THE MARBLE DAMS OF RAJPUTANA 



By Eleanor Maddock 



With illustrations from photographs by the author and by courtesy of 



Prince Bhopal Singh 



TIME is not reckoned in India by 

 years, but rather by centuries, in 

 dealing with the rise and decline 

 of her dynasties, buried one above the 

 other under the restless sands of her five 

 rivers. Yet, in accordance with the cyclic 

 law which sweeps the tide of progress 

 westward, old footways survive, leading 

 back to the "ancient days of art," with 

 signs along the way for those who will 

 stop to read them. 



When the first Mohammedan invasion 

 poured into India through the vulnerable 

 passes of the Himalayas, those great 

 guardian barriers of the north, the fol- 

 lowers of the Prophet found states and 

 cities inhabited by thirty-six royal races 

 of Indo-Aryans, with a civilization which 

 included a knowledge of constructive and 

 mechanical arts, of cosmic laws, of cer- 

 tain forces of nature and how to use 

 them, much of which has yet to be ac- 

 quired in modern times. 



But, great and powerful as were these 

 Hindu states, they were overthrown one 

 after another when the Moslem hordes 

 swept down upon them. Some, less able 

 to withstand, submitted to their new mas- 

 ters ; others, daring anything to escape 

 the barbarians, retreated from their fer- 

 tile plains to a wild country less tempting 

 to the foemen's greed, bordered on the 

 northwest by the waterless sands of the 

 Great Indian Desert. 



racial remnants establish "land of 

 princes" 



Whoever has traveled in the Bernese 

 Oberland of Switzerland needs no de- 

 scription of the Aravalli Hills of Rajpu- 

 tana, whither, among the mountain fast- 

 nesses and ravines, spanned by natural 

 ramparts, the remnants of the thirty-six 

 races retired to escape the hated invaders. 

 Still possessed of vast hidden wealth and 

 resources, they established the different 

 states of Rajputana, or Rajasthan, the 

 "Land of Princes," raj meaning royal 

 and than a dwelling. 



Rajputana may be said to be the heart 

 of India, first because it occupies the cen- 

 tral area, and again by reason of its being 

 the exclusive territory of the Rajputs, 

 the proud survivors of the old stock and 

 flower of the Indo-Aryan race. Of the 

 various states ruled by native chiefs and 

 princes, Mewar is known as Udaipur ; 

 Marwar as Jodhpur ; Amber as Jaipur. 

 Others are Bundi, Jaisalmer, and Kotah, 

 with more of lesser importance. 



While the Rajputs claim descent 

 through the solar dynasty, the Sesodias, 

 or Gahlots, are the oldest and purest race, 

 of which the Maharana of Udaipur and 

 Mewar is the premier. He is called the 

 "Sun of the Hindus," and by virtue of 

 his exalted family tree, planted by Rama, 

 the deified hero of the Mahabarata, he 

 takes precedence over all the maharajahs, 

 princes, and chiefs of India and is the 

 only one bearing the title of Maharana. 

 In Sanskrit, Malta signifies great, and 

 Rana was the title used by the old Se- 

 sodia kings. 



RAJPUTANA, THE COCKPIT OP INDIA 



Rajputana was drenched with blood 

 during the wars fought by the Rajputs to 

 preserve their lands, purity of race and 

 their women from the Mohammedans, 

 who by this time had overrun nearly the 

 whole of India. 



James Tod has told the story in "An- 

 nals and Antiquities of Rajasthan," to 

 whom Rudyard Kipling alludes in "Let- 

 ters of Marque," saying: "If any part of 

 a land strewn with dead men's bones has 

 a special claim to distinction, Rajputana, 

 as the cockpit of India, stands first. . . . 

 The tangled tale of force, fraud, cun- 

 ning, desperate love, and more desperate 

 revenge, crimes worthy of demons, vir- 

 tues fit for gods, may be found by all 

 who care to look in the book of the man 

 who loved the Rajputs and gave a life's 

 labor in their behalf." 



Mewar, though the most important of 

 the Rajputana states, is the least known 



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