Bards.
A comparison, in so extensive a field, would include the whole of their manners and religious opinions, and must be reserved for a distinct work.[[64]] The Valkyrie [69], or fatal sisters of the Suevi or Siebi, would be the twin sisters of the Apsaras, who summon the Rajput warrior from the field of battle, and bear him to “the mansion of the sun,” equally the object of attainment with the children of Odin in Scandinavia, and of Budha and Surya in the plains of Scythia and on the Ganges, like the Elysium[[65]] of the Heliadae of Greece.
In the day of battle we should see in each the same excitements to glory and contempt of death, and the dramatis personae of the field, both celestial and terrestrial, move and act alike. We should see Thor, the thunderer, leading the Siebi, and Hara (Siva) the Indian Jove, his own worshippers (Sivseva); in which Freya, or Bhavani, and even the preserver (Krishna) himself, not unfrequently mingle.
War Chariots.
The war chariot continued to be used later in the south-west of India than elsewhere, and the Kathi,[[68]] Khuman, Kumari of Saurashtra have to recent times retained their Scythic habits, as their monumental stones testify, expressing their being slain from their cars [70].
Position of Women.
“The Germans,” says Tacitus [Germania, viii.], “deemed the advice of a woman in periods of exigence oracular.” So does the Rajput, as the bard Chand often exemplifies; and hence they append to her name the epithet Devi (or contracted De), ‘god-like.’ “To a German mind,” says Tacitus, “the idea of a woman led into captivity is insupportable”; and to prevent this the Rajput raises the poignard against the heart which beats only for him, though never to survive the dire necessity. It is then they perform the sacrifice ‘johar,’ when every sakha (branch) is cut off: and hence the Rajput glories in the title of Sakha-band, from having performed the sakha; an awful rite, and with every appearance of being the sacaea of the Scythic Getae, as described by Strabo.[[69]]
Gaming.
Destitute of mental pursuits, the martial Rajput is often slothful or attached to sensual pleasures, and when roused, reckless on what he may wreak a fit of energy. Yet when order and discipline prevail in a wealthy chieftainship, there is much of that patriarchal mode of life, with its amusements, alike suited to the Rajput, the Getae of the Jihun, or Scandinavian.