Mewar 14: Banbir rules Mewar - Revision history

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‎Akbar's Struggle for the Empire

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ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES
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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/>
</div>
|}
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 14: Banbir rules Mewar=
==Rana Banbir Singh, a.d. 1535-37==

A few hours of sovereignty
sufficed to check those ' compunctious visitings ' which assailed
Banbir ere he assumed its trappings, with which he found himself
so little encumbered that he was content to wear them for life.
Whether this was the intention of the nobles who set aside the
unworthy son of Sanga, there is abundant reason to doubt ; and
as he is subsequently branded with the epithet of ' usurper ' it
was probably limited, though unexpressed, to investing him with
the executive authority during the minority of Udai Singh.
Banbir, however, only awaited the approach of night to remove
with his own hands the obstacle to his ambition.

==The Escape of Udai Singh, the Heir==

Udai Singh was about
six years of age. " He had gone to sleep after his rice and milk,"
when his nurse was alarmed by screams from the rawala,1 and the
Bari 2 coming in to take away the remains of the dinner, informed
her of the cause, the assassination of the Rana. Aware that one
murder was the precursor of another, the faithful nurse put her
1 The seraglio, or female palace.
2 Bari, Nai, are names for the barbers, who are the cuisiniers of the Rajputs.
[The special duty of the Bari is making leaf -platters from which Hindus eat :
he is also a domestic servant, but does not, like the Nai, work as a barber.]
charge into a fruit basket and, covering it with leaves, she de
livered it to the Bari, enjoining him to escape with it from the
fort. Scarcely had she time to substitute her own infant in the
room of the prince, when Banbir, entering, inquired for him.
Her lips refused their ofBce ; she pointed to the cradle, and beheld
the murderous steel buried in the heart of her babe [316]. The
little victim to fidelity was burnt amidst the tears of the rawala,
the inconsolable household of their late sovereign, who supposed
that their grief was given to the last pledge of the illustrious Sanga.
The nurse (Dhai) was a Rajputni of the Khichi tribe, her name
Panna, or ' the Diamond.' Having consecrated with her tears
the ashes of her child, she hastened after that she had preserved.
But well had it been for Mewar had the poniard fulfilled its in
tention, and had the annals never recorded the name of Udai
Singh in the catalogue of her princes.

The faithful barber was awaiting the nurse in the bed of the
Berach River, some miles west of Chitor, and fortunately the
infant had not awoke until he descended the city. They departed
for Deolia, and sought refuge with Singh Rao, the successor to
Baghji, who fell for Chitor ; who dreading the consequence of
detection, they proceeded to Dungarpur. Rawal Askaran then
ruled this principality, which, as well as Deolia, was not only a
branch, but the elder branch, of Chitor. With every wish to
afford a shelter, he pleaded the danger which threatened himself
and the child in such a feeble sanctuary. Pursuing a circuitous
route through Idar, and the intricate valleys of the Aravalli, by
the help and with the protection of its wild inmates, the Bhils, she
gained Kumbhaimer. The resolution she had formed was bold
as it was judicious. She demanded an interview with the governor,
Asa Sail his name, of the mercantile tribe of Depra,1 and a follower
of the theistical tenets of the Jains. The interview being granted,
she placed the infant in his lap, and bid him " guard the life of
his sovereign.'" He felt perplexed and alarmed : but his mother,
who was present, upbraided him for his scruples. " Fidelity,"
said she, " never looks at dangers or difficulties. He is your
master, the son of Sanga, and by God's blessing the result will
be glorious." Having thus fulfilled her trust, the faithful Panna

1 [Dr. Tessitori states that the true form of the name is Dahipra or Dahi
pura, and they seem to be the same as the Depla of Gujarat, where they are
said to have been originally Lohanas {BG, ix. Part i. 122).]
withdrew from Kumbhalmer to avoid the suspicion which a
Rajputni about a Srawak's 1 child would have occasioned, as the
heir of Chitor was declared to be the nephew of the Depra.

==The Boyhood of Udai Singh==

Suspicions were often excited
regarding Asa's nephew ; once, especially, on the anniversary
(samvatsara) of the governor's father, when " the Rajput guests
being in one rank, and the men of wealth in another, young Udai
seized a vessel of curds, which no intreaty could prevail on him
to relinquish, deriding their threats " [317]. Seven years elapsed
before the secret transpired ; at length self-revealed, from the
same independent bearing. On occasion of a visit from the
Sonigira chief, Udai was sent to receive him, and the dignified
manner in which he performed the duty convinced the chief
' he was no nephew to the Sah.' Rumour spread the tale, and
brought not only the nobles of Mewar, but adjacent chiefs, to
hail the son of Sanga Rana. Sahidas of Salumbar, the representa
tive of Chonda, Jaga of Kelwa, Sanga of Bagor, all chiefs of the
clans of Chondawat ; the Chauhans of Kotharia and Bedla, the
Pramar of Bijolia Akhiraj (Sonigira), Prithiraj of Sanchor, and
Lunkaran Jethawat, repaired to Kumbhalmer, when all doubt
was removed by the testimony of the nurse, and of her coadjutor
in the preservation of the child.

==Installation of Rana Udai Singh, a.d. 1537-72==

A court was
formed, when the faithful Asa Sah resigned his trust and placed
the prince of Chitor ' in the lap of the Kotharia Chauhan,' as
the ' great ancient ' 2 among the nobles of Mewar, who was
throughout acquainted with the secret, and who, to dissipate the
remaining scruples which attached to the infant's preservation,
' ate off the same platter with him.' The Sonigira Rao did not
hesitate to affiance to him his daughter, and it was accepted
by his advisers, notwithstanding the interdict of Hamir to any
intermarriage with the Sonigira, since the insult of giving the
widow to his bed. Udai received the tika of Chitor in the
castle of Kumbha, and the homage of nearly all the chiefs of
Mewar.

The tidings soon reached the usurper, who had not borne his
1 The laity of the Jain persuasion are so called [srdvaJc [???], meaning ' a
disciple '].
2 Bara ' great,' burha ' aged ' ; the ' wise elder ' of Rajasthan, where old
age and dignity are synonymous.
faculties meekly since his advancement ; but having seized on
the dignity, he wished to ape all the customs of the legitimate
monarchs of Chitor, and even had the effrontery to punish as an
insult the refusal of one of the proud sons of Chonda to take the
dauna from his bastard hand.

==The Dauna, a Recognition of Legitimacy==

The dauna, or daua,
is a portion of the dish of which the prince partakes, sent by his
own hand to whomsoever he honours at the banquet. At the
rasora, or refectory, the chiefs who are admitted to dine in the
presence of their sovereign are seated according to their rank.
The repast is one of those occasions when an easy familiarity
is permitted, which, though unrestrained, never exceeds the
bounds [318] of etiquette, and the habitual reverence due to their
father and prince. When he sends, by the steward of the kitchen,
a portion of the dish before him, or a little from his own kansa,
or plate, all eyes are guided to the favoured mortal, whose good
fortune is the subject of subsequent conversation. Though, with
the diminished lustre of this house, the dauna may have lost its
former estimation, it is yet received with reverence ; but the
extent of this feeling, even so late as the reign of Arsi Rana, the
father of the reigning prince, the following anecdote will testify.
In the rebellion during this prince's reign, amongst the ancient
customs which became relaxed, that of bestowing the dauna
was included ; and the Rana conferring it on the Rathor prince
of Kishangarh, the Bijolia chief, one of the sixteen superior nobles
of Mewar, rose and left the presence, observing, " Neither the
Kachhwaha nor the Rathor has a right to this honour, nor can we,
who regard as sanctified even the leavings of your repast, witness
this degradation ; for the Thakur of Kishangarh is far beneath
me." To such extent is this privilege even yet carried, and such
importance is attached from habit to the personal character of the
princes of Mewar, that the test of regal legitimacy in Rajasthan
is admission to eat from the same plate (kansa) with the Rana :
and to the refusal of this honour to the great Man Singh of Amber
may be indirectly ascribed the ruin of Mewar.1

It may therefore be conceived with what contempt the
haughty nobility of Chitor received the mockery of honour from
the hand of this ' fifth son of Mewar ' ; and the Chondawat chief
had the boldness to add to his refusal, " that an honour from the
1 [On the privilege of eating with the Rana see p. 213 above.]
hand of a true son of Bappa Rawal became a disgrace when proffered
by the offspring of the handmaid Sitalseni." The defection soon
became general, and all repaired to the valley of Kumbhalmer
to hail the legitimate son of Mewar. A caravan of five hundred
horses and ten thousand oxen, laden with merchandise from
Cutch, the dower of Banbir's daughter, guarded by one thousand
Gaharwar Rajputs, was plundered in the passes : a signal intima
tion of the decay of his authority, and a timely supply to the
celebration of the nuptials of Udai Rana with the daughter of
the Rao of Jalor. Though the interdict of Hamir was not for
gotten, it was deemed that the insult given by Banbir Sonigira was
amply effaced by his successor's redemption of the usurpation
of Banbir Sesodia. The marriage was solemnized at Bali, within
the limits of Jalor, and the [319] customary offerings were sent
or given by all the princes of Rajasthan. Two chiefs only, of
any consequence, abstained from attending on their lawful prince
on this occasion, the Solanki of Maholi and Maloji of Tana. In
attacking them, the bastard was brought into conflict ; but
Maloji was slain and the Solanki surrendered.

==Deposition of Rana Banbir Singh==

Deserted by all, Banbir
held out in the capital ; but his minister admitted, under the garb
of a reinforcement with supplies, a thousand resolute adherents
of the prince : the keepers of the gates were surprised and slain,
and the an of Udai Singh was proclaimed. Banbir was even
permitted to retire with his family and his wealth. He sought
refuge in the Deccan, and the Bhonslas of Nagpur are said to
derive their origin from this spurious branch of Chitor.1

==Rana Udai Singh, a.d. 1537-72==
Rana Udai Singh ascended
the throne in S. 1597 (a.d. 1541-2). Great were the rejoicings on
the restoration of this prince. ' The song of joy,' 2 which was
composed on the occasion, is yet a favourite at Udaipur, and
on the festival of Isani (the Ceres of Rajasthan), the females still
chant in chorus the ' farewell to Kumbhalmer.' * But the evil days
of Mewar which set in with Sanga's death, and were accelerated
by the fiery valour of Ratna and the capricious conduct of Bik
ramajit, were completed by an anomaly in her annals : a coward
succeeding a bastard to guide the destinies of the Sesodias. The
1 [There seems no basis for this tradition. The Bhonslas sprang from a
Maratha headman of Deora in Satara {IGI, xviii. 306).]
2 Suhaila. 3 Kumbhalmer bidaona.
vices of Ratna and his brother were virtues compared to this
physical defect, the consequences of which destroyed a great
national feeling, the opinion of its invincibility.

==His Character==
" Woe to the land where a minor rules or a
woman bears sway ! " exclaims the last of the great bards 1 of
Rajasthan ; but where both were united, as in Mewar, the
measure of her griefs was full. Udai Singh had not one quality
of a sovereign ; and wanting martial virtue, the common heritage
of his race, he was destitute of all. Yet he might have slumbered
life away in inglorious repose during the reign of Humayun, or
the contentions of the Pathan usurpation ; but, unhappily for
Rajasthan, a prince was then rearing who forged fetters for the
Hindu race which enthralled them for ages ; and though the
corroding hand of time left but their fragments, yet even now,
though emancipated, they bear the indelible marks of the manacle ;
not like the galley slave's, physical and exterior, but deep mental
scars, never to be effaced. Can a nation which has run its long
career of glory be [320] regenerated ? Can the soul of the Greek
or the Rajput be reanimated with the spark divine which defended
the kunguras 2 of Chitor or the pass of Thermopylae ? Let history
answer the question.

==Birth of Akbar==

In the same year that the song of joy was
raised in the cloud-capped 3 palace of Kumbhalmer for the
deliverance of Udai Singh, the note of woe was pealed through
the walls of Umarkot, and given to the winds of the desert, to
proclaim the birth 4 of an infant destined to be the greatest
monarch who ever swayed the sceptre of Hindustan. In an oasis
of the Indian desert, amidst the descendants of the ancient Sogdoi 5
of Alexander, Akbar first saw the light ; his father a fugitive, the
diadem torn from his brows, its recovery more improbable than
was its acquisition by Babur. The ten years which had elapsed
since Humayun's accession were passed in perpetual strife with
his brothers, placed according to custom in subordinate govern
ments. Their selfish ambition met its reward ; for with the fall
of Humayun their own was ensured, when Sher Shah displaced
the dynasty of Chagatai for his own, the Pathan (or Sur).
1 Chand, the heroic bard of the last Hindu emperor. [Cf. Ecclesiastes,
X. 16.]
2 Battlements. 3 Badal Mahal. 4 November 23, a.d. 1542.
5 The Sodhas, a branch of the Pramaras, see p. 111.

==Defeat and Flight of Humayun, a.d. 1540==

From the field of
battle at Kanauj, where Humayun left his crown, his energetic
opponent gave him no respite, driving him before him from Agra
to Lahore. Thence, with his family and a small band of adherents,
alternately protected and repelled by Hindu chieftains, he reached
the valley of Sind, where he struggled to maintain himself amidst
the greatest privations, attempting in succession each stronghold
on the Indus, from Multan to the ocean. Foiled in every object,
his associates made rebels by distress, he abandoned them for
the more dubious shelter of the foes of his race. Vain were his
solicitations to Jaisalmer and Jodhpur ; and though it cannot
be matter of wonder that he found no commiseration from either
Bhatti or Rathor, we must reprobate the unnational conduct of
Maldeo, who, the Mogul historian says, attempted to make him
captive. From such inhospitable treatment the royal exile
escaped by again plunging into the desert, where he encountered,
along with the tender objects of his solicitude, hardships of the
most appalling description, until sheltered by the Sodha prince
of Umarkot. The high courage and the virtues of this monarch
increase that interest in his sufferings which royalty in distress
never fails to awaken by its irresistible influence [321] upon our
sympathies ; and they form an affecting episode in the history
of Ferishta.1 Humayun, though more deeply skilled in the

1" Humayoon mounted his horse at midnight and fled towards Amercot,
which is about one hundred coss from Tatta. His horse, on the way, falling
down dead with fatigue, he desired Tirdi Beg, who was weU mounted, to let
him have his ; but so ungenerous was this man, and so low was royalty
faUen, that he refused to comply with his request. The troops of the raja
being close to his heels, he was necessitated to mount a camel, till one Nidim
Koka, dismounting his own mother, gave the king her horse, and, placing
her on the camel, ran himself on foot by her side.

" The country through which they iied being an entire sandy desert, the
troop began to be'in the utmost distress for water. Some ran mad, others
fell down dead ; nothing was heard but dreadful screams and lamentations.
To add, if possible, to this calamity, news arrived of the enemy's near
approach. Humayoon ordered all those who could light to halt, and let the
women and baggage move forward. The enemy not making their appear
ance, the king rode on in front to see how it fared with his family.

" Night, in the meantime, coming on, the rear lost their way, and in the
morning were attacked by a party of the enemy. Shech Ah, with about
twenty brave men, resolved to sell his life dear. Having repeated the creed
of martyrdom, he rushed upon the enemy, and the first arrow having reached
the heart of the chief of the party, the rest were by the valour of his handful
mysteries of astrology than any professed seer of his empire,
appears never to have enjoyed that prescience which, according
to the initiated in the science, is to be obtained from accurate
observation :
And coming events cast their shadows before ;
for, could he, by any prophetic power, have foreseen that the
cloud which then shaded his fortunes, was but the precursor of
glory to his race, he would have continued his retreat from the
sheltering sand-hills of Umarkot with very different sentiments
from those which accompanied his flight into Persia [322].

==Early Years of Akbar==
Hmnayvm educated the young Akbar
put to flight. The other Moguls joined in the pursuit, and took many of the
camels and horses. They then continued their march, found the king
sitting by a well which he had fortunately found, and gave him an account
of their adventure.
" Marching forward the next day from this well, they were more dis
tressed than before, there being no water for two days' journey. On the
fourth day of their retreat they fell in with another well, which was so deep,
that the only bucket they had took a great deal of time in being wound up,
and therefore a drum was beat to give notice to the caffilas when the bucket
appeared, that they might repair by turns to drink. The people were so
impatient for the water, that as soon as the first bucket appeared, ten or
twelve of them threw themselves upon it before it quite reached the brim
of the well, by which means the rope broke, and the bucket was lost, and
several fell headlong after it. When this fatal accident happened, the
screams and lamentations of all became loud and dreadful. Some loUing [?]
out their tongues, rolled themselves in agony on the hot sand ; while others,
precipitating themselves into the well, met with an immediate, and conse
quently an easier death. What did not the unhappy king feel, when he saw
this terrible situation of his few faithful friends !

" The next day, though they reached water, was not less fatal than the
former. The camels, who had not tasted water for several days, now drank
so much that the greatest part of them died. The people, also, after drink
ing, complained of an oppression of the heart, and in about half an hour a
great part of them expired..

" A few, with the king, after this unheard-of distress, reached Amercote.
The raja, being a humane man, took compassion on their misfortunes : he
spared nothing that could alleviate their miseries, or express his fidelity to
the king.

" At Amercote, upon Sunday the fifth of Rigib, in the year nine hundred
and forty-nine, the prince Akber was brought forth by Hamida Banu Begum.
The king, after returning thanks to God, left his family under the protection
of Raja Rana, and, by the aid of that prince, marched against Bicker."
Dow's Ferishta [2nd ed. ii. 136 ff. Compare that of Briggs ii. 93 ff.].
in the same school of adversity in which he had studied under
Babur. Between the Persian court and his ancient patrimony
in Transoxiana, Kandahar, and Kashmir, twelve years were
passed in every trial of fortune. During this short period, India,
always the prize of valour, had witnessed in succession six 1
kings descended from the Pathan ' Lion ' {sher), of whom the
last, Sikandar, was involved in the same civil broUs which brought
the crown to his family. Humayun, then near Kashmir, no
sooner observed the tide of events set counter to his foe, than he
crossed the Indus and advanced upon Sirhind, where the Pathan
soon appeared with a tumultuous array. The impetuosity of
young Akbar brought on a general engagement, which the veterans
deemed madness. Not so Humayun, who gave the command to
his boy, whose heroism so excited all ranks, that they despised
the numbers of the enemy, and gained a glorious victory. This
was the presage of his future fame ; for Akbar was then but
twelve years of age,2 the same period of life at which his grand
father, Babur, maintained himself on the throne of Farghana.
Humayun, worthy of such a son and such a sire, entered Delhi in
triumph ; but he did not long enjoy His recovered crown. His
death will appear extraordinary, according to the erroneous
estimate formed of Eastern princes : its cause was a faU from
the terrace of his library ; ' for, like every individual of his race,
lie was not merely a patron of literature, but himself a scholar.
Were we to contrast the literary acquirements of the Chagatai
princes with those of their contemporaries of Europe, the balance
of lore would be found on the side of the Asiatics, even though
Elizabeth and Henry IV. of France were in the scale. Amongst
the princes from the Jaxartes are historians, poets, astronomers,
founders of systems of government and religion, warriors, and
great captains, who claim our respect and admiration.

==Akbar's Struggle for the Empire==

Scarcely had Akbar been
seated on the throne, when Delhi and Agra were wrested from
him, and a nook of the Panjab constituted all his empire : but by
the energetic valour of the great Bairam Khan, his lost sovereignty
was regained with equal rapidity, and established by the wisdom
1 [Four are usually reckoned : Islam Shah, Muhammad Shah Adil,
Ibrahim Shah, and Sikandar Shah.]
2 A.D. 1554.
3 [At the Sher Mandal in Parana Kila, Delhi, on January 24, 1556.]

of this Suliy 1 of Hindustan on a rock. Kalpi, Chanderi, Kalanjar,
all Bundelkhand and Malwa, were soon attached to the empire,
and at the early age of eighteen Akbar assumed the uncontrolled
[323] direction of the State. He soon turned his attention
towards the Rajputs ; and whether it was to revenge the in
hospitality of Maldeo towards his father, he advanced against
the Rathors, and stormed and took Merta, the second city in
Marwar. Raja Biharimall [or Bahar Mall] of Amber anticipated
the king, enrolled himself and son Bhagwandas amongst his
vassals, gave the Chagatai a daughter to wife, and held his country
as a fief of the empire. But the rebellions of the Usbek nobles,
and the attempts of former princes to regain their lost power,
checked for a time his designs upon Rajasthan. These matters
adjusted, and the petty sovereigns in the East (to whom the
present monarch of Oudh is as Alexander) subjected to authority,
he readily seized upon the provocation which the sanctuary given
to Baz Bahadur of Malwa and the ex-prince of Narwar afforded,
to turn his arms against Chitor.2