Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c40.s1: § 1. Jaipur history under Rajah Prithvi Singh, 1768—1778
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c40.s1
- Language
- English
§ 1. Jaipur history under Rajah Prithvi Singh, 1768—1778
v3.c40.s1.1
The reign of Sawāi Mādho Singh of Jaipur which had commenced in December 1750 with the tragic death of his predecessor and the national humiliation at the hands of the Marathas, ended eighteen year later (6th March 1768) amidst a blaze of glory caused by his defeat of the all-dreaded Jat Rajah Jawāhir Singh. His throne passed on to his elder son, Prithvi Singh, a boy of five, and the regency was held by his widowed queen, a daughter of Jaswant Singh Chundāwat, the baron of Deogarh in Mewar.
v3.c40.s1.2
During his reign Mādho Singh had raised three low-born favourites to the highest offices in the State: Khush-hāli Rām Bohrā, a Brahmin who had long been the porter of Ganges water to the king, was made prime minister and justified his elevation by his ability and devotion; Raj Singh Kachhwa, a common trooper who owned no horse of his own but was mounted at the cost of the State (i.e., a Ghor-charā or bārgir, as he is called), was made army chief (Senāni); and a Musalman elephant driver named Firuz was appointed receiver-general of the State revenue. Immediately after Madho Singh’s death, his father-in-law Jaswant came over to Jaipur and began to wield the regency on behalf of his grandson in concert with these three ministers.
v3.c40.s1.3
A minority is a perilous time among a proud and intractable race like the Rajputs, who cannot tolerate woman’s rule. The Kachhwa nobles chafed under the new administration of their country in which none of them had any lot or part. They conspired to overthrow it and establish their own control over the boy king and his State. These nobles formed two clan-groups; one was that of the Nāthāwats, ranged round the barons of Chomu (the premier peer of the realm) and Sāmod; while the second was formed by the Rājāwats under the barons of Jhalāi and some other places, these being the king’s blood relations and therefore standing nearest in the line of succession to the throne. But these two groups could not always unite even in a common hostility to the interloper from Deogarh and his Brahman ally. Further complication was introduced into the faction-struggle in Jaipur by the rebellion of the ever unruly Shekhāwats (especially the chief of Manoharpur) and the unbridled ambition and selfish treachery of Pratāp Singh Narukā, the baron of Mācheri. During the ten years of Prithvi Singh’s reign (7th March 1768—16th April 1778), the Kachhwa kingdom was free from Maratha incursions and Mughal interference alike, as these two enemies were kept busy by their own troubles ; but for all that this decade was a period of tumult and disruption in the mournful annals of that land.