Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.s3.46

v2.c28.s3.46

Right of Primogeniture.—The perpetual struggle between the aristocracy and the sovereign, which is an evil inherent in all feudal associations, was greatly aggravated in Marwar, as well as in Mewar, by the sacrifice of that corner-stone even of constitutional monarchy, the rights of primogeniture. But in each case the deviation from custom was a voluntary sacrifice of the respective heirs-apparent to the caprices of parental dotage. In no other country in the world could that article of the Christian decalogue, “Honour thy father and thy mother,” be better illustrated than in Rajputana, where, if we have had to record two horrid examples of deviation from, we have also exhibited splendid proofs of, filial devotion, in Chonda of Mewar, and Champa of Marwar, who resigned the " rods " they were born to wield ; and served, when they should have swayed, to gratify their father's love for the fruit of their old age. These are instances of self-denial hardly to be credited ; from such disinterested acts, their successors claimed an importance which, though natural, was totally unforeseen, and which the extent of compensation [132] to foster. They asserted the right, as hereditary premiers of the State, to be the advisers, or rather the tutors, of their sovereigns, more especially in non-age, and in allusion to this surrender of their birthright, arrogantly applied the well-known adage, *Pat ka malik main ho, Raj ka malik uha*, ' He is sovereign of the State, but I am the master of the Throne ' ; and insisted on the privilege of being consulted on every gift of land, and putting their autograph symbol to the deed or grant.¹ These pretensions demanded the constant exertions of the sovereign to resist them ; for this purpose, he excited the rivalry of the less powerful members of the federated vassalage, and thus formed a kind of balance of power, which the monarch, if skilful, could always turn to account. But not even the jealousies thus introduced would have so depreciated the regal influence in Marwar, nor even the more recent adoption of a son of the crown into the powerful fief of Pokaran, had not the parricidal sons of Ajit degraded the throne in the eyes of their haughty and always overreaching vassals, who, in the civil strife which followed, were alternately in favour or disgrace, as they adhered to or opposed the successful claimant for power. To this foul blot, every evil which has since overtaken this high-minded race may be traced, as well as the extirpation of that principle of devoted obedience which, in the anterior portion of these annals, has been so signally recorded. To this hour it has perpetuated dissensions between the crown and the oligarchy, leading to deposal and violence to the princes, or sequestration, banishment, and death to the nobles. To break the bonds of this tutelage, Ram Singh's intemperance lost him the crown, which sat uneasy on the head of his successor, who had no other mode of escape but by the severity which has been related. But though it freed him for a time, the words of the dying chief of Pokaran continued to ring in his ears ;