Mewar 23: The Rise ofthe Sikhs - Revision history

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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 23: The Rise ofthe Sikhs=
==The Rise ofthe Sikhs==

The emperor was soon made to perceive
the little support he had in future to expect from the Rajputs.
Scarcely had he quashed the pretensions of Kambakhsh, his
youngest brother, who proclaimed himself emperor in the Deccan,
than he was forced to the north, in consequence of an insurrection
1 Rao Dalpat (Bundela), and Rao Ram Singh (Hara).
2 [Twenty miles south of Agra, June 1, 1707.]
3 [Nawab Bai, daughter of the Raja of Rajauri, Kashmir, who died in
1690 (Manucci ii. 57, note).]
of the Sikhs of Lahore. This singular race, the disciples (sikhs)
of a teacher called Nanak, were the descendants of the Scythic
Getae,1 or Jat, of Transoxiana, who so early as the fifth century
were established in the tract watered by the Ave arms {Punjab)
of the Indus. Little more than a century has elapsed since their
conversion from a spurious Hinduism to the doctrines of the
sectarian Nanak, and their first attempt to separate themselves,
in temporal as well as spiritual matters, from all control, and they
are now the sole independent power within the limits [399 J of the
Mogul monarchy. On this occasion 2 the princes of Amber and
Marwar visited the emperor, but left his camp without permission,
and, as the historian 3 adds, manifested a design to struggle for
independence. Such was the change in their mutual circum
stances that the Mogul sent the heir-apparent to conciliate and
conduct thein to him ; but they came at the head of all their
native bands, when " they were gratified with whatever their
insolence demanded " : 4 a splenetic effusion of the historian,
which well paints their altered position. From the royal urdu,5
or camp, they repaired to Rana Amra at Udaipur, where a triple
league was formed, which once more united them to the head of
their nation. This treaty of unity of interests against the common
foe was solemnized by nuptial engagements, from which those
princes had been excluded since the reigns of Akbar and Partap.
To be readmitted to this honour was the basis of this triple
alliance, in which they ratified on oath the renunciation of all
connexion, domestic or political, with the empire. It was,
moreover, stipulated that the sons of such marriage should be
heirs, or if the issue were females, that they should never be
dishonoured by being married to a Mogul.

==Sacrifice ofthe Right of Primogeniture==

But this remedy, as
will be seen, originated a worse disease ; it was a sacrifice of the
rights of primogeniture (chmg to by the Rajputs with extreme
pertinacity), productive of the most injurious effects, which
1 See History of ike Tribes, article ' Jats,' p. 127.
2 A.D. 1709-10.
3 Memoirs of Iradat Khan, p. 58 [translated by Captain Jonathan Scott ;
extracts from the work of Iradat Khan will be found in Elliot-Dowson vii.
534 f.] ; also autograph letters of all those princes, with files of the regular
newspapers {akhbars) of the day, in my possession, dated from the emperor's
camp. 4 Metiioirs of Iradat Khan.
5 Hence the corruption of horde.
introduced domestic strife, and called upon the stage an umpire
not less baneful than the power from whose iron grasp they were
on the point of freeing themselves : for although this treaty laid
prostrate the throne of Babur, it ultimately introduced the
Mahrattas as partisans in their family disputes, who made the
bone of contention their own.

The injudicious support afforded by the emperor to the apostate
chief of Rampura first brought the triple federation into action.
The Rana, upholding the cause of Himmat Singh, made an
attack on Rampura, which the apostate usurper Ratan Singh,
now Raj Muslim Khan, defeated, and was rewarded for [400] it
by the emperor.1 But the same report conveyed to the king
" that the Rana determined to lay waste his country, and retire
to the hills," 2 which was speedily confirmed by the unwelcome
intelligence that Sawaldas, an officer of the Rana's, had attacked
Firoz Khan the governor of Pur Mandal, who was obliged to
retreat with great loss to Ajmer ; 3 on which occasion this loyal
descendant of the illustrious Jaimall lost his life.4 The brave
Durgadas, who conveyed the rebellious Akbar through all opposi
his
own prince being unable to protect him, he had found a safe
asylum at Udaipur, and had the sum of five hundred rupees
a princely liberality. But the
result of this combination was reserved for the following reigns,
Shah Alam being carried off by poison,5 ere he could correct the
disorders which were rapidly breaking up the empire from the
Hindu-Kush to the ocean. Had his life been spared, his talents
for business, his experience, and courteous manners might have
retarded the ruin of the monarchy, which the utter unworthiness
of his successor sunk beyond the power of man to redeem. Every
1 Newspaper, dated 3rd Rajab, Singh. (3rd year of his reign).
2 Newspapers, 10th Rajab, San. 3.
3 Newspapers, 5th Shavval, San. 3.
4 The following edict, which caused this action, I translated from the
Archieves; it is addressed to the son of sawaldas:" Maharana Amra Singh
To the Rathor Rao Singh Sawaldaost (race of Sawaldas)Lay waste your
Villages and the country around you_your families shall have other habita_
Tions to the dwell in
for particulars consult Daulat Singh Chondawat : obey
these." Asoj, S. 1764 (Dec. a.d. 1708).
5 [February 18] a.d. 1712. [The Musalraan authorities do not cor--
roborate the assertion that he was poisoned.]

subsequent succession was through blood ; and the sons of Shah
Alam performed the part for which they had so many great
examples. Two brothers,1 Sayyids, from the town of Barha in the
Duab, were long the Warwicks of Hindustan, setting up and
plucking down its puppet kings at their pleasure ; they had
elevated Farrukhsiyar when the triumvirs of Rajasthan com
menced their operations.

==Farrukhsiyar, Emperor, a.d. 1712-19==

Giving loose to long
suppressed resentment, the Rajputs abandoned the spirit of
toleration which it would have been criminal to preserve ; and
profiting by the lessons of their tyrants, they overthrew the
mosques built on the sites of their altars, and treated the civil
and religious officers of the government with indignity. Of these
every town in Rajasthan had its mulla to proclaim the name of
branches of government [401] entirely wrested from the hands of
the native princes, 2 abusing the name of independence. But for
a moment it was redeemed, especially by the brave Rathors, who
had made a noble resistance, contesting every foot of land since
the death of .Jaswant Singh, and now his son Ajit entirely expelled
the Moguls from jMarwar. On this occasion the native forces of
the triple alliance met at the salt lake of Sambhar, which was
made the common boundary of their territory, and its revenues
were equally divided amongst them.

The pageant of an emperor, guided by the Sayyids, or those
who intrigued to supplant their ministry, made an effort to
oppose the threatening measures of the Rajputs ; and one of
them, the Amiru-1-iunara,3 marched against Raja Ajit, who
received private instructions from the emperor to resist his
commander - in - chief, whose credit was strengthened by the
means taken to weaken it, which engendered suspicions of
treachery. Ajit leagued with the Sayyids, who held out to the
Rathor an important share of power at court, and agreed to pay
tribute and give a daughter in marriage to Farrukhsiyar.

1 Husain Ali and Abdu-lla Khan.
2 Next to kine-killing was the article inhibiting the introduction of the
Adalat, or British courts of justice, into the Rajput States, in all their
treaties with the British Government in a.d. 1817-18, the very name of
which is abhorrent to a native.
3 The title of Husain Ah, _
as Kutbu-1-mulk (the axis of the State), was
that of his brother Abdu-lla.

==Marriage of Farrukhsiyar : Grant to the British==

This marriage
yielded most important results, which were not confined to the
Moguls or Rajputs, for to it may be ascribed the rise of the British
power in India. A dangerous malady,1 rendering necessary a
surgical operation upon Farrukhsiyar, to which the faculty of
the court were unequal, retarded the celebration of the nuptials
between the emperor and the Rajput princess of Marwar, and
even threatened a fatal termination. A mission from the British
merchants at Surat was at that time at court, and, as a last
resource, the surgeon attached to it was called in, who cured
the malady, and made the emperor happy in his bride. 2 His
gratitude was displayed with oriental magnificence. The em
peror desired Mr. Hamilton to name [402] his reward, and to the
disinterested patriotism of this individual did the British owe
the first royal grant or farman, conferring territorial possession
and great commercial privileges. These were the objects of the
mission, which till this occurrence had proved unsuccessful.

This gorgeous court ought to have been, and probably was,
impressed with a high opinion of the virtuous self-denial of the
inhabitants of Britain ; and if history has correctly preserved the
transaction, some mark of public gratitude should have been
forthcoming from those who so signally benefited thereby. But
to borrow the phraseology of the Italian historian, " Obligations
which do not admit of being fully discharged are often repaid
with the coin of ingratitude " : the remains of this man rest in
the churchyard of Calcutta, without even a stone to mark the
spot ! 3

1 A white swelling or tumour on the back.
2 The ceremony is described, as it was celebrated, with true Asiatic
pomp. " The Ameer-ool Omra conducted the festivities on the part of the
bride, and the marriage was performed with a splendour and magnificence
till then unseen among the princes of Hindust'han. Many pompous insignia
were added to the royal cortege upon this occasion. The illuminations
rivalled the planets, and seemed to upbraid the faint lustre of the stars.
The nuptials were performed at the palace of the Ameer-ool Omra, whence
the emperor conveyed his bride with the highest splendour of imperial
pomp to the citadel, amidst the resoundings of musical instruments and
the acclamations of the people " (Scott's History of Aurangzeb’s Successors,
vol. i. p. 132. [For the cure of Farrukhsiyar by Surgeon W. Hamilton see
C. R. Wilson, Early Annals of the English in Bengal, ii. 235.]
3 [There is a monument of Hamilton in St. John's Church, Calcutta {IGI,
X. 280).]
==The Jizya Reimposed==

This marriage, which promised a
renewal of interests with the Rajputs, was soon followed by the
revival of the obnoxious jizya. The character of this tax, though
much altered from its original imposition by Aurangzeb, when
it was at once financial and religious, was held in vinmitigated
abhorrence by the Hindus from the complex association ; and
although it was revived chiefly to relieve pecuniary wants, it
kindled a universal feeling of hatred amongst all classes, and
quenched the little zeal which the recent marriage had inspired
in the Rajputs of the desert. The mode and channel of its
introduction evinced to them that there was no hope that the
intolerant spirit which originally suggested it would ever be
subdued. The weak Farrukhsiyar, desirous of snapping the
leading-strings of the Sayyids, recalled to his court Inayatu-lla
Khan, the minister of Aurangzeb, and restored to him his office
of Diwan, who, to use \he words of the historian of the period,
" did not consult the temper of the times, so very different from
the reign of Aurangzeb, and the revival of the jizya came with
him." Though by no means severe in its operation, not amount
from which
it nevertheless
raised a general spirit of hostility, particularly from its retaining
the insulting distinction of a ' tax on mfidels.' Resistance to
taxation appears to be a universal feeling, in which even the
Asiatic forgets the divine right of sovereignty, and which throws
us back on the pervading spirit of selfishness which [403] governs
human nature. The tamgha, 3 or stamp tax, which preceded the
jizya, would appear to have been as unsatisfactory as it was
general, from the solemnity of its renunciation by Babur on the
field of battle after the victory over infidels, which gave him the
crown of India ; and though we have no record of the jizya being
its substitute, there are indications which authorize the inference.

1 [Inayatu-Ua Khan, a Persian of Naishapur, was tutor of Zebu-n-nissa
Begam, daughter of Aurangzeb, and held high office in his reign and in that
of Farrukhsiyar. He died in 172G (Beale, s.v.).]
2 13 rupees on every 2000 rupees.
3 [Altamgha, ' the red seal,' technically ' a royal grant. On its
remission by Babur see Erskine, Hist, of India, i. 467. Elliot remarks that
the altamgha as a tax was eniorced as early as the time of Alau-d-din and
Flroz Shah (Elhot-Dowson iii. 36.5). For the use of the seal see Memoirs
of Jalidiujlr, trans. Rogers-Beveridge, 23.]

==Rana Amar Singh asserts Rajput Independence==

Rana Amra
was not an idle spectator of these occurrences ; and although the
spurious thirst for distinction so early broke up the alliance by
detaclung Ajit, he redoubled his efforts for personal independence,
and with it that of the Rajput nation. An important document
attests this solicitude, namely, a treaty 1 with the emperor, in
which the second article stipulates emancipation from the galling
jizya. It may be well to analyse this treaty, which attests the
1 " Memorandum of Bequests.
" 1. The Mansab of 7000, the highest grade of rank.
" 2. Farman of engagement under the panja private seal and sign that
that it shall no longer be imposed on the
Hindu nation ; at all events, that none of the Chagatai race shaU authorize
it in Mewar. Let it be annulled.
"3. The contingent of one thousand horse for service in the Deccau to
be excused.
" 4. ALL places of Hmdu faith to be rebuild, with perfect freedom of
religious worship.
" 5. If my uncles, brothers, or chiefs, repair to the Presence, to meet no
encouragement.
" 6. The Bhumias of DeoHa, Banswara, Dungarpur, and Sirohi, besides
other zamindars over whom I am to have control, they shall not be admitted
to the Presence.
" 7. The forces I possess are my chiefs —
what troops you may require
for a given period, you must furnish with rations (peti), and when the
service is over, their accounts will be settled.
" 8. Of the Hakkdars, Zamindars, Mansabdars, who serve you with zeal
and those who are not obedient I
will punish ; but in effecting this no demand is to be made ioT-Faemali." *
" List of the districts attached to the PwnjJmzari,] at present under
Phuha, Mandalgarh, Badnor, Pur, Basar,
Ghayaspur, Pardhar, Banswara, Dungarpur. Besides the 5000 of old, you
had on ascending the throne granted an increase of 1000, and on account of
the victory at Sinsuii 1000 more, of two and three horse." %

" Of three crores of dams \\ in gift {inam,), namely, two according to far
man, and one for the payment of the contingent in the Deccan, and of
which two are immediately required, you have given me in heu thereof
Sirohi.

" Districts uov/ desired __
Idar, Kekri, Mandal, Jahazpur, Malpur (and
another illegible)."
* Destruction of property, alluding to the crops which always suffered
in the movements of disorderly troops.
+ Mansab of 5000.
+ It was usual to allow two and thi-eo horses to each cavaher when favour
was intended.
II 40 dams to the rupee.
altered condition of both parties. Its very title marks the
subordination of the chief of the Rajputs ; but while this is
headed a ' Memorandum of Requests,' the eighth article dis
closes the effective means of the Rana, for there he assumes an
air of protection towards the emperor. In the opening stipulation
for the mansah of 7000, the [404] mind reverts to the great Amra,
who preferred abdication to acknowledgment of a superior ; but
opinion had undergone a change as great as the mutual relations
of the Rajputs. In temporal dignities other States had risen to
an equality with Mewar, and all had learned to look on the Mogul
as the fountain of honour. The abolition of the jizya, freedom
from religious restraint, control over the ancient feudatories of
his house, and the restoration of all sequestrations, distinguish
the other articles, and amply attest the improving attitude of
Mewar, and the rapid decay of the Mogul empire. The Mahrattas
imder Raja Sahu 1 were successfully prosecuting their peculiar
system in the south, with the same feelings which characterized
the early Gothic invaders of Italy ; strangers to settled govern
ment, they imposed the taxes of chauth and desmukhi, 2 the fourth
and tetith of all territorial income, in the countries they overran.
The Jat tribes west of the Chambal likewise bearded their
oppressors in this reign, by hoisting the standard of independence
at the very threshold of their capital ; and from the siege of
Sinsini (mentioned in this treaty) to the last storm of Bharatpur,
they maintained the consequence thus assumed.

==Death of Rana Amar Singh ==

This treaty was the last act of
Rana Amra's life ; he died in a.d. 1716 [1710], leaving the reputa
tion of an active and high-minded prince, who well upheld his
station and the prosperity of his country, notwithstanding the
anarchy of the period. His encouragement of agriculture and
protection of manufactures are displayed in the edicts engraved
on pillars, which will hand down his name to posterity. His
memory is held in high veneration ; nor do the Rajputs admit
the absolute degradation of ISIewar till the period of the second
prince in succession to Amra [405].
1 [Sahu, ' the honest, respectable man,' a title given by Aurangzeb
to Sivaji, son of Sambhaji (Grant Duff, 184).]
2 [Des7nukhi from Sardesmukh, an officer exercising police and revenue
jurisdiction under the Marathas. These taxes were confirmed in favour of
Sivaji in 1665 {Ibid. 94).]