"Swasti Sri, worthy of all praise (opma), from whose actions credit results; the worshipper of the remover of troubles; the ambrosia of the ocean of the Rajput race[[F]] (amrita ratnakara kshatriya kula); resplendent as the sun; who has made a river of tears from the eyes of the wives of your warlike foes; in deeds munificent. Sriman Maharaja dhiraj Maharana Sri Jagat Singhji, of all the princes chief, Sriman Sahu Chatarpati Raja writes, read his Ram, Ram! Here all is well; honour me by good accounts, which I am always expecting, as the source of happiness.
“Your favour was received by the Pandit Pardhan[Pardhan][[G]] with great respect; and from the period of the arrival of Raj Sri Rawat Udai Singh to this time my goodwill has been increasing towards him: let your favour between us be enlarged: what more can I write?”
[A]. A compliment used from a superior to any inferior.
[B]. To the Peshwa is the allusion.
[C]. As the Rana never expected his confidential notes to be translated into English, perhaps it is illiberal to be severe on them; or we might say, his elephants are mentioned more con amore than his sick mother or state affairs. I obtained many hundreds of these autograph notes of this prince to his prime minister.
[D]. The Hindu saturnalia held in the island, ‘The Minster of the world.’
[E]. The Rana always styled him ‘father.’
[F]. The ocean has the poetical appellation of ratnakara, or ‘house of gems’ [‘mine of jewels’]; the fable of the churning of the ocean is well known, when were yielded many bounties, of which the amrita or ‘immortal food’ of the gods was one, to which the Rana, as head of all the Rajput tribes, is likened.
[G]. This expression induces the belief that the letter is written by the Peshwa in his sovereign’s name, as they had at this time commenced their usurpation of his power. It was to the second Jagat Singh that an offer was made to fill the Satara throne by a branch of his family, then occupied by an imbecile. A younger brother of the Rana, the ancestor of the present heir presumptive, Sheodan Singh, was chosen, but intrigues prevented it, the Rana dreading a superior from his own family.
[35]. The descendant of Bhim, son of Rana Raj Singh. The seat assigned to Bajirao was made the precedent for the position of the representative of the British Government. [The Rāwat of Banera, on succession, has the right of receiving a sword, on the arrival of which he goes to Udaipur to be installed (Erskine ii. A. 92).]