=Rāna Banbīr Singh, A.D. 1535-37.=—A few hours of sovereignty sufficed
to check those ‘compunctious visitings’ which assailed Banbir ere he
assumed its trappings, with which he found himself so little encumbered
that he was content to wear them for life. Whether this was the
intention of the nobles who set aside the unworthy son of Sanga, there
is abundant reason to doubt; and as he is subsequently branded with the
epithet of ‘usurper’ it was probably limited, though unexpressed, to
investing him with the executive authority during the minority of Udai
Singh. Banbir, however, only awaited the approach of night to remove
with his own hands the obstacle to his ambition.
=The Escape of Udai Singh, the Heir.=—Udai Singh was about six years of
age. “He had gone to sleep after his rice and milk,” when his nurse was
alarmed by screams from the rawala,[4.10.1] and the Bari[4.10.2] coming
in to take away the remains of the dinner, informed her of the cause,
the assassination of the Rana. Aware that one murder was the precursor
of another, the faithful nurse put her charge into a fruit basket and,
covering it with leaves, she delivered it to the Bari, enjoining him to
escape with it from the fort. Scarcely had she time to substitute her
own infant in the room of the prince, when Banbir, entering, inquired
for him. Her lips refused their office; she pointed to the cradle, and
beheld the murderous steel buried in the heart of her babe [316]. The
little victim to fidelity was burnt amidst the tears of the rawala, the
inconsolable household of their late sovereign, who supposed that their
grief was given to the last pledge of the illustrious Sanga. The nurse
(_Dhai_) was a Rajputni of the Khichi tribe, her name Panna, or ‘the
Diamond.’ Having consecrated with her tears the ashes of her child, she
hastened after that she had preserved. But well had it been for Mewar
had the poniard fulfilled its intention, and had the annals never
recorded the name of Udai Singh in the catalogue of her princes.
The faithful barber was awaiting the nurse in the bed of the Berach
River, some miles west of Chitor, and fortunately the infant had not
awoke until he descended the city. They departed for Deolia, and sought
refuge with Singh Rao, the successor to Baghji, who fell for Chitor; who
dreading the consequence of detection, they proceeded to Dungarpur.
Rawal Askaran then ruled this principality, which, as well as Deolia,
was not only a branch, but the elder branch, of Chitor. With every wish
to afford a shelter, he pleaded the danger which threatened himself and
the child in such a feeble sanctuary. Pursuing a circuitous route
through Idar, and the intricate valleys of the Aravalli, by the help and
with the protection of its wild inmates, the Bhils, she gained
Kumbhalmer. The resolution she had formed was bold as it was judicious.
She demanded an interview with the governor, Asa Sah his name, of the
mercantile tribe of Depra,[4.10.3] and a follower of the theistical
tenets of the Jains. The interview being granted, she placed the infant
in his lap, and bid him “guard the life of his sovereign.” He felt
perplexed and alarmed: but his mother, who was present, upbraided him
for his scruples. “Fidelity,” said she, “never looks at dangers or
difficulties. He is your master, the son of Sanga, and by God’s blessing
the result will be glorious.” Having thus fulfilled her trust, the
faithful Panna withdrew from Kumbhalmer to avoid the suspicion which a
Rajputni about a Srawak’s[4.10.4] child would have occasioned, as the
heir of Chitor was declared to be the nephew of the Depra.
=The Boyhood of Udai Singh.=—Suspicions were often excited regarding
Asa’s nephew; once, especially, on the anniversary (_samvatsara_) of the
governor’s father, when “the Rajput guests being in one rank, and the
men of wealth in another, young Udai seized a vessel of curds, which no
intreaty could prevail on him to relinquish, deriding their threats”
[317]. Seven years elapsed before the secret transpired; at length
self-revealed, from the same independent bearing. On occasion of a visit
from the Sonigira chief, Udai was sent to receive him, and the dignified
manner in which he performed the duty convinced the chief ‘he was no
nephew to the Sah.’ Rumour spread the tale, and brought not only the
nobles of Mewar, but adjacent chiefs, to hail the son of Sanga Rana.
Sahidas of Salumbar, the representative of Chonda, Jaga of Kelwa, Sanga
of Bagor, all chiefs of the clans of Chondawat; the Chauhans of Kotharia
and Bedla, the Pramar of Bijolia Akhiraj (Sonigira), Prithiraj of
Sanchor, and Lunkaran Jethawat, repaired to Kumbhalmer, when all doubt
was removed by the testimony of the nurse, and of her coadjutor in the
preservation of the child.
=Installation of Rāna Udai Singh, A.D. 1537-72.=—A court was formed,
when the faithful Asa Sah resigned his trust and placed the prince of
Chitor ‘in the lap of the Kotharia Chauhan,’ as the ‘great
ancient’[4.10.5] among the nobles of Mewar, who was throughout
acquainted with the secret, and who, to dissipate the remaining scruples
which attached to the infant’s preservation, ‘ate off the same platter
with him.’ The Sonigira Rao did not hesitate to affiance to him his
daughter, and it was accepted by his advisers, notwithstanding the
interdict of Hamir to any intermarriage with the Sonigira, since the
insult of giving the widow to his bed. Udai received the tika of Chitor
in the castle of Kumbha, and the homage of nearly all the chiefs of
Mewar.
The tidings soon reached the usurper, who had not borne his faculties
meekly since his advancement; but having seized on the dignity, he
wished to ape all the customs of the legitimate monarchs of Chitor, and
even had the effrontery to punish as an insult the refusal of one of the
proud sons of Chonda to take the _dauna_ from his bastard hand.
=The Dauna, a Recognition of Legitimacy.=—The _dauna_, or _daua_, is a
portion of the dish of which the prince partakes, sent by his own hand
to whomsoever he honours at the banquet. At the rasora, or refectory,
the chiefs who are admitted to dine in the presence of their sovereign
are seated according to their rank. The repast is one of those occasions
when an easy familiarity is permitted, which, though unrestrained, never
exceeds the bounds [318] of etiquette, and the habitual reverence due to
their father and prince. When he sends, by the steward of the kitchen, a
portion of the dish before him, or a little from his own _kansa_, or
plate, all eyes are guided to the favoured mortal, whose good fortune is
the subject of subsequent conversation. Though, with the diminished
lustre of this house, the _dauna_ may have lost its former estimation,
it is yet received with reverence; but the extent of this feeling, even
so late as the reign of Arsi Rana, the father of the reigning prince,
the following anecdote will testify. In the rebellion during this
prince’s reign, amongst the ancient customs which became relaxed, that
of bestowing the _dauna_ was included; and the Rana conferring it on the
Rathor prince of Kishangarh, the Bijolia chief, one of the sixteen
superior nobles of Mewar, rose and left the presence, observing,
“Neither the Kachhwaha nor the Rathor has a right to this honour, nor
can we, who regard as sanctified even the leavings of your repast,
witness this degradation; for the Thakur of Kishangarh is far beneath
me.” To such extent is this privilege even yet carried, and such
importance is attached from habit to the personal character of the
princes of Mewar, that the test of regal legitimacy in Rajasthan is
admission to eat from the same plate (_kansa_) with the Rana: and to the
refusal of this honour to the great Man Singh of Amber may be indirectly
ascribed the ruin of Mewar.[4.10.6]
It may therefore be conceived with what contempt the haughty nobility of
Chitor received the mockery of honour from the hand of this ‘fifth son
of Mewar’; and the Chondawat chief had the boldness to add to his
refusal, “that an honour from the hand of a true son of Bappa Rawal
became a disgrace when proffered by the offspring of the handmaid
Sitalseni.” The defection soon became general, and all repaired to the
valley of Kumbhalmer to hail the legitimate son of Mewar. A caravan of
five hundred horses and ten thousand oxen, laden with merchandise from
Cutch, the dower of Banbir’s daughter, guarded by one thousand Gaharwar
Rajputs, was plundered in the passes: a signal intimation of the decay
of his authority, and a timely supply to the celebration of the nuptials
of Udai Rana with the daughter of the Rao of Jalor. Though the interdict
of Hamir was not forgotten, it was deemed that the insult given by
Banbir Sonigira was amply effaced by his successor’s redemption of the
usurpation of Banbir Sesodia. The marriage was solemnized at Bali,
within the limits of Jalor, and the [319] customary offerings were sent
or given by all the princes of Rajasthan. Two chiefs only, of any
consequence, abstained from attending on their lawful prince on this
occasion, the Solanki of Maholi and Maloji of Tana. In attacking them,
the bastard was brought into conflict; but Maloji was slain and the
Solanki surrendered.
=Deposition of Rāna Banbīr Singh.=—Deserted by all, Banbir held out in
the capital; but his minister admitted, under the garb of a
reinforcement with supplies, a thousand resolute adherents of the
prince: the keepers of the gates were surprised and slain, and the _an_
of Udai Singh was proclaimed. Banbir was even permitted to retire with
his family and his wealth. He sought refuge in the Deccan, and the
Bhonslas of Nagpur are said to derive their origin from this spurious
branch of Chitor.[4.10.7]
=Rāna Udai Singh, A.D. 1537-72.=—Rana Udai Singh ascended the throne in
S. 1597 (A.D. 1541-2). Great were the rejoicings on the restoration of
this prince. ‘The song of joy,’[4.10.8] which was composed on the
occasion, is yet a favourite at Udaipur, and on the festival of Isani
(the Ceres of Rajasthan), the females still chant in chorus the
‘farewell to Kumbhalmer.’[4.10.9] But the evil days of Mewar which set
in with Sanga’s death, and were accelerated by the fiery valour of Ratna
and the capricious conduct of Bikramajit, were completed by an anomaly
in her annals: a coward succeeding a bastard to guide the destinies of
the Sesodias. The vices of Ratna and his brother were virtues compared
to this physical defect, the consequences of which destroyed a great
national feeling, the opinion of its invincibility.
=His Character.=—“Woe to the land where a minor rules or a woman bears
sway!” exclaims the last of the great bards[4.10.10] of Rajasthan; but
where both were united, as in Mewar, the measure of her griefs was full.
Udai Singh had not one quality of a sovereign; and wanting martial
virtue, the common heritage of his race, he was destitute of all. Yet he
might have slumbered life away in inglorious repose during the reign of
Humayun, or the contentions of the Pathan usurpation; but, unhappily for
Rajasthan, a prince was then rearing who forged fetters for the Hindu
race which enthralled them for ages; and though the corroding hand of
time left but their fragments, yet even now, though emancipated, they
bear the indelible marks of the manacle; not like the galley slave’s,
physical and exterior, but deep mental scars, never to be effaced. Can a
nation which has run its long career of glory be [320] regenerated? Can
the soul of the Greek or the Rajput be reanimated with the spark divine
which defended the kunguras[4.10.11] of Chitor or the pass of
Thermopylae? Let history answer the question.
=Birth of Akbar.=—In the same year that the song of joy was raised in
the cloud-capped[4.10.12] palace of Kumbhalmer for the deliverance of
Udai Singh, the note of woe was pealed through the walls of Umarkot, and
given to the winds of the desert, to proclaim the birth[4.10.13] of an
infant destined to be the greatest monarch who ever swayed the sceptre
of Hindustan. In an oasis of the Indian desert, amidst the descendants
of the ancient Sogdoi[4.10.14] of Alexander, Akbar first saw the light;
his father a fugitive, the diadem torn from his brows, its recovery more
improbable than was its acquisition by Babur. The ten years which had
elapsed since Humayun’s accession were passed in perpetual strife with
his brothers, placed according to custom in subordinate governments.
Their selfish ambition met its reward; for with the fall of Humayun
their own was ensured, when Sher Shah displaced the dynasty of Chagatai
for his own, the Pathan (or Sur).
=Defeat and Flight of Humāyūn, A.D. 1540.=—From the field of battle at
Kanauj, where Humayun left his crown, his energetic opponent gave him no
respite, driving him before him from Agra to Lahore. Thence, with his
family and a small band of adherents, alternately protected and repelled
by Hindu chieftains, he reached the valley of Sind, where he struggled
to maintain himself amidst the greatest privations, attempting in
succession each stronghold on the Indus, from Multan to the ocean.
Foiled in every object, his associates made rebels by distress, he
abandoned them for the more dubious shelter of the foes of his race.
Vain were his solicitations to Jaisalmer and Jodhpur; and though it
cannot be matter of wonder that he found no commiseration from either
Bhatti or Rathor, we must reprobate the unnational conduct of Maldeo,
who, the Mogul historian says, attempted to make him captive. From such
inhospitable treatment the royal exile escaped by again plunging into
the desert, where he encountered, along with the tender objects of his
solicitude, hardships of the most appalling description, until sheltered
by the Sodha prince of Umarkot. The high courage and the virtues of this
monarch increase that interest in his sufferings which royalty in
distress never fails to awaken by its irresistible influence [321] upon
our sympathies; and they form an affecting episode in the history of
Ferishta.[4.10.15] Humayun, though more deeply skilled in the mysteries
of astrology than any professed seer of his empire, appears never to
have enjoyed that prescience which, according to the initiated in the
science, is to be obtained from accurate observation:
And coming events cast their shadows before;
for, could he, by any prophetic power, have foreseen that the cloud
which then shaded his fortunes, was but the precursor of glory to his
race, he would have continued his retreat from the sheltering sand-hills
of Umarkot with very different sentiments from those which accompanied
his flight into Persia [322].
=Early Years of Akbar.=—Humayun educated the young Akbar in the same
school of adversity in which he had studied under Babur. Between the
Persian court and his ancient patrimony in Transoxiana, Kandahar, and
Kashmir, twelve years were passed in every trial of fortune. During this
short period, India, always the prize of valour, had witnessed in
succession six[4.10.16] kings descended from the Pathan ‘Lion’ (_sher_),
of whom the last, Sikandar, was involved in the same civil broils which
brought the crown to his family. Humayun, then near Kashmir, no sooner
observed the tide of events set counter to his foe, than he crossed the
Indus and advanced upon Sirhind, where the Pathan soon appeared with a
tumultuous array. The impetuosity of young Akbar brought on a general
engagement, which the veterans deemed madness. Not so Humayun, who gave
the command to his boy, whose heroism so excited all ranks, that they
despised the numbers of the enemy, and gained a glorious victory. This
was the presage of his future fame; for Akbar was then but twelve years
of age,[4.10.17] the same period of life at which his grandfather,
Babur, maintained himself on the throne of Farghana. Humayun, worthy of
such a son and such a sire, entered Delhi in triumph; but he did not
long enjoy his recovered crown. His death will appear extraordinary,
according to the erroneous estimate formed of Eastern princes: its cause
was a fall from the terrace of his library;[4.10.18] for, like every
individual of his race, he was not merely a patron of literature, but
himself a scholar. Were we to contrast the literary acquirements of the
Chagatai princes with those of their contemporaries of Europe, the
balance of lore would be found on the side of the Asiatics, even though
Elizabeth and Henry IV. of France were in the scale. Amongst the princes
from the Jaxartes are historians, poets, astronomers, founders of
systems of government and religion, warriors, and great captains, who
claim our respect and admiration.
=Akbar’s Struggle for the Empire.=—Scarcely had Akbar been seated on the
throne, when Delhi and Agra were wrested from him, and a nook of the
Panjab constituted all his empire: but by the energetic valour of the
great Bairam Khan, his lost sovereignty was regained with equal
rapidity, and established by the wisdom of this Sully[4.10.19] of
Hindustan on a rock. Kalpi, Chanderi, Kalanjar, all Bundelkhand and
Malwa, were soon attached to the empire, and at the early age of
eighteen Akbar assumed the uncontrolled [323] direction of the State. He
soon turned his attention towards the Rajputs; and whether it was to
revenge the inhospitality of Maldeo towards his father, he advanced
against the Rathors, and stormed and took Merta, the second city in
Marwar. Raja Biharimall [or Bahar Mall] of Amber anticipated the king,
enrolled himself and son Bhagwandas amongst his vassals, gave the
Chagatai a daughter to wife, and held his country as a fief of the
empire. But the rebellions of the Usbek nobles, and the attempts of
former princes to regain their lost power, checked for a time his
designs upon Rajasthan. These matters adjusted, and the petty sovereigns
in the East (to whom the present monarch of Oudh is as Alexander)
subjected to authority, he readily seized upon the provocation which the
sanctuary given to Baz Bahadur of Malwa and the ex-prince of Narwar
afforded, to turn his arms against Chitor.[4.10.20]
=Comparison of Akbar with Rāna Udai Singh.=—Happy the country where the
sovereignty is in the laws, and where the monarch is but the chief
magistrate of the State, unsubjected to those vicissitudes which make
the sceptre in Asia unstable as a pendulum, kept in perpetual
oscillation by the individual passions of her princes; where the virtues
of one will exalt her to the summit of prosperity, as the vices of a
successor will plunge her into the abyss of degradation. Akbar and Udai
Singh furnish the corollary to this self-evident truth.
The Rana was old enough to philosophize on ‘the uses of adversity’; and
though the best of the ‘great ancients’ had fallen in defence of Chitor,
there were not wanting individuals capable of instilling just and noble
sentiments into his mind: but it was of that common character which is
formed to be controlled by others; and an artful and daring concubine
stepped in, to govern Udai Singh and Mewar.
Akbar was not older when he came to the throne[4.10.21] of Delhi than
Udai Singh when he ascended that of Mewar. Nor were his hopes much
brighter; but the star which beamed upon his cradle in the desert,
conducted to his aid such counsellors as the magnanimous Bairam, and the
wise and virtuous Abu-l Fazl. Yet it may be deemed hardly fair to
contrast the Rajput with the Mogul: the one disciplined into an accurate
knowledge of human nature, by experience of the [324] mutability of
fortune; the other cooped up from infancy in a valley of his native
hills, his birth concealed, and his education restricted.[4.10.22]
Akbar was the real founder of the empire of the Moguls, the first
successful conqueror of Rajput independence: to this end his virtues
were powerful auxiliaries, as by his skill in the analysis of the mind
and its readiest stimulant to action, he was enabled to gild the chains
with which he bound them. To these they became familiarized by habit,
especially when the throne exerted its power in acts gratifying to
national vanity, or even in ministering to the more ignoble passions.
But generations of the martial races were cut off by his sword, and
lustres rolled away ere his conquests were sufficiently confirmed to
permit him to exercise the beneficence of his nature, and obtain by the
universal acclaim of the conquered, the proud epithet of Jagad Guru, or
‘guardian of mankind.’ He was long ranked with Shihabu-d-din, Ala, and
other instruments of destruction, and with every just claim; and, like
these, he constructed a Mimbar[4.10.23] for the Koran from the altars of
Eklinga. Yet he finally succeeded in healing the wounds his ambition had
inflicted, and received from millions that meed of praise which no other
of his race ever obtained.
The absence of the kingly virtues in the sovereign of Mewar filled to
the brim the bitter cup of her destiny. The guardian goddess of the
Sesodias had promised never to abandon the rock of her pride while a
descendant of Bappa Rawal devoted himself to her service. In the first
assault by Ala, twelve crowned heads defended the ‘crimson banner’ to
the death. In the second, when conquest led by Bajazet[4.10.24] came
from the south, the chieftain of Deolia, a noble scion of Mewar, “though
severed from her stem,” claimed the crown of glory and of martyrdom. But
on this, the third and grandest struggle, no regal victim appeared to
appease the Cybele of Chitor, and win her to retain its
‘kunguras’[4.10.25] as her coronet. She fell! the charm was broken; the
mysterious tie was severed for ever which connected [325] Chitor with
perpetuity of sway to the race of Guhilot. With Udai Singh fled the
“fair face” which in the dead of night unsealed the eyes of Samarsi, and
told him “the glory of the Hindu was departing”:[4.10.26] with him, that
opinion, which for ages esteemed her walls the sanctuary of the race,
which encircled her with a halo of glory, as the palladium of the
religion and the liberties of the Rajputs.
To traditions such as these, history is indebted for the noblest deeds
recorded in her page; and in Mewar they were the covert impulse to
national glory and independence. For this the philosopher will value the
relation; and the philanthropist as being the germs or nucleus of
resistance against tyrannical domination. Enveloped in a wild fable, we
see the springs of their prejudices and their action: batter down these
adamantine walls of national opinion, and all others are but glass. The
once invincible Chitor is now pronounced indefensible. “The abode of
regality, which for a thousand years reared her head above all the
cities of Hindustan,” is become the refuge of wild beasts, which seek
cover in her temples; and this erst sanctified capital is now desecrated
as the dwelling of evil fortune, into which the entrance of her princes
is solemnly interdicted.
=Akbar besieges Chitor, September, A.D. 1567.=—Ferishta mentions but
one enterprise against Chitor, that of its capture; but the annals
record another, when Akbar was compelled to relinquish the
undertaking.[4.10.27] The successful defence is attributed to the
masculine courage of the Rana’s concubine queen, who headed the
sallies into the heart of the Mogul camp, and on one occasion to the
emperor’s headquarters. The imbecile Rana proclaimed that he owed his
deliverance to her; when the chiefs, indignant at this imputation on
their courage, conspired and put her to death. Internal discord
invited Akbar to reinvest Chitor; he had just attained his
twenty-fifth year, and was desirous of the renown of capturing it. The
site of the royal Urdu,[4.10.28] or camp, is still pointed out. It
extended from the village of Pandauli[4.10.29] along the high road to
Basai, a distance of ten miles. The headquarters of Akbar are yet
marked by a pyramidal column of marble, to which tradition has
assigned the [326] title of Akbar ka diwa, or ‘Akbar’s lamp.’[4.10.30]
Scarcely had Akbar sat down before Chitor, when the Rana was compelled
(say the annals) to quit it; but the necessity and his wishes were in
unison. It lacked not, however, brave defenders. Sahidas, at the head
of a numerous band of the descendants of Chonda, was at his post, ‘the
gate of the sun’; there he fell resisting the entrance of the foe, and
there his altar stands, on the brow of the rock which was moistened
with his blood. Rawat Duda of Madri led ‘the sons of Sanga.’[4.10.31]
The feudatory chiefs of Bedla and Kotharia, descended from Prithiraj
of Delhi—the Pramar of Bijolia—the Jhala of Sadri—inspired their
contingents with their brave example: these were all home chieftains.
Another son of Deolia again combated for Chitor, with the Sonigira Rao
of Jalor—Isaridas Rathor, Karamchand Kachhwaha,[4.10.32] with Duda
Sadani,[4.10.33] and the Tuar prince of Gwalior, were distinguished
amongst the foreign auxiliaries on this occasion.
=Jaimall and Patta.=—But the names which shine brightest in this gloomy
page of the annals of Mewar, which are still held sacred by the bard and
the true Rajput, and immortalized by Akbar’s own pen, are Jaimall of
Badnor and Patta of Kelwa, both of the sixteen superior vassals of
Mewar. The first was a Rathor of the Mertia house, the bravest of the
brave clans of Marwar; the other was head of the Jagawats, another grand
shoot from Chonda. The names of Jaimall and Patta are ‘as household
words,’ inseparable in Mewar, and will be honoured while the Rajput
retains a shred of his inheritance or a spark of his ancient
recollections. Though deprived of the stimulus which would have been
given had their prince been a witness of their deeds, heroic
achievements such as those already recorded were conspicuous on this
occasion; and many a fair form threw the buckler over the scarf, and led
the most desperate sorties [327].
When Salumbar[4.10.34] fell at the gate of the sun, the command devolved
on Patta of Kelwa. He was only sixteen:[4.10.35] his father had fallen
in the last shock, and his mother had survived but to rear this the sole
heir of their house. Like the Spartan mother of old, she commanded him
to put on the ‘saffron robe,’ and to die for Chitor: but surpassing the
Grecian dame, she illustrated her precept by example; and lest any soft
‘compunctious visitings’ for one dearer than herself might dim the
lustre of Kelwa, she armed the young bride with a lance, with her
descended the rock, and the defenders of Chitor saw her fall, fighting
by the side of her Amazonian mother. When their wives and daughters
performed such deeds, the Rajputs became reckless of life. They had
maintained a protracted defence, but had no thoughts of surrender, when
a ball struck Jaimall, who took the lead on the fall of the kin of
Mewar. His soul revolted at the idea of ingloriously perishing by a
distant blow. He saw there was no ultimate hope of salvation, the
northern defences being entirely destroyed, and he resolved to signalize
the end of his career. The fatal Johar was commanded, while eight
thousand Rajputs ate the last ‘bira’[4.10.36] together, and put on their
saffron robes; the gates were thrown open, the work of destruction
commenced, and few survived ‘to stain the yellow mantle’ by inglorious
surrender. Akbar entered Chitor, when thirty thousand of its inhabitants
became victims to the ambitious thirst of conquest of this ‘guardian of
mankind.’ All the heads of clans, both home and foreign, fell, and
seventeen hundred of the immediate kin of the prince sealed their duty
to their country with their lives. The Tuar chief of Gwalior appears to
have been the only one of note who was reserved for another day of
glory.[4.10.37] Nine queens, five princesses (their daughters), with two
infant sons, and the families of all the chieftains not at their
estates, perished in the flames or in the assault of this ever memorable
day. Their divinity had indeed deserted them; for it was on Adityawar,
the day of the sun,[4.10.38] he shed for the last time a ray of glory on
Chitor. The rock of their strength was despoiled; the temples, the
palaces dilapidated: and, to complete her humiliation and his triumph,
Akbar bereft her of all the symbols of [328] regality: the
nakkaras,[4.10.39] whose reverberations proclaimed, for miles around,
the entrance and exit of her princes; the candelabras from the shrine of
the ‘great mother,’ who girt Bappa Rawal with the sword with which he
conquered Chitor; and, in mockery of her misery, her portals, to adorn
his projected capital, Akbarabad.[4.10.40]
Akbar claimed the honour of the death of Jaimall by his own hand: the
fact is recorded by Abu-l Fazl, and by the emperor Jahangir, who
conferred on the matchlock which aided him to this distinction the title
of Sangram.[4.10.41] But the conqueror of Chitor evinced a more exalted
sense, not only of the value of his conquest, but of the merits of his
foes, in erecting statues to the names of Jaimall and Patta at the most
conspicuous entrance of his palace at Delhi; and they retained that
distinction even when Bernier was in India.[4.10.42]
[Illustration:
CHITOR.
_To face page 382._
]
=The Sin of the Capture of Chitor.=—When the Carthaginian gained the
battle of Cannae, he measured his success by the bushels of rings taken
from the fingers of the equestrian Romans who fell in that memorable
field. Akbar estimated his, by the quantity of cordons (_zunnar_) of
[329] distinction taken from the necks of the Rajputs, and seventy-four
mans and a half[4.10.43] are the recorded amount. To eternize the memory
of this disaster, the numerals ‘74½’ are _talak_, or accursed.[4.10.44]
Marked on the banker’s letter in Rajasthan it is the strongest of seals,
for ‘the sin of the slaughter of Chitor’[4.10.45] is thereby invoked on
all who violate a letter under the safeguard of this mysterious number.
He would be a fastidious critic who stopped to calculate the weight of
these cordons of the Rajput cavaliers, probably as much over-rated as
the trophies of the Roman rings, which are stated at three and a half
bushels. It is for the moral impression that history deigns to note such
anecdotes, in themselves of trivial import. So long as ‘74½’ shall
remain recorded, some good will result from the calamity, and may
survive when the event which caused it is buried in oblivion.
=Escape of Rāna Udai Singh: Foundation of Udaipur.=—When Udai Singh
abandoned Chitor, he found refuge with the Gohil in the forests of
Rajpipli. Thence he passed to the valley of the Giro in the Aravalli, in
the vicinity of the retreat of his great ancestor Bappa, ere he
conquered Chitor. At the entrance of this valley, several years previous
to this catastrophe, he had formed the lake, still called after him Udai
Sagar, and he now raised a dyke between the mountains which dammed up
another mountain stream. On the cluster of hills adjoining he raised the
small palace called Nauchauki, around which edifices soon arose, and
formed a city to which he gave his own name, Udaipur,[4.10.46]
henceforth the capital of Mewar.
=Death of Rāna Udai Singh.=—Four years had Udai Singh survived the loss
of Chitor, when he expired at Gogunda, at the early age of forty-two;
yet far too long for his country’s honour and welfare. He left a
numerous issue of twenty-five legitimate sons, whose descendants, all
styled Ranawat, pushed aside the more ancient stock, and form that
extensive clan distinctively termed the Babas, or ‘infants,’ of Mewar,
whether Ranawats, Purawats, or Kanawats. His last act was to entail with
a barren sceptre contention upon his children; for, setting aside the
established laws of primogeniture, he proclaimed his favourite son
Jagmall his successor.
=Jagmall proclaimed Rāna.=—In Mewar there is no interregnum: even the
ceremony of _matam_ (mourning) is held at the [330] house of the family
priest while the palace is decked out for rejoicing. On the full moon of
the spring month of Phalgun, while his brothers and the nobles attended
the funeral pyre, Jagmall took possession of the throne in the infant
capital, Udaipur: but even while the trumpets sounded, and the heralds
called aloud “May the king live for ever!” a cabal was formed round the
bier of his father.
=Jagmall deposed in favour of Rāna Partāp Singh.=—It will be borne in
mind that Udai Singh espoused the Sonigira princess; and the Jalor Rao,
desirous to see his sister’s son have his right, demanded of Kistna, the
‘great ancient’ of Mewar and the leader of the Chondawats, how such
injustice was sanctioned by him. “When a sick man has reached the last
extreme and asks for milk to drink, why refuse it?” was the reply; with
the addition: “The Sonigira’s nephew is my choice, and my stand by
Partap.” Jagmall had just entered the Rasora, and Partap was saddling
for his departure, when Rawat Kistna entered, accompanied by the
ex-prince of Gwalior. Each chief took an arm of Jagmall, and with gentle
violence removed him to a seat in front of the ‘cushion’ he had
occupied; the hereditary premier remarking, “You had made a mistake,
Maharaj; that place belongs to your brother”: and girding Partap with
the sword (the privilege of this house), thrice touching the ground,
hailed him king of Mewar. All followed the example of Salumbar. Scarcely
was the ceremony over, when the young prince remarked, it was the
festival of the Aheria, nor must ancient customs be forgotten:
“Therefore to horse, and slay a boar to Gauri,[4.10.47] and take the
omen for the ensuing year.” They slew abundance of game, and in the
mimic field of war, the nobles who surrounded the gallant Partap
anticipated happier days for Mewar [331].
-----
Footnote 4.10.1:
The seraglio, or female palace.
Footnote 4.10.2:
Bari, Nai, are names for the barbers, who are the _cuisiniers_ of the
Rajputs. [The special duty of the Bāri is making leaf-platters from
which Hindus eat: he is also a domestic servant, but does not, like
the Nāi, work as a barber.]
Footnote 4.10.3:
[Dr. Tessitori states that the true form of the name is Dahīpra or
Dahīpura, and they seem to be the same as the Depla of Gujarāt, where
they are said to have been originally Lohānas (_BG_, ix. Part i.
122).]
Footnote 4.10.4:
The laity of the Jain persuasion are so called [_srāvak_, meaning ‘a
disciple’].
Footnote 4.10.5:
_Bara_ ‘great,’ _būrha_ ‘aged’; the ‘wise elder’ of Rajasthan, where
old age and dignity are synonymous.
Footnote 4.10.6:
[On the privilege of eating with the Rāna see p. 213 above.]
Footnote 4.10.7:
[There seems no basis for this tradition. The Bhonslas sprang from a
Marātha headman of Deora in Sātāra (_IGI_, xviii. 306).]
Footnote 4.10.8:
Suhaila.
Footnote 4.10.9:
Kumbhalmer bidaona.
Footnote 4.10.10:
Chand, the heroic bard of the last Hindu emperor. [Cf. _Ecclesiastes_,
x. 16.]
Footnote 4.10.11:
Battlements.
Footnote 4.10.12:
_Badal Mahall._
Footnote 4.10.13:
November 23, A.D. 1542.
Footnote 4.10.14:
The Sodhas, a branch of the Pramaras, see p. 111.
Footnote 4.10.15:
"Humaioon mounted his horse at midnight and fled towards Amercot,
which is about one hundred coss from Tatta. His horse, on the way,
falling down dead with fatigue, he desired Tirdi Beg, who was well
mounted, to let him have his; but so ungenerous was this man, and so
low was royalty fallen, that he refused to comply with his request.
The troops of the raja being close to his heels, he was necessitated
to mount a camel, till one Nidim Koka, dismounting his own mother,
gave the king her horse, and, placing her on the camel, ran himself on
foot by her side.
"The country through which they fled being an entire sandy desert, the
troop began to be in the utmost distress for water. Some ran mad,
others fell down dead; nothing was heard but dreadful screams and
lamentations. To add, if possible, to this calamity, news arrived of
the enemy’s near approach. Humaioon ordered all those who could fight
to halt, and let the women and baggage move forward. The enemy not
making their appearance, the king rode on in front to see how it fared
with his family.
"Night, in the meantime, coming on, the rear lost their way, and in
the morning were attacked by a party of the enemy. Shech Ali, with
about twenty brave men, resolved to sell his life dear. Having
repeated the creed of martyrdom, he rushed upon the enemy, and the
first arrow having reached the heart of the chief of the party, the
rest were by the valour of his handful put to flight. The other Moguls
joined in the pursuit, and took many of the camels and horses. They
then continued their march, found the king sitting by a well which he
had fortunately found, and gave him an account of their adventure.
"Marching forward the next day from this well, they were more
distressed than before, there being no water for two days’ journey. On
the fourth day of their retreat they fell in with another well, which
was so deep, that the only bucket they had took a great deal of time
in being wound up, and therefore a drum was beat to give notice to the
caffilas when the bucket appeared, that they might repair by turns to
drink. The people were so impatient for the water, that as soon as the
first bucket appeared, ten or twelve of them threw themselves upon it
before it quite reached the brim of the well, by which means the rope
broke, and the bucket was lost, and several fell headlong after it.
When this fatal accident happened, the screams and lamentations of all
became loud and dreadful. Some lolling out their tongues, rolled
themselves in agony on the hot sand; while others, precipitating
themselves into the well, met with an immediate, and consequently an
easier death. What did not the unhappy king feel, when he saw this
terrible situation of his few faithful friends!
"The next day, though they reached water, was not less fatal than the
former. The camels, who had not tasted water for several days, now
drank so much that the greatest part of them died. The people, also,
after drinking, complained of an oppression of the heart, and in about
half an hour a great part of them expired.
"A few, with the king, after this unheard-of distress, reached
Amercote. The raja, being a humane man, took compassion on their
misfortunes: he spared nothing that could alleviate their miseries, or
express his fidelity to the king.
“At Amercote, upon Sunday the fifth of Rigib, in the year nine hundred
and forty-nine, the prince Akber was brought forth by Hamida Banu
Begum. The king, after returning thanks to God, left his family under
the protection of Raja Rana, and, by the aid of that prince, marched
against Bicker.” Dow’s _Ferishta_ [2nd ed. ii. 136 ff. Compare that of
Briggs ii. 93 ff.].
Footnote 4.10.16:
[Four are usually reckoned: Islām Shāh, Muhammad Shāh Ādil, Ibrāhīm
Shāh, and Sikandar Shāh.]
Footnote 4.10.17:
A.D. 1554.
Footnote 4.10.18:
[At the Sher Mandal in Purāna Kila, Delhi, on January 24, 1556.]
Footnote 4.10.19:
There are excellent grounds for a parallel between Akbar and Henry IV.
and between Bairam and Sully, who were, moreover, almost
contemporaries. The haughty and upright Bairam was at length goaded
from rebellion to exile, and died by assassination only four years
after Akbar’s accession. [January 31, 1561.] The story is one of the
most useful lessons of history. [The life of Akbar has been fully
told, with much new evidence, by V. A. Smith, _Akbar the Great Mogul_,
1917.]
Footnote 4.10.20:
A.H. 975, or A.D. 1567.
Footnote 4.10.21:
A.D. 1556; both were under thirteen years of age.
Footnote 4.10.22:
If we argue this according to a Rajput’s notions, he will reject the
compromise, and say that the son of Sanga should have evinced himself
worthy of his descent, under whatever circumstances fortune might have
placed him.
Footnote 4.10.23:
The pulpit or platform of the Islamite preachers.
Footnote 4.10.24:
Malik Bāyazīd was the name of the Malwa sovereign ere he came to the
throne, corrupted by Europeans to Bajazet. He is always styled ‘Baz
Bahadur’ in the annals of Mewar.
Footnote 4.10.25:
Battlements.
Footnote 4.10.26:
The last book of Chand opens with this vision.
Footnote 4.10.27:
[Ferishta ii. 299 ff. “It does not appear when that attempt was made,
and it is difficult to find a place for it in Abu-l Fazl’s chronology,
but there is also difficulty in believing the alleged fact to be an
invention” (Smith, _Akbar, the Great Mogul_, 81).]
Footnote 4.10.28:
Of which _horde_ is a corruption.
Footnote 4.10.29:
There are two villages of this name. This is on the lake called
Mansarowar on whose bank I obtained that invaluable inscription (see
No. 2) in the nail-headed character, which settled the establishment
of the Guhilot in Chitor, at a little more than (as Orme has remarked)
one thousand years. To the eternal regret of my Yati Guru and myself,
a barbarian Brahman servant, instead of having it copied, broke the
venerable column to bring the inscription to Udaipur.
Footnote 4.10.30:
It is as perfect as when constructed, being of immense blocks of
compact white limestone, closely fitted to each other; its height
thirty feet, the base a square of twelve, and summit four feet, to
which a staircase conducts. A huge concave vessel was then filled with
fire, which served as a night-beacon to this ambulatory city, where
all nations and tongues were assembled, or to guide the foragers.
Akbar, who was ambitious of being the founder of a new faith as well
as kingdom, had tried every creed, Jewish, Hindu, and even made some
progress in the doctrines of Christianity, and may have in turn
affected those of Zardusht, and assuredly this pyramid possesses more
of the appearance of a pyreum than a ‘diwa’; though either would have
fulfilled the purport of a beacon. [Mr. V. A. Smith, quoting Kavi Rāj
Shyāmal Dās, ‘Antiquities at Nagari’ (_JASB_, Part i. vol. lvi.
(1887), p. 75), corrects the statements in this note. There was no
interior staircase, and more accurate measurements are: height, 36 ft.
7 in.; 14 ft. 1 in. square at base; 3 ft. 3 in. square at apex. The
tower is solid for 4 ft., then hollow for 20 ft., and solid again up
to the top. The building may be very ancient, though used by Akbar as
alleged by popular tradition; probably a wooden ladder gave access to
the chamber and to the summit. The original purpose of the building,
which stands near Nagari, some six miles N.E. of Chitor, is uncertain
(_Akbar the Great Mogul_, 86, note).]
Footnote 4.10.31:
The Sangawats, not the sons of Rana Sanga, but of a chieftain of
Chonda’s kin, whose name is the patronymic of one of its principal
subdivisions, of whom the chief of Deogarh is now head (see p. 188).
Footnote 4.10.32:
Of the Panchaenot branch.
Footnote 4.10.33:
One of the Shaikhavat subdivisions.
Footnote 4.10.34:
The abode of the Chondawat leader. It is common to call them by the
name of their estates.
Footnote 4.10.35:
[He must have been older, as he left two sons, and had already served
in defence of Merta (Smith, _op. cit._ 88).]
Footnote 4.10.36:
The bira, or pan, the aromatic leaf so called, enveloping spices,
_terra japonica_, calcined shell-lime, and pieces of the areca nut, is
always presented on taking leave.
Footnote 4.10.37:
[His name appears to have been Sālivāhan, and as he had married a
Sesodia princess, he was bound to fight for the Rāna (_ASR_, ii.
394).]
Footnote 4.10.38:
“Chait sudi igārahwān, S. 1624,” 11th Chait, or May, A.D. 1568. [The
Musalmān writers give February 23, 1568 (_Akbarnāma_, ii. 471;
Elliot-Dowson v. 327; _cf._ Badaoni ii. 111).]
Footnote 4.10.39:
Grand kettle-drums, about eight or ten feet in diameter.
Footnote 4.10.40:
The _tija sakha Chitor ra_, or ‘third sack of Chitor,’ was marked by
the most illiterate atrocity, for every monument spared by Ala or
Bayazid was defaced, which has left an indelible stain on Akbar’s name
as a lover of the arts, as well as of humanity. Ala’s assault was
comparatively harmless, as the care of the fortress was assigned to a
Hindu prince; and Bayazid had little time to fulfil this part of the
Mosaic law, maintained with rigid severity by the followers of
Islamism. Besides, at those periods, they possessed both the skill and
the means to reconstruct: not so after Akbar, as the subsequent
portion of the annals will show but a struggle for existence. The arts
do not flourish amidst penury: the principle to construct cannot long
survive, when the means to execute are fled; and in the monumental
works of Chitor we can trace the gradations of genius, its splendour
and decay. [There is no good evidence that Akbar destroyed the
buildings (Smith, _op. cit._ 90).]
Footnote 4.10.41:
"He (Akber) named the matchlock with which he shot Jeimul _Singram_,
being one of great superiority and choice, and with which he had slain
three or four thousand birds and beasts" (_Jahangir-namah_). [Ed.
Rogers-Beveridge 45; _Āīn_, i. 116, 617; Badaoni ii. 107.]
Footnote 4.10.42:
“I find nothing remarkable at the entry but two great elephants of
stone, which are in the two sides of one of the gates. Upon one of
them is the statue of Jamel (Jeimul), that famous raja of Cheetore,
and upon the other Potter (Putta) his brother. These are two gallant
men that, together with their mother, who was yet braver than they,
cut out so much work for Ekbar; and who, in the sieges of towns which
they maintained against him, gave such extraordinary proofs of their
generosity, that at length they would rather be killed in the outfalls
(sallies) with their mother, than submit; and for this gallantry it
is, that even their enemies thought them worthy to have these statues
erected to them. These two great elephants, together with the two
resolute men sitting on them, do at the first entry into this fortress
make an impression of I know not what greatness and awful terror”
(_Letter written at Delhi, 1st July 1663, from edition printed in
London in 1684_, in the author’s possession). [Ed. V. A. Smith, 256.]
Such the impression made on a Parisian a century after the event: but
far more powerful the charm to the author of these annals, as he
pondered on the spot where Jaimall received the fatal shot from
Sangram, or placed flowers on the cenotaph that marks the fall of the
son of Chonda and the mansion of Patta, whence issued the Sesodia
matron and her daughter. Every foot of ground is hallowed by ancient
recollections. [For the question of these statues see V. A. Smith,
_HFA_, 426; _ASR_, i. 225 ff.; Manucci, ii. 11.]
In these the reader may in some degree participate, as the plate gives
in the distance the ruins of the dwellings both of Jaimall and Patta
on the projection of the rock, as well as ‘the ringlet on the forehead
of Chitor,’ the column of victory raised by Lakha Rana.
Footnote 4.10.43:
The _man_ is of four seers: the maund is forty, or seventy-five
pounds. Dow, calculating all the captured wealth of India by the
latter, has rendered many facts improbable. [The _man_ in the _Āīn_
was 55½ lbs.]
Footnote 4.10.44:
[Sir H. M. Elliot proved that the use of 74½ is merely a modification
of the figures 74¹⁰⁄₁₆, meaning apparently 84, a sacred number
(_Supplemental Glossary_, 197). In the Central Provinces it is said
that it originated in Jahāngīr’s slaughter of the Nāgar Brāhmans, when
7450 of them threw away their sacred cords and became Sūdras to save
their lives (Russell, _Tribes and Castes_, ii. 395).]
Footnote 4.10.45:
‘_Chitor marya ra pap_’: _ra_ is the sign of the genitive, in the
Doric tongue of Mewar, the _ka_ of the refined.
Footnote 4.10.46:
Classically _Udayapura_, the city of the East; from _udaya_
(_oriens_), the point of sunrise, as _asta_ (west) is of sunset.
Footnote 4.10.47:
Ceres—The Aheria, or _Mahurat ka Shikar_, will be explained in the
Personal Narrative, as it would here break the connexion of events.
-----