[2]. [In Europe, at times, Metz, Tournay, Magdeburg, Londonderry, and others bore this title. “Several ancient earthworks in England were called Maiden Castle; the sense may possibly be a fortress capable of being defended by maidens; there may have been an allusion to some forgotten legend” (New English Dict., s.v.). In India Hānsi was known as Kumāri, used in the sense of ‘unviolated.’]
[3]. [This name is not found in dictionaries or gazetteers. The field pea, Pisum arvense, is usually called matar (Watt, Comm. Prod. 902). Batūri, of which this may be a corruption, is the chick pea or gram.]
[4]. [About 105 miles N.E.E. of Udaipur city. The Bāmani joins the Chambal at Bhainsrorgarh, about 120 miles E.N.E. of Udaipur city.]
[5]. A name of Sukracharya, the Regent of the planet Venus. The ‘star of eve’ is always called Sukra, but presents a most unpoetic idea to the mind, when we learn that this star, the most beautiful of the heavenly host, is named after an immoral one-eyed male divinity, who lost his other orb in an undignified personal collision, from an assault upon Tara (the star), the wife of a brother-god. Sukracharya, notwithstanding, holds the office of Guru, or spiritual adviser, to the whole celestial body—we may add ex uno disce omnes: and assuredly the Hindu who takes the mythological biography of his gods au pied de la lettre, cannot much strengthen his morality thereby. The classical Hindu of these days values it as he ought, looking upon it as a pretty astronomical fable, akin to the voyage of the Argonauts; but the bulk enter the temple of the “thirty-three millions of gods” with the same firmness of belief as did the old Roman his Pantheon. The first step, and a grand one, has been made to destroy this fabric of Polytheism, and to turn the mind of the Hindu to the perception of his own purer creed, adoration of “the one, omniscient, omnipotent, and eternal God.” Rammohun Roy has made this step, who “has become a law unto himself,” and a precursor, it is to be hoped, of benefit to his race. In the practical effects of Christianity, he is a Christian, though still a devout Brahman, adoring the Creator alone, and exercising an extended charity, with a spirit of meekness, toleration, and benevolence, added to manly resistance of all that savours of oppression, which stamps him as a man chosen for great purposes. To these moral, he adds mental qualifications of the highest order: clear and rapid perception, vigorous comprehension, immense industry of research, and perfect self-possession; having, moreover, a classical knowledge, not of our language only, but of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, and the ‘mother-tongue,’ or langue-mère of all, the Sanskrit. [Philologists now regard Sanskrit as later than Greek or Latin.]
[6]. By means of this simple tablet, we detect an anachronism in the chronicle. It is stated in p. 332 of the first volume, that Kumbha succeeded his father Rana Mokal in S. 1475, or two years anterior to the date of the grant of lights for the goddess. Such checks upon Rajput chronology are always falling in the way of those who will read as they run. [Rāna Mokal (A.D. 1397-1433) was assassinated by Chacha and Mera, the illegitimate sons of his grandfather, Khet Singh. He was succeeded by Rāna Kūmbha his son, then a minor.]
[7]. [Dr. Tessitori writes: “The term is visar, ‘satire.’ I do not think that it has anything to do with vis, 'poison.'”]
[8]. [Compare the story of Achilles, vulnerable only in his heel or ankles, which his mother, Thetis, failed to plunge into the waters of Styx.]
[9]. [About 110 miles N.W.W. of Udaipur city. In the Author’s map the name is written Dūngarmāu, which is possibly right.]
[10]. [Bānsi, 47 miles S.E. of Udaipur city, held by a Saktāwat Rāwat (Erskine ii. A. 92).]