24s Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIII, 



Bhatls, as long as they Jive, will never forget the [blows of the] 

 hands which thou hast brought [upon them), O Kalyana. 



2. With the blow, which thou— O lord of encomiator.v 

 epithets, pure both from the paternal and Hie maternal side 

 marching to battle, administeredst [to them], thou struckest 

 down theKhiyas 1 [of Verasalapura], and [also] the Kelhanas 1 

 and [their] stronghold of Vikupura . with the force of [thy] sword. 



3. Now that thou hast assembled [against them thy] 

 powerful army, [enemy-] slayer Kald, 8 and hast punished 

 [thy] great enemies with the force of [thy] sword, the Bhatls no 



longer inhabit Vikupura, [but] have fled' for their lives as far 

 as the Sindh. 



The reign of raja Raya Singha, the successor of Kalvana 

 Mala, coincides with the period of the highest ebb in the his- 

 tory of Bikaner. His distinguished services in the fields of 

 Gujarat, SlrohL and the Dekhan. had endeared him to Akbar, 

 and in a few years his domains had been considerably increased, 

 so as to include, at one time, even Jodhpur, the rival neighbour 

 of the south. The rich booty made in the imperial campaigns, 

 and the prosperity consequent upon the increased power and 

 the efficiency of the internal administration, had turned into 

 the sands of Bikaner a flood of wealth, which had never been 

 known before. Simultaneously with the augmented prosperity 

 there had grown a taste and a liking for poetrv and literary 

 culture, of which Raya Singha himself was a most fervent 

 patromzer. Scores of poets flocked to his court, and his praises 

 were sung night and day, whilst his unparalleled generosity 

 was at the same time a good theme for poetical composition 

 and a most effective stimulus for the poets themselves. The 

 songs m honour of Raya Singha are numbered by hundreds. 



and no other Ruler of Bikaner ever had s ( , ,,i,u, panegyrists as 

 Kaya Singha had. Selecting a few songs from such a rich 

 Harvest is indeed embarra- ing, but 1 will leave aside all songs 

 referring to military exploits, and confine myself to two which 



celebrate two of the most characteristic features of the reign oi 



-ayahingha: the prosperity inaugurated b him and his gene- 

 rosity to the bard ~ 



• .i ,/' rst of tlle tuo soa g* « anon vmous. It is contained 

 His l/'vvVf .. foll '-in,:-A= IXsrr. mi. oi Bard, and 



« Iftftf n' %£" "' P*- *• Ms - 6 < V 71a; I* = Ditto,m.U, 



v- S) m ''' H ( '" Progre * s Repoft " etc " for 1915i 



1TH *ft ^flT ^TJO 7 re T | 



2 t H uf orl ' ranchofth et5h5tis. 



5 An abbrevated form of Kalyana. s C **. * AC '*• 



A * BO °*. 7 AC o^ A ^ w (f<)r ^ , 0) _ 



