Mewar: Sources of the History
This page is an extract from OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN By Edited with an Introduction and Notes by In Three Volumes HUMPHREY MILFORD |
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Sources of the History
For many years previous to sojourn ing at the court of Udaipur, sketches were obtained of the genea logy of the family from the rolls of the bards. To these was added a chronological sketch, drawn up under the eye of Raja Jai Singh of Amber, with comments of some value by him, and which served as a ground-work. Free access was also granted to the Rana's library, and permission obtained to make copies of such MSS. as related to his history. The most important of these was the Khuman Raesa,^ which is evidently a modern work founded upon ancient materials, tracing the genealogy to Rama, and halting at conspicuous beacons in this long line of crowned heads, particu larly about the period of the Muhammadan irruption in the tenth century, the sack of Chitor by Alau-d-din in the thirteenth century, and the wars of Rana Partap with Akbar, during whose reign the work appears to have been recast.
The next in importance were the Rajvilas, in the Vraj Bhakha, by Man Kabeswara ; * and the Rajratnakar,* by Sudasheo Bhat : both written in the reign of Rana Raj Singh, the oj^ponent of Aurangzeb : also the Jaivilas, written in the reign of Jai Singh, son of Raj Singh. They all commence with the genealogies of the
1 The Balhara kings, and their capital Nahrwala, or Anhilwara Patan, have given rise to much conjecture amongst the learned. We shall, before this work is closed, endeavour to condense what has been said by ancient and modern authorities on the subject ; and from manuscripts, ancient inscriptions, and the result of a personal visit to this ancient domain, to set the matter completely at rest. [See p. 122 above.] [" Hippokoura, the royal seat of Baleo Kouros " {Periplus, vhi. 83). Baleo Kouros has been identified with Vilivayakura, a name found on coins of the Andhra dynasty (BO, i. Part ii. 158 ; McCrindle, Ptolemy, 179).]
2 Khuman is an ancient title of the earlier princes, and still used. It was borne by the son of Bappa, the founder, who retired to Transoxiana, and there ruled and died : the very country of the ancient Scythic Khomani. 4 Lord of rhyme. 5 Sea of gems.
family, introductory to the military exploits of the princes whose names they bear.
The Mamadevi Prasistha is a copy of the inscriptions ^ in the temple of ' the Mother of the Gods ' at Kumbhalmer. Genea logical rolls of some antiquity were obtained from the widow of an ancient family bard, who had left neither children nor kindred to follow his profession. Another roll was procured from a priest of the Jains residing in Sandrai, in Marwar, whose ancestry had enjoyed from time immemorial the title of Guru, which they held at the period of the sack of Valabhipura in the fifth century, whence they emigrated simultaneously with the Rana's ancestors. Others were obtained from Jain priests at Jawad in Malwa. Historical documents possessed by several chiefs were readily furnished, and extracts were made from works, both Sanskrit and Persian, which incidentally mention the family. To these were added traditions or biographical anecdotes furnished in con versation by the Rana, or men of intellect amongst his chiefs [215], ministers, or bards, and inscriptions calculated to reconcile dates ; in short, every corroborating circumstance was treasured up which could be obtained by incessant research during sixteen years. The Commentaries of Babur and Jahangir, the Institutes of Akbar, original grants, public and autograph letters of the emperors of Delhi and their ministers, were made to contribute more or less ; yet, numerous as are the authorities cited, the result may afford but little gratification to the general reader, partly owing to the unpopularity of the subject, partly to the inartificial mode of treating it.
