Mewar 12: Accession of Rana Sanga
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Mewar 12: Accession of Rana Sanga
Rana Sanga or Sangram Singh ; a.d. 1508-27
Sangram, better known in the as Sanga (called Sanka by the Mogul historians),2 succeeded in S. 1565 (a.d. 1509). With this prince Mewar reached the summit of her prosperity. To use their own metaphor, "he was the kalas 3 on the pinnacle of her glory." From him we shall witness this glory on the wane ; and though many rays of splendour illuminated her declining career, they served but to gild the ruin. The imperial chair, since occupied by the Tuar descendant of the Pandus, and the first and last of the Chauhans, and which had been filled successively by the dynasties of Ghazni and Ghor, the Khilji and Lodi, was now shivered to pieces, and numerous petty thrones were constructed of its fragments. Mewar little dreaded these imperial puppets, "when Amurath to Amurath succeeded," and when four kings reigned simultaneously between Delhi and Benares.4 The kings of Malwa, though leagued with those of Gujarat, conjoined to the rebels, could make no impression on Mewar when Sanga led her heroes. Eighty thousand horse, seven Rajas of the highest rank, nine Raos, and one hundred and four chieftains bearing the titles of Rawal and Rawat, with five hundred war elephants, followed him into the field. The princes of Marwar and Amber 5 did him homage, and the Raos of Gwalior Deolia is incorrect. SQrajmall was first-cousin, not son of Uda, and it was his great-grandson, BiJia, who conquered the Kanthal and founded the town of Deolia at least fifty years later (Erskiue ii. A. 197).]
1 The walls of his palace are still pointed out. 2 [Ain, ii. 270.] 3 The ball or urn which crowns the pinnacle [sikhar). 4 Delhi, Bayana, Kalpi, and Jaunpur. 5 Prithiraj was yet but Rao of Amber, a name now lost in Jaipur. The Ajmer, Sikri, Raesen, 1 Kalpi, Chanderi [300], Bundi, Gagraim, Rampura, and Abu, served him as tributaries or held of him in chief.
Sanga did not forget those who sheltered him in his reverses. Karamchand of Srinagar had a grant of Ajmer and the title of Rao for his son Jagmall, the reward of his services in the reduction of Chanderi.
The Administration and Wars oS Rana Sanga
In a short space of time, Sanga entirely allayed the disorders occasioned by the intestine feuds of his family ; and were it permitted to speculate on the cause which prompted a temporary cession of his rights and his dignities to his more impetuous brother, it might be discerned in a spirit of forecast, and of fraternal and patriotic forbearance, a deviation from which would have endangered the country as well as the safety of his family. We may assume this, in order to account for an otherwise pusillanimous surrender of his birthright, and being in contrast to all the subsequent heroism of his life, which, when he resigned, was contained within the wreck of a form. Sanga organized his forces, with which he always kept the field, and ere called to contend with the de scendant of Timur, he had gained eighteen pitched battles against the kings of Delhi and Malwa. In two of these he was opposed by Ibrahim Lodi in person, at Bakrol and Ghatoli, in which last battle the imperial forces were defeated with great slaughter, leaving a prisoner of the blood royal to grace the triumph of Chitor. The Pilakhal (yellow rivulet) near Bayana became the touching Malwa to the south, while his native hills were an impenetrable barrier to the west. Thus swaying, directly or by control, the greater part of Rajasthan, and adored by the Rajputs for the possession of those qualities they hold in estimation, Sanga was ascending to the pinnacle of distinction ; and had not fresh hordes of Usbeks and Tatars from the prolific shores of the Oxus and Jaxartes again poured down on the devoted plains twelve sons of this prince formed the existing subdivisions or clans of the Kachhwahas, whose pohtical consequence dates from Humayun, the son and successor of Babur.
1 [Sikri, afterwards Fatehpur Sikri, the site of Akbar's palace ; Raesen in Bhopal State (IGL, xxi. 62 f.).] of Hindustan, the crown of the Chakravartin 1 might again have encircled the brow of a Hindu, and the banner of supremacy been transferred from Indraprastha to the battlements of Chitor. But Babur arrived at a critical time to rally the dejected followers of the Koran, and to collect them around his own victorious standard.
Invasions from Central Asia
From the earliest recorded periods of her history, India has been the prey of [301] the more hardy population from the central regions of Asia, From this fact we may infer another, namely, that its internal form of government was the same as at the present day, partitioned into numerous petty kingdoms, of tribes and clans, of a feudal federa tion, a prey to all the jealousies inseparable from such a condition. The historians of Alexander bear ample testimony to such form of government, when the Panjab alone possessed many sovereigns, besides the democracies of cities. The Persians overran it, and Darius the Mede accounted India the richest of his satrapies. The Greeks, the Parthians have left in their medals the best proofs of their power ; the Getae or Yuti followed ; and from the Ghori Shihabu-d-din to the Chagatai Babur, in less than three centuries, five invasions are recorded, each originating a dynasty. Sanga's opponent was the last, and will continue so until the rays then may end the anomaly in the history of power, of a handful of Britons holding the succession to the Mede, the Parthian, and the Tatar. But, however surprise may be excited at witnessing such rapidity of change, from the physical superiority of man over man, it is immeasurably heightened at the little moral consequence which in every other region of the world has always attended such concussions. Creeds have changed, races have , mingled, and names have been effaced from the page of history ; but in this corner of civilization we have no such result, and the Rajput remains the same singular being, concentrated in his prejudices, political and moral, as in the days of Alexander, desiring no change himself, and still less to cause any in others. Whatever be the conservative principle, it merits a philosophic analysis ; but more, a proper application and direction, by those to whom the destinies of this portion of the globe are confided ;
1 Universal potentate : [" he whose chariot wheels run everywhere without obstruction "]; the Hiindua reckon only six of these in their history. for in this remote spot there is a nucleus of energy, on which may accumulate a mass for our support or our destruction. To return : a descendant of the Turushka of the Jaxartes, the ancient foe of the children of Surya and Chandra, was destined to fulfil the projihetic Purana which foretold dominion " to the Turushka, the Yavan," and other foreign races in Hind ; and the conquered made a right application of the term Turk, both as regards its ancient and modern signification, when applied to the conquerors from Turkistan. Babur, the opponent of Sanga, was king of Ferghana, and of Turki race. His dominions were on both sides the Jaxartes, a portion of ancient [302] Sakatai, or Sakadwipa (Scjrthia), where dwelt Tomyris the Getic queen immortalized by Herodotus, and where her opponent erected Cyropolis, as did in after-times the Macedonian his most remote Alexandria. From this region did the same Getae, Jat, or Yuti, issue, to the destruction of Bactria, two centuries before the Christian era, and also five subsequent thereto to found a king-' dom in Northern India. Again, one thousand years later, Babur issued with his bands to the final subjugation of India. As affecting India alone, this portion of the globe merits deep atten tion ; but as the officina gentium, whence issued those hordes of Asii, Jats, or Yeuts (of whom the Angles were a branch), who peopled the shores of the Baltic, and the precursors of those Goths who, under Attila and Alaric, altered the condition of Europe, its importance is vastly enhanced.1 But on this occasion it was not redundant population which made the descendant of Timur and Jenghiz abandon the Jaxartes for the Ganges, but un successful ambition : for Babur quitted the delights of Samarkand as a fugitive, and commenced his enterprise, which gave him the throne of the Pandus, with less than two thousand adherents.
Character of Babur
The Rajput prince had a worthy antagonist in the king of Ferghana. Like Sanga, he was trained in the school of adversity, and like him, though his acts of personal heroism were even romantic, he tempered it with that discretion which looks to its results. In a.d. 1494, at the tender age of twelve, he succeeded to a kingdom ; ere he was sixteen he defeated several confederacies and conquered Samarkand, and in two short years again lost and regained it. His life was a tissue
1 [As usual, the Indian Jats are identified with the Getae, lutae or luti , Jutes of Bede.] of successes and reverses ; at one moment hailed lord of the chief kingdoms of Transoxiana ; at another flying, unattended, or putting all to hazard in desperate single combats, in one of which he slew five champions of his enemies. Driven at length from Ferghana, in despair he crossed the Hindu-Kush, and in 1519 the Indus. Between the Pan jab and Kabul he lingered seven years, ere he advanced to measure his sword with Ibrahim of Delhi. Fortune returned to his standard ; Ibrahim was slain, his army routed and dispersed, and Delhi and Agra opened their gates to the fugitive king of Ferghana. His reflections on success evince it was his due : " Not to me, O God ! but to thee, be the victory ! " says the chivalrous Babur. A year had elapsed in possession of Delhi, ere he ventured against the most powerful of his antagonists, Rana Sanga of Chitor.
With all Babur's qualities as a soldier, supported by the hardy clans of the ' cloud mountains ' ( Belut Tagh) [303] of Karateghin,1 1 [The author borrows from Elphinstone, Caubul, i. 118.] The literary world is much indebted to Mr. Erskino for his Memoirs of Baber, a work of a most original stamp and rare value for its extensive historical and geographical details of a very interesting portion of the globe. The king of Ferghana, hke Caesar, was the historian of his own conquests, and unites all the quahties of the romantic troubadour to those of the warrior and statesman. It is not saying too much when it is asserted, that Mr. Erskine is the only person existing who could have made such a translation, or its elevated simphcity ; and though his modesty malces him share the merit with Dr. Leyden, it is to him the public tlianks are due. Mr. Erslcine's introduction is such as might have been expected from his well-known erudition and research, and with the notes interspersed adds immensely to the value of the original. [A new translation by Mrs. Beveridge is in course of pubhcation.] With his geographical materials, those of Mr. Elphinstone, and the journal of the Voyage d'Orejibourg a Bokhara, full of merit and modesty, we now possess sufficient materials for the geography of the nursery of mankind. I would presume to amend one valuable geographical notice (Introd. p. 27), and which only requires the permutation of a vowel, Kas-??2er for J£as-mir ; when we have, not ' the country of the Kas,' but the Kasia 3Iontes (mer) of Ptolemy : the Kho {mer) Kas, or Caucasus. Mir has no signification, Mer is ' mountain ' in Sanskrit, as is Kho in Persian. [The origin of the name Kashmir is very doubtful : but the view in the text cannot be accepted (see Stein, Rajatarangini, ii. 353, 386 ; Smith, EHI, 38, note ; I A, xhii. 143 ff.).] Kas was the race inhabiting these : and Kasgar, the Kasia Regio of Ptolemy [Chap. 15]. Gar [or garh]is a Sanskrit word still in use for a ' region,' as Kachhwahagar, Oujargar. [See Elliot, Supplementary Glossary, 237.] A new edition of Erskine's translation, edited by Pro fessor Whitc King, is in course of publication.
the chances were many that he and they terminated their career on the ' yellow rivxilet ' of Bayana. Neither bravery nor skill saved him from this fate, which he appears to have expected. What better proof can be desired than Babur's own testimony to the fact, that a horde of invaders from the Jaxartes, without support or retreat, were obliged to entrench themselves to the teeth in the face of their Rajput foe, alike brave and overpower ing in numbers ? To ancient jealousies he was indebted for not losing his life instead of gaining a crown, and for being extricated from a condition so desperate that even the frenzy of religion, which made death martyrdom in " this holy war," scarcely availed to expel the despair which so infected his followers, that in the bitterness of his heart he says " there was not a single person who uttered a manly word, nor an individual who delivered a courageous opinion."
The Battle 8 of Khanua, March 16, 1527
Babur advanced from Agra and Sikri to oppose Rana Sanga, in full march to attack him at the head of almost all the princes of Rajasthan. Although the annals state some points which the imperial historian has not recorded, yet both accounts of the conflict correspond in all the essential details. On the 5th of Kartik, S. 1584 1 (a.d. 1528), according to the annals, the Rana raised the siege of Bayana, and at Khanua encountered the advanced guard of the Tatars, amounting to fifteen hundred men, which was entirely destroyed ; the fugitives carrying to the main body the accounts of the disaster, which paralysed their energies, and made them entrench for security, instead of advancing with the confidence of victory. Reinforcements met the same fate, and were pursued to the camp. Accustomed to reverses, Babur met the check without dismay, and adopted every precaution [304] that a mind fertile in expedients could suggest to reassure the drooping spirits of his troops. He threw up entrenchments, in which he placed his artillery, connecting his guns by chains, and in the more exposed parts chevaux de frise, united by leather ropes : a precaution
1 According to the Memoirs of Baber, February 11, 1527. [The battle was fought at Khanua or Kanwaha, now in the Bharatpur State, about twenty miles from Agra (Abu-1 Fazl, Akbarnama, i. 259 f. ; Ferishta ii. 55), on March 16, 1527. Ferishta says that the provocation came from Rana Sanga, who attacked Nazim Khan, Governor of Bayana, on which the latter appealed to Babur (ii. 51). Babur says that Sanga broke his engagement (ElUot-Dowson iv. 264 ; Badaoni, Muntakhabu-t-taivarikli, i. 444, 470).] continued in every subsequent change of position. Everything seemed to aid the Hindu cause : even the Tatar astrologer asserted that as Mars was in the west, whoever should engage coming froni the opposite quarter should be defeated. In this state of total inactivity, blockaded in his encampment, Babur remained near a fortnight, when he determined to renounce his besetting sin, and merit superior aid to extricate himself from his peril : the na'iveU of his vow must be given in his own words.'^
1 " On Monday, the 23rd of the first Jemadi, I had mounted to survey my posts, and in the course of my ride was seriously struck with the reflec tion, that I had always resolved, one time or another, to make an effectual repentance, and that some traces of a hankering after the renunciation of forbidden works had ever remained in my heart : I said to myself, ' 0, my soul.'
[Persian Verse.) " ' How long wilt thou continue to take pleasure in sin ? taste it.
(Turki Verse.) " ' How great has been thy defilement from sin ! How much pleasure thou didst take in despair ! How long hast thou been the slave of thy passions ! How much of thy life hast thou thrown, away ! Since thou hast set out on a holy war. Thou hast seen death before thine eyes for thy salvation. He who resolves to sacrifice his life to save himself Shall attain that exalted state which thou knowest. Keep thyself far away from all forbidden enjoyments ; Cleanse thyself from all thy sins.'
" Having withdrawn myseK from such temptation, I vowed never more to drink wine. Having sent for the gold and silver goblets and cups, with all the other utensils used for drinking parties, I directed them to be broken, and renounced the use of wine, purifying my mind. The fragments of the goblets and other utensils of gold and silver I directed to be divided among derwishes and the poor. The first person who followed me in my repentance was Asas, who also accompanied me in my resolution of ceasing to cut the beard, and of allowing it to grow. That night and the following, numbers of Amirs and courtiers, soldiers, and persons not in the service, to the number of nearly three hundred men, made vows of reformation. The wine which we had with us we poured on the ground. I ordered that the wine brought by Baba Dost should have salt thrown into it, that it might be made into vinegar. On the spot where the wine had been poured out I directed a wain to be sunk and built of stone, and close by the wain an almshouse to be erected. In the month of Moharrem in the year 935, when I went to visit Gualiar, in my way from Dholpur to Sikri, I found this wain completed. I had previously made a vow, that if I gained the victory over Rana Sanka the Pagan, I would remit the Temgha (or stamp-tax) levied from Musulmans.
But the destruction of the wine flasks would appear only to have added to the existing consternation, and made him, as a last resort, appeal to their faith. Having addressed them in a speech of [305] manly courage, though bordering on despair, he seized the happy moment that his exhortation elicited, to swear them on the Koran to conquer or perish.1 Profiting by this excite ment, he broke up his camp, to which he had been confined nearly a month, and marched in order of battle to a position two miles in advance, the Rajputs skirmishing up to his guns. With
At the time when I made my vow of penitence, Derwish Muhammed Sarban and Sheikh Zin put me in mind of my promise. I said, ' You did right to remind me of this : I renounce the temgha in all my dominions, so far as concerns Musulmans ' ; and I sent for my secretaries, and desired them to write and send to all ray dominions firmans conveying intelligence of the two important incide:its that had occurred " {Memoirs of Baber, p. 354). [Elliot-Dowson iv. 269.]
At this time, as I have already observed, in consequence of preceding events, a general consternation and alarm prevailed among great and small. There was not a single person who uttered a manly word, nor an individual who delivered a courageous opinion. The Vazirs, whose duty it was to give good counsel, and the Amirs, who enjoyed the wealth of kingdoms, neither spoke bravely, nor was their counsel or deportment such as became men of firmness. During the whole course of this expedition, Khalifell conducted himself admirably, and was unremitting and indefatigable in his endeavours to put everything in the best order. At length, observing the universal discouragement of my troops, and their total wa.nt of spirit, I formed my plan. I called an assembly of all the Amirs and officers, and addi-essed them : ' Noblemen and soldiers ! Every man that comes into the world is subject to dissolution. When we are passed away and gone, God only survives, unchangeable. Whoever comes to the feast of life must, before it is over, drink from the cup of death. He who arrives at the inn of mortality must one day inevitably take his departure from that house of sorrow, the world. How much better it is to die with honour than to hve with infamy !
With fame, even if I die, I am contented ;
Let fame be mine, since my body is death's.
The most high God has been propitious to us, and has now placed us in such a crisis, that if we fall in the field we die the death of martyrs ; if we survive, we rise victorious, the avengers of the cause of God. Let us, then, with one accord, swear on God's holy word, that none of us will even think of turning his face from this warfare, nor desert from the battle and slaughter that ensues, till his soul is separated from his body.'
" Master and servant, small and great, all with emulation, seizing the blessed Koran in their hands, swore in the form that I had given. My plan succeeded to admiration, and its effects were instantly visible far and near, on friend and foe " {Memoirs of Baber, p. 357). out a regular circumvallation, his movable pallisadoes and guns chained, he felt no security. The inactivity of Sanga can scarcely escape censure, however we may incline to palliate it by supposing that he deemed his enemy in the toils, and that every day's delay brought with it increased danger to him. Such reasoning would be valid, if the heterogeneous mass by which the prince of Mewar was surrounded had owned the same patriotic sentiments as himself : but he ought to have known his countrymen, nor overlooked the regulating maxim of their ambition, get land. Delay was fatal to this last coalition against the foes of his race. Babur is silent on the point to which the annals ascribe their discomfiture, a negotiation pending his blockade at Khanua ; but these have preserved it, with the name of the traitor who sold the cause of his country. The negotiation 1 had reached this point, that on condition of Babur being left Delhi and its depend encies, the Pilakhal at Bayana should be the boundary of their respective dominions, and even an annual tribute was offered to the Rana [306]. We can believe that in the position Babur then was, he would not scruple to promise anything. The chief of Raesen, by name Salehdi, of the Tuar tribe, was the medium of communication, and though the arrangement was negatived, treason had effected the salvation of Babur.
On March 16 the attack commenced by a furious onset on the centre and right wing of the Tatars, and for several hours the conflict was tremendous. Devotion was never more manifest on the side of the Rajput, attested by the long list of noble names amongst the slain as well as the bulletin of their foe, whose artillery made dreadful havoc in the close ranks of the Rajput cavalry, which could not force the entrenchments, nor reach the infantry which defended them. While the battle was still doubtful, the Tuar traitor who led the van (harawal) went over to Babur, and Sanga was obliged to retreat from the field, which in the onset promised a glorious victory, himself severely wounded and the choicest of his chieftains slain : Rawal Udai 2 Singh of
1 Babur says, " Although Rana Sanka (Sanga) the Pagan, when I was at Cabul, sent me ambassadors, and had arranged with me that if I would march upon Delhi he would on Agra ; but when I took Delhi and Agra, the Pagan did not move " {Memoirs of Baber, p. 339). 2 In the translation of Babur's Memoirs, Udai Singh is styled ' Wall of the country,' confounding him with Udai Singh, successor of Sanga. Dungarpur. with two hundred of his clan ; Ratna of Salumbar, with three hundred of his Chondawat kin ; Raemall Ratlior, son of the prince of Marwar, with the brave Mertia leaders Khetsi and Ratna ; Ramdas the Sonigira Rao ; Uja the Jhala ; Gokul das Pramara; Manikchand and Chandrbhan, Chauhan chiefs of the first rank in Mewar ; besides a host of inferior names.1 Hasan Idian of Mewat, and a son of the last Lodi king of Delhi, who coalesced with Sanga, were amongst the kUled. 2 Triumphal pyramids were raised of the heads of the slain, and on a hillock which overlooked the field of battle a tower of skulls was erected ; and the conqueror assumed the title of Ghazi, which has ever since been retained by his descendants.
The Death of Rana Sanga
Sanga retreated towards the hills of Mewat, having announced his fixed determination never to re-enter Chitor but with victory. Had his life been spared to his country, he might have redeemed the pledge ; but the year of his defeat was the last of his existence, and he died at Baswa,3 on the frontier of Mewat, not without suspicion of poison. It is painful to record the surmise that his ministers prompted the deed, and the cause is one which would fix a deep stain on the country ; namely, the purchase by regicide of inglorious ease and stipulated safety, in [307] preference to privations and dangers, and to emulating the manly constancy of their prince, who resolved to make the heavens his canopy till his foe was a determination which was pursued with the most resolute perseverance by some of his gallant successors.
Evils resulting from Polygamy
Polygamy is the fertile source of evil, moral as well as physical, in the East. It is a relic of barbarism and primeval necessity, affording a proof that He was Wall (sovereign) of Dungarpur, not ' Oodipoor,' which was not then in existence. [Ersidne, in his later work {Hist. India, i. 473, note), admits his error.]
1 [A hst of the slain, nearly identical, is given by Abu-1 Fazl, Akbarnarna, i. 265.] 2 [The author confuses Hasan Khan, Mewati, an imjjortant officer (Ferishta ii. 65 ; Bayley, Muhammad Dynasties of Gujarat, 278), whom Badaoni {Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh, i. 447) calls a Jogi in form and appear ance, with Hasan Khan, Lodi {Aln, i. 503).] 3 [About eighty-five miles north-north-west of Jaipur city. Babur says that he intended to pursue Sanga to Chitor, but was prevented by the defeat of his forces advancing on Lucknow (Klhot-Dowson iv. 277).] ancient Asia is still young in knowledge. The desire of each wife,1 that her offspring should wear a crown, is natural ; but they do not always wait the course of nature for the attainment of their wishes, and the love of power too often furnishes instru ments for any deed, however base. When we see, shortly after the death of Sanga, the mother of his second son intriguuig with Babur, and bribing him with the surrender of Ranthambhor and the trophy of victory, the crown of the Malwa king, to supplant the lawful heir, we can easily suppose she would not have scrupled to remove any other bar. On this occasion, however, the sus picion rests on the ministers alone. That Babur respected and dreaded his foe we have the best proof in his not risking another battle with him ; and the blame which he bestows on himself for the slackness of his pursuit after victory is honourable to Sanga, who is always mentioned with respect in the commentaries of the conqueror : and although he generally styles him the Pagan, and dignifies the contest with the title of " the holy war," yet he freely acknowledges his merit when he says, " Rana Sanga attained his present high eminence by his own valour and his sword."
Appearance of Rana Sanga
Sanga Rana was of the middle stature, but of great muscular strength ; fair in complexion, with unusually large eyes, which appear to be peculiar to his descendants.2 He exhibited at his death but the fragments of a warrior : one eye was lost in the broil with his brother ; an arm in an action with the Lodi king of Delhi, and he was a cripple owing to a limb being broken by a cannon-baU m another [308] ; while he counted eighty womids from the sword or the lance on various parts of his body. He was celebrated for energetic
1 The number of queens is determined only by state necessity and the fancy of the prince. To have them equal in number to the days of the week is not unusual, while the number of Imndmaids is unhunted. It will be conceded that the prince who can govern such a household, and maintain equal rights when clamis to pre-emmence must be perpetually asserted, possesses no little tact. The government of the kingdom is but an amuse ment compared with such a task, for it is within the Eawala that intrigue is enthroned. 2 1 possess his portrait, given to me by the present Hana, who has a collection of full-lengths of all his royal ancestors, from iSamarsi to himself, of their exact heights and with every bodily pecuharity, whether of com plexion or form. They are valuable for the costume. He has often shown them to mc while illustrating their actions. enterprise, of which his capture of Muzaffar, king of Malwa, in his own capital, is a celebrated mstance ; and his successful storm of the almost impregnable Ranthambhor, though ably defended by the imperial general Ah, gained him great renown. He erected a small palace at lOianua, on the line which he deter mined should be tiie northern limit of Mewar ; and had he been succeeded by a prince possessed of his foresight and judgment, Babur's descendants might not have retained the sovereignty of India. A cenotaph long marked the spot where the fire con smned the remains of this celebrated prince. Sanga had seven sons, of whom the two elder died in non-age. He was succeeded by the third son,
Rana Ratan Singh II., a.d. 1527-31
Ratna (S. 1586, a.d. 1530) possessed all the arrogance and martial virtue of his race. Like his father, he determined to make the field his capital, and commanded that the gates of Chitor never should be closed, boasting that " its portals were Delhi and Mandu." Had he been spared to temper by experience the exuberance of youthful impetuosity, he would have well seconded the resolution of his father, and the league against the enemies of his coimtry and faith. But he was not destined to pass the age always dangerous to the turbulent and impatient Rajput, ever courting strife if it woiild not find him. He had married by stealth the daughter of Prithiraj of Amber, probably before the death of his elder brothers made hun heir to Chitor. His double-edged sword, the proxy of the Rajput cavalier, represented Ratna on this occasion.^ Unfortunately it was kept but too secret ; for the Hara prince of Bundi,^ in ignorance of the fact, demanded and obtained her to wife, and carried her to his capital. The consequences are attributable to the Rana alone, for he ought, on coming to the throne, to have espoused her ; but his vanity was flattered at the mysterious transaction, which he deemed would prevent all apphcation for the hand of his ' affianced ' (manga). The bards of Bundi are rather pleased to record the power of their
1 [The practice of sending his sword to represent the bridegroom probably originated in the desire for secrecy, and has since been observed, as among the Raj Gonds of the Central Provinces, for the sake of convenience, and in order to avoid expense (Forbes, Rasmala, 621 ; BG, ix. Part i. 143, 145 f . ; Russell, Tribes and Castes, Central Provinces, iii. 77).] 2 Surajmall. princes, who dared to solicit and obtain the hand of the ' bride ' of Chitor. The princes of Buiidi had long been attached to the Sesodia house : and from the period when their common ancestors fought together on the banks of the Ghaggar against [309] Shihabu d-din, they had silently grown to power under the wing of Mewar, and often proved a strong plume in her pinion. The Hara in habited the hilly tract on her eastern frontier, and tiiough not actually incorporated with Mewar, they yet paid homage to her princes, bore her ensigns and titles, and in return often poured forth their blood. But at the tribunal of Ananga,"1 the Rajput scattered all other homage and allegiance to the wmds. The maiden of Amber saw no necessity for disclosing her secret or refusing the brave Hara, of whom fame spoke loudly, when Katna delayed to redeem his proxy.
