Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c42.s1.t2.20

v3.c42.s1.t2.20

him, he levelled a blow, which severed his right arm from his body and brought him from his horse. The Solanki's attendants took to flight, and the Chauhan put the severed limb, on which was the golden bracelet, in his scarf, and proceeded back to Bundi. Here all was confusion and sorrow. The Solanki queen, true to her faith, determined to mount the pyre with the murdered body of her lord; yet equally true to the line whence she sprung, was praising the vigour of her brother's arm, "which had made so many mouths,¹ that she wanted hands to present a pan to each." At the moment she was apostrophizing the dead body of her lord, his faithful vassal entered, and undoing the scarf presented to her the dissevered arm, saying, "Perhaps this may aid you." She recognized the bracelet, and though, as a Sati, she had done with this world, and should die in peace with all mankind, she could not forget, even at that dread moment, that "to revenge a feud" was the first of all duties. She called for pen and ink, and before mounting the pyre wrote to her brother, that if he did not wipe off that disgrace, his seed would be stigmatized as the issue of "the one-handed Solanki." When he perused the dying words of his Sati sister, he was stung to the soul, and being incapable of revenge, immediately dashed out his brains against a pillar of the hall.