Jai Singh

“ The maharaja Jai Singh, who succeeded in 1892 at the age of ten, was educated at the Mayo college, where he excelled both in sports and in knowledge of English. He came of age in 1903, when he was invested by the viceroy with full ruling powers. ”

“ Under him were deputed Dilir Khan, Daud Khan Qureshi, Rajah Rai Singh Sisodia, Ihtisham Khan Shaikhzada, Qubad Khan, Rajah Sujan Singh Bundela, Kirat Singh (a son of Jai Singh) , Mulla Yahia Nawaiyat (a Bijapuri noble who had come over to the Mughals) , and many other officers, with 14,000 troopers. (A. N. 868; Storia, ii. 120.)
After making the necessary preparations, and collecting his subordinates, Jai Singh left Upper India and crossed the Narmada at Handia on 9th January, 1665. He pushed rapidly on, never wasting a day by halting, except when strong necessity compelled him. ”

“ JAIPUR, or Jeypore, a city and native state of India in the Rajputana agency. The city is a prosperous place of comparatively recent date. It derives its name from the famous Maharaja Jai Singh II., who founded it in 1728. It is built of pink stucco in imitation of sandstone, and is remarkable for the width and regularity of its streets. It is the only city in India that is laid out in rectangular blocks, and it is divided by cross streets into six equal portions. The main streets are 111 ft. wide and are paved, while the city is lighted by gas. ”

“ We are not dead men yet.”
“You will be before sundown.”
The priest snapped this at the detective. Then he signed to his guards to seize the rifles and the spear that Jai Singh carried, and which the Hindu never before had allowed out of his hands, even when he had a rifle as well.
There was a desperate fight when they tried to take away the spear.
Jai Singh had a superstitious regard for his favorite weapon, and bound though he was, he gave the guards such a tussle that one of them had a great gash in his arm before he could tear the spear out of its owner’s grasp. ”

“ The news of Shivaji's failure at Panhala reached Jai Singh on 20th January. The evil was aggravated by the desertion of Netaji. Taking offence with Shiva for some reason or other, — probably because he deemed his valuable services and gallant feats of arms inadequately rewarded, — Neta accepted the Bijapuri bait of 4 lakhs of hun and, deserting to Adil Shah, raided the Mughal territory with great vigour and effect. Jai Singh could not afford to lose such a man ”

“ On returning home from Agra in December 1666, Shivaji found the political situation in the Deccan entirely changed. The Mughal viceroy, Jai Singh, was no longer in a position to repeat his former success over the Marathas. Worn out by age, toil, disappointment and domestic anxieties, discredited in his master's eyes by the failure of his invasion of Bijapur, and expecting every day to be removed from his post, Mirza Rajah was visibly hastening to his grave. In May 1667 Prince Muazzam, the newly appointed governor, reached Aurangabad and relieved Jai Singh of his charge. ”

“ Sayyid Masaud, the Mughal qiladar of Raigarh, wrote to Jai Singh's Paymaster complaining of the lack of provisions, etc. in the fort, and the collection of lead, gunpowder, rockets and infantry in the neighbourhood of Raigarh by some men who gave themselves out to be Shiva's followers and pretended that they intended to invade Bijapuri territory. At this alarming news Jai Singh sent orders to provision the fort as a precaution and to hold it strongly, pending the arrival of Udai-bhan [the permanent qiladar ?] ”

“ I suppose it is. But there was a famous rajah named Jai Singh, who lived about two hundred years ago, and who built observatories at Jaipur and Delhi. The remains of them are still in existence, and astronomers say they were magnificent structures for that time, and would be even in this day.”
“Gee! Where did you get on to all that?” asked Patsy, open-mouthed. “You’re a wonder, Chick.”
“Oh, that’s nothing,” returned Chick. “When I was here with the chief before, we learned a whole lot about India. ”

“ Yet, by the beard of Mànu, now she is gone—and for what?—to indulge the fancy of a king who murdered that good man, Sher Afghán.”
“It may be that the local fiends are unfriendly to her and not to thee, Jai Singh. Sleep in peace. We march betimes in the morning.”
He knew full well that ambition was the sprite which plagued Nur Mahal. It had tortured many before her, nor would it cease to vex mankind long after her restless soul was stilled eternally.
[Pg 219]
“In truth,” said Roger, as they walked slowly after Jai Singh, “I am resolved now that your lucky star shines over these hovels, lad. ”

“ Finnerty concurred. "We wrestle just to prove that Britain is not the poor old effete thing the Herr Doctor thinks she is."
Prince Ananda sent for his secretary, Baboo Chunder Sen, and when the baboo came said: "Ask Jai Singh if he would like to try a fall with the major sahib."
Balwant Singh came back with the baboo when he had delivered this message. Salaaming, he said: "Huzoor, the keddah sahib has his name in our land, the Land of the Five Rivers. We who call men of strength brothers say that he is one of us. No one from my land has come back boasting that he has conquered the sahib. ”

“ The Marathi chronicles, Sabh. 38-46, Chit. 101-107, and Dig. 236-241, contain later and partly legendary accounts, but are our only authority for the doings of the Marathas. force so as to cause distraction to the enemy or deal a concentrated blow at a vital point.
In view of his two enemies, Jai Singh very wisely decided to take up a position between both, i.e., in the eastern part of Shivas dominion, whence he could also easily threaten Bijapur, Instead of pushing the war into the Western Ghats or the Konkan plaint further west. ”

“ As he begged hard for the full suit of tyielat (robe of honour) worn by Jai Singh, the latter presented it to him.
Reaching Kondana at noon of the 14th, Shivaji delivered the fort to Kirat Singh and left for Rajgarh, where he arrived on the 15th. On the 17th he sent away Shambhuji from Rajgarh, in charge of Ugrasen Kachhwa and they arrived in Jai Singh's camp on the 18th. The Maratha forts surrendered to the Emperor by the treaty of Purandar (A. N. 905) were: — in the Deccan: (1) Rudramala or Vajragarh, (2) Purandar, (3) Kondana, (4) Rohira, (5) Lohgarh, (6) Isagarh, (7) Tanki, (8) Tikona ”

“ When people argue that Afzal Khan could not have possibly intended to stab Shivaji during an interview, they should remember that the sanctimonious Jai Singh was prepared to prove his loyalty by lowering his family honour and laying a fatal snare for "Shivaji, a brother Hindu.
↑ * Sabhasad, 46 and 50, says that Shiva himself made the offer of conquering Bijapur and Golkonda for the Emperor, if he were appointed Mughal commander-in-chief in the Deccan, and Jai Singh merely agreed to the proposal. Chit- 113. ↑ *Sabh. 47; Chit. 108. Dil. ”

“ She spoke in the Jat tongue fluently; but that was not remarkable, because Yasmini is mistress of so many languages that men say one can not speak in her hearing and not be understood.
"I am a soldier," answered Ranjoor Singh more than a little stiffly.
"'I am a statesman,' said the viceroy's babu! A Sikh is a Jat farmer with a lion's tail and the manners of a buffalo! Age or gallantry will bend a man's back. What keeps it straight—the smell of the farmyard on his shoes?" ”

“ None among my many brave and faithful servants is so rarely seen in Court—none is so frequently heard of for his deeds in the remotest parts of my Empire. Thou hast confirmed our rule in Kabulistan and Zabulistan in the West, thou hast wrested Bengal and Orissa from the determined Afghans in the East, success has ever attended thy great endeavours."
"Monarch of many nations," spoke Man Singh in his gruff voice, "I am ill fitted to speak, but gratitude dwells in my heart. ”

“ He has no badges, flags, emblems, no peculiar way of tying his turban or wearing his clothes; and he has very little sentiment. It was a stroke of genius in Guru Gobind Singh when he turned the Jat into a Sikh, gave him the five badges, and wedded him to steel. Tradition grew with the title of Singh, and a great military brotherhood was founded: but in the unconverted Jat there is the same strong fibre, the stronger, the regimental officer will tell you, for not having been uprooted or pruned, and he prides himself that he will make as good a soldier out of the Jat as ever the Guru did. ”

“ Once aroused to sense of duty towards the weak and the oppressed, they have always been found willing to give their lives without remorse or regret. Sikhs constitute a major portion of the military and police forces of India and of several British colonies. Those tourists who have been in the East will recall the tall, bearded Sikh policemen of the British principalities of Shanghai and Hongkong. Since the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, Sikhs have always been regarded as the most loyal and devoted subjects of the British Crown in India. ”

“ Punjab in the northwest part of India. They constitute by themselves a very important community, which is closely bound together by a feeling of common brotherhood. They all go by the name of Singh, meaning the lion, and are rightly proud of their history, which though brief in scope of time, is yet full of inspiring deeds committed by the Sikh forefathers in the defense of religious freedom and justice during the evil days of a few corrupt and fanatic Moghul rulers of India. As a rule Sikhs belong to the agriculturist class and both men and women are stalwart and healthy-looking. ”

“ Our Sikh wars saw the hardest fighting which has ever taken place in India. The army which Runjit Singh had spent his life in training was a splendid force, and proved able in the shock of battle to beat the sepoys of the Company. It was only by the desperate fighting of the British troops, little aided by their native auxiliaries, that the Sikhs were finally driven back. Unfortunately, Lord Gough, the commander-in-chief, was a reckless general, whose only idea of tactics was to dash his men at the centre of the enemy's position, regardless of batteries, obstacles, and earthworks. ”

“ At the time of the Guru Ka Bagh incident the physical Gandhi was locked behind iron bars in a jail of India, but his spirit accompanied every Sikh as he stepped across the line to receive the enemy’s cowardly blows.
The amazing part of this whole story is the perfect peace that prevailed throughout its entire course. The program of passive resistance was carried to completion without one slip of action on the part of the passive resisters. No community in the whole length and breadth of India is more warlike and more inflammable for a righteous cause than the Sikhs ”

“ The Sikh, or at least the true Sikh, is not hampered by a list of caste restrictions. All of his precepts, taken singly or collectively, bid him be nothing but a man, and no law forbids him accept the hospitality of soldiers of another creed. So Jaidev Singh walked off to feed on curried beef that would have made a Hindoo know himself for damned. Cunningham then turned on Alwa.
“Now is the time, Alwa-sahib,” he said in a level voice. “My party can start off with this man and our answer, if your answer is no. If your answer is yes, then the Sikh can bear that answer for us.” ”

“ King and political head of the Punjab, as well as chief of the Khalsa, he aimed at reconciling the varied divisions of race and creed among his subjects by employing all in his service. He kept up, however, the theory of the Khalsa, attributing every success to the favour of the Guru in the name of the Lord. "God the helper—Ranjit Singh," was his sign-manual. The Sikhs retained special privileges as the ruling race, the heart and soul of the military nation—the favoured of the State. ”

“ All he thought of was whether he could crush me and make me give up my prisoner.
"Ranjoor Singh is a buffalo of buffaloes—a Jat buffalo of no imagination and no sense. He is buffalo enough to love the British Raj and his squadron of Jat farmers with all his stupid Sikh heart! There could not be a better for the purpose than this Ranjoor Singh! He is stupid enough, and nearly blunt enough, to be an Englishman. He is just of the very caliber to fool a German! Trust me, sahib—I, who picked the man who—"
"That'll do!" said the general; and Yasmini laughed again like the tinkling of a silver bell. ”

“ This act has been observed by the faithful Govindi Sikhs through the many years; but little remains now, as the railway contractor some years ago appeared on the scene and carried away the mass of old Sirhind as ballast on which to lay the iron track—the iron made sacred by the martial Guru, and which every true Singh was commanded to wear always in some shape, either as a sword, a small hatchet, or as a bangle. ”

“ By giving them full scope for the indulgence of these passions, and by punishing all disobedience with merciless severity, Runjeet Singh had governed his turbulent subjects for forty years: but, when he died, they broke loose from all control; and the weak Government of Lahore found that they could only save their own capital from being plundered by the Khalsa army by sending it to seek plunder in British territory. Thus began the first Sikh war." T. R. E. Holmes, History of the Indian Mutiny, chapter 1. ALSO IN: Sir L. Griffin, Ranjit Singh. L. J. Trotter, The Earl of Auckland, chapters 4-13. ”

“ Our Guru tells us Sikhs should fight ever on the side of the oppressed; the weaker the oppressed, the more the reason for our taking part with them. Our officers made no secret about the strength of the enemy, and we made none with them of our feeling in the matter. They were proud men that day. Colonel Kirby was a very proud man. We were prouder than he, except when we thought of Ranjoor Singh. ”