Word: chitor
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...Rajputana in central India lies the high rock of Chitor. "The swell of its sides," wrote Rudyard Kipling, "follows the form of a ship-from bow to stern more than three miles long and from three to five hundred feet high." Four centuries ago, in the land battleship of Chitor, the Rajputs held out against the invading Moguls. The Rajputs wore armor and fought with spears; the Moguls used cannon. In the last decisive engagement, a lucky Mogul shot killed the Rajput chieftain Jaimal, and the garrison, losing hope, performed the dreaded rite of jauhar...
...Emperor Akbar massacred 30,000 Rajput retainers, but failed to arrest the flight of the Rajput's famed armorers. With their families they followed their own Prince Pratap Singh into the forests, and took a solemn oath never to sleep under a roof or on a bed until Chitor was reconquered...
...Long Vow. Abandoned, Chitor became a haunt of tigers, one of a thousand Hindu shrines, and today the only recurring evocation of its stirring last days is the curse which may sometimes be heard on Indian lips: "By the sin of the sack of Chitor." The Rajput armorers became a tribe of wandering blacksmiths called the Gadia Lohars, big, fork-bearded men in pink turbans, women wearing silver bangles and big silver nose rings, and untouchables worshiping the smallpox goddess, Sheetala. Without quite knowing why, they still observe their ancient vow: never do they sleep under a roof, but live...
Last week from all over India the Lohars converged on Chitor. In the great plain below the landship fortress, their 4,000 bullock carts were drawn up in huge circles like the covered wagons of American pioneers. Over their wagons flew tattered Rajput sun flags (symbolizing the god Rama) and banners reading, "Hail Emperor Nehru." Few of the tribesmen had ever heard of Prime Minister Nehru, but they knew that a great badshah (ruler) had offered to succor them at Chitor, a place they had always avoided in their wanderings...
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