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diff --git a/15483-h/15483-h.htm b/15483-h/15483-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d50522e --- /dev/null +++ b/15483-h/15483-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,34583 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, by W. H. Sleeman</title> +<style type="text/css"> + +body {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify;} +h1,h2,h3,h5,h6 {color:green; text-align:center} +h4 {color:black; text-align:center} +.centclass {text-align:center;} +p.ch {margin-bottom: 4em; margin-top:4em; line-height: 1.5} +p.chsum {font-size: smaller; text-align: center; + margin-bottom: 4em; margin-top:4em; line-height: 1.1} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rambles and Recollections of an Indian +Official, by William Sleeman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official + +Author: William Sleeman + +Release Date: March 27, 2005 [EBook #15483] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS INDIAN OFFICIAL *** + + + + +Produced by Philip H Hitchcock + + + + + +</pre> + +<p align="center"><a href="#cont">Contents list.</a></p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2>RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS<br> +<br> +<small>OF AN</small><br> +<br> +INDIAN OFFICIAL</h2> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<p align="center"><img src="images/slee1.jpg" width="440" height= +"492" border="0" alt= +"Portrait of General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B"></p> + +<h4>GENERAL SIR W. H SLEEMAN. K.C.B.</h4> + +<br> +<br> +<p align="center"><img src="images/title.jpg" width="632" height= +"1006" border="0" alt="Title page"></p> + +<h1>RAMBLES</h1> + +<h3>AND</h3> + +<h1>RECOLLECTIONS</h1> + +<h3>OF AN</h3> + +<h2>INDIAN OFFICIAL</h2> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h5>MAJOR-GENERAL SIR W. H. SLEEMAN, K.C.B.<br> +<br> + <small>REVISED ANNOTATED EDITION<br> +<br> +<br> + BY</small></h5> + +<br> +<h5>VINCENT A. SMITH<br> +<small><small>M.A. (DUBL. ET OXON.), M.R.A.S., F.R.N.S., LATE OF +THE<br> +INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE,<br> +AUTHOR OF 'THE EARLY HISTORY OF INDIA'<br> +'A HISTORY OF FINE ART IN INDIA AND CEYLON'. +ETC.</small></small></h5> + +<br> + + +<h5>HUMPHREY MILFORD<br> +OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS<br> +LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW<br> +NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY<br> +1915</h5> + +<br> +<br> +<p>Transcriber's Note</p> + +<p>In producing this e-text the numerous notes have been moved to +the end of their respective chapters and renumbered. The printed +'Additions and Corrections' have been included in the relevant +text.</p> + +<p>The map showing the author's route has been confined to the area +immediately adjacent to the route, to preserve legibility while +maintaining a reasonable file size.</p> + +<p>In the printed edition the spelling of certain words is not +always consistent. This is especially true of the use of +diacritical marks on certain words, even within a single page. This +e-text attempts to reproduce the spellings exactly as used in the +printed edition.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="AD">AUTHOR'S DEDICATION</a></h2> + +<br> + + +<p><small>MY DEAR SISTER,</small></p> + +<p>Were any one to ask your countrymen in India what has been their +greatest source of pleasure while there, perhaps nine in ten would +say, the letters which they receive from their sisters at home. +These, of all things, perhaps, tend most to link our affections +with home by filling the landscapes, so dear to our recollections, +with ever varying groups of the family circles, among whom our +infancy and our boyhood have been passed; and among whom we still +hope to spend the winter of our days.</p> + +<p>They have a very happy facility in making us familiar with the +new additions made from time to time to the <i>dramatis +personae</i> of these scenes after we quit them, in the character +of husbands, wives, children, or friends; and, while thus +contributing so much to our happiness, they no doubt tend to make +us better citizens of the world, and servants of government, than +we should otherwise be, for, in our 'struggles through life in +India', we have all, more or less, an eye to the approbation of +those circles which our kind sisters represent—who may, +therefore, be considered in the exalted light of a valuable species +of <i>unpaid magistracy</i> to the Government of India.</p> + +<p>No brother has ever had a kinder or better correspondent than I +have had in you, my dear sister; and it was the consciousness of +having left many of your valued letters unanswered, in the press of +official duties, that made me first think of devoting a part of my +leisure to you in these <i>Rambles and Recollections</i>, while on +my way from the banks of the Nerbudda river to the Himālaya +mountains, in search of health, in the end of 1835 and beginning of +1836. To what I wrote during that journey I have now added a few +notes, observations, and conversations with natives, on the +subjects which my narrative seemed to embrace; and the whole will, +I hope, interest and amuse you and the other members of our family; +and appear, perchance, not altogether uninteresting or +uninstructive to those who are strangers to us both.</p> + +<p>Of one thing I must beg you to be assured, that I have nowhere +indulged in fiction, either in the narrative, the recollections, or +the conversations. What I relate on the testimony of others I +believe to be true; and what I relate upon my own you may rely upon +as being so. Had I chosen to write a work of fiction, I might +possibly have made it a good deal more interesting; but I question +whether it would have been so much valued by you, or so useful to +others; and these are the objects I have had in view. The work may, +perhaps, tend to make the people of India better understood by +those of my own countrymen whose destinies are cast among them, and +inspire more kindly feelings towards them. Those parts which, to +the general reader, will seem dry and tedious, may be considered, +by the Indian statesman, as the most useful and important.</p> + +<p>The opportunities of observation, which varied employment has +given me, have been such as fall to the lot of few; but, although I +have endeavoured to make the most of them, the time of public +servants is not their own; and that of few men has been more +exclusively devoted to the service of their masters than mine. It +may be, however, that the world, or that part of it which ventures +to read these pages, will think that it had been better had I not +been left even the little leisure that has been devoted to +them.</p> + +<p>Your ever affectionate brother,</p> + +<p> W. H. SLEEMAN.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3><a name="cont">CONTENTS</a></h3> + +<br> + + +<p><a href="#AD">AUTHOR'S DEDICATION</a></p> + +<p><a href="#EP">EDITOR'S PREFACES</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Mem">MEMOIR</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Bib">BIBLIOGRAPHY</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Ch1">CHAPTER 1</a><br> +Annual Fairs held on the Banks of Sacred Streams in India</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch2">CHAPTER 2</a><br> +Hindoo System of Religion</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch3">CHAPTER 3</a><br> +Legend of the Nerbudda River</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch4">CHAPTER 4</a><br> +A Suttee on the Nerbudda</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch5">CHAPTER 5</a><br> +Marriages of Trees—The Tank and the +Plantain—Meteors—Rainbows</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch6">CHAPTER 6</a><br> +Hindoo Marriages</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch7">CHAPTER 7</a><br> +The Purveyance System</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch8">CHAPTER 8</a><br> +Religious Sects—Self-government of the +Castes—Chimneysweepers—Washerwomen [1]—Elephant +Drivers</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch9">CHAPTER 9</a><br> +The Great Iconoclast—Troops routed by Hornets—The +Rānī of<br> +Garhā—Hornets' Nests in India</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch10">CHAPTER 10</a><br> +The Peasantry and the Land Settlement</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch11">CHAPTER 11</a><br> +Witchcraft</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch12">CHAPTER 12</a><br> +The Silver Tree, or 'Kalpa Briksha'—The 'Singhāra', or +<i>Trapa bispinosa</i>, and the Guinea-Worm</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch13">CHAPTER 13</a><br> +Thugs and Poisoners</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch14">CHAPTER 14</a><br> +Basaltic Cappings of the Sandstone Hills of Central +India—Suspension Bridge—Prospects of the Nerbudda +Valley—Deification of a Mortal</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch15">CHAPTER 15</a><br> +Legend of the Sāgar Lake—Paralysis from eating the Grain +of the <i>Lathyrus sativus</i></p> + +<p><a href="#Ch16">CHAPTER 16</a><br> +Suttee Tombs—Insalubrity of deserted Fortresses</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch17">CHAPTER 17</a><br> +Basaltic Cappings—Interview with a Native Chief—A +Singular Character</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch18">CHAPTER 18</a><br> +Birds' Nests—Sports of Boyhood</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch19">CHAPTER 19</a><br> +Feeding Pilgrims—Marriage of a Stone with a Shrub</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch20">CHAPTER 20</a><br> +The Men-Tigers</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch21">CHAPTER 21</a><br> +Burning of Deorī by a Freebooter—A Suttee</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch22">CHAPTER 22</a><br> +Interview with the Rājā who marries the Stone to the +Shrub—Order of the Moon and the Fish</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch23">CHAPTER 23</a><br> +The Rājā of Orchhā—Murder of his many +Ministers</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch24">CHAPTER 24</a><br> +Corn Dealers—Scarcities—Famines in India</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch25">CHAPTER 25</a><br> +Epidemic Diseases—Scape-goat</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch26">CHAPTER 26</a><br> +Artificial Lakes in Bundēlkhand-Hindoo, Greek, and Roman +Faith</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch27">CHAPTER 27</a><br> +Blights</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch28">CHAPTER 28</a><br> +Pestle-and-Mortar Sugar-Mills—Washing away of the Soil</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch29">CHAPTER 29</a><br> +Interview with the Chiefs of Jhānsī—Disputed +Succession</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch30">CHAPTER 30</a><br> +Haunted Villages</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch31">CHAPTER 31</a><br> +Interview with the Rājā of Datiyā—Fiscal +Errors of Statesmen—Thieves and Robbers by Profession</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch32">CHAPTER 32</a><br> +Sporting at Datiyā—Fidelity of Followers to their Chiefs +in India—Law of Primogeniture wanting among Muhammadans</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch33">CHAPTER 33</a><br> +'Bhūmiāwat'</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch34">CHAPTER 34</a><br> +The Suicide-Relations between Parents and Children in India</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch35">CHAPTER 35</a><br> +Gwālior Plain once the Bed of a Lake—Tameness of +Peacocks</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch36">CHAPTER 36</a><br> +Gwālior and its Government</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch37">CHAPTER 37</a> [2]<br> +Contest for Empire between the Sons of Shah Jahān</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch38">CHAPTER 38</a> [2]<br> +Aurangzēb and Murād Defeat their Father's Army near +Ujain</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch39">CHAPTER 39</a> [2]<br> +Dārā Marches in Person against his Brothers, and is +Defeated</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch40">CHAPTER 40</a> [2]<br> +Dārā Retreats towards Lahore—Is robbed by the +Jāts—Their Character</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch41">CHAPTER 41</a> [2]<br> +Shāh Jahān Imprisoned by his Two Sons, Aurangzēb and +Murād</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch42">CHAPTER 42</a> [2]<br> +Aurangzēb Throws off the Mask, Imprisons his Brother +Murād, and Assumes the Government of the Empire</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch43">CHAPTER 43</a> [2] Aurangzēb Meets +Shujā in Bengal, and Defeats him, after Pursuing +Dārā to the Hyphasis</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch44">CHAPTER 44</a> [2]<br> +Aurangzēb Imprisons his Eldest Son—Shujā and all +his Family are Destroyed</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch45">CHAPTER 45</a> [2]<br> +Second Defeat and Death of Dārā, and Imprisonment of his +Two Sons</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch46">CHAPTER 46</a> [2]<br> +Death and Character of Amīr Jumla</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch47">CHAPTER 47</a><br> +Reflections on the Preceding History</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch48">CHAPTER 48</a><br> +The Great Diamond of Kohinūr</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch49">CHAPTER 49</a><br> +Pindhārī System—Character of the Marāthā +Administration—Cause of their Dislike to the Paramount +Power</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch50">CHAPTER 50</a><br> +Dhōlpur, Capital of the Jāt Chiefs of +Gohad—Consequence of Obstacles to the Prosecution of +Robbers</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch51">CHAPTER 51</a><br> +Influence of Electricity on Vegetation—Agra and its +Buildings</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch52">CHAPTER 52</a><br> +Nūr Jahān, the Aunt of the Empress Nūr Mahal,[3] +over whose Remains the Tāj is built</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch53">CHAPTER 53</a><br> +Father Gregory's Notion of the Impediments to Conversion in +India—Inability of Europeans to speak Eastern Languages</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch54">CHAPTER 54</a><br> +Fathpur-Sīkrī—The Emperor Akbar's +Pilgrimage—Birth of Jahāngīr</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch55">CHAPTER 55</a><br> +Bharatpur—Dīg—Want of Employment for the Military +and the Educated Classes under the Company's Rule</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch56">CHAPTER 56</a><br> +Govardhan, the Scene of Kriahna's Dalliance with the Milkmaids</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch57">CHAPTER 57</a><br> +Veracity</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch58">CHAPTER 58</a><br> +Declining Fertility of the Soil—Popular Notion of the +Cause</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch59">CHAPTER 59</a><br> +Concentration of Capital and its Effects</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch60">CHAPTER 60</a><br> +Transit Duties in India—Mode of Collecting them</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch61">CHAPTER 61</a><br> +Peasantry of India attached to no existing Government—Want of +Trees in Upper India—Cause and Consequence—Wells and +Groves</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch62">CHAPTER 62</a><br> +Public Spirit of the Hindoos—Tree Cultivation and Suggestions +for extending it</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch63">CHAPTER 63</a><br> +Cities and Towns, formed by Public Establishments, disappear as +Sovereigns and Governors change their Abodes</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch64">CHAPTER 64</a><br> +Murder of Mr. Fraser, and Execution of the Nawāb Shams-ud- +dīn</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch65">CHAPTER 65</a><br> +Marriage of a Jāt Chief</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch66">CHAPTER 66</a><br> +Collegiate Endowment of Muhammadan Tombs and Mosques</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch67">CHAPTER 67</a><br> +The Old City of Delhi</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch68">CHAPTER 68</a><br> +New Delhi, or Shāhjahānābād</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch69">CHAPTER 69</a><br> +Indian Police—Its Defects—and their Cause and +Remedy</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch70">CHAPTER 70</a><br> +Rent-free Tenures—Right of Government to Resume such +Grants</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch71">CHAPTER 71</a><br> +The Station of Meerut—'Atālīs' who Dance and Sing +gratuitously for the Benefit of the Poor</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch72">CHAPTER 72</a><br> +Subdivisions of Lands—Want of Gradations of +Rank—Taxes</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch73">CHAPTER 73</a><br> +Meerut-Anglo-Indian Society</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch74">CHAPTER 74</a><br> +Pilgrims of India</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch75">CHAPTER 75</a><br> +The Bēgam Sumroo</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch76">CHAPTER 76</a><br> +ON THE SPIRIT OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE IN THE NATIVE ARMY OF +INDIA<br> +Abolition of Corporal Punishment—Increase of Pay with Length +of Service—Promotion by Seniority</p> + +<p><a href="#Ch77">CHAPTER 77</a><br> +Invalid Establishment</p> + +<p><a href="#App">Appendix:</a><br> +Thuggee and the part taken in its Suppression by General Sir W. H. +Sleeman, K.C.B., by Captain J. L. Sleeman<br> +Supplementary Note by the Editor<br> +Additions and Corrections</p> + +<a href="#Map">Maps Showing Author's Route</a> + +<p><a href="#Ind">INDEX</a></p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. A blunder for 'Sweepers' and 'Washermen'</p> + +<p>2. Chapters 37 to 46, inclusive, are not reprinted in this +edition.</p> + +<p>3. A mistake. See <i>post</i>, Chapter 52, note 1.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="EP">EDITOR'S PREFACE (1893)<sup>[1]</sup></a></h2> + +<br> +<p>The <i>Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official</i>, +always a costly book, has been scarce and difficult to procure for +many years past. Among the crowd of books descriptive of Indian +scenery, manners, and customs, the sterling merits of Sir William +Sleeman's work have secured it pre-eminence, and kept it in +constant demand, notwithstanding the lapse of nearly fifty years +since its publication. The high reputation of this work does not +rest upon its strictly literary qualities. The author was a busy +man, immersed all his life in the practical affairs of +administration, and too full of his subject to be careful of strict +correctness of style or minute accuracy of expression. Yet, so +great is the intrinsic value of his observations, and so attractive +are the sincerity and sympathy with which he discusses a vast range +of topics, that the reader refuses to be offended by slight formal +defects in expression or arrangement, and willingly yields to the +charm of the author's genial and unstudied conversation.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to name any other book so full of +instruction for the young Anglo-Indian administrator. When this +work was published in 1844 the author had had thirty-five years' +varied experience of Indian life, and had accumulated and +assimilated an immense store of knowledge concerning the history, +manners, and modes of thought of the complex population of India. +He thoroughly understood the peculiarities of the various native +races, and the characteristics which distinguish them from the +nations of Europe; while his sympathetic insight into Indian life +had not orientalized him, nor had it ever for one moment caused him +to forget his position and heritage as an Englishman. This attitude +of sane and discriminating sympathy is the right attitude for the +Englishman in India.</p> + +<p>To enumerate the topics on which wise and profitable +observations will be found in this book would be superfluous. The +wine is good, and needs no bush. So much may be said that the book +is one to interest that nondescript person, the general reader in +Europe or America, as well as the Anglo-Indian official. Besides +good advice and sound teaching on matters of policy and +administration, it contains many charming, though inartificial, +descriptions of scenery and customs, many ingenious speculations, +and some capital stories. The ethnologist, the antiquary, the +geologist, the soldier, and the missionary will all find in it +something to suit their several tastes.</p> + +<p>In this edition the numerous misprints of the original edition +have been all, and, for the most part, silently corrected. The +extremely erratic punctuation has been freely modified, and the +spelling of Indian words and names has been systematized. Two +paragraphs, misplaced in the original edition at the end of Chapter +48 of Volume I, have been removed, and inserted in their proper +place at the end of Chapter 47; and the supplementary notes printed +at the end of the second volume of the original edition have been +brought up to the positions which they were intended to occupy. +Chapters 37 to 46 of the first volume, describing the contest for +empire between the sons of Shāh Jahān, are in substance +only a free version of Bernier's work entitled, <i>The Late +Revolution of the Empire of the Great Mogol</i>. These chapters +have not been reprinted because the history of that revolution can +now be read much more satisfactorily in Mr. Constable's edition of +Bernier's Travels. Except as above stated, the text of the present +edition of the <i>Rambles and Recollections</i> is a faithful +reprint of the Author's text.</p> + +<p>In the spelling of names and other words of Oriental languages +the Editor has 'endeavoured to strike a mean between popular usage +and academic precision, preferring to incur the charge of looseness +to that of pedantry'. Diacritical marks intended to distinguish +between the various sibilants, dentals, nasals, and so forth, of +the Arabic and Sanskrit alphabets, have been purposely omitted. +Long vowels are marked by the sign ¯. Except in a few familiar +words, such as Nerbudda and Hindoo, which are spelled in the +traditional manner, vowels are to be pronounced as in Italian, or +as in the following English examples, namely: <i>ā</i>, as in +'call'; <i>e</i>, or <i>ē</i>, as the medial vowel in 'cake'; +<i>i</i>, as in 'kill'; <i>ī</i>, as the medial vowels in +'keel'; <i>u</i>, as in 'full'; <i>ū</i>, as the medial vowels +in 'fool'; <i>o</i>, or <i>ō</i>, as in 'bone'; <i>ai</i>, or +<i>āi</i>, as 'eye' or 'aye', respectively; and <i>au</i>, as +the medial sound in 'fowl'. Short <i>a</i>, with stress, is +pronounced like the <i>u</i> in 'but'; and if without stress, as an +indistinct vowel, like the <i>A</i> in 'America'.</p> + +<p>The Editor's notes, being designed merely to explain and +illustrate the text, so as to render the book fully intelligible +and helpful to readers of the present day, have been compressed +into the narrowest possible limits. Even India changes, and +observations and criticisms which were perfectly true when recorded +can no longer be safely applied without explanation to the India of +to-day. The Author's few notes are distinguished by his +initials.</p> + +<p>A copious analytical index has been compiled. The bibliography +is as complete as careful inquiry could make it, but it is possible +that some anonymous papers by the Author, published in periodicals, +may have escaped notice.</p> + +<p>The memoir of Sir William Sleeman is based on the slight sketch +prefixed to the <i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oude</i>, +supplemented by much additional matter derived from his published +works and correspondence, as well as from his unpublished letters +and other papers generously communicated by his only son, Captain +Henry Sleeman. Ample materials exist for a full account of Sir +William Sleeman's noble and interesting life, which well deserves +to be recorded in detail; but the necessary limitations of these +volumes preclude the Editor from making free use of the +biographical matter at his command.</p> + +<p>The reproduction of the twenty-four coloured plates of varying +merit which enrich the original edition has not been considered +desirable. The map shows clearly the route taken by the Author in +the journey the description of which is the leading theme of the +book.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2>EDITOR'S PREFACE (1915)</h2> + +<br> +<br> + + +<p>My edition published by Archibald Constable and Company in 1893 +being out of print but still in demand, Mr. Humphrey Milford, the +present owner of the copyright, has requested me to revise the book +and bring it up to date.</p> + +<p>This new edition is issued uniform with Mr. Beauchamp's third +edition of <i>Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies</i> by the +Abbé J. A. Dubois (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1906), a +work bearing a strong resemblance in substance to the <i>Rambles +and Recollections</i>, and, also like Sleeman's book in that it 'is +as valuable to-day as ever it was—even more valuable in some +respects'.</p> + +<p>The labour of revision has proved to be far more onerous than +was expected. In the course of twenty-one years the numerous +changes which have occurred in India, not only in administrative +arrangements, but of various other kinds, necessitate the +emendation of notes which, although accurate when written, no +longer agree with existing facts. The appearance of many new books +and improved editions involves changes in a multitude of +references. Such alterations are most considerable in the +annotations dealing with the buildings at Agra, Sikandara, +Fathpur-Sīkrī, and Delhi, and the connected political +history, concerning which much new information is now available. +Certain small misstatements of fact in my old notes have been put +right. Some of those errors which escaped the notice of critics +have been detected by me, and some have been rectified by the aid +of criticisms received from Sir George Grierson, C.I.E., Mr. +William Crooke, sometime President of the Folklore Society, and +other kind correspondents, to all of whom I am grateful. Naturally, +the opportunity has been taken to revise the wording throughout and +to eliminate misprints and typographical defects. The Index has +been recast so as to suit the changed paging and to include the new +matter.</p> + +<p>Captain James Lewis Sleeman of the Royal Sussex Regiment has +been good enough to permit the reproduction of his grandfather's +portrait, and has communicated papers which have enabled me to make +corrections in and additions to the Memoir, largely enhancing the +interest and value of that section of the book.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Certain small changes have been made.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Mem">MEMOIR</a><br> +<br> +<small>OF</small><br> +<br> + MAJ.-GEN. SIR WILLIAM HENRY SLEEMAN, K.C.B.</h2> + +<br> +<br> + + +<p>The Sleemans, an ancient Cornish family, for several generations +owned the estate of Pool Park in the parish of Saint Judy, in the +county of Cornwall. Captain Philip Sleeman, who married Mary Spry, +a member of a distinguished family in the same county, was +stationed at Stratton, in Cornwall, on August 8, 1788, when his son +William Henry was born.</p> + +<p>In 1809, at the age of twenty-one, William Henry Sleeman was +nominated, through the good offices of Lord De Dunstanville, to an +Infantry Cadetship in the Bengal army. On the 24th of March, in the +same year, he sailed from Gravesend in the ship Devonshire, and, +having touched at Madeira and the Cape, reached India towards the +close of the year. He arrived at the cantonment of Dinapore, near +Patna, on the 20th December, and on Christmas Day began his +military career as a cadet. He at once applied himself with +exemplary diligence to the study of the Arabic and Persian +languages, and of the religions and customs of India. Passing in +due course through the ordinary early stages of military life, he +was promoted to the rank of ensign on the 23rd September, 1810, and +to that of lieutenant on the 16th December, 1814.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Sleeman served in the war with Nepal, which began in +1814 and terminated in 1816. During the campaign he narrowly +escaped death from a violent epidemic fever, which nearly destroyed +his regiment. 'Three hundred of my own regiment,' he observes, +'consisting of about seven hundred, were obliged to be sent to +their homes on sick leave. The greater number of those who remained +continued to suffer, and a great many died. Of about ten European +officers present with my regiment, seven had the fever and five +died of it, almost all in a state of delirium. I was myself one of +the two who survived, and I was for many days delirious.[1]</p> + +<p>The services of Lieutenant Sleeman during the war attracted +attention, and accordingly, in 1816, he was selected to report on +certain claims to prize-money. The report submitted by him in +February, 1817, was accepted as 'able, impartial, and +satisfactory'. After the termination of the war he served with his +regiment at Allahabad, and in the neighbouring district of +Partābgarh, where he laid the foundation of the intimate +knowledge of Oudh affairs displayed in his later writings.</p> + +<p>In 1820 he was selected for civil employ, and was appointed +Junior Assistant to the Agent of the Governor-General, +administering the Sāgar and Nerbudda territories. Those +territories, which had been annexed from the Marāthās two +years previously, are now included in the jurisdiction of the Chief +Commissioner of the Central Provinces. In such a recently-conquered +country, where the sale of all widows by auction for the benefit of +the Treasury, and other strange customs still prevailed, the +abilities of an able and zealous young officer had ample scope. +Sleeman, after a brief apprenticeship, received, in 1822, the +independent civil charge of the District of Narsinghpur, in the +Nerbudda valley, and there, for more than two years, 'by far the +most laborious of his life', his whole attention was engrossed in +preventing and remedying the disorders of his District.</p> + +<p>Sleeman, during the time that he was in charge of the +Narsinghpur District, had no suspicion that it was a favourite +resort of Thugs. A few years later, in or about 1830, he was +astounded to learn that a gang of Thugs resided in the village of +Kandēlī, not four hundred yards from his court-house, and +that the extensive groves of Mandēsar on the Sāgar road, +only one stage distant from his head-quarters, concealed one of the +greatest <i>bhīls</i>, or places of murder, in all India. The +arrest of Feringheea, one of the most influential Thug leaders, +having given the key to the secret, his disclosures were followed +up by Sleeman with consummate skill and untiring assiduity. In the +years 1831 and 1832 the reports submitted by him and other officers +at last opened the eyes of the superior authorities and forced them +to recognize the fact that the murderous organization extended over +every part of India. Adequate measures were then taken for the +systematic suppression of the evil. 'Thuggee Sleeman' made it the +main business of his life to hunt down the criminals and to +extirpate their secret society. He recorded his experiences in the +series of valuable publications described in the Bibliography. In +this brief memoir it is impossible to narrate in detail the +thrilling story of the suppression of Thuggee, and I must be +content to pass on and give in bare outline the main facts of +Sleeman's honourable career.[2]</p> + +<p>While at Narsinghpur, Sleeman received on the 24th April, 1824, +brevet rank as Captain. In 1825, he was transferred, and on the +23rd September of the following year, was gazetted Captain. In +1826, failure of health compelled him to take leave on medical +certificate. In March, 1828, Captain Sleeman assumed civil and +executive charge of the Jabalpur (Jubbulpore) District, from which +he was transferred to Sāgar in January, 1831. While stationed +at Jabalpur, he married, on the 21st June, 1829, Amélie +Josephine, the daughter of Count Blondin de Fontenne, a French +nobleman, who, at the sacrifice of a considerable property, had +managed to escape from the Revolution. A lady informs the editor +that she remembers Sleeman's fine house at Jabalpur. It stood in a +large walled park, stocked with spotted deer. Both house and park +were destroyed when the railway was carried through the site.</p> + +<p>Mr. C. Eraser, on return from leave in January, 1832, resumed +charge of the revenue and civil duties of the Sāgar district, +leaving the magisterial duties to Captain Sleeman, who continued to +discharge them till January, 1835. By the Resolution of Government +dated 10th January, 1835, Captain Sleeman was directed to fix his +head-quarters at Jabalpur, and was appointed General Superintendent +of the operations for the Suppression of Thuggee, being relieved +from every other charge. In 1835 his health again broke down, and +he was obliged to take leave on medical certificate. Accompanied by +his wife and little son, he went into camp in November, 1835, and +marched through the Jabalpur, Damoh, and Sāgar districts of +the Agency, and then through the Native States of Orchhā, +Datiyā, and Gwālior, arriving at Agra on the 1st January, +1836. After a brief halt at Agra, he proceeded through the +Bharatpur State to Delhi and Meerut, and thence on leave to Simla. +During his march from Jabalpur to Meerut he amused himself by +keeping the journal which forms the basis of the <i>Rambles and +Recollections of an Indian Official</i>. The manuscript of this +work (except the two supplementary chapters) was completed in 1839, +though not given to the world till 1844. On the 1st of February, +1837, in the twenty- eighth year of his service, Sleeman was +gazetted Major. During the same year he made a tour in the interior +of the Himalayas, which he described at length in an unpublished +journal. Later in the year he went down to Calcutta to see his boy +started on the voyage home.</p> + +<p>In February, 1839, he assumed charge of the office of +Commissioner for the Suppression of Thuggee and Dacoity. Up to that +date the office of Commissioner for the Suppression of Dacoity had +been separate from that of General Superintendent of the measures +for the Suppression of Thuggee, and had been filled by another +officer, Mr. Hugh Eraser, of the Civil Service. During the next two +years Sleeman passed much of his time in the North-Western +Provinces, now the Agra Province in the United Provinces of Agra +and Oudh, making Murādābād his head-quarters, and +thoroughly investigating the secret criminal organizations of Upper +India.</p> + +<p>In 1841 he was offered the coveted and lucrative post of +Resident at Lucknow, vacant by the resignation of Colonel Low; but +that officer, immediately after his resignation, lost all his +savings through the failure of his bankers, and Sleeman, moved by a +generous impulse, wrote to Colonel Low, begging him to retain the +appointment.</p> + +<p>Sleeman was then deputed on special duty to Bundēlkhand to +investigate the grave disorders in that province. While at +Jhānsī in December, 1842, he narrowly escaped +assassination by a dismissed Afghan sepoy, who poured the contents +of a blunderbuss into a native officer in attendance.[3]</p> + +<p>During the troubles with Sindhia which culminated in the battle +of Mahārājpur, fought on the 29th December, 1843, +Sleeman, who had become a Lieut.-Colonel, was Resident at +Gwālior, and was actually in Sindhia's camp when the battle +unexpectedly began. In 1848 the Residency at Lucknow again fell +vacant, and Lord Dalhousie, by a letter dated 16th September, +offered Sleeman the appointment in the following terms:</p> + +<p><small> The high reputation you have earned, your +experience of civil administration, your knowledge of the people, +and the qualifications you possess as a public man, have led me to +submit your name to the Council of India as an officer to whom I +could commit this important charge with entire confidence that its +duties would be well performed. I do myself, therefore, the honour +of proposing to you to accept the office of Resident at Lucknow, +with especial reference to the great changes which, in all +probability, will take place. Retaining your superintendency of +Thuggee affairs, it will be manifestly necessary that you should be +relieved from the duty of the trials of Thugs usually condemned at +Lucknow.<br> + In the hope that you will not withhold from the Government +your services in the capacity I have named, and in the further hope +of finding an opportunity of personally making your +acquaintance,</small></p> + +<p align="center"><small>I have the honour to be,<br> + Dear Colonel Sleeman,<br> + Very faithfully yours,<br> + <small>DALHOUSIE.[4]</small></small></p> + +<p>The remainder of Sleeman's official life, from January, 1849, +was spent in Oudh, and was chiefly devoted to ceaseless and +hopeless endeavours to reform the King's administration and relieve +the sufferings of his grievously oppressed subjects. On the 1st of +December, 1849, the Resident began his memorable three months' tour +through Oudh, so vividly described in the special work devoted to +the purpose. The awful revelations of the <i>Journey through the +Kingdom of Oude</i> largely influenced the Court of Directors and +the Imperial Government in forming their decision to annex the +kingdom, although that decision was directly opposed to the advice +of Sleeman, who consistently advocated reform of the +administration, while deprecating annexation. His views are stated +with absolute precision in a letter written in 1854 or 1855, and +published in <i>The Times</i> in November, 1857:</p> + +<p><small> We have no right to annex or confiscate Oude; but +we have a right, under the treaty of 1837, to take the management +of it, but not to appropriate its revenues to ourselves. We can do +this with honour to our Government and benefit to the people. To +confiscate would be dishonest and dishonourable. To annex would be +to give the people a government almost as bad as their own, if we +put our screw upon them (<i>Journey</i>, ed. 1858, vol. i, Intro., +p. xxi).</small></p> + +<p>The earnest efforts of the Resident to suppress crime and +improve the administration of Oudh aroused the bitter resentment of +a corrupt court and exposed his life to constant danger. Three +deliberate attempts to assassinate him at Lucknow are recorded.</p> + +<p>The first, in December, 1851, is described in detail in a letter +of Sleeman's dated the 16th of that month, and less fully by +General Hervey, in <i>Some Records of Crime</i>, vol. ii, p. 479. +The Resident's life was saved by a gallant orderly named +Tīkarām, who was badly wounded. Inquiry proved that the +crime was instigated by the King's moonshee.</p> + +<p>The second attempt, on October 9, 1853, is fully narrated in an +official letter to the Government of India (Bibliography, No. 15). +Its failure may be reasonably ascribed to a special interposition +of Providence. The Resident during all the years he had lived at +Lucknow had been in the habit of sleeping in an upper chamber +approached by a separate private staircase guarded by two sentries. +On the night mentioned the sentries were drugged and two men stole +up the stairs. They slashed at the bed with their swords, but found +it empty, because on that one occasion General Sleeman had slept in +another room.</p> + +<p>The third attempt was not carried as far, and the exact date is +not ascertainable, but the incident is well remembered by the +family and occurred between 1853 and 1856. One day the Resident was +crossing his study when, for some reason or another, he looked +behind a curtain screening a recess. He then saw a man standing +there with a large knife in his hand. General Sleeman, who was +unarmed, challenged the man as being a Thug. He at once admitted +that he was such, and under the spell of a master-spirit allowed +himself to be disarmed without resistance. He had been employed at +the Residency for some time, unsuspected.</p> + +<p>Such personal risks produced no effect on the stout heart of +Sleeman, who continued, unshaken and undismayed, his unselfish +labours.</p> + +<p>In 1854 the long strain of forty-five years' service broke down +Sleeman's strong constitution. He tried to regain health by a visit +to the hills, but this expedient proved ineffectual, and he was +ordered home. On the 10th of February, 1856, while on his way home +on board the Monarch, he died off Ceylon, at the age of +sixty-seven, and was buried at sea, just six days after he had been +granted the dignity of K.C.B.</p> + +<p>Lord Dalhousie's desire to meet his trusted officer was never +gratified. The following correspondence between the +Governor-General and Sleeman, now published for the first time, is +equally creditable to both parties:</p> + +<p align="right"><small>BARRACKPORE PARK,<br> +January 9th, 1856.</small></p> + +<small> MY DEAR GENERAL SLEEMAN,<br> + I have heard to-day of your arrival in Calcutta, and have +heard at the same time with sincere concern that you are still +suffering in health. A desire to disturb you as little as possible +induces me to have recourse to my pen, in order to convey to you a +communication which I had hoped to be able to make in person.<br> + Some time since, when adjusting the details connected with my +retirement from the Government of India, I solicited permission to +recommend to Her Majesty's gracious consideration the names of some +who seemed to me to be worthy of Her Majesty's favour. My request +was moderate. I asked only to be allowed to submit the name of one +officer from each Presidency. The name which is selected from the +Bengal army was your own, and I ventured to express my hope that +Her Majesty would be pleased to mark her sense of the long course +of able, and honourable, and distinguished service through which +you had passed, by conferring upon you the civil cross of a Knight +Commander of the Bath.<br> + As yet no reply has been received to my letter. But as you +have now arrived at the Presidency, I lose no time in making known +to you what has been done; in the hope that you will receive it as +a proof of the high estimation in which your services and character +arc held, as well by myself as by the entire community of +India.</small><br> + + +<p align="right"><small>I beg to remain,<br> +My dear General,<br> +Very truly yours,<br> +DALHOUSIE.</small></p> + +<p><small>Major-General Sleeman.</small></p> + +<p><b>Reply to above. Dated 11th January, 1856.</b></p> + +<p><small>MY LORD,<br> + I was yesterday evening favoured with your +Lordship's most kind and flattering letter of the 9th instant from +Barrackpore.<br> + I cannot adequately express how highly honoured +I feel by the mention that you have been pleased to make of my +services to Her Majesty the Queen, and how much gratified I am by +this crowning act of kindness from your Lordship in addition to the +many favours I have received at your hands during the last eight +years; and whether it may, or may not, be my fate to live long +enough to see the honourable rank actually conferred upon me, which +you have been so considerate and generous as to ask for me, the +letter now received from your Lordship will of itself be deemed by +my family as a substantial honour, and it will so preserved, I +trust, by my son, with feelings of honest pride, at the thought +that his father had merited such a mark of distinction from so +eminent a statesman as the Marquis of Dalhousie.<br> + My right hand is so crippled by rheumatism that +I am obliged to make use of an amanuensis to write this letter, and +my bodily strength is so much reduced, that I cannot hope before +embarking for England to pay my personal respects to your +Lordship.<br> + Under these unfortunate circumstances, I now beg +to take my leave of your Lordship; to offer my unfeigned and +anxious wishes for your Lordship's health and happiness, and with +every sentiment of respect and gratitude, to subscribe +myself,</small></p> + +<p align="right"><small>Your Lordship's most faithful and<br> +Obedient servant,<br> +W. H. SLEEMAN,<br> +Major-General.</small></p> + +<p> <small>To the Most Noble<br> + The Marquis of Dalhousie, +K.T.,<br> + Governor- +General, &c., &c.,<br> + + Calcutta.</small></p> + +<br> +<br> + + +<p>Sir William Sleeman was an accomplished Oriental linguist, well +versed in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, and also in possession of a +good working knowledge of Latin, Greek, and French. His writings +afford many proofs of his keen interest in the sciences of geology, +agricultural chemistry, and political economy, and of his +intelligent appreciation of the lessons taught by history. Nor was +he insensible to the charms of art, especially those of poetry. His +favourite authors among the poets seem to have been Shakespeare, +Milton, Scott, Wordsworth, and Cowper. His knowledge of the customs +and modes of thought of the natives of India, rarely equalled and +never surpassed, was more than half the secret of his notable +success as an administrator. The greatest achievement of his busy +and unselfish life was the suppression of the system of organized +murder known as Thuggee, and in the execution of that prolonged and +onerous task he displayed the most delicate tact, the keenest +sagacity, and the highest power of organization.</p> + +<p>His own words are his best epitaph: 'I have gone on quietly,' he +writes, '"through evil and through good report", doing, to the best +of my ability, the duties which it has pleased the Government of +India, from time to time, to confide to me in the manner which +appeared to me most conformable to its wishes and its honour, +satisfied and grateful for the trust and confidence which enabled +me to do so much good for the people, and to secure so much of +their attachment and gratitude to their rulers.' [5]</p> + +<p>His grandson. Captain J. L. Sleeman, who, when stationed in +India from 1903 to 1908, visited the scenes of his grandfather's +labours, states that everywhere he found the memory of his +respected ancestor revered, and was given the assurance that no +Englishman had ever understood the native of India so well, or +removed so many oppressive evils as General Sir W. H. Sleeman, and +that his memory would endure for ever in the Empire to which he +devoted his life's work.</p> + +<p>This necessarily meagre account of a life which deserves more +ample commemoration may be fitly closed by a few words concerning +the relatives and descendants of Sir William Sleeman.</p> + +<p>His sister and regular correspondent, to whom he dedicated the +<i>Rambles and Recollections</i>, was married to Captain Furse, +R.N.</p> + +<p> His brother's son James came out to India in 1827, joined +the 73rd Regiment of the Bengal Army, was selected for employment +in the Political Department, and was thus enabled to give valuable +aid in the campaign against Thuggee. In due course he was appointed +to the office of General Superintendent of the Operations against +Thuggee, which had been held by his uncle. He rose to the rank of +Colonel, and after a long period of excellent service, lived to +enjoy nearly thirty years of honourable retirement. He died at his +residence near Ross in 1899 at the age of eighty-one.</p> + +<p>In 1831 Sir William's only son, Henry Arthur, was gazetted to +the 16th (Queen's) Lancers, and having retired early from the army, +with the rank of Captain, died in 1905.</p> + +<p>His elder son William Henry died while serving with the Mounted +Infantry during the South African War. His younger son, James +Lewis, a Captain in the Royal Sussex Regiment, who also saw active +service during the war, and was mentioned in dispatches, has a +distinguished African and Indian record, and recently received the +honorary degree of M.A. from the Belfast University for good work +done in establishing the first Officers' Training Corps in Ireland. +The family of Captain James Lewis Sleeman consists of two sons and +a daughter, namely, John Cuthbert, Richard Brian, and Ursula Mary. +Captain Sleeman, as the head of his family, possesses the MSS. +&c. of his distinguished grandfather. The two daughters of Sir +William who survived their father married respectively Colonel +Dunbar and Colonel Brooke.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. <i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oude</i>, vol. ii, p. +105.</p> + +<p>2. The general reader may consult with advantage Meadows Taylor, +<i>The Confessions of a Thug</i>, the first edition of which +appeared in 1839; and the vivid account by Mark Twain in <i>More +Tramps Abroad</i>, chapters 49,50.</p> + +<p>3. The incident is described in detail in a letter dated +December 18, 1842, from Sleeman to his sister Mrs. Furse. Captain +J. L. Sleeman has kindly furnished me with a copy of the letter, +which is too long for reproduction in this place.</p> + +<p>4. This letter is printed in full in the <i>Journey through the +Kingdom of Oude</i>, pp. xvii-xix.</p> + +<p>5. Letter to Lord Hardinge, dated Jhansee, 4th March, 1848, +printed in <i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oude</i>, vol. i, p. +xxvii.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Bib"><b>BIBLIOGRAPHY</b></a><br> +<br> +<small>OF THE</small><br> +<br> +WRITINGS OF<br> +<br> +<small>MAJOR-GENERAL SIR</small> W. H. SLEEMAN, K.C.B.</h2> + +<p align="center"><i>I.—PRINTED</i></p> + +<p>(1.) 1819 Pamphlet.<br> +Letter addressed to Dr. Tytler, of Allahabad, by Lieut. W. H. +Sleeman, August 20th, 1819.<br> +Copied from the <i>Asiatic Mirror</i> of September the 1st, +1819.<br> +[This letter describes a great pestilence at Lucknow in 1818, and +discusses the theory that cholera may be caused by 'eating a +certain kind of rice'.]</p> + +<p>(2.) Calcutta, 1836, 1 vol. 8vo.<br> +<i>Ramaseeana</i>, or a Vocabulary of the Peculiar Language used by +the Thugs, with an Introduction and Appendix descriptive of the +Calcutta system pursued by that fraternity, and of the measures +which have been adopted by the Supreme Government of India for its +suppression.</p> + +<p>Calcutta, G. H. Huttmann, Military Orphan Press, 1836.<br> +[No author's name on title-page, but most of the articles are +signed by W. H. Sleeman.]<br> +Appendices A to Z, and A.2, contain correspondence and copious +details of particular crimes, pp. 1-515. Total pages (v,+270+515) +790.<br> +A very roughly compiled and coarsely printed collection of valuable +documents. [A copy in the Bodleian Library and two copies in the +British Museum. One copy in India Office Library.]</p> + +<p>(2a.) Philadelphia 1839, 1 vol. 8vo.<br> +The work described as follows in the printed Catalogue of Printed +Books in the British Museum appears to be a pirated edition of +<i>Ramaseeana</i>:</p> + +<p><i>The Thugs or Phansīgars of India: comprising a history +of the rise and progress of that extraordinary fraternity of +assassins; and a description of the system which it pursues, +&c.</i><br> +Carey and Hart. Philadelphia, 1839. 8vo.</p> + +<p> A Hindustani MS. in the India Office Library seems to be +the original of the vocabulary and is valuable as a guide to the +spelling of the words.</p> + +<p>(3.) (?)1836 or 1837, Pamphlet.<br> +On the Admission of Documentary Evidence.<br> +<i>Extract.</i><br> +[This reprint is an extract from <i>Ramaseeana</i>. The rules +relating to the admission of evidence in criminal trials are +discussed. 24 pages.]</p> + +<p>(4.) 1837, Pamphlet.<br> +Copy of a Letter<br> +which appeared in the <i>Calcutta Courier</i> of the 29th March, +1837, under the signature of 'Hirtius', relative to the Intrigues +of Jotha Ram.<br> +[This letter deals with the intrigues and disturbances in the +Jaipur (Jyepoor) State in 1835, and the murder of Mr. Blake, the +Assistant to the Resident. (See post, chap, 67, end.) The reprint +is a pamphlet of sixteen pages. At the beginning reference is made +to a previous letter by the author on the same subject, which had +been inserted in the <i>Calcutta Courier</i> in November, +1836.]</p> + +<p>(5.) Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. vi. (1837), p. +621.<br> +<i>History of the Gurha Mundala Rajas, by Captain W. H. +Sleeman.</i><br> +[An elaborate history of the Gond dynasty of Garhā +Mandlā, 'which is believed to be founded principally on the +chronicles of the Bājpai family, who were the hereditary prime +ministers of the Gond princes.' (<i>Central Provinces +Gazetteer,</i> 1870, p. 282, note.) The history is, therefore, +subject to the doubts which necessarily attach to all Indian family +traditions.]</p> + +<p>(6.) W. H. Sleeman. <i>Analysis and Review of the Peculiar +Doctrines of the Ricardo or New School of Political +Economy.</i><br> +8vo, Serampore, 1837.<br> +[A copy is entered in the printed catalogue of the library of the +Asiatic Society of Bengal.]</p> + +<p>(7.) Calcutta (Serampore), 1839, 8vo.<br> +A REPORT on THE SYSTEM OF MEGPUNNAISM,<br> +or<br> +The Murder of Indigent Parents for their Young Children (who are +sold as Slaves) as it prevails in the Delhi Territories, and the +Native States of Rajpootana, Ulwar, and Bhurtpore.<br> +By Major W. H. Sleeman.<br> +——<br> +From the Serampore Press.<br> +1839.<br> +[Thin 8vo, pp. iv and 121.<br> +A very curious and valuable account of a little-known variety of +Thuggee, which possibly may still be practised. Copies exist in the +British Museum and India Office Libraries, but the Bodleian has not +a copy.]</p> + +<p>(8.) Calcutta, 1840, 8vo.<br> +REPORT ON THE DEPREDATIONS COMMITTED BY THE THUG GANGS of UPPER AND +CENTRAL INDIA,<br> +From the Cold Season of 1836-7, down to their Gradual Suppression, +under the operation of the measures adopted against them by the +Supreme Government in the year 1839.</p> + +<p>By Major Sleeman<br> +<i>Commissioner for the Suppression of Thuggee and +Dacoitee.</i></p> + +<p>Calcutta:<br> +G. H. Huttmann, Bengal Military Orphan Press.<br> +1840.<br> +[Thick 8vo, pp. lviii, 549 and xxvi.<br> +The information recorded is similar to that given in the earlier +<i>Ramaseeana</i> volume. Pages xxv-lviii, by Captain N. Lowis, +describe River Thuggee. Copies in the British Museum and India +Office, but none in the Bodleian. This is the only work by Sleeman +which has an alphabetical index.]</p> + +<p>(9.) Calcutta 1841, 8vo.<br> +On the SPIRIT OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE<br> +in our<br> +NATIVE INDIAN ARMY.</p> + +<p>By Major N.[<i>sic</i>] H. Sleeman, Bengal Native Infantry.<br> +'Europaeque saccubuit Asia.'<br> +'The misfortune of all history is, that while the motives of a few +princes and leaders in their various projects of ambition are +detailed with accuracy, the motives which crowd their standards +with military followers are totally +overlooked.'—<i>Malthus.</i><br> + Calcutta:<br> +Bishop's College Press.<br> +M.DCCC.XLI.<br> +[Thin 8vo. Introduction, pp. i-xiii; On the Spirit of Military +Discipline in the Native Army of India, pp. 1-59; page 60 blank; +Invalid Establishment, pp. 61-84. The text of these two essays is +reprinted as chapters 28 and 29 of vol. ii of <i>Rambles and +Recollections</i> in the original edition, corresponding to +Chapters 21 and 22 of the edition of 1893 and Chapters 76, 77 of +this (1915) edition. Most of the observations in the Introduction +are utilized in various places in that work. The author's remark in +the Introduction to these essays—'They may never be +published, but I cannot deny myself the gratification of printing +them'—indicates that, though printed, they were never +published in their separate form. The copy of the separately +printed tract which I have seen is that in the India Office +Library. Another is in the British Museum. The pamphlet is not in +the Bodleian.]</p> + +<p>(10.) 1841 Pamphlet.<br> +MAJOR SLEEMAN<br> +on the<br> +PUBLIC SPIRIT of THE HINDOOS.<br> +<i>From the Transactions of the Agricultural and Horticultural +Society,</i> vol. 8.<br> +Art. XXII, <i>Public Spirit among the Hindoo Race as indicated +in<br> +the flourishing condition of the Jubbulpore District in former +times, with a sketch of its present state: also on the great +importance of attending to Tree Cultivation and suggestions for +extending it. By Major Sleeman, late in charge of the Jubbulpore +District.</i></p> + +<p>[Read at the Meeting of the Society on the 8th September, +1841.]</p> + +<p>[This reprint is a pamphlet of eight pages. The text was again +reprinted verbatim as Chapter 14 of vol. 2 of the <i>Rambles and +Recollections</i> in the original edition, corresponding to Chapter +7 of the edition of 1893, and Chapter 62 of this (1915) edition. No +contributions by the author of later date than the above to any +periodical have been traced. In a letter dated Lucknow, 12th +January, 1853 (<i>Journey,</i> vol. 2, p. 390) the author says-'I +was asked by Dr. Duff, the editor of the <i>Calcutta Review,</i> +before he went home, to write some articles for that journal to +expose the fallacies, and to counteract the influences of this +[<i>scil</i>. annexationist] school; but I have for many years +ceased to contribute to the periodical papers, and have felt bound +by my position not to write for them.']</p> + +<p>(11.) London, 1844, 2 vols. large 8vo.<br> +RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN OFFICIAL<br> +by<br> +Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Sleeman, of the Bengal Army.<br> +'The proper study of mankind is man.'—POPE.<br> +In Two Volumes.<br> +London:<br> +J. Hatchard and Son, 187, Piccadilly.<br> +1844.<br> +[Vol. I, pp. v and 478. Frontispiece, in colours, a portrait of +'The late Emperor of Delhi', namely, Akbar II. At end of volume, +six full- page coloured plates, numbered 25-30, viz. No. 25, +'Plant'; No. 26, 'Plant'; No. 27, 'Plant'; No. 28, 'Ornament'; No. +29, 'Ornament'; No. 30, 'Ornaments'.</p> + +<p>Vol. 2, pp. vii and 459. Frontispiece, in colours, comprising +five miniatures; and Plates numbered 1-24, irregularly inserted, +and with several misprints in the titles.</p> + +<p>The three notes printed at the close of the second volume were +brought up to their proper places in the edition of 1893, and are +there retained in this (1915) edition. The following paragraph is +prefixed to these notes in the original edition: 'In consequence of +this work not having had the advantage of the author's +superintendence while passing through the press, and of the +manuscript having reached England in insulated portions, some +errors and omissions have unavoidably taken place, a few of which +the following notes are intended to rectify or supply.' The edition +of 1844 has been scarce for many years,]</p> + +<p>(11a.) Lahore 1888, 2 vols. in one 8vo.<br> +RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS, &o.<br> +(Title as in edition of 1844.)<br> +Republished by A. C, Majumdar.<br> +Lahore:<br> +Printed at the Mufid-i-am Press.<br> +1888.<br> +[Vol. 1, pp. xi and 351. Vol. 2, pp. v and 339. A very roughly +executed reprint, containing many misprints. No illustrations. This +reprint is seldom met with.]</p> + +<p>(11b.) Westminster, 1893, 2 vols. in 8vo.<br> +RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS, &c.<br> +A New Edition, edited by Vincent Arthur Smith, I.C.S.; being vol. 5 +of Constable's Oriental Miscellany. The book is now scarce.</p> + +<p>(12.) Calcutta, 1849.<br> +REPORT<br> +On<br> +BUDHUK<br> +Alias<br> +BAGREE DECOITS<br> +and other<br> +GANG ROBBERS BY HEREDITARY PROFESSION,<br> +and on<br> +The Measures adopted by the Government of India<br> +for their Suppression.<br> +By Lieut.-Col. W. H. Sleeman, Bengal Army.<br> +Calcutta:<br> +J. C. Sherriff, Bengal Military Orphan Press.<br> +1849.<br> +[Folio, pp. iv and 433. Map. Printed on blue paper. A valuable +work. In their Dispatch No. 27, dated 18th September, 1850, the +Honourable Court of Directors observe that 'This Report is as +important and interesting as that of the same able officer on the +Thugs'. Copies exist in the British Museum and India Office +Libraries, but there is none in the Bodleian. The work was first +prepared for press in 1842 (Journey, vol. 1, p, xxvi).]</p> + +<p>(13.) 1852, Plymouth, Pamphlet.<br> +AN ACCOUNT of WOLVES NURTURING CHILDREN IN THEIR DENS.<br> +By an Indian Official.<br> +Plymouth:<br> +Jenkin Thomas, Printer,<br> +9, Cornwall Street.<br> +1852.<br> +[Octavo pamphlet. 15 pages. The cases cited are also described in +the <i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oude</i>, and are discussed +in V. Ball, <i>Jungle Life in India</i> (De la Rue, 1880), pp. +454-66. The only copy known to me is that in possession of the +author's grandson.]</p> + +<p>(14.)Lucknow, 1852.<br> +Sir William Sleeman printed his <i>Diary of a Journey through +Oude</i> privately at a press in the Residency. He had purchased a +small press and type for the purpose of printing it at his own +house, so that no one but himself and the compositor might see it. +He intended, if he could find time, to give the history of the +reigning family in a third volume, which was written, but has never +been published. The title is: Diary of a Tour through Oude in +December, 1849, and January and February, 1850.</p> + +<p>By The Resident<br> +Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Sleeman.<br> +Printed at Lucknow in a Parlour Press.<br> +1852.</p> + +<p>Two vols. large 8vo. with wide margins. Printed well on good +paper. Vol. 1 has map of Oude, 305 pp. text, and at end a printed +slip of errata. Vol. 2 has 302 pp. text, with a similar slip of +errata. The brief Preface contains the following statements:<br> + 'I have had the Diary printed at my own expense in a small +parlour press which I purchased, with type, for the purpose. . . . +The Diary must for the present be considered as an official +document, which may be perused, but cannot be published wholly or +in part without the sanction of Government previously obtained.' +[1]<br> + Eighteen copies of the Diary were so printed and were +coarsely bound by a local binder. Of these copies twelve were +distributed as follows, one to each person or authority: +Government, Calcutta; Court of Directors; Governor-General; +Chairman of Court of Directors; Deputy Chairman; brother of author; +five children of author, one each (5); Col. Sykes, Director +E.I.C.<br> + A Memorandum of Errata was put up along with some of the +copies distributed. (<i>Private Correspondence,</i> Journey, +<i>vol.</i> 2, <i>pp.</i> 357, 393, <i>under dates 4 April, 1852, +and 12 Jan., 1853.</i>) The Bodleian copy, purchased in June, 1891, +was that belonging to Mrs, (Lady) Sleeman, and bears her signature +'A. J. Sleeman' on the fly-leaf of each volume. The book was +handsomely bound in morocco or russia, with gilt edges, by Martin +of Calcutta. The British Museum Catalogue does not include a copy +of this issue. The India Office Library has a copy of vol. 1 only. +Captain J. L. Sleeman has both volumes.</p> + +<p> (15.) 1853, Pamphlet.<br> +Reprint of letter No. 34 of 1853 from the author to J, P. Grant, +Esq., Officiating Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign +Department, Fort William. Dated Lucknow Residency, 12th October, +1853.<br> +[Six pages. Describes another attempt to assassinate the author on +the 9th October, 1853. See ante, p. xxvi.]</p> + +<p>(16.) London 1858, 2 vols. 8vo.<br> +<i>A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, in 1849-50, by direction +of the Right Hon. the Earl of Dalhousie, Governor-General.</i><br> +With Private Correspondence relative to the Annexation of Oude to +British India, &c.<br> +By Major-General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B., Resident at the Court +of Lucknow.</p> + +<p>In two Volumes.<br> +London:<br> +Richard Bentley, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1858.<br> +[Small 8vo. Frontispiece of vol. 1 is a Map of the Kingdom of Oude. +The contents of vol. 1 are: Title, preface, and contents, pp. i-x; +Biographical Sketch of Major-General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B., pp. +xi-xvi; Introduction, pp. xvii-xxii; Private Correspondence +preceding the Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, pp. xxiii-lxxx; +Diary of a Tour through Oude, chapters i-vi, pp. 1-337. The +contents of vol. 2 are: Title and contents, pp. i-vi; Diary of a +Tour through Oude, pp. 1-331; Private Correspondence relating to +the Annexation of the Kingdom of Oude to British India, pp. +332-424. The letters printed in this volume were written between +5th Dec., 1849, and 11th Sept., 1854, during and after the Tour. +The dates of the letters in the first volume extend from 20th Feb., +1848, to 11th Oct., 1849. The Tour began on 1st Dec., 1849, The +book, though rather scarce, is to be found in most of the principal +libraries, and may be obtained from time to time.]</p> + +<br> +<br> +<p align="center"><i>II.—UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS</i></p> + +<p>(1.) 1809.<br> +Two books describing author's voyage to India round the Cape.</p> + +<p>(2.) 1837.<br> +Journal of a Trip from Simla to Gurgoohee.<br> +[Referred to in unpublished letters dated 5th and 30th August, +1837.]</p> + +<p>(3.) <i>Circa</i>1824.<br> +Preliminary Observations and Notes on Mr. Molony's Report on +Narsinghpur.<br> +[Referred to in <i>Central Provinces Gazetteer</i>, Nāgpur, +2nd ed., 1870, pp. xcix, cii, &c. The papers seem to be +preserved in the record room at Narsinghpur.]</p> + +<p>(4.) 1841.<br> +History of Byza Bae (Baiza Bāī).<br> +[Not to be published till after author's death. See unpublished +<i>letter dated Jhānsī,</i> Oct. 22nd, 1841.]</p> + +<p>(5.)<br> +History of the Reigning Family of Oude.<br> +[Intended to form a third volume of the <i>Journey.</i> See +Author's <i>Letter to Sir James Weir Hogg, Deputy Chairman, India +House,</i> dated Lucknow, 4th April, 1852; printed in +<i>Journey,</i> vol. 2, p. 358.]</p> + +<p>The manuscripts Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 5, and the printed papers Nos. +1, 3, 4, 10, 13, and 15, are in the possession of Captain J, L. +Sleeman, Royal Sussex Regiment, grandson of the author. The India +Office Library possesses copies of the printed works Nos. 2, 7, 8, +9, 11a, 12, 14 (vol. 1 only) and 16.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The book was written in 1851, and the Directors' permission +to publish was given in December, 1852. (<i>Journey,</i> ii, pp. +358, 393, ed. 1858. The Preface to that ed. wrongly indicates +December, 1851, as the date of that permission.)</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>COMPARATIVE TABLE OF CHAPTERS</h2> + +<table border="1" width="100%" summary= +"Comparison of chapter numbers in 1844, 1893, and 1915 editions."> +<tr> +<td><i>Edition</i> 1844</td> +<td><i>Edition</i> 1893</td> +<td><i>Edition</i> 1915</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Vol.1, chap 1—36</td> +<td>Vol.1, chap 1—36</td> +<td>Vol.1, chap 1—36</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 37—46</td> +<td> " + " 37—46 titles only.</td> +<td> " + " 37—46 titles only.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 47—48</td> +<td> " + " 47—48</td> +<td> " + " 47—48</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Vol.2, " 1</td> +<td> " + " 49</td> +<td> " + " 49</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 2</td> +<td> " + " 50</td> +<td> " + " 50</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 3</td> +<td> " + " 51</td> +<td> " + " 51</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 4</td> +<td> " + " 52</td> +<td> " + " 52</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 5</td> +<td> " + " 53</td> +<td> " + " 53</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 6</td> +<td> " + " 54</td> +<td> " + " 54</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 7</td> +<td> " + " 55</td> +<td> " + " 55</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 8</td> +<td>Vol.2, " 1</td> +<td> " + " 56</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 9</td> +<td> " + " 2</td> +<td> " + " 57</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 10</td> +<td> " + " 3</td> +<td> " + " 58</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 11</td> +<td> " + " 4</td> +<td> " + " 59</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 12</td> +<td> " + " 5</td> +<td> " + " 60</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 13</td> +<td> " + " 6</td> +<td> " + " 61</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 14</td> +<td> " + " 7</td> +<td> " + " 62</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 15</td> +<td> " + " 8</td> +<td> " + " 63</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 16</td> +<td> " + " 9</td> +<td> " + " 64</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 17</td> +<td> " + " 10</td> +<td> " + " 65</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 18</td> +<td> " + " 11</td> +<td> " + " 66</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 19</td> +<td> " + " 12</td> +<td> " + " 67</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 20</td> +<td> " + " 13</td> +<td> " + " 68</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 21</td> +<td> " + " 14</td> +<td> " + " 69</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 22</td> +<td> " + " 15</td> +<td> " + " 70</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 23</td> +<td> " + " 16</td> +<td> " + " 71</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 24</td> +<td> " + " 17</td> +<td> " + " 74</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 25</td> +<td> " + " 18</td> +<td> " + " 73</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 26</td> +<td> " + " 19</td> +<td> " + " 74</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 27</td> +<td> " + " 20</td> +<td> " + " 75</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 28</td> +<td> " + " 21</td> +<td> " + " 76</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> " + " 29</td> +<td> " + " 22</td> +<td> " + " 77</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2>ABBREVIATIONS</h2> + +<br> +<br> + + +<p>A.C. After Christ.</p> + +<p><i>Ann. Rep. Annual Report.</i></p> + +<p>A.S. Archaeological Survey.</p> + +<p><i>A.S.R. Archaeological Survey +Reports,</i> by Sir Alexander Cunningham and his assistants; 23 +vols. 8vo, Simla and Calcutta, 1871-87, with General Index (vol. +xxiv, 1887) by V. A. Smith.</p> + +<p><i>A.S.W.I. Archaeological Survey +Reports, Western India.</i></p> + +<p>Beale. T. W. Beale, <i>Oriental +Biographical Dictionary,</i> ed. Keene, 1894.</p> + +<p>C.P. Central Provinces.</p> + +<p>E.& D. Sir H. M. Elliot and +Professor J. Dowson, <i>The History of India as told by its own +Historians, Muhammadan Period;</i> 8 vols. 8vo, London, +1867-77.</p> + +<p><i>E.H.I.</i> V. A. Smith, <i>Early +History of India,</i> 3rd ed., Oxford, 1914.</p> + +<p><i>Ep. Ind. Epigraphia Indica,</i> +Calcutta.</p> + +<p>Fanshawe. H. C. Fanshawe, <i>Delhi Past +and Present,</i> Murray, London, 1902.</p> + +<p><i>H.F.A.</i> V. A. Smith, <i>A History +of Fine Art in India and Ceylon,</i> 4to, Oxford, 1911.</p> + +<p><i>I.G. Imperial Gazetteer of +India</i>, Oxford, 1907, 1908.</p> + +<p><i>Ind. Ant. Indian Antiquary,</i> +Bombay.</p> + +<p><i>J.A.S.B. Journal of the Asiatic +Society of Bengal,</i>Calcutta.</p> + +<p><i>J.R.A.S. Journal of the Royal +Asiatic Society,</i> London.</p> + +<p><i>N.I.N.& Qu. North-Indian Notes +and Queries,</i> Allahabad, 1891-6</p> + +<p>N.W.P. North-Western Provinces.</p> + +<p><i>Z.D.M.G. Zeitschrift der deutschen +morgenländischen Gesellschaft,</i> Leipzig.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS</h2> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch1">CHAPTER 1</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Annual Fairs held upon the Banks of Sacred Streams +in India.</p> + +<p>Before setting out on our journey towards the Himālaya we +formed once more an agreeable party to visit the Marble Rocks of +the Nerbudda at Bherāghāt.[1] It was the end of +Kārtik,[2] when the Hindoos hold fairs on all their sacred +streams at places consecrated by poetry or tradition as the scene +of some divine work or manifestation. These fairs are at once +festive and holy; every person who comes enjoying himself as much +as he can, and at the same time seeking purification from all past +transgressions by bathing and praying in the holy stream, and +making laudable resolutions to be better for the future. The +ceremonies last five days, and take place at the same time upon all +the sacred rivers throughout India; and the greater part of the +whole Hindoo population, from the summits of the Himālaya +mountains to Cape Comōrin, will, I believe, during these five +days, be found congregated at these fairs. In sailing down the +Ganges one may pass in the course of a day half a dozen such fairs, +each with a multitude equal to the population of a large city, and +rendered beautifully picturesque by the magnificence and variety of +the tent equipages of the great and wealthy. The preserver of the +universe (<i>Bhagvān</i>) Vishnu is supposed, on the 26th of +Asārh, to descend to the world below (<i>Pātāl</i>) +to defend Rājā Bali from the attacks of Indra, to stay +with him four months, and to come up again on the 26th +Kārtik.[3] During his absence almost all kinds of worship and +festivities are suspended; and they recommence at these fairs, +where people assemble to hail his resurrection.</p> + +<p>Our tents were pitched upon a green sward on one bank of a small +stream running into the Nerbudda close by, while the multitude +occupied the other bank. At night all the tents and booths are +illuminated, and the scene is hardly less animated by night than by +day; but what strikes a European most is the entire absence of all +tumult and disorder at such places. He not only sees no +disturbance, but feels assured that there will be none; and leaves +his wife and children in the midst of a crowd of a hundred thousand +persons all strangers to them, and all speaking a language and +following a religion different from theirs, while he goes off the +whole day, hunting and shooting in the distant jungles, without the +slightest feeling of apprehension for their safety or comfort. It +is a singular fact, which I know to be true, that during the great +mutiny of our native troops at Barrackpore in 1824, the chief +leaders bound themselves by a solemn oath not to suffer any +European lady or child to be injured or molested, happen what might +to them in the collision with their officers and the Government. My +friend Captain Reid, one of the general staff, used to allow his +children, five in number, to go into the lines and play with the +soldiers of the mutinous regiments up to the very day when the +artillery opened upon them; and, of above thirty European ladies +then at the station, not one thought of leaving the place till they +heard the guns.[4] Mrs. Colonel Faithful, with her daughter and +another young lady, who had both just arrived from England, went +lately all the way from Calcutta to Lūdiāna on the banks +of the Hyphasis, a distance of more than twelve hundred miles, in +their palankeens with relays of bearers, and without even a servant +to attend them.[5] They were travelling night and day for fourteen +days without the slightest apprehension of injury or of insult. +Cases of ladies travelling in the same manner by <i>dāk</i> +(stages) immediately after their arrival from England to all parts +of the country occur every day, and I know of no instance of injury +or insult sustained by them.[6] Does not this speak volumes for the +character of our rule in India? Would men trust their wives and +daughters in this manner unprotected among a people that disliked +them and their rule? We have not a garrison, or walled cantonments, +or fortified position of any kind for our residence from one end of +our Eastern empire to the other, save at the three capitals of +Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.[7] We know and feel that the people +everywhere look up to and respect us, in spite of all our faults, +and we like to let them know and feel that we have confidence in +them.</p> + +<p>Sir Thomas Munro has justly observed, 'I do not exactly know +what is meant by civilizing the people of India. In the theory and +practice of good government they may be deficient; but, if a good +system of agriculture, if unrivalled manufactures, if the +establishment of schools for reading and writing, if the general +practice of kindness and hospitality, and, above all, if a +scrupulous respect and delicacy towards the female sex are amongst +the points that denote a civilized people; then the Hindoos are not +inferior in civilization to the people of Europe'.[8]</p> + +<p>Bishop Heber writes in the same favourable terms of the Hindoos +in the narrative of his journey through India; and where shall we +find a mind more capable of judging of the merits and demerits of a +people than his?[9]</p> + +<p>The concourse of people at this fair was, as usual, immense; but +a great many who could not afford to provide tents for the +accommodation of their families were driven away before their time +by some heavy showers of, to them, unseasonable rains. On this and +similar occasions the people bathe in the Nerbudda without the aid +of priests, but a number of poor Brahmans attend at these festivals +to receive charity, though not to assist at the ceremonies. Those +who could afford it gave a trifle to these men as they came out of +the sacred stream, but in no case was it demanded, or even +solicited with any appearance of importunity, as it commonly is at +fairs and holy places on the Ganges. The first day, the people +bathe below the rapid over which the river falls after it emerges +from its peaceful abode among the marble rocks; on the second day, +just above this rapid; and on the third day, two miles further up +at the cascade, when the whole body of the limpid stream of the +Nerbudda, confined to a narrow channel of only a few yards wide, +falls tumultuously down in a beautiful cascade into a deep chasm of +marble rocks. This fall of their sacred stream the people call the +'Dhuāndhār', or 'the smoky fall', from the thick vapour +which is always seen rising from it in the morning. From below, the +river glides quietly and imperceptibly for a mile and a half along +a deep, and, according to popular belief, a fathomless channel of +from ten to fifty yards wide, with snow-white marble rocks rising +perpendicularly on either side from a hundred to a hundred and +fifty feet high, and in some parts fearfully overhanging. Suspended +in recesses of these white rocks are numerous large black nests of +hornets ready to descend upon any unlucky wight who may venture to +disturb their repose;[10] and, as the boats of the curious European +visitors pass up and down to the sound of music, clouds of wild +pigeons rise from each side, and seem sometimes to fill the air +above them. Here, according to native legends, repose the +Pāndavas, the heroes of their great Homeric poem, the +Mahābhārata, whose names they have transferred to the +valley of the Nerbudda. Every fantastic appearance of the rocks, +caused by those great convulsions of nature which have so much +disturbed the crust of the globe, or by the slow and silent working +of the, waters, is attributed to the god-like power of those great +heroes of Indian romance, and is associated with the recollection +of scenes in which they are supposed to have figured.[11]</p> + +<p>The strata of the Kaimūr range of sandstone hills, which +runs diagonally across the valley of the Nerbudda, are thrown up +almost perpendicularly, in some places many hundred feet above the +level of the plain, while in others for many miles together their +tops are only visible above the surface. These are so many strings +of the oxen which the arrows of Arjun, one of the five brothers, +converted into stone; and many a stream which now waters the valley +first sprang from the surface of the earth at the touch of his +lance, as his troops wanted water. The image of the gods of a +former day, which now lie scattered among the ruins of old cities, +buried in the depth of the forest, are nothing less than the bodies +of the kings of the earth turned into stone for their temerity in +contending with these demigods in battle. Ponds among the rocks of +the Nerbudda, where all the great fairs are held, still bear the +names of the five brothers, who are the heroes of this great +poem;[12] and they are every year visited by hundreds of thousands +who implicitly believe that their waters once received upon their +bosoms the wearied limbs of those whose names they bear. What is +life without the charms of fiction, and without the leisure and +recreations which these sacred imaginings tend to give to the great +mass of those who have nothing but the labour of their hands to +depend upon for their subsistence! Let no such fictions be +believed, and the holidays and pastimes of the lower orders in +every country would soon cease, for they have almost everywhere +owed their origin and support to some religious dream which has +commanded the faith and influenced the conduct of great masses of +mankind, and prevented one man from presuming to work on the day +that another wished to rest from his labours. The people were of +opinion, they told me, that the Ganges, as a sacred stream, could +last only sixty years more, when the Nerbudda would take its place. +The waters of the Nerbudda are, they say already so much more +sacred than those of the Ganges that to see them is sufficient to +cleanse men from their sins, whereas the Ganges must be touched +before it can have that effect.[13]</p> + +<p>At the temple built on the top of a conical hill at +Bherāghāt, overlooking the river, is a statue of a bull +carrying Siva, the god of destruction, and his wife +Pārvatī seated behind him; they have both snakes in their +hands, and Siva has a large one round his loins as a waistband. +There are several demons in human shape lying prostrate under the +belly of the bull, and the whole are well cut out of one large slab +of hard basalt from a dyke in the marble rock beneath. They call +the whole group 'Gaurī Sankar', and I found in the fair, +exposed for sale, a brass model of a similar one from Jeypore +(Jaipur), but not so well shaped and proportioned. On noticing this +we were told that 'such difference was to be expected, since the +brass must have been made by man, whereas the "Gaurī Sankar" +of the temple above was a real Pākhān, or a conversion of +living beings into stone by the gods;[14] they were therefore the +exact resemblance of living beings, while the others could only be +rude imitations'. 'Gaurī', or the Fair, is the name of +Pārvatī, or Dēvī, when she appears with her +husband Siva. On such occasions she is always fair and beautiful. +Sankar is another name of Siva, or Mahādēo, or Rudra. On +looking into the temple at the statue, a lady expressed her +surprise at the entireness as well as the excellence of the +figures, while all round had been so much mutilated by the +Muhammadans. 'They are quite a different thing from the others', +said a respectable old landholder; 'they are a conversion of real +flesh and blood into stone, and no human hands can either imitate +or hurt them.' She smiled incredulously, while he looked very +grave, and appealed to the whole crowd of spectators assembled, who +all testified to the truth of what he had said; and added that 'at +no distant day the figures would be all restored to life again, the +deities would all come back without doubt and reanimate their old +bodies again'.</p> + +<p>All the people who come to bathe at the fair bring chaplets of +yellow jasmine, and hang them as offerings round the necks of the +god and his consort; and at the same time they make some small +offerings of rice to each of the many images that stand within the +same apartment, and also to those which, under a stone roof +supported upon stone pillars, line the inside of the wall that +surrounds the circular area, in the centre of which the temple +stands. The images inside the temple are those of the three great +gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, with their primaeval consorts;[15] +but those that occupy the piazza outside are the representations of +the consorts of the different incarnations of these three gods, and +these consorts are themselves the incarnations of the primaeval +wives, who followed their husbands in all their earthly ramblings. +They have all the female form, and are about the size of ordinary +women, and extremely well cut out of fine white and green +sandstone; but their heads are those of the animals in which their +respective husbands became incarnate, such as the lion, the +elephant, &c., or those of the '<i>vāhans</i>', or animals +on which they rode, such as the bull, the swan, the eagle, &c. +But these, I presume, are mere <i>capricios</i> of the founder of +the temple. The figures are sixty- four in number, all mounted upon +their respective '<i>vāhans</i>', but have been sadly +mutilated by the pious Muhammadans.[16]</p> + +<p>The old 'Mahant', or high priest, told us that Mahādēo +and his wife were in reality our Adam and Eve; 'they came here +together', said he, 'on a visit to the mountain Kailās,[17] +and being earnestly solicited to leave some memorial of their +visit, got themselves turned into stone'. The popular belief is +that some very holy man, who had been occupied on the top of this +little conical hill, where the temple now stands, in austere +devotions for some few thousand years, was at last honoured with a +visit from Siva and his consort, who asked him what they could do +for him. He begged them to wait till he should bring some flowers +from the woods to make them a suitable offering. They promised to +do so, and he ran down, plunged into the Nerbudda and drowned +himself, in order that these august persons might for ever remain +and do honour to his residence and his name. They, however, left +only their 'mortal coil', but will one day return and resume it. I +know not whether I am singular in the notion or not, but I think +Mahādēo and his consort are really our Adam and Eve, and +that the people have converted them into the god and goddess of +destruction, from some vague idea of their original sin, which +involved all their race in destruction. The snakes, which form the +only dress of Mahādēo, would seem to confirm this +notion.[18]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The Nerbudda (Narbadā, or Narmadā) river is the +boundary between Hindustan, or Northern India, and the Deccan +(Dakhin), or Southern India. The beautiful gorge of the Marble +Rocks, near Jubbulpore (Jabalpur), is familiar to modern tourists +(see <i>I.G.</i>, 1908, s.v. 'Marble Rocks'). The remarkable +antiquities at Bherāghāt are described and illustrated in +<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ix, pp. 60-76, pl. xii-xvi. Additions and +corrections to Cunningham's account will be found in <i>A.S.W.I +Progr. Rep.</i>, 1893-4, p. 5; and <i>A.S. Ann. Rep., E. +Circle</i>, 1907-8, pp. 14-18.</p> + +<p>2. The eighth month of the Hindoo luni-solar year, corresponding +to part of October and part of November. In Northern India the year +begins with the month Chait, in March. The most commonly used names +of the months are: (1) Chait; (2) Baisākh; (3) Jēth; (4) +Asārh; (5) Sāwan; (6) Bhādon; (7) Kuār; (8) +Kārtik; (9) Aghan; (10) Pūs; (II) Māgh; and (12) +Phālgun.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Bhagvān</i> is often used as equivalent for the word +God in its most general sense, but is specially applicable to the +Deity as manifested in Vishnu the Preserver. <i>Asārh</i> +corresponds to June-July, <i>Pātāl</i> is the Hindoo +Hades. Rājā Bali is a demon, and Indra is the lord of the +heavens. The fairs take place at the time of full moon.</p> + +<p>4. Barrackpore, fifteen miles north of Calcutta, is still a +cantonment. The Governor General has a country house there. The +mutiny of the native troops stationed there occurred on Nov. 1, +1824, and was due to the discontent caused by orders moving the +47th Native Infantry to Rangoon to take part in the Burmese War. +The outbreak was promptly suppressed. Captain Pogson published a +<i>Memoir of the Mutiny at Barrackpore</i> (8vo, Serampore, +1833).</p> + +<p>5. Lūdiāna, the capital of the district of the same +name, now under the Punjab Government. Hyphasis is the Greek name +of the Biās river, one of the five rivers of the +Punjāb.</p> + +<p>6. Railways have rendered almost obsolete the mode of travelling +described in the text. In Northern India palankeens +(pālkīs) are now seldom used, even by Indians, except for +purposes of ceremony.</p> + +<p>7. This statement is no longer quite accurate, though fortified +positions are still very few.</p> + +<p>8. The editor cannot find the exact passage quoted, but remarks +to the same effect will be found in <i>The Life of Sir Thomas +Munro,</i> by the Rev. G. R. Gleig, in two volumes, a new edition +(London, 1831), vol. ii, p. 175.</p> + +<p>9. <i>Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of +India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1834-5, and a Journey to the +Southern Provinces in 1826</i> (2nd edition, 3 vols. 8vo, London, +1828.)</p> + +<p>10. The bees at the Marble Rocks are the <i>Apis dorsata</i>. An +Englishman named Biddington, when trying to escape from them, was +drowned, and they stung to death one of Captain Forsyth's baggage +ponies (Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia of India,</i> 3rd ed., 1885, s.v. +Bee').</p> + +<p>11. The vast epic poem, or collection of poems known as the +Mahābhārata, consists of over 100,000 Sanskrit verses. +The main subject is the war between the five Pāndavas, or sons +of Pāndū, and their cousins the Kauravas, sons of +Dhritarāshtra. Many poems of various origins and dates are +interwoven with the main work. The best known of the episodes is +that of <i>Nala and Damayantī,</i> which was well translated +by Dean Milman, See Macdonell, <i>A History of Sanskrit +Literature</i> (Heinemann, 1900).</p> + +<p>12. The five Pāndava brothers were Yudhishthira, +Bhīmia, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva, the children of +Pāndū, by his wives Kuntī, or Prithā, and +Madrī.</p> + +<p>13. 'The Narbadā has its special admirers, who exalt it +oven above the Ganges, . . . The sanctity of the Ganges will, they +say, cease in 1895, whereas that of the Narbadā will continue +for ever' (Monier Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life in +India,</i> London, 1883, p. 348), See <i>post,</i> Chapter 27.</p> + +<p>14. Sleeman wrote 'Py-Khan', a corrupt spelling of +pākhān, the Sanskrit pāshāna or +pāsāna, 'a stone'. The compound pāshāna- +mūrti is commonly used in the sense of 'stone image'. The +sibilant <i>sh</i> or <i>s</i> usually is pronounced as <i>kh</i> +in Northern India (Grierson, <i>J.R.A.S.,</i> 1903, p. 363).</p> + +<p>15. Sarasvatī, consort of Brahma; Dēvī +(Pārvatī, Durgā, &c.), consort of Siva; and +Lakshmī, consort of Vishnu. All Hindoo deities have many +names.</p> + +<p>16. The author's explanation is partly erroneous. The temple, +which is a very remarkable one, is dedicated to the sixty-four +Joginīs. Only five temples in India are known to be dedicated +to these demons. For details see Cunningham, <i>A.S.R.,</i> vol. +ix, pp. 61-74, pl. xii-xvi; vol. ii, p. 416; and vol. xxi, p. 57. +The word <i>vāhana</i> means 'vehicle'. Each deity has his +peculiar vehicle.</p> + +<p>17. The heaven of Siva, as distinguished from Vaikuntha, the +heaven of Vishnu. It is supposed to be somewhere in the +Himālaya mountains. The wonderful excavated rock temple at +Ellora is believed to be a model of Kailās.</p> + +<p>18. This 'notion' of the author's is not likely to find +acceptance at the present day.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch2">CHAPTER 2</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Hindoo System of Religion.</p> + +<p>The Hindoo system is this. A great divine spirit or essence, +'Brahma', pervades the whole universe; and the soul of every human +being is a drop from this great ocean, to which, when it becomes +perfectly purified, it is reunited. The reunion is the eternal +beatitude to which all look forward with hope; and the soul of the +Brahman is nearest to it. If he has been a good man, his soul +becomes absorbed in the 'Brahma'; and, if a bad man, it goes to +'Narak', hell; and after the expiration of its period there of +<i>limited imprisonment</i>, it returns to earth, and occupies the +body of some other animal. It again advances by degrees to the body +of the Brahman; and thence, when fitted for it, into the great +'Brahma'.[1]</p> + +<p>From this great eternal essence emanate Brahma, the Creator, +whose consort is Sarasvatī;[2] Vishnu, the Preserver, whose +consort is Lakshmī; and Siva, <i>alias</i> Māhadēo, +the Destroyer, whose consort is Pārvatī. According to +popular belief Jamrāj (Yamarāja) is the judicial deity +who has been appointed by the greater powers to pass the final +judgement on the tenor of men's lives, according to proceedings +drawn up by his secretary Chitragupta. If men's actions have been +good, their souls are, as the next stage, advanced a step towards +the great essence, Brahma; and, if bad, they are thrown back, and +obliged to occupy the bodies of brutes or of people of inferior +caste, as the balance against them may be great or small. There is +an intermediate stage, a 'Narak', or hell, for bad men, and a +'Baikunth', or paradise, for the good, in which they find their +felicity in serving that god of the three to which they have +specially devoted themselves while on earth. But from this stage, +after the period of their sentence is expired, men go back to their +pilgrimage on earth again.</p> + +<p>There are numerous Dēos (Devas), or good spirits, of whom +Indra is the chief; [3] and Daityas, or bad spirits; and there have +also been a great number of incarnations from the three great gods, +and their consorts, who have made their appearance upon the earth +when required for particular purposes. All these incarnations are +called 'Avatārs', or descents. Vishnu has been eleven times on +the globe in different shapes, and Siva seven times.[4] The +avatārs of Vishnu are celebrated in many popular poems, such +as the Rāmāyana, or history of the Rape of Sitā, the +wife of Rāma, the seventh incarnation;[5] the +Mahābhārata, and the Bhāgavata [Purāna], which +describe the wars and amours of this god in his last human +shape.[6] All these books are believed to have been written either +by the hand or by the inspiration of the god himself thousands of +years before the events they describe actually took place. 'It +was', they say, 'as easy for the deity to write or dictate a +battle, an amour, or any other important event ten thousand years +before as the day after it took place'; and I believe nine-tenths, +perhaps ninety-nine in a hundred, of the Hindoo population believe +implicitly that these accounts were also written. It is now pretty +clear that all these works are of comparatively recent date, that +the great poem of the Mahābhārata could not have been +written before the year 786 of the Christian era, and was probably +written so late as A.D. 1157; that Krishna, <i>if born at all</i>, +must have been born on the 7th of August, A.D. 600, but was most +likely a mere creation of the imagination to serve the purpose of +the Brahmans of Ujain, in whom the fiction originated; that the +other incarnations were invented about the same time, and for the +same object, though the other persons described as incarnations +were real princes, Parasu Rāma, before Christ 1176, and +Rāma, born before Christ 961. In the Mahābhārata +Krishna is described as fighting in the same army with Yudhishthira +and his four brothers. Yudhishthira was a real person, who ascended +the throne at Delhi 575 B.C., or 1175 years before the birth of +Krishna.[7] Bentley supposes that the incarnations, particularly +that of Krishna, were invented by the Brahmans of Ujain with a view +to check the progress of Christianity in that part of the world +(see his historical view of the Hindoo astronomy). That we find in +no history any account of the alarming progress of Christianity +about the time these fables were written is no proof that Bentley +was wrong.[8]</p> + +<p>When Monsieur Thevenot was at Agra [in] 1666, the Christian +population was roughly estimated at twenty-five thousand families. +They had all passed away before it became one of our civil and +military stations in the beginning of the present century, and we +might search history in vain for any mention of them (see his +<i>Travels in India</i>, Part III). One single prince, well +disposed to give Christians encouragement and employment, might, in +a few years, get the same number around his capital; and it is +probable that the early Christians in India occasionally found such +princes, and gave just cause of alarm to the Brahman priests, who +were then in the infancy of their despotic power.[9]</p> + +<p>During the war with Nepal, in 1814 and 1815,[10] the division +with which I served came upon an extremely interesting colony of +about two thousand Christian families at Betiyā in the +Tirhūt District, on the borders of the Tarāi forest. This +colony had been created by one man, the Bishop, a Venetian by +birth, under the protection of a small Hindoo prince, the +Rājā, of Betiyā.[11] This holy man had been some +fifty years among these people, with little or no support from +Europe or from any other quarter. The only aid he got from the +Rājā was a pledge that no member of his Church should be +subject to the <i>Purveyance system</i>, under which the people +everywhere suffered so much,[12] and this pledge the +Rājā, though a Hindoo, had never suffered to be violated. +There were men of all trades among them, and they formed one very +large street remarkable for the superior style of its buildings and +the sober industry of its inhabitants. The masons, carpenters, and +blacksmiths of this little colony were working in our camp every +day, while we remained in the vicinity, and better workmen I have +never seen in India; but they would all insist upon going to divine +service at the prescribed hours. They had built a splendid +<i>pucka</i>[13] dwelling-house for their bishop, and a still more +splendid church, and formed for him the finest garden I have seen +in India, surrounded with a good wall, and provided with admirable +pucka wells. The native Christian servants who attended at the old +bishop's table, taught by himself, spoke Latin to him; but he was +become very feeble, and spoke himself a mixture of Latin, Italian, +his native tongue, and Hindustānī. We used to have him at +our messes, and take as much care of him as of an infant, for he +was become almost as frail as one. The joy and the excitement of +being once more among Europeans, and treated by them with so much +reverence in the midst of his flock, were perhaps too much for him, +for he sickened and died soon after.</p> + +<p>The Rājā died soon after him, and in all probability +the flock has disappeared. No Europeans except a few indigo +planters of the neighbourhood had ever before known or heard of +this colony; and they seemed to consider them only as a set of +great scoundrels, who had better carts and bullocks than anybody +else in the country, which they refused to let out at the same rate +as the others, and which they (the indigo lords) were not permitted +to seize and employ at discretion. Roman Catholics have a greater +facility in making converts in India than Protestants, from having +so much more in their form of worship to win the affections through +the medium of the imagination.[14]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Men are occasionally exempted from the necessity of becoming +a Brahman first. Men of low caste, if they die at particular +places, where it is the interest of the Brahmans to invite rich men +to die, are promised absorption into the great 'Brahma' at once. +Immense numbers of wealthy men go every year from the most distant +parts of India to die at Benares, where they spend large sums of +money among the Brahmans. It is by their means that this, the +second city in India, is supported. [W. H. S.] Bombay is now the +second city in India, so far as population is concerned.</p> + +<p>2. Brahma, with the short vowel, is the eternal Essence or +Spirit; Brahmā, with the long vowel, is 'the primaeval male +god, the first personal product of the purely spiritual Brahma, +when overspread by Maya, or illusory creative force', according to +the Vedanta system (Monier Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life +in India</i>, p. 44).</p> + +<p>3. Indra was originally, in the Vedas, the Rain-god. The +statement in the text refers to modern Hinduism.</p> + +<p>4. The incarnations of Vishnu are ordinarily reckoned as ten, +namely, (1) Fish, (2) Tortoise, (3) Boar, (4) Man-lion, (5) Dwarf, +(6) Rāma with the axe, (7) Rāma Chandra, (8) Krishna, (9) +Buddha, (10) Kalkī, or Kalkin, who is yet to come. I do not +know any authority for eleven incarnations of Vishnu. The number is +stated in some Purānas as twenty-two, twenty-four, or even +twenty-eight. Seven incarnations of Siva are not generally +recognized (see Monier Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life in +India</i>, pp. 78-86, and 107-16). For the theory and mystical +meaning of <i>avatārs</i>, see Grierson, <i>J.R.A.S.</i>, +1909, pp. 621- 44. The word avatār means 'descent', +<i>scil</i>. of the Deity to earth, and covers more than the term +'incarnation'.</p> + +<p>5. Sitā was an incarnation of Lakshmī. She became +incarnate again, many centuries afterwards, as the wife of Krishna, +another incarnation of Vishnu [W. H. S.]. Reckoning by centuries +is, of course, inapplicable to pure myth. The author believed in +Bentley's baseless chronology.</p> + +<p>6. For the Mahābhārata, see <i>ante</i>, note 11, +Chapter 1. The Bhāgavata Purāna is the most popular of +the Purānas, The Hindi version of the tenth book +(<i>skandha</i>) is known as the 'Prem Sāgar'. The date of the +composition of the Purānas is uncertain.</p> + +<p>7. The dates given in this passage are purely imaginary. Parts +of the Mahābhārata are very ancient. Yudhishthira is no +more an historical personage than Achilles or Romulus. It is +improbable that a 'throne of Delhi' existed in 575 B.C., and hardly +anything is known about the state of India at that date.</p> + +<p>8. It is hardly necessary to observe that this grotesque theory +is utterly at variance with the facts, as now known.</p> + +<p>9. The existing settlements of native Christians at Agra are +mostly of modern origin. Very ancient Christian communities exist +near Madras, and on the Malabar coast. The travels of Jean de +Thevenot were published in 1684, under the title of <i>Voyage, +contenant la Relation de l'Indostan</i>. The English version, by A. +Lovell (London, 1687), is entitled <i>The Travels of Monsieur de +Thevenot into the Levant, in three Parts</i>. Part III deals with +the East Indies, The passage referred to is: 'Some affirm that +there are twenty-five thousand Christian Families in Agra, but all +do not agree in that' (Part III, p. 35). Thevonot's statement about +the Christians of Agra is further discussed post in Chapter 52.</p> + +<p>10. The war with Nepal began in October, 1814, and was not +concluded till 1816. During its progress the British arms suffered +several reverses.</p> + +<p>11. The Betiyā (Bettiah of <i>I. G</i>., 1908) Rāj is +a great estate with an area of 1,824 square miles in the northern +part of the Champāran District of Bihār, in the Province +of Bihār and Orissa. A great portion of the estate is held +(1908) on permanent leases by European indigo-planters.</p> + +<p>12. For discussion of this system see post, Chapter 7.</p> + +<p>13. 'Pucka' (<i>pakkā</i>) here means 'masonry', as opposed +to 'Kutcha' (<i>kachchā</i>), meaning 'earthen'.</p> + +<p>14. Native Christians, according to the census of 1872, number +1,214 persons, who are principally found in Bettiā thāna +[police-circle]. There are two Missions, one at Bettiā, and +the other at the village of Chuhārī, both supported by +the Roman Catholic Church. The former was founded in 1746 by a +certain Father Joseph, from Garingano in Italy, who went to +Bettiā on the invitation of the Mahārāja. The +present number of converts is about 1,000 persons. Being +principally descendants of Brahmans, they hold a fair social +position; but some of them are extremely poor. About one-fourth are +carpenters, one- tenth blacksmiths, one-tenth servants, the +remainder carters. The Chuhārī Mission was founded in +1770 by three Catholic priests, who had been expelled from Nepal +[after the Gōrkha conquest in 1768]. There are now 283 +converts, mostly descendants of Nepālis. They are all +agriculturists, and very poor (Article 'Champāran District' in +<i>Statistical Account of Bengal</i>, 1877).</p> + +<p> The statement in <i>I.G.</i> 1908, s.v. Bettiah, differs +slightly, as follows:</p> + +<p> 'A Roman Catholic Mission was established +about 1740 by Father Joseph Mary, an Italian missionary of the +Capuchin Order, who was passing near Bettiah on his way to +Nepāl, when he was summoned by Rājā Dhruva Shah to +attend his daughter, who was dangerously ill. He succeeded in +curing her, and the grateful Raja invited him to stay at Bettiah +and gave him a house and ninety acres of land.' The Bettiah Mission +still exists and maintains the Catholic Mission Press, where +publications illustrating the history of the Capuchin Missions have +been printed. Father Felix, O.C., is at work on the subject.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch3">CHAPTER 3</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Legend of the Nerbudda River.</p> + +<p>The legend is that the Nerbudda, which flows west into the Gulf +of Cambay, was wooed and won in the usual way by the Sōn +river, which rises from the same tableland of Amarkantak, and flows +east into the Ganges and Bay of Bengal.[1] All the previous +ceremonies having been performed, the Sōn [2] came with 'due +pomp and circumstance' to fetch his bride in the procession called +the 'Barāt', up to which time the bride and bridegroom are +supposed never to have seen each other, unless perchance they have +met in infancy. Her Majesty the Nerbudda became exceedingly +impatient to know what sort of a personage her destinies were to be +linked to, while his Majesty the Sōn advanced at a slow and +stately pace. At last the Queen sent Johilā, the daughter of +the barber, to take a close view of him, and to return and make a +faithful and particular report of his person. His Majesty was +captivated with the little Johilā, the barber's daughter, at +first sight; and she, 'nothing loath', yielded to his caresses. +Some say that she actually pretended to be Queen herself; and that +his Majesty was no further in fault than in mistaking the humble +handmaid for her noble mistress; but, be that as it may, her +Majesty no sooner heard of the good understanding between them, +than she rushed forward, and with one foot sent the Sōn +rolling back to the east whence he came, and with the other kicked +little Johilā sprawling after him; for, said the high priest, +who told us the story, 'You see what a towering passion she was +likely to have been in under such indignities from the furious +manner in which she cuts her way through the marble rocks beneath +us, and casts huge masses right and left as she goes along, as if +they were really so many coco-nuts'. 'And was she', asked I, 'to +have flown eastward with him, or was he to have flown westward with +her?' 'She was to have accompanied him eastward', said the high +priest, 'but her Majesty, after this indignity, declared that she +would not go a single pace in the same direction with such +wretches, and would flow west, though all the other rivers in India +might flow east; and west she flows accordingly, a virgin queen.' I +asked some of the Hindoos about us why they called her 'Mother +Nerbudda', if she was really never married. 'Her Majesty', said +they with great respect, 'would really never consent to be married +after the indignity she suffered from her affianced bridegroom the +Sōn; and we call her Mother because she blesses us all, and we +are anxious to accost her by the name which we consider to be at +once the most respectful and endearing.'</p> + +<p>Any Englishman can easily conceive a poet in his highest +'calenture of the brain' addressing the ocean as 'a steed that +knows his rider', and patting the crested billow as his flowing +mane; but he must come to India to understand how every individual +of a whole community of many millions can address a fine river as a +living being, a sovereign princess, who hears and understands all +they say, and exercises a kind of local superintendence over their +affairs, without a single temple in which her image is worshipped, +or a single priest to profit by the delusion. As in the case of the +Ganges, it is the river itself to whom they address themselves, and +not to any deity residing in it, or presiding over it: the stream +itself is the deity which fills their imaginations, and receives +their homage.</p> + +<p>Among the Romans and ancient Persians rivers were propitiated by +sacrifices. When Vitellius crossed the Euphrates with the Roman +legions to put Tiridates on the throne of Armenia, they propitiated +the river according to the rites of their country by the +<i>suovetaurilia</i>, the sacrifice of the hog, the ram, and the +bull. Tiridates did the same by the sacrifice of a horse. Tacitus +does not mention the river <i>god</i>, but the river <i>itself</i>, +as propitiated (see [<i>Annals</i>,] book vi, chap. 37).[3] Plato +makes Socrates condemn Homer for making Achilles behave +disrespectfully towards the river Xanthus, though acknowledged to +be a divinity, in offering to fight him,[4] and towards the river +Sperchius, another acknowledged god, in presenting to the dead body +of Patroclus the locks of his hair which he had promised to that +river.[5]</p> + +<p>The Sōn river, which rises near the source of the Nerbudda +on the tableland of Amarkantak, takes a westerly course for some +miles, and then turns off suddenly to the east, and is joined by +the little stream of the Johilā before it descends the great +cascade; and hence the poets have created this fiction, which the +mass of the population receive as divine revelation. The statue of +little Johilā, the barber's daughter, in stone, stands in the +temple of the goddess Nerbudda at Amarkantak, bound in chains.[6] +It may here be remarked that the first overtures in India must +always be made through the medium of the barber, whether they be +from the prince or the peasant.[7] If a sovereign prince sends +proposals to a sovereign princess, they must be conveyed through +the medium of the barber, or they will never be considered as done +in due form, as likely to prove propitious. The prince will, of +course, send some relation or high functionary with him; but in all +the credentials the barber must be named as the principal +functionary. Hence it was that Her Majesty was supposed to have +sent a barber's daughter to meet her husband.</p> + +<p>The 'Mahātam' (greatness or holiness) of the Ganges is +said, as I have already stated, to be on the wane, and not likely +to endure sixty years longer; while that of the Nerbudda is on the +increase, and in sixty years is entirely to supersede the sanctity +of her sister. If the valley of the Nerbudda should continue for +sixty years longer under such a government as it has enjoyed since +we took possession of it in 1817,[8] it may become infinitely more +rich, more populous, and more beautiful than that of the Nile ever +was; and, if the Hindoos there continue, as I hope they will, to +acquire wealth and honour under a rule to which they are so much +attached, the prophecy may be realized in as far as the increase of +honour paid to the Nerbudda is concerned. But I know no ground to +expect that the reverence[9] paid to the Ganges will diminish, +unless education and the concentration of capital in manufactures +should work an important change in the religious feelings and +opinions of the people along the course of that river; although +this, it must be admitted, is a consummation which may be looked +for more speedily on the banks of the Ganges than on those of a +stream like the Nerbudda, which is neither navigable at present +nor, in my opinion, capable of being rendered so. Commerce and +manufactures, and the concentration of capital in the maintenance +of the new communities employed in them, will, I think, be the +great media through which this change will be chiefly effected; and +they are always more likely to follow the course of rivers that are +navigable than that of rivers which are not.[10]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Amarkantak, formerly in the Sohāgpur pargana of the +Bilāspur District of the Central Provinces, is situated on a +high tableland, and is a famous place of pilgrimage. The temples +are described by Beglar in <i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. vii, pp. 227-34, pl. +xx, xxi. The hill has been transferred to the Rīwā State +(<i>Central Provinces Gazetteer</i> (1870), and <i>I.G.</i> (1908), +s.v. Amarkantak).</p> + +<p>2. The name is misspelled Sohan in the author's text. The +Sōn rises at Sōn Mundā, about twenty miles from +Amarkantak (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. vii, 236).</p> + +<p>3. 'Sacrificantibus, cum hic more Romano suovetaurilia daret, +ille equum placando amni adornasset.'</p> + +<p>4. + μέγας +ποταμòς +βαθυδίνης,<br> +δυ Ξάνθον +καλέουσι +θεοί, +άνδρες δè +Σκάμανδρον. +—<i>Iliad</i> xx, 73.</p> + +<p>5. <i>Iliad</i> xxiii. 140-153.</p> + +<p>6. Mr. Crooke observes that the binding was intended to prevent +the object of worship from deserting her shrine or possibly doing +mischief elsewhere, and refers to his article, 'The Binding of a +God, a Study of the Basis of Idolatry', in <i>Folklore</i>, vol. +viii (1897), p.134. The name is spelt Johillā in <i>I.G.</i> +(1908), s.v. Sōn River.</p> + +<p>7. Monier Williams denies the barber's monopoly of match-making. +'In some parts of Northern India the match-maker for some castes is +the family barber; but for the higher castes he is more generally a +Brahman, who goes about from one house to another till he discovers +a baby-girl of suitable rank' (<i>Religious Thought and Life in +India</i>, p. 377). So far as the editor knows, the barber is +ordinarily employed in Northern India.</p> + +<p>8. During the operations against the Pindhārī +freebooters. Many treaties were negotiated with the Peshwa and +other native powers in the years 1817 and 1818.</p> + +<p>9. The word in the text is 'revenue'.</p> + +<p>10. Concerning the prophecy that the sanctity of the Ganges will +cease in 1895, see note to Chapter 1, <i>ante</i>, [13]. The +prophecy was much talked of some years ago, but the reverence for +the Ganges continues undiminished, while the development of +commerce and manufactures has not affected, the religious feelings +and opinions of the people. Railways, in fact, facilitate +pilgrimages and increase their popularity. The course of commerce +now follows the line of rail, not the navigable rivers. The author, +when writing this book, evidently never contemplated the +possibility of railway construction in India. Later in life, in +1852, he fully appreciated the value of the new means of +communication (<i>Journey</i>, ii, 370, &c.).</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch4">CHAPTER 4</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">A Suttee[1] on the Nerbudda.</p> + +<p>We took a ride one evening to Gopālpur, a small village +situated on the same bank of the Nerbudda, about three miles up +from Bherāghāt. On our way we met a party of women and +girls coming to the fair. Their legs were uncovered half-way up the +thigh; but, as we passed, they all carefully covered up their +faces. 'Good God!' exclaimed one of the ladies, 'how can these +people be so very indecent?' They thought it, no doubt, equally +extraordinary that she should have her face uncovered, while she so +carefully concealed her legs; for they were really all modest +peasantry, going from the village to bathe in the holy +stream.[2]</p> + +<p>Here there are some very pretty temples, built for the most part +to the memory of widows who have burned themselves with the remains +of their husbands, and upon the very spot where they committed +themselves to the flames. There was one which had been recently +raised over the ashes of one of the most extraordinary old ladies +that I have ever seen, who burned herself in my presence in 1829. I +prohibited the building of any temple upon the spot, but my +successor in the civil charge of the district, Major Low, was +never, I believe, made acquainted with the prohibition nor with the +progress of the work; which therefore went on to completion in my +absence. As suttees are now prohibited in our dominions[3] and +cannot be often seen or described by Europeans, I shall here relate +the circumstances of this as they were recorded by me at the time, +and the reader may rely upon the truth of the whole tale.</p> + +<p>On the 29th November, 1829, this old woman, then about +sixty-five years of age, here mixed her ashes with those of her +husband, who had been burned alone four days before. On receiving +civil charge of the district (Jubbulpore) in March, 1828, I issued +a proclamation prohibiting any one from aiding or assisting in +suttee, and distinctly stating that to bring one ounce of wood for +the purpose would be considered as so doing. If the woman burned +herself with the body of her husband, any one who brought wood for +the purpose of burning him would become liable to punishment; +consequently, the body of the husband must be first consumed, and +the widow must bring a fresh supply for herself. On Tuesday, 24th +November, 1829, I had an application from the heads of the most +respectable and most extensive family of Brahmans in the district +to suffer this old woman to burn herself with the remains of her +husband, Ummēd Singh Upadhya, who had that morning died upon +the banks of the Nerbudda.[4] I threatened to enforce my order, and +punish severely any man who assisted; and placed a police guard for +the purpose of seeing that no one did so. She remained sitting by +the edge of the water without eating or drinking. The next day the +body of her husband was burned to ashes in a small pit of about +eight feet square, and three or four feet deep, before several +thousand spectators who had assembled to see the suttee. All +strangers dispersed before evening, as there seemed to be no +prospect of my yielding to the urgent solicitations of her family, +who dared not touch food till she had burned herself, or declared +herself willing to return to them. Her sons, grandsons, and some +other relations remained with her, while the rest surrounded my +house, the one urging me to allow her to burn, and the other urging +her to desist. She remained sitting on a bare rock in the bed of +the Nerbudda, refusing every kind of sustenance, and exposed to the +intense heat of the sun by day, and the severe cold of the night, +with only a thin sheet thrown over her shoulders. On Thursday, to +cut off all hope of her being moved from her purpose, she put on +the dhajā, or coarse red turban, and broke her bracelets in +pieces, by which she became dead in law, and for ever excluded from +caste. Should she choose to live after this, she could never return +to her family. Her children and grandchildren were still with her, +but all their entreaties were unavailing; and I became satisfied +that she would starve herself to death, if not allowed to burn, by +which the family would be disgraced, her miseries prolonged, and I +myself rendered liable to be charged with a wanton abuse of +authority, for no prohibition of the kind I had issued had as yet +received the formal sanction of the Government.</p> + +<p>On Saturday, the 28th, in the morning, I rode out ten miles to +the spot, and found the poor old widow sitting with the dhajā +round her head, a brass plate before her with undressed rice and +flowers, and a coco-nut in each hand. She talked very collectedly, +telling me that 'she had determined to mix her ashes with those of +her departed husband, and should patiently wait my permission to do +so, assured that God would enable her to sustain life till that was +given, though she dared not eat or drink'. Looking at the sun, then +rising before her over a long and beautiful reach of the Nerbudda +river, she said calmly, 'My soul has been for five days with my +husband's near that sun, nothing but my earthly frame is left; and +this, I know, you will in time suffer to be mixed with the ashes of +his in yonder pit, because it is not in your nature or usage +wantonly to prolong the miseries of a poor old woman'.</p> + +<p>'Indeed, it is not,—my object and duty is to save and +preserve them [<i>sic</i>]; and I am come to dissuade you from this +idle purpose, to urge you to live, and to keep your family from the +disgrace of being thought your murderers.'</p> + +<p>'I am not afraid of their ever being so thought: they have all, +like good children, done everything in their power to induce me to +live among them; and, if I had done so, I know they would have +loved and honoured me; but my duties to them have now ended. I +commit them all to your care, and I go to attend my husband, +<i>Ummēd Singh Upadhya</i>, with whose ashes on the funeral +pile mine have been already three times mixed.'[5]</p> + +<p>This was the first time in her long life that she had ever +pronounced the name of her husband, for in India no woman, high or +low, ever pronounces the name of her husband,—she would +consider it disrespectful towards him to do so; and it is often +amusing to see their embarrassment when asked the question by any +European gentleman. They look right and left for some one to +relieve them from the dilemma of appearing disrespectful either to +the querist or to their absent husbands—they perceive that he +is unacquainted with their duties on this point, and are afraid he +will attribute their silence to disrespect. They know that few +European gentlemen are acquainted with them; and when women go into +our courts of justice, or other places where they are liable to be +asked the names of their husbands, they commonly take one of their +children or some other relation with them to pronounce the words in +their stead. When the old lady named her husband, as she did with +strong emphasis, and in a very deliberate manner, every one present +was satisfied that she had resolved to die. 'I have', she +continued, 'tasted largely of the bounty of Government, having been +maintained by it with all my large family in ease and comfort upon +our rent-free lands; and I feel assured that my children will not +be suffered to want; but with them I have nothing more to do, our +intercourse and communion here end. My soul (<i>prān</i>) is +with <i>Ummēd Singh Upadhya</i>: and my ashes must here mix +with his.'</p> + +<p>Again looking to the sun—'I see them together', said she, +with a tone and countenance that affected me a good deal, 'under +the bridal canopy!'—alluding to the ceremonies of marriage; +and I am satisfied that she at that moment really believed that she +saw her own spirit and that of her husband under the bridal canopy +in paradise.</p> + +<p>I tried to work upon her pride and her fears. I told her that it +was probable that the rent-free lands by which her family had been +so long supported might be resumed by the Government, as a mark of +its displeasure against the children for not dissuading her from +the sacrifice; that the temples over her ancestors upon the bank +might be levelled with the ground, in order to prevent their +operating to induce others to make similar sacrifices; and lastly, +that not one single brick or stone should ever mark the place where +she died if she persisted in her resolution. But, if she consented +to live, a splendid habitation should be built for her among these +temples, a handsome provision assigned for her support out of these +rent-free lands, her children should come daily to visit her, and I +should frequently do the same. She smiled, but held out her arm and +said, 'My pulse has long ceased to beat, my spirit has departed, +and I have nothing left but a little <i>earth</i>, that I wish to +mix with the ashes of my husband. I shall suffer nothing in +burning; and, if you wish proof, order some fire, and you shall see +this arm consumed without giving me any pain'. I did not attempt to +feel her pulse, but some of my people did, and declared that it had +ceased to be perceptible. At this time every native present +believed that she was incapable of suffering pain; and her end +confirmed them in their opinion.</p> + +<p>Satisfied myself that it would be unavailing to attempt to save +her life, I sent for all the principal members of the family, and +consented that she should be suffered to burn herself if they would +enter into engagements that no other member of their family should +ever do the same. This they all agreed to, and the papers having +been drawn out in due form about midday, I sent down notice to the +old lady, who seemed extremely pleased and thankful. The ceremonies +of bathing were gone through before three [o'clock], while the wood +and other combustible materials for a strong fire were collected +and put into the pit. After bathing, she called for a 'pan' (betel +leaf) and ate it, then rose up, and with one arm on the shoulder of +her eldest son, and the other on that of her nephew, approached the +fire. I had sentries placed all round, and no other person was +allowed to approach within five paces. As she rose up fire was set +to the pile, and it was instantly in a blaze. The distance was +about 150 yards. She came on with a calm and cheerful countenance, +stopped once, and, casting her eyes upward, said, 'Why have they +kept me five days from thee, my husband?' On coming to the sentries +her supporters stopped; she walked once round the pit, paused a +moment, and, while muttering a prayer, threw some flowers into the +fire. She then walked up deliberately and steadily to the brink, +stepped into the centre of the flame, sat down, and leaning back in +the midst as if reposing upon a couch, was consumed without +uttering a shriek or betraying one sign of agony.</p> + +<p>A few instruments of music had been provided, and they played, +as usual, as she approached the fire, not, as is commonly supposed, +in order to drown screams, but to prevent the last words of the +victim from being heard, as these are supposed to be prophetic, and +might become sources of pain or strife to the living.[6] It was not +expected that I should yield, and but few people had assembled to +witness the sacrifice, so that there was little or nothing in the +circumstances immediately around to stimulate her to any +extraordinary exertions; and I am persuaded that it was the desire +of again being united to her husband in the next world, and the +entire confidence that she would be so if she now burned herself, +that alone sustained her. From the morning he died (Tuesday) till +Wednesday evening she ate 'pans' or betel leaves, but nothing else; +and from Wednesday evening she ceased eating them. She drank no +water from Tuesday. She went into the fire with the same cloth +about her that she had worn in the bed of the river; but it was +made wet from a persuasion that even the shadow of any impure thing +falling upon her from going to the pile contaminates the woman +unless counteracted by the sheet moistened in the holy stream.</p> + +<p>I must do the family the justice to say that they all exerted +themselves to dissuade the widow from her purpose, and had she +lived she would assuredly have been cherished and honoured as the +first female member of the whole house. There is no people in the +world among whom parents are more loved, honoured, and obeyed than +among the Hindoos; and the grandmother is always more honoured than +the mother. No queen upon her throne could ever have been +approached with more reverence by her subjects than was this old +lady by all the members of her family as she sat upon a naked rock +in the bed of the river, with only a red rag upon her head and a +single-white sheet over her shoulders.</p> + +<p>Soon after the battle of Trafalgar I heard a young lady exclaim, +'I could really wish to have had a brother killed in that action'. +There is no doubt that a family in which a suttee takes place feels +a good deal exalted in its own esteem and that of the community by +the sacrifice. The sister of the Rājā of Rīwā +was one of four or five wives who burned themselves with the +remains of the Rājā of Udaipur; and nothing in the course +of his life will ever be recollected by her brother with so much of +pride and pleasure, since the Udaipur Rājā is the head of +the Rājpūt tribes.[7]</p> + +<p>I asked the old lady when she had first resolved upon becoming a +suttee, and she told me that about thirteen years before, while +bathing in the river Nerbudda, near the spot where she then sat, +with many other females of the family, the resolution had fixed +itself in her mind as she looked at the splendid temples on the +bank of the river erected by the different branches of the family +over the ashes of her female relations who had at different times +become suttees. Two, I think, were over her aunts, and one over the +mother of her husband. They were very beautiful buildings, and had +been erected at great cost and kept in good repair. She told me +that she had never mentioned this her resolution to any one from +that time, nor breathed a syllable on the subject till she called +out 'Sat, sat, sat',[8] when her husband breathed his last with his +head in her lap on the bank of the Nerbudda, to which he had been +taken when no hopes remained of his surviving the fever of which he +died.</p> + +<p>Charles Harding, of the Bengal Civil Service, as magistrate of +Benares, in 1806 prevented the widow of a Brahman from being +burned. Twelve months after her husband's death she had been goaded +by her family into the expression of a wish to burn with some relic +of her husband, preserved for the purpose. The pile was raised to +her at Rāmnagar,[9] some two miles above Benares, on the +opposite side of the river Ganges. She was not well secured upon +the pile, and as soon as she felt the fire she jumped off and +plunged into the river. The people all ran after her along the +bank, but the current drove her towards Benares, whence a police +boat put off and took her in.</p> + +<p>She was almost dead with the fright and the water, in which she +had been kept afloat by her clothes. She was taken to Harding; but +the whole city of Benares was in an uproar, at the rescue of a +Brahman's widow from the funeral pile, for such it had been +considered, though the man had been a year dead. Thousands +surrounded his house, and his court was filled with the principal +men of the city, imploring him to surrender the woman; and among +the rest was the poor woman's father, who declared that he could +not support his daughter; and that she had, therefore, better be +burned, as her husband's family would no longer receive her. The +uproar was quite alarming to a young man, who felt all the +responsibility upon himself in such a city as[10] Benares, with a +population of three hundred thousand people,[11] so prone to +popular insurrections, or risings <i>en masse</i> very like them. +He long argued the point of the time that had elapsed, and the +unwillingness of the woman, but in vain; until at last the thought +struck him suddenly, and he said that 'The sacrifice was manifestly +unacceptable to their God—that the sacred river, as such, had +rejected her; she had, without being able to swim, floated down two +miles upon its bosom, in the face of an immense multitude; and it +was clear that she had been rejected. Had she been an acceptable +sacrifice, after the fire had touched her, the river would have +received her'. This satisfied the whole crowd. The father said +that, after this unanswerable argument, he would receive his +daughter; and the whole crowd dispersed satisfied.[12]</p> + +<p>The following conversation took place one morning between me and +a native gentleman at Jubbulpore soon after suttees had been +prohibited by Government:—</p> + +<p>'What are the castes among whom women are not permitted to +remarry after the death of their husbands?'</p> + +<p>'They are, sir, Brahmans, Rājpūts, Baniyās +(shopkeepers), Kāyaths (writers).'</p> + +<p>'Why not permit them to marry, now that they are no longer +permitted to burn themselves with the dead bodies of their +husbands?'</p> + +<p>'The knowledge that they cannot unite themselves to a second +husband without degradation from caste, tends strongly to secure +their fidelity to the first, sir. Besides, if all widows were +permitted to marry again, what distinction would remain between us +and people of lower caste? We should all soon sink to a level with +the lowest.'</p> + +<p>'And so you are content to keep up your caste at the expense of +the poor widows?'</p> + +<p>'No; they are themselves as proud of the distinction as their +husbands are.'</p> + +<p>'And would they, do you think, like to hear the good old custom +of burning themselves restored?'</p> + +<p>'Some of them would, no doubt.'</p> + +<p>'Why?'</p> + +<p>'Because they become reunited to their husbands in paradise, and +are there happy, free from all the troubles of this life.'</p> + +<p>'But you should not let them have any troubles as widows.'</p> + +<p>'If they behave well, they are the most honoured members of +their deceased husbands' families; nothing in such families is ever +done without consulting them, because all are proud to have the +memory of their lost fathers, sons, and brothers so honoured by +their widows.[13] But women feel that they are frail, and would +often rather burn themselves than be exposed all their lives to +temptation and suspicion.'</p> + +<p>'And why do not the men burn themselves to avoid the troubles of +life?'</p> + +<p>'Because they are not called to it from Heaven, as the women +are.'</p> + +<p>'And you think that the women were really called to be burned by +the Deity?'</p> + +<p>'No doubt; we all believe that they were called and supported by +the Deity; and that no tender beings like women could otherwise +voluntarily undergo such tortures—they become inspired with +supernatural powers of courage and fortitude. When Dulī Sukul, +the Sihōrā[14] banker's father, died, the wife of a +Lodhī cultivator of the town declared, all at once, that she +had been a suttee with him six times before; and that she would now +go into paradise with him a seventh time. Nothing could persuade +her from burning herself. She was between fifty and sixty years of +age, and had grandchildren, and all her family tried to persuade +her that it must be a mistake, but all in vain. She became a +suttee, and was burnt the day after the body of the banker.'</p> + +<p>'Did not Dulī Sukul's family, who were Brahmans, try to +dissuade her from it, she being a Lodhī, a very low +caste?'</p> + +<p>'They did; but they said all things were possible with God; and +it was generally believed that this was a call from Heaven.'</p> + +<p>'And what became of the banker's widow?'</p> + +<p>'She said that she felt no divine call to the flames. This was +thirty years ago; and the banker was about thirty years of age when +he died.'</p> + +<p>'Then he will have rather an old wife in paradise?'</p> + +<p>'No, sir; after they pass through the flames upon earth, both +become young in paradise.'</p> + +<p>'Sometimes women used to burn themselves with any relic of a +husband, who had died far from home, did they not?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, sir, I remember a fisherman, about twenty years ago, who +went on some business to Benares from Jubbulpore, and who was to +have been back in two months. Six months passed away without any +news of him; and at last the wife dreamed that he had died on the +road, and began forthwith, in the middle of the night, to call out +"Sat, sat, sat!" Nothing could dissuade her from burning; and in +the morning a pile was raised for her, on the north bank of the +large tank of Hanumān,[15] where you have planted an avenue of +trees. There I saw her burned with her husband's turban in her +arms, and in ten days after her husband came back.'</p> + +<p>'Now the burning has been prohibited, a man cannot get rid of a +bad wife so easily?'</p> + +<p>'But she was a good wife, sir, and bad ones do not often become +suttees.'</p> + +<p>'Who made the pile for her?'</p> + +<p>'Some of her family, but I forget who. They thought it must have +been a call from Heaven, when, in reality, it was only a +dream.'</p> + +<p>'You are a Rājpūt?'</p> + +<p>'Yes.'</p> + +<p>'Do Rājpūts in this part of India now destroy their +female infants?'</p> + +<p>'Never; that practice has ceased everywhere in these parts; and +is growing into disuse in Bundēlkhand, where the +Rājās, at the request of the British Government, have +prohibited it among their subjects. This was a measure of real +good. You see girls now at play in villages, where the face of one +was never seen before, nor the voice of one heard.'</p> + +<p>'But still those who have them grumble, and say that the +Government which caused them to be preserved should undertake to +provide for their marriage. Is it not so?'</p> + +<p>'At first they grumbled a little, sir; but as the infants grew +on their affections, they thought no more about it.'[16]</p> + +<p> Gurcharan Baboo, the Principal of the little Jubbulpore +College,[17] called upon me one forenoon, soon after this +conversation. He was educated in the Calcutta College; speaks and +writes English exceedingly well; is tolerably well read in English +literature, and is decidedly a <i>thinking man</i>. After talking +over the matter which caused his visit, I told him of the +Lodhī woman's burning herself with the Brahman banker at +Sihōrā, and asked him what he thought of it. He said that +'In all probability this woman had really been the wife of the +Brahman in some former birth—of which transposition a +singular case had occurred in his own family.</p> + +<p>'His great-grandfather had three wives, who all burnt themselves +with his body. While they were burning, a large serpent came up, +and, ascending the pile, was burnt with them. Soon after another +came up, and did the same. They were seen by the whole multitude, +who were satisfied that they had been the wives of his +great-grandfather in a former birth, and would become so again +after this sacrifice. When the "srāddh", or funeral obsequies, +were performed after the prescribed intervals,[18] the offerings +and prayers were regularly made for <i>six souls</i> instead of +four; and, to this day, every member of his family, and every +Hindoo who had heard the story, believed that these two serpents +had a just right to be considered among his ancestors, and to be +prayed for accordingly in all "srāddh".'</p> + +<p>A few days after this conversation with the Principal of the +Jubbulpore College, I had a visit from Bholī Sukul, the +present head of the Sihōrā banker's family, and youngest +brother of the Brahman with whose ashes the Lodhī woman burned +herself. I requested him to tell me all that he recollected about +this singular suttee, and he did so as follows:</p> + +<p>'When my eldest brother, the father of the late Dulī Sukul, +who was so long a native collector under you in this district, died +about twenty years ago at Sihōrā, a Lodhī woman, who +resided two miles distant in the village of Khitolī, which has +been held by our family for several generations, declared that she +would burn herself with him on the funeral pile; that she had been +his wife in three different births, had already burnt herself with +him three times, and had to burn with him four times more. She was +then sixty years of age, and had a husband living [of] about the +same age. We were all astounded when she came forward with this +story, and told her that it must be a mistake, as we were Brahmans, +while she was a Lodhī. She said that there was no mistake in +the matter; that she, in the last birth, resided with my brother in +the sacred city of Benares, and one day gave a holy man who came to +ask charity salt, by mistake, instead of sugar, with his food. +That, in consequence, he told her she should, in the next birth, be +separated from her husband, and be of inferior caste; but that, if +she did her duty well in that state, she should be reunited to him +in the following birth. We told her that all this must be a dream, +and the widow of my brother insisted that, if she were not allowed +to burn herself, the other should not be allowed to take her place. +We prevented the widow from ascending the pile, and she died at a +good old age only two years ago at Sihōrā. My brother's +body was burned at Sihōrā, and the poor Lodhī woman +came and stole one handful of the ashes, which she placed in her +bosom, and took back with her to Khitolī. There she prevailed +upon her husband and her brother to assist her in her return to her +former husband and caste as a Brahman. No soul else would assist +them, as we got the then native chief to prohibit it; and these +three persons brought on their own heads the pile, on which she +seated herself, with the ashes in her bosom. The husband and his +brother set fire to the pile, and she was burned.'[19]</p> + +<p>'And what is now your opinion, after a lapse of twenty +years?'</p> + +<p>'Why, that she had really been the wife of my brother; for at +the pile she prophesied that my nephew Dulī should be, what +his grandfather had been, high in the service of the Government, +and, as you know, he soon after became so.'</p> + +<p>'And what did your father think?'</p> + +<p>'He was so satisfied that she had been the wife of his eldest +son in a former birth, that he defrayed all the expenses of her +funeral ceremonies, and had them all observed with as much +magnificence as those of any member of the family. Her tomb is +still to be seen at Khitolī, and that of my brother at +Sihōrā.'</p> + +<p>I went to look at these tombs with Bholī Sukul himself some +short time after this conversation, and found that all the people +of the town of Sihōrā and village of Khitolī really +believed that the old Lodhī woman had been his brother's wife +in a former birth, and had now burned herself as his widow for the +fourth time. Her tomb is at Khitolī, and his at +Sihōrā.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. <i>Satī</i>, a virtuous woman, especially one who burns +herself with her husband. The word, in common usage, is transferred +to the sacrifice of the woman.</p> + +<p>2. The women of Bundēlkhand wear the same costume, a full +loin-cloth, as those of the Jubbulpore district. North of the Jumna +an ordinary petticoat is generally worn.</p> + +<p>3. Suttee was prohibited during the administration of Lord +William Bentinck by the Bengal Regulation xvii, dated 4th December, +1829, extended in 1830 to Madras and Bombay. The advocates of the +practice unsuccessfully appealed to the Privy Council. Several +European officers defended the custom. A well-written account of +the suttee legislation is given in Mr. D. Boulger's work on Lord +William Bentinck in the 'Rulers of India' series.</p> + +<p>4. Whenever it is practicable, Hindoos are placed on the banks +of sacred rivers to die, especially in Bengal.</p> + +<p>5. For explanation of this phrase, see the following story of +the Lodhī woman, following note [14], in this chapter. The +name is abnormal. <i>Upadhya</i> is a Brahman title meaning +'spiritual preceptor'. Brahmans serving in the army sometimes take +the title Singh, which is more properly assumed by +Rājpūts or Sikhs.</p> + +<p>6. An instance of such a prophecy, of a favourable kind, will be +found at the end of this chapter; and another, disastrously +fulfilled, in Chapter 21, <i>post</i>.</p> + +<p>7. Rīwā (Rewah) is a considerable principality lying +south of Allahabad and Mirzapore and north of Sāgar. The +chiefs are Baghēl Rājpūts. The proper title of the +Udaipur, or Mēwār, chief is Rānā, not Raja. See +'Annals of Mewar', chapters 1-18, pp. 173-401, in the Popular +Edition of Tod's <i>Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan</i> +(Routledge, 1914), an excellent and cheap reprint. The original +quarto edition is almost unobtainable.</p> + +<p>8. The masculine form of the word satī (suttee).</p> + +<p>9. Well known to tourists as the seat of the Mahārāja +of Benares.</p> + +<p>10. 'of' in text.</p> + +<p>11. In the author's time no regular census had been taken. His +rough estimate was excessive. The census figures, including the +cantonments, are: 1872, 175,188; 1901, 209,331; 1911, 203,804.</p> + +<p>12. This Benares story, accidentally omitted from the author's +text, was printed as a note at the end of the second volume. It has +now been inserted in the place which seems most suitable. +Interesting and well-told narratives of several suttees will be +found in Bernier, <i>Travels in the Mogul Empire</i>, pp. 306-14, +ed. Constable. See also Dubois, <i>Hindu Manners</i>, &c., 3rd +ed. (1906), chapter 19.</p> + +<p>13. Widows are not always so well treated. Their life in Lower +Bengal, especially, is not a pleasant one,</p> + +<p>14. Sihōrā, on the road from Jubbulpore to +Mirzāpur, twenty-seven miles from the former, is a town with a +population of more than 5,000. A smaller town with the same name +exists in the Bhandāra district of the Central Provinces.</p> + +<p>15. The monkey-god. His shrines are very numerous in the Central +Provinces and Bundēlkhand.</p> + +<p>16. Within the last hundred years more than one officer has +believed that infanticide had been suppressed by his efforts, and +yet the practice is by no means extinct. In the Agra Province the +severely inquisitorial measures adopted in 1870, and rigorously +enforced, have no doubt done much to break the custom, but, in the +neighbouring province of Oudh, the practice continued to be common +for many years later. A clear case in the Rāi Barelī +District came before me in 1889, though no one was punished, for +lack of judicial proof against any individual. The author discusses +infanticide as practised in Oudh in many passages of his <i>Journey +through the Kingdom of Oudh</i> (Bentley, 1858), It is possible +that female infanticide may be still prevalent in many Native +States. Mr. Willoughby in the years preceding A.D. 1849 made great +progress in stamping it out among the Jharejas of the +Kathiāwār States in the Bombay Presidency. There is +reason to hope that the crime will gradually disappear from all +parts of India, but it is difficult to say how far it still +prevails, though the general opinion is that it is now +comparatively rare (<i>Census Report, India</i>, 1911, p. 217).</p> + +<p>17. A college of more pretensions now exists at Jabalpur +(Jubbulpore), and is affiliated in Arts and Law to the University +of Allahabad established in 1887. The small college alluded to in +the text was abolished in 1850.</p> + +<p>18. For description of the tedious and complicated 'srāddh' +ceremonies see chapter 11 of Monier Williams's <i>Religious Thought +and Life in India</i>.</p> + +<p>19. This version of the story differs in some minute particulars +from the version given <i>ante</i>, [14].</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch5">CHAPTER 5</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Marriages of Trees—The Tank and the +Plantain—Meteors—Rainbows.</p> + +<p>Before quitting Jubbulpore, to which place I thought it very +unlikely that I should ever return, I went to visit the groves in +the vicinity, which, at the time I held the civil charge of the +district in 1828, had been planted by different native gentlemen +upon lands assigned to them rent-free for the purpose, on condition +that the holder should bind himself to plant trees at the rate of +twenty-five to the acre, and keep them up at that rate; and that +for each grove, however small, he should build and keep in repair a +well, lined with masonry, for watering the trees, and for the +benefit of travellers.[1]</p> + +<p>Some of these groves had already begun to yield fruit, and all +had been <i>married</i>. Among the Hindoos, neither the man who +plants a grove, nor his wife, can taste of the fruit till he has +<i>married</i> one of the mango-trees to some other tree (commonly +the tamarind-tree) that grows near it in the same grove. The +proprietor of one of these groves that stands between the +cantonment and the town, old Barjōr Singh, had spent so much +in planting and watering the grove, and building walls and wells of +<i>pucka</i>[2] masonry, that he could not afford to defray the +expense of the marriage ceremonies till one of the trees, which was +older than the rest when planted, began to bear fruit in 1833, and +poor old Barjōr Singh and his wife were in great distress that +they dared not taste of the fruit whose flavour was so much prized +by their children. They began to think that they had neglected a +serious duty, and might, in consequence, be taken off before +another season could come round. They therefore sold all their +silver and gold ornaments, and borrowed all they could; and before +the next season the grove was married with all due pomp and +ceremony, to the great delight of the old pair, who tasted of the +fruit in June 1834.</p> + +<p>The larger the number of the Brahmans that are fed on the +occasion of the marriage, the greater the glory of the proprietor +of the grove; and when I asked old Barjōr Singh, during my +visit to his grove, how many he had feasted, he said, with a heavy +sigh, that he had been able to feast only one hundred and fifty. He +showed me the mango-tree which had acted the part of the bridegroom +on the occasion, but the bride had disappeared from his side. 'And +where is the bride, the tamarind?' 'The only tamarind I had in the +grove died', said the old man, 'before we could bring about the +wedding; and I was obliged to get a jasmine for a wife for my +mango. I planted it here, so that we might, as required, cover both +bride and bridegroom under one canopy during the ceremonies; but, +after the marriage was over, the gardener neglected her, and she +pined away and died.'</p> + +<p>'And what made you prefer the jasmine to all other trees after +the tamarind?'</p> + +<p>'Because it is the most celebrated of all trees, save the +rose.'</p> + +<p>'And why not have chosen the rose for a wife?'</p> + +<p>'Because no one ever heard of marriage between the rose and the +mango; while they [<i>sic</i>] take place every day between the +mango and the <i>chambēlī</i> (jasmine).'[3]</p> + +<p>After returning from the groves, I had a visit after breakfast +from a learned Muhammadan, now guardian to the young Rājā +of Uchahara,[4] who resides part of his time at Jubbulpore. I +mentioned my visit to the groves and the curious notion of the +Hindoos regarding the necessity of marrying them; and he told me +that, among Hindoos, the man who went to the expense of making a +tank dared not drink of its waters till he had married his tank to +some banana-tree, planted on the bank for the purpose.[5]</p> + +<p>'But what', said he with a smile, 'could you expect from men who +believe that Indra is the god who rules the heavens immediately +over the earth, that he sleeps during eight months in the year, and +during the other four his time is divided between his duties of +sending down rain upon the earth, and repelling with his arrows +Rājā Bali, who by his austere devotions (<i>tapasya</i>) +has received from the higher gods a promise of the reversion of his +dominions? The lightning which we see', said the learned +Maulavī, 'they believe to be nothing more than the glittering +of these arrows, as they are shot from the bow of Indra upon his +foe Rājā Bali '.[6]</p> + +<p>'But, my good friend Maulavī Sāhib, there are many +good Muhammadans who believe that the meteors, which we call +shooting stars, are in reality stars which the guardian angels of +men snatch from the spheres, and throw at the devil as they see him +passing through the air, or hiding himself under one or other of +the constellations. Is it not so?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, it is; but we have the authority of the holy prophet for +this, as delivered down to us by his companions in the sacred +traditions, and we are bound to believe it. When our holy prophet +came upon the earth, he found it to be infested with a host of +magicians, who, by their abominable rites and incantations, get +into their interest certain devils, or demons, whom they used to +send up to heaven to listen to the orders which the angels received +from God regarding men and the world below. On hearing these +orders, they came off and reported them to the magicians, who were +thereby enabled to foretell the events which the angels were +ordered to bring about. In this manner they often overheard the +orders which the angel Gabriel received from God, and communicated +them to the magicians as soon as he could deliver them to our holy +prophet. Exulting in the knowledge obtained in this diabolical +manner, these wretches tried to turn his prophecies into ridicule; +and, seeing the evil effects of such practices among men, he prayed +God to put a stop to them. From that time guardian angels have been +stationed in different parts of the heavens, to keep off the +devils; and as soon as one of them sees a devil sneaking too near +the heaven of heavens, he snatches the nearest star, and flings it +at him.'[7] This, he added, was what all true Muhammadans believed +regarding the shooting of stars. He had read nothing about them in +the works of Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, or Galen, all of which +he had carefully studied, and should be glad to learn from me what +modern philosophers in Europe thought about them.</p> + +<p>I explained to him the supposed distance and bulk of the fixed +stars visible to the naked eye; their being radiant with unborrowed +light, and probably every one of them, like our own sun, the great +centre of a solar system of its own; embracing the vast orbits of +numerous planets, revolving around it with their attendant +satellites; the stars visible to the naked eye being but a very +small portion of the whole which the telescope had now made +distinctly visible to us; and those distinctly visible being one +cluster among many thousand with which the genius of Galileo, +Newton, the Herschells, and many other modern philosophers had +discovered the heavens to be studded. I remarked that the notion +that these mighty suns, the centres of planetary systems, should be +made merely to be thrown at devils and demons, appeared to us just +as unaccountable as those of the Hindoos regarding Indra's +arrows.</p> + +<p>'But', said he, 'these foolish Hindoos believe still greater +absurdities. They believe that the rainbow is nothing but the fume +of a large snake, concealed under the ground; that he vomits forth +this fume from a hole in the surface of the earth, without being +himself seen; and, when you ask them why, in that case, the rainbow +should be in the west while the sun is in the east, and in the east +while the sun is in the west, they know not what to say.'[8]</p> + +<p>'The truth is, my friend Maulavī Sahib, the Hindoos, like a +very great part of every other nation, are very much disposed to +attribute to supernatural influences effects that the wiser portion +of our species know to rise from natural causes.'</p> + +<p>The Maulavī was right. In the <i>Mishkāt-ul- +Masābih</i>,[9] the authentic traditions of their prophet,[10] +it is stated that Ayesha, the widow of Muhammad, said, 'I heard His +Majesty say, "The angels come down to the region next the world, +and mention the works that have been pre-ordained in heaven; and +the devils, who descend to the lowest region, listen to what the +angels say, and hear the orders predestined in heaven, and carry +them to fortune-tellers; therefore, they tell a hundred lies with +it from themselves "'[11]</p> + +<p>'Ibn Abbās said, "A man of His Majesty's friends informed +me, that whilst His Majesty's friends were sitting with him one +night, a very bright star shot; and His Highness said, "What did +you say in the days of ignorance when a star shot like this?" They +said, "God and His messenger know best; we used to say, a great man +was born to-night, and a great man died."[12] Then His Majesty +said, "You mistook, because the shootings of these stars are +neither for the life nor death of any person; but when our +cherisher orders a work, the bearers of the imperial throne sing +hallelujahs; and the inhabitants of the regions who are near the +bearers repeat it, till it reaches the lowest regions. After the +angels which are near the bearers of the imperial throne say, "What +did your cherisher order?" Then they are informed; and so it is +handed from one region to another, till the information reaches the +people of the lowest region. Then the devils steal it, and carry it +to their friends, (that is) magicians; and these stars are thrown +at these devils; not for the birth or death of any person. Then the +things which the magicians tell, having heard from the devils, are +true, but these magicians tell lies, and exaggerate in what they +hear".'</p> + +<p>Kutādah said, 'God has created stars for three uses; one of +them, as a cause of ornament of the regions; the second, to stone +the devil with; the third, to direct people going through forests +and on the sea. Therefore, whoever shall explain them otherwise, +does wrong, and loses his time, and speaks from his own invention +and embellishes'.[13]</p> + +<p>Ibn Abbās. ['The prophet said,] "Whoever attains to the +knowledge of astrology for any other explanation than the three +aforementioned, then verily he has attained to a branch of magic. +An astrologer is a magician, and a magician is a necromancer, and a +necromancer is an infidel."'[14]</p> + +<p>This work contains the precepts and sayings of Muhammad, as +declared by his companions, who themselves heard them, or by those +who heard them immediately from those companions; and they are +considered to be binding upon the faith and conduct of Musalmans, +though not all delivered from inspiration.</p> + +<p>Everything that is written in the Korān itself is supposed +to have been brought direct from God by the angel Gabriel.[15]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. In planting mango groves, it is a rule that they shall be as +far from each other as not to admit of their branches ever meeting. +'Plant trees, but let them not touch' ('<i>Ām lagao, nis +lageñ nahīñ</i>') is the maxim. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>2. <i>Pakkā</i>; the word here means 'cemented with lime +mortar', and not only with mud (<i>kachchā</i>).</p> + +<p>3. The <i>chambēlī</i> is known in science as the +<i>Jasminum grandiflorum</i>, and the mango-tree as <i>Mangifera +Indica</i>.</p> + +<p>4. A small principality west of Rīwā, and 110 miles +north-west of Jubbulpore. It is also known as Nāgaudh, or +Nāgod.</p> + +<p>5. Compare the account of the marriage of the <i>tulasī</i> +shrub (<i>Ocymum sanctum</i>) with the sālagrām stone, or +fossil ammonite, in Chapter 19, <i>post</i>.</p> + +<p>6. There is a sublime passage in the Psalms of David, where the +lightning is said to be the arrows of God. Psalm lxxvii:<br> + 17, 'The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: +thine arrows also went abroad.<br> + 18. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; the +lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.' [W. +H. S.]<br> + The passage is quoted from the Authorized Bible version; the +Prayer Book version is finer.</p> + +<p>7. 'We guard them from every devil driven away with stones; +except him who listeneth by stealth, at whom a visible flame is +darted.' Korān, chapter 15, Sale's translation. See +<i>post</i>, end of this chapter.</p> + +<p>8. Nine Hindoos out of ten, or perhaps ninety-nine in a hundred, +throughout India, believe the rainbow to arise from the breath of +the snake, thrown up from the surface of the earth, as water is +thrown up by whales from the surface of the ocean. [W. H. S,]</p> + +<p>9. '<i>Mishkāt</i> is a hole in a wall in which a lamp is +placed, and <i>Masābih</i> the plural of "a lamp", because +traditions are compared to lamps, and this book is like that which +containeth a lamp. Another reason is, that <i>Masābih</i> is +the name of a book, and this book comprehends its contents' +(Matthews's translation, vol. i, p. v, note).</p> + +<p>10. The full title is <i>Mishkāt-ul-Masābih, or a +Collection of the most Authentic Traditions regarding the Actions +and Sayings of Muhammed; exhibiting the Origin of the Manners and +Customs; the Civil, Religious, and Military Policy of the +Muslemāns</i>. Translated from the original Arabic by Captain +A. N. Matthews, Bengal Artillery. Two vols. 4to; Calcutta, 1809-10, +This valuable work, published by subscription, is now very scarce. +A fine copy is in the India Office Library.</p> + +<p>11. Book xxi, chapter 3, part i; vol. ii, p. 384. The quotations +as given by the author are inexact. The editor has substituted +correct extracts from Matthews's text. Matthews spells the name of +the prophet's widow as Aáyeshah.</p> + +<p>12. In Sparta, the Ephoroi, once every nine years, watched the +sky during a whole cloudless, moonless night, in profound silence; +and, if they saw a shooting star, it was understood to indicate +that the kings of Sparta had disobeyed the gods, and their +authority was, in consequence, suspended till they had been +purified by an oracle from Delphi or Olympia. [W. H. S.] This +statement rests on the authority of Plutarch, <i>Agis</i>, 11.</p> + +<p>13. <i>Mishkāt</i>. Part iii of same chapter; vol. ii, p. +386.</p> + +<p>14. Ibid. p. 386.</p> + +<p>15. But the prying character of these devils is described in the +Korān itself. According to Muhammadans, they had access to all +the seven heavens till the time of Moses, who got them excluded +from three. Christ got them excluded from three more; and Muhammad +managed to get them excluded from the seventh and last. 'We have +placed the twelve signs in the heavens, and have set them out in +various figures for the observation of spectators, and we guard +them from every devil driven away with stones; except him who +listeneth by stealth, at whom a visible flame is darted' (Chapter +15).</p> + +<p>'We have adorned the lower heaven with the ornament of stars, +and we have placed therein a guard against every rebellious devil, +that they may not listen to the discourse of exalted princes, for +they are darted at from every side, to repel them, and a lasting +torment is prepared for them; except him who catcheth a word by +stealth, and is pursued by a shining flame' (Chapter 37). [W. H. +8.] Passages of this kind should he remembered by persons who +expect orthodox Muhammadans to accept the results of modern +science.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch6">CHAPTER 6</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Hindoo Marriages.</p> + +<p>Certain it is that no Hindoo will have a marriage in his family +during the four months of the rainy season; for among eighty +millions of souls[1] not one doubts that the Great Preserver of the +universe is, during these four months, down on a visit to +Rājā Bali, and, consequently, unable to bless the +contract with his presence.[2]</p> + +<p>Marriage is a sacred duty among Hindoos, a duty which every +parent must perform for his children, otherwise they owe him no +reverence. A family with a daughter unmarried after the age of +puberty is considered to labour under the displeasure of the gods; +and no member of the other sex considers himself <i>respectable</i> +after the age of puberty till he is married. It is the duty of his +parent or elder brothers to have him suitably married; and, if they +do not do so, he reproaches them with his <i>degraded +condition</i>. The same feeling, in a degree, pervades all the +Muhammadan community; and nothing appears so strange to them as the +apparent indifference of old bachelors among us to their <i>sad +condition</i>.</p> + +<p>Marriage, with all its ceremonies, its rights, and its duties, +fills their imagination from infancy to age; and I do not believe +there is a country upon earth in which a larger portion of the +wealth of the community is spent in the ceremonies, or where the +rights are better secured, or the duties better enforced, +notwithstanding all the disadvantages of the laws of polygamy. Not +one man in ten can afford to maintain more than one wife, and not +one in ten of those who can afford it will venture upon 'a sea of +troubles' in taking a second, if he has a child by the first. One +of the evils which press most upon Indian society is the necessity +which long usage has established of squandering large sums in +marriage ceremonies. Instead of giving what they can to their +children to establish them, and enable them to provide for their +families and rise in the world, parents everywhere feel bound to +squander all they can borrow in the festivities of their marriage. +Men in India could never feel secure of being permitted freely to +enjoy their property under despotic and unsettled governments, the +only kind of governments they knew or hoped for; and much of the +means that would otherwise have been laid out in forming +substantial works, with a view to a return in income of some sort +or another, for the remainder of their own lives and of those of +their children, were expended in tombs, temples, sarāis, +tanks, groves, and other works—useful and ornamental, no +doubt, but from which neither they nor their children could ever +hope to derive income of any kind. The same feeling of insecurity +gave birth, no doubt, to this preposterous usage, which tends so +much to keep down the great mass of the people of India to that +grade in which they were born, and in which they have nothing but +their manual labour to depend upon for their subsistence. Every man +feels himself bound to waste all his stock and capital, and exhaust +all his credit, in feeding idlers during the ceremonies which +attend the marriage of his children, because his ancestors +squandered similar sums, and he would sink in the estimation of +society if he were to allow his children to be married with +less.</p> + +<p>But it could not have been solely because men could not invest +their means in profitable works, with any chance of being long +permitted to enjoy the profits under such despotic and unsettled +governments, that they squandered them in feeding idle people in +marriage ceremonies; since temples, tanks, and groves secured +esteem in this life, and promised some advantage in the next, and +an outlay in such works might therefore have been preferred. But +under such governments a man's title even to the exclusive +possession of his wife might not be considered as altogether secure +under the mere sanction of religion; and the outlay in feeding the +family, tribe, and neighbourhood during the marriage ceremony seems +to have been considered as a kind of value in exchange given for +her to society. There is nothing that she and her husband recollect +through life with so much pride and pleasure as the cost of their +marriage, if it happen to be large for their condition of life; it +is their <i>amoka</i>, their title of nobility;[3] and their +parents consider it their duty to make it as large as they can. A +man would hardly feel secure of the sympathy of his family, tribe, +circle of society, or rulers, for the loss of 'his ox, or his ass, +or anything that is his', if it should happen to have cost him +nothing; and, till he could feel secure of their sympathy for the +loss, he would not feel very secure in the possession. He, +therefore, or those who are interested in his welfare, strengthen +his security by an outlay which invests his wife with a tangible +value in cost, well understood by his circle and rulers. His +family, tribe, and circle have received the purchase money, and +feel bound to secure to him the commodity purchased; and, as they +are in all such matters commonly much stronger than the rulers +themselves, the money spent among them is more efficacious in +securing the exclusive enjoyment of the wife than if it had been +paid in taxes or fees to them for a marriage licence.[4] The pride +of families and tribes, and the desire of the multitude to +participate in the enjoyment of such ceremonies, tend to keep up +this usage after the cause in which it originated may have ceased +to operate; but it will, it is to be hoped, gradually decline with +the increased feeling of security to person, property, and +character under our rule. Nothing is now more common than to see an +individual in the humblest rank spending all that he has, or can +borrow, in the marriage of one of many daughters, and trusting to +Providence for the means of marrying the others; nor in the higher, +to find a young man, whose estates have, during a long minority, +under the careful management of Government officers, been freed +from very heavy debts, with which an improvident father had left +them encumbered, the moment he attains his majority and enters upon +the management, borrowing three times their annual rent, at an +exorbitant interest, to marry a couple of sisters, at the same rate +of outlay in feasts and fireworks that his grandmother was married +with.[5]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The author's figure of 'eighty millions' was a mere guess, +and probably, even in his time, was much below the mark. The +figures of the census of 1911 are:<br> + Total population of India, excluding<br> + Burma . . . . 301,432,623<br> + Hindus . . . . 217,197,213<br> +The proportions in different provinces vary enormously.</p> + +<p>2. See <i>ante</i>. Chapter 1, note 3.</p> + +<p>3. The word <i>amoka</i> is corrupt, and even Sir George +Grierson cannot suggest a plausible explanation. Can it be a +misprint for <i>anka</i>, in the sense of 'stamp'?</p> + +<p>4. Akbar levied a tax on marriages, ranging from a single copper +coin (<i>dām</i> = 1/40th of rupee) for poor people to 10 gold +mohurs, or about 150 rupees, for high officials. Abūl Fazl +declares that 'the payment of this tax is looked upon as +auspicious', a statement open to doubt (Blochmann, transl. +<i>Aīn</i>, vol. i, p. 278). In 1772 Warren Hastings abolished +the marriage fees levied up to that time in Bengal by the +Muhammadan law-officers. But I am disposed to think that a modern +finance minister might reconsider the propriety of imposing a +moderate tax, carefully graduated.</p> + +<p>5. Extravagance in marriage expenses is still one of the +principal curses of Indian society. Considerable efforts to secure +reform have been made by various castes during recent years, but, +as yet, small results only have been attained. The editor has seen +numerous painful examples of the wreck of fine estates by young +proprietors assuming the management after a long term of the +careful stewardship of the Court of Wards.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch7">CHAPTER 7</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Purveyance System,</p> + +<p>We left Jubbulpore on the morning of the 20th November, 1835, +and came on ten miles to Baghaurī. Several of our friends of +the 29th Native Infantry accompanied us this first stage, where +they had a good day's shooting. In 1830 I established here some +venders in wood to save the people from the miseries of the +purveyance system; but I now found that a native collector, soon +after I had resigned the civil charge of the district, and gone to +Sāgar,[1] in order to ingratiate himself with the officers and +get from them favourable testimonials, gave two regiments, as they +marched over this road, free permission to help themselves gratis +out of the store- rooms of these poor men, whom I had set up with a +loan from the public treasury, declaring that it must be the wish +and intention of Government to supply their public officers free of +cost; and consequently that no excuses could be attended to. From +that time shops and shopkeepers have disappeared. Wood for all +public officers and establishments passing this road has ever +since, as in former times, been collected from the surrounding +villages gratis, under the purveyance system, in which all native +public officers delight, and which, I am afraid, is encouraged by +European officers, either from their ignorance or their indolence. +They do not like the trouble of seeing the men paid either for +their wood or their labour; and their head servants of the kitchen +or the wardrobe weary and worry them out of their best resolutions +on the subject. They make the poor men sit aloof by telling them +that their master is a tiger before breakfast, and will eat them if +they approach; and they tell their masters that there is no hope of +getting the poor men to come for their money till they have bathed +or taken their breakfast. The latter wait in hopes that the +gentleman will come out or send for them as soon as he has been +tamed by his breakfast; but this meal has put him in good humour +with all the world, and he is now no longer unwilling to trust the +payment of the poor men to his butler, or his <i>valet de +chambre</i>. They keep the poor wretches waiting, declaring that +they have as yet received no orders to pay them, till, hungry and +weary, in the afternoon they all walk back to their homes in utter +despair of getting anything.</p> + +<p>If, in the meantime, the gentleman comes out, and finds the men, +his servants pacify him by declaring either that they have not yet +had time to carry his orders into effect, that they could not get +copper change for silver rupees, or that they were anxious to +collect all the people together before they paid any, lest they +might pay some of them twice over. It is seldom, however, that he +comes among them at all; he takes it for granted that the people +have all been paid; and passes the charge in the account of his +servants, who all get what these porters ought to have received. +Or, perhaps the gentleman may persuade himself that, if he pays his +valet or butler, these functionaries will never pay the poor men, +and think that he had better sit quiet and keep the money in his +own pocket. The native police or revenue officer is directed by his +superior to have wood collected for the camp of a regiment or great +civil officers, and he sends out his myrmidons to employ the people +around in felling trees, and cutting up wood enough to supply not +only the camp, but his own cook-rooms and those of his friends for +the next six months. The men so employed commonly get nothing; but +the native officer receives credit for all manner of superlatively +good qualities, which are enumerated in a certificate. Many a fine +tree, dear to the affections of families and village communities, +has been cut down in spite, or redeemed from the axe by a handsome +present to this officer or his myrmidons. Lambs, kids, fowls, milk, +vegetables, all come flowing in for the great man's table from poor +people, who are too hopeless to seek for payment, or who are +represented as too proud and wealthy to receive it. Such always +have been and such always will be some of the evils of the +purveyance system. If a police officer receives an order from the +magistrate to provide a regiment, detachment, or individual with +boats, carts, bullocks, or porters, he has all that can be found +within his jurisdiction forthwith seized—releases all those +whose proprietors are able and willing to pay what he demands, and +furnishes the rest, which are generally the worst, to the persons +who require them. Police officers derive so much profit from these +applications that they are always anxious they should be made; and +will privately defeat all attempts of private individuals to +provide themselves by dissuading or intimidating the proprietors of +vehicles from voluntarily furnishing them. The gentleman's servant +who is sent to procure them returns and tells his master that there +are plenty of vehicles, but that their proprietors dare not send +them without orders from the police; and that the police tell him +they dare not give such orders without the special sanction of the +magistrate. The magistrate is written to, but declares that his +police have been prohibited from interfering in such matters +without special orders, since the proprietors ought to be permitted +to send their vehicles to whom they choose, except on occasions of +great public emergency; and, as the present cannot be considered as +one of these occasions, he does not feel authorized to issue such +orders. On the Ganges, many men have made large fortunes by +pretending a general authority to seize boats for the use of the +commissariat, or for other Government purposes, on the ground of +having been once or twice employed on that duty; and what they get +is but a small portion of that which the public lose. One of these +self-constituted functionaries has a boat seized on its way down or +up the river; and the crew, who are merely hired for the occasion, +and have a month's wages in advance, seeing no prospect of getting +soon out of the hands of this pretended Government servant, desert, +and leave the boat on the sands; while the owner, if he ever learns +the real state of the case, thinks it better to put up with his +loss than to seek redress through expensive courts, and distant +local authorities. If the boat happens to be loaded and to have a +supercargo, who will not or cannot bribe high enough, he is +abandoned on the sands by his crew; in his search for aid from the +neighbourhood, his helplessness becomes known—he is perhaps +murdered, or runs away in the apprehension of being so—the +boat is plundered and made a wreck. Still the dread of the delays +and costs of our courts, and the utter hopelessness of ever +recovering the lost property, prevent the proprietors from seeking +redress, and our Government authorities know nothing of the +circumstances.</p> + +<p>We remained at Baghaurī the 21st to enable our people to +prepare for the long march they had before them, and to see a +little more of our Jubbulpore friends, who were to have another +day's shooting, as black partridges[2] and quail had been found +abundant in the neighbourhood of our camp.[3]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Or Saugor, the head-quarters of the district of that name in +the Central Provinces. The town is 109 miles north-west of +Jabalpur. The author took charge of the Sāgar district in +January 1831.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Francolinus vulgaris</i>.</p> + +<p>3. The purveyance system (Persian <i>rasad rasānī</i>) +above described is one of the necessary evils of Oriental life. It +will be observed that the author, though so keenly sensitive to the +abuses attending the system, proposes no substitute for it, and +confesses that the small attempt he made to check abuse was a +failure. From time immemorial it has been the custom for Government +officials in India to be supplied with necessaries by the people of +the country through which their camps pass. Under native +Governments no officials ever dream of paying for anything. In +British territory requisitions are limited, and in well ordered +civil camps nothing is taken without payment except wood, coarse +earthen vessels, and grass. The hereditary village potter supplies +the pots, and this duty is fully recognized as one attaching to his +office. The landholders supply the wood and grass. None of these +things are ordinarily procurable by private purchase in sufficient +quantity, and in most cases could not be bought at all. Officers +commanding troops send in advance requisitions specifying the +quantities of each article needed, and the indent is met by the +civil authorities. Everything so indented for, including wood and +grass, is supposed to be paid for, but in practice it is often +impossible, with the agency available, to ensure actual payment to +the persons entitled. Troops and the people in civil camps must +live, and all that can be done is to check abuse, so far as +possible, by vigilant administration. The obligation of landholders +to supply necessaries for troops and officials on the march is so +well established that it forms one of the conditions of the +contract with Government under which proprietors in the permanently +settled province of Benares hold their lands. The extreme abuses of +which the system is capable under a lax and corrupt native +Government are abundantly illustrated in the author's <i>Journey +through the Kingdom of Oudh</i>. 'The System of Purveyance and +Forced Labour' is the subject of article xxv in the Hon. F, J, +Shore's curious book, <i>Notes on Indian Affairs</i> (London, 1837, +2 vols. 8vo). Many of the abuses denounced by Mr. Shore have been +suppressed, but some, unhappily, still exist, and are likely to +continue for many years.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch8">CHAPTER 8</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Religious Sects—Self-government of the +Castes—Chimney- sweepers—Washerwomen[1]—Elephant +Drivers.</p> + +<p>Mīr Salāmat Alī, the head native collector of the +district, a venerable old Musalmān and most valuable public +servant, who has been labouring in the same vineyard with me for +the last fifteen years with great zeal, ability, and integrity, +came to visit me after breakfast with two very pretty and +interesting young sons. While we were sitting together my wife's +under-woman[2] said to some one who was talking with her outside +the tent-door, 'If that were really the case, should I not be +degraded?' 'You see, Mīr Sāhib',[3] said I, 'that the +very lowest members of society among these Hindoos still feel the +pride of caste, and dread exclusion from their own, however +low.'[4]</p> + +<p>'Yes', said the Mīr, 'they are a very strange kind of +people, and I question whether they ever had a real prophet among +them.'</p> + +<p>'I question, Mīr Sahib, whether they really ever had such a +person. They of course think the incarnations of their three great +divinities were beings infinitely superior to prophets, being in +all their attributes and prerogatives equal to the divinities +themselves.[5] But we are disposed to think that these incarnations +were nothing more than great men whom their flatterers and poets +have exalted into gods—this was the way in which men made +their gods in ancient Greece and Egypt. These great men were +generally conquerors whose glory consisted in the destruction of +their fellow creatures; and this is the glory which their +flatterers are most prone to extol. All that the poets have sung of +the actions of men is now received as revelation from heaven; +though nothing can be more monstrous than the actions attributed to +the best incarnation, Krishna, of the best of their gods, +Vishnu.[6]</p> + +<p>'No doubt', said Salāmat Ali; 'and had they ever had a real +prophet among them he would have revealed better things to them. +Strange people! when their women go on pilgrimages to Gayā, +they have their heads shaved before the image of their god; and the +offering of the hair is equivalent to the offer of their heads;[7] +for heads, thank God, they dare no longer offer within the +Company's territories.'</p> + +<p>'Do you. Mīr Sahib, think that they continue to offer up +human sacrifices anywhere?'</p> + +<p>'Certainly I do. There is a Rājā at Ratanpur, or +somewhere between Mandlā and Sambalpur, who has a man offered +up to Dēvī every year, and that man must be a Brahman. If +he can get a Brahman traveller, well and good; if not, he and his +priests offer one of his own subjects. Every Brahman that has to +pass through this territory goes in disguise.[8] With what energy +did our emperor Aurangzēb apply himself to put down iniquities +like this in the Rājputāna states, but all in vain. If a +Rājā died, all his numerous wives burnt themselves with +his body—even their servants, male and female, were obliged +to do the same; for, said his friends, what is he to do in the next +world without attendants? The pile was enormous. On the top sat the +queen with the body of the prince; the servants, male and female, +according to their degree, below; and a large army stood all round +to drive into the fire again or kill all who should attempt to +escape.'[9]</p> + +<p>'This is all very true, Mīr Sāhib, but you must admit +that, though there is a great deal of absurdity in their customs +and opinions, there is, on the other hand, much that we might all +take an example from. The Hindoo believes that Christians and +Musalmāns may be as good men in all relations of life as +himself, and in as fair a way to heaven as he is; for he believes +that my Bible and your Korān are as much revelations framed by +the Deity for our guidance, as the Shāstras are for his. He +doubts not that our Christ was the Son of God, nor that Muhammad +was the prophet of God; and all that he asks from us is to allow +him freely to believe in his own gods, and to worship in his own +way. Nor does one caste or sect of Hindoos ever believe itself to +be alone in the right way, or detest any other for not following in +the same path, as they have as much of toleration for each other as +they have for us.[10]</p> + +<p>'True,' exclaimed Salāmat Alī, 'too true! we have +ruined each other; we have cut each other's throats; we have lost +the empire, and we deserve to lose it. You won it, and you +preserved it by your <i>union</i>—ten men with one heart are +equal to a hundred men with different hearts. A Hindoo may feel +himself authorized to take in a Musalmān, and might even think +it <i>meritorious</i> to do so; but he would never think it +meritorious to take in one of his own religion. There are no less +than seventy- two sects of Muhammadans; and every one of these +sects would not only take in the followers of every other religion +on earth, but every member of every one of the other seventy-one +sects; and the nearer that sect is to its own, the greater the +merit in taking in its members.'[11]</p> + +<p>'Something has happened of late to annoy you, I fear, Mīr +Sāhib?'</p> + +<p>'Something happens to annoy us every day, sir, where we are more +than one sect of us together; and wherever you find Musalmāns +you will find them divided into sects.'</p> + +<p>It is not, perhaps, known to many of my countrymen in India that +in every city and town in the country the right of sweeping the +houses and streets is one of the most intolerable of monopolies, +supported entirely by the pride of caste among the scavengers, who +are all of the lowest class. The right of sweeping within a certain +range is recognized by the caste to belong to a certain member; +and, if any other member presumes to sweep within that range, he is +excommunicated—no other member will smoke out of his pipe, or +drink out of his jug; and he can get restored to caste only by a +feast to the whole body of sweepers. If any housekeeper within a +particular circle happens to offend the sweeper of that range, none +of his filth will be removed till he pacifies him, because no other +sweeper will dare to touch it; and the people of a town are often +more tyrannized over by these people than by any other.[12]</p> + +<p>It is worthy of remark that in India the spirit of combination +is always in the inverse ratio to the rank of the class; weakest in +the highest, and strongest in the lowest class. All infringements +upon the rules of the class are punished by fines. Every fine +furnishes a feast at which every member sits and enjoys himself. +Payment is enforced by excommunication—no one of the caste +will eat, drink, or smoke with the convicted till the fine is paid; +and, as every one shares in the fine, every one does his best to +enforce payment. The fines are imposed by the elders, who know the +circumstances of the culprit, and fix the amount accordingly. +Washermen will often at a large station combine to prevent the +washermen of one gentleman from washing the clothes of the servants +of any other gentleman, or the servants of one gentleman from +getting their clothes washed by any other person than their own +master's washerman. This enables them sometimes to raise the rate +of washing to double the fair or ordinary rate; and at such places +the washermen are always drunk with one continued routine of feasts +from the fines levied.[13] The cost of these fees falls ultimately +upon the poor servants or their masters. This combination, however, +is not always for bad or selfish purposes. I was once on the staff +of an officer commanding a brigade on service, whose elephant +driver exercised an influence over him that was often mischievous +and sometimes dangerous;[14] for in marching and choosing his +ground, this man was more often consulted than the +quarter-master-general. His bearing was most insolent, and became +intolerable, as well to the European gentlemen as to the people of +his caste.[15] He at last committed himself by saying that he would +spit in the face of another gentleman's elephant driver with whom +he was disputing. All the elephant drivers in our large camp were +immediately assembled, and it was determined in council to refer +the matter to the decision of the Rājā of Darbhanga's +driver, who was acknowledged the head of the class. We were all +breakfasting with the brigadier after muster when the reply +came-the distance to Darbhanga from Nāthpur on the +Kūsī river, where we then were, must have been a hundred +and fifty miles.[16] We saw men running in all directions through +the camp, without knowing why, till at last one came and summoned +the brigadier's driver. With a face of terror he came and implored +the protection of the brigadier; who got angry, and fumed a good +deal, but seeing no expression of sympathy on the faces of his +officers, he told the man to go and hear his sentence. He was +escorted to a circle formed by all the drivers in camp, who were +seated on the grass. The offender was taken into the middle of the +circle and commanded to stand on one leg[17] while the Raja's +driver's letter was read. He did so, and the letter directed him to +apologize to the offended party, pay a heavy fine for a feast, and +pledge himself to the offended drivers never to offend again. All +the officers in camp were delighted, and some, who went to hear the +sentence explained, declared that in no court in the world could +the thing have been done with more solemnity and effect. The man's +character was quite altered by it, and he became the most docile of +drivers. On the same principle here stated of enlisting the +community in the punishment of offenders, the New Zealanders, and +other savage tribes who have been fond of human flesh, have +generally been found to confine the feast to the body of those who +were put to death for offences against the state or the individual. +I and all the officers of my regiment were at one time in the habit +of making every servant who required punishment or admonition to +bring immediately, and give to the first religious mendicant we +could pick up, the fine we thought just. All the religionists in +the neighbourhood declared that justice had never been so well +administered in any other regiment; no servant got any sympathy +from them—they were all told that their masters were far too +lenient.</p> + +<p>We crossed the Hiran river[18] about ten miles from our last +ground on the 22nd,[19] and came on two miles to our tents in a +mango grove close to the town of Katangī,[20] and under the +Vindhya range of sandstone hills, which rise almost perpendicular +to the height of some eight hundred feet over the town. This range +from Katangī skirts the Nerbudda valley to the north, as the +Sātpura range skirts it to the south; and both are of the same +sandstone formation capped with basalt upon which here and there +are found masses of laterite, or iron clay. Nothing has ever yet +been found reposing upon this iron clay.[21] The strata of this +range have a gentle and almost imperceptible dip to the north, at +right angles to its face which overlooks the valley, and this face +has everywhere the appearance of a range of gigantic round bastions +projecting into what was perhaps a lake, and is now a well-peopled, +well-cultivated, and very happy valley, about twenty miles wide. +The river crosses and recrosses it diagonally. Near Jubbulpore it +flows along for some distance close under the Sātpura range to +the south; and crossing over the valley from Bheraghāt, it +reaches the Vindhya range to the north, at the point where it +reaches the Hiran river, forty miles below.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. This is a slip, probably due to the printer's reader. There +are no chimney-sweepers in India. The word should be 'sweepers'. +The members of this caste and a few other degraded communities, +such as the Doms, do all the sweeping, scavenging, and conservancy +work in India. 'Washerwomen' is another slip: read 'Washermen'.</p> + +<p>2. The 'under-woman', or 'second ayah', was a member of the +sweeper caste.</p> + +<p>3. The title Mīr Sāhib implies that Salāmat +Alī was a Sayyid, claiming descent from Alī, the cousin, +son-in-law, and pupil of Muhammad, who became Khalīf in A.D. +656.</p> + +<p>4. The sweeper castes stand outside the Hindoo pale, and often +incline to Muhammadan practices. They worship a special form of the +Deity, under the names of Lāl Beg, Lāl Guru, &c.</p> + +<p>5. No <i>avatār</i> or incarnation of Brahma is known to +most Hindoos, and incarnations of Siva are rarely mentioned. The +only <i>avatārs</i> ordinarily recognized are those of Vishnu, +as enumerated ante. Chapter 2, note 4.</p> + +<p>6. This theory is a very inadequate explanation of the doctrine +of <i>avatārs</i>.</p> + +<p>7. 'Women . . . are most careful to preserve their hair intact. +They pride themselves on its length and weight. For a woman to have +to part with her hair is one of the greatest of degradations, and +the most terrible of all trials. It is the mark of widowhood. Yet +in some sacred places, especially at the confluence of rivers, the +cutting off and offering of a few locks of hair (<i>Venī- +dānam</i>) by a virtuous wife is considered a highly +meritorious act' (Monier Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life in +India</i>, p, 375). Gayā in Bihār, fifty-five miles south +of Patna, is much frequented by pilgrims devoted to Vishnu.</p> + +<p>8. All the places named are in the Central Provinces. Ratanpur, +in the Bilāspur District, is a place of much antiquarian +interest, full of ruins; Mandlā, in the Mandlā District, +was the capital of the later Gond chiefs of Garhā Mandlā; +and Sambalpur is the capital of the Sambalpur District. If the +story is true, the selection of a Brahman for sacrifice is +remarkable, though not without precedent. Human sacrifice has +prevailed largely in India, and is not yet quite extinct. In 1891 +some Jāts in the Muzaffarnagar District of the United +Provinces sacrificed a boy in a very painful manner for some +unascertained magical purpose. It was supposed that the object was +to induce the gods to grant offspring to a childless woman. Other +similar cases have occurred in recent years. One occurred close to +Calcutta in 1892. In the hill tracts of Orissa bordering on the +Central Provinces the rite of human sacrifice was practised by the +Khonds on an awful scale, and with horrid cruelty, It was +suppressed by the special efforts of Macpherson, Campbell, +MacViccar, and other officers, between the years 1837 and 1854. +Daring that period the British officers rescued 1,506 victims +intended for sacrifice (<i>Narrative of Major-General John +Campbell, C.B., of his Operations in the Hill Tracts of Orissa for +the Suppression of Human Sacrifices and Female Infanticide</i>. +Printed for private circulation. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1861). +The rite, when practised by Hindoos, may have been borrowed from +some of the aboriginal races. The practice, however, has been so +general throughout the world that few peoples can claim the honour +of freedom from the stain of adopting it at one time or another, +Much curious information on the subject, and many modern instances +of human sacrifices in India, are collected in the article +'Sacrifice' in Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia of India</i>, 3rd edition, +1885. Major S. C. Macpherson, <i>Memorials of Service in India</i> +(1865), and Frazer, <i>Golden Bough</i>, 3rd edition, Part V, vol. +i (1912), pp. 236 seq., may also be consulted.</p> + +<p>9. Bernier vividly describes an 'infernal tragedy' of this kind +which he witnessed, in or about the year 1659, during +Aurangzēb's reign, in Rājputāna. On that occasion +five female slaves burnt themselves with their mistress +(<i>Travels</i>, ed. Constable and V. A. Smith (1914), p. 309).</p> + +<p>10. Hinduism is a social system, not a creed, A Hindoo may +believe, or disbelieve, what speculative doctrine he chooses, but +he must not eat, drink, or marry, save in accordance with the +custom of his caste. Compare Asoka on toleration; 'The sects of +other people all deserve reverence for one reason or another' (Rock +Edict xii; V. A. Smith, <i>Asoka</i>, 2nd edition (1909), p. +170).</p> + +<p>11. Mīr Salāmat Alī is a stanch Sunnī, the +sect of Osmān; and they are always at daggers drawn with the +Shīas, or the sect of Alī. He alludes to the Shīas +when he says that one of the seventy-two sects is always ready to +take in the whole of the other seventy-one. Muhammad, according to +the traditions, was one day heard to say, 'The time will come when +my followers will he divided into seventy-three sects; all of them +will assuredly go to hell save one.' Every one of the seventy-three +sects believes itself to be the one happily excepted by their +prophet, and predestined to paradise. I am sometimes disposed to +think Muhammad was self-deluded, however difficult it might be to +account for so much 'method in his madness'. It is difficult to +conceive a man placed in such circumstances with more amiable +dispositions or with juster views of the rights and duties of men +in all their relations with each other, than are exhibited by him +on almost all occasions, save where the question of <i>faith</i> in +his divine mission was concerned.</p> + +<p>A very interesting and useful book might be made out of the +history of those men, more or less mad, by whom multitudes of +mankind have been led and perhaps governed; and a philosophical +analysis of the points on which they were really mad and really +sane, would show many of them to have been fit subjects for a +madhouse during the whole career of their glory. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>For an account of Muhammadan sects, see section viii of the +Preliminary Dissertation in Sale's Korān, entitled, 'Of the +Principal Sects among the Muhammadans; and of those who have +pretended to Prophecy among the Arabs, in or since the Time of +Muhammad'; and T. P. Hughes, <i>Dictionary of Islam</i> (1885). The +chief sects of the Sunnīs, or Traditionists, are four in +number. 'The principal sects of the Shīas are five, which are +subdivided into an almost innumerable number.' The court of the +kings of Oudh was Shīa. In most parts of India the Sunnī +faith prevails.</p> + +<p>The relation between genius and insanity is well expressed by +Dryden (<i>Absalom and Achitopfel</i>):</p> + +<p> Great wits are sure to madness near +allied,<br> + And thin partitions do their bounds +divide.</p> + +<p>The treatise of Professor Cesare Lombroso, entitled <i>The Man +of Genius</i> (London edition, 1891), is devoted to proof and +illustration of the proposition that genius is 'a special morbid +condition'. He deals briefly with the case of Muhammad at pages 31, +39, and 325, maintaining that the prophet, like Saint Paul, Julius +Caesar, and many other men of genius, was subject to epileptic +fits. The Professor's book seems to be exactly what Sir W. H. +Sleeman desired to see.</p> + +<p>12. In the author's time, when municipal conservancy and +sanitation were almost unknown in India, the tyranny of the +sweepers' guild was chiefly felt as a private inconvenience. It is +now one of the principal of the many difficulties, little +understood in Europe, which bar the progress of Indian sanitary +reform. The sweepers cannot be readily coerced because no Hindoo or +Musalmān would do their work to save his life, nor will he +pollute himself even by beating the refractory scavenger. A strike +of sweepers on the occasion of a great fair, or of a cholera +epidemic, is a most dangerous calamity. The vested rights described +in the text are so fully recognized in practice that they are +frequently the subject of sale or mortgage.</p> + +<p>13. The low-caste Hindoos are generally fond of drink, when they +can get it, but seldom commit crime under its influence.</p> + +<p>14. An elephant driver, by reason of his position on the animal, +has opportunities for private conversation with his master.</p> + +<p>15. Elephant drivers (<i>mahouts</i>) are Muhammadans, who +should have no caste, but Indian Musalmāns have become +Hinduized, and fallen under the dominion of caste.</p> + +<p>16. Darbhanga is in Tirhūt, seventy miles NE. of Dinapore. +The Kūsī (Kōsī or Koosee) river rises in the +mountains of Nepāl, and falls into the Ganges after a course +of about 325 miles. Nāthpur, in the Puraniya (Purneah) +District, is a mart for the trade with Nepal.</p> + +<p>17. The customary attitude of a suppliant.</p> + +<p>18. A small river which falls into the Nerbudda on the +right-hand side, at Sānkal. Its general course is +south-west.</p> + +<p>19. November, 1835.</p> + +<p>20. Described in the <i>Gazetteer</i> (1870) as 'a large but +decaying village in the Jabalpur district, situated at the foot of +the Bhānrer hills, twenty-two miles to the north-west of +Jabalpur, on the north side of the Hiran, and on the road to +Sāgar'.</p> + +<p>21. The convenient restriction of the name Vindhya to the hills +north, and of Sātpura to the hills south of the Nerbudda is of +modern origin (<i>Manual of the Geology of India</i>, 1st ed., Part +I, p. iv). The Sātpura range, thus defined, separates the +valley of the Nerbudda from the valleys of the Taptī flowing +west, and the Mahānadī flowing east. The Vindhyan +sandstones certainly are a formation of immense antiquity, perhaps +pre-Silurian. They are azoic, or devoid of fossils; and it is +consequently impossible to determine exactly their geological age, +or 'horizon' (ibid. p. xxiii). The cappings of basalt, in some +cases with laterite superimposed, suggest many difficult problems, +which will be briefly discussed in the notes to Chapters 14 and +17.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch9">CHAPTER 9</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Great Iconoclast—Troops routed by +Hornets—The Rānī of Garhā—Hornets' Nests +in India.</p> + +<p>On the 23rd,[1] we came on nine miles to Sangrāmpur, and, +on the 24th, nine more to the valley of Jabērā,[2] +situated on the western extremity of the bed of a large lake, which +is now covered by twenty-four villages. The waters were kept in by +a large wall that united two hills about four miles south of +Jabērā. This wall was built of great cut freestone blocks +from the two hills of the Vindhiya range, which it united. It was +about half a mile long, one hundred feet broad at the base, and +about one hundred feet high. The stones, though cut, were never, +apparently, cemented; and the wall has long given way in the +centre, through which now falls a small stream that passes from +east to west of what was once the bottom of the lake, and now is +the site of so many industrious and happy little village +communities.[3] The proprietor of the village of Jabērā, +in whose mango grove our tents were pitched, conducted me to the +ruins of the wall; and told me that it had been broken down by the +order of the Emperor Aurangzēb.[4] History to these people is +all a fairy tale; and this emperor is the great destroyer of +everything that the Muhammadans in their fanaticism have demolished +of the Hindoo sculpture or architecture; and yet, singular as it +may appear, they never mention his name with any feelings of +indignation or hatred. With every scene of his supposed outrage +against their gods or their temples, there is always associated the +recollection of some instance of his piety, and the Hindoos' +glory—of some idol, for instance, or column, preserved from +his fury by a miracle, whose divine origin he is supposed at once +to have recognized with all due reverence.</p> + +<p> At Bherāgarh,[5] the high priest of the temple told +us that Aurangzēb and his soldiers knocked off the heads, +arms, and noses of all the idols, saying that 'if they had really +any of the godhead in them, they would assuredly now show it, and +save themselves'. But when they came to the door of Gaurī +Sankar's apartments, they were attacked by a nest of hornets, that +put the whole of the emperor's army to the rout; and his imperial +majesty called out: 'Here we have really something like a god, and +we shall not suffer him to be molested; if all your gods could give +us proof like this of their divinity, not a nose of them would ever +be touched'.</p> + +<p>The popular belief, however, is that after Aurangzēb's army +had struck off all the prominent features of the other gods, one of +the soldiers entered the temple, and struck off the ear of one of +the prostrate images underneath their vehicle, the Bull. 'My dear', +said Gaurī, 'do you see what these saucy men are about?' Her +consort turned round his head;[6] and, seeing the soldiers around +him, brought all the hornets up from the marble rocks below, where +there are still so many nests of them, and the whole army fled +before them to Teorī, five miles.[7] It is very likely that +some body of troops by whom the rest of the images had been +mutilated, may have been driven off by a nest of hornets from +within the temple where this statue stands. I have seen six +companies of infantry, with a train of artillery and a squadron of +horse, all put to the rout by a single nest of hornets, and driven +off some miles with all their horses and bullocks. The officers +generally save themselves by keeping within their tents, and +creeping under their bed-clothes, or their carpets; and servants +often escape by covering themselves up in their blankets, and lying +perfectly still. Horses are often stung to a state of madness, in +which they throw themselves over precipices and break their limbs, +or kill themselves. The grooms, in trying to save their horses, are +generally the people who suffer most in a camp attacked by such an +enemy. I have seen some so stung as to recover with difficulty; and +I believe there have been instances of people not recovering at +all. In such a frightful scene I have seen a bullock sitting and +chewing the cud as calmly as if the whole thing had been got up for +his amusement. The hornets seldom touch any animal that remains +perfectly still.</p> + +<p>On the bank of the Bīnā river at Eran, in the +Sāgar district, is a beautiful pillar of a single freestone, +more than fifty feet high, surmounted by a figure of Krishna, with +the glory round his head.[8] Some few of the rays of this glory +have been struck off by lightning; but the people declare that this +was done by a shot fired at it from a cannon by order of +Aurangzēb, as his army was marching by on its way to the +Deccan. Before the scattered fragments, however, could reach the +ground, the air was filled, they say, by a swarm of hornets, that +put<br> +the whole army to flight; and the emperor ordered his gunners to +desist, declaring that he was 'satisfied of the presence of the +god'. There is hardly any part of India in which, according to +popular belief, similar miracles were not worked to convince the +emperor of the peculiar merits or sanctity of particular idols or +temples, according to the traditions of the people, derived, of +course, from the inventions of priests. I should mention that these +hornets suspend their nests to the branches of the highest trees, +under rocks, or in old deserted temples. Native travellers, +soldiers, and camp followers, cook and eat their food under such +trees; but they always avoid one in which there is a nest of +hornets, particularly on a still day. Sometimes they do not +discover the nest till it is too late. The unlucky wight goes on +feeding his fire, and delighting in the prospect of the feast +before him, as the smoke ascends in curling eddies to the nest of +the hornets. The moment it touches them they sally forth and +descend, and sting like mad creatures every living thing they find +in motion. Three companies of my regiment were escorting treasure +in boats from Allahabad to Cawnpore for the army under the Marquis +of Hastings, in 1817.[9] The soldiers all took their dinners on +shore every day; and one still afternoon a sipāhī +(sepoy), by cooking his dinner under one of those nests without +seeing it, sent the infuriated swarm among the whole of his +comrades, who were cooking in the same grove, and undressed, as +they always are on such occasions. Treasure, food, and all were +immediately deserted, and the whole of the party, save the European +officers, were up to their noses in the river Ganges. The hornets +hovered over them; and it was amusing to see them bobbing their +heads under as the insects tried to pounce upon them. The officers +covered themselves up in the carpets of their boats; and, as the +day was a hot one, their situation was still more uncomfortable +than that of the men. Darkness alone put an end to the +conflict.</p> + +<p>I should mention that the poor old Rānī, or Queen of +Garhā, Lachhmī Kuār, came out as far as Katangī +with us to take leave of my wife, to whom she has always been +attached. She had been in the habit of spending a day with her at +my house once a week; and being the only European lady from whom +she had ever received any attention, or indeed ever been on terms +of any intimacy with, she feels the more sensible of the little +offices of kindness and courtesy she has received from her.[10] Her +husband, Narhar Sā, was the last of the long line of sixty-two +sovereigns who reigned over these territories from the year A.D. +358 to the Sāgar conquest, A.D. 1781.[11] He died a prisoner +in the fortress of Kūrai, in the Sāgar district, in A. D. +1789, leaving two widows.[12] One burnt herself upon the funeral +pile, and the other was prevented from doing so, merely because she +was thought too young, as she was not then fifteen years of age. +She received a small pension from the Sāgar Government, which +was still further reduced under the Nāgpur Government which +succeeded it in the Jubbulpore district in which the pension had +been assigned; and it was not thought necessary to increase the +amount of this pension when the territory came under our +dominion,[13] so that she has had barely enough to subsist upon, +about one hundred rupees a month. She is now about sixty years of +age, and still a very good- looking woman. In her youth she must +have been beautiful. She does not object to appear unveiled before +gentlemen on any particular occasion; and, when Lord W. Bentinck +was at Jubbulpore in 1833, I introduced, the old queen to him. He +seemed much interested, and ordered the old lady a pair of shawls. +None but very coarse ones were found in the store-rooms of the +Governor-General's representative, and his lordship said these were +not such as a Governor-General could present, or a queen, however +poor, receive; and as his own 'toshakhāna' (wardrobe) had gone +on,[l4] he desired that a pair of the finest kind should be +purchased and presented to her in his name. The orders were given +in her presence and mine. I was obliged to return to Sāgar +before they could be carried into effect; and, when I returned in +1835,[15] I found that the <i>rejected</i> shawls had been +presented to her, and were such coarse things that she was ashamed +to wear them, as much, I really believe, on account of the exalted +person who had given them, as her own. She never mentioned the +subject till I asked her to let me see the shawls, which she did +reluctantly, and she was too proud to complain. How the good +intentions of the Governor-General had been frustrated in this case +I have never learned. The native officer in charge of the store was +dead, and the Governor-General's representative had left the place. +Better could not, I suppose, be got at this time, and he did not +like to defer giving them.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. November, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. Sangrāmpur is in the Jabalpur District, thirty miles +north-west of Jabalpur, or the road to Sāgar, The village of +Jabērā is thirty-nine miles from Jabalpur.</p> + +<p>3. Similar lakes, formed by means of huge dams thrown across +valleys, are numerous in the Central Provinces and +Bundēlkhand. The embankments of some of these lakes are +maintained by the Indian Government, and the water is distributed +for irrigation. Many of the lakes are extremely beautiful, and the +ruins of grand temples and palaces are often found on their banks. +Several of the embankments are known to have been built by the +Chandēl princes between A.D. 800 and 1200, and some are +believed to be the work of an earlier Parihār dynasty.</p> + +<p>4. A.D. 1658—1707. Aurangzēb, though possibly +credited with more destruction than he accomplished, did really +destroy many hundreds of Hindoo temples. A historian mentions the +demolition of 262 at three places in Rājputāna in a +single year (A.D. 1679-80) (E. and D. vii, 188).</p> + +<p>5. This name is used as a synonym for Bheraghāt, +<i>ante</i>, Chapter 1, paragraph 1. It is written Beragur in the +author's text. The author, in <i>Ramaseeana</i>, Introduction, p. +77, note, describes the Gaurī-Sankar sculpture as being 'at +Beragur on the Nerbudda river'.</p> + +<p>6. Gaurī is one of the many names of Pārvatī, or +Dēvī, the consort of the god Siva, Sankar, or +Māhadēo, who rides upon the bull Nandī.</p> + +<p>7. This village seems to be the same as Tewar, the ancient +Tripura, 'six miles to the west of Jabalpur; and on the south side +of the Bombay road' (<i>A. S. R</i>., vol. ix, p. 57). The adjacent +ruins are known by the name of Karanbēl.</p> + +<p>8. The pillar bears an inscription showing that it was erected +during the reign of Budha Gupta, in the year 165 of the Gupta era, +corresponding to A.D. 484-5. This, and the other important remains +of antiquity at Eran, are fully described in <i>A. S. R</i>., vol. +vii, p. 88; vol. x, pp. 76-90, pl. xxiii-xxx; and vol. xiv, p. 149, +pl. xxxi; also in Fleet, <i>Gupta Inscriptions</i> (Calcutta, +1888). The material of the pillar is red sandstone. According to +Cunningham the total height is 43 feet. The peculiar double-faced, +two-armed image on the summit does not seem to be intended for +Krishna, but I cannot say what the meaning is (H. F. A., p. 174, +fig. 121).</p> + +<p>9. During the wars with the Marāthās and +Pindhārīs, which ended in 1819.</p> + +<p>10. After we left Jubbulpore, the old Rānī used to +receive much kind and considerate attention from the Hon. Mrs. +Shore, a very amiable woman, the wife of the Governor-General's +representative, the Hon. Mr. Shore, a very worthy and able member +of the Bengal Civil Service. [W. H. S.] For notice of Mr. Shore, +see note at end of Chapter 13.</p> + +<p>11. See the author's paper entitled '<i>History of the Gurha +Mundala Rajas</i>', in <i>J. A. S. B</i>., vol. vi (1837), p. 621, +and the article 'Mandla' in <i>C. P. Gazetteer</i> (1870).</p> + +<p>12. Kūrai is on the route from Sāgar to +Nasīrābād, thirty-one miles WNW. of the former.</p> + +<p>13. The 'Sāgar and Nerbudda Territories', comprising the +Sāgar, Jabalpur, Hoshangābād, Seonī, Damoh, +Narsinghpur, and Baitūl Mandlā Districts, are now under +the Local Administration of the Chief Commissioner of the Central +Provinces, established in 1861 by Lord Canning, who appointed Sir +Richard Temple Chief Commissioner. These territories were at first +administered by a semi-political agency, but were afterwards, in +1852, placed under the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western +Provinces (now the Agra Province in the United Provinces of Agra +and Oudh), to whom they remained subject until 1861. They had been +ceded by the Marāthās to the British in 1818, and the +cession was confirmed by the treaty of 1826.</p> + +<p>14. All official presents given by native chiefs to the +Governor- General are credited to the 'toshakhāna', from which +also are taken the official gifts bestowed in return.</p> + +<p>15. By resolution of Government, dated January 10, 1836, the +author was appointed General Superintendent of the Operations +against Thuggee, with his head-quarters at Jubbulpore.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch10">CHAPTER 10</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Peasantry and the Land Settlement.</p> + +<p>The officers of the 29th had found game so plentiful, and the +weather so fine, that they came on with us as far as Jaberā, +where we had the pleasure of their society on the evening of the +24th, and left them on the morning of the 25th.[1] A great many of +my native friends, from among the native landholders and merchants +of the country, flocked to our camp at every stage to pay their +respects, and bid me farewell, for they never expected to see me +back among them again. They generally came out a mile or two to +meet and escort us to our tents; and much do I fear that my poor +boy will never again, in any part of the world, have the blessings +of Heaven so fervently invoked upon him by so many worthy and +respectable men as met us at every stage on our way from +Jubbulpore. I am much attached to the agricultural classes of India +generally, and I have found among them some of the best men I have +ever known. The peasantry in India have generally very good +manners, and are exceedingly intelligent, from having so much more +leisure and unreserved and easy intercourse with those above them. +The constant habit of meeting and discussing subjects connected +with their own interests, in their own fields, and 'under their own +fig-trees', with their landlords and Government functionaries of +all kinds and degrees, prevents their ever feeling or appearing +impudent or obtrusive; though it certainly tends to give them +stentorian voices, that often startle us when they come into our +houses to discuss the same points with us.</p> + +<p>Nine-tenths of the immediate cultivators of the soil in India +are little farmers, who hold a lease for one or more years, as the +case may be, of their lands, which they cultivate with their own +stock. One of these cultivators, with a good plough and bullocks, +and a good character, can always get good land on moderate terms +from holders of villages.[2] Those cultivators are, I think, the +best, who learn to depend upon their stock and character for +favourable terms, hold themselves free to change their holdings +when their leases expire, and pretend not to any hereditary right +in the soil. The lands are, I think, best cultivated, and the +society best constituted in India, where the holders of estates of +villages have a feeling of permanent interest in them, an assurance +of an hereditary right of property which is liable only to the +payment of a moderate Government demand, descends undivided by the +law of primogeniture, and is unaffected by the common law, which +prescribes the equal subdivision among children of landed as well +as other private property, among the Hindoos and Muhammadans; and +where the immediate cultivators hold the lands they till by no +other law than that of common specific contract.</p> + +<p>When I speak of holders of villages, I mean the holders of lands +that belong to villages. The whole face of India is parcelled out +into estates of villages.[3] The village communities are composed +of those who hold and cultivate the land, the established village +servants, priest, blacksmith, carpenter, accountant, washerman, +basket-maker (whose wife is ex officio the midwife of the little +village community), potter, watchman, barber, shoemaker, &c., +&c.[4] To these may be added the little banker, or agricultural +capitalist, the shopkeeper, the brazier, the confectioner, the +ironmonger, the weaver, the dyer, the astronomer or astrologer, who +points out to the people the lucky day for every earthly +undertaking, and the prescribed times for all religious ceremonies +and observances. In some villages the whole of the lands are +parcelled out among cultivating proprietors, and are liable to +eternal subdivisions by the law of inheritance, which gives to each +son the same share. In others, the whole of the lands are parcelled +out among cultivators, who hold them on a specific lease for +limited periods from a proprietor who holds the whole collectively +under Government, at a rate of rent fixed either permanently or for +limited periods. These are the two extremes. There are but few +villages in which all the cultivators are considered as +proprietors—at least but few in our Nerbudda territories; and +these will almost invariably be found of a caste of Brahmans or a +caste of Rājpūts, descended from a common ancestor, to +whom the estate was originally given in rent-free tenure, or at a +quit-rent, by the existing Government for his prayers as a priest, +or his services as a soldier. Subsequent Governments, which resumed +unceremoniously the estates of others, were deterred from resuming +these by a dread of the curses of the one and the swords of the +other.[5] Such communities of cultivating proprietors are of two +kinds: those among whom the lands are parcelled out, each member +holding his share as a distinct estate, and being individually +responsible for the payment of the share of the Government demand +assessed upon it; and those among whom the lands are not parcelled +out, but the profits divided as among copartners of an estate held +jointly. They, in either case, nominate one of their members to +collect and pay the Government demand; or Government appoints a man +for this duty, either as a salaried servant or a lessee, with +authority to levy from the cultivating proprietors a certain sum +over and above what is demandable from him.</p> + +<p>The communities in which the cultivators are considered merely +as leaseholders are far more numerous; indeed, the greater part of +the village communities in this part of India are of this +description; and, where the communities are of a mixed character, +the cultivating proprietors are considered to have merely a right +of occupancy, and are liable to have their lands assessed at the +same rate as those held on a mere lease tenure. In all parts of +India the cultivating proprietors in such mixed communities are +similarly situated; they are liable to be assessed at the same rate +as others holding the same sort of lands, and often pay a higher +rate, with which others are not encumbered. But this is not +general; it is as much the interest of the proprietor to have good +cultivating tenants as it is that of the tenants to have good +proprietors; and it is felt to be the interest of both to adjust +their terms amicably among themselves, without a reference to a +third and superior party, which is always costly and commonly +ruinous.[6]</p> + +<p>It is a question of very great importance, no less morally and +politically than fiscally, which of these systems deserves most +encouragement—that in which the Government considers the +immediate cultivators to be the hereditary proprietors, and, +through its own public officers, parcels out the lands among them, +and adjusts the rates of rent demandable from every minute +partition, as the lands become more and more subdivided by the +Hindoo and Muhammadan law of inheritance; or that in which the +Government considers him who holds the area of a whole village or +estate collectively as the hereditary proprietor, and the immediate +cultivators as his lease-tenants—leaving the rates of rent to +be adjusted among the parties without the aid of public officers, +or interposing only to enforce the fulfilment of their mutual +contracts. In the latter of these two systems the land will supply +more and better members to the middle and higher classes of the +society, and create and preserve a better feeling between them and +the peasantry, or immediate cultivators of the soil; and it will +occasion the re- investment upon the soil, in works of ornament and +utility, of a greater portion of the annual returns of rent and +profit, and a less expenditure in the costs of litigation in our +civil courts, and bribery to our public officers.</p> + +<p>Those who advocate the other system, which makes the immediate +cultivators the proprietors, will, for the most part, be found to +reason upon false premisses—upon the assumption that the +rates of rent demandable from the immediate cultivators of the soil +<i>were everywhere limited and established by immemorial usage, in +a certain sum of money per acre, or a certain share of the crop +produced from it</i>; and that 'these rates were not only so +limited and fixed, but everywhere <i>well known to the people</i>', +and might, consequently, have become well known to the Government, +and recorded in public registers. Now every practical man in India, +who has had opportunities of becoming well acquainted with the +matter, knows that <i>the reverse is the case</i>; that the rate of +rent demandable from these cultivators <i>never was the same upon +any two estates at the same time: nor even the same upon any one +estate at different limes, or for any consecutive number of +years</i>.[7] The rates vary every year on every estate, according +to the varying circumstances that influence them—such as +greater or less exhaustion of the soil, greater or less facilities +of irrigation, manure, transit to market, drainage—or from +fortuitous advantages on one hand, or calamities of season on the +other; or many other circumstances which affect the value of the +land, and the abilities of the cultivators to pay. It is not so +much the proprietors of the estate or the Government as the +cultivators themselves who demand every year a readjustment of the +rate demandable upon their different holdings. This readjustment +must take place; and, if there is no landlord to effect it, +Government must effect it through its own officers. Every holding +becomes subdivided when the cultivating proprietor dies and leaves +more than one child; and, as the whole face of the country is open +and without hedges, the division is easily and speedily made. Thus +the field-map which represents an estate one year will never +represent it fairly five years after; in fact, we might almost as +well attempt to map the waves of the ocean as field-map the face of +any considerable area in any part of India.[8]</p> + +<p>If there be any truth in my conclusions, our Government has +acted unwisely in going, as it has generally done, into [one or +other of] the two extremes, in its settlement of the land +revenue.</p> + +<p>In the Zamīndārī settlement of Bengal, it +conferred the hereditary right of property over areas larger than +English counties on individuals, and left the immediate cultivators +mere tenants-at-will.[9] These individuals felt no interest in +promoting the comfort and welfare of the village communities, or +conciliating the affections of the cultivators, whom they never saw +or wished to see; and they let out the village, or other +subdivision of their estates, to second parties quite as little +interested, who again let them out to others, so that the system of +rack-renting went on over the whole area of the immense possession. +This was a system 'more honoured in the breach than in the +observance'; for, as the great landholders became involved in the +ruin of their cultivators, their estates were sold for arrears of +revenue due to Government, and thus the proprietary right of one +individual has become divided among many, who will have the +feelings which the larger holders wanted, and so remedy the evil. +In the other extreme, Government has constituted the immediate +cultivators the proprietors; thereby preventing any one who is +supported upon the rent of land, or the profits of agricultural +stock, from rising above the grade of a peasant, and so depriving +society of one of its best and most essential elements. The remedy +of both is in village settlements, in which the estate shall be of +moderate size, and the hereditary property of the holder, +descending on the principle of a principality, by the right of +primogeniture, unaffected by the common law. This is the system +which has been adopted in the Nerbudda territory, and which, I +trust, will be always adhered to.</p> + +<p>When we enter upon the government of any new territorial +acquisition in India, we do not require or pretend to change the +civil laws of the people; because their civil laws and their +religion are in reality one and the same, and are contained in one +and the same code, as certainly among the Hindoos, the Muhammadans, +and the Parsees, as they were among the Israelites. By these codes, +and the established usages everywhere well understood by the +people, are their rights and duties in marriage, inheritance, +succession, caste, contract, and all the other civil relations of +life, ascertained; and when we displace another Government we do +not pretend to alter such rights and duties in relation to each +other, we merely change the machinery and mode of procedure by +which these rights are secured and these duties enforced.[10]</p> + +<p>Of criminal law no system was ever either regularly established +or administered in any state in India, by any Government to which +we have succeeded; and the people always consider the existing +Government free to adopt that which may seem best calculated to +effect the one great object, which criminal law has everywhere in +view—<i>the security of life, property, and character, and +the enjoyment of all their advantages</i>. The actions by which +these are affected and endangered, the evidence by which such +actions require to be proved, and the penalties with which they +require to be visited, in order to prevent their recurrence, are, +or ought to be, so much the same in every society, that the people +never think us bound to search for what Muhammad and his companions +thought in the wilds of Arabia, or the Sanskrit poets sang about +them in courts and cloisters. They would be just as well pleased +everywhere to find us searching for these things in the writings of +Confucius and Zoroaster, as in those of Muhammad and Manu: and much +more so, to see us consulting our own common-sense, and forming a +penal code of our own, suitable to the wants of such a mixed +community.[11]</p> + +<p>The fiscal laws which define the rights and duties of the landed +interests and the agricultural classes in relation to each other +and to the ruling powers were also everywhere exceedingly simple +and well understood by the people. What in England is now a mere +fiction of law is still in India an essential principle. All lands +are held directly or indirectly of the sovereign: to this rule +there is no exception.[12] The reigning sovereign is essentially +the proprietor of the whole of the lands in every part of India, +where he has not voluntarily alienated them; and he holds these +lands for the payment of those public establishments which are +maintained for the public good, and are supported by the rents of +the lands either directly under assignment, or indirectly through +the sovereign proprietor. When a Muhammadan or Hindoo sovereign +assigned lands rent-free in <i>perpetuity</i>, it was always +understood, both by the donor and receiver, to be with the <i>small +reservation</i> of a right in his successor to resume them for the +public good, if he should think fit.[13] Hindoo sovereigns, or +their priests for them, often tried to bar this right by +<i>invoking curses</i> on the head of that successor who should +exercise it.[14] It is a proverb among the people of these +territories, and, I believe, among the people of India generally, +that the lands which pay no rent to Government have no 'barkat', +blessing from above—that the man who holds them is not +blessed in their returns like the man who pays rent to Government +and thereby contributes his aid to the protection of the community. +The fact is that every family that holds rent-free lands must, in a +few generations, become miserable from the minute subdivision of +the property, and the litigation in our civil courts which it +entails upon the holders.[15] It is certainly the general opinion +of the people of India that no land should be held without paying +rent to Government, or providing for people employed in the service +of Government, for the benefit of the people in its defensive, +religious, judicial, educational, and other establishments. Nine- +tenths of the land in these Nerbudda territories are held in lease +immediately under Government by the heads of villages, whose leases +have been renewable every five years; but they are now to have a +settlement for twenty.[l6] The other tenth is held by these heads +of villages intermediately under some chief, who holds several +portions of land immediately under Government at a quit-rent, or +for service performed, or to be performed, for Government, and lets +them out to farmers. These are, for the most part, situated in the +more hilly and less cultivated parts.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. November, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. This observation does not hold good in densely populated +tracts, which are now numerous.</p> + +<p>3. These 'estates of villages' are known by the Persian name of +'mauza'. The topographical division of the country into 'mauzas', +which may be also translated by the terms 'townlands' or +'townships', has developed spontaneously. Some 'mauzas' are +uninhabited, and are cultivated by the residents of neighbouring +villages.</p> + +<p>4. In some parts of Central and Southern India, the +'Gārpagrī', who charms away hail-storms from the crops, +and 'Bhūmkā', who charms away tigers from the people and +their cattle, are added to the number of village servants, [W. H +.S.] 'In many parts of Berār and Mālwa every village has +its "bhūmkā", whose office it is to charm the tigers; and +its "gārpagrī", whose duty it is to keep off the +hail-storms. They are part of the village servants, and paid by the +village community, After a severe hail-storm took place in the +district of Narsinghpur, of which I had the civil charge in 1823, +the office of "gārpagrī" was restored to several villages +in which it had ceased for several generations. They are all +Brahmans, and take advantage of such calamities to impress the +people with an opinion of their usefulness. The "bhūmkās" +are all Gōnds, or people of the woods, who worship their own +Lares and Penates' (<i>Ramaseeana</i>, Introduction, p. 13. +note).</p> + +<p>5. Very often the Government of the country know nothing of +these tenures; the local authorities allowed them to continue as a +perquisite of their own. The holders were willing to pay them a +good share of the rent, assured that they would be resumed if +reported by the local authorities to the Government. These +authorities consented to take a moderate share of the rent, assured +that they should get little or nothing if the lands were resumed. +[W. H. S.] 'Rent' here means 'land-revenue'. Of course, under +modern British administration the particulars of all tenures are +known and recorded in great detail,</p> + +<p>6. Since the author wrote these remarks the legal position of +cultivating proprietors and tenants has been largely modified by +the pressure of population and a long course of legislation. The +Rent Acts, which began with Act x of 1859, are now numerous, and +have been accompanied by a series of Land Revenue Acts, and many +collateral enactments. All the problems of the Irish land question +are familiar topics to the Anglo-Indian courts and +legislatures.</p> + +<p>7. This proposition no doubt was true for the 'Sāgar and +Nerbudda Territories' in 1835, but it cannot be predicated of the +thickly populated and settled districts in the Gangetic valley +without considerable qualification. Examples of long-established, +unchanged, well-known rent-rates are not uncommon.</p> + +<p>8. In recent years this task of 'mapping the waves of the ocean' +has been attempted. Every periodical settlement of the land revenue +in Northern India since 1833 has been accompanied by the +preparation of detailed village maps, showing each field, even the +tiniest, a few yards square, with a separate number. In many cases +these maps were roughly constructed under non-professional +supervision, but in many districts they have been prepared by the +cadastral branch of the Survey Department. The difficulty mentioned +by the author has been severely felt, and it constantly happens +that beautiful maps become useless in four or five years. Efforts +are made to insert annual corrections in copies of the maps through +the agency of the village accountants, and the +'kānūngos', or officers who supervise them, but the task +is an enormous one, and only partial success is attained. In +addition to the maps, records of great bulk are annually prepared +which give the most minute details about every holding and each +field.</p> + +<p>9. The Permanent Settlement of Bengal, effected under the orders +of Lord Cornwallis in 1793, was soon afterwards extended to the +province of Benares, now included in the United Provinces of Agra +and Oudh. Illusory provisions were made to protect the rights of +tenants, but nothing at all effectual was done till the passing of +Act x of 1859, which has been largely modified by later +legislation.</p> + +<p>10. The general principle here stated of respect for personal +substantive law in civil matters is still the guide of the Indian +Legislature, but the accumulation of Privy Council and High Court +rulings, combined with the action of codes, has effected +considerable gradual change. Direct legislation has anglicized the +law of contract, and has modified, though not so largely, the law +of marriage, inheritance, and succession.</p> + +<p>11. In the author's time the courts of the East India Company +still followed the Muhammadan criminal law, as modified by the +Regulations. The Indian Penal Code of 1869 placed the substantive +criminal law on a thoroughly scientific basis. This code was framed +with such masterly skill that to this day it has needed little +material amendment. The first Criminal Procedure Code, passed in +1861, has been twice recast. The law of evidence was codified by +Sir James FitzJames Stephen in the Indian Evidence Act of 1870.</p> + +<p>12. This proposition, in the editor's opinion, truly states the +theory of land tenures in India, and it was a generally accurate +statement of actual fact in the author's time. Since then the long +continuance of settled government, by fostering the growth of +private rights, has tended to obscure the idea of state ownership. +The modern revenue codes, instead of postulating the ownership of +the state, enact that the claims of the state—that is to say, +the land- revenue—are the first charge on the land and its +produce. The Malabar coast offers an exception to the general Hindu +role of state ownership of land. The Nairs, Coorgs, and Tulus +enjoyed full proprietary rights (Dubois, <i>Hindu Manners, +&c</i>., 3rd edition (1906), p. 57).</p> + +<p>13. Amīr Khān, the Nawāb of Tonk, assigned to his +physician, who had cured him of an intermittent fever, lands +yielding one thousand rupees a year, in rent-free tenure, and gave +him a deed signed by himself and his heir-apparent, declaring +expressly that it should descend to him and his heir for ever. He +died lately, and his son and successor, who had signed the deed, +resumed the estate without ceremony. On being remonstrated with, he +said that 'his father, while living, was, of course, master, and +could make him sign what he pleased, and give land rent-free to +whom he pleased; but his successor must now be considered the best +judge whether they could be spared or not; that if lands were to be +alienated in perpetuity by every reigning Nawāb for every dose +of medicine or dose of prayers that he or the members of his family +required, none would soon be left for the payment of the soldiers, +or other necessary public servants of any description'. This was +told me by the son of the old physician, who was the person to whom +the speech was made, his father having died before Amīr +Khān. [W. H. S.] Amīr Khān was the famous +Pindhārī leader. H. T. Prinsep translated his Memoirs +from the Persian of Busawun Lāl (Calcutta, 1832).</p> + +<p>14. The ancient deeds of grant, engraved on copper, of which so +many have been published within the last hundred years, almost +invariably conclude with fearful curses on the head of any rash +mortal who may dare to revoke the grant. Usually the pious hope is +expressed that, if he should be guilty of such wickedness, he may +rot in filth, and be reborn a worm.</p> + +<p>15. Revenue officers commonly observe that revenue-free grants, +which the author calls rent-free, are often ill cultivated. The +simple reason is that the stimulus of the collector's demand is +wanting to make the owner exert himself.</p> + +<p>16. These leases now carry with them a right of ownership, +involving the power of alienation, subject to the lien of the land +revenue as a first charge. Conversely, the modern codes lay down +the principle that the revenue settlement must be made with the +proprietor. The author's rule of agricultural succession by +primogeniture in the Nerbudda territories has survived only in +certain districts (see <i>post</i>, Chapter 47). The land-revenue +law and the law concerning the relations between landlords and +tenants have now been more or less successfully codified in each +province. Mr. B. H. Baden-Powell's encyclopaedic work <i>The Land +Systems of British India</i> (3 volumes: Oxford, Clarendon Press, +1892) gives very full information concerning Indian tenures as now +existing, and the law applicable to them at the date of +publication.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch11">CHAPTER 11</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Witchcraft.</p> + +<p>On leaving Jabērā,[1] I saw an old acquaintance from +the eastern part of the Jubbulpore district, Kehrī Singh.</p> + +<p>'I understand, Kehrī Singh', said I, 'that certain men +among the Gonds of the jungle, towards the source of the Nerbudda, +eat human flesh. Is it so?'</p> + +<p>'No, sir; the men never eat people, but the Gond women do.'</p> + +<p>'Where?'</p> + +<p>'Everywhere, sir; there is not a parish, nay, a village, among +the Gonds, in which you will not find one or more such women.'</p> + +<p>'And how do they eat people?'</p> + +<p>'They eat their livers, sir.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, I understand; you mean witches?'</p> + +<p>'Of course! Who ever heard of other people eating human +beings?'</p> + +<p>'And you really still think, in spite of all that we have done +and said, that there are such things as witches?'</p> + +<p>'Of course we do—do not we find instances of it every day? +European gentlemen are too apt to believe that things like this are +not to be found here, because they are not to be found in their own +country. Major Wardlow, when in charge of the Seonī district, +denied the existence of witchcraft for a long time, but he was at +last convinced.'</p> + +<p>'How?'</p> + +<p>'One of his troopers, one morning after a long march, took some +milk for his master's breakfast from an old woman without paying +for it. Before the major had got over his breakfast the poor +trooper was down upon his back, screaming from the agony of +internal pains. We all knew immediately that he had been bewitched, +and recommended the major to send for some one learned in these +matters to find out the witch. He did so, and, after hearing from +the trooper the story about the milk, this person at once declared +that the woman from whom he got it was the criminal. She was +searched for, found, and brought to the trooper, and commanded to +cure him. She flatly denied that she had herself conjured him; but +admitted that her household gods might, unknown to her, have +punished him for his wickedness. This, however, would not do. She +was commanded to cure the man, and she set about collecting +materials for the "pūjā" (worship); and before she could +get quite through the ceremonies, all his pains had left him. Had +we not been resolute with her, the man must have died before +evening, so violent were his torments.'</p> + +<p>'Did not a similar case occur to Mr. Fraser at Jubbulpore?'</p> + +<p>'A "chaprāsī"[2] of his, while he had charge of the +Jubbulpore district, was sent out to Mandlā[3] with a message +of some kind or other. He took a cock from an old Gond woman +without paying for it, and, being hungry after a long journey, ate +the whole of it in a curry. He heard the woman mutter something, +but being a raw, unsuspecting young man, he thought nothing of it, +ate his cock, and went to sleep. He had not been asleep three hours +before he was seized with internal pains, and the old cock was +actually heard crowing in his belly. He made the best of his way +back to Jubbulpore, several stages, and all the most skilful men +were employed to charm away the effect of the old woman's spell, +but in vain. He died, and the cock never ceased crowing at +intervals up to the hour of his death.'</p> + +<p>'And was Mr. Fraser convinced?'</p> + +<p>'I never heard, but suppose he must have been.'</p> + +<p>'Who ate the livers of the victims? The witches themselves, or +the evil spirits with whom they had dealings?'</p> + +<p>'The evil spirits ate the livers; but they are set on to do so +by the witches, who get them into their power by such accursed +sacrifices and offerings. They will often dig up young children +from their graves, bring them to life, and allow these devils to +feed upon their livers, as falconers allow their hawks to feed on +the breasts of pigeons. You "sāhib lōg" (European +gentlemen) will not believe all this, but it is, nevertheless, all +very true.'[4]</p> + +<p>The belief in sorcery among these people owes its origin, in a +great measure, to the diseases of the liver and spleen to which the +natives, and particularly the children, are much subject in the +jungly parts of Central India. From these affections children pine +away and die, without showing any external marks of disease. Their +death is attributed to witchcraft, and any querulous old woman, who +has been in the habit of murmuring at slights and ill treatment in +the neighbourhood, is immediately set down as the cause. Men who +practise medicine among them are very commonly supposed to be at +the same time wizards. Seeking to inspire confidence in their +prescriptions by repeating prayers and incantations over the +patient, or over the medicine they give him, they make him believe +that they derive aid from supernatural power; and the patient +concludes that those who can command these powers to cure can, if +they will, command them to destroy. He and his friends believe that +the man who can command these powers to cure one individual can +command them to cure any other; and, if he does not do so, they +believe that it arises from a desire to destroy the patient. I +have, in these territories, known a great many instances of medical +practitioners having been put to death for not curing young people +for whom they were required to prescribe. Several cases have come +before me as a magistrate in which the father has stood over the +doctor with a drawn sword by the side of the bed of his child, and +cut him down and killed him the moment the child died, as he had +sworn to do when he found the patient sinking under his +prescriptions.[5]</p> + +<p>The town of Jubbulpore contains a population of twenty thousand +souls,[6] and they all believed in this story of the cock. I one +day asked a most respectable merchant in the town, Nādū +Chaudhrī, how the people could believe in such things, when he +replied that he had no doubt witches were to be found in every part +of India, though they abounded most, no doubt, in the central parts +of it, and that we ought to consider ourselves very fortunate in +having no such things in England. 'But', added he, 'of all +countries that between Mandlā and Katāk (Cuttack)[7] is +the worst for witches. I had once occasion to go to the city of +Ratanpur[8] on business, and was one day, about noon, walking in +the market-place and eating a very fine piece of sugar-cane. In the +crowd I happened, by accident, to jostle an old woman as she passed +me. I looked back, intending to apologize for the accident, and +heard her muttering indistinctly as she passed on. Knowing the +propensities of these old ladies, I became somewhat uneasy, and on +turning round to my cane I found, to my great terror, that the +juice had been all <i>turned to blood</i>. Not a minute had +elapsed, such were the fearful powers of this old woman. I +collected my followers, and, leaving my agents there to settle my +accounts, was beyond the boundaries of the old wretch's influence +before dark; had I remained, nothing could have saved me. I should +certainly have been a dead man before morning. It is well known', +said the old gentleman, 'that their spells and curses can only +reach a certain distance, ten or twelve miles; and, if you offend +one of them, the sooner you place that distance between you the +better.'</p> + +<p>Jangbār Khān, the representative of the Shāhgarh +Rājā,[9] as grave and reverend an old gentleman as ever +sat in the senate of Venice, told me one day that he was himself an +eye-witness of the powers of the women of Khilautī. He was +with a great concourse of people at a fair held at the town of +Rāipur,[10] and, while sauntering with many other strangers in +the fair, one of them began bargaining with two women of middle age +for some very fine sugar-canes. They asked double the fair price +for their canes. The man got angry, and took up one of them, when +the women seized the other end, and a struggle ensued. The +purchaser offered a fair price, seller demanded double. The crowd +looked on, and a good deal of abuse of the female relations on both +sides took place. At last a sepoy of the governor came up, armed to +the teeth, and called out to the man, in a very imperious tone, to +let go his hold of the cane. He refused, saying that 'when people +came to the fair to sell, they should be made to sell at reasonable +prices, or be turned out'. 'I', said Jangbār Khān, +'thought the man right, and told the sepoy that, if he took the +part of this woman, we should take that of the other, and see fair +play. Without further ceremony the functionary drew his sword, and +cut the cane in two in the middle; and, pointing to both pieces, +'There', said he, 'you see the cause of my interference'. We looked +down, and actually saw blood running from both pieces, and forming +a little pool on the ground. The fact was that the woman was a +sorceress of the very worst kind, and was actually drawing the +blood from the man through the cane, to feed the abominable devil +from whom she derived her detestable powers. But for the timely +interference of the sepoy he would have been dead in another +minute; for he no sooner saw the real state of the case than he +fainted. He had hardly any blood left in him, and I was afterwards +told that he was not able to walk for ten days. We all went to the +governor to demand justice, declaring that, unless the women were +made an example of at once, the fair would be deserted, for no +stranger's life would be safe. He consented, and they were both +sewn up in sacks and thrown into the river; but they had conjured +the water and would not sink. They ought to have been put to death, +but the governor was himself afraid of this kind of people, and let +them off. There is not', continued Jangbār, 'a village, or a +single family, without its witch in that part of the country; +indeed, no man will give his daughter in marriage to a family +without one, saying, "If my daughter has children, what will become +of them without a witch to protect them from the witches of other +families in the neighbourhood?" It is a fearful country, though the +cheapest and most fertile in India.'</p> + +<p>We can easily understand how a man, impressed with the idea that +his blood had all been drawn from him by a sorceress, should become +faint, and remain many days in a languid state; but how the people +around should believe that they saw the blood flowing from both +parts of the cane at the place cut through, it is not so easy to +conceive.</p> + +<p>I am satisfied that old Jangbār believed the whole story to +be true, and that at the time he thought the juice of the cane red; +but the little pool of blood grew, no doubt, by degrees, as years +rolled on and he related this tale of the fearful powers of the +Khilautī witches.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 9.</p> + +<p>2. An orderly, or official messenger, who wears a +'chaprās', or badge of office.</p> + +<p>3. On the Nerbudda, fifty miles south-east of Jubbulpore.</p> + +<p>4. Of the supposed powers and dispositions of witches among the +Romans we have horrible pictures in the 5th Ode of the 6th Book of +Horace, and in the 6th Book of Lucan's <i>Pharsalia</i>. [W. H. S.] +The reference to Horace should be to the 5th Epode. The passage in +the <i>Pharsalia</i>, Book VI, lines 420-830, describes the +proceedings of Thessalian witches.</p> + +<p>5. Such awkward incidents of medical practice are not heard of +nowadays.</p> + +<p>6. The population of Jabalpur (including cantonments) has +increased steadily, and in 1911 was 100,651, as compared with +84,556 in 1891, and 76,023 in 1881.</p> + +<p>7. Katāk, or Cuttack, a district, with town of same name, +in Orissa.</p> + +<p>8. In the Bilāspur district of the Central Provinces. The +distance in a direct line between Mandlā and Katāk is +about 400 miles.</p> + +<p>9. Shāhgarh was formerly a petty native state, with town of +same name. The chief joined the rebels in 1857, with the result +that his dominions were confiscated, and distributed between the +districts of Sāgar and Damoh in the Central Provinces, and +Jhānsī (formerly Lalitpur) in the United Provinces of +Agra and Oudh. The town of Shāhgarh is in the Sāgar +district.</p> + +<p>10. Rāipur is the chief town of the district of the same +name in the Central Provinces, which was not finally annexed to the +British dominions until 1854, when the Nāgpur State +lapsed.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch12">CHAPTER 12</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Silver Tree, or 'Kalpa Briksha'—The +Singhāra or <i>Trapa bispinosa</i>, and the Guinea-Worm.</p> + +<p>Poor old Salāmat Alī wept bitterly at the last meeting +in my tent, and his two nice boys, without exactly knowing why, +began to do the same; and my little son Henry[1] caught the +infection, and wept louder than any of them. I was obliged to hurry +over the interview lest I should feel disposed to do the same. The +poor old Rānī,[2] too, suffered a good deal in parting +from my wife, whom, she says, she can never hope to see again. Her +fine large eyes shed many a tear as she was getting into her +palankeen to return.</p> + +<p>Between Jaberā and Harduā, the next stage, we find a +great many of those large forest trees called 'kalap', or 'Kalpa +Briksha' (the same which in the paradise of Indra grants what is +desired), with a soft, silvery bark, and scarcely any leaves. We +are told that the name of the god Rām (Rāma) and his +consort Sītā will be found written by the hand of God +upon all.[3]</p> + +<p>I had the curiosity to examine a good many in the forest on both +sides of the road, and found the name of this incarnation of Vishnu +written on everyone in Sanskrit characters, apparently by some +supernatural hand; that is, there was a softness in the impression, +as if the finger of some supernatural being had traced the +characters. Nathū, one of our belted attendants[4] told me +that we might search as deeply as we would in the forest, but we +should certainly find the name of God upon every one; 'for', said +he, 'it is God himself who writes it'. I tried to argue him out of +this notion; but, unfortunately, could find no tree without these +characters—some high up, and some lower down in the +trunk—some large and others small—but still to be found +on every tree. I was almost in despair when we came to a part of +the wood where we found one of these trees down in a hollow, under +the road, and another upon the precipice above. I was ready to +stake my credit upon the probability that no traveller would take +the trouble to go up to the tree above, or down to the tree below, +merely to write the name of the god upon them; and at once pledged +myself to Nathū that he should find neither the god's name nor +that of his wife. I sent one man up, and another man down, and they +found no letters on the trees; but this did not alter their opinion +on the point. 'God', said one, 'had no doubt put his name on these +trees, but they had somehow or other got rubbed off. He would in +good time renew them, that men's eyes might be blessed with the +sight of His holy name, even in the deepest forest, and on the most +leafless tree.'[5] 'But', said Nathū, 'he might not have +thought it worth while to write his name upon those trees which no +travellers go to see.' 'Cannot you see', said I, 'that these +letters have been engraved by man? Are they not all to be found on +the trunk within reach of a man's hand?' 'Of course they are', +replied he, 'because people would not be able conveniently to +distinguish them if God were to write them higher up.'</p> + +<p>Shaikh Sādī has a very pretty couplet, 'Every leaf of +the foliage of a green tree is, in the eye of a wise man, a library +to teach him the wisdom of his Creator.'[6] I may remark that, +where an Englishman would write his own name, a Hindoo would write +that of his god, his parent, or his benefactor. This difference is +traceable, of course, to the difference in their governments and +institutions. If a Hindoo built a town, he called it after his +local governor; if a local governor built it, he called it after +the favourite son of the Emperor. In well regulated Hindoo +families, one cannot ask a younger brother after his children in +presence of the elder brother who happens to be the head of the +family; it would be disrespectful for him even to speak of his +children as his own in such presence—the elder brother +relieves his embarrassment by answering for him.</p> + +<p>On the 27th[7] we reached Damoh,[8] where our friends, the +Browns, were to leave us on their return to Jubbulpore. Damoh is a +pretty place. The town contains some five or six thousand people, +and has some very handsome Hindoo temples. On a hill immediately +above it is the shrine of a Muhammadan saint, which has a very +picturesque appearance.</p> + +<p>There are no manufactures at Damoh, except such as supply the +wants of the immediate neighbourhood; and the town is supported by +the residence of a few merchants, a few landholders, and +agricultural capitalists, and the establishment of a native +collector. The people here suffer much from the guinea-worm, and +consider it to arise from drinking the water of the old tank, which +is now very dirty and full of weeds. I have no doubt that it is +occasioned either by drinking the water of this tank, or by wading +in it: for I have known European gentlemen get the worm in their +legs from wading in similar lakes or swamps after snipes, and the +servants who followed them with their ammunition experience the +same effect.[9] Here, as in most other parts of India, the tanks +get spoiled by the water-chestnut, 'singhāra' (<i>Trapa +bispinosa</i>), which is everywhere as regularly planted and +cultivated <i>in fields</i> under a large surface of water, as +wheat or barley is on the dry plains. It is cultivated by a class +of men called Dhīmars, who are everywhere fishermen and +palankeen bearers; and they keep boats for the planting, weeding, +and gathering the 'singhāra'.[10] The holdings or tenements of +each cultivator are marked out carefully on the surface of the +water by long bamboos stuck up in it; and they pay so much the acre +for the portion they till. The long straws of the plants reach up +to the surface of the waters, upon which float their green leaves; +and their pure white flowers expand beautifully among them in the +latter part of the afternoon. The nut grows under the water after +the flowers decay, and is of a triangular shape, and covered with a +tough brown integument adhering strongly to the kernel, which is +white, esculent, and of a fine cartilaginous texture. The people +are very fond of these nuts, and they are carried often upon +bullocks' backs two or three hundred miles to market. They ripen in +the latter end of the rains, or in September, and are eatable till +the end of November. The rent paid for an ordinary tank by the +cultivator is about one hundred rupees a year. I have known two +hundred rupees to be paid for a very large one, and even three +hundred, or thirty pounds a year.[11] But the mud increases so +rapidly from this cultivation that it soon destroys all reservoirs +in which it is permitted; and, where it is thought desirable to +keep up the tank for the sake of the water, it should be carefully +prohibited. This is done by stipulating with the renter of the +village, at the renewal of the lease, that no 'singhāra' shall +be planted in the tank; otherwise, he will never forgo the +advantage to himself of the rent for the sake of the convenience, +and that only prospective, of the village community in general.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Afterwards Captain H. A. Sleeman, He died in 1905.</p> + +<p>2. Of Garhā, see <i>ante</i>, Chapter 9, prior to note +10.</p> + +<p>3. The real 'kalpa', which now stands in the garden of the god +Indra in the first heaven, was one of the fourteen varieties found +at the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons. It fell to the +share of Indra. [W. H. S.] The tree referred to in the text perhaps +may be the <i>Erythrina arborescens</i>, or coral-tree, which sheds +its leaves after the hot weather.</p> + +<p>4. That is to say, orderlies, or 'chaprāsīs'.</p> + +<p>5. Every Hindoo is thoroughly convinced that the names of +Rām and his consort Sītā are written on this tree by +the hand of God, and nine-tenths of the Musalmāns believe the +same.</p> + +<p> Happy the man who sees a God +employed<br> + In all the good and ill that chequer +life,<br> + Resolving all events, with their +effects<br> + And manifold results, into the will<br> + And arbitration wise of the Supreme.</p> + +<p> + + + COWPER. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>The quotation is from <i>The Task</i>, Book II, line 161.</p> + +<p>6. Sādī (Sa'dī) is the poetic name, or <i>nom de +plume</i>, of the celebrated Persian poet, whose proper name is +said to have been Shaikh Maslah-ud-dīn, or, according to other +authorities, Sharf-ud-dīn Mislah. He was born about A.D. 1194, +and is supposed to have lived for more than a hundred years. Some +writers say that he died in A.D. 1292. His best known works are the +<i>Gulistān</i> and <i>Būstān</i>. The editor has +failed to trace in either of these works the couplet quoted. +Sādī says in the <i>Gulistān</i>, ii. 26, 'That +heart which has an ear is full of the divine mystery. It is not the +nightingale that alone serenades his rose; for every thorn on the +rose-bush is a tongue in his or God's praise' (Ross's +translation).</p> + +<p>7. November, 1835.</p> + +<p>8. Spelled Dhamow in the author's text. The town, the head- +quarters of the district of the same name, is forty-five miles east +of Sāgar, and fifty-five miles north-west of Jabalpur. The +<i>C. P. Gazetteer</i> (1870) states the population to be 8,563. In +1901 it had grown to 13,335; and the town is still increasing in +importance (<i>I. G.</i>, 1908). Inscriptions of the fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries at Damoh are noticed in <i>A. S. R.</i>, vol. +xxi, p. 168.</p> + +<p>9. The guinea-worm (<i>Filaria medinensis</i>) is a very +troublesome parasite, which sometimes grows to a length of three +feet. It occurs in Africa, Arabia, Persia, and Turkistan, as well +as in India.</p> + +<p>10. The Dhīmars (Sanskrit <i>dhīvara</i>, 'fisherman') +are the same caste as the Kahārs, or 'bearers'. The boats used +by them are commonly 'dugout' canoes, exactly like those used in +prehistoric Europe, and now treasured in museums.</p> + +<p>11. In the author's time the rupee was worth two shillings, or +more, that is to say, the ninth or tenth part of a sovereign. After +1873 the gold value of the rupee fell, so that at times it was +worth little more than a shilling. Since 1899 special legislation +has succeeded in keeping the rupee practically steady at 1s. 4d. In +other words, fifteen rupees are the legal equivalent of a +sovereign, and a hundred rupees are worth £6 13s. 4d.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch13">CHAPTER 13</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Thugs and Poisoners.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Brown had come on to Damoh chiefly with a view to +investigate a case of murder, which had taken place at the village +of Sujaina, about ten miles from Damoh, on the road to +Hattā.[1] A gang of two hundred Thugs were encamped in the +grove at Hindoria in the cold season of 1814, when, early in the +morning, seven men well armed with swords and matchlocks passed +them, bearing treasure from the bank of Motī Kochia at +Jubbulpore to their correspondents at Bānda,[2] to the value +of four thousand five hundred rupees.[3] The value of their burden +was immediately perceived by these <i>keen-eyed</i> sportsmen, and +Kosarī, Drigpāl, and Faringia, three of the leaders, with +forty of their fleetest and stoutest followers, were immediately +selected for the pursuit. They followed seven miles unperceived; +and, coming up with the treasure- bearers in a watercourse half a +mile from the village of Sujaina, they rushed in upon them and put +them all to death with their swords.[4] While they were doing so a +tanner from Sujaina approached with his buffalo, and to prevent him +giving the alarm they put him to death also, and made off with the +treasure, leaving the bodies unburied. A heavy shower of rain fell, +and none of the village people came to the place till the next +morning early; when some females, passing it on their way to +Hattā, saw the bodies, and returning to Sujaina, reported the +circumstance to their friends. The whole village thereupon flocked +to the spot, and the body of the tanner was burned by his relations +with the usual ceremonies, while all the rest were left to be eaten +by jackals, dogs and vultures, who make short work of such things +in India.[5]</p> + +<p>We had occasion to examine a very respectable old gentleman at +Damoh upon the case, Gobind Dās, a revenue officer under the +former Government,[6] and now about seventy years of age. He told +us that he had no knowledge whatever of the murder of the eight men +at Sujaina; but he well remembered another which took place seven +years before the time we mentioned at Abhāna, a stage or two +back, on the road to Jubbulpore. Seventeen treasure-bearers lodged +in the grove near that town on their way from Jubbulpore to +Sāgar. At night they were set upon by a large gang of Thugs, +and sixteen of them strangled; but the seventeenth laid hold of the +noose before it could be brought to bear upon his throat, pulled +down the villain who held it, and made his way good to the town. +The Rājā, Dharak Singh, went to the spot with all the +followers he could collect; but he found there nothing but the +sixteen naked bodies lying in the grove, with their eyes apparently +starting out of their sockets. The Thugs had all gone off with the +treasure and their clothes, and the Rājā searched for +them in vain.</p> + +<p>A native commissioned officer of a regiment of native infantry +one day told me that, while he was on duty over some Thugs at +Lucknow, one of them related with great seeming pleasure the +following case, which seemed to him one of the most remarkable that +he had heard them speak of during the time they were under his +charge.</p> + +<p>'A stout Mogul[7] officer of noble bearing and singularly +handsome countenance, on his way from the Punjab to Oudh, crossed +the Ganges at Garhmuktesar Ghāt, near Meerut, to pass through +Murādābād and Bareilly.[8] He was mounted on a fine +Tūrkī horse, and attended by his "khidmatgār" +(butler) and groom. Soon after crossing the river, he fell in with +a small party of well-dressed and modest- looking men going the +same road. They accosted him in a respectful manner, and attempted +to enter into conversation with him. He had heard of Thugs, and +told them to be off. They smiled at his idle suspicions, and tried +to remove them, but in vain. The Mogul was determined; they saw his +nostrils swelling with indignation, took their leave, and followed +slowly. The next morning he overtook the same number of men, but of +a different appearance, all Musalmāns. They accosted him in +the same respectful manner; talked of the danger of the road, and +the necessity of their keeping together, and taking advantage of +the protection of any mounted gentleman that happened to be going +the same way. The Mogul officer said not a word in reply, resolved +to have no companions on the road. They persisted—his +nostrils began again to swell, and putting his hand to his sword, +he bid them all be off, or he would have their heads from their +shoulders. He had a bow and quiver full of arrows over his +shoulders,[9] a brace of loaded pistols in his waist-belt, and a +sword by his side, and was altogether a very formidable-looking +cavalier. In the evening another party that lodged in the same +"sarāi"[10] became very intimate with the butler and groom. +They were going the same road; and, as the Mogul overtook them in +the morning, they made their bows respectfully, and began to enter +into conversation with their two friends, the groom and butler, who +were coming up behind. The Mogul's nostrils began again to swell, +and he bid the strangers be off. The groom and butler interceded, +for their master was a grave, sedate man, and they wanted +companions. All would not do, and the strangers fell in the rear. +The next day, when they had got to the middle of an extensive and +uninhabited plain, the Mogul in advance, and his two servants a few +hundred yards behind, he came up to a party of six poor +Musalmāns, sitting weeping by the side of a dead companion. +They were soldiers from Lahore,[11] on their way to Lucknow, worn +down by fatigue in their anxiety to see their wives and children +once more, after a long and painful service. Their companion, the +hope and prop of his family, had sunk under the fatigue, and they +had made a grave for him; but they were poor unlettered men, and +unable to repeat the funeral service from the holy Koran-would his +Highness but perform this last office for them, he would, no doubt, +find his reward in this world and the next. The Mogul +dismounted—the body had been placed in its proper position, +with its head towards Mecca. A carpet was spread—the Mogul +took off his bow and quiver, then his pistols and sword, and placed +them on the ground near the body—called for water, and washed +his feet, hands, and face, that he might not pronounce the holy +words in an unclean state. He then knelt down and began to repeat +the funeral service, in a clear, loud voice. Two of the poor +soldiers knelt by him, one on each side in silence. The other four +went off a few paces to beg that the butler and groom would not +come so near as to interrupt the good Samaritan at his +devotions.</p> + +<p>'All being ready, one of the four, in a low undertone, gave the +"jhirnī" (signal),[12] the handkerchiefs were thrown over +their necks, and in a few minutes all three—the Mogul and his +servants—were dead, and lying in the grave in the usual +manner, the head of one at the feet of the one below him. All the +parties they had met on the road belonged to a gang of +Jamāldehī Thugs, of the kingdom of Oudh.[13] In despair +of being able to win the Mogul's confidence in the usual way, and +determined to have the money and jewels, which they knew he carried +with him, they had adopted this plan of disarming him; dug the +grave by the side of the road, in the open plain, and made a +handsome young Musalmān of the party the dead soldier. The +Mogul, being a very stout man, died almost without a struggle, as +is usually the case with such; and his two servants made no +resistance.'</p> + +<p>People of great sensibility, with hearts overcharged with +sorrow, often appear cold and callous to those who seem to them to +feel no interest in their afflictions. An instance of this kind I +will here mention; it is one of thousands that I have met with in +my Indian rambles. It was mentioned to me one day that an old +'fakīr',[14] who lived in a small hut close by a little shrine +on the side of the road near the town of Morādābād, +had lately lost his son, poisoned by a party of 'daturiās', or +professional poisoners,[15] that now infest every road throughout +India. I sent for him, and requested him to tell me his story, as I +might perhaps be able to trace the murderers. He did so, and a +Persian writer took it down while I listened with all the coldness +of a magistrate who wanted merely to learn facts and have nothing +whatever to do with feelings. This is his story literally:</p> + +<p>'I reside in my hut by the side of the road a mile and [a] half +from the town, and live upon the bounty of travellers, and the +people of the surrounding villages. About six weeks ago, I was +sitting by the side of my shrine after saying prayers, with my only +son, about ten years of age, when a man came up with his wife, his +son, and his daughter, the one a little older, and the other a +little younger than my boy. They baked and ate their bread near my +shrine, and gave me flour enough to make two cakes. This I prepared +and baked. My boy was hungry, and ate one cake and a half. I ate +only half a one, for I was not hungry. I had a few days before +purchased a new blanket for my boy, and it was hanging in a branch +of the tree that shaded the shrine, when these people came. My son +and I soon became stupefied. I saw him fall asleep, and I soon +followed. I awoke again in the evening, and found myself in a pool +of water. I had sense enough to crawl towards my boy. I found him +still breathing, and I sat by him with his head in my lap, where he +soon died. It was now evening, and I got up, and wandered about all +night picking straws—I know not why. I was not yet quite +sensible. During the night the wolves ate my poor boy. I heard this +from travellers, and went and gathered up his bones and buried them +in the shrine. I did not quite recover till the third day, when I +found that some washerwomen had put me into the pool, and left me +there with my head out, in hopes that this would revive me; but +they had no hope of my son. I was then taken to the police of the +town; but the landholders had begged me to say nothing about the +poisoners, lest it might get them and their village community into +trouble. The man was tall and fair, and about thirty- five; the +woman short, stout, and fair, and about thirty; two of her teeth +projected a good deal; the boy's eyelids were much diseased.'</p> + +<p>All this he told me without the slightest appearance of emotion, +for he had not seen any appearance of it in me, or my Persian +writer; and a casual European observer would perhaps have +exclaimed, 'What brutes these natives are! This fellow feels no +more for the loss of his only son than he would for that of a +goat'. But I knew the feeling was there. The Persian writer put up +his paper, and closed his inkstand, and the following dialogue, +word for word, took place between me and the old man:</p> + +<p><i>Question</i>.—What made you conceal the real cause of +your boy's death, and tell the police that he had been killed, as +well as eaten, by wolves?</p> + +<p><i>Answer</i>.—The landholders told me that they could +never bring back my boy to life, and the whole village would be +worried to death by them if I made any mention of the poison.</p> + +<p><i>Question</i>.—And if they were to be punished for this +they would annoy you?</p> + +<p><i>Answer</i>.—Certainly. But I believed they advised me +for my own good as well as their own.</p> + +<p><i>Question</i>.—And if they should turn you away from +that place, could you not make another?</p> + +<p><i>Answer</i>.-Are not the bones of my poor boy there, and the +trees that he and I planted and watched together for ten years?</p> + +<p><i>Question</i>.-Have you no other relations? What became of +your boy's mother?</p> + +<p><i>Answer</i>.-She died at that place when my boy was only three +months old. I have brought him up myself from that age; he was my +only child, and he has been poisoned for the sake of the blanket! +(Here the poor old man sobbed as if his heartstrings would break; +and I was obliged to make him sit down on the floor while I walked +up and down the room.)</p> + +<p><i>Question</i>.—Had you any children before?</p> + +<p><i>Answer</i>.—Yes, sir, we had several, but they all died +before their mother. We had been reduced to beggary by misfortunes, +and I had become too weak and ill to work. I buried my poor wife's +bones by the side of the road where she died; raised the little +shrine over them, planted the trees, and there have I sat ever +since by her side, with our poor boy in my bosom. It is a sad place +for wolves, and we used often to hear them howling outside; but my +poor boy was never afraid of them when he knew I was near him. God +preserved him to me, till the sight of the new blanket, for I had +nothing else in the world, made these people poison us. I bought it +for him only a few days before, when the rains were coming on, out +of my savings-it was all I had. (The poor old man sobbed again, and +sat down while I paced the room, lest I should sob also; my heart +was becoming a little too large for its apartment.) 'I will never', +continued he, 'quit the bones of my wife and child, and the tree +that he and I watered for so many years. I have not many years to +live; there I will spend them, whatever the landholders may +do—they advised me for my own good, and will never turn me +out.'</p> + +<p>I found all the poor man stated to be true; the man and his wife +had mixed poison with the flour to destroy the poor old man and his +son for the sake of the new blanket which they saw hanging in the +branch of the tree, and carried away with them. The poison used on +such occasions is commonly the datura, and it is sometimes given in +the hookah to be smoked, and at others in food. When they require +to poison children as well as grown-up people, or women who do not +smoke, they mix up the poison in food. The intention is almost +always to destroy life, as 'dead men tell no tales'; but the +poisoned people sometimes recover, as in the present case, and lead +to the detection of the poisoners. The cases in which they recover +are, however, rare, and of those who recover few are ever able to +trace the poisoners; and, of those who recover and trace them, very +few will ever undertake to prosecute them through the several +courts of the magistrate, the sessions, and that of last instance +in a distant district, to which the proceedings must be sent for +final orders.</p> + +<p>The impunity with which this crime is everywhere perpetrated, +and its consequent increase in every part of India, are among the +greatest evils with which the country is at this time affected. +These poisoners are spread all over India, and are as numerous over +the Bombay and Madras Presidencies as over that of Bengal. There is +no road free from them, and throughout India there must be many +hundreds who gain their subsistence by this trade alone. They put +on all manner of disguises to suit their purpose; and, as they prey +chiefly upon the poorer sort of travellers, they require to destroy +the greater number of lives to make up their incomes. A party of +two or three poisoners have very often succeeded in destroying +another of eight or ten travellers with whom they have journeyed +for some days, by pretending to give them a feast on the +celebration of the anniversary of some family event. Sometimes an +old woman or man will manage the thing alone, by gaining the +confidence of travellers, and getting near the cooking-pots while +they go aside; or when employed to bring the flour for the meal +from the bazaar. The poison is put into the flour or the pot, as +opportunity offers.</p> + +<p>People of all castes and callings take to this trade, some +casually, others for life, and others derive it from their parents +or teachers. They assume all manner of disguises to suit their +purposes; and the habits of cooking, eating, and sleeping on the +side of the road, and smoking with strangers of seemingly the same +caste, greatly facilitate their designs upon travellers. The small +parties are unconnected with each other, and two parties never +unite in the same cruise. The members of one party may be sometimes +convicted and punished, but their conviction is accidental, for the +system which has enabled us to put down the Thug associations +cannot be applied, with any fair prospect of success, to the +suppression of these pests to society.[16]</p> + +<p>The Thugs went on their adventures in large gangs, and two or +more were commonly united in the course of an expedition in the +perpetration of many murders. Every man shared in the booty +according to the rank he held in the gang, or the part he took in +the murders; and the rank of every man and the part he took +generally, or in any particular murder, were generally well known +to all. From among these gangs, when arrested, we found the +evidence we required for their conviction—or the means of +tracing it—among the families and friends of their victims, +or with persons to whom the property taken had been disposed of, +and in the graves to which the victims had been consigned.</p> + +<p>To give an idea of the system by which the Government of India +has been enabled to effect so great a good for the people as the +suppression of these associations, I will suppose that two sporting +gentlemen, A at Delhi, and B in Calcutta, had both described the +killing of a tiger in an island in the Ganges, near +Hardwār[17] and mentioned the names of the persons engaged +with them. Among the persons thus named were C, who had since +returned to America, D, who had retired to New South Wales, E to +England, and F to Scotland. There were four other persons named who +were still in India, but they are deeply interested in A and B's +story not being believed. A says that B got the skin of the tiger, +and B states that he gave it to C, who cut out two of the claws. +Application is made to C, D, E, and F, and without the possibility +of any collusion, or even communication between them, their +statements correspond precisely with those of A and B, as to the +time, place, circumstances, and persons engaged. Their statements +are sworn to before magistrates in presence of witnesses, and duly +attested. C states that he got the skin from B, and gave it to the +Nawāb of Rāmpur[18] for a hookah carpet, but that he took +from the left forefoot two of the claws, and gave them to the +minister of the King of Oudh for a charm for his sick child.</p> + +<p> The Nawāb of Rāmpur, being applied to, states +that he received the skin from C, at the time and place mentioned, +and that he still smokes his hookah upon it; and that it had lost +the two claws upon the left forefoot. The minister of the King of +Oudh states that he received the two claws nicely set in gold; that +they had cured his boy, who still wore them round his neck to guard +him from the evil eye. The goldsmith states that he set the two +claws in gold for C, who paid him handsomely for his work. The +peasantry, whose cattle graze on the island, declare that certain +gentlemen did kill a tiger there about the time mentioned, and that +they saw the body after the skin had been taken off, and the +vultures had begun to descend upon it.</p> + +<p>To prove that what A and B had stated could not possibly be +true, the other party appeal to some of their townsmen, who are +said to be well acquainted with their characters. They state that +they really know nothing about the matter in dispute; that their +friends, who are opposed to A and B, are much liked by their +townspeople and neighbours, as they have plenty of money, which +they spend freely, but that they are certainly very much addicted +to field-sports, and generally absent in pursuit of wild beasts for +three or four months every year; but whether they were or were not +present at the killing of the great Garhmuktesar tiger, they could +not say.</p> + +<p>Most persons would, after examining this evidence, be tolerably +well satisfied that the said tiger had really been killed at the +time and place, and by the persons mentioned by A and B; but, to +establish the fact judicially, it would be necessary to bring A, B, +C, D, E, and F, the Nawāb of Rāmpur, the minister of the +King of Oudh, and the goldsmith to the criminal court at Meerut, to +be confronted with the person whose interest it was that A and B +should not be believed. They would all, perhaps, come to the said +court from the different quarters of the world in which they had +thought themselves snugly settled; but the thing would annoy them +so much, and be so much talked of, that sporting gentlemen, +nawābs, ministers, and goldsmiths would in future take good +care to have 'forgotten' everything connected with the matter in +dispute, should another similar reference be made to them, and so A +and B would never again have any chance.</p> + +<p>Thug approvers, whose evidence we required, were employed in all +parts of India, under the officers appointed to put down these +associations; and it was difficult to bring all whose evidence was +necessary at the trials to the court of the district in which the +particular murder was perpetrated. The victims were, for the most +part, money-carriers, whose masters and families resided hundreds +of miles from the place where they were murdered, or people on +their way to their distant homes from foreign service. There was no +chance of recovering any of the property taken from the victims, as +Thugs were known to spend what they got freely, and never to have +money by them; and the friends of the victims, and the bankers +whose money they carried, were everywhere found exceedingly averse +to take share in the prosecution.</p> + +<p>To obviate all these difficulties separate courts were formed, +with permission to receive whatever evidence they might think +likely to prove valuable, attaching to each portion, whether +documentary or oral, whatever weight it might seem to deserve. Such +courts were formed at Hyderabad, Mysore, Indore, Lucknow, +Gwālior, and were presided over by our highest diplomatic +functionaries, in concurrence with the princes at whose courts they +were accredited; and who at Jubbulpore, were under the direction of +the representative of the Governor-General of India.[l9] By this +means we had a most valuable species of unpaid agency; and I +believe there is no part of their public life on which these high +functionaries look back with more pride than that spent in +presiding over such courts, and assisting the supreme Government in +relieving the people of India from this fearful evil.[20]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. A town on the Allahabad and Sāgar road, sixty-one miles +north-east of Sāgar. It was the head-quarters of the Damoh +district from 1818 to 1835.</p> + +<p>2. The chief town of the district of the same name in +Bundēlkhand, situated on the Kēn river, ninety-five miles +south-west from Allahabad.</p> + +<p>3. Worth at that time £450 sterling, or a little more.</p> + +<p>4. An unusual mode of procedure for professed Thugs to adopt, +who usually strangled their victims with a cloth. Faringia +(Feringheea) Brahman was one of the most noted Thug leaders. He is +frequently mentioned in the author's <i>Report on the Depredations +committed by the Thug Gangs</i> (1840), and the story of the +Sujaina crime is fully told in the Introduction to that volume. +Faringia became a valuable approver.</p> + +<p>5. Lieutenant Brown was suddenly called back to Jubbulpore, and +could not himself go to Sujaina. He sent, however, an intelligent +native officer to the place, but no man could be induced to +acknowledge that he had ever seen the bodies or heard of the +affair, though Faringia pointed out to them exactly where they all +lay. They said it must be quite a mistake—that such a thing +could not have taken place and they know nothing of it. Lieutenant +Brown was aware that all this affected ignorance arose entirely +from the dread these people have of being summoned to give evidence +to any of our district courts of justice; and wrote to the officer +in the civil charge of the district to request that he would assure +them that their presence would not be required. Mr. Doolan, the +assistant magistrate, happened to be going through Sujaina from +Sāgar on deputation at the time; and, sending for all the +respectable old men of the place, he requested that they would be +under no apprehension, but tell him the real truth, as he would +pledge himself that not one of them should ever be summoned to any +district court to give evidence. They then took him to the spot and +pointed out to him where the bodies had been found, and mentioned +that the body of the tanner had been burned by his friends. The +banker, whose treasure they had been carrying, had an equal dislike +to be summoned to court to give evidence, now that he could no +longer hope to recover any portion of his lost money; and it was +not till after Lieutenant Brown had given him a similar assurance, +that he would consent to have his books examined. The loss of the +four thousand five hundred rupees was then found entered, with the +names of the men who had been killed at Sujaina in carrying it. +These are specimens of some of the minor difficulties we had to +contend with in our efforts to put down the most dreadful of all +crimes. All the prisoners accused of these murders had just been +tried for others, or Lieutenant Brown would not have been able to +give the pledge he did. [W. H. S.] Difficulties of the same kind +beset the administration of criminal justice in India to this +day.</p> + +<p>6. Of the Marāthās. The district was ceded in +1818.</p> + +<p>7. More correctly written Mughal. The term is properly applied +to Muhammadans of Turk (Mongol) descent. Such persons commonly +affix the title Beg to their names, and often prefix the Persian +title Mīrzā.</p> + +<p>8. Meerut, the well-known cantonment, in the district of the +same name. The name is written Meeruth by the author, and may be +also written Mīrath. Ghāt (ghaut) means a ferry, or +crossing- place. Murādābād and Bareilly +(Barelī) are in Rohilkhand. The latter has a considerable +garrison. Both places are large cities, and the head-quarter of +districts.</p> + +<p>9. The bow and quiver are now rarely seen, except, possibly, in +remote parts of Rājputāna. A body of archers helped to +hold the Shāh Najaf building at Lucknow against Sir Colin +Campbell in 1858. Even in 1903-4 some of the Tibetans who resisted +the British advance were armed with bows and arrows.</p> + +<p>10. An inn of the Oriental pattern, often called caravanserai in +books of travel.</p> + +<p>11. Then the capital of Ranjit Singh, the great Sikh chief.</p> + +<p>12. 'This is commonly given either by the leader of the gang or +the <i>belhā</i>, who has chosen the place for the murder.' It +was usually some commonplace order, such as 'Bring the tobacco' +(<i>Ramaseeana</i>, p.99, &c.). See also Meadows Taylor, +<i>Confessions of a Thug</i>.</p> + +<p>13. The Jamāldehī Thugs resided 'in Oude and some +other parts east of the Ganges. They are considered very clever and +expert, and more stanch to their oath of secrecy than most other +classes' (ibid. p. 97). At the time referred to Oudh was a separate +kingdom, which lasted as such until 1856. A map included in the +printed Thuggee papers reveals the appalling fact that the Thugs +had 274 fixed burying-places for their victims in the area of the +small kingdom, about half the size of Ireland.</p> + +<p>14. Fakīr (fakeer), a religious mendicant. The word +properly applies to Muhammadans only, but is often laxly used to +include Hindoo ascetics.</p> + +<p>15. So called because the poison they use is made of the seeds +of the 'datura' plant (<i>Datura alba</i>), and other species of +the same genus. It is a powerful narcotic.</p> + +<p>16. The crime of poisoning travellers is still prevalent, and +its detection is still attended by the difficulties described in +the text. In some cases the criminals have been proved to belong to +families of Thug stranglers. The poisoning of cattle by arsenic, +for the sake of their hides, was very prevalent forty years ago, +especially in the districts near Benares, but is now believed to be +less practised. It was checked under the ordinary law by numerous +convictions and severe sentences.</p> + +<p>17. In the Sahāranpur district, where the Ganges issues +from the hills.</p> + +<p>18. A small principality in Rohilkhand, between +Murādābād and Bareilly (Barēlī).</p> + +<p>19. The special laws on the subject, namely: Acts xxx of 1836, +xviii of 1837, xix of 1837, xviii of 1839, xviii of 1843, xxiv of +1843, xiv of 1844, v of 1847, x of 1847, iii of 1848, and xi of +1848, are printed in pp. 353-7 of the author's <i>Report on Budhuk +alias Bagree Decoits, &c.</i> (1849). See Bibliography, +<i>ante.</i> No. 12.</p> + +<p>20. I may here mention the names of a few diplomatic officers of +distinction who have aided in the good cause. <i>Of the Civil +Service</i>—Mr. F. C. Smith, Mr. Martin, Mr. George +Stockwell, Mr. Charles Fraser, the Hon. Mr. Wellesley, the Hon. Mr. +Shore, the Hon. Mr. Cavendish, Mr. George Clerk, Mr. L. Wilkinson, +Mr, Bax; <i>Majors-General</i>—Cubbon and Fraser; +<i>Colonels</i>—Low, Stewart, Alves, Spiers, Caulfield, +Sutherland, and Wade; Major Wilkinson; and, among the foremost, +Major Borthwick and Captain Paton. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>The author's characteristic modesty has prevented him from +dwelling upon his own services, which were greater than those of +any other officer. Some idea of them may be gathered from the +collection of papers entitled <i>Ramaseeana</i>, the contents of +which are enumerated in the Bibliography, <i>ante.</i> No. 2. +Colonel Meadows Taylor has given a more popular account of the +measures taken for the suppression of Thuggee (thagī) in his +<i>Confessions of a Thug</i>, written in 1837 (1st ed. 1839). The +Thug organization dated from ancient times, but attracted little +notice from the East India Company's Government until the author, +then Captain Sleeman, submitted his reports on the subject while +employed in the Sāgar and Nerbudda Territories, where he had +been posted in 1820. He proved that the Thug crimes were committed +by a numerous and highly organized fraternity operating in all +parts of India. In consequence of his reports, Mr. F. C. Smith, +Agent to the Governor- General in the Sāgar and Nerbudda +Territories, was invested, in the year 1829, with special powers, +and the author, then Major Sleeman, was employed, in addition to +his district duties, as Mr, Smith's coadjutor and assistant. In +1835 the author was relieved from district work, and appointed +General Superintendent of the operations for the suppression of the +Thug gangs. He went on leave to the hills in 1836, and on resuming +duty in February, 1839, was appointed Commissioner for the +suppression of Thuggee and Dacoity, which office he continued to +hold in addition to his other appointments.</p> + +<p>Between 1826 and 1835, 1,562 prisoners were tried for the crime +of Thuggee, of whom 1,404 were either hanged or transported for +life. Some individuals are said to have confessed to over 200 +murders, and one confessed to 719. The Thug approvers, whose lives +were spared, were detained in a special prison at Jubbulpore, where +the remnant of them, with their families, were kept under +surveillance. They were employed in a tent and carpet factory, +known as the School of Industry, founded in 1838 by the author and +Captain Charles Brown. If released, they would certainly have +resumed their hereditary occupation, which exercised an awful +fascination over its votaries. Most of the Thug gangs had been +broken up by 1860, but cases of Thuggee have occurred occasionally +since that date. A gang of Kahārs (palanquin bearers) +committed a series of Thug murders in, I think, 1877, at +Etāwa, in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. The office of +Superintendent of Thuggee and Dacoity was kept up until 1904, but +the officer in charge was more concerned with Dacoity (that is to +say, organized gang-robbery with violence) in the Native States +than with the secret crime of Thuggee. Secret crime is now watched +by the Central Criminal Intelligence Department under the direct +control of the Government of India, and has to deal with novel +forms of evil-doing. In India it is never safe to assume that any +ancient practice has been suppressed, and I have little doubt that, +if administrative pressure were relaxed, the old form of Thuggee +would again be heard of. The occasional discovery of murdered +beggars, who could not have been killed for the sake of their +property, leads me to suppose that the Megpunnia variety of +Thuggee, that is to say, murder of poor persons in order to kidnap +and sell their children, is still sometimes practised.</p> + +<p>Among the officers named by the author the best known is Sir +Mark Cubbon, who came to India in 1800, and died at Suez in 1861. +During the interval he had never quitted India. He ruled over +Mysore for nearly thirty years with almost despotic power, and +reorganized the administration of that country with conspicuous +success (Buckland, <i>Dict. of Indian Biography</i>, Sonnenschein, +1906).</p> + +<p>The Hon. Frederick John Shore, of the Bengal Civil Service, +officiated in 1836 as Civil Commissioner and Political Agent of the +Sāgar and Nerbudda Territories. In 1837 he published his +<i>Notes on Indian Affairs</i> (London, 2 vols. 8vo), a series of +articles dealing in the most outspoken way with the abuses and +weaknesses of Anglo-Indian administration at that time.</p> + +<p>Mr. F. C. Smith was Agent to the Governor-General at Jubbulpore +in 1830 and subsequent years. The author was then immediately +subordinate to him. Messrs. Martin and Wellesley were Residents at +Holkar's court at Indore. Mr. Stockwell tried some of the Thug +prisoners at Cawnpore and Allahabad as Special Commissioner, in +addition to his ordinary duties: correspondence between him and the +author is printed in <i>Ramaseeana</i>. Mr. Charles Fraser preceded +the author in charge of the Sāgar district, and in January, +1832, resumed charge of the revenue and civil duties of that +district, leaving the criminal work to the author. The Hon. Mr. +Cavendish was Resident at Sindhia's court at Gwālior. Mr. +George Clerk became Sir George Clerk and Lieutenant-Governor of the +North-Western Provinces, Governor of Bombay, and Permanent Under- +Secretary of State for India; he died at a great age in 1889. Mr. +Lancelot Wilkinson, Political Agent in Bhopal, was considered by +the author to be 'one of the most able and estimable members of the +India Civil Service' (<i>Journey</i>, ii. 403). Mr. Bax was +Resident at Indore; Colonel (afterwards Sir John) Low, was Resident +at Lucknow, and had served at Jubbulpore; Colonel Stewart and +Major-General Fraser were Residents at Hyderabad; Major (Colonel) +Alves was Political Agent in Bhopal and Agent in +Rājputāna; Colonel Spiers was Agent at Nīmach, and +officiated as Agent in Rājputāna; Colonel Caulfield had +been Political Agent at Harautī; Colonel Sutherland was +Resident at Gwālior, and afterwards Agent in +Rājputāna; Colonel (Sir C. M.) Wade had been Political +Agent at Lūdiāna; Major Borthwick was employed at Indore; +Captain Paton was Assistant Resident at Lucknow (see <i>Journey +through Kingdom of Oudh</i>, vol. ii, pp. 152-69).</p> + +<p>Besides the officers above named, others are specified in +<i>Ramaseeana</i> as having done good service.</p> + +<p><i>Note.</i>—Mr. Crooke suggests, and, I think, correctly, +that the words <i>Megpunnia</i> and <i>Megpunnaism</i> +(<i>ante</i>, note 20, and Bibliography No. 7) are corruptions of +the Hindī <i>Mēkh-phandiyā</i>, from +<i>mēkh</i>, 'a peg', and <i>phandā</i>, 'a noose', +equivalent to the Persian <i>tasmabāz</i>, meaning 'playing +tricks with a strap'. Creagh, a private in a British regiment at +Cawnpore about 1803, is said to have initiated three men into the +peg and strap trick, as practised by English rogues. These men +became the leaders of three Tasmabāz Thug gangs, whose +proceedings are described by Mr. R. Montgomery in <i>Selections of +the Records of Government</i>, N.W.P., vol. i, p. 312. A strap is +doubled and folded up in different shapes. The art consists in +putting in a stick or peg in such a way that the strap when +unfolded shall come out double. The Tasmabāz Thugs seem to be +identical with the 'Megpunnia' (<i>N.I.N.& Qu.</i>, vol. i, p. +108, note 721, September 1891).</p> + +<p> General Hervey records seven modern instances of +strangulation by Megpunnia Thugs in Rājputāna (<i>Some +Records of Crime</i> (1867), vol. i, pp. 126-31).</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch14">CHAPTER 14</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Basaltic Cappings of the Sandstone Hills of +Central India—Suspension Bridge—Prospects of the +Nerbudda Valley—Deification of a Mortal.</p> + +<p>On the 29th[1] we came on to Pathariā, a considerable +little town thirty miles from Sāgar, supported almost entirely +by a few farmers, small agricultural capitalists, and the +establishment of a native collector,[2] On leaving Pathariā, +we ascend gradually along the side of the basaltic hills on our +left to the south for three miles to a point whence we see before +us this plane of basaltic cappings extending as far as the eye can +reach to the west, south, and north, with frequent breaks, but +still preserving one uniform level. On the top of these tables are +here and there little conical elevations of laterite, or indurated +iron clay.[3] The cappings everywhere repose immediately upon the +sandstone of the Vindhya range; but they have occasional beds of +limestone, formed apparently by springs rising from their sides, +and strongly impregnated with carbonic acid gas. For the most part +this is mere travertine, but in some places they get good lime from +the beds for building.</p> + +<p>On the 1st of December we came to the pretty village of +Sanodā, near the suspension bridge built over the river +Biās by Colonel Presgrave, while he was assay master of the +Sāgar mint.[4] I was present at laying the foundation-stone of +this bridge in December 1827. Mr. Maddock was the +Governor-General's representative in these territories, and the +work was undertaken more with a view to show what could be done out +of their own resources, under minds capable of developing them, +than to supply any pressing or urgent want.</p> + +<p>The work was completed in June, 1830; and I have several times +seen upon the bridge as many as it could hold of a regiment of +infantry while it moved over; and, at other times, as many of a +corps of cavalry, and often several elephants at once. The bridge +is between the points of suspension two hundred feet, and the clear +portion of the platform measures one hundred and ninety feet by +eleven and a half. The whole cost of the work amounted to about +fifty thousand rupees; and, under a less able and careful person +than Colonel Presgrave, would have cost, perhaps, double the +amount. This work has been declared by a very competent judge to be +equal to any structure of the same kind in Europe, and is eminently +calculated to show what genius and perseverance can produce out of +the resources of a country even in the rudest state of industry and +the arts.</p> + +<p>The river Nerbudda neither is nor ever can, I fear, be made +navigable, and the produce of its valley would require to find its +way to distant markets over the Vindhya range of hills to the +north, or the Sātpura to the south. If the produce of the +soil, mines, and industry of the valley cannot be transported to +distant markets, the Government cannot possibly find in it any +available net surplus revenue in money; for it has no mines of the +precious metals, and the precious metals can flow in only in +exchange for the produce of the land, and the industry of the +valley that flows out. If the Government wishes to draw a net +surplus revenue from the valley or from the districts that border +upon it, that is, a revenue beyond its expenditure in support of +the local public establishments, it must either draw it in produce, +or for what can be got for that produce in distant markets.[5] +Hitherto little beyond the rude produce of the soil has been able +to find its way into distant markets from the valley of the +Nerbudda; yet this valley abounds in iron mines,[6] and its soil, +where unexhausted by cropping, is of the richest quality.[7] It is +not then too much to hope that in time the iron of the mines will +be worked with machinery for manufactures; and that multitudes, +aided by this machinery, and subsisted on the rude agricultural +produce, which now flows out, will invest the value of their labour +in manufactured commodities adapted to the demand of foreign +markets and better able from their superior value, compared with +their bulk, to pay the cost of transport by land. Then, and not +till then, can we expect to see these territories pay a +considerable net surplus revenue to Government, and abound in a +middle class of merchants, manufacturers, and agricultural +capitalists.[8]</p> + +<p>At Sanodā there is a very beautiful little fortress or +castle now unoccupied, though still entire. It was built by an +officer of the Rājā Chhatar Sāl of Bundēlkhand, +about one hundred and twenty years ago.[9] He had a grant, on the +tenure of military service, of twelve villages situated round this +place; and a man who could build such a castle to defend the +surrounding country from the inroads of freebooters, and to secure +himself and his troops from any sudden impulse of the people's +resentment, was as likely to acquire an increase of territorial +possession in these parts as he would have been in Europe during +the Middle Ages. The son of this chief, by name Rāi Singh, +was, soon after the castle had been completed, killed in an attack +upon a town near Chitrakōt;[10] and having, in the estimation +of the people, <i>become a god</i>, he had a temple and a tomb +raised to him close to our encampment. I asked the people how he +had become a <i>god</i>; and was told that some one who had been +long suffering from a quartan ague went to the tomb one night, and +promised Rāi Singh, whose ashes lay under it, that if he could +contrive to cure his ague for him, he would, during the rest of his +life, make offerings to his shrine. After that he had never another +attack, and was very punctual in his offerings. Others followed his +example, and with like success, till Rāi Singh was recognized +among them universally as a god, and a temple raised to his name. +This is the way that gods were made all over the world at one time, +and are still made all over India. Happy had it been for mankind if +those only who were supposed to do good had been deified.[11]</p> + +<p>On the 2nd we came on to the village of Khojanpur (leaving the +town and cantonments of Sāgar to our left), a distance of some +fourteen miles. The road for a great part of the way was over the +bare back of the sandstone strata, the covering of basalt having +been washed off. The hills, however, are, at this distance from the +city and cantonments of Sāgar, nicely wooded; and, being +constantly intersected by pretty little valleys, the country we +came over was picturesque and beautiful. The soil of all these +valleys is rich from the detritus of the basalt that forms or caps +the hills; but it is now in a bad state of cultivation, partly from +several successive seasons of great calamity, under which the +people have been suffering, and partly from over-assessment; and +this posture of affairs is continued by that loss of energy, +industry, and character, among the farmers and cultivators, which +must everywhere result from these two evils. In India, where the +people have learnt so well to govern themselves, from the want of +settled government, good or bad government really depends almost +altogether upon <i>good or bad settlements of the land revenue</i>. +Where the Government demand is imposed with moderation, and +enforced with justice, there will the people be generally found +happy and contented, and disposed to perform their duties to each +other and to the state; except when they have the misfortune to +suffer from drought, blight, and other calamities of +season.[l2]</p> + +<p>I have mentioned that the basalt in the Sāgar district +reposes for the most part immediately upon the sandstone of the +Vindhya range; and it must have been deposited on the sand, while +the latter was yet at the bottom of the ocean, though this range is +now, I believe, nowhere less than from fifteen hundred to two +thousand feet above the level of the sea. The marks of the ripple +of the sea may be observed in some places where the basalt has been +recently washed off, beautifully defined, as if formed only +yesterday, and there is no other substance to be seen between the +two rocks.</p> + +<p>The texture of the sandstone at the surface, where it comes in +contact with the basalt, has in some places been altered by it, but +in others it seems to have been as little changed as the +habitations of the people who were suffocated by the ashes of +Vesuvius in the city of Pompeii. I am satisfied, from long and +careful examination, that the greater part of this basalt, which +covers the tableland of Central and Southern India, must have been +held for some time in suspension in the ocean or lake into which it +was first thrown in the shape of ashes, and then gradually +deposited. This alone can account for its frequent appearance of +stratification, for the gentle blending of its particles with those +of the sand near the surface of the latter; and, above all, for +those level steps, or tables, lying one above another horizontally +in parallel bars on one range, corresponding exactly with the same +parallel lines one above another on a range twenty or thirty miles +across the valley. Mr. Scrope's theory is, I believe, that these +are all mere flowing <i>coulées</i> of lava, which, in their +liquid state, filled hollows, but afterwards became of a harder +texture, as they dried and crystallized, than the higher rocks +around them; the consequence of which is that the latter has been +decomposed and washed away, while the basalt has been left to form +the highest elevations. My opinion is that these steps, or stairs, +at one time formed the beds of the ocean, or of great lakes, and +that the substance of which they are composed was, for the most +part, projected into the water, and there held in suspension till +gradually deposited. There are, however, amidst these steps, and +beneath them, masses of more compact and crystalline basalt, that +bear evident signs of having been flows of lava.[l3]</p> + +<p>Reasoning from analogy at Jubbulpore, where some of the basaltic +cappings of the hills had evidently been thrown out of craters long +after this surface had been raised above the waters, and become the +habitation both of vegetable and animal life, I made the first +discovery of fossil remains in the Nerbudda valley. I went first to +a hill within sight of my house in 1828,[14] and searched exactly +between the plateau of basalt that covered it and the stratum +immediately below, and there I found several small trees with +roots, trunks, and branches, all entire, and beautifully petrified. +They had been only recently uncovered by the washing away of a part +of the basaltic plateau. I soon after found some fossil bones of +animals.[15] Going over to Sāgar, in the end of 1830, and +reasoning there upon the same analogy, I searched for fossil +remains along the line of contact between the basalt and the +surface upon which it had been deposited, and I found a grove of +silicified palm- trees within a mile of the cantonments. These +palm-trees had grown upon a calcareous deposit formed from springs +rising out of the basaltic range of hills to the south. The +commissariat officer had cut a road through this grove, and all the +European officers of a large military station had been every day +riding through it without observing the geological treasure; and it +was some time before I could convince them that the stones which +they had every day seen were really petrified palm-trees. The roots +and trunks were beautifully perfect.[l6]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. November, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. In the Damoh District, twenty-four miles west of Damoh. The +name appears to be derived from the 'great quantity of hewn stone +(Hind. <i>patthar</i> or <i>pāthar</i>) lying about in all +directions'. The <i>C. P. Gazetteer</i> (1870) calls the place 'a +considerable village'.</p> + +<p>3. A peculiar formation, of 'widespread occurrence in the +tropical and subtropical regions of the world'. It is ordinarily of +a reddish ferruginous or brick-dust colour, sometimes deepened into +dark red. Apparently the special character which distinguishes +laterite from other forms of red-coloured weathering is the +presence of hydrous oxide of alumina in varying proportions. . . . +'Though there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the way in +which laterite was formed, the facts which are known of its +distribution seem to show that it is a distinct form of weathering, +which is confined to low latitudes and humid climates; its +formation seems to have been a slow process, only possible on flat +or nearly flat surfaces, where surface rain-wash could not act' +(Oldham, in <i>The Oxford Survey of the British Empire</i>, vol. +ii, Asia, p. 10: Oxford, 1914). It hardens and darkens by exposure +to air, and is occasionally used as a building stone.</p> + +<p>4. The Sāgar mint was erected in 1820 by Captain Presgrave, +the assay master, and used to employ four hundred men, but, after +about ten or twelve years, the business was transferred to +Calcutta, and the buildings converted to other uses (<i>C. P. +Gazetteer</i>, 1870). Mints are now kept up at Calcutta and Bombay +only. The Biās is a small stream flowing into the Sunār +river, and belonging to the Jumna river system. The name is printed +Beeose in the original edition.</p> + +<p>5. Since the author's time the conditions have been completely +changed by the introduction of railways. The East Indian, Great +Indian Peninsular, and other railways now enter the Nerbudda +Valley, so that the produce of most districts can be readily +transported to distant markets. A large enhancement of the land +revenue has been obtained by revisions of the settlement.</p> + +<p>6. Details will be found in the <i>Central Provinces +Gazetteer</i> (1870). The references are collected under the head +'Iron' in the index to that work. Chapter VIII of <i>Ball's +Economic Geology of India</i> gives full information concerning the +iron mines of the Central Provinces and all parts of India. That +work forms Part III of the <i>Manual of the Geology of +India</i>.</p> + +<p>7. The soil of the valley of the Nerbudda, and that of the +Nerbudda and Sāgar territories generally, is formed for the +most part of the detritus of trap-rocks that everywhere covered the +sandstone of the Vindhya and Sātpura ranges which run through +these territories. This basaltic detritus forms what is called the +black cotton soil by the English, for what reason I know not. [W. +H. S.] The reason is that cotton is very largely grown in the +Nerbudda Valley, both on the black soil and other soils. In +Bundēlkhand the black, friable soil, often with a high +proportion of organic matter, is called 'mār', and is chiefly +devoted to raising crops of wheat, gram, or chick-pea (<i>Cicer +arietinum</i>), linseed, and joār (<i>Holcus sorghum</i>). +Cotton is also sown in it, but not very generally. This black soil +requires little rain, and is fertile without manure. It absorbs +water too freely to be suitable for irrigation, and in most seasons +does not need it. The 'black cotton soil' is often known as +<i>regur</i>, a corruption of a Tamil word. 'The origin of +<i>regur</i> is a doubtful question. . . . The dark coloration was +attributed by earlier writers to vegetable matter, and taken to +indicate a large amount of humus in the soil; more recent +investigations make this doubtful, and in all probability the +colour is due to mineral constitution rather than to the very +scanty organic constituents of the soil,' It may possibly be formed +of 'wind-borne dust', like the loess plains of China (Oldham, in +<i>The Oxford Survey of the British Empire</i>, vol. ii, Asia, p. +9: Oxford, 1914).</p> + +<p>8. The land revenue has been largely increased, and the +resources and communications of the country have been greatly +developed during the last half-century. The formation of the +Central Provinces as a separate administration in 1861 secured for +the Sāgar and Nerbudda territories the attention which they +failed to obtain from the distant Government of the North-Western +Provinces. Sir Richard Temple, the first Chief Commissioner, +administered the Central Provinces with extraordinary energy and +success.</p> + +<p>9. Rājā Chhatarsāl Bundela was Rājā of +Pannā. The history of Chhatarsāl is related in +<i>I.G.</i> (1908), vol. xix, p. 400, s.v. Panna State. In 1729 he +called in the Marāthās to help him against Muhammad Khan +Bangash, and when he died in 1731 rewarded them by bequeathing +one-third of his dominions to the Peshwa. The correct date of his +death is Pūs Badi 3, Samvat 1788 (<i>Hamīrpur Settlement +Report</i> (1880), note at end of chapter 2). The date is often +given inaccurately.</p> + +<p>10. Chitrakōt, in the Bānda district of +Bundēlkhand, under the government of the United Provinces of +Agra and Oudh, and seventy-one miles distant from Allahabad, is a +famous place of pilgrimage, much frequented by the votaries of +Rāma. Large fairs are held there.</p> + +<p>11. The performance of miraculous cures at the tomb is not +necessary for the deification of a person who has been specially +feared in his lifetime, or has died a violent death. Either of +these conditions is enough to render his ghost formidable, and +worthy of propitiation. Shrines to such persons are very numerous +both in Bundēlkhand and other parts of India, Miracles, of +course, occur at nearly every shrine, and are too common and well +attested to attract much attention.</p> + +<p>12. These observations are as true to-day as they were in the +author's time. Disastrous cases of over-assessment were common in +the early years of British rule, and the mischief so wrought has +been sometimes traceable for generations afterwards. Since 1833 the +error, though less common, has not been unknown.</p> + +<p>13. Since writing the above, I have seen Colonel Sykes's notes +on the formations of Southern India in the <i>Indian Review</i>. +The facts there described seem all to support my conclusion, and +his map would answer just as well for Central as for Southern +India; for the banks of the Nerbudda and Chambal, Sōn, and +Mahānadī, as well as for those of the Bām and the +Bīmā. Colonel Sykes does not, I believe, attempt to +account for the stratification of the basalt; he merely describes +it. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>The author's theory of the subaqueous origin of the greater part +of the basalt of Central and Southern India, otherwise known as the +'Deccan Trap Series', had been supported by numerous excellent +geologists, but W. T. Blanford proved the theory to be untenable, +there being 'clear and unmistakable evidence that the traps were in +great part of sub-aerial formation', The intercalation of +sedimentary beds with fresh-water fossils is conclusive proof that +the lava-flows associated with such beds cannot be submarine. The +hypothesis that the lower beds of traps were poured out in a vast, +but shallow, freshwater lake extending throughout the area over +which the inter- trappean limestone formation extends appears to be +extremely improbable. The lava seems to have been poured, during a +long succession of ages, over a land surface, uneven and broken in +parts, 'with intervals of rest sufficient for lakes, stocked with +fresh- water mollusca, to form on the cold surfaces of several of +the lava- flows' (Holland, in <i>I.G.</i> (1907), i. 88). A great +tract of the volcanic region appears to have remained almost +undisturbed to the present day, affected by sub-aerial erosion +alone. The geological horizon of the Deccan trap cannot be +precisely defined, but is now vaguely stated as 'the close of the +cretaceous period'. The 'steps', or conspicuous terraces, traceable +on the hill-sides for great distances, are explained as being 'due +to the outcrop of the harder basaltic strata, or of those beds +which resist best the disintegrating influences of exposure'.</p> + +<p>The general horizontality of the Deccan trap over an area of not +less than 200,000 square miles, and the absence of volcanic hills +of the usual conical form, are difficulties which have caused much +discussion. Some of the 'old volcanic vents' appear to have existed +near Poona and Mahāblēshwar. The entire area has been +subjected to sub-aerial denudation on a gigantic scale, which +explains the occurrence of the basalt as the caps of isolated +hills. Much further investigation is required to clear up details +(<i>Manual of the Geology of India</i>, ed. 1, Part I, chap. +13)</p> + +<p>14. The author took charge of the Jubbulpore District in March +1828.</p> + +<p>15. The fossiliferous beds near Jubbulpore, described in the +text, seem to belong to the group now classed as the +Lamētā beds. The bones of a large dinosaurian reptile +(<i>Titanosaurus indicus</i>) have been identified (<i>I.G.</i>, +1907, vol. i, p. 88).</p> + +<p>16. 'Many years ago Dr. Spry (<i>Note on the Fossil Palms and +Shells lately discovered on the Table-Land of Sāgar in Central +India</i>, in <i>J.A.S.B.</i> for 1833, vol. ii, p. 639) and, +subsequently to him, Captain Nicholls (<i>Journal of Asiatic Soc. +of Bombay</i>, vol. v, p. 614), studied and described certain +trunks of palm-trees, whose silicified remains are found imbedded +in the soft intertrappean mud-beds near Sāgar. . . . The trees +are imbedded in a layer of calcareous black earth, which formed the +surface soil in which they grew; this soil rests on, and was made +up of the disintegration of, a layer of basalt. It is covered over +by another and similar layer of the same rock near where the trees +occur. . . . The palm-trees, now found fossilized, grew in the +soil, which, in the condition of a black calcareous earthy bed, we +now find lying round their prostrate stems. They fell (from +whatever cause), and lay until their silicification was complete. A +slight depression of the surface, or some local or accidental check +of some drainage- course, or any other similar and trivial cause, +may have laid them under water. The process of silicification +proceeded gradually but steadily, and after they had there, in +lapse of ages, become lapidified, the next outburst of volcanic +matter overwhelmed them, broke them, partially enveloped, and +bruised them, until long subsequent denudation once more brought +them to light' (J. G. Medlicott, in <i>Memoirs of the Geological +Survey of India</i>, vol. ii. Part II, pp. 200, 203, 204, 205, 216, +as quoted in <i>C. P. Gazetteer</i> (1870), p. 435). The +intertrappean fossils are all those of organisms which would occur +in shallow fresh-water lakes or marshy ground.</p> + +<p>Besides the author's friend and relative, Dr. H. H. Spry, Dr. +Spilsbury contributed papers on the Nerbudda fossils to vols. iii, +vi, viii, ix, x, and xiii of the <i>J.A.S.B.</i> Other writers also +have treated of the subject, but it appears to be by no means fully +worked out. James Prinsep, to whom no topic came amiss, discussed +the Jubbulpore fossil bones in the volume in which Dr. Spry's paper +appeared. Dr. Spry was the author of a work entitled <i>Modern +India: with Illustrations of the Resources and Capabilities of +Hindustan</i> (2 vols. 8vo, 1838). He became F.R.S.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch15">CHAPTER 15</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Legend of the Sāgar Lake—Paralysis from +eating the Grain of the <i>Lathyrus sativus</i>.</p> + +<p>The cantonments of Sāgar are about two miles from the city +and occupied by three regiments of native infantry, one of local +horse, and a company of European artillery.[1] The city occupies +two sides of one of the most beautiful lakes of India, formed by a +wall which unites two sandstone hills on the north side. The fort +and part of the town stands upon this wall, which, according to +tradition, was built by a wealthy merchant of the Banjāra +caste.[2] After he had finished it, the bed of the lake still +remained dry; and he was told in a dream, or by a priest, that it +would continue so till he should consent to sacrifice his own +daughter, then a girl, and the young lad to whom she was affianced, +to the tutelary god of the place. He accordingly built a little +shrine in the centre of the valley, which was to become the bed of +the lake, put the two children in, and built up the doorway. He had +no sooner done so than the whole of the valley became filled with +water, and the old merchant, the priest, the masons, and +spectators, made their escape with much difficulty. From that time +the lake has been inexhaustible; but no living soul of the +Banjāra caste has ever since been known to drink of its +waters. Certainly all of that caste at present religiously avoid +drinking the water of the lake; and the old people of the city say +that they have always done so since they can remember, and that +they used to hear from their parents that they had always done so. +In nothing does the Founder of the Christian religion appear more +amiable than in His injunction, 'Suffer little children to come +unto me, and forbid them not'. In nothing do the Hindoo deities +appear more horrible than in the delight they are supposed to take +in their sacrifice—it is everywhere the helpless, the female, +and the infant that they seek to devour—and so it was among +the Phoenicians and their Carthaginian colonies. Human sacrifices +were certainly offered in the cities of Sāgar during the whole +of the Marātha government up to the year 1800, when they were +put a stop to by the local governor, Āsā Sāhib, a +very humane man; and I once heard a very learned Brahman priest say +that he thought the decline of his family and government arose from +this <i>innovation</i>. 'There is', said he, 'no sin in <i>not</i> +offering human sacrifices to the gods where none have been offered; +but, where the gods have been accustomed to them, they are +naturally annoyed when the rite is abolished, and visit the place +and people with all kinds of calamities.' He did not seem to think +that there was anything singular in this mode of reasoning, and +perhaps three Brahman priests out of four would have reasoned in +the same manner.[3]</p> + +<p>On descending into the valley of the Nerbudda over the Vindhya +range of hills from Bhopal, one may see by the side of the road, +upon a spur of the hill, a singular pillar of sandstone rising in +two spires, one turning above and rising over the other, to the +height of from twenty to thirty feet. On a spur of a hill half a +mile distant is another sandstone pillar not quite so high. The +tradition is that the smaller pillar was the affianced bride of the +taller one, who was a youth of a family of great eminence in these +parts. Coming with his uncle to pay his first visit to his bride in +the procession they call the 'barāt', he grew more and more +impatient as he approached nearer and nearer, and she shared the +feeling. At last, unable to restrain himself, he jumped upon his +uncle's shoulder, and looked with all his might towards the spot +where his bride was said to be seated. Unhappily she felt no less +impatient than he did, and raised 'the fringed curtains of her +eye', as he raised his, [and] they saw each other at the same +moment. In that moment the bride, bridegroom, and uncle were all +converted into stone pillars; and there they stand to this day a +monument, in the estimation of the people, to warn men and +womankind against too strong an inclination to indulge curiosity. +It is a singular fact that in one of the most extensive tribes of +the Gond population of Central India, to which this couple is said +to have belonged, the bride always goes to the bridegroom in the +procession of the 'barāt', to prevent a recurrence of this +calamity. It is the bridegroom who goes to the bride among every +other class of the people of India, as well Muhammadans as Hindoos. +Whether the usage grew out of the tradition, or the tradition out +of the usage, is a question that will admit of much being said on +both sides. I can only vouch for the existence of both. I have seen +the pillars, heard the tradition from the people, and ascertained +the usage; as in the case of that of the Sāgar lake.</p> + +<p>The Mahādēo sandstone hills, which in the Sātpura +range overlook the Nerbudda to the south, rise to between four and +five thousand feet above the level of the sea;[4] and in one of the +highest parts a fair was formerly, and is, perhaps, still held[5] +for the enjoyment of those who assemble to witness the self +devotion of a few young men, who offer themselves as a sacrifice to +fulfil the vows of their mothers. When a woman is without children +she makes votive offerings to all the gods, who can, she thinks, +assist her, and promises of still greater in case they should grant +what she wants. Smaller promises being found of no avail, she at +last promises her first-born, if a male, to the god of destruction, +Mahādēo. If she gets a son, she conceals from him her +vows till he has attained the age of puberty; she then communicates +it [<i>sic</i>] to him, and enjoins him to fulfil it. He believes +it to be his paramount duty to obey his mother's call; and from +that moment he considers himself as devoted to the god. Without +breathing to any living soul a syllable of what she has told him, +he puts on the habit of a pilgrim or religious mendicant, visits +all the celebrated temples dedicated to this god in different parts +of India;[6] and, at the annual fair on the Mahādēo +hills, throws himself from a perpendicular height of four or five +hundred feet, and is dashed to pieces upon the rocks below.[7] If +the youth does not feel himself quite prepared for the sacrifice on +the first visit, he spends another year in pilgrimages, and returns +to fulfil his mother's vow at the next fair. Some have, I believe, +been known to postpone the sacrifice to a third fair; but the +interval is always spent in painful pilgrimages to the celebrated +temples of the god. When Sir R. Jenkins was the Governor-General's +representative at the court of Nāgpur,[8] great efforts were +made by him and all the European officers under him to put a stop +to these horrors by doing away with the fair; and their efforts +were assisted by the <i>cholera morbus</i>, which broke out among +the multitude one season while they were so employed, and carried +off the greater part of them. This seasonable visitation was, I +believe, considered as an intimation on the part of the god that +the people ought to have been more attentive to the wishes of the +white men, for it so happens that Mahādēo is the only one +of the Hindoo gods who is represented with a white face.[9] He +figures among the <i>dramatis personae</i> of the great pantomime +of the Rāmlīlā[10] or fight for the recovery of +Sitā from the demon king of Ceylon; and is the only one with a +white face. I know not whether the fair has ever been revived, but +[I] think not.</p> + +<p>In 1829 the wheat and other spring crops in this and the +surrounding villages were destroyed by a severe hail-storm; in 1830 +they were deficient from the want of seasonable rains; and in 1831 +they were destroyed by blight. During these three years the +'teorī', or what in other parts of India is called +'kesārī' (the <i>Lathyrus sativus</i> of botanists), a +kind of wild vetch, which, though not sown itself, is left +carelessly to grow among the wheat and other grain, and given in +the green and dry state to cattle, remained uninjured, and thrived +with great luxuriance.[11] In 1831 they reaped a rich crop of it +from the blighted wheat-fields, and subsisted upon its grain during +that and the following years, giving the stalks and leaves only to +their cattle. In 1833 the sad effects of this food began to +manifest themselves. The younger part of the population of this and +the surrounding villages, from the age of thirty downwards, began +to be deprived of the use of their limbs below the waist by +paralytic strokes, in all cases sudden, but in some cases more +severe than in others. About half the youth of this village of both +sexes became affected during the years 1833 and 1834, and many of +them have lost the use of their lower limbs entirely, and are +unable to move. The youth of the surrounding villages, in which the +'teorī' from the same causes formed the chief article of food +during the years 1831 and 1832, have suffered to an equal degree. +Since the year 1834 no new case has occurred; but no person once +attacked had been found to recover the use of the limbs affected; +and my tent was surrounded by great numbers of the youth in +different stages of the disease, imploring my advice and assistance +under this dreadful visitation. Some of them were very fine-looking +young men of good caste and respectable families; and all stated +that their pains and infirmities were confined entirely to the +parts below the waist. They described the attack as coming on +suddenly, often while the person was asleep, and without any +warning symptoms whatever; and stated that a greater portion of the +young men were attacked than of the young women. It is the +prevailing opinion of the natives throughout the country that both +horses and bullocks, which have been much fed upon 'teorī', +are liable to lose the use of their limbs; but, if the poisonous +qualities abound more in the grain than in the stalk or leaves, +man, who eats nothing but the grain, must be more liable to suffer +from the use of this food than beasts, which eat it merely as they +eat grass or hay.</p> + +<p>I sent the son of the head man of the village and another, who +were among the young people least affected, into Sāgar with a +letter to my friend Dr. Foley, with a request that he would try +what he could do for them; and if he had any fair prospect of being +able to restore these people to the use of their limbs, that +measures might be adopted through the civil authorities to provide +them with accommodation and the means of subsistence, either by +private subscription, or by application to Government. The civil +authorities, however, could find neither accommodation nor funds to +maintain these people while under Dr. Foley's care; and several +seasons of calamity had deprived them of the means of maintaining +themselves at a distance from their families. Nor is a medical man +in India provided with the means found most effectual in removing +such affections, such as baths, galvanic batteries, &c. It is +lamentable to think how very little we have as yet done for the +country in the healing art, that art which, above all others, a +benevolent and enlightened Government should encourage among the +people of India.</p> + +<p>All we have as yet done has been to provide medical attendants +for our European officers; regiments, and jails. It must not, +however, be supposed that the people of India are without medical +advice, for there is not a town or considerable village in India +without its practitioners, the Hindoos following the Egyptian +(Misrānī), and the Musalmāns the Grecian +(Yunānī) practice. The first prescribe little physic and +much fasting; and the second follow the good old rules of +Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna, with which they are all tolerably +well acquainted. As far as the office of physician goes, the +natives of India of all classes, high and low, have much more +confidence in their own practitioners than in ours, whom they +consider too reckless and better adapted to treat diseases in a +cold than a hot climate. They cannot afford to give the only fees +which European physicians would accept; and they see them, in their +hospital practice, trust much to their native assistants, who are +very few of them able to read any book, much less to study the +profound doctrines of the great masters of the science of +medicine.[12] No native ventures to offer an opinion upon this +abstruse subject in any circle where he is not known to be +profoundly read in either Arabic or Sanskrit lore; nor would he +venture to give a prescription without first consulting, +'spectacles on nose', a book as large as a church Bible. The +educated class, as indeed all classes, say that they do not want +our physicians, but stand much in need of our surgeons. Here they +feel that they are helpless, and we are strong; and they seek our +aid whenever they see any chance of obtaining it, as in the present +case.[13] Considering that every European gentleman they meet is +more or less a surgeon, or hoping to find him so, people who are +afflicted, or have children afflicted, with any kind of +malformation, or malorganization, flock round them [<i>sic</i>] +wherever they go, and implore their aid; but implore in vain, for, +when they do happen to fall in with a surgeon, he is a mere +passer-by, without the means or the time to afford relief. In +travelling over India there is nothing which distresses a +benevolent man so much as the necessity he is daily under of +telling poor parents, who, with aching hearts and tearful eyes, +approach him with their suffering children in their arms, that to +relieve them requires time and means which are not at a traveller's +command, or a species of knowledge which he does not possess; it is +bitter thus to dash to the ground the cup of hope which our +approach has raised to the lip of mother, father, and child; but he +consoles himself with the prospect, that at no distant period a +benevolent and enlightened Government will distribute over the land +those from whom the afflicted will not seek relief in vain.[14]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The garrison is stated in the <i>Gazetteer</i> (1870) to +consist of a European regiment of infantry, two batteries of +European artillery, one native cavalry and one native infantry +regiment. In 1893 it consisted of one battery of Royal Artillery, a +detachment of British Infantry, a regiment of Bengal Cavalry, and a +detachment of Bengal Infantry. According to the census of 1911, the +population of Sāgar was 45,908.</p> + +<p>2. The Banjāras, or Brinjāras, are a wandering tribe, +principally employed as carriers of grain and salt on bullocks and +cows. They used to form the transport service of the Moghal armies, +and of the Company's forces at least as late as 1819. Their +organization and customs are in many ways peculiar. The development +of roads and railways has much diminished the importance of the +tribe. A good account of it will be found in Balfour, +<i>Cyclopaedia of India</i>, 3rd ed., 1885, s. v. 'Banjāra'. +Dubois (<i>Hindu Manners, &c.</i>, 3rd ed. (1906), p. 70) +states that 'of all the castes of the Hindus, this particular one +is acknowledged to be the most brutal'.</p> + +<p>3. See note on human sacrifice, <i>ante</i>, Chapter 8, note +8.</p> + +<p>4. In the Hoshangābād district of the Central +Provinces. The sandstone formation here attains its highest +development, and is known to geologists as the 'Mahādēo +sandstones'. The new sanitarium of Pachmarhī is situated in +these hills.</p> + +<p>5. It has been long since suppressed.</p> + +<p>6. Benares is the principal seat of the worship of +Mahādēo (Siva), but his shrines are found everywhere +throughout India. One hundred and eight of these are reckoned as +important. In Southern India the most notable, perhaps, is the +great temple at Tanjore (see chap. 17 of Monier Williams's +<i>Religious Thought and Life in India</i>).</p> + +<p>7. 'This mode of suicide is called Bhrigu-pātā, +"throwing one's self from a precipice". It was once equally common +at the rock of Girnār [in Kāthiāwār], and has +only recently been prohibited' (ibid. p. 349).</p> + +<p>8. Nagpore (Nāgpur) was governed by Marāthā +rulers, with the title of Bhōnslā, also known as the +Rājās of Berār. The last Rājā, +Raghojī, died without heirs in 1853. His dominions were then +annexed as lapsed territory by Lord Dalhousie. Sir Richard Jenkins +was Resident at Nāgpur from 1810 to 1827. Nāgpur is now +the head-quarters of the Chief Commissioner of the Central +Provinces.</p> + +<p>9. 'There is a legend that Siva appeared in the Kali age, for +the good of the Brahmans, as "Sveta", "the white one", and that he +had four disciples, to all of whom the epithet "Sveta" is applied' +(Monier Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life in India</i>, p. +80, note 2). Various explanations of the legend have been offered. +Professor A. Weber is inclined to think that the various references +to white teachers in Indian legends allude to Christian +missionaries. The Mahābhārata mentions the travels of +Nārada and others across the sea to 'Sveta-dwīpa', the +'Island of the White Men', in order to learn the doctrine of the +unity of God. This tradition appears to be intelligible only if +understood to commemorate the journeys of pious Indians to +Alexandria, and their study of Christianity there (<i>Die Griechen +in Indien</i>, 1890, p. 34).</p> + +<p>10. The Rāmlīlā, a performance corresponding to +the mediaeval European 'miracle-play', is celebrated in Northern +India in the month of Kuār (or Asvin, September-October), at +the same time as the Durgā Pūjā is solemnized in +Bengal. Rāma and his brother Lachhman are impersonated by +boys, who are seated on thrones in state. The performance concludes +by the burning of a wicker image of Rāvana, the demon king of +Lankā (Ceylon), who had carried off Rāma's queen, +Sitā. The story is the leading subject of the great epic +called the Rāmāyana.</p> + +<p>11. The <i>Lathyrus sativus</i> is cultivated in the Punjab and +in Tibet. Its poisonous qualities are attributed to its excessive +proportion of nitrogenous matter, which requires dilution. Another +species of the genus, <i>L. cicer</i>, grown in Spain, has similar +properties. The distressing effects described in the text have been +witnessed by other observers (Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., +1885, s.v. 'Lathyrus').</p> + +<p>12. One of the tent-pitchers one morning, after pitching our +tent, asked the loan of a small extra one for the use of his wife, +who was about to be confined. The basket-maker's wife of the +village near which we were encamped was called; and the poor woman, +before we had finished our breakfast, gave birth to a daughter. The +charge is half a rupee, or one shilling for a boy, and a quarter, +or sixpence, for a girl. The tent-pitcher gave her ninepence, which +the poor midwife thought very handsome, The mother had come +fourteen miles upon a loaded cart over rough roads the night +before; and went the same distance with her child the night after, +upon the same cart. The first midwife in Europe could not have done +her duty better than this poor basket-maker's wife did hers. [W. H. +S.]</p> + +<p>13. The 'present case' was of a medical, not a surgical, +nature.</p> + +<p>14. The Hindoo practitioners are called 'baid' (Sanskrit +'vaidya', followers of the Veda, that is to say, the Ayur Veda). +The Musalmān practitioners are generally called 'hakīm'. +The Egyptian school (Misrānī, Misrī, or +Suryānī, that is, Syrian) never practise bleeding, and +are partial to the use of metallic oxides. The Yunānī +physicians approve of bleeding, and prefer vegetable drugs. The +older writers on India fancied that the Hindoo system of medicine +was of enormous antiquity, and that the principles of Galenical +medical science were ultimately derived from India. Modern +investigation has proved that Hindoo medicine, like Hindoo +astronomy, is largely of Greek origin. This conclusion has been +expressed in an exaggerated form by some writers, but its general +truth appears to be established. The Hindoo books treating of +medicine are certainly older than Wilson supposed, for the Bower +manuscript, written in the second half of the fourth century of our +era, contains three Sanskrit medical treatises. The writers had, +however, plenty of time to borrow from Galen, who lived in the +second century. The Indian aversion to European medicine, as +distinguished from surgery, still exists, though in a degree +somewhat less than in the author's time. Many municipal boards have +insisted on employing 'baids' and 'hakīms' in addition to the +practitioners trained in European methods. Well-to-do patients +often delay resort to the English physician until they have +exhausted all resources of the 'hakīm' and have been nearly +killed by his drastic treatment. One medical innovation, the use of +quinine as a febrifuge, has secured universal approbation. I never +heard of an Indian who disbelieved in quinine. Chlorodyne also is +fully appreciated, but most of the European medicines are regarded +with little faith.</p> + +<p>Since the author wrote, great progress has been made in +providing hospital and dispensary accommodation. Each 'district', +or unit of civil administration, has a fairly well equipped +combined hospital and dispensary at head-quarters, and branch +dispensaries exist in almost every district. An Inspector-General +of Dispensaries supervises the medical administration of each +province, and medical schools have been organized at Calcutta, +Madras, Bombay, Lahore, and Agra. During Lord Dufferin's +Viceroyalty and afterwards, energetic steps were taken to improve +the system of medical relief for females. Pandit Madhusadan Gupta, +on January 10, 1836, was the first Hindoo who ventured to dissect a +human body and teach anatomy. India can now boast of a considerable +number of Hindoo and Musalmān practitioners, trained in +European methods, and skilful in their profession. Much has been +done, infinitely more remains to be done. Details will be found in +<i>I.G.</i> (1907), vol. iv, chap. 14, 'Medical Administration', +The article 'Medicine' in Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., +1885, on which I have drawn for some of the facts above stated, +gives a good summary of the earlier history of medicine in India, +but greatly exaggerates the antiquity of the Hindoo books. On this +question Weber's paper, 'Die Griechen in Indien' (Berlin, 1890, p. +28), and Dr. Hoernle's remarks on the Bower manuscript (in +<i>J.A.S.B.</i>, vol. lx (1891), Part I, p. 145) may be consulted. +Dr. Hoernle's annotated edition and translation of the Bower MS. +were completed in 1912. Part of the work is reprinted with +additions in the <i>Ind. Ant.</i> for 1913 and 1914.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch16">CHAPTER 16</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Suttee Tombs—Insalubrity of deserted +Fortresses.</p> + +<p>On the 3rd we came to Bahrol,[1] where I had encamped with Lord +William Bentinck on the last day of December, 1832, when the +quicksilver in the thermometer at sunrise, outside our tents, was +down to twenty-six degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. The village +stands upon a gentle swelling hill of decomposed basalt, and is +surrounded by hills of the same formation. The Dasān river +flows close under the village, and has two beautiful reaches, one +above, the other below, separated by the dyke of basalt, over which +lies the ford of the river.[2]</p> + +<p>There are beautiful reaches of the kind in all the rivers in +this part of India, and they are almost everywhere formed in the +same manner. At Bahrol there is a very unusual number of tombs +built over the ashes of women who have burnt themselves with the +remains of their husbands. Upon each tomb stands erect a tablet of +freestone, with the sun, the new moon, and a rose engraved upon it +in bas-relief in one field;[3] and the man and woman, hand in hand, +in the other. On one stone of this kind I saw a third field below +these two, with the figure of a horse in bas-relief, and I asked +one of the gentlemen farmers, who was riding with me, what it +meant. He told me that he thought it indicated that the woman rode +on horseback to bathe before she ascended the pile.[4] I asked him +whether he thought the measure prohibiting the practice of burning +good or bad.</p> + +<p>'It is', said he, 'in some respects good, and in others bad. +Widows cannot marry among us, and those who had no prospect of a +comfortable provision among their husband's relations, or who +dreaded the possibility of going astray, and thereby sinking into +contempt and misery, were enabled in this way to relieve their +minds, and follow their husbands, under the full assurance of being +happily united to them in the next world.'</p> + +<p>When I passed this place on horseback with Lord William +Bentinck, he asked me what these tombs were, for he had never seen +any of the kind before. When I told him what they were, he said not +a word; but he must have felt a proud consciousness of the debt of +gratitude which India owes to the statesman who had the courage to +put a stop to this great evil, in spite of all the fearful +obstacles which bigotry and prejudice opposed to the measure. The +seven European functionaries in charge of the seven districts of +the newly-acquired territories were requested, during the +administration of Lord Amherst in 1826, to state whether the +burning of widows could or should be prohibited; and I believe +every one of them declared that it should not. And yet, when it was +put a stop to only a few years after by Lord William, not a +complaint or murmur was heard. The replies to the +Governor-General's inquiries were, I believe, throughout India, for +the most part, opposed to the measure.[5]</p> + +<p> On the 4th we came to Dhamonī, ten miles. The only +thing remarkable here is the magnificent fortress, which is built +upon a small projection of the Vindhya range, looking down on each +side into two enormously deep glens, through which the two branches +of the Dasān river descend over the tableland into the plains +of Bundēlkhand.[6] The rays of the sun seldom penetrate to the +bottom of these glens, and things are, in consequence, grown there +that could not be grown in parts more exposed.</p> + +<p>Every inch of the level ground in the bed of the streams below +seems to be cultivated with care. This fortress is said to have +cost more than a million of money, and to have been only one of +fifty-two great works, of which a former Rājā of +Bundēlkhand, Bīrsingh Deo, laid the foundation in the +same <i>happy hour</i> which had been pointed out to him by his +astrologers.[7] The works form an acute triangle, with the base +towards the tableland, and the two sides hanging perpendicularly +over the glens, while the apex points to the course of the streams +as they again unite, and pass out through a deep chasm into the +plains of Bundēlkhand.</p> + +<p>The fortress is now entirely deserted, and the town, which the +garrison supported, is occupied by only a small police-guard, +stationed here to see that robbers do not take up their abode among +the ruins. There is no fear of this. All old deserted fortresses in +India become filled by a dense stream of carbonic acid gas, which +is found so inimical to animal life that those who attempt to +occupy them become ill, and, sooner or later, almost all die of the +consequences. This gas, being specifically much heavier than common +air, descends into the bottom of such unoccupied fortresses, and +remains stagnant like water in old reservoirs. The current of pure +air continually passes over, without being able to carry off the +mass of stagnant air below; and the only way to render such places +habitable is to make large openings in the walls on all sides, from +the top to the bottom, so that the foul air may be driven out by +the current of pure atmospheric air, which will then be continually +rushing in. When these fortresses are thickly peopled, the +continual motion within tends, I think, to mix up this gas with the +air above; while the numerous fires lighted within, by rarefying +that below, tend to draw down a regular supply of the atmospheric +air from above for the benefit of the inhabitants. When natives +enter upon the occupation of an old fortress of this kind, that has +remained long unoccupied, they always make a solemn religions +ceremony of it; and, having fed the priests, the troops, and a +crowd of followers, all rush in at once with beat of drums, and as +much noise as they can make. By this rush, and the fires that +follow, the bad air is, perhaps, driven off, and never suffered to +collect again while the fortress remains fully occupied. Whatever +may be the cause, the fact is certain that these fortresses become +deadly places of abode for small detachments of troops, or small +parties of any kind. They all get ill, and few recover from the +diseases they contract in them.</p> + +<p>From the year 1817, when we first took possession of the +Sāgar and Nerbudda Territories, almost all the detachments of +troops we required to keep at a distance from the headquarters of +their regiments were posted in these old deserted fortifications. +Our collections of revenue were deposited in them; and, in some +cases, they were converted into jails for the accommodation of our +prisoners. Of the soldiers so lodged, I do not believe that one in +four ever came out well; and, of those who came out ill, I do not +believe that one in four survived five years. They were all +abandoned one after the other; but it is painful to think how many +hundreds, I may say thousands, of our brave soldiers were +sacrificed before this resolution was taken. I have known the whole +of the survivors of strong detachments that went in, in robust +health, three months before, brought away mere skeletons, and in a +hopeless and dying state. All were sent to their homes on medical +certificate, but they almost all died there, or in the course of +their journey.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835. The name of the village is spelled Behrole by +the author.</p> + +<p>2. The Dasān river rises in the Bhopāl State, flows +through the Sāgar district of the Central Provinces, and along +the southern boundary of the Lalitpur subdivision of the +Jhānsī District, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It +also forms the boundary between the Jhānsī and +Hamīrpur Districts, and falls into the Betwa after a course of +about 220 miles. The name is often, but erroneously, written +Dhasān. It is the Sanskrit Dasārna.</p> + +<p>3. This emblem is a lotus, not a rose flower. The latter is +never used in Hindoo symbolism. The lotus is a solar emblem, and +intimately associated with the worship of Vishnu.</p> + +<p>4. It rather indicates that the husband was on horseback when +killed. The sculptures on satī pillars often commemorate the +mode of death of the husband. Sometimes these pillars are +inscribed. They usually face the east. An open hand is often carved +in the upper compartment as well as the sun and moon. A drawing of +such a pillar will be found in <i>J.A.S.B.</i>, vol. xlvi. Part I, +1877, pl. xiv. <i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. iii, p. 10; vol. vii, p. 137; +vol. x, p. 75; and vol. xxi, p. 101, may be consulted.</p> + +<p>5. The 'newly-acquired territories' referred to are the +Sāgar and Nerbudda Territories, comprising the seven +districts, Sāgar, Jubbulpore, Hoshangābād, +Seonī, Damoh, Narsinghpur, and Baitūl, ceded in 1818, and +now included in the Central Provinces. The tenor of the replies +given to Lord Amherst's queries shows how far the process of +Hindooizing had advanced among the European officials of the +Company. Lord Amherst left India in March, 1828. See <i>ante.</i> +Chapter 4 and Chapter 8, for cases of satī (suttees). For a +good account of the suttee discussions and legislation, see D. +Boulger, <i>Lord William Bentinck</i> (1897), chap. v, in 'Rulers +of India' Series. No other biography of Lord William Bentinck +exists.</p> + +<p>6. Dhamonī is in the Sāgar district of the Central +Provinces, about twenty-nine miles north of Sāgar. The fort +was taken by General Marshall in 1818. It had been rebuilt by +Rājā Bīrsingh Deo of Orchhā on an enormous +scale about the end of the sixteenth century. In the original +edition, the author's march is said to have taken place 'on the +24th'. This must be a mistake for 'on the 4th'; as the last date, +that of the march to Bahrol, was the 3rd December. The author +reached Agra on January 1, 1836,</p> + +<p>7. The number fifty-two is one of the Hindoo favourite numbers, +like seven, twelve, and eighty-four, held sacred for astronomical +or astrological reasons. Bīrsingh Deo was the younger brother +of Rāmchand, head of the Bundēla clan. To oblige Prince +Salīm, afterwards the Emperor Jahāngīr, he murdered +Abūl Fazl, the celebrated minister and historian of Akbar, on +August 12, 1602, Jahāngīr, after his accession, rewarded +the murderer by allowing him to supersede his brother in the +headship of his clan, and by appointing him to the rank of +'commander of three thousand'. The capital of Bīrsingh was +Orchhā. His successors are often spoken of as Rājās +of Tehrī. The murder is fully described in <i>The Emperor +Akbar</i> by Count von Noer, translated by A. S. Beveridge, +Calcutta, 1890, vol. ii, pp. 384-404. Orchhā is described +<i>post</i>, Chapters 22,23.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch17">CHAPTER 17</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Basaltic Cappings—Interview with a Native +Chief—A Singular Character.</p> + +<p>On the 5th[1] we came to the village of Seorī. Soon after +leaving Dhamonī, we descended the northern face of the Vindhya +range into the plains of Bundēlkhand. The face of this range +overlooking the valley of the Nerbudda to the south is, as I have +before stated, a series of mural precipices, like so many rounded +bastions, the slight dip of the strata being to the north. The +northern face towards Bundēlkhand, on the contrary, here +descends gradually, as the strata dip slightly towards the north, +and we pass down gently over their back. The strata have, however, +been a good deal broken, and the road was so rugged that two of our +carts broke down in descending. From the descent over the northern +face of the tableland into Bundēlkhand to the descent over the +southern face into the valley of the Nerbudda must be a distance of +one hundred miles directly north and south.</p> + +<p>The descent over the northern face is not everywhere so gradual; +on the contrary, there are but few places where it is at all +feasible; and some of the rivers of the tableland between +Jubbulpore and Mirzapore have a perpendicular fall of more than +four hundred feet over these mural precipices of the northern face +of the Vindhya range.[2] A man, if he have good nerve, may hang +over the summits, and suspend in his hand a plummet that shall +reach the bottom.</p> + +<p>I should mention that this tableland is not only intersected by +ranges, but everywhere studded with isolated hills rising suddenly +out of basins or valleys. These ranges and isolated hills are all +of the same sandstone formation, and capped with basalt, more or +less amygdaloidal. The valleys and cappings have often a substratum +of very compact basalt, which must evidently have flowed into them +after these islands were formed. The question is, how were these +valleys and basins scooped out? 'Time, time, time!' says Mr. +Scrope; 'grant me only time, and I can account for everything.' I +think, however, that I am right in considering the basaltic +cappings of these ranges and isolated hills to have once formed +part of continued flat beds of great lakes. The flat parallel +planes of these cappings, corresponding with each other, however +distantly separated the hills they cover may be, would seem to +indicate that they could not all have been subject to the +convulsions of nature by which the whole substrata were upheaved +above the ocean. I am disposed to think that such islands and +ranges of the sandstone were formed before the deposit of the +basalt, and that the form of the surface is now returning to what +it then was, by the gradual decomposition and wearing away of the +latter rock. Much, however, may be said on both sides of this, as +of every other question. After descending from the sandstone of the +Vindhya[3] range into Bundēlkhand, we pass over basalt and +basaltic soil, reposing immediately on syenitic granite, with here +and there beds and veins of pure feldspar, hornblende, and +quartz.</p> + +<p>Takht Singh, the younger brother of Arjun Singh, the +Rājā of Shāhgarh,[4] came out several miles to meet +me on his elephant. Finding me on horseback, he got off from his +elephant, and mounted his horse, and we rode on till we met the +Rājā himself, about a mile from our tents. He was on +horseback, with a large and splendidly dressed train of followers, +all mounted on fine sleek horses, bred in the Rājā's own +stables. He was mounted on a snow-white steed of his own breeding +(and I have rarely seen a finer animal), and dressed in a light +suit of silver brocade made to represent the scales of steel +armour, surmounted by a gold turban. Takht Singh was more plainly +dressed, but is a much finer and more intelligent-looking man. +Having escorted us to our tents, they took their leave, and +returned to their own, which were pitched on a rising ground on the +other side of a small stream, half a mile distant. Takht Singh +resides here in a very pretty fortified castle on an eminence. It +is a square building, with a round bastion at each corner, and one +on each face, rising into towers above the walls.</p> + +<p>A little after midday the Rājā and his brother came to +pay us a visit; and about four o'clock I went to return it, +accompanied by Lieutenant Thomas. As usual, he had a nautch (dance) +upon carpets, spread upon the sward under awnings in front of the +pavilion in which we were received. While the women were dancing +and singing, a very fine panther was brought in to be shown to us. +He had been caught, full-grown, two years before, and, in the hands +of a skilful man, was fit for the chase in six months. It was a +very beautiful animal, but, for the sake of the sport, kept +wretchedly thin.[5] He seemed especially indifferent to the crowd +and the music, but could not bear to see the woman whirling about +in the dance with her red mantle floating in the breeze; and, +whenever his head was turned towards her, he cropped his ears. She +at last, in play, swept close by him, and with open mouth he +attempted to spring upon her, but was pulled back by the keeper. +She gave a shriek, and nearly fell upon her back in fright.</p> + +<p>The Rājā is a man of no parts or character, and, his +expenditure being beyond his income, he is killing his goose for +the sake of her eggs—that is, he is ruining all the farmers +and cultivators of his large estate by exactions, and thereby +throwing immense tracts of fine land out of tillage. He was the +heir to the fortress and territory of Garhā Kotā, near +Sāgar, which was taken by Sindhia's army, under the command of +Jean Baptiste Filose,[6] just before our conquest in 1817. I was +then with my regiment, which was commanded by Colonel, afterwards +Major- General, G———,[7] a very singular +character. When our surgeon. Dr. E———, received +the newspaper announcing the capture of Garhā Kotā in +Central India by <i>Jean-Baptiste</i>, an officer of the corps was +with him, who called on the colonel on his way home, and mentioned +this as a bit of news. As soon as this officer had left him, the +colonel wrote off a note to the doctor: 'My dear Doctor,—I +understand that that fellow, <i>John the Baptist</i>, has got into +Sindhia's service, and now commands an army—do send me the +newspapers.' These were certainly the words of his note, and, at +the only time I heard him speak on the subject of religion he +discomfited his adversary in an argument at the mess by 'Why, sir, +you do not suppose that I believe in those fellows, Luther, Calvin, +and John the Baptist, do you?'</p> + +<p>Nothing could stand this argument. All the party burst into a +laugh, which the old gentleman took for an unequivocal recognition +of his victory, and his adversary was silenced. He was an old man +when I first became acquainted with him. I put into his hands, when +in camp, Miss Edgeworth's novels, in the hope of being able to +induce him to read by degrees; and I have frequently seen the tears +stealing down over his furrowed cheeks, as he sat pondering over +her pages in the corner of his tent. A braver soldier never lived +than old G———; and he distinguished himself +greatly in the command of his regiment, under Lord Lake, at the +battle of Laswāri[8] and siege of Bharatpur.[9] It was +impossible ever to persuade him that the characters and incidents +of these novels were the mere creations of fancy—he felt them +to be true—he wished them to be true, and he would have them +to be true. We were not very anxious to undeceive him, as the +illusion gave him pleasure and did him good. Bolingbroke says, +after an ancient author, 'History is philosophy teaching by +example.'[10] With equal truth may we say that fiction, like that +of Maria Edgeworth, is philosophy teaching by emotion. It certainly +taught old G——— to be a better man, to leave much +of the little evil he had been in the habit of doing, and to do +much of the good he had been accustomed to leave undone.</p> + +<p><br> +Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December 5, 1835, The date is misprinted '3rd' in the +original edition. See note 2 to last preceding chapter, p. 110.</p> + +<p>2. A good view of the precipices of the Kaimūr range, the +eastern continuation of the Vindhyan chain, is given facing page 41 +of vol. i of Hooker's <i>Himalayan Journals</i> (ed. 1855).</p> + +<p>3. The author's theory is untenable. He failed, to realize the +vast effects of sub-aerial denudation. All the evidence shows that +the successive lava outflows which make up the Deccan trap series +ultimately converted the surface of the land over which they welled +out into an enormous, nearly uniform, plain of basalt, resting on +the Vindhyan sandstone and other rocks. This great sheet of lava, +extending, east and west, from Nāgpur to Bombay, a distance of +about five hundred miles, was then, in succeeding millenniums, +subjected to the denuding forces of air and water, until gradually +huge tracts of it were worn away, forming beds of conglomerate, +gravel, and clay. The flat-topped hills have been carved out of the +basaltic surface by the agencies which wore away the massive sheet +of lava. The basaltic cappings of the hills certainly cannot have +'formed part of continued flat beds of great lakes'. See the notes +to Chapter 14, <i>ante</i>. Mr. Scrope was quite right. Vast +periods of time must be allowed for geological history, and +millions of years must have elapsed since the flow of the Deccan +lava.</p> + +<p>4. In the Sāgar district. The last Raja joined the rebels +in 1857, and so forfeited his rank and territory.</p> + +<p>5. The name panther is usually applied only to the large, +fulvous variety of <i>Felis pardus (Linn.) (F. leopardus, Leopardus +varius)</i>. The animal described in the text evidently was a +specimen of the hunting leopard, <i>Felis jubata (F. guttata, F. +venatica)</i>.</p> + +<p>6. This officer was one of the many '<i>condottieri</i>' of +various nationality who served the native powers during the +eighteenth century, and the early years of the nineteenth. He +commanded five infantry regiments at Gwālior. His 'kingdom- +taking' raid in 1815 or 1816 is described <i>post</i> in Chapter +49. The history of the family is given by Compton in <i>European +Military Adventures of Hindustan from 1784 to 1803</i> (Unwin, +1892), App. pp, 352-6. In 1911 Michael Filose of Gwālior was +appointed K.C.I.E.</p> + +<p>7.'G———' appears to have been Robert Gregory +C.B.</p> + +<p>8. The fiercely contested battle of Laswāri was fought on +November 1, 1803, between the British force under Lord Lake and the +flower of Sindhia's army, known as the 'Deccan Invincibles'. +Sindhia's troops lost about seven thousand killed and two thousand +prisoners. The British loss in killed and wounded amounted to more +than eight hundred. A medal to commemorate the victory was struck +in London in 1851, and presented to the survivors. Laswāri is +a village in the Alwar State, 128 miles south of Delhi.</p> + +<p>9. Bharatpur (Bhurtpore), in the Jāt State of the same +name, is thirty-four miles west of Agra. In January and February, +1805, Lord Lake four times attempted to take it by assault, and +each time was repulsed with heavy loss. On January 18, 1826, Lord +Combermere stormed the fortress. The fortifications were then +dismantled. A large portion of the walls is now standing, and +presents an imposing appearance. They seem to have been repaired. +See <i>post</i>, Chapter 62.</p> + +<p>10. 'I will answer you by quoting what I have read somewhere or +other—in <i>Dionysius Halicarn</i>., I think—that +history is philosophy teaching by example' (Bolingbroke, <i>Letters +on the Study and Use of History</i>, Letter II, p. 14 of vol. viii +of edition printed by T. Cadell, London, 1770). The Greek words are +ίστορία +φιλοσοφία +έστìν έκ +παραδειγμάτ +ων.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch18">CHAPTER 18</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Birds' Nests—Sports of Boyhood.</p> + +<p>On the 6th[1] we came to Sayyidpur, ten miles, over an +undulating country, with a fine soil of decomposed basalt, reposing +upon syenite, with veins of feldspar and quartz. Cultivation +partial, and very bad; and population extremely scanty. We passed +close to a village, in which the children were all at play; while +upon the bushes over their heads were suspended an immense number +of the beautiful nests of the sagacious 'bayā' bird, or Indian +yellow- hammer,[2] all within reach of a grown-up boy, and one so +near the road that a grown-up man might actually look into it as he +passed along, and could hardly help shaking it. It cannot fail to +strike a European as singular to see so many birds' nests, situated +close to a village, remain unmolested within reach of so many +boisterous children, with their little proprietors and families +fluttering and chirping among them with as great a feeling of +security and gaiety of heart as the children themselves enjoy.</p> + +<p>In any part of Europe not a nest of such a colony could have +lived an hour within reach of such a population; for the bayā +bird has no peculiar respect paid to it by the people here, like +the wren and robin-redbreast in England. No boy in India has the +slightest wish to molest birds in their nests; it enters not into +their pastimes, and they have no feeling of pride or pleasure in +it. With us it is different—to discover birds' nests is one +of the first modes in which a boy exercises his powers, and +displays his love of art. Upon his skill in finding them he is +willing to rest his first claim to superior sagacity and +enterprise. His trophies are his string of eggs; and the eggs most +prized among them are those of the nests that are discovered with +most difficulty, and attained with most danger. The same feeling of +desire to display their skill and enterprise in search after birds' +nests in early life renders the youth of England the enemy almost +of the whole animal creation throughout their after career. The boy +prides himself on his dexterity in throwing a stone or a stick; and +he practises on almost every animal that comes in his way, till he +never sees one without the desire to knock it down, or at least to +hit it; and, if it is lawful to do so, he feels it to be a most +serious misfortune not to have a stone within his reach at the +time. As he grows up, he prides himself upon his dexterity in +shooting, and he never sees a member of the feathered tribe within +shot, without a desire to shoot it, or without regretting that he +has not a gun in his hand to shoot it. That he is not entirely +destitute of sympathy, however, with the animals he maims for his +amusement is sufficiently manifest from his anxiety to put them out +of pain the moment he gets them.</p> + +<p>A friend of mine, now no more, Captain Medwin, was once looking +with me at a beautiful landscape painting through a glass. At last +he put aside the glass, saying: 'You may say what you like, +S—, but the best landscape I know is a fine black +partridge[3] falling before my Joe Manton.'</p> + +<p>The following lines of Walter Scott, in his <i>Rokeby</i>, have +always struck me as very beautiful:-</p> + +<p> As yet the conscious pride of art<br> + Had steel'd him in his treacherous +part;<br> + A powerful spring of force unguessed<br> + That hath each gentler mood suppressed,<br> + And reigned in many a human breast;<br> + From his that plans the rude campaign,<br> + To his that wastes the woodland reign, +&c.[4]</p> + +<p>Among the people of India it is very different. Children do not +learn to exercise their powers either in discovering and robbing +the nests of birds, or in knocking them down with stones and +staves; and, as they grow up, they hardly ever think of hunting or +shooting for mere amusement. It is with them a matter of business; +the animal they cannot eat they seldom think of molesting.</p> + +<p>Some officers were one day pursuing a jackal, with a pack of +dogs, through my grounds. The animal passed close to one of my +guard, who cut him in two with his sword, and held up the reeking +blade in triumph to the indignant cavalcade; who, when they came +up, were ready to eat him alive. 'What have I done', said the poor +man, 'to offend you?' 'Have you not killed the jackal?' shouted the +whipper- in, in a fury.</p> + +<p>'Of course I have; but were you not all trying to kill him?' +replied the poor man. He thought their only object had been to kill +the jackal, as they would have killed a serpent, merely because he +was a mischievous and noisy beast.</p> + +<p>The European traveller in India is often in doubt whether the +peacocks, partridges, and ducks, which he finds round populous +villages, are tame or wild, till he asks some of the villagers +themselves, so assured of safety do these creatures become, and so +willing to take advantage of it for the food they find in the +suburbs. They very soon find the difference, however, between the +white-faced visitor and the dark-faced inhabitants. There is a fine +date-tree overhanging a kind of school at the end of one of the +streets in the town of Jubbulpore, quite covered with the nests of +the bayā birds; and they are seen, every day and all day, +fluttering and chirping about there in scores, while the noisy +children at their play fill the street below, almost within arm's +length of them. I have often thought that such a tree so peopled at +the door of a school in England might work a great revolution in +the early habits and propensities of the youth educated in it. The +European traveller is often amused to see the pariah dog[5] +squatted close in front of the traveller during the whole time he +is occupied in cooking and eating his dinner, under a tree by the +roadside, assured that he shall have at least a part of the last +cake thrown to him by the stranger, instead of a stick or a stone. +The stranger regards him with complacency, as one that reposes a +quiet confidence in his charitable disposition, and flings towards +him the whole or part of his last cake, as if his meal had put him +in the best possible humour with him and all the world.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835. The name of the village is given in the +author's text as Seindpore. It seems to be the place which is +called Siedpore in the next chapter.</p> + +<p>2. The common weaver bird, <i>Phoceus baya, Blyth. +'Ploceinae</i>, the weaver birds. . . . They build nests like a +crucible, with the opening downwards, and usually attach them to +the tender branches of a tree hanging over a well or tank. <i>P. +baya</i> is found throughout India; its nest is made of grasses and +strips of the plantain or date-palm stripped while green. It is +easily tamed and taught some tricks, such as to load and fire a toy +cannon, to pick up a ring, &c,' (Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i>, +3rd ed., 1885, s.v. 'Ploceinae').</p> + +<p>3. <i>Francolinus vulgaris</i>; a capital game bird.</p> + +<p>4. Canto V, stanza 22, line 3.</p> + +<p>5. The author spells the word Pareear. The editor has used the +form now customary. The word is the Tamil appellation of a large +body of the population of Southern India, which stands outside the +orthodox Hindoo castes, but has a caste organization of its own. +Europeans apply the term to the low-caste mongrel dogs which infest +villages and towns throughout India. See Yule and Burnell, +<i>Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words (Hobson-Jobson)</i>, in either +edition, s.v.; and Dubois, <i>Hindu Manners, &c.</i>, 3rd ed. +(1906, index, s.v.).</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch19">CHAPTER 19</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Feeding Pilgrims—Marriage of a Stone with a +Shrub.</p> + +<p>At Sayyidpur[1] we encamped in a pretty little mango grove, and +here I had a visit from my old friend Jānkī Sewak, the +high priest of the great temple that projects into the Sāgar +lake, and is called Bindrāban.[2] He has two villages rent +free, worth a thousand rupees a year; collects something more +through his numerous disciples, who wander over the country; and +spends the whole in feeding all the members of his fraternity +(Bairāgīs), devotees of Vishnu, as they pass his temple +in their pilgrimages. Every one who comes is considered entitled to +a good meal and a night's lodging; and he has to feed and lodge +about a hundred a day. He is a man of very pleasing manners and +gentle disposition, and everybody likes him. He was on his return +from the town of Ludhaura,[3] where he had been, at the invitation +of the Rājā of Orchhā, to assist at the celebration +of the marriage of Sālagrām with the Tulasī,[4] +which there takes place every year under the auspices and at the +expense of the Rājā, who must be present. +'Sālagrāms'[5] are rounded pebbles which contain the +impressions of ammonites, and are washed down into the plains of +India by the rivers from the limestone rocks in which these shells +are imbedded in the mountains of the Himalaya.[6] The Spiti +valley[7] contains an immense deposit of fossil ammonites and +belemnites[8] in limestone rocks, now elevated above sixteen +thousand feet above the level of the sea; and from such beds as +these are brought down the fragments, which, when rounded in their +course, the poor Hindoo takes for representatives of Vishnu, the +preserving god of the Hindoo triad. The Sālagrām is the +only stone idol among the Hindoos that is <i>essentially +sacred</i>, and entitled to divine honours without the ceremonies +of consecration.[9] It is everywhere held most sacred. During the +war against Nepāl,[10] Captain B———, who +commanded a reconnoitring party from the division in which I +served, one day brought back to camp some four or five +Sālagrāms, which he had found at the hut of some priest +within the enemy's frontier. He called for a large stone and +hammer, and proceeded to examine them. The Hindoos were all in a +dreadful state of consternation, and expected to see the earth open +and swallow up the whole camp, while he sat calmly cracking +<i>their gods</i> with his hammer, as he would have cracked so many +walnuts. The Tulasī is a small sacred shrub (<i>Ocymum +sanctum</i>), which is a metamorphosis of Sītā, the wife +of Rāma, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu.</p> + +<p>This little <i>pebble</i> is every year married to this little +<i>shrub</i>; and the high priest told me that on the present +occasion the procession consisted of eight elephants, twelve +hundred camels, four thousand horses, all mounted and elegantly +caparisoned. On the leading elephant of this <i>cortège</i>, +and the most sumptuously decorated, was carried the <i>pebble +god</i>, who was taken to pay his bridal visit (barāt) to the +little <i>shrub goddess</i>. All the ceremonies of a regular +marriage are gone through; and, when completed, the bride and +bridegroom are left to repose together in the temple of +Ludhaura[11] till the next season. 'Above a hundred thousand +people', the priest said, 'were present at the ceremony this year +at the Rājā's invitation, and feasted upon his +bounty.'[12]</p> + +<p>The old man and I got into a conversation upon the characters of +different governments, and their effects upon the people; and he +said that bad governments would sooner or later be always put down +by the deity; and quoted this verse, which I took down with my +pencil:</p> + +<p> Tulasī, gharīb na +sātāe,<br> + Burī gharīb kī hai;<br> + Marī khāl ke phūnk se<br> + Lohā bhasm ho jāe.</p> + +<p>'Oh, Rājā Tulasī! oppress not the poor; for the +groans of the wretched bring retribution from heaven. The +contemptible skin (in the smith's bellows) in time melts away the +hardest iron.'[13]</p> + +<p>On leaving our tents in the morning, we found the ground all +round white with hoar frost, as we had found it for several +mornings before;[14] and a little canary bird, one of the two which +travelled in my wife's palankeen, having, by the carelessness of +the servants been put upon the top without any covering to the +cage, was killed by the cold, to her great affliction. All attempts +to restore it to life by the warmth of her bosom were +fruitless.</p> + +<p>On the 7th[15] we came nine miles to Bamhaurī over a soil +still basaltic, though less rich, reposing upon syenite, which +frequently rises and protrudes its head above the surface, which is +partially and badly cultivated, and scantily peopled. The silent +signs of bad government could not be more manifest. All the +extensive plains, covered with fine long grass, which is rotting in +the ground from want of domestic cattle or distant markets. Here, +as in every other part of Central India, the people have a great +variety of good spontaneous, but few cultivated, grasses. They +understand the character and qualities of these grasses extremely +well. They find some thrive best in dry, and some in wet seasons; +and that of inferior quality is often prized most because it +thrives best when other kinds cannot thrive at all, from an excess +or a deficiency of rain. When cut green they all make good hay, and +have the common denomination of 'sahīa'. The finest of these +grasses are two which are generally found growing spontaneously +together, and are often cultivated together-'kēl' and +'musēl'; the third 'parwana'; fourth 'bhawār', or +'gūniār'; fifth 'sainā'.[16]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Spelled Siedpore in the author's text.</p> + +<p>2. More correctly Brindāban (Vrindāvana). The name +originally belongs to one of the most sacred spots in India, +situated near Mathurā (Muttra) on the Jumna, and the reputed +scene of the dalliance between Krishna and the milkmaids +(Gopīs); also associated with the legend Rāma.</p> + +<p>3. Twenty-seven miles north-west of Tehrī in the +Orchhā State.</p> + +<p>4. The Tulasī plant, or basil, <i>Ocymum sanctum</i>, is +'not merely sacred to Vishnu or to his wife Lakshmī; it is +pervaded by the essence of these deities, and itself worshipped as +a deity and prayed to accordingly. . . . The Tulasī is the +object of more adoration than any other plant at present worshipped +in India. . . .It is to be found in almost every respectable +household throughout India. It is a small shrub, not too big to be +cultivated in a good-sized flower-pot, and often placed in rooms. +Generally, however, it is planted in the courtyard of a well-to-do +man's house, with a space round it for reverential +circumambulation. In real fact the Tulasī is <i>par +excellence</i> a domestic divinity, or rather, perhaps, a woman's +divinity' (M. Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life in India</i>, +p. 333).</p> + +<p>5. The fossil ammonites found in India include at least fifteen +species. They occur between Trichinopoly and Pondicherry as well as +in the Himalayan rocks. They are particularly abundant in the river +Gandak, which rises near Dhaulagiri in Nepāl, and falls into +the Ganges near Patna. The upper course of this river is +consequently called Sālagrāmī. Various forms of the +fossils are supposed to represent various <i>avatārs</i> of +Vishnu (Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., s.v. 'Ammonite', +'Gandak', 'Salagrama'; M. Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life +in India</i>, pp. 69, 349). A good account of the reverence paid to +both <i>sālagrāms</i> and the <i>tulasī</i> plant +will be found in Dubois, <i>Hindu Manners</i>, &c., 3rd ed. +(1906), pp. 648-51.</p> + +<p>6. The author writes 'Himmalah'. The current spelling Himalaya +is correct, but the word should be pronounced Himālaya. It +means 'abode of snow'.</p> + +<p>7. The north-eastern corner of the Punjāb, an elevated +valley along the course of the Spiti or the Li river, a tributary +of the Satlaj.</p> + +<p>8. Fossils of the genus Belemnites and related genera are +common, like the ammonites, near Trichinopoly, as well as in the +Himalaya.</p> + +<p>9. This statement is not quite correct. The pebbles representing +the Linga of Siva, called Bāna-linga, or Vāna-linga, and +apparently of white quartz, which are found in the Nerbudda river, +enjoy the same distinction. 'Both are held to be of their own +nature pervaded by the special presence of the deity, and need no +consecration. Offerings made to these pebbles—such, for +instance, as Bilwa leaves laid on the white stone of +Vishnu—are believed to confer extraordinary merit' (M. +Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life in India</i>, p. 69).</p> + +<p>10. In 1814-16.</p> + +<p>11. 'Sadora' in author's text, which seems to be a misprint for +Ludora or Ludhaura.</p> + +<p>12. The Tulasī shrub is sometimes married to an image of +Krishna, instead of to the sālagrāma, in Western India +(M. Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life in India</i>, p. 334). +Compare the account of the marriage between the mango-tree and the +jasmine, <i>ante</i>, Chapter 5, Note [3].</p> + +<p>13. These Hindī verses are incorrectly printed, and loosely +rendered by the author. The translation of the text, after +necessary emendation, is: 'Tulasī, oppress not the poor; evil +is the lot of the poor. From the blast of the dead hide iron +becomes ashes.' Mr. W. Crooke informs me that the verses are found +in the Kabīrkī Sakhī, and are attributable to +Kabīr Dās, rather than to Tulasī Dās. But the +authorship of such verses is very uncertain. Mr. Crooke further +observes that the lines as given in the text do not scan, and that +the better version is:</p> + +<p> Durbal ko na satāiye,<br> + Jāki māti hai;<br> + Mūē khāl ke sāns se<br> + Sār bhasm ho jāe.</p> + +<p><i>Sār</i> means iron. The author was, of course, mistaken +in supposing the poet Tulasī Dās to be a Rājā. +As usual in Hindī verse, the poet addresses himself by +name.</p> + +<p>14. Such slight frosts are common in Bundēlkhand, +especially near the rivers, in January, but only last for a few +mornings. They often cause great damage to the more delicate crops. +The weather becomes hot in February.</p> + +<p>15. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>16. 'Musēl' is a very sweet-scented grass, highly esteemed +as fodder. It belongs to the genus <i>Anthistiria</i>; the species +is either <i>cimicina</i> or <i>prostrata</i>. 'Bhawār' is +probably the 'bhaunr' of Edgeworth's list, <i>Anthistiria +scandens</i>. I cannot identify the other grasses named in the +text. The haycocks in Bundēlkhand are a pleasant sight to +English eyes. Edgeworth's list of plants found in the +Bāndā district, as revised by Messrs. Waterfield and +Atkinson, is given in <i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. i, pp. +78-86.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch20">CHAPTER 20</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Men-Tigers.</p> + +<p> Rām Chand Rāo, commonly called the +Sarīmant, chief of Deorī,[1] here overtook me. He came +out from Sāgar to visit me at Dhamonī[2] and, not +reaching that place in time, came on after me. He held Deorī +under the Peshwā, as the Sāgar chief held Sāgar, for +the payment of the public establishments kept up by the local +administration. It yielded him about ten thousand a year, and, when +we took possession of the country, he got an estate in the +Sāgar district, in rent-free tenure, estimated at fifteen +hundred a year. This is equal to about six thousand pounds a year +in England. The tastes of native gentlemen lead them always to +expend the greater part of their incomes in the wages of trains of +followers of all descriptions, and in horses, elephants, &c.; +and labour and the subsistence of labour are about four times +cheaper in India than in England. By the breaking up of public +establishments, and consequent diminution of the local demand for +agricultural produce, the value of land throughout all Central +India, after the termination of the Mahrātha War in 1817, fell +by degrees thirty per cent.; and, among the rest, that of my poor +friend the Sarīmant. While I had the civil charge of the +Sāgar district in 1831 I represented this case of hardship; +and Government, in the spirit of liberality which has generally +characterized their measures in this part of India, made up to him +the difference between what he actually received and what they had +intended to give him; and he has ever since felt grateful to me.[3] +He is a very small man, not more than five feet high, but he has +the handsomest face I have almost ever seen, and his manners are +those of the most perfect native gentleman. He came to call upon me +after breakfast, and the conversation turned upon the number of +people that had of late been killed by tigers between Sāgar +and Deorī, his ancient capital, which lies about midway +between Sāgar and the Nerbudda river.</p> + +<p>One of his followers, who stood beside his chair, said[4] that +'when a tiger had killed one man he was safe, for the spirit of the +man rode upon his head, and guided him from all danger. The spirit +knew very well that the tiger would be watched for many days at the +place where he had committed the homicide, and always guided him +off to some other more secure place, when he killed other men +without any risk to himself. He did not exactly know why the spirit +of the man should thus befriend the beast that had killed him; +but', added he, 'there is a mischief inherent in spirits; and the +better the man the more mischievous is his ghost, if means are not +taken to put him to rest.' This is the popular and general belief +throughout India; and it is supposed that the only sure mode of +destroying a tiger who has killed many people is to begin by making +offerings to the spirits of his victims, and thereby depriving him +of their valuable services.[5] The belief that men are turned into +tigers by eating of a root is no less general throughout India.</p> + +<p>The Sarīmant, on being asked by me what he thought of the +matter, observed 'there was no doubt much truth in what the man +said: but he was himself of opinion that the tigers which now +infest the wood from Sāgar to Deorī were of a different +kind—in fact, that they were neither more nor less than men +turned into tigers—a thing which took place in the woods of +Central India much more often than people were aware of. The only +visible difference between the two', added the Sarīmant, 'is +that the metamorphosed tiger has <i>no tail</i>, while the +<i>bora</i>, or ordinary tiger, has a very long one. In the jungle +about Deorī', continued he, 'there is a root, which, if a man +eat of, he is converted into a tiger on the spot; and if, in this +state, he can eat of another, he becomes a man again—a +melancholy instance of the former of which', said he, 'occurred, I +am told, in my own father's family when I was an infant. His +washerman, Raghu, was, like all washermen, a great drunkard; and, +being seized with a violent desire to ascertain what a man felt in +the state of a tiger, he went one day to the jungle and brought +home two of these roots, and desired his wife to stand by with one +of them, and the instant she saw him assume the tiger shape, to +thrust it into his mouth. She consented, the washerman ate his +root, and became instantly a tiger; but his wife was so terrified +at the sight of her husband in this shape that she ran off with the +antidote in her hand. Poor old Raghu took to the woods, and there +ate a good many of his old friends from neighbouring villages; but +he was at last shot, and recognized from the circumstance of his +<i>having no tail</i>. You may be quite sure,' concluded +Sarīmant, 'when you hear of a tiger without a tail, that it is +some unfortunate man who has eaten of that root, and of all the +tigers he will be found the most mischievous.'</p> + +<p>How my friend had satisfied himself of the truth of this story I +know not, but he religiously believes it, and so do all his +attendants and mine; and, out of a population of thirty thousand +people in the town of Sāgar, not one would doubt the story of +the washerman if he heard it.</p> + +<p>I was one day talking with my friend the Rājā of +Maihar.[6] on the road between Jubbulpore and Mirzapore, on the +subject of the number of men who had been lately killed by tigers +at the Katrā Pass on that road,[7] and the best means of +removing the danger. 'Nothing', said the Rājā, 'could be +more easy or more cheap than the destruction of these tigers, if +they were of the ordinary sort; but the tigers that kill men by +wholesale, as these do, are, you may be sure, men themselves +converted into tigers by the force of their science, and such +animals are of all the most unmanageable.'</p> + +<p>'And how is it. Rājā Sāhib, that these men +convert themselves into tigers?'</p> + +<p>'Nothing', said he, 'is more easy than this to persons who have +once acquired the science; but how they learn it, or what it is, we +unlettered men know not.'</p> + +<p>'There was once a high priest of a large temple, in this very +valley of Maihar, who was in the habit of getting himself converted +into a tiger by the force of this science, which he had thoroughly +acquired. He had a necklace, which one of his disciples used to +throw over his neck the moment the tiger's form became fully +developed. He had, however, long given up the practice, and all his +old disciples had gone off on their pilgrimages to distant shrines, +when he was one day seized with a violent desire to take his old +form of the tiger. He expressed the wish to one of his new +disciples, and demanded whether he thought he might rely on his +courage to stand by and put on the necklace. 'Assuredly you may', +said the disciple; 'such is my faith in you, and in the God we +serve, that I fear nothing.' The high priest upon this put the +necklace into his hand with the requisite instructions, and +forthwith began to change his form. The disciple stood trembling in +every limb, till he heard him give a roar that shook the whole +edifice, when he fell flat upon his face, and dropped the necklace +on the floor. The tiger bounded over him, and out of the door, and +infested all the roads leading to the temple for many years +afterwards.'</p> + +<p>'Do you think, Rājā Sahib, that the old high priest is +one of the tigers at the Katrā Pass?'</p> + +<p>'No, I do not; but I think they may be all men who have become +imbued with a little too much of the high priest's +<i>science</i>—when men once acquire this science they can't +help exercising it, though it be to their own ruin, and that of +others.'</p> + +<p>'But, supposing them to be ordinary tigers, what is the simple +plan you propose to put a stop to their depredations, +Rājā Sahib?'</p> + +<p>'I propose', said he, 'to have the spirits that guide them +propitiated by proper prayers and offerings; for the spirit of +every man or woman who has been killed by a tiger rides upon his +head, or runs before him, and tells him where to go to get prey, +and to avoid danger. Get some of the Gonds, or wild people from the +jungles, who are well skilled in these matters—give them ten +or twenty rupees, and bid them go and raise a small shrine, and +there sacrifice to these spirits. The Gonds will tell them that +they shall on this shrine have regular worship, and good sacrifices +of fowls, goats, and pigs, every year at least, if they will but +relinquish their offices with the tigers and be quiet. If this is +done, I pledge myself', said the Raja, 'that the tigers will soon +get killed themselves, or cease from killing men. If they do not, +you may be quite sure that they are not ordinary tigers, but men +turned into tigers, or that the Gonds have appropriated all you +gave them to their own use, instead of applying it to conciliate +the spirits of the unfortunate people.'[8]</p> + +<p><br> +Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Deorī, in the Sāgar district, about forty miles +south-east of Sāgar. In 1767, the town and attached tract +called the Panj Mahāl were bestowed by the Peshwā, rent- +free, on Dhōndo Dattātraya, a Marātha pundit, +ancestor of the author's friend. The Panj Mahal was finally made +part of British territory by the treaty with Sindhia in 1860, and +constitutes the District called Pānch Māhals in the +Northern Division of the Bombay Presidency. The vernacular word +<i>pānch</i> like the Persian <i>panj</i>, means 'five'. The +title Sarīmant appears to be a popular pronunciation of the +Sanskrit <i>srīmant</i> or <i>srīmān</i>, +'fortunate', and is still used by Marāthā nobles.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 16, note 6. The name is here erroneously +printed 'Dhamoree' in the author's text.</p> + +<p>3. He had good reason for his gratitude, inasmuch as the +depression in rents was merely temporary.</p> + +<p>4. An Indian chief is generally accompanied into the room by a +confidential follower, who frequently relieves his master of the +trouble of talking, and answers on his behalf all questions.</p> + +<p>5. When Agrippina, in her rage with her son Nero, threatens to +take her stepson, Britannicus, to the camp of the Legion, and there +assert his right to the throne, she invokes the spirit of his +father, whom she had poisoned, and the manes of the Silani, whom +she had murdered. 'Simul attendere manus, aggerere probra; +consecratum Claudium, infernos Silanorum manes invocare, et tot +invita fari nova.'-(Tacitus, lib, xviii, sec. 14.) [W. H. S.] The +quotation is from the <i>Annals</i>. Another reading of the +concluding words is 'et tot irrita facinora', which gives much +better sense. In the author's text 'aggerere' is printed +'aggere'.</p> + +<p>6. A small principality, detached from the Pannā State. Its +chief town is about one hundred miles north-east of Jubbulpore, on +the route from Allahabad to Jubbulpore. The state is now traversed +by the East Indian Railway. It is under the superintendence of the +Political Agent of Baghēlkhand, resident at +Rīwā.</p> + +<p>7. This pass is sixty-three miles south-east of Allahabad, on +the road from that city to Rīwā.</p> + +<p>8. These myths are based on the well-known facts that man-eating +tigers are few, and exceptionally wary and cunning. The conditions +which predispose a tiger to man-eating have been much discussed. It +seems to be established that the animals which seek human prey are +generally, though not invariably, those which, owing to old wounds +or other physical defects, are unable to attack with confidence the +stronger animals. The conversations given in the text are excellent +illustrations of the mode of formation of modern myths, and of the +kind of reasoning which satisfies the mind of the unconscious myth- +maker.</p> + +<p>The text may be compared with the following passage from the +<i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oudh</i> (vol. i, p. 124): 'I +asked him (the Rājā of Balrāmpur), whether the +people in the Tarāi forest were still afraid to point out +tigers to sportsmen. "I was lately out with a party after a tiger", +he said, "which had killed a cowherd, but his companions refused to +point out any trace of him, saying that their relative's spirit +must be now riding upon his head, to guide him from all danger, and +we should have no chance of shooting him. We did shoot him, +however", said the Rājā exultingly, "and they were all +afterwards very glad of it. The tigers in the Tarāi do not +often kill men, sir, for they find plenty of deer and cattle to +eat,"'</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch21">CHAPTER 21</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Burning of Deorī by a Freebooter—A +Suttee.</p> + +<p>Sarīmant had been one of the few who escaped from the +flames which consumed his capital of Deorī in the month of +April 1813, and were supposed to have destroyed thirty thousand +souls. I asked him to tell me how this happened, and he referred me +to his attendant, a learned old pundit, Rām Chand, who stood +by his side, as he was himself, he said, then only five years of +age, and could recollect nothing of it.</p> + +<p>'Mardān Singh,' said the pundit, 'the father of +Rājā Arpan Singh, whom you saw at Seorī, was then +our neighbour, reigning over Garhā Kotā;[1] and he had a +worthless nephew, Zālim Singh, who had collected together an +army of five thousand men, in the hope of getting a little +principality for himself in the general scramble for dominion +incident on the rise of the Pindhārīs and Amīr +Khan,[2] and the destruction of all balance of power among the +great sovereigns of Central India. He came to attack our capital, +which was an emporium of considerable trade and the seat of many +useful manufactures, in the expectation of being able to squeeze +out of us a good sum to aid him in his enterprise. While his troops +blocked up every gate, fire was, by accident, set to the fence of +some man's garden within. There had been no rain for six months; +and everything was so much dried up that the flames spread rapidly; +and, though there was no wind when they began, it soon blew a gale. +The Sarīmant was then a little boy with his mother in the +fortress, where she lived with his father[3] and nine other +relations. The flames soon extended to the fortress, and the +powder- magazine blew up. The house in which they lived was burned +down, and every soul, except the lieutenant [<i>sic</i>] himself, +perished in it. His mother tried to bear him off in her arms, but +fell down in her struggle to get out with him and died. His nurse, +Tulsī Kurmin,[4] snatched him up, and ran with him outside of +the fortress to the bank of the river, where she made him over +unhurt to Harirām, the Mārwārī merchant.[5] He +was mounted on a good horse, and, making off across the river, he +carried him safely to his friends at Gaurjhāmar; but poor +Tulsī the Kurmin fell down exhausted when she saw her charge +safe, and died.</p> + +<p>'The wind appeared to blow in upon the poor devoted city from +every side; and the troops of Zālim Singh, who at first +prevented the people from rushing out at the gates, made off in a +panic at the horrors before them. All our establishments had been +driven into the city at the approach of Zālim Singh's troops; +and scores of elephants, hundreds of camels, and thousands of +horses and ponies perished in the flames, besides twenty-five +thousand souls. Only about five thousand persons escaped out of +thirty thousand, and these were reduced to beggary and wretchedness +by the loss of their dearest relations and their property. At the +time the flames first began to spread, an immense crowd of people +had assembled under the fortress on the bank of the Sonār +river to see the widow of a soldier burn herself. Her husband had +been shot by one of Zālim Singh's soldiers in the morning; and +before midday she was by the side of his body on the funeral pile. +People, as usual, begged her to tell them what would happen, and +she replied, "The city will know in less than four hours"; in less +than four hours the whole city had been reduced to ashes; and we +all concluded that, since the event was so clearly foretold, it +must have been decreed by God.'[6]</p> + +<p>'No doubt it was,' said Sarīmant; 'how could it otherwise +happen? Do not all events depend upon His will? Had it not been His +will to save me, how could poor Tulsī the Kurmin have carried +me upon her shoulders through such a scene as this, when every +other member of our family perished?'</p> + +<p>'No doubt', said Rām Chand, 'all these things are brought +about by the will of God, and it is not for us to ask why.'[7]</p> + +<p>I have heard this event described by many other people, and I +believe the account of the old pundit to be a very fair one.</p> + +<p>One day, in October 1833, the horse of the district surgeon, +Doctor Spry, as he was mounting him, reared, fell back with his +head upon a stone, and died upon the spot. The doctor was not much +hurt, and the little Sarīmant called a few days after, and +offered his congratulations upon his narrow escape. The cause of so +quiet a horse rearing at this time, when he had never been known to +do so before, was discussed; and he said that there could be no +doubt that the horse, or the doctor himself, must have seen some +unlucky face before he mounted that morning—that he had been +in many places in his life, but in none where a man was liable to +see so many ugly or unfortunate faces; and, for his part, he never +left his house till an hour after sunrise, lest he should encounter +them.[8]</p> + +<p>Many natives were present, and every one seemed to consider the +Sarīmant's explanation of the cause quite satisfactory and +philosophical. Some days after, Spry was going down to sleep in the +bungalow where the accident happened. His native assistant and all +his servants came and prayed that he would not attempt to sleep in +the bungalow, as they were sure the horse must have been frightened +by a ghost, and quoted several instances of ghosts appearing to +people there. He, however, slept in the bungalow, and, to their +great astonishment, saw no ghost and suffered no evil.[9]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. A fortress, twenty-five miles cast of Sāgar, captured by +a British force under General Watson in October 1818, For +Seorī and Rājā Arjun Singh see <i>ante</i>, Chapter +17, text by notes 1 and 4.</p> + +<p>2. Amīr Khān, a leader of predatory horse, has been +justly described as 'one of the most atrocious villains that India +ever produced'. He first came into notice in 1804, as an officer in +Holkar's service, and in the following year opposed Lord Lake at +Bharatpur. A treaty made with him in 1817 put an end to his +activity. The Pindhārīs were organized bands of mounted +robbers, who desolated Northern and Central India during the period +of anarchy which followed the dissolution of the Moghal empire. +They were associated with the Marāthās in the war which +terminated with the capture of Asīrgarh in April 1819. In the +same year the Pindhārī forces ceased to exist as a +distinct and recognized, body.</p> + +<p> My father was an Afghān, and came +from Kandahar:<br> + He rode with Nawāb Amir Khan in the +old Marāthā war:<br> + From the Dekhan to the Himalay, five +hundred of one clan,<br> + They asked no leave of prince or chief as +they swept thro' Hindusthan.</p> + +<p>(Sir A. Lyall, 'The Old Pindaree'; in <i>Verses written in +India</i>, London, 1889).</p> + +<p>3. Named Govind Rāo. The proper name of the Sarīmant +was Rāmchand Rāo (<i>C.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1870).</p> + +<p>4. Kurmin is the feminine of Kurmī, the name of a widely +spread and most industrious agricultural caste, closely connected, +at least in Bundēlkhand, with the similar Lodhī +caste.</p> + +<p>5. Mārwār, or Jodhpur, is one of the leading states in +Rājputāna. It supplies the rest of India with many of the +keenest merchants and bankers.</p> + +<p>6. See <i>ante</i>, Chapter 4, note 6, for remarks on the +supposed prophetic gifts of satī women.</p> + +<p>7. Such feelings of resignation to the Divine will, or fate, are +common alike to Hindoos and Musalmāns.</p> + +<p>8. 'One of a wife's duties should be to keep all bad omens out +of her husband's way, or manage to make him look at something lucky +in the early morning. . . . Different lists of inauspicious objects +are given, which, if looked upon in the early morning, might cause +disaster' (M. Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life in India</i>, +p. 397).</p> + +<p>9. Dr. Spry died in 1842, and his estate was administered by the +author. The doctor's works are described <i>ante</i>, Chapter 14, +note 16.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch22">CHAPTER 22</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Interview with the Rājā who marries the +Stone to the Shrub—Order of the Moon and the Fish.</p> + +<p>On the 8th,[1] after a march of twelve miles, we readied +Tehrī, the present capital of the Rājā of +Orchhā.[2] Our road lay over an undulating surface of soil +composed of the detritus of the syenitic rock, and poor, both from +its quality and want of depth. About three miles from our last +territory we entered the boundary of the Orchhā +Rājā's territory, at the village of Aslōn, which has +a very pretty little fortified castle, built upon ground slightly +elevated in the midst of an open grass plain.</p> + +<p>This, and all the villages we have lately passed, are built upon +the bare back of the syenitic rock, which seems to rise to the +surface in large but gentle swells, like the broad waves of the +ocean in a calm after a storm. A great difference appeared to me to +be observable between the minds and manners of the people among +whom we were now travelling, and those of the people of the +Sāgar and Nerbudda territories. They seemed here to want the +urbanity and intelligence we find among our subjects in the latter +quarters.</p> + +<p>The apparent stupidity of the people when questioned upon points +the most interesting to them, regarding their history, their +agriculture, their tanks, and temples, was most provoking; and +their manners seemed to me more rude and clownish than those of +people in any other part of India I had travelled over. I asked my +little friend the Sarīmant, who rode with me, what he thought +of this.</p> + +<p>'I think', said he, 'that it arises from the harsh character of +the government under which they live; it makes every man wish to +appear a fool, in order that he may be thought a beggar and not +worth the plundering.'</p> + +<p>'It strikes me, my friend Sarīmant, that their government +has made them in reality the beggars and the fools that they appear +to be.'</p> + +<p>'God only knows', said Sarīmant; 'certain it is that they +are neither in mind nor in manners what the people of our districts +are.'</p> + +<p>The Rājā had no notice of our approach till intimation +of it reached him at Ludhaura, the day before we came in. He was +there resting, and dismissing the people after the ceremonies of +the marriage between the Salagrām and the Tulasī. +Ludhaura is twenty-seven miles north-west of Tehrī, on the +opposite side from that on which I was approaching. He sent off two +men on camels with a 'kharītā' (letter),[3] requesting +that I would let him know my movements, and arrange a meeting in a +manner that might prevent his appearing wanting in respect and +hospitality; that is, in plain terms, which he was too polite to +use, that I would consent to remain one stage from his capital, +till he could return and meet me half-way, with all due pomp and +ceremony. These men reached me at Bamhaurī,[4] a distance of +thirty-nine miles, in the evening, and I sent back a +kharītā, which reached him by relays of camels before +midnight. He set out for his capital to receive me, and, as I would +not wait to be met half-way in due form, he reached his palace, and +we reached our tents at the same time, under a salute from his two +brass field-pieces.</p> + +<p>We halted at Tehrī on the 9th, and about eleven o'clock the +Rājā came to pay his visit of congratulation, with a +magnificent <i>cortège</i> of elephants, camels, and horses, +all mounted and splendidly caparisoned, and the noise of his band +was deafening. I had had both my tents pitched, and one of them +handsomely fitted up, as it always is, for occasions of ceremony +like the present. He came to within twenty paces of the door on his +elephant, and from its back, as it sat down, he entered his +splendid litter, without alighting on the ground.[5] In this +vehicle he was brought to my tent door, where I received him, and, +after the usual embraces, conducted him up through two rows of +chairs, placed for his followers of distinction and my own, who are +always anxious to assist in ceremonies like these.</p> + +<p> At the head of this lane we sat upon chairs placed across, +and facing down the middle of the two rows; and we conversed upon +all the subjects usually introduced on such occasions, but more +especially upon the august ceremonies of the marriage of the +Salagrām with the Tulasī, in which his highness had been +so <i>piously</i> engaged at Ludhaura.[6] After he had sat with me +an hour and a half he took his leave, and I conducted him to the +door, whence he was carried to his elephant in his litter, from +which he mounted without touching the ground.</p> + +<p>This litter is called a 'nālkī'. It is one of the +three great insignia which the Mogul Emperors of Delhi conferred +upon independent princes of the first class, and could never be +used by any person upon whom, or upon whose ancestors, they had not +been so conferred. These were the nālkī, the order of the +Fish, and the fan of the peacock's feathers. These insignia could +be used only by the prince who inherited the sovereignty of the one +on whom they had been originally conferred. The order of the Fish, +or Mahī Marātib, was first instituted by Khusrū +Parvīz, King of Persia, and grandson of the celebrated +Naushīrvān the Just. Having been deposed by his general, +Bahrām, Khusrū fled for protection to the Greek emperor, +Maurice, whose daughter, Shīrīn, he married, and he was +sent back to Persia, with an army under the command of Narses, who +placed him on the throne of his ancestors in the year A.D. 591.[7] +He ascertained from his astrologer, Araz Khushasp, that when he +ascended the throne the moon was in the constellation of the Fish, +and he gave orders to have two balls made of polished steel, which +were to be called Kaukabas (planets),[8] and mounted on long poles. +These two planets, with large fish made of gold, upon a third pole +in the centre, were ordered to be carried in all regal processions +immediately after the king, and before the prime minister, whose +<i>cortège</i> always followed immediately after that of the +king. The two kaūkabas are now generally made of copper, and +plated, and in the shape of a jar, instead of quite round as at +first; but the fish is still made of gold. Two planets are always +considered necessary to one fish, and they are still carried in all +processions between the prince and his prime minister.</p> + +<p>The court of this prince Khusrū Pārvīz was +celebrated throughout the East for its splendour and magnificence; +and the chaste love of the poet Farhad for his beautiful queen +Shīrīn is the theme of almost as many poems in the East +as that of Petrarch's for Laura is in the West. Nūh +Samānī, who ascended the throne of Persia after the +Sassanians,[9] ascertained that the moon was in the sign Leo at the +time of his accession, and ordered that the gold head of a lion +should thenceforward accompany the fishes, and the two balls, in +all royal processions. The Persian order of knighthood is, +therefore, that of the Fish, the Moon, and the Lion, and not the +Lion and Sun, as generally supposed. The emperors of the house of +Taimūr in Hindustan assumed the right of conferring the order +upon all whom they pleased, and they conferred it upon the great +territorial sovereigns of the country without distinction as to +religion. He only who inherits the sovereignty can wear the order, +and I believe no prince would venture to wear or carry the order +who was not generally reputed to have received the investiture from +one of the emperors of Delhi.[10]</p> + +<p>As I could not wait another day, it was determined that I should +return his visit in the afternoon; and about four o'clock we set +out upon our elephant—Lieutenant Thomas, Sarīmant, and +myself, attended by all my troopers and those of Sarīmant. We +had our silver-stick men with us; but still all made a sorry figure +compared with the splendid <i>cortège</i> of the +Rājā. We dismounted at the foot of the stairs leading to +the Rājā's hall of audience, and were there met by his +two chief officers of state, who conducted us to the entrance of +the hall, when we were received by the Rājā himself, who +led us up through two rows of chairs laid out exactly as mine had +been in the morning. In front were assembled a party of native +comedians, who exhibited a few scenes of the insolence of office in +the attendants of great men, and the obtrusive importunity of +place- seekers, in a manner that pleased us much more than a dance +would have done. Conversation was kept up very well, and the visit +passed off without any feeling of ennui, or anything whatever to +recollect with regret. The ladies looked at us from their +apartments through gratings, and without our being able to see them +very distinctly. We were anxious to see the tombs of the late +Rājā, the elder brother of the present, who lately died, +and that of his son, which are in progress in a very fine garden +outside the city walls, and, in consequence, we did not sit above +half an hour. The Rājā conducted us to the head of the +stairs, and the same two officers attended us to the bottom, and +mounted their horses, and attended us to the tombs.</p> + +<p>After the dust of the town raised by the immense crowd that +attended us, and the ceremonies of the day, a walk in this +beautiful garden was very agreeable, and I prolonged it till dark. +The Rājā had given orders to have all the cisterns filled +during our stay, under the impression that we should wish to see +the garden; and, as soon as we entered, the <i>jets d'eau</i> +poured into the air their little floods from a hundred mouths. Our +old cicerone told us that, if we would take the old capital of +Orchhā in our way, we might there see the thing in perfection, +and amidst the deluges of the rains of Sāwān and +Bhādon (July and August) see the lightning and hear the +thunder. The Rājās of this, the oldest principality in +Bundēlkhand, were all formerly buried or burned at the old +capital of Orchhā, even after they had changed their residence +to Tehrī. These tombs over the ashes of the Rājā, +his wife, and son, are the first that have been built at +Tehrī, where their posterity are all to repose in future.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. The State of Orchhā, also known as Tehrī or +Tīkamgarh, situated to the south of the Jhānsī +district, is the oldest and the highest in rank of the Bundela +principalities. The town of Tehrī is seventy-two miles north- +west of Sāgar. The town of Orchhā, founded in A.D. 1531, +is 131 miles north of Sāgar, and about forty miles from +Tehrī. Tīkamgarh is the fort of Tehrī.</p> + +<p>3. A <i>kharītā</i> is a letter enclosed in a bag of +rich brocade, contained in another of fine muslin. The mouth is +tied with a string of silk, to which hangs suspended the great +seal, which is a flat round mass of sealing-wax, with the seal +impressed on each side of it. This is the kind of letter which +passes between natives of great rank in India, and between them and +the public functionaries of Government. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>4. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 19, after note [15].</p> + +<p>5. The Rājā's unwillingness to touch the ground is an +example of a very widespread and primitive belief. 'Two of those +rules or taboos by which . . . the life of divine kings or priests +is regulated. The first is . . . that the divine personage may not +touch the ground with his foot.' This prohibition applies to the +Mikado of Japan and many other sacred personages. 'The second rule +is that the sun may not shine upon the sacred person.' This second +rule explains the use of the umbrella as a royal appendage in India +and Burma. (Frazer, <i>The Golden Bough</i>, 1st ed., vol. ii, pp. +224, 225.)</p> + +<p>6 <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 19, note 3.</p> + +<p>7. During the time he remained the guest of the emperor he +resided at Hierapolis, and did not visit Constantinople. The Greeks +do not admit that Shīrīn was the daughter of Maurice, +though a Roman by birth and a Christian by religion. The Persians +and Turks speak of her as the emperor's daughter. [W. H. S.] +Khusrū Pārvīz (Eberwiz), or Khusrū II, reigned +as King of Persia from A.D. 591 to 628. In the course of his wars +he took Jerusalem, and reduced Egypt, and a large part of northern +Africa, extending for a time the bounds of the Persian empire to +the Aegean and the Nile. Khusrū I, surnamed +Naushīrvān, or (more correctly) Anushīrvān, +reigned from A.D. 531 to 579. His successful wars with the Romans +and his vigorous internal administration captivated the Oriental +imagination, and he is generally spoken of as Ādil, or The +Just. His name has become proverbial, and to describe a superior as +rivalling Naushīrvān in justice is a commonplace of +flattery. The prophet Muhammad was born during his reign, and was +proud of the fact. The alleged expedition of Naushīrvān +into India is discredited by the best modern writers. Gibbon tells +the story of the wars between the two Khusrūs and the Romans +in his forty- sixth chapter, and a critical history of the reigns +of both Khusrū (Khosrau) I and Khusrū II will be found in +Professor Rawlinson's <i>Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy</i> +(London, 1876). European authors have, until recently, generally +written the name Khusrū in its Greek form as Chosroes. The +name of Shīrīn is also written Sira.</p> + +<p>'With the name of Shirin and the rock of Bahistun the Persians +have associated one of those poetic romances so dear to the +national genius. Ferhad, the most famous sculptor of his time, who +was very likely employed by Chosroes II to execute these +bas-reliefs, is said in the legend to have fallen madly in love +with Shīrīn, and to have received a promise of her from +the king, if he would cut through the rock of Behistun, and divert +a stream to the Kermanshah plain. The lover set to work, and had +all but completed his gigantic enterprise (of which the remains, +however interpreted, are still to be seen), when he was falsely +informed by an emissary from the king of his lady's death. In +despair he leaped from the rock, and was dashed to pieces. The +legend of the unhappy lover is familiar throughout the East, and is +used to explain many traces of rock- cutting or excavation as far +east as Beluchistan' (<i>Persia and the Persian Question</i>, by +the Hon. George N. Curzon, M.P. (London, 1892), vol. i, p. 562, +note. See also Malcolm, <i>History of Persia</i>, vol. i, p. +129).</p> + +<p>8. <i>Kaukab</i> in Arabic means 'a star'. Steingass (<i>Persian +Dictionary</i>) defines <i>Kaukaba</i> as 'a polished steel ball +suspended to a long pole, and carried as an ensign before the king; +a star of gold, silver, or tinsel, worn as ornament or sign of +rank; a concourse of people; a royal train, retinue, cavalcade; +splendour'.</p> + +<p>9. Yezdegird III (Isdigerd), the last of the Sassanians, was +defeated in A.D. 641 at the battle of Nahavend by the Arab +Nomān, general of the Khalīf Omar, and driven from his +throne. The supremacy of the Khalīfs over Persia lasted till +A.D. 1258. The subordinate Samāni dynasty ruled over +Khurāsān, Seistān, Balkh, and the countries of +Trans-Oxiana in the tenth century. Two of the princes of this line +were named Nūh, or Noah. The author probably refers to the +better known of the two, Amir Nūh II (Malcolm, <i>History of +Persia</i>, ed. 1829, vol. i, pp. 158-66).</p> + +<p>10. The poor old blind emperor. Shāh Alam, when delivered +from the Marāthās in 1803 by Lord Lake, did all he could +to show his gratitude by conferring on his deliverer honours and +titles, and among them the 'Mahī Maratīb'. The editor has +been unable to discover the source of the author's story of the +origin of the Persian order of knighthood. Malcolm, an excellent +authority, gives the following very different account: 'Their +sovereigns have, for many centuries, preserved as the peculiar arms +of the country,[e] the sign or figure of Sol in the constellation +of Leo; and this device, a lion couchant and the sun rising at his +back, has not only been sculptured upon their palaces[f] and +embroidered upon their banners.[g] but has been converted into an +Order,[h] which in the form of gold and silver medals, has been +given to such as have distinguished themselves against the enemies +of their country.[i]</p> + +<p><i>Note e</i>. The causes which led to the sign of Sol in Leo +becoming the arms of Persia cannot be distinctly traced, but there +is reason to believe that the use of this symbol is not of very +great antiquity. We meet with it upon the coins of one of the +Seljukian princes of Iconium; and, when this family had been +destroyed by Hulākū [A.D. 1258], the grandson of Chengiz, +that prince, or his successors, perhaps adopted this emblem as a +trophy of their conquest, whence it has remained ever since among +the most remarkable of the royal insignia. A learned friend, who +has a valuable collection of Oriental coins, and whose information +and opinion have enabled me to make this conjecture, believes that +the emblematical representation of Sol in Leo was first adopted by +Ghiās-ud-din Kai Khusrū bin Kaikobād, who began to +reign A.H. 634, A.D. 1236, and died A.H. 642, A.D. 1244; and this +emblem, he adds, is supposed to have reference either to his own +horoscope or to that of his queen, who was a princess of +Georgia.</p> + +<p><i>Note f</i>. Hanway states, vol. i, p. 199, that over the gate +which forms the entrance of the palace built by Shah Abbās the +Great [A.D. 1586 to 1628] at Ashrāf, in Mazenderan, are 'the +arms of Persia, being a lion, and the sun rising behind it'.</p> + +<p><i>Note g</i>. The emblem of the Lion and Sun is upon all the +banners given to the regular corps of infantry lately formed. They +are presented to the regiments with great ceremony. A +mūllā, or priest, attends, and implores the divine +blessing on them.</p> + +<p><i>Note h</i>. This order, with additional decorations, has been +lately conferred upon several ministers and representatives of +European Governments in alliance with Persia.</p> + +<p><i>Note i</i>. The medals which have been struck with this +symbol upon them have been chiefly given to the Persian officers +and men of the regular corps who have distinguished themselves in +the war with the Russians. An English officer, who served with +these troops, informs me that those on whom these medals have been +conferred are very proud of this distinction, and that all are +extremely anxious to obtain them (<i>History of Persia</i>, ed. +1829, vol. ii, p. 406).</p> + +<p>In Curzon's figure the lion is standing, not 'couchant', as +stated by Malcolm, and grasps a scimitar in his off forepaw.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch23">CHAPTER 23</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Rājā of Orchhā—Murder of +his many Ministers.</p> + +<p>The present Rājā, Mathurā Dās, succeeded his +brother Bikramājīt, who died in 1834. He had made over +the government to his only son, Rājā Bahādur, whom +he almost adored; but, the young man dying some years before him, +the father resumed the reins of government, and held them till his +death. He was a man of considerable capacity, but of a harsh and +unscrupulous character. His son resembled him; but the present +Rājā is a man of mild temper and disposition, though of +weak intellect. The fate of the last three prime ministers will +show the character of the Rājā and his son, and the +nature of their rule.</p> + +<p>The minister at the time the old man made over the reins of +government to his son was Khānjū Purōhit.[1] Wishing +to get rid of him a few years after, this son, Rājā +Bahādur, employed Muhram Singh, one of his feudal +Rājpūt barons, to assassinate him. As a reward for this +service he received the seals of office; and the Rājā +confiscated all the property of the deceased, amounting to four +lakhs of rupees[2] and resumed the whole of the estates held by the +family.</p> + +<p>The young Rājā died soon after; and his father, when +he resumed the reins of government, wishing to remove the new +minister, got him assassinated by Gambhīr Singh, another +feudal Rājpūt baron, who, as his reward, received in his +turn the seals of office. This man was a most atrocious villain, +and employed the public establishments of his chief to plunder +travellers on the high road. In 1833 his followers robbed four men, +who were carrying treasure to the amount of ten thousand rupees +from Sāgar to Jhānsī through Tehrī, and +intended to murder them; but, by the sagacity of one of the party, +and a lucky accident, they escaped, made their way back to +Sāgar, and complained to the magistrate.[3] The[4] minister +discovered the nature of their burdens as they lodged at Tehrī +on their way, and sent after them a party of soldiers, with orders +to put them in the bed of a rivulet that separated the territory of +Orchhā from that of the Jhānsī Rājā. One +of the treasure party discovered their object; and, on reaching the +bank of the rivulet in a deep grass jungle, he threw down his +bundle, dashed unperceived through the grass, and reached a party +of travellers whom he saw ascending a hill about half a mile in +advance. The myrmidons of the minister, when they found that one +had escaped, were afraid to murder the others, but took their +treasure. In spite of great obstacles, and with much danger to the +families of three of those men, who resided in the capital of +Tehrī, the magistrate of Sāgar brought the crime home to +the minister, and the Rājā, anxious to avail himself of +the occasion to fill his coffers, got him assassinated. The +Rājā was then about eighty years of age, and his minister +was a strong, athletic, and brave man. One morning while he was +sitting with him in private conversation, the former pretended a +wish to drink some of the water in which his household god had been +washed (the 'chandan mirt'),[5] and begged the minister to go and +fetch it from the place where it stood by the side of the idol in +the court of the palace. As a man cannot take his sword before the +idol, the minister put it down, as the Rājā knew he +would, and going to the idol, prostrated himself before it +preparatory to taking away the water. In that state he was cut down +by Bihārī,[6] another feudal Rājpūt baron, who +aspired to the seals, and some of his friends, who had been placed +there on purpose by the Rājā. He obtained the seals by +his service, and, as he was allowed to place one brother in command +of the forces, and to make another chamberlain, he hoped to retain +them longer than any of his predecessors had done. Gambhīr +Singh's brother, Jhujhār Singh, and the husband of his sister, +hearing of his murder, made off, but were soon pursued and put to +death. The widows were all three put into prison, and all the +property and estates were confiscated. The movable property +amounted to three lakhs of rupees.[7] The Rājā boasted to +the Governor-General's representative in Bundēlkhand of this +act of retributive justice, and pretended that it was executed +merely as a punishment for the robbery; but it was with infinite +difficulty the merchants could recover from him any share of the +plundered property out of that confiscated. The Rājā +alleged that, according to our <i>rules</i>, the chief within whose +boundary the robbery might have been committed, was obliged to make +good the property. On inspection, it was found that the robbery was +perpetrated upon the very boundary line, and 'in spite of pride, in +erring reason's spite', the Jhānsī Rājā was +made to pay one-half of the plundered treasure.</p> + +<p>The old Rājā, Bikramājīt, died in June, +1834; and, though his death had been some time expected, he no +sooner breathed his last than charges of 'dīnaī', slow +poison, were got up, as usual, in the zenana (seraglio).</p> + +<p>Here the widow of Rājā Bahādur, a violent and +sanguinary woman, was supreme; and she persuaded the present +Rājā, a weak old man, to take advantage of the funeral +ceremonies to avenge the death of his brother. He did so; and +Bihārī, and his three brothers, with above fifty of his +relations, were murdered. The widows of the four brothers were the +only members of all the families left alive. One of them had a son +four months old; another one of two years; the four brothers had no +other children. Immediately after the death of their husbands, the +two children were snatched from their mothers' breasts, and +threatened with instant death unless their mothers pointed out all +their ornaments and other property. They did so; and the spoilers +having got from them property to the amount of one hundred and +fifty thousand rupees, and been assured that there was no more, +threw the children over the high wall, by which they were dashed to +pieces. The poor widows were tendered as wives to four sweepers, +the lowest of all low castes; but the tribe of sweepers would not +suffer any of its members to take the widows of men of such high +caste and station as wives, notwithstanding the tempting offer of +five hundred rupees as a present, and a village in rent-free +tenure.[8] I secured a promise while at Tehrī that these poor +widows should be provided for, as they had, up to that time, been +preserved by the good feeling of a little community of the lowest +of castes, on whom they had been bestowed as a punishment worse +than death, inasmuch as it would disgrace the whole class to which +they belonged, the Parihār Rājpūts.[9]</p> + +<p>Tehrī is a wretched town, without one respectable dwelling- +house tenanted beyond the palace, or one merchant, or even +shopkeeper of capital and credit. There are some tolerable houses +unoccupied and in ruins; and there are a few neat temples built as +tombs, or cenotaphs, in or around the city, if city it can be +called. The stables and accommodations for all public +establishments seem to be all in the same ruinous state as the +dwelling-houses. The revenues of the state are spent in feeding +Brahmans and religious mendicants of all kinds; and in such idle +ceremonies as those at which the Rājā and all his court +have just been assisting—ceremonies which concentrate for a +few days the most useless of the people of India, the devotee +followers (Bairāgīs) of the god Vishnu, and tend to no +purpose, either useful or ornamental, to the state or to the +people.</p> + +<p>This marriage of a stone to a shrub, which takes place every +year, is supposed to cost the Rājā, at the most moderate +estimate, three lakhs of rupees a year, or one-fourth of his annual +revenue.[10] The highest officers of which his government is +composed receive small beggarly salaries, hardly more than +sufficient for their subsistence; and the money they make by +indirect means they dare not spend like gentlemen, lest the +Rājā might be tempted to take their lives in order to get +hold of it. All his feudal barons are of the same tribe as himself, +that is, Rājpūts; but they are divided into three +clans—Bundēlas, Pawārs, and Chandēls. A +Bundēla cannot marry a woman of his own clan, he must take a +wife from the Pawārs or Chandēls; and so of the other two +clans—no member of one can take a wife from his own clan, but +must go to one of the other two for her. They are very much +disposed to fight with each other, but not less are they disposed +to unite against any third party, not of the same tribe. Braver men +do not, I believe, exist than the Rājpūts of +Bundēlkhand, who all carry their swords from their +infancy.[11]</p> + +<p>It may be said of the Rājpūts of Mālwa and +Central India generally, that the Mogul Emperors of Delhi made the +same use of them that the Emperors of Germany and the Popes made of +the military chiefs and classes of Europe during the Middle Ages. +Industry and the peaceful arts being reduced to agriculture alone +under bad government or no government at all, the land remained the +only thing worth appropriating; and it accordingly became +appropriated by those alone who had the power to do so—by the +Hindoo military classes collected around the heads of their clans, +and powerful in their union. These held it under the paramount +power on the feudal tenure of military service, as militia; or it +was appropriated by the paramount power itself, who let it out on +allodial tenure to peaceful peasantry. The one was the +Zamīndārī, and the other the +Mālguzārī tenure of India.[12]</p> + +<p>The military chiefs, essentially either soldiers or robbers, +were continually fighting, either against each other, or against +the peasantry, or public officers of the paramount power, like the +barons of Europe; and that paramount power, or its delegates, often +found that the easiest way to crush one of these refractory vassals +was to put him, as such men had been put in Germany, to <i>the ban +of the empire</i>, and offer his lands, his castles, and his wealth +to the victor. This victor brought his own clansmen to occupy the +lands and castles of the vanquished; and, as these were the only +things thought worth living for, the change commonly involved the +utter destruction of the former occupants. The new possessors gave +the name of their leader, their clan, or their former place of +abode, to their new possession, and the tract of country over which +they spread. Thus were founded the Bundēlas, Pawārs, and +Chandēls [<i>sic</i>] upon the ruin of the Chandēls of +Bundēlkhand, the Baghēlas in Baghēlkhand, or +Rīwā, the Kachhwāhās, the Sakarwārs, and +others along the Chambal river, and throughout all parts of +India.[13]</p> + +<p>These classes have never learnt anything, or considered anything +worth learning, but the use of the sword; and a Rājpūt +chief, next to leading a gang of his own on great enterprises, +delights in nothing so much as having a gang or two under his +patronage for little ones.</p> + +<p>There is hardly a single chief of the Hindoo military class in +the Bundēlkhand or Gwālior territories, who does not keep +a gang of robbers of some kind or other, and consider it as a very +valuable and legitimate source of revenue; or who would not embrace +with cordiality the leader of a gang of assassins by profession who +should bring him home from every expedition a good horse, a good +sword, or a valuable pair of shawls, taken from their victims. It +is much the same in the kingdom of Oudh, where the lands are for +the most part held by the same Hindoo military classes, who are in +a continual state of war with each other, or with the Government +authorities. Three-fourths of the recruits for native infantry +regiments are from this class of military agriculturists of Oudh, +who have been trained up in this school of contest; and many of the +lads, when they enter our ranks, are found to have marks of the +cold steel upon their persons. A braver set of men is hardly +anywhere to be found; or one trained up with finer feelings of +devotion towards the power whose salt they eat.[14] A good many of +the other fourth of the recruits for our native infantry are drawn +from among the Ujainī Rājpūts, or Rājpūts +from Ujain,[15] who were established many generations ago in the +same manner at Bhōjpur on the bank of the Ganges.[16]</p> + +<p><br> +Notes:</p> + +<p>1. A purōhit is a Brahman family priest.</p> + +<p>2. Four hundred thousand rupees, worth at that time more than +forty thousand pounds sterling.</p> + +<p>3. The magistrate was the author.</p> + +<p>4. 'That' in author's text.</p> + +<p>5. The water of the Ganges, with which the image of the god +Vishnu has been washed, is considered a very holy draught, fit for +princes. That with which the image of the god Siva, alias +Mahādēo, is washed must not be drunk. The popular belief +is that in a dispute between him and his wife, Pārvatī, +alias Kālī, she cursed the person that should +thenceforward dare to drink of the water that flowed over his +images on earth. The river Ganges is supposed to flow from the +top-knot of Siva's head, and no one would drink of it after this +curse, were it not that the sacred stream is supposed to come first +from the <i>heel</i> of Vishnu, the Preserver. All the little +images of Siva, that are made out of stones taken from the bed of +the Nerbudda river, are supposed to be absolved from this curse, +and water thrown upon <i>them</i> can be drunk with impunity. [W. +H. S.] The natural emblems of Siva, the Bāna-linga quartz +pebbles found in the Nerbudda, have already been referred to in the +note to Chapter 19, <i>ante</i>, note 9. In the Marāthā +country the 'household gods' generally comprise five sacred +symbols, namely, the <i>sālagrāma</i> stone of Vishnu, +the <i>bāna-linga</i> of Siva, a metallic stone representing +the female principle in nature (Sakti), a crystal representing the +sun, and a red stone representing Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. +The details of the tiresome ritual observed in the worship of these +objects occupy pp. 412 to 416 of Monier Williams's <i>Religious +Thought and Life in India</i>.</p> + +<p>6. 'Beearee' in author's text.</p> + +<p>7. Then worth more than thirty thousand pounds sterling.</p> + +<p>8. On the customs of the sweeper caste, see <i>ante</i>, Chapter +8, following note [11].</p> + +<p>9. The Parihārs were the rulers of Bundēlkhand before +the Chandēls. The chief of Uchhahara belongs to this clan.</p> + +<p>10. Wealthy Hindoos, throughout India, spend money in the same +ceremonies of marrying the stone to the shrub. [W. H. S.] Three +lakhs of rupees were then worth thirty thousand pounds sterling or +more.</p> + +<p>11. The numerous clans, more or less devoted to war, grouped +together under the name of Rājpūts (literally 'king's +sons'), are in reality of multifarious origin, and include +representatives of many races. They are the Kshatriyas of the law- +books, and are still often called Chhattrī (<i>E.H.I.</i>, 3rd +ed., pp. 407-15). In some parts of the country the word Thākur +is more familiar as their general title. Thirty-six clans are +considered as specially pure-blooded and are called, at any rate in +books, the 'royal races'. All the clans follow the custom of +exogamy. The Chandēls (Chandella) ruled Bundēlkhand from +the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. Their capital was Mahoba, +now a station on the Midland Railway. The Bundēlas became +prominent at a later date, and attained their greatest power under +Chhatarsāl (<i>circa</i> A.D. 1671-1731). Their territory is +now known as Bundēlkhand. The country so designated is not an +administrative division. It is partly in the United Provinces, +partly in the Central Provinces, and partly in Native States. It is +bounded on the north by the Jumna; on the north and west by the +Chambal river; on the south by the Central Provinces, and on the +south and east by Rīwā and the Kaimūr hills. The +traditions of both the Bundēlas and Chandellas show that there +is a strain of the blood of the earlier, so—called +aboriginal, races in both clans. The Pawār (Pramara) clan +ranks high, but is now of little political importance (See +<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. vii, p. 68).</p> + +<p>12. The paramount power often assigned a portion of its reserved +lands in 'Jāgīr' to public officers for the +establishments they required for the performance of the duties, +military or civil, which were expected from them. Other portions +were assigned in rent-free tenure for services already performed, +or to favourites; but, in both cases, the rights of the village or +land owner, or allodial proprietors, were supposed to be +unaffected, as the Government was presumed to assign only its own +claim to a certain portion as revenue. [W. H. S.] The term +'ryotwar' (raiyatwār) is commonly used to designate the system +under which the cultivators hold their lands direct from the State. +The subject of tenures is further discussed by the author in +Chapters 70, 71.</p> + +<p>13. For elaborate comparisons between the Rājpūt +policy and the feudal system of Europe, Tod's <i>Rajasthān</i> +may be consulted. The parallel is not really so close as it appears +to be at first sight. In some respects the organization of the +Highland clans is more similar to that of the Rājpūts +than the feudal system is. The Chambal river rises in +Mālwā, and, after a course of some five hundred and +seventy miles, falls into the Jumna forty miles below Etāwa. +The statement in the text concerning the succession of clans is +confused. The ruling family of Rīwā still belongs to the +Baghēl clan. The Maharājā of Jaipur (Jeypore) is a +Kachhwāha.</p> + +<p>14. The barbarous habit of alliance and connivance with robber +gangs is by no means confined to Rājpūt nobles and +landholders. Men of all creeds and castes yield to the temptation +and magistrates are sometimes startled to find that Honorary +Magistrates, Members of District Boards, and others of apparently +the highest respectability, are the abettors and secret organizers +of robber bands. A modern example of this fact was discovered in +the Meerut and Muzaffarnagar Districts of the United Provinces in +1890 and 1891. In this case the wealthy supporters of the banditti +were Jāts and Muhammadans.</p> + +<p>The unfortunate condition of Oudh previous to the annexation in +1856 is vividly described in the author's <i>Journey through the +Kingdom of Oude</i>, published in 1858. The tour took place in +1849- 50. Some districts of the kingdom, especially Hardoī, +are still tainted by the old lawlessness.</p> + +<p>The remarks on the fine feelings of devotion shown by the sepoys +must now be read in the light of the events of the Mutiny. Since +that time the army has been reorganized, and depends on Oudh for +its recruits much less than it did in the author's day.</p> + +<p>15. Ujain (Ujjain, Oojeyn) is a very ancient city, on the river +Sipra, in Mālwa, in the dominions of Sindhia, the chief of +Gwālior.</p> + +<p>16. Bhajpore in the author's text. The town referred to is +Bhōjpur in the Shāhābād district of South +Bihār.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch24">CHAPTER 24</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Corn Dealers—Scarcities—Famines in +India.</p> + +<p>Near Tehrī we saw the people irrigating a field of wheat +from a tank by means of a canoe, in a mode quite new to me. The +surface of the water was about three feet below that of the field +to be watered. The inner end of the canoe was open, and placed to +the mouth of a gutter leading into the wheat-field. The outer end +was closed, and suspended by a rope to the outer end of a pole, +which was again suspended to cross-bars. On the inner end of this +pole was fixed a weight of stones sufficient to raise the canoe +when filled with water; and at the outer end stood five men, who +pulled down and sank the canoe into the water as often as it was +raised by the stones, and emptied into the gutter. The canoe was +more curved at the outer end than ordinary canoes are, and seemed +to have been made for the purpose. The lands round the town +generally were watered by the Persian wheel; but, where it +[<i>scil.</i> the water] is near the surface, this [<i>scil.</i> +the canoe arrangement] I should think a better method.[1]</p> + +<p>On the 10th[2] we came on to the village of Bilgaī, twelve +miles over a bad soil, badly cultivated; the hard syenitic rock +rising either above or near to the surface all the way—in +some places abruptly, in small hills, decomposing into large +rounded boulders—in others slightly and gently, like the +backs of whales in the ocean-in others, the whole surface of the +country resembled very much the face of the sea, not after, but +really in, a storm, full of waves of all sizes, contending with +each other 'in most admired disorder'. After the dust of +Tehrī, and the fatiguing ceremonies of its court, the quiet +morning I spent in this secluded spot under the shade of some +beautiful trees, with the surviving canary singing, my boy playing, +and my wife sleeping off the fatigues of her journey, was to me +most delightful. Henry was extremely ill when we left Jubbulpore; +but the change of air, and all the other changes incident to a +march, have restored him to health.</p> + +<p>During the scarcity of 1833 two hundred people died of +starvation in this village alone;[3] and were all thrown into one +large well, which has, of course, ever since remained closed. +Autumn crops chiefly are cultivated; and they depend entirely on +the sky for water, while the poor people of the village depend upon +the returns of a single season for subsistence during the whole +year. They lingered on in the hope of aid from above till the +greater part had become too weak from want of food to emigrate. The +Rājā gave half a crown to every family;[4] but this +served merely to kindle their hopes of more, and to prolong their +misery. Till the people have a better government they can never be +secure from frequent returns of similar calamities. Such security +must depend upon a greater variety of crops, and better means of +irrigation; better roads to bring supplies over from distant parts +which have not suffered from the same calamities; and greater means +in reserve of paying for such supplies when brought—things +that can never be hoped for under a government like this, which +allows no man the free enjoyment of property.</p> + +<p>Close to the village a large wall has been made to unite two +small hills, and form a small lake; but the wall is formed of the +rounded boulders of the syenitic rock without cement, and does not +retain the water. The land which was to have formed the bed of the +lake is all in tillage; and I had some conversation with the man +who cultivated it. He told me that the wall had been built with the +money of <i>sin</i>, and not the money of <i>piety</i> (<i>pāp +kē paisā sē, na pun kē paisā sē +banā</i>), that the man who built it must have laid out his +money with a <i>worldly</i>, and not a <i>religious</i> mind +(<i>nīyat</i>); that on such occasions men generally assembled +Brahmans and other deserving people, and fed and clothed them, and +thereby <i>consecrated</i> a great work, and made it acceptable to +God, and he had heard from his ancestors that the man who had built +this wall had failed to do this; that the construction could never, +of course, answer the purpose for which it was intended—and +that the builder's name had actually been forgotten, and the work +did him no good either in this world or the next. This village, +which a year or two ago was large and populous, is now reduced to +two wretched huts inhabited by two very miserable families.</p> + +<p>Bundēlkhand suffers more often and more severely from the +want of seasonable showers of rain than any other part of India; +while the province of Mālwa, which adjoins it on the west and +south, hardly ever suffers at all.[5] There is a couplet, which, +like all other good couplets on rural subjects, is attributed to +Sahdēo [Sahadeva], one of the five demigod brothers of the +Mahābhārata, to this effect: 'If you hear not the thunder +on such a night, you, father, go to Mālwa, I to +Gujarāt;'—that is, there will be no rain, and we must +seek subsistence where rains never fail, and the harvests are +secure.</p> + +<p>The province of Mālwa is well studded with hills and groves +of fine trees, which intercept the clouds as they are wafted by the +prevailing westerly winds, from the Gulf of Cambay to the valley of +the Ganges, and make them drop their contents upon a soil of great +natural powers, formed chiefly from the detritus of the decomposing +basaltic rocks, which cap and intersect these hills.[6]</p> + +<p>During the famine of 1833, as on all similar occasions, grain of +every kind, attracted by high prices, flowed up in large streams +from this favoured province towards Bundēlkhand; and the +population of Bundēlkhand, as usual in such times of dearth +and scarcity, flowed off towards Mālwa against the stream of +supply, under the assurance that the nearer they got to the source, +the greater would be their chance of employment and subsistence. +Every village had its numbers of the dead and the dying; and the +roads were all strewed with them; but they were mostly concentrated +upon the great towns and civil and military stations, where +subscriptions were open[ed] for their support, by both the European +and native communities. The funds arising from these subscriptions +lasted till the rains had set fairly in, when all able-bodied +persons could easily find employment in tillage among the +agricultural communities of villages around. After the rains have +fairly set in, the <i>sick</i> and <i>helpless</i> only should be +kept concentrated upon large towns and stations, where little or no +employment is to be found; for the oldest and youngest of those who +are able to work can then easily find employment in weeding the +cotton, rice, sugar-cane, and other fields under autumn crops, and +in preparing the lands for the reception of the wheat, gram,[7] and +other spring seeds; and get advances from the farmers, agricultural +capitalists[8] and other members of the village communities, who +are all glad to share their superfluities with the distressed, and +to pay liberally for the little service they are able to give in +return.</p> + +<p>It is very unwise to give from such funds what may be considered +a full rate of subsistence to able-bodied persons, as it tends to +keep concentrated upon such points vast numbers who would otherwise +be scattered over the surface of the country among the village +communities, who would be glad to advance them stock and the means +of subsistence upon the pledge of their future services when the +season of tillage commences. The rate of subsistence should always +be something less than what the able-bodied person usually +consumes, and can get for his labour in the field. For the sick and +feeble this rate will be enough, and the healthy and able-bodied, +with unimpaired appetites, will seek a greater rate by the offer of +their services among the farmers and cultivators of the surrounding +country. By this precaution, the mass of suffering will be +gradually diffused over the country, so as best to receive what the +country can afford to give for its relief. As soon as the rains set +in, all the able-bodied men, women, and children should be sent off +with each a good blanket, and a rupee or two, as the funds can +afford, to last them till they can engage themselves with the +farmers. Not a farthing after that day should be given out, except +to the feeble and sick, who may be considered as hospital +patients.[9]</p> + +<p>At large places, where the greater numbers are concentrated, the +scene becomes exceedingly distressing, for, in spite of the best +dispositions and greatest efforts on the part of Government and its +officers, and the European and native communities, thousands +commonly die of starvation. At Sāgar, mothers, as they lay in +the streets unable to walk, were seen holding up their infants, and +imploring the passing stranger to take them in slavery, that they +might at least live—hundreds were seen creeping into gardens, +courtyards, and old ruins, concealing themselves under shrubs, +grass, mats, or straw, where they might die quietly, without having +their bodies torn by birds and beasts before the breath had left +them. Respectable families, who left home in search of the favoured +land of Mālwa, while yet a little property remained, finding +all exhausted, took opium rather than beg, and husband, wife, and +children died in each other's arms. Still more of such families +lingered on in hope till all had been expended; then shut their +doors, took poison and died all together, rather than expose their +misery, and submit to the degradation of begging. All these things +I have myself known and seen; and, in the midst of these and a +hundred other harrowing scenes which present themselves on such +occasions, the European cannot fail to remark the patient +resignation with which the poor people submit to their fate; and +the absence of almost all those revolting acts which have +characterized the famines of which he has read in other +countries—such as the living feeding on the dead, and mothers +devouring their own children. No such things are witnessed in +Indian famines;[10] here all who suffer attribute the disaster to +its real cause, the want of rain in due season; and indulge in no +feelings of hatred against their rulers, superiors, or more +fortunate equals in society who happen to live beyond the range of +such calamities. They gratefully receive the superfluities which +the more favoured are always found ready to share with the +afflicted in India; and, though their sufferings often subdue the +strongest of all pride, the pride of caste, they rarely ever drive +the people to acts of violence. The stream of emigration, guided as +it always is by that of the agricultural produce flowing in from +the more favoured countries, must necessarily concentrate upon the +communities along the line it takes a greater number of people than +they have the means of relieving, however benevolent their +dispositions; and I must say that I have never either seen or read +of a nobler spirit than seems to animate all classes of these +communities in India on such distressing occasions.</p> + +<p>In such seasons of distress, we often, in India, hear of very +injudicious interference with grain dealers on the part of civil +and military authorities, who contrive to persuade themselves that +the interest of these corn-dealers, instead of being in accordance +with the interests of the people, are entirely opposed to them; and +conclude that, whenever grain becomes dear, they have a right to +make them open their granaries, and sell their grain at such price +as they, in their wisdom, may deem reasonable. If they cannot make +them do this by persuasion, fine, or imprisonment, they cause their +pits to be opened by their own soldiers or native officers, and the +grain to be sold at an arbitrary price. If, in a hundred pits thus +opened, they find one in which the corn happens to be damaged by +damp, they come to the sage conclusion that the proprietors must be +what they have all along supposed them to be, and treated as +such—<i>the common enemies of mankind</i>—who, blind +alike to their own interests and those of the people, purchase up +the superabundance of seasons of plenty, not to sell it again in +seasons of scarcity, but <i>to destroy it</i>; and that the whole +of the grain in the other ninety-nine pits, but for their <i>timely +interference</i>, must have inevitably shared the same +fate.[11]</p> + +<p>During the season here mentioned, grain had become very dear at +Sāgar, from the unusual demand in Bundēlkhand and other +districts to the north. As usual, supplies of land produce flowed +up from the Nerbudda districts along the great roads to the east +and west of the city; but the military authorities in the +cantonments would not be persuaded out of their dread of a famine. +There were three regiments of infantry, a corps of cavalry, and two +companies of artillery cantoned at that time at Sāgar. They +were a mile from the city, and the grain for their supply was +exempted from town duties to which that for the city was liable. +The people in cantonments got their supply, in consequence, a good +deal cheaper than the people in the city got theirs; and none but +persons belonging bona fide to the cantonments were ever allowed to +purchase grain within them. When the dread of famine began, the +commissariat officer, Major Gregory, apprehended that he might not +be permitted to have recourse to the markets of the city in times +of scarcity, since the people of the city had not been suffered to +have recourse to those of the cantonments in times of plenty; but +he was told by the magistrate to purchase as much as he liked, +since he considered every man as free to sell his grain as his +cloth, or pots and pans, to whom he chose.[12] He added that he did +not share in the fears of the military authorities—that he +had no apprehension whatever of a famine, or when prices rose high +enough they would be sure to divert away into the city, from the +streams then flowing up from the valley of the Nerbudda and the +districts of Mālwa towards Bundēlkhand, a supply of grain +sufficient for all.</p> + +<p>This new demand upon the city increased rapidly the price of +grain, and augmented the alarm of the people, who began to urge the +magistrate to listen to their prayers, and coerce the sordid corn- +dealers, who had, no doubt, numerous pits yet unopened. The alarm +became still greater in the cantonments, where the commanding +officer attributed all the evil to the inefficiency of the +commissariat and the villany of the corn-dealers; and Major Gregory +was in dread of being torn to pieces by the soldiery. Only one +day's supply was left in the cantonment bazaars—the troops +had become clamorous almost to a state of mutiny—the people +of the town began to rush in upon every supply that was offered for +sale; and those who had grain to dispose of could no longer venture +to expose it. The magistrate was hard pressed on all sides to have +recourse to the old salutary method of searching for and forcibly +opening the grain pits, and selling the contents at such price as +might appear reasonable. The kotwāl[13] of the town declared +that the lives of his police would be no longer safe unless this +great and never-failing remedy, which had now unhappily been too +long deferred, were immediately adopted.</p> + +<p>The magistrate, who had already taken every other means of +declaring his resolution never to suffer any man's granary to be +forcibly opened, now issued a formal proclamation, pledging himself +to see that such granaries should be as much respected as any other +property in the city—that every man might keep his grain and +expose it for sale, wherever and whenever he pleased; and +expressing a hope that, as the people knew him too well not to feel +assured that his word thus solemnly pledged would never be broken, +he trusted they would sell what stores they had, and apply +themselves without apprehension to the collecting of more.</p> + +<p>This proclamation he showed to Major Gregory, assuring him that +no degree of distress or clamour among the people of the city or +the cantonments should ever make him violate the pledge therein +given to the corn-dealers; and that he was prepared to risk his +situation and reputation as a public officer upon the result. After +issuing this proclamation about noon, he had his police +establishments augmented, and so placed and employed as to give to +the people entire confidence in the assurances conveyed in it. The +grain-dealers, no longer apprehensive of danger, opened their pits +of grain, and sent off all their available means to bring in more. +In the morning the bazaars were all supplied, and every man who had +money could buy as much as he pleased. The troops got as much as +they required from the city. Major Gregory was astonished and +delighted. The colonel, a fine old soldier from the banks of the +Indus, who had commanded a corps of horse under the former +government, came to the magistrate in amazement; every shop had +become full of grain as if by supernatural agency.</p> + +<p><i>'Kāle ādmī kī akl kahān talak +chalēgī</i>?' said he. 'How little could a black man's +wisdom serve him in such an emergency?'</p> + +<p>There was little wisdom in all this; but there was a firm +reliance upon the truth of the general principle which should guide +all public officers on such occasions. The magistrate judged that +there were a great many pits of grain in the town known only to +their own proprietors, who were afraid to open them, or get more +grain, while there was a chance of the civil authorities yielding +to the clamours of the people and the anxiety of the officers +commanding the troops; and that he had only to remove these fears, +by offering a solemn pledge, and manifesting the means and the will +to abide by it, in order to induce the proprietors, not only to +sell what they had, but to apply all their means to the collecting +of more. But it is a singular fact that almost all the officers of +the cantonments thought the conduct of the magistrate in refusing +to have the grain pits opened under such pressing circumstances +extremely reprehensible.</p> + +<p>Had he done so, he might have given the people of the city and +the cantonments the supply at hand; but the injury done to the +corn- dealers by so very unwise a measure would have recoiled upon +the public, since every one would have been discouraged from +exerting himself to renew the supply, and from laying up stores to +meet similar necessities in future. By acting as he did, he not +only secured for the public the best exertions of all the existing +corn- dealers of the place, but actually converted for the time a +great many to that trade from other employments, or from idleness. +A great many families, who had never traded before, employed their +means in bringing a supply of grain, and converted their dwellings +into corn shops, induced by the high profits and assurance of +protection. During the time when he was most pressed the magistrate +received a letter from Captain Robinson, who was in charge of the +bazaars at Elichpur in the Hyderabad territory,[14] where the +dearth had become even more felt than at Sāgar, requesting to +know what measures had been adopted to regulate the price, and +secure the supply of grain for the city and cantonments at +Sāgar, since no good seemed to result from those hitherto +pursued at Elichpur. He told him in reply that these things had +hitherto been regulated at Sāgar as he thought 'they ought to +be regulated everywhere else, by being left entirely to the +discretion of the corn-dealers themselves, whose self-interest will +always prompt them to have a sufficient supply, as long as they may +feel secure of being permitted to do what they please with what +they collect. The commanding officer, in his anxiety to secure food +for the people, had hitherto been continually interfering to coerce +sales and regulate prices, and continually aggravating the evils of +the dearth by so doing'. On the receipt of the Sāgar +magistrate's letter a different course was adopted; the same +assurances were given to the corn-dealers, the same ability and +inclination to enforce them manifested, and the same result +followed. The people and the troops were steadily supplied; and all +were astonished that so very simple a remedy had not before been +thought of.</p> + +<p>The ignorance of the first principles of political economy among +European gentlemen of otherwise first-rate education and abilities +in India is quite lamentable, for there are really few public +officers, even in the army, who are not occasionally liable to be +placed in the situations where they may, by false measures, arising +out of such ignorance, aggravate the evils of dearth among great +bodies of their fellow men. A soldier may, however, find some +excuse for such ignorance, because a knowledge of these principles +is not generally considered to form any indispensable part of a +soldier's education; but no excuse can be admitted for a civil +functionary who is so ignorant, since a thorough acquaintance with +the principles of political economy must be, and, indeed, always is +considered as an essential branch of that knowledge which is to fit +him for public employment in India.[15]</p> + +<p>In India unfavourable seasons produce much more disastrous +consequences than in Europe. In England not more than one-fourth of +the population derive their incomes from the cultivation of the +lands around them. Three-fourths of the people have incomes +independent of the annual returns from those lands; and with these +incomes they can purchase agricultural produce from other lands +when the crops upon them fail. The farmers, who form so large a +portion of the fourth class, have stock equal in value to <i>four +times the amount of the annual rent of their lands</i>. They have +also a great variety of crops; and it is very rare that more than +one or two of them fail, or are considerably affected, the same +season. If they fail in one district or province, the deficiency is +very easily supplied to a people who have equivalents to give for +the produce of another. The sea, navigable rivers, fine roads, all +are open and ready at all times for the transport of the +superabundance of one quarter to supply the deficiencies of +another. In India, the reverse of all this is unhappily to be +found; more than three-fourths of the whole population are engaged +in the cultivation of the land, and depend upon its annual returns +for subsistence.[16] The farmers and cultivators have none of their +stock equal in value to more than <i>half the amount of the annual +rent of their lands</i>.[17] They have a great variety of crops; +but all are exposed to the same accidents, and commonly fail at the +same time. The autumn crops are sown in June and July, and ripen in +October and November; and, if seasonable showers do not fall during +July, August, and September, all fail. The spring crops are sown in +October and November, and ripen in March; and, if seasonable +showers do not happen to fall during December or January, all, save +what are artificially irrigated, fail.[18] If they fail in one +district or province, the people have few equivalents to offer for +a supply of land produce from any other. Their roads are scarcely +anywhere passable for wheeled carriages at <i>any season</i>, and +nowhere <i>at all seasons</i>—they have nowhere a navigable +canal, and only in one line a navigable river.</p> + +<p>Their land produce is conveyed upon the backs of bullocks, that +move at the rate of six or eight miles a day, and add one hundred +per cent. to the cost of every hundred miles they carry it in the +best seasons, and more than two hundred in the worst.[19] What in +Europe is felt merely as a <i>dearth</i>, becomes in India, under +all these disadvantages, a scarcity, and what is there a +<i>scarcity</i> becomes here a <i>famine</i>. Tens of thousands die +here of starvation, under calamities of season, which in Europe +would involve little of suffering to any class. Here man does +everything, and he must have his daily food or starve. In England +machinery does more than three-fourths of the collective work of +society in the production, preparation, and distribution of man's +physical enjoyments, and it stands in no need of this daily food to +sustain its powers; they are independent of the seasons; the water, +fire, air, and other elemental powers which they require to render +them subservient to our use are always available in abundance.</p> + +<p>This machinery is the great assistant of the present generation, +provided for us by the wisdom and industry of the past; wanting no +food itself, it can always provide its proprietors with the means +of purchasing what they require from other countries, when the +harvests of their own fail. When calamities of season deprive men +of employment for a time in tillage, they can, in England, commonly +find it in other branches of industry, because agricultural +industry forms so small a portion of the collective industry of the +nation; and because every man can, without prejudice to his status +in society, take to what branch of industry he pleases. But, when +these calamities of season throw men out of employment in tillage +for a time in India, they cannot find it in any other branch, +because agricultural industry forms so very large a portion of the +collective industry of every part of the country; and because men +are often prevented by the prejudices of caste from taking to that +which they can find.[20]</p> + +<p>In societies constituted like that of India the trade of the +corn- dealer is more essentially necessary for the welfare of the +community than in any other, for it is among them that the +superabundance of seasons of plenty requires most to be stored up +for seasons of scarcity; and if public functionaries will take upon +themselves to seize such stores, and sell them at their own +arbitrary prices, whenever prices happen to rise beyond the rate +which they in their short-sighted wisdom think just, no corn-dealer +will ever collect such stores. Hitherto, whenever grain has become +dear at any military or civil station, we have seen the civil +functionaries urged to prohibit its egress—to search for the +hidden stores, and to coerce the proprietors to the sale in all +manner of ways; and, if they do not yield to the ignorant clamour, +they are set down as indifferent to the sufferings of their fellow +creatures around them, and as blindly supporting the worst enemies +of mankind in the worst species of iniquity.</p> + +<p>If those who urge them to such measures are asked whether +silversmiths or linendrapers, who should be treated in the same +manner as they wish the corn-dealers to be treated, would ever +collect and keep stores of plate and cloth for their use, they +readily answer—No; they see at once the evil effects of +interfering with the free disposal of the property of the one, but +are totally blind to that which must as surely follow any +interference with that of the other, whose entire freedom is of so +much more vital importance to the public. There was a time, and +that not very remote, when grave historians, like Smollett, could, +even in England, fan the flame of this vulgar prejudice against one +of the most useful classes of society. That day is, thank God, +past; and no man can now venture to write such trash in his +history, or even utter it in any well-informed circle of English +society; and, if any man were to broach such a subject in an +English House of Commons, he would be considered as a fit subject +for a madhouse.</p> + +<p> But some, who retain their prejudices against +corn-dealers, and are yet ashamed to acknowledge their ignorance of +the first principles of political economy, try to persuade +themselves and their friends that, however applicable these may be +to the state of society in European or Christian countries, they +are not so to countries occupied by Hindoos and Muhammadans. This +is a sad delusion, and may be a very mischievous one, when indulged +by public officers in India.[21]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Irrigation by means of a 'dug-out' canoe used as a lever is +commonly practised in many parts of the country. The author gives a +rough sketch, not worth reproduction. The Persian wheel is suitable +for use in wide-mouthed wells. It may be described as a mill-wheel +with buckets on the circumference, which are filled and emptied as +the wheel revolves. It is worked by bullock-power acting on a rude +cog-wheel.</p> + +<p>2. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>3. A.D. 1833 corresponds to the year 1890 of the <i>Vikrama +Samvat</i>, or era, current in Bundēlkhand. About 1880 the +editor found this great famine still remembered as that of the year +'90.</p> + +<p>4. Half a crown seems to be used in this passage as a synonym +for the rupee, now (1914) worth a shilling and four pence.</p> + +<p>5. Bundēlkhand seems to be the meeting-place of the east +and west monsoons, and the moist current is, in consequence, often +feeble and variable. The country suffered again from famine in 1861 +and 1877, although not so severely as in 1833. In northern +Bundēlkhand a canal from the Betwa river has been constructed, +but is of only very limited use. The peculiarities of the soil and +climate forbid the wide extension of irrigation. For the prevention +of acute famine in this region the chief reliance must be on +improved communications. The country has been opened up by the +Indian Midland and other railways. In 1899-1900, notwithstanding +improved communications, Mālwa suffered severely from famine. +Aurangzēb considered Gujarāt to be 'the ornament and +jewel of India' (Bilimoria, <i>Letters of Aurungzebie</i>, 1908, +no. lxiv).</p> + +<p>6. The influence of trees on climate is undoubted, but the +author in this passage probably ascribes too much power to the +groves of Mālwa. On the formation of the black soil see note 7 +to Chapter 14, <i>ante</i>.</p> + +<p>7. The word in the author's text is 'grain', a misprint for +'gram' (<i>Cicer arietinum</i>), a pulse, also known as chick-pea, +and very largely grown in Bundēlkhand. 'Gram' is a corruption +of the Portuguese word for grain, and, like many other Portuguese +words, has passed into the speech of Anglo-Indians. See Yule and +Burnell, <i>Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words</i>, s.v.</p> + +<p>8. 'Agricultural capitalist' is a rather large phrase for the +humble village money-lender, whose transactions are usually on a +very small scale.</p> + +<p>9. The author's advice on the subject of famine relief is +weighty and perfectly sound. It is in accordance with the policy +formulated by the Government of India in the Famine Relief Code, +based on the Report of the Famine Commission which followed the +terrible Madras famine of 1877.</p> + +<p>10. This statement is too general. Examples of the horror +alluded to are recorded in several Indian famines. Cases of +cannibalism occurred during the Madras famine of 1877. But it is +true that horrors of the kind are rare in India, and the author's +praise of the patient resignation of the people is fully justified. +An admirable summary of the history of Indian famines will be found +in the articles 'Famines' and 'Food' in Balfour, +<i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed. (1885). For further and more recent +information see <i>I.G.</i> (1907), vol. iii, chap. 10.</p> + +<p>11. No European officer, military or civil, could now venture to +adopt such arbitrary measures. In a Native State they might very +probably be enforced.</p> + +<p>12. 'The magistrate' was the author himself.</p> + +<p>13. The chief police officer of a town. In the modern +reorganized system he always holds the rank of either Inspector or +Sub-Inspector. Under native governments he was a more important +official.</p> + +<p>14. Elichpur (Īlichpur) is in Berār, otherwise known +as the Assigned Districts, a territory made over in Lord +Dalhousie's time to British administration in order to defray the +cost of the armed force called the Hyderabad Contingent. Since 1903 +Berār has ceased to be a separate province. It is now merely a +Division attached to the Central Provinces. From the same date the +Hyderabad Contingent lost its separate existence, being +redistributed and merged in the Indian Army.</p> + +<p>15. Political Economy was for many years a compulsory subject +for the selected candidates for the Civil Service of India; but +since 1892 its study has been optional.</p> + +<p>16. The census of 1911 shows that about 71 per cent. of the +301,000,000 inhabiting India, excluding Burma, are supported by the +cultivation of the soil and the care of cattle. The proportion +varies widely in different provinces.</p> + +<p>17. This proposition does not apply fully to Northern India at +the present day. The amount of capital invested is small, although +not quite so small as is stated in the text.</p> + +<p>18. The times of harvest vary slightly with the latitude, being +later towards the north. The cold-weather rains of December and +January are variable and uncertain, and rarely last more than a few +days. The spring crops depend largely on the heavy dews which occur +daring the cold season.</p> + +<p>19. Daring the years which have elapsed since the famine of +1833, great changes have taken place in India, and many of the +author's remarks are only partially applicable to the present time. +The great canals, above all, the wonderful Ganges Canal, have +protected immense areas of Northern India from the possibility of +absolute famine, and Southern India has also been to a +considerable, though less, extent, protected by similar works. A +few new staples, of which potatoes are the most important, have +been introduced. The whole system of distribution has been +revolutionized by the development of railways, metalled roads, +wheeled vehicles, motors, telegraphs, and navigable canals. +Carriage on the backs of animals, whether bullocks, camels, or +donkeys, now plays a very subordinate part in the distribution of +agricultural produce. Prices are, in great measure, dependent on +the rates prevailing in Liverpool, Odessa, and Chicago. Food grains +now stand ordinarily at prices which, in the author's time, would +have been reckoned famine rates. The changes which have taken place +in England are too familiar to need comment.</p> + +<p>20. Since the author's time certain industries, the most +important being cotton-pressing, cotton-spinning, and +jute-spinning, have sprung up and assumed in Bombay, Calcutta, +Cawnpore, and a few other places, proportions which, absolutely, +are large. But India is so vast that these local developments of +manufactures, large though they are, seem to be as nothing when +regarded in comparison with the country as a whole. India is still, +and, to all appearance, always must be, essentially an agricultural +country.</p> + +<p>21. The author's teaching concerning freedom of trade in times +of famine and the function of dealers in corn is as sound as his +doctrine of famine relief. The 'vulgar prejudice', which he +denounces, still flourishes, and the 'sad delusion', which he +deplores, still obscures the truth. As each period of scarcity or +famine comes round, the old cries are again heard, and the +executive authorities are implored and adjured to forbid export, to +fix fair prices, and to clip the profits of the corn merchant. +During the Bengal famine of 1873-4, the demand for the prohibition +of the export of rice was urged by men who should have known +better, and Lord Northbrook is entitled to no small credit for +having firmly withstood the clamour. The more recent experiences of +the Russian Government should be remembered when the clamour is +again raised, as it will be. The principles on which the author +acted in the crisis at Sāgar in 1833 should guide every +magistrate who finds himself in a similar position, and should be +applied with unhesitating firmness and decision.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch25">CHAPTER 25</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Epidemic Diseases—Scape-goat.</p> + +<p>In the evening, after my conversation with the cultivator upon +the wall that united the two hills,[1] I received a visit from my +little friend the Sarīmant. His fine rose-coloured turban is +always put on very gracefully; every hair of his jet-black eyebrows +and mustachios seems to be kept always most religiously in the same +place; and he has always the same charming smile upon his little +face, which was never, I believe, distorted into an absolute laugh +or frown. No man was ever more perfectly master of what the natives +call 'the art of rising or sitting' (<i>nishisht wa +barkhāst</i>), namely, good manners. I should as soon expect +to see him set the Nerbudda on fire as commit any infringement of +the <i>convenances</i> on this head established in good Indian +society, or be guilty of anything vulgar in speech, sentiment, or +manners. I asked him by what means it was that the old queen of +Sāgar[2] drove out the influenza that afflicted the people so +much in 1832, while he was there on a visit to me. He told me that +he took no part in the ceremonies, nor was he aware of them till +awoke one night by 'the noise, when his attendants informed him +that the queen and the greater part of the city were making +offerings to the new god, Hardaul Lāla. He found next morning +that a goat had been offered up with as much noise as possible, and +with good effect, for the disease was found to give way from that +moment. About six years before, when great numbers were dying in +his own little capital of Pithoria[3] from a similar epidemic, he +had, he said, tried the same thing with still greater effect; but, +on that occasion, he had the aid of a man very learned in such +matters. This man caused a small carriage to be made up after a +plan of his own, for <i>a pair of scape-goats</i>, which were +harnessed to it, and driven during the ceremonies to a wood some +distance from the town, where they were let loose. From that hour +the disease entirely ceased in the town. The goats never returned. +'Had they come back,' said Sarīmant, 'the disease must have +come back with them; so he took them a long way into the +wood—indeed (he believed), the man, to make sure of them, had +afterwards caused them to be offered up as a sacrifice to the +shrine of Hardaul Lāla, in that very wood. He had himself +never seen a <i>pūjā</i> (religious ceremony) so entirely +and immediately efficacious as this, and much of its success was, +no doubt, attributable to the <i>science</i> of the man who planned +the carriage, and himself drove the pair of goats to the wood. No +one had ever before heard of the plan of a pair of <i>scape- +goats</i> being driven in a carriage; but it was likely (he +thought) to be extensively adopted in future.'[4]</p> + +<p>Sarīmant's man of affairs mentioned that when Lord Hastings +took the field against the Pindhārīs, in 1817,[5] and the +division of the grand army under his command was encamped near the +grove in Bundēlkhand, where repose the ashes of Hardaul +Lāla, under a small shrine, a cow was taken into this grove to +be converted into beef for the use of the Europeans. The priest in +attendance remonstrated, but in vain—the cow was killed and +eaten. The priest complained, and from that day the cholera morbus +broke out in the camp; and from this central point it was, he said, +generally understood to have spread all over India.[6] The story of +the cow travelled at the same time, and the spirit of Hardaul +Lāla was everywhere supposed to be riding in the whirlwind, +and <i>directing the storm</i>. Temples were everywhere erected, +and offerings made to appease him; and in six years after, he had +himself seen them as far as Lahore, and in almost every village +throughout the whole course of his journey to that distant capital +and back. He is one of the most sensible and freely spoken men that +I have met with. 'Up to within the last few years', added he, 'the +spirit of Hardaul Lāla had been propitiated only in cases of +cholera morbus; but now he is supposed to preside over all kinds of +epidemic diseases, and offerings have everywhere been made to his +shrine during late influenzas.'[7]</p> + +<p>'This of course arises', I observed, 'from the industry of his +priests, who are now spread all over the country; and you know that +there is hardly a village or hamlet in which there are not some of +them to be found subsisting upon the fears of the people.'</p> + +<p>'I have no doubt', replied he, 'that the cures which the people +attribute to the spirit of Hardaul Lāla often arise merely +from the firmness of their faith (<i>itikād</i>) in the +efficacy of their offerings; and that any other ceremonies, that +should give to their minds the same assurance of recovery, would be +of great advantage in cases of epidemic diseases. I remember a +singular instance of this,' said he. 'When Jeswant Rāo Holkar +was flying before Lord Lake to the banks of the Hyphasis,[8] a poor +trooper of one of his lordship's irregular corps, when he tied the +grain-bag to his horse's mouth, said 'Take this in the name of +Jeswant Rāo Holkar, for to him you and I owe all that we +have.' The poor man had been suffering from an attack of ague and +fever; but from that moment he felt himself relieved, and the fever +never returned. At that time this fever prevailed more generally +among the people of Hindustan than any I have ever known, though I +am now an old man. The speech of the trooper and the supposed +result soon spread; and others tried the experiment with similar +success, and it acted everywhere like a charm. I had the fever +myself, and, though by no means a superstitious man, and certainly +no lover of Jeswant Rāo Holkar, I tried the experiment, and +the fever left me from that day. From that time, till the epidemic +disappeared, no man, from the Nerbudda to the Indus, fed his horse +without invoking the spirit of Jeswant Rāo, though the chief +was then alive and well. Some one had said he found great relief +from plunging into the stream during the paroxysms of the fever; +others followed the example, and some remained for half an hour at +a time, and the sufferers generally found relief. The streams and +tanks throughout the districts between the Ganges and Jumna became +crowded, till the propitiatory offering to the spirit of the living +Jeswant Rāo Holkar were [sic] found equally good, and far less +troublesome to those who had horses that must have got their grain, +whether in Holkar's name or not.'</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that the great mass of those who had nothing +but their horses and their <i>good blades</i> to depend upon for +their subsistence did most fervently pray throughout India for the +safety of this Marāthā chief, when he fled before Lord +Lake's army; for they considered that, with his fall, the Company's +dominion would become everywhere securely established, and that +good soldiers would be at a discount. '<i>Company kē amal men +kuchh rozgār nahin hai</i>,'—'There is no employment in +the Company's dominion,' is a common maxim, not only among the men +of the sword and the spear, but among those merchants who lived by +supporting native civil and military establishments with the +luxuries and elegancies which, under the new order of things, they +have no longer the means to enjoy.</p> + +<p>The noisy <i>pūjā</i> (worship), about which our +conversation began, took place at Sāgar in April, 1832, while +I was at that station. More than four-fifths of the people of the +city and cantonments had been affected by a violent influenza, +which commenced with a distressing cough, was followed by fever, +and, in some cases, terminated in death. I had an application from +the old Queen Dowager of Sāgar, who received a pension of ten +thousand pounds a year from the British Government,[9] and resided +in the city, to allow of a <i>noisy</i> religious procession to +implore deliverance from this great calamity. Men, women, and +children in this procession were to do their utmost to add to the +noise by 'raising their voices in <i>psalmody</i>', beating upon +their brass pots and pans with all their might, and discharging +fire-arms where they could get them; and before the noisy crowd was +to be driven a buffalo, which had been purchased by a general +subscription, in order that every family might participate in the +merit. They were to follow it out for eight miles, where it was to +be turned loose for any man who would take it. If the animal +returned, the disease, it was said, must return with it, and the +ceremony be performed over again. I was requested to intimate the +circumstance to the officer commanding the troops in cantonments, +in order that the hideous noise they intended to make might not +excite any alarm, and bring down upon them the visit of the +soldiery. It was, however, subsequently determined that the animal +should be a goat, and he was driven before the crowd accordingly. I +have on several occasions been requested to allow of such noisy +<i>pūjās</i> in cases of epidemics; and the confidence +they feel in their efficiency has, no doubt, a good effect.</p> + +<p>While in civil charge of the district of Narsinghpur, in the +valley of the Nerbudda, in April 1823, the cholera morbus raged in +almost every house of Narsinghpur and Kandelī, situated near +each other,[l0] and one of them close to my dwelling-house and +court. The European physicians lost all confidence in their +prescriptions, and the people declared that the hand of God was +upon them, and by appeasing Him could they alone hope to be +saved.[11] A religious procession was determined upon; but the +population of both towns was divided upon the point whether a +silent or a noisy one would be most acceptable to God. Hundreds +were dying around me when I was applied to to settle this knotty +point between the parties. I found that both in point of numbers +and respectability the majority was in favour of the silent +procession, and I recommended that this should be adopted. The +procession took place about nine the same night, with all due +ceremony; but the advocates for noise would none of them assist in +it. Strange as it may appear, the disease abated from that moment; +and the great majority of the population of both towns believed +that their prayers had been heard; and I went to bed with a mind +somewhat relieved by the hope that this feeling of confidence might +be useful. About one o'clock I was awoke from a sound sleep by the +most hideous noise that I had ever heard; and, not at that moment +recollecting the proposal for the noisy procession, ran out of my +house, in expectation of seeing both towns in flames. I found that +the advocates for noise, resolving to have their procession, had +assembled together about midnight; and, apprehensive that they +might be borne down by the advocates for silence and my police +establishment, had determined to make the most of their time, and +put in requisition all the pots, pans, shells, trumpets, pistols, +and muskets that they could muster. All opened at once about one +o'clock; and, had there been any virtue in discord, the cholera +must soon have deserted the place, for such another hideous +compound of noises I never heard. The disease, which seemed to have +subsided with the silent procession before I went to bed, now +returned with double violence, as I was assured by numbers who +flocked to my house in terror; and the whole population became +exasperated with the leaders of the noisy faction, who had, they +believed, been the means of bringing back among them all the +horrors of this dreadful scourge.</p> + +<p>I asked the Hindoo Sadar Amīn, or head native judicial +officer at Sāgar, a very profound Sanskrit scholar, what he +thought of the efficacy of these processions in checking epidemic +diseases. He said that 'there could be nothing more clear than the +total inefficiency of medicine in such cases; and, when medicine +failed, a man's only resource was in prayers; that the diseases of +mankind were to be classed under three general heads: first, those +suffered for sins committed in some former births; second, those +suffered for sins committed in the present birth; third, those +merely accidental. Now,' said the old gentleman, 'it must be clear +to every unprejudiced mind that the third only can be cured or +checked by the physician.' Epidemics, he thought, must all be +classed under the second head, and as inflicted by the Deity for +some very general sin; consequently, to be removed only by prayers; +and, whether silent or noisy, was, he thought, matter of little +importance, provided they were offered in the same spirit. I +believe that, among the great mass of the people of India, +three-fourths of the diseases of individuals are attributed to evil +spirits and evil eyes; and for every physician among them there are +certainly ten <i>exorcisers</i>. The faith in them is very great +and very general; and, as the gift is supposed to be supernatural, +it is commonly exercised without fee or reward. The gifted person +subsists upon some other employment, and <i>exorcises</i> +gratis.</p> + +<p>A child of one of our servants was one day in convulsions from +its sufferings in cutting its teeth. The Civil Surgeon happened to +call that morning, and he offered to lance the child's gums. The +poor mother thanked him, but stated that there could be no possible +doubt as to the source of her child's sufferings—that the +devil had got into it during the night, and would certainly not be +frightened out by his little lancet; but she expected every moment +my old tent- pitcher, whose exorcisms no devil of this description +had ever yet been able to withstand.</p> + +<p>The small-pox had been raging in the town of Jubbulpore for some +time during one hot season that I was there, and a great many +children had died from it. The severity of the disease was +considered to have been a good deal augmented by a very untoward +circumstance that had taken place in the family of the principal +banker of the town, Khushhāl Chand. Sēwā Rām +Sēth, the old man, had lately died, leaving two sons. Ram +Kishan, the eldest, and Khushhāl Chand, the second. The eldest +gave up all the management of the sublunary concerns of the family, +and devoted his mind entirely to religious duties. They had a very +fine family temple of their own, in which they placed an image of +their god Vishnu, cut out of the choicest stone of the Nerbudda, +and consecrated after the most approved form, and with very +expensive ceremonies. This idol Rām Kishan used every day to +wash with his own hands with rosewater, and anoint with precious +ointments. One day, while he had the image in his arms, and was +busily employed in anointing it, it fell to the ground upon the +stone pavement, and one of the arms was broken. To live after such +an untoward accident was quite out of the question, and poor +Rām Kishan proceeded at once quietly to hang himself. He got a +rope from the stable, and having tied it over the beam in the room +where he had let the god fall upon the stone pavement, he was +putting his head calmly into the noose, when his brother came in, +laid hold of him, called for assistance, and put him under +restraint. A conclave of the priests of that sect was immediately +held in the town, and Rām Kishan was told that hanging himself +was not absolutely necessary; that it might do if he would take the +stone image, broken arm and all, upon his own back, and carry it +two hundred and sixty miles to Benares, where resided the high +priest of the sect, who would, no doubt, be able to suggest the +proper measures for pacifying the god.</p> + +<p>At this time, the only son of his brother, Khushhāl Chand, +an interesting little boy of about four years of age, was extremely +ill of the small-pox; and it is a rule with Hindoos never to +undertake any journey, even one of pilgrimage to a holy shrine, +while any member of the family is afflicted with this disease; they +must all sit at home clothed in sackcloth and ashes. He was told +that he had better defer his journey to Benares till the child +should recover; but he could neither sleep nor eat, so great was +his terror, lest some dreadful calamity should befall the whole +family before he could expiate his crime, or take the advice of his +high priest as to the best means of doing it: and he resolved to +leave the decision of the question to God Himself. He took two +pieces of paper, and having caused Benares to be written upon one, +and Jubbulpore upon the other, he put them both into a brass +vessel. After shaking the vessel well, he drew forth that on which +Benares had been written. 'It is the will of God,' said Rām +Kishan. All the family, who were interested in the preservation of +the poor boy, implored him not to set out, lest Dēvī, who +presides over small-pox, should become angry. It was all in vain. +He would set out with his household god; and, unable to carry it +himself, he put it into a small litter upon a pole, and hired a +bearer to carry it at one end, while he supported it at the other. +His brother, Khushhāl Chand, sent his second wife at the same +time with offerings for Dēvī, to ward off the effects of +his brother's rashness from his child. By the time the brother had +got with his god to Adhartāl, three miles from Jubbulpore, on +the road to Benares, he heard of the death of his nephew; but he +seemed not to feel this slight blow in his terror of the dreadful +but undefined calamity which he felt to be impending over him and +the whole family, and he trotted on his road. Soon after, an infant +son of their uncle died of the same disease; and the whole town +became at once divided into two parties—those who held that +the children had been killed by Dēvī as a punishment for +Rām Kishan's presuming to leave Jubbulpore before they +recovered; and those who held that they were killed by the god +Vishnu himself, for having been so rudely deprived of one of his +arms. Khushhāl Chand's wife sickened on the road, and died on +reaching Mirzapore, of fever; and, as Dēvī was supposed +to have nothing to do with fevers, this event greatly augmented the +advocates of Vishnu. It is a rule with the Hindoos to bury, and not +to burn, the bodies of those who die of the small-pox; 'for', say +they, 'the small-pox is not only caused by the goddess +Dēvī, but is, in fact, <i>Dēvī herself</i>', +and to burn the body of the person affected with this disease is, +in reality, neither more nor less than <i>to burn the +goddess</i>'.</p> + +<p>Khushhāl Chand was strongly urged to bury, and not burn, +his child, particularly as it was usual with Hindoos to bury +infants and children of that age, of whatever disease they might +die; but he insisted upon having his boy burned with all due pomp +and ceremony, and burned he was accordingly. From that moment, it +is said, the disease began to rage with increased violence +throughout the town of Jubbulpore. At least one-half of the +children affected had before survived; but, from that hour, at +least three out of four died; and, instead of the condolence which +he expected from his fellow citizens, poor Khushhāl Chand, a +very amiable and worthy man, received nothing but their execrations +for bringing down so many calamities upon their heads; first, by +maltreating his own god, and then by setting fire to theirs.</p> + +<p>I had, a few days after, a visit from Gangādhar Rāo, +the Sadar Amīn, or head native judicial officer of this +district, whose father had been for a short time the ruler of the +district, under the former government; and I asked him whether the +small-pox had diminished in the town since the rains had now set +in. He told me that he thought it had, but that a great many +children had been taken off by the disease.[12]</p> + +<p>'I understand, Rāo Sahib, that Khushhāl Chand, the +banker, is supposed to have augmented the virulence of the disease +by burning his boy; was it so?'</p> + +<p>'Certainly,' said my friend, with a grave, long face; 'the +disease was much increased by this man's folly.' I looked very +grave in my turn, and he continued:- 'Not a child escaped after he +had burned his boy. Such incredible folly! To set fire to the +<i>goddess</i> in the midst of a population of twenty thousand +souls; it might have brought destruction on us all!'</p> + +<p>'What makes you think that the disease is itself the +goddess?'</p> + +<p>'Because we always say, when any member of a family becomes +attacked by the small-pox, "<i>Dēvī nikalī</i>", +that is, Dēvī has shown herself in that family, or in +that individual. And the person affected can wear nothing but plain +white clothing, not a silken or coloured garment, nor an ornament +of any kind; nor can he or any of his family undertake a journey, +or participate in any kind of rejoicings, lest he give offence to +her. They broke the arm of their god, and he drove them all +mad.[l3] The elder brother set out on a journey with it, and his +nephew, cousin, and sister-in-law fell victims to his temerity; and +then Khushhāl Chand brings down the goddess upon the whole +community by burning his boy![14] No doubt he was very fond of his +child—so we all are—and wished to do him all honour; +but some regard is surely due to the people around us, and I told +him so when he was making preparations for the funeral; but he +would not listen to reason.'</p> + +<p>A complicated religious code, like that of the Hindoos, is to +the priest what a complicated civil code, like that of the English, +is to the lawyers. A Hindoo can do nothing without consulting his +priest, and an Englishman can do nothing without consulting his +lawyer.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 24, following note [4].</p> + +<p>2. Sāgar was ceded by the Peshwa in 1818, and a yearly sum +of two and a half lakhs of rupees was allotted by Government for +pensions to Rukmā Bāī, Vināyak Rāo, and +the other officers of the Marāthā Government. A +descendant of Rukmā Bāī continued for many years to +enjoy a pension of R.10,000 per annum (<i>C.P. Gazetteer</i> +(1870), p, 442). The lady referred to in the text seems to be +Rukmā Bāī.</p> + +<p>3. A village about twenty miles north-west of Sāgar. The +estate consists of twenty-six revenue-free villages.</p> + +<p>4. The Jewish ceremonial is described in Leviticus xvi. 20-26. +After completing the atonement for the impurities of the holy +place, the tabernacle, and the altar, Aaron was directed to lay +'his hands upon the head of the live goat', so putting all the sins +of the people upon the animal, and then to 'send him away by the +hand of a fit man into the wilderness; and the goat shall bear upon +him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall +let go the goat in the wilderness'. The subject of scape-goats is +discussed at length and copiously illustrated by Mr. Frazer in +<i>The Golden Bough</i>, 1st ed., vol. ii, section 15, pp. 182-217; +3rd ed. (1913) Part VI. The author's stories in the text are quoted +by Mr. Frazer.</p> + +<p>5. During the season of 1816-17 the ravages of the +Pindhārīs were exceptionally daring and extensive. The +Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings, organized an army in +several divisions to crush the marauders, and himself joined the +central division in October 1817. The operations were ended by the +capture of Asīrgarh in March 1819.</p> + +<p>6. The people in the Sāgar territories used to show several +decayed mango-trees in groves where European troops had encamped +during the campaigns of 1816 and 1817, and declared that they had +been seen to wither from the day that beef for the use of these +troops had been tied to their branches. The only coincidence was in +the decay of the trees, and the encamping of the troops in the +groves; that the withering trees were those to which the beef had +been tied was of course taken for granted. [W. H. S.] The Hindoo +veneration for the cow amounts to a passion, and its intensity is +very inadequately explained by the current utilitarian +explanations. The best analysis of the motives underlying the +passionate Hindoo feeling on the subject is to be found in Mr. +William Crooke's article 'The Veneration of the Cow in India' +(<i>Folklore</i>, Sept. 1912, pp. 275-306). In modern times an +active, though absolutely hopeless, agitation has been kept up, +directed against the reasonable liberty of those communities in +India who are not members of the Hindoo system. This agitation for +the prohibition of cow-killing has caused some riots, and has +evoked much ill-feeling. The editor had to deal with it in the +Muzaffarnagar district in 1890, and had much trouble to keep the +peace. The local leaders of the movement went so far as to send +telegrams direct to the Government of India. Many other magistrates +have had similar experiences. The authorities take every precaution +to protect Hindoo susceptibilities from needless wounds, but they +are equally bound to defend the lawful liberty of subjects who are +not Hindoos. The Government of the United Provinces on one occasion +yielded to the Hindoo demands so far as to prohibit cow- killing in +at least one town where the practice was not fully established, but +the legality and expediency of such an order are both open to +criticism. The administrative difficulty is much enhanced by the +fact that the Indian Muhammadans profess to be under a religious +obligation to sacrifice cows at the Īdul Bakr festival. +Cholera has been known to exist in India at least since the +seventeenth century (Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia of India</i>, 3rd ed. +(1885), s.v.).</p> + +<p>7. The cultus of Hardaul is further discussed <i>post</i> in +Chapter 31. In 1875, the editor, who was then employed in the +Hamīrpur district of Bundēlkhand, published some popular +Hindi songs in praise of the hero, with the following abstract of +the <i>Legend of Hardaul</i>: 'Hardaul, a son of the famous +Bīr Singh Deo Bundēla of Orchhā, was born at +Datiyā. His brother, Jhajhār Singh, suspected him of +undue intimacy with his wife, and at a feast poisoned him with all +his followers. After this tragedy, it happened that the daughter of +Kunjāvatī, the sister of Jhajhār and Hardaul, was +about to be married. Kunjāvatī accordingly sent an +invitation to Jhajhār Singh, requesting him to attend the +wedding. He refused, and mockingly replied that she had better +invite her favourite brother Hardaul. Thereupon she went in despair +to his tomb and lamented aloud. Hardaul from below answered her +cries, and said that he would come to the wedding and make all +arrangements. The ghost kept his promise, and arranged the nuptials +as befitted the honour of his house. Subsequently, he visited at +night the bedside of Akbar, and besought the emperor to command +<i>chabūtras</i> to be erected and honour paid to him in every +village throughout the empire, promising that, if he were duly +honoured, a wedding should never be marred by storm or rain, and +that no one who first presented a share of his meal to Hardaul +should ever want for food. Akbar complied with these requests, and +since that time Hardaul's ghost has been worshipped in every +village. He is chiefly honoured at weddings and in Baisākh +(April-May), during which month the women, especially those of the +lower castes, visit his <i>chabūtra</i> and eat there. His +chabūtra is always built outside the village. On the day but +one before the arrival of a wedding procession, the women of the +family worship the gods and Hardaul, and invite them to the +wedding. If any signs of a storm appears, Hardaul is propitiated +with songs '(<i>J.A.S.B.</i>, vol. xliv (1875), Part I, p. 389). +The belief that Hardaul worship and cholera had been introduced at +the same time prevailed in Hamīrpur, as elsewhere. The +<i>chabūtra</i> referred to in the above extract is a small +platform built of mud or masonry.</p> + +<p>8. The Hyphasis is the Greek name for the river Biās in the +Panjāb. Holkar's flight into the Panjāb occurred in 1805, +and in the same year the long war with him was terminated by a +treaty, much too favourable to the marauding chief. He became +insane a few years later, and died in 1811.</p> + +<p>9. See note 2,<i>ante</i>.</p> + +<p>10. Narsinghpur and Kandelī are practically one town. The +Government offices and houses of the European residents are in +Kandelī, which is a mile east of Narsinghpur. The original +name of Narsinghpur was Gadariā Khērā. The modern +name is due to the erection of a large temple to Narsingha, one of +the forms of Vishnu. The district of Narsinghpur lies in the +Nerbudda valley, west and south-west of Jubbulpore.</p> + +<p>11. All classes of Indians still frequently refuse to employ any +medicines in cases of either cholera or small-pox, supposing that +the attempt to use ordinary human means is an insult to, and a +defiance of, the Deity.</p> + +<p>12. Vaccination was not practised in India in those days. The +practice of it, although still unpopular in most places, has +extended sufficiently to check greatly the ravages of small-pox. In +many municipal towns vaccination is compulsory.</p> + +<p>13.<i>Quem deus vult perdere, prius dementat</i>.</p> + +<p>14. The judge cleverly combines the opinions of the adherents of +both sects.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch26">CHAPTER 26</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Artificial Lakes in Bundēlkhand—Hindoo, +Greek, and Roman Faith.</p> + +<p>On the 11th[1] we came on twelve miles to the town of +Bamhaurī, whence extends to the south-west a ridge of high and +bare quartz hills, towering above all others, curling and foaming +at the top, like a wave ready to burst, when suddenly arrested by +the hand of Omnipotence, and turned into white stone. The soil all +the way is wretchedly poor in quality, being formed of the detritus +of syenitic and quartz rocks, and very thin. Bamhaurī is a +nice little town,[2] beautifully situated on the bank of a fine +lake, the waters of which preserved during the late famine the +population of this and six other small towns, which are situated +near its borders, and have their lands irrigated from it. Besides +water for their fields, this lake yielded the people abundance of +water-chestnuts[3] and fish. In the driest season the water has +been found sufficient to supply the wants of all the people of +those towns and villages, and those of all the country around, as +far as the people can avail themselves of it.</p> + +<p>This large lake is formed by an artificial bank or wall at the +south-east end, which rests one arm upon the high range of quartz +rocks, which run along its south-west side for several miles, +looking down into the clear deep water, and forming a beautiful +landscape.</p> + +<p>From this pretty town, Ludhaura, where the great marriage had +lately taken place, was in sight, and only four miles distant.[4] +It was, I learnt, the residence of the present Rājā of +Orchhā, before the death of his brother called him to the +throne. Many people were returning from the ceremonies of the +marriage of 'sālagrām' with 'Tulasī'; who told me +that the concourse had been immense—at least one hundred and +fifty thousand; and that the Rājā had feasted them all +for four days during the progress of the ceremonies, but that they +were obliged to defray their expenses going and coming, except when +they came by special invitation to do honour to the occasion, as in +the case of my little friend the Sāgar high priest, +Jānkī Sewak. They told me that they called this festival +the 'Dhanuk jag';[5] and that Janakrāj, the father of +Sītā, had in his possession the 'dhanuk', or immortal bow +of Parasrām, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, with which he +exterminated all the Kshatriyas, or original military class of +India, and which required no less than four thousand men to raise +it on one end.[6] The prince offered his daughter in marriage to +any man who should bend this bow. Hundreds of heroes and demigods +aspired to the hand of the fair Sītā, and essayed to bend +the bow; but all in vain, till young Rām, the seventh +incarnation of Vishnu,[7] then a lad of only ten years of age, +came; and at the touch of his great toe the bow flew into a +thousand pieces, which are supposed to have been all taken up into +heaven. Sītā became the wife of Rām; and the popular +poem of the Rāmāyana describes the abduction of the +heroine by the monster king of Ceylon, Rāvana, and her +recovery by means of the monkey general Hanumān. Every word of +this poem, the people assured me, was written, if not by the hand +of the Deity himself, at least by his inspiration, which was the +same thing, and it must, consequently, be true.[8] Ninety-nine out +of a hundred among the Hindoos implicitly believe, not only every +word of this poem, but every word of every poem that has ever been +written in Sanskrit. If you ask a man whether he really believes +any very egregious absurdity quoted from these books, he replies +with the greatest <i>naïveté</i> in the world, 'Is it +not written in the book; and how should it be there written if not +true?' The Hindoo religion reposes upon an entire prostration of +mind, that continual and habitual surrender of the reasoning +faculties, which we are accustomed to make occasionally. While +engaged at the theatre, or in the perusal of works of fiction, we +allow the scenes, characters, and incidents to pass before 'our +mind's eye', and move our feelings, without asking, or stopping a +moment to ask, whether they are real or true. There is only this +difference that, with people of education among us, even in such +short intervals of illusion or abandon, any extravagance in acting, +or flagrant improbability in the fiction, destroys the charm, +breaks the spell by which we have been so mysteriously bound, stops +the smooth current of sympathetic emotion, and restores us to +reason and to the realities of ordinary life. With the Hindoos, on +the contrary, the greater the improbability, the more monstrous and +preposterous the fiction, the greater is the charm it has over +their minds;[9] and the greater their learning in the Sanskrit the +more are they under the influence of this charm. Believing all to +be written by the Deity, or by his inspiration, and the men and +things of former days to have been very different from the men and +things of the present day, and the heroes of these fables to have +been demigods, or people endowed with powers far superior to those +of the ordinary men of their own day, the analogies of nature are +never for a moment considered; nor do questions of probability, or +possibility, according to those analogies, ever obtrude to dispel +the charm with which they are so pleasingly bound. They go on +through life reading and talking of these monstrous fictions, which +shock the taste and understanding of other nations, without once +questioning the truth of one single incident, or hearing it +questioned. There was a time, and that not very distant, when it +was the same in England, and in every other European nation; and +there are, I am afraid, some parts of Europe where it is so still. +But the Hindoo faith, so far as religious questions are concerned, +is not more capacious or absurd than that of the Greeks and Romans +in the days of Socrates and Cicero—the only difference is, +that among the Hindoos a greater number of the questions which +interest mankind are brought under the head of religion.</p> + +<p>There is nothing in the Hindoos more absurd than the +<i>piety</i> of Tiberius in offering up sacrifices in the temple, +and before the image of Augustus; while he was solicited by all the +great cities of the empire to suffer temples to be built and +sacrifices to be made to himself while still living; or than +Alexander's attempt to make a goddess of his mother while yet +alive, that he might feel the more secure of being made a god +himself after his death.[10] In all religions there are points at +which the professors declare that reason must stop, and cease to be +a guide to faith. The pious man thinks that all which he cannot +comprehend or reconcile to reason in his own religion must be above +it. The superstitions of the people of India will diminish before +the spread of science, art, and literature; and good works of +history and fiction would, I think, make far greater havoc among +these superstitions even than good works in any of the sciences, +save the physical, such as astronomy, chemistry, &c.[11]</p> + +<p>In the evening we went out with the intention of making an +excursion of the lake, in boats that had been prepared for our +reception by tying three or four fishing canoes together;[12] but, +on reaching the ridge of quartz hills which runs along the +south-east side, we preferred moving along its summit to entering +the boats. The prospect on either side of this ridge was truly +beautiful. A noble sheet of clear water, about four miles long by +two broad, on our right; and on our left a no less noble sheet of +rich wheat cultivation, irrigated from the lake by drains passing +between small breaks in the ridges of the hills. The Persian wheel +is used to raise the water.[13] This sheet of rich cultivation is +beautifully studded with mango groves and fields of sugar-cane. The +lake is almost double the size of that of Sāgar, and the idea +of its great utility for purposes of irrigation made it appear to +me far more beautiful; but my little friend the Sarīmant, who +accompanied us in our walk, said that 'it could not be so handsome, +since it had not a fine city and castle on two sides, and a fine +Government house on the third'.</p> + +<p>'But', said I, 'no man's field is watered from that lake.'</p> + +<p>'No', replied he, 'but for every man that drinks of the waters +of this, fifty drink of the waters of that; from that lake thirty +thousand people get <i>ārām</i> (comfort) every day.'</p> + +<p>This lake is called Kēwlas after Kēwal Varmma, the +Chandēl prince by whom it was formed.[14] His palace, now in +ruins, stood on the top of the ridge of rocks in a very beautiful +situation. From the summit, about eight miles to the west, we could +see a still larger lake, called the Nandanvārā Lake, +extending under a similar range of quartz hills running parallel +with that on which we stood.[15] That lake, we were told, answered +upon a much larger scale the same admirable purpose of supplying +water for the fields, and securing the people from the dreadful +effects of droughts. The extensive level plains through which the +rivers of Central India[16] generally cut their way have, for the +most part, been the beds of immense natural lakes;[17] and there +rivers sink so deep into their beds, and leave such ghastly chasms +and ravines on either side, that their waters are hardly ever +available in due season for irrigation. It is this characteristic +of the rivers of Central India that makes such lakes so valuable to +the people, particularly in seasons of drought.[l8] The river +Nerbudda has been known to rise seventy feet in the course of a +couple of days in the rains; and, during the season when its waters +are wanted for irrigation, they can nowhere be found within that +[distance] of the surface; while a level piece of ground fit for +irrigation is rarely to be met with within a mile of the +stream.[19]</p> + +<p>The people appeared to improve as we advanced farther into +Bundēlkhand in appearance, manners, and intelligence. There is +a bold bearing about the Bundēlas, which at first one is apt +to take for rudeness or impudence, but which in time he finds not +to be so.</p> + +<p>The employés of the Rājā were everywhere +attentive, frank, and polite; and the peasantry seemed no longer +inferior to those of our Sāgar and Nerbudda territories. The +females of almost all the villages through which we passed came out +with their <i>Kalas</i> in procession to meet us—one of the +most affecting marks of respect from the peasantry for their +superiors that I know. One woman carries on her head a brass jug, +brightly polished, full of water; while all the other families of +the village crowd around her, and sing in chorus some rural song, +that lasts from the time the respected visitor comes in sight till +he disappears. He usually puts into the Kalas a rupee to purchase +'gur' (coarse sugar), of which all the females partake, as a sacred +offering to the sex. No member of the other sex presumes to partake +of it, and during the chorus all the men stand aloof in respectful +silence. This custom prevails all over India, or over all parts of +it that I have seen; and yet I have witnessed a Governor-General of +India, with all his suite, passing by this interesting group, +without knowing or asking what it was. I lingered behind, and +quietly put my silver into the jug, as if from the +Governor-General.[20]</p> + +<p>The man who administers the government over these seven villages +in all its branches, civil, criminal, and fiscal, receives a salary +of only two hundred rupees a year. He collects the revenues on the +part of Government; and, with the assistance of the heads and the +elders of the villages, adjusts all petty matters of dispute among +the people, both civil and criminal. Disputes of a more serious +character are sent to be adjusted at the capital by the +Rājā and his ministers. The person who reigns over the +seven villages of the lake is about thirty years of age, of the +Rājpūt caste, and, I think, one of the finest young men I +have ever seen. His ancestors have served the Orchhā State in +the same station for seven generations; and he tells me that he +hopes his posterity will serve them [<i>sic</i>] for as many more, +provided they do not forfeit their claims to do so by their +infidelity or incapacity. This young man seemed to have the respect +and affection of every member of the little communities of the +villages through which we passed, and it was evident that he +deserved their attachment. I have rarely seen any similar signs of +attachment to one of our own native officers. This arises chiefly +from the circumstance of their being less frequently placed in +authority among those upon whose good feelings and opinions their +welfare and comfort, as those of their children, are likely +permanently to depend. In India, under native rule, office became +hereditary, because officers expended the whole of their incomes in +religious ceremonies, or works of ornament and utility, and left +their families in hopeless dependence upon the chief in whose +service they had laboured all their lives, while they had been +educating their sons exclusively with the view of serving that +chief in the same capacity that their fathers had served him before +them. It is in this case, and this alone, that the law of +primogeniture is in force in India.[21] Among Muhammadans, as well +as Hindoos, all property, real and personal, is divided equally +among the children;[22] but the duties of an office will not admit +of the same subdivision; and this, therefore, when hereditary, as +it often is, descends to the eldest son with the obligation of +providing for the rest of the family. The family consists of all +the members who remain united to the parent stock, including the +widows and orphans of the sons or brothers who were so up to the +time of their death.[23]</p> + +<p>The old 'chobdār', or silver-stick bearer, who came with us +from the Rājā, gets fifteen rupees a month, and his +ancestors have served the Rājā for several generations. +The Dīwān, who has charge of the treasury, receives only +one thousand rupees a year, and the Bakshī, or paymaster of +the army, who seems at present to rule the state as the prime +favourite, the same. These latter are at present the only two great +officers of state; and, though they are, no doubt, realizing +handsome incomes by indirect means, they dare not make any display, +lest signs of wealth might induce the Rājā or his +successors to treat them as their predecessors in office were +treated for some time past.[24] The Jāgīrdārs, or +feudal chiefs, as I have before stated, are almost all of the same +family or class as the Rājā, and they spend all the +revenues of their estates in the maintenance of military retainers, +upon whose courage and fidelity they can generally rely. These +Jāgīrdārs are bound to attend the prince on all +great occasions, and at certain intervals; and are made to +contribute something to his exchequer in tribute. Almost all live +beyond their legitimate means, and make up the deficiency by +maintaining upon their estates gangs of thieves, robbers, and +murderers, who extend their depredations into the country around, +and share the prey with these chiefs, and their officers and +under-tenants. They keep them as <i>poachers</i> keep their +<i>dogs</i>; and the paramount power, whose subjects they plunder, +might as well ask them for the best horse in the stable as for the +best thief that lives under their protection.[25]</p> + +<p>I should mention an incident that occurred during the +Rājā's visit to me at Tehrī. Lieutenant Thomas was +sitting next to the little Sarīmant, and during the interview +he asked him to allow him to look at his beautiful little +gold-hilted sword. The Sarīmant held it fast, and told him +that he should do himself the honour of waiting upon him in his +tent in the course of the day, when he would show him the sword and +tell him its history. After the Rājā, left me, Thomas +mentioned this, and said he felt very much hurt at the incivility +of my little friend; but I told him that he was in everything he +did and said so perfectly the gentleman, that I felt quite sure he +would explain all to his satisfaction when he called upon him. +During his visit to Thomas he apologized for not having given over +his sword to him, and said, 'You European gentlemen have such +perfect confidence in each other, that you can, at all times, and +in all situations, venture to gratify your curiosity in these +matters, and draw your swords in a crowd just as well as when +alone; but, had you drawn mine from the scabbard in such a +situation, with the tent full of the Rājā's personal +attendants, and surrounded by a devoted and not very orderly +soldiery, it might have been attended by very serious consequences. +Any man outside might have seen the blade gloaming, and, not +observing distinctly why it had been drawn, might have suspected +treachery, and called out "<i>To the rescue</i>", when we should +all have been cut down—the lady, child, and all.' Thomas was +not only satisfied with the Sarīmant's apology, but was so +much delighted with him, that he has ever since been longing to get +his portrait; for he says it was really his intention to draw the +sword had the Sarīmant given it to him. As I have said, his +face is extremely beautiful, quite a model for a painter or a +statuary, and his figure, though small, is handsome. He dresses +with great elegance, mostly in azure-coloured satin, surmounted by +a rose- coloured turban and a waistband of the same colour. All his +motions are graceful, and his manners have an exquisite polish. A +greater master of all the <i>convenances</i> I have never seen, +though he is of slender capacity, and, as I have said, in stature +less than five feet high.</p> + +<p>A poor, half-naked man, reduced to beggary by the late famine, +ran along by my horse to show me the road, and, to the great +amusement of my attendants, exclaimed that he felt exactly as if he +were always falling down a well, meaning as if he were immersed in +cold water. He said that the cold season was suited only to +gentlemen who could afford to be well clothed; but, to a poor man +like himself, and the great mass of people, in Bundēlkhand at +least, the hot season was much better. He told me that 'the late +Rājā, though a harsh, was thought to be a just man;[26] +and that his good sense, and, above all, his <i>good fortune</i> +(ikbāl) had preserved the principality entire; but that God +only, and the forbearance of the Honourable Company, could now +serve it under such an imbecile as the present chief'. He seemed +quite melancholy at the thought of living to see this principality, +the oldest in Bundēlkhand, lose its independence. Even this +poor, unclothed, and starving wretch had a feeling of patriotism, a +pride of country, though that country had been so wretchedly +governed, and was now desolated by a famine.</p> + +<p>Just such a feeling had the impressed seamen who fought our +battles in the great struggle. No nation has ever had a more +disgraceful institution than that of the press-gang of England. +This institution, if so it can be called, must be an eternal stain +upon her glory—posterity will never be able to read the +history of her naval victories without a blush—without +reproaching her lawgivers who could allow them to be purchased with +the blood of such men as those who fought for us the battles of the +Nile and Trafalgar. '<i>England expected every man to do his +duty</i>' on that day, but had England done her duty to every man +who was on that day to fight for her? Was not every English +gentleman of the Lords and Commons a David sending his Uriah to +battle?[27]</p> + +<p>The intellectual stock which we require in good seamen for our +navy, and which is acquired in scenes of peril 'upon the high and +giddy mast', is as much their property as that which other men +acquire in schools and colleges; and we had no more right to seize +and employ these seamen in our battles upon the wages of common, +uninstructed labour, than we should have had to seize and employ as +many clergymen, barristers, and physicians. When I have stood on +the quarter-deck of a ship in a storm, and seen the seamen covering +the yards in taking in sail, with the thunder rolling, and the +lightning flashing fearfully around them—the sea covered with +foam, and each succeeding billow, as it rushed by, seeming ready to +sweep them all from their frail footing into the fathomless abyss +below—I have asked myself, 'Are men like these to be seized +like common felons, torn from their wives and children as soon as +they reach their native land, subject every day to the lash, and +put in front of those battles on which the wealth, the honour, and +the independence of the nation depend, merely because British +legislators know that when there, a regard for their own personal +character among their companions in danger will make them fight +like Englishmen?'</p> + +<p>This feeling of nationality which exists in the little states of +Bundēlkhand, arises from the circumstance that the mass of the +landholders are of the same class as the chief Bundēlas; and +that the public establishments of the state are recruited almost +exclusively from that mass. The states of Jhānsī[28] and +Jālaun[29] are the only exceptions. There the rulers are +Brahmans and not Rājpūts, and they recruit their public +establishments from all classes and all countries. The landed +aristocracy, however, there, as elsewhere, are Rājpūts- +either Pawārs, Chandēls, or Bundēlas.</p> + +<p>The Rājpūt landholders of Bundēlkhand are linked +to the soil in all their grades, from the prince to the peasant, as +the Highlanders of Scotland were not long ago; and the holder of a +hundred acres is as proud as the holder of a million.[30] He boasts +the same descent, and the same exclusive possession of arms and +agriculture, to which unhappily the industry of their little +territories is almost exclusively confined, for no other branch can +grow up among so turbulent a set, whose quarrels with their chiefs, +or among each other, are constantly involving them in civil wars, +which render life and property exceedingly insecure. Besides, as I +have stated, their propensity to keep bands of thieves, robbers, +and murderers in their baronial castles, as poachers keep their +dogs, has scared away the wealthy and respectable capitalist and +peaceful and industrious manufacturer.</p> + +<p>All the landholders are uneducated, and unfit to serve in any of +our civil establishments, or in those of any very civilized +Governments; and they are just as unfitted to serve in our military +establishments, where strict discipline is required. The lands they +occupy are cultivated because they depend almost entirely upon the +rents they get from them for subsistence; and because every petty +chief and his family hold their lands rent-free, or at a trifling +quit-rent, on the tenure of military service, and their residue +forms all the market for land produce which the cultivators +require. They dread the transfer of the rule to our Government, +because they now form almost exclusively all the establishments of +their domestic chief, civil as well as military; and know that, +were our rule to be substituted, they would be almost entirely +excluded from these, at least for a generation or two. In our +regiments, horse or foot, there is hardly a man from +Bundēlkhand, for the reasons above stated; nor are there any +in the Gwālior regiments and contingents which are stationed +in the neighbourhood; though the land among them is become minutely +subdivided, and they are obliged to seek service or starve. They +are all too proud for manual labour, even at the plough. No +Bundēlkhand Rājpūt will, I believe, condescend to +put his hand to one.</p> + +<p>Among the Marāthā states, Sikhs, and Muhammadans, +there is no bond of union of this kind. The establishments, +military as well as civil, are everywhere among them composed for +the most part of foreigners; and the landed interests under such +Governments would dread nothing from the prospect of a transfer to +our rule; on the contrary, they and the mass of the people would +almost everywhere hail it as a blessing.</p> + +<p>There are two reasons why we should leave these small native +states under their own chiefs, even when the claim to the +succession is feeble or defective; first, because it tends to +relieve the minds of other native chiefs from the apprehension, +already too prevalent among them, that we desire by degrees to +absorb them all, because we think our government would do better +for the people; and secondly, because, by leaving them as a +contrast, we afford to the people of India the opportunity of +observing the superior advantages of our rule.</p> + +<p>'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,' in governments as +well as in landscapes; and if the people of India, instead of the +living proofs of what perilous things native governments, whether +Hindoo or Muhammadan, are in reality, were acquainted with nothing +but such pictures of them as are to be found in their histories and +in the imaginations of their priests and learned men (who lose much +of their influence and importance under our rule), they would +certainly, with proneness like theirs to delight in the marvellous, +be far from satisfied, as they now are, that they never had a +government so good as ours, and that they never could hope for +another so good, were ours removed.[31]</p> + +<p> For the advantages which we derive from leaving them +independent, we are, no doubt, obliged to pay a heavy penalty in +the plunder of our wealthy native subjects by the gangs of robbers +of all descriptions whom they foster; but this evil may be greatly +diminished by a judicious interposition of our authority to put +down such bands.[32]</p> + +<p>In Bundēlkhand, at present, the government and the lands of +the native chiefs are in the hands of three of the Hindoo military +classes, Bundēlas, Dhandēlas, and Pawārs. The +principal chiefs are of the first, and their feudatories are +chiefly of the other two. A Bundēla cannot marry the daughter +of a Bundēla; he must take his wife from one or other of the +other two tribes; nor can a member of either of the other two take +his wife from his own tribe; he must take her from the +Bundēlas, or the other tribe. The wives of the greatest chiefs +are commonly from the poorest families of their vassals; nor does +the proud family from which she has been taken feel itself exalted +by the alliance; neither does the poorest vassal among the +Pawārs and Dhandēls feel that the daughter of his prince +has condescended in becoming his wife. All they expect is a service +for a few more yeomen of the family among the retainers of the +sovereign.</p> + +<p>The people are in this manner, from the prince to the peasant, +indissolubly linked to each other, and to the soil they occupy; +for, where industry is confined almost exclusively to agriculture, +the proprietors of the soil and the officers of Government, who are +maintained out of its rents, constitute nearly the whole of the +middle and higher classes. About one-half of the lands of every +state are held on service tenure by vassals of the same family or +clan as the chief; and there is hardly one of them who is not +connected with that chief by marriage. The revenue derived from the +other half is spent in the maintenance of establishments formed +almost exclusively of the members of these families.</p> + +<p>They are none of them educated for civil offices under any other +rule, nor could they, for a generation or two, be induced to submit +to wear military uniform, or learn the drill of regular soldiers. +They are mere militia, brave as men can be, but unsusceptible of +discipline. They have, therefore, a natural horror at the thought +of their states coming under any other than a domestic rule, for +they could have no chance of employment in the civil or military +establishments of a foreign power; and their lands would, they +fear, be resumed, since the service for which they had been given +would be no longer available to the rulers. It is said that, in the +long interval from the commencement of the reign of Alexander the +third to the end of that of David the second,[33] not a single +baron could be found in Scotland able to sign his own name. The +Bundēlkhand barons have never, I believe, been quite so bad as +this, though they have never yet learned enough to fit them for +civil offices under us. Many of them can write and read their own +language, which is that common to the other countries around +them.[34]</p> + +<p>Bundēlkhand was formerly possessed by another tribe of +Rājpūts, the proud Chandēls, who have now +disappeared altogether from this province. If one of that tribe can +still be found, it is in the humblest rank of the peasant or the +soldier; but its former strength is indicated by the magnificent +artificial lakes and ruined castles which are traced to them; and +by the reverence which is still felt by the present dominant +classes of [<i>sic</i>] their old capital of Mahoba. Within a +certain distance around that ruined city no one now dares to beat +the 'nakkāra', or great drum used in festivals or processions, +lest the spirits of the old Chandēl chiefs who there repose +should be roused to vengeance;[35] and a kingdom could not tempt +one of the Bundēlas, Pawārs, or Chandēls to accept +the government of the parish ['mauza'] in which it is situated. +They will take subordinate offices there under others with fear and +trembling, but nothing could induce one of them to meet the +governor. When the deadly struggle between these two tribes took +place cannot now be discovered.[36]</p> + +<p>In the time of Akbar, the Chandēls were powerful in Mahoba, +as the celebrated Durgāvatī, the queen of Garhā +Mandlā, whose reign extended over the Sāgar and Nerbudda +territories and the greater part of Berār, was a daughter of +the reigning Chandēl prince of Mahoba. He condescended to give +his daughter only on condition that the Gond prince who demanded +her should, to save his character, come with an army of fifty +thousand men to take her. He did so, and 'nothing loth', +Durgāvatī departed to reign over a country where her name +is now more revered than that of any other sovereign it has ever +had. She was killed above two hundred and fifty years ago, about +twelve miles from Jubbulpore, while gallantly leading on her troops +in their third and last attempt to stem the torrent of Muhammadan +invasion. Her tomb is still to be seen where she fell, in a narrow +defile between two hills; and a pair of large rounded stones which +stand near are, according to popular belief, her royal drums turned +into stone, which, in the dead of night, are still heard resounding +through the woods, and calling the spirits of her warriors from +their thousand graves around her. The travellers who pass this +solitary spot respectfully place upon the tomb the prettiest +specimen they can find of the crystals which abound in the +neighbourhood; and, with so much of kindly feeling had the history +of Durgāvatī inspired me, that I could not resist the +temptation of adding one to the number when I visited her tomb some +sixteen years ago.[37]</p> + +<p>I should mention that the Rājā of Samthar in +Bundēlkhand.[38] is by caste a Gūjar;[39] and he has not +yet any landed aristocracy like that of the Bundēlas about +him. One of his ancestors, not long ago, seized upon a fine open +plain, and built a fort upon it, and the family has ever since, by +means of this fort, kept possession of the country around, and +drawn part of their revenues from depredations upon their +neighbours and travellers. The Jhānsī and Jālaun +chiefs are Brahmans of the same family as the Peshwā.</p> + +<p>In the states governed by chiefs of the military classes, nearly +the whole produce of the land goes to maintain soldiers, or +military retainers, who are always ready to fight or rob for their +chief. In those governed by the Brahmanical class, nearly the whole +produce goes to maintain priests; and the other chiefs would soon +devour them, as the black ants devour the white, were not the +paramount power to interpose and save them. While the Peshwā +lived, he interposed; but all his dominions were <i>running into +priesthood</i>, like those in Sāgar and Bundēlkhand, and +must soon have been swallowed up by the military chiefs around him, +had we not taken his place. Jālaun and Jhānsī are +preserved only by us, for, with all their religious, it is +impossible for them to maintain efficient military establishments; +and the Bundēla chiefs have always a strong desire to eat them +up, since these states were all sliced out of their principalities +when the Peshwā was all-powerful in Hindustan.</p> + +<p>The Chhatarpur Rājā is a Pawār. His father had +been in the service of the Bundēla Rājā; but, when +we entered upon our duties as the paramount power in +Bundēlkhand, the son had succeeded to the little principality +seized upon by his father; and, on the principle of respecting +actual possession, he was recognized by us as the sovereign.[40] +The Bundela Rājās, east of the Dasān river, are +descended from Rājā Chhatarsāl, and are looked down +upon by the Bundēla Rājās of Orchhā, +Chandērī, and Datiyā, west of the Dasān, as +Chhatarsāl was in the service of one of their ancestors, from +whom he wrested the estates which his descendants now enjoy. +Chhatarsāl, in his will, gave one-third of the dominion he had +thus acquired to the strongest power then in India, the +Peshwā, in order to secure the other two-thirds to his two +sons Hardī Sā and Jagatrāj, in the same manner as +princes of the Roman empire used to bequeath a portion of theirs to +the emperor.[41] Of the Peshwā's share we have now got all, +except Jālaun. Jhānsī was subsequently acquired by +the Peshwā, or rather by his subordinates, with his sanction +and assistance.[42]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. In the Orchhā State. This seems to be the same town +which the author had already visited on his way to Tehrī on +the 7th December. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 19 note [15].</p> + +<p>3. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 12 following note [9].</p> + +<p>4. Sodora in the author's text; see <i>ante</i>, Chapter 19, +note 11.</p> + +<p>5. 'Bow-sacrifice.'</p> + +<p>6. The tradition is that a prince of this military class was +sporting in a river with his thousand wives, when Renukā, the +wife of Jamadagni, went to bring water. He offended her, and her +husband cursed the prince, but was put to death by him. His son +Parasrām was no less a person than the sixth incarnation of +Vishnu, who had assumed the human shape merely to destroy these +tyrants. He vowed, now that his mother had been insulted, and his +father killed, not to leave one on the face of the earth. He +destroyed them all twenty-one times, the women with child producing +a new race each time. [W. H. S.] The legend is not narrated quite +correctly.</p> + +<p>7. Rāma Chandra, son of Dasaratha.</p> + +<p>8. When Rām set out with his army for Ceylon, he is +supposed to have worshipped the little tree called 'cheonkul', +which stood near his capital of Ajodhya. It is a wretched little +thing, between a shrub and a tree; but I have seen a procession of +more than seventy thousand persons attend their prince to the +worship of it on the festival of the Dasahara, which is held in +celebration of this expedition to Ceylon. [W. H. S.] 'As Arjuna and +his brothers worshipped the shumee-tree, the <i>Acacia suma</i>, +and hung up their arms upon it, so the Hindus go forth to worship +that tree on the festival of the Dasahara. They address the tree +under the name of Aparajita, the invincible goddess, sprinkle it +with five ambrosial liquids, the 'panchamrit', a mixture of milk, +curds, sugar, clarified butter, and honey, wash it with water, and +hang garments upon it. They light lamps and burn incense before the +symbol of Aparajita, make 'chandlos' upon the tree, sprinkle it +with rose-coloured water, and set offerings of food before it' +(Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., s.v. 'Dasahara'). The +'cheonkul' is the <i>chhonkar</i> or <i>chhaunkar (Prosopis +spicigera</i>, Linn.), described by Growse as follows:—</p> + +<p>'Very common throughout the district; occasionally grows to +quite a large tree, as in the Dohani Kund at Chaksauli. It is used +for religious worship at the festival of the Dasahara, and +considered sacred to Siva. The pods (called <i>sangri</i>) are much +used for fodder. Probably <i>chhonkar</i> and <i>sangri</i>, which +latter is in some parts of India the name of the tree as well as of +the pod, are both dialectical corruptions of the Sanskrit +<i>sankara</i>, a name of Siva; for the palatal and sibilant are +frequently interchangeable' ('List of Indigenous Trees' in +<i>Mathurā, A. District Memoir</i>, 3rd ed., Allahabad, 1883, +p. 422). Sundry leguminous trees are used in Dasahara ceremonies in +the different parts of India, under varying local names.</p> + +<p>9. <i>Credo quia impossibile</i>.</p> + +<p>10. This comparison is not a happy one. The elements in some of +the Hindoo myths specially repulsive to European taste are their +monstrosity, their inartistic and hideous exaggeration, their +accumulation of sanguinary horrors, and their childish triviality. +Few of the classical myths exhibit these characteristics. The +vanity or policy of Tiberius and Alexander in believing themselves +to be, or wishing to be believed, divine, has nothing in common +with the grotesque imagination of Puranic Hinduism.</p> + +<p>11. The roots of Hinduism are so deeply fixed in a thick soil of +custom and inherited sentiment, the growth of thousands of years, +that English education has less effect than might be expected in +loosening the bonds of beliefs which seem to every one but a Hindoo +the merest superstition. Hindoos who can read English with fluency, +and write it with accuracy, are often extremely devout, and Hindoo +devoutness must ever appear to an outsider, even to a European as +sympathetic as the author, to be no better than superstition. A +Hindoo able to read English with ease has at his command all the +rich stores of the knowledge of the West, but very often does not +care to taste them. Enmeshed in a web of ritual and belief +inseparable from himself, he remains as much as ever a Hindoo, and +uses his skill in English merely as an article of professional +equipment. 'Good works of history and fiction' do not interest him, +and he usually fails to digest and assimilate the physical or +biological science administered to him at school or college. In +fact, he does not believe it. The monstrous legends of the +Purānas continue to be for his mind the realities; while the +truths of science are to him phantoms, shadowy and unsubstantial, +the outlandish notions of alien and casteless unbelievers. These +observations, of course, are not universally true, and a few +Hindoos, growing in number, are able to heartily accept and +thoroughly assimilate the facts of history and the results of +inductive science. But such Hindoos are few, and it may well be +doubted if it is possible for a man really to believe the amount of +history and science known to an ordinary English schoolboy, and +still be a devout Hindoo. The old bottles cannot contain the new +wine. The Hindoo scriptures do not treat of history and science in +a merely incidental way; they teach, after their fashion, both +history and science formally and systematically; grammar, logic, +medicine, astronomy, the history of gods and men, are all taught in +books which form part of the sacred canon. Inductive science and +matter-of-fact history are absolutely destructive of, and +irreconcilable with, veneration for the Hindoo scriptures as +authoritative and infallible guides. It is impossible, within the +narrow limits of a note, to discuss the problems suggested by the +author's remarks. Enough, perhaps, has been said to show that the +many-rooted banyan tree of Hinduism is in little danger of +overthrow from the attacks either of history or of science, not to +speak of 'good works of fiction'.</p> + +<p>12. A 'dug-out' canoe is rather a shaky craft. When two or three +are lashed together, and a native cot (<i>chārpāi</i>) is +stretched across, the passenger can make himself very comfortable. +The boats are poled by men standing in the stern.</p> + +<p>13. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 24, note 1.</p> + +<p>14. This prince is not included in the authentic dynastic lists +given in the Chandēl inscriptions. He was probably a younger +son, who never reigned. The principal authorities for the history +of the Chandēl dynasty are <i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ii, pp. 439-51; +vol. xxi, pp. 77-90, and V. A. Smith, 'Contributions to the History +of Bundēlkhand', in <i>J.A.S.B.</i> vol. 1 (1881), Part I, p. +1; and 'The History and Coinage of the Chandēl (Chandella) +Dynasty' in <i>Ind. Ant.</i>, 1908, pp. 114-48. A brief summary +will be found in <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd ed. (1914), pp. +390-4. Most of the great works of the dynasty date from the period +A.D. 950- 1200.</p> + +<p>15. The long ridges of quartz traversing the gneiss are marked +features in the scenery of Bundēlkhand.</p> + +<p>16. The author always uses the phrase Central India as a vague +geographical expression. The phrase is now generally used to mean +an administrative division, namely, the group of Native States +under the Central India Agency at Indore, which deals with about +148 chiefs and rulers of various rank. Central India in this +official sense must not be confounded with the Central Provinces, +of which the capital is Nāgpur.</p> + +<p>17. On this lake theory, see <i>ante</i>, Chapter 14, note +13.</p> + +<p>18. During a residence of six years in Bundēlkhand the +editor came to the conclusion that most of the ancient artificial +lakes were not constructed for purposes of irrigation. The +embankments seem generally to have been built as adjuncts to +palaces or temples. Many of the lakes command no considerable area +of irrigable ground, and there are no traces of ancient irrigation +channels. In modern times small canals have been drawn from some of +the lakes.</p> + +<p>19. The desolation of the ravines of the rivers of Central India +and Bundēlkhand offers a very striking spectacle, presenting +to the geologist a signal example of the effects of sub-aerial +denudation.</p> + +<p>20. This pretty custom is also described, in Tod's +<i>Rājasthān</i>; and is still common in Alwar, and +perhaps in other parts of Rājputāna (<i>N.I. Notes and +Queries</i>, vol. ii (Dec. 1892), p. 152), It does not seem to be +now known in the Gangetic valley.</p> + +<p>21. Principalities, and the estates of the talukdārs of +Oudh also descend to the eldest son. The author states +(<i>ante</i>, Chapter 10, see text before note [10].) that the same +rule applied in his time to the small agricultural holdings in the +Sāgar and Nerbudda territories.</p> + +<p>22. This statement is inexact; Hindoo daughters, as a rule, +inherit nothing from their fathers; a Muhammadan daughter takes +half the share of a son.</p> + +<p>23. But it is only the smaller local ministerial officers who +are secure in their tenure of office under native Governments; +those on whose efficiency the well-being of village communities +depends. The greatest evil of Governments of the kind is the +feeling of insecurity which pervades all the higher officers of +Government, and the instability of all engagements made by the +Government with them, and by them with the people. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>24. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 23, text at note [8].</p> + +<p>25. In the Gwālior territory, the Marāthā +'āmils' or governors of districts, do the same, and keep gangs +of robbers on purpose to plunder their neighbours; and, if you ask +them for their thieves, they will actually tell you that to part +with them would be ruin, as they are their only defence against the +thieves of their neighbours. [W. H. S.] These notions and habits +are by no means extinct. In October, 1892, a force of about two +hundred men, cavalry and infantry, was sent into Bundēlkhand +to suppress robber gangs. Such gangs are constantly breaking out in +that region, in most native states, and in many British districts. +See <i>ante</i>, chapter 23, text following note [13].</p> + +<p>26. My poor guide had as little sympathy with the prime +ministers, whom the Tehrī Rājā put to death, as the +peasantry of England had with the great men and women whom Harry +the Eighth sacrificed. [W. H. S.] <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 23, +beginning to note [9].</p> + +<p>27. The cruel practice of impressment for the royal navy is +authorized by a series of statutes extending from the reign of +Philip and Mary to that of George III. Seamen of the merchant navy, +and, with few exceptions, all seafaring men between the ages of +eighteen and thirty-five, are liable, under the provisions of these +harsh statutes, to be forcibly seized by the press-gang, and +compelled to serve on board a man-of-war. The acts legalizing +impressment were freely made use of during the Napoleonic wars, but +since then have been little acted on, and no Government at the +present day could venture to use them, though they have never been +repealed. The fleet sent against the Russians in 1855 was the first +English fleet ever manned without recourse to forcible impressment: +see the article 'Impressment' by David Hannay, in <i>Encyclopaedia +Britannica</i>, 11th ed., 1910. The work by J. B. Hutchinson +entitled <i>The Press- gang Afloat and Ashore</i> (London: Nash, +1913) gives copious details of the infamous proceedings.</p> + +<p>28. The Brahman chief of Jhānsī was originally a +governor under the Peshwā. The treaty of November 18, 1817, +recognized the then chief Rāmchand Rāo, his heirs and +successors, as hereditary rulers of Jhānsī. Rāmchand +Rāo was granted the title of Rājā by the British +Government in 1832, and died without issue on August 20, 1835 +(<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. i, p. 296). See +<i>post</i>, Chapter 29.</p> + +<p>29. The chiefs of Jālaun also were officers under the +Marātha Government of the Peshwā up to 1817. In +consequence of gross misgovernment, an English superintendent was +appointed in 1838, and the state lapsed to the British Government, +owing to failure of heirs, in 1840 (ibid. p. 229).</p> + +<p>30. <i>Ante</i> Chapter 23, note 13.</p> + +<p>31. Lapse of years has increased the distance and the +enchantment, so that modern agitators and sentimentalists discover +marvellous excellences in the native Governments of the now remote +past. The methods of government in the existing native states have +been so profoundly modified by the influence of the Imperial +Government that these states are no longer as instructive in the +way of contrast as they were in the author's day.</p> + +<p>32. The author consistently held the views above enunciated, and +defended the policy of maintaining the native states. He was of +opinion that the system of annexation favoured by Lord Dalhousie +and his Council 'had a downward tendency, and tended to crush all +the higher and middle classes connected with the land'. He +considered that the Government of India should have undertaken the +management of Oudh, but that it had no right to annex the province, +and appropriate its revenues (<i>Journey through the Kingdom of +Oude</i>, p. 22, &c.). Since 1858 the policy of annexation has +been repudiated. See Sir W. Lee-Warner, <i>The Protected Princes of +India</i> (Macmillan, 1894), and <i>The Native States of India</i> +(1910).</p> + +<p>33. A.D. 1249 to A.D. 1371.</p> + +<p>34. The Hindi spoken in different parts of Bundēlkhand +comprises several distinct dialects: see Kellogg, <i>A Grammar of +the Hindī Language</i>, 2nd ed., 1893; and Grierson, +<i>Linguistic Survey</i>, vol. vi (1904), pp. 18-23, where the +dialects of Eastern Bundēlkhand are discussed. +Bundēlī, the speech of Bundēlkhand proper, will be +treated as a dialect of Western Hindi in a volume of the +<i>Survey</i> not yet published. Sir G. Grierson has favoured me +with perusal of the proofs, and has used materials collected by me +in the Hamīrpur District nearly forty years ago. +Bundēlī has a considerable literature.</p> + +<p>35. The editor was told of a case in which two chiefs suffered +for beating their drums in Mahoba.</p> + +<p>36. See <i>ante</i>, Chapter 23 note 11, and Chapter 26 note 14, +and the authorities there cited. The Chandēl history occupies +an important place in the mediaeval annals of India. Several +important inscriptions of the dynasty have been correctly edited in +the <i>Epigraphia Indica</i>. Mahoba is not now a 'ruined city'; it +is a moderately prosperous country town, with a tolerable bazaar, +and about eleven thousand inhabitants. It is the head-quarters of a +'tahsīldār', or sub-collector, and a station on the +Midland Railway. The ruined temples and places in and near the town +are of much interest. For many miles round the country is full of +remarkable remains, some of which are in fairly good preservation. +The published descriptions of these works are far from being +exhaustive. The author was mistaken in supposing that the power of +the Chandēls was broken by the Bundēlas. The last +Chandēl king, who ruled over an extensive dominion, was +Paramardi Deva, or Parmāl. This prince was defeated in a +pitched battle, or rather a series of battles, near the Betwa +river, by Prithīrāj Chauhān, king of Kanauj, in the +year 1182. A few years later, the victor was himself vanquished and +slain by the advancing Muhammadans. Mahoba and the surrounding +territories then passed through many vicissitudes, imperfectly +recorded in the pages of history, and were ruled from time to time +by Musalmāns, Bhars, Khangārs, and others. The +Bundēlas, an offshoot of the Gaharwār clan, did not come +into notice before the middle of the fourteenth century, and first +became a power in India under the leadership of Champat Rāi, +the contemporary of Jahāngīr and Shah Jāhan, in the +first half of the seventeenth century. The line of Chandēl +kings was continued in the persons of obscure local chiefs, whose +very names are, for the most part, forgotten. The story of +Durgāvatī, briefly told in the text, casts a momentary +flash of light on their obscurity. The principal nobleman of the +Chandēl race now occupying a dignified position is the +Rājā of Gidhaur in the Mungir (Monghyr) district of +Bengal, whose ancestor emigrated from Mahoba.</p> + +<p>The war between the Chandēls and Chauhāns is the +subject of a long section or canto of the Hindi epic, the <i>Chand- +Rāisā</i>, written by Chand Bardāi, the court poet +of Prithīrāj, of which the original MS. in 5,000 verses +still exists. It was subsequently expanded to 125,000 verses +(<i>E.H.I.</i>, 3rd ed., 1914, p. 387 note). The war is also the +theme of the songs of many popular rhapsodists. The story is, of +course, encrusted with a thick deposit of miraculous legend, and +none of the details can be relied on. But the fact and the date of +the war are fully proved by incontestable evidence.</p> + +<p>37. The marriage of Durgāvatī is no proof that her +father, the Chandēl Rājā, was powerful in Mahoba in +the time of Akbar. It is rather an indication that he was poor and +weak. If he had been rich and strong, he would probably have +refused his daughter to a Gond, even though complaisant bards might +invent a Rājpūt genealogy for the bridegroom. The story +about the army of fifty thousand men cannot be readily accepted as +sober fact. It looks like a courtly invention to explain a +mésalliance. The inducement really offered to the proud but +poor Chandēl was, in all likelihood, a large sum of money, +according to the usual practice in such cases. Several indications +exist of close relations between the Gonds and Chandēls in +earlier times.</p> + +<p>Early in Akbar's reign, in the year 1564, Āsaf Khān, +the imperial viceroy of Karrā Mānikpur, obtained +permission to invade the Gond territory. The young Rājā +of Garhā Mandlā, Bīr Narāyan, was then a minor, +and the defence of the kingdom devolved on Durgāvatī, the +dowager queen. She first took up her position at the great fortress +of Singaurgarh, north-west of Jabalpur, and, being there defeated, +retired through Garhā, to the south-east, towards Mandlā. +After an obstinately contested fight the invaders were again +successful, and broke the queen's stout resistance. 'Mounted on an +elephant, she refused to retire, though she was severely wounded, +until her troops had time to recover the shock of the first +discharge of artillery, and, notwithstanding that she had received +an arrow-wound in her eye, bravely defended the pass in person. +But, by an extraordinary coincidence, the river in the rear of her +position, which had been nearly dry a few hours before the action +commenced, began suddenly to rise, and soon became unfordable. +Finding her plan of retreat thus frustrated, and seeing her troops +give way, she snatched a dagger from her elephant-driver, and +plunged it into her bosom. . . . Of all the sovereigns of this +dynasty she lives most in the recollection of the people; she +carried out many highly useful works in different parts of her +kingdom, and one of the large reservoirs near Jabalpur is still +called the Rānī Talāo in memory of her. During the +fifteen years of her regency she did much for the country, and won +the hearts of the people, while her end was as noble and devoted as +her life had been useful' (<i>C.P. Gazetteer</i> (1870), p. 283; +with references to Sleeman's article on the Rājās of +Garhā Mandlā, and 'Briggs' Farishta', ed. 1829, vol. ii, +pp. 217, 218). A memoir of Āsaf Khan Abdul Majīd, the +general who overcame Durgāvatī, will be found in +Blochmann's translation of the <i>Aīn-i-Akbarī</i>, vol. +i, p. 366.</p> + +<p>38. Samthar is a small state, lying between the Betwa and +Pahūj rivers, to the south-west of the Jālaun district. +It was separated from the Datiyā State only one generation +previous to the British occupation of Bundēlkhand. A treaty +was concluded with the Rājā in 1812 (<i>N.W.P. +Gazetteer</i> (1st ed.), vol. i, p. 578).</p> + +<p>39. Gūjars occupy more than a hundred villages in the +Jālaun district, chiefly among the ravines of the Pahūj +river. The Gūjar caste is most numerous in the Panjāb and +the upper districts of the United Provinces. It is not very highly +esteemed, being of about equal rank with the Āhīr caste +and rather below the Jāt. Gūjar colonies are settled in +the Hoshangābād and Nīmār districts of the +Central Provinces. The Gūjars are inveterate cattle-lifters, +and always ready to take advantage of any relaxation of the bonds +of order to prey upon their neighbours. Many sections of the caste +have adopted the Muhammadan faith.</p> + +<p>40. The small state of Chhatarpur lies to the south of the +Hamīrpur district, between the Dasān and Ken rivers. The +town of Chhatarpur, on the military road from Bānda to +Sāgar, is remarkable for the mausoleum and ruined palace of +Rājā Chhatarsāl, after whom the town is named. +Khajurāho, the ancient religious capital of the Chandēl +monarchy, with its magnificent group of mediaeval Hindoo and Jain +temples, is within the limits of the state, about eighteen miles +south-east of Chhatarpur, and thirty-four miles south of Mahoba. +The Pawār adventurer, who succeeded in separating Chhatarpur +from the Panna state, was originally a common soldier.</p> + +<p>41. Concerning Chhatarsāl (A.D. 1671 to 1731), see notes +<i>ante</i>, Chapter 14 note 9, and chapter 23 note 11. He was one +of the sons of Champat Rāi. The correct date of the death of +Chhatarsāl is Pūs Badi 3, Sanwat, 1788 = A.D. 1731. +Hardī (Hirdai) Sā succeeded to the Rāj, or kingdom, +of Pannā, and Jagatrāj to that of Jaitpur. These kingdoms +quickly broke up, and the fragments are now in part native states +and in part British territory. The Orchhā State was formed +about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the +Chandērī and Datiyā States are offshoots from it, +which separated during the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>42. As already observed (<i>ante</i>, Chapter 26, note 29), the +Jālaun State became British territory in 1840, four years +after the tour described in the text, and four years before the, +publication of the book. The Jhānsī State similarly +lapsed on the death of Rājā Gangādhar Rāo in +November, 1853. The Rānī Lachhmī Bāī +joined the mutineers, and was killed in battle in June, 1858.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch27">CHAPTER 27</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Blights.</p> + +<p>I had a visit from my little friend the Sarīmant, and the +conversation turned upon the causes and effects of the dreadful +blight to which the wheat crops in the Nerbudda districts had of +late years been subject. He said that 'the people at first +attributed this great calamity to an increase in the crime of +adultery which had followed the introduction of our rule, and +which', he said, 'was understood to follow it everywhere; that +afterwards it was by most people attributed to our frequent +measurement of the land, and inspection of fields, with a view to +estimate their capabilities to pay; which the people considered a +kind of <i>incest</i>, and which he himself, the Deity, can never +tolerate. The land is', said he, 'considered as the <i>mother</i> +of the prince or chief who holds it—the great parent from +whom he derives all that maintains him—his family and his +establishments. If well treated, she yields this in abundance to +her son; but, if he presumes to look upon her with the eye of +desire, she ceases to be fruitful; or the Deity sends down hail or +blight to destroy all that she yields. The measuring the surface of +the fields, and the frequent inspecting the crops by the chief +himself, or by his immediate agents were considered by the people +in this light; and, in consequence, he never ventured upon these +things. They were', he thought, 'fully satisfied that we did it +more with a view to distribute the burthen of taxation equally upon +the people than to increase it collectively; still', he thought +that, 'either we should not do it at all, or delegate the duty to +inferior agents, whose close inspection of the great <i>parent</i> +could not be so displeasing to the Deity.'[1]</p> + +<p>Rām Chand Pundit said that 'there was no doubt much truth +in what Sarīmant Sāhib had stated; that the crops of late +had unquestionably suffered from the constant measuring going on +upon the lands; but that the people (as he knew) had now become +unanimous in attributing the calamities of season, under which +these districts had been suffering so much, to the <i>eating of +beef</i>- this was', he thought, 'the great source of all their +sufferings.'</p> + +<p>Sarīmant declared that he thought 'his Pundit was right, +and that it would, no doubt, be of great advantage to them and to +their rulers if Government could be prevailed upon to prohibit the +eating of beef; that so great and general were the sufferings of +the people from these calamities of seasons, and so firm, and now +so general, the opinion that they arose chiefly from the practice +of killing and eating cows that, in spite of all the other superior +blessings of our rule, the people were almost beginning to wish +their old Marāthā rulers in power again.'</p> + +<p>I reminded him of the still greater calamities the people of +Bundēlkhand had been suffering under.</p> + +<p>'True,' said he, 'but among them there are crimes enough of +everyday occurrence to account for these things; but, under your +rule, the Deity has only one or other of these three things to be +offended with; and, of these three, it must be admitted that the +eating of beef so near the sacred stream of the Nerbudda is the +worst.'</p> + +<p>The blight of which we were speaking had, for several seasons +from the year 1829, destroyed the greater part of the wheat crops +over extensive districts along the line of the Nerbudda, and +through Mālwā generally; and old people stated that they +recollected two returns of this calamity at intervals from twenty +to twenty-four years. The pores, with which the stalks are +abundantly supplied to admit of their readily taking up the aqueous +particles that float in the air, seem to be more open in an +easterly wind than in any other; and, when this wind prevails at +the same time that the air is filled with the farina of the small +parasitic fungus, whose depredations on the corn constitute what +they call the rust, mildew, or blight, the particles penetrate into +these pores, speedily sprout and spread their small roots into the +cellular texture, where they intercept, and feed on, the sap in its +ascent; and the grain in the ear, deprived of its nourishment, +becomes shrivelled, and the whole crop is often not worth the +reaping.[2] It is at first of a light, beautiful orange-colour, and +found chiefly upon the 'alsī' (linseed)[3] which it does not +seem much to injure; but, about the end of February, the fungi +ripen, and shed their seeds rapidly, and they are taken up by the +wind, and carried over the corn-fields. I have sometimes seen the +air tinted of an orange colour for many days by the quantity of +these seeds which it has contained; and that without the wheat +crops suffering at all, when any but an easterly wind has +prevailed; but, when the air is so charged with this farina, let +but an easterly wind blow for twenty-four hours, and all the wheat +crops under its influence are destroyed—nothing can save +them. The stalks and leaves become first of an orange colour from +the light colour of the farina which adheres to them, but this +changes to deep brown. All that part of the stalk that is exposed +seems as if it had been pricked with needles, and had exuded blood +from every puncture; and the grain in the ear withers in proportion +to the number of fungi that intercept and feed upon its sap; but +the parts of the stalks that are covered by the leaves remain +entirely uninjured; and, when the leaves are drawn off from them, +they form a beautiful contrast to the others, which have been +exposed to the depredations of these parasitic plants.</p> + +<p>Every pore, it is said, may contain from twenty to forty of +these plants, and each plant may shed a hundred seeds,[4] so that a +single shrub, infected with the disease, may disseminate it over +the face of a whole district; for, in the warm month of March, when +the wheat is attaining maturity, these plants ripen and shed their +seeds in a week, and consequently increase with enormous rapidity, +when they find plants with their pores open ready to receive and +nourish them. I went over a rich sheet of wheat cultivation in the +district of Jubbulpore in January, 1836, which appeared to me +devoted to inevitable destruction. It was intersected by slips and +fields of 'alsī', which the cultivators often sow along the +borders of their wheat-fields, which are exposed to the road, to +prevent trespass.[5] All this 'alsī' had become of a beautiful +light orange colour from these fungi; and the cultivators, who had +had every field destroyed the year before by the same plant, +surrounded my tent in despair, imploring me to tell them of some +remedy. I knew of none; but, as the 'alsī' is not a very +valuable plant, I recommended them, as their only chance, to pull +it all up by the roots, and fling it into large tanks that were +everywhere to be found. They did so, and no 'alsī' was +<i>intentionally</i> left in the district, for, like drowning men +catching at a straw, they caught everywhere at the little gleam of +hope that my suggestion seemed to offer. Not a field of wheat was +that season injured in the district of Jubbulpore; but I was soon +satisfied that my suggestion had had nothing whatever to do with +their escape, for not a single stalk of the wheat was, I believe, +affected; while <i>some</i> stalks of the affected 'alsī' must +have been left by accident. Besides, in several of the adjoining +districts, where the 'alsī' remained in the ground, the wheat +escaped. I found that, about the time when the blight usually +attacks the wheat, westerly winds prevailed, and that it never blew +from the east for many hours together. The common belief among the +natives was that the prevalence of an east wind was necessary to +give full effect to the attack of this disease, though they none of +them pretended to know anything of its <i>modus +operandi</i>—indeed they considered the blight to be a demon, +which was to be driven off only by prayers and sacrifices.</p> + +<p>It is worthy of remark that hardly anything suffered from the +attacks of these fungi but the wheat. The 'alsī', upon which +it always first made its appearance, suffered something certainly, +but not much, though the stems and leaves were covered with them. +The gram (<i>Cicer arietinum</i>) suffered still less—indeed +the grain in this plant often remained uninjured, while the stems +and leaves were covered with the fungi, in the midst of fields of +wheat that were entirely destroyed by ravages of the same kind. +None of the other pulses were injured, though situated in the same +manner in the midst of the fields of wheat that were destroyed. I +have seen rich fields of uninterrupted wheat cultivation for twenty +miles by ten, in the valley of the Nerbudda, so entirely destroyed +by this disease that the people would not go to the trouble of +gathering one field in four, for the stalks and the leaves were so +much injured that they were considered as unfit or unsafe for +fodder; and during the same season its ravages were equally felt in +the districts along the tablelands of the Vindhya range, north of +the valley and, I believe, those upon the Sātpura range, +south. The last time I saw this blight was in March, 1832, in the +Sāgar district, where its ravages were very great, but +partial; and I kept bundles of the blighted wheat hanging up in my +house, for the inspection of the curious, till the beginning of +1835.[6]</p> + +<p>When I assumed charge of the district of Sāgar in 1831 the +opinion among the farmers and landholders generally was that the +calamities of season under which we had been suffering were +attributable to the increase of <i>adultery</i>, arising, as they +thought, from our indifference, as we seemed to treat it as a +matter of little importance; whereas it had always been considered +under former Governments as a case of <i>life and death</i>. The +husband or his friends waited till they caught the offending +parties together in criminal correspondence, and then put them both +to death; and the death of one pair generally acted, they thought, +as a sedative upon the evil passions of a whole district for a year +or two. Nothing can be more unsatisfactory than our laws for the +punishment of adultery in India, where the Muhammadan criminal code +has been followed, though the people subjected to it are not +one-tenth Muhammadans. This law was enacted by Muhammad on the +occasion of his favourite wife Ayesha being found under very +suspicious circumstances with another man. A special direction from +heaven required that four witnesses should swear positively to the +<i>fact</i>.</p> + +<p>Ayesha and her paramour were, of course, acquitted, and the +witnesses, being less than four, received the same punishment which +would have been inflicted upon the criminals had the fact been +proved by the direct testimony of the prescribed number—that +is, eighty stripes of the 'korā', almost equal to a sentence +of death. (See Korān, chap. 24, and chap. 4.)[7] This became +the law among all Muhammadans. Ayesha's father succeeded Muhammad, +and Omar succeeded Abū Bakr.[8] Soon after his accession to +the throne, Omar had to sit in judgement upon Mughīra, a +companion of the prophet, the governor of Basrah,[9] who had been +accidentally seen in an awkward position with a lady of rank by +four men while they sat in an adjoining apartment. The door or +window which concealed the criminal parties was flung open by the +wind, at the time when they wished it most to remain closed. Three +of the four men swore directly to the point. Mughīra was +Omar's favourite, and had been appointed to the government by him, +Zāid, the brother of one of the three who had sworn to the +fact, hesitated to swear to the entire fact.</p> + +<p>'I think', said Omar, 'that I see before me a man whom God would +not make the means of disgracing one of the companions of the holy +prophet.'</p> + +<p>Zāid then described circumstantially the most unequivocal +position that was, perhaps, ever described in a public court of +justice; but, still hesitating to swear to the entire completion of +the crime, the criminals were acquitted, and his brother and the +two others received the punishment described. This decision of the +<i>Brutus of his age</i> and country settled the law of evidence in +these matters; and no Muhammadan judge would now give a verdict +against any person charged with adultery, without the four +witnesses to the <i>entire fact</i>. No man hopes for a conviction +for this crime in our courts; and, as he would have to drag his +wife or paramour through no less than three—that of the +police officer, the magistrate, and the judge—to seek it, he +has recourse to poison, either secretly or with his wife's consent. +She will commonly rather die than be turned out into the streets a +degraded outcast. The seducer escapes with impunity, while his +victim suffers all that human nature is capable of enduring. Where +husbands are in the habit of poisoning their guilty wives from the +want of <i>legal</i> means of redress, they will sometimes poison +those who are suspected upon insufficient grounds. No magistrate +ever hopes to get a conviction in the judge's court, if he commits +a criminal for trial on this charge (under Regulation 17 of 1817), +and, therefore, he never does commit. Regulation 7 of 1819 +authorizes a magistrate to punish any person convicted of enticing +away a wife or unmarried daughter for another's use; and an +indignant functionary may sometimes feel disposed to stretch a +point that the guilty man may not altogether escape.[10]</p> + +<p>Redress for these wrongs is never sought in our courts, because +they can never hope to get it. But it is a great mistake to suppose +that the people of India want a heavier punishment for the crime +than we are disposed to inflict—all they want is a fair +chance of conviction upon such reasonable proof as cases of this +nature admit of, and such a measure of punishment as shall make it +appear that their rulers think the crime a serious one, and that +they are disposed to protect them from it. Sometimes the poorest +man would refuse pecuniary compensation; but generally husbands of +the poorer classes would be glad to get what the heads of their +caste or circle of society might consider the expenses of a second +marriage. They do not dare to live in adultery, they would be +outcasts if they did; they must be married according to the forms +of their caste, and it is reasonable that the seducer of the wife +should be obliged to defray the coats of the injured husband's +second marriage. The rich will, of course, always refuse such a +compensation, but a law declaring the man convicted of this crime +liable to imprisonment in irons at hard labour for two years, but +entitled to his discharge within that time on an application from +the injured husband or father, would be extremely popular +throughout India. The poor man would make the application when +assured of the sum which the elders of his caste consider +sufficient; and they would take into consideration the means of the +offender to pay. The woman is sufficiently punished by her degraded +condition. The <i>fatwa</i> of a Muhammadan law officer should be +dispensed with in such cases.[11]</p> + +<p>In 1832 the people began to search for other causes +[<i>scilicet</i>, of bad seasons]. The frequent measurements of the +land, with a view to equalize the assessments, were thought of; +even the operations of the Trigonometrical Survey,[12] which were +then making a great noise in Central India, where their fires were +seen every night burning upon the peaks of the highest ranges, were +supposed to have had some share in exasperating the Deity; and the +services of the most holy Brahmans were put in requisition to +exorcise the peaks from which the engineers had taken their angles, +the moment their instruments were removed. In many places, to the +great annoyance and consternation of the engineers, the landmarks +which they had left to enable them to correct their work as they +advanced, were found to have been removed during their short +intervals of absence, and they were obliged to do their work over +again. The priests encouraged the disposition on the part of the +peasantry to believe that men who required to do their work by the +aid of fires lighted in the dead of the night upon <i>high +places</i>, and work which no one but themselves seemed able to +comprehend, must hold communion with supernatural beings, a +communion which they thought might be displeasing to the Deity.</p> + +<p>At last, in the year 1833, a very holy Brahman, who lived in his +cloister near the iron suspension bridge over the Biās river, +ten miles from Sāgar, sat down with a determination to +<i>wrestle with the Deity</i> till he should be compelled to reveal +to him the real cause of all these calamities of season under which +the people were groaning.[l3] After three days and nights of +fasting and prayer, he saw a vision which stood before him in a +white mantle, and told him that all these calamities arose from the +slaughter of cows; and that under former Governments this practice +had been strictly prohibited, and the returns of the harvest had, +in consequence, been always abundant, and subsistence cheap, in +spite of invasion from without, insurrection within, and a good +deal of misrule and oppression on the part of the local government. +The holy man was enjoined by the vision to make this revelation +known to the constituted authorities, and to persuade the people +generally throughout the district to join in the petition for the +prohibition of <i>beef-eating</i> throughout our Nerbudda +territories. He got a good many of the most respectable of the +landholders around him, and explained the wishes of the vision of +the preceding night. A petition was soon drawn up and signed by +many hundreds of the most respectable people in the district, and +presented to the Governor-General's representative in these parts, +Mr. F. C. Smith. Others were presented to the civil authorities of +the district, and all stating in the most respectful terms how +sensible the people were of the inestimable benefits of our rule, +and how grateful they all felt for the protection to life and +property, and to the free employment of all their advantages, which +they had under it; and for the frequent and large reduction in the +assessments, and remission in the demand, on account of calamities +of seasons. These, they stated, were all that Government could do +to relieve a suffering people, but they had all proved unavailing; +and yet, under this truly paternal rule, the people were suffering +more than under any former Government in its worst period of +misrule—the hand of an <i>incensed God</i> was upon them; +and, as they had now, at last after many fruitless attempts, +discovered the real cause of this anger of the Deity, they trusted +that we would listen to their prayers, and restore plenty and all +its blessings to the country by prohibiting the <i>eating of +beef</i>. All these dreadful evils had, they said, unquestionably +originated in the (Sadr Bāzār) great market of the +cantonments, where, for the first time, within one hundred miles of +the sacred stream of the Nerbudda, men had purchased and eaten +cows' flesh.</p> + +<p>These people were all much attached to us and to our rule, and +were many of them on the most intimate terms of social intercourse +with us; and, at the time they signed this petition, were entirely +satisfied that they had discovered the real cause of all their +sufferings, and impressed with the idea that we should be +convinced, and grant their prayers.[l4] The day is past. Beef +continued to be eaten with undiminished appetite, the blight, +nevertheless, disappeared, and every other sign of vengeance from +above; and the people are now, I believe, satisfied that they were +mistaken. They still think that the lands do not yield so many +returns of the seed under us as under former rulers; that they have +lost some of the <i>barkat</i> (blessings) which they enjoyed under +them—they know not why. The fact is that under us the lands +do not enjoy the salutary fallows which frequent invasions and +civil wars used to cause under former Governments. Those who +survived such civil wars and invasions got better returns for their +seed.</p> + +<p>During the discussion of the question with the people, I had one +day a conversation with the Sadr Amīn, or head native judicial +officer, whom I have already mentioned. He told me that 'there +could be no doubt of the truth of the conclusion to which the +people had at length come. 'There are', he said, 'some countries in +which punishments follow crimes after long intervals, and, indeed, +do not take place till some future birth; in others, they follow +crimes immediately; and such is the country bordering the stream of +<i>Mother Nerbudda</i>. This', said he, 'is a stream more holy than +that of the great Ganges herself, since no man is supposed to +derive any benefit from that stream unless he either bathe in it or +drink from it; but the sight of the Nerbudda from a distant hill +could bless him, and purify him. In other countries, the slaughter +of cows and bullocks might not be punished for ages; and the +harvest, in such countries, might continue good through many +successive generations under such enormities; indeed, he was not +quite sure that there might not be countries in which no punishment +at all would inevitably follow; but, so near the Nerbudda, this +could not be the case.[l5] Providence could never suffer beef to be +eaten so near her sacred majesty without visiting the crops with +blight, hail, or some other calamity, and the people with cholera +morbus, small-pox, and other great pestilences. As for himself, he +should never be persuaded that all these afflictions did not arise +wholly and solely from this dreadful habit of eating beef. I +declare', concluded he, 'that if the Government would but consent +to prohibit the eating of beef, it might levy from the lands three +times the revenue that they now pay.'</p> + +<p>The great festival of the Holī, the Saturnalia of India, +terminates on the last day of Phālgun, or 16th of March.[16] +On that day the Holī is burned; and on that day the ravages of +the monster (for monster they will have it to be) are supposed to +cease. Any field that has remained untouched up to that time is +considered to be quite secure from the moment the Holī has +been committed to the flames. What gave rise to the notion I have +never been able to discover, but such is the general belief. I +suppose the siliceous epidermis must then have become too hard, and +the pores in the stem too much closed up to admit of the further +depredation of the fungi.</p> + +<p>In the latter end of 1831, while I was at Sāgar, a cowherd +in driving his cattle to water at a reach of the Biās river, +called the Nardhardhār, near the little village of +Jasrathī, was reported to have seen a vision that told him the +waters of that reach, taken up and conveyed to the fields in +pitchers, would effectually keep off the blight from the wheat, +provided the pitchers were not suffered to touch the ground on the +way. On reaching the field, a small hole was to be made in the +bottom of the pitcher, so as to keep up a small but steady stream, +as the bearer carried it round the borders of the field, that the +water might fall in a complete ring, except at a small +opening—which was to be kept dry, in order that the +<i>monster</i> or <i>demon blight</i> might make his escape through +it, not being able to cross over any part watered by the holy +stream. The waters Of the Bias river generally are not supposed to +have any peculiar virtues. The report of this vision spread rapidly +over the country; and the people who had been suffering under so +many seasons of great calamity were anxious to try anything that +promised the slightest chance of relief. Every cultivator of the +district prepared pots for the conveyance of the water, with +tripods to support them while they rested on the road, that they +might not touch the ground. The spot pointed out for taking the +water was immediately under a fine large pīpal- tree[l7] which +had fallen into the river, and on each bank was seated a +Bairāgī, or priest of Vishnu. The blight began to +manifest itself in the alsī (linseed) in January, 1832, but +the wheat is never considered to be in danger till late in +February, when it is nearly ripe; and during that month and the +following the banks of the river were crowded with people in search +of the water. Some of the people came more than one hundred miles +to fetch it, and all seemed quite sure that the holy water would +save them. Each person gave the Bairāgī priest of his own +side of the river two half-pence (copper pice), two pice weight of +ghī (clarified butter), and two pounds of flour, before he +filled his pitcher, to secure his blessings from it. These priests +were strangers, and the offerings were entirely voluntary. The +roads from this reach of the Bias river, up to the capital of the +Orchhā Rājā, more than a hundred miles, were +literally lined with these water-carriers; and I estimated the +number of persons who passed with the water every day for six weeks +at ten thousand a day.[18] After they had ceased to take the water, +the banks were long crowded with people who flocked to see the +place where priests and waters had worked such miracles, and to try +and discover the source whence the water derived its virtues. It +was remarked by some that the pīpal-tree, which had fallen +from the bank above many years before, had still continued to throw +out the richest foliage from the branches above the surface of the +water. Others declared that they saw a <i>monkey</i> on the bank +near the spot, which no sooner perceived it was observed than it +plunged into the stream and disappeared. Others again saw some +flights of steps under the water, indicating that it had in days of +yore been the site of a temple, whose god, no doubt, gave to the +waters the wonderful virtues it had been found to possess. The +priests would say nothing but that 'it was the work of God, and, +like all his works, beyond the reach of man's understanding.' They +made their fortunes, and got up the vision and miracle, no doubt, +for that especial purpose.[l9] As to the effect, I was told by +hundreds of farmers who had tried the waters that, though it had +not anywhere kept the blight entirely off from the wheat, it was +found that the fields which had not the advantages of water were +entirely destroyed; and, where the pot had been taken all round the +field without leaving any dry opening for the demon to escape +through, it was almost as bad; but, when a small opening had been +left, and the water carefully dropped around the field elsewhere, +the crops had been very little injured; which showed clearly the +efficacy of the water, when all the ceremonies and observances +prescribed by the vision had been attended to.</p> + +<p>I could never find the cowherd who was said to have seen this +vision, and, in speaking to my old friend, the Sadr Amīn, +learned in the shāstras,[20] on the subject, I told him that +we had a short saying that would explain all this: 'A drowning man +catches at a straw.'</p> + +<p>'Yes,' said he, without any hesitation, 'and we have another +just as good for the occasion: "Sheep will follow each other, +though it should be into a well".'</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. We are told in 2 Samuel, chap. xxiv, that the Deity was +displeased at a census of the people, taken by Joab by the order of +David, and destroyed of the people of Israel seventy thousand, +besides women and children. [W. H. S.] The editor, in the course of +seven years' experience in the Settlement department, six of which +were agent in Bundēlkhand, never heard of the doctrine as to +the incestuous character of surveys. Probably it had died out. Even +a census no longer gives rise to alarm in most parts of the +country. The wild rumours and theories common in 1872 and 1881 did +not prevail when the census of 1891 was taken, or during subsequent +operations.</p> + +<p>2. This theory is, of course, erroneous.</p> + +<p>3. The flax plant (<i>Linum usitatissimum</i>) is grown in India +solely for the sake of the linseed. Linen is never made, and the +stalk of the plant, as ordinarily grown, is too short for the +manufacture of fibre. The attempts to introduce flax manufacture +into India, though not ultimately successful, have proved that good +flax can be made in the country, from Riga seed. Indian linseed is +very largely exported. (Article 'Flax' in Balfour, +<i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed.)</p> + +<p>4. Spores is the more accurate word.</p> + +<p>5. That is to say, cattle-trespass. Cattle do not care to eat +the green flax plant. The fields are not fenced.</p> + +<p>6. The rust, or blight, described in the text probably was a +species of <i>Unedo</i>. The gram, or chick-pea, and various kinds +of pea and vetch are grown intermixed with the wheat. They ripen +earlier, and are plucked up by the roots before the wheat is +cut.</p> + +<p>7. Chap. 4 of the Korān is entitled 'Women', and chap. 24 +is entitled 'Light'. The story of Ayesha's misadventure is given in +Sale's notes to chap. 24.</p> + +<p>8. Muhammad died A.D. 632. Abū Bakr succeeded him, and +after a khalīfate of only two years, was succeeded by Omar, +who was assassinated in the twelfth year of his reign.</p> + +<p>9. Basrah (Bassorah, Bussorah) in the province of Baghdad, on +the Shatt-ul-Arab, or combined stream of the Tigris and Euphrates, +was founded by the Khalīf Omar.</p> + +<p>10. In the author's time the Muhammadan criminal law was applied +to the whole population by Anglo-Indian judges, assisted by +Muhammadan legal assessors, who gave rulings called <i>fatwas</i> +on legal points. The Penal Code enacted in 1859 swept away the +whole jungle of Regulations and <i>fatwas</i>, and established a +scientific System of criminal jurisprudence, which bas remained +substantially unchanged to this day. Adultery is punishable under +the Code by the Court of Session, but prosecutions for this offence +are very rare. Enticing away a married woman is also defined as an +offence, and is punishable by a magistrate. Complaints under this +head are extremely numerous, and mostly false. Secret and +unpunished murders of women undoubtedly are common, and often +reported as deaths from snake-bite or cholera. An aggrieved husband +frequently tries to save his honour, and at the same time satisfy +his vengeance, by tromping up a false charge of burglary against +the suspected paramour, who generally replies by an equally false +<i>alibi</i>.</p> + +<p>11. A prosecution under the Penal Code for adultery can be +instituted only by the husband, or the guardian representing him, +and the woman is not punishable. Although the Muhammadan law of +evidence has been got rid of, the Anglo-Indian courts are still +unsuitable for the prosecution of adultery cases, especially where +Indians are concerned. The English courts, though they do not +require any specified number of witnesses, demand strict proof +given in open court, and no Indian, whose honour has really been +touched, cares to expose his domestic troubles to be wrangled over +by lawyers. Many officers, including the editor, would be glad to +see the section which renders adultery penal struck out of the +Code. The matrimonial delinquencies of Indians are better dealt +with by the caste organizations, and those of Europeans by civil +action.</p> + +<p>12. The Trigonometrical Survey, originated by Colonel Lambton, +was begun at Cape Comōrin in 1800. It is now almost, if not +quite, complete, except in Burma. See Markham, <i>A Memoir of the +Indian Surveys</i> (2nd ed., 1878). The stations are marked by +masonry pillars, for the partial repair of which a small sum is +annually allotted.</p> + +<p>13. Hindoos believe that holy men, by means of great +austerities, can attain power to compel the gods to do their +bidding.</p> + +<p>14. For some account of the modern agitation against +cow-killing. See note <i>ante</i>, Chapter 26, note 6.</p> + +<p>15. On the sacredness of the Nerbudda see note <i>ante</i>, +Chapter 1, note 13.</p> + +<p>16. The Holī festival marks approximately the time of the +vernal equinox, ten days before the full moon of the Hindoo month +Phālgun. The day of the bonfire does not always fall on the +16th of March. It is not considered lucky to begin harvest till the +Holī has been burnt. Mr. Crooke holds that 'on the whole, +there seems to be some reason to believe that the intention to +promote the fertility of men, animals, and crops, supplies the +basis of the rites' ('The Holī, a Vernal Festival of the +Hindus', <i>Folklore</i>, vol. xxv (1914), p. 83). I agree.</p> + +<p>17. The pīpal-tree (<i>Ficus religiosa</i>, Linn.; +<i>Urostigma religiosum</i>, Gasp.) is sacred to Vishnu, and +universally venerated throughout India.</p> + +<p>18. About four hundred thousand persons.</p> + +<p>19. Two pice x 400,000 = 800,000 pice, = 200,000 annas, = 12,500 +rupees. Even if the author's estimate of the numbers be much too +large, the pecuniary result must have been handsome, not to mention +the butter and flour.</p> + +<p>20. Hindoo sacred books.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch28">CHAPTER 28</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Pestle-and-Mortar Sugar-Mills—Washing away +of the Soil.</p> + +<p>On the 13th [December, 1885] we came to Barwā +Sāgar,[1] over a road winding among small ridges and conical +hills, none of them much elevated or very steep; the whole being a +bed of brown syenite, generally exposed to the surface in a +decomposing state, intersected by veins and beds of quartz rocks, +and here and there a narrow and shallow bed of dark basalt. One of +these beds of basalt was converted into grey syenite by a large +granular mixture of white quartz and feldspar with the black +hornblende. From this rock the people form their sugar-mills, which +are made like a pestle and mortar, the mortar being cut out of the +hornblende rock, and the pestle out of wood.[2]</p> + +<p>We saw a great many of these mortars during the march that could +not have been in use for the last half-dozen centuries, but they +are precisely the same as those still used all over India. The +driver sits upon the end of the horizontal beam to which the +bullocks are yoked; and in cold mornings it is very common to see +him with a pair of good hot embers at his buttocks, resting upon a +little projection made behind him to the beam for the purpose of +sustaining it [<i>sic</i>]. I am disposed to think that the most +productive parts of the surface of Bundēlkhand, like that of +some of the districts of the Nerbudda territories which repose upon +the back of the sandstone of the Vindhya chain, is [<i>sic</i>] +fast flowing off to the sea through the great rivers, which seem by +degrees to extend the channels of their tributary streams into +every man's field, to drain away its substance by degrees, for the +benefit of those who may in some future age occupy the islands of +their delta. I have often seen a valuable estate reduced in value +to almost nothing in a few years by some new <i>antennae</i>, if I +may so call them, thrown out from the tributary streams of great +rivers into their richest and deepest soils. Declivities are +formed, the soil gets nothing from the cultivator but the +mechanical aid of the plough, and the more its surface is ploughed +and cross-ploughed, the more of its substance is washed away +towards the Bay of Bengal in the Ganges, or the Gulf of Cambay in +the Nerbudda. In the districts of the Nerbudda, we often see these +black hornblende mortars, in which sugar-canes were once pressed by +a happy peasantry, now standing upon a bare and barren surface of +sandstone rock, twenty feet above the present surface of the +culturable lands of the country. There are evident signs of the +surface on which they now stand having been that on which they were +last worked. The people get more juice from their small straw- +coloured canes in these pestle-and-mortar mills than they can from +those with cylindrical rollers in the present rude state of the +mechanical arts all over India; and the straw-coloured cane is the +only kind that yields good sugar. The large purple canes yield a +watery and very inferior juice; and are generally and almost +universally sold in the markets as a fruit. The straw-coloured +canes, from being crowded under a very slovenly System, with little +manure and less weeding, degenerate into a mere reed. The Otaheite +cane, which was introduced into India by me in 1827, has spread +over the Nerbudda, and many other territories; but that that will +degenerate in the same manner under the same slovenly system of +tillage, is too probable.[3]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The lake known as Barwā Sāgar was formed by a +Bundēla chief, who constructed an embankment nearly three- +quarters of a mile long to retain the waters of the Barwā +stream, a tributary of the Betwā. The work was begun in 1705 +and completed in 1737. The town is situated at the north-west +corner of the lake, on the road from Jhānsī to the +cantonment of Nowgong (properly Naugāon, or +Nayāgāon), at a distance of twelve miles from +Jhānsī (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. i, pp. 243 +and 387).</p> + +<p>2. The rude sketch given here in the author's text is not worth +reproduction.</p> + +<p>3. The 'pestle-and-mortar' pattern of mill above described is +the indigenous model formerly in universal use in India, but, in +most parts of the country, where stone is not available, the +'mortar' portion was made of wood. The stone mills are expensive. +In the Bānda and Hamīrpur districts of Bundēlkhand +sugar-cane is now grown only in the small areas where good loam +soil is found. The method of cultivation differs in several +respects from that practised in the Gangetic plains, but the editor +never observed the slovenliness of which the author complains. He +always found the cultivation in sugar-cane villages to be extremely +careful and laborious. Ancient stone mills are sometimes found in +black soil country, and it is difficult to understand how sugarcane +can ever have been grown there. The author was mistaken in +supposing that the indigenous pattern of mill is superior to a good +roller mill. The indigenous mill has been completely superseded in +most parts of the Panjāb, United Provinces, and Bihār, by +the roller mill patented by Messrs. Mylne and Thompson of +Bihīa in 1869, and largely improved by subsequent +modifications. The original patent having expired, thousands of +roller mills are annually made by native artisans, with little +regard to the rights of the Bihīa firm. The iron rollers, cast +in Delhi and other places, are completed on costly lathes in many +country towns. The mills are generally hired out for the season, +and kept in repair by the speculator. The Rājā of +Nāhan or Sirmūr in the Panjāb, who has a foundry +employing six hundred men, does a large business of this kind, and +finds it profitable. Since the first patent was taken out, many +improvements in the design have been effected, and the best mills +squeeze the cane absolutely dry. Messrs. Mylne and Thompson have +been successful in introducing other improved machinery for the +manufacture of sugar in villages. The Rosa factory near +Shahjahānpur in the United Provinces makes sugar on a large +scale by European methods.</p> + +<p>When the author says that the large canes are sold 'as a fruit' +he means that the canes are used for eating, or rather sucking like +a sugar-stick. The varieties of sugar-cane are numerous, and the +names vary much in different districts. According to Balfour, the +Otaheite (Tahiti) cane is 'probably <i>Saccharum violaceum</i>'. +The ordinary Indian kinds belong to the species <i>Saccharum +officinarum</i>. The Otaheite cane was introduced into the West +Indies about 1794, and came to India from the Mauritius. It is more +suitable for the roller mill than for the indigenous mill, the +stems being hard (<i>Cyclopaedia of India</i>, 3rd ed., 1885, s.v. +'Saccharum'). In a letter dated December 15, 1844, the author +refers to his introduction of the Otaheite cane, and mentions that +the Indian Agricultural Society awarded him a gold medal for this +service. The cane was first planted in the Government Botanical +Garden at Calcutta.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch29">CHAPTER 29</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Interview with the Chiefs of +Jhānsī—Disputed Succession.</p> + +<p>On the 14th[1] we came on fourteen miles to Jhānsī.[2] +About five miles from our last ground we crossed the Baitantī +river over a bed of syenite. At this river we mounted our elephant +to cross, as the water was waist-deep at the ford. My wife returned +to her palankeen as soon as we had crossed, but our little boy came +on with me on the elephant, to meet the grand procession which I +knew was approaching to greet us from the city. The Rājā +of Jhānsī, Rām Chandar Rāo, died a few months +ago, leaving a young widow and a mother, but no child.[3]</p> + +<p>He was a young man of about twenty-eight years of age, timid, +but of good capacity, and most amiable disposition. My duties +brought us much into communication; and, though we never met, we +had conceived a mutual esteem for each other. He had been long +suffering from an affection of the liver, and had latterly +persuaded himself that his mother was practising upon his life, +with a view to secure the government to the eldest son of her +daughter, which would, she thought, ensure the real power to her +for life. That she wished him dead with this view, I had no doubt; +for she had ruled the state for several years up to 1831, during +what she was pleased to consider his minority; and she surrendered +the power into his hands with great reluctance, since it enabled +her to employ her <i>paramour</i> as minister, and enjoy his +society as much as she pleased, under the pretence of holding +<i>privy councils</i> upon affairs of great public interest.[4] He +used to communicate his fears to me; and I was not without +apprehension that his mother might some day attempt to hasten his +death by poison. About a month before his death he wrote to me to +say that spears had been found stuck in the ground, under the water +where he was accustomed to swim, with their sharp points upwards; +and, had he not, contrary to his usual practice, walked into the +water, and struck his foot against one of them, he must have been +killed. This was, no doubt, a thing got up by some designing person +who wanted to ingratiate himself with the young man; for the mother +was too shrewd a woman ever to attempt her son's life by such +awkward means. About four months before I reached the capital, this +amiable young prince died, leaving two paternal uncles, a mother, a +widow, and one sister, the wife of one of our Sāgar +pensioners, Morīsar Rāo. The mother claimed the +inheritance for her grandson by this daughter, a very handsome +young lad, then at Jhānsī, on the pretence that her son +had adopted him on his death-bed. She had his head shaved, and made +him go through all the other ceremonies of mourning, as for the +death of his real father. The eldest of his uncles, Raghunāth +Rāo, claimed the inheritance as the next heir; and all his +party turned the young lad out of caste as a Brahman, for daring to +go into mourning for a father who was yet alive; one of the +greatest of crimes, according to Hindoo law, for they would not +admit that he had been adopted by the deceased prince.[5]</p> + +<p>The question of inheritance had been referred for decision to +the Supreme Government through the prescribed channel when I +arrived, and the decision was every day expected. The mother, with +her daughter and grandson, and the widow, occupied the castle, +situated on a high hill overlooking the city; while the two uncles +of the deceased occupied their private dwellings in the city below. +Raghunāth Rāo, the eldest, headed the procession that +came out to meet me about three miles, mounted upon a fine female +elephant, with his younger brother by his side. The minister, +Nārū Gopāl, followed, mounted upon another, on the +part of the mother and widow. Some of the Rājā's +relations were upon two of the finest male elephants I have ever +seen; and some of their friends, with the 'Bakshī', or +paymaster (always an important personage), upon two others. +Raghunāth Rāo's elephant drew up on the right of mine, +and that of the minister on the left; and, after the usual +compliments had passed between us, all the others fell back, and +formed a line in our rear. They had about fifty troopers mounted +upon very fine horses in excellent condition, which curvetted +before and on both sides of us; together with a good many men on +camels, and some four or five hundred foot attendants, all well +dressed, but in various costumes. The elephants were so close to +each other that the conversation, which we managed to keep up +tolerably well, was general almost all the way to our tents; every +man taking a part as he found the opportunity of a pause to +introduce his little compliment to the Honourable Company or to +myself, which I did my best to answer or divert. I was glad to see +the affectionate respect with which the old man was everywhere +received, for I had in my own mind no doubt whatever that the +decision of the Supreme Government would be in his favour. The +whole <i>cortège</i> escorted me through the town to my +tent, which was pitched on the other side; and then they took their +leave, still seated on their elephants, while I sat on mine, with +my boy on my knee, till all had made their bow and departed. The +elephants, camels, and horses were all magnificently caparisoned, +and the housings of the whole were extremely rich. A good many of +the troopers were dressed in chain- armour, which, worn outside +their light-coloured quilted vests, looked very like black gauze +scarfs.</p> + +<p>My little friend the Sarīmant's own elephant had lately +died; and, being unable to go to the cost of another with all its +appendages, he had come thus far on horseback. A native gentleman +can never condescend to ride an elephant without a train of at +least a dozen attendants on horseback—he would almost as soon +ride a horse <i>without a tail</i>.[6] Having been considered at +one time as the equal of all these Rājās, I knew that he +would feel a little mortified at finding himself buried in the +crowd and dust; and invited him, as we approached the city, to take +a seat by my side. This gained him consideration, and evidently +gave him great pleasure. It was late before we reached our tents, +as we were obliged to move slowly through the streets of the city, +as well for our own convenience as for the safety of the crowd on +foot before and around us. My wife, who had gone on before to avoid +the crowd and dust, reached the tents halt an hour before us.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon, when my second large tent had been pitched, +the minister came to pay me a visit with a large train of +followers, but with little display; and I found him a very +sensible, mild, and gentlemanly man, just as I expected from the +high character he bears with both parties, and with the people of +the country generally. Any unreserved conversation here in such a +crowd was, of course, out of the question, and I told the minister +that it was my intention early next morning to visit the tomb of +his late master; where I should be very glad to meet him, if he +could make it convenient to come without any ceremony. He seemed +much pleased with the proposal, and next morning we met a little +before sunrise within the railing that encloses the tomb or +cenotaph; and there had a good deal of quiet and, I believe, +unreserved talk about the affairs of the Jhānsī state, +and the family of the late prince. He told me that, a few hours +before the Rājā's death, his mother had placed in his +arms for adoption the son of his sister, a very handsome lad of ten +years of age—but whether the Rājā was or was not +sensible at the time he could not say, for he never after heard him +speak; that the mother of the deceased considered the adoption as +complete, and made her grandson go through the funeral ceremonies +as at the death of his father, which for nine days were performed +unmolested; but, when it came to the tenth and last—which, +had it passed quietly, would have been considered as completing the +title of adoption—Raghunāth Rāo and his friends +interposed, and prevented further proceedings, declaring that, +while there were so many male heirs, no son could be adopted for +the deceased prince according to the usages of the family.</p> + +<p>The widow of the Rājā, a timid, amiable young woman, +of twenty-five years of age, was by no means anxious for this +adoption, having shared the suspicions of her husband regarding the +practices of his mother; and found his sister, who now resided with +them in the castle, a most violent and overbearing woman, who would +be likely to exclude her from all share in the administration, and +make her life very miserable, were her son to be declared the +Rājā. Her wish was to be allowed to adopt, in the name of +her deceased husband, a young cousin of his, Sadāsheo, the son +of Nānā Bhāo. Gangādhar, the younger brother of +Raghunāth Rāo, was exceedingly anxious to have his elder +brother declared Rājā, because he had no sons, and from +the debilitated state of his frame, must soon die, and leave the +principality to him. Every one of the three parties had sent agents +to the Governor-General's representative in Bundēlkhand to +urge their claim; and, till the final decision, the widow of the +late chief was to be considered the sovereign. The minister told me +that there was one unanswerable argument against Raghunāth +Rāo's succeeding, which, out of regard to his feelings, he had +not yet urged, and about which he wished to consult me as a friend +of the late prince and his widow; this was, that he was a leper, +and that the signs of the disease were becoming every day more and +more manifest.</p> + +<p>I told him that I had observed them in his face, but was not +aware that any one else had noticed them. I urged him, however, not +to advance this as a ground of exclusion, since they all knew him +to be a very worthy man, while his younger brother was said to be +the reverse; and more especially I thought it would be very cruel +and unwise to distress and exasperate him by so doing, as I had no +doubt that, before this ground could be brought to their notice, +Government would declare in his favour, right being so clearly on +his side.</p> + +<p>After an agreeable conversation with this sensible and excellent +man, I returned to my tents to prepare for the reception of +Raghunāth Rāo and his party. They came about nine o'clock +with a much greater display of elephants and followers than the +minister had brought with him. He and his friends kept me in close +conversation till eleven o'clock, in spite of my wife's many +considerate messages to say breakfast was waiting. He told me that +the mother of the late Rājā, his nephew, was a very +violent woman, who had involved the state in much trouble during +the period of her regency, which she managed to prolong till her +son was twenty-five years of age, and resigned with infinite +reluctance only three years ago; that her minister during her +regency, Gangadhar Mūlī, was at the same time her +<i>paramour</i>, and would be surely restored to power and to her +embraces, were her grandson's claim to the succession recognized; +that it was with great difficulty he had been able to keep this +atrocious character under surveillance pending the consideration of +their claims by the Supreme Government; that, by having the head of +her grandson shaved, and making him go through all the other +funeral ceremonies with the other members of the family, she had +involved him and his young <i>innocent wife</i> (who had unhappily +continued to drink out of the same cup with her husband) <i>in the +dreadful crime of mourning for a father whom they knew to be yet +alive</i>, a crime that must be expiated by the +'prāyaschit,'[7] which-would be exacted from the young couple +on their return to Sāgar before they could be restored to +caste, from which they were now considered as excommunicated. As +for the young widow, she was everything they could wish; but she +was so timid that she would be governed by the old lady, if she +should have any ostensible part assigned her in the +administration.[8]</p> + +<p>I told the old gentleman that I believed it would be my duty to +pay the first visit to the widow and mother of the late prince, as +one of pure condolence, and that I hoped my doing so would not be +considered any mark of disrespect towards him, who must now be +looked up to as the head of the family. He remonstrated against +this most earnestly; and, at last, tears came into his eyes as he +told me that, if I paid the first visit to the castle, he should +never again be able to show his face outside his door, so great +would be the indignity he would be considered to have suffered; +but, rather than I should do this, he would come to my tents, and +escort me himself to the castle. Much was to be said on both sides +of the weighty question; but, at last, I thought that the arguments +were in his favour—that, if I went to the castle first, he +might possibly resent it upon the poor woman and the prime minister +when he came into power, as I had no doubt he soon would—and +that I might be consulting their interest as much as his feelings +by going to his house first. In the evening I received a message +from the old lady, urging the necessity of my paying the first +visit of condolence for the death of my young friend to the widow +and mother. 'The rights of mothers', said she, 'are respected in +all countries; and, in India, the first visit of condolence for the +death of a man is always due to the mother, if alive.' I told the +messenger that my resolution was unaltered, and would, I trusted, +be found the best for all parties under present circumstances. I +told him that I dreaded the resentment towards them of +Raghunāth Rāo, if he came into power.</p> + +<p>'Never mind that,' said he: 'my mistress is of too proud a +spirit to dread resentment from any one—pay her the +compliment of the first visit, and let her enemies do their worst.' +I told him that I could leave Jhānsī without visiting +either of them, but could not go first to the castle; and he said +that my departing thus would please the old lady better than the +<i>second visit</i>. The minister would not have said +this—the old lady would not have ventured to send such a +message by him—the man was an understrapper; and I left him +to mount my elephant and pay my two visits.[9]</p> + +<p>With the best <i>cortège</i> I could muster, I went to +Raghunāth Rāo's, where I was received with a salute from +some large guns in his courtyard, and entertained with a party of +dancing girls and musicians in the usual manner. Attar of roses and +'pān'[10] were given, and valuable shawls put before me, and +refused in the politest terms I could think of; such as, 'Pray do +me the favour to keep these things for me till I have the happiness +of visiting Jhānsī again, as I am going through +Gwālior, where nothing valuable is a moment safe from +thieves'. After sitting an hour, I mounted my elephant, and +proceeded up to the castle, where I was received with another +salute from the bastions. I sat for half an hour in the hall of +audience with the minister and all the principal men of the court, +as Raghunāth Rāo was to be considered as a private +gentleman till the decision of the Supreme Government should be +made known; and the handsome lad, Krishan Rāo, whom the old +woman wished to adopt, and whom I had often seen at Sāgar, was +at my request brought in and seated by my side. By him I sent my +message of condolence to the widow and mother of his deceased +uncle, couched in the usual terms—that the happy effects of +good government in the prosperity of this city, and the comfort and +happiness of the people, had extended the fame of the family all +over India; and that I trusted the reigning member of that family, +whoever he might be, would be sensible that it was his duty to +sustain that reputation by imitating the example of those who had +gone before him. After attar of roses and pān had been handed +round in the usual manner, I went to the summit of the highest +tower in the castle, which commands an extensive view of the +country around.</p> + +<p>The castle stands upon the summit of a small hill of syenitic +rock. The elevation of the outer wall is about one hundred feet +above the level of the plain, and the top of the tower on which I +stood about one hundred feet more, as the buildings rise gradually +from the sides to the summit of the hill. The city extends out into +the plain to the east from the foot of the hill on which the castle +stands. Around the city there is a good deal of land, irrigated +from four or five tanks in the neighbourhood, and now under rich +wheat crops; and the gardens are very numerous, and abound in all +the fruit and vegetables that the people most like. Oranges are +very abundant and very fine, and our tents have been actually +buried in them and all the other fruits and vegetables which the +kind people of Jhānsī have poured in upon us. The city of +Jhānsī contains about sixty thousand inhabitants, and is +celebrated for its manufacture of carpets.[11] There are some very +beautiful temples in the city, all built by Gosāins, one +[<i>sic</i>] of the priests of Siva who here engage in trade, and +accumulate much wealth.[12] The family of the chief do not build +tombs; and that now raised over the place where the late prince was +buried is dedicated as a temple to Siva, and was made merely with a +view to secure the place from all danger of profanation.[13]</p> + +<p>The face of the country beyond the influence of the tanks is +neither rich nor interesting. The cultivation seemed scanty and the +population thin, owing to the irremediable sterility of soil, from +the poverty of the primitive rock from whose detritus it is chiefly +formed. Raghunāth Rāo told me that the wish of the people +in the castle to adopt a child as the successor to his nephew arose +from the desire to escape the scrutiny into the past accounts of +disbursements which he might be likely to order. I told him that I +had myself no doubt that he would be declared the Rājā, +and urged him to turn all his thoughts to the future, and to allow +no inquiries to be made into the past, with a view to gratify +either his own resentment, or that of others; that the Rajas of +Jhānsī had hitherto been served by the most respectable, +able, and honourable men in the country, while the other chiefs of +Bundēlkhand could get no man of this class to do their work +for them—that this was the only court in Bundēlkhand in +which such men could be seen, simply because it was the only one in +which they could feel themselves secure—while other chiefs +confiscated the property of ministers who had served them with +fidelity, on the pretence of embezzlement; the wealth thus +acquired, however, soon disappearing, and its possessors being +obliged either to conceal it or go out of the country to enjoy it. +Such rulers thus found their courts and capitals deprived of all +those men of wealth and respectability who adorned the courts of +princes in other countries, and embellished, not merely their +capitals, but the face of their dominions in general with their +chateaus and other works of ornament and utility. Much more of this +sort passed between us, and seemed to make an impression upon him; +for he promised to do all that I had recommended to him. Poor man! +he can have but a short and miserable existence, for that dreadful +disease, the leprosy, is making sad inroads in his System +already.[14] His uncle, Raghunāth Rāo, was afflicted with +it; and, having understood from the priests that by <i>drowning</i> +himself in the Ganges (taking the 'samādh'), he should remove +all traces of it from his family, he went to Benares, and there +drowned himself, some twenty years ago. He had no children, and is +said to have been the first of his family in whom the disease +showed itself.[15]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. Now the head-quarters of the British district of the same +name, and also of the Indian Midland Railway. Since the opening of +this railway and the restoration of the Gwālior fort to +Sindhia in 1886, the importance of Jhānsī, both civil and +military, has much increased. The native town was given up by +Sindhia in exchange for the Gwālior stronghold.</p> + +<p>3. This chief is called Rājā Rāo Rāmchand in +the <i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed. He died on August 20, 1835. +His administration had been weak, and his finances were left in +great disorder. Under his successor the disorder of the +administration became still greater.</p> + +<p>4. Dowagers in Indian princely families are frequently involved +in such intrigues and plots. The editor could specify instances in +his personal experience. Compare Chapter 34, <i>post</i>.</p> + +<p>5. An adopted son passes completely out of the family of his +natural, into that of his adoptive, father, all his rights and +duties as a son being at the same time transferred. In this case, +the adoption had not really taken place, and the lad's duty to his +living natural father remained unaffected.</p> + +<p>6. This statement will not apply to those districts in the +United Provinces where elephants are numerous and often kept by +gentry of no great rank or wealth, A Rājā, of course, +always likes to have a few mounted men clattering behind him, if +possible.</p> + +<p>7. The 'prāyaschit' is an expiating atonement by which the +person humbles himself in public. It is often imposed for crimes +committed in a <i>former birth</i>, as indicated by inflictions +suffered in this. [W. H. S.] The practical working of Hindoo caste +rules is often frightfully cruel. The victims of these rules in the +case described by the author were a boy ten years old, and his +child- wife of still more tender years. Yet all the penalties, +including rigorous fasts, would be mercilessly exacted from these +innocent children. Leprosy and childlessness are among the +afflictions supposed to prove the sinfulness of the sufferer in +some former birth, perhaps thousands of years ago.</p> + +<p>8. The poor young widow died of grief some months after my +visit; her spirits never rallied after the death of her husband, +and she never ceased to regret that she had not burned herself with +his remains. The people of Jhānsī generally believe that +the prince's mother brought about his death by +(<i>dīnāī</i>) slow poison, and I am afraid that +that was the impression on the mind of the poor widow. The +minister, who was entirely on her side, and a most worthy and able +man, was quite satisfied that this suspicion was without any +foundation whatever in truth. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>9. Considering the fact that, 'till the final decision, the +widow of the late chief was to be considered the sovereign', it +would be difficult to justify the anthor's decision. The reigning +sovereign was clearly entitled to the first visit. Questions of +precedence, salutes, and etiquette are as the very breath of their +nostrils to the Indian nobility.</p> + +<p>10. The leaf of <i>Piper betel</i>, handed to guests at +ceremonial entertainments, along with the nut of <i>Areca +catechu</i>, made up in a packet of gold or silver leaf.</p> + +<p>11. This estimate of the population was probably excessive. The +population in 1891, including the cantonments, was 53,779, and in +1911, 70,208. The fort of Gwālior and the cantonment of +Morār were surrendered by the Government of India to Sindhia +in exchange for the fort and town of Jhānsī on March 10, +1886. Sindhia also relinquished fifty-eight villages in exchange +for thirty given up by the Government of India, the difference in +value being adjusted by cash payments. The arrangements were +finally sanctioned by Lord Dufferin on June 13, 1888.</p> + +<p>12. These buildings are both tombs and temples. The Gosāins +of Jhānsī do not burn, but bury their dead; and over the +grave those who can afford to do so raise a handsome temple, and +dedicate it to Siva. [W. H. S.] The custom of burial is not +peculiar to the Saiva Gosāins of Jhānsī. It is the +ordinary practice of Gosāins throughout India. Many of the +Gosāins are devoted to the worship of Vishnu. Burial of the +dead is practised by a considerable number of the Hindoo castes of +the artisan grade, and by some divisions of the sweeper caste. See +Crooke, 'Primitive Rites of Disposal of the Dead' (<i>J. Anthrop. +Institute</i>, vol. xxix, N.S., vol. ii (1900), pp. 271-92).</p> + +<p>13. This tact lends some support to W. Simpson's theory that the +Hindoo temple is derived from a sepulchral structure.</p> + +<p>14. This chief died of leprosy in May, 1838. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>15. Raghunāth Rāo was the first of his family invested +by the Peshwā with the government of the Jhānsī +territory, which he had acquired from the Bundēlkhand chiefs. +He went to Benares in 1795 to drown himself, leaving his government +to his third brother, Sheorām Bhāo, as his next brother, +Lachchhman Rāo, was dead, and his sons were considered +incapable. Sheorām Bhāo died in 1815, and his eldest son, +Krishan Rāo, had died four years before him, in 1811, leaving +one son, the late Rājā, and two daughters. This was a +noble sacrifice to what he had been taught by his spiritual +teachers to consider as a duty towards his family; and we must +admire the man while we condemn the religion and the priests. There +is no country in the world where parents are more reverenced than +in India, or where they more readily make sacrifices of all sorts +for their children, or for those they consider as such. We +succeeded in [June] 1817 to all the rights of the Peshwā in +Bundēlkhand, and, with great generosity, converted the +viceroys of Jhānsī and Jālaun into independent +sovereigns of hereditary principalities, yielding each ten lakhs of +rupees. [W. H. S.] The statement in the note that Raghunāth +Rāo I 'went to Benares in 1795 to drown himself' is +inconsistent with the statement in the text that this event +happened 'some twenty years ago'. The word 'twenty' is evidently a +mistake for 'forty'. The <i>N. W. P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., names +several persons who governed Jhānsī on behalf of the +Peshwā between 1742 and 1770, in which latter year +Raghunāth Rāo I received charge. According to the same +authority, Sheo (Shio) Rām Bhāo is called 'Sheo Bhāo +Hari, better known as Sheo Rāo Bhāo', and is said to have +succeeded Raghunāth Rāo I in 1794, and to have died in +1814, not 1816. A few words may here be added to complete the +history. The leper Raghunāth Rāo II, whose claim the +author strangely favoured, was declared Rājā, and died, +as already noted, in May, 1838, 'his brief period of rule being +rendered unquiet by the opposition made to him, professedly on the +ground of his being a leper'. His revenues fell from twelve +lākhs (£120,000) to three lākhs of rupees +(£30,000) a year. On his death in 1838, the succession was +again contested by four claimants. Pending inquiry into the merits +of their claims, the Governor-General's Agent assumed the +administration. Ultimately, Gangādhar Rāo, younger +brother of the leper, was appointed Rājā. The disorder in +the state rendered administration by British officers necessary as +a temporary measure, and Gangādhar Rāo did not obtain +power until 1842. His rule was, on the whole, good. He died +childless in November, 1853, and Lord Dalhousie, applying the +doctrine of lapse, annexed the estate in 1854, granting a pension +of five thousand rupees, or about five hundred pounds, monthly to +Lacchhmī Bāī, Gangādhar Rāo's widow, who +also succeeded to personal property worth about one hundred +thousand pounds. She resented the refusal of permission to adopt a +son, and the consequent annexation of the state, and was further +deeply offended by several acts of the English Administration, +above all by the permission of cow-slaughter. Accordingly, when the +Mutiny broke out, she quickly joined the rebels. On the 7th and 8th +June, 1857, all the Europeans in Jhānsī, men, women, and +children, to the number of about seventy persons, were cruelly +murdered by her orders, or with her sanction. On the 9th June her +authority was proclaimed. In the prolonged fighting which ensued, +she placed herself at the head of her troops, whom she led with +great gallantry. In June, 1858, after a year's bloodstained reign, +she was killed in battle. By November, 1858, the country was +pacified.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch30">CHAPTER 30</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Haunted Villages.</p> + +<p>On the 16th[1] we came on nine miles to Amabāi, the +frontier village of the Jhānsī territory, bordering upon +Datiyā,[2] where I had to receive the farewell visits of many +members of the Jhānsī parties, who came on to have a +quiet opportunity to assure me that, whatever may be the final +order of the Supreme Government, they will do their best for the +good of the people and the state; for I have always considered +Jhānsī among the native states of Bundēlkhand as a +kind of oasis in the desert, the only one in which a man can +accumulate property with the confidence of being permitted by its +rulers freely to display and enjoy it. I had also to receive the +visit of messengers from the Rājā of Datiyā, at +whose capital we were to encamp the next day, and, finally, to take +leave of my amiable little friend the Sarīmant, who here left +me on his return to Sāgar, with a heavy heart I really +believe.</p> + +<p>We talked of the common belief among the agricultural classes of +villages being haunted by the spirits of ancient proprietors whom +it was thought necessary to propitiate. 'He knew', he said, 'many +instances where these spirits were so very <i>froward</i> that the +present heads of villages which they haunted, and the members of +their little communities, found it almost impossible to keep them +in good humour; and their cattle and children were, in consequence, +always liable to serious accidents of one kind or another. +Sometimes they were bitten by snakes, sometimes became possessed by +devils, and, at others, were thrown down and beaten most +unmercifully. Any person who falls down in an epileptic fit is +supposed to be thrown down by a ghost, or possessed by a devil.[3] +They feel little of our mysterious dread of ghosts; a sound +<i>drubbing</i> is what they dread from them, and he who hurts +himself in one of the fits is considered to have got it. 'As for +himself, whenever he found any one of the villages upon his estate +haunted by the spirit of an old "patēl" (village proprietor), +he always made a point of giving him a <i>neat little shrine</i>, +and having it well endowed and attended, to keep him in good +humour; this he thought was a duty that every landlord owed to his +tenants.' Rāmchand, the pundit, said that 'villages which had +been held by old Gond (mountaineer) proprietors were more liable +than any other to those kinds of visitations; that it was easy to +say what village was and was not haunted, but often exceedingly +difficult to discover to whom the ghost belonged. This once +discovered, his nearest surviving relation was, of course, expected +to take steps to put him to rest; but', said he, 'it is wrong to +suppose that the ghost of an old proprietor must be always doing +mischief—he is often the best friend of the cultivators, and +of the present proprietor too, if he treats him with proper +respect; for he will not allow the people of any other village to +encroach upon their boundaries with impunity, and they will be +saved all the expense and annoyance of a reference to the +"adālat" (judicial tribunals) for the settlement of boundary +disputes. It will not cost much to conciliate these spirits, and +the money is generally well laid out.'</p> + +<p>Several anecdotes were told me in illustration; and all that I +could urge against the probability or possibility of such +Visitation appeared to them very inconclusive and unsatisfactory. +They mentioned the case of the family of village proprietors in the +Sāgar district, who had for several generations, at every new +settlement, insisted upon having the name of the spirit of the old +proprietor inserted in the lease instead of their own, and thereby +secured his good graces on all occasions. Mr. Fraser had before +mentioned this case to me. In August, 1834, while engaged in the +settlement of the land revenue of the Sāgar district for +twenty years, he was about to deliver the lease of the estate made +out in due form to the head of the family, a very honest and +respectable old gentleman, when he asked him respectfully in whose +name it had been made out. 'In yours, to be sure; have you not +renewed your lease for twenty years?' The old man, in a state of +great alarm, begged him to have it altered immediately, or he and +his family would all be destroyed—that the spirit of the +ancient proprietor presided over the village community and its +interests, and that all affairs of importance were transacted is +his name. 'He is', said the old man, 'a very jealous spirit, and +will not admit of any living man being considered for a moment as a +proprietor or joint proprietor of the estate. It has been held by +me and my ancestors immediately under Government for many +generations; but the lease deeds have always been made out in his +name, and ours have been inserted merely as his managers or +bailiffs—were this good old rule, under which we have so long +prospered, to be now infringed, we should all perish under his +anger.' Mr. Fraser found, upon inquiring, that this had really been +the case; and, to relieve the old man and his family from their +fears, he had the papers made out afresh, and the <i>ghost</i> +inserted as the proprietor. The modes of flattering and +propitiating these beings, natural and supernatural, who are +supposed to have the power to do mischief, are endless.[4]</p> + +<p>While I was in charge of the district of Narsinghpur, in the +valley of the Nerbudda, in 1823, a cultivator of the village of +Bēdū, about twelve miles distant from my court, was one +day engaged in the cultivation of his field on the border of the +village of Barkharā, which was supposed to be haunted by the +spirit of an old proprietor, whose temper was so froward and +violent that the lands could hardly be let for anything, for hardly +any man would venture to cultivate them lest he might +unintentionally incur his ghostship's displeasure. The poor +cultivator, after begging his pardon in secret, ventured to drive +his plough a few yards beyond the proper line of his boundary, and +thus add half an acre of Barkharā to his own little tenement, +which was situated in Bēdū. That very night his only son +was bitten by a snake, and his two bullocks were seized with the +murrain. In terror he went of to the village temple, confessed his +sin, and vowed, not only to restore the half-acre of land to the +village of Barkharā, but to build a very handsome shrine upon +the spot as a perpetual sign of his repentance. The boy and the +bullocks all three recovered, and the shrine was built; and is, I +believe, still to be seen as the boundary mark.</p> + +<p>The fact was that the village stood upon an elevated piece of +ground rising out of a moist plain, and a colony of snakes had +taken up their abode in it. The bites of these snakes had on many +occasions proved fatal, and such accidents were all attributed to +the anger of a spirit which was supposed to haunt the village. At +one time, under the former government, no one would take a lease of +the village on any terms, and it had become almost entirely +deserted, though the soil was the finest in the whole district. +With a view to remove the whole prejudices of the people, the +governor, Goroba Pundit, took the lease himself at the rent of one +thousand rupees a year; and, in the month of June, went from his +residence, twelve miles, with ten of his own ploughs to superintend +the commencement of so <i>perilous</i> an undertaking.</p> + +<p>On reaching the middle of the village, situated on the top of +the little hill, he alighted from his horse, sat down upon a carpet +that had been spread for him under a large and beautiful +banyan-tree, and began to refresh himself with a pipe before going +to work in the fields. As he quaffed his hookah, and railed at the +follies of the men, 'whose absurd superstitions had made them +desert so beautiful a village with so noble a tree in its centre', +his eyes fell upon an enormous black snake, which had coiled round +one of its branches immediately over his head, and seemed as if +resolved at once to pounce down and punish him for his blasphemy. +He gave his pipe to his attendant, mounted his horse, from which +the saddle had not yet been taken, and never pulled rein till he +got home. Nothing could ever induce him to visit this village +again, though he was afterwards employed under me as a native +collector; and he has often told me that he verily believed this +was the spirit of the old landlord that he had unhappily neglected +to propitiate before taking possession.</p> + +<p>My predecessor in the civil charge of that district, the late +Mr. Lindsay of the Bengal Civil Service, again tried to remove the +prejudices of the people against the occupation and cultivation of +this fine village. It had never been measured, and all the revenue +officers, backed by all the farmers and cultivators of the +neighbourhood, declared that the spirit of the old proprietor would +never allow it to be so. Mr. Lindsay was a good geometrician, and +had long been in the habit of superintending his revenue surveys +himself, and on this occasion be thought himself particularly +called upon to do so. A new measuring cord was made for the +occasion, and, with fear and trembling, all his officers attended +him to the first field; but in measuring it the rope, by some +accident, broke. Poor Lindsay was that morning taken ill and +obliged to return to Narsinghpur, where he died soon after from +fever. No man was ever more beloved by all classes of the people of +his district than he was; and I believe there was not one person +among them who did not believe him to have fallen a victim to the +resentment of the spirit of the old proprietor. When I went to the +village some years afterwards, the people in the neighbourhood all +declared to me that they saw the cord with which he was measuring +fly into a thousand pieces the moment the men attempted to +straighten it over the first field.[5]</p> + +<p>A very respectable old gentleman from the Concan, or Malabar +coast,[6] told me one day that every man there protects his field +of corn and his fruit-tree by dedicating it to one or other of the +spirits which there abound, or confiding it to his guardianship. He +sticks up something in the field, or ties on something to the tree, +in the name of the said spirit, who from that moment feels himself +responsible for its safe keeping. If any one, without permission +from the proprietor, presumes to take either an ear of corn from +the field, or fruit from the tree, he is sure to be killed +outright, or made extremely ill. 'No other protection is required', +said the old gentleman, 'for our fields and fruit-trees in that +direction, though whole armies should have to march through them.' +I once saw a man come to the proprietor of a jack-tree,[7] embrace +his feet, and in the most piteous manner implore his protection. He +asked what was the matter. 'I took', said the man, 'a jack from +your tree yonder three days ago, as I passed at night; and I have +been suffering dreadful agony in my stomach ever since. The spirit +of the tree is upon me, and you only can pacify him.' The +proprietor took up a bit of cow- dung, moistened it, and made a +mark with it upon the man's forehead, <i>in the name of the +spirit</i>, and put some of it into the knot of hair on the top of +his head. He had no sooner done this than the man's pains all left +him, and he went off, vowing never again to give similar cause of +offence to one of these guardian spirits. 'Men', said my old +friend, 'do not die there in the same regulated spirit, with their +thoughts directed exclusively towards God, as in other parts; and +whether a man's spirit is to haunt the world or not after his death +all depends on that.'</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. Datiyā (Datia, Dutteeah) is a small state, with an area +of about 911 square miles, and a cash revenue of about four +lākhs of rupees. On the east it touches the Jhānsī +district, but in all other directions it is enclosed by the +territories of Sindhia, the Maharaja of Gwālior. The +principality was separated from Orchhā by a family partition +in the seventeenth century. The first treaty between the +Rājā and the British Government was concluded on the 15th +March, 1804.</p> + +<p>3. The belief that epileptic patients are possessed by devils +is, of course, in no wise peculiar to India. It is almost +universal. Professor Lombroso discusses the belief in diabolical +possession in chap. 4 of <i>The Man of Genius</i> (London ed., +1891).</p> + +<p>4. 'The educated European of the nineteenth century cannot +realize the dread in which the Hindoo stands of devils. They haunt +his paths from the cradle to the grave. The Tamil proverb in fact +says, "The devil who seizes yon in the cradle, goes with you to the +funeral pile".' The fear and worship of ghosts, demons, and devils +are universal throughout India, and the rites practised are often +comical. The ghost of a bibulous European official with a hot +temper, who died at Muzaffarnagar, in the United Provinces, many +years ago, was propitiated by offerings of beer and whisky at 'his +tomb. Much information on the subject is collected in the articles +'Demon', 'Devils', 'Dehwār', and 'Deified Warriors' in +Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia of India</i> (3rd ed.). Almost every number +of Mr. Crooke's periodical <i>North Indian Notes and Queries</i> +(Allahabad: Pioneer Press; London: A. Constable & Co., 5 vols., +from 1891-2 to 1895-6) gave fresh instances of the oddities of +demon-worship.</p> + +<p>5. The officials of the native Governments were content to use +either a rope or a bamboo for field measurements, and these +primitive instruments continued to satisfy the early British +officers. For many years past a proper chain has been always +employed for revenue surveys.</p> + +<p>6. 'The author uses the term 'Concan' (Konkan) in a wide sense, +so as to cover all the territory between the Western Ghāts and +the sea, including Malabar in the south. The term is often used in +a more restricted sense to mean Bombay and certain other districts, +to the north of Malabar.</p> + +<p>7. <i>Artocarpus integrifolius</i>. The jack fruit attains an +enormous size, and sometimes weighs fifty or sixty pounds. Indians +delight in it, but to most Europeans it is extremely offensive.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch31">CHAPTER 31</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Interview with the Rājā of +Datiyā—Fiscal Errors of Statesmen—Thieves and +Robbers by Profession.</p> + +<p>On the 17th[1] we came to Datiyā, nine miles over a dry and +poor soil, thinly, and only partially, covering a bed of brown and +grey syenite, with veins of quartz and feldspar, and here and there +dykes of basalt, and a few boulders scattered over the surface. The +old Rājā, Parīchhit,[2] on one elephant, and his +cousin, Dalīp Singh, upon a second, and several of their +relations upon others, all splendidly caparisoned, came out two +miles to meet us, with a very large and splendid +<i>cortège</i>. My wife, as usual, had gone on in her +palankeen very early, to avoid the crowd and dust of this +'istikbāl', or meeting; and my little boy, Henry, went on at +the same time in the palankeen, having got a slight fever from too +much exposure to the sun in our slow and stately entrance into +Jhānsī. There were more men in steel chain armour in this +<i>cortège</i> than in that of Jhānsī; and, though +the elephants were not quite so fine, they were just as numerous, +while the crowd of foot attendants was still greater. They were in +fancy dresses, individually handsome, and collectively picturesque; +though, being all soldiers, not quite pleasing to the eye of a +soldier. I remarked to the Rājā, as we rode side by side +on our elephants, that we attached much importance to having our +soldiers all in uniform dresses, according to their corps, while he +seemed to care little about these matters. 'Yes,' said the old man, +with a smile, 'with me every man pleases himself in his dress, and +I care not what he wears, provided it is neat and clean.' They +certainly formed a body more picturesque from being allowed +individually to consult their own fancies in their dresses, for the +native taste in dress is generally very good. Our three elephants +came on abreast, and the Rājā and I conversed as freely +as men in such situations can converse. He is a stout, cheerful old +gentleman, as careless apparently about his own dress as about that +of his soldiers, and a much more sensible and agreeable person than +I expected; and I was sorry to learn from him that he had for +twelve years been suffering from an attack of sciatica on one side, +which had deprived him of the use of one of his legs. I was obliged +to consent to halt the next day that I might hunt in his preserve +(<i>ramnā</i>) in the morning, and return his visit in the +evening. In the Rājā's cortege there were several men +mounted on excellent horses, who carried guitars, and played upon +them, and sang in a very agreeable style, I had never before seen +or heard of such a band, and was both surprised and pleased.</p> + +<p>The great part of the wheat, gram,[3] and other exportable land +produce which the people consume, as far as we have yet come, is +drawn from our Nerbudda districts, and those of Mālwa which +border upon them; and, <i>par conséquent</i>, the price has +been rapidly increasing as we recede from them in our advance +northward. Were the soil of those Nerbudda districts, situated as +they are at such a distance from any great market for their +agricultural products, as bad as it is in the parts of +Bundēlkhand that I came over, no net surplus revenue could +possibly be drawn from them in the present state of arts and +industry. The high prices paid here for land produce, arising from +the necessity of drawing a great part of what is consumed from such +distant lands, enables the Rājās of these +Bundēlkhand states to draw the large revenue they do. These +chiefs expend the whole of their revenue in the maintenance of +public establishments of one kind or other; and, as the essential +articles of subsistence, wheat and gram, &c., which are +produced in their own districts, or those immediately around them, +are not sufficient for the supply of these establishments, they +must draw them from distant territories. All this produce is +brought on the backs of bullocks, because there is no road from the +districts whence they obtain it, over which a wheeled carriage can +be drawn with safety; and, as this mode of transit is very +expensive, the price of the produce, when it reaches the capitals, +around which these local establishments are concentrated, becomes +very high. They must pay a price equal to the collective cost of +purchasing and bringing this substance from the most distant +districts, to which they are at any time obliged to have recourse +for a supply, or they will not be supplied; and, as there cannot be +two prices for the same thing in the same market, the wheat and +gram produced in the neighbourhood of one of these Bundēlkhand +capitals fetch as high a price there as that brought from the most +remote districts on the banks of the Nerbudda river; while it costs +comparatively nothing to bring it from the former lands to the +markets. Such lands, in consequence, yield a rate of rent much +greater compared with their natural powers of fertility than those +of the remotest districts whence produce is drawn for these markets +or capitals; and, as all the lands are the property of the +Rājās, they drew all those rents as revenue.[4]</p> + +<p>Were we to take this revenue, which the Rajas now enjoy, in +tribute for the maintenance of public establishments concentrated +at distant seats, all these local establishments would, of course, +be at once disbanded; and all the effectual demand which they +afford for the raw agricultural produce of distant districts would +cease. The price of this produce would diminish in proportion, and +with it the value of the lands of the districts around such +capitals. Hence the folly of conquerors and paramount powers, from +the days of the Greeks and Romans down to those of Lord Hastings[5] +and Sir John Malcolm,[6] who were all bad political economists, +supposing that conquered and ceded territories could always be made +to yield to a foreign state the same amount of gross revenue as +they had paid to their domestic government, whatever their +situation with reference to the markets for their +produce—whatever the state of their arts and their +industry—and whatever the character and extent of the local +establishments maintained out of it. The settlements of the land +revenue in all the territories acquired in Central India during the +Marāthā war, which ended in 1817, were made upon the +supposition that the lands would continue to pay the same rate of +rent under the new as they had paid under the old government, +uninfluenced by the diminution of all local establishments, civil +and military, to one-tenth of what they had been; that, under the +new order of things, all the waste lands must be brought into +tillage, and be able to pay as high a rate of rent as before +tillage, and, consequently, that the aggregate available net +revenue must greatly and rapidly increase. Those who had the making +of the settlements and the governing of these new territories did +not consider that the diminution of every <i>establishment</i> was +the removal of a <i>market</i>, of an effectual demand for land +produce; and that, when all the waste lands should be brought into +tillage, the whole would deteriorate in fertility, from the want of +fallows, Under the prevailing system of agriculture, which afforded +the lands no other means of renovation from over-cropping. The +settlements of land which were made throughout our new land +acquisitions upon these fallacious assumptions of course failed. +During a series of quinquennial settlements the assessment has been +everywhere gradually reduced to about two-thirds of what it was +when our rule began, to less than one- half of what Sir John +Malcolm, and all the other local authorities, and even the worthy +Marquis of Hastings himself, under the influence of their opinions, +expected it would be. The land revenues of the native princes of +Central India, who reduced their public establishments, which the +new order of things seemed to render useless, and thereby +diminished the only markets for the raw produce of their lands, +have been everywhere falling off in the same proportion; and +scarcely one of them now draws two-thirds of the income he drew +from the same lands in 1817.</p> + +<p>There are in the valley of the Nerbudda districts that yield a +great deal more produce every year than either Orchhā, +Jhānsī, or Datiyā; and yet, from the want of the +same domestic markets, they do not yield one-fourth of the amount +of land revenue. The lands are, however, rated equally high to the +assessment, in proportion to their value to the farmers and +cultivators. To enable them to yield a larger revenue to +Government, they require to have larger establishments as markets +for land produce. These establishments may be either public, and +paid by Government; or they may be private, as manufactories, by +which the land produce of these districts would be consumed by +people employed in investing the value of their labour in +commodities suited to the demand of distant markets, and more +valuable than land produce in proportion to their weight and +bulk.[7] These are the establishments which Government should exert +itself to introduce and foster; since the valley of the Nerbudda, +in addition to a soil exceedingly fertile, has in its whole line, +from its source to its embouchure, rich beds of coal reposing for +the use of future generations, under the sandstone of the +Sātpura and Vindhya ranges, and beds no less rich of very fine +iron. These advantages have not yet been justly appreciated; but +they will be so by and by.[8]</p> + +<p>About half-past four in the afternoon of the day we reached +Datiyā, I had a visit from the Rājā, who came in his +palankeen, with a very respectable, but not very numerous or noisy, +train, and he sat with me about an hour. My large tents were both +pitched parallel to each other, about twenty paces distant, and +united to each other at both ends by separate 'kanāts', or +cloth curtains. My little boy was present, and behaved extremely +well in steadily refusing, without even a look from me, a handful +of gold mohurs, which the Rājā pressed several times upon +his acceptance. I received him at the door of my tent, and +supported him upon my arm to his chair, as he cannot walk without +some slight assistance, from the affection already mentioned in his +leg. A salute from the guns at his castle announced his departure +and return to it. After the audience, Lieutenant Thomas and I +ascended to the summit of a palace of the former Rājās of +this state, which stands upon a high rock close inside the eastern +gate of the city, whence we could see to the west of the city a +still larger and handsomer palace standing, I asked our conductors, +the Rājā's servants, why it was unoccupied. 'No prince +these degenerate days', said they, 'could muster a family and court +worthy of such a palace—the family and court of the largest +of them would, within the walls of such a building, feel as if they +were in a desert. Such palaces were made for princes of the older +times, who were quite different beings from those of the present +day.'</p> + +<p>From the deserted palace we went to the new garden which is +preparing for the young Rājā, an adopted son of about ten +years of age. It is close to the southern wall of the city, and is +very extensive and well managed. The orange-trees are all grafted, +and sinking under the weight of as fine fruit as any in India. +Attempting to ascend the steps of an empty bungalow upon a raised +terrace at the southern extremity of the garden, the attendants +told us respectfully that they hoped we would take off our shoes if +we wished to enter, as the ancestor of the Rājā by whom +it was built, Rām Chand, had lately <i>become a god</i>, and +was there worshipped. The roof is of stone, supported on carved +stone pillars. On the centre pillar, upon a ground of whitewash, is +a hand or trident. This is the only sign of a sacred character the +building has yet assumed; and I found that it owed this character +of sanctity to the circumstance of some one having vowed an +offering to the manes of the builder, if he obtained what his soul +most desired; and, having obtained it, all the people believe that +those who do the same at the same place in a pure spirit of faith +will obtain what they pray for.</p> + +<p>I made some inquiries about Hardaul Lāla, the son of +Bīrsingh Deo, who built the fort of Dhamonī, one of the +ancestors of the Datiyā Rājā, and found that he was +as much worshipped here at his birthplace as upon the banks of the +Nerbudda as the supposed great <i>originator</i> of the cholera +morbus. There is at Datiyā a temple dedicated to him and much +frequented; and one of the priests brought me a flower in his name, +and chanted something indicating that Hardaul Lāla was now +worshipped even so far as the British <i>capital of Calcutta</i>, I +asked the old prince what he thought of the origin of the worship +of this his ancestor; and he told me that when the cholera broke +out first in the camp of Lord Hastings, then pitched about three +stages from his capital, on the bank of the Sindh at Chāndpur +Sunārī, several people recovered from the disease +immediately after making votive offerings in his name; and that he +really thought the spirit of his great-grandfather had worked some +wonderful cures upon people afflicted with this dreadful +malady.[9]</p> + +<p>The town of Datiyā contains a population of between forty +and fifty thousand souls. The streets are narrow, for, in +buildings, as in dress, the Rājā allows every man to +consult his own inclinations. There are, however, a great many +excellent houses in Datiyā, and the appearance of the place is +altogether very good. Many of his feudatory chiefs reside +occasionally in the city, and have all their establishments with +them, a practice which does not, I believe, prevail anywhere else +among these Bundēlkhand chiefs, and this makes the capital +much larger, handsomer, and more populous than that of Tehrī. +This indicates more of mutual confidence between the chief and his +vassals, and accords well with the character they bear in the +surrounding countries. Some of the houses occupied by these barons +are very pretty. They spend the revenue of their distant estates in +adorning them, and embellishing the capital, which they certainly +could not have ventured to do under the late Rājās of +Tehrī, and may not possibly be able to do under the future +Rajas of Datiyā. The present minister of Datiyā, +Ganēsh, is a very great knave, and encourages the residence +upon his master's estate of all kinds of thieves and robbers, who +bring back from distant districts every season vast quantities of +booty, which they share with him. The chief himself is a mild old +gentleman, who would not suffer violence to be offered to any of +his nobles, though he would not, perhaps, quarrel with his minister +for getting him a little addition to his revenue from without, by +affording a sanctuary to such kind of people. As in Tehrī, so +here, the pickpockets constitute the entire population of several +villages, and carry their depredations northward to the banks of +the Indus, and southward to Bombay and Madras.[10] But colonies of +thieves and robbers like these abound no less in our own +territories than in those of native states. There are more than a +thousand families of them in the districts of Muzaffarnagar, +Sahāranpur, and Meerut in the Upper Doāb,[11] all well +enough known to the local authorities, who can do nothing with +them.</p> + +<p>They extend their depredations into remote districts, and the +booty they bring home with them they share liberally with the +native police and landholders under whose protection they live. +Many landholders and police officers make large fortunes from the +share they get of this booty. Magistrates do not molest them, +because they would despair of ever finding the proprietors of the +property that might be found upon them; and, if they could trace +them, they would never be able to persuade them to come and 'enter +upon a worse sea of troubles' in prosecuting them. These thieves +and robbers of the professional classes, who have the sagacity to +avoid plundering near home, are always just as secure in our best +regulated districts as they are in the worst native states, from +the only three things which such depredators care about—the +penal laws, the odium of the society in which they move, and the +vengeance of the god they worship; and they are always well +received in the society around them, as long as they can avoid +having their neighbours annoyed by summons to give evidence for or +against them in our courts. They feel quite sure of the goodwill of +the god they worship, provided they give a fair share of their +booty to his priests; and no less secure of immunity from penal +laws, except on very rare occasions when they happen to be taken in +the tact, in a country where such laws happen to be in +force.[12]</p> + +<p><br> +Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. Rājā Parīchhit died in 1839.</p> + +<p>3. The word gram (<i>Cicer arietinum</i>) is misprinted 'grain' +in the author's text, in this place and in many others.</p> + +<p>4. Bundēlkhand exports to the Ganges a great quantity of +cotton, which enables it to pay for the wheat, gram, and other land +produce which it draws from distant districts, [W. H. S.] Other +considerable exports from Bundēlkhand used to be the root of +the <i>Morinda citrifolia</i>, yielding a dark red dye, and the +coarse <i>kharwā</i> cloth, a kind of canvas, dyed with this +dye, which is known by the name of ' <i>āl</i>'. But modern +chemistry has nearly killed the trade in vegetable dyes. The +construction of railways and roads has revolutionized the System of +trade, and equalized prices.</p> + +<p>5. Governor-General from October 4, 1813, till January 1, 1823. +He was Earl of Moira when he assumed office.</p> + +<p>6. Sir John Malcolm was Agent to the Governor-General in Central +India from 1817 to 1822, and was appointed Governor of Bombay in +1827.</p> + +<p>7. The construction of railways and the development of trade +with Europe have completely altered the conditions. The Nerbudda +valley can now yield a considerable revenue.</p> + +<p>8. The iron ore no doubt is good, but the difficulties in the +way of working it profitably are so great that the author's +sanguine expectations seem unlikely to be fully realized. V. Ball, +in his day the best authority on the subject, observes, 'As will be +abundantly shown in the course of the following pages, the +manufacture of iron has, in many parts of India, been wholly +crushed out of existence by competition with English iron, while in +others it is steadily decreasing, and it seems destined to become +extinct' (<i>Economic Geology</i> (1881), being part of the +<i>Manual of the Geology of India</i>, p. 338). Ball thought that, +if improved methods of reduction should be employed, the +Chāndā ore might be worked profitably. As regards the +rest of India, with the doubtful exception of Upper Assam, he had +little hope of success. Full details of the working of the mines in +the Jabalpur, Narsinghpur, and Chāndā districts of the +Central Provinces are given in pp. 384 to 392 of the same work. See +also <i>I. G.</i> (1908), vol. x, p. 51; and <i>The Oxford Survey +of the British Empire</i> (Oxford, 1914), vol. ii, Asia, pp. 143, +160. A powerful company formed at Bombay in 1907, operating at a +spot on the borders of the Central Provinces and Orissa, hopes to +turn out 7,000 tons of 'steel shapes' per month.</p> + +<p>Coal is not found below the very ancient sandstone rocks, +classed by geologists under the name of the Vindhyan Series. The +principal beds of coal are found in the great series of rocks, +known collectively as the Gondwāna System, which is supposed +to range in age from the Permian to the Upper Jurassic periods of +European geologists (<i>Manual</i>, vol. i, p. 102). This +Gondwāna System includes sandstones. A coalfield at +Mohpāni, ninety-five miles west-south-west from Jabalpur by +rail, was worked from 1862 to 1904 by the Nerbudda Coal and Iron +Company; and is now worked by the G. I. P. Railway Company. The +principal coal-field of the Central Provinces for some years was +that near Warōrā in the Chāndā district, but +the amount which can be extracted profitably is approaching +exhaustion; in fact the colliery was closed in 1906. Thick seams +are known to exist to the south of Chāndā near the +Wardhā river. See <i>I. G.</i>, 1907, vol. iii, chap. iii, p. +135; vol. x. p. 51.</p> + +<p>9. See note to Chapter 25, <i>ante</i>, note 7.</p> + +<p>10. 'Pickpockets' is not a suitable term.</p> + +<p>11. The Persian word 'doāb' means the tract of land between +two rivers, which ultimately meet. The upper doāb referred to +in the text lies between the Ganges and the Jumna.</p> + +<p>12. These 'colonies of thieves and robbers' are still the +despair of the Indian administrator. They are known to Anglo-Indian +law as 'criminal tribes', and a special Act has been passed for +their regulation. The principle of that Act is police supervision, +exercised by means of visits of inspection, and the issue of +passports. The Act has been applied from time to time to various +tribes, but has in every case failed. In 1891, Sir Auckland Colvin, +then Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces, adopted +the strong measure of suddenly capturing many hundreds of +Sānsias, a troublesome criminal tribe, in the Muzaffarnagar, +Meerut, and Alīgarh Districts. Some of the prisoners were sent +to a special jail, or reformatory, called a 'settlement', at +Sultānpur in Oudh, and the others were drafted off to various +landlords' estates. These latter were supposed to devote themselves +to agriculture. The editor, as Magistrate of Muzaffarnagar, +effected the capture of more than seven hundred Sānsias in +that district, and dispatched them in accordance with orders. As +most people expected, the agricultural pupils promptly absconded. +Multitudes of Sānsias in the Panjāb and elsewhere +remained unaffected by the raid, which could not have any permanent +effect. The milder expedient of settling and nursing a large +colony, organized in villages, of another criminal tribe, the +Bāwarias (Boureahs), was also tried many years ago in the same +district of Muzaffarnagar. The people settled readily enough, and +reclaimed a considerable area of waste land, but were not in the +least degree reformed. At the beginning of the cold season, in +October or November, most of the able-bodied men annually leave the +villages, and remain absent on distant forays till March or April, +when they return with their booty, enjoying almost complete +immunity, for the reasons stated in the text. On one occasion some +of these Bāwarias of Muzaffarnagar stole a lākh and a +half of rupees (about £12,000 at that time), in currency +notes at Tuticorin, in the south of the peninsula, 1,400 miles +distant from their home. The number of such criminal tribes, or +castes, is very great, and the larger of these communities, such as +the Sānsias, each comprise many thousands of members, diffused +over an enormous area in several provinces. It is, therefore, +impossible to put them down, except by the use of drastic measures +such as no civilized European Government could propose or sanction. +The criminal tribes, or castes, are, to a large extent, races; but, +in many of these castes, fresh blood is constantly introduced by +the admission of outsiders, who are willing to eat with the members +of the tribe, and so become for ever incorporated in the +brotherhood. The gipsies of Europe are closely related to certain +of these Indian tribes. The official literature on the subject is +of considerable bulk. Mr. W. Crooke's small book, <i>An +Ethnographic Glossary</i>, published in 1891 (Government Press, +Allahabad), is a convenient summary of most of the facts on record +concerning the criminal and other castes of Northern India, and +gives abundant references to other publications. See also his +larger work, <i>Castes and Tribes of the N. W. P. and Oudh</i>, 4 +vols. Calcutta, 1906. The author's folio book, <i>Report on the +Budhuk alias Bagree Decoits and other Gang Robbers by Hereditary +Profession, and on the Measures adopted by the Government of India +for their Suppression</i> (Calcutta, 1849), <i>ante</i>, +Bibliography No. 12, probably is the most valuable of the original +authorities on the subject, but it is rare and seldom +consulted.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch32">CHAPTER 32</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Sporting at Datiyā—Fidelity of +Followers to their Chiefs in India—Law of Primogeniture +wanting among Muhammadans.</p> + +<p>The morning after we reached Datiyā, I went out with +Lieutenant Thomas to shoot and hunt in the Rājā's large +preserve, and with the <i>humane</i> and determined resolution of +killing no more game than our camp would be likely to eat; for we +were told that the deer and wild hogs were so very numerous that we +might shoot just as many as we pleased.[l] We were posted upon two +terraces, one near the gateway, and the other in the centre of the +preserve; and, after waiting here an hour, we got each a shot at a +hog. Hares we saw, and might have shot, but we had loaded all our +barrels with ball for other game. We left the 'ramnā', which +is a quadrangle of about one hundred acres of thick grass, shrubs, +and brushwood, enclosed by a high stone wall. There is one gate on +the west side, and this is kept open during the night, to let the +game out and in. It is shut and guarded during the day, when the +animals are left to repose in the shade, except on such occasions +as the present, when the Rājā wants to give his guests a +morning's sport. On the plains and woods outside we saw a good many +large deer, but could not manage to get near them in our own way, +and had not patience to try that of the natives, so that we came +back without killing anything, or having had any occasion to +exercise our <i>forbearance</i>. The Rājā's people, as +soon as we left them, went about their sport after their own +fashion, and brought us a fine buck antelope after breakfast. They +have a bullock trained to go about the fields with them, led at a +quick pace by a halter, with which the sportsman guides him, as he +walks along with him by the side opposite to that facing the deer +he is in pursuit of. He goes round the deer as he grazes in the +field, shortening the distance at every circle till he comes within +shot. At the signal given the bullock stands still, and the +sportsman rests his gun upon his back and fires. They seldom miss. +Others go with a fine buck and doe antelope, tame, and trained to +browse upon the fresh bushes, which are woven for the occasion into +a kind of hand-hurdle, behind which a man creeps along over the +fields towards the herd of wild ones, or sits still with his +matchlock ready, and pointed out through the leaves. The herd +seeing the male and female strangers so very busily and agreeably +employed upon their apparently inviting repast, advance to accost +them, and are shot when they get within a secure distance.[2] The +hurdle was filled with branches from the 'dhau' (<i>Lythrum +fructuosum</i>) tree, of which the jungle is for the most part +composed, plucked as we went along; and the tame antelopes, having +been kept long fasting for the purpose, fed eagerly upon them. We +had also two pairs of falcons; but a knowledge of the brutal manner +in which these birds are fed and taught is enough to prevent any +but a <i>brute</i> from taking much delight in the sport they +afford.[3]</p> + +<p>The officer who conducted us was evidently much disappointed, +for he was really very anxious, as he knew his master the +Rājā was, that we should have a good day's sport. On our +way back I made him ride by my side, and talk to me about +Datiyā, since he had been unable to show me any sport. I got +his thoughts into a train that I knew would animate him, if he had +any soul at all for poetry or poetical recollections, as I thought +he had. 'The noble works in palaces and temples,' said he, 'which +you see around you, Sir, mouldering in ruins, were built by princes +who had beaten emperors in battle, and whose spirits still hover +over and protect the place. Several times, under the late disorders +which preceded your paramount rule in Hindustan, when hostile +forces assembled around us, and threatened our capital with +destruction, lights and elephants innumerable were seen from the +tops of those battlements, passing and repassing under the walls, +ready to defend them had the enemy attempted an assault. Whenever +our soldiers endeavoured to approach near them, they disappeared; +and everybody knew that they were spirits of men like Bīrsingh +Deo and Hardaul Lāla that had come to our aid, and we never +lost confidence.' It is easy to understand the devotion of men to +their chiefs when they believe their progenitors to have been +demigods, and to have been faithfully served by their ancestors for +several generations. We neither have, nor ever can have, servants +so personally devoted to us as these men are to their chiefs, +though we have soldiers who will fight under our banners with as +much courage and fidelity. They know that their grandfathers served +the grandfathers of these chiefs, and they hope their grandchildren +will serve their grandsons. The one feels as much pride and +pleasure in so serving, as the other in being so served; and both +hope that the link which binds them may never be severed. Our +servants, on the contrary, private and public, are always in dread +that some accident, some trivial fault, or some slight offence, not +to be avoided, will sever for ever the link that binds them to +their master.</p> + +<p>The fidelity of the military classes of the people of India to +their immediate chief, or leader, whose <i>salt they eat</i>, has +been always very remarkable, and commonly bears little relation to +his <i>moral virtues</i>, or conduct to <i>his</i> superiors. They +feel that it is their duty to serve him who feeds and protects them +and their families in all situations, and under all circumstances; +and the chief feels that, while he has a right to their services, +it is his imperative duty so to feed and protect them and their +families. He may change sides as often as he pleases, but the +relations between him and his followers remain unchanged. About the +side he chooses to take in a contest for dominion, they ask no +questions, and feel no responsibility. God has placed their +destinies in dependence upon his; and to him they cling to the +last. In Mālwa, Bhopāl, and other parts of Central India, +the Muhammadan rule could be established over that of the +Rājpūt chief only by the annihilation of the entire race +of their followers.[4] In no part of the world has the devotion of +soldiers to their immediate chief been more remarkable than in +India among the Rājpūts; and in no part of the world bas +the fidelity of these chiefs to the paramount power been more +unsteady, or their devotion less to be relied upon. The laws of +Muhammad, which prescribe that the property in land be divided +equally among the sons,[5] leaves no rule for succession to +territorial or political dominion. It has been justly observed by +Hume: 'The right of primogeniture was introduced with the feudal +law; an institution which is hurtful by producing and maintaining +an unequal division of property; but it is advantageous in another +respect by accustoming the people to a preference for the eldest +son, and thereby preventing a partition or disputed succession in +the monarchy.'</p> + +<p>Among the Muhammadan princes there was no law that bound the +whole members of a family to obey the eldest son of a deceased +prince. Every son of the Emperor of Hindustan considered that he +had a right to set up his claim to the throne, vacated by the death +of his father; and, in anticipation of that death, to strengthen +his claim by negotiations and intrigues with all the territorial +chiefs and influential nobles of the empire. However <i>prejudicial +to the interests</i> of his elder brother such measures might be, +they were never considered to be an <i>invasion of his rights</i>, +because such rights had never been established by the laws of their +prophet. As all the sons considered that they had an equal right to +solicit the support of the chiefs and nobles, so all the chiefs and +nobles considered that they could adopt the cause of whichever +<i>son</i> they chose, without incurring the reproach of either +<i>treason</i> or dishonour. The one who succeeded thought himself +justified by the law of self-preservation to put, not only his +brothers, but all their sons, to death; so that there was, after +every new succession, an entire <i>clearance</i> of all the male +members of the imperial family. Aurangzēb said to his pedantic +tutor, who wished to be raised to high station on his accession to +the imperial throne, 'Should not you, instead of your flattery, +have taught me something of that point so important to a king, +which is, what are the reciprocal duties of a sovereign to his +subjects, and those of the subjects to their sovereign? And ought +not you to have considered that one day I should be obliged, with +the sword, to dispute my life and the crown with my brothers? Is +not that the destiny, almost of all the sons of Hindustan?'[6] Now +that they have become pensioners of the British Government, the +members increase like white ants; and, as Malthus has it, 'press so +hard against their means of subsistence' that a great many of them +are absolutely starving, in spite of the enormous pension the head +of the family receives for their maintenance.[7]</p> + +<p>The city of Datiyā is surrounded by a stone wall about +thirty feet high, with its foundation on a solid rock; but it has +no ditch or glacis, and is capable of little or no defence against +cannon. In the afternoon I went, accompanied by Lieutenant Thomas, +and followed by the best <i>cortège</i> we could muster, to +return the Rājā's visit. He resides within the walls of +the city in a large square garden, enclosed with a high wall, and +filled with fine orange-trees, at this time bending under the +weight of the most delicious fruit. The old chief received us at +the bottom of a fine flight of steps leading up to a handsome +pavilion, built upon the wall of one of the faces of this garden. +It was enclosed at the back, and in front looked into the garden +through open arcades. The floors were spread with handsome carpets +of the Jhānsī manufacture. In front of the pavilion was a +wide terrace of polished stone, extending to the top of the flight +of the steps; and, in the centre of this terrace, and directly +opposite to us as we looked into the garden, was a fine <i>jet +d'eau</i> in a large basin of water in full play, and, with its +shower of diamonds, showing off the rich green and red of the +orange-trees to the best advantage.</p> + +<p>The large quadrangle thus occupied is called the 'kila', or +fort, and the wall that surrounds it is thirty feet high, with a +round embattled tower at each corner. On the east face is a fine +large gateway for the entrance, with a curtain as high as the wall +itself. Inside the gate is a piece of ordnance painted red, with +the largest calibre I ever saw.[8] This is fired once a year, at +the festival of the Dasahra.[9]</p> + +<p>Our arrival at the wall was announced by a salute from some fine +brass guns upon the bastions near the gateway. As we advanced from +the gateway up through the garden to the pavilion, we were again +serenaded by our friends with their guitars and excellent voices. +They were now on foot, and arranged along both sides of the walk +that we had to pass through. The open garden space within the walls +appeared to me to be about ten acres. It is crossed and recrossed +at right angles by numerous walks, having rows of plantain and +other fruit trees on each side; and orange, pomegranate, and other +small fruit trees to fill the space between; and anything more rich +and luxuriant one can hardly conceive. In the centre of the north +and west sides are pavilions with apartments for the family above, +behind, and on each side of the great reception room, exactly +similar to that in which we were received on the south face. The +whole formed, I think, the most delightful residence that I have +seen for a hot climate. There is, however, no doubt that the most +healthy stations in this, and every other hot climate, are those +situated upon dry, open, sandy plains, with neither shrubberies nor +basins.[10]</p> + +<p>We were introduced to the young Rājā, the old man's +adopted son, a lad of about ten years of age, who is to be married +in February next. He is plain in person, but has a pleasing +expression of countenance; and, if he be moulded after the old man, +and not after his minister, the country may perhaps have in him the +'lucky accident' of a good governor.[11] I have rarely seen a finer +or more prepossessing man than the Rājā, and all his +subjects speak well of him. We had an elephant, a horse, abundance +of shawls, and other fine clothes placed before us as presents; but +I prayed the old gentleman to keep them all for me till I returned, +as I was a mere voyageur without the means of carrying such +valuable things in safety; but he would not be satisfied till I had +taken two plain hilts of swords and spears, the manufacture of +Datiyā, and of little value, which Lieutenant Thomas and I +promised to keep for his sake. The rest of the presents were all +taken back to their places. After an hour's talk with the old man +and his ministers, attar of roses and pān were distributed, +and we took our leave to go and visit the old palace, which as yet +we had seen only from a distance. There were only two men besides +the Rājā, his son, and ourselves, seated upon chairs. All +the other principal persons of the court sat around cross-legged on +the carpet; but they joined freely in the conversation, I was told +by these courtiers how often the young chief had, during the day, +asked when he could have the happiness of seeing me; and the old +chief was told, in my hearing, how many <i>good things</i> I had +said since I came into his territories, all tending to his honour +and my credit. This is a species of barefaced flattery to which we +are all doomed to submit in our intercourse with these native +chiefs; but still, to a man of sense, it never ceases to be +distressing and offensive; for he can hardly ever help feeling that +they must think him a mere child before they could venture to treat +him with it. This is, however, to put too harsh a construction upon +what in reality, the people mean only as civility; and they, who +can so easily consider the grandfathers of their chiefs as gods, +and worship them as such, may be suffered to treat <i>us</i> as +heroes and sayers of good things without offence.[12]</p> + +<p>We ascended to the summit of the old palace, and were well +repaid for the trouble by the view of an extremely rich sheet of +wheat, gram, and other spring crops, extending to the north and +east, as far as the eye could reach, from the dark belt of forest, +three miles deep, with which the Rājā has surrounded his +capital on every side as hunting grounds. The lands comprised in +this forest are, for the most part, exceedingly poor, and water for +irrigation is unattainable within them, so that little is lost by +this taste of the chief for the sports of the field, in which, +however, he cannot himself now indulge.</p> + +<p>On the 19th[13] we left Datiyā, and, after emerging from +the surrounding forest, came over a fine plain covered with rich +spring crops for ten miles, till we entered among the ravines of +the river Sindh, whose banks are, like those of all rivers in this +part of India, bordered to a great distance by these deep and ugly +inequalities. Here they are almost without grass or shrubs to +clothe their hideous nakedness, and have been formed by the +torrents, which, in the season of the rains, rush from the +extensive plain, as from a wide ocean, down to the deep channel of +the river in narrow streams. These streams cut their way easily +through the soft alluvial soil, which must once have formed the bed +of a vast lake.[14] On coming through the forest, before sunrise we +discovered our error of the day before, for we found excellent +deer-shooting in the long grass and brushwood, which grow +luxuriantly at some distance from the city. Had we come out a +couple of miles the day before, we might have had noble sport, and +really required the <i>forbearance and humanity</i> to which we had +so magnanimously resolved to sacrifice our 'pride of art' as +sportsmen; for we saw many herds of the nīlgāi, antelope, +and spotted deer,[15] browsing within a few paces of us, within the +long grass and brushwood on both sides of the road. We could not +stay, however, to indulge in much sport, having a long march before +us.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Some readers may be shocked at the notion of the author +shooting pig, but, in Bundēlkhand, where pig-sticking, or hog- +hunting, as the older writers call it, is not practised, +hog-shooting is quite legitimate.</p> + +<p>2. The common antelope, or black buck (<i>Antilope +bezoartica</i>, or <i>cervicapra</i>) feed in herds, sometimes +numbering many hundreds, in the open plains, especially those of +black soil. Men armed with matchlocks can scarcely get a shot +except by adopting artifices similar to those described in the +text.</p> + +<p>3. Sixteen species of hawks, belonging to several genera, are +trained in India. They are often fed by being allowed to suck the +blood from the breasts of live pigeons, and their eyes are darkened +by means of a silken thread passed through holes in the eyelids. +'Hawking is a very dull and very cruel sport. A person must become +insensible to the sufferings of the most beautiful and most +inoffensive of the brute creation before he can feel any enjoyment +in it. The cruelty lies chiefly in the mode of feeding the hawks' +(<i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oude</i>, vol. i, p, 109). Asoka +forbade the practice by the words: 'The living must not be fed with +the living' (Pillar Edict V, <i>c.</i> 243 B.C., in V. A. Smith, +<i>Asoka</i>, 2nd ed. (1909), p. 188).</p> + +<p>4. The wording of this sentence is unfortunate, and it is not +easy to understand why the author mentioned Bhopāl. The +principality of Bhopāl was formed by Dost Mohammed Khān, +an Afghān officer of Aurangzēb, who became independent a +few years after that sovereign's death in 1707. Since that time the +dynasty has always continued to be Muhammadan. The services of +Sikandar Bēgam in the Mutiny are well known. Mālwa is the +country lying between Bundēlkhand, on the east, and +Rājputāna, on the west, and includes Bhopāl. Most of +the states in this region are now ruled by Hindoos, but the local +dynasty which ruled the kingdom of Mālwa and Māndū +from A.D. 1401 to 1531 was Musalmān. (See Thomas, +<i>Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Dehli</i>, pp. 346-53.)</p> + +<p>5. All near relatives succeed to a Muhammadan's estate, which is +divided, under complicated rules, into the necessary number of +shares. A son's share is double that of a daughter. As between +themselves all sons share equally.</p> + +<p>6. Bernier's <i>Revolutions of the Mogul Empire</i>. [W. H. S.] +The author seems to have used either the London edition of 1671, +entitled <i>The History of the Late Revolution of the Empire of the +Great Mogul</i>, or one of the reprints of that edition. The +anecdote referred to is called by Bernier 'an uncommonly good +story'. Aurangzēb made a long speech, ending by dismissing the +unlucky pedagogue with the words: 'Go! withdraw to thy native +village. Henceforth let no man know either who thou art, or what is +become of thee.' (Bernier, <i>Travels in the Mogul Empire</i>, pp. +154-161, ed. Constable and V. A, Smith, 1914.) Manucci repeats the +story with slight variations (<i>Storie da Mogor</i>, vol. ii, pp. +29-33).</p> + +<p>7. Compare the forcible description of the state of the Delhi +royal family in Chapter 76, <i>post</i>. The old emperor's pension +was one hundred thousand rupees a month. The events of the Mutiny +effected a considerable clearance, though the number of persons +claiming relationship with the royal house is still large. A few of +these have taken service under the British Government, but have not +distinguished themselves.</p> + +<p>8. The author, unfortunately, does not give the dimensions of +this piece. Rūmī Khān's gun at Bījāpur, +which was cast in the sixteenth century at Ahmadnagar, is generally +considered the largest ancient cannon in India. It is fifteen feet +long, and weighs about forty-one tons, the calibre being two feet +four inches. Like the gun at Datiyā, it is painted with red +lead, and is worshipped by Hindoos, who are always ready to worship +every manifestation of power. Another big gun at Bījāpur +is thirty feet in length, built up of bars bound together. Other +very large pieces exist at Gāwīlgarh in Berār, and +Bīdar in the Nīzam's dominions. (Balfour, +<i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., s.v. Gun, Bījāpur, Gawilgarh +Hill Range, and Beder.)</p> + +<p>9. The Dasahra festival, celebrated at the beginning of October, +marks the close of the rains and the commencement of the cold +season. It is observed by all classes of Hindus, but especially by +Rājās and the military classes, for whom this festival +has peculiar importance. In the old days no prince or commander, +whether his command consisted of soldiers or robbers, ever +undertook regular operations until the Dasahra had been duly +observed. All Rājās still receive valuable offerings on +this occasion, which form an important element in their revenue. In +some places buffaloes are sacrificed by the Rājā in +person. The soldiers worship the weapons which they hope to use +during the coming season. Among the Marāthās the ordnance +received especial attention and worship. The ceremony of +worshipping certain leguminous trees at this festival has been +noticed <i>ante</i>, Chapter 26 note 8.</p> + +<p>10. Few Europeans nowadays could join in the author's +enthusiastic admiration of the Datiyā garden. The arrangements +seem to have been those usual in large formal native gardens in +Northern India.</p> + +<p>11. This lad has since succeeded his adoptive father as the +chief of the Datiyā principality. The old chief found him one +day lying in the grass, as he was shooting through one of his +preserves. His elephant was very near treading upon the infant +before he saw it. He brought home the boy, adopted him as his son, +and declared him his successor, from having no son of his own. The +British Government, finding that the people generally seemed to +acquiesce in the old man's wishes, sanctioned the measure, as the +paramount power. [W. H. S.] The old Rājā died in 1839, +and the succession of the boy, Bijai Bahādur, thus strangely +favoured by fortune, was unsuccessfully opposed by one of the +nobles of the state. Bijai Bahādur governed the state with +sufficient success until his death in 1857. The succession was then +again disputed, and disturbances took place which were suppressed +by an armed British force. The state is still governed by its +hereditary ruler, who has been granted the privilege of adoption +(<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. i, p. 410, s.v. +Datiyā).</p> + +<p>12. The fact is that all Oriental rulers thoroughly enjoy the +most outrageous flattery, and would feel defrauded if they did not +get it in abundance. Even Akbar, the greatest of them, could enjoy +it, and allow the courtly poet to say 'See Akbar, and you see God'. +Indians find it difficult to believe that European officials really +dislike attentions which are exacted by rulers of their own +races.</p> + +<p>13. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>14. This theory is probably incorrect. See <i>ante</i>, Chapter +14, note 7, on formation of black soil.</p> + +<p>15. Nīlgāi, or 'blue-bull', a huge, heavy antelope of +bovine form, common in India, scientifically named <i>Portax +pictus</i>. By 'antelope' the author means the common antelope, or +black buck, the <i>Antilope bezoartica</i>, or <i>cervicapra</i> of +naturalists. The spotted deer, or 'chītal', a very handsome +creature, is the <i>Axis maculata</i> of Gray, the <i>Cervus +axis</i> of other zoologists.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch33">CHAPTER 33</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">'Bhūmiāwat.'</p> + +<p>Though no doubt very familiar to our ancestors during the Middle +Ages, this is a thing happily but little understood in Europe at +the present day. 'Bhūmiāwat', in Bundēlkhand, +signifies a war or fight for landed inheritance, from 'bhūm', +the land, earth, &c.; 'bhūmia', a landed proprietor.</p> + +<p>When a member of the landed aristocracy, no matter how small, +has a dispute with his ruler, he collects his followers, and levies +indiscriminate war upon his territories, plundering and burning his +towns and villages, and murdering their inhabitants till he is +invited back upon his own terms. During this war it is a point of +honour not to allow a single acre of land to be tilled upon the +estate which he has deserted, or from which he has been driven; and +he will murder any man who attempts to drive a plough in it, +together with all his family, if he can. The smallest member of +this landed aristocracy of the Hindoo military class will often +cause a terrible devastation during the interval that he is engaged +in his bhūmiāwat; for there are always vast numbers of +loose characters floating upon the surface of Indian society, ready +to 'gird up their loins' and use their sharp swords in the service +of marauders of this kind, when they cannot get employment in that +of the constituted authorities of government.</p> + +<p>Such a marauder has generally the sympathy of nearly all the +members of his own class and clan, who are apt to think that his +case may one day be their own. He is thus looked upon as contending +for the interests of all; and, if his chief happens to be on bad +terms with other chiefs in the neighbourhood, the latter will +clandestinely support the outlaw and his cause, by giving him and +his followers shelter in the hills and jungles, and concealing +their families and stolen property in their castles. It is a maxim +in India, and, in the less settled parts of it, a very true one, +that 'one Pindhāra or robber makes a hundred'; that is, where +one robber, by a series of atrocious murders and robberies, +frightens the people into non- resistance, a hundred loose +characters from among the peasantry of the country will take +advantage of the occasion, and adopt his name, in order to plunder +with the smallest possible degree of personal risk to +themselves.</p> + +<p>Some magistrates and local rulers, under such circumstances, +have very unwisely adopted the measure of prohibiting the people +from carrying or having arms in their houses, the very thing which, +above all others, such robbers most wish; for they know, though +such magistrates and rulers do not, that it is the innocent only, +and the friends to order, who will obey the command. The robber +will always be able to conceal his arms, or keep with them out of +reach of the magistrate; and he is now relieved altogether from the +salutary dread of a shot from a door or window. He may rob at his +leisure, or sit down like a gentleman and have all that the people +of the surrounding towns and villages possess brought to him, for +no man can any longer attempt to defend himself or his family.[1] +Weak governments are obliged soon to invite back the robber on his +own terms, for the people can pay them no revenue, being prevented +from cultivating their lands, and obliged to give all they have to +the robbers, or submit to be plundered of it. Jhānsī and +Jālaun are exceedingly weak governments, from having their +territories studded with estates held rent-free, or at a quit-rent, +by Pawār, Bundēla, and Dhandēl barons, who have +always the sympathy of the numerous chiefs and their barons of the +same class around.</p> + +<p>In the year 1832, the Pawār barons of the estates of Noner, +Jignī, Udgāon, and Bilharī in Jhānsī had +some cause of dissatisfaction with their chief; and this they +presented to Lord William Bentinck as he passed through the +province in December. His lordship told them that these were +questions of internal administration which they must settle among +themselves, as the Supreme Government would not interfere. They +had, therefore, only one way of settling such disputes, and that +was to raise the standard of bhūmiāwat, and cry, 'To your +tents, O Israel!' This they did; and, though the Jhānsī +chief had a military force of twelve thousand men, they burnt down +every town and village in the territory that did not come into +their terms; and the chief had possession of only two, +Jhānsī, the capital, and the large commercial town of +Mau,[2] when the Bundēla Rājās of Orchhā and +Datiyā, who had hitherto clandestinely supported the +insurgents, consented to become the arbitrators. A suspension of +arms followed, the barons got all they demanded, and the +bhūmiāwat ceased. But the Jhānsī chief, who had +hitherto lent large sums to the other chiefs in the province, was +reduced to the necessity of borrowing from them all, and from +Gwālior, and mortgaging to them a good portion of his +lands.[3]</p> + +<p>Gwālior is itself weak in the same way. A great portion of +its lands are held by barons of the Hindoo military classes, +equally addicted to bhūmiāwat, and one or more of them is +always engaged in this kind of indiscriminate warfare; and it must +be confessed that, unless they are always considered to be ready to +engage in it, they have very little chance of retaining their +possessions on moderate terms, for these weak governments are +generally the most rapacious when they have it in their power.</p> + +<p>A good deal of the lands of the Muhammadan sovereign of Oudh +are, in the same manner, held by barons of the Rājpūt +tribe; and some of them are almost always in the field engaged in +the same kind of warfare against their sovereign. The baron who +pursues it with vigour is almost sure to be invited back upon his +own terms very soon. If his lands are worth a hundred thousand a +year, he will get them for ten; and have this remitted for the next +five years, until he is ready for another bhūmiāwat, on +the ground of the injuries sustained during the last, from which +his estate has to recover. The baron who is peaceable and obedient +soon gets rack- rented out of his estate, and reduced to +beggary.[4]</p> + +<p>In 1818, some companies of my regiment were for several months +employed in Oudh, after a young 'bhūmiāwatī' of this +kind, Sheo Ratan Singh. He was the nephew and heir of the +Rājā of Partābgarh,[5] who wished to exclude him +from his inheritance by the adoption of a brother of his young +bride. Sheo Ratan had a small village for his maintenance, and said +nothing to his old uncle till the governor of the province, +Ghulām Husani[6], accepted an invitation to be present at the +ceremony of adoption. He knew that, if he acquiesced any longer, he +would lose his inheritance, and cried, 'To your tents, 0 Israel!' +He got a small band of three hundred Rājpūts, with +nothing but their swords, shields, and spears, to follow him, all +of the same clan and true men. They were bivouacked in a jungle not +more than seven miles from our cantonments at Partābgarh, when +Ghulām Husain marched to attack them with three regiments of +infantry, one of cavalry, and two nine-pounders. He thought he +should surprise them, and contrived so that he should come upon +them about daybreak. Sheo Ratan knew all his plans. He placed one +hundred and fifty of his men in ambuscade at the entrance to the +jungle, and kept the other hundred and fifty by him in the centre. +When they had got well in, the party in ambush rushed upon the +rear, while he attacked them in front. After a short resistance, +Ghulām Husain's force took to flight, leaving five hundred men +dead on the field, and their guns behind them. Ghulām Husain +was so ashamed of the drubbing he got that he bribed all the +news-writers[7] within twenty miles of the place to say nothing +about it in their reports to court, and he never made any report of +it himself. A detachment of my regiment passed over the dead bodies +in the course of the day, on their return to cantonments from +detached command, or we should have known nothing about it. It is +true, we heard the firing, but that we heard every day; and I have +seen from my bungalow half a dozen villages in flames, at the same +time, from this species of contest between the Rājpūt +landholders and the government authorities. Our cantonments were +generally full of the women and children who had been burnt out of +house and home.</p> + +<p>In Oudh such contests generally begin with the harvests. During +the season of tillage all is quiet; but, when the crops begin to +ripen, the governor begins to rise in his demands for revenue, and +the Rājpūt landholders and cultivators to sharpen their +swords and burnish their spears. One hundred of them always +consider themselves a match for one thousand of the king's troops +in a fair field, because they have all one heart and soul, while +the king's troops have many.[8]</p> + +<p>While the Pawārs were ravaging the Jhānsī state +with their bhūmiāwat, a merchant of Sāgar had a +large convoy of valuable cloths, to the amount, I think, of forty +thousand rupees,[9] intercepted by them on its way from +Mirzāpur[10] to Rājputāna. I was then at Sāgar, +and wrote off to the insurgents to say that they had mistaken one +of our subjects for one of the Jhānsī chiefs, and must +release the convoy. They did so, and not a piece of the cloth was +lost. This bhūmiāwat is supposed to have cost the +Jhānsī chief above twenty lākhs of rupees,[11] and +his subjects double that sum.</p> + +<p>Gopāl Singh, a Bundēla, who had been in the service of +the chief of Pannā,[12] took to bhūmiāwat in 1809, +and kept a large British force employed in pursuit through +Bundēlkhand and the Sāgar territories for three years, +till he was invited back by our Government in the year 1812, by the +gift of a fine estate on the banks of the Dasān river, +yielding twenty thousand rupees[13] a year, which his son now +enjoys, and which is to descend to his posterity, many of whom +will, no doubt, animated by their fortunate ancestor's example, +take to the same trade. He had been a man of no note till he took +to this trade, but by his predatory exploits he soon became +celebrated throughout India; and, when I came to the country, no +other man's chivalry was so much talked of.</p> + +<p>A Bundēla, or other landholder of the Hindoo military +class, does not think himself, nor is he indeed thought by others, +in the slightest degree less respectable for having waged this +indiscriminate war upon the innocent and unoffending, provided he +has any cause of dissatisfaction with his liege lord; that is, +provided he cannot get his land or his appointment in his service +upon his own terms, because all others of the same class and clan +feel more or less interested in his success.</p> + +<p>They feel that their tenure of land, or of office, is improved +by the mischief he does; because every peasant he murders, and +every field he throws out of tillage, affects their liege lord in +his most tender point, his treasury; and indisposes him to +interfere with their salaries, their privileges, or their rents. He +who wages this war goes on marrying his sisters or his daughters to +the other barons or landholders of the same clan, and receiving +theirs in marriage during the whole of his bhūmiāwat,[14] +as if nothing at all extraordinary had happened, and thereby +strengthening his hand at the game he is playing.</p> + +<p>Umrāo Singh of Jaklōn in Chandērī, a +district of Gwālior bordering upon Sāgar,[15] has been at +this game for more than fifteen years out of twenty, but his +alliances among the baronial families around have not been in the +slightest degree affected by it. His sons and his grandsons have, +perhaps, made better matches than they might, had the old man been +at peace with all the world, during the time that he has been +desolating one district by his atrocities, and demoralizing all +those around it by his example, and by inviting the youth to join +him occasionally in his murderous enterprises. Neither age nor sex +is respected in their attacks upon towns or villages; and no +Muhammadan can take more pride and pleasure in defacing +idols—the most monstrous idol—than a +'bhūmiāwatī' takes in maiming an innocent peasant, +who presumes to drive his plough in lands that he chooses to put +under the <i>ban</i>.</p> + +<p>In the kingdom of Oudh, this bhūmiāwat is a kind of +nursery for our native army; for the sons of Rājpūt +yeomen who have been trained in it are all exceedingly anxious to +enlist in our native infantry regiments, having no dislike to their +drill or their uniform. The same class of men in Bundēlkhand +and the Gwālior State have a great horror of the drill and +uniform of our regular infantry, and nothing can induce them to +enlist in our ranks. Both are equally brave, and equally faithful +to their salt—that is, to the person who employs them; but +the Oudh Rājpūt is a much more tameable animal than the +Bundēla. In Oudh this class of people have all inherited from +their fathers a respect for our rule and a love for our service. In +Bundēlkhand they have not yet become reconciled to our +service, and they still look upon our rule as interfering a good +deal too much with their sporting propensities.[16]</p> + +<p><br> +Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Since the author's time conditions have much changed. Then, +and for long afterwards, up to the Mutiny, every village throughout +the country was fall of arms, and almost every man was armed. +Consequently, in those tracts where the Mutiny of the native army +was accompanied by popular insurrection, the flame of rebellion +burned fiercely, and was subdued with difficulty. The painful +experience of 1857 and 1858 proved the necessity of general +disarmament, and nearly the whole of British India has been +disarmed under the provisions of a series of Acts. Licences to have +and carry ordinary arms and ammunition are granted by the +magistrates of districts. Licences to possess artillery are granted +only by the Governor-General in Council. The improved organization +of the police and of the executive power generally renders possible +the strict enforcement of the law. Some arms are concealed, but +very few of these are serviceable. With rare exceptions, arms are +now carried only for display, and knowledge of the use of weapons +has died out in most classes of the population. The village forts +have been everywhere dismantled. Robbery by armed gangs still +occurs in certain districts (<i>see ante</i>, Chapter 23, note 14), +but is much less frequent than it used to be in the author's +days.</p> + +<p>2. Many towns and villages bear the name of Mau +(<i>auglicè</i>, Mhow), which may be, as Mr. Growse +suggests, a form of the Sanskrit <i>mahi</i>, 'land' or 'ground'. +The town referred to in the text is the principal town of the +Jhānsī district, distinguished from its homonyms as Mau- +Rānīpur, situated about east-south-east from +Jhānsī, at a distance of forty miles from that city. Its +special export used to be the 'kharwā' cloth, dyed with 'ai' +(<i>see ante</i>., Chapter 31, note 4).</p> + +<p>3. This insurrection continued into the year 1833. 'The +inhabitants were reduced to the greatest distress, and have, even +to the present day, scarcely recovered the losses they then +sustained' (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, vol. i (1870), p. 296).</p> + +<p>4. See the author's <i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, +passim</i>.</p> + +<p>5. Partābgarh is now a separate district in the +Fyzābād Division of Oudh. The chief town, also called +Partābgarh, is thirty-two miles north of Allahabad, and still +possesses a Rājā, who, at present (1914), is a most +respectable gentleman, with no thoughts of violence. Further +details about the Partābgarh family are given in the +<i>Journey</i>, vol. i, p. 231.</p> + +<p>6. Transcriber's note:- The author then uses the spelling +'Husain' consistently.</p> + +<p>7. 'The news department is under a Superintendent-General, who +has sometimes contracted for it, as for the revenues of a district, +but more commonly holds it in <i>amānī</i>, as a manager. +. . . He nominates his subordinates, and appoints them to their +several offices, taking from each a present gratuity and a pledge +for such monthly payments as he thinks the post will enable him to +make. They receive from four to fifteen rupees a month each, and +have each to pay to their President, for distribution among his +patrons or patronesses at Court, from one hundred to five hundred +rupees a month in ordinary times. Those to whom they are accredited +have to pay them, under ordinary circumstances, certain sums +monthly, to prevent their inventing or exaggerating cases of abuse +of power or neglect of duty on their part; but, when they happen to +be really guilty of great acts of atrocity, or great neglect of +duty, they are required to pay extraordinary sums, not only to the +news-writers, who are especially accredited to them, but to all +others who happen to be in the neighbourhood at the time. There are +six hundred and sixty news-writers of this kind employed by the +king, and paid monthly three thousand one hundred and ninety-four +rupees, or, on an average, between four and five rupees each; and +the sums paid by them to their President for distribution among +influential officers and Court favourites averages [sic] above one +hundred and fifty thousand rupees a year. . . . Such are the +reporters of the circumstances in all the cases on which the +sovereign and his ministers have to pass orders every day in Oudh. +. . . the European magistrate of one of our neighbouring districts +one day, before the Oudh Frontier Police was raised, entered the +Oudh territory at the head of his police in pursuit of some +robbers, who had found an asylum in one of the King's villages. In +the attempt to secure them some lives were lost: and, apprehensive +of the consequences, he sent for the official news- writer, and +<i>gratified</i> him in the usual way. No report of the +circumstances was made to the Oudh Darbār; and neither the +King, the President, nor the British Government ever heard anything +about it' (<i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oude</i>, vol. i, pp. +67- 69). Such a System of official news-writers was usually +maintained by Asiatic despots from the most ancient times.</p> + +<p>8. full details of the rotten state of the king's army are given +in the <i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oude</i>.</p> + +<p>9. Then worth £4,000, or more.</p> + +<p>10. Mirzāpur (Mirzapore) on the Ganges, twenty-seven miles +from Benares, was, in the author's time, the principal depot for +the cotton and cloth trade of Northern India. Although the East +Indian Railway passes through the city, the construction of the +railway has diverted the bulk of the trade from Mirzāpur, +which is now a declining place. The population, which wag 70,621 in +1881, fell to 32,332 in 1911. The carpets made there are well +known.</p> + +<p>11. Then equal to £200,000, or more.</p> + +<p>12. The Pannā State lies between the British districts of +Bāndā, in the United Provinces, on the north, and Damoh +and Jabalpur, in the Central Provinces, on the south. The chief is +a descendant of Chhatarsāl. For description and engraving of +the diamond mines see <i>Economic Geology</i> (1881), p. 39.</p> + +<p>13. Then equivalent to £2,000, or more.</p> + +<p>14. The words 'of the same clan' are inexact. The author has +shown (<i>ante</i>, Chapter 23 following [10], and Chapter 26 +following [32]) that Rājpūts never marry into their own +clan.</p> + +<p>15. 'The Rājā of Chandērī belonged to the +same family as the Orchhā chief. Sindhia annexed a great part +of the Chandērī State in 1811. Chandērī was for +a time British territory, but is now again in Sindhia's dominions. +Its vicissitudes are related in <i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i> (1870), +vol. i, pp. 351-8.</p> + +<p>16. In Oudh the misgovernment, anarchy, and cruel rapine, +briefly alluded to in the text, and vividly described in detail by +the author in his <i>Journey through the Kingdom of Oude</i>, +lasted until the annexation of the kingdom by Lord Dalhousie in +1856, and, after a brief lull, were renewed during the insurrection +of 1857 and 1858. The events of those years are a curious +commentary on the author's belief that the people of Oudh +entertained 'a respect for our rule and a love for our service'. +The service of the British Government is sought because it pays, +but a foreign Government must not expect love. Respect for the +British rule depends upon the strength of that rule. Oudh still +sends many recruits to the native army, though the young men no +longer enjoy the advantage of a training in 'bhūmiāwat'. +An occasional gang-robbery or bludgeon fight is the meagre modern +substitute. The Rājpūts or Thākurs of +Bundēlkhand and Gwālior still retain their old character +for turbulence, but, of course, have less scope for what the author +calls their 'sporting propensities' than they had in his time.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch34">CHAPTER 34</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Suicide—Relations between Parents and +Children in India.</p> + +<p>The day before we left Datiyā our cook had a violent +dispute with his mother, a thing of almost daily occurrence; for +though a very fat and handsome old lady, she was a very violent +one. He was a quiet man, but, unable to bear any longer the abuse +she was heaping upon him, he first took up a pitcher of water and +flung it at her head. It missed her, and he then snatched up a +stick, and, for the first time in his life, struck her. He was her +only son. She quietly took up all her things, and, walking off +towards a temple, said she would leave him for ever; and he, having +passed the Rubicon, declared that he was resolved no longer to +submit to the parental tyranny which she had hitherto exercised +over him. My water carrier, however, prevailed upon her with much +difficulty to return, and take up her quarters with him and his +wife and five children in a small tent we had given them. Maddened +at the thought of a blow from her son, the old lady about sunset +swallowed a large quantity of opium; and before the circumstance +was discovered, it was too late to apply a remedy. We were told of +it about eight o'clock at night, and found her lying in her son's +arms—tried every remedy at hand, but without success, and +about midnight she died. She loved her son, and he respected her; +and yet not a day passed without their having some desperate +quarrel, generally about the orphan daughter of her brother, who +lived with them, and was to be married, as soon as the cook could +save out of his pay enough money to defray the expenses of the +ceremonies. The old woman was always reproaching him for not saving +money fast enough. This little cousin had now stolen some of the +cook's tobacco for his young assistant; and the old lady thought it +right to admonish her. The cook likewise thought it right to add +his admonitions to those of his mother; but the old lady would have +her niece abused by nobody but herself, and she flew into a violent +passion at his presuming to interfere. This led to the son's +outrage, and the mother's suicide. The son is a mild, good-tempered +young man, who bears an excellent character among his equals, and +is a very good servant. Had he been less mild it had perhaps been +better; for his mother would by degrees have given up that despotic +sway over her child, which in infancy is necessary, in youth +useful, but in manhood becomes intolerable. 'God defend us from the +anger of the mild in spirit', said an excellent judge of human +nature, Muhammad, the founder of this cook's religion;[1] and +certainly the mildest tempers are those which become the most +ungovernable when roused beyond a certain degree; and the proud +spirit of the old woman could not brook the outrage which her son, +so roused, had been guilty of. From the time that she was +discovered to have taken poison till she breathed her last she lay +in the arms of the poor man, who besought her to live, that her +only son might atone for his crime, and not be a parricide.</p> + +<p>There is no part of the world, I believe, where parents are so +much reverenced by their sons as they are in India, in all classes +of society. This is sufficiently evinced in the desire that parents +feel to have sons. The duty of daughters is from the day of their +marriage transferred entirely to their husbands and their husbands' +parents, on whom alone devolves the duty of protecting and +supporting them through the wedded and the widowed state. The links +that united them to their parents are broken. All the reciprocity +of rights and duties which have bound together the parent and child +from infancy is considered to end with the consummation of her +marriage; nor does the stain of any subsequent female backsliding +ever affect the family of her parents; it can affect that only of +her husband, who is held alone responsible for her conduct. If a +widow inherits the property of her husband, on her death the +property would go to her husband's brother, supposing neither had +any children by their husbands, in preference to her own brother; +but between the son and his parents this reciprocity of rights and +duties follows them to the grave.[2] One is delighted to see in +sons this habitual reverence for the mother; but, as in the present +case, it is too apt to occasion a domineering spirit, which +produces much mischief even in private families, but still more in +sovereign ones. A prince, when he attains the age of manhood, and +ought to take upon himself the duties of the government, is often +obliged to witness a great deal of oppression and misrule, from his +inability to persuade his widowed mother to resign the power +willingly into his hands. He often tamely submits to see his +country ruined, and his family dishonoured, as at Jhānsī, +before he can bring himself, by some act of desperate resolution, +to wrest it from her grasp.[3] In order to prevent his doing so, or +to recover the reins he has thus obtained, the mother has often +been known to poison her own son; and many a princess in India, +like Isabella of England, has, I believe, destroyed her husband, to +enjoy more freely the society of her paramour, and hold these reins +during the minority of her son.[4]</p> + +<p>In the exercise of dominion from behind the curtain (for it is +those who live behind the curtain that seem most anxious to hold +it), women select ministers who, to secure duration to their +influence, become their paramours, or, at least, make the world +believe that they are so, to serve their own selfish purposes. The +sons are tyrannized over through youth by their mothers, who +endeavour to subdue their spirit to the yoke, which they wish to +bind heavy upon their necks for life; and they remain through +manhood timid, ignorant, and altogether unfitted for the conduct of +public affairs, and for the government of men under a despotic +rule, whose essential principle is a <i>salutary fear</i> of the +prince in all his public officers. Every unlettered native of India +is as sensible of this principle [as] Montesquieu was; and will +tell us that, in countries like India, a chief, to govern well, +must have a <i>smack of the devil</i> ('shaitān') in him; for, +if he has not, his public servants will prey upon his innocent and +industrious subjects.[5] In India there are no universities or +public schools, in which young men might escape, as they do in +Europe, from the enervating and stultifying influence of the +zanāna.[6] The state of mental imbecility to which a youth of +naturally average powers of mind, born to territorial dominion, is +in India often reduced by a haughty and ambitious mother, would be +absolutely incredible to a man bred up in such schools. They are +often utterly unable to act, think, or speak for themselves. If +they happen, as they sometimes do, to get well informed in reading +and conversation, they remain, Hamlet-like, nervous and diffident; +and, however speculatively or <i>ruminatively</i> wise, quite unfit +for action, or for performing their part in the great drama of +life.</p> + +<p>In my evening ramble on the bank of the river, which was flowing +against the wind and rising into waves, my mind wandered back to +the hours of infancy and boyhood when I sat with my brothers +watching our little vessels as they scudded over the ponds and +streams of my native land; and then of my poor brothers John and +Louis, whose bones now he beneath the ocean. As we advance in age +the dearest scenes of early days must necessarily become more and +more associated in our recollection with painful feelings; for they +who enjoyed such scenes with us must by degrees pass away, and be +remembered with sorrow even by those who are conscious of having +fulfilled all their duties in life towards them—but with how +much more by those who can never remember them without thinking of +occasions of kindness and assistance neglected or disregarded. Many +of them have perhaps left behind them widows and children +struggling with adversity, and soliciting from us aid which we +strive in vain to give.</p> + +<p>During my visit to the Rājā, a person in the disguise +of one of my sipāhīs[7] went to a shop and purchased for +me five-and-twenty rupees' worth of fine Europe chintz, for which +he paid in good rupees, which were forthwith assayed by a +neighbouring goldsmith. The sipāhī put these rupees into +his own purse, and laid it down, saying that he should go and +ascertain from me whether I wished to keep the whole of the chintz +or not; and, if not, he should require back the same +money—that I was to halt to-morrow, when he would return to +the shop again. Just as he was going away, however, he recollected +that he wanted a turban for himself, and requested the shopkeeper +to bring him one. They were sitting in the verandah, and the +shopkeeper had to go into his shop to bring out the turban. When he +came out with it, the sipāhī said it would not suit his +purpose, and went off, leaving the purse where it lay, cautioning +the shopkeeper against changing any of the rupees, as he should +require his own identical money back if his master rejected any of +the chintz. The shopkeeper waited till four o'clock in the +afternoon of the next day without looking into the purse.</p> + +<p>Hearing then that I had left Datiyā, and seeing no signs of +the sipāhī, he opened the purse, and found that the +rupees were all copper, with a thin coating of silver. The man had +changed them while he went into the shop for a turban, and +substituted a purse exactly the same in appearance. After +ascertaining that the story was true, and that the ingenious thief +was not one of my followers, I insisted upon the man's taking the +money from me, in spite of a great deal of remonstrance on the part +of the Rājā's agent, who had come on with us.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The editor has failed to trace this quotation, which may +possibly be from the <i>Mishkat-ul-Masābih</i> (<i>ante</i>, +Chapter 5, note 10). Compare '"There is nothing more horrible than +the rebellion of a sheep", said de Marsay' (Balzac, <i>Lost by a +Laugh</i>).</p> + +<p>2. The English doggerel expresses the opposite sentiment,<br> + 'My son's my son till he gets him a +wife;<br> + My daughter's my daughter all +her life.'</p> + +<p>3. <i>Ante</i>, chap. 29, text at [4], and before [7].</p> + +<p>4. Edward II, A.D. 1327.</p> + +<p>5. The principle, so bluntly enunciated by the author, is true, +though the truth may be unpalatable to people who think they know +better, and it applies with as much force to European officials as +it does to Indian princes. The 'shaitān' is more familiar in +his English dress as Satan. The editor has failed to find any such +phrase in the works of Montesquieu. In chapter 9 of Book III of +<i>L'Esprit des Lois</i> that author lays down the principle that +'il faut de la crainte dans un gouvernement despotique; pour la +vertu, elle n'y est point nécessaire,'</p> + +<p>6. It can no longer be said that universities do not exist, at +least in name, in India. Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Lahore, and +Allahabad are the seats of universities, and new foundations at +Dacca and Patna are promised (1914). The Indian universities, when +first established, were mere examining bodies, on the model of the +University of London. But changes, initiated by Lord Curzon, are in +progress, and the University of London is being remodelled (1914). +The Indian institutions are not frequented by young princes and +nobles, and have little influence on their education. Attempts have +been made, with partial success, to provide special boarding +schools, or 'Chiefs' Colleges', for the sons of ruling princes and +native nobles. The most notable of such institution are the +colleges at Ajmēr, Rājkōt in +Kāthiāwār, and Indore. The influence of the +zanāna is invariably directed against every proposal to remove +a young nobleman from home for the purpose of education, and +obstacles of many kinds render the task of rightly educating such a +youth extraordinarily difficult and unsatisfactory. In some cases a +considerable degree of success has been attained.</p> + +<p>7. Armed follower. The word is more familiar in the corrupt form +'sepoy'.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch35">CHAPTER 35</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Gwālior Plain once the Bed of a +Lake—Tameness of Peacocks.</p> + +<p>On the 19th, 20th, and 21st[1] we came on forty miles to the +village of Antrī in the Gwālior territory, over a fine +plain of rich alluvial soil under spring crops. This plain bears +manifest signs of having been at no very remote period, like the +kingdom of Bohemia, the bed of a vast lake bounded by the ranges of +sandstone hills which now seem to skirt the horizon all round; and +studded with innumerable islands of all shapes and sizes, which now +rise abruptly in all directions out of the cultivated plain.[2] The +plain is still like the unruffled surface of a vast lake; and the +rich green of the spring crops, which cover the surface in one wide +sheet unintersected by hedges, tends to keep up the illusion, which +the rivers have little tendency to dispel; for, though they have +cut their way down immense depths to their present beds through +this soft alluvial deposit, the traveller no sooner emerges from +the hideous ravines, which disfigure their banks, than he loses all +trace of them. Their course is unmarked by trees, large shrubs, or +any of the signs which mark the course of rivers in other +quarters.</p> + +<p>The soil over the vast plain is everywhere of good quality, and +everywhere cultivated, or rather worked, for we can hardly consider +a soil cultivated which is never either irrigated or manured, or +voluntarily relieved by fallows or an alternation of crops, till it +has descended to the last stage of exhaustion. The prince +rack-rents the farmer, the farmer rack-rents the cultivator, and +the cultivator rack-rents the soil. Soon after crossing the Sindh +river we enter upon the territories of the Gwālior chief, +Sindhia.</p> + +<p>The villages are everywhere few, and their communities very +small. The greater part of the produce goes for sale to the capital +of Gwālior, when the money it brings is paid into the treasury +in rent, or revenue, to the chief, who distributes it in salaries +among his establishments, who again pay it for land produce to the +cultivators, farmers, and agricultural capitalists, who again pay +it back into the treasury in land revenue. No more people reside in +the villages than are absolutely necessary to the cultivation of +the land, because the chief takes all the produce beyond what is +necessary for their bare subsistence; and, out of what he takes, +maintains establishments that reside elsewhere. There is nowhere +any jungle to be seen, and very few of the villages that are +scattered over the plains have any fruit or ornamental trees left; +and, when the spring crops, to which the tillage is chiefly +confined, are taken off the ground, the face of the country must +have a very naked and dreary appearance.[3] Near one village on the +road I saw some men threshing corn in a field, and among them a +peacock (which, of course, I took to be domesticated) breakfasting +very comfortably upon the grain as it flew around him. A little +farther on I saw another quietly working his way into a stack of +corn, as if he understood it to have been made for his use alone. +It was so close to me as I passed that I put out my stick to push +it off in play, and, to my surprise, it flew off in a fright at my +white face and strange dress, and was followed by the others. I +found that they were all wild, if that term can be applied to birds +that live on such excellent terms with mankind. On reaching our +tents we found several feeding in the corn-fields close around +them, undisturbed by our host of camp- followers; and were told by +the villagers, who had assembled to greet us, that they were all +wild. 'Why', said they, 'should we think of <i>keeping</i> birds +that live among us on such easy terms without being <i>kept</i>?' I +asked whether they ever shot them, and was told that they never +killed or molested them, but that any one who wished to shoot them +might do so, since they had here no religions regard for them.[4] +Like the pariah dogs the peacocks seem to disarm the people by +confiding in them—their tameness is at once the cause and the +effect of their security. The members of the little communities +among whom they live on such friendly terms would not have the +heart to shoot them; and travellers either take them to be +domesticated, or are at once disarmed by their tameness.</p> + +<p>At Antrī a sufficient quantity of salt is manufactured for +the consumption of the people of the town. The earth that contains +most salt is dug up at some distance from the town, and brought to +small reservoirs made close outside the walls. Water is here poured +over it, as over tea and coffee. Passing through the earth, it +flows out below into a small conduit, which takes it to small pits +some yards' distance, whence it is removed in buckets to small +enclosed platforms, where it is exposed to the Sun's rays, till the +water evaporates, and leaves the salt dry.[5] The want of trees +over this vast plain of fine soil from the Sindh river is quite +lamentable. The people of Antrī pointed out the place close to +my tents where a beautiful grove of mango-trees had been lately +taken off to Gwālior for <i>gun-carriages</i> and firewood, in +spite of all the proprietor could urge of the detriment to his own +interest in this world, and to those of his ancestors in that to +which they had gone. Wherever the army of this chief moved they +invariably swept off the groves of fruit-trees in the same reckless +manner. Parts of the country, which they merely passed through, +have recovered their trees, because the desire to propitiate the +Deity, and to perpetuate their name by such a work, will always +operate among Hindoos as a sufficient incentive to secure groves, +wherever man has be made to feel that their rights of property in +the trees will be respected.[6] The lands around the village, which +had a well for irrigation, paid four times as much as those of the +same quality which had none, and were made to yield two crops in +the year. As everywhere else, so here, those lands into which water +flows from the town and can be made to stand for a time, are +esteemed the best, as this water brings down with it manures of all +kinds.[7] I had a good deal of talk with the cultivators as I +walked through the fields in the evenings; and they seemed to dwell +much upon the good faith which is observed by the farmers and +cultivators in the Honourable Company's territories, and the total +absence of it in those of Sindhia's, where no work, requiring an +outlay of capital from the land, is, in consequence, ever thought +of—both farmers and cultivators engaging from year to year, +and no farmer ever feeling secure of his lease for more than +one.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. The anthor's favourite theory. See <i>ante</i>, Chapter 14 +note 7, Chapter 24 note 6, on the formation of black cotton soil. +The Gwālior plain is covered with this soil.</p> + +<p>3. It has a very desolate appearance. The Indian Midland Railway +now passes through Gwālior.</p> + +<p>4. In many parts of India, especially in Mathurā (Mattra) +on the Jumna, and the neighbouring districts, the peacock is held +strictly sacred, and shooting one would be likely to cause a riot. +Tavernier relates a story of a rich Persian merchant being beaten +to death by the Hindoos of Gujarāt for shooting a peacock. +(Tavernier, <i>Travels</i>, transl. Ball, vol. i, p. 70.) the bird +is regarded as the vehicle of the Hindoo god of war, variously +called Kumāra, Skanda, or Kārtikeya. the editor, like the +author, has observed that in Bundēlkhand no objection is +raised to the shooting of peacocks by any one who cares for such +poor sport.</p> + +<p>5. In British India the manufacture of salt can be practised +only by persons duly licensed.</p> + +<p>6. The Revenue Settlement Regulations now in force in British +India provide liberally for the encouragement of groves, and +hundred of miles of road are annually planted with trees.</p> + +<p>7. Sanitation did not trouble native states in those days.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch36">CHAPTER 36</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Gwālior and its Government.</p> + +<p>On the 22nd,[1] we came on fourteen miles to Gwālior, over +some ranges of sandstone hills, which are seemingly continuations +of the Vindhyan range. Hills of indurated brown and red iron clay +repose upon and intervene between these ranges, with strata +generally horizontal, but occasionally bearing signs of having been +shaken by internal convulsions. These convulsions are also +indicated by some dykes of compact basalt which cross the +road.[2]</p> + +<p>Nothing can be more unprepossessing than the approach to +Gwālior; the hills being naked, black, and ugly, with rounded +tops devoid of grass or shrubs, and the soil of the valleys a poor +red dust without any appearance of verdure or vegetation, since the +few autumn crops that lately stood upon them have been removed.[3] +From Antrī to Gwālior there is no sign of any human +habitation, save that of a miserable police guard of four or five, +who occupy a wretched hut on the side of the road midway, and seem +by their presence to render the scene around more dreary.[4] the +road is a mere footpath unimproved and unadorned by any single work +of art; and, except in this footpath, and the small police guard, +there is absolutely no single sign in all this long march to +indicate the dominion, or even the presence, of man; and yet it is +between two contiguous [<i>sic</i>] capitals, one occupied by one +of the most ancient, and the other by one of the greatest native +sovereigns of Hindustan.[5] One cannot but feel that he approaches +the capital of a dynasty of barbarian princes, who, like Attila, +would choose their places of residence, as devils choose their +pandemonia, for their ugliness, and rather reside in the dreary +wastes of Tartary than on the shores of the Bosphorus. There are +within the dominions of Sindhia seats for a capital that would not +yield to any in India in convenience, beauty, and salubrity; but, +in all these dominions, there is not, perhaps, another place so +hideously ugly as Gwālior, or so hot and unhealthy. It has not +one redeeming quality that should recommend it to the choice of a +rational prince, particularly to one who still considers his +capital as his camp, and makes every officer of his army feel that +he has as little of permanent interest in his house as he would +have in his tent.[6]</p> + +<p>Phūl Bāgh, or the <i>flower-garden</i>, was suggested +to me as the best place for my tents, where Sindhia had built a +splendid summer-house. As I came over this most gloomy and +uninteresting march, in which the heart of a rational man sickens, +as he recollects that all the revenues of such an enormous extent +of dominion over the richest soil and the most peaceable people in +the world should have been so long concentrated upon this point, +and squandered without leaving one sign of human art or industry, I +looked forward with pleasure to a quiet residence in the <i>flower- +garden</i>, with good foliage above, and a fine sward below, and an +atmosphere free from dust, such as we find in and around all the +residences of Muhammadan princes. On reaching my tents I found them +pitched close outside the <i>flower-garden</i>, in a small dusty +plain, without a blade of grass or a shrub to hide its +deformity—just such a place as the pig-keepers occupy in the +suburbs of other towns. On one side of this little plain, and +looking into it, was the <i>summer-house</i> of the prince, without +one inch of green sward or one small shrub before it.</p> + +<p>Around the wretched little <i>flower-garden</i> was a low, +naked, and shattered mud wall, such as we generally see in the +suburbs thrown up to keep out and in the pigs that usually swarm in +such places—'and the swine they crawled out, and the swine +they crawled in'.[7] When I cantered up to my tent-door, a +sipāhī of my guard came up, and reported that as the day +began to dawn a gang of thieves had stolen one of my best carpets, +all the brass brackets of my tent-poles, and the brass bell with +which the sentries on duty sounded the hour; all Lieutenant +Thomas's cooking utensils, and many other things, several of which +they had found lying between the tents and the prince's +<i>pleasure- house</i>, particularly the contents of a large heavy +box of geological specimens. They had, in consequence, concluded +the gang to be lodged in the prince's pleasure-house. The guard on +duty at this place would make no answer to their inquiries, and I +really believe that they were themselves the thieves. The tents of +the Rājā of Raghugarh, who had come to pay his respects +to the Sindhia, his liege lord, were pitched near mine. He had the +day before had five horses stolen from him, with all the plate, +jewels, and valuable clothes he possessed; and I was told that I +must move forthwith from the <i>flower-garden</i>, or cut off the +tail of every horse in my camp. Without tails they might not be +stolen, with them they certainly would. Having had sufficient proof +of their dexterity, we moved our tents to a grove near the +residency, four miles from the flower-garden and the court.[8]</p> + +<p>As a citizen of the world I could not help thinking that it +would be an immense blessing upon a large portion of our species if +an earthquake were to swallow up this court of Gwālior, and +the army that surrounds it. Nothing worse could possibly succeed, +and something better might. It is lamentable to think how much of +evil this court and camp inflict upon the people who are subject to +them. In January, 1828, I was passing with a party of gentlemen +through the town of Bhīlsā, which belongs to this chief, +and lies between Sāgar and Bhopal,[9] when we found, lying and +bleeding in one of the streets, twelve men belonging to a merchant +at Mirzapore, who had the day before been wounded and plundered by +a gang of robbers close outside the walls of the town. Those who +were able ran in to the Āmil, or chief of the district, who +resides in the town; and begged him to send some horsemen after the +banditti, and intercept them as they passed over the great plains. +'Send your own people', said he, 'or hire men to send. Am I here to +look after the private affairs of merchants and travellers, or to +collect the revenues of the prince?' Neither he, nor the prince +himself, nor any other officer of the public establishments ever +dreamed that it was their duty to protect the life, property, or +character of travellers, or indeed of any other human beings, save +the members of their own families. In this pithy question the +Āmil of Bhīlsā described the nature and character of +the government. All the revenues of his immense dominions are spent +entirely in the maintenance of the court and camps of the prince; +and every officer employed beyond the boundary of the court and +camp considers his duties to be limited to the collection of the +revenue. Protected from all external enemies by our military +forces, which surround him on every side, his whole army is left to +him for purposes of parade and display; and having, according to +his notions, no use for them elsewhere, he concentrates them around +his capital, where he lives among them in the perpetual dread of +mutiny and assassination. He has nowhere any police, nor any +establishment whatever, for the protection of the life and property +of his subjects; nor has he, any more than his predecessors, ever, +I believe, for one moment thought that those from whose industry +and frugality he draws his revenues have any right whatever to +expect from him the use of such establishments in return. They have +never formed any legitimate part of the Marāthā +government, and, I fear, never will.[10]</p> + +<p>The misrule of such states, situated in the midst of our +dominions, is not without its use. There is, as Gibbon justly +observes, 'a strong propensity in human nature to depreciate the +advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present times'; and, +if the people had not before their eyes such specimens of native +rule to contrast with ours, they would think more highly than they +do of that of their past Muhammadan and Hindoo sovereigns; and be +much less disposed than they are to estimate fairly the advantages +of being under ours. The native governments of the present day are +fair specimens of what they have always been—grinding +military despotisms—their whole history is that of 'Saul has +killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'; as if +rulers were made merely to slay, and the ruled to be slain. In +politics, as in landscape, ''Tis distance lends enchantment to the +view', and the past might be all <i>couleur de rose</i> in the +imaginations of the people were it not represented in these +ill-governed states, where the 'lucky accident' of a good governor +is not to be expected in a century, and where the secret of the +responsibility of ministers to the people is yet +undiscovered.[11]</p> + +<p>The fortress of Gwālior stands upon a tableland, a mile and +a half long by a quarter of a mile wide, at the north-east end of a +small insulated sandstone hill, running north-east and south-west, +and rising at both ends about three hundred and forty feet above +the level of the plain below. At the base is a kind of glacis, +which runs up at an angle of forty-five from the plain to within +fifty, and, in some places, within twenty feet of the foot of the +wall.</p> + +<p>The interval is the perpendicular face of the horizontal strata +of the sandstone rock. The glacis is formed of a bed of basalt in +all stages of decomposition, with which this, like the other +sandstone hills of Central India, was once covered, and of the +debris and chippings of the rocks above. The walls are raised a +certain uniform height all round upon the verge of the precipice, +and being thus made to correspond with the edge of the rock, the +line is extremely irregular. They are rudely built of the fine +sandstone of the rock on which they stand, and have some square and +some semicircular bastions of different sizes, few of these raised +above the level of the wall itself.[12] On the eastern face of the +rock, between the glacis and foot of the wall, are cut out, in bold +relief, the colossal figures of men sitting bareheaded under +canopies, on each side of a throne or temple; and, in another +place, the colossal figure of a man standing naked, and facing +outward, which I took to be that of Buddha.[l3]</p> + +<p>The town of Gwālior extends along the foot of the hill on +one side, and consists of a single street above a mile long. There +is a very beautiful mosque, with one end built by a Muhammad Khan, +A.D. 1665, of the white sandstone of the rock above it. It looks as +fresh as if it had not been finished a month; and struck, as I +passed it, with so noble a work, apparently new, and under such a +government, I alighted from my horse, went in, and read the +inscription, which told me the date of the building and the name of +the founder. There is no stucco-work over any part of it, nor is +any required on such beautiful materials; and the stones are all so +nicely cut that cement seems to have been considered useless. It +has the usual two minarets or towers, and over the arches and +alcoves are carved, as customary, passages from the Korān, in +the beautiful Kufic characters.[14] The court and camp of the chief +extends out from the southern end of the hill for several +miles.</p> + +<p>The whole of the hill on which the fort of Gwālior stands +had evidently, at no very distant period, been covered by a mass of +basalt, surmounted by a crust of indurated brown and red iron clay, +with lithomarge, which often assumes the appearance of common +laterite. The boulders of basalt, which still cap some part of the +hill, and form the greater part of the glacis at the bottom, are +for the most part in a state of rapid decomposition; but some of +them are still so hard and fresh that the hammer rings upon them as +upon a bell, and their fracture is brilliantly crystalline. The +basalt is the same as that which caps the sandstone hills of the +Vindhya range throughout Mālwā. The sandstone hills +around Gwālior all rise in the same abrupt manner from the +plain as those through Mālwā generally; and they have +almost all of them the same basaltic glacis at their base, with +boulders of that rock scattered over the top, all indicating that +they were at one time buried, in the same manner under one great +mass of volcanic matter, thrown out from their submarine craters in +streams of lava, or diffused through the ocean or lakes in ashes, +and deposited in strata. The geological character of the country +about Gwālior is very similar to that of the country about +Sāgar; and I may say the same of the Vindhya range generally, +as far as I have seen it, from Mirzapore on the Ganges to +Bhopāl in Mālwā—hills of sandstone rising +suddenly from alluvial plain, and capped, or bearing signs of +having been capped, by basalt reposing immediately upon it, and +partly covered in its turn by beds of indurated iron clay.[15]</p> + +<p>The fortress of Gwālior was celebrated for its strength +under the Hindoo sovereigns of India; but was taken by the +Muhammadans after a long siege, A.D. 1197.[16] the Hindoos regained +possession, but were again expelled by the Emperor Īltutmish, +A. D. 1235.[17] the Hindoos again got possession, and after holding +it one hundred years, again surrendered it to the forces of the +Emperor Ibrāhīm, A.D. 1519.[18] In 1543 it was +surrendered up by the troops of the Emperor Humāyūn[19] +to Shēr Khān, his successful competitor for the +empire.[20] It afterwards fell into the hands of a Jāt chief, +the Rānā of Gohad,[21] from whom it was taken by the +Marāthās. While in their possession, it was invested by +our troops under the command of Major Popham; and, on the 3rd of +August, 1780, taken by escalade.[22] The party that scaled the wall +was gallantly led by a very distinguished and most promising +officer, Captain Bruce, brother of the celebrated +traveller.[23]</p> + +<p>It was made over to us by the Rānā of Gohad, who had +been our ally in the war. Failing in his engagement to us, he was +afterwards abandoned to the resentment of Mādhojī +Sindhia, chief of the Marāthās.[24] In 1783, Gwālior +was invested by Mādhojī Sindhia's troops, under the +command of one of the most extraordinary men that have ever figured +in Indian history, the justly celebrated General De Boigne.[25] +After many unsuccessful attempts to take it by escalade, he bought +over part of the garrison, and made himself master of the place. +Gohad itself was taken soon after in 1784; but the Rānā, +Chhatarpat, made his escape. He was closely pursued, made prisoner +at Karaulī, and confined in the fortress of Gwālior, +where he died in the year 1785.[26] He left no son, and his claims +upon Gohad devolved upon his nephew, Kīrat Singh, who, at the +close of our war with the Marāthās, got from Lord Lake, +in lieu of these claims, the estate of Dholpur, situated on the +left banks of the river Chambal, which is estimated at the annual +value of three hundred thousand, or three lākhs, of rupees. He +died this year, 1835, and has been succeeded by his son, Bhagwant +Singh, a lad of seventeen years of age.[27]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. Throughout the northern edge of the trap country in +Rājputāna, Gwālior, and Bundēlkhand, dykes are +rare or wanting.' (W. T. Blandford, in <i>Manual of the Geology of +India</i>, 1st ed., Part 1, p. 328.) The dykes mentioned in the +text may not have been visited by the officers of the Geological +Surrey.</p> + +<p>3. 'Basalt generally disintegrates into a reddish soil, quite +different from <i>regar</i> in character. This reddish soil may be +seen passing into <i>regar</i>, but, as a rule, the black soil is +confined to the flatter ground at the bottom of the valleys, or on +flat hill-tops, the brown or red soils occupying the slopes' (ibid. +p. 433).</p> + +<p>4. Johnson, in his <i>Journey to the Western Islands</i>, +observes: 'Now and then we espied a little corn-field, which served +to impress more strongly the general barrenness.' [W. H. S.] The +remark referred to the shores of Loch Ness (p. 237 of volume viii +of Johnson's Works, London, 1820).</p> + +<p>5. By this awkward phrase the author seems to mean Lucknow, on +the east, the capital of the kingdom of Oudh, and Udaipur, to the +west, the capital of the long-descended chieftain of +Mēwār. Alternatively, the author may possibly have +referred to Agra and Gwālior, rather than Lucknow and +Udaipur.</p> + +<p>6. 'The new city at Gwālior below the fortress is, like the +city of Jhānsī, known as the 'Lashkar', or camp. The old +city of Gwālior encircles the north end of the fortress. The +new city, or Lashkar, lies to the south, more than a mile distant. +In January, 1859, the population of the two cities together +amounted to 142,044 persons (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ii, p. 331).</p> + +<p>7. Only those readers who have lived in India can fully +understand the reasons why the pigs should frequent such a place, +and how great would be the horrors of encamping in it.</p> + +<p>8. In the description of the author's encampment at +Gwālior, he fell into a mistake, which he discovered too late +for correction in his journal. His tents were not pitched within +the Phūl Bāgh, as he supposed, but without; and seeing +nothing of this place, he imagined that the dirty and naked ground +outside was actually the flower-garden. The Phūl Bāgh, +however, is a very pleasing and well-ordered garden, although so +completely secluded from observation by lofty walls that many other +travellers must have encamped on the same spot without being aware +of its existence. (<i>Publishers' note at end of volume ii of +original edition</i>. )</p> + +<p>9. Bhīlsā is the principal town of the Isāgarh +subdivision in the Gwālior State. The famous Buddhist +antiquities near it are described at length in Cunningham, <i>The +Bhīlsā Topes, or Buddhist Monuments of Central India</i> +(1854), and in Maisey, <i>Sānchi and its Remains. A full +Description of the Ancient Buildings, Sculptures, and Inscriptions +at Sānchi, near Bhīlsā, in Central India</i>. With +an Introductory Note by Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham, +K.C.I.E. (1892). It is surprising that so keen an observer as the +author appears not to have noticed any of the great Buddhist +buildings of Central India.</p> + +<p>10. The government of Gwālior has improved since the author +wrote. Many reforms have been begun and more or less fully +executed. In May, 1887, the vast hoard of rupees buried in pits in +the fort, valued at five millions sterling, was exhumed, and lent +to the Government of India to be usefully employed. The passive +opposition of a court like that of Gwālior to the effectual +execution of reforms is continuous and difficult to overcome.</p> + +<p>11. The author's description of the ordinary Asiatic government +at almost all times and in all places as 'a grinding military +despotism' is correct. Sentimental persons in both India and +England are apt to forget this weighty truth. The golden age of +India, excepting, perhaps, the Gupta period between A.D. 330 and +455, is as mythical as that of Ireland. What Persia now is, that +would India be, if she had been left to her own devices.</p> + +<p>12. Sir A. Cunningham was stationed at Gwālior for five +years, and had thus an exceptionally accurate knowledge of the +fortress. His account, which corrects the text in some particulars, +is as follows:-'the great fortress of Gwālior is situated on a +precipitous, flat-topped, and isolated hill of sandstone, which +rises 300 feet above the town at the north end, but only 274 feet +at the upper gate of the principal entrance. The hill is long and +narrow; its extreme length from north to south being one mile and +three- quarters, while its breadth varies from 600 feet opposite +the main entrance to 2,800 feet in the middle opposite the great +temple. The walls are from 30 to 35 feet in height, and the rock +immediately below them is steeply, but irregularly, scarped all +round the hill. The long line of battlements which crowns the steep +scarp on the east is broken only by the lofty towers and fretted +domes of the noble palace of Rājā Mān Singh. On the +opposite side, the line of battlements is relieved by the deep +recess of the Urwāhi valley, and by the zigzag and serrated +parapets and loopholed bastions which flank the numerous gates of +the two western entrances. At the northern end, where the rock has +been quarried for ages, the jagged masses of the overhanging cliff +seem ready to fall upon the city beneath them. To the south the +hill is less lofty, but the rock has been steeply scarped, and is +generally quite inaccessible. Midway over all towers the giant form +of a massive Hindu temple, grey with the moss of ages. Altogether, +the fort of Gwālior forms one of the most picturesque views in +Northern India' (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ii, p. 330).</p> + +<p>13. The nakedness of the image in itself proves that Buddha +could not be the person represented. His statues are never nude. +The Gwālior figures are images of some of the twenty-four +great saints (Tīrthankaras or Jinas) of the Digambara sect of +the Jain religion. Jain statues are frequently of colossal size. +The largest of those at Gwālior is fifty-seven feet high. The +Gwālior sculptures are of late date—the middle of the +fifteenth century. The antiquities of Gwālior, including these +sculptures, are well described in <i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ii, pp. +330-95, plates lxxxvi to xci.</p> + +<p>14. This mosque is the Jāmi', or cathedral, mosque +'situated at the eastern foot of the fortress, near the +Ālamgīrī Darwāza (gate). It is a neat and +favourable specimen of the later Moghal architecture. Its beauty, +however, is partly due to the fine light-coloured sandstone of +which it is built. This at once attracted the notice of Sir Wm. +Sleeman, who, &c.' (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ii, p. 370). This +mosque is in the old city, described as 'a crowded mass of small +flat-roofed stone houses' (ibid. p. 330).</p> + +<p>15. The Geological Survey recognizes a special group of +'transition' rocks between the metamorphic and the Vindhyan series +under the name of the Gwālior area. 'The Gwālior area is +. . . only fifty miles long from east to west, and about fifteen +miles wide. It takes its name from the city of Gwālior, which +stands upon it, surrounding the famous fort built upon a scarped +outlier of Vindhyan sandstone, which rests upon a base of massive +bedded trap belonging to the transition period' (<i>Manual of +Geology of India</i>, 1st ed., Part l, p. 56). The writers of the +manual do not notice the basaltic cap of the fort hill described by +the author, and at p. 300 use language which implies that the hill +is outside the limits of the Deccan trap. But the author's +observations seem sufficiently precise to warrant the conclusion +that he was right in believing the basaltic cap of the Gwālior +hill to be an outlying fragment of the vast Deccan trap sheet. The +relation between laterite and lithomarge is discussed in p. 353 of +the <i>Manual</i>, and the occurrence of laterite caps on the +highest ground of the country, at two places-near Gwālior, +'outside of the trap area', is noticed (ibid. p. 356). These two +places are at Rāipur hill, and on the Kaimūr sandstone, +about two miles to the north-west. No doubt these two hills are +outliers of the Central India spread of laterite, which has been +traced as far as Siprī, about sixty miles south of the +Rāipur hill (Hacket, <i>Geology of Gwālior and +Vicinity</i>, in <i>Records of Geol. Survey of India</i>, vol. iii, +p. 41). The geology of Gwālior is also discussed in Mallet's +paper entitled 'Sketch of the Geology of Scindia's Territories' +(<i>Records</i>, vol. viii, p. 55). Neither writer refers to the +basaltic cap of Gwālior fort hill. For the refutation of the +author's theory of the subaqueous origin of the Deccan trap see +notes Chapters 14, note 13, and Chapter 17, note 3 <i>ante</i>.</p> + +<p>16. In the reign of Muizz-ud-dīn, Muhammad bin Sām, +also known by the names of Shibāb-ud-din, and Muhammad +Ghorī. He struck billon coins at the Gwālior mint. the +correct date is A.D. 1196. The Hījrī year 592 began on +the 6th Dec., A.D. 1195.</p> + +<p>17. Shams-ud-dīn Īltutmish, 'the greatest of the Slave +Kings', reigned from A.D. 1210 to 1235 (A.H. 607-633). He besieged +Gwālior in A.H. 629 and after eleven months' resistance +captured the place in the month Safar, A.H. 630, equivalent to +Nov.-Dec. A.D. 1232. The date given in the text is wrong. The +correct name of this king is Īltutmish (<i>Z.D.M.G.</i>, vol. +lxi (1907), pp. 192, 193). It is written Altumash by the author, +and Altamsh by Thomas and Cunningham. A summary of the events of +his reign, based on coins and other original documents, is given on +page 45 of Thomas, <i>Chronicles of the Pathān Kings of +Delhi</i>. Īltutmish recorded an inscription dated A.H. 630 at +Gwālior (ibid. p. 80). This inscription was seen by +Bābur, but has since disappeared.</p> + +<p>18. Ibrāhīm Lodī, A.D. 1517-26. He was defeated +and killed by Bābur at the first battle of Pānīpat, +A.D. 1526. the correct date of his capture of Gwālior, +according to Cunningham (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ii, p. 340), is +1518.</p> + +<p>19. Humāyūn was son of Bābur, and father of Akbar +the Great. His first reign lasted from A.D. 1530 to 1540; his +second brief reign of less than six months was terminated by an +accident in January A.D. 1556. The correct date of the surrender of +Gwālior to Shēr Shāh was A.D. 1542, corresponding to +A.H. 949 (<i>A. S .R.</i>, vol. ii, p. 393), which year began 17th +April, 1542.</p> + +<p>20. Shēr Khan is generally known as Shēr (or +Shīr) Shāh. A good summary of his career from A.D. 1528 +to his death in A.D. 1545 (A.H. 934 to 952) is given by Thomas (op. +cit. p. 393). He struck coins at Gwālior in A.H. 950, 951, 952 +(ibid. p. 403).</p> + +<p>21. Gohad lies between Etawah (Itāwā) and +Gwālior, twenty-eight miles north-east of the latter. The +chief, originally an obscure Jāt landholder, rose to power +during the confusion of the eighteenth century, and allied himself +with the British in 1789 (Thornton, <i>Gazetteer</i>, s.v. +'Gohad').</p> + +<p>22. This memorable exploit was performed during Warren +Hastings's war with the Marāthās, Sir Eyre Coote being +Commander- in-Chief. Captain Popham first stormed the fort of +Lahar, a stronghold west of Kālpī (Calpee), and then, by +a cleverly arranged escalade, captured 'with little trouble and +small loss' the Gwālior fortress, which was garrisoned by a +thousand men, and commonly supposed to be impregnable. 'Captain +Popham was rewarded for his gallant services by being promoted to +the rank of Major' (Thornton, <i>The History of the British Empire +in India</i>, 2nd ed., 1859, p. 149). 'It is said that the spot +(for escalade) was pointed out to Popham by a cowherd, and that the +whole of the attacking party were supplied with grass shoes to +prevent them from slipping on the ledges of rock. There is a story +also that the cost of these grass shoes was deducted from Popham's +pay when he was about to leave India as a Major-General, nearly a +quarter of a century afterwards' (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ii, p. +340).</p> + +<p>23. James Bruce, 'the celebrated traveller', was Consul at +Algiers. He explored Tripoli, Tunis, Syria, and Egypt, and +travelled in Abyssinia from November 1769 to December 1771. He +returned to Egypt by the Nile, arriving at Cairo in January 1773. +His travels were published in 1790. He died in 1794.</p> + +<p>24. The Sindhia family of Gwālior was founded by +Rānojī Sindhia, a man of humble origin, in the service of +the Peshwā. Rānojī died about A.D. 1750, and was +succeeded by one of his natural sons, Māhādajī +(corruptly Mahdaju, &c.) Sindhia, whose turbulent and chequered +career lasted till 1794, when he was succeeded by his grand-nephew, +Daulat Rāo. The Marāthā power under Daulat Rāo +was broken in 1803, by Sir Arthur Wellesley at Assaye and Argaum, +and by Lord Lake at Laswārī. Māhādajī's +career is treated fully by Grant Duff, <i>A History of the +Mahrattas</i> (1826 and reprint). Mr. H. G. Keene in his little +book (<i>Rulers of India</i>, Oxford, 1892) erroneously gives the +chiefs name as 'Mādhava Rao'. The anthor's 'Mādhojī' +also is wrong.</p> + +<p>25. It is impossible within the limits of a note to give an +account of the extraordinary career of General De Boigne. His +Indian adventures began in 1778, and terminated in September 1796, +when he retired from Sindhia's service, and sold his private +regiment of Persian cavalry, six hundred strong, to Lord +Cornwallis, on behalf of the East India Company, for three lakhs of +rupees (about £30,000). He settled in his native town, +Chambéri in Savoy, and lived, in the enjoyment of his great +wealth, and of high honours conferred by the sovereigns of France +and Italy, until 21st June, 1830. He was created a Count, and was +succeeded in the title by his son. See G. M. Raymond, +<i>Mémoire sur la Carrière Militaire et Politique de +M. le Général Comte de Boigne, +2<sup>ième</sup></i> ed., Chambéry, 1830. Nine +chapters of Mr. Herbert Compton's book, <i>A Particular Account of +European Military Adventurers of Hindustan</i> (London, 1892), are +devoted to De Boigne.</p> + +<p>26. The cession of Gohad to Sindhia, sanctioned in the year +1805, during the brief and inglorious second term of office of Lord +Cornwallis, was effected by Sir George Barlow. The transaction is +severely censured by Thornton (<i>History</i>, p. 343) as a breach +of faith. Gwālior was given up to Sindhia along with Gohad. In +January 1844, shortly after the battle of Maharājpur, +Gwālior was again occupied by the forces of the Company, and +the fortress (save for the Mutiny period) continued in British +occupation until the 2nd December 1885, when Lord Dufferin restored +it to Sindhia in exchange for Jhānsī. In June 1857 the +Gwālior soldiery mutinied and massacred the Europeans, but the +Maharājā remained throughout loyal to the English +Government.</p> + +<p>Sir Hugh Rose recaptured the place by assault on the 28th June +1858. In the changed circumstances of the country, and with regard +to the modern developments of the art of war, the Gwālior +fortress is now of slight military value.</p> + +<p>27. The territory of the Dholpur chief is about fifty-four miles +long by twenty-three broad. The town of Dholpur is nearly midway +between Agra and Gwālior. The revenue is estimated by Thornton +(1858) as seven lākhs, not only three lākhs as stated by +the author. It was about eight lākhs in 1904 (<i>I.G.</i>, +1908).</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch37">CHAPTER 37</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum"> Content for Empire between the Sons of +Shāh Jahān.</p> + +<p>Under the Emperors of Delhi the fortress of Gwālior was +always considered as an imperial State prison, in which they +confined those rivals and competitors for dominion whom they did +not like to put to a violent death. They kept a large menagerie, +and other things, for their amusement. Among the best of the +princes who ended their days in this great prison was Sulaimān +Shikoh, the eldest son of the unhappy Dārā.[1] A +narrative of the contest for empire between the four sons of +Shāh Jahān may, perhaps, prove both interesting and +instructive; and, as I shall have occasion, in the course of my +rambles, to refer to the characters who figured in it, I shall +venture to give it a place. . . .[2]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. 'The prisons of Gwālior are situated in a small outwork +on the western side of the fortress, immediately above the Dhondha +gateway. They are called "nau chaukī", or "the nine cells", +and are both well lighted and well ventilated. But in spite of +their height, from fifteen to twenty-six feet, they must be +insufferably close in the hot season. These were the State prisons +in which Akbar confined his rebellious cousins, and Aurangzēb +the troublesome sons of Dārā and Murād, as well as +his own more dangerous son Muhammad. During these times the fort +was strictly guarded, and no one was allowed to enter without a +pass' (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ii, p. 369), Sulaimān Shikoh, whom +Manucci credits with 'all the gifts of nature', was poisoned at +Gwālior early in the reign of Aurangzēb, by order of that +monarch, paternal uncle of the victim (Irvine, <i>Storia do +Mogor</i>, i. 380). The author, following Bernier, always calls +Shāhjahān's eldest son simply Dārā. His name +really was Dārā Shikoh (or Shukoh), meaning 'in splendour +like Darius'.</p> + +<p>2. The following twelve chapters contain an historical piece, to +the personages and events of which the author will have frequent +occasion to refer; and it is introduced in this place from its +connexion with Gwālior, the State prison in which some of its +actors ended their days. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>The 'historical piece' which occupies chapters 37 to 46, +inclusive of the author's text is little more than a paraphrase of +<i>The History of the Late Rebellion in the States of the Great +Mogol</i> by Bernier, as the disquisition is called in Brock's +translation. Mr. A. Constable's revised and annotated translation +of Bernier's work (Constable and Co., 1891; reprinted with +corrections. Oxford University Press, 1914) renders superfluous the +reprinting of Sleeman's paraphrase, which would require much +correction and comment before it could be presented to readers of +the present day. The main facts of the narrative are, moreover, now +easily accessible in the histories of Elphinstone and innumerable +other writers. Such explanations as may be required to elucidate +allusions to the excised portion in the later chapters of the +anthor's work will be found in the notes. The titles of the +chapters which have not been reprinted follow here for facility of +reference.</p> + +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch38">CHAPTER 38</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Aurangzēb and Murād Defeat their +Father's Army near Ujain.</p> + +<h2><a name="Ch39">CHAPTER 39</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Dārā Marches in Person against his +Brothers, and is Defeated.</p> + +<h2><a name="Ch40">CHAPTER 40</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Dārā Retreats towards Lahore—Is +robbed by the Jāts—Their Character.</p> + +<h2><a name="Ch41">CHAPTER 41</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Shāh Jahān Imprisoned by his Two Sons, +Aurangzēb and Murād.</p> + +<h2><a name="Ch42">CHAPTER 42</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Aurangzēb Throws off the Mask, Imprisons his +Brother Murād, and Assumes the Government of the Empire.</p> + +<h2><a name="Ch43">CHAPTER 43</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Aurangzēb Meets Shujā in Bengal and +Defeats him, after Pursuing Dārā to the Hyphasis.</p> + +<h2><a name="Ch44">CHAPTER 44</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Aurangzēb Imprisons his Eldest +Son—Shujā and all his Family are Destroyed.</p> + +<h2><a name="Ch45">CHAPTER 45</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Second Defeat and Death of Dārā, and +Imprisonment of his Two Sons.</p> + +<h2><a name="Ch46">CHAPTER 46</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Death and Character of Amīr Jumla,</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch47">CHAPTER 47</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Reflections on the Preceding History.</p> + +<p>The contest for the empire of India here described is very like +that which preceded it, between the sons of Jahāngīr, in +which Shāh Jahān succeeded in destroying all his brothers +and nephews; and that which succeeded it, forty years after,[1] in +which Mu'azzam, the second of the four sons of Aurangzēb, did +the same;[2] and it may, like the rest of Indian history, teach us +a few useful lessons. First, we perceive the advantages of the law +of primogeniture, which accustoms people to consider the right of +the eldest son as sacred, and the conduct of any man who attempts +to violate it as criminal. Among Muhammadans, property, as well +real as personal, is divided equally among the sons;[3] and their +Korān, which is their only civil and criminal, as well as +religions, code, makes no provision for the successions to +sovereignty. The death of every sovereign is, in consequence, +followed by a contest between his sons, unless they are overawed by +some paramount power; and he who succeeds in this contest finds it +necessary, for his own security, to put all his brothers and +nephews to death, lest they should be rescued by factions, and made +the cause of future civil wars. But sons, who exercise the powers +of viceroys and command armies, cannot, where the succession is +unsettled, wait patiently for the natural death of their +father—delay may be dangerous. Circumstances, which now seem +more favourable to their views than to those of their brothers, may +alter; the military aristocracy depend upon the success of the +chief they choose in the enterprise, and the army more upon plunder +than regular pay; both may desert the cause of the more wary for +that of the more daring; each is flattered into an overweening +confidence in his own ability and good fortune; and all rush on to +seize upon the throne yet filled by their wretched parent, who, in +the history of his own crimes, now reads those of his children. +Gibbon has justly observed (chap. 7): 'the superior prerogative of +birth, when it has obtained the sanction of time and popular +opinion, is the plainest and least invidious of all distinctions +among mankind. The acknowledged right extinguishes the hopes of +faction; and the conscious security disarms the cruelty of the +monarch. To the firm establishment of this idea we owe the peaceful +succession and mild administration of European monarchies. To the +defect of it we must attribute the frequent civil wars through +which an Asiatic despot is obliged to cut his way to the throne of +his fathers. Yet, even in the East, the sphere of contention is +usually limited to the princes of the reigning house; and, as soon +as the fortunate competitor has removed his brethren by the sword +and the bowstring, he no longer entertains any jealousy of his +meaner subjects.'</p> + +<p>Among Hindoos, both real and personal property is divided in the +same manner equally among the sons;[4] but a principality is, among +them, considered as an exception to this rule; and every large +estate, within which the proprietor holds criminal jurisdiction, +and maintains a military establishment, is considered a +principality. In such cases the law of primogeniture is rigorously +enforced; and the death of the prince scarcely ever involves a +contest for power and dominion between his sons. The feelings of +the people, who are accustomed to consider the right of the eldest +son to the succession as religiously sacred, would be greatly +shocked at the attempt of any of his brothers to invade it. The +younger brothers, never for a moment supposing they could be +supported in such a sacrilegious attempt, feel for their eldest +brother a reverence inferior only to that which they feel for their +father; and the eldest brother, never supposing such attempts on +their part as possible, feels towards them as towards his own +children. All the members of such a family commonly live in the +greatest harmony.[5] In the laws, usages, and feelings of the +people upon this subject we had the means of preventing that +eternal subdivision of landed property, which ever has been, and +ever will be, the bane of everything that is great and good in +India; but, unhappily, our rulers have never had the wisdom to +avail themselves of them. In a great part of India the property, or +the lease of a <i>village</i> held in farm under Government, was +considered as a <i>principality</i>, and subject strictly to the +same laws of primogeniture—it was a <i>fief</i>, held under +Government on condition of either direct service, rendered to the +State in war, in education, or charitable or religions duties, or +of furnishing the means, in money or in kind, to provide for such +service. In every part of the Sāgar and Nerbudda Territories +the law of primogeniture in such leases was in force when we took +possession, and has been ever since preserved.[6] The eldest of the +sons that remain united with the father, at his death, succeeds to +the estate, and to the obligation of maintaining all the widows and +orphan children of those of his brothers who remained united to +their parent stock up to their death, all his unmarried sisters, +and, above all, his mother. All the younger brothers aid him in the +management, and are maintained by him till they wish to separate, +when a division of the stock takes place, and is adjusted by the +elders of the village. The member, who thus separates from the +parent stock, from that time forfeits for ever all claims to +support from the possessor of the ancestral estate, either for +himself, his widow, or his orphan children.[7]</p> + +<p>Next, it is obvious that no existing Government in India could, +in case of invasion or civil war, count upon the fidelity of their +aristocracy either of land or of office. It is observed by Hume, in +treating of the reign of King John in England, that 'men easily +change sides in a civil war, especially where the power is founded +upon an hereditary and independent authority, and is not derived +from the opinion and favour of the people'—that is, upon the +people collectively or the nation; for the hereditary and +independent authority of the English baron in the time of King John +was founded upon the opinion and fidelity of only that portion of +the people over which he ruled, in the same manner as that of the +Hindoo chiefs of India in the time of Shāh Jahān; but it +was without reference either to the honesty of the cause he +espoused, or to the opinion and feeling of the nation or empire +generally regarding it. The Hindoo territorial chiefs, like the +feudal barons of the Middle Ages in Europe, employed all the +revenues of their estates in the maintenance of military followers, +upon whose fidelity they could entirely rely, whatever side they +might themselves take in a civil war; and the more of these +resources that were left at their disposal, the more impatient they +became of the restraints which settled governments imposed upon +them. Under such settled governments they felt that they had an +<i>arm</i> which they could not use; and the stronger that arm, the +stronger was their desire to use it in the subjugation of their +neighbours. The reigning emperors tried to secure their fidelity by +assigning to them posts of honour about their court that required +their personal attendance in all their pomp of pride; and by taking +from each a daughter in marriage. If any one rebelled or neglected +his duties, he was either crushed by the imperial forces, or put to +the <i>ban of the empire</i>', and his territories were assigned to +any one who would undertake to conquer them.[8] Their attendance at +our viceroyal court would be a sad encumbrance;[9] and our +Governor-General could not well conciliate them by matrimonial +alliances, unless we were to alter a good deal in their favour our +law against polygamy; nor would it be desirable to 'let slip the +dogs of war' once more throughout the land by adopting the plan of +putting the refractory chiefs to the ban of the empire. Their +troops would be of no use to us in the way they are organized and +disciplined, even if we could rely upon their fidelity in time of +need; and this I do not think we ever can.[10]</p> + +<p>If it be the duty of all such territorial chiefs to contribute +to the support of the public establishments of the paramount power +by which they are secured in the possession of their estates, and +defended from all external danger, as it most assuredly is, it is +the duty of that power to take such contribution in money, or the +means of maintaining establishments more suited to its purpose than +their rude militia can ever be; and thereby to impair the +<i>powers</i> of that arm which they are so impatient to wield for +their own aggrandizement, and to the prejudice of their neighbours; +and to strengthen that of the paramount power by which the whole +are kept in peace, harmony, and security. We give to India what +India never had before our rule, and never could have without it, +the assurance that there will always be at the head of the +Government a sensible ruler trained up to office in the best school +in the world; and that the security of the rights, and the +enforcement of the duties, presented or defined by law, will not +depend upon the will or caprice of individuals in power. These +assurances the people in India now everywhere thoroughly understand +and appreciate. They see in the native states around them that the +lucky accident of an able governor is too rare ever to be +calculated upon; while all that the people have of property, +office, or character, depends not only upon their governor, but +upon every change that he may make in his ministers.</p> + +<p>The government of the Muhammadans was always essentially +military, and the aristocracy was always one of military office. +There was nothing else upon which an aristocracy could be formed. +All high civil offices were combined with the military commands. +The emperor was the great proprietor of all the lands, and +collected and distributed their rents through his own servants. +Every Musalmān with his Korān in his hand was his own +priest and his own lawyer; and the people were nowhere represented +in any municipal or legislative assembly—there was no bar, +bench, senate, corporation, art, science, or literature by which +men could rise to eminence and power. Capital had nowhere been +concentrated upon great commercial or manufacturing establishments. +There were, in short, no great men but the military servants of +Government; and all the servants of Government held their posts at +the will and pleasure of their sovereign.[11]</p> + +<p>If a man was appointed by the emperor to the command of five +thousand, the whole of this five thousand depended entirely on his +favour for their employment, and upon their employment for their +subsistence, whether paid from the imperial treasury, or by an +assignment of land in some distant province.[12] In our armies +there is a regular gradation of rank; and every officer feels that +he holds his commission by a tenure as high in origin, as secure in +possession, and as independent in its exercise, as that of the +general who commands; and the soldiers all know and feel that the +places of those officers, who are killed or disabled in action, +will be immediately filled by those next in rank, who are equally +trained to command, and whose authority none will dispute. In the +Muhammadan armies there was no such gradation of rank. Every man +held his office at the will of the chief whom he followed, and he +was every moment made to feel that all his hopes of advancement +must depend upon his pleasure. The relation between them was that +of patron and client; the client felt bound to yield implicit +obedience to the commands of his patron, whatever they might be; +and the patron, in like manner, felt bound to protect and promote +the interests of his client, as long as he continued to do so. As +often as the patron changed sides in a civil war, his clients all +blindly followed him; and when he was killed, they instantly +dispersed to serve under any other leader whom they might find +willing to take their services on the same terms.</p> + +<p>The Hindoo chiefs of the military class had hereditary +territorial possessions; and the greater part of these possessions +were commonly distributed on conditions of military service among +their followers, who were all of the same clan. But the highest +Muhammadan officers of the empire had not an acre more of land than +they required for their dwelling-houses, gardens, and cemeteries. +They had nothing but their office to depend upon, and were always +naturally anxious to hold it under the strongest side in any +competition for dominion. When the star of the competitor under +whom they served seemed to be on the wane, they soon found some +plausible excuse to make their peace with his rival, and serve +under his banners. Each competitor fought for his own life, and +those of his children; the imperial throne could be filled by only +one man; and that man dared not leave one single brother alive. His +father had taken good care to dispose of all his own brothers and +nephews in the last contest. The subsistence of the highest, as +well as that of the lowest, officer in the army depended upon their +employment in the public service, and all such employments would be +given to those who served the victor in the struggle. Under such +circumstances one is rather surprised that the history of civil +wars in India exhibits so many instances of fidelity and +devotion.</p> + +<p>The mass of the people stood aloof in such contests without any +feeling of interest, save the dread that their homes might become +the seat of the war, or the tracks of armies which were alike +destructive to the people in their course whatever side they might +follow. The result could have no effect upon their laws and +institutions, and little upon their industry and property. As ships +are from necessity formed to weather the storms to which they are +constantly liable at sea, so were the Indian village communities +framed to weather those of invasion and civil war, to which they +were so much accustomed by land; and, in the course of a year or +two, no traces were found of ravages that one might have supposed +it would have taken ages to recover from. The lands remained the +same, and their fertility was improved by the fallow; every man +carried away with him the implements of his trade, and brought them +back with him when he returned; and the industry of every village +supplied every necessary article that the community required for +their food, clothing, furniture, and accommodation. Each of these +little communities, when left unmolested, was in itself sufficient +to secure the rights and enforce the duties of all the different +members; and all they wanted from their government was moderation +in the land taxes, and protection from external violence. Arrian +says: 'If any intestine war happens to break forth among the +Indians, it is deemed a heinous crime either to seize the +husbandmen or spoil their harvest. All the rest wage war against +each other, and kill and slay as they think convenient, while they +live quietly and peaceably among them, and employ themselves at +their rural affairs either in their fields or vineyards.'[13] I am +afraid armies were not much more disposed to forbearance in the +days of Alexander than at present, and that his followers must have +supposed they remained untouched, merely because they heard of +their sudden rise again from their ruins by that spirit of moral +and political vitality with which necessity seems to have endowed +them.[14]</p> + +<p>During the early part of his life and reign, Aurangzēb was +employed in conquering and destroying the two independent kingdoms +of Golconda and Bījāpur in the Deccan, which he formed +into two provinces governed by viceroys. Each had had an army of +above a hundred thousand men while independent. The officers and +soldiers of these armies had nothing but their courage and their +swords to depend upon for their subsistence. Finding no longer any +employment under settled and legitimate authority in defending the +life, property, and independence of the people, they were obliged +to seek it around the standards of lawless freebooters; and upon +the ruins of these independent kingdoms and their disbanded armies +rose the Marāthā power, the hydra-headed monster which +Aurangzēb thus created by his ambition, and spent the last +twenty years of his life in vain attempts to crush.[15] The monster +has been since crushed by being deprived of its Peshwā, the +head which alone could infuse into all the members of the +confederacy a feeling of nationality, and direct all their efforts, +when required, to one common object. Sindhia, the chief of +Gwālior, is one of the surviving members of this great +confederacy—the rest are the Holkars of Indore, the +Bhōnslās of Nāgpur, and the Gaikwārs of +Barodā,[16] the grandchildren of the commandants of predatory +armies, who formed capital cities out of their standing camps in +the countries they invaded and conquered in the name of their head, +the Sātārā Rājā,[17] and afterwards in +that of his mayor of the palace, the Peshwā. There is not now +the slightest feeling of nationality left among the +Marāthā States, either collectively or individually.[18] +There is not the slightest feeling of sympathy between the mass of +the people and the chief who rules over them, and his public +establishments. To maintain these public establishments he +everywhere plunders the people, who most heartily detest him and +them. These public establishments are composed of men of all +religions and sects, gathered from all quarters of India, and bound +together by no common feeling, save the hope of plunder and +promotion. Not one in ten is from, or has his family in, the +country where he serves, nor is one in ten of the same clan with +his chief. Not one of them has any hope of a provision either for +himself, when disabled from wounds or old age from serving his +chief any longer, or for his family, should he lose his life in his +service.</p> + +<p>In India[19] there are a great many native chiefs who were +enabled, during the disorders which attended the decline and fall +of the Muhammadan power and the rise and progress of the +Marāthās and English, to raise and maintain armies by the +plunder of their neighbours. The paramount power of the British +being now securely established throughout the country, they are +prevented from indulging any longer in such sporting propensities; +and might employ their vast revenues in securing the blessing of +good civil government for the territories in the possession of +which they are secured by our military establishment. But these +chiefs are not much disposed to convert their swords into +ploughshares; they continue to spend their revenues on useless +military establishments for purposes of parade and show. A native +prince would, they say, be as insignificant without an army as a +native gentleman upon an elephant without a cavalcade, or upon a +horse without a tail. But the said army have learnt from their +forefathers that they were to look to aggressions upon their +neighbours—to pillage, plunder, and conquest, for wealth and +promotion; and they continue to prevent their prince from indulging +in any disposition to turn his attention to the duties of civil +government. They all live in the hope of some disaster to the +paramount power which secures the increasing wealth of the +surrounding countries from their grasp; and threatened innovations +from the north-west raise their spirits and hopes in proportion as +they depress those of the classes engaged in all branches of +peaceful industry.</p> + +<p>There are, in all parts of India, thousands and tens of +thousands who have lived by the sword, or who wish to live by the +sword, but cannot find employment suited to their tastes. These +would all flock to the standard of the first lawless chief who +could offer them a fair prospect of plunder; and to them all wars +and rumours of war are delightful. The moment they hear of a +threatened invasion from the north-west, they whet their swords, +and look fiercely around upon those from whose breasts they are 'to +cut their pound of flesh'.[20]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. 'Fifty years after' would be more nearly correct. +Aurangzēb wa crowned 23rd July, 1658, according to the author. +See end of next note.</p> + +<p>2. On the death of Aurangzēb, which took place in the +Deccan, on the 3rd of March, 1707 (N.S.), his son 'Azam marched at +the head of the troops which he commanded in the Deccan, to meet +Mu'azzam, who was viceroy in Kabul. They met and fought near Agra. +'Azam was defeated and killed. The victor marched to meet his other +brother, Kām Baksh, whom he killed near Hyderabad in the +Deccan, and secured to himself the empire. On his death, which took +place in 1713, his four sons contended in the same way for the +throne at the head of the armies of their respective viceroyalties. +Mu'izz- ud-dīn, the most crafty, persuaded his two brothers, +Rafī-ash-Shān and Jahān Shāh, to unite their +forces with his own against their ambitions brother, +Azīm-ash-Shān, whom they defeated and killed, Mu'izz-ud- +dīn then destroyed his two allies. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>The above note is not altogether accurate. 'Azam, the third son +of Aurangzēb, was killed in battle near Agra, in June 1707. +During the interval between Aurangzēb's death and his own, he +had struck coins. Mu'azzam, the second, and eldest then surviving +son, after the defeat of his rival, ascended the throne under the +title of Shāh Ālam Bahādur Shāh, and is +generally known as Bahādur Shāh. He was then sixty-four +years of age, his father having been eighty-seven years old when he +died. The events following the death of Bahādur Shāh are +narrated as follows by Mr. Lane-Poole; 'The Deccan was the weakest +point in the empire from the beginning of the reign. Hardly had +Bahādur appointed his youngest brother, Kām Baksh +('Wish-fulfiller'), viceroy of Bījāpur and +Haidarābād, when that infatuated prince rebelled and +committed such atrocities that the Emperor was compelled to attack +him. Zū-l-Fikār engaged and defeated the rebel king (who +was striking coins in full assumption of sovereignty) near +Haidarābād, and Kām Baksh died of his wounds (1708, +A.H. 1120).</p> + +<p>'In the midst of this confusion, and surrounded by portents of +coming disruption, Bahādur died, 1712 (1124). He left four +sons, who immediately entered with the zest of their race upon the +struggle for the crown. The eldest, 'Azīm-ash-Shān +("Strong of Heart"), first assumed the sceptre, but Zū-l- +Fikār, the prime minister, opposed and routed him, and the +prince was drowned in his flight. The successful general next +defeated and slew two other brothers, Khujistah Akhtār +Jahān-Shāh and Rafī-ash-Shān, and placed the +surviving of the four sons of Bahādur [i.e. Mu'izz-ud- +dīn] on the throne with the title of Jahāndār +("World-owner"). The new Emperor was an irredeemable poltroon and +an abandoned debauchee.' (<i>The History of the Moghul Emperors of +Hindustan illustrated by their Coins</i>, Constable, 1892, and in +Introd. to <i>B. M. Catal. of Moghul Emperors</i>, same date.)</p> + +<p>He was killed in 1713, and was succeeded by Farrukh-sīyar, +the son of Azīm-ush-Shān. The chronology is as +follows:-</p> + +<table align="center" border="1" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5" +width="100%" summary= +"Aurangzēb to Farrukhsīyar 1658 to 1713 A.D."> +<tr> +<td> No.</td> +<td>Soverign</td> +<td>A.H.</td> +<td>A.D.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> VI.</td> +<td>Aurangzēb Ālamgīr, Muhayī-ud- dīn</td> +<td>1068</td> +<td>1658</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>['Azam Shāh</td> +<td>1118</td> +<td>1707</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>Kām Baksh</td> +<td>1119-20</td> +<td>1708]</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> VII</td> +<td>Bahādur Shāh-'Ālam, Kutb-ud-dīn</td> +<td>1119</td> +<td>1707</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>VIII</td> +<td>Jahāndār Shāh, Mu'izz-ud-dīn</td> +<td>1124</td> +<td>1713</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> IX</td> +<td>Farrukhsīyar</td> +<td>1124</td> +<td>1713</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The question concerning the exact date from which the beginning +of Aurangzēb's reign should be reckoned is obscured by the +conflict of authorities and has given rise to much discussion. The +results may be stated briefly as follow:—</p> + +<p>Aurangzēb formally took possession of the throne in a +garden outside Delhi on the 1st Zū'l Q'adah, A.H. 1068, July +31, A.D. 1658, but subsequently orders were passed to antedate the +beginning of the reign to 1st Ramazān in the same year, +equivalent to June 2, 1658. After the destruction of Shāh +Shujā, Aurangzēb returned to Delhi in May, A.D. 1659, and +was again enthroned with full ceremonial on June 15, 1659 (= A.H. +1069). Some authors consequently assume the accession to have taken +place in 1659. But the reign certainly began in A.D. 1658, and +should be reckoned as running from the official date, June 2 of +that year. The dates given above are in New Style (N.S.). If +recorded in Old Style (O.S.) they would be ten days earlier. (See +Irvine and Hoernle in <i>J.A.S.B.</i>, Part I, vol. lxii (1893), +pp. 256-67; and Irvine, in <i>Ind. Ant.</i>, vol. xl (1911), pp. +74, 75.)</p> + +<p>3. The author invariably ignores the fact that daughters and +other female relatives inherit under Muhammadan law.</p> + +<p>4. Hindoo law does not ordinarily recognize any right of +succession for daughters, and so differs essentially from the law +of Islam. The exceptions to this general rule are unimportant.</p> + +<p>5. The experience of most officials does not confirm this +statement.</p> + +<p>6. The statement now requires modification. After the Central +Provinces were constituted in 1861, the principle of succession by +primogeniture was maintained only in the Hoshangābād, +Chhindwāra, Chāndā, and Chhattīsgarh Districts. +But even there the legal effect of the restrictions on alienation +and partition is 'not quite free from doubt' (<i>I.G.</i> 1908, x. +73). The tendency of the law courts is to apply everywhere uniform +rules taken from the Hindoo law books.</p> + +<p>7. 'See <i>ante</i>, Chapter 10, notes 10, 16. The gradual +conversion of tenure by leases from Government into proprietary +right in land has brought the land under the operation of the +ordinary Hindoo law, and each member of a joint family can now +enforce partition of the land as well as of the stock upon it. The +evils resulting from incessant partition are obvious, but no remedy +can be devised. The people insist on partition, and will effect it +privately, if the law imposes obstacles to a formal public +division.</p> + +<p>8. These remarks attribute too much System to the disorderly +working of an Asiatic despotism. No institution resembling the +formal 'ban of the empire' ever really existed in India.</p> + +<p>9. The Rājās at Simla might now be considered by some +people as an encumbrance.</p> + +<p>10. The author could not foresee the gallant service to be +rendered by the Chiefs of the Panjāb and other territories in +the Mutiny, nor the institution of the Imperial Service Troops. +Those troops, first organized in 1888, in response to the voluntary +offers made by many princes as a reply to the Russian aggression on +Panjdeh, are select bodies, picked from the soldiery of certain +native states, and equipped and drilled in the European manner. +Cashmere (Kāshmīr) and many States in the Panjāb and +elsewhere furnish troops of this kind, officered by local +gentlemen, under the guidance of English inspecting officers. The +Kāshmīr Imperial Service Troops did excellent service +during the campaign of 1892 in Hunza and Nagar. the System so +happily introduced is likely to be much further developed. In 1907 +the authorized strength was a little over 18,000 (<i>I.G.</i>, iv +(1907), pp. 87, 373).</p> + +<p>11. 'In Rome, as in Egypt and India, many of the great works +which, in modern nations, form the basis of gradations of rank in +society, were executed by Government out of public revenue, or by +individuals gratuitously for the benefit of the public; for +instance, roads, canals, aqueducts, bridges, &c., from which no +one derived an income, though all derived benefit. There was no +capital invested, with a view to profit, in machinery, railroads, +canals, steam- engines, and other great works which, in the +preparation and distribution of man's enjoyments, save the labour +of so many millions to the nations of modern Europe and America, +and supply the incomes of many of the most useful and most +enlightened members of their middle and higher classes of society. +During the republic, and under the first emperors, the laws were +simple, and few derived any considerable income from explaining +them. Still fewer derived their incomes from expounding the +religion of the people till the establishment of Christianity.</p> + +<p>Man was the principal machine in which property was invested +with a view to profit, and the concentration of capital in hordes +of slaves, and the farm of the public revenues of conquered +provinces and tributary states, were, with the land, the great +basis of the aristocracies of Rome, and the Roman world generally. +The senatorial and equestrian orders were supported chiefly by +lending out their slaves as gladiators and artificers, and by +farming the revenues, and lending money to the oppressed subjects +of the provinces, and to vanquished princes, at an exorbitant +interest, to enable them to pay what the state or its public +officers demanded. The slaves throughout the Roman empire were +about equal in number to the free population, and they were for the +most part concentrated in the hands of the members of the upper and +middle classes, who derived their incomes from lending and +employing them. They were to those classes in the old world what +canals, railroads, steam-engines, &c., are to those of modern +days. Some Roman citizens had as many as five thousand slaves +educated to the one occupation of gladiators for the public shows +of Rome. Julius Caesar had this number in Italy waiting his return +from Gaul; and Gordianus used commonly to give five hundred pair +for a public festival, and never less than one hundred and +fifty.</p> + +<p>In India slavery is happily but little known;[a] the church had +no hierarchy either among the Hindoos or Muhammadans; nor had the +law any high interpreters. In all its civil branches of marriage, +inheritance, succession, and contract, it was to the people of the +two religions as simple as the laws of the twelve tables; and +contributed just as little to the support of the aristocracy as +they did. In all these respects, China is much the same; the land +belongs to the sovereign, and is minutely subdivided among those +who farm and cultivate it—the great works in canals, +aqueducts, bridges, roads, &c., are made by Government, and +yield no private income. Capital is nowhere concentrated in +expensive machinery; their church is without a hierarchy, their law +without barristers-their higher classes are therefore composed +almost exclusively of the public servants of the Government. The +rule which prescribes that princes of the blood shall not be +employed in the government of provinces and the command of armies, +and that the reigning sovereign shall have the nomination of his +successor, has saved China from a frequent return of the scenes +which I have described. None of the princes are put to death, +because it is known that all will acquiesce in the nomination when +made known, supported as it always is by the popular sentiment +throughout the empire. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>a. the anthor's statement that in the year 1836 slavery was 'but +little known in India' is a truly astonishing one. Slavery of +various kinds—racial, predial, domestic—the slavery of +captives, and of debtors, had existed in India from time +immemorial, and still flourished in 1836. Slavery, so far as the +law can abolish it, was abolished by the Indian Act v of 1843, but +the final blow was not dealt until January l, 1862, when sections +370, &c., of the Indian Penal Code came into force. In +practice, domestic servitude exists to this day in great Muhammadan +households, and multitudes of agricultural labourers have a very +dim consciousness of personal freedom. The Criminal Law +Commissioners, who reported previous to the passage of Act v of +1843, estimated that in British India, as then constituted, the +proportion of the slave to the free population varied from +one-sixth to two-fifths. Sir Bartle Frere estimated the slave +population of the territories included in British India in the year +1841 as being between eight and nine millions. Slaves were +heritable and transferable property, and could be mortgaged or let +out on hire. The article 'Slave' in Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i> +(3rd ed.), from which most of the above particulars are taken, is +copious, and gives references to various authorities. The following +works may also be consulted: <i>The Law and Custom of Slavery in +British India</i>, by William Adam, 8vo, 1840; <i>An Account of +Slave Population in the Western Peninsula of India</i>, 1822, with +an Appendix on Slavery in Malabar; <i>India's Cries to British +Humanity</i>, by J. Peggs, 8vo, 1830; and <i>E.H.I.</i>, 3rd ed. +(1914), pp. 100, 178, 180, 441.</p> + +<p>12. In Akbar's time there were thirty-three grades of official +rank, and the officers were known as 'commanders of ten thousand', +'commanders of five thousand', and so on. Only princes of the blood +royal were granted the commands of seven thousand and of ten +thousand. The number of troopers actually provided by each officer +did not correspond with the number indicated by his title. The +graded officials were called <i>mansabdārs</i>, no clear +distinction between civil and military duties being drawn (<i>The +Emperor Akbar</i>, by Count Von Noer; translated by Annette S. +Beveridge, Calcutta, 1890, vol. i, p. 267).</p> + +<p>13. Diodorus Siculus has the same observation. 'No enemy ever +does any prejudice to the husbandmen; but, out of a due regard to +the common good, forbear to injure them in the least degree; and, +therefore, the land being never spoiled or wasted, yields its fruit +in great abundance, and furnishes the inhabitants with plenty of +victual and all other provisions.' Book II, chap. 3. [W. H. S.] +These allegations certainly cannot be accepted as accurate +statements of fact, however they may be explained. See +<i>E.H.I.</i>, 3rd ed. (1914), p. 442.</p> + +<p>14. The rapid recovery of Indian villages and villagers from the +effects of war does not need for its explanation the evocation of +'a spirit of moral and political vitality'. The real explanation is +to be found in the simplicity of the village life and needs, as +expounded by the author in the preceding passage. Human societies +with a low standard of comfort and a simple scheme of life are, +like individual organisms of lowly structure and few functions, +hard to kill. Human labour, and a few cattle, with a little grain +and some sticks, are the only essential requisites for the +foundation or reconstruction of a village.</p> + +<p>15. Golconda was taken by Aurangzēb, after a protracted +siege, in 1677. Bījāpur surrendered to him on the 15th +October, 1686. The vast ruins of this splendid city, which was +deserted after the conquest, occupy a space thirty miles in +circumference. The town has partially recovered, and is now the +head- quarters of a Bombay District, with about 24,000 inhabitants. +Sivājī, the founder of the Marāthā power, died +in 1680.</p> + +<p>16. The Indore and Barodā States still survive, and the +reigning chiefs of both have frequently visited England, and paid +their respects to their Sovereign. Bhōnslā was the family +name of the chiefs of Berār, also known as the Rājās +of Nāgpur. The last Rājā, Raghojī III, died in +December 1853, leaving no child begotten or adopted. Lord Dalhousie +annexed the State as lapsed, and his action was confirmed in 1864 +by the Court of Directors and the Crown.</p> + +<p>17. The State of Sātārā, like that of +Nāgpur, lapsed owing to failure of heirs, and was annexed in +1854. It is now a district in the Bombay Presidency.</p> + +<p>18. During the early years of the twentieth century a spirit of +Marāthā nationalism has been sedulously cultivated, with +inconvenient results.</p> + +<p>19. This paragraph, and that next following, are, in the +original edition, printed as part of Chapter 48, 'The Great Diamond +of Kohinūr', with which they have nothing to do. They seem to +belong properly to Chapter 47, and are therefore inserted here. The +observations in both paragraphs are merely repetitions of remarks +already recorded.</p> + +<p>20. It need hardly be said that these fire-eaters no longer +exist.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch48">CHAPTER 48</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Great Diamond of Kohinūr.</p> + +<p>The foregoing historical episode occupies too large a space in +what might otherwise be termed a personal narrative; but still I am +tempted to append to it a sketch of the fortunes of that famous +diamond, called with Oriental extravagance the Mountain of Light, +which, by exciting the cupidity of Shāh Jahān, played so +important a part in the drama.</p> + +<p>After slumbering for the greater part of a century in the +imperial treasury, it was afterwards taken by Nādir Shāh, +the king of Persia, who invaded India under the reign of Muhammad +Shāh, in the year 1738.[1] Nadir Shāh, in one of his mad +fits, had put out the eyes of his son, Razā Kulī +Mirzā, and, when he was assassinated, the conspirators gave +the throne and the diamond to this son's son, Shāhrukh Mirza, +who fixed his residence at Meshed.[2] Ahmad Shāh, the +Abdālī, commanded the Afghān cavalry in the service +of Nādir Shāh, and had the charge of the military chest +at the time he was put to death. With this chest, he and his +cavalry left the camp during the disorders that followed the murder +of the king, and returned with all haste to Kandahār, where +they met Tarīkī Khān, on his way to Nādir +Shāh's camp with the tribute of the five provinces which he +had retained of his Indian conquests, Kandahār, Kābul, +Tatta, Bakkar, Multān, and Peshāwar. They gave him the +first news of the death of the king, seized upon his treasure, and, +with the aid of this and the military chest, Ahmad Shāh took +possession of these five provinces, and formed them into the little +independent kingdom of Afghānistan, over which he long +reigned, and from which he occasionally invaded India and +Khurāsān.[3]</p> + +<p>Shāhrukh Mirzā had his eyes put out some time after by +a faction. Ahmad Shāh marched to his relief, put the rebels to +death, and united his eldest son, Taimūr Shāh, in +marriage to the daughter of the unfortunate prince, from whom he +took the diamond, since it could be of no use to a man who could no +longer see its beauties. He established Taimūr as his viceroy +at Herāt, and his youngest son at Kandahār; and fixed his +own residence at Kābul, where he died.[4] He was succeeded by +Taimūr Shāh, who was succeeded by his eldest son, +Zamān Shāh, who, after a reign of a few years, was driven +from his throne by his younger brother, Mahmūd. He sought an +asylum with his friend Ashīk, who commanded a distant +fortress, and who betrayed him to the usurper, and put him into +confinement. He concealed the great diamond in a crevice in the +wall of the room in which he was confined; and the rest of his +jewels in a hole made in the ground with his dagger. As soon as +Mahmūd received intimation of the arrest from Ashīk, he +sent for his brother, had his eyes put out, and demanded the +jewels, but Zamān Shāh pretended that he had thrown them +into the river as he passed over. Two years after this, the third +brother, the Sultān Shujā, deposed Mahmūd, ascended +the throne by the consent of his elder brother, and, as a fair +specimen of his notions of retributive justice, he blew away from +the mouths of cannon, not only Ashīk himself, but his wife and +all his innocent and unoffending children.</p> + +<p>He intended to put out the eyes of his deposed brother, +Mahmūd, but was dissuaded from it by his mother and Zamān +Shāh, who now pointed out to him the place where he had +concealed the great diamond. Mahmūd made his escape from +prison, raised a party, drove out his brothers, and once more +ascended the throne. The two brothers sought an asylum in the +Honourable Company's territories; and have from that time resided +at an out frontier station of Lūdiāna, upon the banks of +the Hyphasis,[5] upon a liberal pension assigned for their +maintenance by our Government. On their way through the territories +of the Sikh chief, Ranjit Singh, Shujā was discovered to have +this great diamond, the Mountain of Light, about his person; and he +was, by a little torture skilfully applied to the mind and body, +made to surrender it to his generous host.[6] Mahmūd was +succeeded in the government of the fortress and province of +Herāt by his son Kāmrān; but the throne of +Kābul was seized by the mayor of the palace, who bequeathed it +to his son Dost Muhammad, a man, in all the qualities requisite in +a sovereign, immeasurably superior to any member of the house of +Ahmad Shāh Abdālī. Ranjit Singh had wrested from him +the province of Peshāwar in times of difficulty, and, as we +would not assist him in recovering it from our old ally, he thought +himself justified in seeking the aid of those who would, the +Russians and Persians, who were eager to avail themselves of so +fair an occasion to establish a footing in India. Such a footing +would have been manifestly incompatible with the peace and security +of our dominions in India, and we were obliged, in self-defence, to +give to Shujā the aid which he had so often before in vain +solicited, to enable him to recover the throne of his very limited +number of legal ancestors.[7]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Nādir Shāh was crowned king of Persia in 1736, +entered the Panjāb, at the close of 1738, and occupied Delhi +in March 1739. Having perpetrated an awful massacre of the +inhabitants, he retired after a stay of fifty-eight days, He was +assassinated in May 1747.</p> + +<p>2. Meshed, properly Mashhad ('the place of martyrdom'), is the +chief city of Khurāsān. Nādir Shāh was killed +while encamped there.</p> + +<p>3. Ahmad Shāh defeated the Marāthās in the third +great battle of Pānīpat, A.D. 1761. He had conquered the +Panjāb in 1748. He invaded India five times.</p> + +<p>4. In 1773.</p> + +<p>5. Lūdiāna (misspelt 'Ludhiāna' in <i>I.G.</i>, +1908) is named from the Lodī Afghāns, who founded it in +1481. The town is now the headquarters of the district of the same +name under the Panjāb Government. Part of the district lapsed +to the British Government in 1836, other parts lapsed during the +years 1846 and 1847, and the rest came from territory already +British by rearrangement of jurisdiction. Hyphasis is the Greek +name for the Biās river.</p> + +<p>6. The above history of the Kohinūr may, I believe, be +relied upon. I received a narrative of it from Shāh +Zamān, the blind old king himself, through General Smith, who +commanded the troops at Lūdiāna; forming a detail of the +several revolutions too long and too full of new names for +insertion here. [W. H. S.] The above note is, in the original +edition, misplaced, and appended to two paragraphs of the text, +which have no connexion with the story of the diamond, and really +belong to Chapter 47, to which they have been removed in this +edition.</p> + +<p>The author assumes the identity of the Kohinūr with the +great diamond found in one of the Golconda mines, and presented by +Amīr Jumla to Shāh Jahān. The much-disputed history +of the Kohinūr has been exhaustively discussed by Valentine +Ball (Tavernier's <i>Travels in India</i>: Appendix I (1), 'The +Great Mogul's Diamond and the true History of the Koh-i-nur; and +(2) 'Summary History of the Koh-i-nur'). He has proved that the +Kohinūr is almost certainly the diamond given by Amīr +(Mīr) Jumla to Shāh Jahān, though now much reduced +in weight by mutilation and repeated cutting. Assuming the identity +of the Kohinūr with Amīr Jumla's gift, the leading +incidents in the history of this famous jewel are as +follows;—</p> + +<table align="center" border="1" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5" +width="100%" summary= +"History of the Kohinūr from its finding to 1852 A.D."> +<tr> +<td> Event.</td> +<td>Approximate Date.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Found at mine of Kollūr on the Kistna (Krishna) river</td> +<td> Not known</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Presented to Shāh Jahān by Mīr Jumla, being +uncut, and weighing about 756 English carats</td> +<td>1656 or 1657</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Ground by Hortensio Borgio, and greatly reduced in weight</td> +<td>about 1657</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Seen and weighed by Tavernier in Aurangzēb's treasury, its +weight being 268 19/50 English carats</td> +<td>1665</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Taken by Nadir Shāh of Persia from Muhammad Shāh of +Delhi, and named Kohinūr</td> +<td>1739</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Inherited by Shāh Rukh, grandson of Nadir Shāh</td> +<td>1747</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Given up by Shāh Rukh to Ahmad Shāh +Abdālī</td> +<td>1751</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Inherited by Tīmūr, son of Ahmad Shāh</td> +<td>1772</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Inherited by Shāh Zamān, son of Tīmūr</td> +<td>1793</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Taken by Shāh Shujā, brother of Shāh +Zamān</td> +<td>1795</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Taken by Ranjit Singh, of Lahore, from Shāh +Shujā</td> +<td>1813</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Inherited by Dilīp (Dhuleep) Singh, reputed son of Ranjit +Singh</td> +<td>1839</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Annexed, with the Panjāb, and passed, through John +Lawrence's waistcoat pocket (see his <i>Life</i>), into the +possession of H.M. the Queen, its weight then being 186 1/16 +English carats</td> +<td>1849</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Exhibited at Great Exhibition in London</td> +<td>1851</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Recut under supervision of Messrs. Garrards, and reduced in +weight to 106 1/16 English carats</td> +<td>1852</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><!--R15C1--> +</td> +<td><!--R15C2--> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The difference in weight between 268 19/50 carats in 1665 and +186 1/16 carats in 1849 seems to be due to mutilation of the stone +during its stay in Persia and Afghanistan.</p> + +<p>7. The policy of the first Afghan War has been, it is hardly +necessary to observe, much disputed, and the author's confident +defence of Lord Auckland's action cannot be accepted.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch49">CHAPTER 49</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Pindhārī System—Character of the +Marāthā Administration—Cause of their Dislike to +the Paramount Power.</p> + +<p>The attempt of the Marquis of Hastings to rescue India from that +dreadful scourge, the Pindhārī system, involved him in a +war with all the great Marāthā states, except +Gwālior; that is, with the Peshwā at Pūnā, +Holkār at Indore, and the Bhonslā at Nāgpur; and +Gwālior was prevented from joining the other states in their +unholy league against us only by the presence of the grand division +of the army, under the personal command of the Marquis, in the +immediate vicinity of his capital. It was not that these chiefs +liked the Pindhārīs, or felt any interest in their +welfare, but because they were always anxious to crush that rising +paramount authority which had the power, and had always manifested +the will, to interpose and prevent the free indulgence of their +predatory habits—the free exercise of that weapon, a standing +army, which the disorders incident upon the decline and fall of the +Muhammadan army had put into their hands, and which a continued +series of successful aggressions upon their neighbours could alone +enable them to pay or keep under control. They seized with avidity +any occasion of quarrel with the paramount power which seemed +likely to unite them all in one great effort to shake it off; and +they are still prepared to do the same, because they feel that they +could easily extend their depredations if that power were +withdrawn; and they know no other road to wealth and glory but such +successful depredations. Their ancestors rose by them, their states +were formed by them, and their armies have been maintained by them. +They look back upon them for all that seems to them honourable in +the history of their families. Their bards sing of them in all +their marriage and funeral processions; and, as their imaginations +kindle at the recollection, they detest the arm that is extended to +defend the wealth and the industry of the surrounding territories +from their grasp. As the industrious classes acquire and display +their wealth in the countries around during a long peace, under a +strong and settled government, these native chiefs, with their +little disorderly armies, feel precisely as an English country +gentleman would feel with a pack of foxhounds, in a country +swarming with foxes, and without the privilege of hunting +them.[1]</p> + +<p>Their armies always took the auspices and set out <i>kingdom +taking</i> (mulk gīrī) after the Dasahra,[2] in November, +as regularly as English gentlemen go partridge-shooting on the 1st +of September; and I may here give, as a specimen, the excursion of +Jean Baptiste Filose,[3] who sallied forth on such an expedition, +at the head of a division of Sindhia's army, just before this +Pindhārī war commenced. From Gwālior he proceeded to +Karaulī,[4] and took from that chief the district of +Sabalgarh, yielding four lākhs of rupees yearly.[5] He then +took the territory of the Rājā of Chandērī,[6] +Mor Pahlād, one of the oldest of the Bundēlkhand chiefs, +which then yielded about seven lākhs of rupees,[7] but now +yields only four. The Rājā got an allowance of forty +thousand rupees a year. He then took the territories of the +Rājās of Raghugarh and Bajranggarh,[8] yielding three +lākhs a year; and Bahādurgarh, yielding two lākhs a +year;[9] and the three princes got fifty thousand rupees a year for +subsistence among them. He then took Lopar, yielding two lākhs +and a half, and assigned the Rājā twenty-five thousand. +He then took Garhā Kota,[10] whose chief gets subsistence from +our Government. Baptiste had just completed his kingdom taking +expedition, when our armies took the field against the +Pindhārīs; and, on the termination of that war in 1817, +all these acquisitions were confirmed and guaranteed to his master +Sindhia by our Government. It cannot be supposed that either he or +his army can ever feel any great attachment towards a paramount +authority that has the power and the will to interpose, and prevent +their indulging in such sporting excursions as these, or any great +disinclination to take advantage of any occasion that may seem +likely to unite all the native chiefs in a common effort to crush +it. The Nepalese have the same feeling as the Marāthās in +a still stronger degree, since their kingdom-taking excursions had +been still greater and more successful; and, being all soldiers +from the same soil, they were easily persuaded, by a long series of +successful aggressions, that their courage was superior to that of +all other men.[11]</p> + +<p>In the year 1833, the Gwālior territory yielded a net +revenue to the treasury of ninety-two lākhs of rupees, after +discharging all the local costs of the civil and fiscal +administration of the different districts, in officers, +establishments, charitable institutions, religions endowments, +military fiefs, &c.[12] In the remote districts, which are much +infested by the predatory tribes of Bhīls,[13] and in +consequence badly peopled and cultivated, the net revenue is +estimated to be about one-third of the gross collections; but, in +the districts near the capital, which are tolerably well +cultivated, the net revenue brought to the treasury is about +five-sixths of the gross collections; and these collections are +equal to the whole annual rent of the land; for every man by whom +the land is held or cultivated is a mere tenant at will, liable +every season to be turned out, to give place to any other man that +may offer more for the holding.</p> + +<p>There is nowhere to be seen upon the land any useful or +ornamental work, calculated to attach the people to the soil or to +their villages; and, as hardly any of the recruits for the +regiments are drawn from the peasantry of the country, the +agricultural classes have nowhere any feeling of interest in the +welfare or existence of the government. I am persuaded that there +is not a single village in all the Gwālior dominions in which +nine-tenths of the people would not be glad to see that government +destroyed, under the persuasion that they could not possibly have a +worse, and would be very likely to find a better.</p> + +<p>The present force at Gwālior consists of three regiments of +infantry, under Colonel Alexander; six under the command of +Apājī, the adopted son of the late Bālā +Bāī;[14] eleven under Colonel Jacobs and his son; five +under Colonel Jean Baptiste Filose; two under the command of the +Māmū Sāhib, the maternal uncle of the +Mahārājā; three in what is called Bābū +Bāolī's camp; in all thirty regiments, consisting, when +complete, of six hundred men each, with four field-pieces. The +'Jinsī', or artillery, consists of two hundred guns of +different calibre. There are but few corps of cavalry, and these +are not considered very efficient, I believe.[15]</p> + +<p>Robbers and murderers of all descriptions have always been in +the habit of taking the field in India immediately after the +festival of the Dasahrā,[16] at the end of October, from the +sovereign of a state at the head of his armies, down to the leader +of a little band of pickpockets from the corner of some obscure +village. All invoke the Deity, and take the auspices to ascertain +his will, nearly in the same way; and all expect that he will guide +them successfully through their enterprises, as long as they find +the omens favourable. No one among them ever dreams that his +undertaking can be less acceptable to the Deity than that of +another, provided he gives him the same due share of what he +acquires in his thefts, his robberies, or his conquests, in +sacrifices and offerings upon his shrines, and in donations to his +priests.[17] Nor does the robber often dream that he shall be +considered a less respectable citizen by the circle in which he +moves than the soldier, provided he spends his income as liberally, +and discharges all his duties in his relations with them as well; +and this he generally does to secure their goodwill, whatever may +be the character of his depredations upon distant circles of +society and communities. The man who returned to Oudh, or +Rohilkhand, after a campaign under a Pindhārī chief, was +as well received as one who returned after serving one under +Sindhia, Holkār, or Ranjīt Singh. A friend of mine one +day asked a leader of a band of 'dacoits', or banditti, whether +they did not often commit murder. 'God forbid', said he, 'that we +should ever commit murder; but, if people choose to oppose us, we, +of course, <i>strike and kill</i>; but you do the same. I hear that +there is now a large assemblage of troops in the upper provinces +going to take foreign countries; if they are opposed, they will +kill people. We only do the same.'[18] The history of the rise of +every nation in the world unhappily bears out the notion that +princes are only robbers upon a large scale, till their ambition is +curbed by a balance of power among nations.</p> + +<p>On the 25th[19] we came on to Dhamēlā, fourteen miles, +over a plain, with the range of sandstone hills on the left, +receding from us to the west; and that on the right receding still +more to the east. Here and there were some insulated hills of the +same formation rising abruptly from the plain to our right. All the +villages we saw were built upon masses of this sandstone rock, +rising abruptly at intervals from the surface of the plain, in +horizontal strata. These hillocks afford the people stone for +building, and great facilities for defending themselves against the +inroads of freebooters. There is not, I suppose, in the world a +finer stone for building than these sandstone hills afford; and we +passed a great many carts carrying them off to distant places in +slabs or flags from ten to sixteen feet long, two to three feet +wide, and six inches thick. They are white, with very minute pink +spots, and of a texture so very fine that they would be taken for +indurated clay on a slight inspection. The houses of the poorest +peasants are here built of this beautiful freestone, which, after +two hundred years, looks as if it had been quarried only +yesterday.</p> + +<p>About three miles from our tents we crossed over the little +river Ghorapachhār,[20] flowing over a bed of this sandstone. +The soil all the way very light, and the cultivation scanty and +bad. Except within the enclosures of men's houses, scarcely a tree +to be anywhere seen to give shelter and shade to the weary +traveller; and we could find no ground for our camp with a shrub to +shelter man or beast. All are swept away to form gun-carriages for +the Gwālior artillery, with a philosophical disregard to the +comforts of the living, the repose of the dead who planted them +with a view to a comfortable berth in the next world, and to the +will of the gods to whom they are dedicated. There is nothing left +upon the land of animal or vegetable life to enrich it; nothing of +stock but what is necessary to draw from the soil an annual crop, +and which looks to one harvest for its entire return. The sovereign +proprietor of the soil lets it out by the year, in farms or +villages, to men who depend entirely upon the year's return for the +means of payment. He, in his turn, lets the lands in detail to +those who till them, and who depend for their subsistence, and for +the means of paying their rents, upon the returns of the single +harvest. There is no manufacture anywhere to be seen, save of brass +pots and rude cooking utensils; no trade or commerce, save in the +transport of the rude produce of the land to the great camp at +Gwālior, upon the backs of bullocks, for want of roads fit for +wheeled carriages. No one resides in the villages, save those whose +labour is indispensably necessary to the rudest tillage, and those +who collect the dues of government, and are paid upon the lowest +possible scale. Such is the state of the Gwālior territories +in every part of India where I have seen them.[21] The miseries and +misrule of the Oudh, Hyderabad, and other Muhammadan governments, +are heard of everywhere, because there are, under these +governments, a middle and higher class upon the land to suffer and +proclaim them; but those of the Gwālior state are never heard +of, because no such classes are ever allowed to grow up upon the +land. Had Russia governed Poland, and Turkey Greece, in the way +that Gwālior has governed her conquered territories, we should +never have heard of the wrongs of the one or the other.</p> + +<p>In my morning's ride the day before I left Gwālior, I saw a +fine leopard standing by the side of the most frequented road, and +staring at every one who passed. It was held by two men, who sat by +and talked to it as if it had been a human being. I thought it was +an animal for show, and I was about to give them something, when +they told me that they were servants of the +Mahārājā, and were training the leopard to bear the +sight and society of man. 'It had', they said, 'been caught about +three months ago in the jungles, where it could never bear the +sight and society of man, or of any animal that it could not prey +upon; and must be kept upon the most frequented road till quite +tamed. Leopards taken when very young would', they said, 'do very +well as pets, but never answered for hunting; a good leopard for +hunting must, before taken, be allowed to be a season or two +providing for himself, and living upon the deer he takes in the +jungles and plains.'</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. For the characteristics of the Marāthās and +Pindhārīs, see <i>ante</i>, Chapter 21, note 2.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 26, note 8, and Chapter 32, note 9.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 17, note 6.</p> + +<p>4. A small principality, about seventy miles equidistant from +Agra, Gwālior, Mathurā, Alwar, Jaipur, and Tonk. The +attack on Karaulī occurred in 1813. Full details are given in +the author's <i>Report on Budhuk alias Bagree Decoits</i>, pp. 99- +104.</p> + +<p>5. Four hundred thousand rupees.</p> + +<p>6. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 33, note 15.</p> + +<p>7. Seven hundred thousand rupees.</p> + +<p>8. Raghugarh is now a mediatized chiefship in the Central India +Agency, controlled by the Resident at Gwālior. Bajranggarh, a +stronghold eleven miles south of Gūnā (Goonah), and about +140 miles distant from Gwālior, is in the Raghugarh +territory.</p> + +<p>9. Three hundred thousand and two hundred thousand rupees, +respectively. Bahādurgarh is now included in the Isāgarh +district of the Gwālior State.</p> + +<p>10. I cannot find any mention of Lopar, if the name is correctly +printed. Garhā Kota seems to be a slip of the pen for +Garhā. Garhā Kota is in British territory, in the +Sāgar District, C. P. But Garhā is a petty state, +formerly included in the Raghugarh State. The town of Garhā is +on the eastern slope of the Mālwā plateau in 25º 2' +N. and 78º 3' E. (<i>I.G.</i>, 1908, s.v.).</p> + +<p>11. On the coronation or installation of every new prince of the +house of Sindhia, orders are given to plunder a few shops in the +town as a part of the ceremony, and this they call or consider +'taking the auspices'. Compensation is <i>supposed</i> to be made +to the proprietors, but rarely is made. I believe the same auspices +are taken at the installation of a new prince of every other +Marāthā house. The Moghal invaders of India were, in the +same manner, obliged to allow their armies to <i>take the +auspices</i> in the sack of a few towns, though they had +surrendered without resistance. They were given up to pillage as a +<i>religions duty</i>. Even the accomplished Bābar was obliged +to concede this privilege to his army. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>In reply to the editor's inquiries, Colonel Biddulph, +officiating Resident at Gwālior, has kindly communicated the +following information on the subject of the above note, in a letter +dated 30th December, 1892. 'The custom of looting some "Banias'" +shops on the installation of a new Maharaja in Gwālior is +still observed. It was observed when the present Mādho +Rāo Sindhia was installed on the <i>gadī</i> on 3rd July, +1886, and the looting was stopped by the police on the owners of +the shops calling out "Dohai Mādho Mahārājkī!" +five shops were looted on the occasion, and compensation to the +amount of Rs. 427, 4, 3 was paid to the owners. My informant tells +me that the custom has apparently no connexion with religion, but +is believed to refer to the days when the period between the +decease of one ruler and the accession of his successor was one of +disorder and plunder. The maintenance of the custom is supposed to +notify to the people that they must now look to the new ruler for +protection.</p> + +<p>'According to another informant, some "banias" are called by the +palace officers and directed to open their shops in the palace +precincts, and money is given them to stock their shops. The poor +people are then allowed to loot them. No shops are allowed to be +looted in the bazaar.</p> + +<p>'I cannot learn that any particular name is given to the +ceremony, and there appears to be some doubt as to its meaning; but +the best information seems to show that the reason assigned above +is the correct one.</p> + +<p>'I cannot give any information as to the existence of the custom +in other Mahratta states.'</p> + +<p>The custom was observed late in the sixth century at the birth +of King Harsha-vardhana (<i>Harsa-Caritā</i>, transl, Cowell +and Thomas, p. 111). Anthropologists classify such practices as +rites de passage, marking a transition from the old to the new.</p> + +<p>'Bania', or 'baniyā', means shopkeeper, especially a grain +dealer; 'gadī', or 'gaddī', is the cushioned seat, also +known as 'masnad', which serves a Hindoo prince as a throne; and +'dohāi' is the ordinary form of a cry for redress.</p> + +<p>12. Ninety-two lākhs of rupees were then worth more than +£920,000. The <i>I.G.</i> (1908) states the normal revenue as +150 lākhs of rupees, equivalent (at the rate of exchange of +1<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> to the rupee, or R 15 = £1) to one +million pounds sterling. The fall in exchange has greatly lowered +the sterling equivalent.</p> + +<p>13. The Bhīl tribes are included in the large group of +tribes which have been driven back by the more cultivated races +into the hills and jungles. They are found among the woods along +the banks of the Nerbudda, Taptī, and Mahī, and in many +parts of Central India and Rājputāna. Of late years they +have generally kept quiet; in the earlier part of the nineteenth +century they gave much trouble in Khāndēsh. In +Rājputāna two irregular corps of Bhīls have been +organized.</p> + +<p>14. Daughter of Māhādajī Sindhia. She died in +1834. See <i>post</i>, Chapter 70.</p> + +<p>15. 'In 1886 the fort of Gwālior and the cantonment of +Morār were surrendered by the Government of India to Sindhia +in exchange for the fort and town of Jhānsī. Both forts +were mutually surrendered and occupied on 10th March, 1886. As the +occupation of the fort of Gwālior necessitated an increase of +Sindhia's army, the Mahārājā was allowed to add +3,000 men to his infantry' (<i>Letter of Officiating Resident, +dated 30th Dec.</i>, 1892). In 1908 the Gwālior army, +comprising all arms, including three regiments of Imperial Service +Cavalry, numbered more than 12,000 men, described as troops of +'very fair quality' (<i>I.G.</i>, 1908).</p> + +<p>16. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 26, note 8; Chapter 32, note 9; Chapter +49, note 2.</p> + +<p>17. In <i>Ramaseeana</i> the author has fully described the +practices of the Thugs in taking omens, and the feelings with which +they regarded their profession. Similar information concerning +other criminal classes is copiously given in the <i>Report on +Budhuk alias Bagree Decoits</i>. See also Meadows Taylor, +<i>Confessions of a Thug</i>, in any edition.</p> + +<p>18. These notions are still prevalent.</p> + +<p>19. December, 1835, Christmas Day.</p> + +<p>20. 'Overthrower of horses'; the same epithet is applied to the +Utangan river, south of the Agra district, owing to the difficulty +with which it is crossed when in flood (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, +1st ed., vol. vii, p. 423).</p> + +<p>21. Sindhia's territories, measuring 25,041 square miles, are in +parts intermixed with those of other princes, and so extend over a +wide space. Gwālior and its government have been discussed +already in Chapter 36.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch50">CHAPTER 50</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Dhōlpur, Capital of the Jāt Chiefs of +Gohad—Consequence of Obstacles to the Prosecution of +Robbers.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 26th,[1] we sent on one tent, with the +intention of following it in the afternoon; but about three o'clock +a thunder-storm came on so heavily that I was afraid that which we +occupied would come down upon us; and, putting my wife and child in +a palankeen, I took them to the dwelling of an old +Bairāgī, about two hundred yards from us. He received us +very kindly, and paid us many compliments about the honour we had +conferred upon him. He was a kind and, I think, a good old man, and +had six disciples who seemed to reverence him very much. A large +stone image of Hanumān, the monkey-god, painted red, and a +good store of buffaloes, very comfortably sheltered from the +pitiless storm, were in an inner court. The peacocks in dozens +sought shelter under the walls and in the tree that stood in the +courtyard; and I believe that they would have come into the old +man's apartment had they not seen our white faces there. I had a +great deal of talk with him, but did not take any notes of it. +These old Bairāgīs, who spend the early and middle parts +of life as disciples in pilgrimages to the celebrated temples of +their god Vishnu in all parts of India, and the latter part of it +as high priests or apostles in listening to the reports of the +numerous disciples employed in similar wanderings are, perhaps, the +most intelligent men in the country. They are from all the castes +and classes of society. The lowest Hindoo may become a +Bairāgī, and the very highest are often tempted to become +so; the service of the god to which they devote themselves +levelling all distinctions. Few of them can write or read, but they +are shrewd observers of men and things, and often exceedingly +agreeable and instructive companions to those who understand them, +and can make them enter into unreserved conversation. Our tent +stood out the storm pretty well, but we were obliged to defer our +march till the next day. On the afternoon of the 27th we went on +twelve miles, over a plain of deep alluvion, through which two +rivers have cut their way to the Chambal; and, as usual, the +ravines along their banks are deep, long, and dreary.</p> + +<p>About half-way we were overtaken by one of the heaviest showers +of rain I ever saw; it threatened us from neither side, but began +to descend from an apparently small bed of clouds directly over our +heads, which seemed to spread out on every side as the rain fell, +and fill the whole vault of heaven with one dark and dense mass. +The wind changed frequently; and in less than half an hour the +whole surface of the country over which we were travelling was +under water. This dense mass of clouds passed off in about two +hours to the east; but twice, when the sun opened and beamed +divinely upon us in a cloudless sky to the west, the wind changed +suddenly round, and rushed back angrily from the east, to fill up +the space which had been quickly rarefied by the genial heat of its +rays, till we were again enveloped in darkness, and began to +despair of reaching any human habitation before night. Some hail +fell among the rain, but not large enough to hurt any one. The +thunder was loud and often startling to the strongest nerves, and +the lightning vivid, and almost incessant. We managed to keep the +road because it was merely a beaten pathway below the common level +of the country, and we could trace it by the greater depth of the +water, and the absence of all shrubs and grass. All roads in India +soon become watercourses—they are nowhere metalled; and, +being left for four or five months every year without rain, their +soil is reduced to powder by friction, and carried off by the winds +over the surrounding country.[2] I was on horseback, but my wife +and child were secure in a good palankeen that sheltered them from +the rain. The bearers were obliged to move with great caution and +slowly, and I sent on every person I could spare that they might +keep moving, for the cold blast blowing over their thin and wet +clothes seemed intolerable to those who were idle. My child's +playmate, Gulāb, a lad of about ten years of age, resolutely +kept by the side of the palankeen, trotting through the water with +his teeth chattering as if he had been in an ague. The rain at last +ceased, and the sky in the west cleared up beautifully about half +an hour before sunset. Little Gulāb threw off his stuffed and +quilted vest, and got a good dry English blanket to wrap round him +from the palankeen. We soon after reached a small village, in which +I treated all who had remained with us to as much coarse sugar +(<i>gur</i>) as they could eat; and, as people of all castes can +eat of sweetmeats from the hands of confectioners without prejudice +to their caste, and this sugar is considered to be the best of all +good things for guarding against colds in man or beast, they all +ate very heartily, and went on in high spirits. As the sun sank +below us on the left, a bright moon shone out upon us from the +right, and about an hour after dark we reached our tents on the +north bank of the Kuārī river, where we found an +excellent dinner for ourselves, and good fires, and good shelter +for our servants. Little rain had fallen near the tents, and the +river Kuārī, over which we had to cross, had not, +fortunately, much swelled; nor did much fall on the ground we had +left; and, as the tents there had been struck and laden before it +came on, they came up the next morning early, and went on to our +next ground.</p> + +<p>On the 28th, we went on to Dhōlpur, the capital of the +Jāt chiefs of Gohad,[3] on the left bank of the Chambal, over +a plain with a variety of crops, but not one that requires two +seasons to reach maturity. The soil excellent in quality and deep, +but not a tree anywhere to be seen, nor any such thing as a work of +ornament or general utility of any kind. We saw the fort of +Dhōlpur at a distance of six miles, rising apparently from the +surface of the level plain, but in reality situated on the summit +of the opposite and high bank of a large river, its foundation at +least one hundred feet above the level of the water. The immense +pandemonia of ravines that separated us from this fort were not +visible till we began to descend into them some two or three miles +from the bed of the river. Like all the ravines that border the +rivers in these parts, they are naked, gloomy, and ghastly, and the +knowledge that no solitary traveller is ever safe in them does not +tend to improve the impression they make upon us. The river is a +beautiful clear stream, here flowing over a bed of fine sand with a +motion so gentle, that one can hardly conceive it is she who has +played such fantastic tricks along the borders, and made such +'frightful gashes' in them. As we passed over this noble reach of +the river Chambal in a ferry- boat, the boatman told us of the +magnificent bridge formed here by the Baiza Bāī for Lord +William Bentinck in 1832, from boats brought down from Agra for the +purpose. 'Little', said they, 'did it avail her with the +Governor-General in her hour of need.[4]</p> + +<p>The town of Dhōlpur lies some short way in from the north +bank of the Chambal, at the extremity of a range of sandstone hills +which runs diagonally across that of Gwālior. This range was +once capped with basalt, and some boulders are still found upon it +in a state of rapid decomposition. It was quite refreshing to see +the beautiful mango groves on the Dhōlpur side of the river, +after passing through a large tract of country in which no tree of +any kind was to be seen. On returning from a long ride over the +range of sandstone hills the morning after we reached Dhōlpur, +I passed through an encampment of camels taking rude iron from some +mines in the hills to the south towards Agra. They waited here +within the frontier of a native state for a pass from the Agra +custom house,[5] lest any one should, after they enter our +frontier, pretend that they were going to smuggle it, and thus get +them into trouble. 'Are you not', said I, 'afraid to remain here so +near the ravines of the Chambal, when thieves are said to be so +numerous?' 'Not at all,' replied they. 'I suppose thieves do not +think it worth while to steal rude iron?' 'Thieves, sir, think it +worth while to steal anything they can get, but we do not fear them +much here.' 'Where, then, do you fear them much?' 'We fear them +when we get into the Company's territories.' 'And how is this, when +we have good police establishments, and the Dhōlpur people +none?' 'When the Dhōlpur people get hold of a thief, they make +him disgorge all that he has got of our property for us, and they +confiscate all the rest that he has for themselves, and cut off his +nose or his hands, and turn him adrift to deter others. You, on the +contrary, when you get hold of a thief, worry us to death in the +prosecution of your courts; and, when we have proved the robbery to +your satisfaction, you leave all this ill-gotten wealth to his +family,[6] and provide him with good food and clothing for himself, +while he works for you a couple of years on the roads.[7] The +consequence is, that here fellows are afraid to rob a traveller, if +they find him at all on his guard, as we generally are, while in +your districts they rob us where and when they like.'</p> + +<p>'But, my friends, you are sure to recover what we do get of your +property from the thieves.' 'Not quite sure of that neither,' said +they, 'or the greater part is generally absorbed on its way back to +us through the officers of your court; and we would always rather +put up with the first loss than run the risk of a greater by +prosecution, if we happen to get robbed within the Company's +territories.'</p> + +<p>The loss and annoyances to which prosecutors and witnesses are +subject in our courts are a source of very great evil to the +country. They enable police-officers everywhere to grow rich upon +the concealment of crimes. The man who has been robbed will bribe +them to conceal the robbery, that he may escape the further loss of +the prosecution in our courts, generally very distant; and the +witnesses will bribe them to avoid attending to give evidence; the +whole village communities bribe them, because every man feels that +they have the power of getting him summoned to the court in some +capacity or other, if they like; and that they will certainly like +to do so, if not bribed.</p> + +<p>The obstacles which our system opposes to the successful +prosecution of robbers of all denominations and descriptions +deprive our Government of all popular support in the administration +of criminal justice; and this is considered everywhere to be the +worst, and, indeed, the only radically bad feature of our +government. No magistrate hopes to get a conviction against one in +four of the most atrocious gang of robbers and murderers of his +district, and his only resource is in the security laws, which +enable him to keep them in jail under a requisition of security for +short periods. To this an idle or apathetic magistrate will not +have recourse, and under him these robbers have a free licence.</p> + +<p>In England, a judicial acquittal does not send back the culprit +to follow the same trade in the same field, as in India; for the +published proceedings of the court bring down upon him the +indignation of society—the moral and religions feelings of +his fellow men are arrayed against him, and from these salutary +checks no flaw in the indictment can save him. Not so in India. +There no moral or religions feelings interpose to assist or to +supply the deficiencies of the penal law. Provided he eats, drinks, +smokes, marries, and makes his offerings to his priest according to +the rules of his caste, the robber and the murderer incurs no odium +in the circle in which he moves, either religious or moral, and +this is the only circle for whose feelings he has any +regard.[8]</p> + +<p>The man who passed off his bad coin at Datiyā, passed off +more at Dhōlpur while my advanced people were coming in, +pretending that he wanted things for me, and was in a great hurry +to be ready with them at my tents by the time I came up. The bad +rupees were brought to a native officer of my guard, who went with +the shopkeepers in search of the knave, but he could nowhere be +found. The gates of the town were shut up all night at my +suggestion, and in the morning every lodging-house in the town was +searched for him in vain—he had gone on. I had left some +sharp men behind me, expecting that he would endeavour to pass off +his bad money immediately after my departure; but in expectation of +this he was now evidently keeping a little in advance of me. I sent +on some men with the shopkeepers whom he had cheated to our next +stage, in the hope of overtaking him; but he had left the place +before they arrived without passing any of his bad coin, and gone +on to Agra. The shopkeepers could not be persuaded to go any +further after him, for, if they caught him, they should, they said, +have infinite trouble in prosecuting him in our courts, without any +chance of recovering from him what they had lost.</p> + +<p>On the 29th, we remained at Dhōlpur to receive and return +the visits of the young Rājā, or, as he is called, the +young Rānā, a lad of about fifteen years of age, very +plain, and very dull. He came about ten in the forenoon with a very +respectable and well-dressed retinue, and a tolerable show of +elephants and horses. The uniforms of his guards were made after +those of our own soldiers, and did not please me half so much as +those of the Datiyā guards, who were permitted to consult +their own tastes; and the music of the drums and fifes seemed to me +infinitely inferior to that of the mounted minstrels of my old +friend Parīchhit.[9] The lad had with him about a dozen old +public servants entitled to chairs, some of whom had served his +father above thirty years; while the ancestors of others had served +his grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and I could not help +telling the lad in their presence that 'these were the greatest +ornament of a prince's throne and the best signs and pledges of a +good government'. They were all evidently much pleased at the +compliment, and I thought they deserved to be pleased, from the +good character they bore among the peasantry of the country. I +mentioned that I had understood the boatmen of the Chambal at +Dhōlpur never caught or ate fish. The lad seemed embarrassed, +and the minister took upon himself to reply that 'there was no +market for it, since the Hindoos of Dhōlpur never ate fish, +and the Muhammadans had all disappeared'. I asked the lad whether +he was fond of hunting. He seemed again confounded, and the +minister said that 'his highness never either hunted or fished, as +people of his caste were prohibited from destroying life'. 'And +yet', said I, 'they have often showed themselves good soldiers in +battle.' They were all pleased again, and said that they were not +prohibited from killing tigers; but that there was no jungle of any +kind near Dhōlpur, and, consequently, no tigers to be found. +The Jāts are descendants of the Getae, and were people of very +low caste, or rather of no caste at all, among the Hindoos, and +they are now trying to raise themselves by abstaining from killing +and eating animals.[10] Among Hindoos this is everything; a man of +low caste is '<i>sab kuchh khātā</i>', sticks at nothing +in the way of eating; and a man of high caste is a man who abstains +from eating anything but vegetable or farinaceous food; if, at the +same time, he abstains from using in his cook-room all woods but +one, and has that one washed before he uses it, he is +canonized.[11] Having attained to military renown and territorial +dominion in the usual way by robbery, the Jāts naturally +enough seek the distinction of high caste to enable them the better +to enjoy their position in society.</p> + +<p>It had been stipulated that I should walk to the bottom of the +steps to receive the Rānā, as is the usage on such +occasions, and carpets were accordingly spread thus far. Here he +got out of his chair, and I led him into the large room of the +bungalow, which we occupied during our stay, followed by all his +and my attendants. The bungalow had been built by the former +Resident at Gwālior, the Honourable R. Cavendish, for his +residence during the latter part of the rains, when Gwālior is +considered to be unhealthy. At his departure the Rānā +purchased this bungalow for the use of European gentlemen and +ladies passing through his capital.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon, about four o'clock, I went to return his visit +in a small palace not yet finished, a pretty piece of miniature +fortification, surrounded by what they call their +'chhāonī', or cantonments. The streets are good, and the +buildings neat and substantial; but there is nothing to strike or +particularly interest the stranger. The interview passed off +without anything remarkable; and I was more than ever pleased with +the people by whom this young chief is surrounded. Indeed, I had +much reason to be pleased with the manners of all the people on +this side of the Chambal. They are those of a people well pleased +to see English gentlemen among them, and anxious to make themselves +useful and agreeable to us. They know that their chief is indebted +to the British Government for all the country he has, and that he +would be swallowed up by Sindhia's greedy army, were not the +sevenfold shield of the Honourable Company spread over him. His +establishments, civil and military, like those of the +Bundēlkhand chiefs, are raised from the peasantry and yeomanry +or the country; who all, in consequence, feel an interest in the +prosperity and independent respectability of their chief. On the +Gwālior side, the members of all the public establishments +know and feel that it is we who interpose and prevent their master +from swallowing up all his neighbours, and thereby having increased +means of promoting their interest and that of their friends; and +they detest us all most cordially in consequence. The peasantry of +the Gwālior territory seem to consider their own government as +a kind of minotaur, which they would be glad to see destroyed, no +matter how or by whom; since it gives no lucrative or honourable +employment to any of their members, so as to interest either their +pride or their affections; nor throws back among them for purposes +of local advantage any of the produce of their land and labour +which it exacts. It is worthy of remark that, though the +Dhōlpur chief is peculiarly the creature of the British +Government, and indebted to it for all he has or ever will have, +and though he has never had anything, and never can have, or can +hope to have, anything from the poor pageant of the house of +Tīmūr, who now sits upon the throne of Delhi;[12] yet, on +his seal of office he declares himself to be the slave and creature +of that imperial 'warrior for the faith of Islam'. As he abstains +from eating the good fish of the river Chambal to enhance his claim +to caste among Hindoos, so he abstains from acknowledging his deep +debt of gratitude to the Honourable Company, or the British +Government, with a view to give the rust of age to his rank and +title. To acknowledge himself a creature of the British Government +were to acknowledge that he was a man of yesterday; to acknowledge +himself the slave of the Emperor is to claim for his poor veins +'the blood of a line of kings'. The petty chiefs of +Bundēlkhand, who are in the same manner especially dependent +on the British Government, do the same thing.</p> + +<p>At Dhōlpur, there are some noble old mosques and mausoleums +built three hundred years ago, in the reign of the Emperor +Humāyūn, by some great officers of his government, whose +remains still rest undisturbed among them, though the names of +their families have been for many ages forgotten, and no men of +their creed now live near to demand for them the respect of the +living. These tombs are all elaborately built and worked out of the +fine freestone of the country and the trellis-work upon some of +their stone screens is still as beautiful as when first made. There +are Persian and Arabic inscriptions upon all of them, and I found +from them that one of the mosques had been built by the Emperor +Shāh Jahān in A.D. 1634,[13] when he little dreamed that +his three sons would here meet to fight the great fight for the +throne while he yet sat upon it.[14]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. The author's remark that in India the roads are 'nowhere +metalled' must seem hardly credible to a modern traveller, who sees +the country intersected by thousands of miles of metalled road. The +Grand Trunk Road from Calcutta to Lahore, constructed in Lord +Dalhousie's time, alone measures about 1,200 miles. The development +of roads since 1850 ha been enormous, and yet the mileage of good +roads would have to be increased tenfold to put India on an +equality with the more advanced countries of Europe.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Ante</i>, Chanter 36, notes 26 & 27.</p> + +<p>4. The Baiza Bāī was the widow of Daulat Rāo +Sindhia. He had died on March 21, 1827. With the consent of the +Government of India, she adopted a boy as his successor, but, being +an ambitions and intriguing woman, she tried to keep all power in +her own hands. The young Mahārājā fled from her, and +took refuge in the Residency in October, 1832. In December of the +same year Lord William Bentinck visited Gwālior, and assumed +an attitude of absolute neutrality. The result was that trouble +continued, and seven months later the Mahārājā again +fled to the Residency. The troops then revolted against the Baiza +Bāī, and compelled her to retire to Dhōlpur. This +event put an end to her political activity. Ultimately she was +allowed to return to Gwālior, and died there in 1862 +(Malleson, <i>The Native States of India</i>, pp. 160- 4). The +author wrote an unpublished history of Baiza Bāī +(<i>ante</i>, Bibliography).</p> + +<p>5. Long since abolished.</p> + +<p>6. The law now permits the person injured to be compensated out +of any fine realized.</p> + +<p>7. The system of employing gangs of prisoners on the roads was +open to great abuses, and has been long given up. The prisoners are +now, as a rule, employed only on the jail promises, and cannot be +utilized for outside work, except under special circumstances by +special sanction.</p> + +<p>8. The notes to this edition have recorded many changes in +India, but no change has taken place in the difficulties which +beset the administration of criminal law. They are still those +which the author describes, and Police Commissions cannot remove +them. The power to exact security for good behaviour from known bad +characters still exists, and, when discreetly used, is of great +value. The conviction of atrocious robbers and murderers is, +perhaps, less rare than it was in the author's time, though many +still escape even the minor penalty of arrest. The want of a sound +moral public opinion is the fundamental difficulty in Indian police +administration—a truth fully Understood by the author, but +rarely realized by members of Parliament.</p> + +<p>9. The title of the Dhōlpur chief is now +Mahārājā Rānā. In 1905 his reduced army +numbered 1,216 of all ranks (<i>I. G.</i>, 1908). The force is not +of serious military value.</p> + +<p>10. The identification of the Jāts, or Jats, with the Getae +is not even probable. The anchor exaggerates the lowness of the +social rank of the Jāts, who cannot properly be described as +people of 'very low caste'. They are, and have long been, numerous +and powerful in the Panjāb and the neighbouring countries. It +is true that they hate Brahmans, care little for Brahman notions of +propriety, either as regards food or marriage, and to a certain +extent stand outside the orthodox Hindoo system; but they are +heterodox rather than low-caste. The Rājās of Bharatpur, +Dhōlpur, Nābha, Patiālā, and Jīnd are all +Jāts. The Jāts are a fine and interesting people, who +seem to suffer little deterioration from the notorious laxity of +their matrimonial arrangements. They are skilled and industrious +cultivators. A saying has been current in Upper India that, if the +British power is ever broken, the succession will pass to the +Jāts.</p> + +<p>11. This is the Brahman and Baniyā theory. A high-spirited +Rājpūt of Rājputāna, full of pride in his long +ancestry, and yet fond of wild boar's flesh, would indeed be wroth +if denounced as a low-caste man. It is, however, unfortunately, +quite true that all races which become entangled in the meshes of +Hinduism tend to gradually surrender their freedom, and to become +proud of submission to the senseless formalities and restrictions +which the Brahman loves.</p> + +<p>12. Akbar II. He was titular emperor from A.D. 1806 to 1837, and +was succeeded by Bahādur Shāh II, the last of his line. +The portrait of Akbar II is the frontispiece to volume i of the +original edition of this work, and a miniature portrait of him is +given in the frontispiece of volume ii.</p> + +<p>13. One of these tombs, namely, that of Bībī +Zarīna, dated A.H. 942 = A.D. 1535-6, is described by +Cunningham (<i>A.S.R.</i>, xx, p. 113, pl. xxxvii), who notes that +according to an obviously false local popular story, the lady was a +daughter of Shāh Jahān, who lived a century later. This +story seems to have misled the author. No inscription of the reign +of Shāh Jahān at Dhōlpur is recorded.</p> + +<p>14. The three sons were Dārā Shikoh, Aurangzēb, +and Murād Baksh.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch51">CHAPTER 51</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Influence of Electricity on Vegetation—Agra +and its Buildings.</p> + +<p>On the 30th and 31st,[1] we went twenty-four miles over a dry +plain, with a sandy soil covered with excellent crops where +irrigated, and a very poor one where not. We met several long +strings of camels carrying grain from Agra to Gwālior. A +single man takes charge of twenty or thirty, holding the bridle of +the first, and walking on before its nose. The bridles of all the +rest are tied one after the other to the saddles of those +immediately preceding them, and all move along after the leader in +single file. Water must tend to attract and to impart to vegetables +a good deal of electricity and other vivifying powers that would +otherwise he dormant in the earth at a distance. The mere +circumstance of moistening the earth from within reach of the roots +would not be sufficient to account for the vast difference between +the crops of fields that are irrigated, and those that are not. One +day, in the middle of the season of the rains, I asked my gardener, +while walking with him over my grounds, how it was that some of the +fine clusters of bamboos had not yet begun to throw out their +shoots. 'We have not yet had a thunderstorm, sir,' replied the +gardener. 'What in the name of God has the thunderstorm to do with +the shooting of the bamboos?' asked I in amazement. 'I don't know, +sir,' said he, 'but certain it is that no bamboos begin to throw +out their shoots well till we get a good deal of thunder and +lightning.' The thunder and lightning came, and the bamboo shoots +soon followed in abundance. It might have been a mere coincidence; +or the tall bamboo may bring down from the passing clouds, and +convey to the roots, the electric fluid they require for +nourishment, or for conductors of nourishment.[2]</p> + +<p>In the Isle of France,[3] people have a notion that the +mushrooms always come up best after a thunderstorm. Electricity has +certainly much more to do in the business of the world than we are +yet aware of, in the animal, mineral, and vegetable +developments.[4]</p> + +<p>At our ground this day, I met a very respectable and intelligent +native revenue officer who had been employed to settle some +boundary disputes between the yeomen of our territory and those of +the adjoining territory of Dhōlpur.</p> + +<p>'The Honourable Company's rights and those of its yeomen must', +said he, 'be inevitably sacrificed in all such cases; for the +Dhōlpur chief, or his minister, says to all their witnesses, +"You are, of course, expected to speak the truth regarding the land +in dispute; but, by the sacred stream of the Ganges, if you speak +so as to lose this estate one inch of it, you lose both your +ears"—and most assuredly would they lose them,' continued he, +'if they were not to swear most resolutely that all the land in +question belonged to Dhōlpur. Had I the same power to cut off +the ears of witnesses on our side, we should meet on equal terms. +Were I to threaten to cut them off, they would laugh in my face.' +There was much truth in what the poor man said, for the +Dhōlpur witnesses always make it appear that the claims of +their yeomen are just and moderate, and a salutary dread of losing +their ears operates, no doubt, very strongly. The threatened +punishment of the prince is quick, while that of the gods, however +just, is certainly very slow—<br> +</p> + +<p align="center"><small>Ut sit magna, tamen certe lenta ira deorum +est.</small></p> + +<p>On the 1st of January, 1836, we went on sixteen miles to Agra, +and, when within about six miles of the city, the dome and minarets +of the Tāj opened upon us from behind a small grove of fruit- +trees, close by us on the side of the road. The morning was not +clear, but it was a good one for a first sight of this building, +which appeared larger through the dusty haze than it would have +done through a clear sky. For five-and-twenty years of my life had +I been looking forward to the sight now before me. Of no building +on earth had I heard so much as of this, which contains the remains +of the Emperor Shāh Jahān and his wife, the father and +mother of the children whose struggles for dominion have been +already described. We had ordered our tents to be pitched in the +gardens of this splendid mausoleum, that we might have our fill of +the enjoyment which everybody seemed to derive from it; and we +reached them about eight o'clock. I went over the whole building +before I entered my tent, and, from the first sight of the dome and +minarets on the distant horizon to the last glance back from my +tent-ropes to the magnificent gateway that forms the entrance from +our camp to the quadrangle in which they stand, I can truly say +that everything surpassed my expectations. I at first thought the +dome formed too large a portion of the whole building; that its +neck was too long and too much exposed; and that the minarets were +too plain in their design; but, after going repeatedly over every +part, and examining the <i>tout ensemble</i> from all possible +positions, and in all possible lights, from that of the full moon +at midnight in a cloudless sky to that of the noonday sun, the mind +seemed to repose in the calm persuasion that there was an entire +harmony of parts, a faultless congregation of architectural +beauties, on which it could dwell for ever without fatigue.</p> + +<p>After my quarter of a century of anticipated pleasure, I went on +from part to part in the expectation that I must by and by come to +something that would disappoint me; but no, the emotion which one +feels at first is never impaired; on the contrary, it goes on +improving from the first <i>coup d'œil</i> of the dome in the +distance to the minute inspection of the last flower upon the +screen round the tomb. One returns and returns to it with +undiminished pleasure; and though at every return one's attention +to the smaller parts becomes less and less, the pleasure which he +derives from the contemplation of the greater, and of the whole +collectively, seems to increase; and he leaves with a feeling of +regret that he could not have it all his life within his reach, and +of assurance that the image of what he has seen can never be +obliterated from his mind 'while memory holds her seat'. I felt +that it was to me in architecture what Kemble and his sister, Mrs. +Siddons, had been to me a quarter of a century before in +acting—something that must stand alone—something that I +should never cease to see clearly in my mind's eye, and yet never +be able clearly to describe to others.[5]</p> + +<p>The Emperor and his Queen he buried side by side in a vault +beneath the building, to which we descend by a flight of steps. +Their remains are covered by two slabs of marble; and directly over +these slabs, upon the floor above, in the great centre room under +the dome, stand two other slabs, or cenotaphs, of the same marble +exquisitely worked in mosaic. Upon that of the Queen, amid wreaths +of flowers, are worked in black letters passages from the +Korān, one of which, at the end facing the entrance, +terminates with 'And defend us from the tribe of unbelievers'; that +very tribe which is now gathered from all quarters of the civilized +world to admire the splendour of the tomb which was raised to +perpetuate her name.[6] On the slab over her husband there are no +passages from the Korān—merely mosaic work of flowers +with his name and the date of his death.[7] I asked some of the +learned Muhammadan attendants the cause of this difference, and was +told that Shāh Jahān had himself designed the slab over +his wife, and saw no harm in inscribing the words of God upon it; +but that the slab over himself was designed by his more pious son, +Aurangzēb, who did not think it right to place these holy +words upon a stone which the foot of man might some day touch, +though that stone covered the remains of his own father. Such was +this 'man of prayers', this 'Namāzī' (as Dara called +him), to the last. He knew mankind well, and, above all, that part +of them which he was called upon to govern, and which he governed +for forty years with so much ability.[8]</p> + +<p>The slab over the Queen occupies the centre of the apartments +above and in the vault below, and that over her husband lies on the +left as we enter. At one end of the slab in the vault her name is +inwrought, 'Mumtāz-i-mahal Bānū Bēgam', the +ornament of the palace, Bānū Bēgam, and the date of +her death, 1631. That of her husband and the date of his death, +1666, are inwrought upon the other.[9]</p> + +<p>She died in giving birth to a daughter, who is said to have been +heard crying in the womb by herself and her other daughters. She +sent for the Emperor, and told him that she believed no mother had +ever been known to survive the birth of a child so heard, and that +she felt her end was near. She had, she said, only two requests to +make; first, that he would not marry again after her death, and get +children to contend with hers for his favour and dominions; and, +secondly, that he would build for her the tomb with which he had +promised to perpetuate her name. She died in giving birth to the +child, as might have been expected when the Emperor, in his +anxiety, called all the midwives of the city, and all his +secretaries of state and privy counsellors to prescribe for her. +Both her dying requests were granted. Her tomb was commenced upon +immediately. No woman ever pretended to supply her place in the +palace; nor had Shāh Jahān, that we know of, children by +any other.[10] Tavernier saw this building completed and finished; +and tells us that it occupied twenty thousand men for twenty-two +years.[11] The mausoleum itself and all the buildings that +appertain to it cost 3,17,48,026—three <i>karōr</i>, +seventeen lākhs, forty-eight thousand and twenty-six rupees, +or £3,174,802 sterling;—three million one hundred and +seventy-four thousand eight hundred and two![12] I asked my wife, +when she had gone over it, what she thought of the building. 'I +cannot', said she, 'tell you what I think, for I know not how to +criticize such a building, but I can tell you what I feel. I would +die to-morrow to have such another over me.' This is what many a +lady has felt, no doubt.</p> + +<p>The building stands upon the north side of a large quadrangle, +looking down into the clear blue stream of the river Jumna, while +the other three sides are enclosed with a high wall of red +sandstone.[13] The entrance to this quadrangle is through a +magnificent gateway in the south side opposite the tomb; and on the +other two sides are very beautiful mosques facing inwards, and +corresponding exactly with each other in size, design, and +execution. That on the left, or west, side is the only one that can +be used as a mosque or church; because the faces of the audience, +and those of all men at their prayers, must be turned towards the +tomb of their prophet to the west. The pulpit is always against the +dead wall at the back, and the audience face towards it, standing +with their backs to the open front of the building. The church on +the east side is used for the accommodation of visitors, or for any +secular purpose, and was built merely as a 'jawāb' (answer) to +the real one.[14] The whole area is laid out in square parterres, +planted with flowers and shrubs in the centre, and with fine trees, +chiefly the cypress, all round the borders, forming an avenue to +every road. These roads are all paved with slabs of freestone, and +have, running along the centre, a basin, with a row of <i>jets +d'eau</i> in the middle from one extremity to the other. These are +made to play almost every evening, when the gardens are much +frequented by the European gentlemen and ladies of the station, and +by natives of all religions and sects. The quadrangle is from east +to west nine hundred and sixty-four feet, and from north to south +three hundred and twenty-nine.[l5]</p> + +<p>The mausoleum itself, the terrace upon which it stands, and the +minarets, are all formed of the finest white marble, inlaid with +precious stones. The wall around the quadrangle, including the +river face of the terrace, is made of red sandstone, with cupolas +and pillars of the same white marble. The insides of the churches +and apartments in and upon the walls are all lined with marble or +with stucco work that looks like marble; but, on the outside, the +red sandstone resembles uncovered bricks. The dazzling white marble +of the mausoleum itself rising over the red wall is apt, at first +sight, to make a disagreeable impression, from the idea of a +whitewashed head to an unfinished building; but this impression is +very soon removed, and tends, perhaps, to improve that which is +afterwards received from a nearer inspection. The marble was all +brought from the Jeypore territories upon wheeled carriages, a +distance, I believe, of two or three hundred miles; and the +sandstone from the neighbourhood of Dhōlpur and Fathpur +Sīkrī.[16] Shāh Jāhan is said to have inherited +his partiality for this colour from his grandfather, Akbar, who +constructed almost all his buildings from the same stone, though he +might have had the beautiful white freestone at the same cost. What +was figuratively said of Augustus may be most literally said of +Shāh Jahān; he found the cities (Agra and Delhi) all +brick, and left them all marble; for all the marble buildings, and +additions to buildings, were formed by him.[17]</p> + +<p>This magnificent building and the palaces at Agra and Delhi +were, I believe, designed by Austin de Bordeaux, a Frenchman of +great talent and merit, in whose ability and integrity the Emperor +placed much reliance. He was called by the natives 'Ustān +[<i>sic</i>] Isā, Nādir-ul-asr', 'the wonderful of the +age'; and, for his office of 'naksha navīs', or plan-drawer, +he received a regular salary of one thousand rupees a month, with +occasional presents, that made his income very large. He had +finished the palace at Delhi, and the mausoleum and palace of Agra; +and was engaged in designing a silver ceiling for one of the +galleries in the latter, when he was sent by the Emperor to settle +some affairs of great importance at Goa. He died at Cochin on his +way back, and is supposed to have been poisoned by the Portuguese, +who were extremely jealous of his influence at court. He left a son +by a native, called Muhammad Sharīf, who was employed as an +architect on a salary of five hundred rupees a month, and who +became, as I conclude from his name, a Musalmān. Shāh +Jahān had commenced his own tomb on the opposite side of the +Jumna; and both were to have been united by a bridge.[18] The death +of Austin de Bordeaux, and the wars between his [<i>scil.</i> +Shāh Jahān's] sons that followed prevented the completion +of these magnificent works.[19]</p> + +<p>We were encamped upon a fine green sward outside the entrance to +the south, in a kind of large court, enclosed by a high cloistered +wall, in which all our attendants and followers found shelter. +Colonel and Mrs. King, and some other gentlemen, were encamped in +the same place, and for the same purpose; and we had a very +agreeable party. The band of our friend Major Godby's regiment +played sometimes in the evening upon the terrace of the Tāj; +but, of all the complicated music ever heard upon earth, that of a +flute blown gently in the vault below, where the remains of the +Emperor and his consort repose, as the sound rises to the dome +amidst a hundred arched alcoves around, and descends in heavenly +reverberations upon those who sit or recline upon the cenotaphs +above the vault, is, perhaps, the finest to an inartificial car. We +feel as if it were from heaven, and breathed by angels; it is to +the ear what the building itself is to the eye; but, unhappily, it +cannot, like the building, live in our recollections. All that we +can, in after life, remember is that it was heavenly, and produced +heavenly emotions.</p> + +<p> We went all over the palace in the fort, a very +magnificent building constructed by Shāh Jahān within +fortifications raised by his grandfather Akbar.[20]</p> + +<p>The fretwork and mosaic upon the marble pillars and panels are +equal to those of the Tāj; or, if possible, superior; nor is +the design or execution in any respect inferior, and yet a European +feels that he could get a house much more commodious, and more to +his taste, for a much less sum than must have been expended upon +it. The Marquis of Hastings, when Governor-General of India, broke +up one of the most beautiful marble baths of this palace to send +home to George IV of England, then Prince Regent, and the rest of +the marble of the suite of apartments from which it had been taken, +with all its exquisite fretwork and mosaic, was afterwards sold by +auction, on account of our Government, by order of the then +Governor-General, Lord W. Bentinck. Had these things fetched the +price expected, it is probable that the whole of the palace, and +even the Tāj itself, would have been pulled down, and sold in +the same manner.[21]</p> + +<p>We visited the Motī Masjid or Pearl Mosque. It was built by +Shāh Jahān, entirely of white marble; and completed, as +we learn from an inscription on the portico, in the year A.D. +1656.[22] There is no mosaic upon any of the pillars or panels of +this mosque; but the design and execution of the flowers in bas- +relief are exceedingly beautiful. It is a chaste, simple, and +majestic building;[23] and is by some people admired even more than +the Tāj, because they have heard less of it; and their +pleasure is heightened by surprise. We feel that it is to all other +mosques what the Tāj is to all other mausoleums, a <i>facile +princeps</i>.</p> + +<p>Few, however, go to see the 'mosque of pearls' more than once, +stay as long as they will at Agra; and when they go, the building +appears less and less to deserve their admiration; while they go to +the Tāj as often as they can, and find new beauties in it, or +new feelings of pleasure from it, every time[24]</p> + +<p>I went out to visit this tomb of the Emperor Akbar at Sikandara, +a magnificent building, raised over him by his son, the Emperor +Jahāngīr. His remains he deposited in a deep vault under +the centre, and are covered by a plain slab of marble, without +fretwork or mosaic. On the top of the building, which is three or +four stories high, is another marble slab, corresponding with the +one in the vault below.[25] This is beautifully carved, with the +'nau nauwē nām'-the ninety-nine names, or attributes of +the Deity, from the Korān.[26] It is covered by an awning, not +to protect the tomb, but to defend the 'words of God' from the +rain, as my cicerone assured me.[27] He told me that the attendants +upon this tomb used to have the hay of the large quadrangle of +forty acres in which it stands,[28] in addition to their small +salaries, and that it yielded them some fifty rupees a year; but +the chief native officer of the Tāj establishment demanded +half of the sum, and when they refused to give him so much, he +persuaded his master, the European engineer, <i>with much +difficulty</i>, to take all this hay for the public cattle. 'And +why could you not adjust such a matter between you, without +pestering the engineer?' 'Is not this the way', said he, with +emotion, 'that Hindustan has cut its own throat, and brought in the +stranger at all times? Have they ever had, or can they ever have, +confidence in each other, or let each other alone to enjoy the +little they have in peace?' Considering all the circumstances of +time and place, Akbar has always appeared to me among sovereigns +what Shakespeare was among poets; and, feeling as a citizen of the +world, I reverenced the marble slab that covers his bones more, +perhaps, than I should that over any other sovereign with whose +history I am acquainted.[29]</p> + +<p><br> +Notes:</p> + +<p>1. December, 1835.</p> + +<p>2. It is not, perhaps, generally known, though it deserves to be +so, that the bamboo seeds only once, and dies immediately after +seeding. All bamboos from the same seed die at the same time, +whenever they may have been planted. The life of the common large +bamboo is about fifty years. [W. H. S.] The period is said to vary +between thirty and sixty years. Bamboo seed is eaten as rice when +obtainable. The author's theories about electricity are more +ingenious than satisfactory.</p> + +<p>3. Better known as the Mauritius.</p> + +<p>4. This proposition may be accepted with confidence. Electricity +is a great mystery, which becomes more mysterious the more it is +studied.</p> + +<p>5. A letter of the author's, dated 13th March, 1809, is extant, +in which he gives a full description of the performance of +<i>Macbeth</i> at the Haymarket by Kemble and Mrs. Siddons on +Saturday, 11th March. The author sailed in the <i>Devonshire</i> on +the 24th March.</p> + +<p>6. No European had ever before, I believe, noted this, [W. H. +S.] Moīn-ud-dīn (p. 49) says that this phrase, 'Thou art +our patron, help as therefore against the unbelieving nations,' is +from the long chapter 2 ('The Cow') of the Korān, but I have +not succeeded in finding the exact words in Sale's version of that +chapter. I suspect that the words have been misread. Moīn-ud- +dīn gives as the words at the north side of the tomb, <img +src="images/p314.jpg" width="70" height="23" border="0" alt= +"script characters"> 'the unbelieving nations', whereas Muh. +Latīf (<i>Agra</i>, p. 111) says that the words 'on the head +of the sarcophagus' are <img src="images/p314_2.jpg" width="70" +height="21" border="0" alt="script characters"> 'He is the +everlasting. He is sufficient.' It will be observed that the +characters in the two readings are almost identical.</p> + +<p>7. The Empress had been a good deal exasperated against the +Portuguese and Dutch by the treatment her husband received from +them when a fugitive, after an unsuccessful rebellion against his +father; and her hatred to them extended, in some degree, to all +Christians, whom she considered to be included in the term +'Kāfir', or unbeliever. [W. H. S.] Prince Shāh Jahān +(Khurram) rebelled against his father, Jahāngīr, in A.D. +1623, and submitted in A.D. 1625. The terrible punishment inflicted +by Shāh Jahān when Emperor on the Portuguese of +Hūgli (Hooghly) is related by Bernier (Constable's ed., pp. +177, 287). The Emperor had previously destroyed the Jesuits' church +at Lahore completely, and the greater part of the church at +Agra.</p> + +<p>8. The cleverness, astuteness, energy, and business capacity of +Aurangzēb are undoubted, and yet his long reign was a +disastrous failure. The author reflects the praises of Muhammadans +who cherish the memory of the 'namāzī'. The Emperor +himself knew better when, in his old ago, he wrote to his son Azam +the pathetic words, 'I have not done well by the country or its +people. My years have gone by profitless' (Lane-Poole's version in +<i>Aurangzib</i> (Rulers of India), p. 203. Letter No. 72 in +Bilimoria, <i>Letters of Aurungzbe</i>, Bombay, 1908. Another +version in E. and D. vii, 562.) His reign lasted for almost +forty-nine years, from June 1658 to February 1707, and not for only +forty years.</p> + +<p>9. The real tombs are in the vault below. Beautiful cenotaphs +stand under the dome. The inscription on the tomb of the Empress is +exactly repeated on her cenotaph, and runs thus:-<br> + 'The splendid sepulchre of Arjumand +Bānō Bēgam, entitled Mumtāz Mahall, deceased in +the year 1040 Hijrī.'</p> + +<p>The epitaph on Shāh Jahān's tomb is as follows:-<br> + 'The sacred sepulchre of His Moat Exalted +Majesty, nesting in Paradise, the Second Lord of the Conjunction, +Shāh Jahān, the Emperor. May his mausoleum ever flourish. +Year 1076 Hijrī.'</p> + +<p>The inscription on Shāh Jahān's cenotaph adds more +titles and gives the exact date of death as 'the night of Rajab 28, +A.H. 1076'. 1040 Hījrī corresponds with the period from +July 31, A.D. 1630 to July 19, 1631; and 1076 Hijrī with the +period July 4, A. D. 1665 to June 23, 1666, Old Style. The dates in +New Style would be ten days later.</p> + +<p>The epithet 'nesting in Paradise' (<i>firdaus +āshiyānī</i>) was the official posthumous title of +Shāh Jahān, frequently used by historians instead of his +name.</p> + +<p>The title 'Second Lord of the Conjunction' means that Shāh +Jahān was held to have been born under the fortunate +conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, as his ancestor Tīmūr +had been.</p> + +<p>10. The details in the text are inaccurate. Arjumand +Bānō Bēgam, daughter of Āsaf Khān, brother +of Nūr Jahān, the queen of Jahāngīr, was born +in A.D. 1592, married in 1612, and died July 7, 1631 (o.s.), at +Burhānpur in the Deccan. After a delay of six months her +remains were removed to Agra, and there rested six months longer at +a spot in the Tāj gardens still remembered, until her tomb was +sufficiently advanced for the final interment. Her titles were +Mumtāz-i-Mahall, 'Exalted in the Palace'; Qudsia Bēgam, +and Nawāb Aliyā Bēgam. She bore her husband eight +sons and six daughters, fourteen children in all, of whom seven +were alive at the time of her death. The child whose birth cost the +mother's life was Gauharārā Bēgam, who survived for +many years (Irvine, <i>Storia do Mogor</i>, iv. 425). Beale wrongly +gives her name as Dahar Ārā.</p> + +<p>Shāh Jahān, two years before his union with Arjumand +Bāno Bēgam, had been married to a Persian princess, by +whom he had a daughter who died young. Five and a half years after +his marriage to Arjumand Bāno Bēgam, he espoused a third +wife, daughter of Shāh Nawāz Khān, by whom he had a +son, who died in infancy. This third marriage was dictated by +motives of policy, and did not impair the Emperor's devotion to his +favourite consort (Muh. Latīf, <i>Agra</i>, p. 101).</p> + +<p>11. The testimony of Tavernier is doubtless correct if +understood as referring to the whole complex of buildings connected +with the mausoleum. He visited Agra several times. He left India in +January, 1654, returning to the country in 1659. Work on the +Tāj began in 1632, and so appears to have been completed about +the close of, 1653 (Tavernier, <i>Travels</i>, transl. Ball, vol. +i, pp. xxi, xxii, 25, 110, 142, 149). The latest dated inscription, +that of the calligraphist Amānat Khan at the entrance to the +domed mausoleum, was recorded in the twelfth year of the reign, +A.H. 1048, equivalent to A.D. 1638-9. That year may be taken as the +date of the completion of the mausoleum itself, as distinguished +from the great mass of supplementary structures.</p> + +<p>12. Various records of the cost differ enormously, apparently +because they refer to different things. If all the buildings and +the vast value of the materials be included, the highest estimate, +namely, four and a half millions of pounds sterling, in round +numbers, is not excessive (<i>H.F.A.</i>, 1911, p. 415) The figures +are recorded with minute accuracy as 411 lākhs, 48,826 rupees, +7 annas, and 6 pies. A <i>karōr</i> (crore) is 100 lākhs, +or 10 millions.</p> + +<p>13. The enclosure occupies a space of more than forty-two +acres.</p> + +<p>14. This statement, though commonly made, is erroneous. The +building is named the 'assembly house' (jamā'at khāna), +or 'guest-house' (mihmān khāna) and was intended as the +place for the congregation to assemble before prayers, or on the +anniversaries of the deaths of the Emperor Shāh Jahān or +his consort. Tāj Mahal (Muh. Latīf, <i>Agra</i>, p. 113). +Of course, it also serves as an architectural balance for the +mosque.</p> + +<p>15. The gardens of the Tāj have been much improved since +the author's time, and are now under the care of a skilled European +superintendent, and full of beautiful shrubs and trees. The +author's measurements of the quadrangle seem to be wrong. Different +figures are given by Moīn-ud-dīn (<i>Hist. of the +Tāj</i>, p. 29) and Fergusson (ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 313). No +official survey is available.</p> + +<p>16. The white marble that forms the substance of the building +came, Mr. Keene thinks, from Makrāna near Jaipur, but +according to Mr. Hacket (<i>Records of the Geographical Survey of +India</i>, x. 84), from Raiwāla in Jaipur, near the Alwar +border [note]. The account of these marbles given in the +<i>Rājputāna Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed. (ii. 127) favours Mr. +Keene's view' (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. vii, p. 707). +The ornamental stones used for the inlay work in the Tāj are +lapis lazuli, jasper, heliotrope, Chalcedon agate, chalcedony, +cornelian, sarde, plasma (or quartz and chlorite), yellow and +striped marble, clay slate, and nephrite, or jade (<i>Dr. Voysey, +in Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. xv, p. 429, quoted by V. Bail in +<i>Records of the Geological Survey of India</i>, vii. 109). +Moīn-ud- dīn (pp. 27-9) gives a longer list, from the +custodians' Persian account.</p> + +<p>17. There is some exaggeration in this statement. Shāh +Jahān's concern was with his wife's tomb, and his fortified +palaces, more than with 'the cities'.</p> + +<p>18. Sleeman's talk about Austin de Bordeaux is wholly based on +his misreading of <i>Ustān</i> for <i>Ustād</i>, meaning +'Master', in the Persian account, which names Muhammed-i- +Īsā Afandi (Effendi) as the chief designer. He had the +title of Ustād, and some versions represent Muhammad +Sharīf, the second draughtsman, as his son. Muhammad, the son +of Īsā ('Jesus'), apparently was a Turk. He had the +Turkish title of 'Effendi', and the Persian MS. used by Moīn- +ud-dīn asserts that he came from Turkey. The same authority +states that Muhammad Sharīf was a native of Samarkand.</p> + +<p>Austin de Bordeaux was wholly distinct from Muhammad-i- +Īsā, Ustād Afandi, and there is no reason to suppose +that he had anything to do with the Tāj. Sleeman's story about +his work at Agra and his death comes from Tavernier (i. 108, +transl. Ball: see next note). Austin was in the service of +Jahāngīr as early as 1621, and probably came out to India +from Persia in 1614. He is described as an engineer +(<i>ingénieur</i>), and is recorded to have made a golden +throne for Jahāngīr (<i>J.R.A.S.</i>, 1910, pp. 494, +1343-5). Sleeman's misreading of <i>ustād</i> as +<i>ustān</i>, and his consequent blunders, have misled +innumerable writers. In cursive Persian the misreading is easy and +natural. He took Ustān as intended for 'Austin'. Certain marks +in the garden on the other side of the river indicate the spot +where Shāh Jahān had begun work on his own tomb. +Aurangzēb, as Tavernier observes, was 'not disposed to +complete it' (see <i>A.S.R.</i>, iv. 180).</p> + +<p>For a summary of the controversy concerning the alleged share of +Geronimo Veroneo in the design of the Tāj, see <i>H.F.A.</i>, +1911, pp. 416-18. Personally, I am of opinion, as I was more than +twenty years ago, that 'the incomparable Tāj is the product of +a combination of European and Asiatic genius'. That opinion makes +some people very angry.</p> + +<p>19. I would not be thought very positive upon this point, I +think I am right, but feel that I may be wrong. Tavernier says that +Shāh Jahān was obliged to give up his intention of +completing a silver ceiling to the great hall in the palace, +because Austin de Bordeaux had been killed, and no other person +could venture to attempt it. Ustān [<i>sic</i>] Īsā, +in all the Persian accounts, stands first among the salaried +architects. [W. H. S.] Tavernier's words are, 'Shāh Jahān +had intended to cover the arch of a great gallery which is on the +right hand with silver, and a Frenchman, named Augustin de +Bordeaux, was to have done the work. But the Great Mogul, seeing +there was no one in his kingdom who was more capable to send to Goa +to negotiate an affair with the Portuguese, the work was not done, +for, as the ability of Augustin was feared, he was poisoned on his +return from Cochin.' (<i>Tavernier</i>, transl. Ball, vol. i, p. +108. ) The statement that Austin had 'finished the palace at Delhi, +and the mausoleum and palace of Agra' is not warranted by any +evidence known to the editor.</p> + +<p>20. Akbar erected his works on the site of an older fort, named +Bādalgarh, presumably of Hindu origin, 'which was of brick, +and had become ruinous.' No existing building within the precincts +can be referred with certainty to an earlier date than that of +Akbar. The erection began in A.H. 972, corresponding to A.D. +1564-5, and the work continued for eight (or, according to another +authority, four) years, costing 3,500,000 rupees, or about +£350,000 sterling. The walls are of rubble, faced with red +sandstone. The best account is the article by Nūr Baksh, +entitled 'The Agra Fort and its Buildings', in <i>A.S. Ann. +Rep.</i>, 1903-4, pp. 164-93.</p> + +<p>21. It is difficult to understand how men like the Marquis of +Hastings and Lord William Bentinck could have been guilty of such +barbarous stupidity. But the fact is beyond doubt, and numberless +officials of less exalted rank must share the disgrace of the ruin +and spoliation, which, both at Agra and Delhi, have destroyed two +noble palaces, and left but a few disconnected fragments. +Fergusson's indignant protests (<i>History of Indian and Eastern +Architecture</i>, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 312, &c.) are none too +strong. Sir John Strachey, who was Lieutenant-Governor of the +North- Western Provinces in 1876, is entitled to the credit of +having done all that lay in his power to remedy the effects of the +parsimony and neglect of his predecessors. The buildings which +remain at both Agra and Delhi are now well cared for, and large +sums are spent yearly on their reparation and conservation. The +credit for the modern policy of reverence for the ancient monuments +is due to Lord Curzon more than to any one else.</p> + +<p>22. This date is erroneous. The inscription is dated A.H. 1063, +in the 26th year of Shāh Jahān, equivalent practically to +A.D. 1653. It is given in full, with both text and translation, in +<i>A.S. Ann. Rep.</i> for 1903-4, p. 183. It states that the +building was erected in the course of seven years at a cost of +300,000 rupees, which = £33,750, at the rate of 2<i>s</i>. +3<i>d</i>. to the rupee current at the time. Errors on the subject +disfigure most of the guide-books and other works commonly +read.</p> + +<p>23. The beauty of the Motī Masjid, like that of most +mosques, is all internal. The exterior is ugly. The interior +deserves all praise. Fergusson describes this mosque as 'one of the +purest and most elegant buildings of its class to be found +anywhere', and truly observes that 'the moment you enter by the +eastern gateway the effect of its courtyard is surpassingly +beautiful'. 'I hardly know anywhere', he adds, 'of a building so +perfectly pure and elegant.' (<i>Ind. and E. Arch.</i>, ed. 1910, +vol. ii, p. 317. See also <i>H.F.A.</i>, p. 412, fig. 242.)</p> + +<p>24. I would, however, here enter my humble protest against the +quadrille and tiffin [<i>scil.</i> lunch] parties, which are +sometimes given to the European ladies and gentlemen of the station +at this imperial tomb; drinking and dancing are, no doubt, very +good things in their season, even in a hot climate, but they are +sadly out of place in a sepulchre, and never fail to shock the good +feelings of sober-minded people when given there. Good church music +gives us great pleasure, without exciting us to dancing or +drinking; the Tāj does the same, at least to the sober-minded. +[W. H. S.] The regulations now in force prevent any unseemly +proceedings. The gardens at the Tāj, of Itimād-ud-daula's +tomb, of Akbar's mausoleum at Sikandara, and the Rām +Bāgh, are kept up by means of income derived from crown lands, +aided by liberal grants from Government.</p> + +<p>25. The anthor's curiously meagre description of the magnificent +mausoleum of Akbar is, in the original edition, supplemented by +coloured plates, prepared apparently from drawings by Indian +artists. The structure is absolutely unique, being a square pyramid +of five stories, the uppermost of which is built of pure white +marble, while the four lower ones are of red sandstone. All earlier +descriptions of the building have been superseded by the posthumous +work of E. W. Smith, a splendidly illustrated quarto, entitled, +<i>Akbar's Tomb, Sikandarah, Agra</i>, Allahabad Government Press, +1909, being vol. xxxv of A. S. India. Work had been begun in the +lifetime of Akbar. The lower part of the enclosing wall of the park +dates from his reign. The whole of the mausoleum itself probably is +to be assigned to the reign of Jahāngīr, who in 1608 +disapproved of the structure which had been three or four years in +course of erection, and caused the design to be altered to please +himself. The work was finished in 1613 at a cost of five millions +of rupees (50 lākhs, more than half a million of pounds +sterling). The exquisitely carved cenotaph on the top story is +inadequately described by Sleeman as 'another marble slab'. It is a +single block of marble 3¼ feet high. The tomb in the vault +'is perfectly plain with the exception of a few mouldings'.</p> + +<p>26. The ninety-nine names of God do not occur in the Korān. +They are enumerated in chapter 1 of Book X of the +'Mishkāt-ul-Masābih' (see note 10, Chapter 5 +<i>ante</i>): 'Abū Hurairah said, "Verily there are ninety- +nine names for God; and whoever counts them shall enter into +paradise. He is Allaho, than which there is no other; Al- +Rahmān-ul-Rahīmo, the compassionate and merciful," +&c., &c.' (Matthews, vol. i, p. 542.) The list is +reproduced in the introduction to Palmer's translation of the +Korān, and in Bosworth-Smith, <i>Muhammad and +Muhammadanism</i>.</p> + +<p>27. The court, 70 feet square, of the topmost story, is open to +the sky, but the original intention was to provide a light dome, +presumably similar to that built a little later to crown the +mausoleum of Itimād-ud-daula. Finch, the traveller, who was at +Agra about 1611, was informed that the cenotaph was 'to be inarched +over with the most curious white and speckled marble, and to be +seeled all within with pure sheet gold, richly inwrought.' The +reason for omitting the dome is not recorded.</p> + +<p>28. The area is much larger than 40 acres, being really about +150 acres. Each side is approximately 3½ furlongs.</p> + +<p>29. This remarkable eulogium is quoted with approval by another +enthusiastic admirer of Akbar, Count von Noer (Prince Frederick +Augustus of Schleswig-Holstein), who observes that 'as Akbar was +unique amongst his contemporaries, so was his place of burial among +Indian tombs—indeed, one may say with confidence, among the +sepulchres of Asia.' (<i>The Emperor Akbar, a Contribution towards +the History of India in the 16th Century</i>, by Frederick +Augustus, Count of Noer; edited from the Author's papers by Dr. +Gustav von Buchwald; translated from the German by Annette S. +Beveridge. Calcutta, 1890.) This work of Count von Noer, +unsatisfactory though it is in many respects, is still the best +exiting modern account of Akbar's reign. The competent scholar who +will undertake the exhaustive treatment of the life and reign of +Akbar will be in possession of perhaps the finest great historical +subject as yet unappropriated. The editor long cherished the idea +of writing such an exhaustive work, but if he should now attempt to +deal with the fascinating theme, he must be content with a less +ambitions performance. Colonel Malleson's little book in the +'Rulers of India' series, although serviceable as a sketch, adds +nothing to the world's knowledge. Akbar's reign (1556-1605) was +almost exactly coincident with that of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). +The character and deeds of the Indian monarch will bear criticism +as well as those of his great English contemporary. 'In dealing', +observes Mr. Lane-Poole, 'with the difficulties arising in the +Government of a peculiarly heterogeneous empire, he stands absently +supreme among Oriental sovereigns, and may even challenge +comparison with the greatest of European rulers.'</p> + +<p>Unhappily, there is reason to believe that the marble slab no +longer covers the bones of Akbar. Manucci states positively that +'During the time that Aurangzēb was actively at war with +Shivā Jī [<i>scil.</i> the Marāthās], the +villagers of whom I spoke before broke into the mausoleum in the +year 1691 [in words], and after stealing all the stones and all the +gold work to be found, extracted the king's bones and had the +temerity to throw them on a fire and burn them' (<i>Storia do +Mogor</i>, i. 142). The statement is repeated with some additional +particulars in a later passage, which concludes with the words: +'Dragging out the bones of Akbar, they threw them angrily into the +fire and burnt them' (ibid. ii. 320). Irvine notes that the +plundering of the tomb by the Jāts is mentioned in detail by +only one other writer, Ishar Dās Nāgar, author of the +<i>Fatūhāt-I- Alamgīrī</i>, a manuscript in the +British Museum. Manucci seems to be the sole authority for the +alleged burning of Akbar's bones. I should be glad to disbelieve +him, but cannot find any reason for doing so.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch52">CHAPTER 52</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Nūr Jahān, the Aunt of the Empress +Nūr Mahal, over whose Remains the Tāj is built.[1]</p> + +<p>I crossed over the river Jumna one morning to look at the tomb +of Itimād-ud-daula, the most remarkable mausoleum in the +neighbourhood after those of Akbar and the Tāj. On my way +back, I asked one of the boatmen who was rowing me who had built +what appeared to me a new dome within the fort. 'One of the +Emperors, of course,' said he. 'What makes you think so?'</p> + +<p>'Because such things are made only by Emperors,' replied the man +quietly, without relaxing his pull at the oar.</p> + +<p>'True, very true,' said an old Musalmān trooper, with large +white whiskers and moustachios, who had dismounted to follow me +across the river, with a melancholy shake of the head, 'very true; +who but Emperors could do such things as these?'</p> + +<p>Encouraged by the trooper, the boatman continued:—'The +Jāts and the Marāthās did nothing but pull down and +destroy while they held their <i>accursed dominion</i> here; and +the European gentlemen who now govern seem to have no pleasure in +building anything but <i>factories, courts of justice, and +jails</i>.'</p> + +<p>Feeling as an Englishman, as we all must sometimes do, be where +we will, I could hardly help wishing that the beautiful panels and +pillars of the bath-room had fetched a better price, and that +palace, Tāj, and all at Agra, had gone to the hammer—so +sadly do they exalt the past at the expense of the present in the +imaginations of the people.</p> + +<p> The tomb contains in the centre the remains of Khwāja +Ghiās,[2] one of the most prominent characters of the reign of +Jahāngīr, and those of his wife. The remains of the other +members of his family repose in rooms all round them; and are +covered with slabs of marble richly cut. It is an exceedingly +beautiful building, but a great part of the most valuable stones of +the mosaic work have been picked out and stolen, and the whole is +about to be sold by auction, by a decree of the civil court, to pay +the debt of the present proprietor, who is entirely unconnected +with the family whose members repose under it, and especially +indifferent as to what becomes of their bones. The building and +garden in which it stands were, some sixty years ago, given away, I +believe, by Nājīf Khān, the prime minister, to one +of his nephews, to whose family it still belongs.[3] Khwaja +Ghiās, a native of Western Tartary, left that country for +India, where he had some relations at the imperial court, who +seemed likely to be able to secure his advancement. He was a man of +handsome person, and of good education and address. He set out with +his wife, a bullock, and a small sum of money, which he realized by +the sale of all his other property. The wife, who was pregnant, +rode upon the bullock, while he walked by her side. Their stock of +money had become exhausted, and they had been three days without +food in the great desert, when she was taken in labour, and gave +birth to a daughter. The mother could hardly keep her seat on the +bullock, and the father had become too exhausted to afford her any +support; and in their distress they agreed to abandon the infant. +They covered it over with leaves, and towards evening pursued their +journey. When they had gone on about a mile, and had lost sight of +the solitary shrub under which they had left their child, the +mother, in an agony of grief, threw herself from the bullock upon +the ground, exclaiming, 'My child, my child!' Ghiās could not +resist this appeal. He went back to the spot, took up his child, +and brought it to its mother's breast. Some travellers soon after +came up, and relieved their distress, and they reached Lahore, +where the Emperor Akbar then held his court.[4]</p> + +<p>Āsaf Khan, a distant relation of Ghiās, held a high +place at court, and was much in the confidence of the Emperor. He +made his kinsman his private secretary. Much pleased with his +diligence and ability, Āsaf soon brought his merits to the +special notice of Akbar, who raised him to the command of a +thousand horse, and soon after appointed him master of the +household. From this he was promoted afterwards to that of +Itimād-ud-daula, or high treasurer, one of the first +ministers.[5]</p> + +<p>The daughter who had been born in the desert became celebrated +for her great beauty, parts, and accomplishments, and won the +affections of the eldest son of the Emperor, the Prince Salīm, +who saw her unveiled, by accident, at a party given by her father. +She had been betrothed before this to Shēr Afgan, a Turkoman +gentleman of rank at court, and of great repute for his high +spirit, strength, and courage.[6] Salīm in vain entreated his +father to interpose his authority to make him resign his claim in +his favour; and she became the wife of Shēr Afgan. Salīm +dare not, during his father's life, make any open attempt to +revenge himself; but he, and those courtiers who thought it their +interest to worship the rising sun, soon made his [Afgan's] +residence at the capital disagreeable, and he retired with his wife +to Bengal, where he obtained from the governor the superintendency +of the district of Bardwān.</p> + +<p>Salīm succeeded his father on the throne;[7] and, no longer +restrained by his (<i>scil.</i> Akbar's) rigid sense of justice, he +recalled Shēr Afgan to court at Delhi. He was promoted to high +offices, and concluded that time had removed from the Emperor's +mind all feelings of love for his wife, and of resentment against +his successful rival—but he was mistaken; Salīm had +never forgiven him, nor had the desire to possess his wife at all +diminished. A Muhammadan of such high feeling and station would, +the Emperor knew, never survive the dishonour, or suspected +dishonour, of his wife; and to possess her he must make away with +the husband. He dared not do this openly, because he dreaded the +universal odium in which he knew it would involve him; and he made +several unsuccessful attempts to get him removed by means that +might not appear to have been contrived or executed by his orders. +At one time he designedly, in his own presence, placed him in a +situation where the pride of the chief made him contend, single- +handed, with a large tiger, which he killed; and, at another, with +a mad elephant, whose proboscis he cut off with his sword; but the +Emperor's motives in all these attempts to put him foremost in +situations of danger became so manifest that Shēr Afgan +solicited, and obtained, permission to retire with his wife to +Bengal.</p> + +<p>The governor of this province, Kutb,[8] having been made +acquainted with the Emperor's desire to have the chief made away +with, hired forty ruffians, who stole into his house one night. +There happened to be nobody else in the house; but one of the +party, touched by remorse on seeing so fine a man about to be +murdered in his sleep, called out to him to defend himself. He +seized his sword, placed himself in one corner of the room, and +defended himself so well that nearly one-half of the party are said +to have been killed or wounded. The rest all made off, persuaded +that he was endowed with supernatural force. After this escape he +retired from Tānda, the capital of Bengal,[9] to his old +residence of Bardwān. Soon after, Kutb came to the city with a +splendid retinue, on pretence of making a tour of inspection +through the provinces under his charge, but in reality for the sole +purpose of making away with Shēr Afgan, who as soon as he +heard of his approach, came out some miles to meet him on +horseback, attended by only two followers. He was received with +marks of great consideration, and he and the governor rode on for +some time side by side, talking of their mutual friends, and the +happy days they had spent together at the capital. At last, as they +were about to enter the city, the governor suddenly called for his +elephant of state, and mounted, saying it would be necessary for +him to pass through the city on the first visit in some state. +Shēr sat on horseback while he mounted, but one of the +governor's pikemen struck his horse, and began to drive him before +them. Shēr drew his sword, and, seeing all the governor's +followers with theirs ready drawn to attack him, he concluded at +once that the affront had been put upon him by the orders of Kutb, +and with the design to provoke him to an unequal fight. Determined +to have his life first, he spurred his horse upon the elephant, and +killed Kutb with his spear. He now attacked the principal of +officers, and five noblemen of the first rank fell by his sword. +All the crowd now rolled back, and formed a circle round Shēr +and his two companions, and galled them with arrows and musket +balls from a distance. His horse fell under him and expired; and, +having received six balls and several arrows in his body, Shēr +himself at last fell exhausted to the ground; and the crowd, seeing +the sword drop from his grasp, rushed in and cut him to +pieces.[l0]</p> + +<p>His widow was sent, 'nothing loth', to court, with her only +child, a daughter. She was graciously received by the Emperor's +mother, and had apartments assigned her in the palace; but the +Emperor himself is said not to have seen her for four years, during +which time the fame of her beauty, talents, and accomplishments +filled the palace and city. After the expiration of this time the +feelings, whatever they were, which prevented his seeing her, +subsided; and when he at last surprised her with a visit, he found +her to exceed all that his imagination had painted since their last +separation. In a few days their marriage was celebrated with great +magnificence;[11] and from that hour the Emperor resigned the reins +of government almost entirely into her hands; and, till his death, +under the name first of Nūr Mahall, 'Light of the Palace', and +afterwards of Nūr Jahān, 'Light of the World ', she ruled +the destinies of this great empire. Her father was now raised from +the station of high treasurer to that of prime minister. Her two +brothers obtained the titles of Āsaf Jāh and Itikād +Khan; and the relations of the family poured in from Tartary in +search of employment, as soon as they heard of their success.[12] +Nūr Jahān had by Sher Afgan, as I have stated, one +daughter; but she had never any child by the Emperor +Jahāngīr.[13]</p> + +<p>Āsaf Jāh became prime minister on the death of his +father; and, in spite of his sister, he managed to secure the crown +to Shāh Jahān, the third son of Jahāngīr, who +had married his daughter, the lady over whose remains the Tāj +was afterwards built. Jahāngīr's eldest son, Khusrū, +had his eyes put out by his father's orders for repeated +rebellions, to which he had been instigated by a desire to revenge +his mother's murder, and by the ambition of her brother, the Hindoo +prince, Mān Singh,[14] who wished to see his own nephew on the +throne, and by his wife's father, the prime minister of Akbar, Khan +Azam.[15] Nūr Jahān had invited the mother of +Khusrū, the sister of Rājā Mān Singh, to look +with her down a well in the courtyard of her apartments by +moonlight, and as she did so she threw her in. As soon as she saw +that she had ceased to struggle she gave the alarm, and pretended +that she had fallen in by accident.[16]</p> + +<p>By the murder of the mother of the heir-apparent she expected to +secure the throne to a creature of her own. Khusrū was treated +with great kindness by his father, after he had been barbarously +deprived of sight;[17] but when his brother, Shāh Jahān, +was appointed to the government of Southern India, he pretended +great solicitude about the comforts of his <i>poor blind +brother</i>, which he thought would not be attended to at court, +and took him with him to his government in the Deccan, where he got +him assassinated, as the only sure mode of securing the throne to +himself.[18] Parwīz, the second son, died a natural death;[19] +so also did his only son; and so also Dāniyāl, the fourth +son of the Emperor.[20] Nūr Jahān's daughter by Shēr +Afgan had married Shahryār, a young son of the Emperor by a +concubine; and, just before his death he (the Emperor), at the +instigation of Nūr Jahān, named this son as his successor +in his will. He was placed upon the throne, and put in possession +of the treasury, and at the head of a respectable army;[21] but the +Empress's brother, Āsaf, designed the throne for his own +son-in-law, Shāh Jahān; and, as soon as the Emperor died, +he put up a puppet to amuse the people till he could come up with +his army from the Deccan—Bulākī, the eldest son of +the deceased Khusrū. Shahryār's troops were defeated; he +was taken prisoner, and had his eyes put out forthwith, and the +Empress was put into close confinement. As Shāh Jahān +approached Lahore with his army, Āsaf put his puppet, +Bulākī, and his younger brother, with the two young sons +of Dāniyāl, into prison, where they were strangled by a +messenger sent on for the purpose by Shāh Jahān, with the +sanction of Āsaf.[22] This measure left no male heir alive of +the house of Tīmūr (Tamerlane) in Hindustan, save +Shāh Jahān himself and his four sons. Dārā was +then thirteen years of age, Shujā twelve, Aurangzēb ten, +and Murād four;[23] and all were present to learn from their +father this sad lesson—that such of them who might be alive +on his death, save one, must, with their sons, be hunted down and +destroyed like mad dogs, lest they might get into the hands of the +disaffected, and be made the tools of faction.</p> + +<p>Monsieur de Thevenot, who visited Agra, as I have before stated, +in 1666, says, 'Some affirm that there are twenty-five thousand +Christian families in Agra; but all do not agree in that. The Dutch +have a factory in the town, but the English have now none, because +it did not turn to account.' The number must have been great, or so +sober a man as Monsieur Thevenot would not have thought such an +estimate worthy to be quoted without contradiction.[24] They were +all, except those connected with the single Dutch factory, +maintained from the salaries of office; and they gradually +disappeared as their offices became filled with Muhammadans and +Hindoos. The duties of the artillery, its arsenals, and foundries, +were the chief foundation upon which the superstructure of +Christianity then stood in India. These duties were everywhere +entrusted exclusively to Europeans, and all Europeans were +Christians, and, under Shāh Jahān, permitted freely to +follow their own modes of worship. They were, too. Roman Catholic, +and spent the greater part of their incomes in the maintenance of +priests. But they could never forget that they were strangers in +the land, and held their offices upon a precarious tenure; and, +consequently, they never felt disposed to expend the little wealth +they had in raising durable tombs, churches, and other public +buildings, to tell posterity who or what they were. Present +physical enjoyment, and the prayers of their priests for a good +berth in the next world, were the only objects of their ambition. +Muhammadans and Hindoos soon learned to perform duties which they +saw bring to the Christians so much of honour and emolument; and, +as they did so, they necessarily sapped the walls of the fabric. +Christianity never became independent of office in India, and, I am +afraid, never will; even under our rule, it still mainly rests upon +that foundation.[25]</p> + +<p><br> +Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The names and titles of the empress 'over whose remains the +Tāj is built' were Nawāb Aliyā Begam, Arjumand +Bānū, Mumtāz-i-Mahall. The title Nūr Mahall, as +applied to her, is without authority: it properly belongs to her +aunt. 'It is usual in this country', Bernier observes, 'to give +similar names to the members of the reigning family. Thus the wife +of <i>Chah-Jehan</i>—so renowned for her beauty, and whose +splendid mausoleum is more worthy of a place among the wonders of +the world than the unshapen masses and heaps of stones in +Egypt—was named <i>Tāge Mehalle</i> +[Mumtāz-i-Mahall], or the Crown of the Seraglio; and the wife +of Jehan-Guyre, who so long wielded the sceptre, while her husband +abandoned himself to drunkenness and dissipation, was known first +by the name of <i>Nour Mehalle</i>, the Light of the Seraglio, and +afterwards by that of <i>Nour-Jehan-Begum</i>, the Light of the +World.' (Bernier, <i>Travels</i>, ed. Constable, and V. A. Smith, +1914, p. 5.)</p> + +<p>2. Properly, Ghiās-ud-dīn, meaning 'succourer of +religion'. The word Ghiās cannot stand as a name by +itself.</p> + +<p>3. The author's slight description of Itimād-ud-daula's +exquisite sepulchre is, in the original edition, illustrated by two +coloured plates, one of the exterior, and the other of the interior +(restored). The lack of grandeur in this building is amply atoned +for by its elegance and marvellous beauty of detail. An +inscription, dated A.H. 1027 = A.D. 1618, alleged to exist in +connexion with the building, has not, apparently, been published. +(<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. vii, p. 687.)</p> + +<p>Fergusson's description and just criticism deserve quotation. +'The tomb known as that of Itimād-ud-daula, at Agra, . . . +cannot be passed over, not only from its own beauty of design, but +also because it marks an epoch in the style to which it belongs. It +was erected by Nūr-Jahān in memory of her father, who +died in 1621, and [it] was completed in 1628. It is situated on the +left bank of the river, in the midst of a garden surrounded by a +wall measuring 540 feet on each side. In the centre of this, on a +raised platform, stands the tomb itself, a square measuring 69 feet +on each side. It is two stories in height, and at each angle is an +octagonal tower, surmounted by an open pavilion. The towers, +however, are rather squat in proportion, and the general design of +the building very far from being so pleasing as that of many less +pretentious tombs in the neighbourhood. Had it, indeed, been built +in red sandstone, or even with an inlay of white marble like that +of Humāyūn, it would not have attracted much attention, +its real merit consists in being wholly in white marble, and being +covered throughout with a mosaic in 'pietra dura'—the first, +apparently, and certainly one of the most splendid, examples of +that class of ornamentation in India....</p> + +<p>'As one of the first, the tomb of Itimād-ud-daula was +certainly one of the least successful specimens of its class. The +patterns do not quite fit the places where they are put, and the +spaces are not always those best suited for this style of +decoration. [Altogether I cannot help fancying that the Italians +had more to do with the design of this building than was at all +desirable, and they are to blame for its want of grace.[a]] But, on +the other hand, the beautiful tracery of the pierced marble slabs +of its Windows, which resemble those of Salīm Chishtī's +tomb at Fatehpur Sikrī, the beauty of its white marble walls, +and the rich colour of its decorations, make up so beautiful a +whole, that it is only on comparing it with the works of Shāh +Jahān that we are justified in finding fault.' (<i>Indian and +Eastern Architecture</i>, ed. 1910, pp. 305-7.) Further details +will be found in Syad Muhammad Latīf, <i>Agra</i> (Calcutta, +1896); <i>A.S.R.</i> iv, pp. 137-41 (Calcutta, 1874); and more +satisfactorily, in E. W. Smith, <i>Moghul Colour Decoration of +Agra</i> (Allahabad, 1901), pp. 18-20, pl. lxv-lxxvii. Mr. E. W. +Smith, if he had lived, would have produced a separate volume +descriptive of this unique building.</p> + +<p>The building is now carefully guarded and kept in repair. The +restoration of the inlay of precious stones is so enormously +expensive that much progress in that branch of the work is +impracticable. The mausoleum contains seven tombs.</p> + +<p>a. This sentence has been deleted by Dr. Burgess in his edition, +1910.</p> + +<p>4. This tale is mythical. The alleged circumstances could not be +known to any person besides the father and mother, neither of whom +would be likely to make them public. Blochmann (transl. +<i>Āīn</i>, i. 508) gives a full account of +Itimād-ud-daula and his family. The historians state that +Nūr Jahān was born at Kandahār, on the way to India. +Her father was the son of a high Persian official, but for some +reason or other was obliged to quit Persia with his family. He was +a native of Teheran, not of 'Western Tartary'. The personal name of +Nūr Jahān was Mihr-un-nisā.</p> + +<p>5. This story is erroneous, and inconsistent with the correct +statement in the heading of the chapter that Nūr Jahān, +daughter of Ghiās-ud-dīn, was aunt of the Lady of the +Tāj. The author makes out Ghiās-ud-dīn (whom he +corruptly calls Aeeas) to be a distant relation of Āsaf Khan. +In reality, Āsaf Khān (whose original name was Mirzā +Abūl Hasan) was the second son of Ghiās-ud- dīn, and +was elder brother of Nūr Jahān, The genealogy, so far as +relevant, is best shown in a tabular form, thus:—</p> + +<p align="center"><img src="images/familyt.gif" width="645" height= +"284" border="0" alt="family tree"></p> + +<br> +<p>6. Alī Qulī Beg, from Persia entered Akbar's service, +and in the war with the Rānā of Chitōr, served under +Prince Salīm (Jahāngīr), who gave him the title of +Shēr Afgan, 'tiger-thrower', with reverence to his deeds of +prowess. The spelling <i>afgan</i> is correct. The word is the +radical of the Persian verb <i>afgandan</i>, 'to throw down'.</p> + +<p>7. In October, 1605.</p> + +<p>8. Properly Kutb-ud-dīn Khan. He was foster-brother of +Prince Salīm (Jahāngīr), and his appointment as +viceroy alarmed Shēr Afgan, and caused the latter to throw up +his appointment in Bengal. The word Kutb (Qutb) cannot stand alone +as a name. Kutb (Qutb)-ud-dīn means 'pole-star of +religion'.</p> + +<p>9. Tāndān, or Tānra. Ancient town, now a petty +village, in Mālda District, Bengal, the capital of Bengal +after the decadence of Gaur. Its history is obscure, and the very +site of the city has not been accurately determined. It is certain +that it was in the immediate neighbourhood of Gaur, and south- west +of that town beyond the Bhāgīrathī. Old +Tāndān has been utterly swept away by the changes in the +course of the Pāglā. It was occupied by the Afghan king +of Bengal in A.D. 1564, and is not mentioned after 1660. +(<i>I.G.</i>, 1908.)</p> + +<p>10. This narrative, notwithstanding all the minute details with +which it is garnished, cannot be accepted as sober history; and I +do not know from what source the author obtained it. 'This lady, +whose maiden name was Muhr-un-Nisā, or "Seal of Womankind", +had attracted the admiration of Jahāngīr when he was +crown prince, but Akbar married her to a young Turkomān and +settled them in Bengal. After Jahāngīr's accession the +husband was killed in a quarrel with the governor of the province, +and the wife was placed under the care of one of Akbar's widows, +with whom she remained four years, and then married +Jahāngīr (1610). There is nothing to justify a suspicion +of the Emperor's connivance in the husband's death; nor do Indian +historians corroborate the invidious criticisms of "Normal" by +European travellers; on the contrary, they portray Nūr-Mahall +as a pattern of all the virtues, and worthy to wield the supreme +influence which she obtained over the Emperor.' (Lane-Poole, <i>The +History of the Moghul Emperors of Hindustan illustrated by their +Coins</i>, p. xix.) The authorities on which this statement is +founded are given in <i>E. & D.</i>, vol. vi, pp. 397 and +402-5. See also Blochmann, <i>Āīn</i>, vol. i, pp. 496, +524. Details of such stories in the various chronicles always +differ. Jahāngīr openly rejoiced in the death of +Shēr Afgan, and it is by no means clear that he was not +responsible for the event. He was not troubled by nice scruples. +The first element in the lady's personal name seems to be +<i>Mihr</i>, 'sun', not <i>Muhr</i>, 'seal'. The words are +identical in ordinary Persian writing.</p> + +<p>11. The long interval which elapsed between Shēr Afgan's +death and the marriage with the Emperor is a fact opposed to the +assumptions which the author adopts that Nūr Mahall was +'nothing loth', and that the death of her first husband was +contrived by Jahāngīr.</p> + +<p>12. Quaint Sir Thomas Herbert thus expresses himself: 'Meher +Metzia [Mihr-un-nisā] is forthwith espoused with all solemnity +to the King, and her name changed to Nourshabegem [Nūr +Shāh Bēgam], or Nor-mahal, i.e., Light or Glory of the +Court; her Father upon this affinity advanced upon all the other +Umbraes ['umarā', or nobles]; her brother, Assaph-Chan +[Āsaf Khān], and most of her kindred, smiled upon, with +the addition of Honours, Wealth, and Command. And in this Sun-shine +of content Jangheer [Jahāngīr] spends some years with his +lovely Queen, without regarding ought save Cupid's Currantoes' +(<i>Travels</i>, ed. 1677, p. 74). Authority exists for the title +Āsaf Jāh, as well as for the variant Āsaf +Khān.</p> + +<p>Coins were struck in the joint names of Jahāngīr and +his consort, bearing a rhyming Persian couplet to the effect +that</p> + +<p>'By command of Jahāngīr the King, from the name of +Nūr Jahān his Queen, gold gained a hundred beauties.'</p> + +<p>The Queen's administration is censured by some of the European +travellers who visited India during Jahāngīr's reign as +being venal and inefficient, and she is accused of cruelty and +perfidy. She died on the 18th December (N.S.), 1645, and was buried +by the aide of Jahāngīr in his mausoleum at Lahore. At +her death she was in her 72nd year, according to the Muhammadan +lunar reckoning, and would thus have been thirty-four solar years +of age when the Emperor married her in 1610 (Beale: Blochmann).</p> + +<p>13. According to Sir Thomas Herbert (<i>Travels</i>, ed. 1677, +p. 99), 'Queen Normahal and her three daughters' were confined by +order of Shāh Jahān in A.D. 1628.</p> + +<p>14. Son of Bhagwān Dās, of Ambēr or Jaipur, in +Rājputāna, and one of the greatest of Akbar's +officers.</p> + +<p>15. Also known as Azīz Kokah, a foster-brother of +Akbar.</p> + +<p>16. This story may or may not be true; but a charge of this kind +is absolutely incapable of proof, and would be readily generated in +the palace atmosphere.</p> + +<p>17. According to a contemporary authority, the blinding was only +partial, and the prince recovered the sight of one eye (<i>E. & +D.</i> vi. 448). With regard to such details the discrepancies in +the histories are innumerable.</p> + +<p>18. A.H. 1031 = A.D. 1621-2. The charge seems to be true.</p> + +<p>19. A.H. 1036 = A.D. 1626-7.</p> + +<p>20. This is a blunder. Jahāngīr's fourth son was named +Jahāndār, and died in or about A.H. 1035 = A.D. 1625-6. +Dāniyāl was third son of Akbar, and younger brother of +Jahāngīr. He died from <i>delirium tremens</i> in A.D. +1605, a few months before the death of Akbar,</p> + +<p>21. Jahāngīr died, when returning from +Kāshmīr, on the 8th November, A.D. 1627 (N.S.), and was +buried near Lahore. The fight with Shahryār took place at +Lahore.</p> + +<p>22. Bulākī assumed the title of Dāwar Baksh +during his short reign, and struck coins at Lahore. He +'vanished—probably to Persia—after his three months' +pretence of royalty; and on 25th January, 1628 (18 Jumāda I, +1037), Shāh-Jahān ascended at Agra the throne which he +was to occupy for thirty years'. Shahryār was known by the +nickname of <i>Nā-shudanī</i>, or 'Good-for-nothing' +(Lane- Poole, <i>The History of the Moghul Emperors of Hindustan, +illustrated by their Coins</i>, p. xxiii). The two nephews of +Jahāngīr, the sons of Dāniyāl, slaughtered at +this time, had been, according to Herbert, baptized as Christians +(<i>Travels</i>, ed. 1677, pp. 74, 98). There are great +discrepancies in the accounts given by various authorities +concerning the fate of Bulākī and the other victims of +Shāh Jahān. A dissuasion of the evidence would take too +much apace, and must be inconclusive, the fact being that the +proceedings were secret, and pains were taken to conceal the +truth.</p> + +<p>23. The dates of birth are, in Old Style:-Dārā Shikoh, +March 20, 1615; Sultan Shujā, May 12, 1616; Aurangzēb, +October 10, 1619; and Murād Baksh, not stated (Beale).</p> + +<p>24. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 2, text following [8]. The quotation is +from Part III, chap. 19, p. 35 of <i>The Travels of Monsieur de +Thevenot, now made English. London, Printed in the year +MDCLXXXVII</i>. The author, in his quotation, omits between 'that' +and 'The Dutch' the clause 'This indeed is certain that there are +few Heathens and Parsis in respect of Mahometans there, and these +surpass all the other sects in power as they do in number.'</p> + +<p>25. During the reign of Akbar, many Christians, Portuguese, +English, and others, visited Agra, and a considerable number +settled there. A Roman Catholic church was built, the steeple of +which was pulled down by Shāh Jahān. The oldest +inscriptions in the cemetery adjoining the Roman Catholic cathedral +are in the Armenian character. Three Catholic cemeteries exist at +or near Agra, namely</p> + +<p>(l) the old Catholic graveyard at the village of Lashkarpur, +dating from the time of Akbar, who made a grant of the site about +A.D. 1600. This cemetery includes the Martyrs' Chapel, also known +as the Chapel of Father Santus (Santucci), which was erected in +memory of Khoja Mortenepus, an Armenian merchant, whose epitaph is +dated 1611. The next oldest tombstone, that of Father Emmanuel d' +Anhaya, who died in prison, bears the date August, 1633. Father +Joseph de Castro, who died at Lahore, on December 15, 1646, lies in +the same building.</p> + +<p>(2) A cemetery in Pādrītola, the native Christian ward +of the city behind the old cathedral. Father Tieffenthaler is +buried there.</p> + +<p>(3) A cemetery in an unnamed village, granted by +Jahāngīr, and situated a mile north of Lashkarpur. An +unpublished letter in the British Museum shows that +Jahāngīr closed the churches in his dominions in 1615. +Notwithstanding, the College at Agra was founded about 1617 by an +Armenian who is known by his title Mirzā Zul-Qarnain. The +acute persecution by Shāh Jahān occurred in 1631.</p> + +<p>The artillery men in the Mogul service were not all European +Christians. Turks from the Ottoman Empire were freely employed. +(See <i>Ep. Ind.</i>, ii, 132 note.)</p> + +<p>The facts concerning the early history of Christianity in +Northern India have been imperfectly studied. In this note I have +used chiefly a pamphlet by Father H. Hosten, S. J., entitled +<i>Jesuit Missionaries in Northern India, &c.</i> (Catholic +Orphan Press, Calcutta, 1907), and the confused little book by +Fanthome, <i>Reminiscences of Agra</i> (2nd ed., Thacker, Spink +& Co., Calcutta, 1895). The Jesuit and Capuchin Fathers are +working at the subject and hope to elucidate it. From the <i>A.S. +Progress Rep. N. Circle, Muhammadan Monuments</i>, for 1911-12, p. +21, it appears that arrangements for the proper maintenance of the +Old Catholic cemetery are in hand.</p> + +<p>The author's observations concerning the official relations of +Christianity in India do not apply at all to the very ancient +churches of the South (See <i>E.H.I.</i>, 3rd ed., 1914, App. M, +pp. 245-7). Even in the north, the modern missionary operations may +claim to be 'independent of office'.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch53">CHAPTER 53</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Father Gregory's Notion of the Impediments to +Conversion in India—Inability of Europeans to speak Eastern +Languages.</p> + +<p>Father Gregory, the Roman Catholic priest, dined with us one +evening, and Major Godby took occasion to ask him at table, 'What +progress our religion was making among the people?'</p> + +<p>'Progress!' said he; 'why, what progress can we ever hope to +make among a people who, the moment we begin to talk to them about +the miracles performed by Christ, begin to tell us of those +infinitely more wonderful performed by Krishna, who lifted a +mountain upon his little finger, as an umbrella, to defend his +shepherdesses at Govardhan from a shower of rain.[1] The Hindoos +never doubt any part of the miracles and prophecies of our +scripture—they believe every word of them; and the only thing +that surprises them is that they should be so much less wonderful +than those of their own scriptures, in which also they implicitly +believe. Men who believe that the histories of the wars and amours +of Rām and Krishna, two of the incarnations of Vishnu, were +written some fifty thousand years before these wars and amours +actually took place upon the earth, would of course easily believe +in the fulfilment of any prophecy that might be related to them out +of any other book;[2] and, as to miracles, there is absolutely +nothing too extraordinary for their belief. If a Christian of +respectability were to tell a Hindoo that, to satisfy some scruples +of the Corinthians, St. Paul had brought the sun and moon down upon +the earth, and made them rebound off again into their places, like +tennis balls, without the slightest injury to any of the three +planets [<i>sic</i>], I do not think he would feel the slightest +doubt of the truth of it; but he would immediately be put in mind +of something still more extraordinary that Krishna did to amuse the +milkmaids, or to satisfy some sceptics of his day, and relate it +with all the <i>naïveté</i> imaginable.</p> + +<p>I saw at Agra Mirzā Kām Baksh, the eldest son of +Sulaimān Shikoh, the eldest son of the brother of the present +Emperor. He had spent a season with us at Jubbulpore, while +prosecuting his claim to an estate against the Rājā of +Rīwā. The Emperor, Shāh Ālam, in his flight +before our troops from Bengal (1762), struck off the high road to +Delhi at Mirzapore, and came down to Rīwā, where he found +an asylum during the season of the rains with the Rīwā +Rājā, who assigned for his residence the village of +Makanpur.[3] His wife, the Empress, was here delivered of a son, +the present Emperor, of Hindustān, Akbar Shāh;[4] and the +Rājā assigned to him and his heirs for ever the fee +simple of this village. As the members of this family increased in +geometrical ratio, under the new system, which gave them plenty to +eat with nothing to do, the Emperor had of late been obliged to +hunt round for little additions to his income; and in his search he +found that Makanpur gave name to a 'pargana', or little district, +of which it was the capital, and that a good deal of merchandize +passed through this district, and paid heavy dues to the +Rājā. Nothing, he thought, would be lost by trying to get +the whole district instead of the village; and for this purpose he +sent down Kām Baksh, the ablest man of the whole family, to +urge and prosecute his claim; but the Rājā was a close, +shrewd man, and not to be done out of his revenue, and Kām +Baksh was obliged to return minus some thousand rupees, which he +had spent in attempting to keep up appearances.</p> + +<p>The best of us Europeans feel our deficiencies in conversation +with Muhammadans of high rank and education, when we are called +upon to talk upon subjects beyond the everyday occurrences of life. +A Muhammadan gentleman of education is tolerably acquainted with +astronomy, as it was taught by Ptolemy; with the logic and ethics +of Aristotle and Plato; with the works of Hippocrates and Galen, +through those of Avicenna, or, as they call him, Abū- +Alīsīna;[5] and he is very capable of talking upon all +subjects of philosophy, literature, science, and the arts, and very +much inclined to do so; and of understanding the nature of the +improvements that have been made in them in modern times. But, +however capable we may feel of discussing these subjects, or +explaining these improvements in our own language, we all feel +ourselves very much at a loss when we attempt to do it in theirs. +Perhaps few Europeans have mixed and conversed more freely with all +classes than I have; and yet I feel myself sadly deficient when I +enter, as I often do, into discussions with Muhammadan gentlemen of +education upon the subject of the character of the governments and +institutions of different countries—their effects upon the +character and condition of the people; the arts and the sciences; +the faculties and operations of the human mind; and the thousand +other things which are subjects of everyday conversation among +educated and thinking; men in our country. I feel that they could +understand me quite well if I could find words for my ideas; but +these I cannot find, though their languages abound in them, nor +have I ever met the European gentleman who could. East Indians +can;[6] but they commonly want the ideas as much as we want the +language. The chief cause of this deficiency is the want of +sufficient intercourse with men in whose presence we should be +ashamed to appear ignorant—this is the great secret, and all +should know and acknowledge it.</p> + +<p>We are not ashamed to convey our orders to our native servants +in a barbarous language. Military officers seldom speak to their +'sipāhīs' (sepoys) and native officers, about anything +but arms, accoutrements, and drill; or to other natives about +anything but the sports of the field; and, as long as they are +understood, they care not one straw in what language they express +themselves. The conversation of the civil servants with their +native officers takes sometimes a wider range; but they have the +same philosophical indifference as to the language in which they +attempt to convey their ideas; and I have heard some of our highest +diplomatic characters talking,[7] without the slightest feeling of +shame or embarrassment, to native princes on the most ordinary +subjects of everyday interest in a language which no human being +but themselves could understand. We shall remain the same till some +change of system inspire us with stronger motives to please and +conciliate the educated classes of the native community. They may +be reconciled, but they can never be charmed out of their +prejudices or the errors of their preconceived opinions by such +language as the European gentlemen are now in the habit of speaking +to them.[8] We must learn their language better, or we must teach +them our own, before we can venture to introduce among them those +free institutions which would oblige us to meet them on equal terms +at the bar, on the bench, and in the senate.[9] Perhaps two of the +best secular works that were ever written upon the facilities and +operations of the human mind, and the duties of men in their +relations with each other, are those of Imām-ud-dīn +Ghazzālī, and Nasīr-ud-dīn of Tūs.[10] +Their idol was Plato, but their works are of a more practical +character than his, and less dry than those of Aristotle.</p> + +<p>I may here mention the following, among many instances that +occur to me, of the amusing mistakes into which Europeans are +liable to fall in their conversation with natives.</p> + +<p>Mr. J. W———n, of the Bengal Civil Service, +commonly known by the name of Beau W———n,[11] was +the Honourable Company's opium agent at Patna, when I arrived at +Dinapore to join my regiment in 1810.[12] He had a splendid house, +and lived in excellent style; and was never so happy as when he had +a dozen young men from the Dinapore cantonments living with him. He +complained that year, as I was told, that he had not been able to +save more than one hundred thousand rupees that season out of his +salary and commission upon the opium, purchased by the Government +from the cultivators.[13] The members of the civil service, in the +other branches of public service, were all anxious to have it +believed by their countrymen that they were well acquainted with +their duties, and able and willing to perform them; but the +Honourable Company's commercial agents were, on the contrary, +generally anxious to make their countrymen believe that they +neither knew nor cared anything about their duties, because they +were ashamed of them. They were sinecure posts for the drones of +the service, or for those who had great interest and no +capacity.[14] Had any young man made it appear that he really +thought W———n knew or cared anything about his +duties, he would certainly never have been invited to his house +again; and if any one knew, certainly no one seemed to know that he +had any other duty than that of entertaining his guests.</p> + +<p>No one ever spoke the native language so badly, because no man +had ever so little intercourse with the natives; and it was, I have +been told, to his ignorance of the native languages that his bosom +friend, Mr. P———st, owed his life on one +occasion. W. sat by the sick-bed of his friend with unwearied +attention, for some days and nights, after the doctors had declared +his case entirely hopeless. He proposed at last to try change of +air, and take him on the river Ganges. The doctors, thinking that +he might as well die in his boat on the river as in his house at +Calcutta, consented to his taking him on board. They got up as far +as Hooghly, when P. said that he felt better and thought he could +eat something. What should it be? A little roasted kid perhaps. The +very thing that he was longing for! W. went out upon the deck to +give orders for the kid, that his friend might not be disturbed by +the gruff voice of the old 'khānsāmā' (butler). P. +heard the conversation, however.</p> + +<p>'Khānsāmā', said the Beau W., 'you know that my +friend Mr. P. is very ill?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, sir.'</p> + +<p>'And that he has not eaten anything for a month?'</p> + +<p>'A long time for a man to fast, sir.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, Khānsāmā, and his stomach is now become +very delicate, and could not stand anything strong.'</p> + +<p>'Certainly not, sir.'</p> + +<p>'Well, Khānsāmā, then he has taken a fancy to a +roasted <i>mare</i>' ('mādiyān'), meaning a +'halwān', or kid.'[15]</p> + +<p>'A roasted mare, sir?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, Khānsāmā, a roasted mare, which you must +have nicely prepared.'</p> + +<p>'What, the whole, sir?'</p> + +<p>'Not the whole at one time; but have the whole ready as there is +no knowing what part he may like best.'</p> + +<p>The old butter had heard of the Tartars eating their horses when +in robust health, but the idea of a sick man, not able to move in +his bed without assistance, taking a fancy to a roasted mare, quite +staggered him.</p> + +<p>'But, sir, I may not be able to get such a thing as a mare at a +moment's notice; and if I get her she will be very dear.'</p> + +<p>'Never mind, Khānsāmā, get you the mare, cost +what she will; if she costs a thousand rupees my friend shall have +her. He has taken a fancy to the mare, and the mare he shall have, +if she costs a thousand rupees.'</p> + +<p>The butter made his salaam, said he would do his best, and took +his leave, requesting that the boats might be kept at the bank of +the river till he came back.</p> + +<p>W. went into his sick friend, who, with great difficulty, +managed to keep his countenance while he complained of the +liberties old servants were in the habit of taking with their +masters. 'They think themselves privileged', said W., 'to conjure +up difficulties in the way of everything that one wants to have +done.'</p> + +<p>'Yes', said P———st, 'we like to have old and +faithful servants about us, particularly when we are sick; but they +are apt to take liberties, which new ones will not.'</p> + +<p>In about two hours the butler's approach was announced from the +deck, and W. walked out to scold him for his delay. The old +gentleman was coming down over the bank, followed by about eight +men bearing the four quarters of an old mare. The butler was very +fat; and the proud consciousness of having done his duty, and met +his master's wishes in a very difficult and important point, had +made him a perfect Falstaff. He marshalled his men in front of the +cooking-boat, and then came towards his master, who for some time +stood amazed, and unable to speak. At last he roared out, 'And what +the devil have you here?'</p> + +<p>'Why, the <i>mare</i> that the sick gentleman took a fancy for; +and dear enough she has cost me; not a farthing less than two +hundred rupees would the fellow take for his mare.'</p> + +<p>P———st could contain himself no longer; he +burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, during which the abscess +in his liver burst into the intestines, and he felt himself +relieved, as if by enchantment. The mistake was rectified—he +got his kid; and in ten days he was taken back to Calcutta a sound +man, to the great astonishment of all the doctors.</p> + +<p>During the first campaign against Nepāl, in 1815, Colonel, +now Major-General, O.H., who commanded +the———Regiment, N. I.,[16] had to march with his +regiment through the town of Darbhanga, the capital of the +Rājā, who came to pay his respects to him. He brought a +number of presents, but the colonel, a high-minded, amiable man, +never took anything himself, nor suffered any person in his camp to +do so, in the districts they passed through without paying for it. +He politely declined to take any of the presents; but said that he +'had heard that Darbhanga produced <i>crows</i> ("kauwā"), and +should be glad to get some of them if the Rājā could +spare them,'—meaning coffee, or 'kahwā'.</p> + +<p>The Rājā stared, and said that certainly they had +abundance of crows in Darbhanga; but he thought they were equally +abundant in all parts of India.</p> + +<p>'Quite the contrary, Rājā Sāhib, I assure you,' +said the colonel; 'there is not such a thing as a crow to be found +in any part of the Company's dominions that I have seen, and I have +been all over them.'</p> + +<p>'Very strange!' said the Rājā, turning round to his +followers.</p> + +<p>'Yes,' replied they,' it is very strange, Rājā +Sāhib; but such is your 'ikbāl' (good fortune), that +everything thrives under it; and, if the colonel should wish to +have a few crows, we could easily collect them for him.'</p> + +<p>'If', said the colonel, greatly delighted, 'you could provide us +with a few of these crows, we should really feel very much obliged +to you; for we have a long and cold campaign before us among the +bleak hills of Nepal; and we are all fond of crows.'</p> + +<p>'Indeed,' returned the Rājā, 'I shall be happy to send +you as many as you wish.' ('Much' and 'many' are expressed by the +same term.)</p> + +<p>'Then we should be glad to have two or three bags full, if it +would not be robbing you.'</p> + +<p>'Not in the least,' said the Rājā; 'I will go home and +order them to be collected immediately.'</p> + +<p>In the evening, as the officers, with the colonel at their head, +were sitting down to dinner, a man came up to announce the +Rājā's present. Three fine large bags were brought in, +and the colonel requested that one might be opened immediately. It +was opened accordingly, and the mess butler ('khansāmān') +drew out by the legs a fine old crow. The colonel immediately saw +the mistake, and laughed as heartily as the rest at the result. A +polite message was sent to the Rājā, requesting that he +would excuse his having made it—for he had had half a dozen +men out shooting crows all day with their matchlocks. Few Europeans +spoke the language better than General ———, and I +do not believe that one European in a thousand, at this very +moment, makes any difference, or knows any difference, in the sound +of the two terms.</p> + +<p>Kām Baksh had one sister married to the King of Oudh, and +another to Mirzā Salīm, the younger son of the Emperor. +Mirzā Salīm and his wife could not agree, and a +separation took place, and she went to reside with her sister, the +Queen of Oudh. The King saw her frequently; and, finding her more +beautiful than his wife, he demanded her also in marriage from her +father, who resided at Lucknow, the capital of Oudh, on a pension +of five thousand rupees a month from the King. He would not +consent, and demanded his daughter; the King, finding her willing +to share his bed and board with her sister, would not give her +up.[17] The father got his old friend, Colonel Gardiner, who had +married a Muhammadan woman of rank, to come down and plead his +cause. The King gave up the young woman, but at the same time +stopped the father's pension, and ordered him and all his family +out of his dominions. He set out with Colonel Gardiner and his +daughter, on his road to Delhi, through Kāsganj, the residence +of the colonel, who was one day recommending the prince to seek +consolation for the loss of his pension in the proud recollection +of having saved the honour of the <i>house of Tamerlane</i>, when +news was brought to them that the daughter had run off from camp +with his (Colonel Gardiner's) son James, who had accompanied him to +Lucknow. The prince and the colonel mounted their horses, and rode +after him; but they were so much heavier and older than the young +ones, that they soon gave up the chase in despair. Sulaimān +Shikoh insisted upon the colonel immediately fighting him, after +the fashion of the English, with swords or pistols, but was soon +persuaded that the honour of the house of Tīmūr would be +much better preserved by allowing the offending parties to marry +![18] The King of Oudh was delighted to find that the old man had +been so punished; and the Queen no less so to find herself so +suddenly and unexpectedly relieved from all dread of her sister's +return. All parties wrote to my friend Kām Baksh, who was then +at Jubbulpore;[19] and he came off with their letters to me to ask +whether I thought the incident might not be turned to account in +getting the pension for his father restored.[20]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Govardhan is a very sacred place of pilgrimage, full of +temples, situated in the Mathurā (Muttra) district, sixteen +miles west of Mathurā, Regulation V of 1826 annexed Govardhan +to the Agra district. In 1832 Mathurā was made the head- +quarters of a new district, Govardhan and other territory being +transferred from Agra.</p> + +<p>2. The Purānas, even when narrating history after a +fashion, are cast in the form of prophecies. The Bhāgavat +Purāna is especially devoted to the legends of Krishna. The +Hindī version of the 10th Book (<i>skandha</i>) is known as +the 'Prēm Sāgar', or 'Ocean of Love', and is, perhaps, +the most wearisome book in the world.</p> + +<p>3. This flight occurred during the struggles following the +battle of Plassy in 1757, which were terminated by the battle of +Buxar in 1764, and the grant to the East India Company of the civil +administration of Bengal, Bihār and Orissa in the following +year. Shāh Ālam bore, in weakness and misery, the burden +of the imperial title from 1759 to 1806. From 1765 to 1771 he was +the dependent of the English at Allahabad. From 1771 to 1803 he was +usually under the control of Marāthā chiefs, and from the +time of Lord Lake's entry into Delhi, in 1803 he became simply a +prisoner of the British Government. His successors occupied the +same position. In 1788 he was barbarously blinded by the Rohilla +chief, Ghulām Kādir.</p> + +<p>4. Akbar II. His position as Emperor was purely titular.</p> + +<p>5. The name is printed as Booalee Shina in the original edition. +His full designation is Abū Alī al-Husain ibn Abdullah +ibn Sīnā, which means 'that Sīnā was his +grandfather. Avicenna is a corruption of either Abū +Sīnā or Ibn Sīnā. He lived a strenuous, +passionate life, but found time to compose about a hundred +treatises on medicine and almost every subject known to Arabian +science. He died in A.D. 1037. A good biography of him will be +found in <i>Encyclo. Brit.</i>, 11th ed., 1910.</p> + +<p>6. Otherwise called Eurasians, or, according to the latest +official decree, Anglo-Indians.</p> + +<p>7. 'Diplomatic characters' would now be described as officers of +the Political Department.</p> + +<p>8. These remarks of the author should help to dispel the common +delusion that the English officials of the olden time spoke the +Indian languages better than their more highly trained +successors.</p> + +<p>9. The author wrote these words at the moment of the +inauguration by Lord William Bentinck and Macaulay of the new +policy which established English as the official language of India, +and the vehicle for the higher instruction of its people, as +enunciated in the resolution dated 7th March, 1835, and described +by Boulger in <i>Lord William Bentinck</i> (Rulers of India, 1897), +chap. 8. The decision then formed and acted on alone rendered +possible the employment of natives of India in the higher branches +of the administration. Such employment has gradually year by year +increased, and certainly will further increase, at least up to the +extreme limit of safety. Indians now (1914) occupy seats in the +Council of India in London, and in the Executive and Legislative +Councils of the Governor- General, Provincial Governors, and +Lieutenant-Governors. They hold most of the judicial appointments +and fill many responsible executive offices.</p> + +<p>10. Khojah Nasīr-ud-dīn of Tūs in Persia was a +great astronomer, philosopher, and mathematician in the thirteenth +century. The author's Imām-ud-dīn Ghazzālī is +intended for Abū Hāmid Imām al Ghazzālī, +one of the most famous of Musulmān doctors. He was born at +Tūs, the modern Mashhad (Meshed) in Khurāsān, and +died in A.D. 1111. His works are numerous. One is entitled <i>The +Ruin of Philosophies</i>, and another, the most celebrated, is +<i>The Resuscitation of Religious Sciences</i> (F. J. Arbuthnot, +<i>A Manual of Arabian History and Literature</i>, London, 1890). +These authors are again referred to in a subsequent chapter. I am +not able to judge the propriety of Sleeman's enthusiastic +praise.</p> + +<p>11. The gentleman referred to was Mr. John Wilton, who was +appointed to the service in 1775.</p> + +<p>12. The cantonments at Dinapore (properly Dānāpur) are +ten miles distant from the great city of Patna.</p> + +<p>13. The rupee was worth more than two shillings in 1810. The +remuneration of high officials by commission has been long +abolished.</p> + +<p>14. There used to be two opium agents, one at Patna, and the +other at Ghāzīpur, who administered the Opium Department +under the control of the Board of Revenue in Calcutta. In deference +to the demands of the Chinese Government and of public opinion in +England, the Agency at Ghāzīpur has been closed, and the +Government of India is withdrawing gradually from the opium trade. +Such lucrative sinecures as those described in the text have long +ceased to exist.</p> + +<p>15. These Persian words would not now be used in orders to +servants.</p> + +<p>16. This officer was Sir Joseph O'Halloran, K.C.B., attached to +the 18th Regiment, N.I. He became a Lieutenant-Colonel on June 4, +1814, and Major-General on January 10, 1837. He is mentioned in +<i>Ramaseeana</i> (p 59) as Brigadier-General commanding the +Sāgar Division.</p> + +<p>17. The King's demand was improper and illegal. The Muhammadan +law, like the Jewish (Leviticus xviii, 18), prohibits a man from +being married to two sisters at once. 'Ye are also forbidden to +take to wife two sisters; except what is already past: for God is +gracious and merciful' (<i>Korān</i>, chap. iv). Compare the +ruling in 'Mishkāt-ul-Masābih', Book XIII, chap. v, Part +II (Matthews, vol. ii, p. 94).</p> + +<p>18. The colonel's son has succeeded to his father's estates, and +he and his wife are, I believe, very happy together. [W. H. S.] +Such an incident would, of course, be now inconceivable. The family +name is also spelled Gardner. The romantic history of the Gardners +is summarized in the appendix to <i>A Particular Account of the +European Military Adventures of Hindustan, from 1784 to 1803</i>; +compiled by Herbert Compton: London, 1892.</p> + +<p>19. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 53 text between [2] and [3].</p> + +<p>20. Kāsganj, the residence of Colonel Gardner, is in the +Etah district of the United Provinces. In 1911 the population was +16,429.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch54">CHAPTER 54</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Fathpur-Sīkrī—The Emperor Akbar's +Pilgrimage—Birth of Jahāngīr.</p> + +<p>On the 6th January we left Agra, which soon after became the +residence of the Governor of the North-Western Provinces, Sir +Charles Metcalfe.[1] It was, when I was there, the residence of a +civil commissioner, a judge, a magistrate, a collector of land +revenue, a collector of customs, and all their assistants and +establishments. A brigadier commands the station, which contained a +park of artillery, one regiment of European and four regiments of +native infantry.[2]</p> + +<p>Near the artillery practice-ground, we passed the tomb of Jodh +Bāī, the wife of the Emperor Akbar, and the mother of +Jahāngīr. She was of Rājpūt caste, daughter of +the Hindoo chief of Jodhpur, a very beautiful, and, it is said, a +very amiable woman.[3] The Mogul Emperors, though Muhammadans, were +then in the habit of taking their wives from among the +Rājpūt princes of the country, with a view to secure +their allegiance. The tomb itself is in ruins, having only part of +the dome standing, and the walls and magnificent gateway that at +one time surrounded it have been all taken away and sold by a +thrifty Government, or appropriated to purposes of more practical +utility.[4]</p> + +<p>I have heard many Muhammadans say that they could trace the +decline of their empire in Hindustan to the loss of the +Rājpūt blood in the veins of their princes.[5] 'Better +blood' than that of the Rājpūts of India certainly never +flowed in the veins of any human beings; or, what is the same +thing, no blood was ever believed to be finer by the people +themselves and those they had to deal with. The difference is all +in the imagination, and the imagination is all-powerful with +nations as with individuals. The Britons thought their blood the +finest in the world till they were conquered by the Romans, the +Picts, the Scots, and the Saxons. The Saxons thought theirs the +finest in the world till they were conquered by the Danes and the +Normans. This is the history of the human race. The quality of the +blood of a whole people has depended often upon the fate of a +battle, which in the ancient world doomed the vanquished to the +hammer; and the hammer changed the blood of those sold by it from +generation to generation. How many Norman robbers got their blood +ennobled, and how many Saxon nobles got theirs plebeianized by the +Battle of Hastings; and how difficult it would be for any of us to +say from which we descended—the Britons or the Saxons, the +Danes or the Normans; or in what particular action our ancestors +were the victors or the vanquished, and became ennobled or +plebeianized by the thousand accidents which influence the fate of +battles. A series of successful aggressions upon their neighbours +will commonly give a nation a notion that they are superior in +courage; and pride will make them attribute this superiority to +blood—that is, to an old date. This was, perhaps, never more +exemplified than in the case of the Gūrkhas of Nepal, a small +diminutive race of men not unlike the Huns, but certainly as brave +as any men can possibly be. A Gūrkha thought himself equal to +any four other men of the hills, though they were all much +stronger; just as a Dane thought himself equal to four Saxons at +one time in Britain. The other men of the hills began to think that +he really was so, and could not stand before him.[6]</p> + +<p>We passed many wells from which the people were watering their +fields, and found those which yielded a brackish water were +considered to be much more valuable for irrigation than those which +yielded sweet water. It is the same in the valley of the Nerbudda, +but brackish water does not suit some soils and some crops. On the +8th we reached Fathpur Sīkrī, which lies about twenty- +four miles from Agra, and stands upon the back of a narrow range of +sandstone hills, rising abruptly from the alluvial plains to the +highest, about one hundred feet, and extends three miles +north-north- east and south-south-west. This place owes its +celebrity to a Muhammadan saint, the Shaikh Salīm of Chisht, a +town in Persia, who owed his to the following circumstance:</p> + +<p>The Emperor Akbar's sons had all died in infancy, and he made a +pilgrimage to the shrine of the celebrated Muīn-ud-dīn of +Chisht, at Ajmēr. He and his family went all the way on foot +at the rate of three 'kōs', or four miles, a day, a distance +of about three hundred and fifty miles. 'Kanāts', or cloth +walls, were raised on each side of the road, carpets spread over +it, and high towers of burnt bricks erected at every stage, to mark +the places where he rested. On reaching the shrine he made a +supplication to the saint, who at night appeared to him in his +sleep, and recommended him to go and entreat the intercession of a +very holy old man, who lived a secluded life upon the top of the +little range of hills at Sīkrī. He went accordingly, and +was assured by the old man, then ninety-six years of age, that the +Empress Jodh Bāī, the daughter of a Hindoo prince, would +be delivered of a son, who would live to a good old age. She was +then pregnant, and remained in the vicinity of the old man's +hermitage till her confinement, which took place 31st of August, +1569. The infant was called after the hermit, Mirzā +Salīm, and became in time Emperor of Hindostan, under the name +of Jahāngīr.[7] It was to this Emperor Jahāngīr +that Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador, was sent from the English +Court.[8] Akbar, in order to secure to himself, his family, and his +people, the advantage of the continued intercessions of so holy a +man, took up his residence at Sīkrī, and covered the hill +with magnificent buildings for himself, his courtiers, and his +public establishments.[9]</p> + +<p>The quadrangle, which contains the mosque on the west side, and +tomb of the old hermit in the centre, was completed in the year +1578, six years before his death; and is, perhaps, one of the +finest in the world. It is five hundred and seventy-five feet +square, and surrounded by a high wall, with a magnificent cloister +all around within.[10] On the outside is a magnificent gateway, at +the top of a noble flight of steps twenty-four feet high. The whole +gateway is one hundred and twenty feet in height, and the same in +breadth, and presents beyond the wall five sides of an octagon, of +which the front face is eighty feet wide. The arch in the centre of +this space is sixty feet high by forty wide.[11] This gateway is no +doubt extremely grand and beautiful; but what strikes one most is +the disproportion between the thing wanted and the thing +provided—there seems to be something quite preposterous in +forming so enormous an entrance for a poor diminutive man to walk +through—and walk he must, unless carried through on men's +shoulders; for neither elephant, horse, nor bullock could ascend +over the flight of steps. In all these places the staircases, on +the contrary, are as disproportionately small; they look as if they +were made for rats to crawl through, while the gateways seem as if +they were made for ships to sail under.[12] One of the most +interesting sights was the immense swarms of swallows flying round +the thick bed of nests that occupy the apex of this arch, and, to +the spectators below, they look precisely like swarm of bees round +a large honeycomb. I quoted a passage in the Korān in praise +of the swallows, and asked the guardians of the place whether they +did not think themselves happy in having such swarms of sacred +birds over their heads all day long. 'Not at all,' said they; 'they +oblige us to sweep the gateway ten times a day; but there is no +getting at their nests, or we should soon get rid of them.' They +then told me that the sacred bird of the Korān was the +'abābīl', or large black swallow, and not the +'partādīl', a little piebald thing of no religious merit +whatever.[13] On the right side of the entrance is engraven on +stone in large letters, standing out in bas-relief, the following +passage in Arabic: 'Jesus, on whom be peace, has said, "The word is +merely a bridge; you are to pass over it, and not to build your +dwellings upon it".' Where this saying of Christ is to be found I +know not, nor has any Muhammadan yet been able to tell me; but the +quoting of such a passage, in such a place, is a proof of the +absence of all bigotry on the part of Akbar.[14]</p> + +<p>The tomb of Shaikh Salīm, the hermit, is a very beautiful +little building, in the centre of the quadrangle.[15] The man who +guards it told me that the Jāts, while they reigned, robbed +this tomb, as well as those at Agra, of some of the most beautiful +and valuable portion of the mosaic work.[16] 'But,' said he, 'they +were well plundered in their turn by your troops at Bharatpur; +retribution always follows the wicked sooner or later.'[17] He +showed us the little roof of stone tiles, close to the original +little dingy mosque of the old hermit, where the Empress gave birth +to Jahāngīr;[18] and told us that she was a very sensible +woman, whose counsels had great weight with the Emperor.[19] 'His +majesty's only fault was', he said, 'an inclination to learn the +art of magic, which was taught him by an old Hindoo religious +mendicant,' whose apartment near the palace he pointed out to +us.</p> + +<p>'Fortunately,' said our cicerone, 'the fellow died before the +Emperor had learnt enough to practise the art without his aid.'</p> + +<p>Shaikh Salīm had, he declared, gone more than twenty times +on pilgrimage to the tomb of the holy prophet; and was not much +pleased to have his repose so much disturbed by the noise and +bustle of the imperial court. At last, Akbar wanted to surround the +hill with regular fortifications, and the Shaikh could stand it no +longer.[20] 'Either you or I must leave this hill,' said he to the +Emperor; 'if the efficacy of my prayers is no longer to be relied +upon, let me depart in peace.' 'If it be <i>your majesty's</i> +will,' replied the Emperor, 'that one should go, let it be your +slave, I pray.' The old story: 'There is nothing like relying upon +the efficacy of our prayers,' say the priests, 'Nothing like +relying upon that of our sharp swords,' say the soldiers; and, as +nations advance from barbarism, they generally contrive to divide +between them the surplus produce of the land and labour of +society.</p> + +<p>The old hermit consented to remain, and pointed out Agra as a +place which he thought would answer the Emperor's purpose extremely +well. Agra, then an unpeopled waste, soon became a city, and +Fathpur- Sīkrī was deserted.[21] Cities which, like this, +are maintained by the public establishments that attend and +surround the courts of sovereign princes, must always, like this, +become deserted when these sovereigns change their resting-places. +To the history of the rise and progress, decline and fall, of how +many cities is this the key?</p> + +<p>Close to the tomb of the saint is another containing the remains +of a great number of his descendants, who continue to enjoy, under +the successors of Akbar, large grants of rent-free lands for their +own support, and for that of the mosque and mausoleum. These grants +have, by degrees, been nearly all resumed;[22] and, as the repair +of the buildings is now entrusted to the public officers of our +government, the surviving members of the saint's family, who still +reside among the ruins, are extremely poor. What strikes a European +most in going over these palaces of the Moghal Emperors is the want +of what a gentleman of fortune in his own country would consider +elegantly comfortable accommodations. Five hundred pounds a year +would at the present day secure him more of this in any civilized +country of Europe or America than the greatest of those Emperors +could command. He would, perhaps, have the same impression in going +over the domestic architecture of the most civilized nations of the +ancient world, Persia and Egypt, Greece and Rome.[23]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The Act of 1833 (3 & 4 William IV, c. 85), which +reconstituted the government of India, provided that the upper +Provinces should be formed into a separate Presidency under the +name of Agra, and Sir Charles Metcalfe was nominated as the first +Governor. On reconsideration, this arrangement was modified, and +instead of the Presidency of Agra, the Lieutenant-Governorship of +the North-Western Provinces was formed, with head-quarters at Agra. +Sir C. Metcalfe became Lieutenant-Governor in 1836, but held the +office for a short time only, until January, 1838, when Lord +Auckland, the Governor-General, took over temporary charge. The +seat of the Local Government was moved to Allahabad in 1868. From +1877 the Lieutenant- Governor of the North-Western Provinces was +also Chief Commissioner of Oudh. The name North-Western Provinces, +which had become unsuitable and misleading since the annexation of +the Panjāb in 1849, could not be retained after the formation +of the North-West Frontier Province in 1902. Accordingly, from that +year the combined jurisdiction of the North-Western Provinces and +Oudh received the new official name of the United Provinces of Agra +and Oudh. The title of Chief Commissioner of Oudh was dropped at +the same time, but the legal System and administration of the old +kingdom of Oudh continued to be distinct in certain respects.</p> + +<p>2. The civil establishment and garrison are still nearly the +same as in the author's time. The inland customs department is now +concerned only with the restrictions on the manufacture of salt. +The offices of district magistrate and collector of land revenue +have long been combined in a single officer.</p> + +<p>3. Akbar married the daughter of Bihārī Mal, chief of +Jaipur, in A.D. 1562. There is little doubt that she, <i>Mariam-uz- +Zamānī</i>, was the mother of Jahāngīr. See +Blochmann, transl. <i>Aīn</i>, vol. i, p. 619. Mr. Beveridge +has given up the opinion which he formerly advocated in +<i>J.A.S.B.</i>, vol. lvi (1887), Part I, pp. 164-7.</p> + +<p>The Jodhpur princess was given the posthumous title of +'Mariam-uz- Zamānī', or 'Mary of the age', which +circumstance probably originated the belief that Akbar had one +Christian queen. Her tomb at Sikandara is locally known simply as +Rauza Maryam, 'the mausoleum of Mary', a designation which has had +much to do with the persistence of the erroneous belief in the +existence of a Christian consort of Akbar. Mr. Beveridge holds, and +I think rightly, that Jodh Bāī is not a proper name. It +seems to mean merely 'princess of Jodhpur'. The only lady really +known as Jodh Bāī was the daughter of Udai Singh +(Mōth Rājā) of Jaipur, who became a consort of +Jahāngīr. Sleeman's notion that Jahāngīr's +mother also was called Jodh Bāī is mistaken (Blochmann, +<i>ut supra</i>).</p> + +<p>4. It was blown up about 1832 by order of the Government, and +the materials of the gates, walls, and outer towns were used for +the building of barracks. But the mausoleum itself resisted the +spoiler and remained 'a huge shapeless heap of massive fragments of +masonry'. The building consisted of a square room raised on a +platform with a vault below. The marble tomb or cenotaph of the +queen still exists in the vault. A fine gateway formerly stood at +the entrance to the enclosure, and there was a small mosque to the +west of the tomb (<i>A.S.R.</i> vol. iv. (1874), p. 121: Muh. +Latif, <i>Agra</i>, p. 192). It is painful to be obliged to record +so many instances of vandalism committed by English officials. This +tomb is the memorial of Jodh Bāī, daughter of Udai Singh, +<i>alias</i> Mōth Rājā, who was married to +Jahāngīr in A.D. 1585, and was the mother of Shāh +Jahān. Her personal names were Jagat Goshaini and +Bālmatī. She died in A.D. 1619. Akbar's queen, Maryam- +uz-Zamānī, daughter of Rājā Bihārī +Mall of Jaipur (Ambēr), who died in A.D. 1623, is buried at +Sīkandra. (See Beale, s.v. 'Jodh Bāī' and 'Mariam +Zamānī'; Blochmann, transl. <i>Aīn</i>, pp. 429, +619.) The tomb of Maryam-uz- Zamānī has been purchased by +Government from the missionaries, who had used it as a school, and +has been restored. (<i>Ann. Rep. A.S., India</i>, 1910-11, pp. +92-6.)</p> + +<p>5. Although it may be admitted that the Rājpūt strain +of blood improved the constitution of the royal family of Delhi, +the decline and fall of the Timuride dynasty cannot be truly +ascribed to 'the loss of the Rājpūt blood in the veins' +of the ruling princes. The empire was tottering to its fall long +before the death of Aurangzēb, who 'had himself married two +Hindoo wives; and he wedded his son Muazzam (afterwards the Emperor +Bahādur) to a Hindoo princess, as his forefathers had done +before him'. (Lane-Poole, <i>The History of the Moghul Emperors of +Hindustan illustrated by their Coins</i>, p. xviii. ) The wonder +is, not that the empire of Delhi fell, but that it lasted so +long.</p> + +<p>6. When the author wrote the above remarks, Englishmen knew the +gallant Gūrkhas as enemies only; they now know them as worthy +and equal brethren in arms. The recruitment of Gūrkhas for the +British service began in 1838. The spelling 'Gōrkhā' is +more accurate.</p> + +<p>7. The 'kōs' varies much in value, but in most parts of the +United Provinces it is reckoned as equal to two miles. According to +the <i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i> (p. 568), the nearest approximate value +for the Agra kōs is 1¾ mile. Three kōs would, +therefore, be equal to about 5¼ miles. Muīn-ud- +dīn died in A.D. 1236. Sleeman, on I know not what authority, +represents Akbar as resorting to Salīm Chishtī, Shaikh of +Fathpur- Sīkrī, on the advice given by a vision accorded +at Ajmēr. The <i>Tabaqāt-i-Akbarī</i> simply records +that Akbar had visited the Shaikh, the 'very holy old man' of +Sleeman, several times, and had obtained the promise of a son. That +promise was fulfilled by the birth of the princes Salīm and +Murād, who both saw the light at Fathpur-Sīkrī. The +pilgrimage of Akbar on foot to Ajmēr, which began on Friday, +Shabān (8th month) 12, A.H. 977, took place <i>after</i> the +birth of Prince Salīm, which occurred on the 18th of +Rabī-ul-auwwal (3rd month) of the same Hijrī year. Akbar +travelled at the rate of 7 or 8 <i>kōs</i> a day, and spent +about 25 days on the journey (E. & D. v. 333, 334). If he had +moved at the rate stated by Sleeman he would have been nearly three +months on the road. He reached Ajmēr about the middle of +February (N.S.). Shaikh Salīm Chishtī died in A.D. 1572 +(A. H. 979) aged 96 lunar years.</p> + +<p>8. Sir Thomas Roe was sent out by James I, and arrived at +Jahāngīr's court in January, 1616. He remained there till +1618, and secured for his countrymen the privilege of trading at +Surat. The best edition of his book is that by Mr. William Foster +(Hakluyt Soc., 1899).</p> + +<p>9. Fathpur-Sīkrī is fully described and illustrated in +the late Mr. E. W. Smith's fine work in quarto entitled <i>The +Moghul Architecture of Fathpur-Sīkrī</i> (4 Parts, +Allahabad Govt. Press, 1894-8), which supersedes all other writings +on the subject. The double name of the town means 'Fathpur at +Sīkrī' according to a familiar Indian practice. The name +Fathpur ('City of Victory') was bestowed in A.D. 1573 to +commemorate the glorious campaign in Gujarāt, but building on +the site had been begun in 1569. The historians usually call the +town simply Fathpur, which name also is found on the coinage, from +probably A.H. 977 (A.D. 1569-70). The mint was not in regular +working order until eight years later (A.H. 985). Coins continued +to be struck regularly at Fathpur until A.H. 989 (A.D. 1581-2). +Akbar abandoned his costly foundation a little later. The only coin +from the Fathpur mint of subsequent date is one of the first year +of Shāhjahān (Wright, <i>Catalogue of Coins in Indian +Museum, Mughal Emperors</i>, 1908, p. xlvii). But Rodgers believed +in the genuineness of a zodiacal gold coin of Jahāngīr +purporting to be struck at Fathpur (<i>J.A.S.B.</i>, vol. lvii +(1888), Part I, p. 26).</p> + +<p>10. Sleeman's dates and details require much correction. The +mosque was completed at some time in the year A.H. 979 (May 26, +1571, to May 13, 1572, o.s.), excepting the Buland Darwāza, +which was erected in A.H. 983 (1575-6). The 'old hermit', Shaikh +Salīm, died on February 13, 1572 (Ramazān 27, A.H. 979). +E. W. Smith (<i>op. cit.</i>, Part IV, p. 1) gives the correct +measurements as follow: 'Exclusive of the bastions upon the angles +it measures 542' from east to west to the outside of the +<i>līwān</i> or sanctuary, or 515' 3" to the outside of +the west main wall (which sets back from the outer wall of the +līwān) and 438' from north to south. The general plan +adopted by Muhammadans for their masjids has been followed. In the +centre is a vast courtyard open to the heavens, measuring 359' 10" +by 438' 9", surrounded on the north, south, and east sides by +spacious cloisters 38' 3" in depth, and on the west by the +līwān itself, 288' 2" in length by 65' deep. It is said +to be copied from one at Makka [Mecca], and was erected according +to a chronogram over the main arch in A.D. 1571, or at the same +time as Rajah Bir Bal's house.' The 'six years before his death' of +Sleeman's text should be 'six months' (Latif, <i>Agra</i>, p. +149).</p> + +<p>11. The southern portal, known as the Buland Darwāza, or +Lofty Gateway, does not match the other gateways. It was built in +A.D. 1575-6 (A.H. 983), and was adorned in A.D. 1601-2 (A.H. 1010) +with an inscription recording Akbar's triumphant return from his +campaign in the Deccan. The date is fixed by a chronogram, +preserved in Beale's work entitled <i>Miftāh-ul- +tawārīkh</i> (<i>Ann. Progr. Rep. A. S. Northern +Circle</i>, for 1905-6, p. 34, correcting E. W. Smith). Correct +measurements are:</p> + +<table align="center" border="1" width="70%" summary= +"dimensions of gateway"> +<tr> +<td>From roadway below to pavement</td> +<td> 42 feet</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>From pavement to top of finial</td> +<td>134 "</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Breadth across main front</td> +<td>130 "</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Breadth across back facing the mosque</td> +<td>123 "</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Depth</td> +<td> 88½ "</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Full details, with ample illustrations, are given by E. W. +Smith, op. cit., Part IV, chap. ii. In the original edition of +Sleeman a chromolithograph of the gateway is inserted. Photographs +are reproduced in <i>H.F.A.</i>, Pl. xcvi, and Fergusson, +<i>History of Indian and E. Archit.</i> (ed. 1910), fig. 425.</p> + +<p>12. Fergusson (ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 297) successfully justifies +the vast size of the gateway. 'The semi-dome is the modulus of the +design, and its scale that by which the imagination measures its +magnificence.'</p> + +<p>The cramped staircases criticized by Sleeman are those ascending +from the pavement to the roof, one on the north-west, and the other +on the north-east side of the gate. Each flight has 123 steep +steps.</p> + +<p>13. See the 105th chapter of the Korān. 'Hast thou not seen +how thy Lord dealt with the masters of the elephant? Did he not +make their treacherous design an occasion of drawing them into +error; and send against them flocks of <i>swallows</i> which cast +down upon them stones of baked clay, and rendered them like the +leaves of corn eaten by cattle?' [W. H. S.] The quotation is from +Sale's translation, but Sale uses the word 'birds', and not +'<i>swallows</i>'. In his note, where he tells the whole story, he +speaks of 'a large flock of birds like swallows'. The Arabic, +Persian, and Hindustānī dictionaries give no other word +than 'abābīl' for swallow. The word 'partādīl' +(purtadeel) occurs in none of them. According to Oates, <i>Fauna of +British India</i> (London, 1890), the 'abābīl' is the +common swallow, <i>Hirundo rustica</i>; and the 'mosque-swallow' +('masjid-abābīl'), otherwise called 'Sykes's striated +swallow', is the <i>H. erythropygia, H. Daurica</i> of Balfour, +<i>Cyclop. of India</i>, 3rd ed., s.v. Hirundinidae. This latter +species is the 'little piebald thing' mentioned by the author.</p> + +<p>14. Muh. Latif (Agra, pp. 146, 147) gives the text and English +rendering of the inscription, which is in Persian, except the +<i>logion</i> ascribed to Jesus, which is in Arabic. His +translation of the Jesus saying is as follows:</p> + +<p>'So said Jeans, on whom be peace! "The world is a bridge; pass +over it, but build no house on it. He who reflected on the +distresses of the Day of Judgement gained pleasure everlasting.</p> + +<p>'"Worldly pleasures are but momentary; spend, then, thy life in +devotion and remember that what remains of it is valueless".'</p> + +<p>Like the author, I am unable to trace the source of the +quotation. The inscription probably was recorded after Akbar's +breach with Islam, which may be dated from 1579 or 1580. When he +built the mosque, in 1571-5, he was still a devout Musalman, +although entertaining liberal opinions. He died on October 25, 1605 +(N.S.; October 15, O.S.)</p> + +<p>15. For a full account of the exquisite sepulchre of Shaikh +Salīm, see E. W. Smith, op. cit.. Part III, chap. ii. An +inscription over the doorway is dated A.H. 979 = 1571-2, the year +of the saint's death. The building, constructed regardless of +expense, must be somewhat later. 'As originally built by Akbar, the +tomb was of red sandstone, and the marble trellis-work, the chief +ornament of the tomb, was erected subsequently by the Emperor +Jahāngīr' (Latif, <i>Agra</i>, p. 144).</p> + +<p>16. The first plundering of Akbar's tomb at Sikandra by the +Jāts occurred in 1691 according to Manucci (<i>ante</i>, +chapter 51, note 29.). The outrages at Fathpur-Sīkrī seem +to have been later in date, and to have happened after the capture +of Agra in 1761 by Sūraj Mall, the famous Rājā of +Bhurtpore (Bharatpur). The Jāts retained possession of Agra +until 1774 (<i>I.G.</i>, 1908, vol. viii, p. 76). That is the +period while they reigned, to use the author's words. Tradition +affirms that daring that time they shot away the tops of the +minarets at the entrance to the Sikandra park; took the armour and +books of Akbar from his tomb, and sent them to Bharatpur, and also +melted down two silver doors at the Tāj, which had cost +Shāh Jahān more than 125,000 rupees (<i>N.W.P. +Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. vii, p. 619)</p> + +<p>17. We besieged and took Bharatpur in order to rescue the young +prince, our ally, from his uncle, who had forcibly assumed the +office of prime minister to his nephew. As soon as we got +possession, all the property we found, belonging either to the +nephew or the uncle, was declared to be prize-money, and taken for +the troops. The young prince was obliged to borrow an elephant from +the prize agents to ride upon. He has ever since enjoyed the whole +of the revenue of his large territory. [W. H. S.] The final siege +and capture of Bharatpur by Lord Combermere took place in January, +1826. The plundering, as Metcalfe observed, 'has been very +disgraceful, and has tarnished our well-earned honours'. All the +state treasures and jewels, amounting to forty-eight lākhs of +rupees, or say half a million of pounds sterling, which should have +been made over to the rightful Rājā, were treated as +lawful prize, and at once distributed among the officers and men. +Lord Combermere himself took six lākhs (Marshman, <i>History +of India</i>, ed., 1869, vol. ii, p. 409).</p> + +<p>18. The 'little dingy mosque' was built over the cave in which +the saint dwelt, and was presented to him by the local quarry-men. +It is therefore called The Stone-cutters' Mosque. It is fully +described by E. W. Smith, op. cit., Part IV. chap. iii. It is +earlier in date than any of Akbar's buildings, having been built in +A. H. 945 (A.D. 1538-9), a year after the saint had settled in the +'dangerous jungle' (<i>Progr. Rep. A. S. N. Circle</i>, 1905-6, p. +35).</p> + +<p>19. The people of India no doubt owed much of the good they +enjoyed under the long reign of Akbar to this most excellent woman, +who inspired not only her husband but the most able Muhammadan +minister that India has ever had, with feelings of universal +benevolence. It was from her that this great minister, Abūl +Fazl, derived the spirit that dictated the following passages in +his admirable work, the Aīn-i-Akbarī; 'Every sect becomes +infatuated with its particular doctrines; animosity and dissension +prevail, and each man deeming the tenets of his sect to be the +dictates of truth itself, aims at the destruction of all others, +vilifies reputation, stains the earth with blood, and has the +vanity to imagine that he is performing meritorious actions. Were +the voice of reason attended to, mankind would be sensible of their +error, and lament the weaknesses which led them to interfere in the +religious concerns of each other. Persecution, after all, defeats +its own end; it obliges men to conceal their opinions, but produces +no change in them.</p> + +<p>'Summarily, the Hindoos are religious, affable, courteous to +strangers, prone to inflict austerities on themselves, lovers of +justice, given to retirement, able in business, grateful, admirers +of truth, and of unbounded fidelity in all their dealings.</p> + +<p>'This character shines brightest in adversity. Their soldiers +know not what it is to fly from the field of battle; when the +success of the combat becomes doubtful, they dismount from their +horses, and throw away their lives in payment of the debt of +valour. They have great respect for their tutors; and make no +account of their lives when they can devote them to the service of +their God.</p> + +<p>'They consider the Supreme Being to be above all labour, and +believe Brahmā to be the creator of the world, Vishnu its +preserver, and Siva its destroyer. But one sect believes that God, +who hath no equal, appeared on earth under the three +above-mentioned forms, without having been thereby polluted in the +smallest degree, in the same manner as the Christians speak of the +Messiah; others hold that all these were only human beings, who, on +account of their sanctity and righteousness, were raised to these +high dignities.' [W. H. S.] The passage quoted is from Gladwin's +translation, vol. ii, p. 318 (4th ed., London, 1800). The wording +varies in different editions of Gladwin's work. A better version +will be found in Jarrett, transl. <i>Āīn</i> (Calcutta, +1894), vol. iii, p. 8.</p> + +<p>There is no substantial foundation for the author's statement +that Abūl Fazl learned his charity and toleration from the +Hindoo mother of Jahāngīr. The influences which really +moulded the opinions of both Abūl Fazl and his royal master +are well known. When Akbar and Abūl Fazl are compared with +Elizabeth and Burleigh, Philip II and Alva, or the other sovereigns +and ministers of the age in Europe, it seems to be little less than +a miracle that the Indian statesmen should have held and practised +the noble philosophy expounded in the above quotation from the +'Institutes of Akbar'. No man has deserved better than Akbar the +stately eulogy pronounced by Wordsworth on a hero now obscure:</p> + +<p> A meteor wert thou in a darksome +night;<br> + Yet shall thy name, conspicuous +and sublime,<br> + Stand in the spacious firmament +of time,<br> + Fixed as a star: such glory is thy +right.<br> + + (<i>Sonnets dedicated to Liberty</i>, Part Second, No. +XVII.)</p> + +<p>20. The story is absurd, the saint having died early in 1572, +when the Fathpur-Sīkrī buildings were in progress.</p> + +<p>'The city . . . is enclosed on three sides by high +embattlemented stone walls pierced by. . . gateways protected by +heavy and grim semi- circular bastions of rubble masonry. The +fourth side was protected by a large lake.' There were nine +gateways (E. W. Smith, op. cit., pp. 1, 59; pl. xci, xciii). The +Sangīn Burj, or Stone Tower, is a fine unfinished +fortification (ibid., p. 34). The dam of the lake burst in the 27th +year of the reign, A.D. 1582 (Latif, <i>Agra</i>, p. 159). The +circumference of the town is variously stated as either six or +seven miles.</p> + +<p>21. Akbar began the works at the fort of Agra in A.H. 972, +corresponding to A.D. 1564-65, several years before he began those +at Fathpur in A.D. 1569-70 (E. & D., vol. v, pp. 295, 332); and +the buildings at Agra and Fathpur were carried on concurrently. He +continued building at Fathpur nearly to the close of his reign. +Agra was never 'an unpeopled waste' during Akbar's reign. Sikandar +Lodī had made it his capital in A.D. 1501.</p> + +<p>22. That is to say, the grantees have now to pay land revenue, +or rent, to the state.</p> + +<p>23. No good general description of the buildings at Agra, +Sikandra, and Fathpur-Sīkrī exists. The following list +indicates the beat treatises available.</p> + +<p>(1) Syad Muhammad Latif—<i>Agra, Historical and +Descriptive., &c.</i>; 8vo, Calcutta, 1896, Useful, but crude +and badly illustrated.</p> + +<p>(2) E. W. Smith—<i>The Moghul Architecture of Fathpur- +Sikri</i>; 4 Parts, 4to, Government Press, Allahabad, 1894-8.</p> + +<p>(3) Same author—<i>Moghul Colour Decoration of Agra</i>; +4to, Government Press, Allahabad, 1901.</p> + +<p>(4) Same author—<i>Akbar's Tomb, Sikandarah</i>; +posthumous; 4to, Allahabad Government Press, 1909.</p> + +<p>The three works by Mr. E. W. Smith are magnificently illustrated +and worthy of the subject.</p> + +<p>(5) Nūr Baksh—'The Agra Fort and its Buildings', in +<i>A.S. Annual Report</i> for 1903-4, pp. 164-93.</p> + +<p>(6) Moin-ud-din—<i>The History of the Taj, &c.</i>; +thin 8vo, 116 pp.; Moon Press, Agra, 1905. Useful, as being the +only book devoted to the Tāj and connected buildings, but +crude and inadequate.</p> + +<p>The Archaeological Survey of India, since its reorganization, +has not had time to study the Tāj buildings, except for +conservation purposes. The report by Mr. Carlleyle on the minor +remains at and near Agra in <i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. iv, 1874, is almost +worthless.</p> + +<p>In 1873 Major Cole prepared a handsome volume entitled +<i>Illustrations of Buildings near Muttra and Agra, &c.</i></p> + +<p>Some information, to be used with caution, is to be found in +gazetteers of different dates.</p> + +<p>The brief observations in Fergusson's <i>History of Indian and +Eastern Architecture</i> (ed. 1910) are of permanent value. The +plan of the editor's work, <i>A History of Fine Art in India and +Ceylon</i> (H. F. A.), Oxford, 1911, does not permit of detailed +descriptions. The well-known little Handbook by Mr. H. G. Keene +contains many errors and is unworthy of the author's reputation as +an historian.</p> + +<p>A good guide-book, prepared with knowledge and accuracy, is +badly wanted. It would be difficult to find an author possessed of +the needful local knowledge and sufficiently well read to compile a +satisfactory book. An adequate illustrated history of the Tāj +buildings on the lines of Mr. E. W. Smith's work on Fathpur- +Sīkrī is much to be desired, but would be a formidable +undertaking, and is not likely to be written for a long time to +come. Perhaps some wealthy admirer of Akbar and his achievements +may appear and provide the considerable funds required for the +preparation of the desired treatise. The Christian antiquities of +Agra also deserve systematic treatment. At present the information +on record is in a chaotic state.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch55">CHAPTER 55</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Bharatpur—Dīg—Want of employment +for the Military and the Educated Classes under the Company's +Rule.</p> + +<p>Our old friends, Mr. Charles Fraser, the Commissioner of the +Agra Division, then on his circuit, and Major Godby, had come on +with us from Agra and made our party very agreeable. On the 9th, we +went fourteen miles to Bharatpur, over a plain of alluvial, but +seemingly poor, soil, intersected by one low range of sandstone +hills running north-east and south-west. The thick belt of jungle, +three miles wide, with which the chiefs of Bharatpur used to +surround their fortress while they were freebooters, and always +liable to be brought into collision with their neighbours, has been +fast diminishing since the capture of the place by our troops in +1826; and will very soon disappear altogether, and give place to +rich sheets of cultivation, and happy little village communities. +Our tents had been pitched close outside the Mathurā gate, +near a small grove of fruit- trees, which formed the left flank of +the last attack on this fortress by Lord Combermere.[1] Major Godby +had been present during the whole siege; and, as we went round the +place in the evening on our elephants, he pointed out all the +points of attack, and told all the anecdotes of the day that were +interesting enough to be remembered for ten years. We went through +the town, out at the opposite gate, and passed along the line of +Lord Lake's attack in 1805.[2] All the points of his attack were +also pointed out to us by our cicerone, an old officer in the +service of the Rājā. It happened to be the anniversary of +the first attempt to storm, which was made on the 9th of January, +thirty-one years before. One old officer told us that he remembered +Lord Lake sitting with three other gentlemen on chairs not more +than half a mile from the ramparts of the fort.</p> + +<p>The old man thought that the men of those days were quite a +different sort of thing to the men of the present day, as well +those who defended, as those who attacked the fort; and, if the +truth must be told, he thought that the European lords and +gentlemen had fallen off in the same scale as the rest.</p> + +<p>'But', said the old man, 'all these things are matter of destiny +and providence. Upon that very bastion (pointing to the right point +of Lord Lake's attack) stood a large twenty-four pounder, which was +loaded and discharged three times by supernatural agency during one +of your attacks—not a living soul was near it.' We all +smiled, incredulous; and the old man offered to bring a score of +witnesses to the fact, men of unquestionable veracity. The left +point of Lord Lake's attack was the Baldēo bastion, so called +alter Baldēo Singh, the second son of the then reigning chief, +Ranjīt Singh. The feats which Hector performed in the defence +of Troy sink into utter insignificance before those which +Baldēo performed in the defence of Bharatpur, according to the +best testimony of the survivors of that great day. 'But', said the +old man, 'he was, of course, acting under supernatural influence; +he condescended to measure swords only with Europeans'; and their +bodies filled the whole bastion in which he stood, according to the +belief of the people, though no European entered it, I believe, +during the whole siege. They pointed out to us where the different +corps were posted. There was one corps which had signalized itself +a good deal, but of which I had never before heard, though all +around me seemed extremely well acquainted with it—this was +the <i>Antā Gurgurs</i>. At last Godby came to my side, and +told me this was the name by which the Bombay troops were always +known in Bengal, though no one seemed to know whence it came. I am +disposed to think that they derive it from the peculiar form of the +caps of their sepoys, which are in form like the common hookah, +called a 'gurgurī', with a small ball at the top, like an +'antā', or tennis, or billiard ball; hence 'Antā +Gurgurs'. The Bombay sepoys were, I am told, always very angry when +they heard that they were known by this term—they have always +behaved like good soldiers, and need not be ashamed of this or any +other name.[3]</p> + +<p>The water in the lake, about a mile to the west of Bharatpur, +stands higher than the ground about the fortress; and a drain had +been opened, through which the water rushed in and filled the ditch +all round the fort and great part of the plain to the south and +east, before Lord Lake undertook the siege in 1805.[4] This water +might, I believe, have been taken off to the eastward into the +Jumna, had the outlet been discovered by the engineers. An attempt +was made to cut the same drain on the approach of Lord Combermere +in 1826; but a party went on, and stopped the work before much +water had passed, and the ditch was almost dry when the siege +began.</p> + +<p>The walls being all of mud, and now dismantled, had a wretched +appearance;[5] and the town which is contained within them is, +though very populous, a mere collection of wretched hovels; the +only respectable habitation within is the palace, which consists of +three detached buildings—one for the chief, another for the +females of his family, and the third for his court of justice, I +could not find a single trace of the European officers who had been +killed there, either at the first or second siege, though I had +been told that a small tomb had been built in a neighbouring grove +over the remains of Brigadier-General Edwards, who fell in the last +storm. It is, I believe, the only one that has ever been raised. +The scenes of battles fought by the Muhammadan conquerors of India +were commonly crowded with magnificent tombs, built over the slain, +and provided for a time with the means of maintaining holy men who +read the Korān over their graves. Not that this duty was +necessary for the repose of their souls, for every Muhammadan +killed in fighting against men who believed not in his prophet +went, as a matter of course, to paradise; and every unbeliever, +killed in the same action, went as surely to hell. There are only a +few hundred men, exclusive of the prophets, who, according to +Muhammad, have the first place in paradise—those who shared +in one or other of his first three battles, and believed in his +holy mission before they had the evidence of a single victory over +the unbelievers to support it. At the head of these are the men who +accompanied him in his flight from Mecca to Medina, when he had no +evidence either from <i>victories</i> or <i>miracles</i>. In all +such matters the less the evidence adduced in proof of a mission +the greater the merit of those who believe in it, according to the +person who pretends to it; and unhappily, the less the evidence a +man has for his faith, the greater is his anger against other men +for not joining in it with him. No man gets very angry with another +for not joining with him in his faith in the demonstration of a +problem in mathematics. Man likes to think that he is on the way to +heaven upon such easy terms; but gets angry at the notion that +others won't join him, because they may consider him an imbecile +for thinking that he is so. The Muhammadan generals and historians +are sometimes almost as concise as Caesar himself in describing +very conscientiously a battle of this kind; instead of 'I came, I +saw, I conquered', it is 'Ten thousand Musālmāns on that +day tasted of the blessed fruit of paradise, after sending fifty +thousand unbelievers to the flames of hell'.</p> + +<p>On the 10th we came on twelve miles to Kumbhīr, over a +plain of poor soil, much impregnated with salt, and with some works +in which salt is made, with solar evaporation. The earth is dug up, +water is filtered through it, and drawn off into small square beds, +where it is evaporated by exposure to the solar heat. The gate of +this fort leading out to the road we came is called, modestly +enough, after Kumbhīr, a place only ten miles distant; that +leading to Mathurā, three or four stages distant, is called +the Mathurā gate. At Delhi, the gates of the city walls are +called ostentatiously after distant places—the +<i>Kashmīr</i>, the <i>Kābul</i>, the +<i>Constantinople</i> gates. Outside the Kumbhīr gate, I saw, +for the first time in my life, the well peculiar to Upper India. It +is built up in the form of a round tower or cylindrical shell of +burnt bricks, well cemented with good mortar, and covered inside +and out with good stucco work, and let down by degrees, as the +earth is removed by men at work in digging under the light earthy +or sandy foundation inside and out. This well is about twenty feet +below and twenty feet above the surface, and had to be built higher +as it was let into the ground.[6]</p> + +<p>On the 11th we came on twelve miles to Dīg (Deeg), over a +plain of poor and badly cultivated soil, which must be almost all +under water in the rains. This was, and still is, the country seat +of the Jāts of Bharatpur, who rose, as I have already stated, +to wealth and power by aggressions upon their immediate neighbours, +and the plunder of tribute on its way to the imperial capital, and +of the baggage of passing armies during the contests for dominion +that followed the death of the Emperors, and during the decline and +fall of the empire. The Jāts found the morasses with which +they were surrounded here a source of strength. They emigrated from +the banks of the Indus about Multān, and took up their abode +by degrees on the banks of the Jumna, and those of the Chambal, +from their confluence upwards, where they became cultivators and +robbers upon a small scale, till they had the means to build +garrisons, when they entered the lists with princes, who were only +robbers upon a large scale. The Jāts, like the +Marāthās, rose, by a feeling of nationality, among a +people who had none. Single landholders were every day rising to +principalities by means of their gangs of robbers; but they could +seldom be cemented under one common head by a bond of national +feeling.</p> + +<p>They have a noble quadrangular garden at Dīg, surrounded by +a high wall. In the centre of each of the four faces is one of the +most beautiful Hindoo buildings for accommodation that I have ever +seen, formed of a very fine sandstone brought from the quarries of +Rūpbās, which he between thirty and forty miles to the +south, and eight or ten miles west of Fathpur-Sīkrī. +These stones are brought in in flags some sixteen feet long, from +two to three feet wide, and one thick, with sides as flat as glass, +the flags being of the natural thickness of the strata. The garden +is four hundred and seventy-five feet long, by three hundred and +fifty feet wide; and in the centre is an octagonal pond, with +openings on the four sides leading up to the four buildings, each +opening having, from the centre of the pond to the foot of the +flight of steps leading into them, an avenue of <i>jets +d'eau</i>.</p> + +<p>Dīg as much surpassed, as Bharatpur fell short of, my +expectations. I had seen nothing in India of architectural beauty +to be compared with the buildings in this garden, except at Agra. +The useful and the elegant are here everywhere happily blended; +nothing seems disproportionate, or unsuitable to the purpose for +which it was designed; and all that one regrets is that so +beautiful a garden should be situated in so vile a swamp.[7] There +was a general complaint among the people of the town of a want of +'rozgār' (employment), and its fruit, subsistence; the taking +of Bharatpur had, they said, produced a sad change among them for +the worse. Godby observed to some of the respectable men about us, +who complained of this, that happily their chief had now no enemy +to employ them against. 'But what', said they, 'is a prince without +an army? and why do you keep up yours now that all your enemies +have been subdued?' 'We want them', replied Godby, 'to prevent our +friends from cutting each other's throats, and to defend them all +against a foreign enemy.' 'True,' said they, 'but what are we to do +who have nothing but our swords to depend upon, now that our chief +no longer wants us, and you won't take us?' 'And what,' said some +shopkeepers, 'are we to do who provided these troops with clothes, +food, and furniture, which they can no longer afford to pay for?' +<i>Company ke amal men kuchh rozgār nahīn</i> ('Under the +Company's dominion there is no employment'). This is too true; we +do the soldiers' work with one-tenth of the soldiers that had +before been employed in it over the territories we acquire, and +turn the other nine-tenths adrift. They all sink into the lowest +class of religions mendicants, or retainers; or live among their +friends as drones upon the land; while the manufacturing, trading, +and commercial industry that provided them with the comforts, +conveniences, and elegancies of life while they were in a higher +grade of service is in its turn thrown out of employment; and the +whole frame of society becomes, for a time, deranged by the local +diminution in the demand <i>for the services of men and the produce +of their industry</i>.</p> + +<p>I say we do the soldiers' work with one-tenth of the numbers +that were formerly required for it. I will mention an anecdote to +illustrate this. In the year 1816 I was marching with my regiment +from the Nepāl frontier, after the war, to Allahabad. We +encamped about four miles from a mud fort in the kingdom of Oudh, +and heard the guns of the Amil, or chief of the district, playing +all day upon this fort, from which his batteries were removed at +least two miles. He had three regiments of infantry, a corps or two +of cavalry, and a good park of artillery; while the garrison +consisted of only about two hundred stout Rājpūt +landholders and cultivators, or yeomen. In the evening, just as we +had sat down to dinner, a messenger came to the commanding officer, +Colonel Gregory, who was a member of the mess, from the said Amil, +and begged permission to deliver his message in private. I, as the +senior staff officer, was requested to hear what he had to say.</p> + +<p>'What do you require from the commanding officer?'</p> + +<p>'I require the loan of the regiment.'</p> + +<p>'I know the commanding officer will not let you have the +regiment.'</p> + +<p>'If the Amil cannot get more, he will be glad to get two +companies; and I have brought with me this bag of gold, containing +some two or three hundred gold mohurs.'</p> + +<p>I delivered the message to Colonel Gregory, before all the +officers, who desired me to say that he could not spare a single +man, as he had no authority to assist the Amil, and was merely +marching through the country to his destination, I did so. The man +urged me to beg the commanding officer, if he could do no more, +merely to halt the next day where he was, and lend the Amil the use +of one of his drummers.</p> + +<p>'And what will you do with him?'</p> + +<p>'Why, just before daylight, we will take him down near one of +the gates of the fort, and make him beat his drum as hard as he +can; and the people within, thinking the whole regiment is upon +them, will make out as fast as possible at the opposite gate.'</p> + +<p>'And the bag of gold—what is to become of that?'</p> + +<p>'You and the old gentleman can divide it between you, and I will +double it for you, if you like.'</p> + +<p>I delivered the message before all the officers to their great +amusement; and the poor man was obliged to carry back his bag of +gold to the Amil. The Amil is the collector of revenues in Oudh, +and he is armed with all the powers of government, and has +generally several regiments and a train of artillery with him.</p> + +<p>The large landholders build these mud forts, which they defend +by their Rājpūt cultivators, who are among the bravest +men in the world. One hundred of them would never hesitate to +attack a thousand of the king's regular troops, because they know +the Amil would be ashamed to have any noise made about it at court; +but they know also that, if they were to beat one hundred of the +Company's troops, they would soon have a thousand upon them; and, +if they were to beat one thousand, they would soon have ten. They +provide for the maintenance of those who are wounded in their +fight, and for the widows and orphans of those who are killed. +Their prince provides for neither, and his soldiers are, +consequently, somewhat chary of fighting. It is from this +peasantry, the military cultivators of Oudh, that our Bengal native +infantry draws three out of four of its recruits, and finer young +men for soldiers can hardly anywhere be found.[8]</p> + +<p>The advantage which arises to society from doing the soldiers' +duty with a smaller number has never been sufficiently appreciated +in India; but it will become every day more manifest, as our +dominion becomes more and more stable—for men who have lived +by the sword do not in India like to live by anything else, or to +see their children anything but soldiers. Under the former +government men brought their own arms and horses to the service, +and took them away with them again when discharged. The supply +always greatly exceeded the demand for soldiers, both in the +cavalry and the infantry, and a very great portion of the men armed +and accoutred as soldiers were always without service, roaming over +the country in search of it. To such men the profession next in +rank after that of the soldier robbing in the service of the +sovereign was that of the robber plundering on his own account. +'<i>Materia munificentiae per bella et raptus. Nec arare terram, +aut expectare annum, tam facile persuaseris, quam vocare hostes et +vulnera mereri; pigrum quinimmo et iners videtur sudore acquirere, +quod possis sanguine parare.</i>' 'War and rapine supply the prince +with the means of his munificence. You cannot persuade the German +to cultivate the fields and wait patiently for the harvest so +easily as you can to challenge the enemy, and expose himself to +honourable wounds. They hold it to be base and dishonourable to +earn by the sweat of their brow what they might acquire by their +blood.'[9]</p> + +<p>The equestrian robber had his horse, and was called +'ghurāsī', horse-robber, a term which he never thought +disgraceful. The foot-robber under the native government stood in +the same relation to the horse-robber as the foot-soldier to the +horse- soldier, because the trooper furnished his own horses, arms, +and accoutrements, and considered himself a man of rank and wealth +compared with the foot-soldier; both, however, had the wherewithal +to rob the traveller on the highway; and, in the intervals between +wars, the high roads were covered with them. There was a time in +England, it is said, when the supply of clergymen was so great +compared with the demand for them, from the undue stimulus given to +clerical education, that it was not thought disgraceful for them to +take to robbing on the highway; and all the high roads were, in +consequence, infested by them.[10] How much more likely is a +soldier to consider himself justified in this pursuit, and to be +held so by the feelings of society in general, when he seeks in +vain for regular service under his sovereign and his viceroys.</p> + +<p>The individual soldiers not only armed, accoutred, and mounted +themselves, but they generally ranged themselves under leaders, and +formed well-organized bands for any purpose of war or plunder. They +followed the fortunes of such leaders whether in service or out of +it; and, when dismissed from that of their sovereign, they assisted +them in robbing on the highway, or in pillaging the country till +the sovereign was compelled to take them back, or give them estates +in rent-free tenure for their maintenance and that of their +followers.</p> + +<p>All this is reversed under our government. We do the soldiers' +work much better than it was ever before done with one- +tenth—nay, I may say, one-fiftieth—part of the numbers +that were employed to do it by our predecessors; and the whole +number of the soldiers employed by us is not equal to that of those +who were under them actually in the transition state, or on their +way from the place where they had lost service to the place where +they hoped to find it; extorting the means of subsistence either by +intimidation or by open violence. Those who are in this transition +state under us are neither armed, accoutred, nor mounted; we do not +disband en masse, we only dismiss individuals for offences, and +they have no leaders to range themselves under. Those who come to +seek our service are the sons of yeomen, bred up from their infancy +with all those feelings of deference for superiors which we require +in soldiers. They have neither arms, horses, nor accoutrements; +and, when they leave us permanently or temporarily, they take none +with them—they never rob or steal—they will often +dispute with the shopkeepers on the road about the price of +provisions, or get a man to carry their bundles gratis for a few +miles, but this is the utmost of their transgressions, and for +these things they are often severely handled by our police.</p> + +<p>It is extremely gratifying to an Englishman to hear the general +testimony borne by all classes of people to the merits of our rule +in this respect; they all say that no former government ever +devoted so much attention to the formation of good roads and to the +protection of those who travel on them; and much of the security +arises from the change I have here remarked in the character and +number of our military establishments. It is equally gratifying to +reflect that the advantages must go on increasing, as those who +have been thrown out of employment in the army find other +occupations for themselves and their children; for find them they +must or turn mendicants, if India should be blessed with a long +interval of peace. All soldiers under us who have served the +government faithfully for a certain number of years, are, when no +longer fit for the active duties of their profession, sent back +with the means of subsistence in honourable retirement for the rest +of their lives among their families and friends, where they form, +as it were, fountains of good feeling towards the government they +have served. Under former governments, a trooper was discharged as +soon as his horse got disabled, and a foot- soldier as soon as he +got disabled himself—no matter how—whether in the +service of the prince, or otherwise; no matter how long they had +served, whether they were still fit for any other service or not. +Like the old soldier in <i>Gil Blas</i>, they tumed robbers on the +highway, where they could still present a spear or a matchlock at a +traveller, though no longer deemed worthy to serve in the ranks of +the army. Nothing tended so much to the civilization of Europe as +the substitution of standing armies for militia; and nothing has +tended so much to the improvement of India under our rule.</p> + +<p>The troops to which our standing armies in India succeeded were +much the same in character as those licentious bodies to which the +standing armies of the different nations of Europe succeeded; and +the result has been, and will, I hope, continue to be the same, +highly beneficial to the great mass of the people.</p> + +<p>By a statute of Elizabeth it was made a capital offence, felony +without benefit of clergy, for soldiers or sailors to beg on the +high roads without a pass; and I suppose this statute arose from +their frequently robbing on the highways in the character of +beggars.[11] There must at that time have been an immense number of +soldiers in the transition state in England; men who disdained the +labours of peaceful life, or had by long habit become unfitted for +them. Religions mendicity has hitherto been the great safety valve +through which the unquiet transition spirit has found vent under +our strong and settled government. A Hindoo of any caste may become +a religious mendicant of the two great monastic orders—of +Gosāins, who are disciples of Siva, and Bairāgīs, +who are disciples of Vishnu; and any Muhammadan may become a +Fakīr; and Gosāins, Bairāgīs, and Fakīrs, +can always secure, or extort, food from the communities they +visit.[12]</p> + +<p>Still, however, there is enough of this unquiet transition +spirit left to give anxiety to a settled government; for the moment +insurrection breaks out at any point, from whatever cause, to that +point thousands are found flocking from north, east, west, and +south, with their arms and their horses, if they happen to have +any, in the hope of finding service either under the local +authorities or the insurgents themselves; as the troubled winds of +heaven rush to the point where the pressure of the atmosphere has +been diminished.[13]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. On the sieges of Bharatpur see <i>ante</i>, chapter 17, note +9.</p> + +<p>2. In the original edition the year is misprinted 1804, though +the correct date is indicated by the phrase 'thirty-one years +before'. The operations on January 9, 1805, are described in +considerable detail in Thornton's history, and Pearse, <i>The Life +and Military Services of Viscount Lake</i> (Blackwood, 1908). +Dīg was taken on December 24, 1804, and Lord Lake's army moved +from Mathurā towards Bharatpur on January 1, 1805.</p> + +<p>3. The Bombay column joined Lord Lake on February 11, and took +part in the third and fourth assaults on the fortress.</p> + +<p>4. As in the previous passage, this date is printed 1804 in the +original edition.</p> + +<p>5. They have been repaired to some extent, and the town has +improved much since the author's time.</p> + +<p>6. That is to say, the well-cylinder is gradually sunk by its +own weight, aided, if necessary, by heavy additional weights piled +upon it. The sinking often takes many months, and is continued till +a suitable resting-place is found. The cylinder is built on a +strong ring of timber. Indian bridge-piers commonly rest on wells +of this kind. The ring is sometimes made of iron. Such a method of +sinking is possible only in deep alluvium, free from rock, and +consequently had not been seen in the Sāgar and Nerbudda +territories.</p> + +<p>7. In the original edition Dīg is illustrated by four +coloured plates. The buildings are all the work of Sūraj Mal, +the virtual founder of the Bharatpur dynasty, between A.D. 1725 and +1763. The palace wants, say Fergusson, 'the massive character of +the fortified palaces of other Rājpūt states, but for +grandeur of conception and beauty of detail it surpasses them all. +. . . The greatest defect of the palace is that the style, when it +was erected, was losing its true form of lithic propriety. The +forms of its pillars and their ornaments are better suited for wood +or metal than for stone architecture.' It is a 'fairy creation'. +(<i>History of Indian and Eastern Architecture</i>, ed. 1910, vol. +ii, pp. 178- 81.)</p> + +<p>8. On these topics see the 'Journey through the Kingdom of +Oude', <i>passim</i>. The composition of the Bengal army has been +much changed.</p> + +<p>9. The quotation is from the end of chapter 14 of the +<i>Germania</i> of Tacitus.</p> + +<p>10. This picture of English roads infested by clergymen turned +highwaymen is not to be found in the ordinary histories.</p> + +<p>11. The Act alluded to probably is 14 Elizabeth, c. 5. Other +Acts of the same reign dealing with vagrancy and the first poor-law +are 39 Elizabeth, c. 3, and 43 Elizabeth, c. 2 (A.D. 1601). In 1595 +vagrancy had assumed such alarming proportions in London that a +provost- marshal was appointed to give the wanderers the short +shrift of martial law. The course of legislation on the subject is +summarized in the article 'Poor Laws' in Chambers's +<i>Encyclopaedia</i> (1904), and the articles 'Poor-Law and +Vagrancy' in the <i>Encyclopaedia Britannica</i>, 11th ed., 1910. +See also the chapter entitled 'The England of Elizabeth' in Green's +History of the English People.</p> + +<p>12. As already observed, chapter 29, note 12, the term +Gosāin is by no means restricted to the special devotees of +Siva; many Gosāins—for example, those in Bengal and +those at Gokul in the Mathurā district—are followers of +Vishnu. The term 'fakīr' is vaguely used, and often applied to +Hindoos.</p> + +<p>13. Even still, something of this unquiet spirit hovers about +India, and the incompatibility between the ideas of +twentieth-century Englishmen and those of Indian peoples whose +mental attitude approaches that of Europeans of the twelfth century +is a perennial source of unrest.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch56">CHAPTER 56</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Govardhan, the Scene of Krishna's Dalliance with +the Milkmaids.</p> + +<p>On the 10th[1] we came on ten miles over a plain to Govardhan, a +place celebrated in ancient history as the birthplace of Krishna, +the seventh incarnation of the Hindoo god of preservation, Vishnu, +and the scene of his dalliance with the milkmaids +(<i>gōpīs</i>); and, in modern days, as the +burial—or burning-place of the Jāt chiefs of Bharatpur +and Dīg, by whose tombs, with their endowments, this once +favourite abode of the god is prevented from being entirely +deserted.[2] The town stands upon a narrow ridge of sandstone +hills, about ten miles long, rising suddenly out of an alluvial +plain and running north-east and south-west. The population is now +very small, and composed chiefly of Brahmans, who are supported by +the endowments of these tombs, and the contributions of a few +pilgrims. All our Hindoo followers were much gratified as we +happened to arrive on a day of peculiar sanctity; and they were +enabled to bathe and perform their devotions to the different +shrines with the prospect of great advantage. This range of hills +is believed by Hindoos to be part of a fragment of the +Himālaya mountains which Hanumān, the monkey general of +Rāma, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, was taking down to aid +his master in the formation of his bridge from the continent to the +island of Ceylon, when engaged in the war with the demon king of +that island for the recovery of his wife Sītā. He made a +false step by some accident in passing Govardhan, and this small +bit of his load fell off. The rocks begged either to be taken on to +the god Rāma, or back to their old place; but Hanumān was +hard pressed for time, and told them not to be uneasy, as they +would have a comfortable resting-place, and be worshipped by +millions in future ages—thus, according to popular belief, +foretelling that it would become the residence of a future +incarnation, and the scene of Krishna's miracles. The range was +then about twenty miles long, ten having since disappeared under +the ground. It was of full length during Krishna's days; and, on +one occasion, he took up the whole upon his little finger to defend +his favourite town and its milkmaids from the wrath of Indra, who +got angry with the people, and poured down upon them a shower of +burning ashes.</p> + +<p>As I rode along this range, which rises gently from the plains +at both ends and abruptly from the sides, with my groom by my side, +I asked him what made Hanumān drop all his burthen here.</p> + +<p>'<i>All</i> his burthen!' exclaimed he with a smile; 'had it +been all, would it not have been an immense mountain, with all its +towns and villages? while this is but an insignificant belt of +rock. A mountain upon the back of men of former days, sir, was no +more than a bundle of grass upon the back of one of your +grass-cutters in the present day.'</p> + +<p> Nathū, whose mind had been full of the wonders of +this place from his infancy, happened to be with us, and he now +chimed in.</p> + +<p>'It was night when Hanumān passed this place, and the lamps +were seen burning in a hundred towns upon the mountain he had upon +his back—the people were all at their usual occupations, +quite undisturbed; this is a mere fragment of his great +burthen.'</p> + +<p>'And how was it that the men of those towns should have been so +much smaller than the men who carried them?' 'God only knew; but +the fact of the men of the plains having been so large was +undisputed—their beards were as many miles long as those of +the present day are inches. Did not Bhīm throw the forty-cubit +stone pillar, that now stands at Eran,[3] a distance of thirty +miles, after the man who was running away with his cattle?'</p> + +<p> I thought of poor Father Gregory at Agra, and the heavy +sigh he gave when asked by Godby what progress he was making among +the people in the way of conversion.[4] The faith of these people +is certainly larger than all the mustard-seeds in the world.</p> + +<p>I told a very opulent and respectable Hindoo banker one day that +it seemed to us very strange that Vishnu should come upon the earth +merely to sport with milkmaids, and to hold up an umbrella, however +large, to defend them from a shower. 'The earth, sir,' said he, +'was at that time infested with innumerable demons and giants, who +swallowed up men and women as bears swallow white ants; and his +highness, Krishna, came down to destroy them. His own mother's +brother, Kans, who then reigned at Mathurā over Govardhan, was +one of these horrible demons. Hearing that his sister would give +birth to a son that was to destroy him, he put to death several of +her progeny as soon as they were born.[5] When Krishna was seven +days old, he sent a nurse, with poison on her nipple, to destroy +him likewise; but his highness gave such a pull at it, that the +nurse dropped down dead. In falling, she resumed her real shape of +a she- demon, and her body covered no less than six square miles, +and it took several thousand men to cut her up and burn her, to +prevent the pestilence that must have followed. His uncle then sent +a crane, which caught up his highness, who always looked very small +for his age, and swallowed him as he would swallow a frog. But his +highness kicked up such a rumpus in the bird's stomach that he was +immediately thrown up again. When he was seven years old his uncle +invited him to a feast, and got the largest and most ferocious +elephant in India to tread him to death as he alighted at the door. +His highness, though then not higher than my waist, took the +enormous beast by one tusk, and, after whirling him round in the +air with one hand half a dozen times, he dashed him on the ground +and killed him.[6] Unable any longer to stand the wickedness of his +uncle, he seized him by the beard, dragged him from his throne, and +dashed him to the ground in the same manner.'</p> + +<p>I thought of poor old Father Gregory and the mustard-seeds +again, and told my rich old friend that it all appeared to us +indeed passing strange.</p> + +<p>The orthodox belief among the Muhammadans is that Moses was +sixty yards high; that he carried a mace sixty yards long; and that +he sprang sixty yards from the ground when he aimed the fatal blow +at the giant Ūj, the son of Anak, who came from the land of +Canaan, with a mountain on his back, to crush the army of +Israelites. Still, the head of his mace could reach only to the +ankle-bone of the giant. This was broken with the blow. The giant +fell, and was crushed under the weight of his own mountain. Now a +person whose ankle-bone was one hundred and eighty yards high must +have been almost as prodigious as he who carried the fragment of +the Himālaya upon his back; and he who believes in the one +cannot fairly find fault with his neighbour for believing in the +other.[7] I was one day talking with a very sensible and +respectable Hindoo gentleman of Bundēlkhand about the accident +which made Hanumān drop this fragment of his load at +Govardhan. 'All doubts upon that point,' said the old gentleman, +'have been put at rest by holy writ. It is related in our +scriptures.</p> + +<p>'Bharat, the brother of Rāma, was left regent of the +kingdom of Ajodhya,[8] during his absence at the conquest of +Ceylon. He happened at night to see Hanumān passing with the +mountain upon his back, and thinking he might be one of the king of +Ceylon's demons about mischief, he let fly one of his blunt arrows +at him. It hit him on the leg, and he fell, mountain and all, to +the ground. As he fell, he called out in his agony, 'Rām, +Rām', from which Bharat discovered his mistake. He went up, +raised him in his arms, and with his kind attentions restored him +to his senses. Learning from him the object of his journey, and +fearing that his wounded brother Lachhman would die before he could +get to Ceylon with the requisite remedy, he offered to send +Hanumān on upon the barb of one of his arrows, mountain and +all. To try him Hanumān took up his mountain and seated +himself with it upon the barb of the arrow as desired. Bharat +placed the arrow to the string of his bow, and drawing it till the +barb touched the bow, asked Hanumān whether he was ready. +'Quite ready,' said Hanumān, 'but I am now satisfied that you +really are the brother of our prince, and regent of his kingdom, +which was all I desired. Pray let me descend; and be sure that I +shall be at Ceylon in time to save your wounded brother.' He got +off, knelt down, placed his forehead on Bharat's feet in +submission, resumed his load, and was at Ceylon by the time the day +broke next morning, leaving behind him the small and insignificant +fragment, on which the town and temples of Govardhan now stand.</p> + +<p>'While little Krishna was frisking about among the milkmaids of +Govardhan,' continued my old friend, 'stealing their milk, cream, +and butter, Brahmā, the creator of the universe, who had heard +of his being an incarnation of Vishnu, the great preserver of the +universe, visited the place, and had some misgivings, from his size +and employment, as to his real character. To try him, he took off +through the sky a herd of cattle, on which some of his favourite +playmates were attending, old and young, boys and all. Krishna, +knowing how much the parents of the boys and owners of the cattle +would be distressed, created, in a moment, another herd and other +attendants so exactly like those that Brahmā had taken, that +the owners of the one, and the parents of the other, remained +ignorant of the change. Even the new creations themselves remained +equally ignorant; and the cattle walked into their stalls, and the +boys into their houses, where they recognized and were recognized +by their parents, as if nothing had happened.</p> + +<p>'Brahmā was now satisfied that Krishna was a true +incarnation of Vishnu, and restored to him the real herd and +attendants. The others were removed out of the way by Krishna, as +soon as he saw the real ones coming back.'</p> + +<p>'But,' said I to the good old man, who told me this with a grave +face, 'must they not have suffered in passing from the life given +to death; and why create them merely to destroy them again?'</p> + +<p>'Was he not God the Creator himself?' said the old man; 'does he +not send one generation into the world after another to fulfil +their destiny, and then to return to the earth from which they +came, just as he spreads over the land the grass and corn? All is +gathered in its season, or withers as that passes away and dies.' +The old gentleman might have quoted Wordsworth:</p> + +<p> + + We die, +my friend,<br> + Nor we alone, +but that which each man loved<br> + And prized in +his peculiar nook of earth<br> + Dies with +him, or is changed; and very soon,<br> + Even of the +good is no memorial left.[9]</p> + +<p>I was one day out shooting with my friend, the Rājā of +Maihar,[10] under the Vindhya range, which rises five or six +hundred feet, almost perpendicularly. He was an excellent shot with +an English double-barrel, and had with him six men just as good. I +asked him whether we were likely to fall in with any hares, using +the term 'khargosh', or 'ass-eared'.</p> + +<p>'Certainly not,' said the Rājā, 'if you begin by +abusing them with such a name; call them "lambkanās", sir, +"long-eared", and we shall get plenty.'</p> + +<p>He shot one, and attributed my bad luck to the opprobrious name +I had used. While he was reloading, I took occasion to ask him how +this range of hills had grown up where it was.</p> + +<p>'No one can say,' replied the Rājā, 'but we believe +that when Rāma went to recover his wife Sītā from +the demon king of Ceylon, Rāvan, he wanted to throw a bridge +across from the continent to the island, and sent some of his +followers up to the Himālaya mountains for stones. He had +completed his bridge before they all returned, and a messenger was +sent to tell those who had not yet come to throw down their +burdens, and rejoin him in all haste. Two long lines of these +people had got thus far on their return when the messenger met +them. They threw down their loads here, and here they have remained +ever since, one forming the Vindhya range to the north of this +valley, and the other the Kaimūr range to the south.'</p> + +<p>The Vindhya range extends from Mirzapore, on the Ganges, nearly +to the Gulf of Cambay, some six or seven hundred miles, so that my +sporting friend's faith was as capacious as any priest could well +wish it; and those who have it are likely never to die, or suffer +much, from an over stretch of the reasoning faculties in a hot +climate.</p> + +<p>The town stands upon the belt of rocks, about two miles from its +north-eastern extremity; and in the midst is the handsome tomb of +Ranjit Singh, who defended Bharatpur so bravely against Lord Lake's +army.[11] The tomb has on one side a tank filled with water, and, +on the other, another much deeper than the first, but without any +water at all. We were surprised at this, and asked what the cause +could be. The people told us, with the air of men who had never +known what it was to feel the uneasy sensation of doubt, that +'Krishna, one hot day, after skying with the milkmaids, had drunk +it all dry; and that no water would ever stay in it, lest it might +be quaffed by less noble lips'. No orthodox Hindoo would ever for a +moment doubt that this was the real cause of the phenomenon. Happy +people! How much do they escape of that pain which in hot climates +wears us all down in our efforts to trace moral and physical +phenomena to their real causes and sources! Mind! mind! mind! +without any of it, those Europeans who eat and drink moderately +might get on very well in this climate. Much of it weighs them +down.</p> + +<p> Oh, sir, the good die first, +and those whose hearts (<i>brains</i>)<br> + Are dry as summer dust burn to +the socket.[12]</p> + +<p>One is apt sometimes to think that Muhammad, Manu, and Confucius +would have been great benefactors in saving so many millions of +their species from the pain of thinking too much in hot climates, +if they had only written their books in languages less difficult of +acquirement. Their works are at once 'the bane and antidote' of +despotism—the source whence it comes, and the shield which +defends the people from its consuming fire.</p> + +<p>The tomb of Sūraj Mall, the great founder of the Jāt +power at Bharatpur, stands on the north-east extremity of this belt +of rocks, about two miles from the town, and is an extremely +handsome building, conceived in the very best taste, and executed +in the very best style.[13] With its appendages of temples and +smaller tombs, it occupies the whole of one side of a magnificent +tank full of clear water; and on the other side it looks into a +large and beautiful garden. All the buildings and pavements are +formed of the fine white sandstone of Rūpbās, scarcely +inferior either in quality or appearance to white marble. The stone +is carved in relief with flowers in good taste. In the centre of +the tomb is the small marble slab covering the grave, with the two +feet of Krishna carved in the centre, and around them the emblems +of the god, the discus, the skull, the sword, the rosary. These +emblems of the god are put on that people may have something godly +to fix their thoughts upon. It is by degrees, and with fear and +trembling, that the Hindoos imitate the Muhammadans in the +magnificence of their tombs. The object is ostensibly to keep the +ground on which the bodies have been burned from being defiled; and +generally Hindoos have been content to raise small open terraces of +brick and stucco work over the spot, with some image or emblem of +the god upon it. The Jāts here, like the princes and +Gosāins in Bundēlkhand, have gone a stage beyond this, +and raised tombs equal in costliness and beauty to those over +Muhammadans of the highest rank; still they do not venture to leave +it without a divine image or emblem, lest the gods might become +jealous, and revenge themselves upon the souls of the deceased and +the bodies of the living. On one side of Sūraj Mall's tomb is +that of his wife, or some other female member of his family; and +upon the slab over her grave, that is, over the precise spot where +she was burned, are the same emblems, except the sword, for which a +necklace is substituted. At each end of this range of tombs stands +a temple dedicated to Baldēo, the brother of Krishna; and in +one of them I found his image, with large eyes, a jet black +complexion, and an <i>African countenance</i>. Why is this that +Baldēo should be always represented of this countenance and +colour, and his brother Krishna, either white, or of an azure +colour, and the <i>Caucasian countenance</i>?[14] The inside of the +tomb is covered with beautiful snow-white stucco work that +resembles the finest marble; but this is disfigured by wretched +paintings, representing, on one side of the dome, Sūraj Mall +in 'darbār', smoking his hookah, and giving orders to his +ministers; in another, he is at his devotions; on the third, at his +sports, shooting hogs and deer; and on the fourth, at war, with +some French officers of distinction figuring before him. He is +distinguished by his portly person in all, and by his favourite +light-brown dress in three places. At his devotions he is standing +all in white before the tutelary god of his house, Hardēo.[15] +In various parts, Krishna is represented at his sports with the +milkmaids. The colours are gaudy, and apparently as fresh as when +first put on eighty years ago; but the paintings are all in the +worst possible taste and style.[16] Inside the dome of Ranjīt +Singh's tomb the siege of Bharatpur is represented in the same rude +taste and style. Lord Lake is dismounted, and standing before his +white horse giving orders to his soldiers. On the opposite side of +the dome, Ranjīt Singh, in a plain white dress, is standing +erect before his idol at his devotions, with his ministers behind +him. On the other two sides he is at his favourite field sports. +What strikes one most in all this is the entire absence of +priestcraft. He wanted all his revenue for his soldiers; and his +tutelary god seems, in consequence, to have been well pleased to +dispense with the mediatory services of priests.[17] There are few +temples anywhere to be seen in the territories of these Jāt +chiefs; and, as few of their subjects have yet ventured to follow +them in this innovation upon the old Hindoo usages of building +tombs,[18] the countries under their dominion are less richly +ornamented than those of their neighbours. Those who build tombs or +temples generally surround them with groves of mango and other fine +fruit-trees, with good wells to supply water for them, and, if they +have the means, they add tanks, so that every religions edifice, or +work of ornament, leads to one or more of utility. So it was in +Europe; often the Northern hordes swept away all that had grown up +under the institution of the Romans and the Saracens; for almost +all the great works of ornament and utility, by which these +countries became first adorned and enriched, had their origin in +church establishments. That portion of India, where the greater +part of the revenue goes to the priesthood, will generally be much +more studded with works of ornament and utility than that in which +the greater part goes to the soldiery. I once asked a Hindoo +gentleman, who had travelled all over India, what part of it he +thought most happy and beautiful. He mentioned some part of +Southern India, about Tanjore, I think, where you could hardly go a +mile without meeting some happy procession, or coming to a temple +full of priests, or find an acre of land uncultivated.</p> + +<p>The countries under the Marāthā Government improved +much in appearance, and in happiness, I believe, after the mayors +of the palace, who were Brahmans, assumed the Government, and put +aside the Sātārā Rajas, the descendants of the great +Sivājī.[19] Wherever they could, they conferred the +Government of their distant territories upon Brahmans, who filled +all the high offices under them with men of the same caste, who +spent the greater part of their incomes in tombs, temples, groves, +and tanks, that embellished and enriched the face of the country, +and thereby diffused a taste for such works generally among the +people they governed. The appearance of those parts of the +Marāthā dominion so governed is infinitely superior to +that of the countries governed by the leaders of the military +class, such as Sindhia, Holkār, and the Bhonslā, whose +capitals are still mere standing camps—a collection of +hovels, and whose countries are almost entirely devoid of all those +works of ornament and utility that enrich and adorn those of their +neighbours.[20] They destroyed all they found in those countries +when they conquered them; and they have had neither the wisdom nor +the taste to raise others to supply their places. The Sikh +Government is of exactly the same character; and the countries they +governed have, I believe, the same wretched appearance—they +are swarms of human locusts, who prey upon all that is calculated +to enrich and embellish the face of the land they infest, and all +that can tend to improve men in their social relations, and to link +their affection to their soil and their government.[21] A Hindoo +prince is always running to the extreme; he can never take and keep +a middle course. He is either ambitious, and therefore appropriates +all his revenues to the maintenance of soldiers, to pour out in +inroads upon his neighbours; or he is superstitions, and devotes +all his revenue to his priesthood, who embellish his country at the +same time that they weaken it, and invite invasion, as their prince +becomes less and less able to repel it.</p> + +<p>The more popular belief regarding this range of sandstone hills +at Govardhan is that Lachhman, the brother of Rāma, having +been wounded by Rāvan, the demon king of Ceylon, his surgeon +declared that his wound could be cured only by a decoction of the +leaves of a certain tree, to be found in a certain hill in the +Himālaya mountains. Hanumān volunteered to go for it, but +on reaching the place he found that he had entirely forgotten the +description of the tree required; and, to prevent mistake, he took +up the whole mountain upon his back, and walked off with it to the +plains. As he passed Govardhan, where Bharat and Charat, the third +and fourth brothers of Rāma, then reigned, he was seen by +them.[22] It was night; and, thinking him a strange sort of fish, +Bharat let fly one of his arrows at him. It hit him in the leg, and +the sudden jerk caused this small fragment of his huge burden to +fall off. He called out in his agony, 'Rām, Rām', from +which they learned that he belonged to the army of their brother, +and let him pass on; but he remained lame for life from the wound. +This accounts very satisfactorily, according to popular belief, for +the halting gait of all the monkeys of that species;[23] those who +are descended lineally from the general inherit it, of course; and +those who are not, adopt it out of respect for his memory, as all +the soldiers of Alexander contrived to make one shoulder higher +than the other, because one of his happened to be so. When he +passed, thousands and tens of thousands of lamps were burning upon +his mountain, as the people remained entirely unconscious of the +change, and at their usual occupations. Hanumān reached Ceylon +with his mountain, the tree was found upon it, and Lachhman's wound +cured.[24]</p> + +<p>Govardhan is now within the boundary of our territory, and a +native collector resides here from Agra.[25]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. January, 1836.</p> + +<p>2. See note on Govardhan, <i>ante</i>, chapter 53, note 1.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Ante</i>, chapter 9, note 8.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Ante</i>, beginning of chapter 53.</p> + +<p>5. This Hindoo version of the Massacre of the Innocents +necessarily recalls to mind the story in St. Matthew's Gospel. +Numerous incidents of the Gospel narrative, including the birth +among the cattle, the stable, the manger, and the imperial census, +are repeated in the Indian legends of Krishna. The exact channel of +communication is not known, but the intercourse between Alexandria +and India is, in general terms, the explanation of the coincidences +(Weber, <i>Die Griechen in Indien</i>, 1890, and <i>Abh. über +Krishna's Geburtfest</i>, 1868).</p> + +<p>6. This story may be an adaptation of the similar Buddhist +tale.</p> + +<p>7. Ūj is the Og, King of Bashan, of the Hebrew version of +the legend. The extravagant stories quoted in the text are not in +the Korān, but are the inventions of the commentators. Sale +gives references in his notes to chap. 5 of the Korān.</p> + +<p>8. The kingdom included the modern Oudh (Awadh). The capital was +the ancient city, also named Ajodhya, adjoining Fyzabad, which is +still a very sacred place of pilgrimage.</p> + +<p>9. It is, I think, absolutely impossible for the most +sympathetic European to understand, or enter into, the mental +position of the learned and devout Hindoo who implicitly believes +the wild myth related in the text, and sees no incongruity in the +congeries of inconsistent ideas which are involved in the story. We +may dimly apprehend that Brahmā is conceived as a +δημιουργός, +or Architect of the Universe, working in subordination to an +impersonal higher power, and not as the infinite, omniscient, +omnipotent Creator whom the Hebrews reverenced, but we shall still +be a long way from attaining the Hindoo point of view. The +relations of Krishna, Vishnu, Brahma, Rāma, Siva, and all the +other deities, with one another and with mankind, seem to be +conceived by the Hindoo in a manner so confused and contradictory +that every attempt at elucidation or explanation must necessarily +fail. A Hindoo is born, not made, and the 'inwardness' of Hinduism +is not to be penetrated, even by the most learned of 'barbarian' +pundits.</p> + +<p>10. <i>Ante</i>, chapter 20, note 6.</p> + +<p>11. Rājā of Bharatpur, not to be confounded with the +Lion of the Panjāb.</p> + +<p>12. Wordsworth, <i>Excursion</i>, Book I.</p> + +<p>13. The original edition gives a coloured plate of this tomb, +which is not noticed by Fergusson. That author's remarks on the +palace at Dīg would apply to this tomb also; the style is +good, but not quite the best. Sūraj Mall was killed in a +skirmish in 1763.</p> + +<p>14. Baldēo, or in Sanskrit Bāladeva, Bālabhadra, +or Bālarāma, was the elder brother of Krishna. His myth +in some respects resembles that of Herakles, as that of Krishna is +related to the myths of Apollo. The editor is not able to solve the +queries propounded by the author.</p> + +<p>15. i.e. Hari deva, a form of Vishnu. The temple of Hari deva at +Govardhan was built about A.D. 1560. (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st +ed., vol. viii, p. 94.)</p> + +<p>16. Modern India shows little appreciation of good art, and the +paintings ordinarily executed for decorative purposes are as crude +as those described by the author. A school of clever artists in +Bengal is doing something to raise the public taste. The high merit +of the ancient Indian paintings at Ajantā and elsewhere is now +fully recognized. A great revival of pictorial art took place about +A.D. 1570 in the reign of Akbar. From that date the Indo-Persian +and Indian schools of painting maintained a high standard of +excellence, especially in portraiture, for a century approximately. +During the eighteenth century marked deterioration may be observed. +See <i>A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon</i>, Oxford, +1911.</p> + +<p>17. The Jāts detest Brahmans. The members of a Jāt +deputation complained one day to the editor when in the +Muzaffarnagar district that they suffered many evils by reason of +the Brahmans.</p> + +<p>18. The author's meaning seems to be that building tombs is not +an old Hindoo usage.</p> + +<p>19. Sivājī, the indomitable opponent of Aurangzēb +in the Deccan, belonged to the agricultural Kunbī caste. He +was born in May A.D. 1627, and died in April 1680. The Brahman +ministers of the Rājās of Sātārā were +known by the title of Peshwā. Bājī Rāo I, who +died in 1740, the second Peshwā, was the first who superseded +in actual power his nominal master. The last of the Peshwās +was Bājī Rāo II, who abdicated in 1818, after the +termination of the great Marāthā war, and retired to +Bithūr near Cawnpore. His adopted son was the notorious +Nānā Sāhib. The Marquis of Hastings, in 1818, drew +the Rājā of Sātārā from captivity, and +re-established his dignity and power. In 1839 the Rājā's +treachery compelled the Government of India to depose him. His +territory is now a district of the Bombay Presidency. See +Mānkar, <i>The Life and Exploits of Shivāji</i>, 2nd ed., +Bombay, Nirnayasāgar Press, 1886.</p> + +<p>20. The Rājā of Berār, also known as the +Rājā of Nāgpur, was called the Bhonslā. The +misrule of Gwālior has been described <i>ante</i>, in chapters +36 and 49. The condition of Gwālior and Indore, the capitals +of Sindhia and Holkār respectively, is now very different. The +Bhonslā has vanished.</p> + +<p>21. Since the annexation of the Panjāb in 1849, the Sikhs +have justly earned so much praise as loyal and gallant soldiers, +the flower of the Indian army, that their earlier less honourable +reputation has been effaced, Captain Francklin, writing in 1803, +and apparently expressing the opinion of George Thomas, declares +that 'the Seiks are false, sanguinary, and faithless; they are +addicted to plunder and the acquirement of wealth by any means, +however nefarious'. (<i>Military Memoirs of Mr. George Thomas, +London reprint</i>, p. 112.) The Sikh states of the Panjāb are +now sufficiently well governed.</p> + +<p>22. I know of no authority for the name Charat (Churut), which +seems to be a blunder for Satrughna. The sons of Dasaratha were +Rāma, by the chief queen; Bharat, by a second; and Lachhman +(Lakshmana), and Satrughna by a third consort.</p> + +<p>23. The species referred to is the long-tailed monkey called +'Hanumān', and 'langūr' in Hindi, the <i>Presbytis +entellus</i> of Jerdon (=<i>P. anchises</i>, Elliot; = +<i>Semnopithecus</i>, Cuvier).</p> + +<p>24. The author seems to have forgotten that he has already told +this story, <i>ante</i>, this chapter following [8] in the +text.</p> + +<p>25. It is in the Mathurā district. The town of Mathurā +(Muttra) became the head-quarters of a separate District in 1832. +The official at Govardhan in 1836 must, therefore, have been +subordinate to Mathurā, not to Agra.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch57">CHAPTER 57</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Veracity.</p> + +<p>The people of Britain are described by Diodorus Siculus (Book V, +chap. 2) as in a very simple and rude state, subsisting almost +entirely on the produce of the land, but as being 'a people of much +integrity and sincerity, far from the craft and knavery of men +among us, contented with plain and homely fare, and strangers to +the luxuries and excesses of the rich'. In India we find strict +veracity most prevalent among the wildest and half-savage tribes of +the hills and jungles in Central India, or the chain of the +Himālaya mountains; and among those where we find it prevail +most, we find cattle-stealing most common; the men of one tribe not +deeming it to be any disgrace to <i>lift</i>, or steal, the cattle +of another. I have known the man among the Gonds of the woods of +Central India, whom nothing could induce to tell a lie, join a +party of robbers to lift a herd of cattle from the neighbouring +plains for nothing more than as much spirits as he could enjoy at +one bout. I asked a native gentleman of the plains, in the valley +of the Nerbudda, one day, what made the people of the woods to the +north and south more disposed to speak the truth than those more +civilized of the valley itself. 'They have not yet learned the +value of a lie,' said he, with the greatest simplicity and +sincerity, for he was a very honest and plain-spoken man.</p> + +<p>Veracity is found to prevail most where there is least to tempt +to falsehood, and most to be feared from it. In a very rude state +of society, like that of which I have been speaking, the only shape +in which property is accumulated is in cattle; things are bartered +for each other without the use of a circulating medium, and one +member of a community has no means of concealing from the other the +articles of property he has. If they were to steal from each other, +they would not be able to conceal what they stole—to steal, +therefore, would be no advantage. In such societies every little +community is left to govern itself; to secure the rights, and +enforce the duties, of all its several members in their relations +with each other; they are too poor to pay taxes to keep up +expensive establishments, and their Governments seldom maintain +among them any for the administration of justice, or the protection +of life, property, or character. All the members of all such little +communities will often unite in robbing the members of another +community of their flocks and herds, the only kind of property they +have, or in applauding those who most distinguish themselves in +such enterprises; but the well- being of the community demands that +each member should respect the property of the others, and be +punished by the odium of all if he does not.[1]</p> + +<p>It is equally necessary to the well-being of the community that +every member should be able to rely upon the veracity of the other +upon the very few points where their rights, duties, and interests +clash. In the very rudest state of society, among the woods and +hills of India, the people have some deity whose power they dread, +and whose name they invoke when much is supposed to depend upon the +truth of what one man is about to declare. The 'pīpal' tree +(<i>Ficus religiosa</i>) is everywhere sacred to the gods, who are +supposed to sit among its leaves and listen to the music of their +rustling. The deponent takes one of these leaves in his hand, and +invokes the god who sits above him to crush him, or those dear to +him, as he crushes the leaf in his hand, if he speak anything but +the truth; he then plucks and crushes the leaf, and states what he +has to say.[2]</p> + +<p>The large cotton-tree is, among the wild tribes of India, the +favourite seat of gods still more terrible,[3] because their +superintendence is confined exclusively to the neighbourhood; and +having their attention less occupied, they can venture to make a +more minute scrutiny into the conduct of the people immediately +around them. The 'pīpal' is occupied by one or other of the +Hindoo triad, the god of creation, preservation, or destruction, +who have the affairs of the universe to look after;[4] but the +cotton and other trees are occupied by some minor deities, who are +vested with a local superintendence over the affairs of a district, +or perhaps, of a single village.[5] These are always in the view of +the people, and every man knows that he is every moment liable to +be taken to their court, and to be made to invoke their vengeance +upon himself, or those dear to him, if he has told a falsehood in +what he has stated, or tells one in what he is about to state. Men +so situated adhere habitually, and I may say religiously, to the +truth; and I have had before me hundreds of cases in which a man's +property, liberty, or life has depended upon his telling a lie, and +he has refused to tell it to save either; as my friend told me, +'they had not learned the value of a lie', or rather, they had not +learned with how much impunity a lie could be told in the tribunals +of civilized society. In their own tribunals, under the +pīpal-tree or cotton-tree, imagination commonly did what the +deities, who were supposed to preside, had the credit of doing; if +the deponent told a lie, he believed that the deity who sat on the +sylvan throne above him, and searched the heart of man, must know +it; and from that moment he knew no rest—he was always in +dread of his vengeance; if any accident happened to him, or to +those dear to him, it was attributed to this offended deity; and if +no accident happened, some evil was brought about by his own +disordered imagination.[6]</p> + +<p>In the tribunals we introduce among them, such people soon find +that the judges who preside can seldom search deeply into the +hearts of men, or clearly distinguish truth from falsehood in the +declarations of deponents; and when they can distinguish it, it is +seldom that they can secure their conviction for perjury. They +generally learn very soon that these judges, instead of being, like +the judges of their own woods and wilds, the only beings who can +search the hearts of men, and punish them for falsehood, are +frequently the persons, of all others, most blind to the real state +of the deponent's mind, and the degree of truth and falsehood in +his narrative; that, however well-intentioned, they are often +labouring in the 'darkness visible' created by the native officers +around them. They not only learn this, but they learn what is still +worse, that they may tell what lies they please in these tribunals; +and that not one of them shall become known to the circle in which +they move, and whose good opinion they value. If, by his lies told +in such tribunals, a man has robbed another, or caused him to be +robbed, of his property, his character, his liberty, or his life, +he can easily persuade the circle in which he resides that it has +arisen, not from any false statements of his, but from the +blindness of the judge, or the wickedness of the native officers of +his court, because all circles consider the blindness of the one, +and the wickedness of the other, to be everywhere very great.</p> + +<p>Arrian, in speaking of the class of supervisors in India, says: +'They may not be guilty of falsehood; and indeed none of the +Indians were ever accused of that crime.'[7] I believe that as +little falsehood is spoken by the people of India, in their village +communities, as in any part of the world with an equal area and +population. It is in our courts of justice where falsehoods prevail +most, and the longer they have been anywhere established, the +greater the degree of falsehood that prevails in them. Those +entrusted with the administration of a newly-acquired territory are +surprised to find the disposition among both principals and +witnesses in cases to tell the plain and simple truth. As +magistrates, they find it very often difficult to make thieves and +robbers tell lies, according to the English fashion, to avoid +running a risk of criminating themselves. In England, this habit of +making criminals tell lies arose from the severity of the penal +code, which made the punishment so monstrously disproportionate to +the crime, that the accused, however clear and notorious his +crimes, became an object of general sympathy.[8] In India, +punishments have nowhere been, under our rule, disproportionate to +the crimes; on the contrary, they have generally been more mild +than the people would wish them to be, or think they ought to be, +in order to deter from similar crimes; and, in newly- acquired +territories, they have generally been more mild than in our old +possessions. The accused are, therefore, nowhere considered as +objects of public sympathy; and in newly-acquired territories they +are willing to tell the truth, and are allowed to do so, in order +to save the people whom they have injured, and their neighbours +generally, the great loss and annoyance unavoidably attending upon +a summons to our courts. In the native courts, to which ours +succeed, the truth was seen through immediately, the judges who +presided could commonly distinguish truth from falsehood in the +evidence before them, almost as well as the sylvan gods who sat in +the pīpal- or cotton-trees; though they were seldom supposed +by the people to be quite so just in their decisions. When we take +possession of such countries, they, for a time at least, give us +credit for the same sagacity, with a little more integrity. The +prisoner knows that his neighbours expect him to tell the truth to +save them trouble, and will detest him if he does not; he supposes +that we shall have the sense to find out the truth whether he tells +it or not, and then humanity to visit his crime with the punishment +it merits, and no more.</p> + +<p>The magistrate asks the prisoner what made him steal; and the +prisoner enters at once into an explanation of the circumstances +which reduced him to the necessity of doing so, and offers to bring +witnesses to prove them; but never dreams of offering to bring +witnesses to prove that he did not steal, if he really had done so; +because the general feeling would be in favour of his doing the +one, and against his doing the other. Tavernier gives an amusing +sketch of Amīr Jumla presiding in a court of justice, during a +visit he paid him in the kingdom of Golconda, in the year 1648. +(See Book I, Part II, chap. 11.)[9]</p> + +<p>I asked a native law officer, who called on me one day, what he +thought would be the effect of an Act to dispense with oaths on the +Korān and Ganges water, and substitute a solemn declaration +made in the name of God, and under the same penal liabilities, as +if the Korān or Ganges water had been in the deponent's hand. +'I have practised In the courts thirty years, sir,' said he, 'and +during that time I have found only three kinds of +witnesses—two of whom would, by such an Act, be left +precisely where they were, while the third would be released by it +from a very salutary check.' 'And, pray, what are the three classes +into which you divide the witnesses in our courts?'</p> + +<p>'First, sir, are those who will always tell the truth, whether +they are required to state what they know in the form of an oath or +not.' 'Do you think this a large class?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, I think it is; and I have found among them many whom +nothing on earth could make to swerve from the truth; do what you +please, you could never frighten or bribe them into a deliberate +falsehood. The second are those who will not hesitate to tell a lie +when they have a motive for it, and are not restrained by an oath. +In taking an oath they are afraid of two things, the anger of God +and the odium of men. Only three days ago, 'continued my friend,' I +required a power of attorney from a lady of rank, to enable me to +act for her in a case pending before the court in this town. It was +given to me by her brother, and two witnesses came to declare that +she had given it. "Now," said I, "this lady is known to live under +the curtain; and you will be asked by the judge whether you saw her +give this paper; what will you say?" They both replied: "If the +judge asks us the question without an oath, we will say +yes—it will save much trouble, and we know that she did give +this paper, though we did not really see her give it; but if he +puts the Korān into our hands we must say no, for we should +otherwise be pointed at by all the town as perjured +wretches—our enemies would soon tell everybody that we had +taken a false oath." Now,' my friend went on, 'the form of an oath +is a great check upon this sort of persons. The third class +consists of men who will tell lies whenever they have sufficient +motive, whether they have the Korān or Ganges water in their +hands or not. Nothing will ever prevent their doing so; and the +declaration which you propose would be just as well as any other +for them.'</p> + +<p>'Which class do you consider the most numerous of the +three?'</p> + +<p>'I consider the second the most numerous, and wish the oath to +be retained for them.'</p> + +<p>'That is of all the men you see examined in our courts, you +think the most come under the class of those who will, under the +influence of strong motives, tell lies if they have not the +Korān or Ganges water in their hands?'</p> + +<p>'Yes.'</p> + +<p>'But do not a great many of those, whom you consider to be +included among the second class, come from the village +communities—the peasantry of the country?'</p> + +<p>'Yes.'</p> + +<p>'And do you not think that the greatest part of those men who +tell lies in the court, under the influence of strong motives, +unless they bear the Korān or Ganges water in their hands, +would refuse to tell lies, if questioned before the people of their +villages among the circle in which they live?'</p> + +<p>'Of course I do; three-fourths of those who do not scruple to +lie in our courts, would be ashamed to be before their neighbours, +or the elders of their village.'</p> + +<p>'You think that the people of the village communities are more +ashamed to tell lies before their neighbours than the people of +towns?'</p> + +<p>'Much more[10] here is no comparison.'</p> + +<p>'And the people of towns and cities bear in India but a small +proportion to the people of the village communities?'</p> + +<p>'I should think a very small proportion indeed.'</p> + +<p>'Then you think that in the mass of the population of India out +of our courts, and in their own circles, the first class, or those +who speak truth, whether they have the Korān or Ganges water +in their hands or not, would be found more numerous than the other +two?'</p> + +<p>'Certainly I do; if they were always to be questioned before +their neighbours or elders, or so that they could feel that their +neighbours and elders would know what they say.'</p> + +<p>This man is a very worthy and learned Muhammadan, who has read +all the works on medicine to be found in Persian and Arabia; gives +up his time from sunrise in the morning till nine, to the indigent +sick of the town, whom he supplies gratuitously with his advice and +medicines, that cost him thirty rupees a month, out of about one +hundred and twenty that he can make by his labours all the rest of +the day.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that, even in England, the fear of the +odium of society, which is sure to follow the man who has perjured +himself, acts more powerfully in making men tell the truth, when +they have the Bible in their hands before a competent and public +tribunal, and with a strong worldly motive to tell a lie, than the +fear of punishment by the Deity in the next world for having 'taken +his name in vain' in this. Christians, as well as other people, are +too apt to think that there is yet abundance of time to appease the +Deity by repentance and reformation; but they know that they cannot +escape the odium of society, with a free press and high tone of +moral and religions feeling, like those of England, if they +deliberately perjure themselves in open court, whose proceedings +are watched with so much jealousy. They learn to dread the name of +'perjured villain' or 'perjured wretch', which would embitter the +rest of their lives, and perhaps the lives of their +children.[11]</p> + +<p>In a society much advanced in arts and the refinements of life, +temptations to falsehood become very great, and require strong +checks from law, religion, or moral feeling. Religion is seldom of +itself found sufficient; for, though men cannot hope to conceal +their transgressions from the Deity, they can, as I have stated, +always hope in time to appease Him. Penal laws are not alone +sufficient, for men can always hope to conceal their trespasses +from those who are appointed to administer them, or at least to +prevent their getting that measure of judicial proof required for +their conviction; the dread of the indignation of their circle of +society is everywhere the more efficient of the three checks; and +this check will generally be found most to prevail where the +community is left most to self- government—hence the proverb, +'There is honour among thieves'. A gang of robbers, who are +outlaws, are, of course, left to govern themselves; and, unless +these could rely on each other's veracity and honour in their +relations with each other, they could do nothing. If Governments +were to leave no degree of self-government to the communities of +which the society is composed, this moral check would really +cease—the law would undertake to secure every right, and +enforce every duty; and men would cease to depend upon each other's +good opinion and good feelings.[12]</p> + +<p>There is perhaps no part of the world where the communities of +which the society is composed have been left so much to self- +government as in India. There has seldom been any idea of a +reciprocity of duties and rights between the governing and the +governed; the sovereign who has possession feels that he has a +right to levy certain taxes from the land for the maintenance of +the public establishments, which he requires to keep down rebellion +against his rule, and to defend his dominions against all who may +wish to intrude and seize upon them; and to assist him in acquiring +the dominions of other princes when favourable opportunities offer; +but he has no idea of a reciprocal duty towards those from whom he +draws his revenues. The peasantry from whom the prince draws his +revenues feel that they are bound to pay that revenue; that, if +they do not pay it, he will, with his strong arm, turn them out and +give to others their possessions—but they have no idea of any +right on their part to any return from him. The village communities +were everywhere left almost entirely to self-government; and the +virtues of truth and honesty, in all their relations with each +other, were indispensably necessary to enable them to govern +themselves.[13] A common interest often united a good many village +communities in a bond of union, and established a kind of +brotherhood over extensive tracts of richly cultivated land. +Self-interest required that they should unite to defend themselves +against attacks with which they were threatened at every returning +harvest in a country where every prince was a robber upon a scale +more or less large according to his means, and took the field to +rob while the lands were covered with the ripe crops upon which his +troops might subsist; and where every man who practised robbery +with open violence followed what he called an '<i>imperial</i> +trade' (pādshāhī kām)—the only trade +worthy the character of a gentleman. The same interest required +that they should unite in deceiving their own prince, and all his +officers, great and small, as to the real resources of their +estates; because they all knew that the prince would admit of no +other limits to his exactions than their abilities to pay at the +harvest. Though, in their relations with each other, all these +village communities spoke as much truth as those of any other +communities in the world; still, in their relation with the +Government, they told as many lies;—for falsehood, in the one +set of relations, would have incurred the odium of the whole of +their circles of society—truth, in the other, would often +have involved the same penalty. If a man had told a lie to +<i>cheat</i> his neighbour, he would have become an object of +hatred and contempt—if he told a lie to <i>save</i> his +neighbour's fields from an increase of rent or tax, he would have +become an object of esteem and respect.[14] If the Government +officers were asked whether there was any truth to be found among +such communities, they would say, <i>No, that the truth was not in +them</i>; because they would not cut each other's throats by +telling them the real value of each other's fields.</p> + +<p>If the peasantry were asked, they would say there was plenty of +truth to be found everywhere except among a few scoundrels, who, to +curry favour with the Government officers, betrayed their trust, +and told the value of their neighbours' fields. In their ideas, he +might as well have gone off, and brought down the common enemy upon +them in the shape of some princely robber of the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Locke says: 'Outlaws themselves keep faith and rules of justice +one with another—they practise them as rules of convenience +within their own communities; but it is impossible to conceive that +they embrace justice as a practical principle who act fairly with +their fellow highwaymen, and at the same time plunder or kill the +next honest man they meet.' (Vol. i, p. 37.) In India, the +difference between the army of a prince and the gang of a robber +was, in the general estimation of the people, only in +<i>degree</i>—they were both driving an <i>imperial +trade</i>, a 'pādshāhī kām'. Both took the +auspices, and set out on their expedition after the Dasahrā, +when the autumn crops were ripening; and both thought the Deity +propitiated as soon as they found the omens favourable;[15] one +attacked palaces and capitals, the other villages and merchants' +storerooms. The members of the army of the prince thought as little +of the justice or injustice of his cause as those of the gang of +the robber; the people of his capital hailed the return of the +victorious prince who had contributed so much to their wealth, to +his booty, and to their self- love by his victory. The village +community received back the robber and his gang with the same +feelings: by their skill and daring they had come back loaded with +wealth, which they were always disposed to spend liberally with +their neighbours. There was no more of truth in the prince and his +army in their relations with the princes and people of neighbouring +principalities, than in the robber and his gang in their relations +with the people robbed. The prince flatters the self-love of his +army and his people; the robber flatters that of his gang and his +village—the question is only in degree; the persons whose +self-love is flattered are blind to the injustice and cruelty of +the attack—the prince is the idol of a people, the robber the +idol of a gang. Was ever robber more atrocious in his attacks upon +a merchant or a village than Louis XIV of France in his attacks +upon the Palatine and Palatinate of the Rhine? How many thousand +similar instances might be quoted of princes idolized by their +people for deeds equally atrocious in their relations with other +people? What nation or sovereign ever found fault with their +ambassadors for telling lies to the kings, courts, and people of +other countries?[16]</p> + +<p>Rome, during the whole period of her history, was a mere den of +execrable thieves, whose feelings were systematically brutalized by +the most revolting spectacles, that they might have none of those +sympathies with suffering humanity, none of those 'compunctious +visitings of conscience', which might be found prejudicial to the +interests of the gang, and beneficial to the rest of mankind. Take, +for example, the conduct of this atrocious gang under Aemilius +Paulus, against Epirus and Greece generally after the defeat of +Perseus, all under the deliberate decrees of the senate: take that +of this gang under his son Scipio the younger, against Carthage and +Numantia; under Cato, at Cyprus—all in the same manner under +the <i>deliberate decrees of the senate</i>. Take indeed the whole +of her history as a republic, and we find it that of the most +atrocious band of robbers that was ever associated against the rest +of their species. In her relations with the rest of mankind Rome +was collectively devoid of truth; and her citizens, who were sent +to govern conquered countries, were no less devoid of truth +individually—they cared nothing whatever for the feelings or +the opinions of the people governed; in their dealings with them, +truth and honour were entirely disregarded. The only people whose +favourable opinion they had any desire to cultivate were the +members of the great gang; and the most effectual mode of +conciliating them was to plunder the people of conquered countries, +and distribute the fruits among them in presents of one kind or +another. Can any man read without shuddering that it was the +practice among this atrocious gang to have all the multitude of +unhappy prisoners of both sexes, and of all ranks and +ages,—who annually graced the triumphs of their generals, +taken off and murdered just at the moment when these generals +reached the Capitol, amid the shouts of the multitude, that their +joys might be augmented by the sight or consciousness of the +sufferings of others? (See Hooke's <i>Roman History</i>, vol. iii, +p. 488; vol. iv, p. 541.) 'It was the custom that, when the +triumphant conqueror tumed his chariot towards the Capitol, he +commanded the captives to be led to prison, and there put to death, +that so the glory of the victor and the miseries of the vanquished +might be in the same moment at the utmost.' How many millions of +the most innocent and amiable of their species must have been +offered up as human sacrifices to the triumphs of the leaders of +this great gang! The women were almost as brutalized as the men; +lovers met to talk 'soft nonsense', at exhibitions of gladiators. +Valeria, the daughter and sister of two of the first men in Rome, +was beautiful, gay, and lively, and of unblemished reputation. +Having been divorced from her husband, she and the monster Sylla +made love to each other at one of these exhibitions of gladiators, +and were soon after married. Gibbon, in speaking of the lies which +Severus told his two competitors in the contest for empire, says, +'Falsehood and insincerity, unsuitable as they seem to the dignity +of public transactions, offend us with a less degrading idea of +meanness than when they are found in the intercourse of private +life. In the latter, they discover a want of courage; in the other, +only a defect of power; and, as it is impossible for the most able +statesmen to subdue millions of followers and enemies by their own +personal strength, the world, under the name of <i>policy</i>, +seems to have granted them a very liberal indulgence of craft and +dissimulation.'[17]</p> + +<p>But the weak in society are often obliged to defend themselves +against the strong by the same weapons; and the world grants them +the same liberal indulgence. Men advocate the use of the ballot in +elections that the weak may defend themselves and the free +institutions of the country, by dissimulation, against the strong +who would oppress them.[18] The circumstances under which falsehood +and insincerity are tolerated by the community in the best +societies of modern days are very numerous; and the worst society +of modern days in the civilized world, when slavery does not +prevail, is immeasurably superior to the best in ancient days, or +in the Middle Ages. Do we not every day hear men and women, in what +are called the best societies, declaring to one individual or one +set of acquaintances that the pity, the sympathy, the love, or the +admiration they have been expressing for others is, in reality, all +feigned to soothe or please? As long as the motive is not base, men +do not spurn the falsehood as such. How much of untruth is +tolerated in the best circles of the most civilized nations, in the +relations between electors to corporate and legislative bodies and +the candidates for election? between nominators to offices under +Government and the candidates for nomination? between lawyers and +clients, vendors and purchasers? (particularly of horses), between +the recruiting sergeant and the young recruit, whom he has found a +little angry with his widowed mother, whom he makes him kill by +false pictures of what a soldier may hope for in the 'bellaque +matribus detestata' to which he invites him?[19]</p> + +<p>There is, I believe, no class of men in India from whom it is +more difficult to get the true statement of a case pending before a +court than the sepoys of our native regiments; and yet there are, I +believe, no people in the world from whom it is more easy to get it +in their own village communities, where they state it before their +relations, elders, and neighbours, whose esteem is necessary to +their happiness, and can be obtained only by adherence to truth. +Every case that comes before a regimental court involves, or is +supposed to involve, the interest or feelings of some one or other +of their companions; and the question which the deponent asks +himself is-not what religion, public justice, the interests of +discipline and order, or the wishes of his officers require, or +what would appear manly and honourable before the elders of his own +little village, but what will secure the esteem, and what will +excite the hatred, of his comrades. This will often be downright, +deliberate falsehood, sworn upon the Korān or the Ganges water +before his officers.</p> + +<p>Many a brave sepoy have I seen faint away from the agitated +state of his feelings, under the dread of the Deity if he told lies +with the Ganges water in his hands, and of his companions if he +told the truth, and caused them to be punished. Every question +becomes a party question, and the 'point of honour' requires that +every witness shall tell as many lies about it as possible.[20] +When I go into a village, and talk with the people in any part of +India, I know that I shall get the truth out of them on all +subjects as long as I can satisfy them that I am not come on the +part of the Government to inquire into the value of their fields +with a view to new impositions, and this I can always do; but, when +I go among the sepoys to ask about anything, I feel pretty sure +that I have little chance of getting at the truth; they will take +the alarm and try to deceive me, lest what I learn should be +brought up at some future day against them or their comrades. The +Duke of Wellington says, speaking of the English soldiers: 'It is +most difficult to convict a prisoner before a regimental +court-martial, for, I am sorry to say, that soldiers have little +regard to the oath administered to them; and the officers who are +sworn well and truly to try and determine <i>according to the +evidence</i>, the matter before them, have too much regard to the +strict <i>letter</i> of that administered to them.' Again: 'The +witnesses being in almost every instance common soldiers, whose +conduct this tribunal was instituted to control, the consequence is +that perjury is almost as common an offence as drunkenness and +plunder, &c.'[21]</p> + +<p>In the ordinary civil tribunals of Europe and America a man +commonly feels that, though he is removed far from the immediate +presence of those whose esteem is necessary for him, their eyes are +still upon him, because the statements he may give will find their +way to them through the medium of the press. This he does not feel +in the civil courts of India, nor in the military courts of Europe, +or of any other part of the world, and the man who judges of the +veracity of a whole people from the specimens he may witness in +such courts, cannot judge soundly.</p> + +<p>Shaikh Sādī, in his <i>Gulistān</i>, has the +following tale: 'I have heard that a prince commanded the execution +of a captive who was brought before him; when the captive, having +no hope of life, told the prince that he disgraced his throne. The +prince, not understanding him, tumed to one of his ministers and +asked him what he had said. "He says," replied the minister, +quoting a passage from the Korān, "God loves those who subdue +their passions, forgive injuries, and do good to his creatures." +The prince pitied the poor captive, and countermanded the orders +for the execution. Another minister, who owed a spite to the one +who first spoke, said, "Nothing but truth should be spoken by such +persons as we in the presence of the prince; the captive spoke +abusively and insolently, and you have not interpreted his words +truly". The prince frowned and said, "His false interpretation +pleases me more than thy true one, because his was given for a +good, and thine for a malignant, purpose; and wise men have said +that 'a peace-making lie is better than a factious or anger +exciting truth'."'[22]</p> + +<p>He who would too fastidiously condemn this doctrine should think +of the massacre of Thessalonica, and how much better it would have +been for the great Theodosius to have had by his side the peace- +making Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, than the anger-exciting +Rufinus, when he heard of the offence which that city had +committed.[23]</p> + +<p>In despotic governments, where lives, characters, and liberties +are every moment at the mercy, not only of the prince but of all +his public officers from the highest to the lowest, the occasions +in which men feel authorized and actually called upon by the common +feelings of humanity to tell 'peacemaking lies' occur every +day—nay, every hour, every petty officer of government, +'armed with his little brief authority', is a little tyrant +surrounded by men whose all depends upon his will, and who dare not +tell him the truth—the 'point of honour' in this little +circle demands that every one should be prepared to tell him +'peace-making lies'; and the man who does not do so when the +occasion seems to call for it, incurs the odium of the whole +circle, as one maliciously disposed to speak 'anger-exciting or +factions truths'. Poor Cromwell and Anne Boleyn were obliged to +talk of <i>love</i> and <i>duty</i> toward their brutal murderer, +Henry VIII, and tell 'peace-making lies' on the scaffold to save +their poor children from his resentment. European gentlemen in +India often, by their violence surround themselves with circles of +the same kind, in which the 'point of honour' demands that every +member shall be prepared to tell 'peace-making lies', to save the +others from the effects of their master's ungovernable +passions—falsehood is their only safeguard; and, +consequently, falsehood ceases to be odious. Countenanced in the +circles of the violent, falsehood soon becomes countenanced in +those of the mild and forbearing; their domestics pretend a dread +of their anger which they really do not feel; and they gain credit +for having the same good excuse among those who have no opportunity +of becoming acquainted with the real character of the gentlemen in +their domestic relations—all are thought to be more or less +<i>tigerish</i> in these relations, particularly <i>before +breakfast</i>, because some are <i>known</i> to be so.[24]</p> + +<p>I have known the native officers of a judge who was really a +very mild and worthy man, but who lived a very secluded life, plead +as their excuse for all manner of bribery and corruption, that +their persons and character were never safe from his violence; and +urge that men whose tenure of office was very insecure, and who +were every hour in the day exposed to so much indignity, could not +possibly be blamed for making the most of their position. The +society around believed all this, and blamed, not the native +officers, but the judge, or the Government, who placed them in such +a situation. Other judges and magistrates have been known to do +what this person was merely reported to do, otherwise society would +neither have given credit to his officers nor have held them +excused for their malpractices.[25] Those European gentlemen who +allow their passions to get the better of their reason among their +domestics do much to lower the character of their countrymen in the +estimation of the people; but the high officials who forget what +they owe to themselves and the native officers of their courts, +when presiding on the bench of justice, do ten thousand times more; +and I grieve to say that I have known a few officials of this +class.</p> + +<p>We have in England known many occasions, particularly in the +cases of prosecutions by the officers of Government for offences +against the State, where little circles of society have made it a +'point of honour' for some individuals to speak untruths, and for +others to give verdicts against their consciences; some occasions +indeed where those who ventured to speak the truth, or give a +verdict according to their conscience, were in danger from the +violence of popular resentment. Have we not, unhappily, in England +and among our countrymen in all parts of the world, experience of a +wide difference between what is exacted from members of particular +circles of society by the 'point of honour', and what is held to be +strict religions truth by the rest of society? Do we not see +gentlemen cheating their tradesmen, while they dare not leave a +gambling debt unpaid? The 'point of honour' in the circle to which +they belong demands that the one should be paid, because the +non-payment would involve a breach of faith in their relations with +each other, as in the case of the members of a gang of robbers; but +the non-payment of a tradesman's bill involves only a breach of +faith in a gentleman's relations with a lower order. At least, some +gentlemen do not feel any apprehension of incurring the odium of +the circle in which they move by cheating of this kind. In the same +manner the roué, or libertine of rank, may often be guilty +of all manner of falsehoods and crimes to the females of the class +below him, without any fear of incurring the odium of either males +or females of his own circle; on the contrary, the more crimes he +commits of this sort, the more sometimes he may expect to be +caressed by males and females of his own order. The man who would +not hesitate a moment to destroy the happiness of a family by the +seduction of the wife or the daughter, would not dare to leave one +shilling of a gambling debt unpaid—the one would bring down +upon him the odium of his circle, but the other would not; and the +odium of that circle is the only kind of odium he dreads. Appius +Claudius apprehended no odium from his own order—the +patrician—from the violation of the daughter of Virginius, of +the plebeian order; nor did Sextus Tarquinius of the royal order, +apprehend any from the violation of Lucretia, of the patrician +order—neither would have been punished by their own order, +but they were both punished by the injured orders below them.</p> + +<p>Our own penal code punished with death the poor man who stole a +little food to save his children from starvation, while it left to +exult in the caresses of his own order, the wealthy libertine who +robbed a father and mother of their only daughter, and consigned +her to a life of infamy and misery. The poor victim of man's brutal +passions and base falsehood suffered inevitable and exquisite +punishment, while the laws and usages of society left the man +himself untouched. He had nothing to apprehend if the father of his +victim happened to be of the lower order, or a minister of the +Church of Christ; because his own order would justify his refusing +to meet the one in single combat, and the other dared not invite +him to it, and the law left no remedy.[26]</p> + +<p>Take the two parties in England into which society is +politically divided. There is hardly any species of falsehood +uttered by the members of the party out of power against the +members of the party in power that is not tolerated and even +applauded by one party; men state deliberately what they know to be +utterly devoid of truth regarding the conduct of their opponent; +they basely ascribe to them motives by which they know they were +never actuated, merely to deceive the public, and to promote the +interests of their party, without the slightest fear of incurring +odium by so doing in the minds of any but their political +opponents. If a foreigner were to judge of the people of England +from the tone of their newspapers, he would say that there was +assuredly neither honour, honesty, nor truth to be found among the +classes which furnished the nation with its ministers and +legislators; for a set of miscreants more atrocious than the Whig +and Tory ministers and legislators of England were represented to +be in these papers never disgraced the society of any nation upon +earth.</p> + +<p>Happily, all foreigners who read these journals know that in +what the members of one party say of those of the other, or are +reported to say, there is often but little truth; and that there is +still less of truth in what the editors and correspondents of the +ultra journals of one party write about the characters, conduct, +and sentiments of the members of the other.</p> + +<p>There is one species of untruth to which we English people are +particularly prone in India, and, I am assured, everywhere else. It +is this. Young 'miss in her teens', as soon as she finds her female +attendants in the wrong, no matter in what way, exclaims, 'It is so +like the natives'; and the idea of the same error, vice, or crime, +becomes so habitually associated in her mind with every native she +afterwards sees, that she can no more separate them than she can +the idea of ghosts and hobgoblins from darkness and solitude. The +young cadet or civilian, as soon as he finds his valet, butler, or +groom in the wrong, exclaims, 'It is so like blacky—so like +the niggers; they are all alike!' And what could you expect from +him? He has been constantly accustomed to the same vicious +association of ideas in his native land—if he has been +brought up in a family of Tories, he has constantly heard those he +most reverenced exclaim, when they have found, or fancied they +found, a Whig in the wrong, 'It is so like the Whigs—they are +all alike—there is no trusting any of them.' If a Protestant, +'It is so like the Catholics; there is no trusting them in any +condition of life.' The members of Whig and Catholic families may +say the same, perhaps, of Tories and Protestants. An untravelled +Englishman will sometimes say the same of a Frenchman; and the idea +of everything that is bad in man will be associated in his mind +with the image of a Frenchman. If he hears of an act of dishonour +by a person of that nation, 'It is so like a Frenchman—they +are all alike; there is no honour in them.' A Tory goes to America, +predisposed to find in all who live under republican governments +every species of vice and crime; and no sooner sees a man or woman +misbehave than he exclaims, 'It is so like the Americans—they +are all alike; but what could you expect from republicans?' At +home, when he considers himself in relation to the members of the +parties opposed to him in religion or politics, they are associated +in his mind with everything that is vicious; abroad, when he +considers the people of other countries in relation to his own, if +they happen to be Christians, he will find them associated in his +mind with everything that is good, or everything that is bad, in +proportion as their institutions happen to conform to those which +his party advocates. A Tory will abuse America and Americans, and +praise the Austrians. A Whig will, <i>perhaps</i>, abuse the +Austrians and others who live under paternal or despotic +governments, and praise the Americans, who live under institutions +still more free than his own.<br> + This has properly been considered by Locke as a species of +madness to which all mankind are more or less subject, and from +which hardly any individual can entirely free himself. 'There is', +he says, 'scarce a man so free from it, but that if he should +always, on all occasions, argue or do as in some cases he +constantly does, would not be thought fitter for Bedlam than civil +conversation. I do not here mean when he is under the power of an +unruly passion, but in the steady, calm course of his life. That +which thus captivates their reason, and leads men of sincerity +blindfold from common sense will, when examined, be found to be +what we are speaking of. Some independent ideas, of no alliance to +one another, are, by education, custom, and the constant din of +their party, so coupled in their minds, that they always appear +there together, and they can no more separate them in their +thoughts than if they were but one idea, and they operate as if +they really were so.' (Book II, Chap. 33.)</p> + +<p>Perjury had long since ceased to be considered disgraceful, or +even discreditable, among the patrician order in Rome before the +soldiers ventured to break their oaths of allegiance. Military +service had, from the ignorance and selfishness of this order, been +rendered extremely odious to free-born Romans; and they frequently +mutinied and murdered their generals, though they would not desert, +because they had sworn not to do so. To break his oath by deserting +the standards of Rome was to incur the hatred and contempt of the +great mass of the people—the soldier dared not hazard this. +But patricians of senatorial and consular rank did not hesitate to +violate their oaths whenever it promised any advantage to the +patrician order collectively or individually, because it excited +neither contempt nor indignation in that order. 'They have been +false to their generals,' said Fabius, 'but they have never +deceived the gods. I know they <i>can</i> conquer, and they shall +swear to do so.' They swore, and conquered.</p> + +<p>Instead of adopting measures to make the duties of a soldier +less odious, the patricians tumed their hatred of these duties to +account, and at a high price sold an absolution from their oath. +While the members of the patrician order bought and sold oaths +among themselves merely to deceive the lower orders, they were +still respected among the plebeians; but when they began to sell +dispensations to the members of this lower order, the latter also, +by degrees, ceased to feel any veneration for the oath, and it was +no longer deemed disgraceful to desert duties which the higher +order made no effort to render less odious.</p> + +<p>'That they who draw the breath of life in a court, and pass all +their days in an atmosphere of lies, should have any very sacred +regard for truth, is hardly to be expected. They experience such +falsehood in all who surround them, that deception, at least +suppression of the truth, almost seems necessary for self-defence; +and, accordingly, if their speech be not framed upon the theory of +the French cardinal, that language was given to man for the better +concealment of his thoughts, they at least seem to regard in what +they say, not its resemblance to the tact in question, but rather +its subserviency to the purpose in view.' (Brougham's <i>George +IV.</i>) 'Yet, let it never be forgotten, that princes are nurtured +in falsehood by the atmosphere of lies which envelops their palace; +steeled against natural sympathies by the selfish natures of all +that surround them; hardened in cruelty, partly indeed by the fears +incident to their position, but partly too by the unfeeling +creatures, the factions, the unnatural productions of a court whom +alone they deal with; trained for tyrants by the prostration which +they find in all the minds which they come in contact with; +encouraged to domineer by the unresisting medium through which all +their steps to power and its abuse are made.' (Brougham's +<i>Carnot</i>.)</p> + +<p>But Lord Brougham is too harsh. Johnson has observed truly +enough, 'Honesty is not necessarily greater where elegance is +less'; nor does a sense of supreme or despotic power necessarily +imply the exercise or abuse of it. Princes have, happily, the same +yearning as the peasant after the respect and affection of the +circle around them, and the people under them; and they must +generally seek it by the same means.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned the village communities of India as that class +of the population among whom truth prevails most; but I believe +there is no class of men in the world more strictly honourable in +their dealings than the mercantile classes of India. Under native +governments a merchant's books were appealed to as 'holy writ', and +the confidence in them has certainly not diminished under our rule. +There have been instances of their being seized by the magistrate, +and subjected to the inspection of the officers of his court. No +officer of a native government ventured to seize them; the merchant +was required to produce them as proof of particular entries, and, +while the officers of government did no more, there was no danger +of false accounts.</p> + +<p>An instance of deliberate fraud or falsehood among native +merchants of respectable station in society is extremely rare. +Among the many hundreds of bills I have had to take from them for +private remittances, I have never had one dishonoured, or the +payment upon one delayed beyond the day specified; nor do I +recollect ever hearing of one who had. They are so careful not to +speculate beyond their means, that an instance of failure is +extremely rare among them. No one ever in India hears of families +reduced to ruin or distress by the failure of merchants or bankers; +though here, as in all other countries advanced in the arts, a vast +number of families subsist upon the interest of money employed by +them.[27]</p> + +<p>There is no class of men more interested in the stability of our +rule in India than this of the respectable merchants; nor is there +any upon whom the welfare of our Government and that of the people +more depend. Frugal, first upon principle, that they may not in +their expenditure encroach upon their capitals, they become so by +habit; and when they advance in life they lay out their accumulated +wealth in the formation of those works which shall secure for them, +from generation to generation, the blessings of the people of the +towns in which they have resided, and those of the country around. +It would not be too much to say that one-half of the great works +which embellish and enrich the face of India, in tanks, groves, +wells, temples, &c., have been formed by this class of the +people solely with the view of securing the blessings of mankind by +contributing to their happiness in solid and permanent works.[28] +'The man who has left behind him great works in temples, bridges, +reservoirs, and caravanserais for the public good, does not die,' +says Shaikh Sādī,[29] the greatest of Eastern poets, +whose works are more read and loved than those of any other +uninspired man that has ever written, not excepting our own beloved +Shakspeare.[30] He is as much loved and admired by Hindoos as by +Muhammadans; and from boyhood to old age he continues the idol of +the imaginations of both. The boy of ten, and the old man of +seventy, alike delight to read and quote him for the music of his +verses, and the beauty of his sentiments, precepts, and +imagery.[31]</p> + +<p>It was to the class last mentioned, whose incomes are derived +from the profits of stock invested in manufactures and commerce, +that Europe chiefly owed its rise and progress after the downfall +of the Roman Empire, and the long night of darkness and desolation +which followed it. It was through the means of mercantile industry, +and the municipal institutions to which it gave rise, that the +enlightened sovereigns of Europe were enabled to curb the licence +of the feudal aristocracy, and to give to life, property, and +character that security without which society could not possibly +advance; and it was through the same means that the people were +afterwards enabled to put those limits to the authority of the +sovereign, and to secure to themselves that share in the government +without which society could not possibly be free or well +constituted. Upon the same foundation may we hope to raise a +superstructure of municipal corporations and institutions in India, +such as will give security and dignity to the society; and the +sooner we begin upon the work the better.[32]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Johnson says: 'Mountaineers are thievish because they are +poor; and, having neither manufactures nor commerce, can grow rich +only by robbery. They regularly plunder their neighbours, for their +neighbours are commonly their enemies; and, having lost that +reverence for property by which the order of civil life is +preserved, soon consider all as enemies whom they do not reckon as +friends, and think themselves licensed to invade whatever they are +not obliged to protect.' [W. H. S.] The quotation is from <i>A +Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland</i>.</p> + +<p>The observations in the text apply largely to the settled Hindoo +villages, as well as to the forest tribes.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Ficus religiosa</i> is the Linnaean name for the +'pīpal'. Other botanists call it <i>Urostigma religiosum</i>. +In the original edition the botanical name is erroneously given as +<i>Ficus indicus</i>. The <i>Ficus indica</i> (<i>F. +Bengalensis</i>, or <i>Urostigma B.</i>) is the banyan. A story is +current that the traders of a certain town begged the magistrate to +remove a pīpal-tree which he had planted in the market-place, +because, so long as it remained, business could not be conducted. +They knew 'the value of a lie'.</p> + +<p>3. The red cotton, or silk-cotton, tree, when in spring covered +with its huge magnolia-shaped scarlet blossoms, is one of the most +magnificent objects in nature. Its botanical name is <i>Salmalia +malabarica</i> (<i>Bombax malabaricum; B. heptaphyllum</i>). This +is the tree referred to in the text. The white silk-cotton tree +(<i>Eriodendron anfractuosum; Bombax 'pentandrum; Ceiba pentandra; +Gossampinus Rumphii</i>) has a more southern habitat. (Balfour, +<i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., s.v. 'Salmalia' and +'Eriodendron'.)</p> + +<p>4. The pīpal is usually regarded as sacred only to Vishnu, +the Preserver. The <i>Ficus indica</i>, or banyan, is sacred to +Siva, the Destroyer, and the <i>Butea frondosa</i> (Hind. +'dhāk', 'palās', or 'chhyūl ') to Brahmā, the +Creator, or +δημιουργός.</p> + +<p>5. The sacred trees and plants of India are numerous. 'Balfour +(Cyclop., 3rd ed., s.v. 'Sacred') enumerates eighty, and the list +is by no mean complete. The same author's article, 'Tree', may also +be consulted. The minor 'deities' alluded to by the author are the +real gods of popular rural Hinduism. The observations of Mr. +William Crooke, probably the best authority on the subject of +Indian popular religion, though made with reference to a particular +locality, are generally applicable. 'Hinduism certainly shows no +signs of weakness, and is practically untouched by Christian and +Muhammadan proselytism. The gods of the Vedas are as dead as +Jupiter, and the Krishna worship only succeeds from its marvellous +adaptability to the sensuous and romantic side of the native mind. +But it would be too much to say that the creed exercises any real +effect on life or morals. With the majority of its devotees it is +probably more sympathetic than practical, and ranks with the +periodical ablutions in the Ganges and Jumna, and the traditional +worship of the local gods and ghosts, which really impress the +rustic. He is enclosed on all sides by a ring of precepts, which +attribute luck or ill-luck to certain things or actions. These and +the bonds of caste, with its obligations for the performance of +marriage, death, and other ceremonies, make up the religions life +of the peasant. Nearly every village and hamlet has its local +ghost, usually the shrine of a childless man, or one whose funeral +rites remained for some reason unperformed. In the expressive +popular phrase, he is 'deprived of water' (<i>aud</i>). The pious +make oblations to his cenotaph twice a year, and propitiate his +ghost with offerings of water to allay his thirst in the lower +world. The primaeval serpent-worship is perpetuated in the +reverence paid to traditional village-snakes. Of the local ghosts +some are beneficent. Sometimes they are only mischievous, like +Robin Goodfellow, and will milk the cows, and sour the milk, or +pull your hair, if you wander about at night in certain well-known +uncanny places. A more dangerous demon is heard in the crackling of +the dry leaves of the date-tree in the night wind; and some trees +are haunted by a vampire, who will drag you up and devour you, if +you venture near them in the darkness.' (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, +1st ed., vol. vii. <i>Supplement</i>, p. 4.) See also the same +author's work <i>Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern +India</i>, 2nd ed., 2 vols. Constable, 1896.</p> + +<p>6. Compare the story of Rāmkishan in Chapter 25. Books on +anthropology cite many instances of deaths caused by superstitious +fears.</p> + +<p>7. Arrian, <i>Indica</i>, chap. 12: 'The sixth class consists of +those called "superintendents". They spy out what goes on in +country and town, and report everything to the king where the +people have a king, and to the magistrates where the people are +self-governed, and it is against use and wont for them to give a +false report;—but indeed no Indian is accused of lying.' +(McCrindle, <i>Ancient India, as described by Megasthenes and +Arrian</i>, Trübner, 1877, p. 211). Arrian uses the word +επiσκοποι; in the +Fragments of Megasthenes quoted by Diodorus and Strabo, the word is +έφοροι. The people referred to +seem to be the well-known 'news-writers' employed by Oriental +sovereigns (<i>ante</i>, chapter 33, note 7); a simple explanation +missed by McCrindle (op. cit. p. 43, note). The remark about the +truthfulness of the Indians appears to be Arrian's addition. It is +not in the Fragment of Megasthenes from which Arrian copies, and +the falsity of the remark is proved by the statement (ibid., p. 71) +that 'a person convicted of bearing false witness suffers +mutilation of his extremities'. But in Fragment XXVII from Strabo +(op. cit., p. 70) Megasthenes says, 'Truth and virtue they hold +alike in esteem'; and in Fragment XXXIII (ibid., p. 85) he asserts +that 'the ablest and moat trustworthy men' are appointed +έφοροι.</p> + +<p>8. Up to the year 1827 'grand larceny', that is to say, stealing +to a value exceeding twelve pence, was punishable with death. The +Act 7 George IV, cap. 28, abolished the distinction of grand and +petty larceny. In 1837, the first year of Queen Victoria's reign, +the punishment of death was abolished in the case of between thirty +and forty offences. Other statutes have further mitigated the +ferocity of the old law.</p> + +<p>9. The year was 1652, not 1648 (Tavernier, <i>Travels</i>, +transl. Ball, vol. i, p. 260, note). The passages describing the +criminal procedure of Amīr Jumla are not very long, and +deserve quotation, as giving an accurate account of the +administration of penal justice by an able native ruler. 'On the +14th [September] we went to the tent of the Nawāb to take +leave of him, and to hear what he had to say regarding the goods +which we had shown him. But we were told that he was engaged +examining a number of criminals, who had been brought to him for +immediate punishment. It is the custom in this country not to keep +a man in prison; but immediately the accused is taken he is +examined and sentence is pronounced on him, which is then executed +without any delay. If the person whom they have seized is found +innocent, he is released at once; and whatever the nature of the +case may be, it is promptly concluded. . . . On the 15th, at seven +o'clock in the morning, we went to the Nawāb, and immediately +we were announced he asked us to enter his tent, where he was +seated with two of his secretaries by him. . . . The Nawāb had +the intervals between his toes full of letters, and he also had +many between the fingers of his left hand. He drew them sometimes +from his feet, sometimes from his hand, and sent his replies +through his two secretaries, writing some also himself. . . . While +we were with the Nawāb he was informed that four prisoners, +who were then at the door of the tent, had arrived. He remained +more than half an hour without replying, writing continually and +making his secretaries write, but at length he suddenly ordered the +criminals to be brought in; and after having questioned them, and +made them confess with their own mouths the crime of which they +were accused, he remained nearly an hour without saying anything, +continuing to write and to make his secretaries write, . . . Among +these four prisoners who were brought into his presence there was +one who had entered a house and slain a mother and her three +infants. He was condemned forthwith to have his feet and hands cut +off, and to be thrown into a field near the high road to end his +days. Another had stolen on the high road, and the Nawāb +ordered him to have his stomach slit open and to be flung in a +drain, I could not ascertain what the others had done, but both +their heads were cut off. While all this passed the dinner was +served, for the Nawāb generally eats at ten o'clock, and he +made us dine with him.' (Ibid., pp. 290-3.) Such swift procedure +and sharp punishments would still be highly approved of by the +great mass of Indian opinion in the villages.</p> + +<p>10. Misprinted 'much less' in original edition.</p> + +<p>11. The new Act, V of 1840, prescribes the following +declaration: 'I solemnly affirm, in the presence of Almighty God, +that what I shall state shall be the truth, the whole truth, and +nothing but the truth',—and declares that a false statement +made on this shall be punished as perjury. [W. H. S.] The law now +in force is to the same effect. This form of declaration is +absolutely worthless as a check on perjury, and never hinders any +witness from lying to his heart's content. The use of the +Korān and Ganges water in the courts has been given up.</p> + +<p>12. The tendency of modern India is to rely too much on formal +law and the exercise of the powers of the central government. The +contemplation of the vast administrative machinery working with its +irresistible force and unfailing regularity in obedience to the +will of rulers, whose motives are not understood, undoubtedly has a +paralysing influence on the life of the nations of India, which, if +not counteracted, would work deep mischief. Something in the way of +counteraction has been done, though not always with knowledge. The +difficulties inherent in the problem of reconciling foreign rule +with self-government in an Asiatic country are enormous.</p> + +<p>13. But panegyrics on the self-government of Indian villages +must always be read with the qualification that the standard of +such government was low, and that hundreds of acts and omissions +were tolerated, which are intolerable to a modern European +Government. Hence comes the difficulty of enforcing numerous +reforms loudly called for by European opinion. The vast Indian +population hates reform and innovation for many reasons, and, above +all, because they involve expense, which to the Indian mind appears +wholly unwarrantable.</p> + +<p>14. The same phenomenon is observable in rural Ireland, where, +as in India, an unhappy history has generated profound distrust and +dislike of official authority. The Irish peasant has always been +ready to give his neighbour 'the loan of an oath', and a refusal to +give it would be thought unneighbourly. An Irish Land Commission +and an Indian Settlement Officer must alike expect to receive +startling information about the value of land.</p> + +<p>15. <i>Ante</i>, chapter 49, text at [16].</p> + +<p>16. Hume, in speaking of Scotland in the fifteenth century, +says, 'Arms more than laws prevailed; and courage, preferably to +equity and justice, was the virtue most valued and respected. The +nobility, in whom the whole power resided, were so connected by +hereditary alliances, or so divided by inveterate enmities, that it +was impossible, without employing an armed force, either to punish +the most flagrant guilt, or to give security to the most entire +innocence. Rapine and violence, when employed against a hostile +tribe, instead of making a person odious among his own clan, rather +recommended him to their esteem and approbation; and, by rendering +him useful to the chieftain, entitled him to the preference above +his fellows.' [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>17. Gibbon, chap. 5. The remark refers to Septimius Severus.</p> + +<p>18. The Ballot Act became law in 1872.</p> + +<p>19. All that the author says is true, and yet it does not alter +the fact that Indian society is and always has been permeated and +paralysed by almost universal distrust. Such universal distrust +does not prevail in England. This difference between the two +societies is fundamental, and its reality is fully recognized by +natives of India.</p> + +<p>20. Compare the author's account of the fraudulent practices of +the Company's sepoys when on leave in Oudh. (<i>Journey through the +Kingdom of Oude</i>, vol. i, pp. 286-304.)</p> + +<p>21. The editor has failed to find these quotations in the +Wellington Dispatches.</p> + +<p>22. This is the first story in the first chapter of the +<i>Gulistān</i>. The <i>Mishkāt-ul-Masābih</i> +(Matthews, vol. ii, p. 427) teaches the same doctrine as +Sādī: 'That person is not a liar who makes peace between +two people, and speaks good words to do away their quarrel although +they should be lies; and that person who carries good words from +one to another is not a tale-bearer.'</p> + +<p>23. Gibbon, chapter 27. In the year A.D. 390 Botheric, the +general of Theodosius was murdered by a mob at Thessalonica. Acting +on the advice of Rufinus, the emperor avenged his officer's death +by an indiscriminate massacre of the inhabitants, in which numbers +variously estimated at from 7,000 to 15,000 perished. The emperor +quickly felt remorse for the atrocity of which he had been guilty, +and submitted to do public penance under the direction of +Ambrose.</p> + +<p>24. The sum total of truth in India would not, I fear, be +appreciably increased if every European had the temper of an +angel.</p> + +<p>25. The editor has never known a reputation for corruption in +any way lower the social position of an official of Indian +birth.</p> + +<p>26. The argument in the anthor's mind seems to be that the +unveracity practised and condoned by certain classes of the natives +of India on certain occasions is, at least, not more reprehensible +than the vices practised and condoned by certain classes of +Europeans on certain occasions.</p> + +<p>27. Since the author wrote the above remarks, the conditions of +Indian trade have been revolutionized by the development of roads, +railways, motors, telegraph, postal facilities, and exports. The +Indian merchant has been drawn into the vortex of European and +American commerce. He is, in consequence, not quite so cautions as +he used to be, and is more liable to severe loss or failure, though +he is still, as a rule, far more inclined to caution than are his +Western rivals. The Indian private banker undoubtedly is honest in +ordinary banking transactions and anxious to maintain his +commercial credit, but he will often stoop to the most +discreditable devices in the purchase of a coveted estate, the +foreclosure of a mortgage, and the like. His books, nowadays, are +certainly not 'appealed to as holy writ', and many merchants keep a +duplicate set for income-tax purposes. The happy people of 1836 had +never heard of income tax. Private remittances are now made usually +through the post office or the joint-stock banks, which did not +exist in the author's days. In recent times failures of banks and +merchants have been frequent.</p> + +<p>28. These observations, which are perfectly true, form a +corrective to the fashionable abuse of the Indian capitalist, whose +virtues and merits are seldom noticed.</p> + +<p>29. The editor has not succeeded in tracing this quotation, but +several passages to a similar effect occur in the +<i>Gulistān</i>.</p> + +<p>30. I ought to except Confucius, the great Chinese moralist. [W. +H. S.]</p> + +<p>31. For a brief notice of Sādī (Sa'dī) see +<i>ante</i>, chapter 12, note 6. The <i>Gulistān</i> is +everywhere used as a text-book in schools where Persian is taught. +The author's extant correspondence shows that he was fascinated by +the charms of Persian poetry, even during the first year of his +residence in India.</p> + +<p>32. The work was 'begun upon' many years ago, and 'a +superstructure of municipal corporations and institutions' now +exists in every part of India. But 'the same foundation' does not +exist. The stout burghers of the mediaeval English and German towns +have no Indian equivalents. The superstructure of the municipal +institutions is all that Acts of the Legislature can make it; the +difficulty is to find or make a solid foundation. Still, it was +right and necessary to establish municipal institutions in India, +and, notwithstanding all weaknesses and defects, they are of +considerable value, and are slowly developing.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2><a name="Ch58">CHAPTER 58</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Declining Fertility of the Soil—Popular +Notion of the Cause.</p> + +<p>On the 18th[1] we came on ten miles to Sāhar, over a plain +of poor soil, carelessly cultivated, and without either manure or +irrigation. Major Godby left us at Govardhan to return to Agra. He +would have gone on with us to Delhi; but having the command of his +regiment, and being a zealous officer, he did not like to leave it +so long during the exercising season. We felt much the loss of his +society. He is a man of great observation and practical good sense; +has an infinite fund of good humour, and a cheerfulness of +temperament that never seems to flag—a more agreeable +companion I have never met. The villages in these parts are +literally crowded with peafowl. I counted no less than forty-six +feeding close by among the houses of one hamlet on the road, all +wild, or rather <i>unappropriated</i>, for they seemed on the best +possible terms with the inhabitants. At Sāhar our water was +drawn from wells eighty feet deep, and this is said to be the +ordinary depth from which water is drawn; consequently irrigation +is too expensive to be common. It is confined almost exclusively to +small patches of garden cultivation in the vicinity of +villages.</p> + +<p>On the 14th we came on sixteen miles to Kosī, for the most +part over a poor soil badly cultivated, and almost exclusively +devoted to autumn crops, of which cotton is the principal. I lost +the road in the morning before daylight,[2] and the trooper, who +usually rode with me, had not come up. I got an old landholder from +one of the villages to walk on with me a mile, and put me in the +right road. I asked him what had been the state of the country +under the former government of the Jāts and +Marāthās, and was told that the greater part was a wild +jungle. 'I remember,' said the old man, 'when you could not have +got out of the road hereabouts without a good deal of risk. I could +not have ventured a hundred yards from the village without the +chance of having my clothes stripped off my back. Now the whole +face of the country is under cultivation, and the roads are safe; +formerly the governments kept no faith with their landholders and +cultivators, exacting ten rupees where they had bargained for five, +whenever they found the crops good; but, in spite of all this +"zulm"' (oppression), said the old man, 'there was then more +"barkat" (blessings from above) than now. The lands yielded more +returns to the cultivator, and he could maintain his little family +better upon five acres than he can now upon ten.'</p> + +<p>'To what, my old friend, do you attribute this very unfavourable +change in the productive powers of your soil?'</p> + +<p>'A man cannot, sir, venture to tell the truth at all times, and +in all places,' said he.</p> + +<p>'You may tell it now with safety, my good old friend; I am a +mere traveller ("musafir") going to the hills in search of health, +from the valley of the Nerbudda, where the people have been +suffering much from blight, and are much perplexed in their +endeavour to find a cause.'</p> + +<p>'Here, sir, we all attribute these evils to the dreadful System +of <i>perjury</i>, which the practices of your judicial courts have +brought among the people. You are perpetually putting the Ganges +water into the hands of the Hindoos, and the Korān into those +of Muhammadans; and all kinds of lies are every day told upon them. +God Almighty can stand this no longer; and the lands have ceased to +be blessed with that fertility which they had before this sad +practice began. This, sir, is almost the only fault we have, any of +us, to find with your government; men, by this System of perjury, +are able to cheat each other out of their rights, and bring down +sterility upon the land, by which the innocent are made to suffer +for the guilty.'</p> + +<p>On reaching our tents, I asked a respectable farmer, who came to +pay his respects to the Commissioner of the division, Mr. Fraser, +what he thought of the matter, telling him what I had heard from my +old friend on the road. 'The diminished fertility is,' said he, +'owing no doubt to the want of those salutary fallows which the +fields got under former governments, when invasions and civil wars +were things of common occurrence, and kept at least two-thirds of +the land waste; but there is, on the other hand, no doubt that you +have encouraged perjury a good deal in your courts of justice; and +this perjury must have some effect in depriving the land of the +blessing of God.[3] Every man now, who has a cause in your civil +courts, seems to think it necessary either to swear falsely +himself, or to get others to do it for him. The European gentlemen, +no doubt, do all they can to secure every man his right, but, +surrounded as they are by perjured witnesses, and corrupt native +officers, they commonly labour in the dark.'</p> + +<p>Much of truth is to be found among the village communities of +India, where they have been carefully maintained, if people will go +among them to seek it. Here, as almost everywhere else, truth is +the result of self-government, whether arising from choice, under +municipal institutions, or necessity, under despotism and anarchy; +self-government produces self-esteem and pride of character.</p> + +<p>Close to our tents we found the people at work, irrigating their +fields from several wells, whose waters were all brackish. The +crops watered from these wells were admirable—likely to yield +at least fifteen returns of the seed. Wherever we go, we find the +signs of a great government passed away—signs that must tend +to keep alive the recollections, and exalt the ideas of it in the +minds of the people. Beyond the boundary of our military and civil +stations we find as yet few indications of our reign or character, +to link us with the affections of the people. There is hardly +anything to indicate our existence as a people or a government in +this country; and it is melancholy to think that in the wide extent +of country over which I have travelled there should be so few signs +of that superiority in science and arts which we boast of, and +really do possess, and ought to make conducive to the welfare and +happiness of the people in every part of our dominions. The people +and the face of the country are just what they might have been had +they been governed by police officers and tax-gatherers from the +Sandwich Islands, capable of securing life, property, and +character, and levying honestly the means of maintaining the +establishments requisite for the purpose.[4] Some time after the +journey here described, in the early part of November, after a +heavy fall of rain, I was driving alone in my buggy from +Garhmuktesar on the Ganges to Meerut. The roads were very bad, the +stage a double one, and my horse became tired, and unable to go +on.[5] I got out at a small village to give him a little rest and +food; and sat down, under the shade of one old tree, upon the trunk +of another that the storm had blown down, while my groom, the only +servant I had with me, rubbed down and baited my horse. I called +for some parched gram from the same shop which supplied my horse, +and got a draught of good water, drawn from the well by an old +woman in a brass jug lent to me for the purpose by the +shopkeeper.[6]</p> + +<p>While I sat contentedly and happily stripping my parched gram of +its shell, and eating it grain by grain, the farmer, or head +landholder of the village, a sturdy old Rājpūt, came up +and sat himself, without any ceremony, down by my side, to have a +little conversation. To one of the dignitaries of the land, in +whose presence the aristocracy are alone entitled to chairs, this +easy familiarity on the part of a poor farmer seems at first +somewhat strange and unaccountable; he is afraid that the man +intends to offer him some indignity, or, what is still worse, +mistakes him for something less than the dignitary. The following +dialogue took place.</p> + +<p>'You are a Rājpūt, and a "zamīndār"?' +(landholder).</p> + +<p>'Yes; I am the head landholder of this village.'</p> + +<p>'Can you tell me how that village in the distance is elevated +above the ground? Is it from the debris of old villages, or from a +rock underneath?'</p> + +<p>'It is from the debris of old villages. That is the original +seat of all the Rājpūts around; we all trace our descent +from the founders of that village who built and peopled it many +centuries ago.'</p> + +<p>'And you have gone on subdividing your inheritances here, as +elsewhere, no doubt, till you have hardly any of you anything to +eat?'</p> + +<p>'True, we have hardy any of us enough to eat; but that is the +fault of the Government, that does not leave us enough, that takes +from us as much when the season is bad as when it is good.'[7]</p> + +<p>'But your assessment has not been increased, has it?' 'No, we +have concluded a settlement for twenty years upon the same footing +as formerly.'</p> + +<p>'And if the sky were to shower down upon you pearls and +diamonds, instead of water, the Government would never demand more +from you than the rate fixed upon?'</p> + +<p>'No.'</p> + +<p>'Then why should you expect remissions in the bad seasons?'</p> + +<p>'It cannot be disputed that the "barkat" (blessing from above) +is less under you than it used to be formerly, and that the lands +yield less to our labour.'</p> + +<p>'True, my old friend, but do you know the reason why?'</p> + +<p>'No.'</p> + +<p>'Then I will tell you. Forty or fifty years ago, in what you +call the times of the "barkat" (blessing from above), the cavalry +of Sikh freebooters from the Panjāb used to sweep over this +fine plain, in which stands the said village from which you are all +descended; and to massacre the whole population of some villages, +and a certain portion of that of every other village; and the lands +of those killed used to be waste for want of cultivators. Is not +this all true?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, quite true.'</p> + +<p>'And the fine groves which had been planted over the plain by +your ancestors, as they separated from the great parent stock, and +formed independent villages and hamlets for themselves, were all +swept away and destroyed by the same hordes of freebooters, from +whom your poor imbecile emperors, cooped up in yonder large city of +Delhi, were utterly unable to defend you?'</p> + +<p>'Quite true,' said the old man with a sigh. 'I remember when all +this fine plain was as thickly studded with fine groves of mango- +trees as Rohilkhand, or any other part of India.'</p> + +<p>'You know that the land requires rest from labour, as well as +men and bullocks, and that, if you go on sowing wheat and other +exhausting crops, it will go on yielding less and less returns, and +at last not be worth the tilling?'</p> + +<p>'Quite well.'</p> + +<p>'Then why do you not give the land rest by leaving it longer +fallow, or by a more frequent alternation of crops relieve it?'</p> + +<p>'Because we have now increased so much that we should not get +enough to eat were we to leave it to fallow; and unless we tilled +it with exhausting crops we should not get the means of paying our +rents to the Government.'</p> + +<p>'The Sikh hordes in former days prevented this; they killed off +a certain portion of your families, and gave the land the rest +which you now refuse it. When you had exhausted one part, you found +another recovered by a long fallow, so that you had better returns; +but now that we neither kill you, nor suffer you to be killed by +others, you have brought all the cultivable lands into tillage; and +under the old System of cropping to exhaustion, it is not +surprising that they yield you less returns.'[8]</p> + +<p>By this time we had a crowd of people seated around us upon the +ground, as I went on munching my parched gram, and talking to the +old patriarch.</p> + +<p>They all laughed at the old man at the conclusion of my last +speech, and he confessed I was right.</p> + +<p>'This is all true, sir, but still your Government is not +considerate; it goes on taking kingdom after kingdom, and adding to +its dominions without diminishing the burden upon us, its old +subjects. Here you have had armies away taking Afghanistan, but we +shall not have one rupee the less to pay.'[9]</p> + +<p>'True, my friend, nor would you demand a rupee less from those +honest cultivators around us, if we were to leave you all your +lands untaxed. You complain of the Government—they complain +of you.' (Here the circle around us laughed at the old man again.) +'Nor would you subdivide the lands the less for having it +rent-free; on the contrary, it would be every generation subdivided +the more, inasmuch as there would be more of local ties, and a +greater disinclination of families to separate and seek service +abroad.'</p> + +<p>'True, sir, very true—that is, no doubt, a very great +evil.'</p> + +<p>'And you know it is not an evil produced by us, but one arising +out of your own laws of inheritance. You have heard, no doubt, that +with us the eldest son gets the whole of the land, and the younger +sons all go out in search of service, with such share as they can +get of the other property of their father?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, sir; but when shall we get service?—you have none to +give us. I would serve to-morrow if you would take me as a +soldier,' said he, stroking his white whiskers.</p> + +<p>The crowd laughed heartily; and some wag observed that I should +perhaps think him too old.</p> + +<p>'Well,' said the old man, smiling, 'the gentleman himself is not +very young, and yet I dare say he is a good servant of his +Government.'</p> + +<p>This was paying me off for making the people laugh at his +expense.</p> + +<p>'True, my old friend,' said I, 'but I began to serve when I was +young, and have been long learning.'</p> + +<p>'Very well,' said the old man, 'but I should be glad to serve +the rest of my life upon a less salary than you got when you began +to learn.'</p> + +<p>'Well, my friend, you complain of our Government; but you must +acknowledge that we do all we can to protect you, though it is true +that we are often acting in the dark.'</p> + +<p>'Often, sir? you are always acting in the dark; you, hardly any +of you, know anything of what your revenue and police officers are +doing; there is no justice or redress to be got without paying for +it, and it is not often that those who pay can get it.'</p> + +<p>'True, my old friend, that is bad all over the world. You cannot +presume to ask anything even from the Deity Himself, without paying +the priest who officiates in His temples; and if you should, you +would none of you hope to get from your Deity what you asked +for.'</p> + +<p>Here the crowd laughed again, and one of them said that 'there +was this certainly to be said for our Government, that the European +gentlemen themselves never took bribes, whatever those under them +might do'.</p> + +<p>'You must not be too sure of that, neither. Did not the Lāl +Bībī, the Red Lady, get a bribe for soliciting the judge, +her husband, to let go Amīr Singh, who had been confined in +jail?'</p> + +<p>'How did this take place?'</p> + +<p>'About three years ago Amīr Singh was sentenced to +imprisonment, and his friends spent a great deal of money in bribes +to the native officers of the court, but all in vain. At last they +were recommended to give a handsome present to the Red Lady. They +did so, and Amīr Singh was released.'</p> + +<p>'But did they give the present into the lady's own hand?'</p> + +<p>'No, they gave it to one of her women.'</p> + +<p>'And how do you know that she ever gave it to her mistress, or +that her mistress ever heard of the transaction?'</p> + +<p>'She might certainly have been acting without her mistress' +knowledge; but the popular belief is that the Lāl +Bībī got the present.'</p> + +<p>I then told the story of the affair at Jubbulpore, when Mrs. +Smith's name had been used for a similar purpose, and the people +around us were all highly amused; and the old man's opinion of the +transaction with the Red Lady evidently underwent a change.[10]</p> + +<p>We became good friends, and the old man begged me to have my +tents, which he supposed were coming up, pitched among them, that +he might have an opportunity of showing that he was not a bad +subject, though he grumbled against the Government.</p> + +<p>The next day at Meerut I got a visit from the chief native +judge, whose son, a talented youth, is in my office. Among other +things, I asked him whether it might not be possible to improve the +character of the police by increasing the salaries of the officers, +and mentioned my conversation with the landholder.</p> + +<p>'Never, sir,' said the old gentleman; 'the man that now gets +twenty-five rupees a month is contented with making perhaps fifty +or seventy-five more; and the people subject to his authority pay +him accordingly. Give him a hundred, sir, and he will put a shawl +over his shoulders, and the poor people will be obliged to pay him +at a rate that will make up his income to four hundred. You will +only alter his style of living, and make him a greater burthen to +the people. He will always take as long as he thinks he can with +impunity.'</p> + +<p>'But do you not think that when people see a man adequately paid +by the Government they will the more readily complain of any +attempt at unauthorized exactions?'</p> + +<p>'Not a bit, sir, as long as they see the same difficulties in +the way of prosecuting him to conviction. In the administration of +civil justice' (the old gentleman is a civil judge), 'you may +occasionally see your way, and understand what is doing; but in +revenue and police you never have seen it in India, and never will, +I think. The officers you employ will all add to their incomes by +unauthorized means; and the lower these incomes, the less their +pretensions, and the less the populace have to pay.'[11]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. January, 1836.</p> + +<p>2. The old Anglo-Indian rose much earlier than his successor of +the present day commonly does.</p> + +<p>3. For other popular explanations of the alleged decrease in +fertility of the soil, see <i>ante</i>, Chapter 27, where three +explanations are offered, namely, the eating of beef, the +prevalence of adultery, and the impiety of surveys.</p> + +<p>4. The inapplicability of these observations of the author to +the present time is a good measure of the material progress of +India since his day. The Ganges Canal, the bridges over the Indus, +Ganges, and other great rivers, and numberless engineering works +throughout the empire, are permanent witnesses to the scientific +superiority of the ruling race. Buildings which can claim any high +degree of architectural excellence are, unfortunately, still rare, +but the public edifices of Bombay will not suffer by comparison +with those of most capital cities, and for some years past, +considerable attention has been paid to architecture as an art. A +great architectural experiment is in progress at the new official +capital of Delhi (1914).</p> + +<p>5. The road is now an excellent one.</p> + +<p>6. Parched gram, or chick-pea, is commonly used by Indian +travellers as a convenient and readily portable form of food. The +'brass jug' lent to the author could be purified by fire after his +use of it.</p> + +<p>7. Growls of this kind must not be interpreted too literally. +Any village landholder, if encouraged, would grumble in the same +strain.</p> + +<p>8. This is the permanent difficulty of Indian revenue +administration, which no Government measures can seriously +diminish.</p> + +<p>9. The mission to Kabul, under Captain Alexander Burnes, was not +dispatched till September, 1837, and troops did not assemble before +the conclusion of the treaty with the Sikhs in June, 1838. The army +crossed the Indus in January, 1839. The conversation in the text is +stated to have taken place 'some time after the journey herein +described', and must, apparently, be dated in November, 1839. The +author was in the North-Western Provinces in that year.</p> + +<p>10. Some of Mrs. Smith's suitors entered into a combination to +defraud a suitor in his court of a large sum of money, which he was +to pay to Mrs. Smith as she walked in the garden. A dancing girl +from the town of Jubbulpore was made to represent Mrs. Smith, and a +suit of Mrs. Smith's clothes was borrowed for her from the +washerman. The butler took the suitor to the garden, and introduced +him to the supposed Mrs. Smith, who received him very graciously, +and condescended to accept his offer of five thousand rupees in +gold mohurs. The plot was afterwards discovered, and the old +butler, washerman, and all, were sentenced to work in a rope on the +roads. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>Penal labour on the roads has been discontinued long since. +Similar plots probably have often escaped detection. The whole +conversation is a valuable illustration of Indian habits and modes +of thought.</p> + +<p>11. The subject of the police administration is more fully +discussed <i>post</i>, in Chapter 69.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch59">CHAPTER 59</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Concentration of Capital and its Effects.</p> + +<p>Kosī[1] stands on the borders of Fīrōzpur, the +estate of the late Shams-ud-dīn, who was hanged at Delhi on +the 3rd of October, 1835, for the murder of William Fraser, the +representative of the Governor-General in the Delhi city and +territories.[2] The Mewātīs of Fīrōzpur are +notorious thieves and robbers. During the Nawāb's time they +dared not plunder within his territory, but had a free licence to +plunder wherever they pleased beyond it.[3] They will now be able +to plunder at home, since our tribunals have been introduced to +worry prosecutors and their witnesses to death by the distance they +have to go, and the tediousness of our process; and thereby to +secure impunity to offenders, by making it the interest of those +who have been robbed, not only to bear with the first loss without +complaint, but largely to bribe police officers to conceal the +crimes from their master, the magistrate, when they happen to come +to their knowledge. Here it was that Jeswant Rāo Holkār +gave a grand ball on the 14th of October, 1804, while he was with +his cavalry covering the siege of Delhi by his regular brigade. In +the midst of the festivity he had a European soldier of the King's +76th Regiment, who had been taken prisoner, strangled behind the +curtain, and his head stuck upon a spear and placed in the midst of +the assembly, where the 'nāch' (nautch) girls were made to +dance round it. Lord Lake reached the place the next morning in +pursuit of this monster; and the gallant regiment, who here heard +the story, had soon an opportunity of revenging the foul murder of +their comrade in the battle of Dīg, one of the most gallant +passages of arms we have ever had in India.[4]</p> + +<p>Near Kosī there is a factory in ruins belonging to the late +firm of Mercer & Company. Here the cotton of the district used +to be collected and screwed under the superintendence of European +agents, preparatory to its embarkation for Calcutta on the river +Jumna. On the failure of the firm, the establishment was broken up, +and the work, which was then done by one great European merchant, +is now done by a score or two of native merchants. There is, +perhaps, nothing which India wants more than the concentration of +capital; and the failure of a I [5] the great commercial houses in +Calcutta, in the year 1833, was, unquestionably, a great calamity. +They none of them brought a particle of capital into the country, +nor does India want a particle from any country; but they +<i>concentrated</i> it; and had they employed the whole, as they +certainly did a good deal of it, in judiciously improving and +extending the industry of the natives, they might have been the +source of incalculable good to India, its people, and +government.[6]</p> + +<p>To this concentration of capital in great commercial and +manufacturing establishments, which forms the grand characteristic +of European in contradistinction to Asiatic societies in the +present day, must we look for those changes which we consider +desirable in the social and religions institutions of the people. +Where land is liable to eternal subdivision by the law and the +religion of both the Muhammadan and Hindoo population; where every +great work that improves its productive powers, and facilitates the +distribution of its produce among the people, in canals, roads, +bridges, &c., is made by Government; where capital is nowhere +concentrated in great commercial or manufacturing establishments, +there can be no upper classes in society but those of office; and +of all societies, perhaps that is the worst in which the higher +classes are so exclusively composed. In India, public office has +been, and must continue to be, the only road to distinction, until +we have a <i>law of primogeniture</i>, and a <i>concentration of +capital</i>. In India no man has ever thought himself respectable, +or been thought so by others, unless he is armed with his little +'hukūmat'; his 'little brief authority' under Government, that +gives him the command of some public establishment paid out of the +revenues of the State.[7] In Europe and America, where capital has +been concentrated in great commercial and manufacturing +establishments, and free institutions prevail almost as the natural +consequence, industry is everything; and those who direct and +command it are, happily, looked up to as the source of the wealth, +the strength, the virtue, and the happiness of the nation. The +concentration of capital in such establishments may, indeed, be +considered, not only as the natural consequence, but as the +prevailing cause of the free institutions by which the mass of the +people in European countries are blessed.[8] The mass of the people +were as much brutalized and oppressed by the landed aristocracy as +they could have been by any official aristocracy before towns and +higher classes were created by the concentration of capital.</p> + +<p>The same observations are applicable to China. There the land +all belongs to the sovereign, as in India; and, as in India, it is +liable to the same eternal subdivision among the sons of those who +hold it under him. Capital is nowhere more concentrated in China +than in India; and all the great works that add to the fertility of +the soil, and facilitate the distribution of the land labour of the +country are formed by the sovereign out of the public revenue. The +revenue is, in consequence, one of office;[9] and no man considers +himself respectable,[10] unless invested with some office under +Government, that is, under the Emperor. Subdivision of labour, +concentration of capital, and machinery render an Englishman +everywhere dependent upon the co-operation of multitudes; while the +Chinaman, who as yet knows little of either, is everywhere +independent, and able to work his way among strangers. But this +very dependence of the Englishman upon the concentration of capital +is the greatest source of his strength and pledge of his security, +since it supports those members of the higher orders who can best +understand and assert the rights and interests of the +whole.[11]</p> + +<p>If we had any great establishment of this sort in which +Christians could find employment and the means of religious and +secular instruction, thousands of converts would soon flock to +them; and they would become vast sources of future improvement in +industry, social comfort, municipal institutions, and religion. +What chiefly prevents the spread of Christianity in India is the +dread of exclusion from caste and all its privileges; and the utter +hopelessness of their ever finding any respectable circle of +society of the adopted religion, which converts, or would-be +converts, to Christianity now everywhere feel. Form such circles +for them, make the members of these circles happy in the exertion +of honest and independent industry, let those who rise to eminence +in them feel that they are considered as respectable and as +important in the social system as the servants of Government, and +converts will flock around you from all parts, and from all classes +of the Hindoo community. I have, since I have been in India, had, I +may say, at least a score of Hindoo grass-cutters turn +Musalmāns, merely because the grooms and the other +grass-cutters of my establishment happened to be of that religion, +and they could neither eat, drink, nor smoke with them. Thousands +of Hindoos all over India become every year Musalmāns from the +same motive;[12] and we do not get the same number of converts to +Christianity, merely because we cannot offer them the same +advantages. I am persuaded that a dozen such establishments as that +of Mr. Thomas Ashton of Hyde, as described by a physician at +Manchester, and noticed in Mr. Baines's admirable work on the +<i>Cotton Manufactures of Great Britain</i> (page 447), would do +more in the way of conversion among the people of India than has +ever yet been done by all the religious establishments, or ever +will be done by them, without such aid.[13]</p> + +<p>I have said that the great commercial houses of Calcutta, which +in their ruin involved that of so many useful establishments +scattered over India, like that of Kosī, brought no capital +into the country.[14] They borrowed from one part of the civil and +military servants of Government at a high interest that portion of +their salary which they saved; and lent it at a higher interest to +others of the same establishment, who for a time required or wished +to spend more than they received; or they employed it at a higher +rate of profit for great commercial and manufacturing +establishments scattered over India, or spread over the ocean. +Their great error was in mistaking nominal for real profits. +Calculating their dividend on the nominal profits, and never +supposing that there could be any such things as losses in +commercial speculation, or bad debts from misfortunes and bad +faith, they squandered them in lavish hospitality and ostentatious +display, or allowed their retiring members to take them to England +and to every other part of the world where their creditors might +not find them, till they discovered that all the real capital left +at their command was hardly sufficient to pay back with the +stipulated interest one-tenth of what they had borrowed. The +members of those houses who remained in India up to the time of the +general wreck were of course reduced to ruin, and obliged to bear +the burthen of the odium and indignation which the ruin of so many +thousands of confiding constituents brought down upon them. Since +that time the savings of civil and military servants have been +invested either in Government securities at a small interest, or in +banks, which make their profit in the ordinary way, by discounting +bills of exchange, and circulating their own notes for the purpose, +or by lending out their money at a high interest of 10 or 12 per +cent. to other members of the same services.[15]</p> + +<p>On the 16th of January we went on to Horal, ten miles over a +plain, with villages numerous and large, and in every one some fine +large building of olden times—sarāi, palace, temple, or +tomb, but all going to decay.[16] The population much more dense +than in any of the native states I have seen; villages larger and +more numerous; trade in the transit of cotton, salt, sugar, and +grain, much brisker. A great number of hares were here brought to +us for sale at threepence apiece, a rate at which they sell at this +season in almost all parts of Upper India, where they are very +numerous, and very easily caught in nets.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Kosī is twenty-five miles north-west of +Mathurā.</p> + +<p>2. The story of the murder of Mr. Fraser is fully detailed +<i>post</i> in Chapter 64. After the execution of Shams-ud- +dīn, the estate of the criminal was taken possession of by +Government, and the town of Fīrōzpur is now the head- +quarters of a sub-collectorship of the Gurgāon district in the +Panjāb. The Delhi territories were placed under the government +of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Panjāb in 1858.</p> + +<p>3. The Mewātī depredations had gone on for centuries. +The Sultān Balban (Ghiās-ud-dīn, alias Ulugh Khan), +who reigned from A.D. 1265-87, temporarily suppressed them by +punishments of awful cruelty, flaying the criminals alive, and so +forth. The Mewātīs now supply men to a few robber gangs, +but are incapable of mischief on a large scale.</p> + +<p>4. Delhi was most nobly defended against Holkār by a very +small force under Lieutenant-Colonel Burn, who 'repelled an +assault, and defended a city ten miles in circumference, and which +had ever before been given up at the first appearance of an enemy +at its gates'.</p> + +<p>The battle of Dīg was fought on November 13, 1804, by the +division under the command of General Fraser on the one side, and +Holkār's infantry and artillery on the other. 'The 76th led +the way, with its wonted alacrity and determination,' and forced +its way into the village in advance of its supports. The fight +resulted in the total defeat of the Marāthās, who lost +nearly two thousand men, and eighty-seven pieces of cannon. The +English loss also was heavy, amounting to upwards of six hundred +and forty killed and wounded, including the brave commander, who +was mortally wounded, and survived the victory only a few days.</p> + +<p>On the night of November 17, General Lake in person routed +Holkār and his cavalry, killing about three thousand men. The +English loss on this occasion amounted to only two men killed, and +about twenty wounded.</p> + +<p>The fort of Dīg, with a hundred guns and a considerable +quantity of ammunition and military stores, was captured on +December 24 of the same year. (Thornton, <i>History of British +India</i>, pp. 316-19, 2nd ed., 1859.)</p> + +<p>5. Transcription note. This clause is not intelligible to the +transcriber. The character '1' or 'I' appears in the text. Some +words appear to be missing.</p> + +<p>6. The author was grievously mistaken in supposing that India +did not require 'a particle' of foreign capital. The railways, and +the great tea, coffee, indigo, and other industries, built up and +developed during the nineteenth century, and still growing, owe +their existence to the hundreds of millions sterling of English +capital poured into the country, and could not possibly have been +financed from Indian resources. The author seems not to have +expected the construction of railways in India, although when he +wrote a beginning of the railway system in England had been +made.</p> + +<p>7. This sentiment is still potent, and explains the eagerness +often shown by wealthy landholders of high social rank to obtain +official appointments, which to the European mind seem unworthy of +their acceptance.</p> + +<p>8. Few readers are likely to accept this proposition.</p> + +<p>9. This clause is not intelligible to the editor. The word +'revenue' probably is a misprint for 'aristocracy'.</p> + +<p>10. The original edition prints, 'No man considers himself less +respectable', which is nonsense.</p> + +<p>11. This sentiment reads oddly in these days of social democracy +and continual conflict between capital and labour.</p> + +<p>12. The steady progress of Islam in Lower and Eastern Bengal, +first made apparent by the census of 1872, has been confirmed by +the enumerations of 1901 and 1911. The feeling that the religion of +the Prophet gives its adherent a better position in both this world +and the next than Hinduism can offer to a low-caste man is the most +powerful motive for conversion. See Dr. James Wise's valuable +treatise, 'The Muhammadans of Eastern Bengal' (<i>J.A.S.B.</i>, +Part III (1894), pp. 28-63), and the Census Reports from 1872 to +1911.</p> + +<p>13. The author's whimsical notion that a development of +commercial and manufacturing organization in India would cause +converts to flock from all parts, and from all classes of the +Hindoo community, has not been verified by experience. Much capital +is now concentrated in the great cities, and the number of cotton, +jute, and other factories is considerable, but Christian converts +are not among the goods produced.</p> + +<p>14. The modern commercial houses bring a large proportion of +their capital from Europe.</p> + +<p>15. The three Presidency Banks, the Bank of Bengal, the Bank of +Madras, and the Bank of Bombay, in which the Indian Government is +interested, are the leading Indian banks. The Bank of Bengal was +opened in 1806. No bank in India is allowed to issue notes. The +paper money in use is issued by the Paper Currency Department of +the Government of India, and the notes are known as 'currency +notes'. The issue of these notes began in 1862-3. (Balfour, +<i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., s.v. 'Bank and Paper Currency'). Much +Indian capital is now invested in joint-stock companies of every +kind.</p> + +<p>16. More correctly, Hodal.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch60">CHAPTER 60</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Transit Duties in India—Mode of Collecting +them.</p> + +<p>At Horal[1] resides a Collector of Customs with two or three +uncovenanted European assistants as patrol officers.[2] The rule +now is to tax only the staple articles of produce from the west on +their transit down into the valley of the Jumna and Ganges, and to +have only one line on which these articles shall be liable to +duties.[3] They are free to pass everywhere else without search or +molestation. This has, no doubt, relieved the people of these +provinces from an infinite deal of loss and annoyance inflicted +upon them by the former System of levying the Customs duties, and +that without much diminishing the net receipts of Government from +this branch of its revenues. But the time may come when Government +will be constrained to raise a greater proportion of its collective +revenues than it has hitherto done from indirect taxation, and when +this time comes, the rule which confines the impost to a single +line must of course be abandoned.[4] Under the former system, one +great man, with a very high salary, was put in to preside over a +host of native agents with very small salaries, and without any +responsible intermediate agent whatever to aid him, and to watch +over them. The great man was selected without any reference to his +knowledge of, or fitness for, the duties entrusted to him, merely +because he happened to be of a certain standing in a certain +exclusive service, which entitled him to a certain scale of salary, +or because he had been found unfit for judicial or other duties +requiring more intellect and energy of character. The consequence +was that for every one rupee that went into the public treasury, +ten were taken by these harpies from the merchants, or other people +over whom they had, or could pretend to have, a right of +search.[5]</p> + +<p>Some irresponsible native officer who happened to have the +confidence of the great man (no matter in what capacity he served +him) sold for his own profit, and for that of those whose goodwill +he might think it worth while to conciliate, the offices of all the +subordinate agents immediately employed in the collection of the +duties. A man who was to receive an avowed salary of seven rupees a +month would give him three or four thousand for his post, because +it would give him charge of a detached post, in which he could soon +repay himself with a handsome profit. A poor 'peon', who was to +serve under others, and could never hope for an independent charge, +would give five hundred rupees for an office which yielded him +avowedly only four rupees a month. All arrogated the right of +search, and the state of Indian society and the climate were +admirably suited to their purpose. A person of any respectability +would feel himself dishonoured were the females of his family to be +<i>seen</i>, much less <i>touched</i>, while passing along the road +in their palanquin or covered carnage; and to save himself from +such dishonour he was everywhere obliged to pay these custom-house +officers. Many articles that pass in transit through India would +suffer much damage from being opened along the road at any season, +and be liable to be spoiled altogether during that of the rains; +and these harpies could always make the merchants open them, unless +they paid liberally for their forbearance. Articles were rated to +the duty according to their value; and articles of the same weight +were often, of course, of very different values. These officers +could always pretend that packages liable to injury from exposure +contained within them, among the articles set forth in the invoice, +others of greater value in proportion to their weight. Men who +carried pearls, jewels, and other articles very valuable compared +with their bulk, always depended for their security from robbers +and thieves on their concealment; and there was nothing which they +dreaded so much as the insolence and rapacity of these custom-house +officers, who made them pay large bribes, or exposed their goods. +Gangs of thieves had members in disguise at such stations, who were +soon able to discover through the insolence of the officers, and +the fears and entreaties of the merchants, whether they had +anything worth taking or not.</p> + +<p>A party of thieves from Datiyā, in 1882, followed Lord +William Bentinck's camp to the bank of the river Jumna near +Mathurā, where they found a poor merchant humbly entreating an +insolent custom-house officer not to insist upon his showing the +contents of the little box he carried in his carriage, lest it +might attract the attention of thieves, who were always to be found +among the followers of such a camp, and offering to give him +anything reasonable for his forbearance. Nothing he could be got to +offer would satisfy the rapacity of the man; the box was taken out +and opened. It contained jewels which the poor man hoped to sell to +advantage among the European ladies and gentlemen of the Governor- +General's suite. He replaced his box in his carriage; but in half +an hour it was travelling post-haste to Datiyā, by relays of +thieves who had been posted along the road for such occasions. They +quarrelled about the division; swords were drawn, and wounds +inflicted. One of the gang ran off to the magistrate at Sāgar, +with whom he had before been acquainted;[6] and he sent him back +with a small party, and a letter to the Datiyā Rājā +requesting that he would get the box of jewels for the poor +merchant. The party took the precaution of searching the house of +the thieves before they delivered the letter to their friend the +minister, and by this means recovered about half the jewels, which +amounted in all to about seven thousand rupees. The merchant was +agreeably surprised when he got back so much of his property +through the magistrate of Mathurā, and confirmed the statement +of the thief regarding the dispute with the custom-house officer +which enabled them to discover the value of the box.</p> + +<p>Should Government by and by extend the System that obtains in +this single line to the Customs all over India they may greatly +augment their revenue without any injury, and with but little +necessary loss and inconvenience to merchants. The object of all +just taxation is to make the subjects contribute to the public +burthen in proportion to their means, and with as little loss and +inconvenience to themselves as possible. The people who reside west +of this line enjoy all their salt, cotton, and other articles which +are taxed on crossing the line without the payment of any duties, +while those to the east of it are obliged to pay. It is, therefore, +not a just line. The advantages are, first, that it interposes a +body of most efficient officers between the mass of harpies and the +heads of the department, who now virtually superintend the whole +System, whereas they used formerly to do so merely ostensibly. They +are at once the <i>tapis</i> of Prince Husain and the telescope of +Prince Alī; they enable the heads of departments to be +everywhere and see everything, whereas before they were nowhere and +saw nothing.[7] Secondly, it makes the great staple articles of +general consumption alone liable to the payment of duties, and +thereby does away in a great measure with the odious right of +search.</p> + +<p>At Kosī our friend, Charles Fraser, left us to proceed +through Mathurā to Agra. He is a very worthy man and excellent +public officer, one of those whom one always meets again with +pleasure, and of whose society one never tires. Mr. Wilmot, the +Collector of Customs, and Mr. Wright, one of the patrol officers, +came to dine with us. The wind blew so hard all day that the cook +and khānsāmān (butler) were long in despair of being +able to give us any dinner at all. At last we managed to get a +tent, closed at every crevice to keep out the dust, for a +cook-room; and they were thus able to preserve their master's +credit, which, no doubt, according to their notions, depended +altogether on the quality of his dinner.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The place is a small town in the Gurgāon District, +Panjāb.</p> + +<p>2. The term 'uncovenanted' may require explanation for readers +not familiar with the details of Indian administration. The Civil +Service of India, commonly called Indian Civil Service, which +supplies most of the higher administrative and judicial officers, +used to be known as the Covenanted service, because its members +sign a covenant with the Secretary of State. All the other +departmental services—Public Works, Postal and the +rest—were grouped together as uncovenanted. In accordance +with the Report of the Public Service Commission (1886-7) the terms +'covenanted' and 'uncovenanted' have been disused.</p> + +<p>3. The text refers to what was known as the 'customs hedge'. +Before the establishment of the British supremacy each of the +innumerable native jurisdictions levied transit duties on many +kinds of goods at each of its frontiers, to the infinite vexation +of traders. Such duties were gradually abolished in British +territory, and few, if any, are now enforced by native states. Salt +cannot be manufactured in British India without a licence, and the +Salt (formerly called Inland Customs) Department is charged with +the duty of preventing the manufacture or sale of illicit salt. In +its later developments the Customs hedge was used for the +collection of the salt duty only. Sir John Strachey took a leading +part in its abolition. To secure the levy of the duty on salt, he +writes, 'there grew up gradually a monstrous system, to which it +would be almost impossible to find a parallel in any tolerably +civilized country. A Customs line was established which stretched +across the whole of India, which in 1869 extended from the Indus to +the Mahānadī in Madras, a distance of 2,300 miles; and it +was guarded by nearly 12,000 men and petty officers, at an annual +cost of £162,000. It would have stretched from London to +Constantinople. . . . It consisted principally of an immense +impenetrable hedge of thorny trees and bushes . . . A similar line, +280 miles in length, was maintained in the north-eastern part of +the Bombay Presidency from Dohud to the Runn of Cutch.' In 1878 the +salt duties were revised, and the necessary arrangements with the +native states were made. With effect from the 1st April, 1879, the +whole Customs line was abolished, with the exception of a small +portion on the Indus. (Sir J. Strachey, <i>The Finances and Public +Works of India</i>, 1869-81, London, 1882, pp. 219, 220, 225.) +Great mines of rock salt are worked near the Indus.</p> + +<p>4. Most people who know India intimately are of opinion that +indirect taxation is more suitable to the circumstances of the +country than direct taxation. For municipal purposes, indirect +taxation, under the name of octroi, is levied by most considerable +towns, and notwithstanding its inconveniences, is far less +unpopular and far more productive than any form of direct taxation. +The people have been accustomed to indirect taxation of divers +kinds from the most remote times, and hate income tax or any other +direct impost, however reasonable it may be in theory. Since 1895 +the general customs duty is 5 per cent. <i>ad valorem</i> on +commodities imported into British India by sea. (See <i>I.G.</i>, +1907, vol. iv, chapter 8). The above remarks on the suitability of +indirect taxation for India are not intended as a defence of the +barbarous device of the 'Customs hedge', which was +indefensible.</p> + +<p>5. That unsound System prevailed in all departments during the +early years of the nineteenth century. 'In Bengal, the monopoly of +salt in one form or other dates at least from the establishment of +the Board of Trade there in 1765. The strict monopoly of salt +commenced in 1780, under a System of agencies. The System +introduced in 1780 continued in force with occasional modifications +till 1862, when the several salt agencies were gradually abolished, +leaving the Supply of salt, whether by importations or excise +manufacture, to private enterprise. Since then, for Bengal Proper, +the supply of the condiment has been obtained chiefly by +importation, but in part by private manufacture under a System of +excise.' (Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., s.v. Salt.) At +present the Salt Department is controlled by a single Commissioner +with the Government of India, The fee payable for a licence to +manufacture salt is fifty rupees. It is inaccurate to describe the +limitation imposed on the manufacture of salt as a monopoly. Any +one can sell salt, but it can be made only under licence.</p> + +<p>6. The author.</p> + +<p>7. The same observations, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>, are +applicable to the magistracy of the country; and the remedy for all +the great existing evils must be sought in the same means, the +interposition of a body of efficient officers between the +magistrate and the 'thānadārs', or present head police +officers of small divisions. [W. H. S.] Much has been done to carry +out this advice. The 'most efficient officers' of the inland +Customs department alluded to in the text were the European or +Eurasian 'uncovenanted' Collectors of Customs and their assistants. +The allusion to Prince Husain and Prince Alī refers to the +well-known tale in the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, 'The story of Prince +Ahmad and the Fairy Peri- Banu'. It is omitted, I believe, from +Lane's version.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch61">CHAPTER 61</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Peasantry of India attached to no existing +Government—Want of Trees in Upper India [1]—Cause and +Consequence—Wells and Groves.</p> + +<p>What strikes one most after crossing the Chambal is, I think, +the improved size and bearing of the men; they are much stouter, +and more bold and manly, without being at all less respectful. They +are certainly a noble peasantry, full of courage, spirit, and +intelligence; and heartily do I wish that we could adopt any system +that would give our Government a deep root in their affections, or +link their interests inseparably with its prosperity; for, with all +its defects, life, property, and character are certainly more +secure, and all their advantages more freely enjoyed under our +Government than under any other they have ever heard of, or that +exists at present in any other part of the country. The eternal +subdivision of the landed property reduces them too much to one +common level, and prevents the formation of that middle class which +is the basis of all that is great and good in European +societies—the great vivifying spirit which animates all that +is good above it in the community.[2] It is a singular fact that +the peasantry, and, I may say, the landed interest of the country +generally, have never been the friends of any existing government, +have never considered their interests and that of their government +the same; and, consequently, have never felt any desire for its +success or its duration.[3]</p> + +<p>The towns and villages all stand upon high mounds formed of the +debris of former towns and villages, that have been accumulating, +most of them, for thousands of years. They are for the most part +mere collections of wretched hovels built of frail materials, and +destined only for a brief period.</p> + +<p> Man wants but little here below,<br> + Nor wants that little long.[4]</p> + +<p>And certainly there is no climate in the world where man wants +less than in this of India generally, and Upper India particularly. +The peasant lives in the open air; and a house to him is merely a +thing to eat and sleep in, and to give him shelter in the storm, +which comes upon him but seldom, and never in a pitiless shape. The +society of his friends he enjoys in the open air, and he never +furnishes his house for their reception or for display. The +peasantry of India, in consequence of living and talking so much in +the open air, have all stentorian voices, which they find it +exceedingly difficult to modulate to our taste when they come into +our rooms.</p> + +<p>Another thing in this part of India strikes a traveller from +other parts—the want of groves of fruit-trees around the +villages and along the roads. In every other part of India he can +at every stage have his tents pitched in a grove of mango-trees, +that defend his followers from the direct rays of the sun in the +daytime, and from the cold dews at night; but in the district above +Agra, he may go for ten marches without getting the shelter of a +grove in one.[5] The Sikhs, the Marāthās, the Jāts, +and the Pathāns destroyed them all during the disorders +attending the decline of the Muhammadan empire; and they have never +been renewed, because no man could feel secure that they would be +suffered to stand ten years. A Hindoo believes that his soul in the +next world is benefited by the blessings and grateful feelings of +those of his fellow creatures who unmolested eat the fruit and +enjoy the shade of the trees he has planted during his sojourn in +this world; and, unless he can feel assured that the traveller and +the public in general will be permitted to do so, he can have no +hope of any permanent benefit from his good work. It might as well +be cut down as pass into the hands of another person who had no +feeling of interest in the eternal repose of the soul of the +planter. That person would himself have no advantage in the next +world from giving the fruit and the shade of the trees to the +public, since the prayers of those who enjoyed them would be +offered for the soul of the planter, and not for his—he, +therefore, takes all their advantage to himself in this world, and +the planter and the public are defrauded. Our Government thought +they had done enough to encourage the renewal of these groves, when +by a regulation they gave to the present lessees of villages the +privilege of planting them themselves, or permitting others to +plant them; but where they held their leases for a term of only +five years, of course they would be unwilling to plant them. They +might lose their lease when the term expired, or forfeit it before; +and the successor would have the land on which the trees stood, and +would be able to exclude the public, if not the proprietor, from +the enjoyment of any of their advantages. Our Government has, in +effect, during the thirty-five years that it has held the dominion +of the North-Western Provinces,[6] prohibited the planting of mango +groves, while the old ones are every year disappearing. On the +resumption of rent-free lands, even the ground on which the finest +of these groves stand has been recklessly resumed, and the +proprietors told me that they may keep the trees they have, but +cannot be allowed to renew them, as the lands are become the +property of Government. The lands of groves that have been the +pride of families for a century and a half have been thus resumed. +Government is not aware of the irreparable mischief they do the +country they govern by such measures.[7]</p> + +<p>On my way back from Meerut, after the conversation already +related with the farmer of a small village (<i>ante</i>, chapter +58, text at [7]), my tents were one day pitched, in the month of +December, amidst some very fine garden cultivation in the district +of Alīgarh;[8] and in the evening I walked out as usual to +have some talk with the peasantry. I came to a neighbouring well at +which four pair of bullocks were employed watering the surrounding +fields of wheat for the market, and vegetables for the families of +the cultivators. Four men were employed at the well, and two more +in guiding the water into the little embanked squares into which +they divide their fields.</p> + +<p>I soon discovered that the most intelligent of the four was a +Jāt; and I had a good deal of conversation with him as he +stood landing the leather buckets, as the two pair of bullocks on +his side of the well drew them to the top, a distance of forty +cubits from the surface of the water beneath.</p> + +<p>'Who built this well?' I began.</p> + +<p>'It was built by one of my ancestors, six generations ago.'</p> + +<p>'How much longer will it last?'</p> + +<p>'Ten generations more, I hope; for it is now just as good as +when first made. It is of 'pakkā' bricks without mortar +cement.'[9]</p> + +<p>'How many waterings do you give?'</p> + +<p>'If there should be no rain, we shall require to give the land +six waterings, as the water is sweet; had it been brackish four +would do. Brackish water is better for wheat than sweet water; but +it is not so good for vegetables or sugar-cane.'</p> + +<p>'How many "bīghās" are watered from this well?'</p> + +<p>'We water twenty "bīghās", or one hundred and five +"jarībs", from this well.'[10]</p> + +<p>'And you pay the Government how much?'</p> + +<p>'One hundred rupees, at the rate of five rupees the +bīghā. But only the five immediately around the well are +mine, the rest belong to others.'</p> + +<p>'But the well belongs to you; and I suppose you get from the +proprietors of the other fifteen something for your water?'</p> + +<p>'Nothing. There is more water for my five bīghās, and +I give them what they require gratis; they acknowledge that it is a +gift from me, and that is all I want.'</p> + +<p>'And what does the land beyond the range of your water of the +same quality pay?'</p> + +<p>'It pays at the rate of two rupees the bīghā, and it +is with difficulty that they can be made to pay that. Water, sir, +is a great thing, and with that and manure we get good crops from +the land.'[11]</p> + +<p>'How many returns of the seed?'</p> + +<p>'From these twenty bīghās with six waterings, and +cross ploughing, and good manure, we contrive to get twenty +returns; that is, if God is pleased with us and blesses our +efforts.'</p> + +<p>'And you maintain your family comfortably out of the return from +your five?'</p> + +<p>'If they were mine I could; but we had two or three bad seasons +seven years ago, and I was obliged to borrow eighty rupees from our +banker at 24 per cent., for the subsistence of my family. I have +hardly been able to pay him the interest with all I can earn by my +labour, and I now serve him upon two rupees a month.'</p> + +<p>'But that is not enough to maintain you and your family?'</p> + +<p>'No; but he only requires my services for half the day, and +during the other half I work with others to get enough for +them.'</p> + +<p>'And when do you expect to pay off your debt?'</p> + +<p>'God only knows; if I exert myself, and keep a good "nīyat" +(pure mind or intentions), he will enable me or my children to do +so some day or other. In the meantime he has my five +bīghās of land in mortgage, and I serve him in the +cultivation.'</p> + +<p>'But under those misfortunes, you could surely venture to demand +something from the proprietors of the other fifteen +bīghās for the water of your well?'</p> + +<p>'Never, sir; it would be said all over the country that such an +one sold God's water for his neighbours' fields, and I should be +ashamed to show my face. Though poor, and obliged to work hard, and +serve others, I have still too much pride for that.'</p> + +<p>'How many bullocks are required for the tillage of these twenty +bīghās watered from your well?'</p> + +<p>'These eight bullocks do all the work; they are dear now. This +was purchased the other day on the death of the old one, for +twenty- six rupees. They cost about fifty rupees a pair—the +late famine has made them dear.'[12]</p> + +<p>'What did the well cost in making?'</p> + +<p>'I have heard that it cost about one hundred and twenty rupees; +it would cost about that sum to make one of this kind in the +present day, not more.'</p> + +<p>'How long have the families of your caste been settled in these +parts?'</p> + +<p>'About six or seven generations; the country had before been +occupied by a peasantry of the Kalār caste. Our ancestors +came, built up mud fortifications, dug wells, and brought the +country under cultivation; it had been reduced to a waste; for a +long time we were obliged to follow the plough with our swords by +our sides, and our friends around us with their matchlocks in their +hand, and their matches lighted.'</p> + +<p>'Did the water in your well fail during the late seasons of +drought?'</p> + +<p>'No, sir, the water of this well never fails.'</p> + +<p>'Then how did bad seasons affect you?'</p> + +<p>'My bullocks all died one after the other from want of fodder, +and I had not the means to till my lands; subsistence became dear, +and to maintain my family, I was obliged to contract the debt for +which my lands are now mortgaged. I work hard to get them back, +and, if I do not succeed, my children will, I hope, with the +blessing of God.'[13]</p> + +<p>The next morning I went on to Kākā, fifteen miles; and +finding tents, people, and cattle, without a tree to shelter them, +I was much pleased to see in my neighbourhood a plantation of mango +and other fruit-trees. It had, I was told, been planted only three +years ago by Hīrāman and Mōtīrām, and I +sent for them, knowing that they would be pleased to have their +good work noticed by any European gentleman. The trees are now +covered with cones of thatch to shelter them from the frost. The +merchants came, evidently much pleased, and I had a good deal of +talk with them.</p> + +<p>'Who planted this new grove?'</p> + +<p>'We planted it three years ago.'</p> + +<p>'What did your well cost you, and how many trees have you?'</p> + +<p>'We have about four hundred trees, and the well has cost us two +hundred rupees, and will cost us two hundred more.'</p> + +<p>'How long will you require to water them?'</p> + +<p>'We shall require to water the mango and other large trees ten +or twelve years; but the orange, pomegranate, and other small trees +will always require watering.'</p> + +<p>'What quantity of ground do the trees occupy?'</p> + +<p>'They occupy twenty-two "bīghās" of one hundred and +five "jarībs". We place them all twelve yards from each other, +that is, the large trees; and the small ones we plant between +them.'</p> + +<p>'How did you get the land?'</p> + +<p>'We were many years trying in vain to get a grant from the +Government through the collector; at last we got him to certify on +paper that, if the landholder would give us land to plant our grove +upon, the Government would have no objection. We induced the +landholder, who is a constituent of ours, to grant us the land; and +we made our well, and planted our trees.'</p> + +<p>'You have done a good thing; what reward do you expect?'</p> + +<p>'We hope that those who enjoy the shade, the water, and the +fruit, will think kindly of us when they are gone. The names of the +great men who built the castles, palaces, and tombs at Delhi and +Agra have been almost all forgotten, because no one enjoys any +advantage from them; but the names of those who planted the few +mango groves we see are still remembered and blessed by all who eat +of their fruit, sit in their shade, and drink of their water, from +whatever part of the world they come. Even the European gentlemen +remember their names with kindness; indeed, it was at the +suggestion of a European gentleman, who was passing this place many +years ago, and talking with us as you are now, that we commenced +this grove. "Look over this plain," said he, "it has been all +denuded of the fine groves with which it was, no doubt, once +studded; though it is tolerably well cultivated, the traveller +finds no shelter in it from the noonday sun—even the birds +seem to have deserted you, because you refuse them the habitations +they find in other parts of India." We told him that we would have +the grove planted, and we have done so; and we hope God will bless +our undertaking.'</p> + +<p>'The difficulty of getting land is, I suppose, the reason why +more groves are not planted, now that property is secure?'</p> + +<p>'How could men plant without feeling secure of the land they +planted upon, and when Government would not guarantee it? The +landholder could guarantee it only during the five years of +lease;[14] and, if at the end of that time Government should +transfer the lease of the estate to another, the land of the grove +would be transferred with it. We plant not for worldly or immediate +profits, but for the benefit of our souls in the next +world—for the prayers of those who may derive benefit from +our works when we are gone. Our landholders are good men, and will +never resume the lands they have given us; and if the lands be sold +at auction by Government, or transferred to others, we hope the +certificate of the collector will protect us from his +grasp.'[15]</p> + +<p>'You like your present Government, do you not?'</p> + +<p>'We like it much. There has never been a Government that gave so +much security to life and property; all we want is a little more of +public service, and a little more of trade; but we have no cause to +complain; it is our own fault if we are not happy.'</p> + +<p>'But I have been told that the people find the returns from the +soil diminishing, and attribute it to the perjury that takes place +in our courts occasionally.'</p> + +<p>'That, sir, is no doubt true; there has been a manifest falling +off in the returns; and people everywhere think that you make too +much use of the Korān and the Ganges water in your courts. God +does not like to hear lies told upon one or other, and we are apt +to think that we are all punished for the sins of those who tell +them. May we ask, sir, what office you hold?'</p> + +<p>'It is my office to do the work which God assigns to me in this +world.'</p> + +<p>'The work of God, sir, is the greatest of all works, and those +are fortunate who are chosen to do it.'</p> + +<p>Their respect for me evidently increased when they took me for a +clergyman. I was dressed in black.</p> + +<p>'In the first place, it is my duty to tell you that God does not +punish the innocent for the guilty, and that the perjury in courts +has nothing to do with the diminution of returns from the soil. +Where you apply water and manure, and alternate your crops, you +always get good returns, do you not?'</p> + +<p>'Very good returns; but we have had several bad seasons that +have carried away the greater part of our population; but a small +portion of our lands can be irrigated for want of wells, and we had +no rain for two or three years, or hardly any in due season; and it +was this deficiency of rain which the people thought a chastisement +from heaven.'</p> + +<p>'But the wells were not dried up, were they?'</p> + +<p>'No.'</p> + +<p>'And the people whose fields they watered had good returns, and +high prices for produce?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, they had; but their cattle died for want of food, for +there was no grass any where to be found.'</p> + +<p>'Still they were better off than those who had no wells to draw +water from for their fields; and the only way to provide against +such evils in future is to have a well for every field. God has +given you the fields, and he has given you the water; and when it +does not come from the clouds, you must draw it from your +wells.'[16]</p> + +<p>'True, sir, very true; but the people are very poor, and have +not the means to form the wells they require.'</p> + +<p>'And if they borrow the money from you, you charge them with +interest?'</p> + +<p>'From one to two per cent. a month according to their character +and circumstances; but interest is very often merely nominal, and +we are in most cases glad to get back the principal alone.'[17]</p> + +<p>'And what security have you for the land of your grove in case +the landholder should change his mind, or die and leave sons not so +well disposed.'</p> + +<p>'In the first place, we hold his bonds for a debt of nine +thousand rupees which he owes us, and which we have no hopes of his +ever paying. In the next, we have on stamped paper his deed of +gift, in which he declares that he has given us the land, and that +he and his heirs for ever shall be bound to make good the rents, +should Government sell the estate for arrears of revenue. We wanted +him to write this document in the regular form of a deed of sale; +but he said that none of his ancestors had ever yet sold their +lands, and that he would not be the first to disgrace his family, +or record their disgrace on stamped paper—it should, he was +resolved, be a deed of gift.'</p> + +<p>'But, of course, you prevailed upon him to take the price?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, we prevailed upon him to take two hundred rupees for the +land, and got his receipt for the same; indeed, it is so mentioned +in the deed of gift; but still the landlord, who is a near relation +of the late chief of Hatrās, would persist in having the paper +made out as a deed, not of sale, but of gift. God knows whether, +after all, our grove will be secure—we must run the risk now +we have begun upon it.'</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. This phrase is misleading. There is no want of trees in Upper +India generally; only certain limited areas are ill wooded. Most of +the districts in the plains of the Ganges and Jumna are well +wooded.</p> + +<p>2. This is a favourite doctrine of the author, often reiterated. +The absence of a powerful middle class is a characteristic, not of +India only, but of all Oriental despotisms, and the subdivision of +landed property is only one of the causes of the non-existence of +such a class.</p> + +<p>3. This is quite true. The rural population want two things, +first a light assessment, secondly the minimum of official +interference, They do not care a straw who the ruler is, and they +like best that ruler, be his name or nationality what it may, who +worries them least, and takes least money from them.</p> + +<p>4. Goldsmith, 'The Hermit' (in chapter 8 of <i>The Vicar of +Wakefield</i>).</p> + +<p>5. Groves are still scarce in the Agra country, but much +planting has been done on the roads.</p> + +<p>6. Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, and some other districts, forming half +of the old province of Oudh, ceded by the ruler of Oudh in 1801, +were long known as the Ceded Provinces. The western districts of +the North- Western Provinces, known as the Conquered Provinces, +were taken from the Marāthās in 1803-5. The Province of +Benares became British territory in 1775. The hill districts of the +Kumaun Division were annexed in 1816, at the close of the war with +Nepal. All the regions named are now included in the Agra Province +of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, in which the editor +served for twenty- nine years.</p> + +<p>7. The author's remarks are not readily intelligible to readers +unversed in the technicalities of Indian revenue administration. +The author writes on the assumption that Government was the +proprietor of the soil. While he was writing, the settlements under +Regulation IX of 1833 were in progress. Those settlements, or +revenue contracts, were ordinarily sanctioned for periods of thirty +years, and the landholders, whom the author calls 'lessees', have +gradually changed into 'proprietors', with full power over their +land, subject only to the State lien for the 'land revenue' (Crown +rent, or State share of the produce), and to the laws of +inheritance and succession. The 'resumption of rent-free lands' +simply means the subjection of those lands to the payment of 'land +revenue'. It is inaccurate to say that the lands are become 'the +property of Government' by reason of their being assessed. Even +when land generally was regarded as the property of the State, and +the landholders were considered to be only lessees, no objection +would have been made to the planting of groves if payment of the +'land revenue' had been continued for the planted area as for +cultivated land. Now that landholders have been recognized as +proprietors, there is nothing to prevent them from planting as much +land as they like with trees, although the State has not always +been willing to exempt the whole planted area from assessment. No +one ever objected to the renewal of trees except on the ground that +the area under trees might be excluded from assessment. For many +years past the Government of India has been most anxious to +encourage tree- planting, and has sanctioned liberal rules +respecting the exemption of grove land from assessment to 'land +revenue', or 'rent', as the author calls it. The Government of the +United Provinces certainly is not now liable to reproach for +indifference to the value of groves. Enormous progress in the +planting of road avenues has also been made. The deficiency of +trees in the country about Agra is partly due to nature, much of +the ground being cut up by ravines, and unfavourable for +planting.</p> + +<p>8. The Alīgarh district lies to the north and east of the +Mathurā district. The fort of Alīgarh is fifty-five miles +north of Agra, and eighty-four miles south-east of Delhi.</p> + +<p>9. 'pakkā' here means 'burned in a kiln', as distinguished +from 'sun-dried'.</p> + +<p>10. The 'bīghā' is the unit of superficial land +measure, varying, but often taken as five-eighths of an acre. The +'jarīb' is a smaller measure.</p> + +<p>11. The rules now in force require assessing officers to make +allowance for permanent improvements, such as the well described in +the text, so as to give the fair benefit of the improvement to the +maker. In the early settlements this important matter was commonly +neglected.</p> + +<p>12. Tolerable bullocks, fit for use at the well and in the +plough, would now cost much more. This conversation appears to have +taken place in the year 1839, The famine alluded to is that of +1837- 8.</p> + +<p>13. This conversation gives a very vivid and truthful picture of +rural life in Northern India. Most revenue officers have held +similar conversations with rustics, but the author is almost the +only writer on Indian affairs who has perceived that exact notes of +casual chats in the fields would be found interesting and +valuable.</p> + +<p>14. The early settlements were made for short terms.</p> + +<p>15. The certificate would not be of much avail in a civil +court.</p> + +<p>16. The Alīgarh district is now irrigated by canals.</p> + +<p>17. This is the lender's view of his business; the borrowers +might have a different story.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch62">CHAPTER 62</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Public Spirit of the Hindoos—Tree +Cultivation and Suggestions for extending it.</p> + +<p>I may here be permitted to introduce as something germane to the +matter of the foregoing chapter a recollection of Jubbulpore, +although we are now far past that locality.</p> + +<p>My tents are pitched where they have often been before, on the +verge of a very large and beautiful tank in a fine grove of mango- +trees, and close to a handsome temple. There are more handsome +temples and buildings for accommodation on the other side of the +tank, but they are gone sadly out of repair. The bank all round +this noble tank is beautifully ornamented by fine banyan and +pīpal trees, between which and the water's edge intervene +numerous clusters of the graceful bamboo. These works were formed +about eighty years ago by a respectable agricultural capitalist who +resided at this place, and died about twenty years after they were +completed. No relation of his can now be found in the district, and +not one in a thousand of those who drink of the water or eat of the +fruit knows to whom he is indebted. There are round the place some +beautiful 'bāolīs', or large wells with flights of stone +steps from the top to the water's edge, imbedded in clusters of +beautiful trees. They were formed about the same time for the use +of the public by men whose grandchildren have descended to the +grade of cultivators of the soil, or belted attendants upon the +present native collectors, without the means of repairing any of +the injury which time is inflicting upon these magnificent works. +Three or four young pīpal-trees have begun to spread their +delicate branches and pale green leaves rustling in the breeze from +the dome of this fine temple; which these infant Herculeses hold in +their deadly grasp and doom to inevitable destruction. Pigeons +deposit the seeds of the pīpal-tree, on which they chiefly +feed, in the crevices of buildings.</p> + +<p>No Hindoo dares, and no Christian or Muhammadan will condescend, +to lop off the heads of these young trees, and if they did, it +would only put off the evil and inevitable day; for such are the +vital powers of their roots, when they have once penetrated deeply +into a building, that they will send out their branches again, cut +them off as often as you may, and carry on their internal attack +with undiminished vigour.[1] No wonder that superstition should +have consecrated this tree, delicate and beautiful as it is, to the +gods. The palace, the castle, the temple, and the tomb, all those +works which man is most proud to raise to spread and to perpetuate +his name, crumble to dust beneath her withering grasp. She rises +triumphant over them all in her lofty beauty, bearing high in air +amidst her light green foliage fragments of the wreck she has made, +to show the nothingness of man's greatest efforts.</p> + +<p>While sitting at my tent-door looking out upon this beautiful +sheet of water, and upon all the noble works around me, I thought +of the charge, so often made against the people of this fine land, +of the total want of <i>public spirit</i> among them, by those who +have spent their Indian days in the busy courts of law, and still +more busy commercial establishments of our great metropolis.</p> + +<p>If by the term public spirit be meant a disposition on the part +of individuals to sacrifice their own enjoyments, or their own +means of enjoyment for the common good, there is perhaps no people +in the world among whom it abounds so much as among the people of +India. To live in the grateful recollections of their countrymen +for benefits conferred upon them in great works of ornament and +utility is the study of every Hindoo of rank and property.[2] Such +works tend, in his opinion, not only to spread and perpetuate his +name in this world, but, through the good wishes and prayers of +those who are benefited by them, to secure the favour of the Deity +in the next.</p> + +<p>According to their notions, every drop of rain-water or dew that +falls to the ground from the green leaf of a fruit-tree, planted by +them for the common good, proves a refreshing draught for their +souls in the next [world]. When no descendant remains to pour the +funeral libations in their name, the water from the trees they have +planted for the public good is destined to supply its place. +Everything judiciously laid out to promote the happiness of their +fellow creatures will in the next world be repaid to them tenfold +by the Deity.</p> + +<p>In marching over the country in the hot season, we every morning +find our tents pitched on the green sward amid beautiful groves of +fruit-trees, with wells of 'pakkā' (brick or stone) masonry, +built at great expense, and containing the most delicious water; +but how few of us ever dream of asking at whose cost the trees that +afford us and our followers such agreeable shade were planted, or +the wells that afford us such copious streams of fine water in the +midst of dry, arid plains were formed! We go on enjoying all the +advantages which arise from the <i>noble public spirit</i> that +animates the people of India to benevolent exertions, without once +calling in question the truth of the assertion of our metropolitan +friends that 'the people of India have no public spirit'.</p> + +<p>Mānmōr, a respectable merchant of Mirzapore, who +traded chiefly in bringing cotton from the valley of the Nerbudda +and Southern India through Jubbulpore to Mirzapore, and in carrying +back sugar and spices in return, learning how much travellers on +this great road suffered from the want of water near the +Hiliyā pass, under the Vindhya range of hills, commenced a +work to remedy the evil in 1822. Not a drop of wholesome water was +to be found within ten miles of the bottom of the pass, where the +laden bullocks were obliged to rest during the hot months, when the +greatest thoroughfare always took place. Mānmōr commenced +a large tank and garden, and had laid out about twenty thousand +rupees in the work, when he died. His son, Lalū +Mānmōr, completed the work soon after his father's death, +at a cost of eighty thousand rupees more, that travellers might +enjoy all the advantages that his good old father had benevolently +intended for them. The tank is very large, always full of fine +water even in the driest part of the dry season, with flights of +steps of cut freestone from the water's edge to the top all round. +A fine garden and shrubbery, with temples and buildings for +accommodations, are attached, with an establishment of people to +attend and keep them in order.[3]</p> + +<p>All the country around this magnificent work was a dreary +solitude—there was not a human habitation within many miles +on any side. Tens of thousands who passed this road every year were +blessing the name of the man who had created it where it was so +much wanted, when the new road from the Nerbudda to Mirzapore was +made by the British Government to descend some ten miles to the +north of it. As many miles were saved in the distance by the new +cut, and the passage down made comparatively easy at great cost, +travellers forsook the Hiliyā road, and poor +Mānmōr's work became comparatively useless. I brought the +work to the notice of Lord William Bentinck, who, in passing +Mirzapore some time after, sent for the son, and conferred upon him +a rich dress of honour, of which he has ever since been extremely +proud.[4]</p> + +<p>Hundreds of works like this are undertaken every year for the +benefit of the public by benevolent and unostentatious individuals, +who look for their reward, not in the applause of newspapers and +public meetings, but in the grateful prayers and good wishes of +those who are benefited by them; and in the favour of the Deity in +the next world, for benefits conferred upon his creatures in +this.[5]</p> + +<p>What the people of India want is not public spirit, for no men +in the world have more of it than the Hindoos, but a disposition on +the part of private individuals to combine their efforts and means +in effecting great objects for the public good. With this +disposition they will be, in time, inspired under our rule, when +the enemies of all settled governments may permit us to divert a +little of our intellect and our revenue from the duties of war to +those of peace.[6]</p> + +<p>In the year 1829, while I held the civil charge of the district +of Jubbulpore, in this valley of the Nerbudda, I caused an estimate +to be made of the public works of utility and ornament it +contained. The population of the district at that time amounted to +500,000 souls, distributed among 4,053 occupied towns, villages, +and hamlets. There were 1,000 villages more which had formerly been +occupied, but were then deserted. There were 2,288 tanks, 209 +'bāolīs', or large wells with flights of steps extending +from the top down to the water when in its lowest stage; 1,560 +wells lined with brick and stone, cemented with lime, but without +stairs; 860 Hindoo temples, and 22 Muhammadan mosques. The +estimated cost of these works in grain at the present price, had +the labour been paid in kind at the ordinary rate, was R86,66,043 +(£866,604 sterling).[7]</p> + +<p>The labourer was estimated to be paid at the rate of about two- +thirds the quantity of corn he would get in England if paid in +kind, and corn sells here at about one-third the price it fetches +in average seasons in England. In Europe, therefore, these works, +supposing the labour equally efficient, would have cost at least +four times the sum here estimated; and such works formed by private +individuals for the public good, without any view whatever to +return in profits, indicate a very high degree of <i>public +spirit</i>.</p> + +<p>The whole annual rent of the lands of this district amounts to +R650,000 (£65,000 sterling), that is, 500,000 demandable by +the Government, and 150,000 by those who hold the lands at lease +immediately under Government, over and above what may be considered +as the profits of their stock as farmers. These works must, +therefore, have cost about thirteen times the amount of the annual +rent of the whole of the lands of the district, or the whole annual +rent for above thirteen years.[8]</p> + +<p>But I have not included the groves of mango and tamarind, and +other fine trees with which the district abounds. Two-thirds of the +towns and villages are imbedded in fine groves of these trees, +mixed with the banyan (<i>Ficus Indica</i>) and the pīpal +(<i>Ficus religiosa</i>). I am sorry they were not numbered; but I +should estimate them at three thousand, and the outlay upon a mango +grove is, on an average, about four hundred rupees.</p> + +<p>The groves of fruit-trees planted by individuals for the use of +the public, without any view to a return in profit, would in this +district, according to this estimate, have cost twelve lākhs +[12,00,000] more, or about twice the amount of the annual rent of +the whole of the lands. It should be remarked that the whole of +these works had been formed under former governments. Ours was +established in the year 1817.[9]</p> + +<p>The Upper Doāb and the Delhi Territories were denuded of +their trees in the wars that attended the decline and fall of the +Muhammadan empire, and the rise and progress of the Sikhs, +Jāts, and Marāthās in that quarter. These lawless +freebooters soon swept all the groves from the face of every +country they occupied with their troops, and they never attempted +to renew them or encourage the renewal. We have not been much more +sparing; and the finest groves of fruit-trees have everywhere been +recklessly swept down by our barrack-masters to furnish fuel for +their brick-kilns; and I am afraid little or no encouragement is +given for planting others to supply their place in those parts of +India where they are most wanted.</p> + +<p>We have a regulation authorizing the lessee of a village to +plant a grove in his grounds, but where the settlements of the +land-revenue have been for short periods, as in all Upper and +Central India, this authority is by no means sufficient to induce +them to invest their property in such works. It gives no sufficient +guarantee that the lessee for the next settlement shall respect a +grant made by his predecessors; and every grove of mango-trees +requires outlay and care for at least ten years. Though a man +destines the fruit, the shade, and the water for the use of the +public, he requires to feel that it will be held for the public in +his name, and by his children and descendants, and never be +exclusively appropriated by any man in power for his own use.</p> + +<p>If the lands were still to belong to the lessee of the estate +under Government, and the trees only to the planter and his heirs, +he to whom the land belonged might very soon render the property in +the trees of no value to the planter or his heirs.[10]</p> + +<p>If Government wishes the Upper Doāb, the Delhi, +Mathurā, and Agra districts again enriched and embellished +with mango groves, they will not delay to convey this feeling to +the hundreds, nay, thousands, who would be willing to plant them +upon a single guarantee that the lands upon which the trees stand +shall be considered to belong to them and their heirs as long as +these trees stand upon them.[11] That the land, the shade, the +fruit, and the water will be left to the free enjoyment of the +public we may take for granted, since the good which the planter's +soul is to derive from such a work in the next world must depend +upon their being so; and all that is required to be stipulated in +such grants is that mango tamarind, pīpal, or 'bar' (i.e. +banyan) trees, at the rate of twenty-five the English acre, shall +be planted and kept up in every piece of land granted for the +purpose; and that a well of 'pakkā' masonry shall be made for +the purpose of watering them, in the smallest, as well as in the +largest, piece of ground granted, and kept always in repair.</p> + +<p>If the grantee fulfil the conditions, he ought, in order to +cover part of the expense, to be permitted to till the land under +the trees till they grow to maturity and yield their fruit; if he +fails, the lands, having been declared liable to resumption, should +be resumed. The person soliciting such grants should be required to +certify in his application that he had already obtained the +sanction of the present lessee of the village in which he wishes to +have his grove, and for this sanction he would, of course, have to +pay the full value of the land for the period of his lease. When +his lease expires, the land in which the grove is planted would be +excluded from the assessment; and when it is considered that every +good grove must cost the planter more than fifty times the annual +rent of the land, Government may be satisfied that they secure the +advantage to their people at a very cheap rate.[12]</p> + +<p>Over and above the advantage of fruit, water, and shade for the +public, these groves tend much to secure the districts that are +well studded with them from the dreadful calamities that in India +always attend upon deficient falls of rain in due season. They +attract the clouds, and make them deposit their stores in districts +that would not otherwise be blessed with them; and hot and dry +countries denuded of their trees, and by that means deprived of a +great portion of that moisture to which they had been accustomed, +and which they require to support vegetation, soon become dreary +and arid wastes. The lighter particles, which formed the richest +portion of their soil, blow off, and leave only the heavy +arenaceous portion; and hence, perhaps, those sandy deserts in +which are often to be found the signs of a population once very +dense.</p> + +<p>In the Mauritius, the rivers were found to be diminishing under +the rapid disappearance of the woods in the interior, when +Government had recourse to the measure of preventing further +depredations, and they soon recovered their size.</p> + +<p>The clouds brought up from the southern ocean by the south-east +trade wind are attracted, as they pass over the island, by the +forests in the interior, and made to drop their stores in daily +refreshing showers. In many other parts of the world governments +have now become aware of this mysterious provision of nature; and +have adopted measures to take advantage of it for the benefit of +the people; and the dreadful sufferings to which the people of +those of our districts, which have been the most denuded of their +trees, have been of late years exposed from the want of rain in due +season, may, perhaps, induce our Indian Government to turn its +thoughts to the subject.[13]</p> + +<p>The province of Mālwā, which is bordered by the +Nerbudda on the south, Gujarāt on the west, +Rājputāna on the north, and Allahabad on the east, is +said never to have been visited by a famine; and this exemption +from so great a calamity must arise chiefly from its being so well +studded with hills and groves. The natives have a couplet, which, +like all good couplets on rural subjects, is attributed to +Sahadēo, one of the five demigod brothers of the +Mahābhārata, to this effect: 'If it does not thunder on +such a night, you, father, must go to Mālwā, and I to +Gujarāt', meaning, 'The rains will fail us here, and we must +go to those quarters where they never fail'[14]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The Archaeological Survey is engaged in unceasing battle with +the pīpal seedlings.</p> + +<p>2. This proposition is too general.</p> + +<p>3. The Hiliyā, or Haliyā, Pass is near the town of the +same name in the Mirzāpur district, thirty-one miles south- +west of Mirzāpur. A bilingual inscription, in English and +Hindī, on a large slab on the bank of the river, records the +capture of the fort of Bhōpārī in 1811 by the 21st +Regiment Native Infantry. The tank described in the text is at +Dibhōr, twelve miles south of Haliyā, and is 430 feet +long by 352 broad. The full name of the builder is Srīmān +Nāyak Mānmōr, who was the head of the Banjāra +merchants of Mirzāpur. The inscription on his temple is dated +23 February, 1825, A.D. 'I suppose', remarks Cunningham, 'that the +vagrant instinct of the old Banjāra preferred a jungle site. +No doubt he got the ground cheap; and from this vantage point he +was able to supply Mirzāpur with both wood and charcoal.' +(<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. xxi, pp. 121-5, pl. xxxi.)</p> + +<p>4. The new road passes through the Katrā Pass. The pass via +Dibhōr and Haliyā, which the author calls the Hiliyā +Pass, is properly called the Kerahi (Kerāi) Pass. Both old and +new roads are now little used. The construction of railways has +altogether changed the course of trade, and Cawnpore has risen on +the ruins of Mirzāpur. Lalū, Nāyak's 'grandson, died +in comparative obscurity some years ago, and only a few female +relatives remain to represent the family—a striking example, +if one were needed, of the instability of Oriental fortunes.' +(<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. xxi, p. 124, quoting <i>Gazetteer</i>.)</p> + +<p>5. Within a few miles of Gosalpur, at the village of Talwā, +which stands upon the old high road leading to Mirzapore, is a +still more magnificent tank with one of the most beautiful temples +in India, all executed two or three generations ago at the expense +of two or three lakhs of rupees for the benefit of the public, by a +very worthy man, who became rich in the service of the former +Government. His descendants, all save one, now follow the plough; +and that one has a small rent-free village held on condition of +appropriating the rents to the repair of the tank. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>The name Talwā is only the rustic way of pronouncing +'tāl', meaning the tank. Gosalpur is nineteen miles north-east +of Jabalpur. Two or three lakhs of rupees were then (in eighteenth +century) worth about £22,000 to £33,000 sterling.</p> + +<p>6. India, except on the frontiers, has been at peace since 1858, +and much revenue has been spent on the duties of peace, but the +power of combination for public objects has developed among the +people to a less degree than the author seems to have expected, +though some development undoubtedly has taken place.</p> + +<p>7. In the original edition these statistics are given in words. +Figures have been used in this edition as being more readily +grasped. The <i>Central Provinces Gazetteer</i> (1870) gives the +following figures: Area of district, 4,261 square miles; +population, 620,201; villages, 2,707; wells in use, 5,515. The +<i>Gazetteer</i> figures apparently include wells of all kinds, and +do not reckon hamlets separately. Wells are, of course, an absolute +necessity, and their construction could not be avoided in a country +occupied by a fixed population. The number of temples and mosques +was very small for so large a population. Many of the tanks, too, +are indispensably necessary for watering the cattle employed in +agriculture. The 'bāolīs' may fairly be reckoned as the +fruit of the public spirit of individuals. This chapter is a +reprint of a paper entitled 'On the Public Spirit of the Hindoos'. +<i>See</i> Bibliography, <i>ante</i>, No. 10.</p> + +<p>8. The <i>C.P. Gazetteer</i> (1870) states that in 1868-9 the +land- revenue was R5,70,434, as compared with R500,000 in the +author's time. It has since been largely enhanced. The lessees +(zamīndārs) have now become proprietors, and the land- +revenue, according to the rule in force for many years past, should +not exceed half the estimated profit rental. The early settlements +were made in accordance with the theory of native Governments that +the land is the property of the State, and that the lessees are +entitled only to subsistence, with a small percentage as payment +for the trouble of collection from the actual cultivators. The +author's estimate gives the zamīndārs only 15/80ths, or +3/16ths of the profit rental.</p> + +<p>9. The people of the Jubbulpore district must have been very +different from those of the rest of India if they planted their +groves solely for the public benefit. The editor has never known +the fruit, not to mention the timber and firewood, of a grove to be +available for the use of the general public. Universal custom +allows all comers to use the shade of any established grove, but +the fruit is always jealousy guarded and gathered by the owners. +Even one tree is often the property of many sharing, and disputes +about the division of mangoes and other fruits are extremely +frequent. The framing of a correct record of rights in trees is one +of the most embarrassing tasks of a revenue officer.</p> + +<p>10. Under the modern System it often happens that the land +belongs to one party, and the trees to another. Disputes, of +course, occur, but, as a rule, the rights of the owner of the trees +are not interfered with by the owner of the land. In thousands of +such cases both parties exercise their rights without friction.</p> + +<p>11. This sentence shows clearly how remote from the author's +mind was the idea of private property in land in India. Government +has long since parted with the power of giving grants such as the +author recommends. The upper Doāb districts of Meerut, +Muzaffarnagar, and Sahāranpur now have plenty of groves.</p> + +<p>12. The cost of establishing a grove varies much according to +circumstances, of which the distance of water from the surface is +the most important. Where water is distant, the cost of +constructing and working a well is very high. Where water is near, +these items of expense are small, because the roots of the trees +soon reach a moist stratum, and can dispense with irrigation.</p> + +<p>13. The author, in his appreciation of the value of +arboriculture and forest conservancy, was far in advance of his +Anglo-Indian contemporaries. A modern meteorologist might object to +some of his phraseology, but the substance of his remarks is quite +sound. His statement of the ways in which trees benefit climate is +incomplete. One important function performed by the roots of trees +is the raising of water from the depths below the surface, to be +dispersed by the leaves in the form of vapour. Trees act +beneficially in many other ways also, which it would be tedious to +specify.</p> + +<p>The Indian Government long remained blind to the importance of +the duty of saving the country from denudation. The first forest +conservancy establishments were organized in 1852 for Madras and +Burma, and, by Act vii of 1865, the Forest Department was +established on a legal basis. Its operations have since been +largely extended, and trained foresters are now sent out each year +to India. The Department at the present time controls many thousand +square miles of forest. The reader may consult the article +'Forests' in Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., and sundry +official reports for further details.</p> + +<p>A yearly grant for arboriculture is now made to every district. +Thousands of miles of roads have been lined with trees, and +multitudes of groves have been established by both Government and +private individuals. The author was himself a great tree-planter. +In a letter dated 15th December, 1844, he describes the avenue +which he had planted along the road from Maihar to Jubbulpore in +1829 and 1830, and another, eighty-six miles long, from +Jhānsī Ghāt on the Nerbudda to Chāka. The trees +planted were banyan, pīpal, mango, tamarind, and jāman +(<i>Eugenia jambolana</i>). He remarks that these trees will last +for centuries.</p> + +<p>14. 'In 1899-1900 Mālwā suffered from a severe famine, +such as had not visited this favoured spot for more than thirty +years. The people were unused to, and quite unprepared for, this +calamity, the distress being aggravated by the great influx of +immigrants from Rājputāna, who had hitherto always been +sure of relief in this region, of which the fertility is +proverbial. In 1903 a new calamity appeared in the shape of plague, +which has seriously reduced the agricultural population in some +districts' (<i>I.G.</i>, 1908, xvii. 105).</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch63">CHAPTER 63</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Cities and Towns, formed by Public Establishments, +disappear as Sovereigns and Governors change their Abodes.</p> + +<p>On the 17th and 18th,[1] we went on twenty miles to Palwal,[2] +which stands upon an immense mound, in some places a hundred feet +high, formed entirely of the debris of old buildings. There are an +immense number of fine brick buildings in ruins, but not one of +brick or stone at present inhabited. The place was once evidently +under the former government the seat of some great public +establishments, which, with their followers and dependants, +constituted almost the entire population. The occasion which keeps +such establishments at a place no sooner passes away than the place +is deserted and goes to ruin as a matter of course. Such is the +history of Nineveh, Babylon,[3] and all cities which have owed +their origin and support entirely to the public establishments of +the sovereign—any revolution that changed the seat of +government depopulated a city.</p> + +<p>Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador of James the First of England to +the court of Delhi during the reign of Jahāngīr, passing +through some of the old capital cities of Western India, then +deserted and in ruins, writes to the Archbishop of Canterbury: 'I +know not by what policy the Emperors seek the ruin of all the +ancient cities which were nobly built, but now be desolate and in +rubbish. It must arise from a wish to destroy all the ancient +cities in order that there might appear nothing great to have +existed before their time.'[4] But these cities, like all which are +supported in the same manner, by the residence of a court and its +establishments, become deserted as the seat of dominion is changed. +Nineveh, built by Ninus out of the spoils he brought back from the +wide range of his conquests, continued to be the residence of the +court and the principal seat of its military establishments for +thirteen centuries to the reign of Sardanapalus. During the whole +of this time it was the practice of the sovereigns to collect from +all the provinces of the empire their respective quotas of troops, +and to canton them within the city for one year, at the expiration +of which they were relieved by fresh troops.' In the last years of +Sardanapalus, four provinces of the empire, Media, Persia, +Babylonia, and Arabia, are said to have furnished a quota of four +hundred thousand; and, in the rebellion which closed his reign, +these troops were often beaten by those from the other provinces of +the empire, which could not have been much less in number. The +successful rebel, Arbaces, transferred the court and his own +appendages to its capital, and Nineveh became deserted, and for +more than eighteen centuries lost to the civilized world.[5]</p> + +<p>Babylon in the same manner; and Susa, Ecbatana, Persepolis, and +Seleucia, all, one after the other, became deserted as sovereigns +changed their residence, and with it the seats of their public +establishments, which alone supported them. Thus Thebes became +deserted for Memphis, Memphis for Alexandria, and Alexandria for +Cairo, as the sovereigns of Egypt changed theirs; and thus it has +always been in India, where cities have been almost all founded on +the same bases—the residence of princes, and their public +establishments, civil, military, or ecclesiastical.</p> + +<p>The city of Kanauj, on the Ganges, when conquered by Mahmūd +of Ghaznī,[6] is stated by the historians of the conqueror to +have contained a standing army of five hundred thousand infantry, +with a due proportion of cavalry and elephants, thirty thousand +shops for the sale of 'pān' alone, and sixty thousand families +of opera girls.[7] The 'pān' dealers and opera girls were part +and parcel of the court and its public establishments, and as much +dependent on the residence of the sovereign as the civil, military, +and ecclesiastical officers who ate their 'pān', and enjoyed +their dancing and music; and this great city no sooner ceased to be +the residence of the sovereign, the great proprietor of all the +lands in the country, than it became deserted.</p> + +<p>After the establishment of the Muhammadan dominion in India +almost all the Hindoo cities, within the wide range of their +conquest, became deserted as the necessary consequence, as the +military establishments were all destroyed or disbanded, and the +religions establishments scattered, their lands confiscated, their +idols broken, and their temples either reduced to ruins in the +first ebullition of fanatical zeal, or left deserted and neglected +to decay from want of those revenues by which alone they had been, +or could be, supported.[8] The towns and cities of the Roman empire +which owed their origin to the same cause, the residence of +governors and their legions or other public establishments, +resisted similar shocks with more endurance, because they had most +of them ceased to depend upon the causes in which they originated, +and began to rest upon other bases. When destroyed by wave after +wave of barbarian conquest, they were restored for the most part by +the residence of church dignitaries and their establishments; and +the military establishments of the new order of things, instead of +remaining as standing armies about the courts of princes, dispersed +after every campaign like militia, to enjoy the fruits of the lands +assigned for their maintenance, when alone they could be enjoyed in +the rude state to which society had been reduced—upon the +lands themselves.</p> + +<p>For some time after the Muhammadan conquest of India, that part +of it which was brought effectually under the new dominion can +hardly be considered to have had more than one city with its +dependent towns and villages;[9] because the emperor chose to +concentrate the greater part of his military establishments around +the seat of his residence, and this great city became deserted +whenever he thought it necessary or convenient to change that +seat.</p> + +<p>But when the emperor began to govern his distant provinces by +viceroys, he was obliged to confide to them a share of his military +establishments, the only public establishments which a conqueror +thought it worth while to maintain; and while they moved about in +their respective provinces, the imperial camp became fixed. The +great officers of state, enriched by the plunder of conquered +provinces, began to spend their wealth in the construction of +magnificent works for private pleasure or public convenience. In +time, the viceroys began to govern their provinces by means of +deputies, who moved about their respective districts, and enabled +their masters, the viceroys of provinces, to convert their camps +into cities, which in magnificence often rivalled that of the +emperor their master. The deputies themselves in time found that +they could govern their respective districts from a central point; +and as their camps became fixed in the chosen spots, towns of +considerable magnitude rose, and sometimes rivalled the capitals of +the viceroys. The Muhammadans had always a greater taste for +architectural magnificence, as well in their private as in their +public edifices, than the Hindoos,[10] who sought the respect and +good wishes of mankind through the medium of groves and reservoirs +diffused over the country for their benefit. Whenever a Muhammadan +camp was converted into a town or city almost all the means of +individuals were spent in the gratification of this taste. Their +wealth in money and movables would be, on their death, at the mercy +of their prince—their offices would be conferred on +strangers; tombs and temples, canals, bridges, and caravanserais, +gratuitously for the public good, would tend to propitiate the +Deity, and conciliate the goodwill of mankind, and might also tend +to the advancement of their children in the service of their +sovereign. The towns and cities which rose upon the sites of the +standing camps of the governors of provinces and districts in India +were many of them as much adorned by private and public edifices as +those which rose upon the standing camps of the Muhammadan +conquerors of Spain.[11] Standing camps converted into towns and +cities, it became in time necessary to fortify with walls against +any surprise under any sudden ebullition among the conquered +people; and fortifications and strong garrisons often suggested to +the bold and ambitions governors of distant provinces attempts to +shake off the imperial yoke.[12] That portion of the annual +revenue, which had hitherto flowed in copious streams of tribute to +the imperial capital, was now arrested, and made to augment the +local establishments, adorn the cities, and enrich the towns of the +viceroys, now become the sovereigns of independent kingdoms. The +lieutenant-governors of these new sovereigns, possessed of +fortified towns, in their turn often shook off the yoke of their +masters in the same manner, and became in their turn the +independent sovereigns of their respective districts. The whole +resources of the countries subject to their rule being employed to +strengthen and improve their condition, they soon became rich and +powerful kingdoms, adorned with splendid cities and populous towns, +since the public establishments of the sovereigns, among whom all +the revenues were expended, spent all they received in the purchase +of the produce of the land and labour of the surrounding country, +which required no other market.</p> + +<p>Thus the successful rebellion of one viceroy converted Southern +India into an independent kingdom; and the successful rebellion, of +his lieutenant-governors in time divided it into four independent +kingdoms, each with a standing army of a hundred thousand men, and +adorned with towns and cities of great strength and +magnificence.[13] But they continued to depend upon the causes in +which they originated—the public establishments of the +sovereign; and when the Emperor Akbar and his successors, aided by +their own [<i>sic</i>] intestine wars, had conquered these +sovereigns, and again reduced their kingdoms to tributary +provinces, almost all these cities and towns became depopulated as +the necessary consequence. The public establishments were again +moving about with the courts and camps of the emperor and his +viceroys; and drawing in their train all those who found employment +and subsistence in contributing to their efficiency and enjoyment. +It was not, as our ambassador in the simplicity of his heart +supposed, the disinclination of the emperors to see any other towns +magnificent, save those in which they resided, which destroyed +them, but their ambition to reduce all independent kingdoms to +tributary provinces.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. January, 1836.</p> + +<p>2. A small town, thirty-six miles south of Delhi, situated in +the Gurgāon district, now included in the Panjāb, but in +the author's time attached to the North-Western Provinces. The town +is the chief place in the 'pargana' of the same name.</p> + +<p>3. Nineveh is not a well-chosen example, inasmuch as its decay +was due to deliberate destruction, and not to mere desertion by a +sovereign. It was deliberately burned and ruined by Nabopolassar, +viceroy of Babylon, and his allies, about 606 B.C. The decay of +Babylon was gradual. See note <i>post</i>, note 5.</p> + +<p>4. Extract from a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, dated +from Ajmēr, January 29, 1616. The words immediately following +'rubbish' are 'His own [i.e. the King's] houses are of stone, +handsome and uniform. His great men build not, for want of +inheritance; but, as far as I have yet seen, live in tents, or in +houses worse than our cottages. Yet, when the King likes, as at +Agra, because it is a city erected by him, the buildings, as is +reported, are fair and of carved stone.' (Pinkerton's +<i>Collection</i>, vol. viii, p. 45.) The passage is not reprinted +in the Hakluyt Society edition (vol. i, p. 122), where only +extracts from the letter are given.</p> + +<p>5. The site of Nineveh was forgotten for a period even longer +than that stated by the author. Mr. Claudius Rich, the Resident at +Baghdad, was the first European to make a tentative identification +of Nineveh with the mounds opposite Mosal, in 1818. Real knowledge +of the site and its history dates from the excavations of Botta +begun in 1843, and those of Layard begun two years later. (Bonomi, +<i>Nineveh and its Palaces</i>, 2nd ed., 1853; Layard, <i>Nineveh +and its Remains</i>, 2 vols, 1849.) The author's account of the +fall of Nineveh, based on that of Diodorus Siculus, is not in +accordance with the conclusions of the best modern authorities. The +destruction of the city in or about 606 B.C. was really effected +some years after the death of Sardanapalus (Assur-banipal), in 625 +B.C., by Nabopolassar (Nabupal-uzur), the rebel viceroy of Babylon, +in alliance with Necho of Egypt, Cyaxares of Media, and the King of +Armenia. The Assyrian monarch who perished in the assault was not +Sardanapalus (Assur-banipal), but his son Assur-ebel-ili, or, +according to Professor Sayce, a king called Saracus, After the +destruction of Nineveh, Babylon became the capital of the +Mesopotamian empire, and under Nebuchadrezzar (Nebuchadnezzar), son +of Nabopolassar, who came to the throne in 604 B.C., attained the +height of glory and renown. It was occupied by Cyrus in 539 B.C., +and decayed gradually, but was still a place of importance in the +time of Alexander the Great. The eponymous hero, Ninus, is of +course purely mythical. The results of modern research will be +found in the <i>Encycl. Brit.</i>, 11th ed., 1910, in the articles +'Babylon' (Sayce), 'Babylonia and Assyria' (Sayce and Jastrow), and +'Nineveh' (Johns). See also, ibid., 'Cyrus' (Meyer).</p> + +<p>6. Kanauj, now in the Farrukhābād district of the +United Provinces, was sacked by Mahmūd of Ghaznī in +January, A.D. 1019. The name of Mahmūd's capital may be +spelled Ghaznih, Ghaznī, or Ghaznīn. (Raverty, in +<i>J.A.S.B.</i>, Part I, vol. lxi (1892), p. 156, note.)</p> + +<p>7. 'Pān', the well-known Indian condiment (<i>ante</i>, +chapter 29, note 10). 'Opera girls' is a rather whimsical rendering +of the more usual phrase 'nāch (nautch) girls', or 'dancing +girls'. The traditional numbers cited must not be accepted as +historical facts. See V. A. Smith, 'The History of the City of +Kanauj' (<i>J.R.A.S.</i>, 1908, pp. 767-93).</p> + +<p>8. This statement is too general. Benares, Allahabad +(Prayāg), and many other important Hindoo cities, were never +deserted, and continued to be populous through all vicissitudes. It +is true that in most places the principal temples were desecrated +or destroyed, and were frequently converted into mosques.</p> + +<p>9. The statement is much exaggerated. The Hindoo Rājās +who paid tribute to the Sultans of Delhi often maintained +considerable courts in populous towns.</p> + +<p>10. This proposition, which is not true of Southern India at +all, applies only to secular buildings in Northern India. The +temples of Khajurāho, Mount Abū, and numberless other +places, equal in magnificence the architecture of the Muhammadans, +or, indeed, that of any people in the world.</p> + +<p>11. The anthor's remarks seem likely to convey wrong notions. +Very few of the capitals of the Muhammadan viceroys and governors +were new foundations. Nearly all of them were ancient Hindoo towns +adopted as convenient official residences, and enlarged and +beautified by the new rulers, much of the old beauties being at the +same time destroyed. Fyzabad certainly was a new foundation of the +Nawāb Wazīrs of Oudh, but it lies so close to the +extremely ancient city of Ajodhya that it should rather be regarded +as a Muhammadan extension of that city. Lucknow occupies the site +of a Hindoo city of great antiquity.</p> + +<p>12. It would be difficult to point out an example of a +<i>Muhammadan</i> standing camp which was first converted into an +open, and then into a fortified town.</p> + +<p>13. This abstract of the history of the Deccan, or Southern +India, is not quite accurate. The Emperor, or Sultan, Muhammad bin +Tughlak, after A.D. 1325, reduced the Deccan to a certain extent to +submission, but the country revolted in A.D. 1347, when Hasan Gango +founded the Bāhmani dynasty of Gulbarga, afterwards known as +that of Bīdar. At the end of the fifteenth and the beginning +of the sixteenth century, the kingdom so founded broke up into +five, not four, separate states, namely, Bījāpur, +Ahmadnagar, Golconda, Berār, and Bīdar. The Berār +state had a separate existence for about eighty-five years, and +then became merged in the kingdom of Ahmadnagar.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch64">CHAPTER 64</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Murder of Mr. Fraser, and Execution of the +Nawāb Shams-ud-dīn.</p> + +<p>At Palwal Mr. Wilmot and Mr. Wright, who had come on business, +and Mr. Gubbins, breakfasted and dined with us. They complained +sadly of the solitude to which they were condemned, but admitted +that they should not be able to get through half so much business +were they placed at a large station, and exposed to all the +temptations and distractions of a gay and extensive circle, nor +feel the same interest in their duties, or sympathy with the +people, as they do when thrown among them in this manner. To give +young men good feelings towards the natives, the only good way is +to throw them among them at those out-stations in the early part of +their career, when all their feelings are fresh about them. This +holds good as well with the military as the civil officer, but more +especially with the latter. A young officer at an outpost with his +corps, or part of it, for the first season or two, commonly lays in +a store of good feeling towards his men that lasts him for life; +and a young gentleman of the Civil Service lays in, in the same +manner, a good store of sympathy and fellow feeling with the +natives in general.[1]</p> + +<p>Mr. Gubbins is the Magistrate and Collector of one of the three +districts into which the Delhi territories are divided, and he has +charge of Fīrōzpur, the resumed estate of the late +Nawāb Shams-ud-dīn, which yields a net revenue of about +two hundred thousand rupees a year.[2] I have already stated that +this Nawāb took good care that his Mewātī plunderers +should not rob within his own estate; but he not only gave them +free permission to rob over the surrounding districts of our +territory, but encouraged them to do so, that he might share in +their booty.[3] He was a handsome young man, and an extremely +agreeable companion; but a most unprincipled and licentious +character. No man who was reputed to have a handsome wife or +daughter was for a moment safe within his territories. The +following account of Mr. William Fraser's assassination by this +Nawāb may, I think, be relied upon.[4]</p> + +<p>The Fīrōzpur Jāgīr was one of the +principalities created under the principle of Lord Cornwallis's +second administration, which was to make the security of the +British dominions dependent upon the divisions among the +independent native chiefs upon their frontiers. The person +receiving the grant or confirmation of such principality from the +British Government 'pledged himself to relinquish all claims to +aid, and to maintain the peace in his own possessions.'[5] +Fīrōzpur was conferred by Lord Lake, in 1805, upon Ahmad +Baksh, for his diplomatic services, out of the territories acquired +by us west of the Jumna during the Marāthā wars. He had +been the agent on the part of the Hindoo chiefs of Alwar in +attendance upon Lord Lake during the whole of that war. He was a +great favourite, and his lordship's personal regard for him was +thought by those chiefs to have been so favourable to their cause +that they conferred upon him the 'pargana' of Lohārū in +hereditary rent-free tenure.</p> + +<p>In 1822, Ahmad Baksh declared Shams-ud-dīn, his eldest son, +his heir, with the sanction of the British Government and the +Rājās of Alwar. In February, 1825, Shams-ud-dīn, at +the request of his father, by a formal deed assigned over the +pargana of Lohārū as a provision for his younger brothers +by another mother, Amīn-ud-dīn and Ziā- +ud-dīn;[6] and in October 1826 he was finally invested by his +father with the management; and the circumstance was notified to +the British Government, through the Resident at Delhi, Sir Charles +Metcalfe. Ahmad Baksh died in October, 1827. Disputes soon after +arose between the brothers, and they expressed a desire to submit +their claims to the arbitration of Sir Edward Colebrooke,[7] who +had succeeded Sir Charles Metcalfe in the Residency of Delhi.[8] He +referred the matter to the Supreme Government; and by their +instructions, under date 11th of April, 1828, he was authorized to +adjust the matter. He decided that Shams-ud-dīn should make a +complete and unencumbered cession to his younger brothers of the +pargana of Lohārū, without the reservation of any right +of interference in the management, or of any condition of obedience +to himself whatever; and that Amīn-ud-dīn should, till +his younger brother came of age, pay into the Delhi treasury for +him the annual sum of five thousand two hundred and ten rupees, as +his half share of the net proceeds, to be there held in deposit for +him; and that the estate should, from the time he came of age, be +divided between them in equal shares. This award was confirmed by +Government; but Sir Edward was recommended to alter it for an +annual money payment to the two younger brothers, if he could do so +with the consent of the parties.</p> + +<p>The pargana was transferred, as the money payment could not be +agreed upon; and in September Mr. Martin, who had succeeded Sir E. +Colebrooke, proposed to Government that the pargana of +Lohārū should be restored to Shams-ud-dīn in lieu of +a fixed sum of twenty-six thousand rupees a year to be paid by him +annually to his two younger brothers. This proposal was made on the +ground that Amīn-ud-dīn could not collect the revenues +from the refractory landholders (instigated, no doubt, by the +emissaries of Shams-ud-dīn), and consequently could not pay +his younger brother's revenue into the treasury. In calculating the +annual net revenue of 10,420 rupees, 15,000 of the <i>gross</i> +revenue had been estimated as the annual expenses of the mutual +[<i>sic</i>] establishments of the two brothers. To the arrangement +proposed by Mr. Martin the younger brothers strongly objected; and +proposed in preference to make over the pargana to the British +Government, on condition of receiving the net revenue, whatever +might be the amount. Mr. Martin was desired by the Governor-General +to effect this arrangement, should Amīn-ud-dīn appear +still to wish it; but he preferred retaining the management of it +in his own hands, in the hope that circumstances would improve.</p> + +<p>Shams-ud-dīn, however, pressed his claim to the restoration +of the pargana so often that it was at last, in September, 1833, +insisted upon by Government, on the ground that +Amīn-ud-dīn had failed to fulfil that article of the +agreement which bound him to pay annually into the Delhi treasury +5,210 rupees for his younger brother, though that brother had never +complained; on the contrary, lived with him on the best possible +terms, and was as averse as himself to the retransfer of the +pargana, on condition that they gave up their claims to a large +share of the movable property of their late father, which had been +already decided in their favour in the court of first instance. Mr. +W. Fraser, who had succeeded to the office of Governor-General's +representative in the Delhi Territories, remonstrated strongly +against this measure; and wished to bring it again under the +consideration of Government; on the grounds that +Ziā-ud-dīn had never made any complaint against his +brother Amīn-ud-dīn for want of punctuality in the +payment of his share of the net revenue after the payment of their +mutual establishments; that the two brothers would be deprived by +this measure of an hereditary estate to the value of sixty thousand +rupees a year in perpetuity, burthened with the condition that they +relinquished a suit already gained in the court of first instance, +and likely to be gained in appeal, involving a sum that would of +itself yield them that annual sum at the moderate interest of 6 per +cent. The grounds alleged by him were not considered valid, and the +pargana was made over to Shams-ud- dīn. The pargana now yields +40,000 rupees a year, and under good management may yield +70,000.</p> + +<p>At Mr. Fraser's recommendation, Amīn-ud-dīn went +himself to Calcutta, and is said to have prevailed upon the +Government to take his case again into their consideration. +Shams-ud- dīn had become a debauched and licentious character; +and having criminal jurisdiction within his own estate, no one's +wife or daughter was considered safe; for, when other means failed +him, he did not scruple to employ assassins to effect his hated +purposes, by removing the husband or father.[9] Mr. Fraser became +so disgusted with his conduct that he would not admit him into his +house when he came to Delhi, though he had, it may be said, brought +him up as a child of his own; indeed he had been as fond of him as +he could be of a child of his own; and the boy used to spend the +greater part of his time with him. One day after Mr. Fraser had +refused to admit the Nawāb to his house. Colonel Skinner, +having some apprehensions that by such slights he might be driven +to seek revenge by assassination, is said to have remonstrated with +Mr. Fraser as his oldest and most valued friend.[10] Mr. Fraser +told him that he considered the Nawāb to be still but a boy, +and the only way to improve him was to treat him as such. It was, +however, more by these slights than by any supposed injuries that +Shams-ud-dīn was exasperated; and from that day he determined +to have Mr. Fraser assassinated.[11]</p> + +<p>Having prevailed upon a man, Karīm Khān, who was at +once his servant and boon companion, he sent him to Delhi with one +of his carriages, which he was to have sold through Mr. McPherson, +a European merchant of the city. He was ordered to stay there +ostensibly for the purpose of learning the process of extracting +copper from the fossil containing the ore, and purchasing dogs for +the Nawāb. He was to watch his opportunity and shoot Mr. +Fraser whenever he might find him out at night, attended by only +one or two orderlies; to be in no haste, but to wait till he found +a favourable opportunity, though it should be for several months. +He had with him a groom named Rūplā, and a +Mewātī attendant named Aniā, and they lodged in +apartments of the Nawāb's at Daryāoganj. He rode out +morning and evening, attended by Aniā on foot, for three +months, during which he often met Mr. Fraser, but never under +circumstances favourable to his purpose; and at last, in despair, +returned to Fīrōzpur. Aniā, had importuned him for +leave to go home to see his children, who had been ill, and +Karīm Khān did not like to remain without him. The +Nawāb was displeased with him for returning without leave, and +ordered him to return to his post, and effect the object of his +mission. Aniā declined to return, and the Nawāb +recommended Karīm to take somebody else, but he had, he said, +explained all his designs to this man, and it would be dangerous to +entrust the secret to another; and he could, moreover, rely +entirely upon the courage of Aniā on any trying occasion.</p> + +<p>Twenty rupees were due to the treasury by Aniā on account +of the rent of the little tenement he held under the Nawāb; +and the treasurer consented, at the request of Karīm +Khān, to receive this by small instalments, to be deducted out +of the monthly wages he was to receive from him. He was, moreover, +assured that he should have nothing to do but to cook and eat; and +should share liberally with Karīm in the one hundred rupees he +was taking with him in money, and the letter of credit upon the +Nawāb's bankers at Delhi for one thousand rupees more. The +Nawāb himself came with them as far as the village of +Nagīna, where he used to hunt; and there Karīm requested +permission to change his groom, as he thought Rūplā too +shrewd a man for such a purpose. He wanted, he said, a stupid, +sleepy man, who would neither ask nor understand anything; but the +Nawāb told him that Rūplā was an old and quiet +servant, upon whose fidelity he could entirely rely; and Karīm +consented to take him. Aniā's little tenement, upon which his +wife and children resided, was only two miles distant, and he went +to give instructions about gathering in the harvest, and to take +leave of them. He told his wife that he was going to the capital on +a difficult and dangerous duty, but that his companion Karīm +would do it all, no doubt. Aniā asked Karīm before they +left Nagīna what was to be his reward; and he told him that +the Nawāb had promised them five villages in rent-free tenure. +Aniā wished to learn from the Nawāb himself what he might +expect; and being taken to him by Karīm, was assured that he +and his family should be provided for handsomely for the rest of +their lives, if he did his duty well on this occasion.</p> + +<p>On reaching Delhi they took up their quarters near Colonel +Skinner's house, in the Bulvemar's Ward,[12] where they resided for +two months. The Nawāb had told Karīm to get a gun made +for his purpose at Delhi, or purchase one, stating that his guns +had all been purchased through Colonel Skinner, and would lead to +suspicion if seen in his possession. On reaching Delhi, Karīm +purchased an old gun, and desired Aniā to go to a certain man +in the Chāndnī Chauk, and get it made in the form of a +short blunderbuss, with a peculiar stock, that would admit of its +being concealed under a cloak; and to say that he was going to +Gwālior to seek service, if any one questioned him. The barrel +was cut, and the instrument made exactly as Karīm wished it to +be by the man whom he pointed out. They met Mr. Fraser every day, +but never at night; and Karīm expressed regret that the +Nawāb should have so strictly enjoined him not to shoot him in +the daytime, which he thought he might do without much risk. +Aniā got an attack of fever, and urged Karīm to give up +the attempt and return home, or at least permit him to do so. +Karīm himself became weary, and said he would do so very soon +if he could not succeed; but that he should certainly shoot <i>some +European gentleman</i> before he set out, and tell his master that +he had taken him for Mr. Fraser—to save appearances. +Aniā told him that this was a question between him and his +master, and no concern of his.</p> + +<p>At the expiration of two months, a peon came to learn what they +were doing. Karīm wrote a letter by him to the Nawāb, +saying that '<i>the dog</i> he wished was never to be seen without +ten or twelve people about him; and that he saw no chance whatever +of finding him, except in the midst of them; but that if he wished, +he would purchase this <i>dog</i> in the midst of the crowd'. The +Nawāb wrote a reply, which was sent by a trooper, with orders +that it should be opened in presence of no one but Aniā. The +contents were: 'I command you not to purchase <i>the dog</i> in +presence of many persons, as its price will be greatly raised. You +may purchase him before one person, or even two, but not before +more; I am in no hurry, the longer the time you take the better; +but do not return without purchasing <i>the dog</i>.'[13] That is, +without killing Mr. Fraser.</p> + +<p>They went on every day to watch Mr. Fraser's movements. Leaving +the horse with the groom, sometimes in one old ruin of the city, +and sometimes in another, ready saddled for flight, with orders +that he should not be exposed to the view of passers-by, Karīm +and Aniā used to pace the streets, and on several occasions +fell in with him, but always found him attended by too many +followers of one kind or another for their purpose. At last, on +Sunday, the 13th of March, 1835, Karīm heard that Mr. Fraser +was to attend a 'nāch' (dance), given by Hindoo Rāo, the +brother of the Baiza Bāi,[14] who then resided at Delhi; and +determining to try whether he could not shoot him from horseback, +he sent away his groom as soon as he had ascertained that Mr. +Fraser was actually at the dance. Aniā went in and mixed among +the assembly; and as soon as he saw Mr. Fraser rise to depart, he +gave intimation to Karīm, who ordered him to keep behind, and +make off as fast as he could, as soon as he should hear the report +of his gun.</p> + +<p>A little way from Hindoo Rao's house the road branches off; that +to the left is straight, while that to the right is circuitous. Mr. +Fraser was known always to take the straight road, and upon that +Karīm posted himself, as the road up to the place where it +branched off was too public for his purpose. As it happened, Mr. +Fraser, for the first time, took the circuitous road to the right, +and reached his home without meeting Karīm. Aniā placed +himself at the cross way, and waited there till Karīm came up +to him. On hearing that he had taken the right road, Karīm +said that 'a man in Mr. Fraser's situation must be a strange +('kāfir') unbeliever not to have such a thing as a torch with +him in a dark night. Had he had what he ought', he said, 'I should +not have lost him this time'.</p> + +<p>They passed him on the road somewhere or other almost every +afternoon after this for seven days, but could never fall in with +him after dark. On the eighth day, Sunday, the 22nd of March, +Karīm went, as usual, in the forenoon to the great mosque to +say his prayers; and on his way back in the afternoon he purchased +some plums which he was eating when he came up to Aniā, whom +he found cooking his dinner. He ordered his horse to be saddled +immediately, and told Aniā to make haste and eat his dinner, +as he had seen Mr. Fraser at a party given by the Rājā of +Kishangarh. '<i>When his time is come</i>,' said Karīm, 'we +shall no doubt find an opportunity to kill him, if we watch him +carefully.' They left the groom at home that evening, and proceeded +to the 'dargāh' (church) near the canal. Seeing Aniā with +merely a Stick in his hand, Karīm bid him go back and change +it for a sword, while he went in and said his evening prayers.</p> + +<p>On being rejoined by Aniā, they took the road to +cantonments, which passed by Mr. Fraser's house; and Aniā +observed that the risk was hardly equal in this undertaking, he +being on foot, while Karīm was on horseback; that he should be +sure to be taken, while the other might have a fair chance of +escape. It was now quite dark, and Karīm bid him stand by +sword in hand; and if anybody attempted to seize his horse when he +fired, cut him down, and be assured that while he had life he would +never suffer him, Aniā, to be taken. Karīm continued to +patrol up and down on the high-road, that nobody might notice him, +while Aniā stood by the road-side. At last, about eleven +o'clock, they heard Mr. Fraser approach, attended by one trooper, +and two 'peons' on foot; and Karīm walked his horse slowly, as +if he had been going from the city to the cantonments, till Mr. +Fraser came up within a few paces of him, near the gate leading +into his house. Karīm Khān, on leaving his house, had put +one large ball into his short blunderbuss; and when confident that +he should now have an opportunity of shooting Mr. Fraser, he put in +two more small ones. As Mr. Fraser's horse was coming up on the +left side, Karīm Khān tumed round his, and, as he passed, +presented his blunderbuss, fired, and all three balls passed into +Mr. Fraser's breast. All three horses reared at the report and +flash, and Mr. Fraser fell dead on the ground. Karīm galloped +off, followed at a short distance by the trooper, and the two peons +went off and gave information to Major Pew and Cornet Robinson, who +resided near the place. They came in all haste to the spot, and had +the body taken to the deceased's own house; but no signs of life +remained. They reported the murder to the magistrate, and the city +gates were closed, as the assassin had been seen to enter the city +by the trooper.</p> + +<p>Aniā ran home through the Kabul gate of the city, +unperceived, while Karīm entered by the Ajmēr gate, and +passed first through the encampment of Hindoo Rao, to efface the +traces of his horse's feet. When he reached their lodgings, he +found Aniā there before him; and Rūplā, the groom, +seeing his horse in a sweat, told him that he had had a narrow +escape—that Mr. Fraser had been killed, and orders given for +the arrest of any horseman that might be found in or near the city. +He told him to hold his tongue, and take care of the horse; and +calling for a light, he and Aniā tore up every letter he had +received from Fīrōzpur, and dipped the fragments in +water, to efface the ink from them. Aniā asked him what he had +done with the blunderbuss, and was told that it had been thrown +into a well. Aniā now concealed three flints that he kept +about him in some sand in the upper story they occupied, and threw +an iron ramrod and two spare bullets into a well near the +mosque.</p> + +<p>The next morning, when he heard that the city gates had been all +shut to prevent any one from going out till strict search should be +made, Karīm became a good deal alarmed, and went to seek +counsel from Moghal Beg, the friend of his master; but when in the +evening he heard that they had been again opened, he recovered his +spirits; and the next day he wrote a letter to the Nawāb, +saying that he had purchased the dogs that he wanted, and would +soon return with them. He then went to Mr. McPherson, and actually +purchased from him for the Nawāb some dogs and pictures, and +the following day sent Rūplā, the groom, with them to +Fīrōzpur, accompanied by two bearers. A pilgrim lodged in +the same place with these men, and was present when Karīm came +home from the murder, and gave his horse to Rūplā. In the +evening, after the departure of Rūplā with the dogs, four +men of the Gūjar caste came to the place, and Karīm sat +down and smoked a pipe with one of them,[15] who said that he had +lost his bread by Mr. Fraser's death, and should be glad to see the +murderer punished—that he was known to have worn a green +vest, and he hoped he would soon be discovered. The pilgrim came up +to Karīm shortly after these four men went away, and said that +he had heard from some one that he, Karīm, was himself +suspected of the murder. He went again to Moghal Beg, who told him +not to be alarmed, that, happily, the Regulations were now in force +in the Delhi Territory, and that he had only to stick steadily to +one story to be safe.</p> + +<p>He now desired Aniā to return to Fīrōzpur with a +letter to the Nawāb, and to assure him that he would be stanch +and stick to one story, though they should seize him and confine +him in prison for twelve years. He had, he said, already sent off +part of his clothes, and Aniā should now take away the rest, +so that nothing suspicious should be left near him.</p> + +<p>The next morning Aniā set out on foot, accompanied by +Islāmullah, a servant of Moghal Beg's, who was also the bearer +of a letter to the Nawāb. They hired two ponies when they +became tired, but both flagged before they reached Nagīna, +whence Aniā proceeded to Fīrōzpur, on a mare +belonging to the native collector, leaving Islāmullah behind. +He gave his letter to the Nawāb, who desired him to describe +the affair of the murder. He did so. The Nawāb seemed very +much pleased, and asked him whether Karīm appeared to be in +any alarm. Aniā told him that he did not, and had resolved to +stick to one story, though he should be imprisoned for twelve +years. 'Karīm Khān,' said the Nawāb, turning to the +brother-in-law of the former, Wāsil Khān, and Hasan +Alī, who stood near him—'Karīm Khān is a very +brave man, whose courage may be always relied on.' He gave +Aniā eighteen rupees, and told him to change his name, and +keep close to Wāsil Khān. They retired together; but, +while Wāsil Khān went to his house, Aniā stood on +the road unperceived, but near enough to hear Hasan Alī urge +the Nawāb to have him put to death immediately, as the only +chance of keeping the fatal secret. He went off immediately to +Wāsil Khān, and prevailed upon him to give him leave to +go home for that night to see his family, promising to be back the +next morning early.</p> + +<p>He set out forthwith, but had not been long at home when he +learned that Hasan Alī, and another confidential servant of +the Nawāb, were come in search of him with some troopers. He +concealed himself in the roof of his house, and heard them ask his +wife and children where he was, saying they wanted his aid in +getting out some hyaenas they had traced into their dens in the +neighbourhood. They were told that he had gone back to +Fīrōzpur, and returned; but were sent back by the +Nawāb to make a more careful search for him. Before they came, +however, he had gone off to his friends Kamruddīn and +Joharī, two brothers who resided in the Rāo +Rājā's territory. To this place he was followed by some +Mewātīs, whom the Nawāb had induced, under the +promise of a large reward, to undertake to kill him. One night he +went to two acquaintances, Makrām and Shahāmat, in a +neighbouring village, and begged them to send to some English +gentleman in Delhi, and solicit for him a pardon, on condition of +his disclosing all the circumstances of Mr. Fraser's murder. They +promised to get everything done for him through a friend in the +police at Delhi, and set out for that purpose, while Aniā +returned and concealed himself in the hills. In six days they came +with a paper, purporting to be a promise of pardon from the court +of Delhi, and desired Kamr-ud-dīn to introduce them to +Aniā. He told them to return to him in three days, and he +would do so; but he went off to Aniā in the hills, and told +him that he did not think these men had really got the papers from +the English gentlemen—that they appeared to him to be in the +service of the Nawāb himself. Aniā was, however, +introduced to them when they came back, and requested that the +paper might be read to him. Seeing through their designs, he again +made off to the hills, while they went out in search, they +pretended, of a man to read it, but in reality to get some people +who were waiting in the neighbourhood to assist in securing him, +and taking him off to the Nawāb.</p> + +<p>Finding on their return that Aniā had escaped, they offered +high rewards to the two brothers if they would assist in tracing +him out; and Joharī was taken to the Nawāb, who offered +him a very high reward if he would bring Aniā to him, or, at +least, take measures to prevent his going to the English gentlemen. +This was communicated to Aniā, who went through Bharatpur to +Bareilly, and from Bareilly to Secunderabad, where he heard, in the +beginning of July, that both Karīm and the Nawāb were to +be tried for the murder, and that the judge, Mr. Colvin, had +already arrived at Delhi to conduct the trial. He now determined to +go to Delhi and give himself up. On his way he was met by Mr. Simon +Fraser's man, who took him to Delhi, when he confessed his share in +the crime, became king's evidence at the trial, and gave an +interesting narrative of the whole affair.</p> + +<p>Two water-carriers, in attempting to draw up the brass jug of a +carpenter, which had fallen into the well the morning after the +murder, pulled up the blunderbuss which Karīm Khān had +thrown into the same well. This was afterwards recognized by +Aniā, and the man whom he pointed out as having made it for +him. Two of the four Gūjars, who were mentioned as having +visited Karīm immediately after the murder, went to Brigadier +Fast, who commanded the troops at Delhi, fearing that the native +officers of the European civil functionaries might be in the +interest of the Nawāb, and get them made away with. They told +him that Karīm Khān seemed to answer the description of +the man named in the proclamation as the murderer of Mr. Fraser; +and he sent them with a note to the Commissioner, Mr. Metcalfe, who +sent them to the Magistrate, Mr. Fraser, who accompanied them to +the place, and secured Karīm, with some fragments of important +papers. The two Mewātīs, who had been sent to assassinate +Aniā, were found, and they confessed the fact: the brother of +Aniā, Rahmat, was found and he described the difficulty +Aniā had to escape from the Nawāb's people sent to murder +him. Rūplā, the groom, deposed to all that he had seen +during the time he was employed as Karīm's groom at Delhi. +Several men deposed to having met Karīm, and heard him asking +after Mr. Fraser a few days before the murder. The two peons, who +were with Mr. Fraser when he was shot, deposed to the horse which +he rode at the time, and which was found with him.</p> + +<p>Karīm Khān and the Nawāb were both convicted of +the crime, sentenced to death, and executed at Delhi, I should +mention that suspicion had immediately attached to Karīm +Khān; he was known for some time to have been lurking about +Delhi, on the pretence of purchasing dogs; and it was said that, +had the Nawāb really wanted dogs, he would not have sent to +purchase them by a man whom he admitted to his table, and treated +on terms of equality. He was suspected of having been employed on +such occasions before—known to be a good shot, and a good +rider, who could fire and reload very quickly while his horse was +in full gallop, and called in consequence the +'Bharmārū.'[16] His horse, which was found in the stable +by the Gūjar spies, who had before been in Mr. Fraser's +service, answered the description given of the murderer's horse by +Mr. Fraser's attendants; and the Nawāb was known to cherish +feelings of bitter hatred against Mr. Fraser.</p> + +<p>The Nawāb was executed some time after Karīm, on +Thursday morning, the 3rd of October, 1835, close outside the +north, or Kashmir Gate, leading to the cantonments. He prepared +himself for the execution in an extremely rich and beautiful dress +of light green, the colour which martyrs wear; but he was made to +exchange this, and he then chose one of simple white, and was too +conscious of his guilt to urge strongly his claim to wear what +dress he liked on such an occasion.</p> + +<p>The following corps were drawn up around the gallows, forming +three sides of a square: the 1st Regiment of Cavalry, the 20th, +39th, and 69th Regiments of Native Infantry, Major Pew's Light +Field Battery, and a strong party of police. On ascending the +scaffold, the Nawāb manifested symptoms of disgust at the +approach to his person of the sweeper, who was to put the rope +round his neck;[17] but he soon mastered his feelings, and +submitted with a good grace to his fate. Just as he expired his +body made a last turn, and left his face towards the <i>west</i>, +or the <i>tomb of his Prophet</i>, which the Muhammadans of Delhi +considered a miracle, indicating that he was a martyr—not as +being innocent of the murder, but as being executed for the murder +of an unbeliever. Pilgrimages were for some time made to the +Nawāb's tomb,[18] but I believe they have long since ceased +with the short gleam of sympathy that his fate excited. The only +people that still recollect him with feelings of kindness are the +prostitutes and dancing women of the city of Delhi, among whom most +of his revenues were squandered[19] In the same manner was +Wazīr Ali recollected for many years by the prostitutes and +dancing women of Benares, after the massacre of Mr. Cherry and all +the European gentlemen of that station, save one, Mr. Davis, who +bravely defended himself, wife, and children against a host with a +hog spear on the top of his house. No European could pass Benares +for twenty years after Wazīr Alī's arrest and confinement +in the garrison of Fort William, without hearing from the Windows +songs in his praise, and in praise of the massacre.[20]</p> + +<p>It is supposed that the Nawāb Faiz Muhammad Khan of Jhajjar +was deeply implicated in this murder, though no proof of it could +be found. He died soon after the execution of Shams-ud- dīn, +and was succeeded in his fief by his eldest son, Faiz Alī +Khān.[21] This fief was bestowed on the father of the +deceased, whose name was Najābat Alī Khān, by Lord +Lake, on the termination of the war in 1805, for the aid he had +given to the retreating army under Colonel Monson.[22]</p> + +<p>One circumstance attending the execution of the Nawāb +Shams-ud-dīn seems worthy of remark. The magistrate, Mr. +Frascott, desired his crier to go through the city the evening +before the execution, and proclaim to the people that those who +might wish to be present at the execution were not to encroach upon +the line of sentries that would be formed to keep clear an allotted +space round the gallows, nor to carry with them any kind of arms; +but the crier, seemingly retaining in his recollection only the +words <i>arms</i> and <i>sentries</i>, gave out after his 'Oyes, +Oyes,'[23] that the sentries had orders to use their arms, and +shoot any man, woman, or child that should presume to go outside +the wall to look at the execution of the Nawāb. No person, in +consequence, ventured out till the execution was over, when they +went to see the Nawāb himself converted into smoke; as the +general impression was that as life should leave it, the body was +to be blown off into the air by a general discharge of musketry and +artillery. Moghal Bēg was acquitted for want of judicial proof +of his guilty participation in the crime.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The author's remarks concerning military officers refer to +officers serving with native regiments, now known as the Indian +Army. Before the institution of the reformed police in 1861 the +native troops used to be much scattered in detachments, guarding +treasuries, and performing other duties since entrusted to the +police. Detachments are now rarely sent out, except on frontier +service.</p> + +<p>2. Fīrōzpur, the Fīrozpur-Jhirka of the +<i>I.G.</i>, is now the head-quarters of a sub-collectorate in the +Gurgāon district. The three Districts of the Delhi Territories +in Sleeman's time seem to have been Delhi, Pānīpat (= +Karnāl), and Rohtak, which were under the jurisdiction of the +Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces. In 1858, after +the Mutiny, they were transferred to the Panjāb. Since then, +many administrative changes have occurred. The latest took place on +October 1, 1912, on the occasion of Delhi becoming the official +capital of India, instead of Calcutta. The city of Delhi with a +small surrounding area, 557 square miles in all, now forms a tiny +distinct province, ruled by a Chief Commissioner under the direct +orders of the Government of India. The Delhi Division has ceased to +exist, and six Districts, namely, Hissar, Rohtak, Karnāl, +Ambāla (Umballa), Gurgāon, and Simla, now constitute the +Commissioner's Division of Ambāla in the Panjāb.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Ante</i>, chapter 31, text between [10] and [11]. Some +great landholders of the present day pursue the same policy.</p> + +<p>4. The story of the murder of Fraser is told very differently in +Bosworth-Smith's <i>Life of Lord Lawrence</i>, where all the +detective credit is given to Lord L., apparently on his own +authority. See also an article in the <i>Quarterly Review</i> for +April 1883, by Sir H. Yule, and another in <i>Blackwoods +Magazine</i> for January 1878.</p> + +<p>Miniature medallion portraits of Nawāb Shams-ud-dīn +and his servant Karīm Khān are given on the frontispiece +of Volume II in the original edition.</p> + +<p>5. The inglorious second administration of Lord Cornwallis +lasted only from 30th of July, 1805, the date on which he relieved +the Marquis Wellesley, to the 5th of October of the same year, the +date of his death at Ghāzīpur. 'The Marquis Cornwallis +arrived in India, prepared to abandon, as far as might be +practicable, all the advantages gained for the British Government +by the wisdom, energy, and perseverance of his predecessor; to +relax the bands by which the Marquis Wellesley had connected the +greater portion of the states of India with the British Government; +and to reduce that Government from the position of arbiter of the +destinies of India to the rank of one among many equals.' His +policy was zealously carried out by Sir George Barlow, who +succeeded him, and held office till July, 1807. That statesman was +not ashamed to write that 'the British possessions in the Doāb +will derive additional security from the contests of the +neighbouring states'. (Thornton, <i>The History of the British +Empire in India</i>, chap. 21.) This fatuous policy produced twelve +years of anarchy, which were terminated by the Marquis of +Hastings's great war with the Marāthās and +Pindhārīs in 1817, so often referred to in this book. +Lord Lake addressed the most earnest remonstrances to Sir George +Barlow without avail.</p> + +<p>6. Amīn-ud-dīn and Ziā-ud-dīn's mother was +the Bhāo Bēgam, or wife; Shams-ud- dīn's the +Bhāo Khānum, or mistress. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>7. Sir James Edward, third baronet, who died November 5, 1838. +He was paternal uncle of Henry Thomas Colebrooke, F.R.S., the +greatest of Anglo-Indian Sanskritists. The fifth baronet, Edward +Arthur, was created Baron Colebrooke in 1906.</p> + +<p>8. Sir Charles Metcalfe was for a time Assistant Resident at +Delhi, and was first appointed to the Residency at the +extraordinarily early age of twenty-six. He was then transferred to +other posts. In 1824 he returned to the Delhi Residency, +superseding Sir David Ochterlony, whose measures had been +disapproved by the Government of India. He left the Residency in +1827.</p> + +<p>9. The editor once had occasion to deal with a similar case, +which resulted in the loss by the offending Rājā of his +rank and title. The orders were passed by the Government of Lord +Dufferin.</p> + +<p>10. Colonel Skinner, who raised the famous troops known as +Skinner's Horse, died in 1841, and was buried in the church of St. +James at Delhi which he had built. The church still exists. The +Colonel erected opposite the church, as a memorial of his friend +Fraser, a fine inlaid marble cross, which was destroyed in the +Mutiny (General Hervey, <i>Some Records of Crime</i>, vol. i, p. +403).</p> + +<p>11. According to General Hervey, the provocation was that Mr. +Fraser had inquired from the Nawāb about his sister by name +(op. cit., p. 279).</p> + +<p>12. I print this word 'Bulvemar's' as it stands in the original +edition, not knowing what it means.</p> + +<p>13. The habits of Europeans have now changed, and to most people +escorts have become distasteful. High officials now constantly go +about unattended, and could be assassinated with little difficulty. +Happily crimes of the kind are rare, except on the Afghan frontier, +where special precautions are taken.</p> + +<p>14. For the 'Bāiza Bai' see <i>ante</i>, chapter 50 note 4. +Hindoo Rāo's house became famous in 1857 as the head- quarters +of the British force on the Ridge, during the siege of Delhi.</p> + +<p>15. Many of the Gūjar caste are Muhammadans.</p> + +<p>16. That is to say 'load and fire', or 'sharpshooter'.</p> + +<p>17. No one but a member of one of the 'outcaste castes', if the +'bull' be allowable, will act as executioner.</p> + +<p>18. This sinister incident shows clearly the real feeling of the +Muhammadan populace towards the ruling power. That feeling is +unchanged, and is not altogether confined to the Muslim populace. +See the following remark about the populace of Benares.</p> + +<p>19. This remark was evidently written some time after the +author's first visit to Delhi, and probably was written in the year +1839.</p> + +<p>20. On the death of Āsaf-ud-daula, Wazīr Alī was, +in spite of doubts as to his legitimacy, recognized by Sir John +Shore (Lord Teignmouth) as the Nawāb Wazīr of Oudh, in +1797. On reconsideration, the Governor-General cancelled the +recognition of Wazīr Alī, and recognized his rival +Saādat Alī. Wazīr Alī was removed from Lucknow, +but injudiciously allowed to reside at Benares. The Marquis +Wellesley, then Earl of Mornington, took charge of the office of +Governor-General in 1798, and soon resolved that it was expedient +to remove Wazīr Alī to a greater distance from Lucknow. +Mr. Cherry, the Agent to the Governor-General, was accordingly +instructed to remove him from Benares to Calcutta. The outbreak +alluded to in the text occurred on January 14, 1799, and was the +expression of Wazīr Ali's resentment at these orders. It is +described as follows by Thornton (<i>History</i>, chap. xvii): 'A +visit which Wazīr Alī made, accompanied by his suite, to +the British Agent, afforded the means of accomplishing the +meditated revenge. He had engaged himself to breakfast with Mr. +Cherry, and the parties met in apparent amity. The usual +compliments were exchanged. Wazīr Alī then began to +expatiate on his wrongs; and having pursued this subject for some +time, he suddenly rose with his attendants, and put to death Mr. +Cherry and Captain Conway, an English gentleman who happened to be +present. The assassins then rushed out, and meeting another +Englishman named Graham, they added him to the list of their +victims. They thence proceeded to the house of Mr. Davis, judge and +magistrate, who had just time to remove his family to an upper +terrace, which could only be reached by a very narrow staircase. At +the top of this staircase, Mr. Davis, armed with a spear, took his +post, and so successfully did he defend it, that the assailants, +after several attempts to dislodge him, were compelled to retire +without effecting their object. The benefit derived from the +resistance of this intrepid man extended beyond his own family: the +delay thereby occasioned afforded to the rest of the English +inhabitants opportunity of escaping to the place where the troops +stationed for the protection of the city were encamped. General +Erskine, on learning what had occurred, dispatched a party to the +relief of Mr. Davis, and Wazīr Alī thereupon retired to +his own residence.' Wazīr Alī escaped, but was ultimately +given up by a chief with whom he had taken refuge, 'on condition +that his life should be spared, and that his limbs should not be +disgraced by chains'. Some of his accomplices were executed. 'He +was confined at Port William, in a sort of iron cage, where he died +in May, 1817, aged thirty-six, after an imprisonment of seventeen +years and some odd months.' (<i>Men whom India has Known</i>, 2nd +ed., 1874, art. 'Vizier Ali.') But Beale asserts that after many +years' captivity in Calcutta, the prisoner was removed to Vellore, +where he died (<i>Or. Biogr. Dict.</i>, ed. Keene, 1894, p. 416). +It will be observed that the author was mistaken in supposing that +'all the European gentlemen, except Mr. Davis and his family, were +included in the massacre.'</p> + +<p>21. These names stand in the original edition as 'Tyz Mahomed +Khan, of Ghujper,' and 'Tyz Alee Khan'. In 1857 the then Nawāb +of Jhajjar joined the rebels. He was accordingly hanged, and his +estate was confiscated. It is now included in the Rohtak District. +See Fanshawe's <i>Settlement Report</i> of that District.</p> + +<p>22. The disastrous retreat of Colonel Monson before Jeswant +Rāo Holkār during the rainy season of 1804 is one of the +few serious reverses which have interrupted the long series of +British victories in India. A considerable force under the command +of Colonel Monson, sent out by General Lake at the beginning of May +in pursuit of Holkār, was withdrawn too far from its base, and +was compelled to retreat through Rājputāna, and fall back +on Agra. During the retreat the rains broke, and, under pressure +caused by the difficulties of the march and incessant attacks of +the enemy, the Company's troops became disorganized, and lost their +guns and baggage. The shattered remnants of the force straggled +into Agra at the end of August. The disgrace of this retreat was +speedily avenged by the great victory of Dīg.</p> + +<p>23. This old Norman-French formula. Oyez, Oyez, meaning 'Hear!' +is still, or recently was, used at the Assizes in the High Court, +Calcutta. The formula would not now be heard at Delhi, or elsewhere +beyond the precincts of the High Court.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch65">CHAPTER 65</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Marriage of a Jāt Chief.</p> + +<p>ON the 19th[1] we came on to Balamgarh,[2] fifteen miles over a +plain, better cultivated and more studded with trees than that +which we had been coming over for many days before. The water was +near the surface, more of the field were irrigated, and those which +were not so looked better—[a] range of sandstone hills, ten +miles off to the west, running north and south. Balamgarh is held +in rent-free tenure by a young Jāt chief, now about ten years +of age. He resides in a mud fort in a handsome palace built in the +European fashion. In an extensive orange garden, close outside the +fort, he is building a very handsome tomb over the spot where his +father's elder brother was buried. The whole is formed of white and +black marble, and the firm white sandstone of Rūpbās, and +so well conceived and executed as to make it evident that demand is +the only thing wanted to cover India with works of art equal to any +that were formed in the palmy days of the Muhammadan empire.[3] The +Rājā's young sister had just been married to the son of +the Jāt chief of Nābhā, who was accompanied in his +matrimonial visit (barāt) by the chief of Ludhaura, and the +son of the Sikh chief of Patiālā,[4] with a +<i>cortège</i> of one hundred elephants, and above fifteen +thousand people.[5]</p> + +<p>The young chief of Balamgarh mustered a <i>cortège</i> of +sixty elephants and about ten thousand men to attend him out in the +'istikbāl', to meet and welcome his guests. The bridegroom's +party had to expend about six hundred thousand rupees in this visit +alone. They scattered copper money all along the road from their +homes to within seven miles of Balamgarh. From this point to the +gate of the fort they had to scatter silver, and from this gate to +the door of the palace they scattered gold and jewels of all kinds. +The son of the Patiālā chief, a lad of about ten years of +age, sat upon his elephant with a bag containing six hundred gold +mohurs of two guineas each, mixed up with an infinite variety of +gold earrings, pearls, and precious stones, which he scattered in +handfuls among the crowd. The scattering of the copper and silver +had been left to inferior hands. The costs of the family of the +bride are always much greater than that of the bridegroom; they are +obliged to entertain at their own expense all the bridegroom's +guests as well as their own, as long as they remain; and over and +above this, on the present occasion, the Rājā gave a +rupee to every person that came, invited or uninvited. An immense +concourse of people had assembled to share in this donation, and to +scramble for the money scattered along the road; and ready money +enough was not found in the treasury. Before a further supply could +be got, thirty thousand more had collected, and every one got his +rupee. They have them all put into pens like sheep. When all are +in, the doors are opened at a signal given, and every person is +paid his rupee as he goes out. Some European gentlemen were +standing upon the top of the Rājā's palace, looking at +the procession as it entered the fort, and passed underneath; and +the young chief threw up some handfuls of pearls, gold, and jewels +among them. Not one of them would of course condescend to stoop to +take up any; but their servants showed none of the same dignified +forbearance.[6]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. January, 1836.</p> + +<p>2. 'Balamgarh' is a mistake for Ballabgarh of <i>I. G.</i> +(properly Ballabhgarh), which is about twenty-four miles from +Delhi. In 1857 the chief was hanged for rebellion. The estate was +confiscated and included in the Delhi District, under the +Panjāb Government. From October 1, 1912, that District ceased +to exist. Part of the Ballabhgarh sub-district has been included in +the new Chief Commissioner's Province of Delhi, and part in the +Gurgāon District.</p> + +<p>3. Few observers will accept this proposition without +considerable reservation.</p> + +<p>4. Patiālā is the principal of the Cis-Satlaj Sikh +Protected States. Nābhā belongs to the same group. Both +states are very loyal, and supply Imperial Service troops. For a +sketch of their history see chapters 2 and 9 of Sir Lepel Griffin's +<i>Ranjīt Singh</i>.</p> + +<p>5. The Sikh is a military nation formed out of the Jāts +(who were without a place among the castes of the Hindoos),[a] by +that strong bond of union, the love of conquest and plunder. Their +religions and civil codes are the Granths, books written by their +reputed prophets, the last of whom was Guru Govind,[b] in whose +name Ranjīt Singh stamps his gold coins with this legend: 'The +sword, the <i>pot</i>, victory, and conquest were quickly found in +the grace of Guru Govind Singh,'[c] This prophet died insane in the +end of the seventeenth century. He was the son of a priest Tēg +Bahādur, who was made a martyr of by the bigoted Muhammadans +of Patna in 1675. The son became a Peter the Hermit, in the same +manner as Hargovind before him, when his father, Arjun Mal, was +made a martyr by the fanaticism of the same people. A few more such +martyrdoms would have set the Sikhs up for ever. They admit +converts freely, and while they have a fair prospect of conquest +and plunder they will find them; but, when they cease, they will be +swallowed up in the great ocean of Hinduism, since they have no +chance of getting up an 'army of martyrs' while we have the supreme +power.[d] They detest us for the same reason that the military +followers of the other native chiefs detest us, because we say +'Thus far shall you go, and no farther' in your career of conquest +and plunder.[e] As governors, they are even worse than the +Marāthās—utterly detestable. They have not the +slightest idea of a duty towards the people from whose industry +they are provided. Such a thing was never dreamed of by a Sikh. +They continue to receive in marriage the daughters of Jāts, as +in this case; but they will not give their daughters to Jāts. +[W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>6. The Emperors of Delhi, from Jahāngīr onwards, used +to strike special coins, generally of small size, bearing the word +<i>nisār</i>, which means 'scattering', for the purpose of +distribution among the crowd on the occasion of a wedding, or other +great festivity.</p> + +<p>a. It has already been observed that the author was completely +mistaken in his estimate of the social position of Jāts. It is +not correct to say that they 'were without a place among the castes +of the Hindoos'. 'The Jāt is in every respect the most +important of the Panjāb peoples. . . . The distinction between +Jāt and Rājpūt is social rather than ethnic. . . . +Socially the Jāt occupies a position which is shared by the +Rōr, the Gūjar, and the Ahīr; all four eating and +smoking together. Among the races of purely Hindoo origin I think +that the Jāt stands next after the Brahman, the +Rājpūt, and the Khatrī. . . . There are Jāts +and Jāts. . . . His is the highest of the castes practising +widow marriage.' (Ibbetson, <i>Outlines of Panjāb +Ethnography</i>, Calcutta, 1883, pp. 220 sqq.) The Jāts in the +United Provinces occupy much the same relative position.</p> + +<p>b. The Sikhs are mostly, but not all, Jāts. The +organization is essentially a religions one, and a few Brahmans and +many members of various other castes join it. Even sweepers are +admitted with certain limitations. The word Sikh means 'disciple'. +Nānak Shāh, the founder, was born in A.D. 1469. The +<i>Ādi Granth</i>, the Sikh Bible, containing compositions by +Nānak, his next four successors, and other persons, was +completed in 1604. A second <i>Granth</i> was compiled in 1734 by +Govind Singh, the tenth Guru. The only authoritative version of the +Sikh scriptures is the great work by Macauliffe, <i>The Sikh +Religion</i> (Oxford, 1909, 6 vols.).</p> + +<p>The political power of the sect rested on the institutions of +Guru Govind, as framed between 1690 and 1708. In 1764 the Sikhs +occupied Lahore. Full details of their history will be found in +Cunningham, <i>A History of the Sikhs</i> (1st ed., 2 vols. 8vo, +London, 1849, suppressed and scarce; 2nd ed. 1853); and more +briefly in Sir Lepel Griffin's excellent little book, +<i>Ranjīt Singh</i> (Oxford, 'Rulers of India' series, +1892).</p> + +<p>c. See R. 0. Temple, 'The Coins of the Modern Chiefs of the +Panjāb' (<i>Ind. Ant.</i>, vol. xviii (1889), pp. 321-41); and +C. J. Rodgers, 'On the Coins of the Sikhs' (<i>J.A.S.B.</i>, vol. +1. Part I (1881), pp. 71-93). The couplet is in Persian, which may +be transliterated thus:—</p> + +<p> Dēg, tēgh, wa fath, wa nasrat +bē darang<br> + Yāft az Nānak Gūrū +Govind Singh.</p> + +<p><br> +The word <i>dēg</i>, meaning pot or cauldron, is used as a +symbol of plenty. The correct rendering is:—</p> + +<p> Plenty, the sword, victory, and help +without delay,<br> + Gūrū Govind Singh obtained from +Nānak.</p> + +<p>d. This prophecy has not been fulfilled. The annexation of the +Panjāb in 1849 put an end to Sikh hopes of 'conquest and +plunder', and yet the sect has not been 'swallowed up in the great +ocean of Hinduism'. At the census of 1881 its numbers were returned +as 1,853,426, or nearly two millions, for all India. The +corresponding figure for 1891 is 1,907,833. At the time of the +first British census of 1855 the outside influences were +depressing: the great Khālsa army had fallen, and Sikh fathers +were slow to bring forward their sons for baptism +(<i>pāhul</i>). The Mutiny, in the suppression of which the +Sikhs took so great a part, worked a change. The Sikhs recovered +their spirits and self-respect, and found honourable careers open +in the British army and constabulary. 'Thus the creed received a +new impulse, and many sons of Sikhs, whose baptism had been +deferred, received the <i>pāhul</i>, while new candidates from +among the Jāts and lower caste Hindoos joined the faith.' Some +reaction then, perhaps, took place, but, on the whole, the numbers +of the sect have been maintained or increased. (Sir Lepel Griffin, +<i>Ranjīt Singh</i>, pp. 25-34.) For various reasons, which I +have not space to explain, the statistics of Sikhism are +untrustworthy. The returns for 1911 show an increase of 37 per +cent. in the Panjāb. We may, at least, be assured that the +numbers are not diminishing.</p> + +<p>e. The Sikhs do not now detest us. They willingly furnish +soldiers and military police of the best class, equal to the +Gōrkhās, and fit to fight in line with English soldiers. +The Panjāb chieftains have been among the foremost in offers +of loyal assistance to the Government of India in times of danger, +and in organizing the Imperial Service troops. The Sikh states are +now sufficiently well governed.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p><br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="Ch66">CHAPTER 66</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Collegiate Endowment of Muhammadan Tombs and +Mosques.</p> + +<p>On the 20th[1] we came to Badarpur, twelve miles over a plain, +with the range of hills on our left approaching nearer and nearer +the road, and separating us from the old city of Delhi. We passed +through Farīdpur, once a large town, and called after its +founder, Shaikh Farīd, whose mosque is still in good order, +though there is no person to read or hear prayers in it.[2] We +passed also two fine bridges, one of three, and one of four arches, +both over what were once streams, but are now dry beds of sand.[3] +The whole road shows signs of having been once thickly peopled, and +highly adorned with useful and ornamental works when Delhi was in +its glory.</p> + +<p>Every handsome mausoleum among Muhammadans was provided with its +mosque, and endowed by the founder with the means of maintaining +men of learning to read their Korān over the grave of the +deceased and in his chapel; and, as long as the endowment lasted, +the tomb continued to be at the same time a college. They read the +Korān morning and evening over the grave, and prayers in the +chapel at the stated periods; and the rest of their time is +commonly devoted to the instruction of the youths of their +neighbourhood, either gratis or for a small consideration. +Apartments in the tomb were usually set aside for the purpose, and +these tombs did ten times more for education in Hindustan than all +the colleges formed especially for the purpose.[4] We might suppose +that rulers who formed and endowed such works all over the land +must have had more of the respect and the affections of the great +mass of the people than we, who, as my friend upon the Jumna has +it, 'build nothing but private dwelling-houses, factories, courts +of justice, and jails', can ever have; but this conclusion would +not be altogether just.[5] Though every mosque and mausoleum was a +seat of learning, that learning, instead of being a source of +attraction and conciliation between the Muhammadans and Hindoos, +was, on the contrary, a source of perpetual repulsion and enmity +between them—it tended to keep alive in the breasts of the +Musalmāns a strong feeling of religions indignation against +the worshippers of idols; and of dread and hatred in those of the +Hindoos.</p> + +<p>The Korān was the Book of books, spoken by God to the angel +Gabriel in parts as occasion required, and repeated by him to +Muhammad; who, unable to write himself, dictated them to any one +who happened to be present when he received the divine +communications;[6] it contained all that it was worth man's while +to study or know—it was from the Deity, but at the same time +coeternal with Him—it was His divine eternal spirit, +inseparable from Him from the beginning, and therefore, like Him, +uncreated. This book, to read which was of itself declared to be +the highest of all species of worship, taught war against the +worshippers of idols to be of all merits the greatest in the eye of +God; and no man could well rise from the perusal without the wish +to serve God by some act of outrage against them. These buildings +were, therefore, looked upon by the Hindoos, who composed the great +mass of the people, as a kind of religions volcanoes, always ready +to explode and pour out their lava of intolerance and outrage upon +the innocent people of the surrounding country.</p> + +<p>If a Hindoo fancied himself injured or insulted by a Muhammadan +he was apt to revenge himself upon the Muhammadans generally, and +insult their religion by throwing swine's flesh, or swine's blood, +into one of their tombs or churches; and the latter either flew to +arms at once to revenge their God, or retaliated by throwing the +flesh or the blood of the cow into the first Hindoo temple at hand, +which made the Hindoos fly to arms. The guilty and the wicked +commonly escaped, while numbers of the weak, the innocent and the +unoffending were slaughtered. The magnificent buildings, therefore, +instead of being at the time bonds of union, were commonly sources +of the greatest discord among the whole community, and of the most +painful humiliation to the Hindoo population. During the bigoted +reign of Aurangzēb and his successors a Hindoo's presence was +hardly tolerated within sight of these tombs or churches; and had +he been discovered entering one of them, he would probably have +been hunted down like a mad dog. The recollection of such outrages, +and the humiliation to which they gave rise, associated as they +always are in the minds of the Hindoos with the sight of these +buildings, are perhaps the greatest source of our strength in +India; because they at the same time feel that it is to us alone +they owe the protection which they now enjoy from similar injuries. +Many of my countrymen, full of virtuous indignation at the outrages +which often occur during the processions of the Muharram, +particularly when these happen to take place at the same time with +some religious procession of the Hindoos, are very anxious that our +Government should interpose its authority to put down both. But +these processions and occasional outrages are really sources of +great strength to us; they show at once the necessity for the +interposition of an impartial tribunal, and a disposition on the +part of the rulers to interpose impartially. The Muhammadan +festivals are regulated by the lunar, and those of the Hindoos by +the solar year, and they cross each other every thirty or forty +years, and furnish fair occasions for the local authorities to +interpose effectually.[7] People who receive or imagine insults or +injuries commonly postpone their revenge till these religious +festivals come round, when they hope to be able to settle their +accounts with impunity among the excited crowd. The mournful +procession of the Muharram, when the Muhammadans are inflamed to +madness by the recollection of the really affecting incidents of +the massacre of the grandchildren of their prophet, and by the +images of their tombs, and their sombre music,[8] crosses that of +the Holī[9] (in which the Hindoos are excited to tumultuous +and licentious joy by their bacchanalian songs and dances) every +thirty- six years; and they reign together for some four or five +days, during which the scene in every large town is really +terrific. The processions are liable to meet in the street, and the +lees of the wine of the Hindoos, or the red powder which is +substituted for them, is liable to fall upon the tombs of the +others. Hindoos pass on, forgetting in their saturnalian joy all +distinctions of age, sex, or religion, their clothes and persons +besmeared with the red powder, which is moistened and thrown from +all kinds of machines over friend and foe; while meeting these come +the Muhammadans, clothed in their green mourning, with gloomy +downcast looks, beating their breasts, ready to kill themselves, +and too anxious for an excuse to kill anybody else. Let but one +drop of the lees of joy fall upon the image of the tomb as it +passes, and a hundred swords fly from their scabbards; many an +innocent person falls; and woe be to the town in which the +magistrate is not at hand with his police and military force. +Proudly conscious of their power, the magistrates refuse to +prohibit one class from laughing because the other happens to be +weeping; and the Hindoos on such occasions laugh the more heartily +to let the world see that they are free to do so.</p> + +<p>A very learned Hindoo once told me in Central India that the +oracle of Mahādēo had been at the same time consulted at +three of his greatest temples—one in the Deccan, one in +Rājputāna, and one, I think, in Bengal—as to the +result of the government of India by Europeans, who seemed +determined to fill all the high offices of administration with +their own countrymen, to the exclusion of the people of the +country. A day was appointed for the answer; and when the priest +came to receive it they found Mahādēo (Siva) himself with +a European complexion, and dressed in European clothes. He told +them that their European Government was in reality nothing more +than a multiplied incarnation of himself; and that he had come +among them in this shape to prevent their cutting each other's +throats as they had been doing for some centuries past; that these, +his incarnations, appeared to have no religion themselves in order +that they might be the more impartial arbitrators between the +people of so many different creeds and sects who now inhabited the +country; that they must be aware that they never had before been so +impartially governed, and that they must continue to obey these +their governors, without attempting to pry further into futurity or +the will of the gods. Mahādēo performs a part in the +great drama of the Rāmāyana, or the Rape of Sīta, +and he is the only figure there that is represented with a <i>white +face</i>.[10]</p> + +<p>I was one day praising the law of primogeniture among ourselves +to a Muhammadan gentleman of high rank, and defending it on the +ground that it prevented that rivalry and bitterness of feeling +among brothers which were always found among the Muhammadans, whose +law prescribes an equal division of property, real and personal, +among the sons, and the <i>choice of the wisest</i> among them as +successor to the government.[11] 'This', said he, 'is no doubt the +source of our weakness, but why should you condemn a law which is +to you a source of so much strength? I, one day', said he, 'asked +Mr. Seaton, the Governor-General's representative at the court of +Delhi, which of all things he had seen in India he liked best. "You +have", replied he, smiling, "a small species of melon called +'phūt' (disunion); this is the thing we like best in your +land." There was', continued my Muhammadan friend, 'an infinite +deal of sound political wisdom in this one sentence. Mr. Seaton was +a very good and a very wise man. Our European governors of the +present day are not at all the same kind of thing. I asked Mr. B., +a judge, the same question many years afterwards, and he told me +that he thought the rupees were the best things he had found in +India. I asked Mr. T., the Commissioner, and he told me that he +thought the tobacco which he smoked in his hookah was the best +thing. And pray, sir, what do you think the best thing?'</p> + +<p>'Why, Nawāb Sāhib, I am always very well pleased when +I am free from pain, and can get my nostrils full of cool air, and +my mouth full of cold water in this hot land of yours; and I think +most of my countrymen are the same. Next to these, the thing we all +admire most in India, Nawāb Sāhib, is the entire +exemption which you and I and every other gentleman, native or +European, enjoy from the taxes which press so heavily upon them in +other countries.[12] In Kāshmīr, no midwife is allowed to +attend a woman in her confinement till a heavy tax has been paid to +Ranjīt Singh for the infant; and in England, a man cannot let +the light of heaven into his house till he has paid a tax for the +window.'[13]</p> + +<p>'Nor keep a dog, nor shoot a partridge in the jungle, I am +told,' said the Nawāb.</p> + +<p>'Quite true, Nawāb Sāhib.'</p> + +<p>'Hindustan, sir,' said he, 'is, after all, the best country in +the world; the only thing wanted is a little more +(<i>rozgār</i>) employment for the educated classes under +Government.'</p> + +<p>'True, Nawāb Sāhib, we might, no doubt, greatly +multiply this employment to the advantage of those who got the +places, but we should have to multiply at the same time the taxes, +to the great disadvantage of those who did not get them.'</p> + +<p>'True, very true, sir,' said my old friend.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. January, 1836.</p> + +<p>2. Farīdpur is a mistake for Farīdābād, a +small town sixteen miles from Delhi, founded in 1607 by Shaikh +Farīd, treasurer of Jahāngīr, to protect the high +road between Agra and Delhi.</p> + +<p>3. The beds are dry in the cold season, but the streams, which +flow from the hills to the south of Delhi, are torrents in the +rainy season.</p> + +<p>4. But the education in such schools is of very little value, +being commonly confined to the committing of the Korān to +memory by boys ignorant of Arabic.</p> + +<p>5. In modern India the British buildings are far more varied, +and many aspire to some architectural merit.</p> + +<p>6. Muhammad is said to have received these communications in all +situations; sometimes when riding along the road on his camel, he +became suddenly red in the face, and greatly agitated; he made his +camel sit down immediately, and called for some one to write. His +rhapsodies were all written at the time on leaves and thrown into a +box. Gabriel is believed to have made him repeat over the whole +once every year during the month of Ramazān. In the year he +died Muhammad told his followers that the angel had made him repeat +them over twice that year, and that he was sure he would not live +to receive another visit. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>7. The Muhammadan year consists of twelve lunar months of 30 and +29 days alternately. The common year, therefore, consists of only +354 days. But, when intercalary days in certain years are allowed +for, the mean year consists of 354 11/30 days. Inasmuch as a solar +year consists of about 365¼ days, the difference amounts to +nearly 11 days, and any given month in the Muhammadan year +consequently goes the round of the seasons in course of time.</p> + +<p>8. The Muharram celebration takes its name from the first month +of the Muhammadan year, during which it takes place. Alī, the +cousin of Muhammad, was married to the prophet's daughter Fatima, +and, according to the Shīa sect, must be regarded as the +lawful successor of Muhammad, who died in June, A.D. 632. But, as a +matter of fact, Omar, Abū Bakr, and Othmān (Usmān) +in turn succeeded to the Khalīfate, and Alī did not take +possession of the office till A.D. 655. After five and a half +years' reign he was assassinated in January, A.D. 661, and his son +Hasan, who for a few months had held the vacant office, was +poisoned in A.D. 670. Husain, the younger son of Alī, strove +to assert his rights by force of arms, but was slain on the tenth +day of the month Muharram (10th October, A.D. 680) in a great +battle fought at Karbalā near the Euphrates. These events are +commemorated yearly by noisy funeral processions. Properly, the +proceedings ought to be altogether mournful, and confined to the +Shīa sect, but in practice, Sunnī Muhammadans, and even +Hindoos, take part in the ceremonies, which are regarded by many of +the populace as no more solemn than a Lord Mayor's show.</p> + +<p>9. The disgusting festival of the Holī, celebrated with +drunkenness and obscenity, takes place in March, and is supposed to +be the festival of the vernal equinox (see <i>ante</i>, chapter 27 +note 16). The magistrates in India have no duty which requires more +tact, discretion, and firmness than the regulation of conflicting +religions processions. The general disarmament of the people has +rendered collisions less dangerous and sanguinary than they used to +be, but, in spite of all precautions, they still occur +occasionally. The total prohibition of processions likely to cause +collisions is, of course, impracticable.</p> + +<p>10. Ante chapter 15 text at [9].</p> + +<p>11. Muslim daughters also succeed, each taking half the share of +a son.</p> + +<p>12. <i>Tempora mutantur</i>. The land revenue, in the author's +time, fully preserved its character of rent, and obviously was not +a tax. Later legislation has obscured its real nature, and made it +look like a tax. When the author wrote, the only taxes levied were +indirect ones, as that on salt, which was paid unconsciously. The +modern income-tax, local rates, municipal taxation, and gun +licences were all unknown.</p> + +<p>13. The window tax was levied at varying rates from 1697 to +1851.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch67">CHAPTER 67</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Old City of Delhi.</p> + +<p>On the 21st we went on eight miles to the Kutb Mīnār, +across the range of sandstone hills, which rise to the height of +about two hundred feet, and run north and south. The rocks are for +the most part naked, but here and there the soil between them is +covered with <i>famished</i> grass, and a few stunted shrubs; +anything more unprepossessing can hardly be conceived than the +aspect of these hills, which seem to serve no other purpose than to +store up heat for the people of the great city of Delhi. We passed +through a cut in this range of hills, made apparently by the stream +of the river Jumna at some remote period, and about one hundred +yards wide at the entrance. This cut is crossed by an enormous +stone wall running north and south, and intended to shut in the +waters, and form a lake in the opening beyond it. Along the brow of +the precipice, overlooking the northern end of the wall, is the +stupendous fort of Tughlakābād, built by the Emperor +Tughlak the First[1] of the sandstones of the range of hills on +which it stands, cut into enormous square blocks.[2]</p> + +<p>On the brow of the opposite side of the precipice, overlooking +the southern end of the wall, stands the fort of +Muhammadābād, built by this Emperor's son and successor, +Muhammad, and resembling in all things that built by his father.[3] +These fortresses overlooked the lake, with the old city of Delhi +spread out on the opposite side of it to the west. There is a third +fortress upon an isolated hill, east of the great barrier wall, +said to have been built in honour of his master by the Emperor +Tughlak's <i>barber</i>.[4] The Emperor's tomb stands upon an +isolated rock in the middle of the once lake, now plain, about a +mile to the west of the barrier wall. The rock is connected with +the western extremity of the northern fortress by a causeway of +twenty- five arches, and about one hundred and fifty yards long. +This is a fine tomb, and contains in a square centre room the +remains of the Emperor Tughlak, his wife, and his son. The tomb is +built of red sandstone, and surmounted by a dome of white marble. +The three graves inside are built of brick covered with stucco +work. The outer sides of the tomb slope slightly inwards from the +base, in the form of a pyramid; but the inner walls are, of course, +perpendicular.[5]</p> + +<p>The impression left on the mind after going over these +stupendous fortifications is that the arts which contribute to the +comforts and elegancies of life must have been in a very rude state +when they were raised. Domestic architecture must have been +wretched in the extreme. The buildings are all of stone, and almost +all without cement, and seem to have been raised by giants, and for +giants, whose arms were against everybody, and everybody's arm +against them. This was indeed the state of the Pathān +sovereigns in India—they were the creatures of their armies; +and their armies were also employed against the people, who feared +and detested them all.[6]</p> + +<p>The Emperor Tughlak, on his return at the head of the army, +which he had led into Bengal to chastise some rebellious subjects, +was met at Afghānpur by his eldest son, Jūnā, whom +he had left in the government of the capital. The prince had in +three days raised here a palace of wood for a grand entertainment +to do honour to his father's return; and when the Emperor signified +his wish to retire, all the courtiers rushed out before him to be +in attendance, and among the rest, Jūnā himself. Five +attendants only remained when the Emperor rose from his seat, and +at that moment the building fell in and crushed them and their +master. Jūnā had been sent at the head of an army into +the Deccan, where he collected immense wealth from the plunder of +the palaces of princes and the temples of their priests, the only +places in which much wealth was to be found in those days. This +wealth he tried to conceal from his father, whose death he probably +thus contrived, that he might the sooner have the free enjoyment of +it with unlimited power.[7]</p> + +<p>Only thirty years before, Alā-ud-dīn, returning in the +same manner at the head of an army from the Deccan loaded with +wealth, murdered the Emperor Fīrōz the Second, the father +of his wife, and ascended the throne.[8] Jūnā ascended +the throne under the name of Muhammad the Third;[9] and, after the +remains of his father had been deposited in the tomb I have +described, he passed in great pomp and splendour from the fortress +of Tughlakābād, which his father had just then completed, +to the city in which the Mīnār stands, with elephants +before and behind loaded with gold and silver coins, which were +scattered among the crowd, who everywhere hailed him with shouts of +joy. The roads were covered with flowers, the houses adorned with +the richest stuffs, and the streets resounded with music.</p> + +<p>He was a man of great learning, and a great patron of learned +men; he was a great founder of churches, had prayers read in them +at the prescribed times, and always went to prayers five times a +day himself.[10] He was rigidly temperate himself in his habits, +and discouraged all intemperance in others. These things secured +him panegyrists throughout the empire during the twenty-seven years +that he reigned over it, though perhaps he was the most detestable +tyrant that ever filled a throne. He would take his armies out over +the most populous and peaceful districts, and hunt down the +innocent and unoffending people like wild beasts, and bring home +their heads by thousands to hang them on the city gates for his +mere amusement. He twice made the whole people of the city of Delhi +emigrate with him to Daulatābād in Southern India, which +he wished to make the capital, from some foolish fancy; and during +the whole of his reign gave evident signs of being in an unsound +state of mind.[11] There was at the time of his father's death a +saint at Delhi named Nizāmuddīn Aulia, or the Saint, who +was supposed by supernatural means to have driven from Delhi one +night in a panic a large army of Moghals under Tarmasharīn, +who invaded India from Transoxiana in 1303, and laid close siege to +the city of Delhi, in which the Emperor Alā-ud-dīn was +shut up without troops to defend himself, his armies being engaged +in Southern India.[12] It is very likely that he did strike this +army with a panic by getting some of their leaders assassinated in +one night. He was supposed to have the 'dast ul ghaib', or +supernatural purse' [literally, 'invisible hand'], as his private +expenditure is said to have been more lavish even than that of the +Emperor himself, while he had no ostensible source of income +whatever. The Emperor was either jealous of his influence and +display, or suspected him of dark crimes, and threatened to humble +him when he returned to Delhi. As he approached the city, the +friends of the saint, knowing the resolute spirit of the Emperor, +urged him to quit the capital, as he had been often heard to say, +'Let me but reach Delhi, and this proud priest shall be +humbled'.</p> + +<p>The only reply that the saint would ever deign to give from the +time the imperial army left Bengal, till it was within one stage of +the capital, was '<i>Dihlī dūr ast</i>'; 'Delhi is still +far off'. This is now become a proverb over the East equivalent to +our 'There is many a slip between the cup and the lip'. It is +probable that the saint had some understanding with the son in his +plans for the murder of his father; it is possible that his +numerous wandering disciples may in reality have been murderers and +robbers, and that he could at any time have procured through them +the assassination of the Emperor. The Muhammadan Thugs, or +assassins of India, certainly looked upon him as one of the great +founders of their system, and used to make pilgrimages to his tomb +as such; and, as he came originally from Persia, and is considered +by his greatest admirers to have been in his youth a robber, it is +not impossible that he may have been originally one of the +'assassins', or disciples of the 'old man of the mountains', and +that he may have set up the system of Thuggee in India and derived +a great portion of his income from it.[13] Emperors now prostrate +themselves, and aspire to have their bones placed near it +[<i>scil.</i> the tomb]. While wandering about the ruins, I +remarked to one of the learned men of the place who attended us +that it was singular Tughlak's buildings should be so rude compared +with those of Iltutmish, who had reigned more than eighty years +before him.[14] 'Not at all singular,' said he, 'was he not under +the curse of the holy saint Nizām-ud-dīn?' 'And what had +the Emperor done to merit the holy man's curse?' 'He had taken by +force to employ upon his palaces several of the masons whom the +holy man was employing upon a church,' said he.</p> + +<p>The Kutb Mīnār was, I think, more beyond my +expectations than the Tāj; first, because I had heard less of +it; and secondly, because it stands as it were alone in +India—there is absolutely no other tower in this Indian +empire of ours.[15]</p> + +<p>Large pillars have been cut out of single stones, and raised in +different parts of India to commemorate the conquests of Hindoo +princes, whose names no one was able to discover for several +centuries, till an unpretending English gentleman of surprising +talents and industry, Mr. James Prinsep, lately brought them to +light by mastering the obsolete characters in which they and their +deeds had been inscribed upon them.[16] These pillars would, +however, be utterly insignificant were they composed of many +stones. The knowledge that they are cut out of single stones, +brought from a distant mountain, and raised by the united efforts +of multitudes when the mechanical arts were in a rude state, makes +us still view them with admiration.[17] But the single majesty of +this Mīnār of Kutb-ud-dīn, so grandly conceived, so +beautifully proportioned, so chastely embellished, and so +exquisitely finished, fills the mind of the spectator with emotions +of wonder and delight; without any such aid, he feels that it is +among the towers of the earth what the Tāj is among the +tombs—something unique of its kind that must ever stand alone +in his recollections.[18]</p> + +<p>It is said to have taken forty-four years in building, and +formed the left of two 'mīnārs' of a mosque. The other +'mīnār' was never raised, but this has been preserved and +repaired by the liberality of the British Government.[19] It is +only 242 feet high, and 106 feet in circumference at the base. It +is circular, and fluted vertically into twenty-seven semicircular +and angular divisions. There are four balconies, supported upon +large stone brackets, and surrounded with battlements of richly cut +stone, to enable people to walk round the tower with safety. The +first is ninety feet from the base, the second fifty feet further +up, the third forty further; and the fourth twenty-four feet above +the third. Up to the third balcony, the tower is built of fine, but +somewhat ferruginous sandstone, whose surface has become red from +exposure to the oxygen of the atmosphere. Up to the first balcony, +the flutings are alternately semicircular and angular; in the +second story they are all semicircular, and in the third all +angular. From the third balcony to the top, the building is +composed chiefly of white marble; and the surface is without the +deep flutings. Around the first story there are five horizontal +belts of passages from the Korān, engraved in bold relief, and +in the Kufic character. In the second story there are four, and in +the third three. The ascent is by a spiral staircase within, of +three hundred and eighty steps; and there are passages from this +staircase to the balconies, with others here and there for the +admission of light and air.[20]</p> + +<p>A foolish notion has prevailed among some people, over-fond of +paradox, that this tower is in reality a Hindoo building, and not, +as commonly supposed, a Muhammadan one. Never was paradox supported +upon more frail, I might say absurd, foundations. They are these: +1st, that there is only one Mīnār, whereas there ought to +have been two—had the unfinished one been intended as the +second, it would not have been, as it really is, larger than the +first; 2nd, that other<br> +Mīnārs seen in the present day either do not slope inward +from the base up at all, or do not slope so much as this. I tried +to trace the origin of this paradox, and I think I found it in a +silly old 'munshī' (clerk) in the service of the Emperor. He +told me that he believed it was built by a former Hindoo prince for +his daughter, who wished to worship the rising sun, and view the +waters of the Jumna from the top of it every morning.[21]</p> + +<p>There is no other Hindoo building like, or of the same kind as +this;[22] the ribbons or belts of passages from the Korān are +all in relief; and had they not been originally inserted as they +are, the whole surface of the building must have been cut down to +throw them out in bold relief. The slope is the peculiar +characteristic of all the architecture of the Pathāns, by whom +the church to which this tower belongs was built.[23] Nearly all +the arches of the church are still standing in a more or less +perfect state, and all correspond in design, proportion, and +execution to the tower. The ruins of the old Hindoo temples about +the place, and about every other place in India, are totally +different in all three; here they are all exceedingly paltry and +insignificant, compared with the church and its tower, and it is +evident that it was the intention of the founder to make them +appear so to future generations of the faithful, for he has taken +care to make his own great work support rather than destroy them, +that they might for ever tend to enhance its grandeur.[24] It is +sufficiently clear that the unfinished mīnār was +commenced upon too large a scale, and with too small a diminution +of the circumference from the base upwards. It is two-fifths larger +than the finished tower in circumference, and much more +perpendicular. Finding these errors when they had got some thirty +feet from the foundation, the founder, Shams-ud-dīn +(Īltutmish), began to work anew, and had he lived a little +longer, there is no doubt that he would have raised the second +tower in its proper place, upon the same scale as the one +completed. His death was followed by several successive +revolutions; five sovereigns succeeded each other on the throne of +Delhi in ten years.[25] As usual on such occasions, works of peace +were suspended, and succeeding sovereigns sought renown in military +enterprise rather than in building churches. This church was +entire, with the exception of the second mīnār, when +Tamerlane invaded India.[26] He took back a model of it with him to +Samarkand, together with all the masons he could find at Delhi, and +is said to have built a church upon the same plan at that place, +before he set out for the invasion of Syria.</p> + +<p>The west face of the quadrangle, in which the tower stands, +formed the church, which consisted of eleven large arched alcoves, +the centre and largest of which contained the pulpit. In size and +beauty they seem to have corresponded with the Mīnār, but +they are now all in ruins.[27] In the front of the centre of these +alcoves stands the metal pillar of the old Hindoo sovereign of +Delhi, Prithī Rāj, across whose temple all the great +mosque, of which this tower forms a part, was thrown in triumph. +The ruins of these temples he scattered all round the place, and +consist of colonnades of stone pillars and pedestals, richly enough +carved with human figures, in attitudes rudely and obscenely +conceived. The small pillar is of bronze, or a metal which +resembles bronze, and is softer than brass, and of the same form +precisely as that of the stone pillar at Eran, on the +Bīnā river in Mālwā, upon which stands the +figure of Krishna, with the glory around his head.[28]</p> + +<p>It is said that this metal pillar was put down through the +earth, so as to rest upon the very head of the snake that supports +the world; and that the sovereign who made it, and fixed it upon so +firm a basis, was told by his spiritual advisers that his dynasty +should last as long as the pillar remained where it was. Anxious to +see that the pillar was really where the priests supposed it to be, +that his posterity might be quite sure of their position, +Prithī Rāj had it taken up, and he found the blood and +some of the flesh of the snake's head adhering to the bottom. By +this means the charm was broken, and the priests told him that he +had destroyed all the hopes of his house by his want of faith in +their assurances. I have never met a Hindoo that doubted either +that the pillar was really upon this snake's head, or that the king +lost his crown by his want of faith in the assurance of his +priests. They all believe that the pillar is still stuck into the +head of the great snake, and that no human efforts of the present +day could remove it. On my way back to my tents, I asked the old +Hindoo officer of my guard, who had gone with me to see the metal +pillar, what he thought of the story of the pillar?</p> + +<p>'What the people relate about the "kīlī" (pillar) +having been stuck into the head of the snake that supports the +world, sir, is nothing more than a simple <i>historical</i> fact +known to everybody. Is it not so, my brothers?' turning to the +Hindoo sipāhīs and followers around us, who all declared +that no fact could ever be better established.</p> + +<p>'When the Rājā,' continued the old soldier, 'had got +the pillar fast into the head of the snake, he was told by his +chief priest that his dynasty must now reign over Hindustan for +ever. "But," said the Rājā, "as all seems to depend upon +the pillar being on the head of the snake, we had better see that +it is so with our own eyes." He ordered it to be taken up; the +clergy tried to dissuade him, but all in vain. Up it was +taken—the flesh and blood of the snake were found upon +it—the pillar was replaced; but a voice was heard saying: +"Thy want of faith hath destroyed thee—thy reign must soon +end, and with it that of thy race."'</p> + +<p>I asked the old soldier from whence the voice came.</p> + +<p>He said this was a point that had not, he believed, been quite +settled. Some thought it was from the serpent himself below the +earth, others that it came from the high priest or some of his +clergy. 'Wherever it came from,' said the old man, 'there is no +doubt that God decreed the Rājā's fall for his want of +faith; and fall he did soon after.' All our followers concurred in +this opinion, and the old man seemed quite delighted to think that +he had had an opportunity of delivering his sentiments upon so +great a question before so respectable an audience.</p> + +<p>The Emperor Shams-ud-dīn Īltutmish is said to have +designed this great Muhammadan church at the suggestion of +Khwāja Kutb-ud-dīn, a Muhammadan saint from Ūsh in +Persia, who was his religious guide and apostle, and died some +sixteen years before him.[29] His tomb is among the ruins of this +old city. Pilgrims visit it from all parts of India, and go away +persuaded that they shall have all they have asked, provided they +have given or promised liberally in a pure spirit of faith in his +influence with the Deity. The tomb of the saint is covered with +gold brocade, and protected by an awning—those of the +Emperors around it he naked and exposed. Emperors and princes lie +all around him; and their tombs are entirely disregarded by the +hundreds that daily prostrate themselves before his, and have been +doing so for the last six hundred years.[30] Among the rest I saw +here the tomb of Mu'azzam, alias Bahādur Shāh, the son +and successor of Aurangzēb, and that of the blind old Emperor +Shāh Alam, from whom the Honourable Company got their +Dīwanī grant.[31] The grass grows upon the slab that +covers the remains of Mu'azzam, the most learned, most pious, and +most amiable, l believe, of the crowned descendants of the great +Akbar. These kings and princes all try to get a place as near as +they can to the remains of such old saints, believing that the +ground is more holy than any other, and that they may give them a +lift on the day of resurrection. The heir apparent to the throne of +Delhi visited the tomb the same day that I did. He was between +sixty and seventy years of age.[32]</p> + +<p>I asked some of the attendants of the tomb, on my way back, what +he had come to pray for; and was told that no one knew, but every +one supposed it was for the death of the Emperor, his father, who +was only fifteen years older, and was busily engaged in promoting +an intrigue at the instigation of one of his wives, to oust him, +and get one of her sons, Mirza Salīm, acknowledged as his +successor by the British Government. It was the Hindoo festival of +the Basant,[33] and all the avenues to the tomb of this old saint +were crowded when I visited it. Why the Muhammadans crowded to the +tomb on a Hindoo holiday I could not ascertain.</p> + +<p>The Emperor Īltutmish, who died A.D. 1235, is buried close +behind one end of the arched alcove, in a beautiful tomb without +its cupola. He built the tomb himself, and left orders that there +should be no 'parda' (screen) between him and heaven; and no dome +was thrown over the building in consequence. Other great men have +done the same, and their tombs look as if their domes had fallen +in; they think the way should be left clear for a start on the day +of resurrection.[34] The church is stated to have been added to it +by the Emperor Balban, and the Mīnār finished.[35] About +the end of the seventeenth century, it was so shaken by an +earthquake that the two upper stories fell down. Our Government, +when the country came into our possession, undertook to repair +these two stories, and entrusted the work to Captain Smith, who +built up one of stone, and the other of wood, and completed the +repairs in three years. The one was struck by lightning eight or +nine years after, and came down. If it was anything like the one +that is left, the lightning did well to remove it.[36]</p> + +<p> About five years ago, while the Emperor was on a visit to +the tomb of Kutb-ud-dīn, a madman got into his private +apartments. The servants were ordered to turn him out. On passing +the Mīnār he ran in, ascended to the top, stood a few +minutes on the verge, laughing at those who were running after him, +and made a spring that enabled him to reach the bottom, without +touching the sides. An eye-witness told me that he kept his erect +position till about half-way down, when he turned over, and +continued to turn till he got to the bottom, when his fall made a +report like a gun. He was of course dashed to pieces. About five +months ago another fell over by accident, and was dashed to pieces +against the sides. A new road has been here cut through the tomb of +the Emperor Alā- ud-dīn, who murdered his +father-in-law-the first Muhammadan conqueror of Southern India, and +his remains have been scattered to the winds.[37]</p> + +<p>A very pretty marble tomb, to the west of the alcoves, covers +the remains of Imām Mashhadī, the religious guide of the +Emperor Akbar; and a magnificent tomb of freestone covers those of +his four foster-brothers. This was long occupied as a +dwelling-house by the late Mr. Blake, of the Bengal Civil Service, +who was lately barbarously murdered at Jaipur. To make room for his +dining-tables he removed the marble slab, which covered the remains +of the dead, from the centre of the building, against the urgent +remonstrance of the people, and threw it carelessly on one side +against the wall, where it now lies. The people appealed in vain, +it is said, to Mr. Fraser, the Governor-General's representative, +who was soon after assassinated; and a good many attribute the +death of both to this outrage upon the remains of the dead +foster-brother of Akbar. Those of Alā-ud-dīn were, no +doubt, older and less sensitive. Tombs equally magnificent cover +the remains of the other three foster- brothers of Akbar, but I did +not enter them.[38]</p> + +<p><br> +Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The Sultan, called by the author 'the Emperor Tughlak the +First', as being the first of the Tughlak dynasty, was by birth a +Karaunīah Turk, named Ghāzī Bēg Tughlak. He +assumed the style of Ghiyās-ud-dīn Tughlak Shāh when +he seized the throne in A.D. 1320, and he reigned till A.D. +1325.</p> + +<p>2. This gigantic fortress is close to the village of Badarpur, +about four miles due east of the Kutb Mīnār, and ten or +twelve miles south of the modern city. The building of it occupied +more than three years, but the whole undertaking 'proved eminently +futile, as his son removed his Court to the old city within forty +days after his accession.' (Thomas, <i>Chronicles of the +Pathān Kings of Delhi</i>, 1871, p. 192.) The fort is +described by Cunningham in <i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. i, p. 212, whose +description is copied in the guide-books. See also Fanshawe, +<i>Delhi Past and Present</i> (John Murray, 1902), p. 288 and +plate. That work is cited as 'Fanshawe'.</p> + +<p>3. Also called Adilābād. It is described in +<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. i, p. 21; Carr Stephen, <i>The Archaeology and +Monumental Remains of Delhi</i>, Ludhiana, 1876, p. 98; and +Fanshawe, p. 291.</p> + +<p>4. '<i>The Barber's House</i>. This lies to the right of the +road from Tughlākābad to Badarpur, and is close to the +ruined city. It is said to have been built for Tughlak Shāh's +barber about A.D. 1323. It is now a mere ruin.' (Harcourt, <i>The +New Guide to Delhi</i>, Allahabad, 1866, p. 88.)</p> + +<p>5. This fine tomb was built by Muhammad bin Tughlak (A.D. 1325- +51). It is described by Cunningham in <i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. i, p. +213. See also <i>Ann. Rep. A. S., India</i>, 1904-5, p. 19, fig. +11; <i>H.F.A.</i>, p. 397, fig. 234; and Fanshawe, p. 290, with +plate. Thomas (<i>Chronicles</i>, p. 192) and Cunningham both say +that the causeway, or viaduct, has twenty-seven, not only +twenty-five, arches, as stated in the text. The causeway is 600 +feet in length. The sloping walls are characteristic of the +period.</p> + +<p>6. The blunder of calling the Sultāns of Delhi by the name +Pathān, due to the translators of Firishta's History, has been +perpetuated by Thomas's well-known work, <i>The Chronicles of the +Pathān Kings of Delhi</i>, and in countless other books. The +name is quite wrong. The only Pathān Sultāns were those +of the Lodī dynasty, which immediately preceded Bābur, +and those of the Sūr dynasty, the rivals of Bābur's son. +'He (<i>scil.</i> Ghiyās-ud-dīn Balban) was a <i>Turk</i> +of the Ilbarī tribe, but compilers of Indian Histories and +Gazetteers, and archaeological experts, turn him, like many Turks, +Tājzīks, Jāts, and Sayyids, into +<i>Pathāns</i>, which is synonymous with Afghan, it being the +vitiated Hindī equivalent of Pushtūn, the name by which +the people generally known as Afghans call themselves, in their own +language. . . . It is quite time to give up Dow and Briggs' +Ferishta.' (Raverty, in <i>J.A.S.B.</i>, vol. lxi (1892), Part I, +p. 164, note.)</p> + +<p>7. The murder of Ghiyās-ud-dīn Tughlak by his son +Fakhr-ud-dīn Jūnā, also called Ulugh Khān, +occurred in the year A.H. 725, which began on 18th December, 1324 +(o.s.). The testimony of the contemporary traveller Ibn +Batūtā establishes the fact that the fall of the pavilion +was premeditated. (Thomas, <i>Chronicles</i>, pp. 187, 189.) The +murderer, on his accession to the throne (1325), assumed the style +of Muhammad bin Tughlak Shāh.</p> + +<p>8. Jalāl-ud-dīn Fīrōz Shāh Khiljī +was murdered by his son-in-law and nephew Alā-ud- dīn at +Karrā on the Ganges in July, A.D. 1296. The murderer reigned +until A.D. 1315 under the title of Alā-ud- dīn Muhammad +Shāh, Sikandar Sānī.</p> + +<p>9. As already noted, his proper style is Muhammad bin Tughlak +Shāh. The word <i>bin</i> means 'son of'. The Sultan is never +called 'Muhammad the Third'.</p> + +<p>10. A Muhammadan must, if he can, say his prayers with the +prescribed forms five times in the twenty-four hours; and on +Friday, which is their sabbath, he must, if he can, say three +prayers in the church <i>masjid</i>. On other days he may say them +where he pleases. Every prayer must begin with the first chapter of +the Korān—this is the grace to every prayer. This said, +the person may put in what other prayers of the Korān he +pleases, and ask for that which he most wants, as long as it does +not injure other Musalmāns. This is the first chapter of the +Korān: 'Praise be to God the Lord of all creatures—the +most merciful—the King of the day of judgement. Thee do we +worship, and of Thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right +way—in the way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious; not +of those against whom Thou art incensed; nor of those who go +astray.' [W. H. S.] The quotation is from Sale's version. The last +clause may also be rendered, 'The way of those to whom Thou hast +been gracious, against whom Thou art not incensed, and who have not +erred,' as Sale points out in his note.</p> + +<p>11. This mad tyrant, among other horrible deeds, flayed his +nephew alive. He attempted to invade China through the +Himālayas, and for three years issued a forced currency of +brass and copper, which he vainly tried to make people take as +equal in value to silver. Strange to say, he was allowed to reign +for nearly twenty-seven years, and to die peacefully in his bed. +The hunts of the 'innocent and unoffending people' were organized +rather to gain the benefit of 'sending infidels to hell' than for +'mere amusement'. Daulatābād was the name given by +Muhammad bin Tughlak to the ancient fortress of Deogīr +(Deogiri, Deoghur), situated about ten miles from +Aurangābād, in what is now the Hyderabad State.</p> + +<p>12. In the original edition the Moghal leader's name is printed +as 'Turmachurn', the Tarmasharīn (with variations in spelling) +of Muhammadan authors (see E. and D., iii. 42, 450, 507; v. 485; +vi. 222). The name Turghi is given by Thomas, who says he invested +Delhi in A.H. 703, corresponding to A.D. 1303-4; and refers to an +article in <i>J.A.S.B.</i>, vol. xxxv (1866), Part I, pp. 199-218, +entitled 'Notes on the History and Topography of the Ancient Cities +of Delhi', by O. Campbell. (<i>Chronicles</i>, p. 175, note.) +Campbell writes the leader's name as Turghai Khān. Apparently +Tarmasharīn was identical with Turghi or Turghai Khān, +but I am not sure that he was. The Moghals made several raids +during the reign of Alā-ud-dīn Muhammad Shāh.</p> + +<p>13. The tomb of Nizām-ud-dīn is further noticed in the +next chapter of this work. It is situated in an enclosure which +contains other notable tombs. The following extract from the +author's <i>Ramaseeana</i> (p. 121) gives additional particulars +concerning this saint of questionable sanctity: +'<i>Nizām-ud-dīn Aulia</i>.—A saint of the +Sunnī sect of Muhammadans, said to have been a Thug of great +note at some period of his life, and his tomb near Delhi is to this +day visited as a place of pilgrimage by Thugs, who make votive +offerings to it. He is said to have been of the Barsot class, born +in the month of Safar [633], Hijrī, March A.D. 1236; died +Rabī-ul-awwal, 725, October A.D. 1325. [The months as stated +do not correspond.—<i>Ed</i>.] His tomb is visited by +Muhammadan pilgrims from all parts as a place of great sanctity +from containing the remains of so holy a man; but the Thugs, both +Hindoo and Muhammadan, visit it as containing the remains of the +most celebrated Thug of his day. He was of the Sunnī sect, and +those of the Shīa sect find no difficulty in believing that he +was a Thug; but those of his own sect will never credit it. There +are perhaps no sufficient grounds to pronounce him one of the +fraternity; but there are some to suspect that he was so at some +period of his life. The Thugs say he gave it up early in life, but +kept others employed in it till late, and derived an income from +it; and the 'dast-ul-ghaib', or supernatural purse, with which he +was supposed to be endowed, gives a colour to this. His lavish +expenditure, so much beyond his ostensible means, gave rise to the +belief that he was supplied from above with money.'</p> + +<p>The 'old man of the mountains' with whom the author compares +Nizām-ud-dīn (or at least the original 'old man of the +mountains', Shaikh-ul Jabal), was Hasan-ibn-Sabbāh (or, us- +Sabbāh), who founded the sect of so-called Assassins in the +mountains on the shores of the Caspian, and flourished from about +A.D. 1089 to 1124. Hulākū the Mongol broke the power of +the sect in A.D. 1256 (Thatcher, in <i>Encycl. Brit.</i>, 11th ed., +1910, s. v. 'Assassin').</p> + +<p>14. Shams-ud-dīn Īltutmish, who had been a slave, +reigned from A.D. 1210 to 1235. His Turkish name is variously +written as Yulteemush, Altamsh, Alitmish, &c. The form +Īltutmish is correct (<i>Z.D.M.G.</i>, 1907, p. 192). His tomb +is discussed <i>post</i>.</p> + +<p>15. This is not quite accurate. A similar +<i>mīnār</i>, or mosque tower, built in the middle of the +thirteenth century, formerly existed at Koil in the Alīgarh +district (<i>A.S.R.</i>, i. 191), and two mosques at Bayāna in +the Bharatpur State, have each only one <i>mīnār</i>, +placed outside the courtyard (ibid., vol. iv, p. ix). Chitor in +Rajputānā possesses two noble Hindoo towers, one about 80 +feet high, erected in connexion with Jain shrines, and the other, +about 120 feet high, erected by Kumbha Rānā as a tower or +pillar of victory. (Fergusson, <i>Hist. of Indian and Eastern +Architecture</i>, ed. 1910, vol. ii, pp. 57-61.)</p> + +<p>16. The short life of James Prinsep extended only from August +20, 1799, to April 22, 1840, and practically terminated in 1838, +when his brain began to fail from the undue strain caused by +incessant and varied activity. His memorable discoveries in +archaeology and numismatics are recorded in the seven volumes of +the <i>J.A.S.B.</i> for the years 1832-8. His contributions to +those volumes were edited by B. Thomas, and republished in 1868 +under the title of <i>Essays on Indian Antiquities</i>. Sir +Alexander Cunningham, who was one of Prinsep's fellow workers, +gives interesting details of the process by which the discoveries +were made, in the Introduction to the first volume of the Reports +of the Archaeological Survey. No adequate account of James +Prinsep's remarkable career has been published. He was singularly +modest and unassuming. A good summary of his life is given in +Higginbotham's <i>Men whom India has Known</i>, 2nd ed., Madras, +1874. See also the editor's paper, 'James Prinsep', in East and +West, Bombay, July, 1906.</p> + +<p>17. The monolith pillars alluded to in the text are chiefly +those of the great Emperor Piyadasi, Beloved of the Gods, also +known by the name of Asoka. So far from being memorials of a time +when 'the mechanical arts were in a rude state', the Asoka columns +exhibit the arts of the stone-cutter and sculptor in perfection. +They were erected about 242 to 230 B.C., and the inscriptions on +them contain a code of moral and religions precepts. They do not +commemorate conquests, although the Asoka pillar at Allahabad has +been utilized by later sovereigns for the recording of magniloquent +inscriptions in praise of their grandeur. The best-known of the +Asoka pillars are the two at Delhi, and the one at Allahabad. Many +scholars have devoted themselves to the study of the inscriptions +of Asoka, which may be said to form the foundation of authentic +Indian history. The reader interested in the subject should consult +Senart, <i>Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi</i>, t. I and II, Paris, +1881, 1886; V. A. Smith, <i>Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of +India</i>, 2nd ed.. Oxford, 1909; and 'The Monolithic Pillars or +Columns of Asoka' (<i>Z.D.M.G.</i>, 1911, pp. 221-10). See also +<i>E.H.I.</i>, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1914), chap. 6, 7, with +Bibliography. Certain of the Gupta emperors in the fifth century +A.C. also erected monolith pillars. Some of the pillars of the +Gupta period commemorate victories; others are merely religious +monuments.</p> + +<p>18. Fergusson thought the Kutb Mīnār superior to +Giotto's campanile at Florence in 'poetry of design and exquisite +finish of detail'. He also held it to excel its taller Egyptian +rival, the minaret of the mosque of Hasan at Cairo, in its nobler +appearance, as well as in design and finish. To sum up, he held the +Delhi monument to surpass any building of its class in the whole +world. (<i>Hist. of Indian and Eastern Architecture</i>, ed. 1910, +vol. ii, p. 206.)</p> + +<p>19. Fergusson (ibid.) was mistaken in supposing that the Kutb +Mīnār was intended for anything else than a +<i>māzina</i>, or tower from which the call to prayers should +be proclaimed. It is that and nothing else. Several examples of +early mosques with only one <i>mīnār</i> each are known, +at Koil and Bayāna, in India, as well as at Ghaznī and +Cairo. The unfinished <i>mīnār</i> of Alāuddīn +near the Kutb Mīnār was intended for a distinct building, +namely, his addition to the original Kutb mosque. There was no +'other <i>mīnār</i>' connected with the Kutb +Mīnār.(Cunningham, <i>A.S.R.</i> iv (1874), p. ix.)</p> + +<p>The current name of the Kutb Mīnār refers to the saint +Khwāja Kutb-ud-dīn of Ūsh, who lies near the tower, +and not to Sultan Kutb-ud-dīn Aibak or Ībak. The +<i>mīnār</i> was erected, about A.D. 1232, by Sultan +Shams-ud-dīn Īltutmish (V. A. Smith, 'Who Built the Kutb +Mīnār?' <i>East and West</i>, Bombay, Dec. 1907, pp. +1200-5; B. N. Munshi, <i>The Kutb Mīnār, Delhi</i>, +Bombay, 1911).</p> + +<p> All the important monuments at or near Delhi are now +carefully conserved, Lord Curzon having organized effective +arrangements for the purpose.</p> + +<p>20. The original edition gives a coloured plate of the Kutb +Mīnār. The total height stated in the text, 242 feet, is +said by Fergusson (p. 205, note) to be that ascertained in 1794; +the present height of the <i>mīnār</i>, since the modern +pavilion on the top has been removed, is 238 feet 1 inch, according +to Cunningham. (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. i, p. 196.) Originally the +building was ten, or perhaps twenty, feet higher. The deep flutings +appear to have been suggested by the <i>mīnārs</i> of +Mahmūd at Ghaznī, 'which are star polygons in plan, with +deeply indented angles'. The Kutb Mīnār was built by +Sultan Īltutmish alone about A.D. 1232. The statement in most +books, including Fanshawe (pp. 265- 8, with plates), that it was +<i>begun</i> by Sultan Kutb-ud- dīn, is erroneous.</p> + +<p>21. The notion of the Hindoo origin of the Kutb Mīnār, +which the author justly stigmatizes as 'foolish', was taken up by +Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khān, the author of an Urdū work on the +antiquities of Delhi, and by Sir A. Cunningham's assistant, Mr. +Beglar, who wasted a great part of volume iv of the +<i>Archaeological Survey Reports</i> in trying to prove the +paradox. His speculations on the subject were conclusively refuted +by his chief in the Preface (pp. v-x) of the same volume. The +mīnār was built by Hindoo masons, and, in consequence, +some of the details, notably its overlapping or corbelled arches, +are Hindoo.</p> + +<p>22. This is correct. The Hindoo 'towers of victory' are in a +totally different style.</p> + +<p>23. On the misnomer 'Pathāns', see <i>ante</i>, previous +note 6.</p> + +<p>24. The Kutb mosque was constructed from the materials of +twenty- seven Hindoo temples. The colonnades retain much of their +Hindoo character. (Fanshawe, p. 259 and plate.)</p> + +<p>25. The author's description of the unfinished tower is far from +accurate. The tower was begun, not by Shams-ud-dīn +Īltutmish, but by Alā-ud-dīn Muhammad Shāh, in +the year A.H. 711 (A.D. 1311). It is about 82 feet in diameter, and +when cased with marble, as was intended, would have been at least +85 feet in diameter, or nearly double that of the Kutb +Mīnār, which is 48 feet 4 inches. The total height of the +column as it now stands is about 75 feet above the plinth, or 87 +feet above the ground level. (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. i, p. 205; vol. +iv, p. 62, pl. vii; Thomas, <i>Chronicles</i>, p. 173, citing +original authorities.) Carr Stephen (p. 67) gives the circumference +as 254 feet, and the height as about 80 feet.</p> + +<p>26. Alā-ud-dīn's additions were never completed. The +sack of Delhi by Tīmūr Lang (Tamerlane) took place in +December 1398. The Delhi sacked by him was the city known as +Fīrōzābād.</p> + +<p>27. The glory of the mosque is . . . the great range of arches +on the western side, extending north and south for about 385 feet, +and consisting of three greater and eight smaller arches; the +central one 22 feet wide, and 53 feet high; the larger side-arches, +24 feet 4 inches, and about the same height as the central arch; +the smaller arches, which are unfortunately much ruined, are about +half these dimensions.' The great arch 'has since been carefully +restored by Government under efficient superintendence, and is now +as sound and complete as when first erected. The two great side +arches either were never completed, or have fallen down in +consequence of the false mode of construction.' (Fergusson, +<i>Hist. of I. and E. Archit.</i>, ed. 1910, vol. ii, pp. 203, +204). The centre arch bears an inscription dated in A.H. 594, or +A.D. 1198 (Thomas, <i>Chronicles</i>, p. 24).</p> + +<p>28. Most of the description of the Iron Pillar in the text is +erroneous. The pillar has nothing to do with Prithī Rāj, +who was slain by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1192 (A.H. 588). The +earliest inscription on it records the victories of a +Rājā Chandra, probably Chandra-varman, chief of Pokharan +in Rājputāna in the fourth century A.C. (<i>E.H.I.</i>, +3rd ed., 1914, p. 290, note). The pillar is by no means 'small' +when its material is considered; on the contrary, it is very large. +That material is not 'bronze, or a metal which resembles bronze', +but is pure malleable iron, as proved by analysis. It has been +suggested that this pillar must have been formed by gradually +welding pieces together; if so, it has been done very skilfully, +since no marks of such welding are to be seen. . . . The famous +iron pillar at the Kutb, near Delhi, indicates an amount of skill +in the manipulation of a large mass of wrought iron which has been +the marvel of all who have endeavoured to account for it. It is not +many years since the production of such a pillar would have been an +impossibility in the largest foundries of the world, and even now +there are comparatively few where a similar mass of metal could be +tumed out. . . . The total weight must exceed six tons.' (V. Ball, +<i>Economic Geology of India</i>, pp. 338, 339.) The metal is +uninjured by rust, and the inscription is perfect. An exact +facsimile is set up in the Indian Section of the Victoria and +Albert Museum at South Kensington, The pillar is shown, with the +smaller arches of the mosque, in <i>H.F.A.</i> fig. 232. See also +Fanshawe, pp. 260, 264, and plates. The inscription was edited by +Fleet (<i>Gupta Inscriptions</i>, 1888, No. 32). The dimensions of +the pillar are as follows: Height above ground (total), 22 ft,; +height below ground, 1 ft. 8 in.; diameter at base, 16.4 in.; +diameter at the capital, 12.05 in.; height of capital, 3½ +ft. At a distance of a few inches below the surface it expands in a +bulbous form to a diameter of 2 ft. 4 in., and rests on a gridiron +of iron bars, which are fastened with lead into the stone pavement. +(<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. iv, p. 28, pl. v.)</p> + +<p>This last prosaic fact, established by actual excavation, +destroys the basis of all the current local legends and spurious +traditions.</p> + +<p>29. This name is printed Ouse in the author's text. The saint +referred to is the celebrated Kutb-ud-dīn Bakhtyār +Kākī, commonly called Kutb Shāh, who died on the +27th of November, A.D. 1235. Īltutmish died in April, A.D. +1236 (Beale).</p> + +<p>30. The royal tombs are in the village of Mihraulī, close +to the Kutb. See Carr Stephen, op. cit., pp. 180-4, and Fanshawe, +pp. 280-4.</p> + +<p>31. That is to say, the revenue administration of Bengal, +Bihār, and Orissa in 1765.</p> + +<p>32. He is now Emperor, having succeeded his father, Akbar +Shāh, in 1837. [W. H. S.] He is known as Bahādur +Shāh II. In consequence of his having joined the rebels in +1857, he was deposed and banished. He died at Rangoon in 1862, and +with him ended the line of Emperors of Delhi. He was born on the +24th of October, 1775, and so was in his sixty-first year when the +author met him. His father was about seventy-eight (eighty lunar) +years of age at his death.</p> + +<p>33. 'Basant' means the spring. The full name of this festival of +the spring time is the Basant Panchamī.</p> + +<p>34. According to Harcourt (<i>The New Guide to Delhi</i>, 1866), +the tomb of Īltutmish was erected by his children, the +Sultānas Rukn-ud-dīn and Razīa, who reigned in +succession after him for short periods, that is to say, Rukn-ud- +dīn Fīrōz Shāh for six months and twenty- eight +days, and the Empress Razīa for about three years, from A.D. +1236 to 1239. (See Carr Stephen, p. 73.) Īltutmish died in +April, A.D. 1236, not in 1235. Fergusson observes that this tomb is +of special interest as being the oldest Muhammadan tomb known to +exist in India. He also remarks (p. 509) that the effect at present +is injured by the want of a roof, which, 'judging from appearance, +was never completed, if ever commenced'. Harcourt (p. 120) states +that 'Fīrōz Shāh, who reigned from A.D. 1351 to A.D. +1385 [<i>sic</i>, 1388], is said to have placed a roof to the +building, but it is doubtful if there ever was one, as there are no +traces of the same. Cunningham and Carr Stephen (p. 74) both find +sufficient evidence remaining to satisfy them that a dome once +existed. Fanshawe (p. 269) says 'that the chamber was intended to +be roofed is clear from the remains of the lowest course of a dome +on the top of the south wall; but, if it was built for her father +by Sultan Raziya, as seems probable, it is quite possible that the +dome was never completed'. The interior, a square of 29½ +feet, is beautifully and elaborately decorated, and in wonderful +preservation considering its age and the exposure to which it has +been subjected. The walls are over seven feet thick, the principal +entrance being to the east. The tomb is built of red sandstone and +marble; the sarcophagus is in the centre, and is of pale +marble.</p> + +<p>35. Sultan Ghiyās-ud-dīn Balban reigned from February, +A.D. 1266 to 1286. I cannot discover any authority for the +statement that he finished the Kutb Mīnār, and 'added the +church'. It is not clear which 'church', or mosque, the author +refers to. For a notice of Balban's tomb and buildings, see Carr +Stephen, pp. 79-81, He certainly did not finish the Kutb +Mīnār.</p> + +<p>36. See <i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. i, p. 199. '<i>Top of the Kutb +Mīnār</i>.—This octagonal stone pavilion was put up +in A.D. 1826 over the Mīnār by Major Smith, of the +Engineers, who had the superintendence of the repairs of the Kutb, +but it was taken down by the order of Government' (Harcourt, <i>The +New Guide to Delhi</i>, p. 123). This 'grotesque ornament' was +removed in 1848 by order of Lord Hardinge, and bereft of its wooden +pavilion, which had carried a flag-staff (Carr Stephen, p. 64; +Fanshawe, p. 266). It has now been moved farther and more out of +sight.</p> + +<p>37. This alleged outrage does not appear to have really +occurred. The author seems to have been misinformed about the +position of Alā-ud-dīn's tomb, which still exits in the +central room of a building, the eastern wall of which is in part +identical with the western wall of the extension of the Kutb +Mosque, built by Īltutmish (Carr Stephen, op. cit., p. 88). +Fanshawe agrees (p. 272).</p> + +<p>38. The tomb desecrated by Mr. Blake is on the right of the road +leading from the Kutb Mīnār to the village of +Mihraulī, and is either that of Adham Khān, whom Akbar +put to death in A.D. 1562 for the murder of Shams-ud-dīn +Muhammad Atgah Khān, one of the Emperor's foster fathers, or +the neighbouring 'family grave enclosure' of his brothers, known as +the <i>Chaunsath Khambhā</i>, or Hall of Sixty-four Pillars. +Adham Khān's tomb is still, or was until recently, used as a +rest-house (Fanshawe, pp. 14, 228, 242, 256, 278; Carr Stephen, pp. +31, 200, pl. ii). The best-known of the 'kokahs', or +foster-brothers, of Akbar is Azīz, the son of +Shams-ud-dīn above mentioned. Azīz received the title of +Khān-i-Azam (Von Noer, <i>The Emperor Akbar</i>, transl. by +Beveridge, vol. i, pp. 78, 95; and Blochmann, +<i>Āīn-t-Akbarī</i>, vol. i, pp. 321, 323, &c.). +The young chief of Jaipur died in 1834, and in the course of +disturbances which followed, the Political Agent was wounded, and +Mr. Blake, his assistant, was killed (D. Boulger, <i>Lord William +Bentinck</i>, 'Rulers of India' series, p. 143). I cannot find +mention in any authority of Imām Mashhadī. Mr. Fraser's +murder has been fully described <i>ante</i> chapter 64.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch68">CHAPTER 68</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">New Delhi, or +Shāhjahānābād.</p> + +<p>On the 22nd of January, 1836, we went on twelve miles to the new +city of Delhi, built by the Emperor Shāhjahān, and called +after him Shāhjahānābād; and took up our +quarters in the palace of the Bēgam Samrū, a fine +building, agreeably situated in a garden opening into the great +street, with a branch of the great canal running through it, and as +quiet as if it had been in a wilderness.[1] We had obtained from +the Bēgam permission to occupy this palace during our stay. It +was elegantly furnished, the servants were all exceedingly +attentive, and we were very happy.</p> + +<p>The Kutb Mīnār stands upon the back of the sandstone +range of low hills, and the road descends over the north- eastern +face of this range for half a mile, and then passes over a level +plain all the way to the new city, which lies on the right bank of +the river Jumna. The whole plain is literally covered with the +remains of splendid Muhammadan mosques and mausoleums. These +Muhammadans seem as if they had always in their thoughts the saying +of Christ which Akbar has inscribed on the gateway at Fathpur +Sīkrī: 'Life is a bridge which you are to pass over, and +not to build your dwellings upon.'[2] The buildings which they have +left behind them have almost all a reference to a future +state—they laid out their means in a church, in which the +Deity might be propitiated; in a tomb where leaned and pious men +might chant their Korān over their remains, and youth be +instructed in their duties; in a serai, a bridge, a canal built +gratuitously for the public good, that those who enjoyed these +advantages from generation to generation might pray for the repose +of their souls. How could it be otherwise where the land was the +property of Government, where capital was never concentrated or +safe, when the only aristocracy was that of office, while the +Emperor was the sole recognized heir of all his public +officers?</p> + +<p>The only thing that he could not inherit were his tombs, his +temples, his bridges, his canals, his caravanserais. I was +acquainted with the history of most of the great men whose tombs +and temples I visited along the road; but I asked in vain for a +sight of the palaces they occupied in their day of pride and power. +They all had, no doubt, good houses agreeably situated, like that +of the Bēgam Samrū, in the midst of well-watered gardens +and shrubberies, delightful in their season; but they cared less +about them—they knew that the Emperor was heir to every +member of the great body to which they belonged, the <i>aristocracy +of office</i>; and might transfer all their wealth to his treasury, +and all their palaces to their successors, the moment the breath +should be out of their bodies.[3] If their sons got office, it +would neither be in the same grades nor in the same places as those +of their fathers.</p> + +<p>How different it is in Europe, where our aristocracy is formed +upon a different basis; no one knows where to find the tombs in +which the remains of great men who have passed away repose; or the +churches and colleges they have founded; or the serāis, the +bridges, the canals they formed gratuitously for the public good; +but everybody knows where to find their 'proud palaces'; life is +not to them 'a bridge over which they are to pass, and not build +their dwellings upon'. The eldest sons enjoy all the patrimonial +estates, and employ them as best they may to get their younger +brothers into situations in the church, the army, the navy, and +other public establishments, in which they may be honourably and +liberally provided for out of the public purse.</p> + +<p>About half-way between the great tower and the new city, on the +left-hand side of the road, stands the tomb of Mansūr Alī +Khān, the great-grandfather of the present King of Oudh. Of +all the tombs to be seen in this immense extent of splendid ruins, +this is perhaps the only one raised over a subject, the family of +whose inmates are now in a condition even to keep it in repair. It +is a very beautiful mausoleum, built after the model of the +Tāj at Agra; with this difference, that the external wall +around the quadrangle of the Tāj is here, as it were, thrown +back, and closed in upon the tomb. The beautiful gateway at the +entrance of the gardens of the Tāj forms each of the four +sides of the tomb of Mansūr Alī Khān, with all its +chaste beauty of design, proportion, and ornament.[4] The +quadrangle in which this mausoleum stands is about three hundred +and fifty yards square, surrounded by a stone wall, with handsome +gateways, and filled in the same manner as that of the Tāj at +Agra, with cisterns and fruit-trees. Three kinds of stones are +used—white marble, red sandstone, and the fine white and +flesh- coloured sandstone of Rupbās. The dome is of white +marble, and exactly of the same form as that of the Tāj; but +it stands on a neck or base of sandstone with twelve sides, and the +marble is of a quality very inferior to that of the Tāj. It is +of coarse dolomite, and has become a good deal discoloured by time, +so as to give it the appearance, which Bishop Heber noticed, of +<i>potted meat</i>. The neck is not quite so long as that of the +Tāj, and is better covered by the marble cupolas that stand +above each face of the building. The four noble minarets are, +however, wanting. The apartments are all in number and form exactly +like those of the Tāj, but they are somewhat less in size. In +the centre of the first floor lies the beautiful marble slab that +bears the date of this small pillar of a <i>tottering state</i>, +A.H. 1167;[5] and in a vault underneath repose his remains by the +side of those of one of his grand-daughters. The graves that cover +these remains are of plain earth strewed with fresh flowers, and +covered with plain cloth. About two miles from this tomb to the +east stands that of the father of Akbar, Humāyūn, a large +and magnificent building. As I rode towards this building to see +the slab that covers the head of poor Dārā Shikoh, I +frequently cast a lingering look behind to view, as often as I +could, this very pretty imitation of the most beautiful of all the +tombs of the earth.[6]</p> + +<p>On my way I turned in to see the tomb of the celebrated saint, +Nizām-ud-dīn Auliā, the defeater of the +Transoxianian army under Tarmah Shīrīn in 1303, to which +pilgrimages are still made from all parts of India.[7] It is a +small building, surmounted by a white marble dome, and kept very +clean and neat.[8] By its side is that of the poet Khusrū, his +contemporary and friend, who moved about where he pleased through +the palace of the Emperor Tughlak Shāh the First, five hundred +years ago, and sang extempore to his lyre while the greatest and +the fairest watched his lips to catch the expressions as they came +warm from his soul. His popular songs are still the most popular; +and he is one of the favoured few who live through ages in the +every-day thoughts and feelings of many millions, while the crowned +heads that patronized them in their brief day of pomp and power are +forgotten, or remembered merely as they happened to be connected +with them. His tomb has also a dome, and the grave is covered with +rich brocade,[9] and attended with as much reverence and devotion +as that of the great saint himself, while those of the emperors, +kings, and princes that have been crowded around them are entirely +disregarded. A number of people are employed to read the Korān +over the grave of the old saint (<i>scil.</i> +Nizām-ud-dīn), who died A.H. 725 [A.D. 1324-5], and are +paid by contributions from the present Emperor, and the members of +his family, who occasionally come in their hour of need to entreat +his intercession with the Deity in their favour, and by the humble +pilgrims who flock from all parts for the same purpose. A great +many boys are here educated by those readers of their sacred +volume. All my attendants bowed their heads to the dust before the +shrine of the saint, but they seemed especially indifferent to +those of the royal family, which are all open to the sky. Respect +shown or neglect towards them could bring neither good nor evil, +while any slight to the tomb of the <i>crusty old saint</i> might +be of serious consequence.</p> + +<p>In an enclosure formed by marble screens beautifully carved is +the tomb of the favourite son of the present Emperor,[10] +Mirzā Jahāngīr, whom I knew intimately at Allahabad +in 1816,[11] when he was killing himself as fast as he could with +Hoffman's cherry brandy. 'This ', he would say to me, 'is really +the only liquor that you Englishmen have worth drinking, and its +only fault is that it makes one drunk too soon.' To prolong his +pleasure, he used to limit himself to one large glass every hour, +till he got dead drunk. Two or three sets of dancing women and +musicians used to relieve each other in amusing him during this +interval. He died, of course, soon, and the poor old Emperor was +persuaded by his mother, the favourite sultana, that he had fallen +a victim to sighing and grief at the treatment of the English, who +would not permit him to remain at Delhi, where he was continually +employed in attempts to assassinate his eldest brother, the heir +apparent, and to stir up insurrections among the people. He was not +in confinement at Allahabad, but merely prohibited from returning +to Delhi. He had a splendid dwelling, a good income, and all the +honours due to his rank.[12]</p> + +<p>In another enclosure of the same kind are the Emperor Muhammad +Shāh,[13]—who reigned when Nādir Shāh invaded +Delhi—his mother, wife, and daughter; and in another close by +is the tomb which interested me most, that of +Jahānārā Bēgam, the favourite sister of poor +Dārā Shikoh, and daughter of Shāh Jahān.[14] It +stands in the same enclosure, with the brother of the present +Emperor on one side, and his daughter on the other. Her remains are +covered with a marble slab hollow at the top, and exposed to the +sky—the hollow is filled with earth covered with green grass. +Upon her tomb is the following inscription, the three first lines +of which are said to have been written by herself:-</p> + +<p> Let no rich canopy cover my grave.<br> + This grass is the best covering for the +tombs<br> + of the poor +in spirit.<br> + The humble, the transitory +Jahānārā,<br> + The disciple of the holy men of Chisht,<br> + The daughter of the Emperor Shāh +Jahān.'</p> + +<p>I went over the magnificent tomb of Humāyūn, which was +raised over his remains by the Emperor Akbar. It stands in the +centre of a quadrangle of about four hundred yards square, with a +cloistered wall all round; but I must not describe any more +tombs.[15] Here, under a marble slab, lies the head of poor +Dārā Shikoh, who, but for a little infirmity of temper, +had perhaps changed the destinies of India, by changing the +character of education among the aristocracy of the countries under +his rule, and preventing the birth of the Marāthā powers +by leaving untouched the independent kingdoms of the Deccan, upon +whose ruins, under his bigoted brother, the former rose. Secular +and religions education were always inseparably combined among the +Muhammadans, and invited to India from Persia by the public +offices, civil and military, which men of education and courtly +manners could alone obtain. These offices had long been exclusively +filled by such men, who flocked in crowds to India from +Khorāsān and Persia. Every man qualified by secular +instruction to make his way at court and fill such offices was +disposed by his religions instruction to assert the supremacy of +his creed, and to exclude the followers of every other from the +employments over which he had any control. The aristocracy of +office was the ocean to which this stream of Muhammadan education +flowed from the west, and spread all over India; and had +Dārā subdued his brothers and ascended the throne, he +would probably have arrested the flood by closing the public +offices against these Persian adventurers, and filling them with +Christians and Hindoos. This would have changed the character of +the aristocracy and the education of the people.[16]</p> + +<p>While looking upon the slab under which his head reposes, I +thought of the slight 'accidents by flood and field', the still +slighter thought of the brain and feeling of the heart, on which +the destinies of nations and of empires often depend—on the +discovery of the great diamond in the mines of Golconda—on +the accident which gave it into the hands of an ambitions Persian +adventurer—on the thought which suggested the advantage of +presenting it to Shāh Jahān—on the feeling which +made Dārā get off, and Aurangzēb sit on his elephant +at the battle of Samūgarh, on which depended the fate of +India, and perhaps the advancement of the Christian religion and +European literature and science over India.[17] But for the +accident which gave Charles Martel the victory over the Saracens at +Tours,[18] Arabic and Persian had perhaps been the classical +languages, and Islamism the religion of Europe; and where we have +cathedrals and colleges we might have had mosques and mausoleums; +and America and the Cape, the compass and the press, the +steam-engine, the telescope, and the Copernican System, might have +remained still undiscovered; and but for the accident which turned +Hannibal's face from Rome after the battle of Cannae, or that which +intercepted his brother Asdrubal's letter, we might now all be +speaking the languages of Tyre and Sidon, and roasting our own +children in offerings to Siva or Saturn, instead of saving those of +the Hindoos. Poor Dārā! but for thy little jealousy of +thy father and thy son, thy desire to do all thy work without their +aid, and those occasional ebullitions of passion which alienated +from thee the most powerful of all the Hindoo princes, whom it was +so much thy wish and thy interest to cherish, thy generous heart +and enlightened mind had reigned over this vast empire, and made +it, perchance, the garden it deserves to be made.</p> + +<p>I visited the celebrated mosque known by the name of Jāmi +(Jumma) Masjid, a fine building raised by Shāh Jahān, and +finished in six years, A.H. 1060, at a cost of ten lākhs of +rupees or one hundred thousand pounds. Money compared to man's +labour and subsistence is still four times more valuable in India +than in England; and a similar building in England would cost at +least four hundred thousand pounds. It is, like all the buildings +raised by this Emperor, in the best taste and style.[19] I was +attended by three well-dressed and modest Hindoos, and a Muhammadan +servant of the Emperor. My attention was so much taken up with the +edifice that I did not perceive, till I was about to return, that +the doorkeepers had stopped my three Hindoos. I found that they had +offered to leave their shoes behind, and submit to anything to be +permitted to follow me; but the porters had, they said, strict +orders to admit no worshippers of idols; for their master was a man +of the book, and had, therefore, got a little of the truth in him, +though unhappily not much, since his heart had not been opened to +that of the Korān. Nathū could have told him that he also +had a book, which he and some fourscore millions more thought as +good as his or better; but he was afraid to descant upon the merits +of his 'shāstras', and the miracles of Kishan Jī +[Krishna], among such fierce, cut-throat-looking people; he looked, +however, as if he could have eaten the porter, Korān and all, +when I came to their rescue. The only volumes which Muhammadans +designate by the name of the book are the Old and New Testaments, +and the Korān.</p> + +<p>I visited also the palace, which was built by the same Emperor. +It stands on the right bank of the Jumna, and occupies a quadrangle +surrounded by a high wall built of red sandstone, about one mile in +circumference; one side looks down into the clear stream of the +Jumna, while the others are surrounded by the streets of the +city.[20] The entrance is by a noble gateway to the west;[21] and +facing this gateway on the inside, a hundred and twenty yards +distant, is the Dīwān-ī-Amm, or the common hall of +audience. This is a large hall, the roof of which is supported upon +four colonnades of pillars of red sandstone, now white-washed, but +once covered with stucco work and gilded. On one of these pillars +is shown the mark of the dagger of a Hindoo prince of Chitōr, +who, in the presence of the Emperor, stabbed to the heart one of +the Muhammadan ministers who made use of some disrespectful +language towards him. On being asked how he presumed to do this in +the presence of his sovereign he answered in the very words almost +of Roderic Dhu,</p> + +<p> I right my wrongs where they are +given,<br> + Though it were in the court of +Heaven.[22]</p> + +<p>The throne projects into the hall from the back in front of the +large central arch; it is raised ten feet above the floor, and is +about ten feet wide, and covered by a marble canopy, all +beautifully inlaid with mosaic work exquisitely finished, but now +much dilapidated. The room or recess in which the throne stands is +open to the front, and about fifteen feet wide and six deep. There +is a door at the back by which the Emperor entered from his private +apartments, and one on his left, from which his prime minister or +chief officer of state approached the throne by a flight of steps +leading into the hall. In front of the throne, and raised some +three feet above the floor, is a fine large slab of white marble, +on which one of the secretaries stood during the hours of audience +to hand up to the throne any petitions that were presented, and to +receive and convey commands. As the people approached over the +intervening one hundred and twenty yards between the gateway and +the hall of audience they were made to bow down lower and lower to +the figure of the Emperor, as he sat upon his throne, without +deigning to show by any motion of limb or muscle that he was really +made of flesh and blood, and not cut out of the marble he sat +upon.</p> + +<p>The marble walls on three sides of this recess are inlaid with +precious stones representing some of the most beautiful birds and +flowers of India, according to the boundaries of the country when +Shāh Jahān built this palace, which included Kābul +and Kāshmīr, afterwards severed from it on the invasion +of Nadir Shāh.[23]</p> + +<p>On the upper part of the back wall is represented, in the same +precious stones, and in a graceful attitude, a European in a kind +of Spanish costume, playing upon his guitar, and in the character +of Orpheus charming the birds and beasts which he first taught the +people of India so well to represent in this manner. This I have no +doubt was intended by Austin de Bordeaux for himself. The man from +Shīrāz, Amānat Khān, who designed all the noble +Tughra characters in which the passages from the Korān are +inscribed upon different parts of the Tāj at Agra, was +permitted to place his own name in the same bold characters on the +right-hand side as we enter the tomb of the Emperor and his queen. +It is inscribed after the date, thus, A.H. 1048 [A.D. 1638-9], 'The +humble fakīr Amānat Khān of Shirāz.' Austin was +a still greater favourite than Amānat Khān; and the +Emperor Shāh Jahān, no doubt, readily acceded to his +wishes to have himself represented in what appeared to him and his +courtiers so beautiful a picture.[24]</p> + +<p>The Dīwān-i-Khās, or hall of private audience, is +a much more splendid building than the other from its richer +materials, being all built of white marble beautifully ornamented. +The roof is supported upon colonnades of marble pillars. The throne +stands in the centre of this hall, and is ascended by steps, and +covered by a canopy, with four artificial peacocks on the four +corners.[25] Here, thought I, as I entered this apartment, sat +Aurangzēb when he ordered the assassination of his brothers +Dārā and Murād, and the imprisonment and destruction +by slow poison of his son Muhammad, who had so often fought bravely +by his side in battle. Here also, but a few months before, sat the +great Shāh Jahān to receive the insolent commands of this +same grandson Muhammad when flushed with victory, and to offer him +the throne, merely to disappoint the hopes of the youth's father, +Aurangzēb. Here stood in chains the graceful Sulaimān, to +receive his sentence of death by slow poison with his poor young +brother Sipihr Shikoh, who had shared all his father's toils and +dangers, and witnessed his brutal murder.[26] Here sat Muhammad +Shāh, bandying compliments with his ferocious conqueror, +Nādir Shāh, who had destroyed his armies, plundered his +treasury, stripped his throne, and ordered the murder of a hundred +thousand of the helpless inhabitants of his capital, men, women, +and children, in a general massacre. The bodies of these people lay +in the streets tainting the air, while the two sovereigns sat here +sipping their coffee, and swearing to the most deliberate lies in +the name of their God, Prophet, and Korān;—all are now +dust; that of the oppressor undistinguishable from that of the +oppressed.[27]</p> + +<p>Within this apartment and over the side arches at one end is +inscribed in black letters the celebrated couplet, 'If there be a +paradise on the face of the earth, it is this—it is +this—it is this.[28] Anything more unlike paradise than this +place now is can hardly be conceived. Here are crowded together +twelve hundred <i>kings</i> and <i>queens</i> (for all the +descendants of the Emperors assume the title of Salātīn, +the plural of Sultan) literally eating each other up.[29]</p> + +<p>Government, from motives of benevolence, has here attempted to +apportion out the pension they assign to the Emperor, to the +different members of his great family circle who are to be +subsisted upon it, instead of leaving it to his own discretion. +This has perhaps tended to prevent the family from throwing off its +useless members to mix with the common herd, and to make the +population press against the means of subsistence within these +walls. Kings and queens of the house of Tīmūr are to be +found lying about in scores, like broods of vermin, without food to +eat or clothes to cover their nakedness. It has been proposed by +some to establish colleges for them in the palace to fit them by +education for high offices under our Government. Were this done, +this pensioned family, which never can possibly feel well affected +towards our Government or any Government but their own, would alone +send out men enough to fill all the civil offices open to the +natives of the country, to the exclusion of the members of the +humbler but better affected families of Muhammadans and Hindoos. If +they obtained the offices they would be educated for, the evil to +Government and to society would be very great; and if they did not +get them, the evil would be great to themselves, since they would +be encouraged to entertain hopes that could not be realized. Better +let them shift for themselves and quietly sink among the crowd. +They would only become rallying points for the dissatisfaction and +multiplied sources of disaffection; everywhere doing mischief, and +nowhere doing good. Let loose upon society, they everywhere disgust +people by their insolence and knavery, against which we are every +day required to protect the people by our interference; the +prestige of their name will by degrees diminish, and they will sink +by and by into utter insignificance. During his stay at Jubbulpore, +Kāmbaksh, the nephew of the Emperor, whom I have already +mentioned as the most sensible member of the family,[30] did an +infinite deal of good by cheating almost all the tradesmen of the +town. Till he came down among them with all his ragamuffins from +Delhi, men thought the Padshāhs and their progeny must be +something superhuman, something not to be spoken of, much less +approached, without reverence. During the latter part of his stay +my court was crowded with complaints; and no one has ever since +heard a scion of the house of Tīmūr spoken of but as a +thing to be avoided—a person more prone than others to take +in his neighbours. One of these <i>kings</i>, who has not more than +ten shillings a month to subsist himself and family upon, will, in +writing to the representative of the British Government, address +him as 'Fidwī Khās', 'Your particular slave'; and be +addressed in reply with 'Your majesty's commands have been received +by your slave.'[31]</p> + +<p>I visited the college which is in the mausoleum of +Ghāzī-ud-dīn, a fine building, with its usual +accompaniment of a mosque and a college. The slab that covers the +grave, and the marble screens that surround the ground that +contains it, are amongst the most richly cut things that I have +seen. The learned and pious Muhammadans in the institution told me +in my morning visit that there should always be a small hollow in +the top of marble slabs, like that on Jahānārā's, +whenever any of them were placed over graves, in order to admit +water, earth, and grass; but that, strictly speaking, no slab +should be allowed to cover the grave, as it could not fail to be in +the way of the dead when summoned to get up by the trumpet of +Azraīl on the day of the resurrection.'[32] 'Earthly pride,' +said they, 'has violated this rule; and now everybody that can +afford it gets a marble slab put over his grave. But it is not only +in this that men have been falling off from the letter and spirit +of the law; for we now hear drums beating and trumpets sounding +even among the tombs of the saints, a thing that our forefathers +would not have considered possible. In former days it was only a +prophet like Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad, that was suffered to have a +stone placed over his head.' I asked them how it was that the +people crowded to the tombs of their saints, as I saw them at that +of Kutb Shāh in old Delhi, on the Basant, a Hindoo festival. +'It only shows,' said they 'that the end of the world is +approaching. Are we not divided into seventy-two sects among +ourselves, all falling off into Hinduism, and every day committing +greater and greater follies? These are the manifest signs long ago +pointed out by wise and holy men as indicating the approach of the +<i>last day</i>.'[33]</p> + +<p>A man might make a curious book out of the indications of the +end of the world according to the notions of different people or +different individuals. The Hindoos have had many different worlds +or ages; and the change from the good to the bad, or the golden to +the iron age, is considered to have been indicated by a thousand +curious incidents.[34] I one day asked an old Hindoo priest, a very +worthy man, what made the five heroes of the Mahābhārata, +the demigod brothers of Indian story, leave the plains and bury +themselves no one knew where, in the eternal snows of the +Himālaya mountains. 'Why, sir,' said he, 'there is no question +about that. Yudhisthira, the eldest, who reigned quietly at Delhi +after the long war, one day sat down to dinner with his four +brothers and their single wife, Draupadī; for you know, sir, +they had only one among them all. The king said grace and the +covers were removed, when, to their utter consternation, a +full-grown fly was seen seated upon the dish of rice that stood +before his majesty. Yudhisthira rose in consternation. 'When flies +begin to blow upon men's dinners,' said his majesty, 'you may be +sure, my brothers, that the end of the world is near—the +golden age is gone—the iron one has commenced, and we must +all be off; the plains of India are no longer a fit abode for +gentlemen.' Without taking one morsel of food,' added the priest, +'they set out, and were never after seen or heard of. They were, +however, traced by manifest supernatural signs up through the +valley of the Ganges to the snow tops of the Himālaya, in +which they no doubt left their mortal coils.' They seem to feel a +singular attachment for the birthplace of their great progenitrix, +for no place in the world is, I suppose, more infested by them than +Delhi, at present; and there a dish of rice without a fly would, in +the iron, be as rare a thing as a dish with one in the golden, +age.</p> + +<p>Muhammadans in India sigh for the restoration of the old +Muhammadan regime, not from any particular attachment to the +descendants of Tīmūr, but with precisely the same +feelings that Whigs and Tories sigh for the return to power of +their respective parties in England; it would give them all the +offices in a country where office is everything. Among them, as +among ourselves, every man is disposed to rate his own abilities +highly, and to have a good deal of confidence in his own good luck; +and all think that if the field were once opened to them by such a +change, they should very soon be able to find good places for +themselves and their children in it. Perhaps there are few +communities in the world among whom education is more generally +diffused than among Muhammadans in India. He who holds an office +worth twenty rupees a month commonly gives his sons an education +equal to that of a prime minister. They learn, through the medium +of the Arabic and Persian languages, what young men in our colleges +learn through those of the Greek and Latin—that is, grammar, +rhetoric, and logic. After his seven years of study, the young +Muhammadan binds his turban upon a head almost as well filled with +the things which appertain to these branches of knowledge as the +young man raw from Oxford—he will talk as fluently about +Socrates and Aristotle, Plato, and Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna: +(<i>alias</i> Sokrāt, Aristotalis, Aflātūn, +Bokrāt, Jālīnus, and Bū Alī Sena); and, +what is much to his advantage in India, the languages in which he +has learnt what he knows are those which he most requires through +life.[35] He therefore thinks himself as well fitted to fill the +high offices which are now filled exclusively by Europeans, and +naturally enough wishes the establishments of that power would open +them to him. On the faculties and operations of the human mind, on +man's passions and affections, and his duties in all relations of +life, the works of Imām Muhammad Ghazālī[36] and +Nāsir-ud- dīn Tūsī[37] hardly yield to those of +Plato and Aristotle, or to those of any other authors who have +written on the same subjects in any country. These works, the +<i>Ihya-ul- ulūm</i>, epitomized into the +<i>Kīmiā-i- Saādat</i>, and the <i>Akhlāk-i- +Nāsirī</i>, with the didactic poems of +Sādī,[38] are the great 'Pierian spring' of moral +instruction from which the Muhammadan delights to 'drink deep' from +infancy to old age; and a better spring it would be difficult to +find in the works of any other three men.</p> + +<p>It is not only the desire for office that makes the educated +Muhammadans cherish the recollection of the old regime in +Hīndustan: they say, 'We pray every night for the Emperor and +his family, because our forefathers ate the salt of his +forefathers'; that is, our ancestors were in the service of his +ancestors; and, consequently, were the <i>aristocracy</i> of the +country. Whether they really were so matters not; they persuade +themselves or their children that they were. This is a very common +and a very innocent sort of vanity. We often find Englishmen in +India, and I suppose in all the rest of our foreign settlements, +sporting high Tory opinions and feelings, merely with a view to +have it supposed that their families are, or at some time were, +among the aristocracy of the land. To express a wish for +Conservative predominance is the same thing with them as to express +a wish for the promotion in the Army, Navy, or Church of some of +their near relations; and thus to indicate that they are among the +privileged class whose wishes the Tories would be obliged to +consult were they in power.[39]</p> + +<p>Man is indeed 'fearfully and wonderfully made'; to be fitted +himself for action in the world, or for directing ably the actions +of others, it is indispensably necessary that he should mix freely +from his youth up with his fellow men. I have elsewhere mentioned +that the state of imbecility to which a man of naturally average +powers of intellect may be reduced when brought up with his mother +in the seraglio is inconceivable to those who have not had +opportunities of observing it.[40] The poor old Emperor of Delhi, +to whom so many millions look up, is an instance. A more +venerable-looking man it is difficult to conceive, and had he been +educated and brought up with his fellow men, he would no doubt have +had a mind worthy of his person.[41] As it is, he has never been +anything but a baby. Rājā Jīvan Rām, an +excellent portrait painter, and a very honest and agreeable person, +was lately employed to take the Emperor's portrait. After the first +few sittings, the portrait was taken into the seraglio to the +ladies. The next time he came, the Emperor requested him to remove +the great <i>blotch from under the nose</i>. 'May it please your +majesty, it is impossible to draw any person without <i>a +shadow</i>; and I hope many millions will long continue to repose +under that of your majesty.' 'True, Rājā,' said his +majesty, 'men must have shadows; but there is surely no necessity +for placing them immediately under their noses. The ladies will not +allow mine to be put there; they say it looks as if I had been +taking snuff all my life, and it certainly has a most filthy +appearance; besides, it is all awry, as I told you when you began +upon it.' The Rājā was obliged to remove from under the +imperial, and certainly very noble, nose, the shadow which he had +thought worth all the rest of the picture. Queen Elizabeth is said, +by an edict, to have commanded all artists who should paint her +likeness, 'to place her in a garden with a full light upon her, and +the painter to put <i>any shadow</i> in her face at his peril'. The +next time the Rājā came, the Emperor took the opportunity +of consulting him upon a subject that had given him a good deal of +anxiety for many months, the dismissal of one of his personal +servants who had become negligent and disrespectful. He first took +care that no one should be within hearing, and then whispered in +the artist's ear that he wished to dismiss this man. The +Rājā said carelessly, as he looked from the imperial head +to the canvas, 'Why does your majesty not discharge the man if he +displeases you?'</p> + +<p>'Why do I not discharge him? I wish to do so, of course, and +have wished to do so for many months, but <i>kuchh tadbīr +chāhiye</i>, some plan of operations must be devised.' 'If +your majesty dislikes the man, you have only to order him outside +the gates of the palace, and you are relieved from his presence at +once.' 'True, man, I am relieved from his presence, but his +enchantments may still reach me; it is them that I most +dread—he keeps me in a continual state of alarm; and I would +give anything to get him away in a good humour.'</p> + +<p>When the Rājā return to Meerut, he received a visit +from one of the Emperor's sons or nephews, who wanted to see the +place. His tents were pitched upon the plain not far from the +theatre; he arrived in the evening, and there happened to be a play +that night. Several times during the night he got a message from +the prince to say that the ground near his tents was haunted by all +manner of devils. The Rājā sent to assure him that this +could not possibly be the case. At last a man came about midnight +to say that the prince could stand it no longer, and had given +orders to prepare for his immediate return to Delhi; for the devils +were increasing so rapidly that they must all be inevitably +devoured before daybreak if they remained. The Rājā now +went to the prince's camp, here he found him and his followers in a +state of utter consternation, looking towards the theatre. The last +carriages were leaving the theatre, and going across the plain; and +these silly people had taken them all for devils.[42]</p> + +<p>The present pensioned imperial family f Delhi are commonly +considered to be of the house of Tīmūr lang (the Lame), +because Bābur, the real founder of the dynasty, was descended +from him in the seventh stage.[43] Tīmūr merely made a +predatory inroad into India, to kill a few million of +unbelievers,[44] plunder the country of all the movable valuables +he and his soldiers could collect, and take back into slavery all +the best artificers of all kinds that they could lay their hands +upon. He left no one to represent him in India, he claimed no +sovereignty, and founded no dynasty there. There is no doubt much +in the prestige of a name; and though six generations had passed +away, the people of Northern India still trembled at that of the +lame monster. Bābur wished to impress upon the minds of the +people the notion that he had at his back the same army of demons +that Tīmūr had commanded; and be boasted his descent from +him for the same motive that Alexander boasted his from the horned +and cloven-footed god of the Egyptian desert, as something to +sanctify all enterprises, justify the use of all means, and carry +before him the belief in his invincibility.</p> + +<p>Bābur was an admirable chief—a fit founder of a great +dynasty—a very proper object for the imagination of future +generations to dwell upon, though not quite so good as his +grandson, the great Akbar. Tīmūr was a ferocious monster, +who knew how to organize and command the set of demons who composed +his army, and how best to direct them for the destruction of the +civilized portion of mankind and their works; but who knew nothing +else.[45] In his invasion of India he caused the people of the +towns and villages through which he passed to be all massacred +without regard to religion, age, or sex. If the soldiers in the +town resisted, the people were all murdered because they did so; if +they did not, the people were considered to have forfeited their +lives to the conquerors for being conquered; and told to purchase +them by the surrender of all their property, the value of which was +estimated by commissaries appointed for the purpose. The price was +always more than they could pay; and after torturing a certain +number to death in the attempt to screw the sum out of them, the +troops were let in to murder the rest; so that no city, town, or +village escaped; and the very grain collected for the army, over +and above what they could consume at any stage, was burned, lest it +might relieve some hungry infidel of the country who had escaped +from the general carnage.</p> + +<p>All the soldiers, high and low, were murdered when taken +prisoners, as a matter of course; but the officers and soldiers of +Tīmūr's army, after taking all the valuable movables, +thought they might be able to find a market for the artificers by +whom they were made, and for their families; and they collected +together an immense number of men, women, and children. All who +asked for mercy pretended to be able to make something that these +Tartars had taken a liking to. On coming before Delhi, +Tīmūr's army encamped on the opposite or left bank of the +river Jumna; and here he learned that his soldiers had collected +together above one hundred thousand of these artificers, besides +their women and children. There were no soldiers among them; but +Tīmūr thought it might be troublesome either to keep them +or to turn them away without their women and children; and still +more so to make his soldiers send away these women and children +immediately. He asked whether the prisoners were not for the most +part unbelievers in his prophet Muhammad; and being told that the +majority were Hindoos, he gave orders that every man should be put +to death; and that any officer or soldier who refused to kill or +have killed all such men, should suffer death. 'As soon as this +order was made known,' says Tīmūr's historian and great +eulogist, 'the officers and soldiers began to put it in execution; +and, in less than one hour, one hundred thousand prisoners, +according to the smallest computation, were put to death and their +bodies thrown into the river Jumna. Among the rest, +Mulānā Nasīr-ud- dīn Amr, one of the most +venerable doctors of the court, who would never consent so much as +to kill a single sheep, was constrained to order fifteen slaves, +whom he had in his tents, to be slain. Tīmūr then gave +orders that one-tenth of his soldiers should keep watch over the +Indian women, children, and camels taken in the pillage.'[46]</p> + +<p>The city was soon after taken, and the people commanded, as +usual, to purchase their lives by the surrender of their +property—troops were sent in to take it—numbers were +tortured to death—and then the usual pillage and massacre of +the whole people followed without regard to religion, age, or sex; +and about a hundred thousand more of innocent and unoffending +people were murdered. The troops next massacred the inhabitants of +the old city, which had become crowded with fugitives from the +new;[47] the last remnant took refuge in a mosque, where two of +Tīmūr's most distinguished generals rushed in upon them +at the head of five hundred soldiers; and, as the amiable historian +tells us, 'sent to the abyss of hell the souls of these infidels, +of whose heads they erected towers, and gave their bodies for food +to birds and beasts of prey'. Being at last tired of slaughter, the +soldiers made slaves of the survivors, and drove them out in +chains; and, as they passed, the officers were allowed to select +any they liked except the masons, whom Tīmūr required to +build for him at Samarkand a church similar to that of +Īltutmish in old Delhi.</p> + +<p>He now set out to take Meerut, which was at that time a +fortified town of much note. The people determined to defend +themselves, and happened to say that Tarmah Shirīn, who +invaded India at the head of a similar body of Tartars a century +before,[48] had been unable to take the place. This so incensed +Tīmūr that he brought all his forces to bear on Meerut, +took the place, and having had all the Hindoo men found in it +<i>skinned alive</i>, he distributed their wives and children among +his soldiers as slaves. He now sent out a division of his army to +murder unbelievers, and collect plunder, over the cultivated plains +between the Ganges and Jumna, while he led the main body on the +same <i>pious duty</i> along the hills from Hardwār[49] on the +Ganges to the west. Having massacred a few thousands of the hill +people, Tīmūr read the noon prayer, and returned thanks +to God for the victories he had gained, and the numbers he had +murdered through his goodness; and told his admiring army that a +religions war like this produced two great advantages: it secured +eternal happiness in heaven, and a good store of valuable spoils on +earth—that his design in all the fatigues and labours which +he had undertaken was solely to render himself <i>pleasing to +God</i>, treasure up <i>good works</i> for his eternal happiness, +and get riches to bestow upon his soldiers and the poor. The +historian makes a grave remark upon this invasion: The Korān +declares that the highest glory man can attain in this world is +unquestionably waging a successful war in person against the +enemies of his religion (no matter whether those against whom it is +waged happen ever to have heard of this religion or not). Muhammad +inculcated the same doctrine in his discourses with his friends; +and, in consequence, the great Tīmūr always strove to +exterminate all the unbelievers, with a view to acquire that glory, +and to spread the renown of his conquests. 'My name', said he, 'has +spread terror through the universe, and the least motion I make is +capable of shaking the whole earth.'</p> + +<p>Tīmūr returned to his capital of Samarkand in +Transoxiana in May, 1399. His army, besides other things which they +brought from India, had an immense number of men, women, and +children, whom they had reduced to slavery, and driven along like +flocks of sheep to forage for their subsistence in the countries +through which they passed, or perish. After the murder on the banks +of the Jumna of part of the multitude they had collected before +taking the capital, amounting to one hundred thousand men, +Tīmūr was obliged to assign one-tenth of his army to +guard what were left, the women and children. 'After the murder in +the capital of Delhi,' says the historian, an eye-witness, 'there +were some soldiers who had a hundred and fifty slaves, men, women, +and children, whom they drove out of the city before them; and some +soldiers' boys had twenty slaves to their own share.' On reaching +Samarkand, they employed these slaves as best they could; and +Tīmūr employed his, the masons, in raising his great +church from the quarries of the neighbouring hills.[50]</p> + +<p>In October following, Tīmūr led this army of demons +over the rich and polished countries of Syria, Anatolia, and +Georgia, levelling all the cities, towns, and villages, and +massacring the inhabitants without any regard to age or sex, with +the same <i>amiable view</i> of correcting the notions of people +regarding his creed, propitiating the Deity, and rewarding his +soldiers. He sent to the Christian inhabitants of Smyrna, then one +of the first commercial cities in the world, to request that they +would at once embrace Muhammadanism, in the <i>beauties</i> of +which the general and his soldiers had orders generously and +diligently to instruct them. They refused, and Tīmūr +repaired immediately to the spot, that he might 'share in the merit +of sending their souls to the abyss of hell'. Bajazet, the Turkish +emperor of Anatolia, had recently terminated an unavailing siege of +seven years. Tīmūr took the city in fourteen days, +December, 1402;[51] had every man, woman, and child that he found +in it murdered; and caused some of the heads of the Christians to +be thrown by his balistas or catapultas into the ships that had +come from different European nations to their succour. All other +Christian communities found within the wide range of this dreadful +tempest were swept off in the same manner, nor did Muhammadan +communities fare better. After the taking of Baghdad, every Tartar +soldier was ordered to cut off and bring away the head of one or +more prisoners, because some of the Tartar soldiers had been killed +in the attack; 'and they spared', says the historian, 'neither old +men of fourscore, nor young children of eight years of age; no +quarter was given either to rich or poor, and the number of dead +was so great that they could not be counted; towers were made of +their heads to serve as an example to posterity.' Ninety thousand +were murdered in cold blood, and one hundred and twenty pyramids +were made of the heads for trophies. Damascus, Nice, Aleppo, +Sebastē,[52] and all the other rich and populous cities of +Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and Georgia, then the most civilized +region of the world, shared in the same fate; all were reduced to +ruins, and their people, without regard to religion, age, or sex, +barbarously and brutally murdered.</p> + +<p>In the beginning of 1405, this man recollected that, among the +many millions of unbelieving Christians and Hindoos 'whose souls he +had sent to the abyss of hell', there were many Muhammadans, who +had no doubt whatever in the divine origin or co-eternal existence +of the Korān; and, as their death might, perhaps, not have +been altogether pleasing to his God and his prophet, he determined +to appease them both by undertaking the murder of some two hundred +millions of industrious and unoffending Chinese; among whom there +was little chance of finding one man who had ever even <i>heard of +the Korān</i>—much less believed in its divinity and co- +eternity—or of its interpreter, Muhammad. At the head of +between two and three hundred thousand well-mounted Tartars and +their followers, he departed from his capital of Samarkand on the +8th of January, 1405, and crossed the Jaxartes[53] on the ice. In +the words of his <i>judicious</i> historian, 'he thus +<i>generously</i> undertook the conquest of China, which was +inhabited only by unbelievers that by so good a work he might atone +for what had been done amiss in other wars, in which the blood of +so many of the faithful had been shed'.</p> + +<p>'As all my vast conquests', said Tīmūr himself,[54] +'have caused the destruction of a good many of the faithful, I am +resolved to perform some good action, to atone for the crimes of my +past life; and to make war upon the infidels, and exterminate the +idolaters of China, which cannot be done without very great +strength and power. It is therefore fitting, my dear companions in +arms, that those very soldiers, who were the instruments whereby +those my faults were committed, should be the means by which I work +out my repentance, and that they should march into China, to +acquire for themselves and their Emperor the merit of that holy +war, in demolishing the temples of those unbelievers and erecting +good Muhammadan mosques in their places. By this means we shall +obtain pardon for all our sins, for the holy Korān assures us +that good works efface the sins of this world.' At the close of the +Emperor's speech, the princes of the blood and other officers of +rank besought God to bless his generous undertaking, unanimously +applauding his sentiments, and loading him with praises. 'Let the +Emperor but display his standard, and we will follow him to the end +of the world.' Tīmūr died soon after crossing the +Jaxartes, on the 1st of April, 1406, and China was saved from this +dreadful scourge. But, as the <i>philosophical</i> historian, +Sharaf- ud-dīn,[55] <i>profoundly</i> observes, 'The +Korān remarks that if any one in his pilgrimage to Mecca +should be surprised by death, the merit of the good work is still +written in heaven in his name, as surely as if he had had the good +fortune to accomplish it. It is the same with regard to the "ghaza" +(holy war), where an eternal merit is acquired by troubles, +fatigues, and dangers; and he who dies during the enterprise, at +whatever stage, is deemed to have completed his design.' Thus +Tīmūr the Lame had the merit, beyond all question of +doubt, of sending to the abyss of hell two hundred millions of men, +women, and children, for not believing in a certain book of which +they had never heard or read; for the Tartars had not become +Muhammadans when they conquered China in the beginning of the +thirteenth century. Indeed, the <i>amiable</i> and <i>profound</i> +historian is of opinion, after the most mature deliberation, that +'God himself must have arranged all this in favour of so great and +good a prince; and knowing that his end was nigh, inspired him with +the idea of undertaking this enterprise, that he might have the +merit of having completed it; otherwise, how should he have thought +of leading out his army in the dead of winter to cross countries +covered with ice and snow?'</p> + +<p>The heir to the throne, the Prince Pīr Muhammad, was absent +when Tīmūr died; but his wives, who had accompanied him, +were all anxious to share in the merit of the holy undertaking; and +in a council of the chiefs held after his death, the opinions of +these amiable princesses prevailed that the two hundred millions of +Chinese ought still to be sent to 'the abyss of hell', since it had +been the earnest wish of their deceased husband, and must +undoubtedly have been the will of God, to send them thither without +delay. Fortunately quarrels soon arose among his sons and grandsons +about the succession, and the army recrossed the Jaxartes, still +over the ice, in the beginning of April, and China was saved from +this scourge. Such was Timūr the Lame, the man whose greatness +and goodness are to live in the hearts of the people of India, +nine-tenths of whom are Hindoos, and to fill them with overflowing +love and gratitude towards his descendants.</p> + +<p>In this brief sketch will perhaps be found the true history of +the origin of the gipsies, the tide of whose immigration began to +flow over all parts of Europe immediately after the return of +Tīmūr from India. The hundreds of thousands of slaves +which his army brought from India in men, women, and children, were +cast away when they got as many as they liked from the more +beautiful and polished inhabitants of the cities of Palestine, +Syria, Asia Minor, and Georgia, which were all, one after the +other, treated in the same manner as Delhi had been. The Tartar +soldiers had no time to settle down and employ them as they +intended for their convenience; they were marched off to ravage +Western Asia in October, 1399, about three months after their +return from India. Tīmūr reached Samarkand in the middle +of May, but he had gone on in advance of his army, which did not +arrive for some time after. Being cast off, the slaves from India +spread over those countries which were most likely to afford them +the means of subsistence as beggars; for they knew nothing of the +manners, the arts, or the language of those among whom they were +thrown; and as Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Anatolia, Georgia, +Circassia, and Russia, had been, or were being, desolated by the +army of this Tartar chief, they passed into Egypt and Bulgaria, +whence they spread over all other countries. Scattered over the +face of these countries, they found small parties of vagrants who +were from the same regions as themselves, who spoke the same +language, and who had in all probability been drawn away by the +same means of armies returning from the invasion of India. +Chingīz Khān invaded India two centuries before; his +descendant, Tarmah Shirīn, invaded India in 1303, and must +have taken back with him multitudes of captives. The unhappy +prisoners of Tīmūr the Lame gathered round these nuclei +as the only people who could understand or sympathize with them. +From his sixth expedition into India Mahmūd is said to have +carried back with him to Ghaznī two hundred thousand Hindoo +captives in a state of slavery, A.D. 1011. From his seventh +expedition in 1017, his army of one hundred and forty thousand +fighting men returned 'laden with Hindoo captives, who became so +cheap, that a Hindoo slave was valued at less than two rupees'. +Mahmūd made several expeditions to the west immediately after +his return from India, in the same manner as Tīmūr did +after him, and he may in the same manner have scattered his Indian +captives. They adopted the habits of their new friends, which are +indeed those of all the vagrant tribes of India, and they have +continued to preserve them to the present day. I have compared +their vocabularies with those of India, and find so many of the +words the same that I think a native of India would, even in the +present day, be able without much difficulty to make himself +understood by a gang of gipsies in any part of Europe.[56]</p> + +<p>A good Christian may not be able exactly to understand the +nature of the merit which Tamerlane expected to acquire from +sending so many unoffending Chinese to the abyss of hell. According +to the Muhammadan creed, God has vowed 'to fill hell chock full of +men and genii'. Hence his reasons for hardening their hearts +against that faith in the Korān which might send them to +heaven, and which would, they think, necessarily follow an +impartial examination of the evidence of its divinity and +certainty. Tīmūr thought, no doubt, that it would be very +meritorious on his part to assist God in this his labour of filling +the great abyss by throwing into it all the existing population of +China: while he spread over their land in pastoral tribes the +goodly seed of Muhammadanism, which would give him a rich supply of +recruits for paradise.</p> + +<p>The following dialogue took place one day between me and the +'muftī', or head Muhammadan law officer, of one of our +regulation courts.[57]</p> + +<p>'Does it not seem to you strange, Muftī Sāhib, that +your prophet, who, according to your notions, must have been so +well acquainted with the universe and the laws that govern it, +should not have revealed to his followers some great truths +hitherto unknown regarding these laws, which might have commanded +their belief, and that of all future generations, in his divine +mission?'</p> + +<p>'Not at all,' said the Muftī; 'they would probably not have +understood him; and if they had, those who did not believe in what +he did actually reveal to them, would not have believed in him had +he revealed all the laws that govern the universe.'</p> + +<p>'And why should they not have believed in him?'</p> + +<p>'Because what he revealed was sufficient to convince all men +whose hearts had not been hardened in unbelief. God said, "As for +the unbelievers, it is the same with them whether you admonish them +or do not admonish them; they will not believe. God hath sealed up +their hearts, their ears, and their eyes; and a grievous punishment +awaits them."'[58]</p> + +<p>'And why were the hearts of any men thus hardened to unbelief, +when by unbelief they were to incur such dreadful penalties?'</p> + +<p>'Because they were otherwise wicked men.'</p> + +<p>'But you think, of course, that there was really much of good in +the revelations of your prophet?'</p> + +<p>'Of course we do.'</p> + +<p>'And that those who believed in it were likely to become better +men for their faith?'</p> + +<p>'Assuredly.'</p> + +<p>'Then why harden the hearts of even bad men against a faith that +might make them good?'</p> + +<p>'Has not God said, "If we had pleased, we had certainly given +unto every soul its direction; but the word which hath proceeded +from me must necessarily be fulfilled when I said, <i>Verily, I +will fill hell with men and genii altogether</i>".[59] And again, +"Had it pleased the Lord, he would have made all men of one +religion; but they shall not cease to differ among them, unless +those on whom the Lord shall have mercy; and unto this hath he +created them; for the word of thy Lord shall be fulfilled when he +said, <i>Verily, I will fill hell altogether with genii and +men</i>".'[60]</p> + +<p>'You all believe that the devil, like all the angels, was made +of fire?'</p> + +<p>'Yes.'</p> + +<p>'And that he was doomed to hell because he would not fall down +and worship Adam, who was made of clay?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, God commanded him to bow down to Adam; and when he did not +do as he was bid, God said, "Why, Iblīs, what hindered thee +from bowing down to Adam as the other angels did?" He replied, "It +is not fit that I should worship man, whom thou hast formed of +dried clay, or black mud". God said, "Get thee, therefore, hence, +for thou shalt be pelted with stones; and a curse shall be upon +thee till the day of judgement". The devil said, "O Lord, give me +respite unto the day of resurrection". God said, "Verily, thou +shalt be respited until the appointed time ".'[61]</p> + +<p>'And does it not appear to you, Mufti Sāhib, that in +respiting the devil Iblīs till the day of resurrection, some +injustice was done to the children of Adam?'</p> + +<p>'How?'</p> + +<p>'Because he replies, "O Lord, because thou hast seduced me, I +will surely tempt men to disobedience in the earth".'</p> + +<p>'No, sir, because he could only tempt those who were +<i>predestined</i> to go astray, for he adds, "I will seduce all, +except such of them as shall be <i>thy chosen servants</i>". God +said, "This is the right way with me. Verily, as to my servants, +thou shalt have no power over them; but over those only who shall +be seduced, and who shall follow thee; and hell is surely denounced +to them all ".'[62]</p> + +<p>'Then you think, Mufti Sāhib, that the devil could seduce +only such as were predestined to go astray, and who would have gone +astray whether he, the devil, had been respited or not?'</p> + +<p>'Certainly I do.'</p> + +<p>'Does it not then appear to you that it is as unjust to +predestine men to do that for which they are to be sent to hell, as +it would be to leave them all unguided to the temptations of the +devil?'</p> + +<p>'These are difficult questions,' replied the Muftī, 'which +we cannot venture to ask even ourselves. All that we can do is to +endeavour to understand what is written in the holy book, and act +according to it. God made us all, and he has the right to do what +he pleases with what he has made; the potter makes two vessels, he +dashes the one on the ground, but the other he sells to stand in +the palaces of princes.'</p> + +<p>'But a pot has no soul, Muftī Sāhib, to be roasted to +all eternity in hell!'</p> + +<p>'True, sir; these are questions beyond the reach of human +understanding.'</p> + +<p>'How often do you read over the Korān?'</p> + +<p>'I read the whole over about three times a month,' replied the +Muftī.[63]</p> + +<p>I mentioned this conversation one day to the Nawāb +Alī-ud-dīn,[64] a most estimable old gentleman of seventy +years of age, who resides at Murādābād, and asked +him whether he did not think it a singular omission on the part of +Muhammad, after his journey to heaven, not to tell mankind some of +the truths that have since been discovered regarding the nature of +the bodies that fill these heavens, and the laws that govern their +motions. Mankind could not, either from the Korān, or from the +traditions, perceive that he was at all aware of the errors of the +System of astronomy that prevailed in his day, and among his +people.'</p> + +<p>'Not at all', replied the Nawāb; 'the prophets had, no +doubt, abundant opportunities of becoming acquainted with the +heavenly bodies, and the laws which govern them, particularly those +who, like Muhammad, had been up through the seven heavens; but +their thoughts were so entirely taken up with the Deity that they +probably never noticed the objects by which he was surrounded; and +if they had noticed them, they would not, perhaps, have thought it +necessary to say anything about them. Their object was to direct +men's thoughts towards God and his commandments, and to instruct +them in their duties towards him and towards each other.</p> + +<p>'Suppose', continued the Nawāb, 'you were to be invited to +see and converse with even your earthly sovereign, would not your +thoughts be too much taken up with him to admit of your giving, on +your return, an account of the things you saw about him? I have +been several times to see you, and I declare that I have been so +much taken up with the conversations which have passed, that I have +never noticed the many articles I now see around me, nor could I +have told any one on my return home what I had seen in your +room—the wall- shades, the pictures, the sofas, the tables, +the book-cases,' continued he, casting his eyes round the room,' +all escaped my notice, and might have escaped it had my eyes been +younger and stronger than they are. What then must have been the +state of mind of those great prophets, who were admitted to see and +converse with the great Creator of the universe, and were sent by +him to instruct mankind?</p> + +<p>'I told my old friend that I thought his answer the best that +could be given; but still, that we could not help thinking that if +Muhammad had really been acquainted with the nature of the heavenly +bodies, and the laws which govern them, he would have taken +advantage of his knowledge to secure more firmly their faith in his +mission, and have explained to them the real state of the case, +instead of talking about the stars as merely made to be thrown at +devils, to give light to men upon this little globe of ours, and to +guide them in their wanderings upon it by sea and land.</p> + +<p>'But what', said the Nawāb, 'are the great truths that you +would have had our holy prophet to teach mankind?'</p> + +<p>'Why, Nawāb Sahib, I would have had him tell us, amongst +other things, of that law which makes this our globe and the other +planets revolve round the sun, and their moons around them. I would +have had him teach us something of the nature of the things we call +comets, or stars with large tails, and of that of the fixed stars, +which we suppose to be suns, like our sun, with planets revolving +round them like ours, since it is clear that they do not borrow +their light from our sun, nor from anything that we can discover in +the heavens. I would also have had him tell us the nature of that +white belt which crosses the sky, which you call the ovarious belt, +"Khatt- i-abyāz", and we the milky-way, and which we consider +to be a collection of self-lighted stars, while many orthodox but +unlettered Musalmāns think it the marks made in the sky by +"Borak", the rough-shod donkey, on which your prophet rode from +Jerusalem to heaven. And you think, Nawāb Sāhib, that +there was quite evidence enough to satisfy any person whose heart +had not been hardened to unbelief? and that no description of the +heavenly bodies, or of the laws which govern their motion, could +have had any influence on the minds of such people? '[65]</p> + +<p>'Assuredly I do, sir! Has not God said, "If we should open a +gate in the heavens above them, and they should ascend thereto all +the day long, they would surely say, our eyes are only dazzled, or +rather we are a people deluded by enchantments."[66] Do you think, +sir, that anything which his majesty Moses could have said about +the planets, and the comets, and the milky way, would have tended +so much to persuade the children of Israel of his divine mission as +did the single stroke of his rod, which brought a river of +delicious water gushing from a dry rock when they were all dying +from thirst? When our holy prophet', continued the Nawāb +(placing the points of the four fingers of his right hand on the +table), 'placed his blessed hand thus on the ground, and caused +four streams to gush out from the dug plain, and supply with fresh +water the whole army which was perishing from thirst; and when out +of only <i>five small dates</i> he afterwards feasted this immense +army till they could eat no more, he surely did more to convince +his followers of his divine mission than he could have done by any +discourse about the planets, and the milky way +(Khatt-i-abyāz).'</p> + +<p>'No doubt, Nawāb Sāhib, these were very powerful +arguments for those who saw them, or believed them to have been +seen; and those who doubt the divinity of your prophets mission are +those who doubt their ever having been seen.'</p> + +<p>'The whole army saw and attested them, sir, and that is evidence +enough for us; and those who saw them, and were not satisfied, must +have had their hearts hardened to unbelief.'</p> + +<p>'And you think, Nawāb Sāhib, that a man is not master +of his own belief or disbelief in religions matters; though he is +rewarded by an eternity of bliss in paradise for the one, and +punished by an eternity of scorching in hell for the other?</p> + +<p>'I do, sir, faith is a matter of feeling; and over our feelings +we have no control. All that we can do is to prevent their +influencing our actions, when these actions would be mischievous. I +have a desire to stretch out this arm, and crush that fly on the +table, I can control the act, and do so; but the desire is not +under my control.'</p> + +<p>'True, Nawāb Sāhib; and in this life we punish men not +for their feelings, which are beyond their control, but for their +acts, over which they have no control; and we are apt to think that +the Deity will do the same.'</p> + +<p>'There are, sir,' continued the Nawāb, 'three kinds of +certainty—the moral certainty, the mathematical, and the +religious certainty, which we hold to be the greatest of +all—the one in which the mind feels entire repose. This +repose I feel in everything that is written in the Korān, in +the Bible, and, with the few known exceptions, in the New +Testament.[67] We do not believe that Christ was the son of God, +though we believe him to have been a great prophet sent down to +enlighten mankind; nor do we believe that he was crucified. We +believe that the wicked Jews got hold of a thief, and crucified him +in the belief that he was the Christ; but the real Christ was, we +think, taken up into heaven, and not suffered to be crucified.'</p> + +<p>'But, Nawāb Sāhib, the Sikhs have their book, in which +they have the same faith.'</p> + +<p>'True, sir, but the Sikhs are unlettered, ignorant brutes; and +you do not, I hope, call their "Granth" a book—a thing +written only the other day, and full of nonsense. No "book" has +appeared since the Korān came down from heaven; nor will any +other come till the day of judgement. And how', said the +Nawāb, 'have people in modern days made all the discoveries +you speak of in astronomy?'</p> + +<p>'Chiefly, Nawāb Sāhib, by means of the telescope, +which is an instrument of modern invention.'</p> + +<p>'And do you suppose, sir, that I would put the evidence of your +"dūrbīns" (telescopes) in opposition to that of the holy +prophet? No, sir, depend upon it that there is much fallacy in a +telescope—it is not to be relied upon. I have conversed with +many excellent European gentlemen, and their great fault appears to +me to be in the implicit faith they put in these +<i>telescopes</i>—they hold their evidence above that of the +prophets, Moses, Abraham, and Elijah. It is dreadful to think how +much mischief these telescopes may do. No, sir, let us hold fast by +the prophets; what they tell us is the truth, and the only truth +that we can entirely rely upon in this life. I would not hold the +evidence of all the telescopes in the world as anything against one +word uttered by the humblest of the prophets named in the Old or +New Testament, or the holy Korān. The prophets, sir, keep to +the prophets, and throw aside your telescopes—there is no +truth in them; some of them turn people upside down, and make them +walk upon their heads; and yet you put their evidence against that +of the prophets.'[68]</p> + +<p>Nothing that I could say would, after this, convince the +Nawāb that there was any virtue in telescopes; his religions +feeling had been greatly excited against them; and had Galileo, +Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Newton, Laplace, and the Herschels, all been +present to defend them, they would not have altered his opinion of +their demerits. The old man has, I believe, a shrewd suspicion that +they are inventions of the devil to lead men from the right way; +and were he told all that these great men have discovered through +their means, he would be very much disposed to believe that they +were incarnations of his satanic majesty playing over again with +'dūrbīns' (telescopes) the same game which the serpent +played with the apple in the garden of Eden.</p> + +<p> Solicit not thy thoughts with matters +hid;<br> + Leave them to God above: him serve and +fear;<br> + Of other creatures, as him pleases +best,<br> + Wherever placed, let him dispose: joy +thou<br> + In what he gives to thee, this Paradise<br> + And thy fair Eve: heaven is for thee too +high<br> + To know what passes there: be lowly +wise:<br> + Think only what concerns thee, and thy +being:<br> + Dream not of other worlds, what creatures +there<br> + Live, in what state, condition, or +degree:<br> + Contented that thus far hath been +revealed,<br> + Not of earth only, but of highest +heaven.'[69]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Chapter 75 <i>post</i> is devoted to the history of the +Bēgam Samrū (Sumroo). The 'great street' is the +celebrated Chāndnī Chauk, a very wide thoroughfare. The +branch of the canal which runs down the middle of it is now covered +over. The Bēgam's house is now occupied by the Delhi Bank +(Fanshawe, p, 49).</p> + +<p>2. <i>Ante</i>, chapter 54, note 14.</p> + +<p>3. The Emperors were not in the least ashamed of this practice, +and robbed the families of rich merchants as well as those of +officials. In fact they levied in a rough way the high 'death +duties' so much admired by Radicals with small expectations. Some +remarkable cases are related in detail by Bernier (Bernier, +<i>Travels</i>, ed. Constable, and V. A. Smith (1914), pp. 163-7). +When Aurangzēb heard of the death of the Governor of +Kābul, he gave orders to seize the belongings of the deceased, +so that 'not even a piece of straw be left' (Bilimoria, <i>Letters +of Aurungzebe</i>, No. xcix).</p> + +<p>4. The meaning of this sentence is obscure.</p> + +<p>5. Corresponding to A.D. 1753-4. In the original edition the +date is misprinted A.D. 1167.</p> + +<p>6. The tomb of Mansūr Alī Khān is better known as +that of Safdar Jang, which was the honorary title of the noble over +whom the edifice was raised. He was the wazīr, or chief +minister, of the Emperor Ahmad Shāh from 1748 to 1752, and was +practically King of Oudh, where he had succeeded to the power of +his father-in-law, the well-known Saādat Khān: Safdar +Jang died in A.D. 1754 and was succeeded in Oudh by his son +Shujā-ud-daula.</p> + +<p>The author's praise of the beauty of Safdar Jang's tomb will +seem extravagant to most critics. In the editor's judgement the +building is a very poor attempt to imitate the inimitable Tāj. +Fergusson (ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 324, pl. xxxiv) gives it the +qualified praise that 'it looks grand and imposing at a distance, +but it will not bear close inspection'. See Fanshawe, p. 246 and +plate. In the original edition a coloured plate of this mausoleum +is given.</p> + +<p>7. Nizām-ud-dīn was the disciple of Farīd-ud- +dīn Ganj Shakar, so called from his look being sufficient to +convert <i>cods of earth into lumps of sugar</i>. Farīd was +the disciple of Kutb-ud-dīn of Old Delhi, who was the disciple +of Mūin-ud-dīn of Ajmēr, the greatest of all their +saints. [W. H. S.] Mūin-ud-dīn died A.D. 1236. For +further particulars of the three saints see Beale, <i>Oriental +Biographical Dictionary</i>, ed. Keene, 1894. Dr. Horn (<i>Ep. +Ind.</i> ii, 145 n., 426 n.) gives information about the Persian +biographies of Nizām-ud-dīn and other Chishtī +saints.</p> + +<p>8. For the personal history of Nizām-ud-dīn see the +last preceding chapter, [13]. His tomb is situated in a kind of +cemetery, which also contains the tombs of the poet Khusrū, +the Princess Jahānārā, and the Emperor Muhammad +Shāh, which will be noticed presently. Fanshawe (p. 236) gives +a plan of the enclosure. Nizām-ud-dīn's tomb 'has a very +graceful appearance, and is surrounded by a verandah of white +marble, while a cut screen encloses the sarcophagus, which is +always covered with a cloth. Round the gravestone runs a carved +wooden guard, and from the four corners rise stone pillars draped +with cloth, which support an angular wooden frame-work, and which +has something the appearance of a canopy to a bed. Below this +wooden canopy there is stretched a cloth of green and red, much the +worse for wear. The interior of the tomb is covered with painted +figures in Arabic, and at the head of the grave is a stand with a +Korān. The marble screen is very richly cut, and the roof of +the arcade-like verandah is finely painted in a flower pattern. +Altogether there is a quaint look about the building which cannot +fail to strike any one. A good deal of money has at various times +been spent on this tomb; the dome was added to the roof in Akbar's +time by Muhammad Imām-ud- dīn Hasan, and in the reign of +Shāh Jahān (A.D. 1628 [<i>sic., leg.</i> 1627]-58) the +whole building was put into thorough repair. . . . The tomb is in +the village of Ghyāspur, and is reached after passing through +the 'Chaunsath Khambhā'. (Harcourt, <i>The New Guide to +Delhi</i> (1866), p. 107.)</p> + +<p>In the original edition a small coloured illustration of this +tomb, from a miniature, is given on Plate 24. Carr Stephen (pp. +102- 7) gives a good and full account of Nizām-ud-dīn and +his tomb.</p> + +<p>9. According to Harcourt (p. 108), the tomb of Khusrū was +erected about A.D. 1350, but this is a misprint for 1530. The poet, +whose proper name was Abūl Hasan, is often called Amīr +Khusrū, and was of Turkish origin. He was born A.D. 1253, and +died in September, 1325. His works are numerous. (Beale.) The +grave, and wooden railing round it, were built in A.H. 937 (A.D. +1530-1). . . . The present tomb was built in A.H. 1014 (A.D. +1605-6) by Imād-ud-dīn Hasan, in the reign of +Jahāngīr, and this date occurs in an inscription under +the dome and over the red sandstone screens. (Carr Stephen, p. +115.) In the original edition a small coloured illustration of this +tomb, from a miniature, is given on Plate 24. See Fanshawe, p. +241.</p> + +<p>10. Akbar II, who died in 1837.</p> + +<p>11. When the author was with his regiment, after the close of +the Nepalese war.</p> + +<p>12. Harcourt (p. 109) truly observes that this tomb 'is a most +exquisite piece of workmanship. The tomb itself, raised some few +feet from the ground, is entered by steps, and is enclosed in a +beautiful cut marble screen, the sarcophagus being covered with a +very artistic representation of leaves and flowers carved in +marble. Mirzā Jahāngīr was the son of Akbar II, and +the tomb was built in A.D. 1832 '.</p> + +<p>'He was, in consequence of having fired a pistol at Mr. Seton, +the Resident at Delhi, sent as a State prisoner to Allahabad, where +he resided in the garden of Sultān Khusro for several years, +and died there in A.D. 1821 (A.H. 1236), aged thirty-one years; a +salute of thirty-one guns was fired from the ramparts of the fort +of Allahabad at the time of his burial. He was at first interred in +the same garden, and subsequently his remains were transferred to +Delhi, and buried in the courtyard of the mausoleum of +Nizām-ud- dīn Auliā.' (Beale, <i>Dictionary</i>.) +The young man's 'overt act of rebellion' occurred in 1808, and his +body was removed to Delhi in 1832. The form of the monument is that +ordinarily used for a woman, 'but it was put over the remains of +the Prince on a dispensation being granted for the purpose by +Muhammadan lawyers'. (Carr Stephen, p. 111.)</p> + +<p>13. Muhammad Shāh reigned feebly from September, 1719, to +April, 1748. 'He is the last of the Mughals who enjoyed even the +semblance of power, and has been called "the seal of the house of +Bābar", for "after his demise everything went to wreck".' +(Lane-Poole, p. xxxviii.) Nadir Shāh occupied Delhi in 1738, +and is said to have massacred 120,000 people. The tomb is described +by Carr Stephen, p. 110.</p> + +<p>14. Jahānārā Bēgam, or the Bēgam +Sāhib, was the elder daughter of Shāhjahān, a very +able intriguer, the partisan of Dārā Shikoh and the +opponent of Aurangzēb during the struggle for the throne. She +was closely confined in Agra till her father's death in 1666. After +that event she was removed to Delhi, where she died in 1682. +(Tavernier, <i>Travels</i>, transl. Ball, vol. i, p. 345.) She +built the Bēgam Sarāi at Delhi. Her amours, real or +supposed, furnished Bernier with some scandalous and sensational +stories. (Bernier, <i>Travels</i>, transl. Constable, and V. A. +Smith (1914), pp. 11-14.) Some writers credit her with all the +virtues, e.g., Beale in his <i>Oriental Biographical +Dictionary</i>. The author has omitted the last line of the +inscription-'May God illuminate his intentions. In the year 1093 ', +corresponding to A.D. 1682. The first line is, 'Let nothing but the +green [grass] conceal my grave.' (Carr Stephen, p. 109.)</p> + +<p>15. The tomb of Humāyūn was erected by the Emperor's +widow, Hājī Bēgam, or Bēgā Bēgam, not +by Akbar. She was the senior widow of Humāyūn, entitled +Hājī or 'pilgrim ', because she performed the pilgrimage +to Mecca. Carr Stephen and other writers confound her with +Hamīda Bānū Bēgam, the mother of Akbar. For her +true history see Beveridge, <i>The History of Humāyūn by +Gulbadan Begam</i> (R.A.S., 1902). Carr Stephen (p. 203) says that +the mausoleum was completed in A.D. 1565, or, according to some, in +A.D. 1569, at a coat of fifteen lākhs of rupees. The true date +is A.D. 1570, late in A.H. 977 (Badūouī, tr. Lowe, ii. +135). It is of special interest as being one of the earliest +specimens of the architecture of the Moghal dynasty, The massive +dome of white marble is a landmark for many miles round. The body +of the building is of red sandstone with marble decorations. It +stands on two noble terraces. Humāyūn rests in the +central hall under an elaborately carved marble sarcophagus. The +head of Dārā Shikoh and the bodies of many members of the +royal family are interred in the side rooms. After the fall of +Delhi in September, 1857, the rebel princes took refuge in this +mausoleum. The story of their execution by Hodson on the road to +Delhi is well known, and has been the occasion of much +controversy.</p> + +<p>In the original edition a small coloured illustration of this +tomb, from a miniature, is given on Plate 24. See Fergusson, ed. +1910, pl. xxxiii; <i>H.F.A.</i>, fig. 240; Fanshawe, p. 230 and +plate.</p> + +<p>16. The tragic history of Dārā Shikoh, the elder +brother, and unsuccessful rival, of Aurangzēb, is fully given +by Bernier. The notes in Constable's edition of that traveller's +work and those to Irvine's <i>Storia do Mogor</i> (John Murray, +1907, 1908) give many additional particulars. Dārā Shikoh +was executed by Aurangzēb in 1659, and it is alleged that with +a horrid refinement of cruelty, the emperor, acting on the advice +of his sister, Roshanārā Bēgam, caused the head to +be embalmed and sent packed in a box as a present to the old ex- +emperor, Shāh Jahān, the father of the three, in his +prison at Agra. The prince died invoking the aid of Jesus, and was +favourably disposed towards Christianity. He was also attracted by +the doctrines of Sūfism, or heretical Muhammadan mysticism, +and by those of the Hindoo Upanishads. In fact, his religions +attitude seems to have much resembled that of his great-grandfather +Akbar. The 'Broad Church' principles and practice of Akbar failed +to leave any permanent mark on Muhammadan institutions or the +education of the people, and if Dārā Shikoh had been +victorious in the contest for the throne, it is not probable that +he would have been able to effect lasting reforms which were beyond +the power of his illustrious ancestor. The name of the unfortunate +prince was Dārā Shikoh ('in splendour like Darius'), not +merely Dārā (Darius), as Bernier has it.</p> + +<p>17. The 'great diamond' alluded to is the Kohinūr, +presented by the 'Persian adventurer', Amīr Jumla, to +Shāh Jahān, who was advised to attack and conquer the +country which produced such gems, (<i>Ante</i>, Chapter 48.) The +decisive battle between Dārā Shikoh, on the one aide, and +Aurangzēb, supported by his brother and dupe, Murād +Baksh, on the other, was fought on the 28th May, 1658 [O. S.], at +the small village of Samūgarh (Samogar), four miles from Agra. +Dārā Shikoh was winning the battle, when a traitor +persuaded him to come down from his conspicuous seat on an elephant +and mount a horse. The report quickly spread that the prince had +been killed. 'In a few minutes', says Bernier, 'the army seemed +disbanded, and (strange and sudden reverse!) the conqueror became +the vanquished. Aurangzēb remained during a quarter of an hour +steadily on his elephant, and was rewarded with the crown of +Hindustan; Dārā left his own elephant a few minutes too +soon, and was hurled from the pinnacle of glory, to be numbered +among the most miserable of Princes; so short-sighted is man, and +so mighty are the consequences which sometimes flow from the most +trivial incident.'</p> + +<p>According to another account the prince's change from the +elephant to the horse was due to want of personal courage, and not +to treacherous advice. (Bernier, <i>Travels</i>, ed. Constable, and +V. A. Smith (1914), p. 54.)</p> + +<p>18. Battle fought between Tours and Poitiers, A.D. 732.</p> + +<p>19. The principal mosque of every town is known as the Jāmi +Masjid, and is filled by large congregations on Fridays. The great +mosque of Delhi stands on a natural rocky eminence, completely +covered by the building, and approached on three sides by +magnificent flights of steps, which give it peculiar dignity. It +is, perhaps, the finest mosque in the world, and certainly has few +rivals. It differs from most mosques in that its exterior is more +magnificent than its interior. The two minarets are each about 130 +feet high. The year A.H. 1060 corresponds to A.D. 1650. The mosque +was begun in that year, and finished six years later. It is close +to the palace, and seems to have been designed to serve as the +mosque for the palace, as well as the city, for which reason no +place of worship was included in his residence by Shāh +Jahān. The pretty little Motī Masjid in the private +apartments was added by Aurangzēb. Fergusson (ed. 1910, vol. +ii, p. 319) gives a view of the mosque. Carr Stephen (pp. 260-6) +gives approximate measurements, translations of the inscriptions, +and many details. See Fanshawe, pp. 44-8 and plates.</p> + +<p>20. Since the Mutiny multitudes of houses between the palace and +the mosque have been cleared away.</p> + +<p>21. 'Entering within its deeply recessed portal, you find +yourself beneath the vaulted hall, the sides of which are in two +stories, and with an octagonal break in the centre. This hall, +which is 375 feet in length over all, has very much the effect of +the nave of a gigantic Gothic cathedral, and forms the noblest +entrance known to belong to any existing palace' (Fergusson, ed. +1910, vol. ii, p. 309). This is the Lahore Gate.</p> + +<p>22. What recked the Chieftain if he stood<br> + On Highland heath, or +Holy- rood?<br> + He rights such wrong +where it is given,<br> + If it were in the court +of heaven.'<br> + —(Scott, +<i>Lady of the Lake</i>, Canto V, stanza 6).</p> + +<p>23. The foundation-stone of the palace was laid on the 12th of +May, 1639 (N.S.—9 Muharrum, A.H. 1049). (E. & D., vii, p. +86), and the work continued for nine years, three months, and some +days. Nadir Shāh's invasion took place in 1738. +Kāshmīr was annexed by Akbar in 1587. Kābul had been +more or less closely united with the empire since Bābur's +time.</p> + +<p>24. 'In front, at the entrance, was the Naubat Khāna, or +music hall, beneath which the visitor entered the second or great +court of the palace, measuring 550 feet north and south, by 385 +feet east and west. In the centre of this stood the +Dīwān-i- Amm, or great audience hall of the palace, very +similar in design to that at Agra, but more magnificent. Its +dimensions are about 200 feet by 100 feet over all. In its centre +is a highly ornamental niche, in which on a platform of marble +richly inlaid with previous stones, and directly facing the +entrance, once stood the celebrated peacock throne, the most +gorgeous example of its class that perhaps even the East could ever +boast of. Behind this again was a garden-court; on its eastern side +was the Rang Mahall, or painted hall, containing a bath and other +apartments' (Fergusson, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 310).</p> + +<p>The inlaid pictures were carried off, sold by the spoiler to +Government, set as table-tops, and deposited in the Indian Section +of the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington (<i>Hist. of +Ind. and E. Archit.</i>, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 311, note); but in +November, 1902, the Orpheus mosaic, along with several other inlaid +panels, was returned to Delhi, where the panels were reset in due +course. The representation of Orpheus is 'a bad copy from Raphael's +picture of Orpheus charming the beasts'. Austin de Bordeaux has +been already noticed. Many of the mosaics in the panels which had +not been disturbed were renewed by Signor Menegatti of Florence +during the years 1906-9.</p> + +<p>The peacock throne and the six other thrones in the palace are +fully described by Tavernier. (Transl. and ed. by V. Ball, vol. i, +pp. 381-7.) Further details will be found in Carr Stephen, +<i>Archaeology of Delhi</i>, pp. 220-7.</p> + +<p>25. The throne here referred to was a makeshift arrangement used +by the later emperors. Nādir Shāh in 1738 cleared the +palace of the peacock throne and almost everything portable of +value. The little that was left the Marāthās took. Their +chief prize was the silver filagree ceiling of the +Dīwān-i- Khās. This hall was, 'if not the most +beautiful, certainly the most highly ornamented of all Shāh +Jahān's buildings. It is larger certainly, and far richer in +ornament than that of Agra, though hardly so elegant in design; but +nothing can exceed the beauty of the inlay of precious stones with +which it is adored, or the general poetry of the design, It is +round the roof of this hall that the famous inscription runs: "If +there is a heaven on earth, it is this, it is this ", which may +safely be rendered into the sober English assertion that no palace +now existing in the world possesses an apartment of such singular +elegance as this' (Fergusson, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 311).</p> + +<p>26. All the events alluded to are related in detail by Bernier +and Manucci. Sulaimān and Sipihr Shikoh were the sons of +Dārā Shikoh. The author makes a slip in saying that +Shāh Jahān sat in the palace at Delhi to negotiate with +his grandson. During that negotiation Shāh Jahān was at +Agra.</p> + +<p>27. It is related that the coffee was delivered to the two +sovereigns in this room upon a gold salver by the most polished +gentleman of the court. His motions, as he entered the gorgeous +apartment, amidst the splendid train of the two Emperors, were +watched with great anxiety; if he presented the coffee first to his +own master, the furious conqueror, before whom the sovereign of +India and all his courtiers trembled, might order him to instant +execution; if he presented it to Nādir first, he would insult +his own sovereign out of fear of the stranger. To the astonishment +of all, he walked up with a steady step direct to his own master. +'I cannot', said he, 'aspire to the honour of presenting the cup to +the king of kings, your majesty's honoured guest, nor would your +majesty wish that any hand but your own should do so.' The Emperor +took the cup from the golden salver, and presented it to Nādir +Shāh, who said with a smile as he took it, 'Had all your +officers known and done their duty like this man, you had never, my +good cousin, seen me and my Kizil Bāshis at Delhi; take care +of him for your own sake, and get round you as many like him as you +can.' [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>28. The famous inscription of Saād-Ullah Khān, +supposed to be in the handwriting of Rashīd, the greatest +caligraphist of his time; <i>Agar Firdaus bar rūe zamīn +ast—hamīn ast, to hamīn ast, to hamīn ast</i>' +(Carr Stephen, p. 229; Fanshawe, p. 35 and plate).</p> + +<p>29. All these people were cleared out by the events of 1867, and +the few beautiful fragments of the palace which have retained +anything of their original magnificence are now clean and in good +order. The elaborate decorations of the Dīwān-i- +Khās have been partially restored, and the interior of this +building is still extremely rich and elegant.</p> + +<p>'Of the public parts of the palace all that now remains is the +entrance hall, the Naubat Khāna, Dīwān-i-Amm and +Khās, and the Rang Mahall—now used as a mess-room, and +one or two small pavilions. They are the gems of the palace it is +true, but without the courts and corridors connecting them they +lose all their meaning and more than half their beauty. Being now +situated in the middle of a British barrack-yard, they look like +precious stones torn from their settings in some exquisite piece of +Oriental jeweller's work and set at random in a bed of the +commonest plaster' (Fergusson, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 312). Since +Fergusson wrote an immense amount of work has been done in +restoration and conservation, but it is difficult to obtain a +general view of the result.</p> + +<p> The books about Delhi are even more tantalising and +unsatisfactory than those which deal with Agra. Mr. Beglar's +contribution to Vol. IV of the <i>Archaeological Survey Reports</i> +is a little, but very little, better than Mr. Carlleyle's +disquisition on Agra in that volume. Sir A. Cunningham's +observations in the first and twentieth volumes of the same series +are of greater value, but are fragmentary and imperfect, and +scarcely notice at all the city of Shāhjahān. Fergusson's +criticisms, so far as they go, are of permanent importance, though +the scheme of his work did not allow him to treat in detail of any +particular section. Guide-books by Beresford Cooper, Harcourt, and +Keene, of which Keene's is the latest, and, consequently, in some +respects the best, are all extremely unsatisfactory. Mr. H. C. +Fanshawe's <i>Delhi Past and Present</i> (John Murray, 1902), a +large, handsome work something between a guide-book and a learned +treatise, is not quite satisfying. The late Mr. Carr Stephen, a +resident of Delhi, wrote a valuable book on the Archaeology of the +city, but it has no illustrations, except a few plans on a small +scale. (8vo, Ludhiana, 1876.) A good critical, comprehensive, well +illustrated description of the remains of the cities, said to +number thirteen, all grouped together by European writers under the +name of Delhi, does not exist, and it seems unlikely that the +Panjāb Government will cause the blank to be filled. No +Government in India has such opportunities, or has done so little, +to elucidate the history of the country, as the Government of the +Panjāb. But it has shown greater interest in the matter of +late. The reorganized Archaeological Survey of India, under the +capable guidance of Sir J. H. Marshall, C.I.E., has not yet had +time to do much at Delhi beyond the work of conservation. A +fourteenth Delhi is now being built (1914).</p> + +<p>30. <i>Ante</i>, chapter 53, [19].</p> + +<p>31. These epistolary formulas mean no more than the similar +official phrases in English, 'Your most obedient humble servant', +and the like. The 'fortunate occurrence' of the Mutiny—for +such it was, in spite of all the blood and suffering—cut out +many plague-spots from the body politic of India. Among these the +reeking palace swarm of Delhi was not the least malignant.</p> + +<p>32. Azraīl is the angel of death, whose duty it is to +separate the souls from the bodies of men. Isrāfīl is +entrusted with the task of blowing the last trump.</p> + +<p>33. The resurrection, and the signs foretelling it, are +described in the <i>Mishkat-ul-Masābih</i>, book xxiii, +chapters 3 to 11. (Matthews, vol. ii, pp. 556-620.)</p> + +<p>34. The Hindoo 'ages' are (1) Krita, or Satya, (2) Treta, (3) +Dwāpara, (4) Kali, the present evil age. The long periods +assigned to these are merely the result of the calculations of +astronomers, who preferred integral to fractional numbers.</p> + +<p>35. This kind of education does not now pay, and is, +consequently, going out of fashion. The Muhammadans are slowly, and +rather unwillingly, yielding to the pressure of necessity and +beginning to accept English education.</p> + +<p>36. Imam Muhammad Ghazzālī, who is also entitled +Hujjat-ul-Islām, is the surname of Abu Hāmid Muhammad +Zain-ud-dīn Tūsī, one of the greatest and most +celebrated Musalmān doctors, who was born A.D. 1058, and died +A.D. 1111. (Beale, s.v. 'Ghazzālī'.) The length of these +Muhammadan names is terrible. They are much mangled in the original +edition. See <i>ante</i>, chapter 53, note 10, and Blochmann +(Aīn) pp. 103, 182.</p> + +<p>37. Khwāja Nāsir-ud-dīn Tūsī, the +famous philosopher and astronomer, the most universal scholar that +Persia ever produced. Born A.D. 1201, died A.D. 1274. (Beale.) See +<i>ante</i>, loc. cit.</p> + +<p>38. Especially the <i>Būstān</i> and +<i>Gulistān</i>. Beale gives a list of Sādī's works. +See <i>ante</i>, chapter 12, note 6.</p> + +<p>39. This is a very cynical and inadequate explanation of the +prevalence of Conservative opinions among Englishmen in the +East.</p> + +<p>40. Ante, chapter 30, [6].</p> + +<p>41. In the original edition the portrait of Akbar II is twice +given, namely, in the frontispiece of Volume I as a full-page +plate, and again as a miniature, dated 1836, in the frontispiece of +Volume II.</p> + +<p>42. The most secluded native prince of the present day could not +be guilty of this absurdity.</p> + +<p>43. Bābur was sixth in descent from Tīmūr, not +seventh. Bābur's grandfather, Abu Sayyid, was great- grandson +of Tīmūr. Bābur, not Bābar, is the correct +spelling.</p> + +<p>44. This may be an exaggeration. The undoubted facts are +sufficiently horrible.</p> + +<p>45. Tīmūr was a man of surpassing ability, and knew +much 'else'. See Malcolm, <i>History of Persia</i>, ed. 1859, +chapter 11.</p> + +<p>46. Tīmūr's 'historian and great eulogist' was +Sharaf-ud-dīn (died 1446), whose <i>Zafarnāma</i>, or +'Book of Victories', was translated into French by Petis de la +Croix in 1722. That version was used by Gibbon and rendered into +English in 1723, Copious extracts from an independent rendering are +given in E. & D., iii, pp. 478-522. The details do not always +agree exactly with Sleeman's account.</p> + +<p>47. The 'old city' was that of Kutb-ud-dīn and +Īltutmish; the 'new city' was that of Fīrōz +Shāh, which partly coincided with the existing city, and +partly lay to the south, outside the Delhi gate.</p> + +<p>48. In A.D. 1303.</p> + +<p>49. Now in the Sahāranpur district.</p> + +<p>50. This is a repetition of the statement made above. According +to <i>Encycl. Brit.</i>, ed. 1910, Tīmūr returned to his +capital in April not May.</p> + +<p>51. Bajazet, or more accurately Bayazīd I, was defeated by +Tīmūr at the battle of Angora in 1402, and died the +following year. The story of his confinement in an iron cage is +discredited by modern critics, though Gibbon (chapter 65) shows +that it is supported by much good evidence. Anatolia is a synonym +for Asia Minor. It is a vague term, the Greek equivalent of 'the +Levant'.</p> + +<p>52. Sebastē, also called Elaeusa or Ayash, was in +Cilicia.</p> + +<p>53. Otherwise called Sihōn, or Syr Daryā.</p> + +<p>54. Two autobiographical works, the <i>Malfūzāt</i> +and the Tuzukāt, are attributed to Tīmūr and +probably were composed under his direction. The latter was +translated by Major Davey (Oxford, 1783), and the former, in part, +by Major Stewart (Or. Transl. Fund, 1830). An independent version +of the portion of the <i>Malfūzāt</i> relating to India +will be found in E. & D., iii, pp. 389-477.</p> + +<p>55. Alī Yazdī, commonly called Sharaf-ud- dīn, +author of the <i>Zafarnāma</i> in Persian (see <i>ante</i>, +chapter 68, note 46), Ibn Arabshāh, in an Arabic work, +describes Tīmūr from a hostile point of view. (Encycl. +Brit., 11th ed., s. v. 'Timūr').</p> + +<p>56. It is impossible within the limits of a note to discuss the +problem of the origin of the gipsies. Much has been written about +it, though nothing quite satisfactory. The gipsy, or Romany, +language (<i>Romani chiv</i>, or 'tongue') certainly is closely +related to, though not derived from, the existing languages of +Northern India. Some of the forms are very archaic. A valuable +English-Gipsy vocabulary compiled by Mr. (Sir George) and Mrs. +Grierson was published in <i>Ind. Ant.</i>, vols. xv, xvi +(1886,1887). The author's theory does not tally with the facts. +Gipsies existed in Persia and Europe long before Tīmūr's +time. It is practically certain that they did not come through +Egypt. The article 'Gypsies' by F. H. Groome in Chambers's +<i>Encycl.</i> (1904) is good, and seems to the editor to be +preferable to Dr. Gaster's article 'Gipsies' in <i>Encycl. +Brit.</i>, 11th ed., 1910.</p> + +<p>57. Before the Codes were passed (1859-1861) the criminal law +administered in India was, in the main, that of the Muhammadans, +and each judge's court had a Muhammadan law officer attached, who +pronounced a 'fatwa', or decision, intimating the law applicable to +the case, and the penalty which might be inflicted. Several +examples of these 'fatwas' will be found among the papers bound up +with the author's 'Ramaseeana'.</p> + +<p>58. See Korān, chapter 2. [W. H. S.] The passage is the +second sentence in chapter 2. The wording, as quoted, differs +slightly from Sale's version.</p> + +<p>59. See Korān, chapter 32. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>60. Ibid., chapter 11. [W. H. S.] Sale's version, with trifling +verbal differences. The 'muftī's' reasoning has been heard in +Europe.</p> + +<p>61. See Korān, chapter 15. [W. H. S.] Sale's version, with +modifications.</p> + +<p>62. 'This is a revelation of the most mighty, the merciful God; +that thou mayest warn a people whose fathers were not warned, and +who live in negligence. Our sentence hath justly been pronounced +against the greater part of them, wherefore they shall not believe. +It shall be equal unto them whether thou preach unto them, or do +not preach unto them; they shall not believe.' Korān, chapter +36. [W. H. S.] From beginning of the chapter. Sale's version; a +sentence being omitted between 'believe' and 'It shall'.</p> + +<p>63. I have never met another man so thoroughly master of the +Korān as the Muftī, and yet he had the reputation of +being a very corrupt man in his office. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>64. Aleeoodeen; an unusual name; probably a misprint for +Alā-ud-dīn.</p> + +<p>65. The 17th chapter of the Korān opens with the words, +'Praise be unto him who transported his servant by night from the +sacred temple of Mecca to the farther temple of Jerusalem', 'from +whence', as Sale observes, 'he was carried through the seven +heavens to the presence of God, and brought back again to Mecca the +same night'. The commentators dispute whether the journey to heaven +was corporeally performed, or merely in a vision. 'But the received +opinion is that it was no vision, but that he was actually +transported in the body to his journey's end; and if any +impossibility be objected, they think it a sufficient answer to say +that it might easily be effected by an omnipotent agent.'</p> + +<p>66. See Korān, chapter 15. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>67. The Muhammadans believe that the Christians have tampered +with the Scriptures.</p> + +<p>68. It would be difficult to give more vivid expression to the +eternal conflict between the theological and the scientific spirit. +Compare the remarks <i>ante</i>, chapter 26, note 11, on the +attitude of Hindoos towards modern science.</p> + +<p>69. <i>Paradise Lost</i>, Book VIII. [W. H. S.] Line 167; from +Raphael's address to Adam.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch69">CHAPTER 69</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Indian Police—Its Defects—and their +Cause and Remedy.</p> + +<p>On the 26th[1] we crossed the river Jumna, over a bridge of +boats, kept up by the King of Oudh for the use of the public, +though his majesty is now connected with Delhi only by the tomb of +his ancestor;[2] and his territories are separated from the +imperial city by the two great rivers, Ganges and Jumna.</p> + +<p>We proceeded to Farrukhnagar, about twelve miles over an +execrable road running over a flat but rugged surface of +unproductive soil.[3] India is, perhaps, the only civilized country +in the world where a great city could be approached by such a road +from the largest military Station in the empire,[4] not more than +three stages distant. After breakfast the head native police +officer of the division came to pay his respects. He talked of the +dreadful murders which used to be perpetrated in this neighbourhood +by miscreants, who found shelter in the territories of the +Bēgam Samrū,[5] whither his followers dared not hunt for +them; and mentioned a case of nine persons who had been murdered +just within the boundary of our territories about seven years +before, and thrown into a dry well. He was present at the inquest +held on their bodies, and described their appearance; and I found +that they were the bodies of a news writer from Lahore, who, with +his eight companions, had been murdered by Thugs on his way back to +Rohilkhand. I had long before been made acquainted with the +circumstances of this murder and the perpetrators had all been +secured, but we wanted this link in the chain of evidence. It had +been described to me as having taken place within the boundary of +the Bēgam's territory, and I applied to her for a report on +the inquest. She declared that no bodies had been discovered about +the time mentioned; and I concluded that the ignorance of the +people of the neighbourhood was pretended, as usual in such cases, +with a view to avoid a summons to give evidence in our courts. I +referred forthwith to the magistrate of the district, and found the +report that I wanted, and thereby completed the chain of evidence +upon a very important case. The Thānadār seemed much +surprised to find that I was so well acquainted with the +circumstances of this murder, but still more that the perpetrators +were not the poor old Bēgam's subjects, but our own.</p> + +<p>The police officers employed on our borders find it very +convenient to trace the perpetrators of all murders and gang +robberies into the territories of native chiefs, whose subjects +they accuse often when they know that the crimes have been +committed by our own. They are, on the one hand, afraid to seize or +accuse the real offenders, lest they should avenge themselves by +some personal violence, or by thefts or robberies, which they often +commit with a view to get them tumed out of office as inefficient; +and, on the other, they are tempted to conceal the real offenders +by a liberal share of the spoil, and a promise of not offending +again within their beat. Their tenure of office is far too +insecure, and their salaries are far too small. They are often +dismissed summarily by the magistrate if they send him in no +prisoners; and also if they send in to him prisoners who are not +ultimately convicted, because a magistrate's merits are too often +estimated by the proportion that his convictions bear to his +acquittals among the prisoners committed for trial to the sessions. +Men are often ultimately acquitted for want of judicial proof, when +there is abundance of that moral proof on which a police officer or +magistrate has to act in the discharge of his duties; and in a +country where gangs of professional and hereditary robbers and +murderers extend their depredations into very remote parts, and +seldom commit them in the districts in which they reside, the most +vigilant police officer must often fail to discover the +perpetrators of heavy crimes that take place within his +range.[6]</p> + +<p>When they cannot find them, the native officers either seize +innocent persons, and frighten them into confession, or else they +try to conceal the crime, and in this they are seconded by the +sufferers in the robbery, who will always avoid, if they can, a +prosecution in our courts, and by their neighbours, who dread being +summoned to give evidence as a serious calamity. The man who has +been robbed, instead of being an object of compassion among his +neighbours, often incurs their resentment for subjecting them to +this calamity; and they not only pay largely themselves, but make +him pay largely, to have his losses concealed from the magistrate. +Formerly, when a district was visited by a judge of circuit to hold +his sessions only once or twice a year, and men were constantly +bound over to prosecute and appear as evidence from sessions to +sessions, till they were wearied and worried to death, this evil +was much greater than at present, when every district is provided +with its judge of sessions, who is, or ought to be, always ready to +take up the cases committed for trial by the magistrate.[7] This +was one of the best measures of Lord W. Bentinck's admirable, +though much abused, administration of the government of India.[8] +Still, however, the inconvenience and delay of prosecution in our +courts are so great, and the chance of the ultimate conviction of +great offenders is so small, that strong temptations are held out +to the police to conceal or misrepresent the character of crimes; +and they must have a great feeling of security in their tenure of +office, and more adequate salaries, better chances of rising, and +better supervision over them, before they will resist such +temptation. These Thānadārs, and all the public officers +under them, are all so very inadequately paid that corruption among +them excites no feeling of odium or indignation in the minds of +those among whom they live and serve. Such feelings are rather +directed against the government that places them in such situations +of so much labour and responsibility with salaries so inadequate; +and thereby confers upon them virtually a licence to pay themselves +by preying upon those whom they are employed ostensibly to protect. +They know that with such salaries they can never have the +reputation of being honest, however faithfully they may discharge +their duties; and it is too hard to expect that men will long +submit to the necessity of being thought corrupt, without reaping +some of the advantages of corruption. Let the Thānadārs +have everywhere such salaries as will enable them to maintain their +families in comfort, and keep up that appearance of respectability +which their station in society demands; and over every three or +four Thānadārs' jurisdiction let there be an officer +appointed upon a higher scale of salary, to supervise and control +their proceedings, and armed with powers to decide minor offences. +To these higher stations the Thānadārs will be able to +look forward as their reward for a faithful and zealous discharge +of their duties.[9]</p> + +<p>He who can suppose that men so inadequately paid, who have no +promotion to look forward to, and feel no security in their tenure +of office, and consequently no hope of a provision for old age,[10] +will be zealous and honest in the discharge of their duties, must +be very imperfectly acquainted with human nature, and with the +motives by which men are influenced in all quarters of the world; +but we are none of us so ignorant, for we all know that the same +motives actuate public servants in India as elsewhere. We have +acted successfully upon this knowledge in the scale of salaries and +gradation of rank assigned to European civil functionaries, and to +all native functionaries employed in the judicial and revenue +branches of the public service; and why not act upon it in that of +the salaries assigned to the native officers employed in the +police? The magistrate of a district gets a salary of from two +thousand to two thousand five hundred rupees a month.[11] The +native officer next under him is the Thānadār, or head +native police officer of a subdivision of his district, containing +many towns and villages, with a population of a hundred thousand +souls. This officer gets a salary of twenty-five rupees a month. He +cannot possibly do his duty unless he keeps one or two horses; +indeed, he is told by the magistrate that he cannot; and that he +must have one or two horses, or resign his post. The people, seeing +how much we expect from the Thānadār, and how little we +give him, submit to his demands for contributions without +murmuring, and consider almost any demand trivial from a man so +employed and so paid. They are confounded at our inconsistency, and +say, 'We see you giving high salaries and high prospects of +advancement to men who have nothing to do but collect your rents, +and decide our disputes about pounds, shillings, and pence, which +we used to decide much better ourselves, when we had no other court +but that of our elders—while those who are to protect life +and property, to keep peace over the land, and enable the +industrious to work in security, maintain their families, and pay +the government revenue, are left with hardly any pay at all.'</p> + +<p>There is really nothing in our rule in India which strikes the +people so much as this inconsistency, the evil effects of which are +so great and manifest; the only way to remedy the evil is to give a +greater feeling of security in the tenure of office, a higher rate +of salary, the hope of a provision for old age, and, above all, the +gradation of rank, by interposing the officers I speak of between +the Thānadārs and the magistrate.[12] This has all been +done in the establishments for the collection of the revenue, and +administration of civil justice.</p> + +<p>Hobbes, in his <i>Leviathan</i>, says, 'And seeing that the end +of punishment is not revenge and discharge of choler, but +correction, either of the offender, or of others by his example, +the severest punishments are to be inflicted for those crimes that +are of most danger to the public; such as are those which proceed +from malice to the government established; those that spring from +contempt of justice; those that provoke indignation in the +multitude; and those which, unpunished, seem authorized, as when +they are committed by sons, servants, or favourites of men in +authority.[13] For indignation carrieth men, not only against the +actors and authors of injustice, but against all power that is +likely to protect them; as in the case of Tarquin, when, for the +insolent act of one of his sons, he was driven out of Rome, and the +monarchy itself dissolved.' (Para. 2, chapter 30.) Almost every one +of our Thānadārs is, in his way, a little Tarquin, +exciting the indignation of the people against his rulers; and no +time should be lost in converting him into something better.</p> + +<p>By the obstacles which are still everywhere opposed to the +conviction of offenders, in the distance of our courts, the forms +of procedure, and other causes of 'the law's delay', we render the +duties of our police establishment everywhere 'more honoured in the +breach than the observance', by the mass of the people among whom +they are placed. We must, as I have before said, remove some of +these obstacles to the successful prosecution of offenders in our +criminal courts, which tend so much to deprive the government of +all popular aid and support in the administration of justice; and +to convert all our police establishments into instruments of +oppression, instead of what they should be, the efficient means of +protection to the persons, property, and character of the innocent. +Crimes multiply from the assurance the guilty are everywhere apt to +feel of impunity to crime; and the more crimes multiply, the +greater is the aversion the people everywhere feel to aid the +government in the arrest and conviction of criminals, because they +see more and more the innocent punished by attendance upon distant +courts at great cost and inconvenience, to give evidence upon +points which seem to them unimportant, while the guilty escape +owing to technical difficulties which they can never +understand.[14]</p> + +<p>The best way to remove these obstacles is to interpose officers +between the Thānadār and the magistrate, and arm them +with judicial powers to try minor cases, leaving an appeal open to +the magistrate, and to extend the final jurisdiction of the +magistrate to a greater range of crimes, though it should involve +the necessity of reducing the measure of punishment annexed to +them.[15] Beccaria has justly observed that 'Crimes are more +effectually prevented by the certainty than by the severity of +punishment. The certainty of a small punishment will make a +stronger impression than the fear of one more severe, if attended +with the hope of escaping; for it is the nature of mankind to be +terrified at the approach of the smallest inevitable evil; whilst +hope, the best gift of Heaven, has the power of dispelling the +apprehensions of a greater, especially if supported by examples of +impunity, which weakness or avarice too frequently affords.'</p> + +<p>I ought to have mentioned that the police of a district, in our +Bengal territories, consists of a magistrate and his assistant, who +are European gentlemen of the Civil Service; and a certain number +of Thānadārs, from twelve to sixteen, who preside over +the different sub-divisions of the district in which they reside +with their establishments. These Thānadārs get +twenty-five rupees a month, have under them four or five +Jemadārs upon eight rupees, and thirty or forty +Barkandāzes upon four rupees a month. The Jemadārs are, +most of them, placed in charge of 'nākas', or sub-divisions of +the Thānadār's jurisdiction, the rest are kept at their +headquarters, ready to move to any point where their services may +be required. These are all paid by government; but there is in each +village one watchman, and in larger villages more than one, who are +appointed by the heads of villages, and paid by the communities, +and required daily or periodically to report all the police matters +of their villages to the Thānadārs.[16]</p> + +<p>The distance between the magistrates and Thānadārs is +at present immeasurable; and an infinite deal of mischief is done +by the latter and those under them, of which the magistrates know +nothing whatever. In the first place, they levy a fee of one rupee +from every village at the festival of the Holī in February, +and another at that of the Dasehra in October, and in each +Thānadār's jurisdiction there are from one to two hundred +villages. These and numerous other unauthorized exactions they +share with those under them, and with the native officers about the +person of the magistrate, who, if not conciliated, can always +manage to make them appear unfit for their places.[17]</p> + +<p>A robbery affords a rich harvest. Some article of stolen +property is found in one man's house, and by a little legerdemain +it is conveyed to that of another, both of whom are made to pay +liberally; the man robbed also pays, and all the members of the +village community are made to do the same. They are all called to +the court of the Thānadār to give evidence as to what +they have seen or heard regarding either the fact or the persons in +the remotest degree connected with it—as to the arrests of +the supposed offenders—the search of their house—the +character of their grandmothers and grandfathers—and they are +told that they are to be sent to the magistrate a hundred miles +distant, and then made to stand at the door among a hundred and +fifty pairs of shoes, till <i>his excellency</i> the Nāzir, +the under-sheriff of the court, may be pleased to announce them to +his highness the magistrate, which, of course, he will not do +without a <i>consideration</i>. To escape all these threatened +evils, they pay handsomely and depart in peace. The +Thānadār reports that an attempt to rob a house by +persons unknown had been defeated by his exertions, and the <i>good +fortune</i> of the magistrate; and sends a liberal share of spoil +to those who are to read his report to that functionary.[18] This +goes on more or less in every district, but more especially in +those where the magistrate happens to be a man of violent temper, +who is always surrounded by knaves, because men who have any regard +for their character will not approach him—or a weak, +good-natured man, easily made to believe anything, and managed by +favourites—or one too fond of field- sports, or of music, +painting, European languages, literature, and sciences, or lastly, +of his own ease.[19] Some magistrates think they can put down crime +by dismissing the Thānadār; but this tends only to +prevent crimes being reported to him; for in such cases the +feelings of the people are in exact accordance with the interests +of the Thānadārs; and crimes augment by the assurance of +impunity thereby given to criminals. The only remedy for all this +evil is to fill up the great gulf between the magistrate and +Thānadār by officers who shall be to him what I have +described the patrol officers to be to the collectors of customs, +at once the <i>tapis</i> of Prince Husain, and the <i>telescope</i> +of Prince Ali—a medium that will enable him to be everywhere, +and see everything.[20] And why is this remedy not applied? Simply +and solely because such appointments would be given to the +uncovenanted, and might tend indirectly to diminish the +appointments open to the covenanted servants of the company. Young +gentlemen of the Civil Service are supposed to be doing the duties +which would be assigned to such officers, while they are at school +as assistants to magistrates and collectors; and were this great +gulf filled up by efficient covenanted officers, they would have no +school to go to. There is no doubt some truth in this; but the +welfare of a whole people should not be sacrificed to keep this +school or play-ground open exclusively for them; let them act for a +time as they would unwillingly do with the uncovenanted, and they +will learn much more than if they occupied the ground exclusively +and acted alone—they will be always with people ready and +willing to tell them the real state of things; whereas, at present, +they are always with those who studiously conceal it from +them.[21]</p> + +<p>It is a common practice with Thānadārs all over the +country to connive at the residence within their jurisdiction of +gangs of robbers, on the condition that they shall not rob within +those limits, and shall give them a share of what they bring back +from their distant expeditions.</p> + +<p>They [<i>scil.</i> the gangs] go out ostensibly in search of +service, on the termination of the rains of one season in October, +and return before the commencement of the next in June; but their +vocation is always well known to the police, and to all the people +of their neighbourhood, and very often to the magistrates +themselves, who could, if they would, secure them on their return +with their booty; but this would not secure their conviction unless +the proprietors could be discovered, which they scarcely ever +could. Were the police officers to seize them, they would be all +finally acquitted and released by the judges—the magistrate +would get into disrepute with his superiors, by the number of +acquittals compared with convictions exhibited in his monthly +tables; and he would vent his spleen upon the poor +Thānadār, who would at the same time have incurred the +resentment of the robbers; and between both, he would have no +possible chance of escape. He therefore consults his own interest +and his own case by leaving them to carry on their trade of robbery +or murder unmolested; and his master, the magistrate, is well +pleased not to be pestered with charges against men whom he has no +chance of getting ultimately convicted. It was in this way that so +many hundred families of assassins by profession were able for so +many generations to reside in the most cultivated and populous +parts of our territories, and extend their depredations into the +remotest parts of India, before our System of operations was +brought to bear upon them in 1830. Their profession was perfectly +well known to the people of the districts in which they resided, +and to the greater part of the police; they murdered not within +their own district, and the police of that district cared nothing +about what they might do beyond it.[22]</p> + +<p>The most respectable native gentleman in the city and district +told me one day an amusing instance of the proceedings of a native +officer of that district, which occurred about five years ago. 'In +a village which he had purchased and let in farms, a shopkeeper was +one day superintending the cutting of some sugar-cane which he had +purchased from a cultivator as it stood. His name was +Girdhārī, I think, and the boy who was cutting it for him +was the son of a poor man called Madārī. +Girdhārī wanted to have the cane cut down as near as he +could to the ground, while the boy, to save himself the trouble of +stooping, would persist in cutting it a good deal too high up. +After admonishing him several times, the shopkeeper gave him a +smart clout on the head. The boy, to prevent a repetition, called +out, "Murder! Girdhārī has killed +me—Girdhārī has killed me!" His old father, who was +at work carrying away the cane at a little distance out of sight, +ran off to the village watchman, and, in his anger, told him that +Girdhārī had murdered his son. The watchman went as fast +as he could to the Thānadār, or head police officer of +the division, who resided some miles distant. The +Thānadār ordered off his subordinate officer, the +Jemadār, with half a dozen policemen, to arrange everything +for an inquest on the body, by the time he should reach the place, +with all due pomp. The Jemadār went to the house of the +murderer, and dismounting, ordered all the shopkeepers of the +village, who were many and respectable, to be forthwith seized, and +bound hand and feet. "So", said the Jemadār, "you have all +been aiding and abetting your friend in the murder of poor +Madārī's only son." "May it please your excellency, we +have never heard of any murder." "Impudent scoundrels," roared the +Jemadār, "does not the poor boy lie dead in the sugar-cane +field, and is not his highness the Thānadār coming to +hold an inquest upon it? and do you take us for fools enough to +believe that any scoundrel among you would venture to commit a +deliberate murder without being aided and abetted by all the rest?" +The village watchman began to feel some apprehension that he had +been too precipitate; and entreated the Jemadār to go first +and see the body of the boy. "What do you take us for," said the +Jemadār, "a thing without a stomach? Do you suppose that +government servants can live and labour on air? Are we to go and +examine bodies upon empty stomachs? Let his father take care of the +body, and let these murdering shopkeepers provide us something to +eat." Nine rupees' worth of sweetmeats, and materials for a feast +were forthwith collected at the expense of the shopkeepers, who +stood bound, and waiting the arrival of his highness the +Thānadār, who was soon after seen approaching +majestically upon a richly caparisoned horse. "What," said the +Jemadār, "is there nobody to go and receive his highness in +due form?" One of the shopkeepers was untied, and presented with +fifteen rupees by his family, and those of the other shopkeepers. +These he took up and presented to his highness, who deigned to +receive them through one of his train, and then dismounted and +partook of the feast that had been provided. "Now", said his +highness, "we will go and hold an inquest on the body of the poor +boy"; and off moved all the great functionaries of government to +the sugar-cane field, with the village watchman leading the way. +The father of the boy met them as they entered, and was pointed out +by the village watchman. "Where", said the Thānadār, "is +your poor boy?" "There," said Madārī, "cutting the +canes." "How, cutting the canes? Was he not murdered by the +shopkeepers?" "No," said Madārī, "he was beaten by +Girdhārī, and richly deserved it! I find." +Girdhārī and the boy were called up, and the little +urchin said that he called out murder merely to prevent +Girdhārī from giving him another clout on the side of the +head. His father was then fined nine rupees for giving a false +alarm, and Girdhārī fifteen for so unmercifully beating +the boy; and they were made to pay on the instant, under the +penalty of all being sent off forty miles to the magistrate. Having +thus settled this very important affair, his highness the +Thānadār walked back to the shop, ordered all the +shopkeepers to be set at liberty, smoked his pipe, mounted his +horse, and rode home, followed by all his police officers, and well +pleased with his day's work.'</p> + +<p>The farmer of the village soon after made his way to the city, +and communicated the circumstances to my old friend, who happened +to be on intimate terms with the magistrate.[23] He wrote a polite +note to the Thānadār to say that he should never get any +rents from his estate if the occupants were liable to such fines as +these, and that he should take the earliest opportunity of +mentioning them to his friend the magistrate. The +Thānadār ascertained that he was really in the habit of +visiting the magistrate, and communicating with him freely; and +hushed up the matter by causing all, save the expenses of the +feast, to be paid back. These are things of daily occurrence in all +parts of our dominions, and the Thānadārs are not afraid +to play such 'fantastic tricks' because all those under and all +those above them share more or less in the spoil, and are bound in +honour to conceal them from the European magistrate, whom it is the +interest of all to keep in the dark. They know that the people will +hardly ever complain, from the great dislike they all have to +appear in our courts, particularly when it is against any of the +officers of those courts, or their friends and creatures in the +district police.[24]</p> + +<p>When our operations commenced, in 1830, these assassins +[<i>scil.</i> the Thugs] revelled over every road in India in gangs +of hundreds, without the fear of punishment from divine or human +laws; but there is not now, I believe, a road in India infested by +them. That our government has still defects, and great ones, must +be obvious to every one who has travelled much over India with the +requisite qualifications and disposition to observe; but I believe +that in spite of all the defects I have noticed above in our police +System, the life, property, and character of the innocent are now +more secure, and all their advantages more freely enjoyed, than +they ever were under any former government with whose history we +are acquainted, or than they now are under any native government in +India.[25]</p> + +<p>Those who think they are not so almost always refer to the reign +of Shāh Jahān, when men like Tavernier travelled so +securely all over India with their bags of diamonds; but I would +ask them whether they think that the life, property, and character +of the innocent could be anywhere very secure, or their advantages +very freely enjoyed, in a country where a man could do openly with +impunity what the traveller describes to have been done by the +Persian physician of the Governor of Allahabad? This governor, +being sickly, had in attendance upon him <i>eleven physicians</i>, +one of whom was a European gentleman of education, Claudius Maille, +of Bourges.[26] The chief favourite of the eleven was, however, a +Persian, 'who one day threw his wife from the top of a battlement +to the ground in a fit of jealousy. He thought the fall would kill +her, but she had only a few ribs broken; whereupon the kindred of +the woman came and demanded justice at the feet of the governor. +The governor, sending for the physician, commanded him to be gone, +resolving to retain him no longer in his service. The physician +obeyed; and putting his poor maimed wife in a palankeen, he set +forward upon the road with all his family. But he had not gone +above three or four days' journey from the city, when the governor, +finding himself worse than he was wont to be, sent to recall him; +which the physician perceiving, stabbed his wife, his four +children, and thirteen female slaves, and returned again to the +Governor, who said not a word to him, but entertained him again in +his service.' This occurred within Tavernier's own knowledge and +about the time he visited Allahabad; and is related as by no means +a very extraordinary circumstance.[27]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. January, 1836.</p> + +<p>2. The tomb of Safdar Jang, or Mansūr Alī Khān, +described <i>ante</i>, chapter 68 [4]. The bridges over the Jumna +are now, of course, maintained by Government and the railway +companies.</p> + +<p>3. The main highways approaching Delhi are now excellent +metalled roads.</p> + +<p>4. By the term 'the largest military station in the empire', the +author means Meerut. At present the largest military station in +Northern India is, I believe, Rāwal Pindi, and the combined +cantonments of Secunderābād and Bolarum in the Nizam's +dominions constitute the largest military station in the +empire.</p> + +<p>5. Comprising parts of the Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts of +the North-Western Provinces, now the Agra Province in the United +Provinces of Agra and Oudh. The Bēgam's history will be +discussed in chapter 75, <i>post</i>.</p> + +<p>6. The members of the reformed police force, constituted under +Act V of 1861, generally on the model of the Royal Irish +Constabulary, have no reason to complain of insecurity of tenure. +It is now very difficult to obtain sanction to the dismissal of a +corrupt or inefficient officer, unless he has been judicially +convicted of a statutory offence.</p> + +<p>7. Ordinarily there is for each district, or administrative +unit, a separate Sessions and District Judge, who tries both civil +and criminal cases of the more serious kind. Occasionally two or +three districts have only one judge between them, who is then +usually in arrear with his work. Sessions for the trial of grave +criminal cases are held monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly, according +to circumstances. In some districts, and for some classes of cases, +the jury system has been introduced, but, as a rule, in Northern +India the responsibility rests with the judge alone, who receives +some slight aid from assessors. Capital sentences passed by a +Sessions Judge must be confirmed by two Judges of a High Court, or +equivalent tribunal.</p> + +<p>8. The historian Thornton (chapter 27) went so far as to declare +that Lord William Bentinck has 'done less for the interest of +India, and for his own reputation, than any who had occupied his +place since the commencement of the nineteenth century, with the +single exception of Sir George Barlow'. The abolition of +widow-burning is the only act of the Bentinck administration which +this writer could praise. Such a criticism is manifestly unjust, +the outcome of contemporary anger and prejudice. The inscription +written by Macaulay, the friend and coadjutor of Lord William, and +placed on the statue of the reforming Governor-General in Calcutta, +does not give undeserved praise to the much abused statesman. Sir +William Sleeman so much admired Lord William Bentinck, and formed +such a favourable estimate of the merits of his government, that it +may be well to support his opinion by that of Macaulay. The text of +the inscription is:</p> + +<pre> + TO + + WILLIAM CAVENDISH BENTINCK, + + who during seven years ruled India with eminent prudence, + integrity, and benevolence; + who, placed at the head of a great Empire, never laid aside + the simplicity and moderation of a private citizen; + who infused into Oriental despotism the spirit + of British freedom; + who never forgot that the end of Government is the happiness + of the governed; + who abolished cruel rites; + who effaced humiliating distinctions; + who gave liberty to the expression of public opinion; + whose constant study it was to elevate the intellectual and + moral character of the nation committed to his charge, + + THIS MONUMENT + + was erected by men + who, differing in race, in manners, in language and in religion, + cherish with equal veneration and gratitude + the memory of his wise, reforming, and paternal administration. +</pre> + +<p> (<i>Lord William Bentinck</i>, by D. Boulger, p. 203; +'Rulers of India' series.)</p> + +<p>9. A European District Superintendent of Police, under the +general supervision of the Magistrate of the District, now commands +the police of each district, and sometimes has one or two European +Assistants. He is also aided by well-paid Inspectors, who are for +the most part natives of India. Measures have recently been taken, +especially in the United Provinces, to improve the pay, training, +and position of the police force, European and Indian.</p> + +<p>10. Police officers and men now obtain pensions, like public +servants in other departments.</p> + +<p>11. In some provinces the highest salaries of magistrates are +much lower than the rates stated by the author, which are the +highest paid to the most senior officers in certain provinces; and, +in all provinces, officiating incumbents, who form a large +proportion of the officers employed, draw only a part of the full +salary. The fall in exchange has enormously reduced the real value +of all Indian salaries.</p> + +<p>12. Another popular view of this subject, and, I think, the one +more commonly taken, is expressed in the anecdote told <i>ante</i>, +chapter 58 following [10]. Well-paid Inspectors of Police, drawing +salaries of 150 to 200 rupees a month, are often extremely corrupt, +and retire with large fortunes, I knew many cases, but could never +obtain judicial proof of one.</p> + +<p>13. When 'sons, servants, or favourites of men in authority', in +India, no longer oppress their fellows, the millennium will have +arrived.</p> + +<p>14. It is some slight satisfaction to a zealous magistrate of +the present day, when he sees a great and influential criminal +escape his just doom, to think that even the best magistrates many +years ago had to submit to similar painful experiences. India +cannot truly be described as an uncivilized or barbarous country, +but, side by side with elements of the highest civilization, it +contains many elements of primitive and savage barbarism. The +savagery of India cannot be dealt with by barristers or moral +text-books.</p> + +<p>15. The number of subordinate magistrates, paid and unpaid, has +of late years been enormously increased, and courts are, +consequently, much more numerous than they used to be. The vast +increase in facility of communication has also diminished the +inconveniences which the author deplores. In Oudh, and certain +other provinces, which used to be called Non-Regulation, the chief +Magistrate of the District has power to try and adequately punish +all offences, except capital ones. The power is useful, when the +district officer has time to exercise it, which is not always the +case.</p> + +<p>16. There is a Superintendent of Police for the Province of +Bengal; but in the North-Western Provinces his duties are divided +among the Commissioners of Revenue. [W. H. S.] By 'Superintendent +of Police' the author means the high officer now called the +Inspector- General of Police, under the present System each Local +Government or Administration has one of these officers, who is +aided by one or more staff officers as +Assistant-Inspectors-General. The Commissioners in the United +Provinces have been relieved of police duties. The organization of +police stations has been much modified since the author's time. +'Our Bengal territories', as understood by the author, included, in +addition to Bengal, the 'North-Western Provinces', now the +Province, of Agra, the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories, now in the +Central Provinces, and the Delhi Territories. Oudh, of course, was +then independent; and the Panjāb was under the rule of Ranjit +Singh.</p> + +<p>17. All these practices are still carried on; and experienced +magistrates are well aware of their existence, though powerless to +stop them. People will often give private information of +malpractices, but will hardly ever come into court, and speak out +openly. A magistrate cannot take action on statements which the +makers will not submit to cross-examination.</p> + +<p>18. This is still a favourite trick. Every year Inspectors- +General of Police and Secretaries to Government make the same +sarcastic remarks about the wonderful number of 'attempts at +burglary', and the apparent contentment of the criminal classes +with the small results of their labours. But the Thānadār +is too much for even Inspectors-General and Secretaries to +Government. No amount of reorganization changes him.</p> + +<p>19. Mr. R., when appointed magistrate of the district of Fathpur +on the Ganges, had a wish to translate the 'Henriade', and, in +order to secure leisure, he issued a proclamation to all the +Thānadārs of his district to put down crime, declaring +that he would hold them responsible for what might be committed, +and dismiss from his situation every one who should suffer any to +be committed within his charge. This district, lying on the borders +of Oudh, had been noted for the number and atrocious character of +its crimes. From that day all the periodical returns went up to the +superior court blank—not a crime was reported. Astonished at +this sudden result of the change of magistrates, the superior court +of Calcutta (the Sadr Nizāmat Adālat) requested one of +the judges, who was about to pass through the district on his way +down, to inquire into the nature of the System which seemed to work +so well, with a view to its adoption in other districts. He found +crimes were more abundant than ever; and the Thānadārs +showed him the proclamation, which had been understood, as all such +proclamations are, not as enjoining vigilance in the prosecution of +crime, but as prohibiting all report of them, so as to <i>save the +magistrate trouble</i>, and get him a good name with his superiors. +[W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>Great caution should always be used by local officers in making +comments on statistics. The subordinate cares nothing for the +facts. When a superior objects that the birth-rate is too low and +the death- rate too high in any police circle, the practical +conclusion drawn by the police is that the figures of the next +return must be made more palatable, and they are cooked +accordingly. So, if burglaries are too numerous, they cease to be +reported, and so forth.</p> + +<p>The old Superior Court was known as the Sadr Nizāmat +Adālat, on the criminal, and as the Sadr Dīwānī +Adālat, on the civil side. These courts have now been replaced +by the High Courts, and equivalent tribunals. In the author's time +the High Court for the Agra Province had not yet been established. +Its seat is now at Allahabad, but was formerly at Agra.</p> + +<p>20. The gap has been filled up by numbers of Deputy Magistrates, +Tahsīldār, &c., invested with magisterial powers, +Honorary Magistrates, District Superintendents, and Inspectors, and +yet all the old games still go on merrily. The reason is that the +character of the people has not changed. The police must have the +power to arrest, and that power, when wielded by unscrupulous +hands, must always be formidable.</p> + +<p>21. A magistrate who can find in his district even one man, +official or unofficial, who will tell him 'the real state of +things', and not merely repeat scandal and malignant gossip, is +unusually fortunate.</p> + +<p>22. The Thugs were suppressed because a special organization was +devised and directed for the purpose, the English rules as to the +admissibility of evidence being judiciously relaxed. The ordinary +law and methods of procedure are of little effect against the +secret societies known as 'criminal tribes'. These criminal tribes +number hundreds of thousands of persona, and present a problem +almost unknown to European experience. The gipsies, who are largely +of Indian origin, are, perhaps, the only European example of an +hereditary criminal tribe. But they are not sheltered and abetted +by the landowners as their brethren in India are.</p> + +<p>23. The magistrate, of course, was the author.</p> + +<p>24. These motives all retain their full force, and are +unaffected by Police Commissions and reorganization schemes. Some +people think that the character of the police will be raised by the +employment as officers of young Indians of good family. I am sorry +to say that I found these young men to be the worst offenders. They +are more daring in their misdeeds than the ordinary policeman, and +no better in their morals.</p> + +<p>25. This is quite true; and it is also true that our police +administration is the weakest part of our System. But the fault is +not entirely that of the police. In some provinces, especially in +Bengal, the action of the High Courts has almost paralysed the arm +of the Executive.</p> + +<p>26. 'M. Claude Maille, of Bourges. As we shall see in Book I, +chapter 18, a man of this name, who had escaped from the Dutch +service, was, in the year 1652, a not very successful amateur gun- +founder for Mīr Jumla; he had, after his escape, set up as a +surgeon to the Nawāb, with an equipment consisting of a case +of instruments and a box of ointments which he had stolen from M. +Cheteur, the Dutch Ambassador to Golconda. Tavernier throws no +light upon his identity with this physician.' (Tavernier, +<i>Travels</i>, ed. Ball, vol. i, p. 116, note). M. Maille +befriended Manucci, who mentions him several times (Irvine, +<i>Storia do Mogor</i>, i, 92, &c.)</p> + +<p>27. Ball's version of this horrible story (vol. i, p. 117) does +not differ materially from that quoted in the text. Tavernier does +not mention the name of the governor, though he observes that he +was 'one of the greatest nobles in India'. Tavernier visited +Allahabad in December, 1665, and then heard the story, the governor +concerned being at the time in the fort. I have no doubt that in +the reign of Shāh Jahān ordinary offences committed by +ordinary criminals were ruthlessly punished, and to some extent +suppressed. But, under the best Asiatic Governments, great men and +their dependants have usually been able to do pretty much what they +pleased. The English Government has the merit of refusing to give +formal recognition to difference of rank in criminals, and of often +trying to punish influential offenders, though seldom succeeding in +the attempt. From time to time a conspicuous example, like that of +the Nawāb Shams-ud-dīn, is made, and a few such examples, +combined with the greater vigilance and more complete organization +of the English executive, prevent the occurrence of atrocities so +great as that described, without a word of comment, by the French +traveller. I have not the slightest doubt, nor has any magistrate +of long experience any doubt, that women are frequently made away +with quietly in the recesses of the 'zanāna'. I have known +several such cases, which were notorious, though incapable of +judicial proof. The amount of serious secret crime which occurs in +India, and never comes to light, is very considerable.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch70">CHAPTER 70</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Rent-free Tenures—Right of Government to +Resume such Grants.</p> + +<p> ON the 27th[1] we went on fifteen miles to +Bēgamābād, over a sandy and level country. All the +peasantry along the roads were busy watering their fields; and the +singing of the man who stood at the well to tell the other who +guides the bullocks when to pull, after the leather bucket had been +filled at the bottom, and when to stop as it reached the top, was +extremely pleasing.[2] It is said that Tānsēn of Delhi, +the most celebrated singer they have ever had in India, used to +spend a great part of his time in these fields, listening to the +simple melodies of these water-drawers, which he learned to imitate +and apply to his more finished vocal music. Popular belief ascribes +to Tānsēn the power of stopping the river Jumna in its +course. His contemporary and rival, Birjū Baulā, who, +according to popular belief, could split a rock with a single note, +is said to have learned his bass from the noise of the stone mills +which the women use in grinding the corn for their families.[3] +Tānsēn was a Brahman from Patna, who entered the service +of the Emperor Akbar, became a Musalmān, and after the service +of twenty-seven years, during which he was much beloved by the +Emperor and all his court, he died at Gwālior in the +thirty-fourth year of the Emperor's reign. His tomb is still to be +seen at Gwālior. All his descendants are said to have a talent +for music, and they have all Sēn added to their names.[4]</p> + +<p>While Mādhojī Sindhia, the Gwālior chief, was +prime minister, he made the emperor assign to his daughter the +Bālā Bāī in jāgīr, or rent- free +tenure, ninety-five villages, rated in the imperial 'sanads' [deeds +of grant] at three lākhs of rupees a year. When the Emperor +had been released from the 'durance vile' in which he was kept by +Daulat Rāo Sindhia, the adopted son of this chief,[5] by Lord +Lake in 1803, and the countries, in which these villages were +situated, taken possession of, she was permitted to retain them on +condition that they were to escheat to us on her death. She died in +1834, and we took possession of the villages, which now yield, it +is said, four lākhs of rupees a year. Bēgamābād +was one of them. It paid to the Bālā Bāi only six +hundred rupees a year, but it pays now to us six hundred and twenty +rupees; but the farmers and cultivators do not pay a farthing +more—the difference was taken by the favourite to whom she +assigned the duties of collection, and who always took as much as +he could get from them, and paid as little as he could to her.[6] +The tomb of the old collector stood near my tents, and his son, who +came to visit it, told me that he had heard from Gwālior that +a new Governor-General was about to arrive,[7] who would probably +order the villages to be given back, when he should be made +collector of the village, as his father had been.</p> + +<p>Had our Government acted by all the rent-free lands in our +territories on the same principle, they would have saved themselves +a vast deal of expense, trouble, and odium. The justice of +declaring all lands liable to resumption on the death of the +present incumbents when not given by competent authority for, and +actually applied to, the maintenance of religious, charitable, +educational, or other establishments of manifest public utility, +would never have been for a moment questioned by the people of +India, because they would have all known that it was in accordance +with the customs of the country. If, at the same time that we +declared all land liable to resumption, when not assigned by such +authority for such purposes and actually applied to them, we had +declared that all grants by competent authority registered in due +form before the death of the present incumbents should be liable on +their death to the payment to Government of only a quarter or half +the rent arising from them, it would have been universally hailed +as an act of great liberality, highly calculated to make our reign +popular. As it is, we have admitted the right of former rulers of +all descriptions to alienate in perpetuity the land, the principal +source of the revenue of the state, in favour of their relatives, +friends, and favourites, leaving upon the holders the burthen of +proving, at a ruinous cost in fees and bribes, through court after +court, that these alienations had been made by the authorities we +declare competent, before the time prescribed; and we have thus +given rise to an infinite deal of fraud, perjury, and forgery, and +to the opinion, I fear, very generally prevalent, that we are +anxious to take advantage of unavoidable flaws in the proof +required, to trick them out of their lands by tedious judicial +proceedings, while we profess to be desirous that they should +retain them. In this we have done ourselves great injustice.[8]</p> + +<p>Though these lands were often held for many generations under +former Governments, and for the exclusive benefit of the holders, +it was almost always, when they were of any value, in collusion +with the local authorities, who concealed the circumstances from +their sovereign for a certain stipulated sum or share of the rents +while they held office. This of course the holders were always +willing to pay, knowing that no sovereign would hesitate much to +resume their lands, should the circumstance of their holding them +for their private use alone be ever brought to his notice. The +local authorities were, no doubt, always willing to take a moderate +share of the rent, knowing that they would get nothing should the +lands be resumed by the sovereign. Sometimes the lands granted were +either at the time the grant was made, or became soon after, waste +and depopulated, in consequence of invasion or internal disorders; +and remaining in this state for many generations, the intervening +sovereigns either knew nothing or cared nothing about the grants. +Under our rule they became by degrees again cultivated and peopled, +and in consequence valuable, not by the exertions of the rent-free +holders, for they were seldom known to do anything but collect the +rents, but by those of the farmers and cultivators who pay +them.</p> + +<p>When Saādat Alī Khan, the sovereign of Oudh, ceded +Rohilkhand and other districts to the Honourable Company in lieu of +tribute in 1801, he resumed every inch of land held in rent-free +tenure within the territories that remained with him, without +condescending to assign any other reason than state necessity. The +measure created a good deal of distress, particularly among the +educated classes; but not so much as a similar measure would have +created within our territories, because all his revenues are +expended in the maintenance of establishments formed exclusively +out of the members of Oudh families, and retained within the +country, while ours are sent to pay establishments formed and +maintained at a distance; and those whose lands are resumed always +find it exceedingly difficult to get employment suitable to their +condition.</p> + +<p>The face of the country between Delhi and Meerut is sadly +denuded of its groves; not a grove or an avenue is to be seen +anywhere, and but few fine solitary trees.[9] I asked the people of +the cause, and was told by the old men of the village that they +remembered well when the Sikh chiefs who now bask under the +sunshine of our protection used to come over at the head of 'dalas' +(bodies) of ten or twelve horse each, and plunder and lay waste +with fire and sword, at every returning harvest, the fine country +which I now saw covered with rich sheets of cultivation, and which +they had rendered a desolate waste, 'without a man to make, or a +man to grant, a petition', when Lord Lake came among them.[10] They +were, they say, looking on at a distance when he fought the battle +of Delhi, and drove the Marāthās, who were almost as bad +as the Sikhs, into the Jumna river, where ten thousand of them were +drowned. The people of all classes in Upper India feel the same +reverence as our native soldiery for the name of this admirable +soldier and most worthy man, who did so much to promote our +interests and sustain our reputation in this country.[11]</p> + +<p>The most beautiful trees in India are the 'bar' (banyan), the +'pīpal', and the tamarind.[12] The two first are of the fig +tribe, and their greatest enemies are the elephants and camels of +our public establishments and public servants, who prey upon them +wherever they can find them when under the protection of their +masters or keepers, who, when appealed to, generally evince a very +philosophical disregard to the feeling of either property or piety +involved in the trespass. It is consequently in the driest and +hottest parts of the country, where the shade of these trees is +most wanted, that it is least to be found; because it is there that +camels thrive best, and are most kept, and it is most difficult to +save such trees from their depredations.</p> + +<p>In the evening a trooper passed our tents on his way in great +haste from Meerut to Delhi, to announce the death of the poor old +Bēgam Samrū, which had taken place the day before at her +little capital of Sardhana. For five-and-twenty years had I been +looking forward to the opportunity of seeing this very +extraordinary woman, whose history had interested me more than that +of any other character in India during my time; and I was sadly +disappointed to hear of her death when within two or three stages +of her capital.[13]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. January, 1836.</p> + +<p>2. Mr. Fox Strangways gives specimens of songs sung at wells in +his learned and original book, <i>The Music of Hindostan</i> +(Oxford, 1914, pp. 20, 21).</p> + +<p>3. Brij Bowla in the original edition. The name is correctly +written Birjū Baulā or Baurā. A legend of the +rivalry between him and Tānsēn is given in <i>Linguistic +Survey of India</i>, vi, 47. His name is not included in Abūl +Fazl's list of eminent musicians, or in Blochmann's notes to it +(Āīn trans. i, 612), and I have not succeeded in +obtaining any trustworthy information about him. Marvellous legends +of the rival singers will be found in <i>N.I.N. & Qu.</i> vol. +v, para. 207.</p> + +<p>4. Abūl Fazl describes Tānsēn as being of +Gwālior, adding that 'a singer like him has not been in India +for the last thousand years'. Nos. 2-5 and several others in +Abūl Fazl's list of eminent musicians in Akbar's reign are all +noted as belonging to Gwālior, which evidently was the most +musical of cities (Blochmann, transl. Āīn, i, 612). +Sleeman appears to have been mistaken in connecting +Tānsēn with Patna. But the musician must really have +become a Musalmān, because his tomb stands close to the south- +western corner of the sepulchre at Gwālior of Muhammad Ghaus, +an eminent Muslim saint. No Hindu could have been buried in such a +spot (<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. ii, p. 370). According to one account +Tānsēn died in Lahore, his body being removed to +Gwālior by order of Akbar (Forbes, <i>Oriental Memoirs</i>, +London, 1813, vol. iii, p. 32). The leaves of the tamarind-tree +overshadowing the tomb are believed to improve the voice +marvellously when chewed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Fox Strangways notes that Hindu critics hold +Tānsēn 'principally responsible for the deterioration of +Hindu music. He is said to have falsified the rāgs, and two, +Hindol and Megh, of the original six have disappeared since his +time' (op. cit., p. 84).</p> + +<p>Akbar, in the seventh year of his reign (1562-3), compelled the +Rājā of Rīwā (Bhath) to give up +Tānsēn, who was in the Rājā's service. The +emperor gave the musician Rs. 200,000. 'Most of his compositions +are written in Akbar's name, and his melodies are even nowadays +everywhere repeated by the people of Hindustān' (Blochmann, +op. cit., p. 406). Tānsēn died in A.D. 1588 (Beale).</p> + +<p>5. Shāh Alam is the sovereign alluded to. +Māhādajī (Mādhojī or Mādhava +Rāo) Sindhia died in February, 1794. His successor, Daulat +Rāo, was then a boy of fourteen or fifteen (Grant Duff, +<i>History of the Mahrattas</i>, ed. 1826, vol. iii, p. 86). The +formal adoption of Daulat Rāo had not been completed (ibid., +p. 91).</p> + +<p>6. This observation is a good illustration of the tendency of +administrators in a country so poor as India to take note of the +infinitely little. In Europe no one would take the trouble to +notice the difference between £60 and £62 rental.</p> + +<p>7. Lord Auckland, in March, 1836, relieved Sir Charles Metcalfe, +who, as temporary Governor-General, had succeeded Lord William +Bentinck.</p> + +<p>8. The resumption, that is to say, assessment, of revenue-free +lands was a burning question in the anthor's day. It has long since +got settled. The author was quite right in his opinion. All native +Governments freely exercised the right of resumption, and did not +care in the least what phrases were used in the deed of grant. The +old Hindoo deeds commonly directed that the grant should last 'as +long as the sun and moon shall endure', and invoked awful curses on +the head of the resumer. But this was only formal legal +phraseology, meaning nothing. No ruler was bound by his +predecessor's acts.</p> + +<p>9. This is not now the case.</p> + +<p>10. 'It is difficult to realize that the dignified, sober, and +orderly men who now fill our regiments are of the same stock as the +savage freebooters whose name, a hundred years ago, was the terror +of Northern India. But the change has been wrought by strong and +kindly government and by strict military discipline under +sympathetic officers whom the troops love and respect.' (Sir Lepel +Griffin, <i>Ranjīt Singh</i>, p. 37.)</p> + +<p>11. Gerard Lake was born on the 27th July, 1744, and entered the +army before he was fourteen. He served in the Seven Years' War in +Germany, in the American War, in the French campaign of 1793, and +against the Irish rebels in 1798. In the year 1801 he became +Commander-in-Chief in India, and proceeded to Cawnpore, then our +frontier station. Two years later the second Marāthā War +began, and gave General Lake the opportunity of winning a series of +brilliant victories. In rapid succession he defeated the enemy at +Kōil, Alīgarh, Delhi (the battle alluded to in the text), +Agra, and Laswārī. Next year, 1804, the glorious record +was marred by the disaster to Colonel Monson's force, but this was +quickly avenged by the decisive victories of Dīg and +Farrukhābād, which shattered Holkār's power. The +year 1805 saw General Lake's one personal failure, the unsuccessful +siege of Bharatpur. The Commander-in-Chief then resumed the pursuit +of Holkār, and forced him to surrender. He sailed for England +in February, 1807, and on his arrival at home was created a +Viscount. On the 21st February, 1808, he died. (Pearse, <i>Memoir +of the Life and Military Services of Viscount Lake</i>. London, +Blackwood, 1908.) The village of Patparganj, nearly due east from +Humāyūn's Tomb, marks the site of the battle. Fanshawe +(p. 70) gives a plan.</p> + +<p>12. The banyan is the <i>Ficus indica</i>, or <i>Urostigma +bengalense</i>; the 'pīpal' is <i>Ficus religiosa</i>, or +<i>Urostigma religiosum</i>; and the tamarind is the <i>Tamarindus +indica</i>, or <i>occidentalis</i>, or <i>officinalis</i>.</p> + +<p>13. The history of the Bēgam is given in Chapter 76, +<i>post</i>.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch71">CHAPTER 71</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Station of Meerut—'Atālīs' who +Dance and Sing gratuitously for the Benefit of the Poor.</p> + +<p>On the 30th,[1] we went on twelve miles to Meerut, and encamped +close to the Sūraj Kund, so called after Sūraj-mal, the +Jāt chief of Dīg, whose tomb I have described at +Govardhan.[2] He built here a very large tank, at the +recommendation of the spirit of a Hindoo saint, Manohar Nāth, +whose remains had been burned here more than two hundred years +before, and whose spirit appeared to the Jāt chief in a dream, +as he was encamped here with his army during one of his +<i>kingdom-taking</i> expeditions. This is a noble work, with a +fine sheet of water, and flights of steps of 'pakkā' masonry +from the top to its edge all round. The whole is kept in repair by +our Government.[3] About half a mile to the north-west of the tank +stands the tomb of Shāh Pīr, a Muhammadan saint, who is +said to have descended from the mountains with the Hindoo, and to +have been his bosom friend up to the day of his death. Both are +said to have worked many wonderful miracles among the people of the +surrounding country, who used to see them, according to popular +belief, quietly taking their morning ride together upon the backs +of two enormous tigers who came every morning at the appointed hour +from the distant jungle. The Hindoo is said to have been very fond +of music; and though he has been now dead some three centuries, a +crowd of amateurs (atālīs) assemble every Sunday +afternoon at his shrine, on the bank of the tank, and sing gratis, +and in a very pleasing style, to an immense concourse of people, +who assemble to hear them, and to solicit the spirit of the old +saint, softened by their melodies. At the tomb of the Muhammadan +saint a number of professional dancers and singers assemble every +Thursday afternoon, and dance, sing, and play gratis to a large +concourse of people, who make offerings of food to the poor, and +implore the intercession of the old man with the Deity in +return.</p> + +<p>The Muhammadan's tomb is large and handsome, and built of red +sandstone, inlaid with marble, but without any cupola, that there +may be no <i>curtain</i> between him and heaven when he gets out of +his 'last long sleep' at the resurrection.[4] Not far from his tomb +is another, over the bones of a pilgrim they call Ganj-i-fann, or +the granary of science. Professional singers and dancers attend it +every Friday afternoon, and display their talents gratis to a large +concourse, who bestow what they can in charity to the poor, who +assemble on all these occasions to take what they can get. Another +much frequented tomb lies over a Muhammadan saint, who has not been +dead more than three years, named Gohar Sāh. He owes his +canonization to a few circumstances of recent occurrence, which +are, however, universally believed. Mr. Smith, an enterprising +merchant of Meerut, who had raised a large windmill for grinding +corn in the Sadr Bāzār, is said to have abused the old +man as he was one day passing by, and looked with some contempt on +his method of grinding, which was to take the bread from the mouths +of so many old widows. 'My child,' said the old saint, 'amuse +thyself with this toy of thine, for it has but a few days to run.' +In four days from that time the machine stopped. Poor Mr. Smith +could not afford to set it going again, and it went to ruin. The +whole native population of Meerut considered this a miracle of +Gohar Sāh. Just before his death the country round Meerut was +under water, and a great many houses fell from incessant rain. The +old man took up his residence during this time in a large +sarāi in the town, but finding his end approach, he desired +those who had taken shelter with him to have him taken to the +jungle where he now reposes. They did so, and the instant they left +the building it fell to the ground. Many who saw it told me they +had no doubt that the virtues of the old man had sustained it while +he was there, and prevented its crushing all who were in it. The +tomb was built over his remains by a Hindoo officer of the court, +who had been long out of employment and in great affliction. He had +no sooner completed the tomb, and implored the aid of the old man, +than he got into excellent service, and has been ever since a happy +man. He makes regular offerings to his shrine, as a grateful return +for the saint's kindness to him in his hour of need. Professional +singers and dancers display their talents here gratis, as at the +other tombs, every Wednesday afternoon.</p> + +<p> The ground all round these tombs is becoming crowded with +the graves of people, who in their last moments request to be +buried (zēr-sāya) under the shadow of these saints, who +in their lifetime are all said to have despised the pomps and +vanities of this life, and to have taken nothing from their +disciples and worshippers but what was indispensably necessary to +support existence—food being the only thing offered and +accepted, and that taken only when they happened to be very hungry. +Happy indeed was the man whose dish was put forward when the +saint's appetite happened to be sharp. The death of the poor old +Bēgam has, it is said, just canonized another saint, +Shākir Shāh, who lies buried at Sardhana, but is claimed +by the people of Meerut, among whom he lived till about five years +ago, when he desired to be taken to Sardhana, where he found the +old lady very dangerously ill and not expected to live. He was +himself very old and ill when he set out from Meerut; and the +journey is said to have shaken him so much that he found his end +approaching, and sent a messenger to the princess in these words: +'Ayā torē, chale ham'; that is, 'Death came for thee, but +I go in thy place'; and he told those around him that she had +precisely five years more to live. She is said to have caused a +tomb to be built over him, and is believed by the people to have +died that day five years.</p> + +<p>All these things I learned as I wandered among the tombs of the +old saints the first few evenings after my arrival at Meerut. I was +interested in their history from the circumstance that amateur +singers and professional dancers and musicians should display their +talents at their shrines gratis, for the sake of getting alms for +the poor of the place, given in their name—a thing I had +never before heard of—though the custom prevails no doubt in +other places; and that Musalmāns and Hindoos should join +promiscuously in their devotions and charities at all these +shrines. Manohar Nāth's shrine, though he was a Hindoo, is +attended by as many Musalmān as Hindoo pilgrims. He is said to +have 'taken the <i>samādh</i>', that is, to have buried +himself alive in this place as an offering to the Deity. Men who +are afflicted with leprosy or any other incurable disease in India +often take the samādh, that is, bury or drown themselves with +due ceremonies, by which they are considered as acceptable +sacrifices to the Deity. I once knew a Hindoo gentleman of great +wealth and respectability, and of high rank under the Government of +Nāgpur, who came to the river Nerbudda, two hundred miles, +attended by a large retinue, to <i>take the samādh</i> in due +form, from a painful disease which the doctors pronounced +incurable. After taking an affectionate leave of all his family and +friends, he embarked on board the boat, which took him into the +deepest part of the river. He then loaded himself with sand, as a +sportsman who is required to carry weights in a race loads himself +with shot, and stepping into the water disappeared. The funeral +ceremonies were then performed, and his family, friends, and +followers returned to Nāgpur, conscious that they had all done +what they had been taught to consider their duty. Many poor men do +the same every year when afflicted by any painful disease that they +consider incurable.[5] The only way to prevent this is to carry out +the plan now in progress of giving to India in an accessible shape +the medical science of Europe—a plan first adopted under Lord +W. Bentinck, prosecuted by Lord Auckland, and superintended by two +able and excellent men, Doctors Goodeve and O'Shaughnessy. It will +be one of the greatest blessings that India has ever received from +England.[6]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. January, 1836. The date is misprinted 20th in the original +edition.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Ante</i>, chapter 56 [13].</p> + +<p>3. 'Amongst the remains of former times in and around Meerut may +be noticed the Sūraj kund, commonly called by Europeans 'the +monkey tank'. It was constructed by Jawāhir Mal, a wealthy +merchant of Lāwār, in 1714. It was intended to keep it +full of water from the Abū Nāla but at present the tank +is nearly dry in May and June. There are numerous small temples, +'dharmsālās' [i.e. rest-houses], and 'satī' pillars +on its banks, but none of any note. The largest of the temples is +dedicated to Manohar Nāth, and is said to have been built in +the reign of Shāh Jahān. Lāwār, a large village +. . . is distant twelve miles north of the civil station. . . . +There is a fine house here called Mahal Sarāi, built about +A.D. 1700 by Jawāhir Singh, Mahājan, who constructed the +Sūraj kund near Meerut' (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., +vol. iii, pp. 406,400). This information, supplied by the local +officials, is more to be depended on than the author's +statement.</p> + +<p>4. 'The "dargāh" [i.e. shrine] of Shāh Pīr is a +fine structure of red sandstone, erected about A.D. 1620 by +Nūr Jahān, the wife of the Emperor Jahāngīr, in +memory of a pious fakīr named Shāh Pīr. An "urs", or +religions assembly, is held here every year in the month of +Ramazān. The "dargāh" is supported from the proceeds of +the revenue-free village of Bhagwānpur' (ibid., vol. iii, p. +406). The text of the original edition gives the pilgrim's name as +'Gungishun', which has no meaning.</p> + +<p>5. An interesting collection of modern cases of a similar kind +is given in Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., s.v. +'Samadhi'.</p> + +<p>6. See <i>ante</i>, chapter 15, note l4. Dr. W. B. O'Shaughnessy +contributed many scientific papers to the <i>J.A.S.B.</i> (vols. +viii, ix, x, xii, and xvi).</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch72">CHAPTER 72</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Subdivisions of Lands—Want of Gradations of +Rank—Taxes.</p> + +<p>The country between Delhi and Meerut is well cultivated and rich +in the latent power of its soil; but there is here, as everywhere +else in the Upper Provinces, a lamentable want of gradations in +society, from the eternal subdivision of property in land, and the +want of that concentration of capital in commerce and manufactures +which characterizes European—or I may take a wider range, and +say Christian societies.[1] Where, as in India, the landlords' +share of the annual returns from the soil has been always taken by +the Government as the most legitimate fund for the payment of its +public establishments; and the estates of the farmers, and the +holdings of the immediate cultivators of the soil, are liable to be +subdivided in equal shares among the sons in every succeeding +generation, the land can never aid much in giving to society that +without which no society can possibly be well organized—a +gradation of rank. Were the Government to alter the System, to give +up all the rent of the lands, and thereby convert all the farmers +into proprietors of their estates, the case would not be much +altered, while the Hindoo and Muhammadan law of inheritance +remained the same; for the eternal subdivision would still go on, +and reduce all connected with the soil to one common level; and the +people would be harassed with a multiplicity of taxes, from which +they are now free, that would have to be imposed to supply the +place of the rent given up. The agricultural capitalists who +derived their incomes from the interest of money advanced to the +farmers and cultivators for subsistence and the purchase of stock +were commonly men of rank and influence in society; but they were +never a numerous class.[2] The mass of the people in India are +really not at present sensible that they pay any taxes at all. The +only necessary of life, whose price is at all increased by taxes, +is salt, and the consumer is hardly aware of this increase. The +natives never eat salted meat; and though they require a great deal +of salt, living, as they do, so much on vegetable food, still they +purchase it in such small quantities from day to day as they +require it, that they really never think of the tax that may have +been paid upon it in its progress.[3]</p> + +<p>To understand the nature of taxation in India, an Englishman +should suppose that all the non-farming landholders of his native +country had, a century or two ago, consented to resign their +property into the hands of their sovereign, for the maintenance of +his civil functionaries, army, navy, church, and public creditors, +and then suddenly disappeared from the community, leaving to till +the lands merely the farmers and cultivators; and that their forty +millions of rent were just the sum that the Government now required +to pay all these four great establishments.[4]</p> + +<p>To understand the nature of the public debt of England a man has +only to suppose one great national establishment, twice as large as +those of the civil functionaries, the Army, Navy, and the Church +together, and composed of members with fixed salaries, who +purchased their commissions from <i>the wisdom of our +ancestors</i>, with liberty to sell them to whom they +please—who have no duty to perform for the public,[5] and +have, like Adam and Eve, the privilege of going to 'seek their +place of rest' in what part of the world they please—a +privilege of which they will, of course, be found more and more +anxious to avail themselves as taxation presses on the one side, +and prohibition to the import of the necessaries of life diminishes +the means of paying them on the other.</p> + +<p>The repeal of the Corn Laws may give a new lift to England; it +may greatly increase the foreign demand for the produce of its +manufacturing industry; it may invite back a large portion of those +who now spend their incomes in foreign countries, and prevent from +going abroad to reside a vast number who would otherwise go. These +laws must soon be repealed, or England must reduce one or other of +its great establishments—the National Debt, the Church, the +Army, or the Navy. The Corn Laws press upon England just in the +same manner as the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of +Good Hope pressed upon Venice and the other states whose welfare +depended upon the transit of the produce of India by land. But the +navigation of the Cape benefited all other European nations at the +same time that it pressed upon these particular states, by giving +them all the produce of India at cheaper rates than they would +otherwise have got it, and by opening the markets of India to the +produce of all other European nations. The Corn Laws benefit only +one small section of the people of England, while they weigh, like +an incubus, upon the vital energies of all the rest; and at the +same time injure all other nations by preventing their getting the +produce of manufacturing industry so cheap as they would otherwise +get it. They have not, therefore, the merit of benefiting other +nations, at the same time that they crush their own.[6]</p> + +<p>For some twenty or thirty years of our rule, too many of the +collectors of our land revenue in what we call the Western +Provinces,[7] sought the 'bubble reputation' in an increase of +assessment upon the lands of their district every five years when +the settlement was renewed. The more the assessment was increased, +the greater was the praise bestowed upon the collector by the +revenue boards, or the revenue secretary to Government, in the name +of the Governor-General of India.[8] These collectors found an easy +mode of acquiring this reputation—they left the settlements +to their native officers, and shut their ears to all complaints of +grievances, till they had reduced all the landholders of their +districts to one common level of beggary, without stock, character, +or credit; and transferred a great portion of their estates to the +native officers of their own courts through the medium of the +auction sales that took place for the arrears, or pretended +arrears, of revenue. A better feeling has for some years past +prevailed, and collectors have sought their reputation in a real +knowledge of their duties, and real good feeling towards the +farmers and cultivators of their districts. For this better tone of +feeling the Western Provinces are, I believe, chiefly indebted to +Mr. R. M. Bird, of the Revenue Board, one of the most able public +officers now in India. A settlement for twenty years is now in +progress that will leave the farmers at least 35 per cent. upon the +gross collections from the immediate cultivators of the soil; that +is, the amount of the revenue demandable by Government from the +estate will be that less than what the farmer will, and would, +under any circumstances, levy from the cultivators in his detailed +settlement.[9]</p> + +<p>The farmer lets all the land of his estate out to cultivators, +and takes in money this rate of profit for his expense, trouble, +and risk; or he lets out to the cultivators enough to pay the +Government demand, and tills the rest with his own stock, +rent-free. When a division takes place between his sons, they +either divide the estate, and become each responsible for his +particular share, or they divide the profits, and remain +collectively responsible to Government for the whole, leaving one +member of the family registered as the lessee and responsible +head.[10]</p> + +<p>In the Ryotwār System of Southern India, Government +officers, removable at the pleasure of the Government collector, +are substituted for these farmers, or more properly proprietors, of +estates; and a System more prejudicial to the best interests of +society could not well be devised by the ingenuity of man.[11] It +has been supposed by some theorists, who are practically +unacquainted with agriculture in this or any other country, that +all who have any interest in land above the rank of cultivator or +ploughman are mere <i>drones</i>, or useless consumers of that rent +which, under judicious management, might be added to the revenues +of Government—that all which they get might, and ought to be, +either left with the cultivators or taken by the Government. At the +head of these is the justly celebrated historian, Mr. Mill. But men +who understand the subject practically know that the intermediate +agency of a farmer, who has a permanent interest in the estate, or +an interest for a long period, is a thousand times better both for +the Government and the people than that of a Government officer of +any description, much less that of one removable at the pleasure of +the collector. Government can always get more revenue from a +village under the management of the farmer; the character of the +cultivators and village community generally is much better; the +tillage is much better; and the produce, from more careful weeding +and attention of all kinds, sells much better in the market. The +better character of the cultivators enables them to get the loans +they require to purchase stock, and to pay the Government demand on +more moderate terms from the capitalists, who rely upon the farmer +to aid in the recovery of their outlays, without reference to civil +courts, which are ruinous media, as well in India as in other +places. The farmer or landlord finds in the same manner that he can +get much more from lands let out on lease to the cultivators or +yeomen, who depend upon their own character, credit, and stock, +than he can from similar lands cultivated with his own stock; and +hired labourers can never be got to labour either so long or so +well. The labour of the Indian cultivating lessee is always applied +in the proper quantity, and at the proper time and place—that +of the hired field-labourer hardly ever is. The skilful coachmaker +always puts on the precise quantity of iron required to make his +coach strong, because he knows where it is required; his coach is, +at the same time, as light as it can be with safety. The unskilful +workman either puts on too much, and makes his coach heavy; or he +puts it in the wrong place, and leaves it weak.</p> + +<p>If government extends the twenty years' settlement now in +progress to fifty years or more, they will confer a great blessing +upon the people[12] and they might, perhaps, do it on the condition +that the incumbent consented to allow the lease to descend +undivided to his heirs by the laws of primogeniture. To this +condition all classes would readily agree, for I have heard Hindoo +and Muhammadan landholders all equally lament the evil effects of +the laws by which families are so quickly and inevitably broken up; +and say that 'it is the duty of government to take advantage of +their power as the great proprietor and leaser of all the lands to +prevent the evil by declaring leases indivisible. 'There would +then', they say, 'be always one head to assist in maintaining the +widows and orphans of deceased members, in educating his brothers +and nephews; and by his influence and respectability procuring +employment for them.' In such men, with feelings of permanent +interest in their estates, and in the stability of the government +that secured them possession on such favourable terms, and with the +means of educating their children, we should by and by find our +best support, and society its best element. The law of +primogeniture at present prevails only where it is most mischievous +under our rule, among the feudal chiefs, whose ancestors rose to +distinction and acquired their possessions by rapine in times of +invasion and civil wars. This law among them tends to perpetuate +the desire to maintain those military establishments by which the +founders of their families arose, in the hope that the times of +invasion and civil wars may return and open for them a similar +field for exertion. It fosters a class of powerful men, essentially +and irredeemably opposed in feeling, not only to our rule, but to +settled government under any rule; and the sooner the Hindoo law of +inheritance is allowed by the paramount power to take its course +among these feudal chiefs, the better for society. There is always +a strong tendency to it in the desire of the younger brothers to +share in the loaves and fishes; and this tendency is checked only +by the injudicious interposition of our authority.[13]</p> + +<p>To give India the advantage of free institutions, or all the +blessings of which she is capable under an enlightened paternal +government, nothing is more essential than the supersession of this +feudal aristocracy by one founded upon other bases, and, above all, +upon that of the concentration of capital in commerce and +manufactures. Nothing tends so much to prevent the accumulation and +concentration of capital over India as this feudal aristocracy +which tends everywhere to destroy that feeling of security without +which men will nowhere accumulate and concentrate it. They do so, +not only by the intrigues and combinations against the paramount +power, which keep alive the dread of internal wars and foreign +invasion, but by those gangs of robbers and murderers which they +foster and locate upon their estates to prey upon the more favoured +or better governed territories around them. From those gangs of +freebooters who are to be found upon the estate of almost every +native chief, no accumulation of movable property of any value is +ever for a moment considered safe, and those who happen to have any +such are always in dread of losing, not only their property, but +their lives along with it, for these gangs, secure in the +protection of such chief, are reckless in their attack, and kill +all who happen to come in their way.[14]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. This phrase is meant to include America.</p> + +<p>2. Money-lenders naturally have flourished daring the long +period of internal peace since the Mutiny. They vary in wealth and +position from the humblest 'gombeen man' to the millionaire banker. +Many of these money-lenders are now among the largest owners of +land in the country. Under native rule interests in land were +generally too precarious to be saleable. The author did not foresee +that the growth of private property in land would carry with it the +right and desire of one party to sell and of another to buy, and +would thus favour the growth of large estates, and, to a +considerable extent, counteract the evils of subdivision. Of +course, like everything else, the large estates have their evils +too. Much nonsense is written about sales of land in India, as well +as in Ireland. The two countries have more than the initial letter +in common.</p> + +<p>3. Theorists declare that it is right that the tax-payers should +know what is taken from them, and that, therefore, direct taxes are +best; but practical men who have to govern ignorant and suspicious +races, resentful of direct taxation, know that indirect taxation +is, for such people, the best.</p> + +<p>4. This illustration would give a very false idea of modern +Indian finance.</p> + +<p>5. They have no duty to perform as creditors; but as citizens of +an enlightened nation they no doubt perform many of them, very +important ones. [W. H. S.] The author's whimsical comparison +between stockholders and Adam and Eve, and his notion that the +creditors of the nation may be regarded as officials without +duties, only obscure a simple matter. The emigration of owners of +Consols never assumed very alarming dimensions.</p> + +<p>6. The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846, and the shilling duty +which was then left was abolished in 1869. Considering that the +author belonged to a land-owning family, his clear perception of +the evils caused by the Corn Laws is remarkable.</p> + +<p>7. By the 'Western Provinces' the author means the region called +later the North-Western Provinces, and now known as the Agra +Province in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, with the Delhi +Territories, which latter are now partly under the Government of +the Panjāb, and partly in the new small Province, or Chief +Commissionership of Delhi.</p> + +<p>8. At the time referred to, the provincial Government had not +been constituted.</p> + +<p>9. Fifty per cent. may be considered as the average rate left to +the lessees or proprietors of estates under this new settlement; +and, if they take on an average one-third of the gross produce, +Government takes two-ninths. But we may rate the Government share +of the produce actually taken at one-fifth as the maximum, and +one-tenth as the minimum. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>It is unfortunately true that in the short-term settlements made +previous to 1833 many abuses of the kinds referred to in the text +occurred. The traditions of the people and the old records attest +numerous instances. The first serious attempt to reform the system +of revenue settlements was made by Regulation VII of 1822, but, +owing to an excessive elaboration of procedure, the attempt +produced no appreciable results. Regulation IX of 1833 established +a workable system, and provided for the appointment of Indian +Deputy Collectors with adequate powers. The settlements of the +North-Western Provinces made under this Regulation were, for the +most part, reasonably fair, and were generally confirmed for a +period of thirty years. Mr. Robert Mertins Bird, who entered the +service in 1805, and died in 1853, took a leading part in this +great reform. When the next settlements were made, between 1860 and +1880, the share of the profit rental claimed by the State was +reduced from two-thirds to one-half. Full details will be found in +the editor's <i>Settlement Officer's Manual for the N. W. P.</i> +(Allahabad, 1882), or in Baden Powell's big book, <i>Land Systems +of British India</i> (Clarendon Press, 1892).</p> + +<p>10. Since 1833 the people whom the author calls 'farmers' have +gradually become fall proprietors, subject to the Government lien +on the land and its produce for the land revenue. For many years +past the ancient custom of joint ownership and collective +responsibility has been losing ground. Partitions are now +continually demanded, and every year collective responsibility is +becoming more unpopular and more difficult to enforce.</p> + +<p>11. This judgement, I need hardly say, would not be accepted in +Madras or Bombay. The issue raised is too large for discussion in +footnotes.</p> + +<p>12. The advantages of very long terms of settlements are +obvious; the disadvantages, though equally real, are less obvious. +Fluctuations in prices, and above all, in the price of silver, are +among the many conditions which complicate the question. Except the +Bengal landowners, most people now admit that the Permanent +Settlement of Bengal in 1793 was a grievous mistake. It is also +admitted that the mistake is irrevocable.</p> + +<p>13. These two suggestions of the author that the law of +primogeniture should be established to regulate the succession to +ordinary estates, and that it should be abolished in the case of +chieftainships, where it already prevails, are obviously open to +criticism. It seems sufficient to say that both recommendations +are, for many reasons, altogether impracticable. In passing, I may +note that the term 'feudal' does not express with any approach to +correctness the relation of the Native States to the Government of +India.</p> + +<p>14. The evils described in this paragraph, though diminished, +have not disappeared. Nevertheless, no one would now seriously +propose the deliberate supersession of the existing aristocracy by +rich merchants and manufacturers. The proposal is too fanciful for +discussion. During the long period of peace merchants and +manufacturers have naturally risen to a position much more +prominent than they occupied in the author's time.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch73">CHAPTER 73</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Meerut—Anglo-Indian Society.</p> + +<p>Meerut is a large station for military and civil establishments; +it is the residence of a civil commissioner, a judge, a magistrate, +a collector of land revenue, and all their assistants and +establishments. There are the Major-General commanding the +division; the Brigadier commanding the station; four troops of +horse and a company of foot artillery; one regiment of European +cavalry, one of European infantry, one of native cavalry, and three +of native infantry.[1] It is justly considered the healthiest +station in India, for both Europeans and natives,[2] and I visited +it in the latter end of the cold, which is the healthiest, season +of the year; yet the European ladies were looking as if they had +all come out of their graves, and talking of the necessity of going +off to the mountains to renovate, as soon as the hot weather should +set in. They had literally been fagging themselves to death with +gaiety, at this the gayest and most delightful of all Indian +stations, during the cold months when they ought to have been +laying in a store of strength to carry them through the trying +seasons of the hot winds and rains. Up every night and all night at +balls and suppers, they could never go out to breathe the fresh air +of the morning; and were looking wretchedly ill, while the European +soldiers from the barracks seemed as fresh as if they had never +left their native land. There is no doubt that sitting up late at +night is extremely prejudicial to the health of Europeans in +India.[3] I have never seen the European, male or female, that +could stand it long, however temperate in habits; and an old friend +of mine once told me that if he went to bed a little exhilarated +every night at ten o'clock, and took his ride in the morning, he +found himself much better than if he sat up till twelve or one +o'clock without drinking, and lay abed in the mornings. Almost all +the gay pleasures of India are enjoyed at night, and as ladies +here, as everywhere else in Christian societies, are the life and +soul of all good parties, as of all good novels, they often to +oblige others sit up late, much against their own inclinations, and +even their judgements, aware as they are that they are gradually +sinking under the undue exertions.</p> + +<p>When I first came to India there were a few ladies of the old +school still much looked up to in Calcutta, and among the rest the +grandmother of the Earl of Liverpool, the old Bēgam Johnstone, +then between seventy and eighty years of age.[4] All these old +ladies prided themselves upon keeping up old usages. They use to +dine in the afternoon at four or five o'clock—take their +airing after dinner in their carriages; and from the time they +returned till ten at night their houses were lit up in their best +style and thrown open for the reception of visitors. All who were +on visiting terms came at this time, with any strangers whom they +wished to introduce, and enjoyed each other's society; there were +music and dancing for the young, and cards for the old, when the +party assembled happened to be large enough; and a few who had been +previously invited stayed supper. I often visited the old +Bēgam Johnstone at this hour, and met at her house the first +people in the country, for all people, including the +Governor-General himself, delighted to honour this old lady, the +widow of a Governor-General of India, and the mother-in-law of a +Prime Minister of England.[5] She was at Murshīdābād +when Sirāj-ud-daula marched from that place at the head of the +army that took and plundered Calcutta, and caused so many Europeans +to perish in the Black Hole; and she was herself saved from +becoming a member of his seraglio, or perishing with the lest, by +the circumstance of her being far gone in her pregnancy, which +caused her to be made over to a Dutch factory.[6]</p> + +<p>She had been a very beautiful woman, and had been several times +married; the pictures of all her husbands being hung round her +noble drawing-room in Calcutta, covered during the day with crimson +cloth to save them from the dust, and uncovered at night only on +particular occasions. One evening Mrs. Crommelin, a friend of mine, +pointing to one of them, asked the old lady his name. 'Really, I +cannot at this moment tell you, my dear; my memory is very bad,' +(striking her forehead with her right hand, as she leaned with her +left arm in Mrs. Crommelin's,) 'but I shall recollect in a few +minutes.' The old lady's last husband was a clergyman, Mr. +Johnstone, whom she found too gay, and persuaded to go home upon an +annuity of eight hundred a year, which she settled upon him for +life. The bulk of her fortune went to Lord Liverpool; the rest to +her grandchildren, the Ricketts, Watts, and others.</p> + +<p>Since those days the modes of intercourse in India have much +altered. Society at all the stations beyond the three capitals of +Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, is confined almost exclusively to the +members of the civil and military services, who seldom remain long +at the same station—the military officers hardly ever more +than three years, and the civil hardly ever so long. At +disagreeable stations the civil servants seldom remain so many +months. Every newcomer calls in the forenoon upon all that are at +the station when he arrives, and they return his call at the same +hour soon after. If he is a married man, the married men upon whom +he has called take their wives to call upon his; and he takes his +to return the call of theirs. These calls are all indispensable; +and being made in the forenoon, become very disagreeable in the hot +season; all complain of them, yet no one forgoes his claim upon +them; and till the claim is fulfilled, people will not recognize +each other as acquaintances.[7] Unmarried officers generally dine +in the evening, because it is a more convenient hour for the mess; +and married civil functionaries do the same, because it is more +convenient for their office work. If you invite those who dine at +that hour to spend the evening with you, you must invite them to +dinner, even in the hot weather; and if they invite you, it is to +dinner. This makes intercourse somewhat heavy at all times, but +more especially so in the hot season, when a table covered with +animal food is sickening to any person without a keen appetite, and +stupefying to those who have it. No one thinks of inviting people +to a dinner and ball—it would be vandalism; and when you +invite them, as is always the case, to come after dinner, the ball +never begins till late at night, and seldom ends till late in the +morning. With all its disadvantages, however, I think dining in the +evening much better for those who are in health, than dining in the +afternoon, provided people can avoid the intermediate meal of +tiffin. No person in India should eat animal food more than once a +day; and people who dine in the evening generally eat less than +they would if they dined in the afternoon. A light breakfast at +nine; biscuit, or a slice of toast with a glass of water, or +soda-water, at two o'clock, and dinner after the evening exercise, +is the plan which I should recommend every European to adopt as the +most agreeable.[8] When their digestive powers get out of order, +people must do as the doctors tell them.</p> + +<p>There is, I believe, no society in which there is more real +urbanity of manners than in that of India—a more general +disposition on the part of its different members to sacrifice their +own comforts and conveniences to those of others, and to make those +around them happy, without letting them see that it costs them an +effort to do so.[9] There is assuredly no society where the members +are more generally free from those corroding cares and anxieties +which 'weigh upon the hearts' of men whose incomes are precarious, +and position in the world uncertain. They receive their salaries on +a certain day every month, whatever may be the state of the seasons +or of trade; they pay no taxes; they rise in the several services +by rotation;[10] religious feelings and opinions are by common +consent left as a question between man and his Maker; no one ever +thinks of questioning another about them, nor would he be tolerated +if he did so. Most people take it for granted that those which they +got from their parents were the right ones; and as such they +cherish them. They remember with feelings of filial piety the +prayers which they in their infancy offered to their Maker, while +kneeling by the side of their mothers; and they continue to offer +them up through life, with the same feelings and the same +hopes.[11]</p> + +<p>Differences of political opinion, which agitate society so much +in England and other countries where every man believes that his +own personal interests must always be more or less affected by the +predominance of one party over another, are no doubt a source of +much interest to people in India, but they scarcely ever excite any +angry passions among them. The tempests by which the political +atmosphere of the world is cleared and purged of all its morbid +influences burst not upon us—we see them at a +distance—we know that they are working for all mankind; and +we feel for those who boldly expose themselves to their 'pitiless +peltings' as men feel for the sailors whom they suppose to be +exposed on the ocean to the storm, while they listen to it from +their beds or winter firesides.[12] We discuss all political +opinions, and all the great questions which they affect, with the +calmness of philosophers; not without emotion certainly, but +without passion; we have no share in returning members to +parliament—we feel no dread of those injuries, indignities, +and calumnies to which those who have are too often exposed; and we +are free from the bitterness of feelings which always attend +them.[13]</p> + +<p>How exalted, how glorious, has been the destiny of England, to +spread over so vast a portion of the globe her literature, her +language, and her free institutions! How ought the sense of this +high destiny to animate her sons in their efforts to perfect their +institutions which they have formed by slow degrees from feudal +barbarism; to make them in reality as perfect as they would have +them appear to the world to be in theory, that rising nations may +love and honour the source whence they derive theirs, and continue +to look to it for improvement.</p> + +<p>We return to the society of our wives and children after the +labours of the day are over, with tempers unruffled by collision +with political and religious antagonists, by unfavourable changes +in the season and the markets, and the other circumstances which +affect so much the incomes and prospects of our friends at home. We +must look to them for the chief pleasures of our lives, and know +that they must look to us for theirs; and if anything has crossed +us we try to conceal it from them. There is in India a strong +feeling of mutual dependence which prevents little domestic +misunderstandings between man and wife from growing into quarrels +so often as in other countries, where this is less prevalent. Men +have not here their clubs, nor their wives their little coteries to +fly to when disposed to make serious matters out of trifles, and +both are in consequence much inclined to bear and forbear. There +are, of course, on the other hand, evils in India that people have +not to contend with at home; but, on the whole, those who are +disposed to look on the fair, as well as on the dark side of all +around them, can enjoy life in India very much, as long as they and +those dear to them are free from physical pain.[14] We everywhere +find too many disposed to look upon the dark side of all that is +present, and the bright side of all that is distant in time and +place—always miserable themselves, be they where they will, +and making all around them miserable; this commonly arises from +indigestion, and the habit of eating and drinking in a hot, as in a +cold, climate; and giving their stomachs too much to do, as if they +were the only parts of the human frame whose energies were +unrelaxed by the temperature of tropical climates.</p> + +<p>There is, however, one great defect in Anglo-Indian society; it +is composed too exclusively of the servants of government, civil, +military, and ecclesiastic, and wants much of the freshness, +variety, and intelligence of cultivated societies otherwise +constituted. In societies where capital is concentrated for +employment in large agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing +establishments, those who possess and employ it form a large +portion of the middle and higher classes. They require the +application of the higher branches of science to the efficient +employment of their capital in almost every purpose to which it can +be applied; and they require, at the same time, to show that they +are not deficient in that conventional learning of the schools and +drawing-rooms to which the circles they live and move in attach +importance. In such societies we are, therefore, always coming in +contact with men whose scientific knowledge is necessarily very +precise, and at the same time very extensive, while their manners +and conversation are of the highest polish. There is, perhaps, +nothing which strikes a gentleman from India so much on his +entering a society differently constituted, as the superior +precision of men's information upon scientific subjects; and more +especially upon that of the sciences more immediately applicable to +the arts by which the physical enjoyments of men are produced, +prepared, and distributed all over the world. Almost all men in +India feel that too much of their time before they left England was +devoted to the acquisition of the dead languages; and too little to +the study of the elements of science. The time lost can never be +regained—at least they think so, which is much the same +thing. Had they been well grounded in the elements of physics, +physiology, and chemistry before they left their native land, they +would have gladly devoted their leisure to the improvement of their +knowledge; but to go back to elements, where elements can be learnt +only from books, is, unhappily, what so few can bring themselves +to, that no man feels ashamed of acknowledging that he has never +studied them at all till he returns to England, or enters a society +differently constituted, and finds that he has lost the support of +the great majority that always surrounded him in India.[15] It +will, perhaps, be said that the members of the official aristocracy +of all countries have more or less of the same defects, for certain +it is that they everywhere attach paramount or undue importance to +the conventional learning of the grammar-school and the +drawing-room, and the ignorant and the indolent have everywhere the +support of a great majority. Johnson has, however, observed:</p> + +<p> 'But the truth is that the knowledge of external +nature and the sciences, which that knowledge requires or includes, +are not the great or the frequent business of the human mind. +Whether we provide for action or conversation, whether we wish to +be useful or pleasing, the first requisite is the religious and +moral knowledge of right and wrong; the next is an acquaintance +with the history of mankind, and with those examples which may be +said to embody truth, and prove by events the reasonableness of +opinions.[16] Prudence and justice are virtues and excellences of +all times, and of all places—we are perpetually moralists; +but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with +intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter are +voluntary and at leisure. Physiological learning is of such rare +emergence, that one may know another half his life, without being +able to estimate his skill in hydrostatics or astromony; but his +moral and prudential character immediately appears. Those authors, +therefore, are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of +prudence, most principles of moral truth, and most materials for +conversation; and these purposes are best served by poets, orators, +and historians' (<i>Life of Milton</i>).</p> + +<p><br> +Notes:</p> + +<p>1. In India officers have much better opportunities in time of +peace to learn how to handle troops than in England, from having +them more concentrated in large stations, with fine open plains to +exercise upon. During the whole of the cold season, from the +beginning of November to the end of February, the troops are at +large stations exercised in brigades, and the artillery, cavalry, +and infantry together. [W. H. S.] The normal garrison of Meerut in +recent years has consisted of one British cavalry regiment, one +battalion of British infantry, one native cavalry regiment, and one +battalion of native infantry, with two batteries of horse and two +of field artillery. The cantonment was established in 1806, from +which date the town grew rapidly in size and population. The civil +staff has been largely increased since Sleeman's time by the +addition of numerous officers belonging to irrigation and other +departmental services which did not exist in his day. The offices +of District Magistrate and Collector have been united as a single +person for many years.</p> + +<p>2. The cantonments suffered severely from typhoid fever for +several years in the latter part of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>3. Few Anglo-Indians will dispute the truth of this dictum.</p> + +<p>4. The late Earl of Liverpool, then Mr. Jenkinson, married this +old lady's daughter. He was always very attentive to her, and she +used with feelings of great pride and pleasure to display the +contents of the boxes of millinery which he used every year to send +out to her. [W. H. 8.] The author came out to India in 1809. Mr. +Charles Jenkinson was created Baron Hawkesbury in 1786, and Earl of +Liverpool in 1796. His first wife, who died in 1770, was Amelia, +daughter of Mr. William Watts, Governor of Fort William, and of the +lady described by the author. Their only son succeeded to the +earldom in 1808, and died in 1828. The peerage became extinct on +the death of the third earl in 1851. (Burke's <i>Peerage</i>.) It +was revived in 1905.</p> + +<p>5. Lord Liverpool, the second earl, became Prime Minister in +1812, after the murder of Perceval. Mrs. Johnson (not Johnstone) +was not 'the widow of a Governor-General of India'. Her history is +told in detail on her tombstone in St. John's churchyard, Calcutta, +and is summarized in Buckland, <i>Dictionary of Indian +Biography</i> (1906). She was born in 1725, and died in 1812. She +had four husbands, namely (l) Parry Purple Temple, whom she married +when she was only thirteen years of age; (2) James Altham, who died +of smallpox a few days after his marriage; (3) William Watts, +Senior Member of Council, and for a short time Governor or +President of Fort William in 1758; (4) in 1774 Rev. William +Johnson, who became principal chaplain of Fort William in 1784, and +left India in 1788. She was known as 'the old Begum ', and her +epitaph asserts that she was when she died 'the oldest British +resident in Bengal, universally beloved, respected, and revered'. +Mr. A. L. Paul kindly communicated the full text of the inscription +on her tomb, with some additional notes. The author met her in +1810, when she was about eighty-five years of age.</p> + +<p>6. The tragedy of the Black Hole occurred in June, 1756.</p> + +<p>7. Of late years the rigour of the custom exacting midday calls +has been relaxed in some places.</p> + +<p>8. Moat people would require some training before they could +find this very abstemious regimen 'the most agreeable'.</p> + +<p>9. It will, I hope, be admitted that this observation still +holds good.</p> + +<p>10. When the author wrote the rupee was worth more than two +shillings, the members of the Indian services were few in number, +and mostly well paid, while living was cheap. Now all is changed. +The rupee has an artificial value of 1<i>s</i>. 4<i>d</i>., the +members of the services are numerous and often ill paid, while +living is dear. The sharp fall in the value of silver, and +consequently in the gold equivalent of the rupee, began in 1874. +'Corroding cares and anxieties' are now the lot of most people who +serve in India. They now have the privilege of paying taxes.</p> + +<p>11. This perfect religious freedom, still generally +characteristic of Anglo-Indian society, is one of its greatest +charms; and the charms of the country do not increase.</p> + +<p>12. The author probably had in his mind the famous lines of +Lucretius:-</p> + +<p> Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora +ventis,<br> + E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem;<br> + Non quia vexari quemquam 'st jucunda +voluptas,<br> + Sed, quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave +'st.<br> + + + + +(Book II, line 1.)</p> + +<p>13. This delightful philosophic calm is no longer an +Anglo-Indian possession; nor can the modern Indian official +congratulate himself on his immunity from 'injuries, indignities, +and calumnies'.</p> + +<p>14. There are now clubs everywhere, and coteries are said to be +not unknown. Few Anglo-Indians of the present day are able to share +the author's cheery optimism.</p> + +<p>15. In this matter also time has wrought great changes. The +scientific branches of the Indian services, the medical, +engineering, forestry, geological survey, and others, have greatly +developed, and many officials, in India, whether of European or +Indian race, now occupy high places in the world of science.</p> + +<p>16. Compare Bolingbroke's observation, already quoted, that +'history is philosophy teaching by example'.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch74">CHAPTER 74</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Pilgrims of India.</p> + +<p>There is nothing which strikes a European more in travelling +over the great roads in India than the vast number of pilgrims of +all kinds which he falls in with, particularly between the end of +November [<i>sic</i>], when all the autumn harvest has been +gathered, and the seed of the spring crops has been in the ground. +They consist for the most part of persons, male and female, +carrying Ganges water from the point at Hardwār, where the +sacred stream emerges from the hills, to the different temples in +all parts of India, dedicated to the gods Vishnu and Siva. There +the water is thrown upon the stones which represent the gods, and +when it falls upon these stones it is called 'Chandamirt', or holy +water, and is frequently collected and reserved to be drunk as a +remedy 'for a mind diseased'[1]</p> + +<p>This water is carried in small bottles, bearing the seals of the +presiding priest at the holy place whence it was brought. The +bottles are contained in covered baskets, fixed to the ends of a +pole, which is carried across the shoulder. The people who carry it +are of three kinds—those who carry it for themselves as a +votive offering to some shrine; those who are hired for the purpose +by others as salaried servants; and, thirdly, those who carry it +for sale. In the interval between the sowing and reaping of the +spring crops, that is, between November and March, a very large +portion of the Hindoo landholders and cultivators of India devote +their leisure to this pious duty. They take their baskets and poles +with them from home, or purchase them on the road; and having +poured their libations on the head of the god, and made him +acquainted with their wants and wishes, return home. From November +to March three-fourths of the number of these people one meets +consist of this class. At other seasons more than three-fourths +consist of the other two classes—of persons hired for the +purpose as servants, and those who carry the water for sale.</p> + +<p>One morning the old Jemadār, the marriage of whose mango- +grove with the jasmine I have already described,[2] brought his two +sons and a nephew to pay their respects to me on their return to +Jubbulpore from a pilgrimage to Jagannāth.[3] The sickness of +the youngest, a nice boy of about six years of age, had caused this +pilgrimage. The eldest son was about twenty years of age, and the +nephew about eighteen.</p> + +<p>After the usual compliments, I addressed the eldest son: 'And so +your brother was really very ill when you set out?'</p> + +<p>'Very ill, sir; hardly able to stand without assistance.'</p> + +<p>'What was the matter with him?'</p> + +<p>'It was what we call a drying-up, or withering of the +System.'</p> + +<p>'What were the symptoms?'</p> + +<p>'Dysentery.'</p> + +<p>'Good; and what cured him, as he now seems quite well?'</p> + +<p>'Our mother and father vowed five pair of baskets of Ganges +water to Gajādhar, an incarnation of the god Siva, at the +temple of Baijnāth, and a visit to the temple of +Jagannāth.'</p> + +<p>'And having fulfilled these vows, your brother recovered?'</p> + +<p>'He had quite recovered, sir, before we had set out on our +return from Jagannāth.'</p> + +<p>'And who carried the baskets?'</p> + +<p>'My mother, wife, cousin, myself, and little brother, all +carried one pair each.'</p> + +<p>'This little boy could not surely carry a pair of baskets all +the way?'</p> + +<p>'No, sir, we had a pair of small baskets made especially for +him; and when within about three miles of the temple he got down +from his little pony, took up his baskets, and carried them to the +god. Up to within three miles of the temple the baskets were +carried by a Brahman servant, whom we had taken with us to cook our +food. We had with us another Brahman, to whom we had to pay only a +trifle, as his principal wages were made up of fees from families +in the town of Jubbulpore, who had made similar vows, and gave him +so much a bottle for the water he carried in their several names to +the god.'</p> + +<p>'Did you give all your water to the Baijnāth temple, or +carry some with you to Jagannāth?'</p> + +<p>'No water is ever offered to Jagannāth, sir; he is an +incarnation of Vishnu.'[4]</p> + +<p>'And does Vishnu never drink?'</p> + +<p>'He drinks, sir, no doubt; but he gets nothing but offerings of +food and money.'</p> + +<p>'From this to Bindāchal on the Ganges, two hundred and +thirty miles; thence to Baijnāth, a hundred and fifty miles; +and thence to Jagannāth, some four or five hundred miles +more.'[5]</p> + +<p>'And your mother and wife walked all the way with their +baskets?'</p> + +<p>'All the way, sir, except when either of them got sick, when she +mounted the pony with my little brother till she felt well +again.'</p> + +<p>Here were four members of a respectable family walking a +pilgrimage of between twelve and fourteen hundred miles, going and +coming, and carrying burthens on their shoulders for the recovery +of the poor sick boy; and millions of families are every year doing +the same from all parts of India. The change of air, and exercise, +cured the boy, and no doubt did them all a great deal of good; but +no physician in the world but a religions one could have persuaded +them to undertake such a journey for the same purpose.</p> + +<p>The rest of the pilgrims we meet are for the most part of the +two monastic orders of Gosāins, or the followers of Siva, and +Bairāgīs, or followers of Vishnu, and Muhammadan +Fakīrs. A Hindoo of any caste may become a member of these +monastic orders. They are all disciples of the high priests of the +temples of their respective gods; and in their name they wander all +over India, visiting the celebrated temples which are dedicated to +them. A part of the revenues of these temples is devoted to +subsisting these disciples as they pass; and every one of them +claims the right of a day's food and lodging, or more, according to +the rules of the temple. They make collections along the roads; and +when they return, commonly bring back some surplus as an offering +to their apostle, the high priest who has adopted them. Almost +every high priest has a good many such disciples, as they are not +costly; and from their returning occasionally, and from the +disciples of others passing, these high priests learn everything of +importance that is going on over India, and are well acquainted +with the state of feeling and opinion.</p> + +<p>What these disciples get from secular people is given not only +from feelings of charity and compassion, but as a religions or +propitiatory offering: for they are all considered to be armed by +their apostle with a vicarious power of blessing or cursing; and as +being in themselves men of God whom it might be dangerous to +displease. They never condescend to feign disease or misery in +order to excite feelings of compassion, but demand what they want +with a bold front, as holy men who have a right to share liberally +in the superfluities which God has given to the rest of the Hindoo +community. They are in general exceedingly intelligent men of the +world, and very communicative. Among them will be found members of +all classes of Hindoo society, and of the most wealthy and +respectable families.[6] While I had charge of the Narsinghpur +district in 1822 a Bairāgī, or follower of Vishnu, came +and settled himself down on the border of a village near my +residence. His mild and paternal deportment pleased all the little +community so much that they carried him every day more food than he +required. At last, the proprietor of the village, a very +respectable old gentleman, to whom I was much attached, went out +with all his family to ask a blessing of the holy man. As they sat +down before him, the tears were seen stealing down his cheeks as he +looked upon the old man's younger sons and daughters. At last, the +old man's wife burst into tears, ran up, and fell upon the holy +man's neck, exclaiming, 'My lost son, my lost son!' He was indeed +her eldest son. He had disappeared suddenly twelve years before, +became a disciple of the high priest of a distant temple, and +visited almost every celebrated temple in India, from +Kedārnāth in the eternal snows to Sītā +Baldī Rāmesar, opposite the island of Ceylon.[7] He +remained with the family for nearly a year, delighting them and all +the country around with his narratives. At last, he seemed to lose +his spirits, his usual rest and appetite; and one night he again +disappeared. He had been absent for some years when I last saw the +family, and I know not whether he ever returned.</p> + +<p>The real members of these monastic orders are not generally bad +men; but there are a great many men of all kinds who put on their +disguises, and under their cloak commit all kinds of atrocities.[8] +The security and convenience which the real pilgrims enjoy upon our +roads, and the entire freedom from all taxation, both upon these +roads and at the different temples they visit, tend greatly to +attach them to our rule, and through that attachment, a tone of +good feeling towards it is generally disseminated over all India. +They come from the native states, and become acquainted with the +superior advantages the people under us enjoy, in the greater +security of property, the greater freedom with which it is enjoyed +and displayed; the greater exemption from taxation, and the odious +right of search which it involves, the greater facilities for +travelling in good roads and bridges; the greater respectability +and integrity of public servants, arising from the greater security +in their tenure of office and more adequate rate of avowed +salaries; the entire freedom of the navigation of our great rivers, +on which thousands and tens of thousands of laden vessels now pass +from one end to the other without any one to question whence they +come or whither they go. These are tangible proofs of good +government, which all can appreciate; and as the European +gentleman, in his rambles along the great roads, passes the lines +of pilgrims with which the roads are crowded during the cold +season, he is sure to hear himself hailed with grateful shouts, as +one of those who secured for them and the people generally all the +blessings they now enjoy.[9]</p> + +<p>One day my sporting friend, the Rājā of Maihar, told +me that he had been purchasing some water from the Ganges at its +source, to wash the image of Vishnu which stood in one of his +temples.[10] I asked him whether he ever drank the water after the +image had been washed in it. 'Yes,' said he, 'we all occasionally +drink the "chandamirt".' 'And do you in the same manner drink the +water in which the god Siva has been washed?' 'Never,' said the +Rājā. 'And why not?' 'Because his wife, Devī, one +day in a domestic quarrel cursed him and said, "The water which +falls from thy head shall no man henceforward drink." From that +day', said the Rājā, 'no man has ever drunk of the water +that washes his image, lest Devī should punish him.' 'And how +is it, then, Rājā Sahib, that mankind continue to drink +the water of the Ganges, which is supposed to flow from her husband +Siva's top-knot?' 'Because', replied the Rājā, 'this +sacred river first flows from the right foot of the god Vishnu, and +thence passes over the head of Siva. The three gods', continued the +Rājā, 'govern the world turn and turn about, twenty years +at a time. While Vishnu reigns, all goes on well; rain descends in +good season, the harvests are abundant, and the cattle thrive. When +Brahma reigns, there is little falling off in these matters; but +during the twenty years that Siva reigns, nothing goes on +well—we are all at cross purposes, our crops fail, our cattle +get the murrain, and mankind suffer from epidemic diseases.' The +Rājā was a follower of Vishnu, as may be guessed.</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Tavernier notes that Ganges water is often given at weddings, +'each guest receiving a cup or two, according to the liberality of +the host'. 'There is sometimes', he says, '2,000 or 3,000 rupees' +worth of it consumed at a wedding.' (Tavernier, <i>Travels</i>, ed. +Ball, vol. ii, pp. 231, 254.)</p> + +<p>2. <i>Ante</i>, Chapter 5, [3].</p> + +<p>3. Jagannāth (corruptly Juggernaut, &c.), or Purī, +on the coast of Orissa, probably is the most venerated shrine in +India. The principal deity there worshipped is a form of +Vishnu.</p> + +<p>4. Water may not be offered to Jagannāth, but the facts +stated in this chapter show that it is offered in other temples of +Vishnu.</p> + +<p>5. Bindāchal is in the Mirzāpur district of the United +Provinces. Baijnāth is in the Santāl Parganas District of +the Bhāgalpur Division in the province of Bihār and +Orissa. The group of temples at Deogarh dedicated to Siva is +visited by pilgrims from all parts of India. The principal temple +is called Baijnāth or Baidyanāth. Deogarh is a small town +in the Santāl Parganas (<i>I.G.</i>, 1908, s.v. Deogarh; +<i>A.S.R.</i>, vol. viii (1878), pp. 137-45, Pl. ix, x; vol. xix +(1885), pp. 29-35 (crude notes), Pl. x, xi).</p> + +<p>6. Pandit Sāligrām, who was Postmaster-General of the +North-Western Provinces some years ago, became one of these +wandering friars, and other similar cases are recorded.</p> + +<p>7. Seet Buldee Ramesur in original edition. The temple alluded +to is that called Rāmesvaram (Ramisseram) in the small island +of Pāmban at the entrance of Palk's Passage in the Straits of +Manaar, which is distinguished by its magnificent colonnade and +corridors. (Fergusson, <i>Hist. Ind. and Eastern Arch.</i>, vol. i, +pp. 380-3, ed. 1910.) The island forms part of the so-called Adam's +Bridge, a reef of comparatively recent formation, which almost +joins Ceylon with the mainland. A railway now runs along the +'bridge', and the pilgrims have an easy task.</p> + +<p>The Kedārnāth temple is in the Himalayan District of +Garhwāl (United Provinces), at an elevation of nearly 12,000 +feet.</p> + +<p>8. The author's other works show that the Thugs frequently +assumed the guise of ascetics, and much of the secret crime of +India is known to be committed by men who adopt the garb of +holiness. A man disguised as a fakīr is often sent on by +dacoits (gang- robbers) as a spy and decoy. 'Three-fourths of these +religions mendicants, whether Hindoos or Muhammadans, rob and +steal, and a very great portion of them murder their victims before +they rob them; but they have not any of them as a class been found +to follow the trade of murder so exclusively as to be brought +properly within the scope of our operations. . . . There is hardly +any species of crime that is not throughout India perpetrated by +men in the disguise of these religious mendicants; and almost all +such mendicants are really men in disguise; for Hindoos of any +caste can become Bairāgīs and Gosāins; and +Muhammadans of any grade can become Fakīrs.' (<i>A Report on +the System of Megpunnaism</i>, 1839, p. 11.) In the same little +work the author advises the compulsory registration of 'every +disciple belonging to every high priest, whether Hindoo or +Muhammadan', and a stringent Vagrant Act. His suggestions have not +been acted on.</p> + +<p>9. This incident still happens occasionally.</p> + +<p>10. For the Rājā, see <i>ante</i>, chapter 20, +[6].</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch75">CHAPTER 75</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">The Bēgam Sumroo.</p> + +<p>On the 7th of February [1836] I went out to Sardhana and visited +the church built and endowed by the late Bēgam Sombre, whose +remains are now deposited in it.[1] It was designed by an Italian +gentleman, M. Reglioni, and is a fine but not a striking +building.[2] I met the bishop, Julius Caesar, an Italian from +Milan, whom I had known a quarter of a century before, a happy and +handsome young man—he is still handsome, though old; but very +miserable because the Bēgam did not leave him so large a +legacy as he expected. In the revenues of her church he had, she +thought, quite enough to live upon; and she said that priests +without wives or children to care about ought to be satisfied with +this; and left him only a few thousand rupees. She made him the +medium of conveying a donation to the See of Rome of one hundred +and fifty thousand rupees,[3] and thereby procured for him the +bishopric of Amartanta in the island of Cyprus; and got her +grandson, Dyce Sombre, made a chevalier of the Order of Christ, and +presented with a splint from the real cross, as a relic.</p> + +<p>The Bēgam Sombre was by birth a Saiyadanī, or lineal +descendant from Muhammad, the founder of the Musalmān faith; +and she was united to Walter Reinhard, when very young, by all the +forms considered necessary by persons of her persuasion when +married to men of another.[4] Reinhard had been married to another +woman of the Musalmān faith, who still lives at Sardhana,[5] +but she had become insane, and has ever since remained so. By this +first wife he had a son, who got from the Emperor the title of +Zafar Yāb Khān, at the request of the Bēgam, his +stepmother; but he was a man of weak intellect, and so little +thought of that he was not recognized even as the nominal chief on +the death of his father.</p> + +<p>Walter Reinhard was a native of Salzburg. He enlisted as a +private soldier in the French service, and came to India, where he +entered the service of the East India Company, and rose to the rank +of sergeant.[6] Reinhard got the sobriquet of Sombre from his +comrades while in the French service from the sombre cast of his +countenance and temper.[7] An Armenian, by name Gregory, of a +Calcutta family, the virtual minister of Kāsim Alī +Khān,[8] under the title of Gorgīn Khān,[9] took him +into his service when the war was about to commence between his +master and the English. Kāsim Alī was a native of +Kāshmīr, and not naturally a bad man; but he was goaded +to madness by the injuries and insults heaped upon him by the +servants of the East India Company, who were not then paid, as at +present, in adequate salaries, but in profits upon all kinds of +monopolies; and they would not suffer the recognized sovereign of +the country in which they traded to grant to his subjects the same +exemption that they claimed for themselves exclusively; and a war +was the consequence.[10]</p> + +<p>Mr. Ellis, one of these civil servants and chief of the factory +at Patna, whose opinions had more weight with the council in +Calcutta than all the wisdom of such men as Vansittart and Warren +Hastings, because they happened to be more consonant with the +personal interests of the majority, precipitately brought on the +war, and assumed the direction of all military operations, of which +he knew nothing, and for which he seems to have been totally +unfitted by the violence of his temper. All his enterprises +failed—the city and factory were captured by the enemy, and +the European inhabitants taken prisoners. The Nawāb, smarting +under the reiterated wrongs he had received, and which he +attributed mainly to the counsels of Mr. Ellis, no sooner found the +chief within his grasp, than he determined to have him and all who +were taken with him, save a Doctor Fullarton, to whom he owed some +personal obligations, put to death. His own native officers were +shocked at the proposal, and tried to dissuade him from the +purpose, but he was resolved, and not finding among them any +willing to carry it into execution he applied to Sumroo, who +readily undertook and, with some of his myrmidons, performed the +horrible duty in 1763.[11] At the suggestion of Gregory and Sombre, +Kāsim Alī now attempted to take the small principality of +Nepāl, as a kind of basis for his operations against the +English. He had four hundred excellent rifles with flint locks and +screwed barrels made at Monghyr (Mungēr) on the Ganges, so as +to fit into small boxes. These boxes were sent up on the backs of +four hundred brave volunteers for this forlorn hope. Gregory had +got a passport for the boxes as rare merchandise for the palace of +the prince at Kathmandū, in whose presence alone they were to +be opened. On reaching the palace at night, these volunteers were +to open their boxes, screw up the barrels, destroy all the inmates, +and possess themselves of the palace, where it is supposed +Kāsim Ali had already secured many friends. Twelve thousand +soldiers had advanced to the foot of the hills near Betiyā, to +support the attack, and the volunteers were in the fort of +Makwānpur, the only strong fort between the plain and the +capital. They had been treated with great consideration by the +garrison, and were to set out at daylight the next morning; but one +of the attendants, who had been let into the secret, got drunk, and +in a quarrel with one of the garrison, told him that he should see +in a few days who would be master of that garrison. This led to +suspicion; the boxes were broken open, the arms discovered, and the +whole of the party, except three or four, were instantly put to +death; the three or four who escaped gave intelligence to the army +at Betiyā, and the whole retreated upon Monghyr. But for this +drunken man, Nepāl had perhaps been Kāsim +Alī's.[12]</p> + +<p>Kāsim Alī Khān was beaten in several actions by +our gallant little band of troops under their able leader, Colonel +Adams; and at last driven to seek shelter with the Nawāb +Wazīr of Oudh, into whose service Sumroo afterwards entered. +This chief being in his turn beaten, Sumroo went off and entered +the service of the celebrated chief of Rohilkhand, Hāfiz +Rahmat Khān. This he soon quitted from fear of the English. He +raised two battalions in 1772, which he soon afterwards increased +to four; and let out always to the highest bidder—first, to +the Jāt chiefs of Dīg, then to the chief of Jaipur, then +to Najaf Khān, the prime minister, and then to the +Marāthās. His battalions were officered by Europeans, but +Europeans of respectability were unwilling to take service under a +man so precariously situated, however great their necessities; and +he was obliged to content himself for the most part with the very +dross of society—men who could neither read nor write, nor +keep themselves sober. The consequence was that the battalions were +often in a state of mutiny, committing every kind of outrage upon +the persons of their officers, and at all times in a state of +insubordination bordering on mutiny. These battalions seldom +obtained their pay till they put their commandant into confinement, +and made him dig up his hidden stores, if he had any, or borrow +from bankers, if he had none. If the troops felt pressed for time, +and their commander was of the necessary character, they put him +astride upon a hot gun without his trousers. When our battalion had +got its pay out of him in this manner, he was often handed over to +another for the same purpose. The poor old Bēgam had been +often subjected to the starving stage of this proceeding before she +came under our protection; but had never, I believe, been grilled +upon a gun. It was a rule, it was said, with Sombre, to enter the +field of battle at the safest point, form line facing the enemy, +fire a few rounds in the direction where they stood, without regard +to the distance or effect, form square, and await the course of +events. If victory declared for the enemy, he sold his unbroken +force to him to great advantage; if for his friends, he assisted +them in collecting the plunder, and securing all the advantages of +the victory. To this prudent plan of action his corps afterwards +steadily adhered; and they never took or lost a gun till they came +in contact with our forces at Ajantā and Assaye.[13]</p> + +<p>Sombre died at Agra on the 4th of May, 1778, and his remains +were at first buried in his garden. They were afterwards removed to +the consecrated ground in the Agra churchyard by his widow the +Bēgam,[14] who was baptized, at the age of forty,[15] by a +Roman Catholic priest, under the name of Joanna,[16] on the 7th of +May, 1781.</p> + +<p>On the death of her husband she was requested to take command of +the force by all the Europeans and natives that composed it, as the +only possible mode of keeping them together, since the son was +known to be altogether unfit. She consented, and was regularly +installed in the charge by the Emperor Shāh Alam. Her chief +officer was a Mr. Paoli, a German, who soon after took an active +part in providing the poor imbecile old Emperor with a prime +minister, and got himself assassinated on the restoration, a few +weeks after, of his rival.[17] The troops continued in the same +state of insubordination, and the Bēgam was anxious for an +opportunity to show that she was determined to be obeyed.</p> + +<p>While she was encamped with the army of the prime minister of +the time at Mathurā,[18] news was one day brought to her that +two slave girls had set fire to her houses at Agra, in order that +they might make off with their paramours, two soldiers of the guard +she had left in charge. These houses had thatched roofs, and +contained all her valuables, and the widows, wives, and children of +her principal officers. The fire had been put out with much +difficulty and great loss of property; and the two slave girls were +soon after discovered in the bazaar at Agra, and brought out to the +Bēgam's camp. She had the affair investigated in the usual +summary form; and their guilt being proved to the satisfaction of +all present, she had them flogged till they were senseless, and +then thrown into a pit dug in front of her tent for the purpose, +and buried alive. I had heard the story related in different ways, +and I now took pains to ascertain the truth; and this short +narrative may, I believe, be relied upon.[19]</p> + +<p>An old Persian merchant, called the Agā, still resided at +Sardhana, to whom I knew that one of the slave girls belonged. I +visited him, and he told me that his father had been on intimate +terms with Sombre, and when he died his mother went to live with +his widow, the Bēgam—that his slave girl was one of the +two- that his mother at first protested against her being taken off +to the camp, but became on inquiry satisfied of her guilt—and +that the Bēgam's object was to make a strong impression upon +the turbulent spirit of her troops by a severe example. 'In this +object', said the old Agā, 'she entirely succeeded; and for +some years after her orders were implicitly obeyed; had she +faltered on that occasion she must have lost the command—she +would have lost that respect, without which it would have been +impossible for her to retain it a month. I was then a boy; but I +remember well that there were, besides my mother and sisters, many +respectable females that would have rather perished in the flames +than come out to expose themselves to the crowd that assembled to +see the fires; and had the fires not been put out, a great many +lives must have been lost; besides, there were many old people and +young children who could not have escaped.' The old Agā was +going off to take up his quarters at Delhi when this conversation +took place; and I am sure that he told me what he thought to be +true. This narrative corresponded exactly with that of several +other old men from whom I had heard the story. It should be +recollected that among natives there is no particular mode of +execution prescribed for those who are condemned to die; nor, in a +camp like this, any court of justice save that of the commander in +which they could be tried, and, supposing the guilt to have been +established, as it is said to have been to the satisfaction of the +Bēgam and the principal officers, who were all Europeans and +Christians, perhaps the punishment was not much greater than the +crime deserved and the occasion demanded. But it is possible that +the slave girls may not have set fire to the buildings, but merely +availed themselves of the occasion of the fire to run off; indeed, +slave girls are under so little restraint in India, that it would +be hardly worth while for them to burn down a house to get out. I +am satisfied that the Bēgam believed them guilty, and that the +punishment, horrible as it was, was merited. It certainly had the +desired effect. My object has been to ascertain the truth in this +case, and to state it, and not to eulogize or defend the old +Bēgam.</p> + +<p>After Paoli's death, the command of the troops under the +Bēgam devolved successively upon Baours, Evans, Dudrenec, who, +after a short time, all gave it up in disgust at the beastly habits +of the European subalterns, and the overbearing insolence to which +they and the want of regular pay gave rise among the soldiers. At +last the command devolved upon Monsieur Le Vaisseau, a French +gentleman of birth, education, gentlemanly deportment, and +honourable feelings.[20] The battalions had been increased to six, +with their due proportion of guns and cavalry; part resided at +Sardhana, her capital, and part at Delhi, in attendance upon the +Emperor. A very extraordinary man entered her service about the +same time with Le Vaisseau, George Thomas, who, from a +quartermaster on board a ship, raised himself to a principality in +Northern India.[21] Thomas on one occasion raised his mistress in +the esteem of the Emperor and the people by breaking through the +old rule of central squares: gallantly leading on his troops, and +rescuing his majesty from a perilous situation in one of his +battles with a rebellious subject, Najaf Kulī Khān, where +the Bēgam was present in her palankeen, and reaped all the +laurels, being from that day called 'the most beloved daughter of +the Emperor'.[22] As his best chance of securing his ascendancy +against such a rival, Le Vaisseau proposed marriage to the +Bēgam, and was accepted. She was married to Le Vaisseau by +Father Gregoris, a Carmelite monk, in 1793, before Saleur and +Bernier, two French officers of great merit. George Thomas left her +service, in consequence, in 1793, and set up for himself; and was +afterwards crushed by the united armies of the Sikhs and +Marāthās, commanded by European officers, after he had +been recognized as a general officer by the Governor-General of +India. George Thomas had latterly twelve small disciplined +battalions officered by Europeans. He had good artillery, cast his +own guns, and was the first person that applied iron calibres to +brass cannon. He was unquestionably a man of very extraordinary +military genius, and his ferocity and recklessness as to the means +he used were quite in keeping with the times. His revenues were +derived from the Sikh states which he had rendered tributary; and +he would probably have been sovereign of them all in the room of +Ranjit Singh, had not the jealousy of Perron and other French +officers in the Marāthā army interposed.[23]</p> + +<p>The Bēgam tried in vain to persuade her husband to receive +all the European officers of the corps at his table as gentlemen, +urging that not only their domestic peace, but their safety among +such a turbulent set, required that the character of these officers +should be raised if possible, and their feelings conciliated. +Nothing, he declared, should ever induce him to sit at table with +men of such habits; and they at last determined that no man should +command them who would not condescend to do so. Their insolence and +that of the soldiers generally became at last unbearable, and the +Bēgam determined to go off with her husband, and seek an +asylum in the Honourable Company's territory with the little +property she could command, of one hundred thousand rupees in +money, and her jewels, amounting perhaps in value to one hundred +thousand more. Le Vaisseau did not understand English; but with the +aid of a grammar and a dictionary he was able to communicate her +wishes to Colonel McGowan, who commanded at that time (1795) an +advanced post of our army at Anūpshahr on the Ganges.[24] He +proposed that the Colonel should receive them in his cantonments, +and assist them in their journey thence to Farrukhābād, +where they wished in future to reside, free from the cares and +anxieties of such a charge. The Colonel had some scruples, under +the impression that he might be censured for aiding in the flight +of a public officer of the Emperor. He now addressed the +Governor-General of India, Sir John Shore himself, April 1795,[25] +who requested Major Palmer, our accredited agent with Sindhia, who +was then encamped near Delhi, and holding the seals of prime +minister of the empire, to interpose his good offices in favour of +the Bēgam and her husband. Sindhia demanded twelve lākhs +of rupees as the price of the privilege she solicited to retire; +and the Bēgam, in her turn, demanded over and above the +privilege of resigning the command into his hands, the sum of four +lākhs of rupees as the price of the arms and accoutrements +which had been provided at her own cost and that of her late +husband. It was at last settled that she should resign the command, +and set out secretly with her husband; and that Sindhia should +confer the command of her troops upon one of his own officers, who +would pay the son of Sombre two thousand rupees a month for life. +Le Vaisseau was to be received into our territories, treated as a +prisoner of war upon parole, and permitted to reside with his wife +at the French settlement of Chandernagore. His last letter to Sir +John Shore is dated the 30th April, 1795. His last letters +describing this final arrangement are addressed to Mr. Even, a +French merchant at Mirzapore, and a Mr. Bernier, both personal +friends of his, and are dated 18th of May, 1795.[26]</p> + +<p>The battalions on duty at Delhi got intimation of this +correspondence, made the son of Sombre declare himself their +legitimate chief, and march at their head to seize the Bēgam +and her husband. Le Vaisseau heard of their approach, and urged the +Bēgam to set out with him at midnight for Anūpshahr, +declaring that he would rather destroy himself than submit to the +personal indignities which he knew would be heaped upon him by the +infuriated ruffians who were coming to seize them. The Bēgam +consented, declaring that she would put an end to her life with her +own hand should she be taken. She got into her palankeen with a +dagger in her hand, and as he had seen her determined resolution +and proud spirit before exerted on many trying occasions, he +doubted not that she would do what she declared she would. He +mounted his horse and rode by the side of her palankeen, with a +pair of pistols in his holsters, and a good sword by his side. They +had got as far as Kabrī, about three miles from Sardhana,[27] +on the road to Meerut, when they found the battalions from +Sardhana, who had got intimation of the flight, gaining fast upon +the palankeen. Le Vaisseau asked the Bēgam whether she +remained firm in her resolve to die rather than submit to the +indignities that threatened them. 'Yes,' replied she, showing him +the dagger firmly grasped in her right hand. He drew a pistol from +his holster without saying anything, but urged on the bearers. He +could have easily galloped off, and saved himself, but he would not +quit his wife's side. At last the soldiers came up close behind +them. The female attendants of the Bēgam began to scream; and +looking in, Le Vaisseau saw the white cloth that covered the +Bēgam's breast stained with blood. She had stabbed herself, +but the dagger had struck against one of the bones of her chest, +and she had not courage to repeat the blow. Her husband put his +pistol to his temple and fired. The bail passed through his head, +and he fell dead on the ground. One of the soldiers who saw him +told me that he sprang at least a foot off the saddle into the air +as the shot struck him. His body was treated with every kind of +insult by the European officers and their men;[28] and the +Bēgam was taken back into Sardhana, kept under a gun for seven +days, deprived of all kinds of food, save what she got by stealth +from her female servants, and subjected to all manner of insolent +language.</p> + +<p>At last the officers were advised by George Thomas, who had +instigated them to this violence out of pique against the +Bēgam for her preference of the Frenchman,[29] to set aside +their puppet and reseat the Bēgam in the command, as the only +chance of keeping the territory of Sardhana.[30] 'If', said he, +'the Bēgam should die under the torture of mind and body to +which you are subjecting her, the minister will very soon resume +the lands assigned for your payment, and disband a force so +disorderly, and so little likely to be of any use to him or the +Emperor.' A council of war was held—the Bēgam was taken +out from under the gun, and reseated on the 'masnad'. A paper was +drawn up by about thirty European officers, of whom only one, +Monsieur Saleur, could sign his own name, swearing in the name of +God and Jesus Christ,[31] that they would henceforward obey her +with all their hearts and souls, and recognize no other person +whomsoever as commander. They all affixed their seals to this +<i>covenant</i>; but some of them, to show their superior learning, +put their initials, or what they used as such, for some of these +<i>learned Thebans</i> knew only two or three letters of the +alphabet, which they put down, though they happened not to be their +real initials. An officer on the part of Sindhia, who was to have +commanded these troops, was present at this reinstallation of the +Bēgam, and glad to take, as a compensation for his +disappointment, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand rupees, +which the Bēgam contrived to borrow for him.</p> + +<p>The body of poor Le Vaisseau was brought back to camp, and there +lay several days unburied, and exposed to all kinds of indignities. +The supposition that this was the result of a plan formed by the +Bēgam to get rid of Le Vaisseau is, I believe, unfounded.[32] +The Bēgam herself gave some colour of truth to the report by +retaining the name of her first husband, Sombre, to the last, and +never publicly or formally declaring her marriage with Le Vaisseau +after his death. The troops in this mutiny pretended nothing more +than a desire to vindicate the honour of their old commander +Sombre, which had, they said, been compromised by the illicit +intercourse between Le Vaisseau and his widow. She had not dared to +declare the marriage to them lest they should mutiny on that +ground, and deprive her of the command; and for the same reason she +retained the name of Sombre after her restoration, and remained +silent on the subject of her second marriage. The marriage was +known only to a few European officers. Sir John Shore, Major +Palmer, and the other gentlemen with whom Le Vaisseau corresponded. +Some grave old native gentlemen who were long in her service have +told me that they believed 'there really was too much of truth in +the story which excited the troops to mutiny on that +occasion—her too great intimacy with the gallant young +Frenchman. God forgive them for saying so of a lady whose salt they +had eaten for so many years'. Le Vaisseau made no mention of the +marriage to Colonel McGowan; and from the manner in which he +mentions it to Sir John Shore it is clear that he, or she, or both, +were anxious to conceal it from the troops and from Sindhia before +their departure. She stipulated in her will that her heir, Mr. +Dyce, should take the name of Sombre, as if she wished to have the +little episode of her second marriage forgotten.</p> + +<p>After the death of Le Vaisseau, the command devolved on Monsieur +Saleur, a Frenchman, the only respectable officer who signed the +covenant; he had taken no active part in the mutiny; on the +contrary, he had done all he could to prevent it; and he was at +last, with George Thomas, the chief means of bringing his brother +officers back to a sense of their duty. Another battalion was added +to the four in 1787, and another raised in 1798 and 1802; five of +the six marched under Colonel Saleur to the Deccan with Sindhia. +They were in a state of mutiny the whole way, and utterly useless +as auxiliaries, as Saleur himself declared in many of his letters +written in French to his mistress the Bēgam. At the battle of +Assaye, four of these battalions were left in charge of the +Marāthā camps. One was present in the action and lost its +four guns. Soon after the return of these battalions, the +Bēgam entered into an alliance with the British Government; +the force then consisted of these six battalions, a party of +artillery served chiefly by Europeans, and two hundred horse. She +had a good arsenal well stored, a foundry for cannon, both within +the walls of a small fortress, built near her dwelling at Sardhana. +The whole cost her about four lākhs of rupees a year; her +civil establishments eighty thousand, and her household +establishments and expenses about the same; total six lākhs of +rupees a year. The revenues of Sardhana, and the other lands +assigned at different times for the payment of the force had been +at no time more than sufficient to cover these expenses; but under +the protection of our Government they improved with the extension +of tillage, and the improvements of the surrounding markets for +produce, and she was enabled to give largely to the support of +charitable institutions, and to provide handsomely for the support +of her family and pensioners after her death.'[33]</p> + +<p>Sombre's son, Zafaryāb Khān, had a daughter who was +married to Colonel Dyce, who had for some time the management of +the Bēgam's affairs; but he lost her favour long before her +death by his violent temper and overbearing manners, and was +obliged to resign the management to his son, who, on the +Bēgam's death, came in for the bulk of her fortune, or about +sixty lākhs of rupees. He has two sisters who were brought up +by the Bēgam, one married to Captain Troup, an Englishman, and +the other to Mr. Salaroli, an Italian, both very worthy men. Their +wives have been handsomely provided for by the Bēgam, and by +their brother, who trebled the fortunes left to them by the +Bēgam.[34] She built an excellent church at Sardhana, and +assigned the sum of 100,000 rupees as a fund to provide for its +service and repairs; 50,000 rupees as another [fund] for the poor +of the place; and 100,000 as a third, for a college in which Roman +Catholic priests might be educated for the benefit of India +generally. She sent to Rome 150,000 rupees to be employed as a +charity fund at the discretion of the Pope; and to the Archbishop +of Canterbury she sent 50,000 for the same purpose. She gave to the +Bishop of Calcutta 100,000 rupees to provide teachers for the poor +of the Protestant church in Calcutta. She sent to Calcutta for +distribution to the poor, and for the liberation of deserving +debtors, 50,000. To the Catholic missions at Calcutta, Bombay, and +Madras she gave 100,000; and to that of Agra 50,000. She built a +handsome chapel for the Roman Catholics at Meerut; and presented +the fund for its support with a donation of 12,000; and she built a +chapel for the Church Missionary at Meerut, the Reverend Mr. +Richards, at a cost of 10,000, to meet the wants of the native +Protestants.[35]</p> + +<p>Among all who had opportunities of knowing her she bore the +character of a kind-hearted, benevolent, and good woman; and I have +conversed with men capable of judging, who had known her for more +than fifty years. She had uncommon sagacity and a masculine +resolution; and the Europeans and natives who were most intimate +with her have told me that though a woman and of small stature, her +'ru'b' (dignity, or power of commanding personal respect) was +greater than that of almost any person they had ever seen.[36] From +the time she put herself under the protection of the British +Government, in 1808, she by degrees adopted the European modes of +social intercourse, appearing in public on an elephant, in a +carriage, and occasionally on horseback with her hat and veil, and +dining at table with gentlemen. She often entertained +Governors-General and Commanders-in- Chief, with all their +retinues, and sat with them and their staff at table, and for some +years past kept an open house for the society of Meerut; but in no +situation did she lose sight of her dignity. She retained to the +last the grateful affections of the thousands who were supported by +her bounty, while she never ceased to inspire the most profound +respect in the minds of those who every day approached her, and +were on the most unreserved terms of intimacy.[37]</p> + +<p>Lord William Bentinck was an excellent judge of character; and +the following letter will show how deeply his visit to that part of +the country had impressed him with a sense of her extensive +usefulness:</p> + +<p>'To Her Highness the Begum Sumroo.</p> + +<p>'My esteemed Friend,—I cannot leave India without +expressing the sincere esteem I entertain for your highness's +character. The benevolence of disposition and extensive charity +which have endeared you to thousands, have excited in my mind +sentiments of the warmest admiration; and I trust that you may yet +be preserved for many years, the solace of the orphan and widow, +and the sure resource of your numerous dependants. To-morrow +morning I embark for England; and my prayers and best wishes attend +you, and all others who, like you, exert themselves for the benefit +of the people of India.</p> + +<p> 'I remain,<br> + + 'With much consideration,<br> + + +'Your sincere friend,<br> + + (Signed) 'M. W. BENTINCK.[38]</p> + +<p>'Calcutta, March 17th, 1835.'</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The reader will observe that the lady's name is spelt Sumroo +in the heading and Sombre in the text. The form Samrū, or +Shamrū, transliterates the Hindustāni spelling.</p> + +<p>2. The author means General Regholini who was in the +Bēgam's service at the time of her death. (<i>N.W.P. +Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. iii, p. 295.) The church, or +cathedral, was consecrated in 1822, and coat 400,000 rupees. A +portrait of the General, from Sardhana, is now in the Indian +Institute, Oxford, which also possesses a portrait of the +Bishop.</p> + +<p>The best account of Begum Sumroo is to be found in <i>A Tour +through the Upper Provinces of Hindustan</i>, 1804-14, by A. D. = +Ann Deane (1823). Walter Scott introduces more than one of the +stories about the Begum into <i>The Surgeon's Daughter</i> (1827), +e.g.: "But not to be interred alive under your seat, like the +Circassian of whom you were jealous," said Middlemas, shuddering +(vol. 48, Black's ed. of the novels, p. 382).</p> + +<p>3. The Bēgam's benefactions are detailed <i>post</i>.</p> + +<p>4. 'This remarkable woman was the daughter, by a concubine, of +Asad Khān, a Musalmān of Arab decent settled in the town +of Kutāna in the Meerut district. She was born about the year +A.D. 1753 [see <i>post</i>.] On the death of her father, she and +her mother became subject to ill-treatment from her half-brother, +the legitimate heir, and they consequently removed to Delhi about +1760. There she entered the service of Sumru, and accompanied him +through all his campaigns. Sumru, on retiring to Sardhana, found +himself relieved of all the cares and troubles of war, and gave +himself entirely up to a life of ease and pleasure, and so +completely fell into the hands of the Bēgam that she had no +difficulty in inducing him to exchange the title of mistress for +that of wife.' (E. T. Atkinson in <i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., +vol. ii, p. 95. The authorities for the history of Bēgum +Samrū are very conflicting. Atkinson has examined them +critically, and his account probably is the best in existence.) An +anonymous pamphlet published apparently at Sardhana and sent to the +editor anonymously long ago, gives the name of the Bēgam's +father as 'Lutf Ali Khan, a decayed nobleman of Arabian descent' +living at Kotana. Some writers state that the Bēgam was a +dancing girl, and was bought by Sumroo. Her name was +Zēb-un-nissa.</p> + +<p>5. This first wife died at Sardhana during the rainy season of +1838. She must have been above one hundred years of age; and a good +many of the Europeans that he buried in the Sardhana cemetery had +lived above a hundred years. [W. H. S.] She was a concubine, named +Bahā Bēgam. (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, vol. iii, p. +96.)</p> + +<p>6. His name is spelt Reinhard on his tombstone, as in the text. +It is also spelt Renard. According to some authorities, his +birthplace was Trèves, not Salzburg. He is said to have been +a butcher by trade, and certainly deserted from both the French and +the English services.</p> + +<p>7. A more probable explanation is that the name is a corruption +of an alias, Summers, assumed by the deserter.</p> + +<p>8. Kāsim Alī Khān is generally referred to in the +histories under the name of Mīr Kāsim (Meer Cossim). +Mīr Jāfir was deposed in 1760, and his son-in- law +Mīr Kāsim was placed on the throne of Bengal in his stead +by the English. The history of Mīr Kāsim is told in +detail by Thornton in his sixth chapter, and also by Mill.</p> + +<p>9. Probably 'Gorgīn' is a corruption of 'Gregory'. This +name may be a corruption of 'Georgian'.</p> + +<p>10. Mill observes upon these transactions: 'The conduct of the +Company's servants upon this occasion furnishes one of the most +remarkable instances upon record of the power of self-interest to +extinguish all sense of justice and even of shame. They had +hitherto insisted, contrary to all right and all precedent, that +the government of the country should exempt all their goods from +duty; they now insisted that it should impose duties upon all other +traders, and accused it as guilty of a breach of the peace towards +the English nation, because it proposed to remit them.' [W. H. S.] +The quotation is from Book iv, chapter 5 (5th ed., 1858, vol. iii, +p. 237).</p> + +<p>11. The 3rd of October was the day of slaughter at Patna. The +Europeans at other places in Mīr Kāsim's power were also +massacred; and the total number slain, men, women, and children, +amounted to about two hundred. Sumroo personally butchered about +one hundred and fifty at Patna.</p> + +<p>12. Our troops, under Sir David Ochterlony, took the fort of +Makwānpur in 1815, and might in five days have been before the +defenceless capital; but they were here arrested by the romantic +chivalry of the Marquis of Hastings. The country had been virtually +conquered; the prince, by his base treachery towards us and +outrages upon others, had justly forfeited his throne; but the +Governor- General, by perhaps a misplaced lenity, left it to him +without any other guarantee for his future good behaviour than the +recollection that he had been soundly beaten. Unfortunately he left +him at the same time a sufficient quantity of fertile land below +the hills to maintain the same army with which he had fought us, +with better knowledge how to employ them, to keep us out on a +future occasion. Between the attempt of Kāsim Alī and our +attack upon Nepāl, the Gōrkhā masters of the country +had, by a long series of successful aggressions upon their +neighbours, rendered themselves in their own opinion and in that of +their neighbours the beat soldiers of India. They have, of course, +a very natural feeling of hatred against our government, which put +a stop to the wild career of conquest, and wrested from their grasp +all the property and all the pretty women from Kathmandū to +Kashmīr. To these beautify regions they were what the invading +Huns were in former days to Europe, absolute fiends. Had we even +exacted a good road into their country with fortifications at the +proper places, it might have checked the hopes of one day resuming +the career of conquest that now keeps up the army and military +spirit, to threaten us with a renewal of war whenever we are +embarrassed on the plains. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>The author's uneasiness concerning the attitude of Nepal was +justified. During the Afghan troubles of 1838-43 the Nepalese +Government was in constant communication with the enemies of the +Indian Government. The late Maharāja Sir Jang Bahādur +obtained power in 1846, and, after his visit to England in 1850, +decided to abide by the English alliance. He did valuable service +in 1857 and 1858, and the two governments have ever since +maintained an unbroken, though reserved, friendship. The +Gōrkhā regiments in the English service are recruited in +Nepāl.</p> + +<p>13. Aasaye (Assye, Asāi) is in the Nizām's dominions. +Here, on the 23rd of September, 1803, Sir Arthur Wellesley, +afterwards Duke of Wellington, with less than 5,000 men, defeated +the Marāthā host of at least 32,000 men, including more +than 10,000 under European leaders. Ajantā, or Ajantā +Ghāt, is in the same region. (Owen, <i>Sel. from Wellington +Despatches</i> (1880), pp. 301-9.)</p> + +<p>14. His tombstone bears a Portuguese inscription:<br> + 'Aqui iaz Walter Reinhard, morreo aos 4 de Mayo no anno de +1778.' (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, vol. ii, p. 96.)</p> + +<p>15. According to this statement she must have been born in or +about 1741, not in 1753, as stated by Atkinson. If the earlier date +were correct, she would have been ninety-five when she died in +1836. Higginbotham, referring to Bacon's work, says she died at the +age of eighty-nine, which places her birth in 1747. According to +Beale, she was aged eighty-eight lunar years when she died, on the +27th January, 1836, equivalent to about eighty-five solar years. +This computation places her birth in A.D. 1751, which may be taken +as the correct date. The date of her baptism is correctly stated in +the text.</p> + +<p>16. She added the name Nobilis, when she married Le Vaisseau. +(<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, vol. ii, p. 106, note.)</p> + +<p>17. The author spells the German's name Pauly; I have followed +Atkinson's spelling. The man was assassinated in 1783.</p> + +<p>18. This circumstance indicates that the execution of the slave +girls took place in 1782. (See <i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, vol. ii, p. +91.)</p> + +<p>19. The darker aide of the Bēgam's character is shown by +the story of the slave girl's murder. By some it is said that the +girl's crime consisted in her having attracted the favourable +notice of one of the Bēgam's husbands. Whatever may have been +the offence, her barbarous mistress visited it by causing the girl +to be buried alive. The time chosen for the execution was the +evening, the place the tent of the Bēgam; who caused her bed +to be arranged immediately over the grave, and occupied it until +the morning, to prevent any attempt to rescue the miserable girl +beneath. By acts like this the Bēgam inspired such terror that +she was never afterwards troubled with domestic dissensions.' +(<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. ii, p. 110.) It will be +observed that this version mentions only one girl. According to +Higginbotham (<i>Men whom India has Known</i>, 2nd ed., s.v. +'Sumroo'), this execution took place on the evening of the day on +which Le Vaisseau perished in 1795. (See <i>post.</i>) He adds that +'it is said that this act preyed upon her conscience in after +life'. This account professes to be based on Bacon's <i>First +Impressions and Studies from Nature in Hindustan</i>, which is said +to be 'the most reliable, as the author saw the Bēgam, +attended and conversed with her at one of her levées, and +gained all his information at her Court'. But Bacon's account of +the Bēgam's history, as quoted by Higginbotham, is full of +gross errors; and Sir William Sleeman may be relied on as giving +the most accurate obtainable version of the horrid story. He had +the beat possible opportunities, as well as a desire, to ascertain +the truth.</p> + +<p>20. Atkinson (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, vol. ii, p. 106) uses the +spelling Le Vaisseau, which probably is correct, and observes that +the name is also written Le Vassont. The author writes Le Vassoult; +and Francklin (<i>Military Memoirs of Mr. George Thomas</i>, +London, 8vo reprint (Stockdale), p. 55) spells the name +phonetically as Levasso. 'On every occasion he was the declared and +inveterate enemy of Mr. Thomas.'</p> + +<p>21. Thomas was an Irishman, born in the county of Tipperary. +'From the best information we could procure, it appears that Mr. +George Thomas first came to India in a British ship of war, in +1781- 2. His situation in the fleet was humble, having served as a +quarter- master, or, as is affirmed by some, in the capacity of a +common sailor. . . . His first service was among the Polygars to +the southward, where he resided a few years. But at length setting +out overland, he spiritedly traversed the central part of the +peninsula, and about the year 1787 arrived at Delhi. Here he +received a commission in the service of the Bēgam Sumroo. . . +. Soon after his arrival at Delhi, the Bēgam, with her usual +judgement and discrimination of character, advanced him to a +command in her army. From this period his military career in the +north-west of India may be said to have commenced.' Owing to the +rivalry of Le Vaisseau, Thomas 'quitted the Bēgam Sumroo, and +about 1792 betook himself to the frontier station of the British +army at the post of Anopshire (Anūpshāhr). . . . Here he +waited several months. . . . In the beginning of the year 1793, Mr. +Thomas, being at Anopshire, received letters from Appakandarow +(Apakanda Rāo), a Mahratta chief, conveying offers of service, +and promises of a comfortable provision.' (Francklin, op. cit., p. +20.) The author states that Thomas left the Bēgam's service in +1793, after her marriage with Le Vaisseau in that year. Francklin +(see also p. 55) was clearly under the impression that the marriage +did not take place till after Thomas had thrown up his command +under the Bēgam. He made peace with her in 1795. The capital +of the principality which he carved out for himself in 1798 was at +Hānsī, eighty-nine miles north-west of Delhi. He was +driven out at the close of 1801, entered British territory in +January 1802, and died on the 22nd of August in that year at +Barhāmpur, being about forty-six years of age. A son of his +was an officer in the Bēgam's service at the time of her death +in 1836. A great-granddaughter of George Thomas was, in 1867, the +wife of a writer on a humble salary in one of the Government +offices at Agra. (Beale.)</p> + +<p>22. This incident happened in 1788. (See <i>N.W.P. +Gazetteer</i>, vol. ii, p. 99; <i>I.G.</i>, 1908, vol. xii, p. +106.)</p> + +<p>23. 'A more competent estimate may perhaps be formed of his +abilities if we reflect on the nature and extent of one of his +plans, which he detailed to the compiler of these memoirs during +his residence at Benares. When fixed in his residence at +Hānsī, he first conceived, and would, if unforeseen and +untoward circumstances had not occurred, have executed the bold +design of extending his conquests to the mouths of the Indus. This +was to have been effected by a fleet of boats, constructed from +timber procured in the forests near the city of Fīrōzpur, +on the banks of the Satlaj river, proceeding down that river with +his army, and settling the countries he might subdue on his route; +a daring enterprise, and conceived in the true spirit of an ancient +Roman. On the conclusion of this design it was his intention to +turn his arms against the Panjāb, which he expected to reduce +in a couple of years; and which, considering the wealth he would +then have acquired, and the amazing resources he would have +possessed, these successes combined would doubtless have +contributed to establish his authority on a firm and solid basis.' +He offered to conquer the Panjāb on behalf of the Government +of India, for the welfare of his king and country. (Francklin, pp. +334- 6.)</p> + +<p>24. A small town in the Bulandshahr district of the +North-Western Provinces, seventy-three miles south-east of Delhi. +Its fort used to be considered strong and of strategical +importance.</p> + +<p>25. Afterwards Lord Teignmouth.</p> + +<p>26. Major Bernier was killed at the storm of Hānsī in +1801. His tombstone at Barsi village was found ninety years later +(<i>Pioneer</i>, Dec. 14, 1894). For epitaph of Joseph Even +Bahādur see <i>N.I.N. & Qu.</i>, vol. i, note 265.</p> + +<p>27. Francklin says that the troops overtook the fugitives 'at +the village of Kerwah, in the begum's jaghire, four miles distant +from her capital', (p. 58.)</p> + +<p>28. 'For three days it lay exposed to the insults of the rabble, +and was at length thrown into a ditch.' (Francklin, p. 60.)</p> + +<p>29. According to George Thomas (whose version of the story is +given by his biographer), the Bēgam, when the mutiny broke +out, was actually preparing to attack Thomas. A German officer, +known only as the Liègeois, strenuously dissuaded the +Bēgam from the proposed hostilities, and was, in consequence, +degraded by Le Vaisseau. The troop then mutinied, and swore +allegiance to Zafar Yāb Khān. (Francklin, p. 37.)</p> + +<p>30. Thomas says that the overtures came from the Bēgam. 'In +a manner the most abject and desponding, she addressed Mr. Thomas . +. . implored him to come to her assistance, and, finally, offered +to pay any sum of money the Marāthās should require, on +condition they would reinstate her in the Jāgīr. On +receipt of these letters, Mr. Thomas, by an offer of 120,000 +rupees, prevailed on Bāpū Sindhia to make a movement +towards Sardhana.' After negotiation, Thomas marched to +Khataulī, and 'publicly gave out that unless the Bēgam +was reinstated in her authority, those who resisted must expect no +mercy; and to give additional weight to this declaration, he +apprised them that he was acting under the orders of the +Marāthā chiefs.' After some difficulty, 'she was finally +reinstated in the full authority of her Jāgīr'. This +version of the affair, it will be noticed, does not quite agree +with that given more briefly by the author.</p> + +<p>31. The paper was written by a Muhammadan, and he would not +write Christ <i>the Son of God</i>. It is written 'In the name of +God, and his Majesty Christ'. The Muhammadans look upon Christ as +the greatest of prophets before Muhammad; but the most binding +article of their faith is this from the Korān, which they +repeat every day: 'I believe in God, who was never begot, nor has +ever begotten, nor will ever have an equal,'—alluding to the +Christians' belief in the Trinity. [W. H. S.] For Mohammed's +opinion of Jesus Christ see especially chapters 4 and 5 of the +Korān.</p> + +<p>32. To my mind the circumstances all tend to throw suspicion on +the Bēgam. The author evidently was disposed to form the beat +possible opinion of her character and acts.</p> + +<p>33. After the Bēgam's death the revenue settlement of the +estate was made by Mr. Plowden, who writes in his report, as quoted +in <i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, 1st ed., vol. iii, p. 432, 'The rule +seems to have been fully recognized and acted up to by the +Bēgam which declared that, according to Muhammadan law, "there +shall be left for every man who cultivates his lands as much as he +requires for his own support, till the next crop be reaped, and +that of his family, and for seed. This much shall be left to him; +what remains is land-tax, and shall go to the public treasury." +For, considering her territory as a private estate and her subjects +as serfs, she appropriated the whole produce of their labour, with +the exception of what sufficed to keep body and soul together. It +was by these means . . . that a factitious state of prosperity was +induced and maintained, which, though it might, and I believe did, +deceive the Bēgam's neighbours into an impression that her +country was highly prosperous, could not delude the population into +content and happiness. Above the surface and to the eye all was +smiling and prosperous, but within was rottenness and misery. Under +these circumstances the smallness of the above arrear is no proof +of the fairness of the revenue. It rather shows that the +collections were as much as the Bēgam's ingenuity could +extract, and this balance being unrealizable, the demand was, by so +much at least, too high.' The statistics alluded to are:</p> + +<p>Average demand of the portions of the Bēgam's Rs.<br> +Territory in the Meerut district . . . . 5.86.650<br> +Average collections . . . . . . 5.67.211<br> +Balances . . . . . . . . 19.439</p> + +<p>'Ruin was impending, when the Bēgam's death in January, +1836, and the consequent lapse of the estate to the British, +induced the cultivators to return to their homes.'</p> + +<p>Details of the Bēgam's military forces are given in +<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, vol. iii, p. 295. For the last thirty +years of her life the Bēgam had no need for the large force +(3,371 officers and men, with 44 guns) which she maintained. In her +excessive expenditure on a superfluous army, in her niggardly +provision for civil administration, and in her merciless rack- +renting, she followed the evil example of the ordinary native +prince, and was superior only in the unusual ability with which she +worked an unsound and oppressive System. She left £700,000. +The population of Sardhana town has risen from 3,313 in 1881 to +9,242 in 1911.</p> + +<p>34 Zafaryāb Khān died in 1802 or 1803. His son-in- +law, Colonel Dyce, was employed in the Bēgam's service. 'The +issue of this marriage was: (l) David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who +married Mary Anne, daughter of Viscount St. Vincent, by whom he had +no issue. He died in Paris in July, 1851. In August, 1867, his body +was conveyed to Sardhana and buried in the cathedral. (2) A +daughter, who married Captain Rose Troup. (3) A daughter, who +married Paul Salaroli, now Marquis of Briona. The present owner of +Sardhana is the Honourable Mary Anne Forester, the widow of David +Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, and the successful claimant in the suit +against Government which has recently been decided in her favour.' +(<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, vol. iii (1875), p. 296.) This lady, in +1862, married George Cecil-Weld, third Baron Forester, who died +without issue in 1886. (Burke's <i>Peerage</i>.) Lady Forester died +on March 7, 1893.</p> + +<p>35. In the original edition these statistics are given in words. +Figures have been used in this edition as being more readily +grasped. The amounts stated by the author are approximate round +sums. More accurate details are given in <i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, +vol. iii (1875), p. 295. The Bēgam also subscribed liberally +to Hindoo and Muhammadan institutions. Her contemporary, Colonel +Skinner, was equally impartial, and is said to have built a mosque +and a temple, as well as the church at Delhi.</p> + +<p>The Cathedral at Sardhana was built in 1822. St. John's College +is intended to train Indians as priests, There are, or were +recently, about 250 native Christians at Sardhana, partly the +descendants of the converts who followed their mistress in change +of faith. 'The Roman Catholic priests work hard for their little +colony, and are greatly revered and respected. At St. John's +College some of the boys are instructed for the priesthood, and +others taught to read and write the Nāgarī and Urdū +characters. The instruction for the priesthood is peculiar. There +are some twelve little native boys who can quote whole chapters of +the Latin Bible, and nearly all the prayers of the Missal. Those +who cannot sympathize with the system mast admire the patience and +devotion of the Italian priests who have put themselves to the +trouble of imparting such instruction. The majority of the +Christian population here are cultivators and weavers, while many +are the pensioned descendants of the European servants of +Bēgam Sumru, and still bear the appellation of Sāhib and +Mem Sāhib.' (<i>N.W.P. Gazetteer</i>, vol. iii (1875), pp. +273, 430.)</p> + +<p>The Bēgam's palace, built in 1834, was chiefly remarkable +for a collection of about twenty-five portraits of considerable +interest. They comprised likenesses of Sir David Ochterlony, Dyce +Sombre, Lord Combermere, and other notable personages. (<i>Calcutta +Review</i>, vol. lxx, p. 460; quoted in <i>North Indian N. & +Q.</i>, vol. ii, p. 179.) The mansion and park were sold by auction +in 1895. Some of the portraits are now in the Indian Institute, +Oxford, some in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and some in Government +House, Allahabad. A long article by H. N. on Sardhana and its +owners appeared in the <i>Pioneer</i> (Allahabad) on December +12,1894.</p> + +<p>36. A miniature portrait of the Bēgam is given on the +frontispiece to volume ii of the original edition. Francklin, +describing the events of 1796, in his memoirs of George Thomas, +first published in 1803, describes her personal appearance as +follows: 'Begum Sumroo is about forty-five years of age, small in +stature, but inclined to be plump. Her complexion is very fair, her +eyes black, large and animated; her dress perfectly Hindustany, and +of the most costly materials. She speaks the Persian and Hindustany +languages with fluency, and in her conversation is engaging, +sensible, and spirited.' (London ed., p. 92, note.) The liberal +benefaction of her later years have secured her ecclesiastical +approval, and I should not be surprised to hear of her +beatification or canonization. Her earlier life certainly was not +that of a saint.</p> + +<p>37. In her younger days she strictly maintained Hindustani +etiquette. 'It has been the constant and invariable usage of this +lady to exact from her subjects and servants the most rigid +attention to the customs of Hindoostan. She is never seen out of +doors or in her public durbar unveiled.</p> + +<p>'Her officers and others, who have business with her, present +themselves opposite the place where she sits. The front of her +apartment is furnished with <i>chicques</i> or Indian screens, +these being let down from the roof. In this manner she gives +audience and transacts business of all kinds. She frequently admits +to her table the higher ranks of her European officers, but never +admits the natives to come within the enclosure,' (Francklin, p, +92.)</p> + +<p>38. The Governor-General's name was William Henry Cavendish- +Bentinck, I do not understand the signature M. W. Bentinck, which +may be a misprint. The eulogium seems odd to a reader who remembers +that the recipient had been for fifteen years the mistress and wife +of the Butcher of Patna. But when it was written, the memory of the +massacre had been dimmed by the lapse of seventy-two years, and His +Excellency may not have been well versed in the lady's history.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the author was mistaken, and the letter was sent by Lady +Bentinck, whose name was Mary.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch76">CHAPTER 76</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum"><big>ON THE SPIRIT OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE IN THE +NATIVE ARMY OF INDIA</big></p> + +<p>Abolition of Corporal Punishment—Increase of Pay with +Length of Service—Promotion by Seniority.</p> + +<p>The following observations on a very important and interesting +subject were not intended to form a portion of the present work.[1] +They serve to illustrate, however, many passages in the foregoing +chapters touching the character of the natives of India; and the +Afghan war having occurred since they were written, I cannot deny +myself the gratification of presenting them to the public, since +the courage and fidelity, which it was my object to show the +British Government had a right to expect from its native troops and +might always rely upon in the hour of need, have been so nobly +displayed.</p> + +<p>I had one morning (November 14th, 1838) a visit from the senior +native officer of my regiment, Shaikh Mahūb Alī, a very +fine old gentleman, who had recently attained the rank of +'Sardār Bahādur', and been invested with the new Order of +British India.[2] He entered the service at the age of fifteen, and +had served fifty-three years with great credit to himself, and +fought in many an honourable field. He had come over to Jubbulpore +as president of a native general court-martial, and paid me several +visits in company with another old officer of my regiment who was a +member of the same court. The following is one of the many +conversations I had with him, taken down as soon as he left me.</p> + +<p>'What do you think, Sardār Bahādur, of the order +prohibiting corporal punishment in the army; has it had a bad or a +good effect?'</p> + +<p>'It has had a very good effect.'</p> + +<p>'What good has it produced?'</p> + +<p>'It has reduced the number of courts martial to one-quarter of +what they were before, and thereby lightened the duties of the +officers; it has made the good men more careful, and the bad men +more orderly than they used to be.'</p> + +<p>'How has it produced this effect?'</p> + +<p>'A bad man formerly went on recklessly from small offences to +great ones in the hope of impunity; he knew that no regimental, +cantonment, or brigade court martial could sentence him to be +dismissed the service; and that they would not sentence him to be +flogged, except for great crimes, because it involved at the same +time dismissal from the service. If they sentenced him to be +flogged, he still hoped that the punishment would be remitted. The +general or officer confirming the sentence was generally unwilling +to order it to be carried into effect, because the man must, after +being flogged, be tumed out of the service, and the marks of the +lash upon his back would prevent his getting service anywhere else. +Now he knows that these courts can sentence him to be dismissed +from the service—that he is liable to lose his bread for +ordinary transgressions, and be sentenced to work on the roads for +graver ones.[3] He is in consequence much more under restraint than +he used to be.'</p> + +<p>'And how has it tended to make the well-disposed more +careful?'</p> + +<p>'They were formerly liable to be led into errors by the example +of the bad men, under the same hope of impunity; but they are now +more on their guard. They have all relations among the native +officers, who are continually impressing upon them the necessity of +being on their guard, lest they be sent back upon their +families—their mothers and fathers, wives and children, as +beggars. To be dismissed from a service like that of the Company is +a very great punishment; it subjects a man to the odium and +indignation of all his family. When in the Company's service, his +friends know that a soldier gets his pay regularly, and can afford +to send home a very large portion of it. They expect that he will +do so; he feels that they will listen to no excuse, and he +contracts habits of sobriety and prudence. If a man gets into the +service of a native chief, his friends know that his pay is +precarious, and they continue to maintain his family for many years +without receiving a remittance from him, in the hope that his +circumstances may one day improve. He contracts bad habits, and is +not ashamed to make his appearance among them, knowing that his +excuses will be received as valid. If one of the Company's +sepoys[4] were not to send home remittances for six months, some +members of the family would be sent to know the reason why. If he +could not explain, they would appeal to the native officers of the +regiment, who would expostulate with him; and, if all failed, his +wife and children would be tumed out of his father's house, unless +they knew that he was gone to the wars; and he would be ashamed +ever to show his face among them again.'</p> + +<p>'And the gradual increase of pay with length of service has +tended to increase the value of the service, has it not?'</p> + +<p>'It has very much; there are in our regiment, out of eight +hundred men, more than one hundred and fifty sepoys who get the +increase of two rupees a month, and the same number that get the +increase of one. This they feel as an immense addition to the +former seven rupees a month.[5] A prudent sepoy lives upon two, or +at the utmost three, rupees a month in seasons of moderate plenty, +and sends all the rest to his family. A great number of the sepoys +of our regiment live upon the increase of two rupees, and send all +their former seven to their families. The dismissal of a man from +such a service as this distresses, not only him, but all his +relations in the higher grades, who know how much of the comfort +and happiness of his family depend upon his remaining and advancing +in it; and they all try to make their young friends behave as they +ought to do.'</p> + +<p>'Do you think that a great portion of the native officers of the +army have the same feelings and opinions on the subject as you +have?'</p> + +<p>'They have all the same; there is not, I believe, one in a +hundred that does not think as I do upon the subject. Flogging was +an odious thing. A man was disgraced, not only before his regiment, +but before the crowd that assembled to witness the punishment. Had +he been suffered to remain in the regiment he could never have +hoped to rise after having been flogged, or sentenced to be +flogged; his hopes were all destroyed, and his spirit broken, and +the order directing him to be dismissed was good; but, as I have +said, he lost all hope of getting into any other service, and dared +not show his face among his family at home.'</p> + +<p>'You know who ordered the abolition of flogging?'</p> + +<p>'Lord Bentinck.'[6]</p> + +<p>'And you know that it was at his recommendation the Honourable +Company gave the increase of pay with length of service?'</p> + +<p>'We have heard so; and we feel towards him as we felt towards +Lord Wellesley, Lord Hastings, and Lord Lake.'</p> + +<p>'Do you think the army would serve again now with the same +spirit as they served under Lord Lake?'</p> + +<p>'The army would go to any part of the world to serve such +masters—no army had ever masters that cared for them like +ours. We never asked to have flogging abolished; nor did we ever +ask to have an increase of pay with length of service; and yet both +have been done for us by the Company Bahādur.'</p> + +<p>The old Sardār Bahādur came again to visit me on the +1st of December, with all the native officers who had come over +from Sāgar to attend the court, seven in number. There were +three very smart, sensible men among them; one of whom had been a +volunteer at the capture of Java,[7] and the other[s] at that of +the Isle of France.[8] They all told me that they considered the +abolition of corporal punishment a great blessing to the native +army. 'Some bad men who had already lost their character, and +consequently all hope of promotion, might be in less dread than +before; but they were very few, and their regiments would soon get +rid of them under the new law that gave the power of dismissal to +regimental courts martial.'</p> + +<p>'But I find the European officers are almost all of opinion that +the abolition of flogging has been, or will be, attended with bad +consequences.'</p> + +<p>'They, sir, apprehend that there will not be sufficient +restraint upon the loose characters of the regiment; but now that +the sepoys have got an increase of pay in proportion to length of +service there will be no danger of that. Where can they ever hope +to get such another service if they forfeit that of the Company? If +the dread of losing such a service is not sufficient to keep the +bad in order, that of being put to work upon the roads in irons +will. The good can always be kept in order by lighter punishments, +when they have so much at stake as the loss of such a service by +frequent offences. Some gentlemen think that a soldier does not +feel disgraced by being flogged, unless the offence for which he +has been flogged is in itself disgraceful. There is no soldier, +sir, that does not feel disgraced by being tied up to the halberts +and flogged in the face of all his comrades and the crowd that may +choose to come and look at him; the sepoys are all of the same +respectable families as ourselves, and they all enter the service +in the hope of rising in time to the same stations as ourselves, if +they conduct themselves well; their families look forward with the +same hope. A man who has been tied up and flogged knows the +disgrace that it will bring upon his family, and will sometimes +rather die than return to it; indeed, as head of a family he could +not be received at home.[9] But men do not feel disgraced in being +flogged with a rattan at drill. While at the drill they consider +themselves, and are considered by us all, as in the relation of +scholars to their schoolmasters. Doing away with the rattan at +drill had a very bad effect. Young men were formerly, with the +judicious use of the rattan, made fit to join the regiment at +furthest in six months; but since the abolition of the rattan it +takes twelve months to make them fit to be seen in the ranks. There +was much virtue in the rattan, and it should never have been given +up. We have all been flogged with the rattan at the drill, and +never felt ourselves disgraced by it-we were <i>shāgirds</i> +(scholars), and the drill-sergeant, who had the rattan, was our +<i>ustād</i> (schoolmaster); but when we left the drill, and +took our station in the ranks as sepoys, the case was altered, and +we should have felt disgraced by a flogging, whatever might have +been the nature of the offence we committed. The drill will never +get on so well as it used to do, unless the rattan be called into +use again; but we apprehend no evil from the abolition of corporal +punishment afterwards. People are apt to attribute to this +abolition offences that have nothing to do with it; and for which +ample punishments are still provided. If a man fires at his +officer, people are apt to say it is because flogging has been done +away with; but a man who deliberately fires at his officer is +prepared to undergo worse punishment than flogging.[10]</p> + +<p>'Do you not think that the increase of pay with length of +service to the sepoys will have a good effect in tending to give to +regiments more active and intelligent native officers? Old sepoys +who are not so will now have less cause to complain if passed over, +will they not?'</p> + +<p>'If the sepoys thought that the increase of pay was given with +this view, they would rather not have it at all. To pass over men +merely because they happen to have grown old, we consider very +cruel and unjust. They all enter the service young, and go on doing +their duty till they become old, in the hope that they shall get +promotion when it comes to their turn. If they are disappointed, +and young men, or greater favourites with their European officers, +are put over their heads, they become heart-broken. We all feel for +them, and are always sorry to see an old soldier passed over, +unless he has been guilty of any manifest crime, or neglect of +duty. He has always some relations among the native officers who +know his family, for we all try to get our relations into the same +regiment with ourselves when they are eligible. They know what that +family will suffer when they learn that he has no longer any hopes +of rising in the service, and has become miserable. Supersessions +create distress and bad feelings throughout a regiment, even when +the best men are promoted, which cannot always be the case; for the +greatest favourites are not always the best men. Many of our old +European officers, like yourself, are absent on staff or civil +employments; and the command of companies often devolves upon very +young subalterns, who know little or nothing of the character of +their men. They recommend those whom they have found most active +and intelligent, and believe to be the best; but their +opportunities of learning the characters of the men have been few. +They have seen and observed the young, active, and forward; but +they often know nothing of the steady, unobtrusive old soldier, who +has done his duty ably in all situations, without placing himself +prominently forward in any. The commanding officers seldom remain +long with the same regiment, and, consequently, seldom know enough +of the men to be able to judge of the justice of the selections for +promotion. Where a man has been guilty of a crime, or neglected his +duty, we feel no sympathy for him, and are not ashamed to tell him +so, and put him down[11] when he complains.'</p> + +<p>Here the old Sūbadār, who had been at the taking of +the Isle of France, mentioned that when he was senior Jemadār +of his regiment, and a vacancy had occurred to bring him in as +Sūbadār, he was sent for by his commanding officer, and +told that, by orders from headquarters, he was to be passed over, +on account of his advanced age, and supposed infirmity. 'I felt,' +said the old man, 'as if I had been struck by lightning, and +<i>fell down dead</i>. The colonel was a good man, and had seen +much service. He had me taken into the open air; and when I +recovered, he told me that he would write to the +Commander-in-Chief, and represent my case. He did so, and I was +promoted; and I have since done my duty as Sūbadār for +ten years.'[12]</p> + +<p>The Sardār Bahādur told me that only two men in our +regiment had been that year superseded, one for insolence, and the +other for neglect of duty; and that officers and sepoys were all +happy in consequence—the young, because they felt more secure +of being promoted if they did their duty; and the old, because, +they felt an interest in their young relations. 'In those +regiments,' said he, 'where supersessions have been more numerous, +old and young are dispirited and unhappy. They all feel that the +<i>good old rule of right</i> (<i>hakk</i>), as long as a man does +his duty well, can no longer be relied upon.'</p> + +<p>When two companies of my regiment passed through Jubbulpore a +few days after this conversation on their way from Sāgar to +Seoni, I rode out a mile or two to meet them. They had not seen me +for sixteen years, but almost all the native commissioned and non- +commissioned officers were personally known to me. They were all +very glad to see me, and I rode along with them to their place of +encampment, where I had ready a feast of sweetmeats. They liked me +as a young man, and are, I believe, proud of me as an old one. Old +and young spoke with evident delight of the rigid adherence on the +part of the present commanding officer, Colonel Presgrave, to the +good old rule of 'hakk' (right) in the recent promotions to the +vacancies occasioned by the annual transfer to the invalid +establishment. We might, no doubt, have in every regiment a few +smarter native officers by disregarding this rule than by adhering +to it; but we should, in the diminution of the good feeling towards +the European officers and the Government, lose a thousand times +more than we gained. They now go on from youth to old age, from the +drill to the retired pension, happy and satisfied that there is no +service on earth so good for them.[13] With admirable <i>moral</i>, +but little or no <i>literary</i> education, the native officers of +our regiments never dream of aspiring to anything more than is now +held out to them, and the mass of the soldiers are inspired with +devotion to the service, and every feeling with which we could wish +to have them inspired, by the hope of becoming officers in time, if +they discharge their duties faithfully and zealously. Deprive the +mass of this hope, give the commissions to an <i>exclusive +class</i> of natives, or to a favoured few, chosen often, if not +commonly, without reference to the feelings or qualifications we +most want in our native officers, and our native army will soon +cease to have the same feelings of devotion towards the Government, +and of attachment and respect towards their European officers that +they now have. The young, ambitions, and aspiring native officers +will soon try to teach the great mass that their interest and that +of the European officers and European Government are by no means +one and the same, as they have been hitherto led to suppose; and it +is upon the good feeling of this great mass that we have to depend +for support. To secure this good feeling, we can well afford to +sacrifice a little efficiency at the drill. It was unwise in one of +the commanders-in-chief to direct that no soldier in our Bengal +native regiments should be promoted unless he could read and +write-it was to prohibit the promotion of the best, and direct the +promotion of the worst, soldiers in the ranks. In India a military +officer is rated as a gentleman by his birth, that is <i>caste</i>, +and by his deportment in all his relations of life, not by his +<i>knowledge of books</i>.</p> + +<p>The Rājpūt, the Brahman, and the proud Pathān who +attains a commission, and deports himself like an officer, never +thinks himself, or is thought by others, deficient in anything that +constitutes the gentleman, because he happens not to be at the same +time a clerk. He has from his childhood been taught to consider the +quill and the sword as two distinct professions, both useful and +honourable when honourably pursued; and having chosen the sword, he +thinks he does quite enough in learning how to use and support it +through all grades, and ought not to be expected to encroach on the +profession of the penman. This is a tone of feeling which it is +clearly the interest of Government rather to foster than +discourage, and the order which militated so much against it has +happily been either rescinded or disregarded.</p> + +<p>Three-fourths of the recruits of our Bengal native infantry are +drawn from the Rājpūt peasantry of the kingdom of Oudh, +on the left bank of the Ganges, where their affections have been +linked to the soil for a long series of generations.[14] The good +feelings of the families from which they are drawn continue through +the whole period of their service to exercise a salutary influence +over their conduct as men and as soldiers. Though they never take +their families with them, they visit them on furlough every two or +three years, and always return to them when the surgeon considers a +change of air necessary to their recovery from sickness. Their +family circles are always present to their imaginations; and the +recollections of their last visit, the hopes of the next, and the +assurance that their conduct as men and as soldiers in the interval +will be reported to those circles by their many comrades, who are +annually returning on furlough to the same parts of the country, +tend to produce a general and uniform propriety of conduct, that is +hardly to be found among the soldiers of any other army in the +world, and which seems incomprehensible to those unacquainted with +its source—veneration for parents cherished through life, and +a never-impaired love of home, and of all the dear objects by which +it is constituted.</p> + +<p>Our Indian native army is perhaps the only entirely voluntary +standing army that has been ever known, and it is, to all intents +and purposes, entirely voluntary, and as such must be treated.[15] +We can have no other native army in India, and without such an army +we could not maintain our dominion a day. Our best officers have +always understood this quite well; and they have never tried to +flog and harass men out of all that we find good in them for our +purposes. Any regiment in our service might lay down their arms and +disperse to- morrow, without our having a chance of apprehending +one deserter among them all.[16]</p> + +<p>When Frederick the Great of Prussia reviewed his army of sixty +thousand men in Pomerania, previous to his invasion of Silesia, he +asked the Prince d'Anhalt, who accompanied him, what he most +admired in the scene before him.</p> + +<p>'Sire,' replied the prince, 'I admire at once the fine +appearance of the men, and the regularity and perfection of their +movements and evolutions.'</p> + +<p>'For my part,' said Frederick, 'this is not what excites my +astonishment, since with the advantage of money, time, and care, +these are easily attained. It is that you and I, my dear cousin, +should be in the midst of such an army as this in perfect safety. +Here are sixty thousand men who are all <i>irreconcilable enemies +to both you and myself</i>', not one among them that is not a man +of more strength and better armed than either, yet they all tremble +at our presence, while it would be folly on our part to tremble at +theirs—such is the wonderful effect of order, vigilance, and +subordination.'</p> + +<p>But a reasonable man might ask, what were the circumstances +which enabled Frederick to keep in a state of order and +subordination an army composed of soldiers who were 'irreconcilable +enemies' of their Prince and of their officers? He could have told +the Prince d'Anhalt, had he chose to do so; for Frederick was a man +who thought deeply. The chief circumstance favourable to his +ambition was the imbecility of the old French Government, then in +its dotage, and unable to see that an army of involuntary soldiers +was no longer compatible with the state of the nation. This +Government had reduced its soldiers to a condition worse than that +of the common labourers upon the roads, while it deprived them of +all hope of rising, and all feeling of pride in the profession.[17] +Desertion became easy from the extension of the French dominion and +from the circumstance of so many belligerent powers around +requiring good soldiers; and no odium attended desertion, where +everything was done to degrade, and nothing to exalt the soldier in +his own esteem and that of society.</p> + +<p>Instead of following the course of events and rendering the +condition of the soldier less odious by increasing his pay and hope +of promotion, and diminishing the labour and disgrace to which he +was liable, and thereby filling her regiments with voluntary +soldiers when involuntary ones could no longer be obtained, the +Government of France reduced the soldier's pay to one-half the rate +of wages which a common labourer got on the roads, and put them +under restraints and restrictions that made them feel every day, +and every hour, that they were slaves. To prevent desertions by +severe examples under this high- pressure System, they had recourse +first to slitting the noses and cutting off the ears of deserters, +and, lastly, to shooting them as fast as they could catch them.[18] +But all was in vain; and Frederick of Prussia alone got fifty +thousand of the finest soldiers in the world from the French +regiments, who composed one-third of his army, and enabled him to +keep all the rest in that state of discipline that improved so much +its efficiency, in the same manner as the deserters from the Roman +legions, which took place under similar circumstances, became the +flower of the army of Mithridates.[19]</p> + +<p>Frederick was in position and disposition a despot. His +territories were small, while his ambition was boundless. He was +unable to pay a large army the rate of wages necessary to secure +the services of voluntary soldiers; and he availed himself of the +happy imbecility of the French Government to form an army of +involuntary ones. He got French soldiers at a cheap rate, because +they dared not return to their native country, whence they were +hunted down and shot like dogs, and these soldiers enabled him to +retain his own subjects in his ranks upon the same terms. Had the +French Government retraced its steps, improved the condition of its +soldiers, and mitigated the punishment for desertion during the +long war, Frederick's army would have fallen to pieces 'like the +baseless fabric of a vision'.</p> + +<p>'<i>Parmi nous,' says Montesquieu, 'les désertions sont +fréquentes parce que les soldats sont la plus vile partie de +chaque nation, et qu'il n'y en a aucun qui aie, ou qui croie avoir +un certain avantage sur les autres. Chez les Romains elles +étaient plus rares—des soldats tirés du sein +d'un peuple si fier, si orgueilleux, si sūr de commander aux +autres, ne pouvaient guère penser ā s' aviler +jusqu'à cesser d'ētre Romains</i>.'[20] But was it the +poor soldiers who were to blame if they were 'vile', and had 'no +advantage over others', or the Government that took them from the +vilest classes, or made their condition when they got them worse +than that of the lowest class in society? The Romans deserted under +the same circumstances, and, as I have stated, formed the +<i>elite</i> of the army of Mithridates and the other enemies of +Rome; but they respected their military oath of allegiance long +after perjury among senators had ceased to excite any odium, since +as a fashionable or political vice it had become common.</p> + +<p>Did not our day of retribution come, though in a milder shape, +to teach us a great political and moral lesson, when so many of our +brave sailors deserted our ships for those of America, in which +they fought against us?[21] They deserted from our ships of war +because they were there treated like dogs, or from our merchant +ships because they were every hour liable to be seized like felons +and put on board the former. When 'England expected every man to do +his duty' at Trafalgar, had England done its duty to every man who +was that day to fight for her? Is not the intellectual stock which +the sailor acquires in scenes of peril 'upon the high and giddy +mast' as much his property as that which others acquire in scenes +of peace at schools and colleges? And have not our senators, +morally and religiously, as much right to authorize their sovereign +to seize clergymen, lawyers, and professors, for employment in his +service, upon the wages of ordinary uninstructed labour, as they +have to authorize him to seize able sailors to be so employed in +her navy? A feeling more base than that which authorized the able +seaman to be hunted down upon such conditions, torn from his wife +and children, and put like Uriah in front of those battles upon +which our welfare and honour depended, never disgraced any +civilized nation with whose history we are acquainted.[22]</p> + +<p>Sir Matthew Decker, in a passage quoted by Mr. McCulloch, says, +'The custom of impressment put a freeborn British sailor on the +same footing as a Turkish slave. The Grand Seignior cannot do a +more absolute act than to order a man to be dragged away from his +family, and against his will run his head against the mouth of a +cannon; and if such acts should be frequent in Turkey upon any one +set of useful men, would it not drive them away to other countries, +and thin their numbers yearly? And would not the remaining few +double or triple their wages, which is the case with our sailors in +time of war, to the great detriment of our commerce?' The Americans +wisely relinquished the barbarous and unwise practice of their +parent land, and, as McCulloch observes, 'While the wages of all +labourers and artisans are uniformly higher in the United States +than in England, those of sailors are generally lower,' as the +natural consequence of manning their navy by means of voluntary +enlistment alone. At the close of the last war, sixteen thousand +British sailors were serving on board of American ships; and the +wages of our seamen rose from forty or[23] fifty to a hundred or +one hundred and twenty shillings a month, as the natural +consequence of our continuing to resort to impressment after the +Americans had given it up.[24]</p> + +<p>Frederick's army consisted of about one hundred and fifty +thousand men. Fifty thousand of these were French deserters, and a +considerable portion of the remaining hundred thousand were +deserters from the Austrian army, in which desertion was punished +in the same manner with death. The dread of this punishment if they +quitted his ranks, enabled him to keep up that state of discipline +that improved so much the efficacy of his regiments, at the same +time that it made every individual soldier his 'irreconcilable +enemy'. Not relying entirely upon this dread on the part of +deserters to quit his ranks under his high-pressure system of +discipline, and afraid that the soldiers of his own soil might make +off in spite of all their vigilance, he kept his regiments in +garrison towns till called on actual service; and that they might +not desert on their way from one garrison to another during relief, +he never had them relieved at all. A trooper was flogged for +falling from his horse, though he had broken a limb in his fall; it +was difficult, he said, to distinguish an involuntary fault from +one that originated in negligence, and to prevent a man hoping that +his negligence would be forgiven, all blunders were punished, from +whatever cause arising. No soldier was suffered to quit his +garrison till led out to fight; and when a desertion took place, +cannons were fired to announce it to the surrounding country. Great +rewards were given for apprehending, and severe punishments +inflicted for harbouring, the criminal; and he was soon hunted +down, and brought back. A soldier was, therefore, always a prisoner +and a slave.</p> + +<p>Still, all this rigour of Prussian discipline, like that of our +navy, was insufficient to extinguish that ambition which is +inherent in our nature to obtain the esteem and applause of the +circle in which we move; and the soldier discharged his duty in the +hour of danger, in the hope of rendering his life more happy in the +esteem of his officers and comrades. 'Every tolerably good soldier +feels ', says Adam Smith, 'that he would become the scorn of his +companions if he should be supposed capable of shrinking from +danger, or of hesitating either to expose or to throw away his +life, when the good of the service required it.' So thought the +philosopher-King of Prussia, when he let his regiments out of +garrison to go and face the enemy. The officers were always treated +with as much lenity in the Prussian as any other service, because +the king knew that the hope of promotion would always be sufficient +to bind them to their duties; but the poor soldiers had no hope of +this kind to animate them in their toils and their dangers.</p> + +<p>We took our System of drill from Frederick of Prussia; and there +is still many a martinet who would carry his high-pressure system +of discipline into every other service over which he had any +control, unable to appreciate the difference of circumstances under +which they may happen to be raised and maintained.[25]</p> + +<p>The sepoys of the Bengal army, the only part of our native army +with which I am much acquainted, are educated as soldiers from +their infancy—they are brought up in that feeling of entire +deference for constituted authority which we require in soldiers, +and which they never lose through life. They are taken from the +agricultural classes of Indian society—almost all the sons of +yeomen—cultivating proprietors of the soil, whose families +have increased beyond their means of subsistence. One son is sent +one after another to seek service in our regiments as necessity +presses at home, from whatever cause—the increase of +taxation, or the too great increase of numbers in families.[26] No +men can have a higher sense of the duty they owe to the state that +employs them, or whose 'salt they eat'; nor can any men set less +value on life when the service of that state requires that it shall +be risked or sacrificed. No persons are brought up with more +deference for parents. In no family from which we drew our recruits +is a son through infancy, boyhood, or youth, heard to utter a +disrespectful word to his parents—such a word from a son to +his parents would shock the feelings of the whole community in +which the family resides, and the offending member would be visited +with their highest indignation. When the father dies the eldest son +takes his place, and receives the same marks of respect, the same +entire confidence and deference as the father. If he be a soldier +in a distant land, and can afford to do so, he resigns the service, +and returns home to take his post as the head of the family. If he +cannot afford to resign, if the family still want the aid of his +regular monthly pay, he remains with his regiment, and denies +himself many of the personal comforts he has hitherto enjoyed, that +he may increase his contribution to the general stock.</p> + +<p>The wives and children of his brothers, who are absent on +service, are confided to his care with the same confidence as to +that of the father. It is a rule to which I have through life found +but few exceptions that those who are most disposed to resist +constituted authority are those most disposed to abuse such +authority when they get it. The members of these families, +disposed, as they always are, to pay deference to such authority, +are scarcely ever found to abuse it when it devolves upon them; and +the elder son, when he succeeds to the place of his father, loses +none of the affectionate attachment of his younger brothers.</p> + +<p> They never take their wives or children with them to their +regiments, or to the places where their regiments are +stationed.[27] They leave them with their fathers or elder +brothers, and enjoy their society only when they return on +furlough. Three-fourths of their incomes are sent home to provide +for their comfort and subsistence, and to embellish that home in +which they hope to spend the winter of their days. The knowledge +that any neglect of the duty they owe their distant families will +be immediately visited by the odium of their native officers and +brother soldiers, and ultimately communicated to the heads of their +families, acts as a salutary check on their conduct; and I believe +that there is hardly a native regiment in the Bengal army in which +the twenty drummers who are Christians, and have their families +with the regiment, do not cause more trouble to the officers than +the whole eight hundred sepoys.</p> + +<p>To secure the fidelity of such men all that is necessary is to +make them feel secure of three things—their regular pay, at +the handsome rate at which it has now been fixed; their retiring +pensions upon the scale hitherto enjoyed; and promotion by +seniority, like their European officers, unless they shall forfeit +all claims to it by misconduct or neglect of duty.[28] People talk +about a demoralized army, and discontented army! No army in the +world was certainly ever more moral or more contented than our +native army; or more satisfied that their masters merit all their +devotion and attachment; and I believe none was ever more devoted +or attached to them.[29] I do not speak of the European officers of +the native army. They very generally believe that they have had +just cause of complaint, and sufficient care has not always been +taken to remove that impression. In all the junior grades the +Honourable Company's officers have advantages over the Queen's in +India. In the higher grades the Queen's officers have advantages +over those of the Honourable Company. The reasons it does not +behove me here to consider.[30]</p> + +<p>In all armies composed of involuntary soldiers, that is, of +soldiers who are anxious to quit the ranks and return to peaceful +occupations, but cannot do so, much of the drill to which they are +subjected is adopted merely with a view to keep them from pondering +too much upon the miseries of their present condition, and from +indulging in those licentious habits to which a strong sense of +these miseries, and the recollection of the enjoyments of peaceful +life which they have sacrificed, are too apt to drive them. No +portion of this is necessary for the soldiers of our native army, +who have no miseries to ponder over, or superior enjoyments in +peaceful life to look back upon; and a very small quantity of drill +is sufficient to make a regiment go through its evolutions well, +because they have all a pride and pleasure in their duties, as long +as they have a commanding officer who understands them. Clarke, in +his <i>Travels</i>, speaking of the three thousand native infantry +from India whom he saw paraded in Egypt under their gallant leader, +Sir David Baird, says, 'Troops in such a state of military +perfection, or better suited for active service, were never +seen—not even on the famous parade of the chosen ten thousand +belonging to Bonaparte's legions, which he was so vain of +displaying before the present war in the front of the Tuileries at +Paris. Not an unhealthy soldier was to be seen. The English, inured +to the climate of India, considered that of Egypt as temperate in +its effects, and the sipāhees seemed as fond of the Nile as +the Ganges.'[31]</p> + +<p>It would be much better to devise more innocent amusements to +lighten the miseries of European soldiers in India than to be +worrying them every hour, night and day, with duties which are in +themselves considered to be of no importance whatever, and imposed +merely with a view to prevent their having time to ponder on these +miseries.[32] But all extra and useless duties to a soldier become +odious, because they are always associated in his mind with the +ideas of the odious and degrading punishment inflicted for the +neglect of them. It is lamentable to think how much of misery is +often wantonly inflicted upon the brave soldiers of our European +regiments of India on the pretence of a desire to preserve order +and discipline.[33]</p> + +<p>Sportsmen know that if they train their horses beyond a certain +point they 'train off'; that is, they lose the spirit and with it +the condition they require to support them in their hour of trial. +It is the same with soldiers; if drilled beyond a certain point, +they 'drill off', and lose the spirit which they require to sustain +them in active service, and before the enemy. An over-drilled +regiment will seldom go through its evolutions well, even in +ordinary review before its own general. If it has all the +mechanism, it wants all the real spirit of military +discipline—it becomes dogged, and is, in fact, a body with +but a soul. The martinet, who is seldom a man of much intellect, is +satisfied as long as the bodies of his men are drilled to his +liking; his narrow mind comprehends only one of the principles +which influence mankind—fear; and upon this he acts with all +the pertinacity of a slave-driver. If he does not disgrace himself +when he comes before the enemy, as he commonly does, by his own +incapacity, his men will perhaps try to disgrace him, even at the +sacrifice of what they hold dearer than their lives—their +reputation. The real soldier, who is generally a man of more +intellect, cares more about the feelings than the bodies of his +men; he wants to command their affections as well as their limbs, +and he inspires them with a feeling of enthusiasm that renders them +insensible to all danger—such men were Lord Lake, and +Generals Ochterlony, Malcolm, and Adams, and such are many others +well known in India.</p> + +<p>Under the martinet the soldiers will never do more than what a +due regard for their own reputation demands from them before the +enemy, and will sometimes do less. Under the real soldier, they +will always do more than this; his reputation is dearer to them +even than their own, and they will do more to sustain it. The army +of the consul, Appius Claudius, exposed themselves to almost +inevitable destruction before the enemy to disgrace him in the eyes +of his country, and the few survivors were decimated on their +return; he cared nothing for the spirit of his men. The army of his +colleague, Quintius, on the contrary, though from the same people, +and levied and led out at the same time, covered him with glory +because they loved him.[34] We had an instance of this in the war +with Nepāl in-1813, in which a king's regiment played the part +of the army of Appius.[35] There were other martinets, king's and +Company's, commanding divisions in that war, and they all signally +failed; not, however, except in the above one instance, from +backwardness on the part of their troops, but from utter incapacity +when the hour of trial came. Those who succeeded were men always +noted for caring something more about the hearts than the whiskers +and buttons of their men. That the officer who delights in +harassing his regiment in times of peace will fail with it in times +of war and scenes of peril seems to me to be a rule almost as well +established as that he, who in the junior ranks of the army +delights most to kick against authority, is always found the most +disposed to abuse it when he gets to the higher. In long intervals +of peace, the only prominent military characters are commonly such +martinets; and hence the failures so generally experienced in the +beginning of a war after such an interval. Whitelocks are chosen +for command, till Wolfes and Wellingtons find Chathams and +Wellesleys to climb up by.</p> + +<p>To govern those whose mental and physical energies we require +for our subsistence and support by the lash alone is so easy, so +simple a mode of bending them to our will, and making them act +strictly and instantly in conformity to it, that it is not at all +surprising to find so many of those who have been accustomed to it, +and are not themselves liable to have the lash inflicted upon them, +advocating its free use. In China the Emperor has his generals +flogged, and finds the lash so efficacious in bending them to his +will that nothing would persuade him that it could ever be safely +dispensed with. In some parts of Germany they had the officers +flogged, and princes and generals found this so very efficacious in +making those act in conformity to their will that they found it +difficult to believe that any army could be well managed without +it. In other Christian armies the officers are exempted from the +lash, but they use it freely upon all under them; and it would be +exceedingly difficult to convince the greater part of these +officers that the free use of the lash is not indispensably +necessary, nay, that the men do not themselves like to be flogged, +as eels like to be skinned, when they once get used to it. Ask the +slave-holders of the southern states of America whether any society +can be well constituted unless the greater part of those upon the +sweat of whose brow the community depends for their subsistence are +made by law liable to be bought, sold, and driven to their daily +labour with the lash; they will one and all say No; and yet there +are doubtless many very excellent and amiable persons among these +slave-holders. If our army, as at present constituted, cannot do +without the free use of the lash, let its constitution be altered; +for no nation with free institutions should suffer its soldiers to +be flogged. '<i>Laudabiliores tamen duces sunt, quorum exercitum ad +modestiam labor et usus instituit, quam illi, quorum milites ad +obedientiam suppliciorum formido compellit.</i>'[36]</p> + +<p>Though I reprobate that wanton severity of discipline in which +the substance is sacrificed to the form, in which unavoidable and +trivial offences are punished as deliberate and serious crimes, and +the spirit of the soldier is entirely disregarded, while the motion +of his limbs, cut of his whiskers, and the buttons of his coat are +scanned with microscopic eye, I must not be thought to advocate +idleness. If we find the sepoys of a native regiment, as we +sometimes do at a healthy and cheap station, become a little unruly +like schoolboys, and ask an old native officer the reason, he will +probably answer others as he has me by another question, '<i>Ghora +ārā kyūn? Pānī sarā kyūn?</i>' +'Why does the horse become vicious? Why does the water become +putrid?'-For want of exercise. Without proper attention to this +exercise no regiment is ever kept in order; nor has any commanding +officer ever the respect or the affection of his men unless they +see that he understands well all the duties which his Government +entrusts to him, and is resolved to have them performed in all +situations and under all circumstances. There are always some bad +characters in a regiment, to take advantage of any laxity of +discipline, and lead astray the younger soldiers, whose spirits +have been rendered exuberant by good health and good feeding; and +there is hardly any crime to which they will not try to excite +these young men, under an officer careless about the discipline of +his regiment, or disinclined, from a mistaken <i>esprit de +corps</i>, or any other cause, to have those crimes traced home to +them and punished.[37]</p> + +<p>There can be no question that a good tone of feeling between the +European officers and their men is essential to the well-being of +our native army; and I think I have found this tone somewhat +impaired whenever our native regiments are concentrated at large +stations. In such places the European society is commonly large and +gay; and the officers of our native regiments become too much +occupied in its pleasures and ceremonies to attend to their native +officers or sepoys. In Europe there are separate classes of people +who subsist by catering for the amusements of the higher classes of +society, in theatres, operas, concerts, balls, &c., &c.; +but in India this duty devolves entirely upon the young civil and +military officers of the Government, and at large stations it +really is a very laborious one, which often takes up the whole of a +young man's time. The ladies must have amusement; and the officers +must find it for them, because there are no other persons to +undertake the arduous duty. The consequence is that they often +become entirely alienated from their men, and betray signs of the +greatest impatience while they listen to the necessary reports of +their native officers, as they come on or go off duty.[38]</p> + +<p>It is different when regiments are concentrated for active +service. Nothing tends so much to improve the tone of feeling +between the European officers and their men, and between European +soldiers and sepoys, as the concentration of forces on actual +service, where the same hopes animate, and the same dangers unite +them in common bonds of sympathy and confidence. '<i>Utrique +alteris freti, finitimos armis aut metu sub imperium cogere, nomen +gloriamque sibi addidere</i>.' After the campaigns under Lord Lake, +a native regiment passing Dinapore, where the gallant King's 76th, +with whom they had fought side by side, was cantoned, invited the +soldiers to a grand entertainment provided for them by the sepoys. +They consented to go on one condition—that the sepoys should +see them all back safe before morning. Confiding in their sable +friends, they all got gloriously drunk, but found themselves lying +every man upon his proper cot in his own barracks in the morning. +The sepoys had carried them all home upon their shoulders. Another +native regiment, passing within a few miles of a hill on which they +had buried one of their European officers after that war, solicited +permission to go and make their 'salām' to the tomb, and all +went who were off duty.[39] The system which now keeps the greater +part of our native infantry at small stations of single regiments +in times of peace tends to preserve this good tone of feeling +between officers and men, at the same time that it promotes the +general welfare of the country by giving confidence everywhere to +the peaceful and industrious classes.</p> + +<p>I will not close this chapter without mentioning one thing which +I have no doubt every Company's officer in India will concur with +me in thinking desirable to improve the good feeling of the native +soldiery—that is, an increase in the pay of the +Jemadārs. They are commissioned officers, and seldom attain +the rank in less than from twenty-five to thirty years;[40] and +they have to provide themselves with clothes of the same costly +description as those of the Sūbadār; to be as well +mounted, and in all respects to keep the same respectability of +appearance, while their pay is only twenty-four rupees and a half a +month; that is, ten rupees a month only more than they had been +receiving in the grade of Havildārs, which is not sufficient +to meet the additional expenses to which they become liable as +commissioned officers. Their means of remittance to their families +are rather diminished than increased by promotion, and but few of +them can hope ever to reach the next grade of Sūbadār. +Our Government, which has of late been so liberal to its native +civil officers, will, I hope, soon take into consideration the +claims of this class, who are universally admitted to be the worst +paid class of native public officers in India. Ten rupees a month +addition to their pay would be of great importance; it would enable +them to impart some of the advantages of promotion to their +families, and improve the good feeling of the circles around them +towards the Government they serve.[41]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. This chapter and the following one were printed as a separate +tract at Calcutta in 1841 (see Bibliography). That small volume +included an Introduction and two statistical tables which the +author did not reprint. He has utilized extracts from the +Introduction in various parts of the <i>Rambles and +Recollections</i>. I am not sure that the tract was ever published, +though it was printed; for the author says in his Introduction: +'They (<i>scil.</i> these two essays) may never be published; but I +cannot deny myself the gratification of printing them.'</p> + +<p>2. This order is confined to the Indian Army.</p> + +<p>3. The punishment of working on the roads is long obsolete.</p> + +<p>4. The author spells this word 'sipahee'. I have thought it +better to use throughout the now familiar corruption.</p> + +<p>5. The ordinary infantry pay was raised from seven to nine +rupees in 1895.</p> + +<p>6. General Orders by the Commander-in-Chief of the 5th of +January, 1797, declare that no sepoy or trooper of our native army +shall be dismissed from the service by the sentence of any but a +general court martial. General Orders by the Commander-in-Chief, +Lord Combermere, of the 19th of March, 1827, declare that his +Excellency is of opinion that the quiet and orderly habits of the +native soldiers are such that it can very seldom be necessary to +have recourse to the punishment of flogging, which might be almost +entirely abolished with great advantage to their character and +feelings; and directs that no native soldier shall in future be +sentenced to corporal punishment unless for the crime of +<i>stealing, marauding, or gross insubordination</i>, where the +individuals are deemed unworthy to continue in the ranks of the +army. No such sentence by a regimental, detachment, or brigade +court martial was to be carried into effect till confirmed by the +general officer commanding the division. When flogged the soldier +was invariably to be discharged from the service.</p> + +<p>A circular letter from the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Combermere, +on the 16th of June, 1827, directs that sentence to corporal +punishment is not to be restricted to the three crimes of <i>theft, +marauding, or gross insubordination</i>; but that it is not to be +awarded except for very serious offences against discipline, or +actions of a disgraceful or infamous nature, which show those who +committed them to be unfit for the service; that the officer who +assembles the court may remit the sentence of corporal punishment, +and the dismissal involved in it; but cannot carry it into effect +till confirmed by the officer commanding the division, except when +an immediate example is indispensably necessary, as in the case of +plundering and violence on the part of soldiers in the line of +march. In all cases the soldier who has been flogged must be +dismissed.</p> + +<p>A circular letter by the Commander-in-Chief, Sir E. Barnes, 2nd +of November, 1832, dispenses with the duty of submitting the +sentence of regimental, detachment, and brigade courts martial for +confirmation to the general officer commanding the division; and +authorizes the officer who assembles the court to carry the +sentence into effect without reference to higher authority; and to +mitigate the punishment awarded, or remit it altogether; and to +order the dismissal of the soldier who has been sentenced to +corporal punishment, though he should remit the flogging, 'for it +may happen that a soldier may be found guilty of an offence which +renders it improper that he should remain any longer in the +service, although the general conduct of the man has been such that +an example is unnecessary; or he may have relations in the regiment +of excellent character, upon whom some part of the disgrace would +fall if he were flogged.' Still no court martial but a general one +could sentence a soldier to be simply dismissed. To secure his +dismissal they must first sentence him to be flogged.</p> + +<p>On the 24th of February, 1835, the Governor-General of India in +Council, Lord William Bentinck, directed that the practice of +punishing soldiers of the native army by the cat-o'-nine-tails, or +rattan, be discontinued at all the presidencies; and that +henceforth it shall be competent to any regimental, detachment, or +brigade court martial to sentence a soldier of the native army to +dismissal from the service for any offence for which such soldier +might now be punished by flogging, provided such sentence of +dismissal shall not be carried into effect unless confirmed by the +general or other officer commanding the division.'</p> + +<p>For crimes involving higher penalties, soldiers were, as +heretofore, committed for trial before general courts martial.</p> + +<p>By Act 23 of 1839, passed by the Legislative Council of India on +the 23rd of September, it is made competent for courts martial to +sentence soldiers of the native army in the service of the East +India Company to the punishment of dismissal, and to be imprisoned, +with or without hard labour, for any period not exceeding two +years, if the sentence be pronounced by a general court martial; +and not exceeding one year, if by a garrison or line court martial; +and not exceeding six months, if by a regimental or district court +martial. Imprisonment for any period with hard labour, or for a +term exceeding six months without hard labour, to involve +dismissal. Act 2 of 1840 provides for such sentences of +imprisonment being carried into execution by magistrates or other +officers in charge of the gaols. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>This last paragraph has been brought up from the end of the +volume where it is printed in the original edition.</p> + +<p>The army has been completely reorganized since the author's +time, and the regulations have been much modified.</p> + +<p>In October, 1833, Lord William Bentinck had assumed the command +of the army, on the retirement of Sir Edward Barnes, and thus +combined the offices of Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief, as +the Marquis Cornwallis and the Marquis of Hastings had done before +him.</p> + +<p>7. Batavia was occupied by Sir Samuel Auchmuty in August, and +the whole island was taken possession of in September, 1811. But at +the general peace which followed the great war the island of Java, +with its dependencies, was restored to the Dutch.</p> + +<p>8. The Isle of France, otherwise called the Mauritius, which is +still British territory, was gallantly taken at the end of +November, 1810, by Commodore Rowley and Major-General Abercrombie. +Full details of the Java and Mauritius expeditions are given in +Thornton's twenty- second chapter. The brilliant operations in both +localities deserve more attention than they usually receive from +students of Indian history.</p> + +<p>9. The funeral obsequies which are everywhere offered up to the +manes of parents by the surviving head of the family during the +last fifteen days of the month Kuār (September) were never +considered as acceptable from the hands of a soldier in our service +who had been tied up and flogged, whatever might have been the +nature of the offence for which he was punished; any head of a +family so flogged lost by that punishment the most important of his +civil rights—that, indeed, upon which all others hinged, for +it is by presiding at the funeral ceremonies that the head of the +family secures and maintains his recognition. [W. H. S.] I have +invariably found that natives of India, enjoying a good social +position, who happen to be interested in an offender, care nothing +for the disgraceful nature of the offender's crime, while they +dread the disgrace of the punishment, however just it may be.</p> + +<p>10. The worst feature of this abolition measure is +unquestionably the odious distinction which it leaves in the +punishments to which our European and our native soldiers are +liable, since the British legislation does not consider that it can +be safely abolished in the British army. This odious distinction +might be easily removed by an enactment declaring that European +soldiers in India should be liable to corporal punishment for only +two offences: first, mutiny, or gross insubordination; second, +plunder or violence while the regiment or force to which the +prisoner belongs is in the field or marching. The same enactment +might declare the soldiers of our native army liable to the same +punishments for the same offences. Such an enactment would excite +no discontent among our native soldiery; on the contrary, it would +be applauded as just and proper. [W. H. S.] Subsequently, corporal +punishment in the Indian or native army was again legalized. The +present law is thus stated by Sir Edwin Collen: 'A "summary court +martial"... may pass any sentence allowed by the articles of war, +except . . . and may carry it out at once. Corporal punishment not +exceeding fifty lashes may be given for certain offences, but is +rarely awarded, and the amount of military crime is, on the whole, +very small in the native army. The native officers have power to +inflict minor punishments' [<i>I.G. (1908), vol. iv, p. +370</i>].</p> + +<p>Flogging in the British army in time of peace was prohibited in +April, 1868, by an amendment to the Mutiny Bill, and was completely +abolished by the Army Discipline Act of 1881.</p> + +<p>11. The author also gives the Hindustani word as 'kaelkur-hin', +which seems to be intended for <i>qāil kareñ</i>, or in +rustic form <i>karahiñ</i>, meaning 'confute'.</p> + +<p>12. No wonder that the native army, pampered in this sentimental +fashion, gradually became more and more inefficient, till it needed +the fires of the Mutiny to purge away its humours. No army could be +efficient when its subordinate officers on the active list were men +of sixty or seventy years of age.</p> + +<p>13. The sepoys were quite right; no other service in the world +was managed on such principles. The illusion of the old Company's +officers about the gratitude and affection of the men generally was +rudely dispelled nineteen years after the conversations recorded in +the text. But, even in 1857. a noble minority remained faithful and +did devoted service.</p> + +<p>14. The best troops now are the Sikhs, Gōrkhās, and +frontier Muhammadans. Oudh men still enlist in large numbers, but +do not enjoy their old prestige. The army known to the author +comprised no Sikhs, Gōrkhās, or frontier Muhammadans. The +recruitment of Gōrkhās only began in 1838, and the other +two classes of troops were obtained by the annexation of the +Panjāb in 1849.</p> + +<p>15. Enlistment in the native army is absolutely voluntary, and +does not even require to be stimulated by a bounty. A subsequent +passage shows that the author refuses to describe the British army +as an 'entirety voluntary' one, because a soldier when once +enlisted is bound to serve for a definite term; whereas the sepoy +could resign when he chose.</p> + +<p>16. Desertions are frequent among the regiments recruited on the +Afghan frontier. These regiments did not exist in the author's +day.</p> + +<p>17. An ordinance issued in France so late as 1778 required that +a man should produce proof of four quarterings of nobility before +he could get a commission in the army. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>18. '<i>Est et alia causa, cur attenuatae sint legiones</i>,' +says Vegetius. '<i>Magnus in illis labor est militandi, graviora +arma, sera munera, severior disciplila. Quod vitantes plerique, in +auxiliis festinant militiae sacramenta percipere, ubi et minor +sudor, et maturiora sunt premia.' Lib.</i> II. <i>cap.</i> 3. [W. +H. S.] Vegetius, according to Gibbon and his most recent editor +(<i>recensuit Carolus Lang. Editio altera. Lipsiae, Teubner</i>, +1885), flourished during the reign of Valentinian III (A.D. +425-55). His 'Soldier's Pocket-book' is entitled 'Flavi Vegeti +Renati Epitoma Rei Militaris'.</p> + +<p>'Montesquieu thought that 'the Government had better have stuck +to the old practice of slitting noses and cutting off ears, since +the French soldiers, like the Roman dandies under Pompey, must +necessarily have a greater dread of a disfigured face than of +death. It did not occur to him that France could retain her +soldiers by other and better motives. See <i>Spirit of Laws</i>, +book vi, chap. 12. See <i>Necker on the Finances</i>, vol. ii, +chap. 5; vol. iii, chap. 34. A day-labourer on the roads got +fifteen sous a day; and a French soldier only six, at the very time +that the mortality of an army of forty thousand men sent to the +colonies was annually 13,333, or about one in three. In our native +army the sepoy gets about double the wages of an ordinary +day-labourer; and his duties, when well done, involve just enough +of exercise to keep him in health. The casualties are perhaps about +one in a hundred. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>20. Just precisely what the French soldiers were after the +revolution had purged France of all 'the perilous stuff that +weighed upon the heart' of its people. Gibbon, in considering the +chance of the civilized nations of Europe ever being again overrun +by the barbarians from the North, as in the time of the Romans, +says: 'If a savage conqueror should issue from the deserts of +Tartary, he must repeatedly vanquish the robust peasantry of +Russia, the numerous armies of Germany, the gallant nobles of +France, and the intrepid free men of Britain.' Never was a more +just, yet more unintended satire upon the state of a country. +Russia was to depend upon her 'robust peasantry'; Germany upon her +'numerous armies'; England upon her 'intrepid free men'; and poor +France upon her 'gallant nobles' alone; because, unhappily, no +other part of her vast population was then ever thought of. When +the hour of trial came, those pampered nobles who had no feeling in +common with the people were shaken off' like dew-drops from the +lion's mane'; and the hitherto spurned peasantry of France, under +the guidance and auspices of men who understood and appreciated +them, astonished the world with their powers. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>21. The allusion is to the now half-forgotten war with the +United States in the years 1812-14, during the course of which the +English captured the city of Washington, and the Americans gained +some unexpected naval victories.</p> + +<p>22. The author has already denounced the practice of +impressment, <i>ante</i>, chapter 26, note 27.</p> + +<p>23. 'to' in the original edition.</p> + +<p>24. See McCulloch, <i>Pol. Econ.</i>, p. 235, 1st ed., +Edinburgh, 1825. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>25. Many German princes adopted the discipline of Frederick in +their little petty states, without exactly knowing why or +wherefore. The Prince of Darmstadt conceived a great passion for +the military art; and when the weather would not permit him to +worry his little army of five thousand men in the open air, he had +them worried for his amusement under sheds. But he was soon obliged +to build a wall round the town in which he drilled his soldiers for +the sole purpose of preventing their running away—round this +wall he had a regular chain of sentries to fire at the deserters. +Mr. Moore thought that the discontent in this little band was +greater than in the Prussian army, inasmuch as the soldiers saw no +object but the prince's amusement. A fight, or the prospect of a +fight, would have been a feast to them. [W. H. S.] It is hardly +necessary to observe that the modern system of drill is widely +different.</p> + +<p>26. Speaking of the question whether recruits drawn from the +country or the towns are best, Vegetius says: '<i>De qua parte +numquam credo potuisse dubitari, aptiorem armis rusticam plebem, +quae sub divo et in labore nutritur; solis patiens; umbrae +negligens; balnearum nescia; delictarurum ignara; simplicis animi; +parvo contenta; duratis ad omnem laborem membris; cui gestara +ferrum, fossam ducere, onus ferre, consuetudo de rare est.' (De Re +Militari</i>, Lib. i, cap. 3.) [W. H. S.] The passage quoted is +disfigured by many misprints in the original edition.</p> + +<p>27. As the Madras sepoys do.</p> + +<p>28. The writing of the bulk of this work was completed in 1839. +These concluding supplementary chapters on the Bengal army seem to +have been written a little later, perhaps in 1841, the year in +which they were first printed. The publication of the complete work +took place in 1844. The Mutiny broke out in 1857, and proved that +the fidelity of the sepoys could not be so easily assured as the +author supposed.</p> + +<p>29. I believe the native army to be better now than it ever +was—better in its disposition and in its organization. The +men have now a better feeling of assurance than they formerly had +that all their rights will be secured to them by their European +officers that all those officers are men of honour, though they +have not all of them the same fellow feeling that their officers +had with them in former days. This is because they have not the +same opportunity of seeing their courage and fidelity tried in the +same scenes of common danger. Go to Afghanistan and China, and you +will find the feeling between officers and men as fine as ever it +was in days of yore, whatever it may be at our large and gay +stations, where they see so little of each other. [W. H. S.] The +author's reputation for sagacity and discernment could not be made +to rest upon the above remarks. His judgement was led astray by his +lifelong association with and affection for the native troops. Lord +William Bentinck took a far juster view of the situation, and +understood far better the real nature of the ties which bind the +native army to its masters. His admirable minute dated 13th March, +1835, published for the first time in Mr. D. Boulger's well-written +little book (<i>Lord William Bentinck</i>, 'Rulers of India', pp. +177-201), is still worthy of study. As a corrective to the author's +too effusive sentiment, some brief passages from the +Governor-General's minute may be quoted. 'In considering the +question of internal danger,' he observes, 'those officers most +conversant with Indian affairs who were examined before the +Parliamentary Committee apprehend no danger to our dominion as long +as we are assured of the fidelity of our native troops. To this +opinion I entirely subscribe. But others again view in the native +army itself the source of our greatest peril. In all ages the +military body has been often the prime cause, but generally the +instrument, of all revolutions; and proverbial almost as is the +fidelity of the native soldier to the chief whom he serves, more +especially when he is justly and kindly treated, still we cannot be +blind to the fact that many of those ties which bind other armies +to their allegiance are totally wanting in this. Here is no +patriotism, no community of feeling as to religion or birthplace, +no influencing attachment from high considerations, or great +honours and rewards. Our native army also is extremely ignorant, +capable of the strongest religions excitement, and very sensitive +to disrespect to their persona or infringement of their customs. . +. . In the native army alone rests our internal danger, and this +danger may involve our complete subversion. . . .</p> + +<p>'All these facts and opinions seem to me to establish +incontrovertibly that a large proportion of European troops is +necessary for our security under all circumstances of peace and +war. . . .</p> + +<p>'I believe the sepoys have never been so good as they were in +the earliest part of our career; none superior to those under De +Boigne. . . I fearlessly pronounce the Indian army to be the least +efficient and most expensive in the world.'</p> + +<p>The events of 1857-9 proved the truth of Lord William Bentinck's +wise words. The native army is no longer inefficient as a whole, +though certain sections of it may still be so, but the less that is +said about the supposed affection of mercenary troops for a foreign +government, the better.</p> + +<p>30. Of course, all the military forces, British and Indian, are +now alike the King's. Each service has its own rules and +regulations.</p> + +<p>31. 'General Baird had started from Bombay in the end of +December 1800, but only arrived at Kossir, on the coast of Upper +Egypt, on the 8th of June. In nine days, with a force of 6,400 +British and native troops, he traversed 140 miles of desert to the +Nile, and reached Cairo on 10th August with hardly any loss. The +united force then marched down on Alexandria, and on 31st August +Menou capitulated, and the whole French army evacuated Egypt.' +(Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia</i>, 3rd ed., s.v. 'Egypt.') The Indian +native army again did brilliant service in the Egyptian campaign of +1882.</p> + +<p>32. Great progress has been made in the task of lightening the +miseries of European soldiers in India by the provision of innocent +amusements. Lord Roberts, during his long tenure of the office of +Commander-in-Chief, pre-eminently showed himself to be the +soldier's friend.</p> + +<p>33. Their commanding officers say, as Pharaoh said to the +Israelites, 'Let there be more work laid upon them, that they may +labour therein, and not enter into vain discourses.' Life to such +men becomes intolerable; and they either destroy themselves, or +commit murder, that they may be taken to a distant court for trial. +[W. H. S.] The quotation is from Exodus v. 9. The Authorized +Version is, 'Let there be more work laid upon the men, that they +may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.'</p> + +<p>34. See Livy, lib. ii, cap. 59. The infantry under Fabius had +refused to conquer, that their general, whom they hated, might not +triumph; but the whole army under Claudius, whom they had more +cause to detest, not only refused to conquer, but determined to be +conquered, that he might be involved in their disgrace. All the +abilities of Lucullus, one of the ablest generals Rome ever had, +were rendered almost useless by his disregard to the feelings of +his soldiers. He could not perceive that the civil wars under +Marius and Sylla had rendered a different treatment of Roman +soldiers necessary to success in war. Pompey, his successor, a man +of inferior military genius, succeeded much better because he had +the sagacity to see that he now required not only the confidence +but the affections of his soldiers. Caesar to abilities even +greater than those of Lucullus united the conciliatory spirit of +Pompey [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>35. This curious incident, which is not mentioned by Thornton in +the detailed account of the Nepalese War given in his twenty-fourth +chapter, may be the failure of the 53rd Regiment to support General +Gllespie in the attack on Kalanga, in 1814, not 1815 (Mill, Bk. II, +chap. 1; vol. viii, p. 19, ed. 1858). The war was notable for the +number of blunders and failures which marked its earlier +stages.</p> + +<p>36. Vegetius, <i>De Re Militari</i>, Lib. iii, cap. 4, If +corporal punishment be retained at all, it should be limited to the +two offences I have already mentioned; [W. H. S.] namely, (l) +mutiny or gross insubordination, (2) plunder or violence in the +field or on the march. (<i>Ante</i>, chapter 76, note 6.)</p> + +<p>37. Polybius says that 'as the human body is apt to get out of +order under good feeding and little exercise, so are states and +armies.' (Bk. II, chap. 6.)—Wherever food is cheap, and the +air good, native regiments should be well exercised without being +worried.</p> + +<p>I must here take the liberty to give an extract from a letter +from one of the best and most estimable officers now in the Bengal +army: 'As connected with the discipline of the native army, I may +here remark that I have for some years past observed on the part of +many otherwise excellent commanding officers a great want of +attention to the instruction of the young European officers on +first joining their regiments. I have had ample opportunities of +seeing the great value of a regular course of instruction drill for +at least six months. When I joined my first regiment, which was +about forty years ago, I had the good fortune to be under a +commandant and adjutant who, happily for me and many others, +attached great importance to this very necessary course of +instruction, I then acquired a thorough knowledge of my duties, +which led to my being appointed an adjutant very early in life. +When I attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel I had, however, +opportunities of observing how very much this essential duty had +been neglected in certain regiments, and made it a rule in all that +I commanded to keep all young officers on first joining at the +instruction drill till thoroughly grounded in their duties. Since I +ceased to command a regiment, I have taken advantage of every +opportunity to express to those commanding officers with whom I +have been in correspondence my conviction of the great advantages +of this system to the rising generation. In going from one regiment +to another I found many curious instances of ignorance on the part +of young officers who had been many years with their corps. It was +by no means an easy task to convince them that they really knew +nothing, or at least had a great deal to learn; but when they were +made sensible of it, they many of them turned out excellent +officers, and now, I believe, bless the day they were first put +under me.'</p> + +<p>The advantages of the System here mentioned cannot be +questioned; and it is much to be regretted that it is not strictly +enforced in every regiment in the service. Young officers may find +it irksome at first; but they soon become sensible of the +advantages, and learn to applaud the commandant who has had the +firmness to consult their permanent interests more than their +present inclinations. [W. H. S.]</p> + +<p>38. Among the many changes produced in India by the development +of the railway system and by other causes one of the most striking +is the abolition of small military stations. Almost all these have +disappeared, and the troops are now massed in large cantonments, +where they can be handled much more effectively than in +out-stations. The discipline of small detached bodies of troops is +generally liable to deterioration.</p> + +<p>39. Many instances of semi-religious honour paid by natives to +the tombs of Europeans have been noticed.</p> + +<p>40. There are, I believe, many Jemadārs who still wear +medals on their breasts for their service in the taking of Java and +the Isle of France more than thirty years ago. Indeed, I suspect +that some will be found who accompanied Sir David Baird to Egypt. +[W. H. S.] Such old men must have been perfectly useless as +officers. Sir David Baird' s operations took place in 1801.</p> + +<p>41. The rate of pay of Jemadārs in the Bengal Native +Infantry now is either forty or fifty rupees monthly. Half of the +officers of this rank in each regiment receive the higher rate. The +grievance complained of by the author has, therefore, been +remedied. The pay of a Havīldār is still, or was +recently, fourteen rupees a month.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ch77">CHAPTER 77</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum">Invalid Establishment.</p> + +<p>I have said nothing in the foregoing chapter of the invalid +establishment, which is probably the greatest of all bonds between +the Government and its native army, and consequently the greatest +element in the 'spirit of discipline'. Bonaparte, who was, perhaps, +with all his faults, 'the greatest man that ever floated on the +tide of time', said at Elba, 'There is not even a village that has +not brought forth a general, a colonel, a captain, or a prefect, +who has raised himself by his especial merit, and illustrated at +once his family and his country.' Now we know that the families and +the village communities in which our invalid pensioners reside +never read newspapers,[1] and feel but little interest in the +victories in which these pensioners may have shared. They feel that +they have no share in the <i>éclat</i> or glory which attend +them; but they everywhere admire and respect the government which +cherishes its faithful old servants, and enables them to spend the +'winter of their days' in the bosoms of their families; and they +spurn the man who has failed in his duty towards that government in +the hour of need.</p> + +<p>No sepoy taken from the Rājpūt communities of Oudh or +any other part of the country can hope to conceal from his family +circle or village community any act of cowardice, or anything else +which is considered disgraceful to a soldier, or to escape the +odium which it merits in that circle and community.</p> + +<p>In the year 1819 I was encamped near a village in marching +through Oudh, when the landlord, a very cheerful old man, came up +to me with his youngest son, a lad of eighteen years of age, and +requested me to allow him (the son) to show me the best shooting +grounds in the neighbourhood. I took my 'Joe Manton' and went out. +The youth showed me some very good ground, and I found him an +agreeable companion, and an excellent shot with his matchlock. On +our return we found the old man waiting for us. He told me that he +had four sons, all by God's blessing tall enough for the Company's +service, in which one had attained the rank of 'havīldār' +(sergeant), and two were still sepoys. Their wives and children +lived with him; and they sent home every month two- thirds of their +pay, which enabled him to pay all the rent of the estate and +appropriate the whole of the annual returns to the subsistence and +comfort of the numerous family. He was, he said, now growing old, +and wished his eldest son, the sergeant, to resign the service and +come home to take upon him the management of the estate; that as +soon as he could be prevailed upon to do so, his old wife would +permit my sporting companion, her youngest son, to enlist, but not +before.</p> + +<p>I was on my way to visit Fyzabad, the old metropolis of Oudh,[2] +and on returning a month afterwards in the latter end of January, I +found that the wheat, which was all then in ear, had been destroyed +by a severe frost. The old man wept bitterly, and he and his old +wife yielded to the wishes of their youngest son to accompany me +and enlist in my regiment, which was then stationed at +Partābgarh.[3]</p> + +<p>We set out, but were overtaken at the third stage by the poor +old man, who told me that his wife had not eaten or slept since the +boy left her, and that he must go back and wait for the return of +his eldest brother, or she certainly would not live. The lad obeyed +the call of his parents, and I never saw or heard of the family +again.</p> + +<p>There is hardly a village in the kingdom of Oudh without +families like this depending upon the good conduct and liberal pay +of sepoys in our infantry regiments, and revering the name of the +government they serve, or have served. Similar villages are to be +found scattered over the provinces of Bihār and Benares, the +districts between the Ganges and Jumna, and other parts where +Rājpūts and the other classes from which we draw our +recruits have been long established as proprietors and cultivators +of the soil.</p> + +<p>These are the feelings on which the spirit of discipline in our +native army chiefly depends, and which we shall, I hope, continue +to cultivate, as we have always hitherto done, with care; and a +commander must take a great deal of pains to make his men +miserable, before he can render them, like the soldiers of +Frederick, 'the irreconcilable enemies of their officers and their +government'.</p> + +<p>In the year 1817 I was encamped in a grove on the right bank of +the Ganges below Monghyr,[4] when the Marquis of Hastings was +proceeding up the river in his fleet, to put himself at the head of +the grand division of the army then about to take the field against +the Pindhārīs and their patrons, the Marāthā, +chiefs. Here I found an old native pensioner, above a hundred years +of age. He had fought under Lord Clive at the battle of Plassey, +A.D. 1757, and was still a very cheerful, talkative old gentleman, +though he had long lost the use of his eyes. One of his sons, a +grey-headed old man, and a Sūbadār (captain) in a +regiment of native infantry, had been at the taking of Java,[5] and +was now come home on leave to visit his father. Other sons had +risen to the rank of commissioned officers, and their families +formed the aristocracy of the neighbourhood. In the evening, as the +fleet approached, the old gentleman, dressed in his full uniform of +former days as a commissioned officer, had himself taken out close +to the bank of the river, that he might be once more during his +life within sight of a British Commander-in-Chief, though he could +no longer see one. There the old patriarch sat listening with +intense delight to the remarks of the host of his descendants +around him, as the Governor-General's magnificent fleet passed +along,[6] every one fancying that he had caught a glimpse of the +great man, and trying to describe him to the old gentleman, who in +return told them (no doubt for the thousandth time) what sort of a +person the great Lord Clive was. His son, the old +Sūbadār, now and then, with modest deference, venturing +to imagine a resemblance between one or the other, and his <i>beau +idéal</i> of a great man, Lord Lake. Few things in India +have interested me more than scenes like these.</p> + +<p>I have no means of ascertaining the number of military +pensioners in England or in any other European nation, and cannot, +therefore, state the proportion which they bear to the actual +number of forces kept up. The military pensioners in our Bengal +establishment on the 1st of May, 1841, were 22,381; and the family +pensioners, or heirs of soldiers killed in action, 1,730; total +24,111, out of an army of 82,027 men. I question whether the number +of retired soldiers maintained at the expense of government bears +so large a proportion to the number actually serving in any other +nation on earth.[7] Not one of the twenty-four thousand has been +brought on, or retained upon, the list from political interest or +court favour; every one receives his pension for long and faithful +services, after he has been pronounced by a board of European +surgeons as no longer fit for the active duties of his profession; +or gets it for the death of a father, husband, or son, who has been +killed in the service of government.</p> + +<p>All are allowed to live with their families, and European +officers are stationed at central points in the different parts of +the country where they are most numerous to pay them their stipends +every six months. These officers are at— 1st, Barrackpore; +2nd, Dinapore; 3rd, Allahabad; 4th, Lucknow; 5th, Meerut. From +these central points they move twice a year to the several other +points within their respective circles of payment where the +pensioners can most conveniently attend to receive their money on +certain days, so that none of them have to go far, or to employ any +expensive means to get it—it is, in fact, brought home as +near as possible to their doors by a considerate and liberal +government.[8]</p> + +<p>Every soldier is entitled to a pension when pronounced by a +board of surgeons as no longer fit for the active duties of his +profession, after fifteen years' active service; but to be entitled +to the pension of his rank in the army, he must have served in such +rank for three years. Till he has done so he is entitled only to +the pension of that immediately below it. A sepoy gets four rupees +a month, that is, about one-fourth more than the ordinary wages of +common uninstructed labour throughout the country.[9] But it will +be better to give the rate of pay of the native officers and men of +our native infantry and that of their retired pensions in one +table.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<p align="center">TABLE OF THE RATE OF PAY AND RETIRED PENSIONS +OF<br> + THE NATIVE OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF OUR NATIVE INFANTRY.</p> + +<table border="0" width="90%" summary= +"Rates of pay and pension of various ranks"> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td><i>Rate of Pay</i> </td> +<td><i>Rate of Pension</i> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><i>Rank.</i> </td> +<td><i>per</i> </td> +<td><i>per</i> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td><i>Mensum.</i> </td> +<td><i>Mensum.</i> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td><i>Rupees.</i> </td> +<td><i>Rupees.</i> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>A Sepoy, or private soldier. (Note.—</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> After sixteen years' service eight</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> rupees a month, after twenty years</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> he gets nine rupees a month)</td> +<td> 7.0</td> +<td> 4.0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>A Nāik, or corporal</td> +<td>12.0</td> +<td> 7.0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>A Havīldār, or sergeant</td> +<td>14.0</td> +<td> 7.0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>A Jemadār, subaltern commissioned officer</td> +<td>24.8</td> +<td>13.0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Sūbadār, or Captain</td> +<td>67.0</td> +<td>25.0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Sūbadār Major</td> +<td>92.0</td> +<td> 0.0[a]</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>A Sūbadār, after forty years service</td> +<td> 0.0</td> +<td>50.0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>A Sūbadār Bahādur of the Order of British</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> India, First Class, two rupees a +day</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> extra; Second Class, one Rupee a +day</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> extra. This extra allowance they</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> enjoy after they retire from the</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> service during life.[b]</td> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>a. I presume this means that no special rate of pension was +fixed for the rank of Sūbadār Major.</p> + +<p>b. The monthly rates of pay and pension now in force for native +officers and men of the Bengal army are as follows:</p> + +<table border="0" width="80%" summary="as above"> +<tr> +<td rowspan="3"> </td> +<td colspan="2"> + <i>Pay.</i> </td> +<td colspan="2"> + <i>Pension.</i> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><i>Rank.</i> </td> +<td><i>Ordinay.</i> </td> +<td><i>Superior.</i> </td> +<td><i>Ordinay.</i> </td> +<td><i>Superior.</i> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td><i>Rs.</i> </td> +<td><i>Rs.</i> </td> +<td><i>Rs.</i> </td> +<td><i>Rs.</i> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Sūbadār</td> +<td>80</td> +<td>100[c]</td> +<td>30</td> +<td>50</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Jemadār</td> +<td>40</td> +<td> 50[c]</td> +<td>15</td> +<td>25</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Havīldār</td> +<td>14</td> +<td> —</td> +<td> 7</td> +<td>12</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Naick (nāik)</td> +<td>12</td> +<td> —</td> +<td> 7</td> +<td>12</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Drummer or Bugler</td> +<td> 7</td> +<td> —</td> +<td> 4</td> +<td> 7</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Sepoy</td> +<td> 7</td> +<td> —</td> +<td> 4</td> +<td> 7</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>c. Half of this rank in each regiment receive the higher rate of +pay.</p> + +<br> +<p>The circumstances which, in the estimation of the people, +distinguish the British from all other rulers in India, and make it +grow more and more upon their affections, are these: The security +which public servants enjoy in the tenure of their office; the +prospect they have of advancement by the gradation of rank; the +regularity and liberal scale of their pay; and the provision for +old age, when they have discharged the duties entrusted to them +ably and faithfully.[l0] In a native state almost every public +officer knows that he has no chance of retaining his office beyond +the reign of the present minister or favourite; and that no present +minister or favourite can calculate upon retaining his ascendancy +over the mind of his chief for more than a few months or years. +Under us they see secretaries to government, members of council, +and Governors-General themselves going out and coming into office +without causing any change in the position of their subordinates, +or even the apprehension of any change, as long as they discharge +their duties ably and faithfully.</p> + +<p>In a native state the new minister or favourite brings with him +a whole host of expectants who must be provided for as soon as he +takes the helm; and if all the favourites of his predecessor do not +voluntarily vacate their offices for them, he either turns them out +without ceremony, or his favourites very soon concoct charges +against them, which causes them to be tumed out in due form, and +perhaps put into jail till they have 'paid the uttermost farthing'. +Under us the Governors-General, members of council, the secretaries +of state,[11] the members of the judicial and revenue boards, all +come into office and take their seats unattended by a single +expectant. No native officer of the revenue or judicial department, +who is conscious of having done his duty ably and honestly, feels +the slightest uneasiness at the change. The consequence is a degree +of integrity in public officers never before known in India, and +rarely to be found in any other country. In the province where I +now write,[12] which consists of six districts, there are +twenty-two native judicial officers, Munsifs, Sadr Amīns, and +Principal Sadr Amīns;[13] and in the whole province I have +never heard a suspicion breathed against one of them; nor do I +believe that the integrity of one of them is at this time +suspected. The only one suspected within the two and a half years +that I have been in the province was, I grieve to say, a Christian; +and he has been removed from office, to the great satisfaction of +the people, and is never to be employed again.[14] The only +department in which our native public servants do not enjoy the +same advantages of security in the tenure of their office, prospect +of rise in the gradation of rank, liberal scale of pay, and +provision for old age, is the police; and it is admitted on all +hands that there they are everywhere exceedingly corrupt. Not one +of them, indeed, ever thinks it possible that he can be supposed +honest; and those who really are so are looked upon as a kind of +martyrs or penitents, who are determined by long suffering to atone +for past crimes; and who, if they could not get into the police, +would probably go long pilgrimages on all fours, or with unboiled +peas in their shoes.[15]</p> + +<p>He who can suppose that men so inadequately paid, who have no +promotion to look forward to, and feel no security in their tenure +of office, and consequently no hope of a provision for old age, +will be zealous and honest in the discharge of their duties, must +be very imperfectly acquainted with human nature—with the +motives by which men are influenced all over the world. Indeed, no +man does in reality suppose so; on the contrary, every man knows +that the same motives actuate public servants in India as +elsewhere. We have acted successfully upon this knowledge in all +other branches of the public service, and shall, I trust, at no +distant period act upon the same in that of the police; and then, +and not till then, can it prove to the people what we must all wish +it to be, a blessing.</p> + +<p>The European magistrate of a district has, perhaps, a million of +people to look after.[16] The native officers next under him are +the Thānadārs of the different subdivisions of the +district, containing each many towns and villages, with a +population of perhaps one hundred thousand people. These officers +have no grade to look forward to, and get a salary of +<i>twenty-five rupees a month each</i>.[17]</p> + +<p>They cannot possibly do their duties unless they keep each a +couple of horses or ponies, with servants to attend to them; +indeed, they are told so by every magistrate who cares about the +peace of his district. The people, seeing how much we expect from +the Thānadār, and how little we give him, submit to his +demands for contribution without a murmur, and consider almost any +demand venial from a man so employed and paid. They are confounded +at our inconsistency, and say, where they dare to speak their +minds, 'We see you giving high salaries and high prospects of +advancement to men who have nothing on earth to do but to collect +your revenues and to decide our disputes about pounds, shillings, +and pence, which we used to decide much better among ourselves when +we had no other court but that of our elders to appeal to; while +those who are to protect life and property, to keep peace over the +land, and enable the industrious to work in security, maintain +their families and pay the government revenue, are left without any +prospect of rising, and almost without any pay at all.'</p> + +<p>There is really nothing in our rule in India which strikes the +people so much as this glaring inconsistency, the evil effects of +which are so great and so manifest. The only way to remedy the evil +is to give the police what the other branches of the public service +already enjoy—a feeling of security in the tenure of office, +a higher rate of salary, and, above all, a gradation of rank which +shall afford a prospect of rising to those who discharge their +duties ably and honestly. For this purpose all that is required is +the interposition of an officer between the Thānadār and +the magistrate, in the same way as the Sadr Amīn is now +interposed between the Munsif and the Judge.[18] On an average +there are, perhaps, twelve Thānas, or police subdivisions, in +each district, and one such officer to every four Thānas would +be sufficient for all purposes. The Governor-General who shall +confer this boon on the people of India will assuredly be hailed as +one of their greatest benefactors.[19] I should, I believe, speak +within bounds when I say that the Thānadārs throughout +the country give at present more than all the money which they +receive in avowed salaries from government as a share of indirect +perquisites to the native officers of the magistrate's court, who +have to send their reports to them, and communicate their orders, +and prepare the cases of the prisoners they may send in for +commitment to the Sessions courts.[20] The intermediate officers +here proposed would obviate all this; they would be to the +magistrate at once the <i>tapis</i> of Prince Husain and the +telescope of Prince Ali—media that would enable them to be +everywhere and see everything.</p> + +<p>I may here seem to be 'travelling beyond the record', but it is +not so. In treating on the spirit of military discipline in our +native army I advocate, as much as in me lies, the great general +principle upon which rests, I think, not only our <i>power</i> in +India, but what is more, the <i>justification of that power</i>. It +is our wish, as it is our interest, to give to the Hindoos and +Muhammadans a liberal share in all the duties of administration, in +all offices, civil and military, and to show the people in general +the incalculable advantages of a strong and settled government, +which can secure life, property, and character, and the free +enjoyment of all their blessings throughout the land; and give to +those who perform duties as public servants ably and honestly a +sure prospect of rising by gradation, a feeling of security in +their tenure of office, a liberal salary while they serve, and a +respectable provision for old age.</p> + +<p>It is by a steady adherence to these principles that the Indian +Civil Service has been raised to its present high character for +integrity and ability; and the native army made what it really is, +faithful and devoted to its rulers, and ready to serve them in any +quarter of the world.[21] I deprecate any innovation upon these +principles in the branches of the public service to which they have +already been applied with such eminent success; and I advocate +their extension to all other branches as the surest means of making +them what they ought and what we must all most fervently wish them +to be.</p> + +<p>The native officers of our judicial and revenue establishments, +or of our native army, are everywhere a bond of union between the +governing and the governed.[22] Discharging everywhere honestly and +ably their duties to their employers, they tend everywhere to +secure to them the respect and affection of the people. His +Highness Muhammad S'aīd Khān, the reigning Nawāb of +Rāmpur, still talks with pride of the days when he was one of +our Deputy Collectors in the adjoining district of Badāon, and +of the useful knowledge he acquired in that office.[23] He has +still one brother a Sadr Amīn in the district of +Mainpurī, and another a Deputy Collector in the Hamīrpur +District; and neither would resign his situation under the +Honourable Company to take office in Rāmpur at three times the +rate of salary, when invited to do so on the accession of the +eldest brother to the 'masnad'. What they now enjoy they owe to +their own industry and integrity; and they are proud to serve a +government which supplies them with so many motives for honest +exertion, and leaves them nothing to fear, as long as they exert +themselves honestly. To be in a situation which it is generally +understood that none but honest and able men can fill[24] is of +itself a source of pride, and the sons of native princes and men of +rank, both Hindoo and Muhammadan, everywhere prefer taking office +in our judicial and revenue establishments to serving under native +rulers, where everything depends entirely upon the favour or frown +of men in power, and ability, industry, and integrity can secure +nothing.[25]</p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. This can no longer be safely assumed as true. Newspapers now +penetrate to almost every village.</p> + +<p>2. Fyzābād (Faizābād) was the capital for a +short time of the Nawāb Wazīrs of Oudh. In 1775 +Āsaf-ud-daula moved his court to Lucknow. The city of Ajodhya +adjoining Fyzābād is of immense antiquity.</p> + +<p>3. In. the south of Oudh. It is not now a military station.</p> + +<p>4. Monghyr (Mungēr) is the chief town of the district of +the same name, which lies to the east of Patna.</p> + +<p>5. August, 1811.</p> + +<p>6. Such a spectacle is no longer to be seen in India. Four or +five inconspicuous railway carriages or motor-cars now take the +place of the 'magnificent fleet'.</p> + +<p>7. The percentage is 29½.</p> + +<p>8. All these arrangements have been changed. Military pensioners +are now paid through the civil authorities of each district.</p> + +<p>9. Wages are now generally higher.</p> + +<p>10. This sentence might misled readers unacquainted with the +details of Indian administration. Every official who satisfies the +formal rules of the Accounts department gets his pension, as a +matter of course, in accordance with those rules, whether his +service has been able and faithful or not. The pension list is +often the last refuge of incompetent and dishonest officials, to +which they are gladly consigned by code-bound superiors, who cannot +otherwise get rid of them. Nor am I certain that British rule +'grows more and more upon the affections' of those subject to +it.</p> + +<p>11. The author means secretaries to the Government of India or +provincial governments.</p> + +<p>12. The Sāgar and Nerbudda (Narbadā) Territories, now +included in the Central Provinces.</p> + +<p>13. The designations Sadr Amīn and Principal Sadr Amīn +have been superseded by the title of Subordinate Judge. The +officers referred to have only civil jurisdiction, which does not +include revenue and rent causes in the United Provinces.</p> + +<p>14. Most experienced officers will, I think, agree with me that +the author was exceptionally fortunate in his experience. So far as +I can make out, the standard of integrity among the higher Indian +officials has risen considerably during the last century, but is +still a long way from the perfection indicated by the author's +remarks.</p> + +<p>15. These observations on the police are merely a repetition of +the remarks in Chapter 69, which have been discussed in the notes +to that chapter.</p> + +<p>16. The districts in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh are +usually much smaller than those in Bengal or Madras, but even in +Northern India a district with only a million of inhabitants is +considered to be rather a small one. Some districts have a +population of more than three millions each.</p> + +<p>17. All has been changed. Many comparatively well paid officials +of Indian birth now intervene between the District Magistrate and +the small people on twenty-five rupees a month. Sometimes the +District Magistrate himself is an Indian.</p> + +<p>18. The anthor's note to this passage repeats the quotation from +Hobbes's <i>Leviathan</i>, Part II, sect. 30, which has been +already cited in the text, chapter 69, following [12], and need not +be repeated here. The note continues: 'Almost every +Thānadār in our dominions is a little Tarquin in his way, +exciting the indignation of the people against his master. When we +give him the proper incentives to good, we shall be able with +better conscience to punish him severely for bad conduct. The +interposition of the officers I propose between him and the +magistrate will give him the required incentive to good conduct, at +the same time that it will deprive him of all hope of concealing +his "evil ways", should he continue in them.' [W. H. S.] He still +manages to continue in his evil ways, and generally to conceal +them.</p> + +<p>19. This statement seems almost like sarcasm to a reader who +knows what manner of men well-paid Inspectors of Police commonly +are, and how they are regarded by the non-official population. They +are not usually reverenced as 'protectors of the poor'.</p> + +<p>20. The reader who is not practically acquainted with the work +of administration in India will probably think that the magistrate +who allows such intrigues to go on must be very careless and +inefficient. But that thought, though very natural, would be +unjust. The author was one of the best possible district +magistrates, and yet was unable to suppress the evils which he +describes, nor have the remedies which he advocated, and which have +been adopted, proved effectual. The Thānadār now has +generally to pay the Inspector and the people in the District +Superintendent's office, in addition to 'the native officers of the +magistrate's court'.</p> + +<p>21. We have already seen how mistaken the author was concerning +the army.</p> + +<p>22. This statement requires to be guarded by many +qualifications. The author's following remarks only illustrate the +well-known fact that in India official rank is ardently desired by +the classes eligible for it, and carries with it great social +advantages.</p> + +<p>23. Rāmpur is the small Rohilla state within the borders of +the Bareilly District, United Provinces.</p> + +<p>24. This description of the class of officials alluded to is +somewhat idealized, though it applies to a considerable proportion +of the class.</p> + +<p>25. These propositions were, doubtless, literally correct in the +author's time, but they are not at all fully applicable to the +existing state of affairs.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p><br> +</p> + +<h2><a name="App">APPENDIX</a></h2> + +<p class="chsum"><big>THUGGEE, AND THE PART TAKEN IN ITS +SUPPRESSION BY GENERAL SIR W. H. SLEEMAN, K.C.B.</big></p> + +<p class="chsum">NOTE BY CAPTAIN J. L. SLEEMAN, ROYAL SUSSEX +REGIMENT</p> + +<p>The religion of murder known as 'Thuggee' was established in +India some centuries before the British Government first became +aware of its existence, It is remarkable that, after an intercourse +with India of nearly two centuries, and the exercise of sovereignty +over a large part of the country for no inconsiderable period, the +English should have been so ignorant of the existence and habits of +a body so dangerous to the public peace. The name 'Thug' signifies +a 'Deceiver', and it will be generally admitted that this term was +well earned.[1] There is reason to believe that between 1799 and +1808 the practice of 'Thuggee' (Thagī) reached its height and +that thousands of persons were annually destroyed by its disciples. +It is interesting to note the legendary origin of this strange and +horrible religion: In remote ages a demon infested the earth and +devoured mankind as soon as created. The world was thus left +unpeopled, until the goddess of the Thugs (Dēvī or +Kālī) came to the rescue. She attacked the demon, and cut +him down; but from every drop of his blood another demon arose; and +though the goddess continued to cut down these rising demons, fresh +broods of demons sprang from their blood, as from that of their +progenitors; and the diabolical race consequently multiplied with +fearful rapidity. At length, fatigued and disheartened, the goddess +found it necessary to change her tactics. Accordingly, +relinquishing all personal efforts for their suppression, she +formed two men from perspiration brushed from her arms. To each of +these men she gave a handkerchief, and with these the two +assistants of the goddess were commanded to put all the demons to +death without shedding a drop of blood. Her commands were +immediately obeyed; and the demons were all strangled. Having +strangled all the demons, the two men offered to return the +handkerchiefs; but the goddess desired that they should retain +them, not merely as memorials of their heroism, but as the +implements of a lucrative trade in which their descendants were to +labour and thrive. They were in fact commanded to strangle men as +they had strangled demons.</p> + +<p>Several generations passed before Thuggee became practised as a +profession—probably for the same reason that a sportsman +allows game to accumulate—but in due time it was abundantly +exercised. Thus, according to the creed of the Thug, did their +order arise, and thus originated their mode of operation.</p> + +<p>The profession of a Thug, like almost everything in India, +became hereditary, the fraternity, however, receiving occasional +reinforcements from strangers, but these were admitted with great +caution, and seldom after they had attained mature age. The Thugs +were usually men seemingly occupied in most respectable and often +in most responsible positions. Annually these outwardly respectable +citizens and tradesmen would take the road, and sacrifice a +multitude of victims for the sake of their religion and pecuniary +gain. The Thug bands would assemble at fixed places of rendezvous, +and before commencing their expeditions much strange ceremony had +to be gone through. A sacred pickaxe was the emblem of their faith: +its fashioning was wrought with quaint rites and its custody was a +matter of great moment. Its point was supposed to indicate the line +of route propitious to the disciples of the goddess, and it was +credited with other powers equally marvellous. The brute creation +afforded a vast fund of instruction upon every proceeding. The ass, +jackal, wolf, deer, hare, dog, cat, owl, kite, crow, partridge, +jay, and lizard, all served to furnish good or bad omens to a Thug +on the war-path. For the first week of the expedition fasting and +general discomfort were insisted on, unless the first murder took +place within that period. Women were never murdered unless their +slaughter was unavoidable (i.e. when they were thought to suspect +the cause of the disappearance of their men-folk). Children of the +murdered were often adopted by the Thugs, and the boys were +initiated in due course in the horrid rites of Thuggee. Men skilled +in the practice of digging and concealing graves were always +attached to each Thug gang. These were able to prepare graves in +anticipation of a murder, and to effectually conceal all trace of +the crime after they were occupied. To assist the grave-diggers in +this duty all roads used by Thugs had selected places upon them at +which murders were always carried out if possible. The Thugs would +speak of such places with the same affection and enthusiasm as +other men would of the most delightful scenes of their early +life.<br> + It was these people, versed in deceit and surrounded by a +thousand obstacles to conviction, that General Sir W. H. Sleeman so +nobly set out to exterminate. Within seven years of his first +commencing the suppression of Thuggee it had practically ceased to +exist as a religion; and he had the privilege of seeing it entirely +suppressed as such before giving up this work for the Residentship +at Lucknow.</p> + +<p>He was described when taking over the latter appointment as +follows: 'He had served in India nearly forty years. His work had +been of the best. He had done more than any one to suppress +'Thuggee' finally, and had a knowledge of the Indian character and +language possessed by very few. He was personally popular with all +classes of Indians, and respected, feared, and trusted by all.'</p> + +<p><br> +SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES BY THE EDITOR</p> + +<p>Captain J. L. Sleeman, who had intended to contribute an account +in some detail of his grandfather's operations for the suppression +of Thuggee, has been ordered on active service, and consequently +has been unable to write more than the short note printed +above.</p> + +<p>The editor thinks it desirable to supplement Captain Sleeman's +observations by certain additional remarks.</p> + +<p>The earliest historical notice of Thuggee appears to be the +statement in the History of Fīrōz Shāh Tughlak +(1351-88) by a contemporary author that at some time or other in +the reign of that sovereign about one thousand Thugs were arrested +in Delhi, on the denunciation of an informer. The Sultan, with +misplaced clemency, refused to sanction the execution of any of the +prisoners, whom he shipped off to Lakhnauti or Gaur in Bengal, +where they were let loose. (Elliot and Dowson, <i>Hist. of +India</i>, iii. 141.) That absurd proceeding may well have been the +origin of the system of river Thuggee in Bengal, which possibly may +be still practised.</p> + +<p>The next mention of Thugs refers to the reign of Akbar (1556- +1605). Both Meadows Taylor and Balfour affirm that many Thugs were +then executed, and according to Balfour, they numbered five hundred +and belonged to the Etawah District, I have not succeeded in +finding any mention of the fact in the histories of Akbar—the +memory of the event may be preserved only by oral tradition. +Etawah, between the Ganges and Jumna, in the province of Agra, has +always been notorious for Thuggee and cognate crime.</p> + +<p>In the year 1666, towards the close of Shahjahān's reign, +the traveller de Thevenot noted that the road between Delhi and +Agra was infested by Thugs. His words are:</p> + +<p><small>'The cunningest Robbers in the World are in that +Countrey. They use a certain slip with a running-noose, which they +can cast with so much slight about a Man's Neck, when they are +within reach of him, that they never fail; so that they strangle +him in a trice.' (English transl., 1686, Part III, p. +41.)</small></p> + +<p>After the capture of Seringapatam in 1799 the attention of the +Company's government was drawn to the prevalence of Thuggee. In +1810 the bodies of thirty victims were found in wells between the +Ganges and Jumna, and in 1816 Dr. Sherwood published a paper +entitled 'On the Murderers called Phānsigars', <i>sc.</i> +'stranglers', in the <i>Madras Journal of Literature and +Science</i>, which was reprinted in <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. +xiii (1820). Various officers then made unsystematic efforts to +suppress the stranglers, but effectual operations were deferred +until 1829. During the years 1881 and 1832 the existence of the +Thug organization became generally known, and intense excitement +was aroused throughout India. The Konkan, or narrow strip of +lowlands between the Western Ghāts and the sea, was the only +region in the empire not infested by the Thugs. (See H. H. Wilson +in supplement to Mill, <i>Hist. of British India</i>, ed. 1858, +vol. ix, p. 213; Balfour, <i>Cyclopaedia of India</i>, 3rd ed., +1885, <i>s.v.</i> Thug; and Crooke, <i>Things Indian</i>, Murray, +1906, <i>s.v.</i> Thuggee.)</p> + +<p>The records summarized above prove that the Thug organization +existed continuously on a large scale from the early part of the +fourteenth century until Sir William Sleeman's time, that is to +say, for more than five centuries. In all probability its origin +was much more ancient, but records are lacking. It is said that a +sculpture representing a Thug strangulation exists among the +sculptures at Ellora executed in the eighth century. No such +sculpture, however, is mentioned in the detailed account of the +Ellora caves by Dr. Burgess.</p> + +<p>The magnitude of the organization with which Sleeman grappled is +indicated by the following figures.</p> + +<p>During the years 1831-7 3,266 Thugs were disposed of one way or +another, of whom 412 were hanged, and 483 were admitted as +approvers. Amīr Alī, whose confessions are recorded in +Meadows Taylor's fascinating book, <i>The Confessions of a +Thug</i>, written in 1837 and first published in 1839, proudly +admitted having taken part in the murders of 719 persons, and +regretted that an interruption of his career by twelve years' +imprisonment in Oudh had prevented him from completing a full +thousand of victims. He regarded his profession as affording sport +of the most exciting kind possible.</p> + +<p align="right">V. A. S. </p> + +<p>Notes:</p> + +<p>1. Pronounced 'T'ug', a hard cerebral <i>t</i>, with some +aspiration.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS</h2> + +<p>[Transcriber's note: These have been incorporated into the +e-text. The note numbers below correspond to the original text, not +to the renumbered notes of the e-text.]</p> + +<p>When the printing of the book was almost completed, the +following additions and corrections were kindly communicated by Mr. +J. S. Cotton, editor of <i>I. G.</i>, 1907, 1908.</p> + +<p>Page 14, text, line 13. For 'leader', read 'barber'.<br> +Page 57, note 4, line 2. After 'Baitūl', insert +'Mandlā'.<br> +Page 115, text, line 27. 'G——' appears to have been +Robert Gregory, C.B.<br> +Page 115, note 2. Add, 'In 1911, Michael Filose of Gwālior was +appointed K.C.I.E.'<br> +Page 124, note 3. After '1860', insert 'and constitutes the +District called Pānch Māhals in the Northern Division of +the Bombay Presidency. The vernacular word <i>pānch</i>, like +the Persian <i>panj</i>, means 'five'.</p> + +<p>Page 124, note 3. Add at end, 'and is still used by +Marāthā nobles.'<br> +Page 146, note 3. For 'may be' read 'is'. <i>Dele</i>. 'The name is +common.'<br> +Page 241, note 1, line 2. <i>Dele</i> 'in the Nizam's territories +'.<br> +Page 262, note 2. The author may possibly have referred to Agra and +Gwālior, rather than to Lucknow and Udaipur.<br> +Page 338, note 2. For the clause 'From 1765 . . . English', +substitute, 'From 1765 to 1771 he was the dependant of the English +at Allahabad. From 1771 to 1803 he was usually under the control of +Marāthā chiefs, and from the time of Lord Lake's entry +into Delhi, in 1803, he became simply a pensioner of the British +Government. His successors occupied the same position.'<br> +Page 452, line 17. 'Southern' is in original edition, but 'Western' +would be more accurate.<br> +Page 453, line 18. For 'its' read 'his own'.<br> +Page 459. 'The story of the murder of Fraser is told very +differently in Bosworth-Smith's <i>Life of Lord Lawrence</i>, where +all the detective credit is given to Lord L., apparently on his own +authority. See also an article in the <i>Quarterly Review</i> for +April 1883, by Sir H. Yule, and another in <i>Blackwoods +Magazine</i> for January 1878.'<br> +Page 555, note, line 1. For 'Supreme' read Superior'.<br> +Page 581, note, line 18. For 'James Watts', read 'William +Watts'.<br> +Page 584, note 2. For 'vexare' read 'vexari'.<br> +Page 595, note 2. 'The best account of Begum Sumroo is to be found +in <i>A Tour through the Upper Provinces of Hindustan</i>, 1804-14, +by A. D. = Ann Deane (1823). Walter Scott introduces more than one +of the stories about the Begum into <i>The Surgeon's Daughter</i> +(1827), e.g.: "But not to be interred alive under your seat, like +the Circassian of whom you were jealous," said Middlemas, +shuddering' (vol. 48, Black's ed. of the novels, p. 382).<br> +Page 596, note 4. Probably 'Gorgīn' is a corruption of +'Gregory'.<br> +Page 615, note l. Perhaps the author was mistaken, and the letter +was sent by Lady Bentinck, whose name was Mary.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<h2>MAPS SHOWING AUTHOR'S ROUTE</h2> + +<p align="center"><small>Transcriber's Note: Only a small part or +the printed map is reproduced here to keep the file size small, and +maintain good legibility, while still showing the route +taken.</small></p> + +<p align="center"><img src="images/map_b.jpg" width="607" height= +"1907" border="3" alt="Map of Authors Route Sagar to Sardhana"></p> + +<p align="center">Route Sagar to Sardhana: Chapters 15 to 75.</p> + +<br> +<a name="Map"></a> <br> +<p align="center"><img src="images/map_a.jpg" width="542" height= +"448" border="3" alt="Map of Authors Route Jabalpur to Sagar"></p> + +<p align="center">Route Jabalpur to Sagar: Chapters 1 to 15.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="Ind">INDEX</a></h2> + +<p><small>[Transcriber's note. Many of the spellings in this index +differ from the spelling used in the text and notes, especially in +the use of the diacritical mark.]</small></p> + +<p>Abū-Alīsena, or Avicenna, 339, 524.<br> +Abū Bakr, Khalīf, 199.<br> +Abūl Fazl, 111 n., 355 n.; on music, 562 n.<br> +Abūl Hasan = Amīr Khusrū, poet, 508 n.<br> +<i>Acacia suma</i>, worshipped, 174 n.<br> +Adam's Bridge, 692 n.<br> +Adham Khān, tomb of, 503 n.<br> +<i>Ādi Granth</i>, Sikh scripture, 477 n.<br> +Adilābād, in Old Delhi, 487 n.<br> +Adoption, 211 n.<br> +Adultery, 198-201.<br> +Afghan War, first, 291 n., 417; history, 288-91.<br> +Ages, Hindu, 522 n.<br> +Agra, Christians at. II, 335; buildings at, 312-24; date of fort +at, 357 n.; books about, 358 n.<br> +Ahmadnagar, kingdom, 458 n.<br> +Ahmad Shāh, Durrānī, 289.<br> +Ajmēr, 350.<br> +Ajodhya, kingdom, 374; city, 457 n., 641.<br> +Akbar (I), the Great, taxed marriages, 40 n.; had Abūl Fazl as +minister, 111 n.; officials of, 283 n.; tomb and bones of, 323, +325, 354 n.; character of, 356 n.; Maryam-uz-Zamānī, +queen of, 348 n.; sons of, 350; conquests of, 458; punished Thugs, +652. (II), titular emperor, 309 n., 337, 501 n., 509 n., 525 n.<br> +Āl dye, 228 n.<br> +Alā-ud-dīn Muhammad Shāh, 489, 490 n., 497 n., +503.<br> +Alīgarh District, 435 n., 441 n.; battle of, 566 n.<br> +Altamsh, <i>see</i> Īltutmish. Sultan.<br> +Amānat Khān, calligraphist, 316 n., 516.<br> +Amarkantak, 14.<br> +America, war with, 628.<br> +Amīr Alī, Thug, 653.<br> +Amīr Jumla, 513 n., 360 n.<br> +Amīr Khān, Nawāb, 66 n., 130.<br> +Ammonites, 121.<br> +Angels, Muhammadan beliefs about, 40.<br> +Angora, battle of, 531 n.<br> +Anūpshahr, 605.<br> +Anurshīrvān (Naushīrvān), 135 n.<br> +<i>Apis dorsata</i>, bee, 4 n.<br> +Arboriculture, 451 n.<br> +Archaeological Survey, 520 n.<br> +Architecture in India, 456.<br> +Aristotle, 341,524.<br> +Arjumand Bānō Bēgam, 315 n., 325.<br> +Armenian tombs, 335 n.<br> +Arms, license to carry, 246 n.<br> +Army, value of native Indian, 632.<br> +Arrian quoted, 285.<br> +Arsenic, poisoning by, 86 n.<br> +Art in India, 379.<br> +Āsaf Khān (1), Akbar's general, 191 n.; (2) brother of +Nūr Jahān, 328, 329, 332, 334.<br> +Āsaf-ud-daula, of Oudh, 641.<br> +Ascetics, 592 n.<br> +Asīrgarh, 163 n.<br> +Asoka, monolith pillars of, 493 n.<br> +Assaye, battle of, 600.<br> +Assassins, sect of, 491 n.<br> +Attar of roses, 216.<br> +Auchmuty, Sir Samuel, 619 n.<br> +Auckland, Lord, 291 n., 347 n., 563 n., 571.<br> +Aurangzēb, emperor, 273-6, 314, 335, 513.<br> +Austin de Bordeaux, 319, 516.<br> +<i>Avatār</i>, 10, 45.<br> +Avicenna, 339, 524.<br> +Ayesha, story of, 198.<br> +Azam, Prince, 274 n.<br> +Azīm-ash-Shān, Prince, 275 n.<br> +Azīz Koka, 504 n.</p> + +<p>Bābur, 527.<br> +Babylon, history of, 452.<br> +Badarpur, in Old Delhi, 486 n., 487 n.<br> +Bagree dacoits, xxxiii.<br> +Bahādur Shāh (I), 275 n.; (II), 309 n., 501 n.<br> +Bāhmani dynasty, 458 n.<br> +<i>Baid</i>, defined, 107 n.<br> +Baijnāth shrine, 590.<br> +Bairāgīs, 300, 370, 591, 592 n.<br> +Baird, Sir David, 634, 640 n.<br> +Baitantī river, 209.<br> +Baiza Bāī, 303,466.<br> +Bajazet (Bāyazīd), Greek emperor, 531.<br> +Bājī Rāo, I and II, Peshwās, 381 n.<br> +Bājpai family, xxxii.<br> +Bajranggarh, Rājā of, 293.<br> +<i>Bakshī</i>, or paymaster, 211.<br> +Bālā Bāi, 563.<br> +Balban, Sultan, 420 n., 488 n., 502.<br> +Baldēo (Bāladeva), (1) brother of Krishna, 379; (2) +Singh, defender of Bharatpur, 360.<br> +Bali Rājā, a demon, 2, 33.<br> +Ballabhgarh, 475.<br> +Ballot Act, 399 n.<br> +Bamboos, 311.<br> +Bamhauri, in Orchhā State, 124, 172.<br> +<i>Bāna-linga</i>, 122 n., 141 n.<br> +Bānda, town, 78.<br> +<i>Baniyā</i>, defined, 295 n.<br> +Banjāra tribe, 100.<br> +Bankers, Indian private, 409 n.<br> +Banks, Presidency, 424 n.<br> +Banyan tree, 385, 566 n.<br> +<i>Bāolī</i>, defined, 442, 446.<br> +Barber, as match-maker, 16.<br> +Barlow, Sir George, 271 n.<br> +Barnes, Sir B., C.-in-C-., 618 n., 619 n.<br> +Baroda, Gaikwār of, 286.<br> +Barrackpore, mutiny at, 2.<br> +Barwā Sāgar, 207.<br> +Basalt, 96-8, 113, 261, 268.<br> +<i>Basant</i> festival, 501.<br> +Basrah (Bussorah), 199.<br> +Batavia, capture of, 691 n.<br> +Bathing, religions merit of, l.<br> +Bāwarias of Muzaffarnagar, 235 n.<br> +Beef, eating of, 194, 203.<br> +Bees, at Marble Rocks, 4.<br> +Bēgam Sarāi at Delhi, 510 n.<br> +Belemnites, fossil, 121.<br> +Benares, city, 25, 103 n.; province, 434 n.<br> +Bengal, permanent settlement of, 64 n.; Islam in, 424 n.; +territories, defined, 553 n.; river thuggee in, 652.<br> +Bentinck, Lord William, 109, 321 n., 341 n., 445, 547, 548, 571, +614, 618, 619 n., 632 n.<br> +Berār, kingdom, 156 n., 458 n.<br> +Bernier, (1) François, on suttee, 26 n., 47 n.; historical +work of, 273 n.; (2) Major, 606.<br> +Betel leaf, 216 n.<br> +Betiyā (Bettia), Christian colony at. 11, 13 n.<br> +<i>Bhāgavata Purāna</i>, 10 n.<br> +<i>Bhagvān</i> = Vishnu = God, 2.<br> +Bharat, brother of Rāma, 374, 382.<br> +Bharatpur (Bhurtpore), sieges of, 116, 355, 359-62, 377, 562 n.<br> +Bherāghāt (-garh), 1, 6, 18, 54.<br> +Bhīl tribes, 295.<br> +Bhīlsā, town, 264.<br> +Bhōjpur, 146.<br> +Bhonslās of Nāgpur, 103 n., 286, 292, 381.<br> +Bhopāl, 238.<br> +<i>Bhrigu-pātā</i> sacrifice, 103 n.<br> +<i>Bhūmiāwat</i>, 245-52.<br> +<i>Bhūmkā</i>, 60 n.<br> +Bhurtpore, see Bharatpur.<br> +Biās river, (1) = Hyphasis, in Panjāb, 3 n., 165 n.; (2) +in Central Provinces, 204, 290.<br> +Bīdar kingdom, 458 n.<br> +<i>Bīghā</i>, defined, 453 n.<br> +Bihārī Mall, Rājā, 348 n.<br> +Bījāpur, great gun at, 241 n.; fall of, 286 n.; kingdom, +458 n.<br> +Bindāchal, 590.<br> +Bindrāban (Brindāban), 120.<br> +Bird, Robert Merttins, 575 n.<br> +Birjū Bāulā, singer, 562.<br> +Bīrsingh Dēo, Rājā, 134, 164 n., 232, 237.<br> +Black buck, 236 n.; Hole, 582.<br> +Blake, Mr., murder of, 503, 504 n.<br> +Blights, 193-8.<br> +Boigne, General de, 271.<br> +Bombay land System, 576.<br> +Borak, Muhammad's donkey, 541.<br> +Bow, use of, 80.<br> +Brahmā, god, 7, 9, 45 n., 376 n., 594.<br> +Brahmans forbid marriage of widows, 26; sacrificed, 46.<br> +Bruce, Captain, (1) brother of (2), 270; (2) James, traveller, 270 +n.<br> +Budha Gupta, king, 55 n.<br> +Budhuk dacoits, xxxv.<br> +Buffaloes, sacrificed, 46 n.<br> +Bulākī, Prince, 334.<br> +<i>Buland Darwāza</i>, 352 n.<br> +Bullocks, price of, 437.<br> +Bundēla Rājpūts, 144 n., 185.<br> +Bundēlkhand, 94 n., 111, 112, 149, 185, 207, 209 n., 227.<br> +Bundēlkhandī dialects, 188 n.<br> +Burial, alive, 570; customs, 218 n.<br> +Burn, Lieut.-Col., 421 n.<br> +Bussorah, see Basrah.<br> +Buxar, battle of, 338 n.</p> + +<p>Cairo, mosques at, 494 n.<br> +Calcutta, commercial crisis of 1883 at, 422.<br> +Canals, 158 n.<br> +Cannibalism, 152.<br> +Capital, foreign, 422.<br> +Carpets made at Jhānsī, 217, 241.<br> +Caste, 45-51.<br> +Cattle-poisoning, 86 n.<br> +Cawnpore, rise of, 445 n.<br> +Ceded provinces, 434 n.<br> +Census, 194 n.<br> +Central India, 178.<br> +Central Provinces, 57 n., 94 n.<br> +Chambal river, 301, 303.<br> +<i>Chambēlī</i>, or jasmine, 33.<br> +Champat Rāī, Bundēla, 190 n.<br> +<i>Chandamirt</i> (<i>chandan mirt</i>), 141, 588, 593.<br> +Chand Bardāi, poet, 190 n.<br> +Chandēl Rājpūts, 144 n., 178 n., 185, 189.<br> +Chandērī State, 193, 251, 293.<br> +<i>Chāndnī Chauk</i>, Delhi, 604 n.<br> +Chandra, Rājā, 498 n.<br> +<i>Chaprāsī</i>, or orderly, 74 n.<br> +<i>Cheonkal</i> (<i>chhonkar</i>) tree, 174.<br> +Cherry, Mr., murder of, 473.<br> +Chhatarpur State, 192.<br> +Chhatarsāl, Rājā, 94, 193.<br> +Chick-pea, or gram, 414 n.<br> +Chiefs' colleges, 256 n.<br> +China, land tenure in, 423; Tīmūr's designs on, 533.<br> +Chingīz Khan, 535.<br> +<i>Chītal</i>, spotted deer, 244 n.<br> +Chitōr, towers at, 493 n.<br> +Chitragupta, secretary to Yamarāja, 9.<br> +Chitrakōt, 95.<br> +Cholera, beliefs about, 163, 232.<br> +Christians, 11-13, 335, 424.<br> +Chuhārī, Christian colony at, 13 n.<br> +<i>Cicer arietinum</i>, gram, 150 n.<br> +Cis-Sutlaj States, 476 n.<br> +Cities, growth of, 455.<br> +Civil Service of India, 426 n., 649.<br> +Clerk, Sir George, 90 n.<br> +Coal, 230, 231 n.<br> +Codes, 65 n., 66 n.<br> +Coins, of Nūrjahān, 333 n.; of Sikhs, 477 n.; largesse, +479 n.<br> +Colebrooke, Sir B., 461.<br> +Combermere, Lord, 355 n., 359, 618.<br> +Concan, <i>see</i> Konkan.<br> +Conquered Provinces, 434 n.<br> +Corn laws, 574.<br> +Cornwallis, Lord, second administration of, 460 n.<br> +Corporal punishment, <i>see</i> Flogging.<br> +Corruption, official, 403.<br> +Cotton, soil, black, 94 n., 149 n., 258 n.; -tree, 385.<br> +'Covenanted' service, 426 n.<br> +Cow, veneration of, 163, 202.<br> +Criminal tribes, 234 n., 557 n.; law, 305 n.<br> +Crooke, Mr. William, xix; on veneration of the cow, 163 n.<br> +Cubbon, Sir Mark, 90 n.<br> +Customs, inland, 347 n.; hedge, 426 n.</p> + +<p>Dacoits, Sleeman's books on, xxxiii, xxxv, 89.<br> +<i>Daityas</i>, bad spirits, 10.<br> +Dalhousie, Lord, xxv; annexation policy of, 187 n.<br> +Damoh, town, 76.<br> +Dāniyāl, Prince, 334.<br> +Dārā Shikoh, Prince, 272-4, 511-13 n.<br> +Darbhanga, 51.<br> +<i>Dargāh</i>, defined, 568 n.<br> +Dasahara ceremonies, 175 n., 241 n., 293, 296.<br> +Dasān river, 108.<br> +Dasaratha, Rājā, 382.<br> +Datiyā, Rājā of, 193, 221, 226.<br> +<i>Datūra</i>, poisoning, 82-6.<br> +Daulatābād, 490.<br> +Daulat Rāo Sindhia, 563.<br> +Davis, Mr., gallant defence by, 474 n.<br> +Dāwar Baksh, Prince, 334.<br> +De Boigne, <i>see</i> Boigne, General de.<br> +Deccan, geology of, 97 n., 114 n,; kingdoms of, 285; early history +of, 457.<br> +Deeg, <i>see</i> Dīg.<br> +Delhi, territories, 420 n., 448, 459 n.; province, 459 n.; defended +by Burn, 421; old city of, 486-503; Sultans of, 488 n.; new city +of, 504-30; Jāmi Masjid at, 514; Motī Masjid at, 514 n.; +palace at, 515-19; peacock throne at, 517; books about, 519 n.; +taken by Tīmūr, 529.<br> +Denudation, sub-aerial, 138 n.<br> +Deorī, town, 124, 129.<br> +De Thevenot, <i>see</i> Thevenot, de.<br> +<i>Devas</i>, good spirits, 10.<br> +Devī, goddess, 7, 593.<br> +Devil, Muhammadan myth of, 537.<br> +Devils, 223 n.<br> +Dhamonī, 110.<br> +Dhandēla Rājpūts, 187.<br> +<i>Dhanuk</i> jag festival, 173.<br> +<i>Dharmsālā</i>, defined, 568 n.<br> +<i>Dhaū</i> (<i>Lythrum fructuosum</i>) tree, 237.<br> +Dhīmar caste, 76.<br> +Dhōlpur State, 272, 302-10.<br> +Diamonds, great, 290.<br> +Dīg (Deeg), garden at, 364; battle at, 421, 566 n.<br> +<i>Dīnāī</i>, slow poison, 142.<br> +Dinapore, 341.<br> +Discipline, military, xxxiii, 615-40.<br> +Diseases, Hindoo notions about, 168.<br> +Districts, civil, size of, 646 n.<br> +<i>Dīwān-i-Āmm</i>, at Delhi, 515.<br> +<i>Dīwān-i-Khās</i>, at Delhi, 517.<br> +<i>Dīwanī</i>, grant of, 500.<br> +<i>Doāb</i> defined, 233 n.<br> +Dost Muhammad, 291.<br> +Drowning, suicide by, 219.<br> +Dubois, <i>Hindu Manners</i>, xix.<br> +Dudrenec, Monsieur, 603.<br> +Durgāvatī, queen, 190.<br> +Dutch factory at Agra, 335.<br> +Dyce, Colonel, 611.<br> +Dyce-Sombre, Mr., 595, 610.</p> + +<p>Education, of young nobles, 256 n.; Muhammadan and English, 523, +524 n.<br> +Egypt, expedition to, 634, 640 n.<br> +Electricity, 311.<br> +Elephant-drivers, 50.<br> +Elichpur (Īlichpur), 156.<br> +Ellis, Mr., at Patna, 597.<br> +Ellora, 8 n.; 653.<br> +Epidemics, 161-72.<br> +Epilepsy, 221.<br> +Eran, pillar at, 55.<br> +<i>Erythrina arborescens</i>, or coral-tree, 74 n.<br> +Etāwah, Thuggee in, 652.<br> +Evil eye, 168.<br> +Exogamy, 144 n.<br> +Exorcisers, 168.</p> + +<p>Fairs, 1.<br> +Fakīrs, 370, 591, 592 n.<br> +Famine, of 1833, 148; policy, 150; in Mālwā, 441 n.<br> +Fanshawe, H. C., on Delhi, 520 n.<br> +Farhad, poet, 136.<br> +Farīdābād (Farīdpur), 479, 480 n.<br> +Farīd-ud-dīn Ganj Shakar, saint, 507 n.<br> +Faringia (Feringheea), Thug, 78.<br> +Farrukhsīyar, emperor, 275 n.<br> +Fathpur-Sīkrī, 351-8.<br> +<i>Fatwa</i>, defined, 200 n., 536.<br> +Fergusson, on Indian architecture, 359 n.<br> +Fertility, diminution of, 413 n.,415.<br> +Feudal System, 145, 578 n.<br> +<i>Ficus religiosa</i>, pīpal tree, 205 n.<br> +Filose, Jean Baptiste, 115 n., 293, 296.<br> +Finch, traveller, quoted, 324 n.<br> +Fīrōzābād at Delhi, 497 n.<br> +Fīrōzpur, 420, 459.<br> +Fīrōz Shāh Tughlak, deported Thugs, 652.<br> +Fish, Persian order of, 135, 137; eating, 307.<br> +Flattery, 243.<br> +Flax plant, 195.<br> +Flogging in army, 616-22, 637.<br> +Fontenne, de, maiden name of Lady Sleeman, xxiii.<br> +Forest department, 451 n.<br> +Forester, Lady, 612 n.<br> +Fortresses, insalubrity of, 111.<br> +Fossils, 98, 121.<br> +<i>Francolinus vulgaris</i>, black partridge, 44 n.<br> +Fraser, Mr. C., xxiii, 89 n.; Mr. Hugh, xxiv; Major-General, 89 n.; +Mr. W., murder of, 420, 458-75.<br> +Frederick the Great, 625, 629.<br> +Fullerton, Dr., 597.<br> +Funeral obsequies, 620 n.<br> +Furse, Mrs., sister of author, xxv n., xxx.<br> +Futtehpore Seekree, see Fathpur-Sīkrī.<br> +Fyzābād, 457 n., 641.</p> + +<p>Gabriel, angel, 37.<br> +Gaīkwār of Baroda, 286.<br> +Galen, 339, 524.<br> +Gandak river, 121 n.<br> +Ganges river, 6, 17; water, 141 n., 588, 594.<br> +Gardiner (Gardner), Colonel, 346.<br> +Garhā, Rānī of, 56, 73.<br> +Garhā Kota, 293.<br> +Garhā Mandla, xxxii, 190.<br> +<i>Gārpagrī</i>, hail-charmer, 60 n,.<br> +Gaur, 330 n.<br> +Gaurī Sankar, 6, 54.<br> +Geronimo Veroneo, 320 n.<br> +Ghaznī, 454 n.<br> +Ghiyās-ud-dīn, Khwāja, 328.<br> +Ghorapachhār rivers, 298.<br> +Ghosts, 221-6.<br> +Ghulām Kādir, 338 n.<br> +Gipsies, 535, 557 n.<br> +God, ninety-nine names of, 323 n.<br> +Gohad, Rānā of, 270-2, 302.<br> +Golconda, fall of, 286 n.; kingdom of, 458 n.<br> +Gonds, xxxii, 68, 102, 128, 221, 384.<br> +Gondwāna rocks, 231 n.<br> +Gosāīns, 218, 370, 591, 592 n.<br> +Govardhan, 337,371-83.<br> +Gram, 197, 198 n., 227, 414 n.<br> +Grasses, 124.<br> +Groves, 260, 433-41, 444, 565.<br> +Guinea-worm, 77.<br> +Gūjar caste, 192, 469 n.<br> +Gujarāt, 149, 441.<br> +<i>Gulistan</i>, quoted, 401.<br> +Guns made in India, 241.<br> +Gūrkhas (Gōrkhās), 350, 625 n.<br> +Guru Govind, 477 n.<br> +Gwālior State, 258-70, 292, 294, 299; city, 262; fortress, +266-71.</p> + +<p>Hāfiz Rahmat Khān, 599.<br> +Hājī Bēgam, 511 n.<br> +<i>Hakīm</i> defined, 107 n.<br> +Hamīda Bāno Bēgam, 511 n.<br> +Hānsī, 604 n., 605 n.<br> +Hanumān, monkey-god, 27, 300, 371, 374.<br> +Hardaul, Lālā, legend of, 162-5, 232.<br> +Hardinge, Lord (Viscount), letter to, xxix n.<br> +Hasan, 483 n.<br> +Hastings, Lord (Marquis of), 229, 292, 321, 381 n.<br> +Haunted villages, 221-6.<br> +Hawking, 237.<br> +Hay in Bundēlkhand, 124.<br> +Herbert, Sir Thomas, quoted, 332 n.<br> +Hervey, <i>Some Records of Crime</i>, xxvi.<br> +High Courts, 555 n.<br> +Hiliyā (Haliyā) Pass, 444 n.<br> +Himālaya, v, xxiv.<br> +Hinduism, 176.<br> +Hippocrates, 339, 524.<br> +Hirtius, nom de plume of author, xxxi.<br> +Holī, festival, 204, 483 n.<br> +Holkar dynasty, 286, 381.<br> +Horal (Hodal), town, 426.<br> +Hornets, 56.<br> +Human sacrifice, 46 n., 101.<br> +Humāyūn, emperor, tomb of, 511.<br> +Husain. 483 n.<br> +Hyderābād Contingent, 156 n.<br> +Hyphasis (Biās) river, 3, 165.</p> + +<p>Iblīs, the devil, 538.<br> +Ibn Batuta, traveller, 488 n.<br> +Ibrāhīm Lodi, Sultan, 269.<br> +<i>Id-ul-Bakr</i> festival, 163 n.<br> +Īltutmish, Sultan, 269; buildings of, 492, 494 n., 495 n., +497, 500; tomb of, 501.<br> +Imam Mashhadī, tomb of, 503.<br> +Imām-ud-dīn Ghazzālī, 341 n., 524. Imperial +Service Troops, 280 n.<br> +Impressment, 184, 628.<br> +India, people of, vi; population of, 38 n.<br> +Indore State, 286, 292.<br> +Indra, god, 2, 10, 33.<br> +Industries, 159 n.<br> +Infanticide, 28.<br> +Inheritance, law of, 578.<br> +Invalid establishment, 640.<br> +Iron mines, 93, 230; pillar of Delhi, 498.<br> +Islam in Lower Bengal, 424 n.<br> +Isle of France (Mauritius), 311, 620 n., 622.<br> +Itimād-ud-daula, 326-9.</p> + +<p>Jabalpur, <i>see</i> Jubbulpore.<br> +Jack-tree, 225.<br> +Jagannāth, shrine of, 589.<br> +<i>Jāgīrdārs</i>, 181.<br> +Jahānārā Bēgam, tomb of, 510.<br> +Jahāngīr, (1) emperor, 111 n., 333, 452, 568 n., mother +of, 348 n.; birth of, 351, 355; (2) Mirzā, tomb of, 509.<br> +Jain statues at Gwālior, 267 n.<br> +Jaipur State, xxxii, 503.<br> +Jaitpur, Rāj of, 193 n.<br> +Jalāl-ud-dīn, Fīrōz Shāh Khiljī, +489.<br> +Jālaun State, 185, 193.<br> +Jamāldehī Thugs, 82.<br> +Jang Bahādur, Sir, 598 n.<br> +Jasmine, 33.<br> +Jāts (Jats), 307, 380 n.; outrages of, 354 n.; and +Rājpūts, 476 n.<br> +Java, conquest of, 619, 640 n.<br> +Jaxartes, river, 532.<br> +Jesuit missionaries, 337 n.<br> +Jesus, inscription quoting, 354, 504.<br> +Jeswant Rāo Holkar, 165, 421, 474 n.<br> +Jhajjar, Nawāb of, 474.<br> +Jhānsī State, 185, 193 n., 209-19.<br> +<i>Jhirni</i>, Thug signal, 81.<br> +Jodh Bāī, tomb of, 348.<br> +Johilā river, 14, 16.<br> +Johnson (Johnstone), Bēgam, 580.<br> +Jubbulpore (Jabalpur), xxiii, 1, 29, 58, 71.<br> +Julius Caesar, Bishop, 594.</p> + +<p>Kābul, mission of Burnes to, 417 n.<br> +Kailās temple, 8 n.<br> +<i>Kalas</i> custom, 179.<br> +<i>Kali</i> age, 522 n.<br> +Kālī, goddess, 141 n.<br> +<i>Kalpa Briksha</i> tree, 74.<br> +Kām Baksh, Prince, 274 n.<br> +Kanauj, ancient city, 454.<br> +Kandēlī, Thug village, xxii.<br> +Karaulī State, 293.<br> +Karbalā, battle of, 483 n.<br> +Kārtikeya, god, 259 n.<br> +Kāsim, Mīr (Kāsim Alī Khān), 596- 9.<br> +Katrā Pass, 127, 445 n.<br> +<i>Kaukabas</i>, 136.<br> +Kedārnāth temple, 592 n.<br> +Kerahi (Kerāi) Pass, 445 n.<br> +Khajurāho, temples at, 193 n.<br> +Khalīfate, the, 483 n.<br> +Khān Azam, 333.<br> +<i>Kharītā</i> defined, 134 n.<br> +<i>Kharwā</i> cloth, 228 n.<br> +Khusrū, (1) Parvīz, King of Persia, 135; (2) Prince, son +of Jahāngīr, 333; (3) poet, tomb of, 507.<br> +Khwāja Ghiās-ud-dīn, 326.<br> +Kohinūr diamond, 288-91, 513 n.<br> +Kōil, battle of, 566 n.<br> +Konkan (Concan), 225.<br> +Korān, origin of, 481.<br> +Kosī, 424.<br> +<i>Kotwāl</i> defined, 154 n.<br> +Krishna, legends of. 11, 371-5.<br> +Kumāra, god, 259 n.<br> +Kunbī caste, 381 n.<br> +Kurmī caste, 130.<br> +Kutb Mīnār, 492-7, 504; mosque, 497.<br> +Kutb-ud-dīn, (1) Khan, 330; (2) Sultan, 494n.; (3) +Khwāja, saint of Ūsh, 494 n., 500 n.</p> + +<p>Lachhman, brother of Rāma, 382.<br> +Lachhmī Bāī, Rānī of Jhansī, 193 n., +220 n.<br> +Lahar fort, 270 n.<br> +Lake, Lord, 359, 377, 380, 421, 561, 643.<br> +Lakes, artificial, 63, 178.<br> +Land-revenue, 61 n., 63 n., 68 n.<br> +Laswārī, battle of, 116, 566 n.<br> +Laterite, 92.<br> +<i>Lathyrus</i>, poisonous species of, 104.<br> +Leprosy, 215 n.<br> +Le Vaisseau, Monsieur, 603-10.<br> +Linseed, 195.<br> +Liverpool, Earl of, 580.<br> +Lodhī caste, 130 n.<br> +Looting shops, custom of, 294.<br> +Lotus, 109 n.<br> +Lowis, Captain, xxxiii.<br> +Lucknow, author Resident at, xxv; an ancient city, 457 n.<br> +Lūdiāna, 3, 290.</p> + +<p>Macaulay, 341 n., 547 n.<br> +Madras system of land settlement, 576.<br> +<i>Mahābhārata</i>, 5, 10, 103 n., 522.<br> +Māhādajī (Mādhojī) Sindhia, 271, 563.<br> +Mahādēo (Siva), god, 7, 8, 9, 45 n., 103 n., 141 n.; +oracle of, 484; sandstones, 102.<br> +<i>Mahī Marātib</i>, 135, 137 n.<br> +Mahārājpur, battle of, xxv, 271 n.<br> +Mahmūd of Ghaznī, 454.<br> +Mahoba, town, 189, 193 n.<br> +Maihar, Rājā of, 127, 593.<br> +Maille, Claudius, 560.<br> +Makwānpur, fort, 598.<br> +Malcolm, Sir John, 229.<br> +<i>Mālguzārī</i> tenure, 144.<br> +Mālwā, province, 149, 238, 239 n., 451.<br> +Mandēsar, Thug burying-place, xxii.<br> +<i>Mansabdārs</i>, 283 n.<br> +Mān Singh, (1) Rājā of Gwālior, 276 n.; (2) +Rājā of Jaipur (Ambēr), 333.<br> +Mansūr Alī Khān, tomb of, 506, 544 n.<br> +Manucci, on Akbar, 325 n., 354 n.<br> +Manuscript works of author, xxxvii.<br> +Marāthās, 294; defeated, 421 n., 566 n.<br> +Marble Rocks, 1; quarries, 318.<br> +Marriage, of trees, 32, 122, 143; of Hindoos, 37-40.<br> +Maryam-uz-Zamānī, queen of Akbar, 348 n.<br> +Mashhad (Meshed), 288.<br> +Material progress of India. 414 n.<br> +Mathurā (Muttra), 383.<br> +Mau (Mhow), town, 247.<br> +Mauritius, 311 n., 620 n.<br> +<i>Mauza</i> defined, 60 n.<br> +Medicine, systems of, 107, 571.<br> +Meerut, military and civil station, xxiv, 80, 544 n., 567-70, 579; +sacked by Tīmūr, 529.<br> +Megpunnaism (Megpunnia Thugs), xxxii, 91, 593 n.<br> +Metcalfe, Sir Charles, 347, 461, 563 n.<br> +Meteors, 34-7.<br> +Mewātīs, 420.<br> +Mihrauli, tombs at, 500 n.<br> +Mihr-un-nisā, 328 n.; <i>see</i> Nūr Jahān.<br> +Military discipline, xxxiii, 615-40.<br> +<i>Mīnārs</i>, 492 n.<br> +Mīr Jumla, <i>see</i> Amīr Jumla.<br> +Miracles, 337.<br> +Mirzāpur, 250, 445.<br> +<i>Mishkāt-ul-Masābih</i>, 35.<br> +Missionaries, Jesuit, 337 n.<br> +Mogul (Moghal, Mughal), defined, 80 n.; raids, 490.<br> +Molony, Report on Narsinghpur, xxxvii.<br> +Monastic orders, 592.<br> +Monghyr (Mungēr), 642.<br> +Monkeys, 383.<br> +Monson's retreat, 474, 566 n.<br> +Months, Hindoo, l.<br> +<i>Motī Masjid</i> (mosque), 322.<br> +Muazzam, Prince, 274 n.<br> +Muhammad, Ghorī, Sultan, 269 n.; Shāh, 291 n., 518; tomb +of, 510; son of Īsā, architect, 319 n.; bin Tughlak, +Sultan, 457 n., 487 n.<br> +Muhammadabad, in old Delhi, 487.<br> +Muhammadan schools, 480; year, 482; prayers, 489.<br> +Muharram celebrations, 482.<br> +Mumtāz-i-Mahall, 315, 325.<br> +<i>Music of Hindostan</i>, by Strangways, 561 n.</p> + +<p>Nābhā, chief of, 476.<br> +Nādir, Shāh, 288, 510, 516.<br> +Nāgaudh (Nāgod), 33 n.<br> +Nāgpur (Nagpore), Bhonslās of, 286, 292.<br> +Nāhan, Rājā of, 209 n.<br> +Najaf Khān, 599.<br> +Nānā Sāhib, 381 n.<br> +Narsinghpur, xxii, xxxvii, 167.<br> +Nasīr-ud-din of Tūs, 341, 524.<br> +Nepāl, war with, xxi, 122, 598, 636.<br> +Nerbudda (Narbadā) river, 2, 5, 14, 17, 18, 203.<br> +Newspapers, 640.<br> +News-writers, 249 n., 388 n.<br> +<i>Nīlgāi</i>, a kind of antelope, 244.<br> +Nineveh, history of, 452.<br> +<i>nisār</i> coins, 479 n.<br> +Nizāmuddīn Auliyā, saint, 490-2, 507.<br> +Noer, Count von, on Akbar, 324 n.<br> +Norman-French formula, 475.<br> +North-Western Provinces, 434 n.<br> +Nūr Jahān, 325 n., 329, 332, 568 n.<br> +Nūr Mahall, 325 n., 329, 332.</p> + +<p>Oaths, 391.<br> +Obsequies, funeral, 620 n.<br> +Ochterlony, Sir David, 598 n., 635.<br> +<i>Ocymum sanctum</i>, basil or <i>tulasī</i> plant, 121 +n.<br> +Og (Ūj), King, legend of, 374.<br> +O'Halloran, Major-General Sir Joseph, 344 n.<br> +Omar ('Umar), Khalif, 199 n.<br> +Omens, taken by Thugs and robbers, 297, 651.<br> +Opium department, 324 n.<br> +Oracle of Mahādēo, 484.<br> +Orchhā, State and Rājā of, 132, 139, 193 n., 251 +n.<br> +Orpheus, mosaic of, 516.<br> +O'Shaughnessy, Dr. W. B., scientific publications of, 571 n.<br> +Osman (Othman), Khalīf, a Sunnī, 48 n., 483 n.<br> +Otaheite sugar-cane, 208.<br> +Oudh (Oude), Sleeman's work in, xxiv-xxvii; <i>A Journey +through</i>, xxxvi; MS. history of reigning family of, xxxvii; +infanticide in, 28 n.; Jamāldehī Thugs in, 82; recruits +from, 146, 624; annexation of, 187 n.; disorder in, 248,252; Chief +Commissioner of, 347 n.; Nawāb Wazīrs of, 473 n.; +magisterial powers in, 552 n.; capitals of, 641; Thuggee in, +653.</p> + +<p>Paintings, Indian, 379.<br> +<i>Pakkā</i> defined, 435 n.<br> +Palace at Delhi, 515.<br> +Palwal, town, 452.<br> +<i>Pān</i>, 216, 454.<br> +Pāndavas, 5.<br> +Pānīpat, third battle of, 298 n.<br> +Panjāb (Punjab), annexation of, 478 n., 625 n.<br> +Panj (Pānch) Mahāl tract, 124 n. Panna State and +Rājā, 95 n., 250 n.<br> +Panther, 115.<br> +Paoli, Mr., 600.<br> +Paralysis, caused by eating <i>Lathyrus sativus</i>, 104.<br> +Parents, murder of indigent, xxxii; reverence for, 254.<br> +Pariahs, 120.<br> +Parihār, Rājpūts, 143.<br> +Parmāl, Chandēl Rājā, 189 n.<br> +Partābgarh in Oudh, xxii, 248.<br> +Partition, 278 n.<br> +Partridge, black, 44, 118.<br> +Pārvatī, goddess, 9, 141 n.<br> +<i>Patēl</i> defined, 221.<br> +'Pathān', as a misnomer, 488 n.<br> +Patharia, town, 91.<br> +Patiālā, chief of, 476.<br> +Patna, massacre of, 597.<br> +Pawār Rājpūts, 187, 189.<br> +Pay of Indian army, 617, 622, 640.<br> +Peacock throne, 517.<br> +Peacocks, 259, 411.<br> +Pensions of Indian army, 632, 640-4.<br> +Perjury, 407, 412.<br> +Permanent settlement, 64 n., 577 n.<br> +Persian, order of the Fish, 135; wheel, 147.<br> +Peshwās, the, 192, 236, 381 n.<br> +<i>Phānsīgars</i> = Tugs, xxxi.<br> +<i>Phoceus baya</i>, weaver bird, 117 n.<br> +Pilgrims, 588-94.<br> +Pillars, monolithic, 493.<br> +Pindhārīs, 130 n., 292-4, 297.<br> +<i>Pīpal</i> tree, 205, 385, 442, 447, 566 n<i>.<br> +Piper betel</i>, 216 n.<br> +Pīr Muhammad, heir of Tīmūr, 534.<br> +Plassey, battle of, 338 n.<br> +Plato, 341, 524.<br> +Poisoners, 82-6.<br> +Police, Indian, 544-61, 647.<br> +Political economy, 157, 160.<br> +Popham, Major, 270.<br> +Population of India, 38 n.<br> +<i>Portax pictus, nīlgāi</i> antelope, 244 n.<br> +Portuguese at Agra, 336 n.<br> +<i>Prāyaschit</i> defined, 215.<br> +Predestination, 511.<br> +Press-gang, 184 n.<br> +Primogeniture, 180, 277, 578.<br> +Prinsep, James, discoveries of, 493.<br> +Prithī Rāj, 498-500.<br> +Processions, 168.<br> +Property in land, 449 n.<br> +Proprietors of land, 576.<br> +Public spirit of Hindoos, xxxiii, 442-51.<br> +<i>Purānas</i>, the, 10, 338 n.<br> +Puri town, 589 n.<br> +<i>Purōhit</i> defined, 140 n.<br> +Purveyance system, 41-4.</p> + +<p>Queen, river Nerbudda as a, 14.<br> +Quinine, 107 n.</p> + +<p>Raghugarh, Rājā of, 293.<br> +Rainbow myth, 35.<br> +Rāipur town, 72.<br> +Rājpūts, 144.<br> +Rāma and Sītā, 10, 74, 174, 371, 376.<br> +<i>Ramaseeana</i>, xxxi.<br> +Rāmāyana, 484.<br> +Rāmesvaram (Ramisseram), 592 n.<br> +<i>Rāmlīlā</i>, 104.<br> +Rāmnagar, 25.<br> +Rāmpur, Nawāb of, 87, 649.<br> +Ranjit Singh, (1) Maharaja of the Panjāb, 291, 297; (2) +Rājā of Bharatpur (Bhurtpore), 377, 380.<br> +Rāvan, 377.<br> +Rāwalpindi, military station, 545 n.<br> +Raziā, Sultan ('empress'), 501 n.<br> +Reglioni (properly Regholini), General (Monsieur), 594.<br> +Regulations, VII of 1822 and IX of 1833, 575 n.<br> +Reinhard, Walter (Sombre), 596.<br> +Rent Acts, 62 n.<br> +'Resumption' of revenue-free lands, 564,<br> +River thuggee, xxxiii, 652.<br> +Rīwā (Rewah) State, 24,<br> +Roads, 301.<br> +Roe, Sir Thomas, ambassador, 351, 452.<br> +Rupee, value of, 77 n., 342 n., 583 n.<br> +Ryotwār System, 576.</p> + +<p>Saādat Alī Khān of Oudh, 473 n., 565.<br> +Sacrifice, human, 46 n., 101.<br> +Sādī (Sa'dī), Shaikh, poet, 75, 401, 410, 524.<br> +Sadr Amīn, Subordinate Judge, 646 n.<br> +Safdar Jang, tomb of, 507 n., 544 n.<br> +Sāgar (Saugor), 41, 92, 100, 161; and Nerbudda Territories, 57 +n., 94 n., 110 n., 112 n.<br> +<i>Sālagrāms</i>, ammonites, 121.<br> +Saleur, Monsieur, 610.<br> +Salīm, Prince, 350; Shaikh, 350, 362 n., 354.<br> +Salt manufacture, 260, 347 n., 428 n.<br> +<i>Samadh</i> defined, 570.<br> +Samarkand, 530.<br> +Samrū (Sumroo), Bēgam, 504, 545; death of, 567; history +of, 594-615; character of, 613.<br> +Samthar, Rājā of, 191.<br> +Sānsias, criminal tribe, 234 n.<br> +Sarasvatī, consort of Brahmā, 7 n.<br> +Sardhana, 594-615.<br> +Sassanians of Persia, 137.<br> +Sātārā, Rājā of, 286, 381.<br> +Satī, <i>see</i> Suttee.<br> +Sātpura, mountains, 52.<br> +Scape-goat, 162-6.<br> +Schools, Muhammadan, 480.<br> +Science in India, 587.<br> +Sebastē, city, 532.<br> +Sects, Muhammadan, 49 n.<br> +Secunderabad, military station, 545 n.<br> +Seniority, promotion by, 622, 632.<br> +'Settlements' of land revenue, 434 n., 575.<br> +Shāh Ālam, 137 n., 338, 563 n.<br> +Shahgarh, Rājā of, 72, 114.<br> +Shāh Jahān, emperor, 314, 316, 320, 504, 510, 513, 560, +561 n.; Thugs in reign of, 652; sons of, 273.<br> +Shāhjahānābād, or New Delhi, 504.<br> +Shahryār, Prince, 334.<br> +Shams-ud-dīn, Nawāb, 420, 458-75.<br> +Sharaf-ud-dīn, historian, 533.<br> +Shēr Afgan, 329-31.<br> +Shēr Khan (Shāh), 270.<br> +Sherwood, Dr., early writer on Thuggee, 653.<br> +Shīa sect, 48 n., 483 n.<br> +Shihāb-ud-dīn, Sultan, 269 n.<br> +Shīrīn, queen, 136.<br> +Shore, F. J., 44 n., 90; Sir John, 473 n., 605, 609.<br> +Sikandar Lodi, Sultan, 357 n.<br> +Sikandara (Secundra), Akbar's tomb at, 323, 354 n., 358 n.<br> +Sikh government, 381.<br> +Sikhs, history of, 477 n.<br> +Sīkrī, 351; <i>see</i> Fathpur-Sīkrī.<br> +Simla, trip to Gungoolee from, xxxvii.<br> +Sindh river, 258.<br> +Sindhia family, 271 n., 286, 294, 381.<br> +Sindhia's territory, 258; <i>see</i> Gwālior State.<br> +<i>Singhāra</i>, or water-nut, 76.<br> +Sirāj-ud-daula, 581.<br> +Sītā Baldī Rāmesar, 592.<br> +Siva, god, 6, 7 n., 9, 45 n., 103 n., 141 n., 376 n., 588, 591.<br> +Sivājī, 381.<br> +Skanda, god, 259 n.<br> +Skinner, Colonel, 463, 612 n.<br> +Slavery in India, 282.<br> +Sleeman, Captain J. L., xx, xxx, 652; Captain Philip, xxi; Lady +xxiii, xxxvi; Sir W. H., memoir of, xx-xxx; works of, xxxi-xxxvii, +89 n.; James, xxx; Henry Arthur, xxx; William Henry, xxx.<br> +Small-pox, 169-72.<br> +Smith, F. G., 90; B. W., on Akbar's tomb, 323 n.; on Fathpur +Sīkrī, 351 n.<br> +Society in India, 582.<br> +Sombre, <i>see</i> Samrū.<br> +Sōn river, 14, 16.<br> +Spotted deer, 244.<br> +Spry, Dr., works of, 99 n.<br> +Statistics, falsified, 554 n.<br> +Stephen, Carr, on Delhi, 520 n.<br> +Subdivision of property, 432.<br> +Succession to crown, 239.<br> +Sugar-mills, 207-9.<br> +Suicide, vow of, 103.<br> +Sulaimān Shikoh, Prince, 272.<br> +Sultans of Delhi, 488 n.<br> +Sumroo, <i>see</i> Samrū.<br> +Sunnī sect, 48 n.<br> +Supreme (Superior) Court, 555 n.<br> +Sūraj Mall, Rājā, 364 n., 378, 567.<br> +Survey myths, 201.<br> +Suttee, 18-31, 47, 109.<br> +Swallows, 353.<br> +Sweepers, 45, 49.</p> + +<p>Taboos, 134 n.<br> +Tāj, the, 312-21.<br> +Tamarind tree, 566.<br> +Tamerlane, <i>see</i> Tīmūr.<br> +Tānda, town, 330.<br> +Tānsēn, singer, 561, 562 n.<br> +Tarmasharīn, Moghal, 490, 507, 529, 535.<br> +<i>Tasmabāz</i> Thugs, 91.<br> +Tavernier, traveller, 316, 320 n.<br> +Taylor, Col. Meadows, <i>Confessions of a Thug</i>, 89 n., 653.<br> +Taxation, indirect, 427; in England and India, 485.<br> +Tehrī, town, 132, 143.<br> +Teignmouth, Lord, 473 n.<br> +Telescope, 543.<br> +<i>Thagī</i>, <i>see</i> Thuggee and Thugs.<br> +<i>Thānadārs</i>, 547.<br> +Thessalonica, massacre of, 402.<br> +Thevenot, de, quoted, 335; described Thuggee, 652.<br> +Thomas, George, adventurer, 603-8.<br> +Thuggee, 77-91,650-3.<br> +Thugs, venerate Nizāmuddīn, 491 n.; on the Bēgam's +boundary, 545; method of suppressing, 556 n.; disguised as +ascetics, 592 n.<br> +Tieffenthaler, Father, 336 n.<br> +Tiger myths, 124-9.<br> +Tīmūr, sack of Delhi by, 497 n.; history of, 527-34.<br> +Tonk, Nawāb of, 66 n.<br> +Tours, battle of, 513.<br> +Trade, free, 160; Indian, 409 n.<br> +Trap, Deccan, 97 n., 269 n.<br> +Trees, marriage of, 32, 122, 143; sacred, 386 n.<br> +Tughlak Shāh, 486.<br> +Tughlakābād, 486, 489.<br> +Tulasī Dās, poet, 123 n.<br> +<i>Tulsī</i> (<i>tulasī</i>) plant, 121.<br> +Tūs, or Mashhad, <i>q.v.</i>, 341 n.</p> + +<p>Uchahara State, 33, 148 n.<br> +Ūj (Og), legend of, 374.<br> +Ujjain (Ujain), 146 n.<br> +Ulwar (Alwar) State, xxxii.<br> +'Uncovenanted' service, 426.<br> +United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, 434 n.<br> +United States, war with, 628 n.<br> +Universities, Indian, 256 n.<br> +<i>Urs</i>, defined, 568 n.<br> +Ūsh in Persia, 494 n., 500 n.<br> +Usmān, <i>see</i> Osman.</p> + +<p>Vaccination, 171 n.<br> +Vagrancy laws, 370.<br> +Vaikuntha, heaven of Vishnu, 8.<br> +Vegetius quoted, 626 n., &c. Venī-dānam, offering of +hair, 56 n.<br> +Veracity, 383-411.<br> +Village communities, 394.<br> +Villages, 60.<br> +Vindhya mountains, 62.<br> +Vindhyan sandstones, 62 n.<br> +Vishnu, god, 2, 7 n., 9, 141 n., 376 n., 588, 591.</p> + +<p>Warōrā coalfield, 231 n.<br> +Washermen, 45.<br> +Water offerings, 141, 693.<br> +Water-nut, or -chestnut, 76.<br> +Watts, Governor, 581 n.<br> +Wazīr Alī of Oudh, 473.<br> +Weaver-bird, 173 n.<br> +Wellesley, Marquis, 473 n.<br> +Wells, 363, 435-41; songs sung at, 561 n.<br> +Western Provinces, defined, 574 n.<br> +Wheat, blight on, 195.<br> +Widow-burning, <i>see</i> Suttee.<br> +Widows, sold by auction, xxii; remarriage of, 26.<br> +Wife, a duty of, 132 n.<br> +Wilkinson, (1) Mr. L., and (2) Major, 89 n.<br> +Wilton, Mr. John, 341 n.<br> +Window-tax, 485.<br> +Witchcraft, 68-73.<br> +Wolf-children, xxxv.<br> +Women, dress of, 18; offering of hair by, 56 n.; form of tomb of +Muhammadan, 510 n.; secret murders of, 561 n.</p> + +<p>Yamarāja (Jamrāj), 9.<br> +Yudhisthira, 11, 522.</p> + +<p>Zafaryāb Khān, son of Sombre, 611.<br> +Zālim Singh, freebooter, 129.<br> +Zamān Shāh, 289.<br> +Zamīndārī tenure, 144.</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rambles and Recollections of an Indian +Official, by William Sleeman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS INDIAN OFFICIAL *** + +***** This file should be named 15483-h.htm or 15483-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/4/8/15483/ + +Produced by Philip H Hitchcock + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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