CHAPTER 6
Lakhamsi: Lachhman Singh.
Bhīm Singh: Padmini.
The Siege of Chitor.
Mention has already been made of the adjuration,“by the sin of the sack of Chitor.” Of these sacks they enumerate three and a half. This is the ‘half’; for though the city was not stormed, the best and bravest were cut off (sakha). It is described with great animation in the Khuman Raesa. Badal was but a stripling of twelve, but the Rajput expects wonders from this early age. He escaped, though wounded, and a dialogue ensues between him and his uncle’s wife, who desires him to relate how her lord conducted himself ere she joins him. The stripling replies: “He was the reaper of the harvest of battle; I followed his steps as the humble gleaner of his sword. On the gory bed of honour he spread a carpet of the slain; a barbarian prince his pillow, he laid him down, and sleeps surrounded by the foe.” Again she said: "Tell me, Badal, how did my love (piyar) behave?" “Oh! mother, how further describe his deeds when he left no foe to dread or admire him?” She smiled farewell to the boy, and adding, “My lord will chide my delay,” sprung into the flame.
Alau-d-din, having recruited his strength, returned to his object, Chitor. The annals state this to have been in S. 1346 (A.D. 1290), but Ferishta gives a date thirteen years later.[[4]] They had not yet recovered the loss of so many valiant men who had sacrificed themselves for their prince’s safety, and Ala carried on his attacks more closely, and at length obtained the hill at the southern point, where he entrenched himself. They still pretend to point out his trenches; but so many have been formed by subsequent attacks that we cannot credit the assertion. The poet has found in the disastrous issue of this siege admirable materials for his song. He represents the Rana, after an arduous day, stretched on his pallet, and during a night of watchful anxiety, pondering on the means by which he might preserve from the general destruction one at least of his twelve sons; when a voice [265] broke on his solitude, exclaiming, “Main bhukhi ho”;[[5]] and raising his eyes, he saw, by the dim glare of the chiragh,[[6]] advancing between the granite columns, the majestic form of the guardian goddess of Chitor. “Not satiated,” exclaimed the Rana, “though eight thousand of my kin were late an offering to thee?” “I must have regal victims; and if twelve who wear the diadem bleed not for Chitor, the land will pass from the line.” This said, she vanished.
On the morn he convened a council of his chiefs, to whom he revealed the vision of the night, which they treated as the dream of a disordered fancy. He commanded their attendance at midnight; when again the form appeared, and repeated the terms on which alone she would remain amongst them. “Though thousands of barbarians strew the earth, what are they to me? On each day enthrone a prince. Let the kirania,[[7]] the chhatra and the chamara,[[7]] proclaim his sovereignty, and for three days let his decrees be supreme: on the fourth let him meet the foe and his fate. Then only may I remain.”
Whether we have merely the fiction of the poet, or whether the scene was got up to animate the spirit of resistance, matters but little, it is consistent with the belief of the tribe; and that the goddess should openly manifest her wish to retain as her tiara the battlements of Chitor on conditions so congenial to the warlike and superstitious Rajput was a gage readily taken up and fully answering the end. A generous contention arose amongst the brave brothers who should be the first victim to avert the denunciation. Arsi urged his priority of birth: he was proclaimed, the umbrella waved over his head, and on the fourth day he surrendered his short-lived honours and his life. Ajaisi, the next in birth, demanded to follow; but he was the favourite son of his father, and at his request he consented to let his brothers precede him. Eleven had fallen in turn, and but one victim remained to the salvation of the city, when the Rana, calling his chiefs around him, said, “Now I devote myself for Chitor.”
The Johar.
A contest now arose between the Rana and his surviving son; but the father prevailed, and Ajaisi, in obedience to his commands, with a small band passed through the enemy’s lines, and reached Kelwara in safety. The Rana, satisfied that his line was not extinct, now prepared to follow his brave sons; and calling around him his devoted clans, for whom life had no longer any charms, they threw open the portals and descended to the plains, and with a reckless despair carried death, or met it, in the crowded ranks of Ala. The Tatar conqueror took possession of an inanimate capital, strewed with brave defenders, the smoke yet issuing from the recesses where lay consumed the once fair object of his desire; and since this devoted day the cavern has been sacred: no eye has penetrated its gloom, and superstition has placed as its guardian a huge serpent, whose ‘venomous breath’ extinguishes the light which might guide intruders to ‘the place of sacrifice.’
The Conquests of Alāu-d-dīn.
PALACE OF RĀNA BHĪM AND PADMINI.
To face page 312.
The Flight of Rāna Ajai Singh.
Mewār occupied by the Musalmāns: The Exploit of Hamīr.
Rāna Hamīr Singh, A.D. 1301-64.
The Inaugural Foray.
Chitor under a Musalmān Garrison.
Resistance of Hamīr Singh.
The Recovery of Chitor.
The Sonigira on his return was met with ‘a salute of arabas,’[[24]] and Maldeo himself carried the account of his loss to the Khilji king Mahmud, who had succeeded Ala. The ‘standard of the sun’ once more shone refulgent from the walls of Chitor, and was the signal for return to their ancient abodes from their hills and hiding-places to the adherents of Hamir. The valleys of Kumbhalmer and the western highlands poured forth their ‘streams of men,’ while every chief of true Hindu blood rejoiced at the prospect of once more throwing off the barbarian yoke. So powerful was this feeling, and with such activity and skill did Hamir follow up this favour of fortune, that he marched to meet Mahmud, who was advancing to recover his lost possessions. The king unwisely directed his march by the eastern plateau, where numbers were rendered useless by the intricacies of the country. Of the three steppes which mark the physiognomy of this tract, from the first ascent from the plain of Mewar to the descent at Chambal, the king had encamped on the central, at Singoli, where he was attacked, defeated, and made prisoner by Hamir, who slew Hari Singh, brother of Banbir, in single combat. The king suffered a confinement of three months in Chitor, nor was liberated till he had surrendered Ajmer, Ranthambor, Nagor, and Sui Sopur, besides paying fifty lakhs of rupees and one hundred elephants. Hamir would exact no promise of cessation from further inroads, but contented himself with assuring him that from such he should be prepared to defend Chitor, not within, but without the walls [273].[[25]]
Banbir, the son of Maldeo, offered to serve Hamir, who assigned the districts of Nimach, Jiran, Ratanpur, and the Kerar to maintain the family of his wife in becoming dignity; and as he gave the grant he remarked: “Eat, serve, and be faithful. You were once the servant of a Turk, but now of a Hindu of your own faith; for I have but taken back my own, the rock moistened by the blood of my ancestors, the gift of the deity I adore, and who will maintain me in it; nor shall I endanger it by the worship of a fair face, as did my predecessor.” Banbir shortly after carried Bhainsror by assault, and this ancient possession guarding the Chambal was again added to Mewar. The chieftains of Rajasthan rejoiced once more to see a Hindu take the lead, paid willing homage, and aided him with service when required.
The Power of Rāna Hamīr Singh.
Extensive as was the power of Mewar before the Tatar occupation of India, it could scarcely have surpassed the solidity of sway which she enjoyed during the two centuries following Hamir’s recovery of the capital. From this event to the next invasion from the same Cimmerian abode, led by Babur, we have a succession of splendid names recorded in her annals, and though destined soon to be surrounded by new Muhammadan dynasties, in Malwa and Gujarat as well as Delhi, yet successfully opposing them all. The distracted state of affairs when the races of Khilji, Lodi, and Sur alternately struggled for and obtained the seat of dominion, Delhi, was favourable to Mewar, whose power was now so consolidated that she not only repelled armies from her territory, but carried war abroad, leaving tokens of victory at Nagor, in Saurashtra, and to the walls of Delhi.
Public Works.
Kshetra or Khet Singh, A.D. 1364-82.
Laksh Singh, A.D. 1382-97.
Lakha had a numerous progeny, who have left their clans called after them, as the Lunawats and Dulawats, now the sturdy allodial proprietors of the Alpine regions bordering on Oghna, Panarwa, and other tracts in the Aravalli.[[33]] But a circumstance which set aside the rights of primogeniture, and transferred the crown of Chitor from his eldest son, Chonda, to the younger, Mokal, had nearly carried it to another line. The consequences of making the elder branch a powerful vassal clan with claims to the throne, and which have been the chief cause of its subsequent prostration, we will reserve for another chapter [276].
[1]. [Rāna Lachhman Singh was not, strictly speaking, ruler of Chitor. He belonged to the Rāna branch, and succeeded Jai Singh. When Chitor was invested he came to help his relation, Rāwal Ratan Singh, husband of Padmini, and ruler of Chitor, and was killed, with seven of his sons (Erskine ii. B. 10).]
[2]. [‘The Lotus.’ Ferishta in his account of the siege says nothing of Padmini (i. 353 f.). Her story is told in Āīn, ii. 269 f.]
[3]. [A folk-tale of the ‘Horse of Troy’ type, common in India; see Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, 4 f.; Ferishta ii. 115; Grant Duff, Hist. Mahrattas, 64, note; cf. Herodotus v. 20.]
[4]. [Chitor was captured in August 1303 (Ferishta i. 353; Elliot-Dowson iii. 77).]
[5]. ‘I am hungry.’
[6]. Lamp.
[7]. These are the insignia of royalty. The kirania is a parasol, from kiran, ‘a ray’: the chhatra is the umbrella, always red; the chamara, the flowing tail of the wild ox, set in a gold handle, and used to drive away the flies.
[8]. [Sir G. Grierson informs me that Johar or Jauhar is derived from Jatugriha, ‘a house built of lac or other combustibles,’ in allusion to the story in the Mahābhārata (i. chap. 141-151) of the attempted destruction of the Pāndavas by setting such a building on fire. For other examples of the rite see Ferishta i. 59 f.; Elliot-Dowson i. 313, 536 f., iii. 426, 433, iv. 277, 402, v. 101; Forbes, Rās Māla, 286; Malcolm, Memoir Central India, 2nd ed. i. 483. For recent cases Irvine, Army of the Indian Moghuls, 242; Punjab Notes and Queries, iv. 102 ff.]
[9]. The Author has been at the entrance of this retreat, which, according to the Khuman Raesa, conducts to a subterranean palace, but the mephitic vapours and venomous reptiles did not invite to adventure, even had official situation permitted such slight to these prejudices. The Author is the only Englishman admitted to Chitor since the days of Herbert, who appears to have described what he saw.
[10]. A stand is fixed upon four poles in the middle of a field, on which a guard is placed armed with a sling and clay balls, to drive away the ravens, peacocks, and other birds that destroy the corn.
[11]. One of the branches of the Chauhan.
[12]. [The same tale is told of Dhadīj, grandson of Prithirāj, the ancestor of the Dahiya Jāts (Rose, Glossary, ii. 220; Risley, People of India, 2nd ed., 179 f.).]
[13]. This is an idiomatic phrase; Hamir could have had no beard.
[14]. Des desa.
[15]. Ajaisi, Sajansi, Dalipji, Sheoji, Bhoraji, Deoraj, Ugarsen, Mahulji, Kheluji, Jankoji, Satuji, Sambhaji, Sivaji (the founder of the Mahratta nation), Sambhaji, Ramraja, usurpation of the Peshwas. The Satara throne, but for the jealousies of Udaipur, might on the imbecility of Ramraja have been replenished from Mewar. It was offered to Nathji, the grandfather of the present chief Sheodan Singh, presumptive heir to Chitor. Two noble lines were reared from princes of Chitor expelled on similar occasions; those of Sivaji and the Gorkhas of Nepal. [This pedigree is largely the work of the bards. But the Mahrattas, who seem to be chiefly sprung from the Kunbi peasantry, claim Rājput origin, and several of their clans bear Rājput names. It is said that in 1836 the Rāna of Mewār was satisfied that the Bhonslas and certain other families had the right to be regarded as Rājputs (Census Report, Bombay, 1901, i. 184 f.; Russell, Tribes and Castes Central Provinces, iv. 199 ff.).]
[16]. This is a poetical version of the name of Ajaisi; a liberty frequently taken by the bards for the sake of rhyme.
[17]. [From an inscription at Chitor it appears that the fort remained in the charge of Muhammadans up to the time of Muhammad Tughlak (1324-51), who appointed Māldeo of Jālor governor (Erskine ii. A. 16).]
[18]. The lake he excavated here, the Hamir-talao, and the temple of the protecting goddess on its bank, still bear witness of his acts while confined to this retreat.
[19]. See [Plate], view of Kumbhalmer.
[20]. I have an inscription, and in Sanskrit, set up by an apostate chief or bard in his train, which I found in this tract.
[21]. This is the symbol of an offer of marriage.
[22]. The toran is the symbol of marriage. It consists of three wooden bars, forming an equilateral triangle; mystic in shape and number, and having the apex crowned with the effigies of a peacock, it is placed over the portal of the bride’s abode. At Udaipur, when the princes of Jaisalmer, Bikaner, and Kishangarh simultaneously married the two daughters and granddaughter of the Rana, the torans were suspended from the battlements of the tripolia, or three-arched portal, leading to the palace. The bridegroom on horseback, lance in hand, proceeds to break the toran (toran torna), which is defended by the damsels of the bride, who from the parapet assail him with missiles of various kinds, especially with a crimson powder made from the flowers of the palasa, at the same time singing songs fitted to the occasion, replete with double-entendres. At length the toran is broken amidst the shouts of the retainers; when the fair defenders retire. The similitude of these ceremonies in the north of Europe and in Asia increases the list of common affinities, and indicates the violence of rude times to obtain the object of affection; and the lance, with which the Rajput chieftain breaks the toran, has the same emblematic import as the spear, which, at the marriage of the nobles in Sweden, was a necessary implement in the furniture of the marriage chamber (vide Mallett, Northern Antiquities). [The custom perhaps represents a symbol of marriage by capture, but it has also been suggested that it symbolizes the luck of the bride’s family which the bridegroom acquires by touching the arch with his sword (see Luard, Ethnographic Survey Central India, 22; Enthoven, Folk-lore Notes Gujarāt, 69; Russell, Tribes and Castes Central Provinces, ii. 410).]
[23]. [Khetrpāl, Kshetrapāla, is guardian of the field (Kshetra).]
[24]. A kind of arquebuss [properly the gun-carriage. Irvine, Army of the Indian Moghuls, 140 ff.]
[25]. Ferishta does not mention this conquest over the Khilji emperor; but as Mewar recovered her wonted splendour in this reign, we cannot doubt the truth of the native annals. [There is a mistake here. The successor of Alāu-d-dīn was Kutbu-d-dīn Mubārak, who came to the throne in 1316. Ferishta says that Rāī Ratan Singh of Chitor, who had been taken prisoner in the siege, was released by the cleverness of his daughter, and that Alāu-d-dīn ordered his son, Khizr Khān, to evacuate the place, on which the Rāī became tributary to Alāu-d-dīn. Also in 1312 the Rājputs threw the Muhammadan officers over the ramparts and asserted their independence (Ferishta, trans. Briggs, i. 363, 381). Erskine says that the attack was made by Muhammad Tughlak (1324-51).]
[26]. [The Jain tower, known as Kirtti Stamb, ‘pillar of fame,’ erected in the twelfth or thirteenth century by Jīja, a Bagherwāl Mahājan, and dedicated to Ādināth, the first Jain Tīrthankara or saint.]
[27]. [The contemporary of Khet Singh at Delhi was Fīroz Shāh Tughlak.]
[28]. [The mines at Jāwar, sixteen miles south of Udaipur city, produce lead, zinc, and some silver. The mention of tin in the text seems wrong (Watt, Dict. Econ. Prod. vi. Part iv. 356; Comm. Prod. 1077).]
[29]. Haft-dhat, corresponding to the planets, each of which ruled a metal: hence Mihr, ‘the sun,’ for gold; Chandra, ‘the moon,’ for silver.
[30]. They have long been abandoned, the miners are extinct, and the protecting deities of mines are unable to get even a flower placed on their shrines, though some have been reconsecrated by the Bhils, who have converted Lakshmi into Sitalamata (Juno Lucina), whom the Bhil females invoke to pass them through danger.
[31]. Jhunjhunu, Singhana, and Narbana formed the ancient Nagarchal territory.
[32]. [There was no Sultān Muhammad Shāh Lodi, and that dynasty did not begin till 1451. Fīroz Shāh (1351-88) was contemporary of Laksh Singh at Delhi. It is not likely that a Rājput in the fourteenth century conducted a campaign at Gaya in Bengal; but, according to Har Bilas Sarda, author of a recent monograph on Rāna Kūmbha, the fact is corroborated by inscriptions, Peterson, Bhaunagar Inscriptions, 96, 117, 119.]
[33]. The Sarangdeot chief of Kanor (on the borders of Chappan), one of the sixteen lords of Mewar, is also a descendant of Lakha, as are some of the tribes of Sondwara, about Pharphara and the ravines of the Kali Sind.