Chapter 9

Rana Sanga or Sangram Singh; A.D. 1508–27

Sangram, better known in the annals of Mewar as Sanga (called Sanka by the Mogul historians1044), succeeded in S. 1565 (A.D. 1509). With this prince Mewar reached the summit of her prosperity. To use their own metaphor, “he was the kalas1045 on the pinnacle of her glory.” From him we shall witness this glory on the wane; and though many rays of splendour illuminated her declining career, they served but to gild the ruin.

The imperial chair, since occupied by the Tuar descendant of the Pandus, and the first and last of the Chauhans, and which had been filled successively by the dynasties of Ghazni and Ghor, the Iihilji and Lodi, was now shivered to pieces, and numerous petty thrones were constructed of its fragments. Mewar little dreaded these imperial puppets, “when Amurath to Amurath succeeded,” and when four kings reigned simultaneously between Delhi and Benares1046. The kings of Malwa, though leagued with those of Gujarat, conjoined to the rebels, could make no impression on Mewar when Sanga led her heroes. Eighty thousand horse, seven Rajas of the highest rank, nine Raos, and one hundred and four chieftains bearing the titles of Rawal and Rawat, with five hundred war elephants, followed him into the field. The princes of Marwar and Amber1047 did him homage, and the Raos of Gwalior

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Ajmer, Sikri, Raesen1048, Ralpi, Chanderi, [300] Bundi, Gagraun, Rampura, and Abu, served him as tributaries or held of him in chief.

Sanga did not forget those who sheltered him in his reverses. Karamchand of Srinagar had a grant of Ajmer and the title of Rao for his son Jagmall, the reward of his services in the reduction of Chanderi.

The Administration and Wars of Rana Sanga

In a short space of time, Sanga entirely allayed the disorders occasioned by the intestine feuds of his family; and were it permitted to speculate on the cause which prompted a temporary cession of his rights and his dignities to his more impetuous brother, it might be discerned in a spirit of forecast, and of fraternal and patriotic forbearance, a deviation from which would have endangered the country as well as the safety of his family. We may assume this, in order to account for an otherwise pusillanimous surrender of his birthright, and being in contrast to all the subsequent heroism of his life, which, when he resigned, was contained within the wreck of a form. Sanga organized his forces, with which he always kept the field, and ere called to contend with the descendant of Timur, he had gained eighteen pitched battles against the kings of Delhi and Malwa. In two of these he was opposed by Ibrahim Lodi in person, at Bakrol and Glutton, in which last battle the imperial forces were defeated with great slaughter, leaving a prisoner of the blood royal to grace the triumph of Chitor. The Pilakhal (yellow rivulet) near Bayana became the northern boundary of Mewar, with the Sind River to the east, – touching Malwa to the south, while his native hills were an impenetrable barrier to the west. Thus swaying, directly or by control, the greater part of Rajasthan, and adored by the Rajputs for the possession of those qualities they hold in estimation, Sanga was ascending to the pinnacle of distinction; and had not fresh hordes of Usbeks and Tatars from the prolific shores of the Oxus and Jaxartes again poured down on the devoted plains

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of Hindustan, the crown of the Chakravartin1049 might again have encircled the brow of a Hindu, and the banner of supremacy been transferred from Indraprastha to the battlements of Chitor. But Babur arrived at a critical time to rally the dejected followers of the Koran, and to collect them around his own victorious standard.

Invasions from Central Asia

From the earliest recorded periods of her history, India has been the prey of [301] the more hardy population from the central regions of Asia. From this fact we may infer another, namely, that its internal form of government was the same as at the present day, partitioned into numerous petty kingdoms, of tribes and clans, of a feudal federation, a prey to all the jealousies inseparable from such a condition.. The historians of Alexander bear ample testimony to such form of government, when the Panjab alone possessed many sovereigns, besides the democracies of cities. The Persians overran it, and Darius the Mede accounted India the richest of his satrapies. The Greeks, the Parthians have left in their medals the best proofs of their power; the Getae or Yuti followed; and from the Ghori Shihabu-d-din to the Chagatai Babur, in less than three centuries, five invasions are recorded, each originating a dynasty. Sanga’s opponent was the last, and will continue so until the rays of knowledge renovate the ancient nursery of the human race, – then may end the anomaly in the history of power, of a handful of Britons holding the succession to the Mede, the Parthian, and the Tatar. But, however surprise may be excited at witnessing such rapidity of change, from the physical superiority of man over man, it is immeasurably heightened at the little moral consequence which in every other region of the world has always attended such concussions. Creeds have changed, races have mingled, and names have been effaced from the page of history; but in this corner of civilization we have no such result, and the Rajput remains the same singular being, concentrated in his prejudices, political and moral, as in the days of Alexander, desiring no change himself, and still less to cause any in others. Whatever be the conservative principle, it merits a philosophic analysis; but more, a proper application and direction, by those to whom the destinies of this portion of the globe are confided;

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for in this remote spot there is a nucleus of energy, on which may accumulate a mass for our support or our destruction.

To return: a descendant of the Turushka of the Jaxartes, the ancient foe of the children of Surya and Chandra, was destined to fulfil the prophetic Purana which foretold dominion “to the Turushka, the Yavan,” and other foreign races in Hind; and the conquered made a right application of the term Turk, both as regards its ancient and modern signification, when applied to the conquerors from Turkistan. Babur, the opponent of Sanga, was king of Ferghana, and of Turki race. His dominions were on both sides the Jaxartes, a portion of ancient [302] Sakatai, or Sakadwipa (Scythia), where dwelt Tomyris the Getic queen immortalized by Herodotus, and where her opponent erected Cyropolis, as did in after-times the Macedonian his most remote Alexandria. From this region did the same Getae, Jat, or Yuti, issue, to the destruction of Bactria, two centuries before the Christian era, and also five subsequent thereto to found a kingdom in Northern India. Again, one thousand years later, Babur issued with his bands to the final subjugation of India. As affecting India alone, this portion of the globe merits deep attention; but as the officina gentium, whence issued those hordes of Asii, Juts, or Yeuts (of whom the Angles were a branch), who peopled the shores of the Baltic, and the precursors of those Goths who, under Attila and Marie, altered the condition of Europe, its importance is vastly enhanced1050. But on this occasion it was not redundant population which made the descendant of Timur and Jenghiz abandon the Jaxartes for the Ganges, but unsuccessful ambition: for Babur quitted the delights of Samarkand as a fugitive, and commenced his enterprise, which gave him the throne of the Pandas, with less than two thousand adherents.

Character of Babur

The Rajput prince had a worthy antagonist in the king of Ferghana. Like Sanga, he was trained in the school of adversity, and like him, though his acts of personal heroism were even romantic, he tempered it with that discretion which looks to its results. In A.D. 1494, at the tender age of twelve, he succeeded to a kingdom; ere he was sixteen he defeated several confederacies and conquered Samarkand, and in two short years again lost and regained it. His life was a tissue

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of successes and reverses; at one moment hailed lord of the chief kingdoms of Transoxiana; at another flying, unattended, or putting all to hazard in desperate single combats, in one of which he slew five champions of his enemies. Driven at length from Ferghana, in despair he crossed the Hindu-Kush, and in 1519 the Indus. Between the Panjab and Kabul he lingered seven years, ere he advanced to measure his sword with Ibrahim of Delhi. Fortune returned to his standard; Ibrahim was slain, his army routed and dispersed, and Delhi and Agra opened their gates to the fugitive king of Ferghana. His reflections on success evince it was his due: “Not to me, O God! but to thee, be the victory!” says the chivalrous Babur. A year had elapsed in possession of Delhi, ere he ventured against the most powerful of his antagonists, Rana Sanga of Chitor.

With all Babur’s qualities as a soldier, supported by the hardy clans of the ‘cloud mountains’ (Belut Tagh) [303] of Karateghin1051,

The ruins of the fortress of Bayana

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the chances were many that he and they terminated their career on the ‘yellow rivulet’ of Bayana. Neither bravery nor skill saved him from this fate, which he appears to have expected. What better proof can be desired than Babur’s own testimony to the fact, that a horde of invaders from the Jaxartes, without support or retreat, were obliged to entrench themselves to the teeth in the face of their Rajput foe, alike brave and overpowering in numbers? To ancient jealousies he was indebted for not losing his life instead of gaining a crown, and for being extricated from a condition so desperate that even the frenzy of religion, which made death martyrdom in “this holy war,” scarcely availed to expel the despair which so infected his followers, that in the bitterness of his heart he says “there was not a single person who uttered a manly word, nor an individual who delivered a courageous opinion.”

The Battle of Khanua, March 16, 1527

Babur advanced from Agra and Sikri to oppose Rana Sanga, in full march to attack him at the head of almost all the princes of Rajasthan. Although the annals state some points which the imperial historian has not recorded, yet both accounts of the conflict correspond in all the essential details. On the 5th of Kartik, S. 15841052 (A.D. 1528), according to the annals, the Rana raised the siege of Bayana, and at Khanua encountered the advanced guard of the Tatars, amounting to fifteen hundred men, which was entirely destroyed; the fugitives carrying to the main body the accounts of the disaster, which paralysed their energies, and made them entrench for security, instead of advancing with the confidence of victory. Reinforcements met the same fate, and were pursued to the camp. Accustomed to reverses, Babur met the check without dismay, and adopted every precaution [304] that a mind fertile in expedients could suggest to reassure the drooping spirits of his troops. He threw up entrenchments, in which he placed his artillery, connecting his guns by chains, and in the more exposed parts chevaux de frise, united by leather ropes: a precaution

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continued in every subsequent change of position. Everything seemed to aid the Hindu cause: even the Tatar astrologer asserted that as Mars was in the west, whoever should engage coming from the opposite quarter should be defeated. In this state of total inactivity, blockaded in his encampment, Babur remained near a fortnight, when he determined to renounce his besetting sin, and merit superior aid to extricate himself from his peril: the naïveté of his vow must be given in his own words1053.

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But the destruction of the wine flasks would appear only to have added to the existing consternation, and made him, as a last resort, appeal to their faith. Having addressed them in a speech of [305] manly courage, though bordering on despair, he seized the happy moment that his exhortation elicited, to swear them on the Koran to conquer or perish1054. Profiting by this excitement, he broke up his camp, to which he had been confined nearly a month, and marched in order of battle to a position two miles in advance, the Rajputs skirmishing tip to his guns. Without

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a regular circumvallation, his movable pallisadoes and guns Chained, he felt no security. The inactivity of Sanga can scarcely escape censure, however we may incline to palliate it by supposing that he deemed his enemy in the toils, and that every day’s delay brought with it increased danger to him. Such reasoning would be valid, if the heterogeneous mass by which the prince of Mewar was surrounded had owned the same patriotic sentiments as himself: but he ought to have known his countrymen, nor overlooked the regulating maxim of their ambition, get land. Delay was fatal to this last coalition against the foes of his race. Babur is silent on the point to which the annals ascribe their discomfiture, a negotiation pending his blockade at Khanna; but these have preserved it, with the name of the traitor who sold the cause of his country. The negotiation1055 had reached this point, that on condition of Babur being left Delhi and its dependencies, the Pilakhal at Bayana should be the boundary of their respective dominions, and even an annual tribute was offered to the Rana. [306] We can believe that in the position Babur then was, he would not scruple to promise anything. The chief of Raesen, by name Salehdi, of the Tuar tribe, was the medium of communication, and though the arrangement was negatived, treason had effected the salvation of Babur.

On March 16 the attack commenced by a furious onset on the centre and right wing of the Tatars, and for several hours the conflict was tremendous. Devotion was never more manifest on the side of the Rajput, attested by the long list of noble names amongst the slain as well as the bulletin of their foe, whose artillery made dreadful havoc in the close ranks of the Rajput cavalry, which could not force the entrenchments, nor reach the infantry which defended them. While the battle was still doubtful, the Tuar traitor who led the van (harawal) went over to Babur, and Sanga was obliged to retreat from the field, which in the onset promised a glorious victory, himself severely wounded and the choicest of his chieftains slain: Rawal Udai1056 Singh of

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Dungarpur, with two hundred of his clan; Ratna of Salumbar, with three hundred of his Chondawat kin; Raemall Rathor, son of the prince of Marwar, with the brave Mertia leaders Khetsi and Ratna; Ramdas the Sonigira Rao; Uja the Jhala; Gokuldas Pramara; Manikehand and Chandrbhan, Chauhan chiefs of the first rank in Mewar; besides a host of inferior names1057. Hasan Khan of Mewat, and a son of the last Lodi king of Delhi, who coalesced with Sanga, were amongst the killed1058. Triumphal pyramids were raised of the heads of the slain, and on a hillock which overlooked the field of battle a tower of skulls was erected; and the conqueror assumed the title of Ghazi, which has ever since been retained by his descendants.

The Death of Rana Sanga

Sanga retreated towards the hills of Mewat, having announced his fixed determination never to re-enter Chitor but with victory. Had his life been spared to his country, he might have redeemed the pledge; but the year of his defeat was the last of his existence, and he died at Baswa1059, on the frontier of Mewat, not without suspicion of poison. It is painful to record the surmise that his ministers prompted the deed, and the cause is one which would fix a deep stain on the country; namely, the purchase by regicide of inglorious case and stipulated safety, in [307] preference to privations and dangers, and to emulating the manly constancy of their prince, who resolved to make the heavens his canopy till his foe was crushed – a determination which was pursued with the most resolute perseverance by some of his gallant successors.

Evils resulting from Polygamy

Polygamy is the fertile source of evil, moral as well as physical, in the East. It is a relic of barbarism and primeval necessity, affording a proof that

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ancient Asia is still young in knowledge. The desire of each wife1060, that her offspring should wear a crown, is natural; but they do not always wait the course of nature for the attainment of their wishes, and the love of power too often furnishes instruments for any deed, however base. When we see, shortly after the death of Sanga, the mother of his second son intriguing with Babur, and bribing him with the surrender of Ranthambhor and the trophy of victory, the crown of the Malwa king, to supplant the lawful heir, we can easily suppose she would not have scrupled to remove any other bar. On this occasion, however, the suspicion rests on the ministers alone. That Babur respected and dreaded his foe we have the best proof in his not risking another battle with him; and the blame which he bestows on himself for the slackness of his pursuit after victory is honourable to Sanga, who is always mentioned with respect in the commentaries of the conqueror: and although he generally styles him the Pagan, and dignifies the contest with the title of “the holy war,” yet he freely acknowledges his merit when he says, “Rana Sanga attained his present high eminence by his own valour and his sword.”

Appearance of Rana Sanga

Sanga Rana was of the middle stature, but of great muscular strength; fair in complexion, with unusually large eyes, which appear to be peculiar to his descendants1061. He exhibited at his death but the fragments of a warrior: one eye was lost in the broil with his brother; an arm in an action with the Lodi king of Delhi, and he was a cripple owing to a limb being broken by a cannon-ball in another; [308] while he counted eighty wounds from the sword or the lance on various parts of his body. He was celebrated for energetic

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enterprise, of which his capture of Muzaffar, king of Malwa, in his own capital, is a celebrated instance; and his successful storm of the almost impregnable Ranthambhor, though ably defended by the imperial general Ali, gained him great renown. He erected a small palace at Khanua, on the line which he determined should be the northern limit of Mewar; and had he been succeeded by a prince possessed of his foresight and judgment, Babur’s descendants might not have retained the sovereignty of India. A cenotaph long marked the spot where the fire consumed the remains of this celebrated prince. Sanga had seven sons, of whom the two elder died in non-age. He was succeeded by the third son,

Rana Ratan Singh II, A.D. 1527–31

Ratna (S. 1586, A.D. 1530) possessed all the arrogance and martial virtue of his race. Like his father, he determined to make the field his capital, and commanded that the gates of Chitor never should be closed, boasting that “its portals were Delhi and Mandu.” Had he been spared to temper by experience the exuberance of youthful impetuosity, he would have well seconded the resolution of his father, and the league against the enemies of his country and faith. But he was not destined to pass the age always dangerous to the turbulent and impatient Rajput, ever courting strife if it would not find him. He had married by stealth the daughter of Prithiraj of Amber, probably before the death of his elder brothers made him heir to Chitor. His double-edged sword, the proxy of the Rajput cavalier, represented Ratna on this occasion1062. Unfortunately it was kept but too secret; for the Hara prince of Bundi1063, in ignorance of the fact, demanded and obtained her to wife, and carried her to his capital. The consequences are attributable to the Rana alone, for he ought, on coming to the throne, to have espoused her; but his vanity was flattered at the mysterious transaction, which he deemed would prevent all application for the hand of his ‘affianced’ (manga). The bards of Bundi are rather pleased to record the power of their

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princes, who dared to solicit and obtain the hand of the ‘bride’ of Chitor. The princes of Bundi had long been attached to the Sesodia house: and from the period when their common ancestors fought together on the banks of the Ghaggar against [309] Shihabu-d-din, they had silently grown to power under the wing of Mewar, and often proved a strong plume in her pinion. The Hara inhabited the hilly tract on her eastern frontier, and though not actually incorporated with Mewar, they yet paid homage to her princes, bore her ensigns and titles, and in return often poured forth their blood. But at the tribunal of Ananga1064, the Rajput scattered all other homage and allegiance to the winds. The maiden of Amber saw no necessity for disclosing her secret or refusing the brave Hara, of whom fame spoke loudly, when Ratna delayed to redeem his proxy.

Death of Rana Ratan Singh

The unintentional offence sank deep into the heart of the Rana, and though he was closely connected with the Ham, having married his sister, he brooded on the means of revenge, in the attainment of which he sacrificed his own life as well as that of his rival. The festival of the Aheria1065 (the spring hunt), which has thrice been fatal to the princes of Mewar, gave the occasion, when they fell by each other’s weapons. Though Ratna enjoyed the dignity only five years, he had the satisfaction to see the ex-king of Ferghana, now founder of the Mogul dynasty of India, leave the scene before him, and without the diminution of an acre of land to Mewar since the fatal day of Bayana. Rana Ratna was succeeded by his brother,

Rana Bikramajit, A.D. 1531–35

Bikramajit1066, in S. 1591 (A.D. 1535). This prince had all the turbulence, without the redeeming qualities of character, which endeared his brother to his subjects; he was insolent, passionate, and vindictive, and utterly regardless of that respect which his proud nobles rigidly exacted. Instead of appearing at their head, he passed his time amongst wrestlers and prize-fighters, on whom and a multitude

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of ‘paiks,’ or foot soldiers, he lavished those gifts and that approbation, to which the aristocratic Rajput, the equestrian order of Rajasthan, arrogated exclusive right. In this innovation he probably imitated his foes, who had learned the superiority of infantry, despised by the Rajput, who, except in sieges, or when they spread the carpet and hamstrung their steeds,’ held the foot-soldier very cheap. The use of artillery was now becoming general, and the [310] Muslims soon perceived the necessity of foot for their protection: but prejudice operated longer upon the Rajput, who still curses those vile guns,’ which render of comparatively little value the lance of many a gallant soldier; and he still prefers falling with dignity from his steed to descending to an equality with his mercenary antagonist.

An open rupture was the consequence of such innovation, and (to use the figurative expression for misrule) ‘Papa Bai ka Raj1067’ was triumphant; the police were despised; the cattle carried off by the mountaineers from under the walls of Chitor; and when his cavaliers were ordered in pursuit, the Rana was tauntingly told to send his paiks.

The Attack by Bahadur, Sultan of Gujarat

Bahadur, sultan of Gujarat, determined to take advantage of the Rajput divisions,. to revenge the disgrace of the defeat and captivity of his predecessor Muzaffar1068. Reinforced by the troops of Mandu, he marched against the Rana, then encamped at Loicha, in the Bundi territory. Though the force was overwhelming, yet with the high courage which belonged to his house, Bikramajit did not hesitate to give battle; but he found weak defenders in his mercenary paiks, while his vassals and kin not only kept aloof, but marched off in a body to defend Chitor, and the posthumous son of Sanga Rana, still an infant.

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There is a sanctity in the very name of Chitor, which from the earliest times secured her defenders; and now, when threatened again by ‘the barbarian,’ such the inexplicable character of the Rajput, we find the heir of Surajmall abandoning his new capital of Deolia, to pour out the few drops which yet circulated in his veins in defence of the abode of his fathers.

‘The son of Bundi,’ with a brave band of five hundred Haras, also came; as did the Sonigira and Deora Raos of Jalor and Abu, with many auxiliaries from all parts of Hajwara. This was the most powerful effort hitherto made by the sultans of Central India, and European artillerists1069 are recorded in these [311] annals as brought to the subjugation of Chitor. The engineer is styled ‘Labri Khan of Friugan,’ and to his skill Bahadur was indebted for the successful storm which ensued. He sprung a mine at the ‘Bika rock,’ which blew up forty-five cubits of the rampart, with the bastion where the brave Haras were posted. The Bundi bards dwell on this incident, which destroyed their prince and five hundred of his kin. Rao Durga, with the Chondawat chieftains Sata and Dudu and their vassals, bravely defended the breach and repelled many assaults; and, to set an example of courageous devotion, the queen-mother Jawahir Bai, of Rathor race, .clad in armour, headed a sally in which she was slain. Still the besiegers gained ground, and the

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last council convened was to concert means to save the infant son of Sanga from this imminent peril.

Crowning of a New Rana

But Chitor can only be defended by royalty, and again they had recourse to the expedient of crowning a king, as a sacrifice to the dignity of the protecting deity of Chitor. Baghji, prince of Deolia, courted the insignia of destruction; the banner of Mewar floated over him, and the golden sun from its sable field never shone more refulgent than when the changi1070 was raised amidst the shouts of her defenders over the head of the son of Surajmall.

The Johar

The infant, Udai Singh, was placed in safety with Surthan, prince of Bundi1071, the garrison put on their saffron robes, while materials for the johar were preparing. There was little time for the pyre. The bravest had fallen in defending the breach, now completely exposed. Combustibles were quickly heaped up in reservoirs and magazines excavated in the rock, under which gunpowder was strewed. Karnavati, mother of the prince, and sister to the gallant Arjun Hasa, led the procession of willing victims to their doom, and thirteen thousand females were thus swept at once from the record of life. The gates were thrown open, and the Deolia chief, at the head of the survivors, with a blind and impotent despair, rushed on his fate. [312]

Bahadur must have been appalled at the horrid sight on viewing his conquest1072; the mangled bodies of the slain, with hundreds in the last agonies from the poniard or poison, awaiting death as less dreadful than dishonour and captivity1073. To use the emphatic

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words of the annalist, “the last day of Chitor had arrived.” Every clan lost its chief, and the choicest of their retainers; during the siege and in the storm thirty-two thousand Rajputs were slain. This is the second sakha of Chitor.

Bahadur had remained but a fortnight, when the tardy advance of Humayun with his succours warned him to retire1074. According to the annals, he left Bengal at the solicitation of the queen Karnavati; but instead of following up the spoil-encumbered foe, he commenced a pedantic war of words with Bahadur, punning on the word ‘Chitor.’ Had Humayun not been so distant, this catastrophe would have been averted, for he was bound by the laws of chivalry, the claims of which he had acknowledged, to defend the queen’s cause, whose knight he had become. The relation of the peculiarity of a custom analogous to the taste of the chivalrous age of Europe may amuse. When her Amazonian sister the Rathor queen was slain, the mother of the infant prince took a surer method to shield him in demanding the fulfilment of the pledge given by Humayun when she sent the Rakhi to that monarch.

The Rakhi

‘The festival of the bracelet’ (Rakhi) is in spring, and whatever its origin, it is one of the few when an intercourse of gallantry of the most delicate nature is established between the fair sex and the cavaliers of Rajasthan. Though the bracelet may be sent by maidens, it is only on occasions of urgent necessity or danger. The Rajput dame bestows with the Rakhi the title of adopted brother; and while its acceptance secures to her all the protection of a cavalière servente, scandal itself never suggests any other tie to his devotion. He may hazard his life in her cause, and yet never receive a smile in reward, for he cannot even see the fair object who, as brother of her adoption, has constituted him her defender. But there is a charm in the mystery of such connexion, never endangered by close observation, and the loyal to the fair may well attach a value [313] to the public recognition of being the Rakhi-band Bhai, the ‘bracelet-bound brother’ of a princess. The intrinsic value of such pledge is

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never looked to, nor is it requisite it should be costly, though it varies with the means and rank of the donor, and may be of flock silk and spangles, or gold chains and gems. The acceptance of the pledge and its return is by the kachhli, or corset, of simple silk or satin, of gold brocade and pearls. In shape or application there is nothing similar in Europe, and as defending the most delicate part of the structure of the fair, it is peculiarly appropriate as an emblem of devotion. A whole province has often accompanied the Kachhli, and the monarch of India was so pleased with this courteous delicacy in the customs of Rajasthan, on receiving the bracelet of the princess Karnavati, which invested him with the title of her brother, and uncle and protector to her infant! Mai Singh, that he pledged himself to her service, “even if the demand were the castle of Ranthambhor.” Humayun proved himself a true knight, and even abandoned his conquests in Bengal when called on to redeem his pledge and succour Chitor, and the widows and minor sons of Sanga Rana1075. Humayun had the highest proofs of the worth of those courting his protection; he was with his father Babur in all his wars in India, and at the battle of Bayana his prowess was conspicuous, and is recorded by Babur’s own pen. He amply fulfilled his pledge, expelled the foe from Chitor, took Mandu by assault, and, as some revenge. for her king’s aiding the king of Gujarat, he sent for the Rana Bikramajit, whom, following their own notions of

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investiture, he girt with a sword in the captured citadel of his foe1076.

The Muhammadan historians, strangers to their customs, or the secret motives which caused the emperor to abandon Bengal, ascribe it to the Rana’s solicitation; but we may credit the annals, which are in unison with the chivalrous notions of the Rajputs, into which succeeding monarchs, the great Akbar, his son [314] Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, entered with delight; and even Aurangzeb, two of whose original letters to the queen-mother of Udaipur are now in the author’s possession, and are remarkable for their elegance and purity of diction, and couched in terms perfectly accordant with Rajput delicacy1077.

Restoration of Bikramajit

Bikramajit, thus restored to his capital, had gained nothing by adversity; or, to employ the words of the annalist, “experience had yielded no wisdom.” He renewed all his former insolence to his chiefs, and so entirely threw aside his own dignity, and, what is of still greater consequence, the reverence universally shown to old age, as to strike in open court Karamchand of Ajmer, the protector of his father Sanga in his misfortunes. The assembly rose with one accord at this indignity to their order; and as they retired, the Chondawat leader Kanji, the first of the nobles, exclaimed, “Hitherto, brother chiefs, we have had but a smell of the blossom, but now we shall be obliged to eat the fruit”; to which the insulted Pramara added, as he hastily retired, “To-morrow its flavour will be known.”

Though the Rajput looks up to his sovereign as to a divinity, and is enjoined implicit obedience by his religion, which rewards him accordingly hereafter, yet this doctrine has its limits, and precedents are abundant for deposal, when the acts of the prince may endanger the realm. But there is a bond of love as well as of awe which restrains them, and softens its severity in the paternity of sway; for these princes are at once the father and king of their people: not in fiction, but reality – for he is the

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representative of the common ancestor of the aristocracy – the sole lawgiver of Rajasthan.

Death of Rana Bikramajit

Sick of these minors (and they had now a third in prospect), which in a few years had laid prostrate the throne of Mewar, her nobles on leaving their unworthy prince repaired to Banbir, the natural son of the heroic Prithiraj, and offered “to seat him on the throne of Chitor.” He had the virtue to resist the solicitation; and it was only on painting the dangers which threatened the country, if its chief at such a period had not their confidence, that he gave his consent. The step between the deposal and death of a king is necessarily short, [315] and the cries of the females, which announced the end of Bikramajit, were drowned in the acclamations raised on the elevation of the changi over the head of the bastard Banbir.

Footnotes

1044. [Ain, ii. 270.]

1045. The ball or urn which crowns the pinnacle (sikhar).

1046. Delhi, Bayana, Kalpi, and Jaunpur.

1047. Prithiraj was yet but Rao of Amber, a name now lost in Jaipur. The twelve sons of this prince formed the existing subdivisions or clans of the Kachhwahas, whose political consequence dates from Humayun, the son and successor of Babur.

1048. [Sikri, afterwards Fatehpur Sikri, the site of Akbar’s palace; Raesen in Bhopal State (IGI, xxi. 62 f.).]

1049. Universal potentate: [“he whose chariot wheels run everywhere without obstruction”]; the Hindus reckon only six of these in their history.

1050. [As usual, the Indian Jats are identified with the Getae, Iutae or Iuti, Jutes of Bede.]

1051. [The author borrows from Elphinstone, Caubul, i. 118.] The literary world is much indebted to Mr. Erskine for his Memoirs of Baber, a work of a most original stamp and rare value for its extensive historical and geographical details of a very interesting portion of the globe. The king of Ferghana, like Caesar, was the historian of his own conquests, and unites all the qualities of the romantic troubadour to those of the warrior and statesman. it is not saying too much when it is asserted, that Mr. Erskine is the only person existing who could have made such a translation, or preserved the great charm of the original – its elevated simplicity; and though his modesty makes him share the merit with Dr. Leyden, it is to him the public thanks are due. Mr. Erskine’s introduction is such as might have been expected from his well-known erudition and research, and with the notes interspersed adds immensely to the value of the original. [A new translation by Mrs. Beveridge is in course of publication.] With his geographical materials, those of Mr. Elphinstone, and the journal of the Voyage d’Orenbourg à Bokhara, full of merit and modesty, we now possess sufficient materials for the geography of the nursery of mankind. I would presume to amend one valuable geographical notice (Introd. p. 27), and which only requires the permutation of a vowel, Kas-mer for Kas-mir; when we have, not ‘the country of the Kas,’ but the Kasia Montes (mer) of Ptolemy: the Kho (mer) Kas, or Caucasus. Mir has no signification, Mer is ‘mountain’ in Sanskrit, as is Kho in Persian. [The origin of the name Kashmir is very doubtful: but the view in the text cannot be accepted (see Stein, Rajatarangini, ii. 353, 386; Smith, EHI, 38, note; IA, xliii. 143 ff.).] Kas was the race inhabiting these: and Kasgar, the Kasia Regio of Ptolemy [Chap. 15]. Gar [or garh] is a Sanskrit word still in use for a ‘region,’ as Kachhwahagar, Gujargar. [See Elliot, Supplementary Glossary, 237.] A new edition of Erskine’s translation, edited by Professor White King, is in course of publication.

1052. According to the Memoirs of Baber, February 11, 1527. [The battle was fought at Khanua or Kanwaha, now in the Bharatpur State, about twenty miles from Agra (Abu-l Fazl, Akbarnama, i. 259 f.; Ferishta ii. 55), on March 16, 1527. Ferishta says that the provocation came from Rana Sanga, who attacked Nazim Khan, Governor of Bayana, on which the latter appealed to Babur (ii. 51). Babur says that Sanga broke his engagement. (Elliot- Dowson iv. 264; Badaoni, Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh, i. 444, 470).]

1053. “On Monday, the 23rd of the first Jemadi, I had mounted to survey my posts, and in the course of my ride was seriously struck with the reflection, that I had always resolved, one time or another, to make an effectual repentance, and that some traces of a hankering after the renunciation of forbidden works had ever remained in my heart: I said to myself, ‘O, my soul.’

(Persian Verse.)

“ ‘How long wilt thou continue to take pleasure in sin?

Repentance is not unpalatable – taste it.

(Turki Verse.)

“ ‘How great has been thy defilement from sin!

How much pleasure thou didst take in despair!

How long hast thou been the slave of thy passions!

How much of thy life hast thou thrown. away!

Since thou hast set out on a holy war,

Thou hast seen death before thine eyes for thy salvation.

He who resolves to sacrifice his life to save himself

Shall attain that exalted state which thou knowest.

Keep thyself far away from all forbidden enjoyments;

Cleanse thyself from all thy sins.’

“Having withdrawn myself from such temptation, I vowed never more to drink wine. Having sent for the gold and silver goblets and cups, with all the other utensils used for drinking parties, I directed them to be broken, and renounced the use of wine, purifying my mind. The fragments of the goblets and other utensils of gold and silver I directed to be divided among derwishes and the poor. The first person who followed me in my repentance was Asas, who also accompanied me in my resolution of ceasing to cut the beard, and of allowing it to grow. That night and the following, numbers of Amirs and courtiers, soldiers, and persons not in the service, to the number of nearly three hundred men, made vows of reformation. The wine which we had with us we poured on the ground. I ordered that the wine brought by Baba Dost should have salt thrown into it, that it might be made into vinegar. On the spot where the wine had been poured out I directed a wain to be sunk and built of stone, and close by the wain an alms-house to be erected. In the month of Moharrem in the year 935, when I went to visit Gualiar, in my way from Dholpur to Sikri, I found this wain completed. I had previously made a vow, that if I gained the victory over Rana Sanka the Pagan, I would remit the Temgha (or stamp-tax) levied from Musulmans. At the time when I made my vow of penitence, Derwish Muhammed Sarban and Sheikh Zin put me in mind of my promise. I said, ‘You did right to remind me of this: I renounce the temgha in all my dominions, so far as concerns Musulmans’; and I sent for my secretaries, and desired them to write and send to all my dominions firmans conveying intelligence of the two important incidents that had occurred” (Memoirs of Baber, p. 354). [Elliot-Dowson iv. 269.]

1054. “At this time, as I have already observed, in consequence of preceding events, a general consternation and alarm prevailed among great and small. There was not a single person who uttered a manly word, nor an individual who delivered a courageous opinion. The Vazirs, whose duty it was to give good counsel, and the Amirs, who enjoyed the wealth of kingdoms, neither spoke bravely, nor was their counsel or deportment such as became men of firmness. During the whole course of this expedition, Khalifeh conducted himself admirably, and was unremitting and indefatigable in his endeavours to put everything in the best order. At length, observing the universal discouragement of my troops, and their total want of spirit, I formed my plan. I called an assembly of all the Amirs and officers, and addressed them: Noblemen and soldiers! Every man that comes into the world is subject to dissolution. When we are passed away and gone. God only survives, unchangeable. Whoever comes to the feast of life must, before it is over, drink from the cup of death. He who arrives at the inn of mortality must one day inevitably take his departure from that house of sorrow, the world. How much better it is to die with honour than to live with infamy!

“With fame, even if I die, I am contented;

Let fame be mine, since my body is death’s.

“ ‘The most high God has been propitious to us, and has now placed us in such a crisis, that if we fall in the field we die the death of martyrs; if we survive, we rise victorious, the avengers of the cause of God. Let us, then, with one accord, swear on God’s holy word, that none of us will even think of turning his face from this warfare, nor desert from the battle and slaughter that ensues, till his soul is separated from his body.’

“Master and servant, small and great, all with emulation, seizing the blessed Koran in their hands, swore in the form that I had given. My plan succeeded to admiration, and its effects were instantly visible far and near, on friend and foe.” (Memoirs of Baber, p. 357).

1055. Babur says, “Although Rana Sanka (Sanga) the Pagan, when I was at Cabul, sent me ambassadors, and had arranged with me that if I would march upon Delhi he would on Agra; but when I took Delhi and Agra, the Pagan did not move” (Memoirs of Baber, p. 339). 1

1056. In the translation of Babur’s Memoirs, Udai Singh is styled ‘Wali of the country,’ confounding him with Udai Singh, successor of Sanga. He was Wali (sovereign) of Dungarpur, not ‘Oodipoor,’ which was not then in existence. [Erskine, in his later work (Hist. India, i. 473, note), admits his error.]

1057. [A list of the slain, nearly identical, is given by Abu-l Fazl, Akbarnama, i. 265.]

1058. [The author confuses Hasan Khan, Mewati, an important officer (Ferishta ii. 55; Bayley, Muhammad Dynasties of Gujarat, 278), whom Badaoni (Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh, i. 447) Calls a Jogi in form and appearance, with Hasan Khan, Lodi i. 503).]

1059. [About eighty-five miles north-north-west of Jaipur city. Babur says that he intended to pursue Sanga to Chitor, but was prevented by the defeat of his forces advancing on Lucknow (Elliot-Dowson iv. 277).]

1060. The number of queens is determined only by state necessity and the fancy of the prince. To have them equal in number to the days of the week is not unusual, while the number of handmaids is unlimited. It will be conceded that the prince who can govern such a household, and maintain equal rights when claims to pre-eminence must be perpetually asserted, possesses no little tact. The government of the kingdom is but an amusement compared with such a task, for it is within the Rawala that intrigue is enthroned.

1061. I possess his portrait, given to me by the present Rana, who has a collection of full-lengths of all his royal ancestors, from Samarsi to himself, of their exact heights and with every-bodily peculiarity, whether of complexion or form. They are valuable for the costume. Re has often shown than to me while illustrating their actions.

1062. [The practice of sending his sword to represent the bridegroom probably originated in the desire for secrecy, and has since been observed, as among the Raj Goads of the Central Provinces, for the sake of convenience, and in order to avoid expense (Forbes, Rasmala, 624; BG, ix. Part i. 143, 145 f.; Russell, Tribes and Castes, Central Provinces, iii. 77).]

1063. Surajmall.

1064. The Hindu Cupid, implying ‘incorporeal,’ from anga, ‘body,’ with the privative prefix ‘an.’

1065. I have given the relation of this duel in the narrative of my journeys on my visit to the cenotaph of Patna, erected where he fell. It was the pleasure of my life to listen to the traditional anecdotes illustrative of Rajput history on the scenes of their transactions.

1066. The Bhakha orthography for Vikramaditya.

1067. The government of Papa Bai, a princess of ancient time, whose mismanaged sovereignty has given a proverb to the Rajput: [Major Luard informs me that Papa Rai is said to have been the daughter of a Rajput of Siddal. She and Shirai Seth, a corn-merchant who, in return for his penances, asked to be made a king for three ghatikas (twenty-four minutes each), and gave indiscriminately alms to rich and poor, are bywords for foolish extravagance. She is worshipped at a shrine in Ujjain by all who desire good crops, especially sugar. Another name for such a period of misrule is Harbong ka raj (Elliot, Supplemental Glossary, 466 if.).]

1068. Taken by Prithiraj and carried to Rana Raemall, who took a large sum of money and seven hundred horses as his ransom.

1069. We have, in the poems of Chand, frequent indistinct notices of firearms, especially the nal-gola or tube-ball; but whether discharged by percussion or the expansive force of gunpowder is dubious. The poet also repeatedly speaks of “the volcano of the field,” giving to understand great guns; but these may be interpolations, though I would not check a full investigation of so curious a subject by raising a doubt. Babur was the first who introduced field guns in the Muhammadan wars, and Bahadur’s invasion is the first notice of their application in sieges, for in Alau-d-din’s time, in the thirteenth century, he used the catapult or battering-ram, called manjauik. To these guns Babur was indebted for victory over the united cavalry of Rajasthan. They were served by Rumi Khan, probably a Routueliut, or Syrian Christian. The Franks (Faringis), with Bahadur, must have been some of Vasco di Gama’s crew. [For the use of artillery in Mogul times see the full account by Irvine (Army of the Indian Moghuls, 113 ff.). Manjanik is the Greek μάγγανον. Rumi Khan was an Ottoman Turk, called Khudawand Khan, who learned the science in Turkish service (Erskine, Hist. of India, ii. 49; Ain, i. 441). Akbar is said to have used Chinese artillery, and to have employed English gunners from Surat (Manucci i. 139; Irvine, op. cit. 152).)

1070. The Changi, the chief insignia of regality in Mewar, is a sun of gold in the centre of a disc of black ostrich feathers or felt, about three feet in diameter, elevated on a pole, and carried close to the prince. It has something of a Scythic cast about it. What changi imports I never understood. [Probably Pers. chang, ‘anything bent.’]

1071. The name of the faithful Rajput who preserved Udai Singh, Chakasen Dhundera, deserves to be recorded.

1072. The date, “Jeth sudi 12th, S. 1589,” A.D. 1533, and according to Ferishta A.H. 940, A.D. 1532–33. [Chitor was taken in 1534. The Mirat-i-Sikandari states that on March 24, 1533, Bahadur received the promised tribute, and moved his camp from Chitor (Bayley, Muhammadan Dynasties of Gujarat, 372).]

1073. From ancient times, leading the females captive appears to have been the sign of complete victory. Rajput inscriptions often allude to “a conqueror beloved by the wives of his conquered foe,” and in the early parts of Scripture the same notion is referred to. The mother of Sisera asks “Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two?” (Judges v. 30.)

1074. [Ferishta ii. 75 f. Badaoni says that Humayun hesitated to interfere because Bahadur was attacking an infidel (Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh, i. 453 f.).]

1075. Many romantic tales are founded on ‘the gift of the Rakhi.’ The author, who was placed in the enviable situation of being able to do good, and on the most extensive scale, was the means of restoring many of these ancient families from degradation to affluence. The greatest reward ho could, and the only one he would, receive, was the courteous civility displayed in many of these interesting customs. He was the Rakhi-band Bhai of, and received ‘the bracelet’ from, three queens of Udaipur, Bundi, and Kotah, besides Chand Bai, the maiden sister of the Rana; as well as many ladies of the chieftains of rank, with whom he interchanged letters. The sole articles of ‘barbaric pearl and gold,’ which he conveyed from a country where he was six years supreme, are these testimonies of friendly regard. Intrinsically of no great value, they were presented and accepted in the ancient spirit, and he retains them with a sentiment the more powerful, because he can no longer render them any service. [The Rakhi (Skt. raksha, ‘protection’) is primarily a protective amulet assumed at the full moon of Sawan (JulyAugust) (Forbes, Rasmala, 609). It was worn on this date to avert the unhealthiness of the rainy season. Jahangir and Akbar followed the custom, introduced by their Hindu ladies (Jahangir, Memoirs, 246; Badaoni, op. cit. ii. 269).]

1076. [Probably policy, rather than romance, caused Humayun to interfere.]

1077. He addresses her as “dear and virtuous sister,” and evinces much interest in her welfare. We are in total ignorance of the refined sentiment which regulates such a people – our home-bred prejudices deem them beneath inquiry; and thus indolence and self-conceit combine to deprive the benevolent of a high gratification.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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