Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c42.s1.t4.3

v3.c42.s1.t4.3

Jaipur attacks Kotah.—Isari Singh, who was now lord of Amber, pursuing his father’s policy, determined that Kotah should bend to his supremacy as well as the elder branch of Bundi. The defiance of his power avowed in the support of young Ummeda brought his views into [488] action, and Kotah was invested. But the result does not belong to this part of our history. On the retreat from Kotah, Isari sent a body of Nanakpanthis ¹ to attack Ummeda in his retreat at Burh (old) Lohari, amongst the Minas, the aboriginal lords of these mountain-wilds, who had often served the cause of the Haras, notwithstanding they had deprived them of their birthright. The youthful valour and distress of young Ummeda so gained their hearts, that five thousand bowmen assembled and desired to be led against his enemies. With these auxiliaries, he anticipated his foes at Bichori, and while the nimble mountaineers plundered the camp, Ummeda charged the Jaipur army sword in hand, and slaughtered them without mercy, taking their kettledrums and standards. On the news of this defeat, another army of eighteen thousand men, under Narayandas Khatri, was sent against Ummeda. But the affair of Bichori confirmed the dispositions of the Haras : from all quarters they flocked to the standard of the young prince, who determined to risk everything in a general engagement. The foe had reached Dablana.² On the eve of attack, young Ummeda went to propitiate ‘the lady of Situn,’³ the tutelary divinity of his race; and as he knelt before the altar of Asapurna (the fulfiller of hope), his eyes falling upon the turrets of Bundi, then held by a traitor, he swore to conquer or die.