Princes contemporary with Aurangzeb.
—It has seldom occurred
that so many distinguished princes were contemporary as during
the reign of Aurangzeb. Every Rajput principality had a head
above mediocrity in conduct as in courage. Jai Singh of Amber,
surnamed ‘the Mirza Raja’; Jaswant Singh of Marwar, with the
Haras of Bundi and Kotah; the Rathors of Bikaner, and
Bundelas of Orchha and Datia, were men whose prejudices,
properly consulted, would have rendered the Mogul power indissoluble:
but he had but one measure of contumely for all,
which inspired Sivaji with designs of freedom to Maharashtra,
and withdrew every sentiment of support from the princes of
Rajasthan. In subtlety and the most specious hypocrisy, in that
concentration of resolve which confides its deep purpose to none,
in every qualification of the warrior or scholar,
[21] Aurangzeb had
no superior amongst the many distinguished [376] of his race;
but that sin by which ‘angels fell’ had steeped him in an ocean
of guilt, and not only neutralized his natural capacities, but
converted the means for unlimited power into an engine of self-destruction.
“This hypocrisy,” says the eloquent Orme,
[22]
“encreased with his power, and in order to palliate to his Mahomedan
subjects the crimes by which he had become their sovereign,
he determined to enforce the conversion of the Hindoos
by the severest penalties, and even threatned the sword; as if
the blood of his subjects were to wash away the stains, with
which he was imbrued by the blood of his family.... Labour
left the field and industry the loom, until the decrease of the
revenues drew representations from the governors of the provinces;
which induced Aurungzebe to substitute a capitation
tax
[23] as the ballance of the account between the two religions.”
The same historian justly characterizes this enactment as one so
contrary to all notions of sound policy, as well as of the feelings
of humanity, that “reflection seeks the motive with amazement.”
In this amazement we might remain, nor seek to develop the
motive, did not the ample page of history in all [377] nations
disclose that in the name of religion more blood has been shed,
and more atrocity committed, than by the united action of the
whole catalogue of the passions. Muhammad’s creed was based
on conversion, which, by whatever means effected, was a plenary
atonement for every crime. In obedience thereto Aurangzeb
acted; but though myriads of victims who clung to their faith
were sacrificed by him at the fiat of this gladiatorial prophet, yet
nor these, nor the scrupulous fulfilment of fanatic observances,
could soothe at the dread hour the perturbations of the ‘still
small voice’ which whispered the names of father, brother, son,
bereft by him of life. Eloquently does he portray these terrors
in his letters to his grandson on his death-bed, wherein he says,
"Whichever way I look, I see only the divinity"—and that an
offended divinity [378].
[24]Rāna Rāj Singh defies Aurangzeb.
—Raj Singh had signalized
his accession by the revival of the warlike Tika-daur, and plundered
Malpura, which though on the Ajmer frontier, Shah Jahan, when
advised to vengeance, replied “it was only a folly of his nephew.”
[25]
An appeal to his gallantry made him throw down the gauntlet
to Aurangzeb in the plenitude of his power, when the valour of
the Sesodias again burst forth in all the splendour of the days of
Partap; nor did the contest close till after a series of brilliant
victories, and with the narrow escape from captivity of the
Xerxes of Hindustan. The Mogul demanded the hand of the
princess of Rupnagar, a junior branch of the Marwar house, and
sent with the demand (a compliance with which was contemplated
as certain) a cortège of two thousand horse to escort the fair to
court. But the haughty Rajputni, either indignant at such
precipitation or charmed with the gallantry of the Rana, who
had evinced his devotion to the fair by measuring his sword with
the head of her house, rejected with disdain the proffered alliance,
and, justified by brilliant precedents in the romantic history of
her nation, she entrusted her cause to the arm of the chief of the
Rajput race, offering herself as the reward of protection. The
family priest (her preceptor) deemed his office honoured by being
the messenger of her wishes, and the billet he conveyed is incorporated
in the memorial of this reign. “Is the swan to be
the mate of the stork: a Rajputni, pure in blood, to be wife to
the monkey-faced barbarian!” concluding with a threat of self-destruction
if not saved from dishonour. This appeal, with other
powerful motives, was seized on with avidity by the Rana as a
pretext to throw away the scabbard, in order to illustrate the
opening of a warfare, in which he determined to put all to the
hazard in defence of his country and his faith. The issue was an
omen of success to his warlike and [379] superstitious vassalage.
With a chosen band he rapidly passed the foot of the Aravalli
and appeared before Rupnagar, cut up the imperial guards, and
bore off the prize to his capital. The daring act was applauded
by all who bore the name of Rajput, and his chiefs with joy
gathered their retainers around the ‘red standard,’ to protect
the queen so gallantly achieved.
The Imposition of the Jizya or Capitation Tax.
—The annalist of
Rajputana is but an indifferent chronologist, and leaves us
doubtful of the exact succession of events at this period. It was
not, however, till the death of those two powerful princes, Jaswant
Singh of Marwar and Jai Singh of Amber, both poisoned by
command of the tyrant, the one at his distant government of
Kabul, the other in the Deccan, that he deemed himself free to
put forth the full extent of his long-concealed design, the imposition
of the
jizya or capitation tax on the whole Hindu race. But
he miscalculated his measures, and the murder of these princes,
far from advancing his aim, recoiled with vengeance on his head.
Foiled in his plot to entrap the infant sons of the Rathor by the
self-devotion of his vassals,
[26] the compound treachery evinced that
their only hope lay in a deadly resistance. The mother of Ajit,
the infant heir of Marwar, a woman of the most determined
character, was a princess of Mewar, and she threw herself upon
the Rana as the natural guardian of his rights, for sanctuary
(
saran) during the dangers of his minority. This was readily
yielded, and Kelwa assigned as his residence, where under the
immediate safeguard of the brave Durgadas Ajit resided,
[27] while
she nursed the spirit of resistance at home. A union of interests
was cemented between these the chief States of Rajputana, for
which they never before had such motive, and but for repeated
instances of an ill-judged humanity, the throne of the Moguls
might have been completely overturned [380].
Letter of Remonstrance to Aurangzeb.
—On the promulgation
of that barbarous edict, the
jizya, the Rana remonstrated by
letter, in the name of the nation of which he was the head, in a
style of such uncompromising dignity, such lofty yet temperate
resolve, so much of soul-stirring rebuke mingled with a boundless
and tolerating benevolence, such elevated ideas of the Divinity
with such pure philanthropy, that it may challenge competition
with any epistolary production of any age, clime, or condition.
[28]
In this are contained the true principles of Christianity, and to
the illustrious Gentile, and such as acted as he did, was pointed
that golden sentence of toleration, "Those [381] who have not
the law, yet do by nature the things contained in the law, shall
be a law unto themselves."
Aurangzeb attacks Mewār.
—This letter, the sanctuary afforded
Ajit, and (what the historical parasite of the Mogul’s life dared
not indite
[29]) the carrying off of his betrothed, made him pour out
all the phials of his wrath against the devoted Mewar, and his
preparations more resembled those for the conquest of a potent
kingdom than the subjugation of a Rajput
zamindar,[30] a vassal of
that colossal empire on whose surface his domain was but a
speck. In the very magnitude of these, the Suzerain of Hindustan
paid the highest tribute of praise to the tributary Rajput, for he
denuded the very extremities of his empire to assemble a host
which he deemed must prove irresistible. Akbar was recalled
from his province, Bengal; Azam from the distant Kabul; and
even Muazzam (the Mogul’s heir) from the war in the Deccan.
With this formidable array
[31] the emperor entered Mewar, and
soon reduced the low countries, which experience had taught
them were indefensible, the inhabitants previously retiring with
their effects to the hills.
[32] Chitor, Mandalgarh, Mandasor, Jiran,
and many other strongholds were obtained after the usual form
of opposition, and garrisoned by the Moguls. Meanwhile the
Rana was animating the might of the Aravalli, where he meditated
a resistance proportioned to the peril which threatened every
cherished prejudice of his race: not the mere defence of dominion
or dignity, but a struggle,
pro aris et focis, around which rallied
every Rajput with the most deadly determination. Even the
primitive races of the western wilds, “the Palindas
[33] and Palipats
[33]
(
lord of the passes), with thousands of bows, and hearts
devoted in the cause of Hindupat,”
[34] assembled round the red
banner of Mewar. The Rana divided his forces into three bodies
[382]. His eldest son, Jai Singh, was posted on the crest of the
Aravalli, ready to act on the invaders from either side of the
mountains. Prince Bhim was to the west, to keep up the communications
with the outlets to Gujarat; while the Rana, with
the main body, took post in the Nai defile, unassailable by the
enemy, and hanging on his left flank, ready to turn it, and cut
off all retreat the moment the Imperialists entered the mountains.
Aurangzeb advanced to Debari, but instead of entering the
valley of which it was the gorge, he halted, and by the advice of
Tahawwar Khan
[35] sent on Prince Akbar with fifty thousand men
to the capital. This caution of the wily monarch saved him
from the ably planned scheme of the Rajput prince, who evinced
a thorough knowledge
[36] of the topography of this intricate and
romantic portion of his domain. The Girwa, emphatically ‘the
Circle,’ from which the valley of the capital is named, has this
form to the eye when viewing it from thence as a centre. It is,
however, an irregular ellipse of about fourteen miles in length
from south to north, and about eleven in breadth from east to
west, the capital being situated towards the extremity of the
transverse axis, having only the lake Pichola between it and the
base of the Aravalli. The mountains of this circular (
girwa)
valley, ranging from eight to twelve hundred feet in height, are
of primitive formation, and raise their fantastic pinnacles in
every diversity of shape over each other. To the westward the
grand chain rises two thousand feet above the plains, and might
be termed the chord, of which the Girwa is an irregular segment
of a circle, less in height, and far less compound in character.
Towards the plains east, it has three practicable passes; one, the
more northern, by Delwara; the other (central), by Debari; a
third, leading to the intricacies of Chappan, that of Nai. Of
these three passes the emperor chose the most practicable, and
encamped near the Udaisagar lake, on the left of its entrance.
The Advance of Prince Akbar.
—Prince Akbar advanced.
“Not a soul interrupted his progress to the city. Palaces,
gardens, lakes, and isles met his eye, but no living thing: all was
silence.” Akbar encamped. Accustomed to this desertion from
the desire of the people to avoid a licentious soldiery, and lulled
into a hardy security, he was surprised [383] by the heir of Mewar.
Some were praying, some feasting, some at chess: “they came
to steal and yet fell asleep,” says the annalist, and were dispersed
with terrific and unrelenting slaughter. Cut off from the possibility
of a junction with the emperor by a movement of a part
of the Rana’s personal force, Akbar attempted a retreat to the
plains of Marwar by the route of Gogunda. It was a choice of
evils, and he took the worst. The allodial vassals of the mountains,
with the Bhil auxiliaries, outstripped his retreat, and
blocked up farther egress in one of those long-extended valleys
termed
Nal, closed by a natural rampart or
Col, on which they
formed
abbatis of trees, and manning the crests on each side,
hurled destruction on the foe; while the prince, in like manner,
blocked up the entrance and barred retrogression. Death
menaced them in every form. For several days they had only
the prospect of surrender to save them from famine and a justly
incensed foe, when an ill-judged humanity on the part of Jai
Singh saved them from annihilation. He admitted overtures,
confided in protestations to renounce the origin of the war, and
gave them guides to conduct them by the defile of Jhilwara, nor
did they halt till protected by the walls of Chitor.
[37]Another body of the Imperialists, under the celebrated Dilir
Khan,[38] who [384] entered by the Desuri Pass from Marwar (probably
with a view of extricating Prince Akbar), were allowed to
advance unopposed, and when in the long intricate gorge were
assailed by Bikram Solanki[39] and Gopinath Rathor[40] (both nobles
of Mewar), and after a desperate conflict entirely destroyed. On
each occasion a vast booty fell into the hands of the Rajputs.
So ably concerted was this mountain warfare, that these defeats
were the signal for a simultaneous attack by the Rana on Aurangzeb,
who, with his son Azam, watched at Debari the result of the
operations under Akbar and Dilir. The great home-clans had
more than their wonted rivalry to sustain them, for the gallant
Durgadas with the Rathor swords (talwār Rāthorān) whetted by
an accumulation of wrongs, were to combat with them against
their common oppressor; and nobly did they contest the palm of
glory. The tyrant could not withstand them: his guns, though
manned by Franks, could not protect him against the just cause
and avenging steel of the Rajput, and he was beaten and compelled
to disgraceful flight, with an immense loss in men and
equipment. The Rana had to lament many brave leaders, home
and auxiliary; and the imperial standard, elephants, and state
equipage fell into his hands, the acquisition of Mohkam and the
Saktawats. This glorious encounter occurred in the spring month
of Phalgun, S. 1737, March A.D. 1681 [1680].
The discomfited forces formed a junction under the walls of
Chitor, whence the emperor dictated the recall of his son, Prince
Muazzam, from the Deccan, deeming it of greater moment to
regain lost importance in the north than to prevent the independence
of Sivaji. Meanwhile the activity of Sawaldas (descended
from the illustrious Jaimall) cut off the communication between
Chitor and Ajmer, and alarmed the tyrant for his personal safety.
Leaving, therefore, this perilous warfare to his sons Azam and
Akbar, with instructions how to act till reinforced,—foiled in his
vengeance and personally disgraced, he abandoned Mewar, and
at the head of his guards repaired to Ajmer. Thence he detached[41]
Khan Rohilla, with twelve thousand men, against Sawaldas,
with supplies and equipments for his sons. The Rathor, joined
by the troops of Marwar, gave him the meeting at Pur Mandal,
and defeated the Imperialists with great loss, driving them back
on Ajmer [385].
Diversion made by the Rājputs.
—While the Rana, his heir and
auxiliaries, were thus triumphant in all their operations, Prince
Bhim with the left division was not idle, but made a powerful
diversion by the invasion of Gujarat, captured Idar, expelling
Hasan and his garrison, and proceeding by Birnagar, suddenly
appeared before Patan, the residence of the provincial satrap,
which he plundered. Siddhpur, Modasa,
[42] and other towns shared
the same fate; and he was in full march to Surat, when the benevolence
of the Rana, touched at the woes of the fugitives, who
came to demand his forbearance, caused him to recall Bhim in
the midst of his career.
Contrary to the Rajput character, whose maxim is parcere
subjectis, they were compelled by the utter faithlessness of Aurangzeb
(chiefly vulnerable through his resources) to retaliate his
excesses; and Dayal Sah, the civil minister, a man of high
courage and activity, headed another flying force, which ravaged
Malwa to the Nerbudda and Betwa. Sarangpur, Dewas, Sironj,
Mandu, Ujjain, and Chanderi were plundered, and numerous
garrisons put to the sword; and, to use the words of the Chronicle,
“husbands abandoned their wives and children, and whatever
could not be carried off was given to the flames.” For once they
avenged themselves, in imitation of the tyrant, even on the
religion of their enemies: “the Kazis were bound and shaved,
and the Korans thrown into wells.” The minister was unrelenting
and made Malwa a desert, and from the fruits of his incursions
repaired the resources of his master. Flushed with success,
he formed a junction with the heir of Mewar, and gave battle to
Azam near Chitor. On this occasion the flower of Mewar, with
the Rathor and Khichi auxiliaries,[43] were engaged, and obtained
a glorious victory, the Mogul prince being defeated and pursued
with great slaughter to Ranthambhor, which he entered. This
was a just revenge, for it was Azam who surprised Chitor the year
preceding. In Mewar the contest terminated with the expulsion
of the Imperialists from the country; when the Rana, in support
of the rights of the minor prince of Marwar, united his arms to
the forces of that state, and opened the campaign at Ghanerao,
the chief town of [386] Godwar. The heroic mother of the infant
Rathor prince, a daughter of Mewar, had, since the death of her
husband, well supported his rights, having resisted every aggression
and regained many lost advantages over their antagonist.
Prince Bhim commanded the Sesodias, who formed a junction
with the Rathors, and gave battle to the royal forces led by
Akbar and Tahawwar Khan, whom they entirely defeated.
The victory is chiefly attributed to a stratagem of a Rajput chief,
who, having carried off five hundred camels from the Imperialists,
conceived the idea of fixing torches to them and letting them
loose in the royal camp; and, in the confusion produced by the
charge of such a body, the Rajputs assaulted them.
Plan to dethrone Aurangzeb.
—On their continued successes,
the Rana and his allies meditated the project of dethroning the
tyrant and setting up his son Akbar. The pernicious example
of his father towards Shah Jahan was not lost upon Akbar, who
favourably received the overture; but he wanted the circumspection
which characterized Aurangzeb, whose penetration
defeated the scheme when on the eve of execution.
[44] Already
had the Rajput armies united with Akbar, and the astrologer had
fixed the day which was to exalt him; but the revealer of secrets
baffled his own prediction by disclosing it to the emperor. Aurangzeb,
attended only by his guards at Ajmer, had recourse to
the same artifice which raised him to empire, in order to ward
off this danger. Akbar was but one day’s march distant; his
elder sons, Muazzam and Azam, yet far off. Not a moment was
to be lost: he penned a letter to his son, which by a spy was
dropped in the tent of the Rajput leader Durgadas.
[45] In this he
applauded a pretended scheme by which Akbar was to fall upon
them when they engaged the emperor. The same scheme had
saved Sher Shah in this country from Maldeo, and has more
recently been put in practice, and with like success, in the war with
Sivaji. It succeeded. The Rajputs detached themselves from
the prince who had apparently betrayed them. Tahawwar Khan,
in despair, lost his life in an attempt to assassinate the emperor,
[46]
and before the artifice was discovered, the reinforcements under
Muazzam and Azam arrived, and Aurangzeb was saved. The
Rajputs still offered
saran (refuge) to Akbar; but aware of his
father’s vigour of character, he deemed himself unsafe in his
vicinage, and accepted the escort of five hundred Rajputs led by
Durgadas [387], who cut their way through every opposition by
the defiles of Mewar and Dungarpur, and across the Nerbudda,
to the Mahratta leader Sambhaji, at Palargarh, whence he was
shortly after conveyed in an English ship to Persia.
[47]Overtures for Peace.
—“The escape of Acbar” (observes an
historian,
[48] who appreciated the importance of the transactions
of this period) “to Sambagee, oppressed Aurengzebe with as
much anxiety, as formerly the phantom of his brother Sujah
amongst the Pitans; and the consequence of their alliance
became a nearer care than the continuance of the war against
the Rajpoots, whose gallant activity prevented a speedy decision
by the sword; but the dignity of the throne forbad any overtures
of peace to a resistance which had attempted the deposal, if not
the life, of the monarch. A Rajpoot officer, who had long served
with distinction under Delire Khan, solved the difficulty: he
quitted the army on the pretence of retiring to his own country
and visited the Rana as from courtesy on his journey. The
conversation turned on the war, which the Rajpoot perhaps really
lamented, and he persuaded the Rana that although Aurengzebe
would never condescend to make, he might accept overtures
of peace: upon which he was empowered by the Rana to tender
them.”
[49] The domestic annals confirm this account, and give
the name of this mediator, Raja Shyam Singh of Bikaner; but
the negotiation was infamously protracted to the rains, the period
when operations necessarily cease, and by which time Aurangzeb
had recruited his broken forces, and was again enabled to take
the field; and it was concluded “without assertion or release of
the capitation tax, but with the surrender of the districts taken
from Chitor, and the State of Jodhpur was included in the treaty.”
How correctly this elegant historian had obtained a knowledge
of those events, a translation of the treaty evinces.
[50] But these
occurrences belong to the succeeding reign, for the Rana died
about this period,
[51] from wounds and vexation.
Cruel Treatment of Rāja of Golkonda.
—Once more we claim
the reader’s admiration on behalf of another patriot prince of
Mewar, and ask him to contrast the indigenous Rajput with the
emperor of the Moguls [388]; though to compare them would be
manifestly unjust, since in every moral virtue they were antipodes
to each other. Aurangzeb accumulated on his head more crimes
than any prince who ever sat on an Asiatic throne. With all
the disregard of life which marks his nation, he was never betrayed,
even in the fever of success, into a single generous action;
and, contrary to the prevailing principle of our nature, the
moment of his foe’s submission was that chosen for the malignant
completion of his revenge: witness his scourging the prostrate
King of Golkonda.
[52] How opposite to the beneficence of the
Rajput prince, who, when the most efficient means of self-defence
lay in the destruction of the resources of his enemy, feeling for
the miseries of the suffering population of his persecutor, recalled
his son in the midst of victory! As a skilful general and gallant
soldier, in the defence of his country, he is above all [389] praise.
As a chivalrous Rajput, his braving all consequences when called
upon to save the honour of a noble female of his race, he is without
parallel. As an accomplished prince and benevolent man, his
dignified letter of remonstrance to Aurangzeb on the promulgation
of the capitation edict, places him high in the scale of moral
as well as intellectual excellence; and an additional evidence
of both, and of his taste for the arts, is furnished by the formation
of the inland lake, the Rajsamund, with a slight account of which,
and the motives for its execution, we shall conclude the sketch of
this glorious epoch in the annals of Mewar.
The Rājsamund Lake.
—This great national work is twenty-five
miles north of the capital, and is situated on the declivity
of the plain about two miles from the base of the Aravalli. A
small perennial stream, called the Gomati or ‘serpentine,’
[53]
flowing from these mountains, was arrested in its course, and
confined by an immense embankment, made to form the lake
called after himself, Rajsamund, or ‘royal sea.’ The
band or
dam forms an irregular segment of a circle, embracing an extent
of nearly three miles, and encircling the waters on every side
except the space between the north-west and north-east points.
This barrier, which confines a sheet of water of great depth, and
about twelve miles in circumference, is entirely of white marble,
with a flight of steps of the same material, throughout this extent,
from the summit to the water’s edge; the whole buttressed by an
enormous rampart of earth, which, had the projector lived, would
have been planted with trees to form a promenade. On the south
side are the town and fortress built by the Rana, and bearing his
name, Rajnagar; and upon the embankment stands the temple
of Kankroli, the shrine of one of the seven forms (
sarup) of
Krishna. The whole is ornamented with sculpture of tolerable
execution for the age; and a genealogical sketch of the founder’s
family is inscribed in conspicuous characters. One million one
hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling,
[54] contributed by the
Rana, his chiefs and opulent subjects, was expended on this work,
of which the material was from the adjacent quarries. But,
magnificent, costly, and useful as it is, it derives its chief beauty
from the benevolent motive to which it owes its birth: to alleviate
the miseries of a starving population, and make their employment
conducive to national benefit, during one of those awful visitations
[390] of providence, famine, and pestilence with which these
states are sometimes afflicted.
The Famine of A.D. 1662.
—It was in S. 1717,
[55] only seven years
after the accession of Raj Singh, that these combined evils reached
Mewar, less subject to them, owing to its natural advantages,
than any other State in India;
[56] and on Tuesday the 8th of Pus,
Hasti Nakshatra (constellation of the elephant), as fixed by the
astrologer, the first stone was laid. "The chief of Mewar, deeply
meditating on this extreme distress, determined to raise a monument,
by which the wretched might be supported and his own
name perpetuated. This was seven years in constructing, and
at its commencement and termination all the rites of sacrifice
and oblation were observed.
"The Rana went to implore favour at the temple of the ‘four-armed’;
for though Asarh[57] was over, not a drop of rain fell
from the heavens; and, in like manner, the months of Sawan[57]
and Bhadon[57] passed away. For want of water the world was
in despair, and people went mad with hunger. Things unknown
as food were eaten. The husband abandoned the wife, the wife
the husband—parents sold their children—time increased the
evil; it spread far and wide: even the insects died: they had
nothing to feed on. Thousands of all ages became victims to
hunger. Those who procured food to-day, ate twice what nature
required. The wind was from the west, a pestilential vapour.
The constellations were always visible at night, nor was there a
cloud in the sky by day, and thunder and lightning were unknown.
Such portents filled mankind with dread. Rivers, lakes, and
fountains were dried up. Men of wealth meted out the portions
of food. The ministers of religion forgot their duties. There
was no longer distinction of caste, and the Sudra and Brahman
were undistinguishable. Strength, wisdom, caste, tribe, all were
abandoned, and food alone was the object. The Charbaran[58]
threw away every symbol of separation; all was lost in hunger.
Fruits, flowers, every vegetable thing, even trees were stripped
of their bark, to appease the cravings [391] of hunger: nay, man
ate man! Cities were depopulated. The seed of families was
lost, the fishes were extinct, and the hope of all extinguished."[59]
Such is the simple yet terrific record of this pestilence, from
which Mewar was hardly freed, when Aurangzeb commenced the
religious warfare narrated, with all its atrocities, still further to
devastate this fair region. But a just retribution resulted from
this disregard to the character and prejudices of the Rajputs,
which visited the emperor with shame, and his successors with
the overthrow of their power.