CHAPTER 14
=Rāja Bhīm Singh, A.D. 1793-1803.=—The intelligence of Bijai Singh’s death was conveyed by express to his grandson Bhim, at Jaisalmer. In “twenty-two hours” he was at Jodhpur, and ascending directly to the citadel, seated himself upon the _gaddi_, while his rival, Zalim Singh, the rightful heir, little expecting this celerity, was encamped at the Merta gate, awaiting the “lucky hour” to take possession. That hour never arrived; and the first intelligence of Bhim being on “the cushion of Jodha,” was conveyed to the inhabitants by the nakkaras of his rival on his retreat from the city, who was pursued to Bhilara, attacked, defeated, and forced to seek shelter at Udaipur, where, with an ample domain from the Rana, he passed the rest of his days in literary pursuits. He died in the prime of life: attempting to open a vein with his own hand, he cut an artery and bled to death. He was a man of great personal and mental qualifications; a gallant soldier, and no mean poet.[5.14.1] [137]
=Rāja Bhīm disposes of his Rivals.=—Thus far successful, Raja Bhim determined to dismiss “compunctious visitings,” and be a king _de facto_ if not _de jure_. Death had carried off three of his uncles, as well as his father, previous to this event; but there were still two others, Sher Singh, his adopted father, and Sardar Singh, who stood in his way: the last was put to death; the former had his eyes put out; and, soon after, the unfortunate prince released himself from life by dashing out his brains. Sur Singh, the favourite of all Bijai Singh’s descendants, remained. His superior claims were fatal to him and his life fell a sacrifice with the others.
A single claimant alone remained of all the blood royal of Maru to disturb the repose of Bhim. This was young Man, the adopted son of the concubine, placed beyond his reach within the walls of Jalor. Could Bhim’s dagger have reached him, he would have stood alone, the last surviving scion of the parricide,
With none to bless him, None whom he could bless:
an instrument, in the hand of divine power, to rid the land of an accursed stock. Then the issue of Abhai Singh would have utterly perished, and their ashes might have been given to the winds, and no memorial of them left. Idar must then have supplied an heir,[5.14.2] and the doubtful pretensions of Dhonkal,[5.14.3] the posthumous and reputed son of the wholesale assassin Bhim, to sit upon the _gaddi_ of Ajit, would never have been brought forward to excite another murderous contest amongst the sons of Jodha.
=Escape of Mān Singh.=—Having sacrificed all those within his reach who stood between him and the [139] throne, Bhim tried to secure the last sole claimant in Jalor. But the siege of such a stronghold with his feudal levies, or loose mercenary bands, was a tedious operation, and soon became an imperfect blockade, through which young Man not unfrequently broke, and by signal formed a junction with his adherents, and plundered the fiscal lands for support. One of these excursions, however, an attempt to plunder Pali, had nearly proved fatal to him; they were attacked on their return, and young Man, whose secluded education had confined him more to mental than to personal accomplishments, was unhorsed, and would have been captured, but for the prowess of the chief of Ahor, who took him up behind him and bore him off in safety. Nothing but the turbulence of the chiefs who supported Raja Bhim saved young Man’s life. A disputed succession has always produced an odious faction; and Bhim, who was not disposed to bend to this oligarchy, appears to have had all the imprudence of the dethroned Ram Singh: he threatened those entrusted with the siege to give them “oxen to ride instead of horses.” The chiefs fired at the insult, and retired to Ghanerao, the principal fief in Godwar; but, disgusted with both parties, instead of obeying the invitation of young Man, they abandoned their country altogether, and sought an asylum in the neighbouring States. Many fiefs were sequestrated, and Nimaj, the chief seat of the Udawats, was attacked, and after a twelve months’ defence, taken; its battlements were ignominiously destroyed, and the victors, chiefly foreign mercenaries, reinforced the blockade of Jalor.
=Siege of Jālor. Death of Rāja Bhīm Singh.=—With the exile of his
## partisans and daily diminishing resources, when the lower town was
taken, there appeared no hope for young Man. A small supply of millet-flour was all the provision left to his half-famished garrison, whose surrender was now calculated upon, when an invitation came from the hostile commander for Man to repair to his camp, and adding “he was now the master; it was his duty to serve.” On that day (the 2nd Kartik S. 1860, Dec. 1804), after eleven years of defence, his means exhausted, his friends banished, and death from starvation or the sword inevitable, intelligence came of Raja Bhim’s demise! This event, as unlooked-for as it was welcome, could scarcely at first be credited; and the tender of the homage of the commander to Man as his sovereign, though accompanied by a letter from the prime minister Induraj, was disregarded till the Guru Deonath returned from the camp with confirmation of the happy news, that “not a moustache [140] was to be seen in the camp.”[5.14.4] Thither the prince repaired, and was hailed as the head of the Rathors.
It is said that the successor of the Guru Atmaram, “who carried all the troubles of Bijai Singh with him to heaven,” had predicted of young Man Singh, when at the very zero of adversity, that “his fortunes would ascend.” What were the means whereby the ghostly comforter of Raja Bhim influenced his political barometer, we know not; but prophetic Gurus, bards, astrologers, physicians, and all the Vaidyas or ‘cunning-men,’[5.14.5] who beset the persons of princes, prove dangerous companions when, in addition to the office of compounders of drugs and expounders of dreams, they are invested with the power of realizing their own prognostications.
=Rāja Mān Singh, A.D. 1803-43.=—On the 5th of Margsir, 1860 (A.D. 1804), Raja Man, released from his perils, succeeded to the honours and the feuds of Bijai Singh. He had occupied the ‘cushion of Maru’ but a very short period, when the Pokaran chief “took offence,” and put himself in hostility to his sovereign. The name of this proud vassal, the first in power though only of secondary rank amongst the Champawats, was Sawai Singh, with whom now remained “the sheath of the dagger which held the fortunes of Maru.” If the fulfilment of vengeance be a virtue, Sawai was the most virtuous son on earth. The dagger of Devi Singh, bequeathed to Sabhala, was no imaginary weapon in the hands of his grandson Sawai, who held it suspended over the head of Raja Man from his enthronement to his death-hour. Soon after Raja Man’s accession, Sawai retired with his
## partisans to Chopasni, a spot about five miles from the capital, where
the conspiracy was prepared. He told the chiefs that the wife of Raja Bhim was pregnant, and prevailed on them to sign a declaration, that if a son was born, he should be installed on the _gaddi_ of Jodha. They returned in a body to the capital, took the pregnant queen from the castle, and placed her in a palace in the city, under their own protection. Moreover, they held a council, at which the Raja was present, who agreed to recognise the infant, if a male, as the heir-apparent of Maru, and to enfeoff him in the appanage of Nagor and Siwana; and that if a female, she should be betrothed to a prince of Dhundhar [141].
=Dangers from Posthumous Births.=—Posthumous births are never-failing germs of discord in these States; and the issue is inevitably branded by one party with the title of ‘supposititious.’ It is likewise a common saying, almost amounting to a proverb, that a male child is the uniform result of such a position. In due course, a male infant was born; but, alarmed for its safety, the mother concealed both its birth and sex, and placing it in a basket, conveyed it by a faithful servant from the city, whence it soon reached Sawai Singh at Pokaran. He bestowed upon it the inauspicious name of Dhonkal, that is, one born to tumult and strife. It is said that during two years he kept the birth a profound secret, and it is even added, that it might have remained so, had Raja Man forgot the history of the past, and dispensed even-handed justice. Wanting, however, the magnanimity of the Fourth Henry of France, who scorned “to revenge the wrongs of the prince of Navarre,” he reserved his favours and confidence for those who supported him in Jalor, whilst he evinced his dislike to others who, in obedience to their sovereign, served against him. Of these adherents, only two chiefs of note were of his kin and clan; the others were Bhatti Rajputs, and a body of those religious militants called Bishanswamis, under their Mahant, or leader, Kaimdas.[5.14.6]
=Sawāi Singh supports Dhonkal Singh.=—At the expiration of two years, Sawai communicated the event to the chiefs of his party, who called upon Raja Man to redeem his promise and issue the grant for Nagor and Siwana. He promised compliance if, upon investigation, the infant proved to be the legitimate offspring of his predecessor. Personal fear overcame maternal affection, and the queen, who remained at Jodhpur, disclaimed the child. Her reply being communicated to the chiefs, it was for a time conclusive, and the subject ceased to interest them, the more especially as her concealed accouchement had never been properly accounted for.
Though Sawai, with his party, apparently acquiesced, his determination was taken; but instead of an immediate appeal to arms, he adopted a deeper scheme of policy, the effects of which he could not have contemplated, and which involved his own destruction, and with it the independence of his country, which was transferred to [142] strangers, their very antipodes in manners, religion, and every moral quality. His first act was to procure a more powerful protection than Pokaran afforded; and under the guarantee of Chhattar Singh Bhatti, he was sent to the saran (sanctuary) of Abhai Singh of Khetri.[5.14.7] Having so far succeeded, he contrived an underplot, in which his genius for intrigue appears not below his reputation as a soldier.
=Krishna Kunwāri.=—The late prince Bhim had made overtures to the Rana of Mewar for the hand of his daughter, but he died before the preliminaries were adjusted. This simple circumstance was deemed sufficient by the Champawat for the groundwork of his plot. He contrived to induce the voluptuous Jagat Singh, the prince of Jaipur, to put himself in the place of Raja Bhim, and to propose for the fair hand of Krishna. This being accomplished, and nuptial presents, under a guard of four thousand men, being dispatched to Udaipur, Sawai intimated to Raja Man that he would be eternally disgraced if he allowed the prince of Amber to carry off “the betrothed”; that “it was to the throne of Maru, not its occupant, she was promised.” The bait was greedily swallowed, and the summons for the Kher (or levy _en masse_) of the Rathors was immediately proclaimed. Man instantly assembled three thousand horse, and joining to them the mercenary bands of Hira Singh then on the frontier of Mewar, he intercepted the nuptial gifts of Amber. Indignant at this outrage, Jagat Singh took to arms, and the muster-book was declared open to all who would serve in the war which was formally declared against Maru.
=Attack by Rāja Jagat Singh of Jaipur on Mārwār. Treachery of Jaswant Rāo Holkar.=—Having thus opened the drama, Sawai threw off the mask, and repaired to Khetri, whence he conveyed the pretender, Dhonkal, to the court of Jagat Singh at Jaipur. Here his legitimacy was established by being admitted ‘to eat from the same platter’ with its prince; and his claims, as the heir of Marwar, were publicly acknowledged and advocated, by his ‘placing him in the lap of his aunt,’[5.14.8] one of the wives of the deceased Raja Bhim. His cause thus espoused, and being declared the nephew of Amber, the nobles of Marwar, who deemed the claims of the pretender superior to those of Raja Man, speedily collected around his standard. Amongst these was the prince of Bikaner, whose example (he being the most powerful of the independents of this house) at once sanctioned the justice of Dhonkal’s cause, and left that of Raja Man almost without support. Nevertheless, with the hereditary [143] valour of his race, he advanced to the frontiers to meet his foes, whose numbers, led by the Jaipur prince and the pretender, exceeded one hundred thousand men! This contest, the ostensible object of which was the princess of Mewar, like the crusades of ancient chivalry, brought allies from the most remote parts of India. Even the cautious Mahratta felt an unusual impulse in this rivalry, beyond the stimulants of pay and plunder which ordinarily rouse him, and corps after corps left their hordes to support either cause. The weightier purse of Jaipur was the best argument for the justice of his cause and that of the pretender; while Raja Man had only the gratitude of Holkar to reckon upon for aid, to whose wife and family he had given sanctuary when pursued by Lord Lake to the Attock. But here Sawai again foiled him; and the Mahratta, then only eighteen miles from Man, and who had promised to join him next day, made a sudden movement to the south. A bribe of £100,000, in bills upon Kotah, to be paid on Holkar’s reaching that city, effected this desertion; which being secured, Jagat Singh and the pretender advanced to overwhelm their antagonist, who was posted at Gingoli. As the armies approached each other, Raja Man’s chiefs rode up to salute him, preparatory, as he thought, to head their clans for the combat; but it was their farewell obeisance. The cannonade opened, they rallied under the standard of the pretender, and on Sawai advancing on the right of the allied line, so entire was the defection, that even the Mertia clan, whose virtue and boast it is “to adhere to the throne, whoever is the occupant,” deserted, with the Champawats, Jethawats, and minor chiefs. Four chieftains alone abided the evil hour of Raja Man, namely, Kuchaman, Ahor, Jalor, and Nimaj; and with their quotas alone, and the auxiliary bands of Bundi, he would have rushed into the battle. Hindered from this, he attempted his own life: but the design was frustrated by Sheonath of Kuchaman, who dismounted him from his elephant, and advised his trusting to the fleetness of his steed, while they covered his flight. The Raja remarked, he was the first of his race who ever disgraced the name of Rathor by showing his back to a Kachhwaha. The position he had taken that morning was favourable to retreat, being a mile in advance of the pass of Parbatsar:[5.14.9] this was speedily gained, and nobly defended by the battalions of Bundi, and those of Hindal Khan, in the pay of Raja Man, which retarded the pursuit, headed by the Rao of Uniara. Raja Man reached Merta in safety; but deeming it incapable of long [144] resistance, he continued his flight by Pipar to the capital, which he reached with a slender retinue, including the four chiefs, who still shared his fortunes. The camp of Raja Man was pillaged. Eighteen guns were taken by Bala Rao Inglia, one of Sindhia’s commanders, and the lighter effects, the tents, elephants, and baggage, were captured by Amir Khan; while Parbatsar, and the villages in the neighbourhood, were plundered.
=Rāja Mān Singh defends Jodhpur.=—Thus far, the scheme of Sawai and the pretender advanced with rapid success. When the allied army reached Merta, the prince of Jaipur, whose object was the princess of Mewar, proposed to Sawai to follow up their good fortune, while he repaired to Udaipur, and solemnized the nuptials. But even in the midst of his revenge, Sawai could distinguish “between the cause of Man Singh and the _gaddi_ of Marwar”; and to promote the success of Jaipur, though he had originated the scheme to serve his own views, was no part of his plan. He was only helped out of this dilemma by another, which he could not anticipate. Not dreaming that Raja Man would hold out in the capital, which had no means of defence, but supposing he would fly to Jalor, and leave Jodhpur to its fate and to the pretender, Sawai, desirous to avoid the further advance of the allies into the country, halted the army for three days at Merta. His foresight was correct: the Raja had reached Bisalpur in full flight to Jalor, when, at the suggestion of Gyanmall Singhi, a civil officer in his train, he changed his intention. “There,” said the Singhi, “lies Jodhpur only nine coss to the right, while Jalor is sixteen further; it is as easy to gain the one as the other, and if you cannot hold out in the capital, what chance have you elsewhere? while you defend your throne your cause is not lost.” Raja Man followed the advice, reached Jodhpur in a few hours, and prepared for his defence. This unexpected change, and the halt of the allied army, which permitted the dispersed bands to gain the capital, defeated the schemes of Sawai.
=The Siege of Jodhpur.=—With a body of three thousand men, selected from Hindal Khan’s brigade, the corps of Bishanswamis, under Kaimdas, and one thousand foreign Rajputs, consisting of Chauhans, Bhattis, and Indhas (the ancient lords of Mandor), Raja Man formed a garrison of five thousand men, on whom he could depend. So ample did he deem this number, that he dispatched strong garrisons from Hindal’s brigade, with some Deora Rajputs, to garrison Jalor, and preserve the distant castle of Umarkot from surprise by the Sindis. Having thus provided against the storm [145] he fearlessly awaited the result. But so alienated was his mind from his kindred, that he would not even admit to the honour of defending his throne the four faithful chieftains who, in the general desertion, had abided by his fortunes. To all their entreaties to be received into the castle, that “they might defend the _kunguras_ (battlements) of Jodha,” he replied, they might defend the city if they pleased; and disgusted with such a return for their fidelity, they increased the train of his opponents, who soon encompassed Jodhpur.
The town, little capable of defence, was taken and given up to unlicensed plunder; and with the exception of Phalodi, which was gallantly defended for three months, and given to Bikaner as the reward of its alliance, the _an_ of the pretender was proclaimed throughout Marwar, and his allies only awaited the fall of the capital, which appeared inevitable, to proclaim him king. But a circumstance occurred, which, awakening the patriotism of the Rathors, thwarted these fair prospects, relieved Raja Man from his peril, and involved his adversaries in the net of destruction which they had woven for him.
The siege had lasted five months without any diminution of the ardour of the defenders; and although the defences of the north-east angle were destroyed, the besiegers, having a perpendicular rock of eighty feet to ascend before they could get to the breach, were not nearer their object, and, in fact, without shells, the castle of Jodha would laugh a siege to scorn. The numerous and motley force under the banners of Jaipur and the pretender, became clamorous for pay; the forage was exhausted, and the partisan horse were obliged to bivouac in the distant districts to the south. Availing himself of their separation from the main body, Amir Khan, an apt pupil of the Mahratta school, began to raise contributions on the fiscal lands, and Pali, Pipar, Bhilara, with many others, were compelled to accede to his demands. The estates of the nobles who espoused the cause of the pretender, fared no better, and they complained to the Xerxes of this host of the conduct of this unprincipled commander.
=Amir Khān supports Mān Singh. Defeat of the Jaipur Army A.D. 1806.=—The protracted defence having emptied the treasury of Amber, the arch-intriguer of Pokaran was called upon to contribute towards satisfying the clamour of the troops. Having exhausted the means of his own party, he applied to the four chieftains who had been induced to join the cause of the pretender by the suspicions of Raja Man, to advance a sum of money. This appeal proved a test of [146] their zeal. They abandoned the pretender, and proceeded direct to the camp of Amir Khan. It required no powerful rhetoric to detach him from the cause and prevail upon him to advocate that of Raja Man; nor could they have given him better counsel towards this end, than the proposal to carry the war into the enemy’s country: to attack and plunder Jaipur, now left unguarded. At this critical moment, the Jaipur prince, in consequence of the representation of the Marwar chiefs, had directed his commander-in-chief, Sheolal, to chastise Amir Khan for his lawless conduct. Sheolal put a stop to their deliberations, attacked and drove them across the Luni, surprised them at Govindgarh, again in a night attack at Harsuri, and pursued the Khan to Phaggi,[5.14.10] at the very frontier of Jaipur. Astonished at his own success, and little aware that the chase was in the direction projected by his enemy, Sheolal deemed he had accomplished his orders in driving him out of Marwar; halted, and leaving his camp, repaired to Jaipur to partake of its festivities. The Khan, who with his allies had reached Pipla near Tonk, no sooner heard of this, than he called to his aid the heavy brigades of Muhammad Shah Khan and Raja Bahadur (then besieging Isarda[5.14.11]), and availed himself of the imprudent absence of his foe to gain over the Haidarabad Rasala, a legion well known in the predatory wars of that period. Having effected this object, he assailed the Jaipur force, which, notwithstanding this defection and the absence of its commander, fought with great valour, the battalions of Hira Singh being nearly cut to pieces. The action ended in the entire defeat of the Jaipurians, and the capture of their camp, guns, and equipage. Prompted by the Rathor chieftains, whose valour led to this result, Amir Khan rapidly followed up his success, and Jaipur was dismayed by the presence of the victor at her gates. The generalship of the Khan was the salvation of Raja Man; it dissolved the confederacy, and fixed the doom of Sawai, its projector.
=The Confederacy against Jodhpur dissolved.=—The tempest had been some time gathering; the Rajas of Bikaner and Shahpura had already withdrawn from the confederacy and marched home, when, like a clap of thunder, the effeminate Kachhwaha, who had in the outset of this crusade looked to a full harvest both of glory and of love, learned that his army was annihilated, and his capital invested by the Khan and a handful of Rathors. Duped by the representations of Sawai, Rae Chand, Diwan or prime minister of Jaipur, concealed for some days these disasters from his sovereign, who received the intelligence by a special messenger sent by the queen-mother. Enraged, perplexed, and alarmed [147] for his personal safety, he broke up the siege, and sending on in advance the spoils of Jodhpur (including forty pieces of cannon), with his own chieftains, he sent for the Mahratta leaders,[5.14.12] and offered them £120,000 to escort him in safety to his capital; nay, he secretly bribed, with a bond of £90,000 more, the author of his disgrace, Amir Khan, not to intercept his retreat, which was signally ignominious, burning his tents and equipage at every stage, and at length with his own hand destroying his favourite elephant, which wanted “speed for the rapidity of his flight.”
=Jodhpur Booty recovered.=—But the indignities he had to suffer were not over. The chieftains whose sagacity and valour had thus diverted the storm from Raja Man, determined that no trophies of Rathor disgrace should enter Jaipur, united their clans about twenty miles east of Merta, on the line of retreat, appointing Induraj Singhi their leader. This person, who had held the office of Diwan under two predecessors of Raja Man, was driven to a temporary defection from the same suspicions which made the chiefs join the pretender. But they resolved to wash away the stain of this brief alienation from Raja Man with the blood of his enemies, and to present as a token of returning fidelity the recaptured trophies. The encounter took place on the joint frontier. It was short, but furious; and the Kachhwahas, who could not withstand the Rathors, were defeated and dispersed, and the spoils of the spoiler, including the forty cannon, were safely lodged in Kuchaman. Flushed with success, the victors addressed the Raja of Kishangarh, who, though a Rathor, had kept aloof, to advance funds to secure the continuance of Amir Khan’s aid. Two lakhs of rupees (£20,000) effected this object; and the Khan, pledging himself to continue his support to Raja Man, repaired to Jodhpur. The four chiefs who had thus signalized themselves, preceded him, and were received with open arms: their offences were forgiven, and their estates restored, while Induraj was appointed Bakhshi or commander of the forces [148].
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Footnote 5.14.1:
My own venerable tutor, Yati Gyanchandra, who was with me for ten years, said he owed all his knowledge, especially his skill in reciting poetry (in which he surpassed all the bards at Udaipur), to Zalim Singh. [He died at Kāchbali in the British District of Merwāra in 1799 (Erskine iii. A. 70).]
Footnote 5.14.2:
[138] Amongst the numerous autograph correspondence of the princes of Rajputana with the princes of Mewar, of which I had the free use, I selected one letter of S. 1784, A.D. 1728, written conjointly by Jai Singh of Amber and Abhai Singh of Jodhpur, regarding Idar, and which is so curious, that I give a verbatim translation in the Appendix (No. I.). [See end of Vol. III.] I little thought at the time how completely it would prove Abhai Singh’s determination to cut off all but his own parricidal issue from the succession. An inspection of the genealogy (p. 1075) will show that Anand Singh, of Idar, who was not to be allowed “to escape alive,” was his younger brother, adopted into that house.
Footnote 5.14.3:
Dhonkal Singh, the posthumous issue of Bhim, the last of the parricidal line, whether real or supposititious, must be set aside, and the pure current of Rathor blood, derived from Siahji, Jodha, Jaswant, and Ajit, be brought from Idar, and installed on “the gaddi of Jodha.” This course of proceeding would meet universal approbation, with the exception of some selfish miscreants about the person of this pretended son of Bhim, or the chieftain of Pokaran, in furtherance of his and his grandfather’s yet unavenged feud. A sketch of the events, drawn from their own chronicles, and accompanied by reflections, exposing the miseries springing from an act of turpitude, would come home to all, and they would shower blessings on the power which, while it fulfilled the duties of protector, destroyed the germ of internal dissension, and gave them a prince of their own pure blood, whom all
## parties could honour and obey. If a doubt remained of the probable
unanimity of such policy, let it be previously submitted to a _panchayat_, composed of the princes of the land, namely, of Mewar, Amber, Kotah, Bundi, Jaisalmer, etc., leaving out whichever may be influenced by marriage connexions with Dhonkal Singh.
Footnote 5.14.4:
This mark of mourning is common to all India. Where this evidence of manhood is not yet visible, the hair is cut off; often both.
Footnote 5.14.5:
_Vaidya_, or ‘learned man’; the term _veda_ is also used to denote cunning, magic, or knowledge of whatever kind.
Footnote 5.14.6:
They follow the doctrines of Vishnu (Bishan). They ate termed Gosains, as well as the more numerous class of church militants, devoted to Siva. Both are _célibataires_, as Gosain imports, from mastery (_sain_) over the sense (_go_). They occasionally come in contact, when their sectarian principles end in furious combats. At the celebrated place of pilgrimage, Haridwar (Hardwar), on the Ganges, we are obliged to have soldiers to keep the peace, since a battle occurred, in which they fought almost to extirpation, about twenty years ago. They are the Templars of Rajasthan. [Gosāīn, Skt. _gosvāmin_, ‘master of cows: one who is master of his organs of sense.’ The Bishan or Vishnuswāmis are a group of Bairāgi ascetics, who are said to have come to Mārwār about A.D. 1779, in the reign of Bijai Singh. Some of them are now employed as State sepoys (_Census Report, Mārwār, 1891_, ii. 86). In 1760 the rival mobs of Gosāīns and Bairāgis fought a battle, in which 1800 are said to have perished (_IGI_, xiii. 53).]
Footnote 5.14.7:
One of the principal chiefs of the Shaikhawat confederation. [Khetri is about 80 miles N. of Jaipur city (_IGI_, xv. 276).]
Footnote 5.14.8:
[_Godlenā_, ‘to take on the lap,’ the technical form of adoption, or of recognition of legitimacy.]
Footnote 5.14.9:
[About 110 miles N.E. of Jodhpur city, S.W. of the Sāmbhar Lake.]
Footnote 5.14.10:
[About 32 miles S. of Jaipur city.]
Footnote 5.14.11:
[About 60 miles S.S.W. of Jaipur city.]
Footnote 5.14.12:
Bapu Sindkia, Bala Rao Inglia, with the brigade of Jean Baptiste, all Sindhia’s dependents. This was early in 1806. The author was then in Sindhia’s camp and saw these troops marched off; and in 1807, in a geographical tour, he penetrated to Jaipur, and witnessed the wrecks of the Jaipur army. The sands round the capital were white with the bones of horses, and the ashes of their riders, who had died in the vain expectation of getting their arrears of pay.
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