Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s5.33

v1.c20.s5.33

Sakta had seventeen sons, all of whom, excepting the heir of Bhainsror,¹ attended his obsequies. On return from this rite they found the gates barred against them by Bhanji, now chief of the Saktawats, who told them “ there were too many mouths,” and that they must push their fortunes elsewhere while he attended his sovereign with the quota of Bhainsror. They demanded their horses and their arms, if such were his pleasure; and electing Achal as their head (whose wife was then pregnant), they took the route to Idar, which had recently been acquired by a junior branch of the Rathors of Marwar.² They had reached Palod when the pangs of childbirth seized the wife of Achal; and being rudely repulsed by the Sonigira vassal of Palod, who refused her shelter at such a moment, they sought refuge amidst the ruins of a temple.³ It was the shrine of Mata Janavi, ‘the mother of births,’ the Juno Lucina of the Rajputs. In a corner of the sanctuary they placed the mother of a future race; but the rain, which fell in torrents, visibly affected the ruin. A beam of stone gave way, which but for Bala would have crushed her: he supported the sinking roof on his head till the brothers cut down a babul tree, with which they propped it and relieved him. In this retreat Asa (*Hope*) was born, who became the parent of an extensive branch known as the Achalis Saktawats.