CHAPTER 3
Bhatner.
Neither the tract depending on Bhatner, nor that north of it to the Gara River, presented formerly the scene of absolute desolation they now exhibit, and I shall append a list of towns, to which a high antiquity is assigned, whose vestiges still remain, and from which something might perhaps be gleaned to confirm or overturn these deductions.
Bhatner has attained great historical celebrity from its position, being in the route of invasion from Central Asia to India. It is more than probable that the Jats, who resisted the advance of Mahmud of Ghazni in a naval warfare on the Indus, had long before that period established themselves in the desert as well as in the Panjab; and as we find them occupying a place amongst the Thirty-six Royal Tribes, we may infer that they had political power many centuries before that conqueror. In A.D. 1205, only twelve years after the conquest of India by Shihabu-d-din, his successor, Kutb, was compelled to conduct the war in person against the Jats of the northern desert, to prevent their wresting the important post of Hansi from the empire;[[2]] and when the unfortunate and intrepid queen Raziyah, the worthy heiress of the great Firoz, was compelled to abandon her throne to a usurper, she sought and found protection amongst the Jats, who, with their Scythic brethren, the Gakkhars, assembled all their forces and marched, with their queen at their head, like Tomyris of old, to meet her foes.[[3]] She was not destined to enjoy the same revenge, but gained a glorious death in the attempt to overturn the Salic law of India.[[4]] Again, in A.D. 1397, when Timur invaded India, Bhatner was attacked for “having distressed him exceedingly on his invasion of Multan,” when he “in person scoured the country, and cut off a tribe of banditti called Jats.”[[5]] In short, the Bhattis and Jats were so intermingled that distinction was impossible. Leaving this point, therefore, to be adjusted in the annals of the Bhattis, we proceed to sketch the history of the colony which ruled Bhatner when subjugated by the Rathors.
The Bhatti Migration.
Bersi ruled twenty-seven years, and was succeeded by his son Bhairon, when the sons of Chaghat Khan, obtaining aid from the Delhi monarch, invaded Bhatner, and were twice repulsed with great loss. A third army succeeded; Bhatner was invested and reduced to great straits, when Bhairon hung out a flag of truce, and offered to accept any conditions which would not compromise his castle. Two were named: to embrace Islamism, or seal his sincerity by giving his daughter to the king. He accepted the first alternative, and from that day, in order to distinguish these proselytes, they changed the name of Bhati to Bhatti. Six chiefs intervened between Bhairon and
Rao Dalich, surnamed Hayat Khan, from whom Rae Singh of Bikaner wrested Bhatner, and Fatehabad became the future residence of the Bhatti Khans. He was succeeded by
Husain Khan (the grandson of Hayat), who recaptured Bhatner from Raja Shujawan Singh, and it was maintained during the time of Husain Mahmud and Imam Mahmud, until Surat Singh made the final conquest of it from Bahadur Khan, father to the present titular head of the Bhattis,[[6]]
Zabita Khan, who resides at Reni, having about twenty-five villages dependent thereon.[[7]] Reni was founded by Rae Singh of Bikaner, and named after his queen (Rani), to whom it was assigned. It was taken by Imam Mahmud. The Bhatti Khan is now a robber by profession, and his revenues, which are said to have sometimes amounted to three lakhs of rupees, are extorted by the point of his lance. These [214] depredations are carried to a frightful extent, and the poor Jats are kept eternally on the alert to defend their property. The proximity of the British territory preventing all incursions to the eastward, they are thrown back upon their original haunts, and make the whole of this northern region their prey. To this circumstance is attributed the desertion of these lands, which once reared cattle in abundance, and were highly valued. It is asserted that from the northern boundary of Bhatner to the Gara there are many tracts susceptible of high cultivation, having water near the surface, and many large spaces entirely free from thal, or ‘sandhills.’ To the drying up of the Hakra, or Ghaggar, many centuries ago, in conjunction with moral evils, is ascribed the existing desolation. According to tradition, this stream took a westerly direction, by Phulra, where it is yet to be traced, and fell into the Indus below Uchh. The couplet recording its absorption by the sands of Ner has already been given, in the time of Rao Hamir, prince of Dhat. If the next European traveller who may pass through the Indian desert will seek out the representative of the ancient Sodha princes at Chor, near Umarkot, he may learn from their bard (if they retain such an appendage) the date of this prince, and that of so important an event in the physical and political history of their regions. The vestiges of large towns, now buried in the sands, confirm the truth of this tradition, and several of them claim a high antiquity; such as the Rangmahall, already mentioned, west of Bhatner, having subterranean apartments still in good preservation. An aged native of Dandusar (twenty-five miles south of Bhatner) replied, to my inquiry as to the recollections attached to this place, that “it belonged to a Panwar prince who ruled once all these regions, when Sikandar Rumi attacked them.”
An excursion from Hansi Hissar, our western frontier, into these regions, would soon put the truth of such traditions to the test, as far as these reported ruins are concerned; though what might appear the remains of palaces of the Pramaras, the Johyas, and the Jats of ancient days, to the humble occupant of a hut in the desert, may only prove the foundations of some castellated building. But the same traditions are circulated with regard to the more western desert, where the same kind of vestiges is said to exist, and the annals make mention of capitals, the sites of which are now utterly unknown. Considering the safety, and comparative ease, with which such a journey can be made, one cannot imagine a more agreeable pursuit than the prosecution of archaeological inquiries in the northern deserts of Rajputana, where traditions abound, and where the existing manners, amongst such a diversity of tribes, would furnish ample materials [215] for the portfolio, as well as for memoirs. Its productions, spontaneous or cultivated, though its botanical as well as zoological specimens may be limited, we know to be essentially different from those of Gangetic India, and more likely to find a parallel in the natural productions and phenomena of the great African desert. The Bhattis, the Khosas, the Rajars, the Sahariyas, the Mangalias, the Sodhas, and various other nomadic tribes, present a wide field for observation; and the physiologist, when tired of the habits of man, may descend from the nobler animal to the lion, the wild ass, every kind of deer, the flocks of sheep which, fed on the succulent grasses, touch not water for six weeks together, while the various herbs, esculent plants and shrubs, salt lakes, natron beds, etc., would give abundant scope for commentary and useful comparison. He will discover no luxuries, and few signs of civilization; the jhonpra (hut) constructed of poles and twigs, coated inside with mud and covered with grass, being little better than the African’s dwelling.