Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c18.19

v1.c18.19

Evidence from Inscriptions.—The pen has recorded, and tradition handed down, many isolated fragments of the genius of these Rajput princes, as statesmen and warriors, touching the political division, regulations of the aristocracy, and commercial and agricultural bodies. Sumptuary laws, even, which append to a feudal system, are to be traced in these inscriptions : the annulling of monopolies and exorbitant taxes; the regulation of transit duties; prohibition of profaning sacred days by labour; immunities, privileges, and charters to trades, corporations, and towns; such as would, in climes more favourable to liberty, have matured into a league, or obtained for these branches a voice in the councils of the State. My search for less perishable documents than parchment when I found the cabinet of the prince contained them not, was unceasing; but though the bigoted Muhammadan destroyed [134] most of the traces of civilization within his reach, perseverance was rewarded with a considerable number. They are at least matter of curiosity. They will evince that monopolies and restraints on commerce were well understood in Rajwara, though the doctrines of political economy never gained footing there. The setting up of these engraved tablets or pillars, called Seoras,¹ is of the highest antiquity. Every subject commences with invoking the sun and moon as witnesses, and concludes with a denunciation of the severest penalties on those who break the spirit of the imperishable bond. Tablets of an historical nature I have of twelve and fourteen hundred years' antiquity, but of grants of land or privileges about one thousand years is the oldest. Time has destroyed many, but man more. They became more numerous during the last three centuries, when successful struggles against their foes produced new privileges, granted in order to recall the scattered inhabitants. Thus one contains an abolition of the monopoly of tobacco;¹ another, the remission of tax on printed cloths, with permission to the country manufacturers to sell their goods free of duty at the neighbouring towns. To a third, a mercantile city, the abolition of war contributions,² and the establishment of its internal judicial authority. Nay, even where good manners alone are concerned, the lawgiver appears, and with an amusing simplicity:³ “From the public feast none shall attempt to carry anything away.” “None shall eat after sunset,” shows that a Jain obtained the edict. To yoke the bullock or other animal for any work on the sacred Amavas,⁴ is also declared punishable. Others contain revocations of vexatious fees to officers of the crown; “of beds and quilts⁵”; “the seizure of the carts, implements, or cattle of the husbandmen,”⁶—the sole boon in our own Magna Charta demanded for the husbandman. These and several others, of which copies are annexed, need not be repeated. If even from such memoranda a sufficient number could be collected of each prince’s reign up to the olden time, what more could we desire to enable us to judge of the genius of their princes, the wants and habits of the people, their acts and occupations? The most ancient written customary law of France is A.D. 1088,⁷ at which time Mewar was in high prosperity; opposing, at the head of a league far more powerful than France could form for ages after, the progress of revolution and foreign conquest. Ignorance, sloth, and all the vices which wait on and result from continual oppression in a perpetual struggle for existence of ages’ duration, gradually diminished the reverence of the inhabitants themselves for these relics of the wisdom of their forefathers. In latter years, they so far forgot the ennobling feeling and respect for ‘the stone which told’ their once exalted condition, as to convert the materials of the temple in which many of these stood into places of abode. Thus many a valuable relic is built up in the castles of their barons, or buried in the rubbish of the fallen pile.