Morwan Chittor

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Villages around Dungla, Chittorgarh

Morwan is a village in Dungla tahsil of Chittorgarh district in Rajasthan. PIN Code:312024

Location

Founders

Mor Jats

Jat Gotras

History

James Tod[1] visted Morwun village on February 1st, 1820 and has providedus following details:

Morwun, February 1st, 1820 — Yesterday, Maun Sing took up the whole of my time with the feuds of Lawah and their consequences. It obliged me to halt, in order to make inquiries into the alienated lands in its vicinity. Morwun is, or rather was, a township of some consequence, and head of a tuppa or subdivision of a district. It is rated, with its contiguous hamlets, at seven thousand rupees annual rent. The situation is beautiful, upon heights pleasingly diversified, with a fine lake to the westward, whose margin is studded with majestic tamarind trees. The soil is rich, and there is water in great abundance within twenty-five feet of the surface ; but man is wanting ! The desolation of solitude reigns throughout, for (as Rousseau observes) there is none to whom one can turn and say, que la solitude est belle !

I experienced another pang at seeing this fertile district revert to the destroyer, the savage Pat'han, who had caused the desolation, and in the brief but expressive words of a Roman author, solitudinem facit, pacem appellat. Morwun is included in the lands mortgaged for a war-contribution, but which with others has remained in the hands of the Mahratta mortgagees or their mercenary subordinates. But it is melancholy to reflect that, but for a false magnanimity towards our insidious, natural enemies, the Mahrattas, all these lands would have reverted to their legitimate masters, who are equally interested with ourselves in putting down predatory warfare. Justice, good policy, and humanity, would have been better consulted had the Mahrattas been wholly banished from Central India. When I contrasted this scene with the traces of incipient prosperity I had left behind me, I felt a satisfaction that the alienated acres produced nothing to the possessor, save luxuriant grass, and the leafless kesoola or plas.

Morwun has some claims to antiquity ; it derives its appellation from the Mori tribe, who ruled here before they obtained Cheetore. The ruins of a fort, still known by the name of Chitrung Mori's castle, are pointed out as his residence ere he founded Cheetore, or


[p.565]: lore properly Cheetrore. The tradition runs thus: Chitrung, a subordinate of the imperial house of Dhar, held Morwun and the adjacent tract, in appanage. One of his subjects, while ploughing, struck the share against some hard substance, and on examination band it was transmuted to gold. This was the paris-puttur* or philosopher's stone,' and he carried it forthwith to his lord, with whose aid he erected the castle, and enlarged the town of Morwun, and ultimately founded Cheetore. The (dhoollcote, or site of Mori-ca-puttun, is yet pointed out, to the westward of the present Morwun.

It was miraculously destroyed through the impieties of its inhabitants by fire, which fate recalls a more celebrated catastrophe ; but the act of impiety in the present case was merely seizing a rishi, or ' hermit,' while performing penance in the forest, and compelling him to carry radishes to market ! The tradition, however, is of some value ; it proves, first, that there were radishes in those days ; and secondly, that volcanic eruptions occurred in this region. Oojein- Ahar, in the valley of Oodipoor, and the lake of which is said in some places to be a'tac, ' deeper than plummet sounded,' is another proof of some grand commotion of nature. Morwun boasts of three mindras, or temples, one of which is dedicated to Schesnag, the thousand-headed hydra which supports the globe. Formerly, saffron was the meet offering to this king of reptiles ; but he is now obliged to be content with ointment of sandal, produced from the evergreen, which is indigenous to Mewar.

Having heard of an inscription at the township of Unair, five miles distant, to the south-west, I requested my old guru to take a ride and copy it. It was of modem date, merely confirming the lands of Unair to the Brahmins. The tablet is in the temple of Chatoorabhuja (the four-armed divinity), built and endowed by Rana Singram Sing in S. 1570 (A.D. 1514) ; to whose pious testament a codicil is added by Rana Juggut Sing, S. 1791, imprecating an anathema on the violator of it. There was also engraved upon one of the columns a voluntary gift, from the village-council of Unair to the divinity, of the first-fruits of each harvest ; viz,, two and a-half seers from each kulla, or heap, of the spring-crops, and the same of the autumnal. The date, S. 1845 (A.D. 1789), shews that it was intended to propitiate the deity during the wars of Mewar.

Directly opposite, and very near the shrine of the 'four-armed,' is a small Jain temple, erected, in S. 1774, to cover an image of the great pontiff, Parswanat'h, found in digging near this spot. Here at every step are relics of past ages.

Population

Notable persons

External links

References


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