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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 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. 

[[File: runs of the.png||frame|500px]]   
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.