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216
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
the armies were not numbered." The king brought out fifty-two male elephants with short tasks, and sixteen hundred tuskers. There was altogether a circle of ninety hundred elephants, while above them hovered war-balloons. The mountaineers came down from the mountains, and the Lâkats started armed with swords. (330) Bangâlîs mighty in arms came from Bangâl and Mar'haṭṭas (Marâthâs), whose (cannons took) balls weighing full nine mans," 66 came from the South. Nine hundred cannons belonging to the king came, besides thirteen thousand which he borrowed. Fifty-two carts were loaded with flints, fifty-three with gunpowder, and thirty-two with lead. Naked swords were also loaded (on carts). (335) Against one Rûdal and one Dêbâ, ninety hundred thousand horsemen started. For fifty-two kos" around he caused beat of drum to be made inviting men to come in and take advances of a hundred rupees on their monthly pay; but that if any one ran away at the time of battle, he would be loaded with nine mans of fetters.
The bugle's sounded in the battalion," (340) and the army of Lah'rå started, O gentlemen! like torrents of rain from a cloud. The horsemen who fought with gunpowder' were seven hundred and fifty thousand in number, so the army of Lah'râ started, and came within sight of the temple of Śiva. He caused guns to be set at all the fifty-two doors of the temple; so Rûdal, Rûdal, was surrounded" in the temple of Siva. (345) His heart was in a flame, and he leaped upon his horse. Then he slapped his left elbow with his right hand, and at the sound the fifty-two temples fell down. Then said king
63 The meaning of this line is very obscure. A is described as a kind of balloon in which soldiers could fight in the air.
as A Raj'pût tribe.
es About a third of a ton.
6 About 104 miles.
af is a corruption of the English 'bugle.'
is a corruption of the English 'battalion.' means here 'simply,' i.e. soldiers who fought with gunpowder, and not with other weapons.
* घिराइल is a good example of the potential passive,
a form made from the primitive root by adding and shortening the penultimate. It thus differs from the causal, which is formed by adding. Thus from ' surround,' we have potential passive घिरा p.p. घिराइल ‘surrounded,' and causal घिराव p. p. घिरा चोल 'onused to
[AUGUST, 1885.
Lah'râ Singh, O Rûdal, pay heed to my words! Depart from hence and you will be saved from your fate.' But Bagh Rûdal paid no heed, and cried saying, 'Hear the word of virtue.'" (350) From words they came to quarrelling, and then to wrangling. Who could stop the wordy warfare? Fiercely they began to ply their scimitars. 'Tar'tar tar'tar' hissed the scimitars, and 'khatar khatar' the swords, 'san'san san'san' whizzed the bullets, so that on neither side could the ears (of the warriors) bear to hear the terrible noise. A hundred and sixty horsemen, who fought with gunpowder fell, (355) for just as a carpenter cuts down the trees of the forest, so did Rûdal leap and hack. A stream, half Ganges water and half blood, flowed. Footsoldiers fell on foot-soldiers, and horsemen on horsemen. In the stream the shields floated resembling tortoises, and the swords like alligators. Knives and daggers floated like sidh'ri fish and ate up the soldiers. (360) In the battalion of ninety thousand men only ten escaped. Then Lah'râ Singh bound Rûdal with an oath to spare his life, saying, Always will I be thankful to Bagh Rûdal.' So much heard Rûdal and he was delighted, and turned back (from the attack). Then Lah'ra Singh attacked him a second time with greater violence" (365) and calling upon the name of Ali, drew his scimitar. As he struck at Rûdal, Dêvi immediately warded off the blow. Then Rûdal's heart burst into flame, and he leaped fifty-two cubits into the air, and so struck he Lah'râ that his corpse" rolled upon the earth. Away then fled the army of Lah'râ to Nainâgarh,
74
surround. The change of to is a Westernism borrowed from Hindi: cf. line 314. Usually shortens regularly to so that usually become T and घेराव.
i, e. the real fact.
13 t is a curious word. I am not quite sure of its derivation. Bate, Hindi Dict., gives at as equivalent to, but in Bhoj'puri the two words are quite distinct. means 'like, resembling,' but t, 'greater,' 'stronger,'' older :' always in a comparative sense: e.g. बर कन्या से सरेख बा, 'the bridegroom is bigger than the bride.' But one can never say simply the bridegroom is big.'
1 See above, line 223. KETT, 'quiver.'
15
, a corpse,'
