Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 3 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of IndiaTod, James
History
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 3 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of India
Tod, James
Rajasthan (India) -- History; Rajput (Indic people) -- History
The pyre was
raised, and her remains were consuming outside the city as the raja
returned from his excursion. Hastening to the spot of lamentation, and
learning the fatal issue of his artifice, he threw off the trappings
of sovereignty, put on the pilgrim’s garb, and abandoned Ujjain to
Vikrama. The only word which he uttered, as he wandered to and fro,
was the name of his faithful Pingulani! “Hae Pingula! Hae Pingula!”
The royal pilgrim at length fixed his abode at Sehwan; but although
they point out the ruins of a palace still known even to the Islamite
as the Am-khass of Raja Bhartrihari, it is admitted that the fortress
is of more ancient date. There is a _mandir_, or shrine, to the south
of the town, also called, after him, Bhartri-ka-mandir. In this the
Islamite has deposited the mortal remains of a saint named Lal Pir
Shahbaz, to whom they attribute their victorious possession of
Sind.[8.2.71.A] The cenotaph of this saint, who has the character of a
proselyte Hindu, is in the centre of the mandir, and surrounded by
wooden stakes. It is a curious spectacle to see both Islamite and
Hindu paying their devotions in the same place of worship; and
although the first is prohibited from approaching the sacred enceinte
of the Pir, yet both adore a large salagram, that vermiculated fossil
sacred to Vishnu, placed in a niche in the tomb. The fact is a curious
one, and although these Islamite adorers are the scions of conversion,
it perhaps shows in the strongest manner that this conversion was of
the sword, for, generally speaking, the converted Hindu makes the most
bigoted and intolerant Musalman. My faithful and intelligent
emissaries, Madari Lal and the Dhati, brought me a brick from the
ruins of this fortress of Sehwan. It was about a cubit in length, and
of symmetrical breadth and thickness, uncommonly well burnt, and rang
like a bell. They also brought me some charred wheat, from pits where
it had been burned. The grains were entire and reduced to a pure
carbon. Tradition is again at work, and asserts its having lain there
for some thousand years. There is very little doubt that this is the
site of one of the antagonists of the Macedonian conqueror, perhaps
Mousikanos,[8.2.71.B] or Mukh-Sehwan, the chief of Sehwan. The passage
of the Grecian down the Indus was marked by excesses not inferior to
those of the Ghaznavede king in later times, and doubtless they fired
all they could not plunder to carry to the fleet. There is also a
Nanak-bara, or place of worship sacred to Nanak, the great apostle of
the Sikhs, placed between the fortress and the river. Sehwan is
inhabited by Hindus and Islamites in equal proportions: of the former,
the mercantile tribe of Mahesri from Jaisalmer, is the most numerous,
and have been fixed here for generations. There are also many Brahmans
of the Pokharna[8.2.71.C] caste, Sunars or goldsmiths, and other Hindu
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