Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c41.s1.153

v3.c41.s1.153

Jawahir Singh, who succeeded, was the contemporary of Raja Madho Singh, whose reign in Jaipur we have just reached; and to the Jat’s determination to measure swords with him were owing, not only the frustration of his schemes for humbling the Mahratta, but the dismemberment of the country by the defection of the chief of Macheri. Jawahir Singh, in A.H. 1182, having in vain solicited the district of Kamona, manifested his resentment by instantly marching through the Jaipur territories to the sacred lake of Pushkar, without any previous intimation. He there met Raja Bijai Singh of Marwar, who, in spite of his Jat origin, condescended to ‘exchange turbans,’ the sign of friendship and fraternal adoption. At this period, Madho Singh’s health was on the decline, and his counsels were guided by two brothers, named Harsahai and Gursahai, who represented the insulting conduct of the Jat and required instructions. They were commanded to address him a letter warning him not to return through the territories of Amber, and the chiefs were desired to assemble their retainers in order to punish a repetition of the insult. But the Jat, who had determined to abide the consequences, paid no regard to the letter, and returned homewards by the same route. This was a justifiable ground of quarrel, and the united Kothribands marched to the encounter, to maintain the pretensions of their equestrian order against the plebeian Jat. A desperate conflict ensued, which, though it terminated in favour of the Kachhwahas and in the flight of the leader of the Jats, proved destructive to Amber, in the loss of almost every chieftain of note¹ [372].