Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.6

v1.c20.6

Stability of Mewār State.—With the exception of Jaisalmer, Mewar is the only dynasty of these races³ which has outlived eight centuries of foreign domination, in the same lands where [212] conquest placed them. The Rana still possesses nearly the same extent of territory which his ancestors held when the conqueror from Ghazni first crossed the ‘blue waters’¹ of the Indus to invade India; while the other families now ruling in the north-west of Rajasthan are the relics of ancient dynasties driven from their pristine seats of power, or their junior branches, who have erected their own fortunes. This circumstance adds to the dignity of the Ranas, and is the cause of the general homage which they receive, notwithstanding the diminution of their power. Though we cannot give the princes of Mewar an ancestor in the Persian Nushirwan, nor assert so confidently as Sir Thomas Roe his claims to descent from the celebrated Porus,² the opponent of Alexander, we can carry him into the regions of antiquity more remote than the Persian, and which would satisfy the most fastidious in respect to ancestry.