Gallant Death of Mādho Singh.
Zālim Singh appointed Guardian of the Heir.
Mahārāo Ummed Singh, A.D. 1771-1819.
The retention of a power thus acquired, it may be concluded, could never be effected without severity, nor the vigorous authority, wielded throughout a period beyond the ordinary limits of mortality, be sustained without something more potent than persuasion. Still, when we consider Zalim’s perilous predicament, and the motives to perpetual reaction, his acts of severity are fewer than might have been expected, or than occur in the course of usurpation under similar circumstances. Mature reflection initiated all his measures, and the sagacity of their conception was only equalled by the rapidity of their execution. Whether the end in view was good or evil, nothing was ever half-done; no spark was left to excite future conflagration. Even this excess of severity was an advantage; it restrained the repetition of what, whether morally right or wrong, he was determined not to tolerate. To pass a correct judgment on these acts is most difficult. What in one case was a measure of barbarous severity, appears in another to have been one indispensable to the welfare of the State. But this is not the place to discuss the character or principles of the regent; let us endeavour to unfold both in the exhibition of those acts which have carried him through the most tempestuous sea of political convulsion in the whole history of India. When nought but revolution and rapine stalked through the land, when State after State was crumbling into dust, or sinking into the abyss of ruin, he guided the vessel entrusted to his care safely through all dangers, adding yearly to her riches, until he placed her in security under the protection of Britain [523].
Zālim Singh Regent of Kotah.
Murder of Sarūp Singh.
Zālim Singh’s Triumph over his Opponents.
The next combination was more formidable; it was headed by Deo Singh of Aton,[[11]] who enjoyed an estate of sixty thousand rupees rent. He strongly fortified his castle, and was joined by all the discontented nobles, determined to get rid of the authority which crushed them. The regent well knew the spirits he had to cope with, and that the power of the State was insufficient. By means of ‘the help of Moses’ (such is the interpretation of Musa Madad, his auxiliary on this occasion), this struggle against his authority also only served to confirm it; and their measures recoiled on the heads of the feudality. The condition of society since the dissolution of the imperial power was most adverse to the institutions of Rajwara, the unsupported valour of whose nobles was no match for the mercenary force which their rulers could now always command from those bands, belonging to no government, but roaming whither they listed over this vast region, in search of pay or plunder. The ‘help of Moses’ was the leader of one of these associations—a name well known in the history of that agitated period; and he not only led a well-appointed infantry brigade, but had an efficient park attached to it, which was brought to play against Aton. It held out several months, the garrison meanwhile making many sallies, which it required the constant vigilance of Moses to repress. At length, reduced to extremity, they demanded and obtained an honourable capitulation, being allowed to retire unmolested whither they pleased. Such was the termination of this ill-organized insurrection, which involved almost all the feudal chiefs of Kotah in exile and ruin, and strengthened the regent, or as he would say, the state, by the escheat of the sequestrated property. Deo Singh of Aton, the head of this league, died in exile. After several years of lamentation in a foreign soil for the janam bhum, the ‘land of their birth,’ the son pleaded for pardon, though his heart denied all crime, and was fortunate enough to obtain his recall, and the estate of Bamolia, of fifteen thousand rupees rent. The inferior members of the opposition were treated with the same contemptuous clemency; they were admitted into Kotah, but deprived of the power of doing mischief. What stronger proof of the political courage of the regent can be adduced, than his shutting up such combustible materials within the social edifice, and even living amongst and with them, as if he deserved their friendship rather than their hatred [526].
In combating such associations, and thus cementing his power, time passed away. His marriage with one of the distant branches of the royal house of Mewar, by whom he had his son and successor Madho Singh, gave Zalim an additional interest in the affairs of that disturbed State, of which he never lost sight amidst the troubles which more immediately concerned him. The motives which, in S. 1847 (A.D. 1791), made him consider for a time the interests of Kotah as secondary to those of Mewar, are related at length in the annals of that State;[[12]] and the effect of this policy on the prosperity of Kotah, drained of its wealth in the prosecution of his views, will appear on considering the details of his system. Referring the reader, therefore, to the Annals of Mewar, we shall pass from S. 1847 to S. 1856 (A.D. 1800), when another attempt was made by the chieftains to throw off the iron yoke of the protector.