Nâhar Khân.
Another instance of the same type may be given from Râjputâna. Jaswant Sinh of Mârwâr had an intrigue with the daughter of one of his chief officers. “But the avenging ghost of the Brâhman interposed between him and his wishes; a dreadful struggle ensued, in which Jaswant lost his senses, and no effort could banish the impression from his mind. The ghost persecuted his fancy, and he was generally believed to be possessed of a wicked spirit, which when exorcised was made to say he would depart only on the sacrifice of a chief equal in dignity to Jaswant. Nâhar Khân, ‘the tiger lord,’ chief of the Kumpâwat clan, who led the van in all his battles, immediately offered his head in expiation for his prince; and he had no sooner expressed his loyal determination, than the holy man who exorcised the spirit, caused it to descend into a vessel of water, and having waved it round his head, they presented it to Nâhar Khân, who drank it off, and Jaswant’s senses were instantly restored. This miraculous transfer of the ghost is implicitly believed by every chief of Râjasthân, by whom Nâhar Khân is called ‘the faithful of the faithful,’ and worshipped as a local god.”[36]