Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, vol. 2 of 3, by James Tod

Position of Rājput Women.

—Most erroneous ideas have been formed of the Hindu female from the pictures drawn by those who never left the banks of the Ganges. They are represented [642] as degraded beings, and that not one in many thousands can even read. I would ask such travellers whether they know the name of Rajput, for there are few of the lowest chieftains whose daughters are not instructed both to read and write; though the customs of the country requiring much form in epistolary writing, only the signature is made to letters. But of their intellect, and knowledge of mankind, whoever has had to converse with a Rajputni guardian of her son’s rights, must draw a very different conclusion.^[20] Though excluded by the Salic law of India from governing, they are declared to be fit regents during minority; and the history of India is filled with anecdotes of able and valiant females in this capacity.^[21]

Rājput Character.

—The more prominent traits of character will be found disseminated throughout the annals; we shall therefore omit the customary summaries of nationalities, those fanciful debtor and creditor accounts, with their balanced amount, favourable or unfavourable according to the disposition of the observer; and from the anecdotes through these pages leave the reader to form his own judgement of the Rajput. High courage, patriotism, loyalty, honour, hospitality, and simplicity are qualities which must at once be conceded to them; and if we cannot vindicate them from charges to which human nature in every clime is obnoxious; if we are compelled to admit the deterioration of moral dignity, from the continual inroads of, and their consequent collision with, rapacious conquerors; we must yet admire the quantum of virtue which even oppression and bad example have failed to banish. The meaner vices of deceit and falsehood, which the delineators of national character attach to the Asiatic without distinction, I deny to be universal with the Rajputs, though some tribes may have been obliged from position to use these shields of the weak against continuous oppression. Every court in Rajasthan has [643] its characteristic epithet; and there is none held more contemptible than the affix of jhutha darbar, ‘the lying court,’ applied to Jaipur; while the most comprehensive measure of praise is the simple epithet of sachha,^[22] ‘the truth-teller.’ Again, there are many shades between deceit and dissimulation: the one springs from natural depravity; the other may be assumed, as with the Rajput, in self-defence. But their laws, the mode of administering them, and the operation of external causes, must be attentively considered before we can form a just conclusion of the springs which regulate the character of a people. We must examine the opinions of the competent of past days, when political independence yet remained to the Rajputs, and not found our judgment of a nation upon a superficial knowledge of individuals. To this end I shall avail myself of the succinct but philosophical remarks of Abu-l-fazl, the wise minister of the wise Akbar, which are equally applicable to mankind at large, as to the particular people we are treating of. “If,” he says, speaking of the Hindus, “a diligent investigator were to examine the temper and disposition of the people of each tribe, he would find every individual differing in some respect or other. Some among them are virtuous in the highest degree, and others carry vice to the greatest excess. They are renowned for wisdom, disinterested friendship, obedience to their superiors, and many other virtues: but, at the same time, there are among them men whose hearts are obdurate and void of shame, turbulent spirits, who for the merest trifle will commit the greatest outrages.”^[23]

Again: “The Hindus are religious, affable, courteous to strangers, cheerful, enamoured of knowledge, lovers of justice, able in business, grateful, admirers of truth, and of unbounded fidelity in all their dealings. Their character shines brightest in adversity. Their soldiers (the Rajputs) know not what it is to fly from the field of battle; but when the success of the combat becomes doubtful, they dismount from their horses, and throw away their lives in payment of the debt of valour.”^[24]

I shall conclude this chapter with a sketch of their familiar habits, and a few of their indoor and outdoor recreations.

Introduction of Melons, Grapes, Tobacco, Opium: the Use of Opium.

—To Babur, the founder of the Mogul dynasty, India is indebted for the introduction [644] of its melons and grapes; and to his grandson Jahangir for tobacco.^[25] For the introduction of opium we have no date, and it is not even mentioned in the poems of Chand.^[26] This pernicious plant has robbed the Rajput of half his virtues; and while it obscures these, it heightens his vices, giving to his natural bravery a character of insane ferocity, and to the countenance, which would otherwise beam with intelligence, an air of imbecility. Like all stimulants, its effects are magical for a time; but the reaction is not less certain: and the faded form or amorphous bulk too often attest the debilitating influence of a drug which alike debases mind and body. In the more ancient epics we find no mention of the poppy-juice as now used, though the Rajput has at all times been accustomed to his madhava ra piyala, or ‘intoxicating cup.’ The essence,^[27] whether of grain, of roots, or of flowers, still welcomes the guest, but is secondary to the opiate. Amal lar khana, ‘to eat opium together,’ is the most inviolable pledge; and an agreement ratified by this ceremony is stronger than any adjuration. If a Rajput pays a visit, the first question is, amal khaya? ‘have you had your opiate?’—amal khao, ‘take your opiate.’ On a birthday, when all the chiefs convene to congratulate their brother on another ‘knot to his years,’ the large cup is brought forth, a lump of opiate put therein, upon which water is poured, and by the aid of a stick a solution is made, to which each helps his neighbour, not with a glass, but with the hollow of his hand held to his mouth. To judge by the wry faces on this occasion, none can like it, and to get rid of the nauseous taste, comfit-balls are handed round. It is curious to observe the animation it inspires; a Rajput is fit for nothing without his amal, and I have often dismissed their men of business to refresh their intellects by a dose, for when its effects are dissipating they become mere logs [645].^[28] Opium to the Rajput is more necessary than food, and a suggestion to the Rana to tax it highly was most unpopular. From the rising generation the author exacted promises that they would resist initiation in this vice, and many grew up in happy ignorance of the taste of opium. He will be the greatest friend to Rajasthan who perseveres in eradicating the evil. The valley of Udaipur is a poppy garden, of every hue and variety, whence the Hindu Sri may obtain a coronet more variegated than ever adorned the Isis of the Nile.

Pledge by eating Opium.

—A pledge once given by the Rajput, whether ratified by the “eating opium together,” “an exchange of turbans,” or the more simple act of “giving the right hand,” is maintained inviolable under all circumstances.

Hunting and other Sports.

—Their grand hunts have been described. The Rajput is fond of his dog and his gun. The former aids him in pulling down the boar or hare, and with the stalking-horse he will toil for hours after the deer. The greater chieftains have their ramnas or preserves, where poaching would be summarily punished, and where the slaughter of all kinds of beasts, elk, hog, hyena, tiger, boar, deer, wild-dog, wolf, or hare, is indiscriminate. Riding in the ring with the lance in tournaments, without the spike, the point being guarded; defence of the sword against the lance, with every variety of “noble horsemanship,” such as would render the most expert in Europe an easy prey to the active Rajput, are some of the chief exercises. Firing at a mark with a matchlock, in which they attain remarkable accuracy of aim; and in some parts of the country throwing a dart or javelin from horseback, are favourite amusements. The practice of the bow is likewise a main source of pastime, and in the manner there adopted it requires both dexterity and strength ^[29] [646]. The Rajput is not satisfied if he cannot bury his arrow either in the earthern target, or in the buffalo, to the feather. The use of the bow is hallowed; Arjuna’s bow in the “great war,” and that of the Chauhan king, Prithiraj, with which the former gained Draupadi and the latter the fair Sanjogta, are immortalized like that of Ulysses. In these martial exercises the youthful Rajput is early initiated, and that the sight of blood may be familiar, he is instructed, before he has strength to wield a sword, to practise with his boy’s scimitar on the heads of lambs and kids. His first successful essay on the animals ‘ferae naturae’ is a source of congratulation to his whole family.^[30] In this manner the spirit of chivalry is continually fed, for everything around him speaks of arms and strife. His very amusements are warlike; and the dance and the song, the burthen of which is the record of his successful gallantry, so far from enervating, serve as fresh incitements to his courage.

Wrestling.

—The exhibition of the Jethis, or wrestlers,^[31] is another mode of killing time. It is a state concern for every prince or chief to entertain a certain number of these champions of the glove. Challenges are sent by the most celebrated from one court to another; and the event of the akhara, as the arena is termed, is looked to with great anxiety.

Armouries.

—No prince or chief is without his silah-khana, or armoury, where he passes hours in viewing and arranging his arms. Every favourite weapon, whether sword, matchlock, spear, dagger, or bow, has a distinctive epithet. The keeper of the armoury is one of the most confidential officers about the person of the prince. These arms are beautiful and costly. The sirohi,^[32] or slightly curved blade, is formed like that of Damascus, and is the greatest favourite of all the variety of sabres throughout Rajputana. The long cut-and-thrust, like the Andrea Ferrara, is not uncommon; nor the khanda, or double-edged sword. The matchlocks both of Lahore and the country are often highly finished and inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold: those of Bundi are the best. The shield of the rhinoceros-hide offers the best resistance, and is often ornamented with animals, beautifully painted, and enamelled in gold and silver. The bow is of buffalo-horn, and the arrows of reed, and barbed in a variety of fashions, as the crescent, the trident, the snake’s tongue, and other fanciful forms.

Sheodān Singh. Music.—The Maharaja Sheodan Singh (whose family are heirs presumptive to the throne) was one of my constant visitors; and the title of ‘adopted brother,’ which he conferred upon me, allowed him to make his visits unreasonably long. The Maharaja had many excellent qualities. He was the best shot in Mewar; he was well read in the classic literature of his nation; deeply versed in the secrets of the chronicles, not only of Mewar but of all Rajwara; conversant with all the mysteries of the bard, and could improvise on every occasion. He was a proficient in musical science [647], and could discourse most fluently on the whole theory of Sangita, which comprehends vocal and instrumental harmony. He could explain each of the ragas, or musical modes, which issued from the five mouths of Siva and his consort Mena, together with the almost endless variations of the ragas, to each of which are allotted six consorts or raginis. He had attached to his suite the first vocalists of Mewar, and occasionally favoured me by letting them sing at my house. The chief cantatrice had a superb voice, a contralto of great extent, and bore the familiar appellation of ‘Catalani.’ Her execution of all the basant or ‘spring-songs,’ and the megh or ‘cloud-songs’ of the monsoon, which are full of melody, was perfect. But she had a rival in a singer from Ujjain, and we made a point of having them together, that emulation might excite to excellence. The chieftain of Salumbar, the chief of the Saktawats, and others, frequently joined these parties, as well as the Maharaja: for all are partial to the dance and the song, during which conversation flows unrestrained. Saadatu-lla, whose execution on the guitar would have secured applause even at the Philharmonic, commanded mute attention when he played a tan or symphony, or when, taking any of the simple tappas of Ujjain as a theme, he wandered through a succession of voluntaries. In summer these little parties were held on the terrace or the house-top, where carpets were spread under an awning, while the cool breezes of the lake gave life after the exhaustion of a day passed under 96° of Fahrenheit. The subjects of their songs are various, love, glory, satire, etc. I was invited to similar assemblies by many of the chiefs; though none were so intellectual as those of the Maharaja. On birthdays or other festivals the chief Bardai often appears, or the bard of any other tribe who may happen to be present. Then all is mute attention, broken only by the emphatic “wah, wah!” the measured nod of the head, or fierce curl of the moustache, in token of approbation or the reverse.^[33]

The Maharaja’s talents for amplification were undoubted, and by more than one of his friends this failing was attributed to his long residence at the court of Jaipur, whose cognomen will not have been forgotten. He had one day been amusing us with feats of his youth, his swimming from island to island, and [648] bestriding the alligators for an excursion.^[34] Like Tell, he had placed a mark on his son’s head and hit it successfully. He could kill an eagle on the wing, and divide a ball on the edge of a knife, the knife itself unseen. While running on in this manner, my features betraying some incredulity, he insisted on redeeming his word. A day was accordingly appointed, and though labouring under an ague, he came with his favourite matchlocks. The more dangerous experiment was desisted from, and he commenced by dividing the ball on the knife. This he placed perpendicularly in the centre of an earthen vessel filled with water; and taking his station at about twenty paces, perforated the centre of the vessel, and allowed you to take up the fragments of the ball; having previously permitted you to load the piece, and examine the vessel, which he did not once approach himself. Another exhibition was striking an orange from a pole without perforating it. Again, he gave the option of loading to a bystander, and retreating a dozen paces, he knocked an orange off untouched by the ball, which, according to a preliminary proviso, could not be found: the orange was not even discoloured by the powder. He was an adept also at chess ^[35] and chaupar, and could carry on a conversation by stringing flowers in a peculiar manner. If he plumed himself upon his pretensions, his vanity was always veiled under a demeanour full of courtesy and grace; and Maharaja Sheodan Singh would be esteemed a well-bred and well-informed man at the most polished court of Europe.

Every chief has his band, vocal and instrumental; but Sindhia, some years since, carried away the most celebrated vocalists of Udaipur. The Rajputs are all partial to music. The tappa is the favourite measure. Its chief character is plaintive simplicity; and it is analogous to the Scotch, or perhaps still more to the Norman.^[36]

The Rana, who is a great patron of the art, has a small band of musicians, whose only instrument is the shahna, or hautboy. They played their national [649] tappas with great taste and feeling; and these strains, wafted from the lofty terrace of the palace in the silence of the night, produced a sensation of delight not unmixed with pain, which its peculiarly melancholy character excites. The Rana has also a few flute or flageolet players, who discourse most eloquent music. Indeed, we may enumerate this among the principal amusements of the Rajputs; and although it would be deemed indecorous to be a performer, the science forms a part of education.^[37]

Who that has marched in the stillness of night through the mountainous regions of Central India, and heard the warder sound the turai from his turreted abode, perched like an eyrie on the mountain-top, can ever forget its graduated intensity of sound, or the emphatic ham! ham! “all’s well,”“all’s well,” which follows the lengthened blast of the cornet reverberating in every recess.^[38]

Bagpipes.

—A species of bagpipe, so common to all the Celtic races of Europe, is not unknown to the Rajputs. It is called the mashak,^[39] but is only the rudiment of that instrument whose peculiar influence on the physical, through the moral agency of man, is described by our own master-bard. They have likewise the double flageolet; but in the same ratio of perfection to that of Europe as the mashak to the heart-stirring pipe of the north. As to their lutes, guitars, and all the varieties of tintinnabulants (as Dr. Johnson would call them), it would fatigue without interesting the reader to enumerate them.

Literature among the Rajputs. Observatories.

—We now come to the literary attainments of the lords of Rajasthan, of whom there is none without sufficient clerkship to read his grant or agreement for rakhwali or blackmail; and none either so ignorant, or so proud, as the boasted ancestral wisdom of England, whose barons could not even sign their names to the great charter of their liberties. The Rana of Udaipur has unlimited command of [650] his pen, and his letters are admirable; but we may say of him nearly what was remarked of Charles the Second—“he never wrote a foolish thing, and seldom did a wise one.” The familiar epistolary correspondence of the princes and nobles of Rajasthan would exhibit abundant testimony of their powers of mind: they are sprinkled with classical allusions, and evince that knowledge of mankind which constant collision in society must produce. A collection of these letters, which exist in the archives of every principality, would prove that the princes of this country are upon a par with the rest of mankind, not only in natural understanding, but, taking their opportunities into account, even in its cultivation. The prince who in Europe could quote Hesiod and Homer with the freedom that the Rana does on all occasions Vyasa and Valmiki, would be accounted a prodigy; and there is not a divine who could make application of the ordinances of Moses with more facility than the Rana of those of their great lawgiver Manu. When they talk of the wisdom of their ancestors, it is not a mere figure of speech. The instruction of their princes is laid down in rules held sacred, and must have been far more onerous than any system of European university education, for scarcely a branch of human knowledge is omitted. But the cultivation of the mind, and the arts of polished life, must always flourish in the ratio of a nation’s prosperity, and from the decline of the one, we may date the deterioration of the other with the Rajput. The astronomer has now no patron to look to for reward; there is no Jai Singh to erect such stupendous observatories as he built at Delhi, Benares, Ujjain, and at his own capital;^[40] to construct globes and armillary spheres, of which, according to their own and our system, the Kotah prince has two, each three feet in diameter. The same prince (Jai Singh) collated De la Hire’s tables with those of Ulugh Beg, and presented the result to the last emperor of Delhi, worthy the name of the Great Mogul. To these tables he gave the name of Zij Muhammad Shahi. It was Jai Singh who, as already mentioned, sought to establish sumptuary laws throughout the nation, to regulate marriages, and thereby prevent infanticide; and who left his name to the capital he founded, the first in Rajasthan.

But we cannot march over fifty miles of country without observing traces of the genius, talent, and wealth of past days: though—whether the more abstruse sciences, or the lighter arts which embellish life—all are now fast disappearing [651]. Whether in the tranquillity secured to them by the destruction of their predatory foes, these arts and sciences may revive, and the nation regain its elevated tone, is a problem which time alone can solve.

Household Furniture.

—In their household economy, their furniture and decorations, they remain unchanged during the lapse of a thousand years. No chairs, no couches adorn their sitting apartments, though the painted and gilded ceiling may be supported by columns of serpentine, and the walls one mass of mirrors, marble, or china;—nothing but a soft carpet, hidden by a white cloth, on which the guests seat themselves according to rank. In fine, the quaint description of the chaplain to the first embassy which England sent to India, more than two hundred years ago, applies now, as it probably will two hundred years hence. “And now for the furniture the greatest men have in them [their houses], it is curta supellex, very little, they (the rooms) being not beautified with hangings, nor with anything besides to line their walls; for they have no chairs, stools, couches, tables, beds enclosed with canopies, or curtains, in any of their rooms. And the truth is, that if they had them, the extreme heat would forbid the use of many of them; all their bravery is upon their floors, on which they spread most excellent carpets.”^[41]

Dress.

—It were useless to expatiate on dress, either male or female, the fashion varying in each province and tribe, though the texture and materials are everywhere the same: cotton in summer, and quilted chintz or broadcloth in winter. The ladies have only three articles of parure; the ghaghra, or ‘petticoat’; the kanchuli, ‘or corset’; and the dopatta, or ‘scarf,’ which is occasionally thrown over [652] the head as a veil. Ornaments are without number. For the men, trousers of every shape and calibre, a tunic girded with a ceinture, and a scarf, form the wardrobe of every Rajput. The turban is the most important part of the dress, and is the unerring mark of the tribe; the form and fashion are various, and its decorations differ according to time and circumstances. The balaband, or ‘silken fillet,’ was once valued as the mark of the sovereign’s favour, and was tantamount to the courtly “orders” of Europe. The colour of the turban and tunic varies with the season; and the changes are rung upon crimson, saffron, and purple, though white is by far the most common. Their shoes are mere slippers, and sandals are worn by the common classes. Boots are yet used in hunting or war, made of chamois leather, of which material the warrior often has a doublet, being more commodious, and less oppressive, than armour. The dagger or poniard is inseparable from the girdle.

Cookery, Medicine.

—The culinary art will be discussed elsewhere, together with the medical, which is very low, and usurped by empyrics, who waste alike the purse and health of the ignorant by the sale of aphrodisiacs, which are sought after with great avidity. Gums, metals, minerals, all are compounded, and for one preparation, while the author was at Udaipur, 7000 rupees (nearly £1000) were expended by the court-physician.

Superstitions.

—Their superstitions, incantations, charms, and phylacteries against danger, mental or bodily, will appear more appropriately where the subject is incidently introduced [653].

2. Were all Manu’s maxims on this head collected, and with other good authorities, printed, circulated, and supported by Hindu missionaries, who might be brought to advocate the abolition of Satiism, some good might be effected. Let every text tending to the respectability of widowhood be made prominent, and degrade the opponents by enumerating the weak points they abound in. Instance the polyandry which prevailed among the Pandus, whose high priest Vyasa was an illegitimate branch; though above all would be the efficacy of the abolition of polygamy, which in the lower classes leaves women destitute, and in the higher condemns them to mortification and neglect. Whatever result such a course might produce, there can be no danger in the experiment. Such sacrifices must operate powerfully on manners; and, barbarous as is the custom, yet while it springs from the same principle, it ought to improve the condition of women, from the fear that harsh treatment of them might defeat the atonement hereafter. Let the advocate for the abolition of this practice by the hand of power read attentively Mr. Colebrooke’s essay, “On the Duties of a Faithful Hindu Widow,” in the fourth volume of the Asiatic Researches [Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus, ed. 1858, p. 70 ff.], to correct the notion that there is no adequate religious ordinance for the horrid sacrifice. Mr. C. observes (p. 220): “Though an alternative be allowed, the Hindu legislators have shown themselves disposed to encourage widows to burn themselves with their husband’s corpse.” In this paper he will find too many authorities deemed sacred for its support; but it is only by knowing the full extent of the prejudices and carefully collecting the conflicting authorities, that we can provide the means to overcome it. Jahangir legislated for the abolition of this practice by successive ordinances. At first he commanded that no woman, being mother of a family, should under any circumstances be permitted, however willing, to immolate herself; and subsequently the prohibition was made entire when the slightest compulsion was required, “whatever the assurances of the people might be.” The royal commentator records no reaction. We might imitate Jahangir, and adopting the partially prohibitive ordinance, forbid the sacrifice where there was a family to rear. [The early texts on the subject of Sati have been collected by H. H. Wilson, Essays and Lectures chiefly on the Religion of the Hindus, 1881, ii. 270 ff. Also see Max Müller, Selected Essays on Language, Mythology, and Religion, 1881, i. 332 ff.

4. The Ghakkars, a Scythic race inhabiting the banks of the Indus, at an early period of history were given to infanticide. “It was a custom among them,” says Ferishta, “as soon as a female child was born, to carry her to the market-place and there proclaim aloud, holding the child in one hand and a knife in the other, that any person who wanted a wife might now take her; otherwise she was immediately put to death. By this means they had more men than women, which occasioned the custom of several husbands to one wife. When this wife was visited by one of her husbands, she set up a mark at the door, which being observed by any of the others who might be coming on the same errand, he immediately withdrew till the signal was taken away.”

[This quotation from Ferishta is taken from Dow (2nd ed. i. 138 f.). Compare Briggs’ trans., i. 183 f. This account is denied by the present members of the tribe (Rose, Glossary, ii. 275). Much that is said about them refers to the Khokhar tribe (Elliot-Dowson v. 166, note).]

14. “When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife” (Deut. xxi. 10, 11, 12, 13).

16. I remember in my subaltern days, and wanderings through countries then little known, one of my Rajput soldiers at the well, impatient for water, asked a woman for the rope and bucket by the uncivil term of rand: “Main Rajputni che,” ‘I am a Rajputni,’ she replied in the Hara dialect, to which tribe she belonged, “aur Rajput ki ma cho,” ‘and the mother of Rajputs.’ At the indignant reply the hands of the brave Kalyan were folded, and he asked her forgiveness by the endearing and respectful epithet of “mother.” It was soon granted, and filling his brass vessel, she dismissed him with the epithet of “son,” and a gentle reproof. Kalyan was himself a Rajput, and a bolder lives not, if he still exists; this was in 1807, and in 1817 he gained his sergeant’s knot, as one of the thirty-two firelocks of my guard, who led the attack, and defeated a camp of fifteen hundred Pindaris.

21. Ferishta in his history [ii. 217 ff.] gives an animated picture of Durgavati, queen of Garha, defending the rights of her infant son against Akbar’s ambition. Like another Boadicea, she headed her army, and fought a desperate battle with Asaf Khan, in which she was wounded and defeated; but scorning flight, or to survive the loss of independence, she, like the antique Roman in such a predicament, slew herself on the field of battle. [For Durgāvati see Badaoni, trans. W. H. Lowe, ii. 65; Elliot-Dowson v. 169, 288, vi. 118 ff.; Sleeman, Rambles, 190 f.

Whoever desires to judge of the comparative fidelity of the translations of this writer, by Dow [ii. 224 ff.] and Briggs, cannot do better than refer to this very passage. The former has clothed it in all the trappings of Ossianic decoration: the latter gives “a plain unvarnished tale,” which ought to be the aim of every translator.

25. The autobiography of both these noble Tatar princes are singular compositions, and may be given as standards of Eastern intellectual acquirement. They minutely note the progress of refinement and luxury. [The sweet melon was probably introduced from Persia, but some varieties of the plant seem to be indigenous. India, however, has a strong claim to ancient cultivation of the vine. Doubtless to the Portuguese may be assigned the credit of having conveyed both the tobacco plant and the knowledge of its properties to India and China (Watt, Econ. Dict. ii. 626, 628, vi. Part iv. 263, v. 361; Id. Comm. Prod. 437 f., 796, 1112; Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. 924 ff.)].

28. Even in the midst of conversation, the eye closes and the head nods as the exciting cause is dissipating, and the countenance assumes a perfect vacuity of expression. Many a chief has taken his siesta in his chair while on a visit to me: an especial failing of my good friend Raj Kalyan of Sadri, the descendant of the brave Shama, who won “the right hand” of the prince at Haldighat. The lofty turban worn by the Raj, which distinguishes this tribe (the Jhala), was often on the point of tumbling into my lap, as he unconsciously nodded. When it is inconvenient to dissolve the opium, the chief carries it in his pocket, and presents it, as we would a pinch of snuff in Europe. In my subaltern days the chieftain of Senthal, in Jaipur, on paying me a visit, presented me with a piece of opium, which I took and laid on the table. Observing that I did not eat it, he said he should like to try the Farangi ka amal, ‘the opiate of the Franks.’ I sent him a bottle of powerful Schiedam, and to his inquiry as to the quantity of the dose, I told him he might take from an eighth to the half, as he desired exhilaration or oblivion. We were to have hunted the next morning; but having no sign of my friend, I was obliged to march without ascertaining the effect of the barter of aphim for the waters of Friesland; though I have no doubt that he found them quite Lethean. [The Rājputs ascribed a divine power to opium owing to the mental exhilaration caused by the drug: hence the taking of it with a chief was a form of solemn communion, and a renewal of the pledge of loyalty (Russell, Tribes and Castes, Central Provinces, i. 170, iii. 164, iv. 425). For opium drinking among Rājputs see Malcolm, Memoir, Central India, 2nd ed. ii. 146 f.; Forbes, Rāsmāla, 557)557).]