Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s5.37

v1.c20.s5.37

The ‘Great Mother’ was propitious. The parent of ‘*Hope*’ was soon enabled to resume her journey for Idar, whose chief received them with open arms, and assigned lands for their support. Here they had been some time when the Rana’s prime minister passed through Idar from a pilgrimage to Satrunjaya.¹ A violent storm would have thrown down the tent in which was his wife, but for the exertion of some of the brothers; and the minister, on learning that it was to the near kin of his sovereign he was indebted for this kindness, invited them to Udaipur, taking upon him to provide for them with their own proper head, which they declined without a special invitation. This was not long wanting; for Amra [358] was then collecting the strength of his hills against the king, and the services of the band of brothers, his kinsmen, were peculiarly acceptable. The first act of duty, though humble, is properly recorded, as ennobled by the sentiment which inspired it, and the pictured scene is yet preserved of Bala and Jodha collecting logs of wood for a night fire in the mountain bivouac for their kinsman and sovereign. In the more brilliant exploit which followed Bala took the lead, and though the lord of Bhainsror was in camp, it was Bala who obtained the leading of the vanguard: the commencement of that rivalry of clanship from whence have resulted some of the most daring, and many of the most merciless deeds in the history of Mewar. The right to lead in battle belonged to the Chondawats, and the first intimation the chieftain had of his prince’s inconsiderate insult was from the bard incessantly repeating the ‘birad’ of the clan, until ‘the portal of the ten thousand’ of Mewar deemed him mad. “Not so,” replied he; “but it is, perhaps, the last time your ears may be gratified with the watchword of Chonda, which may to-morrow be given as well as the Harawal to the Saktawats.” An explanation followed, and the assault of Untala ensued, which preserved the rights of the Chondawats, though nobly contested by their rivals. The vassal of Bakrol carried the tidings of the successful assault to the Rana, who arrived in time to receive the last obeisance of Bala, whose parting words to his prince were seized on by the bard and added to the birad of the clan: and although, in sloth and opium, they now “lose and neglect the creeping hours of time,” yet whenever a Saktawat chief enters the court of his sovereign, or takes his seat amongst his brother chiefs, the bards still salute him with the dying words of Bala: