CHAPTER 8
Ajīt Singh produced to the Rāthors, A.D. 1686.
“Inayat conveyed the tidings to Aurang Shah; the Asur chief said to the king, ‘If without a head so long they had combated him, what could now be expected?’ He demanded reinforcements.
Ajīt Singh installed.
“Inayat Khan was alarmed. He assembled a numerous array to quell this fresh tumult, but death pounced upon him. The king was afflicted thereat. He tried another stratagem, and set up a pretended son of Jaswant, styled Muhammad Shah, and offered Ajit the mansab of five thousand to submit to his authority.[[8]] The pretender also died as he set out for Jodhpur, and Shujaat Khan[[9]] was made the governor of Marwar in place of Inayat. Now the Rathors and Haras united, having cleared Maru of their foes, attacked them in a foreign land. The garrisons of Malpura and Pur Mandal were put to the sword, and here the Hara prince was killed by a cannon shot in leading the storm. Here they levied eight thousand mohurs in contribution and returned to Marwar, while the civil officers and Purohits made collections in his country; and thus passed 1744.
“The year 1745 commenced with proposals from Shujaat Khan to hold Marwar in farm; he promised one-fourth of all transit duties if the Rathors would respect foreign commerce: to this they agreed. The son of Inayat left Jodhpur for Delhi; he had reached Renwal, but was overtaken by the Jodha Harnath, who released him both of wives and wealth. The Khan fled to the Kachhwahas for shelter. Suja Beg, who left Ajmer to release him, fared no better: he was attacked, defeated, and plundered by Mukunddas Champawat.
War with the Mughals.
“In 1748, the troubles recommenced in Mewar. Prince Amra rebelled against his father, Rana Jai Singh, and was joined by all his chiefs. The Rana fled to Godwar, and at Ghanerao collected a force, which Amra prepared to attack. The Rana demanded succour of the Rathors, and all the Mertias hastened to relieve him; and soon after Ajit sent Durgadas and Bhagwan, with Ranmall Jodha, and ‘the eight ranks of Rathors,’ to espouse the father’s cause. But the Chondawats and Saktawats, the Jhalas and Chauhans, rather than admit foreign interference in their quarrel, thought it better to effect a reconciliation between father and son; and thus the Rana was indebted to Marwar for the support of his throne.
Aurangzeb negotiates about Akbar’s Daughter.
“In 1750, the Muslim governors of Jodhpur, Jalor, and Siwana combined their forces against Ajit, who was again compelled to retreat to the mountains. Akha, the Bala, received their attack, but was defeated in the month of Magh. Another combat was hastened by the wanton slaughter of a sand,[[11]] when the Hakim of Chank, with all his train, were made prisoners at Mokalsar by the Champawat Mukanddas.
“To such straits were the Muslims put in 1751, that many districts paid chauth, others tribute, and many, tired of this incessant warfare, and unable to conquer their bread, took service with the Rathors. This year, Kasim Khan and Lashkar Khan marched against Ajit, who took post at Bijaipur. Durga’s son led the onset, and the Khan was defeated. With each year of Ajit grew the hopes of the Rathors; while Aurangzeb was afflicted at each month’s growth of his granddaughter. He wrote to Shujaat, the Hakim of Jodhpur, to secure his honour at whatever cost; his applications for Akbar’s daughter were unwearied [76].
Ajīt Singh marries a Princess of Mewar.
“In 1753, negotiations were renewed through Durgadas, and the protracted restoration of the Sultani obtained the seat of his ancestors for the Jodhani. Durga was offered for himself the mansab of five thousand, which he refused; he preferred that Jalor, Siwanchi, Sanchor, and Tharad[[14]] should revert to his country. Even Aurang admired the honourable and distinguished treatment of his granddaughter.
“In Pus 1757,[[15]] Ajit regained possession of his ancestral abode: on his reaching Jodhpur he slew a buffalo at each of its five gates.[[16]] The Shahzada Sultan led the way, Shujaat being dead.[[17]]
“In 1759, Azam Shah again seized on Jodhpur, and Ajit made Jalor his abode. Some of his chiefs now served the foe, some the Rana whose hopes were on Eklinga alone; while the lord of Amber served the king in the Deccan. The enormities of the Asurs had reached their height; the sacred kine were sacrificed even at Mathura, Prayag, and Okhamandal; the Jogis and Bairagis invoked heaven for protection, but iniquity prevailed as the Hindu strength decayed. Prayers were everywhere offered up to heaven to cleanse the land from the iniquities of the barbarians.[[18]] In this year, the month of Magh 1759, the Mithun Lagan (the ‘sun in Gemini’), a son was born of the Chauhani, who was called Abhai Singh. (See end of this chapter, p. [1019], for the Horoscope of Abhai Singh.)
“In 1761, Yusuf was superseded by Murshid Kuli as Hakim of Jodhpur. On his arrival he presented the royal sanad for the restoration of Merta to Ajit. Kusal Singh, the Mertia Sarmor, with the Dhandhal Govinddas, were ordered to [77] take the charge, which incensed the son of Indar (Mohkam Singh), who deemed his faithful service during his minority overlooked by this preference. He wrote to the king to nominate him to the command of Marwar, and that he would fulfil his charge to the satisfaction both of Hindu and Muslim.
“In 1761 the star of the foe began to decline. Murshid Kuli, the Mogul, was relieved by Jaafar Khan. Mohkam’s letter was intercepted. He had turned traitor to his prince, and joined the king’s troops. Ajit marched against them; he fought them at Dunara; the king’s troops were defeated, and the rebel Indhawat was slain. This was in 1762.
Death of Aurangzeb, March 3, 1707.
“Then Azam marched from the south and Muazzam from the north. At Agra a [78] mighty battle for empire took place between the two Asurs, but Alam[[22]] prevailed and got the throne. The tidings soon reached the king, that Ajit had plundered his armies in Maru and taken possession of the ‘cushion’ of his fathers.
Campaign of Bahādur Shāh.
“The month of Sawan 1765 set in, and the hopes of the Asur expired. Mahrab was in consternation when he heard that Ajit had returned to his native land. On the 7th the hall of Jodha was surrounded by thirty thousand Rathors. On the 12th the gate of honour was thrown open to Mahrab; he had to thank the son of Askaran[[30]] for his life. He was allowed an honourable retreat, and Ajit once more entered the capital of Maru.
“Jai Singh encamped upon the banks of the Sur Sagar; but a prince without a country, he was unhappy. But as soon as the rains were passed, Ajmall, the sanctuary of the Kachhwaha, proposed to reinstate him in Amber. When conjoined they had reached Merta, Agra and Delhi trembled. When they arrived at Ajmer its governor sought saran with the saint,[[31]] and paid the contributions demanded. Then, like the falcon, Ajit darted upon Sambhar; and here the vassals of Amber repaired from all quarters to the standard of their lord. With twelve thousand men, the Sayyid advanced along the edge of the salt lake, to encounter Ajmall. The Kumpawat led the charge; a desperate battle ensued; Husain, with six thousand men, lay on the field, while the rest took to flight and sought refuge in the castle.[[32]] His lieutenant, the Parihar, chief Pandu,[[33]] here fell into the hands of Ajit; he then felt he had recovered Mandor. On intelligence of this history, the Asurs abandoned Amber, and having placed a garrison in Sambhar, in the month of Margsir, Ajit restored Jai Singh to Amber, and prepared to attack Bikaner. Ajit committed the administration of all civil affairs to the faithful Raghunath Bhandari, with the [80] title of Diwan. He was well qualified, both from his experience in civil affairs and from his valour as a soldier.
Death of Prince Kāmbakhsh.
Eulogy of Durgadās.
But there was not a clan, or family, that did not produce men of worth in this protracted warfare, which incited constant emulation; and the bards of each had abundant materials to emblazon the pages of their chronicles. To the recollection of these, their expatriated descendants allude in the memorial[[41]] of their hardships from the cruel policy of the reigning chief, the last lineal descendant of the prince, whose history has just been narrated. We now resume the narrative in the language of the chronicle [83].
HOROSCOPE OF RAJA ABHAI SINGH
In the Janampatri, or horoscope of Abhai Singh (referred to in p. 1011), the 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, and 12th houses denote the destinies of the heir of Ajit. In the 4th we have the monster Rahu, the author of eclipses. Of the 7th, or house of heirs, the Moon and Venus have taken possession; of the 8th, or house of strife, the Sun and Mercury. In the 10th is Ketu, brother of Rahu, both signs of evil portent. Mars rides in the house of fate, while Saturn and Jupiter are together in the abode of sovereignty. Like that of every man living, the horoscope of the heir of Maru is filled with good and evil: could the Jotishi or astrological seer have put the parricidal sign in the house of destiny, he might have claimed some merit for superior intelligence. Those who have ever consulted any works on this foolish pursuit will observe that the diagrams of the European astrologers are exact copies of the Hindu, in proof of which I have inserted this; to trace darkness as well as light from the East!
[84].
[1]. Meaning Durgadas.
[2]. His principal object was to marry the daughter of Shujāwan Singh Champawat, the sister of the brave Mukund Singh, often mentioned in the chronicle. The Kotah prince dared not, according to every Rajput maxim of gallantry, refuse his aid on such occasion; but the natural bravery and high mind of Durjan Sal required no stimulus.
[3]. The Hindu poet says the Papiha bird [the cuckoo] becomes intoxicated with the flowers [of the Champa (Michelia champaka)].
[4]. A name now lost.
[5]. Waving a brass vessel, filled with pearls, round his head.
[6]. [The inauguration foray. See Vol. I. p. [315].]
[7]. Pabhu Rao Rathor is immortalized by the aid of his lance on this occasion; he was of the ancient chivalry of Maru, and still held his allodial domain.
[9]. [His original name was Kārtalab Khān, and he served as viceroy of Surat and Gujarāt (Manucci ii. 259, iv. 247).]
[10]. A mark of contempt.
[11]. One of those pampered bulls, allowed to wander at liberty and fed by every one.
[12]. The coco, the symbol of a marriage offer.
[13]. Partabgarh Deolia, a small principality grown out of Mewar [IGI, xx. 14].
[14]. [In the Pālanpur Agency, Bombay Presidency (IGI, xix. 346).]
[15]. I cannot now call to mind whether this break of four years in the chronicle of the bard Karnidhan occurs in the original, or that in translating I left the hiatus from there being nothing interesting therein. The tyrant was now fully occupied in the Deccan wars, and the Rajputs had time to breathe.
[16]. [To propitiate the gate spirit.]
[17]. This Shahzada must have been prince Azam, who was nominated viceroy of Gujarat and Marwar.
[18]. This record of the manifold injuries, civil and religious, under which the Hindu nation groaned is quite akin to the sentiments of the letter of remonstrance addressed by Rana Raj Singh to Aurangzeb. See Vol. I. p. [442].
[19]. He is called the samdhi, or ‘son-in-law of the king.’ [There is no record of his marriage to a daughter of Aurangzeb (IA, xl. 83). It is the fathers of a bride and bridegroom who stand in the relation of samdhi to each other.]
[20]. 5th Chait S. 1763. The 28th Zu-lqa’ada [March 3, 1707].
[21]. The Rajputs gave up beards the better to distinguish them from the Muslims.
[22]. Shah Alam, who assumed the title of Bahadur Shah on mounting the throne. [The battle in which Azam was defeated was fought on June 7, 1707.]
[23]. The Mangalia is a branch of the Guhilots, severed from the original stem in the reign of Bappa Rawal eleven centuries ago.
[24]. [According to Khāfi Khān, the submission of Ajīt Singh was complete; he even asked that the mosque at Jodhpur should be rebuilt, temples destroyed, and the law about the summons to prayer and the killing of cows enforced—concessions he would not have been likely to make unless he was reduced to extremities (Elliot-Dowson vii. 405).]
[25]. ‘The warrior’s sword.’
[26]. This is the Mirza Raja, Jai Singh—the posterior Jai Singh had the epithet Sawai [see Vol. II. p. [969]].
[27]. The Muslim historian mentions in Vol. I. p. [464], that Bahadur was then en route to Lahore.
[28]. Trianga, the triple-bodied, or trimurti.
[29]. The bard of Maru passes over the important fact of the intermarriage which took place on this occasion of the Rajput triple alliance. See Vol. I. p. [465].
[30]. Durgadas, who recommended the acceptance of the proffered capitulation.
[31]. The shrine of Khwaja Kutb.
[32]. Although the Marwar chronicler takes all the credit of this action, it was fought by the combined Rajputs of the alliance. Vol. I. p. [466].
[33]. Pandu is the squire, the shield-bearer, of the Rajputs.
[34]. Kambakhsh was the child of the old age of the tyrant Aurangzeb, by a Rajput princess. He appears to have held him in more affection than any of his other sons, as his letter on his death-bed to him testifies. See Vol. I. p. [439]. [Kāmbakhsh was son of Bāi Udaipuri, who was probably a dancing girl, but one account states that she was a Georgian Christian, formerly in Dāra Shukoh’s harem; she died in June 1707. Kāmbakhsh, born March 6, 1667, died from wounds received in battle with his brother Muazzam, fought near Haidarābād, Deccan, January 13, 1709.]
[35]. Indar Singh was the son of Amra, the eldest brother of Jaswant, and the father of Mohkam, who, being disappointed of the government of Merta, deserted to the king.
[36]. [The day on which the sun enters a new sign of the zodiac.]
[37]. This is another of the numerous instances of contradictory feelings in the Rajput character. Amra, elder brother of Jaswant, was banished Marwar, lost his birthright, and was afterwards slain at court, as already related. His son, Indar Singh and grandson Mohkam, from Nagor, which they held in separate grants from the king, never forgot their title as elder branch of the family, and eternally contested their claim against Ajit. Still, as a Rathor, he was bound to avenge the injuries of a Rathor, even though his personal foe.—Singular inconsistency!
[38]. There is an anecdote regarding the fountain of this classic field of strife, the Troad of Rajasthan, which well exemplifies the superstitious belief of the warlike Rajput. The emperor Bahadur Shah was desirous to visit this scene of the exploits of the heroes of antiquity, stimulated, no doubt, by his Rajputni queen, or his mother, also of this race. He was seated under a tree which shaded the sacred fount, named after the great leader of the Kauravas, his queen by his side, surrounded by kanats to hide them from profane eyes, when a vulture perched upon the tree with a bone in its beak, which falling in the fountain, the bird set up a scream of laughter. The king looked up in astonishment, which was greatly increased when the vulture addressed him in human accents, saying “that in a former birth she was a Jogini, and was in the field of slaughter of the Great War, whence she flew away with the dissevered arm of one of its mighty warriors, with which she alighted on that very tree, that the arm was encumbered with a ponderous golden bracelet, in which, as an amulet, were set thirteen brilliant symbols of Siva, and that after devouring the flesh, she dropped the bracelet, which fell into the fountain, and it was this awakened coincidence which had caused the scream of laughter.” We must suppose that this, the palada of the field of slaughter, spoke Sanskrit or its dialect, interpreted by his Rajput queen. Instantly the pioneers were commanded to clear the fountain, and behold the relic of the Mahabharata, with the symbolic emblems of the god all-perfect! and so large were they, that the emperor remarked they would answer excellently well for “slaves of the carpet.”[[A]] The Hindu princes then present, among whom were the Rajas Ajit and Jai Singh, were shocked at this levity, and each entreated of the king one of the phallic symbols. The Mirza Raja obtained two, and both are yet at Jaipur, one in the Temple of Silah Devi,[[B]] the other in that of Govinda. Ajit had one, still preserved and worshipped at the shrine of Girdhari at Jodhpur. My old tutor and friend, the Yati Gyanchandra, who told the story while he read the chronicles as I translated them, has often seen and made homage to all the three relics. There is one, he believed, at Bundi or Kotah, and the Rana by some means obtained another. They are of pure rock crystal, and as each weighs some pounds, there must have been giants in the days of the Bharat, to have supported thirteen in one armlet. Homer’s heroes were pigmies to the Kauravas, whose bracelet we may doubt if Ajax could have lifted. My venerable tutor, though liberal in his opinions, did not choose to dissent from the general belief, for man, he said, had beyond a doubt greatly degenerated since the heroic ages, and was rapidly approximating to the period, the immediate forerunner of a universal renovation, when only dwarfs would creep over the land.
[A]. [The weights which keep it down.]
[B]. The goddess of arms, their Pallas.
[39]. Durga’s fief on the Luni.