Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s4.16

v1.c20.s4.16

Akbar attacks Rāna Partāp Singh, A.D. 1576.—Akbar took the field against the Rajput prince, establishing his headquarters at Ajmer. This celebrated fortress, destined ultimately to be one of the twenty-two subahs of his empire and an imperial residence, had admitted for some time a royal garrison. Maldeo of Marwar, who had so ably opposed the usurper Sher Shah, was compelled to follow the example of his brother prince, Bhagwandas of Amber, and to place himself at the footstool of Akbar: only two years subsequent to Partap’s accession, after a brave but fruitless resistance in Merta and Jodhpur, he sent his son, Udai Singh, to pay homage to the king.¹ Akbar received him at Nagor, on his route to Ajmer, on which occasion the Raos of Mandor were made Rajas; and as the heir of Marwar was of uncommon bulk, the title by which he was afterwards known in Rajasthan was Mota Raja,² and henceforth the descendants of the kings of Kanauj had the ‘right hand’ of the emperor of the Moguls. But the Rathor was greater in his native pride than with all the accession of dignity or power which accrued on his sacrifice of Rajput principles [335]. Udai ‘le gros’ was the first of his race who gave a daughter in marriage to a Tatar. The bribe for which he bartered his honour was splendid; for four provinces,³ yielding £200,000 of annual revenue, were given in exchange for Jodh Bai,⁴ at once doubling the fisc of Marwar. With such examples as Amber and Marwar, and with less power to resist the temptation, the minor chiefs of Rajasthan, with a brave and numerous vassalage, were transformed into satraps of Delhi, and the importance of most of them was increased by the change. Truly did the Mogul historian designate them "at once the props and the ornaments of the throne."