Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c41: Book IX. Annals of Amber, or Dhūndhār

Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c41

Language
English

Contents

Book IX. Annals of Amber, or Dhūndhār

v3.c41.2

¹ This account of the Amber or Jaipur State is nearly what I communicated to the Marquess of Hastings in 1814-15. Amidst the multiplicity of objects which subsequently engaged my attention, I had deemed myself absolved from the necessity of enlarging upon it, trusting that a more competent pen would have superseded this essay, there having been several political authorities at that court since it was written. Being, however, unaware that anything has been done to develop its historical resources, which are more abundant than those of any other court of India, I think it right not to suppress this sketch, however imperfect.

Chapter 1

v3.c41.s1.1

By some conventional process, Europeans in India have adopted the habit of designating the principalities of Rajputana by the names of their respective capitals, instead of those of the countries. Thus Marwar and Mewar are recognized under the titles of their chief cities, Jodhpur and Udaipur; Kotah and Bundi are denominations indiscriminately applied to Haravati, the general term of the region, which is rarely mentioned; and Dhundhar is hardly known by that denomination to Europeans, who refer to the State only by the names of its capitals, Amber or Jaipur, the last of which is now universally used to designate the region inhabited by the Kachhwahas [346].

v3.c41.s1.2

Boundaries of Jaipur State.—The map defines the existing boundaries of this principality, to which I shall indiscriminately apply the terms (as is the practice of the natives) of Dhundhar, Amber, and Jaipur.

v3.c41.s1.3

Etymology of Dhūndhār.—Like all the other Rajput States, the country of the Kachhwahas is an assemblage of communities, the territories of which have been wrested from the aboriginal tribes, or from independent chieftains, at various periods; and therefore the term Dhundhar, which was only one of their earliest acquisitions, had scarcely a title to impose its name upon the aggregate. The etymology of Dhundhar is from a once celebrated sacrificial mount (dhundh) on the western frontier, near Kalakh Jobner.¹

v3.c41.s1.4

¹ The traditional history of the Chauhans asserts, that this mount was the place of penance (tapasya) of their famed king Bisaldeo of Ajmer, who, for his oppression of his subjects, was transformed into a Rakshasa, or Demon, in which condition he continued the evil work of his former existence, "devouring his subjects" (as literally expressed), until a grandchild offered himself as a victim to appease his insatiable appetite. The language of innocent affection made its way to the heart of the Rakshasa, who recognized his offspring, and winged his flight to the Jumna. It might be worth while to excavate the dhundh of the transformed Chauhan king, which I have some notion will prove to be his sepulchre. [According to Cunningham (ASR, ii. 251) there is no mound of this kind at Jobner. He derives the name of the territory from the river Dhūndhu—Dhūndhwār, or Dhūndhār, meaning the land by the river Dhūndhu—the river having obtained its name from the demon-king Dhūndhu (see IGI, xiii. 385).]

v3.c41.s1.5

The Kachhwāha Tribe.—The Kachhwaha or Kachhwa race claims descent from Kusa, the second son of Rama, King of Kosala, whose capital was Ayodhya, the modern Oudh. Kusa, or some of his immediate offspring, is said to have migrated from the parental abode, and erected the celebrated castle of Rohtas, or Rohitas,² on the Son, whence, in the lapse of several generations, another distinguished scion, Raja Nal, migrated westward, and in S. 351, or A.D. 295, founded the kingdom and city of Narwar, or classically, Naishadha.³ Some of the traditional chronicles record intermediate places of domicile prior to the erection of this famed city : first, the town of Lahar, in the heart of a tract yet named Kachhwahagar, or region (gar) of the Kachhwahas ;¹ and secondly, that of Gwalior. Be this as it may, the descendants of Raja Nal adopted the affix of Pal (which appears to be the distinguishing epithet of all the early Rajput tribes), until Sora Singh (thirty-third in descent from Nal), whose son, Dhola Rae, was expelled the paternal abode, and in S. 1023, A.D. 967, laid the foundation of the State of Dhundhar [347].

v3.c41.s1.6

² Were this celebrated abode searched for inscriptions, they might throw light on the history of the descendants of Rama. [For Rohtāsgarh in Shāhābād District, Bengal, see IGI, xxi. 322 f.]

v3.c41.s1.7

³ Prefixed to a descriptive sketch of the city of Narwar (which I may append), the year S. 351 is given for its foundation by Raja Nal, but whether obtained from an inscription or historical legend, I know not. It, however, corroborates in a remarkable manner the number of descents from Nal to Dhola Rae, namely, thirty-three, which, calculated according to the best data (see Vol. I. p. 64), at twenty-two years to a reign, will make 726 years, which subtracted from 1023, the era of Dhola Rae's migration, leaves 297, a difference of only fifty-four years between the computed and settled eras; and if we allowed only twenty-one years to a reign, instead of twenty-two, as proposed in all long lines above twenty-five generations, the difference would be trifling. [The story is legendary. The eighth in descent from Vajradāman, the first historical chief of Gwalior, who captured that fortress

v3.c41.s1.8

¹ [Kachhwāhagār or Kachhwāhagarh, the former meaning the ‘water-soaked land,’ the latter the ‘fort,’ of the Kachhwāhas, is a tract between the Sind and Pahuj Rivers, ceded to the British by the Gwalior State in payment of a British contingent (Elliot, Supplementary Glossary, 237, 283, note).]

v3.c41.s1.9

A family, which traces its lineage from Rama of Kosala, Nala of Naishadha, and Dhola the lover of Maroni, may be allowed ‘the boast of heraldry’; and in remembrance of this descent, the Kachhwahas of India celebrate with great solemnity ‘the annual feast of the sun,’ on which occasion a stately car, called the chariot of the sun (Surya ratha), drawn by eight horses, is brought from the temple, and the descendant of Rama, ascending therein, perambulates his capital.

v3.c41.s1.10

Origin of Jaipur State. Dhola Rāē.—A case of simple usurpation originated the Kachhwaha State of Amber; but it would be contrary to precedent if this event were untinged with romance. As the episode, while it does not violate probability, illustrates the condition of the aboriginal tribes, we do not exclude the tradition. On the death of Sora Singh, prince of Narwar, his brother usurped the government, depriving the infant, Dhola Rae, of his inheritance. His mother, clothing herself in mean apparel, put the infant in a basket, which she placed on her head, and travelled westward until she reached the town of Khoganw

v3.c41.s1.11

from Vijayapāla of Kanauj (c. A.D. 955–90) was Tej Karan, otherwise known as Dulha Rāē, the Dhola Rāē of the text, who left Gwalior about A.D. 1128 (Smith, EHI, 381 ; IGI, xiii. 384).]

v3.c41.s1.12

We may thus, without hesitation, adopt the date 351, or A.D. 295, for the period of Raja Nal, whose history is one of the grand sources of delight to the bards of Rajputana. The poem rehearsing his adventures under the title of Nala and Damayanti (fam. Nal-Daman) was translated into Persian at Akbar’s command, by Faizi, brother of Abu-l Fazl, and has since been made known to the admirers of Sanskrit literature by Professor Bopp of Berlin [Āīn, i. 106 ; Macdonell, Hist. Sanskrit Literature, 296 ff.].

v3.c41.s1.13

(within five miles of the modern Jaipur), then inhabited by the Minas. Distressed with hunger and fatigue; she had placed her precious burden on the ground, and was plucking some wild berries, when she observed a hooded serpent rearing its form over the basket.¹ She uttered a shriek, which attracted an itinerant Brahman, who told her to be under no alarm, but rather to rejoice at this certain indication of future greatness in the boy. But the emaciated parent of the founder of Amber replied, “ What may be in futurity I heed not, while I am sinking with hunger ”; on which the Brahman put her in the way of Khoganw, where he said her necessities would be relieved. Taking up the basket, she reached the town, which is encircled by hills, and accosting a female, who happened to be a slave of the Mina chieftain, begged any menial employment for food. By direction of the Mina-Rani, she was entertained with the slaves. One day she was ordered to prepare dinner, of which Ralansi, the Mina Raja, partook, and found it so superior to his usual fare, that he sent for the cook, who related her story.² As soon as the Mina chief discovered the rank of the illustrious fugitive, he adopted her as her sister, and Dhola Rae as his nephew. When the boy had attained the age of Rajput manhood (fourteen), he was sent to Delhi,³ with the tribute of Khoganw, to attend instead of the Mina. The young Kachhwaha remained there five years, when he conceived the idea of usurping his benefactor’s authority. Having consulted the Mina Dharhi,⁴ or bard, as to the best means of executing his plan, he recommended [348] him to take advantage of the festival of the Diwali, when it is customary to perform the ablutions *en masse*, in a tank. Having brought a few of his Rajput brethren from Delhi, he accomplished his object, filling the reservoirs in which the Minas bathed with their dead bodies. The treacherous bard did not escape; Dhola Rae put him to death with his own hands, observing, “ He who had proved unfaithful to one master could not be trusted by another.” He then took possession of Khoganw. Soon after he repaired to Dausa,¹ a castle and district ruled by an independent chief of the Bargujar tribe of Rajputs, whose daughter he demanded in marriage. “How can this be,” said the Bargujar, “when we are both Suryavansi, and one hundred generations have not yet separated us?”² But being convinced that the necessary number of descents had intervened, the nuptials took place, and as the Bargujar had no male issue, he resigned his power to his son-in-law. With the additional means thus at his disposal, Dhola determined to subjugate the Sira³ tribe of Minas, whose chief, Rao Nata, dwelt at Machh. Again he was victorious, and deeming his new conquest better adapted for a residence than Khoganw, he transferred his infant government thither, changing the name of Machh, in honour of his great ancestor, to Ramgarh.

v3.c41.s1.14

¹ [For the tale of a serpent identifying the heir see Vol. I. p. 342.]

v3.c41.s1.15

² [The hero in folk-tales often wins recognition by his skill in the kitchen, as in the story of Shams-al-Dīn in the Arabian Nights; see Tawney, Kathā-sarit-sāgara, i. 567.]

v3.c41.s1.16

³ The Tuar tribe were then supreme lords of India.

v3.c41.s1.17

⁴ Dhārhi, Dholi, Dom, Jāga are all terms for the bards or minstrels of the Mina tribes.

v3.c41.s1.18

¹ See Map for Dausa (written Daunsa), on the Banganga River, about thirty miles east of Jaipur.

v3.c41.s1.19

² The Bargujar tribe claims descent from Lava or Lao, the elder son of Rama. As they trace fifty-six descents from Rama to Vikrama, and thirty-three from Raja Nala to Dhola Rae, we have only to calculate the number of generations between Vikrama and Nal, to ascertain whether Dhola’s genealogist went on good grounds. It was in S. 351 that Raja Nal erected Narwar, which, at twenty-two years to a reign, gives sixteen to be added to fifty-six, and this added to thirty-three is equal to one hundred and five generations from Rama to Dhola Rae. [The traditional dates are worthless.]

v3.c41.s1.20

³ [See Rose, Glossary, iii. 103.]

v3.c41.s1.21

Dhola subsequently married the daughter of the prince of Ajmer, whose name was Maroni.⁴ Returning on one occasion with her from visiting the shrine of Jamwahi Mata,⁵ the whole force of the Minas of that region assembled, to the number of eleven thousand, to oppose his passage through their country. Dhola gave them battle: but after slaying vast numbers of his foes, he was himself killed, and his followers fled. Maroni escaped, and bore a posthumous child, who was named Kankhal, and who conquered the country of Dhundhar. His son, Maidal Rao, made a conquest of Amber from the Susawat Minas, the residence of their chief, named Bhato, who had the title of Rao, and was head of the Mina confederation. He also subdued the Nandla Minas, and added the district of Gatur-Ghati to his territory.

v3.c41.s1.22

⁴ [The tale of the love of Dulha or Dhola Rāē for Mārwan, the Maroni of the text, daughter of Rāja Pingal of Pingalgarh in Sinhaladwīpa, or Ceylon, as sung by the Panjab bards, is told in Temple, Legends of the Panjāb, ii. 276 ff., iii. 97.]

v3.c41.s1.23

⁵ [The family deity of the Kachhwāha tribe, whose shrine is in the gorge of the river Bānganga, in Jaipur State (Census Report, Mārwār, 1891, ii. 28; Rajputana Gazetteer, 1880, iii. 212).]

v3.c41.s1.24

Hūndeo, Kuntal.—Hundeo succeeded, and, like his predecessors, continued the warfare against the Minas. He was succeeded by Kuntal, whose sway extended over all the hill-tribes round his capital. Having determined to proceed to Bhatwar, where a Chauhan prince resided, in order to marry his daughter, his Mina subjects, remembering the [349] former fatality, collected from all quarters, demanding that, if he went beyond the borders, he should leave the standards and nakkaras of sovereignty in their custody. Kuntal refusing to submit, a battle ensued, in which the Minas were defeated with great slaughter, which secured his rule throughout Dhundhar.

v3.c41.s1.25

Pajūn.—Kuntal was succeeded by Pajun, a name well known to the chivalrous Rajput, and immortalized by Chand, in the poetic history (Raesa) of the emperor Prithiraj. Before, however, we proceed further, it may be convenient to give a sketch of the power and numbers of the indigenous tribes at this period.

v3.c41.s1.26

The Mina Tribe.—We have already had frequent occasion to observe the tendency of the aboriginal tribes to emerge from bondage and depression, which has been seen in Mewar, Kotah, and Bundi, and is now exemplified in the rise of the Kachhwahas in Dhundhar. The original, pure, unmixed race of Minas, or Mainas, of Dhundhar, were styled Pachwara, and subdivided into five grand tribes. Their original home was in the range of mountains called Kalikoh, extending from Ajmer nearly to the Jumna, where they erected Amber, consecrated to Amba, the universal mother,¹ or, as the Minas style her, Ghata Rani, ‘Queen of the pass.’ In this range were Khoganw, Machh, and many other large towns, the chief cities of communities. But even so late as Raja Baharmall Kachhwaha, the contemporary of Babur and Humayun, the Minas had retained or regained great power, to the mortification of their Rajput superiors. One of these independent communities was at the ancient city of Nain, destroyed by Baharmall, no doubt with the aid of his Mogul connexions. An old historical distich thus records the power of the Mina princes of Nain:

v3.c41.s1.27

¹ [Amber is said to derive its name from Siva Ambikeswara, or from Ambarīsha, son of Māndhāta and king of Ayodhya. Its original name is said to be Ambarikanera, that is ‘town (nera, Skt. nagara) of Ambarīsha’ (IGI, v. 290).]

v3.c41.s1.28

Bāwan kot, chhappan darvāja,
Mīna mard, Nāin kā rājā,
Vado rāj Nāin ko bhago,
Jab bhus-hī men vāmto māgo.

v3.c41.s1.29

That is, ‘There were fifty-two strongholds,¹ and fifty-six gates belonging to the manly Mina, the Raja of Nain, whose sovereignty of Nain was extinct, when even of chaff (bhus) he took a share.’ If this is not an exaggeration, it would appear that, during the distractions of the first Islamite dynasties of Delhi, the Minas had attained their primitive importance. Certainly from Pajun, the vassal chieftain of Prithiraj [350], to Baharmall, the contemporary of Babur, the Kachhwahas had but little increased their territory. When this latter prince destroyed the Mina sovereignty of Nain, he levelled its half hundred gates, and erected the town of Lohwan (now the residence of the Rajawat chief) on its ruins.

v3.c41.s1.30

¹ Kot is ‘a fortress’; but it may be applied simply to the number of bastions of Nain, which in the number of its gates might rival Thebes. Lohwan, built on its ruins, contains three thousand houses, and has eighty-four townships dependent on it. [In the third line of the verse Major Luard’s Pandit reads for *vado*, *dūbo*, ‘annihilated’; in the fourth for *vāmto*, he gives *muttha*, ‘a handful.’]

v3.c41.s1.31

A distinction is made in the orthography and pronunciation of the designation of this race: *Maina*, meaning the *asl*, or ‘unmixed class,’ of which there is now but one, the *Usara*; while *Mina* is that applied to the mixed, of which they reckon *barah pal*,² or twelve communities, descended from Rajput blood, as Chauhan, Tuar, Jadon, Parihar, Kachhwaha, Solanki, Sankhla, Guhilot, etc., and these are subdivided into no less than five thousand two hundred distinct clans, of which it is the duty of the Jaga, Dholi, or Dom, their genealogists, to keep account. The unmixed Usara stock is now exceedingly rare, while the mixed races, spread over all the hilly and intricate regions of central and western India, boast of their descent at the expense of ‘legitimacy.’ These facts all tend strongly to prove that the Rajputs were conquerors, and that the mountaineers, whether Kolis, Bhils, Minas, Gonds, Savaras or Sarjas, are the indigenous inhabitants of India. This subject will be fully treated hereafter, in a separate chapter devoted to the Mina tribes, their religion, manners, and customs.

v3.c41.s1.32

² Pal is the term for a community of any of the aboriginal mountain races; its import is a ‘defile,’ or ‘valley,’ fitted for cultivation and defence. It is probable that Poligar may be a corruption of Paligar, or the region (*gar*) of these *Pals*. Palita, Bhilita, Philita are terms used by the learned for the Bhil tribes. Maina, Maira, Mairot all designate mountaineers, from Mair, or *Mer*, a hill. [The ‘Palita’ of the note is possibly from a vague recollection of the Phyllitai or ‘leaf-clad’ applied to some aboriginal tribes by Ptolemy (vii. 1. 66) (McCrindle, *Ptolemy*, 159 f.).]

v3.c41.s1.33

Death of Pajūn.—Let us return to Pajun, the sixth in descent from the exile of Narwar, who was deemed of sufficient consequence to obtain in marriage the sister of Prithiraj, the Chauhan emperor of Delhi, an honour perhaps attributable to the splendour of Pajun’s descent, added to his great personal merit. The chivalrous Chauhan, who had assembled around him one hundred and eight chiefs of the highest rank in India, assigned a conspicuous place to Pajun, who commanded a division of that monarch’s armies in many of his most important battles. Pajun twice signalized himself in invasions from the north, in one of which, when he commanded on the frontier, he defeated Shihabu-d-din in the Khaibar Pass, and pursued him towards Ghazni.¹ His valour mainly contributed to the conquest of Mahoba, the country of the Chandels, of which he was left governor; and he was one of the sixty-four chiefs who, with a chosen body of their retainers, enabled Prithiraj to carry off the princess of Kanauj. In this service, covering [351] the retreat of his liege lord, Pajun lost his life, on the first of the five days’ continuous battle. Pajun was conjoined with Govind Guhilot, a chief of the Mewar house;—both fell together. Chand, the bard, thus describes the last hours of the Kachhwaha prince: “When Govind fell, the foe danced with joy: then did Pajun thunder on the curtain of fight: with both hands he plied the khadga (sword) on the heads of the barbarian. Four hundred rushed upon him; but the five brothers in arms, Kehari, Pipa, and Boho, with Narsingh and Kachra, supported him. Spears and daggers are plied—heads roll on the plain—blood flows in streams. Pajun assailed Itimad; but as his head rolled at his feet, he received the Khan's lance in his breast; the Kurma¹ fell in the field, and the Apsaras disputed for the hero. Whole lines of the northmen strew the plain: many a head did Mahadeo add to his chaplet.² When Pajun and Govind fell, one watch of the day remained. To rescue his kin came Palhan, like a tiger loosed from his chain. The array of Kanauj fell back; the cloudlike host of Jaichand turned its head. The brother of Pajun, with his son, performed deeds like Karna:³ but both fell in the field, and gained the secret of the sun, whose chariot advanced to conduct them to his mansion.

v3.c41.s1.34

¹ [This is probably a fiction of the bards, based on the defeat of Shihābu-d-din by Bhīmdeo of Nahrwāla in A.D. 1178 (Elliot-Dowson ii. 294; Ferishta i. 170).]

v3.c41.s1.35

¹ Kurma, or Kachhua, are synonymous terms, and indiscriminately applied to the Rajputs of Ajmer; meaning 'tortoise.'

v3.c41.s1.36

² The chaplet of the god of war is of skulls; his drinking-cup a semicranium.

v3.c41.s1.37

³ [The hero of the Mahābhārata.]

v3.c41.s1.38

"Ganga shrunk with affright, the moon quivered, the Dikpals⁴ howled at their posts: checked was the advance of Kanauj, and in the pause the Kurma performed the last rites to his sire (Pajun), who broke in pieces the shields of Jaichand. Pajun was a buckler to his lord, and numerous his gifts of the steel to the heroes of Kanauj: not even by the bard can his deeds be described. He placed his feet on the head of Sheshnag,⁵ he made a waste of the forest of men, nor dared the sons of the mighty approach him. As Pajun fell, he exclaimed, 'One hundred years are the limit of man's life, of which fifty are lost in night, and half this in childhood; but the Almighty taught me to wield the brand.' As he spoke, even in the arms of Yama, he beheld the arm of his boy playing on the head of the foeman. His parting soul was satisfied: seven wounds from the sword had Malasi received, whose steed was covered with wounds: mighty were the deeds performed by the son of Pajun."

v3.c41.s1.39

⁴ [Ganga, the Ganges; Dikpāls, regents of the four quarters of the heavens.]

v3.c41.s1.40

⁵ [The serpent which supports the world.]

v3.c41.s1.41

Mālasi.—This Malasi, in whose praise the bard of Prithiraj is so lavish, succeeded (according to the chronicle) his father Pajun in the Raj of Amber. There is little said of him in the transcript in my possession. There are, however, abundance of traditional couplets to prove that the successors of Pajun were not wanting in the chief duties of the Rajput [352], the exercise of his sword. One of these mentions his having gained a victory at Rutrahi over the prince of Mandu.¹

v3.c41.s1.42

¹ I give this chiefly for the concluding couplet, to see how the Rajputs applied the word Khotan to the lands beyond Kabul, where the great Raja Man commanded as Akbar’s lieutenant:

v3.c41.s1.43

We shall pass over the intermediate princes from Malasi to Prithiraj, the eleventh in descent, with a bare enumeration of their names: namely, Malasi, Bijal, Rajdeo, Kilan, Kuntal, Junsi, Udaikaran, Narsingh, Banbir, Udharan, Chandrasen, Prithiraj.

v3.c41.s1.44

Prithirāj.—Prithiraj had seventeen sons, twelve of whom reached man’s estate. To them and their successors in perpetuity he assigned appanages, styled the Barah Kothri, or ‘twelve chambers’ of the Kachhwaha house. The portion of each was necessarily very limited; some of the descendants of this hereditary aristocracy now hold estates equal in magnitude to the principality itself at that period. Previous, however, to this perpetual settlement of Kachhwaha fiefs, and indeed intermediately between Malasi and Prithiraj, a disjunction of the junior branches of the royal family took place, which led to the foundation of a power for a long time exceeding in magnitude the parent State. This was in the time of Udaikaran, whose son Baloji left his father’s house, and obtained the town and small district of Amritsar, which in time devolved on his grandson Shaikhji; and became the nucleus of an extensive and singular confederation, known by the name of the founder, Shaikhavati,

v3.c41.s1.45

*Pālan, Pajūn jītē,*
*Mahoba, Kanauj larē,*
*Māndu Mālasi jītē,*
*Rār Rutrāhi kā;*
*Rāj Bhagwāndās jītē,*
*Mavāsī lar.*
*Rājā Mān Singh jītē,*
*KHOTAN phauj dabāī.*

v3.c41.s1.46

“Palan and Pajun were victorious;
Fought at Mahoba and Kanauj;
Malasi conquered Mandu;
In the battle of Rutrahi,
Raja Bhagwandas vanquished.
In the Mawasi (fastnesses, probably, of Mewat),
Raja Man Singh was victorious;
Subjugating the army of KHOTAN.”

v3.c41.s1.47

at this day covering an area of nearly ten thousand square miles. As this subject will be discussed in its proper place, we shall no longer dwell on it, but proceed with the posterity of Prithiraj, amongst the few incidents of whose life is mentioned his meritorious pilgrimage to Dewal,¹ near the mouth of the Indus. But [353] even this could not save him from foul assassination, and the assassin was his own son, Bhim, “ whose countenance (says the chronicle) was that of a demon.” The record is obscure, but it would appear that one parricide was punished by another, and that Askaran, the son of Bhim, was instigated by his brethren to put their father to death, and “ to expiate the crime by pilgrimage.”² In one list, both these monsters are enumerated amongst the ‘anointed’ of Amber, but they are generally omitted in the genealogical chain, doubtless from a feeling of disgust.

v3.c41.s1.48

¹ ‘The temple’; the Debal of the Muhammadan tribes: the Rajput seat of power of the Rajas of Sind, when attacked by the caliphs of Bagdad [Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. 320.]

v3.c41.s1.49

² The chronicle says of this Askaran, that on his return, the king (Babur or Humayun) gave him the title of Raja of Narwar. These States have continued occasionally to furnish representatives, on the extinction of the line of either. A very conspicuous instance of this occurred on the death of Raja Jagat Singh, the last prince of Amber, who dying without issue, an intrigue was set on foot, and a son of the ex-prince of Narwar was placed on the gaddi of Amber.

v3.c41.s1.50

Bahār or Bihāri Mall, c. A.D. 1548-75.—Baharmall was the first prince of Amber who paid homage to the Muhammadan power. He attended the fortunes of Babur, and received from Humayun (previous to the Pathan usurpation), the mansab of five thousand as Raja of Amber.³

v3.c41.s1.51

³ [This is the first mention of the grading of Mansabdārs (Smith, Akbar, the Great Moghul, 362). For Rāja Bihārimall and his son Bhagwāndās, see Āīn, i. 328, 333; Akbarnāma, trans. Beveridge ii. 244.]

v3.c41.s1.52

Bhagwāndās, c. A.D. 1575-92.—Bhagwandas, son of Baharmall, became still more intimately allied with the Mogul dynasty. He was the friend of Akbar, who saw the full value of attaching such men to his throne. By what arts or influence he overcame the scruples of the Kachhwaha Rajput we know not, unless by appealing to his avarice or ambition; but the name of Bhagwandas is execrated as the first who sullied Rajput purity by matrimonial alliance with the Islamite.⁴ His daughter espoused Prince Salim, afterwards Jahangir, and the fruit of the marriage was the unfortunate Khusru.¹

v3.c41.s1.53

⁴ [Akbar had married the daughter of Bahārmall.]

v3.c41.s1.54

¹ It is pleasing to find almost all these outlines of Rajput history confirmed by Muhammadan writers. It was in A.H. 993 (A.D. 1586) that this marriage took place. Three generations of Kachhwahas, namely, Bhagwandas, his adopted son Raja Man, and grandson, were all serving in the imperial army with great distinction at this time. Raja Man, though styled Kunwar, or heir-apparent, is made the most conspicuous. He quelled a rebellion headed by the emperor’s brother, and while Bhagwandas commanded under a prince of the blood against Kashmir, Man Singh overcame an insurrection of the Afghans at Khaibar; and his son was made viceroy of Kabul.—See Briggs’ Ferishta, vol. ii. p. 258 et seq.

v3.c41.s1.55

Mān Singh, c. A.D. 1592-1614.—Man Singh, nephew ² and successor of Bhagwandas, was the most brilliant character of Akbar’s court. As the emperor’s lieutenant, he was entrusted with the most arduous duties, and added conquests to the empire from Khotan to the ocean. Orissa was subjugated by him,³ Assam humbled and made tributary, and Kabul maintained in her allegiance. He held in succession the governments of Bengal and Behar,⁴ the [354] Deccan and Kabul. Raja Man soon proved to Akbar that his policy of strengthening his throne by Rajput alliances was not without hazard; these alliances introducing a direct influence in the State, which frequently thwarted the views of the sovereign. So powerful was it, that even Akbar, in the zenith of his power, saw no other method of diminishing its force, than the execrable but common expedient of Asiatic despots—poison : it has been already related how the emperor’s attempt recoiled upon him to his destruction.⁵

v3.c41.s1.56

² Bhagwandas had three brothers, Surat Singh, Madho Singh, and Jagat Singh; Man Singh was son of the last.

v3.c41.s1.57

³ Ferishta confirms this, saying he sent one hundred and twenty elephants to the king on this occasion.—Briggs’ Ferishta, vol. ii. p. 268.

v3.c41.s1.58

⁴ Ferishta confirms this likewise. According to this historian, it was while Man yet only Kunwar, or heir-apparent, that he was invested with the governments of “Behar, Hajipoor, and Patna,” the same year (A.D. 1589) that his uncle Bhagwandas died, and that following the birth of Prince Khusru by the daughter of the Kachhwaha prince, an event celebrated (says Ferishta) with great rejoicings. See Briggs’ Ferishta, vol. ii. p. 261. Col. Briggs has allowed the similarity of the names Khusru and Khurram to betray him into a slight error, in a note on the former prince. It was not Khusru, but Khurram, who succeeded his father Jahangir, and was father to the monster Aurangzeb (note, p. 261). Khusru was put to death by Khurram, afterwards Shah Jahan.

v3.c41.s1.59

⁵ Annals of Rajasthan, Vol. I. p. 408.

v3.c41.s1.60

Akbar was on his death-bed when Raja Man commenced an intrigue to alter the succession in favour of his nephew, Prince Khusru, and it was probably in this predicament that the monarch had recourse to the only safe policy, that of seeing the crown fixed on the head of Salim, afterwards Jahangir. The conspiracy for the time was quashed, and Raja Man was sent to the government of Bengal; but it broke out again, and ended in the perpetual imprisonment of Khusru,¹ and a dreadful death to his adherents. Raja Man was too wise to identify himself with the rebellion, though he stimulated his nephew, and he was too powerful to be openly punished, being at the head of twenty thousand Rajputs; but the native chronicle mentions that he was amerced by Jahangir in the incredible sum of ten crores, or millions sterling. According to the Muhammadan historian, Raja Man died in Bengal,² A.H. 1024 (A.D. 1615); while the chronicle says he was slain in an expedition against the Khilji tribe in the north two years later.³

v3.c41.s1.61

¹ He was afterwards assassinated by order of Shah Jahan ["under the walls of Azere" (Asīrgarh)]. See Dow's *Ferishta*, ed. 1812, vol. iii. p. 56. [Elphinstone (p. 563) calls his death suspicious, but refuses to believe that Shāh Jahān procured his death. He died from colic in the Deccan on January 16, 1622.]

v3.c41.s1.62

² Dow, ed. 1812, vol. iii. p. 42; the chronicle says in S. 1699, or A.D. 1613. [He died a natural death in July 1614, while he was on service in the Deccan, and sixty of his fifteen hundred women are said to have burned themselves on his pyre (*Āīn*, i. 341; *Memoirs of Jahāngīr*, trans. Rogers-Beveridge 266).]

v3.c41.s1.63

³ An account of the life of Raja Man would fill a volume; there are ample materials at Jaipur.

v3.c41.s1.64

Bhāo Singh, c. A.D. 1615-21.—Rao Bhao Singh succeeded his father, and was invested by the emperor with the Panjhazari, or dignity of a legionary chief of five thousand. He was of weak intellect, and ruled a few years without distinction. He died in A.H. 1030 of excessive drinking.

v3.c41.s1.65

Mahā Singh, c. A.D. 1621-25.—Maha succeeded, and in like manner died from dissipated habits. These unworthy successors of Raja Man allowed the princes of Jodhpur to take the lead at the imperial court. At the instigation of the celebrated Jodha Bai (daughter of Rae Singh of Bikaner), the Rajputni wife of Jahangir, Jai Singh, grandson of Jagat Singh (brother of Man), was raised to the throne of Amber, to the no small jealousy, says [355] the chronicle, of the favourite queen, Nur Jahan. It relates that the succession was settled by the emperor and the Rajputni in a conference at the balcony of the seraglio, where the emperor saluted the youth below as Raja of Amber, and commanded him to make his salaam to Jodha Bai, as the source of this honour. But the customs of Rajwara could not be broken : it was contrary to etiquette for a Rajput chief to salaam, and he replied : " I will do this to any lady of your majesty's family, but not to Jodha Bai " ; upon which she good-naturedly laughed, and called out, " It matters not ; I give you the raj of Amber."

v3.c41.s1.66

Jai Singh, Mīrza Rājā, c. A.D. 1625-67.—Jai Singh, the Mirza Raja, the title by which he is best known, restored by his conduct the renown of the Kachhwaha name, which had been tarnished by the two unworthy successors of Raja Man. He performed great services to the empire during the reign of Aurangzeb, who bestowed upon him the mansab of six thousand. He made prisoner the celebrated Sivaji, whom he conveyed to court, and afterwards, on finding that his pledge of safety was likely to be broken, was accessary to his liberation. But this instance of magnanimity was more than counterbalanced by his treachery to Dara, in the war of succession, which crushed the hopes of that brave prince. These acts, and their consequences, produced an unconquerable haughtiness of demeanour, which determined the tyrannical Aurangzeb to destroy him. The chronicle says he had twenty-two thousand Rajput cavalry at his disposal, and twenty-two great vassal chiefs, who commanded under him ; that he would sit with them in darbar, holding two glasses, one of which he called Delhi, the other Satara, and dashing one to the ground, would exclaim, " There goes Satara ; the fate of Delhi is in my right hand, and this with like facility I can cast away." These vaunts reaching the emperor's ear, he had recourse to the same diabolical expedient which ruined Marwar, of making a son the assassin of his father. He promised the succession to the gaddi of Amber to Kirat Singh, younger son of the Raja, to the prejudice of his elder brother Ram Singh, if he effected the horrid deed.¹ The wretch having perpetrated the crime by mixing poison in his father's opium, returned to claim the investiture : but the king only gave him the district of Kama. From this period, says the chronicle, Amber declined.

v3.c41.s1.67

¹ [Jai Singh died, aged about sixty, at Burhānpur, July 12, 1667 (Manucci ii. 152).]

v3.c41.s1.68

Rām Singh, Bishan Singh.—Ram Singh, who succeeded, had the mansab of four thousand conferred upon him, and was sent against the Assamese.¹ Upon his death, Bishan Singh, whose mansab was further reduced to the grade of three thousand, succeeded; but he enjoyed the dignity only a short period [356].

v3.c41.s1.69

¹ [According to Manucci (ii. 153), Rām Singh, as a piece of revenge for the flight of Sivaji, was sent to Assam in the hope that, like Mīr Jumla, he would die there; but on an appeal being made to Aurangzeb, the order was cancelled, and he was banished beyond the river Indus. The real fact is that Rām Singh was appointed to the Command in Assam in December 1667, and arrived there in February 1669. After desultory and unsuccessful fighting he was allowed to leave Bengal, and reached the Imperial Court in June 1676 (Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, iii. 212 ff.).]

v3.c41.s1.70

Sawāi Jai Singh, c. A.D. 1693-1743.—Jai II., better known by the title of Sawai Jai Singh, in contradistinction to the first prince of this name, entitled the ‘Mirza Raja,’ succeeded in S. 1755 (A.D. 1699),² in the forty-fourth year of Aurangzeb’s reign, and within six years of that monarch’s death. He served with distinction in the Deccan, and in the war of succession attached himself to the prince Bedar Bakht, son of Azam Shah, declared successor of Aurangzeb; and with these he fought the battle of Dholpur, which ended in their death and the elevation of Shah Alam Bahadur Shah. For this opposition Amber was sequestrated, and an imperial governor sent to take possession; but Jai Singh entered his estates, sword in hand, drove out the king’s garrisons, and formed a league with Ajit Singh of Marwar for their mutual preservation.

v3.c41.s1.71

² [The dates of the Rājas of Jaipur are uncertain. Those in the margin are given on the authority of Beale, Oriental Biographical Dict. 193).]

v3.c41.s1.72

It would be tedious to pursue this celebrated Rajput through his desultory military career during the forty-four years he occupied the gaddi of Amber; enough is already known of it from its combination with the Annals of Mewar and Bundi, of which house he was the implacable foe. Although Jai Singh mixed in all the troubles and warfare of this long period of anarchy, when the throne of Timur was rapidly crumbling into dust, his reputation as a soldier would never have handed down his name with honour to posterity; on the contrary, his courage had none of the fire which is requisite to make a Rajput hero; though his talents for civil government and court intrigue, in which he was the Machiavelli of his day, were at that period far more notable auxiliaries.

v3.c41.s1.73

The Building of Jaipur: Work in Astronomy.—As a statesman, legislator, and man of science, the character of Sawai Jai Singh is worthy of an ample delineation,¹ which would correct our opinion of the genius and [357] capacity of the princes of Rajputana, of whom we are apt to form too low an estimate. He was the founder of the new capital, named after him Jaipur or Jainagar, which became the seat of science and art, and eclipsed the more ancient Amber, with which the fortifications of the modern city unite, although the extremity of the one is six miles from the other. Jaipur is the only city in India built upon a regular plan, with streets bisecting each other at right angles.² The merit of the design and execution is assigned to Vidyadhar, a native of Bengal, one of the most eminent coadjutors of the prince in all his scientific pursuits, both astronomical and historical. Almost all the Rajput princes have a smattering of astronomy, or rather of its spurious relation, astrology; but Jai Singh went deep, not only into the theory, but the practice of the science, and was so esteemed for his knowledge, that he was entrusted by the emperor Muhammad Shah with the reformation of the calendar. He had erected observatories with instruments of his own invention at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Benares, and Mathura, upon a scale of Asiatic grandeur; and their results were so correct as to astonish the most learned.³ He had previously used such instruments as those of Ulugh Beg (the royal astronomer of Samarkand), which failed to answer his expectations.¹ From the observations of seven years at the various observatories, he constructed a set of tables. While thus engaged, he learned through a Portuguese missionary, Padre Manuel, the progress which his favourite pursuit was making in Portugal, and he sent "several skilful persons along with him"² to the court of Emanuel. The king of Portugal dispatched Xavier de Silva, who communicated to the Rajput prince the tables of De la Hire.³ "On examining and comparing the calculations of these tables (says the Rajput prince) with actual observation, it appeared there was an error in the former, in assigning the moon's place, of half a degree; although the error in the other planets was not so great, yet the times of solar and lunar eclipses he⁴ found to come out later or earlier than the truth by the fourth part of a ghari, or fifteen pals (six minutes of time)." In like manner, as he found fault with the instruments of brass used by the Turki astronomer, and which he conjectures must have been such as were used by Hipparchus and Ptolemy, so he attributes the inaccuracies of De la Hire's tables [358] to instruments of "inferior diameters." The Rajput prince might justly boast of his instruments. With that at Delhi, he, in A.D. 1729, determined the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23° 28'; within 28" of what it was determined to be, the year following, by Godin. His general accuracy was further put to the test in A.D. 1793 by our scientific countryman, Dr. W. Hunter, who compared a series of observations on the latitude of Ujjain with that established by the Rajput prince. The difference was

v3.c41.s1.74

¹ For such a sketch, the materials of the Amber court are abundant; to instance only the Kalpadruma, a miscellaneous diary, in which everything of note was written, and a collection entitled Ek sad nau gun Jai Singh ke, or ‘the one hundred and nine actions of Jai Singh’ of which I have heard several narrated and noted. His voluminous correspondence with all the princes and chiefs of his time would alone repay the trouble of translation, and would throw a more perfect light on the manners and feelings of his countrymen than the most laborious lucubrations of any European. I possess an autograph letter of this prince, on one of the most important events of Indian history at this period, the deposal of Farrukhsiyar. It was addressed to the Rana.

v3.c41.s1.75

² [For a graphic account of Jaipur city see Rudyard Kipling, From Sea to Sea, chap. ii.]

v3.c41.s1.76

³ [For these observatories see A. ff. Garrett and Pandit Chandradhar

v3.c41.s1.77

¹ [Ulugh Beg, son of Shāh Rukh and grandson of Amīr Timūr, succeeded his father A.D. 1447, and was put to death by his son, Mīrza Abdul Latīf, in 1449. His astronomical tables were published in Latin by John Gregory, Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and were edited by Thomas Hyde in 1665 (Sykes, *Hist. of Persia*, ii. 218; *EB*, 11th ed. xxvii. 573 f.).]

v3.c41.s1.78

² It would be worth ascertaining whether the archives of Lisbon refer to this circumstance.

v3.c41.s1.79

³ Second edition, published in A.D. 1702. Jai Singh finished his in A.D. 1728.

v3.c41.s1.80

⁴ Jai Singh always speaks of himself in the third person.

v3.c41.s1.81

Guleri, *The Jaipur Observatory and its Builder*, Allahabad, 1902; Fanshawe, *Delhi Past and Present*, 247 f.; Sherring, *The Sacred City of the Hindus*, 131 ff. The observatory at Mathura was in the Fort, but it has disappeared; at Ujjain only scanty remains exist (Growse, *Mathura*, 3rd ed. 140; *IGI*, xviii. 73, xxiv. 113).]

v3.c41.s1.82

24″; and Dr. Hunter does not depend on his own observations within 15″. Jai Singh made the latitude 23° 10′ N. ; Dr. Hunter, 23° 10′ 24″ N.

v3.c41.s1.83

From the results of his varied observations, Jai Singh drew up a set of tables, which he entitled *Zij Muhammadshahi*, dedicated to that monarch; by these, all astronomical computations are yet made, and almanacks constructed. It would be wrong—while considering these labours of a prince who caused Euclid’s Elements, the treatises on plain and spherical trigonometry, ‘Don Juan,’ Napier on the construction and use of logarithms, to be translated into Sanskrit—to omit noticing the high strain of devotion with which he views the wonders of the “Supreme Artificer”; recalling the line of one of our own best poets:¹

v3.c41.s1.84

¹ [Young, Night Thoughts, ix. 771.]

v3.c41.s1.85

An undevout astronomer is mad.

v3.c41.s1.86

The Rajput prince thus opens his preface: “Praise be to God, such that the minutely discerning genius of the most profound geometers, in uttering the smallest particle of it, may open the mouth in confession of inability; and such adoration, that the study and accuracy of astronomers, who measure the heavens, may acknowledge their astonishment, and utter insufficiency! Let us devote ourselves at the altar of the King of Kings, hallowed be his name! in the book of the register of whose power the lofty orbs of heaven are only a few leaves; and the stars, and that heavenly courser the sun, small pieces of money, in the treasury of the empire of the Most High.

v3.c41.s1.87

“From inability to comprehend the all-encompassing beneficence of his power, Hipparchus is an ignorant clown, who wrings the hands of vexation; and in the contemplation of his exalted majesty, Ptolemy is a bat, who can never arrive at the sun of truth: the demonstrations of Euclid are an imperfect sketch of the forms of his contrivance.

v3.c41.s1.88

“But since the well-wisher of the works of creation, and the admiring spectator of the works of infinite wisdom, Sawai Jai Singh, from the first dawning of reason in his mind, and during its progress towards maturity, was entirely devoted to the study [359] of mathematical science, and the bent of his mind was constantly directed to the solution of its most difficult problems; by the aid of the Supreme Artificer, he obtained a thorough knowledge of its principles and rules,” etc.¹

v3.c41.s1.89

¹ See “Account of the Astronomical Labours of Jya Sing, Raja of Amber,” by Dr. W. Hunter (*Asiatic Researches*, vol. v. p. 177), to whom I refer the reader for the description of the instruments used by the Raja. The Author has seen those at Delhi and Mathura. There is also an equinoctial dial constructed on the terrace of the palace of Udaipur, and various instruments at Kotah and Bundi, especially an armillary sphere, at the former, of about five feet diameter, all in brass, got up under the scholars of Jai Singh. Dr. Hunter gives a most interesting account of a young pandit, whom he found at Ujjain, the grandson of one of the coadjutors of Jai Singh, who held the office of Jyotishrae, or Astronomer-Royal, and an estate of five thousand rupees annual rent, both of which (title and estate) descended to this young man; but science fled with Jai Singh, and the barbarian Mahrattas had rendered his estate desolate and unproductive. He possessed, says Dr. H., a thorough acquaintance with the Hindu astronomical science contained in the various Siddhantas, and that not confined to the mechanical practice of rules, but founded on a geometrical knowledge of their demonstration. This inheritor of the mantle of Jai Singh died at Jaipur, soon after Dr. Hunter left Ujjain, in A.D. 1793.

v3.c41.s1.90

Besides the construction of these objects of science, he erected, at his own expense, caravanserais for the free use of travellers in many of the provinces. How far vanity may have mingled with benevolence in this act (by no means uncommon in India), it were uncharitable to inquire : for the Hindu not only prays for all those “who travel by land or by water,” but aids the traveller by serais or inns, and wells dug at his own expense, and in most capitals and cities, under the ancient princes, there were public charities for necessitous travellers, at which they had their meals, and then passed on.

v3.c41.s1.91

Assassination of Farrukhsiyar, May 16, 1719.—When we consider that Jai Singh carried on his favourite pursuits in the midst of perpetual wars and court intrigues, from whose debasing influence he escaped not untainted ; when amidst revolution, the destruction of the empire, and the meteoric rise of the Mahrattas, he not only steered through the dangers, but elevated Amber above all the principalities around, we must admit that he was an extraordinary man. Aware of the approaching downfall of the Mogul empire, and determined to aggrandize Amber from the wreck, he was, nevertheless, not unfaithful to his lord-paramount; for, on the conspiracy which deprived Farrukhsiyar of empire and of life, Jai Singh was one of the few princes who retained their fidelity, and would have stood by him to the last, if he had possessed a particle of the valour which belonged to the descendants of Timur.¹

v3.c41.s1.92

¹ J. Scott, in his excellent history of the successors of Aurangzeb [ed. 1794, ii. 156 ff.], gives a full account of this tragical event, on which I have already touched in Vol. I. p. 474 of this work; where I have given a literal translation of the autograph letter of Raja Jai Singh on the occasion.

v3.c41.s1.93

Enough has been said of his public life, in that portion of the Annals of Mewar with which he was so closely connected, both by political and family ties. The Sayyids, who succeeded to power on the murder of their sovereign Farrukhsiyar, were too wise to raise enemies unnecessarily; and Jai Singh, when he left the unhappy monarch to his fate, retired to his hereditary dominions, devoting himself to his favourite pursuits, astronomy and history. He appears to have enjoyed three years of uninterrupted quiet, taking no part in the struggles, which terminated, in A.D. 1721, with Muhammad Shah’s defeat of his rivals, and the destruction of the Sayyids [360]. At this period Jai Singh was called from his philosophical pursuits, and appointed the king’s lieutenant for the provinces of Agra and Malwa in succession: and it was during this interval of comparative repose, that he erected those monuments which irradiate this dark epoch of the history of India.² Nor was he blind to the interests of his nation or the honour of Amber, and his important office was made subservient to obtaining the repeal of that disgraceful edict, the jizya, and authority to repress the infant power of the Jats, long a thorn in the side of Amber. But when, in A.D. 1732, the Raja, once more lieutenant for Malwa, saw that it was in vain to attempt to check the Mahratta invasion, or to prevent the partition of the empire, he deemed himself justified in consulting the welfare of his own house. We know not what terms Jai Singh entered into with the Mahratta leader, Bajirao, who by his influence was appointed Subahdar of Malwa; we may, however, imagine it was from some more powerful stimulant than the native historian of this period assigns, namely, “a similarity of religion.” By this conduct, Jai Singh is said emphatically, by his own countrymen, to have given the key of Hindustan to the Southron. The influence his character obtained, however, with the Mahrattas was even useful to his sovereign, for by it he retarded their excesses, which at length reached the capital. In a few years more (A.D. 1739), Nadir Shah’s invasion took place, and the Rajputs, wisely alive to their own interests, remained aloof from a cause which neither valour nor wisdom could longer serve. They respected the emperor, but the system of government had long alienated these gallant supporters of the throne. We may exemplify the trials to which Rajput fidelity was exposed, by one of “the hundred and nine deeds of Jai Singh” which will at the same time serve further to illustrate the position, that half the political and moral evils which have vexed the royal houses of Rajputana, take their rise from polygamy.

v3.c41.s1.94

² The Raja says he finished his tables in A.D. 1728, and that he had occupied himself seven years previously in the necessary observations; in fact, the first quiet years of Muhammad Shah’s reign, or indeed that India had known for centuries.

First 95 of 463 passages. Read on

Linked texts (6)