_Rajput, Sesodia, Gahlot, Aharia_.--The Gahlot or Sesodia is generally
admitted to be the premier Rajput clan. Their chief is described by
the bards as "The Suryavansi Rana, of royal race, Lord of Chitor,
the ornament of the thirty-six royal races." The Sesodias claim
descent from the sun, through Loh, the eldest son of the divine Rama
of Ajodhia. In token of their ancestry the royal banner of Mewar
consisted of a golden sun on a crimson field. Loh is supposed to have
founded Lahore. His descendants migrated to Saurashtra or Kathiawar,
where they settled at Vidurbha or Balabhi, the capital of the Valabhi
dynasty. The last king of Valabhi was Siladitya, who was killed by
an invasion of barbarians, and his posthumous son, Gohaditya, ruled
in Idar and the hilly country in the south-west of Mewar. From him
the clan took its name of Gohelot or Gahlot. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar,
however, from a detailed examination of the inscriptions relating
to the Sesodias, arrives at the conclusion that the founders of
the line were Nagar Brahmans from Vadnagar in Gujarat, the first
of the line being one Guhadatta, from which the clan takes its
name of Gahlot [566] The family were also connected with the ruling
princes of Valabhi. Mr. Bhandarkar thinks that the Valabhi princes,
and also the Nagar Brahmans, belonged to the Maitraka tribe, who,
like the Gujars, were allied to the Huns, and entered India in the
fifth or sixth century. Mr. Bhandarkar's account really agrees quite
closely with the traditions of the Sesodia bards themselves, except
that he considers Guhadatta to have been a Nagar Brahman of Valabhi,
and descended from the Maitrakas, a race allied to the Huns, while the
bards say that he was a descendant of the Aryan Kshatriyas of Ajodhia,
who migrated to Surat and established the Valabhi kingdom. The earliest
prince of the Gahlot dynasty for whom a date has been obtained is
Sila, A.D. 646, and he was fifth in descent from Guhadatta, who may
therefore be placed in the first part of the sixth century. Bapa,
the founder of the Gahlot clan in Mewar, was, according to tradition,
sixth in descent from Gohaditya, and he had his capital at Nagda,
a few miles to the north of Udaipur city. [567] A tradition quoted by
Mr. Bhandarkar states that Bapa was the son of Grahadata. He succeeded
in propitiating the god Siva. One day the king of Chitor died and
left no heir to his throne. It was decided that whoever would be
garlanded by a certain elephant would be placed on the throne. Bapa
was present on the occasion, and the elephant put the garland round
his neck not only once, but thrice. Bapa was thus seated on the
throne. One day he was suffering from some eye-disease. A physician
mixed a certain medicine in alcoholic liquor and applied it to his
eyes, which were speedily cured. Bapa afterwards inquired what the
medicine was, and learnt the truth. He trembled like a reed and said,
"I am a Brahman, and you have given me medicine mixed in liquor. I
have lost my caste," So saying he drank molten lead (_sisa_), and
forthwith died, and hence arose the family name Sesodia. [568] This
story, current in Rajputana, supports Mr. Bhandarkar's view of the
Brahman origin of the clan. According to tradition Bapa went to Chitor,
then held by the Mori or Pramara Rajputs, to seek his fortune, and
was appointed to lead the Chitor forces against the Muhammadans on
their first invasion of India. [569] After defeating and expelling
them he ousted the Mori ruler and established himself at Chitor,
which has since been the capital of the Sesodias. The name Sesodia
is really derived from Sesoda, the residence of a subsequent chief
Rahup, who captured Mundore and was the first to bear the title of
Rana of Mewar. Similarly Aharia is another local name from Ahar, a
place in Mewar, which was given to the clan. They were also known as
Raghuvansi, or of the race of king Raghu, the ancestor of the divine
Rama. The Raghuvansis of the Central Provinces, an impure caste
of Rajput origin, are treated in a separate article, but it is not
known whether they were derived from the Sesodias. From the fourteenth
century the chronicles of the Sesodias contain many instances of Rajput
courage and devotion. Chitor was sacked three times before the capital
was removed to Udaipur, first by Ala-ul-Din Khilji in 1303, next by
Bahadur Shah, the Muhammadan king of Gujarat in 1534, and lastly by
Akbar in 1567. These events were known as Saka or massacres of the
clan. On each occasion the women of the garrison performed the Johar
or general immolation by fire, while the men sallied forth, clad in
their saffron-coloured robes and inspired by _bhang_, to die sword
in hand against the foe. At the first sack the goddess of the clan
appeared in a dream to the Rana and demanded the lives of twelve of
its chiefs as a condition of its preservation. His eleven sons were
in their turn crowned as chief, each ruling for three days, while on
the fourth he sallied out and fell in battle. [570] Lastly, the Rana
devoted himself in order that his favourite son Ajeysi might be spared
and might perpetuate the clan. At the second sack 32,000 were slain,
and at the third 30,000. Finally Aurangzeb destroyed the temples and
idols at Chitor, and only its ruins remain. Udaipur city was founded
in 1559. The Sesodias resisted the Muhammadans for long, and several
times defeated them. Udai Singh, the founder of Udaipur, abandoned
his capital and fled to the hills, whence he caused his own territory
to be laid waste, with the object of impeding the imperial forces. Of
this period it is recorded that the Ranas were from father to son in
outlawry against the emperor, and that sovereign had carried away the
doors of the gate of Chitor, and had set them up in Delhi. Fifty-two
rajas and chiefs had perished in the struggle, and the Rana in
his trouble lay at nights on a counterpane spread on the ground,
and neither slept in his bed nor shaved his hair; and if he perchance
broke his fast, had nothing better with which to satisfy it than beans
baked in an earthen pot. For this reason it is that certain practices
are to this day observed at Udaipur. A counterpane is spread below the
Rana's bed, and his head remains unshaven and baked beans are daily
laid upon his plate. [571] A custom of perhaps somewhat similar origin
is that in this clan man and wife take food together, and the wife does
not wait till her husband has finished. It is said that the Sesodia
Rajputs are the only caste in India among whom this rule prevails,
and it may have been due to the fact that they had to eat together
in haste when occasion offered during this period of guerilla warfare.
In 1614 Rana Amar Singh, recognising that further opposition was
hopeless, made his submission to the emperor, on the condition that he
should never have to present himself in person but might send his two
sons in his place. This stipulation being accepted, the heir-apparent
Karan Singh proceeded to Ajmer where he was magnanimously treated by
Jahangir and shortly afterwards the imperial troops were withdrawn
from Chitor. It is the pride of the Udaipur house that it never gave
a daughter in marriage to any of the Musalman emperors, and for many
years ceased to intermarry with other Rajput families who had formed
such alliances. But Amar Singh II. (1698-1710) made a league with
the Maharajas of Jodhpur and Jaipur for mutual protection against
the Muhammadans; and it was one of the conditions of the compact
that the latter chiefs should regain the privilege of marriage with
the Udaipur family which had been suspended since they had given
daughters in marriage to the emperors. But the Rana unfortunately
added a proviso that the son of an Udaipur princess should succeed
to the Jodhpur or Jaipur States in preference to any elder son by
another mother. The quarrels to which this stipulation gave rise led
to the conquest of the country by the Marathas, at whose hands Mewar
suffered more cruel devastation than it had ever been subjected to by
the Muhammadans. Ruinous war also ensued between Jodhpur and Jaipur
for the hand of the famous Udaipur princess Kishen Kumari at the time
when Rajputana was being devastated by the Marathas and Pindaris;
and the quarrel was only settled by the voluntary death of the object
of contention, who, after the kinsman sent to slay her had recoiled
before her young beauty and innocence, willingly drank the draught
of opium four times administered before the fatal result could be
produced. [572]
The Maharana of Udaipur is entitled to a salute of nineteen
guns. The Udaipur State has an area of nearly 13,000 square miles
and a population of about a million persons. Besides Udaipur three
minor states, Partabgarh, Dungarpur and Banswara, are held by members
of the Sesodia clan. In the Central Provinces the Sesodias numbered
nearly 2000 persons in 1911, being mainly found in the districts of
the Nerbudda Division.