Nikumbh, February 7: eleven miles.—Midway, passed through Chakurla, a village belonging to Amir Khan. Nikumbh is a taluk of Jawad, which with Mandipia was held by the Pindari freebooter, Fazil, while Jaswant Rao Bhao held them in jaedad. They are now leased to a Pandit by the Hakim of Jawad, which latter is assigned by Sindhia to his father-in-law, the Senapati. Nikumbh is a good village, but more than two-thirds depopulated, and the renter is prevented from being lenient, as he experiences [621] no mercy himself. Notwithstanding they have all been suffering as we have from this frost, an assessment is now levying. One poor fellow said to me, “I returned only three months ago from exile, and I had raised the mud-walls of my hut two feet, when my wife died, leaving me to take care of a boy eight years of age, and to get bread for both. If the walls were two feet higher I would cover it in; but though I have not a foot of land, my roofless half-finished cot is assessed a rupee and a half”: a gift of two rupees made him happier than his Hakim!
The country is beautiful, the soil rich, and water, as already mentioned, about twenty-five feet from the surface. We are now in the region of the flower sacred to “gloomy Dis,” the accursed poppy. The crop looks miserable from the frost, but those patches within the influence of the wells are partly saved by the fields being inundated, which expedient is always successful upon such visitations, if applied with judgment. The mountains touching great Sadri lay twelve miles south coming from Partabgarh, and ranging to Salumbar and Udaipur, where they commingle with the giant Aravalli.
The Chāran Tribe. Marla, February 8: seven miles.—Crossed two ridges running northward to Badesar. The intervening valleys, as usual, fertile, with numerous villages, but alienated to the southern Goths or the partisan Pathan. Passed many large townships, formerly in the fisc of Mewar, as Bari, Banota, Bambori, etc. In the distance, saw “the umbrella of the earth,” the far-famed Chitor. Marla is an excellent township, inhabited by a community of Charans, of the tribe Kachhela, who are Banjaras (carriers) by profession, though poets by birth. The alliance is a curious one, and would appear incongruous, were not gain the object generally in both cases. It was the sanctity of their office which converted our Bardais into Banjaras, for their persons being sacred, the immunity extended likewise to their goods, and saved them from all imposts; so that in process of time they became the free-traders of Rajputana. I was highly gratified with the reception I received from the community, which collectively advanced to me at some distance from the town. The procession was headed by the village-band, and all the fair Charanis, who, as they approached, gracefully waved their scarfs over me, until I was fairly made captive by the muses of Marla! It was a novel and interesting scene: the manly persons of the Charans, clad in the flowing white robe, with the high loose folded turban inclined on one side, from which the mala, or chaplet, was gracefully suspended; the Naiks, or leaders, with their massive necklaces of gold, with the image of the pitrideva (manes) depending therefrom, gave the whole an air of opulence and dignity. The females were uniformly [622] attired in a skirt of dark brown camlet, having a bodice of light-coloured stuff, with gold ornaments worked into their fine black hair; and all had the favourite churis, or rings of hathi-dant (elephant’s tooth), covering the arm, from the wrist to the elbow, and even above it. Never was there a nobler subject for the painter in any age or country; it was one which Salvator Rosa would have seized, full of picturesque contrasts: the rich dark tints of the female attire harmonizing with the white garments of their husbands; but it was the mien, the expression, the gestures, denoting that though they paid homage they expected a full measure in return. And they had it; for if ever there was a group which bespoke respect for the natural dignity of man and his consort, it was the Charan community of Marla.
It was not until the afternoon, when the Naiks again came to see me at my camp, that I learned the full value of my escape from the silken bonds of the fair Charanis. This community had enjoyed for five hundred years the privilege of making prisoner any Rana of Mewar who may pass through Marla, and keeping him in bondage until he gives them a got, or entertainment; and their chains are neither galling, nor the period of captivity, being thus in the hands of the captivated, very long. The patriarch told me that I was in jeopardy, as the Rana’s representative; but not knowing how I might have relished the joke, had it been carried to its conclusion, they let me escape, though they lost a feast by it. But I told them I was too much delighted with old customs not to keep up this; and immediately sent money to the ladies with my respects, and a request that they would hold their got (feast). The patriarch and his subordinate Naiks and their sons remained with me to discourse on the olden time.
The founders of this little colony accompanied Rana Hamir from Gujarat in the early part of his reign, and although five centuries have elapsed, they have not parted with one iota of their nationality or their privileges since that period: neither in person, manners, or dress, have they anything analogous to those amidst whom they dwell. Indeed, their air is altogether foreign to India, and although they have attained a place, and that a high one, amongst the tribes of Hind, their affinity to the ancient Persian is striking; the loose robe, high turban, and flowing beard being more akin to the figures on the temples of the Guebres than to anything appertaining to the Charbaran, or four classes of the Hindus. But I must give the tale accounting for their settlement in Mewar. Rana Hamir, so celebrated in the history of Mewar, had a leprous spot on his hand, to remove which he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Hinglaj, upon the [623] coast of Mekran, the division Oreitai of Arrian’s geography.[[10]] He had reached the frontiers of Cutch Bhuj, when alighting near a tanda, or encampment of Charans, a young damsel abandoned the meal she was preparing, and stepped forward to hold the stranger’s steed. Thanking her for her courtesy, he jocosely observed that he wished his people had as good a breakfast as she was preparing, when she immediately made an offering of the contents of the vessel; on which Hamir observed, it would go but a short way to satisfy so many hungry mouths. “Not if it pleased Hinglajji,” she promptly replied; and placing the food before the Rana and his train, it sufficed for all their wants. A little well, which she excavated in the sand, was soon filled with a copious supply of water, which served to quench their thirst. It was an evident interposition of the goddess of Hinglaj in favour of this her royal votary. He returned from her shrine cured, and the young Charani’s family were induced to accompany him to Mewar, where he bestowed upon them the lands of Marla, with especial immunities in their mercantile capacity: and as a perpetual remembrance of the miraculous feast, permission was granted to the Charani damsels to make captive of their sovereign as related above.
The colony, which now consists of some thousands of both sexes, presented an enigma to our young Englishmen, who think “all black fellows alike,” and equally beneath notice: it was remarked how comfortable they looked in house and person, though there was not a vestige of cultivation around their habitations. The military policy of the troubled period accounts for the first; and a visit to the altars of Marla will furnish the cause of the neglect of the agrarian laws of Mewar. As the community increased in numbers, the subdivision of the lands continued, according to the customs of Cutch, until a dispute regarding limits produced a civil war. A ferocious combat ensued, when the wives of the combatants who were slain ascended the funeral pile; and to prevent a similar catastrophe, imprecated a curse on whomever from that day should cultivate a field in Marla; since which the land has lain in absolute sterility! Such is the implicit reverence for the injunction of a Sati, at this moment of awful inspiration, when about to take leave of the world. In Mewar, the most solemn of all oaths is that of the Sati. Maha sati an-ki-an, ‘by the great Satis,’ is an adjuration frequently used in the royal patents.
The tanda or caravan, consisting of four thousand bullocks, has been kept up amidst all the evils which have beset this land, through Mogul and Mahratta tyranny. The utility of these caravans, as general carriers to conflicting armies, and as regular tax-paying subjects, has proved their safeguard, and they were too strong [624] to be pillaged by any petty marauder, as any one who has seen a Banjara encampment will be convinced. They encamp in a square; their grain-bags piled over each other breast-high, with interstices left for their matchlocks, make no contemptible fortification. Even the ruthless Turk, Jamshid Khan, set up a protecting tablet in favour of the Charans of Marla, recording their exemption from dand contributions, and that there should be no increase in duties, with threats to all who should injure the community. As usual, the sun and moon are appealed to as witnesses of good faith, and sculptured on the stone. Even the forester Bhil and mountain Mer have set up their signs of immunity and protection to the chosen of Hinglaj; and the figures of a cow and its kheri (calf), carved in rude relief, speak the agreement that they should not be slain or stolen within the limits of Marla.
Nīmbahera: seven miles.—The soil, as usual, excellent; but from Ranikhera to Nimbahera the blue schist at intervals penetrates the surface, and there is but little superincumbent soil even to the bed of the stream, which makes an entire disclosure of the rock, over which flows a clear rivulet abounding with small fish, amongst which the speckled trout were visible. Ranikhera, through which we passed, is the largest township of this district, and was built by the Rani of Arsi Rana, mother of the present ruler of Mewar, at whose expense the temple, the baori or ‘reservoir,’ and the paved street, were constructed. Although in the alienated territory, I had a visit from its elders to complain of an indignity to the community by the Bhangi, or scavenger, of Lesrawan, who had killed a hog and thrown it into the reservoir, whose polluted waters being thus rendered unfit for use, the inhabitants were compelled to get a purer element from the adjacent villages. This baori is about half-a-mile from the town, and being upon the highway, the council and train very wisely stopped at the spot where the aggression had happened: and although the cavalcade of the Hakim of Nimbahera was in sight, advancing to welcome me, it was impossible to proceed until I heard the whole grievance, when adjured by “subjects of Mewar, and children of the Rana, though unhappily under the Turk,” to see their wrongs redressed. I might not have recorded this incident, but for its consequence; as the hog thrown into the reservoir of Baijiraj, ‘the royal mother,’ of Mewar, affords an instance of the extent to which mortgage is carried.
The Bhangis, or scavengers, of Ranikhera, the very refuse of mankind, had mortgaged their rights in the dead carcases of their town to a professional brother of Lesrawan; but, on the return of these halcyon days, they swerved from their bond [625]. The chieftain of Lesrawan espoused his vassal’s cause, and probably pointed out the mode of revenge. One morning, therefore, not having the fear of Jamshid of Nimbahera before his eyes, the said mortgagee slew his pig; and, albeit but the wreck of a human being, contrived to cast his victim into the pure fountain of ‘Queenstown,’ and immediately fled for saran to Bhindar. But what could be done to a wretch, who for former misdeeds had already suffered the dismemberment of an arm, a leg, and his nose? Here is the sentence! “To be paraded, mounted on an ass, his face blackened, with a chaplet of shoes round his neck, and drummed out of the limits of Ranikhera!” The fountain is now undergoing purification; and when the polluted waters are baled out, it is to be lustrated with the holy stream of the Ganges, and the ceremony will conclude with a got, or feast, to one hundred Brahmans. Previous to this, I took a peep at the humble altars of Ranikhera. All is modern; but there is one tablet which pleasingly demonstrates that both public feeling and public gratitude exist in these regions. This tablet, set up by the council of the town, recorded that Kistna, the Silpi or stone-cutter, did at his own expense and labour repair all the altars then going to decay; for which pious act they guaranteed to him and his successors for ever six thalis or platters of various viands, saffron, oil, butter, and several pieces of money, at every village fête. Doubtless such traits are not confined to Ranikhera. I accepted with kindness the offerings of the elders and assembled groups—a pot of curds and sundry blessings—and continued my journey to meet the impatient cavaliers of Nimbahera, who, to fill up the interlude, were karowling,[[11]] with matchlock and spear, their well-caparisoned chargers. The Khan was in the centre of the group, and we had a friendly, unceremonious dastabazi, or shaking of hands, without dismounting. He is a gentlemanly Pathan, of middle age, courteous and affable, and a very different personage from the two-handed Jamshid his predecessor, who lately died from a cancer in his back: a judgment, if we are to credit our Mewar friends, for his horrible cruelties and oppressions over all these regions, as lieutenant of Amir Khan during many years. The Khan welcomed me to Nimbahera with true Oriental politesse, saying, “that the place was mine”; and that he had received the “positive instructions of the Nawab Sahib (Amir Khan, whose son-in-law he is) to look upon me as himself.” I replied, that, in accepting such a trust, I could not say more than that I would, whenever occasion presented itself, act for him as if Nimbahera were really my own. The Khan had reason to find that his confidence was not misplaced; and while enabled to benefit him, I had also the opportunity of protecting the interests [626] of the feudatories, who by this alienation (as is fully related in the Annals of Mewar) were placed beyond the pale of the Rana’s power. The Khan, after accompanying me to my tents, took leave; but paid me a long visit in the evening, when we discussed all that concerned the welfare of his charge and the peace of the borders. As matters stand, it is a duty to conciliate and to promote prosperity; but it is melancholy to see this fertile appanage of Mewar in the hand of so consummate a villain as Amir Khan; a traitor to his master Holkar, for which he obtained the “sovereignty in perpetuity” of many rich tracts both in Mewar and Amber, without rendering the smallest service in return. Let this be borne in mind when another day of reckoning comes. Nimbahera is a considerable town, with an excellent stone circumvallation; and, being on the high road between Malwa and Hindustan, it enjoys a good share of traffic. Upwards of one hundred villages are attached to it, and it was estimated at three lakhs of rupees, of annual rent.