1917.] 



»/ Rajputana. 229 



with the personage it is intended to celebrate, or the event it i 

 intended to record. Posthumous poems are always more or 

 less open to suspicion, and even when written in a sober ami 

 apparently impartial tone, they can never be expected to be 

 so accurate as they would be if they had been written during 

 the time with which they are concerned. Fortunately, con- 

 temporary poems are not scanty in the bardic literature of 

 Rajputana, thanks to the warm encouragement and liberal 

 support which the Rajput chiefs had been giving to t heir 

 bards, the Caranas, since the very beginning of the Old West- 

 ern Rajasthanl period. Every Carana who "ate the salt" of 

 a Rajput Chief, was naturally bound to retribute his master 

 and patron by composing poems in his honour, and immor- 

 talizing with his rhyme the record of his master's feats of arms, 

 courage, liberality, etc. All the noteworthy events in the life 

 of the Chief were preserved to memory in the verses of the 

 Carana, and the Chief had hardly sheathed his sword after an 

 encounter with his enemies, that the Carana was ready to 

 welcome him with a song commemorating his bravery. These 

 songs, composed immediately after the event which they are 

 intended to record, if seen in a true light allowing for all the 

 usual exaggerations and the partiality of the Poet, are nothing 

 short of real historical documents. 



The particular class of bardic poems mentioned above 

 is generally known by the Caranas under the name of sakhn 

 n kavita, which literally means'' 1 testimonial poetry." This 

 is in the form of small songs, which are found abundantly 

 interspersed in the Khyatas or prose chronicles, where they 

 are quoted as a kind of proof of the facts narrated. Often, 

 especially when referring to the earliest period in the genealogy 

 of a Rajput family, these " testimonial," or " commemorative" 

 ■"ongs are only later forgeries, but in such a case they are easily 

 recognizable. If the bardic literature of Rajputana had been 

 preserved to us in its entirety, we would nowadays possess in 

 the safclta ri kavita a continuous chain of evidence embracing a 

 period going from about the thirteenth century A.D. down to 

 the present time. Unfortunately, the greatest part of this vast 

 literature is lost. But even the small part of it that has 

 ■nrvived, is considerable, and when the scattered fragments are 

 collected and put together, thev will constitute a source ot 

 information of primary importance, which any inquirer into 

 the history of the Rajput- must necessarily take into account 



The "small selection of commemorative songs which 1 



Publish below, will give some idea of the nature of this pecu- 

 liar kind of literary compositions, and the help which the 

 kwtorian can expect from them. They are all songs referring 

 Jo the early history of Bikaner, from the time of lava Viko, the 

 founder of Bikaner (Sam vat 1545), down to the time of raja 

 %a Singha, the illustrious general who served under Akbar. 



