The Sisodia Chatrīs of Mewar

248 Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Eklingji’s Divine Darbār: The Sisodia Chatrīs of Mewar

Outside Udaipur, capital of the former kingdom of Mewar, dozens of chatrīs are tightly packed into the royal necropolis, Mahasatiya (Fig. 6.1). Their white- washed domes dazzle in the strong sunlight; the forest of pillars creates a diz- zying maze; and the chatrīs’ locations on soaring plinths give them an imposing presence. These lofty cenotaphs commemorate the Sisodia Rajput rulers of Mewar and fashion a distinctive posthumous identity for them. The Sisodia chatrīs consistently promote three specific and closely associated facets of their public identity: their king’s role as dīvān to the dynastic kul devā, Eklingji; their preeminence among Rajputs; and their invented tradition of maintaining political and cultural distance from outside powers.1 To these ends, the state temple to Eklingji serves as a religiously and politically charged lieu de mé- moire. Its internal organization and the form of its maṇḍapa have been appro- priated by the Sisodia chatrī patrons to announce their reciprocal relationship with this deity and their proud, autonomous past. This chapter first explores styles and themes in the Sisodias’ other arts, to situate their chatrīs within a wider, multimedia program that promotes the dynasty’s divine benediction and circulates select versions of their history. It then takes a closer look at Eklingji’s temple, considering its tumultuous history of desecration and subsequent reconstruction under illustrious Sisodia ancestors and the living king’s role as the god’s dīvān. Finally, the chapter considers how the installations within the chatrīs present the late king and his satīs in Eklingji’s heaven.

The Art of Propaganda: The Sisodias’ Invented Tradition of Resistance

Under both the Mughals and the British, the Sisodias cultivated a markedly different identity from that of their fellow Rajputs, one circulated through their bardic tales, panegyric texts, and visual arts. Key to Sisodia public identity

1 For a discussion of the Mewar mahārānā’s role as Eklingji’s dīvān, see Sharma, ed., Haquiqat, 16.

figure 6.1 View of Mahāsatiyā, the Sisodia chatrī bagh outside Udaipur is the dynasty’s staunch “death before dishonor” ethic, which it first demon- strated in 1303 when Sultan Alla-ud-din-Khilji attacked Chittorgarh, the Siso- dias’ first fort. Sisodia mytho-history recounts that as the men performed śaka (martyrdom of riding out of a fort to defend it in the face of certain death), Queen Padmini led over one-thousand women in the fort to jauhar. Sisodia men performed śaka and the women jauhar on two other occasions in Mewar’s history: in 1535, when Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat besieged Chittorgarh, and again in 1567, when the Mughals, under Akbar, conquered the fort.2 Chit- torgarh itself became a meaningful site of dynastic memory for later Sisodia rulers and architectural patrons who sought to harness its associations with their valorous, self-sacrificing past. Also key to the Sisodias’ dharmik reputation is their claim to ancestors such as the kings Hamir Singh (r. 1326–64), Rāṇā Kumbha (r. 1433–68), and Pratap Singh (r. 1572–97). These figures are remembered, not (like Rājā Man Singh of Amber or Rao Kalyanmal of Bikaner) for securing peace and financial security for their kingdoms by serving the Mughals, but for preserving Mewar’s inde- pendence, often at great cost in both funds and lives. Just as Man Singh’s

2 Hooja, A History of Rajasthan, 310–12. K.D. Erskine, The Rajputana Gazetteers: The Mewar Residency, first published 1908 (Gurgaon: Vipin Jain, reprint 1992), 15, 18–19.