Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s3.134

v1.c20.s3.134

The Administration and Wars of Rāna Sanga.—In a short space of time, Sanga entirely allayed the disorders occasioned by the intestine feuds of his family; and were it permitted to speculate on the cause which prompted a temporary cession of his rights and his dignities to his more impetuous brother, it might be discerned in a spirit of forecast, and of fraternal and patriotic forbearance, a deviation from which would have endangered the country as well as the safety of his family. We may assume this, in order to account for an otherwise pusillanimous surrender of his birthright, and being in contrast to all the subsequent heroism of his life, which, when he resigned, was contained within the wreck of a form. Sanga organized his forces, with which he always kept the field, and ere called to contend with the descendant of Timur, he had gained eighteen pitched battles against the kings of Delhi and Malwa. In two of these he was opposed by Ibrahim Lodi in person, at Bakrol and Ghatoli, in which last battle the imperial forces were defeated with great slaughter, leaving a prisoner of the blood royal to grace the triumph of Chitor. The Pilakhal (yellow rivulet) near Bayana became the northern boundary of Mewar, with the Sind River to the east,—touching Malwa to the south, while his native hills were an impenetrable barrier to the west. Thus swaying, directly or by control, the greater part of Rajasthan, and adored by the Rajputs for the possession of those qualities they hold in estimation, Sanga was ascending to the pinnacle of distinction; and had not fresh hordes of Usbeks and Tatars from the prolific shores of the Oxus and Jaxartes again poured down on the devoted plains