CHAPTER 3
The Rājput League.
Īsari Singh, A.D. 1743-60.
Mādho Singh, A.D. 1760-78.
The Jāts of Bharatpur.
Not long after this event, Badan Singh, the younger brother of Churaman, and a joint proprietor of the land, was for some misconduct placed in restraint, and had remained so for some years, when, through the intercession of Jai Singh and the guarantee of the other Bhumia Jats, he was liberated. His first act was to fly to Amber, and to bring its prince, at the head of an army, to invest Thun, which, after a gallant defence of six months, surrendered and was razed to the ground. Churaman and his son, Mohkam Singh, effected their escape, and Badan Singh was proclaimed chief of the Jats, and installed, as Raja, by Jai Singh in the town of Dig, destined also in after times to have its share of fame.
Badan Singh had a numerous progeny, and four of his sons obtained notoriety, namely, Surajmall, Sobharam, Partap Singh, and Birnarayan. Badan Singh subjected several of the royal districts to his authority. He abdicated his power in favour of his elder son, Surajmall, having in the first instance assigned the district of Wer,[[5]] on which he had constructed a fort, to his son Partap.
Surajmall inherited all the turbulence and energy requisite to carry on the plans of his predecessors. His first act was to dispossess a relative, named Kaima, of the castle [371] of Bharatpur, afterwards the celebrated capital of the Jats.[[6]] In the year S. 1820 (A.D. 1764), Surajmall carried his audacity so far as to make an attempt upon the imperial city; but here his career was cut short by a party of Baloch horse, who slew him while enjoying the chase. He had five sons, namely, Jawahir Singh, Ratan Singh, Newal Singh, Nahar Singh, Ranjit Singh, and also an adopted son, named Hardeo Bakhsh, picked up while hunting. Of these five sons, the first two were by a wife of the Kurmi[[7]] tribe; the third was by a wife of the Malin, or horticultural class; while the others were by Jatnis or women of his own race.
Jawahir Singh, who succeeded, was the contemporary of Raja Madho Singh, whose reign in Jaipur we have just reached; and to the Jat’s determination to measure swords with him were owing, not only the frustration of his schemes for humbling the Mahratta, but the dismemberment of the country by the defection of the chief of Macheri. Jawahir Singh, in A.H. 1182, having in vain solicited the district of Kamona, manifested his resentment by instantly marching through the Jaipur territories to the sacred lake of Pushkar, without any previous intimation. He there met Raja Bijai Singh of Marwar, who, in spite of his Jat origin, condescended to ‘exchange turbans,’ the sign of friendship and fraternal adoption. At this period, Madho Singh’s health was on the decline, and his counsels were guided by two brothers, named Harsahai and Gursahai, who represented the insulting conduct of the Jat and required instructions. They were commanded to address him a letter warning him not to return through the territories of Amber, and the chiefs were desired to assemble their retainers in order to punish a repetition of the insult. But the Jat, who had determined to abide the consequences, paid no regard to the letter, and returned homewards by the same route. This was a justifiable ground of quarrel, and the united Kothribands marched to the encounter, to maintain the pretensions of their equestrian order against the plebeian Jat. A desperate conflict ensued, which, though it terminated in favour of the Kachhwahas and in the flight of the leader of the Jats, proved destructive to Amber, in the loss of almost every chieftain of note[[8]] [372].
Separation of Mācheri or Alwar State, A.D. 1771-76.
Madho Singh died of a dysentery, after a rule of seventeen years. Had he been spared, in all human probability he would have repaired the injurious effects of the contest which gave him the gaddi of Amber; but a minority, and its accustomed anarchy, made his death the point from which the Kachhwaha power declined. He built several cities, of which that called after him Madhopur, near the celebrated fortress of Ranthambhor, the most secure of the commercial cities of Rajwara, is the most remarkable. He inherited no small portion of his father’s love of science, which continued to make Jaipur the resort of learned men, so as to eclipse even the sacred Benares.
Prithi Singh II., A.D. 1778.
Partāp Singh, A.D. 1778-1803.
To give a full narrative of the events of this reign, would be to recount the history of the empire in its expiring moments. Throughout the twenty-five years’ rule of Partap, he and his country underwent many vicissitudes. He was a gallant prince, and not deficient in judgment; but neither gallantry nor prudence could successfully apply the resources of his petty State against its numerous predatory foes and its internal dissensions. The defection of Macheri was a serious blow to Jaipur, and the necessary subsidies soon lightened the hoards accumulated by his predecessors. Two payments [375] to the Mahrattas took away eighty lakhs of rupees (£800,000); yet such was the mass of treasure, notwithstanding the enormous sums lavished by Madho Singh for the support of his claims, besides those of the regency, that Partap expended in charity alone, on the victory of Tonga, A.D. 1789, the sum of twenty-four lakhs, or a quarter of a million sterling.
In A.D. 1791, after the subsequent defeats at Patan, and the disruption of the alliance with the Rathors, Tukaji Holkar invaded Jaipur, and extorted an annual tribute, which was afterwards transferred to Amir Khan, and continues a permanent incumbrance on the resources of Jaipur. From this period to A.D. 1803, the year of Partap’s death, his country was alternately desolated by Sindhia’s armies, under De Boigne or Perron, and the other hordes of robbers, who frequently contested with each other the possession of the spoils.[[13]]
Jagat Singh, A.D. 1803-18.
Death of Jagat Singh.
Raja Jagat Singh left no issue, legitimate or illegitimate, and no provision had been made for a successor during his life. But as the laws of Rajputana, political or religious, admit of no interregnum, and the funereal pyre must be lit by an adopted child if there be no natural issue, it was necessary at once to inaugurate a successor [377]; and the choice fell on Mohan Singh, son of the ex-prince of Narwar. As this selection, in opposition to the established rules of succession, would, but for a posthumous birth, have led to a civil war, it may be proper to touch briefly upon the subject of heirs-presumptive in Rajputana, more especially those of Jaipur: the want of exact knowledge respecting this point, in those to whom its political relations with us were at that time entrusted, might have had the most injurious effects on the British character. To set this in its proper light, we shall explain the principles of the alliance which rendered Jaipur a tributary of Britain.
[1]. [Tonk now in the State of that name; Rāmpura 65 miles E., Phaggi 32 miles E., Mālpura about 50 miles S.W. of Jaipur city.]
[2]. [Now lost to Mewār, being included in Indore State.]
[3]. It has been seen how the Yadu-Bhatti princes, when they fell from their rank of Rajputs, assumed that of Jats, or Jāts, who are assuredly a mixture of the Rajput and Yuti, Jat or Gete races. See Vol. I. p. [127]. [The Author possibly refers to the attack of Cyrus on the Massagetae, whose connexion with the Jāts is not supported by evidence (Herodotus i. 204 ff.).]
[4]. [Sansani about 10 miles N.W. of Bharatpur city: Thūn 12 miles W. of Sansani. For the sieges of Thūn by Jai Singh in 1716 and 1722, see Irvine, Army of the Indian Moghuls, 285 ff.; for Sansani, Manucci ii. 320 f. iv. 242.]
[5]. [About 28 miles S.W. of Bharatpur city.]
[6]. [In 1761 he captured Agra, which the Jāts held till they were ousted by the Marāthas in 1770 (IGI, v. 83).]
[7]. The Kurmi (the Kulumbi of the Deccan) is perhaps the most numerous, next to the Jats, of all the agricultural classes. [In 1911 there were 7 million Jāts and 3¾ million Kurmis in India.]
[8]. Having given a slight sketch of the origin of the Jats, I may here conclude it. Ratan Singh, the brother of Jawahir, succeeded him. He was assassinated by a Gosain Brahman from Bindraban, who had undertaken to teach the Jat prince the transmutation of metals, and had obtained considerable sums on pretence of preparing the process. Finding the day arrive on which he was to commence operations, and which would reveal his imposture, he had no way of escape but by applying the knife to his dupe. Kesari Singh, an infant, succeeded, under the guardianship of his uncle, Newal Singh. Ranjit Singh succeeded him, a name renowned for the defence of Bharatpur against Lord Lake. He died A.D. 1805, and was succeeded by the eldest of four sons, namely, Randhir Singh, Baldeo Singh, Hardeo Singh, and Lachhman Singh. The infant son of Randhir succeeded, under the tutelage of his uncle; to remove whom the British army destroyed Bharatpur, and plundered it of its wealth, both public and private. [The son of Randhīr Singh was Balwant Singh, who was cast into prison by his cousin, Dūrjansāl. He was captured by Lord Combermere when he stormed Bharatpur in 1826. Balwant Singh was restored, and dying in 1853, was succeeded by Jaswant Singh, who died in 1893, and was succeeded by his son Rām Singh, deposed for misconduct in 1900, and succeeded by his son Kishan Singh, born in 1899 (IGI, viii. 74 ff).]
[9]. Father of two men scarcely less celebrated than himself, Chhatarbhuj and Daula Ram.
[10]. Two or three times he had a chance of being placed on the gaddi (vide letter of Resident with Sindhia to Government, March 27, 1812), which assuredly ought to be his: once, about 1810, when the nobles of Jaipur were disgusted with the libertine Jagat Singh; and again, upon the death of this dissolute prince, in 1820. The last occasion presented a fit occasion for his accession; but the British Government were then the arbitrators, and I doubt much if his claims were disclosed to it, or understood by those who had the decision of the question, which nearly terminated in a civil war.
[11]. [The Author’s dates do not agree with those of Prinsep (Useful Tables, ed. 1834, p. 112) which are given in the margin.]
[12]. [Najaf Khān, Amīru-l-Umara, Zulfikāru-d-daula, died A.D. 1782.]
[13]. [For these campaigns see Compton, European Military Adventurers, 145 ff., 237 ff.]
[14]. Rorji Khawass was a tailor by birth, and, I believe, had in early life exercised the trade. He was, however, amongst the Musahibs, or privy councillors of Jagat Singh, and (I think) one of the ambassadors sent to treat with Lord Lake.
[15]. Ras-Karpūr or Kapūr, I am aware, means ‘corrosive sublimate,’ but it may also be interpreted ‘essence of camphor’ [Kāfūr].
[16]. [About 75 miles S. of Jaipur city.]
[17]. [The reference is possibly to the text: “That king who through folly rashly oppresses the kingdom will, with his relations, ere long be deprived of his life and of his kingdom” (Laws, vii. 111).]