CHAPTER 7
If devotion to the fair sex be admitted as a criterion of civilization, the Rajput must rank high. His susceptibility is extreme, and fires at the slightest offence to female delicacy, which he never forgives. A satirical impromptu, involving the sacrifice of Rajput prejudices, dissolved the coalition of the Rathors and Kachhwahas, and laid each prostrate before the Mahrattas, whom when united they had crushed: and a jest, apparently trivial, compromised the right of primogeniture to the throne of Chitor, and proved more disastrous in its consequences than the arms either of Moguls or Mahrattas.
Chonda renounces his Birthright.
Rāna Mokala, A.D. 1397-1433.
The sacrifice of Chonda to offended delicacy and filial respect was great, for he had all the qualities requisite for command. Brave, frank, and skilful, he conducted all public affairs after his father’s departure and death, to the benefit of the minor and the State. The queen-mother, however, who is admitted as the natural guardian of her infant’s rights on all such occasions, felt umbrage and discontent at her loss of power; forgetting that, but for Chonda, she would never [278] have been mother to the Rana of Mewar. She watched with a jealous eye all his proceedings; but it was only through the medium of suspicion she could accuse the integrity of Chonda, and she artfully asserted that, under colour of directing state affairs, he was exercising absolute sovereignty, and that if he did not assume the title of Rana, he would reduce it to an empty name. Chonda, knowing the purity of his own motives, made liberal allowance for maternal solicitude; but upbraiding the queen with the injustice of her suspicions, and advising a vigilant care to the rights of Sesodias, he retired to the court of Mandu, then rising into notice, where he was received with the highest distinctions, and the district of Halar[[7]] was assigned to him by the king.
Rāthor Influence in Mewār.
Raghudeva, the Mewār Hero.
The Expulsion of the Rāthor Party.
These injunctions were carefully attended to. The day arrived, the feast was held at Gosunda; but the night was closing in, and no Chonda appeared. With heavy hearts the nurse, the Purohit,[[12]] and those in the secret moved homeward, and had reached the eminence called Chitori, when forty horsemen passed them at the gallop, and at their head Chonda in disguise, who by a secret sign paid homage as he passed to his younger brother and sovereign. Chonda and [280] his band had reached the Rampol,[[13]] or upper gate, unchecked. Here, when challenged, they said they were neighbouring chieftains, who, hearing of the feast at Gosunda, had the honour to escort the prince home. The story obtained credit; but the main body, of which this was but the advance, presently coming up, the treachery was apparent. Chonda unsheathed his sword, and at his well-known shout the hunters were speedily in action. The Bhatti chief, taken by surprise, and unable to reach Chonda, launched his dagger at and wounded him, but was himself slain; the guards at the gates were cut to pieces, and the Rathors hunted out and killed without mercy.
Death of Rāo Ranmall.
The Revenge of Chonda.
“Sweet are the uses of adversity.” To Jodha it was the first step in the ladder of his eventual elevation. A century and a half had scarcely elapsed since a colony, the wreck of Kanauj, found an asylum, and at length a kingdom, taking possession of one capital and founding another, abandoning Mandor and erecting Jodhpur. But even Jodha could never have hoped that his issue would have extended their sway from the valley of the Indus to within one hundred miles of the Jumna, and from the desert bordering on the Sutlej to the Aravalli mountains: that one hundred thousand swords should at once be in the hands of Rathors, ‘the sons of one father’ (ek Bap ke Betan).
If we slightly encroach upon the annals of Marwar, it is owing to its history and that of Mewar being here so interwoven, and the incidents these events gave birth so illustrative of the national character of each, that it is, perhaps, more expedient to advert to the period when Jodha was shut out from Mandor, and the means by which he regained that city, previous to relating the events of the reign of Mokal.
Harbuji Sānkhla.
Elevated by this prospect, they enlisted Harbuji on their side. He accompanied them to the chieftain of Mewa, “whose stables contained one hundred chosen steeds.” Pabuji, a third independent of the same stamp, with his ‘coal-black steed,’ was gained to the cause, and Jodha soon found himself strong enough to attempt the recovery of his capital. The sons of Chonda were taken by surprise: but despising the numbers of the foe, and ignorant who were their auxiliaries, they descended sword in hand to meet the assailants. The elder[[18]] son of Chonda with many adherents was slain; and the younger, deserted by the subjects of Mandor, trusted to the swiftness of his horse for escape; but being pursued, was overtaken and killed on the boundary of Godwar. Thus Jodha, in his turn, was revenged, but the ‘feud was not balanced.’ Two sons of Chitor had fallen for one chief of Mandor. But wisely reflecting on the original aggression, and the superior power of Mewar, as well as his being indebted for his present success to foreign aid, Jodha sued for peace, and offered as the mundkati, or ‘price of blood,’ and ‘to quench the feud,’ that the spot where Manja fell should be the future barrier of the two States. The entire province of Godwar was comprehended in the cession, which for three centuries withstood every contention, till the internal dissensions of the last half century, which grew out of the cause by which [283] it was obtained, and the change of succession in Mewar severed this most valuable acquisition.[[19]]
Who would imagine, after such deadly feuds between these rival States, that in the very next succession these hostile frays were not only buried in oblivion, but that the prince of Marwar abjured ‘his turban and his bed’ till he had revenged the assassination of the prince of Chitor, and restored his infant heir to his rights? The annals of these States afford numerous instances of the same hasty, overbearing temperament governing all; easily moved to strife, impatient of revenge, and steadfast in its gratification. But this satisfied, resentment subsides. A daughter of the offender given to wife banishes its remembrance, and when the bard joins the lately rival names in the couplet, each will complacently curl his mustachio over his lip as he hears his ‘renown expand like the lotus,’ and thus ‘the feud is extinguished.’ Thus have they gone on from time immemorial, and will continue, till what we may fear to contemplate. They have now neither friend nor foe but the British. The Tatar invader sleeps in his tomb, and the Mahratta depredator is muzzled and enchained. To return.
Mokal, A.D. 1397-1433.
Lāl Bāi.
Assassination of Rāna Mokal.
Rāna Kūmbha, A.D. 1433-68.
Suja and the Tiger.
[1]. Mukti.
[2]. This is a literal phrase, denoting further transmigration of the soul, which is always deemed a punishment. The soldier who falls in battle in the faithful performance of his duty is alone exempted, according to their martial mythology, from the pains of ‘second birth.’
[3]. The fair messengers of heaven.
[4]. Suraj Mandal.
[5]. The abode of the chief of the various clans of Chondawat.
[7]. [Hālār in W. Kāthiāwār (BG, viii. 4).]
[8]. The Dhāi. The Dhābhāis, or ‘foster-brothers,’ often hold lands in perpetuity, and are employed in the most confidential places; on embassies, marriages, etc.
[9]. On the 8th day of the Dasahra, or ‘military festival,’ when the levies are mustered at the Chaugan, or ‘Champ de Mars,’ and on the 10th of Chait his altars are purified, and his image is washed and placed thereon. Women pray for the safety of their children; husbands, that their wives may be fruitful. Previously to this, a son of Bappa Rawal was worshipped; but after the enshrinement of Raghudeva, the adoration of Kulisputra was gradually abolished. Nor is this custom confined to Mewar: there is a deified Putra in every Rajput family—one who has met a violent death. Besides Eklinga, the descendants of Bappa have adopted numerous household divinities: the destinies of life and death, Baenmata the goddess of the Chawaras, Nagnachian the serpent divinity of the Rathors, and Khetrapal, or ‘fosterer of the field,’ have with many others obtained a place on the Sesodia altars. This festival may not unaptly be compared to that of Adonis amongst the Greeks, for the Putra is worshipped chiefly by women.
[10]. The Diwali, from diwa, ‘a lamp.’ This festival is in honour of Lakshmi, goddess of wealth.
[11]. Seven miles south of Chitor, on the road to Malwa.
[12]. The family priest and instructor of youth.
[13]. Rampol, ‘the gate of Ram.’
[14]. Often sixty cubits in length.
[15]. [Godwār, including the Bāli and Desuri districts in S.E. Mārwār, is now known as the Desuri Hukūmat: see Erskine iii. A. 180 f.]
[16]. The wood of Solomon’s temple is called almug; the prefix al is merely the article [?]. This is the wood also mentioned in the annals of Gujarat, of which the temple to Adinath was constructed. It is said to be indestructible even by fire. It has been surmised that the fleets of Tyre frequented the Indian coast: could they thence have carried the Almujd for the temple of Solomon? [Almug, according to the Encyclopædia Biblica (i. 1196) is either Brazil-wood or red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus). Sir G. Watt, who has kindly examined the question, thinks it very improbable that the mujd of the text is almug wood, because neither the true sandalwood (Santalum album) nor the red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus) is found in Rājputāna. He identifies the mujd of the text with Moringa concanensis, a small tree found wild in Sind and the Konkan, which yields a gum of considerable value, and its congener Moringa pterygosperma (Comm. Prod. 784), the horse-radish tree of India, is used as a dye in Jamaica, and probably could be so used in India.]
[17]. This wood has a brownish-red tint.
[18]. This is related with some variation in other annals of the period.
[19]. There is little hope, while British power acts as high constable and keeper of the peace in Rajwara, of this being recovered: nor, were it otherwise, would it be desirable to see it become an object of contention between these States. Marwar has attained much grandeur since the time of Jodha, and her resources are more unbroken than those of Mewar, who, if she could redeem, could not, from its exposed position, maintain the province against the brave Rathor.
[20]. [The four-armed Vishnu, the favourite deity of the Mertia Rāthors (Census Report, Rajputana, 1891, ii. 26).]
[21]. The ceremony of joining hands.
[22]. [His mother was a Pramār, Subhāgya Devi, daughter of Rāja Jaitmall, Sānkhla.]