Mewar 17: Rally of Rana Partap
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Mewar 17: Rally of Rana Partap
Submission of Rana Partap Singh
Overjoyed at this indica tion of submission, the emperor commanded pubhc rejoicings, and exultingly showed the letter to Prithiraj, a Rajput compelled to follow the victorious car of Akbar. Prithiraj was the younger
1 [Akbar was anxious to destroy Partap, but he could not carry on a guerilla campaign in Rajputana, and he had work to do elsewhere (Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, 153).] 2 Mirza Abdu-r-rahim, son of Bairam Khan (Ain, i. 334).] 3 A colloquail contraction for Partap. 4 Called Mol. brother of the prince of Bikaner,1 a State recently grown out of the Rathors of jNIarvvar, and which, being exposed in the flats of the desert, had no power to resist the example of its elder, Maldeo. Prithiraj was one of the most gallant chieftains of the age, and like the Troubadour princes of the west, could grace a cause with the soul-inspiring effusions of the muse, as well as aid it with his sword : nay, in an assembly of the bards of Rajasthan, the palm of merit was unanimously awarded to the Rathor cavalier. He adored the very name of Partap, and the intelligence filled him with grief. With all the warmth and frankness of his nature, he told the king it was a forgery of some foe to the fame of the Rajput prince. " I know him well," said he ; " for your crown he would not submit to your terms." He requested and obtained permission from the king to transmit by his courier a letter to Partap, ostensibly to ascertain the fact of his submission, but really with the view to prevent it. On this occasion he composed those couplets, still admired, and which for the effect they produced will stand comparison with any of the sirvcntes of the Troubadours of the west.2
" The hopes of the Hindu rest on the Hindu ; yet the Rana forsakes them. But for Partap, all would be placed on the same level by Akbar ; for our chiefs have lost their valour and our females their honour. Akbar is the broker in the market of our race : all has he purchased but the son of Uda ; he is beyond his price. What true Rajput would part with honour for nine days (nauroza) ; yet how many have bartered it away ? Will Chitor come to this market, when all have disposed of the chief article of the Ivhatri ? Though Patta has squandered away wealth, yet this treasure has he preserved. Despair has driven man to this mart, to witness their dishonour : from such infamy the descendant of Hamir alone has been preserved. The world asks, whence the concealed aid of Partap ? None but the soul of manliness and his sword : with it, well has he maintained the Khatri's pride. This broker in the market [344] of men will one day be overreached ; he cannot live for ever : then will our race come to Partap, for the seed of the Rajput to sow in our desolate
1 [Rae Singh (1571-1611).] 2 It is no affectation to say that the spirit evaporates in the lameness of the translation. The author could feel the force, though he failed to imitate the strength, of the original. lands. To him all look for its preservation, that its purity may again become resplendent."
Rally of Rana Partap Singh
This effusion of the Rathor was equal to ten thousand men ; it nerved the drooping mind of Partap, and roused him into action : for it was a noble incentive to find every eye of his race fixed upon him.
The Nauroza
The allusion of the princely poet in the phrase, " bartering their honour on the Nauroza," requires some explana tion. The Nauroza, or ' New Year's Day,' when the sun enters Aries, is one of great festivity among the Muhammadan princes of the East ; but of that alluded to by Prithiraj we can form an adequate idea from the historian Abu-1 Fazl.1 It is not New Year's Day, but a festival especially instituted by Akbar, and to which he gave the epithet lOiushroz, ' day of pleasure,' held on the ninth day (nauroza), following the chief festival of each month. The court assembled, and was attended by all ranks. The queen also had her court, when the wives of the nobles and of the Rajput vassal princes were congregated. But the Khushroz was chiefly marked by a fair held within the precincts of the court, attended only by females. The merchants' wives exposed the manufactures of every clime, and the ladies of the court were the purchasers.2 " His majesty is also there in disguise, by which means he learns the value of merchandise, and hears what is said of the state of the empire and the character of the officers of government." The ingenuous Abu-1 Fazl thus
1 [Ain, i. 276 f. ; Memoirs of Jahangir, trans. Rogers-Beveridge, 48 £.] 2 At these royal fairs were also sold the productions of princely artisans, male and female, and which, out of compliment to majesty, made a bounte ous return for their industry. It is a fact but little known, that most Asiatic princes profess a trade : the great Aurangzeb was a cap-maker, and sold them to such advantage on these ' ninth day ' fairs, that his funeral ex penses were by his own express command defrayed from the privy purse, the accumulation of his personal labour. A delightful anecdote is recorded of the Khilji king Mahmud, whose profession was literary, and who obtained good prices from his Omrahs for his specimens of calligraphy. While engaged in transcribing one of the Persian poets, a professed scholar, who with others attended the conversazione, suggested an emendation, which was instantly attended to, and the supposed error remedied. When the Mullah was gone, the monarch erased the emendation and re-inserted the passage. An Omrah had observed and questioned the action, to which the king repUed : "It was better to make a blot in the manuscript than wound the vanity of a humble scholar." [Ferishta tolls the story of Nasiru-d-din Mahmud, i. 24G.] softens down the unhallowed purpose of this day ; but posterity cannot admit that the great Akbar was to obtain these results amidst the Pushto jargon of the dames of Islam, or the mixed Bhakha of the fair of [345] Rajasthan. These ' ninth day fairs ' are the markets in which Rajput honour was bartered, and to which the brave Prithiraj makes allusion.1
Akbar and Rajput Ladies
It is scarcely to be credited that a statesman like Akbar should have hazarded his popularity or his power, by the introduction of a custom alike appertaining to the Celtic races of Europe as to these the Goths of Asia ; 2 and that he should seek to degrade those whom the chances of war had made his vassals, by conduct so nefarious and repugnant to the keenly cherished feelings of the Rajput. Yet there is not a shadow of doubt that maiiy of the noblest of the race were dis honoured on the Nauroza ; and the chivalrous Prithiraj was only preserved from being of the number by the high courage and virtue of his wife, a princess of Mewar, and daughter of the founder of the Saktawats. On one of these celebrations of the
1 [Compare the later accounts of these fairs by Bernier 272 f. ; and Manucci i. 195. Aurangzeb transferred the Nauroz rejoicings to the corona tion festival in Raniazan ( Jadunath Sarkar, Life of Aurangzib, iii. 93). The ladies of the Mughal court usually spoke, not Pushto, but Turki.] 2 This laxity, as regards female delicacy, must have been a remnant of Scythic barbarism, brought from the banks of the Jaxartes, the land of the Getae, where now, as in the days of Tomyris, a shoe at the door is a sufficient barrier to the entrance of many Tatar husbands. It is a well-known fact, also, that the younger son in these regions inherited a greater share than the elder, which is attributed to their pastoral habits, which invited early emigration in the elder sons. This habit prevailed with the Rajput tribes of very early times, and the annals of the Yadus, a race alhed to the Yuti Getae, or Jat, afford many instances of it. Modified it yet exists amongst the Jarejas (of the same stock), with whom the sons divide equally ; which custom was transmitted to Europe by these Getic hordes, and brought into England by the Jut brothers, who foimded the kingdom of Kent {kanthi, ' a coast' in Gothic and Sanskrit), where it is yet known as Gavelkind. In English law it is termed borough-English. In Scotland it existed in barbarous times, analogous to those when the Nauroza was sanctioned ; and the lord of the manor had privileges which rendered it more than doubtful whether the first-born was natural heir : hence, the youngest was the heir. So in France, in ancient times ; and though the ' droit de Jambage ' no longer exists, the term sufficiently denotes the extent of privilege, in comparison with which the other rights of ' Noiages,’ the seigneur's feeding his greyhounds with the best dishes and insulting the bride's blushes with ribald songs, were innocent. [The ethnological views in this note do not deserve notice.]
Khushroz, the monarch of the Moguls was struck with the beauty of the daughter of Mewar, and he singled her out from amidst the united fair of Hind as the object of his passion. It is not im probable that an ungenerous feeling vmited with that already impure, to despoil the Sesodias of their honour, through a princess of their house under the protection of the sovereign. On retiring from the fair, she found herself entangled amidst the labyrinth of apartments by which egress was purposely ordained, when Akbar stood before her : but instead of acquiescence, she drew a poniard from her corset, and held it to his breast, dictating, and making him repeat, the oath of renunciation of the infamy to all her race. The anecdote is accompanied in the original with many dramatic circumstances. The guardian goddess of Mewar, the terrific Mata, appears on her tiger in the subterranean passage of this palace of pollution, to strengthen her mind by a solemn denunciation [346], and her hand with a weapon to protect her honour. Rae Singh, the elder brother of the princely bard, had not been so fortunate ; his wife wanted either courage or virtue to withstand the regal tempter, and she returned to their dwelling in the desert despoiled of her chastity, but loaded with jewels ; or, as Prithiraj expresses it : " She returned to her abode, tramping to the tinkling sound of the ornaments of gold and gems on her person ; but where, my brother, is the moustache 1 on thy lip ? "
Adventures ofRana Partap Singh
It is time to return to the Aravalli, and to the patriot prince Partap. Unable to stem the torrent, he had formed a resolution worthy of his character ; he determined to abandon Mewar and the blood-stained Chitor (no longer the stay of his race), and to lead his Sesodias to the Indus, plant the ' crimson banner ' on the insular capital of the Sogdoi, and leave a desert between him and his inexorable foe. With his family, and all that was yet noble in Mewar, his chiefs and vassals, a firm and intrepid band, who prefeiTcd exile to degradation, he descended the Aravalli, and had reached the confines of the desert, when an incident occurred which made him change his measures, and still remain a dweller in the land of his forefathers. If the historic record acts of unexampled severity,
1 The loss of this is the sign of mourning. [Tliere is naturally no confirma tion of these anecdotes in the Musalman historians, but they possibly may be true.] they are not without instances of unparalleled devotion. The minister of Partap, whose ancestors had for ages held the office, placed at his prince's disposal their accumulated wealth, which, with other resources, is stated to havej been equivalent to the maintenance of twenty-five thousand men for twelve years. The name of Bhama Sah is preserved as the saviour of Mewar. With this splendid proof of gratitude, and the sirvente of Prithiraj as incitements, he again " screwed his courage to the sticking place," collected his bands, and while his foes imagined that he was endeavouring to effect a retreat through the desert, surprised Shahbaz in his camp at Dawer, whose troops were cut in pieces. The fugitives were pursued to Amet, the garrison of which shared the same fate. Ere they could recover from their consternation, Kumbhalmer was assaulted and taken ; Abdulla and his garrison were put to the sword, and thirty-two fortified posts in like manner carried by surprise, the troops being put to death without mercy. To use the words of the annals : " Partap made a desert of Mewar ; he made an [347] offering to the sword of whatever dwelt in its plains " : an appalling but indispensable sacrifice. In one short campaign (S. 1586, a.d. 1530), he had recovered all Mewar, except Chitor, Ajmer, and Mandalgarh ; and determining to have a slight ovation in return for the triumph Raja Man had enjoyed (who had fulfilled to the letter his threat, that Partap should " live in peril "), he invaded Amber, and sacked its chief mart of commerce, Malpura.
Udaipur was also regained ; though this acquisition was so unimportant as scarcely to merit remark. In all likelihood it was abandoned from the difficulty of defending it, when all around had submitted to Partap ; though the annals ascribe it to a gener ous sentiment of Akbar, prompted by the great Khankhanan, whose mind appears to have been captivated by the actions of the Rajput prince.1 An anecdote is appended to account for Akbar's relaxation of severity, but it is of too romantic a nature even for this part of their annals.
Mewar left in Peace by the Imperialists
Partap was indebted to a combination of causes for the repose he enjoyed during the latter years of his life ; and though this may be ascribed principally to the new fields of ambition which occupied the Mogul arms, we are authorized also to admit the full weight of the influence that 1 [See p. 398, above.] the conduct of the Hindu prince exerted upon Akbar, together with the general sympathy of his fellow-princes, who swelled the train of the conqueror, and who were too powerful to be regarded with indifference. ,
Repose was, however, no boon to the noblest of his race. A mind like Partap's could enjoy no tranquillity while, from the summit of the pass which guarded Udaipur, his eye embraced the Kunguras of Chitor, to which he must ever be a stranger. To a soul like his, burning for the redemption of the glory of his race, the mercy thus shown him, in placing a limit to his hopes, was more difficult of endurance than the pangs of fabled Tantalus. Imagine the warrior, yet in manhood's prime, broken with fatigues and covered with scars, from amidst the fragments of basaltic ruin ^ (fit emblem of his own condition !), casting a wistful eye to [348] the rock stained with the blood of his fathers ; whilst in the ' dark chamber ' of his mind the scenes of glory enacted there appeared with unearthly lustre. First, the youthful Bappa, on whose head was the ' mor he had won from the Mori ' : 2 the warlike Samarsi, arming for the last day of Rajput independence, to die with Prithiraj on the banks of the Ghaggar : again, descend ing the steep of Chitor, the twelve sons of Arsi, the crimson banner floating aroimd each, while from the embattled rock the guardian goddess looked down on the carnage which secured a perpetuity of sway. Again, in all the pomp of sacrifice, the Deolia chiefs, Jaimall and Patta ; and like the Pallas of Rajasthan, the Chon dawat dame, leading her daughter into the ranks of destruction : examples for their sons' and husbands' imitation. At length clouds of darkness dimmed the walls of Chitor : from her battle
1 These mountains are of granite and close-grained quartz ; but on the summit of the pass there is a mass of columnar rocks, which, though the author never examined them very closely, he has little hesitation in calling basaltic. Were it permitted to intrude his own feelings on his reader, he would say, he never passed the portals of Debari, which close the pass leading from Chitor to Udaipur, without throwing his eye on this fantastic pinnacle and imagining the picture he has drawn. Whoever, in rambhng through the ' eternal city,' has had his sympathy awakened in beholding at the Porta Salaria the stone seat where the conqueror of the Persians and the Goths, the blind Bclisarius, begged his daily dole,— or pondered at the un sculptured tomb of Napoleon upon the vicissitudes of greatness, will appre ciate the feeUng of one who, in sentiment, had identified himself with the Rajputs, of whom Partap was justly the model. 2 [A pun on maur, ' a crown,' and the Maurya tribe.] merits ' Kungura Rani ' 1 had fled ; the tints of dishonour began to blend with the visions of glory ; and lo ! Udai Singh appeared flying from the rock to which the honour of his house was united . Aghast at the picture his fancy had portrayed, imagine him turn ing to the contemplation of his own desolate condition, indebted for a cessation of persecution to the most revolting sentiment that compassion ; compared with which scorn is endurable, contempt even enviable : these he could retaliate ; . but for the high-minded, the generous Rajput, to be the object of that sickly sentiment, pity, was more oppressive than the arms of his foe.
The Last Days of Rana Partap
A premature decay assailed the pride of Rajasthan ; a mind diseased preyed on an exhausted frame, and prostrated him in the very summer of his days. The last moments of Partap were an appropriate commentary on his life, which he terminated, like the Carthaginian, swearing his suc cessor to eternal conflict against the foes of his country's independ ence. But the Rajput prince had not the same joyful assurance that inspired the Numidian Hamilcar ; for his end was clouded with the presentiment that his son Amra would abandon his fame for inglorious repose. A powerful sympathy is excited by the picture which is drawn of this final scene. The dying hero is represented in a lowly dwelling ; his chiefs, the faithful com panions of many a glorious day, awaiting round his pallet the dissolution of their prince, when a groan of mental anguish made Salumbar inquire [349], " Wliat afflicted his soul that it would not depart in peace ? " He rallied : " It lingered," he said, " for some consolatory pledge that his country should not be abandoned to the Turk " ; and with the death-pang upon him, he related an incident which had guided his estimate of his son's disposition, and now tortured him with the reflection that for personal ease he would forgo the remembrance of his own and his country's wrongs.
On the banks of the Pichola, Partap and his chiefs had con structed a few huts - (the site of the future palace of Udaipur), 1 ' The queen of battlements,' the turreted Cybele of Rajasthan. 2 This magnificent lake is now adorned with marble palaces. Such was the wealth of Mewar even in her dechne. [The lake is said to have been constructed by a Banjara at the end of the fourteenth century, and the embankment was built by Rana Udai Singh in 1560. The lake is 2 ½ miles to protect them during the inclemency of the rains in the day of their distress. Prince Amra, forgetting the lowhness of the dwelhng, a projecting bamboo of the roof caught the folds of his turban and dragged it off as he retired. A hasty emotion, which disclosed a varied feeling, was observed with pain by Partap, who thence adopted the opinion that his son would never withstand the hardships necessary to be endured in such a cause. " These sheds," said the'dying prince, " will give way to sumptuous dwellings, thus generating the love of ease ; and luxury with its concomitants will ensue, to which the independence of Mewar, which we have bled to maintain, will be sacrificed : and you, my chiefs, will follow the iDcrnicious example." They pledged themselves, and became guarantees for the prince, " by the throne of Bappa Rawal," that they would not permit mansions to be raised till Mewar had recovered her independence. The soul of Partap was satisfied, and with joy he expired.
Thus closed the life of a" Rajput whose memory is even now idolized by every Sesodia, and will continue to be so, till renewed oppression shall extinguish the remaining sparks of patriotic feeling. May that day never arrive ! yet if such be her destiny, may it, at least, not be hastened by the arms of Britain !
It is worthy the attention of those who influence the destinies of States in more favoured climes, to estimate the intensity of feeling which could arm this prince to oppose the resources of a small principality against the then most powerful empire of the world, whose armies were more numerous and far more efficient than any ever led by the Persian against the liberties of Greece. Had Mewar possessed her Thucydides or her Xenophon, neither the wars of the Peloponnesus nor the retreat of the ' ten thousand ' would have yielded more diversified incidents for [350] the historic muse, than the deeds of this brilliant reign amid the many vicissi tudes of Mewar. Undaunted heroism, inflexible fortitude, that with fidelity such as no nation can boast, were the materials opposed to a soaring ambition, commanding talents, unlimited means, and the fervour of religious zeal ; all, however, insufficient to contend with one unconquerable mind. There is not a pass in the alpine Aravalli long, and 1 ½ broad, with an area of over one square mile. In the middle stand the island palaces, the Jagmandir and the Jagniwas (Erskine ii. A. 109).] That is not sacctified by some deed of Partap__brilliant victory or, oftener, more glorious defeat. Haldigliat is the Thermopylae of Mewar ; the field of Dawer her Marathon.
