Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c14.22

v1.c14.22

From the earliest period of my official connexion with this interesting country, I applied myself to collect and explore its early historical records, with a view of throwing some light upon a people scarcely yet known in Europe and whose political connexion with England appeared to me to be capable of undergoing a material change, with benefit to both parties. It would be wearisome to the reader to be minutely informed of the process I adopted, to collect the scattered relics of Rajput history into the form and substance in which he now sees them. I began with the sacred genealogy from the Puranas; examined the Mahabharata, and the poems of Chand (a complete chronicle of his times) ; the voluminous historical poems of Jaisalmer, Marwar, and Mewar ;¹ the histories of the Khichis, and those of the Hara princes [xv] of Kotah and Bundi, etc., by their respective bards. A portion of the materials compiled by Jai Singh of Amber or Jaipur (one of the greatest patrons of science amongst the modern Hindu princes), to illustrate the history of his race, fell into my hands. I have reason to believe that there existed more copious materials, which his profligate descendant, the late prince, in his division of the empire with a prostitute, may have disposed of on the partition of the library of the State, which was the finest collection in Rajasthan. Like some of the renowned princes of Timur’s dynasty, Jai Singh kept a diary, termed *Kalpadruma*, in which he noted every event : a work written by such a man and at such an interesting juncture, would be a valuable acquisition to history. From the Datia prince I obtained a transcript of the journal of his ancestor, who served with such *éclat* amongst the great feudatories of Aurangzeb’s army, and from which Scott made many extracts in his history of the Deccan.