Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s5.t1.54

v2.c27.s5.t1.54

The Tale of Sanjogta.—The romantic history of the Chauhan emperor of Delhi abounds in sketches of female character; and in the story of his carrying off Sanjogta, the princess of Kanauj, we have not only the individual portrait of the Helen of her country, but in it a faithful picture of the sex. We see her, from the moment when, rejecting the assembled princes, she threw the "garland of marriage" round the neck of her hero, the Chauhan, abandon herself to all the influences of passion—mix in a combat of five days' continuance against her father's array, witness his overthrow, and the carnage of both armies, and subsequently, by her seductive charms, lulling her lover into a neglect of every princely duty. Yet when the foes of his glory and power invade India, we see the enchantress at once start from her trance of pleasure, and exchanging the softer for the sterner passions, in accents not less strong because mingled with deep affection, she conjures him, while arming him for the battle, to die for his fame, declaring that she will join him in "the mansions of the sun." Though it is difficult to extract, in passages sufficiently condensed, what may convey a just idea of this heroine, we shall attempt it in the bard's own language, rendered into prose. He announces the tidings of invasion by the medium of a dream, which the Chauhan thus relates: