Book IV. Annals of Mewār (part 2)

Thus closed the life of a Rajput whose memory is even now idolized by every Sesodia, and will continue to be so, till renewed oppression shall extinguish the remaining sparks of patriotic feeling. May that day never arrive! yet if such be her destiny, may it, at least, not be hastened by the arms of Britain!

It is worthy the attention of those who influence the destinies of States in more favoured climes, to estimate the intensity of feeling which could arm this prince to oppose the resources of a small principality against the then most powerful empire of the world, whose armies were more numerous and far more efficient than any ever led by the Persian against the liberties of Greece. Had Mewar possessed her Thucydides or her Xenophon, neither the wars of the Peloponnesus nor the retreat of the ‘ten thousand’ would have yielded more diversified incidents for the historic muse, than the deeds of this brilliant reign amid the many vicissitudes of Mewar. Undaunted heroism, inflexible fortitude, that which ‘keeps honour bright,’ perseverance,—with fidelity such as no nation can boast, were the materials opposed to a soaring ambition, commanding talents, unlimited means, and the fervour of religious zeal; all, however, insufficient to contend with one unconquerable mind. There is not a pass in the alpine Aravalli that is not sanctified by some deed of Partap,—some brilliant victory or, oftener, more glorious defeat. Haldighat is the Thermopylae of Mewar; the field of Dawer her Marathon.

Chapter 12

Rāna Amar Singh I., A.D. 1597-1620.

—Of the seventeen sons of Partap, Amra, who succeeded him, was the eldest. From the early age of eight to the hour of his parent’s death, he had been his constant companion and the partner of his toils and dangers. Initiated by his noble sire in every act of mountain strife, familiar with its perils, he entered on his career in the very flower of manhood, already attended by sons able to maintain whatever his sword might recover of his patrimony.

Akbar, the greatest foe of Mewar, survived Partap nearly eight years. The vast field in which he had to exert the resources of his mind, necessarily withdrew him from a scene where even success ill repaid the sacrifices made to attain it. Amra was left in perfect repose during the remainder of this monarch’s life, which it was not wisdom to disturb by the renewal of a contest against the colossal power of the Mogul. An extended reign of more than half a century permitted Akbar to consolidate the vast empire he had erected, and to model the form of his government, which displays, as handed down by Abu-l Fazl, an incontestable proof of his genius as well as of his natural beneficence. Nor would the Mogul lose, on being contrasted with the contemporary princes of Europe: with Henry IV. of France, who, like himself, ascended a throne weakened by dissension; with Charles V., alike aspiring to universal sway: or the glorious queen of our own isle, who made advances to Akbar and sent him an embassy. Akbar was fortunate as either Henry or Elizabeth in the choice of his ministers. The lofty integrity, military genius, and habits of civil industry, for which Sully was distinguished, found their parallel in Bairam; and if Burleigh equalled in wisdom, he was not superior in virtue to Abu-l Fazl, nor possessed of his excessive benevolence. Unhappily for Mewar, all this genius and power combined to overwhelm her. It is, however, a proud tribute to the memory of the Mogul that his name is united with that of his rival Partap in numerous traditionary couplets honourable to both; and if the Rajput bard naturally emblazons first on his page that of his own hero, he admits that none other but Akbar can stand a comparison with him; thereby confirming the eulogy of the historian of his race, who, in summing up his character, observes that, “if he sometimes did things beneath the dignity of a great king, he never did anything unworthy of a good man.” But if the annalist of the Bundi State can be relied upon, the very act which caused Akbar’s death will make us pause ere we subscribe to these testimonies to the worth of departed greatness, and, disregarding the adage of only speaking good of the dead, compel us to institute, in imitation of the ancient Egyptians, a posthumous inquest on the character of the monarch of the Moguls. The Bundi records are well worthy of belief, as diaries of events were kept by her princes, who were of the first importance in this and the succeeding reigns: and they may be more likely to throw a light upon points of character of a tendency to disgrace the Mogul king, than the historians of his court, who had every reason to withhold such. A desire to be rid of the great Raja Man of Amber, to whom he was so much indebted, made the emperor descend to act the part of the assassin. He prepared a ma’ajun, or confection, a part of which contained poison; but, caught in his own snare, he presented the innoxious portion to the Rajput and ate that drugged with death himself. We have a sufficient clue to the motives which influenced Akbar to a deed so unworthy of him, and which were more fully developed in the reign of his successor; namely, a design on the part of Raja Man to alter the succession, and that Khusru, his nephew, should succeed instead of Salim. With such a motive, the aged emperor might have admitted with less scruple the advice which prompted an act he dared not openly undertake, without exposing the throne in his latter days to the dangers of civil contention, as Raja Man was too powerful to be openly assaulted.

The Administration of Rāna Amar Singh.

—Let us return to Mewar. Amra remodelled the institutions of his country, made a new assessment of the lands and distribution of the fiefs, apportioning the service to the times. He also established the gradation of ranks such as yet exists, and regulated the sumptuary laws even to the tie of a turban, and many of these are to be seen engraved on pillars of stone in various parts of the country.

The repose thus enjoyed realized the prophetic fears of Partap, whose admonitions were forgotten. Amra constructed a small palace on the banks of the lake, named after himself ‘the abode of immortality,’ still remarkable for its Gothic contrast to the splendid marble edifice erected by his successors, now the abode of the princes of Mewar.

Jahāngīr attacks Mewār.

—Jahangir had been four years on the throne, and having overcome all internal dissension, resolved to signalize his reign by the subjugation of the only prince who had disdained to acknowledge the paramount power of the Moguls; and assembling the royal forces, he put them in motion for Mewar.

Amra, between the love of ease and reputation, wavered as to the conduct he should adopt; nor were sycophants wanting who

Counselled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth,
Not peace:

and dared to prompt his following the universal contagion, by accepting the imperial farman. In such a state of mind the chiefs found their prince, when they repaired to the new abode to warn him, and prepare him for the emergency. But the gallant Chondawat, recalling to their remembrance the dying behest of their late glorious head, demanded its fulfilment. All resolved to imitate the noble Partap,

... preferring
Hard liberty before the easy yoke
Of servile pomp.

Chief of Salūmbar intervenes.

—A magnificent mirror of European fabrication adorned the embryo palace. Animated with a noble resentment at the inefficacy of his appeal to the better feelings of his prince, the chieftain of Salumbar hurled ‘the slave of the carpet’ against the splendid bauble, and starting up, seized his sovereign by the arm and moved him from the throne. “To horse, chiefs!” he exclaimed, “and preserve from infamy the son of Partap.” A burst of passion followed the seeming indignity, and the patriot chief was branded with the harsh name of traitor; but with his sacred duty in view, and supported by every vassal of note, he calmly disregarded the insult. Compelled to mount his steed, and surrounded by the veterans and all the chivalry of Mewar, Amra’s passion vented itself in tears of indignation. In such a mood the cavalcade descended the ridge, since studded with palaces, and had reached the spot where the temple of Jagannath now stands, when he recovered from this fit of passion; the tear ceased to flow, and passing his hand over his moustache, he made a courteous salutation to all, entreating their forgiveness for this omission of respect; but more especially expressing his gratitude to Salumbar, he said, “Lead on, nor shall you ever have to regret your late sovereign.” Elevated with every sentiment of generosity and valour, they passed on to Dawer, where they encountered the royal army led by the brother of the Khankhanan, as it entered the pass, and which, after a long and sanguinary combat, they entirely defeated.

Defeat of the Imperialists.

—The honours of the day are chiefly attributed to the brave Kana, uncle to the Rana, and ancestor of that numerous clan called after him Kanawats. A truce followed this battle, but it was of short duration; for another and yet more murderous conflict took place in the spring of 1666, in the pass of the sacred Ranpur , where the imperial army, under its leader Abdulla, was almost exterminated; though with the loss of the best and bravest of the chiefs of Mewar, whose names, however harsh, deserve preservation. A feverish exultation was the fruit of this victory, which shed a hectic flush of glory over the declining days of Mewar, when the crimson banner once more floated throughout the province of Godwar.

Jahāngīr establishes Sagra as Rāna.

—Alarmed at these successive defeats, Jahangir, preparatory to equipping a fresh army against Mewar, determined to establish a new Rana, and to instal him in the ancient seat of power, Chitor, thus hoping to withdraw from the standard of Amra many of his adherents. The experiment evinced at least a knowledge of their prejudices; but, to the honour of Rajput fidelity, it failed. Sagra, who abandoned Partap and went over to Akbar, was selected; the sword of investiture was girded on him by the emperor’s own hands, and under the escort of a Mogul force he went to reign amidst the ruins of Chitor. Her grandeur, even in desolation, is beautifully depicted at this very period by the chaplain to the embassy from Elizabeth to Jahangir, the members composing which visited the capital of the Sesodias in their route to Ajmer.

For seven years Sagra had a spurious homage paid to him amidst this desolation, the ruined pride of his ancestors. But it is gratifying to record, that not even by this recreant son of Chitor could the impressions formed in contemplating such scenes be resisted; and Sagra, though flinty as the rock to a brother and nephew, could not support the silent admonition of the altars of the heroes who had fallen in her defence. The triumphal column raised for victory over a combination of kings, was a perpetual memento of his infamy; nor could he pass over one finger’s breadth of her ample surface, without treading on some fragment which reminded him of their great deeds and his own unworthiness. We would be desirous of recording, that a nobler remembrancer than ‘coward conscience,’ animated the brother of Partap to an act of redeeming virtue; but when the annals tell us, that “the terrific Bhairon (the god of battle) openly manifested his displeasure,” it is decisive that it was not less the wish for greatness, than the desire to be “without the illness should attend it”; and sending for his nephew, he restored to him Chitor, retiring to the isolated Kandhar. Some time after, upon going to court, and being upbraided by Jahangir, he drew his dagger and slew himself in the emperor’s presence: an end worthy of such a traitor.

Conquests of Rāna Amar Singh I.

—Amra took possession of the seat of his ancestors; but wanting the means to put it in defence, the acquisition only served to increase the temporary exultation. The evil resulting from attaching so much consequence to a capital had been often signally manifested; as to harass the enemy from their mountains, and thereby render his conquests unavailing, was the only policy which could afford the chance of independence. With Chitor the Rana acquired, by surrender or assault, possession of no less than eighty of the chief towns and fortresses of Mewar: amongst them Untala, at whose capture occurred the patriotic struggle between the clans of Chondawat and Saktawat for the leading of the vanguard, elsewhere related. On this memorable storm, besides the leaders of the rival bands, five of the infant clan Saktawat, consisting but of sixteen brave brothers, with three of the house of Salumbar, perished, struggling for the immortality promised by the bard. We may here relate the rise of the Saktawats, with which is materially connected the future history of Mewar.

Sakta and the Saktāwats.

—Sakta was the second of the twenty-four sons of Udai Singh. When only five years of age, he discovered that fearless temperament which marked his manhood . The armourer having brought a new dagger to try its edge by the usual proof on thinly spread cotton, the child asked the Rana “if it was not intended to cut bones and flesh,” and seizing it, tried it on his own little hand. The blood gushed on the carpet, but he betrayed no symptom of pain or surprise. Whether his father admitted the tacit reproof of his own want of nerve, or that it recalled the prediction of the astrologers, who, in casting Sakta’s horoscope, had announced that he was to be “the bane of Mewar,” he was incontinently commanded to be put to death, and was carried off for this purpose, when saved by the Salumbar chief, who arrested the fiat, sped to the Rana, and begged his life as a boon, promising, having no heirs, to educate him as the future head of the Chondawats. The Salumbar chief had children in his old age, and while wavering between his own issue and the son of his adoption, the young Sakta was sent for to court by his brother Partap. The brothers for a considerable time lived on the most amicable footing, unhappily interrupted by a dispute while hunting, which in time engendered mutual dislike. While riding in the ring, Partap suddenly proposed to decide their quarrel by single combat, “to see who was the best lancer.” Not backward, Sakta replied, “Do you begin”; and some little time was lost in a courteous struggle for the first spear, when, as they took their ground and agreed to charge together, the Purohit rushed between the combatants and implored them not to ruin the house. His appeal, however, being vain, there was but one way left to prevent the unnatural strife: the priest drew his dagger, and plunging it in his breast, fell a lifeless corpse between the combatants. Appalled at the horrid deed, ‘the blood of the priest on their head,’ they desisted from their infatuated aim. Partap, waving his hand, commanded Sakta to quit his dominions, who bowing retired, and carried his resentments to Akbar. Partap performed with the obsequies of this faithful servant many expiatory rites, and made an irrevocable grant of Salera to his son, still enjoyed by his descendants, while a small column yet identifies the spot of sacrifice to fidelity. From that hour to the memorable day when the founder of the Saktawats gained the birad of the race ‘Khurasan Multan ka Aggal,’ on the occasion of his saving his sovereign flying from the field, the brothers had never beheld each other’s face .

Sakta had seventeen sons, all of whom, excepting the heir of Bhainsror, attended his obsequies. On return from this rite they found the gates barred against them by Bhanji, now chief of the Saktawats, who told them “there were too many mouths,” and that they must push their fortunes elsewhere while he attended his sovereign with the quota of Bhainsror. They demanded their horses and their arms, if such were his pleasure; and electing Achal as their head (whose wife was then pregnant), they took the route to Idar, which had recently been acquired by a junior branch of the Rathors of Marwar. They had reached Palod when the pangs of childbirth seized the wife of Achal; and being rudely repulsed by the Sonigira vassal of Palod, who refused her shelter at such a moment, they sought refuge amidst the ruins of a temple. It was the shrine of Mata Janavi, ‘the mother of births,’ the Juno Lucina of the Rajputs. In a corner of the sanctuary they placed the mother of a future race; but the rain, which fell in torrents, visibly affected the ruin. A beam of stone gave way, which but for Bala would have crushed her: he supported the sinking roof on his head till the brothers cut down a babul tree, with which they propped it and relieved him. In this retreat Asa (Hope) was born, who became the parent of an extensive branch known as the Achalis Saktawats.

The ‘Great Mother’ was propitious. The parent of ‘Hope’ was soon enabled to resume her journey for Idar, whose chief received them with open arms, and assigned lands for their support. Here they had been some time when the Rana’s prime minister passed through Idar from a pilgrimage to Satrunjaya. A violent storm would have thrown down the tent in which was his wife, but for the exertion of some of the brothers; and the minister, on learning that it was to the near kin of his sovereign he was indebted for this kindness, invited them to Udaipur, taking upon him to provide for them with their own proper head, which they declined without a special invitation. This was not long wanting; for Amra was then collecting the strength of his hills against the king, and the services of the band of brothers, his kinsmen, were peculiarly acceptable. The first act of duty, though humble, is properly recorded, as ennobled by the sentiment which inspired it, and the pictured scene is yet preserved of Bala and Jodha collecting logs of wood for a night fire in the mountain bivouac for their kinsman and sovereign. In the more brilliant exploit which followed Bala took the lead, and though the lord of Bhainsror was in camp, it was Bala who obtained the leading of the vanguard: the commencement of that rivalry of clanship from whence have resulted some of the most daring, and many of the most merciless deeds in the history of Mewar. The right to lead in battle belonged to the Chondawats, and the first intimation the chieftain had of his prince’s inconsiderate insult was from the bard incessantly repeating the ‘birad’ of the clan, until ‘the portal of the ten thousand’ of Mewar deemed him mad. “Not so,” replied he; “but it is, perhaps, the last time your ears may be gratified with the watchword of Chonda, which may to-morrow be given as well as the Harawal to the Saktawats.” An explanation followed, and the assault of Untala ensued, which preserved the rights of the Chondawats, though nobly contested by their rivals. The vassal of Bakrol carried the tidings of the successful assault to the Rana, who arrived in time to receive the last obeisance of Bala, whose parting words to his prince were seized on by the bard and added to the birad of the clan: and although, in sloth and opium, they now “lose and neglect the creeping hours of time,” yet whenever a Saktawat chief enters the court of his sovereign, or takes his seat amongst his brother chiefs, the bards still salute him with the dying words of Bala:

"Dūna dātār.
Chauguna junjhār,
Khurāsān Multān ka āggāl."

Then passing the hand over his moustache, for a moment the escalade of Untala flits before his vision, where Bala, Achalis, Jodha, Dilla, and Chaturbhan, five of the seventeen sons of Sakta, fell for the maintenance of the post of honour . Bhanji soon after performed a service which obtained him the entire favour of his prince, who, returning from Ratlam, was insulted by the Rathors of Bhindar, which was punished by the Saktawat, who took the town by assault, expelling the aggressors. Amra added it to his fief of Bhainsror, and since the latter was bestowed on the rival clan, Bhindar has continued the chief residence of the leader of the Saktawats. Ten chiefs have followed in regular succession, whose issue spread over Mewar, so that in a few generations after Sakta, their prince could muster the swords of ten thousand Saktawats; but internal feuds and interminable spoliation have checked the progress of population, and it might be difficult now to assemble half that number of the ‘children of Sakta’ fit to bear arms.

Renewed Attack by Jahāngīr. Battle of Khāmnor.

—To return. These defeats alarmed Jahangir, who determined to equip an overwhelming force to crush the Rana. To this end he raised the imperial standard at Ajmer, and assembled the expedition under his immediate inspection, of which he appointed his son Parvez commander, with instructions on departure “that if the Rana or his elder son Karan should repair to him, to receive them with becoming attention, and to offer no molestation to the country.” But the Sesodia prince little thought of submission: on the contrary, flushed with success, he gave the royal army the meeting at a spot oft moistened with blood, the pass of Khamnor, leading into the heart of the hills. The imperial army was disgracefully beaten, and fled, pursued with great havoc, towards Ajmer. The Mogul historian admits it to have been a glorious day for Mewar. He describes Parvez entangled in the passes, dissensions in his camp, his supplies cut off, and under all these disadvantages attacked; his precipitate flight and pursuit, in which the royal army lost vast numbers of men. But Jahangir in his diary slurs it over, and simply remarks: “Fearing that Khusrau’s affair might be prolonged, I ordered my son Parwīz to leave some of the Sardārs to look after the Rānā, and to come to Agra with Āsaf Khān and a body of those nearly connected with him in the service.”

This son, tutored by the great Mahabat Khan, fared no better than Parvez; he was routed and slain. But the Hydra was indestructible; for every victory, while it cost the best blood of Mewar, only multiplied the number of her foes. Seventeen pitched battles had the illustrious Rajput fought since the death of his father: but the loss of his experienced veterans withered the laurels of victory, nor had he sufficient repose either to husband his resources or to rear his young heroes to replace them. Another and yet more mighty army was assembled under Prince Khurram, the ablest of the sons of Jahangir, and better known in history as Shah Jahan, when emperor of the Moguls.

Again did the Rana with his son Karan collect the might of their hills; but a handful of warriors was all their muster to meet the host of Delhi, and the ‘crimson banner,’ which for more than eight hundred years had waved in proud independence over the heads of the Guhilots, was now to be abased to the son of Jahangir. The Emperor’s own pen shall narrate the termination of this strife.

"My chief object, after my visit to the Khwāja [the tomb of Mu’īnu-d-dīn Chishti, the saint of Ajmer] was to put a stop to the affair of the rebel Rānā. On this account I determined to remain myself at Ajmīr and send on Bābā Khurram, my fortunate son. This idea was a very good one, and on this account, on the 6th of Day [tenth month of the solar year] at the hour fixed on, I dispatched him in happiness and triumph. I presented him with a qabā (outer coat) of gold brocade with jewelled flowers and pearls round the flowers, a brocaded turban with strings of pearls, a gold woven sash with chains of pearls, one of my private elephants called Fath Gaj, with trappings, a splendid horse, a jewelled sword, with a phūl katāra (dagger). In addition to the men first appointed to this duty under the leadership of Khān A’zam, I sent 12,000 more horse with my son, and honoured their khil’at (wearing robes of honour) leaders."

On 14th Isfandārmuz [twelfth month of the solar year] "a representation came from my son Bābā Khurram that the elephant ‛Ālam Gumān [‘arrogant of the earth’], of which the Rānā was very fond, together with seventeen ‛Ālamgumān other elephants, had fallen into the hands of the victorious army." Jahāngīr rode this elephant on the second day of the New Year, which began on 21st March 1614.

"In the month of Bahman [eleventh solar month] there came pieces of good news, one after the other. The first was that the Rānā Amar Singh had elected for obedience and service to the Court. The circumstances of this affair are these. Sultān Khurram, by dint of placing a great many posts, especially in some places where most people said it was impossible to place them on account of the badness of the air and water and the wild nature of the localities, and by dint of moving the royal forces one after another in pursuit, without regard to the heat or excessive rain, and making prisoners of the inhabitants of that region, brought matters with the Rānā to such a pass that it became clear to him that if this should happen to him again he must either fly the country or be made prisoner. Being without remedy, he chose obedience and loyalty, and sent to my fortunate son his maternal uncle Subhkaran, with Haridās Jhālā, who was one of the two men in his confidence, and petitioned that if that fortunate son would ask forgiveness for his offences and tranquillize his mind, and obtain for him the auspicious sign-manual (panja, the mark of the Emperor’s five fingers), he would himself wait on my son, and would send his son and successor, Karan Singh, or he, after the manner of other Rājas, would be enrolled among the servants of the Court and do service. He also begged that he himself might be excused from coming to Court on account of his old age. Accordingly, my son sent them in company with his own Dīwān, Mullā Shukru-llah, whom after the conclusion of this business I dignified with the title of Afzal Khān, and Sundar Dās, his major-domo, who, after the matter was settled, was honoured with the title of Rāy Rayān, to the exalted Court, and represented the circumstances. My lofty mind was always desirous, as far as possible, not to destroy the old families. The real point was that as Rānā Amar Singh and his fathers, proud in the strength of the hilly country and their abodes, had never seen or obeyed any of the kings of Hindustan, this should be brought about in my reign. At the request of my son, I forgave the Rānā’s offences, and gave a gracious farmān that should satisfy him, and impressed on it the mark of my auspicious palm. I also wrote a farmān of kindness to my son that if he could arrange to settle the matter I should be much pleased. My son also sent them [perhaps the uncle and Haridās, or the farmāns] with Mullā Shukru-llah and Sundar Dās to the Rānā to console him and make him hopeful of the royal favour. They gave him the gracious farmān with the sign-manual of the auspicious hand, and it was settled that on Sunday, the 26th of the month Bahman, he and his sons should come and pay their respects to my son."

"In the end of this month, when I was employed in hunting in the environs of Ajmīr, Muhammad Beg, an attendant on my fortunate son Sultān Khurram, came and brought a report from that son, and stated that the Rānā had come with his sons and paid his respects to the prince: the details would be made known by the report. I immediately turned the face of supplication to the Divine Court, and prostrated myself in thanksgiving. I presented a horse, an elephant, and a jewelled dagger to the aforesaid Muhammad Khān, and honoured him with the title of Zu-l-faqār Khān [‘Lord of the sword’]."

"From the report it appeared that on Sunday the 26th Bahman, the Rānā paid his respects to my fortunate son with the politeness and ritual that servants pay their respects, and produced as offerings a famous large ruby that was in his house, with some decorated articles and seven elephants, some of them fit for the private stud, and which had not fallen into our hands, and were the only ones left him, and nine horses. My son also behaved to him with perfect kindness. When the Rānā clasped his feet and asked forgiveness for his faults, he took his hand and placed it on his breast, and consoled him in such a manner as to comfort him. He presented him with a superb dress of honour, a jewelled sword, a horse with a jewelled saddle, and a private elephant with silver housings, and as there were not more than 100 men with him who were worthy of complete robes of honour, he gave 100 sarupā [dresses] and 50 horses and 12 jewelled khapwā [daggers]. As it is the custom of the Zamīndārs that the son who is the heir-apparent should not go with his father to pay his respects to a king or prince, the Rānā observed this custom, and did not bring with him Karan, the son who had received the tīkā [forehead mark of inauguration]. As the hour (fixed by astrology) of his departure of that son of lofty fortune from that place was the end of that same day, he gave him leave, so that, having himself gone, he might send Karan to pay his respects. To him also he gave a superb dress of honour, a jewelled sword and dagger, a horse with a gold saddle, and a special elephant, and on the same day, taking Karan in attendance, he proceeded towards the illustrious Court."

"In my interview with Sultan Khurram on his arrival at Ajmer, he represented that if it was my pleasure he would present the prince Karan, whom I accordingly desired him to bring. He arrived, paid his respects, and his rank was commanded to be, at the request of my son, immediately on my right hand, and I rewarded him with suitable khilats. As Karan, owing to the rude life he had led in his native hills, was extremely shy, and unused to the pageantry and experience of a court, in order to reconcile and give him confidence I daily gave him some testimonies of my regard and protection, and in the second day of his service I gave him a jewelled dagger, and on the third a choice steed of Irak with rich caparisons; and on the same day, I took him with me to the queen’s court, when the queen, Nur Jahan, made him splendid khilats, elephant and horse caparisoned, sword, etc. The same day I gave him a rich necklace of pearls, another day an elephant, and it was my wish to give him rarities and choice things of every kind. I gave him three royal hawks and three gentle falcons trained to the hand, coat of mail, chain and plate armour, and two rings of value; and, on the last day of the month, carpets, state cushions, perfumes, vessels of gold, and a pair of the bullocks of Gujarat.

"10th year. At this time I gave prince Karan leave to return to his jagir; when I bestowed on him an elephant, horse, and a pearl necklace valued at 50,000 rupees (£5000); and from the day of his repairing to my court to that of his departure, the value of the various gifts I presented him exceeded ten lakhs of rupees (£125,000), exclusive of one hundred and ten horses, five elephants, or what my son Khurram gave him. I sent Mubarik Khan along with him, by whom I sent an elephant, horse, etc., and various confidential messages to the Rana.

"On the 8th Safar of the 10th year of the H. 1024 Karan was elevated to the dignity of a Mansabdar of five thousand, when I presented him with a bracelet of pearls, in which was a ruby of great price.

"24th Muharram, 10th year (A.D. 1615), Jagat Sing, son of Karan, aged twelve years, arrived at court and paid his respects, and presented the arzis of his father and grandfather, Rana Amra Singh. His countenance carried the impression of his illustrious extraction, and I delighted his heart with presents and kindness.

"On the 10th Shaban, Jagat Singh had permission to return to his house. At his departure I presented him with 20,000 rupees, a horse, elephant, and khilats ; and to Haridas Jhala, preceptor of Prince Karan, 5000 rupees, a horse, and khilat; and I sent by him six golden images to the Rana.

"28th Rabiu-l-Ākhir, 11th year. The statues of the Rana and Karan, sculptured in white marble, I desired should have inscribed the date in which they were prepared and presented, and commanded they should be placed in the gardens at Agra.

"In the 11th year of my reign an arzi from Itimad Khan acquainted me that Sultan Khurram had entered the Rana’s country, and that prince and his son had both exchanged visits with my son; and that from the tribute, consisting of seven elephants, twenty-seven saddle horses, trays of jewels, and ornaments of gold, my son took three horses and returned all the rest, and engaged that Prince Karan and fifteen hundred Rajput horse should remain with him in the wars.

"In the 13th year Prince Karan repaired to my court, then at Sindla, to congratulate me on my victories and conquest of the Deccan, and presented 100 mohars, 1000 rupees, nazarana, and effects in gold and jewels to the amount of 21,000 rupees, hardy elephants and horses; the last I returned, but kept the rest, and next day presented him a dress of honour; and from Fatehpur gave him his leave, with elephant, horse, sword, and dagger, and a horse for his father.

"14th year of my reign. On the 17th Rabiu-l-awwal, 1029 H., I received intelligence of the death of Rana Amra Singh. To Jagat Singh, his grandson, and Bhim Singh, his son, in attendance, I gave khilats, and dispatched Raja Kishordas with the farman conferring benefits and with the dignity of Rana, the khilat of investiture, choice horses, and a letter of condolence suitable to the occasion to Prince Karan. 7th Shawwal. Biharidas Brahman I dispatched with a farman to Rana Karan, desiring that his son with his contingent should attend me."

Treatment of the Rāna by Jahāngīr.

—To have generalized this detail of the royal historian would have been to lessen the interest of this important period in the annals of Mewar. Jahangir merits to have his exultation, his noble and unostentatious conduct, described by his own pen, the extreme minuteness of which description but increases the interest. With his self-gratulation, he bears full testimony to the gallant and long-protracted resistance of the Rajputs; and while he impartially, though rather erroneously, estimates their motives and means of opposition, he does Amra ample justice in the declaration, that he did not yield until he had but the alternative of captivity or exile; and with a magnanimity above all praise, he records the Rajput prince’s salvo for his dignity, “that he would hold himself excused from attending in person.” The simple and naïve declaration of his joy, "his going abroad on ‛Alam Guman," the favourite elephant of the Rana which had been captured, on learning his submission, is far stronger than the most pompous testimony of public rejoicing. But there is a heart-stirring philanthropy in the conduct of the Mogul which does him immortal honour; and in commanding his son “to treat the illustrious one according to his heart’s wishes,” though he so long and so signally had foiled the royal armies, he proved himself worthy of the good fortune he acknowledges, and well shows his sense of the superiority of the chief of all the Rajputs, by placing the heir of Mewar, even above all the princes of his own house, ‘immediately on his right hand.’ Whether he attempts to relieve the shyness of Karan, or sets forth the princely appearance of Jagat Singh, we see the same amiable feeling operating to lighten the chains of the conquered. But the shyness of Karan deserved a worthier term: he felt the degradation which neither the statues raised to them, the right hand of the monarch, the dignity of a ‘commander of five thousand,’ or even the restoration of the long-alienated territory could neutralize, when the kingdom to which he was heir was called a fief (jagir), and himself, ‘the descendant of a hundred kings,’ a vassal (jagirdar) of the empire, under whose banner, which his ancestors had so signally opposed, he was now to follow with a contingent of fifteen hundred Rajput horse.

Seldom has subjugated royalty met with such consideration; yet, to a lofty mind like Amra’s, this courteous condescension but increased the severity of endurance . In the bitterness of his heart he cursed the magnanimity of Khurram, himself of Rajput blood and an admirer of Rajput valour, which circumstance more than the force of his arms had induced him to surrender; for Khurram demanded but the friendship of the Rajput as the price of peace, and to withdraw every Muhammadan from Mewar if the Rana would but receive the emperor’s farman outside of his capital. This his proud soul rejected; and though he visited Prince Khurram as a friend, he spurned the proposition of acknowledging a superior, or receiving the rank and titles awaiting such an admission. The noble Amra, who—

Rather than be less,
Cared not to be at all—

took the resolution to abdicate the throne he could no longer hold but at the will of another. Assembling his chiefs, and disclosing his determination, he made the tīka on his son’s forehead; and observing that the honour of Mewar was now in his hands, forthwith left the capital and secluded himself in the Nauchauki: nor did he from that hour cross its threshold, but to have his ashes deposited with those of his fathers.

Character of Rāna Amar Singh.

—All comment is superfluous on such a character as Rana Amra. He was worthy of Partap and his race. He possessed all the physical as well as mental qualities of a hero, and was the tallest and strongest of all the princes of Mewar. He was not so fair as they usually are, and he had a reserve bordering upon gloominess, doubtless occasioned by his reverses, for it was not natural to him; he was beloved by his chiefs for the qualities they most esteem, generosity and valour, and by his subjects for his justice and kindness, of which we can judge from his edicts, many of which yet live on the column or the rock .

Chapter 13

Rāna Karan Singh II., A.D. 1620-28.

—Karan, or Karna (the radiant), succeeded to the last independent king of Mewar, S. 1677, A.D. 1621. Henceforth we shall have to exhibit these princely ‘children of the sun’ with diminished lustre, moving as satellites round the primary planet; but, unaccustomed to the laws of its attraction, they soon deviated from the orbit prescribed, and in the eccentricity of their movements occasionally displayed their unborrowed effulgence. For fifteen hundred years we have traced each alternation of the fortune of this family, from their establishment in the second, to their expulsion in the fifth century from Saurashtra by the Parthians; the acquisition and loss of Idar; the conquest and surrender of Chitor; the rise of Udaipur and abasement of the red flag to Jahangir; and we shall conclude with not the least striking portion of their history, their unity of interests with Britain.

Karan was deficient neither in courage nor conduct; of both he had given a decided proof, when, to relieve the pecuniary difficulties of his father, with a rapidity unparalleled, he passed through the midst of his foes, surprised and plundered Surat, and carried off a booty which was the means of protracting the evil days of his country. But for the exercise of the chief virtue of the Rajput, he had little scope throughout his reign, and fortunately for his country the powerful esteem and friendship which Jahangir and Prince Khurram evinced for his house, enabled him to put forth the talents he possessed to repair past disasters. He fortified the heights round the capital, which he strengthened with a wall and ditch, partly enlarged the noble dam which retains the waters of the Pichola, and built that entire portion of the palace called the Rawala, still set apart for the ladies of the court.

Terms between Rāna Karan Singh and Jahāngīr.

—When Rana Amra made terms with Jahangir, he stipulated, as a salvo for his dignity and that of his successors, exemption from all personal attendance; and confined the extent of homage to his successors receiving, on each lapse of the crown, the farman or imperial decree in token of subordination, which, more strongly to mark their dependent condition, the Rana was to accept without the walls of his capital; accordingly, though the heirs-apparent of Mewar attended the court, they never did as Rana. Partly to lessen the weight of this sacrifice to independence, and partly to exalt the higher grade of nobles, the princes of the blood-royal of Mewar were made to rank below the Sixteen, a fictitious diminution of dignity which, with similar acts peculiar to this house, enhanced the self-estimation of the nobles, and made them brave every danger to obtain such sacrifices to the ruling passion of the Rajput, a love of distinction. It is mentioned by the emperor that he placed the heir-apparent of Mewar immediately on his right hand, over all the princes of Hindustan; consequently the superior nobles of Mewar, who were all men of royal descent, deemed themselves, and had their claims admitted, to rank above their peers at other courts, and to be seated almost on an equality with their princes.

Sesodias in the Imperial Service.

—The Sesodia chieftains were soon distinguished amongst the Rajput vassals of the Mogul, and had a full share of power. Of these Bhim, the younger brother of Karan, who headed the quota of Mewar, was conspicuous, and became the chief adviser and friend of Sultan Khurram, who well knew his intrepidity. At his son’s solicitation, the emperor conferred upon him the title of Raja, and assigned a small principality on the Banas for his residence, of which Toda was the capital. Ambitious of perpetuating a name, he erected a new city and palace on the banks of the river, which he called Rajmahall, and which his descendants held till about forty years ago. The ruins of Rajmahall bear testimony to the architectural taste of this son of Mewar, as do the fallen fortunes of his descendant to the instability of power: the lineal heir of Raja Bhim serves the chief of Shahpura on half a crown a day!

Revolt and Death of Bhīm Singh.

—Jahangir, notwithstanding his favours, soon had a specimen of the insubordinate spirit of Bhim. Being desirous to separate him from Sultan Khurram, who aspired to the crown in prejudice to his elder brother Parvez, he appointed Bhim to the government of Gujarat, which was distinctly refused. Detesting Parvez, who, it will be recollected, invaded Mewar, and was foiled for his cruelty on this occasion, Bhim advised his friend at once to throw off the mask, if he aspired to reign. Parvez was slain, and Khurram manifested his guilt by flying to arms . He was secretly supported by a strong party of the Rajput interest, at the head of which was Gaj Singh of Marwar, his maternal grandfather, who cautiously desired to remain neutral. Jahangir advanced to crush the incipient revolt; but dubious of the Rathor (Gaj Singh), he gave the van to Jaipur, upon which the prince furled his banners and determined to be a spectator. The armies approached and were joining action, when the impetuous Bhim sent a message to the Rathor either to aid or oppose them. The insult provoked him to the latter course, and Bhim’s party was destroyed, himself slain, and Khurram and Mahabat Khan compelled to seek refuge in Udaipur. In this asylum he remained undisturbed: apartments in the palace were assigned to him; but his followers little respecting Rajput prejudices, the island became his residence, on which a sumptuous edifice was raised, adorned with a lofty dome crowned with the crescent. The interior was decorated with mosaic, in onyx, cornelian, jaspers, and agates, rich Turkey carpets, etc.; and that nothing of state might be wanting to the royal refugee, a throne was sculptured from a single block of serpentine, supported by quadriform female Caryatidae. In the court a little chapel was erected to the Muhammadan saint Madar, and here the prince with his court resided, every wish anticipated, till a short time before his father’s death, when he retired into Persia.

Such was Rajput gratitude to a prince who, when the chances of war made him victor over them, had sought unceasingly to mitigate the misery attendant on the loss of independence! It is pleasing to record to the honour of this calumniated race, that these feelings on the part of Karan were not transient; and that so far from expiring with the object,

The debt immense of endless gratitude.

was transmitted as an heirloom to his issue; and though two centuries have fled, during which Mewar had suffered every variety of woe, pillaged by Mogul , Pathan, and Mahratta, yet the turban of Prince Khurram, the symbol of fraternity, has been preserved, and remains in the same folds as when transferred from the head of the Mogul to that of the Rajput prince. The shield is yet held as the most sacred of relics, nor will the lamp which illumines the chapel of Madar want oil while the princes of Udaipur have wherewithal to supply it.

Death of Rāna Karan Singh.

—Rana Karan had enjoyed eight years of perfect tranquillity when he was gathered to his fathers. The sanctuary he gave Prince Khurram had no apparent effect on Jahangir, who doubtless believed that the Rana did not sanction the conduct of his brother Bhim. He was succeeded by his son Jagat Singh, ‘the lion of the world,’ in S. 1684 (A.D. 1628).

Rāna Jagat Singh I., A.D. 1628-52.

—The Emperor Jahangir died shortly after his accession [October 28, 1627], and while Khurram was in exile. This event, which gave the throne to the friend of his house, was announced to him by the Rana, who sent his brother and a band of Rajputs to Surat to form the cortege of the emperor, who repaired directly to Udaipur; and it was in the Badal Mahall (‘the cloud saloon’) of his palace that he was first saluted by the title of ‘Shah Jahan,’ by the satraps and tributary princes of the empire. On taking leave, the new monarch restored five alienated districts, and presented the Rana with a ruby of inestimable value, giving him also permission to reconstruct the fortifications of Chitor.

The twenty-six years during which Jagat Singh occupied the throne passed in uninterrupted tranquillity: a state unfruitful to the bard, who flourishes only amidst agitation and strife. This period was devoted to the cultivation of the peaceful arts, especially architecture; and to Jagat Singh Udaipur is indebted for those magnificent works which bear his name, and excite our astonishment, after all the disasters we have related, at the resources he found to accomplish them .

Erection of Buildings at Udaipur.

—The palace on the lake (covering about four acres), called the Jagniwas, is entirely his work, as well as many additions to its sister isle, on which is the Jagmandir. Nothing but marble enters into their composition; columns, baths, reservoirs, fountains, all are of this material, often inlaid with mosaics, and the uniformity pleasingly diversified by the light passing through glass of every hue. The apartments are decorated with historical paintings in water-colours, almost meriting the term fresco from their deep absorption in the wall, though the darker tints have blended with and in part obscured the more delicate shades, from atmospheric causes. The walls, both here and in the grand palace, contain many medallions, in considerable relief, in gypsum, portraying the principal historical events of the family, from early periods even to the marriage pomp of the present Rana. Parterres of flowers, orange and lemon groves, intervene to dispel the monotony of the buildings, shaded by the wide-spreading tamarind and magnificent evergreen khirni; while the graceful palmyra and coco wave their plumelike branches over the dark cypress or cooling plantain. Detached colonnaded refectories are placed on the water’s edge for the chiefs, and extensive baths for their use. Here they listened to the tale of the bard, and slept off their noonday opiate amidst the cool breezes of the lake, wafting delicious odours from myriads of the lotus-flower which covered the surface of the waters; and as the fumes of the potion evaporated, they opened their eyes on a landscape to which not even its inspirations could frame an equal: the broad waters of the Pichola, with its indented and well-wooded margin receding to the terminating point of sight, at which the temple of Brahmpuri opened on the pass of the gigantic Aravalli, the field of the exploits of their forefathers. Amid such scenes did the Sesodia princes and chieftains recreate during two generations, exchanging the din of arms for voluptuous inactivity.

Jagat Singh was a highly respected prince, and did much to efface the remembrance of the rude visitations of the Moguls. The dignity of his character, his benevolence of address and personal demeanour, secured the homage of all who had access to him, and are alike attested by the pen of the emperor, the ambassador of England, and the chronicles of Mewar. He had the proud satisfaction of redeeming the ancient capital from ruin; rebuilding the “chaplet bastion, restoring the portals, and replacing the pinnacles on the temples of Chitrakot.” By a princess of Marwar he left two sons, the eldest of whom succeeded.

Rāna Rāj Singh, A.D. 1652-80.

—Raj Singh (the royal lion) mounted the throne in S. 1710 (A.D. 1654). Various causes over which he had no control combined, together with his personal character, to break the long repose his country had enjoyed. The emperor of the Moguls had reached extreme old age, and the ambition of his sons to usurp his authority involved every Rajput in support of their individual pretensions. The Rana inclined to Dara, the legitimate heir to the throne, as did nearly the whole Rajput race; but the battle of Fatehabad silenced every pretension, and gave the lead to Aurangzeb, which he maintained by the sacrifice of whatever opposed his ambition. His father, brothers, nay, his own offspring, were in turn victims to that thirst for power which eventually destroyed the monarchy of the Moguls.

The policy introduced by their founder, from which Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan had reaped so many benefits, was unwisely abandoned by the latter, who of all had the most powerful reasons for maintaining those ties which connected the Rajput princes with his house. Historians have neglected to notice the great moral strength derived from this unity of the indigenous races with their conquerors; for during no similar period was the empire so secure, nor the Hindu race so cherished, as during the reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan: the former born from a Rajput princess of Amber, and the latter from the house of Marwar. Aurangzeb’s unmixed Tatar blood brought no Rajput sympathies to his aid; on the contrary, every noble family shed their best blood in withstanding his accession, and in the defence of Shah Jahan’s rights, while there was a hope of success. The politic Aurangzeb was not blind to this defect, and he tried to remedy it in his successor; for both his declared heir, Shah Alam, and Azam, as well as his favourite grandson, were the offspring of Rajputnis; but, uninfluenced himself by such predilections, his bigotry outweighed his policy, and he visited the Rajputs with an unrelenting and unwise persecution .

We shall pass the twice-told tale of the struggle for power which ended in the destruction of the brothers, competitors with Aurangzeb: this belongs to general history, not to the annals of Mewar; and that history is in every hand, in which the magnanimity of Dara, the impetuosity of Murad, and the activity of Suja met the same tragical end.

Princes contemporary with Aurangzeb.

—It has seldom occurred that so many distinguished princes were contemporary as during the reign of Aurangzeb. Every Rajput principality had a head above mediocrity in conduct as in courage. Jai Singh of Amber, surnamed ‘the Mirza Raja’; Jaswant Singh of Marwar, with the Haras of Bundi and Kotah; the Rathors of Bikaner, and Bundelas of Orchha and Datia, were men whose prejudices, properly consulted, would have rendered the Mogul power indissoluble: but he had but one measure of contumely for all, which inspired Sivaji with designs of freedom to Maharashtra, and withdrew every sentiment of support from the princes of Rajasthan. In subtlety and the most specious hypocrisy, in that concentration of resolve which confides its deep purpose to none, in every qualification of the warrior or scholar, Aurangzeb had no superior amongst the many distinguished of his race; but that sin by which ‘angels fell’ had steeped him in an ocean of guilt, and not only neutralized his natural capacities, but converted the means for unlimited power into an engine of self-destruction. “This hypocrisy,” says the eloquent Orme, “encreased with his power, and in order to palliate to his Mahomedan subjects the crimes by which he had become their sovereign, he determined to enforce the conversion of the Hindoos by the severest penalties, and even threatned the sword; as if the blood of his subjects were to wash away the stains, with which he was imbrued by the blood of his family.... Labour left the field and industry the loom, until the decrease of the revenues drew representations from the governors of the provinces; which induced Aurungzebe to substitute a capitation tax as the ballance of the account between the two religions.” The same historian justly characterizes this enactment as one so contrary to all notions of sound policy, as well as of the feelings of humanity, that “reflection seeks the motive with amazement.” In this amazement we might remain, nor seek to develop the motive, did not the ample page of history in all nations disclose that in the name of religion more blood has been shed, and more atrocity committed, than by the united action of the whole catalogue of the passions. Muhammad’s creed was based on conversion, which, by whatever means effected, was a plenary atonement for every crime. In obedience thereto Aurangzeb acted; but though myriads of victims who clung to their faith were sacrificed by him at the fiat of this gladiatorial prophet, yet nor these, nor the scrupulous fulfilment of fanatic observances, could soothe at the dread hour the perturbations of the ‘still small voice’ which whispered the names of father, brother, son, bereft by him of life. Eloquently does he portray these terrors in his letters to his grandson on his death-bed, wherein he says, "Whichever way I look, I see only the divinity"—and that an offended divinity .

Rāna Rāj Singh defies Aurangzeb.

—Raj Singh had signalized his accession by the revival of the warlike Tika-daur, and plundered Malpura, which though on the Ajmer frontier, Shah Jahan, when advised to vengeance, replied “it was only a folly of his nephew.” An appeal to his gallantry made him throw down the gauntlet to Aurangzeb in the plenitude of his power, when the valour of the Sesodias again burst forth in all the splendour of the days of Partap; nor did the contest close till after a series of brilliant victories, and with the narrow escape from captivity of the Xerxes of Hindustan. The Mogul demanded the hand of the princess of Rupnagar, a junior branch of the Marwar house, and sent with the demand (a compliance with which was contemplated as certain) a cortège of two thousand horse to escort the fair to court. But the haughty Rajputni, either indignant at such precipitation or charmed with the gallantry of the Rana, who had evinced his devotion to the fair by measuring his sword with the head of her house, rejected with disdain the proffered alliance, and, justified by brilliant precedents in the romantic history of her nation, she entrusted her cause to the arm of the chief of the Rajput race, offering herself as the reward of protection. The family priest (her preceptor) deemed his office honoured by being the messenger of her wishes, and the billet he conveyed is incorporated in the memorial of this reign. “Is the swan to be the mate of the stork: a Rajputni, pure in blood, to be wife to the monkey-faced barbarian!” concluding with a threat of self-destruction if not saved from dishonour. This appeal, with other powerful motives, was seized on with avidity by the Rana as a pretext to throw away the scabbard, in order to illustrate the opening of a warfare, in which he determined to put all to the hazard in defence of his country and his faith. The issue was an omen of success to his warlike and superstitious vassalage. With a chosen band he rapidly passed the foot of the Aravalli and appeared before Rupnagar, cut up the imperial guards, and bore off the prize to his capital. The daring act was applauded by all who bore the name of Rajput, and his chiefs with joy gathered their retainers around the ‘red standard,’ to protect the queen so gallantly achieved.

The Imposition of the Jizya or Capitation Tax.

—The annalist of Rajputana is but an indifferent chronologist, and leaves us doubtful of the exact succession of events at this period. It was not, however, till the death of those two powerful princes, Jaswant Singh of Marwar and Jai Singh of Amber, both poisoned by command of the tyrant, the one at his distant government of Kabul, the other in the Deccan, that he deemed himself free to put forth the full extent of his long-concealed design, the imposition of the jizya or capitation tax on the whole Hindu race. But he miscalculated his measures, and the murder of these princes, far from advancing his aim, recoiled with vengeance on his head. Foiled in his plot to entrap the infant sons of the Rathor by the self-devotion of his vassals, the compound treachery evinced that their only hope lay in a deadly resistance. The mother of Ajit, the infant heir of Marwar, a woman of the most determined character, was a princess of Mewar, and she threw herself upon the Rana as the natural guardian of his rights, for sanctuary (saran) during the dangers of his minority. This was readily yielded, and Kelwa assigned as his residence, where under the immediate safeguard of the brave Durgadas Ajit resided, while she nursed the spirit of resistance at home. A union of interests was cemented between these the chief States of Rajputana, for which they never before had such motive, and but for repeated instances of an ill-judged humanity, the throne of the Moguls might have been completely overturned .

Letter of Remonstrance to Aurangzeb.

—On the promulgation of that barbarous edict, the jizya, the Rana remonstrated by letter, in the name of the nation of which he was the head, in a style of such uncompromising dignity, such lofty yet temperate resolve, so much of soul-stirring rebuke mingled with a boundless and tolerating benevolence, such elevated ideas of the Divinity with such pure philanthropy, that it may challenge competition with any epistolary production of any age, clime, or condition. In this are contained the true principles of Christianity, and to the illustrious Gentile, and such as acted as he did, was pointed that golden sentence of toleration, "Those who have not the law, yet do by nature the things contained in the law, shall be a law unto themselves."

Aurangzeb attacks Mewār.

—This letter, the sanctuary afforded Ajit, and (what the historical parasite of the Mogul’s life dared not indite) the carrying off of his betrothed, made him pour out all the phials of his wrath against the devoted Mewar, and his preparations more resembled those for the conquest of a potent kingdom than the subjugation of a Rajput zamindar, a vassal of that colossal empire on whose surface his domain was but a speck. In the very magnitude of these, the Suzerain of Hindustan paid the highest tribute of praise to the tributary Rajput, for he denuded the very extremities of his empire to assemble a host which he deemed must prove irresistible. Akbar was recalled from his province, Bengal; Azam from the distant Kabul; and even Muazzam (the Mogul’s heir) from the war in the Deccan. With this formidable array the emperor entered Mewar, and soon reduced the low countries, which experience had taught them were indefensible, the inhabitants previously retiring with their effects to the hills. Chitor, Mandalgarh, Mandasor, Jiran, and many other strongholds were obtained after the usual form of opposition, and garrisoned by the Moguls. Meanwhile the Rana was animating the might of the Aravalli, where he meditated a resistance proportioned to the peril which threatened every cherished prejudice of his race: not the mere defence of dominion or dignity, but a struggle, pro aris et focis, around which rallied every Rajput with the most deadly determination. Even the primitive races of the western wilds, “the Palindas and Palipats (lord of the passes), with thousands of bows, and hearts devoted in the cause of Hindupat,” assembled round the red banner of Mewar. The Rana divided his forces into three bodies . His eldest son, Jai Singh, was posted on the crest of the Aravalli, ready to act on the invaders from either side of the mountains. Prince Bhim was to the west, to keep up the communications with the outlets to Gujarat; while the Rana, with the main body, took post in the Nai defile, unassailable by the enemy, and hanging on his left flank, ready to turn it, and cut off all retreat the moment the Imperialists entered the mountains. Aurangzeb advanced to Debari, but instead of entering the valley of which it was the gorge, he halted, and by the advice of Tahawwar Khan sent on Prince Akbar with fifty thousand men to the capital. This caution of the wily monarch saved him from the ably planned scheme of the Rajput prince, who evinced a thorough knowledge of the topography of this intricate and romantic portion of his domain. The Girwa, emphatically ‘the Circle,’ from which the valley of the capital is named, has this form to the eye when viewing it from thence as a centre. It is, however, an irregular ellipse of about fourteen miles in length from south to north, and about eleven in breadth from east to west, the capital being situated towards the extremity of the transverse axis, having only the lake Pichola between it and the base of the Aravalli. The mountains of this circular (girwa) valley, ranging from eight to twelve hundred feet in height, are of primitive formation, and raise their fantastic pinnacles in every diversity of shape over each other. To the westward the grand chain rises two thousand feet above the plains, and might be termed the chord, of which the Girwa is an irregular segment of a circle, less in height, and far less compound in character. Towards the plains east, it has three practicable passes; one, the more northern, by Delwara; the other (central), by Debari; a third, leading to the intricacies of Chappan, that of Nai. Of these three passes the emperor chose the most practicable, and encamped near the Udaisagar lake, on the left of its entrance.

The Advance of Prince Akbar.

—Prince Akbar advanced. “Not a soul interrupted his progress to the city. Palaces, gardens, lakes, and isles met his eye, but no living thing: all was silence.” Akbar encamped. Accustomed to this desertion from the desire of the people to avoid a licentious soldiery, and lulled into a hardy security, he was surprised by the heir of Mewar. Some were praying, some feasting, some at chess: “they came to steal and yet fell asleep,” says the annalist, and were dispersed with terrific and unrelenting slaughter. Cut off from the possibility of a junction with the emperor by a movement of a part of the Rana’s personal force, Akbar attempted a retreat to the plains of Marwar by the route of Gogunda. It was a choice of evils, and he took the worst. The allodial vassals of the mountains, with the Bhil auxiliaries, outstripped his retreat, and blocked up farther egress in one of those long-extended valleys termed Nal, closed by a natural rampart or Col, on which they formed abbatis of trees, and manning the crests on each side, hurled destruction on the foe; while the prince, in like manner, blocked up the entrance and barred retrogression. Death menaced them in every form. For several days they had only the prospect of surrender to save them from famine and a justly incensed foe, when an ill-judged humanity on the part of Jai Singh saved them from annihilation. He admitted overtures, confided in protestations to renounce the origin of the war, and gave them guides to conduct them by the defile of Jhilwara, nor did they halt till protected by the walls of Chitor.

Another body of the Imperialists, under the celebrated Dilir Khan, who entered by the Desuri Pass from Marwar (probably with a view of extricating Prince Akbar), were allowed to advance unopposed, and when in the long intricate gorge were assailed by Bikram Solanki and Gopinath Rathor (both nobles of Mewar), and after a desperate conflict entirely destroyed. On each occasion a vast booty fell into the hands of the Rajputs.

So ably concerted was this mountain warfare, that these defeats were the signal for a simultaneous attack by the Rana on Aurangzeb, who, with his son Azam, watched at Debari the result of the operations under Akbar and Dilir. The great home-clans had more than their wonted rivalry to sustain them, for the gallant Durgadas with the Rathor swords (talwār Rāthorān) whetted by an accumulation of wrongs, were to combat with them against their common oppressor; and nobly did they contest the palm of glory. The tyrant could not withstand them: his guns, though manned by Franks, could not protect him against the just cause and avenging steel of the Rajput, and he was beaten and compelled to disgraceful flight, with an immense loss in men and equipment. The Rana had to lament many brave leaders, home and auxiliary; and the imperial standard, elephants, and state equipage fell into his hands, the acquisition of Mohkam and the Saktawats. This glorious encounter occurred in the spring month of Phalgun, S. 1737, March A.D. 1681 [1680].

The discomfited forces formed a junction under the walls of Chitor, whence the emperor dictated the recall of his son, Prince Muazzam, from the Deccan, deeming it of greater moment to regain lost importance in the north than to prevent the independence of Sivaji. Meanwhile the activity of Sawaldas (descended from the illustrious Jaimall) cut off the communication between Chitor and Ajmer, and alarmed the tyrant for his personal safety. Leaving, therefore, this perilous warfare to his sons Azam and Akbar, with instructions how to act till reinforced,—foiled in his vengeance and personally disgraced, he abandoned Mewar, and at the head of his guards repaired to Ajmer. Thence he detached Khan Rohilla, with twelve thousand men, against Sawaldas, with supplies and equipments for his sons. The Rathor, joined by the troops of Marwar, gave him the meeting at Pur Mandal, and defeated the Imperialists with great loss, driving them back on Ajmer .

Diversion made by the Rājputs.

—While the Rana, his heir and auxiliaries, were thus triumphant in all their operations, Prince Bhim with the left division was not idle, but made a powerful diversion by the invasion of Gujarat, captured Idar, expelling Hasan and his garrison, and proceeding by Birnagar, suddenly appeared before Patan, the residence of the provincial satrap, which he plundered. Siddhpur, Modasa, and other towns shared the same fate; and he was in full march to Surat, when the benevolence of the Rana, touched at the woes of the fugitives, who came to demand his forbearance, caused him to recall Bhim in the midst of his career.

Contrary to the Rajput character, whose maxim is parcere subjectis, they were compelled by the utter faithlessness of Aurangzeb (chiefly vulnerable through his resources) to retaliate his excesses; and Dayal Sah, the civil minister, a man of high courage and activity, headed another flying force, which ravaged Malwa to the Nerbudda and Betwa. Sarangpur, Dewas, Sironj, Mandu, Ujjain, and Chanderi were plundered, and numerous garrisons put to the sword; and, to use the words of the Chronicle, “husbands abandoned their wives and children, and whatever could not be carried off was given to the flames.” For once they avenged themselves, in imitation of the tyrant, even on the religion of their enemies: “the Kazis were bound and shaved, and the Korans thrown into wells.” The minister was unrelenting and made Malwa a desert, and from the fruits of his incursions repaired the resources of his master. Flushed with success, he formed a junction with the heir of Mewar, and gave battle to Azam near Chitor. On this occasion the flower of Mewar, with the Rathor and Khichi auxiliaries, were engaged, and obtained a glorious victory, the Mogul prince being defeated and pursued with great slaughter to Ranthambhor, which he entered. This was a just revenge, for it was Azam who surprised Chitor the year preceding. In Mewar the contest terminated with the expulsion of the Imperialists from the country; when the Rana, in support of the rights of the minor prince of Marwar, united his arms to the forces of that state, and opened the campaign at Ghanerao, the chief town of Godwar. The heroic mother of the infant Rathor prince, a daughter of Mewar, had, since the death of her husband, well supported his rights, having resisted every aggression and regained many lost advantages over their antagonist. Prince Bhim commanded the Sesodias, who formed a junction with the Rathors, and gave battle to the royal forces led by Akbar and Tahawwar Khan, whom they entirely defeated. The victory is chiefly attributed to a stratagem of a Rajput chief, who, having carried off five hundred camels from the Imperialists, conceived the idea of fixing torches to them and letting them loose in the royal camp; and, in the confusion produced by the charge of such a body, the Rajputs assaulted them.

Plan to dethrone Aurangzeb.

—On their continued successes, the Rana and his allies meditated the project of dethroning the tyrant and setting up his son Akbar. The pernicious example of his father towards Shah Jahan was not lost upon Akbar, who favourably received the overture; but he wanted the circumspection which characterized Aurangzeb, whose penetration defeated the scheme when on the eve of execution. Already had the Rajput armies united with Akbar, and the astrologer had fixed the day which was to exalt him; but the revealer of secrets baffled his own prediction by disclosing it to the emperor. Aurangzeb, attended only by his guards at Ajmer, had recourse to the same artifice which raised him to empire, in order to ward off this danger. Akbar was but one day’s march distant; his elder sons, Muazzam and Azam, yet far off. Not a moment was to be lost: he penned a letter to his son, which by a spy was dropped in the tent of the Rajput leader Durgadas. In this he applauded a pretended scheme by which Akbar was to fall upon them when they engaged the emperor. The same scheme had saved Sher Shah in this country from Maldeo, and has more recently been put in practice, and with like success, in the war with Sivaji. It succeeded. The Rajputs detached themselves from the prince who had apparently betrayed them. Tahawwar Khan, in despair, lost his life in an attempt to assassinate the emperor, and before the artifice was discovered, the reinforcements under Muazzam and Azam arrived, and Aurangzeb was saved. The Rajputs still offered saran (refuge) to Akbar; but aware of his father’s vigour of character, he deemed himself unsafe in his vicinage, and accepted the escort of five hundred Rajputs led by Durgadas , who cut their way through every opposition by the defiles of Mewar and Dungarpur, and across the Nerbudda, to the Mahratta leader Sambhaji, at Palargarh, whence he was shortly after conveyed in an English ship to Persia.

Overtures for Peace.

—“The escape of Acbar” (observes an historian, who appreciated the importance of the transactions of this period) “to Sambagee, oppressed Aurengzebe with as much anxiety, as formerly the phantom of his brother Sujah amongst the Pitans; and the consequence of their alliance became a nearer care than the continuance of the war against the Rajpoots, whose gallant activity prevented a speedy decision by the sword; but the dignity of the throne forbad any overtures of peace to a resistance which had attempted the deposal, if not the life, of the monarch. A Rajpoot officer, who had long served with distinction under Delire Khan, solved the difficulty: he quitted the army on the pretence of retiring to his own country and visited the Rana as from courtesy on his journey. The conversation turned on the war, which the Rajpoot perhaps really lamented, and he persuaded the Rana that although Aurengzebe would never condescend to make, he might accept overtures of peace: upon which he was empowered by the Rana to tender them.” The domestic annals confirm this account, and give the name of this mediator, Raja Shyam Singh of Bikaner; but the negotiation was infamously protracted to the rains, the period when operations necessarily cease, and by which time Aurangzeb had recruited his broken forces, and was again enabled to take the field; and it was concluded “without assertion or release of the capitation tax, but with the surrender of the districts taken from Chitor, and the State of Jodhpur was included in the treaty.” How correctly this elegant historian had obtained a knowledge of those events, a translation of the treaty evinces. But these occurrences belong to the succeeding reign, for the Rana died about this period, from wounds and vexation.

Cruel Treatment of Rāja of Golkonda.

—Once more we claim the reader’s admiration on behalf of another patriot prince of Mewar, and ask him to contrast the indigenous Rajput with the emperor of the Moguls ; though to compare them would be manifestly unjust, since in every moral virtue they were antipodes to each other. Aurangzeb accumulated on his head more crimes than any prince who ever sat on an Asiatic throne. With all the disregard of life which marks his nation, he was never betrayed, even in the fever of success, into a single generous action; and, contrary to the prevailing principle of our nature, the moment of his foe’s submission was that chosen for the malignant completion of his revenge: witness his scourging the prostrate King of Golkonda. How opposite to the beneficence of the Rajput prince, who, when the most efficient means of self-defence lay in the destruction of the resources of his enemy, feeling for the miseries of the suffering population of his persecutor, recalled his son in the midst of victory! As a skilful general and gallant soldier, in the defence of his country, he is above all praise. As a chivalrous Rajput, his braving all consequences when called upon to save the honour of a noble female of his race, he is without parallel. As an accomplished prince and benevolent man, his dignified letter of remonstrance to Aurangzeb on the promulgation of the capitation edict, places him high in the scale of moral as well as intellectual excellence; and an additional evidence of both, and of his taste for the arts, is furnished by the formation of the inland lake, the Rajsamund, with a slight account of which, and the motives for its execution, we shall conclude the sketch of this glorious epoch in the annals of Mewar.

The Rājsamund Lake.

—This great national work is twenty-five miles north of the capital, and is situated on the declivity of the plain about two miles from the base of the Aravalli. A small perennial stream, called the Gomati or ‘serpentine,’ flowing from these mountains, was arrested in its course, and confined by an immense embankment, made to form the lake called after himself, Rajsamund, or ‘royal sea.’ The band or dam forms an irregular segment of a circle, embracing an extent of nearly three miles, and encircling the waters on every side except the space between the north-west and north-east points. This barrier, which confines a sheet of water of great depth, and about twelve miles in circumference, is entirely of white marble, with a flight of steps of the same material, throughout this extent, from the summit to the water’s edge; the whole buttressed by an enormous rampart of earth, which, had the projector lived, would have been planted with trees to form a promenade. On the south side are the town and fortress built by the Rana, and bearing his name, Rajnagar; and upon the embankment stands the temple of Kankroli, the shrine of one of the seven forms (sarup) of Krishna. The whole is ornamented with sculpture of tolerable execution for the age; and a genealogical sketch of the founder’s family is inscribed in conspicuous characters. One million one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling, contributed by the Rana, his chiefs and opulent subjects, was expended on this work, of which the material was from the adjacent quarries. But, magnificent, costly, and useful as it is, it derives its chief beauty from the benevolent motive to which it owes its birth: to alleviate the miseries of a starving population, and make their employment conducive to national benefit, during one of those awful visitations of providence, famine, and pestilence with which these states are sometimes afflicted.

The Famine of A.D. 1662.

—It was in S. 1717, only seven years after the accession of Raj Singh, that these combined evils reached Mewar, less subject to them, owing to its natural advantages, than any other State in India; and on Tuesday the 8th of Pus, Hasti Nakshatra (constellation of the elephant), as fixed by the astrologer, the first stone was laid. "The chief of Mewar, deeply meditating on this extreme distress, determined to raise a monument, by which the wretched might be supported and his own name perpetuated. This was seven years in constructing, and at its commencement and termination all the rites of sacrifice and oblation were observed.

"The Rana went to implore favour at the temple of the ‘four-armed’; for though Asarh was over, not a drop of rain fell from the heavens; and, in like manner, the months of Sawan and Bhadon passed away. For want of water the world was in despair, and people went mad with hunger. Things unknown as food were eaten. The husband abandoned the wife, the wife the husband—parents sold their children—time increased the evil; it spread far and wide: even the insects died: they had nothing to feed on. Thousands of all ages became victims to hunger. Those who procured food to-day, ate twice what nature required. The wind was from the west, a pestilential vapour. The constellations were always visible at night, nor was there a cloud in the sky by day, and thunder and lightning were unknown. Such portents filled mankind with dread. Rivers, lakes, and fountains were dried up. Men of wealth meted out the portions of food. The ministers of religion forgot their duties. There was no longer distinction of caste, and the Sudra and Brahman were undistinguishable. Strength, wisdom, caste, tribe, all were abandoned, and food alone was the object. The Charbaran threw away every symbol of separation; all was lost in hunger. Fruits, flowers, every vegetable thing, even trees were stripped of their bark, to appease the cravings of hunger: nay, man ate man! Cities were depopulated. The seed of families was lost, the fishes were extinct, and the hope of all extinguished."

Such is the simple yet terrific record of this pestilence, from which Mewar was hardly freed, when Aurangzeb commenced the religious warfare narrated, with all its atrocities, still further to devastate this fair region. But a just retribution resulted from this disregard to the character and prejudices of the Rajputs, which visited the emperor with shame, and his successors with the overthrow of their power.

Chapter 14

Rāna Jai Singh, A.D. 1680-98.

—Rana Jai Singh took possession of the Gaddi in S. 1737 (A.D. 1681). A circumstance occurred at his birth, which as descriptive of manners may deserve notice. A few hours only intervened between his entrance into the world and that of another son called Bhim. It is customary for the father to bind round the arm of the new-born infant a root of that species of grass called the amardub, the ‘imperishable’ dub, well known for its nutritive properties and luxuriant vegetation under the most intense heat. The Rana first attached the ligature round the arm of the youngest, apparently an oversight, though in fact from superior affection for his mother. As the boys approached to manhood, the Rana, apprehensive that this preference might create dissension, one day drew his sword, and placing it in the hand of Bhim (the elder), said, it was better to use it at once on his brother, than hereafter to endanger the safety of the State. This appeal to his generosity had an instantaneous effect, and he not only ratified, ‘by his father’s throne,’ the acknowledgment of the sovereign rights of his brother, but declared, to remove all fears, “he was not his son if he again drank water within the pass of Debari”; and, collecting his retainers, he abandoned Udaipur to court Fortune where she might be kinder. The day was sultry, and on reaching the barrier he halted under the shade of a sacred fig-tree to bestow a last look upon the place of his birth. His cup-bearer (Paniyari) brought his silver goblet filled from the cool fountain, but as he raised it to his lips, he recollected that his vow was incomplete while within the portal; he poured the libation on the earth in the name of the Supreme, and casting the cup as an offering to the deity of the fountain, the huge gates closed upon the valley. He proceeded to Bahadur Shah, who conferred upon him the dignity (mansab) of a leader of three thousand five hundred horse, with the Bawana, or fifty-two districts for their support: but quarrelling with the imperial general, he was detached with his contingent west of the Indus, where he died.

Treaty between Rāna Jai Singh and Aurangzeb.

—Let us return to Jai Singh (the lion of victory). He concluded a treaty with Aurangzeb, conducted by Prince Azam and Dilir Khan, who took every occasion to testify his gratitude for the clemency of Rana Raj Singh, when blockaded in the defiles of the Aravalli. At this conference, the Rana was attended by ten thousand horse and forty thousand foot, besides the multitude collected from the mountains to view the ceremony, above one hundred thousand souls, who set up a shout of joy at the prospect of revisiting the plains, which disconcerted Azam, while Dilir expatiated on the perils from which the Rana’s generosity had liberated him. Azam, who said he was no stranger to the Rana’s illustrious house, concluded a treaty on the spot, in which, as a salvo for the imperial dignity, a nominal fine and surrender of three districts were inserted for aiding Akbar’s rebellion, and a hint that the regal colour (crimson) of his tents and umbrella should be discontinued. That advantages were gained by the Rana, we may infer from Dilir’s sons being left as hostages for Azam’s good faith; a fact we learn from his farewell address to the Rana! “Your nobles are rude, and my children are the hostages of your safety; but if at the expense of their lives I can obtain the entire restoration of your country, keep your mind at ease, for there was friendship between your father and me.”

The Jaisamund Lake.

—But all other protection than what his sword afforded was futile; and though Dilir’s intentions were noble, he had little control over events: in less than five years after his accession, the Rana was again forced to fly the plains for the inaccessible haunts of Kamori. Yet, in spite of these untoward circumstances and uninterrupted warfare, such were the resources of this little State that the Rana completed a work which perpetuates his name. He threw a dam across a break in the mountains, the channel of an ever-flowing stream, by which he formed the largest lake in India, giving it his own name, the Jaisamund, or sea of victory. Nature had furnished the hint for this undertaking, for there had always existed a considerable volume of water; but the Rana had the merit of uniting these natural buttresses, and creating a little sea from the Dhebar pool, its ancient appellation. The circumference cannot be less than thirty miles, and the benefits to cultivation, especially in respect to the article of rice, which requires perpetual irrigation, were great. On this huge rampart he erected a palace for his favourite queen, Komaladevi, a princess of the Pramara race, familiarly known as the Ruthi Rani, or ‘testy queen.’

Rana Jai Singh and his heir Amar Singh.

—Domestic unhappiness appears to have generated in the Rana inaptitude to state affairs; and, unluckily, the favoured queen estranged him from his son. Amra, a name venerated in Mewar, was that of the heir of Jai Singh. His mother was of the Bundi house, a family which has performed great services to, and brought great calamities upon, the ancient sovereigns of Mewar. To the jealousies of the rival queens, one of them mother to the heir, the other the favourite of the sovereign, are attributed dissensions, which at such a juncture were a greater detriment than the loss of a battle, and which afford another illustration, if any were wanting, of the impolicy of polygamy. The annals of Mewar seldom exhibit those unnatural contentions for power, from which no other Hindu State was exempt; this was owing to the wholesome regulation of not investing the princes of the blood with any political authority; and establishing as a counterpoise to natural advantages an artificial degradation of their rank, which placed them beneath the sixteen chief nobles of the State; which, while it exalted these in their own estimation, lessened the national humiliation, when the heirs-apparent were compelled to lead their quota in the arrière-ban of the empire.

Rebellion of Amar Singh.

—Rana Jai Singh, who had evinced such gallantry and activity in the wars of Aurangzeb, now secluded himself with Komala in the retreat of Jaisamund, leaving Amra under the guidance of the Pancholi minister, at the capital. But he having personally insulted this chief officer of the State, in consequence of receiving a rebuke for turning loose an infuriated elephant in the town, the Rana left his retreat, and visiting Chitor in his tour, arrived at Udaipur. Amra awaited not his father’s arrival, but adding his mother’s resentments to a feeling of patriotic indignation at the abasement his indolence produced, fled to Bundi, took up arms, and, joined by many of his own nobles and Hara auxiliaries, returned at the head of ten thousand men. Desirous of averting civil war, the Rana retired to Godwar beyond the Aravalli, whence he sent the Ghanerao chieftain, the first feudatory of that department, to expostulate with his son. But Amra, supported by three-fourths of the nobles, made direct for Kumbhalmer to secure the State treasure, saved by the Depra governor for his sovereign. A failure in this project, the knowledge that the Rathors fostered the quarrel with a view to obtain Godwar, and the determination of the few chiefs yet faithful to the Rana, to defend the Jhilwara pass to the last, made the prince listen to terms, which were ratified at the shrine of Eklinga, whereby the Rana was to return to the capital, and the prince to abide in exile at the new palace during the life of his father, which closed twenty years after his accession. Had he maintained the reputation he established in his early years, the times were well calculated for the redemption of his country’s independence; but documents which yet exist afford little reason to doubt that in his latter years a state of indolence, having all the effects of imbecility, supervened, and but for the formation of ‘the victorious sea,’ would have left his name a blank in the traditional history of Mewar.

Rāna Amar Singh II., A.D. 1698-1710.

—Amra II., who succeeded in S. 1756 (A.D. 1700), had much of the gallantry and active turn of mind of his illustrious namesake; but the degrading conflict with his father had much impaired the moral strength of the country, and counteracted the advantages which might have resulted from the decline of the Mogul power. The reigns of Raj Singh and Jai Singh illustrate the obvious truth, that on the personal character of the chief of a feudal government everything depends. The former, infusing by his talent and energy patriotic sentiments into all his subordinates, vanquished in a series of conflicts the vast military resources of the empire, led by the emperor, his sons, and chosen generals; while his successor, heir to this moral strength, and with every collateral aid, lowered her to a stage of contempt from which no talent could subsequently raise her.

Amra early availed himself of the contentions amongst the sons of Aurangzeb to anticipate events, and formed a private treaty with the Mogul heir-apparent, Shah Alam, when commanded to the countries west of the Indus, on which occasion the Mewar contingent accompanied him, and fought several gallant actions under a Saktawat chieftain.

Breach between the Rājputs and the Mughal Empire.

—It is important to study the events of this period, which involved the overthrow of the Mogul power, and originated that form of society which paved the way to the dominion of Britain in these distant regions. From such a review a political lesson of great value may be learned, which will show a beacon warning us against the danger of trusting to mere physical power, unaided by the latent, but more durable support of moral influence. When Aurangzeb neglected the indigenous Rajputs, he endangered the keystone of his power; and in despising opinion, though his energetic mind might for a time render him independent of it, yet long before his death the enormous fabric reared by Akbar was tottering to its foundation: demonstrating to conviction that the highest order of talent, either for government or war, though aided by unlimited resources, will not suffice for the maintenance of power, unsupported by the affections of the governed. The empire of Aurangzeb was more extensive than that of Britain at this day—the elements of stability were incomparably more tenacious: he was associated with the Rajputs by blood, which seemed to guarantee a respect for their opinions; he possessed the power of distributing the honours and emoluments of the state, when a service could be rewarded by a province, drawing at will supplies of warriors from the mountains of the west, as a check on his indigenous subjects, while these left the plains of India to control the Afghan amidst the snows of Caucasus. But the most devoted attachment and most faithful service were repaid by insults to their habits, and the imposition of an obnoxious tax; and to the jizya, and the unwise pertinacity with which his successors adhered to it, must be directly ascribed the overthrow of the monarchy. No condition was exempted from this odious and impolitic assessment, which was deemed by the tyrant a mild substitute for the conversion he once meditated of the entire Hindu race to the creed of Islam.

Rājput Apostates.

—An abandonment of their faith was the Rajput’s surest road to the tyrant’s favour , and an instance of this dereliction in its consequences powerfully contributed to the annihilation of the empire. Rao Gopal, a branch of the Rana’s family, held the fief of Rampura, on the Chambal, and was serving with a select quota of his clan in the wars of the Deccan, when his son, who had been left at home, withheld the revenues, which he applied to his own use instead of remitting them to his father. Rao Gopal complained to the emperor; but the son discovered that he could by a sacrifice not only appease Aurangzeb, but attain the object of his wishes: he apostatized from his faith, and obtained the emperor’s forgiveness, with the domain of Rampura. Disgusted and provoked at such infurious conduct, Rao Gopal fled the camp, made an unsuccessful attempt to redeem his estate, and took refuge with Rana Amra, his suzerain. This natural asylum granted to a chief of his own kin was construed by the tyrant into a signal of revolt, and Azam was ordered to Malwa to watch the Rana’s motions: conduct thus characterized in the memoirs of a Rajput chieftain, one of the most devoted to Aurangzeb, and who died fighting for his son. “The emperor showed but little favour to his faithful and most useful subjects the Rajputs, which greatly cooled their ardour in his service.” The Rana took up arms, and Malwa joined the tumult; while the first irruption of the Mahrattas across the Nerbudda, under Nima Sindhia, compelled the emperor to detach Raja Jai Singh to join Prince Azam. Amidst these accumulated troubles, the Mahrattas rising into importance, the Rajput feudatories disgusted and alienated, his sons and grandsons ready to commit each individual pretension to the decision of the sword, did Aurangzeb, after a reign of terror of half a century’s duration, breathe his last on the 28th Zilqa’da, A.D. 1707 [February 21], at the city bearing his name—Aurangabad.

Shāh Alam Bahādur Shāh, Emperor, A.D. 1707-12.

—At his death his second son Azam assumed the imperial dignity, and aided by the Rajput princes of Datia and Kotah, who had always served in his division, he marched to Agra to contest the legitimate claims of his eldest brother Muazzam, who was advancing from Kabul supported by the contingents of Mewar and Marwar, and all western Rajwara. The battle of Jajau was fatal to Azam, who with his son Bedarbakht and the princes of Kotah and Datia was slain, when Muazzam ascended the throne under the title of Shah Alam Bahadur Shah. This prince had many qualities which endeared him to the Rajputs, to whom his sympathies were united by the ties of blood, his mother being a Rajput princess. Had he immediately succeeded the beneficent Shah Jahan, the race of Timur, in all human probability, would have been still enthroned at Delhi, and might have presented a picture of one of the most powerful monarchies of Asia. But Aurangzeb had inflicted an incurable wound on the mind of the Hindu race, which for ever estranged them from his successors; nor were the virtues of Bahadur, during the short lustre of his sway, capable of healing it. The bitter fruit of a long experience had taught the Rajputs not to hope for amelioration from any graft of that stem, which, like the deadly Upas, had stifled the vital energies of Rajasthan, whose leaders accordingly formed a league for mutual preservation, which it would have been madness to dissolve merely because a fair portion of virtue was the inheritance of the tyrant’s successor. They had proved that no act of duty or subserviency could guarantee them from the infatuated abuse of power, and they were at length steeled against every appeal to their loyalty, replying with a trite adage, which we may translate ‘quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat,’—of common application with the Rajput in such a predicament.

The Rise of the Sikhs.

—The emperor was soon made to perceive the little support he had in future to expect from the Rajputs. Scarcely had he quashed the pretensions of Kambakhsh, his youngest brother, who proclaimed himself emperor in the Deccan, than he was forced to the north, in consequence of an insurrection of the Sikhs of Lahore. This singular race, the disciples (sikhs) of a teacher called Nanak, were the descendants of the Scythic Getae, or Jat, of Transoxiana, who so early as the fifth century were established in the tract watered by the five arms (Panjab) of the Indus. Little more than a century has elapsed since their conversion from a spurious Hinduism to the doctrines of the sectarian Nanak, and their first attempt to separate themselves, in temporal as well as spiritual matters, from all control, and they are now the sole independent power within the limits of the Mogul monarchy. On this occasion the princes of Amber and Marwar visited the emperor, but left his camp without permission, and, as the historian adds, manifested a design to struggle for independence. Such was the change in their mutual circumstances that the Mogul sent the heir-apparent to conciliate and conduct them to him; but they came at the head of all their native bands, when “they were gratified with whatever their insolence demanded”: a splenetic effusion of the historian, which well paints their altered position. From the royal urdu, or camp, they repaired to Rana Amra at Udaipur, where a triple league was formed, which once more united them to the head of their nation. This treaty of unity of interests against the common foe was solemnized by nuptial engagements, from which those princes had been excluded since the reigns of Akbar and Partap. To be readmitted to this honour was the basis of this triple alliance, in which they ratified on oath the renunciation of all connexion, domestic or political, with the empire. It was, moreover, stipulated that the sons of such marriage should be heirs, or if the issue were females, that they should never be dishonoured by being married to a Mogul.

Sacrifice of the Right of Primogeniture.

—But this remedy, as will be seen, originated a worse disease; it was a sacrifice of the rights of primogeniture (clung to by the Rajputs with extreme pertinacity), productive of the most injurious effects, which introduced domestic strife, and called upon the stage an umpire not less baneful than the power from whose iron grasp they were on the point of freeing themselves: for although this treaty laid prostrate the throne of Babur, it ultimately introduced the Mahrattas as partisans in their family disputes, who made the bone of contention their own.

The injudicious support afforded by the emperor to the apostate chief of Rampura first brought the triple federation into action. The Rana, upholding the cause of Himmat Singh, made an attack on Rampura, which the apostate usurper Ratan Singh, now Raj Muslim Khan, defeated, and was rewarded for it by the emperor. But the same report conveyed to the king “that the Rana determined to lay waste his country, and retire to the hills,” which was speedily confirmed by the unwelcome intelligence that Sawaldas, an officer of the Rana’s, had attacked Firoz Khan, the governor of Pur Mandal, who was obliged to retreat with great loss to Ajmer; on which occasion this loyal descendant of the illustrious Jaimall lost his life. The brave Durgadas, who conveyed the rebellious Akbar through all opposition to a place of refuge, again appeared upon the stage—his own prince being unable to protect him, he had found a safe asylum at Udaipur, and had the sum of five hundred rupees daily paid for his expenditure—a princely liberality. But the result of this combination was reserved for the following reigns, Shah Alam being carried off by poison, ere he could correct the disorders which were rapidly breaking up the empire from the Hindu-Kush to the ocean. Had his life been spared, his talents for business, his experience, and courteous manners might have retarded the ruin of the monarchy, which the utter unworthiness of his successor sunk beyond the power of man to redeem. Every subsequent succession was through blood; and the sons of Shah Alam performed the part for which they had so many great examples. Two brothers, Sayyids, from the town of Barha in the Duab, were long the Warwicks of Hindustan, setting up and plucking down its puppet kings at their pleasure; they had elevated Farrukhsiyar when the triumvirs of Rajasthan commenced their operations.

Farrukhsīyar, Emperor, A.D. 1712-19.

—Giving loose to long-suppressed resentment, the Rajputs abandoned the spirit of toleration which it would have been criminal to preserve; and profiting by the lessons of their tyrants, they overthrew the mosques built on the sites of their altars, and treated the civil and religious officers of the government with indignity. Of these every town in Rajasthan had its mulla to proclaim the name of Muhammad, and its kazi for the administration of justice,—branches of government entirely wrested from the hands of the native princes, abusing the name of independence. But for a moment it was redeemed, especially by the brave Rathors, who had made a noble resistance, contesting every foot of land since the death of Jaswant Singh, and now his son Ajit entirely expelled the Moguls from Marwar. On this occasion the native forces of the triple alliance met at the salt lake of Sambhar, which was made the common boundary of their territory, and its revenues were equally divided amongst them.

The pageant of an emperor, guided by the Sayyids, or those who intrigued to supplant their ministry, made an effort to oppose the threatening measures of the Rajputs; and one of them, the Amiru-l-umara, marched against Raja Ajit, who received private instructions from the emperor to resist his commander-in-chief, whose credit was strengthened by the means taken to weaken it, which engendered suspicions of treachery. Ajit leagued with the Sayyids, who held out to the Rathor an important share of power at court, and agreed to pay tribute and give a daughter in marriage to Farrukhsiyar.

Marriage of Farrukhsīyar: Grant to the British.

—This marriage yielded most important results, which were not confined to the Moguls or Rajputs, for to it may be ascribed the rise of the British power in India. A dangerous malady, rendering necessary a surgical operation upon Farrukhsiyar, to which the faculty of the court were unequal, retarded the celebration of the nuptials between the emperor and the Rajput princess of Marwar, and even threatened a fatal termination. A mission from the British merchants at Surat was at that time at court, and, as a last resource, the surgeon attached to it was called in, who cured the malady, and made the emperor happy in his bride. His gratitude was displayed with oriental magnificence. The emperor desired Mr. Hamilton to name his reward, and to the disinterested patriotism of this individual did the British owe the first royal grant or farman, conferring territorial possession and great commercial privileges. These were the objects of the mission, which till this occurrence had proved unsuccessful.

This gorgeous court ought to have been, and probably was, impressed with a high opinion of the virtuous self-denial of the inhabitants of Britain; and if history has correctly preserved the transaction, some mark of public gratitude should have been forthcoming from those who so signally benefited thereby. But to borrow the phraseology of the Italian historian, “Obligations which do not admit of being fully discharged are often repaid with the coin of ingratitude”: the remains of this man rest in the churchyard of Calcutta, without even a stone to mark the spot!

The Jizya Reimposed.

—This marriage, which promised a renewal of interests with the Rajputs, was soon followed by the revival of the obnoxious jizya. The character of this tax, though much altered from its original imposition by Aurangzeb, when it was at once financial and religious, was held in unmitigated abhorrence by the Hindus from the complex association; and although it was revived chiefly to relieve pecuniary wants, it kindled a universal feeling of hatred amongst all classes, and quenched the little zeal which the recent marriage had inspired in the Rajputs of the desert. The mode and channel of its introduction evinced to them that there was no hope that the intolerant spirit which originally suggested it would ever be subdued. The weak Farrukhsiyar, desirous of snapping the leading-strings of the Sayyids, recalled to his court Inayatu-lla Khan, the minister of Aurangzeb, and restored to him his office of Diwan, who, to use the words of the historian of the period, "did not consult the temper of the times, so very different from the reign of Aurangzeb, and the revival of the jizya came with him." Though by no means severe in its operation, not amounting to three-quarters per cent on annual income,—from which the lame, the blind, and very poor were exempt,—it nevertheless raised a general spirit of hostility, particularly from its retaining the insulting distinction of a ‘tax on infidels.’ Resistance to taxation appears to be a universal feeling, in which even the Asiatic forgets the divine right of sovereignty, and which throws us back on the pervading spirit of selfishness which governs human nature. The tamgha, or stamp tax, which preceded the jizya, would appear to have been as unsatisfactory as it was general, from the solemnity of its renunciation by Babur on the field of battle after the victory over infidels, which gave him the crown of India; and though we have no record of the jizya being its substitute, there are indications which authorize the inference.

Rāna Amar Singh asserts Rājput Independence.

—Rana Amra was not an idle spectator of these occurrences; and although the spurious thirst for distinction so early broke up the alliance by detaching Ajit, he redoubled his efforts for personal independence, and with it that of the Rajput nation. An important document attests this solicitude, namely, a treaty with the emperor, in which the second article stipulates emancipation from the galling jizya. It may be well to analyse this treaty, which attests the altered condition of both parties. Its very title marks the subordination of the chief of the Rajputs; but while this is headed a ‘Memorandum of Requests,’ the eighth article discloses the effective means of the Rana, for there he assumes an air of protection towards the emperor. In the opening stipulation for the mansab of 7000, the mind reverts to the great Amra, who preferred abdication to acknowledgment of a superior; but opinion had undergone a change as great as the mutual relations of the Rajputs. In temporal dignities other States had risen to an equality with Mewar, and all had learned to look on the Mogul as the fountain of honour. The abolition of the jizya, freedom from religious restraint, control over the ancient feudatories of his house, and the restoration of all sequestrations, distinguish the other articles, and amply attest the improving attitude of Mewar, and the rapid decay of the Mogul empire. The Mahrattas under Raja Sahu were successfully prosecuting their peculiar system in the south, with the same feelings which characterized the early Gothic invaders of Italy; strangers to settled government, they imposed the taxes of chauth and desmukhi, the fourth and tenth of all territorial income, in the countries they overran. The Jat tribes west of the Chambal likewise bearded their oppressors in this reign, by hoisting the standard of independence at the very threshold of their capital; and from the siege of Sinsini (mentioned in this treaty) to the last storm of Bharatpur, they maintained the consequence thus assumed.

Death of Rāna Amar Singh.

—This treaty was the last act of Rana Amra’s life; he died in A.D. 1716 [1710], leaving the reputation of an active and high-minded prince, who well upheld his station and the prosperity of his country, notwithstanding the anarchy of the period. His encouragement of agriculture and protection of manufactures are displayed in the edicts engraved on pillars, which will hand down his name to posterity. His memory is held in high veneration; nor do the Rajputs admit the absolute degradation of Mewar till the period of the second prince in succession to Amra .

Chapter 15

Rāna Sangrām Singh II., A.D. 1710-34.

—Sangram Singh (the lion of battle) succeeded; a name renowned in the annals of Mewar, being that of the opponent of the founder of the Moguls. He ascended the throne about the same time with Muhammad Shah, the last of the race of Timur who deserved the name of emperor of India. During the reign of Sangram, from A.D. 1716 to 1734, this mighty empire was dismembered; when, in lieu of one paramount authority, numerous independent governments started up, which preserved their uncertain existence until the last revolution, which has given a new combination to these discordant materials—Muhammadan, Mahratta, and Rajput, in the course of one century under the dominion of a handful of Britons! Like the Satraps of the ancient Persian, or the Lieutenants of Alexander, each chief proclaimed himself master of the province, the government of which was confided to his loyalty and talents; and it cannot fail to diminish any regret at the successive prostration of Bengal, Oudh, Haidarabad, and other less conspicuous States, to remember that they were founded in rebellion, and erected on ingratitude; and that their rulers were destitute of those sympathies, which could alone give stability to their ephemeral greatness, by improving the condition of their subjects. With the Mahrattas the case is different: their emergence to power claims our admiration, when tyranny transformed the industrious husbandman, and the minister of religion, into a hardy and enterprising soldier, and a skilful functionary of government. Had their ambition been restrained within legitimate bounds, it would have been no less gratifying than politically and morally just that the family of Sivaji should have retained its authority in countries which his active valour wrested from Aurangzeb. But the genius of conquest changed their natural habits; they devastated instead of consolidating; and in lieu of that severe and frugal simplicity, and that energy of enterprise, which were their peculiar characteristics, they became distinguished for mean parsimony, low cunning, and dastardly depredation. Had they, retaining their original character, been content with their proper sphere of action, the Deccan, they might yet have held the sovereignty of that vast region, where their habits and language assimilated them with the people. But as they spread over the north they encountered national antipathies, and though professing the same creed, a wider difference in sentiment divided the Mahratta from the Rajput, than from the despots of Delhi, whose tyrannical intolerance was more endurable, because less degrading, than the rapacious meanness of the Southron. Rajasthan benefited by the demolition of the empire: to all but Mewar it yielded an extension of power. Had the national mind been allowed to repose, and its energies to recruit, after so many centuries of demoralization, all would have recovered their strength, which lay in the opinions and industry of the people, a devoted tenantry and brave vassalage, whom we have so often depicted as abandoning their habitations and pursuits to aid the patriotic views of their princes.

Deposition of Farrukhsīyar: Nizāmu-l-mulk.

—The short reign of Farrukhsiyar was drawing to a close; its end was accelerated by the very means by which that monarch hoped to emancipate himself from the thraldom of the Sayyids, against whose authority the faction of Inayatu-lla was but a feeble counterpoise, and whose arbitrary habits, in the re-establishment of the jizya, lost him even the support of the father of his queen. It was on this occasion that the celebrated Nizamu-l-mulk, the founder of the Haidarabad State, was brought upon the stage: he then held the unimportant charge of the district of Moradabad; but possessed of high talents, he was bought over, by the promise of the government of Malwa, to further the views of the Sayyids. Supported by a body of ten thousand Mahrattas, these makers of kings soon manifested their displeasure by the deposal of Farrukhsiyar, who was left without any support but that of the princes of Amber and Bundi. Yet they would never have abandoned him had he hearkened to their counsel to take the field, and trust his cause to them: but, cowardly and infatuated, he refused to quit the walls of his palace, and threw himself upon the mercy of his enemies, who made him dismiss the faithful Rajputs and “admit a guard of honour of their troops into the citadel.”

Murder of Farrukhsīyar, May 16, 1719.

—Farrukhsiyar hoped for security in the inviolability of the harem—but he found no sanctuary even there: to use the words of the Mogul memoir, "night advanced, and day, like the fallen star of the emperor, sunk in darkness. The gates of the citadel were closed upon his friends: the Wazir and Ajit Singh remained within. This night was dreadful to the inhabitants of the city; no one knew what was passing in the palace, and the troops under the Amiru-l-umara, with ten thousand Mahrattas, remained under arms: morning came, and all hope was extinguished by the royal band (Naubat) announcing the deposal of Farrukhsiyar, in the proclamation of Rafiu-d-darajat, his successor." The interval between the deposal and the death of an Asiatic prince is short, and even while the heralds vociferated “long live the king!” to the new puppet, the bowstring was on the neck of the contemptible Farrukhsiyar.

Accession of Rafiu-d-darajāt.

—The first act of the new reign (A.D. 1719) was one of conciliation towards Ajit Singh and the Rajputs, namely, the abrogation of the jizya; and the Sayyids further showed their disposition to attach them by conferring the important office of Diwan on one of their own faith: Raja Ratan Chand was accordingly inducted into the ministry in lieu of Inayatu-lla.

Accession of Roshan-Akhtar Muhammad Shah, A.D. 1719-48.

—Three phantoms of royalty flitted across the scene in a few months, till Roshan-Akhtar, the eldest son of Bahadur Shah, was enthroned with the title of Muhammad Shah (A.D. 1720), during whose reign of nearly thirty years the empire was completely dismembered, and Mahrattas from the south disputed its spoils with the Afghan mountaineers. The haughty demeanour of the Sayyids disgusted all who acted with them, especially their coadjutor the Nizam, of whose talents, displayed in restoring Malwa to prosperity, they entertained a dread. It was impossible to cherish any abstract loyalty for the puppets they established, and treason lost its name, when the Nizam declared for independence, which the possession of the fortresses of Asir and Burhanpur enabled him to secure. The brothers had just cause for alarm. The Rajputs were called upon for their contingents, and the princes of Kotah and Narwar gallantly interposed their own retainers to cut off the Nizam from the Nerbudda, on which occasion the Kotah prince was slain. The independence of the Nizam led to that of Oudh. Saadat Khan was then but the commandant of Bayana, but he entered into the conspiracy to expel the Sayyids, and was one of those who drew lots to assassinate the Amiru-l-umara. The deed was put into execution on the march to reduce the Nizam, when Haidar Khan buried his poniard in the Amir’s heart. The emperor then in camp, being thus freed, returned against the Wazir, who instantly set up Ibrahim and marched against his opponents. The Rajputs wisely remained neutral, and both armies met. The decapitation of Ratan Chand was the signal for the battle, which was obstinate and bloody; the Wazir was made prisoner, and subjected to the bowstring. For the part Saadat Khan acted in the conspiracy he was honoured with the title of Bahadur Jang, and the government of Oudh. The Rajput princes paid their respects to the conqueror, who confirmed the repeal of the jizya, and as the reward of their neutrality the Rajas of Amber and Jodhpur, Jai Singh and Ajit, were gratified, the former with the government of the province of Agra, the last with that of Gujarat and Ajmer, of which latter fortress he took possession. Girdhardas was made governor of Malwa to oppose the Mahrattas, and the Nizam was invited from his government of Haidarabad to accept the office of wazir of the empire.

The Policy of Mewār.

—The policy of Mewar was too isolated for the times; her rulers clung to forms and unsubstantial homage, while their neighbours, with more active virtue, plunged into the tortuous policy of the imperial court, and seized every opportunity to enlarge the boundaries of their States: and while Amber appropriated to herself the royal domains almost to the Jumna; while Marwar planted her banner on the battlements of Ajmer, dismembered Gujarat, and pushed her clans far into the desert, and even to ‘the world’s end’; Mewar confined her ambition to the control of her ancient feudatories of Abu, Idar, and the petty States which grew out of her, Dungarpur and Banswara. The motive for this policy was precisely the same which had cost such sacrifices in former times; she dreaded amalgamating with the imperial court, and preferred political inferiority to the sacrifice of principle. The internal feuds of her two great clans also operated against her aggrandizement; and while the brave Saktawat, Jeth Singh, expelled the Rathor from Idar, and subdued the wild mountaineers even to Koliwara, the conquest was left incomplete by the jealousy of his rival, and he was recalled in the midst of his success. From these and other causes an important change took place in the internal policy of Mewar, which tended greatly to impair her energies. To this period none of the vassals had the power to erect places of strength within their domains, which, as already stated, were not fixed, but subject to triennial change; their lands were given for subsistence, their native hills were their fortresses, and the frontier strongholds defended their families in time of invasion. As the Mogul power waned, the general defensive system was abandoned, while the predatory warfare which succeeded compelled them to stud their country with castles, in order to shelter their effects from the Mahratta and Pathan, and in later times to protect rebels.

Rana Sangram ruled eighteen [twenty-four] years; under him Mewar was respected, and the greater portion of her lost territory was regained. His selection of Biharidas Pancholi evinced his penetration, for never had Mewar a more able or faithful minister, and numerous autograph letters of all the princes of his time attest his talent and his worth as the oracle of the period. He retained his office during three reigns: but his skill was unable to stem the tide of Mahratta invasion, which commenced on the death of Sangram.

Anecdotes of Rāna Sangrām Singh II.

—Tradition has preserved many anecdotes of Sangram, which aid our estimate of Rajput character, whether in the capacity of legislators or the more retired sphere of domestic manners. They uniformly represent this Rana as a patriarchal ruler, wise, just, and inflexible, steady in his application to business, regulating public and private expenditure, and even the sumptuary laws, which were rigidly adhered to, and on which the people still expatiate, giving homely illustrations of the contrast between them and the existing profusion. The Chauhan of Kotharia, one of the highest class of chieftains, had recommended an addition to the folds of the court robe, and as courtesy forbids all personal denial, his wish was assented to, and he retired to his estate pluming himself on his sovereign’s acquiescence. But the Rana, sending for the minister, commanded the sequestration of two villages of Kotharia, which speedily reaching the ears of the chief, he repaired to court, and begged to know the fault which had drawn upon him this mark of displeasure. “None, Raoji; but on a minute calculation I find the revenue of these two villages will just cover the expense of the superfluity of garment which obedience to your wishes will occasion me, and as every iota of my own income is appropriated, I had no other mode of innovating on our ancient costume than by making you bear the charge attending a compliance with your suggestion.” It will readily be believed, that the Chauhan prayed the revocation of this edict, and that he was careful for the future of violating the sumptuary laws of his sovereign.

On another occasion, from lapse of memory or want of consideration, he broke the laws he had established, and alienated a village attached to the household. Each branch had its appropriate fund, whether for the kitchen, the wardrobe, the privy purse, the queens; these lands were called thua, and each had its officer, or thuadar, all of whom were made accountable for their trust to the prime minister; it was one of these he had alienated. Seated with his chiefs in the rasora, or banqueting-hall, there was no sugar forthcoming for the curds, which has a place in the dinner carte of all Rajputs, and he chid the superintendent for the omission. “Anndata” (giver of food), replied the officer, "the minister says you have given away the village set apart for sugar."—“Just,” replied the Rana, and finished his repast without further remark, and without sugar to his curds.

Another anecdote will show his inflexibility of character, and his resistance to that species of interference in state affairs which is the bane of Asiatic governments. Sangram had recently emancipated himself from the trammels of a tedious minority, during which his mother, according to custom, acted a conspicuous part in the guardianship of her son and the State. The chieftain of Dariawad had his estate confiscated: but as the Rana never punished from passion or pardoned from weakness, none dared to plead his cause, and he remained proscribed from court during two years, when he ventured a petition to the queen-mother through the Bhandarins, for the reversion of the decree, accompanied with a note for two lakhs of rupees, and a liberal donation to the fair mediators. It was the daily habit of the Rana to pay his respects to his mother before dinner, and on one of these visits she introduced the Ranawat’s request, and begged the restoration of the estate. It was customary, on the issue of every grant, that eight days should elapse from the mandate to the promulgation of the edict, to which eight official seals were attached; but on the present occasion the Rana commanded the execution of the deed at once, and to have it ere he left the Rawala. On its being brought, he placed it respectfully in his mother’s hands, begging her to return the note to the Ranawat; having made this sacrifice to duty, he bowed and retired. The next day he commanded dinner an hour earlier, without the usual visit to the Rawala: all were surprised, but none so much as the queen-mother—the day passed—another came—still no visit, and to a confidential message, she received a ceremonious reply. Alarmed for the loss of her son’s affections, she pondered on the cause, but could find none, except the grant—she entreated the minister’s interference; he respectfully intimated that he was interdicted from the discussion of State affairs but with his sovereign—she had recourse to other expedients, which proving alike fruitless, she became sullen, punished her damsels without cause, and refused food: Sangram still remained obdurate. She talked of a pilgrimage to the Ganges, and befitting equipage and escort were commanded to attend her—the moment of departure was at hand, and yet he would not see her. She repaired by Amber on her route to Mathura, to worship the Apollo of Vraj, when the great Raja Jai Singh (married to the Rana’s sister) advanced, and conducted her to his new city of Jaipur, and to evince his respect “put his shoulder to the travelling litter or palki,” and promised to return with her and be a suppliant to his brother-in-law for the restoration of his regard. She made a tour of the sacred places, and on return accepted the escort of the Prince of Amber. The laws of hospitality amongst the Rajputs are rigid: the Rana could not refuse to his guest the request for which he had left his capital: but averse to owing reconciliation to external intercession, and having done enough for the suppression of intrigue, he advanced to meet the cortège when within one march of Udaipur, as if to receive the Amber prince; but proceeding direct to his mother’s tents, he asked her blessing, and having escorted her to the palace, returned to greet and conduct his brother prince; all the allusion he made to the subject was in the simple but pithy expression, “family quarrels should be kept in the family.”

Another anecdote shows him as the vigilant shepherd watching over the safety of his flock. As he sat down to dinner, tidings arrived of an invasion of the Malwa Pathans, who had rifled several villages at Mandasor, carrying the inhabitants into captivity. Pushing the platter from him, he ordered his armour, and the nakkara to beat the assemblage of his chieftains. With all speed a gallant band formed on the terrace below, but they prevailed on the Rana to leave the punishment of the desultory aggression to them, as unworthy of his personal interference. They departed: several hours after, the chief of Kanor arrived, having left a sick-bed, and with a tertian come in obedience to his sovereign’s summons. Vain was his prince’s dissuasion to keep him back, and he joined the band as they came up with the invaders. The foe was defeated and put to flight, but the sick chieftain fell in the charge, and his son was severely wounded by his side. On the young chief repairing to court he was honoured with a bira from the Rana’s own hand, a distinction which he held to be an ample reward for his wounds, and testimonial of the worth of his father. The existence of such sentiments are the strongest tests of character.

On another occasion, some parasite had insinuated suspicions against the chief of the nobles, the Rawat of Salumbar, who had just returned victorious in action with the royal forces at Malwa, and had asked permission to visit his family on his way to court. The Rana spurned the suspicion, and to show his reliance on the chief, he dispatched a messenger for Salumbar to wait his arrival and summon him to the presence. He had reached his domain, given leave to his vassals as they passed their respective abodes, dismounted, and reached the door of the Rawala, when the herald called aloud, “The Rana salutes you, Rawatji, and commands this letter.” With his hand on the door where his wife and children awaited him, he demanded his horse, and simply leaving his ‘duty for his mother,’ he mounted, with half a dozen attendants, nor loosed the rein until he reached the capital. It was midnight; his house empty; no servants; no dinner; but his sovereign had foreseen and provided, and when his arrival was announced, provender for his cattle, and vessels of provision prepared in the royal kitchen, were immediately sent to his abode. Next morning Salumbar attended the court. The Rana was unusually gracious, and not only presented him with the usual tokens of regard, a horse and jewels, but moreover a grant of land. With surprise he asked what service he had performed to merit such distinction, and from a sentiment becoming the descendant of Chonda solemnly refused to accept it; observing, that even if he had lost his head, the reward was excessive; but if his prince would admit of his preferring a request, it would be, that in remembrance of his sovereign’s favour, when he, or his, in after times, should on the summons come from their estate to the capital, the same number of dishes from the royal kitchen should be sent to his abode: it was granted, and to this day his descendants enjoy the distinction. These anecdotes paint the character of Sangram far more forcibly than any laboured effort. His reign was as honourable to himself as it was beneficial to his country, in whose defence he had fought eighteen actions; but though his policy was too circumscribed, and his country would have benefited more by a surrender of some of those antique prejudices which kept her back in the general scramble for portions of the dilapidated monarchy of the Moguls, yet he was respected abroad, as he was beloved by his subjects, of whose welfare he was ever watchful, and to whose wants ever indulgent. Rana Sangram was the last prince who upheld the dignity of the gaddi of Bappa Rawal; with his death commenced Mahratta ascendancy, and with this we shall open the reign of his son and successor.

Rāna Jagat Singh II., A.D. 1734-51. Difficulties of Rājput Combination.

—Jagat Singh II., the eldest of the four sons of Sangram, succeeded S. 1790 (A.D. 1734). The commencement of his reign was signalized by a revival of the triple alliance formed by Rana Amra, and broken by Raja Ajit’s connexion with the Sayyids and the renewal of matrimonial ties with the empire, the abjuration whereof was the basis of the treaty. The present engagement, which included all the minor states, was formed at Hurra, a town in Mewar on the Ajmer frontier, where the confederate princes met at the head of their vassals. To insure unanimity, the Rana was invested with paramount control, and headed the forces which were to take the field after the rains, already set in. Unity of interests was the chief character of the engagement, had they adhered to which, not only the independence, but the aggrandisement, of Rajasthan, was in their power, and they might have alike defied the expiring efforts of Mogul tyranny, and the Parthian-like warfare of the Mahratta. They were indeed the most formidable power in India at this juncture; but difficult as it had ever proved to coalesce the Rajputs for mutual preservation, even when a paramount superiority of power, both temporal and spiritual, belonged to the Ranas, so now, since Amber and Marwar had attained an equality with Mewar, it was found still less practicable to prevent the operation of the principles of disunion. In fact, a moment’s reflection must discover that the component parts of a great feudal federation, such as that described, must contain too many discordant particles—too many rivalries and national antipathies—ever cordially to amalgamate. Had it been otherwise, the opportunities were many and splendid for the recovery of Rajput freedom; but though individually enamoured of liberty, the universality of the sentiment prevented its realization: they never would submit to the control required to work it out, and this, the best opportunity which had ever occurred, was lost. A glance at the disordered fragments of the throne of Akbar will show the comparative strength of the Rajputs.

League of Nizamu-l-mulk with Rājputs and Marāthas.

—Nizamu-l-mulk had completely emancipated himself from his allegiance, and signalized his independence, by sending the head of the imperial general, who ventured to oppose it, as that of a traitor, to the emperor. He leagued with the Rajputs, and instigated Bajirao to plant the Mahratta standard in Malwa and Gujarat. In defending the former, Dayya Bahadur fell; and Jai Singh of Amber, being nominated to the trust, delegated it to the invader, and Malwa was lost. The extensive province of Gujarat soon shared the same fate; for in the vacillating policy of the court, the promise of that government to the Rathors had been broken, and Abhai Singh, son of Ajit, who had expelled Sarbuland Khan after a severe contest, following the example of his brother prince of Amber, connived with the invaders, while he added its most northern districts to Marwar. In Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, Shujau-d-daula, and his deputy Allahwirdi Khan, were supreme, and Safdar Jang (son of Saadat Khan) was established in Oudh. The basest disloyalty marked the rise of this family, which owed everything to Muhammad Shah. It was Saadat Khan who invited Nadir Shah, whose invasion gave the final stab to the empire; and it was his son, Safdar Jang, who, when commandant of the artillery (mir-i-atish), turned it against his sovereign’s palace, and then conveyed it to Oudh. Of the Diwans of Bengal we must speak only with reverence; but, whether they had any special dispensation, their loyalty to the descendant of Farrukhsiyar has been very little more distinguished than that of the satraps enumerated, though the original tenure of Bengal is still apparent, and the feudal obligation to the suzerain of Delhi manifested, in the homage of petite serjanterie, in transmitting with the annual fine of relief (one hundred mohars) the spices of the eastern archipelago. Yet of all those who gloried in the title of fidwi padshah-i-ghazi, the only ‘slave of the victorious king,’ who has been generous to him in the day of his distress, is the Diwan of Bengal, better known as the English East India Company. In the hour of triumph they rescued the blind and aged descendants of the illustrious Babur from a state of degradation and penury, and secured to him all the dignity and comfort which his circumstances could lead him to hope; and the present state of his family, contrasted with the thraldom and misery endured while fortune favoured the Mahratta, is splendid. Yet perhaps the most acute stroke of fortune to this fallen monarch was when the British governor of India lent his aid to the descendant of the rebellious Safdar Jang to mount the throne of Oudh, and to assume, in lieu of the title of wazir of the empire, that of king. We can appreciate and commiserate the feeling; for the days of power were yet too recent for Akbar Sani (the second) to receive such intelligence without a shock, or without comparing his condition with him whose name he bore. It is well to pause upon this page of eastern history, which is full of instruction; since by weighing the abuses of power, and its inevitable loss through placing a large executive trust in the hands of those who exercised it without sympathy towards the governed, we may at least retard the day of our decline.

Marātha Raids. The Campaign of Nādir Shāh.

—The Mahratta establishments in Malwa and Gujarat constituted a nucleus for others to form upon, and like locusts, they crossed the Nerbudda in swarms; when the Holkars, the Sindhias, the Puars, and other less familiar names, emerged from obscurity; when the plough was deserted for the sword, and the goat-herd made a lance of his crook. They devastated, and at length settled upon, the lands of the indigenous Rajputs. For a time the necessity of unity made them act under one standard, and hence the vast masses under the first Bajirao, which bore down all opposition, and afterwards dispersed themselves over those long-oppressed regions. It was in A.D. 1735 that he first crossed the Chambal and appeared before Delhi, which he blockaded, when his retreat was purchased by the surrender of the chauth, or fourth of the gross revenues of the empire. The Nizam, dreading the influence such pusillanimous concession might exert upon his rising power, determined to drive the Mahrattas from Malwa, where, if once fixed, they would cut off his communications with the north. He accordingly invaded Malwa, defeated Bajirao in a pitched battle, and was only prevented from following it up by Nadir Shah’s advance, facilitated by the Afghans, who, on becoming independent in Kabul, laid open the frontiers of Hindustan. In this emergency, “great hopes were placed on the valour of the Rajputs”; but the spirit of devotion in this brave race, by whose aid the Mogul power was made and maintained, was irretrievably alienated, and not one of those high families, who had throughout been so lavish of their blood in its defence, would obey the summons to the royal standard, when the fate of India was decided on the plains of Karnal. A sense of individual danger brought together the great home feudatories, when the Nizam and Saadat Khan (now Wazir) united their forces under the imperial commander; but their demoralized levies were no match for the Persian and the northern mountaineer. The Amiru-l-umara was slain, the Wazir made prisoner, and Muhammad Shah and his kingdom were at Nadir’s disposal. The disloyalty of the Wazir filled the capital with blood, and subjected his sovereign to the condition of a captive. Jealous of the Nizam, whose diplomatic success had obtained him the office of Amiru-l-umara, he stimulated the avarice of the conqueror by exaggerating the riches of Delhi, and declared that he alone could furnish the ransom negotiated by the Nizam. Nadir’s love of gold overpowered his principle; the treaty was broken, the keys of Delhi were demanded, and its humiliated emperor was led in triumph through the camp of the conqueror, who, on March 8, A.D. 1739, took possession of the palace of Timur, and coined money bearing this legend:

King over the kings of the world
Is Nadir, king of kings, and lord of the period.

Plunder and Massacre at Delhi.

—The accumulated wealth of India contained in the royal treasury, notwithstanding the lavish expenditure during the civil wars, and the profuse rewards scattered by each competitor for dominion, was yet sufficient to gratify even avarice itself, amounting in gold, jewels, and plate to forty millions sterling, exclusive of equipages of every denomination. But this enormous spoil only kindled instead of satiating the appetite of Nadir, and a fine of two millions and a half was exacted, and levied with such unrelenting rigour and cruelty on the inhabitants, that men of rank and character could find no means of escape but by suicide. A rumour of this monster’s death excited an insurrection, in which several Persians were killed. The provocation was not lost: the conqueror ascended a mosque, and commanded a general massacre, in which thousands were slain. Pillage accompanied murder; whilst the streets streamed with blood, the city was fired, and the dead were consumed in the conflagration of their late habitations. If a single ray of satisfaction could be felt amidst such a scene of horror, it must have been when Nadir commanded the minister of the wretch who was the author of this atrocity, the infamous Saadat Khan, to send, on pain of death, an inventory of his own and his master’s wealth; demanding meanwhile the two millions and a half, the original composition settled by the Nizam, from the Wazir alone. Whether his ‘coward conscience’ was alarmed at the mischief he had occasioned, or mortification at discovering that his ambition had ‘o’erleaped itself,’ and recoiled with vengeance on his own head, tempted the act, it is impossible to discover, but the guilty Saadat became his own executioner. He swallowed poison; an example followed by his diwan, Raja Majlis Rae, in order to escape the rage of the offended Nadir. By the new treaty, all the western provinces, Kabul, Tatta, Sind, and Multan, were surrendered and united to Persia, and on the vernal equinox, Nadir, gorged with spoil, commenced his march from the desolated Delhi. The philosophic comment of the native historian on these events is so just, that we shall transcribe it verbatim. “The people of Hindustan at this period thought only of personal safety and gratification; misery was disregarded by those who escaped it, and man, centred wholly in self, felt not for his kind. This selfishness, destructive of public and private virtue, was universal in Hindustan at the invasion of Nadir Shah; nor have the people become more virtuous since, and consequently neither more happy nor more independent.”

Results to the Rājputs.

—At this eventful era in the political history of India, the Rajput nation had not only maintained their ground amidst the convulsions of six centuries under the paramount sway of the Islamite, but two of the three chief States, Marwar and Amber, had by policy and valour created substantial States out of petty principalities, junior branches from which had established their independence, and still enjoy it under treaty with the British Government. Mewar at this juncture was defined by nearly the same boundaries as when Mahmud of Ghazni invaded her in the tenth century, though her influence over many of her tributaries, as Bundi, Abu, Idar, and Deolia, was destroyed. To the west, the fertile district of Godwar carried her beyond her natural barrier, the Aravalli, into the desert; while the Chambal was her limit to the east. The Khari separated her from Ajmer, and to the south she adjoined Malwa. These limits comprehended one hundred and thirty miles of latitude and one hundred and forty of longitude, containing 10,000 towns and villages, with upwards of a million sterling of revenue, raised from a fertile soil by an excellent agricultural population, a wealthy mercantile community, and defended by a devoted vassalage. Such was this little patriarchal State after the protracted strife which has been related; we shall have to exhibit her, in less than half a century, on the verge of annihilation from the predatory inroads of the Mahrattas.

The Coming of the Marāthas.

—In order to mark with exactitude the introduction of the Mahrattas into Rajasthan, we must revert to the period when the dastardly intrigues of the advisers of Muhammad Shah surrendered to them as tribute the chauth, or fourth of his revenues. Whether in the full tide of successful invasion, these spoilers deemed any other argument than force to be requisite in order to justify their extortions, they had in this surrender a concession of which the subtle Mahrattas were well capable of availing themselves; and as the Mogul claimed sovereignty over the whole of Rajasthan, they might plausibly urge their right of chauth, as applicable to all the territories subordinate to the empire.

The Rājput Coalition.

—The rapidity with which these desultory bands flew from conquest to conquest appears to have alarmed the Rajputs, and again brought about a coalition, which, with the characteristic peculiarity of all such contracts, was commenced by matrimonial alliances. On this occasion, Bijai Singh, the heir of Marwar, was affianced to the Rana’s daughter, who at the same time reconciled the princes of Marwar and Amber, whose positions at the court of the Mogul often brought their national jealousies into conflict, as they alternately took the lead in his councils: for it was rare to find both in the same line of politics. These matters were arranged at Udaipur. But as we have often had occasion to observe, no public or general benefit ever resulted from these alliances, which were obstructed by the multitude of petty jealousies inseparable from clanship; even while this treaty was in discussion, the fruit of the triple league formed against the tyranny of Aurangzeb was about to show its baneful influence, as will presently appear.

Bājirāo visits Mewār. Negotiations with the Marāthas.

—When Malwa was acquired by the Mahrattas, followed by the cession of the chauth, their leader, Bajirao, repaired to Mewar, where his visit created great alarm. The Rana desired to avoid a personal interview, and sent as his ambassadors , the chief of Salumbar and his prime minister, Biharidas. Long discussions followed as to the mode of Bajirao’s reception, which was settled to be on the same footing as the Raja of Banera, and that he should be seated in front of the throne. A treaty followed, stipulating an annual tribute, which remained in force during ten years, when grasping at the whole they despised a part, and the treaty became a nullity. The dissensions which arose soon after, in consequence of the Rajput engagements, afforded the opportunity sought for to mix in their internal concerns.

Right of Primogeniture.

—It may be recollected that in the family engagements formed by Rana Amra there was an obligation to invest the issue of such marriage with the rights of primogeniture; and the death of Sawai Jai Singh of Amber, two years after Nadir’s invasion, brought that stipulation into effect. His eldest son, Isari Singh, was proclaimed Raja, but a strong party supported Madho Singh, the Rana’s nephew, and the stipulated, against the natural order of succession. We are left in doubt as to the real designs of Jai Singh in maintaining his guarantee, which was doubtless inconvenient; but that Madho Singh was not brought up to the expectation is evident, from his holding a fief of the Rana Sangram, who appropriated the domain of Rampura for his support, subject to the service of one thousand horse and two thousand foot, formally sanctioned by his father, who allowed the transfer of his services. On the other hand, the letter of permission entitles him Kshema, ‘prosperous,’ an epithet only applied to the heir-apparent of Jaipur. Five years, however, elapsed before any extraordinary exertions were made to annul the rights of Isari Singh, who led his vassals to the Sutlej in order to oppose the first invasion of the Duranis. It would be tedious to give even an epitome of the intrigues for the development of this object, which properly belong to the annals of Amber, and whence resulted many of the troubles of Rajputana. The Rana took the field with his nephew, and was met by Isari Singh, supported by the Mahrattas; but the Sesodias did not evince in the battle of Rajmahall that gallantry which must have its source in moral strength: they were defeated and fled. The Rana vented his indignation in a galling sarcasm; he gave the sword of state to a common courtesan to carry in procession, observing “it was a woman’s weapon in these degenerate times”: a remark the degrading severity of which made a lasting impression in the decline of Mewar. Elated with this success, Isari Singh carried his resentments and his auxiliaries, under Sindhia, against the Haras of Kotah and Bundi, who supported the cause of his antagonist. Kotah stood a siege and was gallantly defended, and Sindhia (Apaji) lost an arm: on this occasion both the States suffered a diminution of territory, and were subjected to tribute. The Rana, following the example of the Kachhwahas, called in as auxiliary Malhar Rao Holkar, and engaged to pay sixty-four lakhs of rupees (£800,000) on the deposal of Isari Singh. To avoid degradation this unfortunate prince resolved on suicide, and a dose of poison gave Madho Singh the gaddi, Holkar his bribe, and the Mahrattas a firm hold upon Rajasthan. Such was the cause of Rajput abasement; the moral force of the vassals was lost in a contest unjust in all its associations, and from this period we have only the degrading spectacle of civil strife and predatory spoliation till the existing treaty of A.D. 1817 .

Death of Rāna Jagat Singh II., A.D. 1751.

—In S. 1808 (A.D. 1752) Rana Jagat Singh died. Addicted to pleasure, his habits of levity and profusion totally unfitted him for the task of governing his country at such a juncture; he considered his elephant fights of more importance than keeping down the Mahrattas. Like all his family, he patronized the arts, greatly enlarged the palace, and expended £250,000 in embellishing the islets of the Pichola. The villas scattered over the valley were all erected by him, and many of those festivals devoted to idleness and dissipation, and now firmly rooted at Udaipur, were instituted by Jagat Singh II.

Chapter 16

Rāna Partāp Singh II., A.D. 1751-54.

—Partap II. succeeded in A.D. 1752. Of the history of this prince, who renewed the most illustrious name in the annals of Mewar, there is nothing to record beyond the fact, that the three years he occupied the throne were marked by so many Mahratta invasions and war contributions. By a daughter of Raja Jai Singh of Amber he had a son, who succeeded him.

Rāna Rāj Singh II., A.D. 1754-61.

—Rana Raj Singh II. was as little entitled to the name he bore as his predecessor. During the seven years he held the dignity at least seven shoals of the Southrons overran Mewar, and so exhausted this country, that the Rana was compelled to ask pecuniary aid from the Brahman collector of the tribute, to enable him to marry the Rathor chieftain’s daughter. On his death the order of succession retrograded, devolving on his uncle ,

Rāna ArsiArsi Singh II., A.D. 1761-73.

—Rana Arsi, in S. 1818, A.D. 1762. The levity of Jagat Singh, the inexperience of his successors Partap and Raj Singh, with the ungovernable temper of Rana Arsi, and the circumstances under which he succeeded to power, introduced a train of disorders which proved fatal to Mewar. Until this period not a foot of territory had been alienated. The wisdom of the Pancholi ministers, and the high respect paid by the organ of the Satara government, for a while preserved its integrity; but when the country was divided by factions, and the Mahrattas, ceasing to be a federate body, prowled in search of prey under leaders, each having an interest of his own, they formed political combinations to suit the ephemeral purposes of the former, but from which they alone reaped advantage. An attempt to depose Partap and set up his uncle Nathji introduced a series of rebellions, and constituted Malhar Rao Holkar, who had already become master of a considerable portion of the domain of Mewar, the umpire in their family disputes.

Malhār Rāo Holkar invades Mewār. Famine, A.D. 1764.

—The ties of blood or of princely gratitude are feeble bonds if political expediency demands their dissolution; and Madho Singh, when firmly established on the throne of Amber, repaid the immense sacrifices by which the Rana had effected it by assigning his fief of Rampura, which he had not a shadow of right to alienate, to Holkar: this was the first limb severed from Mewar. Holkar had also become the assignee of the tribute imposed by Bajirao, but from which the Rana justly deemed himself exempt, when the terms of all further encroachment in Mewar were set at nought. On the plea of recovering these arrears, and the rent of some districts on the Chambal, Malhar, after many threatening letters, invaded Mewar, and his threats of occupying the capital were only checked by draining their exhausted resources of six hundred thousand pounds. In the same year a famine afflicted them, when flour and tamarinds were equal in value, and were sold at the rate of a rupee for one pound and a half. Four years subsequent to this, civil war broke out and continued to influence all posterior proceedings, rendering the inhabitants of this unhappy country a prey to every invader until 1817, when they tasted repose under British protection.

Civil War in Mewār. Revolt of Ratan Singh.

—The real cause of this rebellion must ever remain a secret: for while some regard it as a patriotic effort on the part of the people to redeem themselves from foreign domination, others discover its motive in the selfishness of the hostile clans, who supported or opposed the succession of Rana Arsi. This prince is accused of having unfairly acquired the crown, by the removal of his nephew Raj Singh; but though the traditional anecdotes of the period furnish strong grounds of suspicion, there is nothing which affords a direct confirmation of the crime. It is, however, a public misfortune when the line of succession retrogrades in Mewar: Arsi had no right to expect the inheritance he obtained, having long held a seat below the sixteen chief nobles; and as one of the ‘infants’ (babas) he was incorporated with the second class of nobles with an appanage of only £3000 per annum. His defects of character had been too closely contemplated by his compeers, and had kindled too many enmities, to justify expectation that the adventitious dignity he had attained would succeed in obliterating the memory of them; and past familiarity alone destroyed the respect which was exacted by sudden greatness. His insolent demeanour estranged the first of the home nobility, the Sadri chieftain, whose ancestor at Haldighat acquired a claim to the perpetual gratitude of the Sesodias, while to an unfeeling pun on a personal defect of Jaswant Singh of Deogarh is attributed the hatred and revenge of this powerful branch of the Chondawats. These chiefs formed a party which eventually entrained many of lesser note to depose their sovereign, and immediately set up a youth called Ratna Singh, declared to be the posthumous son of the last Rana by the daughter of the chief of Gogunda, though to this hour disputes run high as to whether he was really the son of Raj Singh, or merely the puppet of a faction. Be the fact as it may, he was made a rallying point for the disaffected, who soon comprehended the greater portion of the nobles, while out of the ‘sixteen’ greater chiefs five only withstood the defection: of these, Salumbar, the hereditary premier, at first espoused, but soon abandoned, the cause of the Pretender; not from the principle of loyalty which his descendants take credit for, but from finding the superiority of intellect of the heads of the rebellion (which now counted the rival Saktawats) too powerful for the supremacy he desired. Basant Pal, of the Depra tribe, was invested with the office of Pardhan to the Pretender. The ancestor of this man accompanied Samarsi in the twelfth century from Delhi, where he held a high office in the household of Prithiraj, the last emperor of the Hindus, and it is a distinguished proof of the hereditary quality of official dignity to find his descendant, after the lapse of centuries, still holding office with the nominal title of Pardhan. The Futuri (by which name the court still designates the Pretender) took post with his faction in Kumbhalmer; where he was formally installed, and whence he promulgated his decrees as Rana of Mewar. With that heedlessness of consequences and the political debasement which are invariable concomitants of civil dissension, they had the meanness to invite Sindhia to their aid, with a promise of a reward of more than one million sterling on the dethronement of Arsi.

Zālim Singh of Kotah.

—This contest first brought into notice one of the most celebrated Rajput chiefs of India, Zalim Singh of Kotah, who was destined to fill a distinguished part in the annals of Rajasthan, but more especially in Mewar, where his political sagacity first developed itself. Though this is not the proper place to delineate his history, which will occupy a subsequent portion of the work, it is impossible to trace the events with which he was so closely connected without adverting slightly to the part he acted in these scenes. The attack on Kotah, of which his father was military governor (during the struggle to place Madho Singh on the throne of Amber), by Isari Singh, in conjunction with Sindhia, was the first avenue to his distinguished career, leading to an acquaintance with the Mahratta chiefs, which linked him with their policy for more than half a century . Zalim having lost his prince’s favour, whose path in love he had dared to cross, repaired, on his banishment from Kotah, to the Rana, who, observing his talents, enrolled him amongst his chiefs, and conferred on him, with the title of Raj Rana, the lands of Chitarkhera for his support. By his advice the Mahratta leaders, Raghu Paigawala and Daula Miyan, with their bands, were called in by the Rana, who, setting aside the ancient Pancholi ministry, gave the seals of office to Agarji Mehta. At this period (S. 1824, A.D. 1768), Mahadaji Sindhia was at Ujjain, whither the conflicting parties hastened, each desirous of obtaining the chieftain’s support. But the Pretender’s proposals had been already entertained, and he was then encamped with Sindhia on the banks of the Sipra.

Battle at the Sipra, and Siege of Udaipur, A.D. 1769.

—The Rana’s force, conducted by the chief of Salumbar, the Rajas of Shahpura and Banera, with Zalim Singh and the Mahratta auxiliaries, did not hesitate to attack the combined camp, and for a moment they were victorious, driving Mahadaji and the Pretender from the field, with great loss, to the gates of Ujjain. Here, however, they rallied, and being joined by a fresh body of troops, the battle was renewed with great disadvantage to the Rajputs, who, deeming the day theirs, had broken and dispersed to plunder. The chiefs of Salumbar, Shahpura, and Banera were slain, and the auxiliary Daula Miyan, Raja Man (ex-prince of Narwar), and Raj Kalyan, the heir of Sadri, severely wounded. Zalim Singh had his horse killed under him, and being left wounded on the field, was made prisoner, but hospitably treated by Trimbak Rao, father to the celebrated Ambaji. The discomfited troops retreated to Udaipur while the Pretender’s party remained with Sindhia, inciting him to invest that capital and place Ratna on the throne. Some time, however, elapsed before he could carry this design into execution; when at the head of a large force the Mahratta chief gained the passes and besieged the city. The Rana’s cause now appeared hopeless. Bhim Singh of Salumbar, uncle and successor to the chief slain at Ujjain, with the Rathor chief of Badnor (descendant of Jaimall), were the only nobles of high rank who defended their prince and capital in this emergency; but the energies of an individual saved both.

Amar Chand, Minister of Mewār.

—Amra Chand Barwa, of the mercantile class, had held office in the preceding reigns, when his influence retarded the progress of evils which no human means could avert. He was now displaced, and little solicitous of recovering his transient power, amidst hourly increasing difficulties, with a stubborn and unpopular prince, a divided aristocracy, and an impoverished country. He was aware also of his own imperious temper, which was as ungovernable as his sovereign’s, and which experienced no check from the minor Partap, who regarded him as his father. During the ten years he had been out of office, mercenaries of Sind had been entertained and established on the forfeited lands of the clans, perpetuating discontent and stifling every latent spark of patriotism. Even those who did not join the Pretender remained sullenly at their castles, and thus all confidence was annihilated. A casual incident brought Amra forward at this critical juncture. Udaipur had neither ditch nor walls equal to its defence. Arsi was engaged in fortifying Eklinggarh, a lofty hill south of the city, which it commanded, and attempting to place thereon an enormous piece of ordnance, but it baffled their mechanical skill to get it over the scraggy ascent. Amra happened to be present when the Rana arrived to inspect the proceedings. Excuses were made to avert his displeasure, when turning to the ex-minister, he inquired what time and expense ought to attend the completion of such an undertaking. The reply was, “A few rations of grain and some days”: and he offered to accomplish the task, on condition that his orders should be supreme in the valley during its performance. He collected the whole working population, cut a road, and in a few days gave the Rana a salute from Eklinggarh. The foster-brother of the Rana had succeeded the Jhala chieftain, Raghu Deo, in the ministerial functions. The city was now closely invested on every side but the west, where communications were still kept open by the lake, across which the faithful mountaineers of the Aravalli, who in similar dangers never failed, supplied them with provisions. All defence rested on the fidelity of the mercenary Sindis, and they were at this very moment insolent in their clamours for arrears of pay. Nor were the indecisive measures daily passing before their eyes calculated to augment their respect, or stimulate their courage. Not satisfied with demands, they had the audacity to seize the Rana by the skirt of his robe as he entered the palace, which was torn in the effort to detain him. The haughtiness of his temper gave way to this humiliating proof of the hopelessness of his condition; and while the Dhabhai (foster-brother) counselled escape by water to the mountains, whence he might gain Mandalgarh, the Salumbar chief confessed his inability to offer any advice save that of recourse to Amra Chand. He was summoned, and the uncontrolled charge of their desperate affairs offered to his guidance. He replied that it was a task of which no man could be covetous, more especially himself, whose administration had formerly been marked by the banishment of corruption and disorder, for that he must now call in the aid of these vices, and assimilate the means to the times. “You know also,” he added, "my defect of temper, which admits of no control. Wherever I am, I must be absolute—no secret advisers, no counteraction of measures. With finances ruined, troops mutinous, provisions expended, if you desire me to act, swear that no order, whatever its purport, shall be countermanded, and I may try what can be done: but recollect, Amra ‘the just’ will be the unjust, and reverse his former character." The Rana pledged himself by the patron deity to comply with all his demands, adding this forcible expression: "Should you even send to the queen’s apartment and demand her necklace or nathna, it shall be granted." The advice of the Dhabhai encountered the full flood of Amra’s wrath. “The counsel is such as might be expected from your condition. What will preserve your prince at Mandalgarh if he flies from Udaipur, and what hidden resources have you there for your support? The project would suit you, who might resume your original occupation of tending buffaloes and selling milk, more adapted to your birth and understanding than state affairs; but these pursuits your prince has yet to learn.” The Rana and his chiefs bent their heads at the bold bearing of Amra. Descending to the terrace, where the Sindi leaders and their bands were assembled, he commanded them to follow him, exclaiming, “Look to me for your arrears, and as for your services, it will be my fault if you fail.” The mutineers, who had just insulted their sovereign, rose without reply, and in a body left the palace with Amra, who calculated their arrears and promised payment the next day. Meanwhile he commanded the bhandars (repositories) to be broken open, as the keeper of each fled when the keys of their trust were demanded. All the gold and silver, whether in bullion or in vessels, were converted into money—jewels were pledged—the troops paid and satisfied, ammunition and provisions laid in—a fresh stimulus supplied, the enemy held at defiance, and the siege prolonged during six months .

The Pretender’s party had extended their influence over a great part of the crown domain, even to the valley of Udaipur; but unable to fulfil the stipulation to Sindhia, the baffled Mahratta, to whom time was treasure, negotiated with Amra to raise the siege, and abandon the Pretender on the payment of seventy lakhs. But scarcely was the treaty signed, when the reported disposition of the auxiliaries, and the plunder expected on a successful assault, excited his avarice and made him break his faith, and twenty lakhs additional were imposed. Amra tore up the treaty, and sent back the fragments to the faithless Mahratta with defiance. His spirit increased with his difficulties, and he infused his gallantry into the hearts of the most despairing. Assembling the Sindis and the home-clans who were yet true to their prince, he explained to them the transaction, and addressed them in that language which speaks to the souls of all mankind, and to give due weight to his exhortation, he distributed amongst the most deserving, many articles of cumbrous ornament lying useless in the treasury. The stores of grain in the city and neighbourhood, whether public or private, were collected and sent to the market, and it was proclaimed by beat of drum that every fighting man should have six months’ provision on application. Hitherto grain had been selling at little more than a pound for the rupee, and these unexpected resources were matter of universal surprise, more especially to the besiegers. The Sindis, having no longer cause for discontent, caught the spirit of the brave Amra, and went in a body to the palace to swear in public never to abandon the Rana, whom their leader, Adil Beg, thus addressed: “We have long eaten your salt and received numerous favours from your house, and we now come to swear never to abandon you. Udaipur is our home, and we will fall with it. We demand no further pay, and when our grain is exhausted, we will feed on the beasts, and when these fail we will thin the ranks of the Southrons and die sword in hand.” Such were the sentiments that Amra had inspired, the expression of which extorted tears from the Rana—a sight so unusual with this stern prince, as to raise frantic shouts from the Sindis and his Rajputs. The enthusiasm spread and was announced to Sindhia with all its circumstances by a general discharge of cannon on his advanced posts. Apprehensive of some desperate display of Rajput valour, the wary Mahratta made overtures for a renewal of the negotiation. It was now Amra’s turn to triumph, and he replied that he must deduct from the original terms the expense they had incurred in sustaining another six months’ siege. Thus outwitted, Sindhia was compelled to accept sixty lakhs, and three-and-a-half for official expenses.

Cessions made to Sindhia.

—Thirty-three lakhs in jewels and specie, gold and silver plate, and assignments on the chiefs, were immediately made over to Sindhia, and lands mortgaged for the liquidation of the remainder. For this object the districts of Jawad, Jiran, Nimach, and Morwan were set aside to be superintended by joint officers of both governments, with an annual investigation of accounts. From S. 1825 to S. 1831 [A.D. 1768-74]1768-74] no infringement took place of this arrangement; but in the latter year Sindhia dismissed the Rana’s officers from the management, and refused all further settlement; and with the exception of a temporary occupation on Sindhia’s reverse of fortune in S. 1851 [A.D. 1794], these rich districts have remained severed from Mewar. In S. 1831 [A.D. 1774] the great officers of the Mahratta federation began to shake off the trammels of the Peshwa’s authority; and Sindhia retained for the State of which he was the founder, all these lands except Morwan, which was made over to Holkar, who the year after the transaction demanded of the Rana the surrender of the district of Nimbahera, threatening, in the event of non-compliance, to repeat the part his predatory coadjutor Sindhia had just performed. The cession was unavoidable.

Thus terminated, in S. 1826 [A.D. 1769], the siege of Udaipur, with the dislocation of these fine districts from Mewar. But let it be remembered that they were only mortgaged: and although the continued degradation of the country from the same causes has prevented their redemption, the claim to them has never been abandoned. Their recovery was stipulated by the ambassadors of the Rana in the treaty of A.D. 1817 with the British Government; but our total ignorance of the past transactions of these countries, added to our amicable relations with Sindhia , prevented any pledge of the reunion of these districts; and it must ever be deeply lamented that, when the treacherous and hostile conduct of Sindhia gave a noble opportunity for their restoration, it was lost, from policy difficult to understand, and which must be subject to the animadversions of future historians of that important period in the history of India. It yet remains for the wisdom of the British Government to decide whether half a century’s abeyance, and the inability to redeem them by the sword, render the claim a dead letter. At all events, the facts here recorded from a multiplicity of public documents, and corroborated by living actors in the scene, may be useful at some future day, when expedience may admit of their being reannexed to Mewar.

Ratan Singh defeated.

—Amra’s defence of the capital, and the retreat of the Mahrattas, was a deathblow to the hopes of the Pretender, who had obtained not only many of the strongholds, but a footing in the valley of the capital. Rajnagar, Raepur, and Untala were rapidly recovered; many of the nobles returned to the Rana and to their allegiance; and Ratna was left in Kumbhalmer with the Depra minister, and but three of the sixteen principal nobles, namely Deogarh, Bhindir, and Amet. These contentions lasted till S. 1831 [A.D. 1774], when the chiefs above named also abandoned him, but not until their rebellion had cost the feather in the crown of Mewar. The rich province of Godwar, the most fruitful of all her possessions, and containing the most loyal of her vassalage, the Ranawats, Rathors, and Solankis, was nearly all held on tenure of feudal service, and furnished three thousand horse besides foot, a greater number than the aggregate of the Chondawats. This district, which was won with the title of Rana from the Parihara prince of Mandor, before Jodhpur was built, and whose northern boundary was confirmed by the blood of the Chondawat chief in the reign of Jodha, was confided by the Rana to the care of Raja Bijai Singh of Jodhpur, to prevent its resources being available to the Pretender, whose residence, Kumbhalmer, commanded the approach to it: and the original treaty yet exists in which the prince of Marwar binds himself to provide and support a body of three thousand men for the Rana’s service, from its revenues.

Assassination of Rāna Ari Singh, A.D. 1773.

—This province might have been recovered; but the evil genius of Arsi Rana at this time led him to Bundi to hunt at the spring festival (the Aheria), with the Hara prince, in spite of the prophetic warning of the suttee, who from the funeral pile denounced a practice which had already thrice proved fatal to the princes of Mewar. Rana Arsi fell by the hand of the Bundi prince, and Godwar, withheld from his minor successor, has since remained severed. The Bundi heir, who perpetrated this atrocious assassination, was said to be prompted by the Mewar nobles, who detested their sovereign, and with whom, since the late events, it was impossible they could ever unite in confidence. Implacable in his disposition, he brooded over injuries, calmly awaiting the moment to avenge them. A single instance will suffice to evince this, as well as the infatuation of Rajput devotion. The Salumbar chief, whose predecessor had fallen in support of the Rana’s cause at the battle of Ujjain, having incurred his suspicions, the Rana commanded him to eat the pan (betel leaf) presented on taking leave. Startled at so unusual an order, he remonstrated, but in vain; and with the conviction that it contained his death-warrant he obeyed, observing to the tyrant, “My compliance will cost you and your family dear”: words fulfilled with fearful accuracy, for to this and similar acts is ascribed the murder of Arsi, and the completion of the ruin of the country. A colour of pretext was afforded to the Bundi chief in a boundary dispute regarding a patch of land yielding only a few good mangoes; but, even admitting this as a palliative, it could not justify the inhospitable act, which in the mode of execution added cowardice to barbarity: for while both were pursuing the boar, the Bundi heir drove his lance through the heart of the Rana. The assassin fell a victim to remorse, the deed being not only disclaimed, but severely reprobated by his father, and all the Hara tribe. A cenotaph still stands on the site of the murder, where the body of Arsi was consumed, and the feud between the houses remains unappeased.

Rāna Hamīr Singh II., A.D. 1773-78.

—Rana Arsi left two sons, Hamir and Bhim Singh. The former, a name of celebrity in their annals, succeeded in S. 1828 (A.D. 1772) to the little enviable title of Rana. With an ambitious mother, determined to control affairs during his minority, a state pronounced by the bard peculiarly dangerous to a Rajput dynasty,—and the vengeful competition of the Salumbar chief (successor to the murdered noble), who was equally resolved to take the lead, combined with an unextinguishable enmity to the Saktawats, who supported the policy of the queen-mother , the demoralization of Mewar was complete: her fields were deluged with blood, and her soil was the prey of every paltry marauder.

Outbreak of the Sindis.

—The mercenary Sindis, who, won by the enthusiasm of Amra, had for a moment assumed the garb of fidelity, threw it off at their prince’s death, taking possession of the capital, which it will be remembered had been committed to the charge of the Salumbar chief, whom they confined and were about to subject to the torture of the hot iron to extort their arrears of pay, when he was rescued from the indignity by the unlooked-for return of Amra from Bundi. This faithful minister determined to establish the rights of the infant prince against all other claimants for power. But he knew mankind, and had attained, what is still more difficult, the knowledge of himself. Aware that his resolution to maintain his post at all hazards, and against every competitor, would incur the imputation of self-interest, he, like our own Wolsey, though from far different motives, made an inventory of his wealth, in gold, jewels, and plate, even to his wardrobe, and sent the whole in trays to the queen-mother. Suspicion was shamed and resentment disarmed by this proceeding; and to repeated entreaties that he would receive it back he was inflexible, with the exception of articles of apparel that had already been in use. This imperious woman was a daughter of Gogunda. She possessed considerable talents, but was ruled by an artful intrigante, who, in her turn, was governed by a young homme d’affaires, then holding an inferior office, but who subsequently acted a conspicuous part; slew and was slain, like almost all who entered into the politics of this tempestuous period. The queen-mother, now supported by the Chondawats, opposed the minister, who maintained himself by aid of the Sindis, kept the Mahrattas from the capital, and protected the crown land; but the ungrateful return made to his long-tried fidelity rendered his temper ungovernable. Rampiyari (such the name of the intrigante) repaired on one occasion to the office of the minister, and in the name of the regent queen reviled him for some supposed omission. Amra, losing all temper at this intrusion, applied to the fair abigail the coarsest epithets used to her sex, bidding her begone as a Kothi ki Rand (a phrase we shall not translate), which was reported with exaggeration to the queen, who threw herself into a litter and set off to the Salumbar chief. Amra, anticipating an explosion, met the cavalcade in the street, and enjoined her instant return to the palace. Who dared disobey? Arrived at the door of the Rawala, he made his obeisance, and told her it was a disgrace to the memory of her lord that she should quit the palace under any pretext; that even the potter’s wife did not go abroad for six months after her husband’s death, while she, setting decorum at defiance, had scarcely permitted the period of mourning to elapse. He concluded by saying he had a duty to perform, and that he would perform it in spite of all obstacles, in which, as it involved her own and her children’s welfare, she ought to cooperate, instead of thwarting him. But Baiji Raj (the royal mother) was young, artful, and ambitious, and persevered in her hostility till the demise of this uncompromising minister shortly after, surmised to be caused by poison. His death yielded a flattering comment on his life: he left not funds sufficient to cover the funeral expenses, and is, and will probably continue, the sole instance on record in Indian history of a minister having his obsequies defrayed by subscription among his fellow-citizens.

The man who thus lived and thus died would have done honour to any, even the most civilized, country, where the highest incentives to public virtue exist. What, therefore, does not his memory merit, when amongst a people who, through long oppression, were likely to hold such feelings in little estimation, he pursued its dictates from principle alone, his sole reward that which the world could not bestow, the applause of the monitor within? But they greatly err who, in the application of their own overweening standard of merit, imagine there is no public opinion in these countries; for recollections of actions like this (of which but a small portion is related) they yet love to descant upon, and an act of vigour and integrity is still designated Amrachanda; evincing that if virtue has few imitators in this country, she is not without ardent admirers.

Revolt of the Chief of Begūn.

—In S. 1831 (A.D. 1775) the rebellion of the Begun chief, head of a grand division of the Chondawats, the Meghawat, obliged the queen-mother to call upon Sindhia for his reduction, who recovered the crown lands he had usurped, and imposed on this refractory noble a fine of twelve lakhs of rupees, or £100,000 sterling. But instead of confining himself to punishing the guilty, and restoring the lands to the young Rana, he inducted his own son-in-law Berji Tap into the districts of Ratangarh Kheri and Singoli; and at the same time made over those of Irnia, Jath, Bichor, and Nadwai to Holkar, the aggregate revenue of which amounted to six lakhs annually. Besides these alienations of territory, the Mahrattas levied no less than four grand war contributions in S. 1830-31, while in S. 1836 their rapacity exacted three more. Inability to liquidate these exorbitant demands was invariably a signal for further sequestration of land. Amidst such scenes of civil strife and external spoliation, one Mahratta following another in the same track of rapine, Hamir died before he had attained even Rajput majority, in S. 1834 (A.D. 1778).

Recapitulation.

—We may here briefly recapitulate the diminution of territory and wealth in Mewar from the period of the first Mahratta visitation in A.D. 1736, to the death of Hamir. It were a waste of time to enumerate the rapacious individuals who shared in the spoils of this devoted country. We may be content to say their name was ‘legion.’ These forty years were surcharged with evil. The Mogul princes observed at least the forms of government and justice, which occasionally tempered their aggressions; the Mahrattas were associations of vampires, who drained the very life-blood wherever the scent of spoil attracted them. In three payments we have seen the enormous sum of one crore and eighty-one lakhs, upwards of two millions English money, exacted from Mewar, exclusive of individual contributions levied on chiefs, ministers, and the Pretender’s party: and a schedule drawn up by the reigning prince of contributions levied up to his own time, amounts to £5,000,000 sterling. Yet the land would eventually have reimbursed these sums, but the penalty inflicted for deficiencies of payment renders the evil irremediable; for the alienated territory which then produced an annual revenue of twenty-eight lakhs, or £323,000 sterling, exceeds in amount the sum-total now left, whether fiscal or feudal, in the present impoverished state of the country.

Chapter 17

Rāna Bhīm Singh, A.D. 1778-1828.

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

Feud of Chondāwats and Saktāwats.

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

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

Battle of Lālsot, May 1787.

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

Defeat of the Rājputs. Murder of Somji.

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

Aid sought from Sindhia.

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

Negotiations by Zālim Singh.

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

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

Zālim Singh and Sindhia at Udaipur.

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

Sindhia’s Instructions to Ambaji.

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

• 1. The entire restoration of the Rana’s authority and resumption of the crown-lands from rebellious chiefs and mercenary Sindis.
• 2. The expulsion of the pretender from Kumbhalmer.
• 3. The recovery of Godwar from the Raja of Marwar.
• 4. To settle the Bundi feud for the murder of Rana Arsi.

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

Anarchy in Mewār.

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

Death of Mahādaji Sindhia, January 12, 1794.

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

Contest of Ambaji and Lakwa.

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

George Thomas.

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

Pillage in Mewār.

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

Daulat Rāo Sindhia reduces Mewār.

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

Lakwa Dāda Marātha Viceroy.

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

Holkar defeated at Indore. Plunder of Nāthdwāra: image removed.

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

The Inroad of Holkar.

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

Mewār Quarrels.

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

Holkar plunders Udaipur.

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

Sindhia and Holkar in Mewār.

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

Holkar saves Mewār from Sindhia.

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

Holkar protects Mewār Interests.

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

The Tragedy of Krishna Kunwāri.

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

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

Battle of Parbatsar. Defeat of the Mārwār Forces.

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

Nawāb Amīr Khān.

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

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

The Tragedy of Krishna Kunwāri.

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

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

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

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

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

Fate of the Murderers.

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

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

rather would the multitudinous sea incarnadine .

Amīr Khan rewarded by the British.

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

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

Ruin of Mewār by the Marāthas.

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

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

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

Bāpu Sindhia Sūbahdār of Mewār.

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

Chapter 18

Degraded Condition of the Rājputs.

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

Alliances with the British.

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

Treaty with Mewār.

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

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

Cession of Kumbhalmer.

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

Arrival of the Author as Agent.

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

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

The Palace at Udaipur.

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

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

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

Political Divisions of Mewār.

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

Desolation of Mewār.

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

The Condition of Udaipur.

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

Reorganization of the State.

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

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

Form of Civil Government.

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

There are four grand officers of the government:

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

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

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

The Bakhshi has four secretaries:

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

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

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

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

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

Incapacity of the Rāna.

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

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

Relations of the Rāna with his Nobles.

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

Return of the Exiles.

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

Attraction of Capital.

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

Trade at Bhīlwāra.

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

Reform of the Nobility.

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

Negotiations with the Chiefs.

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

Enforcement of the Treaty.

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

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

The Case of Arja.

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

Badnor and Amet.