CHAPTER 2
Recapitulation of Hāra History.
Anuraj, obtained Asi or Hansi.
Ishtpal, son of Anuraj; he was expelled from Asi, S. 1081 (A.D. 1025), and obtained Asir. He was founder of the Haras; the chronicle says not how long after obtaining Asi, but evidently very soon.
Hamir, killed in the battle of the Ghaggar, on the invasion of Shihabu-d-din, S. 1249, or A.D. 1193.
Rao Chand, slain in Asir, by Alau-d-din, in S. 1351.
Rainsi, fled from Asir, and came to Mewar, and in S. 1353 obtained Bhainsror.
Rao Banga, obtained Bumbaoda, Menal, etc.
Rao Dewa, S. 1398 (A.D. 1342), took the Bandu valley from the Minas, founded the city of Bundi, and styled the country Haravati.
Rao Dewa, whose Mina subjects far outnumbered his Haras, had recourse, in order to consolidate his authority, to one of those barbarous acts too common in Rajput conquests. The Rajput chronicler so far palliates the deed, that he assigns a reason for it, namely, the insolence of the Mina leader, who dared to ask a daughter of the ‘lord of the Patar.’ Be this as it may, he called in the aid of the Haras of Bumbaoda and the Solankis of Toda, and almost annihilated the Usaras.
Abdication of Rāo Dewa.
Rāo Napuji.
Napuji.
Hamuji. Alu.
Mewār attempts to regain Influence in Būndi.
Humiliated, disgraced, and enraged at being thus foiled by a handful of men, the Rana re-formed his troops under the walls of Chitor, and swore he would not eat until he was master of Bundi. The rash vow went round; but Bundi was sixty miles distant, and defended by brave hearts. His chiefs expostulated with the Rana on the absolute impossibility of redeeming his vow; but the words of kings are sacred: Bundi must fall, ere the king of the Guhilots could dine. In this exigence, a childish [464] expedient was proposed to release him from hunger and his oath; “to erect a mock Bundi and take it by storm.”[[9]] Instantly the mimic town arose under the walls of Chitor; and, that the deception might be complete, the local nomenclature was attended to, and each quarter had its appropriate appellation. A band of Haras of the Patar were in the service of Chitor, whose leader, Kumbha-Bersi, was returning with his kin from hunting the deer, when their attention was attracted by this strange bustle. The story was soon told, that Bundi must fall ere the Rana could dine. Kumbha assembled his brethren of the Patar, declaring that even the mock Bundi must be defended. All felt the indignity to the clan, and each bosom burning with indignation, they prepared to protect the mud walls of the pseudo Bundi from insult. It was reported to the Rana that Bundi was finished. He advanced to the storm: but what was his surprise when, instead of the blank-cartridge, he heard a volley of balls whiz amongst them! A messenger was dispatched, and was received by Bersi at the gate, who explained the cause of the unexpected salutation, desiring him to tell the Rana that “not even the mock capital of a Hara should be dishonoured.” Spreading a sheet at the little gateway, Bersi and the Kumbhawats invited the assault, and at the threshold of “Gar-ki-Bundi” (the Bundi of clay) they gave up their lives for the honour of the race.[[10]] The Rana wisely remained satisfied with this salvo to his dignity, nor sought any further to wipe off the disgrace incurred at the real capital of the Haras, perceiving the impolicy of driving such a daring clan to desperation, whose services he could command on an emergency.
Rāo Bīr Singh.
Rāo Banda, c. A.D. 1485.
But the piety and charity of Rao Banda could not shield him from adversity. His two youngest brothers, urged by the temptation of power, abandoned their faith, and with the aid of the royal power expelled him from Bundi, where, under their new titles of Samarkandi and Amarkandi, they jointly ruled eleven years. Banda retired to Matunda, in the hills, where he died after a reign of twenty-one years, and where his cenotaph still remains. He left two sons: 1. Narayandas; and 2. Nirbudh, who had Matunda.
Rāo Nārāyandās.
With a small but devoted band, he reached the chauk (square), where he left his adherents, and alone repaired to the palace. He ascended to where both the uncles were seated almost unattended. They liked not the resolute demeanour of the youth, and tried to gain a passage which led to a subterranean apartment; but no sooner was this intention perceived, than the khanda, or ‘double-edged sword,’ of Banda’s son cut the elder to the ground, while his lance reached the other before he got to a [466] place of security. In an instant, he severed both their heads, with which he graced the shrine of Bhavani, and giving a shout to his followers in the chauk, their swords were soon at work upon the Muslims. Every true Hara supported the just cause, and the dead bodies of the apostates and their crew were hurled with ignominy over the walls. To commemorate this exploit and the recovery of Bundi from these traitors, the pillar on which the sword of the young Hara descended, when he struck down Samarkandi, and which bears testimony to the vigour of his arm, is annually worshipped by every Hara on the festival of the Dasahra.[[14]]
Narayandas became celebrated for his strength and prowess. He was one of those undaunted Rajputs who are absolutely strangers to the impression of fear, and it might be said of danger and himself, “that they were brothers whelped the same day, and he the elder.” Unfortunately, these qualities were rendered inert from the enormous quantity of opium he took, which would have killed most men; for it is recorded “he could at one time eat the weight of seven pice.”[[15]] The consequence of this vice, as might be expected, was a constant stupefaction, of which many anecdotes are related. Being called to aid the Rana Raemall, then attacked by the Pathans of Mandu, he set out at the head of five hundred select Haras. On the first day’s march he was taking his siesta, after his usual dose, under a tree, his mouth wide open, into which the flies had unmolested ingress, when a young Telin[[16]] came to draw water at the well, and on learning that this was Bundi’s prince on his way to aid the Rana in his distress, she observed, “If he gets no other aid than his, alas for my prince!” “The amaldar (opium-eater) has quick ears, though no eyes,” is a common adage in Rajwara. “What is that you say, rand (widow)?” roared the Rao, advancing to her. Upon her endeavouring to excuse herself, he observed, “Do not fear, but repeat it.” In her hand she had an iron crowbar, which the Rao, taking it from her, twisted until the ends met round her neck. “Wear this garland for me,” said he, “until I return from aiding the Rana, unless in the interim you can find some one strong enough to unbind it.”
The Siege of Chitor.
Rāo Sūrajmall, c. A.D. 1533.
The alliance with Chitor was again cemented by intermarriage. Suja Bai, sister to Surajmall, was espoused by Rana Ratna, who bestowed his own sister on the Rao. Rao Suja, like his father, was too partial to his amal. One day, at Chitor, he had fallen asleep in the Presence, when a Purbia chief felt an irresistible inclination to disturb him, and “tickled the Hara’s ear with a straw.” He might as well have jested with a tiger: a back stroke with his khanda stretched the insulter on the carpet. The son of the Purbia treasured up the feud, and waited for revenge, which he effected by making the Rana believe the Rao had other objects in view, besides visiting his sister Suja Bai, at the Rawala. The train thus laid, the slightest incident inflamed it. The fair Suja had prepared a repast, to which she invited both her brother and her husband: she had not only attended the culinary process herself, but waited on these objects of her love to drive the flies from the food. Though the wedded fair of Rajputana clings to the husband, yet she is ever more solicitous for [468] the honour of the house from whence she sprung, than that into which she has been admitted; which feeling has engendered numerous quarrels. Unhappily, Suja remarked, on removing the dishes, that “her brother had devoured his share like a tiger, while her husband had played with his like a child (balak).” The expression, added to other insults which he fancied were put upon him, cost the Rao his life, and sent the fair Suja an untimely victim to Indraloka.[[19]] The dictates of hospitality prevented the Rana from noticing the remark at the moment, and in fact it was more accordant with the general tenor of his character to revenge the affront with greater security than even the isolated situation of the brave Hara afforded him. On the latter taking leave, the Rana invited himself to hunt on the next spring festival in the ramnas or preserves of Bundi. The merry month of Phalgun arrived; the Rana and his court prepared their suits of amaua (green), and ascended the Patar on the road to Bundi, in spite of the anathema of the prophetic Sati, who, as she ascended the pyre at Bumbaoda, pronounced that whenever Rao and Rana met to hunt together at the Aheria, such meeting, which had blasted all her hopes, would always be fatal. But centuries had rolled between the denunciation of the daughter of Alu Hara and Suja Bai of Bundi; and the prophecy, though in every mouth, served merely to amuse the leisure hour; the moral being forgotten it was only looked upon as ‘a tale that was past.’
Murder of Rāo Sūrajmall.
It was amidst the confusion of such a scene that the dastard Rana determined to gratify his malice. The princes had convenient stations assigned them, where they could securely assail the game as it passed, each having but one or two confidential attendants. With the Rana was the Iago of his revenge, the son of the Purbia, whom the Hara prince had slain. “Now is the moment,” said the Rana to his companion, “to slay the boar,” and instantly an arrow from the bow of the Purbia was [469] sped at the Rao. “With an eagle’s eye he saw it coming, and turned it off with his bow.” This might have been chance, but another from the foster-brother of the Rana convinced him there was treachery. Scarcely had he warded off the second, when the Rana darted at him on horseback, and cut him down with his khanda. The Rao fell, but recovering, took his shawl and tightly bound up the wound, and as his foe was making off he called aloud, “Escape you may, but you have sunk Mewar.” The Purbia, who followed his prince, when he saw the Rao bind up his wound, said, “The work is but half done”; and like a coward, Ratna once more charged the wounded Rao. As his arm was raised to finish the deed of shame, like a wounded tiger the Hara made a dying effort, caught the assassin by the robe, and dragged him from his steed. Together they came to the ground, the Rana underneath. The Rao knelt upon his breast, while, with preternatural strength, with one hand he grasped his victim by the throat, with the other he searched for his dagger. What a moment for revenge! He plunged the weapon into his assassin’s heart, and saw him expire at his feet. The Rao was satisfied; there was no more life left him than sufficed for revenge, and he dropped a corpse upon the dead body of his foeman.
The tidings flew to Bundi, to the mother of the Rao, that her son was slain in the Aheria. “Slain!” exclaimed this noble dame, “but did he fall alone? Never could a son, who has drunk at this breast, depart unaccompanied”; and as she spoke, “maternal feeling caused the milk to issue from the fount with such force, that it rent the slab on which it fell.”
The Satis.
Rāo Surthān, c. A.D. 1534.
Rāo Arjun.
“Seated on a fragment of the rock, disparted by the explosion of the mine, Arjun drew his sword, and the world beheld his departure with amazement.”[[24]]
Surjan, the eldest of the four sons[[25]] of Arjun, succeeded in S. 1589 (A.D. 1533) [471].
[1]. Anhal [anal] and Agni have the same signification, namely, ‘fire.’
[2]. Yuga-Raj, ‘sacrifice of the government.’ [Possibly confused with Yuvarāja, ‘heir-apparent.’]
[3]. [Durlabha Chaulukya of Gujarāt went on a pilgrimage and abdicated. “Such a resignation of royal state seems to have been a constant practice in ancient times, the Rājput princes esteeming a death in the holy land of Gaya as the safe passage to beatitude” (Forbes, Rāsmāla, 54). A defeated king was required to resign his throne (Elliot-Dowson ii. 27). See Frazer, Golden Bough, 3rd ed. Part iii. 148 ff.]
[4]. Harraj (elder son of Dewa), lord of Bumbaoda, had twelve sons; of whom Alu Hara, the eldest, held twenty-four castles upon the Patar. With all of these the author is familiar, having trod the Patar in every direction: of this, anon.
[5]. [This is a folk etymology, the real name of the Bhīl sept being Khota.] The descendants of Jethsi retained the castle and the surrounding country for several generations; when Bhonangsi, the fifth in descent, was dispossessed of them by Rao Surajmall of Bundi. Jethsi had a son, Surjan, who gave the name of Kotah to this abode of the Bhils, round which he built a wall. His son Dhirdeo excavated twelve lakes, and dammed up that east of the town, still known by his name, though better by its new appellation of Kishor Sagar.[Sagar.] His son was Kandhal, who had Bhonangsi, who lost and regained Kotah in the following manner. Kotah was seized by two Pathans, Dhakar and Kesar Khan. Bhonang, who became mad from excessive use of wine and opium, was banished to Bundi, and his wife, at the head of his household vassals, retired to Kaithan, around which the Haras held three hundred and sixty villages. Bhonang, in exile, repented of his excesses; he announced his amendment and his wish to return to his wife and kin.[kin.] The intrepid Rajputni rejoiced at his restoration, and laid a plan for the recovery of Kotah, in which she destined him to take part. To attempt it by force would have been to court destruction, and she determined to combine stratagem and courage. When the jocund festival of spring approached, when even decorum is for a while cast aside in the Rajput Saturnalia, she invited herself, with all the youthful damsels of Kaithan, to play the Holi with the Pathans of Kotah. The libertine Pathans received the invitation with joy, happy to find the queen of Kaithan evince so much amity. Collecting three hundred of the finest Hara youths, she disguised them in female apparel, and Bhonang, attended by the old nurse, each with a vessel of the crimson abir, headed the band. While the youths were throwing the crimson powder amongst the Pathans, the nurse led Bhonang to play with their chief. The disguised Hara broke his vessel on the head of Kesar Khan. This was the signal for action: the Rajputs drew their swords from beneath their ghaghras (petticoats), and the bodies of Kesar and his gang strewed the terrace. The masjid of Kesar Khan still exists within the walls. Bhonang was succeeded by his son Dungarsi, whom Rao Surajmall dispossessed and added Kotah to Bundi.
[6]. [About 60 miles S.W. of Ajmer city.]
[7]. “Poor dumb mouths.”
[8]. [‘Lord of the Hindu,’ a title assumed by the Rānas of Mewār.]
[9]. [This was probably, as in the cases of Dhār and Amber, a form of sympathetic magic to ensure the capture of Būndi.]
[10]. Somewhat akin to this incident is the history of that summer abode of kings of France in the Bois de Boulogne at Paris, called “Madrid.” When Francis I. was allowed to return to his capital, he pledged his parole that he would return to Madrid. But the delights of liberty and Paris were too much for honour; and while he wavered, a hint was thrown out similar to that suggested to the Rana when determined to capture Bundi. A mock Madrid arose in the Bois de Boulogne, to which Francis retired.
[11]. Jabdu had three sons: each founded clans. The eldest, Bacha, had two sons, Sewaji and Seranji. The former had Meoji, the latter had Sawant, whose descendants are styled Meo and Sawant Haras.
[12]. [There was a great drought in Hindustān about A.D. 1491 (Balfour, Cyclopaedia of India, i. 1072).]
[13]. [Langar means ‘an anchor,’ then ‘a distribution of food to the poor.’ The most famous instance is that at Haidarābād (Bilgrami-Willmott, Sketch of H.H. The Nizam’s Dominions, ii. 875 ff.). The googri of the original text is possibly gagari, ‘a little pot.’]
[14]. Though called a pillar, it is a slab in the staircase of the old palace, which I have seen.
[15]. The copper coin of Bundi, equal to a halfpenny. One pice weight is a common dose for an ordinary Rajput, but would send the uninitiated to eternal sleep. [According to Cheevers (Medical Jurisprudence in India, 227) in Bengal some wretches eat as much as a rupee weight, 180 grains, of pure opium daily. If his pice was anything like the weight of that of the East India Company (100 grains), the dose of Nārāyandās must have been enormous.]
[16]. Wife or daughter of a teli, or oilman.
[17]. [Rāna Rāēmall’s opponent is said to have been Ghayāsu-d-dīn of Mālwa (A.D. 1469-99): but he is reported to have been a debauchee who never left his palace (BG, i. Part i. 362 ff.).]
[18]. [Ketu, the demon who causes eclipses; Kāmdeo, god of love.]
[19]. [Deathland, the realm of Indra.]
[20]. [The twelve-tined deer, Cervus duvanceli; Boselaphus tragocamelus (Blanford, Mammalia, 538, 517 ff.).]
[21]. The Author has seen the cenotaphs of the princes at Nanta, a place which still affords good hunting.
[22]. Four of these had appanages and founded clans, namely, Bhim, who had Thakurda; Pura, who had Hardoi; Mapal and Pachain, whose abodes are not recorded.
[24].
Sor ne kiya bahut jor
Dhar parbat ori silla;
Tain kari tarwār
Ad pātiya, Hāra Uja.[[A]]
[A]. Uja, the familiar contraction for Arjuna.
[25]. Ram Singh, clan Rama Hara; Akhairaj, clan Akhairajpota; Kandhal, clan Jasa Hara.