1919.]} Bardic and Histl. Survey of Rajputana. 49 
desertion of the Bikaneri nobles was determined by the following 
remarkable circumstance. Jéta Si on the eve of battle sud- 
denly remembered that he owed a certain sum to some 
merchant, and wishing to pay his debt immediately, rode to 
Bikaner by night, without telling anybody where he was going 
to. The nobles soon discovered his absence, and thinking that 
he had fled, deserted from the camp. n coming back, 
Jéta Si found himself alone, still nothing dismayed, confronted 
the foe and met a glorious death sword in hand. As if all 
these inventions were not enough, Dayala Dasa gives us the 
moral of the story by representing the onslaught of the Jodh- 
ur army on Bikaner and the consequent death of Jéta Si as 
a punishment inflicted on him by Karaniji, the Carani goddess, 
whom Jéta Si had offended by not properly recognizing the 
help which he had received from her on the occasion of his 
fight with Kamran seven years before! I give below the 
passage containing this impudent suggestion, and I am sure 
that the reader will never want any more proofs of the crafti- 
ness of the Caranas. The hemistich quoted in the course of 
the text and attributed to Vithi Mehd—the author of the 
adespotic Jéta St ro Chanda ?-—is, of course, apocryphal. 
(Extr. 4:) & are wat Faedtst at ait faa ast a 
ee ie FR aT | 
ate a ata 43 faeza | 
St ye ata Sat Sa | 
et sat ga ara Sata wet F ara ate at gat a ane a 
wal Ta Fatt gaa Het F art MF ao ques ua Aree 
WIT EAC Roooe @ au Aersila we Era acadtata 
3 Sa Parte Soe art... 
(Translation :) And [when] Sah Kamran fled before Jéta 
Si, [the bard] Vithi Meho composed quatrains on the occa- 
sion.» [And these contained also the following hemistich] : 
Our Sister’s* shafts are the champions that fight ; 
And Jet Si of the battle enjoyeth the sight.* 
} fq. 
with the author of the adespotic JétaSi rd Chanda, mentioned in the 
inni i ithi : li-known name, and we 
have of him other works among which a Pabiji rd Chanda (Descr. Cat., 
sect. ii, pt. i, 2 (6)). 
3 Meho, as a Carana, could call Karaniji his sister. : 
* Meaning: the battle was fought by the supernatural power of 
Karaniji, and JétaSi was a mere spectator in it. 
