Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.47

v3.c43.47

The virtues owe an immense debt to the present feudal nobility, not only of Mewar but of Rajputana, and it is to be hoped that the rising generation will pay to it what has been withheld by the past; that energy and temperance will supersede opium and the juice of the mahua,¹ and riding in the ring, replace the siesta, and the tabor (tabla) and lute. I endeavoured to banish some of these incentives to degeneracy; nor is there a young chieftain, from the heir-apparent to the throne to the aspirant to a skin of land (when opportunity was granted), from whom I have not exacted a promise, never to touch that debasing drug, opium. Some may break this pledge, but many will keep it; especially those whose minority I protected against court-faction and avarice: such a one as Arjun Singh, the young chief of Basai, of the Sangawat branch of the Chondawat clan. His grandfather (for his father was dead) had maintained the old castle and estate, placed on the elevated Uparmal, against all attempts of the Mahrattas, but had incurred the hatred of Bhim Singh of Salumbar, the head of his clan, who in S. 1846 dispossessed him, and installed a junior branch in the barony of Basai. But the energetic Takht Singh regained his lost rights, and maintained them, until civil broils and foreign foes alike disappeared, on their connexion with the British in 1818. Then the veteran chief, with his grandson, repaired to court, to unite in the general homage to their prince with the assembled chiefs of Mewar. But poverty and the remembrance of old feuds combined to dispossess the youth, and the amount of fine (ten thousand rupees) had actually been fixed for the installation of the interloper, who was supported by all the influence of the chief of Salumbar. This first noble of Mewar tried to avail himself of my friendship to uphold the cause of his protégé, Barad Singh, whom he often brought me to visit, as did old Takhta his grandson. Both were of the same age, thirteen; the aspirant to Basai, fair and stout, but heavy in his looks;