Note 42 — CHAPTER 10

“I find nothing remarkable at the entry but two great elephants of stone, which are in the two sides of one of the gates. Upon one of them is the statue of Jamel (Jeimul), that famous raja of Cheetore, and upon the other Potter (Putta) his brother. These are two gallant men that, together with their mother, who was yet braver than they, cut out so much work for Ekbar; and who, in the sieges of towns which they maintained against him, gave such extraordinary proofs of their generosity, that at length they would rather be killed in the outfalls (sallies) with their mother, than submit; and for this gallantry it is, that even their enemies thought them worthy to have these statues erected to them. These two great elephants, together with the two resolute men sitting on them, do at the first entry into this fortress make an impression of I know not what greatness and awful terror” (Letter written at Delhi, 1st July 1663, from edition printed in London in 1684, in the author’s possession). [Ed. V. A. Smith, 256.] Such the impression made on a Parisian a century after the event: but far more powerful the charm to the author of these annals, as he pondered on the spot where Jaimall received the fatal shot from Sangram, or placed flowers on the cenotaph that marks the fall of the son of Chonda and the mansion of Patta, whence issued the Sesodia matron and her daughter. Every foot of ground is hallowed by ancient recollections. [For the question of these statues see V. A. Smith, HFA, 426; ASR, i. 225 ff.; Manucci, ii. 11.]

In these the reader may in some degree participate, as the plate gives in the distance the ruins of the dwellings both of Jaimall and Patta on the projection of the rock, as well as ‘the ringlet on the forehead of Chitor,’ the column of victory raised by Lakha Rana.