6
రా ణా ప్ర తా ప సిం హ చ రి త్ర
గీ॥ సప్తసంతానములఁ బ్రశస్తమయి ఖిలము
గాని దొకకృతి యన్న సత్కవులమాట
కలికి పదియాఱువన్నె బంగారుమూట
రమ్యతరమైన రతనాల రాచబాట.39
సీ॥ జ్ఞానంబునకు మూలసారమౌ నాత్మ కా
వ్యకవిత్వమని "వర్డ్సువర్తు” నుడివె;
సత్యంబునకు సౌఖ్య సంగంబు చేకూర్పఁ
జాలిన కళయంచు "జాన్స" ననియె:
నతుల సంగీతర సాత్మకంబయిన భా
వాలాపమనుచుఁ "గార్లైలు” తెలిపె
బ్రతిధావిలానంబు వాక్యదేహంబుఁ దా
ల్చిన రూపమనుచు 'షెల్లీ' వచించె
గీ॥ 'హడ్స'నాదిగ నెందఱో యాంగ్లకవులు
పద్యకవితకుఁ గల గౌరవప్రశస్తి
యట్టిదిట్టి దనంగ రాదని సహస్ర
ముఖముల నుతింప వినమొకో పూర్వమందు.40
గీ॥ దేశభక్తియుతంబు నీతిప్రబోధ
కముఘనాదర్శమగు పద్యకావ్యమొకఁడు
సరసజనములుమెచ్చ రసంబు హెచ్చ
సృష్టి సేయంగ నిపుడు యోజించుచుంటి.41
[1]క॥ విరచించునెడలఁ గల్పన
పేరయకయును నతిశయోక్తి పెంపొందకయున్
జరిగినది జరిగినట్టులు
మెఱయుటచే దేశచరిత మెప్పు వహించున్.42
[2]క॥ ఆదిగా కార్యావర్తము
త్రిదశులకును బావనమగు దేశము; దానన్
బొదలెడు నృపులు మహేంద్రుని
మదిమెచ్చరు పుణ్యవిభవమాన్యతలందున్.43
- ↑ Is it to be imagined that a nation so highly civilized as the Hindus,
amongst whom, the exact sciences, flourished in perfection, by whom, the fine
arts, architecture, scripture, poetry, music, were, not only cultivated but taught
and defined, by the nicest and most elaborate rules, were totally unacquainted,
with the simple art of recording the events of their history, the characters of their
princes and the acts of their reigns. Where such traces of mind exist, we can
hardly believe that there was a want of competent recorders of events, which
synchronical authorities tell us were worthy of commemoration. The cities of
Hastinapoor and Indraprastha, of Anhulwara and Somanath, the triumphal
columns of Delhi and Chittoor, the shrines of Aboo and Girnar, the cave temples
of Elephanta and Ellora, are so many attestations of the same fact. Nor can we
imagine that the age in which these works were erected, was, without an
historian. In the heroic history of Prithwi Raj, the last of the Hindu sovereigns
of Delhi, written by his bard Chund, we find notices, which authorise the
inference that works similar to his own, were then extant, relating to the period
between Mahammad and Shahbuddin (A. D. 1000-1193) but these have disappeared
"Annals & Antiquities of Rajasthan.” - ↑ Tbe splendour of the Rajput states however, at an early period of the
history of that country, making every allowance for the exaggeration of the bard,
must have been great. Northern India, was rich from the earliest times, thatportion of it situated on either side the Indus, formed the richest satraphy of
Darius. It has abounded in the more striking events which constitute the
materials for history. There is not a petty state in Rajasthan that has not had
its Thermopylae or scarcely a city that has not produced its Leonidos. But the
mantle of ages, has shrouded from view what the magic pen of the historian
might have consecrated to endless admiration; Somanath might have rivalled
Delphos; the spoils of Hind might have vied with the wealth of the Lybian King;
and compared with the array of the Pandus, the army of Xerxes would have
dwindled into insignificance. But the Hindus either never had or have unfortu-
nately lost their Herodotus and Xenopbon. If the moral effect of History depends
on the sympathy it excites, the annals of these states possess commanding interest.
The struggle of a brave people for independence, during a series of ages, sacrificing
whatever was dear to them for the maintenance of the religion of their forefathers
and sturdily defending to death, and in spite of every temptation, their rights and
natural liberty, form a picture wbich it is difficult to contemplate withont emotion.
Could I impart to the reader but a small portion of the enthusiastic delight with
which I have listened to the tales of times that are past amid scenes where these
events occured, I should not dispair of triumphing over the apathy which dooms
to neglect almost every effort to enlighten my native country on the subject of India.
"Colonel James Tod."
§ There is something magical in absence, it throws a deceitful medium
between us and the objects we have quitted, which exaggerates their amiable
I look upon Mewar as the
qualities and curtails the proportions of their vices.
land of my adoption and linked with it, the asscciations of my early hopes and
their actual realisation, T feel inclined to explain with reference to her and her
uomanageable children. Mewar! with all they faults, I love thee still.
I dipped the middle finger of my right hand and made the tilac on his head.
I then girt him with the sword and congratulated him in the name of my government,
declaring aloud that the British government would never cease to feel a deep
interest in all that concerned the welfare of Boondi and the young prince's family.
The mother of the young prince sent me by the hands of the family priest
the bracelet of adoption as her brother, which made by young ward, henceforth
my bhanji or nephew. '
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