=The Asvamedha.=—Amongst the vanities of the founder of Amber, it is said that he intended to get up the ceremony of the Asvamedha yajna, or ‘sacrifice of the horse,’ a rite which his research into the traditions of his nation must have informed him had entailed destruction on all who had attempted it, from the days of Janamejaya the Pandu, to Jaichand, the last Rajput monarch of Kanauj. It was a virtual assumption of universal supremacy; and although, perhaps, in virtue of his office, as the satrap of Delhi, the horse dedicated to the sun might have wandered unmolested on the banks of the Ganges, he would most assuredly have found his way into a Rathor stable had he roamed in the direction of the desert: or at the risk both of _jiva_ and _gaddi_ (life and throne), the Hara [368] would have seized him, had he fancied the pastures of the Chambal.[9.2.40] He erected a sacrificial hall of much beauty and splendour, whose columns and ceilings were covered with plates of silver; nor is it improbable that the steed, emblematic of Surya, may have been led round the hall, and afterwards sacrificed to the solar divinity. The Yajnasala of Jai Singh, one of the great ornaments of the city, was, however, stripped of its rich decoration by his profligate descendant, the late Jagat Singh, who had not the grace even of Rehoboam, to replace them with inferior ornaments; and the noble treasures of learning which Jai Singh had collected from every quarter, the accumulated results of his own research and that of his predecessors, were divided into two portions, and one-half was given to a common prostitute, the favourite of the day. The most remarkable MSS. were, till lately, hawking about Jaipur. Sawai Jai Singh died in S. 1799 (A.D. 1743), having ruled forty-four years. Three of his wives and several concubines ascended his funeral pyre, on which science expired with him. ----- Footnote 9.2.1: [The dates of the Rājas of Jaipur are uncertain. Those in the margin are given on the authority of Beale, _Oriental Biographical Dict._ 193.] Footnote 9.2.2: For such a sketch, the materials of the Amber court are abundant; to instance only the _Kalpadruma_, a miscellaneous diary, in which everything of note was written, and a collection entitled _Ek sad nau gun Jai Singh ke_, or ‘the one hundred and nine actions of Jai Singh’ of which I have heard several narrated and noted. His voluminous correspondence with all the princes and chiefs of his time would alone repay the trouble of translation, and would throw a more perfect light on the manners and feelings of his countrymen than the most laborious lucubrations of any European. I possess an autograph letter of this prince, on one of the most important events of Indian history at this period, the deposal of Farrukhsiyar. It was addressed to the Rana. Footnote 9.2.3: [For a graphic account of Jaipur city see Rudyard Kipling, _From Sea to Sea_, chap. ii.] Footnote 9.2.4: