CHAPTER 9
Rāna Sanga or Sangrām Singh; A.D. 1508-27.—Sangram, better known in the annals of Mewar as Sanga (called Sanka by the Mogul historians),[[1]] 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 kalas[[2]] 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 Khilji 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 Benares.[[3]] 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 Amber[[4]] did him homage, and the Raos of Gwalior Ajmer, Sikri, Raesen,[[5]] Kalpi, 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 Rāna Sanga.
Invasions from Central Asia.
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, Jats, 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 Alaric, altered the condition of Europe, its importance is vastly enhanced.[[7]] 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 Pandus, with less than two thousand adherents.
Character of Bābur.
RUINS OF THE FORTRESS OF BAYĀNA.
To face page 352.
With all Babur’s qualities as a soldier, supported by the hardy clans of the ‘cloud mountains’ (Belut Tagh) [303] of Karateghin,[[8]] 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 Khānua, March 16, 1527.
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 Udai[[13]] Singh of 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; Manikchand and Chandrbhan, Chauhan chiefs of the first rank in Mewar; besides a host of inferior names.[[14]] Hasan Khan of Mewat, and a son of the last Lodi king of Delhi, who coalesced with Sanga, were amongst the killed.[[15]] 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 Rāna Sanga.
Evils resulting from Polygamy.
Appearance of Rāna Sanga.
Rāna Ratan Singh II., A.D. 1527-31.
Death of Rāna Ratan Singh.
Rāna Bikramajīt, A.D. 1531-35.
An open rupture was the consequence of such innovation, and (to use the figurative expression for misrule) ‘Papa Bai ka Raj’[[24]] 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 Bahādur, Sultān of Gujarāt.
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 Rajwara. This was the most powerful effort hitherto made by the sultans of Central India, and European artillerists[[26]] are recorded in these [311] annals as brought to the subjugation of Chitor. The engineer is styled ‘Labri Khan of Fringan,’ 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 last council convened was to concert means to save the infant son of Sanga from this imminent peril.
Crowning of a New Rāna.
The Johar.
Bahadur must have been appalled at the horrid sight on viewing his conquest;[[29]] 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 captivity.[[30]] To use the emphatic 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 retire.[[31]] 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 Rākhi.
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 delicacy.[[34]]
Restoration of Bikramajīt.
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 representative of the common ancestor of the aristocracy—the sole lawgiver of Rajasthan.
Death of Rāna Bikramajīt.
[1]. [The dates given in the margin are based on recently found inscriptions (Har Bilas Sarda, Maharana Kumbha: Sovereign, Soldier, Scholar, Ajmer, 1917, p. 2).[p. 2).]]
[2]. The Raj Ratana, by Ranchhor Bhat, says: “The Mandor Rao was pardhan, or premier to Mokal, and conquered Nawa and Didwana for Mewar.”
[3]. [It is the generosity of Rāna Sanga to Muzaffar Shāh of which Abu-l Fazl speaks (Āīn, ii. 221).]
[4]. [The Musalmān historians give a different account. Ferishta says that Mahmūd stormed the lower part of Chitor, and that the Rāna fled (iv. 209). At any rate, Mahmūd erected a tower of victory at Māndu (IGI, xvii. 173). The result was probably indecisive. For Kūmbha’s pillar see Fergusson, Hist. Indian Architecture, ii. 59; Smith, HFA, 202 f.]
[5]. Pronounced Kumalmer.
[6]. [Grandson of Asoka (Smith, EHI, 192 f.).]
[7]. [For the Ābu temples see Tod, Western India, 75 ff.; Erskine iii. A. 295.]
[8]. A powerful phrase, indicating ‘possessor of the soil.’
[9]. The Rana’s minister, of the Jain faith, and of the tribe Porwar (one of the twelve and a half divisions), laid the foundation of this temple in A.D. 1438. It was completed by subscription. It consists of three stories, and is supported by numerous columns of granite, upwards of forty feet in height. The interior is inlaid with mosaics of cornelian and agate. The statues of the Jain saints are in its subterranean vaults. We could not expect much elegance at a period when the arts had long been declining, but it would doubtless afford a fair specimen of them, and enable us to trace their gradual descent in the scale of refinement. This temple is an additional proof of the early existence of the art of inlaying. That I did not see it is now to me one of the many vain regrets which I might have avoided.
[10]. Gita Govinda.
[11]. [She was daughter of Ratiya Rāna, and was married to Kūmbha in 1413. Her great work is the Rāg Gobind (Grierson, Modern Literature of Hindustan, 12; Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion, vi. 342 ff.; IA, xxv. 19, xxxii. 329 ff.; ASR, xxiii. 106). As an illustration of the uncertainty of early Mewār history, according to Har Bilas Sarda, author of the monograph on Rāna Kūmbha, Mīra Bāi was not wife of Kūmbha, but of Bhojrāj, son of Rāna Sanga. She was daughter of Ratan Singh of Merta, fourth son of Rāo Duda (A.D. 1461-62). She was married to Bhojrāj A.D. 1516, and died in 1546.]
[12]. Jagat Khunt, or Dwarka.
[13]. The darkest of the rainy months.
[14]. Jodha laid the foundation of his new capital in S. 1515 [A.D. 1459], ten years anterior to the event we are recording.
[16]. He had observed that his father, ever since the victory over the king at Jhunjhunu, before he took a seat, thrice waved his sword in circles over his head, pronouncing at the same time some incantation. Inquiry into the meaning of this was the cause of his banishment.
[17]. During the rains of 1820, when the author was residing at Udaipur, the Rana fell ill; his complaint was an intermittent (which for several years returned with the monsoon), at the same time that he was jaundiced with bile. An intriguing Brahman, who managed the estates of the Rana’s eldest sister, held also the twofold office of physician and astrologer to the Rana. He had predicted that year as one of evil in his horoscope, and was about to verify the prophecy, since, instead of the active medicines requisite, he was administering the Haft dhat, or ‘seven metals,’ compounded. Having a most sincere regard for the Rana’s welfare, the author seized the opportunity of a full court being assembled on the distribution of swords and coco-nuts preparatory to the military festival, to ask a personal favour. The Rana, smiling, said that it was granted, when he was entreated to leave off the poison he was taking. He did so; the amendment was soon visible, and, aided by the medicines of Dr. Duncan, which he readily took, his complaint was speedily cured. The ‘man of fate and physic’ lost half his estates, which he had obtained through intrigue. He was succeeded by Amra the bard, who is not likely to ransack the pharmacopoeia for such poisonous ingredients; his ordinary prescription being the ‘amrit.’
[18]. [Ferishta does not mention these campaigns (iv. 236 ff.), and Ghiyāsu-d-dīn (A.D. 1469-99) is said to have spent his life in luxury and never to have left his palace (BG, i. Part i. 362 ff.).]
[19]. His name classically is Sangram Singh, ‘the lion of war.’
[20]. [Infusion of opium.]
[21]. About ten miles east of Udaipur.
[22]. Singhasan is the ancient term for the Hindu throne, signifying ‘the lion-seat.’ Charans, bards, who are all Maharajas, ‘great princes,’ by courtesy, have their seats of the hide of the lion, tiger, panther, or black antelope.
[23]. Nearly ten miles south-east of Ajmer.
[24]. Jai Singh Baleo and Jaimu Sindhal.
[25]. [A common folk-tale, told of Malhar Rāo Holkar and many other princes (Crooke, Popular Religion Northern India, ii. 142; Malcolm, Memoir of Central India, 2nd ed. i. 143 f.; E. S. Hartland, Ritual and Belief, 323 f.).]
[26]. Called the devi, about the size of the wagtail, and like it, black and white.
[27]. Chhatrdhāri.
[28]. The names of his followers were, Jasa Sindhal, Sangam (Dabhi), Abha, Jana, and a Badel Rathor.
[29]. The grant in the preamble denounces a curse on any of Prithiraj’s descendants who should resume it. I have often conversed with this descendant, who held Sodhgarh and its lands, which were never resumed by the princes of Chitor, though they reverted to Marwar. The chief still honours the Rana, and many lives have been sacrificed to maintain his claims, and with any prospect of success he would not hesitate to offer his own.
[30]. This is a genuine Hindu name, ‘the Hero’s refuge,’ from sur, ‘a warrior,’ and than, ‘an abode.’
[31]. [There is an error here: there was no contemporary Sultan of Mālwa of this name.]
[32]. Near Chitor.
[33]. ‘Regent’; the title the Rana is most familiarly known by.
[34]. Thali, ‘a brass platter.’ This is the highest mark of confidence and friendship.
[35]. This compound of the betel or areca-nut, cloves, mace, Terra japonica, and prepared lime, is always taken after meals, and has not unfrequently been a medium for administering poison.
[36]. Hours of twenty-two minutes each.
[37]. Familiar contraction of Surajmall.
[38]. [Anogeissus latifolia.]
[39]. The Hindu Proserpine, or Calligenia. Is this Grecian handmaid of Hecate also Hindu, ‘born of time’ (Kali-janama)? [Καλλιγένεια, ‘bearer of fair offspring,’ has, of course, no connexion with Kāli.]
[40]. Gaunda, or Gaunra, is the name of such temporary places of refuge; the origin of towns bearing this name.
[41]. Such grants are irresumable, under the penalty of sixty thousand years in hell. This fine district is eaten up by these mendicant Brahmans. One town alone, containing 52,000 bighas (about 15,000 acres) of rich land, is thus lost; and by such follies Mewar has gradually sunk to her present extreme poverty.
[42]. [Kānthal, in Partābgarh State, is the boundary (Kāntha) between Mewār on the north, Bāgar on the west, and Mālwa on the east and south.]
[43]. [The statement in the text that Sūrajmall, son of Uda, retired to Deolia is incorrect. Sūrajmall was first-cousin, not son of Uda, and it was his great-grandson, Bīka, who conquered the Kānthal and founded the town of Deolia at least fifty years later (Erskine ii. A. 197).]
[44]. The walls of his palace are still pointed out.
[1]. [Āīn, ii. 270.]
[2]. The ball or urn which crowns the pinnacle (sikhar).
[3]. Delhi, Bayana, Kalpi, and Jaunpur.
[4]. 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.
[5]. [Sīkri, afterwards Fatehpur Sīkri, the site of Akbar’s palace; Rāēsen in Bhopāl State (IGI, xxi. 62 f.).]
[6]. Universal potentate: [“he whose chariot wheels run everywhere without obstruction”]; the Hindus reckon only six of these in their history.
[7]. [As usual, the Indian Jāts are identified with the Getae, Iutae or Iuti, Jutes of Bede.]
[8]. [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 Kashmīr is very doubtful: but the view in the text cannot be accepted (see Stein, Rājatarangini, 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.
[9]. According to the Memoirs of Baber, February 11, 1527. [The battle was fought at Khānua or Kanwāha, now in the Bharatpur State, about twenty miles from Agra (Abu-l Fazl, Akbarnāma, i. 259 f.; Ferishta ii. 55), on March 16, 1527. Ferishta says that the provocation came from Rāna Sanga, who attacked Nāzim Khān, Governor of Bayāna, on which the latter appealed to Bābur (ii. 51). Bābur says that Sanga broke his engagement (Elliot-Dowson iv. 264; Badaoni, Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh, i. 444, 470).]
[10]. "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 wāīn to be sunk and built of stone, and close by the wāīn an almshouse 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 wāīn 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.]
[11]. "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).
[12]. 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).
[13]. 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.]
[14]. [A list of the slain, nearly identical, is given by Abu-l Fazl, Akbarnāma, i. 265.]
[15]. [The author confuses Hasan Khān, Mewāti, an important officer (Ferishta ii. 55; Bayley, Muhammad Dynasties of Gujarāt, 278), whom Badaoni (Muntakhabu-l-tawārīkh, i. 447) calls a Jogi in form and appearance, with Hasan Khān, Lodi (Āīn, i. 503).]
[16]. [About eighty-five miles north-north-west of Jaipur city. Bābur 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).]
[17]. 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.
[18]. 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. He has often shown them to me while illustrating their actions.
[19]. [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 Rāj Gonds of the Central Provinces, for the sake of convenience, and in order to avoid expense (Forbes, Rāsmāla, 624; BG, ix. Part i. 143, 145 f.; Russell, Tribes and Castes, Central Provinces, iii. 77).]
[20]. Surajmall.
[21]. The Hindu Cupid, implying ‘incorporeal,’ from anga, ‘body,’ with the privative prefix ‘an.’
[22]. I have given the relation of this duel in the narrative of my journeys on my visit to the cenotaph of Ratna, 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.
[23]. The Bhakha orthography for Vikramaditya.
[24]. The government of Papa Bai, a princess of ancient time, whose mis-managed sovereignty has given a proverb to the Rajput. [Major Luard informs me that Pāpa Bāi is said to have been the daughter of a Rājput of Siddal. She and Shiral 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 kā rāj (Elliot, Supplemental Glossary, 466 ff.).]
[25]. Taken by Prithiraj and carried to Rana Raemall, who took a large sum of money and seven hundred horses as his ransom.
[26]. 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 manjanik. To these guns Babur was indebted for victory over the united cavalry of Rajasthan. They were served by Rumi Khan, probably a Roumeliot, 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.). Manjanīk is the Greek μάγγανον. Rūmi Khān was an Ottoman Turk, called Khudāwand Khān, who learned the science in Turkish service (Erskine, Hist. of India, ii. 49; Āīn, 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).]
[27]. 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.’]
[28]. The name of the faithful Rajput who preserved Udai Singh, Chakasen Dhundera, deserves to be recorded.
[29]. The date, “Jeth sudi 12th, S. 1589,” A.D. 1533, and according to Ferishta A.H. 949, A.D. 1532-33. [Chitor was taken in 1534. The Mirāt-i-Sikandari states that on March 24, 1533, Bahādur received the promised tribute, and moved his camp from Chitor (Bayley, Muhammadan Dynasties of Gujarāt, 372).]
[30]. 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.)
[31]. [Ferishta ii. 75 f. Badaoni says that Humāyūn hesitated to interfere because Bahādur was attacking an infidel (Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh, i. 453 f.).]
[32]. 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 he 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 Rākhi (Skt. raksha, ‘protection’) is primarily a protective amulet assumed at the full moon of Sāwan (July-August) (Forbes, Rāsmāla, 609). It was worn on this date to avert the unhealthiness of the rainy season. Jahāngīr and Akbar followed the custom, introduced by their Hindu ladies (Jahangir, Memoirs, 246; Badaoni, op. cit. ii. 269).]
[33]. [Probably policy, rather than romance, caused Humāyūn to interfere.]
[34]. 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.