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The Rise and Fall of the Bachchhavats
While on a short visit to Bikaner, on the occasion of the Jubile celebrated by Maharaja Ganga Sioghji, I was shown among other places of interest, a Jaina Upasara, situate in the Rangni ha-chowk It is an ancient looking building with a large open space in front of it and is said to have once formed part of the palatial residence of the Bachchhavat family My good guide related to me a pathetic story of the rise and fall of the Bachchhavats as we went round the place A feeling of awe and reverence came over me as he des -cribed the losing scene of the drama of the Bichchhavat activity which WAS enacted Come three centunes ago on the very spot where we then found ourselves standing It was a tragedy pure and simple. The Bachchhavats had doubtless a glorious rise and a still more glorious fall and every son of the Jaina mother may justly be proud of it
Bachchharaj, after whom the family is called Bachchhavat, was the real founder of the Bachelihavat greatness He sprang from the noble stock of the Bothras of Marwar in whose veins flowed the heroic blood of the warlike Choban prince Samant Singh
