CHAPTER 4
Mahārāo Ummed Singh, A.D. 1743-1804.
Jaipur attacks Kotah.
Battle of Dablāna.
With grief he submitted; and as they gained the Sawali Pass, which leads to Indargarh, he dismounted to breathe his faithful steed; and as he loosened the girths, it expired. Ummeda sat down and wept. Hanja was worthy of such a mark of his esteem: he was a steed of Irak, the gift of the king to his father, whom he had borne in many an encounter. Nor was this natural ebullition of the young Hara a transient feeling: Hanja’s memory was held in veneration, and the first act of Ummeda, when he recovered his throne, was to erect a statue to the steed who bore him so nobly on the day of Dablana. It stands in the square (chauk) of the city, and receives the reverence of each Hara, who links his history with one of the brightest of their achievements, though obscured by momentary defeat.[[5]]
Ummeda gained Indargarh, which was close at hand, on foot; but this traitor to the name of Hara, who had acknowledged the supremacy of Amber, not only refused his prince a horse in his adversity, but warned him off the domain, asking “if he meant to be the ruin of Indargarh as well as Bundi?” Disdaining to drink water within its bounds, the young prince, stung by this perfidious mark of inhospitality, took the direction of Karwain. Its chief made amends for the other’s churlishness: he advanced to meet him, offered such aid as he had to give, and presented him with a horse. Dismissing his faithful kinsmen to their homes, and begging their swords when fortune might be kinder, he regained his old retreat, the ruined palace of Rampura, amongst the ravines of the Chambal.
Būndi recovered by Ummed Singh.
Būndi occupied by Jaipur.
Ummed Singh in Exile.
Malhār Rāo Holkar assists Ummed Singh.
Be this as it may, the Bundi chronicle states that the lady, instead of the temporary expedient of delivering Bundi, conducted the march of the Mahrattas direct on Jaipur. Circumstances favoured her designs. The character of Isari Singh had raised up enemies about his person, who seized the occasion to forward at once the views of Bundi and Mewar, whose princes had secretly gained them over to their views.
The Amber prince no sooner heard of the approach of the Mahrattas to his capital than he quitted it to offer them battle. But their strength had been misrepresented, nor was it till he reached the castle of Bagru[[10]] that he was undeceived and surrounded. When too late, he saw that ‘treason had done its worst,’ and that the confidence he had placed in the successor of a minister whom he had murdered, met its natural reward. The bard has transmitted in a sloka the cause of his overthrow:
Jabhī chhodī Īsra
Rāj karan kī ās,
Mantrī moto māriyo
Khatri Kesodās,
‘Isari forfeited all hopes of regality, when he slew that great minister Keshodas.’
Jaipur forced to restore Ummed Singh.
Thus in S. 1805 (A.D. 1749) Ummeda regained his patrimony, after fourteen years of exile, during which a traitor had pressed the royal ‘cushion’ of Bundi. But this contest deprived it of many of its ornaments, and, combined with other causes, at length reduced it almost to its intrinsic worth, ‘a heap of cotton.’ Malhar Rao, the founder of the Holkar State, in virtue of his adoption as the brother of the widow-queen of Budh Singh, had the title of Mamu, or uncle, to young Ummeda. But true to the maxims of his race, he did not take his buckler to protect the oppressed, at the impulse of those chivalrous notions so familiar to the Rajput, but deemed a portion of the Bundi territory a better incentive, and a more unequivocal proof of gratitude, than the titles of brother and uncle. Accordingly, he demanded, and obtained by regular deed of surrender, the town and district of Patan on the left bank of the Chambal.[[11]]
The sole equivalent (if such it could be termed) for these fourteen years of usurpation, were the fortifications covering the palace and town, now called Taragarh (the ‘Star-fort’), built by Dalil Singh. Madho Singh, who succeeded to the gaddi of Jaipur, followed up the designs commenced by Jai Singh, and which had cost his successor his life, to render the smaller States of Central India dependent on Amber. For this Kotah had been besieged, and Ummeda expelled, and as such policy could not be effected by their unassisted means, it only tended to the benefit of the auxiliaries, who soon became principals, to the prejudice and detriment of all. Madho Singh, having obtained the castle of Ranthambhor, a pretext was afforded for these pretensions to supremacy. From the time of its surrender by Rao Surjan to Akbar, the importance of this castle was established by its becoming the first Sarkar, or ‘department,’ in the province of Ajmer, consisting of no less than ‘seventy-three mahals,’[[12]] or extensive fiefs, in which were comprehended not only Bundi and Kotah, and all their dependencies, but the entire State of Sheopur, and all the petty fiefs south of the Banganga, the aggregate of which now constitutes the State of Amber. In fact, with the exception of Mahmudabad in Bengal,[[13]] Ranthambhor was the most extensive Sarkar of the empire. In the decrepitude of the empire, this castle was maintained by a veteran commander [493] as long as funds and provisions lasted; but these failing, in order to secure it from falling into the hands of the Mahrattas, and thus being lost for ever to the throne, he sought out a Rajput prince, to whom he might entrust it. He applied to Bundi; but the Hara, dreading to compromise his fealty if unable to maintain it, refused the boon; and having no alternative, he resigned it to the prince of Amber as a trust which he could no longer defend.
Out of this circumstance alone originated the claims of Jaipur to tribute from the Kothris, or fiefs in Haraoti; claims without a shadow of justice; but the maintenance of which, for the sake of the display of supremacy and paltry annual relief, has nourished half a century of irritation, which it is high time should cease.[[14]]
Zālim Singh of Kotah.
Ummeda’s active mind was engrossed with the restoration of the prosperity which the unexampled vicissitudes of the last fifteen years had undermined; but he felt his spirit cramped and his energies contracted by the dominant influence and avarice of the insatiable Mahrattas, through whose means he recovered his capital; still there was as yet no fixed principle of government recognized, and the Rajputs, who [494] witnessed their periodical visitations like flights of locusts over their plains, hoped that this scourge would be equally transitory. Under this great and pernicious error, all the Rajput States continued to mix these interlopers in their national disputes, which none had more cause to repent than the Haras of Bundi. But the hold which the Mahrattas retained upon the lands of ‘Dewa Banga’ would never have acquired such tenacity, had the bold arm and sage mind of Ummeda continued to guide the vessel of the State throughout the lengthened period of his natural existence: his premature political decease adds another example to the truth, that patriarchal, and indeed all governments are imperfect where the laws are not supreme.
Ummed Singh’s Revenge on Indargarh.
In S. 1813 (A.D. 1757), Ummeda went to pay his devotions at the shrine of Bijaiseni Mata (‘the mother of victory’), near Karwar.[[15]] Being in the vicinity of Indargarh, he invited its chief to join the assembled vassals with their families; and though dissuaded, Deo Singh obeyed, accompanied by his son and grandson. All were cut off at one fell swoop, and the line of the traitor was extinct: as if the air of heaven should not be contaminated by the smoke of their ashes, Ummeda commanded that the bodies of the calumnious traitor and his issue should be thrown into the lake. His fief of Indargarh was given to his brother, between whom and the present incumbent four generations have passed away.
Fifteen years elapsed, during which the continual scenes of disorder around him furnished ample occupation for his thoughts. Yet, in the midst of all, would intrude the remembrance of this single act, in which he had usurped the powers of Him to whom alone it belongs to execute vengeance. Though no voice was lifted up against the deed, though he had a moral conviction that a traitor’s death was the due of Deo Singh, his soul, generous as it was brave, revolted at the crime, however sanctified by custom,[[16]] which confounds the innocent with the guilty. To appease his conscience, he determined to abdicate the throne, and pass the rest of his days in penitential rites, and traversing, in the pilgrim’s garb, the vast regions of India, to visit the sacred shrines of his faith.
Abdication of Mahārāo Ummed Singh.
The abdicated Ummeda, with the title of Sriji (by which alone he was henceforth known), retired to that holy spot in the valley sanctified by the miraculous cure of the first ‘lord of the Patar,’[[19]] and which was named after one of the fountains of the Ganges, Kedarnath. To this spot, hallowed by a multitude of associations, the warlike pilgrim brought
The fruit and flower of many a province,
and had the gratification to find these exotics, whether the hardy offspring of the [496] snow-clad Himalaya, or the verge of ocean in the tropic, fructify and flourish amidst the rocks of his native abode. It is curious even to him who is ignorant of the moral vicissitudes which produced it, to see the pine of Tibet, the cane of Malacca, and other exotics, planted by the hand of the princely ascetic, flourishing around his hermitage, in spite of the intense heats of this rock-bound abode.
When Ummeda resigned the sceptre of the Haras, it was from the conviction that a life of meditation alone could yield the consolation, and obtain the forgiveness which he found necessary to his repose. But in assuming the pilgrim’s staff, he did not lay aside any feeling becoming his rank or his birth. There was no pusillanimous prostration of intellect; no puling weakness of bigoted sentiment, but the same lofty mind which redeemed his birthright, accompanied him wherever he bent his steps to seek knowledge in the society of devout and holy men. He had read in the annals of his own and of other States, that “the trappings of royalty were snares to perdition, and that happy was the man who in time threw them aside and made his peace with heaven.” But in obeying, at once, the dictates of conscience and of custom, he felt his mind too much alive to the wonders of creation, to bury himself in the fane of Kanhaiya, or the sacred baths on the Ganges; and he determined to see all those holy places commemorated in the ancient epics of his nation, and the never-ending theme of the wandering devotee. In this determination he was, perhaps, somewhat influenced by that love of adventure in which he had been nurtured, and it was a balm to his mind when he found that arms and religion were not only compatible, but that his pious resolution to force a way through the difficulties which beset the pilgrim’s path, enhanced the merit of his devotion. Accordingly, the royal ascetic went forth on his pilgrimage, not habited in the hermit’s garb, but armed at all points. Even in this there was penance, not ostentation, and he carried or buckled on his person one of every species of offensive or defensive weapon then in use: a load which would oppress any two Rajputs in these degenerate times. He wore a quilted tunic, which would resist a sabre-cut; besides a matchlock, a lance, a sword, a dagger, and their appurtenances of knives, pouches, and priming-horn, he had a battle-axe, a javelin, a tomahawk, a discus, bow and quiver of arrows; and it is affirmed that such was his muscular power, even when threescore and ten years had blanched his beard in wandering to and fro thus accoutred, that he could place the whole of this panoply within his shield, and with one arm not only raise it, but hold it for some seconds extended [497].
The Wanderings of Ummed Singh.
The warlike pilgrimage of Ummeda had been interrupted by a tragical occurrence, which occasioned the death of his son, and compelled him to abide for a time at the seat of government to superintend the education of his grandchild. This eventful catastrophe, interwoven in the border history of Mewar and Haraoti, is well worthy of narration, as illustrative of manners and belief, and fulfilled a prophecy pronounced centuries before by the dying Sati of Bumbaoda, that “the Rao and the Rana should never meet at the Aheria (or spring hunt) without death ensuing.” What we are about to relate was the fourth repetition of this sport with the like fatal result.
The hamlet of Bilaita, which produced but a few good mangoes, and for its population a few Minas, was the ostensible cause of dispute. The chief of Bundi, either deeming it within his territory, or desiring to consider it so, threw up a fortification, in which he placed a garrison to overawe the freebooters, who were instigated by the discontented chiefs of Mewar to represent this as an infringement of their prince’s rights. Accordingly, the Rana marched with all his chieftains, and a mercenary [498] band of Sindis, to the disputed point, whence he invited the Bundi prince, Ajit, to his camp. He came, and the Rana was so pleased with his manners and conduct, that Bilaita and its mango grove were totally forgotten. Spring was at hand; the joyous month of Phalgun, when it was necessary to open the year with a sacrifice of the boar to Gauri (see Vol. II. p. [660]). The young Hara, in return for the courtesies of the Rana, invited him to open the Aheria, within the ramnas or preserves of Bundi. The invitation was accepted; the prince of the Sesodias, according to usage, distributed the green turbans and scarfs, and on the appointed day, with a brilliant cavalcade, repaired to the heights of Nanta.
Murder of Rāna Ari Singh.
A highly dramatic effect is thrown around the last worldly honours paid to the murdered king of Mewar; and although his fate has been elsewhere described, it may be proper to record it from the chronicle of his foeman.
The Obsequies of Rāna Ari Singh.
A single concubine remained to perform the last rites to her lord. She commanded a costly pyre to be raised, and prepared to become his companion to a world unknown. With the murdered corpse in her arms, she reared her form from the pile, and, as the torch was applied, she pronounced a curse on his murderer, invoking the tree under whose shade it was raised to attest the prophecy, “that, if a selfish treachery alone prompted the deed, within two months the assassin might be an example to mankind; but if it sprung from a noble revenge of any ancient feud, she absolved him from the curse: a branch of the tree fell in token of assent, and the ashes of the Rana and the Sati whitened the plain of Bilaita.”
Death of Mahārāo Ajīt Singh.
Mahārāo Bishan Singh, A.D. 1770-1821.
It affords an additional instance of Rajput instability of character, or rather of the imperfection of their government, that, in his old age, when a life of austerity had confirmed a renunciation which reflection had prompted, the venerable warrior became an object of distrust to his grandchild. Miscreants, who dreaded to see wisdom near the throne, had the audacity to add insult to a prohibition of Sriji’s return to Bundi, commanding him “to eat sweetmeats and tell his beads at Benares.” The messenger, who found him advanced as far as Nayashahr,[[27]] delivered the mandate, adding that his ashes should not mingle with his fathers'. But such was the estimation in which he was held, and the sanctity he had acquired from these pilgrimages, that the sentence was no sooner known than the neighbouring princes became suitors for his society. The heroism of his youth, the dignified piety of his age, inspired the kindred mind of Partap Singh of Amber with very different feelings from those of his own tribe. He addressed Sriji as a son and a servant, requesting permission to 'darshankar' (worship him), and convey him to his capital. Such was the courtesy of the flower of the Kachhwahas! Sriji declined this mark of homage, but accepted the invitation. He was received with honour, and so strongly did the gallant and virtuous Partap feel the indignity put upon the abdicated prince, that he told him, if “any remnant of worldly association yet lurked within him,” he would in person, at the head of all the troops of Amber, place him on the throne both of Bundi and Kotah. Sriji’s reply was consistent with his magnanimity: “They are both mine already—on the one is my nephew, on the other my grandchild.” On this occasion, Zalim Singh of Kotah appeared on the scene as mediator; he repaired to Bundi, and exposed the futility of Bishan Singh’s apprehensions; and armed with full powers of reconciliation, sent Lalaji Pandit to escort the old Rao to his capital. The meeting was such as might have been expected, between a precipitate youth tutored by artful knaves, and the venerable chief who had renounced every mundane feeling but affection for his offspring. It drew tears from all eyes: “My child,” said the pilgrim-warrior, presenting his sword, “take this; apply it yourself if you think I can have any bad intentions towards you; but let not the base defame me” [501]. The young Rao wept aloud as he entreated forgiveness; and the Pandit and Zalim Singh had the satisfaction of seeing the intentions of the sycophants, who surrounded the minor prince, defeated. Sriji refused, however, to enter the halls of Bundi during the remainder of his life, which ended about eight years after this event, when his grandchild entreated “he would close his eyes within the walls of his fathers.” A remnant of that feeling inseparable from humanity made the dying Ummeda offer no objection, and he was removed in a sukhpal[[28]] (litter) to the palace, where he that night breathed his last. Thus, in S. 1860 (A.D. 1804), Ummeda Singh closed a varied and chequered life; the sun of his morning rose amidst clouds of adversity, soon to burst forth in a radiant prosperity; but scarcely had it attained its meridian glory ere crime dimmed its splendour and it descended in solitude and sorrow.
Sixty years had passed over his head since Ummeda, when only thirteen years of age, put himself at the head of his Haras, and carried Patan and Gandoli. His memory is venerated in Haraoti, and but for the stain which the gratification of his revenge has left upon his fame, he would have been the model of a Rajput prince. But let us not apply the European standard of abstract virtue to these princes, who have so few checks and so many incentives to crime, and whose good acts deserve the more applause from an appalling honhar (predestination) counteracting moral responsibility.
Colonel Monson’s Campaign.
Compensation to Būndi after the Pindāri War.
The frank and brave Rao Raja could not help deeply regretting an arrangement, which, as he emphatically said, was “clipping his wings.” The disposition is a bad one, and both justice and political expediency enjoin a revision of it, and the bringing about a compromise which would restore the integrity of the most interesting and deserving little State in India.[[30]] Well has it repaid the anxious care we manifested for its interests; for while every other principality has, by some means or other, caused uneasiness or trouble to the protecting power, Bundi has silently advanced to comparative prosperity, happy in her independence, and interfering with no one. The Rao Raja survived the restoration of his independence only four short years, when he was carried off by that scourge, the cholera morbus. In his extremity, writhing under a disease which unmans the strongest frame and mind, he was cool and composed. He interdicted his wives from following him to the pyre, and bequeathing his son and successor [503] to the guardianship of the representative of the British government, breathed his last in the prime of life.
Death and Character of Mahārāo Bishan Singh.
The Ministers of Būndi.
This little State became so connected with the imperial court, that, like Jaipur, the princes adopted several of its customs. The Pardhan, or premier, was entitled Diwan and Musahib; and he had the entire management of the territory and finances. The Faujdar or Kiladar is the governor of the castle, the Maire de Palais, who at Bundi is never a Rajput, but some Dhabhai or foster-brother, identified with the family, who likewise heads the feudal quotas or the mercenaries, and has lands assigned for their support. The Bakhshi controls generally all accounts; the Risala those of the household expenditure. The late prince’s management of his revenue was extraordinary. Instead of the surplus being lodged in the treasury, it centred in a mercantile concern conducted by the prime minister, in the profits of which the Raja shared. But while he exhibited but fifteen per cent gain in the balance-sheet, it was stated at thirty. From this profit the troops and dependents of the court were paid, chiefly in goods and grain, and at such a rate as he chose to fix.[[32]] Their necessities, and their prince being joint partner in the firm, made complaint useless; but the system entailed upon the premier universal execration.
Bishan Singh left two legitimate sons: the Rao Raja Ram Singh, then eleven years of age, who was installed in August 1821; and the Maharaja Gopal Singh, a few months younger. Both were most promising youths, especially the Raja. He inherited his father’s passion for the chase, and even at this tender age received from the nobles[[33]] their nazars and congratulations on the first wild game he slew. Hitherto his pigmy sword had been proved only on kids or lambs. His mother, the queen-regent, is a princess of Kishangarh, amiable, able, and devoted to her son. It is ardently hoped that this most interesting State and family will rise to their ancient prosperity, under the generous auspices of the government which rescued it from ruin. In return, we may reckon on a devotion to which our power is yet a stranger—strong hands and grateful hearts, which will court death in our behalf with the same indomitable spirit that has been exemplified in days gone by. Our wishes are for the prosperity of the Haras! [505].
CITY OF KOTAH FROM THE EAST.
To face page 1521.
KOTAH
CHAPTER 5
Formation of Kotah State.
Rāo Mādho Singh, c. A.D. 1625-30.
It has already been related, that the conquest of this tract was made from the Khota Bhils of the Ujla, the ‘unmixed,’ or aboriginal race. From these the Rajput will eat, and all classes will ‘drink water’ at their hands.[[2]] Kotah was at that time but a series of hamlets, the abode of the Bhil chief, styled Raja, being the ancient fortress of Ekelgarh, five coss south of Kotah. But when Madho Singh was enfeoffed by the king, Kotah had already attained extensive limits. To the south it was bounded by Gagraun and Ghatoli, then held by the Khichis; on the east, by Mangrol and [506] Nahargarh, the first belonging to the Gaur, the last to a Rathor Rajput, who had apostatized to save his land and was now a Nawab; to the north, it extended as far as Sultanpur, on the Chambal, across which was the small domain of Nanta. In this space were contained three hundred and sixty townships, and a rich soil fertilized by numerous large streams.
The favour and power Madho Singh enjoyed, enabled him to increase the domain he held direct of the crown, and his authority at his death extended to the barrier between Malwa and Haraoti. Madho Singh died in S. 1687, leaving five sons, whose appanages became the chief fiefs of Kotah. To the holders and their descendants, in order to mark the separation between them and the elder Haras of Bundi, the patronymic of the founder was applied, and the epithet Madhani is sufficiently distinctive whenever two Haras, bearing the same name, appear together. These were—
1. Mukund Singh, who had Kotah.
2. Mohan Singh, who had Paleta.
3. Jujarh Singh, who had Kotra, and subsequently Ramgarh, Rilawan.
4. Kaniram, who had Koila.[[3]]
5. Kishor Singh who obtained Sangod.
Rāo Mukund Singh, A.D. 1630-57.
Raja Mukund gave one of those brilliant instances of Rajput devotion to the principle of legitimate rule, so many of which illustrate his national history. When Aurangzeb formed his parricidal design to dethrone his father Shah Jahan, nearly every Rajput rallied round the throne of the aged monarch; and the Rathors and the Haras were most conspicuous. The sons of Madho Singh, besides the usual ties of fidelity, forgot not that to Shah Jahan they owed their independence, and they determined to defend him to the death. In S. 1714, in the field near Ujjain, afterwards named by the victor Fatehabad, the five brothers led their vassals, clad in the saffron-stained garment, with the bridal maur (coronet) on their head, denoting death or victory.[[6]] The imprudent intrepidity of the Rathor commander denied them the latter, but a [507] glorious death no power could prevent, and all the five brothers fell in one field. The youngest, Kishor Singh, was afterwards dragged from amidst the slain, and, though pierced with wounds, recovered. He was afterwards one of the most conspicuous of the intrepid Rajputs serving in the Deccan, and often attracted notice, especially in the capture of Bijapur. But the imperial princes knew not how to appreciate or to manage such men, who, when united under one who could control them, were irresistible.
Rāo Jagat Singh, A.D. 1657-70.
Rāo Pem Singh, A.D. 1670.
Rāo Kishor Singh I. A.D. 1670-86.
Rāo Rām Singh, A.D. 1686-1707.
Rāo Bhīm Singh, A.D. 1707-20.
When the celebrated Kilich Khan,[[9]] afterwards better known to history as Nizamu-l-mulk, fled from the court to maintain himself by force of arms in his government of the Deccan, Raja Jai Singh of Amber, as the lieutenant of the king, commanded Bhim Singh of Kotah and Gaj Singh of Narwar to intercept him in his passage. The Nizam was the Pagri badal Bhai, or ‘turban-exchanged brother,’ of the Hara prince, and he sent him a friendly epistle, entreating him “not to credit the reports to his disadvantage, telling him that he had abstracted no treasures of the empire, and that Jai Singh was a meddling knave, who desired the destruction of both; and urging him to heed him not, nor offer any molestation to his passage to the south.” The brave Hara replied, that “He knew the line between friendship and duty; he was commanded to intercept him, and had advanced for that purpose; it was the king’s order; fight him he must, and next morning would attack him.” The courtesy of the Rajput, who mingled no resentment with his hostility, but, like a true cavalier, gave due warning of his intention, was not thrown away upon the wily Muslim. The Nizam took post amidst the broken ground of the Sindh, near the town of Kurwai Borasa.[[10]] There was but one approach to his position without a circuitous march, which suited not the impatient Rajput; and there his antagonist planted a battery, masked by some brushwood. At the pila badal (morning-dawn) Raja Bhim, having taken his amal-pani, or opium-water, mounted his elephant, and uniting his vassals to those of the Kachhwaha, the combined clans moved on to the attack, in one of those dense masses, with couched lances, whose shock is irresistible. They were within musket-shot of the Nizam; had they reached him, Haidarabad would never have arisen on the ruins of Gualkund,[[11]] the ancient Hara abode; but the battery opened, and in an instant the elephants with their riders, Raja Bhim and Raja Gaj, were destroyed. Horse and foot became commingled, happy to emerge from the toils into which the blind confidence of their leaders had carried them; and Kilich Khan pursued the career that destiny had marked out for him [510].
Loss of the Hāra Tribal God.
Rāo Bhīm Singh attacks Būndi.
To recover these ensigns of fallen dignity, many a stratagem has been tried. False keys of the city gates of Kotah and its citadel had been procured, and its guards won over by bribery to favour admission; but an unceasing vigilance defeated the plan when on the brink of execution: since which the gates of Kotah are always closed at sunset, and never opened even to the prince. This custom has been attended with great inconvenience; of which the following anecdote affords an instance. When Raja Durjan after his defeat reached Kotah at midnight, with a few attendants, he called aloud to the sentinel for admittance; but the orders of the latter were peremptory and allowed of no discretion. The soldier desired the Raja to be gone; upon which, expostulation being vain, he revealed himself as the prince. At this the soldier laughed [511]; but, tired of importunity, bade his sovereign “go to hell,” levelled his match-lock, and refused to call the officer on guard. The prince retired, and passed the night in a temple close at hand. At daybreak the gates were opened, and the soldiers were laughing at their comrade’s story of the night, when the Raja appeared. All were surprised, but most of all the sentinel, who, taking his sword and shield, placed them at his sovereign’s feet, and in a manly but respectful attitude awaited his decision. The prince raised him, and praising his fidelity, bestowed the dress he then wore upon him, besides a gift of money.
The Hara chronicler states, that Raja Bhim’s person was seamed with scars, and so fastidious was he, through the fear of incurring the imputation of vanity, that he never undressed in presence of his attendants. Nor was it till his death-wound at Kurwai that this singularity was explained, on one of his confidential servants expressing his surprise at the numerous scars; which brought this characteristic reply: “He who is born to govern Haras, and desires to preserve his land, must expect to get these: the proper post for a Rajput prince is ever at the head of his vassals.”
Raja Bhim was the first prince of Kotah who had the dignity of Panj-hazari, or ‘leader of five thousand,’ conferred upon him. He was likewise the first of his dynasty who bore the title of Maharao, or ‘Great Prince’; a title confirmed though not conferred by the paramount sovereign, but by the head of their own princely tribes, the Rana of Mewar. Previous to Gopinath of Bundi, whose issue are the great feudal chiefs of Haraoti, their titular appellation was Apji, which has the same import as herself (or rather himself), applied to highland chiefs of Scotland; but when Indarsal went to Udaipur, he procured the title of Maharaja for himself and his brothers; since which Apji has been applied to the holders of the secondary fiefs, the Madhani of Kotah. Raja Bhim left three sons, Arjun Singh, Shyam Singh, and Durjansal.
Mahārāo Arjun Singh, A.D. 1720-24.
Mahārāo Durjansāl, A.D. 1724-56. The Marātha Invasion.
Jaipur claims to control Kotah.
Birth of Zālim Singh.
When Isari Singh was foiled, the brave Durjansal lent his assistance to replace the exiled Ummeda on the throne which his father had lost. But without Holkar’s aid, this would have been vain; and, in S. 1805 (A.D. 1749), the year of Ummeda’s restoration, Kotah was compelled to become tributary to the Mahrattas.
Death and Character of Durjansāl.
COUNTRY SEAT OF THE KOTAH PRINCE.
To face page 1530.
In these expeditions, which resembled preparations for war, he invariably carried the queens. These Amazonian ladies were taught the use of the matchlock, and being placed upon the terraced roofs of the hunting-seats, sent their shots at the forest-lord, when driven past their stand by the hunters. On one of these occasions the Jhala Faujdar was at the foot of the scaffolding; the tiger, infuriated with the uproar, approached him open-mouthed; but the prince had not yet given the word, and none dared to fire without his signal. The animal eyed his victim, and was on the point of springing, when the Jhala advanced his shield, sprung upon him, and with one blow of his sword laid him dead at his feet. The act was applauded by the prince and his court, and contributed not a little to the character he had already attained.
Durjansal left no issue. He was married to a daughter of the Rana of Mewar. Being often disappointed, and at length despairing of an heir, about three years before his death, he told the Rani it was time to think of adopting an heir to fill the gaddi, “for it was evident that the Almighty disapproved of the usurpation which changed the order of succession.” It will be remembered that Bishan Singh, son of Ram Singh [514], was set aside for refusing, in compliance with maternal fears, to accompany his father in the wars of the Deccan. When dispossessed of his birthright, he was established in the fief of Antha on the Chambal.[[14]] At the death of Durjansal, Ajit Singh, grandson of the disinherited prince, was lord of Antha, but he was in extreme old age. He had three sons, and the eldest, whose name of Chhattarsal revived ancient associations, was formally “placed in the lap of the Rani Mewari; the asis (blessing) was given; he was taught the names of his ancestors (being no longer regarded as the son of Ajit of Antha), Chhattar Singh, son of Durjansal, Bhimsinghgot, Ram Singh, Kishor Singh, etc., etc.,” and so on, to the fountain-head, Dewa Banga, and thence to Manikrae of Ajmer. Though the adoption was proclaimed, and all looked to Chhattarsal as the future lord of the Haras of Kotah, yet on the death of Durjan, the Jhala Faujdar took upon him to make an alteration in this important act, and he had power enough to effect it.
Mahārāo Ajīt Singh, A.D. 1756-59. Mahārāo Chhattarsāl, A.D. 1759-66.
At this epoch, Madho Singh, who had acceded to the throne of Amber on the suicide of his predecessor, Isari, instead of taking warning by example, prepared to put forth all his strength for the revival of those tributary claims upon the Haras, which had cost his brother his life. The contest was between Rajput and Rajput; the question at issue was supremacy on the one hand, and subserviency on the other, the sole plea for which was that the Kotah contingent had acted under the princes of Amber, when lieutenants of the empire. But the Haras held in utter scorn the attempt to compel this service in their individual capacity, in which they only recognized them as equals.
Jaipur attacks Kotah.
Malhar Rao Holkar was encamped in their vicinity, with the remnant of his horde, but so crestfallen since the fatal day of Panipat,[[17]] that he feared to side with either. At this moment young Zalim, mounting his steed, galloped to the Mahratta, and implored him, if he would not fight, to move round and plunder the Jaipur camp: a hint which needed no repetition.
The little impression yet made on the Kotah band only required the report that “the camp was assaulted,” to convert the lukewarm courage of their antagonists into panic and flight: “the host of Jaipur fled, while the sword of the Hara performed tirath (pilgrimage) in rivers of blood.xxxx
The chiefs of Macheri, of Isarda, Watka, Barol, Achrol, with all the ots and awats of Amber, turned their backs on five thousand Haras of Kotah; for the Bundi troops, though assembled, did not join, and lost the golden opportunity to free its Kothris, or fiefs, from the tribute. Many prisoners were taken, and the five-coloured banner of Amber fell into the hands of the Haras, whose bard was not slow to turn the incident to account in the stanza, still repeated whenever he celebrates the victory of Bhatwara, and in which the star (tara) of Zalim prevailed:
Jang Bhatwārā jīt
Tārā Jālim Jhālā.
Ring ek rang chīt,
Chādyo rang pach-rang kē.[[18]]
“In the battle of Bhatwara, the star of Zalim was triumphant. In that field of strife (ringa) but one colour (rang) covered that of the five-coloured (panch-ranga) banner”: meaning that the Amber standard was dyed in blood.
The battle of Bhatwara decided the question of tribute, nor has the Kachhwaha since this day dared to advance the question of supremacy, which, as lieutenant of the empire, he desired to transfer to himself. In derision of this claim, ever since the day of Bhatwara, when the Haras assemble at their Champ de Mars to celebrate the annual military festival, they make a mock castle of Amber, which is demolished amidst shouts of applause.[[19]]
Chhattarsal survived his elevation and this success but a few years; and as he died without offspring, he was succeeded by his brother [517].
[1]. [Pātan, about 25 miles E. of Būndi city: ‘Gainoli’ in the text is probably Gondoli, about 10 miles E. of Pātan.]
[2]. [A Sikh sect founded by Nānak, the Sikh Guru (A.D. 1469-1539) (Rose, Glossary, iii. 152 ff.).]
[3]. [About 10 miles N. of Būndi city.][city.]]
[4]. [Probably Sātur, with a temple of Rakt Dantika Devi, ‘she with the blood-stained teeth’ (Rājputāna Gazetteer, 1879, i. 240).]
[5]. I have made my salaam to the representative of Hanja, and should have graced his neck with a chaplet on every military festival, had I dwelt among the Haras.
[6]. Ummeda, ‘hope’; Singh, ‘a lion.’
[7]. [On the Nerbudda as a barrier see Vol. II. p. [971].]
[8]. [The Holkar family belonged to the Dhangar, or Marātha shepherd caste, taking their name from the village of Hol on the Nīra River in Poona District (Grant Duff 212; BG, xviii. Part ii. 244).]
[9]. See Annals of Mewar, Vol. I. p. [495].
[10]. [10 miles S. of Jaipur city.]
[11]. As in those days when Mahratta spoliation commenced, a joint-stock purse was made for all such acquisitions, so Patan was divided into shares, of which the Peshwa had one, and Sindhia another; but the Peshwa’s share remained nominal, and the revenue was carried to account by Holkar for the services of the Poona State. In the general pacification of A.D. 1817, this long-lost and much-cherished district was once more incorporated with Bundi, to the unspeakable gratitude and joy of its prince and people. In effecting this for the grandson of Ummeda, the Author secured for himself a gratification scarcely less than his.
[12]. [Āīn, ii. 102, 274 f. Jarrett writes Sūi Sūpar or Sūi Sopar.]
[13]. [Āīn, ii. 132 f.]
[14]. The universal arbitrator, Zalim Singh of Kotah, having undertaken to satisfy them, and save them from the annual visitations of the Jaipur troops, withdrew the proper allegiance of Indargarh, Balwan, and Antardah to himself. The British government, in ignorance of these historical facts, and not desirous to disturb the existing state of things, were averse to hear the Bundi claims for the restoration of her proper authority over these her chief vassals. With all his gratitude for the restoration of his political existence, the brave and good Bishan Singh could not suppress a sigh when the author said that Lord Hastings refused to go into the question of the Kothris, who had thus transferred their allegiance to Zalim Singh of Kotah. In their usual metaphorical style, he said, with great emphasis and sorrow, “My wings remain broken.” It would be a matter of no difficulty to negotiate the claims of Jaipur, and cause the regent of Kotah to forgo his interposition, which would be attended with no loss of any kind to him, but would afford unspeakable benefit and pride to Bundi, which has well deserved the boon at our hands.
[15]. [About 30 miles N.E. of Būndi city: for Bijaiseni Māta see Vol. II. p. [1193].]
[16]. The laws of revenge are dreadfully absolute: had the sons of Deo Singh survived, the feud upon their liege lord would have been entailed with their estate. It is a nice point for a subject to balance between fidelity to his prince, and a father’s feud, bap ka vair.
[17]. The queens’ apartments.
[18]. [In early Hindu times a similar performance of mock funereal rites took place in the event of contumacious disregard of the rules of caste (Barnett, Antiquities of India, 120).]
[20]. [In the island of Pāmban, Madura District, Madras (IGI, xxi. 173 ff.).]
[21]. [Sītakund, in Chittagong District, Bengal (ibid. xxiii. 50).]
[22]. [Jagannāth, not “a Moloch”: religious suicides under his car are infrequent (Hunter, Orissa, i. 133 f.).]
[23]. [Krishna, at Dwārka.]
[24]. [Kāli, Pārvati, Māta, or Nāni, not Agnidevi, is worshipped at Hinglāj (IGI, xiii. 142).]
[25]. [See Vol. II. p. [1170].]
[27]. [Perhaps the town of that name in the Sahāranpur District, United Provinces.]
[28]. [Sukhpāl, “happiness-protecting,” a luxurious litter, like the sukhāsan or mahādol (p. [1349]).]
[29]. [For a full account of the disastrous retreat of Hon. Lieut.-Col. William Monson see Mill, Hist. of India, vol. iii. (1817) 672 ff. He was son of John, 2nd Baron Monson: born in 1760: went to India with the 52nd Regiment in 1780. He shared in the attack on Seringapatam in 1792: in the Marātha war of 1803 commanded a brigade under Lord Lake: led the storming party, and was seriously wounded at the capture of Aligarh, 4th September 1803. After his famous retreat to Agra in 1804 he was again employed under Lord Lake in his campaign against Holkar: was present at the battle of Dīg, 14th November 1804,and led the last of the four assaults on Bharatpur in 1805. He returned to England in 1806, and was elected member for Lincoln. He died in December 1807. (C. E. Buckland, Dict. Indian Biography, s.v.).]
[30]. The Author had the distinguished happiness of concluding the treaty with Bundi in February 1818. His previous knowledge of her deserts was not disadvantageous to her interests, and he assumed the responsibility of concluding it upon the general principles which were to regulate our future policy as determined in the commencement of the war; and setting aside the views which trenched upon these in our subsequent negotiations. These general principles laid it down as a sine qua non that the Mahrattas should not have a foot of land in Rajputana west of the Chambal; and he closed the door to recantation by sealing the reunion in perpetuity to Bundi, of Patan and all land so situated. [In 1847, with the consent of Sindhia, his share of the Pātan district was made over in perpetuity to Būndi on payment of a further sum of Rs. 80,000, to be credited to Gwalior. Under the treaty of 1860 with Sindhia the sovereignty of this tract was transferred to the British Government, from whom Būndi now holds it as a perpetual fief, subject to the payment of Rs. 80,000 per annum, in addition to the tribute of Rs. 40,000 payable under the treaty of 1818 (IGI. ix. 81 f.).]
[31]. [Risāla properly means ‘a letter, account.’ Risāladār has, in the British service, the special sense of a native officer commanding a troop of cavalry (Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. 761 f.).]
[32]. The truck system, called parna, is well known in Rajputana.
[33]. And from the Author with the rest, whose nephew he was by courtesy and adoption. [Rām Singh succeeded his father in 1821. He behaved with apathy and lukewarmness in the Mutiny of 1857, but he was given the right of adoption in 1862, and died in 1889. He was “the most conservative prince in conservative Rājputāna, and a grand specimen of a true Rājput gentleman.” He was succeeded by his son Mahārāo Rāja Raghbīr Singh (IGI. ix. 82).]
[1]. [See Elliot-Dowson vi. 395, 418.]
[2]. [Rājputs in early days used to intermarry and eat with Bhīls, who were regarded, not as a menial tribe, but as lords of the soil (Russell, Tribes and Castes Central Provinces, ii. 281).]
[3]. He held also the districts of Dah and Gura in grant direct of the empire.
[4]. [‘The defile of Mukund,’ also written Mukunddwāra, ‘door or gate of Mukund,’ about 25 miles S. of Kotah city.]
[5]. [The extra-mural suburb of a fortress (Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. 702).]
[6]. [15th April 1658 (Jadunath Sarkar, Hist. of Aurangzib, ii. 1 ff.).]
[7]. A descendant of his covered Monson’s retreat even before this general reached the Mukunddarra Pass, and fell defending the ford of the Amjar, disdaining to retreat. His simple cenotaph marks the spot where in the gallant old style this chief “spread his carpet” to meet the Deccani host, while a British commander, at the head of a force capable of sweeping one end of India to the other, fled! The Author will say more of this in his Personal Narrative, having visited the spot.
[8]. This is one more of the numerous inexplicable claims which the British Government has had to decide upon, since it became the universal arbitrator. Neither party understanding their origin, the difficulty of a just decision must be obvious. This sets it at rest. [Tankhwāh, ‘wages, an assignment of revenue.’ For its technical sense tankhwāh jāgīr see Rogers-Beveridge, Memoirs of Jahāngīr, 74.]
[9]. [Kamaru-d-dīn, Āsaf Jāh, son of Ghāziu-d-dīn Khān Jang, born 1671, received the title of Chīn Qilīch Khān in 1690-91; governor of Morādābād and Mālwa under Farrukhsīyar; gained supreme power in the Deccan in 1720; died May 22, 1748, the present Nizāms of Haidarābād being his successors (Manucci iv. 140; Grant Duff, History of the Mahrattas, 190; Elliot-Dowson vii. passim).]
[10]. [On the river Betwa, about 45 miles S.S.W. of Lalitpur.]
[12]. In this year, when Bajirao invaded Hindustan, passing through Haraoti, Himmat Singh Jhala was Faujdar of Kotah. In that year Sheo Singh, and in the succeeding the celebrated Zalim Singh, was born.
[13]. [Jai Āpa Sindhia succeeded his father, Rānoji Sindhia. His dates are uncertain, but he was probably killed at Nāgor in 1759 (Beale, Dict. Oriental Biography, s.v.; IGI, xii. 421; Grant Duff, Hist. of the Mahrattas, 270).]
[14]. [Antha is not on the Chambal: it is about 25 miles E. of Kotah city.]
[15]. [Ahmad Shāh Durrāni defeated the Marāthas at Pānipat, 7th January 1761.]
[16]. [Near Māngrol, about 40 miles N.E. of Kotah city.]
[17]. It is singular enough, that Zalim Singh was born in the year of Nadir Shah’s invasion, and made his political entrée in that of the Abdali.
[18]. [Dr. Tessitori, whose version has been followed, writes: “The second line is quite wrong, and I should not be surprised if it was made up by Col. Tod’s Pandit. I believe there was some other word in place of tārā.”]
[19]. [See Vols. II. p. [1199], III. p. [1471].]