________________
194 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXX ruler. There is no reference to the Sär oooupation of Chitor in Tod's work which is mainly based on the Rajput chronicles. While briefly describing Sher Shāh's campaigns in Rājputāna'ngainst Maladeve, the powerful Räthor king of Jodhpur, Wolseley Haig says, "He (Sher Shah) left Khavass Khan and 'Isa Khan Niyazl to establish his authority in Marwar and marched to Chitor, the keys of which were sent to him by the officer who held it on behalf of Rāņā Uday Singh of Mowar." Quanungo observes, "He (Sher Shah) spent fow months at Agra and rejoined his camp at Ajmir about the middle of June 1544. From Ajmir he marched towards Chitor which ho onsily aoquired ... Mowar had not yet recovered from the evil effeots of the oivil dissensions which ended with tbe installation of the boy king Udai Singh in 1542 A.D. (see Tod's Rajasthan, pp. 33033). Chitor was placed in charge of Shams Khan, a brother of Khawas Khan (Dorn's History of the Afghans, p. 140), Mian Ahmed Sarwani and Husain Khan Khalji (Abbas MS, p. 235)."? Ojha quotes Abbas Sarwani's Tarikh-i-Sher Shāhi", according to which Sher Shah advanced against Chitor in A.H. 950 (1543 A.D.) after having dispersed Mäladeva's forces : "Sher Shah...... marchod towards the fort of Chitor. When he was yet 12 Kos from the fort of Chitor, the Raja who was its ruler sent him the keys. When Sher Shāh came to Chitor, he left in it the younger brother of Khawās Khăn, Mian Ahmad Sarwani and Hussain Khăn Khilji. Sher Shāh himself marched towards Kachwara." But in this connection the author of the Udaypur Rajyaka Ithihas observes, " It was almost the beginning of Udayasimha's reign, Thus it is possible that Udayasimha considered it unwise to fight with Sher Shāh and managed to send him away after making peace with him. Neither the Persian histories nor the local chronicles explain, as is expected in such Omso, how Chitor came baok into Udayasimha's possession [after its occupation by the gūro)." N. B. Roy, author of The Successors of Sher Shah, does not suggest that any of the later Sürs had anything to do with Mewar. While describing Sher Shah's achievements in Rajputānā, Quanungo does not clearly state that any of the Rājput rulers acknowledged the suzerainty of the gür emperor. Roy is likewise silent on the point as to how long the Sūrs succeeded in maintaining the position gained in Rajputānā by the founder of their house. The inscription under study, however, suggests that Rana Udayasimha of Mewis not only acknowledged the suzerainty of Sher Shah but even continued his allegiance to the Sūr dynasty down to the early years of the reign of Islam Shah, son and successor of that monarch. There is no reason to believe that Islam Shah, represented as the overlord of the Rāņā in October-November, 1547 A.D., himself subdued Udayasitaha. The mention of the Rāņā as the ruler of Kumbhalamera in our record seems to suggest that he was staying at the fort of Kumbhalgach till the end of 1547 A.D. while the fortress of Chitor continued to be in the possession of the Afghan governors employed by the Sür emperors. Apparently the presence of a strong Afghan garrison at Chitor prevented Udayasimha from throwing off the sur yoke.
When exactly the Räņa succeeded in freeing himself from the domination of the Sürs is difficult to determine in the present state of our knowledge. After the celebrated Afgan general
1 Camb. Hist. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 65. • Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, Vol. IV, p. 406. • Op. olt. p. 718.
Professor Tiwari informs me that tho Amarakavya (MS No. 14938 of the Saraswati Bhandar, Udaipur, folio 32a) representa Udayasite as an independent monarch and speaks of several engagements between the Rink and Shor Shah, while the Vash davall, No. 872, states that Udayasitha defeated the Pathane. But we can hardly rely on these traditions. It is well known that the Mughal om peror Akbar defeated Udayasimha and ocou piod considerable part of Mewar including its capital Chitor and that the Rāņā was compelled to take sheltor in the southern part of his dominions. In spite of this, the chroniolors of Mewar continued to reprosent Udayasitha as one who humbled the Mughal emperor (cf. above, Vol. XXIV, p. 68, verse 39). For Tiwari's views, see IHQ, Vol. Xxx, pp. 311 ff.; Journ. Bomb. Univ., July 1955, pp. 10-11 and notes. He relies too much on the Rajput traditions, for the untrustworthiness of which, see remarks on the evidence of the Rajaprofantibdoya, abovo, Vol. XXX, App., p. 118.
Shah, pp. 332-33
