Mewar 15: Akbar, Rana Udai Singh
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Mewar 15: Akbar, Rana Udai Singh
Comparison of Akbar with Rana Udai Singh
Happy the country where the sovereignty is in the laws, and where the monarch is but the chief magistrate of the State, unsubjected to those vicissitudes which make the sceptre in Asia unstable as a pendulum, kept in perpetual oscillation by the individual passions of her princes ; where the virtues of one will exalt her to the summit of prosperity, as the vices of a successor will plunge her into the abyss of degradation . Akbar and Udai Singh furnish the corollary to this self-evident truth.
The Rana was old enough to philosophize on ' the uses of adversity ' ; and though the best of the ' great ancients ' had fallen in defence of Chitor, there were not wanting individuals capable of instilling just' and noble sentiments into his mind : but it was of that common character which is formed to be
1 There are excellent grounds for a parallel between Akbar and Henry IV. and between Bairam and Sully, who were, moreover, almost contem poraries. The haughty and upright Bairam was at length goaded from rebellion to exile, and died by assassination only four years after Akbar's accession. [January 31, 1561.] The story is one of the most useful lessons of history. [The life of Akbar has been fully told, with much new evidence, by V. A. Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, 1917.] - A.H. 975, or A.D. 1567. controlled by others ; and an artful and daring concubine stepped in, to govern Udai Singh and Mewar.
Akbar was not older when he came to the throne 1 of Delhi than Udai Singh when he ascended that of Mewar. Nor were his hopes much brighter ; but the star which beamed upon his cradle in the desert, conducted to his aid such counsellors as the magnanimous Bairam, and the wise and virtuous Abu-1 Fazl. Yet it mavii be deemed hardly fair to contrast the Rajput with the Mogul : the one disciplined into an accurate knowledge of human nature, by experience of the [324] mutability of fortune ; the other cooped up from infancy in a valley of his native hills, his birth concealed, and his education restricted.2
Akbar was the real founder of the empire of the Moguls, the first successful conqueror of Rajput independence : to this end his virtues were powerful auxiliaries, as by his skill in the analysis of the mind and its readiest stimulant to action, he was enabled to gild the chains with which he bound them. To these they became familiarized by habit, especially when the throne exerted its power in acts gratifying to national vanity, or even in minister ing to the more ignoble passions. But generations of the martial races were cut off by his sword, and lustres rolled away ere his conquests were sufficiently confirmed to permit him to exercise the beneficence of his nature, and obtain by the universal acclaim of the conquered, the proud epithet of Jagad Guru, or ' guardian of mankind.' He was long ranked with Shihabu-d-din, Ala, and other instruments of destruction, and with every just claim ; and, like these, he constructed a Mimbar 3 for the Koran from the altars of Eklinga. Yet he finally succeeded in healing the wounds his ambition had inflicted, and received from millions that meed of praise which no other of his race ever obtained.
The absence of the kingly virtues in the sovereign of Mewar filled to the brim the bitter cup of her destiny. The guardian goddess of the Sesodias had promised never to abandon the rock of her pride while a descendant of Bappa Rawal devoted himself to her service. In the first assault by Ala, twelve crowned heads
1 A.D. 1556 ; both were under thirteen years of age. 2 If we argue this according to a Rajput's notions, he will reject the com promise, and say that the son of Sanga should have evinced himself worthy of his descent, under whatever circumstances fortune might have placed him. 3 The pulpit or platform of the Islamite preachers. defended the ' crimson banner ' to the death. In the second, when conquest led by Bajazet 1 came from the south, the chieftain of Deoha, a noble scion of Mewar, " though severed from her stem," claimed the crown of glory and of martyrdom. But on this, the third and grandest struggle, no regal victim appeared to appease the Cybele of Chitor, and win her to retain its ' kun guras ' 2 as her coronet. She fell ! the charm was broken ; the mysterious tie was severed for ever which connected p325] Chitor with perpetuity of sway to the race of Guhilot. With Udai Singh fled the " fair face " which in the dead of night unsealed the eyes of Samarsi, and told him " the glory of the Hindu was depart ing " : 3 with him, that opinion, which for ages esteemed her walls the sanctuary of the race, which encircled her with a halo of glory, as the palladium of the religion and the liberties of the Rajputs.
To traditions such as these, history is indebted for the noblest deeds recorded in her page ; and in Mewar they were the covert impulse to national glory and independence. For this the philosopher will value the relation ; and the philanthropist as being the germs or nucleus of resistance against tyrannical domination. Enveloped in a wild fable, we see the springs of their prejudices and their action : batter down these adamantine walls of national opinion, and all others are but glass. The once invincible Chitor is now pronounced indefensible. " The abode of regality, which for a thousand years reared her head above all the cities of Hindustan," is become the refuge of wild beasts, which seek cover in her temples ; and this erst sanctified capital is now desecrated as the dwelling of evil fortune, into which the entrance of her princes is solemnly interdicted.
Akbar besieges Chitor, September, a.d. 1567
Ferishta men tions but one enterprise against Chitor, that of its capture ; but the annals record another, when Akbar was compelled to relinquish the undertaking.4 The successful defence is attributed to the
1 Malik Bayazid was the name of the Malwa sovereign ere he came to the throne, corrupted by Europeans to Bajazet. He is always styled ' Baz Bahadur ' in the annals of Mewar. 2 Battlements. 3 ' The last book of Chand opens with this vision. 4 [Ferishta ii. 299 ff. " It does not appear when that attempt was made, and it is difficult to find a place for it in Abu-1 Fazl's chronology, but there is also difficulty in believing the alleged fact to be an invention " (Smith, Akbar, the Great Mogul, 81).] masculine courage of the Rana's concubine queen, who headed the sallies into theheart of the Mogul camp, and on one occasion to the emperor's headquarters. The imbecile Rana proclaimed that he owed his deliverance to her ; when the chiefs, indignant at this imputation on their courage, conspired and put her to death. Internal discord invited Akbar to reinvest Chitor ; he had just attained his twenty-fifth year, and was desirous of the renown of capturing it. The site of the royal Urdu,1 or camp, is still pointed out. It extended from the village of Pandauli 2 along the high road to Basai, a distance of ten miles. The head quarters of Akbar are yet marked by a pyramidal column of marble, to which tradition has assigned the [326] title of Akbar ka diwa, or ' Akbar's lamp.' 3 Scarcely had Akbar sat down before Chitor, when the Rana was compelled (say the annals) to quit it ; but the necessity and his wishes were in unison. It lacked not, however, brave defenders. Sahidas, at the head of a numerous band of the descendants of Chonda, was at his post,
1 Of which horde is a corruption. 2 There are two villages of this name. This is on the lake called Man sarowar on whose bank I obtained that invaluable inscription (see No. 2) in the nail-headed character, which settled the establishment of the Guhilot in Chitor, at a little more than (as Orme has remarked) one thousand years. To the eternal regret of my Yati Guru and myself, a barbarian Brahman servant, instead of having it copied, broke the venerable column to bring the inscription to Udaipur. 3 It IS as perfect as when constructed, being of immense blocks of compact white Limestone, closely fitted to each other ; its height thirty feet, the base a square of twelve, and summit four feet, to which a staircase conducts. A huge concave vessel was then filled with fire, which served as a night-beacon to this ambulatory city, where all nations and tongues were assembled, or to guide the foragers. Akbar, who was ambitious of being the founder of a new faith as well as kingdom, had tried every creed, Jewish, Hindu, and even made some progress in the doctrines of Christianity, and may have in turn affected those of Zardusht, and assuredly this pyramid possesses more of the appearance of a pyreum than a ' diwa ' ; though either would have fulfilled the purport of a beacon. [Mr. V. A. Smith, quoting Kavi Raj Shyamal Das, 'Antiquities at Nagari ' {JASB, Part i. vol. Ivi. (1887), p. 75), corrects the statements in this note. There was no interior staircase, and more accurate measurements are : height, 36 ft. 7 in. ; 14 ft. 1 in. square at base ; 3 ft. 3 in. square at apex. The tower is solid for 4 ft., then hollow for 20 ft., and solid again up to the top. The building may be very ancient, though used by Akbar as alleged by popular tradition ; probably a wooden ladder gave access to the chamber and to the summit. The original purpose of the building, which stands near Nagari, some six miles N.E. of Chitor, is uncertain [Akbar the Great Mogul, 86, note).] ' the gate of the sun ' ; there he fell resisting the entrance of the foe, and there his altar stands, on the brow of the rock which was moistened with his blood. Rawat Duda of Madri led ' the sons of Sanga.' 1 The feudatory chiefs of Bedla and Kotharia, the inspired their contingents with their brave example : these were all home chieftains. Another son of Deolia Isaridas Rathor, Karamchand Kachhwaha,2 with Duda Sadani,3 and the Tuar prince of Gwalior, were distinguished amongst the foreign auxiharies on this occasion.
Jaimall and Fatta
But the names which shine brightest in this gloomy page of the annals of Mewar, which are still held sacred by the bard and the true Rajput, and immortalized by Akbar's own pen, are Jaimall of Radnor and Patta of Kelwa, both of the sixteen superior vassals of Mewar. The first was a Rathor of the Mertia house, the bravest of the brave clans of Marwar ; the other was head of the Jagawats, another gi-and shoot from Chonda. The names of Jaimall and Patta are ' as household words,' inseparable in Mewar, and will be honoured while tiie Rajput retains a shred of his inheritance or a spark of his ancient recollections. Though deprived of the stimulus which would have been given had their prince been a witness of their deeds, heroic achievements such as those already recorded were conspicuous on this occasion ; and many a fair form threw the buclder over the scarf, and led the most desperate sorties [327].
When Salumbar 4 fell at the gate of the sun, the command devolved on Patta of Kelwa. He was only sixteen ; 5 his father had fallen in the last shock, and his mother had survived but to rear this the sole heir of their house. Like the Spartan mother of old, she commanded him to put on the ' saffron robe,' and to die for Chitor : but surpassing the Grecian dame, she illustrated
1 The Sangawats, not the sons of Rana Sauga, but of a chieftain of Chonda's kin, whose name is the patronymic of one of its principal sub divisions, of whom the chief of Deogarh is now head (see p. 188). 2 Of the Panchaenot branch. 3 One of the iShaikhavat subdivisions. 4 The abode of the Chondawat leader. It is common to call them by the name of their estates. 5 [He must have been older, as he left two sons, and had already served in defence of Merta (Smith, op. cil. 88).] her precept by example ; and lest any soft ' compunctious visitings ' for one dearer than herself might dim the lustre of Kelwa, she armed the young bride with a lance, with her de scended the rock, and the defenders of Chitor saw her fall, fighting by the side of her Amazonian mother. "When their wives and daughters performed such deeds, the Rajputs became reckless of life. They had maintained a protracted defence, but had no thoughts of surrender, when a ball struck Jaimall, who took the lead on the fall of the kin of Mewar. His soul revolted at the idea of ingloriously perishing by a distant blow. He saw there was no ultimate hope of salvation, the northern defences being entirely destroyed, and he resolved to signalize the end of his career. The fatal Johar was commanded, while eight thousand Rajputs ate the last ' bira ' 1 together, and put on their saffron robes ; the gates were thrown open, the work of destruction commenced, and few survived ' to stain the yellow mantle ' by inglorious surrender. Akbar entered Chitor, when thirty thousand of its inhabitants became victims to the ambitious thirst of conquest of this ' guardian of mankind.' All the heads of clans, both home and foreign, fell, and seventeen hundred of the immediate kin of the prince sealed their duty to their country with their lives. The Tuar chief of Gwalior appears to have been the only one of note who was reserved for another day of glory .2 Nine queens, five princesses (their daughters), with two infant sons, and the families of all the chieftains not at their estates, perished in the flames or in the assault of this ever memorable day. Their divinity had indeed deserted them ; for it was on Adityawar, the day of the sun,' he shed for the last time a ray of glory on Chitor. The rock of their strength was despoiled ; the temples, the palaces dilapidated : and, to complete her humilia tion and his triumph, Akbar bereft her of all the symbols of [328] regality : the nakkaras,4 whose reverberations proclaimed, for miles. 1 The bira, or pan, the aromatic leaf so called, enveloping spices, terra japonica, calcined shell-hne, and pieces of the areca nut, is always presented on taking leave. 2 [His name appears to have been Sallvahan, and as he had married a Sesodia princess, he was bound to fight for the Rana {A8R, ii. 394).] 3 " Chait sudi igarahwan, S. 1624," 11th Chait, or May, a.d. 1568. [The Musalman writers give February 23, 1568 {Akbarridma, ii. 471 ; Elhot-Dowson v. 327 ; cf . Badaoni ii. 111).] 4 Grand kettle-drums, about eight or ten feet in diameter. around, the entrance and exit of her princes ; the candelabras from the shrine of the ' great mother,' who girt Bappa Rawal with the sword with which he conquered Chitor ; and, in mockery of her misery, her portals, to adorn his projected capital, Akbarabad.1
Akbar claimed the honour of the death of Jaimall by his own hand : the fact is recorded by Abu-1 Fazl, and by the emperor Jahangir, who conferred on the matchlock which aided him to this distinction the title of Sangram.2 But the conqueror of Chitor evinced a more exalted sense, not only of the value of his conquest, but of the merits of his foes, in erecting statues to the names of Jaimall and Patta at the most conspicuous entrance of his palace at Delhi ; and they retained that distinction even when Bernier was in India.'
The Sin of the Capture of Chitor
When the Carthaginian gained the battle of Cannae, he measured his success by the bushels of rings taken from the fingers of the equestrian Romans 1 The tija sakha Chitor ra, or ' third sack of Chitor,' was marked by the most illiterate atrocity, . for every monument spared by Ala or Bayazid was defaced, which has left an indelible stain on Akbar's name as a lover of the arts, as well as of humanity. Ala's assault was comparatively harm. less, as the care of the fortress was assigned to a Hindu prince ; and Bayazid had little time to fulfil this part of the Mosaic law, maintained with rigid severity by the followers of Islamism. Besides, at those periods, they possessed both the skill and the means to reconstruct : not so after Akbar, as the subsequent portion of the annals will show but a struggle for existence. The arts do not flourish amidst penury : the principle to construct cannot long survive, when the means to execute are fled ; and in the monumental works of Chitor we can trace the gradations of genius, its splendour and decay. [There is no good evidence that Akbar destroyed the buildings (Smith, op. cit. 90).] 2 " He (Akber) named the matchlock with which he shot Jeimul Singram. being one of great superiority and choice, and with which he had slain three or four thousand birds and beasts " (Jahangir-namah). [Ed. Rogers Beveridge 45 ; Ain, i. 116, 617 ; Badaoni ii. 107.] 3 " 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 (salhes) 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
who fell in that memorable field. Akbar estimated his, by the quantity of cordons (zimnar) of [329] distinction taken fi-om the necks of the Rajputs, and seventy-four mans and a half 1 are the recorded amount. To eternize the memory of this disaster, the numerals '74J' [741?] are talak, or accursed.2 Marked on the banker's letter in Rajasthan it is the strongest of seals, for ' the sin of the slaughter of Chitor ' 3 is thereby invoked on all who violate a letter under the safeguard of this mysterious number. He would be a fastidious critic who stopped to calculate the weight of these cordons of the Rajput cavaliers, probably as much over-rated as the trophies of the Roman rings, which are stated at three and a half bushels. It is for the moral impression that history deigns to note such anecdotes, in themselves of trivial import. So long as ' 74 ½ ' shall remain recorded, some good will result from the calamity, and may survive when the event which caused it is buried in oblivion.
Escape of Rana Udai Singh : Foundation of Udaipur
When Udai Singh abandoned Chitor, he found refuge with the Gohil in the forests of Rajpipli. Thence he passed to the valley of the 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, ill 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 runas [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.
1 The man is of four seers : the maund is forty, or seventy-five pounds. Dow, calculating all the captured wealth of India by the latter, has rendered many facts improbable. [The man in the Ain was 55 ½ lbs.] 2 [Sir H. M. Elliot proved that the use of 74i is merely a modification of the figures 74 ½ , meaning apparently 84, a sacred number {Supplemental Glossary, 197). In the Central Provinces it is said that it originated in Jahangir's slaughter of the Nagar Brahmans, when 7450 of them threw away their sacred cords and became Sudras to save their lives (Russell, Tribes and Castes, ii. 395).] 3 ' Chitor marya ra pap ' . ra is the sign of the genitive, in the Doric tongue of Mewar, the la of the refined. Giro in the Aravalli, in the vicinity of the retreat of his great ancestor Bappa, ere he conquered Chitor. At the entrance of this valley, several years previous to this catastrophe, he had formed the lake, still called after him Udai Sagar, and he now raised a dyke between the mountains which dammed up another mountain stream. On the cluster of hills adjoining he raised the small palace called Nauchauki, around which edifices soon arose, and formed a city to which he gave his own name, Udaipur,1 hence forth the capital of Mewar.
Death of Rana Udai Singh
Four years had Udai Singh sur vived the loss of Chitor, when he expired at Gogunda, at the early age of forty-two ; yet far too long for his country's honour and welfare. He left a numerousissue of twenty-five legitimate sons, whose descendants, all styled Ranawat, pushed aside the more ancient stock, and form that extensive clan distinctively termed the Babas, or ' infants,' of Mewar, whether Ranawats, Purawats, or Kanawats. His last act was to entail with a barren sceptre contention upon his children ; for, setting aside the established laws of primogeniture, he proclaimed his favourite son Jagmall his successor.
Jagmall proclaimed Rana
In Mewar there is no interregnum : even the ceremony of matam (mourning) is held at the [330] house of the family priest while the palace is decked out for rejoicing. On the full moon of the spring month of Phalgun, while his brothers and the nobles attended the funeral pyre, Jagmall took possession of the throne in the infant capital, Udaipur : but even while the trumpets sounded, and the heralds called aloud " May the king live for ever ! " a cabal was formed round the bier of his father.
Jagmall deposed in favour ofRana Partap Singh
It will be borne in mind that Udai Singh espoused the Sonigira princess ; and the Jalor Rao, desirous to see his sister's son have his right, demanded of Kistna, the ' great ancient ' of Mewar and the leader of the Chondawats, how such injustice was sanctioned by him. " When a sick man has reached the last extreme and asks for milk to drink, why refuse it ? " was the reply ; with the addition : " The Sonigira's nephew is my choice, and my stand by Partap." Jagmall had just entered the Rasora, and Partap was saddling 1 Classically Udayapura, the city of the East ; from udaya (oriens), the point of sunrise, as asta (west) is of sunset. for his departure, when Rawat Kistna entered, accompanied by the ex-prince of Gwalior. Each chief took an arm of Jagmall, and with gentle violence removed him to a seat in front of the ' cushion ' he had occupied ; the hereditary premier remarking, " You had made a mistake, Maharaj : that place belongs to your brother " : and girding Partap with the sword (the privilege of this house), thrice touching the ground, hailed him king of Mewar. All followed the example of Salumbar. Scarcely was the ceremony over, when the young prince remarked, it was the festival of the • Aheria, nor must ancient customs be forgotten : " Therefore to horse, and slay a boar to Gauri,1 and take the omen for the ensuing year." They slew abundance of game, and in the mimic field of war, the nobles who surrounded the gallant Partap antici pated happier days for Mewar [331].
