Mewar 22: Rana Jai Singh - Revision history

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‎Breach between the Rajputs and the Mughal Empire

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ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES
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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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Note: This article is likely to contain several spelling mistakes that occurred during scanning. If these errors are reported as messages to the Facebook page, [http://www.facebook.com/Indpaedia Indpaedia.com] your help will be gratefully acknowledged.

=Mewar 22: Rana Jai Singh=
==Rana Jai Singh, a.d. 1680-98==

Rana Jai Singh took possession
of the Gaddi 1 in S. 1737 (a.d. 1681). A circumstance occurred
at his birth, which as descriptive of manners may deserve notice.
A few hours only intervened between his entrance into the world
and that of another son called Bhim. ,It is customary for the
father to bind round the arm of the new-born infant a root of
that species of grass called the amardub, the ' imiperishable ' dub,
well known for its nutritive properties and luxuriant vegetation
under the most intense heat. 2 The Rana first attached the
ligature round the arm of the youngest, apparently an oversight,
though in fact from superior affection for his mother. As the
boys approached to manhood, the Rana, apprehensive that this
preference might create dissension, one day drew his sword, and
placing it in the hand of Bhim (the elder), said, it was better to
use it at once on his brother, than hereafter to endanger the
safety of the State. This [392] appeal to his generosity had an
instantaneous effect, and he not only ratified, ' by his father's
throne,' 3 the acknowledgment of the sovereign rights of his
brother, but declared, to remove all fears, " he was not his son
if he again drank water within the pass of Debari " ; and, collect
ing his retainers, he abandoned Udaipur to court Fortune where
she might be kinder. The day was sultry, and on reaching the
barrier he halted tmder the shade of a sacred fig-tree to bestow a
last look upon the place of his birth. His cup-bearer {Paniyari)
brought his sUver goblet filled from the cool fountain, but as he

1 ' The Cushion,' by -which a Rajput tlirone is designated.
2 [Dub, Cynodon dactylon, the most common and useful Indian grass
(Watt, Comm. Prod., 463 f).]
3 Gaddi hi an.
raised it to his lips, he recollected that his vow was incomplete
while within the portal ; he poured the libation on the earth in
the name of the Supreme, and casting the cup as an offering to
the deity of the fountain, the huge gates closed upon the valley.
He proceeded to Bahadur Shah, who conferred upon him the
dignity (niansab) of a leader of three thousand five hundred horse,
with the Bawana, or fifty-two districts for their support : but
quarrelling with the imperial general, he was detached with his
contingent west of the Indus, where he died.1

==Treaty between Rana Jai Singh and Aurangzeb==

Let us return
to Jai Singh {the lion of victory). He concluded a treaty with
Aurangzeb, conducted by Prince Azam and Dilir Khan, who
took every occasion to testify his gratitude for the clemency of
Rana Raj Singh, when blockaded in the defiles of the Aravalli.
At this conference, the Rana was attended by ten thousand horse
and forty thousand foot, besides the multitude collected from
the momitams to view the ceremony, above one hundred thousand
souls, who set up a shout of joy at the prospect of revisiting the
plams, which disconcerted Azam, while Dilir expatiated on the
perils from which the Rana's generosity had liberated him.
Azam, who said he was no stranger to the Rana's illustrious house,
concluded a treaty on the spot, in which, as a salvo for the imperial
dignity, a nommal fine and surrender of three districts were
inserted for aiding Akbar's rebellion, and a hint that the regal
colour {crimson) of his tents and umbrella [393] should be dis
continued. That advantages were gained by the Rana, we may
infer from Dilir' s sons being left as hostages for Azam's good
faith ; a fact we learn from his farewell address to the Rana !
" Your nobles are rude, and my children are the hostages of your
safety ; but if at the expense of their lives I can obtain the entire

1 I give these anecdotes as related to me by his descendant and repre
sentative the Raja of Banera, while seated in a balcony of his castle over
looking the plains of Mewar. Often have I quenched my thirst at the
fountain, and hstened to their traditionary tales. It is a spot consecrated
to recollections : every altar which rises around it is a text for the ' great
ancients ' of the clans to expatiate on ; and it is, moreover, a grand place of
rendezvous, whether for the traveller or sportsman. Bhim dislocated his
spine in a feat of strength. He was celebrated for activity, and could,
while his steed was urged to his speed, disengage and suspend himself by
the arms from the bough of a tree ; and to one of these experiments he owed
his death.
restoration of your country, keep your mind at ease, for there
was friendship between your father and me."

==The Jaisamund Lake==

But all other protection than what
his sword afforded was futile ; and though Dilir's intentions were
noble, he had little control over events : in less than five years
after his accession, the Rana was again forced to fly the plains
for the inaccessible haunts of Kamori. Yet, in spite of these
untoward circumstances and luiinterrupted warfare, such were
the resources of this little State that the Rana completed a work
which perpetuates his name. He threw a dam across a break in
the moxintains, the channel of an ever-flowing stream, by which
he formed the largest lake in India,1 giving it his own name, the
Jaisamund, or sea of victory. Nature had furnished the hint
for this undertaking, for there had always existed a considerable
volume of water ; but the Rana had the merit of uniting these
natural buttresses, and creating a Uttle sea from the Dhebar pool,
its ancient appellation. The circumference cannot be less than
thirty miles, and the benefits to cultivation, especially in respect
to the article of rice, which requires perpetual irrigation, were
great. On this huge rampart he erected a palace for his favourite
queen, Komaladevi, a princess of the Pramara race, famiharly
known as the Ruthi Rani, or ' testy queen.'

==Rana Jai Singh and his heir Amar Singh==

Domestic unhappi
ness appears to have generated in the Rana inaptitude to state
affairs ; and, unluckily, the favoured queen estranged him from
his son. Amra, a name venerated in Mewar, was that of the
heir of Jai Singh. His mother was of the Bundi house, a family
which has performed great services to, and brought great calami
ties upon, the ancient sovereigns of Mewar. To the jealousies of
the rival queens, one of them mother to the heir, the other the
favourite of the sovereign, are attributed dissensions, which at
such a juncture were a greater detriment than the loss of a battle,
and which afford another illustration, if any were wanting, of
the impolicy of polygamy. The seldom exhibit
those unnatural contentions for power, from which no other
Hindu State was exempt ; this was owing to the wholesome
regulation of not investing the princes of the blood with any [394]
1 [The Bhojpur lake, which covered an area of 250 square miles, was
much larger, the Jaisamund covering only 21 square miles (Smith, EHl,
39G ; Erskine ii. A. 8 f.).]
political authority ; and establishing as a counterpoise to natural
advantages an artificial degradation of their rank, which placed
them beneath the sixteen chief nobles of the State ; which, while
it exalted these in their own estimation, lessened the national
humillation, when the heirs-apparent were compelled to lead
their quota in the arriere-ban of the empire.

==Rebehion of Amar Singh==
Rana Jai Singh, who had evinced
such gallantry and activity in the wars of Aurangzeb, now secluded
himself with Komala in the retreat of Jaisamund, leaving Amra
imder the guidance of the Pancholi 1 minister, at the capital.
But he having personally insulted this chief officer of the State,
is consequence of receiving a rebuke for turning loose an in
furiated elephant in the town, the Rana left his retreat, and
visiting Chitor in his tour, arrived at Udaipur. Amra awaited
not his father's arrival, but adding his mother's resentments to
a feeling of patriotic indignation at the abasement his indolence
produced, fled to Bundi, took up arms, and, joined by many of
his owia nobles and Hara auxiliaries, returned at the head of ten
thousand men. Desirous of averting civil war, the Rana retired
to Godwar beyond the Aravalli, whence he sent the Ghanerao
chieftain, the first feudatory of that department, to expostulate
with his son. But Amra, supported by three-fourths of the
nobles, made direct for Kumbhalmer to secure the State treasure,
saved by the Depra governor for his sovereign. A failure in
this project, the knowledge that the Rathors fostered the quarrel
with a view to obtain Godwar, and the determination of the few
chiefs yet faithful 2 to the Rana, to defend the Jhilwara pass to
the last, made the prince listen to terms, which were ratified at
the shrine of EkJinga, whereby the Rana was to return to the
capital, and the prince to abide in exile at the new palace during
the life of his father, which closed twenty years after his accession.
Had he maintained the reputation he established in his early
years, the times were well calculated for the redemption of his
country's independence ; but documents which yet exist afford
little reason to doubt that in his latter years a state of indolence,
1 [Pancholi, Panchauli, of wiiich the derivation is uncertain, perhajis
pancha-kula, ' five houses,' is the local title of the Desi or Mathur Kayasths,
or writer caste {Census Report Marwar, 1891, ii. 111).]
2 Beri Sal of Bijoha, Kandal of Salumbar, Gopinath of Ghanerao, and
the Solanki of Desuri.
having all the effects of imbecility, supervened, and but for the
formation of ' the victorious sea,' would have left his name a
blank in the traditional history of Mewar.

==Rana Amar Singh II., a.d.. 1698-1710==
Amra II., who suc
ceeded in S. 1756 (a.d. 1700), had much of the gallantry [395] and
active turn of mind of his illustrious namesake ; but the degrading
conflict with his father had much impaired the moral strength of
the country, and counteracted the advantages which might have
resulted from the decline of the Mogul power. The reigns of Raj
Singh and Jai Singh illustrate the obvious truth, that on the
personal character of the chief of a feudal government everything
depends. The former, infusing by his talent and energy patriotic
sentiments into all his subordinates, vanquished in a series of
conflicts the vast military resources of the empire, led by the
emperor, his sons, and chosen generals ; while his successor, heir
to this moral strength, and with every collateral aid, lowered her
to a stage of contempt from which no talent could subsequently
raise her.

Amra early availed himself of the contentions amongst the
sons of Aurangzeb to anticipate events, and formed a private
treaty 1 with the Mogul heir-apparent, Shah Alam, when com
2 " Private Treaty between the Rana and Shah Alam Bahadur Shah,
and bearing his sign-manual.
" Six articles of engagement, just, and tending to the happiness of the
people, have been submitted by you, and by mo accepted, and with God's
" 1. The re-establishment of Chitor as in the time of Shah Jahan.
" 2. Prohibition of kine-kilhng.*
* From the second of these articles, which alternate between stipulations
of a temporal and spiritual nature, we may draw a lesson of great poMtical
importance. In ail the treaties which have come under my observation,
the insertion of an article against the slaughter of kine was prominent. This
sacrifice to their national prejudices was the subject of discussion with every
ambassador when the States of Rajasthan formed engagements with the
British Government in 18f 7-18, " the prohibition of kine-kilhng within their
respective hunts." From the construction of our armies we could not
guarantee this article, but assurances were given that every practical atten
tion would be paid to their wishes ; and kine are not absolutely slain within
the jurisdiction of any of these Rajput princes. But even long habit,
though it has famiharized, has not reconciled them to this revolting sacrifice ;
nor would the kine-killer in Mewar be looked upon with less detestation
than was Cambyses by the Egyptians, when he thrust his lance into the
fiank of Apis. But in time this will be overlooked, and the verbal assurance
manded to the countries west of the Indus, on which occasion
[396] the Mewar contingent 1 accompanied him, and fought
several gallant actions under a Saktawat chieftain.

==Breach between the Rajputs and the Mughal Empire==
It is
important to study the events of this period, which involved the
overthrow of the IMogul power, and originated that form of
society which paved the way to the dominion of Britain in these
distant regions. From such a review a political lesson of great
value may be learned, which will show a beacon warning us
against the danger of trusting to mere physical power, unaided
"3. The restoration of all the districts held in the reign of Shah Jahan.
" 4. Freedom of faith and religious worship, as during the government
of him whose nest is Paradise (Akbar).
" 5. Whoever shall be dismissed by you shall receive no countenance from
the Icing.
" 6. The abrogation of the contingent for the service of the Deccan." *

1 It consisted of twenty-two Nakkarahand chiefs, i.e. each entitled to a
kettle-drum, and fifteen Turais, or chiefs, entitled to brass trumpets. [" As
a mark of favour, kettle-drums (naqqdrah) and the right to play them (naubat)
might be granted to a subject, but ho must be a man of the rank of 2000
sawar (troopers) or upwards. As an invariable condition, however, it was
stipulated they should not be used when the Emperor was present, or
within a certain distance from his residence " (Irvine, Army of the
Indian Moghuls, 30, 208 f.).]
will become a dead letter ; men of good intention will be lulled into the
belief that, because not openly combated, the prejudice is extinct, and that
homage to our power has obliterated this article of their creed. Thus
Aurangzeb thought, but he avowedly and boldly opposed the religious
opinions of his tributaries ; we only hold them in contempt, and even pro
tect them when productive of no sacrifice. Yet if we look back on the
early page of history, we shaU find both policy and benevolence combined
to form this legislative protection to one of the most useful of domestic
animals, and which would tempt the belief that Triptolemus, the lawgiver
of Sparta, had borrowed from Manu [Latus, xi. 60, 69, 71], or rather from
the still greater friends of dumb creatiires, the Jains, in the law which
exempted not only the lordly bull from the knife, but " every Uving thing."
* The Mewar contingent had been serving under Azam in the south, as
" Be it known to
Rana Amra Singh, your arzi [petition]"'arrived, and the accounts of your
mother gave me great grief, but against the decrees of God there is no
struggling. Pray for my welfare. Raja Rae Singh made a request for you ;
you are my own ; rest in full confidence and continue in your obedience.
The lands of your illustrious ancestors shall all be yours

but this is the time
continue to
think of me."

" Your Rajputs have behaved well."
by the latent, but more durable support of moral influence.
When Aurangzeb neglected the indigenous Rajputs, he en
dangered the keystone of his power ; and in despising opinion,
though his energetic mind might for a time render him independent
of it, yet long before his death the enormous fabric reared by
Akbar was tottering to its foundation : demonstrating to convic
tion that the highest order of talent, either for government or
war, though aided by unlimited resources, will not suffice for the
maintenance of power, unsupported by the affections of the
governed. The empire of Aurangzeb was more extensive than
the elements of stability were in
comparably more tenacious : he was associated with the Rajputs
by blood, which seemed to guarantee a respect for their opinions ;
he possessed the power of distributing the honours and emolu
ments of the state when a service could be rewarded by a pro
vince,1 drawing at will supplies of warriors from the mountains
of the west, as a check on his indigenous subjects, while these
left the plains of India to control the Afghan amidst the snows of
Caucasus. But the most devoted attachment and most faithful
service were repaid by insults to their habits, and the imposition
of an obnoxious tax ; and to the jizya, and the unwdse pertinacity
with which his successors adhered to it, must be directly ascribed
the overthrow of the monarchy. No condition was exempted
from this odious and impolitic assessment, which was deemed by
the tyrant a mild substitute for the conversion he once meditated
of the entire Hindu race to the creed of Islam. 2
1 In lieu of all, what reward does Britain hold out to the native popula
tion to be attached ? Heavy duties exclude many products of their industry
from the home market. The rates of pay to civil officers afford no security
to integrity ; and the faithful soldier cannot aspire to higher reward than
£1 20 per annum, were his breast studded with medals. Even their prejudices
are often too little considered, prejudices, the violation of which lost the
throne of India, in spite of every local advantage, to the descendants of
Aurangzeb.
2 [Jizya, meaning ' tribute,' was a capitation tax imposed on subjects
{zimmi) who did not follow the state religion, Islam. Its hardship lay in
the fact that it was additional to, and about the same amount as the revenue
demand, the latter being thus nearly doubled. Great merchants in the
time of Aurangzeb paid Rs. 13.8 ; the middle class Rs. 6.12 ; the poor
Rs. 3.8 per annum per head (Manucci ii. 234). On the Jizya see Hughes,
Diet. Islam, 248 ; Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, 65 f. ; Keene, Turks in
India, 153 ff. ; Grant Duff, Hist, of the Mahrattas, 145; Jadunath Sarkar,
Life of Aurangzib, iii. 305 iL]

==Rajput Apostates==

An abandonment of their faith was the
Rajput's surest road to the tyrant's favour [397], and an instance
of this dereliction in its consequences powerfully contributed to
the annihilation of the empire. Rao Gopal, a branch of the
Rana's family, held the fief of Rampura, on the Chambal, 1 and
was serving with a select quota of his clan in the wars of the
Deccan, when his son, who had been left at home, withheld the
revenues, which he applied to his own use instead of remitting
them to his father. Rao Gopal complained to the emperor ; but
the son discovered that he could by a sacrifice not only appease
Aurangzeb, but attain the object of his wishes : he apostatized
from his faith, and obtained the emperor's forgiveness, with the
domain of Rampura. Disgusted and provoked at such infurious
conduct, Rao Gopal fled the camp, made an unsuccessful attempt
to redeem his estate, and took refuge with Rana Amra, his
suzerain. This natural asylum granted to a chief of his own kin
was construed by the tyrant into a signal of revolt, and Azam
was ordered to Malwa to watch the Rana's motions : conduct
thus characterized in the memoirs of a Rajput chieftain,2 one of
the most devoted to Aurangzeb, and who died fighting for his
son. " The emperor showed but little favour to his faithful and
most useful subjects the Rajputs, which greatly cooled their
ardour in his service." The Rana took up arms, and Malwa
joined the tumult ; while the first irruption of the Mahrattas
across the Nerbudda, 3 under Nima Sindhia, compelled the em
peror to detach Raja Jai Singh to join Prince Azam. Amidst
these accumulated troubles, the Mahrattas rising into importance,
the Rajput feudatories disgusted and alienated, his sons and
grandsons ready to commit each individual pretension to the
decision of the sword, did Aurangzeb, after a reign of terror of
half a century's duration, breathe his last on the 28th Zilqa'da, a.d.
1707 [February 21], at the city bearing his name
Aurangabad.

1 Rampura Bhanpura (city of the sun) to distinguish it from Rampura
Tonk. Rao Gopal was of the Chandarawat clan. See note, p. 306.
2 Rao Dalpat Bundela of Datia, a portion of whose memoirs were pre
sented to me by the reigning prince, his descendant.
3 A.D. 1706-7. [The Mahrattas crossed the Nerbudda in 1705 (Grant
Duff, Hist. Mahrattas, 177 ; Malcolm, Memoir Central India, i. 58 ff.). The
latter remarks that they came to attack the government, not the people,
and acted with the concurrence of the Plindu chiefs discontented with the
policy of Aurangzeb.]

==Shah Alam Bahadur Shah, Emperor, a.d. 1707-12==

At his
death his second, son Azani assumed the imperial dignity, and
aided by the Rajput princes of Datia and Kotah,1 who had
always served in his division, he marched to Agra to contest the
legitimate claims of his eldest brother Muazzam, who was ad
vancing from Kabul supported by the contingents of Mewar and
Marwar, and all western Rajwara. The battle of Jajau [398] 2
was fatal to Azam, who with his son Bedarbakht and the princes
of Kotah and Datia was slain, when Muazzam ascended the
throne under the title of Shah Alam Bahadur Shah. This prince
had many qualities which endeared him to the Rajputs, to whom
his sympathies were united by the ties of blood, his mother being
a Rajput princess.3 Had he immediately succeeded the bene
ficent Shah Jahan, the race of Timur, in all human probability,
would have been still enthroned at Delhi, and might have pre
sented a picture of one of the most powerful monarchies of Asia.
But Aurangzeb had inflicted an incurable wound on the mind of
the Hindu race, which for ever estranged them from his successors ;
nor were the virtues of Bahadur, during the short lustre of his
sway, capable of healing it. The bitter fruit of a long experience
had taught the Rajputs not to hope for amelioration from any
graft of that stem, which, like the deadly Upas, had stifled the
vital energies of Rajasthan, whose leaders accordingly formed a
league for mutual preservation; which it would have been madness
to dissolve merely because a fair portion of virtue was the in
heritance of the tyrant's successor. They had proved that no
act of duty or subserviency could guarantee them from the
infatuated abuse of power, and they were at length steeled
against every appeal to their loyalty, replying with a trite adage,
which we may translate ' quern Deus vult perdere, prius de.mentat,''
— of common application with the Rajput in such a predicament.