part i. 28, Part ii. 311).] Footnote 11.1.11: [Sāsan, land granted to Brāhmans, Ascetics, Chārans, and Bhāts, by royal decree and rent-free. It pays nothing but some miscellaneous taxes, is inalienable, but it can be mortgaged.] Footnote 11.1.12: [Māndhātri, son of Yuvanāswa of the race of Ikshwāku, a legendary monarch, is said to have “reduced the seven continental zones under his dominion” (_Vishnu Purāna_, 363; Dowson, _Classical Dict._, _s.v._). The holy place Māndhāta in the Nimār District, Central Provinces, is said to take its name from him (_Gazetteer Central Provinces_, 1870, p. 258).] Footnote 11.1.13: [Pāsbān means ‘a watcher.’ Dr. Tessitori writes that the proper form of the word is Pāsvān or Pāsvāni, a term applied to the confidential domestics of a chief, and it is often, as in this case, synonymous with ‘favourite.’ It denotes no particular caste, but is commonly applied to a slave favourite or concubine.] Footnote 11.1.14: [Bari Sādri, about 40 miles S.S.E. of Udaipur city.] Footnote 11.1.15: [Not found in Major Erskine’s or other official maps: in the Author’s map “Mhorun.”] Footnote 11.1.16: [_Bassia latifolia_, from the petals of which a coarse kind of spirits is made (Watt, _Comm. Prod._ 116 ff.: Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 574 f.).] Footnote 11.1.17: [The banyan, _ficus indica_.] ----- CHAPTER 2 =The Chief of Hīnta.=—I was not deceived; it is now midnight, but, late as it is, I will introduce to the readers a few of my visitors. The chief of Hinta, who was absent at his patrimonial estate of Kun, on the hills of Chappan,[11.2.1] sent his brother and his _homme d’affaires_ to make his compliments to me, and express his regret that he could not offer them personally at Hinta, which he said was “my own township.” This was not mere customary civility. Hinta had been taken by the Saktawats soon after the commencement of the civil wars of S. 1824, which was within the period (A.D. 1766) fixed by the general arrangements of the 4th of May 1818, for restitution; and it was impossible, without departing from the principle on which they were based, that the chief should retain it, though he could plead the prescriptive right of half-a-century. The discussions regarding Hinta were consequently very warm: the renunciation of ten valuable townships by the Maharaja Zorawar Singh of Bhindar, the head of the Saktawat clans, did not annoy the Bhindar chief so much as his failure to retain Hinta as one of his minor feuds: nay, the surrender of Arja, the price of blood, a far more important castle and domain, by his own brother Fateh Singh (the original acquisition of which sealed the conclusion of a long-standing feud), excited less irritation than the demand that Hinta should revert to the fisc. “It is the key of Bhindar,” said the head of the clan. “It was a Saktawat allotment from the first,” exclaimed his brother. “The Ranawat was an interloper,” cried another. “It is my _bapota_, the abode of my fathers,” was the more feeling expression of the occupant. It was no light task to deal with such arguments; especially when an appeal to the dictates of reason and justice was thwarted by the stronger impulse of self-interest. But in a matter involving so important a stipulation of the treaty, which required “that all fiscal possessions which, since S. 1822 (A.D. 1766), the commencement of the civil wars, had, by whatever means, passed from the Rana to the chieftains, should be reclaimed,” firmness was essential to the success of a measure on which [605] depended the restoration of order. The Saktawats behaved nobly, and with a purely patriotic spirit throughout the scene, when almost all had to relinquish important possessions. The issue was, that Hinta, with its domain, after remaining twelve months incorporated with the fisc, was restored to Zorawar, but curtailed of Dundia and its twelve hundred acres, which, though united to Hinta, was a distinct township in the old records. Having paid ten thousand rupees as the fine of relief, the chief was girt with the sword, and re-established in his _bapota_, to the great joy of the whole clan. Hinta is burdened with the service of fourteen horse and fourteen foot; its _rekh_, or nominal value, in the _patta-bahi_, or ‘record of fiefs,’ being seven thousand rupees; but, in consideration of the impoverished condition of his estate, the chief was only called on to furnish five horse and eight foot. The present possessor of Hinta is an adoption from the chieftainship of Kun; but, contrary to established usage, he holds both Hinta and Kun, his parent fief, whereby he has a complex character, and conflicting duties to fulfil. As chief of Kun, he belongs to the third class of nobles, styled _gol_, and is subject to constant personal attendance on the Rana; as lord of Hinta, too, he has to furnish a quota to serve “at home or abroad!” Being compelled to appear at court in person, his quota for Hinta was placed under the charge of Man Singh (another of the Saktawat sub-vassalage), and was sent to the thana of little Sadri, on the Malwa frontier, to guard it from the depredations of the forester Bhil. But I was commissioned by the Rana to reprimand the representative of Hinta, and to threaten him with the re-sequestration of the estate, if he did not better perform the service for which he held it. In consequence of this remonstrance, I became acquainted with a long tale of woe; and Man Singh’s vindication from a failure of duty will introduce a topic worthy of notice connected with the feudal system of Mewar, namely, the subdivision of fiefs. Man Singh Saktawat is a younger branch of the Lawa family, and one of the infants who escaped the massacre of Sheogarh, when Lalji Rawat and two generations were cut off to avenge the feud with Kurabar. In order, however, to understand the claims of Man Singh, we must go back to the period when Lalji Rawat was lord of Nethara, which, for some offence, or through some court-intrigue, was resumed, and bestowed on one of the rival clan of Chondawat. Being a younger branch of the Bansi family (one of the senior subdivisions of Bhindar), Lalji was but slenderly provided for in the family allotment (_bat_). On losing Nethara, he repaired to Dungarpur, whose Rawal gave him a grant of Sheogarh, an almost inaccessible fort on the [606] borders of the two countries. Thus compelled, through faction, to seek subsistence out of his native soil, Lalji renounced his loyalty, and with his sons, now Barwatias or ‘outlaws,’ resolved to prey upon Mewar. They now looked to Bhindar, the head of their clan, as their lord, and joined him in opposing their late sovereign in the field, levying blackmail from the estates of their rivals; or, when the influence of the latter sunk at court, and was supplanted by the clan of Saktawat, Lalji poised his lance in the train of his chief in defence of the throne. Thus passed his life, a chequered course of alternate loyalty and treason, until its tragical close at Sheogarh.[11.2.2] Sangram Singh, the eldest son of Lalji,[11.2.3] with his infant nephews, Jai Singh and Nahar (who was absent), escaped the avenger’s sword, under which perished his father, mother, both brothers, and all his own children, at one fell swoop! Sangram succeeded to the possession of Sheogarh, and to the feuds of his family. His nephew, young Nahar, joined in all his enterprises, from the defence of Kheroda to the escalade and capture of the castle of Lawa, in which he maintained himself until the Rana not only pardoned him, but gave him precedence above his enemies in his own councils. Lawa was wrested by Sangram Singh Saktawat from Sangram Singh the Dudia, an ancient tribe, but like many others little known, until the incident we are about to relate gave it a momentary gleam of splendour, and afforded the bard an opportunity to emblazon its fame upon his page. Even in these regions, so full of strange vicissitudes, the sudden rise of the Dudia is a favourite topic of the traditional muse of Mewar. =The Dudia Clan.=—Chandrabhan was the father of this meteor of the day; his sole wealth consisted of a team of oxen, with which he tilled a few bighas of land at the base of Naharamagra, the ‘tiger mount,’ where the Rana had a _ramna_ or preserve, for the royal sport of tiger-hunting. It was during the autumnal harvest, when the Dudia had finished his day’s work, having put up the last rick of _makkai_ (Indian corn), as he was driving home the companions of his toil, a voice hailed him from the wood. He answered, and advanced to the spot whence it issued, where he found a stranger, evidently of rank, with his horse panting for breath. After inquiring his tribe, and [607] being told “Rajput,” the stranger begged a little water, which was supplied, along with two coarse cakes of _makkai_, and a little _chana-ka-dal_, pulse cooked with _ghi_, or clarified butter, which the honest Dudia took out of a cloth not over clean. Having performed all the other duties which hospitality requires, the Dudia made his salaam, and was about to depart, when a train of horsemen coming in sight, he paused to look at them. All went up to the stranger; and, from the profound respect paid to him, he found that he had entertained no common guest. It was in fact his sovereign, the Rana Jagat Singh, who delighted in the chase, and having that day been bewildered in the intricacies of Naharamagra, had stumbled on the Dudia carle. The latter expressed neither surprise nor delight when introduced to the Rana, and replied to all his questions with the frankness that grows out of the sentiment of honest pride and independence, which never abandons a Rajput, whatever be his condition.[11.2.4] The Rana was so much pleased with his rustic host, that he commanded a led horse to be brought forth, and desired the Dudia would accompany him to Udaipur, only ten miles distant. ‘The rocket of the moon’[11.2.5] (Chandrabhan), in his peasant’s garb, bestrode the noble charger with as much ease as if it were habitual to him. The next day the Dudia was conducted to the Presence, and invested with a dress which had been worn by his sovereign (a distinguished mark of royal favour), accompanied with the more solid reward of the grant of Kuwaria and its lands in perpetuity. Chandrabhan and his benefactor died about the same time. Rana Raj had succeeded to the throne of Mewar, and Sardar Singh, son of Chandrabhan, did personal service for the lands of Kuwaria. It was a source of daily amusement for the prince and his youthful associates to plunge into the fountain at the Saheli-ki-bari,[11.2.6] a villa about two miles from the capital, on which occasions reserve was banished, and they gave themselves up to unrestrained mirth. The young Dudia had some peculiarities, which made him a butt for their wit. The following incident will show the character of these princely pastimes. It was one day remarked, that when refreshing in the _kund_, or reservoir, Sardar Singh did not lay aside his turban, which provoked a suspicion that he had no hair. The Rana, impatient to get a peep at the bare head of [608] the son of Chandrabhan, proposed that they should push each other into the water. The sport began, and the Dudia’s turban falling off, disclosed the sad truth. The jest, however, was not relished by Sardar; and he tartly replied, in answer to his sovereign’s question, “what had become of his hair?” that “he had lost it in his service, in a former birth, as Chela,[11.2.7] by carrying wood upon his head to feed the flame, when his sovereign, as a jogi, or ascetic, performed penance (_tapasya_) in the hills of Badarinath.” The prince felt that he had violated decorum; but the reply was pregnant with sarcasm, and his dignity must be maintained. “Sardar must bring proof of his assertion, or punishment awaits him,” was the rejoinder. The young chief, in the same lofty tone, offered the evidence of the Deota (divinity) of the temple of Kuwaria. This was a witness whose testimony could not be impugned, and he had leave to bring it forward. At the village of Gopalpur, attached to his estate of Kuwaria, was a temple of the Bagrawats, a tribe little known, having a shrine of their divinity, who was personified by an image with a tiger’s (_bagh_) head.[11.2.8] “He invoked his support on this occasion, when the Deota threw him the flower[11.2.9] in his hand, and desired him to carry it to his sovereign.” He did so, and the Rana’s faith was too great to dispute the miracle. What honours could suffice for the man who had performed the most meritorious service to his prince in former transmigrations! _Mang_, ‘ask,’ was the sign of grace and favour. Sangram’s request was governed by moderation; it was for Lawa and its lands, which adjoined his estate at Kuwaria. The Rana being yet a minor, and the queen-mother at the head of affairs, he hastened to her to be released from the debt of gratitude. But Lawa, unluckily, was held by herself; and although she was not heretic enough to doubt the miraculous tale, she thought the Dudia might have selected any other land but hers, and testily replied to her son’s request, that “he might give him Mewar if he chose.” Displeased at this unaccommodating tone, the prince quickly rejoined, “Mewar shall be his, then.” The word of a prince is sacred; he sent for Sangram, and thus addressed him: “I give you Mewar for the space of three days; make the best use of your time; my arsenals, my armouries, my treasury, my stables, my throne and its ministers, are at your command.”[11.2.10] The temporary Rana availed himself of this large [609] power, and conveyed to his estate whatever he had a mind to. During the abdication Sardar held his court, though he had too much tact actually to press the cushion of his master; but seated himself on one side of the vacant throne, attended by all the nobles, fully impressed with the sanctity of the individual who had attained such distinction. On the third day the queen-mother sent her son the patent for Lawa; and on the fourth the Dudia surrendered the sceptre. With the wealth thus acquired, he erected a castle in his domain of Lawa, on which he expended nine lakhs of rupees, about £100,000. He formed a lake; and a single _baori_ or reservoir, in the fort, cost another lakh. He built a splendid palace, whose china and mirror-halls are still the theme of encomium. These were greatly defaced by an explosion of a powder-magazine, which threw down half the fortress that had taken twenty years to complete; and though it underwent considerable repairs, it lost much of its splendour, which the guns of Holkar aided to diminish: but the castle of Lawa is still one of the finest in Mewar. Sardar Singh had also a grant of one of the royal _mahalls_ or palaces of Udaipur, erected on the margin of the lake, after the model of the Jagmandir.[11.2.11] Although it now belongs to the chief of Amet, it is only recognized as the Dudia-ka-mahall; but its halls are the dwelling of the bat and the owl; the _bar_[11.2.12] has taken root in its light, airy porticoes, and its walls have every direction but the perpendicular. Sardar lived twenty years after the erection of Lawa; he died in S. 1838 (A.D. 1782), leaving one son, the heir of his honours and estates. Throughout his long life he lost no portion of the respect paid to his early years; but with him the name of Dudia again sunk into obscurity, or lived but as a memento of the instability of fortune. It was this son who, when driven from Lawa by Sangram Singh Saktawat, had no place of shelter, and died in indigence and obscurity. His son (grandson of Sardar, and great-grandson of the ‘rocket of the moon’) is now patronized by the heir-apparent, Prince Jawan Singh, and receives a daily allowance, but has not a foot of land. Sangram, the Saktawat, had a regular sanad for the fief of Lawa, which was rated at twenty-three thousand rupees of annual rent, while Kuwaria has reverted to the fisc. The lake of Lawa, which irrigates some thousand acres of rice-land, alone renders it one of the most desirable of the secondary estates of Mewar. Sangram’s children being all murdered in the feud of Sheogarh, he was succeeded by Jai Singh (son [610] of Sheo Singh, his second brother), who was received as _kaula_, or son of adoption, by all the retainers of Lawa. While Sangram Singh lived, no subdivision of allotments took place; all, to use the words of Man Singh, “ate out of one dish”; and his own father Nahar, who had aided in the enterprise, having by a similar _coup de main_ secured the estate of Banwal for himself, no necessity for such partition existed. But Banwal belonging to the fisc, to which it reverted on the restoration of order in A.D. 1818, young Man had no alternative but to turn round on Jai Singh, the adopted heir of Sangram, and demand his _bat_, or share of the lands of Lawa, in virtue of the right of joint acquisition, and as a younger brother. Jai Singh refused; but custom prevailed, and the village of Jethpura, of fifteen hundred rupees’ annual revenue, was bestowed upon the son of Nahar Singh. So long as Man Singh performed his duties to his chief, his share of Lawa was irresumable and inalienable: hence the stubborn tenacity of the chiefs of their share in the patrimonial acres, even when holding largely, but separately, of the crown, since of the latter, caprice or intrigue may deprive them; but their own misconduct alone can forfeit their _bapota_. The simple deed of conveyance will better establish this point! “Maharao Sri Jai Singh, plighting his faith (_bachanaita_). “At this time, Brother Man Singh, I bestow upon thee, of my own free will, the village and lands of Jethpura. This donative shall not look to _ranrkas_: _suput_, _kuput_:[11.2.13] your issue shall enjoy them. Of this intention I call the four-armed divinity (Chaturbhuj)[11.2.14] as witness. You are my own child (_chhora_): wherever and whenever I order, you will do my service: if you fail, the fault be on your own head.” =Case of Mān Singh.=—Whether Man Singh failed in his duty to his superior, or otherwise, Jethpura was resumed; and having in vain endeavoured to obtain justice through the ministers, he came to me to solicit attention to his case. With the resumption of Kheroda, his brother, the chief of Lawa, lost half his nominal income; and it may therefore be conjectured he would not be slow to listen to any charge against Man, by which he might get back his allotment. On my departure for Marwar, in August 1820, he had written to me to say that Jai Singh had summoned him to evacuate Jethpura. In my reply, I said it was a matter for the Rana alone to decide. He accordingly went to court, and failing there, followed me; but, as at my desire he had been appointed to head the quotas on the Sadri frontier, and had performed this duty very negligently, I [611] received him coolly; this, however, only gave additional eagerness to his defence, as he assigned strong personal reasons for the neglect. But the son of ‘the tiger’ (Nahar Singh) shall speak for himself. Let the reader imagine a young man of twenty-five, above six feet high, of an athletic figure and chivalrous demeanour, his expression at once modest and independent, with those indispensable appendages to a Rajput warrior’s visage, well-trimmed _favoris_ and moustache, and armed at all points: such was the lord-marcher (Simiswar), Man Singh. Having presented his patent for my perusal, he continued: “Had I failed in my obligations to my brother, he would have been justified in this step; but since you took Banwal from me, my retainers, at his beck, equalled his own in numbers; what right therefore had he to resume Jethpura? When Sangram Singh died, Lawa was in my hands: who could have prevented my keeping it, had it been my pleasure? The son of Nahar Singh would have been preferred by the vassals of Sangram to one they had never even seen; but I respected his rights, though even now he could not forcibly dispossess me. When the Thakur of Amet, on his way to court, beat his drums on the bounds of Lawa, did I not assemble my retainers and avenge the insult to my chief? My head was Jai Singh’s—that is, with the _kunguras_ (battlements) of Lawa; but he never could have dared to take Jethpura, had not respect for the chief of Lawa, respect for the Rana, and for you, made me passive. Only bid me retake it, and I am not the son of Nahar Singh if he keeps it a day. Its little castle, erected by these hands, sheltered my wife and children, who, now expelled from my patrimony, are compelled