Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c41.s3.176

v3.c41.s3.176

The Mina Tribe.—The Minas are subdivided into no less than thirty-two distinct clans or classes, but it would extend too much the Annals of this State to distinguish them. Moreover, as they belong to every State in Rajwara, we shall find a fitter occasion to give a general account of them. The immunities and privileges preserved to the Minas best attest the truth of the original induction of the exiled prince of Narwar to the sovereignty of Amber ; and it is a curious fact, showing that such establishment must have been owing to adoption, not conquest, that this event was commemorated on every installation by a Mina of Kalikoh marking with his blood the tika of sovereignty on the forehead of the prince. The blood was obtained by incision of the great toe, and though, like many other antiquated usages, this has fallen into desuetude here (as has the same mode of inauguration of the Ranas by the Oghna Bhils), yet both in the one case and in the other, there cannot be more convincing evidence that these now outcasts were originally the masters. The Minas still enjoy the most confidential posts about the persons of the princes of Amber, having charge of the archives [431] and treasure in Jaigarh; they guard his person at night, and have that most delicate of all trusts, the charge of the rawala, or seraglio. In the earlier stages of Kachhwaha power, these their primitive subjects had the whole insignia of state, as well as the person of the prince, committed to their trust; but presuming upon this privilege too far, when they insisted that, in leaving their bounds, he should leave these emblems, the nakkaras and standards, with them, their pretensions were cancelled in their blood. The Minas, Jats, and Kirars are the principal cultivators, many of them holding large estates.¹