Verbatim:
“Horse, shoes, turban,
Mustachio, sword [of] Marwar,
Five things surrendered were
At Patan by the Rathor.”
Both these “ribald strains” are still the taunt of either race: by such base agencies are thrones overturned, and heroism rendered abortive!
When the fatal result of the battle of Patan was communicated to Raja Bijai Singh, he called a council of all his nobles, at which the independent branches of his family, the Rajas of Bikaner, Kishangarh, and Rupnagarh, assisted, for the cause was a common one. The Raja gave it as his own opinion, that it was better to fulfil the terms of the former treaty, on the murder of Jai Apa, acknowledge the cancelled tribute, and restore Ajmer, which they had recovered by a coup de main. His valorous chieftains opposed the degrading suggestion, and unanimously recommended that they should again try the chances of war ere they signed their humiliation. Their resolution swayed the prince, who issued his summons to every Rathor in his dominions to assemble under their Raja’s banner, once more planted on the ensanguined plains of Merta. A fine army was embodied; not a Rathor who could wield a sword but brought it for service in the cause of his country; and full thirty thousand men assembled on the 10th September 1790, determined to efface the recollections of Patan [762].
Battle of Merta, September 1790 A.D.
Bhimraj Singwi received at Nagor, whither he had fled, a letter of accusation from his sovereign, on which he swallowed poison; but although he was indirectly the cause of the defeat, by his supineness, and subsequent disgraceful flight, it was the minister at the capital whose treason prevented the destruction of the Mahrattas: Khub Chand was jealous of Bhimraj; he dreaded being supplanted by him if he returned from Merta crowned with success; and he therefore penned the dispatch which paralysed their energies, enjoining them to await the junction of Ismail Beg [765].
Thus, owing to a scurrilous couplet of a bard, and to the jealousy of a contemptible court-faction, did the valiant Rathors lose their independence—if it can be called lost—since each of these brave men still deems himself a host, when “his hour should come” to play the hero. Their spirit is not one jot diminished since the days of Tonga and Merta.[[8]]