Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.s1.t2.62

v2.c28.s1.t2.62

The Murder of Ajīt Singh, A.D. 1724.—We shall now drop the chronicles, and in recording the murder of Ajit, the foulest crime in the annals of Rajasthan, exemplify the mode in which their poetic historians gloss over such events. It was against Ajit’s will that his son went to court, as if he had a presentiment of the fate which awaited him, and which has been already circumstantially related.² The authors from whose records this narrative is chiefly compiled, were too polite to suffer such a stigma to appear in their chronicles, “ written by desire ” and under the eye of the parricide, Ajit’s successor. The Surya Prakas merely says, “ at this time Ajit went to heaven ”; but affords no indication of the person who sent him there. The Raj Rupaka, however, not bold enough to avow the mysterious death of his prince, yet too honest to pass it over, has left an expressive blank leaf at this part of his chronicle, certainly not accidental, as it intervenes between Abhai Singh’s reception at court, and the incidents following his father’s death, which I translate verbatim, as they present an excellent picture of the results of a Rajput potentate’s demise [92].