«Летописи и древности Раджастхана»

Влияние мусульман и маратхов. —Mahratta cunning, engrafted on Muhammadan intolerance, had greatly obscured these institutions. The nation itself was passing rapidly away: the remnant which was left had become a matter of calculation, and their records and their laws partook of this general decay. The nation may recover; the physical frame may be renewed; but the morale of the society must be recast. In this chaos a casual observer sees nothing to attract notice; the theory of government appears, without any of the dignity which now marks our regular system. Whatever does exist is attributed to fortuitous causes—to nothing systematic: no fixed principle is discerned, and none is admitted; it is deemed a mechanism without a plan. This opinion is hasty. Attention to distinctions, though often merely nominal [131], will aid us in discovering the outlines of a picture which must at some period have been more finished; when real power, unrestrained by foreign influence, upheld a system, the plan of which was original. It is in these remote regions, so little known to the Western world, and where original manners lie hidden under those of the conquerors, that we may search for the germs of the constitutions of European States.[3] A contempt for all that is Asiatic too often marks our countrymen in the East: though at one period on record the taunt might have been reversed.

Отмечая любопытное совпадение между нравами, понятиями и правительствами Европы в Средние века и таковыми в Раджастхане, нам вовсе не обязательно делать вывод, что одна система была заимствована у другой; каждое из них, по сути, можно сказать, имеет своей основой патриархальную форму. Я иногда был склонен согласиться с определением Гиббона, который называет систему наших предков порождением случайности и варварства. «Le système féodal, assemblage monstrueux de tant de parties que le tems et l’hazard ont réunies, nous offre un objet très compliqué: pour l’étudier il faut le décomposer» [4]. Я попытаюсь это сделать.

Уклад в этих государствах, как уже отмечалось, носит поистине патриархальный характер: здесь большая часть вассальных вождей, начиная с высших из шестнадцати пэров и кончая владельцами чарсы земли, заявляют о своем кровном родстве с сувереном.

Природные семена заложены в любой почве, однако дерево не достигало зрелости иначе как в благоприятных условиях. Совершенство этой системы в Англии объясняется норманнами, которые принесли ее из Скандинавии, куда она, вероятно, была доставлена Одином и сакасенами либо в результате более ранних миграций из Азии; это совпало бы с гипотезой Ричардсона, который утверждает, что она была привнесена из Татарии. Хотя умозрительные рассуждения не входят в мои планы, наблюдая определенные аналогии этому в обычаях древних германских племен, франков или готских народностей, я позволю себе отметить их. В одном нет сомнений: знание должно было сопутствовать волне миграций с востока; и из высшей Азии вышли асии, хатты и кимврские ломбарды, распространившие эту систему в Скандинавии, Фрисландии и Италии.

Происхождение распрей. —“It has been very common,” says the enlightened historian of the Feudal System in the Middle Ages, “to seek for the origin of feuds, or at least for analogies to them, in the history of various countries; but though it is of great importance to trace the similarity of customs in different parts of the world, we should guard against seeming analogies, which vanish away when they are closely observed. It is easy to find partial resemblances to the feudal system. The relation of patron and client in the republic of Rome has been deemed to resemble it, as well as the barbarians and veterans who held frontier lands on the tenure of defending them and the frontier; but they were bound not to an individual, but to the state. Such a resemblance of fiefs may be found in the Zamindars of Hindustan and the Timariots of Turkey. The clans of the Highlanders and Irish followed their chieftain into the field: but their tie was that of imagined kindred and birth, not the spontaneous compact of vassalage.”[7]

Я привожу это подробно для того, чтобы показать: если я по-прежнему упорствую в том, что считаю раджпутскую систему чистой системой вассальных распрей, то я вижу перед собой опасность кажущихся сходств. Однако пожалования, грамоты, акты и предания, копии которых будут приведены в Приложении, подтвердят мои взгляды. Я надеюсь доказать, что племена северных областей Индостана обладали этой системой и что она передавалась из поколения в поколение и существует поныне, несмотря на семь веков главенства династий Великих Моголов и патанов, совершенно чуждых им во всем, за исключением этой особенности государственного устройства, в которой изначально наблюдалось сходство. В некоторых из этих государств — тех, которые меньше всего затронули завоевания, — эта система сохранилась свободной от нововведений. Тем не менее свои примеры я буду выводить главным образом из Мевара, поскольку его внутреннее правление в меньшей степени подвергалось влиянию внешней политики, вплоть до периода упадка имперской власти Дели.

Свидетельства из Мевара. —As in Europe, for a length of time, traditionary custom was the only regulator of the rights and tenures of this system, varying in each State, and not unfrequently (in its minor details) in the different provinces of one State, according to their mode of acquisition and the description of occupants when required. It is from such circumstances that the variety of tenure and customary law proceeds. To account for this variety, a knowledge of them is requisite; nor is it until every part of the system is developed that it can be fully understood. The most trifling cause is discovered to be the parent of some important result. If ever these were embodied into a code (and we are justified in assuming such to have been the case), the varied revolutions which have swept away almost all relics of their history were not likely to spare these. Mention is made of several princes of the house of Mewar who legislated for their country; but precedents for every occurring case lie scattered in formulas, grants, and traditionary sayings. The inscriptions still existing on stone would alone, if collected, form a body of laws sufficient for an infant community; and these were always first committed to writing, and registered ere the column was raised. The seven centuries of turmoil and disaster, during which these States were in continual strife with the foe, produced many princes of high intellect as well as valour. Sanga Rana, and his antagonist, Sultan Babur, were revived in their no less celebrated grandsons, the great Akbar and Rana Partap: the son of the latter, Amra, the foe of Jahangir, was a character of whom the proudest nation might be vain.

Свидетельства из надписей. —The pen has recorded, and tradition handed down, many isolated fragments of the genius of these Rajput princes, as statesmen and warriors, touching the political division, regulations of the aristocracy, and commercial and agricultural bodies. Sumptuary laws, even, which append to a feudal system, are to be traced in these inscriptions; the annulling of monopolies and exorbitant taxes; the regulation of transit duties; prohibition of profaning sacred days by labour; immunities, privileges, and charters to trades, corporations, and towns; such as would, in climes more favourable to liberty, have matured into a league, or obtained for these branches a voice in the councils of the State. My search for less perishable documents than parchment when I found the cabinet of the prince contained them not, was unceasing; but though the bigoted Muhammadan destroyed [134] most of the traces of civilization within his reach, perseverance was rewarded with a considerable number. They are at least matter of curiosity. They will evince that monopolies and restraints on commerce were well understood in Rajwara, though the doctrines of political economy never gained footing there. The setting up of these engraved tablets or pillars, called Seoras,[8] is of the highest antiquity. Every subject commences with invoking the sun and moon as witnesses, and concludes with a denunciation of the severest penalties on those who break the spirit of the imperishable bond. Tablets of an historical nature I have of twelve and fourteen hundred years’ antiquity, but of grants of land or privileges about one thousand years is the oldest. Time has destroyed many, but man more. They became more numerous during the last three centuries, when successful struggles against their foes produced new privileges, granted in order to recall the scattered inhabitants. Thus one contains an abolition of the monopoly of tobacco;[9] another, the remission of tax on printed cloths, with permission to the country manufacturers to sell their goods free of duty at the neighbouring towns. To a third, a mercantile city, the abolition of war contributions,[10] and the establishment of its internal judicial authority. Nay, even where good manners alone are concerned, the lawgiver appears, and with an amusing simplicity:[11] “From the public feast none shall attempt to carry anything away.” “None shall eat after sunset,” shows that a Jain obtained the edict. To yoke the bullock or other animal for any work on the sacred Amavas,[12] is also declared punishable. Others contain revocations of vexatious fees to officers of the crown; “of beds and quilts[13]”; “the seizure of the carts, implements, or cattle of the husbandmen,”[14]—the sole boon in our own Magna Charta demanded for the husbandman. These and several others, of which copies are annexed, need not be repeated. If even from such memoranda a sufficient number could be collected of each prince’s reign up to the olden time, what more could we desire to enable us to judge of the genius of their princes, the wants and habits of the people, their acts and occupations? The most ancient written customary law of France is A.D. 1088,[15] at which time Mewar was in high [135] prosperity; opposing, at the head of a league far more powerful than France could form for ages after, the progress of revolution and foreign conquest. Ignorance, sloth, and all the vices which wait on and result from continual oppression in a perpetual struggle for existence of ages’ duration, gradually diminished the reverence of the inhabitants themselves for these relics of the wisdom of their forefathers. In latter years, they so far forgot the ennobling feeling and respect for ‘the stone which told’ their once exalted condition, as to convert the materials of the temple in which many of these stood into places of abode. Thus many a valuable relic is built up in the castles of their barons, or buried in the rubbish of the fallen pile.

Книги пожалований. —We have, however, the books of grants to the chiefs and vassals, and also the grand rent-roll of the country. These are of themselves valuable documents. Could we but obtain those of remoter periods, they would serve as a commentary on the history of the country, as each contains the detail of every estate, and the stipulated service, in horse and foot, to be performed for it. In later times, when turbulence and disaffection went unpunished, it was useless to specify a stipulation of service that was nugatory; and too often the grants contained but the names of towns and villages, and their value; or if they had the more general terms of service, none of its details.[16] From all these, however, a sufficiency of customary rules could easily be found to form the written law of fiefs in Rajasthan. In France, in the sixteenth century, the variety of these customs amounted to two hundred and eighty-five, of which only sixty[17] were of great importance. The number of consequence in Mewar which have come to my observation is considerable, and the most important will be given in the Appendix. Were the same plan pursued there as in that ordinance which produced the laws of Pays Coutumiers[18] of France, viz. ascertaining those of each district, the materials are ready.

Подобное собрание было бы любопытным, особенно если бы к высеченным законам добавились предания. Законы эти часто казались бы незрелыми и могли бы содержать противоречия, однако мы увидели бы нужды народа; и если бы наша связь (чего бог упаси!) когда-нибудь стала более тесной, мы смогли бы осуществлять законодательную деятельность, не оскорбляя национальных обычаев и религиозных предрассудков. Если бы это благодаря какому-то инстинктивному импульсу или внешнему стимулу было осуществлено ими самими, это стало бы эпохой их избавления от долгого угнетения и могло бы привести к лучшим понятиям о государственном управлении и, как следствие, к всеобщему благополучию.

Благородное происхождение раджпутской расы. —If we compare the antiquity and illustrious descent of the dynasties which have ruled, and some which continue to rule, the small sovereignties of Rajasthan, with many of celebrity in Europe, superiority will often attach to the Rajput. From the most remote periods we can trace nothing ignoble, nor any vestige of vassal origin. Reduced in power, circumscribed in territory, compelled to yield much of their splendour and many of the dignities of birth, they have not abandoned an iota of the pride and high bearing arising from a knowledge of their illustrious and regal descent. On this principle the various revolutions in the Rana’s family never encroached; and the mighty Jahangir himself, the Emperor of the Moguls, became, like Caesar, the commentator on the history of the tribe of Sesodia.[19] The potentate of the twenty-two Satrapies of Hind dwells with proud complacency on this Rajput king having made terms with him. He praises heaven, that what his immortal ancestor Babur, the founder of the Mogul dynasty, failed to do, the project in which Humayun had also failed, and in which the illustrious Akbar, his father, had but partial success, was reserved for him. It is pleasing to peruse in the commentaries of these conquerors, Babur and Jahangir, their sentiments with regard to these princes. We have the evidence of Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador of Elizabeth to Jahangir, as to the splendour of this race: it appears throughout their annals and those of their neighbours.

Ратхоры Марвара. —The Rathors can boast a splendid pedigree; and if we cannot trace its source with equal certainty to such a period of antiquity as the Rana’s, we can, at all events, show the Rathor monarch wielding the sceptre at Kanauj, at the time the leader of an unknown tribe of the Franks was paving the way towards the foundation of the future kingdom of France. Unwieldy greatness caused the sudden fall of Kanauj in the twelfth century, of which the existing line of Marwar is a renovated scion.[20]

Качхвахи Амбера. —Amber is a branch of the once illustrious and ancient [137] Nishadha, now Narwar, which produced the ill-fated prince whose story[21] is so interesting. Revolution and conquest compelled them to quit their ancestral abodes. Hindustan was then divided into no more than four great kingdoms. By Arabian[22] travellers we have a confused picture of these States. But all the minor States, now existing in the west, arose about the period when the feudal system was approaching maturity in France and England.

Остальные менее прославленны, являясь потомками великих вассалов их древних королей.

Сесодии Мевара. —Mewar exhibits a marked difference from all the other States in her policy and institutions. She was an old-established dynasty when these renovated scions were in embryo. We can trace the losses of Mewar, but with difficulty her acquisitions; while it is easy to note the gradual aggrandisement of Marwar and Amber, and all the minor States. Marwar was composed of many petty States, whose ancient possessions formed an allodial vassalage under the new dynasty. A superior independence of the control of the prince arises from the peculiarity of the mode of acquisition; that is, with rights similar to the allodial vassals of the European feudal system.

Гордость происхождением. —The poorest Rajput of this day retains all the pride of ancestry, often his sole inheritance; he scorns to hold the plough, or to use his lance but on horseback. In these aristocratic ideas he is supported by his reception amongst his superiors, and the respect paid to him by his inferiors. The honours and privileges, and the gradations of rank, amongst the vassals of the Rana’s house, exhibit a highly artificial and refined state of society. Each of the superior rank is entitled to a banner, kettle-drums preceded by heralds and silver maces, with peculiar gifts and personal honours, in commemoration of some exploit of their ancestors.

Родовые гербы. —The martial Rajputs are not strangers to armorial bearings,[23] now so indiscriminately used in Europe. The great banner of Mewar exhibits a golden sun [138] on a crimson field; those of the chiefs bear a dagger. Amber displays the panchranga, or five-coloured flag. The lion rampant on an argent field is extinct with the State of Chanderi.[24]

В Европе эти обычаи были введены лишь в период крестовых походов и были заимствованы у сарацин, тогда как использование их среди раджпутских племен прослеживается со времен, предшествующих Троянской войне. В «Махабхарате», или Великой войне, происходившей за двенадцать веков до нашей эры, мы видим героя Бхишму, ликующего над своим трофеем — знаменем Арджуны, поле которого украшено изображением индийского Ханумана. Эти эмблемы имели религиозное значение у индусов и происходили из их мифологии, которая является истоком всех эмблем.

Племенной палладиум. —Every royal house has its palladium, which is frequently borne to battle at the saddle-bow of the prince. Rao Bhima Hara, of Kotah, lost his life and protecting deity together. The late celebrated Khichi[26] leader, Jai Singh, never took the field without the god before him. ‘Victory to Bajrang’ was his signal for the charge so dreaded by the Mahratta, and often has the deity been sprinkled with his blood and that of the foe. Their ancestors, who opposed Alexander, did the same, and carried the image of Hercules (Baldeva) at the head of their array.[27]

ЗнамЕНА. —The custom (says Arrian) of presenting banners as an emblem of sovereignty over vassals, also obtained amongst the tribes of the Indus when invaded by Alexander. When he conquered the Saka and tribes east of the Caspian, he divided the provinces amongst the princes of the ancient families, for which they paid homage, engaged to serve with a certain quota of troops, and received from his own hand a banner; in all of which he followed the customs of the country. But in these we see only the outline of the system; we must descend to more modern days to observe it more minutely. A grand picture is drawn of the power of Mewar, when the first grand irruption of the Muhammadans occurred in the first century of their era; when “a hundred[28] kings, its allies and dependents, had their thrones raised in Chitor,” for its defence and their own individually [139], when a new religion, propagated by the sword of conquest, came to enslave these realms. This invasion was by Sind and Makran; for it was half a century later ere ‘the light’ shone from the heights of Pamir[29] on the plains of the Jumna and Ganges.

С момента начала этой религиозной войны в горах к западу от Инда прошло немало веков, прежде чем «Царь Веры» занял престол Юдхиштхиры. Бард Чанд оставил нам различные ценные свидетельства этого периода, имеющие значение как в историческом плане, так и для данной темы. Висаладева, монарх, чье имя высечено на колонне победы в Дели, повел войско против захватчика, и в нем, по словам барда, «собрались знамена восемьдесят четырех князей». Бард с большим воодушевлением описывает призыв, разосланный для этого великолепного феодального ополчения из самого сердца Антальбеди к берегам западного моря, и это совпадает с хроникой его победы, которую, скорее всего, принесло ему именно это войско. Однако не существует более прекрасной картины феодальных нравов, чем история Притхвираджа, содержащаяся в поэмах Чанда. Удивительно, как этот эпос мог так долго оставаться в забвении: доскональное знание его и других произведений подобного рода открыло бы множество источников новых познаний и позволило бы проследить немало любопытных и интересных совпадений.

Вникая в эти предания о днях минувших, можно прийти к выводу, что курултай татар, чауган раджпутов и Марсово поле франков имели единое общее происхождение.

Влияние касты. —Caste has for ever prevented the inferior classes of society from being incorporated with this haughty noblesse. Only those of pure blood in both lines can hold fiefs of the crown. The highest may marry the daughter of a Rajput, whose sole [140] possession is a ‘skin of land’:[32] the sovereign himself is not degraded by such alliance. There is no moral blot, and the operation of a law like the Salic would prevent any political evil resulting therefrom. Titles are granted, and even fiefs of office, to ministers and civil servants not Rajputs; they are, however, but official, and never confer hereditary right. These official fiefs may have originally arisen, here and in Europe, from the same cause; the want of a circulating medium to pay the offices. The Mantris[33] of Mewar prefer estates to pecuniary stipend, which gives more consequence in every point of view. All the higher offices—as cup-bearer, butler, stewards of the household, wardrobe, kitchen, master of the horse—all these are enumerated as ministerialists[34] at the court of Charlemagne in the dark ages of Europe, and of whom we have the duplicates. These are what the author of the Middle Ages designates as “improper feuds.”[35] In Mewar the prince’s architect, painter, physician, bard, genealogist, heralds, and all the generation of the foster-brothers, hold lands. Offices are hereditary in this patriarchal government; their services personal. The title even appends to the family, and if the chance of events deprive them of the substance, they are seldom left destitute. It is not uncommon to see three or four with the title of pardhan or premier.[36]

Но прежде чем углубляться в эти беглые и общие замечания, я изложу основные детали системы, существовавшей в былые времена и частично сохраняющейся поныне в княжестве раны Мевара. Поскольку его география и территориальное деление подробно описаны в соответствующем месте, я должен отсылать читателя туда для предварительного понимания его местности.

Владения вождя и государственные земли. —The local disposition of the estates was admirably contrived. Bounded on three sides, the south, east, and west, by marauding barbarous tribes of Bhils, Mers, and Minas, the circumference of this circle was subdivided into estates for the chiefs, while the khalisa, or fiscal land, the best and richest, was in the heart of the country, and consequently well protected [141]. It appears doubtful whether the khalisa lands amounted to one-fourth of those distributed in grant to the chiefs. The value of the crown demesne as the nerve and sinew of sovereignty, was well known by the former heads of this house. To obtain any portion thereof was the reward of important services; to have a grant of a few acres near the capital for a garden was deemed a high favour; and a village in the amphitheatre or valley, in which the present capital is situated, was the ne plus ultra of recompense. But the lavish folly of the present prince, out of this tract, twenty-five miles in circumference, has not preserved a single village in his khalisa. By this distribution, and by the inroads of the wild tribes in the vicinity, or of Moguls and Mahrattas, the valour of the chiefs were kept in constant play.

Страна была разделена на округа, каждый из которых насчитывал от пятидесяти до ста городов и селений, хотя иногда это число превышало указанную пропорцию. Большое количество чораси наводит на мысль, что участки в размере восемьдесят четырех единиц являлись общим подразделением. Многие из них существуют и поныне, как, например, «чораси» Джахазпура и Кумбхалмера, эквивалентные старым «сотням» наших саксонских предков. Была создана цепь постов, в пределах которых контингенты вождей несли службу под началом «фауджара симы» (в просторечии — симы), или командующего пограничной стражей. Было признано целесообразным назначать этого владыку приграничья из числа придворных; его неизменно сопровождала часть королевских регалий — штандарт, литавры и глашатаи. Будучи, как правило, гражданским чиновником, он совмещал свою военную должность с отправлением правосудия. Высшие вассалы никогда не являлись на эти посту лично, а направляли доверенного члена своей семьи с требуемым контингентом. Для управления округами назначались совместно гражданский и военный чиновники: последний, как правило, был вассалом второго ранга. Их резиденцией служило главное селение округа, обычно представлявшее собой укрепленный пункт.

Деление вождей на четкие разряды свидетельствует о крайне искусственном состоянии общества.

Первый класс. — К нему относятся Шестнадцать, чьи земельные владения приносят от пятидесяти до ста тысяч рупий годового дохода и выше. Они предстают перед светлыи очами [правителя] лишь по специальному приглашению, во время празднеств и торжественных церемоний, и являются наследственными советниками короны.

Второй класс — с доходами от пяти до пятидесяти тысяч рупий. Их обязанность — постоянно находиться при дворе. Из них главным образом набираются фауджары и военачальники.

Третий класс — это голы, владеющие землями с доходом преимущественно до пяти тысяч рупий, хотя по милости правителя этот предел может быть превышен. Обычно они владеют отдельными деревнями и земельными участками, и в прежние времена они составляли наиболее полезный для правителя класс. Они всегда находились при его особе и фактически образовывали его опору против любых союзов или проявлений оппозиции со стороны высших вассалов.

Четвертый класс. — Ответвления младших ветвей собственного рода раны, появившиеся в течение определенного периода, именуются бабами, буквально «младенцами», и им выделяются уделы. К этому классу относятся Шахпура и Банера; они слишком могущественны для подданных. Они не подчиняются ни одному из условий великих кланов, но считают себя всецело зависящими от воли правителя. Они в большей степени подвержены влиянию короны. Допущение усыновления в эти дома, за исключением случаев близкого родства, несомненно, является нововведением; при пресечении прямого потомства они должны возвращаться в собственность короны, как это произошло с крупным владением Бхаинсроргарх два поколения назад. Начиная с них и вплоть до владельца чарсы, или шкуры земли, особенности ленов и обязанности каждого станут предметом обсуждения.

Доходы и права короны. —I need not here expatiate upon the variety of items which constitute the revenues of the prince, the details of which will appear in their proper place. The land-tax in the khalisa demesne is, of course, the chief source of supply; the transit duties on commerce and trade, and those of the larger towns and commercial marts, rank next. In former times more attention was paid to this important branch of income, and the produce was greater because less shackled. The liberality on the side of the crown was only equalled by the integrity of the merchant, and the extent to which it was carried would imply an almost Utopian degree of perfection in their mutual qualities of liberality and honesty; the one, perhaps, generating the other. The remark of a merchant recently, on the vexatious train of duties and espionage attending their collection, is not merely figurative: "our ancestors tied their invoice to the horns of the oxen[42] at the first frontier post of customs, and no intermediate questions [143] were put till we passed to the opposite or sold our goods, when it was opened and payment made accordingly; but now every town has its rights." It will be long ere this degree of confidence is restored on either side; extensive demand on the one is met by fraud and evasion on the other, though at least one-half of these evils have already been subdued.

Рудники и полезные ископаемые. —The mines were very productive in former times, and yielded several lacs to the princes of Mewar.[43] The rich tin mines of Jawara produced at one time a considerable proportion of silver. Those of copper are abundant, as is also iron on the now alienated domain on the Chambal; but lead least of all.[44]

Мраморные карьеры также пополняли казну; и когда имеется столь многочисленное множество источников, ни один из них не считается слишком незначительным, чтобы не быть задействованным в эти времена нужды.

Барар. —Barar is an indefinite term for taxation, and is connected with the thing taxed: as ghanim-barar,[45] ‘war-tax’; ghar ginti-barar,[46] ‘house-tax’; hal-barar, ‘plough-tax’; neota-barar, ‘marriage-tax’; and others, both of old and new standing. The war-tax was a kind of substitute for the regular mode of levying the rents on the produce of the soil; which was rendered very difficult during the disturbed period, and did not accord with the wants of the prince. It is also a substitute in those mountainous regions, for the jarib,[47] where the produce bears no proportion to the cultivated surface; sometimes from poverty of soil, but often from the reverse, as in Kumbhalmer, where the choicest crops are produced on the cultivated terraces, and on the sides of its mountains, which abound with springs, yielding the richest canes and cottons, and where experiment has proved that four crops can be raised in the same patch of soil within the year.

Подношение при утверждении владений (или штраф за возобновление) представляет собой в настоящее время пусть и весьма незначительный, но все же один из источников пополнения казны, равно как и ежегодная или триеннальная уплата оброчных податей вождями бхумиа. Можно также упомянуть штрафы в возмещение правонарушений; и они могли бы быть больше, если бы в деле выявления правонарушителей проявлялось больше активности.

Эти правительства проводят мягкую уголовную политику; и крупный штраф оказывает больший эффект (особенно на горные племена), нежели казнь преступника, который страшится смерти меньше, чем лишения имущества.

Кхар-лакар. —The composition for ‘wood and forage’ afforded a considerable supply. When the princes of Mewar were oftener in the tented field than in the palace, combating for their preservation, it was the duty of every individual to store up wood and forage for the supply of the prince’s army. What originated in necessity was converted into an abuse and annual demand. The towns also supplied a certain portion of provisions; where the prince halted for the day these were levied on the community; a goat or sheep from the shepherd, milk and flour from the farmer. The maintenance of these customs is observable in taxes, for the origin of which it is impossible to assign a reason without going into the history of the period; they scarcely recollect the source of some of these themselves. They are akin to those known under the feudal tenures of France, arising from exactly the same causes, and commuted for money payments; such as the droit de giste et de chevauche.[48] Many also originated in the perambulations of these princes to visit their domains;[49] a black year in the calendar to the chief and the subject. When he honoured the chief by a visit, he had to present horses and arms, and to entertain his prince, in all which honours the cultivators and merchants had to share. The duties on the sale of spirits, opium, tobacco, and even to a share of the garden-stuff, affords also modes of supply [145].[50]

1. Miscellaneous Works, vol. iii.

2. Hallam’s Middle Ages.

3. It is a high gratification to be supported by such authority as M. St. Martin, who, in his Discours sur l’Origine et l’Histoire des Arsacides, thus speaks of the system of government termed feudal, which I contend exists amongst the Rajputs: "On pense assez généralement que cette sorte de gouvernement qui dominait il y a quelques siècles, et qu’on appelle système féodal, était particulière à l’Europe, et que c’est dans les forêts de la Germanie qu’il faut en chercher l’origine. Cependant, si au lieu d’admettre les faits sans les discuter, comme il arrive trop souvent, on examinait un peu cette opinion, elle disparaitrait devant la critique, ou du moins elle se modifierait singulièrement; et l’on verrait que, si c’est des forêts de la Germanie que nous avons tiré le gouvernement féodal, il n’en est certainement pas originaire. Si l’on veut comparer l’Europe, telle qu’elle était au xii e siècle, avec la monarchie fondée en Asie par les Arsacides trois siècles avant notre ère, partout on verra des institutions et des usages pareils. On y trouvera les mêmes dignités, et jusqu’aux mêmes titres, etc., etc. Boire, chasser, combattre, faire et défaire des rois, c’étaient là les nobles occupations d’un Parthe" (Journal Asiatique, vol. i. p. 65). It is nearly so with the Rajput.

4. Gibbon, Miscell. vol. iii. Du gouvernement féodal.

5. A ‘skin or hyde.’ Millar (chap. v. p. 85) defines a ‘hyde of land,’ the quantity which can be cultivated by a single plough. A charsa, ‘skin or hyde’ of land, is as much as one man can water; and what one can water is equal to what one plough can cultivate. If irrigation ever had existence by the founders of the system, we may suppose this the meaning of the term which designated a knight’s fee. It may have gone westward with emigration. [The English ‘hide’: “the amount considered adequate for the support of one free family with its dependants: at an early date defined as being as much land as could be tilled by one plough in a year,” has no connexion with ‘hide,’ ‘a skin.’ It is O.E. hīd, from híw, híg, ‘household.’ ‘household.’ ‘Hide,’ ‘a skin,’ is O.E. hýd (New English Dict. ssv.).]

6. Bapji, ‘sire,’ is the appellation of royalty, and, strange enough, whether to male or female; while its offsets, which form a numerous branch of vassals, are called babas, ‘the infants.’

7. Hallam’s Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 200.

8. Sanskrit, Sūla.

9. See Appendix, No. XII.

10. See Appendix, No. XIII.

11. See Appendix, No. XIV.

12. ‘Full moon’ (See Appendix, No. XIII.).

13. It is customary, when officers of the Government are detached on service, to exact from the towns where they are sent both bed and board.

14. Seized for public service, and frequently to exact a composition in money.

15. Hallam, vol. i. p. 197.

16. Some of these, of old date, I have seen three feet in length.

17. Hallam, vol. i. p. 199.

18. Hallam notices these laws by this technical phrase.

19. Sesodia is the last change of name which the Rana’s race has undergone. It was first Suryavansa, then Grahilot or Guhilot, Aharya, and Sesodia. These changes arise from revolutions and local circumstances.

20. [The Rāthor dynasty of Kanauj is a myth (Smith, EHI, 385).]

21. Nala and Damayanti.

22. Relations anciennes des Voyageurs, par Renaudot.

23. It is generally admitted that armorial bearings were little known till the period of the Crusades, and that they belong to the east. The twelve tribes of Israel were distinguished by the animals on their banners, and the sacred writings frequently allude to the ‘Lion of Judah.’ The peacock was a favourite armorial emblem of the Rajput warrior; it is the bird sacred to their Mars (Kumara), as it was to Juno, his mother, in the west. The feather of the peacock decorates the turban of the Rajput and the warrior of the Crusade, adopted from the Hindu through the Saracens. “Le paon a toujours été l’emblême de la noblesse. Plusieurs chevaliers ornaient leurs casques des plumes de cet oiseau; un grand nombre de familles nobles le portaient dans leur blazon ou sur leur cimier; quelques-uns n’en portaient que la queue” (Art. “Armoirie,” Dict. de l’ancien Régime).

24. I was the first European who traversed this wild country, in 1807, not without some hazard. It was then independent: about three years after it fell a prey to Sindhia. [Several ancient dynasties used a crest (lānchhana), and a banner (dhvaja): see the list in BG, i. Part ii. 299.]

25. The monkey-deity. [Known as Bajrang, Skt. vajranga, ‘of powerful frame.’]

26. The Khichis are a branch of the Chauhans, and Khichiwara lies east of Haravati.

27. [Quintus Curtius, viii. 14, 46; Arrian, Indika, viii.]

28. See Annals of Mewar, and note from D’Anville.

29. The Pamir range is a grand branch of the Indian Caucasus. Chand, the bard, designates them as the “Parbat Pat Pamir,” or Pamir Lord of Mountains. From Pahār and Pamir the Greeks may have compounded Paropanisos, in which was situated the most remote of the Alexandrias. [?]

30. The space between the grand rivers Ganges and Jumna, well known as the Duab.

31. Domestic habits and national manners are painted to the life, and no man can well understand the Rajput of yore who does not read these. Those were the days of chivalry and romance, when the assembled princes contended for the hand of the fair, who chose her own lord, and threw to the object of her choice, in full court, the barmala, or garland of marriage. Those were the days which the Rajput yet loves to talk of, when the glance of an eye weighed with a sceptre: when three things alone occupied him: his horse, his lance, and his mistress; for she is but the third in his estimation, after all: to the two first he owed her.

32. Charsa, a ‘hide or skin’ [see p. 156 above].

33. ‘Ministers,’ from Mantra, ‘mystification’ [‘a sacred text, spell’].

34. It is probably of Teutonic origin, and akin to Mantri, which embraces all the ministers and councillors of loyalty (Hallam, p. 195). [?]

35. Hallam, p. 193.

36. One I know, in whose family the office has remained since the period of Prithwiraja, who transferred his ancestor to the service of the Rana’s house seven hundred years ago. He is not merely a nominal hereditary minister, for his uncle actually held the office; but in consequence of having favoured the views of a pretender to the crown, its active duties are not entrusted to any of the family.

37. The numeral eighty-four. [In the ancient Hindu kingdoms the full estate was a group of 84 villages, smaller units being called Byālisa, 42, or Chaubīsa Chaubīsa, 24 (Baden-Powell, The Village Community, 198, and see a valuable article in Elliot, Supplemental Glossary, 178 ff.) 178 ff.)]

38. Now each chief claims the right of administering justice in his own domain, that is, in civil matters; but in criminal cases they ought not without the special sanction of the crown. Justice, however, has long been left to work its own way, and the self-constituted tribunals, the panchayats, sit in judgment in all cases where property is involved.

39. See Appendix, No. XX.

40. [They are heads of the Rānāwat sub-tribe. The latter enjoys the right, on succession, of having a sword sent to him with full honours, on receipt of which he goes to Udaipur to be installed (Erskine ii. A. 92).]

42. Oxen and carts are chiefly used in the Tandas, or caravans, for transportation of goods in these countries; camels further to the north.

43. [On the mines of Mewār, see IA, i. 63 f.]

44. The privilege of coining is a reservation of royalty. No subject is allowed to coin gold or silver, though the Salumbar chief has on sufferance a copper currency. The mint was a considerable source of income, and may be again when confidence is restored and a new currency introduced. The Chitor rupee is now thirty-one per cent inferior to the old Bhilara standard, and there was one struck at the capital even worse, and very nearly as bad as the moneta nigra of Philip the Fair of France, who allowed his vassals the privilege of coining it. [For an account of the past and present coinage of Mewār, see W. W. Webb, Currencies of the Hindu States of Rajputana, 3 ff.]

45. Enemy.

46. Numbering of houses.

47. A measure of land [usually 55 English yards]

48. Hallam, vol. i. p. 232.

49. Hume describes the necessity for our earlier kings making these tours to consume the produce, being in kind. So it is in Mewar; but I fancy the supply was always too easily convertible into circulating medium to be the cause there.

50. See Appendix, No. X.

ГЛАВА 2

Законодательная власть. —During the period still called ‘the good times of Mewar,’ the prince, with the aid of his civil council, the four ministers of the crown and their deputies, promulgated all the legislative enactments in which the general rights and wants of the community were involved. In these the martial vassals or chiefs had no concern: a wise exclusion, comprehending also their immediate dependents, military, commercial, and agricultural. Even now, the little that is done in these matters is effected by the civil administration, though the Rajput Pardhans have been too apt to interfere in matters from which they ought always to be kept aloof, being ever more tenacious of their own rights than solicitous for the welfare of the community.

Панчаяты. —The neglect in the legislation of late years was supplied by the self-constituted tribunals, the useful panchayats, of which enough has been said to render further illustration unnecessary. Besides the resident ruler of the district, who was also a judicial functionary, there was, as already stated, a special officer of the government in each frontier thana, or garrison post. He united the triple occupation of embodying the quotas, levying the transit duties, and administering justice, in which he was aided at the chabutra[1] or court, by assembling the Chauthias or assessors of justice. Each town and village has its chauthia, the members of which are elected by their fellow-citizens, and remain as long as they conduct themselves impartially in disentangling the intricacies of complaints preferred to them.

Они являются помощниками нагарсетха, главного магистрата, чья должность является наследственной в каждом крупном городе Раджастхана. В состав этой чотией обычно входят пател и патвари. Первый из них, подобно дасаундхи маратхов, по своим обязанностям напоминает декануса во Франции и титинга в Англии. Чотией и панчаят этих округов аналогичны судебным заседателям, именуемым во Франции scabini, которые занимали свою должность по выбору или при согласии народа. Однако таковые представляют собой особый и постоянный совет каждого города; общие же панчаяты формируются из уважаемых представителей широких слоев населения, а в прежние времена — из всех классов общества.

Чабуртры, или террасы правосудия, всегда учреждались в кхалисе, то есть на коронных землях. Считалось унизительным вторжением, если они заседали в пределах владений какого-либо вождя. «Водрузить знамя» в его границах — будь то для создания оборонительных постов или сбора пошлин — рассматривается как грубое нарушение его привилегированной независимости, равно как учреждение их в стенах его резиденции считалось бы равносильным секвестру. Нередко возникает необходимость принудить к исполнению правосудия вождя или его зависимого человека, однако это порождает бесконечные споры и неповиновение, пока в конце концов их не изнурят до подчинения с помощью розины.

Розина. —When delay in these matters, or to the general commands of the prince, is evinced, an officer or herald is deputed with a party of four, ten, or twenty horse or foot, to the fief of the chief, at whose residence they take up their abode; and carrying, under the seal, a warrant to furnish them with specified daily (rozina) rations, they live at free quarters till he is quickened into compliance with the commands of the prince. This is the only accelerator of the slow movements of a Rajput chieftain in these days, whether for his appearance at court or the performance of an act of justice. It is often carried to a harassing excess, and causes much complaint.

В делах, касающихся отправления правосудия или внутреннего устройства владений вождей, правительственные чиновники вмешиваются редко. Однако относительно их панчаятов я замечу лишь то, что их значение среди вассалов весьма велико; и когда они говорят о «панче», это означает «совокупную мудрость». В ответ на протест вассалов Деогарха вождь обещает никогда не предпринимать никаких мер без их обсуждения и одобрения.

По всем важным поводам, когда возникает угроза всеобщему миру или спокойствию государства, вожди составляют совет суверена. Подобные вопросы всегда предварительно обсуждаются на внутренних советах каждого вождя; так что, когда созывался витенагемот Мевара, каждый был подготовлен предшествующим обсуждением и подкреплен обилием советов.

Быть исключенным из совета правителя означает находиться в полном немилости. Эти грандиозные диваны вызывают бесчисленные рассуждения, и разветвления, формирующие мнения, весьма обширны. Совет каждого вождя представляет собой, по сути, миниатюрное отражение совета суверена. Старшие подвассалы, его гражданский пардхан, мажордом двора, пурохит, бард и два-три наиболее интеллигентных горожанина образуют малые советы, и все они ведут совещания отдельно, в то время как высший суд ведет дискуссию. Таким образом собирается мудрость магнатов Раджвары.

Военная служба. —In Mewar, during the days of her glory and prosperity, fifteen thousand horse, bound by the ties of fidelity and service, followed their prince into the field, all supported by lands held by grant; from the chief who headed five hundred of his own vassals, to the single horseman.

Рыцарский лен или одиночные всадники. —A knight’s fee in these States varies. For each thousand rupees of annual rent, never less than two, and generally three horsemen were furnished; and sometimes three horse and three foot soldiers, according to the exigencies of the times when the grant was conferred. The different grants[6] appended will show this variety, and furnish additional proof that this, and all similar systems of policy, must be much indebted to chance for the shape they ultimately take. The knight’s fee, when William the Conqueror partitioned England into sixty thousand such portions, from each of which a soldier’s service was due, was fixed at £20. Each portion furnished its soldier or paid escuage. The knight’s fee of Mewar may be said to be two hundred and fifty rupees, or about £30.

Ограничения службы. —In Europe, service was so restricted that the monarch had but a precarious authority. He could only calculate upon forty days’ annual service from the tenant of a knight’s fee. In Rajasthan it is very different: “at home and abroad, service shall be performed when demanded”; such is the condition of the tenure.

Для парада и демонстрации мощи часть великих вассалов проживает в столице в течение нескольких месяцев, после чего они получают разрешение удалиться в свои владения, и их сменяет другая часть. Во время главного военного празднества все они присутствуют в течение определенного времени; а когда правитель выступал в поход, все они собирались за собственный счет, но если военные действия уводили их за пределы границы, им выделялись определенные рационы.

Эскуаж, или скутаж. —Escuage or scutage, the phrase in Europe to denote the amercement[8] for non-attendance, is also known and exemplified in deeds. Failure from disaffection, turbulence, or pride, brought a heavy fine; the sequestration of the whole or part of the estate.[9] The princes of these States would willingly desire to see escuage more general. All have made this first attempt towards an approximation to a standing army; but, though the chiefs would make compensation to get rid of some particular service, they are very reluctant to renounce lands, by which alone a fixed force could be maintained. The rapacity of the court would gladly fly to scutages, but in the present impoverished state of the fiefs, such if injudiciously levied would be almost equivalent to resumption; but this measure is so full of difficulty as to be almost impracticable.

Неэффективность этой формы правления. —Throughout Rajasthan the character and welfare of the States depend on that of the sovereign: he is the mainspring of the system—the active power to set and keep in motion all these discordant materials; if he relax, each part separates, and moves in a narrow sphere of its own. Yet will the impulse of one great mind put the machine in regular movement, which shall endure during two or three imbecile successors, if no fresh exterior force be applied to check it. It is a system full of defects; yet we see them so often balanced by virtues, that we are alternately biassed by these counteracting qualities; loyalty and patriotism, which combine a love of the institutions, religion, and manners of the country, are the counterpoise to systematic evil. In no country has the system ever proved efficient. It has been one of eternal excitement and irregular action; inimical to order, and the repose deemed necessary after conflict for recruiting the national strength. The absence of an external foe was but the signal for disorders within, which increased to a terrific height in the feuds of the two great rival factions of Mewar, the clans of [149] Chondawat[10] and Saktawat,[11] as the weakness of the prince augmented by the abstraction of his personal domain, and the diminution of the services of the third class of vassals (the Gol), the personal retainers of the crown; but when these feuds broke out, even with the enemy at their gates, it required a prince of great nerve and talent to regulate them. Yet is there a redeeming quality in the system, which, imperfect as it is, could render such perilous circumstances but the impulse to a rivalry of heroism.

Соперничество субкланов Чондават и Сактават. —When Jahangir had obtained possession of the palladium of Mewar, the ancient fortress of Chitor, and driven the prince into the wilds and mountains of the west, an opportunity offered to recover some frontier lands in the plains, and the Rana with all his chiefs was assembled for the purpose. But the Saktawats asserted an equal privilege with their rivals to form the vanguard;[12] a right which their indisputable valour (perhaps superior to that of the other party) rendered not invalid. The Chondawats claimed it as an hereditary privilege, and the sword would have decided the matter but for the tact of the prince. “The harawal to the clan which first enters Untala,” was a decision which the Saktawat leader quickly heard; while the other could no longer plead his right, when such a gauntlet was thrown down for its maintenance.

Унтала — это пограничная крепость на равнине, примерно в восемь милях к востоку от столицы, прикрывающая дорогу, которая ведет от нее к более древней крепости Читор. Она расположена на возвышенности, у подножия ее стен протекает ручей; стены сложены из массивного камня, высоки, с круглыми башнями на определенных расстояниях. В центре находился дом коменданта, также укрепленный. Доступ в этот замок обеспечивали лишь одни ворота.

Кланы, всегда являвшиеся соперниками в могуществе, а ныне — конкурентами в славе, выступили одновременно, за несколько часов до рассвета: Унтала — в качестве цели, харавал — в качестве награды! Воодушевленные надеждой, имея перед собой в качестве объекта доблести варварского и жестокого врага, а в качестве зрителей по возвращении — своих жен и семьи, которые должны были оценить награду за предпринятое дело, и подгоняемые бардом, который воспевал хвалу каждому роду при их выступлении и требовал от каждого материалов для нового венца, они получили все стимулы, какие только могли быть у раджпута для проявления усердия.

Сактаваты направились прямо к воротам, которых достигли на рассвете, застав врага врасплох, однако стены быстро заполнились защитниками, и завязался бой. Чондаваты, менее искушенные в топографии, пересекли болото, что их задержало, но они преодолели его, к счастью встретив проводника в лице пастуха из Унталы. Проявив больше дальновидности, чем их противники, они принесли с собой лестницы. Вождь возглавил штурм, но пуля сбросила его назад среди вассалов; ему не было суждено повести за собой харавал! Каждая из сторон была остановлена. Сактават рассчитывал на слона, на котором ехал, чтобы проникнуть внутрь, выбив ворота, однако торчавшие на них шипы удерживали животное от применения силы. Его люди падали вокруг него рядами, когда крик со стороны другой стороны заставил его устрашиться их успеха. Он сошел со своего места, бросился на шипы и приказал погонщику под страхом немедленной смерти направить слона на него. Ворота рухнули, и по бездыханному телу своего вождя их клан ринулся в бой! Но даже эта героическая жертва жизнью не смогла купить эту честь для его клана. Безжизненный труп его соперника уже находился в Унтале, и именно это событие возвестил крик, который подтолкнул его к самопожертвованию ради чести и честолюбия. Когда вождь чондаватов пал, командование принял следующий по рангу и родству. Он был одним из тех надменных, безрассудных раджпутов, которые отличались везде, где была опасность, сражаясь не только с людьми, но и с тиграми, и его обычным прозвищем было Бенда-Тхакур («безумный вождь») из Деогарха. Когда его предводитель упал, он завернул тело в свой шарф; затем, привязав его к спине, взобрался на стену и, расчистив путь перед собой копьем, перебросил мтевое тело через парапет Унталы с криком: «Авангард — чондаватам! Мы первыми вошли внутрь!» Крик был подхвачен кланом, и вал оказался в их руках почти в момент вступления сактаватов. Моголы пали под их мечами: знамя Мевара было водружено в замке Унтала, но предводительство авангардом осталось за чондаватами.

Это не единственный пример того, как подобная ревность претворялась в благородное и патриотическое соперничество; множество других можно привести во всех крупных княжествах, но особенно среди храбрых ратхоров Марвара.

Было тонким искусством удерживать эти кланы в равновесии по отношению друг к другу; их распри не были лишены полезности, и таккт правителя часто умел извлечь из них пользу. Одна из сторон непременно оказывалась на стороне суверена, и это одно уравновешивало те дурные тенденции, о которых говорилось выше. По сей день это непрекращающаяся борьба за первенство; эпитеты «роялист» и «предатель» веками сменяли друг друга между ними в зависимости от того, какой долей монаршей милости они пользовались и какими талантами и складом характера обладали главы кланов, чтобы удерживать свое преобладание при дворе. Сактаваты уступают в численности, но обладают репутацией большей храбрости и большего гения, чем их соперники. Я склонен в целом согласиться с этим мнением; и сама уверенность в этой репутации должна служить мощным стимулом к ее поддержанию.