Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c29.t1.35

v2.c29.t1.35

Former Owners conferring Titles on their Successors.—It is seldom that so incontestable a title to supremacy can be asserted as that which the weakness and jealousies of the Godaras conferred upon Bika, and it is a pleasing incident to find almost throughout India, in the observance of certain rites, the remembrance of the original compact which transferred the sovereign power from the lords of the soil to their Rajput conquerors. Thus, in Mewar, the fact of the power conferred upon the Guhilot founder by the Bhil aborigines is commemorated by a custom brought down to the present times. (See Vol. I. p. 262.) At Amber the same is recorded in the important offices retained by the Minas, the primitive inhabitants of that land. Both Kotah and Bundi retain in their names the remembrance of the ancient lords of Haraoti; and Bika’s descendants preserve, in a twofold manner, the recollection of their bloodless conquest of the Jats. To this day the descendant of Pandu applies the unguent of royalty to the forehead of the successors of Bika; on which occasion the prince places ‘the fine of relief,’ consisting of twenty-five pieces of gold, in the hand of the Jat. Moreover, the spot which he selected for his capital was the birthright of a Jat, who would only concede it for this purpose on the condition that his name should be linked in perpetuity with its surrender. Naira, or Nera [184], was the name of the proprietor, which Bika added to his own, thus composing that of the future capital, Bikaner.¹