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Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27: Chapter 1

Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27

Language
English

Contents

Chapter 1

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Origin of the State of Bikaner—Bika, the founder—Condition of the aboriginal Jats or Getes—The number and extensive diffusion of this Scythic race, still a majority of the peasantry in Western Rajputana, and perhaps in Northern India—Their pursuits pastoral, their government patriarchal, their religion of a mixed kind—List of the Jat cantons of Bikaner at the irruption of Bika—Causes of the success of Bika—Voluntary surrender of the supremacy of the Jat elders to Bika—Conditions—Characteristic of the Getic people throughout India—Proofs—Invasion of the Johyas by Bika and his Jat subjects—Account of the Johyas—Conquered by Bika—He wrests Bagor from the Bhattis, and founds Bikaner, the capital, A.D. 1489—His uncle Kandhal makes conquests to the north—Death of Bika—His son Nunkaran succeeds—Makes conquests from the Bhattis—His son Jeth succeeds—Enlarges the power of Bikaner—Rae Singh succeeds—The Jats of Bikaner lose their liberties—The State rises to importance—Rae Singh’s connexion with Akbar—His honours and power—The Johyas revolt and are exterminated—Traditions of Alexander the Great amongst the ruins of the Johyas—Examined—The Punia Jats vanquished by Ram Singh the Raja’s brother—Their subjection imperfect—Rae Singh’s daughter weds Prince Salim, afterwards Jahangir—Rae Singh succeeded by his son Karan—The three eldest sons of Karan fall in the imperial service—Anup Singh, the youngest, succeeds—Quells a rebellion in Kabul—His death uncertain—Sarup Singh succeeds—He is killed—Shujawan Singh, Zorawar Singh, Gaj Singh, and Raj Singh succeed—The latter poisoned by his brother by another mother, who usurps the throne, though opposed by the chiefs—He murders the rightful heir, his nephew—Civil war—Muster-roll of the chiefs—The usurper attacks Jodhpur—Present state of Bikaner—Account of Bidavati . 1123

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Actual condition and capabilities of Bikaner—Causes of its deterioration—Extent—Population—Jats—Sarasvati Brahmans—Charans—Malis and Nais—Chuhras and Thoris—Rajputs—Face of the country—Grain and vegetable productions—Implements of husbandry—Water—Salt lakes—Local physiography—Mineral productions—Unctuous clay—Animal productions—Commerce and manufactures—Fairs—Government and revenues—The fisc—Dhuan, or hearth-tax—Anga, or capitation-tax—Sair, or imposts—Paseti, or plough-tax—Malba, or ancient land-tax—Extraordinary and irregular resources—Feudal levies—Household troops . 1145

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Bhatner, its origin and denomination—Historical celebrity of the Jats of Bhatner—Emigration of Bersi—Succeeded by Bhairon—Embraces Islamism—Rao Dalich—Husain Khan, Husain Mahmud, Imam Mahmud, and Bahadur Khan—Zabita Khan, the present ruler—Condition of the country—Changes in its physical aspect—Ruins of ancient buildings—Promising scene for archaeological inquiries—Zoological and botanical curiosities—List of the ancient towns—Relics of the arrow-head character found in the desert . 1163

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Bijal commits suicide—Kailan recalled and placed on the gaddi—His issue form clans—Khizr Khan Baloch again invades Khadal—Kailan attacks him, and avenges his father's death—Death of Kailan—Succeeded by Chachak Deo—He expels the Chana Rajputs—Defeats the Sodhas of Umarkot—The Rathors lately arrived in the desert become troublesome—Important synchronisms—Death of Chachak—He is succeeded by his grandson Karan, to the prejudice of the elder, Jethsi, who leaves Jaisalmer—Redresses the wrongs of a Baraha Rajput—Karan dies—Succeeded by Lakhansen—His imbecile character—Replaced by his son Punpal, who is dethroned and banished—His grandson, Raningdeo, establishes himself at Marot and Pugal—On the deposal of Punpal, Jethsi is recalled and placed on the gaddi—He affords a refuge to the Parihar prince of Mandor, when attacked by Alau-d-din—The sons of Jethsi carry off the imperial tribute of Tatta and Multan—The king determines to invade Jaisalmer—Jethsi and his sons prepare for the storm—Jaisalmer invested—First assault repulsed—The Bhattis keep an army in the field—Rawal Jethsi dies—The siege continues—Singular friendship between his son Ratan and one of the besieging generals—Mulraj succeeds—General assault—Again defeated—Garrison reduced to great extremity—Council of war—Determination to perform the sakha—Generous conduct of the Muhammadan friend of Ratan to his sons—Final assault—Rawal Mulraj and Ratan and their chief kin fall in battle—Jaisalmer taken, dismantled, and abandoned . . . 1206

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The Rathors of Mewa settle amidst the ruins of Jaisalmer—Driven out by the Bhatti chieftain Dudu, who is elected Rawal—He carries off the stud of Firoz Shah—Second storm and sakha of Jaisalmer—Dudu slain—Moghul invasion of India—The Bhatti princes obtain their liberty—Rawal Gharsi re-establishes Jaisalmer—Kehar, son of Deoraj—Disclosure of his destiny by a prodigy—Is adopted by the wife of Rawal Gharsi, who is assassinated by the tribe of Jaisar—Kehar proclaimed—Bimaladevi becomes sati—The succession entailed on the sons of Hamir—Matrimonial overture to Jetha from Mewar—Engagement broken off—The brothers slain—Penitential act of Rao Raning—Offspring of Kehar—Soma the elder departs with his basai and settles at Girab—Sons of Rao Raning become Muslims to avenge their father's death—Consequent forfeiture of their inheritance—They mix with the Aboharia Bhattis—Kailan, the third son of Kehar, settles in the forfeited lands—Drives the Dahyas from Khadal—Kailan erects the fortress of Kara on the Bias or Gara—Assailed by the Johyas and Langahas under Amir Khan Korai, who is defeated—Subdues the Chahils and Mohils—Extends his authority to the Panjnad—Rao Kailan marries into the Samma family—Account of the Samma race—He seizes on the Samma dominions—Makes the river Indus his boundary —Kailan dies—Succeeded by Chachak—Makes Marot his headquarters—League headed by the chief of Multan against Chachak, who invades that territory, and returns with a rich booty to Marot—A second victory—Leaves a garrison in the Panjab—Defeats Maipal, chief of the Dhundis—Asini-, or Aswini-Kot—Its supposed position—Anecdote—Feud with Satalmer—Its consequences—Alliance with Haibat Khan—Rao Chachak invades Pilibanga—The Khokhars or Ghakkars described—The Langahas drive his garrison from Dhuniapur—Rao Chachak falls sick—Challenges the prince of Multan—Reaches Dhuniapur—Rites preparatory to the combat—Worship of the sword—Chachak is slain with all his bands—Kumbha, hitherto insane, avenges his father's feud—Birsal re-establishes Dhuniapur—Repairs to Kahror—Assailed by the Langahas and Baloch—Defeats them—Chronicle of Jaisalmer resumed—Rawal Bersi meets Rao Birsal on his return from his expedition in the Panjab—Conquest of Multan by Babur—Probable conversion of the Battis of the Panjab—Rawal Bersi, Jeth, Nunkaran, Bhim, Manohardas, and Sabal Singh, six generations . . . . . . 1215

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Jaisalmer becomes a fief of the empire—Changes in the succession—Sabal Singh serves with the Bhatti contingent—His services obtain him the gaddi of Jaisalmer—Boundaries of Jaisalmer at the period of Babur's invasion—Sabal succeeded by his son, Amra Singh, who leads the tika-daur into the Baloch territory—Crowned on the field of victory—Demands a relief from his subjects to portion his daughter—Puts a chief to death who refuses—Revolt of the Chana Rajputs—The Bhatti chiefs retaliate the inroads of the Rathors of Bikaner—Origin of frontier-feuds—Bhattis gain a victory—The princes of Jaisalmer and Bikaner are involved in the feuds of their vassals—Raja Anup Singh calls on all his chiefs to revenge the disgrace—Invasion of Jaisalmer—The invaders defeated—The Rawal recovers Pugal—Makes Barmer tributary—Amra dies—Succeeded by Jaswant—The chronicle closes—Decline of Jaisalmer—Pugal—Barmer—Phalodi wrested from her by the Rathors—Importance of these transactions to the British Government—Khadal to the Gara seized by the Daudputras—Akhai Singh succeeds—His uncle, Tej Singh, usurps the government—The usurper assassinated during the ceremony of Las—Akhai Singh recovers the gaddi—Reigns forty years—Bahawal Khan seizes on Khadal—Rawal Mulraj—Sarup Singh Mehta made minister—His hatred of the Bhatti nobles—Conspiracy against him by the heir-apparent, Rae Singh—Deposal and confinement of the Rawal—The prince proclaimed—Refuses to occupy the gaddi—Mulraj emancipated by a Rajputni—Resumption of the gaddi—The prince Rae Singh receives the black khilat of banishment—Retires to Jodhpur—Outlawry of the Bhatti nobles—Their lands sequestrated and castles destroyed—After twelve years restored to their lands—Rae Singh decapitates a merchant—Returns to Jaisalmer—Sent to the fortress of Dewa—Salim Singh becomes minister—His character—Falls into the hands of his enemies, but is saved by the magnanimity of Zorawar Singh—Plans his destruction, through his own brother’s wife—Zorawar is poisoned—The Mehta then assassinates her and her husband—Fires the castle of Dewa—Rae Singh burnt to death—Murder of his sons—The minister proclaims Gaj Singh—Younger sons of Mulraj fly to Bikaner—The longest reigns in the Rajput annals are during ministerial usurpation—Retrospective view of the Bhatti history—Reflections . 1225

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Rawal Mulraj enters into treaty with the English—The Raja dies—His grandson, Gaj Singh, proclaimed—He becomes a mere puppet in the minister’s hands—Third article of the treaty—Inequality of the alliance—Its importance to Jaisalmer—Consequences to be apprehended by the British Government—Dangers attending the enlarging the circle of our political connexions—Importance of Jaisalmer in the event of Russian invasion—British occupation of the valley of the Indus considered—Salim Singh’s administration resumed—His rapacity and tyranny increase—Wishes his office to be hereditary—Report of the British Agent to his Government—Paliwals self-exiled—Bankers’ families kept as hostages—Revenues arising from confiscation—Wealth of the minister—Border feud detailed to exemplify the interference of the paramount power—The Maldots of Baru—Their history—Nearly exterminated by the Rathors of Bikaner—Stimulated by the minister Salim Singh—Cause of this treachery—He calls for British interference—Granted—Result—Rawal Gaj Singh arrives at Udaipur—Marries the Rana’s daughter—Influence of this lady . . . . . 1235

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Geographical position of Jaisalmer—Its superficial area—List of its chief towns—Population—Jaisalmer chiefly desert—Magra, a rocky ridge, traced from Cutch—Sars, or salt-marshes—Kanod Sar—Soil—Productions—Husbandry—Manufactures—Commerce—Kitars, or caravans—Articles of trade—Revenues—Land and transit taxes—Dani, or Collector—Amount of land-tax exacted from the cultivator—Dhuan, or hearth-tax—Thali, or tax on food—Dand, or forced contribution—Citizens refuse to pay—Enormous wealth accumulated by the minister by extortion—Establishments—Expenditure—Tribes—Bhattis—Their moral estimation—Personal appearance and dress—Their predilection for opium and tobacco—Paliwals, their history—Numbers, wealth, employment—Curious rite or worship—Pali coins—Pokharna Brahmans—Title—Numbers—Singular typical worship—Race of Jat—Castle of Jaisalmer . . . . 1244

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ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN

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BOOK IV—Continued

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RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS, FESTIVALS, AND CUSTOMS OF MEWĀR

Chapter 19

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Influence of the Priesthood.—In all ages the ascendancy of the hierarchy is observable; it is a tribute paid to religion through her organs. Could the lavish endowments and extensive immunities of the various religious establishments in Rajasthan be assumed as criteria of the morality of the inhabitants, we should be authorized to assign them a high station in the scale of excellence. But they more frequently prove the reverse of their position; especially the territorial endowments, often the fruits of a death-bed repentance,¹ which, prompted by superstition or fear, compounds for past crimes by posthumous profusion, although vanity not rarely lends her powerful aid. There is scarcely a State in Rajputana in which one-fifth of the soil is not assigned for the support of the temples, their ministers, the secular Brahmans, bards, and [508] genealogists. But the evil was not always so extensive; the abuse is of modern growth.

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¹ Manu commands, "Should the king be near his end through some incurable disease, he must bestow on the priests all his riches accumulated from legal fines: and having duly committed his kingdom to his son, let him seek death in battle, or, if there be no war, by abstaining from food" (Laws, ix. 323). The annals of all the Rajput States afford instances of obedience to this text of their divine legislator. [The injunction to seek death by starvation is an addition by the commentator, and is not included in the original text.]

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Weighing of Princes against Gold.—An anecdote related of the Rajas of Marwar and Amber, always rivals in war, love, and folly, will illustrate the motives of these dismemberments. During the annual pilgrimage to the sacred lake of Pushkar, it is the custom for these lords of the earth to weigh their persons against all that is rare, in gold, gems, and precious cloths; which are afterwards distributed to the priests.¹ The Amber chief had the advantage of a full treasury and a fertile soil, to which his rival could oppose a more extended sway over a braver race; but his country was proverbially poor, and at Pushkar, the weight of the purse ranks above the deeds of the sword. As these princes were suspended in the scale, the Amber Raja, who was balanced against the more costly material, indirectly taunted his brother-in-law on the poverty of his offerings, who would gladly, like the Roman, have made up the deficiency with his sword. But the Marwar prince had a minister of tact, at whose suggestion he challenged his rival (of Amber) to equal him in the magnitude of his gift to the Brahmans. On the gage being accepted, the Rathor exclaimed, “Perpetual charity (*sasan*)² of all the lands held by the Brahmans in Marwar!” His unreflecting rival had commenced the redemption of his pledge, when his minister stopped the half-uttered vow, which would have impoverished the family for ever; for there were ten Brahmans in Amber who followed secular employments, cultivating or holding lands in usufruct, to one in Marwar. Had these lords of the earth been left to their misguided vanity, the fisc of each state would have been seriously curtailed.

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¹ [The practice of a devotee weighing himself against gold was common in ancient Hindu times, was known as *tulāpurushadāna*, and is still performed by the Mahārāja of Travancore (Thurston, *Tribes and Castes of S. India*, vii. 202 ff.; *BG*, i. Part ii. 415; Forbes, *Rāsmāla*, 84). Akbar used to have himself weighed against precious substances twice a year, on his solar and lunar birthdays, the articles being given to Brāhmans, and Jahāngīr followed the same custom (*Āīn*, i. 266 ff.; Elliot-Dowson v. 307, 453; *Memoirs of Jahāngīr*, trans. Rogers-Beveridge, 78, 81, 111, 183).]

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² [*Sāsan*, a grant by charter of rent-free lands, made in favour of Brāhmans and devotees. For the formula used in such grants see Barnett, *Antiquities of India*, 129.]

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Grants to Brāhmans and Devotees.—The Brahmans, Sannyasis, and Gosains are not behind those professional flatterers, the Bards; and many a princely name would have been forgotten but for the record of the gift of land. In Mewar, the lands in *sasan*, or religious grants, amount in value to one-fifth of the revenue of the State, and the greater proportion of these has arisen out of the prodigal mismanagement of the last century. The dilapidated state of the country, on the general pacification in A.D. 1818, afforded a noble opportunity to redeem in part these alienations, without the penalty of denunciation attached to the resumer of sacred charities. But death, famine, and exile, which had left but few of the grantees in a capacity to return and reoccupy the lands, in vain coalesced to restore the fisc of Mewar. The Rana dreaded a “ sixty thousand [509] years' residence in hell,” and some of the finest land of his country is doomed to remain unproductive. In this predicament is the township of Menal,¹ with 50,000 bighas (16,000 acres), which with the exception of a nook where some few have established themselves, claiming to be descendants of the original holders, are condemned to sterility, owing to the agricultural proprietors and the rent-receiving Brahmans being dead; and apathy united to superstition admits their claims without inquiry.

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¹ [Menāl, Mahānāl, ‘ the great chasm,’ in the Begun Estate, E. Mewār.]

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The antiquary, who has dipped into the records of the dark period in European church history, can have ocular illustration in Rajasthan of traditions which may in Europe appear questionable. The vision of the Bishop of Orleans,² who saw Charles Martel in the depths of hell, undergoing the tortures of the damned, for having stripped the churches of their possessions, “ thereby rendering himself guilty of the sins of all those who had endowed them,” would receive implicit credence from every Hindu, whose ecclesiastical economy might both yield and derive illustration from a comparison, not only with that of Europe, but with the more ancient Egyptian and Jewish systems, whose endowments, as explained by Moses and Ezekiel, bear a strong analogy to his own. The disposition of landed property in Egypt, as amongst the ancient Hindus, was immemorially vested in the cultivator; and it was only through Joseph’s ministry in the famine that “ the land became Pharaoh’s, as the Egyptians sold every man his field.”¹ And the coincidence is manifest even in the tax imposed on them as occupants of their inheritance, being one-fifth of the crops to the king, while the maximum rate among the Hindus is a sixth.² The Hindus also, in visitations such as that which occasioned the dispossession of the ryots of Egypt, can mortgage or sell their patrimony (bapota). Joseph did not attempt to infringe the privileges of the sacred order when the whole of Egypt became crown-land, “ except the lands of the priests, which became not Pharaoh’s ”; and these priests, according to Diodorus, held for themselves and the sacrifices no less than one-third of the lands of Egypt. But we learn from [510] Herodotus, that Sesostris, who ruled after Joseph’s ministry, restored the lands to the people, reserving the customary tax or tribute.³

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² “ Saint Eucher, évêque d’Orléans, eut une vision qui étonna les princes. Il faut que je rapporte à ce sujet la lettre que les évêques, assemblés à Reims, écrivent à Louis-le-Germanique, qui étoit entré dans les terres de Charles le Chauve, parce qu’elle est très-propre à nous faire voir quel étoit, dans ces temps-là, l’état des choses, et la situation des esprits. Ils disent que ‘ Saint Eucher ayant été ravi dans le ciel, il vit Charles Martel tourmenté dans l’enfer inférieur par l’ordre des saints qui doivent assister avec Jésus-Christ au jugement dernier ; qu’il avoit été condamné à cette peine avant le temps pour avoir dépouillé les églises de leurs biens, et s’être par là rendu coupable des péchés de tous ceux qui les avoient dotées ’” (Montesquieu, L’Esprit des Lois, livre xxxi. chap. xi. p. 460).

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¹ Genesis xlvii. 20-26.

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² Manu, *Laws*, vii. 130.

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³ *Origin of Laws and Government*, vol. i. p. 54, and vol. ii. p. 13. [Herodotus ii. 109.]

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The prelates of the middle ages of Europe were often completely feudal nobles, swearing fealty and paying homage as did the lay lords.⁴ In Rajasthan, the sacerdotal caste not bound to the altar may hold lands and perform the duties of vassalage:⁵ but of late years, when land has been assigned to religious establishments, no reservation has been made of fiscal rights, territorial or commercial. This is, however, an innovation; since, formerly, princes never granted, along with territorial assignments, the prerogative of dispensing justice, of levying transit duties, or exemption from personal service of the feudal tenant who held on the land thus assigned. Well may Rajput heirs exclaim with the grandson of Clovis, “ our exchequer is impoverished, and our riches are transferred to the clergy.”⁶ But Chilperic had the courage to recall the grants of his predecessors, which, however, the pious Gontram re-established. Many Gontrams could be found, though but few Chilperics, in Rajasthan: we have, indeed, one in Jograj,¹ the Rana's ancestor, almost a contemporary of the Merovingian king, who not only resumed all the lands of the Brahmans, but put many of them to death, and expelled the rest his dominions.²

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⁴ Hallam, *Middle Ages*, vol. ii. p. 212.

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⁵ “ A Brahman unable to subsist by his duties just mentioned (sacerdotal), may live by the duty of a soldier ” (Manu x. 81).

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⁶ Montesquieu.

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¹ [One of the legendary Rānas, twenty-fifth on the list, to whom no date can be assigned.]

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² “Le clergé recevoit tant, qu'il faut que, dans les trois races, on lui ait donné plusieurs fois tous les biens du royaume. Mais si les rois, la noblesse, et le peuple, trouvèrent le moyen de leur donner tous leurs biens, ils ne trouvèrent pas moins celui de les leur ôter” (Montesquieu, L'Esprit des Lois, livre xxxi. chap. x.).

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It may be doubted whether vanity and shame are not sufficient in themselves to prevent a resumption of the lands of the Mangtas or mendicants, as they style all those ‘ who extend the palm,’ without the dreaded penalty, which operates very slightly on the sub-vassal or cultivator, who, having no superfluity, defies their anathemas when they attempt to wrest from him, by virtue of the crown-grant, any of his long-established rights. By these, the threat of impure transmigration is despised; and the Brahman may spill his blood on the threshold of his dwelling or in the field in dispute, which will be relinquished by the owner but with his life. The Pat Rani, or chief queen, on the death of Prince Amra, the heir-apparent, in 1818, bestowed a grant of fifteen bighas of land, in one of the central districts, on a Brahman who had assisted in the funeral rites of her son. With grant in hand [511], he hastened to the Jat proprietor, and desired him to make over to him the patch of land. The latter coolly replied that he would give him all the prince had a right to, namely the tax. The Brahman threatened to spill his own blood if he did not obey the command, and gave himself a gash in a limb; but the Jat was inflexible, and declared that he would not surrender his patrimony (bapota) even if he slew himself.³ In short, the ryot of Mewar would reply, even to his sovereign, if he demanded his field, in the very words of Naboth to Ahab, king of Israel, when he demanded the vineyard contiguous to the palace: “The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.”

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³ These worshippers of God and Mammon, when threats fail, have recourse to maiming, and even destroying, themselves, to gain their object. In 1820, one of the confidential servants of the Rana demanded payment of the petty tax called gugri, of one rupee on each house, from some Brahmans who dwelt in the village, and which had always been received from them. They refused payment, and on being pressed, four of them stabbed themselves mortally. Their bodies were placed upon biers, and funeral rites withheld till punishment should be inflicted on the priest-killer. But for once superstition was disregarded, and the rights of the Brahmans in this community were resumed. See Appendix to this Part, No. I [p. 644].

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Tithes, Temples.—But the tithes, and other small and legally established rights of the hierarchy, are still religiously maintained. The village temple and the village priest are always objects of veneration to the industrious husbandman, on whom superstition acts more powerfully than on the bold marauding Rajput, who does not hesitate to demand salvamenta (rakhwali) from the lands of Kanhaiya or Eklinga. But the poor ryot of the nineteenth century of Vikrama has the same fears as the peasants of Charlemagne, who were made to believe that the ears of corn found empty had been devoured by infernal spirits, reported to have said they owed their feast to the non-payment of tithes.¹

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¹ “Mais le bas peuple n’est guère capable d’abandonner ses intérêts par des exemples. Le synode de Francfort lui présenta un motif plus pressant pour payer les dîmes. On y fit un capitulaire dans lequel il est dit que, dans la dernière famine, on avoit trouvé les épis de blé vides, qu’ils avoient été dévorés par les démons, et qu’on avoit entendu leurs voix qui reprochoient de n’avoir pas payé la dîme : et, en conséquence, il fut ordonné à tous ceux qui tenoient les biens ecclésiastiques de payer la dîme, et, en conséquence encore, on l’ordonna à tous” (L’Esprit des Lois, livre xxxi. chap. xii.).

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Political Influence of Brāhmans.—The political influence of the Brahmans is frequently exemplified in cases alike prejudicial to the interests of society and the personal welfare of the sovereign. The latter is often surrounded by lay-Brahmans as confidential servants, in the capacities of butler, keeper of the wardrobe, or seneschal,² besides the Guru or domestic chaplain, who to the duty of ghostly comforter sometimes joins that of [512] astrologer and physician, in which case God help the prince!¹ These Gurus and Purohits, having the education of the children, acquire immense influence, and are not backward in improving “the greatness thrust upon them.” They are all continually importuning their prince for grants of land for themselves and the shrines they are attached to; and every chief, as well as every influential domestic, takes advantage of ephemeral favour to increase the endowments of his tutelary divinity. The Peshwas of Satara are the most striking out of numerous examples.

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² These lay Brahmans are not wanting in energy or courage; the sword is as familiar to them as the mala (chaplet). The grandfather of Ramnath, the present worthy seneschal of the Rana, was governor of the turbulent district of Jahazpur, which has never been so well ruled since. He left a curious piece of advice to his successors, inculcating vigorous measures. “With two thousand men you may eat khichri; with one thousand dalbhat; with five hundred juti (the shoe).” Khichri is a savoury mess of pulse, rice, butter, and spices; dalbhat is simple rice and pulse; the shoe is indelible disgrace.

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¹ Manu, in his rules on government, commands the king to impart his momentous counsel and entrust all transactions to a learned and distinguished Brahman (*Laws*, vii. 58). There is no being more aristocratic in his ideas than the secular Brahman or priest, who deems the bare name a passport to respect. The Kulin Brahman of Bengal piques himself upon this title of nobility granted by the last Hindu king of Kanauj (whence they migrated to Bengal), and in virtue of which his alliance in matrimony is courted. But although Manu has imposed obligations towards the Brahman little short of adoration, these are limited to the “learned in the Vedas”: he classes the unlearned Brahman with “an elephant made of wood, or an antelope of leather”; nullities, save in name. And he adds further, that “as liberality to a fool is useless, so is a Brahman useless if he read not the holy texts”: comparing the person who gives to such an one, to a husbandman “who, sowing seed in a barren soil, reaps no gain”; so the Brahman “obtains no reward in heaven.” These sentiments are repeated in numerous texts, holding out the most powerful inducements to the sacerdotal class to cultivate their minds, since their power consists solely in their wisdom. For such, there are no privileges too extensive, no homage too great. “A king, even though dying with want, must not receive any tax from a Brahman learned in the Vedas.” His person is sacred. “Never shall the king slay a Brahman, though convicted of all possible crimes,” is a premium at least to unbounded insolence, and unfits them for members of society, more especially for soldiers; banishment, with person and property untouched, is the declared punishment for even the most heinous crimes. “A Brahman may seize without hesitation, if he be distressed for a subsistence, the goods of his Sudra slave.” But the following text is the climax: “What prince could gain wealth by oppressing these [Brahmans], who, if angry, could frame other worlds, and regents of worlds, and could give birth to new gods and mortals?” (Manu, *Laws*, ii. iii. vii. viii. ix.).

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In the dark ages of Europe the monks are said to have prostituted their knowledge of writing to the forging of charters in their own favour: a practice not easily detected in the days of ignorance.² The Brahmans, in like manner, do not scruple to employ this method of augmenting the wealth of their shrines; and superstition and indolence combine to support the deception There is not a doubt that the grand charter of Nathdwara was a forgery, in which the prince’s butler was bribed to aid; and report alleges that the Rana secretly favoured an artifice which regard to opinion prevented him from overtly promulgating. Although the copper-plate had been buried under ground, and came out disguised with a coating of verdigris, there were marks which proved the date of its execution to be false. I have seen charters which, it has been gravely asserted, were granted by Rama upwards of three thousand years ago! Such is the origin assigned to one found in a well at the ancient Brahmpuri, in the valley of the capital. If there be sceptics as to its validity, they are silent ones; and this copper-plate of the brazen age [513] is worth gold to the proprietor.¹ A census² of the three central districts of Mewar discovered that more than twenty thousand acres of these fertile lands, irrigated by the Berach and Banas rivers, were distributed in isolated portions, of which the mendicant castes had the chief share, and which proved fertile sources of dispute to the husbandman and the officers of the revenue. From the mass of title-deeds of every description by which these lands were held, one deserves to be selected, on account of its being pretended to have been written and bestowed on the incumbent’s ancestor by the deity upwards of three centuries ago, and which has been maintained as a bona-fide grant of Krishna³ ever since. By such credulity and apathy are the Rajput States influenced: yet let the reader check any rising feeling of contempt for Hindu legislation, and cast a retrospective glance at the page of European church history, where he will observe in the time of the most potent of our monarchs that the clergy possessed one-half of the soil:⁴ and the chronicles of France will show him Charlemagne on his death-bed, bequeathing two-thirds of his domains to the church, deeming the remaining third sufficient for the ambition of four sons. The same dread of futurity, and the hope to expiate the sins of a life, at its close, by gifts to the organs of religion, is the motive for these unwise alienations, whether in Europe or in Asia. Some of these establishments, and particularly that at Nathdwara, made a proper use of their revenues in keeping up the Sada-Brat, or perpetual charity, though it is chiefly distributed to religious pilgrims: but among the many complaints made of the misapplication of the funds, the diminution of this hospitable right is one; while, at other shrines, the avarice of the priests is observable in the coarseness of the food dressed for sacrifice and offering.

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² Hallam’s *Middle Ages*, vol. i. p. 204.

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¹ These forgeries of charters cannot be considered as invalidating the arguments drawn from them, as we may rest assured nothing is introduced foreign to custom, in the items of the deeds.

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² Suggested by the Author, and executed under his superintendence, who waded through all these documents, and translated upwards of a hundred of the most curious.

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³ See the Appendix to this Part, No. II [p. 644].

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⁴ Hallam.

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Tithes levied by Brāhmans.—Besides the crown-grants to the greater establishments, the Brahmans received petty tithes from the agriculturist, and a small duty from the trader, as mapa or metage, throughout every township, corresponding with the scale of the village-chapel. An inscription found by the author at the town of Palod,¹ and dated nearly seven centuries back, affords a good specimen of the claims of the village [514] priesthood. The following are among the items. The serana, or a ser, in every maund, being the fortieth part of the grain of the unalu, or summer-harvest; the karpa, or a bundle from every sheaf of the autumnal crops, whether makai (Indian corn), bajra or juar (maize) [millet], or the other grains peculiar to that season.²

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¹ See Appendix to this Part, No. III [p. 645].

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² Each bundle consists of a specified number of ears, which are roasted and eaten in the unripe state with a little salt. [A ser or seer = 2.057 lbs. avoirdupois.]

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They also derive a tithe from the oil-mill and sugar-mill, and receive a kansa or platter of food on all rejoicings, as births, marriages, etc., with charai, or the right of pasturage on the village common; and where they have become possessed of landed property they have halma, or unpaid labour in man and beasts, and implements, for its culture: an exaction well known in Europe as one of the detested corvées of the feudal system of France,³ the abolition of which was the sole boon the English husbandman obtained by the charter of Runymede. Both the chieftain and the priest exact halma in Rajasthan; but in that country it is mitigated, and abuse is prevented, by a sentiment unknown to the feudal despot of the middle ages of Europe, and which, though difficult to define, acts imperceptibly, having its source in accordance of belief, patriarchal manners, and clannish attachments.

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³ Dict. de l'Ancien Régime, p. 131, art. "Corvée."

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Privileges of Saivas and Jains.—I shall now briefly consider the privileges of the Saivas and Jains—the orthodox and heterodox sects of Mewar; and then proceed to those of Vishnu, whose worship is the most prevalent in these countries, and which I am inclined to regard as of more recent origin.

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Worship of Siva.—Mahadeva, or Iswara, is the tutelary divinity of the Rajputs in Mewar; and from the early annals of the dynasty appears to have been, with his consort Isani, the sole object of Guhilot adoration. Iswara is adored under the epithet of Eklinga,¹ and is either worshipped in his monolithic symbol, or as Iswara Chaumukhi, the quadriform divinity, represented by a bust with four faces. The sacred bull, Nandi, has his altar attached to all the shrines of Iswara, as was that of Mneves or Apis to those of the Egyptian Osiris. Nandi has occasionally his separate shrines, and there is one in the valley of Udaipur which has the reputation of being oracular as regards the seasons. The bull was the steed of Iswara, and [515] carried him in battle; he is often represented upon it, with his consort Isani, at full speed. I will not stop to inquire whether the Grecian fable of the rape of Europa ² by the tauriform Jupiter may not be derived, with much more of their mythology, from the Hindu pantheon; whether that pantheon was originally erected on the Indus, or the Ganges, or the more central scene of early civilization, the banks of the Oxus. The bull was offered to Mithras by the Persian, and opposed as it now appears to Hindu faith, he formerly bled on the altars of the Sun-god, on which not only the Baldan,¹ ‘offering of the bull,’ was made, but human sacrifices.² We do not learn that the Egyptian priesthood presented the kindred of Apis to Osiris, but as they were not prohibited from eating beef, they may have done so.

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¹ That is, with one (ek) lingam or phallus—the symbol of worship being a single cylindrical or conical stone. There are others, termed Sahaslinga and Kotiswara, with a thousand or a million of phallic representatives, all minutely carved on the monolithic emblem, having then much resemblance to the symbol of Bacchus, whose orgies, both in Egypt and Greece, are the counterpart of those of the Hindu Baghis, thus called from being clad in a tiger's or leopard's hide: Bacchus had the panther's for his covering. There is a very ancient temple to Kotiswara at the embouchure of the eastern arm of the Indus; and here are many to Sahaslinga in the peninsula of Saurashtra. [Bacchus has no connexion with a Hindu tiger-god.]

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² It might have appeared fanciful, some time ago, to have given a Sanskrit derivation to a Greek proper name: but Europa might be derived from Surupa, ‘of the beautiful face’—the initial syllable su and eu having the same signification in both languages, namely, good—Rupa is ‘countenance.’ [Europa is probably Assyrian ereb, irib, ‘land of the rising sun’ (EB, ix. 907). Another explanation is that it is a cult title, meaning ‘goddess of the flourishing willow-withies’ (A. B. Cook, Zeus, 531).]

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¹ In this sacrifice four altars are erected, for offering the flesh to the four gods, Lakshmi-Narayana, Umamaheswar, Brahma, and Ananta. The nine planets, and Prithu, or the earth, with her ten guardian-deities, are worshipped. Five Vilwa, five Khadira, five Palasha, and five Udumbara posts are to be erected, and a bull tied to each post. Clarified butter is burnt on the altar, and pieces of the flesh of the slaughtered animals placed thereon. This sacrifice was very common (Ward, *On the Religion of the Hindus*, vol. ii. p. 263). [Balidāna, ‘an offering to the gods.’]

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² First a covered altar is to be prepared; sixteen posts are then to be erected of various woods; a golden image of a man, and an iron one of a goat, with golden images of Vishnu and Lakshmi, a silver one of Siva, with a golden bull, and a silver one of Garuda ‘the eagle,’ are placed upon the altar. Animals, as goats, sheep, etc., are tied to the posts, and to one of them, of the wood of the mimosa, is to be tied the human victim. Fire is to be kindled by means of a burning glass. The sacrificing priest, *hota*, strews the grass called *dub* or immortal, round the sacred fire. Then follows the burnt sacrifice to the ten guardian deities of the earth—to the nine planets, and to the Hindu Triad, to each of whom clarified butter is poured on the sacred fire one thousand times. Another burnt-sacrifice, to the sixty-four inferior gods, follows, which is succeeded by the sacrifice and offering of all the other animals tied to the posts. The human sacrifice concludes, the sacrificing priest offering pieces of the flesh of the victim to each god as he circumambulates the altar (*ibid*, 260).

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The Temple of Eklinga.—The shrine of Eklinga is situated in a defile about six [twelve] miles north of Udaipur. The hills towering around it on all sides are of the primitive formation, and their scarped summits are clustered with honeycombs.³ There are abundant small springs of water, which keep verdant numerous shrubs, the flowers of which are acceptable to the deity; especially the *kaner* or oleander, which grows in great luxuriance on the Aravalli. Groves of bamboo and mango were formerly common, according to tradition; but although it is deemed sacrilege to thin the groves of Bal,¹ the bamboo has been nearly destroyed: there are, however, still many trees sacred to the deity scattered around. It would be difficult to convey a just [516] idea of a temple so complicated in its details. It is of the form commonly styled pagoda, and, like all the ancient temples of Siva, its sikhara, or pinnacle, is pyramidal. The various orders of Hindu sacred architecture are distinguished by the form of the sikhara, which is the portion springing from and surmounting the perpendicular walls of the body of the temple. The sikhara of those of Siva is invariably pyramidal, and its sides vary with the base, whether square or oblong. The apex is crowned with an ornamental figure, as a sphinx, an urn, a ball, or a lion, which is called the kalas. When the sikhara is but the frustum of a pyramid, it is often surmounted by a row of lions, as at Bijolia. The fane of Eklinga is of white marble and of ample dimensions. Under an open-vaulted temple supported by columns, and fronting the four-faced divinity, is the brazen bull Nandi, of the natural size; it is cast, and of excellent proportions. The figure is perfect, except where the shot or hammer of an infidel invader has penetrated its hollow flank in search of treasure. Within the quadrangle are miniature shrines, containing some of the minor divinities.² The high-priest of Eklinga, like all his order, is doomed to celibacy, and the office is continued by adopted disciples. Of such spiritual descents they calculate sixty-four since the Sage Harita, whose benediction obtained for the Guhilot Rajput the sovereignty of Chitor, when driven from Saurashtra by the Parthians.

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³ This is to be taken in its literal sense; the economy of the bee being displayed in the economy of extensive colonies which inhabit large masses of black comb adhering to the summits of the rocks. According to the legends of these tracts, they were called in as auxiliaries on Muhammadan invasions, and are said to have thrown the enemy more than once into confusion. [Stories of idols protected from desecration by swarms of hornets are common (*BG*, viii. 401 ; Sleeman, *Rambles*, 54).]

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¹ See Appendix to this Part, No. IV [p. 645].

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² In June 1806 I was present at a meeting between the Rana and Sindhia at the shrine of Eklinga. The rapacious Mahratta had just forced the passes to the Rana's capital, which was the commencement of a series of aggressions involving one of the most tragical events in the history of Mewar—the immolation of the Princess Krishna and the subsequent ruin of the country. I was then an attaché of the British embassy to the Mahratta prince, who carried the ambassador to the meeting to increase his consequence. In March 1818 I again visited the shrine, on my way to Udaipur, but under very different circumstances—to announce the deliverance of the family from oppression, and to labour for its prosperity. While standing without the sanctuary, looking at the quadriform divinity, and musing on the changes of the intervening twelve years, my meditations were broken by an old Rajput chieftain, who, saluting me, invited me to enter and adore Baba Adam, ‘Father Adam,’ as he termed the phallic emblem. I excused myself on account of my boots, which I said I could not remove, and that with them I would not cross the threshold: a reply which pleased them, and preceded me to the Rana's court.

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The priests of Eklinga are termed Gosain or Goswami, which signifies ‘control over the senses’! The distinguishing mark of the faith of Siva is the crescent on the forehead :¹ the hair is braided and forms a tiara round the head, and with its folds a chaplet of the lotus-seed is often entwined. They smear the body with ashes, and use garments dyed of an orange hue. They bury their dead in a sitting [517] posture, and erect tumuli over them, which are generally conical in form.² It is not uncommon for priestesses to officiate in the temple of Siva. There is a numerous class of Gosains who have adopted celibacy, and who yet follow secular employments both in commerce and arms. The mercantile Gosains ³ are amongst the richest individuals in India, and there are several at Udaipur who enjoy high favour, and who were found very useful when the Mahrattas demanded a war-contribution, as their privileged character did not prevent their being offered and taken as hostages for its payment. The Gosains who profess arms, partake of the character of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem. They live in monasteries scattered over the country, possess lands, and beg, or serve for pay when called upon. As defensive soldiers, they are good. Siva, their patron, is the god of war, and like him they make great use of intoxicating herbs, and even of spirituous liquors. In Mewar they can always muster many hundreds of the Kanphara ⁴ Jogi, or ‘split-ear ascetics,’ so called from the habit of piercing the ear and placing therein a ring of the conch-shell, which is their battletrumpet. Both Brahmans and Rajputs, and even Gujars, can belong to this order, a particular account of whose internal discipline and economy could not fail to be interesting. The poet Chand gives an animated description of the body-guard of the King of Kanauj, which was composed of these monastic warriors.

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¹ Siva is represented with three eyes : hence his title of Trinetra and Trilochan, the Triophthalmic Jupiter of the Greeks. From the fire of the central eye of Siva is to proceed Pralaya, or the final destruction of the universe : this eye placed vertically, resembling the flame of a taper, is a distinguishing mark on the foreheads of his votaries.

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² I have seen a cemetery of these, each of very small dimensions, which may be described as so many concentric rings of earth, diminishing to the apex, crowned with a cylindrical stone pillar. One of the disciples of Siva was performing rites to the manes, strewing leaves of an evergreen [probably bel, Aegle marmelos] and sprinkling water over the graves.

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³ For a description of these, vide Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 217.

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⁴ [The more usual form is Kanphata, with the same meaning.]

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Priestly Functions of the Mewār Rānas.—The Ranas of Mewar, as the diwans, or vicegerents of Siva, when they visit the temple supersede the high priest in his duties, and perform the ceremonies, which the reigning prince does with peculiar correctness and grace.¹

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¹ The copy of the Siva Purana which I presented to the Royal Asiatic Society was obtained for me by the Rana from the temple of Eklinga.

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Privileges of Jains.—The shrine of Eklinga is endowed with twenty-four large villages from the fisc, besides parcels of land from the chieftains ; but the privileges of the tutelary divinity have been waning since Kanhaiya fixed his residence amongst them ; and as the priests of Apollo complained that the god was driven from the sacred mount [518] Govardhana, in Vraj, by the influence of those of Jupiter ² with Shah Jahan, the latter may now lament that the day of retribution has arrived, when propitiation to the Preserver is deemed more important than to the Destroyer. This may arise from the personal character of the high priests, who, from their vicinity to the court, can scarcely avoid mingling in its intrigues, and thence lose in character : even the Ranis do not hesitate to take mortgages on the estates of Bholanath.³ We shall not further enlarge on the immunities to Eklinga, or the forms in which they are conveyed, as these will be fully discussed in the account of the shrine of Krishna ; but proceed to notice the privileges of the heterodox Jains—the Vidyavan ⁴ or Magi of Rajasthan. The numbers and power of these sectarians are little known to Europeans, who take it for granted that they are few and dispersed. To prove the extent of their religious and political power, it will suffice to remark that the pontiff of the Khadatara-gachchha,¹ one of the many branches of this faith, has 11,000 clerical disciples scattered over India; that a single community, the Osi or Oswal,² numbers 100,000 families; and that more than half [519] of the mercantile wealth of India passes through the hands of the Jain laity. Rajasthan and Saurashtra are the cradles of the Buddhist or Jain faith, and three out of their five sacred mounts, namely, Abu, Palitana,³ and Girnar, are in these countries. The officers of the State and revenue are chiefly of the Jain laity, as are the majority of the bankers, from Lahore to the ocean. The chief magistrate and assessors of justice, in Udaipur and most of the towns of Rajasthan, are of this sect; and as their voluntary duties are confined to civil cases, they are as competent in these as they are the reverse in criminal cases, from their tenets forbidding the shedding of blood. To this leading feature in their religion they owe their political debasement: for Kumarpal, the last king of Anhilwara of the Jain faith, would not march his armies in the rains, from the unavoidable sacrifice of animal life that must have ensued. The strict Jain does not even maintain a lamp during that season, lest it should attract moths to their destruction.

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² Jiva-pitri, the ‘Father of Life,’ would be a very proper epithet for Mahadeva, the creative ‘power,’ whose Olympus is Kailas. [Jiva-pitri means ‘a child whose father is alive.’ Jupiter = Skt. Dyaus-pitā.]

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³ Bholanath, or the ‘Simple God,’ is one of the epithets of Siva, whose want of reflection is so great that he would give away his own divinity if asked.

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⁴ Vidyavan, the ‘Man of Secrets or Knowledge,’ is the term used by way of reproach to the Jains, having the import of magician. Their opponents believe them to be possessed of supernatural skill; and it is recorded of the celebrated Amara, author of the Kosa or dictionary called after him, that he m raculously “made the full moon appear on Amavas ”—the ides of the month, when the planet is invisible.

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¹ Khadatara signifies ‘true’ [?], an epithet of distinction which was bestowed by that great supporter of the Buddhists or Jains, Siddharaj, king of Anhilwara Patan, on one of the branches (gachchha), in a grand religious disputation (badha) at that capital in the eleventh century. The celebrated Hemacharya was head of the Khadatara-gachchha; and his spiritual descendant honoured Udaipur with his presence in his visit to his dioceses in the desert in 1821. My own Yati tutor was a disciple of Hemacharya, and his pattravali, or pedigree, registered his descent by spiritual successions from him. [For the Jain gachchhas see Bühler, The Indian Sect of the Jainas, 77 ff. As usual, the author confounds Jains with Buddhists.] This pontiff was a man of extensive learning and of estimable character. He was versed in all the ancient inscriptions, to which no key now exists, and deciphered one for me which had been long unintelligible. His travelling library was of considerable extent, though chiefly composed of works relating to the ceremonies of his religion: it was in the charge of two of his disciples remarkable for talent, and who, like himself, were perfectly acquainted with all these ancient characters. The pontiff kindly permitted my Yati to bring for my inspection some of the letters of invitation written by his flocks in the desert. These were rolls, some of them several feet in length, containing pictured delineations of their wishes. One from Bikaner represented that city, in one division of which was the school or college of the Jains, where the Yatis were all portrayed at their various studies. In another part, a procession of them was quitting the southern gate of the city, the head of which was in the act of delivering a scroll to a messenger, while the pontiff was seen with his cortège advancing in the distance. To show the respect in which these high priests of the Jains are held, the princes of Rajputana invariably advance outside the walls of their capital to receive and conduct them to it—a mark of respect paid only to princes. On the occasion of the high priest of the Khadataras passing through Udaipur, as above alluded to, the Rana received him with every distinction.

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