Chapter 17…

Chapter 17

=Rāna Bhīm Singh, A.D. 1778-1828.=—Rana Bhim Singh (the reigning prince), who succeeded his brother in S. 1834 (A.D. 1778), was the fourth minor in the space of forty years who inherited Mewar; and the half century during which he has occupied the throne has been as fruitful in disaster as any period of her history already recorded. He was but eight years of age on his accession, and remained under his mother’s tutelage long after his minority had expired. This subjection fixed his character; naturally defective in energy, and impaired by long misfortune, he continued to be swayed by faction and intrigue. The cause of the Pretender, though weakened, was yet kept alive; but his insignificance eventually left him so unsupported, that his death is not even recorded [440].

=Feud of Chondāwats and Saktāwats.=—In S. 1840 (A.D. 1784) the Chondawats reaped the harvest of their allegiance and made the power thus acquired subservient to the indulgence of ancient animosities against the rival clan of Saktawat. Salumbar with his relatives Arjun Singh[4.17.1] of Kurabar and Partap Singh[4.17.2] of Amet, now ruled the councils, having the Sindi mercenaries under their leaders Chandan and Sadik at their command. Mustering therefore all the strength of their kin and clans, they resolved on the prosecution of the feud, and invested Bhindar, the castle of Mohkam the chief of the Saktawats, against which they placed their batteries.

Sangram Singh, a junior branch of the Saktawats, destined to play a conspicuous part in the future events of Mewar, was then rising into notice, and had just completed a feud with his rival the Purawat, whose abode, Lawa,[4.17.3] he had carried by escalade; and now, determined to make a diversion in favour of his chief, he invaded the estate of Kurabar, engaged against Bhindar, and was driving off the cattle, when Salim Singh the heir of Kurabar intercepted his retreat, and an action ensued in which Salim[4.17.4] was slain by the lance of Sangram. The afflicted father, on hearing the fate of his son, ‘threw the turban off his head,’ swearing never to replace it till he had tasted revenge. Feigning a misunderstanding with his own party he withdrew from the siege, taking the road to his estate, but suddenly abandoned it for Sheogarh, the residence of Lalji the father of Sangram. The castle of Sheogarh, placed amidst the mountains and deep forests of Chappan, was from its difficulty of access deemed secure against surprise; and here Sangram had placed the females and children of his family. To this point Arjun directed his revenge, and found Sheogarh destitute of defenders save the aged chief; but though seventy summers had whitened his head, he bravely met the storm, and fell in opposing the foe; when the children of Sangram were dragged [441] out and inhumanly butchered, and the widow[4.17.5] of Lalji ascended the pyre. This barbarity aggravated the hostility which separated the clans, and together with the minority of their prince and the yearly aggressions of the Mahrattas, accelerated the ruin of the country. But Bhim Singh, the Chondawat leader, was governed by insufferable vanity, and not only failed in respect to his prince, but offended the queen regent. He parcelled out the crown domain from Chitor to Udaipur amongst the Sindi bands, and whilst his sovereign was obliged to borrow money to defray his marriage at Idar, this ungrateful noble had the audacity to disburse upwards of £100,000 on the marriage of his own daughter. Such conduct determined the royal mother to supplant the Chondawats, and calling in the Saktawats to her aid, she invested with power the chiefs of Bhindar and Lawa. Aware, however, that their isolated authority was insufficient to withstand their rivals, they looked abroad for support, and made an overture to Zalim Singh of Kotah, whose political and personal resentments to the Chondawats, as well as his connexion by marriage with their opponents, made him readily listen to it. With his friend the Mahratta, Lalaji Belal, he joined the Saktawats with a body of 10,000 men. It was determined to sacrifice the Salumbar chief, who took post in the ancient capital of Chitor, where the garrison was composed chiefly of Sindis, thus effacing his claim to his prince’s gratitude, whom he defied, while the pretender still had a party in the other principal fortress, Kumbhalmer.

=Battle of Lālsot, May 1787.=—Such was the state of things, when the ascendancy of Mahadaji Sindhia received a signal check from the combined forces of Marwar and Jaipur; and the battle of Lalsot, in which the Mahratta chief was completely defeated, was the signal for the Rajputs to resume their alienated territory.[4.17.6] Nor was the Rana backward on the occasion, when there appeared a momentary gleam of the active virtue of past days. Maldas Mehta was civil minister, with Mauji Ram as his deputy, both men of talent and energy. They first effected the reduction of Nimbahera and the smaller garrisons of Mahrattas in its vicinity, who from a sense of common danger assembled their detachments in Jawad, which was also invested. Sivaji Nana, the governor, capitulated, and was allowed to march out with his [442] effects. At the same time, the ‘sons of the black cloud’[4.17.7] assembling, drove the Mahrattas from Begun, Singoli, etc., and the districts on the plateau; while the Chondawats redeemed their ancient fief of Rampura, and thus for a while the whole territory was recovered. Elated by success, the united chiefs advanced to Chardu on the banks of the Rarkia, a streamlet dividing Mewar from Malwa, preparatory to further operations. Had these been confined to the maintenance of the places they had taken, and which had been withheld in violation of treaties, complete success might have crowned their efforts; but in including Nimbahera in their capture they drew upon them the energetic Ahalya Bai, the regent-queen of the Holkar State, who unluckily for them was at hand and who coalesced with Sindhia’s partisans to check this reaction of the Rajputs. Tulaji Sindhia and Sri Bhai, with five thousand horse, were ordered to support the discomfited Siva Nana, who had taken refuge in Mandasor, where he rallied all the garrisons whom the Rajputs had unwisely permitted to capitulate.

=Defeat of the Rājputs. Murder of Somji.=—On Tuesday, the 4th of Magh S. 1844,[4.17.8] the Rana’s troops were surprised and defeated with great slaughter, the minister slain, the chiefs of Kanor and Sadri with many others severely wounded, and the latter made prisoner.[4.17.9] The newly made conquests were all rapidly lost, with the exception of Jawad, which was gallantly maintained for a month by Dip Chand, who, with his guns and rockets, effected a passage through the Mahrattas, and retired with his garrison to Mandalgarh. Thus terminated an enterprise which might have yielded far different results but for a misplaced security. All the chiefs and clans were united in this patriotic struggle except the Chondawats, against whom the queen-mother and the new minister, Somji, had much difficulty to contend for the establishment of the minor’s authority. At length overtures were made to Salumbar, when the fair Rampiyari was employed to conciliate the obdurate chief, who condescended to make his appearance at Udaipur and to pay his respects to the prince. He pretended to enter into the views of the minister and to coalesce in his plans; but this was only a web to ensnare his victim, whose talent had diminished his authority, and was a bar to the prosecution of [443] his ambitious views. Somji was seated in his bureau when Arjun Singh of Kurabar and Sardar Singh[4.17.10] of Badesar entered, and the latter, as he demanded how he dared to resume his fief, plunged his dagger into the minister’s breast. The Rana was passing the day at one of the villas in the valley called the Sahelia Bari, ‘the garden of nymphs,’ attended by Jeth Singh of Badnor, when the brothers[4.17.11] of the minister suddenly rushed into the presence to claim protection against the murderers. They were followed by Arjun of Kurabar, who had the audacity to present himself before his sovereign with his hands yet stained with the blood of Somji. The Rana, unable to punish the insolent chief, branding him as a traitor, bade him begone; when the whole of the actors in this nefarious scene, with their leader Salumbar, returned to Chitor. Sheodas and Satidas, brothers to the murdered minister, were appointed to succeed him, and with the Saktawats fought several actions against the rebels, and gained one decisive battle at Akola, in which Arjun of Kurabar commanded. This was soon balanced by the defeat of the Saktawats at Kheroda. Every triumph was attended with ruin to the country. The agriculturist, never certain of the fruits of his labour, abandoned his fields, and at length his country; mechanical industry found no recompense, and commerce was at the mercy of unlicensed spoliation. In a very few years Mewar lost half her population, her lands lay waste, her mines were unworked, and her looms, which formerly supplied all around, forsaken. The prince partook of the general penury; instead of protecting, he required protection; the bonds which united him with his subjects were snapped, and each individual or petty community provided for itself that defence which he could not give. Hence arose a train of evils: every cultivator, whether fiscal or feudal, sought out a patron, and [444] entered into engagements as the price of protection. Hence every Rajput who had a horse and lance, had his clients; and not a camel-load of merchandise could pass the abode of one of these cavaliers without paying fees. The effects of such disorder were felt long after the cause ceased to exist, and claims difficult to adjust arose out of these licentious times, for the having prescriptive right was deemed sufficient to authorize their continuance.[4.17.12] Here were displayed the effects of a feudal association, where the powers of government were enfeebled. These feuds alone were sufficient to ruin the country; but when to such internal ills shoals of Mahratta plunderers were added, no art is required to describe the consequences.

=Aid sought from Sindhia.=—The Rana and his advisers at length determined to call in Sindhia to expel the rebellious Chondawats from the ancient capital; a step mainly prompted by Zalim Singh (now Regent of Kotah), who with the Rana’s ministers was deputed to the Mahratta chieftain, then enjoying himself at the sacred lake of Pushkar.[4.17.13] Since the overthrow of Lalsot he had reorganized his brigades under the celebrated De Boigne,[4.17.14] through whose conduct he had redeemed his lost influence in Rajputana by the battles of Merta and Patan, in which the brave Rathors, after acts of the most devoted gallantry, were completely overthrown. Sindhia’s plans coincided entirely with the object of the deputation, and he readily acquiesced in the Rana’s desire. This event introduced on the political stage some of the most celebrated men of that day, whose actions offer a fair picture of manners, and may justify our entering a little into details.[4.17.15]

=Negotiations by Zālim Singh.=—Zalim Singh had for some years become regent of Kotah, and though to maintain himself in power, and the State he controlled in an attitude to compel the respect of surrounding foes, was no slight task, yet he found the field too contracted for his ambition, and his secret views had long been directed to permanent influence in Mewar. His skill in reading character convinced him that the Rana would be no bar to his wishes, the attainment of which, by giving him the combined resources of Haraoti and Mewar, would bestow the lead in Rajasthan. The Jaipur court he disregarded, whose effeminate army he had himself defeated single-handed [445] with the Kotah troops, and the influence he established amongst the leading chiefs of Marwar held out no fear of counteraction from that quarter. The stake was high, the game sure, and success would have opened a field to his genius which might have entirely altered the fate of Hindustan; but one false move was irretrievable, and instead of becoming the arbitrator of India, he left only the reputation of being the Nestor of Rajputana.

The restriction of the Rana’s power was the cloak under which he disguised all his operations, and it might have been well for the country had his plans succeeded to their full extent. To re-establish the Rana’s authority, and to pay the charges of the reduction of Chitor, he determined that the rebels chiefly should furnish the means, and that from them and the fiscal lands, mostly in their hands, sixty-four lakhs should be levied, of which three-fifths should be appropriated to Sindhia, and the remainder to replenish the Rana’s treasury. Preliminaries being thus arranged, Zalim was furnished with a strong corps under Ambaji Inglia; while Sindhia followed, hanging on the Marwar frontier, to realize the contributions of that State. Zalim Singh and Ambaji moved towards Chitor, levying from the estates of those obnoxious to Zalim’s views. Hamirgarh, whose chief, Dhiraj Singh, a man of talent and courage, was the principal adviser of Bhim Singh, the Salumbar chief, was besieged, and stood several assaults during six weeks’ vigorous operations, when the destruction of the springs of the wells from the concussion of the guns compelled its surrender, and the estate was sequestrated. The force continued their progress, and after a trifling altercation at Basai, a Chondawat fief, also taken, they took up a position at Chitor, and were soon after joined by the main body under Sindhia.

=Zālim Singh and Sindhia at Udaipur.=—Zalim, to gratify Mahadaji’s vanity, who was desirous of a visit from the Rana, which even the Peshwa considered an honour, proceeded to Udaipur to effect this object; when the Rana, placing himself under his guidance, marched for this purpose, and was met at the Tiger Mount, within a few miles of his capital, by Sindhia, who received the Rana, and escorted him to the besieging army. But in this short interval, Ambaji, who remained with the army at Chitor, intrigued with the rebel Chondawat to supplant the predominant influence of his friend Zalim Singh, and seized the opportunity of his absence to counteract him, by [446] communicating his plans to Salumbar; aware that, unless he broke with Zalim, he could only hope to play a secondary part under him. Though the ulterior views of Zalim were kept to his own breast, they could not escape the penetration of the crafty Mahratta; his very anxiety to hide them furnished Ambaji with the means of detection. Had Zalim possessed an equal share of meanness with his political antagonist, he might have extricated himself from the snare; but once overreached, he preferred sinking to grasping at an unworthy support. Bhim Singh (Salumbar) privately negotiated with Ambaji the surrender of Chitor, engaging to humble himself before the Rana, and to pay a contribution of twenty lakhs, levied on the clans, provided Zalim Singh was ordered to retire. This suggestion, apparently founded on the rebellious chief’s antipathy to Zalim, but in reality prompted by Ambaji, ensured the approbation, as it suited the views, of all parties, but especially Sindhia, who was desirous of repairing to Poona. Zalim, the sole obstacle to this arrangement, furnished to his enemies the means of escape from the dilemma, and lost the opportunity of realizing his long-cherished scheme of wielding the united resources of Mewar and Haraoti. Zalim had always preserved a strict amity with Ambaji wherever their interests did not clash, and his regard had the cement of gratitude to the Mahratta, whose father Trimbakji had saved Zalim’s life and procured his liberty, when left wounded and a prisoner at the battle of Ujjain. On Zalim’s return with the Rana, Ambaji touched on the terms of Bhim Singh’s surrender, hinting that Zalim’s presence was the sole obstacle to this desirable result; who, the more to mask his views, which any expressed reluctance to the measure might expose, went beyond probability in asseverations of readiness to be no bar to such arrangement, even so far as to affirm that, besides being tired of the business from the heavy expense it entailed on him, he had his prince’s wish for his return to Kotah. There is one ingredient in Zalim’s character, which has never been totally merged in the vices acquired from the tortuous policy of a long life, and which in the vigour of youth had full sway—namely, pride, one of the few virtues left to the Rajput, defrauded of many others by long oppression. But Zalim’s pride was legitimate, being allied to honour, and it has retained him an evident superiority through all the mazes of ambition. Ambaji skilfully availed himself of this defect in his friend’s political character. "A pretty [447] story, indeed!—you tell this to me! it might find credit with those who did not know you." The sarcasm only plunged him deeper into asseveration. “Is it then really your wish to retire?” “Assuredly.” “Then,” retorted the crafty Ambaji, “your wish shall be gratified in a few minutes.” Giving him no time to retract, he called for his horse and galloped to Sindhia’s tent. Zalim relied on Sindhia not acceding to the proposition; or if he did, that the Rana, over whom he imagined he had complete influence, would oppose it. His hopes of Sindhia rested on a promise privately made to leave troops under his authority for the restoration of order in Mewar; and a yet stronger claim, the knowledge that without Zalim he could not realize the stipulated sums for the expulsion of the Chondawat from Chitor. Ambaji had foreseen and prepared a remedy for these difficulties, and upon their being urged offered himself to advance the amount by bills on the Deccan. This argument was irresistible; money, and the consequent prosecution of his journey to Poona, being attained, Sindhia’s engagements with Zalim and the Rana ceased to be a matter of importance. He nominated Ambaji his lieutenant, with the command of a large force, by whose aid he would reimburse himself for the sums thus advanced. Having carried his object with Sindhia, Ambaji proceeded direct from his tent to that of the Rana’s ministers, Sheodas and Satidas, with whom, by the promise of co-operation in their views, and perfect subserviency to the Rana’s interests, he was alike successful. Ambaji, with the rapidity necessary to ensure success, having in a few hours accomplished his purpose, hastened back to Zalim, to acquaint him that his wish to retire had met with general acquiescence; and so well did he manage, that the Rana’s mace-bearer arrived at the same moment to announce that the khilat of leave awaited his acceptance. Zalim being thus outwitted, the Salumbar chief descended from Chitor, and touched the Rana’s feet. Sindhia pursued his march to the Deccan, and Ambaji was left sole arbiter of Mewar. The Saktawats maintained the lead at court, and were not backward in consigning the estates of their rivals to the incubus now settled on the country: while the mortified Zalim, on his retreat, recorded his expenses, to be produced on some fitting occasion.

=Sindhia’s Instructions to Ambaji.=—Ambaji remained eight years in Mewar, reaping its revenues and amassing those hoards of wealth which subsequently gave him the lead in Hindustan, and enabled him nearly to assert his independence. Yet, although he accumulated [448] £2,000,000 sterling from her soil,[4.17.16] exacting one-half of the produce of agricultural industry, the suppression of feuds and exterior aggressions gave to Mewar a degree of tranquillity and happiness to which she had long been a stranger. The instructions delivered to Ambaji were—

1. The entire restoration of the Rana’s authority and resumption

of the crown-lands from rebellious chiefs and mercenary Sindis.

2. The expulsion of the pretender from Kumbhalmer. 3. The recovery of Godwar from the Raja of Marwar. 4. To settle the Bundi feud for the murder of Rana Arsi.

A schedule (pandhri)[4.17.17] for the twenty lakhs stipulated was made and levied; twelve from the Chondawat estates and eight from the Saktawats; and the sum of sixty lakhs was awarded, besides the expense of Ambaji’s army, when the other specified objects should be attained. Within two years the pretender was expelled Kumbhalmer, Jahazpur was recovered from a rebellious Ranawat, and the crown-lands[4.17.18] were redeemed from the nobles; the personal domain of the Rana, agricultural and commercial, still realized nearly fifty lakhs of rupees. After these services, though Godwar was still unredeemed, the Bundi feud unappeased, and the lands mortgaged to the Mahrattas were not restored, Ambaji assumed the title of Subahdar of Mewar, and identified himself with the parties of the day. Yet so long as he personally upheld the interests of the Rana, his memory is done justice to, notwithstanding he never conformed to the strict letter of his engagements. The Rana’s ministers, fearing lest their brother’s fate should be theirs in the event of the Chondawats again attaining power, and deeming their own and their sovereign’s security dependent on Ambaji’s presence, made a subsidiary engagement with him, and lands to the amount of 75,000 rupees monthly, or eight lakhs annually, were appropriated for his force; but so completely were the resources of the [449] country diverted from their honest use, that when, in S. 1851, a marriage was negotiated between the Rana’s sister and the prince of Jaipur, the Rana was obliged to borrow £50,000 from the Mahratta commander to purchase the nuptial presents. The following year was marked by a triple event—the death of the queen-mother, the birth of a son and heir to the Rana, and the bursting of the embankment of the lake, which swept away a third of the city and a third of its inhabitants. Superstition attributed this catastrophe to the Rana’s impiety, in establishing a new festival[4.17.19] to Gauri, the Isis of Rajasthan.

=Anarchy in Mewār.=—Ambaji, who was this year nominated by Sindhia his viceroy in Hindustan, left Ganesh Pant as his lieutenant in Mewar, with whom acted the Rana’s officers, Sawai and Shirji Mehta;[4.17.20] who applied themselves to make the most of their ephemeral power with so rapacious a spirit, that Ambaji was compelled to displace Ganesh Pant and appoint the celebrated Rae Chand. To him they would not yield, and each party formed a nucleus for disorder and misrule. It would be uninteresting and nauseating to the reader to carry him through all the scenes of villainy which gradually desolated this country; for whose spoil pilfering Mahrattas, savage Rohillas, and adventurous Franks were all let loose. The now humbled Chondawats, many of whose fiefs were confiscated, took to horse, and in conjunction with lawless Sindis scoured the country. Their estates were attacked, Kurabar was taken, and batteries were placed against Salumbar, whence the Sindis fled and found refuge in Deogarh. In this exigence, the Chondawats determined to send an envoy to Ambaji, who was then engaged in the siege of Datia; and Ajit Singh, since prominent in the intrigues of Mewar, was the organ of his clan on this occasion. For the sum of ten lakhs the avaricious Mahratta agreed to recall his deputy from Mewar,[4.17.21] to renounce Sheodas and the Saktawats, and lend his support to the Chondawats. The Salumbar chief again took the lead at court, and with Agarji Mehta[4.17.22] as minister, the Saktawats [450] were attacked, the stipulated ten lakhs raised from their estates, and two fiefs of note, Hintha and Semari, confiscated [451].

=Death of Mahādaji Sindhia, January 12, 1794.=—The death of Mahadaji Sindhia,[4.17.23] and the accession of his nephew Daulatrao, his murder of the Shenvi Brahmans, and his quarrels with the Bais (‘princesses,’ wives of the deceased Sindhia), all occurred at this time, and materially influenced the events in Mewar. The power of Ambaji as Subahdar of Hindustan was strengthened by the minority of Sindhia, although contested by Lakwa and the Bais, supported by the Khichi prince, Durjan Sal, and the Datia Raja, who fought and died for the princesses. Lakwa wrote to the Rana to throw off Ambaji’s yoke and expel his lieutenant; while Ambaji commanded his deputy to eject the Shenvi[4.17.24] Brahmans, supporters of Lakwa, from all the lands in Mewar. To this end Ganesh Pant called on the Rana’s ministers and chiefs, who, consulting thereon, determined to play a deep game; and while they apparently acquiesced in the schemes of Ganesh, they wrote the Shenvis to advance from Jawad and attack him, promising them support. They met at Sawa; Nana was defeated with the loss of his guns, and retired on Chitor. With a feint of support, the Chondawats made him again call in his garrison and try another battle, which he also lost and fled to Hamirgarh; then, uniting with his enemies, they invested the place with 15,000 men. Nana bravely maintained himself, making many sallies, in one of which both the sons of Dhiraj Singh, the chief of Hamirgarh, were slain. Shortly after, Nana was relieved by some battalions of the new raised regulars sent by Ambaji under Gulab Rao Kadam, upon which he commenced his retreat on Ajmer. At Musamusi he was forced to action, and success had nearly crowned the efforts of the clans, when a horseman, endeavouring to secure a mare, calling out [452], "Bhagi! bhagi!" “She flies! she flies!” the word spread, while those who caught her, exclaiming "Milgayi! milgayi!" “She is taken!” but equally significant with ‘going over’ to the enemy, caused a general panic, and the Chondawats, on the verge of victory, disgraced themselves, broke and fled. Several were slain, among whom was the Sindi leader Chandan. Shahpura opened its gates to the fugitives led by the Goliath of the host, the chief of Deogarh.[4.17.25] It was an occasion not to be lost by the bards of the rival clan, and many a ribald stanza records this day’s disgrace. Ambaji’s lieutenant, however, was so roughly handled that several chiefs redeemed their estates, and the Rana much of the fisc, from Mahratta control.

=Contest of Ambaji and Lakwa.=—Mewar now became the arena on which the rival satraps Ambaji and Lakwa contested the exalted office of Sindhia’s lieutenancy in Hindustan. Lakwa was joined by all the chiefs of Mewar, his cause being their own; and Hamirgarh, still held by Nana’s party, was reinvested. Two thousand shot had made a practicable breach, when Bala Rao Inglia, Bapu Sindhia, Jaswant Rao Sindhia, a brigade under the European ‘Mutta field,’[4.17.26] with the auxiliary battalions of Zalim Singh of Kotah, the whole under the command of Ambaji’s son, arrived to relieve the lieutenant. Lakwa raised the siege, and took post with his allies under the walls of Chitor; whilst the besieged left the untenable Hamirgarh, and joined the relief at Gosunda. The rival armies were separated only by the Berach river, on whose banks they raised batteries and cannonaded each other, when a dispute arose in the victor camp regarding the pay of the troops, between Bala Rao (brother of Ambaji) and Nana, and the latter withdrew and retreated to Sanganer. Thus disunited, it might have been expected that these congregated masses would have dissolved, or fallen upon each other, when the Rajputs might have given the coup de grâce to the survivors; but they were Mahrattas, and their politics were too complicated to end in simple strife: almost all the actors in these scenes lived to contest with, and be humiliated by, the British.

=George Thomas.=—The defection of Nana equalized the parties; but Bala Rao, never partial to fighting, opportunely recollected a debt of gratitude to Lakwa, to whose clemency he owed his life when taken by storm in Gugal Chapra. He also wanted money [453] to pay his force, which a private overture to Lakwa secured. They met, and Bala Rao retired boasting of his gratitude, to which, and the defection of Nana, soon followed by that of Bapu Sindhia, the salvation of Lakwa was attributed. Sutherland[4.17.27] with a brigade was detached by Ambaji to aid Nana: but a dispute depriving him of this reinforcement, he called in a partisan of more celebrity, the brave George Thomas.[4.17.28] Ambaji’s lieutenant and Lakwa were once more equal foes, and the Rana, his chiefs and subjects being distracted between these conflicting bands, whose leaders alternately paid their respects to him, were glad to obtain a little repose by espousing the cause of either combatant, whose armies during the monsoon encamped for six weeks within sight of each other.[4.17.29]

=Pillage in Mewār.=—Durjan Sal (Khichi), with the nobles of Mewar, hovered round Nana’s camp with five thousand horse to cut off his supplies; but Thomas escorted the convoys from Shahpura with his regulars, and defied all their efforts. Thomas at length advanced his batteries against Lakwa, on whose position a general assault was about taking place, when a tremendous storm, with torrents of rain which filled the stream, cut off his batteries from the main body, burst the gates of Shahpura, his point d’appui, and laid the town in ruins.[4.17.30] Lakwa seized the moment, and with the Mewar chiefs stormed and carried the isolated batteries, capturing fifteen pieces of cannon; and the Shahpura Raja, threatened at once by his brother-nobles and the vengeance of heaven, refused further provision to Nana, who was compelled to abandon his position and retreat to Sanganer. The discomfited lieutenant vowed vengeance against the estates of the Mewar chieftains, and after the rains, being reinforced by Ambaji, again took the field. Then commenced a scene of carnage, pillage, and individual defence. The whole of the Chondawat estates under the Aravalli range were laid waste, their castles assaulted, some taken and destroyed, and heavy sums levied on all. Thomas besieged Deogarh and Amet, and both fought and paid. Kasital and Lasani were captured, and the latter razed for its gallant resistance. Thus they were proceeding in the work of destruction, when Ambaji [454] was dispossessed of the government of Hindustan, to which Lakwa was nominated,[4.17.31] and Nana was compelled to surrender all the fortresses and towns he held in Mewar.

=Daulat Rāo Sindhia reduces Mewār.=—From this period must be dated the pretensions of Sindhia to consider Mewar as tributary to him. We have traced the rise of the Mahrattas, and the progress of their baneful influence in Mewar. The abstractions of territory from S. 1826 to 1831 [A.D. 1769-74], as pledges for contributions, satisfied their avarice till 1848 [A.D. 1791], when the Salumbar rebellion brought the great Sindhia to Chitor, leaving Ambaji as his lieutenant, with a subsidiary force, to recover the Rana’s lost possessions. We have related how these conditions were fulfilled; how Ambaji, inflated with the wealth of Mewar, assumed almost regal dignity in Hindustan, assigning the devoted land to be governed by his deputies, whose contest with other aspirants made this unhappy region the stage for constant struggles for supremacy; and while the secret policy of Zalim Singh stimulated the Saktawats to cling to Ambaji, the Chondawats gave their influence and interest to his rival Lakwa. The unhappy Rana and the peasantry paid for this rivalry; while Sindhia, whose power was now in its zenith, fastened one of his desultory armies on Mewar, in contravention of former treaties, without any definite views, or even instructions to its commander. It was enough that a large body should supply itself without assailing him for prey, and whose services were available when required.

=Lakwa Dāda Marātha Viceroy.=—Lakwa, the new viceroy, marched to Mewar: Agarji Mehta was appointed minister to the Rana, and the Chondawats again came into power. For the sum of six lakhs Lakwa dispossessed the Shahpura of Jahazpur, for the liquidation of which thirty-six of its towns were mortgaged. Zalim Singh, who had long been manœuvring to obtain Jahazpur, administered to the necessities of the Mahratta, paid the note of hand, and took possession of the city and its villages. A contribution of twenty-four lakhs was imposed throughout the country, and levied by force of arms, after which first act of the new viceroy he quitted Mewar for Jaipur, leaving Jaswant Rao Bhao as his deputy. Mauji Ram, the deputy of Agarji (the Rana’s minister), determined to adopt the European mode of discipline, now become general amongst all the native powers of India. But when the chiefs were [455] called upon to contribute to the support of mercenary regulars and a field-artillery, they evinced their patriotism by confining this zealous minister. Satidas was once more placed in power, and his brother Sheodas recalled from Kotah, whither he had fled from the Chondawats, who now appropriated to themselves the most valuable portions of the Rana’s personal domain.

=Holkar defeated at Indore. Plunder of Nāthdwāra: image removed.=—The battle of Indore,[4.17.32] in A.D. 1802, where at least 150,000 men assembled to dispute the claim to predatory empire, wrested the ascendancy from Holkar, who lost his guns, equipage, and capital, from which he fled to Mewar, pursued by Sindhia’s victorious army led by Sadasheo and Bala Rao. In his flight he plundered Ratlam, and passing Bhindar, the castle of the Saktawat chief, he demanded a contribution, from which and his meditated visit to Udaipur, the Rana and his vassal were saved by the activity of the pursuit. Failing in these objects, Holkar retreated on Nathdwara, the celebrated shrine of the Hindu Apollo.[4.17.33] It was here this active soldier first showed symptoms of mental derangement. He upbraided Krishna, while prostrate before his image, for the loss of his victory; and levied three lakhs of rupees on the priests and inhabitants, several of whom he carried to his camp as hostages for the payment. The portal (dwara) of the god (Nath) proving no bar either to Turk or equally impious Mahratta, Damodarji, the high priest, removed the god of Vraj from his pedestal and sent him with his establishment to Udaipur for protection. The Chauhan chief of Kotharia (one of the sixteen nobles), in whose estate was the sacred fane, undertook the duty, and with twenty horsemen, his vassals, escorted the shepherd god by intricate passes to the capital. On his return he was intercepted by a band of Holkar’s troops, who insultingly desired the surrender of their horses. But the descendant of the illustrious Prithiraj preferred death to dishonour: dismounting, he hamstrung his steed, commanding his vassals to follow his example; and sword in hand courted his fate in the unequal conflict, in which he fell, with most of his gallant retainers. There are many such isolated exploits in the records of this eventful period, of which the Chauhans of Kotharia had their full share. Spoil, from whatever source, being welcome to these depredators, Nathdwara[4.17.34] remained long abandoned; and Apollo, after six months’ residence at Udaipur, finding [456] insufficient protection, took another flight to the mountains of Ghasyar, where the high priest threw up fortifications for his defence; and spiritual thunders being disregarded, the pontiff henceforth buckled on the armour of flesh, and at the head of four hundred cavaliers with lance and shield, visited the minor shrines in his extensive diocese.

=The Inroad of Holkar.=—To return to Holkar. He pursued his route by Banera and Shahpura, levying from both, to Ajmer, where he distributed a portion of the offerings of the followers of Krishna amongst the priests of Muhammad at the mosque of Khwaja Pir. Thence he proceeded towards Jaipur. Sindhia’s leaders on reaching Mewar renounced the pursuit, and Udaipur was cursed with their presence, when three lakhs of rupees were extorted from the unfortunate Rana, raised by the sale of household effects and the jewels of the females of his family. Jaswant Rao Bhao, the Subahdar of Mewar, had prepared another schedule (pandhri), which he left with Tantia, his deputy, to realize. Then followed the usual scene of conflict—the attack of the chieftain’s estates, distraining of the husbandman, seizure of his cattle, and his captivity for ransom, or his exile.

=Mewār Quarrels.=—The celebrated Lakwa, disgraced by his prince, died at this time[4.17.35] in sanctuary at Salumbar; and Bala Rao, brother to Ambaji, returned, and was joined by the Saktawats and the minister Satidas, who expelled the Chondawats for their control over the prince. Zalim Singh, in furtherance of his schemes and through hatred of the Chondawats, united himself to this faction, and Devi Chand, minister to the Rana, set up by the Chondawats, was made prisoner. Bala Rao levied and destroyed their estates with unexampled ferocity, which produced a bold attempt at deliverance. The Chondawat leaders assembled at the Chaugan (the Champ de Mars) to consult on their safety. The insolent Mahratta had preceded them to the palace, demanding the surrender of the minister’s deputy, Mauji Ram. The Rana indignantly refused them—the Mahratta importuned, threatened, and at length commanded his troops to advance to the palace, when the intrepid minister pinioned the audacious plunderers, and secured his adherents (including their old enemy, Nana Ganesh), Jamalkar, and Uda Kunwar. The latter, a notorious villain, had an elephant’s chain put round his neck, while Bala Rao was confined in a bath. The [457] leaders thus arrested, the Chondawats sallied forth and attacked their camp in the valley, which surrendered; though the regulars under Hearsey[4.17.36] retreated in a hollow square, and reached Gadarmala in safety. Zalim Singh determined to liberate his friend Bala Rao from peril; and aided by the Saktawats under the chiefs of Bhindar and Lawa, advanced to the Chaija Pass, one of the defiles leading to the capital. Had the Rana put these chiefs to instant death, he would have been justified, although he would have incurred the resentment of the whole Mahratta nation. Instead of this, he put himself at the head of a motley levy of six thousand Sindis, Arabs, and Gosains, with the brave Jai Singh and a band of his gallant Khichis, ever ready to poise the lance against a Mahratta. They defended the pass for five days against a powerful artillery. At length the Rana was compelled to liberate Bala Rao, and Zalim Singh obtained by this interference possession of the fortress and entire district of Jahazpur. A schedule of war contribution, the usual finale to these events, followed Bala’s liberation, and no means were left untried to realize the exaction, before Holkar, then approaching, could contest the spoil.

=Holkar plunders Udaipur.=—This chief, having recruited his shattered forces, again left the south.[4.17.37] Bhindar felt his resentment for non-compliance with his demands on his retreat after the battle of Indore; the town was nearly destroyed, but spared for two lakhs of rupees, for the payment of which villages were assigned. Thence he repaired to Udaipur, being met by Ajit Singh, the Rana’s ambassador, when the enormous sum of forty lakhs, or £500,000, was demanded from the country, of which one-third was commanded to be instantly forthcoming. The palace was denuded of everything which could be converted into gold; the females were deprived of every article of luxury and comfort: by which, with contributions levied on the city, twelve lakhs were obtained; while hostages from the household of the Rana and chief citizens were delivered as security for the remainder, and immured in the Mahratta camp. Holkar then visited the Rana. Lawa and Badnor were attacked, taken, and restored on large payments. Deogarh alone was mulcted four and a half lakhs. Having devastated Mewar during eight months, Holkar [458] marched to Hindustan,[4.17.38] Ajit Singh accompanying him as the Rana’s representative; while Bala Ram Seth was left to levy the balance of the forty lakhs. Holkar had reached Shahpura when Sindhia entered Mewar, and their camps formed a junction to allow the leaders to organize their mutual plans of hostility to the British Government. These chieftains, in their efforts to cope with the British power, had been completely humiliated, and their resources broken. But Rajasthan was made to pay the penalty of British success, which riveted her chains, and it would be but honest, now we have the power, to diminish that penalty.

=Sindhia and Holkar in Mewār.=—The rainy season of A.D. 1805 found Sindhia and Holkar encamped in the plains of Badnor, desirous, but afraid, to seek revenge in the renewal of war. Deprived of all power in Hindustan, and of the choicest territory north and south of the Nerbudda, with numerous discontented armies now let loose on these devoted countries, their passions inflamed by defeat, and blind to every sentiment of humanity, they had no alternative to pacify the soldiery and replenish their own ruined resources but indiscriminate pillage. It would require a pen powerful as the pencil of Salvator Rosa to paint the horrors which filled up the succeeding ten years, to which the author was an eye-witness, destined to follow in the train of rapine, and to view in the traces of Mahratta camps[4.17.39] the desolation and political annihilation of all the central States of India,[4.17.40] several of which aided the British in their early struggle for dominion, but were now allowed to fall without a helping hand, the scapegoats of our successes. Peace between the Mahrattas and British was, however, doubtful, as Sindhia made the restoration of the rich provinces of Gohad and Gwalior a sine qua non: and unhappily for their legitimate ruler, who [459] had been inducted into the seat of his forefathers, a Governor-General (Lord Cornwallis) of ancient renown, but in the decline of life, with views totally unsuited to the times, abandoned our allies, and renounced all for peace, sending an ambassador[4.17.41] to Sindhia to reunite the bonds of ‘perpetual friendship.’

=Holkar saves Mewār from Sindhia.=—The Mahratta leaders were anxious, if the war should be renewed, to shelter their families and valuables in the strongholds of Mewar, and their respective camps became the rendezvous of the rival factions. Sardar Singh, the organ of the Chondawats, represented the Rana at Sindhia’s court, at the head of whose councils Ambaji had just been placed.[4.17.42] His rancour to the Rana was implacable, from the support given in self-defence to his political antagonist, Lakwa, and he agitated the partition of Mewar amongst the great Mahratta leaders. But whilst his baneful influence was preparing this result, the credit of Sangram Saktawat with Holkar counteracted it. It would be unfair and ungallant not to record that a fair suitor, the Baiza Bai,[4.17.43] Sindhia’s wife, powerfully contributed to the Rana’s preservation on this occasion. This lady, the daughter of the notorious Sarji Rao, had unbounded power over Sindhia. Her sympathies were awakened on behalf of the supreme head of the Rajput nation, of which blood she had to boast, though she was now connected with the Mahrattas. Even the hostile clans stifled their animosities on this occasion, and Sardar Singh Chondawat left Sindhia’s camp to join his rival Sangram with Holkar, and aided by the upright Kishandas Pancholi, united in their remonstrances, asking Holkar if he had given his consent to sell Mewar to Ambaji. Touched by the picture of the Rana’s and their country’s distresses, Holkar swore it should not be; advised unity amongst themselves, and caused the representatives of the rival clans ‘to eat opium together.’ Nor did he stop here, but with the envoys repaired to Sindhia’s tents, descanted on the Rana’s high descent, ‘the master of their master’s master,’[4.17.44] urging that it did not become them to overwhelm him, and that they should even renounce the mortgaged lands which their fathers had too long unjustly held, himself setting the example by the restitution of [460] Nimbahera. To strengthen his argument, he expatiated with Sindhia on the policy of conciliating the Rana, whose strongholds might be available in the event of a renewal of hostilities with the British. Sindhia appeared a convert to his views, and retained the envoys in his camp. The Mahratta camps were twenty miles apart, and incessant torrents of rain had for some days prevented all intercourse. In this interim, Holkar received intelligence that Bhairon Bakhsh, as envoy from the Rana, was in Lord Lake’s camp negotiating for the aid of British troops, then at Tonk, to drive the Mahrattas from Mewar. The incensed Holkar sent for the Rana’s ambassadors, and assailed them with a torrent of reproach; accusing them of treachery, he threw the newspaper containing the information at Kishandas, asking if that were the way in which the Mewaris kept faith with him? “I cared not to break with Sindhia in support of your master, and while combating the Farangis (Franks), when all the Hindus should be as brothers, your sovereign the Rana, who boasts of not acknowledging the supremacy of Delhi, is the first to enter into arms with them. Was it for this I prevented Ambaji being fastened on you?” Kishandas here interrupted and attempted to pacify him, when Alikar Tantia, Holkar’s minister, stopped him short, observing to his prince, “You see the faith of these Rangras;[4.17.45] they would disunite you and Sindhia, and ruin both. Shake them off: be reconciled to Sindhia, dismiss Sarji Rao, and let Ambaji be Subahdar of Mewar, or I will leave you and take Sindhia into Malwa.” The other councillors, with the exception of Bhao Bhaskar, seconded this advice: Sarji Rao was dismissed; and Holkar proceeded northward, where he was encountered and pursued to the Panjab by the British under the intrepid and enterprising Lake, who dictated terms to the Mahratta at the altars of Alexander.[4.17.46]

=Holkar protects Mewār Interests.=—Holkar had the generosity to stipulate, before his departure from Mewar, for the security of the Rana and his country, telling Sindhia he should hold him personally amenable to him if Ambaji were permitted to violate his guarantee. But in his misfortunes this threat was disregarded, and a contribution of sixteen lakhs was levied immediately on Mewar; Sadasheo Rao, with Baptiste’s[4.17.47] brigade, was detached from the camp in June 1806, for the double purpose of levying it, and driving from [461] Udaipur a detachment of the Jaipur prince’s troops, bringing proposals and preliminary presents for this prince’s marriage with the Rana’s daughter.

=The Tragedy of Krishna Kunwāri.=—It would be imagined that the miseries of Rana Bhim were not susceptible of aggravation, and that fortune had done her worst to humble him; but his pride as a sovereign and his feelings as a parent were destined to be yet more deeply wounded. The Jaipur cortège had encamped near the capital, to the number of three thousand men, while the Rana’s acknowledgments of acceptance were dispatched, and had reached Shahpura. But Raja Man of Marwar also advanced pretensions, founded on the princess having been actually betrothed to his predecessor; and urging that the throne of Marwar, and not the individual occupant, was the object, he vowed resentment and opposition if his claims were disregarded. These were suggested, it is said, by his nobles to cloak their own views; and promoted by the Chondawats (then in favour with the Rana), whose organ, Ajit, was bribed to further them, contrary to the decided wishes of their prince.

Krishna Kunwari (the Virgin Krishna) was the name of the lovely object, the rivalry for whose hand assembled under the banners of her suitors (Jagat Singh of Jaipur and Raja Man of Marwar), not only their native chivalry, but all the predatory powers of India; and who, like Helen of old, involved in destruction her own and the rival houses. Sindhia having been denied a pecuniary demand by Jaipur, not only opposed the nuptials, but aided the claims of Raja Man, by demanding of the Rana the dismissal of the Jaipur embassy: which being refused, he advanced his brigades and batteries, and after a fruitless resistance, in which the Jaipur troops joined, forced the pass, threw a corps of eight thousand men into the valley, and following in person, encamped within cannon-range of the city. The Rana had now no alternative but to dismiss the nuptial cortège, and agree to whatever was demanded. Sindhia remained a month in the valley, during which an interview took place between him and the Rana at the shrine of Eklinga [462].[4.17.48]

=Battle of Parbatsar. Defeat of the Mārwār Forces.=—The heralds of Hymen being thus rudely repulsed and its symbols intercepted, the Jaipur prince prepared to avenge his insulted pride and disappointed hopes, and accordingly arrayed a force such as had not assembled since the empire was in its glory. Raja Man eagerly took up the gauntlet of his rival, and headed ‘the swords of Maru.’ But dissension prevailed in Marwar, where rival claimants for the throne had divided the loyalty of the clans, introducing there also the influence of the Mahrattas. Raja Man, who had acquired the sceptre by party aid, was obliged to maintain himself by it, and to pursue the demoralizing policy of the period by ranging his vassals against each other. These nuptials gave the malcontents an opportunity to display their long-curbed resentments, and following the example of Mewar, they set up a pretender, whose interests were eagerly espoused, and whose standard was erected in the array of Jaipur; the prince at the head of 120,000 men advancing against his rival, who with less than half the number met him at Parbatsar, on their mutual frontier. The action was short, for while a heavy cannonade opened on either side, the majority of the Marwar nobles went over to the pretender. Raja Man turned his poniard against himself: but some chiefs yet faithful to him wrested the weapon from his hand, and conveyed him from the field. He was pursued to his capital, which was invested, besieged, and gallantly defended during six months. The town was at length taken and plundered, but the castle of Jodha ‘laughed a siege to scorn’; in time with the aid of finesse, the mighty host of Jaipur, which had consumed the forage of these arid plains for twenty miles around, began to crumble away; intrigue spread through every rank, and the siege ended in pusillanimity and flight. The Xerxes of Rajwara, the effeminate Kachhwaha, alarmed at length for his personal safety, sent on the spoils of Parbatsar and Jodhpur to his capital; but the brave nobles of Marwar, drawing the line between loyalty and patriotism, and determined that no trophy of Rathor degradation should be conveyed by the Kachhwahas from Marwar, attacked the cortège and redeemed the symbols of their disgrace. The colossal array of the invader was soon dismembered, and the ‘lion of the world’ (Jagat Singh), humbled and crestfallen [463], skulked from the desert retreat of his rival, indebted to a partisan corps for safety and convoy to his capital, around whose walls the wretched remnants of this ill-starred confederacy long lagged in expectation of their pay, while the bones of their horses and the ashes of their riders whitened the plain, and rendered it a Golgotha.[4.17.49]

=Nawāb Amīr Khān.=—By the aid of one of the most notorious villains India ever produced, the Nawab Amir Khan,[4.17.50] the pretender’s party was treacherously annihilated. This man with his brigade of artillery and horse was amongst the most efficient of the foes of Raja Man; but the auri sacra fames not only made him desert the side on which he came for that of the Raja, but for a specific sum offer to rid him of the pretender and all his associates. Like Judas, he kissed whom he betrayed, took service with the pretender, and at the shrine of a saint of his own faith exchanged turbans with their leaders; and while the too credulous Rajput chieftains celebrated this acquisition to their party in the very sanctuary of hospitality, crowned by the dance and the song, the tents were cut down, and the victims thus enveloped, slaughtered in the midst of festivity by showers of grape.

Thus finished the under-plot; but another and more noble victim was demanded before discomfited ambition could repose, or the curtain drop on this eventful drama. Neither party would relinquish his claim to the fair object of the war; and the torch of discord could be extinguished only in her blood. To the same ferocious Khan is attributed the unhallowed suggestion, as well as its compulsory execution. The scene was now changed from the desert castle of Jodha to the smiling valley of Udaipur, soon to be filled with funereal lamentation.

=The Tragedy of Krishna Kunwāri.=—Krishna Kunwari Bai, the ‘Virgin Princess Krishna,’ was in her sixteenth year: her mother was of the Chawara race, the ancient kings of Anhilwara. Sprung from the noblest blood of Hind, she added beauty of face and person to an engaging demeanour, and was justly proclaimed the ‘flower of Rajasthan.’ When the Roman father pierced the bosom of the dishonoured Virginia, appeased virtue applauded the deed. When Iphigenia was led to the sacrificial altar, the salvation of her country yielded a noble consolation. The votive victim of Jephthah’s success had [464] the triumph of a father’s fame to sustain her resignation, and in the meekness of her sufferings we have the best parallel to the sacrifice of the lovely Krishna: though years have passed since the barbarous immolation, it is never related but with a faltering tongue and moistened eyes, ‘albeit unused to the melting mood.’

The rapacious and bloodthirsty Pathan, covered with infamy, repaired to Udaipur, where he was joined by the pliant and subtle Ajit. Meek in his demeanour, unostentatious in his habits; despising honours, yet covetous of power,—religion, which he followed with the zeal of an ascetic, if it did not serve as a cloak, was at least no hindrance to an immeasurable ambition, in the attainment of which he would have sacrificed all but himself. When the Pathan revealed his design, that either the princess should wed Raja Man, or by her death seal the peace of Rajwara, whatever arguments were used to point the alternative, the Rana was made to see no choice between consigning his beloved child to the Rathor prince, or witnessing the effects of a more extended dishonour from the vengeance of the Pathan, and the storm of his palace by his licentious adherents—the fiat passed that Krishna Kunwari should die.

But the deed was left for women to accomplish—the hand of man refused it. The Rawala[4.17.51] of an Eastern prince is a world within itself; it is the labyrinth containing the strings that move the puppets which alarm mankind. Here intrigue sits enthroned, and hence its influence radiates to the world, always at a loss to trace effects to their causes. Maharaja Daulat Singh,[4.17.52] descended four generations ago from one common ancestor with the Rana, was first sounded ‘to save the honour of Udaipur’; but, horror-struck, he exclaimed, “Accursed the tongue that commands it! Dust on my allegiance, if thus to be preserved!” The Maharaja Jawandas, a natural brother, was then called upon; the dire necessity was explained, and it was urged that no common hand could be armed for the purpose. He accepted the poniard, but when in youthful loveliness Krishna appeared before him, the dagger fell from his hand, and he returned more wretched than the victim. The fatal purpose thus revealed, the shrieks of the frantic mother reverberated through the palace, as she implored mercy, or execrated the murderers of her child, who alone was resigned to her fate. But death was arrested, not averted [465]. To use the phrase of the narrator, "she was excused the steel—the cup was prepared,"—and prepared by female hands! As the messenger presented it in the name of her father, she bowed and drank it, sending up a prayer for his life and prosperity. The raving mother poured imprecations on his head, while the lovely victim, who shed not a tear, thus endeavoured to console her: “Why afflict yourself, my mother, at this shortening of the sorrows of life? I fear not to die! Am I not your daughter? Why should I fear death? We are marked out for sacrifice[4.17.53] from our birth; we scarcely enter the world but to be sent out again; let me thank my father that I have lived so long!”[4.17.54] Thus she conversed till the nauseating draught refused to assimilate with her blood. Again the bitter potion was prepared. She drained it off, and again it was rejected; but, as if to try the extreme of human fortitude, a third was administered; and, for the third time, Nature refused to aid the horrid purpose. It seemed as if the fabled charm, which guarded the life of the founder of her race,[4.17.55] was inherited by the Virgin Krishna. But the blood-hounds, the Pathan and Ajit, were impatient till their victim was at rest; and cruelty, as if gathering strength from defeat, made another and a fatal attempt. A powerful opiate was presented—the kusumbha draught.[4.17.56] She received it with a smile, wished the scene over, and drank it. The desires [466] of barbarity were accomplished. ‘She slept!’[4.17.57] a sleep from which she never awoke.

The wretched mother did not long survive her child; nature was exhausted in the ravings of despair; she refused food; and her remains in a few days followed those of her daughter to the funeral pyre.

Even the ferocious Khan, when the instrument of his infamy, Ajit, reported the issue, received him with contempt, and spurned him from his presence, tauntingly asking “if this were the boasted Rajput valour?” But the wily traitor had to encounter language far more bitter from his political adversary, whom he detested. Sangram Saktawat reached the capital only four days after the catastrophe—a man in every respect the reverse of Ajit; audaciously brave, he neither feared the frown of his sovereign nor the sword of his enemy. Without introduction he rushed into the presence, where he found seated the traitor Ajit. “Oh dastard! who hast thrown dust on the Sesodia race, whose blood which has flowed in purity through a hundred ages has now been defiled! this sin will check its course for ever; a blot so foul in our annals that no Sesodia[4.17.58] will ever again hold up his head! A sin to which no punishment were equal. But the end of our race is approaching! The line of Bappa Rawal is at an end! Heaven has ordained this, a signal of our destruction.” The Rana hid his face with his hands, when turning to Ajit, he exclaimed, "Thou stain on the Sesodia race, thou impure of Rajput blood, dust be on thy head as thou hast covered us all with shame. May you die childless, and your name die with you![4.17.59] Why this indecent haste? Had the Pathan stormed the city? Had he attempted to violate the sanctity of the Rawala? And though he had, could you not die as Rajputs, like your ancestors? Was it thus they gained a name? Was it thus our race became renowned—thus they opposed the might of kings? Have you forgotten the Sakhas of Chitor? But whom do I address—not Rajputs? Had the honour of your females been endangered, had you sacrificed them all and rushed sword in hand on the enemy, your name would have lived, and the Almighty would have secured the seed of Bappa Rawal. But to owe preservation [467] to this unhallowed deed! You did not even await the threatened danger. Fear seems to have deprived you of every faculty, or you might have spared the blood of Sriji,[4.17.60] and if you did not scorn to owe your safety to deception, might have substituted some less noble victim! But the end of our race approaches!"

=Fate of the Murderers.=—The traitor to manhood, his sovereign, and humanity, durst not reply. The brave Sangram is now dead, but the prophetic anathema has been fulfilled. Of ninety-five children, sons and daughters, but one son (the brother of Krishna)[4.17.61] is left to the Rana; and though his two remaining daughters have been recently married to the princes of Jaisalmer and Bikaner, the Salic law, which is in full force in these States, precludes all honour through female descent. His hopes rest solely on the prince, Javana Singh,[4.17.62] and though in the flower of youth and health, the marriage bed (albeit boasting no less than four young princesses) has been blessed with no progeny.[4.17.63]

The elder brother of Javana[4.17.64] died two years ago. Had he lived he would have been Amra the Third. With regard to Ajit, the curse has been fully accomplished. Scarcely a month after, his wife and two sons were numbered with the dead; and the hoary traitor has since been wandering from shrine to shrine, performing penance and alms in expiation of his sins, yet unable to fling from him ambition; and with his beads in one hand, Rama! Rama! ever on his tongue, and subdued passion in his looks, his heart is deceitful as ever. Enough of him: let us exclaim with Sangram, “Dust on his head,”[4.17.65] which all the waters of the Ganges could not purify from the blood of the virgin Krishna, but

rather would the multitudinous sea incarnadine [468].

=Amīr Khan rewarded by the British.=—His coadjutor, Amir Khan, is now linked by treaties “in amity and unity of interests” with the sovereigns of India; and though he has carried mourning into every house of Rajasthan, yet charity might hope forgiveness would be extended to him, could he cleanse himself from this deed of horror—‘throwing this pearl away, richer than all his tribe!’ His career of rapine has terminated with the caresses of the blind goddess, and placed him on a pinnacle to which his sword would never have traced the path. Enjoying the most distinguished post amongst the foreign chieftains of Holkar’s State, having the regulars and park under his control, with large estates for their support, he added the epithet of traitor to his other titles, when the British Government, adopting the leading maxim of Asiatic policy, divide et impera, guaranteed to him the sovereignty of these districts on his abandoning the Mahrattas, disbanding his legions, and surrendering the park. But though he personally fulfilled not, nor could fulfil, one single stipulation, this man, whose services were not worth the pay of a single sepoy—who fled from his camp[4.17.66] unattended, and sought personal protection in that of the British commander—claimed and obtained the full price of our pledge, the sovereignty of about one-third of his master’s dominions; and the districts of Sironj, Tonk, Rampura, and Nimbahera, form the domain of the Nawab Amir Khan, etc., etc., etc.!! This was in the fitful fever of success, when our arms were everywhere triumphant. But were the viceroy of Hind to summon the forty tributaries[4.17.67] now covered by the aegis of British protection to a meeting, the murderer of Krishna would still occupy a place (though low) in this illustrious divan. Let us hope that his character being known, he would feel himself ill at ease; and let us dismiss him likewise in the words of Sangram, “Dust on his head!”

The mind sickens at the contemplation of these unvarying scenes of atrocity; but this unhappy State had yet to pass through two more lustres of aggravated sufferings (to which the author of these annals was an eye-witness) before their [469] termination, upon the alliance of Mewar with Britain. From the period of the forcing of the passes, the dismissal of the Jaipur embassy by Sindhia, and the murder of Krishna Kunwari, the embassy of Britain was in the train of the Mahratta leader, a witness of the evils described—a most painful predicament—when the hand was stretched out for succour in vain, and the British flag waved in the centre of desolation, unable to afford protection. But this day of humiliation is past, thanks to the predatory hordes who goaded us on to their destruction; although the work was incomplete, a nucleus being imprudently left in Sindhia for the scattered particles again to form.

=Ruin of Mewār by the Marāthas.=—In the spring of 1806, when the embassy entered the once-fertile Mewar, from whose native wealth the monuments the pencil will portray were erected, nothing but ruin met the eye—deserted towns, roofless houses, and uncultured plains. Wherever the Mahratta encamped, annihilation was ensured; it was a habit; and twenty-four hours sufficed to give to the most flourishing spot the aspect of a desert. The march of destruction was always to be traced for days afterwards by burning villages and destroyed cultivation. Some satisfaction may result from the fact, that there was scarcely an actor in these unhallowed scenes whose end was not fitted to his career. Ambaji was compelled to disgorge the spoils of Mewar, and his personal sufferings made some atonement for the ills he had inflicted upon her. This satrap, who had almost established his independence in the fortress and territory of Gwalior, suffered every indignity from Sindhia, whose authority he had almost thrown off. He was confined in a mean tent, manacled, suffered the torture of small lighted torches applied to his fingers, and even attempted suicide to avoid the surrender of his riches; but the instrument (an English penknife) was inefficient: the surgeon to the British embassy sewed up the wounds, and his coffers were eased of fifty-five lakhs of rupees! Mewar was, however, once more delivered over to him; he died shortly after. If report be correct, the residue of his treasures was possessed by his ancient ally, Zalim Singh. In this case, the old politician derived the chief advantage of the intrigues of S. 1848, without the crimes attendant on the acquisition.

Sindhia’s father-in-law, when expelled that chief’s camp, according to the treaty, enjoyed the ephemeral dignity of minister to the Rana, when he abstracted the most valuable records, especially those of the revenue [470].

Kumbhalmer was obtained by the minister Satidas from Jaswant Rao Bhao for seventy thousand rupees, for which assignments were given on this district, of which he retained possession. Amir Khan in A.D. 1809 led his myrmidons to the capital, threatening the demolition of the temple of Eklinga if refused a contribution of eleven lakhs of rupees. Nine were agreed to, but which by no effort could be raised, upon which the Rana’s envoys were treated with indignity, and Kishandas[4.17.68] wounded. The passes were forced, Amir Khan entering by Debari, and his coadjutor and son-in-law, the notorious Jamshid, by the Chirwa, which made but a feeble resistance. The ruffian Pathans were billeted on the city, subjecting the Rana to personal humiliation, and Jamshid[4.17.69] left with his licentious Rohillas in the capital. The traces of their barbarity are to be seen in its ruins. No woman could safely venture abroad, and a decent garment or turban was sufficient to attract their cupidity.

=Bāpu Sindhia Sūbahdār of Mewār.=—In S. 1867 (A.D. 1811) Bapu Sindhia arrived with the title of Subahdar, and encamped in the valley, and from this to 1814 these vampires, representing Sindhia and Amir Khan, possessed themselves of the entire fiscal domain, with many of the fiefs, occasionally disputing for the spoils; to prevent which they came to a conference at the Dhaula Magra (the white hill), attended by a deputation[4.17.70] from the Rana, when the line of demarcation was drawn between the spoilers. A schedule was formed of the towns and villages yet inhabited, the amount to be levied from each specified, and three and a half lakhs adjudged to Jamshid, with the same sum to Sindhia; but this treaty was not better kept than the former ones. Mewar was rapidly approaching dissolution, and every sign of civilization fast disappearing; fields laid waste, cities in ruins, inhabitants exiled, chieftains demoralized, the prince and his family destitute of common comforts. Yet had Sindhia the audacity to demand compensation for the loss of his tribute stipulated to Bapu Sindhia [471],[4.17.71] who rendered Mewar a desert, carrying her chiefs, her merchants, her farmers, into captivity and fetters in the dungeons of Ajmer, where many died for want of ransom, and others languished till the treaty with the British, in A.D. 1817, set them free.

-----

Footnote 4.17.1:

Brother of Ajit, the negotiator of the treaty with the British.

Footnote 4.17.2:

Chief of the Jagawat clan, also a branch of the Chondawats; he was killed in a battle with the Mahrattas.

Footnote 4.17.3:

It is yet held by the successor of Sangram, whose faithful services merited the grant he obtained from his prince, and it was in consequence left unmolested in the arrangement of 1817, from the knowledge of his merits.

Footnote 4.17.4:

The father of Rawat Jawan Singh, whom I found at Udaipur as military minister, acting for his grand-uncle Ajit the organ of the Chondawats, whose head, Padam Singh, was just emerging from his minority. It was absolutely necessary to get to the very root of all these feuds, when as envoy and mediator I had to settle the disputes of half a century, and make each useful to detect their joint usurpations of the crown domain.

Footnote 4.17.5:

She was the grandmother of Man Singh, a fine specimen of a Saktawat cavalier.

Footnote 4.17.6:

[Lālsot, about 40 miles south of Jaipur city. For an account of the battle see Compton, European Military Adventurers, 346 f.]

Footnote 4.17.7:

Megh Singh was the chief of Begun, and founder of that subdivision of the Chondawats called after him Meghawat, and his complexion being very dark (kala), he was called ‘Kala Megh,’ the ‘black cloud.’ His descendants were very numerous and very refractory.

Footnote 4.17.8:

A.D. 1788.

Footnote 4.17.9:

He did not recover his liberty for two years, nor till he had surrendered four of the best towns in his fief.

Footnote 4.17.10:

Father of the present Hamir Singh, the only chief with whom I was compelled to use severity; but he was incorrigible. He was celebrated for his raids in the troubles, and from his red whiskers bore with us the name of the ‘Red Riever’ of Badesar—more of him by and by.

Footnote 4.17.11:

Sheodas and Satidas, with their cousin Jaichand. They revenged their brother’s death by that of his murderer, and were both in turn slain. Such were these times! The author more than once, when resuming the Chondawat lands, and amongst them Badesar, the fief of the son of Sardar, was told to recollect the fate of Somji; the advice, however, excited only a smile; he was deemed more of a Saktawat than a Chondawat, and there was some truth in it, for he found the good actions of the former far outweigh the other, who made a boast and monopoly of their patriotism. It was a curious period in his life; the stimulus to action was too high, too constant, to think of self; and having no personal views, being influenced solely by one feeling, the prosperity of all, he despised the very idea of danger, though it was said to exist in various shapes, even in the hospitable plate put before him! But he deemed none capable of such treachery, though once he was within a few minutes’ march to the other world; but the cause, if the right one, came from his own cuisinier, or rather boulanger, whom he discharged.

Footnote 4.17.12:

See the Essay on a Feudal System.

Footnote 4.17.13:

S. 1847 (A.D. 1791).

Footnote 4.17.14:

[Count Benoit de Boigne, a Savoyard, born at Chambery, 1751: served under Mahādaji Sindhia, and won for him his battles of Pātan and Merta in 1790: defeated Holkar at Lakheri in 1793: resigned his command in 1795, and left India in the next year: died June 21, 1830 (Compton, European Military Adventurers, 15 ff.; Buckland, Dict. of Indian Biography, s.v.).]

Footnote 4.17.15:

Acquired from the actors in those scenes: the prince, his ministers, Zalim Singh and the rival chiefs have all contributed.

Footnote 4.17.16:

It was levied as follows:

Salumbar Lakhs 3 Deogarh ” 3 Singingir Gosain, their adviser ” 2 Kosital ” 1 Amet ” 2 Kurabar ” 1 — Lakhs 12

Footnote 4.17.17:

[Pāndhri, Pāndharapatti, a tax on shops, artisans, traders, and persons not engaged in agriculture, levied on their persons, implements, places of work, or traffic; the same as the Mahtarafa (Wilson, Glossary, s.v.).]

Footnote 4.17.18:

Raepur Rajnagar from the Sindis; Gurla and Gadarmala from the Purawats; Hamirgarh from Sardar Singh, and Kurj Kawaria from Salumbar.

Footnote 4.17.19:

In Bhadon, the third month of the rainy season. An account of this festival will hereafter be given.

Footnote 4.17.20:

The first of these is now the manager of Prince Jawan Singh’s estates, a man of no talent; and the latter, his brother, was one of the ministers on my arrival at Udaipur. He was of invincible good humour, yet full of the spirit of intrigue, and one of the bars to returning prosperity. The cholera carried off this Falstaff of the court, not much to my sorrow.

Footnote 4.17.21:

S. 1853, A.D. 1797.

Footnote 4.17.22:

This person was nominated the chief civil minister on the author’s arrival at Udaipur, an office to which he was every way unequal. The affairs of Mewar had never prospered since the faithful Pancholis were deprived of power. Several productions of the descendants of Biharidas have fallen into my hands; their quaint mode of conveying advice may authorize their insertion here.

The Pancholis, who had performed so many services to the country, had been for some time deprived of the office of prime minister, which was disposed of as it suited the views of the factious nobles who held power for the time being; and who bestowed it on the Mehtas, Depras, or Dhabhais. Amongst the papers of the Pancholis, several addressed to the Rana and to Agarji Mehta, the minister of the day, are valuable for the patriotic sentiments they contain, as well as for the general light they throw upon the period. In S. 1853 (A.D. 1797) Amrit Rao devised a plan to remedy the evils that oppressed the country. He inculcated the necessity of dispensing with the interference of the Saktawats and Chondawats in the affairs of government, and strengthening the hands of the civil administration by admitting the foreign chieftains to the power he proposed to deprive the former of. He proceeds in the following quaint style:

“Disease fastened on the country from the following causes, envy and party spirit. With the Turks disease was introduced; but then the prince, his ministers, and chiefs, were of one mind, and medicine was ministered and a cure effected. During Rana Jai Singh’s time the disorder returned, which his son Amra put down. He recovered the affairs of government from confusion, gave to every one his proper rank and dignity, and rendered all prosperous. But Maharana Sangram Singh put from under his wing the Chandarawat of Rampura, and thus a pinion of Mewar was broken. The calamity of Biharidas, whose son committed suicide, increased the difficulties. The arrival of the Deccanis under Bajirao, the Jaipur affair[4.17.21.A] and the defeat at Rajmahall, with the heavy expenditure thereby occasioned, augmented the disorder. Add to this in Jagat Singh’s time the enmity of the Dhabhais towards the Pancholis, which lowered their dignities at home and abroad, and since which time every man has thought himself equal to the task of government. Jagat Singh was also afflicted by the rebellious conduct of his son Partap, when Shyama Solanki and several other chiefs were treacherously cut off. Since which time the minds of the nobles have never been loyal, but black and not to be trusted. Again, on the accession of Partap, Maharaja Nathji allowed his thoughts to aspire, from which all his kin suffered. Hence animosities, doubts, and deceits, arose on all sides. Add to this the haughty proceeding of Amra Chand now in office; and besides the strife of the Pancholis with each other, their enmity to the Depras. Hence parties were formed which completely destroyed the credit of all. Yet, notwithstanding, they abated none of their strife, which was the acme to the disease. The feud between Kuman Singh and the Saktawats for the possession of Hintha, aggravated the distresses. The treacherous murder of Maharaja Nathji, and the consequent disgust and retreat of Jaswant Singh of Deogarh; the setting up the impostor Ratna Singh and Jhala Raghudeo’s struggle for office, with Amra Chand’s entertaining the mercenaries of Sind, brought it to a crisis. The negligence arising out of luxury, and the intrigues of the Dhabhais of Rana Arsi, made it spread so as to defeat all attempt at cure. In S. 1829, on the treacherous murder of the Rana by the Bundi prince, and the accession of the minor Hamir, every one set up his own authority, so that there was not even the semblance of government. And now you (to the Rana), listening to the advice of Bhim Singh (Salumbar), and his brother, Arjun, have taken foreigners[4.17.21.B] into pay, and thus riveted all the former errors. You and Sri Baiji Raj (the royal mother), putting confidence in foreigners and Deccanis, have rendered the disease contagious; besides, your mind is gone. What can be done? Medicine may yet be had. Let us unite and struggle to restore the duties of the minister and we may conquer, or at least check its progress. If now neglected, it will hereafter be beyond human power. The Deccanis are the great sore. Let us settle their accounts, and at all events get rid of them, or we lose the land for ever. At this time there are treaties and engagements in every corner. I have touched on every subject. Forgive whatever is improper. Let us look the future in the face, and let chiefs, ministers, and all unite. With the welfare of the country all will be well. But this is a disease which, if not now conquered, will conquer us.”

A second paper as follows:

"The disease of the country is to be considered and treated as a remittent.

"Amra Singh cured it and laid a complete system of government and justice.

"In Sangram’s time it once more gained ground.

"In Jagat Singh’s time the seed was thrown into the ground thus obtained.

"In Partap’s time it sprung up.

"In Raj Singh’s time it bore fruit.

"In Rana Arsi’s time it was ripe.

"In Hamir’s time it was distributed, and all have had a share.

“And you, Bhim Singh (the present Rana), have eaten plentifully thereof. Its virtues and flavour you are acquainted with, and so likewise is the country; and if you take no medicine you will assuredly suffer much pain, and both at home and abroad you will be lightly thought of. Be not therefore negligent, or faith and land will depart from you.”

A third paper to Agarji Mehta (then minister):

"If the milk is curdled it does not signify. Where there is sense butter may yet be extracted; and if the butter-milk (chhachh) is thrown away it matters not. But if the milk be curdled and black it will require wisdom to restore its purity. This wisdom is now wanted. The foreigners are the black in the curdled milk of Mewar. At all hazards remove them. Trust to them and the land is lost.

"In moonlight what occasion for a blue light? (Chandra jot).[4.17.21.C]

"Who looks to the false coin of the juggler?

"Do not credit him who tells you he will make a pigeon out of a feather.

“Abroad it is said there is no wisdom left in Mewar, which is a disgrace to her reputation.”

Footnote 4.17.21.A:

The struggle to place the Rana’s nephew, Madho Singh, on the throne of Jaipur.

Footnote 4.17.21.B:

The Pancholi must allude to the Mahratta subsidiary force under Ambaji.

Footnote 4.17.21.C:

Literally, a ‘moonlight.’ The particular kind of firework which we call a ‘blue light.’

Footnote 4.17.23:

[Mahādaji Sindhia, commonly and erroneously called Mādhava Rāo, died near Poona, January 12, 1794. See his life by H. G. Keene, ‘Rulers of India’ series; Grant Duff, Hist. of Mahrattas, 343 ff.; W. Franklin, Hist. of Shah-Aulum, 119 ff.]

Footnote 4.17.24:

There are three classes of Mahratta Brahmans: Shenvi, Prabhu, and Mahratta. Of the first was Lakwa, Balabha Tantia, Jiwa Dada, Sivaji Nana, Lalaji Pandit, and Jaswant Rao Bhao, men who held the mortgaged lands of Mewar. [There are four groups of Marātha Brāhmans: Konkanasthas, Deshasthas, Karhādas, and Kanvas. The Prabhus are not Brāhmans, but the writer caste, like the Kāyasths of Hindustān (J. Wilson, Indian Caste, 1877, ii. 17 ff.). The word Shenvi is a corruption of chhiyānavē, ‘ninety-six,’ from the supposed number of their sections.]

Footnote 4.17.25:

I knew him well. He stood six feet six inches, and was bulky in proportion. His limbs rivalled those of the Hercules Farnese. His father was nearly seven feet, and died at the early age of twenty-two, in a vain attempt to keep down, by regimen and medicine, his enormous bulk.

Footnote 4.17.26:

[This is perhaps Captain Butterfield, who served in Sindhia’s force under Colonel Sutherland. He behaved gallantly in action against Lakwa Dāda, for which he received a flattering letter from Perron: no further mention of him has been traced (Compton, Military Adventurers, 344).]

Footnote 4.17.27:

[For Colonel Robert Sutherland, known to natives as ‘Sutlej Sahib,’ see Compton, 410 ff.]

Footnote 4.17.28:

[For the remarkable career of George Thomas, who nearly succeeded in forming a kingdom of his own on the ruins of the Empire in N. India, see Compton, 109 f.; W. Franklin, Military Memoirs of Mr. G. Thomas, 1803.]

Footnote 4.17.29:

Both camps were on the right bank of the Banas: Lakwa’s at Amli, about ten miles south of Shahpura, and Nana’s at Kadera, between these towns.

Footnote 4.17.30:

Lakwa at this time [S. 1856, A.D. 1799] put the Shahpura Raja in possession of the important fortress and district of Jahazpur, which, although the Rana consented to it, covertly receiving from the Raja two lakhs of rupees, disgusted the nobles with Lakwa.

Footnote 4.17.31:

Balabha Tantia and Bakhshu Narayan Rao were Sindhia’s ministers at this period, of the same tribe (the Shenvi) as Lakwa.

Footnote 4.17.32:

[October 14, 1801 (Grant Duff 555).]

Footnote 4.17.33:

[Krishna.]

Footnote 4.17.34:

Five-and-twenty [about thirty] miles north of Udaipur. On this subject we shall have much to say hereafter.

Footnote 4.17.35:

S. 1859 (A.D. 1803).

Footnote 4.17.36:

[Hyder Young Hearsey (1782-3-1840), son of Captain Harry Thomas Hearsey by a Jāt lady, served Sindhia under Perron, and also George Thomas, joined Lord Lake at Dīg in 1804: taken prisoner in the Nepāl war of 1815: present at the siege of Bharatpur: died near Budāun (Buckland, Dict. Indian Biography, s.v.).]

Footnote 4.17.37:

In S. 1860 (A.D. 1804).

Footnote 4.17.38:

At this juncture an officer of Holkar’s, Harnath Chela, on passing through Bansain, had some camels carried off by the Bhils of the Satola estate. Harnath summoned Gulab Singh Chondawat, who came with eight of his relatives, when he was told he should be detained till the cattle were restored; and in the morning, as the Mahratta mounted his elephant, he commanded the Raghaut chieftain to be seized. Gulab drew his sword and made at Harnath, but his sword broke in the howda, when he plunged his dagger into the elephant; but at length he and all his relations, who nobly plied their swords on the Mahrattas, were cut to pieces.

Footnote 4.17.39:

[For a graphic account of these camps see T. D. Broughton, Letters written in a Mahratta Camp during the year 1809, ed. 1892.]

Footnote 4.17.40:

The Rana of Gohad and Gwalior, the Khichi chiefs of Raghugarh and Bahadurgarh, and the Nawab of Bhopal, made common cause with us in Warren Hastings’ time. The first three possess not a shadow of independence; the last fortunately formed a link in our own policy, and Lord Hastings, in 1818, repaid with liberal interest the services rendered to the government of Warren Hastings in 1782. It was in his power, with equal facility, to have rescued all the other States, and to have claimed the same measure of gratitude which Bhopal is proud to avow. But there was a fatality in the desire to maintain terms with Sindhia, whose treachery to our power was overlooked.

Footnote 4.17.41:

The author, then a subaltern, was attached to the suite of the ambassador, Mr. Græme Mercer. He left the subsidiary force at Gwalior in December 1805, and the embassy reached Sindhia’s court in the spring of 1806, then encamped amidst the ruins of Mewar.

Footnote 4.17.42:

The ministers of Sindhia were Ambaji, Bapu Chitnavis, Madhuba Huzuria, and Anaji Bhaskar.

Footnote 4.17.43:

[Baiza Bāi, widow of Daulat Rāo Sindhia, who died in 1827, was an unscrupulous, designing woman, whose intrigues at Gwalior forced her to take refuge in British territory. She returned after an interval and lived at Gwalior until her death in 1862 (IGI, xii. 424).]

Footnote 4.17.44:

That is, chief of the race from which issued the Satara sovereigns, whose minister, the Peshwa, accounted Sindhia and Holkar his feudatories.

Footnote 4.17.45:

Rangra is an epithet applied to the Rajputs, implying turbulent, from rana, ‘strife.’ [Rāngar is the title of a body of turbulent, predatory Muhammadans, who claim Rājput descent, occupying parts of the E. Panjāb and W. districts of the Ganges-Jumna Duāb. The derivation suggested is very doubtful (Crooke, Tribes and Castes, N.W.P. and Oudh, v. 227 ff.).]

Footnote 4.17.46:

[In October 1805 (Grant Duff 601).]

Footnote 4.17.47:

[Jean Baptiste de la Fontaine Filoze (1775-1840) assisted in the campaign against Thomas in 1801. In the war with the English, part of his brigade under Dupont was defeated at Assaye. He was afterwards ill-treated by Sindhia, but was reinstated. Some of his descendants are still in Sindhia’s service (Compton, European Military Adventurers, 352 ff.; Sleeman, Rambles, 115, note). He is frequently mentioned in Broughton, Letters written in a Mahratta Camp.]

Footnote 4.17.48:

To increase his importance, Sindhia invited the British envoy and suite to be present on the occasion, when the princely demeanour of the Rana and his sons was advantageously contrasted with that of the Mahratta and his suite. It was in this visit that the regal abode of this ancient race, its isles and palaces, acted with irresistible force on the cupidity of this scion of the plough, who aspired to, yet dared not seat himself in, ‘the halls of the Caesars.’ It was even surmised that his hostility to Jaipur was not so much from the refused war-contribution, as from a mortifying negative to an audacious desire to obtain the hand of this princess himself. The impression made on the author upon this occasion by the miseries and noble appearance of ‘this descendant of a hundred kings,’ was never allowed to weaken, but kindled an enthusiastic desire for the restoration of his fallen condition, which stimulated his perseverance to obtain that knowledge by which alone he might be enabled to benefit him. Then a young Sub., his hopes of success were more sanguine than wise; but he trusted to the rapid march of events, and the discordant elements by which he was surrounded, to effect the redemption of the prince from thraldom. It was a long dream—but after ten years of anxious hope, at length realized—and he had the gratification of being instrumental in snatching the family from destruction, and subsequently of raising the country to comparative prosperity.

Footnote 4.17.49:

I witnessed the commencement and the end of this drama, and have conversed with actors in all the intermediate scenes. In June 1806 the passes of Udaipur were forced; and in January 1808, when I passed through Jaipur in a solitary ramble, the fragments of this contest were scattered over its sandy plains.

Footnote 4.17.50:

[Amīr Khān, ally of the Pindāris and ancestor of the present Nawābs of Tonk. A treaty between him and the British was signed on December 19, 1817, by which his State was recognized. He died in 1834. See his Life by Basāwan Lāl, translated by Thoby Prinsep; Malcolm, Memoirs of Central India, 2nd ed. ii. 325 ff.]

Footnote 4.17.51:

Harem.

Footnote 4.17.52:

I knew him well—a plain honest man.

Footnote 4.17.53:

Alluding to the custom of infanticide—here, very rare; indeed, almost unknown.

Footnote 4.17.54:

With my mind engrossed with the scenes in which I had passed the better part of my life, I went two months after my return from Rajputana, in 1823, to York Cathedral, to attend the memorable festival of that year. The sublime recitations of Handel in ‘Jephtha’s Vow,’ the sonorous woe of Sapio’s ‘Deeper and deeper still,’ powerfully recalled the sad exit of the Rajputni; and the representation shortly after of Racine’s tragedy of ‘Iphigénie,’ with Talma as Achille, Duchesnois as Clytemnestre, and a very interesting personation of the victim daughter of Agamemnon, again served to waken the remembrance of this sacrifice. The following passage, embodying not only the sentiments, but couched in the precise language in which the ‘Virgin Krishna’ addressed her father—proving that human nature was but one mode of expression for the same feelings—I am tempted to transcribe:

... “Mon père, Cessez de vous troubler, vous n’êtes point trahi. Quand vous commanderez, vous serez obéi: Ma vie est votre bien. Vous voulez le reprendre, Vos ordres, sans détour, pouvaient se faire entendre; D’un œil aussi content, d’un cœur aussi soumis, Que j’acceptais l’époux que vous m’aviez promis, Je saurai, s’il le faut, victime obéissante Tendre au fer de Calchas une tête innocente; Et respectant le coup par vous-même ordonné, Vous rendre tout le sang que vous m’avez donné.”

Footnote 4.17.55:

Bappa Rawal.

Footnote 4.17.56:

The kusumbha draught is made of flowers and herbs of a cooling quality; into this an opiate was introduced.

Footnote 4.17.57:

The simple but powerful expression of the narrator.

Footnote 4.17.58:

The tribe of the Rana.

Footnote 4.17.59:

That is, without adoption even to perpetuate it.

Footnote 4.17.60:

A respectful epithet to the prince—sire.

Footnote 4.17.61:

By the same mother.

Footnote 4.17.62:

He was nearly carried off by that awful scourge, the cholera, and, singular to remark, was the first person attacked at Udaipur. I remained by his bedside during the progress of this terrible visitation, and never shall I forget his grateful exclamation of surprise, when after a salutary sleep he opened his eyes to health. Shirji Mehta, his chief adviser and manager of his estates, merry as ever, though the heir of Mewar was given over, was seized with the complaint as his master recovered—was dead and his ashes blanching on the sands of the streamlet of Ar within twelve hours! Jovial and good-humoured as he was, “we could have better spared a better man.” He was an adept in intrigue; of Ambaji’s school; and till death shall extinguish the whole of this, and better morals are born, the country will but slowly improve. [Mahārāna Jawān Singh (1828-38) succeeded on the death of his father, Bhīm Singh, on March 31, 1828. He gave himself up to debauchery, and died without issue on August 30, 1838, being succeeded by his adopted son, Sardār Singh.]

Footnote 4.17.63:

Since this work has gone to press, the author has been rejoiced to find that an heir has been born from the last marriage by a princess of Riwa of the Baghela tribe.

Footnote 4.17.64:

See genealogical descendants of Rana Jagat Singh. Appendix, No. VIII.

Footnote 4.17.65:

This was written at Udaipur in 1820. This old intriguer then attempted to renew the past, as the organ of the Chondawats, but his scheme ended in exile to the sacred city of Benares; and there he may now be seen with his rosary on the consecrated ghat of the Ganges.

Footnote 4.17.66:

Brigadier-General Alexander Knox had the honour of dissolving these bands in the only way worthy of us. He marched his troops to take their guns and disperse their legions; and, when in order of battle, the gallant General taking out his watch, gave them half an hour to reflect, their commander Jamshid, second only in villainy to his master, deeming ‘discretion the better part of valour,’ surrendered.

Footnote 4.17.67:

There are full this number of princes holding under the British.

Footnote 4.17.68:

This veteran attended me during all these troubles, as the medium of communication with the Rana. Though leagued with the Chondawats, he was a loyal subject and good servant. I saw him expire, and was of opinion, as well as the doctor who accompanied me, that his death was caused by poison. The general burst of sorrow from hundreds collected around his house, when the event was announced, is the best encomium on his public character.

Footnote 4.17.69:

This monstrous villain (for he was a Goliath) died soon after Mewar was rescued, from a cancer in his back.

Footnote 4.17.70:

Satidas, Kishandas, and Rup Ram.

Footnote 4.17.71:

Bapu Sindhia shortly outlived his expulsion from Ajmer, and as he had to pass through Mewar in his passage to his future residence, he was hooted by the population he had plundered. While I was attending the Rana’s court, some one reporting Bapu Sindhia’s arrival at his destination, mentioned that some pieces of ordnance formerly taken from Udaipur had, after saluting him, exuded a quantity of water, which was received with the utmost gravity by the court, until I remarked they were crying because they should never again be employed in plunder: an idea which caused a little mirth.

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Chapter 18

=Degraded Condition of the Rājputs.=—The history of the Rana’s family has now been traced through all the vicissitudes of its fortunes, from the second to the nineteenth century, whilst contending for existence, alternately with Parthians, Bhils, Tartars, and Mahrattas, till at length it has become tributary to Britain. The last chapter portrays the degraded condition of their princes, and the utter desolation of their country, in a picture which embodied the entire Rajput race. An era of repose at length dawned upon them. The destruction of that vast predatory system, under the weight of which the prosperity of these regions had so long been repressed, was effected by one short campaign in 1817; which if less brilliant than that of 1803, is inferior to none in political results. The tardy policy of the last-named period, at length accomplished, placed the power of Britain in the East on an expugnable position, and rescued the Rajputs from a progressing destruction.

=Alliances with the British.=—To prevent the recurrence of this predatory system it was deemed politic to unite all these settled States, alike interested with ourselves in its overthrow, in one grand confederation. Accordingly the Rajput States were invited to shelter [472] under our protecting alliance; and with one exception (Jaipur), they eagerly embraced the invitation. The ambassadors of the various governments followed each other in quick succession to Delhi, where the treaties were to be negotiated, and in a few weeks all Rajputana was united to Britain by compacts of one uniform character;[4.18.1] insuring to them external protection with internal independence, as the price of acknowledged supremacy, and a portion of revenue to the protecting government. By this comprehensive arrangement, we placed a most powerful barrier between our territories and the strong natural frontier of India; and so long as we shall respect their established usages, and by contributing to the prosperity of the people preserve our motives from distrust, it will be a barrier impenetrable to invasion.

=Treaty with Mewār.=—Of all the princes who obtained succour at this momentous crisis in the political history of India, none stood more in need of it than the Rana of Udaipur. On January 16, 1818, the treaty was signed, and in February an envoy was nominated; who immediately proceeded to the Rana’s court, to superintend and maintain the newly formed relations.[4.18.2] The right wing of the grand army[4.18.3] had already preceded him to compel the surrender of such territory as was unjustly held by the lawless partisans of Sindhia, and to reduce to obedience the refractory nobles, to whom anarchy was endeared from long familiarity. The strongholds in the plains as Raepur, Rajnagar, etc., soon surrendered; and the payment of the arrears of the garrison of Kumbhalmer put this important fortress in our possession.

In his passage from Jahazpur, which guards the range on the east to Kumbhalmer on the Aravalli west, a space of 140 miles, the limits of Mewar, only two thinly peopled towns were seen which acknowledged the Rana’s authority. All was desolate; even the traces of the footsteps of man were effaced. The babul (mimosa [acacia] Arabica), and gigantic reed, which harboured the boar and the tiger, grew upon the highways; and every rising ground displayed a mass of ruin. Bhilwara, the commercial entrepôt of Rajputana, which ten years before contained six thousand [473] families, showed not a vestige of existence. All was silent in her streets—no living thing was seen except a solitary dog, that fled in dismay from his lurking-place in the temple, scared at the unaccustomed sight of man.[4.18.4]

=Cession of Kumbhalmer.=—An envoy was dispatched by the Rana to congratulate the Agent, who joined him in the British camp at Nathdwara; and while he returned to arrange the formalities of reception, the Agent obtained the cession of Kumbhalmer; which, with the acquisitions before mentioned, paved the way for a joyful reception. The prince, Javan Singh, with all the State insignia, and a numerous cortège, advanced to receive the mission, and conduct it to the capital. A spot was fixed on in a grove of palmyras, about two miles from the city, where carpets were spread, and where the prince received the Agent and suite in a manner at once courteous and dignified.[4.18.5] Of him it might have been said, in the language applied by Jahangir to the son of Rana Amra—“His countenance carried the impression of his illustrious extraction.”

=Arrival of the Author as Agent.=—We entered the city[4.18.6] by the gate of the sun; and through a vista of ruin the mission was inducted into its future residence, once the abode of the fair Rampiyari.[4.18.7] Like all the mansions of Rajputana, it was a quadrangular pile, with an open paved area, the suites of apartments carried round the sides, with latticed or open corridors extending parallel to each suite. Another deputation with the mehmani, consisting of a hundred trays of sweetmeats, dried fruits, and a purse of one thousand rupees for distribution amongst the domestics, brought the Rana’s welcome upon our arrival in his capital, and fixed the next day for our introduction at court.

At four in the afternoon, a deputation, consisting of the officiating prime minister, the representative of the Chondawats, with mace-bearers and a numerous escort, came to announce the Rana’s readiness to receive the mission; which, with all the ‘pomp and circumstance’ peculiar to these countries, was marshalled in front of the residency, thronged by crowds of well-dressed [474] inhabitants, silently gazing at the unusual sight.[4.18.8] The grand Nakkaras having announced the Rana in court, the mission proceeded through streets which everywhere presented marks of rapine, hailed by the most enthusiastic greetings. “Jai! jai! Farangi ka Raj!” “Victory, victory to the English Government!” resounded from every tongue. The bards were not idle; and the unpoetic name of the Agent was hitched into rhyme. Groups of musicians were posted here and there, who gave a passing specimen of the tappas[4.18.9] of Mewar; and not a few of the fair, with brazen ewers of water on their heads, welcomed us with the suhelia, or songs of joy. Into each of these vessels the purse-bearer dropped a piece of silver; for neither the songs of the suhelia, the tappas of the minstrel, nor encomiastic stave of the bard, are to be received without some acknowledgement that you appreciate their merit and talents, however you may doubt the value they put upon your own. As we ascended the main street leading to the Tripolia, or triple portal, which guards the sacred enclosure, dense masses of people obstructed our progress, and even the walls of the temple of Jagannath were crowded. According to etiquette, we dismounted at the Porte, and proceeded on foot across the ample terrace; on which were drawn up a few elephants and horse, exercising for the Rana’s amusement.

=The Palace at Udaipur.=—The palace is a most imposing pile, of a regular form, built of granite and marble, rising at least a hundred feet from the ground, and flanked with octagonal towers, crowned with cupolas. Although built at various periods, uniformity of design has been very well preserved; nor is there in the East a more striking or majestic structure. It stands upon the very crest of a ridge running parallel to, but considerably elevated above, the margin of the lake. The terrace, which is at the east and chief front of the palace, extends throughout its length, and is supported by a triple row of arches from the declivity of the ridge. The height of this arcaded wall is fully fifty feet; and although all is hollow beneath, yet so admirably is it constructed, that an entire range of stables is built on the extreme verge of the terrace, on which the whole personal force of the Rana, elephants, horse, and foot, are often assembled. From this terrace the city and the valley lay before the spectator, whose vision is bounded only by the [475] hills shutting out the plains; while from the summit of the palace nothing obstructs its range over lake and mountain.

A band of Sindis guarded the first entrance to the palace; and being Saturday, the Saktawats were on duty in the great hall of assembly. Through lines of Rajputs we proceeded till we came to the marble staircase, the steps of which had taken the form of the segment of an ellipse, from the constant friction of the foot; an image of Ganesha guarded the ascent to the interior of the palace, and the apartment, or landing, is called Ganesha deori, from the Rajput Janus. After proceeding through a suite of saloons, each filled with spectators, the herald’s voice announced to ‘the lord of the world’ that the English envoy was in his presence; on which he arose, and advanced a few paces in front of the throne, the chieftains standing to receive the mission. Everything being ruled by precedent, the seat allotted for the envoy was immediately in front and touching the royal cushion (gaddi): being that assigned to the Peshwa in the height of Mahratta prosperity, the arrangement, which was a subject of regular negotiation, could not be objected to. The apartment chosen for the initiatory visit was the Surya mahall, or ‘hall of the sun,’ so called from a medallion of the orb in basso-rilievo which decorates the wall. Close thereto is placed the Rana’s throne, above which, supported by slender silver columns, rises a velvet canopy. The Gaddi, or throne, in the East is but a huge cushion, over which is thrown an embroidered velvet mantle. The chiefs of the higher grade, or ‘the Sixteen,’ were seated, according to their rank, on the right and left of the Rana; next and below these were the princes Amra and Javan Singh; and at right angles (by which the court formed three sides of a square), the chiefs of the second rank. The civil officers of the State were near the Rana in front, and the seneschal, butler, keeper of the wardrobe, and other confidential officers and inferior chieftains, formed a group standing on the extreme edge of the carpet.

The Rana’s congratulations were hearty and sincere: in a few powerful expressions he depicted the miseries he had experienced, the fallen condition of his State, and the gratitude he felt to the British Government which had interposed between him and destruction; and which for the first moment of his existence allowed him to sleep in peace. There was an intense earnestness in every word he uttered, which, delivered with great fluency of speech and dignity of manner, inspired deep respect and sympathy. The Agent said that the Governor-General was no stranger to the [476] history of his illustrious family, or to his own immediate sufferings; and that it was his earnest desire to promote, by every means in his power, the Rana’s personal dignity and the prosperity of his dominions. After conversing a few minutes, the interview was closed with presents to the Agent and suite: to the former a caparisoned elephant and horse, jewelled aigrette, and pearl necklace, with shawls and brocades; and with the customary presentation of essence of rose and the pan leaf the Rana and court rising, the envoy made his salaam and retired. In a short time the Rana, attended by his second son, ministers, and a select number of the chiefs, honoured the envoy with a visit. The latter advanced beyond his residence to meet the prince, who was received with presented arms by the guard, the officers saluting, and conducted to his throne, which had been previously arranged. Conversation was now unrestrained, and questions were demanded regarding everything which appeared unusual. After sitting half an hour, the Agent presented the Rana with an elephant and two horses, caparisoned with silver and gilt ornaments and velvet embroidered housings, with twenty-one shields[4.18.10] of shawls, brocades, muslins, and jewels; to prince Amra, unable from sickness to attend his father, a horse and eleven shields; and to his brother, the second prince, Javan Singh, a horse and nine shields; to the ministers and chiefs according to rank: the whole entertainment costing about 20,000 rupees, or £2000. Amidst these ceremonials, receiving and returning visits of the Rana, his chiefs, his ministers, and men of influence and information commercial and agricultural, some weeks passed in silent observation, and in the acquisition of materials for action.[4.18.11]

=Political Divisions of Mewār.=—For the better comprehension of the internal relations, past and present, of Mewar [477], a sketch is presented, showing the political divisions of the tribes and the fiscal domain, from which a better idea may be formed of Rajput feudal economy than from a chapter of dissertation. The princes of Mewar skilfully availed themselves of their natural advantages in the partition of the country. The mountain-barriers east and west were allotted to the chiefs to keep the mountaineers and foresters in subjection, whose leading passes were held by a lord-marcher, and the quotas of his quarter; and while strong forts guarded the exposed northern and southern entrances, the crown-land lay in the centre, the safest and the richest. The exterior, thus guarded by a cordon of feudal levies composed of the quotas of the greater fiefs; the minor and most numerous class of vassals, termed gol, literally ‘the mass,’ and consisting of ten thousand horse, each holding directly of the crown independent of the greater chiefs, formed its best security against both external aggression and internal commotions.

=Desolation of Mewār.=—Such is a picture of the feudal economy of Mewar in the days of her renown; but so much had it been defaced through time and accident, that with difficulty could the lineaments be traced with a view to their restoration: her institutions a dead letter, the prince’s authority despised, the nobles demoralized and rebellious, internal commerce abandoned, and the peasantry destroyed by the combined operation of war, pestilence, and exile. Expression might be racked for phrases which could adequately delineate the miseries all classes had endured. It is impossible to give more than a sketch of the state of the das sahas Mewar, ‘the ten thousand townships’ which once acknowledged her princes, and of which above three thousand still exist. All that remained to them was the valley of the capital; and though Chitor and Mandalgarh were maintained by the fidelity of the Rana’s servants, their precarious revenues scarcely sufficed to maintain their garrisons. The Rana was mainly indebted to Zalim Singh of Kotah for the means of subsistence; for in the struggle for existence his chiefs thought only of themselves, of defending their own estates, or buying off their foes; while those who had succumbed took to horse, scoured the country, and plundered without distinction. Inferior clanships declared themselves independent of their superiors, who in their turn usurped the crown domain, or by bribing the necessities of their prince, obtained his patent for lands, to which, as they yielded him nothing, he became indifferent. The crown-tenants purchased of these chiefs the protection (rakhwali) which the [478] Rana could not grant, and made alienations of the crown taxes, besides private rights of the community, which were often extorted at the point of the lance. Feuds multiplied, and the name of each clan became the watchword of alarm or defiance to its neighbour: castles were assaulted, and their inmates, as at Sheogarh and Lawa, put to the sword; the Meras and Bhils descended from their hills, or emerged from their forests, and planted ambuscades for the traveller or merchant, whom they robbed or carried to their retreats, where they languished in durance till ransomed. Marriage processions were thus intercepted, and the honeymoon was passed on a cliff of the Aravalli, or in the forests on the Mahi. The Rajput, whose moral energies were blunted, scrupled not to associate and to divide the spoil with these lawless tribes, of whom it might be said, as of the children of Ishmael, “Their hands were against every man, and every man’s hand against them.” Yet notwithstanding such entire disorganization of society, external commerce was not stagnant; and in the midst of this rapine, the produce of Europe and Kashmir would pass each other in transit through Mewar, loaded it is true by a multiplicity of exactions, but guarded by those who scorned all law but the point of honour, which they were paid for preserving.

=The Condition of Udaipur.=—The capital will serve as a specimen of the country. Udaipur, which formerly reckoned fifty thousand houses within the walls, had not now three thousand occupied, the rest were in ruin, the rafters being taken for firewood. The realization of the spring harvest of 1818, from the entire fiscal land, was about £4000! Grain sold for seven sers the rupee, though thrice the quantity was procurable within the distance of eighty miles. Insurance from the capital to Nathdwara (twenty-five miles) was eight per cent. The Kotharia chief, whose ancestors are immortalized for fidelity, had not a horse to conduct him to his prince’s presence, though his estates were of fifty thousand rupees annual value. All were in ruins; and the Rana, the descendant of those patriot Rajputs who opposed Babur, Akbar, and Aurangzeb, in the days of Mogul splendour, had not fifty horse to attend him, and was indebted for all the comforts he possessed to the liberality of Kotah.

=Reorganization of the State.=—Such was the chaos from which order was to be evoked. But the elements of prosperity, though scattered, were not extinct; and recollections of the past, deeply engraved in the national mind, became available to reanimate their moral and physical existence. To call these forth demanded only the exertion of moral [479] interference, and every other was rejected. The lawless freebooter, and even the savage Bhil, felt awed at the agency of a power never seen. To him moral opinion (compared with which the strength of armies is nought) was inexplicable, and he substituted in its stead another invisible power—that of magic: and the belief was current throughout the intricate region of the West, that a single individual could carry an army in his pocket, and that our power could animate slips of paper cut into the figures of armed men, from which no precaution could guard their retreats. Accordingly, at the mere name of the British power, rapine ceased, and the inhabitants of the wilds of the West, the ‘forest lords,’ who had hitherto laughed at subjection, to the number of seven hundred villages, put each the sign of the dagger to a treaty, promising abstinence from plunder and a return to industrious life—a single individual of no rank the negotiator. Moreover, the treaty was religiously kept for twelve months; when the peace was broken, not by them, but against them.

To the Rajput, the moral spectacle of a Peshwa marched into exile with all the quietude of a pilgrimage, effected more than twenty thousand bayonets, and no other auxiliary was required than the judicious use of the impressions from this and other passing events, to relay the foundations of order and prosperity—by never doubting the issue, success was insured. The British force, therefore, after the reduction of the plans enumerated, was marched to cantonments; the rest was left for time and reason to accomplish.

=Form of Civil Government.=—Before proceeding further, it may be convenient to sketch the form of civil government in Mewar, and the characters of its most conspicuous members: the former we shall describe as it was when the machine was in regular action; it will be found simple, and perfectly suited to its object.

There are four grand officers of the government:

1. The Pardhan, or prime minister. 2. Bakhshi, commander of the forces. 3. Suratnama, keeper of the records. 4. Sahai, keeper of the signet.[4.18.12]

The first, the Pardhan, or civil premier, must be of the non-militant tribe. The whole of the territorial and financial arrangements are vested in him. He [480] nominates the civil governors of districts, and the collectors of the revenue and custom; and has fourteen thuas, or departments, under him, which embrace all that relates to expenditure.

2. The Bakhshi must also be of a non-militant tribe, and one different from the Pardhan. His duties are mixed civil and military. He takes the musters, and pays mercenaries, or rations, to the feudal tenants when on extra service, and he appoints a deputy to accompany all expeditions, or to head frontier-posts, with the title of Faujdar, or commander. The royal insignia, the standard, and kettle-drums accompany him, and the highest nobles assemble under the general control of this civil officer, never under one of their own body. From the Bakhshi’s bureau all patents are issued, as also all letters of sequestration of feudal land.

The Bakhshi has four secretaries:

1. Draws out deeds. 2. Accountant. 3. Recorder of all patents or grants. 4. Keeps duplicates.

3. The Suratnama[4.18.13] is the auditor and recorder of all the household expenditure and establishments, which are paid by his cheques. He has four assistants also, who make a daily report, and give a daily balance of accounts.

4. The Sahai. He is secretary both for home and foreign correspondence. He draws out the royal grants or patents of estates, and superintends the deeds of grant on copper-plate to religious establishments. Since the privilege appertaining to Salumbar, of confirming all royal grants with his signet the lance, has fallen into desuetude, the Sahai executes this military autograph.[4.18.14]

To all decrees, from the daily stipend to the patta, or patent of an estate, each minister must append his seal, so that there is a complete system of check. Besides these, the higher officers of government, there are thirty-six karkhanas, or inferior officers, appointed directly by the Rana, the most conspicuous of which are the justiciary,[4.18.15] the keepers of the register-office, of the mint, of the armoury, of the regalia, of the jewels, of the wardrobe, of the stables, of the kitchen, of the band, of the seneschalsy, and of the seraglio.

There was no want of aspirants to office, here hereditary; but it was vain to look [481] amongst the descendants of the virtuous Pancholi, or the severe Amrachand, and the prediction of the former, “Dust will cover the head of Mewar when virtue wanders in rags,” was strictly fulfilled. There appeared no talent, no influence, no honesty; yet the deficiency was calculated to excite sorrow rather than surprise; to stimulate exertion on their behalf, rather than damp the hope of improvement; though all scope for action, save in the field of intrigue, was lost, and talent was dormant for want of exercise.

=Incapacity of the Rāna.=—The Rana’s character was little calculated to supply his minister’s deficiencies. Though perfectly versed in the past history of his country, its resources, and their management; though able, wise, and amiable, his talents were nullified by numerous weak points. Vain shows, frivolous amusements, and an ill-regulated liberality alone occupied him; and so long as he could gratify these propensities, he trusted complacently to the exertions of others for the restoration of order and his proper authority. He had little steadiness of purpose, and was particularly obnoxious to female influence. It is scarcely to be wondered that he coveted repose, and was little desirous to disturb the only moment his existence had presented of enjoying it, by inviting the turmoils of business. No man, however, was more capable of advising: his judgment was good, but he seldom followed its dictates; in short, he was an adept in theory, and a novice in practice. The only man about the court at once of integrity and efficiency was Kishandas, who had long acted as ambassador, and to whose assiduity the sovereign and the country owed much; but his services were soon cut off by death.

Such were the materials with which the work of reform commenced. The aim was to bring back matters to a correspondence with an era of their history, when the rights of the prince, the vassal, and the cultivator, were alike well defined—that of Amra Singh.

=Relations of the Rāna with his Nobles.=—The first point to effect was the recognition of the prince’s authority by his nobles; the surest sign of which was their presence at the capital, where some had never been, and others only when it suited their convenience or their views. In a few weeks the Rana saw himself surrounded by a court such as had not been known for half a century. It created no small curiosity to learn by what secret power they were brought into each other’s presence. Even the lawless Hamira, who but a short while before had plundered the marriage dower of the Hari queen [482] coming from Kotah, and the chief of the Sangawat clan, who had sworn “he might bend his head to woman, but never to his sovereign,” left their castles of Badesar and Deogarh, and “placing the royal rescript on their heads,” hastened to his presence; and in a few weeks the whole feudal association of Mewar was embodied in the capital.

=Return of the Exiles.=—To recall the exiled population was a measure simultaneous with the assembling of the nobles; but this was a work requiring time: they had formed ties, and incurred obligations to the societies which had sheltered them, which could not at once be disengaged or annulled. But wherever a subject of Mewar existed, proclamations penetrated, and satisfactory assurances were obtained, and realized to an extent which belied in the strongest manner the assertion that patriotism is unknown to the natives of Hindustan. The most enthusiastic and cheering proofs were afforded that neither oppression from without, nor tyranny within, could expel the feeling for the bapota, the land of their fathers. Even now, though time has chastened the impressions, we should fear to pen but a tithe of the proofs of devotion of the husbandman of Mewar to the solum natale: it would be deemed romance by those who never contemplated humanity in its reflux from misery and despair to the ‘sweet influences’ of hope; he alone who had witnessed the day of trouble, and beheld the progress of desolation—the standing corn grazed by Mahratta horse—the rifled towns devoted to the flames—the cattle driven to the camp, and the chief men seized as hostages for money never to be realized—could appreciate their deliverance. To be permitted to see these evils banished, to behold the survivors of oppression congregated from the most distant provinces, many of them strangers to each other, and the aged and the helpless awaiting the lucky day to take possession of their ruined abodes, was a sight which memory will not part with. Thus on the 3rd of Sawan (July),[4.18.16] a favourite day with the husbandman, three hundred of all conditions, with their waggons and implements of labour, and preceded by banners and music, marched into Kapasan;[4.18.17] and Ganesha was once again invoked as they reconsecrated their dwellings, and placed his portrait as the Janus of the portals. On the same day, and within eight months subsequent to the signature of the treaty, above three hundred towns and villages were simultaneously reinhabited; and the land, which for many years had been a stranger to the plough-share, was broken up. Well might [483] the superstitious fancy that miracles were abroad; for even to those who beheld the work in progression it had a magical result, to see the waste covered with habitations, and the verdant corn growing in the fields where lately they had roused the boar from his retreat! It was a day of pride for Britain! By such exertions of her power in these distant lands her sway is hallowed. By Britain alone can this fair picture be defaced; the tranquillity and independence she has conferred, by her alone may be disturbed!

=Attraction of Capital.=—To these important preliminary measures, the assembly of the nobles and recall of the population, was added a third, without which the former would have been nugatory. There was no wealth, no capital, to aid their patriotism and industry. Foreign merchants and bankers had abandoned the devoted land; and those who belonged to it partook of her poverty and her shame. Money was scarce, and want of faith and credit had increased the usury on loans to a ruinous extent. The Rana borrowed at thirty-six per cent; besides twenty-five to forty per cent discount for his barats, or patents empowering collection on the land; a system pursued for some time even after his restoration to authority. His profusion exceeded even the rapidity of renovation; and the husbandman had scarcely broken up his long-waste fields, when a call was made by the harpies of the State for an advance on their produce, while he himself had been compelled to borrow at a like ruinous rate for seed and the means of support, to be paid by expectations. To have hoped for the revival of prosperity amidst such destitution, moral and pecuniary, would have been visionary. It was as necessary to improve the one as to find the other; for poverty and virtue do not long associate, and certainly not in Mewar. Proclamations were therefore prepared by the Rana, inviting foreign merchants and bankers to establish connexions in the chief towns throughout the country; but as in the days of demoralization little faith was placed in the words of princes, similar ones were prepared by the Agent, guaranteeing the stipulations, and both were distributed to every commercial city in India. The result was as had been foreseen: branch banks were everywhere formed, and mercantile agents fixed in every town in the country, whose operations were only limited by the slow growth of moral improvement. The shackles which bound external commerce were at once removed, and the multifarious posts for the collections of transit duties abolished; in lieu of which chain of stations, all levies on goods in transit were confined to the frontiers. The scale of duties [484] was revised; and by the abolition of intermediate posts, they underwent a reduction of from thirty to fifty per cent. By this system, which could not for some time be comprehended, the transit and custom duties of Mewar made the most certain part of the revenue, and in a few years exceeded in amount what had ever been known.

=Trade at Bhīlwāra.=—The chief commercial mart, Bhilwara, which showed not a vestige of humanity, rapidly rose from ruin, and in a few months contained twelve hundred houses, half of which were occupied by foreign merchants. Bales of goods, the produce of the most distant lands, were piled up in the streets lately overgrown with grass, and a weekly fair was established for the home manufactures. A charter of privileges and immunities was issued, exempting them from all taxation for the first year, and graduating the scale for the future; calculated with the same regard to improvement, by giving the mind the full range of enjoying the reward of its exertions. The right of electing their own chief magistrates and the assessors of justice, was above all things indispensable, so as to render them as independent as possible of the needy servants of the court. A guard was provided by the government for their protection, and a competent authority nominated to see that the full extent of their privileges, and the utmost freedom of action, were religiously maintained. The entire success of this plan may at once be recorded to prevent repetition. In 1822, Bhilwara contained nearly three thousand dwellings, which were chiefly inhabited by merchants, bankers, or artisans. An entire new street had been constructed in the centre of the town, from the duties levied, and the shops and houses were rented at a moderate rate; while many were given up to the proprietors of their sites, returning from exile, on their paying the price of construction. But as there is no happiness without alloy, so even this pleasing picture had its dark shades to chasten the too sanguine expectation of imparting happiness to all. Instead of a generous emulation, a jealous competition checked the prosperity of Bhilwara: the base spirit of exclusive monopoly desired a distinction between the native and the stranger-merchant, for which they had a precedent in the latter paying an addition to the town-duty of metage (mapa). The unreasonableness of this was discussed, and it was shown to be more consonant to justice that he who came from Jaisalmer, Surat, Benares, or Delhi, should pay less than the merchant whose domicile was on the spot. When at length the parties acquiesced in this opinion, and were intreated and promised to know [485] none other distinction than that of ‘inhabitant of Bhilwara,’ sectarian differences, which there was less hope of reconciling, became the cause of disunion. All the Hindu merchants belong either to the Vaishnava or Jain sects; consequently each had a representative head, and ‘the Five’ for the adjudication of their internal arrangements; and these, the wise men of both parties, formed the general council for the affairs of Bhilwara. But they carried their religious differences to the judgement-seat, where each desired pre-eminence. Whether the point in dispute hinged on the interpretation of law, which with all these sects is of divine origin, or whether the mammon of unrighteousness was the lurking cause of their bickerings, they assuredly did much harm, for their appeals brought into play what of all things was least desired, the intrigues of the profligate dependents of the court. It will be seen hereafter,[4.18.18] in visits to Bhilwara, how these disputes were in some degree calmed. The leaders on both sides were distinctly given to understand they would be made to leave the place. Self-interest prevented this extremity; but from the withdrawing of that active interference (which the state of the alliance did not indeed warrant, but which humanity interposed for their benefit) together with the effect of appeals to the court, it is to be apprehended that Bhilwara may fail to become what it was intended to be, the chief commercial mart of Central India.[4.18.19]

=Reform of the Nobility.=—Of the three measures simultaneously projected and pursued for the restoration of prosperity, the industrious portion has been described. The feudal interest remains, which was found the most difficult to arrange. The agricultural and commercial classes required only protection and stimulus, and we could repay the benefits their industry conferred by the lowest scale of taxation, which, though in fact equally beneficial to the government, was constructed as a boon. But with the feudal lords there was no such equivalent to offer in return for the sacrifices many had to make for the re-establishment of society. Those who were well inclined, like Kotharia, had everything to gain, and nothing left to surrender; while those who, like Deogarh, Salumbar, or Badnor, had preserved their power by foreign aid, intrigue, or prowess, dreaded the high price they might be called upon to pay [486] for the benefit of security which the new alliance conferred. All dreaded the word ‘restitution,’ and the audit of half a century’s political accounts; yet the adjustment of these was the corner-stone of the edifice, which anarchy and oppression had dismantled. Feuds were to be appeased, a difficult and hazardous task; and usurpations, both on the crown and each other, to be redeemed. ‘To bring the wolf and the goat to drink from the same vessel,’ was a task of less difficulty than to make the Chondawat and Saktawat labour in concert for the welfare of the prince and the country. In fine, a better idea cannot be afforded of what was deemed the hopelessness of success than the opinion of Zorawar Singh, the chief of the latter clan, who had much to relinquish: “Were Parameswara (the Almighty) to descend, he could not reform Mewar.” We judged better of them than they did of each other.

=Negotiations with the Chiefs.=—It were superfluous to detail all the preparatory measures for the accomplishment of this grand object; the meetings and adjournments, which only served to keep alive discontent. On the 27th of April, the treaty with the British Government was read, and the consequent change in their relations explained. Meanwhile, a charter, defining the respective rights of the crown and of the chiefs, with their duties to the community, was prepared, and a day named for a general assembly of the chieftains to sanction and ratify this engagement. The 1st of May was fixed: the chiefs assembled; the articles, ten in number, were read and warmly discussed; when with unmeaning expressions of duty, and objections to the least prominent, they obtained through their speaker, Gokuldas of Deogarh, permission to reassemble at his house to consider them, and broke up with the promise to attend next day. The delay, as apprehended, only generated opposition, and the 2nd and 3rd passed in inter-communications of individual hope and fear. It was important to put an end to speculation. At noon, on the 4th of May, the grand hall was again filled, when the Rana, with his sons and ministers, took their seats. Once more the articles were read, objections raised and combated, and midnight had arrived without the object of the meeting being advanced, when an adjournment, proposed by Gokuldas, till the arrival of the Rana’s plenipotentiary from Delhi, met with a firm denial; and the Rana gave him liberty to retire, if he refused his testimony of loyalty. The Begun chief, who had much to gain, at length set the example, followed by the chiefs of Amet and Deogarh, and in succession by all the sixteen nobles, who also signed as the proxies of their [487] relatives, unable from sickness to attend. The most powerful of the second grade also signed for themselves and the absent of their clans, each, as he gave in his adhesion, retiring; and it was three in the morning of the 5th of May ere the ceremony was over. The chief of the Saktawats, determined to be conspicuous, was the last of his own class to sign. During this lengthened and painful discussion of fifteen hours’ continuance, the Rana conducted himself with such judgment and firmness, as to give sanguine hopes of his taking the lead in the settlement of his affairs.

=Enforcement of the Treaty.=—This preliminary adjusted, it was important that the stipulations of the treaty[4.18.20] should be rigidly if not rapidly effected. It will not be a matter of surprise, that some months passed away before the complicated arrangements arising out of this settlement were completed; but it may afford just grounds for gratulation, that they were finally accomplished without a shot being fired, or the exhibition of a single British soldier in the country, nor, indeed, within one hundred miles of Udaipur. ‘Opinion’ was the sole and all-sufficient ally effecting this political reform. The Rajputs, in fact, did not require the demonstration of our physical strength; its influence had reached far beyond Mewar. When the few firelocks defeated hundreds of the foes of public tranquillity, they attributed it to ‘the strength of the Company’s salt,’[4.18.21] the moral agency of which was proclaimed the true basis of our power. ‘Sachha Raj’ was the proud epithet applied by our new allies to the British Government in the East; a title which distinguished the immortal Alfred, ‘the upright.’

It will readily be imagined that a reform, which went to touch the entire feudal association, could not be accomplished without harassing and painful discussions [488], when the object was the renunciation of lands, to which in some cases the right of inheritance could be pleaded, in others, the cognisance of successful revenge, while to many prescriptive possession could be asserted. It was the more painful, because although the shades which marked the acquisition of such lands were varied, no distinction could be made in the mode of settlement, namely, unconditional surrender. In some cases, the Rana had to revoke his own grants, wrung either from his necessities or his weakness; but in neither predicament could arguments be adduced to soften renunciation, or to meet the powerful and pathetic and often angry appeals to justice or to prejudice. Counter-appeals to their loyalty, and the necessity for the re-establishment of their sovereign’s just weight and influence in the social body, without which their own welfare could not be secured, were adduced; but individual views and passions were too absorbing to bend to the general interest. Weeks thus passed in interchange of visits, in soothing pride, and in flattering vanity by the revival of past recollections, which gradually familiarized the subject to the mind of the chiefs, and brought them to compliance. Time, conciliation, and impartial justice, confirmed the victory thus obtained; and when they were made to see that no interest was overlooked, that party views were unknown, and that the system included every class of society in its beneficial operation, cordiality followed concession. Some of these cessions were alienations from the crown of half a century’s duration. Individual cases of hardship were unavoidable without incurring the imputation of favouritism, and the dreaded revival of ancient feuds, to abolish which was indispensable, but required much circumspection. Castles and lands in this predicament could therefore neither be retained by the possessor nor returned to the ancient proprietor without rekindling the torch of civil war. The sole alternative was for the crown to take the object of contention, and make compensation from its own domain. It would be alike tedious and uninteresting to enter into the details of these arrangements, where one chief had to relinquish the levy of transit duties in the most important outlet of the country, asserted to have been held during seven generations, as in the case of the chief of Deogarh. Of another (the Bhindar chief) who held forty-three towns and villages, in addition to his grant; of Amet, of Badesar, of Dabla, of Lawa, and many others who held important fortresses of the crown independent of its will; and other claims, embracing every right [489] and privilege appertaining to feudal society; suffice it, that in six months the whole arrangements were effected.

=The Case of Arja.=—In the painful and protracted discussions attendant on these arrangements, powerful traits of national character were developed. The castle and domain of Arja half a century ago belonged to the crown, but had been usurped by the Purawats, from whom it was wrested by storm about fifteen years back by the Saktawats, and a patent sanctioning possession was obtained, on the payment of a fine of £1000 to the Rana. Its surrender was now required from Fateh Singh, the second brother of Bhindar, the head of this clan; but being regarded as the victorious completion of a feud, it was not easy to silence their prejudices and objections. The renunciation of the forty-three towns and villages by the chief of the clan caused not half the excitation, and every Saktawat seemed to forgo his individual losses in the common sentiment expressed by their head: “Arja is the price of blood, and with its cession our honour is surrendered.” To preserve the point of honour, it was stipulated that it should not revert to the Purawats, but be incorporated with the fisc, which granted an equivalent; when letters of surrender were signed by both brothers, whose conduct throughout was manly and confiding.

=Badnor and Amet.=—The Badnor and Amet chiefs, both of the superior grade of nobles, were the most formidable obstacles to the operation of the treaty of the 4th of May. The first of these, by name Jeth Singh (the victorious [chief] lion), was of the Mertia clan, the bravest of the brave race of Rathor, whose ancestors had left their native abodes on the plains of Marwar, and accompanied the celebrated Mira Bai on her marriage with Rana Kumbha. His descendants, amongst whom was Jaimall, of immortal memory, enjoyed honour in Mewar equal to their birth and high deserts. It was the more difficult to treat with men like these, whose conduct had been a contrast to the general license of the times, and who had reason to feel offended, when no distinction was observed between them and those who had disgraced the name of Rajput. Instead of the submission expected from the Rathor, so overwhelmed was he from the magnitude of the claims, which amounted to a virtual extinction of his power, that he begged leave to resign his estates and quit the country. In prosecution of this design, he took post in the chief hall of the palace, from which no entreaties could make him move;[4.18.22] until the Rana, to [490] escape his importunities, and even restraint, obtained his promise to abide by the decision of the Agent. The forms of the Rana’s court, from time immemorial, prohibit all personal communication between the sovereign and his chiefs in matters of individual interest, by which indecorous altercation is avoided. But the ministers, whose office it was to obtain every information, did not make a rigid scrutiny into the title-deeds of the various estates previous to advancing the claims of the crown. This brave man had enemies, and he was too proud to have recourse to the common arts either of adulation or bribery to aid his cause. It was a satisfaction to find that the two principal towns demanded of him were embodied in a grant of Sangram Singh’s reign; and the absolute rights of the fisc, of which he had become possessed, were cut down to about fifteen thousand rupees of annual revenue. But there were other points on which he was even more tenacious than the surrender of these. Being the chief noble of the fine district of Badnor, which consisted of three hundred and sixty towns and villages, chiefly of feudal allotments (many of them of his own clan), he had taken advantage of the times to establish his influence over them, to assume the right of wardship of minors, and secure those services which were due to the prince, but which he wanted the power to enforce. The holders of these estates were of the third class of vassals or gol (the mass), whose services it was important to reclaim, and who constituted in past times the most efficient force of the Ranas, and were the preponderating balance of their authority when mercenaries were unknown in these patriarchal states. Abundant means towards a just investigation had been previously procured; and after some discussion, in which all admissible claims were recognized, and argument was silenced by incontrovertible facts, this chieftain relinquished all that was demanded, and sent in, as from himself, his written renunciation to his sovereign. However convincing the data by which his proper rights and those of his prince were defined, it was to feeling and prejudice that we were mainly indebted for so satisfactory an adjustment. An appeal to the name of Jaimall, who fell defending Chitor against Akbar,[4.18.23] and the contrast of his ancestor’s loyalty and devotion with his own contumacy, acted as a talisman, and wrung tears from his eyes and the deed from his hand. It will afford some idea of the difficulties encountered, as well as the invidiousness of the task of arbitrating such matters, to give his own comment verbatim: "I remained faithful when his own kin deserted him, and was [491] one of four chiefs who alone of all Mewar fought for him in the rebellion; but the son of Jaimall is forgotten, while the ‘plunderer’ is his boon companion, and though of inferior rank, receives an estate which elevates him above me"; alluding to the chief of Badesar, who plundered the queen’s dower. But while the brave descendant of Jaimall returned to Badnor with the marks of his sovereign’s favour, and the applause of those he esteemed, the ‘runner’ went back to Badesar in disgrace, to which his prince’s injudicious favour further contributed.

=Hamīra of Badesar.=—Hamira of Badesar was of the second class of nobles, a Chondawat by birth. He succeeded to his father Sardar Singh, the assassin of the prime minister even in the palace of his sovereign;[4.18.24] into whose presence he had the audacity to pursue the surviving brother, destined to avenge him.[4.18.25] Hamira inherited all the turbulence and disaffection, with the estates, of his father; and this most conspicuous of the many lawless chieftains of the times was known throughout Rajasthan as Hamira ‘the runner’ (daurayat). Though not entitled to hold lands beyond thirty thousand annually, he had become possessed to the amount of eighty thousand, chiefly of the fisc or khalisa, and nearly all obtained by violence, though since confirmed by the prince’s patent. With the chieftain of Lawa (precisely in the same predicament), who held the fortress of Kheroda and other valuable lands, Hamira resided entirely at the palace, and obtaining the Rana’s ear by professions of obedience, kept possession, while chiefs in every respect his superiors had been compelled to surrender; and when at length the Saktawat of Lawa was forbid the court until Kheroda and all his usurpations were yielded up, the son of Sardar displayed his usual turbulence, ‘curled his moustache’ at the minister, and hinted at the fate of his predecessor. Although none dared to imitate him, his stubbornness was not without admirers, especially among his own clan; and as it was too evident that fear or favour swayed the Rana, it was a case for the Agent’s interference, the opportunity for which was soon afforded. When [492] forced to give letters of surrender, the Rana’s functionaries, who went to take possession, were insulted, refused admittance, and compelled to return. Not a moment could be lost in punishing this contempt of authority; and as the Rana was holding a court when the report arrived, the Agent requested an audience. He found the Rana and his chiefs assembled in ‘the balcony of the sun,’ and amongst them the notorious Hamira. After the usual compliments, the Agent asked the minister if his master had been put in possession of Syana. It was evident from the general constraint, that all were acquainted with the result of the deputation; but to remove responsibility from the minister, the Agent, addressing the Rana as if he were in ignorance of the insult, related the transaction, and observed that his government would hold him culpable if he remained at Udaipur while his highness’s commands were disregarded. Thus supported, the Rana resumed his dignity, and in forcible language signified to all present his anxious desire to do nothing which was harsh or ungracious; but that, thus compelled, he would not recede from what became him as their sovereign. Calling for a bira, he looked sternly at Hamira, and commanded him to quit his presence instantly, and the capital in an hour; and, but for the Agent’s interposition, he would have been banished the country. Confiscation of his whole estate was commanded, until renunciation was completed. He departed that night; and, contrary to expectation, not only were all the usurpations surrendered, but, what was scarcely contemplated by the Agent, the Rana’s flag of sequestration was quietly admitted into the fortress of Badesar.[4.18.26]

=The Case of Āmli.=—One more anecdote may suffice. The lands and fortress of Amli had been in the family of Amet since the year 27, only five years posterior to the date to which these arrangements extended; their possession verged on half a century. The lords of Amet were of the Sixteen, and were chiefs of the clan Jagawat. The present representative enjoyed a fair character: he could, with the chief of Badnor, claim the succession of the loyal; for Partap and Jaimall, their respective ancestors, were rivals and martyrs on that memorable day when the genius of Chitor abandoned the Sesodias. But the heir of Amet had not this alone [493] to support his claims; for his predecessor Partap had lost his life in defending his country against the Mahrattas, and Amli had been his acquisition. Fateh Singh (such was his name) was put forward by the more artful of his immediate kin, the Chondawat interest; but his disposition, blunt and impetuous, was little calculated to promote their views: he was an honest Rajput, who neither could nor cared to conceal his anger, and at a ceremonious visit paid him by the Agent, he had hardly sufficient control over himself to be courteous, and though he said nothing, his eyes, inflamed with opium and disdain, spoke his feelings. He maintained a dogged indifference, and was inaccessible to argument, till at length, following the example of Badnor, he was induced to abide by the Agent’s mediation. He came attended by his vassals, who anxiously awaited the result, which an unpremeditated incident facilitated. After a long and fruitless expostulation, he had taken refuge in an obstinate silence; and seated in a chair opposite to the envoy, with his shield in front, placed perpendicularly on his knees, and his arms and head reclined thereon, he continued vacantly looking on the ground. To interrupt this uncourteous silence in his own house, the envoy took a picture, which with several others was at hand, and placing it before him, remarked, "That chief did not gain his reputation for swamidharma[4.18.27] (loyalty) by conduct such as yours." His eyes suddenly recovered their animation and his countenance was lighted with a smile, as he rapidly uttered, “How did you come by this—why does this interest you?” A tear started in his eye as he added, "This is my father!"—“Yes,” said the Agent, "it is the loyal Partap on the day he went forth to meet his death; but his name yet lives, and a stranger does homage to his fame."—“Take Amli, take Amli,” he hurriedly repeated, with a suppressed tone of exultation and sorrow, “but forget not the extent of the sacrifice.” To prolong the visit would have been painful to both, but as it might have been trusting too much to humanity to delay the resumption, the Agent availed himself of the moment to indite the chhorchitthi[4.18.28] of surrender for the lands.

With these instances, characteristic of individuals and the times, this sketch of the introductory measures for improving the condition of Mewar may be closed. To enter more largely in detail is foreign to the purpose of the work; nor is it requisite for the comprehension of the unity of the object, that a more minute dissection of the parts should be afforded. Before, however, we exhibit the [494] general results of these arrangements, we shall revert to the condition of the more humble, but a most important part of the community, the peasantry of Mewar; and embody, in a few remarks, the fruits of observation or inquiry, as to their past and present state, their rights, the establishment of them, their infringement, and restitution. On this subject much has been necessarily introduced in the sketch of the feudal system, where landed tenures were discussed; but it is one on which such a contrariety of opinion exists, that it may be desirable to show the exact state of landed tenures in a country, where Hindu manners should exist in greater purity than in any other part of the vast continent of India.

=The Landed System.=—The ryot (cultivator) is the proprietor of the soil in Mewar. He compares his right therein to the akshay duba,[4.18.29] which no vicissitudes can destroy. He calls the land his bapota, the most emphatic, the most ancient, the most cherished, and the most significant phrase his language commands for patrimonial[4.18.30] inheritance. He has nature and Manu in support of his claim, and can quote the text, alike compulsory on prince and peasant, “cultivated land is the property of him who cut away the wood, or who cleared and tilled it,”[4.18.31] an ordinance binding on the whole Hindu race, and which no international wars, or conquest, could overturn. In accordance with this principle is the ancient adage, not of Mewar only but all Rajputana, Bhog ra dhanni Raj ho: bhum ra dhanni ma cho: ‘the government is owner of the rent, but I am the master of the land.’ With the toleration and benevolence of the race the conqueror is commanded “to respect the deities adored by the conquered, also their virtuous priests, and to establish the laws of the conquered nation as declared in their books.”[4.18.32] If it were deemed desirable to recede to the system of pure Hindu agrarian law, there is no deficiency of materials. The customary laws contained in the various reports of able men, superadded to the general ordinances of Manu, would form a code at once simple and efficient: for though innovation from foreign conquest has placed many principles in abeyance, and modified others, yet he has observed to little purpose [495] who does not trace a uniformity of design, which at one time had ramified wherever the name of Hindu prevailed: language has been modified, and terms have been corrupted or changed, but the primary pervading principle is yet perceptible; and whether we examine the systems of Khandesh, the Carnatic, or Rajasthan, we shall discover the elements to be the same.

If we consider the system from the period described by Arrian, Curtius, and Diodorus, we shall see in the government of townships each commune an ‘imperium in imperio’; a little republic, maintaining its municipal legislation independent of the monarchy, on which it relies for general support, and to which it pays the bhog, or tax in kind, as the price of this protection; for though the prescribed duties of kings are as well defined by Manu[4.18.33] as by any jurisconsult in Europe, nothing can be more lax than the mutual relations of the governed and governing in Hindu monarchies, which are resolved into unbounded liberty of action. To the artificial regulation of society, which leaves all who depend on manual exertion to an immutable degradation, must be ascribed these multitudinous governments, unknown to the rest of mankind, which, in spite of such dislocation, maintain the bonds of mutual sympathies. Strictly speaking, every State presents the picture of so many hundred or thousand minute republics, without any connexion with each other, giving allegiance (an) and rent (bhog) to a prince, who neither legislates for them, nor even forms a police for their internal protection. It is consequent on this want of paramount interference that, in matters of police, of justice, and of law, the communes act for themselves; and from this want of paternal interference only have arisen those courts of equity, or arbitration, the panchayats.

But to return to the freehold ryot of Mewar, whose bapota is the watan and the miras of the peninsula—words of foreign growth, introduced by the Muhammadan conquerors; the first (Persian) is of more general use in Khandesh; the other (Arabic) in the Carnatic. Thus the great Persian moralist Saadi exemplifies its application: "If you desire to succeed to your father’s inheritance (miras), first obtain his wisdom" [496].

While the term bapota thus implies the inheritance or patrimony, its holder, if a military vassal, is called Bhumia, a term equally powerful, meaning one actually identified with the soil (bhum), and for which the Muhammadan has no equivalent but in the possessive compound watandar, or mirasdar. The Caniatchi[4.18.34] of Malabar is the Bhumia of Rajasthan.

The emperors of Delhi, in the zenith of their power, bestowed the epithet zamindar upon the Hindu tributary sovereigns: not out of disrespect, but in the true application of their own term Bhumia Raj, expressive of their tenacity to the soil; and this fact affords additional evidence of the proprietary right being in the cultivator (ryot), namely, that he alone can confer the freehold land, which gives the title of Bhumia, and of which both past history and present usage will furnish us with examples. When the tenure of land obtained from the cultivator is held more valid than the grant of the sovereign, it will be deemed a conclusive argument of the proprietary right being vested in the ryot. What should induce a chieftain, when inducted into a perpetual fief, to establish through the ryot a right to a few acres in bhum, but the knowledge that although the vicissitudes of fortune or of favour may deprive him of his aggregate signiorial rights, his claims, derived from the spontaneous favour of the commune, can never be set aside; and when he ceases to be the lord, he becomes a member of the commonwealth, merging his title of Thakur, or Signior, into the more humble one of Bhumia, the allodial tenant of the Rajput feudal system, elsewhere discussed.[4.18.35] Thus we have touched on the method by which he acquires this distinction, for protecting the community from violence; and if left destitute by the negligence or inability of the government, he is vested with the rights of the crown, in its share of the bhog or rent. But when their own land is in the predicament called galita, or reversions from lapses to the commune, he is ‘seised’ in all the rights of the former proprietor; or, by internal arrangements, they can convey such right by cession of the commune.

=The Bhūmia.=—The privilege attached to the bhum,[4.18.36] and acquired from the community by the protection afforded to it, is the most powerful argument for the recognition of its original rights. The Bhumia, thus vested, may at pleasure drive his own plough [497], the right to the soil. His bhum is exempt from the jarib (measuring rod); it is never assessed, and his only sign of allegiance is a quit-rent, in most cases triennial, and the tax of kharlakar,[4.18.37] a war imposition, now commuted for money. The State, however, indirectly receives the services of these allodial tenants, the yeomen of Rajasthan, who constitute, as in the districts of Kumbhalmer and Mandalgarh, the landwehr, or local militia. In fact, since the days of universal repose set in, and the townships required no protection, an arrangement was made with the Bhumias of Mewar, in which the crown, foregoing its claim of quit-rent, has obtained their services in the garrisons and frontier stations of police at a very slight pecuniary sacrifice.

Such are the rights and privileges derived from the ryot cultivator alone. The Rana may dispossess the chiefs of Badnor, or Salumbar, of their estates, the grant of the crown—he could not touch the rights emanating from the community; and thus the descendants of a chieftain, who a few years before might have followed his sovereign at the head of one hundred cavaliers, would descend into the humble foot militia of a district. Thousands are in this predicament: the Kanawats, Lunawats, Kumbhawats, and other clans, who, like the Celt, forget not their claims of birth in the distinctions of fortune, but assert their propinquity as “brothers in the nineteenth or thirtieth degree to the prince” on the throne. So sacred was the tenure derived from the ryot, that even monarchs held lands in bhum from their subjects, for an instance of which we are indebted to the great poetic historian of the last Hindu king. Chand relates, that when his sovereign, the Chauhan, had subjugated the kingdom of Anhilwara[4.18.38] from the Solanki, he returned to the nephew of the conquered prince several districts and seaports, and all the bhum held by the family. In short, the Rajput vaunts his aristocratic distinction derived from the land; and opposes the title of ‘Bhumia Raj,’ or government of the soil, to the ‘Bania Raj,’ or commercial government, which he affixes as an epithet of contempt to Jaipur: where “wealth accumulates and men decay.”

In the great ‘register of patents’ (patta bahi) of Mewar we find a species of [498] bhum held by the greater vassals on particular crown lands; whether this originated from inability of ceding entire townships to complete the estate to the rank of the incumbent, or whether it was merely in confirmation of the grant of the commune, could not be ascertained. The benefit from this bhum is only pecuniary, and the title is ‘bhum rakhwali’[4.18.39] or land [in return for] ‘preservation.’ Strange to say, the crown itself holds ‘bhum rakhwali’ on its own fiscal demesnes consisting of small portions in each village, to the amount of ten thousand rupees in a district of thirty or forty townships. This species, however, is so incongruous that we can only state it does exist: we should vainly seek the cause for such apparent absurdity, for since society has been unhinged, the oracles are mute to much of antiquated custom.

=Occupiers’ Rights in the Land.=—We shall close these remarks with some illustrative traditions and yet existing customs, to substantiate the ryot’s right in the soil of Mewar. After one of those convulsions described in the annals, the prince had gone to espouse the daughter of the Raja of Mandor, the (then) capital of Marwar. It is customary at the moment of hathleva, or the junction of hands, that any request preferred by the bridegroom to the father of the bride should meet compliance, a usage which has yielded many fatal results; and the Rana had been prompted on this occasion to demand a body of ten thousand Jat cultivators to repeople the deserted fisc of Mewar. An assent was given to the unprecedented demand, but when the inhabitants were thus despotically called on to migrate, they denied the power and refused. “Shall we,” said they, "abandon the lands of our inheritance (bapota), the property of our children, to accompany a stranger into a foreign land, there to labour for him? Kill us you may, but never shall we relinquish our inalienable rights." The Mandor prince, who had trusted to this reply, deemed himself exonerated from his promise, and secured from the loss of so many subjects: but he was deceived. The Rana held out to them the enjoyment of the proprietary rights escheated to the crown in his country, with the lands left without occupants by the sword, and to all, increase of property. When equal and absolute power was thus conferred, they no longer hesitated to exchange the arid soil of Marwar for the garden of Rajwara; and the descendants of these Jats still occupy the flats watered by the Berach and Banas [499].

In those districts which afforded protection from innovation, the proprietary right of the ryot will be found in full force; of this the populous and extensive district of Jahazpur, consisting of one hundred and six townships, affords a good specimen. There are but two pieces of land throughout the whole of this tract the property of the crown, and these were obtained by force during the occupancy of Zalim Singh of Kotah. The right thus unjustly acquired was, from the conscientiousness of the Rana’s civil governor, on the point of being annulled by sale and reversion, when the court interfered to maintain its proprietary right to the tanks of Loharia and Itaunda, and the lands which they irrigate, now the bhum of the Rana.[4.18.40] This will serve as an illustration how bhum may be acquired, and the annals of Kotah will exhibit, unhappily for the ryots of that country, the almost total annihilation of their rights, by the same summary process which originally attached Loharia to the fisc.

The power of alienation being thus proved, it would be superfluous to insist further on the proprietary right of the cultivator of the soil.

=Proprietary Rights in Land.=—Besides the ability to alienate as demonstrated, all the overt symbols which mark the proprietary right in other countries are to be found in Mewar; that of entire conveyance by sale, or temporary by mortgage; and numerous instances could be adduced, especially of the latter. The fertile lands of Horla, along the banks of the Khari, are almost all mortgaged, and the registers of these transactions form two considerable volumes, in which great variety of deeds may be discovered: one extended for one hundred and one years;[4.18.41] when redemption was to follow, without regard to interest on the one hand; or the benefits from the land on the other, but merely by repayment of the sum borrowed. To maintain the interest during abeyance, it is generally stipulated that a certain portion of the harvest shall be reserved for the mortgagee—a fourth, a fifth, or gugri—a share so small as to be valued only as a mark of proprietary recognition.[4.18.42] The mortgagees were chiefly of the commercial classes of the large frontier towns; in [500] many cases the proprietor continues to cultivate for another the lands his ancestor mortgaged four or five generations ago, nor does he deem his right at all impaired. A plan had been sketched to raise money to redeem these mortgages, from whose complex operation the revenue was sure to suffer. No length of time or absence can affect the claim to the bapota, and so sacred is the right of absentees, that land will lay sterile and unproductive from the penalty which Manu denounces on all who interfere with their neighbour’s rights: “for unless there be an especial agreement between the owner of the land and the seed, the fruits belong clearly to the land-owner”; even “if seed conveyed by water or by wind should germinate, the plant belongs to the land-owner, the mere sower takes not the fruit.”[4.18.43] Even crime and the extreme sentence of the law will not alter succession to property, either to the military or cultivating vassal; and the old Kentish adage, probably introduced by the Jats from Scandinavia, who under Hengist established that kingdom of the heptarchy, namely:

The father to the bough, And the son to the plough

is practically understood by the Jats and Bhumias[4.18.44] of Mewar, whose treason is not deemed hereditary, nor a chain of noble acts destroyed because a false link was thrown out. We speak of the military vassals—the cultivator cannot aspire to so dignified a crime as treason.

=Village Officials: the Patel.=—The officers of the townships are the same as have been so often described, and are already too familiar to those interested in the subject to require illustration. From the Patel, the Cromwell of each township, to the village gossip, the ascetic Sannyasi, each deems his office, and the land he holds in virtue thereof in perpetuity, free of rent to the State, except a small triennial quit-rent,[4.18.45] and the liability, like every other branch of the State, to two war taxes.[4.18.46]

Opinions are various as to the origin and attributes of the Patel, the most important personage in village sway, whose office is by many deemed foreign to the pure Hindu system, and to which language even his title is deemed alien. But there is no doubt that both office and title are of ancient growth, and even etymological rule proves the Patel to be head (pati) of the community.[4.18.47] The office of Patel [501] of Mewar was originally elective: he was ‘primus inter pares,’ the constituted attorney or representative of the commune, and as the medium between the cultivator and the government, enjoyed benefits from both. Besides his bapota, and the serano, or one-fortieth of all produce from the ryot, he had a remission of a third or fourth of the rent from such extra lands as he might cultivate in addition to his patrimony. Such was the Patel, the link connecting the peasant with the government, ere predatory war subverted all order: but as rapine increased, so did his authority. He became the plenipotentiary of the community, the security for the contribution imposed, and often the hostage for its payment, remaining in the camp of the predatory hordes till they were paid off. He gladly undertook the liquidation of such contributions as these perpetual invaders imposed. To indemnify himself, a schedule was formed of the share of each ryot, and mortgage of land, and sequestration of personal effects followed till his avarice was satisfied. Who dared complain against a Patel, the intimate of Pathan and Mahratta commanders, his adopted patrons? He thus became the master of his fellow-citizens; and, as power corrupts all men, their tyrant instead of their mediator. It was a system necessarily involving its own decay; for a while glutted with plenty, but failing with the supply, and ending in desolation, exile, and death. Nothing was left to prey on but the despoiled carcase; yet when peace returned, and in its train the exile ryot to reclaim the bapota, the vampire Patel was resuscitated, and evinced the same ardour for supremacy, and the same cupidity which had so materially aided to convert the fertile Mewar to a desert. The Patel accordingly proved one of the chief obstacles to returning prosperity; and the attempt to reduce this corrupted middle-man to his original station in society was both difficult and hazardous, from the support they met in the corrupt officers at court, and other influences ‘behind the curtain.’ A system of renting the crown lands deemed the most expedient to advance prosperity, it was incumbent to find a remedy for this evil. The mere name of some of these petty tyrants inspired such terror as to check all desire of return to the country; but the origin of the institution of the office and its abuses being ascertained, it was imperative, though difficult, to restore the one and banish the other. The original elective right in many townships was therefore returned to the ryot, who nominated new Patels [502], his choice being confirmed by the Rana, in whose presence investiture was performed by binding a turban on the elected, for which he presented his nazar. Traces of the sale of these offices in past times were observable; and it was deemed of primary importance to avoid all such channels for corruption, in order that the ryot’s election should meet with no obstacle. That the plan was beneficial there could be no doubt; that the benefit would be permanent, depended, unfortunately, on circumstances which those most anxious had not the means to control: for it must be recollected, that although “personal aid and advice might be given when asked,” all internal interference was by treaty strictly, and most justly, prohibited.

After a few remarks on the mode of levying the crown-rents, we shall conclude the subject of village economy in Mewar, and proceed to close this too extended chapter with the results of four years of peace and the consequent improved prosperity.

=Modes of Collecting Rents.=—There are two methods of levying the revenues of the crown on every description of corn—kankut and batai, for on sugar-cane, poppy, oil, hemp, tobacco, cotton, indigo, and garden stuffs, a money payment is fixed, varying from two to six rupees per bigha. The kankut[4.18.48] is a conjectural assessment of the standing crop, by the united judgement of the officers of government, the Patel, the Patwari, or registrar, and the owner of the field. The accuracy with which an accustomed eye will determine the quantity of grain on a given surface is surprising: but should the owner deem the estimate overrated, he can insist on batai, or division of the corn after it is threshed; the most ancient and only infallible mode by which the dues either of the government or the husbandman can be ascertained. In the batai system the share of the government varies from one-third to two-fifths of the spring harvest, as wheat and barley; and sometimes even half, which is the invariable proportion of the autumnal crops. In either case, kankut or batai, when the shares are appropriated, those of the crown may be commuted to a money payment at the average rate of the market. The kut is the most liable to corruption. The ryot bribes the collector, who will underrate the crop; and when he betrays his duty, the shahnah, or watchman, is not likely to be honest: and as the makai, or Indian corn, the grand autumnal crop of Mewar, is eaten green, the crown may be defrauded of half its dues. The system is one of uncertainty, from which eventually the ryot derives no advantage, though it [503] fosters the cupidity of patels and collectors; but there was a barar, or tax, introduced to make up for this deficiency, which was in proportion to the quantity cultivated, and its amount at the mercy of the officers. Thus the ryot went to work with a mill-stone round his neck; instead of the exhilarating reflection that every hour’s additional labour was his own, he saw merely the advantage of these harpies, and contented himself with raising a scanty subsistence in a slovenly and indolent manner, by which he forfeited the ancient reputation of the Jat cultivator of Mewar.

=Improvement in the Condition of the People.=—Notwithstanding these and various other drawbacks to the prosperity of the country, in an impoverished court, avaricious and corrupt officers, discontented Patels, and bad seasons, yet the final report in May 1822 could not but be gratifying when contrasted with that of February 1818. In order to ascertain the progressive improvement, a census had been made at the end of 1821, of the three central fiscal districts[4.18.49] watered by the Berach and Banas. As a specimen of the whole, we may take the tappa or subdivision of Sahara. Of its twenty-seven villages, six were inhabited in 1818, the number of families being three hundred and sixty-nine, three-fourths of whom belonged to the resumed town of Amli. In 1821 nine hundred and twenty-six families were reported, and every village of the twenty-seven was occupied, so that population had almost trebled. The number of ploughs was more than trebled, and cultivation quadrupled; and though this, from the causes described, was not above one-third of what real industry might have effected, the contrast was abundantly cheering. The same ratio of prosperity applied to the entire crown demesne of Mewar. By the recovery of Kumbhalmer, Raepur, Rajnagar, and Sadri-Kanera from the Mahrattas; of Jahazpur from Kotah; of the usurpations of the nobles; together with the resumption of all the estates of the females of his family, a task at once difficult and delicate;[4.18.50] and by the subjugation of the mountain districts of Merwara, a thousand towns and villages were united to form the fiscal demesne of the Rana, composing twenty-four districts of various magnitudes, divided, as in ancient times, and with the primitive [504] appellations, into portions tantamount to the tithings and hundreds of England, the division from time immemorial amongst the Hindus.[4.18.51] From these and the commercial duties[4.18.52] a revenue was derived sufficient for the comforts, and even the dignities of the prince and his court, and promising an annual increase in the ratio of good government: but profusion scattered all that industry and ingenuity could collect; the artificial wants of the prince perpetuated the real necessities of the peasant, and this, it is to be feared, will continue till the present generation shall sleep with their forefathers.

Abstract of the Fiscal Revenues of Mewar in the years 1818-19-20-21-22.

Spring harvest of 1818 Rs. 40,000

” 1819 451,281

” 1820 659,100

” 1821 1,018,478

┌ The active superintendence

” 1822 936,640 ┤ of the British Agent being

└ almost entirely withdrawn.

Abstract of Commercial Duties included in the above.

In 1818 Nominal 1819 Rs. 96,683 1820 165,108 1821 220,000 ┌ Farmed for three years, │ from 1822, for 750,000 rupees, 1822 217,000 ┤ which was assigned by the │ Rana for the liquidation of └ tribute fallen in arrear.

=Mines and Minerals.=—There are sources of wealth in Mewar yet untouched, and to which her princes owe much of their power. The tin mines of Jawara and Dariba alone, little more than half a century ago, yielded above three lakhs annually;[4.18.53] besides rich copper mines in various parts. From such, beyond a doubt, much of the wealth of Mewar was extracted, but the miners are now dead, and the mines filled with water. An attempt was made to work them, but it was so unprofitable that the design was soon abandoned.

Nothing will better exemplify the progress of prosperity than the comparative population of some of the chief towns before, and after, four years of peace:

No. of houses in No. of houses in 1822. 1818.

Udaipur 3,500 10,000

Bhilwara _not 2,700 one_

Pur 200 1,200

Mandal 80 400

Gosunda 60 350 [505]

=The Feudal Lands.=—The feudal lands, which were then double the fiscal, did not exhibit the like improvement, the merchant and cultivator residing thereon not having the same certainty of reaping the fruits of their industry; still great amelioration took place, and few were so blind as not to see their account in it.[4.18.54] The earnestness with which many requested the Agent to back their expressed intentions with his guarantee to their communities of the same measure of justice and protection as the fiscal tenants enjoyed was proof that they well understood the benefits of reciprocal confidence; but this could not be tendered without danger. Before the Agent left the country he greatly withdrew from active interference, it being his constant, as it was his last impressive lesson, that they should rely upon themselves if they desired to retain a shadow of independence. To give an idea of the improved police, insurance which has been described as amounting to eight per cent in a space of twenty-five miles became almost nominal, or one-fourth of a rupee per cent from one frontier to the other. It would, however, have been quite Utopian to have expected that the lawless tribes would remain in that stupid subordination which the unexampled state of society imposed for a time (as described in the opening of these transactions), when they found that real restraints did not follow imaginary terrors. Had the wild tribes been under the sole influence of British power, nothing would have been so simple as effectually, not only to control, but to conciliate and improve them; for it is a mortifying truth, that the more remote from civilization, the more tractable and easy was the object to manage, more especially the Bhil.[4.18.55] But these children of nature were incorporated in the demesnes of the feudal chiefs, who when they found our system did not extend to perpetual control, returned to their old habits of oppression: this provoked retaliation, which to subdue requires more power than the Rana yet possesses, and, in the anomalous state of our alliances, will always be an embarrassing task to whosoever may exercise political control.

In conclusion, it is to be hoped that the years of oppression that have swept the land will be held in remembrance by the protecting power, and that neither petulance nor indolence will lessen the benevolence which restored life to Mewar, or mar the picture of comparative happiness it created.

_The Sixteen chief Nobles of Mewar, their Titles, Names, Clans, Tribes, Estates, number of Villages in each, and their Value._

────────┬─────────┬───────────┬───────┬──────────┬─────────┬──────────┬──────────────────── │ │ │ │ │ Number │ Value,│ Title. │ Names. │Clan. │Tribe. │Estate. │ of │ A.D.│REMARKS. │ │ │ │ │Villages.│ 1760.│ ────────┼─────────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────┼─────────┼──────────┼──────────────────── Raj │ Chandan │Jhala │Jhala │Sadri │ 127 │ 100,000│┌These estates │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ ││are all diminished Rao │ Partap │Chauhan │Chauhan│Bedla │ 80 │ 100,000│┤one-half in nominal │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ ││amount; and their Rao │ Mohkam │Chauhan │Chauhan│Kotharia │ 65 │ 80,000││revenues still │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │└ more. Rawat │ Padma │Chondawat │Sesodia│Salumbar │ 85 │ 84,000│Would realize this │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated. Thakur │ Zorawar │Mertia │Rathor │Ghanerao │ 100 │ 100,000│This chief ceases to │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │be one of the 16 │ │ │ │ │ │ │since the Rana │ │ │ │ │ │ │lost the province │ │ │ │ │ │ │of Godwar. Rao │Keshodas │—— │Pramar │Bijolia │ 40 │ 45,000│Would realize this │ │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated. Rawat │Gokuldas │Sangawat │Sesodia│Deogarh │ 125 │ 80,000│Would realize more │ │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated. Rawat │ Maha │Meghawat │Sesodia│Begun │ 150 │ 200,000│This includes │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │usurpations—now │ │ │ │ │ │ │seized by Sindhia. │ │ │ │ │ │ │The estate would │ │ │ │ │ │ │realize 70,000 │ │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated. Raj │ Kalyan │Jhala │Jhala │Delwara │ 125 │ 100,000│Would realize │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │two-thirds │ │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated. Rawat │ Salim │Jagawat │Sesodia│Amet │ 60 │ 60,000│Do., do. │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │ Raj │Chhattar │Jhala │Jhala │Gogunda │ 50 │ 50,000│Would realize this │ Sal │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated. Rawat │ Fateh │Sarangdevot│Sesodia│Kanor │ 50 │ 95,000│Would realize half │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated. Maharaja│ Zorawar │Saktawat │Sesodia│Bhindar │ 64 │ 64,000│Would realize this │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated. Thakur │ Jeth │Mertia │Rathor │Badnor │ 80 │ 80,000│Do., do. │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │ Rawat │ Salim │Saktawat │Sesodia│Bansi │ 40 │ 40,000│┌These chiefs have │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ ││ lost all their Rao │Surajmall│Chauhan │Chauhan│Parsoli │ 40 │ 40,000││ influence and half │ │ │ │ │ │ │└ their estates. │ │ │ │ │ │ │┌These chiefs have Rawat │ Kesari │Kishanawat │Sesodia│Bhainsror │ 60 │ 60,000││ taken rank on the │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │┤ depression of the Rawat │ Jawan │Kishanawat │Sesodia│Kurabar │ 35 │ 35,000││ above—they never │ Singh │ │ │ │ │ ││ appear at court │ │ │ │ │ │ │└ on the same day. ────────┴─────────┴───────────┴───────┴──────────┼─────────┼──────────┼──────────────────── Total number and estimated value of their │┐ │ │ estates sixty years ago, omitting Bhainsror │├ 1,181 │ 1,310,000│ and Kurabar, then enrolled in the second ││ │ │ grade of chieftains. │┘ │ │ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────────────────

Note.—The inferior grades possessed estates to a still larger amount, conjointly yielding a revenue of thirty lakhs of rupees; and as each thousand rupees of estate furnished on emergency three horses completely equipped, the feudal interest could supply nine thousand horse besides foot, of which they make little account. [Accounts of the present condition of these nobles will be found in Erskine ii. A. under the headings of their estates.]

-----

Footnote 4.18.1:

See Appendix, No. VIII., for treaty with the Rana.

Footnote 4.18.2:

Commanded by Major-General Sir R. Donkin, K.C.B.

Footnote 4.18.3:

The author had the honour to be selected by the Marquess of Hastings to represent him at the Rana’s court, with the title of ‘Political Agent to the Western Rajput States.’ During the campaign of 1817-18 he was placed as the point of communication to the various divisions of the northern army; at the same time being intrusted with the negotiations with Holkar (previous to the rupture), and with those of Kotah and Bundi. He concluded the treaty with the latter State en route to Udaipur, where, as at the latter, there were only the benefits of moral and political existence to confer.

Footnote 4.18.4:

The author had passed through Bhilwara in May 1806, when it was comparatively flourishing. On this occasion (Feb. 1818) it was entirely deserted. It excited a smile, in the midst of regrets, to observe the practical wit of some of the soldiers, who had supplied the naked representative of Adinath with an apron—not of leaves, but scarlet cloth.

Footnote 4.18.5:

The Agent had seen him when a boy, at a meeting already described; but he could scarcely have hoped to find in one, to the formation of whose character the times had been so unfavourable, such a specimen as this descendant of Partap.

Footnote 4.18.6:

A description of the city and valley will be more appropriate elsewhere.

Footnote 4.18.7:

See p. 508.

Footnote 4.18.8:

The escort consisted of two companies of foot, each of one hundred men, with half a troop of cavalry. The gentlemen attached to the mission were Captain Waugh (who was secretary and commandant of the escort), with Lieutenant Carey as his subaltern. Dr. Duncan was the medical officer.

Footnote 4.18.9:

[Modes in music.]

Footnote 4.18.10:

The buckler is the tray in which gifts are presented by the Rajputs.

Footnote 4.18.11:

If we dare compare the moral economy of an entire people to the physical economy of the individual, we should liken this period in the history of Mewar to intermittent pulsation of the heart—a pause in moral as in physical existence; a consciousness thereof, inertly awaiting the propelling power to restore healthful action to a state of languid repose; or what the Rajput would better comprehend, his own condition when the opiate stimulant begins to dissipate, and mind and body are alike abandoned to helpless imbecility. Who has lived out of the circle of mere vegetation, and not experienced this temporary deprivation of moral vitality? for no other simile would suit the painful pause in the sympathies of the inhabitants of this once fertile region, where experience could point out but one page in their annals, one period in their history, when the clangour of the war trumpet was suspended, or the sword shut up in its scabbard. The portals of Janus at Rome were closed but twice in a period of seven hundred years; and in exactly the same time from the conquest by Shihabu-d-din to the great pacification, but twice can we record peace in Mewar—the reign of Numa has its type in Shah Jahan, while the more appropriate reign of Augustus belongs to Britain. Are we to wonder then that a chilling void now occupied (if the solecism is admissible) the place of interminable action? when the mind was released from the anxiety of daily, hourly, devising schemes of preservation, to one of perfect security—that enervating calm, in which, to use their own homely phrase, Bher aur bakri ekhi thali se piye, ‘The wolf and the goat drank from the same vessel.’ [Another, and more usual form is—Āj kal, sher bakrī ek ghāt pāni pitē hain, ‘Nowadays the tiger and the goat drink from the same stream.’] But this unruffled torpidity had its limit: the Agrarian laws of Mewar were but mentioned, and the national pulse instantly rose.

Footnote 4.18.12:

Or rather, who makes the monogrammatic signet Sahi (‘correct’) to all deeds, grants, etc.

Footnote 4.18.13:

[Properly Sūratnavīs, ‘statement-writer.’]

Footnote 4.18.14:

The Salumbar chief had his deputy, who resided at court for this sole duty, for which he held a village. See p. 235.

Footnote 4.18.15:

Niyao, Daftar, Taksala, Silah, Gaddi, Gahna, Kapra-bandar, Ghora, Rasora, Nakkar-khana, Jaleb, Rawala.

Footnote 4.18.16:

[Sāwan sudi tīj, third of the bright half of the month Sāwan (July to August), a festival celebrated throughout North India.]

Footnote 4.18.17:

[About 45 miles north of Udaipur city.]

Footnote 4.18.18:

In the Personal Narrative.

Footnote 4.18.19:

Although Bhilwara has not attained that high prosperity my enthusiasm anticipated, yet the philanthropic Heber records that in 1825 (three years after I had left the country) it exhibited “a greater appearance of trade, industry, and moderate but widely diffused wealth and comfort, than he had witnessed since he left Delhi” [Diary, ed. 1861, ii. 56 f.]. The record of the sentiments of the inhabitants towards me, as conveyed by the bishop, was gratifying, though their expression could excite no surprise in any one acquainted with the characters and sensibilities of these people. [The author’s anticipation of the prosperity of this town have not been completely realized; but it is still an important centre of trade, noted for the manufacture of cooking utensils, and possessing a ginning factory and a cotton-press (Erskine ii. A. 97 f.).]

Footnote 4.18.20:

A literal translation of this curious piece of Hindu legislation will be found at the end of the Appendix. If not drawn up with all the dignity of the legal enactments of the great governments of the West, it has an important advantage in conciseness; the articles cannot be misinterpreted, and require no lawyer to expound them.

Footnote 4.18.21:

"Kampani Sahib ke namak ke zor se“ is a common phrase of our native soldiery; and ”Dohai! Kampani ki!" is an invocation or appeal against injustice; but I never heard this watchword so powerfully applied as when a Sub. with the Resident’s escort in 1812. One of our men, a noble young Rajput about nineteen years of age, and six feet high, had been sent with an elephant to forage in the wilds of Narwar. A band of at least fifty predatory horsemen assailed him, and demanded the surrender of the elephant, which he met by pointing his musket and giving them defiance. Beset on all sides, he fired, was cut down, and left for dead, in which state he was found, and brought to camp upon a litter. One sabre-cut had opened the back entirely across, exposing the action of the viscera, and his arms and wrists were barbarously hacked: yet he was firm, collected, and even cheerful; and to a kind reproach for his rashness, he said, "What would you have said, Captain Sahib, had I surrendered the Company’s musket (Kampani ki banduq) without fighting?" From their temperate habits, the wound in the back did well; but the severed nerves of the wrists brought on a lockjaw of which he died. The Company have thousands who would alike die for their banduq. It were wise to cherish such feelings.

Footnote 4.18.22:

[An instance of the practice of ‘sitting dharna’ to enforce a claim (Yule-Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. 315 f.).]

Footnote 4.18.23:

See p. 380.

Footnote 4.18.24:

See p. 514 and note.

Footnote 4.18.25:

It will fill up the picture of the times to relate the revenge. When Jamshid, the infamous lieutenant of the infamous Amir Khan, established his headquarters at Udaipur, which he daily devastated, Sardar Singh, then in power, was seized and confined as a hostage for the payment of thirty thousand rupees demanded of the Rana. The surviving brothers of the murdered minister Somji ‘purchased their foe’ with the sum demanded, and anticipated his clansmen, who were on the point of effecting his liberation. The same sun shone on the head of Sardar, which was placed as a signal of revenge over the gateway of Rampiyari’s palace. I had the anecdotes from the minister Siyahal, one of the actors in these tragedies, and a relative of the brothers, who were all swept away by the dagger. A similar fate often seemed to him, though a brave man, inevitable during these resumptions; which impression, added to the Rana’s known inconstancy of favour, robbed him of half his energies.

Footnote 4.18.26:

Nearly twelve months after this, my public duty called me to Nimbahera en route to Kotah. The castle of Hamira was within an hour’s ride, and at night he was reported as having arrived to visit me, when I appointed the next day to receive him. Early next morning, according to custom, I took my ride, with four of Skinner’s Horse, and galloped past him, stretched with his followers on the ground not far from my camp, towards his fort. He came to me after breakfast, called me his greatest friend, “swore by his dagger he was my Rajput,” and that he would be in future obedient and loyal; but this, I fear, can never be.

Footnote 4.18.27:

Literally faith (dharma) to his lord (swami).

Footnote 4.18.28:

Paper of relinquishment.

Footnote 4.18.29:

The dūb grass [Cynodon dactylon] flourishes in all seasons, and most in the intense heats; it is not only amara or ‘immortal,’ but akshay, ‘not to be eradicated’; and its tenacity to the soil deserves the distinction.

Footnote 4.18.30:

From bap, ‘father,’ and the termination of, or belonging to, and by which clans are distinguished; as Karansot, ‘descended of Karan’; Mansinghgot, ‘descended of Mansingh.’ It is curious enough that the mountain clans of Albania, and other Greeks, have the same distinguishing termination, and the Mainote of Greece and the Mairot of Rajputana alike signify mountaineer, or ‘of the mountain,’ maina in Albanian; mairu or meru in Sanskrit. [The words have no connexion.]

Footnote 4.18.31:

Laws, ix. 44.

Footnote 4.18.32:

[“When he [the king] has gained victory, let him duly worship the gods and honour righteous Brāhmanas, let him grant exemptions, and let him cause promises of safety to be proclaimed. But having fully ascertained the wishes of all the (conquered), let him place then a relation of (the vanquished ruler on the throne), and let him impose his conditions. Let him make authoritative the lawful customs of the inhabitants, just as they are stated to be” (Manu, Laws, vii. 201 f., trans. Bühler, Sacred Books of the East, xxv. 248 f.).]

Footnote 4.18.33:

[“Let him [the king] cause his annual revenue in his kingdom to be collected by trusty (officials), let him obey the sacred law (in his transactions with) the people, and behave as a father to all men” (Manu, Laws, vii. 80). “Not to turn back in battle, to protect the people, to honour the Brāhmanas, is the best means for a king to secure happiness” (ib. vii. 88). “From the people let him (the king) learn (the theory) of the (various) trades and professions” (ib. vii. 43). “But (he who is given) to these vices (loses) even his life” (ib. vii. 46), trans. Bühler, Sacred Books of the East, xxv.]

Footnote 4.18.34:

Cani, ‘land,’ and atchi, ‘heritage’: Report, p. 289.—I should be inclined to imagine the atchi, like the ot and awat, Rajput terminations, implying clanship. [Tamil kāniyātchi, ‘that which is held in free and hereditary property’; kāni, ‘land,’ ātchi, ‘inheritance’ (Wilson, Glossary, s.v.; Madras Manual of Administration, iii. 58).]

Footnote 4.18.35:

See p. 195.

Footnote 4.18.36:

See p. 195.

Footnote 4.18.37:

See Sketch of Feudal System, p. 170.

Footnote 4.18.38:

Nahrwala of D’Anville; the Balhara sovereignty of the Arabian travellers of the eighth and ninth centuries. I visited the remains of this city on my last journey, and from original authorities shall give an account of this ancient emporium of commerce and literature.

Footnote 4.18.39:

Salvamenta of the European system.

Footnote 4.18.40:

The author has to acknowledge with regret that he was the cause of the Mina proprietors not re-obtaining their bapota: this arose, partly from ignorance at the time, partly from the individual claimants being dead, and more than all, from the representation that the intended sale originated in a bribe to Sadaram the governor, which, however, was not the case.

Footnote 4.18.41:

Claims to the bapota appear to be maintainable if not alienated longer than one hundred and one years; and undisturbed possession (no matter how obtained) for the same period appears to confer this right. The miras of Khandesh appears to have been on the same footing. See Mr. Elphinstone’s Report, October 25, 1819, ed. 1872, p. 17 f., quoted in BG, xii. 266. [The word mīrās means ‘inherited estate,’ the right of disposal of which rests with the holder. The Jāts certainly did not bring the custom to Kent.]

Footnote 4.18.42:

The sawmy begum of the peninsula in Fifth Report, pp. 356-57; correctly swami bhoga, ‘lord’s rent,’ in Sanskrit.

Footnote 4.18.43:

Manu, Laws, ix. 52-54, on the Servile Classes. [Bühler’s version differs, but the meaning is practically the same as that of the text.]

Footnote 4.18.44:

Patel.

Footnote 4.18.45:

Patel barar.

Footnote 4.18.46:

The Gharginti barar, and Kharlakar, or wood and forage, explained in the Feudal System.

Footnote 4.18.47:

In copper-plate grants dug from the ruins of the ancient Ujjain (presented to the Royal Asiatic Society), the prince’s patents (patta) conferring gifts are addressed to the Patta-silas and Ryots. I never heard an etymology of this word, but imagine it to be from patta, ‘grant,’ or ‘patent,’ and sila, which means a nail, or sharp instrument; [? sila, the stone on which the grant is engraved]; metaphorically, that which binds or unites these patents; all, however, having pati, or chief, as the basis (see Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 237). [Pati, ‘chief,’ has no connexion with patta, ‘a grant,’ the latter being the origin of patel. For the position of the Patel see Baden-Powell, The Indian Village Community, 10 ff.; Malcolm, Memoir of Central India, 2nd ed. ii. 14 ff.]

Footnote 4.18.48:

[Kan, ‘grain,’ kūt, ‘valuation,’ batāi from batānā, ‘to divide.’]

Footnote 4.18.49:

Mui, Barak, and Kapasan.

Footnote 4.18.50:

To effect this, indispensable alike for unity of government and the establishment of a police, the individual statements of their holders were taken for the revenues they had derived from them, and money payments three times the amount were adjudged to them. They were gainers by this arrangement, and were soon loaded with jewels and ornaments, but the numerous train of harpies who cheated them and abused the poor ryot were eternally at work to defeat all such beneficial schemes; and the counteraction of the intrigues was painful and disgusting.

Footnote 4.18.51:

Manu [Laws, vii. 119] ordains the division into tens, hundreds, and thousands.

Footnote 4.18.52:

Farmed for the ensuing three years, from 1822, for seven lakhs of rupees.

Footnote 4.18.53:

In S. 1816, Jawara yielded Rs. 222,000 and Dariba Rs. 80,000. The tin of these mines contains a portion of silver. [What the Author calls the tin mines are probably the lead and zinc mines at Jāwar, 16 miles south of Udaipur city. They seem now to be exhausted, and search might be made for other untouched pockets of ore. Those at Darība, which formerly yielded a considerable revenue, have long been closed (Erskine ii, A. 53).]

Footnote 4.18.54:

There are between two and three thousand towns, villages, and hamlets, besides the fiscal land of Mewar; but the tribute of the British Government is derived only from the fiscal; it would have been impossible to collect from the feudal lands, which are burthened with service, and form the army of the State.

Footnote 4.18.55:

Sir John Malcolm’s wise and philanthropic measures for the reclamation of this race in Malwa will support my assertions [Memoir of Central India, 2nd ed. i. 516 ff., ii. 179 ff.].

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Transcriber’s Note

There are references in all three volumes to Genealogical Tables in Volume I, which were not reprinted in this Crooke edition.

The spelling of names and places is variable, as noted in the Editor’s introduction to Volume I, as the system of transliteration underwent many changes in the intervening century. The use of macrons was not yet introduced in James Tod’s day. This text, with very few exceptions, follows the text as printed.

Hyphenation of compound words follows the text, with the rare exception of when it occurs on a line break and the preponderance of other instances provides clear guidance.

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here.

A missing letter (‘Ch ubīsa’) in note 3.1.37 on p. 167 was established, by visiting the volume cited, as ‘Chaubīsa’. A missing letter (‘Ch ubīsa’) in note 37 on p. 167 was established, by visiting the volume cited, as ‘Chaubīsa’.

The sole footnote on p. 311 had no reference in the text. Based on the content of the note, the reference has been inserted at the end of the first paragraph on the page.

The correction to note 4.5.2 beginning on p. 297 was made in order to close a quotation beginning with ‘cloud of war’, but lacking a closing quote. Earlier editions supplied the resolution).

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here.

This list contains issues in the main text. References are to the page and line in the original.

x.36 Imperial Gazetteer of India[,] Added.

xlvii.15 Muntakhab[at/u-t]-tawārikh Replaced.

lx.26 the least suspicious kind of historical Added. evidence[.]

9.24 in the respective historical portions[.] Added.

29.5 the burning plains of Ind[.] Added.

32.18 were learned in the Vedas[.] Added.

48.5 other eight generations anterior[.] Added.

48.7 inhabitants had their appellation, we cannot Added. say[.]

55.22 descendants of Rama[.] Added.

104.33 after a lapse of 2250 years[.] Added.

110.1 the power of the Pramaras[.] Added.

110.13 to have been patrons of science[.] Added.

166.4 the principality of the Rana of Mewar[.] Added.

222.23 and most powerful fiefs of Mewar[.] Added.

235.19 PANCHOLI RAECHAND a[m/n]d MEHTA MUL DAS Replaced.

251.36 the contemporary of Vikramaditya, [A/B].C. 56. Replaced.

271.10 1[,] Kanaksen Added.

275.16 ‘the rhymer of Aurangabad.[’] Added.

326.5 by a Bhatti Rajput of Jaisalmer[.] Added.

496.17 Rāna Ar[s]i Singh II. Inserted.

504.25 From S. 1825 to S. 1831 [A.D. 1768-74[)/]] Replaced.

544.9 the foreign chieft[ia/ai]ns Transposed.

The following list contains issues corrected or noted in the footnote text. The reference is to the original page and note, and the line within the note (which may appear on a later page).

lx.1.2 (Smith, EHI, 387, note; IA, i. 269 ff., Added. iii. 17 ff., xxxii. 167 f.[)]

25.3.1 Baghes, ‘the tiger lord.[’] Added.

128.2.6 and said to be built by Puru.[’/”] Replaced.

156.1.11 ‘household.[”/’] Replaced.

166.1.3 smaller units being called Byālisa, 42, or Restored. Ch[a]ubīsa, 24

166.1.4 Supplemental Glossary, 178 ff.[)] Added.

176.1.13 1i. 319.[)] Added.

184.1.8 Art. ‘Relief,[’] Added.

201.3.7 the fief of his vassal without his Replaced. consent.[’/”]

241.1.7 et les seconds de le régaler quand i[t/l] Replaced. passait par leur bourg.

255.1.3 the name of Min[n]agara was changed Removed.

262.2.6 Mers in Porbandar (Wilberforce-Bell, Hist. of Added. Kathiawad, 53)

265.3.4 (Census Report, Rajputana, 1911, i. 255[)]. Added.

297.1.7 ‘cloud of war rolled from Himachal[’] Added.

333.1.3 Maharana Kumbha: Sovereign, Soldier, Added. Scholar, Ajmer, 1917, p. 2[)].

381.1.2 calcined shell-li[n/m]e Replaced.

386.2.5 upon [s/t]heir refusal to intermarry Replaced.

398.3.1 A colloqu[ai/ia]l contraction for Partap. Transposed.

435.1.3 J[u/a]dunath Sarkar Replaced.

468.2.11 (Scott’s History of Aurangzeb’s Successors, Added. vol. i. p. 132).

469.3.1 ‘a royal grant[’] Added.

491.1.64 Your favour was received by the Pandit Removed. Pardhan[)]

496.2.2 in 1814, Ranaji Burtia[:/;] in 1813 Replaced.

509.2.2 on the liquidation of the contribution[,/.] Replaced.

563.1.5 since he left De[hl/lh]i Transposed.

573.1.1 [[]Cynodon dactylon] Opening bracket added.

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