Chapter 8 — Annals of Mewar

Rana Udai Singh ascended the throne in 1541, amidst great rejoicings. The song of triumph, which was composed for the occasion, is yet a favourite at Udaipur, and on the festival of Gouri, the Ceres of Rajasthan, the females still chant the "farewell to Komulmir." But the ruin of Mewar, which set in with Sanga's death, and was accelerated by the fiery valour of Ratna and the capricious conduct of Bikramajit, was completed by an anomaly in her annals : a coward succeeding a bastard to guide the destinies of the Sesodias. Udai Singh had not one quality of a sovereign, and, wanting martial virtue — the common heritage of his race — he was destitute of all. Yet he might have slumbered life away in inglorious repose during the lifetime of Humayun, or the contentions of the Pathan usurpers who came after. But, unfortunately for Rajasthan, a prince was then rearing who forged fetters for the Hindu race which enthralled it for ages. Time has broken them asunder, but their indelible marks remain, not like the galley - slave's, physical and exterior, but deep mental scars never to be effaced. In the same year that the song of joy was raised in the cloud-capped palace of Komulmir, for the deliverance of Udai Singh, there was born, in an oasis of the Indian desert, an infant destined to be the most powerful monarch that ever swayed sceptre of Hindustan. Akbar the Great first saw the light amid scenes of hardship and affliction ; his father a fugitive, the diadem torn from his brows, and its recovery more improbable than had been its acquisition by Babar. Humayun trained his son, as his own father had trained him, in the school of adversity ; and the greatest of the great Moguls passed the first twelve years of his life surrounded by every trial of fortune. During this short period, the imperial throne at Delhi, which the Pathan Lion had wrested from his grasp, was occupied in succession by no less than six kings, of whom the last, Sikandar, became involved in civil broils which rapidly undermined his power. Humayun no sooner saw the tide of events set counter to his foe, than he crossed the Indus and advanced upon Sirhind, where the Pathan soon met him with a tumultuous array. The impetuosity of young Akbar brought on a general engagement, which the veterans deemed madness. Not so Humayun. He gave over the command to his boy, who, by his heroism, so excited all ranks that they despised the numbers of the enemy and gained a glorious victory. This was the presage of Akbar's future fame ; for he was then but twelve years of age, the same period of life at which his grandfather Babar maintained himself on the throne of Ferghana. Six years later, this same youth was the uncontrolled ruler of the Mogul empire. Scarcely was Akbar seated on the throne, when Delhi and Agra were wrested from him, and a nook of the Punjab constituted all his empire. But by the energetic valour of the great Bairam Khan, his lost sovereignty was regained with equal rapidity, and established by the wisdom of this Sulla of Hindustan on a rock. Calpi, Chanderi, Callingar, all Bandalkand and Malwa were soon attached to the empire ; and then the conqueror turned his attention towards the Rajputs. He advanced against the Rahtors, and stormed and took Mairtia, the second city in Marwar. Raja Bharmal of Ambar anticipated matters by enrolling himself and his son, Bhagwan Das, among Akbar's vassals, gave him a daughter to wife, and held his country as a fief of the empire. The rebellions of the Usbec nobles checked for a time his designs on Rajasthan ; but these were soon quelled, and the imperial army was free to advance to the subjugation of the prince of Chftor. Akbar was the real founder of the empire of the Moguls, the first successful conqueror of Rajput independence. Though he led their princes captive, his virtues were such that he was able to gild the fetters with which he bound them. But generations of the martial races were cut off by his sword, and lustres rolled away ere his conquests were sufficiently confirmed to permit him to exercise the benevolence of his nature, and obtain by the universal acclaim of the conquered the proud title of Jaggat Gur, the " guardian of mankind." He was long ranked with Shahab-ud-din, Allah, and other instruments of destruction, and with every just claim. Like these, he constructed from the altars of Eklinga a pulpit for the Koran. Yet he finally succeeded in healing the wounds his ambition had inflicted, and received from millions that mead of praise which no other of his race ever obtained. The absence of the kingly virtues in the sovereign of Mewar filled to the brim the bitter cup of her destiny. The guardian goddess of the Sesodias had promised never to abandon the rock of her pride while a descendant of Bappa Rawul devoted himself to her service. In the first assault by Allah, twelve crowned heads had defended the " crimson banner." In the second, the crown of martyrdom was worn by the brave chieftain of Deola. But in this, the third and greatest struggle, no regal victim was forthcoming, and the mysterious tie which united the Gehlote to the throne of Chitor was severed for ever. The enchanted fortress, " the abode of regality, which for a thousand years reared her head above all the cities of Hindustan," was henceforward regarded as indefensible, and became a refuge to the wild beasts which sought cover in her temples. Ferishta mentions but one enterprise against Chitor — that of its capture ; but the annals record another when Akbar was compelled to relinquish his undertaking. The successful defence is attributed to the masculine courage of the Rana's concubine queen, who headed the sallies into the heart of the Mogul camp, and on one occasion to the emperor's headquarters. The imbecile Rana proclaimed that he owed his deliverance to her, when the chiefs, indignant at this imputation on their courage, conspired and put her to death. Internal discord invited Akbar to re-invest Chitor ; he had just attained his twenty-fifth year, and was desirous of the renown of capturing it. The site of the royal urdu, or camp, is still pointed out. It extended from the village of Pandaoli along the high road to Bussi, a distance of ten miles. The headquarters of Akbar are marked by a pyramidal column of marble, to which tradition has assigned the name, Akbar kd diwa, or Akbar's lamp.1 Scarcely had Akbar sat down before Chitor, when the Rana was compelled (say the annals) to quit it ; but the necessity and his wishes were in unison. It lacked not, however, brave defenders. Sahidas, at the head of a numerous band of the descendants of Chonda, was at his post, " the gate of the sun"; there he fell resisting the entrance of the foe, and there his altar stands on the brow of the rock, which was moistened by his blood. Rawut Deola led the i ' sons of Sanga." The feudatory chiefs of Baidla and Kotario, descendants of Prithvi Raj of Delhi, the Tuar prince of Gwalior, the Rao of Jhalawar, the chief of Deola, and many others inspired their contingents with their brave example, and sacrificed their lives for the sacred city. Though deprived of the stimulous that would have been given had their prince been a witness of their deeds, heroic achievements, such as those before recorded, were conspicuous on this occasion ; and many a fair form threw the buckler over the scarf, and led the most desperate sorties. But the names which shine brightest in this gloomy page of the annals of Mewar, names immortalised by Akbar's own pen, are those of Jaimal of Bednor and Patta of Kailwa, both of the sixteen superior vassals of Chitor. The first was a Rahtor of the Mairtia house, the bravest of the brave clans of Marwar ; the other was head of the Jugawats, another grand shoot from Chonda. Their names, "Jaimal and Patta," always inseparable, are as household words in Mewar, and will be honoured while the Rajput retains a shred of his inheritance or a spark of his ancient recollections. When Sahidas fell at " the gate of the sun," the command devolved on Patta of Kailwa. He was only sixteen. His father had fallen in the last siege, and his mother had survived but to rear this the sole heir of her house. Like the Spartan mother of old, she commanded him to put on the saffron robe, and to die for Chitor ; but, surpassing the Grecian dame, she illustrated her precept by example ; and, lest thoughts for one dearer than herself might dim the lustre of Kailwa, she armed his young bride with a lance, and the defenders of Chitor saw the fair princess descend the rock and fall fighting by the side of her brave mother. When their wives and daughters performed such deeds, the Rajputs became reckless of life. Patta was slain ; and Jaimal, who had taken his place, was grievously wounded. Seeing there was no hope of salvation he resolved to signalise the end of his career. The fatal johur was commanded, while 8,000 Rajputs ate the last bira1 together, and put on their saffron robes. The gates were thrown open, the work of destruction commenced, and few survived to " stain the yellow mantle " by inglorious surrender. All the heads of clans, both home and foreign, fell, and 1,700 of the immediate kin of the prince sealed their duty to their country with their lives. Nine queens, five princesses, with two infant sons, and the families of all the chieftains who took part in the defence perished in the flames, or at the hands of the enemy. Their divinity had, indeed, forsaken them ! The rock of their strength was despoiled ; their temples and palaces dilapidated ; and, to complete the humiliation and his own triumph, Akbar bereft the city of all the symbols of sovereignty — the nakaraS) or grand kettle-drums, whose reverberations proclaimed, for miles round, the entrance and exit of her princes ; the candelabras from the shrine of the " Great Mother," who girt Bappa Rawul with the sword with which he conquered Chitor ; and, in mockery of her misery, he carried away her portals to adorn his projected capital, Akbarabad. Akbar claimed the honour of the death of Jaimal by his own hand : the fact is recorded by Abul Fazil and by the Emperor Jahangir, who conferred on the matchlock, which aided his father to this distinction, the title of Singrdm. But the conqueror of Chitor evinced a more exalted sense of the merits of his foes in erecting statues in honour of Jaimal and Patta at the most conspicuous entrance of his palace at Delhi. They still occupied this distinguished position when Bernier was in India ; and, in a letter written from Delhi in 1663, that illustrious traveller remarks: " These two great elephants, together with the two resolute men sitting on them do at the first entry into the fortress make an impression of I know not what greatness and awful terror." When the Carthagenian gained the battle of Cannae, he measured his success by the bushels of rings taken from the fingers of the equestrian Romans who fell on that memorable field. Akbar estimated his by the quantity of cordons of distinction taken from the necks of the Rajputs, and seventy-four and a half man, or about five hundredweight, is the recorded amount. To eternise the memory of this disaster the number 74 \ is tilac, that is, accursed. Marked on a banker's letter in Rajasthan it is the strongest of seals, for " the sin of the sack of Chi'tor " is invoked on him who violates a letter under the safeguard of this mysterious number. When Udai Singh abandoned Chi'tor, he found refuge in the valley of the Girwoh in the Aravalli, close to the retreat of his great ancestor, Bappa, ere he conquered Chitor. At the entrance to this valley, several years previously, he had formed the lake still called after him, Udai Sagar, and he now raised a dyke between the hills which dammed up another stream. On the cluster of hills adjoining, he built the small palace called Nauchoki, around which edifices soon arose to which he gave his own name, Udaipur, henceforth the capital of Me war. Four years had Udai Singh survived the loss of his capital when he expired at Gogiinda, at the early age of forty-two. His last act was to entail contention upon his sons, of whom he left twentyfive ; for, setting aside the established law of primogeniture, he proclaimed his favourite son Jagmal his successor. In Mewar there is no interregnum. The ceremony of mourning is held at the house of the family priest, while the palace is decked out in honour of the new ruler. While his brothers and the nobles attended the funeral pyre, Jagmal took possession of the throne in the infant capital. But even as the trumpet sounded, and the heralds called aloud, " Let the king live for ever," a cabal was formed round the bier of his father. It will be borne in mind that Udai Singh had espoused the daughter of the Rao of Jhalawar, and that chief had little difficulty in inducing Kistna, the " great ancient of Mewar " and the leader of her nobles, to support the rightful cause of his grandson, Partap. Jagmal was just about to enter the rassora, and Partap was saddling for his departure, when Kistna appeared, accompanied by the ex-prince of Gwalior. Each chief took an arm of Jagmal, and, with gentle violence, guided him to a seat in the front of the " cushion " he had occupied, the old noble remarking, " You made a mistake, Maharaj ; that place belongs to your brother." Partap was then girt with the sword, and hailed by all present the king of Mewar. No sooner was the ceremony concluded, than the young prince reminded them that it was the festival of the Ahairia, and that ancient customs should not be forgotten; u therefore, to horse, and slay a boar to Gouri, and take the omen for the coming year." They slew abundance of game, and, in the mimic field of war, the nobles who surrounded the gallant Partap anticipated happier days for Mewar. It may not be out of place if we here give some account of the shrine of Eklinga, the tutelary deity of Mewar, and his consort, the lion-born goddess, whose wrath was fraught with such signal disaster to their followers. The shrine of Eklinga is situated in a defile about six miles north of Udaipiir. The hills around it on all sides are of the primitive formation, and their scarped summits, the abode of countless swarms of wild bees, are clustered with honey-combs. Abundant springs of water keep alive the various shrubs, the flowers of which are acceptable to the deity, especially the kinar or oleander, which grows in great luxuriance on the Aravalli. It would be difficult to convey a just idea of a temple so complicated in its details. It is of the type usually styled a pagoda, and, like all the ancient temples of Siva, its sikra, or pinnacle, is pyramidal. The various orders of Hindu sacred architecture are distinguished by the form of the sikra, which is the portion springing from and surmounting the perpendicular walls of the body of the building, and in those dedicated to Siva is invariably pyramidal, its sides conforming to the shape of the base, which is either square or oblong. The apex is crowned with an ornamental figure of an urn, a bull, or a lion, which is called the kullus. The fane of Eklinga is of white marble, and of ample dimensions. Beneath a vaulted roof, supported by columns, is the brazen bull, Nanda ; it is cast, of the natural size, and of excellent proportions. The figure is perfect, except where the shot or hammer of an infidel invader has penetrated its hollow flank in search of treasure. The high priest of Eklinga, like all his order, is doomed to celibacy, and the office is continued by adopted disciples. The members of the order are styled Goswami, which signifies one who has control over the senses. The distinguishing mark of the priests of Siva is a crescent on the forehead ; the hair is braided and forms a tiara round the head, and with its folds a chaplet of the lotus seed is often entwined. They smear the body with ashes, and wear garments dyed an orange hue. They live in monasteries scattered over the country, possess lands, beg, and serve for pay when called upon. The shrine is endowed with twenty -four large villages from the flsc of Mewar, besides parcels of land from the estates of the chieftains. The Ranas, as diw&ns of Siva, supersede the high priest in his duties whenever they visit the temple. This privilege has belonged to the Ranas since the days of their famous ancestor Bappa, who acquired it in the following manner. While pasturing the sacred kine in the valley of Nagindra, the princely shepherd was suspected of appropriating the milk of a favourite cow to his own use. He was distrusted and watched, and, though indignant, he admitted that there were grounds for suspicion from the habitual dryness of the brown cow when she entered the pens at night. One day, being determined to solve the mystery, he tracked the animal to a narrow dell, where he beheld her spontaneously yield her store of milk for the benefit of an aged hermit, who proved to be none other than Harita, the high priest of Eklinga. Bappa related to the sage all that he knew of himself, received his blessing, and retired; but he came every day to visit him, ministering to his needs, and gathering such wild flowers as were an acceptable offering to the deity. In return, he received lessons in morality, and was initiated into the mysterious rites of Siva. At length, he was invested with the triple thread by the hands of the sage, who became his spiritual adviser, and bestowed upon him the title ''regent of Eklinga." Bappa had proofs that his attentions to the sage and his devotions to the deity were favourably regarded, for the lion-born goddess herself appeared before him. From her hand he received his celestial panoply — a lance, a bow, a quiver and arrows, a shield, and a sword, which last the goddess girded on him with her own hand, while he swore eternal fidelity and devotion. The temple of Eklinga was erected on the very spot where the goddess appeared to Bappa, and the present high priest traces sixty-six descents from Harfta to himself. Before passing on to the reign of Partap, the most renowned of all the Rana's of Mewar, we will glance for a few moments at the condition of Rajpiitana during the period of Mogul supremacy, and the policy initiated by Akbar, and followed by the two monarchs who succeeded him, for the consolidation of the empire. The existence of a number of powerful and independent principalities, constantly at feud with one another, and ready at a moment's notice to combine against a common foe, was not only a constant menace to the security of the imperial throne, but a serious hindrance to the establishment of any settled form of government. The subjugation of Rajpiitana was, therefore, one of the first undertakings to which the astute and energetic son of Humayun turned his attention. The Rajput princes soon realised that the imperial power was irresistible, and, rather than suffer political annihilation, preferred, in most cases, to make the best terms they could with their not ungenerous foe. One by one they surrendered to Akbar their kingdoms, receiving them back with a sanad, or grant, thereby acknowledging him as lord paramount, and themselves as fiefs of the empire. On these occasions, they received the khildt1 of honour and investiture, consisting of elephants, horses, arms, and jewels, and to their hereditary title of prince was added by the emperor that of mansabddr, or military commander. Besides this acknowledgment of supremacy, they offered nazarana2, and paid homage, engaging to attend the royal presence when required, at the head of a stipulated number of their vassals. The emperor presented them with a standard, kettle-drums, and other insignia, which headed the contingent of each prince. The splendour of such an array, whether in the field or at the palace, can scarcely be conceived. Though Humayun had gained the services of several of the Rajput princes, their aid had been uncertain. It was reserved for his wise and magnanimous son to induce them to become at once the ornament and the support of his throne. The power which he consolidated, and knew so well how to wield, was irresistible; while the beneficence of his disposition and the wisdom of his policy maintained in security whatever his might conquered. He knew that a constant exhibition of authority would be both ineffectual and dangerous, and that the surest way to gain a hold on the loyalty and esteem of the conquered was to give them a personal interest in the support of the monarchy. But Akbar carried his scheme of conciliation yet further. He determined to unite the pure blood of the Rajputs to the scarcely less noble stream which flowed from Chenghiz Khan through Timur and Babar to himself, calculating that they would more readily yield obedience to a prince who claimed kindred with them, than to one of undiluted Tartar blood. Ambar, the nearest state to Delhi, and the most exposed, was the first to unite itself to the empire by this means ; and subsequently the practice became so common that some of the most celebrated of the Mogul emperors were the offspring of Rajput princesses. The last Mogul sovereign to marry a Rajput princess was Farrukhsiyar, who espoused the daughter of Raja Ajit Singh of Marwar. Of the four hundred and sixteen mansabddrs of Akbar's empire forty-seven were Rajputs, and the aggregate of their quotas amounted to fifty -three thousand horse. Of these, seventeen held mansabs of from two thousand to five thousand horse, and thirty from one hundred to two thousand. The princes of Ambar, Marwar, Bikanir, Bundi, Jaisalmir, and Bandalkand held mansabs of above one thousand; but Ambar alone, being allied to the royal family, had the dignity of five thousand. Such duties, though in the first-place compulsory, soon came to be coveted and regarded as honourable; and thus, Akbar gained a double victory, securing the good opinion as well as the swords of the Rajputs in his aid. A judicious perseverance would have rendered the throne of Timur immovable; but the beneficence and toleration of Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan were lost sight of by the bigoted and blood-thirsty Aurangzeb, who, though able by his commanding genius to hold his empire together during his lifetime, extinguished in his Hindu subjects every sentiment of loyalty and affection which the wisdom of his predecessors had kindled. This affection withdrawn, and the weakness of Farrukhsiyar substituted for the strength of Aurangzeb, the already tottering throne of the Moguls crumbled to pieces. Predatory warfare and spoliation rose on its ruins, and a general scramble for territory ensued. The Rajput princes thought of nothing but re-establishing their independence and adding to their lands and power. Old jealousies were not lessened by the part which each had played in the hour of ephemeral greatness ; and the prince of Mewar, who had preserved his blood uncontaminated, was at once an object of respect and envy to those who had forfeited the first pretensions of a Rajput. The new lands acquired by these princes whilst basking in court favour had made them equal, if not superior, in power to the Rana, and they desired that the dignities they had received from the sons of Timiir should appear as distinguished as his ancient title. Hence, while one inscribed on his seal, " the exalted in dignity, a prince among princes," and another, "lord of the lords of Ind," the princes of Mewar preserved their royal simplicity, and the sole designation of the chief who, in 181 7, allied himself to the British Government was "Maharana Bhim Singh, son of Arsi."

Chapter 8 — Third & Last Sack of Chftor