The Bhat thus fulfilled a most useful function as registrar of births
and marriages. But his merits were soon eclipsed by the evils produced
by his custom of extolling liberal patrons and satirising those who
gave inadequately. The desire of the Rajputs to be handed down to fame
in the Bhat's songs was such that no extravagance was spared to satisfy
him. Chand, the great Rajput bard, sang of the marriage of Prithwi Raj,
king of Delhi, that the bride's father emptied his coffers in gifts,
but he filled them with the praises of mankind. A lakh of rupees
[291] was given to the chief bard, and this became a precedent for
similar occasions. "Until vanity suffers itself to be controlled,"
Colonel Tod wrote, [292] "and the aristocratic Rajputs submit to
republican simplicity, the evils arising from nuptial profusion
will not cease. Unfortunately those who should check it find their
interest in stimulating it, namely, the whole crowd of _mangtas_
or beggars, bards, minstrels, jugglers, Brahmans, who assemble
on these occasions, and pour forth their epithalamiums in praise
of the virtue of liberality. The bards are the grand recorders of
fame, and the volume of precedent is always resorted to by citing
the liberality of former chiefs; while the dread of their satire
[293] shuts the eyes of the chief to consequences, and they are only
anxious to maintain the reputation of their ancestors, though fraught
with future ruin." Owing to this insensate liberality in the desire
to satisfy the bards and win their praises, a Rajput chief who had
to marry a daughter was often practically ruined; and the desire
to avoid such obligations led to the general practice of female
infanticide, formerly so prevalent in Rajputana. The importance of
the bards increased their voracity; Mr. Nesfield describes them as
"Rapacious and conceited mendicants, too proud to work but not too
proud to beg." The Dholis [294] or minstrels were one of the seven
great evils which the famous king Sidhraj expelled from Anhilwada
Patan in Gujarat; the Dakans or witches were another. [295] Malcolm
states that "They give praise and fame in their songs to those who
are liberal to them, while they visit those who neglect or injure
them with satires in which the victims are usually reproached with
illegitimate birth and meanness of character. Sometimes the Bhat,
if very seriously offended, fixes an effigy of the person he desires
to degrade on a long pole and appends to it a slipper as a mark of
disgrace. In such cases the song of the Bhat records the infamy of the
object of his revenge. This image usually travels the country till
the party or his friends purchase the cessation of the curses and
ridicule thus entailed. It is not deemed in these countries within
the power of the prince, much less any other person, to stop a Bhat
or even punish him for such a proceeding. In 1812 Sevak Ram Seth,
a banker of Holkar's court, offended one of these Bhats, pushing
him rudely out of the shop where the man had come to ask alms. The
man made a figure [296] of him to which he attached a slipper and
carried it to court, and everywhere sang the infamy of the Seth. The
latter, though a man of wealth and influence, could not prevent him,
but obstinately refused to purchase his forbearance. His friends
after some months subscribed Rs. 80 and the Bhat discontinued his
execrations, but said it was too late, as his curses had taken effect;
and the superstitious Hindus ascribe the ruin of the banker, which
took place some years afterwards, to this unfortunate event." The
loquacity and importunity of the Bhats are shown in the saying,
'Four Bhats make a crowd'; and their insincerity in the proverb
quoted by Mr. Crooke, "The bard, the innkeeper and the harlot have
no heart; they are polite when customers arrive, but neglect those
leaving (after they have paid)" [297] The Bhat women are as bold,
voluble and ready in retort as the men. When a Bhat woman passes a
male caste-fellow on the road, it is the latter who raises a piece
of cloth to his face till the woman is out of sight. [298]