Death of Rāja Sūr Singh, A.D. 1620: his Character.
—Raja
Sur died in the Deccan, in S. 1676 (
A.D. 1620). He added greatly
to the lustre of the Rathor name, was esteemed by the emperor,
and, as the bard expresses it, “His spear was frightful to the
Southron.” Whether Raja Sur disapproved of the exterminating
warfare carried on in these regions, or was exasperated at the
unlimited service he was doomed to, which detained him from
his native land, he, in his last moments, commanded a pillar to
be erected with a curse engraven thereon, imprecated upon any
of his race who should once cross the Nerbudda. From his boyhood
he had been almost an alien to his native land: he had
accompanied his father wherever he led the aid of Maru, was serving
at Lahore at the period of his accession, and died far from
the monuments of his fathers, in the heart of the peninsula.
Although the emperor was not ungrateful in his estimate of these
services,—for Raja Sur held by patent no less than “sixteen [41]
grand fiefs”
[10] of the empire, and with the title of Sawai raised
above all the princes, his associates at court,—it was deemed no
compensation for perpetual absence from the hereditary domain,
thus abandoned to the management of servants. The great
vassals, his clansmen, participated in this dissatisfaction, separated
from their wives, families, and estates; for to them the pomp of
imperial greatness, or the sunshine of court-favour, was as nothing
when weighed against the exercise of their influence within their
own cherished patrimony. The simple fare of the desert was
dearer to the Rathor than all the luxuries of the imperial banquet,
which he turned from with disgust to the recollection of “the
green pulse of Mandawar,” or his favourite
rabri, or ‘maize
porridge,’ the prime dish with the Rathor. These minor associations
conjoined with greater evils to increase the
mal de pays,
of whose influence no human being is more susceptible than the
brave Rajput.
Raja Sur greatly added to the beauty of his capital, and left
several works which bear his name; amongst them, not the least
useful in that arid region, is the lake called the Sur Sagar, or
‘Warrior’s Sea,’ which irrigates the gardens on its margin. He
left six sons and seven daughters, of whose issue we have no
account, namely, Gaj Singh, his successor; Sabal Singh, Biramdeo,
Bijai Singh, Partap Singh, and Jaswant Singh.
Rāja Gaj Singh, A.D. 1620-38.
—Raja Gaj, who succeeded his
father in
A.D. 1620, was born at Lahore, and the
tika of investiture
found him in the royal camp at Burhanpur. The bearer of it
was Darab Khan, the son of the Khankhanan,
[11] or premier noble
of the emperor’s court, who, as the imperial proxy, girt Raja
Gaj with the sword. Besides the “nine castles” (
Naukoti Marwar),
his patrimony, his patent contained a grant of “seven divisions”
of Gujarat, of the district of Jhalai in Dhundhar; and what was
of more consequence to him, though of less intrinsic value, that
of Masuda in Ajmer, the heirloom of his house. Besides these
marks of distinction, he received the highest proof of confidence
in the elevated post of viceroy of the Deccan; and, as a special
testimony of imperial favour, the Rathor cavaliers composing
his contingent were exempted from the
dagh,
[12] that is, having
their steeds branded with the imperial signet. His elder son,
Amra Singh, served with [42] his father in all his various battles,
to the success of which his conspicuous gallantry on every occasion
contributed. In the sieges and battles of Kirkigarh, Golkonda,
Khelna, Parnala, Gajangarh, Asir and Satara, the Rathors had
their full share of glory, which obtained for their leader the
title of Dalthaman, or ‘barrier of the host.’ We have already
[13]
remarked the direct influence which the Rajput princes had in
the succession to the imperial dignity, consequent upon the inter-marriage
of their daughters with the crown, and the various
interests arising therefrom. Sultan Parvez, the elder son and
heir of Jahangir, was the issue of a princess of Marwar,
[14] while
the second son, Khurram, as his name imports, was the son of a
Kachhwaha
[15] princess of Amber. Being the offspring of polygamy
and variously educated, these princes were little disposed
to consider consanguinity as a bond of natural union; and
their respective mothers, with all the ambition of their race,
thought of nothing but obtaining the diadem for the head of
their children. With either of these rival queens, the royal
children who were not her own had no affinity with her or hers,
and these feelings were imparted from the birth to their issue,
and thus it too often happened that the heir of the throne was
looked upon with an envious eye, as a bar to be removed at all
hazards. This evil almost neutralized the great advantages
derived from intermarriage with the indigenous races of India;
but it was one which would have ceased with polygamy.
Death of Parvez, A.D. 1626.
—Khurram felt his superiority over
his elder brother, Parvez, in all but the accidental circumstance
of birth. He was in every respect a better man, and a braver
and more successful soldier; and, having his ambition thus early
nurtured by the stimulants administered by Bhim of Mewar,
and the intrepid Mahabat,
[16] he determined to remove this barrier
between him and the crown. His views were first developed
whilst leading the armies in the Deccan, and he communicated
them to Raja Gaj of Marwar, who held the post of honour next
the prince, and solicited his aid to place him on the throne.
Gratitude for the favours heaped upon him by the king, as well
as the natural bias to Parvez, made the Raja turn a deaf ear to
his application. The prince tried to gain his point through
Govinddas, a Rajput of the Bhatti tribe, one of the foreign nobles
of Maru, and confidential adviser of his prince; but, as the annals
say, “Govinddas reckoned no one but his master and the [43]
king.” Frustrated in this, Khurram saw no hopes of success
but by disgusting the Rathors, and he caused the faithful Govinddas
to be assassinated by Kishan Singh;
[17] on which Raja Gaj,
in disgust, threw up his post, and marched to his native land.
From the assassination of Parvez, which soon followed,
[18] the
deposal of his father appeared but a step; and Khurram had
collected means, which he deemed adequate to the design, when
Jahangir appealed to the fidelity of the Rajputs, to support him
against filial ingratitude and domestic treason; and, in their
general obedience to the call, they afforded a distinguished proof
of the operation of the first principle, Gaddi-ka-an, allegiance to
the throne, often obeyed without reference to the worth of its
occupant. The princes of Marwar, Amber, Kotah, and Bundi
put themselves at the head of their household retainers on this
occasion, which furnishes a confirmation of a remark already
made, that the respective annals of the States of Rajasthan so
rarely embrace the contemporaneous events of the rest, as to
lead to the conclusion that by the single force of each State this
rebellion was put down. This remark will be further exemplified
from the annals of Bundi.
Offence given to the Rāthors.
—Jahangir was so pleased with
the zeal of the Rathor prince—alarmed as he was at the advance
of the rebels—that he not only took him by the hand, but what
is most unusual, kissed it. When the assembled princes came
in sight of the rebels, near Benares, the emperor gave the harawal,
or vanguard, to the Kachhwaha prince, the Mirza raja of Amber.
Whether this was a point of policy, to secure his acting against
prince Khurram, who was born of this race, or merely, as the
Marwar annals state, because he brought the greater number into
the field, is immaterial; but it was very nearly fatal in its consequences:
for the proud Rathor, indignant at the insult offered
to him in thus bestowing the post of honour, which was his right,
upon the rival race of Amber, furled his banners, separated from
the royal army, and determined to be a quiet spectator of the
result. But for the impetuous Bhim of Mewar, the adviser of
Khurram, he might that day have been emperor of India. He
sent a taunting message to Raja Gaj, either to join their cause or
“draw their swords.” The Rathors overlooked the neglect of
the king in the sarcasm of one of their own tribe; and Bhim was
slain, Govinddas avenged, the rebellion quelled, and Khurram
put to flight, chiefly by the Rathors and Haras [44].
Death of Rāja Gaj Singh, A.D. 1638.
—In S. 1694 (
A.D. 1638),
Raja Gaj was slain in an expedition into Gujarat;
[19] but whether
in the fulfilment of the king’s commands, or in the chastisement
of freebooters on his own southern frontier, the chronicles do not
inform us. He left a distinguished name in the annals of his
country, and two valiant sons, Amra and Jaswant, to maintain
it: another son, Achal, died in infancy.
Rāja Jaswant Singh, A.D. 1638-78.
—The second son, Jaswant,
succeeded, and furnishes another of many instances in the annals
of Rajputana, of the rights of primogeniture being set aside. This
proceeded from a variety of motives, sometimes merely paternal
affection, sometimes incapacity in the child “to head fifty thousand
Rathors,” and sometimes, as in the present instance, a dangerous
turbulence and ever-boiling impetuosity in the individual, which
despised all restraints. While there was an enemy against whom
to exert it, Amra was conspicuous for his gallantry, and in all his
father’s wars in the south was ever foremost in the battle. His
daring spirit collected around him those of his own race, alike in
mind, as connected by blood, whose actions, in periods of
peace, were the subjects of eternal complaint to his father,
who was ultimately compelled to exclude Amra from his inheritance.
Amra, Amar Singh excluded from the Succession.
—In the
month of Baisakh, S. 1690 (A.D. 1634), five years before the death
of Raja Gaj, in a convocation of all the feudality of Maru, sentence
of exclusion from the succession was pronounced upon Amra,
accompanied by the solemn and seldom practised rite of Desvata
or exile. This ceremony, which is marked as a day of mourning
in the calendar, was attended with all the circumstances of
funereal pomp. As soon as the sentence was pronounced, that
his birthright was forfeited and assigned to his junior brother,
and that he ceased to be a subject of Maru, the khilat of banishment
was brought forth, consisting of sable vestments, in which
he was clad; a sable shield was hung upon his back, and a sword
of the same hue girded round him; a black horse was then led
out, being mounted on which, he was commanded, though not in
anger, to depart whither he listed beyond the limits of Maru.
Amra went not alone; numbers of each clan, who had always
regarded him as their future lord, voluntarily partook of his exile.
He repaired to the imperial court; and although the emperor
approved and sanctioned his banishment, he employed him. His
gallantry soon won him the title of Rao and the mansab of a
leader of three thousand, with the grant of Nagor as an independent
domain, to be held directly from the crown. But the same
arrogant and uncontrollable spirit [45] which lost him his birthright,
brought his days to a tragical conclusion. He absented
himself for a fortnight from court, hunting the boar or the tiger,
his only recreation. The emperor (Shah Jahan) reprimanded
him for neglecting his duties, and threatened him with a fine.
Amra proudly replied that he had only gone to hunt, and as for
a fine, he observed, putting his hand upon his sword, that was
his sole wealth.
Amra, Amar assassinates Salābat Khān.
—The little contrition
which this reply evinced determined the king to enforce the fine,
and the paymaster-general, Salabat Khan,
[20] was sent to Amra’s
quarters to demand its payment. It was refused, and the observations
made by the Sayyid not suiting the temper of Amra, he
unceremoniously desired him to depart. The emperor, thus
insulted in the person of his officer, issued a mandate for Amra’s
instant appearance. He obeyed, and having reached the Amm-khass,
or grand divan, beheld the king, “whose eyes were red
with anger,” with Salabat in the act of addressing him. Inflamed
with passion at the recollection of the injurious language
he had just received, perhaps at the king’s confirmation of his
exclusion from Marwar, he unceremoniously passed the Omrahs
of five and seven thousand, as if to address the king; when, with
a dagger concealed in his sleeve, he stabbed Salabat to the heart.
Drawing his sword, he made a blow at the king, which descending
on the pillar, shivered the weapon in pieces. The king abandoned
his throne and fled to the interior apartments. All was uproar
and confusion. Amra continued the work of death, indifferent
upon whom his blows fell, and five Mogul chiefs of eminence had
fallen, when his brother-in-law, Arjun Gaur, under pretence of
cajoling him, inflicted a mortal wound, though he continued to
ply his dagger until he expired. To avenge his death, his retainers,
headed by Balu Champawat and Bhao Kumpawat, put on their
saffron garments, and a fresh carnage ensued within the Lal
kila.
[21] To use the words of their native bard, “The pillars of
Agra bear testimony to their deeds, nor shall they ever be obliterated
from the record of time: they made their obeisance to
Amra in the mansions of the sun.” The faithful band was cut to
pieces; and his wife, the princess of Bundi, came in person and
[46] carried away the dead body of Amra, with which she committed
herself to the flames. The Bokhara gate by which they
gained admission was built up, and henceforward known only as
“Amra Singh’s gate”; and in proof of the strong impression
made by this event,
[22] it remained closed through centuries, until
opened in 1809 by Capt. Geo. Steell, of the Bengal engineers.
[23]
CHAPTER 6
Rāja Jaswant Singh, A.D. 1638-78.
—Raja Jaswant, who
obtained, by the banishment of Amra, the “cushion” of Marwar,
was born of a princess of Mewar; and although this circumstance
is not reported to have influenced the change of succession, it will
be borne in mind that, throughout Rajputana, its princes regarded
a connexion with the Rana’s family as a primary honour.
“Jaswant (says the Bardai) was unequalled amongst the
princes of his time. Stupidity and ignorance were banished;
and science flourished where he ruled: many were the books
composed under his auspices.”[1]
The south continued to be the arena in which the martial
Rajput sought renown, and the emperor had only rightly to
understand his character to turn the national emulation to
account. Shah Jahan, in the language of the chronicler, “became
a slave to the seraglio,” and sent his sons, as viceroys, to govern
the grand divisions of the empire. The first service of Jaswant
was in the war of Gondwana, when he led a body composed of
“twenty-two different contingents” in the army under Aurangzeb.[2]
In this and various other services (to enumerate which would be
to go [48] over the ground already passed),[3] the Rathors were
conspicuous. Jaswant played a comparatively subordinate part,
until the illness of the emperor, in A.D. 1658, when his elder son
Dara was invested with the powers of regent.[4] Prince Dara
increased the mansab of Jaswant to a leader of “five thousand,”
and nominated him his viceroy in Malwa.
The War of Succession.
—In the struggle for empire amongst
the sons of Shah Jahan, consequent upon this illness, the importance
of the Rajput princes and the fidelity we have often had
occasion to depict, were exhibited in the strongest light. While
Raja Jai Singh was commanded to oppose prince Shuja, who
advanced from his viceroyalty of Bengal, Jaswant was entrusted
with means to quash the designs of Aurangzeb, then commanding
in the south, who had long cloaked, under the garb of hypocrisy
and religion, views upon the empire.
Campaign against Aurangzeb, A.D. 1657-58—The Battle of
Dharmātpur.
—The Rathor prince was declared generalissimo of the
army destined to oppose Aurangzeb, and he marched from Agra
at the head of the united contingents of Rajputana, besides the
imperial guards, a force which, to use the hyperbole of the bard,
“made Shesnag
[5] writhe in agony.” Jaswant marched towards
the Nerbudda, and had encamped his army in a position fifteen
miles south of Ujjain, when tidings reached him of his opponent’s
approach. In that field on which the emperor erected a town
subsequently designated Fatehabad, or ‘abode of victory,’
Jaswant awaited his foes.
[6] The battle which ensued, witnessed
and so circumstantially related by Bernier, as has been already
noticed in this work,
[7] was lost by the temerity of the Rathor
commander-in-chief, who might have crushed the rebellious
hopes of Aurangzeb, to whom he purposely gave time to effect a
junction with his brother Murad, from the vainglorious desire
“to conquer two princes at once.” Dearly did he pay for his
presumption; for he had given time to the wily prince to sow
intrigues in his camp, which were disclosed as soon as the battle
joined, when the Mogul horse deserted and left him at the head
of his thirty thousand Rajputs, deemed, however, by their leader
and themselves, sufficient against any odds. “Jaswant, spear
in hand, mounted his steed Mahbub, and charged the imperial
brothers; ten thousand Muslims fell in the onset, which cost
seventeen hundred Rathors [49], besides Guhilots, Haras, Gaurs,
and some of every clan of Rajwara. Aurang and Murad only
escaped because their days were not yet numbered. Mahbub
and his rider were covered with blood; Jasa looked like a famished
lion, and like one he relinquished his prey.” The bard is fully
confirmed in his relation of the day, both by the Mogul historian
and by Bernier, who says, that notwithstanding the immense
superiority of the imperial princes, aided by a numerous artillery
served by Frenchmen, night alone put a stop to the contest of
science, numbers, and artillery, against Rajput courage. Both
armies remained on the field of battle, and though we have no
notice of the anecdote related by the first translator of Ferishta,
who makes Jaswant “in bravado drive his car round the field,”
[8]
it is certain that Aurangzeb was too politic to renew the combat,
or molest the retreat which took place next day towards his native
dominions. Although, for the sake of alliteration, the bard
especially singles out the Guhilots and Gaurs, the tribes of Mewar
and Sheopur, all and every tribe was engaged; and if the Rajput
ever dared to mourn the fall of kindred in battle, this day should
have covered every house with the emblems of grief; for it is
stated by the Mogul historian that fifteen thousand fell, chiefly
Rajputs. This was one of the events glorious to the Rajput,
showing his devotion to whom fidelity (
swamidharma) had been
pledged—the aged and enfeebled emperor Shah Jahan, whose
“salt they ate”—against all the temptations offered by youthful
ambition. It is forcibly contrasted with the conduct of the
immediate household troops of the emperor, who, even in the
moment of battle, worshipped the rising sun, whilst the Rajput
sealed his faith in his blood; and none more liberally than the
brave Haras of Kotah and Bundi. The annals of no nation on
earth can furnish such an example, as an entire family, six royal
brothers, stretched on the field, and all but one in death.
[9]Of all the deeds of heroism performed on this day, those of
Ratna of Ratlam, by universal consent, are pre-eminent, and
“are wreathed into immortal rhyme by the bard” in the Raesa
Rao Ratna.[10] He also was a Rathor, the great-grandson of Udai
Singh, the first raja of Maru; and nobly did he show that the
Rathor blood had not degenerated on the fertile plains of Malwa.
If aught were wanting to complete the fame of this memorable
day, which gave empire to the scourge of Rajputana [50], it is
found in the conduct of Jaswant’s queen, who, as elsewhere
related,[11] shut the gates of his capital on her fugitive lord, though
he “brought back his shield” and his honour.
Battle of Jājau.
—Aurangzeb, on Jaswant’s retreat, entered the
capital of Malwa in triumph, whence, with all the celerity requisite
to success, he pursued his march on the capital. At the village
of Jajau, thirty miles south of Agra, the fidelity of the Rajputs
again formed a barrier between the aged king and the treason of
his son; but it served no other purpose than to illustrate this
fidelity. The Rajputs were overpowered, Dara was driven from
the regency, and the aged emperor deposed.
[12]Battle of Khajwa.
—Aurangzeb, soon after usurping the throne,
sent, through the prince of Amber, his assurances of pardon to
Jaswant, and a summons to the presence, preparatory to joining
the army forming against his brother Shuja, advancing to vindicate
his claims to empire. The Rathor, deeming it a glorious
occasion for revenge, obeyed, and communicated to Shuja his
intentions. The hostile armies met at Khajwa, thirty miles
north of Allahabad.
[13] On the first onset, Jaswant, wheeling about
with his Rathor cavaliers, attacked the rearward of the army
under prince Muhammad, which he cut to pieces, and plundering
the imperial camp (left unprotected), he deliberately loaded his
camels with the most valuable effects, which he despatched under
part of the force, and leaving the brothers to a contest, which he
heartily wished might involve the destruction of both, he followed
the cortège to Agra. Such was the panic on his appearance at
that capital, joined to the rumours of Aurangzeb’s defeat, which
had nearly happened, that the wavering garrison required only a
summons to have surrendered, when he might have released Shah
Jahan from confinement, and with this “tower of strength” have
rallied an opposition fatal to the prince.
Policy of Jaswant Singh.
—That this plan suggested itself to
Jaswant’s sagacity we cannot doubt; but besides the manifest
danger of locking up his army within the precincts of a capital,
if victory was given to Aurangzeb, he had other reasons for not
halting at Agra. All his designs were in concert with prince Dara,
the rightful heir to the throne, whom he had instructed to hasten
to the scene of action; but while Jaswant remained hovering in
the rear of Aurangzeb, momentarily expecting the junction of
the prince, the latter loitered on the southern frontier of Marwar,
and thus lost, for [51] ever, the crown within his grasp. Jaswant
continued his route to his native dominions, and had at least the
gratification of housing the spoils, even to the regal tents, in the
castle of Jodha. Dara tardily formed a junction at Merta; but
the critical moment was lost, and Aurangzeb, who had crushed
Shuja’s force, rapidly advanced, now joined by many of the
Rajput princes, to overwhelm this last remnant of opposition.
The crafty Aurangzeb, however, who always preferred stratagem
to the precarious issue of arms, addressed a letter to Jaswant, not
only assuring him of his entire forgiveness, but offering the vice-royalty
of Gujarat, if he would withdraw his support from Dara,
and remain neuter in the contest. Jaswant accepted the conditions,
and agreed to lead the Rajput contingents, under prince
Muazzam, in the war against Sivaji, bent on reviving the independence
of Maharashtra. From the conduct again pursued
by the Rathor, we have a right to infer that he only abandoned
Dara because, though possessed of many qualities which endeared
him to the Rajput, besides his title to the throne, he wanted those
virtues necessary to ensure success against his energetic brother.
Scarcely had Jaswant reached the Deccan when he opened a
communication with Sivaji, planned the death of the king’s
lieutenant, Shaista Khan, on which he hoped to have the guidance
of the army, and the young viceroy. Aurangzeb received
authentic intelligence of this plot, and the share Jaswant had in
it; but he temporized, and even sent letters of congratulation on
his succeeding to the command in chief. But he soon superseded
him by Raja Jai Singh of Amber, who brought the war to a conclusion
by the capture of Sivaji.
[14] The honour attending this
exploit was, however, soon exchanged for disgrace; for when the
Amber prince found that the tyrant had designs upon the life
of his prisoner, for whose safety he had pledged himself, he connived
at his escape.
[15] Upon this, Jaswant was once more declared
the emperor’s lieutenant, and soon inspired prince Muazzam with
designs, which again compelled the king to supersede him, and
Diler Khan was declared general-in-chief. He reached Aurangabad,
and the night of his arrival would have been his last, but he
received intimation and rapidly retreated, pursued by the prince
and Jaswant to the Nerbudda. The emperor saw the necessity
of removing Jaswant from this dangerous post, and he sent him
the farman as viceroy of Gujarat, to which he commanded him to
repair without delay. He obeyed, reached Ahmadabad, and
found the king had outwitted him and his [52] successor in command;
he therefore continued his course to his native dominions,
where he arrived in S. 1726 (
A.D. 1670).
The wily tyrant had, in all these changes, used every endeavour
to circumvent Jaswant, and, if the annals are correct, was little
scrupulous as to the means. But the Raja was protected by the
fidelity of his kindred vassalage. In the words of the bardic
chronicler, “The Aswapati,[16] Aurang, finding treachery in vain,
put the collar of simulated friendship round his neck, and sent
him beyond the Attock to die.”
The emperor saw that the only chance of counteracting
Jaswant’s inveterate hostility was to employ him where he would
be least dangerous. He gladly availed himself of a rebellion
amongst the Afghans of Kabul; and with many promises of
favour to himself and his family, appointed him to the chief
command,[17] to lead his turbulent Rajputs against the equally
turbulent and almost savage Afghans. Leaving his elder son,
Prithi Singh, in charge of his ancestral domains, with his wives,
family, and the chosen bands of Maru, Jaswant departed for the
land of the “barbarian,” from which he was destined never to
return.
Treatment of Prithi Singh by Aurangzeb.
—It is related, in the
chronicles of Maru, that Aurangzeb having commanded the
attendance at court of Jaswant’s heir, he obeyed, and was received
not only with the distinctions which were his due, but with the
most specious courtesy; that one day, with unusual familiarity,
the king desired him to advance, and grasping firmly his folded
hands (the usual attitude of deference) in one of his own, said,
“Well, Rathor, it is told me you possess as nervous an arm as
your father; what can you do now?” “God preserve your
majesty!” replied the Rajput prince, “when the sovereign of
mankind lays the hand of protection on the meanest of his
subjects, all his hopes are realized; but when he condescends to
take both of mine, I feel as if I could conquer the world.” His
vehement and animated gesture gave full force to his words, and
Aurangzeb quickly exclaimed, “Ah! here is another Khatan”
[18]
(the term he always applied to Jaswant); yet, affecting to be
pleased with the frank boldness of his speech, he ordered him a
splendid dress, which, as customary, he put on, and, having made
his obeisance, left the presence in the certain assurance of
exaltation.
That day was his last!—he was taken ill soon after reaching
his quarters, and [53] expired in great torture, and to this hour
his death is attributed to the poisoned robe of honour presented
by the king.[19]
Prithi Singh was the staff of his father’s age, and endowed with
all the qualities required to lead the swords of Maru. His death,
thus reported, cast a blight on the remaining days of Jaswant,
who, in this cruel stroke, saw that his mortal foe had gone beyond
him in revenge. The sacrifice of Prithi Singh was followed by the
death of his only remaining sons, Jagat Singh and Dalthamman,
from the ungenial climate of Kabul, and grief soon closed the
existence of the veteran Rathor. He expired amidst the mountains
of the north, without an heir to his revenge, in S. 1737
(A.D. 1681), having ruled the tribes of Maru for two-and-forty
years. In this year, death released Aurangzeb from the greatest
terrors of his life; for the illustrious Sivaji and Jaswant paid the
debt to nature within a few months of each other.[20] Of the
Rathor, we may use the words of the biographer of his contemporary,
Rana Raj Singh of Mewar: “Sighs never ceased
flowing from Aurang’s heart while Jaswant lived.”
Character of Jaswant Singh.
—The life of Jaswant Singh is one
of the most extraordinary in the annals of Rajputana, and a full
narrative of it would afford a perfect and deeply interesting
picture of the history and manners of the period. Had his
abilities, which were far above mediocrity, been commensurate
with his power, credit, and courage, he might, with the concurrent
aid of the many powerful enemies of Aurangzeb, have overturned
the Mogul throne. Throughout the long period of two-and-forty
years, events of magnitude crowded upon each other, from the
period of his first contest with Aurangzeb, in the battle of the
Nerbudda, to his conflicts with the Afghans amidst the snows of
Caucasus. Although the Rathor had a preference amongst the
sons of Shah Jahan, esteeming the frank Dara above the crafty
Aurangzeb, yet he detested the whole race as inimical to the
religion and the independence of his own; and he only fed the
hopes of any of the brothers, in their struggles for empire, expecting
that they would end in the ruin of all. His blind [54] arrogance
lost him the battle of the Nerbudda, and the supineness of Dara
prevented his reaping the fruit of his treachery at Khajwa. The
former event, as it reduced the means and lessened the fame of
Jaswant, redoubled his hatred to the conqueror. Jaswant
neglected no opportunity which gave a chance of revenge. Impelled
by this motive, more than by ambition, he never declined
situations of trust, and in each he disclosed the ruling passion of
his mind. His overture to Sivaji (like himself the implacable foe
of the Mogul), against whom he was sent to act; his daring
attempt to remove the imperial lieutenants, one by assassination,
the other by open force; his inciting Muazzam, whose inexperience
he was sent to guide, to revolt against his father, are some among
the many signal instances of Jaswant’s thirst for vengeance. The
emperor, fully aware of this hatred, yet compelled from the force
of circumstances to dissemble, was always on the watch to counteract
it, and the artifices this mighty king had recourse to in order
to conciliate Jaswant, perhaps to throw him off his guard, best
attest the dread in which he held him. Alternately he held the
vice-royalty of Gujarat, of the Deccan, of Malwa, Ajmer, and
Kabul (where he died), either directly of the king, or as the king’s
lieutenant, and second in command under one of the princes.
But he used all these favours merely as stepping-stones to the
sole object of his life. Accordingly, if Jaswant’s character had
been drawn by a biographer of the court, viewed merely in the
light of a great vassal of the empire, it would have reached us
marked with the stigma of treachery in every trust reposed in
him; but, on the other hand, when we reflect on the character
of the king, the avowed enemy of the Hindu faith, we only see in
Jaswant a prince putting all to hazard in its support. He had
to deal with one who placed him in these offices, not from personal
regard, but because he deemed a hollow submission better than
avowed hostility, and the raja, therefore, only opposed fraud to
hypocrisy, and treachery to superior strength. Doubtless the
Rathor was sometimes dazzled by the baits which the politic
king administered to his vanity; and when all his brother princes
eagerly contended for royal favour, it was something to be singled
out as the first amongst his peers in Rajputana. By such conflicting
impulses were both parties actuated in their mutual
conduct throughout a period in duration nearly equal to the life
of man; and it is no slight testimony to Aurangzeb’s skill in
managing such a subject, that he was able to neutralize the hatred
and the power of Jaswant throughout this lengthened [55] period.
But it was this vanity, and the immense power wielded by the
kings who could reward service by the addition of a vice-royalty
to their hereditary domains, that made the Rajput princes slaves;
for, had all the princely contemporaries of Jaswant—Jai Singh
of Amber, the Rana Raj of Mewar, and Sivaji—coalesced against
their national foe, the Mogul power must have been extinct.
Could Jaswant, however, have been satisfied with the mental
wounds he inflicted upon the tyrant, he would have had ample
revenge; for the image of the Rathor crossed all his visions of
aggrandizement. The cruel sacrifice of his heir, and the still
more barbarous and unrelenting ferocity with which he pursued
Jaswant’s innocent family, are the surest proofs of the dread
which the Rathor prince inspired while alive.