=Rāja Sūr Singh, A.D. 1595-1620=.—Sur Singh succeeded in S. 1651 (A.D.
1595). He was serving with the Imperial forces at Lahore, where he had
commanded since S. 1648, when intelligence reached him of his father’s
death. His exploits and services were of the most brilliant nature, and
had obtained for him, even during his father’s life, the title of “Sawai
Raja,”[5.5.1] and a high grade amongst the dignitaries of the empire. He
was commanded by Akbar to reduce the arrogant prince of Sirohi, who,
trusting to the natural strength of his mountainous country, still
refused to acknowledge a liege lord. This service well accorded with his
private views, for he had a feud (_wair_) with Rao Surthan, which,
according to the chronicle, he completely revenged. “He avenged his feud
with Surthan and plundered Sirohi. The Rao had not a pallet left to
sleep upon, but was obliged to make a bed for his wives upon the earth.”
This appears to have humbled the Deora, “who, in his pride, shot his
arrows at the sun for daring to shine upon him.”
=Campaign in Gujarāt.=—Surthan accepted the imperial [39] farman in
token of submission, and agreed to serve with a contingent of his hardy
clansmen in the war then entrusted to Raja Sur against the king of
Gujarat, whose success we shall relate in the simple language of the
chronicle: “The Raja took the _pan_ against the king Muzaffar, with the
title of viceroy of Gujarat. The armies met at Dhandhuka,[5.5.2] where a
terrible conflict ensued. The Rathors lost many valiant men, but the
Shah was defeated, and lost all the insignia of his greatness. He sent
the spoil of seventeen thousand towns to the king, but kept a crore of
_drabs_[5.5.3] for himself, which he sent to Jodhpur, and therewith he
enlarged the town and fort. For this service Akbar increased his
_mansab_, and sent him a sword, with a khilat, and a grant of fresh
lands.”
Raja Sur, it appears in the sequel, provided liberally for the bards;
for no less than “six lords of verse,” whose names are given, had in
gift £10,000 each of the spoils of Gujarat, as incentives to song.
On the conquest of Gujarat, Raja Sur was ordered to the Deccan. “He
obeyed, and with thirteen thousand horse, ten large guns, and twenty
elephants, he fought three grand battles. On the Rewa (Nerbudda) he
attacked Amra Balecha,[5.5.4] who had five thousand horse, whom he slew,
and reduced all his country. For this service the king sent him a
_naubat_ (kettle-drum), and conferred on him Dhar and its domain.”
On Akbar’s death and the accession of Jahangir, Sur Singh attended at
court with his son and heir, Gaj Singh, whom the king with his own hands
invested with the sword, for his bravery in the escalade of Jalor, which
had been conquered by the monarch of Gujarat and added to his domain.
The poet thus relates the event: “Gaj[5.5.5] was commanded against
Bihari Pathan; his war-trump sounded; Arbuda [Abu] heard and trembled.
What took Alau-d-din years, Gaj accomplished in three months; he
escaladed Jalandhara[5.5.6] sword in hand; many a Rathor of fame was
killed, but he put to the sword seven thousand Pathans, whose spoils
were sent to the king.”
Raja Sur, it would appear, after the overthrow of the dynasty of
Gujarat, remained at the capital, while his son and heir, Gaj Singh,
attended the king’s [40] commands, and, soon after the taking of Jalor,
was ordered with the Marwar contingent against Rana Amra of Mewar: it
was at the very moment of its expiring liberties,[5.5.7] for the
chronicle merely adds, “Karan agreed to serve the king, and Gaj Singh
returned to Taragarh.[5.5.8] The king increased both his own _mansab_
(dignity) and that of his father, Raja Sur.”
Thus the Rajput chronicler, solicitous only to record the fame of his
own princes, does not deem it necessary to concern himself with the
agents conjoined with them, so that a stranger to the events of the
period would imagine, from the high relief given to their actions,
that the Rathor princes commanded in all the great events described;
for instance, that just mentioned, involving the submission of the
Rana, when Raja Gaj was merely one of the great leaders who
accompanied the Mogul heir-apparent, Prince Khurram, on this memorable
occasion. In the Diary of Jahangir, the emperor, recording this event,
does not even mention the Rathor prince, though he does those of Kotah
and Datia, as the instruments by which Prince Khurram carried on the
negotiation;[5.5.9] from which we conclude that Raja Gaj merely acted
a military part in the grand army which then invaded Mewar.
=Death of Rāja Sūr Singh, A.D. 1620: his Character.=—Raja Sur died in
the Deccan, in S. 1676 (A.D. 1620). He added greatly to the lustre of
the Rathor name, was esteemed by the emperor, and, as the bard expresses
it, “His spear was frightful to the Southron.” Whether Raja Sur
disapproved of the exterminating warfare carried on in these regions, or
was exasperated at the unlimited service he was doomed to, which
detained him from his native land, he, in his last moments, commanded a
pillar to be erected with a curse engraven thereon, imprecated upon any
of his race who should once cross the Nerbudda. From his boyhood he had
been almost an alien to his native land: he had accompanied his father
wherever he led the aid of Maru, was serving at Lahore at the period of
his accession, and died far from the monuments of his fathers, in the
heart of the peninsula. Although the emperor was not ungrateful in his
estimate of these services,—for Raja Sur held by patent no less than
“sixteen [41] grand fiefs”[5.5.10] of the empire, and with the title of
Sawai raised above all the princes, his associates at court,—it was
deemed no compensation for perpetual absence from the hereditary domain,
thus abandoned to the management of servants. The great vassals, his
clansmen, participated in this dissatisfaction, separated from their
wives, families, and estates; for to them the pomp of imperial
greatness, or the sunshine of court-favour, was as nothing when weighed
against the exercise of their influence within their own cherished
patrimony. The simple fare of the desert was dearer to the Rathor than
all the luxuries of the imperial banquet, which he turned from with
disgust to the recollection of “the green pulse of Mandawar,” or his
favourite _rabri_, or ‘maize porridge,’ the prime dish with the Rathor.
These minor associations conjoined with greater evils to increase the
_mal de pays_, of whose influence no human being is more susceptible
than the brave Rajput.
Raja Sur greatly added to the beauty of his capital, and left several
works which bear his name; amongst them, not the least useful in that
arid region, is the lake called the Sur Sagar, or ‘Warrior’s Sea,’ which
irrigates the gardens on its margin. He left six sons and seven
daughters, of whose issue we have no account, namely, Gaj Singh, his
successor; Sabal Singh, Biramdeo, Bijai Singh, Partap Singh, and Jaswant
Singh.
=Rāja Gaj Singh, A.D. 1620-38.=—Raja Gaj, who succeeded his father in
A.D. 1620, was born at Lahore, and the _tika_ of investiture found him
in the royal camp at Burhanpur. The bearer of it was Darab Khan, the son
of the Khankhanan,[5.5.11] or premier noble of the emperor’s court, who,
as the imperial proxy, girt Raja Gaj with the sword. Besides the “nine
castles” (_Naukoti Marwar_), his patrimony, his patent contained a grant
of “seven divisions” of Gujarat, of the district of Jhalai in Dhundhar;
and what was of more consequence to him, though of less intrinsic value,
that of Masuda in Ajmer, the heirloom of his house. Besides these marks
of distinction, he received the highest proof of confidence in the
elevated post of viceroy of the Deccan; and, as a special testimony of
imperial favour, the Rathor cavaliers composing his contingent were
exempted from the _dagh_,[5.5.12] that is, having their steeds branded
with the imperial signet. His elder son, Amra Singh, served with [42]
his father in all his various battles, to the success of which his
conspicuous gallantry on every occasion contributed. In the sieges and
battles of Kirkigarh, Golkonda, Khelna, Parnala, Gajangarh, Asir and
Satara, the Rathors had their full share of glory, which obtained for
their leader the title of Dalthaman, or ‘barrier of the host.’ We have
already[5.5.13] remarked the direct influence which the Rajput princes
had in the succession to the imperial dignity, consequent upon the
inter-marriage of their daughters with the crown, and the various
interests arising therefrom. Sultan Parvez, the elder son and heir of
Jahangir, was the issue of a princess of Marwar,[5.5.14] while the
second son, Khurram, as his name imports, was the son of a
Kachhwaha[5.5.15] princess of Amber. Being the offspring of polygamy and
variously educated, these princes were little disposed to consider
consanguinity as a bond of natural union; and their respective mothers,
with all the ambition of their race, thought of nothing but obtaining
the diadem for the head of their children. With either of these rival
queens, the royal children who were not her own had no affinity with her
or hers, and these feelings were imparted from the birth to their issue,
and thus it too often happened that the heir of the throne was looked
upon with an envious eye, as a bar to be removed at all hazards. This
evil almost neutralized the great advantages derived from intermarriage
with the indigenous races of India; but it was one which would have
ceased with polygamy.
=Death of Parvez, A.D. 1626.=—Khurram felt his superiority over his
elder brother, Parvez, in all but the accidental circumstance of birth.
He was in every respect a better man, and a braver and more successful
soldier; and, having his ambition thus early nurtured by the stimulants
administered by Bhim of Mewar, and the intrepid Mahabat,[5.5.16] he
determined to remove this barrier between him and the crown. His views
were first developed whilst leading the armies in the Deccan, and he
communicated them to Raja Gaj of Marwar, who held the post of honour
next the prince, and solicited his aid to place him on the throne.
Gratitude for the favours heaped upon him by the king, as well as the
natural bias to Parvez, made the Raja turn a deaf ear to his
application. The prince tried to gain his point through Govinddas, a
Rajput of the Bhatti tribe, one of the foreign nobles of Maru, and
confidential adviser of his prince; but, as the annals say, “Govinddas
reckoned no one but his master and the [43] king.” Frustrated in this,
Khurram saw no hopes of success but by disgusting the Rathors, and he
caused the faithful Govinddas to be assassinated by Kishan
Singh;[5.5.17] on which Raja Gaj, in disgust, threw up his post, and
marched to his native land. From the assassination of Parvez, which soon
followed,[5.5.18] the deposal of his father appeared but a step; and
Khurram had collected means, which he deemed adequate to the design,
when Jahangir appealed to the fidelity of the Rajputs, to support him
against filial ingratitude and domestic treason; and, in their general
obedience to the call, they afforded a distinguished proof of the
operation of the first principle, Gaddi-ka-an, allegiance to the throne,
often obeyed without reference to the worth of its occupant. The princes
of Marwar, Amber, Kotah, and Bundi put themselves at the head of their
household retainers on this occasion, which furnishes a confirmation of
a remark already made, that the respective annals of the States of
Rajasthan so rarely embrace the contemporaneous events of the rest, as
to lead to the conclusion that by the single force of each State this
rebellion was put down. This remark will be further exemplified from the
annals of Bundi.
=Offence given to the Rāthors.=—Jahangir was so pleased with the zeal of
the Rathor prince—alarmed as he was at the advance of the rebels—that he
not only took him by the hand, but what is most unusual, kissed it. When
the assembled princes came in sight of the rebels, near Benares, the
emperor gave the _harawal_, or vanguard, to the Kachhwaha prince, the
Mirza raja of Amber. Whether this was a point of policy, to secure his
acting against prince Khurram, who was born of this race, or merely, as
the Marwar annals state, because he brought the greater number into the
field, is immaterial; but it was very nearly fatal in its consequences:
for the proud Rathor, indignant at the insult offered to him in thus
bestowing the post of honour, which was his right, upon the rival race
of Amber, furled his banners, separated from the royal army, and
determined to be a quiet spectator of the result. But for the impetuous
Bhim of Mewar, the adviser of Khurram, he might that day have been
emperor of India. He sent a taunting message to Raja Gaj, either to join
their cause or “draw their swords.” The Rathors overlooked the neglect
of the king in the sarcasm of one of their own tribe; and Bhim was
slain, Govinddas avenged, the rebellion quelled, and Khurram put to
flight, chiefly by the Rathors and Haras [44].
=Death of Rāja Gaj Singh, A.D. 1638.=—In S. 1694 (A.D. 1638), Raja Gaj
was slain in an expedition into Gujarat;[5.5.19] but whether in the
fulfilment of the king’s commands, or in the chastisement of freebooters
on his own southern frontier, the chronicles do not inform us. He left a
distinguished name in the annals of his country, and two valiant sons,
Amra and Jaswant, to maintain it: another son, Achal, died in infancy.
=Rāja Jaswant Singh, A.D. 1638-78.=—The second son, Jaswant, succeeded,
and furnishes another of many instances in the annals of Rajputana, of
the rights of primogeniture being set aside. This proceeded from a
variety of motives, sometimes merely paternal affection, sometimes
incapacity in the child “to head fifty thousand Rathors,” and sometimes,
as in the present instance, a dangerous turbulence and ever-boiling
impetuosity in the individual, which despised all restraints. While
there was an enemy against whom to exert it, Amra was conspicuous for
his gallantry, and in all his father’s wars in the south was ever
foremost in the battle. His daring spirit collected around him those of
his own race, alike in mind, as connected by blood, whose actions, in
periods of peace, were the subjects of eternal complaint to his father,
who was ultimately compelled to exclude Amra from his inheritance.
=Amra, Amar Singh excluded from the Succession.=—In the month of
Baisakh, S. 1690 (A.D. 1634), five years before the death of Raja Gaj,
in a convocation of all the feudality of Maru, sentence of exclusion
from the succession was pronounced upon Amra, accompanied by the solemn
and seldom practised rite of Desvata or exile. This ceremony, which is
marked as a day of mourning in the calendar, was attended with all the
circumstances of funereal pomp. As soon as the sentence was pronounced,
that his birthright was forfeited and assigned to his junior brother,
and that he ceased to be a subject of Maru, the khilat of banishment was
brought forth, consisting of sable vestments, in which he was clad; a
sable shield was hung upon his back, and a sword of the same hue girded
round him; a black horse was then led out, being mounted on which, he
was commanded, though not in anger, to depart whither he listed beyond
the limits of Maru.
Amra went not alone; numbers of each clan, who had always regarded him
as their future lord, voluntarily partook of his exile. He repaired to
the imperial court; and although the emperor approved and sanctioned his
banishment, he employed him. His gallantry soon won him the title of Rao
and the mansab of a leader of three thousand, with the grant of Nagor as
an independent domain, to be held directly from the crown. But the same
arrogant and uncontrollable spirit [45] which lost him his birthright,
brought his days to a tragical conclusion. He absented himself for a
fortnight from court, hunting the boar or the tiger, his only
recreation. The emperor (Shah Jahan) reprimanded him for neglecting his
duties, and threatened him with a fine. Amra proudly replied that he had
only gone to hunt, and as for a fine, he observed, putting his hand upon
his sword, that was his sole wealth.
=Amra, Amar assassinates Salābat Khān.=—The little contrition which this
reply evinced determined the king to enforce the fine, and the
paymaster-general, Salabat Khan,[5.5.20] was sent to Amra’s quarters to
demand its payment. It was refused, and the observations made by the
Sayyid not suiting the temper of Amra, he unceremoniously desired him to
depart. The emperor, thus insulted in the person of his officer, issued
a mandate for Amra’s instant appearance. He obeyed, and having reached
the Amm-khass, or grand divan, beheld the king, “whose eyes were red
with anger,” with Salabat in the act of addressing him. Inflamed with
passion at the recollection of the injurious language he had just
received, perhaps at the king’s confirmation of his exclusion from
Marwar, he unceremoniously passed the Omrahs of five and seven thousand,
as if to address the king; when, with a dagger concealed in his sleeve,
he stabbed Salabat to the heart. Drawing his sword, he made a blow at
the king, which descending on the pillar, shivered the weapon in pieces.
The king abandoned his throne and fled to the interior apartments. All
was uproar and confusion. Amra continued the work of death, indifferent
upon whom his blows fell, and five Mogul chiefs of eminence had fallen,
when his brother-in-law, Arjun Gaur, under pretence of cajoling him,
inflicted a mortal wound, though he continued to ply his dagger until he
expired. To avenge his death, his retainers, headed by Balu Champawat
and Bhao Kumpawat, put on their saffron garments, and a fresh carnage
ensued within the Lal kila.[5.5.21] To use the words of their native
bard, “The pillars of Agra bear testimony to their deeds, nor shall they
ever be obliterated from the record of time: they made their obeisance
to Amra in the mansions of the sun.” The faithful band was cut to
pieces; and his wife, the princess of Bundi, came in person and [46]
carried away the dead body of Amra, with which she committed herself to
the flames. The Bokhara gate by which they gained admission was built
up, and henceforward known only as “Amra Singh’s gate”; and in proof of
the strong impression made by this event,[5.5.22] it remained closed
through centuries, until opened in 1809 by Capt. Geo. Steell, of the
Bengal engineers.[5.5.23]
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Footnote 5.5.1:
[Sawāi means ‘a quarter better than any one else.’]
Footnote 5.5.2:
[Dhandhuka about 40 miles W. of Cambay; the account in the text is
possibly a confused reference to the insurrection of Muzaffar Husain
Mīrza, which began in 1577 and ended in the suicide of the rebel in
1591-92 (_BG_, i. Part i. 268 ff.).]
Footnote 5.5.3:
[Coins, perhaps gold mohurs (Skt. _dravya_, ‘wealth’)].
Footnote 5.5.4:
Balecha is one of the Chauhan tribes. [It does not appear in recent
lists.]
Footnote 5.5.5:
_Gaj_, ‘the elephant.’
Footnote 5.5.6:
Classical appellation of Jalor.
Footnote 5.5.7:
The chronicle says, “In S. 1669 (A.D. 1613), the king formed an army
against the Rana”; which accords exactly with the date in the
emperor’s own memoirs.
Footnote 5.5.8:
Ajmer, of which the citadel is styled Taragarh.
Footnote 5.5.9:
See Annals of Mewār, Vol. I. p. 418.
Footnote 5.5.10:
Of these, nine were the subdivisions of his native dominions, styled
“The Nine Castles of Maru”; for on becoming one of the great
feudatories of the empire, he made a formal surrender of these,
receiving them again by grant, renewed on every lapse, with all the
ceremonies of investiture and relief. Five were in Gujarat, one in
Malwa, and one in the Deccan. We see that thirteen thousand horse was
the contingent of Marwar for the lands thus held.
Footnote 5.5.11:
[Mirza Abdu-r-rahīm, son of Bairām Khān (_Āīn_, i. 334 ff.).]
Footnote 5.5.12:
[For this branding system see _Āīn_, i. 139 f.; Irvine, _Army of the
Indian Moghuls_, 45 ff.]
Footnote 5.5.13:
See Vol. I. p. 435.
Footnote 5.5.14:
[Parvez or Parvīz was son of Sāhib Jamāl, daughter of Khwāja Hasan,
uncle of Zain Khān Koka; but this is not quite certain (_Āīn_, i. 310;
_Tuzuk-i-Jahāngīri_, trans. Rogers-Beveridge, 19; Beale, _Oriental
Biographical Dict._ s.v.).]
Footnote 5.5.15:
Kachhua and Khurram are synonymous terms for the race which rules
Amber—the Tortoises of Rajasthan. [This is an extraordinary
misapprehension. _Khurram_ is a Persian word, meaning ‘pleased, glad’;
the Author confuses it with Skt. _Kūrma_, ‘a tortoise.’ The mother of
Khurram, Balmati or Jagat Gosāīn, was daughter of Udai Singh of
Mārwār; see _Tuzuk_, 19; Beale, s.v. _Shāh Jahān_.]
Footnote 5.5.16:
A Rajput of the Rana’s house, converted to _the faith_. [Mahābat Khān,
Khānkhānān, Sipāhsālār Zamāna Beg, was not a Rājput, but son of Ghiyās
Beg, Kābuli (Manucci i. 167; Elliot-Dowson vi. 288).
Footnote 5.5.17:
This was the founder of Kishangarh; for this iniquitous service he was
made an independent Raja in the town which he erected. His descendant
is now an ally by treaty with the British Government. [Kishan Singh,
born A.D. 1575, founded Kishangarh, a State in the centre of
Rājputāna, in 1611, died 1615 (_IGI_, xv. 311).]
Footnote 5.5.18:
[Parvez died at Burhānpur in 1626. “He was first attacked with colic,
then he became insensible, and after medical treatment fell into a
heavy sleep.... His illness was attributed to excessive drinking”
(Elliot-Dowson vi. 429).]
Footnote 5.5.19:
[By another account he died at Agra (Erskine iii. A, 59).]
Footnote 5.5.20:
Salabat Khan Bakhshi, he is called. The office of Bakhshi is not only
one of paymaster (as it implies), but of inspection and audit. We can
readily imagine, with such levies as he had to muster and pay, his
post was more honourable than secure, especially with such a band as
was headed by Amra, ready to take offence if the wind but displaced
their moustache. The annals declare that Amra had a feud (_vair_) with
Salabat; doubtless for no better reason than that he fulfilled the
trust reposed in him by the emperor. [The title Khān implies that
Salābat Khān was a Pathān, not a Sayyid, whose title would be Mīr.]
Footnote 5.5.21:
The palace within the citadel (_kila_), built of red (_lal_)
freestone. [This tragedy occurred on August 5, 1644 (Beale, _Oriental
Biographical Dict._ s.v. “Salābat Khān,” gives July 25, 1644).
European writers of the period give varying accounts of what seems to
have been the same event. Tavernier (ed. Ball, ii. 219) says that the
victim was “the Grand Master of the King’s house,” and that it
occurred in 1642. Manucci states that the officer who was assassinated
was the Wazīr, Wazīr Khān (i. 207 f.). It forms the subject of a
popular song, still sung by the bards (Temple, _Legends of the
Panjāb_, ii. 242 ff.). Though the assassination occurred at Agra, a
mark is still shown on a pillar in the Dīwān-i-‘Āmm at Delhi, possibly
marking the same occurrence, where a prince of Chitor is said to have
stabbed one of the ministers (Sleeman, _Rambles_, 515). The tomb of
Bakhshi Salābat Khān stands between Agra and Sikandra (Syad Muhammad
Latif, _Agra_, 77, 195).]
Footnote 5.5.22:
It may be useful to record such facts, by the way of contrast with the
state policy of the west, and for the sake of observing that which
would actuate the present paramount power of India should any of its
tributary princes defy them as Amra did that of the universal
potentate of that country. Even these despots borrowed a lesson of
mercy from the Rajput system, which does not deem treason hereditary,
nor attaints a whole line for the fault of one unworthy link. Shah
Jahan, instead of visiting the sins of the father on the son,
installed him in his fief of Nagor. This son was Rae Singh; and it
devolved to his children and grandchildren,[5.5.22.A] until Indar
Singh the fourth in descent, was expelled by the head of the Rathors,
who, in the weakness of the empire, reannexed Nagor to Jodhpur. But
perhaps we have not hitherto dared to imitate the examples set us by
the Mogul and even by the Mahratta; not having sufficient hold of the
affections of the subjected to venture to be merciful; and thence our
vengeance, like the bolt of heaven, sears the very heart of our
enemies. Witness the many chieftains ejected from their possessions;
from the unhallowed league against the Rohillas, to that last act of
destruction at Bharatpur, where, as arbitrators, we acted the part of
the lion in the fable. Our present attitude, however, is so
commanding, that we can afford to display the attribute of mercy; and
should, unfortunately, its action be required in Rajputana, let it be
ample, for there its grateful influence is understood, and it will
return, like the dews of heaven, upon ourselves. But if we are only to
regulate our political actions by the apprehension of danger, it must
one day recoil upon us in awful retribution. Our system is filled with
evil to the governed, where a fit of bile in ephemeral political
agents, may engender a quarrel leading to the overthrow of a dominion
of ages.
Footnote 5.5.22.A:
Namely, Hathi Singh, his son Anup Singh, his son Indar Singh, his son
Mokham Singh. This lineal descendant of Raja Gaj, and the rightful
heir to the “cushion of Jodha,” has dwindled into one of the petty
Thakurs, or lords of Marwar. The system is one of eternal
vicissitudes, amidst which the germ of reproduction [47] never
perishes.
Footnote 5.5.23:
Since these remarks were written, Captain Steell related to the author
a singular anecdote connected with the above circumstance. While the
work of demolition was proceeding, Captain Steell was urgently warned
by the natives of the danger he incurred in the operation, from a
denunciation on the closing of the gate, that it should thenceforward
be guarded by a huge serpent—when suddenly, the destruction of the
gate being nearly completed, a large cobra-de-capello rushed between
his legs, as if in fulfilment of the anathema. Captain Steell
fortunately escaped without injury. [The south gate of the Agra Fort
is known as that of Amar Singh.]
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