Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.214

v2.c28.214

Death of Rāja Sūr Singh, A.D. 1620 : his Character.—Raja Sur died in the Deccan, in S. 1676 (A.D. 1620). He added greatly to the lustre of the Rathor name, was esteemed by the emperor, and, as the bard expresses it, “His spear was frightful to the Southron.” Whether Raja Sur disapproved of the exterminating warfare carried on in these regions, or was exasperated at the unlimited service he was doomed to, which detained him from his native land, he, in his last moments, commanded a pillar to be erected with a curse engraven thereon, imprecated upon any of his race who should once cross the Nerbudda. From his boyhood he had been almost an alien to his native land: he had accompanied his father wherever he led the aid of Maru, was serving at Lahore at the period of his accession, and died far from the monuments of his fathers, in the heart of the peninsula. Although the emperor was not ungrateful in his estimate of these services,—for Raja Sur held by patent no less than “sixteen [41] grand fiefs”² of the empire, and with the title of Sawai raised above all the princes, his associates at court,—it was deemed no compensation for perpetual absence from the hereditary domain, thus abandoned to the management of servants. The great vassals, his clansmen, participated in this dissatisfaction, separated from their wives, families, and estates; for to them the pomp of imperial greatness, or the sunshine of court-favour, was as nothing when weighed against the exercise of their influence within their own cherished patrimony. The simple fare of the desert was dearer to the Rathor than all the luxuries of the imperial banquet, which he turned from with disgust to the recollection of “the green pulse of Mandawar,” or his favourite rabri, or ‘maize porridge,’ the prime dish with the Rathor. These minor associations conjoined with greater evils to increase the mal de pays, of whose influence no human being is more susceptible than the brave Rajput.