CHAPTER 10

The Sati.—“Of noble race was the Bhattiani queen, a scion (sakha) of Jaisal, and daughter of Birjang. She put up a prayer to the Lord who wields the discus.[49]‘With joy [93] I accompany my lord; that my fealty (sati) may be accepted, rests with thee.’ In like manner did the Gazelle (Mrigavati) of Derawal,[50]and the Tuar queen of pure blood,[51]the Chawara Rani,[52]and her of Shaikhavati, invoke the name of Hari, as they determined to join their lord. For these six queens death had no terrors; but they were the affianced wives of their lord: the curtain wives of affection, to the number of fifty-eight, determined to offer themselves a sacrifice to Agni.[53]‘Such another opportunity,’ said they, ‘can never occur, if we survive our lord; disease will seize and make us a prey in our apartments. Why then quit the society of our lord, when at all events we must fall into the hands of Yama, for whom the human race is but a mouthful? Let us leave the iron age (Kaliyuga) behind us.’ ‘Without our lord, even life is death,’ said the Bhattiani, as she bound the beads of Tulsi[54]round her neck, and made thetilakwith earth from the Ganges. While thus each spoke, Nathu, the Nazir,[55]thus addressed them: ‘This is no amusement; the sandal-wood you now anoint with is cool: but will your resolution abide, when you remove it with the flames of Agni? When this scorches your tender frames, your hearts may fail, and the desire to recede will disgrace your lord’s memory. Reflect, and remain where you are. You havelived like Indrani,[56]nursed in softness amidst flowers and perfumes; the winds of heaven never offended you, far less the flames of fire.’ But to all his arguments they replied: ‘The world we will abandon, but never our lord.’ They performed their ablutions, decked themselves in their gayest attire, and for the last time made obeisance to their lord in his car. The ministers, the bards, the family priests (Purohits), in turn, expostulated with them. The chief queen (Patrani) the Chauhani, they told to indulge her affection for her sons, Abhai and Bakhta; to feed the poor, the needy, the holy, and lead a life of religious devotion. The queen replied: ‘Kunti, the wife of Pandu, did not follow her lord; she lived to see the greatness of the five brothers, her sons; but were her expectations realized?[57]This life is a vain shadow; this dwelling one of sorrow; let us accompany our lord to that of fire, and there close it.’

“The drum sounded; the funeral train moved on; all invoked the name of [94] Hari.[58]Charity was dispensed like falling rain, while the countenances of the queens were radiant as the sun. From heaven Uma[59]looked down; in recompense of such devotion she promised they should enjoy the society of Ajit in each successive transmigration. As the smoke, emitted from the house of flame, ascended to the sky, the assembled multitudes shouted Kaman! Kaman! ‘Well done! Well done!’ The pile flamed like a volcano; the faithful queens laved their bodies in the flames, as do the celestials in the lake of Manasarovar.[60]They sacrificed their bodies to their lord, and illustrated theraces whence they sprung. The gods above exclaimed, ‘Dhan Dhan[61]Ajit! who maintained the faith, and overwhelmed the Asuras.’ Savitri, Gauri, Sarasvati, Ganga, and Gomati[62]united in doing honour to these faithful queens. Forty-five years, three months, and twenty-two days, was the space of Ajit’s existence, when he went to inhabit Amarapura, an immortal abode!”

Character of Ajīt Singh.—Thus closed the career of one of the most distinguished princes who ever pressed the ‘cushion’ of Maru; a career as full of incident as any life of equal duration. Born amidst the snows of Kabul, deprived at his birth of both parents, one from grief, the other by suicidal custom; saved from the Herodian cruelty of the king by the heroism of his chiefs, nursed amidst the rocks of Abu or the intricacies of the Aravalli until the day of danger passed, he issued forth, still an infant, at the head of his brave clans, to redeem the inheritance so iniquitously wrested from him. In the history of mankind there is nothing to be found presenting a more brilliant picture of fidelity than that afforded by the Rathor clans in their devotion to their prince, from his birth until he worked out his own and his country’s deliverance. It is one of those events which throw a gleam of splendour upon the dark picture of feudalism, more prolific perhaps in crime than in virtue. That of the Rajputs, indeed, in which consanguinity is superadded to the other reciprocal [95] ties which bind a feudal body, wears the more engaging aspect of a vast family. How affecting is the simple language of these brave men, while daily shedding their blood for a prince whom, until he had attained his seventh year, they had never beheld! “Without the sight of our lord, bread and water have no flavour.” And how successfully does the bard portray the joy of these stern warriors, when he says, “As the lotus expands at the sunbeam, so did the heart of each Rathor at the sight of their infant sovereign; they drank his looks even as thepapihain the month of Asoj sips the drops ofamrita(ambrosia) from theChampa.”

The prodigality with which every clan lavished its blood, through a space of six-and-twenty years, may in part be learned from the chronicle; and in yet more forcible language from the cenotaphs scattered over the country, erected to the manes of those who fell in this religious warfare. Were other testimony required, it is to be found in the annals of their neighbours and their conquerors; while the traditional couplets of the bards, familiar to every Rajput, embalm the memory of the exploits of their forefathers.

Ajit was a prince of great vigour of mind as well as of frame. Valour was his inheritance; he displayed this hereditary quality at the early age of eleven, when he visited his enemy in his capital, displaying a courtesy which can only be comprehended by a Rajput. Amongst the numerous desultory actions, of which many occurred every year, there were several in which the whole strength of the Rathors was led by their prince. The battle of Sambhar, in S. 1765, fought against the Sayyids, which ended in a union of interests, was one of these; and, for the rest of Ajit’s life, kept him in close contact with the court, where he might have taken the lead had his talent for intrigue been commensurate with his boldness. From this period until his death, Ajit’s agency was recognized in all the intrigues and changes amongst the occupants of Timur’s throne, from Farrukhsiyar to Muhammad. He inherited an invincible hatred to the very name of Muslim, and was not scrupulous regarding the means by which he was likely to secure the extirpation of a race so inimical to his own. Viewing the manifold reasons for this hatred, we must not scrutinize with severity his actions when leagued with the Sayyids, even in the dreadful catastrophe which overwhelmed Farrukhsiyar, to whom he owed the twofold duty of fealty and consanguinity.

His Conduct to Durgadās.—There is one stain on the memory of Ajit which, though unnoticed in the chronicle [96], is too well ascertained to be omitted in a summary of his character, more especially as it illustrates that of the nation and of the times, and shows the loose system which holds such governments together. The heroic Durgadas, the preserver of his infancy, the instructor of his youth, the guide of his manhood, lived to confirm the proverb, “Put not thy faith in princes.” He, who, by repeated instances of exalted self-denial, had refused wealth and honoursthat might have raised himself from his vassal condition to an equality with his sovereign, was banished from the land which his integrity, wisdom, and valour had preserved. Why, or when, Ajit loaded himself with this indelible infamy was not known; the fact was incidentally discovered in searching a collection of original newspapers written from the camp of Bahadur Shah,[63]in one of which it was stated, that “Durgadas was encamped with his household retainers on the banks of the Pichola Lake at Udaipur, and receiving daily five hundred rupees for his support from the Rana; who when called on by the king (Bahadur Shah) to surrender him, magnanimously refused.” Imagining that Ajit had been compelled to this painful sacrifice, which is not noticed in the annals, the compiler mentioned it to a Yati deeply versed in all the events and transactions of this State. Aware of the circumstance, which is not overlooked by the bards, he immediately repeated the couplet composed on the occasion—

Durgo desām kādhiyoGolām Gāmgāni!

Durgo desām kādhiyo

Golām Gāmgāni!

Durga was exiled, and Gamgani given to a slave.[64]

Gamgani, on the north bank of the Luni, was the chief town of the Karanot fief, of which clan Durga was the head. It is now attached to the Khalisa, or fisc, but whether recently, or ever since Durga, we know not. The Karanots still pay the last rites to their dead at Gamgani, where they have their cenotaphs (chhatris). Whether that of the noble Durga stands there to serve as a memorial of princely ingratitude, the writer cannot say; a portrait of the hero, in the autumn of his days, was given to him by the last lineal descendant of Ajit, as the reader is alreadyaware.[65]Well may we repeat, that the system of feudality is the parent of the most brilliant virtues and the darkest crimes. Here, a long life of uninterrupted fidelity could not preserve Durga from the envenomed breath of slander, or the serpent-tooth [97] of ingratitude: and whilst the mind revolts at the crime which left a blank leaf in the chronicle, it is involuntarily carried back to an act less atrocious, indeed, than one which violates the laws of nature, but which in diminishing none of our horror for Abhai Singh, yet lessens our sympathy for the persecutor ofDurgadas.Durgadas.

1. [Now known as Sirmūr, a Hill State in the Panjāb, on the W. bank of the Jumna, and E. of Simla (IGI, xxiii. 3).]

2. [Kutbu-d-dīn Shāh ‘Alam, Bahādur Shah I., died at Lahore, February 17, 1712.]

3. [Azīmu-sh-shān was drowned in the river Rāvi, after the battle between Jahāndār Shāh and his other brothers, in February 1712.]

4. [Muizzu-d-dīn Jahāndār Shāh, crowned Emperor at Lahore, April 10, 1712, was murdered in 1713, and was buried at Humāyūn’s tomb, Delhi.]

5. The “seventeen thousand” towns of Gujarat.

6. [On January 9, 1713.]

7. [Zulfikār Khān, Nasrat Jang, was strangled in January 1713.]

8. [The chronicler is reticent about this campaign which was carried out by Husain Ali Khān and the emperor’s maternal uncle Shāista Khān. It was caused by the expulsion of Mughals from Mārwār by Ajīt Singh (Khāfi Khān in Elliot-Dowson vii. 446 f.).]

9. The tract west of the Luni.

10. They slur over the most important demand—a daughter to wife to the king—it is at this Ajit hesitates, and for which the precedent is given.

11. See Vol. I. p.400.

12. Described Vol. I. p.441.

13. Vol. I. p.468.

14. Mewasa is a term given to the fastnesses in the mountains, which the aboriginal tribes, Kolis, Minas, and Mers, and not unfrequently the Rajputs, make their retreats; and in the present instance the bard alludes to the Mewasa of the Deoras of Sirohi and Abu, which has annoyed the descendants of Ajit to this hour, and has served to maintain the independence of this Chauhan tribe.

15. [Tharād in Pālanpur Agency, Bombay (IGI, xix. 346); Halwad in Kāthiāwār (ibid.viii. 13); Nawanagar in Kāthiāwar, the ruler, known as the Jām (Yule,Hobson-Jobson, 447), being a Jādeja Rājput (IGI, xviii. 419 ff.).]

16. This is all in the district of Okha (Okhamandala), where the Vadhels fixed themselves on the migration of Siahji from Kanauj. It would have been instructive had the bard deigned to have given us any account of the recognition which this visit occasioned, and which beyond a doubt caused the “books of Chronicles and Kings” to be opened and referred to.

17. This list well exemplifies the tone now assumed by the Rathors; but this grand feudal assemblage was in virtue of his office of viceroy of Gujarat. Each and all of these chieftainships the author is as familiar with as with the pen he now holds.

18. [The fish symbol, for which see Sleeman,Rambles, 137 f. James Skinner, who recovered Mahādāji Sindhia’s order in a fight with the Rājputs, speaks of it as “a brass fish with two chources (chaunri, horse-hair or yak tails) hanging to it like mustachios” (Irvine,Army of the Indian Moghuls, 33).]

19. £10,000 to £12,000.

20. Omen of the quarter.

21. [For an account of these transactions see Keene,Sketch of the History of Hindustan, 287 ff.]

22. The final doom.

23. [Farrukhsīyar was murdered in prison, and two sickly youths were placed in succession on the throne by the Sayyids—Rafiu-d-darajāt and Rafiu-d-daula—the first of whom died on May 31, the second on September 6, 1719.]

24. [Nekosīyar, son of Muhammad Akbar, youngest son of Aurangzeb, who was defeated and taken prisoner by the Sayyids (Keene,op. cit.299).]

25. This is both minutely and faithfully related, and fully as much so as the Muhammadan record of this black deed. We have already (Vol. I. p.475) described it, and given a translation of an autograph letter of the prince of Amber, written on this memorable day. The importance of the transaction, as well as the desire to show the Bardic version, will justify its repetition.

26. In allusion to his vacillation, for which the Mirza Rāja was notorious.

27. [That is to say, the Kachhwāha Rāja.]

28. [For this revolution see Elliot-Dowson vii. 474 ff.]

29. TheStar Fort, the castle of Ajmer.

30. The call to prayer of the Muslim.

31. This exact imitation of the manners of the imperial court is still strictly maintained at Jodhpur. The account of the measures which followed the possession of Ajmer is taken from the chronicle Surya Prakas; the only part not entirely translated from the Raj Rupak Akhyat. Ajmall is a licence of the poet, where it suits his rhyme, for Ajit. Aspati, ‘lord of steeds,’ is the common epithet applied to the emperors of Delhi. It is, however, but the second degree of paramount power—Gajpati, ‘lord of elephants,’ is the first.

32. The two latter tribes are amongst the most ancient of the allodial chieftains of the desert: the Dhondals being descendants of Rao Gango; the Gogawats, of the famous Goga [or Gūga] the Chauhan, who defended the Sutlej in the earliest Muslim invasion recorded. Both Goga and his steed Jawadia are immortal in Rajasthan. The Author had a chestnut Kathiawar, called Jawadia; he was perfection, and a piece of living fire when mounted, scorning every pace but the antelope’s bounds and curvets.

33. [Pātan in Jaipur State; Narnol in Patiāla; Rewāri in Gurgaon District, Panjāb.]

34. One of the great clans of Amber; of whom more hereafter.

35. [The tortoise (Kachhwāha) and the sun (the sun-born tribes).]

36. Founder of the Bharatpur State.

37. The Bāīsa, or ‘twenty-two’ viceroys of India.

38. [This was in 1723. The chronicler disguises the defeat of Ajīt Singh.]

39. See p.857.

40. The sovereign judge of mankind [Krishna].

41. ‘The other world’; lit. ‘another place.’

42. ‘Lord of hell.’

43.Hima, ‘ice,’ andālaya, ‘an abode.’

44. Both head and feet are uncovered in funeral processions.

45.Id est, a vehicle formed like a boat, perhaps figurative of the sail crossing the Vaitarani, or Styx of the Hindu.

46. For the mode of conveying princes to their final abode, I refer the reader to a description at vol. i. p.152,Trans. Royal Asiatic Society.

47. The queen’s palace.

48. This is the lady whom Ajit married in his non-age, the mother of the parricide.

49. Krishna [Chakrāyudha, Krishna, or Vishnu].

50. Ancient capital of the Bhattis.

51. Descended from the ancient dynasty of the Hindu kings of Delhi.

52. Tribe of the first dynasty of Anhilwara Patan.

53. The fire.

54. [The sacred basil,Ocymum sanctum.]

55. The Nazir (a Muslim epithet) has the charge of the harem.

56. The queen of heaven.

57. [Kunti escaped the fire and protected the children of Mādri, the other wife of Pāndu, who was burnt with him.]

58. Hari Krishna is the mediator and preserver of the Hindu Triad; his name alone is invoked in funeral rites (see p.621). The following extract from Dr. Wilkins’ translation of theGītawill best disclose his attributes:—Krishna speaks: “I am the journey of the good; the comforter; the creator; the witness; the resting-place; the asylum; and the friend. I am generation and dissolution; the place where all things are deposited, and the inexhaustible soul of all nature. I am death and immortality; I am never-failing time; the preserver, whose face is turned on all sides. I am all grasping death; and I am the resurrection of those who are about to die.”

59. A name of Durga, the Hindu Juno.

60. The sacred lake in Tibet. [See C. A. Sherring,Western Tibet and the British Borderlands, 259 ff.]

61.Dhanis ‘riches,’ but is here used in the sense of glory; so that riches and glory are synonymous in term with the Hindu, as in practice in the west; the one may always command the other, at least that species of it for which nine-tenths of mankind contend, and are satisfied with obtaining.

62. Celestial queens.

63. Discovered by the author amongst the Rana’s archives.

64. [Dr. Tessitori writes that the correct version is:“Mahārāja Ajmāl riJad parkha jāni.Durgo Saphara dāgajē,Golām Gāmgāni.”“The mind of Mahārāja Ajīt Singh then became known (when he saw) Durgadās burned on the banks of the Sipra River and Gāmgāni bestowed on slaves.” According to tradition, the exiled Durgadās died at Ujjain, near which the Sipra flows.]

64. [Dr. Tessitori writes that the correct version is:

“Mahārāja Ajmāl riJad parkha jāni.Durgo Saphara dāgajē,Golām Gāmgāni.”

“Mahārāja Ajmāl ri

Jad parkha jāni.

Durgo Saphara dāgajē,

Golām Gāmgāni.”

“The mind of Mahārāja Ajīt Singh then became known (when he saw) Durgadās burned on the banks of the Sipra River and Gāmgāni bestowed on slaves.” According to tradition, the exiled Durgadās died at Ujjain, near which the Sipra flows.]

65. Vol. I. p.451.

Mahārāja Abhai Singh,A.D.1724-50.—The parricidal murder of Ajit is accounted the germ of destruction, which, taking root in the social edifice of Marwar, ultimately rent it asunder. Bitter has been the fruit of this crime, “even unto the third and fourth generation” of his unnatural sons, whose issue, but for this crime, would in all human probability have been the most potent princes in India, able single-handed to have stopped Mahratta aggrandisement.

“It was in 1781 (says the bard) Ajit went to heaven. With his own hand did the emperor Muhammad Shah put thetikaon the forehead of Abhai Singh, girded him with the sword, bound theturah[1]on his head, placed a dagger set with gems [98] in his girdle, and with Chaunris, Naubats, and Nakkaras,[2]and many valuable gifts, invested the young prince in all the dignities of his father. Even Nagor was resumed from the son of Amra and included in his sanad. With these marks of royal favour, he took leave of the court, and returned to his paternal dominions. From village to village, as he journeyed homeward, thekalaswas raised on the head.[3]When he reached Jodhpur, he distributedgifts to all his chiefs, and to the Bardais (bards and Charans), and lands to the family priests (Purohits).”

A day at the court of the desert king, related in the phraseology of the chronicle, would be deemed interesting as a picture of manners. It would also make the reader more familiar with Karna, the most celebrated bard in the latter days of Rajput independence: but this must be reserved for an equally appropriate vehicle,[4]and we shall at present rest satisfied with a slight sketch of the historian of Maru.

Karan, the Bard.—Karna-Kavya, or simply Karna, who traced his descent from the last household bard of the last emperor of Kanauj, was at once a politician, a warrior, and a scholar, and in each capacity has left ample proofs of his abilities. In the first he took a distinguished part in all the events of the civil wars; in the second, he was one of the few who survived a combat almost without parallel in the annals even of Rajput chivalry; and as a scholar, he has left us, in the introduction to his work,[5]the most instructive proof, not only of his inheriting the poetic mantle of his fathers, but of the course he pursued for the maintenance of its lustre. The bare enumeration of the works he had studied evinces that there was no royal road to Parnassus for the Rajput Kaviswar,[6]but that, on the contrary, it was beset with difficulties not a little appalling. The mere nomenclature of works on grammar and historical epics, which were to be mastered ere he could hope for fame, must have often made Kama exclaim, “How hard it is to climb the steeps” on which from afar he viewed her temple. Those who desire to see, under a new aspect, an imperfectly known but interesting family of the human race, will be made acquainted with the qualifications of our bardic historians, and the particular course of studies which [99] fittedKarna “to sit in the gate[7]of Jodhagir,” and add a new book to the chronicles of its kings.

These festivities of the new reign were not of long duration, and were succeeded by warlike preparations against Nagor, which, during the contentions between Ajit and the emperor, had been assigned to the descendant of the ancient princes of Mandor.

“When Ajmer was invested by the collective force of the empire,[8]Iradat Khan (Bangash), collector of the Jizya,[9]took the Indha by the arm, and seated him in Nagor.[10]But as soon as the Holi[11]was past, the ‘Avatars of Jawalamukhi’[12]were consecrated: goats were sacrificed, and the blood, with oil and vermilion, was sprinkled upon them. The tents were moved out. Hearing this, Rao Indra produced the imperial patent, with the personal guarantee of Jai Singh of Amber. Abhai heeded not, and invested Nagor; but Indra left his honour and his castle to the Fearless,[13]who bestowed it on Bakhta his brother. He received the congratulations of Mewar, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, and Amber, and returned to his capital amidst the rejoicings of his subjects. This was in S. 1781.

“In S. 1782 he was employed in restraining the turbulent Bhumias on the western frontiers of his dominions; when theSindhals, the Deoras, the Balas, the Boras, the Balechas, and the Sodhas were compelled to servitude.

Abhai Singh summoned to Delhi,A.D.1726.—“In S. 1783 a farman of summons arrived, calling the prince to attend the Presence at Delhi. He put it to his head, assembled all his chiefs, and on his passage to court made a tour of his dominions, examining his garrisons, redressing [100] wrongs, and adjusting whatever was in disorder. At Parbatsar[14]he was attacked by the small-pox: the nation called on Jagrani[15]to shield him from evil.

“In 1784 the prince reached Delhi. Khandauran, the chief noble of the empire, was deputed by the emperor to conduct him to the capital; and when he reached the Presence, his majesty called him close to his person, exclaiming, ‘Welcome,Khushbakht,[16]Maharaja Rajeswar,[17]it is long since we met; this day makes me happy; the splendour of the Ammkhass is redoubled.’ When he took leave, the king sent to his quarters, at Abhaipur, choice fruits of the north, fragrant oils, and rose-water.”

The prince of Maru was placed at the head of all the nobility. About the end of S. 1784, Sarbuland Khan’s rebellion broke out,[18]which gave ample scope for the valour of the Rathors and materials for the bard, who thus circumstantially relates it:

“The troubles in the Deccan increased. The Shahzada Jangali[19]rebelled, and forming an army of sixty thousand men, attacked the provincial governors of Malwa, Surat, and Ahmadpur,slaying the king’s lieutenants, Girdhar Bahadur, Ibrahim Kuli,[20]Rustam Ali, and the Mogul Shujaat.

Rebellion of Sarbuland Khan. Scene at the Imperial Court.—“Hearing this, the king appointed Sarbuland Khan to quash the rebellion. He marched at the head of fifty thousand men, having a crore of rupees for their subsistence; but his advanced army of ten thousand men being defeated in the first encounter, he entered into terms with the rebels, and agreed to a partition of the country.”

It was at this time the prince of Marwar begged permission to retire to his hereditary dominions. The bard’s description of the court, and of the emperor’s distress on this occasion, though prolix, deserves insertion:

“The king was seated on his throne, attended by the seventy-two grand Omras of the empire, when tidings reached him of the revolt of Sarbuland. There was the wazir Kamaru-din Khan, Itimadu-Daula, Khandauran, commander-in-chief [101] (Mir Bakhshi), Samsamu-d-daula, the Amiru-Umara, Mansur Ali, Roshanu-d-daula, Tura Baz Khan, the Lord Marcher (Sim ka Bakhshi); Rustam Jang, Afghan Khan, Khwaja Sayyidu-d-din, commandant of artillery (Mir Atish); Saadat Khan,[21]grand chamberlain (Darogha Khawass), Burhanu-l-Mulk, Abdul Samad Khan, Dalil Khan, Zafariyab Khan, governor of Lahore, Dalel Khan, Mir Jumla, Khankhanan; Zafar Jang, Iradat Khan, Murshid Kuli Khan, Ja’far Khan, Allahwirdi Khan,[22]Muzaffar Khan, governor of Ajmer. Such and many more were assembled in the Presence.

“It was read aloud that Sarbuland had reduced Gujarat, and proclaimed his ownan; that he had ground the Kolis to dust; that he had vanquished the Mandalas, the Jhalas, the Chudasamas, the Baghels, and the Gohils, and had nearly exterminated the Balas; that Halar had agreed to pay tribute, and that such was the fire of this Yavan, that the Bhumias of themselves abandoned their strongholds to seek sanctuary with himwhom the ‘seventeen thousand’[23]now called sovereign; that he had set himself up a king in Ahmadabad, and made a league with the ‘Southron.’

“The emperor saw that if this defection was not quelled, all the viceroys would declare themselves independent. Already had Jagaria Khan in the north, Saadat Khan in the east, and the Mlechchha Nizamu-l-mulk in the south, shown the blackness of their designs. Thetap(verve) of the empire had fled.

“Thebirawas placed on a golden salver, which the Mir Tajik bore in his extended arms, slowly passing in front of the nobles ranged on either side of the throne, mighty men, at the sight of whose faces the rustic would tremble: but in vain he passed both lines; no hand was stretched forth; some looked awry; some trembled; but none cast an eye upon thebira.

“The ‘almighty monarch’ (Parameswar Padshah), who could make the beggar an Omra of twelve thousand, and the noble of twelve thousand a beggar, was without resource. ‘Who,’ said one, ‘would grasp the forked lightning, let him engage Sarbuland!’ Another exclaimed, ‘Who would seize the vessel, and plunge with her in the whirlpool, he may contend with Sarbuland.’ And a third, ‘Whoever [102] dare seize the forked tongue of the serpent, let him engage Sarbuland.’ The king was troubled; he gave a sign to the Mir Tajik to return thebirato him.

“The Rathor prince saw the monarch’s distress, and as he was about to leave the Ammkhass, he stretched forth his hand, and placed thebirain his turban, as he said, ‘Be not cast down, O king of the world; I will pluck down this Sarbuland:[24]leafless shall be the boughs of his ambition, and his head (sar) the forfeit of his arrogant exaltation (buland).’

“When Abhai Singh grasped thebira, the breasts of the mighty were ready to burst with the fulness of envy, even like the ripe pomegranate, as the king placed the grant of Gujarat into the hands of the Rathor. The Shah’s heart was rejoiced, as he said, ‘Thus acted your ancestors in support of the throne; thus was quelled the revolt of Khurram and Bhim in the time of Jahangir; that of the Deccan settled; and in like manner doI trust that by you the honour and the throne of Muhammad Shah will be upheld.’

“Rich gifts, including seven gems of great price, were bestowed upon the Rathor; the treasury was unlocked and thirty-one lakhs of coin were assigned for the troops. The guns were taken from the arsenals, and with the patent of the vice-royalties of Ahmadabad and Ajmer, in the month of Asarh (1786), Abhai took leave of the king.”[25]

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