CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The advance of Prince Jadar's army west toward the Rajput stronghold of Udaipur was like nothing Brian Hawksworth had ever seen. Jadar was marching into the heart of ancient Rajput country, and the movement of his army suddenly came to resemble a triumphant victory procession.
The heavy artillery formed the first contingent, drawn by teams of elephants and bullocks. Two thousand infantry moved in front, smoothing the ground with spades. The army's baggage animals followed the artillery, and after this came Jadar's personal treasury—camels loaded with gold and silver coin—together with his records and archives. Next in the line of march were elephants carrying the zenana women's jewels and a collection of ornate swords and daggers that Jadar periodically gave to his officers as presents. Then came the water camels, and finally Jadar's kitchen and provisions. The baggage was followed by the ordinary cavalry, and after them rode Jadar and his retinue of nobles. Behind him came his zenana. The rear of the procession was brought up by women and servants, then elephants, camels, and mules carrying the remainder of the baggage and tents.
Some of Jadar's zenana women traveled in gilded chaudols carried on the shoulders of four bearers and shaded with netting of colored embroidered silk. Others were transported in enclosed palanquins, also covered with silk nets decorated with gold fringe and tassels. Still others chose to ride in swaying litters suspended between two elephants or two strong camels. A female slave walked near each litter carrying a peacock tail to brush off dust and keep away flies.
Jadar's first and favorite wife, Mumtaz, seemed to scorn all these comforts, displaying herself regally all day long from atop her own personal elephant, riding in a gold howdah shaded by a vast tapestry umbrella. Her elephant was festooned with embroideries, yak tails, and large silver bells; and directly behind her, on six smaller elephants, rode the women of her immediate household. Her eunuchs rode clustered around her on horses, each carrying a wand signifying his office and sweating profusely beneath his jeweled turban. A vanguard of footmen with bamboo canes walked ahead of Mumtaz's elephant clearing a path through the crowds.
Jadar himself traveled mainly on his favorite Arabian horse—except when passing through cities, when he would switch to a conspicuously bedecked elephant—surrounded by the high-ranking nobles. Trailing out behind this first circle were the ranks of the lesser mansabdars, who rode in full military dress, displaying swords, bows, shields. While this procession inched along at its regal pace, Jadar and his nobles frequently paused ostentatiously to bag tiger or chase stripe-eared antelope with the prince's brace of hunting chitahs.
A complete set of tents for Jadar and his zenana traveled a day ahead, to ensure that a fully prepared camp always awaited him and his women when, at approximately three in the afternoon, the procession would stop and begin to settle for the night. Each of his larger tents could be disassembled into three separate sections, and all of these together required a full fifty baggage elephants for transport. Moving the smaller tents required almost a hundred camels. Wardrobes and kitchen utensils were carried by some fifty mules, and special porters carried by hand Jadar's personal porcelains, his gilt beds, and a few of his silk tents.
The procession was a lavish display of all the wealth and arms Jadar had remaining. And nothing about it hinted that his was an army on the run . . . which in fact it was.
Hawksworth puzzled over Jadar's extravagant pomp for several days, finding it uncharacteristic, and finally concluded it was a deliberate Indian strategy.