Meherangarh Fort in Jodhpur, built in 1460 and serving as the palace for the Rajas of Marwar. After Ram Singh invited in the Maratha, they dominated the kingdom until the British took over in 1818. In 1843, Jodhpur was raised to a Princely State within the Rajputana Agency of British India, for which London was handsomely repaid in 1857 when the first Maharaja, Takht Singh, supported them in The Indian Mutiny. Jodhpur lost its status as a self-governing Princely State following Indian independence in 1947.
Part 1 of 2
IN 1751,* the throne of Raja Ram Singh in Jodhpur was usurped by his uncle, Bakht. Ram’s mother-in-law took care of Bakht with the gift of a poisoned robe, but that still left Ram’s young cousin Vijay.* In desperation, Ram turned to the fearsome Maratha in Ujjain for help; and such was their reputation that in the heat of battle near Merta, Vijay’s trusted ally, the Raja of Bikaner, deserted, along with most of the army.*
Left in the middle of nowhere, in pitch dark, Vijay resolved to make for Nagaur. Yet misfortunes dogged his company, barely five strong. First, he found his guide had been leading them not on the road to Nagaur, but towards his own home. Then just past Khajwana, still sixteen miles short of Nagaur, their weary horses would go no further. As it happened, however, an ox-cart was rattling by, so leaving his men and horses to recover, for five rupees Vijay engaged the driver to take him to Nagaur, alone.
This was six years before Robert Clive’s historic victory at in Bengal to the east, which made Britain all but the sole European power in India, and meant that London increasingly played the role hitherto played by the Mughal Emperors. The story told here is based closely on “Annals and Antiquities of Rajast’han” by East India Company administrator and Oriental scholar James Tod (1782-1835), a respected authority on Rajput history and life to this day. For more on James Tod, see our post The Quiet Kingdom.
Bakht died of cholera in 1752. His son Vijay Singh (1729-1793) was the Raja of Marwar Kingdom from 1752 to 1753 and again, following the death of Ram Singh, from 1772 to 1793. According to Tod, Bakht demanded the Raja of Jaipur support him, even though he was Ram’s father-in-law, and the Raja handed the case over to his wife.
Merta lies some seventy miles east of Jodhpur. Despite inferior numbers, Vijay’s army was making good headway on the second day when a friendly fire incident caused dismay and fatalism to spread where only courage and hope had reigned before. Bikaner advised his young prince to retreat, and retreat became a rout.
Précis
In 1753, the new Raja of Mewar in modern-day Rajasthan, Vijay Singh, faced a rebellion from an ousted rival, his cousin Ram Singh. After losing a key battle, Vijay and five loyal men hoped to flee to Nagpaur under cover of night, but their horses were too weary, so Vijay hailed a passing ox-cart and went on alone. (57 / 60 words)
Part Two
The fort in Nagaur, now the capital of the Nagaur district of Rajasthan, where Vijay sought refuge from the Maratha. He eventually regained his throne, but it would take almost twenty years to do it. Six years after Vijay’s death in 1793, a young cadet named James Tod arrived in India, and in 1818 became the East India Company’s political agent in nearby Udaipur. Within three years he had helped restore vigour and prosperity to a region torn by years of dynastic feuding and Maratha raids. Our story of Vijay and his ox-cart has been retold from Tod’s memoirs.
FOR Vijay, who guessed that the Maratha would be making for Nagaur too, time was of the essence. ‘Giddyup!’ he urged the oxen, ‘Giddyup!’, until the driver broke in. ‘Giddyup!’ he repeated testily. ‘Who are you to rush these poor oxen? They should be on the battlefield at Merta, drawing gun-carriages for Vijay Singh, not posting towards Nagaur. You aren’t the one with the Maratha at his heels!’ And they rumbled on towards Nagaur.
Hours later, dawn broke and the driver saw Vijay clearly for the first time. Recognition sprang into his eyes, and he tumbled off his seat, conscious of a gross breach of etiquette: he had been in sitting on the same level as his sovereign! ‘Under the circumstances’ said Vijay drily, ‘you are pardoned.’ The doubtful driver resumed his place; then ‘Giddyup!’ he cried, and he cried it until they reached the gates of Nagaur. That same day the Maratha came, and besieged the city and its prince for six long months.
Précis
The driver of the ox-cart, who did not recognise his passenger in the dark, ignored Vijay’s cries to go faster, and reminded him sententiously of the hardships of the poor prince. When dawn came and he saw who was sharing his cart, he was utterly mortified, and hurried his oxen to Nagpaur as fast as it would go. (58 / 60 words)
