Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.165

v2.c28.165

Vassalage of Mārwār to the Mughals.—The death of Maldeo formed an important epoch in the annals of the Rathors. Up to this period the will had waited upon the wish of the gallant descendants of Siva ; but now the vassals of Maru acknowledged one mightier than they. The banner of the empire floated pre-eminent over the panchranga, the five-coloured flag, which had led the Rathors from victory to victory, and waved from the sandhills of Umarkot to the salt-lake of Sambhar ; from the desert bordering the Gara to the peaks of the Aravalli. Henceforward, the Rathor princes had, by their actions or subservience, to ascend by degrees the steps to royal favour. They were required to maintain a contingent of their proud vassals, headed by the heir, to serve at the Mogul’s pleasure. Their deeds won them, not ignobly, the grace of the imperial court ; but had slavish submission been the sole path to elevation, the Rathor princes would never have attained a grade beyond the first mansab,¹ conferred on Udai Singh. Yet though streams of wealth enriched the barren plains of Maru ; although a portion of the spoils of Golkonda and Bijapur augmented its treasures, decorated its palaces, and embellished its edifices and mausoleums ; although the desert kings took the ‘right hand’ of all the feudality of Hind, whether indigenous or foreign—a feudal assemblage of no less than seventy-six petty kingdoms—yet the Rathor felt the sense of his now degraded condition, and it often burst forth even in the presence of the suzerain.