CHAPTER 3
Jodha, A.D. 1444-88. The Foundation of Jodhpur.
Such was the abundant progeny of these princes, that the limits of their conquests soon became too contracted. The issue of the three last princes, namely, the fourteen sons of Chonda, the twenty-four of Ranmall, and fourteen of Jodha, had already apportioned amongst them the best lands of the country, and it became necessary to conquer “fresh fields in which to sow the Rathor seed.”
Jodha had fourteen sons, namely—
| Names of Chiefs. | Clans. | Fiefs or Chieftanships. | Remarks. | |||
| 1. | Santal, or Satal | —— | Satalmer | Three coss from Pokaran. | ||
| 2. | Suja (Suraj) | —— | —— | Succeeded Jodha. | ||
| 3. | Gama [21] | —— | —— | No issue. | ||
| 4. | Duda [Dhuhada] | Mertia | Merta |  | Duda took Sambhar from the Chauhans. He had one son, Biram, whose two sons Jaimall and Jagmall founded the clans Jaimallot and Jagmallot. | |
| 5. | Birsingh | Birsinghgot | Nolai | In Malwa. | ||
| 6. | Bika | Bikayat | Bikaner | Independent State. | ||
| 7. | Baharmall | Baharmallot | Bai Bhilara | —— | ||
| 8. | Sheoraj | Sheorajot | Dunara | On the Luni. | ||
| 9. | Karamsi | Karamsot | Khinwasar | —— | ||
| 10. | Raemall | Raemallot | —— | —— | ||
| 11. | Savantsi | Savantsiot | Dawara | —— | ||
| 12. | Bida | Bidawat | Bidavati | In Nagor district. | ||
| 13. | Banhar | —— | —— |  | Clans and fiefs not mentioned. | |
| 14. | Nimba | —— | —— | |||
Sāntal, Sātal, 1488-91.
The fourth son, Duda [or Dhūhada], established himself on the plains of Merta, and his clan, the Mertia, is numerous, and has always sustained the reputation of being the “first swords” of Maru. His daughter was the celebrated Mira Bai, wife of Rana Kumbha,[[5]] and he was the grandsire of the heroic Jaimall, who defended Chitor against Akbar, and whose descendant, Jeth Singh of Badnor, is still one of the sixteen chief vassals of the Udaipur court.
The sixth son, Bika, followed the path already trod by his uncle Kandal, with whom he united, and conquered the tracts possessed by the six Jat communities. He erected a city, which he called after himself, Bikaner, or Bīkaner.
Death of Rāo Jodha, A.D. 1488.
Sūja or Surajmall, A.D. 1491-1516.
The Rape of the Virgins.
Suja had five sons, namely: 1. Bhaga, who died in non-age: his son Ganga succeeded to the throne. 2. Uda, who had eleven sons: they formed the clan Udawat, whose chief fiefs are Nimaj, Jaitaran, Gundoj, Baratia, Raepur, etc., besides places in Mewar. 3. Saga, from whom descended the clan Sagawat; located at Barwa. 4. Prayag, who originated the Prayaggot clan. 5. Biramdeo, whose son, Naru, receives divine honours as the Putra of Maru, and whose statue is worshipped at Sojat. His descendants are styled Narawat Jodha, of whom a branch is established at Pachpahar, in Haraoti.
Rāo Ganga, A.D. 1516-32.
Rāthors join Mewār against Bābur, A.D. 1527.
Ganga died[[11]] four years after this event, and was succeeded by
Rāo Māldeo, A.D. 1532-62, or 1568-69.
The year of Maldeo’s installation he redeemed the two most important possessions of his house, Nagor and Ajmer. In S. 1596 he captured Jalor, Siwana, and Bhadrajan from the Sandhals; and two years later dispossessed the sons of Bika of supreme power in Bikaner. Mewa, and the tracts on the Luni, the earliest possessions of his house, which had thrown off all dependence, he once more subjugated, and compelled the ancient allodial tenantry to hold of him in chief, and serve with their quotas. He engaged in war with the Bhattis, and conquered Bikampur, where a branch of his family remained, and are now incorporated with the Jaisalmer State, and, under the name of Maldots,[[14]] have the credit of being the most daring robbers of the desert. He even established branches of [25] his family in Mewar and Dhundhar, took, and fortified Chatsu, not twenty miles south of the capital of the Kachhwahas. He captured and restored Sirohi from the Deoras, from which house was his mother. But Maldeo not only acquired, but determined to retain, his conquests, and erected numerous fortifications throughout the country. He enclosed the city of Jodhpur with a strong wall, besides erecting a palace, and adding other works to the fortress. The circumvallations of Merta and its fort, which he called Malkot, cost him £24,000. He dismantled Satalmer, and with the materials fortified Pokaran, which he took from the Bhattis, transplanting the entire population, which comprehended the richest merchants of Rajasthan. He erected forts at Bhadrajan, on the hill of Bhimlod, near Siwana, at Gundoj, at Rian, Pipar, and Dunara. He made the Kundalkot at Siwana, and greatly added to that of Phalodi, first made by Hamira Nirawat. He also erected that bastion in Garh Bitli (the citadel of Ajmer) called the Kotburj, and showed his skill in hydraulics by the construction of a wheel to bring water into the fort. The chronicler adds, that “by the wealth of Sambhar,” meaning the resources of this salt lake, he was enabled to accomplish these works, and furnishes a list of the possessions of Jodhpur at this period, which we cannot exclude: Sojat, Sambhar, Merta, Khata, Badnor, Ladnun, Raepur, Bhadrajan, Nagor, Siwana, Lohagarh, Jaikalgarh, Bikaner, Bhinmal, Pokaran, Barmer, Kasoli, Riwaso, Jajawar, Jalor, Baoli, Malar, Nadol, Phalodi, Sanchor, Didwana, Chatsu, Lawen, Malarna, Deora, Fatehpur, Amarsar, Khawar, Baniapur, Tonk, Toda, Ajmer, Jahazpur, and Pramar-ka-Udaipur (in Shaikhavati); in all thirty-eight districts, several of which, as Jalor, Ajmer, Tonk, Toda, and Badnor, comprehended each three hundred and sixty townships, and there were none which did not number eighty. But of those enumerated in Dhundhar, as Chatsu, Lawen, Tonk, Toda, and Jahazpur in Mewar, the possession was but transient; and although Badnor, and its three hundred and sixty townships, were peopled by Rathors, they were the descendants of the Mertias under Jaimall, who became one of the great vassals of Mewar, and would, in its defence, at all times draw their swords against the land which gave them birth.[[15]] This branch of the house of Jodha had for some time been too powerful [26] for subjects, and Merta was resumed. To this act Mewar was indebted for the services of this heroic chief. At the same time the growing power of others of the great vassalage of Marwar was checked by resumptions, when Jaitaran from the Udawats, and several other fiefs, were added to the fisc. The feudal allotments had never been regulated, but went on increasing with the energies of the State, and the progeny of its princes, each having on his birth an appanage assigned to him, until the whole land of Maru was split into innumerable portions. Maldeo saw the necessity for checking this subdivision, and he created a gradation of ranks, and established its perpetuity in certain branches of the sons of Ranmall and Jodha, which has never been altered.
Inhospitable Conduct of Rāo Māldeo to Humāyūn, A.D. 1542.
Attack on Mārwār by Sher Shāh, A.D. 1544.
Attack by Akbar, A.D. 1558-62.
In 1625 (A.D. 1569), Maldeo succumbed to necessity; and in conformity with the times, sent his second son, Chandarsen,[[19]] with gifts to Akbar, then at Ajmer, which had become an integral part of the monarchy; but Akbar was so dissatisfied with the disdainful bearing of the desert king, who refused personally to pay his court, that he not only guaranteed the free possession of Bikaner to Rae Singh, but presented him with the farman for Jodhpur itself, with supremacy over his race. Chandarsen appears to have possessed all the native pride of the Rathor, and to have been prepared to contest his country’s independence, in spite of Akbar and the claims of his elder brother, Udai Singh, who eventually was more supple in ingratiating himself into the monarch’s favour. At the close of life the old Rao had to stand a siege in his capital, and after a brave but fruitless resistance,[[20]] was obliged to yield homage, and pay it in the person of his son Udai Singh, who, attending with a contingent, was enrolled amongst the commanders of ‘one thousand’; and shortly after was invested with the title of Mota Raja, or ‘the fat Raja,’ by which epithet alone he is designated in the annals of that period.[[21]]
Chandarsen, with a considerable number of the brave vassals of Maru, determined to cling to independence and the rude fare of the desert, rather than servilely follow in the train of the despot. When driven from Jodhpur, they took post in Siwana, in the western extremity of the State, and there held out to the death. For seventeen years he maintained his title to the gaddi, and divided the allegiance of [29] the Rathors with his elder brother Udai Singh (though supported by the king), and stood the storm in which he nobly fell, leaving three sons, Ugarsen, Askaran, and Rao Singh, who fought a duel with Rao Surthan, of Sirohi, and was slain, with twenty-four of his chiefs,[[22]] near the town of Datani.
Maldeo, though he submitted to acknowledge the supremacy of the emperor, was at least spared the degradation of seeing a daughter of his blood bestowed upon the opponent of his faith; he died soon after the title was conferred on his son, which sealed the dependence of Maru. His latter days were a dismal contrast to those which witnessed his conquests in almost every part of Rajputana[part of Rajputana], but he departed from this world in time to preserve his own honour untarnished, with the character of the most valiant and energetic Rajput of his time. Could he have added to his years and maintained their ancient vigour, he might, by a junction with Partap of Mewar, who single-handed commenced his career just as Maldeo’s closed, have maintained Rajput independence against the rising power of the Moguls.[[23]]
Maldeo, who died S. 1625 (A.D. 1569), had twelve sons:
| 1. | Ram Singh, who was banished, and found refuge with the Rana of Mewar; he had seven sons, the fifth of whom, Keshodas, fixed at Chuli Maheshwar. | ||
| 2. | Raemall, who was killed in the battle of Bayana. | ||
| 3. | Udai Singh, Raja of Marwar. | ||
| 4. | Chandarsen, by a wife of the Jhala tribe; had three sons, the eldest, Ugarsen, got Binai; he had three sons, Karan, Kanji, and Kahan. | ||
| 5. | Askaran; descendants at Junia. | ||
| 6. | Gopaldas; killed at Idar. | ||
| 7. | Prithiraj; descendants at Jalor. | ||
| 8. | Ratansi; descendants at Bhadrajun. | ||
| 9. | Bheraj; descendants at Ahari. | ||
| 10. 11. 12. | Bikramajit Bhan —— |  | No notice of them [30]. |
[1]. [The Vanaprastha or anchorite stage (āsrama) of a Brāhman’s life (Manu, Laws, vi. 1 ff.).]
[2]. We have seen one of these objects, self-condemned never to lie down during forty years, and there remained but three to complete the term. He had travelled much, was intelligent and learned; but far from having contracted the moroseness of the recluse, there was a benignity of mien, and a suavity and simplicity of manner in him, quite enchanting. He talked of his penance with no vainglory, and of its approaching term without any sensation. The resting position of this Druid (vanaprastha) was by means of a rope suspended from the bough of a tree, in the manner of a swing, having a cross-bar, on which he reclined. The first years of this penance, he says, were dreadfully painful; swollen limbs affected him to that degree, that he expected death; but this impression had long since worn off. “Even[“Even] in this, is there much vanity,” and it would be a nice point to determine whether the homage of man or the approbation of the Divinity most sustains the energies under such appalling discipline.
[3]. Pali did not remain to Siahji’s descendants, when they went westward and settled on the Luni: the Sesodias took it with other lands from the Parihar of Mandor. It was the feud already adverted to with Mewar which obtained for him the fertile districts of Pali and Sojat, by which his territories at length touched the Aravalli, and the fears of the assassin of Rana Kumbha made his parricidal son relinquish the provinces of Sambhar and Ajmer (see Vol. I. p. [339]).
[4]. [Now in ruins, about 85 miles N.W. of Jodhpur city, containing a large Jain temple and monuments of the Chief’s family.]
[7]. [The present area of Mārwār is 34,963 square miles; population 2,057,776, of which Rājputs form 27·9 per cent.]
[8]. Siahji is the Bhakha for Siva;—the ji is merely an adjunct of respect.
[9]. One of the chronicles makes Satal occupy the gaddi after Jodha, during three years; but this appears a mistake—he was killed in defending Satalmer.
[10]. For a description of this festival see p. [675].
[11]. The Yati’s roll says Ganga was poisoned; but this is not confirmed by any other authority.
[12]. [The dates are doubtful. See the legend of the marriage of Rāo Māldeo to Uma, daughter of the Bhatti Chief of Jaisalmer (IA, iii. 96 ff.).]
[13]. [“The most powerful of the Hindu princes who still retained their independence,” trans. Briggs, ii. 121.]
[14]. Mr. Elphinstone apprehended an attack from the Maldots on his way to Kabul.
[15]. Such is the Rajput’s notion of swamidharma, or “fidelity to him whose salt they eat,” their immediate lord, even against their king.
[16]. In allusion to the poverty of the soil, as unfitted to produce richer grains [Ferishta ii. 123; see pp. [835], [931] above].
[17]. There is a biographical account of this monarch, during his exile in Persia, written by his Abdar, or ‘cup-bearer,’ in the library of Major W. Yule, of Edinburgh, and which, when translated, will complete the series of biography of the members of the house of Timur. [The Tazkirātu-l-wāki‘āt of Jauhar, extracts from which are translated in Elliot-Dowson v. 136 ff.]
[18]. [The capture of Merta in 1562 by Sharafu-dīn Husain Mirza is described in Akbarnāma, trans. H. Beveridge, ii. 247 f.; Smith, Akbar, 59.]
[19]. [The statement that Chandarsen was second son of Māldeo rests on the Author’s account, and is not mentioned in the Akbarnāma.]
[20]. [For the capture of Jodhpur, “the strongest fort in that country,” by Husain Kuli Khān see Akbarnāma, ii. 305.]
[21]. [See Āīn, i. 429 f. Erskine (iii. A. 587) suggests that Mota means ‘good, potent’.]
[22]. It was fought with a certain number on each side, Rathors against Deoras, a branch of the Chauhans, the two bravest of all the Rajput races. It reminds us of some of the duels related by Froissart.