Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s4.t2.18

v2.c27.s4.t2.18

The Magic Sword of Mewār.—Tradition has hallowed the two-edged sword (*khanda*) of Mewar, by investing it with an origin as mysterious as “ the bane of Hjalmr.” It is supposed to be the enchanted weapon fabricated by Viswakarma,⁴ with which the Hindu Proserpine girded the founder of the race, and led him forth to the conquest of Chitor.⁵ It remained the great heirloom of her princes till the sack of Chitor by the Tatar Ala, when Rana Arsi and eleven of his brave sons devoted themselves at the command of the guardian goddess of their race, and their capital falling into the hands of the invader, the last scion of Bappa became a fugitive amidst the mountains of the west. It was then the Tatar inducted the Sonigira Maldeo [594], as his lieutenant, into the capital of the Guhilots. The most celebrated of the poetic chronicles of Mewar gives an elaborate description of the subterranean palace in Chitor, in one of whose entrances the dreadful sacrifice was perpetuated to save the honour of Padmini and the fair of Chitor from the brutalized Tatars.⁶ The curiosity of Maldeo was more powerful than his superstition, and he determined to explore these hidden abodes, though reputed to be guarded by the serpent genii attendant on Nagnaicha, the ancient divinity of its Takshak founders.¹ Whether it was through the identical caverned passage, and over the ashes of those martyred Kaminis,² that he made good his way into those rock-bound abodes, the legend says not; but though