KIIUSII-ROZ. The No-roia, or New Year's Day, when the sun enters Aries, is one of great festivity among the Muhammadan princes of Persia ; that alluded to by Prithi-raj and by the historian Abut Fazl was not New Year's Day, but a festival especially instituted by Akbar, held on the ninth day (No-roza), following the chief festival of each month. Abul Faz1 says the court assembled, and was attended by all ranks. The queen also had her court, when the wives of the nobles and of the Rajput vassal princes were con gregated, and a fair was held within the precincts of the court, attended only by females. The merchants' wives exposed the manufactures of every class, and the ladies of the court were the purchasers. Akbar was also there in disguise, by which means he learned the value ofrmerchandise, and heard what is said of the state of the empire and the character of the officers of government. Abut Faz1 thus softens down the unhallowed purpose of this day ; but posterity cannot admit that the great Akbar was to obtain these results amidst the Pushtu jargon of the dames of Islam, or the mixed Bhaka of the fair of Rajasthan. At these royal fairs were sold the productions of princely artisans, men and women, and which out of compliment to majesty made a bounteous return for their industry.
The great Akbar hazarded his popularity and his power by the introduction of a custom apper taining to the Celtic races of Europe and the Goths of Asia, and degraded those whom the chances of war had made his vassals, by conduct loathsome to the keenly-cherished feelings of the Rajput. There is no doubt that many of the noblest of the race were present on the No-roza ; and the chivalrous Prithi-raj was only preserved from being disgraced by the high courage and virtue of his wife, a princess of Mewar, and daughter of the founder of the Snktawut. On one of these celebrations of the
Khush-roz, the monarch of the Moghuls was struck with the beauty of the daughter of Mewar, and he singled her out from amidst the united fair. On retiring from the fair, she found herself en tangled amidst the labyrinth of apartments by which egress was purposely ordained, when Akbar stood before her ; but instead of acquiescence, she drew a poniard from her corset, and held it to his breast, dictating, and making him repeat, the oath of renunciation of the infamy to all her race. The anecdote is accompanied iu the original description with many dramatic circumstances. The guardian goddess of Mewar, the terrific .)lata, appears on her tiger in the subterranean passage of this palace of pollution, to strengthen her mind by a solemn denunciation, and her hand with a weapon to protect her honour. Rae Singh, the elder brother of the princely bard, had not been so fortunate; his wife wanted either courage or virtue to withstand the regal tempter, and although she returned to their dwelling in the desert loaded with jewels, as Prithi-raj expresses it, ' she returned to her abode, tramping to the tinkling sound of the ornaments of gold and gems on her person ; but where, my brother, is the moustache on thy lip ! '—The Parsecs; Tod's Rajasthan, i. pp. 72, 345.