Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.t1.59

v1.c20.t1.59

To resume the narrative: though the flight of Bappa and its cause are perfectly natural, we have another episode; when the bard assuming a higher strain has recourse to celestial machinery for the *dénouement* of this simple incident: but “an illustrious race must always be crowned with its proper mythology.” Bappa who was the founder of a line of a ‘hundred kings,’ feared as a monarch, adored as more than mortal, and, according to the legend, ‘still living’ (*charanjiva*), deserves to have the source of his pre-eminent fortune disclosed, which, in Mewar, it were sacrilege to doubt. While he pastured the sacred kine in the valleys of Nagindra, the princely shepherd was suspected of appropriating the milk of a favourite cow to his own use. He was distrusted and watched, and although indignant, the youth admitted that they had reason to suspect him, from the habitual dryness of the brown cow when she entered the pens at even.² He watched, and traced her to a narrow dell, when he beheld the udder spontaneously pouring its stores amidst the shrubs. Under a thicket