Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c41.s1.66

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.