Rana Udai Singh was the youngest son of Rana Sanga. During his rule in 1568, Chitore was taken by the emperor Akbar, with great slaughter. On the loss of his capital, the rana retired to the valley of the Girwa, in the Aravalli Hills, where he founded the city of Udaipur, henceforth the capital of Mewar. But Akbar's successor, Jahangir, while striving for the entire subjuga tion of Mewar, was twice defeated by Rana Umra.
A section of the Aravalli range of mountains extends over the south-western portion of the state, from the city of Udaipur to the frontier of Strobl, whence it stretches northwards through Kumalmir towards Ajmir, separating Udaipur from Jodhpur. Northward of Kumalmir, this mountain tract is called Mhairwara ; its breadth here varies from 6 to 15 miles, and its deep and rugged valleys and gorges have in all ages afforded haunts to the Bhils, Minas, and Mhairs, and other aboriginal or half-blood tribes. South ward of Kumalmir the range is inhabited by communities of the aboriginal races acknow ledging no paramount power, and paying no tribute. Aborigines occupy the several hill ranges, viz. the Mhairs on the north-west, the Bhils on the south, and the Minas on the north-east. The Mhairs and Minas live in villages ; but Bhils generally occupy a pal, that is a number of houses, each built upon a hillock at some little distance from its neighbour. A pal, therefore, may cover several square miles of ground. The object of the Bhils in thus building their dwellings is to render it impossible to surprise a whole village at once. A single individual may be arrested, but the warning cry which'he will utter gives the alarm to the whole community, and in a few minutes, the war-cry being taken up from hill to bill, the country seems suddenly to swarm with semi-naked savages, armed and prepared to attack the intruder. The Bhils are under the partial control of their own chiefs, but rarely acknowledge any other power. And it is generally difficult for the Udaipur darbar to coerce them, for the climate is unhealthy, supplies are scarce, and the country is extremely difficult. There are few wilder or more lawless tracts through out the length and breadth of the Indian Peninsula.
The zinc mines of Mewar were once very pro-_ ductive, and yielded no inconsiderable portion of silver and gold ; but the caste of miners is extinct, and political reasons during the Moghul domination led to the concealment of such sources of wealth.
The most celebrated of these mines are undoubt edly those of Jawar, where the ore is found in veins 3 or 5 inches thick, and sometimes in bunches in quartz rock, and mixed with other stone. Tho pieces are broken with a hammer, and freed from the quartz rock with which it is mixed. The pure ore, being very friable, is then pounded and freed from quartz, and placed in crucibles some 8 or 9 inches high and 3 inches diameter, with necks G inches long and half an inch in diameter. The mouth being fastened up, the crucibles are inverted and placed in rows on a charcoal furnace, when the ore is fused in about three or four hours. If pieces of the quartz are allowed to remain with the ore, the crucibles break. From each crucible the quantity of metal collected does not vary much. Copper of a very fine description is likewise abundant, and supplies the currency. Surma, or the oxide of antimony, is found on the western frontier. The garnet, amethystine quartz, rock-crystal, the chrysolite, and inferior kinds of the emerald family, are all to be found within Mewar. Iron is abundant on the now alienated domain on the Chambal, but lead least of all. Marble quarries also added to the revenue. The rich mineral pro ducts enabled the Mewar family long to struggle against superior power, and to raise those magnificent structures which ornament their kingdom. In Mewar An was the oath of allegi ance ; in Col. Ted's time three things in Mewar were royalties,—a subject could not meddle with the An or oath of allegiance, the Dan or transit dues on commerce, and the Kan or mines of the precious metals. The rana of Mewar is the dcwau or vicegerent of Siva, and when he visits the temple of Eklinga he supersedes the high priest in his duties, and performs the ceremonies.
The shrine of Eklinga is endowed with 24 large villages from the fisc, besides parcels of land from the chieftains.—Tod; Captain Brooke; Aitcheson.
3IE WA S a predatory, turbulent, tribe in North Gujerat. They occupy several villages in the ravines in the Nariad pargana, north of the Mahi river. They arc settling to agricultural pursuits.