Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s3.196

v1.c20.s3.196

Bahadur had remained but a fortnight, when the tardy advance of Humayun with his succours warned him to retire.¹ According to the annals, he left Bengal at the solicitation of the queen Karnavati ; but instead of following up the spoil-encumbered foe, he commenced a pedantic war of words with Bahadur, punning on the word ‘ Chitor.’ Had Humayun not been so distant, this catastrophe would have been averted, for he was bound by the laws of chivalry, the claims of which he had acknowledged, to defend the queen’s cause, whose knight he had become. The relation of the peculiarity of a custom analogous to the taste of the chivalrous age of Europe may amuse. When her Amazonian sister the Rathor queen was slain, the mother of the infant prince took a surer method to shield him in demanding the fulfilment of the pledge given by Humayun when she sent the Rakhi to that monarch.