Bibliotheca Indica: a Collection of Oriental Works Published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal New Series No. 1430. Bardic and Historical Survey of Rajputana

Indeed the account of the exploits of 'MO and Luna Karana summary and obscure as it is constitutes a document of some importance for the early history of Bikaner perhaps the oldest written account that has been preserved of the exordiums of this great State founded by the Ratheiras in the heart of the desert. [...] It is the story of a gradual but at the same time amazingly rapid conquest on the part of a vigorous race who in the narrow spaceof four generations succeeded in sujugating to its sway the greatest part of the Rajputana desert from the chain of the Aravalli to the bed of the Naiwal a stretch of over three hundred miles. [...] The newly founded capital of the desert the city of Bikaner is already dressed in all the pomp and cicumstance of a great court : gems glitter in the darbar hall chiefs of rank attend caparisoned elephants are tied at the posts outside the gate flags flutter on the top of the palace while bards and dancers from Gujarat recite panegyrics and perform in the presence of the Rau (51-6). [...] Famous in the annals of the Rajputs shall be this memorable hour of the fourth day of the dark fortnight of MdruagIrsa of the year 1591 of Vikramaditya (371) I But lo ! the RathOra drums have already broken the silence of the night and the warriors of <1-eta Si are already charging with all. [...] Here riot only the names of the men are identical in both the accounts but even the names of their particular chargers are the same in both cases.3 Thus one poem confirms the authenticity of the other and both taken together constitute an historical document of the first imporance for the knowledge of this otherwise unknown episode of the history of mediaeval India.