Lieut, -Colonel Tod on the Religious Establishments of Mewar. 271 



During tlie annual pilgrimage to the sacred lake of Poshkur, it is the 

 custom for these lords of the earth to weigh their persons against all that is 

 rare, in gold, gems, and precious cloths ; which are afterwards distributed 

 to the priests under the misnomer of khyrai or charity. The Amber chief 

 had the advantage of a full treasury and a fertile soil; to which his rival 

 could oppose a more extended sway over a braver race, but his country was 

 proverbially poor ; and at Poshkur, the weight of the purse ranks above 

 the deeds of the sword. As these princes were suspended in the scale, the 

 Amber Raja, who was balanced against the more costly material, indirectly 

 taunted his brother-in-law on the poverty of his oflerings, who would gladly, 

 like the Roman, have made up the deficiency with his sword. But the 

 Marwar prince had a minister of tact, at whose suggestion he challenged 

 his rival (of Amber) to equal him in the magnitude of his gift to the 

 Brahmans. On the gage being accepted, the Rahtoix exclaimed, " Perpe- 

 " tual charity {Sahsuna) of all the lands held by the Brahmans in Marwar !" 

 His unreflecting rival had commenced the redemption of his pledge, when 

 his minister stopped the half-uttered vow, which would have impoverished 

 the family for ever; for there were ten Brahmans in Amber who followed 

 secular employments, cultivating or holding lands in usufruct, to one in 

 Marwar. Had these lords of the earth been left to their misguided 

 vanity, the fisc (Klialisa) of each state would have been seriously curtailed. 

 The Brahmans, Sanijasis, and Gosdens, are not behind those professional 

 flatterers, the Bards ; and many a princely name would have been forgotten 

 but for the record of the gift of land. In Mewar, the lands in Salisun, or 

 religious grants, amount in value to one-^fth of the revenue of the state, and 

 the greater proportion of these has arisen out of the prodigal misma- 

 nagement of the last century. The dilapidated state of the country on the 

 general pacification in A.D. 1818, afforded a noble opportunity to redeem 

 in part these alienations, without the penalty of denunciation attached 

 to the resumer of sacred charities. But death, famine, and exile, which had 

 left but few of the grantees in a capacity to return and re-occupy the lands, 

 in vain coalesced to restore the fisc of Mewar. The Rana dreaded a " sixty 

 thousand years' residence in hell," and some of the finest land of his country 

 is doomed to remain unproductive. In this predicament is the township of 

 Mynar, with 50,000 ^i^'-rz/^v (16,000 acres), which, with the exception of a 

 nook in which some few have established themselves, claiming to be 

 descendants of the original holders, are condemned to sterility, owing to the 



