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This page is an extract from <br/>
ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES <br/>
OF <br/>
'''RAJASTHAN '''<br/>

OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN <br/>
RAJPUT STATES OF INDIA <br/>

By <br/>
LIEUT.-COL. JAMES TOD <br/>
Late Political Agent to the Western Rajput States <br/>

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by <br/>
WILLIAM CROOKE, CIE. <br/>
Hon. D.Sc. Oxon., B.A., F.R.A.l. <br/>
Late of the Indian Civil Service <br/>

In Three Volumes <br/>
VOL. IV: ANNALS OF MEWAR<br/>
[The Annals were completed in 1829]<br/>

HUMPHREY MILFORD <br/>
Oxford University Press <br/>
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York <br/>
Toronto Melbourne Bombay <br/>
1920 [The edition scanned] <br/>
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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.