Mewar 13: After Rana Ratan Singh - Revision history

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This page is an extract from <br/>
ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES <br/>
OF <br/>
'''RAJASTHAN '''<br/>

OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN <br/>
RAJPUT STATES OF INDIA <br/>

By <br/>
LIEUT.-COL. JAMES TOD <br/>
Late Political Agent to the Western Rajput States <br/>

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by <br/>
WILLIAM CROOKE, CIE. <br/>
Hon. D.Sc. Oxon., B.A., F.R.A.l. <br/>
Late of the Indian Civil Service <br/>

In Three Volumes <br/>
VOL. IV: ANNALS OF MEWAR<br/>
[The Annals were completed in 1829]<br/>

HUMPHREY MILFORD <br/>
Oxford University Press <br/>
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York <br/>
Toronto Melbourne Bombay <br/>
1920 [The edition scanned] <br/>
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Note: This article is likely to contain several spelling mistakes that occurred during scanning. If these errors are reported as messages to the Facebook page, [http://www.facebook.com/Indpaedia Indpaedia.com] your help will be gratefully acknowledged.

=Mewar 13: After Rana Ratan Singh=
==Death of Rana Ratan Singh==
The unintentional offence sank
deep into the heart of the liana, and though he was closely
connected with the Hara, havmg married his sister, he brooded
on the means of revenge, in the attainment of which he sacrificed
his own life as well as that of his rival. The festival of the Aheria
(the spring hunt), which has thrice been fatal to the princes of
Mewar, gave the occasion, when they fell by each other's weapons.
Though Ratna enjoyed the dignity only five years, he had the
satisfaction to see the ex-king of Ferghana, now founder of the
Mogul dynasty of India, leave the scene before him, and without
the diminution of an acre of land to Mewar smce the fatal day of
Bayana. Rana Ratna was succeeded by his brother,

==Rana Bikramajit , A.d. 1531 -35==
Bikramajit, 3 in S. 1591
(a.d. 1585). This prince had all the turbulence, without the
redeeming qualities of character, which endeared his brother to
his subjects ; he was insolent, passionate, and vmdictive, and
utterly regardless of that respect which his proud nobles rigidly
exacted. Instead of appearing at their head, he passed his time
amongst wrestlers and prize-fighters, on whom and a multitude
1 The Hindu Cupid, implying ' incorporeal,' from anga, ' body,' with
the privative prefix ' an.''
2 1 have given the relation of this duel in the narrative of my journeys
on my visit to the cenotaph of Ratna, erected where he fell. It was the
pleasure of my life to listen to the traditional anecdotes illustrative of Rajput
history on the scenes of their transactions.
3 The Rhakha orthography for Vikramaditya.
of ' paiks,' or foot soldiers, he Iansvshed those gifts and that approbation, to which the aristocratic Rajput, the equestrian order
of Rajasthan, arrogated exclusive right. In this innovation he
probably imitated his foes, who had learned the superiority of
infantry, despised by the Rajput, who, except in sieges, or when
' they spread the carpet and hamstrung their steeds,' held the
foot-soldier very cheap. The use of artillery was now becoming
general, and the [310] Muslims soon perceived the necessity of
foot for their protection : but prejudice operated longer upon
the Rajput, who still curses ' those vile guns,' which render of
comparatively little value the lance of many a gallant soldier ;
and he still prefers falling with dignity from his steed to descending
to an equality with his mercenary antagonist.

An open rupture was the consequence of such innovation, and
(to use the figurative expression for misrule) ' Papa Bai ka
Raj ' 1 was triumphant ; the police were despised ; the cattle
carried off by the mountaineers from under the walls of Chitor ;
and when his cavaliers were ordered in pursuit, the Rana was
tauntingly told to send his paiks.

==The Attack by Bahadur, Sultan of Gujarat==
Bahadur, sultan
of Gujarat, determined to take advantage of the Rajput divisions,
to revenge the disgrace of the defeat and captivity of his pre
decessor Muzaffar.2 Reinforced by the troops of Mandu, he
marched against the Rana, then encamped at Loicha, in the
Bimdi territory. Though the force was overwhelming, yet with
the high courage which belonged to his house, Bikramajit did not
hesitate to give battle ; but he found weak defenders in his
mercenary paiks, while his vassals and kin not only kept aloof,
but marched off in a body to defend Chitor, and the posthumous
son of Sanga Rana, still an infant.

1 The government of Papa Bai, a princess of ancient time, whose mis
managed sovereignty has given a proverb to the Rajput. [Major Luard
informs me that Papa Bai is said to have been the daughter of a Rajput
of Siddal. She and Shiral Seth, a corn-merchant who, in return for his
penances, asked to be made a king for three ghatikas (twenty-four minutes
each) and gave indiscriminately alms to rich and poor, are bywords for
foohsh extravagance. She is worshipped at a shrine in Ujjain by all who
desire good crops, especially sugar. Another name for such a period of
misrule is Harbong ka raj (Elliot, Supplemental Glossary, 466 if.).]
2 Taken by Prithiraj and carried to Rana Raemall, who took a large
sum of money and seven hundred horses as his ransom.
There is a sanctity in the very name of Chitor, which from
the earhest times secured her defenders ; and now, when threat
ened again by ' the barbarian,' such the inexphcable character
of the Rajput, we find the heir of Surajmall abandonmg
his new capital of Deoha, to pour out the few drops which
yet circulated in his veins in defence of the abode of his
fathers.

' The son of Bundi,' with a brave band of five hundred
Haras, also came ; as did the Sonigira and Deora Raos of Jalor
and Abu, with many auxiliaries from all parts of Rajwara. This
was the most powerful effort hitherto made by the sultans of
Central India, and European artillerists 1 are recorded in these
[311] annals as brought to the subjugation of Chitor. The
engineer is styled ' Labri Khan of Fringan,' and to his skill
Bahadur was indebted for the successful storm which ensued.
He spriuig a mine at the ' Bika rock,' which blew up forty-five
cubits of the rampart, with the bastion where the brave Haras
were posted. The Bundi bards dwell on this incident, which
destroyed their prince and five hundred of his kin. Rao Durga,
with the Chondawat chieftains Sata and Dudu and their vassals,
bravely defended the breach and repelled many assaults ; and,
to set an example of courageous devotion, the queen-mother
Jawahir Bai, of Rathor race, clad in armour, headed a sally in
which she was slain. Still the besiegers gained gromid, and the

1 We have, iu the poems of Chand, frequent indistinct notices of firearms,
especially the nal-gola or iw6e[something like a cannon]-ball ; but whether discharged by percussion
or the expansive force of gunpowder is dubious. The poet also repeatedly
speaks of " the volcano of the held," giving to understand great guns ; but
these may be interpolations, though I would not check a full investigation of
so curious a subject by raising a doubt. Babur was the first who intro
duced field guns in the Muhammadan wars, and Bahadur's invasion is the
first notice of their application in sieges, for in Alau-d-din's time, in the
thirteenth century, he used the catapult or battering-ram, called manjanik.
To these guns Babur was indebted for victory over the united cavaky of
Rajasthan. They were served by Rumi Khan, probably a Boumehot,
or fciyrian Christian. The Franks (Faringis), with Bahadur, must have been
some of Vasco di Gama's crew. [For the use of artihery in Mogul times see
the full account by Irvine {Army of the Indian Moghuls, 113 &.). Manjanik
is the Greek udyyafof. Rumi K.han was an Ottoman Turk, called IChuda
wand Khan, who learned the science in Turkish service (Erskine, Hist, of
India, ii. 49 ; Ain, i. 441). Akbar is said to have used Chinese artillery,
and to have employed English gunners from fcJurat (Manucci i. 139 ; Irvine,
op. oil. 152). ]
last council convened was to concert means to save the infant
son of Sanga from this imminent peril.

==Crowning of a New Kana==
But Chitor can only be defended by
royalty, and again they had recourse to the expedient of crowning
a king, as a sacrifice to the dignity of the protecting deity of Chitor.
Baghji, prince of Deoha, courted the insignia of destruction ; the
banner of Mewar floated over him, and the golden sun from its
sable field never shone more refulgent than when the changi 1
was raised amidst the shouts of her defenders over the head of the
son of Surajmall.

==The Johar==
The infant, Udai Smgh, was placed m safety
with Surthan, prince of Bundi, 2 the garrison put on their saffron
robes, while materials for the johar were preparing. There was
little tune for the pyre. The bravest had fallen in defending the
breach, now completely exposed. Combustibles were quickly
heaped up m reservoirs and magazines excavated in the rock,
under which gunpowder was strewed. Karnavati, mother of
the prince, and sister to the gallant Arjmi Hara, led the procession
of willing victims to their doom, and thirteen thousand females
were thus swept at once from the record of life. The gates
were thrown open, and the Deoha chief, at the head of the
survivors, with a blind and impotent despair, rushed on his
fate [312J.
Bahadur must have been appalled at the horrid sight on viewing
his conquest ; 3 the mangled bodies of the slain, with hundreds
ui the last agonies from the poniard or poison, awaiting death as
less dreadful than dishonour and captivity.4 To use the emphatic
1 The Changi, the chief insignia of regality in Mewar, is a sun of gold in
the centre of a disc of black ostrich feathers or felt, about three feet in
diameter, elevated on a pole, and carried close to the prince. It has some
thing of a iScytiiic cast about it. What changi imports I never understood,
[l^robabiy fers. chang, ' anything bent.']
2 The name of the faithful Rajput who preserved Udai Singh, Chakasen
Dhundei'a, deserves to be recorded.
3 The date, " Jeth sudi I2 th, S. 1589," a.d. 1533, and according to
Ferishta a.h. 949, a.d. 1532-33. [Chitor was taken in 1534. The Mirat-i
Bikandari states that on March 24, 1533, Bahadur received the promised
tribute, and moved his camp from Chitor (Bayley, Muhammadan Dynasties
of Gujarat, 372).]
4 From ancient times, leadhig the females captive appears to have been
the sign of complete victory. Rajput inscriptions often allude to " a con
queror beloved by the wives of his conquered foe," and in the early parts
words of the annalist, "the last day of Chitor had arrived."
Every clan lost its chief, and the choicest of their retainers ;
during the siege and in the storm thirty-two thousand Rajputs
were slain. This is the second sakha of Chitor.

Bahadur had remained but a fortnight, when the tardy advance
of Humayun with his succours warned him to retire.'1 According
to the annals, he left Bengal at the solicitation of the queen
Karnavati ; but instead of following up the spoU-encumbered
foe, he commenced a pedantic war of words with Bahadur,
punning on the word ' Chitor.' Had Humayun not been so
distant, this catastrophe would have been averted, for he was
bound by the laws of chivalry, the claims of which he had acknow
ledged, to defend the queen's cause, whose knight he had become.
The relation of the peculiarity of a custom analogous to the taste
of the chivalrous age of Europe may amuse. ^When her Ama
zonian sister the Rathor queen was slain, the mother of the
infant prince took a surer method to shield him in demanding
the fulfilment of the pledge given by Humayun when she sent
the Rakhi to that monarch.

==The Rakhi==

' The festival of the bracelet ' ( Rakhi) is in spring,
and whatever its origin, it is one of the few when an intercourse
of gallantry of the most delicate nature is established between
the fair sex and the cavaliers of Rajasthan. Though the bracelet
may be sent by maidens, it is only on occasions of urgent necessity
or danger. The Rajput dame bestows with the Rakhi the title
of adopted brother ; and while its acceptance secures to her all
the protection of a cavaliere servente, scandal itself never suggests
any other tie to his devotion. He may hazard his life in her
cause, and yet never receive a smile in reward, for he cannot
even see the fair object who, as brother of her adoption, has con
stituted him her defender. But there is a charm in the mystery
of such connexion, never endangered by close observation, and
the loyal to the fair may well attach a value [313] to the public
recognition of being the Rakhi-band Bhai, the ' bracelet-bound
brother ' of a princess. The intrinsic value of such pledge is
of Scripture the same notion is referred to. The mother of Sisera asks’
" Have they not divided the prey ; to every man a damsel or two ? '
(Judges v. 30.)
1 [Ferishta ii. 75 f. Badaoni says that Humayun hesitated to interfere
because Bahadur was attacking an infidel {MuntaJchabu-t-tawarikh, i. 453 f.).]
never looked to, nor is it requisite it should be costly, though it
varies with the means and rank of the donor, and may be of
flock silk and spangles, or gold chains and gems. The acceptance
of the pledge and its return is by the kachhli, or corset, of simple
silk or satin, of gold brocade and pearls. In shape or application
there is nothing similar in Europe, and as defending the most
delicate part of the structure of the fair, it is peculiarly appropriate
as an emblem of devotion. A whole province has often accom
panied the Kachhli, and the monarch of India was so pleased with
this courteous delicacy in the customs of Rajasthan, on receiving
the bracelet of the princess Karnavati, which invested him with
the title of her brother, and uncle and protector to her infant
Udai Singh, that he pledged himself to her service, " even if the
demand were the castle of Ranthambhor." Humayun proved
himself a true knight, and even abandoned his conquests in
Bengal when called on to redeem his pledge and succour Chitor,
and the widows and minor sons of Sanga Rana.1 Humayun
had the highest proofs of the worth of those courting his pro
tection ; he was with his father Babur in all his wars in India,
and at the battle of Bayana his prowess was conspicuous, and is
recorded by Babur's own pen. He amply fulfilled his pledge,
expelled the foe from Chitor, took Mandu by assault, and, as
some revenge for her king's aiding the king of Gujarat, he sent
for the Rana Bikramajit, whom, following their own notions of

1 Many romantic tales are founded on ' the gift of the Rakhi.' The
author, who was placed in the enviable situation of being able to do good,
and on the most extensive scale, was the means of restoring many of these
ancient families from degradation to affluence. The greatest reward he
could, and the only one he would, receive, was the courteous civility dis
played in many of these interesting customs. He was the Rakhi-band Bhai
of, and received ' the bracelet ' from, three queens of Udaipur, Bundi, and
Kotah, besides Chand Bai, the maiden sister of the Rana ; as well as many
ladies of the chieftains of rank, with whom he interchanged letters. The
sole articles of ' barbaric pearl and gold,' which he conveyed from a country
where he was six years supreme, are these testimonies of friendly regard.
Intrinsically of no great value, they were presented and accepted in the
ancient spirit, and he retains them with a sentiment the more powerful,
because he can no longer render them any service. [The Rakhi (Skt. raksha,
' protection ') is primarily a protective amulet assumed at the full moon
of Sawan (Julj -August) (Forbes, Rdsmala, 609). It was worn on this date
to avert the unhealthiness of the rainy season. Jahangir and Akbar followed
the custom, introduced by their Hindu ladies (Jahangir, Memoirs, 246 ;
Badaoni, op. cit. ii. 269).]
investiture, he girt with a sword in the captured citadel of his
foe.1

The Muhammadan historians, strangers to their customs, or
the secret motives which caused the emperor to abandon Bengal,
ascribe it to the Rana's solicitation ; but we may credit the annals,
which are in vinison with the chivalrous notions of the Rajputs,
into which succeeding monarchs, the great Akbar, his son [314]
Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, entered with delight ; and even
Aurangzeb, two of whose original letters to the queen-mother of
Udaipur are now in the author's possession, and are remarkable
for their elegance and purity of diction, and couched in terms
perfectly accordant with Rajput delicacy.2

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

Though the Rajput looks up to his sovereign as to a divinity,
and is enjoined implicit obedience by his religion, which rewards
him accordingly hereafter, yet this doctrine has its limits, and
precedents are abundant for deposal, when the acts of the prince
may endanger the realm. But there is a bond of love as well as
of awe which restrains them, and softens its severity in the
paternity of sway ; for these princes are at once the father and
for he is the
1 [Probably policy, rather than romance, caused Humayun to interfere.]
2 He addresses her as " dear and virtuous sister," and evinces much
interest in her welfare. We are in total ignorance of the refined sentiment

our home-bred prejudices deem them
beneath inquiry ; and thus indolence and self-conceit combine to deprive
the benevolent of a high gratification.
representative of the common ancestor of the aristocracy ___
the sole lawgiver of Rajasthan.

==Death of Rana Bikramajit==

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