106	GUJARATA AND ITS LITERATURE
Alla-ud-din becomes furious. He sends for his generals
and the viceroy of Patana, collects his army, and himself
takes the field. The progress of the army, more like a town
in motion, is then described. The army lays siege to Sami-
ana, but the fortress is impregnable, and it remains so even
at the end of seven long years. The Rajputs, in the well-
provisioned fort, continue to defy the enemy. Alla-ud-din
then decides upon a sinister stratagem. Cows are killed,
and their flesh, tied up in sacks, is thrown by catapults
over the fortress walls into the lake within. The following
morning, the Rajputs find their only source of water defiled
by the flesh of the sacred cow, and decide upon jamahara,
a rite commonly known as jauhara.
There was no hope of life. None would touch a drop of the water. The
queen said, " We will now perform jamahara." And she addressed a mes-
sage to the queen of Kanhadade: " Of what has overtaken us, you will come
to know to-morrow. Remember us with affection. In this life, these are our
last salutations." Having thus spoken, the queen put on all her ornaments.
The retainers brought heaps of sandal-wood. Strong and heroic, the queen
entered the fire, All said " Rama, Rama", and the friends wept.^1
The Padshah comes to know of the queen's self-immola-
tion, and offers to treat the beleaguered city with every con-
sideration if Santala only submits. The heroic king
replies, " I am ready to give up life, not my honour". The
non-combatants in the fort are then asked to leave it, and
all the warriors decide on an attack. They worship the
Saligrama (Vishnu), and then pray to Rama. They take
their bath, dry their hair, put on Tulsi garlands round
their necks. Animated with one desire, they rush on the
1.