Book 9 — CHAPTER 1
Reading edition
By some conventional process, Europeans in India have adopted the habit of designating the principalities of Rajputana by the names of their respective capitals, instead of those of the countries. Thus Marwar and Mewar are recognized under the titles of their chief cities, Jodhpur and Udaipur; Kotah and Bundi are denominations indiscriminately applied to Haravati, the general term of the region, which is rarely mentioned; and Dhundhar is hardly known by that denomination to Europeans, who refer to the State only by the names of its capitals, Amber or Jaipur, the last of which is now universally used to designate the region inhabited by the Kachhwahas [346].
Boundaries of Jaipur State.
—The map defines the existing boundaries of this principality, to which I shall indiscriminately apply the terms (as is the practice of the natives) of Dhundhar, Amber, and Jaipur.
Etymology of Dhūndhār.
—Like all the other Rajput States, the country of the Kachhwahas is an assemblage of communities,
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the territories of which have been wrested from the aboriginal tribes, or from independent chieftains, at various periods; and therefore the term Dhundhar, which was only one of their earliest acquisitions, had scarcely a title to impose its name upon the aggregate. The etymology of Dhundhar is from a once celebrated sacrificial mount (
thal
) on the western frontier, near Kalakh Jobner.
The Kachhwāha Tribe.
—The Kachhwaha or Kachhwa race claims descent from Kusa, the second son of Rama, King of Kosala, whose capital was Ayodhya, the modern Oudh. Kusa, or some of his immediate offspring, is said to have migrated from the parental abode, and erected the celebrated castle of Rohtas, or Rohitas,
on the Son, whence, in the lapse of several generations, another distinguished scion, Raja Nal, migrated westward, and in S. 351, or
A.D.
295, founded the kingdom and city of Narwar, or classically, Naishadha.
Some of the traditional chronicles
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record intermediate places of domicile prior to the erection of this famed city: first, the town of Lahar, in the heart of a tract yet named Kachhwahagar, or region (
thal
) of the Kachhwahas;
and secondly, that of Gwalior. Be this as it may, the descendants of Raja Nal adopted the affix of Pal (which appears to be the distinguishing epithet of all the early Rajput tribes), until Sora Singh (thirty-third in descent from Nal), whose son, Dhola Rae, was expelled the paternal abode, and in S. 1023,
A.D.
967, laid the foundation of the State of Dhundhar [347].
A family, which traces its lineage from Rama of Kosala, Nala of Naishadha, and Dhola the lover of Maroni, may be allowed ‘the boast of heraldry’; and in remembrance of this descent, the Kachhwahas of India celebrate with great solemnity ‘the annual feast of the sun,’ on which occasion a stately car, called the chariot of the sun (thal), drawn by eight horses, is brought from the temple, and the descendant of Rama, ascending therein, perambulates his capital.
Origin of Jaipur State. Dhola Rāē.
—A case of simple usurpation originated the Kachhwaha State of Amber; but it would be contrary to precedent if this event were untinged with romance. As the episode, while it does not violate probability, illustrates the condition of the aboriginal tribes, we do not exclude the tradition. On the death of Sora Singh, prince of Narwar, his brother usurped the government, depriving the infant, Dhola Rae, of his inheritance. His mother, clothing herself in mean apparel, put the infant in a basket, which she placed on her head, and travelled westward until she reached the town of Khoganw
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(within five miles of the modern Jaipur), then inhabited by the Minas. Distressed with hunger and fatigue, she had placed her precious burden on the ground, and was plucking some wild berries, when she observed a hooded serpent rearing its form over the basket.
She uttered a shriek, which attracted an itinerant Brahman, who told her to be under no alarm, but rather to rejoice at this certain indication of future greatness in the boy. But the emaciated parent of the founder of Amber replied, “What may be in futurity I heed not, while I am sinking with hunger”; on which the Brahman put her in the way of Khoganw, where he said her necessities would be relieved. Taking up the basket, she reached the town, which is encircled by hills, and accosting a female, who happened to be a slave of the Mina chieftain, begged any menial employment for food. By direction of the Mina Rani, she was entertained with the slaves. One day she was ordered to prepare dinner, of which Ralansi, the Mina Raja, partook, and found it so superior to his usual fare, that he sent for the cook, who related her story.
As soon as the Mina chief discovered the rank of the illustrious fugitive, he adopted her as his sister, and Dhola Rae as his nephew. When the boy had attained the age of Rajput manhood (fourteen), he was sent to Delhi,
with the tribute of Khoganw, to attend instead of the Mina. The young Kachhwaha remained there five years, when he conceived the idea of usurping his benefactor’s authority. Having consulted the Mina Dharhi,
or bard, as to the best means of executing his plan, he recommended [348] him to take advantage of the festival of the Diwali, when it is customary to perform the ablutions
en masse
, in a tank. Having brought a few of his Rajput brethren from Delhi, he accomplished his object, filling the reservoirs in which the Minas bathed with their dead bodies. The treacherous bard did not escape; Dhola Rae put him to death with his own hands, observing, “He who had proved unfaithful to one master could not be
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trusted by another.” He then took possession of Khoganw. Soon after he repaired to Dausa,
a castle and district ruled by an independent chief of the Bargujar tribe of Rajputs, whose daughter he demanded in marriage. “How can this be,” said the Bargujar, “when we are both Suryavansi, and one hundred generations have not yet separated us?”
But being convinced that the necessary number of descents had intervened, the nuptials took place, and as the Bargujar had no male issue, he resigned his power to his son-in-law. With the additional means thus at his disposal, Dhola determined to subjugate the Sira
tribe of Minas, whose chief, Rao Nata, dwelt at Machh. Again he was victorious, and deeming his new conquest better adapted for a residence than Khoganw, he transferred his infant government thither, changing the name of Machh, in honour of his great ancestor, to Ramgarh.
Dhola subsequently married the daughter of the prince of Ajmer, whose name was Maroni.[13] Returning on one occasion with her from visiting the shrine of Jamwahi Mata,[14] the whole force of the Minas of that region assembled, to the number of eleven thousand, to oppose his passage through their country. Dhola gave them battle: but after slaying vast numbers of his foes, he was himself killed, and his followers fled. Maroni escaped, and bore a posthumous child, who was named Kankhal, and who conquered the country of Dhundhar. His son, Maidal 1332Rao, made a conquest of Amber from the Susawat Minas, the residence of their chief, named Bhato, who had the title of Rao, and was head of the Mina confederation. He also subdued the Nandla Minas, and added the district of Gatur-Ghati to his territory.
Hūndeo, Kuntal.
—Hundeo succeeded, and, like his predecessors, continued the warfare against the Minas. He was succeeded by Kuntal, whose sway extended over all the hill-tribes round his capital. Having determined to proceed to Bhatwar, where a Chauhan prince resided, in order to marry his daughter, his Mina subjects, remembering the [349] former fatality, collected from all quarters, demanding that, if he went beyond the borders, he should leave the standards and nakkaras of sovereignty in their custody. Kuntal refusing to submit, a battle ensued, in which the Minas were defeated with great slaughter, which secured his rule throughout Dhundhar.
Pajūn.
—Kuntal was succeeded by Pajun, a name well known to the chivalrous Rajput, and immortalized by Chand, in the poetic history (
Raesa
) of the emperor Prithiraj. Before, however, we proceed further, it may be convenient to give a sketch of the power and numbers of the indigenous tribes at this period.
The Mīna Tribe.
—We have already had frequent occasion to observe the tendency of the aboriginal tribes to emerge from bondage and depression, which has been seen in Mewar, Kotah, and Bundi, and is now exemplified in the rise of the Kachhwahas in Dhundhar. The original, pure, unmixed race of Minas, or Mainas, of Dhundhar, were styled Pachwara, and subdivided into five grand tribes. Their original home was in the range of mountains called Kalikoh, extending from Ajmer nearly to the Jumna, where they erected Amber, consecrated to Amba, the universal mother,
[15]
or, as the Minas style her, Ghata Rani, ‘Queen of the pass.’ In this range were Khoganw, Machh, and many other large towns, the chief cities of communities. But even so late as Raja Baharmall Kachhwaha, the contemporary of Babur and Humayun, the Minas had retained or regained great power, to the mortification of their Rajput superiors. One of these independent communities
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was at the ancient city of Nain, destroyed by Baharmall, no doubt with the aid of his Mogul connexions. An old historical distich thus records the power of the Mina princes of Nain:
Bāwan kot, chhappan darvāja,
Mīna mard, Nāin kā rājā,
Vado rāj Nāin ko bhago,
Jab bhus-hī men vāmto māgo.
That is, 'There were fifty-two strongholds,[15] and fifty-six gates belonging to the manly Mina, the Raja of Nain, whose sovereignty of Nain was extinct, when even of chaff (bhus) he took a share.' If this is not an exaggeration, it would appear that, during the distractions of the first Islamite dynasties of Delhi, the Minas had attained their primitive importance. Certainly from Pajun, the vassal chieftain of Prithiraj [350], to Baharmall, the contemporary of Babur, the Kachhwahas had but little increased their territory. When this latter prince destroyed the Mina sovereignty of Nain, he levelled its half hundred gates, and erected the town of Lohwan (now the residence of the Rajawat chief) on its ruins.
A distinction is made in the orthography and pronunciation of the designation of this race: Maina, meaning the asl, or ‘unmixed class,’ of which there is now but one, the Usara; while Mina is that applied to the mixed, of which they reckon barah pal,[16] or twelve communities, descended from Rajput blood, as Chauhan, Tuar, Jadon, Parihar, Kachhwaha, Solanki, Sankhla, Guhilot, etc., and these are subdivided into no less than five thousand two hundred distinct clans, of which it is the duty of 1334the Jaga, Dholi, or Dom, their genealogists, to keep account. The unmixed Usara stock is now exceedingly rare, while the mixed races, spread over all the hilly and intricate regions of central and western India, boast of their descent at the expense of ‘legitimacy.’ These facts all tend strongly to prove that the Rajputs were conquerors, and that the mountaineers, whether Kolis, Bhils, Minas, Gonds, Savaras or Sarjas, are the indigenous inhabitants of India. This subject will be fully treated hereafter, in a separate chapter devoted to the Mina tribes, their religion, manners, and customs.
Death of Pajūn.
—Let us return to Pajun, the sixth in descent from the exile of Narwar, who was deemed of sufficient consequence to obtain in marriage the sister of Prithiraj, the Chauhan emperor of Delhi, an honour perhaps attributable to the splendour of Pajun’s descent, added to his great personal merit. The chivalrous Chauhan, who had assembled around him one hundred and eight chiefs of the highest rank in India, assigned a conspicuous place to Pajun, who commanded a division of that monarch’s armies in many of his most important battles. Pajun twice signalized himself in invasions from the north, in one of which, when he commanded on the frontier, he defeated Shihabu-d-din in the Khaibar Pass, and pursued him towards Ghazni.
His valour mainly contributed to the conquest of Mahoba, the country of the Chandels, of which he was left governor; and he was one of the sixty-four chiefs who, with a chosen body of their retainers, enabled Prithiraj to carry off the princess of Kanauj. In this service, covering [351] the retreat of his liege lord, Pajun lost his life, on the first of the five days’ continuous battle. Pajun was conjoined with Govind Guhilot, a chief of the Mewar house;—both fell together. Chand, the bard, thus describes the last hours of the Kachhwaha prince: “When Govind fell, the foe danced with joy: then did Pajun thunder on the curtain of fight: with both hands he plied the
khadga
(sword) on the heads of the barbarian. Four hundred rushed upon him; but the five brothers in arms, Kehari, Pipa, and Boho, with Narsingh and Kachra, supported him. Spears and daggers are plied—heads roll on the plain—blood flows in streams. Pajun assailed
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Itimad; but as his head rolled at his feet, he received the Khan’s lance in his breast; the Kurma
fell in the field, and the Apsaras disputed for the hero. Whole lines of the northmen strew the plain: many a head did Mahadeo add to his chaplet.
When Pajun and Govind fell, one watch of the day remained. To rescue his kin came Palhan, like a tiger loosed from his chain. The array of Kanauj fell back; the cloudlike host of Jaichand turned its head. The brother of Pajun, with his son, performed deeds like Karna:
but both fell in the field, and gained the secret of the sun, whose chariot advanced to conduct them to his mansion.
“Ganga shrunk with affright, the moon quivered, the Dikpals[21] howled at their posts: checked was the advance of Kanauj, and in the pause the Kurma performed the last rites to his sire (Pajun), who broke in pieces the shields of Jaichand. Pajun was a buckler to his lord, and numerous his gifts of the steel to the heroes of Kanauj: not even by the bard can his deeds be described. He placed his feet on the head of Sheshnag,[22] he made a waste of the forest of men, nor dared the sons of the mighty approach him. As Pajun fell, he exclaimed, ‘One hundred years are the limit of man’s life, of which fifty are lost in night, and half this in childhood; but the Almighty taught me to wield the brand.’ As he spoke, even in the arms of Yama, he beheld the arm of his boy playing on the head of the foeman. His parting soul was satisfied: seven wounds from the sword had Malasi received, whose steed was covered with wounds: mighty were the deeds performed by the son of Pajun.”
Mālasi.
—This Malasi, in whose praise the bard of Prithiraj is so lavish, succeeded (according to the chronicle) his father Pajun in the Raj of Amber. There is little said of him in the transcript in my possession. There are, however, abundance of traditional couplets to prove that the successors of Pajun were not wanting in the chief duties of the Rajput [352], the exercise
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of his sword. One of these mentions his having gained a victory at Rutrahi over the prince of Mandu.
We shall pass over the intermediate princes from Malasi to Prithiraj, the eleventh in descent, with a bare enumeration of their names: namely, Malasi, Bijal, Rajdeo, Kilan, Kuntal, Junsi, Udaikaran, Narsingh, Banbir, Udharan, Chandrasen, Prithiraj.
Prithirāj.
—Prithiraj had seventeen sons, twelve of whom reached man’s estate. To them and their successors in perpetuity he assigned appanages, styled the Barah Kothri, or ‘twelve chambers’ of the Kachhwaha house. The portion of each was necessarily very limited; some of the descendants of this hereditary aristocracy now hold estates equal in magnitude to the principality itself at that period. Previous, however, to this perpetual settlement of Kachhwaha fiefs, and indeed intermediately between Malasi and Prithiraj, a disjunction of the junior branches of the royal family took place, which led to the foundation of a power for a long time exceeding in magnitude the parent State. This was in the time of Udaikaran, whose son Baloji left his father’s house, and obtained the town and small district of Amritsar, which in time devolved on his grandson Shaikhji, and became the nucleus of an extensive and singular confederation, known by the name of the founder, Shaikhavati,
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at this day covering an area of nearly ten thousand square miles. As this subject will be discussed in its proper place, we shall no longer dwell on it, but proceed with the posterity of Prithiraj, amongst the few incidents of whose life is mentioned his meritorious pilgrimage to Dewal,
near the mouth of the Indus. But [353] even this could not save him from foul assassination, and the assassin was his own son, Bhim, “whose countenance (says the chronicle) was that of a demon.” The record is obscure, but it would appear that one parricide was punished by another, and that Askaran, the son of Bhim, was instigated by his brethren to put their father to death, and “to expiate the crime by pilgrimage.”
In one list, both these monsters are enumerated amongst the ‘anointed’ of Amber, but they are generally omitted in the genealogical chain, doubtless from a feeling of disgust.
Bahār or Bihāri Mall, c. A.D. 1548-75.
—Baharmall was the first prince of Amber who paid homage to the Muhammadan power. He attended the fortunes of Babur, and received from Humayun (previous to the Pathan usurpation), the mansab of five thousand as Raja of Amber.
Bhagwāndās, c. A.D. 1575-92.
—Bhagwandas, son of Baharmall, became still more intimately allied with the Mogul dynasty. He was the friend of Akbar, who saw the full value of attaching such men to his throne. By what arts or influence he overcame the scruples of the Kachhwaha Rajput we know not, unless by appealing to his avarice or ambition; but the name of Bhagwandas is execrated as the first who sullied Rajput purity by matrimonial alliance with the Islamite.
His daughter espoused
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Prince Salim, afterwards Jahangir, and the fruit of the marriage was the unfortunate Khusru.
Mān Singh, c. A.D. 1592-1614.
—Man Singh, nephew
and successor of Bhagwandas, was the most brilliant character of Akbar’s court. As the emperor’s lieutenant, he was entrusted with the most arduous duties, and added conquests to the empire from Khotan to the ocean. Orissa was subjugated by him,
Assam humbled and made tributary, and Kabul maintained in her allegiance. He held in succession the governments of Bengal and Behar,
the [354] Deccan and Kabul. Raja Man soon proved to Akbar that his policy of strengthening his throne by Rajput alliances was not without hazard; these alliances introducing a direct influence in the State, which frequently thwarted the views of the sovereign. So powerful was it, that even Akbar, in the zenith of his power, saw no other method of diminishing its force, than the execrable but common expedient of Asiatic despots—poison: it has been already related how the emperor’s attempt recoiled upon him to his destruction.
1339Akbar was on his death-bed when Raja Man commenced an intrigue to alter the succession in favour of his nephew, Prince Khusru, and it was probably in this predicament that the monarch had recourse to the only safe policy, that of seeing the crown fixed on the head of Salim, afterwards Jahangir. The conspiracy for the time was quashed, and Raja Man was sent to the government of Bengal; but it broke out again, and ended in the perpetual imprisonment of Khusru,[33] and a dreadful death to his adherents. Raja Man was too wise to identify himself with the rebellion, though he stimulated his nephew, and he was too powerful to be openly punished, being at the head of twenty thousand Rajputs; but the native chronicle mentions that he was amerced by Jahangir in the incredible sum of ten crores, or millions sterling. According to the Muhammadan historian, Raja Man died in Bengal,[34] A.H. 1024 (A.D. 1615); while the chronicle says he was slain in an expedition against the Khilji tribe in the north two years later.[35]
Bhāo Singh, c. A.D. 1615-21.
—Rao Bhao Singh succeeded his father, and was invested by the emperor with the Panjhazari, or dignity of a legionary chief of five thousand. He was of weak intellect, and ruled a few years without distinction. He died in
A.H.
1030 of excessive drinking.
Mahā Singh, c. A.D. 1621-25.
—Maha succeeded, and in like manner died from dissipated habits. These unworthy successors of Raja Man allowed the princes of Jodhpur to take the lead at the imperial court. At the instigation of the celebrated Jodha Bai (daughter of Rae Singh of Bikaner), the Rajputni wife of Jahangir, Jai Singh, grandson of Jagat Singh (brother of Man), was raised to the throne of Amber, to the no small jealousy, says [355] the chronicle, of the favourite queen, Nur Jahan. It relates that the
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succession was settled by the emperor and the Rajputni in a conference at the balcony of the seraglio, where the emperor saluted the youth below as Raja of Amber, and commanded him to make his salaam to Jodha Bai, as the source of this honour. But the customs of Rajwara could not be broken: it was contrary to etiquette for a Rajput chief to salaam, and he replied: “I will do this to any lady of your majesty’s family, but not to Jodha Bai”; upon which she good-naturedly laughed, and called out, “It matters not; I give you the raj of Amber.”
Jai Singh, Mīrza Rājā, c. A.D. 1625-67.
—Jai Singh, the Mirza Raja, the title by which he is best known, restored by his conduct the renown of the Kachhwaha name, which had been tarnished by the two unworthy successors of Raja Man. He performed great services to the empire during the reign of Aurangzeb, who bestowed upon him the mansab of six thousand. He made prisoner the celebrated Sivaji, whom he conveyed to court, and afterwards, on finding that his pledge of safety was likely to be broken, was accessary to his liberation. But this instance of magnanimity was more than counterbalanced by his treachery to Dara, in the war of succession, which crushed the hopes of that brave prince. These acts, and their consequences, produced an unconquerable haughtiness of demeanour, which determined the tyrannical Aurangzeb to destroy him. The chronicle says he had twenty-two thousand Rajput cavalry at his disposal, and twenty-two great vassal chiefs, who commanded under him; that he would sit with them in darbar, holding two glasses, one of which he called Delhi, the other Satara, and dashing one to the ground, would exclaim, “There goes Satara; the fate of Delhi is in my right hand, and this with like facility I can cast away.” These vaunts reaching the emperor’s ear, he had recourse to the same diabolical expedient which ruined Marwar, of making a son the assassin of his father. He promised the succession to the
gaddi
of Amber to Kirat Singh, younger son of the Raja, to the prejudice of his elder brother Ram Singh, if he effected the horrid deed.
The wretch having perpetrated the crime by mixing poison in his father’s opium, returned to claim the investiture: but the king only gave him the district of Kama. From this period, says the chronicle, Amber declined.
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Rām Singh, Bishan Singh.
—Ram Singh, who succeeded, had the mansab of four thousand conferred upon him, and was sent against the Assamese.
Upon his death, Bishan Singh, whose mansab was further reduced to the grade of three thousand, succeeded; but he enjoyed the dignity only a short period [356].