CHAPTER 9

Ajit commanded to reduce Nahan and the rebels of the Siwalik mountains—The emperor dies—Civil wars—Ajit nominated viceroy of Gujarat—Ajit commanded to send his son to court—Daring attack on the chief of Nagor, who is slain—Retaliated—The king’s army invades Marwar—Jodhpur invested—Terms—Abhai Singh sent to court—Ajit proceeds to Delhi—Coalesces with the Sayyid ministry of the king—Gives a daughter in marriage to the emperor—Returns to Jodhpur—Repeal of the Jizya—Ajit proceeds to his viceroyalty of Gujarat—Settles the province—Worships at Dwarka—Returns to Jodhpur—The Sayyids summon him to court—The splendour of his train—Leagues with the Sayyids—The emperor visits Ajit—Portents—Husain Ali arrives from the Deccan—Consternation of the opponents of the Sayyids and Ajit—Ajit blockades the palace with his Rathors—The emperor put to death—Successors—Muhammad Shah—He marches against Amber—Its Raja claims sanctuary with Ajit—Obtains the grant of Ahmadabad—Returns to Jodhpur—Ajit unites his daughter to the prince of Amber—The Sayyids assassinated—Ajit warned of his danger—Seizes on Ajmer—Slays the governor—Destroys the mosques, and re-establishes the Hindu rites—Ajit declares his independence—Coins in his own name—Establishes weights and measures, and his own courts of justice—Fixes the gradations of rank amongst his chiefs—The Imperialists invade Marwar—Abhai Singh heads thirty thousand Rathors to oppose them—The king’s forces decline battle—The Rathors ravage the Imperial provinces—Abhai Singh obtains the surname of Dhonkal, or exterminator—Returns to Jodhpur—Battle of Sambhar—Ajit gives sanctuary to Churaman Jat, founder of Bharatpur—The emperor puts himself at the head of all his forces to avenge the defeat of Sambhar—Ajmer invested—Its defence—Ajit agrees to surrender Ajmer—Abhai Singh proceeds to the Imperial camp—His reception—His arrogant bearing—Murder of Ajit by his son—Infidelity of the bard—Blank leaf of the Raj Rupaka, indicative of this event—Extract from that chronicle—Funereal rites—Six queens and fifty-eight concubines determine to become Satis—Expostulations of the Nazir, bards, and purohits—They fail—Procession—Rite concluded—Reflections on Ajit’s life and history 1020

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