CHAPTER 10

9. According to theMemoirs of Baber, February 11, 1527. [The battle was fought at Khānua or Kanwāha, now in the Bharatpur State, about twenty miles from Agra (Abu-l Fazl,Akbarnāma, i. 259 f.; Ferishta ii. 55), on March 16, 1527. Ferishta says that the provocation came from Rāna Sanga, who attacked Nāzim Khān, Governor of Bayāna, on which the latter appealed to Bābur (ii. 51). Bābur says that Sanga broke his engagement (Elliot-Dowson iv. 264; Badaoni,Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh, i. 444, 470).]

10. "On Monday, the 23rd of the first Jemadi, I had mounted to survey my posts, and in the course of my ride was seriously struck with the reflection, that I had always resolved, one time or another, to make an effectual repentance, and that some traces of a hankering after the renunciation of forbidden works had ever remained in my heart: I said to myself, ‘O, my soul.’(Persian Verse.)"‘How long wilt thou continue to take pleasure in sin?Repentance is not unpalatable—taste it.(Turki Verse.)"‘How great has been thy defilement from sin!How much pleasure thou didst take in despair!How long hast thou been the slave of thy passions!How much of thy life hast thou thrown away!Since thou hast set out on a holy war,Thou hast seen death before thine eyes for thy salvation.He who resolves to sacrifice his life to save himselfShall attain that exalted state which thou knowest.Keep thyself far away from all forbidden enjoyments;Cleanse thyself from all thy sins.’"Having withdrawn myself from such temptation, I vowed never more to drink wine. Having sent for the gold and silver goblets and cups, with all the other utensils used for drinking parties, I directed them to be broken, and renounced the use of wine, purifying my mind. The fragments of the goblets and other utensils of gold and silver I directed to be divided among derwishes and the poor. The first person who followed me in my repentance was Asas, who also accompanied me in my resolution of ceasing to cut the beard, and of allowing it to grow. That night and the following, numbers of Amirs and courtiers, soldiers, and persons not in the service, to the number of nearly three hundred men, made vows of reformation. The wine which we had with us we poured on the ground. I ordered that the wine brought by Baba Dost should have salt thrown into it, that it might be made into vinegar. On the spot where the wine had been poured out I directed a wāīn to be sunk and built of stone, and close by the wāīn an almshouse to be erected. In the month of Moharrem in the year 935, when I went to visit Gualiar, in my way from Dholpur to Sikri, I found this wāīn completed. I had previously made a vow, that if I gained the victory over Rana Sanka the Pagan, I would remit the Temgha (or stamp-tax) levied from Musulmans. At the time when I made my vow of penitence, Derwish Muhammed Sarban and Sheikh Zin put me in mind of my promise. I said, ‘You did right to remind me of this: I renounce the temgha in all my dominions, so far as concerns Musulmans’; and I sent for my secretaries, and desired them to write and send to all my dominions firmans conveying intelligence of the two important incidents that had occurred" (Memoirs of Baber, p. 354). [Elliot-Dowson iv. 269.]

(Persian Verse.)

"‘How long wilt thou continue to take pleasure in sin?Repentance is not unpalatable—taste it.

"‘How long wilt thou continue to take pleasure in sin?

Repentance is not unpalatable—taste it.

(Turki Verse.)

"‘How great has been thy defilement from sin!How much pleasure thou didst take in despair!How long hast thou been the slave of thy passions!How much of thy life hast thou thrown away!Since thou hast set out on a holy war,Thou hast seen death before thine eyes for thy salvation.He who resolves to sacrifice his life to save himselfShall attain that exalted state which thou knowest.Keep thyself far away from all forbidden enjoyments;Cleanse thyself from all thy sins.’

"‘How great has been thy defilement from sin!

How much pleasure thou didst take in despair!

How long hast thou been the slave of thy passions!

How much of thy life hast thou thrown away!

Since thou hast set out on a holy war,

Thou hast seen death before thine eyes for thy salvation.

He who resolves to sacrifice his life to save himself

Shall attain that exalted state which thou knowest.

Keep thyself far away from all forbidden enjoyments;

Cleanse thyself from all thy sins.’

"Having withdrawn myself from such temptation, I vowed never more to drink wine. Having sent for the gold and silver goblets and cups, with all the other utensils used for drinking parties, I directed them to be broken, and renounced the use of wine, purifying my mind. The fragments of the goblets and other utensils of gold and silver I directed to be divided among derwishes and the poor. The first person who followed me in my repentance was Asas, who also accompanied me in my resolution of ceasing to cut the beard, and of allowing it to grow. That night and the following, numbers of Amirs and courtiers, soldiers, and persons not in the service, to the number of nearly three hundred men, made vows of reformation. The wine which we had with us we poured on the ground. I ordered that the wine brought by Baba Dost should have salt thrown into it, that it might be made into vinegar. On the spot where the wine had been poured out I directed a wāīn to be sunk and built of stone, and close by the wāīn an almshouse to be erected. In the month of Moharrem in the year 935, when I went to visit Gualiar, in my way from Dholpur to Sikri, I found this wāīn completed. I had previously made a vow, that if I gained the victory over Rana Sanka the Pagan, I would remit the Temgha (or stamp-tax) levied from Musulmans. At the time when I made my vow of penitence, Derwish Muhammed Sarban and Sheikh Zin put me in mind of my promise. I said, ‘You did right to remind me of this: I renounce the temgha in all my dominions, so far as concerns Musulmans’; and I sent for my secretaries, and desired them to write and send to all my dominions firmans conveying intelligence of the two important incidents that had occurred" (Memoirs of Baber, p. 354). [Elliot-Dowson iv. 269.]

11. "At this time, as I have already observed, in consequence of preceding events, a general consternation and alarm prevailed among great and small. There was not a single person who uttered a manly word, nor an individual who delivered a courageous opinion. The Vazirs, whose duty it was to give good counsel, and the Amirs, who enjoyed the wealth of kingdoms, neither spoke bravely, nor was their counsel or deportment such as became men of firmness. During the whole course of this expedition, Khalifeh conducted himself admirably, and was unremitting and indefatigable in his endeavours to put everything in the best order. At length, observing the universal discouragement of my troops, and their total want of spirit, I formed my plan. I called an assembly of all the Amirs and officers, and addressed them: ‘Noblemen and soldiers! Every man that comes into the world is subject to dissolution. When we are passed away and gone, God only survives, unchangeable. Whoever comes to the feast of life must, before it is over, drink from the cup of death. He who arrives at the inn of mortality must one day inevitably take his departure from that house of sorrow, the world. How much better it is to die with honour than to live with infamy!"‘With fame, even if I die, I am contented;Let fame be mine, since my body is death’s."‘The most high God has been propitious to us, and has now placed us in such a crisis, that if we fall in the field we die the death of martyrs; if we survive, we rise victorious, the avengers of the cause of God. Let us, then, with one accord, swear on God’s holy word, that none of us will even think of turning his face from this warfare, nor desert from the battle and slaughter that ensues, till his soul is separated from his body.’“Master and servant, small and great, all with emulation, seizing the blessed Koran in their hands, swore in the form that I had given. My plan succeeded to admiration, and its effects were instantly visible far and near, on friend and foe” (Memoirs of Baber, p. 357).

"‘With fame, even if I die, I am contented;Let fame be mine, since my body is death’s.

"‘With fame, even if I die, I am contented;

Let fame be mine, since my body is death’s.

"‘The most high God has been propitious to us, and has now placed us in such a crisis, that if we fall in the field we die the death of martyrs; if we survive, we rise victorious, the avengers of the cause of God. Let us, then, with one accord, swear on God’s holy word, that none of us will even think of turning his face from this warfare, nor desert from the battle and slaughter that ensues, till his soul is separated from his body.’

“Master and servant, small and great, all with emulation, seizing the blessed Koran in their hands, swore in the form that I had given. My plan succeeded to admiration, and its effects were instantly visible far and near, on friend and foe” (Memoirs of Baber, p. 357).

12. Babur says, “Although Rana Sanka (Sanga) the Pagan, when I was at Cabul, sent me ambassadors, and had arranged with me that if I would march upon Delhi he would on Agra; but when I took Delhi and Agra, the Pagan did not move” (Memoirs of Baber, p. 339).

13. In the translation of Babur’sMemoirs, Udai Singh is styled ‘Wali of the country,’ confounding him with Udai Singh, successor of Sanga. He was Wali (sovereign) of Dungarpur, not ‘Oodipoor,’ which was not then in existence. [Erskine, in his later work (Hist. India, i. 473, note), admits his error.]

14. [A list of the slain, nearly identical, is given by Abu-l Fazl,Akbarnāma, i. 265.]

15. [The author confuses Hasan Khān, Mewāti, an important officer (Ferishta ii. 55; Bayley,Muhammad Dynasties of Gujarāt, 278), whom Badaoni (Muntakhabu-l-tawārīkh, i. 447) calls a Jogi in form and appearance, with Hasan Khān, Lodi (Āīn, i. 503).]

16. [About eighty-five miles north-north-west of Jaipur city. Bābur says that he intended to pursue Sanga to Chitor, but was prevented by the defeat of his forces advancing on Lucknow (Elliot-Dowson iv. 277).]

17. The number of queens is determined only by state necessity and the fancy of the prince. To have them equal in number to the days of the week is not unusual, while the number ofhandmaidsis unlimited. It will be conceded that the prince who can govern such a household, and maintain equal rights when claims to pre-eminence must be perpetually asserted, possesses no little tact. The government of the kingdom is but an amusement compared with such a task, for it is within theRawalathat intrigue is enthroned.

18. I possess his portrait, given to me by the present Rana, who has a collection of full-lengths of all his royal ancestors, from Samarsi to himself, of their exact heights and with every bodily peculiarity, whether of complexion or form. They are valuable for the costume. He has often shown them to me while illustrating their actions.

19. [The practice of sending his sword to represent the bridegroom probably originated in the desire for secrecy, and has since been observed, as among the Rāj Gonds of the Central Provinces, for the sake of convenience, and in order to avoid expense (Forbes,Rāsmāla, 624;BG, ix. Part i. 143, 145 f.; Russell,Tribes and Castes, Central Provinces, iii. 77).]

20. Surajmall.

21. The Hindu Cupid, implying ‘incorporeal,’ fromanga, ‘body,’ with the privative prefix ‘an.’

22. I have given the relation of this duel in the narrative of my journeys on my visit to the cenotaph of Ratna, erected where he fell. It was the pleasure of my life to listen to the traditional anecdotes illustrative of Rajput history on the scenes of their transactions.

23. The Bhakha orthography for Vikramaditya.

24. The government of Papa Bai, a princess of ancient time, whose mis-managed sovereignty has given a proverb to the Rajput. [Major Luard informs me that Pāpa Bāi is said to have been the daughter of a Rājput of Siddal. She and Shiral Seth, a corn-merchant who, in return for his penances, asked to be made a king for threeghatikas(twenty-four minutes each), and gave indiscriminately alms to rich and poor, are bywords for foolish extravagance. She is worshipped at a shrine in Ujjain by all who desire good crops, especially sugar. Another name for such a period of misrule is Harbong kā rāj (Elliot,Supplemental Glossary, 466 ff.).]

25. Taken by Prithiraj and carried to Rana Raemall, who took a large sum of money and seven hundred horses as his ransom.

26. We have, in the poems of Chand, frequent indistinct notices of firearms, especially the nal-gola ortube-ball; but whether discharged by percussion or the expansive force of gunpowder is dubious. The poet also repeatedly speaks of “the volcano of the field,” giving to understand great guns; but these may be interpolations, though I would not check a full investigation of so curious a subject by raising a doubt. Babur was the first who introduced field guns in the Muhammadan wars, and Bahadur’s invasion is the first notice of their application in sieges, for in Alau-d-din’s time, in the thirteenth century, he used the catapult or battering-ram, called manjanik. To these guns Babur was indebted for victory over the united cavalry of Rajasthan. They were served by Rumi Khan, probably a Roumeliot, or Syrian Christian. The Franks (Faringis), with Bahadur, must have been some of Vasco di Gama’s crew. [For the use of artillery in Mogul times see the full account by Irvine (Army of the Indian Moghuls, 113 ff.). Manjanīk is the Greek μάγγανον. Rūmi Khān was an Ottoman Turk, called Khudāwand Khān, who learned the science in Turkish service (Erskine,Hist. of India, ii. 49;Āīn, i. 441). Akbar is said to have used Chinese artillery, and to have employed English gunners from Surat (Manucci, i. 139; Irvine,op. cit.152).]

27. TheChangi, the chief insignia of regality in Mewar, is a sun of gold in the centre of a disc of black ostrich feathers or felt, about three feet in diameter, elevated on a pole, and carried close to the prince. It has something of a Scythic cast about it. Whatchangiimports I never understood. [Probably Pers.chang, ‘anything bent.’]

28. The name of the faithful Rajput who preserved Udai Singh, Chakasen Dhundera, deserves to be recorded.

29. The date, “Jeth sudi 12th, S. 1589,”A.D.1533, and according to FerishtaA.H.949,A.D.1532-33. [Chitor was taken in 1534. TheMirāt-i-Sikandaristates that on March 24, 1533, Bahādur received the promised tribute, and moved his camp from Chitor (Bayley,Muhammadan Dynasties of Gujarāt, 372).]

30. From ancient times, leading the females captive appears to have been the sign of complete victory. Rajput inscriptions often allude to “a conqueror beloved by the wives of his conquered foe,” and in the early parts of Scripture the same notion is referred to. The mother of Sisera asks: “Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two?” (Judges v. 30.)

31. [Ferishta ii. 75 f. Badaoni says that Humāyūn hesitated to interfere because Bahādur was attacking an infidel (Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh, i. 453 f.).]

32. Many romantic tales are founded on ‘the gift of the Rakhi.’ The author, who was placed in the enviable situation of being able to do good, and on the most extensive scale, was the means of restoring many of these ancient families from degradation to affluence. The greatest reward he could, and the only one he would, receive, was the courteous civility displayed in many of these interesting customs. He was the Rakhi-band Bhai of, and received ‘the bracelet’ from, three queens of Udaipur, Bundi, and Kotah, besides Chand Bai, the maiden sister of the Rana; as well as many ladies of the chieftains of rank, with whom he interchanged letters. The sole articles of ‘barbaric pearl and gold,’ which he conveyed from a country where he was six years supreme, are these testimonies of friendly regard. Intrinsically of no great value, they were presented and accepted in the ancient spirit, and he retains them with a sentiment the more powerful, because he can no longer render them any service. [The Rākhi (Skt.raksha, ‘protection’) is primarily a protective amulet assumed at the full moon of Sāwan (July-August) (Forbes,Rāsmāla, 609). It was worn on this date to avert the unhealthiness of the rainy season. Jahāngīr and Akbar followed the custom, introduced by their Hindu ladies (Jahangir,Memoirs, 246; Badaoni,op. cit.ii. 269).]

33. [Probably policy, rather than romance, caused Humāyūn to interfere.]

34. He addresses her as “dear and virtuous sister,” and evinces much interest in her welfare. We are in total ignorance of the refined sentiment which regulates such a people—our home-bred prejudices deem them beneath inquiry; and thus indolence and self-conceit combine to deprive the benevolent of a high gratification.

Rāna Banbīr Singh,A.D.1535-37.—A few hours of sovereignty sufficed to check those ‘compunctious visitings’ which assailed Banbir ere he assumed its trappings, with which he found himself so little encumbered that he was content to wear them for life. Whether this was the intention of the nobles who set aside the unworthy son of Sanga, there is abundant reason to doubt; and as he is subsequently branded with the epithet of ‘usurper’ it was probably limited, though unexpressed, to investing him with the executive authority during the minority of Udai Singh. Banbir, however, only awaited the approach of night to remove with his own hands the obstacle to his ambition.

The Escape of Udai Singh, the Heir.—Udai Singh was about six years of age. “He had gone to sleep after his rice and milk,” when his nurse was alarmed by screams from the rawala,[1]and the Bari[2]coming in to take away the remains of the dinner, informed her of the cause, the assassination of the Rana. Aware that one murder was the precursor of another, the faithful nurse put hercharge into a fruit basket and, covering it with leaves, she delivered it to the Bari, enjoining him to escape with it from the fort. Scarcely had she time to substitute her own infant in the room of the prince, when Banbir, entering, inquired for him. Her lips refused their office; she pointed to the cradle, and beheld the murderous steel buried in the heart of her babe [316]. The little victim to fidelity was burnt amidst the tears of the rawala, the inconsolable household of their late sovereign, who supposed that their grief was given to the last pledge of the illustrious Sanga. The nurse (Dhai) was a Rajputni of the Khichi tribe, her name Panna, or ‘the Diamond.’ Having consecrated with her tears the ashes of her child, she hastened after that she had preserved. But well had it been for Mewar had the poniard fulfilled its intention, and had the annals never recorded the name of Udai Singh in the catalogue of her princes.

The faithful barber was awaiting the nurse in the bed of the Berach River, some miles west of Chitor, and fortunately the infant had not awoke until he descended the city. They departed for Deolia, and sought refuge with Singh Rao, the successor to Baghji, who fell for Chitor; who dreading the consequence of detection, they proceeded to Dungarpur. Rawal Askaran then ruled this principality, which, as well as Deolia, was not only a branch, but the elder branch, of Chitor. With every wish to afford a shelter, he pleaded the danger which threatened himself and the child in such a feeble sanctuary. Pursuing a circuitous route through Idar, and the intricate valleys of the Aravalli, by the help and with the protection of its wild inmates, the Bhils, she gained Kumbhalmer. The resolution she had formed was bold as it was judicious. She demanded an interview with the governor, Asa Sah his name, of the mercantile tribe of Depra,[3]and a follower of the theistical tenets of the Jains. The interview being granted, she placed the infant in his lap, and bid him “guard the life of his sovereign.” He felt perplexed and alarmed: but his mother, who was present, upbraided him for his scruples. “Fidelity,” said she, “never looks at dangers or difficulties. He is your master, the son of Sanga, and by God’s blessing the result will be glorious.” Having thus fulfilled her trust, the faithful Pannawithdrew from Kumbhalmer to avoid the suspicion which a Rajputni about a Srawak’s[4]child would have occasioned, as the heir of Chitor was declared to be the nephew of the Depra.

The Boyhood of Udai Singh.—Suspicions were often excited regarding Asa’s nephew; once, especially, on the anniversary (samvatsara) of the governor’s father, when “the Rajput guests being in one rank, and the men of wealth in another, young Udai seized a vessel of curds, which no intreaty could prevail on him to relinquish, deriding their threats” [317]. Seven years elapsed before the secret transpired; at length self-revealed, from the same independent bearing. On occasion of a visit from the Sonigira chief, Udai was sent to receive him, and the dignified manner in which he performed the duty convinced the chief ‘he was no nephew to the Sah.’ Rumour spread the tale, and brought not only the nobles of Mewar, but adjacent chiefs, to hail the son of Sanga Rana. Sahidas of Salumbar, the representative of Chonda, Jaga of Kelwa, Sanga of Bagor, all chiefs of the clans of Chondawat; the Chauhans of Kotharia and Bedla, the Pramar of Bijolia Akhiraj (Sonigira), Prithiraj of Sanchor, and Lunkaran Jethawat, repaired to Kumbhalmer, when all doubt was removed by the testimony of the nurse, and of her coadjutor in the preservation of the child.

Installation of Rāna Udai Singh,A.D.1537-72.—A court was formed, when the faithful Asa Sah resigned his trust and placed the prince of Chitor ‘in the lap of the Kotharia Chauhan,’ as the ‘great ancient’[5]among the nobles of Mewar, who was throughout acquainted with the secret, and who, to dissipate the remaining scruples which attached to the infant’s preservation, ‘ate off the same platter with him.’ The Sonigira Rao did not hesitate to affiance to him his daughter, and it was accepted by his advisers, notwithstanding the interdict of Hamir to any intermarriage with the Sonigira, since the insult of giving the widow to his bed. Udai received the tika of Chitor in the castle of Kumbha, and the homage of nearly all the chiefs of Mewar.

The tidings soon reached the usurper, who had not borne hisfaculties meekly since his advancement; but having seized on the dignity, he wished to ape all the customs of the legitimate monarchs of Chitor, and even had the effrontery to punish as an insult the refusal of one of the proud sons of Chonda to take thedaunafrom his bastard hand.

The Dauna, a Recognition of Legitimacy.—Thedauna, ordaua, is a portion of the dish of which the prince partakes, sent by his own hand to whomsoever he honours at the banquet. At the rasora, or refectory, the chiefs who are admitted to dine in the presence of their sovereign are seated according to their rank. The repast is one of those occasions when an easy familiarity is permitted, which, though unrestrained, never exceeds the bounds [318] of etiquette, and the habitual reverence due to their father and prince. When he sends, by the steward of the kitchen, a portion of the dish before him, or a little from his ownkansa, or plate, all eyes are guided to the favoured mortal, whose good fortune is the subject of subsequent conversation. Though, with the diminished lustre of this house, thedaunamay have lost its former estimation, it is yet received with reverence; but the extent of this feeling, even so late as the reign of Arsi Rana, the father of the reigning prince, the following anecdote will testify. In the rebellion during this prince’s reign, amongst the ancient customs which became relaxed, that of bestowing thedaunawas included; and the Rana conferring it on the Rathor prince of Kishangarh, the Bijolia chief, one of the sixteen superior nobles of Mewar, rose and left the presence, observing, “Neither the Kachhwaha nor the Rathor has a right to this honour, nor can we, who regard as sanctified even the leavings of your repast, witness this degradation; for the Thakur of Kishangarh is far beneath me.” To such extent is this privilege even yet carried, and such importance is attached from habit to the personal character of the princes of Mewar, that the test of regal legitimacy in Rajasthan is admission to eat from the same plate (kansa) with the Rana: and to the refusal of this honour to the great Man Singh of Amber may be indirectly ascribed the ruin of Mewar.[6]

It may therefore be conceived with what contempt the haughty nobility of Chitor received the mockery of honour from the hand of this ‘fifth son of Mewar’; and the Chondawat chief had the boldness to add to his refusal, “that an honour from thehand of a true son of Bappa Rawal became a disgrace when proffered by the offspring of the handmaid Sitalseni.” The defection soon became general, and all repaired to the valley of Kumbhalmer to hail the legitimate son of Mewar. A caravan of five hundred horses and ten thousand oxen, laden with merchandise from Cutch, the dower of Banbir’s daughter, guarded by one thousand Gaharwar Rajputs, was plundered in the passes: a signal intimation of the decay of his authority, and a timely supply to the celebration of the nuptials of Udai Rana with the daughter of the Rao of Jalor. Though the interdict of Hamir was not forgotten, it was deemed that the insult given by Banbir Sonigira was amply effaced by his successor’s redemption of the usurpation of Banbir Sesodia. The marriage was solemnized at Bali, within the limits of Jalor, and the [319] customary offerings were sent or given by all the princes of Rajasthan. Two chiefs only, of any consequence, abstained from attending on their lawful prince on this occasion, the Solanki of Maholi and Maloji of Tana. In attacking them, the bastard was brought into conflict; but Maloji was slain and the Solanki surrendered.

Deposition of Rāna Banbīr Singh.—Deserted by all, Banbir held out in the capital; but his minister admitted, under the garb of a reinforcement with supplies, a thousand resolute adherents of the prince: the keepers of the gates were surprised and slain, and theanof Udai Singh was proclaimed. Banbir was even permitted to retire with his family and his wealth. He sought refuge in the Deccan, and the Bhonslas of Nagpur are said to derive their origin from this spurious branch of Chitor.[7]

Rāna Udai Singh,A.D.1537-72.—Rana Udai Singh ascended the throne in S. 1597 (A.D.1541-2). Great were the rejoicings on the restoration of this prince. ‘The song of joy,’[8]which was composed on the occasion, is yet a favourite at Udaipur, and on the festival of Isani (the Ceres of Rajasthan), the females still chant in chorus the ‘farewell to Kumbhalmer.’[9]But the evil days of Mewar which set in with Sanga’s death, and were accelerated by the fiery valour of Ratna and the capricious conduct of Bikramajit, were completed by an anomaly in her annals: a coward succeeding a bastard to guide the destinies of the Sesodias. Thevices of Ratna and his brother were virtues compared to this physical defect, the consequences of which destroyed a great national feeling, the opinion of its invincibility.

His Character.—“Woe to the land where a minor rules or a woman bears sway!” exclaims the last of the great bards[10]of Rajasthan; but where both were united, as in Mewar, the measure of her griefs was full. 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 reign of Humayun, or the contentions of the Pathan usurpation; but, unhappily for Rajasthan, a prince was then rearing who forged fetters for the Hindu race which enthralled them for ages; and though the corroding hand of time left but their fragments, yet even now, though emancipated, they bear the indelible marks of the manacle; not like the galley slave’s, physical and exterior, but deep mental scars, never to be effaced. Can a nation which has run its long career of glory be [320] regenerated? Can the soul of the Greek or the Rajput be reanimated with the spark divine which defended the kunguras[11]of Chitor or the pass of Thermopylae? Let history answer the question.

Birth of Akbar.—In the same year that the song of joy was raised in the cloud-capped[12]palace of Kumbhalmer for the deliverance of Udai Singh, the note of woe was pealed through the walls of Umarkot, and given to the winds of the desert, to proclaim the birth[13]of an infant destined to be the greatest monarch who ever swayed the sceptre of Hindustan. In an oasis of the Indian desert, amidst the descendants of the ancient Sogdoi[14]of Alexander, Akbar first saw the light; his father a fugitive, the diadem torn from his brows, its recovery more improbable than was its acquisition by Babur. The ten years which had elapsed since Humayun’s accession were passed in perpetual strife with his brothers, placed according to custom in subordinate governments. Their selfish ambition met its reward; for with the fall of Humayun their own was ensured, when Sher Shah displaced the dynasty of Chagatai for his own, the Pathan (or Sur).

Defeat and Flight of Humāyūn,A.D.1540.—From the field of battle at Kanauj, where Humayun left his crown, his energetic opponent gave him no respite, driving him before him from Agra to Lahore. Thence, with his family and a small band of adherents, alternately protected and repelled by Hindu chieftains, he reached the valley of Sind, where he struggled to maintain himself amidst the greatest privations, attempting in succession each stronghold on the Indus, from Multan to the ocean. Foiled in every object, his associates made rebels by distress, he abandoned them for the more dubious shelter of the foes of his race. Vain were his solicitations to Jaisalmer and Jodhpur; and though it cannot be matter of wonder that he found no commiseration from either Bhatti or Rathor, we must reprobate the unnational conduct of Maldeo, who, the Mogul historian says, attempted to make him captive. From such inhospitable treatment the royal exile escaped by again plunging into the desert, where he encountered, along with the tender objects of his solicitude, hardships of the most appalling description, until sheltered by the Sodha prince of Umarkot. The high courage and the virtues of this monarch increase that interest in his sufferings which royalty in distress never fails to awaken by its irresistible influence [321] upon our sympathies; and they form an affecting episode in the history of Ferishta.[15]Humayun, though more deeply skilled in themysteries of astrology than any professed seer of his empire, appears never to have enjoyed that prescience which, according to the initiated in the science, is to be obtained from accurate observation:

And coming events cast their shadows before;

for, could he, by any prophetic power, have foreseen that the cloud which then shaded his fortunes, was but the precursor of glory to his race, he would have continued his retreat from the sheltering sand-hills of Umarkot with very different sentiments from those which accompanied his flight into Persia [322].

Early Years of Akbar.—Humayun educated the young Akbarin the same school of adversity in which he had studied under Babur. Between the Persian court and his ancient patrimony in Transoxiana, Kandahar, and Kashmir, twelve years were passed in every trial of fortune. During this short period, India, always the prize of valour, had witnessed in succession six[16]kings descended from the Pathan ‘Lion’ (sher), of whom the last, Sikandar, was involved in the same civil broils which brought the crown to his family. Humayun, then near Kashmir, no sooner observed the tide of events set counter to his foe, than he crossed the Indus and advanced upon Sirhind, where the Pathan soon appeared with a tumultuous array. The impetuosity of young Akbar brought on a general engagement, which the veterans deemed madness. Not so Humayun, who gave the command to his boy, whose heroism so excited all ranks, that they despised the numbers of the enemy, and gained a glorious victory. This was the presage of his future fame; for Akbar was then but twelve years of age,[17]the same period of life at which his grandfather, Babur, maintained himself on the throne of Farghana. Humayun, worthy of such a son and such a sire, entered Delhi in triumph; but he did not long enjoy his recovered crown. His death will appear extraordinary, according to the erroneous estimate formed of Eastern princes: its cause was a fall from the terrace of his library;[18]for, like every individual of his race, he was not merely a patron of literature, but himself a scholar. Were we to contrast the literary acquirements of the Chagatai princes with those of their contemporaries of Europe, the balance of lore would be found on the side of the Asiatics, even though Elizabeth and Henry IV. of France were in the scale. Amongst the princes from the Jaxartes are historians, poets, astronomers, founders of systems of government and religion, warriors, and great captains, who claim our respect and admiration.

Akbar’s Struggle for the Empire.—Scarcely had Akbar been seated on the throne, when Delhi and Agra were wrested from him, and a nook of the Panjab 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 wisdomof this Sully[19]of Hindustan on a rock. Kalpi, Chanderi, Kalanjar, all Bundelkhand and Malwa, were soon attached to the empire, and at the early age of eighteen Akbar assumed the uncontrolled [323] direction of the State. He soon turned his attention towards the Rajputs; and whether it was to revenge the inhospitality of Maldeo towards his father, he advanced against the Rathors, and stormed and took Merta, the second city in Marwar. Raja Biharimall [or Bahar Mall] of Amber anticipated the king, enrolled himself and son Bhagwandas amongst his vassals, gave the Chagatai a daughter to wife, and held his country as a fief of the empire. But the rebellions of the Usbek nobles, and the attempts of former princes to regain their lost power, checked for a time his designs upon Rajasthan. These matters adjusted, and the petty sovereigns in the East (to whom the present monarch of Oudh is as Alexander) subjected to authority, he readily seized upon the provocation which the sanctuary given to Baz Bahadur of Malwa and the ex-prince of Narwar afforded, to turn his arms against Chitor.[20]

Comparison of Akbar with Rāna Udai Singh.—Happy the country where the sovereignty is in the laws, and where the monarch is but the chief magistrate of the State, unsubjected to those vicissitudes which make the sceptre in Asia unstable as a pendulum, kept in perpetual oscillation by the individual passions of her princes; where the virtues of one will exalt her to the summit of prosperity, as the vices of a successor will plunge her into the abyss of degradation. Akbar and Udai Singh furnish the corollary to this self-evident truth.

The Rana was old enough to philosophize on ‘the uses of adversity’; and though the best of the ‘great ancients’ had fallen in defence of Chitor, there were not wanting individuals capable of instilling just and noble sentiments into his mind: but it was of that common character which is formed to becontrolled by others; and an artful and daring concubine stepped in, to govern Udai Singh and Mewar.

Akbar was not older when he came to the throne[21]of Delhi than Udai Singh when he ascended that of Mewar. Nor were his hopes much brighter; but the star which beamed upon his cradle in the desert, conducted to his aid such counsellors as the magnanimous Bairam, and the wise and virtuous Abu-l Fazl. Yet it may be deemed hardly fair to contrast the Rajput with the Mogul: the one disciplined into an accurate knowledge of human nature, by experience of the [324] mutability of fortune; the other cooped up from infancy in a valley of his native hills, his birth concealed, and his education restricted.[22]

Akbar was the real founder of the empire of the Moguls, the first successful conqueror of Rajput independence: to this end his virtues were powerful auxiliaries, as by his skill in the analysis of the mind and its readiest stimulant to action, he was enabled to gild the chains with which he bound them. To these they became familiarized by habit, especially when the throne exerted its power in acts gratifying to national vanity, or even in ministering to the more ignoble passions. 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 beneficence of his nature, and obtain by the universal acclaim of the conquered, the proud epithet of Jagad Guru, or ‘guardian of mankind.’ He was long ranked with Shihabu-d-din, Ala, and other instruments of destruction, and with every just claim; and, like these, he constructed a Mimbar[23]for the Koran from the altars of Eklinga. Yet he finally succeeded in healing the wounds his ambition had inflicted, and received from millions that meed 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 Rawal devoted himself to her service. In the first assault by Ala, twelve crowned headsdefended the ‘crimson banner’ to the death. In the second, when conquest led by Bajazet[24]came from the south, the chieftain of Deolia, a noble scion of Mewar, “though severed from her stem,” claimed the crown of glory and of martyrdom. But on this, the third and grandest struggle, no regal victim appeared to appease the Cybele of Chitor, and win her to retain its ‘kunguras’[25]as her coronet. She fell! the charm was broken; the mysterious tie was severed for ever which connected [325] Chitor with perpetuity of sway to the race of Guhilot. With Udai Singh fled the “fair face” which in the dead of night unsealed the eyes of Samarsi, and told him “the glory of the Hindu was departing”:[26]with him, that opinion, which for ages esteemed her walls the sanctuary of the race, which encircled her with a halo of glory, as the palladium of the religion and the liberties of the Rajputs.

To traditions such as these, history is indebted for the noblest deeds recorded in her page; and in Mewar they were the covert impulse to national glory and independence. For this the philosopher will value the relation; and the philanthropist as being the germs or nucleus of resistance against tyrannical domination. Enveloped in a wild fable, we see the springs of their prejudices and their action: batter down these adamantine walls of national opinion, and all others are but glass. The once invincible Chitor is now pronounced indefensible. “The abode of regality, which for a thousand years reared her head above all the cities of Hindustan,” is become the refuge of wild beasts, which seek cover in her temples; and this erst sanctified capital is now desecrated as the dwelling of evil fortune, into which the entrance of her princes is solemnly interdicted.

Akbar besieges Chitor, September,A.D.1567.—Ferishta mentions but one enterprise against Chitor, that of its capture; but the annals record another, when Akbar was compelled to relinquish the undertaking.[27]The successful defence is attributed to themasculine 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 reinvest Chitor; he had just attained his twenty-fifth year, and was desirous of the renown of capturing it. The site of the royal Urdu,[28]or camp, is still pointed out. It extended from the village of Pandauli[29]along the high road to Basai, a distance of ten miles. The headquarters of Akbar are yet marked by a pyramidal column of marble, to which tradition has assigned the [326] title of Akbar ka diwa, or ‘Akbar’s lamp.’[30]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 with his blood. Rawat Duda of Madri led ‘the sons of Sanga.’[31]The feudatory chiefs of Bedla and Kotharia, descended from Prithiraj of Delhi—the Pramar of Bijolia—the Jhala of Sadri—inspired their contingents with their brave example: these were all home chieftains. Another son of Deolia again combated for Chitor, with the Sonigira Rao of Jalor—Isaridas Rathor, Karamchand Kachhwaha,[32]with Duda Sadani,[33]and the Tuar prince of Gwalior, were distinguished amongst the foreign auxiliaries on this occasion.

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