14. Traditional character of the Rājpūts
The Rājpūts as depicted by Colonel Tod resembled the knights of the age of chivalry. Courage, strength and endurance were the virtues most highly prized. One of the Rājpūt trials of strength, it is recorded, was to gallop at full speed under the horizontal branch of a tree and cling to it while the horse passed on. This feat appears to have been a common amusement, and it is related in the annals of Mewār that the chief of Bunera broke his spine in the attempt; and there were few who came off without bruises and falls, in which consisted the sport. Of their martial spirit Colonel Tod writes: “The Rājpūt mother claims her full share in the glory of her son, who imbibes at the maternal fount his first rudiments of chivalry; and the importance of this parental instruction cannot be better illustrated than in the ever-recurring simile, ‘Make thy mother’s milk resplendent.’ One need not reason on the intensity of sentiment thus implanted in the infant Rājpūt, of whom we may say without metaphor the shield is his cradle and daggers his playthings, and with whom the first commandment is ‘Avenge thy father’s feud.’[24] A Rājpūt yet loves to talk of the days of chivalry, when three things alone occupied him, his horse, his lance and his mistress; for she is but third in his estimation after all, and to the first two he owed her.”[25] And of their desire for fame: “This sacrifice (of the Johar) accomplished, their sole thought was to secure a niche in that immortal temple of fame, which the Rājpūt bard, as well as the great minstrel of the West peoples ‘with youths who died to be by poets sung.’ For this the Rājpūt’s anxiety has in all ages been so great as often to defeat even the purpose of revenge, his object being to die gloriously rather than to inflict death; assured that his name would never perish, but, preserved in immortal rhyme by the bard, would serve as the incentive to similar deeds.”[26] He sums up their character in the following terms: “High courage, patriotism, loyalty, honour, hospitality and simplicity are qualities which must at once be conceded to them; and if we cannot vindicate them from charges to which human nature in every clime is obnoxious; if we are compelled to admit the deterioration of moral dignity from continual inroads of, and their consequent collision with rapacious conquerors; we must yet admire the quantum of virtue which even oppression and bad example have failed to banish. The meaner vices of deceit and falsehood, which the delineators of national character attach to the Asiatic without distinction, I deny to be universal with the Rājpūts, though some tribes may have been obliged from position to use these shields of the weak against continuous oppression.”[27] The women prized martial courage no less than the men: they would hear with equanimity of the death of their sons or husbands in the battlefield, while they heaped scorn and contumely on those who returned after defeat. They were constantly ready to sacrifice themselves to the flames rather than fall into the hands of a conqueror; and the Johar, the final act of a besieged garrison, when the women threw themselves into the furnace, while the men sallied forth to die in battle against the enemy, is recorded again and again in Rājpūt annals. Three times was this tragedy enacted at the fall of Chitor, formerly the capital fortress of the Sesodia clan; and the following vivid account is given by Colonel Tod of a similar deed at Jaisalmer, when the town fell to the Muhammadans:[28] “The chiefs were assembled; all were unanimous to make Jaisalmer resplendent by their deeds and preserve the honour of the Yādu race. Muhāj thus addressed them: ‘You are of a warlike race and strong are your arms in the cause of your prince; what heroes excel you who thus tread in the Chhatri’s path? For the maintenance of my honour the sword is in your hands; let Jaisalmer be illumined by its blows upon the foe.’ Having thus inspired the chiefs and men, Muhāj and Ratan repaired to the palace of their queens. They told them to take the sohāg[29] and prepare to meet in heaven, while they gave up their lives in defence of their honour and their faith. Smiling the Rāni replied, ‘This night we shall prepare, and by the morning’s light we shall be inhabitants of heaven’; and thus it was with all the chiefs and their wives. The night was passed together for the last time in preparation for the awful morn. It came; ablutions and prayers were finished and at the royal gate were convened children, wives and mothers. They bade a last farewell to all their kin; the Johar commenced, and twenty-four thousand females, from infancy to old age, surrendered their lives, some by the sword, others in the volcano of fire. Blood flowed in torrents, while the smoke of the pyre ascended to the heavens: not one feared to die, and every valuable was consumed with them, so that not the worth of a straw was preserved for the foe. The work done, the brothers looked upon the spectacle with horror. Life was now a burden and they prepared to quit it They purified themselves with water, paid adoration to the divinity, made gifts to the poor, placed a branch of the tulsi[30] in their casques, the sāligrām[31] round their neck; and having cased themselves in armour and put on the saffron robe, they bound the marriage crown around their heads and embraced each other for the last time. Thus they awaited the hour of battle. Three thousand eight hundred warriors, their faces red with wrath, prepared to die with their chiefs.” In this account the preparation for the Johar as if for a wedding is clearly brought out, and it seems likely that husbands and wives looked on it as a bridal preparatory to the resumption of their life together in heaven.
Colonel Tod gives the following account of a Rājpūt’s arms:[32] “No prince or chief is without his silla-khāna or armoury, where he passes hours in viewing and arranging his arms. Every favourite weapon, whether sword, dagger, spear, matchlock or bow, has a distinctive epithet. The keeper of the armoury is one of the most confidential officers about the person of the prince. These arms are beautiful and costly. The sirohi or slightly curved blade is formed like that of Damascus, and is the greatest favourite of all the variety of weapons throughout Rājputāna. The long cut-and-thrust sword is not uncommon, and also the khanda or double-edged sword. The matchlocks, both of Lahore and the country, are often highly finished and inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold; those of Boondi are the best. The shield of the rhinoceros-hide offers the best resistance, and is often ornamented with animals beautifully painted and enamelled in gold and silver. The bow is of buffalo-horn, and the arrows of reed, which are barbed in a variety of fashions, as the crescent, the trident, the snake’s tongue, and other fanciful forms.” It is probable that the forms were in reality by no means fanciful, but were copied from sacred or divine objects; and similarly the animals painted on the shields may have been originally the totem animals of the clan.