Chapter 15 — Annals of Mewar

In this new emergency, great hopes were placed on the valour of the Rajputs; but the spirit of devotion in this brave race, by whose aid the Mogul power had been made and maintained, was irretrievably alienated, and not one of those high families who had been so lavish of their blood in defence of the imperial throne, obeyed the royal summons. A sense of common danger brought together some of the so-called feudatories, and the Nizam and Sadat Khan (now vizier of the empire) united their forces under the imperial commander. But their demoralised levies were no match for the Persian and the northern mountaineer. The Amir-ul-umra was slain, the vizier made prisoner, and Muhammad Shah and his kingdom were at Nadir's disposal. The disloyalty of the vizier filled the capital with blood, and reduced his sovereign to the condition of a captive. A ransom had already been arranged by the Nizam, who, in return for his diplomatic skill, had been raised to the office of Amir-ul-umra, when Sadat Khan, stung by jealousy at his rival's promotion, stimulated the avarice of the conqueror by an exaggerated account of the riches of Delhi, and declared that he alone could furnish the amount negotiated by the Nizam. Nadir's love of gold overcame any scruples he may have had; the compact was broken; the keys of the city were demanded; and its humiliated emperor was led in triumph through the camp of his enemy, who, on the 8th March 1740, took possession of the palace of Timur, and coined money bearing the legend, King over the kings of the world Is Nadir king of kings, and lord of the period. The accumulated wealth of India, collected in the royal treasury, notwithstanding the lavish expenditure during the civil wars, and the profuse rewards scattered by each competitor for dominion, was yet sufficient to gratify even avarice itself, amounting in gold, jewels, and plate, to forty millions sterling, exclusive of equipages of every description. But this enormous spoil only kindled instead of satiating the appetite of Nadir, and a fine of two millions and a half was exacted, and levied with such unrelenting rigour and cruelty on the inhabitants, that men of rank and character could find no means of escape but by suicide. A rumour of this monster's death excited an insurrection, in which several Persians were killed. The provocation was not lost : the conqueror ascended a mosque, and commanded a general massacre, in which thousands were slain. Pillage accompanied murder; and whilst the streets streamed with blood, the city was fired, and the dead were consumed in the conflagration of their own habitations. If a single ray of satisfaction could be felt, amidst such a scene of horror, it must have been when Nadir commanded the steward of the wretch who was the cause of this atrocity, the infamous Sadat Khan, to send, on pain of death, an inventory of his own and his master's wealth, demanding meanwhile the two millions and a half, the original composition settled by the Nizam, from the vizier alone. Whether his " coward conscience" was alarmed at the mischief he had occasioned, or mortification at discovering that his ambition had "overleaped itself," and recoiled with vengeance on his own head, tempted the act, it is impossible to discover, but the guilty Sadat became his own executioner. He swallowed poison; an example followed by his steward in order to escape the rage of the offended Nadir. By the new treaty, all the western provinces, Cabul, Sind, and Multan, were surrendered and united to Persia, and on the vernal equinox, Nadir, gorged with spoil, commenced his march from the desolated capital. Up to this eventful era in the political history of India, the Rajput nations had not only maintained their ground amidst the convulsions of six centuries under the paramount sway of the Islamite, but two of the three chief states, Marwar and Ambar, had by policy and valour created substantial kingdoms out of petty principalities, junior branches from which had established their independence, and still enjoy it under treaty with the British Government. Mewar at this juncture was defined by nearly the same boundaries as when Mahmud of Ghazni invaded her in the tenth century, though her influence over many of her tributaries such as Bundi, Abu, Idar, and Deola, was destroyed. To the west, the fertile district of Godwar carried her beyond her natural barrier, the Aravalli, into the desert; while the Chambal was her limit to the east. The Khari, separated her from Ajmir, and to the south she adjoined Malwa. These limits comprehended 130 miles of latitude and 140 of longitude, containing iO,ooo towns and villages, with upwards of a million sterling of revenue. Her chief ruled over an excellent agricultural population, and a wealthy mercantile community, and was defended by a devoted vassalage. Such was this little patriarchal state after the protracted strife which has been related; we shall have to exhibit her, in less than half a century, on the verge of annihilation from the predatory inroads of the Mahrattas. Having extracted chouth from the monarch at Delhi, the Mahrattas considered themselves entitled to make a similar demand from every subordinate principality; and soon after taking possession of Malwa, their leader, Baji Rao, repaired to Mewar to ''state his terms." The Rana desired to avoid a personal interview, and sent as his representatives the Salumbra chief and his minister, Behari Das. Long discussions took place as to the manner in which Baji Rao should be received, and it was settled that he should be given a seat in front of the throne — a decision which, later, formed the precedent for the position of the representative of the British Government. A treaty followed, stipulating an annual tribute of 160,000 rupees assigned to Holkar, Sindhia, and the Puar, Sindhia acting as receiver - general; and it remained in force for ten years. This was the only tributary engagement Mewar ever entered into. This treaty was soon followed by another event which added still further to the abasement of the Rajputs. It will be recollected that the triple alliance formed by Rana Amra conferred on the families of Marwar and Ambar the privilege of inter-marriage with the Sesodias, with the stipulation that the issue of such marriages should enjoy the rights of primogeniture; and the death of Jai Singh of Ambar, two years after Nadir Shah's invasion, brought this stipulation into effect. Jai Singh's eldest son, Esuri Singh, was proclaimed Raja, though a strong party supported another son, Madhu Singh, who was nephew to the Rana of Mewar, and the lawful heir according to the treaty. Madhu Singh does not seem to have been brought up in the expectation of succeeding; and he had, with the sanction of his father, transferred his services to Mewar, where he held the fief of Rampura. Five years elapsed before any extraordinary exertions were made to annul the rights of Esiiri Singh. It would be tedious to give even an epitome of the intrigues for the accomplishment of this object, which properly belong to the annals of Ambar. The Rana took the field with his nephew, and was met by Esuri supported by the Mahrattas. But the Sesodias did not evince in the battle of Rajmahal their wonted gallantry; they were defeated and fled. The Rana vented his indignation in a galling sarcasm; he gave the sword of state to a common courtesan to carry in procession, observing "It is a woman's weapon in these degenerate days." Elated with his success, Esuri carried his resentments and his auxiliaries against the Haras of Kotah and Biindi, who had supported the cause of his antagonist. Both states suffered a diminution of territory, and were subjected to tribute by the Mahrattas. The Rana, following the example of his opponents, called in as auxiliary Malhar Rao Holkar, and engaged to pay him 64 lakhs of rupees (^800,000) on the deposal of Esuri Singh. To avoid the degradation which was now inevitable, this unfortunate prince resolved on suicide, and a dose of poison gave Madhu Singh the gadi, Holkar his bribe, and the Mahrattas a firm hold upon Rajasthan. Rana Jaggat Singh died in 1752. His habits of levity and extravagance totally unfitted him for the task of governing his country at such a juncture. Like all his family, he patronised the arts. He greatly enlarged the royal palace, and spent ^250,000 in embellishing the islets of the Peshola. The villas scattered over the valley were all erected by him, and many of those festivals, devoted to idleness and dissipation, and now firmly rooted in Udaipur, were instituted by Jaggat Singh II. Partap II. succeeded in 1752. Of this prince history records nothing beyond the fact that the three years of his reign were marked by as many Mahratta invasions and war contributions. He was followed by his son Raj Singh II., who was as little entitled to the famous name he bore as had been his predecessor. During his seven years tenure of the throne, at least seven shoals of the Southrons overran Mewar, and so exhausted the country that the Rana was obliged to ask pecuniary aid from the Brahmin collector of tribute to enable him to marry the daughter of the Marwar prince. On his death, the order of succession retrograded, and devolved on his uncle Rana Arsi, who took up the reins of government in 1762. The levity of Jaggat Singh, the inexperience of Partap and Raj Singh, combined with the ungovernable temper of Rana Arsi, and the circumstances under which he succeeded to power, induced a train of disorders which proved fatal to Mewar. Up to this time, mainly through the wisdom of the Pancholi ministers, not a foot of territory had been alienated. But in the calamitous times which ensued no efforts could avail to preserve the integrity of this once powerful kingdom. Factions arose, civil war broke out, and famine and pestilence once more held the land in their deadly grip. These combined evils utterly prostrated the people, and rendered them a prey to every invader until the year 181 7, when they once more tasted repose under British protection. The first limb severed from Mewar was the district of Rampura. The ties of blood or of gratitude soon wax feeble when political expediency demands their dissolution; and Madhu Singh, finding himself firmly established on the throne of Ambar, repaid the immense sacrifices which the Rana had made to place him there by assigning the fief of Rampura, which he had not a shadow of right to alienate, to Holkar. The latter had also become the assignee of the tribute imposed by Baji Rao, from the payment of which the Rana now justly deemed himself exempt, since it had been exacted on the understanding that no further encroachments on Mewar should be permitted. On the plea of recovering these arrears, Holkar, after many threatening letters to the Rana, advanced to the capital, and a sum of ,£600,000 was handed over to him before he consented to withdraw. Four years after this event, civil war broke out. The real cause of this rebellion must ever remain a secret ; for while some regard it as a patriotic effort on the part of the people to redeem themselves from foreign domination, others discover its motive in the rivalry of the hostile clans, who supported or opposed the succession of Rana Arsi. This prince is accused of having unfairly acquired the crown, by the removal of his nephew Raj Singh; but though the traditional anecdotes of the period furnish strong grounds of suspicion, there is nothing which affords a direct confirmation of the crime. It is, however, a public misfortune when the line of succession retrogrades in Mewar. Arsi had no right to expect the inheritance he obtained, having long held a seat below the sixteen chief nobles; and as one of the " infants " (bdbas) he had been incorporated with the second class of chieftains with an appanage of only £3,000 per annum. His defects of character had been too closely contemplated by his compeers, and had kindled too many enmities to justify the expectation that his new dignity would succeed in obliterating the memory of them; and past familiarity alone destroyed the respect to which his new position entitled him. His insolent demeanour estranged the first of the home nobility as well as the powerful clan of the Chondawats. These chiefs formed a party to depose their sovereign, and immediately set up a youth called Ratna Singh, declared to be the posthumous son of the last Rana by the daughter of the chief of Gogiinda, though to this day disputes run high as to whether he was really the son of Raj Singh or merely the puppet of a faction. Be the fact as it may, he was made the rallying point for the disaffected, who soon comprehended the greater portion of the nobles, while out of the " sixteen " only five withstood the defection. The pretender took post with his faction at Komulmir, where he was formally installed, and whence he promulgated his decrees as Rana of Mewar. With that heedlessness of consequences and the political debasement which are the invariable concomitants of civil dissension, he had the meanness to invite Sindhia to his aid, with a promise of a reward of one million sterling on the dethronement of Arsi. This contest introduces us to one of the most celebrated chiefs of the time, Zalim Singh of Kotah, who was destined to fill a distinguished part in the annals of Rajasthan, but more especially in Mewar, where his political sagacity first developed itself. The attack on Kotah, of which his father was military governor, first brought him into prominence, and led to an acquaintance with the Mahratta chiefs which linked him with their policy for more than half a century. Zalim, having lost his prince's favour, whose path in love he had dared to cross, repaired, on his banishment from Kotah, to the Rana, who, observing his talents, enrolled him among his chiefs, and conferred upon him the title of Raj Rinna, with lands for his support. By his advice, the Rana also sought the aid of the Mahrattas, one of whom he appointed to the chief office in the state, setting aside the Pancholi ministry. At this time, Madhaji Sindhia was at Ujjain, and thither the conflicting parties hastened, each desirous of obtaining this chiefs support. But the pretender's proposals had already been entertained, and, ere the arrival of the Rana, he was encamped with Sindhia on the banks of the Sippra. The Rana's force, conducted by the chief of Salumbra, the Rajas of Shapiira and Bunera, with Zalim Singh and the Mahratta auxiliaries, did not hesitate to attack the combined camp, and for a moment they were victorious, driving Madhaji and the pretender back, with great loss, to the gates of Ujjain. Here, however, the latter rallied, and, being joined by a fresh body of troops, the battle was renewed with great disadvantage to the Rajputs, who, deeming the day theirs, had broken and dispersed to plunder. The chiefs of Salumbra, Shapiira, and Bunera were slain, while Zalim Singh had his horse killed under him, and, being left wounded on the field, was made prisoner. The discomfited troops retreated to Udaipur, while the pretender's party remained with Sindhia, inciting him to invest that capital and place Ratna on the throne. Some time, however, elapsed before he could carry this design into execution; when, at the head of a large force, the Mahratta chief gained the passes and besieged the city. The Rana's cause now appeared hopeless. Bhi'm Singh of Salumbra, uncle and successor to the chief slain at Ujjain, with the Rahtor chief of Bednor, were the only nobles of high rank who defended their prince and capital in this emergency; but the energies of a single individual saved both. Amra Chand Barwa, of the mercantile class, had held the office of minister in the preceding reigns, when his influence had retarded the progress of evils which no human means could avert. He was now deposed; and, with a stubborn and unpopular prince, a divided aristocracy, and an impoverished country, he was little desirous of recovering his lost power. He was aware, also, of his own imperious temper, as ungovernable as that of his sovereign, but which his previous lord and master, the youthful Partap, who regarded him as a father, had been wise enough never to check. During the ten years he had been out of office, mercenaries of Sind had been entertained and established on the forfeited lands of the clans, perpetuating discontent and stifling every latent spark of patriotism. Even those who did not join the pretender remained sullenly at their castles, and thus all confidence was annihilated. A casual incident brought Amra forward at this critical juncture. Udaipur had neither ditch nor walls equal to its defence. Arsi was engaged in fortifying Eklingarh, a lofty hill south of the city. He was attempting to place thereon an enormous piece of ordnance, but his men were unable to get it over the craggy ascent. Amra happened to be present when the Rana arrived to inspect the proceedings. Excuses were made to avert his displeasure, when, turning to the ex-minister, he enquired what time and expense ought to attend the completion of such an undertaking. The reply was, "A few rations of grain and some days "; and he offered to accomplish the task on condition that his orders should be supreme in the valley during its performance. On his offer being accepted, he collected the whole working population, cut a road, and in a few days gave the Rana a salute from Eklingarh. The city was now closely invested on every side but the west, where communications were still kept open by the lake, across which the mountaineers of the Aravalli, ever faithful in times of danger, kept up a constant supply of provisions. All defence rested on the fidelity of the mercenary Sindhies, and they were at this very moment insolent in their clamours for arrears of pay. Nor were the indecisive measures daily passing before their eyes calculated to augment their respect or stimulate their courage. Not satisfied with demands, they had the audacity to seize the Rana, as he entered the palace, by the skirt of his robe, which was torn in the effort to detain him. The haughtiness of his temper gave way before this humiliating proof of the hopelessness of his condition; and while the minister counselled escape by water to the mountains, whence he might gain Mandalgarh, the Salumbra chief confessed his inability to offer any advice save that of recourse to Amra Chand. The latter was, accordingly, summoned, and the uncontrolled charge of their desperate affairs offered to his guidance. Amra Chand accepted the post, remarking that it was one of which no man could be covetous, and, turning to the Rana, he added: " You know also my defect of temper which admits of no control. Wherever I am, I must be absolute — no secret advisers, no counteraction of measures. With finances ruined, troops mutinous, provisions expended, if you desire me to act, swear that no order, whatever its purport, shall be countermanded, and I will try what can be done." The Rana and his chiefs bent their heads before the bold bearing of Amra, and pledged themselves by their patron deity to comply with all his requests. Descending to the terrace where the Sindhia leaders and their bands were assembled, Amra commanded them to follow him, exclaiming, " Look to me for your arrears." The mutineers rose without reply, and in a body left the palace with Amra, who forthwith calculated the amount due, and promised payment the next day. Thence he proceeded to the repositories and, as the keepers fled when the keys of their trust were demanded, he ordered them to be broken open. All the gold and silver, whether in bullion or vessels, was converted into money; jewels were pledged, the troops paid, ammunition and provisions laid in, the enemy held at defiance, and the siege prolonged for six months. The pretender and his party had control of all but the valley of Udaipiir; but the million pounds promised to Sindhia as the price of his aid was not forthcoming, and the impatient Mahratta opened negotiations with Amra, offering to raise the siege and abandon the pretender for seventy lakhs of rupees. The treaty had already been signed when an exaggerated account of the wealth of the city reaching the Mahratta's ears, he broke his faith, and demanded an additional twenty lakhs. Amra tore up the treaty, and sent back the fragments with defiance. His spirit increased with his difficulties, and he infused his gallantry into the hearts of the most despairing. Assembling the Sindhies and the home-clans who were yet true to their prince, he made known to them his negotiations with the enemy, and stirred them to enthusiasm by a spirited appeal to their courage and loyalty, while, to add weight to his words, he distributed, amongst the most deserving, jewels and other articles of ornament lying useless in the treasury. The stores of grain in the city and neighbourhood, whether public or private, were collected and sent to the market, and it was proclaimed by beat of drum, that every fighting man could have six months' provisions on application. These unexpected resources were matter of universal surprise, and especially to the besiegers. The Sindhies, having no longer cause for discontent, caught the spirit of the brave Amra, and, going in a body to the palace, they paid homage to the Rana, and swore that they would defend Udaipur to the last. The enthusiasm spread, and was announced to Sindhia by a general discharge of cannon on his advanced posts. Apprehensive of some desperate display of Rajput valour, the wary Mahratta made overtures for a renewal of negotiations. It was now Amra's turn to triumph, and he replied that, so far from being able to pay ninety lakhs of rupees, he must now, to cover the expense incurred by a six months' siege, deduct ten lakhs from the amount originally demanded. Thus outwitted, Sindhia was compelled to accept sixty lakhs, with three and a half as douceur to the officers of his government. Thirty-three lakhs in jewels and specie were at once made over, and lands were mortgaged for the liquidation of the remainder of the debt. These lands were never redeemed; and in 1775, when the great officers of the Mahratta federation began to shake off the authority of the Peshwa, they became incorporated in the state of which Sindhia was the founder. Amra's defence of the capital was a death blow to the hopes of the pretender. He lost, one after another, all the strongholds he had gained in Mewar except Komulmir, whither he retired with the few chiefs who yet rallied round his standard. After a short time, these, too, abandoned him, and his cause was lost for ever. The Rana had triumphed, but at a heavy sacrifice. The war had cost him not only the indemnity in lands and money paid to Sindhia, but the rich district of Godwar as well. This district had formed part of the territories of Mewar since the beginning of the thirteenth century, when it was won by Rahup from the prince of Mandor. During the war with the pretender, it was confided to the Raja of Jodhpiir, to prevent its resources being available to the former, whose headquarters, Komulmir, commanded the approach to it, and the Raja pledged himself to support a body of 3,000 men for the Rana's service from its revenues. Arsi died soon after the war, and God war was never recovered. Rana Arsi met his death by treachery. He accepted an invitation from the Hara prince of Bundi to hunt with him at the ahairia, or spring festival, in the course of which he was slain by the Bundi heir, at the instigation, it is said, of the Mewar nobles, who detested their prince, and with whom, since the late events, it was impossible they could ever unite in confidence. A colour of pretext was afforded to the Bundi prince by a boundary dispute regarding a patch of ground yielding only a few good mangoes; but even admitting this as a palliative, it could not justify the inhospitable act, while the mode of its execution added cowardice to barbarity. As both were pursuing the boar, the Bundi heir drove his lance through the heart of the Rana.

Chapter 15 — Anarchy and Strife