Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s3.227

v1.c20.s3.227

His Character.—“ Woe to the land where a minor rules or a woman bears sway!” exclaims the last of the great bards¹ of Rajasthan; but where both were united, as in Mewar, the measure of her griefs was full. Udai Singh had not one quality of a sovereign; and wanting martial virtue, the common heritage of his race, he was destitute of all. Yet he might have slumbered life away in inglorious repose during the reign of Humayun, or the contentions of the Pathan usurpation; but, unhappily for Rajasthan, a prince was then rearing who forged fetters for the Hindu race which enthralled them for ages; and though the corroding hand of time left but their fragments, yet even now, though emancipated, they bear the indelible marks of the manacle; not like the galley slave’s, physical and exterior, but deep mental scars, never to be effaced. Can a nation which has run its long career of glory be [320] regenerated? Can the soul of the Greek or the Rajput be reanimated with the spark divine which defended the kunguras² of Chitor or the pass of Thermopylae? Let history answer the question.