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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. II: HISTORY OF THE RAJPUT TRIBES<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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=Rajput 12: Religion and traditions=

==Rajput Religion==

The religion of the martial Rajput, and the 
rites of Hara, the god of battle, are little analogous to those of 

1 'Mahurat ka shikar.' 
2 the Siebi of Tacitus. 
3  Sammes's Saxon Antiquities. 
4  Hara is the Thor of Scandinavia ; Hari is Budha, Hermes, or Mercury. 
5  Mallet derives it from kempfer, ' to fight.' [The name is said to mean 
'comrades' (Rhys, Celtic Britain, 116). Irmansul means ' a colossus,' and 
has no connexion with Skr. sula (Grimm, Teutonic mythology, i. 115).] 
6 Ku is a mere prefix, meaning ' evil ' ; ' the evil striker (Mar).' Hence, 
probably, the Mars of Rome. The birth of Kumar, the general of the army 
of the gods, with the Hindus, is exactly that of the Grecians, born of the 
goddess Jahnavi (Juno) without sexual intercourse. Kumara is always 
accompanied by the peacock, the bird of Juno. [Kumara probably means 
' easily dying ' ; there is no connexion with Mars, originally a deity of 
vegetation.] 

7 For a drawing of the Scandinavian god of battle see Sammes. 
the meek Hindus, the followers of the pastoral divinity, the 
worshippers of kine, and feeders on fruits, herbs, and water. 
The Rajput delights in blood : his offerings to the god of battle 
are sanguinary, blood and wine. The cup (kharpara) of libation 
is the human skull. He loves them because they are emblematic 
of the deity he worships ; and he is taught to believe that Hara 
loves them, who in war is represented with the  skull to drink 
the foeman's blood, and in peace is the patron of wine and women. 
With Parbati on his knee, his eyes rolling from the juice of the 
phul (ardent spirits) and opium, such is this Bacchanalian divinity 
of war. Is this Hinduism, acquired on the burning plains of 
India ? Is it not rather a perfect picture of the manners of the 
Scandinavian heroes ? 

The Rajput slays buffaloes, hunts and eats the boar and deer, 
and shoots ducks and wild fowl (kukkut) ; he worships his horse, 
his sword, and the sun, and attends more to the martial song of 
the bard than to the litany of the Brahman. In the martial 
mythology and warlike poetry of the Scandinavians a wide field 
exists for assimilation, and a comparison of the poetical remains 
of the Asi of the east and west would alone suffice to suggest a 
common origin. 

==Bards==

In the sacred Bardai of the Rajput we have the bard 
of our Saxon ancestry ; those reciters of warlike poetry, of whom 
Tacitus says, " with their barbarous strains, they influence their 
minds in the day of battle with a chorus of military virtue." 

A comparison, in so extensive a field, would include the whole 
of their manners and religious opinions, and must be reserved for 
a distinct work. The Valkyrie [69], or fatal sisters of the Suevi 
or Siebi, would be the twin sisters of the Apsaras, who summon the 
Rajput warrior from the field of battle, and bear him to " the 
mansion of the sun," equally the object of attainment with the 
children of Odin in Scandinavia, and of Budha and Surya in the 

1  I have in contemplation to give to the public a few of the sixty-nine 
books of the poems of Chand, the last great bard of the last Hindu emperor 
of India, Prithwiraja. They are entirely heroic : each book a relation of 
one of the exploits of this prince, the first warrior of his time. They  will 
aid a comparison between the Rajput and Scandinavian bards, and show 
how far the Provencal Troubadour, the Neustrienne Trouveur, and Minne-
singer of Germany, have anything in common with the Rajput Bardai. 
[For Rajput bards on horseback, drunk with opium, singing songs to arouse 
warriors' courage, see Manucci ii. 437 f.l 
plains of Scythia and on the Ganges, like the Elysium1 of the 
Heliadae of Greece. 

In the day of battle we should see in each the same excitements 
to glory and contempt of death, and the dramatis personae of the 
field, both celestial and terrestrial, move and act alike. We should 
see Thor, the thunderer, leading the Siebi, and Hara (Siva) the 
Indian Jove, his own worshippers (Sivseva) ; in which Freya, 
or Bhavani, and even the preserver (Krishna) himself, not 
un frequently mingle. 

==War Chariots==

The war chariot is peculiar to the Indu-Seythic 
nations, from Dasaratha,2  and the heroes of the Mahabharata, to 
the conquest of Hindustan by the Muhammadans, when it was 
laid aside. On the plains of Kurukshetra, Krishna became 
charioteer to his friend Arjun ; and the Getic hordes of the 
Jaxartes, when they aided Xerxes in Greece, and Darius on the 
plains of Arbela,' had their chief strength in the war chariot. 

The war chariot continued to be used later in the south-west 
of India than elsewhere, and the Kathi,4  Khuman, Kumari of 
1'HXvaioi, from "HXtos, ' the sun ' ; also a title of Apollo, the Hari of 
India. [The two words, from the accentuation, can have no connexion.] 

2 This title of the father of Rama denotes a ' charioteer ' [' having ten 
chariots.' Harsha (A.D. 612-647) discarded the chariot (Smith, EHI, 339)]. 

3  The Indian satrapy of Darius, says Herodotus [iii. 94], was the richest 
of all the Persian provinces, and yielded six hundred talents of gold. Arrian 
informs us that his Indo-Scythic subjects, in his wars with Alexander, were 
the elite of his army. Besides the Sakasenae, we find tribes in name similar 
to those included in the thirty-six Rajkula ; especially the Dahae (Dahya, 
one of the thirty-six races). The Indo-Scythic contingent was two hundred 
war chariots and fifteen elephants, which were marshalled with the Parthii 
on the right, and also near Darius's person. By this disposition they were 
opposed to the cohort commanded by Alexander in person. The chariots 
commenced the action, and prevented a manoeuvre of Alexander to turn 
the left flank of the Persians. Of their horse, also, the most honourable 
mention is made ; they penetrated into the division where Parmenio com
manded, to whom Alexander was compelled to send reinforcements. The 
Grecian historian dwells with pleasure on Indo-Scythic valour : " there 
were no equestrian feats, no distant fighting with darts, but each fought as 
if victory depended on his sole arm." They fought the Greeks hand to 
hand [Arrian, Anabasis, iii. 15]. 
But the loss of empire was decreed at Arbela, and the Sakae and Indo 
Scythae had the honour of being slaughtered by the Yavans of Greece, far 
from their native land, in the aid of the king of kings. 

4  The Kathi are celebrated in Alexander's wars. The Kathiawar Kathi 
can be traced from Multan (the ancient abode) [mtdasthcma, ' principal place ']. 
Saurashtra have to recent times retained their Scythie habits, as 
their monumental stones testify, expressing their being slain 
from their cars [70]. 

==Position of Women==

In no point does resemblance more 
attach between the ancient German and Scandinavian tribes, and 
the martial Rajput or ancient Getae, than in their delicacy towards 
females, 

" The Germans," says Tacitus [Germania, viii.], " deemed the 
advice of a woman in periods of exigence oracular." So does the 
Rajput, as the bard Chand often exemplifies ; and hence they 
append to her name the epithet Devi (or contracted De), ' god-
like.' " To a German mind," says Tacitus, " the idea of a woman 
led into captivity is insupportable " ; and to prevent this the 
Rajput raises the poignard against the heart which beats only for 
him, though never to survive the dire necessity. It is then they 
perform the sacrifice ' johar,' when every sakha (branch) is cut 
off : and hence the Rajput glories in the title of Sakha-band, from 
having performed the sakha ; an awful rite, and with every 
appearance of being the sacaea of the Scythie Getae, as described 
by Strabo.1  

The Dahya (Dahae), Johya (the latter Hunnish), and Kathi are amongst 
the thirty-six races. All dwelt, six centuries ago, within the five streams 
and in the deserts south of the Ghara. The two last have left but a name. 
1  The Sakae had invaded the inhabitants on the borders of the Pontic 
Sea : whilst engaged in dividing the booty, the Persian generals surprised 
them at night, and exterminated them. To eternize the remembrance of 
this event, the Persians heaped up the earth round a rock in the plain where 
the battle was fought, on which they erected two temples, one to the goddess 
Anaitis, the other to the divinities Omanus and Anandate, and then founded 
the annual festival called Sacaea, still celebrated by the possessors of Zela. 
Such is the account by some authors of the origin of Sacaea. According to 
others it dates from the reign of Cyrus only. This prince, they say, having 
carried the war into the country of the Sakae (Massagetae of Herodotus) 
lost a battle. Compelled to fall back on his magazines, abundantly stored 
with provisions, but especially wine, and having halted some time to refresh 
his army, he departed before the enemy, feigning a flight, and leaving his 
camp standing full of provisions. The Sakae, who pursued, reaching the 
abandoned camp stored with provisions, gave themselves up to debauch. 
Cyrus returned and surprised the inebriated and senseless barbarians. 
Some, buried in profound sleep, were easily massacred ; others occupied in 
drinking and dancing, without defence, fell into the hands of armed foes : 
so that all perished. The conqueror, attributing his success to divine pro
tection, consecrated this day to the goddess honoured in his country, and 
decreed it should be called ' the day of the Sacaea.' This is the battle
 
==Gaming==

In passion for play at games of chance, its extent 
and dire consequences, the Rajput, from the earliest times, has 
evinced a predilection, and will stand comparison with the Scythian 
and his German offspring. The German staked his personal 
liberty, became a slave, and was sold as the property of the 
winner. To this vice the Pandavas owed the loss of their 
sovereignty and personal liberty, involving at last the destruction 
of all the Indu [71] races ; nor has the passion abated. Religion 
even consecrates the vice ; and once a year, on ' the Festival of 
Lamps ' (Diwali), all propitiate the goddess of wealth and fortune 
(Lakshun) by offering at her shrine. 

Destitute of mental pursuits, the martial Rajput is often 
slothful or attached to sensual pleasures, and when roused, reck-
less on what he may wreak a fit of energy. Yet when order and 
discipline prevail in a wealthy chieftainship, there is much of that 
patriarchal mode of life, with its amusements, alike suited to the 
Rajput, the Getae of the Jihun, or Scandinavian. 

==Omens, Auguries==

Divination by lots, auguries, and omens 
by flights of birds, as practised by the Getic nations described by 
Herodotus, and amongst the Germans by Tacitus, will be found 
amongst the Rajputs, from whose works1  on this subject might 
have been supplied the whole of the Augurs and Aruspices, 
German or Roman. 

==Love of Strong Drink==

Love of liquor, and indulgence in it to 
excess, were deep-rooted in the Scandinavian Asi and German 
tribes, and in which they showed their Getic origin ; nor is the 

related by Herodotus, to which Strabo alludes, between the Persian monarch 
and Tomyris, queen of the Getae. Amongst the Rajput Sakha, all grand 
battles attended with fatal results are termed sakha. When besieged, 
without hope of relief, in the last effort of despair, the females are immolated, 
and the warriors, decorated in saffron robes, rush on inevitable destruction. 
This is to perform sakha., where every branch (sakha) is cut off. Chitor has 
to boast of having thrice (and a half) suffered sakha. Chitor sakha ka pap, 
' by the sin of the sack of Chitor,' the most solemn adjuration of the Guhilot 
Rajput. If such the origin of the festival from the slaughter of the Sakae 
of Tomyris, it will be allowed to strengthen the analogy contended for 
between the Sakae east and west the Indus. [For the Sacaea festival see 
Sir J. Frazer, The Golden Bough, The Dying God, 113 ff. It has no connexion 
with the Rajput Sakha, ' a fight,' which, again, is a different word from 
Sakha, ' a branch, clan.'] 

1 I presented a work on this subject to the Royal Asiatic Society, as well 
as another on Palmistry, etc. 
Rajput behind his brethren either of Scythia or Europe, It is 
the free use of this and similar indulgences, prohibited by ordin-
ances which govern the ordinary Hindu, that first induced me to 
believe that these warlike races were little indebted to India. 

The Rajput welcomes his guest with the munawzoar piyala, or 
' cup of request,' in which they drown ancient enmities. The 
heroes of Odin never relished a cup of mead more than the Rajput 
his madhu ; 1 and the bards of Scandinavia and Rajwara are alike 
eloquent in the praise of the bowl, on which the Bardai exhausts 
every metaphor, and calls it ambrosial, immortal.2  " The bard, 
as he sipped the ambrosia, in which sparkled the ruby seed of the 
pomegranate, rehearsed the glory of the" race of the fearless.3 
May the king live for  ever, alike bounteous in gifts to the bard 
and the foe ! " Even in the heaven of Indra, the Hindu warrior's 
paradise, akin to Valhalla [72], the Rajput has his cup, which is 
served by the Apsaras, the twin sister of the celestial Hebe of 
Scania. " I shall quaff full goblets amongst the gods," says the 
dying Getic warrior ; 4 "I die laughing " : sentiments which 
would be appreciated by a Rajput. 

A Rajput inebriated is a rare sight : but a more destructive 
and recent vice has usurped much of the honours of the ' invita
tion cup,' which has been degraded from the pure ' flower ' 5 
to an infusion of the poppy, destructive of every quality. Of this 
pernicious habit we may use the words which the historian of 
German manners applies to the tribes of the Weser and Elbe, in 
respect to their love of strong drink : " Indulge it, and you need not 
employ the terror of your arms ; their own vices will subdue them." 

1 Madhu  is intoxicating drink, from madhu, ' a bee,' in Sanskrit [madhu, 
' anything sweet ']. It is well known that mead is from honey. It would 
be curious if the German mead was from the Indian madhu (bee) : then 
both cup (kharpara) and beverage would be borrowed. [3IadJm does not 
mean ' a bee ' in Sanskrit.] 
2 Amrita (immortal), from the initial privative and mrit, ' death.' Thus 
the Immurthal, or ' vale of immortality,' at Neufchatel, is as good Sanskrit 
as German [?]. 
3  Abhai Singh, ' the fearless lion,' prince of Marwar, whose bard makes 
this speech at the festal board, when the prince presented with his own 
hand the cup to the bard. 
4 Regner Lodbrog, in his dying ode, when the destinies summon him. 
5 Phul, the flower of the mahua tree, the favourite drink of a Rajput. 
Classically, in Sanskrit it is madhuka, of the class Polyandria Monogynia 
[Bassia latifolia] (see As. Res. vol. i. p. 300). 

The Clip of the Scandinavian worshippers of Thor, the god of 
battle, was a human skull, that of the foe, in which they showed 
their thirst of blood ; also borrowed from the chief of the Hindu 
Triad, Hara, the god of battle, who leads his heroes in the ' red 
field of slaughter ' with the khopra1  in his hand, with which he 
gorges on the blood of the slain. 

Kara is the patron of all who love war and strong drink, and is 
especially the object of the Rajput warrior's devotion : accord
ingly blood and wine form the chief oblations to the great god of 
the Indus. The Gosains,2  the peculiar priests of Hara, or Bal, 
the sun, all indulge in intoxicating drugs, herbs, and drinks. 
Seated on their lion, leopard, or deer skins, their bodies covered 
with ashes, their hair matted and braided, with iron tongs to 
5'ecd the penitential fires, their savage appearance makes them fit 
organs for the commands of the blood and slaughter. Contrary, 
likewise, to general practice, the minister of Hara, the god of war, 
at his death is committed to the earth, and a circular tumulus is 
raised over him ; and with some classes of Gosains, small tumuli, 
whose form is the frustrum of a cone, with lateral steps, the apex 
crowned with a cylindrical stone [73].' 

==Funeral Ceremonies==

In the last rites for the dead, compare-
son will yield proofs of original similarity. The funeral cere-
monies of Scandinavia have distinguished the national eras, and 
the ' age of fire ' and ' the age of hills,' 4 designated the periods 
when the warrior was committed to mother earth or consumed 
on the pyre. 

Odin (Budha) introduced the latter custom, and the raising 
of tumuli over the ashes when the body was burned ; as also the 
practice of the wife burning with her deceased lord. These 
1  A human skull ; in the dialects pronounced khopar : Qu. cup in Saxon ? 
[Cup, in Low Latin cuppa.] 

2 The Kanphara [or Kanphata] Jogis, or Gosains, are in great bodies, 
often in many thousands, and are sought as allies, especially in defensive 
warfare. In the grand military festivals at Udaipur to the god of war, 
the seymitar, symboho of Mars, worshipped by the Guhilots, is entrusted 
to them [I A, vii. 47 ff. ; BO, ix. part i. 543]. 
3  An entire cemetery of these, besides many detached, I have seen, and 
also the sacred rites to their manes by the disciples occupying these abodes 
of austerity, when the flowers of the ak [Calatropis gigantea] and leaves of 
evergreen were strewed on the grave, and sprinkled with the pure element. 
4 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, chap. xii. 

manners were carried from Sakadwipa, or Saka Scythia, " where 
the Geta," says Herodotus [v. 5], " was consumed on the pyre 
or burned alive with her lord." With the Getae, the Siebi or 
Suevi of Scandinavia, if the deceased had more than one wife, 
the elder claimed the privilege of burning.'1 Thus, " Nanna was 
consumed in the same fire with the body of her husband, Balder, 
one of Odin's companions." But the Scandinavians were anxious 
to forget this  mark of their Asiatic origin, and were not always 
willing to burn, or to make " so cruel and absurd a sacrifice to the 
manes of their husbands, the idea of which had been picked up 
by their Scythian ancestors, when they inhabited the warmer 
climates of Asia, where they had their first abodes.2 

" The Scythic Geta," says Herodotus [iv. 71], " had his horse 
sacrificed on his funeral pyre ; and the Scandinavian Geta had 
his horse and arms buried with him, as they could not approach 
Odin on foot." 3 The Rajput warrior is carried to his final abode 
armed at all points as when alive, his shield on his back and brand 
in hand ; while his steed, though not sacrificed, is often presented 
to the deity, and becomes a perquisite of the priest. 

==Sati==

The burning of the dead warrior, and female immolation, 
or Sati, are well-known rites, though the magnificent cenotaphs 
raised on the spot of sacrifice are little known or visited by Euro
peans ; than which there are no better memorials of the rise and 
decline of the States of the Rajput heptarchy. It is the son who 
raises the mausoleum to the memory of his father ; which last 
token of respect, or laudable vanity, is only limited by the means 
of the treasury. It is commemorative [74] of the splendour of 
his reign that the dome of his father should eclipse that of his 
predecessor. In every principality of Rajwara, the remark is 
applicable to chieftains as well as princes. 

Each sacred spot, termed ' the place of great sacrifice ' (Maha-
sati), is the haunted ground of legendary lore. Amongst the 
altars on which have burned the beauteous and the brave, the 
harpy 4 takes up her abode, and stalks forth to devour the hearts 

1 Mallet chap. xii. vol. i. p. 289. 
2 Edda. 
3 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, chap. xii. The Celtic Franks had the 
same custom. The arms of Chilperic, and the bones of the horse on which 
he was to be presented to Odin, were found in his tomb. 

4  The Dakini (the Jigarkhor of Sindh) is the genuine vampire [Ain, ii. 
338 f .]. Captain Waugh, after a long chase in the valley of Udaipur, speared 
of her victims. The Rajput never enters these places of silence 
but to perform stated rites, or anniversary offerings of flowers 
and water to the manes (pitri-deva1) of his ancestors. 

Odin 2  guarded his warriors' final abode from rapine by means 
of " wandering fires which played around the tombs " ; and the 
tenth chapter of the Salic law is on punishments against " carrying 
off the boards or carpets of the tombs." Fire and water are 
interdicted to such sacrilegious spoliators. 

The shihaba,3  or wandering meteoric fires, on fields of battle 
and in the places of ' great sacrifice,' produce a pleasing yet 
melancholy effect ; and are the source of superstitious dread and 
reverence to the Hindu, having their origin in the same natural 
cause as the ' wandering fires of Odin ' ; the phosphorescent 
salts produced from animal decomposition. 

The Scandinavian reared the tumulus over the ashes of the 
dead ; so did the Geta of the Jaxartes, and the officiating priests 
of Hara, the Hindu god of battle. 
The noble picture drawn by Gibbon of the sepulture of the 
Getic Alaric is paralleled by that of the great Jenghiz Khan. 
When the lofty mound was raised, extensive forests were planted, 
to exclude for ever the footsteps of man from his remains. 

The tumulus, the cairn, or the pillar, still rises over the Rajput 
who falls in [75] battle ; and throughout Rajwara these sacri-
ficial monuments are found, where are seen carved in relief the 
warrior on his steed, armed at all points ; his faithful wife (Sati) 
a hyena, whose abode was the tombs, and well known as the steed on which 
the witch of Ar sallied forth at night. Evil was predicted : and a dangerous 
fall, subsequently, in chasing an elk, was attributed to his sacrilegious 
slaughter of the weird sister's steed. 
1 Pitri-deva, ' Father-lords.' 
2 Mallet chap. xii. 

3 At Gwalior, on the east side of that famed fortress, where myriads of 
warriors have fattened the soil, these phosphorescent lights often present a 
singular appearance. I have, with friends whose eyes this will meet, marked 
the procession of these lambent night-fires, becoming extinguished at one 
place and rising at another, which, aided by the unequal locale, have been 
frequently mistaken for the Mahratta prince returning with his numerous 
torch-bearers from a distant day's sport. I have dared as bold a Rajput 
as ever lived to approach them ; whose sense of the levity of my desire was 
strongly depicted, both in speech and mien : " men he would encounter, 
but not the spirits of those erst slain in battle." It was generally about the 
conclusion of the rains that these lights were observed, when evaporation 
took place from these marshy grounds impregnated with salts. 
beside him, denoting a sacrifice, and the sun and moon on either 
side, emblematic of never-dying fame.  

==Cairns, Pillars==

In Saurashtra, amidst the Kathi, Khuman, 
Bala, and others of Scythic descent, the Paliya, or Jujhar (sacri-
ficial pillars), are conspicuous under the walls of every town, in 
lines, irregular groups, and circles. On each is displayed in rude 
relief the warrior, with the manner of his death, lance in hand, 
generally on horseback, though sometimes in his ear ; and on the 
coast ' the pirates of Budha '1  are depicted boarding from the 
shrouds. Amidst the Khuman of Tatary the Jesuits found stone 
circles, similar to those met with wherever the Celtic rites pre
vailed ; and it would require no great ingenuity to prove an 
analogy, if not a common origin, between Druidic circles and the 
Indo-Scythic monumental remains. The trilithon, or seat, in 
the centre of the judicial circle, is formed by a number sacred to 
Hara, Bal, or the sun, whose priest expounds the law. 

==Worship of Arms. The Sword==

The devotion of the Rajput 
is still paid to his arms, as to his horse. He swears ' by the steel,' 
and prostrates himself before his defensive buckler, his lance, his 
sword, or his dagger. 

The worship of the sword (asi) may divide with that of the 
horse (aswa) the honour of giving a name to the continent of Asia. 
It prevailed amongst the Scythic Getae, and is described exactly 
by Herodotus [iv. 62]. To Dacia and Thrace it was carried by 
Getic colonies from the Jaxartes, and fostered by these lovers of 
liberty when their hordes overran Europe. 

The worship of the sword in the Acropolis of Athens by the 
Getic Attila, with all the accompaniments of pomp and place, 
forms an admirable episode in the history of the decline and fall 
of Rome ; and had Gibbon witnessed the worship of the double
edged sword (khanda) by the prince of Mewar and all his chivalry, 
he might even have embellished his animated account of the 
adoration of the scymitar, the symbol of Mars. 

==Initiation to Arms==

Initiation to military fame was the same 
with the [76] German as with the Rajput, when the youthful 
candidate was presented with the lance, or buckled with the 
sword ; a ceremony which will be noticed when their feudal 
1 At Dwarka, the god of thieves is called Budha Trivikrama, or of triple 
energy : the Hermes Triplex, or three-headed Mercury of the Egyptians. 
[No such cult is mentioned in the account of Dwarka, BG, viii. 6O1.] 
manners are described ; many other traits of character will then 
be depicted. It would be easy to swell the list of analogous 
customs, which even to the objects of dislike in food 1 would 
furnish comparison between the ancient Celt and Rajput ; but 
they shall close with the detail of the most ancient of rites. 

==Asvamedha, the Horse Sacrifice==

There are some things, 
animate and inanimate, which have been common objects of 
adoration amongst the nations of the earth, the sun, the moon, 
and all the host of heaven ; the sword ; reptiles, as the serpent ; 
animals, as the noblest, the horse. This last was not worshipped 
as an abstract object of devotion, but as a type of that glorious 
orb which has had reverence from every child of nature. The 
plains of Tatary, the sands of Libya, the rocks of Persia, the valley 
of the Ganges, and the wilds of Orinoco, have each yielded votaries 
alike ardent in devotion to his effulgence : 
Of this great world both eye and soul. 

His symbolic worship and offerings varied with clime and habit ; 
and while the altars of Bal in Asia, of Belenus among the Celts 
of Gaul and Britain, smoked with human sacrifices, the bull 2 
bled to Mithras in Babylon, and the steed was the victim to Surya 
on the Jaxartes and Ganges. 

The father of history says that the great Getae of Central Asia 
deemed it right to offer the swiftest of created to the swiftest of 
non-created beings. It is fair to infer that the sun's festival with 
the Getae and Aswa nations of the Jaxartes, as with those of 
Scandinavia, was the winter solstice, the Sankrant of the Rajput 

1 Caesar informs us that the Celts of Britain would not eat the hare, 
goose, or domestic fowl. The Rajput will hunt the first, but neither eats it, 
nor the goose, sacred to the god of battle (Hara). The Rajput of Mewar 
eats the jungle fowl, but rarely the domestic. 

2 As he did also to Balnath (the god Bal) in the ancient times of India. 
The baldan, or gift of the bull to the sun, is well recorded. [Baldan, balidana, 
does not mean the offering of a bull : it is the daily presentation of a portion 
of the meat to Earth and other deities.] There are numerous temples in 
Rajasthan of Baahm [?] ; and Balpur (Mahadeo) has several in Saurashtra. 
All represent the sun — 

Peor his other name, when he enticed 
Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile. 
Paradise Lost, book i. 412 f. [77], 
The temple of Solomon was to Bal, and all the idolaters of that day seem
to have held to the grosser tenets of Hinduism. 
and Hindu in general. Hi, Haya, Hywor, Aswa denote the 
steed in Sanskrit and its dialects. In Gothic, hyrsa ; Teutonic, 
hors ; Saxon, horse. The grand festival of the German tribes of 
the Baltic was the Hiul, or Hiel (already commented on), the 
Asvamedha1  of the children of Surya, on the Ganges. 

==The Asvamedha Ceremonies==

The ceremonies of the Asvamedha 
are too expensive, and attended with too great risk, to be attempted 
by modern princes. Of its fatal results we have many historical 
records, from the first dawn of Indian history to the last of its 
princes, Prithwiraja. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the 
poems of Chand all illustrate this imposing rite and its effects.2 

The Ramayana affords a magnificent picture of the Asvamedha. 
Dasaratha, monarch of Ayodhya, father of Rama, is represented 
as commanding the rite : " Let the sacrifice be prepared, and the 
horse ' liberated from the north bank of the Sarju ! "4  A year 
being ended, and the horse having returned from his wanderings,5 
the sacrificial ground was prepared on the spot of liberation. 

1 In Aswa (medha signifies ' to kill ') we have the derivation of the ancient 
races, sons of Bajaswa, who peopled the countries on both sides the Indus, 
and the probable etymon of Asia [?]. The Assakenoi, the Ariaspai of 
Alexander's historians, and Aspasianae, to whom Arsaces fled from Seleucus, 
and whom Strabo terms a Getic race, have the same origin ; hence Asigarh, 
'the fortress of the Asi ' (erroneously termed Hansi), and Asgard were the 
first settlements of the Getic Asi in Scandinavia. Alexander received the 
homage of all these Getic races at ' the mother of cities,' Balkh, ' seat of 
Cathaian Khan ' (the Jat Kathida of my inscription), according to Marco 
Polo, from whom Milton took his geography. 

2 The last was undertaken by the celebrated Sawai Jai Singh of Amber ; 
but the milk-white steed of the sun, I believe, was not turned out, or 
assuredly the Ratliors would liave accepted the challenge. 

3 A milk-white steed is selected with peculiar marks. On liberation, 
properly guarded, he wanders where he listeth. It is a virtual challenge. 
Arjuna guarded the steed liberated by Yudhishthira ; but that sent round 
by Parikshita, his grandson, " was seized by the Takshak of the north." 
The same fate occurred to Sagara, father of Dasaratha, which involved the 
loss of his kingdom. 

4 The Sarju, or Gandak, from the Kumaun mountains, passes through 
Kosalades, the dominion of Dasaratha. 

5 The horse's return after a year evidently indicates an astronomical 
revolution, or the sun's return to the same point in the ecliptic. This 
return from his southern declination must have been always a day of rejoic-
ing to the Scythic and Scandinavian nations, who could not, says Gibbon, 
fancy a worse hell than a large abode open to the cold wind of the north. 
To the south they looked for the deity ; and hence, with the Rajputs, a 
religious law forbids their doors being to the north. 

Invitations were sent to all surrounding monarchs to repair 
to Ayodhya : King Kaikeya,1 the king of Kasi,2 Lomapada of 
Angadesa,3  Kosala of Magadhadesa,4 with the kings of Sindhu,5 
Sauvira,6 and Saurashtra [78].7 

When the sacrificial pillars are erected, the rites commence. 
This portion of the ceremony, termed Yupochchraya, is thus 
minutely detailed : " There were twenty-one yupas, or pillars,8 
of octagonal shape, each twenty-one feet in height and four feet 
in diameter, the capitals bearing the figure of a man, an elephant, 
or a bull. They were of the various sorts of wood appropriated 
to holy rites, overlaid with plates of gold and ornamented cloth, 
and adorned with festoons of flowers. While the yupas were 
erecting, the Adhvaryu, receiving his instructions from the Hotri. 
or sacrificing priest, recited aloud the incantations. 

1 Kaikeya is supposed by the translator, Dr. Carey, to be a king of Persia, 
the Kaivansa preceding Dariu. The epithet Kai not unfrequently occurs 
in Hindu traditional couplets.- One, which I remember, is connected with 
the ancient ruins of Abhaner in Jaipur, recording the marriage of one of its 
princes with a daughter of Kaikamb. 
Tu  beti  Kaikamb  ki, nam Parmala ho, etc. ' Thou art the daughter of 
Kaikamb : thy name Fairy Garland.' Kai was the epithet of one of the 
Persian dynasties. Qu. Kam-bakhsh, the Cambyses of the Greeks ? [Cam-
byses, Kabuziya or Kambuziya, possibly ' a bard ' (Rawlinson, Herodotus, 
iii. 543).] 
2 Benares. 
3 Tibet or Ava [N. Bengal]. 
4 Bihar. 
5 Sind valley. 
6 Unknown to me [W. and S. Panjab and its vicinity]. 
7 Peninsula of Kathiawar. 
8 I have seen several of these sacrificial pillars of stone of very ancient 
date. Many years ago, when all the Rajput States were suffering from the 
thraldom of the Mahrattas, a most worthy and wealthy banker of Surat, 
known by the family name of Trivedi, who felt acutely for the woes inflicted 
by incessant predatory foes on the sons of Rama and Krishna, told me, 
with tears in his eyes, that the evils which afflicted Jaipur were to be attri-
buted to the sacrilege of the prince, Jagat Singh, who had dared to abstract 
the gold plates of the sacrificial pillars, and send them to his treasure' : 
worse than Rehoboam, who, when he took away from the temple " the 
shields of gold Solomon had made," had the grace to substitute others of 
brass. Whether, when turned into currency, it went as a war contribution 
to the Mahrattas, or was applied to the less worthy' use of his concubine 
queen, ' the essence of camphor’ it was of a piece with the rest of this 
prince's unwise conduct. Jai Singh, who erected the pillars, did honour to his 
country, of which he was a second founder, and under whom it attained the 
height from which it has now fallen. [Some sacrificial pillars (yupa) were 
recently found in the bed of the .Jumna near Mathura, with inscriptions 
dated in the twenty -fourth year of Kanishka's reign, about A.D. 102.] 

"The sacrificial pits were in triple rows, eighteen in number, 
and arranged in the form of the eagle. Here were placed 
the victims for immolation ; birds, aquatic animals, and the 
horse. 
"Thrice was the steed of King Dasaratha led round the sacred 
fire by Kosala, and as the priests pronounced the incantations he 
was immolated 1 amidst shouts of joy. 

"The king and queen, placed by the high priest near the horse, 
sat up all night watching the birds ; and the officiating priest, 
having taken out the hearts, dressed them agreeably to the holy 
books. The sovereign of men smelled the smoke of the offered 
hearts, acknowledging his transgressions in the order in which 
they were committed. 

"The sixteen sacrificing priests then placed (as commanded in 
the ordinances) on the fire the parts of the horse. The oblation 
of all the animals was made on wood, except that of the horse, 
which was on cane. 
"The rite concluded with gifts of land to the sacrificing priests 
and augurs ; but the holy men preferring gold, ten millions of 
jambunada2 were bestowed on them" [79]. 

Such is the circumstantial account of the Asvamedha, the 
most imposing and the earliest heathen rite on record. It were 
superfluous to point out the analogy between it and similar rites 
of various nations, from the chosen people to the Auspex of 
Rome and the confessional rite of the Catholic church. 
The Sankrant,3 or Sivaratri (night of Siva), is the winter 
solstice. On it the horse bled to the sun, or Balnath. 

1 On the Nauroz, or festival of the new year, the Great Mogul slays a 
camel with his own hand, which is distributed, and eaten by the court 
favourites. [A camel is sacrificed at the Tdu-1-azha festival (Hughes, Dict. 
Islam, 192 ff.).] 

2 This was native gold, of a peculiarly dark and brilliant hue, which was 
compared to the fruit jambu (not unlike a damson). Everything forms an 
allegory with the Hindus ; and the production of this metal is appropriated 
to the period of gestation of Jahnavi, the river-goddess (Ganges), when by 
Agni, or fire, she produced Kumara, the god of war, the commander of the 
army of the gods. This was when she left the place of her birth, the Hima-
laya mountain (the great storehouse of metallic substances), whose daughter 
she is : and doubtless this is in allusion to some very remote period, when, 
bursting her rock-bound bed, Ganga exposed from ' her side ' veins of this 
precious metal. 

3 Little bags of brocade, filled with seeds of the sesamum or cakes of the 
The Scandinavians termed the longest night the ' mother 
night,' 1 on which they held that the world was born. Hence 
the Beltane, the fires of Bal or Belenus ; the Hiul of northern 
nations, the sacrificial fires on the Asvamedha, or worship of the 
sun, by the Suryas on the Ganges, and the Syrians (I'VO )and 
Sauromatae on the shores of the Mediterranean. 

The altars of the Phoenician Heliopolis, Balbec2 or Tadmor,3 
were sacred to the same divinity as on the banks of Sarju, or 
Balpur, in Saurashtra, where " the horses of the sun ascended 
from his fountain (Surya-kund),'" to carry its princes to conquest. 
From Syria came the instructors of the Celtic Druids, who 
made human sacrifices, and set up the pillar of Belenus on the 
hills of Cambria and Caledonia. 

When " Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and built 
them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill and 
under every tree," the object was Bal, and the pillar (the lingam) 
was his symbol. It was on his altar they burned incense, and 
" sacrificed unto the calf on the fifteenth 4 day of the month " 
(the sacred Amavas of the Hindus). The calf of Israel is the 
bull (nandi) of Balkesar or Iswara ; the Apis of the Egyptian 
Osiris [80]. 

==Sacred Trees==

The ash was sacred to the sun-god in the west. 
The asvattha (or pipal)5 is the ' chief of trees,' say the books 
same, are distributed by the chiefs to friends on this occasion. While the 
author writes, he has before him two of these, sent to hini by the young 
Mahratta prince, Holkar. 

1 Sivaratri would be ' father night ' [?]. Siva-Iswara is the ' universal 
father.' 
2 Ferishta, the compiler of the imperial history of India, gives us a 
Persian or Arabic derivation of this, from Bal, ' the sun,' and bee, ' an idol." 
[This has not been traced in Dow or Briggs.] 
3 Corrupted to Palmyra, the etymon of which, I believe, has never been 
given, which is a version of Tadiiior. In Sanskrit, tal, or tar, is the ' date
tree ' ; mor signifies ' chief.' We have more than one ' city of palms ' 
(Talpur) in India ; and the tribe ruhng in Haidarabad, on the Indus, is 
called Talpuri, from the place whence they originated. [Tadmor is Semitic, 
probably meaning ' abounding in palms.' The suggested derivation is 
impossible.] 
4  I Kings xiv. 23. 
5 Ficus religiosa. It presents a perfect resemblance to the popul (poplar) 
of Germany and Italy, a species of which is the aspen. [They belong to 
different orders.] So similar is it, that the specimen of the pipal from 
Carohna is called, in the Isola Bella of the Lago Maggiore, Populufi angulata ; 
sacred to Bal in the East : and death, or loss of limb, is incurred 
by the sacrilegious mutilator of his consecrated groves,1 where a 
pillar is raised bearing the inhibitory edict. 

We shall here conclude the analogy between the Indo-Scythic 
Rajput races and those of early Europe. Much more might be 
adduced ; the old Runic characters of Scandinavia, the Celtic, 
and the Osci or Etruscan, might, by comparison with those found 
in the cave temples and rocks in Rajasthan and Saurashtra, yield 
yet more important evidence of original similarity ; and the very 
and another, in the Jardin des Plantes at Toulon, is termed the Ficuspopuli
folia, ou figuier a feuilles de peuplier. The aspen, or ash, held sacred by the 
Celtic priests, is said to be the mountain-ash. ' The calf of Bal ' is generally 
placed under the pipal ; and Hindu tradition sanctifies a never-dying stem, 
which marks the spot where the Hindu ApoUo, Ilari (the sun), was slain by 
the savage Bhil on the shores of Saurashtra. [This is known as the Prachi 
Pipal, and death rites are performed close to it (BQ, viii. 271, note 2).] 

1 The religious feelings of the Rajput, though outraged for centuries by 
Moguls and mercenary Pathans, will not permit him to see the axe appUed 
to the noble pipal or umbrageous bar (Ficus indica), without execrating the 
destroyer. Unhappy the constitution of mind which knowingly wounds 
religious prejudices of such ancient date ! Yet is it thus with our country
men in the East, who treat all foreign prejudices with contempt, shoot the 
bird sacred to the Indian Mars, slay the calves of Bal, and fell the noble 
pipal before the eyes of the native without remorse. He is unphilosophic 
and unwise who treats such prejudices with contumely : prejudices beyond 
the reach of reason. He is uncharitable who does not respect them ; im-
politic, who does not use every means to prevent such offence by ignorance 
or levity. It is an abuse of our strength, and an ungenerous advantage 
over their weakness. Let us recollect who are the guardians of these fanes 
of Bal, his pipal, and sacred bird (the peacock) ; the children of Surya and 
Chandra, and the descendants of the sages of yore, they who fill the ranks 
of our array, and are attentive, though silent, observers of all our actions : 
the most attached, the most faithful, and the most obedient of mankind ! 
Let us maintain them in duty, obedience, and attachment, by respecting 
their prejudices and conciliating their pride. On the fulfilment of this 
depends the maintenance of our sovereignty in India : but the last fifteen 
years have assuredly not increased their devotion to us.
 
Let the question 
be put to the unprejudiced, whether their welfare has advanced in pro
portion to the dominion they have conquered for us, or if it has not been in 
the inverse ratio of this prosperity ? Have not their allowances and com
forts decreased ? Does the same relative standard between the currency 
and conveniences of life exist as twenty years ago ? Has not the first 
depreciated twenty-five per cent, as half-batta stations and duties have 
increased ? For the good of ruler and servant, let these be rectified. With 
the utmost solemnity, I aver, i have but the welfare of all at heart in these 
observations. I loved the service, I loved the native soldier. I have 
name of German (from wer, bellum)1  might be found to be derived 
from the feud (vair) and foe-man (vairi) of the Rajput. 

If these coincidences are merely accidental, then has too much 
been already said ; if not, authorities are here recorded, and 
hypotheses founded, for the assistance of others [81 J.