[20]. To the few who will peruse these annals of the desert tribes it will be interesting to observe the development of families, and the maintenance, by such distinctive patronymics, of their origin. In the annals of this remote State I shall not enter at any length into the history of their wars, which are, with a change of names and scene, all pretty much alike; but confine myself, after a succinct and connected genealogical relation, to the manners of the people, the aspect, productions, and government of the country. [Abu-l Fazl (Akbarnāma, i. 375) calls him Rāē Lonkaran. According to Erskine (iii. A. 316) the second chief of Bīkaner was Naro or Naruji, son of Bīka, who succeeded A.D. 1504, and died childless after a reign of four months.]
[21]. [For Rāē Singh see Rogers-Beveridge, Memoirs of Jahāngīr, 130 f. According to the Akbarnāma (ii. 518) Akbar’s wife was the daughter of Kahān, brother of Kalyānmall, Rāē of Jaisalmer. The Tuzuk (Āīn, i. 477) says that her father was Rāwal Bhīm, elder brother of Kalyān. Ferishta (ii. 234) says that Kalyānmall was her father, and this statement is accepted by Erskine (iii. A. 316) see Elliot-Dowson v. 336.]
[22]. [Now known as Hanumāngarh, 144 miles N.E. of Bīkaner city (IGI, xiii. 38).]
[23]. In the Annals of Jaisalmer the number of offsets from the Yadu-Bhatti tribe, which assumed the name of Jat, will be seen; an additional ground for asserting that the Scythic Yadu is in fact the Yuti.
[24]. My informant of this tradition was an old inhabitant of Dandusar, and although seventy years of age, had never left the little district of his nativity until he was brought to me, as one of the most intelligent living records of the past. [General Hervey (Some Records of Crime, i. 209) says that a trace of Greek art may be found in the Grecian ram’s head on the hilt of weapons in Bīkaner. For traditions of descent from Alexander based on the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom see Sykes, Hist. of Persia, i. 256[i. 256].]
[25]. The natives of these regions cannot pronounce the sibilant; so that, as I have already stated, the s is converted into h. I gave as an example the name Jahilmer, which becomes ‘the hill of fools’ instead of ‘the hill of Jaisal.’ Sankra, in like manner, becomes Hankra. [Uchh in the Bahāwalpur State (IGI, xxiv. 82). For the Hakra depression see Malik Muhammad Din (Bahāwalpur State Gazetteer, i. 3 ff.). The Ghaggar, once an affluent of the Indus, is lost in the sands near Hanumāngarh or Bhatner (IGI, xii. 212 f.).]
[26]. [His services are described in Āīn, i. 357 ff. Ferishta (ii. 243) says that Rāē Singh killed Muhammad Husain after he was captured. According to another account, Akbar spoke kindly to his captive, and gave him into Rāē Singh’s custody (Elliot-Dowson v. 367).]
[27]. [According to Erskine (iii. A. 319, iii. B. 83) Dalpat Singh and Sūr Singh were Rāos between Rāē Singh and Karan Singh. For these Chiefs see Āīn, i. 359. Karan Singh, according to Musalmān authorities, died in 1666-7 (Manucci ii. 22). In 1660 Aurangzeb sent a force under Amīr Khān to bring him to reason for his insolence in refusing to attend the Emperor’s Court (Jadunath Sarkar, Life of Aurangzib, iii. 29 f.).]
[28]. [J. Scott, Ferishta’s History of the Dekkan[Dekkan], ii. 30.] The young desert chieftain, like all his tribe, would find matter for quarrel in the wind blowing in his face. Having received what he deemed an insult from the brother-in-law of the Shahzada, in a dispute regarding a fawn, he appealed to his sword, and a duel ensued even in the presence-chamber, in which young Mohan fell. The fracas was reported to his brother Padma, at no distance from the scene. With the few retainers at hand, he rushed to the spot, and found his brother bathed in his blood. His antagonist, still hanging over his victim, when he saw the infuriated Rathor enter, with sword and shield, prepared for dreadful vengeance, retreated behind one of the columns of the Āmm Khass (Divan). But Padma’s sword reached him, and avenged his brother’s death; as the record says, “he felled him to the earth, cleaving at the same place the pillar in twain.” Taking up the dead body of his brother, and surrounded by his vassals, he repaired to his quarters, where he assembled all the Rajput princes serving with their contingents, as Jaipur, Jodhpur, Haraoti, and harangued them on the insult to their race in the murder of his brother. They all agreed to abandon the king’s army, and retire to their own homes. A noble was sent to expostulate by Prince Muazzam; but in vain. He urged that the prince not only forgave, but approved the summary vengeance taken by the Rathor; they refused to listen, and in a body had retired more than twenty miles, when the prince in person joined them, and concessions and expostulations overcoming them, they returned to the camp. It was subsequent to this that the two elder brothers were slain. It is recorded of the surviving brother, that he slew an enormous lion in single combat. For this exploit, which thoroughly entitled him to the name he bore (Kesari), ‘the Lion,’ he received an estate of twenty-five villages from the king. He also obtained great renown for slaying a Habshi or Abyssinian chief, who commanded for one of the southern princes.
[29]. [Adoni in the Bellary District, Madras (IGI, v. 24 ff.).]