Udai Singh.
Supremacy of Jaipur in Shaikhawati.
This occurrence was in A.D. 1716, when the Jats were rising into power, and when all the minor Rajas served with their contingents under the great Jai Singh, as lieutenant of the emperor. Along with the princes of Karauli, Bhadauria, Sheopur, and many others of the third rank, was Udai Singh of Khandela. During the siege of Thun, the Shaikhawat chief was reprimanded for neglect of duty, and although he owed a double allegiance to Jai Singh, as his natural liege lord and lieutenant of the king, he would not brook the censure from one of his own race, and indignantly withdrew from the siege. Churaman the Jat, having contrived to make his peace with the Sayyid wazir, when Thun was upon the eve of surrender, and Udai Singh being implicated in this intrigue, Jai Singh, who was mortified at an occurrence which prevented the gratification of a long-cherished resentment against the upstart Jats, determined that the Khandela chief should suffer for his audacity. Attended by the imperialists under Bazid Khan, and all his home clans, he laid siege to the citadel called Udaigarh. Udai Singh held out a month in this castle he had constructed and called by his own name, when his resources failing, he fled to Naru[[22]] in Marwar, and his son, Sawai Singh, presented the keys, throwing himself on the clemency of the conqueror. He was well received, and pardoned, on condition of becoming tributary to Amber. He followed the example of the Kasli chief, and signed an engagement to pay annually one lakh of rupees. From this a deduction of fifteen thousand was subsequently made, and in time being reduced twenty thousand more, sixty-five thousand continued to be the tribute of Khandela, until the decay of both the parent State and its scion, when the weakness of the former, and the merciless outrages of the predatory powers, Pathan and Mahratta, rendered its amount uncertain and difficult to realize. Moreover, recalling his promise to Dip Singh, he restored the division of the lands as existing prior to the murder of Fateh Singh, namely, three shares to Sawai Singh, with the title of chief of the Shaikhawats, and two to Dhir Singh, son of Fateh Singh. The young cousin chieftains, now joint-holders of Khandela, attended their liege lord with their contingent; and Udai Singh, taking advantage of their absence, with the aid of a band of outlawed Larkhanis, surprised and took Khandela. Attended by the Jaipur troops, the son performed the dutiful task of expelling his father from his inheritance, who again fled to Naru, where he resided [401] upon a pension of five rupees a day, given by his son, until his death. He, however, outlived Sawai Singh, who left three sons: Bindraban, who succeeded to Khandela; Shambhu, who had the appanage of Ranauli; and Kusal, having that of Piprauli.
[1]. [This Udaipur must not be confounded with the capital of Mewār: it is about 60 miles N. of Jaipur city.]
[2]. The lovers of antiquity have only to make the search to find an abundant harvest, throughout all these countries, of ancient capitals and cities, whose names are hardly known even to the modern inhabitants. Of the ancient Rajor I have already spoken, and I now draw the attention of my countrymen to Abhaner, which boasts a very remote antiquity; and from an old stanza, we might imagine that its princes were connected with the Kaian dynasty of Persia. I copied it, some twenty years ago, from an itinerant bard, who had an imperfect knowledge of it himself, and I have doubtless made it more so, but it is still sufficiently intelligible to point at a remarkable coincidence:
Rājā Chand-kā Ābhāner
Bīahah Sanjog, āyo Girnār.
Dekh Bharat līyo bulāi.
Kiyo bidit, man bikasāi.