CHAPTER 6
Lakhamsi: Lachhman Singh.
—Lakhamsi
[1] succeeded his father
in S. 1331 (
A.D. 1275), a memorable era in the annals, when Chitor,
the repository of all that was precious yet untouched of the arts
of India, was stormed, sacked, and treated with remorseless
barbarity by the Pathan [Khilji] emperor, Alau-d-din. Twice
it was attacked by this subjugator of India. In the first siege
it escaped spoliation, though at the price of its best defenders:
that which followed is the first successful assault and capture of
which we have any detailed account.
Bhīm Singh: Padmini.
—Bhimsi was the uncle of the young
prince, and protector during his minority. He had espoused the
daughter of Hamir Sank (Chauhan) of Ceylon, the cause of woes
unnumbered to the Sesodias. Her name was Padmini,
[2] a title
bestowed only on the superlatively fair, and transmitted with
renown to posterity by tradition and the song of the bard. Her
beauty, accomplishments, exaltation, and destruction, with other
incidental circumstances, constitute the subject of one of the most
popular traditions of Rajwara. The Hindu bard recognizes the
fair, in preference to fame and love of conquest, as the motive for
the attack of Alau-d-din, who [263] limited his demand to the
possession of Padmini; though this was after a long and fruitless
siege. At length he restricted his desire to a mere sight of this
extraordinary beauty, and acceded to the proposal of beholding
her through the medium of mirrors. Relying on the faith of the
Rajput, he entered Chitor slightly guarded, and having gratified
his wish, returned. The Rajput, unwilling to be outdone in confidence,
accompanied the king to the foot of the fortress, amidst
many complimentary excuses from his guest at the trouble he
thus occasioned. It was for this that Ala risked his own safety,
relying on the superior faith of the Hindu. Here he had an
ambush; Bhimsi was made prisoner, hurried away to the Tatar
camp, and his liberty made dependent on the surrender of
Padmini.
The Siege of Chitor.
—Despair reigned in Chitor when this fatal
event was known, and it was debated whether Padmini should be
resigned as a ransom for their defender. Of this she was informed,
and expressed her acquiescence. Having provided wherewithal
to secure her from dishonour, she communed with two chiefs of
her own kin and clan of Ceylon, her uncle Gora, and his nephew
Badal, who devised a scheme for the liberation of their prince
without hazarding her life or fame. Intimation was dispatched
to Ala that on the day he withdrew from his trenches the fair
Padmini would be sent, but in a manner befitting her own and
his high station, surrounded by her females and handmaids; not
only those who would accompany her to Delhi, but many others
who desired to pay her this last mark of reverence. Strict commands
were to be issued to prevent curiosity from violating the
sanctity of female decorum and privacy. No less than seven
hundred covered litters proceeded to the royal camp. In each
was placed one of the bravest of the defenders of Chitor, borne by
six armed soldiers disguised as litter-porters. They reached the
camp. The royal tents were enclosed with
kanats (walls of cloth);
the litters were deposited, and half an hour was granted for a
parting interview between the Hindu prince and his bride. They
then placed their prince in a litter and returned with him, while
the greater number (the supposed damsels) remained to accompany
the fair to Delhi.
[3] But Ala had no intention to permit
Bhimsi’s return, and was becoming jealous of the long interview
he enjoyed, when, instead of the prince and Padmini, the devoted
band issued from their litters: but Ala was too well guarded.
Pursuit was ordered, while these covered the retreat till they
perished to a man. A fleet horse was in reserve for [264] Bhimsi,
on which he was placed, and in safety ascended the fort, at whose
outer gate the host of Ala was encountered. The choicest of the
heroes of Chitor met the assault. With Gora and Badal at their
head, animated by the noblest sentiments, the deliverance of
their chief and the honour of their queen, they devoted themselves
to destruction, and few were the survivors of this slaughter
of the flower of Mewar. For a time Ala was defeated in his object,
and the havoc they had made in his ranks, joined to the dread
of their determined resistance, obliged him to desist from the
enterprise.
Mention has already been made of the adjuration,“by the
sin of the sack of Chitor.” Of these sacks they enumerate three
and a half. This is the ‘half’; for though the city was not
stormed, the best and bravest were cut off (sakha). It is described
with great animation in the Khuman Raesa. Badal was but a
stripling of twelve, but the Rajput expects wonders from this
early age. He escaped, though wounded, and a dialogue ensues
between him and his uncle’s wife, who desires him to relate
how her lord conducted himself ere she joins him. The stripling
replies: “He was the reaper of the harvest of battle; I followed
his steps as the humble gleaner of his sword. On the gory
bed of honour he spread a carpet of the slain; a barbarian
prince his pillow, he laid him down, and sleeps surrounded by
the foe.” Again she said: "Tell me, Badal, how did my love
(piyar) behave?" “Oh! mother, how further describe his
deeds when he left no foe to dread or admire him?” She smiled
farewell to the boy, and adding, “My lord will chide my delay,”
sprung into the flame.
Alau-d-din, having recruited his strength, returned to his
object, Chitor. The annals state this to have been in S. 1346
(A.D. 1290), but Ferishta gives a date thirteen years later.[4] They
had not yet recovered the loss of so many valiant men who had
sacrificed themselves for their prince’s safety, and Ala carried on
his attacks more closely, and at length obtained the hill at the
southern point, where he entrenched himself. They still pretend
to point out his trenches; but so many have been formed by
subsequent attacks that we cannot credit the assertion. The
poet has found in the disastrous issue of this siege admirable
materials for his song. He represents the Rana, after an arduous
day, stretched on his pallet, and during a night of watchful
anxiety, pondering on the means by which he might preserve from
the general destruction one at least of his twelve sons; when a
voice [265] broke on his solitude, exclaiming, “Main bhukhi
ho”;[5] and raising his eyes, he saw, by the dim glare of the
chiragh,[6] advancing between the granite columns, the majestic
form of the guardian goddess of Chitor. “Not satiated,” exclaimed
the Rana, “though eight thousand of my kin were late
an offering to thee?” “I must have regal victims; and if
twelve who wear the diadem bleed not for Chitor, the land will
pass from the line.” This said, she vanished.
On the morn he convened a council of his chiefs, to whom he
revealed the vision of the night, which they treated as the dream
of a disordered fancy. He commanded their attendance at midnight;
when again the form appeared, and repeated the terms
on which alone she would remain amongst them. “Though
thousands of barbarians strew the earth, what are they to me?
On each day enthrone a prince. Let the kirania,[7] the chhatra
and the chamara,[7] proclaim his sovereignty, and for three days
let his decrees be supreme: on the fourth let him meet the foe
and his fate. Then only may I remain.”
Whether we have merely the fiction of the poet, or whether
the scene was got up to animate the spirit of resistance, matters
but little, it is consistent with the belief of the tribe; and that
the goddess should openly manifest her wish to retain as her tiara
the battlements of Chitor on conditions so congenial to the warlike
and superstitious Rajput was a gage readily taken up and
fully answering the end. A generous contention arose amongst
the brave brothers who should be the first victim to avert the
denunciation. Arsi urged his priority of birth: he was proclaimed,
the umbrella waved over his head, and on the fourth
day he surrendered his short-lived honours and his life. Ajaisi,
the next in birth, demanded to follow; but he was the favourite
son of his father, and at his request he consented to let his brothers
precede him. Eleven had fallen in turn, and but one victim
remained to the salvation of the city, when the Rana, calling
his chiefs around him, said, “Now I devote myself for Chitor.”
The Johar.
—But another awful sacrifice was to precede this
act of self-devotion in that horrible rite, the
Johar,
[8] where the
females are immolated to preserve them from pollution or captivity.
The funeral pyre was lighted within the ‘great subterranean
retreat,’
[9] in chambers impervious to the light [266] of
day, and the defenders of Chitor beheld in procession the queens,
their own wives and daughters, to the number of several thousands.
The fair Padmini closed the throng, which was augmented
by whatever of female beauty or youth could be tainted by Tatar
lust. They were conveyed to the cavern, and the opening closed
upon them, leaving them to find security from dishonour in the
devouring element.
A contest now arose between the Rana and his surviving son;
but the father prevailed, and Ajaisi, in obedience to his commands,
with a small band passed through the enemy’s lines, and reached
Kelwara in safety. The Rana, satisfied that his line was not
extinct, now prepared to follow his brave sons; and calling
around him his devoted clans, for whom life had no longer any
charms, they threw open the portals and descended to the plains,
and with a reckless despair carried death, or met it, in the crowded
ranks of Ala. The Tatar conqueror took possession of an inanimate
capital, strewed with brave defenders, the smoke yet issuing
from the recesses where lay consumed the once fair object of his
desire; and since this devoted day the cavern has been sacred:
no eye has penetrated its gloom, and superstition has placed as
its guardian a huge serpent, whose ‘venomous breath’ extinguishes
the light which might guide intruders to ‘the place of
sacrifice.’
The Conquests of Alāu-d-dīn.
—Thus fell, in A.D. 1303, this
celebrated capital, in the round of conquest of Alau-d-din, one
of the most vigorous and warlike sovereigns who have occupied
the throne of India. In success, and in one of the means of
attainment, a bigoted hypocrisy, he bore a striking resemblance
to Aurangzeb; and the title of ‘Sikandaru-s-Sani,’ or the second
Alexander, which he assumed and impressed on his coins, was no
idle vaunt. The proud Anhilwara, the ancient Dhar and Avanti,
Mandor and Deogir, the seats of the Solankis, the Pramaras, the
Pariharas and Taks, the entire Agnikula race, were overturned
for ever by Ala. Jaisalmer, Gagraun, Bundi, the abodes of the
Bhatti, the Khichi, and the Hara, with many of minor importance,
suffered all the horrors of assault from this foe of the race, though
destined again to raise their heads. The Rathors of Marwar and
the [267] Kachhwahas of Amber were yet in a state of insignificance:
the former were slowly creeping into notice as the
vassals of the Pariharas, while the latter could scarcely withstand
the attacks of the original Mina population. Ala remained in
Chitor some days, admiring the grandeur of his conquest; and
having committed every act of barbarity and wanton dilapidation
which a bigoted zeal could suggest, overthrowing the temples
and other monuments of art, he delivered the city in charge to
Maldeo, the chief of Jalor, whom he had conquered and enrolled
amongst his vassals. The palace of Bhim and the fair Padmini
alone appears to have escaped the wrath of Ala; it would be
pleasing could we suppose any kinder sentiment suggested the
exception, which enables the author of these annals to exhibit
the abode of the fair of Ceylon.
PALACE OF RĀNA BHĪM AND PADMINI.
To face page 312.
The Flight of Rāna Ajai Singh.
—The survivor of Chitor, Rana
Ajaisi, was now in security at Kelwara, a town situated in the
heart of the Aravalli mountains, the western boundary of Mewar,
to which its princes had been indebted for twelve centuries of
dominion. Kelwara is at the highest part of one of its most extensive
valleys, termed the Shero Nala, the richest district of this
Alpine region. Guarded by faithful adherents, Ajaisi cherished
for future occasion the wrecks of Mewar. It was the last behest
of his father that when he attained ‘one hundred years’ (a
figurative expression for dying) the son of Arsi, the elder brother,
should succeed him. This injunction, from the deficiency of the
qualities requisite at such a juncture in his own sons, met a ready
compliance. Hamir was this son, destined to redeem the promise
of the genius of Chitor and the lost honours of his race, and whose
birth and early history fill many a page of their annals. His
father, Arsi, being out on a hunting excursion in the forest of
Ondua, with some young chiefs of the court, in pursuit of the
boar entered a field of maize, when a female offered to drive out
the game. Pulling one of the stalks of maize, which grows to the
height of ten or twelve feet, she pointed it, and mounting the
platform made to watch the corn, impaled the hog, dragged him
before the hunters, and departed. Though accustomed to feats of
strength and heroism from the nervous arms of their countrywomen,
the act surprised them. They descended to the stream
at hand, and prepared the repast, as is usual, on the spot. The
feast was held, and comments were passing on the fair arm which
had transfixed the boar, when a ball of clay from a sling fractured
a limb of the prince’s steed. Looking in the direction whence
it [268] came, they observed the same damsel, from her elevated
stand,
[10] preserving her fields from aerial depredators; but seeing
the mischief she had occasioned she descended to express her
regret and then returned to her pursuit. As they were proceeding
homewards after the sports of the day, they again encountered
the damsel, with a vessel of milk on her head, and leading
in either hand a young buffalo. It was proposed, in frolic, to
overturn her milk, and one of the companions of the prince
dashed rudely by her; but without being disconcerted, she
entangled one of her charges with the horse’s limbs and brought
the rider to the ground. On inquiry the prince discovered that
she was the daughter of a poor Rajput of the Chandano tribe.
[11]
He returned the next day to the same quarter and sent for her
father, who came and took his seat with perfect independence
close to the prince, to the merriment of his companions, which
was checked by Arsi asking his daughter to wife. They were yet
more surprised by the demand being refused. The Rajput, on
going home, told the more prudent mother, who scolded him
heartily, made him recall the refusal, and seek the prince. They
were married, and Hamir was the son of the Chandano Rajputni.
[12]
He remained little noticed at the maternal abode till the catastrophe
of Chitor. At this period he was twelve years of age, and had
led a rustic life, from which the necessity of the times recalled him.
Mewār occupied by the Musalmāns: The Exploit of Hamīr.
—Mewar
was now occupied by the garrisons of Delhi, and Ajaisi
had besides to contend with the mountain chiefs, amongst whom
Munja Balaicha was the most formidable, who had, on a recent
occasion, invaded the Shero Nala, and personally encountered
the Rana, whom he wounded on the head with a lance. The
Rana’s sons, Sajansi and Ajamsi, though fourteen and fifteen, an
age at which a Rajput ought to indicate his future character,
proved of little aid in the emergency. Hamir was summoned,
and accepted the feud against Munja, promising to return successful
or not at all. In a few days he was seen entering the pass of
Kelwara with Munja’s head at his saddle-bow. Modestly placing
the trophy at his uncle’s feet, he exclaimed: “Recognize the
head of your foe!” Ajaisi ‘kissed his beard,’
[13] and observing
that fate had stamped empire on his forehead, impressed [269] it
with a tika of blood from the head of the Balaicha. This decided
the fate of the sons of Ajaisi; one of whom died at Kelwara, and
the other, Sajansi, who might have excited a civil war, was sent
from the country.
[14] He departed for the Deccan, where his issue
was destined to avenge some of the wrongs the parent country
had sustained, and eventually to overturn the monarchy of
Hindustan; for Sajansi was the ancestor of Sivaji, the founder of
the Satara throne, whose lineage
[15] is given in the chronicles of
Mewar.
Rāna Hamīr Singh, A.D. 1301-64.
—Hamir succeeded in S. 1357
(A.D. 1301), and had sixty-four years granted to him to redeem
his country from the ruins of the past century, which period had
elapsed since India ceased to own the paramount sway of her
native princes. The day on which he assumed the ensigns of rule
he gave, in the tika daur, an earnest of his future energy, which
he signalized by a rapid inroad into the heart of the country of
the predatory Balaicha, and captured their stronghold Pusalia.
We may here explain the nature of this custom of a barbaric
chivalry.
The Inaugural Foray.
—The tika daur signifies the foray of
inauguration, which obtained from time immemorial on such
events, and is yet maintained where any semblance of hostility
will allow its execution. On the morning of installation, having
previously received the tika of sovereignty, the prince at the head
of his retainers makes a foray into the territory of any one with
whom he may have a feud, or with whom he may be indifferent
as to exciting one; he captures a stronghold or plunders a town,
and returns with the trophies. If amity should prevail with all
around, which the prince cares not to disturb, they have still a
mock representation of the custom. For many reigns after the
Jaipur princes united their fortunes to the throne of Delhi their
frontier town, Malpura, was the object of the tika daur of the
princes of Mewar.
Chitor under a Musalmān Garrison.
—“When Ajmall
[16] went
another road,” as the bard figuratively describes the demise of
Rana Ajaisi, “the son of Arsi unsheathed the sword, thence never
stranger to his hand.” Maldeo remained with the royal garrison
at Chitor,
[17] but Hamir [270] desolated their plains, and left to his
enemies only the fortified towns which could safely be inhabited.
He commanded all who owned his sovereignty either to quit
their abodes, and retire with their families to the shelter of the
hills on the eastern and western frontiers, or share the fate of the
public enemy. The roads were rendered impassable from his
parties, who issued from their retreats in the Aravalli, the security
of which baffled pursuit. This destructive policy of laying waste
the resources of their own country, and from this asylum attacking
their foes as opportunity offered, has obtained from the time
of Mahmud of Ghazni in the tenth, to Muhammad, the last
who merited the name of Emperor of Delhi, in the eighteenth
century.
Resistance of Hamīr Singh.
—Hamir made Kelwara
[18] his residence,
which soon became the chief retreat of the emigrants from
the plains. The situation was admirably chosen, being covered
by several ranges, guarded by intricate defiles, and situated at the
foot of a pass leading over the mountain into a still more inaccessible
retreat (where Kumbhalmer now stands),
[19] well watered and
wooded, with abundance of pastures and excellent indigenous
fruits and roots. This tract, above fifty miles in breadth, is
twelve hundred feet above the level of the plains and three thousand
above the sea, with a considerable quantity of arable land,
and free communication to obtain supplies by the passes of the
western declivity from Marwar, Gujarat, or the friendly Bhils,
of the west, to whom this house owes a large debt of gratitude.
On various occasions the communities of Oghna and Panarwa
furnished the princes of Mewar with five thousand bowmen,
supplied them with provisions, or guarded the safety of their
families when they had to oppose the foe in the field. The elevated
plateau of the eastern frontier presented in its forests and
dells many places of security; but Ala
[20] traversed these in person,
destroying as he went: neither did they possess the advantages
of climate and natural productions arising from the elevation of
the other. Such was the state of Mewar: its places of strength
occupied by the foe, cultivation and peaceful objects neglected
from the persevering hostility of Hamir, when a proposal of
marriage came from the Hindu governor of Chitor, which was
immediately accepted, contrary to the [271] wishes of the prince’s
advisers.
The Recovery of Chitor.
—Whether this was intended as a snare
to entrap him, or merely as an insult, every danger was scouted
by Hamir which gave a chance to the recovery of Chitor. He
desired that ‘
the coco-nut[21] might be retained’ coolly remarking
on the dangers pointed out, "My feet shall at least tread in the
rocky steps in which my ancestors have moved. A Rajput should
always be prepared for reverses; one day to abandon his abode
covered with wounds, and the next to reascend with the
maur
(crown) on his head." It was stipulated that only five hundred
horse should form his suite. As he approached Chitor, the five
sons of the Chauhan advanced to meet him, but on the portal of
the city no toran,
[22] or nuptial emblem, was suspended. He, however,
accepted the unsatisfactory reply to his remark on this
indication of treachery, and ascended for the first time the ramp
of Chitor. He was received in the ancient halls of his ancestors
by Rao Maldeo, his son Banbir, and other chiefs,
with folded
hands. The bride was brought forth, and presented by her father
without any of the solemnities practised on such occasions; ‘the
knot of their garments tied and their hands united,’ and thus they
were left. The family priest recommended patience, and Hamir
retired with his bride to the apartments allotted for them. Her
kindness and vows of fidelity overcame his sadness upon learning
that he had married a widow. She had been wedded to a chief
of the Bhatti tribe, shortly afterwards slain, and when she was
so young as not to recollect even his appearance. He ceased to
lament the insult when she herself taught him how it might be
avenged, and that it might even lead to the recovery of Chitor.
It is a privilege possessed by the bridegroom to have one specific
favour complied with as a part of the dower (
daeja), and Hamir
was instructed by his bride to ask for Jal, one of the civil [272]
officers of Chitor, and of the Mehta tribe. With his wife so obtained,
and the scribe whose talents remained for trial, he returned
in a fortnight to Kelwara. Khetsi was the fruit of this marriage,
on which occasion Maldeo made over all the hill tracts to Hamir.
Khetsi was a year old when one of the penates (Khetrpal)
[23] was
found at fault, on which she wrote to her parents to invite her to
Chitor, that the infant might be placed before the shrine of the
deity. Escorted by a party from Chitor, with her child she
entered its walls; and instructed by the Mehta, she gained over
the troops who were left, for the Rao had gone with his chief
adherents against the Mers of Madri. Hamir was at hand.
Notice that all was ready reached him at Bagor. Still he met
opposition that had nearly defeated the scheme; but having
forced admission, his sword overcame every obstacle, and the
oath of allegiance (
an) was proclaimed from the palace of his
fathers.
The Sonigira on his return was met with ‘a salute of arabas,’[24]
and Maldeo himself carried the account of his loss to the Khilji
king Mahmud, who had succeeded Ala. The ‘standard of the
sun’ once more shone refulgent from the walls of Chitor, and was
the signal for return to their ancient abodes from their hills and
hiding-places to the adherents of Hamir. The valleys of Kumbhalmer
and the western highlands poured forth their ‘streams of
men,’ while every chief of true Hindu blood rejoiced at the prospect
of once more throwing off the barbarian yoke. So powerful
was this feeling, and with such activity and skill did Hamir follow
up this favour of fortune, that he marched to meet Mahmud,
who was advancing to recover his lost possessions. The king
unwisely directed his march by the eastern plateau, where numbers
were rendered useless by the intricacies of the country. Of the
three steppes which mark the physiognomy of this tract, from the
first ascent from the plain of Mewar to the descent at Chambal,
the king had encamped on the central, at Singoli, where he was
attacked, defeated, and made prisoner by Hamir, who slew Hari
Singh, brother of Banbir, in single combat. The king suffered a
confinement of three months in Chitor, nor was liberated till he
had surrendered Ajmer, Ranthambor, Nagor, and Sui Sopur,
besides paying fifty lakhs of rupees and one hundred elephants.
Hamir would exact no promise of cessation from further inroads,
but contented himself with assuring him that from such he
should be prepared to defend Chitor, not within, but without the
walls [273].[25]
Banbir, the son of Maldeo, offered to serve Hamir, who assigned
the districts of Nimach, Jiran, Ratanpur, and the Kerar to maintain
the family of his wife in becoming dignity; and as he gave
the grant he remarked: “Eat, serve, and be faithful. You were
once the servant of a Turk, but now of a Hindu of your own faith;
for I have but taken back my own, the rock moistened by the
blood of my ancestors, the gift of the deity I adore, and who will
maintain me in it; nor shall I endanger it by the worship of a
fair face, as did my predecessor.” Banbir shortly after carried
Bhainsror by assault, and this ancient possession guarding the
Chambal was again added to Mewar. The chieftains of Rajasthan
rejoiced once more to see a Hindu take the lead, paid willing
homage, and aided him with service when required.
The Power of Rāna Hamīr Singh.
—Hamir was the sole Hindu
prince of power now left in India: all the ancient dynasties were
crushed, and the ancestors of the present princes of Marwar and
Jaipur brought their levies, paid homage, and obeyed the summons
of the prince of Chitor, as did the chiefs of Bundi, Gwalior, Chanderi,
Raesin, Sikri, Kalpi, Abu, etc.
Extensive as was the power of Mewar before the Tatar occupation
of India, it could scarcely have surpassed the solidity
of sway which she enjoyed during the two centuries following
Hamir’s recovery of the capital. From this event to the next
invasion from the same Cimmerian abode, led by Babur, we have
a succession of splendid names recorded in her annals, and though
destined soon to be surrounded by new Muhammadan dynasties,
in Malwa and Gujarat as well as Delhi, yet successfully opposing
them all. The distracted state of affairs when the races of Khilji,
Lodi, and Sur alternately struggled for and obtained the seat of
dominion, Delhi, was favourable to Mewar, whose power was
now so consolidated that she not only repelled armies from her
territory, but carried war abroad, leaving tokens of victory at
Nagor, in Saurashtra, and to the walls of Delhi.
Public Works.
—The subjects of Mewar must have enjoyed not
only a long repose, but high prosperity during this period, judging
from their magnificent public works, when a triumphal [274] column
must have cost the income of a kingdom to erect, and which ten
years’ produce of the crown-lands of Mewar could not at this
time defray. Only one of the structures prior to the sack of
Chitor was left entire by Ala, and is yet existing, and this was
raised by private and sectarian hands. It would be curious if the
unitarian profession of the Jain creed was the means of preserving
this ancient relic from Ala’s wrath.
[26] The princes of this house
were great patrons of the arts, and especially of architecture;
and it is a matter of surprise how their revenues, derived chiefly
from the soil, could have enabled them to expend so much on
these objects and at the same time maintain such armies as are
enumerated. Such could be effected only by long prosperity
and a mild, paternal system of government; for the subject had
his monuments as well as the prince, the ruins of which may yet
be discovered in the more inaccessible or deserted portions of
Rajasthan. Hamir died full of years, leaving a name still
honoured in Mewar, as one of the wisest and most gallant of her
princes, and bequeathing a well-established and extensive power
to his son.
Kshetra or Khet Singh, A.D. 1364-82.
—Khetsi succeeded in
S. 1421 (
A.D. 1365) to the power and to the character of his father.
He captured Ajmer and Jahazpur from Lila Pathan, and reannexed
Mandalgarh, Dasor, and the whole of Chappan (for the first
time) to Mewar. He obtained a victory over the Delhi monarch
Humayun
[27] at Bakrol; but unhappily his life terminated in a
family broil with his vassal, the Hara chief of Bumbaoda, whose
daughter he was about to espouse.
Laksh Singh, A.D. 1382-97.
—Lakha Rana, by this assassination,
mounted the throne in Chitor in S. 1439 (
A.D. 1373). His first act
was the entire subjugation of the mountainous region of Merwara,
and the destruction of its chief stronghold, Bairatgarh, where he
erected Badnor. But an event of much greater importance than
settling his frontier, and which most powerfully tended to the
prosperity of the country, was the discovery of the tin and silver
mines of Jawara, in the tract wrested by Khetsi from the Bhils
of Chappan.
[28] Lakha Rana has the merit of having first worked
them, though their existence is superstitiously alluded to so early
as the period of the founder. It is said the ‘seven metals’ (
haft-dhat)
[29]
were formerly [275] abundant; but this appears figurative.
We have no evidence for the gold, though silver, tin,
copper, lead, and antimony were yielded in abundance (the first
two from the same matrix), but the tin that has been extracted
for many years past yields but a small portion of silver.
[30] Lakha
Rana defeated the Sankhla Rajputs of Nagarchal,
[31] at Amber.
He encountered the emperor Muhammad Shah Lodi, and on one
occasion defeated a royal army at Badnor; but he carried the
war to Gaya, and in driving the barbarian from this sacred place
was slain.
[32] Lakha is a name of celebrity, as a patron of the arts
and benefactor of his country. He excavated many reservoirs
and lakes, raised immense ramparts to dam their waters, besides
erecting strongholds. The riches of the mines of Jawara were
expended to rebuild the temples and palaces levelled by Ala. A
portion of his own palace yet exists, in the same style of architecture
as that, more ancient, of Ratna and the fair Padmini;
and a minster (
mandir) dedicated to the creator (Brahma), an
enormous and costly fabric, is yet entire. Being to ‘the One,’
and consequently containing no idol, it may thus have escaped the
ruthless fury of the invaders.
Lakha had a numerous progeny, who have left their clans
called after them, as the Lunawats and Dulawats, now the sturdy
allodial proprietors of the Alpine regions bordering on Oghna,
Panarwa, and other tracts in the Aravalli.[33] But a circumstance
which set aside the rights of primogeniture, and transferred the
crown of Chitor from his eldest son, Chonda, to the younger,
Mokal, had nearly carried it to another line. The consequences
of making the elder branch a powerful vassal clan with claims to
the throne, and which have been the chief cause of its subsequent
prostration, we will reserve for another chapter [276].