Another roll, of considerable antiquity, commences in the fabulous age, with a long string of names, without facts; its sole value consists in the esteem in which the tribe holds it. We may omit all that precedes Nain Pal, who, in the year S. 526 (A.D. 470[[8]]), conquered Kanauj, slaying its monarch Ajaipal; from which period the race was termed Kanaujia Rathor. The genealogy proceeds to Jaichand, the last monarch of Kanauj; relates the emigration of his nephew Siahji, or Sivaji, and his establishment in the desert (Maruwar), with a handful of his brethren (a wreck of the mighty kingdom of Kanauj); and terminates with the death of Raja Jaswant Singh in S. 1735 (A.D. 1679), describing every branch and scion, until we see them spreading over Maru [3].
Genealogy ceases to be an uninteresting pursuit when it enables us to mark the progress of animal vegetation, from the germ to the complete development of the tree, until the land is overshadowed with its branches; and bare as is the chronicle to the moralist or historian, it exhibits to the observer of the powers of the animal economy, data which the annals of no other people on earth can furnish. In A.D. 1193 we see the throne of Jaichand overturned; his nephew, with a handful of retainers, taking service with a petty chieftain in the Indian desert. In less than four centuries we find the descendants of these exiles of the Ganges occupying nearly the whole of the desert; having founded three capitals, studded the land with the castles of its feudality, and bringing into the field fifty thousand men, ek bap ka beta, ‘the sons of one father,’ to combat the emperor of Delhi. What a contrast does their unnoticed growth present to that of the Islamite conquerors of Kanauj, of whom five dynasties passed away in ignorance of the renovated existence of the Rathor, until the ambition of Sher Shah brought him into contact with the descendants of Siahji, whose valour caused him to exclaim “he had nearly lost the crown of India for a handful of barley,” in allusion to the poverty of their land![[9]]
What a sensation does it not excite when we know that a sentiment of kindred pervades every individual of this immense affiliated body, who can point out, in the great tree, the branch of his origin, whilst not one is too remote from the main stem to forget its pristine connexion with it! The moral sympathies created by such a system pass unheeded by the chronicler, who must deem it futile to describe what all sensibly feel, and which renders his page, albeit little more than a string of names, one of paramount interest to the ‘sons of Siahji.’
The third authority is the Suraj Prakas (Surya Prakasa), composed by the bard Karnidhan, during the reign and by command of Raja Abhai Singh. This poetic history, comprised in 7500 stanzas, was copied from the original manuscript, and sent to me by Raja Man, in the year 1820.[[10]] As usual, the Kavya (bard) commences with the origin of all things, tracing the Rathors from the creation down to Sumitra; from whence is a blank until he recommences with the name of Kamdhuj, which appears to have been the title assumed by Nain Pal, on his conquest of Kanauj. Although Karnidhan must have taken his facts from the [4] royal records, they correspond very well with the roll from Narlai. The bard is, however, in a great hurry to bring the founder of the Rathors into Marwar, and slurs over the defeat and death of Jaichand. Nor does he dwell long on his descendants, though he enumerates them all, and points out the leading events until he reaches the reign of Jaswant Singh, grandfather of Abhai Singh, who “commanded the bard to write the Suraj Prakas.”
The next authority is the Raj Rupak Akhyat, or ‘the royal relations.’ This work commences with a short account of the Suryavansa, from their cradle at Ajodhya; then takes up Siahji’s migration, and in the same strain as the preceding work, rapidly passes over all events until the death of Raja Jaswant; but it becomes a perfect chronicle of events during the minority of his successor Ajit, his eventful reign, and that of Abhai Singh, to the conclusion of the war against Sarbuland Khan, viceroy of Gujarat. Throwing aside the meagre historical introduction, it is professedly a chronicle of the events from S. 1735 (A.D. 1679) to S. 1787 (A.D. 1734), the period to which the Suraj Prakas is brought down.
A portion of the Bijai Vilas, a poem of 100,000 couplets, also fell into my hands: it chiefly relates to the reign of the prince whose name it bears, Bijai Singh, the son of Bakhta Singh. It details the civil wars waged by Bijai Singh and his cousin Ram Singh (son of Abhai Singh), and the consequent introduction of the Mahrattas into Marwar.
From a biographical work named simply Khyat, or ‘Story,’ I obtained that portion which relates to the lives of Raja Udai Singh, the friend of Akbar; his son Raja Gaj, and grandson Jaswant Singh. These sketches exhibit in true colours the character of the Rathors.
Besides these, I caused to be drawn up by an intelligent man, who had passed his life in office at Jodhpur, a memoir of transactions from the death of Ajit Singh, in A.D. 1629, down to the treaty with the English Government in A.D. 1818. The ancestors of the narrator had filled offices of trust in the State, and he was a living chronicle both of the past and present.
From these sources, from conversations with the reigning sovereign, his nobles, his ambassadors, and subjects, materials were collected for this sketch of the Rathors—barren, indeed, of events at first, but redundant of them as we advance.
A genealogical table of the Rathors is added, showing the grand offsets, whose [5] descendants constitute the feudal frèrage of the present day. A glance at this table will show the claims of each house; and in its present distracted condition, owing to civil broils, will enable the paramount power to mediate, when necessary, with impartiality, in the conflicting claims of the prince and his feudatories.