Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s1.t1.7

v2.c27.s1.t1.7

Lands dedicated to the Shrine.—It has been mentioned that the lands of Mewar appropriated to the shrine are equal in value to a baronial appanage, and, as before observed, there is not a principality in India which does not assign a portion of its domain or revenue to this object. The Hara princes of Kotah and Bundi are almost exclusive worshippers of Kanhaiya, and the regent Zalim Singh is devoted to the maintenance of the dignity of the establishment. Everything at Kotah appertains to Kanhaiya. The prince has but the usufruct of the palace, for which £12,000 are annually transmitted to the shrine. The grand lake east of the town, with all its finny tenants, is under his especial protection ; ² and the extensive suburb adjoining, with its rents, lands, and transit duties, all belong to the god. Zalim Singh moreover transmits to the high priest the most valuable shawls, broadcloths, and horses ; and throughout the long period of predatory warfare he maintained two Nishans,³ of a hundred firelocks each, for the protection of the temple His favourite son also, a child of love, is called Gordhandas, the ‘ slave of Gordhan,’ one of the many titles of Kanhaiya. The prince of Marwar went mad from the murder of the high priest of Jalandhara, the epithet given to Kanhaiya in that State; and the Raja of Sheopur,¹ the last of the Gaurs, lost his sovereignty by abandoning the worship of Har for that of Hari. The ‘slave’ of Radha² (such was the name of this prince) almost lived in the temple, and used to dance before the statue. Had he upheld the rights of him who wields [531] the trident, the tutelary deity of his capital, Sivapur, instead of the unwarlike divinity whose unpropitious title of Ranchhor should never be borne by the martial Rajput, his fall would have been more dignified, though it could not have been retarded when the overwhelming torrent of the Mahrattas under Sindhia swept Rajwara.³