RAJPUTS AND THK HISTORY OF PA J PUT AN A. 



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up of Patta Singh and Jai Mai, one of them a mere lad of sixteen, 

 who both fell righting on the slopes of Chitor, before his own 

 palace, figures which are in existence to this dtiy, as a testimony 

 to his admiration for their valour. 



We are told that the mother and bride of Patta Singh 

 accompanied him, and that both fell fighting near the spot. I 

 have myself seen the monument erected to his memory, and 

 from the tower of Victory of Kumbhu Kana which crowns that 

 noble hill of Chitor,have heard the representative of his name and 

 honours speak with pride of his forefather's bravery and patrio- 

 tism, both of which it was easy to see he would willingly emulate. 



Where every local history teems with instances of personal 

 courage of both sexes, and it is almost impossible to find a 

 coward, it would be invidious to quote more examples, I shall, 

 therefore, go on to the collective bravery of the race, which lias 

 been the subject of comment of all historians. When the 

 Rajput rinds his case hopeless, he assumes saffron coloured robes, 

 and putting to death the females of all ages, rushes headlong 

 into the ranks of the enemy, and committing terrible havoc, 

 there finds the death which he seeks. 



No fewer than three times was this awful sacrifice made in 

 the history of Meywar, when, headed by the highest of the 

 queens, the wives and daughters of all the nobles and the 

 remaining females of the clan went down into the caverns on 

 the side of the mountain, and there were suffocated or burned ; 

 for if this had not been done, they would have become the 

 lawful prey of the captors, as was the case with the Jews of old 

 and the nations with whom they fought. 



In a beautiful valley cleft in the hill I was shown the sacred 

 spot where is the entrance to the cavern in which the last and, 

 perhaps, all of these fearful sacrifices took place. In front of 

 it is a sacred fountain, and around it are grouped some small 

 temples in which the manes of the dead are propitiated, and 

 where the Rajputs pray for courage to imitate the example set 

 by their illustrious ancestors, to which indeed they need but 

 little incentive, the rlames being abundantly fed by their bards 

 and historians from their earliest days. Nor indeed are the 

 women less backward than the men in all that is chivalrous. 

 Taught from their infancy that pious wives should accompany 

 their husbands to the realms of the dead, they arm their sons 

 for battle, and follow their lords, in many cases, as the annals 

 testify, most gladly, to the funeral pyre. Nor is this surprising, 

 because the lob of a widow is by no means a pleasant one, as 

 custom prescribes many hardships that she must go through if 



