Chapter 37

The Battle of Khānua, March 16, 1527.—Babur advanced from Agra and Sikri to oppose Rana Sanga, in full march to attack him at the head of almost all the princes of Rajasthan. Although the annals state some points which the imperial historian has not recorded, yet both accounts of the conflict correspond in all the essential details. On the 5th of Kartik, S. 1584[9](A.D.1528), according to the annals, the Rana raised the siege of Bayana, and at Khanua encountered the advanced guard of the Tatars, amounting to fifteen hundred men, which was entirely destroyed; the fugitives carrying to the main body the accounts of the disaster, which paralysed their energies, and made them entrench for security, instead of advancing with the confidence of victory. Reinforcements met the same fate, and were pursued to the camp. Accustomed to reverses, Babur met the check without dismay, and adopted every precaution [304] that a mind fertile in expedients could suggest to reassure the drooping spirits of his troops. He threw up entrenchments, in which he placed his artillery, connecting his guns by chains, and in the more exposed partschevaux de frise, united by leather ropes: a precautioncontinued in every subsequent change of position. Everything seemed to aid the Hindu cause: even the Tatar astrologer asserted that as Mars was in the west, whoever should engage coming from the opposite quarter should be defeated. In this state of total inactivity, blockaded in his encampment, Babur remained near a fortnight, when he determined to renounce his besetting sin, and merit superior aid to extricate himself from his peril: thenaïvetéof his vow must be given in his own words.[10]But the destruction of the wine flasks would appear only to have added to the existing consternation, and made him, as a last resort, appeal to their faith. Having addressed them in a speech of [305] manly courage, though bordering on despair, he seized the happy moment that his exhortation elicited, to swear them on the Koran to conquer or perish.[11]Profiting by this excitement, he broke up his camp, to which he had been confined nearly a month, and marched in order of battle to a position two miles in advance, the Rajputs skirmishing up to his guns. Withouta regular circumvallation, his movable pallisadoes and guns chained, he felt no security. The inactivity of Sanga can scarcely escape censure, however we may incline to palliate it by supposing that he deemed his enemy in the toils, and that every day’s delay brought with it increased danger to him. Such reasoning would be valid, if the heterogeneous mass by which the prince of Mewar was surrounded had owned the same patriotic sentiments as himself: but he ought to have known his countrymen, nor overlooked the regulating maxim of their ambition,get land. Delay was fatal to this last coalition against the foes of his race. Babur is silent on the point to which the annals ascribe their discomfiture, a negotiation pending his blockade at Khanua; but these have preserved it, with the name of the traitor who sold the cause of his country. The negotiation[12]had reached this point, that on condition of Babur being left Delhi and its dependencies, the Pilakhal at Bayana should be the boundary of their respective dominions, and even an annual tribute was offered to the Rana [306]. We can believe that in the position Babur then was, he would not scruple to promise anything. The chief of Raesen, by name Salehdi, of the Tuar tribe, was the medium of communication, and though the arrangement was negatived, treason had effected the salvation of Babur.

On March 16 the attack commenced by a furious onset on the centre and right wing of the Tatars, and for several hours the conflict was tremendous. Devotion was never more manifest on the side of the Rajput, attested by the long list of noble names amongst the slain as well as the bulletin of their foe, whose artillery made dreadful havoc in the close ranks of the Rajput cavalry, which could not force the entrenchments, nor reach the infantry which defended them. While the battle was still doubtful, the Tuar traitor who led the van (harawal) went over to Babur, and Sanga was obliged to retreat from the field, which in the onset promised a glorious victory, himself severely wounded and the choicest of his chieftains slain: Rawal Udai[13]Singh ofDungarpur, with two hundred of his clan; Ratna of Salumbar, with three hundred of his Chondawat kin; Raemall Rathor, son of the prince of Marwar, with the brave Mertia leaders Khetsi and Ratna; Ramdas the Sonigira Rao; Uja the Jhala; Gokuldas Pramara; Manikchand and Chandrbhan, Chauhan chiefs of the first rank in Mewar; besides a host of inferior names.[14]Hasan Khan of Mewat, and a son of the last Lodi king of Delhi, who coalesced with Sanga, were amongst the killed.[15]Triumphal pyramids were raised of the heads of the slain, and on a hillock which overlooked the field of battle a tower of skulls was erected; and the conqueror assumed the title ofGhazi, which has ever since been retained by his descendants.

The Death of Rāna Sanga.—Sanga retreated towards the hills of Mewat, having announced his fixed determination never to re-enter Chitor but with victory. Had his life been spared to his country, he might have redeemed the pledge; but the year of his defeat was the last of his existence, and he died at Baswa,[16]on the frontier of Mewat, not without suspicion of poison. It is painful to record the surmise that his ministers prompted the deed, and the cause is one which would fix a deep stain on the country; namely, the purchase by regicide of inglorious ease and stipulated safety, in [307] preference to privations and dangers, and to emulating the manly constancy of their prince, who resolved to make the heavens his canopy till his foe was crushed—a determination which was pursued with the most resolute perseverance by some of his gallant successors.

Evils resulting from Polygamy.—Polygamy is the fertile source of evil, moral as well as physical, in the East. It is a relic of barbarism and primeval necessity, affording a proof thatancient Asia is still young in knowledge. The desire of each wife,[17]that her offspring should wear a crown, is natural; but they do not always wait the course of nature for the attainment of their wishes, and the love of power too often furnishes instruments for any deed, however base. When we see, shortly after the death of Sanga, the mother of his second son intriguing with Babur, and bribing him with the surrender of Ranthambhor and the trophy of victory, the crown of the Malwa king, to supplant the lawful heir, we can easily suppose she would not have scrupled to remove any other bar. On this occasion, however, the suspicion rests on the ministers alone. That Babur respected and dreaded his foe we have the best proof in his not risking another battle with him; and the blame which he bestows on himself for the slackness of his pursuit after victory is honourable to Sanga, who is always mentioned with respect in the commentaries of the conqueror: and although he generally styles him the Pagan, and dignifies the contest with the title of “the holy war,” yet he freely acknowledges his merit when he says, “Rana Sanga attained his present high eminence by his own valour and his sword.”

Appearance of Rāna Sanga.—Sanga Rana was of the middle stature, but of great muscular strength; fair in complexion, with unusually large eyes, which appear to be peculiar to his descendants.[18]He exhibited at his death but the fragments of a warrior: one eye was lost in the broil with his brother; an arm in an action with the Lodi king of Delhi, and he was a cripple owing to a limb being broken by a cannon-ball in another [308]; while he counted eighty wounds from the sword or the lance on various parts of his body. He was celebrated for energeticenterprise, of which his capture of Muzaffar, king of Malwa, in his own capital, is a celebrated instance; and his successful storm of the almost impregnable Ranthambhor, though ably defended by the imperial general Ali, gained him great renown. He erected a small palace at Khanua, on the line which he determined should be the northern limit of Mewar; and had he been succeeded by a prince possessed of his foresight and judgment, Babur’s descendants might not have retained the sovereignty of India. A cenotaph long marked the spot where the fire consumed the remains of this celebrated prince. Sanga had seven sons, of whom the two elder died in non-age. He was succeeded by the third son,

Rāna Ratan Singh II.,A.D.1527-31.—Ratna (S. 1586,A.D.1530) possessed all the arrogance and martial virtue of his race. Like his father, he determined to make the field his capital, and commanded that the gates of Chitor never should be closed, boasting that “its portals were Delhi and Mandu.” Had he been spared to temper by experience the exuberance of youthful impetuosity, he would have well seconded the resolution of his father, and the league against the enemies of his country and faith. But he was not destined to pass the age always dangerous to the turbulent and impatient Rajput, ever courting strife if it would not find him. He had married by stealth the daughter of Prithiraj of Amber, probably before the death of his elder brothers made him heir to Chitor. His double-edged sword, the proxy of the Rajput cavalier, represented Ratna on this occasion.[19]Unfortunately it was kept but too secret; for the Hara prince of Bundi,[20]in ignorance of the fact, demanded and obtained her to wife, and carried her to his capital. The consequences are attributable to the Rana alone, for he ought, on coming to the throne, to have espoused her; but his vanity was flattered at the mysterious transaction, which he deemed would prevent all application for the hand of his ‘affianced’ (manga). The bards of Bundi are rather pleased to record the power of theirprinces, who dared to solicit and obtain the hand of the ‘bride’ of Chitor. The princes of Bundi had long been attached to the Sesodia house: and from the period when their common ancestors fought together on the banks of the Ghaggar against [309] Shihabu-d-din, they had silently grown to power under the wing of Mewar, and often proved a strong plume in her pinion. The Hara inhabited the hilly tract on her eastern frontier, and though not actually incorporated with Mewar, they yet paid homage to her princes, bore her ensigns and titles, and in return often poured forth their blood. But at the tribunal of Ananga,[21]the Rajput scattered all other homage and allegiance to the winds. The maiden of Amber saw no necessity for disclosing her secret or refusing the brave Hara, of whom fame spoke loudly, when Ratna delayed to redeem his proxy.

Death of Rāna Ratan Singh.—The unintentional offence sank deep into the heart of the Rana, and though he was closely connected with the Hara, having married his sister, he brooded on the means of revenge, in the attainment of which he sacrificed his own life as well as that of his rival. The festival of the Aheria[22](the spring hunt), which has thrice been fatal to the princes of Mewar, gave the occasion, when they fell by each other’s weapons. Though Ratna enjoyed the dignity only five years, he had the satisfaction to see the ex-king of Ferghana, now founder of the Mogul dynasty of India, leave the scene before him, and without the diminution of an acre of land to Mewar since the fatal day of Bayana. Rana Ratna was succeeded by his brother,

Rāna Bikramajīt,A.D.1531-35.—Bikramajit,[23]in S. 1591 (A.D.1535). This prince had all the turbulence, without the redeeming qualities of character, which endeared his brother to his subjects; he was insolent, passionate, and vindictive, and utterly regardless of that respect which his proud nobles rigidly exacted. Instead of appearing at their head, he passed his time amongst wrestlers and prize-fighters, on whom and a multitudeof ‘paiks,’ or foot soldiers, he lavished those gifts and that approbation, to which the aristocratic Rajput, the equestrian order of Rajasthan, arrogated exclusive right. In this innovation he probably imitated his foes, who had learned the superiority of infantry, despised by the Rajput, who, except in sieges, or when ‘they spread the carpet and hamstrung their steeds,’ held the foot-soldier very cheap. The use of artillery was now becoming general, and the [310] Muslims soon perceived the necessity of foot for their protection: but prejudice operated longer upon the Rajput, who still curses ‘those vile guns,’ which render of comparatively little value the lance of many a gallant soldier; and he still prefers falling with dignity from his steed to descending to an equality with his mercenary antagonist.

An open rupture was the consequence of such innovation, and (to use the figurative expression for misrule) ‘Papa Bai ka Raj’[24]was triumphant; the police were despised; the cattle carried off by the mountaineers from under the walls of Chitor; and when his cavaliers were ordered in pursuit, the Rana was tauntingly told to send his paiks.

The Attack by Bahādur, Sultān of Gujarāt.—Bahadur, sultan of Gujarat, determined to take advantage of the Rajput divisions, to revenge the disgrace of the defeat and captivity of his predecessor Muzaffar.[25]Reinforced by the troops of Mandu, he marched against the Rana, then encamped at Loicha, in the Bundi territory. Though the force was overwhelming, yet with the high courage which belonged to his house, Bikramajit did not hesitate to give battle; but he found weak defenders in his mercenary paiks, while his vassals and kin not only kept aloof, but marched off in a body to defend Chitor, and the posthumous son of Sanga Rana, still an infant.

There is a sanctity in the very name of Chitor, which from the earliest times secured her defenders; and now, when threatened again by ‘the barbarian,’ such the inexplicable character of the Rajput, we find the heir of Surajmall abandoning his new capital of Deolia, to pour out the few drops which yet circulated in his veins in defence of the abode of his fathers.

‘The son of Bundi,’ with a brave band of five hundred Haras, also came; as did the Sonigira and Deora Raos of Jalor and Abu, with many auxiliaries from all parts of Rajwara. This was the most powerful effort hitherto made by the sultans of Central India, and European artillerists[26]are recorded in these [311] annals as brought to the subjugation of Chitor. The engineer is styled ‘Labri Khan of Fringan,’ and to his skill Bahadur was indebted for the successful storm which ensued. He sprung a mine at the ‘Bika rock,’ which blew up forty-five cubits of the rampart, with the bastion where the brave Haras were posted. The Bundi bards dwell on this incident, which destroyed their prince and five hundred of his kin. Rao Durga, with the Chondawat chieftains Sata and Dudu and their vassals, bravely defended the breach and repelled many assaults; and, to set an example of courageous devotion, the queen-mother Jawahir Bai, of Rathor race, clad in armour, headed a sally in which she was slain. Still the besiegers gained ground, and thelast council convened was to concert means to save the infant son of Sanga from this imminent peril.

Crowning of a New Rāna.—But Chitor can only be defended by royalty, and again they had recourse to the expedient of crowning a king, as a sacrifice to the dignity of the protecting deity of Chitor. Baghji, prince of Deolia, courted the insignia of destruction; the banner of Mewar floated over him, and the golden sun from its sable field never shone more refulgent than when thechangi[27]was raised amidst the shouts of her defenders over the head of the son of Surajmall.

The Johar.—The infant, Udai Singh, was placed in safety with Surthan, prince of Bundi,[28]the garrison put on their saffron robes, while materials for thejoharwere preparing. There was little time for the pyre. The bravest had fallen in defending the breach, now completely exposed. Combustibles were quickly heaped up in reservoirs and magazines excavated in the rock, under which gunpowder was strewed. Karnavati, mother of the prince, and sister to the gallant Arjun Hara, led the procession of willing victims to their doom, and thirteen thousand females were thus swept at once from the record of life. The gates were thrown open, and the Deolia chief, at the head of the survivors, with a blind and impotent despair, rushed on his fate [312].

Bahadur must have been appalled at the horrid sight on viewing his conquest;[29]the mangled bodies of the slain, with hundreds in the last agonies from the poniard or poison, awaiting death as less dreadful than dishonour and captivity.[30]To use the emphaticwords of the annalist, “the last day of Chitor had arrived.” Every clan lost its chief, and the choicest of their retainers; during the siege and in the storm thirty-two thousand Rajputs were slain. This is the secondsakhaof Chitor.

Bahadur had remained but a fortnight, when the tardy advance of Humayun with his succours warned him to retire.[31]According to the annals, he left Bengal at the solicitation of the queen Karnavati; but instead of following up the spoil-encumbered foe, he commenced a pedantic war of words with Bahadur, punning on the word ‘Chitor.’ Had Humayun not been so distant, this catastrophe would have been averted, for he was bound by the laws of chivalry, the claims of which he had acknowledged, to defend the queen’s cause, whose knight he had become. The relation of the peculiarity of a custom analogous to the taste of the chivalrous age of Europe may amuse. When her Amazonian sister the Rathor queen was slain, the mother of the infant prince took a surer method to shield him in demanding the fulfilment of the pledge given by Humayun when she sent the Rakhi to that monarch.

The Rākhi.—‘The festival of the bracelet’ (Rakhi) is in spring, and whatever its origin, it is one of the few when an intercourse of gallantry of the most delicate nature is established between the fair sex and the cavaliers of Rajasthan. Though the bracelet may be sent by maidens, it is only on occasions of urgent necessity or danger. The Rajput dame bestows with the Rakhi the title of adopted brother; and while its acceptance secures to her all the protection of acavalière servente, scandal itself never suggests any other tie to his devotion. He may hazard his life in her cause, and yet never receive a smile in reward, for he cannot even see the fair object who, as brother of her adoption, has constituted him her defender. But there is a charm in the mystery of such connexion, never endangered by close observation, and the loyal to the fair may well attach a value [313] to the public recognition of being the Rakhi-band Bhai, the ‘bracelet-bound brother’ of a princess. The intrinsic value of such pledge isnever looked to, nor is it requisite it should be costly, though it varies with the means and rank of the donor, and may be of flock silk and spangles, or gold chains and gems. The acceptance of the pledge and its return is by thekachhli, or corset, of simple silk or satin, of gold brocade and pearls. In shape or application there is nothing similar in Europe, and as defending the most delicate part of the structure of the fair, it is peculiarly appropriate as an emblem of devotion. A whole province has often accompanied the Kachhli, and the monarch of India was so pleased with this courteous delicacy in the customs of Rajasthan, on receiving the bracelet of the princess Karnavati, which invested him with the title of her brother, and uncle and protector to her infant Udai Singh, that he pledged himself to her service, “even if the demand were the castle of Ranthambhor.” Humayun proved himself a true knight, and even abandoned his conquests in Bengal when called on to redeem his pledge and succour Chitor, and the widows and minor sons of Sanga Rana.[32]Humayun had the highest proofs of the worth of those courting his protection; he was with his father Babur in all his wars in India, and at the battle of Bayana his prowess was conspicuous, and is recorded by Babur’s own pen. He amply fulfilled his pledge, expelled the foe from Chitor, took Mandu by assault, and, as some revenge for her king’s aiding the king of Gujarat, he sent for the Rana Bikramajit, whom, following their own notions ofinvestiture, he girt with a sword in the captured citadel of his foe.[33]

The Muhammadan historians, strangers to their customs, or the secret motives which caused the emperor to abandon Bengal, ascribe it to the Rana’s solicitation; but we may credit the annals, which are in unison with the chivalrous notions of the Rajputs, into which succeeding monarchs, the great Akbar, his son [314] Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, entered with delight; and even Aurangzeb, two of whose original letters to the queen-mother of Udaipur are now in the author’s possession, and are remarkable for their elegance and purity of diction, and couched in terms perfectly accordant with Rajput delicacy.[34]

Restoration of Bikramajīt.—Bikramajit, thus restored to his capital, had gained nothing by adversity; or, to employ the words of the annalist, “experience had yielded no wisdom.” He renewed all his former insolence to his chiefs, and so entirely threw aside his own dignity, and, what is of still greater consequence, the reverence universally shown to old age, as to strike in open court Karamchand of Ajmer, the protector of his father Sanga in his misfortunes. The assembly rose with one accord at this indignity to their order; and as they retired, the Chondawat leader Kanji, the first of the nobles, exclaimed, “Hitherto, brother chiefs, we have had but a smell of the blossom, but now we shall be obliged to eat the fruit”; to which the insulted Pramara added, as he hastily retired, “To-morrow its flavour will be known.”

Though the Rajput looks up to his sovereign as to a divinity, and is enjoined implicit obedience by his religion, which rewards him accordingly hereafter, yet this doctrine has its limits, and precedents are abundant for deposal, when the acts of the prince may endanger the realm. But there is a bond of love as well as of awe which restrains them, and softens its severity in the paternity of sway; for these princes are at once the father and king of their people: not in fiction, but reality—for he is therepresentative of the common ancestor of the aristocracy—the sole lawgiver of Rajasthan.

Death of Rāna Bikramajīt.—Sick of these minors (and they had now a third in prospect), which in a few years had laid prostrate the throne of Mewar, her nobles on leaving their unworthy prince repaired to Banbir, the natural son of the heroic Prithiraj, and offered “to seat him on the throne of Chitor.” He had the virtue to resist the solicitation; and it was only on painting the dangers which threatened the country, if its chief at such a period had not their confidence, that he gave his consent. The step between the deposal and death of a king is necessarily short [315], and the cries of the females, which announced the end of Bikramajit, were drowned in the acclamations raised on the elevation of thechangiover the head of the bastard Banbir.

1. [The dates given in the margin are based on recently found inscriptions (Har Bilas Sarda,Maharana Kumbha: Sovereign, Soldier, Scholar, Ajmer, 1917,p. 2).p. 2).]

2. TheRaj Ratana, by Ranchhor Bhat, says: “The Mandor Rao was pardhan, or premier to Mokal, and conquered Nawa and Didwana for Mewar.”

3. [It is the generosity of Rāna Sanga to Muzaffar Shāh of which Abu-l Fazl speaks (Āīn, ii. 221).]

4. [The Musalmān historians give a different account. Ferishta says that Mahmūd stormed the lower part of Chitor, and that the Rāna fled (iv. 209). At any rate, Mahmūd erected a tower of victory at Māndu (IGI, xvii. 173). The result was probably indecisive. For Kūmbha’s pillar see Fergusson,Hist. Indian Architecture, ii. 59; Smith,HFA, 202 f.]

5. PronouncedKumalmer.

6. [Grandson of Asoka (Smith,EHI, 192 f.).]

7. [For the Ābu temples see Tod,Western India, 75 ff.; Erskine iii. A. 295.]

8. A powerful phrase, indicating ‘possessor of the soil.’

9. The Rana’s minister, of the Jain faith, and of the tribe Porwar (one of the twelve and a half divisions), laid the foundation of this temple inA.D.1438. It was completed by subscription. It consists of three stories, and is supported by numerous columns of granite, upwards of forty feet in height. The interior is inlaid with mosaics of cornelian and agate. The statues of the Jain saints are in its subterranean vaults. We could not expect much elegance at a period when the arts had long been declining, but it would doubtless afford a fair specimen of them, and enable us to trace their gradual descent in the scale of refinement. This temple is an additional proof of the early existence of the art of inlaying. That I did not see it is now to me one of the many vain regrets which I might have avoided.

10.Gita Govinda.

11. [She was daughter of Ratiya Rāna, and was married to Kūmbha in 1413. Her great work is the Rāg Gobind (Grierson,Modern Literature of Hindustan, 12; Macauliffe,The Sikh Religion, vi. 342 ff.;IA, xxv. 19, xxxii. 329 ff.;ASR, xxiii. 106). As an illustration of the uncertainty of early Mewār history, according to Har Bilas Sarda, author of the monograph on Rāna Kūmbha, Mīra Bāi was not wife of Kūmbha, but of Bhojrāj, son of Rāna Sanga. She was daughter of Ratan Singh of Merta, fourth son of Rāo Duda (A.D.1461-62). She was married to BhojrājA.D.1516, and died in 1546.]

12.Jagat Khunt, or Dwarka.

13. The darkest of the rainy months.

14. Jodha laid the foundation of his new capital in S. 1515 [A.D.1459], ten years anterior to the event we are recording.

15. [See p.268above.]

16. He had observed that his father, ever since the victory over the king at Jhunjhunu, before he took a seat, thrice waved his sword in circles over his head, pronouncing at the same time some incantation. Inquiry into the meaning of this was the cause of his banishment.

17. During the rains of 1820, when the author was residing at Udaipur, the Rana fell ill; his complaint was an intermittent (which for several years returned with the monsoon), at the same time that he was jaundiced with bile. An intriguing Brahman, who managed the estates of the Rana’s eldest sister, held also the twofold office of physician and astrologer to the Rana. He had predicted that year as one of evil in his horoscope, and was about to verify the prophecy, since, instead of the active medicines requisite, he was administering theHaft dhat, or ‘seven metals,’ compounded. Having a most sincere regard for the Rana’s welfare, the author seized the opportunity of a full court being assembled on the distribution of swords and coco-nuts preparatory to the military festival, to ask a personal favour. The Rana, smiling, said that it was granted, when he was entreated to leave off the poison he was taking. He did so; the amendment was soon visible, and, aided by the medicines of Dr. Duncan, which he readily took, his complaint was speedily cured. The ‘man of fate and physic’ lost half his estates, which he had obtained through intrigue. He was succeeded by Amra the bard, who is not likely to ransack the pharmacopoeia for such poisonous ingredients; his ordinary prescription being the ‘amrit.’

18. [Ferishta does not mention these campaigns (iv. 236 ff.), and Ghiyāsu-d-dīn (A.D.1469-99) is said to have spent his life in luxury and never to have left his palace (BG, i. Part i. 362 ff.).]

19. His name classically is Sangram Singh, ‘the lion of war.’

20. [Infusion of opium.]

21. About ten miles east of Udaipur.

22.Singhasanis the ancient term for the Hindu throne, signifying ‘the lion-seat.’ Charans, bards, who are allMaharajas, ‘great princes,’ by courtesy, have their seats of the hide of the lion, tiger, panther, or black antelope.

23. Nearly ten miles south-east of Ajmer.

24. Jai Singh Baleo and Jaimu Sindhal.

25. [A common folk-tale, told of Malhar Rāo Holkar and many other princes (Crooke,Popular Religion Northern India, ii. 142; Malcolm,Memoir of Central India, 2nd ed. i. 143 f.; E. S. Hartland,Ritual and Belief, 323 f.).]

26. Called thedevi, about the size of the wagtail, and like it, black and white.

27. Chhatrdhāri.

28. The names of his followers were, Jasa Sindhal, Sangam (Dabhi), Abha, Jana, and a Badel Rathor.

29. The grant in the preamble denounces a curse on any of Prithiraj’s descendants who should resume it. I have often conversed with this descendant, who held Sodhgarh and its lands, which were never resumed by the princes of Chitor, though they reverted to Marwar. The chief still honours the Rana, and many lives have been sacrificed to maintain his claims, and with any prospect of success he would not hesitate to offer his own.

30. This is a genuine Hindu name, ‘the Hero’s refuge,’ fromsur, ‘a warrior,’ andthan, ‘an abode.’

31. [There is an error here: there was no contemporary Sultan of Mālwa of this name.]

32. Near Chitor.

33. ‘Regent’; the title the Rana is most familiarly known by.

34.Thali, ‘a brass platter.’ This is the highest mark of confidence and friendship.

35. This compound of the betel or areca-nut, cloves, mace,Terra japonica, and prepared lime, is always taken after meals, and has not unfrequently been a medium for administering poison.

36. Hours of twenty-two minutes each.

37. Familiar contraction of Surajmall.

38. [Anogeissus latifolia.]

39. The Hindu Proserpine, or Calligenia. Is this Grecian handmaid of Hecate also Hindu, ‘born of time’ (Kali-janama)? [Καλλιγένεια, ‘bearer of fair offspring,’ has, of course, no connexion with Kāli.]

40. Gaunda, or Gaunra, is the name of such temporary places of refuge; the origin of towns bearing this name.

41. Such grants are irresumable, under the penalty of sixty thousand years in hell. This fine district is eaten up by these mendicant Brahmans. One town alone, containing 52,000 bighas (about 15,000 acres) of rich land, is thus lost; and by such follies Mewar has gradually sunk to her present extreme poverty.

42. [Kānthal, in Partābgarh State, is the boundary (Kāntha) between Mewār on the north, Bāgar on the west, and Mālwa on the east and south.]

43. [The statement in the text that Sūrajmall, son of Uda, retired to Deolia is incorrect. Sūrajmall was first-cousin, not son of Uda, and it was his great-grandson, Bīka, who conquered the Kānthal and founded the town of Deolia at least fifty years later (Erskine ii. A. 197).]

44. The walls of his palace are still pointed out.

1. [Āīn, ii. 270.]

2. The ball or urn which crowns the pinnacle (sikhar).

3. Delhi, Bayana, Kalpi, and Jaunpur.

4. Prithiraj was yet but Rao of Amber, a name now lost in Jaipur. The twelve sons of this prince formed the existing subdivisions or clans of the Kachhwahas, whose political consequence dates from Humayun, the son and successor of Babur.

5. [Sīkri, afterwards Fatehpur Sīkri, the site of Akbar’s palace; Rāēsen in Bhopāl State (IGI, xxi. 62 f.).]

6. Universal potentate: [“he whose chariot wheels run everywhere without obstruction”]; the Hindus reckon only six of these in their history.

7. [As usual, the Indian Jāts are identified with the Getae, Iutae or Iuti, Jutes of Bede.]

8. [The author borrows from Elphinstone,Caubul, i. 118.] The literary world is much indebted to Mr. Erskine for hisMemoirs of Baber, a work of a most original stamp and rare value for its extensive historical and geographical details of a very interesting portion of the globe. The king of Ferghana, like Caesar, was the historian of his own conquests, and unites all the qualities of the romantic troubadour to those of the warrior and statesman. It is not saying too much when it is asserted, that Mr. Erskine is the only person existing who could have made such a translation, or preserved the great charm of the original—its elevated simplicity; and though his modesty makes him share the merit with Dr. Leyden, it is to him the public thanks are due. Mr. Erskine’s introduction is such as might have been expected from his well-known erudition and research, and with the notes interspersed adds immensely to the value of the original. [A new translation by Mrs. Beveridge is in course of publication.] With his geographical materials, those of Mr. Elphinstone, and the journal of theVoyage d’Orenbourg à Bokhara, full of merit and modesty, we now possess sufficient materials for the geography of the nursery of mankind. I would presume to amend one valuable geographical notice (Introd. p. 27), and which only requires the permutation of a vowel, Kas-merfor Kas-mir; when we have, not ‘the country of the Kas,’ but theKasia Montes(mer) of Ptolemy: the Kho (mer) Kas, orCaucasus.Mirhas no signification,Meris ‘mountain’ in Sanskrit, as isKhoin Persian. [The origin of the name Kashmīr is very doubtful: but the view in the text cannot be accepted (see Stein,Rājatarangini, ii. 353, 386; Smith,EHI, 38, note;IA, xliii. 143 ff.).]Kaswas the race inhabiting these: andKasgar, the Kasia Regio of Ptolemy [Chap. 15].Gar[orgarh] is a Sanskrit word still in use for a ‘region,’ asKachhwahagar,Gujargar. [See Elliot,Supplementary Glossary, 237.] A new edition of Erskine’s translation, edited by Professor White King, is in course of publication.

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