Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c41.s1.166

v3.c41.s1.166

Jagat Singh, A.D. 1803-18.—Jagat Singh succeeded in A.D. 1803, and ruled for seventeen [fifteen] years, with the disgraceful distinction of being the most dissolute prince of his race or of his age. The events with which his reign is crowded would fill volumes were they worthy of being recorded. Foreign invasions, cities besieged, capitulations and war-contributions, occasional acts of heroism, when the invader forgot the point of honour, court intrigues, diversified, not unfrequently, by an appeal to the sword or dagger, even in the precincts of the court. Sometimes the daily journals (akhbars) disseminated the scandal of the Rawala (female apartments), the follies of the libertine prince with his concubine Raskafur, or even less worthy objects, who excluded from the nuptial couch his lawful mates of the noble blood of Jodha, or Jaisal, the Rathors and Bhattis of the desert. We shall not disgrace these annals with the history of a life which discloses not one redeeming virtue amidst a cluster of effeminate vices, including the rankest, in the opinion of a Rajput—cowardice. The black transaction respecting the princess of Udaipur, has already been related (Vol. I. p. 536), which covered him with disgrace, and inflicted a greater loss, in his estimation even than that of character—a million sterling. The treasures of the Jai Mandir were rapidly dissipated, to the grief of those faithful hereditary guardians, the Minas of Kalikoh, some of whom committed suicide rather than see these sacred deposits squandered on their prince's unworthy pursuits. The lofty walls which surrounded the beautiful city of Jai Singh were insulted by every marauder; commerce was interrupted, and agriculture rapidly declined, partly from insecurity, but still more from the perpetual exactions of his minions [376]. One day a tailor¹ ruled the councils, the next a Bania, who might be succeeded by a Brahman, and each had in turn the honour of elevation to the donjon keep of Nahargarh, the castle where criminals are confined, overlooking the city. The feodal chiefs held both his authority and his person in utter contempt, and the pranks he played with the ‘Essence of Camphor’ (*ras-kafur*),² at one time led to serious thoughts of deposing him; which project, when near maturity, was defeated by transferring “this queen of half of Amber,” to the prison of Nahargarh. In the height of his passion for this Islamite concubine, he formally installed her as queen of half his dominions, and actually conveyed to her in gift a moiety of the personality of the crown, even to the invaluable library of the illustrious Jai Singh which was despoiled, and its treasures distributed amongst her base relations. The Raja even struck coin in her name, and not only rode with her on the same elephant, but demanded from his chieftains those forms of reverence towards her which were paid only to his legitimate queens. This their pride could not brook, and though the Diwan or prime minister, Misr Sheonarayan, albeit a Brahman, called her ‘daughter,’ the brave Chand Singh of Duni³ indignantly refused to take part in any ceremony at which she was present. This contumacy was punished by a mulct of £20,000, nearly four years’ revenue of the fief of Duni!