Chapter 1…

Chapter 1

=Hāravati.=—Haravati, or Haraoti, ‘the country of the Haras,’ comprehends two principalities, namely, Kotah and Bundi. The Chambal intersects the territory of the Hara race, and now serves as their boundary, although only three centuries have elapsed since the younger branch separated from and became independent of Bundi.

The Hara is the most important of the twenty-four Chauhan sakha, being descended from Anuraj, the son of Manik Rae, king of Ajmer, who in S. 741 (A.D. 685) sustained the first shock of the Islamite arms.[10.1.1]

=The Origin of the Chauhāns.=—We have already sketched the pedigree of the Chauhans,[10.1.2] one of the most illustrious of the ‘Thirty-six Royal Races’ of India.[10.1.3] We must, however, in this place, enter into it somewhat more fully; and in doing so, we must not discard even the fables of their origin, which will at least demonstrate that the human understanding has been similarly constructed in all ages and countries, before the thick veil of ignorance and superstition was withdrawn from it. So scanty are the remote records of the Chauhans, that it would savour of affectation to attempt a division of the periods of their history, or the improbable, the probable, and the certain. Of the first two, a separation would be impracticable, and we cannot trace the latter beyond the seventh century.

“When the impieties of the kings of the warrior race drew upon them the vengeance of Parasurama, who twenty-one times extirpated that race, some, in order to save their lives, called themselves bards; others assumed the guise of women; and thus the singh (horn) of the Rajputs was preserved, when dominion was assigned to the Brahmans. The impious avarice of Sahasra Arjuna, of the Haihaya race, king of Maheswar[10.1.4] on the Nerbudda, provoked the last war, having slain the father of Parasurama [440].

“But as the chief weapon of the Brahman is his curse or blessing, great disorders soon ensued from the want of the strong arm. Ignorance and infidelity spread over the land; the sacred books were trampled under foot, and mankind had no refuge from the monstrous brood.[10.1.5] In this exigence, Viswamitra, the instructor in arms[10.1.6] of Bhagwan, revolved within his own mind, and determined upon, the re-creation of the Chhattris. He chose for this rite the summit of Mount Abu,[10.1.7] where dwell the hermits and sages (Munis and Rishis) constantly occupied in the duties of religion, and who had carried their complaints even to the khir samudra (sea of curds), where they saw the Father of Creation floating upon the hydra (emblem of eternity). He desired them to regenerate the warrior race, and they returned to Mount Abu with Indra, Brahma, Rudra, Vishnu, and all the inferior divinities, in their train. The fire-fountain (analkund) was lustrated with the waters of the Ganges; expiatory rites were performed, and, after a protracted debate, it was resolved that Indra should initiate the work of re-creation. Having formed an image (putli) of the durva grass, he sprinkled it with the water of life, and threw it into the fire-fountain. Thence, on pronouncing the sanjivan mantra (incantation to give life), a figure slowly emerged from the flame, bearing in the right hand a mace, and exclaiming, 'Mar! mar!' (slay, slay). He was called Pramar; and Abu, Dhar, and Ujjain were assigned to him as a territory.

“Brahma was then entreated to frame one from his own essence (ansa). He made an image, threw it into the pit, whence issued a figure armed with a sword (khadga) in one hand, with the Veda in the other, and a janeo round his neck. He was named Chalukya or Solanki, and Anhilpur Patan was appropriated to him.

“Rudra formed the third. The image was sprinkled with the water of the Ganges, and on the incantation being read, a black ill-favoured figure arose, armed with the dhanush or bow. As his foot slipped when sent against the demons, he was called Parihar, and placed as the pauliya, or guardian of the gates. He had the Naunangal Marusthali, or ‘nine habitations of the desert,’ assigned him.

“The fourth was formed by Vishnu; when an image like himself four-armed, each having a separate weapon, issued from the flames, and was thence styled Chaturbhuja Chauhan, or the ‘four-armed.’ The gods bestowed their blessing upon him, and Mahishmati-nagari as a territory. Such was the name of Garha-Mandla in the Dwapur, or silver age [441].[10.1.8]

“The Daityas were watching the rites, and two of their leaders were close to the fire-fountain; but the work of regeneration being over, the new-born warriors were sent against the infidels, when a desperate encounter ensued. But as fast as the blood of the demons was shed, young demons arose; when the four tutelary divinities, attendant on each newly-created race, drank up the blood, and thus stopped the multiplication of evil. These were—

Asapurna of the Chauhan. Gajan Mata of the Parihar. Keonj Mata of the Solanki. Sancher Mata of the Pramara.[10.1.9]

“When the Daityas were slain, shouts of joy rent the sky; ambrosial showers were shed from heaven; and the gods drove their cars (vahan) about the firmament, exulting at the victory thus achieved.

“Of all the Thirty-six Royal Races (says Chand, the great bard of the Chauhans), the Agnikula is the greatest: the rest were born of woman; these were created by the Brahmans![10.1.10]—Gotracharya of the Chauhans, Sama Veda, Somvansa, Madhuvani sakha, Vacha gotra, Panch parwar janeo, Laktankari nikas, Chandrabhaga Nadi, Brighu nishan, Ambika-Bhavani, Balan Putra, Kalbhairon, Abu Achaleswar Mahadeo, Chaturbhuja Chauhan.”

The period of this grand convocation of the gods on Mount Abu, to regenerate the warrior race of Hind, and to incite them against ‘the infidel races who had spread over the land,’ is dated so far back as the opening of the second age of the Hindus: a point which we shall not dispute. Neither shall we throw a doubt upon the chronicles which claim Prince Salya, one of the great heroes of the Mahabharata, as an intermediate link between Anhal Chauhan and Satpati, who founded Mahishmati, and conquered the Konkan; while another son, called Tantar Pal, conquered Asir and Gualkund (Golkonda), planted his garrisons in every region, and possessed nine hundred elephants to carry pakhals, or water-skins [442].

Let us here pause for a moment before we proceed with the chronicle, and inquire who were these warriors, thus regenerated to fight the battles of Brahmanism, and brought within the pale of their faith. They must have been either the aboriginal debased classes, raised to moral importance, by the ministers of the pervading religion, or foreign races who had obtained a footing amongst them. The contrasted physical appearance of the respective races will decide this question. The aborigines are dark, diminutive, and ill-favoured; the Agnikulas are of good stature, and fair, with prominent features, like those of the Parthian kings. The ideas which pervade their martial poetry are such as were held by the Scythian in distant ages, and which even Brahmanism has failed to eradicate; while the tumuli, containing ashes and arms, discovered throughout India, especially in the south about Gualkund, where the Chauhans held sway,[10.1.11] indicate the nomadic warrior of the north as the proselyte of Mount Abu.

Of the four Agnikula races, the Chauhans were the first who obtained extensive dominions. The almost universal power of the Pramaras is proverbial; but the wide sway possessed by the Chauhans can only be discovered with difficulty. Their glory was on the wane when that of the Pramaras was in the zenith; and if we may credit the last great bard of the Rajputs, the Chauhans held in capite of the Pramaras of Telingana, in the eighth century of Vikrama, though the name of Prithiraj threw a parting ray of splendour upon the whole line of his ancestry, even to the fire-fountain on the summit of classic Abu.

The facts to be gleaned in the early page of the chronicle are contained in a few stanzas, which proclaim the possession of paramount power, though probably of no lengthened duration. The line of the Nerbudda, from Mahishmati, Maheswar, was their primitive seat of sovereignty, comprehending all the tracts in its vicinity both north and south. Thence, as they multiplied, they spread over the peninsula, possessing Mandu, Asir, Golkonda, and the Konkan;[10.1.12] while to the north, [443] they stretched even to the fountains of the Ganges. The following is the bard’s picture of the Chauhan dominion:—

“From ‘the seat of government’ (rajasthan) Mahishmati, the oath of allegiance (an) resounded in fifty-two castles. The land of Tatta, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar,[10.1.13] the Chauhan in his might arose and conquered even to the hills of Badarinath. The infidels (Asuras) fled, and allegiance was proclaimed in Delhi and Kabul, while the country of Nepal he bestowed on the Mallani.[10.1.14] Crowned with the blessing of the gods, he returned to Mahishmati.”

It has already been observed, that Mahishmati-Nagari was the ancient name of Garha-Mandla, whose princes for ages continued the surname of Pal, indicative, it is recorded by tradition, of their nomadic occupation. The Ahirs, who occupied all Central India, and have left in one nook (Ahirwara) a memorial of their existence, was a branch of the same race, Ahir being a synonym for Pal.[10.1.15] Bhilsa, Bhojpur, Dip, Bhopal, Eran, Garaspur, are a few of the ancient towns established by the Pals or Palis; and could we master the still unknown characters appertaining to the early colonists of India, more light would be thrown on the history of the Chauhans.[10.1.16]

A scion from Mahishmati, named Ajaipal, established himself at Ajmer,[10.1.17] and erected its castle of Taragarh. The name of Ajaipal is one of the most conspicuous that tradition has preserved, and is always followed by the epithet of Chakravartin, or universal potentate. His era must ever remain doubtful, unless, as already observed, we should master the characters said to belong to this race, and which are still extant, both on stone and on copper.[10.1.18] From what cause is not stated (most probably a failure of [444] lineal issue), Prithi Pahar was brought from Mahishmati to Ajmer. By a single wife (for polygamy was then unknown to these races) he had twenty-four sons, whose progeny peopled these regions, one of whose descendants, Manika Rae, was lord of Ajmer and Sambhar, in the year S. 741, or A.D. 685.

=Mānika Rāē.=—With the name of Manika Rae, the history of the Chauhan emerges from obscurity, if not fable; and although the bard does not subsequently entertain us with much substantial information, we can trace his subject, and see his heroes fret their hour upon the uncertain stage, throughout a period of twelve hundred years. It was at this era (A.D. 685) that Rajputana was first visited by the arms of Islam, being the sixty-third year of the Hejira. Manika Rae, then prince of Ajmer, was slain by the Asuras, and his only child, named Lot, then an infant of seven years of age, was killed by an arrow while playing on the battlements (kunguras). The invasion is said to have been from Sind, in revenge for the ill-treatment of an Islamite missionary named Roshan Ali, though the complexion of the event is more like an enterprise prompted by religious enthusiasm. The missionary being condemned to lose his thumb “the disjointed member flew to Mecca,” and gave evidence against the Rajput idolater; when a force was prepared, disguised as a caravan of horse-merchants, which surprised and slew Dhola Rae and his son, and obtained possession of Garhbitli, the citadel.

Puerile as is the transaction, its truth is substantiated by the fact that the Caliph Omar at this very time sent an army to Sind, whose commander, Abu-l-lais, was slain in an attempt on the ancient capital, Alor.[10.1.19] Still nothing but the enthusiasm of religious frenzy could have induced a band to cross the desert in order to punish this insult to the new faith.

Whatever were the means, however, by which Ajmer was captured, and Dhola Rae slain, the importance of the event has been deeply imprinted on the Chauhans; who, in remembrance of it, deified the youthful heir of Ajmer: “Lot putra” is still the most conspicuous of the Chauhan penates. The day on which he was killed is sanctified, and his effigy then receives divine honours from all who have the name of Chauhan. Even the anklet of bells which he wore has become an object of veneration, and is forbidden to be used by the children of this race.

“Of the house of Dhola Rae of Chauhan race, Lotdeo, the heir-apparent by the decree of Siva, on Monday the 12th of the month of Jeth, went to heaven.”

Manika Rae, the uncle of the youth (putra) (who is still the object of general homage, especially of the Chauhan fair), upon the occupation of Ajmer, retired upon [445] Sambhar, which event another couplet fixes, as we have said, in S. 741.[10.1.20] Here the bard has recourse to celestial interposition in order to support Manika Rae in his adversity. The goddess Sakambhari appears to him, while seeking shelter from the pursuit of this merciless foe, and bids him establish himself in the spot where she manifested herself, guaranteeing to him the possession of all the ground he could encompass with his horse on that day; but commanded him not to look back until he had returned to the spot where he left her. He commenced the circuit, with what he deemed his steed could accomplish, but forgetting the injunction, he was surprised to see the whole space covered as with a sheet. This was the desiccated sar, or salt-lake, which he named after his patroness Sakambhari, whose statue still exists on a small island in the lake, now corrupted to Sambhar.[10.1.21]

However jejune these legends of the first days of Chauhan power, they suffice to mark with exactness their locality; and the importance attached to this settlement is manifested in the title of ‘Sambhari Rao,’ maintained by Prithiraj, the descendant of Manika Rae, even when emperor of all Northern India.

Manika Rae, whom we may consider as the founder of the Chauhans of the north, recovered Ajmer. He had a numerous progeny, who established many petty dynasties throughout Western Rajwara, giving birth to various tribes, which are spread even to the Indus. The Khichi,[10.1.22] the Hara, the Mohil, Nirwana, Bhadauria, Bhaurecha, Dhanetia, and Baghrecha, are all descended from him.[10.1.23] The Khichis were established in the remote Duab, called Sind-Sagar, comprising all the tract between the Behat and the Sind, a space of sixty-eight coss, whose capital was Khichpur-Patan. The Haras obtained or founded Asi (Hansi) in Hariana; while another tribe held Gualkund, the celebrated Golkonda, now Haidarabad, and when thence expelled, regained Asir. The Mohils had the tracts round Nagor.[10.1.24] The Bhadaurias had an appanage on the Chambal, in a tract which bears their name, and [446] is still subject to them. The Dhanetias settled at Shahabad, which by a singular fatality has at length come into the possession of the Haras of Kotah. Another branch fixed at Nadol, but never changed the name of Chauhan.[10.1.25]

Many chieftainships were scattered over the desert, either trusting to their lances to maintain their independence, or holding of superiors; but a notice of them, however interesting, would here, perhaps, be out of place. Eleven princes are enumerated in the Jaga’s catalogue, from Manika Rae to Bisaldeo,[10.1.26] a name of the highest celebrity in the Rajput annals, and a landmark to various authorities, who otherwise have little in common even in their genealogies, which I pass over in silence, with the exception of the intermediate name of Harsraj,[10.1.27] common to the Hamir Raesa as well as the Jaga’s list. The authority of Harsraj stretched along the Aravalli mountains to Abu, and east of the Chambal. He ruled from S. 812 to 827 (A.H. 138 to 153), and fell in battle against the Asuras, having attained the title of Arimurdan.[10.1.28] Ferishta says, that “in A.H. 143, the Muslims greatly increased, when issuing from their hills they obtained possession of Karman, Peshawar, and all the lands adjacent; and that the Raja of Lahore, who was of the family of the Raja of Ajmer, sent his brother[10.1.29] against these Afghans, who were reinforced by the tribes of Khilj, of Ghor and Kabul, just become proselytes to Islam”;[10.1.29] and he adds, that during five months, seventy battles were fought with success; or, to use the historian’s own words, “in which Sipahi sarma (General Frost) was victorious over the infidel, but who returned when the cold season was passed with fresh force. The armies met [447] between Karman and Peshawar; sometimes the infidel (Rajput) carried the war to the Kohistan, ‘mountainous regions,’ and drove the Musalmans before him; sometimes the Musalmans, obtaining reinforcements, drove the infidel by flights of arrows to their own borders, to which they always retired when the torrents swelled the Nilab (Indus).”

Whether the Raja of Ajmer personally engaged in these distant combats the chronicle says not. According to the Hamir Raesa, Harsraj was succeeded by Dujgandeo, whose advanced post was Bhatner, and who overcame Nasiru-d-din, from whom he captured twelve hundred horse, and hence bore the epithet of Sultan Graha, or ‘King-seizer.’ Nasiru-d-din was the title of the celebrated Sabuktigin, father to the still more celebrated Mahmud. Sabuktigin repeatedly invaded India during the fifteen years’ reign of his predecessor Alptigin.

=Bīsaldeo.=—Passing over the intermediate reigns, each of which is marked by some meagre and unsatisfactory details of battles with the Islamite, we arrive at Bisaldeo. The father of this prince, according to the Hara genealogists, was Dharmagaj, apparently a title—'in faith like an elephant'—as in the Jaga’s list is Bir Bilandeo, confirmed by the inscription on the triumphal column at Delhi. The last of Mahmud’s invasions occurred during the reign of Bilandeo, who, at the expense of his life, had the glory of humbling the mighty conqueror, and forcing him to relinquish the siege of Ajmer.[10.1.30] Before we condense the scanty records of the bards concerning Visaladeva,[10.1.31] we may spare a few words to commemorate a Chauhan who consecrated his name, and that of all his kin, by his deeds in the first passage of Mahmud into India.

=Gūga, Gugga Chauhān.=—Guga Chauhan was the son of Vacha Raja, a name of some celebrity. He held the whole of Jangaldes, or the forest lands from the Sutlej to Hariana; his capital, called Mahara, or, as pronounced, Guga ka Mahra, was on the Sutlej. In defending this he fell, with forty-five sons and sixty nephews; and as it occurred on Sunday (Rabiwar), the ninth (naumi) of the month, that day is held sacred to the manes of Guga by the ‘Thirty-six Classes’[10.1.32] throughout Rajputana, but especially in the desert, a portion of which is yet called Gugadeo ka thal. Even his steed, Javadia,[10.1.33] has been immortalized [448] and has become a favourite name for a war-horse throughout Rajputana, whose mighty men swear 'by the sakha of Guga,' for maintaining the Rajput fame when Mahmud crossed the Sutlej.

This was probably the last of Mahmud’s invasions, when he marched direct from Multan through the desert. He attacked Ajmer, which was abandoned, and the country around given up to devastation and plunder. The citadel, Garhbitli, however, held out, and Mahmud was foiled, wounded, and obliged to retreat by Nadol,[10.1.34] another Chauhan possession, which he sacked, and then proceeded to Nahrwala, which he captured. His barbarities promoted a coalition, which, by compelling him to march through the western deserts to gain the valley of Sind, had nearly proved fatal to his army.

The exploits of Bisaldeo form one of the books of Chand the bard. The date assigned to Bisaldeo in the Raesa (S. 921) is interpolated—a vice not uncommon with the Rajput bard, whose periods acquire verification from less mutable materials than those out of which he weaves his song.[10.1.35]

Chand gives an animated picture of the levy of the Rajput chivalry, which assembled under Bisaldeo, who, as the champion of the Hindu faith, was chosen to lead its warriors against the Islamite invader. The Chalukya king of Anhilwara alone refused to join the confederation, and in terms which drew upon him the vengeance of the Chauhan. A literal translation of the passage may be interesting:

“To the Goelwal Jeth, the prince entrusted Ajmer, saying, ‘On your fealty I depend’; where can this Chalukya find refuge? He moved from the city (Ajmer) and encamped on the lake Visala,[10.1.36] and summoned his tributaries and vassals to meet him. Mansi Parihar with the array of Mandor, touched his feet.[10.1.37] Then came the Guhilot, the ornament of the throng;[10.1.38] and the Pawasar [449], with Tuar,[10.1.39] and Rama the Gaur;[10.1.40] with Mohes the lord of Mewat.[10.1.41] The Mohil of Dunapur with tribute sent excuse.[10.1.42] With folded hands arrived the Baloch,[10.1.43] but the lord of Bamani abandoned Sind.[10.1.44] Then came the Nazar from Bhatner,[10.1.45] and the Nalbandi from Tatta[10.1.46] and Multan.[10.1.46] When the summons reached the Bhumia Bhatti of Derawar,[10.1.47] all obeyed; as did the Jadon of Malanwas.[10.1.48] The Mori[10.1.49] and Bargujar[10.1.49] also joined with the Kachhwahas of Antarved.[10.1.49] The subjugated Meras worshipped his feet.[10.1.50] Then came the array of Takatpur, headed by the Goelwal Jeth.[10.1.51] Mounted in haste came Udaya Pramar,[10.1.52] with the Nirwan[10.1.53] and the Dor,[10.1.54] the Chandel,[10.1.54] and the Dahima.”[10.1.55]

In this short passage, a text is afforded for a dissertation on the whole genealogical history of Rajputana at that period. Such extracts from the more ancient bards, incorporated in the works of their successors, however laconic, afford decisive evidence [450] that their poetic chronicles bore always the same character; for this passage is introduced by Chand merely as a preface to the history of his own prince, Prithiraj, the descendant of Bisaldeo.

A similar passage was given from the ancient chronicles of Mewar, recording an invasion of the Muslims, of which the histories of the invaders have left no trace (Vol. I. p. 287). The evidence of both is incontestable; every name affords a synchronism not to be disputed; and though the isolated passage would afford a very faint ray of light to the explorer of those days of darkness, yet when the same industrious research has pervaded the annals of all these races, a flood of illumination pours upon us, and we can at least tell who the races were who held sway in these regions a thousand years ago.

Amidst meagre, jejune, and unsatisfactory details, the annalist of Rajputana must be content to wade on, in order to obtain some solid foundation for the history of the tribes; but such facts as these stimulate his exertions and reward his toil: without them, his task would be hopeless. To each of the twenty tribes enumerated, formed under the standard of the Chauhan, we append a separate notice, for the satisfaction of the few who can appreciate their importance, while some general remarks may suffice as a connexion with the immediate object of research, the Haras, descended from Bisaldeo.

In the first place, it is of no small moment to be enabled to adjust the date of Bisaldeo, the most important name in the annals of the Chauhans from Manik Rae to Prithiraj, and a slip from the genealogical tree will elucidate our remarks [451].[10.1.56]

=The Delhi Pillar.=—The name of Bisaldeo (Visaladeva) heads the inscription on the celebrated column erected in the centre of Firoz Shah’s palace at Delhi. This column, alluded to by Chand, as “telling the fame of the Chohan,” was “placed at Nigambhod,” a place of pilgrimage on the Jumna, a few miles below Delhi, whence it must have been removed to its present singular position.[10.1.57]

CHAUHĀN GENEALOGY

[From Anhal to Bilandeo, these are but a few of the leading names. From Bilandeo the chain is continuous to the last Chauhan king, Prithiraj.]

┌ Or Agnipala, ‘offspring of fire,’ │ the first Chauhan; probable period │ 650 before Vikrama, when an Anhal ┤ invasion of the Turushkas took │ │ place;established Mahishmati-nagari │ │ (Garha-mandala); conquered the │ └ Konkan, Asir, Golkonda. Savacha │ ┌ In all probability this is the Malan ┤ patriarch of the Mallani tribe, │ └ see p. 1272. Ganal Sur │ ┌ Or universal potentate; founder of │ │ Ajmer. Same authorities say, in S. 202 Ajaipala Chakravartin ┤ 202 of the Vikrama; others of the │ │ Virat-Samvat: the latter is the │ └ most probable. │ ┌ Slain, and lost Ajmer, on the first Dhola Rae ┤ irruption of the Muhammadans, S. │ └ 741, A.D. 685. │ ┌ Founded Sambhar: hence the title S. 741 Manika Rae ┤ of Sambhari-Rao borne by the │ └ Chauhan princes, his issue. │ ┌ Defeated Nasiru-d-din (qu. S. 827 Harsraj ┤ Sabuktigin?), │ └ thence styled 'Sultan-graha. Bir Bilandeo ┌ Or Dharmagaj; slain defending │ └ Ajmer against Mahmud of Ghazni. S. 1065 to │ ┌ (Classically, Visaladeva); his 1130 Bisaldeo ┤ period, from various inscriptions, │ └ S. 1066 to S. 1130. Sarangdeo Died in nonage. │ Ana ┌ Constructed the Ana-Sagar at │ └ Ajmer; still bears his name. ┌────────────────────┐ Jaipal. Harspal. │ ├──────────────┬───────────┐ Ajaideo, Bijaideo. Udaideo. or Ananddeo. ├───────────────┬─────────────┐ │ │ │ Someswar: Kan Rae. Jeth, Goelwal. married Ruka Bai, │ daughter of Anangpal │ Tuar king of Delhi. │ │ Isardas; │ turned Muhammadan. │ ├────────────────────┐ │ │ Prithiraj; Chahirdeo. obtained Delhi; slain by │ Shihabu-d-din, S. 1249, │ A.D. 1193. │ │ Vijaya Raj. ┌ Adopted successor to Prithiraj; │ │ └ his name is on the pillar at Delhi. │ ┌─────┘ │ │ │ │ ┌ Had twenty-one sons; seven of whom were │ │ │ legitimate, the others illegitimate, and Rainsi; │ │ and founders of mixed tribes. From slain in the sack Lakhansi┤ Lakhansi there are twenty-six generations of Delhi. │ to Noniddh Singh, the present chieftain │ of Nimrana, the nearest lineal descendant └ of Ajaipal and Prithiraj.

[452]

The inscription commences and ends with the same date, namely, 15th of the month Baisakh, S. 1220. If correctly copied, it can have no reference to Bisaldeo, excepting as the ancestor of Prativa Chahumana tilaka Sakambhari bhupati; or ‘Prithiraja Chauhan, the anointed of Sambhar, Lord of the earth,’ who ruled at Delhi in S. 1220, and was slain in S. 1249, retaining the ancient epithet of ‘Lord of Sambhar,’ one of the early seats of their power.[10.1.58] The second stanza, however, tells us we must distrust the first of the two dates, and read 1120 (instead of 1220), when Visaladeva “exterminated the barbarians” from Aryavarta. The numerals 1 and 2 in Sanskrit are easily mistaken. If, however, it is decidedly 1220, then the whole inscription belongs to Prativa Chahumana, between whom and Visala no less than six princes intervene,[10.1.59] and the opening is merely to introduce Prithiraja’s lineage, in which the sculptor has foisted in the date.

I feel inclined to assign the first stanza to Visaladeva (Bisaldeo), and what follows to his descendant Prithiraj, who by a conceit may have availed himself of the anniversary of the victory of his ancestor, to record his own exploits. These exploits were precisely of the same nature—successful war against the Islamite, in which each drove him from Aryavarta; for even the Muslim writers acknowledge that Shihabu-d-din was often ignominiously defeated before he finally succeeded in making a conquest of northern India [453].

=Date of Visaladeva.=—If, as I surmise, the first stanza belongs to Bisaldeo, the date is S. 1120, or A.D. 1064, and this grand confederation described by the Chauhan bard was assembled under his banner, preparatory to the very success, to commemorate which the inscription was recorded.

In the passage quoted from Chand, recording the princes who led their household troops under Bisaldeo, there are four names which establish synchronisms: one by which we arrive directly at the date, and three indirectly. The first is Udayaditya Pramar, king of Dhar (son of Raja Bhoj), whose period I established from numerous inscriptions,[10.1.60] as between S. 1100 and S. 1150; so that the date of his joining the expedition would be about the middle of his reign. The indirect but equally strong testimony consists of,

First, The mention of “the Bhumia Bhatti from Derawar”;[10.1.61] for had there been anything apocryphal in Chand, Jaisalmer, the present capital, would have been given as the Bhatti abode.[10.1.62]

Second, The Kachhwahas, who are also described as coming from Antarved (the region between the Jumna and Ganges); for the infant colony transmitted from Narwar to Amber was yet undistinguished.

The third proof is in the Mewar inscription, when Tejsi, the grandfather of Samarsi, is described as in alliance with Bisaldeo. Bisaldeo is said to have lived sixty-four years. Supposing this date, S. 1120, to be the medium point of his existence, this would make his date S. 1088 to S. 1152, or A.D. 1032 to A.D. 1096; but as his father, Dharmagaj, ‘the elephant in faith,’ or Bir Bilandeo (called Malandeo, in the Hamir Raesa), was killed defending Ajmer on the last invasion of Mahmud, we must necessarily place Bisal’s birth (supposing him an infant on that event), ten years earlier, or A.D. 1022 (S. 1078), to A.D. 1086 (S. 1142), comprehending the date on the pillar of Delhi, and by computation all the periods mentioned in the catalogue. We may therefore safely adopt the date of the Raesa, namely S. 1066 to S. 1130.

Bisaldeo was, therefore, contemporary with Jaipal, the Tuar king of Delhi; with [454] Durlabha and Bhima of Gujarat; with Bhoj and Udayaditya of Dhar; with Padamsi and Tejsi of Mewar; and the confederacy which he headed must have been that against the Islamite king Maudud, the fourth from Mahmud of Ghazni, whose expulsion from the northern parts of Rajputana (as recorded on the pillar of Delhi) caused Aryavarta again to become ‘the land of virtue.’ Mahmud’s final retreat from India by Sind, to avoid the armies collected “by Bairamdeo and the prince of Ajmer” to oppose him, was in A.H. 417, A.D. 1026, or S. 1082, nearly the same date as that assigned by Chand, S. 1086.[10.1.63]

We could dilate on the war which Bisaldeo waged against the prince of Gujarat, his victory, and the erection of Bisalnagar,[10.1.64] on the spot where victory perched upon his lance; but this we reserve for the introduction of the history of the illustrious Prithiraj. There is much fable mixed up with the history of Bisaldeo, apparently invented to hide a blot in the annals, warranting the inference that he became a convert, in all likelihood a compulsory one, to the doctrines of Islam. There is also the appearance of his subsequent expiation of this crime in the garb of a penitent; and the mound (dhundh), where he took up his abode, still exists, and is called after him, Bisal-ka-dhundh, at Kalakh Jobner.[10.1.65]

According to the Book of Kings of Govind Ram (the Hara bard), the Haras were descended from Anuraj, son of Bisaldeo; but Mogji, the Khichi bard,[10.1.66] makes Anuraj progenitor of the Khichis, and son of Manika Rae. We follow the Hara bard.

Anuraj had assigned to him in appanage the important frontier fortress of Asi (vulg. Hansi). His son Ishtpal, together with Aganraj, son of Ajairao, the founder of Khichpur Patan in Sind-Sagar, was preparing to seek his fortunes with Randhir Chauhan, prince of Gualkund: but both Asi and Golkonda were almost simultaneously assailed by an army “from the wilds of Kujliban.” Randhir performed the sakha; and only a single female, his daughter, named Surabhi, survived, and she fled for protection towards Asi, then attacked by the same furious invader. Anuraj prepared to fly; but his son, Ishtpal, determined not to wait the attack, but seek the foe. A battle ensued, when the invader was slain, and Ishtpal, grievously wounded, pursued him till he fell, near the spot where Surabhi was awaiting death under the shade of a pipal: for “hopes of life were extinct, and fear and hunger had [455] reduced her to a skeleton.” In the moment of despair, however, the asvattha (pipal) tree under which she took shelter was severed, and Asapurna, the guardian goddess of her race, appeared before her. To her, Surabhi related how her father and twelve brothers had fallen in defending Golkonda against ‘the demon of Kujliban.’ The goddess told her to be of good cheer, for that a Chauhan of her own race had slain him, and was then at hand; and led her to where Ishtpal lay senseless from his wounds. By her aid he recovered,[10.1.67] and possessed himself of that ancient heirloom of the Chauhans, the famed fortress of Asir.

Ishtpal, the founder of the Haras, obtained Asir in S. 1081[10.1.68] (or A.D. 1025); and as Mahmud’s last destructive visit to India, by Multan through the desert to Ajmer, was in A.H. 714, or A.D. 1022, we have every right to conclude that his father Anuraj lost his life and Asi to the king of Ghazni; at the same time that Ajmer was sacked, and the country laid waste by this conqueror, whom the Hindu bard might well style “the demon from Kujliban.”[10.1.69] The Muhammadan historians give us no hint even of any portion of Mahmud’s army penetrating into the peninsula, though that grasping ambition, which considered the shores of Saurashtra but an intermediate step from Ghazni to the conquest of Ceylon and Pegu, may have pushed an army during his long halt at Anhilwara, and have driven Randhir from Golkonda.[10.1.70] But it is idle to speculate upon such slender materials; let them suffice to illustrate one new fact, namely, that these kingdoms of the south as well as the north were held by Rajput sovereigns, whose offspring, blending with the original population, produced that mixed race of Mahrattas, inheriting with the names the warlike propensities of their ancestors, but who assume the name of their abodes as titles, as the Nimbalkars, the Phalkias, the Patankars, instead of their tribes of Jadon, Tuar, Puar, etc. etc.

Ishtpal had a son called Chandkaran; his son, Lokpal, had Hamir and Gambhir, names well known in the wars of Prithiraj. The brothers were enrolled amongst his [456] one hundred and eight great vassals, from which we may infer that, though Asir was not considered absolutely as a fief, its chief paid homage to Ajmer, as the principal seat of the Chauhans.

In the Kanauj Samaya, that book of the poems of Chand devoted to the famous war in which the Chauhan prince carries off the princess of Kanauj, honourable mention is made of the Hara princes in the third day’s fight, when they covered the retreat of Prithiraj:

“Then did the Hara Rao Hamir, with his brother Gambhir, mounted on Lakhi steeds,[10.1.71] approach their lord, as thus they spoke: ‘Think of thy safety, Jangales,[10.1.72] while we make offerings to the array of Jaichand. Our horses’ hoofs shall plough the field of fight, like the ship of the ocean.’”

The brothers encountered the contingent of the prince of Kasi (Benares), one of the great feudatories of Kanauj. As they joined, “the shout raised by Hamir reached Durga on her rock-bound throne.” Both brothers fell in these wars, though one of the few survivors of the last battle fought with Shihabu-d-din for Rajput independence, was a Hara—

Hamir had Kalkaran, who had Mahamagd: his son was Rao Bacha; his, Rao Chand.

=Rāo Chand.=—Amongst the many independent princes of the Chauhan race to whom Alau-d-din was the messenger of fate, was Rao Chand of Asir. Its walls, though deemed impregnable, were not proof against the skill and valour of this energetic warrior; and Chand and all his family, with the exception of one son, were put to the sword. This son was prince Rainsi, a name fatal to Chauhan heirs, for it was borne by the son of Prithiraj who fell in the defence of Delhi: but Rainsi of Asir was more fortunate. He was but an infant of two years and a half old, and being nephew of the Rana of Chitor, was sent to him for protection. When he attained man’s estate, he made a successful attempt upon the ruined castle of Bhainsror, from which he drove Dunga, a Bhil chief, who, with a band of his mountain brethren, had made it his retreat. This ancient fief of Mewar had been dismantled by Alau-d-din in his attack on Chitor, from which the Ranas had not yet recovered when the young Chauhan came amongst them for protection.

Rainsi had two sons, Kolan and Kankhal. Kolan being afflicted with an incurable disease, commenced a pilgrimage to the sacred Kedarnath, one of the towns of the [457] Ganges. To obtain the full benefit of this meritorious act, he determined to measure his length on the ground the whole of this painful journey. In six months he had only reached the Binda Pass, where, having bathed in a fountain whence flows the rivulet Banganga, he found his health greatly restored. Kedarnath[10.1.73] was pleased to manifest himself, to accept his devotions, and to declare him ‘King of the Patar,’ or plateau of Central India.[10.1.74] The whole of this tract was under the princes of Chitor, but the sack of this famed fortress by Ala, and the enormous slaughter of the Guhilots, had so weakened their authority, that the aboriginal Minas had once more possessed themselves of all their native hills, or leagued with the subordinate vassals of Chitor.

=Angatsi, the Hun.=—In ancient times, Raja Hun, said to be of the Pramara race, was lord of the Patar, and held his court at Menal. There are many memorials of this Hūn or Hun prince, and even so far back as the first assault of Chitor, in the eighth century, its prince was aided in his defence by ‛Angatsi, lord of the Huns.' The celebrated temples of Barolli are attributed to this Hun Raja, who appears in so questionable a shape, that we can scarcely refuse to believe that a branch of this celebrated race must in the first centuries of Vikrama have been admitted, as their bards say, amongst the Thirty-six Royal Races of the Rajputs. Be this as it may, Rao Banga, the grandson of Kolan, took possession of the ancient Menal, and on an elevation commanding the western face of the Pathar erected the fortress of Bumbaoda. With Bhainsror on the east, and Bumbaoda and Menal on the west, the Haras now occupied the whole extent of the Patar. Other conquests were made, and Mandalgarh, Bijolli, Begun, Ratnagarh, and Churetagarh, formed an extensive, if not a rich, chieftainship.

Rao Banga had twelve sons, who dispersed their progeny over the Patar. He was succeeded by Dewa, who had three sons, namely, Harraj,[10.1.75] Hatiji, and Samarsi.

=Rāo Dewa.=—The Haras had now obtained such power as to attract the attention of the emperor, and Rae Dewa was summoned to attend the court when Sikandar Lodi ruled.[10.1.76] He [458] therefore installed his son Harraj in Bumbaoda, and with his youngest, Samarsi, repaired to Delhi. Here he remained, till the emperor coveting a horse of the ‘king of the Patar,’ the latter determined to regain his native hills. This steed is famed both in the annals of the Haras and Khichis, and, like that of the Mede, had no small share in the future fortunes of his master. Its birth is thus related. The king had a horse of such mettle, that “he could cross a stream without wetting his hoof.” Dewa bribed the royal equerry, and from a mare of the Patar had a colt, to obtain which the king broke that law which is alike binding on the Muslim and the Christian. Dewa sent off his family by degrees, and as soon as they were out of danger, he saddled his charger, and lance in hand appeared under the balcony where the emperor was seated. “Farewell, king,” said the Rangra; “there are three things your majesty must never ask of a Rajput: his horse, his mistress, and his sword.” He gave his steed the rein, and in safety regained the Patar. Having resigned Bumbaoda to Harraj, he came to Bandunal, the spot where his ancestor Kolan was cured of disease. Here the Minas of the Usara tribe dwelt, under the patriarchal government of Jetha, their chief. There was then no regular city; the extremities of the valley (thal[10.1.77]) were closed with barriers of masonry and gates, and the huts of the Minas were scattered wherever their fancy led them to build. At this time the community, which had professed obedience to the Rana on the sack of Chitor, was suffering from the raids of Rao Ganga, the Khichi, who from his castle of Ramgarh (Relawan) imposed 'barchhidohai'[10.1.78] on all around. To save themselves from Ganga, who used “to drive his lance at the barrier of Bandu,” the Minas entered into terms, agreeing, on the full moon of every second month, to suspend the tribute of the chauth over the barrier. At the appointed time, the Rao came, but no bag of treasure appeared. “Who has been before me?” demanded Ganga; when forth issued the ‘lord of the Patar,’ on the steed coveted by the Lodi king. Ganga of Relawan bestrode a charger not less famed than his antagonist’s, “which owed his birth to the river-horse of the Par, and a mare of the Khichi chieftain’s, as she grazed on its margin.[10.1.79] Mounted on this steed, no obstacle could stop him, and even the Chambal was no impediment to his seizing the tribute at all seasons from the Minas” [459].

The encounter was fierce, but the Hara was victorious, and Ganga turned his back on the lord of the Patar, who tried the mettle of this son of the Par, pursuing him to the banks of the Chambal. What was his surprise, when Ganga sprang from the cliff, and horse and rider disappeared in the flood, but soon to reappear on the opposite bank! Dewa, who stood amazed, no sooner beheld the Rao emerge, than he exclaimed, “Bravo, Rajput! Let me know your name.” “Ganga Khichi,” was the answer. “And mine is Dewa Hara; we are brothers, and must no longer be enemies. Let the river be our boundary.”

=The Foundation of Būndi.=—It was in S. 1398 (A.D. 1342)[10.1.80] that Jetha and the Usaras acknowledged Rae Dewa as their lord, who erected Bundi in the centre of the Bandu-ka-Nal, which henceforth became the capital of the Haras. The Chambal, which, for a short time after the adventure here related, continued to be the barrier to the eastward, was soon overpassed, and the bravery of the race bringing them into contact with the emperor’s lieutenants, the Haras rose to favour and power, extending their acquisitions, either by conquest or grant, to the confines of Malwa. The territory thus acquired obtained the geographical designation of Haravati or Haraoti.[10.1.81]

-----

Footnote 10.1.1:

[The name is said to be derived from that of the Hāra Hūnas or Huns (IA, xi. 5) or from Rāo Hado or Harrāj.]

Footnote 10.1.2:

See Vol. I. p. 112.

Footnote 10.1.3:

According to Herodotus, the Scythic sakae enumerated eight races with the epithet of royal, and Strabo mentions one of the tribes of the Thyssagetae as boasting the title of Basilii. [Herodotus (iv. 22) speaks of the Thyssagetae, possibly meaning ‘lesser,’ Getae, as contrasted with the Massagetae or ‘greater’ Getae, but he does not call them ‘royal’; and, in any case, they have no connexion with the Rājputs (see Rawlinson, Herodotus, 3rd ed. iii. 209).] The Rajputs assert that in ancient times they only enumerated eight royal sakham or branches, namely, Surya, Soma, Haya or Aswa (qu. Asi?) Nima, and the four tribes of Agnivansa, namely, Pramara, Parihara, Solanki, and Chauhan. Abulghazi states that the Tatars or Scythians were divided into six grand families. The Rajputs have maintained these ideas, originally brought from the Oxus.

Footnote 10.1.4:

[The ancient Māhishmati (IGI, xvii. 8 ff.). Sahasra or Sahasra Vāhu Arjuna, ‘the thousand-armed,’ of the Haihaya tribe, is the reputed ancestor of the Kalachuris of Chedi (BG, i. Part ii. 293, 410; Smith, EHI, 394).]

Footnote 10.1.5:

Or, as the bard says, Daityas, Asuras, and Danavas, or demons and infidels, as they style the Indo-Scythic tribes from the north-west, who paid no respect to the Brahmans.

Footnote 10.1.6:

Āyudh-guru. [In the previous version (Vol. I. p. 113) the priest is Vasishtha.]

Footnote 10.1.7:

My last pilgrimage was to Abu.

Footnote 10.1.8:

[There is no local tradition corroborating the connexion of the Chauhāns with Garha-Mandla, and it is merely a fiction of the Chauhān bards (C. Grant, Gazetteer Central Provinces, Introd. i.).]

Footnote 10.1.9:

[Another title of the Parihār tribal goddess is Chāwanda Māta, whose temple is in the Jodhpur fort (Census Report, Mārwār, 1891, ii. 31). In Gujarāt the Jādejas worship Āsāpūrna; the Jhālas Ādya; the Gohils Khodiyār Māta; the Jethvas Vindhyavāsini; the Pramārs Mandavri; the Chāvadas and Vāghelas Chāmunda (BG, ix. Part i. 136).]

Footnote 10.1.10:

It is by no means uncommon for this arrogant priesthood to lay claim to powers co-equal with those of the Divinity, nay, often superior to them. Witness the scene in the Ramayana, where they make the deity a mediator, to entreat the Brahman Vashishta to hearken to King Vishwamitra’s desire for his friendship. Can anything exceed this? Parallel it, perhaps, we may, in that memorable instance of Christian idolatry, where the Almighty is called on to intercede with St. Januarius to perform the annual miracle of liquefying the congealed blood.

Footnote 10.1.11:

[This is a fiction of the bards, and the S. Indian burial-mounds have no connexion with the Chauhāns (see IGI, ii. 94).]

Footnote 10.1.12:

[This S. Indian Chauhān empire is a fiction, the object being to provide a princely genealogy for the S. Indian royal families (see BG, ix. Part i. 484).]

Footnote 10.1.13:

The Muhammadan writers confirm this account, for in their earliest recorded invasion, in A.H. 143, the princes of Lahore and Ajmer, said to be of the same family, are the great opponents of Islam, and combated its advance in fields west of the Indus. We know beyond a doubt that Ajmer was then the chief seat of Chauhan power.

Footnote 10.1.14:

The Mallani is (or rather was) one of the Chauhan Sakha and may be the Malloi who opposed Alexander at the confluent arms of the Indus. The tribe is extinct, and was so little known even five centuries ago, that a prince of Bundi, of the Hara tribe, intermarried with a Mallani, the book of genealogical affinities not indicating her being within the prohibited canon. A more skilful bard pointed out the incestuous connexion, when divorce and expiation ensued. Vide p. 1266.

Footnote 10.1.15:

[When Alāu-d-dīn stormed Asīrgarh in A.D. 1295 it was a Chauhān stronghold. The existence of this Ahīr kingdom rests on the authority of Ferishta (iv. 287). This is doubtful, but it may be based on a line of Ahīr chieftains in the Tapti valley (Russell, Tribes and Castes, Central Provinces, ii. 20).]

Footnote 10.1.16:

All these towns contain remains of antiquity, especially in the district of Dip, Bhojpur, and Bhilsa. Twenty years ago, in one of my journeys, I passed the ruins of Eran, where a superb column stands at the junction of its two streams. It is about thirty feet in height, and is surmounted by a human figure, having a glory round his head; a colossal bull is at the base of the column. I sent a drawing of it to Mr. Colebrooke at the time, but possess no copy. [The Eran pillar was erected A.D. 484-5, as the flag-staff of the four-armed Vishnu, by Budhagupta (Smith, HFA, 174, with an illustration; IGI, xii. 25).]

Footnote 10.1.17:

It is indifferently called Ajaimer, and Ajaidurg, the invincible hill (meru), or invincible castle (durg). Tradition, however, says that the name of this renowned abode, the key of Rajputana, is derived from the humble profession of the young Chauhan, who was a goatherd; Aja meaning ‘a goat’ in Sanskrit; still referring to the original pastoral occupation of the Palis. [Ajmer was founded by Ajayadeva about A.D. 1100.]

Footnote 10.1.18:

I obtained at Ajmer and at Pushkar several very valuable medals, Bactrian, Indo-Scythic, and Hindu, having the ancient Pali on one side, and the effigy of a horse on the other.

Footnote 10.1.19:

[Umar-bin-Khaltāb, the second Khalīfa (A.D. 634-44). The “Abul Aas” of the original text possibly represents Abu-l-lais, “the ancestor of the Laisi Sayyids, Abu-l-lais-i-Hindi, who is mentioned in the Chachnāmah, who came into Sind with the Arabs, and was present at the battle in which Rāja Dāhir was slain” (C. Raverty, Notes on Afghanistan, 1888, p. 671, note).]

Footnote 10.1.20:

“_Samvat sāt sau iktālīs Mālat bāli bes Sāmbhar āya tūti sarasē Mānik Rāē, Narēs._”

[This quotation is so incorrect that neither Dr. Tessitori nor Major Luard’s Pandit is able to restore it. The latter cannot make any sense of the second line. The date is impossible.]

Footnote 10.1.21:

An inscription on the pillar at Firoz Shāh’s palace at Delhi, belonging to this family, in which the word sākambhari occurs, gave rise to many ingenious conjectures by Sir W. Jones, Mr. Colebrooke, and Colonel Wilford.

Footnote 10.1.22:

Called Khichkot by Babur.

Footnote 10.1.23:

[The Bhaurecha and Bāghrecha do not appear in modern lists of the Chauhān clans (Census Report Rājputāna, 1911, i. 255 f.).]

Footnote 10.1.24:

In the Annals of Marwar it will be shown, that the Rathors conquered Nagor, or Naga-durg (the ‘serpent’s castle’), from the Mohils, who held fourteen hundred and forty villages so late as the fifteenth century. So many of the colonies of Agnikulas bestowed the name of serpent on their settlements, that I am convinced all were of the Tak, Takshak, or Nagvansa race from Sakadwipa, who, six centuries anterior to Vikramaditya, under their leader Seshnaga, conquered India, and whose era must be the limit of Agnikula antiquity [?].

Footnote 10.1.25:

The importance of Nadol was considerable, and is fully attested by existing inscriptions as well as by the domestic chronicle. Midway from the founder, in the eighth century, to its destruction in the twelfth, was Rao Lakhan, who in S. 1039 (A.D. 983) successfully coped with the princes of Nahrvala.

“_Samaya das sai unchālīs Bār ikauta, Pātan pela paul Dān Chauhān ugāvi Mēwār Dhanni dand bhari Tis par Rāo Lākhan thappi Jo arambha, so kari._”

Literally: “In S. 1039, at the farther gate of the city of Pātan, the Chauhān collected the commercial duties (dān). He took tribute from the lord of Mēwār, and performed whatever he had a mind to.” [This verse is so corrupt that Dr. Tessitori has been unable to correct it.]

Lakhan drew upon him the arms of Sabuktigin, and his son Mahmud, when Nadol was stripped of its consequence; its temples were thrown down, and its fortress was dilapidated. But it had recovered much of its power, and even sent forth several branches, who all fell under Alau-d-din in the thirteenth century. On the final conquest of India by Shihabu-d-din, the prince of Nadol appears to have effected a compromise, and to have become a vassal of the empire. This conjecture arises from the singularity of its currency, which retains on the one side the names in Sanskrit of its indigenous princes, and on the other that of the conqueror.

Footnote 10.1.26:

[Vighraharāja, or Vīsaladeva, who is said, with doubtful truth, to have wrested Delhi from the Tomaras (Smith, EHI, 387).]

Footnote 10.1.27:

Harsraj and Bijai Raj were sons of Ajaipal, king of Ajmer, according to the chronicle.

Footnote 10.1.28:

['Destroyer of foes.']

Footnote 10.1.29:

This is a very important admission of Ferishta, concerning the proselytism of all these tribes, and confirms my hypothesis, that the Afghans are converted Jadons or Yadus, not Yahudis, or Jews. [The extract in the text is an inaccurate abstract of Ferishta’s statement (i. 7 f.). The Gaur Rājputs have no connexion with Ghor.] The Gaur is also a well-known Rajput tribe, and they had only to convert it into Ghor. Vide Annals of the Bhattis.

Footnote 10.1.30:

[The account of Ferishta (i. 69) lacks confirmation: see Elliot-Dowson ii. 434 ff.]

Footnote 10.1.31:

The classical mode of writing the name of Bisaldeo.

Footnote 10.1.32:

Chattispun.

Footnote 10.1.33:

It is related by the Rajput romancers that Guga had no children; that lamenting this his guardian deity gave him two barley-corns (java or jau), one of which he gave to his queen, another to his favourite mare, which produced the steed (Javadia) which became as famous as Guga himself. The Rana of Udaipur gave the Author a blood-horse at Kathiawar, whose name was Javadia. Though a lamb in disposition, when mounted he was a piece of fire, and admirably broken in to all the manège exercise. A more perfect animal never existed. The Author brought him, with another (Mirgraj), from Udaipur to the ocean, intending to bring them home; but the grey he gave to a friend, and fearful of the voyage, he sent Javadia back six hundred miles to the Rana, requesting “he might be the first worshipped on the annual military festival”: a request which he doubts not was complied with.

Footnote 10.1.34:

See note, p. 1450, for remarks on Nadol, whence the author obtained much valuable matter, consisting of coins, inscriptions on stone and copper, and MSS., when on a visit to this ancient city in 1821.

Footnote 10.1.35:

We have abundant checks, which, could they have been detailed in the earlier stage of inquiry into Hindu literature, would have excited more interest for the hero whose column at Delhi has excited the inquiries of Jones, Wilford, and Colebrooke.

Footnote 10.1.36:

This lake still bears the name of Bisal-ka-tal notwithstanding the changes which have accrued during a lapse of one thousand years, since he formed it by damming up the springs. [About A.D. 1150 (Watson i. A. 50).] It is one of the reservoirs of the Luni river. The emperor Jahangir erected a palace on the bank of the Bisla Talao, in which he received the ambassador of James I. of England.

Footnote 10.1.37:

This shows that the Parihars were subordinate to the Chauhans of Ajmer.

Footnote 10.1.38:

The respectful mention of the Guhilot as ‘the ornament of the throng,’ clearly proves that the Chitor prince came as an ally. How rejoicing to an antiquary to find this confirmed by an inscription found amidst the ruins of a city of Mewar, which alludes to this very coalition! The inscription is a record of the friendship maintained by their issue in the twelfth century—Samarsi of Chitor, and Prithiraj the last Chauhan king of India—on their combining to chastise the king of Patan Anhilwara, “in like manner as did Bisaldeo and Tejsi of old unite against the foe, so,” etc. etc. Now Tejsi was the grandfather of Rawal Samarsi, who was killed in opposing the final Muslim invasion, on the Ghaggar, after one of the longest reigns in their annals: from which we calculate that Tejsi must have sat on the throne about the year S. 1120 (A.D. 1064). [Tej Singh is mentioned in inscriptions of A.D. 1260, 1265, 1267 (Erskine ii. B. 10).] His youth and inexperience would account for his acting subordinately to the Chauhan of Ajmer. The name of Udayaditya further confirms the date, as will be mentioned in the text. His date has been fully settled by various inscriptions found by the author. (See Transactions Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 223.)

Footnote 10.1.39:

This Tuar must have been one of the Delhi vassals, whose monarch was of this race.

Footnote 10.1.40:

The Gaur was a celebrated tribe, and amongst the most illustrious of the Chauhan feudatories; a branch until a few years ago held Sui-Supar and about nine lakhs of territory. I have no doubt the Gaur appanage was west of the Indus, and that this tribe on conversion became the Ghor [?].

Footnote 10.1.41:

The Meo race of Mewat is well known; all are Muhammadans now.

Footnote 10.1.42:

The Mohils have been sufficiently discussed.

Footnote 10.1.43:

The Baloch was evidently Hindu at this time; and as I have repeatedly said, of Jat or Gete origin.

Footnote 10.1.44:

‘The lord of Bamani,’ in other places called Bamanwasa, must apply to the ancient Bahmanabad, or Dewal, on whose site the modern Tatta is built. [See Smith, EHI, 103.]

Footnote 10.1.45:

See Annals of Jaisalmer.

Footnote 10.1.46:

All this evinces supremacy over the princes of this region: the Sodha, the Samma, and Sumra.

Footnote 10.1.47:

Of Derawar we have spoken in the text.

Footnote 10.1.48:

Malanwas we know not.

Footnote 10.1.49:

The Moris, the Kachhwahas and Bargujars require no further notice. [Antarved, the Ganges-Jumna Duāb.]

Footnote 10.1.50:

The Meras inhabited the Aravalli.

Footnote 10.1.51:

Takatpur is the modern Toda, near Tonk, where there are fine remains.

Footnote 10.1.52:

Udayaditya, now a landmark in Hindu history.

Footnote 10.1.53:

See Annals of Shaikhavati for the Nirwans, who held Khandela as a fief of Ajmer.

Footnote 10.1.54:

The Dor and Chandel were well-known tribes; the latter contended with Prithiraj, who deprived them of Mahoba and Kalanjar, and all modern Bundelkhand.

Footnote 10.1.55:

The renowned Dahima was lord of Bayana; also called Druinadhar. [The ancient name was Srīpathā (IGI, vii. 137). This catalogue of the chiefs is the work of the Chauhān bard, desirous of exalting the dignity of his tribe, and is not historical.]

Footnote 10.1.56:

[These statements regarding the Chauhān dynasty are inconsistent with the Bijolli inscription, and Cunningham (ASR, i. 157) finds it impossible to make any satisfactory arrangement, either of the names of the princes, or of the length of their reigns. The facts, as far as they can be ascertained, are given by Smith (EHI, 386 ff.). Cunningham (op. cit. ii. 256) points out the author twice ignores the date of A.D. 1163 of Vīsaladeva on the Delhi pillar, to make him an opponent of Mahmūd in the beginning of the eleventh century. “In one place he gives to Hansrāj, whom the Hāra bard assigns to the year A.D. 770, the honour of conquering Sabuktigīn, which in another place he gives to his successor Dujgandeo.” He concludes that the chief cause of error is the identification of two different princes of the name of Vīsaladeva as one person. For his discussion see ASR, ii. 256 f.]

Footnote 10.1.57:

See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 379, vol. vii. p. 180, and vol. ix. p. 453. [Nigambhod Ghāt is immediately outside the north wall of Shāhjahānābād, and above, not below, the city of Delhi (ASR, i. 136, 161, 164).]

Footnote 10.1.58:

I brought away an inscription of this, the last Chauhan emperor, from the ruins of his palace at Hasi or Hansi, dated S. 1224. See comments thereon, Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 133.

Footnote 10.1.59:

These inscriptions, while they have given rise to ingenious interpretations, demonstrate the little value of mere translations, even when made by first-rate scholars, who possess no historical knowledge of the tribes to whom they refer. This inscription was first translated by Sir W. Jones in 1784 (Asiatic Researches, vol. i.). A fresh version (from a fresh transcript I believe) was made by Mr. Colebrooke in 1800 (Asiatic Researches, vol. vii.), but rather darkening than enlightening the subject, from attending to his pandit’s emendation, giving to the prince’s name and tribe a metaphorical interpretation. Nor was it till Wilford had published his hodge-podge Essay on Vikramaditya and Salivahana, that Mr. Colebrooke discovered his error, and amended it in a note to that volume; but even then, without rendering the inscription useful as a historical document. I call Wilford’s essay a hodge-podge advisedly. It is a paper of immense research; vast materials are brought to his task, but he had an hypothesis, and all was confounded to suit it. Chauhans, Solankis, Guhilots, all are amalgamated in his crucible. It was from the Sarangadhar Padhati, written by the bard of Hamira Chauhan, not king of Mewar (as Wilford has it), but of Ranthambhor, lineally descended from Visaladeva, and slain by Alau-d-din. Sarangadhar was also author of the Hamir Raesa, and the Hamir Kavya, bearing this prince’s name, the essence of both of which I translated with the aid of my Guru. [For these works see Grierson, Modern Literature of Hindustan, 6.] I was long bewildered in my admiration of Wilford’s researches; but experience inspired distrust, and I adopted the useful adage in all these matters, 'nil admirari.' [Cunningham, while admitting the wild speculations of Wilford, says that important facts and classical references are to be found in his Essays (ASR, i. Introd. xviii. note).]

Footnote 10.1.60:

See Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 133.

Footnote 10.1.61:

See Annals of Jaisalmer, for foundation of Derawar, Vol. II. p. 1196.

Footnote 10.1.62:

In transcribing the Annals of the Khichis, an important branch of the Chauhans, their bards have preserved this passage; but ignorant of Derawar and Lodorva (both preserved in my version of Chand), they have inserted Jaisalmer. By such anachronisms, arising from the emendations of ignorant bards, their poetic chronicles have lost half their value. To me the comparison of such passages, preserved in Chand from the older bards, and distorted by the moderns, was a subject of considerable pleasure. It reconciled much that I might have thrown away, teaching me the difference between absolute invention, and ignorance creating errors in the attempt to correct them. The Khichi bard, no doubt, thought he was doing right when he erased Derawar and inscribed Jaisalmer.

Footnote 10.1.63:

[The correct dates are as follows: Vīsaladeva, middle of 12th century A.D. (Smith, EHI, 386); Jayapāla of Delhi succeeded 1005 (ASR, i. 149); Durlabha Chaulukya and Bhīma, respectively 1010-22, 1022-64 (BG, i. Part i. 1626); Tej Singh or Tejsi, Rāwal of Chitor about 1260-67 (Erskine ii. B. 10); Bhoja of Mālwa, 1018-60 (Smith, EHI, 395).]

Footnote 10.1.64:

This town—another proof of the veracity of the chronicle—yet exists in Northern Gujarat. [15 miles N. of Baroda. It is doubtful if it takes its name from Vīsaladeva of Delhi. At any rate, it is said to have been restored by Vīsaladeva Vāghela (A.D. 1243-61) (BG, i. Part i. 203).]

Footnote 10.1.65:

[See p. 1328.] The pickaxe, if applied to this mound (which gives its name to Dhundhar), might possibly show it to be a place of sepulture, and that the Chauhans, even to this period, may have entombed at least the bones of their dead. The numerous tumuli about Haidarabad, the ancient Gualkund, one of the royal abodes of the Chauhans, may be sepultures of this race, and the arms and vases they contain all strengthen my hypothesis of their Scythic origin. [See p. 1445.]

Footnote 10.1.66:

[Grierson, Modern Literature of Hindustan, 143, 164.]

Footnote 10.1.67:

Or, as the story goes, his limbs, which lay dissevered, were collected by Surabhi, and the goddess sprinkling them with ‘the water of life,’ he arose! Hence the name Hara, which his descendants bore, from har, or ‘bones,’ thus collected; but more likely from having lost (hara) Asi. [See p. 1441.]

Footnote 10.1.68:

The Hara chronicle says S. 981, but by some strange, yet uniform error, all the tribes of the Chauhans antedate their chronicles by a hundred years. Thus Bisaldeo’s taking possession of Anhilpar Patan is “nine hundred, fifty, thirty and six” (S. 986), instead of S. 1086. But it even pervades Chand the poet of Prithiraj, whose birth is made 1115, instead of S. 1215; and here, in all probability, the error commenced, by the ignorance (wilful we cannot imagine) of some rhymer.

Footnote 10.1.69:

‘The elephant wilds.’ [Skt. kunjari, ‘a female elephant,’ vana, Hindi ban, ‘forest.’] They assert that Ghazni is properly Gajni, founded by the Yadus: and in a curious specimen of Hindu geography (presented by me to the Royal Asiatic Society), all the tract about the glaciers of the Ganges is termed Kujliban, the ‘Elephant Forest.’ There is a Gajangarh mentioned by Abul-i-fazl in the region of Bajaur, inhabited by the Sultana, Jadon, and Yusufzai tribes. [This place does not appear in Jarrett’s translation of the Āīn, ii. 391 f.]

Footnote 10.1.70:

See Ferishta i. 75 f. [Mahmūd never reached Golkonda.]

Footnote 10.1.71:

[Horses from the Lākhi jungle; see Vol. II. p. 1156.]

Footnote 10.1.72:

Jangales, ‘lord of the forest lands,’ another of Prithiraj’s titles.

Footnote 10.1.73:

‘The lord of Kedar,’ the gigantic pine of the Himalaya, a title of Siva. [Kedārnāth in Garhwāl District. The derivation of Kedār is unknown: it certainly does not mean ‘pine or cedar.’]

Footnote 10.1.74:

He bestowed in appanage on his brother Kankhalji a tenth of the lands in his possession. From Kankhal are descended the class of Bhats, called Kroria Bhat.

Footnote 10.1.75:

Harraj had twelve sons, the eldest of whom was Alu, who succeeded to Bumbaoda. Alu Hara’s name will never die as long as one of his race inhabits the Patar; and there are many Bhumias descended from him still holding lands, as the Kumbhawat and Bhojawat Haras. The end of Alu Hara, and the destruction of Bumbaoda (which the author has visited), will be related in the Personal Narrative.

Footnote 10.1.76:

[A.D. 1489-1517.]

Footnote 10.1.77:

Thal and Nal are both terms for a valley, though the latter is oftener applied to a defile.

Footnote 10.1.78:

[The ‘appeal to the spear.’]

Footnote 10.1.79:

The Par, or Parbati River, flows near Ramgarh Relawan.—See Map.

Footnote 10.1.80:

[This conflicts with the statement above that Rāo Dewa reigned in the time of Sikandar Lodi.]

Footnote 10.1.81:

In Muhammadan authors, Hādāoti. (Āīn, ii. 271.)

-----

Chapter 2

=Recapitulation of Hāra History.=—Having sketched the history of this race, from the regeneration of Anhal,[10.2.1] the first Chauhan (at a period which it is impossible to fix), to the establishment of the first Hara prince in Bundi, we shall here recapitulate the most conspicuous princes, with [460] their dates, as established by synchronical events in the annals of other States, or by inscriptions; and then proceed with the history of the Haras as members of the great commonwealth of India.

Anuraj, obtained Asi or Hansi.

Ishtpal, son of Anuraj; he was expelled from Asi, S. 1081 (A.D. 1025), and obtained Asir. He was founder of the Haras; the chronicle says not how long after obtaining Asi, but evidently very soon.

Hamir, killed in the battle of the Ghaggar, on the invasion of Shihabu-d-din, S. 1249, or A.D. 1193.

Rao Chand, slain in Asir, by Alau-d-din, in S. 1351.

Rainsi, fled from Asir, and came to Mewar, and in S. 1353 obtained Bhainsror.

Rao Banga, obtained Bumbaoda, Menal, etc.

Rao Dewa, S. 1398 (A.D. 1342), took the Bandu valley from the Minas, founded the city of Bundi, and styled the country Haravati.

Rao Dewa, whose Mina subjects far outnumbered his Haras, had recourse, in order to consolidate his authority, to one of those barbarous acts too common in Rajput conquests. The Rajput chronicler so far palliates the deed, that he assigns a reason for it, namely, the insolence of the Mina leader, who dared to ask a daughter of the ‘lord of the Patar.’ Be this as it may, he called in the aid of the Haras of Bumbaoda and the Solankis of Toda, and almost annihilated the Usaras.

=Abdication of Rāo Dewa.=—How long it was after this act of barbarity that Dewa abdicated in favour of his son, is not mentioned, though it is far from improbable that this crime influenced his determination. This was the second time of his abdication of power: first, when he gave Bumbaoda to Harraj, and went to Sikandar Lodi; and now to Samarsi, the branches of Bundi and the Patar remaining independent of each other. The act of abdication confers the title of Jugraj;[10.2.2] or when they conjoin the authority of the son with the father, the heir is styled Jivaraj. Four instances of this are on record in the annals of Bundi; namely, by Dewa, by Narayandas, by Raj Chhattar Sal, and by Sriji Ummed Singh. It is a rule for a prince never to enter the capital after abandoning the government; the king is virtually defunct; he cannot be a subject, and he is no longer a king. To render the act more impressive, they make an effigy of the abdicated king, and on the twelfth day following the act (being the usual period of [461] mourning) they commit it to the flames.[10.2.3] In accordance with this custom, Dewa never afterwards entered the walls either of Bundi or Bumbaoda,[10.2.4] but resided at the village of Umarthuna, five coss from the former, till his death.

=Rāo Napuji.=—Samarsi had three sons: 1. Napuji, who succeeded; 2. Harpal, who obtained Jajawar, and left numerous issue, called Harpalpotas; and 3. Jethsi, who had the honour of first extending the Hara name beyond the Chambal. On his return from a visit to the Tuar chief of Kaithan, he passed the residence of a community of Bhils, in an extensive ravine near the river. Taking them by surprise, he attacked them, and they fell victims to the fury of the Haras. At the entrance of this ravine, which was defended by an outwork, Jethsi slew the leader of the Bhils, and erected there a hathi (elephant) to the god of battle, Bhairon. He stands on the spot called Char-jhopra, near the chief portal of the castle of Kotah, a name derived from a community of Bhils called Kotia.[10.2.5]

=Napuji.=—Napuji, a name of no small note in the chronicles of Haravati, succeeded Samarsi. Napuji had married a daughter of the Solanki, chief of Toda,[10.2.6] the lineal descendant of the ancient kings of Anhilwara. While on a visit to Toda, a slab of beautiful marble attracted the regard of the Hara Rao, who desired his bride to ask it of her father. His delicacy was offended, and he replied, “he supposed the Hara would next ask him for his wife”; and desired him to depart. Napuji was incensed, and visited his anger upon his wife, whom he treated with neglect and even banished from his bed. She complained to her father. On the Kajri Tij, the joyous third of the [462] month Sawan, when a Rajput must visit his wife, the vassals of Bundi were dismissed to their homes to keep the festival sacred to ‘the mother of births.’ The Toda Rao, taking advantage of the unguarded state of Bundi, obtained admittance by stealth, and drove his lance through the head of the Hara Rao. He retired without observation, and was relating to his attendants the success of his revenge, when, at this moment, they passed one of the Bundi vassals, who, seated in a hollow taking his amal-pani (opium-water), was meditating on the folly of going home, where no endearing caresses awaited him from his wife, who was deranged, and had determined to return to Bundi. While thus absorbed in gloomy reflections, the trampling of horses met his ear, and soon was heard the indecent mirth of the Toda Rao’s party, at the Hara Rao dismissing his vassals and remaining unattended. The Chauhan guessed the rest, and as the Toda Rao passed close to him, he levelled a blow, which severed his right arm from his body and brought him from his horse. The Solanki’s attendants took to flight, and the Chauhan put the severed limb, on which was the golden bracelet, in his scarf, and proceeded back to Bundi. Here all was confusion and sorrow. The Solanki queen, true to her faith, determined to mount the pyre with the murdered body of her lord; yet equally true to the line whence she sprung, was praising the vigour of her brother’s arm, “which had made so many mouths,[10.2.7] that she wanted hands to present a pan to each.” At the moment she was apostrophizing the dead body of her lord, his faithful vassal entered, and undoing the scarf presented to her the dissevered arm, saying, “Perhaps this may aid you.” She recognized the bracelet, and though, as a Sati, she had done with this world, and should die in peace with all mankind, she could not forget, even at that dread moment, that “to revenge a feud” was the first of all duties. She called for pen and ink, and before mounting the pyre wrote to her brother, that if he did not wipe off that disgrace, his seed would be stigmatized as the issue of “the one-handed Solanki.” When he perused the dying words of his Sati sister, he was stung to the soul, and being incapable of revenge, immediately dashed out his brains against a pillar of the hall.

=Hamuji. Alu.=—Napuji had four sons, Hamuji, Naurang (whose descendants are Naurangpotas), Tharad (whose descendants are Tharad Haras), and Hamu, who succeeded in S. 1440. We have already mentioned the separation of the branches, when Harraj retained Bumbaoda, at the period when his father established himself at Bundi. Alu Hara [463] succeeded; but the lord of the Patar had a feud with the Rana, and he was dispossessed of his birthright. Bumbaoda was levelled, and he left no heirs to his revenge.

=Mewār attempts to regain Influence in Būndi.=—The princes of Chitor, who had recovered from the shock of Ala’s invasion, now re-exerted their strength, the first act of which was the reduction of the power of the great vassals, who had taken advantage of their distresses to render themselves independent: among these they included the Haras. But the Haras deny their vassalage, and allege, that though they always acknowledged the supremacy of the gaddi of Mewar, they were indebted to their swords, not his pattas, for the lands they conquered on the Alpine Patar. Both to a certain degree are right. There is no room to doubt that the fugitive Hara from Asir owed his preservation, as well as his establishment, to the Rana, who assuredly possessed the whole of the Plateau till Ala’s invasion. But then the Sesodia power was weakened; the Bhumias and aboriginal tribes recovered their old retreats, and from these the Haras obtained them by conquest. The Rana, however, who would not admit that a temporary abeyance of his power sanctioned any encroachment upon it, called upon Hamu “to do service for Bundi.” The Hara conceded personal homage in the grand festivals of the Dasahra and Holi, to acknowledge his supremacy and receive the tika of installation; but he rejected at once the claim of unlimited attendance. Nothing less, however, would satisfy the king of Chitor, who resolved to compel submission, or drive the stock of Dewa from the Patar. Hamu defied, and determined to brave, his resentment. The Rana of Mewar marched with all his vassals to Bundi, and encamped at Nimera, only a few miles from the city. Five hundred Haras, ‘the sons of one father,’ put on the saffron robe, and rallied round their chief, determined to die with him. Having no hope but from an effort of despair, they marched out at midnight, and fell upon the Rana’s camp, which was completely surprised; and each Sesodia sought safety in flight. Hamu made his way direct to the tent of Hindupati;[10.2.8] but the sovereign of the Sesodias was glad to avail himself of the gloom and confusion to seek shelter in Chitor, while his vassals fell under the swords of the Haras.

Humiliated, disgraced, and enraged at being thus foiled by a handful of men, the Rana re-formed his troops under the walls of Chitor, and swore he would not eat until he was master of Bundi. The rash vow went round; but Bundi was sixty miles distant, and defended by brave hearts. His chiefs expostulated with the Rana on the absolute impossibility of redeeming his vow; but the words of kings are sacred: Bundi must fall, ere the king of the Guhilots could dine. In this exigence, a childish [464] expedient was proposed to release him from hunger and his oath; “to erect a mock Bundi and take it by storm.”[10.2.9] Instantly the mimic town arose under the walls of Chitor; and, that the deception might be complete, the local nomenclature was attended to, and each quarter had its appropriate appellation. A band of Haras of the Patar were in the service of Chitor, whose leader, Kumbha-Bersi, was returning with his kin from hunting the deer, when their attention was attracted by this strange bustle. The story was soon told, that Bundi must fall ere the Rana could dine. Kumbha assembled his brethren of the Patar, declaring that even the mock Bundi must be defended. All felt the indignity to the clan, and each bosom burning with indignation, they prepared to protect the mud walls of the pseudo Bundi from insult. It was reported to the Rana that Bundi was finished. He advanced to the storm: but what was his surprise when, instead of the blank-cartridge, he heard a volley of balls whiz amongst them! A messenger was dispatched, and was received by Bersi at the gate, who explained the cause of the unexpected salutation, desiring him to tell the Rana that “not even the mock capital of a Hara should be dishonoured.” Spreading a sheet at the little gateway, Bersi and the Kumbhawats invited the assault, and at the threshold of “Gar-ki-Bundi” (the Bundi of clay) they gave up their lives for the honour of the race.[10.2.10] The Rana wisely remained satisfied with this salvo to his dignity, nor sought any further to wipe off the disgrace incurred at the real capital of the Haras, perceiving the impolicy of driving such a daring clan to desperation, whose services he could command on an emergency.

=Rāo Bīr Singh.=—Hamu, who ruled sixteen years, left two sons: 1. Birsingh; and 2. Lala, who obtained Khatkar, and had two sons, Nauvarma and Jetha, each of whom left clans called after them Nauvarma-pota and Jethawat. Birsingh ruled fifteen years, and left three sons: Biru, Jabdu, who founded three tribes,[10.2.11] and Nima, descendants Nimawats. Biru, who died S. 1526, ruled fifty years, and had seven sons: 1. Rao Bandu; 2. Sanda; 3. Aka; 4. Uda; 5. Chanda; 6. Samarsingh; 7. Amarsingh;—the first five founded clans named after them Akawat, Udawat, Chondawat, but the last two abandoned their faith for that of Islam [465].

=Rāo Banda, c. A.D. 1485.=—Banda has left a deathless name in Rajwara for his boundless charities, more especially during the famine which desolated that country in S. 1542 (A.D. 1486).[10.2.12] He was forewarned, says the bard, in a vision, of the visitation. Kal (Time or the famine personified) appeared riding on a lean black buffalo. Grasping his sword and shield, the intrepid Hara assaulted the apparition. “Bravo, Banda Hara,” it exclaimed; “I am Kal (Time); on me your sword will fall in vain. Yet you are the only mortal who ever dared to oppose me. Now listen: I am Byalis (forty-two); the land will become a desert; fill your granaries, distribute liberally, they will never empty.” Thus saying, the spectre vanished. Rao Banda obeyed the injunction; he collected grain from every surrounding State. One year passed and another had almost followed, when the periodical rains ceased, and a famine ensued which ravaged all India. Princes far and near sent for aid to Bundi, while his own poor had daily portions served out gratis: which practice is still kept up in memory of Rao Banda, by the name of Langar-ki-gagari, or ‘anchor of Banda.’[10.2.13]

But the piety and charity of Rao Banda could not shield him from adversity. His two youngest brothers, urged by the temptation of power, abandoned their faith, and with the aid of the royal power expelled him from Bundi, where, under their new titles of Samarkandi and Amarkandi, they jointly ruled eleven years. Banda retired to Matunda, in the hills, where he died after a reign of twenty-one years, and where his cenotaph still remains. He left two sons: 1. Narayandas; and 2. Nirbudh, who had Matunda.

=Rāo Nārāyandās.=—Narayan had grown up to manhood in this retreat; but no sooner was he at liberty to act for himself, than he assembled the Haras of the Patar, and revealed his determination to obtain Bundi, or perish in the attempt. They swore to abide his fortunes. After the days of matam (mourning) were over, he sent to his Islamite uncles a complimentary message, intimating his wish to pay his respects to them; and not suspecting danger from a youth brought up in obscurity, it was signified that he might come.

With a small but devoted band, he reached the chauk (square), where he left his adherents, and alone repaired to the palace. He ascended to where both the uncles were seated almost unattended. They liked not the resolute demeanour of the youth, and tried to gain a passage which led to a subterranean apartment; but no sooner was this intention perceived, than the khanda, or ‘double-edged sword,’ of Banda’s son cut the elder to the ground, while his lance reached the other before he got to a [466] place of security. In an instant, he severed both their heads, with which he graced the shrine of Bhavani, and giving a shout to his followers in the chauk, their swords were soon at work upon the Muslims. Every true Hara supported the just cause, and the dead bodies of the apostates and their crew were hurled with ignominy over the walls. To commemorate this exploit and the recovery of Bundi from these traitors, the pillar on which the sword of the young Hara descended, when he struck down Samarkandi, and which bears testimony to the vigour of his arm, is annually worshipped by every Hara on the festival of the Dasahra.[10.2.14]

Narayandas became celebrated for his strength and prowess. He was one of those undaunted Rajputs who are absolutely strangers to the impression of fear, and it might be said of danger and himself, “that they were brothers whelped the same day, and he the elder.” Unfortunately, these qualities were rendered inert from the enormous quantity of opium he took, which would have killed most men; for it is recorded “he could at one time eat the weight of seven pice.”[10.2.15] The consequence of this vice, as might be expected, was a constant stupefaction, of which many anecdotes are related. Being called to aid the Rana Raemall, then attacked by the Pathans of Mandu, he set out at the head of five hundred select Haras. On the first day’s march he was taking his siesta, after his usual dose, under a tree, his mouth wide open, into which the flies had unmolested ingress, when a young Telin[10.2.16] came to draw water at the well, and on learning that this was Bundi’s prince on his way to aid the Rana in his distress, she observed, “If he gets no other aid than his, alas for my prince!” “The amaldar (opium-eater) has quick ears, though no eyes,” is a common adage in Rajwara. “What is that you say, rand (widow)?” roared the Rao, advancing to her. Upon her endeavouring to excuse herself, he observed, “Do not fear, but repeat it.” In her hand she had an iron crowbar, which the Rao, taking it from her, twisted until the ends met round her neck. “Wear this garland for me,” said he, “until I return from aiding the Rana, unless in the interim you can find some one strong enough to unbind it.”

=The Siege of Chitor.=—Chitor was closely invested; the Rao moved by the intricacies of the Patar, took the royal camp by surprise, and made direct for the tent of the generalissimo, cutting down all in his way. Confusion and panic seized the Muslims, who fled in [467] all directions.[10.2.17] The Bundi nakkaras (drums) struck up; and as the morning broke, the besieged had the satisfaction to behold the invaders dispersed and their auxiliaries at hand. Rana Raemall came forth, and conducted his deliverer in triumph to Chitor. All the chiefs assembled to do honour to Bundi’s prince, and the ladies ‘behind the curtain’ felt so little alarm at their opium-eating knight, that the Rana’s niece determined to espouse him, and next day communicated her intentions to the Rana. ‘The slave of Narayan'’ was too courteous a cavalier to let any fair lady die for his love; the Rana was too sensible of his obligation not to hail with joy any mode of testifying his gratitude, and the nuptials of the Hara and Ketu were celebrated with pomp. With victory and his bride, he returned to the Banda valley; where, however, ‘the flower of gloomy Dis’ soon gained the ascendant even over Kamdeo,[10.2.18] and his doses augmented to such a degree, that “he scratched his lady instead of himself, and with such severity that he marred the beauty of the Mewari.” In the morning, perceiving what had happened, yet being assailed with no reproach, he gained a reluctant victory over himself, and “consigned the opium-box to her keeping.” Narayandas ruled thirty-two years, and left his country in tranquillity, and much extended, to his only son.

=Rāo Sūrajmall, c. A.D. 1533.=—Surajmall ascended the gaddi in S. 1590 (A.D. 1534). Like his father, he was athletic in form and dauntless in soul; and it is said possessed in an eminent degree that unerring sign of a hero, long arms, his (like those of Rama and Prithiraj) “reaching far below his knees.”

The alliance with Chitor was again cemented by intermarriage. Suja Bai, sister to Surajmall, was espoused by Rana Ratna, who bestowed his own sister on the Rao. Rao Suja, like his father, was too partial to his amal. One day, at Chitor, he had fallen asleep in the Presence, when a Purbia chief felt an irresistible inclination to disturb him, and “tickled the Hara’s ear with a straw.” He might as well have jested with a tiger: a back stroke with his khanda stretched the insulter on the carpet. The son of the Purbia treasured up the feud, and waited for revenge, which he effected by making the Rana believe the Rao had other objects in view, besides visiting his sister Suja Bai, at the Rawala. The train thus laid, the slightest incident inflamed it. The fair Suja had prepared a repast, to which she invited both her brother and her husband: she had not only attended the culinary process herself, but waited on these objects of her love to drive the flies from the food. Though the wedded fair of Rajputana clings to the husband, yet she is ever more solicitous for [468] the honour of the house from whence she sprung, than that into which she has been admitted; which feeling has engendered numerous quarrels. Unhappily, Suja remarked, on removing the dishes, that “her brother had devoured his share like a tiger, while her husband had played with his like a child (balak).” The expression, added to other insults which he fancied were put upon him, cost the Rao his life, and sent the fair Suja an untimely victim to Indraloka.[10.2.19] The dictates of hospitality prevented the Rana from noticing the remark at the moment, and in fact it was more accordant with the general tenor of his character to revenge the affront with greater security than even the isolated situation of the brave Hara afforded him. On the latter taking leave, the Rana invited himself to hunt on the next spring festival in the ramnas or preserves of Bundi. The merry month of Phalgun arrived; the Rana and his court prepared their suits of amaua (green), and ascended the Patar on the road to Bundi, in spite of the anathema of the prophetic Sati, who, as she ascended the pyre at Bumbaoda, pronounced that whenever Rao and Rana met to hunt together at the Aheria, such meeting, which had blasted all her hopes, would always be fatal. But centuries had rolled between the denunciation of the daughter of Alu Hara and Suja Bai of Bundi; and the prophecy, though in every mouth, served merely to amuse the leisure hour; the moral being forgotten it was only looked upon as ‘a tale that was past.’

=Murder of Rāo Sūrajmall.=—The scene chosen for the sport was on the heights of Nanta, not far from the western bank of the Chambal, in whose glades every species of game, from the lordly lion to the timid hare, abounded. The troops were formed into lines, advancing through the jungles with the customary noise and clamour, and driving before them a promiscuous herd of tenants of the forest—lions, tigers, hyenas, bears, every species of deer, from the enormous barahsinghae and nilgae[10.2.20] to the delicate antelope, with jackals, foxes, hares, and the little wild dog. In such an animated scene as this, the Rajput forgets even his opium; he requires no exhilaration beyond the stimulus before him; a species of petty war, not altogether free from danger.

It was amidst the confusion of such a scene that the dastard Rana determined to gratify his malice. The princes had convenient stations assigned them, where they could securely assail the game as it passed, each having but one or two confidential attendants. With the Rana was the Iago of his revenge, the son of the Purbia, whom the Hara prince had slain. “Now is the moment,” said the Rana to his companion, “to slay the boar,” and instantly an arrow from the bow of the Purbia was [469] sped at the Rao. “With an eagle’s eye he saw it coming, and turned it off with his bow.” This might have been chance, but another from the foster-brother of the Rana convinced him there was treachery. Scarcely had he warded off the second, when the Rana darted at him on horseback, and cut him down with his khanda. The Rao fell, but recovering, took his shawl and tightly bound up the wound, and as his foe was making off he called aloud, “Escape you may, but you have sunk Mewar.” The Purbia, who followed his prince, when he saw the Rao bind up his wound, said, “The work is but half done”; and like a coward, Ratna once more charged the wounded Rao. As his arm was raised to finish the deed of shame, like a wounded tiger the Hara made a dying effort, caught the assassin by the robe, and dragged him from his steed. Together they came to the ground, the Rana underneath. The Rao knelt upon his breast, while, with preternatural strength, with one hand he grasped his victim by the throat, with the other he searched for his dagger. What a moment for revenge! He plunged the weapon into his assassin’s heart, and saw him expire at his feet. The Rao was satisfied; there was no more life left him than sufficed for revenge, and he dropped a corpse upon the dead body of his foeman.

The tidings flew to Bundi, to the mother of the Rao, that her son was slain in the Aheria. “Slain!” exclaimed this noble dame, “but did he fall alone? Never could a son, who has drunk at this breast, depart unaccompanied”; and as she spoke, “maternal feeling caused the milk to issue from the fount with such force, that it rent the slab on which it fell.”

=The Satis.=—The dread of dishonour, which quenched the common sympathies of nature for the death of her son, had scarcely been thus expressed, when a second messenger announced the magnitude of his revenge. The Rajput dame was satisfied, though fresh horrors were about to follow. The wives of the murdered princes could not survive, and the pyres were prepared on the fatal field of sport. The fair Suja expiated her jest, which cost her a husband and a brother, in the flames, while the sister of Rana Ratna, married to the Rao, in accordance with custom or affection, burned with the dead body of her lord. The cenotaphs of the princes were reared where they fell; while that of Suja Bai was erected on a pinnacle of the Pass, and adds to the picturesque beauty of this romantic valley, which possesses a double charm for the traveller, who may have taste to admire the scene, and patience to listen to the story [470].[10.2.21]

=Rāo Surthān, c. A.D. 1534.=—Surthan succeeded in S. 1591 (A.D. 1535), and married the daughter of the celebrated Sakta, founder of the Saktawats of Mewar. He became an ardent votary of the bloodstained divinity of war, Kal-Bhairava, and like almost all those ferocious Rajputs who resign themselves to his horrid rites, grew cruel and at length deranged. Human victims are the chief offerings to this brutalized personification of war, though Surthan was satisfied with the eyes of his subjects, which he placed upon the altar of ‘the mother of war.’ It was then time to question the divine right by which he ruled. The assembled nobles deposed and banished him from Bundi, assigning a small village on the Chambal for his residence, to which he gave the name Surthanpur, which survives to bear testimony to one of many instances of the deposition of their princes by the Rajputs, when they offend custom or morality. Having no offspring, the nobles elected the son of Nirbudh, son of Rao Banda, who had been brought up in his patrimonial village of Matunda.

=Rāo Arjun.=—Rao Arjun, the eldest of the eight sons[10.2.22] of Nirbudh, succeeded his banished cousin. Nothing can more effectually evince the total extinction of animosity between these valiant races, when once ‘a feud is balanced,’ than the fact of Rao Arjun, soon after his accession, devoting himself and his valiant kinsmen to the service of the son of that Rana who had slain his predecessor. The memorable attack upon Chitor by Bahadur of Gujarat has already been related,[10.2.23] and the death of the Hara prince and his vassals at the post of honour, the breach. Rao Arjun was this prince, who was blown up at the Chitori burj (bastion). The Bundi bard makes a striking picture of this catastrophe, in which the indomitable courage of their prince is finely imagined. The fact is also confirmed by the annals of Mewar:

“Seated on a fragment of the rock, disparted by the explosion of the mine, Arjun drew his sword, and the world beheld his departure with amazement.”[10.2.24]

Surjan, the eldest of the four sons[10.2.25] of Arjun, succeeded in S. 1589 (A.D. 1533) [471].

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Footnote 10.2.1:

Anhal [anal] and Agni have the same signification, namely, ‘fire.’

Footnote 10.2.2:

Yuga-Raj, ‘sacrifice of the government.’ [Possibly confused with Yuvarāja, ‘heir-apparent.’]

Footnote 10.2.3:

[Durlabha Chaulukya of Gujarāt went on a pilgrimage and abdicated. “Such a resignation of royal state seems to have been a constant practice in ancient times, the Rājput princes esteeming a death in the holy land of Gaya as the safe passage to beatitude” (Forbes, Rāsmāla, 54). A defeated king was required to resign his throne (Elliot-Dowson ii. 27). See Frazer, Golden Bough, 3rd ed. Part iii. 148 ff.]

Footnote 10.2.4:

Harraj (elder son of Dewa), lord of Bumbaoda, had twelve sons; of whom Alu Hara, the eldest, held twenty-four castles upon the Patar. With all of these the author is familiar, having trod the Patar in every direction: of this, anon.

Footnote 10.2.5:

[This is a folk etymology, the real name of the Bhīl sept being Khota.] The descendants of Jethsi retained the castle and the surrounding country for several generations; when Bhonangsi, the fifth in descent, was dispossessed of them by Rao Surajmall of Bundi. Jethsi had a son, Surjan, who gave the name of Kotah to this abode of the Bhils, round which he built a wall. His son Dhirdeo excavated twelve lakes, and dammed up that east of the town, still known by his name, though better by its new appellation of Kishor Sagar. His son was Kandhal, who had Bhonangsi, who lost and regained Kotah in the following manner. Kotah was seized by two Pathans, Dhakar and Kesar Khan. Bhonang, who became mad from excessive use of wine and opium, was banished to Bundi, and his wife, at the head of his household vassals, retired to Kaithan, around which the Haras held three hundred and sixty villages. Bhonang, in exile, repented of his excesses; he announced his amendment and his wish to return to his wife and kin. The intrepid Rajputni rejoiced at his restoration, and laid a plan for the recovery of Kotah, in which she destined him to take part. To attempt it by force would have been to court destruction, and she determined to combine stratagem and courage. When the jocund festival of spring approached, when even decorum is for a while cast aside in the Rajput Saturnalia, she invited herself, with all the youthful damsels of Kaithan, to play the Holi with the Pathans of Kotah. The libertine Pathans received the invitation with joy, happy to find the queen of Kaithan evince so much amity. Collecting three hundred of the finest Hara youths, she disguised them in female apparel, and Bhonang, attended by the old nurse, each with a vessel of the crimson abir, headed the band. While the youths were throwing the crimson powder amongst the Pathans, the nurse led Bhonang to play with their chief. The disguised Hara broke his vessel on the head of Kesar Khan. This was the signal for action: the Rajputs drew their swords from beneath their ghaghras (petticoats), and the bodies of Kesar and his gang strewed the terrace. The masjid of Kesar Khan still exists within the walls. Bhonang was succeeded by his son Dungarsi, whom Rao Surajmall dispossessed and added Kotah to Bundi.

Footnote 10.2.6:

[About 60 miles S.W. of Ajmer city.]

Footnote 10.2.7:

“Poor dumb mouths.”

Footnote 10.2.8:

[‘Lord of the Hindu,’ a title assumed by the Rānas of Mewār.]

Footnote 10.2.9:

[This was probably, as in the cases of Dhār and Amber, a form of sympathetic magic to ensure the capture of Būndi.]

Footnote 10.2.10:

Somewhat akin to this incident is the history of that summer abode of kings of France in the Bois de Boulogne at Paris, called “Madrid.” When Francis I. was allowed to return to his capital, he pledged his parole that he would return to Madrid. But the delights of liberty and Paris were too much for honour; and while he wavered, a hint was thrown out similar to that suggested to the Rana when determined to capture Bundi. A mock Madrid arose in the Bois de Boulogne, to which Francis retired.

Footnote 10.2.11:

Jabdu had three sons: each founded clans. The eldest, Bacha, had two sons, Sewaji and Seranji. The former had Meoji, the latter had Sawant, whose descendants are styled Meo and Sawant Haras.

Footnote 10.2.12:

[There was a great drought in Hindustān about A.D. 1491 (Balfour, Cyclopaedia of India, i. 1072).]

Footnote 10.2.13:

[Langar means ‘an anchor,’ then ‘a distribution of food to the poor.’ The most famous instance is that at Haidarābād (Bilgrami-Willmott, Sketch of H.H. The Nizam’s Dominions, ii. 875 ff.). The googri of the original text is possibly gagari, ‘a little pot.’]

Footnote 10.2.14:

Though called a pillar, it is a slab in the staircase of the old palace, which I have seen.

Footnote 10.2.15:

The copper coin of Bundi, equal to a halfpenny. One pice weight is a common dose for an ordinary Rajput, but would send the uninitiated to eternal sleep. [According to Cheevers (Medical Jurisprudence in India, 227) in Bengal some wretches eat as much as a rupee weight, 180 grains, of pure opium daily. If his pice was anything like the weight of that of the East India Company (100 grains), the dose of Nārāyandās must have been enormous.]

Footnote 10.2.16:

Wife or daughter of a teli, or oilman.

Footnote 10.2.17:

[Rāna Rāēmall’s opponent is said to have been Ghayāsu-d-dīn of Mālwa (A.D. 1469-99): but he is reported to have been a debauchee who never left his palace (BG, i. Part i. 362 ff.).]

Footnote 10.2.18:

[Ketu, the demon who causes eclipses; Kāmdeo, god of love.]

Footnote 10.2.19:

[Deathland, the realm of Indra.]

Footnote 10.2.20:

[The twelve-tined deer, Cervus duvanceli; Boselaphus tragocamelus (Blanford, Mammalia, 538, 517 ff.).]

Footnote 10.2.21:

The Author has seen the cenotaphs of the princes at Nanta, a place which still affords good hunting.

Footnote 10.2.22:

Four of these had appanages and founded clans, namely, Bhim, who had Thakurda; Pura, who had Hardoi; Mapal and Pachain, whose abodes are not recorded.

Footnote 10.2.23:

See Vol. I. p. 361.

Footnote 10.2.24:

_Sor ne kiya bahut jor Dhar parbat ori silla; Tain kari tarwār Ad pātiya, Hāra Uja._[10.2.24.A]

Footnote 10.2.24.A:

Uja, the familiar contraction for Arjuna.

Footnote 10.2.25:

Ram Singh, clan Rama Hara; Akhairaj, clan Akhairajpota; Kandhal, clan Jasa Hara.

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Chapter 3

=Rāo Surjan, A.D. 1554.=—With Rao Surjan commenced a new era for Bundi.[10.3.1] Hitherto her princes had enjoyed independence, excepting the homage and occasional service on emergencies which are maintained as much from kinship as vassalage. But they were now about to move in a more extended orbit, and to occupy a conspicuous page in the future history of the empire of India.

Sawant Singh, a junior branch of Bundi, upon the expulsion of the Shershahi dynasty, entered into a correspondence with the Afghan governor of Ranthambhor, which terminated in the surrender of this celebrated fortress, which he delivered up to his superior, the Rao Surjan. For this important service, which obtained a castle and possession far superior to any under Bundi, lands were assigned near the city to Sawantji, whose name became renowned, and was transmitted as the head of the clan, Sawant-Hara.

The Chauhan chief of Bedla,[10.3.2] who was mainly instrumental to the surrender of this famed fortress, stipulated that it should be held by Rao Surjan, as a fief of Mewar. Thus Ranthambhor, which for ages was an appanage of Ajmer, and continued until the fourteenth century in a branch of the family descended from Bisaldeo, when it was [472] captured from the valiant Hamir[10.3.3] after a desperate resistance, once more reverted to the Chauhan race.

=Siege of Ranthambhor by Akbar.=—Ranthambhor was an early object of Akbar’s attention, who besieged it in person. He had been some time before its impregnable walls without the hope of its surrender, when Bhagwandas of Amber and his son, the more celebrated Raja Man, who had not only tendered their allegiance to Akbar, but allied themselves to him by marriage, determined to use their influence to make Surjan Hara faithless to his pledge, “to hold the castle as a fief of Chitor.”[10.3.4] That courtesy, which is never laid aside amongst belligerent Rajputs, obtained Raja Man access to the castle, and the emperor accompanied him in the guise of a mace-bearer. While conversing, an uncle of the Rao recognized the emperor, and with that sudden impulse which arises from respect, took the mace from his hand and placed Akbar on the ‘cushion’ of the governor of the castle. Akbar’s presence of mind did not forsake him, and he said, “Well, Rao Surjan, what is to be done?” which was replied to by Raja Man, “Leave the Rana, give up Ranthambhor, and become the servant of the king, with high honours and office.” The proffered bribe was indeed magnificent; the government of fifty-two districts, whose revenues were to be appropriated without inquiry, on furnishing the customary contingent, and liberty to name any other terms, which should be solemnly guaranteed by the king.[10.3.5]

A treaty was drawn up upon the spot, and mediated by the prince of Amber, which presents a good picture of Hindu feeling:

1. That the chiefs of Bundi should be exempted from that custom, degrading to a Rajput, of sending a dola[10.3.6] to the royal harem.

2. Exemption from the jizya, or poll-tax.

3. That the chiefs of Bundi should not be compelled to cross the Attock.

4. That the vassals of Bundi should be exempted from the obligation of sending [473] their wives or female relatives ‘to hold a stall in the Mina Bazar’ at the palace, on the festival of Nauroza.[10.3.7]

5. That they should have the privilege of entering the Diwan-i-amm, or ‘hall of audience,’ completely armed.

6. That their sacred edifices should be respected.

7. That they should never be placed under the command of a Hindu leader.

8. That their horses should not be branded with the imperial dagh.[10.3.8]

9. That they should be allowed to beat their nakkaras, or ‘kettledrums,’ in the streets of the capital as far as the Lal Darwaza or ‘red-gate’; and that they should not be commanded to make the ‘prostration’[10.3.9] on entering the Presence.

10. That Bundi should be to the Haras what Delhi was to the king, who should guarantee them from any change of capital.

In addition to these articles, which the king swore to maintain, he assigned the Rao a residence at the sacred city of Kasi, possessing that privilege so dear to the Rajput, the right of sanctuary, which is maintained to this day.[10.3.10] With such a bribe, and the full acceptance of his terms, we cannot wonder that Rao Surjan flung from him the remnant of allegiance he owed to Mewar, now humbled by the loss of her capital, or that he should agree to follow the victorious car of the Mogul. But this dereliction of duty was effaced by the rigid virtue of the brave Sawant Hara, who, as already stated, had conjointly with the Kotharia Chauhan[10.3.11] obtained Ranthambhor. He put on the saffron robes, and with his small but virtuous clan determined, in spite of his sovereign’s example, that Akbar should only gain possession over their lifeless bodies.

Previous to this explosion of useless fidelity, he set up a pillar with a solemn anathema engraved thereon, on “whatever Hara of gentle blood should ascend the castle of Ranthambhor, or who should quit it alive.” Sawant and his kin made the sacrifice to honour; “they gave up their life’s blood to maintain their fidelity to the Rana,” albeit himself without a capital; and from that day, no Hara ever [474] passes Ranthambhor without averting his head from an object which caused disgrace to the tribe. With this transaction all intercourse ceased with Mewar, and from this period the Hara bore the title of ‘Rao Raja’ of Bundi.

=Rāo Surjan in the Imperial Service.=—Rao Surjan was soon called into action, and sent as commander to reduce Gondwana, so named from being the ‘region of the Gonds.’[10.3.12] He took their capital, Bari, by assault, and to commemorate the achievement erected the gateway still called the Surjanpol. The Gond leaders he carried captives to the emperor, and generously interceded for their restoration to liberty, and to a portion of their possessions. On effecting this service, the king added seven districts to his grant, including Benares and Chunar. This was in S. 1632, or A.D. 1576, the year in which Rana Partap of Mewar fought the battle of Haldighat against Sultan Salim.[10.3.13]

Rao Surjan resided at his government of Benares, and by his piety, wisdom, and generosity, benefited the empire and the Hindus at large, whose religion through him was respected. Owing to the prudence of his administration and the vigilance of his police, the most perfect security to person and property was established throughout the province. He beautified and ornamented the city, especially that quarter where he resided, and eighty-four edifices, for various public purposes, and twenty baths, were constructed under his auspices. He died there, and left three legitimate sons: 1. Rao Bhoj; 2. Duda, nicknamed by Akbar, Lakar Khan; 3. Raemall, who obtained the town and dependencies of Puleta, now one of the fiefs of Kotah and the residence of the Raemallot Haras.

=The Campaign in Gujarāt.=—About this period, Akbar transferred the seat of government from Delhi to Agra, which he enlarged and called Akbarabad. Having determined on the reduction of Gujarat, he dispatched thither an immense army, which he followed with a select force mounted on camels. Of these, adopting the custom of the desert princes of India, he had formed a corps of five hundred, each having two fighting men in a pair of panniers. To this select force, composed chiefly of Rajputs, were attached Rao Bhoj and Duda his brother. Proceeding with the utmost celerity, Akbar joined his army besieging Surat, before which many desperate encounters took place.[10.3.14] In the final assault the Hara Rao slew the leader of the enemy; on which occasion the king commanded him to “name his reward.” The Rao limited his request to leave to visit his estates annually during the periodical rains, which was granted.

The perpetual wars of Akbar, for the conquest and consolidation of the universal [475] empire of India, gave abundant opportunity to the Rajput leaders to exert their valour; and the Haras were ever at the post of danger and of honour. The siege and escalade of the famed castle of Ahmadnagar afforded the best occasion for the display of Hara intrepidity; again it shone forth, and again claimed distinction and reward.[10.3.15] To mark his sense of the merits of the Bundi leader, the king commanded that a new bastion should be erected, where he led the assault, which he named the Bhoj burj; and further presented him his own favourite elephant. In this desperate assault, Chand Begam, the queen of Ahmadnagar, and an armed train of seven hundred females, were slain, gallantly fighting for their freedom.

Notwithstanding all these services, Rao Bhoj fell under the emperor’s displeasure. On the death of the queen, Jodha Bai, Akbar commanded a court-mourning; and that all might testify a participation in their master’s affliction, an ordinance issued that all the Rajput chiefs, as well as the Muslim leaders, should shave the moustache and the beard.[10.3.16] To secure compliance, the royal barbers had the execution of the mandate. But when they came to the quarters of the Haras, in order to remove these tokens of manhood, they were repulsed with buffets and contumely. The enemies of Rao Bhoj aggravated the crime of this resistance, and insinuated to the royal ear that the outrage upon the barbers was accompanied with expressions insulting to the memory of the departed princess, who, it will be remembered, was a Rajputni of Marwar. Akbar, forgetting his vassal’s gallant services, commanded that Rao Bhoj should be pinioned and forcibly deprived of his ‘mouche.’ He might as well have commanded the operation on a tiger. The Haras flew to their arms; the camp was thrown into tumult, and would soon have presented a wide scene of bloodshed, had not the emperor, seasonably repenting of his folly, repaired to the Bundi quarters in person. He expressed his admiration (he might have said his fear) of Hara valour, alighted from his elephant to expostulate with the Rao, who with considerable tact pleaded his father’s privileges, and added “that an eater of pork like him was unworthy the distinction of putting his lip into mourning for the queen.” Akbar, happy to obtain even so much acknowledgment, embraced the Rao, and carried him with him to his own quarters.

=Death of Akbar.=—In this portion of the Bundi memoirs is related the mode of Akbar’s death.[10.3.17] He had designed to take off the great Raja Man by means of a poisoned confection formed into pills. To throw the Raja off his guard, he had prepared other pills which were [476] innocuous; but in his agitation he unwittingly gave these to the Raja, and swallowed those which were poisoned. On the emperor’s death, Rao Bhoj retired to his hereditary dominions, and died in his palace of Bundi, leaving three sons, Rao Ratan, Harda Narayan,[10.3.18] and Keshodas.[10.3.19]

=Rāo Ratan.=—Jahangir was now sovereign of India. He had nominated his son Parvez to the government of the Deccan, and having invested him in the city of Burhanpur, returned to the north. But Prince Khurram, jealous of his brother, conspired against and slew him.[10.3.20] This murder was followed by an attempt to dethrone his father Jahangir, and as he was popular with the Rajput princes, being son of a princess of Amber, a formidable rebellion was raised; or, as the chronicle says, “the twenty-two Rajas turned against the king, all but Rao Ratan”:

“_Sarwar phūtā, jal bahā; Ab kya karo jatanna? Jātā ghar Jahāngīr kā, Rākhā Rāo Ratanna._

“The lake had burst, the waters were rushing out; where now the remedy? The house of Jahangir was departing; it was sustained by Rao Ratan.”

=Partition of Hāraoti.=—With his two sons, Madho Singh and Hari, Ratan repaired to Burhanpur, where he gained a complete victory over the rebels. In this engagement, which took place on Tuesday the full moon of Kartika, S. 1635 (A.D. 1579), both his sons were severely wounded. For these services Rao Ratan was rewarded with the government of Burhanpur; and Madho his second son received a grant of the city of Kotah and its dependencies, which he and his heirs were to hold direct of the crown. From this period, therefore, dates the partition of Haraoti, when the emperor, in his desire to reward Madho Singh, overlooked the greater services of his father. But in this Jahangir did not act without design; on the contrary, he dreaded the union of so much power in the hands of this brave race as pregnant with danger, and well knew that by dividing he could always rule both, the one through the other. Shah Jahan confirmed the grant to Madho Singh, whose history will be resumed in its proper place, the Annals of Kotah.

Rao Ratan, while he held the government of Burhanpur, founded a township which still bears his name, Ratanpur. He performed another important service [477], which, while it gratified the emperor, contributed greatly to the tranquillity of his ancient lord-paramount, the Rana of Mewar. A refractory noble of the court, Dariyau Khan, was leading a life of riot and rapine in that country, when the Hara attacked, defeated, and carried him captive to the king. For this distinguished exploit, the king gave him honorary naubats, or kettledrums; the grand yellow banner to be borne in state processions before his own person, and a red flag for his camp; which ensigns are still retained by his successors. Rao Ratan obtained the suffrages not only of his Rajput brethren, but of the whole Hindu race, whose religion he preserved from innovation. The Haras exultingly boast that no Muslim dared pollute the quarters where they might be stationed with the blood of the sacred kine. After all his services, Ratan was killed in an action near Burhanpur, leaving a name endeared by his valour and his virtues to the whole Hara race.

=Gopināth.=—Rao Ratan left four sons, Gopinath, who had Bundi; Madho Singh, who had Kotah; Hariji, who had Gugor;[10.3.21] Jagannath, who had no issue; and Gopinath, the heir of Bundi, who died before his father. The manner of his death affords another trait of Rajput character, and merits a place amongst those anecdotes which form the romance of history. Gopinath carried on a secret intrigue with the wife of a Brahman of the Baldia class, and in the dead of night used to escalade the house to obtain admittance. At length the Brahman caught him, bound the hands and feet of his treacherous prince, and proceeding direct to the palace, told the Rao he had caught a thief in the act of stealing his honour, and asked what punishment was due to such offence. “Death,” was the reply. He waited for no other, returned home, and with a hammer beat out the victim’s brains, throwing the dead body into the public highway. The tidings flew to Rao Ratan, that the heir of Bundi had been murdered, and his corpse ignominiously exposed; but when he learned the cause, and was reminded of the decree he had unwittingly passed, he submitted in silence.[10.3.22]

=The Fiefs of Būndi.=—Gopinath left twelve sons, to whom Rao Ratan assigned domains still forming the principal kothris, or fiefs, of Bundi:

1. Rao Chhattarsal, who succeeded to Bundi.

2. Indar Singh, who founded Indargarh [478].[10.3.23]

3. Berisal, who founded Balwan and Phalodi, and had Karwar and Pipalda.

4. Mohkam Singh, who had Antardah.

5. Maha Singh, who had Thana.[10.3.24]

It is useless to specify the names of the remainder, who left no issue.

=Rāo Chhattarsāl, A.D. 1652-58.=—Chhattarsal, who succeeded his grandfather, Rao Ratan, was not only installed by Shah Jahan in his hereditary dominions, but declared governor of the imperial capital, a post which he held nearly throughout this reign. When Shah Jahan partitioned the empire into four vice-royalties, under his sons, Dara, Aurangzeb, Shuja, and Murad, Rao Chhattarsal had a high command under Aurangzeb, in the Deccan. The Hara distinguished himself by his bravery and conduct in all the various sieges and actions, especially at the assaults of Daulatabad and Bidar; the last was led by Chhattarsal in person, who carried the place, and put the garrison to the sword. In S. 1709 (A.D. 1653), Kulbarga fell after an obstinate defence, in which Chhattarsal again led the escalade. The last resort was the strong fort of Damauni, which terminated all resistance, and the Deccan was tranquillized.[10.3.25]

=Death of Shāh Jahān. War of Succession.=—“At this period of the transactions in the south, a rumour was propagated of the emperor’s (Shah Jahan) death; and as during twenty days the prince (Aurangzeb) held no court, and did not even give private audience, the report obtained general belief.[10.3.26] Dara Shikoh was the only one of the emperor’s sons then at court, and the absent brothers determined to assert their several pretensions to the throne. While Shuja marched from Bengal, Aurangzeb prepared to quit the Deccan, and cajoled Murad to join him with all his forces; assuring him that he, a darvesh from principle, had no worldly desires, for his only wish was to dwell in retirement [479], practising the austerities of a rigid follower of the Prophet; that Dara was an infidel, Shuja a free-thinker, himself an anchorite; and that he, Murad, alone of the sons of Shah Jahan, was worthy to exercise dominion, to aid in which purpose he proffered his best energies.[10.3.27]

“The emperor, learning the hostile intentions of Aurangzeb, wrote privately to the Hara prince to repair to the Presence. On receiving the mandate, Chhattarsal revolved its import, but considering “that, as a servant of the gaddi (throne), his only duty was obedience,” he instantly commenced his preparations to quit the Deccan. This reaching the ear of Aurangzeb, he inquired the cause of his hasty departure, observing, that in a very short time he might accompany him to court. The Bundi prince replied, “his first duty was to the reigning sovereign,” and handed him the farman or summons to the Presence. Aurangzeb commanded that he should not be permitted to depart, and directed his encampment to be surrounded. But Chhattarsal, foreseeing this, had already sent on his baggage, and forming his vassals and those of other Rajput princes attached to the royal cause into one compact mass, they effected their retreat to the Nerbudda in the face of their pursuers, without their daring to attack them. By the aid of some Solanki chieftains inhabiting the banks of this river, the Bundi Rao was enabled to pass this dangerous stream, then swollen by the periodical rains. Already baffled by the skill and intrepidity of Chhattarsal, Aurangzeb was compelled to give up the pursuit, and the former reached Bundi in safety. Having made his domestic arrangements, he proceeded forthwith to the capital, to help the aged emperor, whose power, and even existence, were alike threatened by the ungrateful pretensions of his sons to snatch the sceptre from the hand which still held it.”

If a reflection might be here interposed on the bloody wars which desolated India in consequence of the events of which the foregoing were the initial scenes, it would be to expose the moral retribution resulting from evil example. Were we to take but a partial view of the picture, we should depict the venerable Shah Jahan, arrived at the verge of the grave, into which the unnatural contest of his sons for empire wished to precipitate him, extending his arms for succour in vain to the nobles of his own faith and kin; while the Rajput, faithful to his principle, ‘allegiance to the throne,’ staked both life and land to help him in his need. Such a picture would enlist all our sympathies on the side of the helpless king. But when we recall the past, and consider that [480] Shah Jahan, as Prince Khurram, played the same part (setting aside the mask of hypocrisy), which Aurangzeb now attempted; that, to forward his guilty design, he murdered his brother Parvez,[10.3.28] who stood between him and the throne of his parent, against whom he levied war, our sympathies are checked, and we conclude that unlimited monarchy is a curse to itself and all who are subjected to it.

The battle of Fatehabad followed not long after this event,[10.3.29] which, gained by Aurangzeb, left the road to the throne free from obstruction. We are not informed of the reason why the prince of Bundi did not add his contingent to the force assembled to oppose Aurangzeb under Jaswant Singh of Marwar, unless it be found in that article of the treaty of Rao Surjan, prohibiting his successors from serving under a leader of their own faith and nation. The younger branch of Kotah appears, on its separation from Bundi, to have felt itself exonerated from obedience to this decree; for four royal brothers of Kotah, with many of their clansmen, were stretched on this field in the cause of swamidharma and Shah Jahan. Before, however, Aurangzeb could tear the sceptre from the enfeebled hands of his parent, he had to combat his elder brother Dara, who drew together at Dholpur all those who yet regarded ‘the first duty of a Rajput.’ The Bundi prince, with his Haras clad in their saffron robes, the ensigns of death or victory, formed the vanguard of Dara on this day, the opening scene of his sorrows, which closed but with his life; for Dholpur was as fatal to Dara the Mogul, as Arbela was to the Persian Darius. Custom rendered it indispensable that the princely leaders should be conspicuous to the host, and in conformity thereto Dara, mounted on his elephant, was in the brunt of the battle, in the heat of which, when valour and fidelity might have preserved the sceptre of Shah Jahan, Dara suddenly disappeared. A panic ensued, which was followed by confusion and flight. The noble Hara, on this disastrous event, turned to his vassals, and exclaimed, “Accursed be he who flies! Here, true to my salt, my feet are rooted to this field, nor will I quit it alive, but with victory.” Cheering on his men, he mounted his elephant, but whilst encouraging them by his voice and example, a cannon-shot hitting his elephant, the animal turned and fled. Chhattarsal leaped from his back and called for his steed, exclaiming, “My elephant may turn his back on the enemy, but never shall his master.” Mounting his horse, and forming his men into a dense mass (gol), he led them to the charge against Prince Murad, whom he singled out, and had his lance balanced for the issue, when a ball pierced his forehead.[10.3.30] The contest was nobly maintained by his youngest son, Bharat Singh, who accompanied his father in death [481], and with him the choicest of his clan. Mohkam Singh, brother of the Rao, with two of his sons, and Udai Singh, another nephew, sealed their fidelity with their lives. Thus in the two battles of Ujjain and Dholpur no less than twelve princes of the blood, together with the heads of every Hara clan, maintained their fealty (swamidharma) even to death. Where are we to look for such examples?

“Rao Chhattarsal had been personally engaged in fifty-two combats, and left a name renowned for courage and incorruptible fidelity.” He enlarged the palace of Bundi by adding that portion which bears his name,—the Chhattar Mahall,—and the temple of Keshorai, at Patan, was constructed under his direction.[10.3.31] It was in S. 1715 he was killed; he left four sons, Rao Bhao Singh, Bhim Singh, who got Gugorha, Bhagwant Singh, who obtained Mau, and Bharat Singh, who was killed at Dholpur.

=Rāo Bhāo Singh, A.D. 1658-78. Mughal Attack on Būndi.=—Aurangzeb, on the attainment of sovereign power, transferred all the resentment he harboured against Chhattarsal to his son and successor, Rao Bhao. He gave a commission to Raja Atmaram, Gaur, the prince of Sheopur, to reduce “that turbulent and disaffected race, the Hara,” and annex Bundi to the government of Ranthambhor, declaring that he should visit Bundi shortly in person, on his way to the Deccan, and hoped to congratulate him on his success. Raja Atmaram, with an army of twelve thousand men, entered Haravati and ravaged it with fire and sword. Having laid siege to Khatoli, a town of Indargarh, the chief fief of Bundi,[10.3.32] the clans secretly assembled, engaged Atmaram at Gotarda, defeated and put him to flight, capturing the imperial ensigns and all his baggage. Not satisfied with this, they retaliated by blockading Sheopur, when the discomfited Raja continued his flight to court to relate this fresh instance of Hara audacity. The poor prince of the Gaurs was received with gibes and jests, and heartily repented of his inhuman inroads upon his neighbours in the day of their disgrace. The tyrant, affecting to be pleased with this instance of Hara courage, sent a farman to Rao Bhao of grace and free pardon, and commanding his presence at court. At first the Rao declined; but having repeated pledges of good intention, he complied and was honoured with the government of Aurangabad under Prince Muazzam. Here he evinced his independence by shielding Raja Karan of Bikaner from a plot against his life. He performed many gallant deeds with his Rajput brethren in arms, the brave Bundelas of Orchha and Datia. He erected many public edifices at Aurangabad, where he acquired so much fame by his valour, his charities, and the sanctity[10.3.33] of his manners, that miraculous cures were (said to be) effected by him. He [482] died at Aurangabad in S. 1738 (A.D. 1682),[10.3.34] and, being without issue, was succeeded by Aniruddh Singh, the grandson of his brother Bhim.[10.3.35]

=Rāo Aniruddh Singh, A.D. 1678.=—Aniruddh’s accession was confirmed by the emperor, who, in order to testify the esteem in which he held his predecessor, sent his own elephant, Gajgaur, with the khilat of investiture. Aniruddh accompanied Aurangzeb in his wars in the Deccan, and on one occasion performed the important service of rescuing the ladies of the harem out of the enemy’s hands. The emperor, in testimony of his gallantry, told him to name his reward; on which he requested he might be allowed to command the vanguard instead of the rearguard of the army. Subsequently, he was distinguished in the siege and storm of Bijapur.

An unfortunate quarrel with Durjan Singh, the chief vassal of Bundi, involved the Rao in trouble. Making use of some improper expression, the Rao resentfully replied, “I know what to expect from you”; which determined Durjan to throw his allegiance to the dogs. He quitted the army, and arriving at his estates, armed his kinsmen, and, by a coup de main, possessed himself of Bundi. On learning this, the emperor detached Aniruddh with a force which expelled the refractory Durjan, whose estates were sequestrated. Previous to his expulsion, Durjan drew the tika of succession on the forehead of his brother of Balwan. Having settled the affairs of Bundi, the Rao was employed, in conjunction with Raja Bishan Singh of Amber, to settle the northern countries of the empire, governed by Shah Alam, as lieutenant of the king, and whose headquarters were at Lahore, in the execution of which service he died.

=Rāo Budh Singh. The Death of Aurangzeb.=—Aniruddh left two sons, Budh Singh and Jodh Singh. Budh Singh succeeded to the honours and employments of his father. Soon after, Aurangzeb, who had fixed his residence at Aurangabad, fell ill, and finding his end approach, the nobles and officers of state, in apprehension of the event, requested him to name a successor. The dying emperor replied, that the succession was in the hands of God, with whose will and under whose decree he was desirous that his son Bahadur Shah Alam should succeed; but that he was apprehensive that Prince Azam would endeavour by force of arms to seat himself on the throne.[10.3.36] As the king said, so it happened; Azam Shah, being supported in his pretensions by the army of the Deccan, prepared to dispute [483] the empire with his elder brother, to whom he sent a formal defiance to decide their claims to empire on the plains of Dholpur. Bahadur Shah convened all the chieftains who favoured his cause, and explained his position. Amongst them was Rao Budh, now entering on manhood, and he was at that moment in deep affliction for the untimely loss of his brother, Jodh Singh.[10.3.37] When the king desired him to repair to Bundi to perform the offices of mourning, and console his relations and kindred, Budh Singh replied, “It is not to Bundi my duty calls me, but to attend my sovereign in the field—to that of Dholpur, renowned for many battles and consecrated by the memory of the heroes who have fallen in the performance of their duty”: adding “that there his heroic ancestor Chhattarsal fell, whose fame he desired to emulate, and by the blessing of heaven, his arms should be crowned with victory to the empire.”

=Battle of Jājau, June 10, 1707.=—Shah Alam advanced from Lahore, and Azam, with his son Bedar Bakht, from the Deccan; and both armies met on the plains of Jajau, near Dholpur. A more desperate conflict was never recorded in the many bloody pages of the history of India. Had it been a common contest for supremacy, to be decided by the Muslim supporters of the rivals, it would have ended like similar ones,—a furious onset, terminated by a treacherous desertion. But here were assembled the brave bands of Rajputana, house opposed to house, and clan against clan. The princes of Datia and Kotah, who had long served with Prince Azam, and were attached to him by favours, forgot the injunctions of Aurangzeb, and supported that prince’s pretensions against the lawful heir. A powerful friendship united the chiefs of Bundi and Datia, whose lives exhibited one scene of glorious triumph in all the wars of the Deccan. In opposing the cause of Shah Alam, Ram Singh of Kotah was actuated by his ambition to become the head of the Haras, and in anticipation of success had actually been invested with the honours of Bundi. With such stimulants on each side did the rival Haras meet face to face on the plains of Jajau, to decide at the same time the pretensions to empire, and what affected them more, those of their respective heads to superiority. Previous to the battle, Ram Singh sent a perfidious message to Rao Budh, inviting him to desert the cause he espoused, and come over to Azam; to which he indignantly replied: “That the field which his ancestor had illustrated by his death, was not that whereon he would disgrace his memory by the desertion of his prince.”

Budh Singh was assigned a distinguished post, and by his conduct and courage [484] mainly contributed to the victory which placed Bahadur Shah without a rival on the throne. The Rajputs on either side sustained the chief shock of the battle, and the Hara prince of Kotah, and the noble Bundela, Dalpat of Datia, were both killed by cannon-shot, sacrificed to the cause they espoused; while the pretensions of Azam and his son Bedar Bakht were extinguished with their lives.

For the signal services rendered on this important day, Budh Singh was honoured with the title of Rao Raja, and was admitted to the intimate friendship of the emperor, which he continued to enjoy until his death, when fresh contentions arose, in which the grandsons of Aurangzeb all perished. Farrukhsiyar succeeded to the empire, under whom the Sayyids of Barha held supreme power, and ruined the empire by their exactions and tyranny. When they determined to depose the king, the Hara prince, faithful to his pledge, determined to release him, and in the attempt a bloody conflict ensued in the (chauk) square, in which his uncle Jeth Singh, and many of his clansmen, were slain.

=Rivalry between Kotah and Būndi.=—The rivalry which commenced between the houses of Kotah and Bundi, on the plains of Jajau, in which Ram Singh was slain, was maintained by his son and successor, Raja Bhim, who supported the party of the Sayyids. In the prosecution of his views and revenge, Raja Bhim so far lost sight of the national character of the Rajput, as to compass his end by treachery, and beset his foe unawares while exercising his horse in the Maidan, outside the walls of the capital. His few retainers formed a circle round their chief, and gallantly defended him, though with great loss, until they reached a place of safety. Unable to aid the king, and beset by treachery, Rao Budh was compelled to seek his own safety in flight.[10.3.38] Farrukhsiyar was shortly after murdered, and the empire fell into complete disorder; when the nobles and Rajas, feeling their insecurity under the bloody and rapacious domination of the Sayyids, repaired to their several possessions.[10.3.39]

=Jai Singh of Jaipur attacks Būndi.=—At this period, Raja Jai Singh of Amber thought of dispossessing Budh Singh of Bundi. Rao Budh Singh was at this time his guest, having accompanied him from court to Amber. The cause of the quarrel is thus related: The Hara prince was married to a sister of Jai Singh; she had been betrothed to the emperor Bahadur [485] Shah, who, as one of the marks of his favour for the victory of Dholpur, resigned his pretensions to the fair in favour of Rao Budh. Unfortunately, she bore him no issue, and viewed with jealousy his two infant sons by another Rani, the daughter of Kalamegh of Begun, one of the sixteen chiefs of Mewar. During her lord’s absence, she feigned pregnancy, and having procured an infant, presented it as his lawful child. Rao Budh was made acquainted with the equivocal conduct of his queen, to the danger of his proper offspring, and took an opportunity to reveal her conduct to her brother. The lady, who was present, was instantly interrogated by her brother; but, exasperated either at the suspicion of her honour or the discovery of her fraud, she snatched her brother’s dagger from his girdle, and rating him as “the son of a tailor,”[10.3.40] would have slain him on the spot, had he not fled from her fury.

To revenge the insult thus put upon him, the Raja of Amber determined to expel Rao Budh from Bundi, and offered the gaddi to the chief of its feudatories, the lord of Indargarh; but Deo Singh had the virtue to refuse the offer. He then had recourse to the chieftain of Karwar,[10.3.41] who could not resist the temptation. This chief, Salim Singh, was guilty of a double breach of trust; for he held the confidential office of governor of Taragarh, the citadel commanding both the city and palace.

The family dispute was, however, merely the underplot of a deeply-cherished political scheme of the prince of Amber, for the maintenance of his supremacy over the minor Rajas, to which his office of viceroy of Malwa, Ajmer, and Agra gave full scope, and he skilfully availed himself of the results of the civil wars of the Moguls. In the issue of Farrukhsiyar’s dethronement he saw the fruition of his schemes, and after a show of defending him, retired to his dominions to prosecute his views.

Amber was yet circumscribed in territory, and the consequence of its princes arose out of their position as satraps of the empire. He therefore determined to seize upon all the districts on his frontiers within his grasp, and moreover to compel the services of the chieftains who served under his banner as lieutenants of the king.

At this period there were many allodial chieftains within the bounds of Amber; as the Pachwana Chauhans about Lalsont, Gura, Nimrana, who owed neither service nor tribute to Jaipur, but led their quotas as distinct dignitaries of the empire under the flag of Amber. Even their own stock, the confederated Shaikhawats, deemed [486] themselves under no such obligation. The Bargujars of Rajor, the Jadons of Bayana, and many others, the vassalage of older days, were in the same predicament. These, being in the decline of the empire unable to protect themselves, the more readily agreed to hold their ancient allodial estates as fiefs of Amber, and to serve with the stipulated quota. But when Jai Singh’s views led him to hope he could in like manner bring the Haras to acknowledge his supremacy, he evinced both ignorance and presumption. He therefore determined to dethrone Budh Singh, and to make a Raja of his own choice hold of him in chief.

The Hara, who was then reposing on the rites of hospitality and family ties at Amber, gave Jai Singh a good opportunity to develop his views, which were first manifested to the Bundi prince by an obscure offer that he would make Amber his abode, and accept five hundred rupees daily for his train. His uncle, the brother of Jeth, who devoted himself to save his master at Agra, penetrated the infamous intentions of Jai Singh. He wrote to Bundi, and commanded that the Begun Rani should depart with her children to her father’s; and having given time for this, he by stealth formed his clansmen outside the walls of Amber, and having warned his prince of his danger, they quitted the treacherous abode. Raja Budh, at the head of three hundred Haras, feared nothing. He made direct for his capital, but they were overtaken at Pancholas, on the mutual frontier, by the select army under the five principal chieftains of Amber. The little band was enclosed, when a desperate encounter ensued, Rajput to Rajput. Every one of the five leaders of Amber was slain, with a multitude of their vassals; and the cenotaphs of the lords of Isarda, Sarwar, and Bhawar still afford evidence of Hara revenge. The uncle of Bundi was slain, and the valiant band was so thinned, that it was deemed unwise to go to Bundi, and by the intricacies of the Plateau they reached Begun in safety. This dear-bought success enabled Jai Singh to execute his plan, and Dalil Singh, of Karwar, espoused the daughter of Amber, and was invested with the title of Rao Raja of Bundi.

Taking advantage of the distress of the elder branch of his house, Raja Bhim of Kotah, now strictly allied with Ajit of Marwar and the Sayyids, prosecuted the old feud for superiority, making the Chambal the boundary, and seizing upon all the fiscal lands of Bundi east of this stream (excepting the Kothris), which he attached to Kotah.

=Death of Rāo Būdh Singh.=—Thus beset by enemies on all sides, Budh Singh, after many fruitless attempts to [487] recover his patrimony, in which much Hara blood was uselessly shed, died in exile at Begun, leaving two sons, Ummed Singh and Dip Singh.

The sons of Rao Budh were soon driven even from the shelter of the maternal abode; for, at the instigation of their enemy of Amber, the Rana sequestrated Begun. Pursued by this unmanly vengeance, the brave youths collected a small band, and took refuge in the wilds of Pachel, whence they addressed Durjansal, who had succeeded Raja Bhim at Kotah. This prince had a heart to commiserate their misfortunes, and the magnanimity not only to relieve them, but to aid them in the recovery of their patrimony.

-----

Footnote 10.3.1:

[The dates are uncertain: that in the margin is from IGI, ix. 80. Prinsep (Useful Tables, 105) gives 1575. Blochmann (Āīn, i. 410) says, “he had been dead for some time in 1001 Hijri,” A.D. 1592.]

Footnote 10.3.2:

[4 miles N. of Udaipur city.]

Footnote 10.3.3:

His fame is immortalized by a descendant of the bard Chand, in the works already mentioned, as bearing his name, the Hamir-raesa and Hamir-kavya.

Footnote 10.3.4:

The Raja Man of Amber is styled, in the poetic chronicle of the Haras, ‘the shade of the Kali Yuga’: a powerful figure, to denote that his baneful influence and example, in allying himself by matrimonial ties with the imperialists, denationalized the Rajput character. In refusing to follow this example, we have presented a picture of patriotism in the life of Rana Partap of Mewar. Rao Surjan avoided by convention what the Chitor prince did by arms.

Footnote 10.3.5:

We may here remark that the succeeding portion of the annals of Bundi is a free translation of an historical sketch drawn up for me by the Raja of Bundi from his own records, occasionally augmented from the bardic chronicle. [This was Akbar’s second attack on Ranthambhor, the first (A.D. 1558-60) having been unsuccessful. It was taken on 19th March 1569 (Akbarnāma, ii. 132 f., 494). Smith (Akbar, the Great Mogul, 98 ff.) quotes the narrative in the text, which he considers trustworthy.]

Footnote 10.3.6:

Dola is the term for a princess affianced to the king.

Footnote 10.3.7:

An ancient institution of the Timurian kings, derived from their Tartar ancestry. For a description of this festival see Vol. I. p. 400, and Āīn, i. 276 f. [See the lively account of these fairs by Bernier (p. 272 f.). They were held in the Mīna, or ‘heavenly,’ bāzār, near the Mīna Masjid, or mosque, in the Agra Fort (Syad Muhammad Latif, Agra, 75 f.).]

Footnote 10.3.8:

This brand (dagh) was a flower on the forehead [Vol. II. p. 972].

Footnote 10.3.9:

Sijdah, similar to the kotow of China. Had our ambassador possessed the wit of Rao Surthan of Sirohi, who, when compelled to pay homage to the king, determined at whatever hazard not to submit to this degradation, he might have succeeded in his mission to the ‘son of heaven.’ For the relation of this anecdote see Vol. II. p. 990. [For the Mughal forms of salutation see Āīn, i. 158 f.]

Footnote 10.3.10:

[The Mahārāo Rāo of Būndi still has a house, somewhat dilapidated, near the Rāj Mandir and Sītala Ghāt at Benares. The right of sanctuary has ceased (E. Graves, Kashi, 1909, p. 55).]

Footnote 10.3.11:

This conjoint act of obtaining the castle of Ranthambhor is confirmed in the annals of the chieftains of Kotharia, of the same original stock as the Haras: though a Purbia Chauhan. I knew him very well, as also one of the same stock, of Bedla, another of the sixteen Pattayats of Mewar.

Footnote 10.3.12:

[Gondwāna is the term applied to the Sātpura plateau in the Central Provinces (IGI, xii. 321 ff.). The campaign was begun by Āsaf Khan in A.D. 1564. The Bāri in the text, a word meaning ‘dwelling,’ possibly refers to Chauragarh, now in the Narsinghpur District (Smith, Akbar, the Great Mogul, 69 ff.). Rāo Surjan was governor of Garha-Katanka or Gondwāna, whence he was transferred to Chunār (Āīn, i. 409).]

Footnote 10.3.13:

See Vol. I. p. 393.

Footnote 10.3.14:

[Akbar began to reside at Agra in A.D. 1558, and built the fort in 1565-6. The first campaign in Gujarāt took place in 1572. Surat was captured in February 1573.]

Footnote 10.3.15:

[Ahmadnagar was stormed in August 1600. According to Ferishta (iii. 312) Chānd Bībi was killed by her Deccan troops because she was treating for surrender. By another story, she was poisoned (Smith, Akbar, the Great Mogul, 272).]

Footnote 10.3.16:

[There is an error here. Akbar died in 1605; Jodh Bāi died, it is said by poison, in 1619 or 1622.]

Footnote 10.3.17:

See Vol. I. p. 408. [The tale seems almost incredible, but Akbar did remove some of his enemies by poison, and the story was the subject of Court gossip (Manucci i. 150). Akbar seems to have died from cancer of the bowels (Elliot-Dowson v. 541, vi. 115, 168 f.). Smith (Akbar, the Great Mogul, 325 f.) disbelieves the story, but suspects that he may have been poisoned by some one. See Irvine’s note on Manucci iv. 420.]

Footnote 10.3.18:

He held Kotah in separate grant from the king during fifteen years.

Footnote 10.3.19:

He obtained the town of Dipri (on the Chambal), with twenty-seven villages, in appanage.

Footnote 10.3.20:

[Parvez died from apoplexy at Burhānpur, 28th October 1626 (Beale, Dict. Oriental Biography, s.v. Parwīz Sultān; Dow 2nd ed. iii. 88).]

Footnote 10.3.21:

There are about fifty families, his descendants, forming a community round Nimoda.

Footnote 10.3.22:

This trait in the character of Rao Ratan forcibly reminds us of a similar case which occurred at Ghazni, and is related by Ferishta [i. 86 f.] in commemoration of the justice of Mahmud.

Footnote 10.3.23:

These, the three great fiefs of Bundi,—Indargarh, Balwan, and Antardah,—are now all alienated from Bundi by the intrigues of Zalim Singh of Kotah. It was unfortunate for the Bundi Rao, when both these States were admitted to an alliance, that all these historical points were hid in darkness. It would be yet abstract and absolute justice that we should negotiate the transfer of the allegiance of these chieftains to their proper head of Bundi. It would be a matter of little difficulty, and the honour would be immense to Bundi and no hardship to Kotah, but a slight sacrifice of a power of protection to those who no longer require it. All of these chiefs were the founders of clans, called after them, Indarsalot, Berisalot, Mohkamsinghot; the first can muster fifteen hundred Haras under arms. Jaipur having imposed a tribute on these chieftains, Zalim Singh undertook, in the days of predatory warfare, to be responsible for it; for which he received that homage and service due to Bundi, then unable to protect them. The simplest mode of doing justice would be to make these chiefs redeem their freedom from tribute to Jaipur, by the payment of so many years’ purchase, which would relieve them altogether from Zalim Singh, and at the same time be in accordance with our treaties, which prohibit such ties between the States.

Footnote 10.3.24:

Thana [about 20 miles E. of Jhalāwar], formerly called Jajawar, is the only fief of the twelve sons of Ratan which now pays obedience to its proper head. The Maharaja Bikramajit is the lineal descendant of Maha Singh, and if alive, the earth bears not a more honourable, brave, or simple-minded Rajput. He was the devoted servant of his young prince, and my very sincere and valued friend; but we shall have occasion to mention the ‘lion-killer’ in the Personal Narrative.

Footnote 10.3.25:

[For this campaign see Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, i. 264 ff.; Grant Duff 70. Bidar was stormed in March 1657. The gallantry of Chhattarsāl is commended by Jadunath Sarkar i. 272, ii. 6.]

Footnote 10.3.26:

The reader will observe, as to the phraseology of these important occurrences, that the language is that of the original: it is, in fact, almost a verbatim translation from the memoirs of these princes in the Bundi archives.

Footnote 10.3.27:

The Rajput prince, who drew up this character, seems to have well studied Aurangzeb, and it is gratifying to find such concurrence with every authority. But could such a character be eventually mistaken?

Footnote 10.3.28:

[See p. 1486.]

Footnote 10.3.29:

[Or Samūgarh, 29th May 1658.]

Footnote 10.3.30:

[The defeat of Dāra Shikoh at Dholpur preceded the battle of Samūgarh-Fatehābād: it was at Samūgarh that Chhattarsāl was killed (Jadunath Sarkar, ii. 37 ff.).]

Footnote 10.3.31:

[The temple of Keshorāi, or Kesava Krishna, is on the N. bank of the Chambal, 12 miles below Kotah (Rājputāna Gazetteer, 1879, i. 238).]

Footnote 10.3.32:

[Indargarh about 30 miles N. of Būndi city: Khatoli 20 miles E. of Indargarh.]

Footnote 10.3.33:

It is a fact worthy of notice, that the most intrepid of the Rajput princely cavaliers are of a very devout frame of mind.

Footnote 10.3.34:

[Rāo Bhāo Singh died between March 1677 and February 1678 (Manucci ii. 402).]

Footnote 10.3.35:

Bhim Singh, who had the fief of Gugor bestowed on him, had a son, Kishan Singh, who succeeded him, and was put to death by Aurangzeb. Aniruddh was the son of Kishan.

Footnote 10.3.36:

It is useless to repeat that this is a literal translation from the records and journals of the Hara princes, who served the emperors.

Footnote 10.3.37:

This catastrophe will be related in the Personal Narrative.

Footnote 10.3.38:

Vide Vol. I. p. 473, et passim, in which the Bundi Annals are corroborated by the Annals of Mewar, and by an autograph letter of Raja Jai Singh of Amber, dated the 19th Phalgun, S. 1775 (A.D. 1719).

Footnote 10.3.39:

These subjects being already discussed in Vol. I. would have had no place here, were it not necessary to show how accurately the Bundi princes recorded events, and to rescue them from the charge of having no historical documents.

Footnote 10.3.40:

This lady was sister to Chamanji, elder brother to Jai Singh, and heir-apparent to the gaddi of Amber, who was put to death by Jai Singh. To this murder the Rathor bard alludes in the couplet given in their Annals, see Vol. II. p. 1059. ‘Chamanji’ ['flower-bed'] is the title of the heirs-apparent of Amber. I know not whether Chamanji, which is merely a term of endearment, may not be Bijai Singh, whose captivity we have related. See p. 1349.

Footnote 10.3.41:

[About 35 miles N. of Būndi city.]

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