Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s7.t4.31.2

v2.c27.s7.t4.31.2

When Abhai Singh refused or hesitated, he was asked, “*Ma bap ka sakha, ya zamin ka sakha ?*” which, though difficult to render with accuracy, may be translated: “Are you a branch (sakha) of the land or of your parents ? ” As before said, land is all in all to the Rajput ; it is preferred to everything : Abhai’s reply may therefore be inferred. Immediate installation was to be the reward of his revenging the Sayyids. That nature could produce from the same stock two such monsters as the brothers who effected the deed, is, perhaps, hardly conceivable, and would, probably, not be credited, were not the fact proved beyond doubt. I should desire, for the honour of the Rajput race, whose advocate and apologist I candidly avow myself, to suppress the atrocious record : but truth is dearer even than Rajput character. Of the twelve sons of Ajit, Abhai Singh and Bakhta Singh were the two elder ; both were the same mother, a princess of Bundi. To Bakhta Singh, who was with his father, the eldest brother wrote, promising him the independent sovereignty of Nagor (where they then were), with its five hundred and fifty-five townships, as the price of murdering their common sire. Not only was the wretch unstartled by the proposition, but he executed the deed with his own hands, under circumstances of unparalleled atrocity. His [744] mother always dreaded the temperament and disposition of Bakhta, who was bold, haughty, impetuous, with a perpetual thirst for action ;