

1916.] Bardic and HistL Survey of Rajputana. 81 



Of the two Jasavantas, with whom the above genealogy 

 terminates, it is with the son of Singha that our hero is to be 

 identified. According to Muhanota Nena Si, he was a vassal of 

 Rathora Dalapata Rava Singhota, and owned a fief in Bhatan- 

 era. Dalapata, as we know, succeeded his father Raya Singha 

 on the throne of Bikaner in Sam vat 1668, and continued to rule 

 till Samvat 1670, when he was dispossessed by his brother Sura 

 Singha. Whether it was during Dalapata's reign that the battle, 

 in which Jasavanta lost his life, took place, or whether it was 

 afterwards, we do not know, but certain it is that the event 

 took place about Samvat 1670 or shortly afterwards. If we 

 are allowed to make a conjecture, it is not unlikely that, when 

 Sura Singha marched against Dalapata with his own forces 

 engrossed by an auxiliary army of imperials, Bhatanera sided 

 with Dalapata, and had to be reduced by the imperials, in con- 

 sequence. If the conjecture is correct, the event commemo- 

 rated by our song happened in the year Samvat 1670 or 1671 

 at the latest (1614-15 a.d.). 



The date thus conjecturally arrived at, coincides with the 

 period in which the author of the song lived. The name of 

 the Poet is given only in one of the five manuscripts examined 

 by me, namely B, and it is ThakuraSl Colavata. Though 

 the caste, to which this Thakura Si belonged, is in no way speci- 

 fied, yet from his patronymic, we have no difficulty in identi- 

 fying him as a son of Colo, a famous Gadana Carana who lived 

 at Bikaner during the reign of Dalapata Singha and his succes- 

 sor Sura Singha, and was rewarded by the latter with a lakha- 

 pasava in Samvat 1672. 1 The song must have been composed 

 by Thakura Si soon after the fall of Bhatanera or, at the most, 

 a few vears after it. 



For the edition of the text, which is given below, I have 

 utilized the five manuscripts following : 



B : A MS. of Phutakara gita, in the Darbar Library of 

 Bikaner (No. 5 of the Bardic Collection). Written in Samvat 

 1799 (see p. 221 6.) Our song is given p. 146 a, and contains 

 only the stanzas following : 6, 7, 8, 9. 



G : A MS. in the form of a huge vahi 9 containing different 

 prose-chronicles and miscellaneous historical information, be- 

 longing to the Kaviraja Carana Asiyo Ganesa Dana of Jodhpur. 

 (The MS. is described in Descriptive Catalogue, Sect, i, pt. i, 

 No. 11). Our song is given pp. 2336 — 234a, and it contains 

 only the six stanzas following: 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. The pages 

 containing the song were written, apparently, towards the end 

 of the Sam vat-century 1700. 



H : A MS. of Phutakara gita belonging to Carana Asiyo 

 Hamlra Dana of Bhadiyavasa. About 100 years old. The 



1 The above information is derived from the Khyata No. 1 in the Dar- 

 bar Library of Bikaner, p. 225 b (see Descriptive Catalogue, Sect, i, pt. ii). 



