Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.26

v3.c43.t1.26

The colony, which now consists of some thousands of both sexes, presented an enigma to our young Englishmen, who think “ all black fellows alike,” and equally beneath notice : it was remarked how comfortable they looked in house and person, though there was not a vestige of cultivation around their habitations. The military policy of the troubled period accounts for the first ; and a visit to the altars of Marla will furnish the cause of the neglect of the agrarian laws of Mewar. As the community increased in numbers, the subdivision of the lands continued, according to the customs of Cutch, until a dispute regarding limits produced a civil war. A ferocious combat ensued, when the wives of the combatants who were slain ascended the funeral pile ; and to prevent a similar catastrophe, imprecated a curse on whomever from that day should cultivate a field in Marla ; since which the land has lain in absolute sterility ! Such is the implicit reverence for the injunction of a Sati, at this moment of awful inspiration, when about to take leave of the world. In Mewar, the most solemn of all oaths is that of the Sati. Maha sati an-ki-an, ‘ by the great Satis,’ is an adjuration frequently used in the royal patents.