Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s5.31

v1.c20.s5.31

Sakta and the Saktāwats.—Sakta was the second of the twenty-four sons of Udai Singh. When only five years of age, he discovered that fearless temperament which marked his manhood [356]. The armourer having brought a new dagger to try its edge by the usual proof on thinly spread cotton, the child asked the Rana “if it was not intended to cut bones and flesh,” and seizing it, tried it on his own little hand. The blood gushed on the carpet, but he betrayed no symptom of pain or surprise. Whether his father admitted the tacit reproof of his own want of nerve, or that it recalled the prediction of the astrologers, who, in casting Sakta’s horoscope, had announced that he was to be “the bane of Mewar,” he was incontinently commanded to be put to death, and was carried off for this purpose, when saved by the Salumbar chief, who arrested the fiat, sped to the Rana, and begged his life as a boon, promising, having no heirs, to educate him as the future head of the Chondawats. The Salumbar chief had children in his old age, and while wavering between his own issue and the son of his adoption, the young Sakta was sent for to court by his brother Partap. The brothers for a considerable time lived on the most amicable footing, unhappily interrupted by a dispute while hunting, which in time engendered mutual dislike. While riding in the ring, Partap suddenly proposed to decide their quarrel by single combat, “to see who was the best lancer.” Not backward, Sakta replied, “Do you begin”; and some little time was lost in a courteous struggle for the first spear, when, as they took their ground and agreed to charge together, the Purohit¹ rushed between the combatants and implored them not to ruin the house. His appeal, however, being vain, there was but one way left to prevent the unnatural strife: the priest drew his dagger, and plunging it in his breast, fell a lifeless corpse between the combatants. Appalled at the horrid deed, ‘the blood of the priest on their head,’ they desisted from their infatuated aim. Partap, waving his hand, commanded Sakta to quit his dominions, who bowing retired, and carried his resentments to Akbar. Partap performed with the obsequies of this faithful servant many expiatory rites, and made an irrevocable grant of Salera to his son, still enjoyed by his descendants, while a small column yet identifies the spot of sacrifice to fidelity. From that hour to the memorable day when the founder of the Saktawats gained the birad of the race ‘Khurasan Multan ka Aggal,’ on the occasion of his saving his sovereign flying from the field, the brothers had never beheld each other’s face [357].