The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c15.s1.32

c15.s1.32

Thus, for instance, an early Rajput chronicle of the great Rathor house relates how an ancestor, Vīrama, after joining two leading members of the inimical Johiyo clan, started a feud against his elder brother, was expelled, made attacks on the "imperial road," fought and dodged the troops of the sultan, and finally, combining again with his two Johiyo allies, "went and unyoked his carts at Vaderana. And the Johiyos gave Vīrama the fourth part (of the profits of) the road." Then, finding new allies through marriage, he "started to devastate the territory of the Johiyos and to seize the whole (profit of) the road," till Vīrama at last was killed with 140 of his men, as was the leading Johiyo, when the latter retaliated by devastating the villages controlled by Vīrama. And so the story of feuds, alliances, establishing and losing control over roads and villages, founding and attacking towns and principalities went on.⁴³ Though this particular episode relates to the fifteenth century, it may well epitomize the inner frontier under the Mughals.