ravichaudhary
March 9th, 2005, 08:41 AM
THE DEFEAT OF THE JATS IN RAJASTAN, 15TH /16TH CENTURY BY THE RAJPUTS
From James Tod’s ‘ Annals and Antiquities of Rajastan.( 1829 CE)
Lt Colonel James Tods was the British emissary to the Rajput Princes, with a single mission to win them over to the side of the British, the task was not difficult, and a little flattery from James Todd was not unwelcome. They needed an ally to replace the Muslim Rulers of Delhi who had been their partrons so far. Without the Muslim help , they feared rightly that the Jats would rise again. The British provided them the necessary protection, and allowed to continue to act as tax collectors. This was the period of 1700 to 1900.
1857 was the turning point, when Bikaner and all the Rajput states bar none supported the British in suppressing India’s First war of Independence. Bikaner was at the fore, in keeping with their memory of whose land they had usurped and the atrocities they had committed on the rightful owners. The British turned a blind eye to these excesses, a reward for their loyal services.
The Jat spirit would arise again, true to the saying’ Jat mara thad janiyo, Jadh Terami ho Jaye”. “Consider the Jat dead after the death the cremation, and the required thirteen days of mourning have passed.”
In praise of these loyal servants of the Muslim rulers of Delhi and the British, no one could have put it better than Tod himself, when he wrote in presentation letter to William the 4th,
” Sire. . . … the Rajputs, making your Majesty’s enemies their own, would glory. . . … under the banner of that chivalry of which your Majesty is the head”
Another touching tribute was given by Douglas Sladden, who brought Tod’s book to publication in 1914, when he wrote “ of the [appropriately named] Zalim Singh, the great Indian Machiavelli, the Rajput Prince, who practically saved the British power in India”
Tod’s book has to be read for the data , not his interpretations. Yet he has some instincts of a good officer, and could not bring himself to negate the jat valour in its entirety. The data is there, it needs to be gleaned out
See also msg:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/message/2055
The Jat awakening in Rajastan- 20th century CE
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/message/1158
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BIKANER
Bikaner holds a secondary rank amongst the principalities of Rajpootana. It i.s an offset of Marwar, its princes being scions of the house of Joda, who established themselves by conquest on the northern frontier of the parent state and its position, in the heart of the desert, has contributed to the maintenance of their independence.
It was in S. 1515 (A.D. 1459). the year in which Joda transferred the seat of government from Mundore to Jodpoor, that his son Beeka, under the guidance of his uncle Kandul, led three hundred of the sons of Seoji to enlarge the boundaries of Rahtore dominion amidst the sands of Maroo. Beeka was stimulated to the attempt by the success of his brother Beeda, who had recently subjugated the territory inhabited by the Mohils for ages.
Such expeditions as that of Beeka, undertaken expressly for conquest, .were almost uniformly successful. The invaders set out with a determination to slay, or be slain ; and these forays had the additional stimulus of being on 'fated days,' when the warlike creed of the Rajpoots made the abstraction of territory from foe or friend a matter of religious duty.
Beeka, with his band of three hundred, fell upon lhc Sanklas of Jangloo whom they massacred. This exploit brought them in contact with the Bhattias of Poogul, the chief of which gave his daughter in marriage to Beeka, who fixed his headquarters at Korumdesir, where he erected a castle, and gradually augmented his conquests from the neighborhood.
Beeka now approximated to the settlements of the Jats or Getes, who had for ages been established in these arid abodes ; and as the lands they held form a considerable portion of the state of Bikaner it may not be uninteresting to give a sketch of the condition of this singular people prior to the son of Joda establishing the feudal system of Rajwarra amongst their pastoral commonwealths.
Of this celebrated and widely-spread race, we have already given a succinct account.[1] It appears to have been the most numerous as well as the most conspicuous of the tribes of ancient Asia, from the days of Tomyris and Cyrus to those of the present Jat Prince of Lahore, whose successor, if he be endued with similar energy, may, on the reflux of population, find himself seated in their original haunts of Central Asia, to which they have already considerably advanced. [2]In the fourth century, we find the Yuti or Jit kingdom established in the Punjab[3]; but how much earlier this people colonized those regions we are ignorant. At every step made by Mahomedan power in India, it encountered the Jats. On their memorable defence of the passage of the Indus against Mahmood, and on the war of extirpation waged against them by Timoor, both in their primeval seats in Maver-ool-nehr, as well as east of the Sutlej, we have already enlarged; while Baber, in his commentaries, informs us that, in all his irruptions into India, he was assailed by multitudes of Jats [4] during his progress through the Punjab, the peasantry of which region, now proselytes to Islam, are chiefly of this tribe; as well as the military retainers, who, as
sectarian followers of Nanuk, merge the name of Jit or Jat, into that of Sikh or ' disciple.' [5]
For the rest of the post see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/message/2083
From James Tod’s ‘ Annals and Antiquities of Rajastan.( 1829 CE)
Lt Colonel James Tods was the British emissary to the Rajput Princes, with a single mission to win them over to the side of the British, the task was not difficult, and a little flattery from James Todd was not unwelcome. They needed an ally to replace the Muslim Rulers of Delhi who had been their partrons so far. Without the Muslim help , they feared rightly that the Jats would rise again. The British provided them the necessary protection, and allowed to continue to act as tax collectors. This was the period of 1700 to 1900.
1857 was the turning point, when Bikaner and all the Rajput states bar none supported the British in suppressing India’s First war of Independence. Bikaner was at the fore, in keeping with their memory of whose land they had usurped and the atrocities they had committed on the rightful owners. The British turned a blind eye to these excesses, a reward for their loyal services.
The Jat spirit would arise again, true to the saying’ Jat mara thad janiyo, Jadh Terami ho Jaye”. “Consider the Jat dead after the death the cremation, and the required thirteen days of mourning have passed.”
In praise of these loyal servants of the Muslim rulers of Delhi and the British, no one could have put it better than Tod himself, when he wrote in presentation letter to William the 4th,
” Sire. . . … the Rajputs, making your Majesty’s enemies their own, would glory. . . … under the banner of that chivalry of which your Majesty is the head”
Another touching tribute was given by Douglas Sladden, who brought Tod’s book to publication in 1914, when he wrote “ of the [appropriately named] Zalim Singh, the great Indian Machiavelli, the Rajput Prince, who practically saved the British power in India”
Tod’s book has to be read for the data , not his interpretations. Yet he has some instincts of a good officer, and could not bring himself to negate the jat valour in its entirety. The data is there, it needs to be gleaned out
See also msg:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/message/2055
The Jat awakening in Rajastan- 20th century CE
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/message/1158
****************************************
BIKANER
Bikaner holds a secondary rank amongst the principalities of Rajpootana. It i.s an offset of Marwar, its princes being scions of the house of Joda, who established themselves by conquest on the northern frontier of the parent state and its position, in the heart of the desert, has contributed to the maintenance of their independence.
It was in S. 1515 (A.D. 1459). the year in which Joda transferred the seat of government from Mundore to Jodpoor, that his son Beeka, under the guidance of his uncle Kandul, led three hundred of the sons of Seoji to enlarge the boundaries of Rahtore dominion amidst the sands of Maroo. Beeka was stimulated to the attempt by the success of his brother Beeda, who had recently subjugated the territory inhabited by the Mohils for ages.
Such expeditions as that of Beeka, undertaken expressly for conquest, .were almost uniformly successful. The invaders set out with a determination to slay, or be slain ; and these forays had the additional stimulus of being on 'fated days,' when the warlike creed of the Rajpoots made the abstraction of territory from foe or friend a matter of religious duty.
Beeka, with his band of three hundred, fell upon lhc Sanklas of Jangloo whom they massacred. This exploit brought them in contact with the Bhattias of Poogul, the chief of which gave his daughter in marriage to Beeka, who fixed his headquarters at Korumdesir, where he erected a castle, and gradually augmented his conquests from the neighborhood.
Beeka now approximated to the settlements of the Jats or Getes, who had for ages been established in these arid abodes ; and as the lands they held form a considerable portion of the state of Bikaner it may not be uninteresting to give a sketch of the condition of this singular people prior to the son of Joda establishing the feudal system of Rajwarra amongst their pastoral commonwealths.
Of this celebrated and widely-spread race, we have already given a succinct account.[1] It appears to have been the most numerous as well as the most conspicuous of the tribes of ancient Asia, from the days of Tomyris and Cyrus to those of the present Jat Prince of Lahore, whose successor, if he be endued with similar energy, may, on the reflux of population, find himself seated in their original haunts of Central Asia, to which they have already considerably advanced. [2]In the fourth century, we find the Yuti or Jit kingdom established in the Punjab[3]; but how much earlier this people colonized those regions we are ignorant. At every step made by Mahomedan power in India, it encountered the Jats. On their memorable defence of the passage of the Indus against Mahmood, and on the war of extirpation waged against them by Timoor, both in their primeval seats in Maver-ool-nehr, as well as east of the Sutlej, we have already enlarged; while Baber, in his commentaries, informs us that, in all his irruptions into India, he was assailed by multitudes of Jats [4] during his progress through the Punjab, the peasantry of which region, now proselytes to Islam, are chiefly of this tribe; as well as the military retainers, who, as
sectarian followers of Nanuk, merge the name of Jit or Jat, into that of Sikh or ' disciple.' [5]
For the rest of the post see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/message/2083