Mewar 10: Succession of Kumbha
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Mewar 10: Succession of Kumbha
Rana Kumbha, a.d. 1433-68
Kumbha succeeded his father in S. 1475 (a.d. 1419) ; 1 nor did any symptom of dissatisfaction
[The dates given in the margin are based on recently found inscriptions (Har Bilas Sarda, Maharana Kumbha : Sovereign, Soldier, Scholar, Ajmer, 1917, p. 2.] appear to usher in his reign, which was one of great success amidst no common difficulties. The bardic historians 1 do as much honour to the Marwar prince, who had made common cause with their sovereign in revenging the death of his father, as if it had involved the security of his crown ; but this was a precautionary measure of the prince, who was induced thus to act from several motives, and, above all, in accordance with usage, which stigmatizes the refusal of aid when demanded : besides ' Kumbha was the nephew of Marwar.'
It has rarely occurred in any country to have possessed suc cessively so many energetic princes as ruled Mewar through several centuries. She was now in the middle path of her glory, and enjoying the legitimate triumph of seeing the foes of her religion captives on the rock of her power. A century had elapsed since the bigot Ala had wreaked his vengeance on the different monuments of art. Chitor had recovered the sack, and new defenders had sprung up in the place [287] of those who had fallen in their ' saffron robes,' a sacrifice for her preservation. All that was wanting to augment her resources against the storms which were collecting on the brows of Caucasus and the shores of the Oxus, and were destined to burst on the head of his grandson Sanga, was effected by Kumbha ; who with Hamir's energy, Lakha's taste for the arts, and a genius comprehensive as either and more fortunate, succeeded in all his undertakings, and once more raised the ' crimson banner ' of Mewar upon the banks of the Ghaggar, the scene of Samarsi's defeat. Iet us contrast the patriarchal Hindu governments of this period with the despotism of the Tatar invader.
From the age of Shihabu-d-din, the conqueror of India, and his contemporary Samarsi, to the time we have now reached, two entire dynasties, numbering twenty-four emperors and one empress, through assassination, rebellion, and dethronement, had followed in rapid succession, yielding a result of only nine years to a reign. Of Mewar, though several fell in defending their altars at home or their religion abroad, eleven princes suffice to fill the same period.
It was towards the close of the Khilji dynasty that the satraps 1 The Raj Ratana, by Ranchhor Bhat, says : " The Mandor Rao was pardhan, or premier to Mokal, and conquered Nawa and Didwana for Mewar." of Delhi shook off its authority and established subordinate kingdoms : Bijapur and Golkonda in the Deccan ; Malwa, Gujarat, Jaunpur in the east ; and even Kalpi had its king. Malwa and Gujarat had attained considerable power when Kumbha ascended the throne. In the midst of his prosperity these two States formed a league against him, and in S. 1496 (a.d. 1440) both kings, at the head of powerful armies, invaded Mewar. Kumbha met them on the plains of Malwa bordering on his own State, and at the head of one hundred thousand horse and foot and fourteen hundred elephants, gave them an entire defeat, carrying captive to Chitor Mahmud the Khilji sovereign of Malwa.
Abu-1 Fazl relates this victory, and dilates on Kumbha's greatness of soul in setting his enemy at libeii;y, not only without ransom but with gifts.1 Such is the character of the Hindu : a mixture of arrogance, political blindness, pride, and generosity. To spare a prostrate foe is the creed of the Hindu cavalier, and he carries all such maxims to excess. The annals, however, state that Mahmud was confined six months in Chitor ; and that the trophies of conquest were retained we have evidence from Babur, who mentions receiving from the son of his opponent, Sanga, the crown of the Malwa king.
The Tower of Victory
But there is a more durable [288] monument than this written record of victory : the triumphal pillar in Chitor, whose inscriptions detail the event, " when, shaking the earth, the lords of Gujarkhand and Malwa, with armies overwhelming as the ocean, invaded Medpat." Eleven years after this event Kumbha laid the foundations of this column, which was completed in ten more : a period apparently too short to place " this ringlet on the brow of Chitor, which makes her look down upon Meru with derision." We will leave it, with the aspiration that it may long continue a monument of the fortune of its founders.2
It would appear that the Malwa king afterwards united his 1 [It is the generosity of Rana Sanga to Muzaffar Shah of which Abn-1 Fazl speaks (Ain, ii. 221).] 2 [The Musalman historians give a different account. Ferishta says that Mahmud stormed the lower part of Chitor, and that the Rana fled (iv. 209). At any rate, Mahunid erected a tower of victory at Mandu (IGI, xvii. 173). The result was probably indecisive. For Kumbha's pillar see Fergusson, Hist. Indian Architecture, ii. 59 ; Smith, HFA. 202 f.] arms with Kumbha, as, in a victory gained over the imperial forces at Jhunjhumi, when ' he planted his standard in Hissar,' the Malwa troops were combined with those of Mewar. The imperial power had at this period greatly declined : the KJiutba was read in the mosques in the name of Timur, and the Malwa king had defeated, single-handed, the last Ghorian sultan of Delhi.
The Fortresses of Mewar
Of eighty-four fortresses for the defence of Mewar, thirty-two were erected by Kumbha. Inferior only to Chitor is that stupendous work called after him Kum bhalmer,1 ' the hill of Kumbha,' from its natural position, and the works he raised, impregnable to a native army. These works were on the site of a more ancient fortress, of which the moun taineers long held possession. Tradition ascribes it to Samprati Raja, a Jain prince in the second century, and a descendant of Chandragupta ; 2 and the ancient Jain temples appear to confirm the tradition. When Kumbha captured Nagor he brought away the gates, with the statue of the god Hanuman, who gives his name to the gate which he still guards. He also erected a citadel on a peak of Abu, within the fortress of the ancient Pramara, where he often resided. Its magazine and alarm-tower still bear Kumbha's name ; and in a rude temple the bronze effigies of Kumbha and his father still receive divine honours.3 Centuries have passed since the princes of Mewar had influence here, but the incident marks the vivid remembrance of their condition. He fortified the passes between the western frontier and Abu, and erected the fort Vasanti near the present Sirohi, and that of Machin, to defend the Shero Nala and Deogarh against the Mers of Aravalli. He re-established Ahor and other smaller [289] forts to overawe the Bhumia 4 Bhil of Jharol and Panarwa, and defined the boundaries of Marwar and Mewar.
Temples
Besides these monuments of his genius, two conse crated to religion have survived : that of Kumbha Sham, on Abu, which, though worthy to attract notice elsewhere, is here eclipsed by a crowd of more interesting objects ; the other, one 1 Pronounced Kumalmer. 2 [Grandson_of Asoka (Smith, EHI, 192 f.).] 3 [For the Abu temples see Tod, Western India, 75 £f. ; Erskine iii. A. 295.] 5 A powerful phrase, indicating ' possessor of the soil.' of the largest edifices existing, cost upwards of a million sterling, towards which Kumbha contributed eighty thousand pounds. It is erected in the Sadri pass leading from the western descent of the highlands of Mewar, and is dedicated to Rishabhadeva.1 Its secluded position has preserved it from bigoted fury, and its only visitants now are the wild beasts who take shelter in its sanctuary. Kumbha Rana was also a poet : but in a far more elevated strain than the troubadour princes, his neighbours, who contented themselves with rehearsing their own prowess or celebrating their lady's beauty. He composed a tika, or appendix to the ' Divine Melodies,' 2 in praise of Krishna. We can pass no judgment on these inspirations of the royal bard, as we are ignorant whether any are preserved in the records of the house : a point his descendant, who is deeply skilled in such lore, might probably answer.
Mira Bai
Kumbha married a daughter of the Rathor of Merta, the first of the clans of Marwar. Mira Bai 3 was the most celebrated princess of her time for beauty and romantic piety. Her compositions were numerous, though better known to the worshippers of the Hindu Apollo than to the ribald bards. Some of her odes and hymns to the deity are preserved and admired. Whether she imbibed her poetic piety from her husband, or
1 The Rana's minister, of the Jain faith, and of the tribe Porwar (one of the twelve and a half divisions), laid the foundation of this temple in a.d. 1438. It was completed by subscription. It consists of three stories, and is supported by numerous columns of granite, upwards of forty feet in height. The interior is inlaid with mosaics of cornelian and agate. The statues of the Jain saints are in its subterranean vaults. We could not expect much elegance at a period when the arts had long been declining, but it would doubtless afford a fair specimen of them, and enable us to trace their gradual descent in the scale of refinement. This temple is an additional proof of the early existence of the art of inlaying. That I did not see it is now to me one of the many vain regrets which I might have avoided. 2 Gita Govinda. 3 [She was daughter of Ratiya Rana, and was married to Kiimbha in 1413. Her great work is the Rag Gobind (Grierson, Modern Literature of Hindustan, 12 ; Macauhffe, The Sikh Religion, vi. 342 ff. ; I A, xxv. 19, xxxii. 329 £f. ; ASR, xxiii. 106). As an illustration of the uncertainty of early Mewar history, according to Har Bilas Sarda, author of the monograph on Rana Kumbha, Mira Bai was not wife of Kiimbha, but of Bhojraj, son of Rana Sanga. She was daughter of Ratan Singh of Merta, fourth son of Rao Duda (a.d. 1461-62). She was married to Bhojraj a.d. 1516, and died in 1546.] whether from her lie caught the sympathy which produced the ' sequel to the songs of Govinda,' we caruiot determine. Her history is a romance, and her excess of devotion at every shrine of the favourite deity with the fair of Hind, from the Yamuna to ' the world's end,' 1 gave rise to many [290] tales of scandal. Kumbha mixed gallantry with his warlike pursuits. He carried off the daughter of the chief of Jhalawar, who had been betrothed to the prince of Mandor : this renewed the old feud, and the Rathor made many attempts to redeem his affianced bride. His humiliation was insupportable, when through the purified atmo sphere of the periodical rains " the towers of Kumbhalmer became visible from the castle of Mandor, and the light radiated from the chamber of the fair through the gloom of a night in Bhadon,2 to the hall where he brooded o'er his sorrows." It was surmised that this night-lamp was an understood signal of the Jhalani, who pined at the decree which ambition had dictated to her father, in consigning her to the more powerful rival of her affianced lord. The Rathor exhausted every resource to gain access to the fair, and had once nearly succeeded in a surprise by escalade, having cut his way in the night through the forest in the western and least guarded acclivity : but, as the bard equivocally remarks, " though he cut his way through the jhal (brushwood), he could not reach the Jhalani."
The Assassination of Rana Kiimbha, a.d. 1468
Kumbha had occupied the throne half a century ; he had triumphed over the enemies of his race, fortified his country with strongholds, em bellished it with temples, and with the superstructure of her fame when, the year which should have been a jubilee was disgraced by the foulest blot in the annals ; and his life, which nature was about to close, terminated by the that assassin, his son !
RanaUda, a.d. 1468-73.— This happened in S. 1525 (a.d. 1469). Uda was the name of the parricide, whose unnatural ambition, and impatience to enjoy a short lustre of sovereignty, bereft of life the author of his existence. But such is the detestation which marks this unusual crime that, like that of the Venetian traitor, his name is left a blank in the annals, nor is Uda known but by the epithet Hatyara, ' the murderer.' Shunned by his kin, and compelled to look abroad for succour to maintain him 1 Jagat Khunt, or Dwarka. 2 The darkest of the rainy months. on the throne polkited by his crime, Mewar in five years of illegitimate rule lost half the consequence which had cost so many to acquire. He made the Deora prince independent in Abu, and bestowed Sambhar, Ajmer, and adjacent districts on the prince of Jodhpur ^ as the price of his friendship. But, a prey to re morse, he felt that he [291] could neither claim regard from, nor place any dependence upon, these princes, though he bribed them Avith provinces. He humbled himself before the king of Delhi, offering him a daughter in marriage to obtain his sanction to his authority ; " but heaven manifested its vengeance to prevent this additional iniquity, and preserve the house of Bappa Rawal from dishonour." He had scarcely quitted the divan {diwan khana), on taking leave of the king, when a flash of lightning struck the Hatyara to the earth, whence he never arose .2 The bards pass over this period cursorily, as one of their race was the instrument of Uda's crime.
