Lieiit.-Colonel Tod on the Religious Establishments ofMewar. 289 



dare the rod of justice appear on the Mount, or the foot of the pursuer 

 pass the stream ; neither within it can blood be spilt, for the pastoral Kaniya 

 delights not in offerings of this kind. The territory contains within its 

 precincts abundant space for the town, the temple, and the establishments 

 of the priests, as well as the numerous resident worshippers, and the constant 

 influx of votaries from the most distant regions, 



" From Samarcand by Oxus, Temir's throne, 

 " Down to tlic golden Chersonese ;" 



who find abundant shelter from the noontide blaze in the groves of 

 tamarind, p'lpiil, and semul, where they listen to the divine melodies of 

 GoviNDA or the mystic hymns of Jydeva. Here those whom ambition has 

 cloyed, superstition unsettled, satiety disgusted, commerce ruined, or crime 

 disquieted, may be found as ascetic attendants on the mildest of the gods 

 of India. Renouncing the world, they first renounce the ties that bind 

 them to it, whether family, friends, or fortune, and placing their wealth at the 

 disposal of Kaniya, stipulate only for a portion of the food dressed for him, 

 and to be permitted to prostrate themselves before him till their allotted 

 time is expired. Here no blood-stained sacrifice scares tiie timid devotee ; 

 no austerities terrify, or tedious ceremonies fatigue him ; he is taught to 

 cherish the hope that lie has only to ask for mercy, to obtain it; and to 

 believe that the compassionate deity who guarded the lapwing's nest* in the 



* Whoever has unhooded the falcon at a lapwing, or even scared one from her nest, need not 

 be told of its peculiarly distressing scream, as if appealing to sympathy. The allusion here is to 

 the lapwing scared from her nest, as the rival armies of the Citrus and Pandiis joined in battle, 

 when the compassionate Cbishka, taking from an elephant's neck a war-bell (yira-gunt'/ia), 

 covered the nest, in order to protect it. 



When the majority of the feudal nobles of Marwar became self-exiled, to avoid the 

 almost demoniac fury of their sovereign, since his alliance with the British government, Anar 

 Sing, the chief of Ahore, a fine specimen of the Rahtore Rajput, brave, intelligent, and 

 amiable, was one day lamenting that while all India was enjoying tranquillity under the shield of 

 Britain, they alone were suffering from the caprice of a tyrant; concluding a powerful appeal to 

 my personal interposition with the foregoing allegory, and observing on the beauty of the office 

 of mediator. " You are all powerful," added he, " and we may be of little account in the grand 

 scale of affairs; but Crisiina condescended to protect even the lapwing's egg in the midst of 

 battle." Tliis brave man knew my anxiety to make their peace with their sovereign, and being 

 acquainted with the allegory, I replied with some fervour, in the same strain, " Would to God, 

 Thakoor Suliib, I had the vira-gunt'ha to protect you." The effect was instantaneous, and the eye 



Vol. n. 2 P 



