No More Learning

A. S. B. ,
vol. Ixi. part I, 1892.
>


## p. 505 (#555) ############################################

Xix)
RECOVERY OF MULTÀN
505
In 1527 Mirzā Shāh Husain Arghūn of Sind invaded the kingdom
of Multān at the instigation of Bābur. Mahmūd vainly endeavoured
to stay his advance by sending to him a mission charged with the
duty of effecting a settlement by negotiation, and, on the failure of
his efforts to secure peace, marched forth to a distance of two stages
from the city. Here his mission rejoined him on its return, and
immediately after receiving it he died, poisoned, as was supposed,
by Langar Khān, the commander of his troops, who on his master's
death, deserted to the enemy. The army returned to Multān and
proclaimed Husain, the infant son of Mahmūd, king. Shujā'-ul-
Mulk Bukhāri, son-in-law of the late king, became regent, and
decided, against the advice of all his officers, to stand a siege. The
city after enduring fearful privations, fell in 1528, after a resist.
ance of a year and some months, the young king was imprisoned,
and Shujā-ul-Mulk Bukhāri was tortured to death. The kingdom
was annexed to Sind and Khvāja Shams-ud-din was appointed
governor by Shāh Husain Arghūn, but was shortly afterwards
removed by Langar Khān, who submitted to Kāmrān Mirzā, brother
of Humāyūn of Delhi, and governor of the Punjab on his behalf,
thus re-uniting Multān to Delhi, from which it had been severed
for a century.


## p. 506 (#556) ############################################

CHAPTER XX
THE NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA FROM
A. D. 1000 TO 1526
On no occasion were the earlier Muslim invaders of India called
upon to meet a mighty Indian ruler. No Asoka, Kanishka, or
Harsha arose to defend the rich and alluring plains. Such rulers
were, indeed, rare phenomena in India, which has never been the
home of a nation, and whose normal condition was that of a
congeries of independent and mutually hostile states, fortunate if
they could agree temporarily to sink their differences before a
common ſoe.
When Muhammad b. Qāsim invaded Sind in 711 the Chālukyas,
the Pallavas, and the Răshtrakūtas were contending for supremacy
in the Deccan, and the Arab geographers of a later date corrupted
Vallabha Rāi, the title borne by many of the Rāshtrakūtas, imi-
tating the Chālukyas, into Balharā, and used this word as a generic
title for the leading ruler in India ; but in Northern India the
cmpire of Harsha had dissolved on his death in the middle of the
preceding century, and no power had succeeded to the hegemony.
How Muhammad dealt with Dāhir, the local ruler of Sind, we have
seen. The Chāvadas of Kāthiāwār, the Gahlots of Chitor, the
Chauhāns of Sāmbhar, and probably other houses claim to have
met and defeated the Arab invaders, but these chiefs ruled princi-
palities contiguous to or not far distant from the conquered state,
and their opposition to Muhamınad was not a united effort. The
claims may well be true, but the conflicts were of little importance.
The Arabs had Sind, and if they ever contemplated an extension
of their conquests in India they soon abandoned the idea.
At the time of Mahmūd's invasion India north of the Vin-
dhyas was divided into a number of independent states. The Hindu
Shāhiya dynasty, founded by Lulliya the Brāhman at the end of
the ninth century, with its capital at Ond on the Indus existed on
sufferance for some time after the establishment of the Turkish
power in Ghaznī, but was extinguished by Mahmūd. Of the history
of the kingdom of the Punjab, with its capital at Bhātinda, little
is known. Its position compelled its kings, Jaipāl I, Anandpāl,
Jaipāl II, and Bhimpāl the Fearless to stand forth for a time as


## p. 507 (#557) ############################################

CH. XX]
RAJPUT LEAGUES AGAINST MAHMŨD
507
the principal champions of Hinduism, and though their end was
unfortunate it was not dishonourable. On Bhimpal's flight to Ajmer
in 1021 his kingdom became a province of Mahmūd's empire.
The other states in northern India at this time were Sāmbhar,
or Ajmer, ruled by the Chauhān Rājputs; Delhi, lately founded
by the Tomaras near the site of the ancient Indraprastha (In-
darpat), Chitor, already possessed by the Gahlots, who were not
prominent among the opponents of the invader; Kanauj, still held
by the Gurjara Pratihāras, Harsha's desendants, whose power had
waned before that of the Chandel rajas of Jijhoti (the modern
Bundelkhand), chieftains of Gond origin, who had advanced north-
wards until they made the Jumna the boundary between their
territory and that of Kanauj; and Gujarāt, ruled by the Chālukyas
or Solankis, who had superseded the Chāwaras. The Jāts inhabited
the country on the banks of the Indus between Multān and the
Sulaimān Range, and their chieftains seem to have owned alle-
giance to the Muslim rulers of Multān. To the south of Jijhoti lay
Chedi, held by the Kālachurīs or Haihayas, another tribe of Gond
origin, and to the west of Jijhoti and Chedi lay Mālwa, governed
by a line of Paramāras or Pawārs which had been founded early
in the ninth century. Bengal was ruled by the
Pāla dynasty,
founded in the eighth century by Gopāla, who was elected king of
Bengal and founded the city of Odantapuri (Bihār). Kāmarūpa, or
Assam, was ruled by an ancient family of Koch, or Tibeto. Chinese
origin, which had become completely Hinduized. In Kashmir the
Karkota dynasty, founded in Harsha's lifetime by Durlabhavar-
dhana, still reigned. The fortress of Gwalior was the capital of the
Kachhwāha Rājputs, who were probably feudatories of Jijhoti.
The leading confederates of Jaipāl I in his campaign against
Sabuktigin were Rājyapāla of Kanauj, styled Jaichand by Muslim
historians, and Dhanga of Jijhoti. The confederacy formed against
Mahmūd in 1001 was far more formidable, and Anandpal of the
Punjab was joined by Vīsaladeva, the Chauhān king of Sāmbhar
or Ajmer, to whom was given the chief command, his vassal the
Tomara raja of Delhi, Rājyapāla of Kanauj, Ganda of Jijhoti,
Vajradāman Kachhwāha of Gwalior and Narwar, and the Pawār
raja of Dhār, or Mālwa, all of whom shared in the disastrous defeat
suffered by the Hindus on December 31, 10011.
Ganda Chandel, who had succeeded his father Dhanga in 999,
and appears in Muslim annals as 'Nanda, raja of Kālinjar,' which
was his principal fortress, succeeded Visaladeva of Sāmbhar as the
1 See ante, p. 16.


## p. 508 (#558) ############################################

508
| CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
leader of the Hindu confederacy, and, on Mahmūd's return to
Ghazni in 1019, from the expedition in which he plundered Muttra
and Captured Kanauj, Manaich, and Asnil, took upon himself the
probably congenial duty of punishing Rajyapāla for having in order
to save Kanauj ſrom pillage and destruction, betrayed the national
cause by swearing fealty to the foreigner. Ganda's son, Vidhyā-
dara, aided by the prince of Gwalior, invaded Kanauj and defeated
and slew Rajyapāla, who was succeeded by his son, Trilochanapāla.
Mahmūd was not slow to avenge his vassal, and in 1021 invaded
India to punish Ganda. The details of this invasion have already
been given». Gandā, with the confederate army of 36,000 horse,
105,000 foot, and 640 elephants, prepared to meet the invader on
the Sai, between the Ganges and the Gumti, but his courage failed
him, and after his flight Mahmūd captured Bāri, the new Pratihāra
capital, and returned to Ghazni with the booty which he had taken
from Ganda's camp. In 1022 he returned and compelled Ganda's
son to surrender to him Kālinjar, which long remained a bone of
contention between Hindu and Muslim in India, and was regarded
as the key to the region south of the Jumna and east of Mālwa.
Hindu annals do not credit the Solankis of Gujarāt with a share
in the various confederacies formed to oppose the invader, but the
considerations which led Mahmud to undertake the most famous
of all his expeditions, that to Somnāth, have been recorded? . Bhim
the Solanki then ruled Gujarāt, having his capital at Anhilvāra,
in the neighbourhood of the modern Pātan. After the capture of
Beyt Shankhodhar and the flight of Bhim, Mahmūd, before returning
to Ghazni, made arrangements for the administration of Gujarāt.
According to the legend related in some Muslim histories an ascetic
named Dābshilīm, who had some claim to the throne, was brought
to his notice as a fit person and was appointed by him to govern
the country. At his request Mahmūd carried to Ghazni for safe
custody another Dābshilim, a relative whose pretensions the newly
made king dreaded, and detained him until king Dābshilim was
securely seated on his throne, when he sent him back to Gujarāt
at the king's request. When the prisoner approached Anhilvāra
the king, according to custom, went forth to meet him, and, arriving
at the appointed spot before him, passed the time in hunting. At
length, overpowered by the heat and by fatigue, he lay down under
a tree to rest, covering his face with a red handkerchief. A bird
of prey, taking the handkerchief for a piece of flesh, swooped down
upon it and, driving his talons into the king's eyes, destroyed his
1 See ante, pp. 18-20.
2 See ante, p. 21.
3 See ante, p. 23.


## p. 509 (#559) ############################################

xx)
GUJARĀT, KANAUJ, AND DELHI
509
sight. One so injured was disqualified from reigning, and the
prisoner Dābshilīm, arriving at that moment, was acclaimed by the
popular voice as king, while the blinded man was confined in the
dungeon under the throne room which he had destined for his
relative.
Dābshilim is well known in Muslim literature as the king to
whom the Brāhman, Pilpāy, related the fables of the jackals Kalīla
and Dimna, which have been translated into Arabic and Turkish,
and twice into Persian, but the name is unknown in Indian history
and it is difficult to connect it with any Indian king. It has been
suggested that Mahmud, after the flight of Bhim I, appointed his
uncle, Durlabha, to the government, and that the two Dābshilims
represent Durlabha and his son, but Lt. -Colonel Tod's explanation
appears to be more probable. He says that the Dābhis were a
well known tribe, said by some to be a branch of the Chāwaras,
who had preceded the Solankis on the throne of Gujarāt, and sug-
gests that the name is a compound of Dābi Chāwara.
The remnant of the dominions of Rājyapāla of Kanauj had
passed to his son, Trilochanapāla, who first transferred his capital
to Bārī, which was taken by Mahmūd, and afterwards resided
much at Benares, which was attacked and plundered by Ahmad
Niyāltigin, the traitor who governed the Punjab for Masóūd, the
son of Mahmūd.
Hānsī, a possession of Mahīpāl, rāja of Delhi, was captured early
in 1038 by Masóūd, but in 1044 Mahipal recovered from Maudūd,
Masóūd's son, not only Hānsī, but also Thānesar and Kāngra. In
1079 Ibrāhīm, the eleventh king of the Ghaznavid dynasty, led a
raid into Western India, and early in the twelfth century Mu-
hammad Bāhlim, a rebellious governor of the Punjab under Bahrām,
the fifteenth king, established himself as far south as Nāgaur, from
which town he governed a large tract of country ; but the power of
the Ghaznavids had long been declining, and, with the exceptions
already mentioned, the Hindu states of India were not molested,
and were left free to pursue their internecine strife.
After the submission of Rājyapāla of Kanauj to Mahmūd the
power of the Pratihāras declined, Trilochanapāla and his successors
were styled rajas of Kanauj, but lived principally at Manaich, now
Zafarābād, near Jaunpur, and more remote than their ancient
capital from the menace of the Chandel. Shortly before 1090
Chandradeva, of the Gaharwār clan, acquired possession of Benares
and Ajodhya, both of which had been included in the kingdom of
1 Tod, i, 122 and note.
1


## p. 510 (#560) ############################################

510
[CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
Kanauj, and extinguished the last vestiges of the authority of the
Pratihāras by extending his dominions as far as Delhi, which he
is said to have captured, and occupied, reducing the Tomaras to
vassalage.
Gangeyadeva Kālachuri of Chedi, who reigned from 1015 to
1040, extended his ancestral dominions, and almost succeeded in
becoming the paramount power in Northern India, but was not
powerful enough to crush the Chandel kingdom. His son Karna-
deva, who reigned from 1040 to 1100, invaded the Pāla kingdom of
Magadha, or Bihār, in 1039, before his father's death, and defeated
the reigning king, Nayapāla. In 1060 he and Bhim II of Gujarāt
attacked and crushed Bhoj, the learned king of Mālwa.
Mālwa had been ruled for two centuries and a half by chieſs of
the Paramāra or Pawār tribe, whose capital was at first Ujjain and
later Dhār. The line was honourably distinguished by its love for
and encouragement of learning, and in this respect Bhoj was not
the least distinguished of his house. The death of Bhoj broke the
power of the Pawārs, who, however, ruled Mālwa until the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century, when they were ousted by the
Tomaras. The inclusion of the Deccan in the Muslim kingdom of
Delhi between the years 1294 and 1347 made Mālwa a highway
between the northern and the southern provinces, and destroyed
the power of the Hindu rulers of the country; but the Tomaras
were succeeded by the Chauhāns, who enjoyed some power and
influence in Mālwa until the end of the fourteenth century, when
it became an independent Muslim kingdom.
The victory over Bhoj of Mālwa benefited the Kālachuri but
little. Some years later Karnadeva suffered several defeats at the
hands of his enemies, the chief of whom were Kirtivarman Chandel,
who reigned from 1049 to 1100, and Vigrahapāla III, king of Bihār
and Bengal ; and little more is heard of Chedi. After 1181 the
Kālachuri rajas of northern Chedi disappear, having probably been
supplanted by Bāghel chiefs of Rewa.
The Gahlot kingdom, which is still represented by the State of
Udaipur, had been founded before the invasion of Sind by Mu-
hammad b. Qāsim, and tradition credits its ruler with having met
the Muslim in the field in those early days, but the state seems to
have taken no part in the resistance offered to Mahmūd. The same
may be said of the Pāla kings of Bengal and Bihar, who apparently
believed that they were not concerned in the fate of the Punjab
and Hindūstān, though the dominions of Dharmapāla, the second
of the line, are said to have extended from the Bay of Bengal


## p. 511 (#561) ############################################

XX ]
PĀLAS AND SENAS OF BENGAL
511
to Delhi and Jullundur. They were devout Buddhists, and their
religion perhaps set a gulf between them and their Brahmanical
neighbours. Mahipāla I was reigning in Bengal during the period
of Mahmūd's raids, but before the next wave of invasion, destined
to engulf Bengal, had broken over Northern India, and during a
serious rebellion which broke out in the Pāla kingdom about the
year 1080, Choragangā, king of Kalinga, extended his conquests to
the extreme north of Orissa, and Sāmantasena, a chieftain from
the Deccan, founded a principality at Kāsipurī, now Kasiārī, in the
Mayūrbhanj State. His grandson, Vijayasena, established his inde-
pendence about 1119, and took much of Bengal from the Pālas,
his aggression being doubtless stimulated by religious antagonism,
for all the Senas were Brahmanical Hindus. Vallālasena, or Ballāl
Sen, Vijayasena's son and successor, was the most powerful of the
line. He introduced Kulinism into Bengal, and is said to have
ſounded Gaur, or Lakhnāwatī, but the city was probably built
before his reign. About 1175 he was succeeded by his son, Laksh.
manasena, who was driven from his capital, Nadiya, by Ikhtiyār-
ud-din Muhammad b. Bakhtyard. The capture of Nadiya (Nuddea)
did not immediately extinguish the dynasty, which continued its
existence for four generations after Lakshmanasena, but the rajas
were mere vassals of the Muslim rulers of the country.
Rāmapāla, who reigned from about 1077 to 1120, was one of
the most famous of the Pāla kings. His father, Mahipāla II, was
slain by rebels, and Rāma pāla was compelled to flee, but obtained
assistance from many other princes, defeated and slew the rebel chief,
and regained the throne. He extended his dominions and encouraged
Buddhism, and it was not until the end of his reign that the Senas
established themselves in Bengal. Rāmapāla has sometimes been
regarded as the last of the Pālas, but he was succeeded by five kings
of his family, who, though Bengal had been lost, retained Bihār,
Indradyumnapāla, the last known raja of the line, was reigning at
the time of the Muslim invasion of Bihār”, in which he probably
lost his life, as nothing more is heard of his house.
The Muhammadan kingdom of the Punjab had long ceased to
be a menace to the Hindu princes of India, but they cannot have
been ignorant of the rise of new powers beyond the Indus. No
menace, however, sufficed to deter them from their internecine
disputes.
A long line of princes of the Chauhān tribe had ruled the princi-
pality of Sāmbhar, of which Ajmer had become the chief town, and
1 See ante, p. 46.
42.
2 See ante, p.


## p. 512 (#562) ############################################

512
[CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
a
in the middle of the twelfth century Vigraharāja (Visa ladeva or
Bisal Deo) of this line extended his dominions in an easterly direc-
tion by capturing Delhi from a chief of the Tomara tribe, who had
founded the city in A. D. 993-94 by building the Red Fort where the
Qutb Minār now stands. The city was of no great importance but
Vigraharāja's victory extinguished a minor dynasty and might have
made for unity and strength, had there not been other competitors
for power in the field.
Vigraharāja's nephew and successor was Prithvi Rāj, known to
Muslim historians as Rāi Pithaurā, the most chivalrous warrior of
his time in India : but the most powerful of Indian princes at the
erd of the twelfth century was Jaychandra, the Gaharwār raja of
Kanauj and Ajodhya, styled by the Muhammadans 'Jaichand, raja
of Benares'. He had a marriageable daughter, in whose honour he
held a swayamvara, the assembly to which, in accordance with
ancient custom, princes prepared to offer themselves as suitors for
the lady's hand were summoned, in order that she might make her
choice of a husband. The swayamvara was regarded as an assertion
of superiority and Prithvi Rāj failed to respond to the invitation
and to appear as a formal suitor, but his reputation had reached
the princess and he wounded Jayachandra's honour by carrying off
the not unwilling damsel. This romantic exploit bred bitter enmity
between the two leading powers of Northern India, and a victory
in 1182 over the Chandel raja, Parmāb, and the capture of the
important fortress of Mahoba, while they enhanced the reputation
of Prithvi Rāj, weakened the Hindu cause by sowing further dis-
sension between the native princes.
These princes, however, sank their differences and united to
oppose the invader at the first battle of Tarāori', in which Muham-
mad b. Sām was defeated, for the Muslim writers say that all the
rajas of Hindūstān were present at that battle ; but Jayachandra
of Kanauj seems to have found an alliance with his son-in-law too
high a price to pay even for national freedom, for he stood aloof
from the Hindu confederacy at the second battle of Tarāroia
which laid the foundation of Muslim rule in Hindūstān, and iſ
Hindu legend is to be believed even allied himself to the national
enemy.
The operations of the Muslims after the second battle of Tarāori,
in 1192, have been described in Chapter III. Muhammad b. Sām
marched at once on Ajmer, the Chauhān capital, and, after sacking
the city and enslaving many of its inhabitants, appointed Govinda-
1 See ante, p. 40.
2 Ibid.


## p. 513 (#563) ############################################

XX ]
EXTINCTION OF THE GAHARWĀRS
513
rāja, the son of Prithvi Rāj, as its governor. According to the
Muslim chroniclers the new raja was distasteful to his subjects by
reason of his illegitimacy', but the truth was that he was a minor,
and was not fit to contend with the enemies of his people. Harirāja,
called Hemrāj by Muslim historians, who was the younger brother
of Prithvi Rāj, accordingly deposed his nephew and usurped the
throne. Govindarāja fled to the fortress of Ranthambhor, where,
as will be seen, he carried on the line of his house, not without
glory. He was succeeded by his son, Balhanadeva, who was reigning
in 1215, and Balhanadeva was succeeded by his son Prahlād, who
was killed by a lion. Vīra Narāyan, Prahlād's infant son, succeeded
to the throne of Ranthambhor, and his uncle, Vegbhata, assumed
the regency. The history of the Chauhāns of Ranthambhor will be
resumed later,
The fate of Harirāja in Ajmer has already been recorded. After
suffering two defeats at the hand of Muhammad's lieutenant, Qutb-
ud-din Aibak, he committed suicide, and Ajmer, the capital of the
Chauhāns, became a Muslim city.
Jayachandra of Kanauj had, since the second battle of Tarāorī,
acquiesced in all the acts of aggression committed by the invaders,
but Muhammad b. Sām learned that he had repented of the alliance
and was preparing to oppose him, and in 1193 he invaded India
with the object of attacking him. It was probably the invasion of
Bihār, the fate of its monks, and his own isolation that aroused in
him, too late, a sense of the folly of his association with the enemies
of his country. His fate has been recorded in Chapter 111. 4 Benares
was plundered, Kanauj was destroyed, and the kingdom of the Gahar-
wārs came to an end. The Muslims did not, however, immediately
establish their authority in this region, and chiefs of the Chandel
tribe from Mahobā ruled as local sovereigns in Kanauj for eight
generations. The Gaharwārs were extinguished, and there is no
evidence to support the legend that a remnant migrated to the
country now known as Mārwār and became known as Råhtors, or
the claim of the Mahārāja of Jodhpur to descent from the old royal
house of Kanauj.
The conquest of Bihār involved the destruction of the Pāla
dynasty, which had borne sway in Bengal and Bihār for nearly four
centuries, and in the latter country alone for nearly a hundred
years. Indradyumnapāla, the last king of the line, was alive in
1197, but retained no power during the later years of his life.
1 See ante, p. 43.
2 See ante, p. 43.
3 See ante, p. 42.
4 Şee ante, p. 43,
C. H. I. III,
33


## p. 514 (#564) ############################################

514
[ch.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
Ikhtiyār-ud-dīn Muhammad b. Bakhtyār, having extinguished
the Pālas of Bihār, drove Lakshmanasena or Lakshman Sen of
Bengal from his capital and established Muslim rule in Bengal'.
Lakshmanasena, and, after him, his son and his grandson ruled at
Vikrampur as vassals of the Muslim governor of Bengal, but the
dynasty virtually came to an end with the capture of Nadiya
(Nuddea). His conqueror died shortly after his disastrous expe.
dition into Bhutān, or Tibet? , where the destruction of his army
was partly due to the treachery of the king of Kāmarūpa (Kāmrüp),
or Assam. This kingdom successfully resisted all attempts of the
Muslims to invade it, but the Hinduized Koch, who ruled it at this
time, succumbed in 1228 to an invasion by the Āhoms, a Shān tribe,
whose chieſs ruled the country until 1816, when they were con-
quered by the Burmese, who in 1824, during the first Burmese war,
were expelled by British and Indian troops, and in 1826 Assam
became a province of the British empire in India.
The extinction of the Kanauj dynasty and the disappearance of
the Gaharwārs left the Chandels of Jijhoti the only formidable neigh-
bours of the Muslims. Paramardī, or Parmāl, who had been defeated
by Prithvi Rāj, was still reigning at Mahobās, which had superseded
Khajrāho* as the residential capital of the Chandels. The principal
fortress in their dominions was Kālinjar", which had been sur-
rendered to Mahmūd of Ghazni by the son of Ganda Chandel, and
in 1202 Qutb-ud-din Aibak marched against the fortress, the account
of his siege and capture of which has already been related. After
the death of Paramardi, the Chandels, as an important dynasty,
disappeared, and the tribe dispersed, but petty chieftains of the race
held lands in Mālwa, as local rulers, until the sixteenth century.
All the ruling houses of Hindūstān proper, except the Chauhāns
of Ranthambhor and the Katehriya Rājputs of Katehr, the modern
Rohilkhand, had now been extinguished or expelled, and the latter
were held in check by the Muslim garrison of Budaun, their former
capital, which had been one of the earliest conquests of Qutb-ud-din
Aibak and remained ever after in Muslim hands ; but the Rājputs
made Āonla? their capital, and Katehr virtually retained its inde-
pendence until the Mughul empire was firmly established in the
middle of the sixteenth century. A strong king at Delhi might cow
the Rājputs into submission, but whenever the central authority
1 See ante, p. 46.
3 In 25° 18' N. and 79° 53' E.
5 In 25° 1' N. and 80° 29' E.
7 In 28° 17' N. nd 79° 10' E.
2 See ante, pp. 49, 50.
4 In 24° 51' N. and 79° 56' E.
6 See ante, p. 47,


## p. 515 (#565) ############################################

XX]
RANTHAMBHOR
515
was weakened the Hindus rose and attacked the Muslims. The in
habitants of Katehr often suffered severely for the turbulence of
their chiefs, who themselves usually found an asylum in the hills of
Kumāon until the storm had passed.
But though the great ruling houses were extinct, the people
were not leſt leaderless. The history of the Doāb and the country
on either side of the Ganges contains evidence that the local Hindu
landholders, petty rajas, who were probably regarded as fief-holders
and paid tribute or rent when the central government could enforce
the demand, were ever ready to resist oppression, as in the reign of
Muhammad Tughluq, and to take advantage of the weakness of
their rulers, as during the reigns of the ſeeble Sayyids, or of their
dissensions, as in the struggle for supremacy between the kingdoms
of Delhi and Jaunpur.
The most turbulent of these petty chiefs were the leaders of the
Meos, inhabitants of Mewāt, the “ill-defined tract lying south of
Delhi and including part of the British Districts of Muttra and
Gurgāon, and most of the Alwar and a little of the Bharatpur State';
the Hindu landholders of Baran, or Bulandshahr, and Etāwah ; and
various chieſs holding lands near the confluence of the Ganges and
the Jumna. The depredations of the Meos extended across the
Jumna into the Doāb, and northward even into the streets of Delhi.
The ruling family accepted Islam, and became known as Khānzādas;
and Bahādur Nāhar, whose tomb still stands at Alwar, and who
ruled Mewāt at the time of Tīmūr's invasion at the end of the four-
teenth century, was one of the most powerful chiefs in the neigh-
bourhood of Delhi.
The capture of Ranthambhor by Shams-ud-din Iltutmish' adds
little to the reputation of that great king. According to the Hindu
records he was defeated before the fortress in 1225, but succeeded
in persuading the young raja, Vīra Narāyan, to visit him at Delhi,
poisoned him, and took possession of his capital. Mālwa was still
independent under the Pawārs, and the raja then reigning at Dhār
attempted to win the favour of Iltutmish by attacking Vagbhata,
Vira Narāyan's uncle, who had been regent at Ranthambhor, but
Vagbhata defeated him, and after the death of Iltutmish recovered
Ranthambhor from the officer who held it for Raziyya, and was
acclaimed by the Chauhāns as their king.
Muslim historians allege
that he was defeated at Ranthambhor by Raziyya's troops, but are
constrained to admit that the troops evacuated the fortress aſter
dismantling it?
1 See ante, p. 53.
2 See ante, p. 59.
33-2


## p. 516 (#566) ############################################

516
[ CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
In 1249 Ghiyās-ud-din Balban, who afterwards ascended the
throne of Delhi, attempted to recover Ranthambhor for his master,
but was obliged to retire discomfited'. The Muslim histrorian styles
Vagbhata Nāhar Deo, confusing him, perhaps, with a Meo chief,
who had probably allied himself to Vagbhata, for Balban, before
marching on Ranthambhor, had been engaged in an attempt to
establish order in Mewāt. Vaghhata was succeeded by his son, Jaitra
Singh, who abdicated, and was succeeded in 1282 by his son Hamira,
known to the Muslims as Hamir.
Hamira was warlike and enterprising. After subduing Arjuna,
a minor chieftain of Mālwa, he attacked the Gond raja of Garha-
Mandlā who submitted and paid tribute.
The Pawār had gained little by his attempt to ingratiate hiinself
with the foreigner. In 1234 Iltutmish invaded Malwa and sacked
both Bhilsa and Ujjain, and Hamira, after succeeding his father at
Ranthambhor, resolved to punish Bhoja II, the reigning king of
Mālwa, for the crime of his predecessor. Bhoja was deſeated, and
Hamira made a triumphal entry into Ujjain, the ancient capital of
Mālwa. Not content with this success, he marched northward, com-
pelled the Gahlot, Lachhman Singh, to acknowledge his supremacy,
captured Ābū and restored it to its hereditary prince in return for
a promise to pay tribute, and marched homeward through Ajmer,
Pushkar, Sāmbhar, and Khandela, all of which places he captured.
This vainglorious expedition enhanced Hamira's military repu-
tation and was probably not without effect on the attitude of Jalāl-
ud-din Fīrūz, the first king of the Khalji dynasty, who, in 1291,
marched to Ranthambhor, but decided, after reconnoitring the
fortress, that it would be dearly captured at the price in human
lives which he would have to pay, and turned aside to Jhāin and
Mandāwar.
Hamira's defiance of 'Alā-ud-din Muhammad by harbouring the
leaders of the mutiny which had broken out in Ulugh Khān's army
at Jālor, as it was returning from the conquest of Gujarāt, cost
him his kingdom and his life3. Ulugh Khān followed the fugitives
into the territory of Ranthambhor and defeated the Rājputs under
two officers named Bhim and Dharma Singh, but was unable to
undertake the siege of the fortress, and retired to Delhi. Hamira
emasculated Dharma Singh, and he and his brother fled to Delhi
and besought ‘Alā-ud-din to avenge this outrage. Ulugh Khān
and Nusrat Khān were sent to open the siege of Ranthambhor,
and, having first captured Jhāin, encamped before the fortress, but
1 See ante, p. 67
2 See ante, p. 95.
3 See ante, p. 101.


## p. 517 (#567) ############################################

xx)
CONQUEST OF GUJARAT
517
were unfortunate. Nusrat Khān was killed and Ulugh Khān was
defeated and driven back to Jhāin. 'Alā-ud-dīn then marched from
Delhi to conduct the siege in person, and aſter some delay arrived
before Ranthambhor. The siege was protracted for some months,
and Ranamalla, or Ranmal, Hamira's minister, and some of the
principal officers of the garrison deserted to the Muslims. The
assault was delivered on July 10, 1301, and according to the Hindu
version of the affair both Hamīrā and Mir Muhammad Shāh, the
leader of the mutineers who had found an asylum at Ranthambhor,
performed the rite of jauhar and were slain. The queen, Rangadevi,
immolated herself, and Hamirā's brother Virama and the heroes
Jajar, Gangādhar Tak, and Kshetra Singh Pawār shared their
master's fate. The traitor Ranamalla and his companions were put
.
to death by ‘Alā-ud-din. Thus ended Chauhān rule in Hindūstān.
The Raja of Nimrāna, in the north of the Alwar State, claims
descent from Prithvi Rāj.
Reference has been made to the conquest of Gujarāt by 'Alā-
ud-din's officers, Ulugh Khān and Nusrat Khān. Bhim II, 'the
Simpleton,' who reigned from 1179 to 1242, was the king who de-
feated Muhammad b. Sām, and though he was afterwards defeated
by Quib ud-din Aibak, who plundered his capital, Gujarāt was not
occupied by the Muslims, but remained a Hindu state. Bhim II
was the last of his line, the Solankis, of which his ancestor Bhim I,
the contemporary of Mahmūd, had been the second.
Gujarāt was the richest kingdom of India. “It was to India what
Venice was to Europe, the entrepot of the products of both the
eastern and western hemispheres. ' Its princes favoured sometimes
the Jain and sometimes the Buddhist heresy. The court of Siddha-
rāja Jayasingha, the seventh of the Solankis, who reigned from
1094 to 1143 and was one of the most powerful of Indian rulers,
was visited by the geographer al-Idrīsī. On Bhim's death in 1242
his throne passed to Visaladeva Vāghela of Dholka, who was
descended from Siddharāja Jayasingha, and who reigned from
1243 to 1261.
Karandeva, the Rāi Karan of the Muslims and the fourth of the
Vāghela dynasty, was reigning in 1297, when 'Alā-ud-din Khalji
sent his brother Ulugh Khān and Nusrat Khān to make an end
of Hindu rule in Gujarāt. They were successful, and the Rājput
Kingdom was overthrown! . 'The walls of Anhilvāra were demol-
ished ; its foundations excavated, and again filled up with fragments
of their ancient temples. '
1 See, ante, p. 100.


## p. 518 (#568) ############################################

518
[CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
The fate of Karan and his family has been related elsewhere.
His wife was captured and became the wife or concubine of the
Muslim king of Delhi. Karan himself fled, with his beautiful
daughter Deval Devi, and took refuge with Rāmchandra of Deogir,
well content now that his daughter should wed his host's son, to
whom, in his pride, he had formerly refused her; but the prince of
Deogir never possessed his bride, who was captured by the Muslim
officer Alp Khān near Ellora', and carried to Delhi, where she
became the wife first of Khizr Khān, 'Alā-ud-din's eldest son, who
was afterwards murdered by order of his brother, Qutb-ud-din
Mubārak, into whose possession she passed, and at last she suffered
the degradation of the embraces of the foul outcaste, Khusrav
Khān, who murdered his master and usurped his throne. Karan
established himself for a time in the Nandurbār district, on the
borders of the small state of Baglāna, or Bāglān, but his line died
with him.
In Western India, as in Hindūstān, Hindu rule, in the hands of
minor chieftains, survived the extinction of the royal house. Chau-
hāns held Chāmpāner and Pavagarh until 1484, when Mahmud
Bcgarha of Gujarāt took their stronghold and the survivors fled
to Chota Udaipur and Deogarh Bāriya, still held by their descen-
dants. On the north-eastern frontier the state of Sirohi was held,
as at present, by another branch of the Chauhāns, known as Deora
Rājputs from the name of an ancestor, Deorāj, who migrated west-
ward when his clan was driven from its patrimony, Nádol, by Qutb-
ud-din Aibak. The raja of Sirohi was ever ready to take advantage
of the weakness of the kings of Gujarāt by raiding the northern
districts of their kingdom.
The peninsula of Cutch, too, remained unmolested by the
Muslim governors and kings of Gujarāt. Sammā Rājputs of Sind,
fleeing from that couniry before the Sūmras, who had superseded
them as its rulers, found an asylum with the Chāvada Rājputs
who ruled Cutch, and in about 1320 overcame their. host and took
the kingdom from them. Those of the Sammā tribe who remained
in Sind accepted Islam, and their kinsmen in Cutch, not prepared
entirely to abandon the religion of their fathers, adopted a strange
medley of the two faiths. The peninsula was divided between three
branches of the two tribe, all known as Jādeja, or 'the sons of Jāda,'
until 1540, when Khengār, the head of one branch with the help
of Mahmūd III of Gujarāt reduced his kinsmen to obedience and
became sole ruler. His uncle, Jām Rāwal, fled to Kāthiāwār, and
1 See ante, p. 113.
2 See ante, pp. 309, 310.


## p. 519 (#569) ############################################

XX1
KĀTHİÀWĀR
519
received from the Muslim king of Gujarāt the fief of Nawanagar,
still held by his descendants. The raja of Cutch was nominally
bound to furnish a contingent of 5000 horse to the army of the
Sultan of Gujarāt.
The south-western region of the peninsula of Kāthiāwār was
held by the Chudāsima Rājput chief of Girnār, the group of hills
rising above the fortress of Junāgarh. His dominions included a
great part of the ancient Surāshtra, or Sorath, in its modern form.
This remote corner of India was not molested by the early Muham-
madan invaders, but the raja reigning in the middle of the fourteenth
century harboured the rebel Taghi, who had risen in Gujarāt against
the authority of Muhammmad Tughluq, whose evil days were draw-
ing to a close. Muhammad pursued the rebel, and attacked both
the raja of Girnār and the raja of Cutch, who was his ally. Taghi
evaded him and fled into Sind, but the fortress-capital of Girnăr
was taken, and both the raja and his ally were compelled to make
obeisance to Muhammad', who was too intent on capturing Taghi
to remain in Kāthiāwār, and left that country without any more
material assertion of his authority.
The raja of Girnār appears to have been independent of the
earlier Muslim kings of Gujarāt, or at least to have paid tribute
irregularly, and only when it was levied by force, for in 1466
Mahmud Begarha invaded his state, and by means of wholesale
pillage and massacre, including the sacking of a temple and the
slaughter of its defenders, compelled him to agree to pay tribute.
In the following year a threat sufficed to deter him from using the
insignia of royalty, which he had hitherto displayed? , and in 1469
Mahmud, judging that the time had come to crush the 'mis-
believers,' invaded the Girnār state and offered the raja the choice
between Islam and death. Protestations of loyalty were of no avail,
and he was besieged in his fortress, Uparkot, and, when hard
pressed there, tled to another stronghold in the mountains, where
Mahmūd besieged him and compelled him, on December 4, 1470,
to surrender. He accepted Islam and was entitled Khān Jahān.
This raja is styled by Muslim historians 'Mandalak’, as though this
were his personal name, but the word is evidently no other than
Mandalika, the Sanskrit term for a provincial governor».
At about the time when the Arabs were overrunning Sind
Bāpā, the Gahlot chieftain, captured from the Paramāras or Pawārs
the fortress of Chitor, which remained the capital of this ancient
tribe until it was captured by Akbar in 1567, when Udaipur became
1 See ante. pp. 171, 172. 2 See ante, p. 305. 3 See ante, pp. 305, 306.


## p. 520 (#570) ############################################

520
(CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
their principal seat. Their legends claim for them the credit of
having opposed in arms both the Arab invader of Sind and the
Turkish conqueror of the Punjab, and though it is possible that
they marched, or sent contingents, against both, they were not
sufficiently important to be mentioned in Muslim histories, and
their own legends are not sufficient to establish any historical fact.
During the interval of comparative peace between the raids of
Mahmūd and the more systematic subjection of Northern India by
Muhammad b. Sām 'the Chauhāns of Ajmer and the Gahlots of
Chitor were alternately friends and foes. ' The prince of Chitor,
who had married a sister of Prithvi Rāj of Ajmer and Delhi,
espoused his cause in his contest with Jayachandra of Kanauj
for supremacy in Northern India. The Solanki in Gujarāt and the
Pratihāra in Mandorl supported the claim of the Gaharwār, and,
according to Rājput legend, both Kanauj and Gujarāt employed
Muslim mercenaries whose presence in their armies was a source
of useful information to Muhammad b. Sām. The Rājputs of
Northern India richly deserved their fate.
The prince of Chitor, his son Kalyan Singh, and thirteen
thousand of his troops are said to have been slain at the second
battle of Tarāori, and his widow, on hearing of his death, 'joined
her lord through the flame. '
North-west of Mewar, the region in which the Gahlots bore
sway, lay the desert tract of Mārwār, at this time ruled by the
Pratihāras, who were afterwards expelled by the Rāhtors, the tribe
to which the present Mahārāja of Jodhpur belongs. West of Mār-
wār lies the present State of Jaisalmer, held by the Jādons, whose
home, according to their own traditions, had in ancient times been
Zābulistān, between Sīstān and Qandahār. Long before the rise of
Islam they had been driven thence into the Punjab, where they
domiciled for some time, and one branch of the tribe, the leader of
which had retired in the eighth century into the desert of western
Rājfontāna, acquired from an ancestor the name of Bhāli. A branch
of the Bhātis settled in the north of the modern State of Bikaner,
and gave to the town now known as Hanūmangārh its original
name, Bhatner, which in 1398 was taken by Tīmūr from a Bhāti
chief named Dul Chand. This clan, as well as those branches of the
Jādons which remained in the Punjab, accepted Islam. The main
body of the tribe, however, travelling westward, had founded the
fortress of Tanot, in the extreme north-western corner of what is
now the Jaisalmer State. They afterwards made Ladorva their
1 In 26° 21' N, and 73° 2' E. 2 In 29° 35' N. and 74° 20' E.


## p. 521 (#571) ############################################

XX )
RĂTHORS OF MÀRW ÅR
521
capital, and in 1156 Rāwal Jaisal founded the town of Jaisalmer.
In Mārwār communities of Gohels, Chauhāns, and Pawārs disputed
the authority of the Pratihāras or Parihārs.
The founder of the Rāthor dynasty of Mārwār was Siāhji, whom
the bards of the Rājputs represent as a prince of the Gaharwār
house of Kunauj, who escaped when the rest of the family was
slain, and, fleeing, established himself in Mārwār, where his tribe
received the name of Rāthor. Tuis they explain as a corruption of
Rāshtrakūta, alleging that the Galarwārs were Rāshtrakūtas from
the Deccan, but there is little doubt that the whole story is fiction.
The Gaharwār line was certainly extinguished, and there is no
evidence that any escaped ; there is no reason to believe that the
Gaharwārs were Rāshtrakūtas ; and an inscriprion dated A. D. 997,
found in a town in the Jodhpur State, names four Rāthor Rajas
who reigned there in the tenth century. It was probably from
these local chieftains that Siāhji was descended. He established
himself, with a small number of followers, first in the north of
Mārwār, where he received, as the price of assistance rendered to
a Solanki chieftain, a bride with a dower. On a pilgrimage to
Dwārkā he encountered and slew the brigand from whom he had
delivered the Solanki. The exploit enhanced his reputation and,
about 1212, he took up his abole in the fertile region watered by
the Lūni river, west of the Arāvalli Mountains. Here, by violence
combined with treachery, he obeyed the Rājput maxim, 'Get land. '
One Rajput chief and his followers he slew at a feast, another he
defeated and killed in the field. The Brāhmans of Pāli besought
his aid against the Mers and Minas who ravaged their lands. He
drove off the marauders and, having settled at Pāli on land granted
to him by the grateful Brāhmans, slew the leaders of the community
and appropriated their lands. His son and successor, Asvatthāma,
established his brother Soning in Idar, a principality of the Dābhi
Rājputs, by treacherously slaying the members of that clan while
they were mourning for one of their princes; and Aja, another
brother, invaded Okhamandal, in the extreme west of Kāthīāwār,
and established himself there by murdering the Chāvade ruler of
the country. His descendants bear the surname which he assumed,
and are still known as Vādhel, 'the Slayers'.
Rāipal, the fourth of the line, slew the Parihār chief of Mandor,
and Chhada and Tida, the seventh and eighth, harassed the jādons
or Bhātīs of Jaisalmer and escaped chastisement only by giving the
daughter of one of them in marriage to Rāwal Chāchakdeo I.
1 In 25° 47' N, and 73° 19' E.


## p. 522 (#572) ############################################

$22
( CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
The Rāthors were as prolific as they were unscrupulous, and
wide as the lands were which they had obtained by violence and
fraud, they were now insufficient for their support. Chonda, their
eleventh chief, after suffering many vicissitudes, was able to as-
semble a large army composed entirely of the various clans of his
tribe and to attack the Parihār prince of Mandor. He was vic-
torious, and planted his banner 'on the ancient capital of Maru. '
Chonda also added to his dominions the important city and dis-
trict of Nāgaur, a Muslim stronghold which the dissolution of the
Kingdom of Delhi, following Tīmūr's invasion of India, enabled him
to acquire, and it was at this city that he met his death.
His fourth son, Aranyakanwal, had been betrothed to Kararndevi,
daughter of Mānik Rāo of Aurint, chief of the Mohil Rājputs, but
the damsel met and loved Sadhu, heir of Rāningdeo, the Bhāti lord
of Pugal, a fief of Jaisalmer, and chose him as her husband. The
slighted prince of Mandor attacked his rival, and the two met in
single combat. Sadhu was slain, and Karamdevī, 'at once a virgin,
a wife, and a widow,' sacrificed herself in the fire. Aranyakanwal
died of his wounds, but Rāningdeo, not content with the death of
his son's rival, led a raid into Chonda's territory to punish the
Sānkhlas, whose prowess had discomfited the Bhātīs in the combat
between Sadhu and Aranyakanwal. Having slain three hundred of
his enemies Rāningdeo was returning with his spoil when he was
overtaken by Chonda, who defeated and slew him.
Rāningdeo's two surviving sons, Tana and Mera, accepted Islam,
as so many other Bhātis had done, and thus obtained from Khizr
Khān, then governor of Multān, a force with which to attack their
enemy, but Kilan, son of the Rāwal of Jaisalmer; who joined them,
ensured their success by guile. Professing a desire to end the feud,
he offered a daughter in marriage to Chonda, but when the Rāthor
came forth to receive his expected bride his suspicions were aroused
by the appearance of the cortége, which consisted of an unusually
large number of armed men, and he turned back tawards Nāgaur.
His enemies pursued him, and slew him at the gate of the town,
'and friend and foe entering the city together a scene of general
plunder commenced. '
The death of Chonda occurred in 1408, and Nāgaur was then
lost to the Rāthors. He was succeeded by his son Ranmall, who
took advantage of the marriage of his daughter to Lakhā Rānā, the
old chief of Chitor, to obtain a large grant of land from his son-in-
law, to whose court he migrated, and was followed thither by his
son, Jodha. An account of the growth of Rāthor influence at the


## p. 523 (#573) ############################################

xx)
RĂTHORS OF BAGLĀNA
$23
court of Chitor, and of their expulsion from Mewār will be given
in the history of that principality. Ranmall, with the aid of the
forces of Mewār, captured the city of Ajmer by a stratagem, and
thus temporarily added the ancient heritage of the Chauhāns to
the domains of Mewar. He attempted, after the death of Lakhā
Rānā, to usurp the throne of his infant son, but was slain in 1444
by Chonda, the old Rānā's firstborn, who expelled the Rāthors
from Mewār. He was succeeded by Jodha, the eldest of his twenty-
four sons, who in 1454 acquired Sojat, and in 1459 laid the founda-
tion of Jodhpur, which has ever since remained the capital of the
Rāthor State. On his death in 1488 he was succeeded by his
second son, Sūja, or Surajmall, the eldest, Sāntal or Sātal, having
been slain near Pokhāran, where he had established himself on the
lands of the Bhātis. Sūrajmall was the hero of the episode known
as the Rape of the Virgins. In July, 1516, a predatory band of
Muslims, probably from Ajmer, descended on the town of Pīpar
during the celebration of the Tij festival, and carried off a hundred
and forty Rājput maidens. Sūrajmall, to whom news of the outrage
was carried, at once mounted, pursued the marauders, and rescued
the maidens, but lost his own life in the fray. He was succeeded by
.
his grandson, Ganga, the son of his eldest son, Bhaga, who had
predeceased him, but his title was contested by his uncle, Saga,
Sūrajmall's third son, who was supported by Daulat Khān Lodī.
Saga and his ally were, however, defeated, and the former was slain.
Rão Ganga sent a large contingent to join Sangrama Rānā in
the battle of Khānūā, fought against Bābur in 1527, and on that
day, so disastrous to the Rājputs, the young prince Rāimall, grand-
son of Ganga, and many other Rāthors fell. Ganga himself survived
this event by nearly four years, and died in 1532.
The Rāthors are widely spread. We have followed one tribe of
them in Okhamandal, where they are known as Vādhel, 'the
slayers. ' The origin of a family which ruled the small principality
of Baglāna, or Bāglān, a country now represented by the Bāglān
and Kalvān tālukas, north of the Sātmāla hills, is more obscure.
They, like the Rāthors of Mārwār, claimed kinship with the
Gaharwārs of Kanauj, but did not trace their descent to Siāhji.
They were perhaps descended from earlier Rāthors of Mārwār
and merely imitated Siāhji in claiming descent from the Gaharwārs.
Their chief used the honorific title of Baharji and possessed seven
fortresses, two of which, Mulher and Sālher, were noted for their
strength. They seem to have been tributary to the princes of
Deogir, and they assisted Karandeva, the last Raja of Gujarāt, when


## p. 524 (#574) ############################################

524
[
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
he ſled, after the conquest of his country, to the Deccan. When
the kingdom of the Yādavas was annexed by the king of Delhi the
allegiance of Baharji was transferred to the conqueror, but the
country became independent after the revolt of the Deccan and
the establishment of the Bahmani dynasty. Later it became tribu.
tary to the Sultans of Gujarāt, and was invaded and laid waste by
Ahmad Shāh Bahmani I in 1429. It remained tributary to Gujarāt,
but enjoyed virtual independence until that kingdom was con-
quered by Akbar in 1573. He failed to conquer Baglāna, and was
obliged to acquiesce in a treaty with Pratāp Shāh, the reigning
prince, in 1599.
The original title of the Gahlot princes of Mewār was Rāwal
but early in the thirteenth century Rāhup of Mewār captured
Mokal the Parihār Prince of Mandor, who bore the title of Rānā,
and carried him to Sesoda, the temporary capital of the Gahlots.
where he compelled him to forgo the title of Rānā and assumed it
himself, instead of that of Rāwal. It was he, too, who changed the
name of his clan from Gahlot to Sesodia, derived from his temporary
capital.
The legend that the Gahlots had met and defeated the Arab
invaders of Sind has already been mentioned. It is to the effect
that they repelled an invasion of Mewār led by one Mahmūd, whom
they defeated and captured. It is certain that no Arab invader
from Sind ever reached Mewār, and the name Mahmūd suggests
confusion between the Arabs of Sind in the eighth century and the
Turks of Ghazni in the eleventh. It is possible that a Gallot prince
joined one of the confederacies against Mahmūd, or met that
invader on his way to Gujarāt in the expedition in which he plun-
dered Somnāth, but we have no record of the event. The fate of
the prince of Chitor at the second battle of Tarāori has been men.
tioned. The Gahlot legend, disfigured by some palpable falsehoods,
represents him 'as the Ulysses of the host ; brave, cool, and skilful
in the fight ; prudent, wise, and eloquent in council ; pious and
decorous on all occasions ; beloved by his own chiefs and reverenced
by the vassals of the Chauhan. '
Little more that is authentic is known of the history of the
Gahlots or Sesodias until the reign of 'Alā ud-din Khalji, who,
having already captured Ranthambhor from the Chauhāns, be-
sieged and took Chitor in 1303'. The bard's account of this siege
is most inaccurate and misleading. He antedates it by thirteen
years, to a time when ‘Alā-ud-din had not ascended the throne ; he
1 See ante, p. 108.


## p. 525 (#575) ############################################

xx]
SESODIAS OF MEWĀR
525
makes Lachhman Singh, a distant cousin of the ruling prince, Rānā
of Chitor at the time of the siege ; and he makes the fair Padmini,
whom 'Alā-ud-din coveted, the wife of the prince's uncle. These
gross inaccuracies entirely discredit a story improbable in itself, at
variance with known facts, and designed to minimize the disgrace
of the loss of a strong fortress, of treachery on the part of Alā-ud-
din. The facts were that Ratan Singh was Rānā of Chitor, and that
Lachhman Singh, Rānā of Sesoda, commanded the fortress on his
behalf. Their common ancestor was Karan Singh, Rāwal of Chitor,
from whom Ratan Singh was ninth and Lachhman Singh eleventh
in descent. Ratan Singh was apparently in the fortress when it
was besieged, but, though the rite of jauhar is said to have been
performed and Lachhman Singh and eight thousand other Rajputs
fell, he was taken alive and carried off to Delhi. The fair Padmini
did not perish in the fire, as related by the bard, but lived to be
the subject of negotiation between her husband and his captor, and
the object of the bard's fiction appears to be the concealment of
Ratan Singh's readiness to obey the ancient maxim which permits
a Rājput to surrender his wife in order to preserve his land.
‘Ala-ud-din left Māldeo, Raja of Jālor, whom he had defeated
and who had sworn fealty to him, in command of Chitor, and the
towns of Mewār were held by Muslim garrisons, and the survivors
of the Sesodias, and those who remained faithful to them took
refuge at Kelwārā! , in the heart of the Arāvalli Mountains, and
from this stronghold harried the lands of Mewār. Māldeo was
shortly afterwards relieved of the command of Chitor, and Khizr
Khān, the eldest son of ‘Ala-ud-din, was appointed in his place, but
after the rescue of Ratan Singh'Alā-ud-din removed Khizr Khan
and appointed Arsi, or Ar Singh, to the command. Arsi was, ac-
cording to the Hindu legend, the elder son of Ajai Singh, Rānā of
Chitor, and, according to the Muslim chronicles, sister's son to
Ratan Singh. The bards do not mention Arsi's appointment to the
command of the fortress, but the Muslim historians say that on
being appointed he swore fealty to 'Alā-ud-din, who by this means
sowed discord among the Rajputs, some of whom remained faithful
to Ratan Singh, while others submitted to Arsi. The history of
Chitor at this time is hopelessly confused, owing to the silence of
the Muslim historians and the discrepancies between the Hindu
legends and the few facts known.