CHAPTER 3

Asvatthāma.—One of the chronicles asserts that it was Asvatthama, the successor of Siahji, who conquered “the land of Kher” from the Gohils. By the same species of treachery by which his father attained Pali, he lent his aid to establish his brother Soning in Idar. This small principality, on the frontiers of Gujarat, then appertained, as did Mewa, to the Dabhi race; and it was during thematam, or period of mourning for one of its princes, that the young Rathor chose to obtain a new settlement. His descendants are distinguished as the Hathundia[6]Rathors. The third brother, Aja, carried his forays as far as the extremity of the Saurashtra peninsula, where he decapitated Bikamsi, the Chawara chieftain of Okhamandala,[7]and established himself. From this act his branch became known as the ‘Vadhel’;[8]and the Vadhels are still in considerable number in that furthest track of ancient Hinduism called the “World’s End.”

Asvatthama died, leaving eight sons, who became the heads of clans, namely, Duhar, Jopsi, Khampsao, Bhopsu, Dhandhal, Jethmall, Bandar, and Uhar; of which, four, Duhar, Dhandhal, Jethmall, and Uhar, are yet known.

Duhar or Dhūhada.—Duhar succeeded Asvatthama. He made an unsuccessful effort to recover Kanauj; and then attempted to wrest Mandor from the Parihars, but “watered their lands with his blood.” He left seven sons, namely, Raepal, Kiratpal, Behar, Pital, Jugel, Dalu, and Begar.

Rāēpāl, Chhada, Thīda, Salkha, Biramdeo, Chonda.—Raepal succeeded, and revenged the death of his father, slaying the Parihar of Mandor, of which he even obtained temporary possession. He had a progeny of thirteen sons, who rapidly spread their issue over these regions. He was succeeded by his son Kanhal [or Kānpāl], whose successor was his son Jalhan; he wassucceeded by his son Chhada, whose successor was his son Thida. All these carried on a desperate warfare with, and made conquests from, their neighbours. Chhada and Thida are mentioned as very troublesome neighbours in the annals of the Bhattis of Jaisalmer, who were compelled to carry the war against them into the “land of Kher.” Rao Thida took the rich district of Bhinmal from the Sonigira, and made other additions to his territory from the Deoras and Balechas [15]. He was succeeded by Salakh or Salkha. His issue, the Salkhawats, now Bhumias, are yet numerous both in Mewa and Rardara. Salkha was succeeded by his son Biramdeo, who attacked the Johyas of the north, and fell in battle. His descendants, styled Biramot and Bijawat, from another son Bija, are numerous at Setru, Siwana, and Dechu. Biramdeo was succeeded by his son Chonda, an important name in the annals of the Rathors. Hitherto they had attracted notice by their valour and their raids, whenever there was a prospect of success; but they had so multiplied in eleven generations that they now essayed a higher flight. Collecting all the branches bearing the name of Rathor, Chonda assaulted Mandor, slew the Parihar prince, and planted the banners of Kanauj on the ancient capital of Maru.

So fluctuating are the fortunes of the daring Rajput, ever courting distinction and covetingbhum, ‘land,’ that but a short time before this success, Chonda had been expelled from all the lands acquired by his ancestors, and was indebted to the hospitality of a bard of the Charan tribe, at Kalu; and they yet circulate thekabit, or quatrain, made by him when, in the days of his greatness, he came and was refused admittance to “the lord of Mandor”; he took post under the balcony, and improvized a stanza, reminding him of the Charan of Kalu: “Chonda nahīn āwē chit, Khichar Kalu tanna? Bhup bhaya bhay-bhit, Mandawar ra mālya?” “Does not Chonda remember the porridge of Kalu, now that the lord of the land looks so terrific from his balcony of Mandawar?” Once established in Mandor, he ventured to assault the imperial garrison of Nagor. Here he was also successful. Thence he carried his arms south, and placed his garrison in Nadol, the capital of the province of Godwar. He married a daughter of the Parihar prince,[9]who had thesatisfaction to see his grandson succeed to the throne of Mandor. Chonda was blessed with a progeny of fourteen sons, growing up to manhood around him. Their names were Ranmall,[10]Satta, Randhir, Aranyakanwal,[11]Punja, Bhim, Kana, Ajo, Ramdeo, Bija, Sahasmall, Bagh, Lumba, Seoraj.

Chonda had also one daughter named Hansa, married to Lakha Rana of Mewar [16], whose son was the celebrated Kumbha. It was this marriage which caused that interference in the affairs of Mewar, which had such fatal results to both States.[12]

The feud between his fourth son, Aranyakanwal, and the Bhatti prince of Pugal, being deemed singularly illustrative of the Rajput character, has been extracted from the annals of Jaisalmer, in another part of this work.[13]The Rathor chronicler does not enter into details, but merely states the result, as ultimately involving the death of Chonda—simply that “he was slain at Nagor with one thousand Rajputs”; and it is to the chronicles of Jaisalmer we are indebted for our knowledge of the manner. Chonda acceded in S. 1438 (A.D.1382), and was slain in S. 1465 [A.D.1408-9].

Ranmall killedA.D.1444.—Ranmall succeeded. His mother was of the Gohil tribe. In stature he was almost gigantic, and was the most athletic of all the athletes of his nation. With the death of Chonda, Nagor was again lost to the Rathors. Rana Lakha presented Ranmall with the township of Darla and forty villages upon his sister’s marriage, when he almost resided at Chitor, and was considered by the Rana as the first of his chiefs. With the forces of Mewar added to his own, under pretence of conveying a daughter to the viceroy of Ajmer, he introduced his adherents into that renowned fortress, the ancient capital of the Chauhans, putting the garrison to the sword, and thus restored it to Mewar. Khemsi Pancholi, the adviser of this measure, was rewarded with a grant of the township of Kata, then lately captured from the Kaimkhanis.[14]Ranmall went on a pilgrimageto Gaya, and paid the tax exacted for all the pilgrims then assembled.

The bard seldom intrudes the relation of civil affairs into his page, and when he does, it is incidentally. It would be folly to suppose that the princes of Maru had no legislative recorders; but with these the poet had no bond of union. He, however, condescends to inform us of an important measure of Rao Ranmall, namely, that he equalized the weights and measures throughout his dominions, which he divided as at present. The last act of Ranmall, in treacherously attempting to usurp the throne of the infant Rana of Mewar, was deservedly punished, and he was slain by the faithful Chonda, as related in the annals of that State.[15]This feud originated the line of demarcation of the two States,[16]and which remained [17] unaltered until recent times, when Marwar at length touched the Aravalli. Rao Ranmall left twenty-four sons, whose issue, and that of his eldest son, Jodha, form the great vassalage of Marwar. For this reason, however barren is a mere catalogue of names, it is of the utmost value to those who desire to see the growth of the frèrage of such a community.[17]

1. [The date of Siha or Siāhji, the traditional founder of the Mārwār dynasty, was until recently uncertain. An inscription on a memorial stone gives the date as Vikrama Sambat 1330,A.D.1387, and for his grandson, Dhūhada V.S. 1336,A.D.1393. He is called the eldest son of Asvatthāma mentioned in the text (IA, xi. 301). The tradition is vitiated by the fact that this was not the first appearance of Rāthors in Rājputāna. An inscription at Bījapur states that five of this clan ruled at Hathūndi (Hastikūndi) in the tenth century (Erskine iii. A. 54;IGI, vi. 247 f.).]

2. [The Indhas occupy the W. tract of Mārwār; will not eat the flesh of the boar; believe that no member of the clan can be struck by lightning, owing to the prediction of Khākhaji, one of their ancestors; no epidemic ever breaks out in their territory as it is under the protection of their goddess, Chāwanda Māta (Census Report, Mārwār, 1891, ii. 31).]

3. The Dabhi was one of the thirty-six royal races; and this is almost the last mention of their holding independent possessions. See Vol. I. p.138, and the map for the position of Mewa at the bend of the Luni. [Kher is now a ruined village near Jasol, about 60 miles S.W. of Jodhpur city, on the left bank of the Lūni.]

4. In my last journey through these regions, I visited the chief of the Gohils at Bhavnagar, in the Gulf of Cambay. I transcribed their defective annals, which trace their migration from ‘Kherdhar,’ but in absolute ignorance where it is! See Vol. I. p.137.

5. [Pāli, 45 miles S.S.E. of Jodhpur city. The Pāliwāls have some remarkable customs; they do not observe the Rākhi festival because of a tradition that on the day the town was sacked by Shihābu-d-dīn, the sacred cords of the men slain and the bangles of those women who immolated themselves weighed respectively 9 and 84 maunds. Compare the story of Chitor (Vol. I. p.383) (Census Report, Mārwār, 1891, ii. 79).]

6. [Who take their name from their capital, Hathūndi, now ruined, near Bījapur in S.E. Mārwār.]

7. On the western coast of the Saurashtra peninsula. [The Okhamandal legend calls the Rāthor leaders Virāval and Bījal, who overcame the Chāwaras, and abandoning the name Rāthor, called themselves Vādhel, ‘slayers’ (BG, v. 590 f.).]

8. Frombadh,vadh, ‘to slay.’

9. He was of the Indha branch of the Parihars, and his daughter is called the Indhavatni.

10. The descendants of those numbering 1, 2, 4, 7 still exist.

11. This is the prince mentioned in the extraordinary feud related (p. 731) from the annals of Jaisalmer. Incidentally, we have frequent synchronisms in the annals of these States, which, however slight, are of high import.

12. See Vol. I. p.323.

13. See p.730.

14. [The Kāim or Qāimkhānis were originally Chauhāns, converted to Islām in the time of Fīroz Shāh. They are said to derive their name from the first famous convert. It is a rule with them not to use wooden planks in their doorways (Census Report, Mārwār, 1891, ii. 37 f.; Rose,Glossary, iii. 257).]

15. See Vol. I. p.327.

16. See Vol. I. p.328.

17. It is only by the possession of such knowledge that we can exercise with justice our right of universal arbitration.

18. Brave soldiers, but, safe in the deep sands, they refuse to serve except on emergencies.

Jodha,A.D.1444-88. The Foundation of Jodhpur.—Jodha was born at Danla, the appanage of his father in Mewar, in the month Baisakh, S. 1484. In 1511 he obtained Sojat, and in the month Jeth, 1515 (A.D.1459) laid the foundation of Jodhpur, to which he transferred the seat of government from Mandor. With the superstitious Rajput, as with the ancient Roman [19], every event being decided by the omen or the augur, it would be contrary to rule if so important an occasion as the change of capital, and that of an infant State, were not marked by some propitious prestige, that would justify the abandonment of a city won by the sword, and which had been for ages the capital of Maru. The intervention, in this instance, was of a simplenature; neither the flight of birds, the lion’s lair, or celestial manifestation; but the ordinance of an anchorite, whose abode, apart from mankind, was a cleft of the mountains of Bakharchiriya. But the behests of such ascetics are secondary only to those of the divinity, whose organs they are deemed. Like the Druids of the Celts, the Vanaprastha Jogi,[1]from the glades of the forest (vana) or recess in the rocks (gupha), issue their oracles to those whom chance or design may conduct to their solitary dwellings. It is not surprising that the mandates of such beings prove compulsory on the superstitious Rajput: we do not mean those squalid ascetics, who wander about India, and are objects disgusting to the eye; but the genuine Jogi, he who, as the term imports, mortifies the flesh, till the wants of humanity are restricted merely to what suffices to unite matter with spirit; who has studied and comprehended the mystic works, and pored over the systems of philosophy, until the full influence of Maya (illusion) has perhaps unsettled his understanding; or whom the rules of his sect have condemned to penance and solitude; a penance so severe, that we remain astonished at the perversity of reason which can submit to it.[2]To these, the Druids of India, the prince and the chieftain would resort for instruction. They requested neither lands nor gold: to them “the boasted wealth of Bokhara” was as a particle of dust. Such was the ascetic who recommended Jodha to erect his castle on ‘the Hill of Strife’ (Jodhagir), hitherto known as Bakharchiriya, or ‘the bird’s nest,’ a projecting elevation of the same range on whichMandor was placed, and about four miles south of it. Doubtless its inaccessible position seconded the recommendation of the hermit, for its scarped summit renders it almost impregnable [20], while its superior elevation permits the sons of Jodha to command, from the windows of their palace, a range of vision almost comprehending the limits of their sway. In clear weather they can view the summits of their southern barrier, the gigantic Aravalli; but in every other direction it fades away in the boundless expanse of sandy plains. Neither the founder, nor his monitor, the ascetic, however, were engineers, and they laid the foundation of this stronghold without considering what an indispensable adjunct to successful defence was good water; but to prevent any slur on the memory of Jodha, they throw the blame of this defect on the hermit. Jodha’s engineer, in tracing the line of circumvallation, found it necessary to include the spot chosen as his hermitage, and his remonstrance for undisturbed possession was treated with neglect; whether by the prince as well as the chief architect, the legend says not. The incensed Jogi pronounced an imprecation, that the new castle should possess only brackish water, and all the efforts made by succeeding princes to obtain a better quality, by blasting the rock, have failed. The memory of the Jogi is sanctified, though his anger compelled them to construct an apparatus, whereby water for the supply of the garrison is elevated from a small lake at the foot of the rock, which, being entirely commanded from the walls, an assailant would find difficult to cut off. This was the third grand event in the fortunes of the Rathors, from the settlement of Siahji.[3]

Such was the abundant progeny of these princes, that the limits of their conquests soon became too contracted. The issue of the three last princes, namely, the fourteen sons of Chonda, the twenty-four of Ranmall, and fourteen of Jodha, had already apportioned amongst them the best lands of the country, and it became necessary to conquer “fresh fields in which to sow the Rathor seed.”

Jodha had fourteen sons, namely—

Sāntal, Sātal, 1488-91.—The eldest son, Santal, born of a female of Bundi, established himself in the north-west corner, on the lands of the Bhattis, and built a fort, which he called Satalmer, about five miles from Pokaran.[4]He was killed in action by a Khan of the Sahariyas (the Saracens of the Indian desert), whom he also slew. His ashes were burnt at Kasma, and an altar was raised over them, where seven of his wives became satis.

The fourth son, Duda [or Dhūhada], established himself on the plains of Merta, and his clan, the Mertia, is numerous, andhas always sustained the reputation of being the “first swords” of Maru. His daughter was the celebrated Mira Bai, wife of Rana Kumbha,[5]and he was the grandsire of the heroic Jaimall, who defended Chitor against Akbar, and whose descendant, Jeth Singh of Badnor, is still one of the sixteen chief vassals of the Udaipur court.

The sixth son, Bika, followed the path already trod by his uncle Kandal, with whom he united, and conquered the tracts possessed by the six Jat communities. He erected a city, which he called after himself, Bikaner, or Bīkaner.

Death of Rāo Jodha,A.D.1488.—Jodha outlived the foundation of his new capital thirty years, and beheld his [22] sons and grandsons rapidly peopling and subjugating the regions of Maru. In S. 1545, aged sixty-one, he departed this life, and his ashes were housed with those of his fathers, in the ancestral abode of Mandor. This prince, the second founder of his race in these regions, was mainly indebted to the adversities of early life for the prosperity his later years enjoyed; they led him to the discovery of worth in the more ancient, but neglected, allodial proprietors displaced by his ancestors, and driven into the least accessible regions of the desert. It was by their aid he was enabled to redeem Mandor, when expelled by the Guhilots, and he nobly preserved the remembrance thereof in the day of his prosperity. The warriors whose forms are sculptured from the living rock at Mandor owe the perpetuity of their fame to the gratitude of Jodha; through them he not only recovered, but enlarged his dominions.[6]In less than three centuries after their migration from Kanauj, the Rathors, the issue of Siahji, spread over a surface of four degrees of longitude and the same extent of latitude, or nearly 80,000 miles square, and they amount at this day, in spite of the havoc occasioned, by perpetual wars and famine, to 500,000 souls.[7]While we thus contemplate the renovation of the Rathor race, from a single scion of that magnificent tree, whose branches once overshadowed the plains of Ganga, let us withdraw from oblivion some of the many noble names they displaced, which now live only in the poet’s page. Well may the Rajput repeat the ever-recurring simile, “All is unstable;life is like the scintillation of the fire-fly; house and land will depart, but a good name will last for ever!” What a list of noble tribes could we enumerate now erased from independent existence by the successes of ‘the children of Siva’ (Siva-putra)![8]Pariharas, Indhas, Sankhlas, Chauhans, Gohils, Dabhis, Sandhals, Mohils, Sonigiras, Kathis, Jats, Huls, etc., and the few who still exist only as retainers of the Rathor.

Sūja or Surajmall,A.D.1491-1516.—Suja[9](Surajmall) succeeded, and occupied thegaddiof Jodha during twenty-seven years, and had at least the merit of adding to the stock of Siahji.

The Rape of the Virgins.—The contentions for empire, during the vacillating dynasty of the Lodi kings of Delhi, preserved the sterile lands of Maru from their cupidity; and a second dynasty, the Shershahi, intervened ere “the sons of Jodha” were summoned to measure swords with the Imperialists. But in S. 1572 (A.D.1516), a desultory [23] band of Pathans made an incursion during the fair of the Tij,[10]held at the town of Pipar, and carried off one hundred and forty of the maidens of Maru. The tidings of the rape of the virgin Rajputnis were conveyed to Suja, who put himself at the head of such vassals as were in attendance, and pursued, overtook, and redeemed them, with the loss of his own life, but not without a full measure of vengeance against the “northern barbarian.” The subject is one chosen by the itinerant minstrel of Maru, who, at the fair of the Tij, still sings the rape of the one hundred and forty virgins of Pipar, and their rescue by their cavalier prince at the price of his own blood.

Suja had five sons, namely: 1. Bhaga, who died in non-age: his son Ganga succeeded to the throne. 2. Uda, who had eleven sons: they formed the clan Udawat, whose chief fiefs are Nimaj, Jaitaran, Gundoj, Baratia, Raepur, etc., besides places in Mewar. 3. Saga, from whom descended the clan Sagawat; located at Barwa. 4. Prayag, who originated the Prayaggot clan. 5. Biramdeo, whose son, Naru, receives divine honours as the Putra of Maru, and whose statue is worshipped at Sojat. His descendantsare styled Narawat Jodha, of whom a branch is established at Pachpahar, in Haraoti.

Rāo Ganga,A.D.1516-32.—Ganga, grandson of Suja, succeeded his grandfather in S. 1572 (A.D.1516); but his uncle, Saga, determined to contest his right to thegaddi, invited the aid of Daulat Khan Lodi, who had recently expelled the Rathors from Nagor. With this auxiliary a civil strife commenced, and the sons of Jodha were marshalled against each other. Ganga, confiding in the rectitude of his cause, and reckoning upon the support of the best swords of Maru, spurned the offer of compromise made by the Pathan, of a partition of its lands between the claimants, and gave battle, in which his uncle Saga was slain, and his auxiliary, Daulat Khan, ignominiously defeated.

Rāthors join Mewār against Bābur,A.D.1527.—Twelve years after the accession of Ganga, the sons of Jodha were called on to unite their forces to Mewar to oppose the invasion of the Moguls from Turkistan. Sanga Rana, who had resumed the station of his ancestors amongst the princes of Hind, led the war, and the king of Maru deemed it no degradation to acknowledge his supremacy, and send his quotas to fight under the standard of Mewar, whose chronicles do more justice to the Rathors than those of their own bards. This, which was the last confederation made by the Rajputs for national independence [24], was defeated, as already related, in the fatal field of Bayana, where, had treachery not aided the intrepid Babur, the Rathor sword would have had its full share in rescuing the nation from the Muhammadan yoke. It is sufficient to state that a Rathor was in the battle, to know that he would bear its brunt; and although we are ignorant of the actual position of the Rana, we may assume that their post was in the van. The young prince Raemall (grandson of Ganga), with the Mertia chieftains Kharto and Ratna, and many others of note, fell against the Chagatai on this eventful day.

Ganga died[11]four years after this event, and was succeeded by

Rāo Māldeo,A.D.1532-62, or 1568-69.—Maldeo in S. 1588 (A.D.1532),[12]a name as distinguished as any of the noble princesin the chronicles of Maru. The position of Marwar at this period was eminently excellent for the increase and consolidation of its resources. The emperor Babur found no temptation in her sterile lands to divert him from the rich plains of the Ganges, where he had abundant occupation; and the districts and strongholds on the emperor’s frontier of Maru, still held by the officers of the preceding dynasty, were rapidly acquired by Maldeo, who planted his garrisons in the very heart of Dhundhar. The death of Sanga Rana, and the misfortunes of the house of Mewar, cursed with a succession of minor princes, and at once beset by the Moguls from the north, and the kings of Gujarat, left Maldeo to the uncontrolled exercise of his power, which, like a true Rajput, he employed against friend and foe, and became beyond a doubt the first prince of Rajwara, or, in fact, as styled by the Muhammadan historian Ferishta, “the most potent prince in Hindustan.”[13]

The year of Maldeo’s installation he redeemed the two most important possessions of his house, Nagor and Ajmer. In S. 1596 he captured Jalor, Siwana, and Bhadrajan from the Sandhals; and two years later dispossessed the sons of Bika of supreme power in Bikaner. Mewa, and the tracts on the Luni, the earliest possessions of his house, which had thrown off all dependence, he once more subjugated, and compelled the ancient allodial tenantry to hold of him in chief, and serve with their quotas. He engaged in war with the Bhattis, and conquered Bikampur, where a branch of his family remained, and are now incorporated with the Jaisalmer State, and, under the name of Maldots,[14]have the credit of being the most daring robbers of the desert. He even established branches of [25] his family in Mewar and Dhundhar, took, and fortified Chatsu, not twenty miles south of the capital of the Kachhwahas. He captured and restored Sirohi from the Deoras, from which house was his mother. But Maldeo not only acquired, but determined to retain, his conquests, and erected numerous fortifications throughout the country. He enclosed the city of Jodhpur with a strong wall, besides erecting a palace, and adding other works to the fortress. The circumvallations of Merta and its fort, which he called Malkot, cost him £24,000.He dismantled Satalmer, and with the materials fortified Pokaran, which he took from the Bhattis, transplanting the entire population, which comprehended the richest merchants of Rajasthan. He erected forts at Bhadrajan, on the hill of Bhimlod, near Siwana, at Gundoj, at Rian, Pipar, and Dunara. He made the Kundalkot at Siwana, and greatly added to that of Phalodi, first made by Hamira Nirawat. He also erected that bastion in Garh Bitli (the citadel of Ajmer) called the Kotburj, and showed his skill in hydraulics by the construction of a wheel to bring water into the fort. The chronicler adds, that “by the wealth of Sambhar,” meaning the resources of this salt lake, he was enabled to accomplish these works, and furnishes a list of the possessions of Jodhpur at this period, which we cannot exclude: Sojat, Sambhar, Merta, Khata, Badnor, Ladnun, Raepur, Bhadrajan, Nagor, Siwana, Lohagarh, Jaikalgarh, Bikaner, Bhinmal, Pokaran, Barmer, Kasoli, Riwaso, Jajawar, Jalor, Baoli, Malar, Nadol, Phalodi, Sanchor, Didwana, Chatsu, Lawen, Malarna, Deora, Fatehpur, Amarsar, Khawar, Baniapur, Tonk, Toda, Ajmer, Jahazpur, and Pramar-ka-Udaipur (in Shaikhavati); in all thirty-eight districts, several of which, as Jalor, Ajmer, Tonk, Toda, and Badnor, comprehended each three hundred and sixty townships, and there were none which did not number eighty. But of those enumerated in Dhundhar, as Chatsu, Lawen, Tonk, Toda, and Jahazpur in Mewar, the possession was but transient; and although Badnor, and its three hundred and sixty townships, were peopled by Rathors, they were the descendants of the Mertias under Jaimall, who became one of the great vassals of Mewar, and would, in its defence, at all times draw their swords against the land which gave them birth.[15]This branch of the house of Jodha had for some time been too powerful [26] for subjects, and Merta was resumed. To this act Mewar was indebted for the services of this heroic chief. At the same time the growing power of others of the great vassalage of Marwar was checked by resumptions, when Jaitaran from the Udawats, and several other fiefs, were added to the fisc. The feudal allotments had never been regulated, but went on increasing with the energies of the State, and the progeny of its princes, each having on his birth an appanage assigned to him, until the wholeland of Maru was split into innumerable portions. Maldeo saw the necessity for checking this subdivision, and he created a gradation of ranks, and established its perpetuity in certain branches of the sons of Ranmall and Jodha, which has never been altered.

Inhospitable Conduct of Rāo Māldeo to Humāyūn,A.D.1542.—Ten years of undisturbed possession were granted Maldeo to perfect his designs, ere his cares were diverted from these to his own defence. Babur, the founder of the Mogul dynasty, was dead, and his son and successor had been driven from his newly conquered throne by his provincial lieutenant, Sher Shah: so rapidly do revolutions crowd upon each other where the sword is the universal arbitrator. We have elsewhere related that the fugitive monarch sought the protection of Maldeo, and we stigmatized his conduct as unnational; but we omitted to state that Maldeo, then heir-apparent, lost his eldest, perhaps then only son Raemall in the battle of Bayana, who led the aid of Marwar on that memorable day, and consequently the name of Chagatai, whether in fortune or in flight, had no great claims to his regard. But little did Maldeo dream how closely the fortunes of his house would be linked with those of the fugitive Humayun, and that the infant Akbar, born in this emergency, was destined to revenge this breach of hospitality. Still less could the proud Rathor, who traced his ancestry on the throne of Kanauj one thousand years before the birth of the “barbarian” of Ferghana, deem it within the range of probability, that he should receive honours at such hands, or that the first title of Raja, Rajeswar, or ‘raja, lord of rajas,’ would be conferred on his own son by this infant, then rearing amidst the sandhills at the extremity of his desert dominion! It is curious to indulge in the speculative inquiry, whether, when the great Akbar girded Udai Singh with the sword of honour, and marked his forehead with the unguent of Raja-shah, he brought to mind the conduct of Maldeo, which doomed his birth to take place in the dismal castle of Umarkot, instead of in the splendid halls of Delhi [27].

Attack on Mārwār by Sher Shāh,A.D.1544.—Maldeo derived no advantage from his inhospitality; for whether the usurper deemed his exertions insufficient to secure the royal fugitive, or felt his own power insecure with so potent a neighbour, he led an army of eighty thousand men into Marwar. Maldeo allowed them to advance, and formed an army of fifty thousand Rajputsto oppose him. The judgment and caution he exercised were so great, that Sher Shah, well versed in the art of war, was obliged to fortify his camp at every step. Instead of an easy conquest, he soon repented of his rashness when the admirable dispositions of the Rajputs made him dread an action, and from a position whence he found it impossible to retreat. For a month the armies lay in sight of each other, every day the king’s situation becoming more critical, and from which he saw not the slightest chance of extrication. In this exigence he had recourse to one of those stratagems which have often operated successfully on the Rajput, by sowing distrust in his mind as to the fidelity of his vassals. He penned a letter, as if in correspondence with them, which he contrived to have dropped, as by accident, by a messenger sent to negotiate. Perhaps the severity of the resumptions of estates seconded this scheme of Sher Shah; for when the stipulated period for the attack had arrived, the raja countermanded it. The reasons for this conduct, when success was apparent, were soon propagated; when one or two of the great leaders, in order to demonstrate their groundlessness, gave an instance of that devotion with which the annals of these States abound. At the head of twelve thousand, they attacked and forced the imperial entrenched camp, carrying destruction even to the quarters of the emperor; but multitudes prevailed, and the patriotic clans were almost annihilated. Maldeo, when too late, saw through the stratagem which had made him doubt the loyalty of his vassals. Superstition and the reproaches of his chieftains for his unworthy suspicions, did the rest; and this firstlevée en masseof the descendants of Siahji, arrayed in defence of their national liberties, was defeated. With justice did the usurper pay homage to their gallantry, when he exclaimed, on his deliverance from this peril, “he had nearly lost the empire of Hindustan for a handful of barley.”[16]

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