CHAPTER VII. and placed the marriage garland round the neck of the statue of the Chohan. At the sight of this a mighty uproar filled the hall. The Chohan appeared upon the scene, and carried off his bride. Swords were drawn, blood was shed, and the princess herself took part in the struggle. The lover prevailed against the father, and carried off his prize to Delhi.10

The tragic end,

From that hour the Chohan was enslaved by the beauty of the Rahitore. His army and his dominion were alike forgotten as he basked in the smiles of his bride. The Mussulman war-cry resounded through the Punjab, but the Chohan was a captive at the feet of his queen. The enemy thundered at the gates of Delhi, and then the bridegroom and the bride awoke from their dream of pleasure. The princess armed her lord for the battle. She conjured him to die for his name and fame, and vowed that she would follow him. The Chohan perished in the fight; and the Rahtore ordered the pile to be prepared, threw herself upon the flames, and joined her bridegroom in the mansions of the Sun."

10 The Rajpoot sovereigns of Delhi were originally of the Tuar race, whilst the Chohans reigned at Ajmere. But in an earlier contest between Delhi and Kanouj, the sovereign of Ajmere had given powerful help to Delhi, and obtained the hand of a Tuar princess as a reward. A son was born of this union, named Pirthi Raj; who thus had a Chohan father and a Tuar mother. When Pirthi Raj was five years of age he succeeded to the throne of Delhi. Pirthi Raj was the hero who carried off the Kanouj princess, and perished in the struggle against the Mussulmans. The Kanouj princess was named Sanjogta.

The chronology of these events is somewhat obscure. It will suffice for the present to refer them to the eleventh and twelfth centuries of the Christian era. In dealing henceforth with Mussulman annals it may be possible to arrive at a more exact chronology.

11 The legend of the Kanouj princess is not without a parallel in later Rajpoot story. The following incident, half romantic and half tragic, belongs to the early part of the fifteenth century. Sadoo, heir of the fief of Poogul in Jessulmere, was the bravest chieftain of his age. His name was a terror throughout the desert. On one occasion as he rode from a foray to his mountain home, a Rajpoot invited

gonism of Raj.

The early invasions of the Mussulmans must CHAPTER VII. have inspired the Rajpoots with peculiar horror. Intense anta The gallant aristocracy of India must have detested poots against the barbarians from the north with all the hatred of Iran against Turan. The fanatical marauders overwhelmed the luxurious cities of Lahore, Delhi, and Kanouj, shouting for God and the Prophet, but caring for nothing save women and plunder. Their war-cry spread terror far and wide. The Rajpoot nobles and their retainers rode forth to take the field, or manned the walls and fortresses. The multitude flocked to the temples, whilst the Bráhmans performed their sacrifices and incantations, and implored the gods for succour. Women and children trembled at the roar of battle as it grew nearer and nearer like an inundation of the sea. Some were huddled together in the inner chambers. Others hid themselves in secluded gardens, or flocked to the roofs of palaces to gain tidings of the fight. It was a war of iron and rapine against gold and beauty. The brown and hardy hosts of central Asia scaled the walls, scimitar in hand, or burst open the gates, in overwhelming numbers. The faircomplexioned Rajpoots fought with chivalry and

him to his dwelling, and gave him good cheer. The daughter of the house saw Sadoo, and though she was betrothed to another, she gave her heart to the warrior of Jessulmere. Sadoo became enamoured in his turn, and before he left the house, he managed to intimate his passion. The cocoa-nut was sent and accepted, and Sadoo returned to her father's house to claim his bride. But when the marriage was over, and he was escorting her to her new home, a mortal conflict awaited him. The lover to whom she had been betrothed had sworn that he would be revenged. He encountered Sadoo, and the two chieftains fought desperately at the head of their respective followers. The bride watched anxiously from her car, but the battle was soon over. Sadoo was slain, but she had taken her resolution and did not weep a tear. The pile was prepared on the field. She sat herself thereon and took her lord in her arms. The fire was lighted; and the flames that were to have carried her to the Sun, reduced the living and the dead to dust and ashes. Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i., pages 627, 629.

CHAPTER VII. desperation, but they fought in vain. A rush of mailed warriors, a clashing of swords and spears, piles of dead and dying round the gateway, and the city was left at the mercy of soldiers who knew not how to pity or how to spare. In a few moments licentious ruffians were penetrating the recesses of zenanas, seizing shrinking wives and daughters, tearing off their necklaces and rings, their bracelets and girdles, or subjecting them to ruder insults from which humanity recoils. Nothing was sacred in their eyes. They ransacked every chamber and every shrine in their thirst for jewels and treasure. They filled the streets and houses with blood; they hacked and hewed at temples and idols; they broke down Buddhist saints and Brahmanical deities; they derided the relics of holy men; they profaned the altars of the gods; and they carried off young men and maidens, and even the priests and dancing girls of the temples, to sell as slaves in the bazaars of Cabul and Ghuzni.

Reflex of the struggle in existing ruins.

Old Delhi has long since passed away. It lies buried beneath the mounds and heaps, which still bear the name of Indra-prastha. But the struggle between Mussulman and Rajpoot is to this day reflected by the ruins. A Buddhist temple is still standing, but the images of saints and Buddhas have been cut down by the puritanical idol-breakers of Islam. The Hindú colonnade became a part of a Mussulman palace, but both are now in ruins. Moorish arches, gateways, courtyards, and tombs are all slowly sinking into decay, surrounded by the still more ancient relics of Rajpoot civilization. The landscape is as green and bright as ever; but the pilgrim who ascends the column of Mussulman

victory, and gazes upon the scenes around, may yet CHAPTER VII. recall the charges and war-cries of the Mussulman horsemen, and the sullen groans of the routed Hindús as they were trampled down by their own elephants in the effort to escape from the fatal field. All, however, is silent and solitary. The banners of Islam and the ensigns of Rajpoot chivalry have alike vanished in the past; and the dust of victors and vanquished lie buried beneath the mounds.12

Chittore by

The Mussulmans conquered the valleys of the Capture of Ganges and Jumna, but for generations they cared Alla-ud-deen. not to attack the Rajpoots in their southern homes. Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Ranas of Chittore maintained a firm front; but about the year 1303 the storm of invasion burst upon the ancient capital. Allá-ud-deen, the slaveking, was Sultan of Delhi. His Indian conquests are still famous in Mussulman annals; and he gathered up all his strength for the capture of Chittore. The city was doomed. The Rajpoots resisted until there was no alternative but to yield or die; and death was better than submission in the eyes of the Surya-vansa. The Rajpoot women, to the number of thousands, performed the dreadful Johur. Huge piles of timber were constructed and set on fire. The hapless women moved to the spot in slow procession, and threw themselves upon the devouring flames rather than be profaned by the aliens.

The Rana and his surviving Rajpoots

12 The column of Mussulman victory, known as the Kootub, is well known to every one who has visited Delhi. It is forty feet higher than the London monument, and is said to be the tallest pillar in the world. It is a lofty column of red sandstone, fifty feet in diameter at the base, but tapering away very gradually towards the top, where it is only thirteen feet. It is surrounded by five galleries, at suitable intervals from each other; and on its outer face are engraved many texts from the Koran,

CHAPTER VII. arrayed themselves in saffron robes, and prepared for death. Sword in hand they might perchance force a way of escape, and plant and plant a new home elsewhere; but otherwise they would perish on the threshold of their devoted city. The Sultan triumphed over the Rana. A few desperate Rajpoots cut their way through the lines of Islam, and found a refuge in the heart of the Aravulli hills, but the remainder perished without the walls. The flame and smoke of the Johur was still rising above the hecatomb of female victims, when Allá-ud-deen made his way through heaps of slain into the stronghold of Chittore.18

Rajpoot war of independence

The Sultan did not retain the Rajpoot capital. under Hamir. He garrisoned the country with Mussulmans, but he made over the city to a recreant Rajpoot chieftain of Jhalore, who was named Maldeo. But Maldeo had little reason to be proud of his new possession.

13 Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i., page 265. A legend has been preserved by Colonel Tod respecting a previous attack on Chittore by the same Sultan; but it betrays too many marks of poetical embellishment to entitle it to a place amongst traditions of a more authentic character. The Sultan is said to have been in love with the wife of the Rana. He took the Rana prisoner, and then demanded the lady as a ransom. The Rana and his attendants were confined after Tartar fashion in a few tents in an enclosure surrounded by cloths. The lady was to pay him a farewell visit with her maidens, and then to enter the zenana of the Sultan. Seven hundred litters were prepared, but soldiers were placed inside in the place of the maidens; and the bearers of the litters were only soldiers in disguise. The litters were carried into the enclosure, and the soldiers rescued the Rana, and placed him on a fleet horse which reached Chittore in safety. The soldiers, however, are said to have been all slain in their efforts to cover the retreat of their royal master. Tod's Rajast’han, vol. i., Annals of Meywar, chap. vi.

Although the story is here treated as somewhat apocryphal, it is widely known in Rajpoot tradition, and may have some substratum of truth. Orientals are often influenced by the tender passion, but they are not prone to fall in love with the wives of others. On the other hand, according to the old Kshatriya laws of war, the wife is the prize of the conqueror; and the possession of the wife is an undeniable assertion of conquest. Indeed the idea of capture finds expression in Rajpoot sentiment, as it did in old Kshatriya tradition. The Rajpoot prides himself on his horse, his lance, and his mistress; but he wins his mistress by his horse and lance.