Damnia, October 9.—I was detained at Kachaura by a violent accession of fever and ague, as well as spleen, increased no doubt by the unhealthiness of the position amidst swamps and jungle. This is a fine healthy spot, where I should like to convene the Bhumias and ryots, to endeavour to remove the reproach of so beautiful a land remaining waste. Damnia, which is in the sequestrated patta of Shahpura, is a town of two thousand houses; a universal ruin!
Mānpura, 15.—After a week’s halt, reached this spot, about a mile south-west of the town, and on the bank of the Banas.[[7]] The entire population of Manpura turned out to receive me; the damsels with their brazen vessels of water on their heads; but the song of the Suhaila had ceased to charm, and my ague made me too ill even to return their kindness. To-day it has abated, and to-morrow, with another respite, I will try to get through the work which brought me here. Mandalgarh is three coss from hence. I was rejoiced to see the signs of reviving prosperity about Manpura; some fine patches of sugar-cane were refreshing sights.
Māndalgarh,[[8]] 16 and 17.—Proceeded up the valley and encamped within half a mile of the city, from which the governor and his cortege came to meet and welcome me; but I was too enfeebled to ascend the fort, which was a subject of regret. It is by no means formidable, and may be about four furlongs in length, with a low rampart wall, and bastions encircling the crest of the hill. The governor’s residence appears on the west side, at which spot the regent of Kotah was compelled to abandon his ladders, which they retain as a trophy. This is the festival of the Dasahra, the day sacred to Rama; but feasting is lost upon me, for this is the ninth day of abstinence from dinner. Captain Waugh rejoined me yesterday, looking very ill, and giving a poor account of my friends, especially Carey, who is sinking rapidly. He left them encamped at Baghit, the point of rendezvous in the Banas where I shall join them to-morrow. He found me on my charpai (pallet), with some threescore leeches (which I had got from Mandalgarh) on my left side,[[9]] while I was attending [678] to and noting down the oral reports of the Bhumias and Patels of the district, who filled my tent, many remaining in groups outside. I notwithstanding got through the work to my satisfaction, and have obtained a thorough insight into the agricultural details of this fine tract, which I may touch upon, if I am able, the first halt.
Annals of Māndalgarh.
The Philosopher’s Stone.
I discovered in the remains of a marble bawari, or reservoir, at Kachaura, two large tablets, containing the pedigree of the Solanki family, which will require time to decipher. Tradition, however, is busy with the name of Raja Bhim, and his son Baran of Anhilwara, from whom many tribes branched off; and although, from the first, only royal houses were founded, the other claims a greater celebrity from originating a heterogeneous breed, which descended into the third and fourth great classes, the Vaisya and Sudra. From him the Bagherwal Mahajans,[[15]] who became converts to the Jain faith, claim descent, as well as the Gujars of Sont-Katoria; the Sunars, or goldsmiths, of Bonkan; the Bhil communities of Oghna-Panarwa (or Mewar); and likewise those of Mau-Maidana, in Kotah. Whether from Baran and his degenerate offspring originated the name of baran-shankar, applied to the mixed classes, I am not informed.[[16]] The Bagherwal is one of the “twelve and a half (sarha barah niyat) castes of Mahajans,” or mercantile tribes, subdivided into innumerable families, the greater portion of whom profess the Jain creed, and nearly all are of Rajput ancestry: an important fact in the pedigree of this considerable part of the population. The lineal descendant of the Toda Rao resides at Basai in a small village; and two other branches, who held large possessions at Todri and Jahazpur, retain the villages of Mirchiakhera and Bhatwara, both in Chitor; they have preserved the title of Rao amidst all the revolutions that have deprived them of their estates; nor would any prince of Rajwara deem himself degraded by their alliance [680]. Such is the virtue of pedigree in these regions. I should imagine that the Balnots held of the Ranas of Mewar, as Mandalgarh has been an integral portion of that State during the most flourishing period of the Anhilwara dynasty, although the inscription of Chitor savours of conquest; in which case we have at once a solution of the question, and proof that the Balnot was inducted into Mandalgarh by his superior, Kumarpal.[[17]]
In S. 1755 (A.D. 1699) the tyrant Aurangzeb granted Mandalgarh to the Rathor chief of Pisangan, named Dudaji, who subdivided it into allotments for his brethren, leaving no revenue for the duties of the civil administration and repairs of the castle. To remedy this, he imposed a tax, called daotra or dasotra, or ‘tenth’ of the net value of each harvest, upon his Bhumia brethren. When the Rana succeeded in expelling the royal garrison, he found it a work of some difficulty to get rid of the Rathor feudatories; and he gave them regular pattas for their estates, subject to the payment of dasotra; but as he found it led to interference, in the inspection of crops, and to fluctuation and appeals in bad seasons, he commuted the tax for service of one horseman and one foot-soldier for each five hundred rupees of rent, and a certain small sum annually to mark their tributary condition.
In these times of turbulence, other impositions were laid on the Bhumias of his own kindred, the Ranawats, Kanawats, and Saktawats, who established their rights with their swords when the district was subjected to the emperor. In the same manner as with the Rathors, the Rana confirmed their acquisitions on the payment of certain fines called bhumbarar, which were either baraskar and trisala, or ‘annual’ and ‘triennial’; the first being levied from the holders of single villages, the latter from those who had more than one. Thus, Amargarh was fixed at two thousand five hundred rupees; Amaldah, fifteen hundred; Tintora, thirteen hundred; Jhunjrala, fourteen hundred, etc., triennially, having obtained their lands by main force. They also, when Mandalgarh was threatened, would repair with their vassals and defend it during ten days at their own expense, after which they received rations from the State. There were various other fines collected from the Bhumia vassalage, such as lauasma, or for the support of the Nakkarchis (kettle-drummers), the mace, standard, and even the torch-bearers attached to each garrison. There was also khar-lakar, for wood and forage, which has been elsewhere explained; hal-barar, or ‘plough-tax,’ and ghasmali, or ‘pasturage,’ the rates of which are graduated, and vary [681] in amount with the power of enforcing their collections. But owing to these circumstances, the best land in Mandalgarh belongs to the Bhumia chieftains.
It was about this time, in the reign of Jagat Singh II., that Ummeda Singh of Shahpura had the grant of seventy-three villages in Mandalgarh, one-fifth of the whole district, subject only to the fine of three thousand two hundred and fifty rupees annually for ghasmali, with five hundred more to the deputy governor, and two hundred to the Chaudhari, or territorial head of the district. In this lavish manner were estates disposed of. This family continued to hold it until S. 1843, when the minister Somji, in order to obtain his support during the Chondawat rebellion, gave him a formal acquittance for this service, and in addition to these lands, the two subordinate fiefs of Dangarmau and Borwa on the Plateau, and the rich estate of Agoncha on the Khari; in return for which, he exacted a stipulation to serve with four hundred horse: a contract fulfilled only by one chief of the family, who fell leading his contingent at the battle of Ujjain. His descendants seem to have claimed immunity on the score of his service; and the present incumbent is a madman. Great changes, however, have recently been made in the condition of the Bhumias, and these desultory fines have all merged into a duty more accordant with the character of the Rajput; service in the garrisons of Mandalgarh and Jahazpur, and a fixed annual sum from those who are too poor to command even a single horse.
Baghīt,[[18]] 18th; eight miles.—A large village on the west of our own stream, the Berach, coming from the Udaisagar. Our road lay over a rich soil, as usual overgrown with grass. Here I rejoined my sick friends, all very ill; the doctor better, but Carey in a very precarious condition.