Some centuries later the Crusaders brought to Europe from the plains of
Palestine the novel device of armorial bearings.
Chitor itself appears to have been in possession of the Mori princes until,
in A.D. 728, it was taken by Bappa, who, though of royal race, was brought
up in obscurity by the Bhils as an attendant on the sacred kine. This
shepherd prince, ancestor of the present Rana of Mewar, became a national
hero, and many legends are still current concerning him and his romantic
deeds. The story of his "amazing marriage," by which he succeeded in
wedding six hundred damsels all at once, is one of the most curious. Bappa,
while still a youth, was appealed to, one holiday, by the frolicsome
maidens of a neighbouring village, who, led by the daughter of the
Solankini chief of Nagda, in accordance with the custom upon this
particular saint's day, had come out to indulge in swinging, but who had
forgotten to supply themselves with a swinging-rope. Bappa agreed to get
them one if they would play his game first. This the young ladies readily
agreed to do; whereupon, all joining hands, he danced with them a certain
mystic number of times round a sacred tree.
"Regardless of their doom, the little victims played,"
and finally dispersed to their homes, entirely unconscious that they were
all as securely married to Bappa as though they had visited Gretna Green
with him.
Some time afterwards, upon the engagement of the Solankini maiden to an
eligible young man, the soothsayer, to whom application had been made with
regard to fixing a favourable and auspicious wedding-day, discovered from
certain lines in her hand that the girl was already married! Thus the
whole story came out, and no less than six hundred brides assumed the
title of Mrs.
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