Chapter 2…

Chapter 2

=The Refugee Queen.=—Of the prince’s family, the queen Pushpavati alone escaped the sack of Valabhi, as well as the funeral pyre, upon which, on the death of Siladitya, his other wives were sacrificed. She was a daughter of the Pramara prince of Chandravati [221], and had visited the shrine of the universal mother, Amba-Bhavani, in her native land, to deposit upon the altar of the goddess a votive offering consequent to her expectation of offspring. She was on her return, when the intelligence arrived which blasted all her future hopes, by depriving her of her lord, and robbing him, whom the goddess had just granted to her prayers, of a crown. Excessive grief closed her pilgrimage. Taking refuge in a cave in the mountains of Malia, she was delivered of a son. Having confided the infant to a Brahmani of Birnagar named Kamlavati, enjoining her to educate the young prince as a Brahman, but to marry him to a Rajputni,[4.2.1] she mounted the funeral pile to join her lord. Kamlavati, the daughter of the priest of the temple, was herself a mother, and she performed the tender offices of one to the orphan prince, whom she designated Goha, or ‘cave-born.’[4.2.2] The child was a source of perpetual uneasiness to its protectors: he associated with Rajput children, killing birds, hunting wild animals, and at the age of eleven was totally unmanageable: to use the words of the legend, “How should they hide the ray of the sun?”

=The Legend of Goha.=—At this period Idar was governed by a chief of the savage race of Bhil; his name, Mandalika.[4.2.3] The young Goha frequented the forests in company with the Bhils, whose habits better assimilated with his daring nature than those of the Brahmans. He became a favourite with the Vanaputras, or ‘children of the forest,’ who resigned to him Idar with its woods and mountains. The fact is mentioned by Abu-l Fazl,[4.2.4] and is still repeated by the bards, with a characteristic version of the incident, of which doubtless there were many. The Bhils having determined in sport to elect a king, the choice fell on Goha; and one of the young savages, cutting his finger, applied the blood as the tīka of sovereignty to his forehead. What was done in sport was confirmed by the old forest chief. The sequel fixes on Goha the stain of ingratitude, for he slew his benefactor, and no motive is assigned in the legend for the deed. Goha’s name became the patronymic of his descendants, who were styled Guhilot, classically Grahilot, in time softened to Gehlot.

We know very little concerning these early princes but that they dwelt in this mountainous region for eight generations; when the Bhils, tired of a foreign rule, assailed Nagaditya, the eighth prince, while hunting, and deprived him of life and Idar. The descendants of Kamlavati (the Birnagar Brahmani), who retained the office of priest in the family, were again the preservers of the line of Valabhi. The infant Bappa, son of Nagaditya [222], then only three years old, was conveyed to the fortress of Bhander,[4.2.5] where he was protected by a Bhil of Yadu descent. Thence he was removed for greater security to the wilds of Parasar. Within its impervious recesses rose the three-peaked (trikuta) mountain, at whose base was the town of Nagindra,[4.2.6] the abode of Brahmans, who performed the rites of the ‘great god.’ In this retreat passed the early years of Bappa, wandering through these Alpine valleys, amidst the groves of Bal and the shrines of the brazen calf.

The most antique temples are to be seen in these spots—within the dark gorge of the mountain, or on its rugged summit—in the depths of the forest, and at the sources of streams, where sites of seclusion, beauty, and sublimity alternately exalt the mind’s devotion. In these regions the creative power appears to have been the earliest, and at one time the sole, object of adoration, whose symbols, the serpent-wreathed phallus (lingam), and its companion, the bull, were held sacred even by the ‘children of the forest.’ In these silent retreats Mahadeva continued to rule triumphant, and the most brilliant festivities of Udaipur were those where his rites are celebrated in the nine days sacred to him, when the Jains and Vaishnavas mix with the most zealous of his votaries; but the strange gods from the plains of the Yamuna and Ganges have withdrawn a portion of the zeal of the Guhilots from their patron divinity Eklinga, whose diwan,[4.2.7] or viceregent, is the Rana. The temple of Eklinga, situated in one of the narrow defiles leading to the capital, is an immense structure, though more sumptuous than elegant. It is built entirely of white marble, most elaborately carved and embellished; but lying in the route of a bigoted foe, it has undergone many dilapidations. The brazen bull, placed under his own dome, facing the sanctuary of the phallus, is nearly of the natural size, in a recumbent posture. It is cast (hollow) of good shape, highly polished and without flaw, except where the hammer of the Tatar had opened a passage in the hollow flank in search of treasure[4.2.8] [223].

=The Marriage of Bappa.=—Tradition has preserved numerous details of Bappa’s[4.2.9] infancy, which resembles the adventures of every hero or founder of a race. The young prince attended the sacred kine, an occupation which was honourable even to the ‘children of the sun,’ and which they still pursue: possibly a remnant of their primitive Scythic habits. The pranks of the royal shepherd are the theme of many a tale. On the Jhal Jhulni, when swinging is the amusement of the youth of both sexes, the daughter of the Solanki chief of Nagda and the village maidens had gone to the groves to enjoy this festivity, but they were unprovided with ropes. Bappa happened to be at hand, and was called by the Rajput damsels to forward their sport. He promised to procure a rope if they would first have a game at marriage. One frolic was as good as another, and the scarf of the Solankini was united to the garment of Bappa, the whole of the village lasses joining hands with his as the connecting link; and thus they performed the mystical number of revolutions round an aged tree. This frolic caused his flight from Nagda, and originated his greatness, but at the same time burthened him with all these damsels; and hence a heterogeneous issue, whose descendants still ascribe their origin to the prank of Bappa round the old mango-tree of Nagda. A suitable offer being shortly after made for the young Solankini’s hand, the family priests of the bridegroom, whose duty it was, by his knowledge of palmistry, to investigate the fortunes of the bride, discovered that she was already married: intelligence which threw the family into the greatest consternation.[4.2.10] Though Bappa’s power over his brother shepherds was too strong to create any dread of disclosure as to his being the principal in this affair, yet was it too much to expect that a secret, in which no less than six hundred of the daughters of Eve were concerned, could long remain such? Bappa’s mode of swearing his companions to secrecy is preserved. Digging a small pit, and taking a pebble in his hand, “Swear,” cried he, “secrecy and obedience to me in good and in evil; that you will reveal to me all that you hear, and failing, desire that the good deeds of your forefathers may, like this pebble (dropping it into the pit) fall into the Washerman’s well.”[4.2.11] They took the oath. The Solanki chief, however, heard that [224] Bappa was the offender, who, receiving from his faithful scouts intimation of his danger, sought refuge in one of the retreats which abound in these mountains, and which in after-times proved the preservation of his race. The companions of his flight were two Bhils: one of Undri, in the valley of the present capital; the other of Solanki descent, from Oghna Panarwa, in the western wilds. Their names, Baleo and Dewa, have been handed down with Bappa’s; and the former had the honour of drawing the tika of sovereignty with his own blood on the forehead of the prince, on the occasion of his taking the crown from the Mori.[4.2.12] It is pleasing to trace, through a series of ages, the knowledge of a custom still ‘honoured in the observance.’ The descendants of Baleo of Oghna and the Undri Bhil still claim the privilege of performing the tika on the inauguration of the descendants of Bappa.

=Oghna Panarwa.=—Oghna Panarwa is the sole spot in India which enjoys a state of natural freedom. Attached to no State, having no foreign communications, living under its own patriarchal head, its chief, with the title of Rana, whom one thousand hamlets scattered over the forest-crowned valleys obey, can, if requisite, appear at ‘the head of five thousand bows.’ He is a Bhumia Bhil of mixed blood, from the Solanki Rajput, on the old stock of pure (ujla) Bhils, the autochthones (if such there be of any country) of Mewar. Besides making the tika of blood from an incision in the thumb, the Oghna chief takes the prince by the arm and seats him on the throne, while the Undri Bhil holds the salver of spices and sacred grains of rice[4.2.13] used in making the tika.

But the solemnity of being seated on the throne of Mewar is so expensive, that many of these rites have fallen into disuse. Jagat Singh was the last prince whose coronation was conducted with the ancient magnificence of this princely house. It cost the sum of ninety lakhs of rupees (£1,125,000), nearly one entire year’s revenue of the State in the days of its prosperity, and which, taking into consideration the comparative value of money, would amount to upwards of four millions sterling[4.2.14] [225].

To resume the narrative: though the flight of Bappa and its cause are perfectly natural, we have another episode; when the bard assuming a higher strain has recourse to celestial machinery for the dénouement of this simple incident: but “an illustrious race must always be crowned with its proper mythology.” Bappa who was the founder of a line of a ‘hundred kings,’ feared as a monarch, adored as more than mortal, and, according to the legend, ‘still living’ (charanjiva), deserves to have the source of his pre-eminent fortune disclosed, which, in Mewar, it were sacrilege to doubt. While he pastured the sacred kine in the valleys of Nagindra, the princely shepherd was suspected of appropriating the milk of a favourite cow to his own use. He was distrusted and watched, and although indignant, the youth admitted that they had reason to suspect him, from the habitual dryness of the brown cow when she entered the pens at even.[4.2.15] He watched, and traced her to a narrow dell, when he beheld the udder spontaneously pouring its stores amidst the shrubs. Under a thicket of cane a hermit was reposing in a state of abstraction, from which the impetuosity of the shepherd soon roused him. The mystery was revealed in the phallic symbol of the ‘great God,’ which daily received the lacteal shower, and raised such doubts of the veracity of Bappa.

No eye had hitherto penetrated into this natural sanctuary of the rites of the Hindu Creator, except the sages and hermits of ancient days (of whom this was the celebrated Harita),[4.2.16] whom this bounteous cow also fed.

Bappa related to the sage all he knew of himself, received his blessing, and retired; but he went daily to visit him, to wash his feet, carry milk to him, and gather such wild flowers as were acceptable offerings to the deity. In return he received lessons of morality, and was initiated into the mysterious rites of Siva: and at length he was invested with the triple cordon of faith (tin parwa zunnar)[4.2.17] by the hands of the sage, who became his spiritual guide, and bestowed on his pupil the title of [226] ‘Regent (Diwan) of Eklinga.’ Bappa had proofs that his attentions to the saint and his devotions to Eklinga were acceptable, by a visit from his consort, ‘the lion-born goddess.’ From her hand he received the panoply of celestial fabrication, the work of Viswakarma (the Vulcan of Eastern mythology), which outvies all the arms ever forged for Greek or Trojan. The lance, bow, quiver, and arrows; a shield and sword (more famed than Balisarda)[4.2.18] which the goddess girded on him with her own hand: the oath of fidelity and devotion was the ‘relief’ of this celestial investiture. Thus initiated into the mysteries of ‘the first’ (adi), admitted under the banners of Bhavani, Harita resolved to leave his pupil to his fortunes, and to quit the worship of the symbol for the presence of the deity in the mansions above. He informed Bappa of his design, and commanded him to be at the sacred spot early on the following morn; but Bappa showed his materiality by oversleeping himself, and on reaching the spot the sage had already made some progress in his car, borne by the Apsaras, or celestial messengers. He checked his aerial ascent to give a last token of affection to his pupil; and desiring him to reach up to receive his blessing, Bappa’s stature was extended to twenty cubits; but as he did not reach the car, he was commanded to open his mouth, when the sage did what was recorded as performed, about the same period, by Muhammad, who spat into the mouth of his favourite nephew, Husain, the son of Ali. Bappa showed his disgust and aversion by blinking, and the projected blessing fell on his foot, by which squeamishness he obtained only invulnerability by weapons instead of immortality. The saint was soon lost in the cerulean space. Thus marked as the favourite of heaven, and having learned from his mother that he was nephew to the Mori prince of Chitor, he ‘disdained a shepherd’s slothful life,’ and with some companions from these wilds quitted his retreat, and for the first time emerged into the plains. But, as if the brand of Bhavani was insufficient, he met with another hermit in the forest of the Tiger Mount,[4.2.19] the famed Gorakhnath, who presented to him the double-edged sword,[4.2.20] which, with the proper incantation, could ‘sever rocks.’ With this he opened the road to fortune leading to the throne of Chitor [227].

Chitor was at this period held by the Mori prince of the Pramar race, the ancient lords of Malwa, then paramount sovereigns of Hindustan: but whether this city was then the chief seat of power is not known. Various public works, reservoirs, and bastions, yet retain the name of this race.

Bappa’s connexion with the Mori[4.2.21] obtained him a good reception; he was enrolled amongst the sawants or leaders, and a suitable estate conferred upon him. The inscription of the Mori prince’s reign, so often alluded to, affords a good idea of his power, and of the feudal manners of his court. He was surrounded by a numerous nobility, holding estates on the tenure of military service, but whom he had disgusted by his neglect, and whose jealousy he had provoked by the superior regard shown to Bappa. A foreign foe appearing at this time, instead of obeying the summons to attend, they threw up their grants, and tauntingly desired him to call on his favourite.[4.2.22]

Bappa undertook the conduct of the war, and the chiefs, though dispossessed of their estates, accompanied him from a feeling of shame. The foe was defeated and driven out of the country; but instead of returning to Chitor, Bappa continued his course to the ancient seat of his family, Gajni, expelled the ‘barbarian’ called Salim, placed on the throne a chief of the Chaura tribe,[4.2.23] and returned with the discontented nobles. Bappa, on this occasion, is said to have married the daughter of his enemy. The nobles quitted Chitor, leaving their defiance with their prince. In vain were the spiritual preceptor (Guru) and foster-brother (Dhabhai) sent as ambassadors: their only reply was, that as they had ‘eaten his salt,’ they would forbear their vengeance for twelve months. The noble deportment of Bappa won their esteem, and they transferred to him their service and homage. With the temptation of a crown, the gratitude of the Grahilot was given to the winds. On return they assaulted and carried Chitor, and, in the words of the chronicle, “Bappa took Chitor from the Mori and became himself the mor (crown) of the land”: he obtained by universal consent the title of ‘sun of the Hindus (Hindua suraj), preceptor of princes (Raj Guru), and universal lord (Chakravartin)’ [228].

He had a numerous progeny, some of whom returned to their ancient seats in Saurashtra, whose descendants were powerful chieftains in that tract so late as Akbar’s reign.[4.2.24] Five sons went to Marwar, and the ancient Gohils ‘of the land of Kher,’ expelled and driven to Gohilwal,[4.2.25] have lost sight of their ancestry, and by a singular fatality are in possession of the wreck of Valabhipura, ignorant of its history and their connexion with it, mixing with Arabs and following marine and mercantile pursuits; and the office of the bard having fallen into disrepute, they cannot trace their forefathers beyond Kherdhar.[4.2.26]

The close of Bappa’s career is the strangest part of the legend, and which it might be expected they would be solicitous to suppress. Advanced in years, he abandoned his children and his country, carried his arms west to Khorasan, and there established himself, and married new wives from among the ‘barbarians,’ by whom he had a numerous offspring.[4.2.27]

Bappa had reached the patriarchal age of one hundred when he died. An old volume of historical anecdotes, belonging to the chief of Delwara, states that he became an ascetic at the foot of Meru, where he was buried alive after having overcome all the kings of the west, as in Ispahan, Kandahar, Kashmir, Irak, Iran, Turan, and Kafiristan; all of whose daughters he married, and by whom he had one hundred and thirty sons, called the Nausshahra Pathans. Each of these founded a tribe, bearing the name of the mother. His Hindu children were ninety-eight in number, and were called Agni-upasi Suryavansi, or ‘sunborn fire-worshippers.’ The chronicles also record that (in like manner as did the subjects of the Bactrian king Menander, though from a different motive) the subjects of Bappa quarrelled for the disposal of his remains. The Hindu wished the fire to consume them; the ‘barbarian’ to commit them to earth; but on raising the pall while the dispute was raging, innumerable flowers of the lotus were found in the place of the remains of mortality: these were conveyed and planted in the lake. This is precisely what is related of the end of the Persian Nushirwan[4.2.28] [229].

=The Question of Dates.=—Having thus briefly sketched the history of the founder of the Guhilot dynasty in Mewar, we must now endeavour to establish the epoch of this important event in its annals. Although Bappa Rawal was nine generations after the sack of Valabhipura, the domestic annals give S. 191 (A.D. 135) for his birth; which the bards implicitly following, have vitiated the whole chronology. An important inscription[4.2.29] in a character little known, establishes the fact of the Mori dynasty being in possession of Chitor in S. 770 (A.D. 714). Now the annals of the Rana’s house expressly state Bappa Rawal to be the nephew of the Mori prince of Chitor; that at the age of fifteen he was enrolled amongst the chieftains of his uncle, and that the vassals (before alluded to), in revenge for the resumption of their grants by the Mori, dethroned him and elevated as their sovereign the youthful Bappa. Notwithstanding this apparently irreconcilable anachronism, the family traditions accord with the inscription, except in date. Amidst such contradictions the development of the truth seemed impossible. Another valuable inscription of S. 1024 (A.D. 968), though giving the genealogy from Bappa to Sakti Kumar and corroborating that from Chitor, and which furnished convincing evidence, was not sanctioned by the prince or his chroniclers, who would admit nothing as valid that militated against their established era 191 for the birth of their founder. After six years’ residence and unremitting search amid ruins, archives, inscriptions, traditions, and whatever could throw light upon this point, the author quitted Udaipur with all these doubts in his mind, for Saurashtra, to prosecute his inquiries in the pristine abodes of the race. Then it was that he was rewarded, beyond his most sanguine expectations, by the discovery of an inscription which reconciled these conflicting authorities and removed every difficulty. This marble, found in the celebrated temple of Somnath,[4.2.30] made mention of a distinct era, viz. the Valabhi Samvat, as being used in Saurashtra; which era was three hundred and seventy-five years subsequent to Vikramaditya.[4.2.31]

On the sack of Valabhi thirty thousand families abandoned this ‘city of a hundred temples,’ and led by their priests found a retreat for themselves and their faith [230] in Mordardes (Marwar), where they erected the towns of Sandrai and Bali, in which latter we recognise the name of the city whence they were expelled. The religion of Valabhi, and consequently of the colonists, was the Jain; and it was by a priest descended from the survivors of this catastrophe, and still with their descendants inhabiting those towns, that these most important documents were furnished to the author. The Sandrai roll assigns the year 305 (Valabhi era) for the destruction of Valabhi: another, also from Jain authority, gives 205; and as there were but nine princes from Vijayasen, the founder, to its fall, we can readily believe the first a numerical error. Therefore 205 + 375 = 580 S. Vikrama (A.D. 524), for the invasion of Saurashtra by ‘the barbarians from the north,’ and sack of Valabhipura.

Now if from 770, the date of the Mori tablet, we deduct 580, there remains 190; justifying the pertinacity with which the chroniclers of Mewar adhered to the date given in their annals for the birth of Bappa, viz. 191: though they were ignorant that this period was dated from the flight from Valabhipura.

Bappa, when he succeeded to the Mori prince, is said to have been fifteen years old; and his birth being one year anterior to the Mori inscription of 770 + 14 = S.V. 784 (A.D. 728),[4.2.32] is the period for the foundation of the Guhilot dynasty in Mewar: since which, during a space of eleven hundred years, fifty-nine princes lineally descended from Bappa have sat on the throne of Chitor.

Though the bards and chroniclers will never forgive the temerity which thus curtails the antiquity of their founder, he is yet placed in the dawn of chivalry, when the Carlovingian dynasty was established in the west, and when Walid, whose bands planted ‘the green standard’ on the Ebro, was ‘commander of the faithful.’

From the deserted and now forgotten ‘city of the sun,’ Aitpur, the abode of wild beasts and savage Bhils, another memorial[4.2.33] of the princes of Mewar was obtained. It relates to the prince Sakti Kumar. Its date is S. 1024 (A.D. 968), and it contains the names of fourteen of his ancestors in regular succession. Amongst these is Bappa, or Saila. When compared with the chronicles and [231] family archives, it was highly gratifying to find that, with the exception of one superfluous name and the transposition of others, they were in perfect accordance.

Hume says, “Poets, though they disfigure the most certain history by their fictions, and use strange liberties with truth, when they are the sole historians, as among the Britons, have commonly some foundation for their wildest exaggerations.” The remark is applicable here; for the names which had been mouldering for nine centuries, far from the abode of man, are the same they had worked into their poetical legends. It was at this exact epoch that the arms of Islam, for the first time, crossed the Indus. In the ninety-fifth year of the Hegira,[4.2.34] Muhammad bin Kasim, the general of the Caliph Walid, conquered Sind, and penetrated (according to early Arabian authors) to the Ganges; and although Elmacin mentions only Sind, yet other Hindu States were at this period convulsed from the same cause: witness the overthrow of Manikrae of Ajmer, in the middle of the eighth century, by a foe ‘coming in ships,’ Anjar specified as the point where they landed. If any doubt existed that it was Kasim who advanced to Chitor[4.2.35] and was defeated by Bappa, it was set at rest by finding at this time in Chitor ‘Dahir,[4.2.36] the prince of Debil.’ Abu-l Fazl[4.2.37] records, from Arabian authorities, that Dahir was lord of Sind, and resided at his capital, Debal, the first place captured by Kasim in 95. His miserable end, and the destruction of his house, are mentioned by the historian, and account for the son being found with the Mori prince of Chitor.

Nine princes intervened between Bappa and Sakti Kumar, in two centuries (twenty-two years to each reign): just the time which should elapse from the founder, who ‘abandoned his country for Iran,’ in S. 820, or A.D. 764. Having thus established four epochs in the earlier history of the family, viz.—Kanaksen’, A.D. 144; 2, Siladitya, and sack of Valabhi, A.D. 524; 3, Establishment in Chitor and Mewar, A.D. 720; 4, Sakti Kumar, A.D. 1068;[4.2.38] we may endeavour to relieve this narrative by the notices which regard their Persian descent [232].

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Footnote 4.2.1:

[This corroborates Bhandarkar’s theory that the Guhilots sprang from Nāgar Brāhmans.]

Footnote 4.2.2:

[This is a folk-etymology to explain the name Guhilot, probably derived from Guha or Guhasena (A.D. 559-67), the fourth and apparently the first great Valabhi monarch (BG, i. Part i. 85).]

Footnote 4.2.3:

[Mandalīka seems to mean ‘ruler of a district’ (mandal), (Bayley, Dynasties of Gujarāt, 183).]

Footnote 4.2.4:

[Āīn, ii. 268.]

Footnote 4.2.5:

Fifteen miles south-west of Jharol, in the wildest region in India. [In Gwalior State, IGI, viii. 72.]

Footnote 4.2.6:

Or Nagda, still a place of religious resort, about ten miles north of Udaipur. Here I found several very old inscriptions relative to the family, which preserve the ancient denomination Gohil instead of Gehlot. One of these is about nine centuries old. [The ancient name was Nāgahrida (Erskine ii. A. 106).]

Footnote 4.2.7:

Ekling-ka-Diwan is the common title of the Rana.

Footnote 4.2.8:

Amongst the many temples where the brazen calf forms part of the establishment of Balkesar, there is one sacred to Nandi alone, at Nain in the valley. This lordly bull has his shrine attended as devoutly as was that of Apis at Memphis; nor will Eklinga yield to his brother Serapis. The changes of position of the Apis at Nain are received as indications of the fruitfulness of the seasons, though it is not apparent how such are contrived.

Footnote 4.2.9:

Bappa is not a proper name, it signifies merely a ‘child.’ [This is wrong: it is the old Prākrit form of bāp, ‘father’ (IA, xv. 275 f.; BG, i. Part i. 84).] He is frequently styled Saila, and in inscriptions Sailadīsa, ‘the mountain lord.’

Footnote 4.2.10:

[The legend implies that Bāpa, from association with Bhīls, was regarded to be of doubtful origin.]

Footnote 4.2.11:

Deemed in the East the most impure of all receptacles. These wells are dug at the sides of streams, and give a supply of pure water filtering through the sand.

Footnote 4.2.12:

[The right is said to have been enjoyed by the Bhils till the time of Rāna Hamīr Singh, who died A.D. 1364, and it was recognised in Dungarpur till fairly recent times (Erskine ii. A. 228). The Jāts have the same right in Bīkaner (Rose, Glossary, ii. 301): Mers in Porbandar (Wilberforce-Bell, Hist. of Kathiawad, 53): Kandhs in Kalahandi (Russell, Tribes and Castes Central Provinces, iii. 465, and cf. ii. 280).]

Footnote 4.2.13:

Hence, perhaps, the name khushka for tika. [Khushka, khushk, ‘dry,’ is plain boiled rice without seasoning.] Grains of ground rice in curds is the material of the primitive tika, which the author has had applied to him by a lady in Gujargarh, one of the most savage spots in India, amidst the levée en masse, assembled hostilely against him, but separated amicably.

Footnote 4.2.14:

Such the pride of these small kingdoms in days of yore, and such their resources, till reduced by constant oppression! But their public works speak what they could do, and have done; witness the stupendous work of marble, and its adjacent causeway, which dams the lake of Rajsamand at Kankrauli, and which cost upwards of a million. When the spectator views this expanse of water, this ‘royal sea’ (rajsamand) on the borders of the plain; the pillar of victory towering over the plains of Malwa, erected on the summit of Chitor by Rana Mokal; their palaces and temples in this ancient abode; the regal residence erected by the princes when ejected, must fill the observer with astonishment at the resources of the State. They are such as to explain the metaphor of my ancient friend Zalim Singh, who knew better than we the value of this country: “Every pinch of the soil of Mewar contains gold.”

Footnote 4.2.15:

Godhūli, the dust raised at the time when the cows come home.

Footnote 4.2.16:

On this spot the celebrated temple of Eklinga was erected, and the present high priest traces sixty-six descents from Harita to himself. To him (through the Rana) I was indebted for the copy of the Sheo (Siva) Purana presented to the Royal Asiatic Society.

Footnote 4.2.17:

[Zunnār is an Arabic word, the Hindi janeo.]

Footnote 4.2.18:

[The sword stolen from Orlando by Brunello, given to Rogero (Ariosto, Orlando Furioso).]

Footnote 4.2.19:

The Nahra Magra, seven miles from the eastern pass leading to the capital, where the prince has a hunting seat surrounded by several others belonging to the nobles, but all going to decay. The tiger and wild boar now prowl unmolested, as none of the ‘unlicensed’ dare shoot in these royal preserves.

Footnote 4.2.20:

They surmise that this is the individual blade which is yet annually worshipped by the sovereign and chiefs on its appropriate day, one of the nine sacred to the god of war; a rite completely Scythic. I had this relation from the chief genealogists of the family, who gravely repeated the incantation: “By the preceptor, Gorakhnath and the great god, Eklinga; by Takshka the serpent, and the sage Harita; by Bhavani (Pallas) strike!”

Footnote 4.2.21:

Bappa’s mother was a Pramar, probably from Abu or Chandravati, near to Idar; and consequently Bappa was nephew to every Pramar in existence. [The Morya or Maurya sub-clan of the Pramārs still exists (Census Report, Rajputana, 1911, i. 255). For traces of the Mauryas in W. India see BG, i. Part ii. 284, note.]

Footnote 4.2.22:

We are furnished with a catalogue of the tribes which served the Mori prince, which is extremely valuable, from its acquainting us with the names of tribes no longer existing.

Footnote 4.2.23:

[See p. 121, above.]

Footnote 4.2.24:

See Āīn, ii. 247, which speaks of fifty thousand [8000] Guhilots in Sorath.

Footnote 4.2.25:

Pepara Guhilots.

Footnote 4.2.26:

The ‘land of Kher,’ on the south-west frontier of Marwar, near the Luni river.

Footnote 4.2.27:

The reigning prince told the author that there was no doubt of Bappa having ended his days among ‘the Turks’: a term now applied to all Muhammadans by the Hindu, but at that time confined to the inhabitants of Turkistan, the Turushka of the Puranas, and the Takshak of early inscriptions.

Footnote 4.2.28:

[Recent inquiries identify Bappa, whose name is merely a title, with either Mahendrāji ii. or Kālbhoja, early chiefs of Mewār (Erskine ii. B. 8). It has been suggested that his legend is mixed up with that of Bappa or Saila of Valabhi, the story of his retreat to Irān representing the latter being carried as a captive to Mansūra on the fall of Valabhi or Gandhār (BG, i. Part i. 94, note 2). In any case, the whole story is mere legend, a tale like that of the mysterious disappearance of Romulus and other kings (Sir J. Frazer, Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship, 269 ff.). A similar tale is told of Rāna Uda in later Mewār history.]

Footnote 4.2.29:

Vide Appendix, Translation, No. II.

Footnote 4.2.30:

See Translation, No. III.

Footnote 4.2.31:

[The Valabhi era begins in A.D. 318-19.]

Footnote 4.2.32:

This will make Bappa’s attainment of Chitor fifteen years posterior to Muhammad bin Kasim’s invasion. I have observed generally a discrepancy of ten years between the Samvat and Hegira; the Hegira reckoned from the sixteenth year of Muhammad’s mission, and would if employed reconcile this difficulty. [The traditional dates are untrustworthy, being based on a confused reminiscence of Valabhi history (IA, xv. 275). A list of the chiefs of Mewār, with the dates as far as can be ascertained, is given by Erskine (ii. B. 8 ff.).]

Footnote 4.2.33:

See Translation of Inscription, No. IV.

Footnote 4.2.34:

A.D. 713, or S. 769: the Inscription 770 of Man Mori, against whom came the ‘barbarian.’

Footnote 4.2.35:

I was informed by a friend, who had seen the papers of Captain Macmurdo, that he had a notice of Kasim’s having penetrated to Dungarpur. Had this gentleman lived, he would have thrown much light on these Western antiquities. [Muhammad bin Kāsim does not seem to have attacked Ajmer: the place was not founded till A.D. 1000 (Watson, Gazetteer, i. A. 9).]

Footnote 4.2.36:

By an orthographical error, the modern Hindu, ignorant of Debal, has written Delhi. But there was no lord of Delhi at this time: he is styled Dahir, Despat (lord) of Debal, from des, ‘a country,’ and pat, ‘the head.’

Footnote 4.2.37:

Āīn, ii. 344 f.

Footnote 4.2.38:

[The dates are open to much question. It is known from inscriptions that Sakti Kumār was alive in A.D. 977.]

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Chapter 3

=Connexion of the Rānas with Persia.=—Historic truth has, in all countries, been sacrificed to national vanity: to its gratification every obstacle is made to give way; fictions become facts, and even religious prejudices vanish in this mirage of the imagination. What but this spurious zeal could for a moment induce any genuine Hindu to believe that, only twelve centuries ago, ‘an eater of beef’ occupied the chair of Rama, and enjoyed by universal acclaim the title of ‘Sun of the Hindus’; or that the most ancient dynasty in the world could owe its existence to the last of the Sassanian kings:[4.3.1] that a slip from such a tree could be surreptitiously grafted on that majestic stem, which has flourished from the golden to the iron age, covering the land with its branches? That there existed a marked affinity in religious rites between the Rana’s family and the Guebres, or ancient Persians, is evident. With both, the chief object of adoration was the sun; each bore the image of the orb on their banners. The chief day in the seven[4.3.2] was dedicated to the sun; to it is sacred the chief gate of the city, the principal bastion of every fortress. But though the faith of Islam has driven away the fairy inhabitants from the fountains of Mithras, that of Surya has still its devotees on the summit of Chitor, as at Valabhi: and could we trace with accuracy their creeds to a distant age, we might discover them to be of one family, worshipping the sun at the fountains of the Oxus and Jaxartes.

The darkest period of Indian history is during the six centuries following Vikramaditya, which are scarcely enlightened by a ray of knowledge: but India was undergoing great changes, and foreign tribes were pouring in from the north. To this period, the sixth century, the genealogies of the Puranas are brought down, which expressly declare (adopting the prophetic spirit to conceal [233] the alterations and additions they then underwent) that at this time the genuine line of princes would be extinct, and that a mixed race would rule conjointly with foreign barbarians; as the Turushka, the Mauna,[4.3.3] the Yavan,[4.3.4] the Gorind, and Garddhabin.[4.3.5] There is much of truth in this; nor is it to be doubted that many of the Rajput tribes entered India from the north-west regions about this period. Gor and Gardhaba have the same signification; the first is Persian; the second its version in Hindi, meaning the ‘wild ass,’ an appellation of the Persian monarch Bahram, surnamed Gor from his partiality to hunting that animal. Various authorities state Bahramgor being in India in the fifth century, and his having there left progeny by a princess of Kanauj. A passage extracted by the author from an ancient Jain MS. indicates that “in S. 523 Raja Gardhabela, of Kakustha, or Suryavansa, ruled in Valabhipura.” It has been surmised that Gardhabela was the son of Bahramgor, a son of whom is stated to have obtained dominion at Patan; which may be borne in mind when the authorities for the Persian extraction of the Rana’s family are given.[4.3.6]

The Hindus, when conquered by the Muhammadans, naturally wished to gild the chains they could not break. To trace a common, though distant, origin with the conquerors was to remove some portion of the taint of dishonour which arose from giving their daughters in marriage to the Tatar emperors of Delhi; and a degree of satisfaction was derived from assuming that the blood thus corrupted once flowed from a common fountain[4.3.7] [234].

Further to develop these claims of Persian descent, we shall commence with an extract from the Upadesa Prasād, a collection of historic fragments in the Magadhi dialect. "In Gujardes (Gujarat) there are eighty-four cities. In one of these, Kaira, resided the Brahman Devaditya, the expounder of the Vedas. He had an only child, Subhaga (of good fortune) by name, at once a maiden and a widow. Having learned from her preceptor the solar incantation, incautiously repeating it, the sun appeared and embraced her, and she thence became pregnant.[4.3.8] The affliction of her father was diminished when he discovered the parent; nevertheless [as others might be less charitable] he sent her with a female attendant to Valabhipura, where she was delivered of twins, male and female. When grown up the boy was sent to school; but being eternally plagued about his mysterious birth, whence he received the nickname of Ghaibi (‘concealed’), in a fit of irritation he one day threatened to kill his mother if she refused to disclose the author of his existence. At this moment the sun revealed himself: he gave the youth a pebble, with which it was sufficient to touch his companions in order to overcome them. Being carried before the Balhara prince, who menaced Ghaibi, the latter slew him with the pebble, and became himself sovereign of Saurashtra, taking the name of Siladitya[4.3.9] (from sila, ‘a stone or pebble,’ and aditya, ‘the sun’): his sister was married to the Raja of Broach." Such is the literal translation of a fragment totally unconnected with the history of the Rana’s family, though evidently bearing upon it. The father of Siladitya, according to the Sandrai roll and other authorities of that period, is Suraj (the sun) Rao, though two others make a Somaditya intervene[4.3.10] [235].

Let us see what Abu-l Fazl says of the descent of the Ranas from Nushirwan: “The chief of the State was formerly called Rāwal, but for a long time past has been known as Rāna. He is of the Ghelot clan, and pretends to descent from Noshirwān the Just. An ancestor of this family through the vicissitudes of fortune came to Berār and was distinguished as the chief of Narnālah. About eight hundred years previous to the present time[4.3.11] Narnālah was taken by the enemy and many were slain. One Bāpa, a child, was carried by his mother from this scene of desolation to Mewār, and found refuge with Rājah Mandalīkh, a Bhīl.”[4.3.12]

The work which has furnished all the knowledge which exists on the Persian ancestry of the Mewar princes is the Maasiru-l-Umara, or that (in the author’s possession) founded on it, entitled Bisatu-l-Ghanim, or ‘Display of the Foe,’ written in A.H. 1204[4.3.13] [A.D. 1789]. The writer of this work styles himself Lachhmi Narayan Shafik Aurangabadi, or ‘the rhymer of Aurangabad.’ He professes to give an account of Sivaji, the founder of the Mahratta empire; for which purpose he goes deep into the lineage of the Ranas of Mewar, from whom Sivaji was descended,[4.3.14] quoting at length the Maasiru-l-Umara, from which the following is a literal translation: "It is well known that the Rajas of Udaipur are exalted over all the princes of Hind. Other Hindu princes, before they can succeed to the throne of their fathers, must receive the khushka, or tilak of regality and investiture, from them. This type of sovereignty is received with humility and veneration. The khushka of these princes is made with human blood: their title is Rana, and they deduce [236] their origin from Noshirwan-i-Adil (i.e. the Just), who conquered the countries of ——,[4.3.15] and many parts of Hindustan. During his lifetime his son Noshizad, whose mother was the daughter of Kaiser of Rum,[4.3.16] quitted the ancient worship and embraced the ‘faith[4.3.17] of the Christians,’ and with numerous followers entered Hindustan. Thence he marched a great army towards Iran, against his father Noshirwan; who despatched his general, Rambarzin,[4.3.18] with numerous forces to oppose him. An action ensued, in which Noshizad was slain; but his issue remained in Hindustan, from whom are descended the Ranas of Udaipur. Nushirwan had a wife from the Khakhan[4.3.19] of China, by whom he had a son called Hormuz, declared heir to the throne shortly before his death. As according to the faith of the fire-worshippers[4.3.20] it is not customary either to bury or to burn the dead, but to leave the corpse exposed to the rays of the sun, so it is said the body of Nushirwan has to this day suffered no decay, but is still fresh."

I now come to the account of Yazd, "the son of Shahriyar, the son of Khusru Parves, the son of Hormuz, the son of Nushirwan.

"Yazd was the last king of Ajam. It is well known he fought many battles with the Muhammadans. In the fifteenth year of the caliphat, Rustam, son of Ferokh, a great chief, was slain in battle by Saad-bin-wakas, who commanded for Omar, which was the death-blow to the fortunes of the house of Sassan: so that a remnant of it did not remain in A.H. 31, when Iran was seized by the Muhammadans. This battle had lasted four days when Rustam Ferokzad was slain by the hand of Hilkal, the son of Al Kumna, at Saad’s command [237]; though Firdausi asserts by Saad himself. Thirty thousand Muslims were slain, and the same number of the men of Ajam. To count the spoils was a torment. During this year (the thirty-first), the sixteenth of the prophet,[4.3.21] the era of the Hegira was introduced. In A.H. 17 Abu Musa of Ashur seized Hormuz, the son of the uncle of Yazdegird, whom he sent with Yazdegird’s daughter to Imam Husain, and another daughter to Abubakr.

"Thus far have I[4.3.22] extracted from the history of the fire-worshippers. He who has a mind to examine these, let him do so. The people of the religion of Zardusht have a full knowledge of all these events, with their dates; for the pleasure of their lives is the obtaining accounts of antiquity and astronomical knowledge, and their books contain information of two and three thousand years. It is also told, that when the fortunes of Yazdegird were on the wane, his family dispersed to different regions. The second daughter, Shahr Banu, was married to Imam Husain,[4.3.23] who, when he fell a martyr (shahid), an angel carried her to heaven. The third daughter, Banu, was seized by a plundering Arab and carried into the wilds of Chichik, thirty coss from Yazd. Praying to God for deliverance, she instantly disappeared; and the spot is still held sacred by the Parsis, and named ‘the secret abode of perfect purity.’ Hither, on the twenty-sixth of the month Bahman, the Parsis yet repair to pass a month in pilgrimage, living in huts under indigenous vines skirting the rock, out of whose fissures water falls into a fountain below: but if the unclean approach the spring, it ceases to flow.

“Of the eldest daughter of Yazdegird, Maha Banu, the Parsis have no accounts; but the books of Hind give evidence to her arrival in that country, and that from her issue is the tribe Sesodia. But, at all events, this race is either of the seed of Nushishad, the son of Nushirwan, or of that of the daughter of Yazdegird.”[4.3.24]

Thus have we adduced, perhaps, all the points of evidence for the supposed Persian origin of the Rana’s family. The period of the invasion of Saurashtra by Nushishad, who mounted the throne A.D. 531, corresponds well with the sack of Valabhi, A.D. 524 [238]. The army he collected in Laristan to depose his father might have been from the Parthians, Getae, Huns, and other Scythic races then on the Indus, though it is unlikely, with such an object in view as the throne of Persia, that he would waste his strength in Saurashtra. Khusru Parvez, grandson of Nushirwan the great, and who assumed this title according to Firdausi, married Marian, the daughter of Maurice, the Greek emperor of Byzantium. She bore him Shirauah (the Siroes of the early Christian writers), who slew his father. It is difficult to separate the actions of the two Nushirwans, and still more to say which of them merited the epithet of adil, or ‘just.’

According to the ‘Tables’ in Moreri,[4.3.25] Nushishad, son of Khusru the Great, reigned from A.D. 531 to 591. This is opposed to the Maasiru-l-Umara, which asserts that he was slain during his rebellion. Siroes, son of Khusru (the second Nushirwan) by his wife Marian, alternately called the friend and foe of the Christians, did raise the standard of revolt, and met the fate attributed to Nushishad; on which Yazdegird, his nephew, was proclaimed. The crown was intended for Shirauah’s younger brother, which caused the revolt, during which the elder sought refuge in India.

These revolutions in the Sassanian house were certainly simultaneous with those which occurred in the Rana’s, and no barrier existed to the political intercourse at least between the princely worshippers of Surya and Mithras. It is, therefore, curious to speculate even on the possibility of such a pedigree to a family whose ancestry is lost in the mists of time; and it becomes interesting when, from so many authentic sources, we can raise testimonies which would furnish, to one even untinctured with the love of hypothesis, grounds for giving ancestors to the Ranas in Maurice of Byzantium and Cyrus (Khusru) of Persia [239]. We have a singular support to these historic relics in a geographical fact, that places on the site of the ancient Valabhi a city called Byzantium, which almost affords conclusive proof that it must have been the son of Nushirwan who captured Valabhi and Gajni, and destroyed the family of Siladitya; for it would be a legitimate occasion to name such conquest after the city where his Christian mother had had birth.[4.3.26] Whichever of the propositions we adopt at the command of the author of The Annals of Princes, namely, “that the Sesodia race is of the seed of Nushishad, son of Nushirwan, or of that of Mahabanu, daughter of Yazdegird,” we arrive at a singular and startling conclusion, viz. that the ‘Hindua Suraj, descendant of a hundred kings,’ the undisputed possessor of the honours of Rama, the patriarch of the Solar race, is the issue of a Christian princess: that the chief prince amongst the nations of Hind can claim affinity with the emperors of ‘the mistress of the world,’ though at a time when her glory had waned, and her crown had been transferred from the Tiber to the Bosphorus.

But though I deem it morally impossible that the Ranas should have their lineage from any male branch of the Persian house, I would not equally assert that Mahabanu, the fugitive daughter of Yazdegird, may not have found a husband, as well as sanctuary, with the prince of Saurashtra; and she may be the Subhagna (mother of Siladitya), whose mysterious amour with the ‘sun’[4.3.27] compelled her to abandon her native city of Kaira. The son of Marian had been in Saurashtra, and it is therefore not unlikely that her grandchild should there seek protection in the reverses of her family.

The Salic law is here in full force, and honours, though never acquired by the female, may be stained by her; yet a daughter of the noble house of Sassan might be permitted to perpetuate the line of Rama without the reproach of taint.[4.3.28]

We shall now abandon this point to the reader, and take leave of Yazdegird,[4.3.29] the last of the house of Sassan, in the words of the historian of Rome: “Avec lui, on voit périr pour jamais la gloire et l’empire des Perses. Les rochers du Mazendaran et les sables du Kerman, furent les seuls[4.3.30] asiles que les vainqueurs laissèrent aux sectateurs de Zoroastre”[4.3.31] [240].

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Footnote 4.3.1:

Yezdegird died A.D. 651.

Footnote 4.3.2:

Surajwar, or Adityawar, Sun-day; and the other days of the week, from the other planets, which Western nations have taken from the East.

Footnote 4.3.3:

See History of the Tribes, pp. 123, 135, articles ‘Takshak,’ and ‘Jhala,’ or Makwahana, in all probability the Mauna of the Puranas [?].

Footnote 4.3.4:

The Yavan, or Greek princes, who apparently continued to rule within the Indus after the Christian era, were either the remains of the Bactrian dynasty or the independent kingdom of Demetrius or Apollodotus, who ruled in the Panjab, having as their capital Sagala, changed by Demetrius to Euthymedia. Bayer says, in his Hist. Reg. Bact., p. 84: “I find from Claudius Ptolemy, that there was a city within the Hydaspes yet nearer the Indus, called Sagala, also Euthymedia; but I scarcely doubt that Demetrius called it Euthydemia, from his father, after his death and that of Menander. Demetrius was deprived of his patrimony A.U.C. 562.” [The site of Sagala is uncertain—Chiniot, Shāhkot, Siālkot (IGI, ii. 80 f.; McCrindle, Ptolemy, 122 ff.).]

On this ancient city, Sagala, I have already said much; conjecturing it to be the Salbhanpura of the Yadus when driven from Zabulistan, and that of the Yuch-chi or Yuti, who were fixed there from Central Asia in the fifth century, and if so early as the second century, when Ptolemy wrote, may have originated the change of Yuti-media, the ‘Central Yuti.’ The numerous medals which I possess, chiefly found within the probable limits of the Greek kingdom of Sagala, either belong to these princes or the Parthian kings of Minnagara on the Indus. The legends are in Greek on one side, and in the Sassanian character on the reverse. Hitherto I have not deciphered the names of any but those of Apollodotus and Menander; but the titles of ‘Great King,’ ‘Saviour,’ and other epithets adopted by the Arsacidae, are perfectly legible. The devices, however, all incline me to pronounce them Parthian. It would be curious to ascertain how these Greeks and Parthians gradually merged into the Hindu population [see IGI, ii. 137].

Footnote 4.3.5:

[The list in the Vishnu Purāna (474 f.) gives 7 Abhīras, 10 Garddhabas, 16 Sakas, 14 Tushāras, 13 Mundas, 11 Maunas. On the impossibility of reducing the Purānic accounts to order see Smith, EHI, 274.]

Footnote 4.3.6:

[Rawlinson (Seventh Oriental Monarchy, 298) regards the eastern adventure of Bahrāmgor, Varahran V., as mythical. Sykes (Hist. of Persia, i. 470) thinks they can hardly be authentic, “but I do not reject it as entirely devoid of historical basis.”]

Footnote 4.3.7:

The Hindu genealogist, in ignorance of the existence of Aghuz Khan, the Tatar patriarch, could not connect the chain of Chagatai with Chandra. The Brahman, better read, supplied the defect, and with his doctrine of the metempsychosis animated the material frame of the beneficent Akbar with the ‘good genius’ of a Hindu; and that of their mortal foe, Aurangzeb, with one of evil destiny, being that of Kalayavana, the foe of Krishna. They gravely assert that Akbar visited his ancient hermitage at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna, and excavated the implements of penance used by him in his former shape, as one of the sages of ancient times; while such is their aversion to Aurangzeb, that they declare the final avatar, Time (Kal), on his white steed, will appear in his person. The Jaisalmer annals affirm that the whole Turkish (Turushka) race of Chagatai are of Yadu stock; while the Jam Jareja of Cutch traces his descent from the Persian Jamshid, contemporary with Solomon. These are curious claims, but the Rana’s family would consider such vanity criminal.

Footnote 4.3.8:

[For legends of women impregnated by the sun see Frazer, Golden Bough, Part vii. vol. i. 74 ff.]

Footnote 4.3.9:

This is probably the Siladitya of the Satrunjaya Mahatma, who repaired the temple on Satrunjaya in S. 477 (A.D. 421). [A mere folk etymology—Sīlāditya, from sil, ‘to worship,’ āditya, ‘the sun.’]

Footnote 4.3.10:

In perusing this fragment we are struck by the similarity of production of these Hindu Heliadae and that of the celebrated Tatar dynasty from which Jenghiz Khan was descended. The Niruns, or ‘children of light,’ were from an amour of the sun with Alung Goa, from which Jenghiz was the ninth in descent. Authorities quoted by Petis de la Croix, in his life of this conqueror, and likewise by Marigny, in his History of the Saracens, affirm Jenghiz Khan to be a descendant of Yazdegird, the last Sassanian prince. Jenghiz was an idolater, and hated the very name of Muhammadan [see Howorth, Hist. of the Mongols, i. 37 ff.]. A courtier telling Aurangzeb of his celestial ancestry, gravely quoting the affair of the mother of the race of Timur with the sun, the bigoted monarch coarsely replied, “Mama qahba bud,” which we will not translate.

Footnote 4.3.11:

Akbar commenced his reign A.D. 1556, and had been forty years on the throne when the ‘Institutes’ were composed by the Abu-l Fazl. [The translation of Gladwin in the original text has been replaced by that of Jarrett, Āīn, ii. 268.]

Footnote 4.3.12:

Orme [Historical Fragments, Notes, p. xxii] was acquainted with this passage, and shows his knowledge of the Hindu character by observing that it was a strange pedigree to assign a Hindu prince, for Khusru, of the religion of Zoroaster, though compelled to many abstinences, was not restrained from eating beef: and Anquetil du Perron says of the Parsis, their descendants, that they have refrained since their emigration from slaying the cow merely to please the Hindu.

Footnote 4.3.13:

The cryptographic date is contained in the numerical value of the letters which compose the title:

┐ As the total is only 1183, B. S. A. T. a. l. G. N. A. E. M. ├ either the date is wrong, 2. 60. 1. 9. 1. 9. 1000. 50. 1. 10. 40. │ or a deficient value ┘ given to the numerals.

Footnote 4.3.14:

Wilford, who by his indefatigable research and knowledge of Sanskrit had accumulated extensive materials, unhappily deteriorated by a too credulous imagination, yet containing much valuable matter available to those sufficiently familiar with the subject to select with safety, has touched on this, and almost on every other point in the circle of Hindu antiquities. Ali Ibrahim, a learned native of Benares, was Wilford’s authority for asserting the Rana’s Persian descent, who stated to him that he had seen the original history, which was entitled, Origin of the Peishwas from the Ranas of Mewar. (Ibrahim must have meant the Satara princes, whose ministers were the Peshwas.) From this authority three distinct emigrations of the Guebres, or ancient Persians, are recorded, from Persia into Gujarat. The first in the time of Abu Bakr, A.D. 631; the second on the defeat of Yazdegird, A.D. 651; and the third when the descendants of Abbas began to prevail, A.D. 749. Also that a son of Noshirwan landed near Surat with eighteen thousand of his subjects, from Laristan, and were well received by the prince of the country. Abu-l Fazl confirms this account by saying, "the followers of Zoroaster, when they fled from Persia, settled in Surat," the contracted term for the peninsular of Saurashtra, as well as the city of this name [Āīn, ii. 243].

Footnote 4.3.15:

The names are obliterated in the original. Ferishta [i. Introd. lxxix] informs us that Ramdeo Rathor, sovereign of Kanauj, was made tributary by Firoz ‘Sassan’; and that Partap Chand, who usurped the throne of Ramdeo, neglecting to pay this tribute, Noshirwan marched into India to recover it, and in his progress subdued Kabul and the Panjab. From the striking coincidence of these original and decisive authorities, we may rest assured that they had recourse to ancient records, both of the Guebres and the Hindus, for the basis of their histories, which research may yet discover.

Footnote 4.3.16:

Maurice, emperor of Byzantium. [Sykes (Hist. of Persia, ii. 495) calls the son of Nushirwān Nushishad, and mentions his rebellion against his father. There seems to be no evidence that Nushishad reached India: he was slain after he revolted (Malcolm, Hist. Persia, 2nd ed. i. 112 ff.).]

Footnote 4.3.17:

Din-i-Tarsar. See Ebn Haukal, art. ‘Serir,’ or Russia; whose king, a son of Bahram Chassin, whom he styles a Tersar or Christian, first possessed it about the end of the sixth century.

Footnote 4.3.18:

The Verames of Western historians [Malcolm, op. cit. i. 113].

Footnote 4.3.19:

Khakhan was the title of the kings of Chinese Tartary. It was held by the leader of the Huns, who at this period held power on the Caspian: it was also held by the Urus, Khuzr, Bulgar, Serir, all terms for Russia, before its Kaisar was cut down into Tzar, for the original of which, the kings of Rome, as of Russia, were indebted to the Sanskrit Kesar, a ‘lion’ [Lat. Caesar] (vide Ibn Haukal, art. ‘Khozr’).

Footnote 4.3.20:

Din-i-Majusi; literally, ‘faith of the Magi.’

Footnote 4.3.21:

Muhammad, born A.D. 578; the Hegira, or flight, A.D. 622.

Footnote 4.3.22:

It must be borne in mind that it is the author of the Maasiru-l-Umara, not the rhymer of Aurungabad, who is speaking.

Footnote 4.3.23:

[This is the Persian tradition (Sykes, op. cit. ii. 44).]

Footnote 4.3.24:

For the extract from “The Annals of Princes (Maasiru-l-Umara)” let us laud the memory of the rhymer of Aurungabad. An original copy, which I in vain attempted to procure in India, is stated by Sir William Ouseley to be in the British Museum. We owe that country a large debt, for we have robbed her of all her literary treasures, leaving them to sleep on the shelves of our public institutions. [There is no real evidence of the Persian descent of the Rānas, and it has been suggested that the story is based on the fire symbols on the coinage found in Kāthiawār and Mewār, these, though in the main Indo-Scythic, betraying from about sixth century a more direct Sassanian influence (BG, i. Part i. 102). At the same time recent discoveries indicate Persian influence in N. India.]

Footnote 4.3.25:

Vide Grand Dictionnaire Historique.

Footnote 4.3.26:

[Byzantium cannot have been a Greek colony, the name apparently representing Vijayanta, now Vijayadurga, the southern entrance of the Vāghotan River in Ratnagiri (McCrindle, Ptolemy, 47; BG, i. Part ii. 174 f.).]

Footnote 4.3.27:

It will be recollected that the various authorities given state Raja Suraj (sun), of Kakustha race, to be the father of Siladitya. Kakustha is a term used synonymously with Suryavansa, according to the Solar genealogists. Those who may be inclined to the Persian descent may trace it from Kaikaus, a well-known epithet in the Persian dynasties. I am unacquainted with the etymology of Kakustha; but it may possibly be from ka, ‘of or belonging to,’ Kusa (Cush), the second son of Rama [?]. I have already hinted that the Assyrian Medes might be descendants of Hyaspa, a branch of the Indu-Mede of the family of Yayati which bore the name of Kausika. [The reference in the text may be to Kakutstha, grandson of Ikshwāku, who is said to have taken his name because he stood on the hump (Kukuda) of Indra when he was turned into a bull (Wilson, Vishna Purāna, 361).]

Footnote 4.3.28:

“The moral consequence of a pedigree,” says Hume, “is differently marked by the influence of law and custom. The male sex is deemed more noble than the female. The association of our ideas pursues the regular descent of honour and estates from father to son, and their wives, however essential, are considered only in the light of foreign auxiliaries” (Essays, vol. ii. p. 192). Not unlike the Rajput axiom, though more coarsely expressed; “It is, who planted the tree, not where did it grow,” that marks his idea of the comparative value of the side whence honours originate; though purity of blood in both lines is essential.

Footnote 4.3.29:

A new era had commenced, not of Yazdegird’s accession, as is supposed, which would have been vain indeed, when the throne was tottering under him, but consequent to the completion of the grand cycle of 1440 years. He was slain at Merv in A.D. 651, the 31st of the Hegira; on the eleventh year of which, or A.D. 632 (according to Moreri), he commenced his reign.

Footnote 4.3.30:

Gibbon was wrong. India afforded them an asylum, and their issue constitutes the most wealthy, the most respected, and the most enlightened part of the native community of Bombay and the chief towns of that presidency.

Footnote 4.3.31:

Gibbon, Miscellaneous Works, ‘Sur la Monarchie des Mèdes,’ vol. iii.

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Chapter 4

=Samarsi, Samar Singh.=—Having established Bappa on the throne of Chitor S. 784 (A.D. 728), we will proceed to glean from the annals, from the period of his departure for Iran, S. 820 (A.D. 764) to another halting point—the reign of Samarsi, S. 1249 (A.D. 1193);[4.4.1] an important epoch, not only in the history of Mewar, but to the whole Hindu race; when the diadem of sovereignty was torn from the brow of the Hindu to adorn that of the Tatar. We shall not, however, overleap the four intervening centuries, though we may not be able to fill up the reigns of the eighteen princes[4.4.2] whose “banner at this time was a golden sun on a crimson field,”[4.4.3] and several of whose names yet live recorded “with an iron pen on the rock” of their native abodes.

An intermediate period, from Bappa to Samarsi, that of Sakti Kumar, is fixed by the Aitpur inscription in S. 1024 (A.D. 968); and from the more perishable yet excellent authority of an ancient Jain MS. the era of Allat, the ancestor of Sakti Kumar, was S. 922 (A.D. 866), four generations anterior. From Bappa’s departure for Iran, in A.D. 764, to the subversion of Hindu dominion in the reign of Samarsi, in A.D. 1193, we find recorded an intermediate Islamite invasion. This was during the reign of Khuman, between A.D. 812 and 836, which event forms the chief subject of the Khuman-Raesa, the most ancient of the poetic chronicles of Mewar [241].

As the history of India at this period is totally dark, we gladly take advantage of the lights thus afforded. By combining these facts with what is received as authentic, though scarcely less obscure or more exact than these native legends, we may furnish materials for the future historian. With this view, let us take a rapid sketch of the irruptions of the Arabians into India, from the rise of Islamism to the foundation of the Ghaznivid empire, which sealed the fate of the Hindus. The materials are but scanty. El-Makin, in his history of the Caliphs, passes over such intercourse almost without notice. Abu-l-Fazl, though not diffuse, is minute in what he does say, and we can confide in his veracity. Ferishta has a chapter devoted to this subject, which merits a better translation than yet exists.[4.4.4] We shall, however, in the first place, touch on Bappa’s descendants, till we arrive at the point proper for the introduction of the intended sketch.

Of the twenty-four tribes of Guhilot, several issued from the founder, Bappa. Shortly after the conquest of Chitor, Bappa proceeded to Saurashtra and married the daughter of Yusufgol, prince of the island of Bandardiva.[4.4.5] With his bride he conveyed to Chitor the statue of Vyanmata, the tutelary goddess of her race, who still divides with Eklinga the devotion of the Guhilot princes. The temple in which he enshrined this islandic goddess yet stands on the summit of Chitor, with many other monuments assigned by tradition to Bappa. This princess bore him Aparajit, who from being born in Chitor was nominated successor to the throne, to the exclusion of his less fortunate elder brother, Asil (born of the daughter of the Kaba (Pramara) prince of Kalibao near Dwaraka), who, however, obtained possessions in Saurashtra, and founded a race called the Asila Guhilots,[4.4.6] whose descendants were so numerous, even in Akbar’s reign, as to [242] be supposed able to bring into the field fifty thousand men at arms. We have nothing important to record of the actions of Aparajit, who had two sons, Kalbhoj[4.4.7] and Nandkumar. Kalbhoj succeeded Aparajit, and his warlike qualities are extolled in an inscription discovered by the author in the valley of Nagda. Nandkumar slew Bhimsen Dor (Doda), and possessed himself of Deogarh in the Deccan.

=Khumān I.=—Khuman succeeded Kalbhoj. His name is remarkable in the history of Mewar. He came to the throne at the beginning of the ninth century, when Chitor was assailed by another formidable invasion of Muhammadans. The chief object of the Khuman Raesa is to celebrate the defence made on this occasion, and the value of this Raesa consists in the catalogue of the princes who aided in defending this bulwark of the Hindu faith. The bard, in an animated strain, makes his sovereign on this occasion successfully defend the ‘crimson standard’ of Mewar, treat with contempt the demand for tribute, and after a violent assault, in which the ‘barbarian’ is driven back, follow and discomfit him in the plan, carrying back the hostile leader, Mahmud, captive. With this event, which introduces the name of Mahmud two centuries before the conqueror of Ghazni, we will pause, and resume the promised sketch of the intercourse of Arabia and Hindustan at this period.

=The Muhammadan Invasion, A.D. 644-55.=—The first intimation of the Moslems attempting the invasion of India is during the caliphat of Omar, who built the port of Bassorah at the mouth of the Tigris, chiefly to secure the trade of Gujarat and Sind; into which latter country a powerful army penetrated under Abul Aas,[4.4.8] who was killed in battle at Aror. The Caliph Osman, who succeeded Omar, sent to explore the state of India, while he prepared an army to invade it in person: a design which he never fulfilled. The generals of the Caliph Ali made conquests in Sind, which they abandoned at Ali’s death. While Yazid was governor of Khorasan several attempts were made on India, as also during the caliphat of Abdu-l Malik, but without any lasting [243] results. It was not till the reign of Walid[4.4.9] that any successful invasion took place. He not only finally conquered Sind and the adjoining continent of India, but rendered tributary all that part of India on this side the Ganges.[4.4.10] What an exalted idea must we not form of the energy and rapidity of such conquests, when we find the arms of Islam at once on the Ganges and the Ebro, and two regal dynasties simultaneously cut off, that of Roderic, the last of the Goths of Andaloos, and Dahir Despati in the valley of the Indus. It was in A.H. 99 (A.D. 712, S. 774) that Muhammad bin Kasim vanquished and slew Dahir, prince of Sind, after numerous conflicts. Amongst the spoils of victory sent to the caliph on this occasion were the daughters of the subjugated monarch, who were the cause of Kasim’s destruction,[4.4.11] when he was on the eve of carrying the war against Raja [244] Harchand of Kanauj. Some authorities state that he actually prosecuted it; and as Sind remained a dependency of the caliphat during several successive reigns, the successor of Kasim may have executed his plans. Little is said of India from this period to the reign of Al-Mansur, except in regard to the rebellion of Yazid in Khorasan, and the flight of his son to Sind. The eight sovereigns, who rapidly followed, were too much engaged with the Christians of the west and the Huns on the Caspian to think of India. Their armies were then in the heart of France, which was only saved from the Koran by their overthrow at Tours by Charles Martel.

GUHILOT AND CONTEMPORARY PRINCES[4.4.13]

GUHILOT │ Eras. │ CALIPHS OF │ Eras. │Remarks. PRINCES │ │ │BAGHDAD and │ │ │ │ S │C.E.│ KINGS OF │ A.H. │ A.D. │ │ │ │ GHAZNI. │ │ │ ────────────────┼────┼────┼────────────┼──────────┼───────────┼──────────────────── │ │ │Caliphs of│ │ │ │ │ │ Baghdad. │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Bappa, born│769 │713 │ Walid (7th │ 86 to 96 │705 to 715 │Conquered India to │ │ │ Ummaiya │ │ │the Ganges. │ │ │ Caliph) │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ——— obtained│784 │728 │ Omar II. │99 to 102 │718 to 721 │Sindi conquered. The │ │ │ (9th │ │ │ Chitor│ │ │ do.) │ │ │Mori prince of │ │ │ │ │ │Chitor attacked by │ │ │ │ │ │Muhammad (son of │ │ │ │ │ │Kasim), the General │ │ │ │ │ │of Omar. │ │ │ │ │ │ ——— governs│ │ │Hasham (10th│104 to 125│723 to 742 │Battle of Tours, │ │ │ do.) │ │ │ Mewar│ │ │ │ │ │A.D. 732, and │ │ │ │ │ │defeat of the │ │ │ │ │ │Caliph’s army, │ │ │ │ │ │under Abdulrahman, │ │ │ │ │ │by Charles Martel. │ │ │ │ │ │ ——— abandons│820 │764 │ Al-Mansur │136 to 158│754 to 775 │Final conquest of │ │ │ Abbasi │ │ │ Chitor│ │ │ (2nd do.) │ │ │Sind, and the name │ │ │ │ │ │of its capital, │ │ │ │ │ │Aror, changed to │ │ │ │ │ │Mansura. Bappa, │ │ │ │ │ │founder of the │ │ │ │ │ │Guhilot race in │ │ │ │ │ │Mewar, retires to │ │ │ │ │ │Iran. │ │ │ │ │ │ Aparajit, │ │ │ Harunu-r- │170 to 193│786 to 809 │Partition of the Kalbhoj │ │ │rashid (5th │ │ │caliphat amongst │ │ │ do.) │ │ │Harun’s sons. The │ │ │ │ │ │second, Al-Mamun, │ │ │ │ │ │obtains Zabulistan, │ │ │ │ │ │Sind, and India, │ │ │ │ │ │and ruled them till │ │ │ │ │ │A.D. 813, when he │ │ │ │ │ │became Caliph. │ │ │ │ │ │ Khuman │868 │812 │ Al-Mamun │198 to 218│813 to 833 │Invasion and attack │ │ │ (7th │ │ │ │ to │ to │ do.) │ │ │on Chitor from │892 │836 │ │ │ │Zabulistan. │ │ │ │ │ │ Bhartaribhat. │ │ │ │ │ │ Singhji. │ │ │ │ │ │ Allat. │ │ │ │ │ │ Narabahan. │ │ │ Kings of │ │ │ │ │ │ Ghazni. │ │ │ Salivahan. │ │ │ │ │ │ Sakti Kumar │1024│968 │ Alptigin │ 350 │ 957 │Inscription of │ │ │ │ │ │Sakti-kumar from │ │ │ │ │ │ruins of Aitpur. │ │ │ │ │ │ Amba Pasao. │ │ │ │ │ │ Naravarman │ │ │ Sabuktigin │ 367 │ 977 │Invasion of India. Jasuvarman [or │ │ │ Mahmud │387 to 418│997 to 1027│Invasions of India, Kirtivarman] │ │ │ │ │ │destruction of │ │ │ │ │ │Aitpur. ────────────────┴────┴────┴────────────┴──────────┴───────────┴────────────────────

Al-Mansur, when only the lieutenant of the Caliph Abbas, held the government of Sind and of India, and made the island of Bakhar on the Indus, and the adjacent Aror,[4.4.14] the ancient capital, his residence, naming it Mansura; and it was during his government that Bappa Rawal abandoned Chitor for Iran.

The celebrated Harunu-r-rashid, contemporary of Charlemagne, in apportioning his immense empire amongst his sons, gave to the second, Al-Mamun, Khorasan, Zabulistan, Kabulistan, Sind, and Hindustan.[4.4.15] Al-Mamun, on the death of Harun, deposed his brother, and became caliph in A.H. 198 or A.D. 813, and ruled to 833, the exact period of the reign of Khuman, prince of Chitor. The domestic history brings the enemy assailant of Chitor from Zabulistan; and as the leader’s name is given Mahmud Khorasan Pat, there can be little doubt that it is an error arising from ignorance of the copyist, and should be Mamun.

=Mahmūd’s Invasion.=—Within twenty years after this event, the sword of conquest and conversion was withdrawn from India, and Sind was the only province left to Mutawakkil (A.D. 850 [847-861]), the grandson of Harun, for a century after whom the throne of Baghdad, like that of ancient Rome, was sold by her praetorians to the highest bidder. From this time we find no mention whatever of Hindustan, or even of Sind, until Sabuktigin,[4.4.16] governor of Khorasan, hoisted the standard of independent sovereignty at Ghazni. In A.H. 365 (A.D. 974) he carried his arms [245] across the Indus, forcing the inhabitants to abandon the religion of their ancestors, and to read the Koran from the altars of Bal and Krishna. Towards the close of this century he made his last invasion, accompanied by his son, the celebrated Mahmud, destined to be the scourge of the Hindu race, who early imbibed the paternal lesson inculcating the extirpation of infidels. Twelve several visitations did Mahmud make with his Tatar hordes, sweeping India of her riches, destroying her temples and architectural remains, and leaving the country plunged in poverty and ignorance. From the effect of these incursions she never recovered; for though she had a respite of a century between Mahmud and the final conquest, it was too short to repair what it had cost ages to rear: the temples of Somnath, of Chitor, and Girnar are but types of the magnificence of past times. The memorial of Sakti Kumar proves him to have been the contemporary of Sabuktigin, and to one of his son’s visitations is attributed the destruction of the ‘city of the sun’ (Aitpur),[4.4.17] his capital.

=Attack on Chitor.=—Having thus condensed the little information afforded by Muhammadan historians of the connexion between the caliphs of Baghdad and princes of Hind, from the first to the end of the fourth century of the Hegira, we shall revert to the first recorded attack on the Mori prince of Chitor, which brought Bappa into notice. This was either by Yazid or Muhammad bin Kasim from Sind.[4.4.18] Though in the histories of the caliphs we can only expect to find recorded those expeditions which were successful, or had some lasting results, there are inroads of their revolted lieutenants or their frontier deputies, which frequently, though indistinctly, alluded to in Hindu annals, have no place in Muhammadan records. Throughout the period mentioned there was a stir amongst the Hindu nations, in which we find confusion and dethronement from an unknown invader, who is described as coming sometimes by Sind, sometimes by sea, and not unfrequently as a demon and magician; but invariably as mlechchha, or ‘barbarian.’[4.4.19] From S. 750 to S. 780 (A.D. 694 to [246] 724), the annals of the Yadus, the Chauhans, the Chawaras, and the Guhilots, bear evidence to simultaneous convulsions in their respective houses at this period. In S. 750 (A.H. 75) the Yadu Bhatti was driven from his capital Salpura in the Panjab, across the Sutlej into the Indian desert; the invader named Farid. At the same period Manika Rae, the Chauhan prince of Ajmer, was assailed and slain.[4.4.20]

=The Muster of the Clans.=—The first of the Khichi princes who occupied the Duab of Sindsagar in the Panjab, as well as the ancestor of the Haras established in Golkonda, was expelled at the same time. The invader is treated in the genuine Hindu style as a Danava, or demon, and is named Ghairaram[4.4.21] (i.e. restless), from Kujliban,[4.4.22] a term geographically given to a portion of the Himalaya mountains about the glaciers of the Ganges. The ancestor of the founder of Patan was expelled from his petty islandic dominion on the coast of Saurashtra at the same time. This is the period when Yazid was the caliph’s lieutenant in Khorasan, and when the arms of Walid conquered to the Ganges; nor is there a doubt that Yazid or Kasim was the author of all these revolutions in the Hindu dynasties. We are supported in this by the names of the princes contained in the catalogue who aided to defend Chitor and the Mori prince on this occasion. It is evident that Chitor was, alternately with Ujjain, the seat of sovereignty of the Pramara at this period, and, as it became the rallying point of the Hindus, that this race was the first in consequence.[4.4.23] We find the prince of Ajmer, and the quotas of Saurashtra and Gujarat [247]; Angatsi, lord of the Huns; Busa, the lord of the North; Sheo, the prince of the Jarejas; the Johya, lord of Jangaldes; the Aswaria, the Sepat, the Kulhar, the Malan, the Ohir, the Hul, and many others, having nothing of the Hindu in name, now extinct. But the most conspicuous is ‘Dahir Despati from Debal.’ This is erroneously written Delhi, the seat of the Tuars; whereas we recognize the name of the prince of Sind, slain by Kasim, whose expatriated son doubtless found refuge in Chitor.[4.4.24]

=The Defeat of the Enemy.=—This attack on the Mori prince was defeated chiefly through the bravery of the youthful Guhilot. The foe from Kujliban, though stated to have advanced by Mathura, retreated by Saurashtra and Sind, pursued by Bappa. He found the ancient seat of his ancestors, Gajni,[4.4.25] still in the possession of the ‘Asur’: a term as well as mlechchha, or ‘barbarian,’ always given to the Islamite at this period. Salim, who held Gajni, was attacked and forced to surrender, and Bappa inducted into this stronghold of his ancestors a nephew of his own. It is no less singular than honourable to their veracity that the annals should record the fact, so contrary to their religion, of Bappa having married the daughter of the conquered Salim; and we have a right to infer that it was from the influence acquired by this union that he ultimately abandoned the sovereignty of Mewar and the title of ‘Hindua Suraj’ to become the founder of the ‘one hundred and thirty tribes of Naushahra [248] Pathans’ of the west. It is fair to conclude from all these notices regarding the founder of the Guhilot race in Chitor that he must have abjured his faith for that of Islam; and it is probable (though the surmise must ever remain unproved) that, under some new title applicable to such change, we may have, in one of the early distinguished leaders of ‘the Faith,’ the ancestor of the Guhilots.

=Khumān II.=—Let us now proceed to the next irruption of the Islamite invaders in the reign of Khuman, from A.D. 812 to 836. Though the leader of this attack is styled ‘Mahmud Khorasan Pat,’ it is evident from the catalogue of Hindu princes who came to defend Chitor that this ‘lord of Khorasan’ was at least two centuries before the son of Sabuktigin; and as the period is in perfect accordance with the partition of the caliphat by Harun amongst his sons, we can have no hesitation in assigning such invasion to Mamun, to whose share was allotted Khorasan, Sind, and the Indian dependencies. The records of this period are too scanty to admit of our passing over in silence even a barren catalogue of names, which, as texts, with the aid of collateral information, may prove of some benefit to the future antiquarian and historian.

"From Gajni came the Guhilot; the Tak from Asir; from Narlai the Chauhan; the Chalukya from Rahargarh; from Setubandha the Jarkhera; from Mandor the Khairavi; from Mangrol the Makwahana; from Jethgarh the Joria; from Taragarh the Rewar; the Kachhwaha from Narwar; from Sanchor the Kalam; from Junagarh the Dasanoh; from Ajmer the Gaur; from Lohadargarh the Chandano; from Dasaundi the Dor; from Delhi the Tuar; from Patan the Chawara, preserver of royalty (Rajdhar); from Jalor the Sonigira; from Sirohi the Deora; from Gagraun the Khichi; the Jadon from Junagarh; the Jhala from Patri; from Kanauj the Rathor; from Chotiala the Bala; from Piramgarh the Gohil; from Jaisalgarh the Bhatti; the Busa from Lahore; the Sankhla from Roneja; the Sehat from Kherligarh; from Mandalgarh the Nikumbha; the Bargujar from Rajor; from Karangarh the Chandel; from Sikar the Sikarwal; from Umargarh the Jethwa; from Pali the Bargota; from Khantargarh the Jareja; from Jirga the Kherwar; from Kashmir the Parihara."

Of the Guhilot from Gajni we have said enough; nor shall we comment on the Tak, or his capital, Asir, which now belongs to the British Government. The Chauhan, who came from Narlai, was a celebrated branch of the Ajmer [249] house, and claims the honour of being the parent of the Sonigiras of Jalor and the Deoras of Sirohi. Nadol is mentioned by Ferishta as falling a prey to one of Mahmud’s invasions, who destroyed its ancient temples; but from erroneous punctuation it is lost in the translation as Bazule.[4.4.26] Of Rahargarh and the Jarkhera from Setubandha (on the Malabar coast) nothing is known.[4.4.27] Of the Khairavi from Mandor we can only say that it appears to be a branch of the Pramaras (who reckoned Mandor one of the nine strongholds, ‘Nau-kot,’ under its dominion), established anterior to the Pariharas, who at this period had sovereignty in Kashmir. Both the Dor and his capital, Dasaundi, are described in ancient books as situated on the Ganges below Kanauj.

It is a subject of regret that the annals do not mention the name of the Tuar prince of Delhi, which city could not have been refounded above a century when this call was made upon its aid. Abu-l Fazl, Ferishta, their translators, and those who have followed them have been corrected by the Edinburgh Review, whose critical judgment on this portion of ancient history is eminently good. I possess the original Hindu record used by Abu-l Fazl, which gives S. 829 for the first Anangpal instead of S. 429; and as there were but nineteen princes who intervened until his dynasty was set aside by the Chauhan, it requires no argument to support the four instead of eight centuries. The former will give the just average of twenty-one years to a reign. The name of Anangpal was titular in the family, and the epithet was applied to the last as to the first of the race.

The name of the Chawara prince of Patan (Anhilwara) being recorded amongst the auxiliaries of Khuman, is another satisfactory proof of the antiquity of this invasion; for this dynasty was extinct, and succeeded by the Solankis, in S. 998 (A.D. 942), fifty years prior to Mahmud of Ghazni, who captured Patan during the reign of Chawand, the second Solanki prince.[4.4.28]

The Sonigira, who came from Jalor, is a celebrated branch of the Chauhan race, but we are ignorant of the extent of time that it held this fortress: and as nothing can invalidate the testimonies afforded by the names of the Chawara of [250] Patan, the Kachhwaha of Narwar, the Tuar of Delhi, and the Rathor from Kanauj, there can be no hesitation at pointing out the anachronisms of the chronicle, which states the Deora from Sirohi, the Khichi from Gagraun, or the Bhatti from Jaisalgarh, amongst the levies on this occasion; and which we must affirm to be decided interpolations, the two first being at that period in possession of the Pramara, and the latter not erected for three centuries later. That the Deoras, the Khichis, and the Bhattis came to the aid of Khuman, we cannot doubt; but the copyist, ignorant even of the names of the ancient capitals of these tribes, Chhotan, Sindsagar, and Tanot, substituted those which they subsequently founded.

The Jadon (Yadu) from Junagarh (Girnar) was of the race of Krishna, and appeared long to have held possession of this territory; and the names of the Khengars, of this tribe, will remain as long as the stupendous monuments they reared on this sacred hill. Besides the Jadon, we find Saurashtra sending forth the Jhalas, the Balas, and the Gohils to the aid of the descendant of the lord of Valabhipura, whose paramount authority they once all acknowledged, and who appeared to have long maintained influence in that distant region.

Of the tribe of Busa, who left their capital, Lahore, to succour Chitor, we have no mention, further than the name being enumerated amongst the unassigned tribes of Rajputs.[4.4.29] Ferishta frequently notices the princes of Lahore in the early progress of Islamism, though he does not tell us the name of the tribe. In the reign of the caliph Al-Mansur, A.H. 143 (A.D. 761), the Afghans of Kirman and Peshawar, who, according to this authority, were a Coptic colony expelled from Egypt,[4.4.30] had increased in such numbers as to abandon their residence about the ‘hill of Sulaiman,’ and crossing the Indus, wrested possessions from the Hindu princes of Lahore. This frontier warfare with a tribe which, though it had certainly not then embraced the faith of Islam, brought to their succour the forces of the caliph in Zabulistan, so that in five months seventy battles were fought with varied success; but the last, in which the Lahore prince carried his arms to Peshawar,[4.4.31] produced a peace. Hence arose a union of interests between them and the hill tribe of Gakkhar, and all the Kohistan west of the Indus was ceded to them [251] on the condition of guarding this barrier into Hindustan against invasion. For this purpose the fortress of Khaibar was erected in the chief pass of the Koh-i-Daman. For two centuries after this event Ferishta is silent on this frontier warfare, stating that henceforth Hindustan was only accessible through Sind. When Aliptigin first crossed the Indus, the prince of Lahore and the Afghans still maintained this alliance and united to oppose him. Jaipal was then prince of Lahore; and it is on this event that Ferishta, for the first time, mentions the tribe of Bhatti,[4.4.32] “at the advice of whose prince he conferred the command of the united forces on an Afghan chief,” to whom he assigned the provinces of Multan and Lamghan. From this junction of interests the princes of Lahore enjoyed comparative security, until Sabuktigin and Mahmud compelled the Afghans to serve them: then Lahore was captured. The territory dependent upon Lahore, at this period, extended from Sirhind to Lamghan, and from Kashmir to Multan. Bhatinda divided with Lahore the residence of its princes. Their first encounter was at Lingham, on which occasion young Mahmud first distinguished himself, and as the historian says, “the eyes of the heavens were obscured at seeing his deeds.”[4.4.33] A tributary engagement was the result, which Jaipal soon broke; and being aided by levies from all the princes of Hindustan, marched an army of one hundred thousand men against Sabuktigin, and was again defeated on the banks of the Indus. He was at length invested and taken in Bhatinda by Mahmud, when he put himself to death.[4.4.34] The successors of Jaipal are mentioned merely as fugitives, and always distinct from the princes of Delhi. It is most probable that they were of the tribe termed Busa in the annals of Mewar, possibly a subdivision of another; though Ferishta calls the prince of Lahore a Brahman.

The Sankhla from Roneja. Both tribe and abode are well known: it is a subdivision of the Pramara. Harbuji Sankhla was the Paladin of Marwar, in which Roneja was situated.

The Sehat from Kherligarh was a northern tribe, dwelling about the Indus, and though entirely unknown to the modern genealogists of India, is frequently mentioned in the early history of the Bhattis, when their possessions extended on both sides of the Hyphasis. As intermarriages between the Bhattis and Sehats are [252] often spoken of, it must have been Rajput. It most probably occupied the province of Swat, the Suvat of D’Anville, a division of the province of Ashthanagar, where dwelt the Assakenoi of Alexander; concerning which this celebrated geographer says, “Il est mention de Suvat comme d’un canton du pays d’Ash-nagar dans la même géographie turque” (Ecl. p. 25). The whole of this ground was sacred to the Jadon tribe from the most remote antiquity, from Multan, the hills of Jud, to Aswinikot (the Tshehin-kote of D’Anville), which, built on the point of confluence of the Choaspes of the Greeks with the Indus, marks the spot where dwelt the Assakenoi, corroborated by the Puranas, which mention the partition of all these territories amongst the sons of Bajaswa, the lord of Kampilnagara, the grand subdivision of the Yadu race. In all likelihood the Sehat, who came to the aid of Khuman of Chitor, was a branch of these Assakenoi, the opponents of Alexander.[4.4.35] The modern town of Dinkot appears to occupy the site of Aswinikot, though D’Anville feels inclined to carry it into the heart of Bajaur and place it on the rock (silla) Aornos.[4.4.36] Such the Sehat; not improbably the Soha, one of the eight subdivisions of the Yadu.[4.4.37] When, in S. 785, the Bhatti chief Rao Tanu was driven across the Sutlej, the Sehats are mentioned with other tribes as forming the army of Husain Shah, with the Barahas, the Judis, and Johyas (the Juds and Jinjohyas of Babur), the Butas, and the ‘men of Dud.’

The Chandel, from Karangarh, occupied the tracts now termed Bundelkhand.

We shall pass over the other auxiliary tribes and conclude with the Parihar, who came from Kashmir on this occasion; a circumstance entirely overlooked in the dissertation on this tribe;[4.4.38] nor does this isolated fact afford room for further discussion on a race which expelled the Pramaras from Mandor.

Such aids, who preserved Khuman when assailed by the ‘Khorasan Pat,’ fully demonstrate the antiquity of the annals, which is further attested by inscriptions. Khuman fought twenty-four great battles, and his name, like that of Caesar, became a family distinction. At Udaipur, if you make a false step, or even sneeze, you hear the ejaculation of ‘Khuman aid you!’ Khuman, by the advice of the Brahmans, resigned the gaddi to his younger son, Jograj; but again resumed [253] it, slaying his advisers and execrating the name of Brahman, which he almost exterminated in his own dominions. Khuman was at length slain by his own son, Mangal; but the chiefs expelled the parricide, who seized upon Lodorwa in the northern desert, and there established the Mangalia Guhilots.

=Bhartribhat III.=—Bhartribhat (familiarly Bhato) succeeded. In his reign, and in that of his successor, the territory dependent on Chitor was greatly increased. All the forest tribes, from the banks of the Mahi to Abu, were subjugated, and strongholds erected, of which Dharangarh and Ujargarh still remain to maintain them. He established no less than thirteen[4.4.39] of his sons in independent possessions in Malwa and Gujarat, and these were distinguished as the Bhatera Guhilots.

We shall now leap over fifteen generations; which, though affording a few interesting facts to the antiquary, would not amuse the general reader. We will rest satisfied with stating that the Chauhans of Ajmer and the Guhilots of Chitor were alternately friends and foes; that Durlabh Chauhan was slain by Bersi Rawal in a grand battle fought at Kawaria, of which the Chauhan annals state ‘that their princes were now so powerful as to oppose the chief of Chitor.’ Again, in the next reign, we find the renowned Bisaldeo, son of Durlabh, combining with Rawal Tejsi of Chitor to oppose the progress of Islamite invasion: facts recorded by inscriptions as well as by the annals. We may close these remarks on the fifteen princes, from Khuman to Samarsi, with the words of Gibbon on the dark period of Guelphic annals: “It may be presumed that they were illiterate and valiant; that they plundered in their youth, and reared churches in their old age; that they were fond of arms, horses, and hunting”; and, we may add, continued bickering with their vassals within when left unemployed by the enemy from without [254].

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Footnote 4.4.1:

[“We now know that Samar Singh was alive up to 1299, only four years before Alāu-d-dīn’s siege of Chitor, and that in several inscriptions his dates are given as 1273, 1274, 1285, etc.... Instead of being the father of Karan Singh I., as stated by Tod, Samar Singh came eight generations after him, and was the father of Ratan Singh I., who, according to Muhammadan historians, was the ruler of Chitor during the reign of Alāu-d-dīn, and the husband of Padmini” (Erskine ii. A. 14 f.)]

Footnote 4.4.2:

See Genealogical Table.

Footnote 4.4.3:

This, according to the roll, was the standard of Bappa.

Footnote 4.4.4:

Amongst the passages which Dow [i. 37] has slurred over in his translation is the interesting account of the origin of the Afghans; who, when they first came in contact with those of the new faith, in A.H. 62, dwelt around the Koh-i-Sulaiman. Ferishta, quoting authority, says: "The Afghans were Copts, ruled by Pharaun, many of whom were converted to the laws and religion of Moses; but others, who were stubborn in their worship to their gods, fled towards Hindustan, and took possession of the country adjoining the Koh-i-Sulaiman. They were visited by Kasim from Sind, and in the 143rd year of the Hegira had possessed themselves of the provinces of Kirman, Peshawar, and all within their bounds (sinoran)," which Dow has converted into a province. The whole geographical description of the Kohistan, the etymology of the term Rohilla, and other important matter, is omitted by him [see Briggs, trans. i. 6 f.].

Footnote 4.4.5:

[The island Diu.] Yūsufgol is stated to have held Chaul on the mainland. He was most probably the father of Vanaraja Chawara, the founder of Patan Anhilwara, whose ancestors, on the authority of the Kumarpal Charitra, were princes of Bandardiva, held by the Portuguese since the time of Albuquerque, who changed its name to Deo. [But Yūsufgol, if he existed, must have been a Musalmān. Vanarāja Chāwara was son of Jayasekhara, said to have been slain in battle, A.D. 696, leaving his wife pregnant (BG, i. Part i. 150 f.). Yūsufgol does not appear in the local history.]

Footnote 4.4.6:

The ancient roll from which this is taken mentions Asil giving his name to a fortress, called Asilgarh. His son, Bijai Pal, was slain in attempting to wrest Khambayat (Cambay) from Sangram Dabhi. One of his wives, from a violent death, was prematurely delivered of a boy, called Setu; and as, in such cases, the Hindu supposes the deceased to become a discontented spirit (churail), Churaila became the name of the tribe. Bija, the twelfth from Asil, obtained Sonal from his maternal uncle, Khengar Dabhi, prince of Girnar, but was slain by Jai Singh Deo, prince of Surat. From these names compounded, Dabi and Churaila, we may have the Dabisalima of Mahmud. [The Asil Guhilots are now included in the Mers of the Kāthiawār coast; their numbers are exaggerated in the text (Āīn, ii. 247; BG, ix. Parti. 126).] [See p. 266 above.]

Footnote 4.4.7:

Also called Karna. He it was who excavated the Boraila lake, and erected the grand temple of Eklinga on the site of the hermitage of Harita, whose descendant, the present officiating priest, reckons sixty-six descents, while the princes of Mewar amount to seventy-two in the same period.

Footnote 4.4.8:

[Ferishta (i. 2) calls him Sayyid bin Abiu-l-Aas.]

Footnote 4.4.9:

See Table next page.

Footnote 4.4.10:

Marigny (quoting El-Makin), Hist. of the Arabians, vol. ii. p. 283; Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. ii. p. 47.

Footnote 4.4.11:

“The two young princesses, in order to revenge the death of their father, represented falsely to the Khalif that Muhammad bin Kasim had been connected with them. The Khalif, in a rage, gave order for Muhammad bin Kasim to be sewed up in a raw hide, and sent in that condition to court. When the mandate arrived at Tatta, Kasim was prepared to carry an expedition against Harchand, monarch of Kanauj. When he arrived at court, the Khalif showed him to the daughters of Dahir, who expressed their joy upon beholding their father’s murderer in such a condition” [Āīn, ii. 345; Elliot-Dowson i. 209 f.].

Footnote 4.4.13:

[The Mewār dates are quite untrustworthy (see Erskine iii. B. 8 f.).]

Footnote 4.4.14:

Aror is seven miles east of Bakhar.

Footnote 4.4.15:

Marigny, vol. iii. p. 83; Univ. Hist. vol. ii. p. 162.

Footnote 4.4.16:

His father’s name was Aliptigin, termed a slave by Ferishta and his authorities; though El-Makin gives him an ancestor in Yazdegird. [He was a slave (Elliot-Dowson iv. 159).]

Footnote 4.4.17:

Ait, contracted from Aditya: hence Itwar, ‘Sunday.’

Footnote 4.4.18:

[This is not corroborated by Musulmān authorities.]

Footnote 4.4.19:

Even from the puerilities of Hindu legends something may be extracted. A mendicant dervesh, called Roshan Ali (i.e. the ‘light of Ali’), had found his way to Garh Bitli (the ancient name of the Ajmer fortress), and having thrust his hand into a vessel of curds destined for the Raja, had his finger cut off. The disjointed member flew to Mecca, and was recognized as belonging to the saint. An army was equipped in the disguise of horse-merchants, which invaded Ajmer, whose prince was slain. May we not gather from this incident that an insult to the first Islamite missionary, in the person of Roshan Ali, brought upon the prince the arms of the Caliph? The same Chauhan legends state that Ajaipal was prince of Ajmer at this time; that in this invasion by sea he hastened to Anjar (on the coast of Cutch), where he held the ‘guard of the ocean’ (Samudra ki Chauki), where he fell in opposing the landing. An altar was erected on the spot, on which was sculptured the figure of the prince on horseback, with his lance at rest, and which still annually attracts multitudes at the ‘fair (Mela) of Ajaipal.’ The subsequent invasion alluded to in the text, of S. 750 (A.D. 694), is marked by a curious anecdote. When the ‘Asurs’ had blockaded Ajmer, Lot, the infant son of Manika Rae, was playing on the battlements, when an arrow from the foe killed the heir of Ajmer, who has ever since been worshipped amongst the lares and penates of the Chauhans; and as he had on a silver chain anklet at the time, this ornament is forbid to the children of the race. In all these Rajput families there is a putra (adolescens) amongst the penates, always one who has come to an untimely end, and chiefly worshipped by females; having a strong resemblance to the rites in honour of Adonis. We have traced several Roman and Grecian terms to Sanskrit origin; may we add that of lares, from larla, ‘dear’ or ‘beloved’? [?].

Footnote 4.4.20:

[The story is “puerile and fictitious: independent of which the Arabs had quite enough to do nearer home” (Elliot-Dowson i. 426).]

Footnote 4.4.21:

[Persian: not a likely name.]

Footnote 4.4.22:

Signifying ‘Elephant forests,’ and described in a Hindu map (stamped on cloth and painted) of India from Kujliban to Lanka, and the provinces west of the Indus to Calcutta; presented by me to the Royal Asiatic Society.

Footnote 4.4.23:

The list of the vassal princes at the court of the Mori confirms the statement of the bard Chand, of the supremacy of Ram Pramara, and the partition of his dominion, as described (see p. 63, note) amongst the princes who founded separate dynasties at this period; hitherto in vassalage or subordinate to the Pramara. We can scarcely suppose the family to have suffered any decay since their ancestor, Chandragupta, connected by marriage with as well as the ally of the Grecian Seleucus, and who held Greeks in his pay. From such connexion, the arts of sculpture and architecture may have derived a character hitherto unnoticed. Amidst the ruins of Barolli are seen sculptured the Grecian helmet; and the elegant ornament, the Kumbha, or ‘vessel of desire,’ on the temple of Annapurna (i.e. ‘giver of food’), the Hindu Ceres, has much affinity to the Grecian device. From the inscription (see No. 2) it is evident that Chitor was an appanage of Ujjain, the seat of Pramar empire. Its monarch, Chandragupta (Mori [Maurya]), degraded into the barber (Maurya) tribe, was the descendant of Srenika, prince of Rajagriha, who, according to the Jain work, Kalpadruma Kalka, flourished in the year 477 before Vikramaditya, and from whom Chandragupta was the thirteenth in descent. The names as follows: Kanika, Udsen, and nine in succession of the name of Nanda, thence called the Nau-nanda. These, at twenty-two years to a reign (see p. 64), would give 286 years, which -477 = 191 s.v. + 56 = 247 A.C. Now it was in A.C. 260, according to Bayer, that the treaty was formed between Seleucus and Chandragupta; so that this scrap of Jain history may be regarded as authentic and valuable. Asoka (a name of weight in Jain annals) succeeded Chandragupta. He by Kunala, whose son was Samprati, with whose name ends the line of Srenika, according to the authority from which I made the extract. The name of Samprati is well known from Ajmer to Saurashtra, and his era is given in a valuable chronogrammatic catalogue in an ancient Jain manuscript from the temple of Nadol, at 202 of the Virat Samvat. He is mentioned both traditionally and by books as the great supporter of the Jain faith, and the remains of temples dedicated to Mahavira, erected by this prince, yet exist at Ajmer, on Abu, Kumbhalmer, and Girnar. [Much of this needs correction, which cannot be done in the limits of a note. For the Nanda dynasty see Smith, EHI, 40, and for Chandragupta Maurya and Asoka, 115 ff.]

Footnote 4.4.24:

[This and the second catalogue are fictions. They conflict with the conditions then existing in Gujarāt, and such motley arrays are a favourite bardic theme (Forbes, Rāsmāla, 31, note; ASR, ii. 379).]

Footnote 4.4.25:

It has already been stated that the ancient name of Cambay was Gaini or Gajni, whose ruins are three miles from the present city [see p. 254 above]. There is also a Gajni on the estuary of the Mahi, and Abu-l Fazl incidentally mentions a Gajnagar as one of the most important fortresses of Gujarat, belonging to Ahmad Shah; in attempting to obtain which by stratagem, his antagonist, Hoshang, king of Malwa, was made prisoner. I am unaware of the site of this place, though there are remains of an extensive fortress near the capital, founded by Ahmad, and which preserves no name. It may be the ancient Gajnagar. [The Author confuses the place in Gujarāt with Jājnagar or Jājpur in Orissa, captured through a stratagem by Hoshang (Āīn, ii. 219; Ferishta iv. 178; BG, i. Part i. 359).]

Footnote 4.4.26:

I presented to the Royal Asiatic Society two inscriptions from Nadol, one dated S. 1024, the other 1039. They are of Prince Lakha, and state as instances of his power that he collected the transit duties at the further barrier of Patan, and levied tribute from the prince of Chitor. He was the contemporary of Mahmud, who devastated Nadol. I also discovered inscriptions of the twelfth century relative to this celebrated Chauhan family, in passing from Udaipur to Jodhpur. [Dow (i. 170) writes “Tilli and Buzule”; Briggs (i. 196) has “Baly and Nadole”; Elliot-Dowson (ii. 229) writes “Pāli and Nandūl,” the differences being due to misreading of the Arabic script.]

Footnote 4.4.27:

[Setubandha is the causeway made by Rāma to Lanka or Ceylon (IGI, v. 81).]

Footnote 4.4.28:

[Chāmunda reigned A.D. 997-1010; Anhilwāra was captured under Bhīma I. (1022-64).]

Footnote 4.4.29:

See p. 144.

Footnote 4.4.30:

[Ferishta i. 6.]

Footnote 4.4.31:

The scene of action was between Peshawar and Kirman, the latter lying ninety miles south-west of the former.

Footnote 4.4.32:

Dow omits this in his translation [see Briggs i. Introd. 9, i. 16].

Footnote 4.4.33:

The sense of this passage has been quite perverted by Dow [see Briggs i. 16].

Footnote 4.4.34:

[See Smith, EHI, 382.]

Footnote 4.4.35:

[The capital of the Assakenoi was Massaga, near the Malakand Pass (Smith, EHI, 54; McCrindle, Alexander, 334 f.).]

Footnote 4.4.36:

[For the site see Smith, EHI, 56, note 2.]

Footnote 4.4.37:

See p. 104.

Footnote 4.4.38:

See p. 119 f.

Footnote 4.4.39:

By name, Kulanagar, Champaner, Choreta, Bhojpur, Lunara, Nimthor, Sodara, Jodhgarh, Sandpur, Aitpur, and Gangabheva. The remaining two are not mentioned.

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Chapter 5

Although the whole of this chain of ancestry, from Kanaksen in the second, Vijaya the founder of Valabhi in the fourth, to Samarsi in the thirteenth century, cannot be discriminated with perfect accuracy, we may affirm, to borrow a metaphor, that “the two extremities of it are riveted in truth”: and some links have at intervals been recognized as equally valid. We will now extend the chain to the nineteenth century.

=Samar Singh, Samarsi: The Tuars of Delhi.=—Samarsi was born in S. 1206.[4.5.1] Though the domestic annals are not silent on his acts, we shall recur chiefly to the bard of Delhi[4.5.2] for his character and actions, and the history of the period. Before we proceed, however, a sketch of the political condition of Hindustan during the last of the Tuar sovereigns of Delhi, derived from this authority and in the bard’s own words, may not be unacceptable. "In Patan is Bhola Bhim the Chalukya, of iron frame.[4.5.3] On the mountain Abu, Jeth Pramara, in battle immovable as the star of the north. In Mewar is Samar Singh, who takes tribute from the mighty, a wave of iron in the path of Delhi’s foe. In the midst of all, strong in his own strength, Mandor’s prince, the arrogant Nahar Rao, the might of Maru, fearing none. In Delhi the chief of all [255] Ananga, at whose summons attended the princes of Mandor, Nagor, Sind, Jalwat,[4.5.4] and others on its confines, Peshawar, Lahore, Kangra, and its mountain chiefs, with Kasi,[4.5.5] Prayag,[4.5.6] and Garh Deogir. The lords of Simar[4.5.7] were in constant danger of his power." The Bhatti, since their expulsion from Zabulistan, had successively occupied as capitals, Salivahanapur in the Panjab, Tanot, Derawar, which last they founded, and the ancient Lodorwa, which they conquered in the desert; and at the period in question were constructing their present residence, Jaisalmer. In this nook they had been fighting for centuries with the lieutenants of the Caliph at Aror, occasionally redeeming their ancient possessions as far as the city of the Tak on the Indus. Their situation gave them little political interest in the affairs of Hindustan until the period of Prithiraj, one of whose principal leaders, Achales, was the brother of the Bhatti prince. Anangpal, from this description, was justly entitled to be termed the paramount sovereign of Hindustan; but he was the last of a dynasty of nineteen princes, who had occupied Delhi nearly four hundred years, from the time of the founder Bilan Deo, who, according to a manuscript in the author’s possession, was only an opulent Thakur when he assumed the ensigns of royalty in the then deserted Indraprastha, taking the name of Anangpal,[4.5.8] ever after titular in the family. The Chauhans of Ajmer owed at least homage to Delhi at this time, although Bisaldeo had rendered it almost nominal; and to Someswar, the fourth in descent, Anangpal was indebted for the preservation of this supremacy against the attempts of Kanauj, for which service he obtained the Tuar’s daughter in marriage, the issue of which was Prithiraj, who when only eight years of age was proclaimed successor to the Delhi throne.

=Prithiraj.=—Jaichand of Kanauj and Prithiraj bore the same relative situation to Anangpal; Bijaipal, the father of the former, as well as Someswar, having had a daughter of the Tuar to wife. This originated the rivalry between the Chauhans and Rathors, which ended in the destruction of both. When Prithiraj mounted the throne of Delhi, Jaichand not only refused to acknowledge his supremacy, but set forth his own claims to this distinction. In these he was supported by the prince of Patan [256] Anhilwara (the eternal foe of the Chauhans), and likewise by the Parihars of Mandor. But the affront given by the latter, in refusing to fulfil the contract of bestowing his daughter on the young Chauhan, brought on a warfare, in which this first essay was but the presage of his future fame. Kanauj and Patan had recourse to the dangerous expedient of entertaining bands of Tatars, through whom the sovereign of Ghazni was enabled to take advantage of their internal broils.

Samarsi, prince of Chitor, had married the sister of Prithiraj, and their personal characters, as well as this tie, bound them to each other throughout all these commotions, until the last fatal battle on the Ghaggar. From these feuds Hindustan never was free. But unrelenting enmity was not a part of their character: having displayed the valour of the tribe, the bard or Nestor of the day would step in, and a marriage would conciliate and maintain in friendship such foes for two generations. From time immemorial such has been the political state of India, as represented by their own epics, or in Arabian or Persian histories: thus always the prey of foreigners, and destined to remain so. Samarsi had to contend both with the princes of Patan and Kanauj; and although the bard says “he washed his blade in the Jumna,” the domestic annals slur over the circumstance of Siddharaja-Jayasingha having actually made a conquest of Chitor; for it is not only included in the eighteen capitals enumerated as appertaining to this prince, but the author discovered a tablet[4.5.9] in Chitor, placed there by his successor, Kumarpal, bearing the date S. 1206, the period of Samarsi’s birth. The first occasion of Samarsi’s aid being called in by the Chauhan emperor was on the discovery of treasure at Nagor, amounting to seven millions of gold, the deposit of ancient days. The princes of Kanauj and Patan, dreading the influence which such sinews of war would afford their antagonist, invited Shihabu-d-din to aid their designs of humiliating the Chauhan, who in this emergency sent an embassy to Samarsi. The envoy was Chand Pundir, the vassal chief of Lahore, and guardian of that frontier. He is conspicuous from this time to the hour “when he planted his lance at the ford of the Ravi,” and fell in opposing the passage of Shihabu-d-din. The presents he carries, the speech with which he greets the Chitor prince, his reception, reply, and dismissal are all preserved by [257] Chand. The style of address and the apparel of Samarsi betoken that he had not laid aside the office and ensigns of a ‘Regent of Mahadeva.’ A simple necklace of the seeds of the lotus adorned his neck; his hair was braided, and he is addressed as Jogindra, or chief of ascetics. Samarsi proceeded to Delhi; and it was arranged, as he was connected by marriage with the prince of Patan, that Prithiraj should march against this prince, while he should oppose the army from Ghazni. He (Samarsi) accordingly fought several indecisive battles, which gave time to the Chauhan to terminate the war in Gujarat and rejoin him. United, they completely discomfited the invaders, making their leader prisoner. Samarsi declined any share of the discovered treasure, but permitted his chiefs to accept the gifts offered by Chauhan. Many years elapsed in such subordinate warfare, when the prince of Chitor was again constrained to use his buckler in defence of Delhi and its prince, whose arrogance and successful ambition, followed by disgraceful inactivity, invited invasion with every presage of success. Jealousy and revenge rendered the princes of Patan, Kanauj, Dhar, and the minor courts indifferent spectators of a contest destined to overthrow them all.

=The Death of Samar Singh.=—The bard gives a good description of the preparations for his departure from Chitor, which he was destined never to see again. The charge of the city was entrusted to a favourite and younger son, Karna: which disgusted the elder brother, who went to the Deccan to Bidar, where he was well received by an Abyssinian chief,[4.5.10] who had there established himself in sovereignty. Another son, either on this occasion or on the subsequent fall of Chitor, fled to the mountains of Nepal, and there spread the Guhilot line.[4.5.11] It is in this, the last of the books of Chand, termed The Great Fight, that we have the character of Samarsi fully delineated. His arrival at Delhi is hailed with songs of joy as a day of deliverance. Prithiraj and his court advance seven miles to meet him, and the description of the greeting of the king of Delhi and his sister, and the chiefs on either side who recognize ancient friendships, is most animated. Samarsi reads his brother-in-law an indignant lecture on his unprincely inactivity, and throughout the book divides attention with him.

In the planning of the campaign, and march towards the Ghaggar to meet the foe [258], Samarsi is consulted, and his opinions are recorded. The bard represents him as the Ulysses of the host: brave, cool, and skilful in the fight; prudent, wise, and eloquent in council; pious and decorous on all occasions; beloved by his own chiefs, and reverenced by the vassals of the Chauhan. In the line of march no augur or bard could better explain the omens, none in the field better dress the squadrons for battle, none guide his steed or use his lance with more address. His tent is the principal resort of the leaders after the march or in the intervals of battle, who were delighted by his eloquence or instructed by his knowledge. The bard confesses that his precepts of government are chiefly from the lips of Khuman;[4.5.12] and of his best episodes and allegories, whether on morals, rules for the guidance of ambassadors, choice of ministers, religious or social duties (but especially those of the Rajput to the sovereign), the wise prince of Chitor is the general organ.

On the last of three days’ desperate fighting Samarsi was slain, together with his son Kalyan, and thirteen thousand of his household troops and most renowned chieftains.[4.5.13] His beloved Pirtha, on hearing the fatal issue, her husband slain, her brother captive, the heroes of Delhi and Chitor “asleep on the banks of the Ghaggar, in the wave of the steel,” joined her lord through the flame, nor waited the advance of the Tatar king, when Delhi was carried by storm, and the last stay of the Chauhans, Prince Rainsi, met death in the assault. The capture of Delhi and its monarch, the death of his ally of Chitor, with the bravest and best of their troops, speedily ensured the further and final success of the Tatar arms; and when Kanauj fell, and the traitor to his nation met his fate in the waves of the Ganges, none were left to contend with Shihabu-d-din the possession of the regal seat of the Chauhan. Scenes of devastation, plunder, and massacre commenced, which lasted through ages; during which nearly all that was sacred in religion or celebrated in art was destroyed by these ruthless and barbarous invaders. The noble Rajput, with a spirit of constancy and enduring courage, seized every opportunity to turn upon his oppressor. By his perseverance and valour he wore out entire dynasties of foes, alternately yielding ‘to his fate,’ or restricting the circle of conquest. Every road in Rajasthan was moistened with torrents of blood of the [259] spoiled and the spoiler. But all was of no avail; fresh supplies were ever pouring in, and dynasty succeeded dynasty, heir to the same remorseless feeling which sanctified murder, legalized spoliation, and deified destruction. In these desperate conflicts entire tribes were swept away whose names are the only memento of their former existence and celebrity.

=Gallant Resistance of the Rājputs.=—What nation on earth would have maintained the semblance of civilization, the spirit or the customs of their forefathers, during so many centuries of overwhelming depression but one of such singular character as the Rajput? Though ardent and reckless, he can, when required, subside into forbearance and apparent apathy, and reserve himself for the opportunity of revenge. Rajasthan exhibits the sole example in the history of mankind of a people withstanding every outrage barbarity can inflict, or human nature sustain, from a foe whose religion commands annihilation, and bent to the earth, yet rising buoyant from the pressure, and making calamity a whetstone to courage. How did the Britons at once sink under the Romans, and in vain strive to save their groves, their druids, or the altars of Bal from destruction! To the Saxons they alike succumbed; they, again, to the Danes; and this heterogeneous breed to the Normans. Empire was lost and gained by a single battle, and the laws and religion of the conquered merged in those of the conquerors. Contrast with these the Rajputs; not an iota of their religion or customs have they lost, though many a foot of land. Some of their States have been expunged from the map of dominion; and, as a punishment of national infidelity, the pride of the Rathor, and the glory of the Chalukya, the overgrown Kanauj and gorgeous Anhilwara, are forgotten names! Mewar alone, the sacred bulwark of religion, never compromised her honour for her safety, and still survives her ancient limits; and since the brave Samarsi gave up his life, the blood of her princes has flowed in copious streams for the maintenance of this honour, religion, and independence.

=Karan Singh I.: Ratan Singh.=—Samarsi had several sons;[4.5.14] but Karna was his heir, and during his minority his mother, Kuramdevi, a princess of Patan, nobly maintained what his father left. She headed her Rajputs and gave battle[4.5.15] in person to Kutbu-d-din, near [260] Amber, when the viceroy was defeated and wounded. Nine Rajas, and eleven chiefs of inferior dignity with the title of Rawat, followed the mother of their prince.

Karna (the radiant) succeeded in S. 1249 (A.D. 1193); but he was not destined to be the founder of a line in Mewar.[4.5.16] The annals are at variance with each other on an event which gave the sovereignty of Chitor to a younger branch, and sent the elder into the inhospitable wilds of the west, to found a city[4.5.17] and perpetuate a line.[4.5.18] It is stated generally that Karna had two sons, Mahup and Rahup; but this is an error: Samarsi and Surajmall were brothers: Karna was the son of the former and Mahup was his son, whose mother was a Chauhan of Bagar. Surajmall had a son named Bharat, who was driven from Chitor by a conspiracy. He proceeded to Sind, obtained Aror from its prince, a Musalman, and married the daughter of the Bhatti chief of Pugal, by whom he had a son named Rahup. Kama died of grief for the loss of Bharat and the unworthiness of Mahup, who abandoned him to live entirely with his maternal relations, the Chauhans.

The Sonigira chief of Jalor had married the daughter of Karna, by whom he had a child named Randhol,[4.5.19] whom by treachery he placed on the throne of Chitor, slaying the chief Guhilots. Mahup being unable to recover his rights, and unwilling to make any exertion, the chair of Bappa Rawal would have passed to the Chauhans but for an ancient bard of the house. He pursued his way to Aror, held by old Bharat as a fief of Kabul. With the levies of Sind he marched to claim the right abandoned by Mahup and at Pali encountered and defeated the Sonigiras. The retainers of Mewar flocked to his standard, and by their aid he enthroned himself in Chitor. He sent for his father and mother, Ranangdevi, whose dwelling on the Indus was made over to a younger brother, who bartered his faith for Aror, and held it as a vassal of Kabul.

=Rāhup.=—Rahup obtained Chitor in S. 1257 (A.D. 1201), and shortly after sustained the attack of Shamsu-d-din, whom he met and overcame in a battle at Nagor. Two [261] great changes were introduced by this prince; the first in the title of the tribe, to Sesodia; the other in that of its prince, from Rawal to Rana. The puerile reason for the former has already been noticed;[4.5.20] the cause of the latter is deserving of more attention. Amongst the foes of Rahup was the Parihar prince of Mandor: his name Mokal, with the title of Rana. Rahup seized him in his capital and brought him to Sesoda, making him renounce the rich district of Godwar and his title of Rana, which he assumed himself, to denote the completion of his feud. He ruled thirty-eight years in a period of great distraction, and appears to have been well calculated, not only to uphold the fallen fortunes of the State, but to rescue them from utter ruin. His reign is the more remarkable by contrast with his successors, nine of whom are ‘pushed from their stools’ in the same or even a shorter period than that during which he upheld the dignity.

From Rahup to Lakhamsi [Lakshman Singh], in the short space of half a century, nine princes of Chitor were crowned, and at nearly equal intervals of time followed each other to ‘the mansions of the sun.’ Of these nine, six fell in battle. Nor did they meet their fate at home, but in a chivalrous enterprise to redeem the sacred Gaya from the pollution of the barbarian. For this object these princes successively fell, but such devotion inspired fear, if not pity or conviction, and the bigot renounced the impiety which Prithimall purchased with his blood, and until Alau-d-din’s reign, this outrage to their prejudices was renounced. But in this interval they had lost their capital, for it is stated as the only occurrence in Bhonsi’s[4.5.21] reign that he [262] “recovered Chitor” and made the name of Rana be acknowledged by all. Two memorials are preserved of the nine princes from Rahup to Lakhamsi, and of the same character: confusion and strife within and without. We will, therefore, pass over these to another grand event in the vicissitudes of this house, which possesses more of romance than of history, though the facts are undoubted.

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Footnote 4.5.1:

[For the error in his date see p. 281 above.]

Footnote 4.5.2:

The work of Chand is a universal history of the period in which he wrote. In the sixty-nine books, comprising one hundred thousand stanzas, relating to the exploits of Prithiraj, every noble family of Rajasthan will find some record of their ancestors. It is accordingly treasured amongst the archives of each race having any pretensions to the name of Rajput. From this he can trace his martial forefathers who ‘drank of the wave of battle’ in the passes of Kirman when the ‘cloud of war rolled from Himachal’ to the plains of Hindustan. The wars of Prithiraj, his alliances, his numerous and powerful tributaries, their abodes and pedigrees, make the works of Chand invaluable as historic and geographical memoranda, besides being treasures in mythology, manners, and the annals of the mind. To read this poet well is a sure road to honour, and my own Guru was allowed, even by the professional bards, to excel therein. As he read I rapidly translated about thirty thousand stanzas. Familiar with the dialects in which it is written, I have fancied that I seized occasionally the poet’s spirit; but it were presumption to suppose that I embodied all his brilliancy, or fully comprehended the depth of his allusions. But I knew for whom he wrote. The most familiar of his images and sentiments I heard daily from the mouths of those around me, the descendants of the men whose deeds he rehearses. I was enabled thus to seize his meaning, where one more skilled in poetic lore might have failed, and to make my prosaic version of some value. [For Chand Bardāi see Grierson, Modern Literary History of Hindustan, 3 f.]

Footnote 4.5.3:

[Bhīma II., Chaulukya, known as Bhola, ‘the simpleton,’ A.D. 1179-1242.]

Footnote 4.5.4:

Unknown, unless the country on the ‘waters’ (jal) of Sind.

Footnote 4.5.5:

Benares.

Footnote 4.5.6:

Allahabad.

Footnote 4.5.7:

The cold regions (si, ‘cold’).

Footnote 4.5.8:

Ananga is a poetical epithet of the Hindu Cupid, literally ‘incorporeal’; but, according to good authority, applicable to the founder of the desolate abode, palna being ‘to support,’ and anga, with the primitive an, ‘without body.’

Footnote 4.5.9:

See Inscription No. 5.

Footnote 4.5.10:

Styled Habshi Padshah.

Footnote 4.5.11:

[The Gorkhas or Gurkhas are said to have reached Nepal through Kumaun after the fall of Chitor (IGI, xix. 32).]

Footnote 4.5.12:

I have already mentioned that Khuman became a patronymic and title amongst the princes of Chitor.

Footnote 4.5.13:

[The battle was fought at Tarāīn or Talāwari in the Ambāla District, Panjāb, in 1192.]

Footnote 4.5.14:

Kalyanrae, slain with his father; Kumbhkaran, who went to Bidar; a third, the founder of the Gorkhas. [This assertion, based on the authority of Chand, is incorrect, Samar Singh being misplaced, and succeeded by Ratan Singh (Erskine ii. A. 146).]

Footnote 4.5.15:

This must be the battle mentioned by Ferishta (see Dow, p. 169, vol. ii.).

Footnote 4.5.16:

He had a son, Sarwan, who took to commerce. Hence the mercantile Sesodia caste, Sarwania.

Footnote 4.5.17:

Dungarpur, so named from dungar, ‘a mountain.’

Footnote 4.5.18:

[The facts are that after "Karan Singh the Mewār family divided into two branches—one with the title of Rāwal, the other Rāna. In the first, or Rāwal, branch were Khem or Kshem Singh, the eldest son of Karan Singh, Sāmant Singh, Kumār Singh, Mathan Singh, Padam Singh, Jeth Singh, Tej Singh, Samar Singh, and Ratan Singh, all of whom reigned at Chitor; while in the Rāna branch were Rāhup, a younger son of Karan Singh, Narpat, Dinkaran, Jaskaran, Nāgpāl, Puranpāl, Prithi Pāl, Bhuvān Singh, Bhīm Singh, Jai Singh, and Lakshman Singh, who ruled at Sesoda, and called themselves Sesodias. Thus, instead of having to fit in something like ten generations between Samar Singh, who, as we know, was alive in 1299, and the siege of Chitor, which certainly took place in 1303, we find that those ten princes were not descendants of Samar Singh at all, but the contemporaries of his seven immediate predecessors on the gaddi of Chitor and of himself, and that both Ratan Singh, the son of Samar Singh, and Lakshman Singh, the contemporary of Ratan Singh, were descended from a common ancestor, Karan Singh I., nine and eleven generations back respectively. It is also possible to reconcile the statement of the Musalmān historians that Ratan Singh (called Rāī Ratan) was ruler of Chitor during the siege—a statement corroborated by an inscription at Rājnagar—with the generally accepted story that it was Rāna Lakshman Singh who fell in defence of the fort" (Erskine ii. A. 15).]

Footnote 4.5.19:

So pronounced, but properly written Randhaval, ‘the standard of the field.’

Footnote 4.5.20:

See note, p. 252.

Footnote 4.5.21:

His second son, Chandra, obtained an appanage on the Chambal, and his issue, well known as Chandarawats, constituted one of the most powerful vassal clans of Mewar. Rampura (Bhanpura) was their residence, yielding a revenue of nine lakhs (£110,000), held on the tenure of service which, from an original grant in my possession from Rana Jagat Singh to his nephew Madho Singh, afterwards prince of Amber, was three thousand horse and foot (see p. 235), and the fine of investiture was seventy-five thousand rupees. Madho Singh, when prince of Amber, did what was invalid as well as ungrateful; he made over this domain, granted during his misfortunes, to Holkar, the first limb lopped off Mewar. The Chandarawat proprietor continued, however, to possess a portion of the original estate with the fortress of Amad, which it maintained throughout all the troubles of Rajwara till A.D. 1821. It shows the attachment to custom that the young Rao applied and received ‘the sword’ of investiture from his old lord paramount, the Rana, though dependent on Holkar’s forbearance. But a minority is proverbially dangerous in India. Disorder from party plots made Amad troublesome to Holkar’s government, which as his ally and preserver of tranquillity we suppressed by blowing up the walls of the fortress. This is one of many instances of the harsh, uncompromising nature of our power, and the anomalous description of our alliances with the Rajputs. However necessary to repress the disorder arising from the claims of ancient proprietors and the recent rights of Holkar, or the new proprietor, Ghafur Khan, yet surrounding princes, and the general population, who know the history of past times, lament to see a name of five hundred years’ duration thus summarily extinguished, which chiefly benefits an upstart Pathan. Such the vortex of the ambiguous, irregular, and unsystematic policy, which marks many of our alliances, which protect too often but to injure, and gives to our office of general arbitrator and high constable of Rajasthan a harsh and unfeeling character. Much of this arises from ignorance of the past history; much from disregard of the peculiar usages of the people; or from that expediency which too often comes in contact with moral fitness, which will go on until the day predicted by the Nestor of India, when “one sikka (seal) alone will be used in Hindustan.”

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Chapter 6

=Lakhamsi: Lachhman Singh.=—Lakhamsi[4.6.1] succeeded his father in S. 1331 (A.D. 1275), a memorable era in the annals, when Chitor, the repository of all that was precious yet untouched of the arts of India, was stormed, sacked, and treated with remorseless barbarity by the Pathan [Khilji] emperor, Alau-d-din. Twice it was attacked by this subjugator of India. In the first siege it escaped spoliation, though at the price of its best defenders: that which followed is the first successful assault and capture of which we have any detailed account.

=Bhīm Singh: Padmini.=—Bhimsi was the uncle of the young prince, and protector during his minority. He had espoused the daughter of Hamir Sank (Chauhan) of Ceylon, the cause of woes unnumbered to the Sesodias. Her name was Padmini,[4.6.2] a title bestowed only on the superlatively fair, and transmitted with renown to posterity by tradition and the song of the bard. Her beauty, accomplishments, exaltation, and destruction, with other incidental circumstances, constitute the subject of one of the most popular traditions of Rajwara. The Hindu bard recognizes the fair, in preference to fame and love of conquest, as the motive for the attack of Alau-d-din, who [263] limited his demand to the possession of Padmini; though this was after a long and fruitless siege. At length he restricted his desire to a mere sight of this extraordinary beauty, and acceded to the proposal of beholding her through the medium of mirrors. Relying on the faith of the Rajput, he entered Chitor slightly guarded, and having gratified his wish, returned. The Rajput, unwilling to be outdone in confidence, accompanied the king to the foot of the fortress, amidst many complimentary excuses from his guest at the trouble he thus occasioned. It was for this that Ala risked his own safety, relying on the superior faith of the Hindu. Here he had an ambush; Bhimsi was made prisoner, hurried away to the Tatar camp, and his liberty made dependent on the surrender of Padmini.

=The Siege of Chitor.=—Despair reigned in Chitor when this fatal event was known, and it was debated whether Padmini should be resigned as a ransom for their defender. Of this she was informed, and expressed her acquiescence. Having provided wherewithal to secure her from dishonour, she communed with two chiefs of her own kin and clan of Ceylon, her uncle Gora, and his nephew Badal, who devised a scheme for the liberation of their prince without hazarding her life or fame. Intimation was dispatched to Ala that on the day he withdrew from his trenches the fair Padmini would be sent, but in a manner befitting her own and his high station, surrounded by her females and handmaids; not only those who would accompany her to Delhi, but many others who desired to pay her this last mark of reverence. Strict commands were to be issued to prevent curiosity from violating the sanctity of female decorum and privacy. No less than seven hundred covered litters proceeded to the royal camp. In each was placed one of the bravest of the defenders of Chitor, borne by six armed soldiers disguised as litter-porters. They reached the camp. The royal tents were enclosed with kanats (walls of cloth); the litters were deposited, and half an hour was granted for a parting interview between the Hindu prince and his bride. They then placed their prince in a litter and returned with him, while the greater number (the supposed damsels) remained to accompany the fair to Delhi.[4.6.3] But Ala had no intention to permit Bhimsi’s return, and was becoming jealous of the long interview he enjoyed, when, instead of the prince and Padmini, the devoted band issued from their litters: but Ala was too well guarded. Pursuit was ordered, while these covered the retreat till they perished to a man. A fleet horse was in reserve for [264] Bhimsi, on which he was placed, and in safety ascended the fort, at whose outer gate the host of Ala was encountered. The choicest of the heroes of Chitor met the assault. With Gora and Badal at their head, animated by the noblest sentiments, the deliverance of their chief and the honour of their queen, they devoted themselves to destruction, and few were the survivors of this slaughter of the flower of Mewar. For a time Ala was defeated in his object, and the havoc they had made in his ranks, joined to the dread of their determined resistance, obliged him to desist from the enterprise.

Mention has already been made of the adjuration,“by the sin of the sack of Chitor.” Of these sacks they enumerate three and a half. This is the ‘half’; for though the city was not stormed, the best and bravest were cut off (sakha). It is described with great animation in the Khuman Raesa. Badal was but a stripling of twelve, but the Rajput expects wonders from this early age. He escaped, though wounded, and a dialogue ensues between him and his uncle’s wife, who desires him to relate how her lord conducted himself ere she joins him. The stripling replies: “He was the reaper of the harvest of battle; I followed his steps as the humble gleaner of his sword. On the gory bed of honour he spread a carpet of the slain; a barbarian prince his pillow, he laid him down, and sleeps surrounded by the foe.” Again she said: "Tell me, Badal, how did my love (piyar) behave?" “Oh! mother, how further describe his deeds when he left no foe to dread or admire him?” She smiled farewell to the boy, and adding, “My lord will chide my delay,” sprung into the flame.

Alau-d-din, having recruited his strength, returned to his object, Chitor. The annals state this to have been in S. 1346 (A.D. 1290), but Ferishta gives a date thirteen years later.[4.6.4] They had not yet recovered the loss of so many valiant men who had sacrificed themselves for their prince’s safety, and Ala carried on his attacks more closely, and at length obtained the hill at the southern point, where he entrenched himself. They still pretend to point out his trenches; but so many have been formed by subsequent attacks that we cannot credit the assertion. The poet has found in the disastrous issue of this siege admirable materials for his song. He represents the Rana, after an arduous day, stretched on his pallet, and during a night of watchful anxiety, pondering on the means by which he might preserve from the general destruction one at least of his twelve sons; when a voice [265] broke on his solitude, exclaiming, “Main bhukhi ho”;[4.6.5] and raising his eyes, he saw, by the dim glare of the chiragh,[4.6.6] advancing between the granite columns, the majestic form of the guardian goddess of Chitor. “Not satiated,” exclaimed the Rana, “though eight thousand of my kin were late an offering to thee?” “I must have regal victims; and if twelve who wear the diadem bleed not for Chitor, the land will pass from the line.” This said, she vanished.

On the morn he convened a council of his chiefs, to whom he revealed the vision of the night, which they treated as the dream of a disordered fancy. He commanded their attendance at midnight; when again the form appeared, and repeated the terms on which alone she would remain amongst them. “Though thousands of barbarians strew the earth, what are they to me? On each day enthrone a prince. Let the kirania,[4.6.7] the chhatra and the chamara,[4.6.7] proclaim his sovereignty, and for three days let his decrees be supreme: on the fourth let him meet the foe and his fate. Then only may I remain.”

Whether we have merely the fiction of the poet, or whether the scene was got up to animate the spirit of resistance, matters but little, it is consistent with the belief of the tribe; and that the goddess should openly manifest her wish to retain as her tiara the battlements of Chitor on conditions so congenial to the warlike and superstitious Rajput was a gage readily taken up and fully answering the end. A generous contention arose amongst the brave brothers who should be the first victim to avert the denunciation. Arsi urged his priority of birth: he was proclaimed, the umbrella waved over his head, and on the fourth day he surrendered his short-lived honours and his life. Ajaisi, the next in birth, demanded to follow; but he was the favourite son of his father, and at his request he consented to let his brothers precede him. Eleven had fallen in turn, and but one victim remained to the salvation of the city, when the Rana, calling his chiefs around him, said, “Now I devote myself for Chitor.”

=The Johar.=—But another awful sacrifice was to precede this act of self-devotion in that horrible rite, the Johar,[4.6.8] where the females are immolated to preserve them from pollution or captivity. The funeral pyre was lighted within the ‘great subterranean retreat,’[4.6.9] in chambers impervious to the light [266] of day, and the defenders of Chitor beheld in procession the queens, their own wives and daughters, to the number of several thousands. The fair Padmini closed the throng, which was augmented by whatever of female beauty or youth could be tainted by Tatar lust. They were conveyed to the cavern, and the opening closed upon them, leaving them to find security from dishonour in the devouring element.

A contest now arose between the Rana and his surviving son; but the father prevailed, and Ajaisi, in obedience to his commands, with a small band passed through the enemy’s lines, and reached Kelwara in safety. The Rana, satisfied that his line was not extinct, now prepared to follow his brave sons; and calling around him his devoted clans, for whom life had no longer any charms, they threw open the portals and descended to the plains, and with a reckless despair carried death, or met it, in the crowded ranks of Ala. The Tatar conqueror took possession of an inanimate capital, strewed with brave defenders, the smoke yet issuing from the recesses where lay consumed the once fair object of his desire; and since this devoted day the cavern has been sacred: no eye has penetrated its gloom, and superstition has placed as its guardian a huge serpent, whose ‘venomous breath’ extinguishes the light which might guide intruders to ‘the place of sacrifice.’

=The Conquests of Alāu-d-dīn.=—Thus fell, in A.D. 1303, this celebrated capital, in the round of conquest of Alau-d-din, one of the most vigorous and warlike sovereigns who have occupied the throne of India. In success, and in one of the means of attainment, a bigoted hypocrisy, he bore a striking resemblance to Aurangzeb; and the title of ‘Sikandaru-s-Sani,’ or the second Alexander, which he assumed and impressed on his coins, was no idle vaunt. The proud Anhilwara, the ancient Dhar and Avanti, Mandor and Deogir, the seats of the Solankis, the Pramaras, the Pariharas and Taks, the entire Agnikula race, were overturned for ever by Ala. Jaisalmer, Gagraun, Bundi, the abodes of the Bhatti, the Khichi, and the Hara, with many of minor importance, suffered all the horrors of assault from this foe of the race, though destined again to raise their heads. The Rathors of Marwar and the [267] Kachhwahas of Amber were yet in a state of insignificance: the former were slowly creeping into notice as the vassals of the Pariharas, while the latter could scarcely withstand the attacks of the original Mina population. Ala remained in Chitor some days, admiring the grandeur of his conquest; and having committed every act of barbarity and wanton dilapidation which a bigoted zeal could suggest, overthrowing the temples and other monuments of art, he delivered the city in charge to Maldeo, the chief of Jalor, whom he had conquered and enrolled amongst his vassals. The palace of Bhim and the fair Padmini alone appears to have escaped the wrath of Ala; it would be pleasing could we suppose any kinder sentiment suggested the exception, which enables the author of these annals to exhibit the abode of the fair of Ceylon.

=The Flight of Rāna Ajai Singh.=—The survivor of Chitor, Rana Ajaisi, was now in security at Kelwara, a town situated in the heart of the Aravalli mountains, the western boundary of Mewar, to which its princes had been indebted for twelve centuries of dominion. Kelwara is at the highest part of one of its most extensive valleys, termed the Shero Nala, the richest district of this Alpine region. Guarded by faithful adherents, Ajaisi cherished for future occasion the wrecks of Mewar. It was the last behest of his father that when he attained ‘one hundred years’ (a figurative expression for dying) the son of Arsi, the elder brother, should succeed him. This injunction, from the deficiency of the qualities requisite at such a juncture in his own sons, met a ready compliance. Hamir was this son, destined to redeem the promise of the genius of Chitor and the lost honours of his race, and whose birth and early history fill many a page of their annals. His father, Arsi, being out on a hunting excursion in the forest of Ondua, with some young chiefs of the court, in pursuit of the boar entered a field of maize, when a female offered to drive out the game. Pulling one of the stalks of maize, which grows to the height of ten or twelve feet, she pointed it, and mounting the platform made to watch the corn, impaled the hog, dragged him before the hunters, and departed. Though accustomed to feats of strength and heroism from the nervous arms of their countrywomen, the act surprised them. They descended to the stream at hand, and prepared the repast, as is usual, on the spot. The feast was held, and comments were passing on the fair arm which had transfixed the boar, when a ball of clay from a sling fractured a limb of the prince’s steed. Looking in the direction whence it [268] came, they observed the same damsel, from her elevated stand,[4.6.10] preserving her fields from aerial depredators; but seeing the mischief she had occasioned she descended to express her regret and then returned to her pursuit. As they were proceeding homewards after the sports of the day, they again encountered the damsel, with a vessel of milk on her head, and leading in either hand a young buffalo. It was proposed, in frolic, to overturn her milk, and one of the companions of the prince dashed rudely by her; but without being disconcerted, she entangled one of her charges with the horse’s limbs and brought the rider to the ground. On inquiry the prince discovered that she was the daughter of a poor Rajput of the Chandano tribe.[4.6.11] He returned the next day to the same quarter and sent for her father, who came and took his seat with perfect independence close to the prince, to the merriment of his companions, which was checked by Arsi asking his daughter to wife. They were yet more surprised by the demand being refused. The Rajput, on going home, told the more prudent mother, who scolded him heartily, made him recall the refusal, and seek the prince. They were married, and Hamir was the son of the Chandano Rajputni.[4.6.12] He remained little noticed at the maternal abode till the catastrophe of Chitor. At this period he was twelve years of age, and had led a rustic life, from which the necessity of the times recalled him.

=Mewār occupied by the Musalmāns: The Exploit of Hamīr.=—Mewar was now occupied by the garrisons of Delhi, and Ajaisi had besides to contend with the mountain chiefs, amongst whom Munja Balaicha was the most formidable, who had, on a recent occasion, invaded the Shero Nala, and personally encountered the Rana, whom he wounded on the head with a lance. The Rana’s sons, Sajansi and Ajamsi, though fourteen and fifteen, an age at which a Rajput ought to indicate his future character, proved of little aid in the emergency. Hamir was summoned, and accepted the feud against Munja, promising to return successful or not at all. In a few days he was seen entering the pass of Kelwara with Munja’s head at his saddle-bow. Modestly placing the trophy at his uncle’s feet, he exclaimed: “Recognize the head of your foe!” Ajaisi ‘kissed his beard,’[4.6.13] and observing that fate had stamped empire on his forehead, impressed [269] it with a tika of blood from the head of the Balaicha. This decided the fate of the sons of Ajaisi; one of whom died at Kelwara, and the other, Sajansi, who might have excited a civil war, was sent from the country.[4.6.14] He departed for the Deccan, where his issue was destined to avenge some of the wrongs the parent country had sustained, and eventually to overturn the monarchy of Hindustan; for Sajansi was the ancestor of Sivaji, the founder of the Satara throne, whose lineage[4.6.15] is given in the chronicles of Mewar.

=Rāna Hamīr Singh, A.D. 1301-64.=—Hamir succeeded in S. 1357 (A.D. 1301), and had sixty-four years granted to him to redeem his country from the ruins of the past century, which period had elapsed since India ceased to own the paramount sway of her native princes. The day on which he assumed the ensigns of rule he gave, in the tika daur, an earnest of his future energy, which he signalized by a rapid inroad into the heart of the country of the predatory Balaicha, and captured their stronghold Pusalia. We may here explain the nature of this custom of a barbaric chivalry.

=The Inaugural Foray.=—The tika daur signifies the foray of inauguration, which obtained from time immemorial on such events, and is yet maintained where any semblance of hostility will allow its execution. On the morning of installation, having previously received the tika of sovereignty, the prince at the head of his retainers makes a foray into the territory of any one with whom he may have a feud, or with whom he may be indifferent as to exciting one; he captures a stronghold or plunders a town, and returns with the trophies. If amity should prevail with all around, which the prince cares not to disturb, they have still a mock representation of the custom. For many reigns after the Jaipur princes united their fortunes to the throne of Delhi their frontier town, Malpura, was the object of the tika daur of the princes of Mewar.

=Chitor under a Musalmān Garrison.=—“When Ajmall[4.6.16] went another road,” as the bard figuratively describes the demise of Rana Ajaisi, “the son of Arsi unsheathed the sword, thence never stranger to his hand.” Maldeo remained with the royal garrison at Chitor,[4.6.17] but Hamir [270] desolated their plains, and left to his enemies only the fortified towns which could safely be inhabited. He commanded all who owned his sovereignty either to quit their abodes, and retire with their families to the shelter of the hills on the eastern and western frontiers, or share the fate of the public enemy. The roads were rendered impassable from his parties, who issued from their retreats in the Aravalli, the security of which baffled pursuit. This destructive policy of laying waste the resources of their own country, and from this asylum attacking their foes as opportunity offered, has obtained from the time of Mahmud of Ghazni in the tenth, to Muhammad, the last who merited the name of Emperor of Delhi, in the eighteenth century.

=Resistance of Hamīr Singh.=—Hamir made Kelwara[4.6.18] his residence, which soon became the chief retreat of the emigrants from the plains. The situation was admirably chosen, being covered by several ranges, guarded by intricate defiles, and situated at the foot of a pass leading over the mountain into a still more inaccessible retreat (where Kumbhalmer now stands),[4.6.19] well watered and wooded, with abundance of pastures and excellent indigenous fruits and roots. This tract, above fifty miles in breadth, is twelve hundred feet above the level of the plains and three thousand above the sea, with a considerable quantity of arable land, and free communication to obtain supplies by the passes of the western declivity from Marwar, Gujarat, or the friendly Bhils, of the west, to whom this house owes a large debt of gratitude. On various occasions the communities of Oghna and Panarwa furnished the princes of Mewar with five thousand bowmen, supplied them with provisions, or guarded the safety of their families when they had to oppose the foe in the field. The elevated plateau of the eastern frontier presented in its forests and dells many places of security; but Ala[4.6.20] traversed these in person, destroying as he went: neither did they possess the advantages of climate and natural productions arising from the elevation of the other. Such was the state of Mewar: its places of strength occupied by the foe, cultivation and peaceful objects neglected from the persevering hostility of Hamir, when a proposal of marriage came from the Hindu governor of Chitor, which was immediately accepted, contrary to the [271] wishes of the prince’s advisers.

=The Recovery of Chitor.=—Whether this was intended as a snare to entrap him, or merely as an insult, every danger was scouted by Hamir which gave a chance to the recovery of Chitor. He desired that ‘the coco-nut[4.6.21] might be retained’ coolly remarking on the dangers pointed out, "My feet shall at least tread in the rocky steps in which my ancestors have moved. A Rajput should always be prepared for reverses; one day to abandon his abode covered with wounds, and the next to reascend with the maur (crown) on his head." It was stipulated that only five hundred horse should form his suite. As he approached Chitor, the five sons of the Chauhan advanced to meet him, but on the portal of the city no toran,[4.6.22] or nuptial emblem, was suspended. He, however, accepted the unsatisfactory reply to his remark on this indication of treachery, and ascended for the first time the ramp of Chitor. He was received in the ancient halls of his ancestors by Rao Maldeo, his son Banbir, and other chiefs, with folded hands. The bride was brought forth, and presented by her father without any of the solemnities practised on such occasions; ‘the knot of their garments tied and their hands united,’ and thus they were left. The family priest recommended patience, and Hamir retired with his bride to the apartments allotted for them. Her kindness and vows of fidelity overcame his sadness upon learning that he had married a widow. She had been wedded to a chief of the Bhatti tribe, shortly afterwards slain, and when she was so young as not to recollect even his appearance. He ceased to lament the insult when she herself taught him how it might be avenged, and that it might even lead to the recovery of Chitor. It is a privilege possessed by the bridegroom to have one specific favour complied with as a part of the dower (daeja), and Hamir was instructed by his bride to ask for Jal, one of the civil [272] officers of Chitor, and of the Mehta tribe. With his wife so obtained, and the scribe whose talents remained for trial, he returned in a fortnight to Kelwara. Khetsi was the fruit of this marriage, on which occasion Maldeo made over all the hill tracts to Hamir. Khetsi was a year old when one of the penates (Khetrpal)[4.6.23] was found at fault, on which she wrote to her parents to invite her to Chitor, that the infant might be placed before the shrine of the deity. Escorted by a party from Chitor, with her child she entered its walls; and instructed by the Mehta, she gained over the troops who were left, for the Rao had gone with his chief adherents against the Mers of Madri. Hamir was at hand. Notice that all was ready reached him at Bagor. Still he met opposition that had nearly defeated the scheme; but having forced admission, his sword overcame every obstacle, and the oath of allegiance (an) was proclaimed from the palace of his fathers.

The Sonigira on his return was met with ‘a salute of arabas,’[4.6.24] and Maldeo himself carried the account of his loss to the Khilji king Mahmud, who had succeeded Ala. The ‘standard of the sun’ once more shone refulgent from the walls of Chitor, and was the signal for return to their ancient abodes from their hills and hiding-places to the adherents of Hamir. The valleys of Kumbhalmer and the western highlands poured forth their ‘streams of men,’ while every chief of true Hindu blood rejoiced at the prospect of once more throwing off the barbarian yoke. So powerful was this feeling, and with such activity and skill did Hamir follow up this favour of fortune, that he marched to meet Mahmud, who was advancing to recover his lost possessions. The king unwisely directed his march by the eastern plateau, where numbers were rendered useless by the intricacies of the country. Of the three steppes which mark the physiognomy of this tract, from the first ascent from the plain of Mewar to the descent at Chambal, the king had encamped on the central, at Singoli, where he was attacked, defeated, and made prisoner by Hamir, who slew Hari Singh, brother of Banbir, in single combat. The king suffered a confinement of three months in Chitor, nor was liberated till he had surrendered Ajmer, Ranthambor, Nagor, and Sui Sopur, besides paying fifty lakhs of rupees and one hundred elephants. Hamir would exact no promise of cessation from further inroads, but contented himself with assuring him that from such he should be prepared to defend Chitor, not within, but without the walls [273].[4.6.25]

Banbir, the son of Maldeo, offered to serve Hamir, who assigned the districts of Nimach, Jiran, Ratanpur, and the Kerar to maintain the family of his wife in becoming dignity; and as he gave the grant he remarked: “Eat, serve, and be faithful. You were once the servant of a Turk, but now of a Hindu of your own faith; for I have but taken back my own, the rock moistened by the blood of my ancestors, the gift of the deity I adore, and who will maintain me in it; nor shall I endanger it by the worship of a fair face, as did my predecessor.” Banbir shortly after carried Bhainsror by assault, and this ancient possession guarding the Chambal was again added to Mewar. The chieftains of Rajasthan rejoiced once more to see a Hindu take the lead, paid willing homage, and aided him with service when required.

=The Power of Rāna Hamīr Singh.=—Hamir was the sole Hindu prince of power now left in India: all the ancient dynasties were crushed, and the ancestors of the present princes of Marwar and Jaipur brought their levies, paid homage, and obeyed the summons of the prince of Chitor, as did the chiefs of Bundi, Gwalior, Chanderi, Raesin, Sikri, Kalpi, Abu, etc.

Extensive as was the power of Mewar before the Tatar occupation of India, it could scarcely have surpassed the solidity of sway which she enjoyed during the two centuries following Hamir’s recovery of the capital. From this event to the next invasion from the same Cimmerian abode, led by Babur, we have a succession of splendid names recorded in her annals, and though destined soon to be surrounded by new Muhammadan dynasties, in Malwa and Gujarat as well as Delhi, yet successfully opposing them all. The distracted state of affairs when the races of Khilji, Lodi, and Sur alternately struggled for and obtained the seat of dominion, Delhi, was favourable to Mewar, whose power was now so consolidated that she not only repelled armies from her territory, but carried war abroad, leaving tokens of victory at Nagor, in Saurashtra, and to the walls of Delhi.

=Public Works.=—The subjects of Mewar must have enjoyed not only a long repose, but high prosperity during this period, judging from their magnificent public works, when a triumphal [274] column must have cost the income of a kingdom to erect, and which ten years’ produce of the crown-lands of Mewar could not at this time defray. Only one of the structures prior to the sack of Chitor was left entire by Ala, and is yet existing, and this was raised by private and sectarian hands. It would be curious if the unitarian profession of the Jain creed was the means of preserving this ancient relic from Ala’s wrath.[4.6.26] The princes of this house were great patrons of the arts, and especially of architecture; and it is a matter of surprise how their revenues, derived chiefly from the soil, could have enabled them to expend so much on these objects and at the same time maintain such armies as are enumerated. Such could be effected only by long prosperity and a mild, paternal system of government; for the subject had his monuments as well as the prince, the ruins of which may yet be discovered in the more inaccessible or deserted portions of Rajasthan. Hamir died full of years, leaving a name still honoured in Mewar, as one of the wisest and most gallant of her princes, and bequeathing a well-established and extensive power to his son.

=Kshetra or Khet Singh, A.D. 1364-82.=—Khetsi succeeded in S. 1421 (A.D. 1365) to the power and to the character of his father. He captured Ajmer and Jahazpur from Lila Pathan, and reannexed Mandalgarh, Dasor, and the whole of Chappan (for the first time) to Mewar. He obtained a victory over the Delhi monarch Humayun[4.6.27] at Bakrol; but unhappily his life terminated in a family broil with his vassal, the Hara chief of Bumbaoda, whose daughter he was about to espouse.

=Laksh Singh, A.D. 1382-97.=—Lakha Rana, by this assassination, mounted the throne in Chitor in S. 1439 (A.D. 1373). His first act was the entire subjugation of the mountainous region of Merwara, and the destruction of its chief stronghold, Bairatgarh, where he erected Badnor. But an event of much greater importance than settling his frontier, and which most powerfully tended to the prosperity of the country, was the discovery of the tin and silver mines of Jawara, in the tract wrested by Khetsi from the Bhils of Chappan.[4.6.28] Lakha Rana has the merit of having first worked them, though their existence is superstitiously alluded to so early as the period of the founder. It is said the ‘seven metals’ (haft-dhat)[4.6.29] were formerly [275] abundant; but this appears figurative. We have no evidence for the gold, though silver, tin, copper, lead, and antimony were yielded in abundance (the first two from the same matrix), but the tin that has been extracted for many years past yields but a small portion of silver.[4.6.30] Lakha Rana defeated the Sankhla Rajputs of Nagarchal,[4.6.31] at Amber. He encountered the emperor Muhammad Shah Lodi, and on one occasion defeated a royal army at Badnor; but he carried the war to Gaya, and in driving the barbarian from this sacred place was slain.[4.6.32] Lakha is a name of celebrity, as a patron of the arts and benefactor of his country. He excavated many reservoirs and lakes, raised immense ramparts to dam their waters, besides erecting strongholds. The riches of the mines of Jawara were expended to rebuild the temples and palaces levelled by Ala. A portion of his own palace yet exists, in the same style of architecture as that, more ancient, of Ratna and the fair Padmini; and a minster (mandir) dedicated to the creator (Brahma), an enormous and costly fabric, is yet entire. Being to ‘the One,’ and consequently containing no idol, it may thus have escaped the ruthless fury of the invaders.

Lakha had a numerous progeny, who have left their clans called after them, as the Lunawats and Dulawats, now the sturdy allodial proprietors of the Alpine regions bordering on Oghna, Panarwa, and other tracts in the Aravalli.[4.6.33] But a circumstance which set aside the rights of primogeniture, and transferred the crown of Chitor from his eldest son, Chonda, to the younger, Mokal, had nearly carried it to another line. The consequences of making the elder branch a powerful vassal clan with claims to the throne, and which have been the chief cause of its subsequent prostration, we will reserve for another chapter [276].

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Footnote 4.6.1:

[Rāna Lachhman Singh was not, strictly speaking, ruler of Chitor. He belonged to the Rāna branch, and succeeded Jai Singh. When Chitor was invested he came to help his relation, Rāwal Ratan Singh, husband of Padmini, and ruler of Chitor, and was killed, with seven of his sons (Erskine ii. B. 10).]

Footnote 4.6.2:

[‘The Lotus.’ Ferishta in his account of the siege says nothing of Padmini (i. 353 f.). Her story is told in Āīn, ii. 269 f.]

Footnote 4.6.3:

[A folk-tale of the ‘Horse of Troy’ type, common in India; see Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, 4 f.; Ferishta ii. 115; Grant Duff, Hist. Mahrattas, 64, note; cf. Herodotus v. 20.]

Footnote 4.6.4:

[Chitor was captured in August 1303 (Ferishta i. 353; Elliot-Dowson iii. 77).]

Footnote 4.6.5:

‘I am hungry.’

Footnote 4.6.6:

Lamp.

Footnote 4.6.7:

These are the insignia of royalty. The kirania is a parasol, from kiran, ‘a ray’: the chhatra is the umbrella, always red; the chamara, the flowing tail of the wild ox, set in a gold handle, and used to drive away the flies.

Footnote 4.6.8:

[Sir G. Grierson informs me that Johar or Jauhar is derived from Jatugriha, ‘a house built of lac or other combustibles,’ in allusion to the story in the Mahābhārata (i. chap. 141-151) of the attempted destruction of the Pāndavas by setting such a building on fire. For other examples of the rite see Ferishta i. 59 f.; Elliot-Dowson i. 313, 536 f., iii. 426, 433, iv. 277, 402, v. 101; Forbes, Rās Māla, 286; Malcolm, Memoir Central India, 2nd ed. i. 483. For recent cases Irvine, Army of the Indian Moghuls, 242; Punjab Notes and Queries, iv. 102 ff.]

Footnote 4.6.9:

The Author has been at the entrance of this retreat, which, according to the Khuman Raesa, conducts to a subterranean palace, but the mephitic vapours and venomous reptiles did not invite to adventure, even had official situation permitted such slight to these prejudices. The Author is the only Englishman admitted to Chitor since the days of Herbert, who appears to have described what he saw.

Footnote 4.6.10:

A stand is fixed upon four poles in the middle of a field, on which a guard is placed armed with a sling and clay balls, to drive away the ravens, peacocks, and other birds that destroy the corn.

Footnote 4.6.11:

One of the branches of the Chauhan.

Footnote 4.6.12:

[The same tale is told of Dhadīj, grandson of Prithirāj, the ancestor of the Dahiya Jāts (Rose, Glossary, ii. 220; Risley, People of India, 2nd ed., 179 f.).]

Footnote 4.6.13:

This is an idiomatic phrase; Hamir could have had no beard.

Footnote 4.6.14:

Des desa.

Footnote 4.6.15:

Ajaisi, Sajansi, Dalipji, Sheoji, Bhoraji, Deoraj, Ugarsen, Mahulji, Kheluji, Jankoji, Satuji, Sambhaji, Sivaji (the founder of the Mahratta nation), Sambhaji, Ramraja, usurpation of the Peshwas. The Satara throne, but for the jealousies of Udaipur, might on the imbecility of Ramraja have been replenished from Mewar. It was offered to Nathji, the grandfather of the present chief Sheodan Singh, presumptive heir to Chitor. Two noble lines were reared from princes of Chitor expelled on similar occasions; those of Sivaji and the Gorkhas of Nepal. [This pedigree is largely the work of the bards. But the Mahrattas, who seem to be chiefly sprung from the Kunbi peasantry, claim Rājput origin, and several of their clans bear Rājput names. It is said that in 1836 the Rāna of Mewār was satisfied that the Bhonslas and certain other families had the right to be regarded as Rājputs (Census Report, Bombay, 1901, i. 184 f.; Russell, Tribes and Castes Central Provinces, iv. 199 ff.).]

Footnote 4.6.16:

This is a poetical version of the name of Ajaisi; a liberty frequently taken by the bards for the sake of rhyme.

Footnote 4.6.17:

[From an inscription at Chitor it appears that the fort remained in the charge of Muhammadans up to the time of Muhammad Tughlak (1324-51), who appointed Māldeo of Jālor governor (Erskine ii. A. 16).]

Footnote 4.6.18:

The lake he excavated here, the Hamir-talao, and the temple of the protecting goddess on its bank, still bear witness of his acts while confined to this retreat.

Footnote 4.6.19:

See Plate, view of Kumbhalmer.

Footnote 4.6.20:

I have an inscription, and in Sanskrit, set up by an apostate chief or bard in his train, which I found in this tract.

Footnote 4.6.21:

This is the symbol of an offer of marriage.

Footnote 4.6.22:

The toran is the symbol of marriage. It consists of three wooden bars, forming an equilateral triangle; mystic in shape and number, and having the apex crowned with the effigies of a peacock, it is placed over the portal of the bride’s abode. At Udaipur, when the princes of Jaisalmer, Bikaner, and Kishangarh simultaneously married the two daughters and granddaughter of the Rana, the torans were suspended from the battlements of the tripolia, or three-arched portal, leading to the palace. The bridegroom on horseback, lance in hand, proceeds to break the toran (toran torna), which is defended by the damsels of the bride, who from the parapet assail him with missiles of various kinds, especially with a crimson powder made from the flowers of the palasa, at the same time singing songs fitted to the occasion, replete with double-entendres. At length the toran is broken amidst the shouts of the retainers; when the fair defenders retire. The similitude of these ceremonies in the north of Europe and in Asia increases the list of common affinities, and indicates the violence of rude times to obtain the object of affection; and the lance, with which the Rajput chieftain breaks the toran, has the same emblematic import as the spear, which, at the marriage of the nobles in Sweden, was a necessary implement in the furniture of the marriage chamber (vide Mallett, Northern Antiquities). [The custom perhaps represents a symbol of marriage by capture, but it has also been suggested that it symbolizes the luck of the bride’s family which the bridegroom acquires by touching the arch with his sword (see Luard, Ethnographic Survey Central India, 22; Enthoven, Folk-lore Notes Gujarāt, 69; Russell, Tribes and Castes Central Provinces, ii. 410).]

Footnote 4.6.23:

[Khetrpāl, Kshetrapāla, is guardian of the field (Kshetra).]

Footnote 4.6.24:

A kind of arquebuss [properly the gun-carriage. Irvine, Army of the Indian Moghuls, 140 ff.]

Footnote 4.6.25:

Ferishta does not mention this conquest over the Khilji emperor; but as Mewar recovered her wonted splendour in this reign, we cannot doubt the truth of the native annals. [There is a mistake here. The successor of Alāu-d-dīn was Kutbu-d-dīn Mubārak, who came to the throne in 1316. Ferishta says that Rāī Ratan Singh of Chitor, who had been taken prisoner in the siege, was released by the cleverness of his daughter, and that Alāu-d-dīn ordered his son, Khizr Khān, to evacuate the place, on which the Rāī became tributary to Alāu-d-dīn. Also in 1312 the Rājputs threw the Muhammadan officers over the ramparts and asserted their independence (Ferishta, trans. Briggs, i. 363, 381). Erskine says that the attack was made by Muhammad Tughlak (1324-51).]

Footnote 4.6.26:

[The Jain tower, known as Kirtti Stamb, ‘pillar of fame,’ erected in the twelfth or thirteenth century by Jīja, a Bagherwāl Mahājan, and dedicated to Ādināth, the first Jain Tīrthankara or saint.]

Footnote 4.6.27:

[The contemporary of Khet Singh at Delhi was Fīroz Shāh Tughlak.]

Footnote 4.6.28:

[The mines at Jāwar, sixteen miles south of Udaipur city, produce lead, zinc, and some silver. The mention of tin in the text seems wrong (Watt, Dict. Econ. Prod. vi. Part iv. 356; Comm. Prod. 1077).]

Footnote 4.6.29:

Haft-dhat, corresponding to the planets, each of which ruled a metal: hence Mihr, ‘the sun,’ for gold; Chandra, ‘the moon,’ for silver.

Footnote 4.6.30:

They have long been abandoned, the miners are extinct, and the protecting deities of mines are unable to get even a flower placed on their shrines, though some have been reconsecrated by the Bhils, who have converted Lakshmi into Sitalamata (Juno Lucina), whom the Bhil females invoke to pass them through danger.

Footnote 4.6.31:

Jhunjhunu, Singhana, and Narbana formed the ancient Nagarchal territory.

Footnote 4.6.32:

[There was no Sultān Muhammad Shāh Lodi, and that dynasty did not begin till 1451. Fīroz Shāh (1351-88) was contemporary of Laksh Singh at Delhi. It is not likely that a Rājput in the fourteenth century conducted a campaign at Gaya in Bengal; but, according to Har Bilas Sarda, author of a recent monograph on Rāna Kūmbha, the fact is corroborated by inscriptions, Peterson, Bhaunagar Inscriptions, 96, 117, 119.]

Footnote 4.6.33:

The Sarangdeot chief of Kanor (on the borders of Chappan), one of the sixteen lords of Mewar, is also a descendant of Lakha, as are some of the tribes of Sondwara, about Pharphara and the ravines of the Kali Sind.

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Chapter 7

If devotion to the fair sex be admitted as a criterion of civilization, the Rajput must rank high. His susceptibility is extreme, and fires at the slightest offence to female delicacy, which he never forgives. A satirical impromptu, involving the sacrifice of Rajput prejudices, dissolved the coalition of the Rathors and Kachhwahas, and laid each prostrate before the Mahrattas, whom when united they had crushed: and a jest, apparently trivial, compromised the right of primogeniture to the throne of Chitor, and proved more disastrous in its consequences than the arms either of Moguls or Mahrattas.

=Chonda renounces his Birthright.=—Lakha Rana was advanced in years, his sons and grandsons established in suitable domains, when ‘the coco-nut came’ from Ranmall, prince of Marwar, to affiance his daughter with Chonda, the heir of Mewar. When the embassy was announced, Chonda was absent, and the old chief was seated in his chair of state surrounded by his court. The messenger of Hymen was courteously received by Lakha, who observed that Chonda would soon return and take the gage; “for,” added he, drawing his fingers over his moustaches, “I don’t suppose you send such playthings to an old greybeard like me.” This little sally was of course applauded and repeated; but Chonda, offended at delicacy being sacrificed to wit, declined accepting the symbol which his father had even in jest supposed might be intended for him: and as it could not be returned without gross insult to Ranmall, the old Rana, incensed at his son’s obstinacy, agreed to accept it himself, provided Chonda would swear to renounce his birthright in the event of his having a son, and be to the child but the ‘first of his Rajputs.’ He swore by Eklinga to fulfil his father’s wishes.

=Rāna Mokala, A.D. 1397-1433.=—Mokalji was the issue of this union, and had attained the age of five when the Rana resolved to signalize his finale by a raid against the enemies of their faith [277], and to expel the ‘barbarian’ from the holy land of Gaya. In ancient times this was by no means uncommon, and we have several instances in the annals of these States of princes resigning ‘the purple’ on the approach of old age, and by a life of austerity and devotion, pilgrimage and charity, seeking to make their peace with heaven “for the sins inevitably committed by all who wield a sceptre.” But when war was made against their religion by the Tatar proselytes to Islam, the Sutlej and the Ghaggar were as the banks of the Jordan—Gaya, their Jerusalem, their holy land; and if there destiny filled his cup, the Hindu chieftain was secure of beatitude,[4.7.1] exempted from the troubles of ‘second birth’;[4.7.2] and borne from the scene of probation in celestial cars by the Apsaras,[4.7.3] was introduced at once into the ‘realm of the sun.’[4.7.4] Ere, however, the Rana of Chitor journeyed to this bourne, he was desirous to leave his throne unexposed to civil strife. The subject of succession had never been renewed; but discussing with Chonda his warlike pilgrimage to Gaya, from which he might not return, he sounded him by asking what estates should be settled on Mokal. “The throne of Chitor,” was the honest reply; and to set suspicion at rest, he desired that the ceremony of installation should be performed previous to Lakha’s departure. Chonda was the first to pay homage and swear obedience and fidelity to his future sovereign: reserving, as the recompense of his renunciation, the first place in the councils, and stipulating that in all grants to the vassals of the crown, his symbol (the lance) should be superadded to the autograph of the prince. In all grants the lance of Salumbar[4.7.5] still precedes the monogram of the Rana.[4.7.6]

The sacrifice of Chonda to offended delicacy and filial respect was great, for he had all the qualities requisite for command. Brave, frank, and skilful, he conducted all public affairs after his father’s departure and death, to the benefit of the minor and the State. The queen-mother, however, who is admitted as the natural guardian of her infant’s rights on all such occasions, felt umbrage and discontent at her loss of power; forgetting that, but for Chonda, she would never [278] have been mother to the Rana of Mewar. She watched with a jealous eye all his proceedings; but it was only through the medium of suspicion she could accuse the integrity of Chonda, and she artfully asserted that, under colour of directing state affairs, he was exercising absolute sovereignty, and that if he did not assume the title of Rana, he would reduce it to an empty name. Chonda, knowing the purity of his own motives, made liberal allowance for maternal solicitude; but upbraiding the queen with the injustice of her suspicions, and advising a vigilant care to the rights of Sesodias, he retired to the court of Mandu, then rising into notice, where he was received with the highest distinctions, and the district of Halar[4.7.7] was assigned to him by the king.

=Rāthor Influence in Mewār.=—His departure was the signal for an influx of the kindred of the queen from Mandor. Her brother Jodha (who afterwards gave his name to Jodhpur) was the first, and was soon followed by his father, Rao Ranmall, and numerous adherents, who deemed the arid region of Maru-des, and its rabri, or maize porridge, well exchanged for the fertile plains and wheaten bread of Mewar.

=Raghudeva, the Mewār Hero.=—With his grandson on his knee, the old Rao “would sit on the throne of Bappa Rawal, on whose quitting him for play, the regal ensigns of Mewar waved over the head of Mandor.” This was more than the Sesodia nurse[4.7.8] (an important personage in all Hindu governments) could bear, and bursting with indignation, she demanded of the queen if her kin was to defraud her own child of his inheritance. The honesty of the nurse was greater than her prudence. The creed of the Rajput is to ‘obtain sovereignty,’ regarding the means as secondary and this avowal of her suspicions only hastened their designs. The queen soon found herself without remedy, and a remonstrance to her father produced a hint which threatened the existence of her offspring. Her fears were soon after augmented by the assassination of Raghudeva, the second brother of Chonda, whose estates were Kelwara and Kawaria. To the former place, where he resided aloof from the court, Rao Ranmall sent a dress of honour, which etiquette requiring him to put on when presented, the prince was assassinated in the act. Raghudeva was so much beloved for his virtues, courage, and manly beauty, that his [279] murder became martyrdom, and obtained for him divine honours, and a place amongst the Di Patres (Pitrideva) of Mewar. His image is on every hearth, and is daily worshipped with the Penates. Twice in the year his altars receive public homage from every Sesodia, from the Rana to the serf.[4.7.9]

=The Expulsion of the Rāthor Party.=—In this extremity the queen-mother turned her thoughts to Chonda, and it was not difficult to apprise him of the danger which menaced the race, every place of trust being held by her kinsmen, and the principal post of Chitor by a Bhatti Rajput of Jaisalmer. Chonda, though at a distance, was not inattentive to the proverbially dangerous situation of a minor amongst the Rajputs. At his departure he was accompanied by two hundred Aherias or huntsmen, whose ancestors had served the princes of Chitor from ancient times. These had left their families behind, a visit to whom was the pretext for their introduction to the fort. They were instructed to get into the service of the keepers of the gates, and, being considered more attached to the place than to the family, their object was effected. The queen-mother was counselled to cause the young prince to descend daily with a numerous retinue to give feasts to the surrounding villages, and gradually to increase the distance, but not to fail on the ‘festival of lamps’[4.7.10] to hold the feast (got) at Gosunda.[4.7.11]

These injunctions were carefully attended to. The day arrived, the feast was held at Gosunda; but the night was closing in, and no Chonda appeared. With heavy hearts the nurse, the Purohit,[4.7.12] and those in the secret moved homeward, and had reached the eminence called Chitori, when forty horsemen passed them at the gallop, and at their head Chonda in disguise, who by a secret sign paid homage as he passed to his younger brother and sovereign. Chonda and [280] his band had reached the Rampol,[4.7.13] or upper gate, unchecked. Here, when challenged, they said they were neighbouring chieftains, who, hearing of the feast at Gosunda, had the honour to escort the prince home. The story obtained credit; but the main body, of which this was but the advance, presently coming up, the treachery was apparent. Chonda unsheathed his sword, and at his well-known shout the hunters were speedily in action. The Bhatti chief, taken by surprise, and unable to reach Chonda, launched his dagger at and wounded him, but was himself slain; the guards at the gates were cut to pieces, and the Rathors hunted out and killed without mercy.

=Death of Rāo Ranmall.=—The end of Rāo Ranmall was more ludicrous than tragical. Smitten with the charms of a Sesodia handmaid of the queen, who was compelled to his embrace, the old chief was in her arms, intoxicated with love, wine, and opium, and heard nothing of the tumult without. A woman’s wit and revenge combined to make his end afford some compensation for her loss of honour. Gently rising, she bound him to his bed with his own Marwari turban:[4.7.14] nor did this disturb him, and the messengers of fate had entered ere the opiate allowed his eyes to open to a sense of his danger. Enraged, he in vain endeavoured to extricate himself; and by some tortuosity of movement he got upon his legs, his pallet at his back like a shell or shield of defence. With no arms but a brass vessel of ablution, he levelled to the earth several of his assailants, when a ball from a matchlock extended him on the floor of the palace. His son Jodha was in the lower town, and was indebted to the fleetness of his steed for escaping the fate of his father and kindred, whose bodies strewed the terre-pleine of Chitor, the merited reward of their usurpation and treachery.

=The Revenge of Chonda.=—But Chonda’s revenge was not yet satisfied. He pursued Rao Jodha, who, unable to oppose him, took refuge with Harbuji Sankhla, leaving Mandor to its fate. This city Chonda entered by surprise, and holding it till his sons Kantatji and Manjaji arrived with reinforcements, the Rathor treachery was repaid by their keeping possession of the capital during twelve years. We might here leave the future founder of Jodhpur, had not this feud led to the junction of the rich [281] province of Godwar to Mewar, held for three centuries and again lost by treachery. It may yet involve a struggle between the Sesodias and Rathors.[4.7.15]

“Sweet are the uses of adversity.” To Jodha it was the first step in the ladder of his eventual elevation. A century and a half had scarcely elapsed since a colony, the wreck of Kanauj, found an asylum, and at length a kingdom, taking possession of one capital and founding another, abandoning Mandor and erecting Jodhpur. But even Jodha could never have hoped that his issue would have extended their sway from the valley of the Indus to within one hundred miles of the Jumna, and from the desert bordering on the Sutlej to the Aravalli mountains: that one hundred thousand swords should at once be in the hands of Rathors, ‘the sons of one father’ (ek Bap ke Betan).

If we slightly encroach upon the annals of Marwar, it is owing to its history and that of Mewar being here so interwoven, and the incidents these events gave birth so illustrative of the national character of each, that it is, perhaps, more expedient to advert to the period when Jodha was shut out from Mandor, and the means by which he regained that city, previous to relating the events of the reign of Mokal.

=Harbuji Sānkhla.=—Harbuji Sankhla, at once a soldier and a devotee, was one of those Rajput cavaliers ‘sans peur et sans reproche,’ whose life of celibacy and perilous adventure was mingled with the austere devotion of an ascetic; by turns aiding with his lance the cause which he deemed worthy, or exercising an unbounded hospitality towards the stranger. This generosity had much reduced his resources when Jodha sought his protection. It was the eve of the Sada-bart, one of those hospitable rites which, in former times, characterized Rajwara. This ‘perpetual charity’ supplies food to the stranger and traveller, and is distributed not only by individual chiefs and by the government, but by subscriptions of communities. Even in Mewar, in her present impoverished condition, the offerings to the gods in support of their shrines and the establishment of the Sada-bart were simultaneous. Hospitality is a virtue pronounced to belong more peculiarly to a semi-barbarous condition. Alas! for refinement and ultra-civilization, strangers to the happiness enjoyed by Harbuji Sankhla. Jodha, with one hundred and twenty followers, came to solicit the ‘stranger’s fare’: but unfortunately it was too late, the Sada-bart had been distributed. In this exigence, Harbuji recollected that there was a wood [282] called mujd,[4.7.16] used in dyeing, which among other things in the desert regions is resorted to in scarcity. A portion of this was bruised, and boiled with some flour, sugar, and spices, making altogether a palatable pottage; and with a promise of better fare on the morrow, it was set before the young Rao and his followers, who, after making a good repast, soon forgot Chitor in sleep. On waking, each stared at his fellow, for their mustachios were dyed with their evening’s meal; but the old chief, who was not disposed to reveal his expedient, made it minister to their hopes by giving it a miraculous character, and saying “that as the grey of age was thus metamorphosed into the tint of morn[4.7.17] and hope, so would their fortunes become young, and Mandor again be theirs.”

Elevated by this prospect, they enlisted Harbuji on their side. He accompanied them to the chieftain of Mewa, “whose stables contained one hundred chosen steeds.” Pabuji, a third independent of the same stamp, with his ‘coal-black steed,’ was gained to the cause, and Jodha soon found himself strong enough to attempt the recovery of his capital. The sons of Chonda were taken by surprise: but despising the numbers of the foe, and ignorant who were their auxiliaries, they descended sword in hand to meet the assailants. The elder[4.7.18] son of Chonda with many adherents was slain; and the younger, deserted by the subjects of Mandor, trusted to the swiftness of his horse for escape; but being pursued, was overtaken and killed on the boundary of Godwar. Thus Jodha, in his turn, was revenged, but the ‘feud was not balanced.’ Two sons of Chitor had fallen for one chief of Mandor. But wisely reflecting on the original aggression, and the superior power of Mewar, as well as his being indebted for his present success to foreign aid, Jodha sued for peace, and offered as the mundkati, or ‘price of blood,’ and ‘to quench the feud,’ that the spot where Manja fell should be the future barrier of the two States. The entire province of Godwar was comprehended in the cession, which for three centuries withstood every contention, till the internal dissensions of the last half century, which grew out of the cause by which [283] it was obtained, and the change of succession in Mewar severed this most valuable acquisition.[4.7.19]

Who would imagine, after such deadly feuds between these rival States, that in the very next succession these hostile frays were not only buried in oblivion, but that the prince of Marwar abjured ‘his turban and his bed’ till he had revenged the assassination of the prince of Chitor, and restored his infant heir to his rights? The annals of these States afford numerous instances of the same hasty, overbearing temperament governing all; easily moved to strife, impatient of revenge, and steadfast in its gratification. But this satisfied, resentment subsides. A daughter of the offender given to wife banishes its remembrance, and when the bard joins the lately rival names in the couplet, each will complacently curl his mustachio over his lip as he hears his ‘renown expand like the lotus,’ and thus ‘the feud is extinguished.’ Thus have they gone on from time immemorial, and will continue, till what we may fear to contemplate. They have now neither friend nor foe but the British. The Tatar invader sleeps in his tomb, and the Mahratta depredator is muzzled and enchained. To return.

=Mokal, A.D. 1397-1433.=—Mokal, who obtained the throne by Chonda’s surrender of his birthright, was not destined long to enjoy the distinction, though he evinced qualities worthy of heading the Sesodias. He ascended the throne in S. 1454 (A.D. 1398), at an important era in the history of India; when Timur, who had already established the race of Chagatai in the kingdoms of Central Asia, and laid prostrate the throne of Byzantium, turned his arms towards India. But it was not a field for his ambition; and the event is not even noticed in the annals of Mewar: a proof that it did not affect their repose. But they record an attempted invasion by the king of Delhi, which is erroneously stated to have been by Firoz Shah. A grandson of this prince had indeed been set up, and compelled to flee from the arms of Timur, and as the direction of his flight was Gujarat, it is not unlikely that the recorded attempt to penetrate by the passes of Mewar may have been his [284]. Be this as it may, the Rana Mokal anticipated and met him beyond the passes of the Aravalli, in the field of Raepur, and compelled him to abandon his enterprise. Pursuing his success, he took possession of Sambhar and its salt lakes, and otherwise extended and strengthened his territory, which the distracted state of the empire consequent to Timur’s invasion rendered a matter of little difficulty. Mokal finished the palace commenced by Lakha, now a mass of ruins; and erected the shrine of Chaturbhuja, ‘the four-armed deity,’[4.7.20] in the western hills.

=Lāl Bāi.=—Besides three sons, Rana Mokal had a daughter, celebrated for her beauty, called Lal Bai, or ‘the ruby.’ She was betrothed to the Khichi chieftain of Gagraun, who at the Hathleva[4.7.21] demanded the pledge of succour on foreign invasion. Dhiraj, the son of the Khichi, had come to solicit the stipulated aid against Hoshang of Malwa, who had invested their capital. The Rana’s headquarters were then at Madri, and he was employed in quelling a revolt of the mountaineers, when Dhiraj arrived and obtained the necessary aid. Madri was destined to be the scene of the termination of Mokal’s career: he was assassinated by his uncles, the natural brothers of his father, from an unintentional offence, which tradition has handed down in all its details.

=Assassination of Rāna Mokal.=—Chacha and Mera were the natural sons of Khetsi Rana (the predecessor of Lakha); their mother a fair handmaid of low descent, generally allowed to be a carpenter’s daughter. ‘The fifth sons of Mewar’ (as the natural children are figuratively termed) possess no rank, and though treated with kindness, and entrusted with confidential employments, the sons of the chiefs of the second class take precedence of them, and ‘sit higher on the carpet.’ These brothers had the charge of seven hundred horse in the train of Rana Mokal at Madri. Some chiefs at enmity with them, conceiving that they had overstepped their privileges, wished to see them humiliated. Chance procured them the opportunity: which, however, cost their prince his life. Seated in a grove with his chiefs around him, he inquired the name of a particular tree. The Chauhan chief, feigning ignorance, whispered him to ask either of the brothers; and not perceiving their scope, he artlessly did so. “Uncle, what tree is this?” The sarcasm thus prompted they considered as reflecting on their birth (being sons [285] of the carpenter’s daughter), and the same day, while Mokal was at his devotions, and in the act of counting his rosary, one blow severed his arm from his body, while another stretched him lifeless. The brothers, quickly mounting their steeds, had the audacity to hope to surprise Chitor, but the gates were closed upon them.

=Rāna Kūmbha, A.D. 1433-68.=—Though the murder of Mokal is related to have no other cause than the sarcasm alluded to, the precautions taken by the young prince Kumbha,[4.7.22] his successor, would induce a belief that this was but the opening of a deep-laid conspiracy. The traitors returned to the stronghold near Madri, and Kumbha trusted to the friendship and good feeling of the prince of Marwar in this emergency. His confidence was well repaid. The prince put his son at the head of a force, and the retreat of the assassins being near his own frontier, they were encountered and dislodged. From Madri they fled to Pai, where they strengthened a fortress in the mountains named Ratakot; a lofty peak of the compound chain which encircles Udaipur, visible from the surrounding country, as are the remains of this stronghold of the assassins. It would appear that their lives were dissolute, for they had carried off the virgin daughter of a Chauhan, which led to their eventual detection and punishment. Her father, Suja, had traced the route of the ravishers, and, mixing with the workmen, found that the approaches to the place of their concealment were capable of being scaled. He was about to lay his complaint before his prince, when he met the cavalcade of Kumbha and the Rathor. The distressed father, ‘covering his face,’ disclosed the story of his own and daughter’s dishonour. They encamped till night at Delwara, when, led by the Chandana, they issued forth to surprise the authors of so many evils.

=Suja and the Tiger.=—Arrived at the base of the rock, where the parapet was yet low, they commenced the escalade, aided by the thick foliage. The path was steep and rugged, and in the darkness of the night each had grasped his neighbour’s skirt for security. Animated by a just revenge, the Chauhan (Suja) led the way, when on reaching a ledge of the rock the glaring eyeballs of a tigress flashed upon him. Undismayed, he squeezed the hand of the Rathor prince who followed him, and who on perceiving the object of terror instantly buried his poignard in her heart. This omen was superb. They soon reached the summit. Some had ascended the parapet; others were scrambling over, when the minstrel [286] slipping, fell, and his drum, which was to have accompanied his voice in singing the conquest, awoke by its crash the daughter of Chacha. Her father quieted her fears by saying it was only “the thunder and the rains of Bhadon”: to fear God only and go to sleep, for their enemies were safe at Kelwa. At this moment the Rao and his party rushed in. Chacha and Mera had no time to avoid their fate. Chacha was cleft in two by the Chandana, while the Rathor prince laid Mera at his feet, and the spoils of Ratakot were divided among the assailants.

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Footnote 4.7.1:

Mukti.

Footnote 4.7.2:

This is a literal phrase, denoting further transmigration of the soul, which is always deemed a punishment. The soldier who falls in battle in the faithful performance of his duty is alone exempted, according to their martial mythology, from the pains of ‘second birth.’

Footnote 4.7.3:

The fair messengers of heaven.

Footnote 4.7.4:

Suraj Mandal.

Footnote 4.7.5:

The abode of the chief of the various clans of Chondawat.

Footnote 4.7.6:

Vide p. 235.

Footnote 4.7.7:

[Hālār in W. Kāthiāwār (BG, viii. 4).]

Footnote 4.7.8:

The Dhāi. The Dhābhāis, or ‘foster-brothers,’ often hold lands in perpetuity, and are employed in the most confidential places; on embassies, marriages, etc.

Footnote 4.7.9:

On the 8th day of the Dasahra, or ‘military festival,’ when the levies are mustered at the Chaugan, or ‘Champ de Mars,’ and on the 10th of Chait his altars are purified, and his image is washed and placed thereon. Women pray for the safety of their children; husbands, that their wives may be fruitful. Previously to this, a son of Bappa Rawal was worshipped; but after the enshrinement of Raghudeva, the adoration of Kulisputra was gradually abolished. Nor is this custom confined to Mewar: there is a deified Putra in every Rajput family—one who has met a violent death. Besides Eklinga, the descendants of Bappa have adopted numerous household divinities: the destinies of life and death, Baenmata the goddess of the Chawaras, Nagnachian the serpent divinity of the Rathors, and Khetrapal, or ‘fosterer of the field,’ have with many others obtained a place on the Sesodia altars. This festival may not unaptly be compared to that of Adonis amongst the Greeks, for the Putra is worshipped chiefly by women.

Footnote 4.7.10:

The Diwali, from diwa, ‘a lamp.’ This festival is in honour of Lakshmi, goddess of wealth.

Footnote 4.7.11:

Seven miles south of Chitor, on the road to Malwa.

Footnote 4.7.12:

The family priest and instructor of youth.

Footnote 4.7.13:

Rampol, ‘the gate of Ram.’

Footnote 4.7.14:

Often sixty cubits in length.

Footnote 4.7.15:

[Godwār, including the Bāli and Desuri districts in S.E. Mārwār, is now known as the Desuri Hukūmat: see Erskine iii. A. 180 f.]

Footnote 4.7.16:

The wood of Solomon’s temple is called almug; the prefix al is merely the article [?]. This is the wood also mentioned in the annals of Gujarat, of which the temple to Adinath was constructed. It is said to be indestructible even by fire. It has been surmised that the fleets of Tyre frequented the Indian coast: could they thence have carried the Almujd for the temple of Solomon? [Almug, according to the Encyclopædia Biblica (i. 1196) is either Brazil-wood or red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus). Sir G. Watt, who has kindly examined the question, thinks it very improbable that the mujd of the text is almug wood, because neither the true sandalwood (Santalum album) nor the red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus) is found in Rājputāna. He identifies the mujd of the text with Moringa concanensis, a small tree found wild in Sind and the Konkan, which yields a gum of considerable value, and its congener Moringa pterygosperma (Comm. Prod. 784), the horse-radish tree of India, is used as a dye in Jamaica, and probably could be so used in India.]

Footnote 4.7.17:

This wood has a brownish-red tint.

Footnote 4.7.18:

This is related with some variation in other annals of the period.

Footnote 4.7.19:

There is little hope, while British power acts as high constable and keeper of the peace in Rajwara, of this being recovered: nor, were it otherwise, would it be desirable to see it become an object of contention between these States. Marwar has attained much grandeur since the time of Jodha, and her resources are more unbroken than those of Mewar, who, if she could redeem, could not, from its exposed position, maintain the province against the brave Rathor.

Footnote 4.7.20:

[The four-armed Vishnu, the favourite deity of the Mertia Rāthors (Census Report, Rajputana, 1891, ii. 26).]

Footnote 4.7.21:

The ceremony of joining hands.

Footnote 4.7.22:

[His mother was a Pramār, Subhāgya Devi, daughter of Rāja Jaitmall, Sānkhla.]

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Chapter 8

=Rāna Kūmbha, A.D. 1433-68.=—Kumbha succeeded his father in S. 1475 (A.D. 1419);[4.8.1] nor did any symptom of dissatisfaction appear to usher in his reign, which was one of great success amidst no common difficulties. The bardic historians[4.8.2] do as much honour to the Marwar prince, who had made common cause with their sovereign in revenging the death of his father, as if it had involved the security of his crown; but this was a precautionary measure of the prince, who was induced thus to act from several motives, and, above all, in accordance with usage, which stigmatizes the refusal of aid when demanded: besides ‘Kumbha was the nephew of Marwar.’

It has rarely occurred in any country to have possessed successively so many energetic princes as ruled Mewar through several centuries. She was now in the middle path of her glory, and enjoying the legitimate triumph of seeing the foes of her religion captives on the rock of her power. A century had elapsed since the bigot Ala had wreaked his vengeance on the different monuments of art. Chitor had recovered the sack, and new defenders had sprung up in the place [287] of those who had fallen in their ‘saffron robes,’ a sacrifice for her preservation. All that was wanting to augment her resources against the storms which were collecting on the brows of Caucasus and the shores of the Oxus, and were destined to burst on the head of his grandson Sanga, was effected by Kumbha; who with Hamir’s energy, Lakha’s taste for the arts, and a genius comprehensive as either and more fortunate, succeeded in all his undertakings, and once more raised the ‘crimson banner’ of Mewar upon the banks of the Ghaggar, the scene of Samarsi’s defeat. Let us contrast the patriarchal Hindu governments of this period with the despotism of the Tatar invader.

From the age of Shihabu-d-din, the conqueror of India, and his contemporary Samarsi, to the time we have now reached, two entire dynasties, numbering twenty-four emperors and one empress, through assassination, rebellion, and dethronement, had followed in rapid succession, yielding a result of only nine years to a reign. Of Mewar, though several fell in defending their altars at home or their religion abroad, eleven princes suffice to fill the same period.

It was towards the close of the Khilji dynasty that the satraps of Delhi shook off its authority and established subordinate kingdoms: Bijapur and Golkonda in the Deccan; Malwa, Gujarat, Jaunpur in the east; and even Kalpi had its king. Malwa and Gujarat had attained considerable power when Kumbha ascended the throne. In the midst of his prosperity these two States formed a league against him, and in S. 1496 (A.D. 1440) both kings, at the head of powerful armies, invaded Mewar. Kumbha met them on the plains of Malwa bordering on his own State, and at the head of one hundred thousand horse and foot and fourteen hundred elephants, gave them an entire defeat, carrying captive to Chitor Mahmud the Khilji sovereign of Malwa.

Abu-l Fazl relates this victory, and dilates on Kumbha’s greatness of soul in setting his enemy at liberty, not only without ransom but with gifts.[4.8.3] Such is the character of the Hindu: a mixture of arrogance, political blindness, pride, and generosity. To spare a prostrate foe is the creed of the Hindu cavalier, and he carries all such maxims to excess. The annals, however, state that Mahmud was confined six months in Chitor; and that the trophies of conquest were retained we have evidence from Babur, who mentions receiving from the son of his opponent, Sanga, the crown of the Malwa king.

=The Tower of Victory.=—But there is a more durable [288] monument than this written record of victory: the triumphal pillar in Chitor, whose inscriptions detail the event, “when, shaking the earth, the lords of Gujarkhand and Malwa, with armies overwhelming as the ocean, invaded Medpat.” Eleven years after this event Kumbha laid the foundations of this column, which was completed in ten more: a period apparently too short to place “this ringlet on the brow of Chitor, which makes her look down upon Meru with derision.” We will leave it, with the aspiration that it may long continue a monument of the fortune of its founders.[4.8.4]

It would appear that the Malwa king afterwards united his arms with Kumbha, as, in a victory gained over the imperial forces at Jhunjhunu, when ‘he planted his standard in Hissar,’ the Malwa troops were combined with those of Mewar. The imperial power had at this period greatly declined: the Khutba was read in the mosques in the name of Timur, and the Malwa king had defeated, single-handed, the last Ghorian sultan of Delhi.

=The Fortresses of Mewār.=—Of eighty-four fortresses for the defence of Mewar, thirty-two were erected by Kumbha. Inferior only to Chitor is that stupendous work called after him Kumbhalmer,[4.8.5] ‘the hill of Kumbha,’ from its natural position, and the works he raised, impregnable to a native army. These works were on the site of a more ancient fortress, of which the mountaineers long held possession. Tradition ascribes it to Samprati Raja, a Jain prince in the second century, and a descendant of Chandragupta;[4.8.6] and the ancient Jain temples appear to confirm the tradition. When Kumbha captured Nagor he brought away the gates, with the statue of the god Hanuman, who gives his name to the gate which he still guards. He also erected a citadel on a peak of Abu, within the fortress of the ancient Pramara, where he often resided. Its magazine and alarm-tower still bear Kumbha’s name; and in a rude temple the bronze effigies of Kumbha and his father still receive divine honours.[4.8.7] Centuries have passed since the princes of Mewar had influence here, but the incident marks the vivid remembrance of their condition. He fortified the passes between the western frontier and Abu, and erected the fort Vasanti near the present Sirohi, and that of Machin, to defend the Shero Nala and Deogarh against the Mers of Aravalli. He re-established Ahor and other smaller [289] forts to overawe the Bhumia[4.8.8] Bhil of Jharol and Panarwa, and defined the boundaries of Marwar and Mewar.

=Temples.=—Besides these monuments of his genius, two consecrated to religion have survived: that of Kumbha Sham, on Abu, which, though worthy to attract notice elsewhere, is here eclipsed by a crowd of more interesting objects; the other, one of the largest edifices existing, cost upwards of a million sterling, towards which Kumbha contributed eighty thousand pounds. It is erected in the Sadri pass leading from the western descent of the highlands of Mewar, and is dedicated to Rishabhadeva.[4.8.9] Its secluded position has preserved it from bigoted fury, and its only visitants now are the wild beasts who take shelter in its sanctuary. Kumbha Rana was also a poet: but in a far more elevated strain than the troubadour princes, his neighbours, who contented themselves with rehearsing their own prowess or celebrating their lady’s beauty. He composed a tika, or appendix to the ‘Divine Melodies,’[4.8.10] in praise of Krishna. We can pass no judgment on these inspirations of the royal bard, as we are ignorant whether any are preserved in the records of the house: a point his descendant, who is deeply skilled in such lore, might probably answer.

=Mīra Bāi.=—Kumbha married a daughter of the Rathor of Merta, the first of the clans of Marwar. Mira Bai[4.8.11] was the most celebrated princess of her time for beauty and romantic piety. Her compositions were numerous, though better known to the worshippers of the Hindu Apollo than to the ribald bards. Some of her odes and hymns to the deity are preserved and admired. Whether she imbibed her poetic piety from her husband, or whether from her he caught the sympathy which produced the ‘sequel to the songs of Govinda,’ we cannot determine. Her history is a romance, and her excess of devotion at every shrine of the favourite deity with the fair of Hind, from the Yamuna to ‘the world’s end,’[4.8.12] gave rise to many [290] tales of scandal. Kumbha mixed gallantry with his warlike pursuits. He carried off the daughter of the chief of Jhalawar, who had been betrothed to the prince of Mandor: this renewed the old feud, and the Rathor made many attempts to redeem his affianced bride. His humiliation was insupportable, when through the purified atmosphere of the periodical rains “the towers of Kumbhalmer became visible from the castle of Mandor, and the light radiated from the chamber of the fair through the gloom of a night in Bhadon,[4.8.13] to the hall where he brooded o’er his sorrows.” It was surmised that this night-lamp was an understood signal of the Jhalani, who pined at the decree which ambition had dictated to her father, in consigning her to the more powerful rival of her affianced lord. The Rathor exhausted every resource to gain access to the fair, and had once nearly succeeded in a surprise by escalade, having cut his way in the night through the forest in the western and least guarded acclivity: but, as the bard equivocally remarks, "though he cut his way through the jhal (brushwood), he could not reach the Jhalani."

=The Assassination of Rāna Kūmbha, A.D. 1468.=—Kumbha had occupied the throne half a century; he had triumphed over the enemies of his race, fortified his country with strongholds, embellished it with temples, and with the superstructure of her fame had laid the foundation of his own—when, the year which should have been a jubilee was disgraced by the foulest blot in the annals; and his life, which nature was about to close, terminated by the poignard of an assassin—that assassin, his son!

=Rāna Uda, A.D. 1468-73.=—This happened in S. 1525 (A.D. 1469). Uda was the name of the parricide, whose unnatural ambition, and impatience to enjoy a short lustre of sovereignty, bereft of life the author of his existence. But such is the detestation which marks this unusual crime that, like that of the Venetian traitor, his name is left a blank in the annals, nor is Uda known but by the epithet Hatyara, ‘the murderer.’ Shunned by his kin, and compelled to look abroad for succour to maintain him on the throne polluted by his crime, Mewar in five years of illegitimate rule lost half the consequence which had cost so many to acquire. He made the Deora prince independent in Abu, and bestowed Sambhar, Ajmer, and adjacent districts on the prince of Jodhpur[4.8.14] as the price of his friendship. But, a prey to remorse, he felt that he [291] could neither claim regard from, nor place any dependence upon, these princes, though he bribed them with provinces. He humbled himself before the king of Delhi, offering him a daughter in marriage to obtain his sanction to his authority; “but heaven manifested its vengeance to prevent this additional iniquity, and preserve the house of Bappa Rawal from dishonour.” He had scarcely quitted the divan (diwankhana), on taking leave of the king, when a flash of lightning struck the Hatyara to the earth, whence he never arose.[4.8.15] The bards pass over this period cursorily, as one of their race was the instrument of Uda’s crime.

=Banishment of the Chārans.=—There has always been a jealousy between the Mangtas, as they term all classes ‘who extend the palm,’ whether Brahmans, Yatis, Charans, or Bhats; but since Hamir, the Charan influence had far eclipsed the rest. A Brahman astrologer predicted Kumbha’s death through a Charan, and as the class had given other cause of offence, Kumbha banished the fraternity his dominions, resuming all their lands: a strong measure in those days, and which few would have had nerve to attempt or firmness to execute. The heir-apparent, Raemall, who was exiled to Idar for what his father deemed an impertinent curiosity,[4.8.16] had attached one of these bards to his suite, whose ingenuity got the edict set aside, and his race restored to their lands and the prince’s favour. Had they taken off the Brahman’s head, they might have falsified the prediction which unhappily was too soon fulfilled.[4.8.17]

=Rāna Rāemall, A.D. 1473-1508.=—Raemall succeeded in S. 1530 (A.D. 1474) by his own valour to the seat of Kumbha. He had fought and defeated the usurper, who on this occasion fled to the king of Delhi and offered him a daughter of Mewar. After his death in the manner described, the Delhi monarch, with Sahasmall [292] and Surajmall, sons of the parricide, invaded Mewar, encamping at Siarh, now Nathdwara. The chiefs were faithful to their legitimate prince, Raemall, and aided by his allies of Abu and Girnar, at the head of fifty-eight thousand horse and eleven thousand foot, he gave battle to the pretender and his imperial ally at Ghasa. The conflict was ferocious. ‘The streams ran blood,’ for the sons of the usurper were brave as lions; but the king was so completely routed that he never again entered Mewar.

Raemall bestowed one daughter on Surji (Yadu), the chief of Girnar; and another on the Deora, Jaimall of Sirohi, confirming his title to Abu as her dower. He sustained the warlike reputation of his predecessors, and carried on interminable strife with Ghiyasu-d-din of Malwa, whom he defeated in several pitched battles, to the success of which the valour of his nephews, whom he had pardoned, mainly contributed. In the last of these encounters the Khilji king sued for peace, renouncing the pretensions he had formerly urged.[4.8.18] The dynasty of Lodi next enjoyed the imperial bauble, and with it Mewar had to contest her northern boundary.

=The Sons of Rāna Rāemall.=—Raemall had three sons, celebrated in the annals of Rajasthan: Sanga, the competitor of Babur, Prithiraj, the Rolando of his age, and Jaimall. Unhappily for the country and their father’s repose, fraternal affection was discarded for deadly hate, and their feuds and dissensions were a source of constant alarm. Had discord not disunited them, the reign of Raemall would have equalled any of his predecessors. As it was, it presented a striking contrast to them: his two elder sons banished; the first, Sanga, self-exiled from perpetual fear of his life, and Prithiraj, the second, from his turbulence; while the youngest, Jaimall, was slain through his intemperance. A sketch of these feuds will present a good picture of the Rajput character, and their mode of life when their arms were not required against their country’s foes.

Sanga[4.8.19] and Prithiraj were the offspring of the Jhali queen; Jaimall was by another mother. What moral influence the name he bore had on Prithiraj we can surmise only from his actions, which would stand comparison with those of his prototype [293] the Chauhan of Delhi, and are yet the delight of the Sesodia. When they assemble at the feast after a day’s sport, or in a sultry evening spread the carpet on the terrace to inhale the leaf or take a cup of kusumbha,[4.8.20] a tale of Prithiraj recited by the bard is the highest treat they can enjoy. Sanga, the heir-apparent, was a contrast to his brother. Equally brave, his courage was tempered by reflection; while Prithiraj burned with a perpetual thirst for action, and often observed “that fate must have intended him to rule Mewar.” The three brothers, with their uncle, Surajmall, were one day discussing these topics, when Sanga observed that, though heir to ‘the ten thousand towns’ of Mewar, he would waive his claims, and trust them, as did the Roman brothers, to the omen which should be given by the priestess of Charani Devi at Nahra Magra,[4.8.21] the ‘Tiger’s Mount.’ They repaired to her abode. Prithiraj and Jaimall entered first, and seated themselves on a pallet: Sanga followed and took possession of the panther hide of the prophetess; his uncle, Surajmall, with one knee resting thereon. Scarcely had Prithiraj disclosed their errand, when the sibyl pointed to the panther-hide[4.8.22] as the decisive omen of sovereignty to Sanga, with a portion to his uncle. They received the decree as did the twins of Rome. Prithiraj drew his sword and would have falsified the omen, had not Surajmall stepped in and received the blow destined for Sanga, while the prophetess fled from their fury. Surajmall and Prithiraj were exhausted with wounds, and Sanga fled with five sword-cuts and an arrow in his eye, which destroyed the sight for ever. He made for the sanctuary of Chaturbhuja, and passing Sivanti, took refuge with Bida (Udawat), who was accoutred for a journey, his steed standing by him. Scarcely had he assisted the wounded heir of Mewar to alight when Jaimall galloped up in pursuit. The Rathor guarded the sanctuary, and gave up his life in defence of his guest, who meanwhile escaped.

=Retirement of Sanga.=—Prithiraj recovered from his wounds; and Sanga, aware of his implacable enmity, had recourse to many expedients to avoid discovery. He, who at a future period leagued a hundred thousand men against the descendant of Timur, was compelled to associate with goat-herds, expelled the peasant’s abode as too stupid [294] to tend his cattle, and, precisely like our Alfred the Great, having in charge some cakes of flour, was reproached with being more desirous of eating than tending them. A few faithful Rajputs found him in this state, and, providing him with arms and a horse, they took service with Rao Karamchand, Pramar, chief of Srinagar,[4.8.23] and with him ‘ran the country.’ After one of these raids, Sanga one day alighted under a banian tree, and placing his dagger under his head, reposed, while two of his faithful Rajputs, whose names are preserved,[4.8.24] prepared his repast, their steeds grazing by them. A ray of the sun penetrating the foliage, fell on Sanga’s face, and discovered a snake, which, feeling the warmth, had uncoiled itself and was rearing its crest over the head of the exile:[4.8.25] a bird of omen[4.8.26] had perched itself on the crested serpent, and was chattering aloud. A goat-herd named Maru, ‘versed in the language of birds,’ passed at the moment Sanga awoke. The prince repelled the proffered homage of the goat-herd, who, however, had intimated to the Pramara chief that he was served by ‘royalty.’[4.8.27] The Pramara kept the secret, and gave Sanga a daughter to wife, and protection till the tragical end of his brother called him to the throne.

=The Adventures of Prithirāj.=—When the Rana heard of the quarrel which had nearly deprived him of his heir, he banished Prithiraj, telling him that he might live on his bravery and maintain himself with strife. With but five horse[4.8.28] Prithiraj quitted the paternal abode, and made for Bali in Godwar. These dissensions following the disastrous conclusion of the last reign, paralysed the country, and the wild tribes of the west and the mountaineers of the Aravalli so little respected the garrison of Nadol (the chief town of Godwar), that they carried their depredations to the plains. Prithiraj halted at Nadol, and having to procure some necessaries pledged a ring to the merchant who had sold it to him; the merchant recognized the prince, and learning the cause of his disguise, proffered his services in the scheme which the prince had in view for the restoration of order in Godwar, being determined to evince to his father that he had resources independent of birth. The Minas were the aboriginal proprietors of all these regions; the Rajputs were interlopers and conquerors. A Rawat of this tribe had regained their ancient haunts, and held his petty court at the [295] town of Narlai in the plains, and was even served by Rajputs. By the advice of Ojha, the merchant, Prithiraj enlisted himself and his band among the adherents of the Mina. On the Aheria, or ‘hunter’s festival,’ the vassals have leave to rejoin their families. Prithiraj, who had also obtained leave, rapidly retraced his steps, and despatching his Rajputs to dislodge the Mina, awaited the result in ambush at the gate of the town. In a short time the Mina appeared on horseback, and in full flight to the mountains for security, Prithiraj pursued, overtook, and transfixed him with his lance to a kesula tree, and setting fire to the village, he slew the Minas as they sought to escape the flames. Other towns shared the same fate, and all the province of Godwar, with the exception of Desuri, a stronghold of the Madrecha Chauhans, fell into his power. At this time Sada Solanki, whose ancestor had escaped the destruction of Patan and found refuge in these mountainous tracts, held Sodhgarh. He had espoused a daughter of the Madrecha, but the grant of Desuri and its lands[4.8.29] in perpetuity easily gained him to the cause of Prithiraj.

Prithiraj having thus restored order in Godwar, and appointed Ojha and the Solanki to the government thereof, regained the confidence of his father; and his brother Jaimall being slain at this time, accelerated his forgiveness and recall. Ere he rejoins Raemall we will relate the manner of this event. Jaimall was desirous to obtain the hand of Tara Bai, daughter of Rao Surthan,[4.8.30] who had been expelled Toda by the Pathans. The price of her hand was the recovery of this domain: but Jaimall, willing to anticipate the reward, and rudely attempting access to the fair, was slain by the indignant father. The quibbling remark of the bard upon this event is that "Tara was not the star (tara) of his destiny." At the period of this occurrence Sanga was in concealment, Prithiraj banished, and Jaimall consequently looked to as the heir of Mewar. The Rana, when incited to revenge, replied with a magnanimity which deserves to be recorded, "that he who had thus dared to insult the honour of a [296] father, and that father in distress, richly merited his fate"; and in proof of his disavowal of such a son he conferred on the Solanki the district of Badnor.

=Prithirāj recalled.=—This event led to the recall of Prithiraj, who eagerly took up the gage disgraced by his brother. The adventure was akin to his taste. The exploit which won the hand of the fair Amazon, who, equipped with bow and quiver, subsequently accompanied him in many perilous enterprises, will be elsewhere related.

Surajmall (the uncle), who had fomented these quarrels, resolved not to belie the prophetess if a crown lay in his path. The claims acquired from his parricidal parent were revived when Mewar had no sons to look to. Prithiraj on his return renewed the feud with Surajmall, whose ‘vaulting ambition’ persuaded him that the crown was his destiny, and he plunged deep into treason to obtain it. He joined as partner in his schemes Sarangdeo, another descendant of Lakha Rana, and both repaired to Muzaffar, the sultan of Malwa.[4.8.31] With his aid they assailed the southern frontier, and rapidly possessed themselves of Sadri, Bataro, and a wide tract extending from Nai to Nimach, attempting even Chitor. With the few troops at hand Raemall descended to punish the rebels, who met the attack on the river Gambhir.[4.8.32] The Rana, fighting like a common soldier, had received two-and-twenty wounds, and was nearly falling through faintness, when Prithiraj joined him with one thousand fresh horse, and reanimated the battle. He selected his uncle Surajmall, whom he soon covered with wounds. Many had fallen on both sides, but neither party would yield; when worn out they mutually retired from the field, and bivouacked in sight of each other.

=Interview between Prithirāj and Sūrajmall.=—It will show the manners and feelings so peculiar to the Rajput, to describe the meeting between the rival uncle and nephew,—unique in the details of strife, perhaps, since the origin of man. It is taken from a MS. of the Jhala chief who succeeded Surajmall in Sadri. Prithiraj visited his uncle, whom he found in a small tent reclining on a pallet, having just had ‘the barber’ (nai) to sew up his wounds. He rose, and met his nephew with the customary respect, as if nothing unusual had occurred; but the exertion caused some of the wounds to open afresh, when the following dialogue ensued:

Prithiraj.—“Well, uncle, how are your wounds?”

Surajmall.—“Quite healed, my child, since I have the pleasure of seeing you” [297].

Prithiraj.—"But, uncle (kaka), I have not yet seen the Diwanji.[4.8.33] I first ran to see you, and I am very hungry; have you anything to eat?"

Dinner was soon served, and the extraordinary pair sat down and ‘ate off the same platter’;[4.8.34] nor did Prithiraj hesitate to eat the pan,[4.8.35] presented on his taking leave.

Prithiraj.—“You and I will end our battle in the morning, uncle.”

Surajmall.—“Very well, child; come early!”

They met; but Sarangdeo bore the brunt of the conflict, receiving thirty-five wounds. During “four gharis[4.8.36] swords and lances were plied, and every tribe of Rajput lost numbers that day”; but the rebels were defeated and fled to Sadri, and Prithiraj returned in triumph, though with seven wounds, to Chitor. The rebels, however, did not relinquish their designs, and many personal encounters took place between the uncle and nephew: the latter saying he would not let him retain “as much land of Mewar as would cover a needle’s point”; and Suja[4.8.37] retorting, that he would allow his nephew to redeem only as much “as would suffice to lie upon.” But Prithiraj gave them no rest, pursuing them from place to place. In the wilds of Batara they formed a stockaded retreat of the dhao tree,[4.8.38] which abounds in these forests. Within this shelter, horses and men were intermingled: Suja and his coadjutor communing by the night-fire in their desperate plight, when their cogitations were checked by the rush and neigh of horses. Scarcely had the pretender exclaimed “This must be my nephew!” when Prithiraj dashed his steed through the barricade and entered with his troops. All was confusion, and the sword showered its blows indiscriminately. The young prince reached his uncle, and dealt him a blow which would have levelled him, but for the support of Sarangdeo, who upbraided him, adding that “a buffet now was more than a score of wounds in former days”: to which Suja rejoined, “only when dealt by my nephew’s hand.” Suja demanded a parley; and calling on the prince to stop the combat, he continued: "If I am killed, it matters not—my children are Rajputs, they will run the [298] country to find support; but if you are slain, what will become of Chitor? My face will be blackened, and my name everlastingly reprobated."

The sword was sheathed, and as the uncle and nephew embraced, the latter asked the former, "What were you about, uncle, when I came?"—“Only talking nonsense, child, after dinner.” "But with me over your head, uncle, as a foe how could you be so negligent?"—“What could I do? you had left me no resource, and I must have some place to rest my head!” There was a small temple near the stockade, to which in the morning Prithiraj requested his uncle to accompany him to sacrifice to Kali,[4.8.39] but the blow of the preceding night prevented him. Sarangdeo was his proxy. One buffalo had fallen, and a goat was about to follow, when the prince turned his sword on Sarangdeo. The combat was desperate; but Prithiraj was the victor, and the head of the traitor was placed as an offering on the altar of Time. The Gaunda[4.8.40] was plundered, the town of Batara recovered, and Surajmall fled to Sadri, where he only stopped to fulfil his threat, “that if he could not retain its lands he would make them over to those stronger than the king”;[4.8.41] and having distributed them amongst Brahmans and bards, he finally abandoned Mewar. Passing through the wilds of Kanthal,[4.8.42] he had an omen which recalled the Charani’s prediction: “a wolf endeavouring in vain to carry off a kid defended by maternal affection.” This was interpreted as ‘strong ground for a dwelling.’ He halted, subdued the aboriginal tribes, and on this spot erected the town and stronghold of Deolia, becoming lord of a thousand villages, which have descended to his offspring, who now enjoy them under British protection. Such was the origin of Partabgarh Deolia.[4.8.43]

=Prithirāj poisoned: Death of Rāna Rāemall.=—Prithiraj was poisoned by his brother-in-law, of Abu, whom he had punished for maltreating his sister, and afterwards confided in. His death was soon followed by that of Rana Raemall, who, though not equal to his predecessors, was greatly respected, and maintained the dignity of his station amidst no ordinary calamities [299].[4.8.44]