Page:The Aristocracy of Southern India.djvu/121

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The family to which the Rajah has the honor to belong is a very ancient one. In order to trace its origin we have to go back many centuries. The first member of the family of whom anything is known is Maruva Hari Gopal. The date of his birth and particulars of his parentage are all buried in obscurity but it is said that he belonged to the family of the Rana of Marwar and that he was in the house of Mukund Prasad, the brother of the Rana. Hari Gopal received a very kind treatment at the hands of Mukund Prasad, and in course of time he became a favorite with all the members of the family. He was intimate with them and became fascinated with the beauty of the younger daughter of Mukund Prasad. He told the fact to a Brahmin friend of his, who advised him to banish the idea from his mind, as he should not marry a girl who belonged to another sect, but he added that he would be permitted to do so by secretly performing the penance, known as "Bisbavasu Gandarbhara Rajamantra?" and by giving 5000 gold coins to the officiating priest at Chittore. He accordingly performed the penance for 27 days and on the 28th day, tradition says, a big serpent emerged from the trunk of a huge banyan tree, swallowed him and threw him up again. He lost consciousness for sometime and when he had regained it, the serpent said that it was "Sankanath," that under the orders of the Siva Mahadeva it had given birth to him, that he was its son, that his gottram thereafter should be "Nageswara," and that he could marry the younger daughter of Mukund Prasad at Batteswara, near Puri, in the Dekhan. The serpent further added that the grandson of Hari Gopal would become the Rajah of Dekhan. Hari Gopal and the girl Rathna Mani arrived at Puri after a travel of 13 months and 2 days. After