Chapter 11

Rana Partap Singh, A.D. 1572–97

Partap1125 succeeded to the titles and renown of an illustrious house, but without a capital, without resources, his kindred and clans dispirited by reverses: yet possessed of the noble spirit of his race, he meditated the recovery of Chitor, the vindication of the honour of his house, and the restoration of its power. Elevated with this design, he hurried into conflict with his powerful antagonist, nor stooped to calculate the means which were opposed to him. Accustomed to read in his country’s annals the splendid deeds of his forefathers, and that Chitor had more than once been the prison of their foes, he trusted that the revolutions of fortune might cooperate with his own efforts to overturn the unstable throne of Delhi. The reasoning was as just as it was noble; but whilst he gave loose to those lofty aspirations which meditated liberty to Mewar, his crafty opponent was counteracting his views by a scheme of policy which, when disclosed, filled his heart with

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anguish. The wily Mogul arrayed against Partap his kindred in faith as well as blood. The princes of Marwar, Amber, Bikaner, and even Bundi, late his firm ally, took part with Akbar and upheld despotism. Nay, even his own brother, Sagarji1126, deserted him, and received, as the price of his treachery, the ancient capital of his race, and the title which that possession conferred. [332]

Rana Partap Singh resists the Moguls

But the magnitude of the peril confirmed the fortitude of Partap, who vowed, in the words of the bard, “to make his mother’s milk resplendent”; and he amply redeemed his pledge. Single-handed, for a quarter of a century did he withstand the combined efforts of the empire; at one time carrying destruction into the plains, at another flying from rock to rock, feeding his family from the fruits of his native hills, and rearing the nursling hero Amra, amidst savage beasts and scarce less savage men, a fit heir to his prowess and revenge. The bare idea that “the son of Bappa Rawal should bow the head to mortal man,” was insupportable; and he spurned every overture which had submission for its basis, or the degradation of uniting his family by marriage with the Tatar, though lord of countless multitudes.

The brilliant acts he achieved during that period live in every valley; they are enshrined in the heart of every true Rajput, and many are recorded in the annals of the conquerors. To recount them all, or relate the hardships he sustained, would be to pen what they would pronounce a romance who had not traversed the country where tradition is yet eloquent with his exploits, or conversed with the descendants of his chiefs, who

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cherish a recollection of the deeds of their forefathers, and melt, as they recite them, into manly tears1127.

Partap was nobly supported; and though wealth and fortune tempted the fidelity of his chiefs, not one was found base enough to abandon him. The sons of Jaimall shed their blood in his cause, along with the successors of Patta – the house of Salumbar redoubled the claims of Chonda to fidelity; and these five lustres of adversity are the brightest in the chequered page of the history of Mewar. Nay, some chiefs, attracted by the very desperation of his fortunes, pressed to his standard, to combat and die with Partap. Amongst these was the Delwara chief, whose devotion gained him the prince’s ‘right hand.’

The Vow of Rana Partap Singh

To commemorate the desolation of Chitor, which the bardic historian represents as a ‘widow’ despoiled of the ornaments to her loveliness, Partap interdicted to himself and his successors every article of luxury or pomp, until the insignia of her glory should be redeemed. The gold and silver dishes were laid aside [333] for pattras1128 of leaves; their beds henceforth of straw, and their beards left untouched. But in order more distinctly to mark their fallen fortune and stimulate to its recovery, he commanded that the martial nakkaras, which always sounded in the van of battle or processions, should follow in the rear. This last sign of the depression of Mewar still survives; the beard is yet untouched by the shears; and even in the subterfuge by which the patriot king’s behest is set aside, we have a tribute to his memory: for though his descendant eats off gold and silver, and sleeps upon a bed, he places the leaves beneath the one and straw under the other1129.

Often was Partap heard to exclaim, “Had Udai Singh never been, or none intervened between him and Sanga Rana, no

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Turk should ever have given laws to Rajasthan.” Hindu society had assumed a new form within the century preceding: the wrecks of dominion from the Jumna and Ganges had been silently growing into importance; and Amber and Marwar had attained such power, that the latter single-handed coped with the imperial Slier Shah; while numerous minor chieftainships were attaining shape and strength on both sides the Chambal. A prince of commanding genius alone was wanting, to snatch the sceptre of dominion from the Islamite. Such a leader they found in Sanga, who possessed every quality which extorts spontaneous obedience, and the superiority of whose birth, as well as dignity, were admitted without cavil, from the Himalaya to Rameswaram1130. These States had powerful motives to obey such a leader, in the absence of whom their ancient patrimony was lost; and such they would have found renewed in Sanga’s grandson, Partap, had Udai Singh not existed, or had a less gifted sovereign than Akbar been his contemporary.

With the aid of some chiefs of judgment and experience, Partap remodelled his government, adapting it to the exigencies of the times and to his slender resources. New grants were issued, with regulations defining the service required. Kumbhalmer, now the seat of government, was strengthened, as well as Gogunda and other mountain fortresses; and, being unable to keep the field in the plains [334] of Mewar, he followed the system of his ancestors, and commanded his subjects, on pain of death, to retire into the mountains. During the protracted contest, the fertile tracts watered by the Ranas and the Berach, from the Aravalli chain west to the eastern tableland, were be chiragh, ‘without a lamp.’

Many tales are related of the unrelenting severity with which Partap enforced obedience to this stern policy. Frequently, with a few horse, he issued forth to see that his commands were obeyed. The silence of the desert prevailed in the plains; grass had usurped the place of the waving corn; the highways were choked with the thorny babul1131, and beasts of prey made their abode in the habitations of his subjects. In the midst of this desolation, a single goatherd, trusting to elude observation, disobeyed his prince’s injunction, and pastured his flock in the

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luxuriant meadows of Untala, on the banks of the Banas. After a few questions, he was killed and hung up in terrorem. By such patriotic severity Partap rendered ‘the garden of Rajasthan’ of no value to the conqueror, and the commerce already established between the Mogul court and Europe, conveyed through Mewar from Surat and other ports, was intercepted and plundered.

Akbar attacks Rana Partap Singh, A.D. 1576

Akbar took the field against the Rajput prince, establishing his headquarters at Ajmer. This celebrated fortress, destined ultimately to be one of the twenty-two suballs of his empire and an imperial residence, had admitted for some time a royal garrison. Maldeo of Marwar, who had so ably opposed the usurper Sher Shah, was compelled to follow the example of his brother prince, Bhagwandas of Amber, and to place himself at the footstool of Akbar: only two years subsequent to Partap’s accession, after a brave but fruitless resistance in Merta and Jodhpur, he sent his son, Udai Singh, to pay homage to the king1132. Akbar received him at Nagor, on his route to Ajmer, on which occasion the Raos of Mandor were made Rajas; and as the heir of Marwar was of uncommon bulk, the title by which he was afterwards known in Rajasthan was Mota Raja1133, and henceforth the descendants of the kings of Kanauj had the ‘right hand’ of the emperor of the Moguls. But the Rathor was greater in his native pride than with all the accession of dignity or power which accrued on his sacrifice of Rajput principles. [335] Udai ‘le gros’ was the first of his race who gave a daughter in marriage to a Tatar. The bribe for which he bartered his honour was splendid; for four provinces1134, yielding £200,000 of annual revenue, were given in exchange for Jodh Bai1135, at once doubling the fisc of Marwar. With such examples

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as Amber and Marwar, and with less power to resist the temptation, the minor chiefs of Rajasthan, with a brave and numerous vassalage, were transformed into satraps of Delhi, and the importance of most of them was increased by the change. Truly did the Mogul historian designate them “at once the props and the ornaments of the throne.”

Rana Partap Singh deserted by Rajput Princes

But these were fearful odds against Partap: the arms of his countrymen thus turned upon him, derived additional weight from their self-degradation, which kindled into jealousy and hatred against the magnanimous resolution they wanted the virtue to imitate. When Hindu prejudice was thus violated by every prince in Rajasthan (that of Bundi alone excepted1136), the Rana renounced all alliance with those who were thus degraded; and in order to carry on the line, he sought out and incorporated with the first class of nobles of his own kin the descendants of the ancient princes of Delhi, of Patan, of Marwar, and of Dhar. To the eternal honour of Partap and his issue be it told, that to the very close of the monarchy of the Moguls, they not only refused such alliance with the throne, but even with their brother princes of Marwar and Amber. It is a proud triumph of virtue to record, from the autograph letters of the most powerful of their princes, Bakhta Singh and Jai Singh, that whilst they had risen to greatness from the surrender of principle, as Mewar had decayed from her adherence to it, they should, even while basking in court favour, solicit, and that humbly, to be readmitted to the honour of matrimonial intercourse – ‘to be purified,’ ‘to be regenerated,’ ‘to be made Rajputs’: and that this was granted only on condition of their abjuring the contaminating practice which had disunited them for more than a century; with the additional stipulation, that the issue of marriage with the house [336] of Mewar should be the heirs to those they entered: conditions which the decline of the empire prevented from being broken.

Raja Man Singh and Rana Partap Singh

An anecdote illustrative of the settled repugnance of this noble family to sully the purity of its blood may here be related, as its result had a

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material influence on its subsequent condition. Raja Man, who had succeeded to the throne of Amber, was the most celebrated of his race, and from him may be dated the rise of his country. This prince exemplified the wisdom of that policy which Babur adopted to strengthen his conquest; that of connecting his family by ties of marriage with the Hindus. It has been already related, that Humayun espoused a daughter of Bhagwandas, consequently Raja Man was brother-in-law to Akbar1137. His courage and talents well seconded this natural advantage, and he became the most conspicuous of all the generals of the empire. To him Akbar was indebted for half his triumphs. The Kachhwaha bards find a delightful theme in recounting his exploits, from the snow-clad Caucasus to the shores of the ‘golden Chersonese1138.’ Let the eye embrace these extremes of his conquests, Kabul and the Paropanisos of Alexander, and Arakan (a name now well known) on the Indian Ocean; the former reunited, the latter subjugated, to the empire by a Rajput prince and a Rajput army. But Akbar knew the master-key to Hindu feeling, and by his skill overcame prejudices deemed insurmountable, and many are the tales yet told of their blind devotion to their favourite emperor.

Raja Man was returning from the conquest of Sholapur to Hindustan when he invited himself to an interview with Partap, then at Kumbhalmer, who advanced to the Udaisagar to receive him. On the mound which embanks this lake a feast was prepared

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for the prince of Amber. The board was spread, the Raja summoned, and Prince Amra appointed to wait upon him; but no Rana appeared, for whose absence apologies alleging headache were urged by his son, with the request [337] that Raja Man would waive all ceremony, receive his welcome, and commence. The prince, in a tone at once dignified and respectful, replied: “Tell the Rana I can divine the cause of his headache; but the error is irremediable, and if he refuses to put a plate (kansa) before me, who will?” Further subterfuge was useless. The Rana expressed his regret; but added, that “he could not eat with a Rajput who gave his sister to a Turk, and who probably ate with him.” Raja Man was unwise to have risked this disgrace: and if the invitation went from Partap, the insult was ungenerous as well as impolitic; but of this he is acquitted. Raja Man left the feast untouched, save the few grains of rice he offered to Anndeva1139, which he placed in his turban, observing as he withdrew: “It was for the preservation of your honour that we sacrificed our own, and gave our sisters and our daughters to the Turk; but abide in peril, if such be your resolve, for this country shall not hold you”; and mounting his horse he turned to the Rana, who appeared at this abrupt termination of his visit, “If I do not humble your pride, my name is not Man”: to which Partap replied, “he should always be happy to meet him”; while some one, in less dignified terms, desired he would not forget to bring his ‘Phupha’ [father’s sister’s husband], Akbar. The ground was deemed impure where the feast was spread: it was broken up and lustrated with the water of the Ganges, and the chiefs who witnessed the humiliation of one they deemed apostate, bathed and changed their vestments, as if polluted by his presence. Every act was reported to the emperor, who was exasperated at the insult thus offered to himself, and who justly dreaded the revival of those prejudices he had hoped were vanquished; and it hastened the first of those sanguinary battles which have immortalised the name of Partap: nor will Haldighat be forgotten while a Sesodia occupies Mewar, or a bard survives to relate the tale.

Salim’s Campaign, A.D. 1576

Prince Salim, the heir of

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Delhi1140, led the war, guided by the counsels of Raja Man and the distinguished apostate son of Sagarji, Mahabat Khan. Partap trusted to his native hills and the valour of twenty-two thousand Rajputs to withstand the son of Akbar. The divisions of the royal army encountered little opposition at the exterior defiles by which they penetrated the western side of the [338] Aravalli, concentrating as they approached the chief pass which conducted to the vulnerable part of this intricate country.

Battle of Haldighat or Gogiinda, June 18, 1576

The range to which Partap was restricted was the mountainous region around, though chiefly to the west of the new capital. From north to south, Kumbhalmer to Rakhabhnath1141, about eighty miles in length; and in breadth, from Mirpur west to Satola east, about the same. The whole of this space is mountain and forest, valley and stream. The approaches to the capital from every point to the north, west, and south are so narrow as to merit the term of defile; on each side lofty perpendicular rocks, with scarcely breadth for two carriages abreast, across which are those ramparts of nature termed Col in the mountain scenery of Europe, which occasionally open into spaces sufficiently capacious to encamp a large force. Such was the plain of Haldighat, at the base of a neck of mountain which shut up the valley and rendered it almost inaccessible1142. Above and below the Rajputs were posted, and on the cliffs and pinnacles overlooking the field of battle, the faithful aborigines, the Bhil, with his natural weapon the bow and arrow, and huge stones ready to roll upon the combatant enemy.

At this pass Partap was posted with the flower of Mewar, and glorious was the struggle for its maintenance. Clan after clan followed with desperate intrepidity, emulating the daring of their prince, who led the crimson banner into the hottest part of the field. In vain he strained every nerve to encounter Raja Man; but though denied the luxury of revenge on his Rajput foe, he

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made good a passage to where Salim commanded. His guards fell before Partap, and but for the steel plates which defended his howda, the lance of the Rajput would have deprived Akbar of his heir. His steed, the gallant Chetak, nobly seconded his lord, and is represented in all the historical drawings of this battle with one foot raised upon the elephant of the Mogul, while his rider has his lance propelled against his foe. The conductor, destitute of the means of defence, was slain, when the infuriated animal, now without control, carried off Salim. On this spot the carnage was immense: the Moguls eager to defend Salim; the heroes of Mewar to second their prince, who had already received seven wounds1143. [339] Marked by the ‘royal umbrella,’ which he would not lay aside, and which collected the might of the enemy against him, Partap was thrice rescued from amidst the foe, and was at length nearly overwhelmed, when the Jhala chief gave a signal instance of fidelity, and extricated him with the loss of his own life. Mana seized upon the insignia of Mewar, and rearing the ‘gold sun’ over his own head, made good his way to an intricate position, drawing after him the brunt of the battle, while his prince was forced from the field. With all his brave vassals the noble Jhala fell; and in remembrance of the deed his descendants have, since the day of Haldighat, borne the regal ensigns of Mewar, and enjoyed ‘the right hand of her princes1144.’ But this desperate valour was unavailing against such a force, with a numerous field artillery and a dromedary corps mounting swivels; and of twenty-two thousand Rajputs assembled on that day for the defence of Haldighat, only eight thousand quitted the field alive1145.

The Escape of Rana Partap Singh

Partap, unattended, fled on the gallant Chetak, who had borne him through the day, and who saved him now by leaping a mountain stream when closely pursued by two Mogul chiefs, whom this impediment momentarily

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checked. But Chetak, like his master, was wounded; his pursuers gained upon Partap, and the flash from the flinty rock announced them at his heels, when, in the broad accents of his native tongue, the salutation Ho! Nila ghora ra aswar, ‘Ho! rider of the blue horse,’ made him look back, and he beheld but a single horseman: that horseman his brother.

Sakta, whose personal enmity to Partap had made him a traitor to Mewar, beheld from the ranks of Akbar the ‘blue horse’ flying unattended. Resentment was extinguished, and a feeling of affection, mingling with sad and humiliating recollections, took possession of his bosom. He joined in the pursuit, but only to slay the pursuers, who fell beneath his lance; and now, for the first time in their lives, the brothers embraced in friendship. Here Chetak fell, and as the Rana unbuckled his caparison to place it upon Ankara, presented to him by his brother, the noble steed expired. An altar was raised, and yet marks the spot, where Chetak1146 died; and the entire scene may be seen painted on the walls of half the houses of the capital. [340]

The greeting between the brothers was necessarily short; but the merry Sakta, who was attached to Salim’s personal force. could not let it pass without a joke; and inquiring “how a man felt when flying for his life?” he quitted Partap with the assurance of reunion the first safe opportunity. On rejoining Salim, the truth of Sakta was greatly doubted when he related that Partap had not only slain his pursuers, but his own steed, which obliged him to return on that of the Khorasani. Prince Salim pledged his word to pardon him if he related the truth; when Sakta replied, “The burthen of a kingdom is on my brother’s shoulders, nor could I witness his danger without defending him from it.” Salim kept his word, but dismissed the future head of the Saktawats. Determined to make a suitable nazar on his introduction, he redeemed Bhainsror by a coup de main, and joined Partap at Udaipur, who made him a grant of the conquest, which long remained the chief abode of the Saktawats1147; and

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since the day when this, their founder, preserved the life of his brother and prince against his Mogul pursuers, the birad of the bard to all of his race is Khorasani Multani ka Agal, ‘the barrier to Khorasan and Multan,’ from which countries were the chiefs he slew.

On the 7th of Sawan, S. 1632 (July, A.D. 1576), a day ever memorable in her annals, the best blood of Mewar irrigated the pass of Haldighat. Of the nearest kin of the prince five hundred were slain: the exiled prince of Gwalior, Ramsah, his son Khanderao, with three hundred and fifty of his brave Tuar clan, paid the debt of gratitude with their lives. Since their expulsion by Babur they had found sanctuary in Mewar, whose princes diminished their feeble revenues to maintain inviolable the rites of hospitality1148. Mana, the devoted Jhala, lost one hundred and fifty of his vassals, and every house of Mewar mourned its chief support.

Siege of Kumbhalmer

Elate with victory, Salim left the hills. The rainy season had set in, which impeded operations, and obtained for Partap a few months of repose; but with the spring the foe returned, when he was again defeated1149, and took post in Kumbhalmer, which was invested by the Koka, Shahbaz Khan. He here made a gallant and [341] protracted resistance, and did not retire till insects rendered the water of the Naugun well, their sole resource, impure1150. To the treachery of the Deora chief of Abu, who was now with Akbar, this deed is imputed. Partap thence withdrew to Chawand1151, while Bhan, the Sonigira chief, defended the place to the last, and was slain in the assault. On this occasion also fell the chief bard of Mewar, who inspired by his deeds, as well as by his song, the spirit of resistance to the ‘ruthless king,’ and whose laudatory couplets on the deeds of his lord are still in every mouth. But the spirit of poesy died not with him, for princes and nobles, Hindu and

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Turk, vied with each other in exalting the patriot Partap, in strains replete with those sentiments which elevate the mind of the martial Rajput, who is inflamed into action by this national excitement.

Further Imperialist Advance

On the fall of Kumbhalmer, the castles of Dharmeti and Gogunda were invested by Raja Man. Mahabat Khan took possession of Udaipur; and while a prince of the blood1152 cut off the resources furnished by the inhabitants of Oghna Panarwra, Khan Farid invaded Chappan, and approached Chawand from the south. Thus beset on every side, dislodged from the most secret retreats, and bunted from glen to glen, there appeared no hope for Partap: yet, even while his pursuers deemed him panting in some obscure lurking-place, he would by mountain signals reassemble his bands, and assail them unawares and often unguarded. By a skilful manoeuvre, Farid, who dreamed of nothing less than making the Rajput prince his prisoner, was blocked up in a defile and his force cut off to a man. Unaccustomed to such warfare, the mercenary Moguls became disgusted in combating a foe seldom tangible; while the monsoon swelled the mountain streams, filling the reservoirs with mineral poisons and the air with pestilential exhalations. The periodical rains accordingly always brought some respite to Partap.

Years thus rolled away, each ending with a diminution of his means and an increase to his misfortunes. His family was his chief source of anxiety: he dreaded their captivity, an apprehension often on the point of being realised. On one occasion they were saved by the faithful Bhils of Kava, who carried them in wicker baskets and concealed them in the tin mines of Jawara, where they guarded [342] and fed them. Bolts and rings are still preserved in the trees about Jawara and Chawand, to which baskets were suspended, the only cradles of the royal children of Mewar, in order to preserve them from the tiger and the wolf. Yet amidst such complicated evils the fortitude of Partap remained unshaken, and a spy sent by Akbar represented the Rajput and his chiefs seated at a scanty meal, maintaining all the etiquette observed in prosperity, the Rana bestowing the dauna to the most deserving, and which, though only of the wild fruit of the country, was received with all the reverence of better

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days. Such inflexible magnanimity touched the soul of Akbar1153, and extorted the homage of every chief in Rajasthan; nor could those who swelled the gorgeous train of the emperor withhold their admiration. Nay, these annals have preserved some stanzas addressed by the Khankhanan1154, the first of the satraps of Delhi, to the noble Rajput, in his native tongue, applauding his valour and stimulating his perseverance: “All is unstable in this world: land and wealth will disappear, but the virtue of a great name lives for ever. Patta1155 abandoned wealth and land, but never bowed the head: alone, of all the princes of Hind, he preserved the honour of his race.”

But there were moments when the wants of those dearer than his own life almost excited him to frenzy. The wife of his bosom was insecure, even in the rock or the cave; and his infants, heirs to every luxury, were weeping around him for food: for with such pertinacity did the Mogul myrmidons pursue them, that “five meals have been prepared and abandoned for want of opportunity to eat them.” On one occasion his queen and his son’s wife were preparing a few cakes from the flour of the meadow grass1156, of which one was given to each; half for the present, the rest for a future meal. Partap was stretched beside them pondering on his misfortunes, when a piercing cry from his daughter roused him from reflection: a wild cat had darted on the reserved portion of food, and the agony of hunger made her shrieks insupportable. Until that moment his fortitude had been unsubdued. He had beheld his sons and his kindred fall around him on the field without emotion – “For this the Rajput was born”; but the lamentation of his children for food “unmanned him.” He cursed the name of royalty, if only to be enjoyed on such conditions, and he demanded of Akbar a mitigation of his hardships. [343]

Submission of Rana Partap Singh

Overjoyed at this indication of submission, the emperor commanded public rejoicings, and exultingly showed the letter to Prithiraj, a Rajput compelled to follow the victorious car of Akbar. Prithiraj was the younger

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brother of the prince of Bikaner1157, a State recently grown out of the Rathors of Marwar, and which, being exposed in the flats of the desert, had no power to resist the example of its elder, Maldeo. Prithiraj was one of the most gallant chieftains of the age, and like the Troubadour princes of the west, could grace a cause with the soul-inspiring effusions of the muse, as well as aid it with his sword: nay, in an assembly of the bards of Rajasthan, the palm of merit was unanimously awarded to the Rathor cavalier. He adored the very name of Partap, and the intelligence filled him with grief. With all the warmth and frankness of his nature, he told the king it was a forgery of some foe to the fame of the Rajput prince. “I know him well,” said he; “for your crown he would not submit to your terms.” He requested and obtained permission from the king to transmit by his courier a letter to Partap, ostensibly to ascertain the fact of his submission, but really with the view to prevent it. On this occasion he composed those couplets, still admired, and which for the effect they produced will stand comparison with any of the sirventes of the Troubadours of the west1158.

“The hopes of the Hindu rest on the Hindu; yet the Rana forsakes them. But for Partap, all would be placed on the same level by Akbar; for our chiefs have lost their valour and our females their honour. Akbar is the broker in the market of our race: all has he purchased but the son of Uda; he is beyond his price. What true Rajput would part with honour for nine days (nauroza); yet how many have bartered it away? Will Chitor come to this market, when all have disposed of the chief article of the Khatri? Though Patta has squandered away wealth, yet this treasure has he preserved. Despair has driven man to this mart, to witness their dishonour: from such infamy the descendant of Hamir alone has been preserved. The world asks, whence the concealed aid of Partap? None but the soul of manliness and his sword: with it, well has he maintained the Khatri’s pride. This broker in the market [344] of men will one day be overreached; he cannot live for ever: then will our race come to Partap, for the seed of the Rajput to sow in our desolate

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lands. To him all look for its preservation, that its purity may again become resplendent.”

Rally of Rana Partap Singh

This effusion of the Rathor was equal to ten thousand men; it nerved the drooping mind of Partap, and roused him into action: for it was a noble incentive to find every eye of his race fixed upon him.

The Nauroza

The allusion of the princely poet in the phrase, “bartering their honour on the Nauroza,” requires some explanation. The Nauroza, or ‘New Year’s Day,’ when the sun enters Aries, is one of great festivity among the Muhammadan princes of the East; but of that alluded to by Prithiraj we can form an adequate idea from the historian Abu-l Fazl1159.

It is not New Year’s Day, but a festival especially instituted by Akbar, and to which he gave the epithet Khushroz, ‘day of pleasure,’ held on the ninth day (nauroza), following the chief festival of each month. The court assembled, and was attended by all ranks. The queen also had her court, when the wives of the nobles and of the Rajput vassal princes were congregated. But the Khushroz was chiefly marked by a fair held within the precincts of the court, attended only by females. The merchants’ wives exposed the manufactures of every clime, and the ladies of the court were the purchasers1160. “His majesty is also there in disguise, by which means he learns the value of merchandise, and hears what is said of the state of the empire and the character of the officers of government.” The ingenuous Abu-l Fazl thus

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softens down the unhallowed purpose of this day; but posterity cannot admit that the great Akbar was to obtain these results amidst the Pushto jargon of the dames of Islam, or the mixed Bhakha of the fair of [345] Rajasthan. These ninth day fairs’ are the markets in which Rajput honour was bartered, and to which the brave Prithiraj makes allusion1161.

Akbar and Rajput Ladies

It is scarcely to be credited that a statesman like Akbar should have hazarded his popularity or his power, by the introduction of a custom alike appertaining to the Celtic races of Europe as to these the Goths of Asia1162; and that he should seek to degrade those whom the chances of war had made his vassals, by conduct so nefarious and repugnant to the keenly cherished feelings of the Rajput. Yet there is not a shadow of doubt that many of the noblest of the race were dishonoured on the Nauroza; and the chivalrous Prithiraj was only preserved from being of the number by the high courage and virtue of his wife, a princess of Mewar, and daughter of the founder of the Saktawats. On one of these celebrations of the

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Khushroz, the monarch of the Moguls was struck with the beauty of the daughter of Mewar, and he singled her out from amidst the united fair of Hind as the object of his passion. It is not improbable that an ungenerous feeling united with that already impure, to despoil the Sesodias of their honour, through a princess of their house under the protection of the sovereign. On retiring from the fair, she found herself entangled amidst the labyrinth of apartments by which egress was purposely ordained, when Akbar stood before her: but instead of acquiescence, she drew a poniard from her corset, and held it to his breast, dictating, and making him repeat, the oath of renunciation of the infamy to all her race. The anecdote is accompanied in the original with many dramatic circumstances. The guardian goddess of Mewar, the terrific Mata, appears on her tiger in the subterranean passage of this palace of pollution, to strengthen her mind by a solemn denunciation, [346] and her hand with a weapon to protect her honour. Rae Singh, the elder brother of the princely bard, had not been so fortunate; his wife wanted either courage or virtue to withstand the regal tempter, and she returned to their dwelling in the desert despoiled of her chastity, but loaded with jewels; or as Prithiraj expresses it: “She returned to her abode, tramping to the tinkling sound of the ornaments of gold and gems on her person; but where, my brother, is the moustache1163 on thy lip?”

Adventures of Rana Partap Singh

It is time to return to the Aravalli, and to the patriot prince Partap. Unable to stem the torrent, he had formed a resolution worthy of his character; he determined to abandon Mewar and the blood-stained Chitor (no longer the stay of his race), and to lead his Sesodias to the Indus, plant the ‘crimson banner’ on the insular capital of the Sogdoi, and leave a desert between him and his inexorable foe. With his family, and all that was yet noble in Mewar, his chiefs and vassals, a firm and intrepid band, who preferred exile to degradation, he descended the Aravalli, and had reached the confines of the desert, when an incident occurred which made him change his measures, and still remain a dweller in the land of his forefathers. If the historic annals of Mewar record acts of unexampled severity,

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they are not without instances of unparalleled devotion. The minister of Partap, whose ancestors had for ages held the office, placed at his prince’s disposal their accumulated wealth, which, with other resources, is stated to haves been equivalent to the maintenance of twenty-five thousand men for twelve years. The name of Bhama Sah is preserved as the saviour of Mewar. With this splendid proof of gratitude, and the sirvente of Prithiraj as incitements, he again “screwed his courage to the sticking-place,” collected his bands, and while his foes imagined that he was endeavouring to effect a retreat through the desert, surprised Shahbaz in his camp at Dawer, whose troops were cut in pieces. The fugitives were pursued to Amet, the garrison of which shared the same fate. Ere they could recover from their consternation, Kumbhalmer was assaulted and taken; Abdulla and his garrison were put to the sword, and thirty-two fortified posts in like manner carried by surprise, the troops being put to death without mercy. To use the words of the annals: “Partap made a desert of Mewar; he made an [347] offering to the sword of whatever dwelt in its plains”: an appalling but indispensable sacrifice. In one short campaign (S. 1586, A.D. 1530), he had recovered all Mewar, except Chitor, Ajmer, and Mandalgarh; and determining to have a slight ovation in return for the triumph Raja Man had enjoyed (who had fulfilled to the letter his threat, that Partap should “live in peril”), he invaded Amber, and sacked its chief mart of commerce, Malpura.

Udaipur was also regained; though this acquisition was so unimportant as scarcely to merit remark. In all likelihood it was abandoned from the difficulty of defending it, when all around had submitted to Partap; though the annals ascribe it to a generous sentiment of Akbar, prompted by the great Khankhanan, whose mind appears to have been captivated by the actions of the Rajput prince1164 An anecdote is appended to account for Akbar’s relaxation of severity, but it is of too romantic a nature even for this part of their annals.

Mewar left in Peace by the Imperialists

Partap was indebted to a combination of causes for the repose he enjoyed during the latter years of his life; and though this may be ascribed principally to the new fields of ambition which occupied the Mogul arms, we are authorized also to admit the full weight of the influence that

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the conduct of the Hindu prince exerted upon Akbar, together with the general sympathy of his fellow-princes, who swelled the train of the conqueror, and who were too powerful to be regarded with indifference.

Repose was, however, no boon to the noblest of his race. A mind like Partap’s could enjoy no tranquillity while, from the summit of the pass which guarded Udaipur, his eye embraced the Kunguras of Chitor, to which he must ever be a stranger. To a soul like his, burning for the redemption of the glory of his race, the mercy thus shown him, in placing a limit to his hopes, was more difficult of endurance than the pangs of fabled Tantalus. Imagine the warrior, yet in manhood’s prime, broken with fatigues and covered with scars, from amidst the fragments of basaltic ruin1165 (fit emblem of his own condition!), casting a wistful eye to [348] the rock stained with the blood of his fathers; whilst in the ‘dark chamber’ of his mind the scenes of glory enacted there appeared with unearthly lustre. First, the youthful Bappa, on whose head was the ‘mor he had won from the Mori1166’: the warlike Samarsi, arming for the last day of Rajput independence, to die with Prithiraj on the banks of the Ghaggar: again, descending the steep of Chitor, the twelve sons of Arsi, the crimson banner floating around each, while from the embattled rock the guardian goddess looked down on the carnage which secured a perpetuity of sway. Again, in all the pomp of sacrifice, the Deolia chiefs, Jaimall and Patta; and like the Pallas of Rajasthan, the Chondawat dame, leading her daughter into the ranks of destruction: examples for their sons’ and husbands’ imitation. At length clouds of darkness dimmed the walls of Chitor: from her battlements

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‘Kungura Rani1167’ had fled; the tints of dishonour began to blend with the visions of glory; and to Udai Singh appeared flying from the rock to which the honour of his house was united. Aghast at the picture his fancy had portrayed, imagine him turning to the contemplation of his own desolate condition, indebted for a cessation of persecution to the most revolting sentiment that can assail an heroic mind – compassion; compared with which scorn is endurable, contempt even enviable: these he could retaliate; . but for the high-minded, the generous Rajput, to be the object of that sickly sentiment, pity, was more oppressive than the arms of his foe.

The Last Days of Rana Partap

A premature decay assailed the pride of Rajasthan; a mind diseased preyed on an exhausted frame, and prostrated him in the very summer of his days. The last moments of Partap were an appropriate commentary on his life, which he terminated, like the Carthaginian, swearing his successor to eternal conflict against the foes of his country’s independence. But the Rajput prince had not the same joyful assurance that inspired the Numidian Hamilcar; for his end was clouded with the presentiment that his son Amra would abandon his fame for inglorious repose. A powerful sympathy is excited by the picture which is drawn of this final scene. The dying hero is represented in a lowly dwelling; his chiefs, the faithful companions of many a glorious day, awaiting round his pallet the dissolution of their prince, when a groan of mental anguish made Salumbar inquire, [349] “What afflicted his soul that it would not depart in peace?” He rallied: “It lingered,” he said, “for some consolatory pledge that his country should not be abandoned to the Turk”; and with the death-pang upon him, he related an incident which had guided his estimate of his son’s disposition, and now tortured him with the reflection that for personal ease he would forgo the remembrance of his own and his country’s wrongs.

On the banks of the Pichola, Partap and his chiefs had constructed a few huts1168 (the site of the future palace of Udaipur),

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to protect them during the inclemency of the rains in the day of their distress. Prince Amra, forgetting the lowliness of the dwelling, a projecting bamboo of the roof caught the folds of his turban and dragged it off as he retired. A hasty emotion, which disclosed a varied feeling, was observed with pain by Partap, who thence adopted the opinion that his son would never withstand the hardships necessary to be endured in such a cause. “These sheds,” said the dying prince, “will give way to sumptuous dwellings, thus generating the love of ease; and luxury with its concomitants will ensue, to which the independence of Mewar, which we have bled to maintain, will be sacrificed: and you, my chiefs, will follow the pernicious example.” They pledged themselves, and became guarantees for the prince, “by the throne of Bappa Rawal,” that they would not permit mansions to be raised till Mewar had recovered her independence. The soul of Partap was satisfied, and with joy he expired.

Thus closed the life of a Rajput whose memory is even now idolized by every Sesodia, and will continue to be so, till renewed oppression shall extinguish the remaining sparks of patriotic feeling. May that day never arrive! yet if such be her destiny, may it, at least, not be hastened by the arms of Britain!

It is worthy the attention of those who influence the destinies of States in more favoured climes, to estimate the intensity of feeling which could arm this prince to oppose the resources of a small principality against the then most powerful empire of the world, whose armies were more numerous and far more efficient than any ever led by the Persian against the liberties of Greece. Had Mewar possessed her Thucydides or her Xenophon, neither the wars of the Peloponnesus nor the retreat of the ten thousand’ would have yielded more diversified incidents for [350] the historic muse, than the deeds of this brilliant reign amid the many vicissitudes of Mewar. Undaunted heroism, inflexible fortitude, that which keeps honour bright,’ perseverance, – with fidelity such as no nation can boast, were the materials opposed to a soaring ambition, commanding talents, unlimited means, and the fervour of religious zeal; all, however, insufficient to contend with one unconquerable mind. There is not a pass in the alpine Aravalli

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that is not sanctified by some deed of Partap, – some brilliant victory or, oftener, more glorious defeat. Haldighat is the Thermopylae of Mewar; the field of Dawer her Marathon.

Footnotes

1125. [Partap Singh is usually called by the Muhammadans Rana Kika, Kika (in Marwar giga, in Malwa Kuka), meaning ‘a small boy’ (Ain, i. 339; Elliot-Dowson v. 397, 410).]

1126. Sagarji held the fortress and lands of Kandhar. His descendants formed an extensive clan called Sagarawats, who continued to hold Kandhar till the time of Sawai Jai Singh of Amber, whose situation as one of the great tatraps of the Mogul court enabled him to wrest it from Sagarji’s issue, upon sheir refusal to intermarry with the house of Amber. The great Mahabat Khan, the most intrepid of Jahangir’s generals, was an apostate Sagarawat. They established many chieftainships in Central India, as Umri Bhadanra, Ganeshganj, Digdoli; places better known to Sindhia’s officers than to the British. [It is remarkable that the author believed that Mahabat Khan was a Rajput. This man, the De Montfort of Jahangir, had such close Hindu affinities and associations that he was thought to be a Hindu. He was a Musulman, Zamana Beg of Kabul, best known for his arrest of Jahangir in 1628. He died in 1644. (Jahangir, Memoirs, Rogers-Beveridge i. 24; Ain, i. 337 f., 347, 371, 414; Elphinstone, Hist. of India, .567.)]

1127. I have climbed the rocks, crossed the streams, and traversed the plains which were the theatre of Partap’s glory, and conversed with the lineal descendants of Jaimall and Patta on the deeds of their forefathers, and many a time has the tear started in their eye at the tale they recited.

1128. The first invented drinking cup or eating vessel being made from the leaf (pat) of particular trees, especially the palasa (Butea frondosa) and bar (Ficus religiosa). The cups of a beautiful brown earthenware, made at Kotharia, are chiefly pateras, of a perfectly classical shape. Query, the Roman patera, or the Greek ποτυρ, or Saxon pot? [patera, pateo, ‘to lie open’; pot. O.E. pott, Lat. potus, ‘drinking.’]

1129. [For some further details see Rasmala, 307.]

1130. The bridge of Rama, the southern point of the peninsula [IGI, xxi. 173 ff.]

1131. Mimosa [Acacia] Arabica.

1132. A.H. 977, A.D. 1569. [Ain, i. 929 f.]

1133. There is less euphony in the English than in the French designation, Udai ‘de Gras.’ [Erskine (iii. A. 5S) with less probability says it may mean ‘great, potent, good.’]

1134. Godwar, Rs. 900,000; Ujjain, 249,914; Debalpur, 182,500; Badnawar, 250,000.

1135. The magnificent tomb of Jodh Bai, the mother of Shah Jahan, is at Sikandra, near Agra, and not far from that in which Akbar’s remains are deposited. [Jodh Bai is a title, meaning `Jodhpur lady.’ There were some doubts about her identity, but she was certainly daughter of Udai Singh and wife of Jahingir (Ain, i. 619). For her tomb see Sleeman, Rambles, 348.]

1136. The causes of exemption are curious, and are preserved in a regular treaty with the emperor, a copy of which the author possesses, which will be given in The Annals of Bundi.

1137. [Akbar married a daughter of Raja Bihari Mall and sister of Bhagwandas (Ain, i. 310, 339). There is no evidence of the marriage of Humayun into this family.]

1138. When Raja Man was commanded to reduce the revolted province of Kabul, he hesitated to cross the Indus, the Rubicon of the Hindu, and which they term Atak, or ‘the barrier,’ as being the limit between their faith and the barbarian. On the Hindu prince assigning this as his reason for not leading his Rajputs to the snowy Caucasus, the accomplished Akbar sent him a couplet in the dialect of Rajasthan:–

“Sabin bhumi Gopal kiJa men Atak kaha,Ja ke man men atak he,Sol Atak raha.”

“The whole earth is of God,In which he has placed the Atak.The mind that admits impedimentsWill always find an Atak.”

[Dr. Tessitori, whose version is given, remarks that the popular form of the third line is: Bhitar tati pap ki.] This delicate irony succeeded when stronger language would have failed.

1139. The Hindus, as did the Greeks and other nations of antiquity, always made offering of the first portion of each meal to the gods. Anndeva, ‘the god of food.’

1140. [This is impossible, because Salim, afterwards the Emperor Jahangir, was only in his seventh year. The generals in command were Man Singh and Asaf Khan.]

1141. [Rakhabhdev, with a famous Jain temple, forty miles south of Udaipur city (Erskine ii. A. 115).]

1142. Whoever has travelled through the Oberhasli of Meyringen, in the Oberland Bernois, requires no description of the alpine Aravalli. The Col de Balme, in the vale of Chamouni, is, on a larger scale, the Haldighat of Mewar.

1143. Three from the spear, one shot, and three by the sword.

1144. The descendants of Mana yet hold Sadri and all the privileges obtained on this occasion. Their kettle-drums beat to the gate of the palace, a privilege allowed to none besides, and they are addressed by the title of Raj, or royal.

1145. [The battle fought on June 18, 1576, is known to Musalman historians as the battle of Khamnaur or Khamnor, twenty-six miles north of Udaipur city (Badaoni ii. 237; Akbarnama, iii. 244 if.; Elliot-Dowson v. 398; Ain, i. 339; Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, 151 fl.).]

1146. ‘Chetak ka Chabutra’ is near to Jharol.

1147. The mother of Sakta was the Baijiraj, ‘Royal Mother’ (Queen Dowager) of Mewar. She loved this son, and left Udaipur to superintend his household at Bhainsror: since which renunciation of rank to affection, the mothers of the senior branch of Saktawat are addressed Baijiraj. [Bhainsror is now held by a Chondawat Rawat.]

1148. Eight hundred rupees, or £100 daily, is the sum recorded for the support of this prince.

1149. The date of this battle is Magh Such 7, S. 1633, A.D. 1577.

1150. [For the career of Shahbaz Khan, known as Koka or ‘foster-brother,’ who died in 1600, see Ain, i. 399 ff. Kumbhalmer was captured in 1578–9 (Elliot-Dowson v. 410, vi. 58). “About 1578” (Erskine ii. A. 116).]

1151. A town in the heart of the mountainous tract on the south-west of Mewar, called Chappan, containing about three hundred and fifty towns and villages, peopled chiefly by the aboriginal Bhils.

1152. Called Ami Sah in the Annals.

1153. [Akbar was anxious to destroy Partap, but he could not carry on a guerilla campaign in Rajputana, and he had work to do elsewhere (Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, 153).]

1154. Mirza Abdu-r-rahim, son of Bairam Khan (Ain, i. 334).]

1155. A colloquial contraction for Partap.

1156. Called Mol.

1157. [Rao Singh (1571–1611).]

1158. It is no affectation to say that the spirit evaporates in the lameness of the translation. The author could feel the force, though he failed to imitate the strength, of the original.

1159. [Ain, i. 276 f.; Memoirs of Jahangir, trans. Rogers-Beveridge, 48 f.]

1160. At these royal fairs were also sold the productions of princely artisans, male and female, and which, out of compliment to majesty, made a bounteous return for their industry. It is a fact but little known, that most Asiatic princes profess a trade: the great Aurangzeb was a cap-maker, and sold them to such advantage on these ‘ninth day’ fairs, that his funeral expenses were by his own express command defrayed from the privy purse, the accumulation of his personal labour. A delightful anecdote is recorded of the Khilji king Mahmud, whose profession was literary, and who obtained good prices from his Omrahs for his specimens of calligraphy. While engaged in transcribing one of the Persian poets, a professed scholar, who with others attended the conversazione, suggested an emendation, which was instantly attended to, and the supposed error remedied. When the Mullah was gone, the monarch erased the emendation and re-inserted the passage. An Omrah had observed and questioned the action, to which the king replied “It was better to make a blot in the manuscript than wound the vanity of a humble scholar.” [Ferishta tells the story of Nasiru-d-din Mahmud, i. 246.]

1161. [Compare the later accounts of these fairs by Bernier 272 f.; and Manucci i. 195. Aurangzeb transferred the Nauroz rejoicings to the coronation festival in Ramazan (Jadunath Sarkar, Life of Aurangzib, iii. 93). The ladies of the Mughal court usually spoke, not Pushto, but Turki.]

1162. This laxity, as regards female delicacy, must have been a remnant of Scythic barbarism, brought from the banks of the Jaxartes, the land of the Getae, where now, as in the days of Tomyris, a shoe at the door is a sufficient barrier to the entrance of many Tatar husbands. It is a well-known fact, also, that the younger son in these regions inherited a greater share than the elder, which is attributed to their pastoral habits, which invited early emigration in the elder sons. This habit prevailed with the Rajput tribes of very early times, and the annals of the Yadus, a race allied to the Yuti-Getae, or Jat, afford many instances of it. Modified it yet exists amongst the Jarejas (of the same stock), with whom the sons divide equally; which custom was transmitted to Europe by these Getic hordes, and brought into England by the Jut brothers, who founded the kingdom of Kent (kanthi, ‘a coast’ in Gothic and Sanskrit), where it is yet known as Gavelkind. In English law it is termed borough-English. In Scotland it existed in barbarous times, analogous to those when the Nauroza was sanctioned; and the lord of the manor had privileges which rendered it more than doubtful whether the first-born was natural heir: hence, the youngest was the heir. So in France, in ancient times; and though the ‘droit de Jambage’ no longer exists, the term sufficiently denotes the extent of privilege, in comparison with which the other rights of ‘Nocages,’ the seigneur’s feeding his greyhounds with the best dishes and insulting the bride’s blushes with ribald songs, were innocent. [The ethnological views in this note do not deserve notice.]

1163. The loss of this is the sign of mourning. [There is naturally no confirmation of these anecdotes in the Musalman historians, but they possibly may be true.]

1164. [See p. 398, above.]

1165. These mountains are of granite and close-grained quartz; but on the summit of the pass there is a mass of columnar rocks, which, though the author never examined them very closely, he has little hesitation in calling basaltic. Were it permitted to intrude his own feelings on his reader, he would say, he never passed the portals of Debari, which close the pass leading from Chitor to Udaipur, without throwing his eye on this fantastic pinnacle and imagining the picture he has drawn. Whoever, in rambling through the eternal city,’ has had his sympathy awakened in beholding at the Porta Salaria the stone seat where the conqueror of the Persians and the Goths, the blind Belisarius, begged his daily dole, – or pondered at the unsculptured tomb of Napoleon upon the vicissitudes of greatness, will appreciate the feeling of one who, in sentiment, had identified himself with the Rajputs, of whom Partap was justly the model.

1166. [A pun on maur, ‘a crown,’ and the Maurya tribe.]

1167. ‘The queen of battlements,’ the turreted Cybele of Rajasthan.

1168. This magnificent lake is now adorned with marble palaces. Such was the wealth of Mewar even in her decline. [The lake is said to have been constructed by a Banjara at the end of the fourteenth century, and the embankment was built by Rana Udai Singh in 1560. The lake is 2¼ miles long, and 1¼ broad, with an area of over one square mile. In the middle stand the island palaces, the Jagmandir and the Jagniwas (Erskine ii. A. 109).]

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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