Chapter 1 — Annals of Mewar

"Wherever I go, whatever days I may number, nor time nor place can ever weaken, much less obliterate, the memory of the valley of Udaipiir." Such are the words with which Colonel James Tod closed his great work, the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. Few men have ever known an eastern race as Tod knew the Rajputs. He not only knew them through and through, their manners, their traditions, their character, and their ideals; but so great was his admiration for their many noble qualities, and so completely did he identify himself with their interests, that by the time he left India he had almost become a Rajput himself. The history of Rajputana was, therefore, a subject very dear to Tod's heart; and, possessing both imagination and descriptive power, he was able to infuse into his pages much of the charm of a romance, and what is still more rarely to be found in historical works, a powerful human interest. His sympathy for the Rajputs is apparent in every line he wrote, but if his enthusiasm leads him at times to overestimate their virtues, he never seeks to palliate their faults, to which, in the main, he attributes the ruin which overtook their race. Notwithstanding its author's occasional inaccuracies, and the somewhat glaring defects of his style, the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan still holds its place as the standard authority on the history of the Rajpiitana states. Of subsequent writers of Indian history, it would be difficult to point to a single one who has not benefited directly or indirectly by Tod's labours. But however great the value of the " Annals," viewed in the light of an historical record, they owe their chief charm to the vivid pictures they present of the character, sentiments, and heroic exploits of one of the bravest races that ever came under British control, and of the manner in which that control was established. Rajputana has passed through a century of progress since the " Annals " were written. But it must be remembered that, in our eastern Dependency, habits of life have undergone a much greater change than national prejudices and national ideals; and hence it is that, for those who would understand the India of to-day, there is no surer guide than the past history of her peoples. Of the thousands of books that have been written about India, few reveal her secrets more faithfully than the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. And yet this great Indian classic is practically unknown to the present generation and is all but unprocurable. The first edition, contained in two quarto volumes, and illustrated by a number of steel engravings of high quality, was published by Messrs Smith, Elder & Co. between the years 1829 and 1832. This is the only edition ever published in England, and it has long been out of print. A second, in two octavo volumes, but without the illustrations, appeared in Madras in 1873; and a third of a similar nature, but less accurate, in Calcutta in 1894. The two latter are likewise out of print, and hard to come by; while their fifteen hundred closely printed pages present the story of Rajputana in a form little calculated to attract the general reader. The indifference of English publishers to the importance of Tod's labours is a matter both for surprise and regret; though it must be doubted whether the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, in the form in which he left it, could ever have become popular. Passages of interest are abundant throughout; but to make one's way through the heavier matter in which they are embedded, demands both time and patience; nor is the task lightened by the author's style, which, though rich and picturesque, is, at times, so loose as to be almost incoherent. The actual annals comprise little more than half the entire work, the remainder consisting of a minute examination into the genealogies of the various Rajput tribes, an account of their ancient religious beliefs and systems of government, and a lengthy description of the author's own journeyings and experiences. To the student of Indian antiquities these chapters are of undoubted value; but a knowledge of them is by no means essential to an appreciation of the historical narrative. The present volume is an attempt to rescue from obscurity at least a portion of this once famous work, and to place it before the reader in what, it is hoped, may prove a convenient and attractive form. Mewar, or Udaipiir, with which alone it deals, is, historically, the most important of all the Rajputana states; for the history of Mewar was, for centuries, the history of Rajputana, while, at one period, it was almost the history of India. I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to retell the story in Tod's own language, omitting such details as seemed to me to confuse the action, or break the continuity of events, and occasionally introducing, from other portions of the original work, anecdotes and descriptions illustrative of the Rajputs of Mewar. The more obvious errors of composition have been corrected, and the spelling of proper names has been revised according to the system adopted in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, the illustrations have, so far as I know, never been reproduced before. The original drawings were by Colonel Tod's " friend and kinsman," Major Waugh.

Chapter 1 — Preface