CHAPTER 14
Rāja Bhīm Singh, A.D. 1793-1803.
Rāja Bhīm disposes of his Rivals.
A single claimant alone remained of all the blood royal of Maru to disturb the repose of Bhim. This was young Man, the adopted son of the concubine, placed beyond his reach within the walls of Jalor. Could Bhim’s dagger have reached him, he would have stood alone, the last surviving scion of the parricide,
With none to bless him,
None whom he could bless:
an instrument, in the hand of divine power, to rid the land of an accursed stock. Then the issue of Abhai Singh would have utterly perished, and their ashes might have been given to the winds, and no memorial of them left. Idar must then have supplied an heir,[[2]] and the doubtful pretensions of Dhonkal,[[3]] the posthumous and reputed son of the wholesale assassin Bhim, to sit upon the gaddi of Ajit, would never have been brought forward to excite another murderous contest amongst the sons of Jodha.
Escape of Mān Singh.
Siege of Jālor. Death of Rāja Bhīm Singh.
It is said that the successor of the Guru Atmaram, “who carried all the troubles of Bijai Singh with him to heaven,” had predicted of young Man Singh, when at the very zero of adversity, that “his fortunes would ascend.” What were the means whereby the ghostly comforter of Raja Bhim influenced his political barometer, we know not; but prophetic Gurus, bards, astrologers, physicians, and all the Vaidyas or ‘cunning-men,’[[5]] who beset the persons of princes, prove dangerous companions when, in addition to the office of compounders of drugs and expounders of dreams, they are invested with the power of realizing their own prognostications.
Rāja Mān Singh, A.D. 1803-43.
Dangers from Posthumous Births.
Sawāi Singh supports Dhonkal Singh.
Though Sawai, with his party, apparently acquiesced, his determination was taken; but instead of an immediate appeal to arms, he adopted a deeper scheme of policy, the effects of which he could not have contemplated, and which involved his own destruction, and with it the independence of his country, which was transferred to [142] strangers, their very antipodes in manners, religion, and every moral quality. His first act was to procure a more powerful protection than Pokaran afforded; and under the guarantee of Chhattar Singh Bhatti, he was sent to the saran (sanctuary) of Abhai Singh of Khetri.[[7]] Having so far succeeded, he contrived an underplot, in which his genius for intrigue appears not below his reputation as a soldier.
Krishna Kunwāri.
Attack by Rāja Jagat Singh of Jaipur on Mārwār. Treachery of Jaswant Rāo Holkar.
Rāja Mān Singh defends Jodhpur.
The Siege of Jodhpur.
The town, little capable of defence, was taken and given up to unlicensed plunder; and with the exception of Phalodi, which was gallantly defended for three months, and given to Bikaner as the reward of its alliance, the an of the pretender was proclaimed throughout Marwar, and his allies only awaited the fall of the capital, which appeared inevitable, to proclaim him king. But a circumstance occurred, which, awakening the patriotism of the Rathors, thwarted these fair prospects, relieved Raja Man from his peril, and involved his adversaries in the net of destruction which they had woven for him.
The siege had lasted five months without any diminution of the ardour of the defenders; and although the defences of the north-east angle were destroyed, the besiegers, having a perpendicular rock of eighty feet to ascend before they could get to the breach, were not nearer their object, and, in fact, without shells, the castle of Jodha would laugh a siege to scorn. The numerous and motley force under the banners of Jaipur and the pretender, became clamorous for pay; the forage was exhausted, and the partisan horse were obliged to bivouac in the distant districts to the south. Availing himself of their separation from the main body, Amir Khan, an apt pupil of the Mahratta school, began to raise contributions on the fiscal lands, and Pali, Pipar, Bhilara, with many others, were compelled to accede to his demands. The estates of the nobles who espoused the cause of the pretender, fared no better, and they complained to the Xerxes of this host of the conduct of this unprincipled commander.
Amir Khān supports Mān Singh. Defeat of the Jaipur Army A.D. 1806.
The Confederacy against Jodhpur dissolved.
Jodhpur Booty recovered.
[1]. My own venerable tutor, Yati Gyanchandra, who was with me for ten years, said he owed all his knowledge, especially his skill in reciting poetry (in which he surpassed all the bards at Udaipur), to Zalim Singh. [He died at Kāchbali in the British District of Merwāra in 1799 (Erskine iii. A. 70).]
[2]. [138] Amongst the numerous autograph correspondence of the princes of Rajputana with the princes of Mewar, of which I had the free use, I selected one letter of S. 1784, A.D. 1728, written conjointly by Jai Singh of Amber and Abhai Singh of Jodhpur, regarding Idar, and which is so curious, that I give a verbatim translation in the Appendix (No. [I].). [See end of Vol. III.] I little thought at the time how completely it would prove Abhai Singh’s determination to cut off all but his own parricidal issue from the succession. An inspection of the genealogy (p. [1075]) will show that Anand Singh, of Idar, who was not to be allowed “to escape alive,” was his younger brother, adopted into that house.
[3]. Dhonkal Singh, the posthumous issue of Bhim, the last of the parricidal line, whether real or supposititious, must be set aside, and the pure current of Rathor blood, derived from Siahji, Jodha, Jaswant, and Ajit, be brought from Idar, and installed on “the gaddi of Jodha.” This course of proceeding would meet universal approbation, with the exception of some selfish miscreants about the person of this pretended son of Bhim, or the chieftain of Pokaran, in furtherance of his and his grandfather’s yet unavenged feud. A sketch of the events, drawn from their own chronicles, and accompanied by reflections, exposing the miseries springing from an act of turpitude, would come home to all, and they would shower blessings on the power which, while it fulfilled the duties of protector, destroyed the germ of internal dissension, and gave them a prince of their own pure blood, whom all parties could honour and obey. If a doubt remained of the probable unanimity of such policy, let it be previously submitted to a panchayat, composed of the princes of the land, namely, of Mewar, Amber, Kotah, Bundi, Jaisalmer, etc., leaving out whichever may be influenced by marriage connexions with Dhonkal Singh.
[4]. This mark of mourning is common to all India. Where this evidence of manhood is not yet visible, the hair is cut off; often both.
[5]. Vaidya, or ‘learned man’; the term veda is also used to denote cunning, magic, or knowledge of whatever kind.
[6]. They follow the doctrines of Vishnu (Bishan). They ate termed Gosains, as well as the more numerous class of church militants, devoted to Siva. Both are célibataires, as Gosain imports, from mastery (sain) over the sense (go). They occasionally come in contact, when their sectarian principles end in furious combats. At the celebrated place of pilgrimage, Haridwar (Hardwar), on the Ganges, we are obliged to have soldiers to keep the peace, since a battle occurred, in which they fought almost to extirpation, about twenty years ago. They are the Templars of Rajasthan. [Gosāīn, Skt. gosvāmin, ‘master of cows: one who is master of his organs of sense.’ The Bishan or Vishnuswāmis are a group of Bairāgi ascetics, who are said to have come to Mārwār about A.D. 1779, in the reign of Bijai Singh. Some of them are now employed as State sepoys (Census Report, Mārwār, 1891, ii. 86). In 1760 the rival mobs of Gosāīns and Bairāgis fought a battle, in which 1800 are said to have perished (IGI, xiii. 53).]
[7]. One of the principal chiefs of the Shaikhawat confederation. [Khetri is about 80 miles N. of Jaipur city (IGI, xv. 276).]
[8]. [Godlenā, ‘to take on the lap,’ the technical form of adoption, or of recognition of legitimacy.]
[9]. [About 110 miles N.E. of Jodhpur city, S.W. of the Sāmbhar Lake.]
[10]. [About 32 miles S. of Jaipur city.]
[11]. [About 60 miles S.S.W. of Jaipur city.]
[12]. Bapu Sindkia, Bala Rao Inglia, with the brigade of Jean Baptiste, all Sindhia’s dependents. This was early in 1806. The author was then in Sindhia’s camp and saw these troops marched off; and in 1807, in a geographical tour, he penetrated to Jaipur, and witnessed the wrecks of the Jaipur army. The sands round the capital were white with the bones of horses, and the ashes of their riders, who had died in the vain expectation of getting their arrears of pay.