1916

TO

MY MANY INDIAN FRIENDS

POONA AND

IN

THE WESTERN DECCAN

TIS VOLUME

IS

AFFECTIONATELY

INSCRIBED

NOTE TO SECOND EDITION.

The second edition

by

of this

book has been corrected

B. Parasnis,

my

friend

Rao Bahadur D.

who

never wearies in his assistance to

my labours.
C.A.K,

PREFAOE..

^
As nearly
all

the ensuing sketches have already

appeared in the Times of India and are reproduced with the kind permission of its editor, no preface is
really required.

Since,

however,

the article on

Marathi proverbs gave, when published, some offence to Deccani readers, I take this opportunity of
assuring

them that the suggestion that Maharashtra

meant the country of the Mhars (Mahar Rashtra) was not mine at all. It may be found at p. yyifi of
the Preface to Molesworth's Dictionary. I am glad, however, to state that my old and valued friend
Sir

Eamkrishna Bhandarkar,
that Molesworth's

C.I.E., has convinced

me

derivation must on philo-

logical

grounds be incorrect.
latter half of

I have therefore re*

written the

the said

article.

The

other articles are practically unaltered.

0,

A.K,

"La
. ,

inuraille

chinoise

s'abaisse de plus

que Fignorance avait en plus. Quand die aura disparu,

on sera bien 6tonn< de d^couvrir que derri&re il y avait taut de braves gens. L'ceuvre de demolition est commenc^e depuis 6erites longtemps. En donnant ces pages de mon journal
star le sol

mime

de TJle inconnue

fy

vais

de

mon

petit

coup

de marteau."
Pierre de Coulevain.
?

(L ile inconnue,)

THE TALE OF THE TULSI

PLANT.
has often happened that a young Englishman riding past an Indian's house has seen a small plant growing in a pot just opposite the door and has enquired its name. The answer has been that it is the Tulsi, a plant sacred to Vishnu. If incurious, this answer has satisfied the questioner. If curious to probe into the secrets of the world around him, he will have returned home and searched for th^ word Tulsi in Molesworth's dictionary. Therein it is written that the Tulsi is the Basil plant or "Ocymum Sanctum." If Basil be traced in the leaves of Webster, the searcher will learn that Basil is derived from the Greek word b$spikon, meaning kingly, and that the Basil plant ha HI Erance been styled la plante royale^nd in Germany the koib%g*$ kraut The next stage will be a pursuit for the Greek words basilikon dendronin the pages of LIddell and Scott ; but here the pursuit will be vain, for the term was unknown in classical Greece. As it is not
say
that
it

unlikely that no further clue will be f orthcoinmg I have ventured to write the present article in the hop6
of throwing
*

been supshow in which that with extracts two plied Italy a in Greece the Basil pknt was credited

By

light on the subject. the kindness of a friend* I have

some

TALK OF THE TULSI PLANT

of

strange occult properties. In the second part the Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont, translated

by

W. Ward, 1563, there is this entry " To make a woman shall eate
is set upon the table. Take a when men bring the dishes

of nothing that little greene Basill and

to the table put

it

underneth them, yet the woman perceive it not, for men saye that she will eate of none of that which is in
the dish whereunder the Basill lieth." " " In The Cyclades by P. Bent there occurs the
following passage: "I have frequently realized

how much

prized

in Greece for its mystic properties. The which on Christ's is almost herb, they say grew grave, worshipped in the Eastern Church. On St. Basil's

the Basil

is

Day women take sprigs of this plant to be blefised in Church. On returning home they cast more on the
floor of

They
ness,

the house to secure luck for the ensuing year. eat a little with their household, and no sick-

they maintain, will attack them for a year. Another bit they put in the cupboard and firmly believe that their embroideries and silken raiment will be free from the visitation of rats, mice and moths
for the

same period."
find too a reference to the Basil in
3

We
head:

Keats

"Isabella/ Therein, it will be remembered, that Isabella after exhuming the murdered Lorenzo's
" (She)
wA
*'
*'

wrapped it up ; and for its tomb did choose garden pot, wherein ahe laid it by And covered it with mould, aad o'er it set Sweet Bastt, which her tears kept ever wet."

But

as neither classical Oreece nor Rome can us to explain the origin of the Tula's or Basil's

O1T 1<HE TCJLSI FIiASft

sanctity let us return to India. And here we shall not be disappointed. For this is the tale that is told in the Padma Parana by Naradmuni* to King

One day whoa ludra Prithuraj. Shiva in Kailas, his heaven, Indra
a

man

of terrifying aspect, of

went to seek for saw no one except whom he asked

whither Shiva had gone. The man stood silent, Indra several times the question. although repeated Then Indra gre;v augry and hurled at him hia thunderbolt. The man disappeared and in his place stood Shiva, who wa.48o wrotli, that to save Indra's the priest of Ihegodb*, had to throw life, BrahaBpati, himself at Shiva't* [cot, and thus obtain Indra's life as a boon. But Lho li^litaiag, Uul ia Shiva's wrath had, to kill indra, flashed from his third eye, could not return whoaee ib came, so Bhiva, that Indra might not bo struck, hurled it into the sea where the Ganges meets it. And o the union of that lightning with Ocean a boy way born whom Brah-

madev caught up to lumBolf and to whom he gave the name of Jalandhar or oea-fcjeizecL And to him Brahmadev gave the boon that by no hand
but Shiva's could ho perish, Jalandhar grew tip strong and tall and conquered the Icings o! the earth and in duo time married Vrinda, the daughter of the demon KalnoinL And under the rule of Jalandhar the demons, who had been by the gods driven into hell, came forth and urged Jalandhar to
*

Nanulraum
a

watt tho *on of Bruktnutlw, And, 03 tb> t&ta &3t0wft the

for

ovon novr iw<kl I havo no Swiakrifc, I ftm Oobtd to a tranalation kindly mado for rno from tfw Banakrit
i/i

michiof- maker of the god*,

iniiwtiiflf-makor.

Xho word
talo,

la this
-

Uikufcut of

4:

TALE OP THE TULSl PLAOT

make war on them*

And by Rahu%

his messenger,

Jalandhar ordered Indra to hand over the jewels which had sprung from the churning of Ocean* But Indra refused saying that Ocean had sheltered the enemies of the gods and that, therefore, they had
rightly churned
jewels*

Ocean and had robbed him of his

So Jalandhar and the demons fought Indra and the gods in the forest of Nandan, and as the gods fell Brahaspati revived them with the nectar plant that
grew on the slopes of Dronadri. But Jalandhar hurled Dronadri into the sea and the terrified gods
the caves that pierce the sides of Suwarna or the gold mountain. Ihen the gods prayed to Vishnu and he came forth to rescue them,
fled for shelter into

but against Jalandhar Vishnu's thunderbolts were harmless because of the boon granted by Brahmadev. And Jalandhar with his mace smote Vishnu's eagle so that it reeled, and Vishnu stayed the fight and
granted Jalandhar a boon. And he asked Vishnu to bring Laxmi and live with him on earth in his place. Vishnu perforce consented and Jalandhar ruled as undisputed lord of the three worlds. The rain fell at the appointed times, poverty was unknown, the
ryots lived freed alike from misery

and sickness, t and all but the gods rejoiced under the sway of Jal andhar. But Naradrmini, the mischief tfxaker, went to Ms court* He saluted Naradmuni and asked him whence he came. He replied that he had come from
*Ba,lra

fafehead
hifla*

was the messenger of the demom Originally a Mafcg by was cut off by Vishmi. Bahuand Koto, the sevorsd patt ftOtf amuse themselves by swallowing the 8un and Moon wtxd
fc$ Wifreif Jtogwtfs

so

causing Eclipses.

Jalandlxar'a rule ra<tfoly

a<?

a change of

TALB OF THE
Kailas where he

TXJLSI

PLANT
;Parvati

had seen Shiva and

and

herds of Kamdhenus, or Cows that grant desires, and forests of Kalpavriksh, or trees that fulfil wishes, and masses of Chintamanis or the jewels that bestow favours, and that he had come to see whether in the
three worlds there was any wealth like that of Shiva or any beauty like that of Parvati. And in this wise

Naradmuni stirred up hatred against Shiva in Jalandhar and he gent by Rahu a message calling on him to hand over his wife and wealth, and covering himself

with ashes to live for ever in the burning groundThen Shiva was exceedingly wroth, and from his eyebrow there came forth a terrible shape with a man's body and a lion's face. It ran to eat up Rahu, but Shiva, as he was a herald, saved Mm, and ordered the shape to eat up its own arms and legs. And then to console it Shiva granted it the boon of being always at the door of his temples and gave it the name of Kktimukh or Fameface,* But he sent Rahu with a scornful answer back to Jalandhar and he and Shiva fought each other on the slopes of Kailas. But even Shiva could not prevail against Jafl&adhar So long as his wife Vrinda remained chaste. So Vishnu, who had lived with her and Jalandhar &&<! had learnt this secret, plotted h 01* downfall. Q&e day when she, sad at Jalandhar's absence, had left her gardens to walk in the waste beyond, two met her and pursued her. She ran with the following until she saw a Rishi at whose feei sfcfe fell and asked for shelter. The Rishi wi,th'h& magic burnt up the demons into thin ash. Yrinda. t!xe$ asked him for news of her husband. At onoe two ;$>'
*

Th& KMimolieh te still carved oa

**e

TALE OF THE

tftfLSl

PtAHT and hands.

laid before her Jalandhar's head, feet

Vrinda, thinking that he was dead, begged the'Eishi to restore him to her. The E/ishi said that he would

and in a moment he and the corpse had disappeared and Jalandha? stood by her. She threw herself into his arms and they embraced each other* But some days later she learnt that he with whom she was living was not her husband, but Vishnu who had taken his shape. And she cursed Vishnu and foretold that in a later Avatar the two demons, who had frightened her, would rob him of his wife; and that to recover her he should have to ask the aid of the apes who had brought Jalandhar's head, feet and hands. Vrinda then threw herself into a burningpit. And Jalandhar, once Vrinda's chastity had gone, fell a prey to Shiva's thunderbolts. Then the gods came forth from their hiding place and garlanded Shiva. The demons were driven back to hell and
try,

men once again passed under the tyranny of the gods.

But Vishnu came not back from Vrinda's palace, and those who sought him found him mad for grief, rolling in her ashes. Then Parvati, to break the charm of
Vrinda's beauty, planted in her ashes three seeds. And they grew into three plants, the Tulsi, the Avail and bhe Haiti, and by the growth of these seeds Vishnu was released from Vrinda's charm. Therefore,

he loved them all, but chiefly the Tulsi plant, which, as he said, was Vrinda's very self. Yet was her curse fulfilled. For the Avatars of Vishnu were these Matsya or the fish, Kurma or the tortoise, V$*aha or the boar, Narasinh or the lion, Waman or the dwarf, Parashurama or the lord of the axe* then, Kamchattdra the world conqueror %
:

TALE OF THE TULSI PLANT

In this 7th incarnation the two demons, who had frightened Vrinda, became Ravan and his brother Kumbhakarna. And they bore away Sita to Lanka.

And

to implore the help of the two apes who had brought her Jalandhar's head and hands, and in this incarnation they became

to recover her

Ramchandra had

Hanuman and his warriors. But in the 8th incarnation which was that of Krishna, the Tulsi plant took the form of a woman Radha, and as such wedded on Kartik Sud twelfth, the gay and warlike lord of Dwarka. And thu s it is, when the Indian nights grow crisp with the coming cold, the women,from the full-

moon

of Aahwina io rt'cfuH-zrcon of Kartik lighthigh

above their houses the Akashdiwa or heavenly lamp, and so celebrate the wedding of Krishna* and Radha and the reconciliation of Vishnu with the demon-lady whom he wronged- Good luck attends the house
Tulsi plant, and the worship of the Tulsi plant is placed unless Vishnu is incomplete, on the black Shaligram stone which, picked up in the
of

her

who waters the

bed of the Gandak

the godhead.

river, is

regarded as the symbol of

Lastly, the comic element is not wholly absent, for when in Marathi one wishes to say that one

mwt
best

somtimesdo

evil that

good

may

cotne,

it is

expressed by the saying "tulsiche mtilant kand& " (One must place an onion in the toot lavavalajato While an unworthy sou of > of the Tulsi plant).
styled tulshint a Tulsi in ahe), bhang (to bhang growing * Krishna was marriod to Kadha under tfcfc &a*ne of ;Datooda*v ntwfy $&& thafe Sa o*4er to reeta&i hfe youthful frolics, hi*

noble father

(patris heroi films degener)

is

lTe**^ tied hito with * rope (dam o* daye)rotuaa tfc* afcowttw*

to a
flFfcoao

mortar.

THE TALE OF THE SHAMI TREE.

In

my

last chapter I

gave

of the Tulsi plant.

now

readers the story to venture put before them

my

the legends that have gathered round the Shami tree or Mimosa Suma, a big thorny tree not unlike the babul. One may see it both in the Deccan and in Kathiawad and in the latter province rags are often tied to it as votive offerings. The first legend, which is that of its metamorphosis from a young girl, is given in Chapter 33 of the Kridakand from the latter half of the Ganeshpurana. One day when Narad-

muni* was walking up and down the three worlds he came to Indra's capital, Amraoti. Indra rose and saluted, and in the course of their talk asked JSFaradmuni whether he knew and, if so, he would tell him the story of Aurava, the Eishi And Narad told him " the following tale Once upon a time there lived in Malva a Brahman named Aurava, who was ripe
:

with the learning of the Vedas. His face shone like the sun and his knowledge was such that all gold to him was dross and all that his mind willed he could do, for he could create, cherish or destroy as he listed,
life

Sameghan, he had born to him late in & beauiiful daughter, called Shami, to whom he gave aJi her heart's desire* When she was seven

By

his wife,

years old he wedded her to the Rishi

*

Dhoumya's

Son,

My leaders win remember

It

that ^aradtmmi

is

the mischief-maker of

the god*

was he Who tempted Jalaadhar to make war on Shiva.

Otf

THE SHAMI

TESS3

9,

Mandar, who lived and studied with a preceptor, named Shaunak. After their wedding the girl and boy parted until they had reached the fulness of youth. Then Mandar went to the house of Aurava
the Rishi, and taking Shami from her father's house, get forth with her to the house of Shaunak, his guru* On the road they passed by the house of a mighty
Rishi or sage, called Bhrushundi* He was the untiring worshipper of Ganpati and by his austerities he had won from the god the boon that he also might

grow a trunk from his forehead. When Shami and Mandar saw the trunk-faced sage they burst out laughing, and he in anger cursed them. And the curse was that they should become trees from which even animals turned away.)^ And so Mandar became the Mandar tree, whose leaves no beast will eat, and Shami the Shami tree on whose thorns no bird may rest. Some days passed and the guru Shaunak, anxious that Shami and Mandar tarried, went in search of them. He went first to the house of the sage Aurstfra and heard that they had left it. Then Aurava and Shaunak searched everywhere until they came to th# hermitage of Bhrushundi and learnt of the curse tfab$ had befallen Mandar and his bride. The two old:
practised suoh terrible atisterities Ganpati's honour that he revealed himself to 10 cubits high aad riding on a lion. They begged of him as a boon that he should restore to them Shaftoi
,

men then

and Mandar. But the god feared to displ&ase h& them instead t&at disciple Bhrushundi and granted the two trees should be honoured throughout ilia three worlds and that neither Khiva's nor his worship should be complete without theit

TALE OF THE SHAMJ TKBE

When

the god vanished Shaunak went his way, but Aurava in despair left his mortal covering and

became the fire which lies hidden within the trunk of the Shami tree." Such was the tale told by Naradmuni to Indra, but to this day when sacrifices are burnt in the temples of Shiva and Ganpati, their priests rub together pieces of the Shami tree and the hidden fire within it leaps out and kindles the sacrifice.* And no worship is complete without the Shami leaves and the Mandar flowers being present on the altar. A second and later legend and one which is better known connects the Shami tree with the famous Pandav brothers. Students of the Mahabharata will remember how Yudhishtira, tempted by Naradmuni
to perform the Rajsuya, incurred the envy of his cousin Duryodhana ; how Duryodhana, to gratify his jealousy, played with Shakunf s aid at dice

with Yudhisthira;

how Yudhishthira

lost all

he

wife and brothers ; how possessed, kingdom, wealth, Duryodhana's father, Dhritarashtra, gave them to him all back, and, lastly, how the infatuated Pandav

again gambled with Duryodhana and had to pay as forfeit twelve years, residence in the woods with his wife and brothers and then a thirteenth year of disIf the disguise were guise in a distant country. to stay another twelve penetrated the Pandavs|were exile. When the 'first twelve years, those in years Pandavs with of the forest life, had passed, the

about where the thirteenth year speat and they fixed on Viratnagar, t the
cast
at Ichis TT~ iay be see** stay

tem#& of ._.....

SHAME TREE

11

modern Wai, where the Camples are still

the

waves

of

the I&dshna.

And

Yudhisl

disguised himself as a gamblef^^and Bhima as a" cook and Arjuna as a eunuch* and Nakula as a groom, and Sahadeva as a milkman and lastly Drau-

padi as a waiting woman. And at the Court of King Virata, they dwelt until the years of exile were over.

But

before assuming their disguises the Pandavs hid their weapons inside a Shami tree. Here let
c

give a translation of the original passage :t Arjuna said O Ling, I see a tall Shami tree on a il sing ground ; it is well if we hang our weapons on it. For, see, Tbecau se of the great thorns that spread round

me

on every side it is hard for any one to climb it* And again there is no one here now to see what we are doing, ihe tree too is in a lonely spot wherein live snafecg and wild beasts, and as it is used as a burning
it

but small fear of men wandering hither* Therefore, let us place our weapons on this tree and then let us go to Viratnagar and as already resolved let us each on his own errand complete i&te0 the days of exile/ And in this wise Arjuna gpcfckfe to Yudhishthira and all the Pandav got ready to
ground, there
is

weapons. First Arjutta loosed the Ah Gandiva, string of the mighty Gandivat

up
*'

their

Arjuna was condemned to be a eunuch because be slighted the beauty of TJrwaehi Indra's queen. f X have not translated from thv Sanskrit but from Messrs. Datarand Kodak's admirable Marathi rendering. The book has been published at
'
r

great expense by Messrs. Chiplunkar and Go's* at the Indira Press, Poona, and the second half of the rendering is delayed for want offun.de. X' would venture to appeal to the Marathi reading public to assistkr purchas-

ing the part already translated, in the publication of the $ The mwfcQ of Arjufcrt bow given to hixa byAgai
Indra,
<

12

$AO
it ?

01?

THE SHAMI TREE

of it did

can describe

For by the strength

Arjuna in hie chariot subdue the gods and all men and all countries. Then Yudhisbthira freed the gut
of the bow by whose aid he had guarded the land of the

Next Bhiroa undid the f asteningsof his bow. with this bow had Bhima the mighty king defeated in battle the Panchalas and the lord of Sindhu arid in the hour of victory he had single haned humKurus.

!*

king the shock of that bow was like the thunderbolt that falls upon and shatters the hill crests. Next beautiful sweetFor,
!

bled a multitude of warriors*

tongued Nakula untied the bow with which he had conquered the lands of the West. And last of all Sahadevaf unstrung the bow by whose help he had won the kingdoms of the Deccan. In this wise the Pandavs freed their bow strings and they laid down their bows and their bright swords, their jewelled quivers and their piercing arrows. Yudhishthira gathered them together and told Nakula to climb the tree. And Nakula did so and jin the holes and crevices where the arms might J>est lie and where the rain would not reach them, he placed them and tied them with strong cords. phere Then the Pandavs tied a corpse to the tree
thinking

and smell would keep men from wanderthither. Then they walked towards Virating nagar and on the road they said to the shepherds and cowherds and others whom they passed: * According to the custom of our family we have * The king here is king Jaamejaya to whomm the forest the sage
its sight
YaishaBopayan told the deathless tale of the heroes of the house of
Bharata.

that

f The comjueate of Sahadsva surme &uro-^Mnclal the province of the Ktorua

in the

name

of

CoromondeJ

TALE OF THE SHAME TREE

13

tied to that tree the corpse of our mother, dead at the age of 180*. So the Pandavs guarded against the evil thoughts that arise in men's minds and that they

might there pass the thirteenth year of exile they entered the mighty city of Viratnagar.' There is yet a third tale that connects the Shami
tree with
It runs that

Raghu, the grandfather of Ramchandra.; one day a young sage called Kautsa quarrelled violently with his guru or teacher Vartantu and wished to leave him. But Vartantu before he let him go dunned him for fourteen crores of rupees as the price of his apprenticeship. Kautsa went to the
court of king
fee.

Raghu of Ayodhya to beg his master's But he came at an unhappy time. King Raghu

had j ust held a mighty sacrifice and he had given everything he possessed to the Brahmanas who had assem-| bled. So that when Kautsa came to king Raghu's} court the generous prince was reduced to dine off earthen plates. Kautsa' s heart sank within him when he saw king Raghu's poverty nevertheless he disclosed his object. The prince called his treasurer! but in vain. The treasure room was as bare $0
Mrs. Hubbard's cupboard. In despair king prepared to raid Indra's capital Amraoti and rofo of the fourteen crores asked for by Kautsa. Just at this time Naradmuni came to Ayodhya and after

th^j

customary salutation enquired and learnt the fcause; He at once .went to! of king Raghu' s preparation. Amraoti and told Indra. The latter alarmed at the|
resolve of the desperate Kshattriya sent for the godi Kubera, hia treasurer and the lord of all wealth* and
*

The

oxtrawdifaarjr age of the old

tin

mothcnr s6em$ to have

accepted &e quite

ordinary statement,

14

TATVTC

OF THE SHAMI TKEE

made him for three andra-hftlf ghatkas the same night shower gold on Ayodhya. And the gold all fell in one place where a giant Shami tree stood. And next morning, the 10th of Ashwin Sudh, the day chosen by his astrologers as auspicious for his advance against Indra, king Baghu saw masses of gold heaped allround the tree. He called Kautsa and told him to take it away* But the sage said that he wanted but the fourteen crores with which to pay Vartantu. And taking them he went his way- But the proud Kashattriya refused to touch what had been obtained for the needs of a Brahmana and the rest of the
gold lay there that all who wanted it might help themselves. And still on the 10th Ashwin Sudh day that king JEtaghu should have started for

Amraoti and better known as Dassara from Dasha 10th 9 Maratha villagers keep alive his memory. For first worshipping the trunk of the Shami tree they cut off its branches and mixing them with earth,

gegamum flowers, Apta leaves, and bajri ears they offer them to Ganesha who turns them, it is fancied, into gold. The heap is then taken to the village boundary and is there looted by the men and
boyg
of the village.

And this is the ceremony of

the

But there is a still stranger sequel.

of his grandfather,

For in honour

'Ramchandra chose algo for his expedition against king ,Bavan of Lanka the 10th of Ashwin Sudh and before starting prayed to the Shami
tree for
success.

And

century after the Jlajput

Kings have prayed to the Shami tree and led forth

Against each other or the Mleccha, the heroes of
Jjlew&r and

Marwar, And following them theMajrath^

TALE OH

OTIS

SHAMI TREE

15

on

and on Dassara started forth Then in the Peshwa's time when warfare became more scientific and organised
captains did likewise
their raids.

campaigns took the place of razteias, the DaSsara became a great festival on which the Peshwa distributed amid regal state dresses of honour to the Indian And this custom when the Peshwai passed princes. was continued by the English Resident until away in the late Empress' time the date was changed from the Dassara to the Sovereign's birthday, a practice which continues to this day. And thus it is that when the Agent for the Sirdars and the Deccan nobles assemble at the yearly Durbar to express their loyalty
to their august master, the

King Emperor, they

also

do homage
of

all

unwittingly to the legendary sanctity

tree.

King Raghu's Shami

THE STORY OF THE BEL PLANT.

The scientific name of the Bel plant is Aigle Marmelos which, as I will freely admit, throws but little In appearance it is an ordinary light on the subject. enough shrub with small green leaves and green In Hindu religious circles, apple-shaped fruit. however, the Bel tree has a very large place, and its connection with Sati, the first wife of Shiva, seems to indicate a pre- Aryan origin of its sanctity. Sati's in the tale that the is told Shrimat story Bhagwat, \fras told by the sage Maitrya to Vidura, the brother of Pandu, and Dritarashtra, and thus the uncle of the Pandavs and Kuravs, the heroes of the Great War* Sati was the daughter of King Daksh by his union with Prasuti, the third daughter of self-sprung Manu. Now sixteen daughters were born of this union.

And
or

of

Dharma

thirteen were given in marriage to or Religion. And their names were Budhi

them

Talent, Medha or Discernment, Shradha or 3Devofcion, Maitri or Friendship, Daya or Pity, Shanti or Calmness, Tushti or Satisfaction, Titiksha or Patience, Rhi or Intelligence, Unati or Happiness, Pushti or Weal and Murti or Shape. And to each of these was born a son of various names, but to Murti

were born Nar and Narayan* at whose birth the Heavens burst into music and the angels and the
were ineai^aticms of Vistou although not named among the
principal ones.

STOEY
cherubs

Off

THE BEL PILAOT

began

17
all

the Gandarvas and the Kinnara

to sing on the fifth note.t The fourteenth daughter was Swaha or Flame who wedded Agni or Fire* And

the fifteenth daughter was

Swadha whom King

Daksh gave
saints.

And

in marriage to the Pitars or deified the sixteenth was Sati and her he

bestowed on the god Shiva* But of this marriage only evil came, and here I will give a translation of the opening passage of the second chapter of the fourth book of the Shrimat Bhagwat. "O Vidura, once upon a time King Daksh planned a sacrifice and he invited to it with their pupils Vasishta and the sages and the Edshis and their retinues and all the gods and the Munis and the Agnis.t

And

tered.

shortly after they had come King Daksh enAnd by his lustre, Vidura, the mighty hall

And all therein seeing this king lit up. men stood up, save only Brahmadev and among Shiva, And King Daksh, after bowing to Brahmadev
of sacrifice

as the guru of all, sat on his appointed throne. But Shiva had never even moved in his seat and King Daksh felt so wroth at this that his eyes grew red

go glared at Shiva so that those seated round expected Shiva to be consumed. Then Daksh rose and pointing to Shiva said in the
as
fire.

And he

presence of

all:

"

O members of the assembly,

what I say to you

or thoughtlessly

do not think that I say

,

it lightly

f The 7 notes or swars of Hindu music corresponding to the key of are Sa, Be, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, and Ni. Thus the 6th note would be Gl the note, curiously enough, on which .English clergymen intone. f There were 49 Agnis either descended from or including the Agni, who married Swaha,

C Natural

18

STORY OF THE BEL PLANT

[Here follows a page full of virulent abuse of Shiva to which Shiva replies at equal length and with
equal acrimony*] This was how the quarrel commenced and Shiva rose from his seat before the sacrifice had begun and went homewards. And King Daksh then initiated

the ceremonies to which the assembled guests had been invited and which lasted 1,000 years. Sati, however, had not been present, and does not seem

have appreciated Shiva's explanation that external honour was only good for those absorbed in the Karma marg* and that he had really in his heart
fully to

honoured King Daksh who had been too unenlightened to see it* Some ages later for time was of little

King Daksh gave another the gods and sacrifice. the saints, the Munis and the Rishis. But Shiva and Sati received no invitation card. Sati, however, longed to see her parents and her sisters and wished to go uninvited. She asked Shiva for leave, but he refused. Thereupon she got so angry that she left him Shiva then to go on foot to King Daksh's house* relented and sent after her his retinue and his sacred Bull Nandi Keshwar. So that in full state she duly arrived at King Daksh' s sacrificial hall But a visit which had begun with a wife's disobedience to her husband was predestined not to end well So when
value to these Mighty ones

And to these again he invited

* There are 4 Margs according to the Hindu belief : (a) The Karma marg, the ordinary path of worldly affairs, followed by the careless and the unbelieving; (6) the Bhakti marg, the path of devotion and austerities, followed by the elect; (c) the Raj marg, the path of Government, to, which the elect are nest promoted ; and (d) the Dnyan marg or path of knowledge, tbo last stage before Moksh or release from the pain of livi^
!l

is obtained,

'

STORY OF THE BEL PLANT

19

^ Sati reached her goal only her mother and her sisters welcomed her. King Daksh and his courtiers openly

She then in the style of epic andpuraabused her father for several pages and in the end resolved to destroy the vile body bestowed by him that she might no longer feel towards him any obligation. How she did it will be seen from the
ignored her.
nic characters

following translation

The sage Maitrya

She first performed the Achaman* rite and became silent and then according to the rules of Yoga, or the True
Science, began the task of entering the state of She first became rigid Samadhi or Contemplation.

(Vidura), sat down with her face to the north.

Kurus hereupon Sati donned yellow clothes and

said
:

"

best of the

and then united the Pranf and the Apan beneath her navel. Next by an upward motion of the navel wheel,t she brought them to her heart and skilfully fixed them there. Lastly, she slowly forced them her forehead. Now, as by into throat her through living with the Lord Shiva she had become wellversed in the Yoga, she was then able by its means to
produce a flame that enveloped her body." And so, the end was, the poor lady was entirely consumed and King Daksh's sacrificial party broke

up in, disorder.
This consists of sipping water in the names of Keshav, Narayaxt it down in the name of Qovind. f According to Hindu science, there are in each human being 5 Vital airs: (a) The Pran or air of the lungs ; (6) Apan, the air in the lower abdomen ; (o) Vyan, the air diffused throughout the tissues of the body ; in the stomach (d) TTdan, the air in the throat ; and (e) Saman, the air
*

and Madhav and throwing

deemed necessary for dige&tion. $ The Nabhichakra is the wheel euDDosed to lie
navel*

'

voider tfce

human

20

STOEY OF MCE BEL PLASTT

the sad news retched the Loijd Shiva he was inconsolable and wandered vainly up and down the earth and heavens seeking for mental rest. And at last he one day found it under a Bel tree. For,

When

seated in

its

shade, he cast his eyes upwards

and from

the shape of the fruit which resembled Sati's rounded embosom, he fancied that her spirit had become thereafter it Now bodied in its trunk. happened that Parwati, the daughter of Himalaya, lord of the

mountains, wished to wed with the Lord Shiva. And to gain her end, she had practised various austerities. For twelve years she had sat with downcast eyes had inhaling smoke. Then for sixty-four years she
sat eating withered leaves. In the month of Magh (February) she had sat immersed in water; in Vaishak

(May) she had sat between five fires, and in the rains she had sat without food and without a roof. Now she had all but reached her object when Naradmuni, mischief-maker among the gods, visited Himalaya, lord of the mountains,

and urged him to unite Parwati to Vishnu. Himalaya agreed, but Parwati There she fled with a waiting majd into the desert. drew a linga on the sand, placed on it Bel leaves, and abandoning all food and water, gave herself up to the At last, conquered by worship of the Lord Shiva. her devotion, he appeared and granted her the boon of wif edom to himself. Thus the Bel is ddubly sacred, for it granted rest to the Lord Shiva and won
wedlock for ParwatL And he who worships Shiva without the leaves of the Bel will be consigned to the blackest depths of Hell for one Kalp or seven ages of Itodra, each of 7,000year& And the learned in .Hindu medicine use it in many ways. The young fruit IB

STORY

Otf

THE BEL PLAOT

21

used as an aperient. The fruit, full grown but gtill sour; is given as a cure for dysentery. And the fruit fully ripened is used as an astringent and an appetizer. The Bel, too, has played a part in history. For, on the strength of an oath sworn on the Bel bandar, the
First

Peshwa, Balaji Vishvanath, trusted himself to the tender mercies of Damaji Thorat, the jaghir-

dar of Patas. His trust was betrayed, for Balaji was at once Seized and tortured. When reproached with " his broken oath Damaji replied : What of it ? the Bel is only a tree and bandar turmeric I eat every

Such ignoble levity only lowered him in his fellow countrymen's eyes, and, to use an Irish expression, he never had the same name in the country
day,"
afterwards.
fruit
rise

Lastly, the comparative size of the Bel

kadane,"
salmon-'
5

and the Avala (Phyllanthus emblica) has given " to a humorous proverb : Avala deun bel " to or as we
say
give a sprat to catch a

VISHALGAD.
Gurh went the big car as a somewhat hand changed the speeds and we started with a grating growling sound that put to shame the contending counsel in the Court that we had left behind* Kolhapur was our starting point. Amba was our destination. And between the two stretched forty miles of straight red road which we must traverse that evening. Away
Gurrh
!
!

unskilful

swept the 30 horse power Beaufort that carried the Diwan and myself through the crowded The cart bullocks at Kolhapur were even city. less broken to motor traffic than elsewhere. Some times petrified with fear they stopped helplessly in the middle of the road just across our track. Down went convulsively the driver's feet on the clutch and brake and the disengaged engines raced and bellowed with impatient fury. At other times the bullocks at our approach seemed seized by devils and rushed violently down the steep 'sides of the road with a speed and ease that would have roused keen envy in the swine of Gadara. Once out of the town we sped past Panehganga, on whose banks lie the tombs of His Highness* forebears, and after 12 miles reached the ghat that leads to Panhala fort. The great car breasted the steep winding road without changing speed and we passed under the bastions of the mighty stronghold.

then

VISHALOAD

23

Our

business, however, was not with Panhala so we skirted its scarped defences and switching ofi rolled Another l^our at noiselessly down its farther side.

speed along a deserted road and we entered, amid the musical salute of the Vishalgadh Chief's armed forces, that feudatory's boundaries and shortly afterwards alighted at Amba. The Diwan and I had now reached that day's
almost
full

journey's end

and

and

histories

we

after careful inspection of parted early for the night.

maps
For

next morning the serious business of our trip was to begin and we would ride through the woods to Vishalgadh, At 7 a.m. next day we started and took a path that had once been trodden by a Bahmini army. AUauddin Shah Bahmini II towards the close of a successful and vigorous reign resolved to subdue the Konkan. For that purpose he
sent a veteran General, Malik-ul-Tujar, who, after several raids below the ghats, thought it necessary to take Khelna fort

now known

as

Vishalgadb.

On

way he captured a fastness defended by a member of the ancient Maratha house of Shirke whom he forcibly converted to Islam, The outthe

raged noble to gain his revenge offered to lead the Musalmans to Vishalgadh whose owner Shankar Rai he represented as his own bitter enemy. Malikul-Tujar fell readily into the trap. For two days Shirke led .the army along a broad path, and on the third took them into the forest through which

450 years
is

later

my

friend

and

I rode.
it,

And

this

how

Ferishta* has described

<538,

* Brigg>aFenshte, Volume n, page

24

TD3HALGAD

the third day he led them by paths so intricate, that the male tiger by apprehension might change its sex, and through passes more tortuous than the curly locks of the fair and more
difficult

"On

Demons

to escape from than the mazes of love. even might start at the precipices and

caverns in those wilds, and ghosts might be panicstruck at the awful view of the mountains. Here the Sun never enlivened with its splendour the

nor had Providence designed that it should penetrate their depths. The very grass was tough and sharp as the fange of serpents, and the air fetid as the breath of dragons. Death dwelt in the waters and poison impregnated the breeze." As we started I quoted the first sentence of this passage to the Diwan and we both laughed
vallies,
its ridiculous hyperboles. But had ridden 2 miles I began to think that Ferishta had not gone far beyond the mark. I have seen many kinds of country both in Europe and

at what

we thought

before I

in India but never the fellow of this. At one time the path rose so steep before us that we seemed
like Shelley's of the stars.

moth

to be striving for the embraces

so low that
horses'

In another hour we had descended we could almost hear the clang of our hooves echo dismally through the domes

of Eblis.

And

the path

itself,

how
sheer

it
-it

twisted

dropped stumble over such boulders as those among which our horses strove to pick their way? When you sported in the shade, Amaryllis, did your lashes fringe such unfathomable depths ? Neaera, did your lover's hand
there.

through

the jungle here,

how

Did ever

lover's feet

VISEALGAD
liglitly

25
?

play

among such

inextricable tangles

Afas

ter

two hours

of blind struggling

we emerged

did the Bahmani army on a small valley hemmed on every side with hills and still known as the Badshah's Tal (the Imperial camp)* Here Malikul-Tujar's army, exhausted utterly, flung themselves on the ground. Shirke had already disappeared and had fled to Vishalgad. Thence he at midin

night returned with

its

enemy Shankar
ves

'Rai.

garrison led by his supposed They at once threw themselkilled of

on the wearied invaders and

them

the confiding nearly seven thousand including General. Next morning the survivors dispersed in every direction. Thus the Maratha Chief made
his

honour

clean.
interest,

however, lay further ahead. So we pushed on to a place within a mile of Vishalgad fort, known as the Ghod Khind.

My

companion's

My

readers must

now

skip over

two hundred years

from the death of Malik-ul-Tujar. In October, 1659, Shivaji destroyed near Pratabgad Afeulkhan and his army. Before the Bijapur administration realized their defeat Shivaji had m$c& himself master of PanhaJa and Vishalgad. Then at last the Adilshahi Government woke to their danger and sent the full strength of the monarchy to cope with it. A great force under a skilifcl Sidi Johar, and accompanied by SWfl leader, Muhammad Khan, Afzulkhan's son, marched Against the rebel. Shivaji, overawed, threw himself ittto Pawiiala hoping to defend it long enough for his
irregulars without to make Sidi Johar's prisitioB untenable. But for four months the vefer&n Gene-

26

VISHAL&AB
In vain the Mawith the garrison

ral never relaxed his vigilance. vaJis without tried to co-operate

Famine began to make itself felt among Then Shivaji saw that he had made an error. If the Deccan was to be liberated he must escape and the plan that he adopted showed equal skill in design and execution.
within.

the defenders of Panhala.

by offers of surrender he late a chosen band from a gate with one night slipped 9 still known as Shivaji s window and was well on the
Lulling the besiegers

march to another
covered.
decision
suit

When

fort before his flight was disit was Sidi Johar acted with

and promptitude. a light column under

as day broke he

He
Fazil

despatched in pur-

Muhammad Khan*
young Musul-

Desire for vengeance lent wings to the

rear

had overtaken ShivajTs was highly criguard The fort was still at some distance and, tical. even if the van guard reached it, it was quite possible that the victorious enemy might enter it mingled with the fugitives. It was at this movement that Shivaji was saved by an officer called Baji Deshpande, He was a member of the Kayastha Prabhu caste, a community who claim descend

man and

The

latter's position

from

The

Sahasrarjun otherwise known as Kartavirya, In the tale, as I have heard it, runs thus.

Sattya

Sahasrarjun of the thousand arms was In the same kingdom there King the lived sage Jamadagni. To achieve perfect Sanyas he cast from himself all the passions. Among

Yug

of the Haihyas.

Jteave to stay

pleaded urging that without anger man achieved nothing Jamad^gni, however, refused to listen and

them wag Anger ; and before expulsion

it

Anger was cast out from him.

Now

one day King

Sahasrarjun visited the sage's hermitage. He was absent but his wife received the monarch with But Sahasrarjun made her hosfitting respect. an For he carried off despite ill-return. pitality her protests the calf of the milch-cow of the sacred
oblation.

In the subsequent dispute between the

Sage and the King, the former fared badly. Having cast forth Anger he was unable to lose his temper. But all the time smiling beatifically he received 21 wounds in the head and died. To avenge the sage's death Vishnu became incarnate in his son Parashuram and this is his 6th incarnation. For each wound in Jamadagnf s head he cleared the

earth once of the Kshattriyas. Now among Parashurama's victims was Sahasrarjun's son, Ghandrar
sen, King of Ayodhya. Subsequently Parashuram came to know that Chandrasen's wife was pregnant and had fled to the hermitage of the Bishi Dalabhya. Parashuram went thither also and demanded the The sage handed her over with fugitive Queen. Such readiness that in turn Parashuram agreed to do anything Dalabhya asked him. The wily Bishi then gained his object and at once asked as a boon the life of the unborn child, Para&huraaii was bound by his promise but he made the con-

dition that the boy, as it afterwards proved to fee, should be bred a writer and not a warrior and tha$ for the name of Kshattriya he should take that 6$ Kayastha as he had been saved in his mother's kaya or body. Such is the fabled origin of

Kayastha Ihrabhu and their qualities support For they combine to an extraordinary < fable.

penetrating intellect of the Brahman with the devotion and fidelity of the Kshattriya. Baji De$hpande realized his master's and his country's

danger and persuaded Shivaji to press on with the main body to the fort while he with a picked band of Mavalis held a gorge against the pursuers. Shivaji with some reluctance agreed and promised that the cannon of the stronghold would announce

The small band skilfully posted held the gorge for some hours and when at length Baji Beshpande fell covered with wounds the last sound he heard was the salvo proclaiming Shivaji's
his entry.

safe arrival,

which was the fort to which Shivaji fled Grant Duff have identifier it aa Rangna, Local tradition however, assert that it was Vishalgad. And it must be admitte<

Now

The

historians following

that the

case for

Vishalgad
fortress.

is

convincing.

Shi
i

taji about to escape ofeooae the nearer

from Panhala would natural^

And

Vishalgad

under forty miles while Bangna is nearly seventy H5fles away. Again could any, even MavaB Infantry, cover more than sixty miles between midnigfe.1
Further if Bangna gave was the spot which Baji I am informed that there aear enough to #&$ Canaan to reach it. The 0kft JSMnd ta
?

feet into the

Jg

^r^ ^

Kaitoe,

MOB

On the ta lian whidfc

hart

odds. against a hundredfold Moreover, local tradition finds support in two valuable documents.

quoted by Mr. Muzumdar the author of the Prabhu Ratnamala, is according to him of great antiquity. It mentions Vishalgad and not Rangna. The second is the Vishalgad bakhar with an extract of which I have been kindly furnished. It not only mentions Vishalgad but marks Ghod-khind as the scene of the defence. And lastly Mr. Muzumdar while adhering to the view

The

first,

that Rangna was Shivaji's destination observes that the fight occurred near Pandharen Pani. Now the latter place is no where near Rangna but is
six

miles from Vishalgad. My companion and I at any rate remained quite satisfied that Ghod-

khind was the scene

death.
until

of Baji

Deshpande's heroic
foot steps

Leaving

it

we followed Shivajf s
is

we reached
all

probably the stronIt rises like an island one thousand feet gest* out of the Konkan. A narrow causeway to the main land is its only approach. No wonder that Sidi Johar who followed in Fa^HMu wake gave up after a futile cannonade hia task withdrew with his army to Bijapur. Next
Shivaji

Of

Vishalgad. the Deccan forts this

was able to make reprisals. And it was from Vishalgad that he swooped down on Mudhol and killed Baji Ghorpade, who had betrayed 1 father. We did not, however, linger long on ti Summit. The sun was high in the heavens and long ride back remained* After inspecting palace which once sheltered the deliverer of
icfethe Chiefs of

30

V1SHALGAD

by the ghost of a restless we descended the fort and prepared Mahapurush,

once again to pass through the lovelike mazes of the forest. It took us three weary hours. But even the longest journeys and the most tedious
of love affairs have alike

recently been hunted

an end.

Tea awaited

us at Amba. Again the Beaufort car bore us Once more the bullock along the red road. carts shot like falling meteors from off its precipitous sides* And the stars had just begun to twinkle in the deepening violet of heaven as we hooted

back triumphantly into Kolhapur*

*
mislaid it
krit verse

Kartavirya is sfcill honoured by the Hindus. Whenever an article is is the custom to write on a piece of paper the following Sana:

Kartaviryarjuno

nam

Raja bahusahasravaa Tasya smaranmatren Gatamnastamcha labhyate. (By merely remembering the ancient name of Kartavirya of the 1,000 arms the lost thing is recovered, The paper is then placed where the article was mislaid and it reappears.

f The reference is page 72, Volume I. Readers interested in the 'Prabhu caste and acquainted with Marathi could not do better than purchase this book,)

A FORGOTTEN BATTLEFIELD.
As the
sula
fast mail train of the Great Indian Peninflies

along the gradually narrowing plain that divides Poona from Lonavla, it is probable that but few of itg pas&engers observe a tiny roadside station just beyond Talegaon. The mail does not stop there and as it thunders past it is hard to read the name on the notice board. And

Railway

beyond the name there is nothing

attract attention.

else

which would

A little village nestling in the a rough plateau five or six miles wide is not an uncommon sight to a traveller in Western India. Yet name and spot are both worthy of more than a passing glance. For the name of the village is Wadgaon and the rough open ground shut in by the dark cliffs of the Sahyadrig was the scene of one of the greatest disasters that etw befell the English arms in the annals of India. Fully to understand the tangled politics of those times it is necessary to go back to the death of the great Bajirao, who, broken-hearted at the failure of his attempt to destroy the new power in the Deccan created by the Nizam-ul-Mtdlj:, djted On the 28th of April 1740, on the banks of tl*e
centre of

Narbadda.

Of

his three legitimate sons

OB^ died

But the two eldest, Balaji atid both men of few Scruples but great Raghunathrao,
in early youth.
ability,

played foremost parts in the history of

32
Harathas.

FOEGOTTKH BATTLEFIELD

The former succeeded his father as Peshwa and nine years later, on the death of Shahu, became by the forced " sati " of his widow and by

Tarabai's imprisonment of Bam Raja, Shahu's But heir, the absolute master of the empire. as he died, overwhelmed by the news of Panipat

many

years before the events

with which this

article is concerned, it is

unnecessary to refer fur-

The days of Raghunathrao, however, were many and evil, and, while Balaji really founded the dynasty of the Poona Peshwas, no one laboured more effectively to destroy it than his
ther to him.

younger brother* Indeed, during his long life, the, part played by himself and his son after him, resemble in an extraordinary manner, the part enacted in France by the princes of the House of Orleans. In his earlier life the exploits of Raghunathrao recall those of the gallant prince who at Steinkirk, when only fifteen, broke at the head of the Great King's glittering guards through the advancing infantry of William of Orange. With far more claim to generalship and with a heart

Raghunathrao led 50,000 Maratha from Poona to Delhi, defeated Ahmed qavalry Shah Abdali's Afghan governor of Sirhind, and gave to the Peshwas horse the proud spectacle of the Bhagwa Jhenda's golden pennons dancing in triumph above the walls of Lahore.
less bold,
3

no

quarrel, however, with his cousin Sadashivrao about the cost of this expedition far more than

Adopting the tactics towards employed by Nicias deon, Raghunathrao that Sadashivrao should himself lead suggested
destroyed
its

good

results.

OEQOTTEtt BAWLBllEIito

33

the next expedition to Hindustan. The result was what Raghunath both hoped and expected. Sadashivrao, without military talents of any kind, was overwhelmed by the Afghans at Panipat. He and his nephew, the Grown prince Vishwas Rao, perished with 200,000 men on that bleak and bitter plain. Nor was this all. The Peshwa Balaji was, as I have said, unable long to survive the news and
in the midst of this calamitous time the vast weight of the Shaken empire was thrown on the Shoul-

ders of the dead Balaji's second son, then barely seventeen, and known to history as Madhavrao BallaL In the face of disasters due wholly to

Raghunath's own jealous nature, it was yet open to him partially to redeem his conduct by displaying towards his young nephew loyalty and deference. But Raghtmathrao from this time onward committed towards his brother's children a series of crimes and treasons which entirely overshadow those which a few years later brought on Philippe
I(galit6,

the execration of

all, Europe.

Nettled at Madhavrao's, wish to ta&e some arfc assembled the administration, JBaghunathrao an army and defeated Ziis nephew's troops; and but for Madhavrao's chivalrous submission the State would have fallen a prey to the NiaaxnV advancing army. The union of the two relatives
in

was Soon rewarded by the great victory of Hakshasabhawaa wherein Madhavrao So covered him* self with glory that Raghunathrao was no longer able to dispute his Sttprewaey* But when in 1772 the gallant and capable young prince died of con-

34

FORGOTTEK BATTLEFIELD

sumption, Eaghunathrao renewed against his bro-

Madhavrao. Less than a year after Narainrao's succession he was, with the connivance of Raghunathrao and at the instigation of his infamous wife Anandibai, murdered in cold blood by the officers of the palace
guard.
It is satisfactory to note that this crime
its

ther Narainrao the plot which the talents and character of

had been

foiled

by

author nothing but misery. For shortly after Narainrao's murder his widow gave birth to a son, called Madhavrao, after his uncle, thus again interposing a direct heir between Eaghunathrao and the PeshwaL Having murdered his

brought on

king, Eaghunathrao's next step

was to betray

his

By sedulously Spreading falge reports country. he convinced the English Government of Bombay
that

Madhavrao was a spurious

child,

and by

offering the cession of a large part of Gujarat he obtained their armed assistance. On the 18th May, 1775, Colonel Keating with a small mixed

force of English and sepoys won, near the banks of the Mahi, the decisive victory of Arass* Some Seven months previous to this action, however,

the Government of Bengal had assumed the supreme control of our Indian possessions, and as the

Bombay Government had

carried

on

this

war

without the authority of the Bengal Council, the latter ended it as Soon as possible by the treaty
of

own

Purandhar and again left Eaghunathrao to his devices. La the interpretation of this treaty

occurred. Had the P^hwas and the Government Bombay approached the subject with a little good will, they would, no doubt, have dis*
difficulties

FOEGOTTBK BATTLEETOLD

85

appeared. But the former were insolently elated and the latter deeply mortified at the action of Bengal. And the intrigues of a Rrench adventurer, St. Lubin, induced the Bombay Council, in

Warren Hastings' express orders, once again to attempt by armed intervention the elevation of Raghunathrao to the throne of Poona.
spite

of

And

this closes the introduction to

my

story.

The expedition which was so disastrously to end at Wadgaon reached, on the 23rd December, 1778, Khandala without opposition. The force numbered nearly 4,000 men, of whom 591 were Europeans. They were within two marches of Poona, and had the army advanced with ordinary speed the capital could not have offered any serious resistance. The procedure which the officer com,

manding, Colonel Egerton, adopted was quite

differ-

He divided his force into three bodies who, ent. " to use Grant Duff's words, advanced alternately rate of at the about three-quarters of a mile daily, the march rarely exceeding two miles and the
one division always occuping the ground whiph th& other had quitted/' Eleven days later tow the Colonel still at Karlee, eight miles from the top
of the ghats, and neither Nana Fadnavis, the regent, nor Mahadji Shinde, the first soldier in the State, were the men to waste time* A force und,er the Maratha General Panse advanced with 9,000 men to harass and detain the British fotce until the bulk of the forces could arrive. On the, 9th January, however, the inyaders without much, difficulty reached Talegaon about 20 miles from Thti retreating S^rfathas fired the

J6

FORGOTTEN BATTLEHBLB

*nd a rumour, baseless as is now believed and probably arising only from the burning of TaJegaon, spread that Nana Fadnavis intended similarly It is difficult to .destroy Chinchwad and Poona. should have alarto understand why this rumour med the Committee of senior officers who, from the 6th January, on Colonel Egerton's sickness, had assumed the command. A quick march to Poona would have saved it. But even had this failed no greater blow could have befallen the Maratha arms than their own arson of the capital.
Nevertheless* in spite of the protest of a civilian Mr. Holmes and of the one bright genius the force Captain Hartley, the Committee suddenly determined to retreat secretly to Bombay. Raghunathrao who, until he heard of this resolve had

been indulging in dreams of approaching kingship, hastened to the Spot and in vain harangued the Committee. But the evil fortune of the pretender seemed to paralyse the brains of his allies. For all his crimes, he was probably the ablest leader of men then in India and he knew that a single resolute march would place Poona in his hands.* No arguments moved the Committee and at 11 p.m. on the llth January, the victorious army threw their heavy guns into the lake of Talegaon and began their retreat. They soon learnt that the Maratha troops, although unable to check a hostile
t*4vance, did not lack enterprise in a pursuit. Isolated parties pushed on and seized hills in front
r, Natto, ifce writer of an admirable vernacular life of Mahadj* admits that the Maratha troops of tfcia period ^re worthless. Watte," i fti,a&et& saddle stuffing,

&3^

FORGOTTEN BATTLEFIELD

37

of the English force so as to enfilade it as it passed Bodies of horse plundered the baggage and ei>

gaged the head of the retreating army, and but for the signal skill and bravery of Captain Hartley, the English force would probably have not long survived* But every charge of the Deccan horse

was met and defeated by this gallant soldier's resource and valour. The whole of the 12th January he occupied, in spite of the efforts of the entire Maratha grand army now arrived to dislodge him,
a low rising ground with big unsupported rear guard. And as evening fell he was able to make good his retreat to Wadgaon where the rest of his

comrades had halted. Here he found that the Committee were unwilling to continue the retreat

and had already sent a the enemy. This as with to Mr. Farmer negotiate might have been expected did not discourage the Marathas. And Mahadji Shinde insisted on a complete surrender and on a cession of not only
all

the Company's conquests since the death ol elder Madhavrao but also of the Company's poor In vain Hartley sessions in Broach and Surat. the retreat. to conduct protested, offering himself

And, indeed, under so gallant a leader and with the spirit of the troops and the junior officers still
unbroken, it is possible that the force mig&$ gfcijl have even fought its way to Poona* But tja& courage of the Committee had now So ebbed titat After a Hartley's resolute words roused no echo. feeble demuj that they had no powers to negotiate

made by Sliirid% they consented to evefy demand and i&ey wqre only spared the ignoiioiay of

38
ing

EOBGOTTEN BATTLEJB1ELD

away Raghunathrao's

liberty

by

his

own

as-

tuteness.

For correctly gauging the

situation, he,

shortly after the retreat began, deserted his allies

and threw himself on Shinde's mercy. On the acceptance of the latter's terms, a treaty was drawn up and signed. The Committee were then allowed, as an act of clemency, to withdraw with their

army

to

Bombay.

am

glad to say that their

The and all ignominiously dismissed, and Captain Hartley was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Unfortunately, his promotion was conferred without due consideration, and on the petition of such of his seniors who had not served in the recent campaign, his pay and further promotion were suspended until they had again superseded him. Mortified beyond measure, he resigned the Company's service, but recommended by the Court of the Directors to the King, he was given command
conduct received there a
fitting

punishment.

senior officers of the expedition were one

73rd regiment, rose to the rank of MajorGeneral, and was the animating spirit of the reconquest of the Konkan and of the capture of
of the

Bassein.

Such is the stirring story of the lonely station which the mail trains pass heedlessly by. Nor has its remembrance lingered with the inhabitants
of the quiet village. I sought in vain with their to locate the help rising ground so stubbornly

defended by Hartley, and the spot where the treaty was discussed by Farmer and by Mahadji Shinde.
Bttfc

battle,

retreat,
Att<3,

capitulation
indeed,

all

alike

hftd

forgotten,

when thiwigh the

FORGOTTEN BA1TLBBIBLB

39

mists of a November evening the long purple hills look calmly down on the babul-dotted plain, on the old stronghold of the Dabhades and on the
trees mirrored in the sleeping lake, it is

hard to

picture that they once enjoyed a spectacle unique the Surrender of an English in Western India,

army*

THE BAKHAR OF THE DABHADES.

To many probably
will

of

my readers the word Bakhar

perhaps
it will

be unknown.

to clear the ground

does not
slated

mean

be as well that the wt>rd by explaining a he-goat, as I once heard it tran-

And

by an

enthusiastic but ill-informed Marathi

student. I am unaware of the origin of the term, but it is applied to the family histories of the great Deccan houses and these bakhars formed one of the mines from which Grant Duff took his materials. The bakhar with which this article will deal must have been written not long after the downfall
of the last Bajirao and narrates in simple language the history of a family that for more than a century took a leading part in the affairs of the Maratha Empire. The book a bound manuscript was

kindly lent me by Sirdar Dabhade of Talegaon, and as I read, at first with difficulty and then with some fluency, the old Maratha shrift, I seemed
to see, through the medium of this unpretentious tale, enacted before me all the complex and Striking events that together made up the history of the Empire of the Marathas,

The founder

of the

Dabhade family was one

of Talegaon,

Dabhade,

Mukhadam

who

-obtained service as the personal attendant of

On the latter'a

death Yeshpatil continued

BAKHAE OF THE DABHABES

t

41

o act as the tutor of the two yotmg Princes Sambhaji and 'Rajaram, while his two sons Khanderao and SMvaji served as their pages. In 1689 Sambhaji and in 1690 his son Shahu were captured by Aurangzib. Thereupon the Dabhades were retained solely in the service of Uajaram, and at the council gathered to declare the latter regent, Khanderao represented the family interests. Shortly, however, after

Shahu

s capture,

Rajaram
it

at Panhala

danger

of a

similar fate.

He had

was in grave taken refuge

was suddenly besieged by a detachment of the Moghal army under Zulfikarkhan. But fortunately for their Prince the Dabhade family were with him. At their father's command, Khanderao and Shivaji disguised Rajaram and themselves as grass cutters and so slipped through the Moghal lines. The Prince, whose health was never robust, soon tired and would no doubt have succumbed during the flight had not the two Dabhades if our chronicles can be believed carried him forty miles in a single day. Shivaji, it is true, fell down and died of fatigue, but Khanderao
in that fort

when

triumphantly bore his Prince out of danger.* Needless to say the grateful Prince was not slow to reward hig saviour. Indapuri, Urase, and Dhan-* kan villages had already been granted to the Dabh-

and to these he added, at the birth of his BOB, the patelki and kulkarni rights of the talukas of Junnar, Harichanda, Puna and of the Parganag
ades,
* This feat has been attributed by Grant Duff, VoL I, p. 277, to the Shirks family. And I dare say the honour of saving Rajaram is claimed by several different houses. Since writing this the true origin of the word bakhar has suggested to me. It 9 a corruption of khabar.
ft

42

BAKHAB

Otf

THE DABHADES

of Akola and Maval. And as the quaint deed " If any one were to disturb the possession ran of the Dabhades his act, were he a Hindu, would be deemed as heinous as if he had killed both a cow and a Brahmin at Benares and were he a Musulman as if he had taken an oath on the Kaaba 5 and broken it/ And the value of this substantial gift wag heightened by the title of Sena Khag Khel or commandant of the royal guards. Rajaram died in the summer of 1700 and Aurangzib seven years later. On the latter's death Shahu was released, and naturally wished to enter into possession of his father's kingdom, but Rajaram's
:

widow, Tarabai, had for 7 years enjoyed power and

wag unwilling to give it up. She affected to believe that Shahu was a mere impostor and sent Khanderao Dabhade who had been his early playmate to test him. No doubt the lady thought that Dabhade would, as a prudent man, decide according to her wishes. But if so she was disappointed. For the gallant Sirdar, after meeting Shahu and carefully examining him, declared him to be the true son of Sambhaji and joined his cause. li was successful and honours rained on the loya] Khanderao. He was confirmed in the possession
Rajaram's grants although as the original deeds lost in the war they might well have been repudiated. And not long after the installation of BaJaji Vishwanath as Peshwa, Khanderao Dabhade was raised to the rank of Senapati or <^mmander-in-Chiet He was now one of the great officers of State and in order to maintain his rank he was granted the Sardeshmukhi rights of
of

had been

BAKHAB

Off

THE BABHADES
of

43

the 104 villages of 'the pargana

duties of his

Banner.

The

were first exercised in the conquest of Gujarat where he, in conjunction with the Nizam, won against the Syads the decisive victory of Balapur (A.D. 1720). He did not, however, long survive the fatigues of this campaign. On account of his old age he asked to be excused from further service and begged that his son Trimbakrao might be at once invested with hid own This was granted earlier title of Sena Khas Khel. and Khanderao returned to Talegaon where he
office

new

shortly afterwards died of gravel.

Balaji Vishwanath

who had always remained

on friendly terms with the Dhabades, had predeceased Khanderao by a few months and a strugbetween their sons which gle was shortly to ensue was alike disastrous to the Dhabades and the kingdom. Trimbakrao had before his father's death made himself complete master of Baroda and Southern Gujarat and when he succeeded to the after the king post of Senapati he was regarded as the most considerable personage in the Deccan. As a Maratha also, he had with him the good wishes of the descendants of Sivaji's comrades and of the Deshasth Brahmins, both of whom had regarded
with dislike the preponderant power of Balaji Vishwanath and the increasing number of GMtpawans in the public offices. In spite of considerable mindful of Balajf s opposition, however, Shahu, after his death the services, gave some months vacant post of Peshwa to Bajirao, his son. It was now generally f elt that the contest between the Dhabfcdes and Bajirao would not long fce

44
delayed.

BAKHAR OF THE DAfeHADES

Nor was public expectation in error. At durbar held after Bajirao's elevation he proposed to king Shahu the conquest of Malwa. died Shripatrao Pureshram, whose father had the about same time as Khanderao Dabhade and
the
first

Balaji Vishwanath, and who had thereby succeeded to the title of Pratinidhi (or the king's image),

was a Yajurvedi DeshaSth and as such a supportHe as the Dhabade's mouthpiece resisted the proposal. He drew a just picer of Trimbakrao.

ture of the disorganisation of the finances, of the disordered state of the Konkan and Gujarat, and

urged with force and truth that the time had come
to consolidate the Maratha conquests. Their independence had been recognised. It was far better that while avoiding all rupture with either Delhi or Hyderabad, they should convert their present possessions into a wealthy and powerful kingdom.
skilfully begged the question. Without touching on matters of administration or finance he dwelt on the great deeds of Sivaji, who with far less resources had opposed the Mogal

Bajirao, however,

Empire in its heyday. He excited the king's cupidity by dwelling on the indolence, the imbecility and above all the wealth of the Mogals, and stimulated his religious zeal by urging him to drive from the sacred soil of India the outcaste and the barbarian. But such a line of reasoning would probably have failed but for the transcendent The commanpersonal qualities of the speaker* stature that reached the low Maratha ding ceiling,
the rich clear voice, the bold, virile features, the dark imperious eyes that forced attention and

BAKHAfe OF $HE DABHADSS

45

the rare felicity of diction* that for centuries has been the peculiar gift of the Konkanastha
all

above

Chitpawan produced an

irresistible

effect.

And

when
fixed

on Shahu his glowing gaze and said, " Maharaja Sahib, if you but listen to my counsel, I shall plant

at the close of a lofty peroration, the minister

your banner in the walls of Attock," the scene that ensued was the most dramatic in history. Regardless of the rigid etiquette of an Eastern Durbar, king Shahu, with blazing eyes, sprang from the " " " to his feet Plant my banner on Attock gadi he half fort," cried, drawing his sword. "By God, you shall plant it on the throne of the
:

Almighty !" t The Dhabade, though beaten in debate by no means abandoned the struggle. He refused with
curtness Bajirao's offer to share in half the Malwa conquests in return for half Gujarat, and in 1731

took the open field with 65,000 1 men. Bajirao thereupon advanced on DabhaL He was fortunate enough to find the Dhabades troops divided* Trimbakrao with part of the army was at Dabhai. His two younger brothers were at a distance of forty miles. The Peshwa's intrigues were also On a plea of watering their fully successful.
9

* This strange admission of Desh sth Brahmins that their language to be perfect must be spoken by a Konkanastha finds a curious parallel in the old Florentine saying that perfect Italian was the language
of Florence as spoken

by a Roman

La

lingua Toscana nella booea

romana*

f The phrase used by the king was the Kinnar Khnd. Grant Duff has translated this as the Himalayas. The term is the equivalent of the celestial regions. And the excited Shahu s meaning, as I take it, was that his armies would conquer Earth first and Heaven afterwards. J Grant Duff
estimates the

number at

35,000.

46
horges
all

BAKHAft OF

DABHADES

the Dhabade cavalry deserted to the enemy. Trimbakrao, however, chained the legs of his elephant to a gun and disputed the battle with the greatest obstinacy. Indeed it is possible that Trimbakrao might have won, had not his own cousin Shingrao Toke treacherously shot him in the temple as he removed his helmet at the close of the day. This decided the struggle. And alof the writer the Bakhar would have us bethough lieve that Trimbakrao's two brothers came up, turned the tide of battle and drove Bajirao to
Satara, where he was only saved by King Shahu's intervention, I am afraid that Grant Dufi's version

that Bajirao was victorious must be accepted On the other hand the victory was probably not so complete as has been alleged, and there may be
their swords before the

truth in the account that the two brothers laid King as if to quit his
service

and were only placated with the utmost

elder

difficulty.

Yeshwantrao was in Trimbakrao's the younger Baburao place and neither suffered at the king's Senakhaskhel, hands any loss because of their rebellion. The new Senakhaskhel soon showed himself worthy of the honour. The Nawab of Surat had levied octroi from an envoy of Shahu, and the Senakhaskhel asked for and obtained leave to avenge the With 368 sowars he proceeded to a camp insult. four miles from the town and there displayed the Nawab's banner, whose followers he and his me;u

The

made Senapati and

declared themselves to be.

At midnight they pro^

deeded to the town gates, which were open because

BAKHAB OF THE BABHADES

of the

47

and without hindrance passed through them, alleging an urgent call from
Kartiksnan
festival,

the

Nawab

himself.

Similarly they penetrated the

inner fort, and capturing the unfortunate ruler, carried him outside the City, where he was compelled to surrender fourteen of his twenty-eight Mahals

and the Chauth of Surat. For this feat Baburao received a gold anklet and the Dhabades a Jaghir worth annually five lakhs as well as the Mokasa
rights over

Karnatik.

Umbare,f Khandesh, Baglan and the In the following years the Dhabades and their high-spirited mother Umabai conquered Ahmedabad, and an agreement sanctioned by Shahu and entered into with Bajirao giving to the Dhabades complete independence from the Peshwa's control restored them in a great measure to their
old position. But in the course of the next ten years there occurred three events disastrous to the fortunes of the family. The gallant Baburao

was poisoned in Khandesh. Pilaji Gaikwad was assassinated at Baroda, and the great Bajirao died on the 28th April, 1740, on the banks of the Narbadda. Pilaji Gaikwad, who had risen from the post of Khanderao's trainer to that of his second-in command had been left by the Dabhades as their Viceroy in Guj sxat. He administered the country with success, and faithfully and regularly paid to his masters at

But his son Talegaon the provincial revenues* the the of Dabhades and the Damaji knowing hostility Peshwas, saw that he might turn it to his own profit.
t A small Umbore/'
village 6 miles North-East of Talegaon,

known

as "Nawalakh

48

BAKHAB OF THE DABHADES

but his Bajirao would not listen, to his proposals, son Balaji had none of his father's scruples. Durschemes ing Shahu's lifetime, it is true, Damajfs and them came to nothing. For the king saw through supported with admirable loyalty the descendants
of his old playmate. But at his death Balaji, by the imprisonment of Shahu's heir 'Ramraja and the forced sati of Shahu's widow, became the master of the kingdom and readily fell in with a proposal to humble his only serious rival the Senapati. He demanded from him the cession of half Gujarat. The Senapati consulted Damaji, who, posing as a

and advised him strongly They joined forces, claiming to be the champions of Raja Ram's widow Tarabai, but on the battlefield of Aland! the Gaikwad deserted his master, who was seized and confined in Poona For the sake of appearances Damaji was prison. also imprisoned, but shortly afterwards released, and he and the Peshwa divided between them Gujarat, while the unfortunate Senapati had to be
friend, scouted the idea

to fight.*

satisfied

half a lakh,

with a promised monthly allowance of which was never paid. Yeshwantrao

of rebellion,

Dhabade, however, had had enough

in 1754 took part in the Peshwa's conquest of Bednore, and in the course of it died on the banks

and

His son Trimbakrao succeeded as Senapati, and was present at Panipat from which, however, he and Damaji Gaikwad both escaped. On the death of Balaji, which occurred almost immediately after the news of that disastrous defeat, Trimbakrao allied himself with Balaji's
of the Krishna.
*,Thia account should be compared with page 62,

BAKHAJt

O3T

THE DABHADES

49

brother Raghunathrao in his attempts to dispossess

But Raghunathrao was by Damaji Gaikwad, who thereupon plotted and all but effected the seizure and imprisonment of his old master's heir. The latter But good fortune in disgust fled to the Nizam. had deserted the lords of Talegaon. Madhavrao
Madhavrao,
also joined
his

nephew.

and 'Raghunathrao were reconciled and together defeated the Nizam at Rakshasbhawan, and Damaji Gaikwad obtained from the Peshwa the possession of the entire Dabhade estates on an undertaking
off Trimbakrao's creditors. This, followed the title of Sena*with of the investiture Damaji by for much too khaskhel, proved poor Trimbakrao, who died of grief at VeruL His old enemy Damaji died not long afterwards, and in the disputed succes-

to

pay

sion the hopes of Laxmibai, Trimbakrao Dhabade'fc widow, rose high. But once again the Gaikwads

were successful. The widow obtained, through the Peshwas* help, a large Jaghir from Govindrao Gaikwad, but only to find that it had already been mortgaged by his brother Fatehsing Gaikwad
to his creditors.

The Dabhades had now ceased

to have any real political importance, and the rest of the family history is more or less a continuous

and rapacious money lenders; was The widow helped to some extent by
struggle with poverty

Phadnavis, who placed her in possession of a of Ra. 50,000* Her adopted son Yeshw&htrab, however, was faced with fresh difficulties. Oeated Senapati by the last Bajtrao, and granted a com
eiderableestate in Ithandesh, he fell into th^ clutches

50

BAKHAB OF THE DABHADES

for himself the remains of the Dabhade estate

by the

following ingenious expedient. The favourite directed the Senapati to raise an army, promising that

the Peshwa would defray the expenses. The army was raised but the Peshwa disclaimed all responDabhade was forced to agree sibility, and the poor to hand over his entire property to Kunjar that the
latter

might pay

off

the arrears of the clamorous

troops.

The Dabhade was now an utter beggar, but

with considerable foresight cultivated the friendship of the English. And eventually the marriage of his son to Daulatrao Shinde's daughter gave YeShwantrao an honoured retreat in Gwalior, The writer of the Bakhar ends with an expression of grim satisfaction that Yeshwantrao lived to seethe English Government overturn the Peshwa s rule and restore to the throne the heir of the immortal Bhosle
9

who had first befriended

the

Mukadam of

Talegaon.

Nor were joyful feelings the only gain of YeshwantThe English whose society he had courted rao. testored him to Talegaon and to the property from which Kunjar had cheated him. And to-day within the old fort wall, which overlooks the trains and the motors that join Poona to Bombay, there lives a gallant sportsman and loyal gentleman, the first class Sirdar Khanderao Dabhade of Talegaon, By
have been permitted to make this story public and his many friends will, I know, unite with me in the wish that one day or other his line may restore the ancient glories of a house which once ruled as all but sovereign Princes ed^bad, Khandesh and the MawaJ,
his courtesy I

THE BAKHAR OF PILAJI GAIKWAD.

I think that it may be said with fairness that there are at least three articles of belief commonly accepat any rate, the great majority These articles are that (1) the Indian lion is a small and maneless coward ; that (2) the Gaikwad of Baroda means the cowherd of Baroda; that (3) there is such a person as a Maratha Brahmin. Nor are eminent sponsors lacking. For Macaulay in his essay on Warren Hastings has supported article No. 2. While article No. 3 derives authority from no less a writer than the great Grant Duff. Nevertheless in spite of such illustrious
ted, if not by all, of Anglo-Indians.

by

god-parents, the said three articles of belief must, I am afraid, be condemned as heretical. The Indian lion is a fierce hirsute beast similar in size and ap-

pearance to his Somaliland cousin. There is no such, word in Marathi language as Gaikwad meaning <c cowherd." And there never was and there never will be such a person as a Maratha Brahmin**
The Principal castes of Brahmins to be found in the Deccan are Bigvedi Deshasths, Yajurvedi Deshasths, and Kardaa. Besides these there is a large number of Chitpawans or Konkanasths who have immigrated from the Konkan. A Maratha means generally a Kunbi, but it is often restricted to those Kunbi families who claim to have Rajput descent. The term, a Maratha Brahmin is therefore a contradiction in terms. Of course, Grant Dufl knew this and his mistake was
merely & concession to popular Anglo-Indian usage. [Since writing this I have learnt from Mr. Karandikar of Satara, that the phrase is borrowed from Madras* where Marathi speaking Brahmins are stylad Magatha Brahmins. Thephraaeis, however , tmkno^n, la
*

PooaaJ

52

BAXHAR OF

PILAJI

GAIKWAD

Now if the word Gaikwad does not mean "cowherd" what then does it mean ? It is made up of two " " " words Gai a cow and Kavad a Small door ." Gaikwad therefore means cow door. And of the Story of the name as told me by a Baroda oificial
:

is

this.

One Nandaji, the

great grandfather of

of Bher for tin the Gaikwad, Pawan Mawal. A Musalman butcher one day drove past the fort gates a quantity of cows, intending at the end of his journey to convert them into beef. Nandaji, like a virtuous Hindu, rushed out and rescued the cows which ran for shelter through a side door or Kavad in the fort wall. Now this
Pilaji

was in charge

Nandaji had a son Keroji Rao and Keroji Rao had

four sons Damaji, Lingoji, Gujoji and Harji Rao. Pilaji was, however adopted by his uncle Damaji

and

in the

line of the

end became the founder of the famous Maharaja Gaikwads of Baroda.

Now, how did Pilaji Gaikwad begin his career ? have found two different stories. The Dabhade Bakhar records that when the great Khanderao Dabhade was sent by Tarabai to ascertain and report whether Shahu was an imposter or really Shambhu's son he took with him as Naik of his jasuds or messengers, one Pilaji Gaikwad, and him he sent to tell Tarabai that Shahu was no imposter but the true heir to Sivaji's So
I

empixe*

speedily

Pilaji Bakhar, which a copy was recently furnished me by the itfofl^tesy of the Baroda Government, I find a q (Jiflfefcent story. Pilaji was at first a grodm

did Pilaji go to the queen mother and return to Khanderao that the latter gave Pilaji as a reward the command of 50 horse. In the
of

BAKHAfc

6ff

HLAJl

Dabhade' s household and was put in charge of some forty or fifty mares, which had become too thin to carry Khanderao's sowars. Pilaji, it seems, was an efficient horse trainer and he took the mares with him to the village of Narayanpur in Jawapur pargana where they shortly recovered their condition. Khanderao then gave him 200 or 300 other foundered nags which also recovered health and, strength and Pilaji not only returned the horses but most of the money given to him for their keep. As a reward the Dabhade promoted him to the command of a squadron with which he was to garrison Jawapur. This pargana and the neighbouring districts were then in the hands of the Bandes and the Pawars other officers of the
SenapatL
Pilaji

They

affected to believe that the latter

had made a mistake and refused to hand over to

new possession. To compensate him, the Dabhade gave him two other squadhowever, rons and allowed him to establish himself at Songadh, Soon afterwards Pilaji had his revenge. In the year A*D. 1720 Nizam-ul-Mulk formed the plan of making himself independent in Malwa as he afterwards did at Hyderabad. To effect
his

with the Marath&s IB defeated the Imperial Atmjf decisively at Balapur. Conspicuous among the victors were the troops of Khanderao Dabhade, and di&tmr guished even among those gallant men was !Pilaji
his scheme,
allied himself

he

Gujerat and

As a reward he wag emphatically debe the superior officer of both Bande and clared to Pawar, ai*d promoted to be the Dabhade's Vioeroy ia Gujerat. PU&ji's life for the next few years
Gaikwad.

54
*

BAKHAfc

6tf frlLAJl

GAtKWAD
)

a continual struggle. From the north, of Gujarat the Imperial troops came pouring in anxious to restore the old Mogal sovereignty. From the East pressed the Mzam-ul-Mulk and Pilaji's only
safety lay in dexterous diplomacy. Fortunately he was equal to the occasion. The first battle of

Arass
to

On Pilaji joined himself. battle lending a ready ear to the Nizam's emissaries Pilaji got rid of his ally in this ingenious manner.

The him

I think, serve as a typical Imperial side was led by Ruslam Ali

will,

instance.

Khan and

the day of the

Taking advantage of a momentary success of Rustam Khans' artillery, Pilaji persuaded him to finish the battle by a grand cavalry charge. The guileless Mogal consented and away went the glittering
masses of the Imperial horse. Pilaji, however, 5 detached himself, destroyed his allies guns and then charged with his Maratha lancers into the rear of Rustam All's squadrons. They were utterly defeated and' Rustam Ali stabbed himself to avoid Events, however, which were seriously capture. to affect Gujarat, had been rapidly ripening another quarter. Balaji Vishwanath Peshwa an4 Khanderao Dabhade died in 1720 and 1721, shortly after the victory of Balapur. Between their s6ii# and a rivalry there Trimbakrao smouldered Bajirao which in 1731 flared into civil war., The rival armies met near Dabhai and Trimbakrao was killed and his army routed. In its ranks was He fought like a gallant soldier, Pilaji Gaikwad.
lost his eldest

sonSayajiraoandwas himself severely

did not,

wounded*

He

however,

long

survive.

The emperor taking advantage

of the quarrels df

BAKTTAB OF HLAJI GAIKWAB

55

the Marathas sent Abhai Sing* of Marwad to recover Gujarat, He recovered Baroda and then pretended to negotiate for a partition of the province. While Pilaji listened, the pretended emisstabbed him to the heart. He was carried sary to Saoli in a palki and his body was burnt at Karanjal on the banks of the Nerbadda, In estimating his character no great task confronts us. He was a gallant soldier and faithful servant, who, if he was treacherous in his master's interest's disdained to be so in his own. His eldest surviving son and successor Damaji presents a harder If the writer of the Dhabade Bakhar be betask. lieved there is scarcely a human vice of which he was not the possessor nor any baseness of which he was not capable. He was the fiend incarnate, the Mephistopheles to use thei essayist's phrase But when we of the cruel sneer and iron eye. turn to the Gaikwad Bakhar, we can scarcely believe our senses so great has been the transformation. The double-dyed villain has been coipL* Satan has resumed his old pletely whitewashed. place in the forefront of the Archangels. So fat from Damaji being stained by any blot of tre^ctdty his was the noble character which suffered l,cmg years of imprisonment sooner then desert his master. Yet, I think, that we shall not be far wrong if we adopt the maxim of the publican in Silas a&d judge that the truth lies somewhere the two. Damaji seems, to have been a bold,
aspiring, unscrupulous
*

man, whose keen

I think this must be

The Bakhar mentions Dokaleing as the author of the a mistake and I have followed Grant Dufi.

56

BAKEAE OF

PILAJI GAIKWAI)

to thrive admirably suited to the times, enabled of the a Frenchman been Had he exceedingly.
early years of the 19th century, he would in all probability have risen to be a marshal of the empire

Mm

be Duke of Warsaw or King of Portugal with Murat have deserted the struggling Titan when his throne began to totter, and would with Bernadotte have avoided the grievous error of returning to his old allegiance with the violets in the spring. Had Damaji been an Italian of the cinque cento, he would have shot, stabbed and poior even to

He would

soned himself into the overlordship of Seina or Verona and would have proved a serious rival to
Pandolfo Petrucci and the Visconti of Milan. He would have obtained a place in the portrait gallery of II Principe; and the great secretary would have drawn his picture with the same rare skill and admiring awe with which he limned the features

and Castruccio Castracani. The first enemies whom Damaji had to meet were the Bandes and the Pawars who had long resented their subordination to the Gaikwad. Damaji, however, completely defeated them. Pawar was taken and beheaded and Bande was forced to flee from Gujarat. The next ten years seem to In Samvat frave been spent in incessant conflict. 1800 (A. D. 1744) Babuji Nait of Baramati surprised Soogad and burnt it with all the Gaikwad's stores and treasure. And in the following year* Wala
of Cesare Borgia
* I have not been
Bfc&uji

able to find

why Babuji Naik attacked Dan*aji

Moro Pant and descended from a
marriage with

waa the patron

of the poet

B&toin contractor to Aurangzib. He was connected by the <*&wa and may have acted at his secret instigation*

BAKHAB OF HLAJI GAIKWAD

57

Shah a renegade prince of Devgadh rose against the Maratha Government, Everything, however, ended in Damaji' s favour. Babuji Naik was driven from the province, Wala Shah became a dependant on the bounty of the Nizam while jDamaji was invested with the title of Shamsher Bahadur* by Yeshwantrao Dabhade, who had succeeded to his father
Trimbakrao's honours. In 1750, however, there occurred events which altered the whole destiny Shahu died and on his of the Maratha empire. death Balaji Bajirao's son seized control of the Tarabai, Shahu's aunt, reentire administration.

and was joined by Damaji Gaikwad and Yeshwantrao Dabhade who defeated the Peshwa's troops on the banks of the Krishna. The Peshwa, however, treated with Damaji, entrapped him into his camp and then imprisoned both him and Dabhade, the former at Sinhgad and the latter at LohgadL But here the authors of the two Bakhars diverge has alleged that widely. The Dabhade Bakhar to be imprihimself allowed Damaji voluntarily soned in order to escape the odium of his treachery. The Gaikwad historian would have us believe that
belled

Damaji, treacherously seized, endured his prison The for many years rather than betray his master. to had intended truth seems to be that Damaji

was treacherously made to disgorge be he seized by him that might however of Ke&b~ Gujarat. The gallant resistance and relative regent in Gujarat arji Gaikwad, Damaji's
desert to the Peshwa's side, but

made the Pefchwa

Damaji

decide to release his prisoner. at Dabhade's expense the title of received

investiture ol thia title
is

very

53

BAKHAB OF

PILAJI

GAIKWAB

Senakhaskhel* and half Gujarat The other half was appropriated by Balaji Bajirao. Damaji then returned to his province where he found that Ahmedabad had during his captivity passed into Musulman hands. In 1755, however, Damaji finally annexed it to the Baroda Government, Some years previous to this date an Afghan soldier in the service of Nadir Shah had on the latter' s assassination established himself as king of Herat and in 1747-48 began a series of invasions of India. To meet them the Peshwa's Government sent several expeditions into Northern India and Damaji Gaikwad seems to have been present with most of them until the complete overthrow in 1761 of theMarathas on the field of Panipat. When Vishwasrao, the Peshwa's eldest son, fell mortally wounded, Maiharrao Holkar left the field. Damaji Gaikwad was the next to follow and some weeks later the Maratha sentry on the Baroda watch tower saw a single horseman struggling to reach the city. It was Damaji
himself, the sole survivor of the Gujarat contingent. rest had either fallen in battle or been during the retreat massacred by the peasants. When the

The

magnitude of the Maratha disaster was fully grasped by the neighbouring powers there was heard, to use the expressive simile in Pickwick, an uproar such as that which goes up from the whole menagerie

when the elephant rings the bell for the cold meat. Every ruler, who had a grievance or could imagine one, made a demand on the Peshwa's Government. To make matters worse, Balaji had shortly after
*
title

The Dabhade Bakh*r places the of Senakhaskhel much later*

investiture of

Daman

with the

BAKSAB

Off

2ILAJ1

GA1KWAD

59

Panipat died broken-hearted and his brother Baghunathrao tried to usurp the throne from his nephew Madhavrao, a boy of 16. Uncle and nephew took the field. With the latter was Damaji, but his Skil-

Raghunathrao gave the latter the In the meantime, the Nizam, who had victory. no claim to make, had wisely wasted no time in doing so. He collected an army and advanced on Poona, proposing coolly to resume it as a former part of the Mogal empire. He, however, little knew the hero Spirit that glowed within the boyish breast of the young Peghwa. He mounted an elephant and rode unattended into his uncle's camp. They were reconciled and joined hands to expel the Mogals. A forced march enabled Baghunathrao to come up with the Nizam at Bakshasabhavan* as his army was crossing the Godavari. The Marathas attacked the enemy as they were astride the marched river, but the Maratha cavalry had already 16 miles and the Mogal troops the old comrades of
ful desertion to

the Nizam-ul-mulk, fought desperately in defence of The attack was repulsed, Baghunathrao's his son. the Nizam encavalry scattered everywhere, and the Peshwa'a couraged his troops to press on and that the true empire would be theirs. It was then to light. came nature of Madhavrao's
greatness Distrusted by his uncle he
of a small

had been placed in charge

With

this

body band

of cavalry in the rear of the army. as a nucleus, he reformed as best

he could Such fugitives as passed near him.

'

Just
'

i'

--....

* For an excellent account of this battle I would refer my readers to Peahwa which obtained tka Mr. Thakore's monograph on Madfcavrao 1893* in medal gold writer the Manockji Limji

60

BAKHAB OF

PILAJI

OAIKWAD

as he prepared to charge Malharrao Holkar came up fleeing from the battle. He tried to dissuade

Madhavrao and urged him to seek in Poona safety and a throne. The young prince turned on him like a wounded tiger. "Then it fs true" he said, "that
you left Sadashivrao to die at Panipat ?" Malharrao stung to the quick could but join his prince, and as the Mogal army advanced in the disorder of success, Madhavrao's cavalry burst on them stabbing,

Few troops sabring, trampling down all resistance. then in India could have stood that furious onset
and the Mogal army, that but a moment before had had victory in their grasp, were hurled headlong into the Godavari. Twenty-one guns and 15 elephants were captured on the field of battle, and Naldurg fort and territory yielding 82 lakhs of rupees were paid by the Nizam as the price of peace. Damaji had fought at Eakshasabhavan and shared in the victory, but Madhavrao had not forgotten his desertion to Raghunathrao, and when in 1768 the latter rebelled, Damaji, who had again joined him, was fined 23 lakhs, compelled to support 3,000 troops in the Peshwa'g private service and pay a future tribute of nearly 7 lakhs a year. Madhavrao was now supreme lord of Western India, and it is not likely that Damaji, who died* the same year, foresaw that in 50 years the Peshwa's line would be extinct, and his own still seated firmly on the throne
of Baroda*

As the bafchar ends with the death of Damaji,

not propose to drag

do

my
of

readers through the endless

He died from the resxilt

an accident while makiiig a chemical

Vide Elliot** Balers of Baroda, p. 56,

Off

PILATE

&AIKWAD

struggles

intrigues of his graceless sons. It will suffice to say that after passing in turn through

and

the hands of Sayajirao, Fatehsing and Manaji, the succession reverted to Damaji's eldest son Govindrao. Through Govint&ao's son, Sayajirao, the line

was continued to Malharrao, Damajfs great grandson The English Governin 1875. Khanderao Gaikwhom ment looking for an heir, wad's widow might adopt, fixed on Gopalrao, then a little boy, and the direct descendant of Prataprao, the youngest son of Pilaji Gaikwad. As is usual at a Hindu adoption, the boy's name was changed, and under the title of Sayajirao, he now controls the If my readers have destinies of the Baroda State.

who was deposed

borne with

me

so far, I trust, they will permit to

make them one more

suggestion. Should they have a few day's spare time, and are anxious to see how an Indian State can be guided by Indian rulers, let them go to Baroda. They will see what are sometimes deemed counsels of perfection brought to realisation. They will see Indian judges perfectly ac*

quainted with English law and with three languages coverdispensing justice. They will seo, the State
housies ing itself with a net work of light railways, provided by the State for its officials, vast public

gardens and public bands kept up by the State for the amusement of its subjects. I do not say that faults will wholly escape the visitor's notice, but I greatly err if they do not go away deeply impressed with the talents and efficiency of the group of able men, who surround the ruler in whose veins there
flows
still

the blood of Pilaji Damaji Gaikwad,

TO MAHULI BY MOTOR.
Duty had brought me to Satara, and three miles from the City and barely two from the Cantonment, lay the little double village of Mahuli Vasti and MahuK Kshetra, As I was anxious thoroughly to explore the spot, I invoked the assistance of a learned Indian friend. By a happy chance he had at the time staying with him a party one of whom possessed a motor car. This was promptly commandeered and the same afternoon was fixed for
our voyage of discovery. It happened that of our party 3 were acquainted with Gujarati, 4 with English, all 5 with Marathi. This, therefore, we adopted as the language of conversation and amid a flood of Deccani plentifully interspersed with " Motorisms," the big car started gaily. English Behind us frowned the fort of Azimtara. To the right was the English cemetery, on our left flashed by a Hindu temple surrounded by Dipmalas o

lamp stands resembling nothing so much in Bhajte as the monkey puzzles that grow to delight children in the 'Regent's Park and in the Jardin des Planter
In front of us towered sugar loaf-shaped Jaranda on whose summit nestles in a little wood a sm&tt, but picturesque temple to Maruti*. It is said that some 20 years ago there lived in it a sadhu <*
.

* Maruti

is

another name for

Hannuman

the monkey god,

Shri

what suoailaiT story is told of J3hivaji'a preceptor

Ramdas.

MAHTTLI BY

MOTOR

63

such srapassing sanctity that eventually growing a tail he became an avatar of the godhead tantum Let us only hope that on translation religio potuit. to a higher sphere his tail did not drop off with the cold like Brer Rabbit's did in the iced water. It does not take long for a motor car to devour two miles and soon we reached the empty bed of the Krishna river wherein a stranded ferry boat made it possible, though still hard, to realize that in a month or two the pebbly channel would be one mass of roaring yellow water striving to find In front of us its way to the far off Bay of Bengal. a notice forbidding strictly the exciting sport of monkey shooting made it clear to us that we were in the territory of the Pant Pratinidhi of Aundh. The Pratinidhi* whose title was created in the time of Rajar am and whose ancestor acted as the Dabhade's mouth piece in his struggle with Bajirao acquired this tiny domain in the following way.

Once on the occasion of an eclipse King Shahu had gone from Satara to bathe in the Krishna river. With him was his favourite minister Shrinivagraof, the then Pratinidhi, who wag widely famed for his Carried away by the ferholiness and charities. vour inspired by his religious act King Shahu sought in vain on the deserted bank of the Krishna for a pious Brahmin on whom to bestow a gift* Learning his wish Shrinivasrao dexterously profited by it. " "I am," he said, both pious and a Brahmin, make me the gift." King Shahu took the hint and
* Prilhad, the first Pratinidhi (the king's mirror) was the son of Niraji Bivaji's Nyayadhiah Pradhan or Lord Chief Justice. f Shraivftsrao was afeo catted Shtipatrao.

64

MAHTTII

BY MOTOR

bestowed on him the 120 bigas on which now stand the temples of VastiMahuli*. In fairness, however, to Shrinivasrao it must be said that he derived no personal gain from the grant. For, in- the same
year, A. D., 1720 he gave it for perpetual enjoyment to one Anant Bhat bin Aman Bhat Galande, a man who, as the sanad tells us, was profoundly versed in the Vedas. A hardly less quaint tale gives the
origin of

Kshetra Mahuli, the

little village

on the

Krishna's eastern bank. It dates from the old Adilshahi dynasty and Shivaji gave to its Brahmins a
small, and in their opinion, a too small allowance. They in the end, however, found a solution. When

and Shambhu was murdered, the Brahmins of Kshetra MahuH went to find the fugitive Bajaram at Chindi. There they blest him and told him to be of good heart, for in the end Shivajfs empire would return to the Marathas. Touched with their devotion he gave them instead of their meagre grant the whole inam rights which they still enjoy over Kshetra Mahuli As we stood and looked across the river I learnt that the temple to our right had been in 1874 built
Shivaji died

by Sagunabai, the widow

Satara, Shahji, otherwise

of the last ruling king

of

as Apasaheb. She was the adoptive mother of the Sardar who, had other councils prevailed with Lord Dalhousie, would

known

have been Maharaja Chatrapati, and who died not long ago at Satara and was like his forerunners burnt
at Mahuli.
far

Just in front of us, however, stood a

more

interesting

monument.

It

was that erected

* The terms of this sanad, as indeed many of the other facto about Malwli we*e given me by my learned friend Mr, Paraanis of Satara.

MAHtTtt

fetf

MOl-Oft

68

by King Shahu to his favourite hound* The dog's name was Khandya, and the tale runs that by barking he attracted the king's attention to a tiger about to spring on him. Another version is that the dog itself flew at a charging panther, and so allowed
his master time to escape. The king's gratitude passed into madness. He gave the dog a Seat in

durbar, a sanad as a jaghirdar, and kept up on its behalf a complete palki establishment. On its death, its body was solemnly cremated, and its asti or charred bones committed to the earth on the
of the sacred river. Over them was erected a monument Surmounted by a red stone image, which has lasted for over 150 years. The dog's image is unfortunately much defaced, but a small sculpture at the side still preserves for our eyes the artist's conception. For there a marvellous hound prances through the ages wonderful, awe-inspiring, tigerSurely no dog save that of Odysseus ever tearing. had a more enduring memorial. A few steps brought us into the very centre of the little village. On our left, rose the great temple of Vishveshwar erected at a cost of ten lakhs by Shrinivasrao, the village founder. At its entrance a mighty basalt bull Seems to struggle through the river sands, and within ii& vestibule there hangs a bronze bell which, t&kei* from a Portuguese church near Bassein, once swung to call the godly to worship and sinners to repeii* tance, and now is tolled instead to rouse the drowsy god and scare the all too wakeful demons*, Just

banks

*
**

1^ idea

is

expressed in the following Sanskrit sloka :--

Agmanarthajj ta devanam gemanartham tu rakahzam koru gante rftvam nad." O Boil, make a awset aound to call the gods and disperse t&e demons.

66
opposite
is

MAHIILI

BY MOTOR

a temple built on a different model* It was built by ShrinivaSrao's widow in honour of her gallant husband, and designed, as it is, in the northern style, bears witness unwittingly to the

onward march of the Maratha armies. In front of us and across the Krishna rose the splendid flight
built

of 35 Steps leading to the temple of Eameshwar by Parashuram Angal of Dehgaon. At its

side

and

as

if

clinging to the

main

Staircase

may be

seen another flight of steps which start firmly from the river bed, and then unfinished lose themselves in the sands of the bank above. The flight was

begun and left unfinished by Bajirao Raghunathrao, the last of the Poona Peshwas, and to the curious
affords a striking simile to his own career. This prince, destined to such strange vicissitudes, was born at

Dhar

in

December

A,D. 1775.

When

he was but 9

years old, his father, weary of war and failures, and disgusted with the treaty of Salbai,f died at Kopar-

gaon on the banks

of the Godavery. For the next eleven years Bajirao lived with his mother, but on her death in 1793 the all powerful regent Nana

Phadnavis seized her sons and incarcerated them as State prisoners. In the meantime, the young Peshwa

Madhavrao, Bajirao's

first

had reached the age

of 21,

removed, but him, too, the regent

cousin, once

The two relatives to until Nana Phadnavis discovered began correspond their secret, and so bitter were his reproaches that the
young Peshwa goaded to madness, threw himself Irom his palace terrace into the court-yard below.
Thfe
tA
ttpf oreseen
village

detained in jealous seclusion.

event gave the throne to Bajirao. "~ * *"*"

'

near Gw^lior.

MAHULI BY MOTOE

67

Everything Seemed to point to a prosperous reign. His early childhood had been passed among the English with whom his father had so often been allied. Nature, too, had lavished on him her gifts* Even the tall envoys of Britain were struck by his
bearing and

commanding

stature,

and

in

Maratha

eyes, no surer archer not bolder horseman shot or

rode in the plains of Gangathadi. Nor was his And the legs finely formed than his body. Pandits were alike amazed and confounded by the

mind

erudition of their princely student. Yet just as at the christening of the Regent d'Orleans some

wicked uninvited fairy came and spoilt all his gifts, so, too, the strength and learning of Bajirao availed him nothing. Vacillating and treacherous he broke every treaty that he made either with the English or with his Maratha confederates. Afraid to seize Shinde in open Durbar, he yet gloated over the screams of Vithoji Holkar as he was dragged by the Peshwa's orders through the Poona streets at the foot of an elephant. This last act brought on him the wrath of Yeshwantrao Holkar who drove him away from his kingdom, and forced him to sign

by the

treaty of Bassein his independence in return Detected in intrigues against for English support. his protectors he was driven on the 8th May, 1817^
to
It

make

further concessions
this
it

by the treaty of Poona,

Bajirao began the

was about

time that

was when he w^s most building of the steps, and deeply involved in the schemes which eventually led to the battle of Kirkee that he had while s*$i>ding on them in July of the same year, an interview with the British, Agent Sir John Malcolm, Tito

MABUIJ BY MOTOB
good advice which Bajirao professed hypocritically to accept. Had the steps been animate they would have seconded Malcolm for their completion depended on the following of his counsel. But warnings and experience were alike wasted on the Peshwa. Only a few months later, the Resident was attacked and insulted. Kirkee, Koregaon and Ashta followed. The steps were never completed. And the empire of thePeshwas passed away from
latter lavished

the kingdoms of the earth. then passed on to the bed of the river wherein two Shivlingas lying side by side mark the spot where King Shahu's remains were committed to the earth. The reason why there are two instead of

among

We

is somewhat quaint. It happened that shortly after Shahu's cremation his Shivlinga was washed away. Another was built there in its stead. But

one

lady that marks the sati of Shahu's widow, Sakvarbai, She was a daughter of the turbulent house of
Shirke,

Shivlinga was found lying buried in the sands, it was unearthed and placed by the side of its substitute. Just below the Shivlingas is a small statue of an Indian
first

when some years later the

and during her husband's declining years she had hoped after his death to continue her influence by the adoption of an infant son. But she had to reckon
with the malice of Tarabai, the widow of Rajaram, Shahu's uncle. She gave out that Ram Raja, son of Shivaji II, and nephew of Shahu, still survived fei concealment Furious at what she deemed to imposture Sakvarbai intrigued with
l

to Secttte her position.

DamAji But there waa yet

$*yeriB the game, Balaji Bajirao Peshwa,

MAEULI BY MOTOR

69

He knew of both the ladies'

to his

designs and turned

them

own profit.

Although during Shahu*s last ill-

an agony of indecision yet when the king ceased to breathe he acted with the promptitude of Frederick. Early on the morning of Shahu's death the clatter of a thousand horse woke
ness, Balaji lingered in

the sleeping Satara streets.

Raja and Sakvarbai were alike seized. By a clever stratagem Tarabai was herself made the guardian of Ram Raja and was induced to declare that Sakvarbai must become a sati. Tor the latter there was no
Tarabai,
escape* Previous to Shahu's death she had, in order to mask her plot, declared that she would burn

Ram

with her husband. And the Peshwa called to his aid not only Tarabai but Sakvarbai's brother, Kuvarji Shirke, who, bribed by Balaji, threatened to
drag her by force to the pyre. Sakvarbai, maddened by disappointment and deserted by her relatives, agreed to join her husband. She met her fate lik# a high born Maratha lady, and just before the end had the fortitude to give Balaji her jewelled eamjigp and her blessing.* As the sun was setting we expressed a wish! to see the evening ceremoniesf held over Shahu's SMThe pujaris looked doubtfully at me, font* lingas. assured that I wag no scoffer, consented. Two ot
(

* The ornament given by her was Kudkvachi Jodi, a pair of ear " ornaments containing 4 pearls and 2 rubies. Her words were aukfaane
** Tftivft Qp.tnTVH ft! Q--

f There are 16 kinds of pujas in the Hindu religion (Shodsfcopachari- They are : av&han, invoking; asan, giving to drink; enan, bathing; vastra, dressing; yadnopavit, thread investiture; gandh, anointing with saa4al flour; pusph, crowning with flowers; dimp, incense; dip, lamp lighting; naivttdhya, food offering ; dakshina, money gilt j ptadafcehina, going

round the idol ; mantrapoebp, soattering

of flowers.

70

MAHtfLI

BY MOTOR

three men carrying morchels or peacock feather fans with, silver handles approached the grave and

waved the insignia of royalty over the dead King's Then a horn-blower blew a wild blast to rouse his and Sakvarbai's deeping spirits* They were now deemed to be awake and a Brahmin knelt and carefully bathed the Shivlingas and the dead queen's image. Again the morchels waved and again the echoes work to the wild horn's music. Then both Shivlingas and statuette were carefully dried. Halud or yellow turmeric lines were made
ashes.

on the Shivlingas

arid across Sakvarbai's breast.

tila or the red mark worn by the wife. For by her death she had avoided the Shame of widowhood. The spirits

And on her forehead was placed a kanku

were now fully dressed for their meal and tandftl or uncooked rice was scattered for their benefit. And once again the morchels waved and the horn blared in their honour. Then an udbati or incense stick was kindled and in a niranjan or metal dish filled with ghee a wick was lit. The incense smoke filled the whole air in spite of the ceaseless waving
of the morchels and then by a strange illusion caused, no doubt, by the violet shades of the twilight, the acrid Scent of the incense and the whole strange barbaric scene, the smoke assumed to my eyes a rough likeness to a Maratha warrior. A scowl, too, seemed to darken Sakvarbai's face, and I felt like the sleeper in the Gulistan who dreamt one night that he saw, blazing with anger, the eyes of Mahmtid
tihe

of

Ms

Ghaznivido searching in vain for the fragments empire. 0&e last terrific horn blast changed
incense

gmoke blew away,

The

Btf

M0*0ft

$1

pujaris rang a bell, scattered flowers and then knelt in reverence by the shrine. friends salaamed

My

and I, half inv oluntarily, lifted my hat to the memory of so much greatness and of so much glory. So intense had been the interest of the scene that it was almost with a sigh of relief that I turned back where the motor stood. Once again it whirled us past the Hindu temple and the Christian graveyard, and at my request it left me at the door of the club house. As I entered it to the sound of English voices I looked at my watch. The car had taken In 300 seconds five minutes to come from Mahuli. it had traversed 150 years.

THE FORT AT SHOLAPUR.

Every cold weather the outward-bound steamers bring thei^ loads of eager sight-seers, who on landing in Bombay, bifurcate as a rule into two divisions. The larger band rushes north to see the Taj and Agra Fort, the monument at Gawnpore and the Delhi ridge, the smaller of the two turns southward towards Bijapur and thence towards the Gauvery fall and the great temples of Madras. Off both beaten tracks, however, may be found spots which
lacking the gorgeous architectural wealth of the cities dear to tourists hardly, if at all, yield to them an historical interest. Among these spots is Sholaif

Its old fort dates back beyond human repur. cords. The town and its surrounding districts were the bone of contention over which Nizam Shahi

and Adil Shahi Nizams fought.

dynasties, Peshwas and Hyderabad And in May, 1818, the fort saw

the last fragment of Bajirao's empire disappear, its walls the Mara* tha garrison.

when General Munro drove from

early history of Sholapur is no easy must be sought for within the pages of the JFerishta and not only is the book extremely rate but the author's tale, to use his own quaint of the Deccan valleys, is, u as dark as of love and as winding as the curly looks oaa" The Deccan escaped the eajlier
task.

To study the
It

FOBT AT SEOLAPUR

73

IRamdev, king of Devgad, espoused the last Rajput ruler of Gujarat, Sholapur, like the surrounding country, formed part of the domain of the Yadav
cause of

and

Musulman raids that overthrew Delhi and Hindustafc,

until

Karan Ghelo, the

princes!

Annexed by the Afghan emperor Alauddin Khilji the Deccan supported Hasan Gango Bahmani in his revolt against Delhi. With the unity of conception which the Musulmans first introduced into
Indian politics, this able tyrant formed into one vast kingdom all the imperial provinces and the petty States south of the Narbadda. But the administration of his descendants, resting wholly, as it did, upon local support, became eventually imbued with Hindu centrifugal ideas. One minisNizam-ul-mulk, made Ahmednagar an independent kingdom. A Turkish adventurer* whose career exceeds in romance any of the tales told by Shaharazade founded the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur. A converted Canarese became monarch of Berar. Another Turk seized the throne of Bidar. And Ibrahim Kutub Shah, a Persian guardsman: of the last Bahmani king, created, amid the roaring drumsf and the regal state of his native country, the still remembered Saltanat of Golconda,
ter,

Sholapur and its eleven districts formed a debatable tract between the frontiers of Bijapur and
* Adil Shah was the son of Amurath EC, Sultan of Turkey. He escaped almost by a miracle the massacre which destroyed all the male members

He was sold in captivity and after being successively a a sepoy, a general and a minister became king of Bijapur and lost, retook and finally lost again Goa to the Portuguese. f This is said to be the first state occasion on which kettle drums were
of his family.
slave,

used in India,

They

are

now

indispensable.

10

74

tfOBT

AT SHOLAFCTR
half districts

Ahmednagar. Five and a 1511 annexed to Bijapur Khan. And eventually a been acquiesced in by both
tely, in

were in

by the regent Kamal

partition might

have

kingdoms.

Unfortunaof Bijapur of the two

1524, when the princess Mariam

was, in order to cement the alliance kingdoms against Vijayanagar, married to the Ahmednagar king her ; dowry was declared to be

Sholapur and the

districts.

Bijapuri

half

of

the

eleven

Now
fruitful

the
will

dowries of
of

source

princesses have been a Readers of political trouble.

remember the difficulties that beset Dumas Henry IV when attempting to recover the dowry of Margaret of Valois and just as le roi vert et galant was obliged to storm Cahors, so the king of Ahmednagar was faced with the alternative of a penniless
queen or a war with Bijapur. He chose the latter ; but so far from gaining Sholapur, he lost two battles and was obliged, in the peace of 1542, to renounce all claims to it. But he was persevering by nature and in 1551 through an alliance with the Hindus of Vijayanagar an alliance which shocked the faithful as much as Francis I's treaty with the Ottoman Turks shocked Christendom he retook Sholapur and shortly afterwards died happy. The quarrel was, however, by no means over. Bijapur

had now its grievance ; for that administration repudiated the terms of the Princess Mariam's dowry and
its

young Prince Ali Adil Shah sought

in turn Vija*

aid to recover the lost province. du rukr Bainraj received the overtures

The

ave to the young

then his guest, great offence.* And so it fell out that instead of making an alliance with the Hindu State, Ali Adil Shah organised against it a great Mussalman league and destroyed it. But what caused the fall of Vijayanagar decided finally the ownership of Sholapur. For to cement the holy alliance against the infidel Ali Adil Shah married a Nizam Shahi Princess and with her came back
to Bijapur, Sholapur and its five and a half districts. But she has a greater claim on history than the settlement of the Sholapur quarrel. For she was the renowned Chand Bibi of Ahmednagar. In after years she made herself regent of her ancestral State,

Deccan houses, strove, and for a time successfully, to stem the torrent of Mogal invasion. To the end unconquered, she died mur-

and uniting the

rival

dered by her own troops. During her lifetime she won from the chivalrous enemy the title of Chand Sultana. And 350 years after her death Meadows himself stationed at Sholapur, wrote the
Taylor,
tale of her life

and

called

it

the Story of a Noble

Queen.
Bijapur, Sholapur went to the it to Shahti* Mogal conquerors. Prince Azam gave and great first the who divided its revenues with Nizam. By the battle of Kharda, Nana Phadnavl^

After the

fall of

leave of hjs noble offence given was that Ramraj when taking far with him as Musulman etiquette more exacting so ride not did guest thn Hxadu etiquette more exacting than Hindu etiquette demanded, the translator #; From thfe incident and its ensuing consequence Briggs, of studying the custom* the on moralises importance tferishta, sagely s head was out off by fcfe o* the people who live round us. Ramraj' was tOL recently to be seen *6 BSJ and embalmed waa conquerors, on high days and holidays and used to be carried; row! *** pole
*

The

ft

is.

76

FOBT AT SEOLAPTTR
it

and wide lands besides for his young master, the 2ndMadhavrao. And in 1818, it was to Sholapur that Bajirao IPs army, defeated at Ashta,
all

won

retreated.

On

the 10th May 1818, his

spiritless force

was dispersed never

14th,

to re-assemble, and on the the fort with its garrison, surrendered to

General Munro.

And

so

with this

final flicker,

Sholapur passed out of history. The fort* has nothing in common with the usual Maratha fastness perched upon a cliff and owing less to human than to Nature's hands. The Sholapur fort stands on the open plain, and consists of a square
enclosed by heavy walls and a wide encircling moat. Inside the walls are banquettes for the sharpshooters, and here and there embrasures mark where in old

days the gunners laid their cannon. Jutting out from the walls are several great towers. And of
two, ghastly stories are told.

Jaccha tower, a pregnant

Under one called the woman was buried alive.

When
way.

first

erected

its

foundations repeatedly gave

consulted, and they said that Mahakali or the spirit of time and place was angry. Now Mahakali is honoured both East and West. She is the spirit who Snatches

The Brahmins were

away

from bridegrooms their brides. It is to frighten her that rice id thrown at Christian weddings, and it is to hit her in case she should be peeping in at
* Forts
forts.
2.

are said in the Mahabharata to be of six kinds.

Hill forts,
3,

1.

Desert
6,

Ground

forts.

4.

Mud

forts. 5.

Men

forts,

Jungle
is

forts.

Sholapur, I take

an

unfortified

Jw hoplites.

town like The same idea occurs

would be a ground fort. A man fort Sparta, whose safety rested on the courage of
it,

" Britannia needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep."

in Campbell's lines ;

FOBT

Atf

the carriage window that a slipper is hurled after the vehicle that bears away the married pair. It is in her honour that in England house-warming parties are given, that in France they hang th$ cremaill&re, and that in India they perform the ceremony called Vastushanti. Maha&ali was angry, said the Brahmans. How was she to be appeased ? By the sacrifice of a living pregnant woman, was the The poor widow of a Lingayat Bania was reply. offered by her brother-in-law as the victim. She was buried alive and the tower stands firm to this day. But though the tower moves not the widow's ghost gets at times restless. And to quiet her, the descendants of her brother-in-law, now and ever since Patils of Sholapur, offer on the Varshapratipada, or first day of the new year, oil and cocoanuts, a lugada, (dress) and a choli (bodice) for the woman, and a little dhotar and turban for the tiny child that never saw the day. Of the northern tower* a similar story is told. There, too, the foundations had to be sealed with human blood, and a unmarried, though threadgirt, boy of the family was buried alive beneath them. The money for the boy was a yearly grant of Es. 1$ which more than five centuries afterward^ is still paid by the English Government. At the door of the Mahakali gate ig a rough stone said to be image of the goddess Mahakali herself. In gone by she stood upright and sought all in vain to keep the English from the fort. But when e& the 14th May 1818, Munro's troops marched in to, martial music and with flying banners, she bowfe#
her head

shame, and, as

all

may

see, it dpoopfl

7$

K)RT At SHOLA^Ufc

to this day. To the south of the old fort is a great lake from which at any moment the moat can be In the centre of the lake is a little filled with water.
island joined to the main land by a stone causeway and bearing in its centre a famous temple of Sid-

dheshwar or Shiva

rambling through the fort and hearing its gruesome stories it is a welcome relief to walk along the causeway to the dark cool colonnades beyond. When I last visited it, the lake's surface was gay with lilies, and the wild duck swirled and stooped above its On coming to the temple courtyard, I, waters. as is my wont, gave a slight money offering to the I turned to go, but he begged priest for worship. me and my friends to wait a moment. We did so,

self-created.

After

and as we lingered I saw to the west sharply outlined against the sky where the sun had set, the great Warad mill* With the rear of its thousand wheels and the glare of its furnaces, it seemed to stand for some vision of a new India built up by native energy and capital and guided by western thought;
while the old fort to the north rapidly fading away with the short-lived twilight geemed to stand for
ancient and picturesque India, which before our

eyes is vanishing for ever. Just then, however, the priest returned and presented each of us with

divided cocoanuts containing in each half a few jasmine flowers* This was the pra$dd or return present of the God, and from it we knew that my
hraable offering
walfeetf

wiw

had found favour. And so, we back along the colonnades and the causeway heads erect, fausti atgue felices, for o& us was
Siddheshwar,

th<? blessing of

PARVATI OF THE PESEWA&

Near Poona, and
range, stands a hill with temples and receives its

a spur of the Sinhgad called Parvati It is crowned

itself

due share

of worship.

But

for historical interest it has probably no rival Among its buildings one prince died of a broken

heart, another watched his empire tumble to pieces like a house of cards* An English poet* has sung of its beauties and on its steps an heir to the throne of England nearly met his death. As Parvati is within easy reach of Poona residents and visitors, I have ventured to string together for their benefit a slight account of the famous hill. For to visit it

without some knowledge

uninteresting.

is

both unprofitable and

Like most other celebrated Indian celestial dwellings the present gods were not the earliest to live in Parvati. Before they came the old hill godd&&

was already there. The common tale goes thai; one day Gopikabai, the wife of the 3rd Peshw&; Balaji Bajirao, suffered from a sore heel and waft told that the Devi on Parvati hill was swift to
answer prayers.
well,

Gopikabai promised, if she got to build a temple to Shiva on Parvati's SUKH

mit.

She did

so,

and

Balaji Bajirao fulfilled hep

fcion

* Sir Edwin Arnold, by a strange inaccuracy, describes a conversa^ at PfT7ati between hitnsdlf, a priest and a dancing girL There are, never were any. no danc&sg girl* at Parvati

wd

80
promise*
^different.

PRVATI OF THE PESHWAS

The
tale told in the Peshwas'

Bakhar

is

For there the founding of Parvati is ascribed to Balaji Bajirao's wish to honour king Shahu to whose memory the Shivaite temple was
It is probable, however, that this latter story really describes the origin of Vishnu's temple and the former that of Shiva's. In either event

erected.

the pious founder of Parvati was the 3rd Peshwa and it is related in the Peshwa Bakhar that he sent the Holkar and Shinde Jaghirdars to extort for her temples the sacred stones of the Gandaki river

from the Maharaja of Nepal*. The hill is usually approached by the Shankarshet 'Road, which winds past the tombs of unknown French officers once in the Maratha service, past the Deccan Club and a shrine to Bhairoba, himself like Parvati's Devi, one of the earlier deities- Then, now an open ugly it curves round Parvati lake sheet of water which a beautiful but once hollow the sanitary engineers, alas condemned* The lake, like the Parvati temples, was built by Balaji Bajirao, and the tale runs that enraged with the slow building of the dam he himself descended from his elephant and began carrying stones to the masons. At once courtiers and soldiers sprang from their
!

The

following idola were placed in the Parvati

1 Shri
1

Temple in

the

Deweshwar.
(Silver)

Mahadev
left lap.

pati on its right lap

1

with two Golden images : one of Ganand the other of Parvati on its

Ganpati (Stone). 1 Parvati Bhawani,

The religious ceremonies commenced on the 7th and concluded on the iy$& AjHfQ 1749 the expenditure on this account was Bs. 9,0 SO,

FABVATI

Off

THE PEHHWAS

SI

horses and did likewise and the

dam

soon neared

completion. At a later date Mahadji Shinde wishing to oust Nana Phadnavis from the control of the second Madhavrao took the latter to the little

Ganpati temple on the Sarasbag island in the centre of the lake. While rowing across, Shinde so poisoned the young prince's mind against the old statesman that they in the end quarrelled, with terrible results
to both.

Shanwar Wada. Nana Phadnavis died broken hearted and But the house of Shinde grew till it disgraced. overshadowed the whole Maratha Empire.

Madhavrao II perished

in the

reaching the pathway that branches off to Parvati, do not continue until the steps are reached but turn to the right and passing under a limb tree walk with me towards the North. The leaves of this limb tree are in great request on the 1st of Chaitra

On

Deccan New Years day. The ordinary Brahmin eats but one or two because of their bitter But the Brahmacharig or youthful religious taste. celibates, so an Indian Informant to]d me, eat them in handfuls and their bodies so far from suffering wax stout and strong and their faces ill-effects " become lustrous." A hundred yards or so beyond the limb tree is a little shed. Underneath it are kunku and shendur covered stones arranged so as to mark a grave. Its occupant was once a Mang who attended the Peshwa's rhinoceros and one day ended He was his career with its horn through his body. the haunts disembodied his buried here and spirit
the
place.
c

The Mhar attendant when

I visited

it

said

' to me phar navasala pavato (he readily hearkens to prayers) and recently plucked feathers lying close

&2

^AJfcVATI

OP THE FBSHWAS

by, showed that but a few minutes before a worshipper had offered a fowl to the Hang's ghost.
of this

sad tale was also told me Mang's doings* dark nights he spirits away fair women of high caste while sleeping by their husband's sides and in

On

the early morning leaves them soiled and helpless on the roadway. Possibly erring ladies of high
degree, surprised

by

daylight,

may have found

in

the Mang's ill-repute a welcome shelter. But let us leave the Mang and still go northward. Twenty or thirty paces on we shall come to the realm of Vetal*

and Mhasoba.
theology. They are Vetal

Here indeed we enter on primitive

In the centre are two whitewashed stones.

and

his

younger brother Mhasoba

who

reign over the multitude of ghosts and demons that harass mankind. Bound them are a circle of

smaller white-tipped stones. They are king Vetal's sowars, and a larger stone to the south of the royal
pair but inside the circle of the horsemen, is their Jemadar known as Bhangya Bava or as we might

say Brandy Billy. Twice a month, on the full moon and on the no-moon, does king Vetal at midnight
ride abroad in state surrounded

by ghostly riders and ghostly elephants. Should the wayfarer meet him let him boldly stride up to the demon-king and

ask a favour for at such a time he will not refuse a boon. His greatest day, however, is Mahashivratra,
*

The attendant

told

me that this Vetal formerly

lived at

Gopgatun in

Saswad Taluka, but that his grandfather had by bhakti or worship induced the god to oome to his present abode. One night the god told him walk to Parvati without looking backward and next morning to make a mound of stones where he saw flowers lying. He walked to Parvati and bettittd him he heard all the way the footsteps of Vetal and next moming {lowers lay where is now the demon ring,

other occasions he but rides round Poona City. But on that night as the Mhar attendant told me ** ratrabhar dhingana karito " (or as we might say,

On

he plays Old Harry

all

night long).

especially wrestlers are his votaries

Sorcerers and and often before

a wrestling competition one may, if one cares to visit the spot at midnight, see some stout youth bathe in the adjoining canal and then pray at the shrine for victory in the morrow's tournament.

But whoever makes offering to the god must at the same time present a pipe of hemp to Bhangia Bawa, for he has the ear of and will "samjao the
Sahib."

us return to the east face of the hill as we pass at the masonry post to which glancing the Peshwas* during days tigers used to be tied while they fought with elephants. Their spirits have, it is believed, entered the stake, which is now worlet

Now

shipped under the title of Vaghoba or My Lord the On the east face we shall find a stone stair* Tiger. case. At its foot are two little monuments, one to Nagoba the serpent who was the wisest among the beasts of the field and the other to a saint who lived and died on Parvati's summit* Next let us mount the steps passing on the left a

Musulman

Pir's

tomb whose

restless

spirit

pro-

duced litigation that greatly vexed the District Judge until finally laid by an adverse decision of the High Court. Half way up we pass two little Stones each adorned with a pair of feet. The larger pair belonged to one Madhavrao, a Sadhu of the
hill,

and the smaller to his wife 1829 committed sati on this spot.

Parvati,

who

it*

84

3?ARYAM OF THE PESHWAS

nearly reaching the top the Brahmins will point out to us where the Bhor Chief's elephant Edward of Wales. Slipped and nearly fell with Prince At last the summit reached, we turn into the courtof the principal temple, that of Shiva. Oppo-

On

yard

site it is

the nagarkhana or drumhouse whence wild music thrice a day issues either to rouse the god or warn him that it is time to rest, A stone bull lies as usually facing the temple hall and in front of him may .usually be seen some grains of rice and a bel-tree's leaf given him in honour of Shiva. The animal has two panoplies, one of silver for the Mahashivratra and such great days and one its

second best of copper for less important ftes. Inside the temple the royal cobra rears its hood " " over Shiva's and behind it arfe images pindi At of his queen Parvati and their son Ganesh. each corner of the court-yard is a little shrine sacred to Vishnu, to the hill Devi, to Ganesh and to Surya or the Sun. And the latter's chariot drawn by a strange seven-headed animal reminds one forcibly of the splendid horses which prance and bear Helios so gaily in Flaxman's drawing. To the north is a railed window whence the last Peshwa

watched the battle of Kirkee. And it is certain that nowhere else can so good a view be obtained of the straight road along which Bapu Gokhale and the Bhagwa Jhenda passed to do battle with the troops of the English cantonment. In the same court-yard is a trap-door which covers the entrance
to a secret passage

by which, it is said the sa,me a few hours Peshwa, later, fled to the old palace in ttae Shanwar Path.

OF THE

Let us now leave Shiva's court-yard and

skirt-

ing the southern wall look down the hilFs edge. We shall see a vast compound girt by a ruined stone
wall.

This

is

the old

Bamana

'

or enclosure where

Balaji Bajirao paid dakshina to Brahmins by thousands. The cost one year rose to sixteen lakhs

and the Peshwa was forced at last to examine Brahmin applicants as to their holiness and learning. And the chronicle of the Peshwas relates in all seriousness that the Konkanastha Brahmins passed most frequently the examiner's tests.*

Due west
rounded

of Shiva's

temple we

shall enter

a small
their

enclosure over which several bel-trees

fruit.

hang

Therein a small temple to Kartik* One in marble was inidols. that the destroyed Bajirao IPs jured by lightning palace and according to Hindu practice has been put on one side for a legs costly but intact one. Who was Kartikswami ? He was GanpatiY elder brother but not born of Parvati. The tale runs that once

swami covers two

Agni Stole Shiva's vital essence hoping thereby to rival in might the dark-throated lord of Kailas. But the latter's fiery blood burnt the weaker veins of Agni and he was glad to cast it from him into the bodies of his own six unmarried daughters*

They became pregnant and to hide their shame brought on each of them a premature birth. The unformed children thrown together in a corner coalesced and became the lord Kartikswami;* ap*l
* Vide

Peak was*

course, themselves

* For this v&han is the peacock.

Bakhar, pages 54-55. The Peshwas were, of Konkanasthas. reason Kartikswami is also called Shadanan. H&

86

2ABVATI OF
idols to-day
origin.

Ms

tuple

have six mouths to show his sexSomewhere closed by the third

Peshwa, Balaji Bajirao, the founder of the temples, killed by the news of Panipat, breathed his last. But either through ignorance or wilfulness the priests refuse to point out the spot.
Opposite the hall entrance is a figure of his vahan or steed, the eagle. For Vishnu's incarnations have been martial princes and all the earth over the eagle has

One temple remains, that

of Vishnu.

been the emblem of the world-conqueror from Vishnu's Garuda to the aigles napoUoniennes. On the door is an image of Ganpati and below it is the hideous face of Kirtimukh. Neither I speak of course as a layman and subject to correction seems really in place. As for Ganpati passe encorel for in the Deccan he is to be found everywhere from the temples of the other gods to the Shri Ganeshayanamah with which the Puranas begin* But Kirtimukh sprang from the frown of Shiva's eyebrow when he received Jalandhar's challenge and was called on either to give up Parvati and his treasure or meet the Demons in battle* And the boon that Kirtimukh received was to find a place always in Shiva's temples. However one must not be hypercritical and the Hindu architect, like the
enraged naval officer in the story likes to feel that he has omitted nothing. Let us next look inside

and there we
feet
sits his

shall see
last great

Vishnu himself and at his

incarnation

Balkrishna.

as the name shows, is not here in the flame guise as when he fought on the side of the Pandava brothers and made Dwarka his capital,

The latter,

PABVATI OF THE PESHWAS

87
childhood the 16,000

but as he appeared in

Ms wondrous
of

and won the hearts and the loves

Gopikas. To the south stands, hidding the view of the Sinhgad mountains, the outer shell of Bajirao II's It has, however, no history, for it was palace. never finished and lightning struck it two years
before the English

cannon blew away the Peshwa's

Empire.

And now before we descend let us mount for a moment the northern wall. Poona City and Poona Camp unroll for us their vast panorama. At either
end sleep scions of the great rival houses of Shinde and Holkar.* In the centre rise the square towers of the Shanwar Wada where so many Peshwas fought and intrigued, loved and ruled. To the north flash the waters of the Mula Mutha, now deepened by the great Band but once low enough to let Elphinstone and his escort escape fromVinchurkar's
horse*
east are the bold outlines of four spurred Chaturshringi in whose side is a cave where the Pandavs rested on their way to Viratnagar.

To the

And at its feet is the

the Peshwa's vakil
British
of the

spot where by a strange fatality met Sir Charles Malet, the first envoy, and on which now swing the gates

Ganeshkhind palace. Far to the south rise Torna, dear to Shivaji, and Singhad, where Tanaji Malusre met an heroic death. And between them the waters of Khadakwasla catch the last rays of the sinking sun and throw up a blaze of light amid
the gathering darkness.
*

Mahadji Shinde's tomb

is

at

Wanavdi and

Vithaji Hellcats south of

Holkar's bridge.

88

PABVATI OF THE PESKWAS

Let us now descend, and as behind us the evening

roll scaring away the demons and the warning gods that it is time to rest, let us consider how we may escape unmulcted to our car-

drums begin to

riages.

hope* For, of poem Propertius, beauty could not save Nereus nor his strength Achilles*, so all our
as in the

But

of this there is

but

little

wit and cunning will avail us but little against the multitudinous demands of the mendicant devotees*
*

Nerea non faoies nun

via

oxemit Achillem.

A PORTUGUESE LADY AT THE

MOGAL COURT.
Absorbed in the contemplation of our own splendid empire, we are sometimes apt to forget that other European nations have also played glorious, homeward voyage, I parts in India. On a recent was reminded of this by the presence on boardship of a Portuguese official of high rank, tall, courteous and wholly charming. Finding that I was interesfor me ted in things historical, he promised to obtain account a recent book* published in Goa, giving an of the relations>etween the Goanese Government was k*pfc and the Great Mogals. The promise in was Portuguese, and the book duly arrived. But it word. a not single which I knew
of

I had in

and

sent so like the Austrian ambassadors, 'to,^,'

my youth learnt Latin,

French and .ItM8*a:i,

Howp^

over Louis
despair.
for,

XV against Frederic the Great; 1 414, JJJ,

I was;i* hours of the outward sea-voyage, the book's excellent consents*gather most of sketch for I now venture therefrom to

Nor were my expectations and ,%* with a grammar and dictionary

^'

fl

tohm

'

90

rOETUOUESE LADY AT MOGAL COURT

career of a lady who played a great part in the history of the Portuguese Indies.

early years of 'the 16th century brought unexampled prosperity to Portugal. Five centuries

The

of uninterrupted conflicts with the

all its

Moors had made

Ihe royal house, small population soldiers. founded by a bastard prince of Burgundy, had been
unusually rich in able men. And ruled and rulers alike had with wonderful quickness grasped the possibilities of their long coast line, and had laid
aside ambitions of Mediterranean for those of world empire. In 1494, a Papal Bull had divided the

undiscovered earth between the Portuguese and the Spaniards, and in all directions the Lisbon Government furnished expeditions to make good the title conferred by the Vatican, Everywhere the Portuguese soldiers proved invincible, and everywhere administrators trained in the Lisbon offices introduced settled government in the train of conquest.

One daring band under Joao de Nova

sion.

Another under

Pedro

seized AscenCabral annexed the

vast empire of

Brazil.

third under

Amerigo

Vespucci, first of the Caucasian stock, heard the roar of thePurana as it rushes towards the Plate A fourth under river and the South Atlantic. the Gama realised de visions Vasco of the

Navigator, and, doubling the Cape of Eeacjed straight for the Indian Oc^an.

Henry Good Hope,

Probably never in its history had India, as at this been so helpless to resist foreign aggression. was st^l bleeding from the of Tamerlane's invasion. Jut the
-which*

LADY AT MOGAL
Taglak's reign, had fallen

C6TTET

91

Delhi, was Of these, the two in split up possession of the South Western seaboard, Bijapur and Ahmednagar, were not only at deadly enmity

away from

into five fragments.

with each other but engaged in constant strife with the Hindu power of Vijayanagar. It was an easy task for the talented Portuguese captains to take advantage of their distracted state, and to obtain by cession or conquest large territories on the Western Coast. While the real superiority of the Portuguese sailors enabled them to secure at the expense of the Mopla merchants a monopoly of
the western trade. If we pass over 50 or 60 years, however, we find the positions of the two countrils reversed. The immense efforts of the opening century had been too much for the slight resources of Portugal. A minority at home, unsuccessful campaigns in

Morocco, priestly influence, and the introduction of negro labour had added to her distress. In India, on the other hand, the descendants of Tamerlane welre doing their best to remedy the effects of his

In 1526, Babar had won Panipat and, for

and his successors, the throne of Delhi. Thetteoji was now seated a ruler of extraordinary and civil talents, who after gathering into his hands the threads of a vast empire, was ia direction extending its frontiers with the &kiH and the restless energy of Bonaparte. In ten
he had subdued
all

Rajputana except th

fastnesses in the Arawalis.

bloodless camp&Igfe

had

in 1572 ended the Gujarat kingdom. in 1581, a detachment of the MQgal army

92

PORTUGUESE LAlDY

A*F

MOGAL COUBT

the Portuguese territories of Bassein and Damaun. They were repelled by the Governor Martini Alffonso de Mello, but the repulse would, as in other cases, have been followed by an attack in force which surely would have succeeded had the Emperor not

been stopped by something in his eyes more terrible than the Portuguese cannon, and more 'persuasive than the lips of their ambassadors the frowns and thp tears of a Lusitanian lady. Instead of war he made a treaty and sent envoys of congratulation to the

Who

new Portuguese King Philip II of Castle. was the lady who did such signal service
?

She has hitherto been styled Maria Makany, Akbar's Christian wife, whose tomb is But Mr. Gracias has with still visible at Agra. great acuteness and research been able to trace her In the reiga of King John III there was origin. founded at Lisbon a home for orphan girls of good When these girls reached women's state family. were shipped off to the various Portuguese they
to her country
colonies to

make wives

for the official

and

settlers.

The

ladies did not, however, always reach their destination but, like the Moorish king's bride in

Boccaccio, sometimes fell into wrong hands. One of them was rescued from a wreck to become queen

Another, Maria Mascarenhas, captured with her sister by the Dutch, was brought to Surat and thence sold at the Mogal Court, where she became one of Akbar's queens and is known to feistory under the MusaJman corruption of her name
of

the

Maldives.

&Ej&ria

Makaixy*
sfeter'a fate

was

if

possible

more romantic

In

1560* Prince Jean Philippe Bourbon, a

LADtf A*

MOGAt

COlrttT

&

cadet of the house of Navarre, fled from France as a result of a fatal duel, and making his way from Madras to Delhi, applied to enter Akbar's service.

with great distinction, given the title of Nawab, appointed governor of the royal harem, and wedded to Juliana Mascarenhas, Maria's sister. The two Portuguese ladies thus formed a strange link between the great house of
received

He was

Chagatai, and the no less splendid line that for two centuries overawed Europe from the throne of
Clovis.*

Having saved her countrys' possessions, Maria

Mascarenhas next tried to save her husband's soul, Her own palace had long been adorned with frescoes of the Annunciation, and, as a result of the new treaty with Goa, Akbar was induced to invite
to his court a band of missionaries qualified to expound the Christian doctrine. Among them went

the

Jesuit

Rodolfo

Acquaviva,

whose

dialectic

talents, according to the Oriente Conquislb^do, pro-^

ved too much for Akbar's Mullahs. It must, however, be confessed that, if the latter were correctly was not a difficult task* reported, so to triumph

They 'attacked the Christian religion by alleging that the Bible had originally been verbally the as the Koran, but had been altered to its
form in order to introduce the idolatrous worsMj)
of the Trinity.

And they

asserted that

Mahomed"^

* The descendant* of Prince Jean Philippe Bourbon ax*!iriffi,t6 fc^ held ajagkir in found in India. One branch until recently ^ejBhi^ *ome 20 or 30 yeajs IjeW Jfcfte post State, and a, xfce&ber of their family an account of this fajnily, vide oT PHtfn* Minfefcef tx> #* Nawab^ For " * Sfctory of the Bourbons in Indi* anil
,ffi**aid*s
*

of

them fr

fcfc

"

Bj Abft

"

04

PORTUGUESE LADY AT MOGAL COUBT

mission had been to restore the *pure faith which Such an allegation, unsustained Christ had taught.

by any evidence, was easily ridiculed out of Court. But the learned Jesuit's reply does not, to my mind, give proof of much ability. His criticism was purely destructive, and he made no attempt to show how the teaching of Christ was superior to that of Mahomed. Nevertheless, what the contending saints
lacked in brain-power they made up for in lungpower. And as they warmed to their work, the Emperor, at whose invitation they had assembled in the Ibadat Khana, found that to conquer Hindustan was an easier task than to calm this controversial
cyclone-

He was finally obliged himself to flee deafened from the room, leaving the disorderly conference to continue all night until exhaustion silenced it towards morning. Subsequent to this the Mullahs, wearied with

argument, made to the missionaries what, as it must fairly be admitted, was a sporting offer. They expressed themselves willing to enter a fiery furnace if the missionaries did likewise. The former were to be armed with a Koran, the latter with a Bible,

was to judge between thefei. The missionaries replied that they had already won a

and the

fire

judgment in the tribunal of reason that miracles were only intended to supplement evidence, and that where reasons were as in the case of Christian truth, so clear and manifest, it was merely tempting

God

to ask for miracles without

necessity.

Such

Arguments could scarcely have convinced Akbar, and the distinct favour with which he regarded must only have been due to his wife's

LADY AT MOGAL COURT

pressure.

95
to the

On one

occasion he did

homage

crucifix in the

man

the MusalPortuguese Chapel, a in the then reverence, style by profound

first in

kneeling in front of it, and lastly by prostrating himself, like a Hindu before an idol. Indeed, in the religion which he afterwards invented, it is possible, as I think, to trace an attempt to reconcile the conflicting claims of his queen and his conscience. But, although Christianity never won over Akbar as a convert, Queen Maria's religion yet
Christian

way by

made

considerable way. princes of the Royal House

Eanke mentions three who were duly baptised,

and Gustave Le Bon affirms that in Jehangir's reign the number of distinguished Christians at Court was sixty. That graceless prince himself hung in his palace images of Christ and the Virgin, and in a fit of drunken expansiveness declared that Christianity was of all religions the best. For its
followers were

doubly

blest.

They were

free to

eat both beef

lected

and pork. Akbar died in 1605, and from the evidence

col-

by Mr. Gracias, it seems probable that Maria survived him. If so we may perhaps trace to her influence two great diplomatic victories which the Portuguese gained in the early years of Jehangir's
reign.

The

first

was the reply given by the Em-

peror to Hawkins, the first English envoy. He came with a letter from James I, but was told in open Durbar that the great Mogal could not demean
himself

by corresponding with so insignificant a The second was an offensive and defensive kinglet* drawn up between the delegates of the treaty

JJmperor and of the Gpane^e Viceroy

Dom Jeronyuad

5J6

FORTTJGtTBSE

LADY AT MOGAL COURT

foflowing is

de Azevedo.
first article in

The

a translation of the

the Portuguese text : " Seeing that the English and the Dutch come in the guise of merchants to these countries in order to settle in them and to conquer lands, because they themselves live in Europe in wretchedness and destitution; and (as) their presence in India will cause harm to all as was shown in the war which

they brought about between Mogals and Portuguese (sic), the said delegates will agree that the King Jehangir and the Viceroy of India will not trade with the aforesaid nations nor will they be received into their harbours or sold ammunitions or anything else; first the Viceroy and his successors will be obliged to drive them from the Gujarat sea within
three months of their arrival*, and if they put into the Surat harbour, the king permits the Portuguese
to land the necessary

cannon to defeat them and

will give

the Portuguese all the help necessary to do so. And the English, who are at present in the lands and territories of the said king, will quit them, together with th,eir factories,
via Masulipatam." Here we must leave Maria Mascarenhas, but even though she may have tried to further her country's interests at our expense we still owe her a deep dfebfc

drive

them away and

In 1640 Alvarez, driven to despair by the Military activity of Richelieu, called out the arriereban of Portugal and Spain* The Catalans* ever ready to rise against Castile, sprang to arms
of gratitude.

$ad proclaimed themselves a republic under French protection. Fired by their example, Portugal thr^w
..
'<
.

.......

*" T&te flaefes

oae efcch year wifrA the iavourmg wind

POBTWU33SE LADY AT MO&AL COTTRT

off

07

Duke

the Spanish yoke and offered her crown to John, of Braganza, in whose veins flowed the blood of the oldBurgundian line, Catalonia, deserted by But Portugal won the France, had to submit. English alliance and her own independence by offering with a great dowry the Princess Catherine to Charles II. Now in that dowry were included the harjbour and island of Bombay, which the charms of Queen Maria had saved from the Mogal conqueror. Thus, but for her, Catherine of Braganza's
*

dowry, must have been sought elsewhere. And the Presidency of Bombay might now be cramped within Ascension or Madeira island ; or, worse still, urbs prima in Indis might be located in some fever-haunted swamp among the mouths of the

Amazon.

THE PESHWAS OF POONA.

A
LECTURE DELIVEBED AT THE SMALL

MEMOBIAL HALL
In chosing as

my

subject, the

Poona Peshwas,

I was chiefly guided quite apart from the local interest of the subject by the circumstance that so
opinion, sufficient justice has not been done to the achievements of this extraordinary
far in

my humble

family.

There has been too great a

tendency,

certainly
real

among English

writers, to overlook the

change of dynasty that took place when Balaji The first dynasty Bajirao made his coup d'etat. in historical Maharashtra consisted of Shivaji, his sons Shambhu and Eajaram, and Shambhu's son Shahu. The second dynasty consisted of Balaji
I, Narayenrao, Madhavrao II and Bajirao Raghunathrao, These two dynasties occupied three periods. During the first of these periods the Maratha kings both reigned and ruled. During the second period, that is, during the last half of Shahu's life the Maratha kings reigned and the Peshwas ruled. During the third period, i.e., from Shahu's death to the English conquest, the Peshwas both reigned and ruled. The Maratha dynasty no doubt still survived but as State prisoners only, and exercised no more influence on

Bajirao,

Madhavrao

policy of Maharashtra than did

the Eastern

PES&WAS OF

poosrA.

99

Emperors on Italian affairs at the time of Odoacer* In the course of the lecture I have endeavoured to present before you the second dynasty as a whole. And, to do so, I have found it necessary to sketch not only the third period, but the second From this sketch period also of Maratha history. was not essential that I have omitted everything I have even done so at the risk to the narrative. of producing a mere arid and jejune string of facts. But the time at my disposals, both for preparation and for addressing you, has been so short that this was inevitable. Let us first approach the subject with the query, what is a Peshwa ? Lord Macaulay in his essay on Warren Hastings defined him in the following " words Peshwa or Mayor of the palace, a great hereditary magistrate, who kept a court with kingly state at Poona and whose authority was
:

obeyed in the spacious provinces of Aurangabad and Bijapur." Now in another essay, Macaulay charged Robert Montgomery with having in one of his lines achieved the worst of all similitudes. Mr* have retorted that Montgomery might possibly his critic had achieved the worst of all definitions.

The Peshwa was not a Mayor

or in the derived sense.

either in the literal a Being Brahmin, he was not likely to have held any high office except a priestly one in a Maratha' s palace. He was not a Magistrate
either hereditary or elective. marily a part of the Moglai.

Aurangabad was

pri-

And

the Peshwa's

authority extended not merely over Bijapur but was co-extensive with the Maratha Empire. What then was a Peshwa ? The title, as the name denotes^

100

THE FESSWAS OF

was a Persian one and seems to have been introduced by the Bahamani kings. For Grant Duff mentions, that in 1529 A. D, Boora Khan Nizam Shah of Bijapur made a Brahmin Kavarsing a Peshwa. The title is thus very akin to the English one of Premier, which taken from the French title of premier minister, has now become an integral part of the English
system of government.

The first Peshwa in Maratha times was Shamraj Pant who held that office under Shivaji in A. D. 1656. He was succeeded by Moropant Pingale who was the first among the Asht Pradhans or the King's Cabinet, and from his time onwards the Peshwa was the leading Minister of the Crown. The next question to arise is, how did the office become hereditary in one family and what was its origin ? The surname of this family was Bhat, a word, which although signifying priest, had become just an ordinary family name, as we say Mr. Priest or Mr. Vicars. The father of the founder of the dynasty was one Vishvanath* Bhat who was the Deshmukh of Shriwardhan, a Konkani town near the mouth of the Savitri. He had two sons, Balaji and Janoji. On their father's death they acted as Joint Deshmukhs until the Sidi <$ Janjira seised Janoji, took him to Janjira, and there putting him
in a sack flung into the sea. Balaji escaped to the town of Velas where he took shelter with one

Mm

Mahadev Bhanu. It was, however, impos* to remain so near to Janjira, and Bhanu> in true spirit of friendship, left with his
ffs,

ffari

and Bamaji to
*
'tlfy

%o

their

hom3

ajq4

EeshWs Bakhw by

Mr. Saae,

PBSHWAS OF POONA

101

panied his friend to Satara. The starting of these two adventures had a great effect on the subsequent For, one became the anhistory of Maharashtra* cestor of the Poona Peshwas, and -the other the ancestor of their greatest Minister,

Nana Phadnavis. The time they reached Satara was propitious to

For Shahu, released on Aurangzeb's death, was trying to recover his kingdom from the hands of his aunt Tarabai. On Shahu s side were Khanderao Dabhade and Dhanaji Jadhav and in March, 1708, Shahu was by their aid formally inadventure.
9

stalled as

Maharaja Chhatrapati.

Among

Dhanaji' s

Karkuns was one Abaji Purandare * the ancestor of the noble house of that name and then Rulkarni To him Balaji Vishvanath attached of Saswad. himself and by his influence secured a post under Dhanaji Jadhav recently appointed by Shahu as
Senapati or Commander-in-Chief. Balaji Vishvanath' s talents soon made themselves known and Dhanaji Jadhav before his death in 1709 gave hjjfr complete control of his finances. This favour* ever, almost led to Balaji's extinction. Jadhav, Dhanaji's son, regarded the new with intense jealousy which was exasperated by
Balaji's
tions.

appointment by Shahu, after Dhanaji's to check the Raja's share out of the Senapati's

A trifling hunting dispute served

as

and Balaji was, together with his two sons, fdreed to ride for his life to Pandugad where beseiged him. Fortunately for Balaji he had at the time employed by the king. Notitiag would have saved him. As it was Shahu sent
*

Grant Duff,

1,

302.

102

THE

ESHWAS OF

royal troops under Jadhav's rival Nimbalkar who defeated the Senapati and rescued the beseiged. Balaji now became a regular servant of the king and
rapidly rose.

Ihe long regency and the endless

wars had made the king's authority over his generals Jadhav abandoned his little more than nominal. Thorat set up as a freebooter. Angria service.

was openly independent. The rise of Balaji, however, added the necessary vigour to restore the kingly authority. Thorat was after some difficulty captured and although Angria was at first successvery success ultimately caused the supremacy of Balaji. The then Peshwa was Bhairopant To him was given the command of the Pingale. expedition against Angria. He conducted it with such imbecility that his troops were completely The fort of Lohgad which commands defeated, the Bhorghat fell with the Peshwa into Angria's
ful, his
it was march on Satara. In this supreme moment Shahu turned to Balaji Vishvanath. Ihe latter by skilful diplomacy won over Angria, and by combining their armies in a common attack on

hands, and that daring pirate prepared, as

believed, to

the Sidi of Janjira stripped the latter of enough land to pay for a bribe to Angria, and thus is one campaign secured for his master a powerful ally and avenged the death of his own brother. King

Shahu was overjoyed and removing Bhairu Pingale from the rank of Peshwa appointed in 1714 Balaji Vishvanath in his place. This I take it was one In 1708 he of the most dazzling rises in history. bad come a homeless fugitive to a foreign land. Six foter he had become supreme in its councils.

THE PESHWAS OF POOtfA

103

Nor was he unworthy

of his

fortune.
of

Under

his

guidance the uncertain policy

His reign disappeared. reverted to the daring

unfruitful

Shahu's early goyernment once again

depredations gave place to a definite scheme of conquest. In fact, there came over the foreign relations of Maharashtra such a change as that which was seen in the Revolutionary Government at the advent of Bonaparte, or in Rome when the timid caution of the Senate

policy of Shivaji. of isolated leaders

The

gave place to the bold imperialism of Lucullus. It was not long before Balaji's energy and talents obtained for his master a great reward. In A. D. 1712 Aurangzeb's son and successor Sultan Muazam
died,

and

his

grandson Farrokshiar obtained the

throne. His success in doing so was chiefly due to the courage and ability of two high-born Mahomedan bro-

Abdullakhan and Hussein Ali Khan, usually But onse on the in history as the Sayads. throne the Emperor wished to destroy his allies. They in turn appealed to the Marathas and in 1718 a combined army under Balaji Vishvanath marphed on Delhi. The emperor was seized and not long afterwards murdered and the Marathas obtained in
thers,

known

1719 a

recognition of their Swaraj over such as territories Shivaji occupied at his death and the Chauth plus 10 per cent, called the Sardeshmukhi
full

on practically the whole Deccan. They seem, ^Iso to have obtained the Sayads' tacit consent to levy tribute in Halwa and Gujarat. This was the crowning achievement of this 'able and loyal man. He found Shahu's dominion a
distracted principality.

He left

it

a growing

104

THE PBSHWAS OP

vigorous empire. In the very height of his fame and in the full tide of success his frame gave way

beneath the labours imposed on it. In October, 1720, he retired to Saswad where he lingered for only a few days.

Maratha Khanderao Dabhade. Descended from the Mukadam of lalegaon he had earned Rajaram's gratitude by carrying him an immense distance from the besieged fort of Panala.
there died another
officer

About the same time

of great distinction,

Raised eventually to the rank of Senapati or Comma#der-in-Chief, he had also established himself firmly in Gujerat. His relations with Balaji Vishwanath seem to have remained friendly, but on their death there sprang up a great and fatal rivalry bet-

Trimbakrao and Bajirao. Bajirao was then the flower of his age and had hoped, in Balaji a as matter of course, to succeed his father as Peshtheir sons

ween

wa. But this bold, aspiring, extremely able man met with unexpected obstacles. The speedy rise and the great talents of his father had awakened the
jealousy of the local magnates. At their head was *Shriniwasrao, Pratinidhi of Aundh, a wise man

and brave

soldier

as the founder of

and perhaps best known to fame MahuLL He strongly objected to

the promotion of the young Chitpawan over the heads of the Asht Pradhans* Eventually, however, Shahu made as a kind of compromise Trimbakrao

Dabhade Senapati and Bajirao Peshwa.

The former

at once allied himself to the oldDeccan party and the rivalry of the two factions became clearly defined when Bajirao proposed to extend the Maratha con* Also oailed Shripatrao,

THE PBSHWAS OF POOKA

quest beyond

>

105

Malwa into Hindustan. The

'.

opposed him on the ground that it was time consolidate the king's restore possessions, to
the finances and to introduce a more careful discipline in the army. Bajirao, however, knew that such a policy would play his enemies' game. Peace was to the advantage of the hereditary nobles with

powerful local interest. War was necessary to the schemes of the brilliant adventurer, who could only maintain himself by the creation of a mercenary army and a succession of victories. He, therefore,
scoffed at the Pratinidhi's timid counsels,

and asked

fared had he been guided them* He then disclosed that his policy aimed by at no less than the conquest of the whole empire of 55 the Mogals. he cried, "strike at the "Strike, trunk of the withering tree and the branches must fall of themselves." His eloquence won the day and embarked the Marathas on a vigorous policy of
universal aggression.

how Shivaji would have

The period was favourable to thePeshwa's schemes. The Mogal empire was reduced to a condition bordering on paralysis by the dissensions of the Emperor's ministers. The Syuds had in their turn been disthe Nizam-ul-mulk, a Turani Mogal of placed by talents and experience. He agaiu, disgusted great at the folly and the levity of the new Emperor, threw up the post of vazier to be first governor and
independent ruler of the Deccan. Bajirao sought the line of least resistance, and in 1726, iuvaded first Malwa and then the Carnatic as far as Seriagapatam. The next year's victim was the Nizam, who,jt must be admitted? deserved to the
then

106
full his

THE PESHWAS OF POOKA

punishment.

tried to take advantage Maratha empire made at Shahu's accession and set up Shambaji, the Chief of Koliapur, as heir to the whole. Bajirao would not stoop to negotiation, and after a brilliant campaign in which the old soldier was completely out-generalled, forced him to accept most humilating terms. But here the Peshwa was obliged to halt. A new and far more formidable danger threatened him. The Deccan party led by Trimbakrao Dabhade broke into ,open revolt and allied themselves with the Nizam. Here again, however, Bajirao' s talents triumphed. He fell on the Dhabhade's army near Dabhoi in Gujarat, and after a desperate struggle in which the Senapati perished, destroyed it. The Nizam in haste secured his safety by an agreement

He

of the

division of the

not to molest the future action of the Marathas,

and thus opened to the Peshwa, now supreme master of Maharastra, a safe road to Delhi. Nor was Bajirao slow to take it. After a short and successful
campaign against the Sidi of Janjira, the grand army under Bajirao advanced on Delhi. Close by he pitched his camp, defeated two M.ogal forces and was not boght off eventually, except by a large indemnity and by the complete cession of the whole of Malwa now known as Central India. While tips brilliant campaign was in progress, Bajirao's brb* ther Chimnaji was carrying out the new policy witk no less vigour to the west. The Portuguese, who for many years had had a footing on the Malabar coast, joined on account of some real or fancied grievance, the pirate Angria in an attack on Kolaba. A great army under Chimnaji hastened to the spot.

POONA
First Bandra and Salsette fell, and then, after a furious seige, the Portuguese were compelled to surrender Bassein, and the whole seaboard of the

Northern Konkan was added to the rapidly-growing Maratha possessions. To the cession of Malwa, however, the Nizam objected and once again he and Bajirao appeared on opposite sides. The latter
after

two successful campaigns found at

last that

were unequal to the subjugation of the Deccan. The third ended campaign undecisively, and Bajirao overwhelmed with debt, harassed by disease and in despair at this check to the progress of his schemes hoped to another recoup himself
Death, however, overtook him on the banks of the Narbudda where he died on the 28th Apirl, 1740. He had been for 20
years Peshwa, and if his policy had been of the too forward kind he yet had achieved brilliant things. He had made himself, with hardly the exception of the king, the supreme master of the State. He had. fought With success the greatest soldiers ifc Iiptdi&, and if he met with a check in the end it was perhapa because, as Shriniwasrao had indicated, consolidation should have preceded conquest. His
charadt^p
is

his resources

successful war in Hindustan,

by

perhaps best indicated by a story told in the Pesh* wa's Bakhar. The Emperor wished to know wk&fr

manner of man it was who led from Satara armies* to threaten the august throne of Delhi, so he se&t a painter to depict him as he happened first to si$e him
painter found Bajirao on horseback with his spe&r slung carelessly over his shoulder. A& he went he picked the ears of corn and unhusked thei&

The

108
painter drew

THE PESHWAS

Off

POOSA

him and shewed his picture to the " wuh Emperor. The latter looked at it and said " shaitan hai" and gave the order Baji Rao, yanshi
samjoot padoon wates lavle pahije."* The firm hold that the Bhat family had taken in the Satara State is well exemplified by the circumstance that Bajirao's son Balaji succeeded him as

But it was not serious opposition. long before the Dabhade faction raised up a new enemy in Raghuji Bhosle. This person, the founder
Peshwa without
Nagpur, had obtained Shahu's favour by his skill as a hunter and sealed it by his marriage with the sister of Shahu's wife Sakvarbai. The subject of the dispute was
of the afterwards

famous house

of

Raghojfs claim to levy independent tribute in Bengal* Balaji took the field and proved himself, like his father and grandfather, a skilful general Raghuji was defeated, and the new Peshwa attempted
to

make

surer foundations for the

Kingdom.

Prom

1746 to 1749 he devoted himself to improving the

revenue towards Shahu's no son

system and encouraging agriculture. But the end of 1749 it was clear that King long reign was coming to a close. He had

and had refused to adopt one, due, it is believed, to his knowledge that his nephew Ram Raja was alive, Sakvarbai, Shahu's wife, was bitterly hostile to the Peshwa's domination. The crisis was therefore imminent. Balaji met it with resolution and skill. He surrounded Satara with 30,000 men, and on the morning that Shahu died surprised and imprisoned afl the members of his family, Sakvarbai, his enemy,
'
'

11

,'

Jfta fo

*tfeviL

Make terms with JwmLSwad

get rid of him.

OF P06NA

was forced to commit sati. Earn Raja was impri* soned and the capital was transferred from Satara to Poona. In that town Bajirao had already established himself in the fortified palace still named Shanwar Wada. Two stories aye told to account
for his choice.

that he saw a dog being putsued by a hare and so assumed that the dwellers on that spot were invincible. The other is that his horse stumbled and from it he argued that it was intended by Providence that he should remain there. A more probable reason was the favourable situation of
is

One

Poona, sheltered alike by Singhad and Purandhar, the latter of which had been in the private possession of the Bhats since the time of Balaji Vishvanath. From this date 1750 A. D, the Peshwas became ruling princes and it remains for us to see how they acquitted themselves of their new duties. Had but ordinary good fortune waited on them the new masters of Maharashtra would have been equal to the But a fresh and formidable peril was situation. threatening India, In the winter of 1747-48 Ahmedshah Abdalli, a prince of Herat and an old soldier of

Nadir Shah, had begun a series of incursions across! the North-West frontier. The Delhi empire w^hicfe had received a fatal blow during the invasion ol Nadir Shah in 1739 was helpless. The matter eventhe Peshwa*s tually became so pressing that in 1757 Maratha led a army to brother Ragunathrao large had more tha& oppose the Afghans. Eaghunathrao
a full share of his illustrious father's generalship an4 without difficulty drove the Afghans across

mountains.

Unfortunately the profits of tlie dition were far less than its cost and Chimixajf

116

T&E tESHWAS

Otf

POONA

Sadashivrao, the Peshwa' s

first

of great financial and gratified his jealousy of Baghunathrao

man

cousin and favourite, administrative talents,

and made

the latter's alleged mismanagement that he at last succeeded in himself superseding him.
so

much of

The change was disastrous. Ahmed Shah, who would have found Raghunathrao probably more than a match, outmanoeuvred Sadashivrao, hemmed him in and eventually utterly destroyed him, the heir apparent Vishvas Rao and the Grand Army of the Marathas. The disaster was too much for the Peshwa, who lingered but a short time after he learnt the news and died among the temples on
Parvati Hill.
the next heir was Balajfs second son Madhavrao. His task was a Ahmed Shah was master of Hinducolossalone.
fallen,

As Vishvas Rao had

stan, The Nizam was combining with Jankoji Jadhav to overthrow the Peshwa Government in favour of the old Maratha line. The treasury was empty*

There was no army and Raghunathrao was openly anxious to secure for himself the Peshwai. All these difficulties had to be faced by a boy of sixteen. Yet the great house that had already produced Balaji
Vishvanath, Bajirao I, Balaji II, and Chimnaji was not yet exhausted and the abilities and spirit of Madhavrao proved as great as any of his predecessors.

Raghunathrao was

conciliated.

The Nizam

w$s aignally defeated at Rakshabhuvan. Ahmed Shah recrossed the Afghan frontier. One great
force under the

Peshwa

&s Seringapatam. e Chambal, looted Rohilkhand, and

advance as far Another Maratha army crossed

in person

encamped at

THE PESHWAS
Delhi.

Off

POOJU

111

a most unlucky chance, however, this gallant prince had contracted consumption and just when his government was threatening to over ,rua all India he died aged only 28 at Theur, As " The plains of Grant Duff very justly observed, Panipat were not more fatal to the Maratha empire,* than the early end of this excellent prince. "We have now, gentlemen, passed the apogee of the greatness

By

of the Peshwas.

pany you

I shall shortly as possible accomto their melancholy fall. Madhavrao's

'

younger brother Narain Rao was duly installed, but Raghunathrao first reconciled to and then interned by Madhavrao, again aspired to the Peshwaship. Narain Rao was brutally murdered in his palace by the guards, and another young Prince for whom shrewd observers had prophesied a great future w&s lost to the Maratha empire. Raghunathrao, however, again failed to secure his object. An enquiry held by Ram Shastri revealed that he had connived if not at the murder at the attack and it bei^g shortly afterwards discovered that Narain Rao's t^id<jw Gangabai was pregnant a regency government V$8 carried on in her name by the ministers ajqaong whptoti were Sakharam Bapu and the dependent of Vishvanath's friend Bhanu, now famous as Phadnavis. On the 18th April, 1774, {^ II. This put an gave birth to a son Madhavrao to Raghunathrao's hopes. He, however;
unceasingly against his grand nephew's He first collected 30,000 men from Shiad ari kar and then induced the Bombay Groveri^iii

lend him their active support.In this

as English bfetpry

vay frog#n jij^fc

112

THE PESHWAS OF POOKA

War. A joint English and rebel force advanced from Gujarat and defeated the Poona army at Arras. The war was, however, stopped by Warren Hastings from Calcutta before it reached any decisive stage.
Raghunathrao, however, in the cold weather of 1779, induced the Bombay Government again to assist him. But this time the regency were able to repel the danger. The English were defeated at Wadgaon, but assistance arriving from Calcutta, they overran Bassein and a large part of the Konkan* Goddard
was, however, repulsed near Panwelandthe regency and the English eventually made a treaty on the

were rising up on many sides. A soldier of fortune, Haidar Ali, had established and bequeathed a powerful kingdom to his son. Shinde had half thrown off his
allegiance and disputed Nana Phadnavis' preeminence* The English power was rapidly growing both in the south and the west. Nevertheless,Nana Phadnavis

quo ante basis. Raghunathrao, the cause of the trouble, received a handsome pension and died in 1784, leaving two sons, Bajirao and Chimnaji Appa. For the next eleven years Nana Phadnavis conducted the government. I do not propose here to detail to you with what skill he did so. Enemies
status

struggled desperately and on the whole successfully to check the decline of Maharashtra. Unfortunately, the effects of the Civil War were not easily to be effaped. Many of Raghunathrao's adherents still lived !and they, as well as many others, sympathised not

probable old but other man the had no u$w$fa object

supervision.

^^o^ing l^^^^t under jealous

f$oty with the lot of his son Bajirao but also with Madhavrao, whom Nana Phadnavis as
It is

THE PBSHWAS OF POONA

113

man's good, and had but forgotten that the years, which passed quickly over his own head were, creating an immense change in the young prince. A secret correspondence sprang up between the two cousins, Madhavrao and Bajirao, whose situations were in

many respects so
great Minister,

similar.*

and

his

was discovered by the anger was so terrible that

It

Madhavrao, broken hearted by his reproaches, threw himself from an upper storey in the palace into the court-yard round which now cluster the Courts of the Poona Sub- Judges. On his death bed he expressed a wish that Bajirao should succeed him, and after a
series of

deep intrigues Bajirao did obtain the Masnad

failed so often to secure.

which his father had

The

new

prince's

first efforts

were directed towards des-

troying such of his friends as

had helped him to rise.

Nana Phadnavis, now full of years, was treacherously seized, and an attempt was made to seize Shinde in
open Darbar which would certainly have succeeded had not Bajirao's heart failed him. The intentions of Bajirao became, however, known to their wouldbe- victim,

aid their discovery naturally estranged all the great Jahagirdars. The estrangement led to an
absolute disregard for the Peshwa's supremacy. On Tukoji Holkar's death Shinde seized on the Hol-

Yeshwantrao Holkar, an illegitimate son took the field in the old Maratha fashion. Eventually, the two feudatories fought near Hadapsar and Yeshwantrao Holkar was completely victorious. The Peshwa, who had latterly been friendly to Shinde, fled
kar's estates.
* They were both closely watched. I should* however, say here that recent researches brought to my notice by Mr. Dravid, editor of tfc&

Dnyan Pra&asb," make

it

doubtful whether Madharrao's death was not

accidental.

114
to

THE PESHWAS OF POONA

victorious Holkar thoroughly plundered the inhabitants of the beautiful capital. ThePeshwa to obtain revenge agreed to the treaty of

Bombay, and the

Bassein.

In return for English assistance he promised to maintain a large body of hired troops, and signed
his

Amritrao, his elder adopted brother, had, however, in the meantime usurped the Peshwai, and the interference of the British brought on them the whole confederacy

own complete political subordination.

Maratha Empire. The great resources, however, which that Government had then acquired, and the ability of the two brothers, the Marquis and General Wellesley, then at the head of the Civil and Military Government, enabled the British to reShinde was defeated at Assaye and store Bajirao. Laswari, Raghoji Bhosle at Argano, and Holkar, after some brilliant initial successes ,was driven out of the Deccan. Bajirao had obtained a signal revenge, but at a high, and as he soon came to think, at a too high price. Quarrels arose between the allies and they came to a head over the question of the arrest of Trimbakji Dengale, the murderer of the Gaikwad's
of

the

minister Gangadhar Shastri. Eventually, Bajirao was forced to sign the treaty of Poona which placed

him

more under English protection. Bajirao, however, had no intention of adhering to it. He secretly enrolled a quantity of troops, and hoped by
still

taking the initiative to gain such successes against the English as would bring to his aid the great Maratha
Jahagirdars.
fidf

The

successes, however, never came.

His troops were defeated

in every battle and he him-* surrendered on the 3rd June, 1818, to eventually

MtB PESHWAS OF POOKA

Sir

115

John Malcolm.

pension of 8 lacs a year.

He was allowed the handsome He retired to Bithur near

Cawnpore where he lived for nearly 30 years, dying eventually on the 28th January, 1851. With the English conquest, the line of Peshwas came, of course, to an end, and I may, perhaps, be permitted to enquire, what was the reason of their complete collapse ? Many different causes have been assigned to it, Western aggression, the independent attitude of the feudatories, the battle of Panipat. These all, no doubt, contributed to the downfall, but

judgment were symptoms of the The evil lay disease rather than the disease itself. and "Decline his Gibbon has In Fall", deeper. is an unceasing observed that Asiatic monarchy round of valour, greatness, degeneracy and decay. This remark is singularly untrue, of some, at any
in
rate, of

my humble

the native Indian kingdoms.

The august

dynasty of Udaipur, which still ranks so high among the principalities of India, was hoary with age when
the Catholic Church was founded and of respectable antiquity when Sophocles was writing tragedies But the and Pericles dallying with Aspasia.

remark
pers.

is

true both of Eastern and Western usurin spite of their great services, usurpers

And

the Peshwas were always regarded by the great body of Maharashtra* Had the Peshwas been able to extinguish and not merely intern the successors of Shahu, they would, no doubt, have in the end been

But public opiregarded as legitimate monarchs. nion was too strong for them. They never dared by descendants of Shivaji sacrilegious htods on the A&CI, indeed* there is no more marvellous

116

HE PESHWAS

Off

POOSA

achievement of that Titanic figure than that during

If centuries his memory, the mere terror of his was sufficient to protect his helpless posterity.
3

name

Now

as they were usurpers, the Peshwas kingdom was subject to the common rule. Decay was the inevit-

accompaniment of their deterioration. During the Peshwas greatness, Western aggression was
able
5

promptly dealt with. The Portuguese were, as we have seen, driven out of Bassein, and it is idle to argue that the English could not have been similarly
overpowered. The independence of the Jahagirdars was a still later symptom. The great Mahadji Shinde himself had tried to measure himself against the first

Madhavrao, but the young prince drove him from

And what was the his presence completely cowed. battle of Panipat, but the result of Balaji Bajirao's
weak yielding
cousin
?

to the jealous clamour of his favourite

his strength been still unimpaired, have been retained at the head would Eaghunathrao of the army, and there would have been no disaster. But the weakness of the Central Government began in the closing years of Balaji's reign and succeeding Peshwas were never able completely to cure the In Madhvarao's reign it might have been disease* got under had he only lived longer or executed Raghunathrao. His early death ruined the central Government, for the regency were unable to restore health

Had

to

when Bajirao succeeded the disease had got completely the upper hand. The Maratha empire was already doomed. He but hastened the end* I have now come to the end of my lecture- I must thank you for the attention and kindness with which you have listened to me. But before I conclude
it.

Finally

PBSHWAS OF tOO&i
I would

117

you an earnest request. The subject which I have discussed is an extremely delicate one, I have endeavoured to eliminate from
of

make

matters in the least likely to give offence. It is, however, possible that being a foreigner, I may have
it all

quite unintentionally wounded some sensibilities. Should I have done so I would only ask that no ill

motive may be imputedto me and that as the intention was absent it may be judged that I have committed no offence. On the other hand, I shall be deeply gratified if I have succeeded in giving you even a

momentary glimpse

of

any

single

member

of the

great house that turned the little township of Poona into a mighty and beautiful metropolis of Balaji Vishvanath, the wise progenitor, Bajirao I, the orator and soldier whose fiery imagination like the

gate of the Shanwar Wada looked ever towards the golden throne of Delhi ; Balaji Vishvanath, the bold but unfortunate usurper ; Madhavrao I, the most brilliant perhaps of all, whom death snatched away
in his glorious prime ; Narayanrao and Madhavrao last II, killed on the very threshold of manhood, and

of all Bajirao

II,

gayest,

handsomest but,

alas,

most incapable

of princes.

IN THE COURT OF THE

YOUNGER

MADHAVRAO.*
used to be some years ago and I daresay that it still is a not uncommon saying that Hindu writers have no historical sense, and it must be admitted that the earlier literature of India afforded
It

this reproach. It was left to three Mr. Forbes and Captain Colonel Tod, Englishmen, Grant Duff, to write the histories of Rajasthan,

some ground for

" Karan Ghelo " a Gujarati longer deserved. In author has written the finest historical novel produced

Kathiavad and the Maharashtra. The splendid period of Mussulman greatness found no Hindu historian and even the spirited bakhars of the great Deccan houses can hardly be termed, in the usual sense of the word, histories. But whatever may formerly have been the case, to-day the censure is no

wondrous "The Three Musketeers." And of recent years the Deccan has furnished historical novelists like Mr.Hari Apte and historians like Mr. Dattatraya Parasnis. It is with the most recent work of the
tale of
latter author that the present article deals. And the book has a double interest, for throughout its pages may be seen side by side old-fashioned and modern Marathi. The former in the letters of

in either hemisphere since Dumas wrote the

*
tftrted

Savai Madhavrao Peshvayancha Darbar. at the Nimayaaagara Frees, Poona,

By Mr,

D. B. Parasnis

COURT OF THE YOUNGER MADHAVRAO

119

Nana Phadnavis and

guous, often unintelligible. Mr. Parasnis* admirable pen

his agents is crabbed, ambiThe latter wielded by

is clear, vigorous, and so permeated with Western thought that sentence after sentence might almost be literally translated

into English.
return, however, to book, "The Court of the

To

my subject.

In his latest

Younger Madhavrao,"

Mr. Parasnis has written of the establishment of the first permanent English embassy at the Court of Poona. There had been no doubt several earlier English envoys. As long ago as 1674 A.D. Sir Henry Oxenden and Dr* Fryer had visited Shivaji at Raigad. Then in 1739 Captain Gordon had been to In 1759 William Price see King Shahu at Satara. had treated with the Third Peshwa, Balaji Bajirao. In 1767 Mostyn had visited Madhavrao I, and in 1776 Colonel Upton had brought to asuccesful close the negotiations leading to the treaty of Purandhar. But these were all transitory visits, and the East India Company had long felt the need of some permanent
responsible

medium through whom they might both

acquire and impart information. After the disastrous campaign of Wadgaon, the Company had, through a sense of gratitude to Mahadji Shinde for
his treatment of their troops,employed

intermediary.

But

it

him as their was not long before this

method proved

Shinde's thoughts unsatisfactory. Delhi rather than Poona, and towards directed were it was impossible that one so deeply engaged in

Hindustani affairs could spare the time or trouble to be a successful agent of the Company* After considerable hesitation and afttep long discussion with the

120

COURT OF THE YOUNGEB MABHAVEAO

Calcutta Government, it was decided that a Bombay officer should be selected, but that he should represent not Bombay but the Governor-General. The next step was to obtain the consent of the Poona Court. This was no easy matter. The continual be construed presence of an English envoy might Government Maratha the which of a as sign inferiority

were naturally loth to admit. The meridian of their the evening glory had no doubt passed, but although the time for sun shadows were soon to fall the setting
shone brightly enough. The terrible calamity of Panipat had been in a measure repaired by the elder

Madhavrao, and the

spoils of

Hyderabad and the

Carnatic had replenished the empty treasury. The civil campaigns against Eaghunathrao had indeed

shaken the structure of the empire, but the ability of the regent Nana Phadnavis coped with each new The English were by the difficulty as it came. treaty of Salbai induced to abandon Raghunathrao, and if victory had not as of old followed the Yellow

Banner yet in two campaigns the English had wrested nothing from the Poona Court. On the whole, it was a fair time for Maharashtra. The reforms initiated by Balaji Bajirao revised by Madhavrao the First and still further developed by the regent had rendered the lot of the Deccatt peasant by no means unenviable. Trade, no doubt, stagnated, but there was vast wealth stored in the houses of the Maratha nobles. Civil talents found an opening in Nana Phadnavis administration andinMalwa where the wide lands of the Holkar Shahi were guarded tho tijctues and wisdom of Ahilyabai, Nor were adventures lacking to the adventurous* Raids were in
5

COTJBT OF

THE YOTOrOER MADKAVJ&LO

121

constant progress into the Carnatie or the Moglai j and far away at Ujjain were forming beneath the
those renowned brigades, who, many years later, though deserted by their leaders, yet faced Lake's attack with unfaltering courage; who burst like a flood over Upper India; who broke in pieces the old thrones of Ra jasthan, and
eagle eyes of

De Boigne

who accomplished what five centuries of Mussulman invaders had failed to achieve, for they humbled to
the very dust the lordly pride of Mewar. What than in the end induced Nana Phadnavis to consent to the English proposal ? There can be
little

was the growing menace of Tipu Sultan's kingdom. His father Haidar Ali had no doubt been on the whole hostile to the English, but he had been no less so to the Marathas, and it would
it

doubt that

not have been difficult for the Company to induce Tipu Sultan to join in a league against the Poona Government which, pressed on both sides, would have found it a hard task to resist. So to prevent what he most feared, an alliance of the English with Tipu, Nana Phadnavis agreed reluctantly to a permanent English envoy at the Peshwa's Court* There was yet another step to be taken, and that was to induce, without offending him, Mahadji Shinde to relinquish his post as intermediary between the EngThis delicate task was entrustlish and the Peshwa.

ed to the hero of Mr, Parasnis work, Charles Warre Malet. This remarkable man came of an obscure English family. His father was a poor country parson who found it difficult no his small income to bring up his children. Thus when his son Charles, born ia A* D. 1752, reached the age of eighteen*

122

COURT

Off

THE YOOTOEB

his father gladly accepted on his behalf a writership in the East India Company. In the winter of 1770

landed in Bombay, and his earlier in Muscat, Bushire and in other coast towns along the Persian Gulf. In 1774, he was selected to officiate as English Agent at the Court of Cambay. Here he earned the approval of
the young
service

man

was spent

his chiefs by an act of resolution certainly remarkably in a boy of twenty-three. When the intense feeling

roused by the murder of Narain Rao had alienated from Raghunathrao the great jaghirdars, he turned in despair to the English with whom, on March 6th, 1775, he drew up a treaty making to them large cessions in the Konkan in return for the support of
their troops.

me my life but you not only saved it, but my honour as well !" The Bombay Government showed their
appreciation by confirming Malet at Cambay where he seems to have remained until 1785, when they were asked by Calcutta to choose a for

him he was Mahi river by the regent's army. He fled with only 1,000 horses to Cambay where theNawab was unwilling to receive him. But the young English envoy, although he knew nothing of the treaty, insisted on sheltering him and enabled him to embark via Bhavnagar in safety for Bombay. The grateful pretender, in a letter quoted by Mr. Parasnis, exclaimed " You did more for me than my father Bajirao. He gave
:

Before, however, these could reach surprised and signally defeated near the

representative the Poona Court. Before this could be done Shinde's consent had, as I have said, to be obtained and Malet

was selected for this delicate mission. Going by sea from Bombay to Surat, Malet marched from there

COTTBT OF

THE YOmffGHER MADHAVBAO

123

to Ujjain.
difficulties

There he met Mahadji Shinde. The were great for, as intermediary between

the English and the Peshwa, Shinde retained an effective control over affairs at Poona. Nevertheless Malet induced the reluctant prince to write that if the Peshwa had no to the new embassy, objection

he had none.
the young

A yet greater triumph was in store for

civil servant. For, on his return to he learnt that Shinde had privately written Bombay, to Governor Boddom that, should the Peshwa consent, Shinde hoped that Mr. Malet might be chosen

as envoy. His wish was granted, for the Peshwa had already consented and Malet started for Poona. The following letter, written on the llth February, 1786, by Bahirav Raghunath to Nana Phadnavis reports
Malet's slow advance, and its closing sentence shows that our countryman, distinguished though he was, was not above certain deplorable frailties. "You ordered me to report, when Mr. Malet "
left

Bombay, how far he had gone and when he would reach Poona. Accordingly (I inform you "that) he reached Panwell on the 12th instant. " (Hindu month). He remained for eight days " there. On the 21st he left, and I was informed by " letter that on the 22nd he had come to Khalapur "near Khopvali just below the Ghats. The he was to climb them. He will "following day " remain two days at Khandala. The reason why "his marches ajre so slow is because he requires " labourers for no less than 500 to 700 head-loads* "This leads to confusion and waste of time. ". . . With, him are the following ; Six topi*
"

124:

COURT OF THE YOTTNGEE MADHAVBAO

walas* including Malet himself. Of these, three " There are of them are entitled to palanquins. " kamathi 50 100 200 35 horses, servants, guards, " porters, 75 palanquin men, 425 Mhars, 2 elephants, " 4 palanquins. His camp kit consists of 1 big and

"

2 small tents, 3 big raotis and pals for servants. Musalman dancing girl is for also with ** them in a palkhL" On Malet's arrival at Poona there occurred a The latter difference between him and the regent. was engaged in an expedition in the Carnatic and wished Malet without delay to join his army. Malet pleaded that he wished first to pay his respects to the young Peshwa and this the regent was at last forced to allow. Malet's stay gave rise to the question
**

"

Malet's

where he was to stay, and his place of residence gave Bahirav Raghunath who had been entrusted with
his entertainment

considerable trouble.

On
:

the

4th March, 1786, he wrote as follows to Nana "I have prepared a place in the Gaikwad's "houses. But he (Malet) want a roomy spot " surrounded by trees. He has, therefore, pitched "his tents opposite Parvati in the mango grove "near Anandrao Jivajfs garden. He has placed "hiszanankhana" presumably his Musalman Hero" " dias inside the Gaikwad's house, but he himself remains outside.'* Although Mr. Malet was not very satisfied with this arrangement and seems to have grumbled a good
* The names applied to Englishmen by Indians are many and variThe following I have myself either heard or read : Roumi, STeringhi, or Feranghi, Ingrej, Anrej, Angal, Mleccha, Yavan, topiwela and Janglo. Tlie term sahiblog is within my experience only used when an SngJ&bnaan is within, heating or by the servant class*
ous.

COTTET OF THE
deal, his attention

YOUNGEB MADHAVBAO

was soon diverted to a further

question. Having gained his point and obtained leave to see the Peshwa, he had next to see that he

" " " " "

should be properly received. He had brought with him a quantity of presents, of which one seems to have been a young ostrich* Of this Bahiravpant wrote; " Malet has brought a shahamrag (griffin) from

Abyssinia to give to the Peshwa. It, however, died in its cage below the Ghats. But he had its body carried after him. The bird was very large, being four feet high. He brought it because it

was very rare, but it is dead." The other offerings, however, remained and a heated controversy arose as to how the Peshwa should receive the envoy. Nana Phadnavis ordered that he should be given the same honours as Mr. Mostyn and Colonel Upton. Mr. Malet contended that they had merely represented the Bombay Government and that as he was the ambassador of Calcutta, he should receive the satoe honours as the Calcutta envoy when visiting Shinde or the Mogal. A most amusing correspondence ensued between Bahiravpant and the regent in which the former recited all the devices vainly employed to induce Malet to accept Nana Phadnavis* ruling. Eventually, it was arranged that the official reception should stand over until Malet's retttm from the regents camp. Malet, whom " as described extremely grieved, vexed, pant 59 was to see the Peshwa privately. annoyed, account of this interview is to be found in a tetter of Janardhan Apaji to Nana Phadnavis, dated 5th

Hatch, 1786.

126
"

OOTTBT OF

THE YOUNGER

BA.DEA\nfcAO

To-day he (Malet) went to pay his respects to the Peshwa. It was arranged that he should arrive " At the time of deparfirst and the Peshwa later. " ture the Peshwa was to rise first so that there " should be no difficulty on the score of etiquette. " As Bahiravpant suggested and Malet insisted that " on arrival he should merely place his hand within " the Peshwa s the latter received him unattended."*
"
5
?

After thus paying his respects to Madhavrao II, Mr. Malet had to join Phadnavis' army and on the

20th May, 1786, was presented at the storming of Badami, Upon this success, the Maratha forces returned to Poona where Malet began to unfold the design of the Company. This was no less than the formation of a triple alliance between the Nizam, the Marathas and the English against Mysore. As Mr. Parasnis has very justly observed, it is extraordinary that the regent should ever have joined such a scheme. Fear a league between the English and Tipu Sultan though he might, it was yet scarcely conceivable that he should play into the former's hands by joining with them against their most serious enemy. That Malet should have overcome Nana's
reluctance
is

the highest proof of the Englishman's

The Nizam was similarly won over by Sir talents* John Kennaway and eventually the representatives
of all three

powers formally agreed jointly to invade

of the treaty frankly
treaties

Mysore.

The opening passage

confesses its object : "All the three powers

have

w But he has harassed

with Tipu.
Therefore,

all

three of us.

* * The ' ordinary Indian salutation would have been a namaskar or bow accompanied by on upward motion of the hands clasped profound

mfeoni

COUBT OF THE YOTOGEB MADHAVBAO

*

127

expedition and give him such punishment that "he will not have the means of harassing any of " them again." Each power was to put 25,000 men into the field and the Nizam was to employ the

"

the three Governments

will

jointly

make an

two Company's regiments in his service. Similarly two Company's regiments were to be hired to the Peshwa, if required, at the game rate of pay. The English took the field at the appointed time, but soon found that their allies were not so ready
to act

up to their agreement. Malet, at last, exasperated by what he thought was the regent's duplicity but what Mr. Parasnis believes to have been his
lack of means, spoke to him, go sharply that he directed the Maratha agent with the English army,

Haripant Phadke, to ask for Malet's recall. Haripant, however, knew no English. The English General knew no Marathi Mr. Cherry, the English interpreter,

was Malet's personal

to write to

could not

friend, so Haripant had that under the circumstances he well raise the question. Eventually,

Nana

tytalet and Kennaway did infuse some energy into the Hyderabad and Poona administrations and the first Mysore* war terminated with the humiliation of Tipu and a partition between the allies of half hi$

kingdom, including Coorg. The East India Company, delighted with Malet's success, got the English Ministry to create him a baronet. But the regeftt*8 Malet on behalf of feelings were very different.
the Company presented his bill for their regiments at the rate of Bs. 64,000 a month, plus Es. 68,000 tot equipment, Ks. 14,000 for transport and Bs. 40,000 as a gratuity for their gallantry. In all the bill

128

COTTBT

Otf

THE YOUNGEB MADHAVBAO

to Rs. 751,666. It was paid, but Nana Phadnavis in the bitterness of his heart wrote to Govindrao Kale, the Maratha envoy at Hyderabad, as follows:

"

Malet at Poona, Kinvi (Kennaway) at Hyderasat down and done nothing, but have "spent lakhs of rupees. While they were sitting

"

bad have

"down

people said they cannot really be doing "nothing, they must be devising some cunning "plot. And that is what has actually happened. " Now whether we like it or not we have to agree " to what they say and act up to the treaty. It is " true that its terms were that when Dassara came "we were to send a considerable force. Dassara

"passed by and Diwali came and what was done " was done after Diwali. (They consider) each day " You will say that Diwali as if it was a yuga (age). "is the same as Dassara. Pagriwalas will agree " with you, but topiwalas will not be put ofi like that. " They will take a pair of scales and they will sit " down and weigh the meaning of each phrase in " the treaty and they will not let you speak a single "word. (They will exclaim) 'You made a fine "display! Without any trouble you have got "forts and strongholds while we worked ourselves
they will certainly say that the Company has been ruined and ask how we can " have the face to claim our share. I have no doubt " about it. And while Speaking they will loll their " eyes in anger and forget all that we have done "for them.' Nor was Govindrao Kale's answer less pathetic : " The present days are very hard. At Poona you Malet. Here we have Kinvi (Kennaway).
!

"

to death

And

"

OOTJBT OF

THE YOOTCffiB MADHA.VBAO

129

" They are both skilled in their work and servants " of the same master Malet writes to Kinvi what " goes on at Poona ; Kinvi writes to Malet wftat "goes on here. Then Malet questions you and " Kinvi me and they make us answer. And this " exposes us to great bother and difficulty* They " search out whether our answers are true or false. "And the man who gets caught between them "
suffers sore trouble."

In spite of Phadnavis* fears the English gave the Marathas their fair share and Malet in the end gained to some extent the regent's respect. He was even more successful with the young Peshwa

whose affections as well as those of the Poona people he seems to have completely captured. In this he derived great help from Dr& Crusoe and Hndley, members of his staff. They were skilful surgeons and attended on all, high or low, who needed their Still greater aid was given to Malet by a services. Mr, Wales, B. A,, who visited Poona about this time, and whose skill as a portrait painter both helped his country and brought considerable profit to himself. During the five or six years he remained at Poona, he sketched all the leading men of that day, and his portrait of the regents, and of the younger Madhavrao may still be seen at Ganeshkhind, At Malet's suggestion Wales founded an art school and one of his pupils, Gangaram Tambat, made a painting of Verul caves which in 1794 was sent by Malet as a present to Sir John Shore, then Governor-General Wales died on the 13th November, 1795, and five years later his eldest daughter Susan became Lady Malet. Surgery and painting were, however, not

130

COURT OF THE YOUN&EK MADHAVBA6

the only arts which the English envoy introduced. He sent for a watchmaker from Europe and microsto the Peghwa and his copes, globes, and telescopes For Sardars. Nor were his gifts confined to these.

when one Mahadji Ghintaman was suffering from a in the abdomen, Malets, gave him Bs. 125, with
pain

which to pay some Brahmins to do pradakshina* round the idol of Shri Narayan. One of the most interesting chapters in Mr. Parasnis' book contains the account of Malet's visit to Mahableshwar in 1791 more than thirty years before those of its reputed discoverers Lodwiek and Malcolm. The Peshwa, who loved Malet's society,, had taken him there with him. Nana Phadnavis,
however, was afraid that on the return journey the Englishman might at Satara weave an intrigue with the imprisoned Maharaja, and, as may be seen

from the following

their meeting
:

letter,

took steps to prevent

The Peshwa and his retinue came to Wai and "after the eclipse on the 3rd Ashwin Wad went " to Mahableshwar and returned on the 4th, Malet "with him. He always goes 4 or 5 kos daily in " Search of $port. There are many forts here and "he examines them daily through a telescope. " He then makes maps of them. The Maharajah, " the Queen Mother and the Satara notables sent a "message inviting the Peshwa, as he had climed " the Salpe ghat, to pay his respects to the Maha" would accomraja. If the Peshwa were to go Malet "pany him. Now Satara is the most important
;

"

* The ffpfrfofcafr**

is

wfth his left arm outwards. turned towards the idol.

*he circling of the suppliant round the shrine The right side of the body must be kept

OOtTET OF

THE YOUNGER MABHAVRAO

131

"

place (in the kingdom)* It would be quite different "if he saw it close. So it was decided that the u Peshwa should pay his respects alone and by putting off Malet's visits from day to day the Maha" raja was induced to believe that he was not coming. " So he and the Peshwa exchanged presents of
46

The following to Wai.'* returned the suite and his Peshwa day Nana Phadnavis thus thought that he had out* witted the envoy, but he was afterwards disgusted to learn that on the day of the Peshwa's visit to
Satara fort Malet had climbed the fort of Sonjai and had observed the whole scene through a telescope.

" clothes, an elephant and a horse. "

however, the old regent never wholly overcame his suspicion, elsewhere Malet attained a degree of intimacy with the Poona aristocracy which, as Mr* Parasnis has observed, is extraordinary in the manners. No marriage or thread* light of modern ceremony seems to have been complete without him. He attended regularly the Ganpati festival both in the palace of the Peshwas and of the Phadkes, and Brahmins of every degree were willing to drink mediIf,

He was, cines prepared either by him or his doctors. in fact, the great social success of Poona society. I& 1795 the young Peshwa either threw himself or fell*
from the upper storey of the Shanwar Wada aztd after innumerable plots and counterplots his cousin Baji* rao succeeded him on the royal cushion. He too came nndar the wand of the magician. For whea Peshwa patted Malet retired in March, 1797, the new sent byliim with him with the utmost reluctance and in to the English King a flattering letter,

132

COUET OP THE YOtTNGEE MADHA.VBAO

Malet's services were highly appreciated, and presents worth Rs. 20,000. On his return to England Malet resided until his

death in 1815 at Wilbury House. By Susan Lady Malet, he had 8 sons of whom the eldest Sir Alexander Malet succeeded to his father's title and from 1856 to 1866 was English ambassador at Berlin* Another son, Sir Arthur Malet, became a member of the Bombay Government* And a third son, Mr. Hugh Malet, while Collector of Thana, discovered by an unconscious atavism the hill station of Matheran. Here I must take leave of Mr. Parasnis and his most interesting book. In it he has given us, sketched both in penand pencil, the portraitsof the versatile

and able men who adorned the Court of the last Peshwa but one who ruled in Poona. There may be seen the dark and brooding brow of the great Nana
all in vain to pilot the ship of state through the raging waters. There too laughs at us, in the joy of his twenty years, the

Phadnavis who strove

younger Madhavrao, all unconscious of a future terrible and untimely death. And right through the book there
fearless,

strides the burly figure of the English envoy, adroit, resourceful and insinuating the

petrel whose presence more clearly than aught else fore the told to discerning^observer the cyclone that was soon to sweep away for ever the whole structure of the Peshwa's dominion.

stormy

A MARATHI COMEDY.
A
WOMAN'S REVOLT.
There are in the heart of Poona city several theatres where night after night Marathi plays are performed to Indian audiences ; but into which an Englishman rarely finds his way. Should he do so, it may be that he will be well rewarded. A few weeks

ago this way my own good fortune. I witnessed a play or rather part of play a evidently based on The old Latin tag that Princess/' Tennyson's " "art is long and life is short applies however, with peculiar force to Marathi dramas. The Indian, who has paid 4 annas for a seat, expects entertainment for at least an equal number of hours, so after witnessing an act or two of the play in the theatre I was forced to read the rest of it in my study. The dramatist, Mr. Khandilkar, following the usual Marathi tradition, has taken as the time of There his play the epic period of Indian history. are advantages about this method as girls where then married at an age when they could fall in love. It is, therefore, possible to put love scenes on the
Cft

stage*

chief demerit is that characters, 4,000 talk like Poona gentlemen of years old, are made to

The

to-day,

and we

therefore are faced with

an anach-

ronism similar to that with which Macaulay charged " the sentiments and Racine phrases of Versailles " in the camp of Atilia.'* Tbedate when

134

MAEATHI COMEDY

Revolt," as Mr. Kkadilkar's play is called, opens, is shortly after the great battle of Kurakshetra. The

Pandav
and one
own.

brothers, after the twelve years of exile of disguise forced on them by Yudhish-

thira's dicing

match, had at last come into their

Their cousin Duryodhan was dead, his father King Dhritrashtra was their prisoner. Yudhishthira had ascended the throne of Hastinapura and had sent Arjuna with the Ashwamedha horse that he might exact tribute and submission wherever

Arjuna had been a year absent, and everywhere the horse had wandered, Yudhishthira had been acknowledged emperor ; when in a
it

roamed.

small Himalayan kingdom it was seized and tribute was refused. The ruler Shvetketu, Tennyson's King Gama, himself acknowledged Yudhishthira's overlordship, but his daughter Pramila, going further than the Princess Ida, had established not merely

but a woman's kingdom. No man, with letters from Shvetketu, could enter it except save on pain of death and she and her female bands were prepared to resist all men's claims for superiority, including Yudhishthira's. Like King Gama, Shvetketu had not much sympathy with his daughter's views and promised Arjuna her hand if he could cure her of her That invincible folly. could not stain his arms with warrior, however, the blood of the fair sex. So it was agreed that like the Prince Elorian and he and some comCyril, panions should enter Pramila's domain, and if possible, win the heart of the Princess. Arjuna took
a
girl's college

tliteo

companions,

der-iu-chief, a

Pushpadhanwa, his comroanyoung hero who in youth had been

MARATHI COMEDY
betrothed to Pramila's Commander-in-chief Rupmaya, and two old men Maitraya and Jagruka, who furnish most of the comic element in the play. They do not, like Tennyson's gallants, adopt women's disguises, but Arjuna affects to be a vakil come with an

marriage from Arjuna. Pushpadhanwa puts on an old man's wig and beard and pretends to be like Maitraya and Jagruka, an ancient counsellor in attendance on Arjuna's vakil. The first scene closes as the four start on their quest armed with letters from King Shvetketu. The second scene opens on the frontier of Queen Pramila's Kingdom. Some lady soldiers are on duty and are passing their time abusing the male sex when they espy Arjuna and his three attendants. They are
arrested,

offer of

but as they produce King Shvetketu's letters, they are brought into the Darbar of Queen Pramila and her aunt Satyamaya. The latter has the title of Guru Maharaj and she is our old friend the Lady Blanche who
" Of faded form and haughtiest lineaments " With, all her autumn tresses falsely brown " Shot side at
" lit act to spring."
long daggers
us,

tiger oat

It is Satyamaya who has filled Pramila's head with nonsense. The Lady Psyche, Mr. Khadilkar has omitted and, as I think, wisely. For

Tennyson has not made it clear why that young and charming girl should have been so bitter against male humanity. Lady Blanche "was wedded to a fool ", and on that account influenced Princess Ida. Satyamaya was moved by a wish to surpass Parvati who, as one story has it, ran a woman's kingdom in the Himalayas until seduced by Sbiv,

136

MABATHI COMEDY
into her capital,

disguised as a holy In the Darbar the four adventurers have to bear much grotesque abuse

made his way

and

passionless ascetic.

of the

male

sex, of

which the following

!

may

serve

as specimen, "Men are accursed (mele*) mummers In their childhood they have faces like women; in their youth

theblackgua rds blacken their f aces (Le,, by growing beards) and in their old age, they put a coat of whitewash over the black sins of their youth. In a single
life,

their faces

have three different colours

!"

Eventually Pramila, after reading her father's letters, tells the so-called vakil that he may for ten days stay in her kingdom and persuade her if he can to marry Arjuna. It may perhaps here be

mentioned that according to Mr. Vaidya, f Arjuna must at this time have been well over 50 and he

had already as wives Subhadra, Krishna's sister, and a one-fifth share in Draupadi. But to these
ladies,

Mr. Khadilkar,

makes no reference, and as an unmarried warrior

dition Pramila

exercising a poet's license, Arjuna appears in his play

of about 30.

One con-

attaches to the

vakil's presence.

must in Darbar at any rate speak as if they were women, i.e., must use feminine* terminations. To this they have to agree
his attendants
* Tha practice of
lish Society usually confined to

He and

ed to women.
word*
t

which is in Eng* men, is in Deooan Society usually confinThe epithet f mala/ or < dead * is a very common abusive
affixing forcible epithets to norms,

The Mahabhfcrata.

Criticism, p*

H6, by Mr.

C.

V. Vaidya, a* A,,

LL.B.

t This will be best understood by a quotation, " Bayaki Bhasha bolayw#i& xnikabul karite " (instead of Kariton). It is much the same aa if a man said in French, MJe suis prfcte a parler oomme uaa

MARATHI COMEDY

137

and the four men's use of them leads to a good deal of merriment. But as the Marathi proverb * " has it, once a beak gets in, a pestle will shortly follow. And now that four men have entered the women's empire, its speedy downfall may con5'

The first women to break fidently be expected. their oaths are two lady sepoys, Wagmati and Budhimati. It seems that Arjuna's two old attenand Jagruka, had been amusing themselves, the former by leering at all the women whom he passed, and Jagruka by fooling old Lady Satyarnaya to the top of her bent. At last, bored by her continued lectures, he had set her to "
dants, Maitraya

Revolsearch through the Rigveda for types of " which has he said, were to be found ting women " levanted." Eventually had he himself and there, to tracked, his evasions escape punishment reminded
attempts to evade school* Budhimati who then Wagrnati mentions remembers that her son too must be at school

Wagmati

of her brother's

this to

Following the train of thought thereby started the two women agree to escape from Pramila's clutches by the aid of a Bhil and his wife who have just arrived bringing a message to Rupmaya fooni
her mother, and the two women do eventually get to their homes after a very amusing scene between them and the Bhil's wife who cannot be persuaded that they have not designs on her husband's virtue* The great scene in the play, however, is the wooing
of

Rupmaya by Pushpadhanw^. With her Uffio* ther's letter comes to Rupmaya a picture of hsi*
The
sight of
it

betrothed.

moves her deeply,

~-**-*~--~~+
1

*~

IS

138
as she

MAEATHI COMEDY

is looking at it, Pushpadhanwa, still wearing the disguise of an old man, makes his way to the presence on the pretence of winning her over, if possible to the idea of wedlock with the lover To her disgust, he affianced to her in childhood. at once begins making love to her on his own account

and

calls

her his dear one and himself her slave.

Eventually, besides herself with exasperation at the old man's importunity, she confesses her love I translate a part of the for Pushpadhanwa.

scene verbatim.

Eupmaya

"
:

Pushpadhanwa, how would you

like to here this old

you love and you old fool,

tions of

monkey calling the girl whom who loves you, his dear one* Now, how do you like that ? I refuse to

marry Pushpadhanwa only because of the attracwomen's rule. And although you know
me.
(Pointing to the picture.)

this yoii yet pester

do you think your old face is more winning than Pushpadhanwa's ? Look, accursed one, look at this picture well. To conquer a woman's fancy eyes like these are needed eyes flashing with light and rounded like a lotus flower in bloom. Open your eyes wide, and looked at this laughing mouth, the haughty beauty of this face, that dear broad breast which bids me embrace it. And then, old cripple, hide your white beard in shame.

Now

Pushpadhanwa (Disguised) Pretty am I worse than Pushpadhanwa ? How are you worse ? Rupmaya ? you worse
:
:

one,

how
are

How

less

!&ushpadhanwa : (Disguised) My eyes are no comely than Pushpadhanwa's. I have strength

MARA.THC
in this

COMEDY

139

my beard to

of valour as

do merely in sport such, deeds Pushpadhanwa had never either in

youth or as commander-in-ehief accomplished. O dear one, I feel sure that you will throw that picture aside and end by fondling this beard.

Rupmaya
at once.

Seeing that I listen to him the old

!

fool begins doting.

Be off with Accursed one Get this instant. If out you you do not, Fll catch your beard and drag you by it into the courtyard. I'll make such a show of you that
you'll

remember

it all
:

your

life.

Now

out you get,

No, kneeling) (Disguised, Pushpadhanwa this but what will No. Do your you Rupmaya.
slave will linger on at your feet

never bring this accursed one to reason until I drag nim out by his beard. [She seizes his beard and pulls. It comes away in her hand. She looks first at the picture and then at Pushpadhanwa and then timidly moving back He throws away the rest of looks fondly at him.

Rupmaya

I'll

his disguise.]

Rupmaya, I envy the picture Pushpadhanwa in your hand. Pushpadhanwa of the picture has
:

has never knelt beBut he can look fore you or fawned before you. the lusfe through my eyes fierce and reddened with content, love's of battle* on your lotus cheek to his And yet on these my (real) eyes, which if denied at nothing in the world you your love wiU look
neVer fallen at your
feet.

He

to smile in fondness. Does this partiality I envy it. And I envy the picture. befit yoti ? Have you unless I tike it from you (he takes it.)
reftise
*""*

The

picture

no dcxabt represented Pushpadhanwa

in armour.

140

MABATHI COMEDY

looked at me ? Now answer truly. I in any way worse to look at than Pushpadhanwa in the
picture
?
:

Am

what can I say ? You disman and made me conwhat else can this your my slave now say to you ? But dear one, if any waiting maid were by chance to come here suddenly and were to see you ? Then what will happen ? She Pushpadhanwa will tell Pramila that Pushpadhanwa has entered her kingdom. What then ? I do not want it to be Oh, no Rupmaya known now. So, do, dear, become an old man as

Rupmaya

My lord,

guised yourself as an old fess love for you* So

before.

gain a woman, men will pretend to be young, old or even women. But I thought that you did not want even to look at that accursed, base, forward, impertinent donkey, at that old fool and cripple.

Pushpadhanwa

To

do, dear,

hanwa compels her to promise that she will marry him before re-assuming his disguise. They then flee away together across the border.
Arjuna's suit with Pramila does not proceed so To show the so-called vakil that women easily. are as bold as men, she takes him hunting in the jungle which clothes the banks of the river Saraswati. She wounds a tiger with her arrow* A
its

do stop that wretched joke 'And " become again an old man at once Eventually by working on her fears Pushpa-

Rupmaya

mate, attacks Pramila and her comArjuna watches from her hands the bow

MABATHI COMEDY

141

and arrow with which she wishes to defend herself, and with one hand seizing the tigress by the throat and with the other its two paws, holds it at arm's length and then drives it away half-strangled and wholly cowed. This is certainly a tall order* Pramila But tout eat permis to an Aryan hero
!

but in order to Khadilkar resorts to Mr. finally yield, a device similar to that of Tennyson. It will be remembered that after the Prince's disguise had been betrayed by Cyril's drunken song, Ida in a fury mounted her horse and rode off
is

deeply impressed

by

this feat,

make her

"Hoof by hoof,

And

every hoof a knell to my desires, Clanged on the bridge, and then another shriek, * The Head, the Head, the Princess, O the Head!* For blind with rage she missed the plank and rolled In the river. Ont I sprang from glow to gloom. There whirled her white robe like a blossomed branch Eapt to the horrible fall : a glance I gave, No more ; but woman vested as I was Plunged ; and the flood drew ; yet I caught her up Oaring one arm and bearing in my left The weight of all the hopes of half the world Strove to buffet to land in vain. A tree

Was half
And

To drench

disrooted from his place and stooped h^s dark locks in the gurgling wave

Mid-channel.
grasping

Bight on this we drove and caught, down the boughs I gained the shore."

In Mr* Khadilkar's, play, however, Satyamaya or the Lady Blanche gets a ducking also. She has had her fears that in ten days' time the young vakil may make a great deal of love. Partly to watch Pramila and partly to practise austerities, as a gooii Hindu widow should, she has followed her niece to the banks of the Saraswati She surprises Pramila and Arjuna in an animated scene, where

142

MAEATH3 COMEDY

the latter discloses himself and offers his famous bow " Gandiva " for Pramila to trample on in revenge for his treatment of her bow when the
If she does trample on it Arjuna she does not love him. Pramila hesitates and has she does so Satyamaya rushes across a bridge whence she has overheard the dis-

tigress charged. will know that

cussion in order to trample

on

it

herself.

The

bridge no doubt of Hemadpanthi architecture breaks and Satyamaya is hurled into the river.

Arjuna at once springs after her. Primala wishing to share Arjuna's danger refuses to stay behind and the scene closes with the heroic Pandav swimIn Tennyson's play the Princess still remains obdurate and her hero has to fight in the lists, be half-killed by her brother and nursed back to life by herself before she will give way. But Mr. Khadilkar clearly could not so deal with the invincible Arjuna.

ming to shore with a lady on each arm.

makes Satyamaya prove ungrateful. shocked Pramila, by her aunt's ingratitude, contesses her affection for her gallant lover and Satyamaya leaves the story with these words : "0 Adimaya (Parvati) why were not my eyes closed before they saw this sight ? I can never teach another woman all my wisdom* Now I go into the forest to perform austerities. Nbr shall I ever move from the seat where I shall perform
therefore

He

them until the pride of men is conquered and until women's wrists have strength enough to turn men
into wet nurses."

In the meantime rumours have reached the capital that the troops with Pramila have become dis-

MARATHI COMEDY
affected.

143

the capital

women army comes from on the scene in time to face Arjuna's army, who have invaded Pramila's land to see that no harm comes to their general, PramiThe bulk
of the
la,

however, intervenes, tells the opposing sides that her reign is over and that she is to be Arjuna's bride and the play closes with the couple's He blesses arrival at the Kong Shvetketu's camp. the pair, promises to hand them over his lands and wealth before retiring like a true Aryan king
to meet death in the practice of austerities, and " Now then turning to his servants, he tells them : all of you go to the capital and arrange for the marriage ceremonies of Arjuna and Pramila."
" Ask

me no more : thy fate and mine are sealed. " I strove against the stream and all in vain. " Let the great river take me to the main.
**

No more, dear love,

it,

for at

a touch I

yield,

Ask me no more."

be improper to ask what reception Pramila received from Arjuna's family* Was she snubbed by Subhadra ? Did Arjuna's Lfet one-fifth share of Draupadi ever box her ears ?
It would, I take
also

us trust not.

Hindu women are capable of extraordinary self-sacrifice and submission. Let us rather hope that from the lattice windows of some palace in Hastinapura Pramila smelt the odours and saw the smoke go up from the great Ashwamedha sacrifice which Yudhishthira held when he was finally
crowned Emperor of the Universe ; that she lived happily until such time at the Panda vas and Drauand that she padi went forth on the Mahaprasthan was still alive when thirty-eight years after the Kurukshetra yudhishthira took leave of Subhadra

144

MABATHI COMEDY

with the words "keep in the path of Dharma or Righteousness." So much for Mr. Khadilkar's drama which I have tried to sketch for AngloIndian readers* May I venture to hope that in some future play he will throw aside old traditions

and use his undoubted talents to picture, without the aid of epic heroes, Indian life as it is ? I cannot leave the subject without a word of praise for Mr. Mali, the artist, who has furnished the printed
with illustrations. the dresses of Although Arjuna and Pushpadhanwa are Rajput court dresses of to-day and not such as Aryan heroes wore, and although the bridge which broke down at Satyamaya rushed across it has all the appearance of a P. Vf. D. culvert, these
copies* of

"A Woman's

Revolt,

55

are

little

matters.

especially of the
*

The drawing of the women, is excellent.

figures,

" Bayakaache Band, by Mr. K. P. Khadilkar,

Cbitrasliala Press,*'

Poona.

MAHASHIVRATRA DAY.
To-day the Government officers are closed throughout the Presidency and the weary administrator will have time to seek solace in the latest masterpiece of Victoria Cross or Marie Corelli. Before,
however, plunging into its delectable depths, it not perhaps be without profit or uninteresto consider why to-day is a holiday. It is the ting Mahashivratra, the greatest festival of Shiva, the present head of the Hindu triad. The Mahashivratra falls on the 14th day of the dark half of Magh and I have come across two stories told to explain why it does go. They are, of course, mere tales, but religious tales are always of interest and these perhaps especially so far they illustrate the peculiar Hindu doctrine that accidental acts whether of good or evil are as efficacious or as punishable as

may

intentional ones.

story is the common one. Once upon a time there lived in Modeshakhya town in Vaidaar-

The

first

bha or Berar a wicked king and a worse minister. Both gave full scope to their evil passions, so that in their next life they became respectively a tiommon hunter and a beast of prey. On the 14th M#gh Wadya the former was on a hunting expedition when he was suddenly attacked by the latter. To save himself the sportsman climbed a Bel of* all, trees the most sacred to Shiva and as the wild
'

146

MAHA.SHIVRATEA DAY

beast strove to clamber after him, he defended

himself with one of its branches. In the struggle Bel leaves dropped both from the hunter's hand

and the

beast's

mouth on

to where in the sand be-

neath lay a hidden Shivaite pindi. Now the laying of a Bel leaf on a Shivaite pindi constitutes the In an instant the sins offering dearest to Shiva. of the two were forgiven and Shiva himself appeared in his fiery chariot and bore them away with him to his heaven in Kailasa. In honour of this miracle the 14th, Magh Wadya has been deemed to be the
holiest of all Shiva's holy days.

The second story is to be found in the Skanda Purana and was told by the sage Shuk to Shounak and the other Rishis. Once upon a time there lived a king called Mitrasaha of the royal line of Ikshwaku who was learned above all men in the Shastras and the Vedas. His rule extended over the whole earth and its kings everywhere paid

him

One day King Mitrasaha while hunting fought with and slew a demon. The demon's brother witnessed the fight and thought how to get
tribute.

feared open battle lest he might meet his brother's fate. So he disguised himself as a cook and obtained employment in Bang Mtrasaha's household. All went well until the shr&&

vengeance.

He

adversary of King Mitrasaha's father. A great feast was prepared and as the demon surpassed m
the other cooks, he was entrusted with the preparation of the dinner. Among the guests was the sage Vasishta and in the food prepared for him the demon cook dexterously slipped some human
Skill all

fjeah.

Now

Vasishta possessed

besides

his

two

3&lHASmVBATBA DAY
eyes an inner eye of knowledge and with ceived that he had eaten human flesh*
it

147

he per-

Furious,

he cursed King Mtrasaha and condemned him to take the form of a man-eating demon. King Mitrasaha protested that he knew nothing of the matter.
Vasishta too learnt through his inner eye of know*,, ledge that King Mitrasaha wag not to blame. But the curse of a sage once spoken cannot be recalled.
that King Mtrasaha could obtain was that the period of his demonhood should be reduced to 12 years. Then compelled by the curse he assumall

And

ed the guise of a man-eating rakshasa and went One day when roaming into the deep jungle. a Brahman and his wife met he forest the through gathering samidha.* Hungry, he at once seized the Brahman and though the wife vainly begged for his life King Mitrasaha ate him up, picked his bones clean and then went his way. The wife gathered together the bones, made them into a pyre and burnt herself with them. As she burnt she cursed King Mitrasaha and her curse was that on his return to human shape he should die imr mediately after he had had any intercourse with women. Now King Mitrasaha had heard the wife*s speech and on his return to human shape lived a life But the of perfect chastity and so evaded death.
guilt of

Brahman-hatya or Braiman-killing pursued him and became incarnate as a Chandala woman who always danced before his eyes and

* A, aamidh (plural, Samidha) is a twig of one of the nine saored trees with which it is alone permitted to make horn or saored fire. The nine trees are Palag, Bui, Pimpal, Shaani,JKhair, Durva, Darbha, Umba and

Aghada,

148
before

MAHASHIVEATEA DAY

Ms

eyes alone.

of this mystic shape he threw aside his and going into the jungle sought the sage

Maddened by the sight kingdom

Gautama*

Gautama said that there was but one way to obtain release, and that was to go to Gokarna on the 14th Magh Nadya and there worship Shiva. King
Mitrasaha asked wherein lay the greatness of Gokarna, and the merit of Magh Wadya Ohaturdashi. The sage Gautama replied that on that day in the preceding year he had seen a hideous old Chandala woman lying on the ground and on the point of death when suddenly from heaven came the lord Shiva's fiery chariot. From it his messenand descended placed in it the Chandalin. gers "I asked them," said the sage Gautama, "the reason. They replied that the Chandalin was in a former life a Brahman girl called Malini, and possessed beauty that put to shame even Eambha the fairest of the dancing girls of Indra. Her husband died while she was still young and for some days the precepts of her parents and the effects of their early teaching enabled her to triumph over temptations and desires. But her beauty was such that all men longed for her, and at last she
yield

and so entered upon

evil courses.

Her parents

found out her wickedness and dismissed her from their house. She then became the mistress of a Sudra and gave herself up unrestrainedly to the eating of meat and the drinking of wine. One

day when she could obtain no meat she killed a young &eifer and eating half of it escaped the neighbour's fefowe by crying out that a panther had killed it. Site 4ied not long afterwards and when her soul

MAHASHEVKATRA DAY

149

came to Yama's Court, Chitragupta's* record showed that she had committed gohatya, and she was at
once consigned to the blackest Hell, In her next life, she became a blind, leprous and filthy Chandala

not even a Chandala would marry. To-day she was begging from the pilgrims to Gokarna, but all refused her alms. At last, one pilgrim in derision placed a Bel leaf in her hand. In anger she threw it away and it fell on a hidden Shivaite pindi Then the lord of Kailas* heart melted in pity for her, and he sent his chariot and his messengers to bear her away to his heaven. With these words the messengers and the chariot bore away the Chandala woman to the snowy mountain tops of Kattas." Hearing the words of the sage Gautama, hope once more came to the heart of King Mitrasaha, and he made his way to Gokarna, and on the 14th day of the Krishna or dark-half of Magh he fasted and each watch of the night he worshipped Shiva by placing on his holy pindi the leaves of the Bel tree. And the following day he fed Brahmans and gave gifts to the poor and the blind, and in this wise he too obtained the mercy of the lord Shiva. The image of the Chandala woman faded from King Mitrasaha's eyes and he knew that he was freed from the most terrible of all sins that a man may commit the sin of Brahman-hatya or Brahman murder.
*
Ohitragupta is the recording angel*

woman whom

PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY IN

WESTERN
I

INDIA.

THE SAYINGS OF KATHIAWAR.

The day has in England long gone by when the wise saws and well-worn sayings of some time honoured member of she family carried weight in a discussion* If one practised in ordinary conversation the art of introducing happily rhyming

proverbs, one would soon have no one left with whom to converse and beyond that of an intoler-

able bore one would have achieved no other repuYet two hundred years ago, things were tation*

The Squire Westerns whom Macaulay famous third chapter of his history describes as ruling with an iron rod their feudal domains,
different.

in the

yet standing awestruck in the London Streets at the sight of the Lord Mayor's show, used the old English proverbs as the staple buttress of their

arguments.

One can imagine what a formidable

engine of oppression proverbs, such as

and " Spare the rod, spoil the child " must have been when it was considered almost impious to question the superior wisdom of one's forefathers* Indeed, I seem to have an unpleasant recollection in my own childhood of what then at any rate appeared to me to be a misuse of the latter aphorism. But

A woman, a spaniel and a walnut tree The more you beat them the better they be

IN

WESTERN INDIA

151

the saws of Squire Western and the simples of his helpmeet have gone their way, and an English proverb now is hardly ever used, save to distort it into

a paradox.

Western India, however, has not yet reached the paradox stage of human development. And I have
myself seen a happily applied proverb close more than once an intricate discussion, and an Indian

proverb on a European's lips invariably fills a native audience with an immense and often excessive respect for his acquaintance with their language. Hereafter I may deal with the proverbs common amongst the Marathas. But in this chapter I shall
confine myself to the Gujarati sayings of Kathiawar, which yields to no country in its appreciation of

proverbial wisdom.

do not intend

far

to give an exhaustive list, but it may interest to my readers to know which of the several

from it be of some

hundred proverbs, which

may be found

in published

collections are in ordinary conversation

most com-

monly

used.
traaslations of the English equivalent

Sometimes, although rarely, Gujarati proverbs

seem almost

such as "parej

ej uttam osad" (dieting is the best " is nearly a reproduction of which Diet medicine), cures more than the doctors." So also "dukhnu " " osad dahada Time (the cure for grief is days) is the best healer." But more often the different conditions 6f like necessitate a different clothing We say " all that glitters is not for the same idea. gold." The Kathiwadi peasant says "all that is " white is not milk (dholu etalu dudh nahi). We

say

"a

full

purae never lacks friends*"

He

say&

152

PBOVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY
a green tree there are
;

"on

many parrots"

(lila

wanna suda ghana). We say "penny wise and " " he it is useless to plug up says pound foolish " the sink pipe and leave the door open (" khale
ducha ne darwajo moklo "). Is there not an Irish story which points out the uselessness of padlocking the gate when there are gaps in the hedge ? How" a bribe in the lap blinds the eyes/ ever to match he also makes a reference to money. "The sight " of gold makes a saint wobble (sonu dekhi muni
3

chale).

are an animal-loving nation make a considerable use of the domestic ones in our sayings.

We who

"Don't count your chickens before they are hatched." The Kathiawadis say elliptically "Wheat " in the field and the child in the womb (ghau khetman ne beta petman). We say "Let sleeping
not rouse the sleeping snake" (sutelo sap jagadvo nahi). We say "We " all think our own geese swans*" They say Chagan Magaa'ft children are of gold, while every one else's are of dung." (Chagan magan to sona na ne parka chokra garana). We say 6t A crying crow bears bad news," They say "A weeping man means a death" On the other (rose jay te muvano samachar lave). hand, animals are not wholly absent from the Kathiawadi's proverbs. They say "To make an " elephant out of an atom (rajnu gaj karavun) in*

We say

dogs

lie."

They say

"Do

stead of "A mountain out of a mole hill," and they have elaborated "Barking dogs do not bite," into " Barking dogs do not bite nor do thundering clouds " rain (bhasya kutta kate nahin ne gajya megh varse
nahia).

IN

WESTEBN INDIA
Kathiawadi proverbs employ

Some
similes

of the best

from the

" carpenter thinks of nothing but babulwood (sutarnu man bovaliaman) may be translated " There is nothing like leather." On the other hand, we haye

village trades.

The proverb

"A

idle barber shaves the footstools " (navro) hajam patala munde), and must fall back on that terror of boyhood, Dr. Watts, " for Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to 55 do. 'Nevertheless excessive energy meets -with ap" " proval in puchhtan puchhtan lanka javey (by asking and asking one can get to Ceylon). That the village savkar is sometimes outwitted is proved " " by Sehth kern tanano to ke labhe lobhe (" How did the sheth come to grief ? He was too clever by hall")' The brief reign of the village cartman while he drives his cart finds expression in "we must sing the songs of the man in whose cart we sit (jene vele bessie tena git gaie). It may be trans" lated who pays for the fiddler may call the tune." But the village tailor, who is mentioned by implica" tion in Cut your coat according to your cloth " " receives no recognition in make your grass bed " of to the size (sod pramane according your body

no proverbial equivalent

for

" An

satharo).

As might have been expected, the common roimd,

of household duties provides proverbs in Gujarata as well as in English, although they are not neces" stitch in sarily dmilar in the two languages.

time saves nine" finds an equivalent in"Eariy " (velae male te kela). plantains are really plantains *' " It never rains but it may be translated pours in two ways "When it rains it rains in the hedges"
:

154
(varse to

PEOVEBBIAI; PHUiOSOPHY

and the second proverb " She went to look gives the sense more accurately " (lene geie put for her son and she lost her husband The certainly deaie lady or khoe poor khasam).

vadma

varse) or

" the good wife who served sympathy. So, too, did went to her father-in-law and got scolded by the " unfaithful wife (dahi sasare jay ane gandi shikhahome man de) proverb very typical of Indian " chas mjan makan jay ane rand life is the following " fuvad kehevay (when butter goes with the butter!

milk the wife gets called a slut). The explanation is to be found in theGujarati custom of distributing the butter-milk from which a large quantity of butter has been churned. The careful housewife is expected to see that her friends get none of the butter Another proverb which also inculcates, although
!

should begin sarcastically, the lesson that charity

at

" gharma chokra ghanti chate ne apu" (the children of the house lick the dhyane ato the grinding mill while the spiritual teacher gets notice the to Had this saying been brought flour). " " in Pickwick he might have of the Shepherd avoided serious trouble at the hands of Mr. Weller. u The child is father of the man " finds a mate in

home

is

the qualities of a son may be seen from his cradle ITrench (putrana lakshan palnamathi janay). The * terre f le de et de er Le of fable may be pot pot " If the short man goes with the tall pitted against " one, he may not die, but he will get very sick (lamba jode toko jay mare nahi pan mando thay). "A.
'

ce

"

short
lated

life

(char divasnu moonlight days otawadarnu), which in turn recalls Moore's refrain.

by

and a merry one " four of

"

is

rather neatly trans-

"

nr WESTERN INDIA

155

"

ways to lengthen your days, is to take a few hours from the nigbt, my dear." " little pot is soon hot is on the other hand more " felicitous than the weak man has a bad temper "

The best

of all

"A

Yet we have nothing so good as " to a wooden god give a slipper" as an offering (lakdana devne khasdani
puja).

(kamzor ne gusso bot) ; and "What the eye does not " see the heart does not than " not to see is grieve " not to mourn (dekhvun nahi ne dajeun nahin).

Some of the Kathiawadi proverbs have, like some English ones, a deeper meaning than appears on the surface. "Iftom afar the mountains are
(Dungaro durthi raliamuna) corresponds with "Distance lends enchantment to the view." So also " As the father, so are the sons, and as the " banian tree, so are the branches (Bap teva beta and wad teva teta) is a close match for " As the twig
bent so the tree is inclined." "Hope deferred " maketh the heart sick finds an equivalent in " the hope that rests on others is continual despair" (parki ash saday nirash). My official readers will probably after this wonder why that pest, the youthful candidate for office, bothers them so frequently. An, answer will, I think, be found in "Ap mua pacehi dub gaie udnia" (when I have died the world is " drowned) a proverb which like Louis XVs Apr&a " moi le deluge must have emanated from an exis

beautiful

"

tremely self-centred person* I would, however, suggest an unfailing method to all those who are at a loss how to get rid of a

wholly unqualified, but pertinacious clahtiant. Aak him qirietiy if he has ever heard the story ol the

156

PBOVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY

Bavo and the soni." The tale runs that a certain Bavo or religious mendicant went to a goldsmith's shop and asked to be given a lump of gold. The soni began at length and with many interpolations
of

"

My

was

young friend to explain that gold a valuable thing and not to be given away in
dear

"

lumps.
lecture

said that, and I did not it to would me, but I thought that give fancy you there was no harm in asking." As a reply to the

At and

last the

"

Bavo got I knew all

sick to death of the

question the candidate invariably grins feebly and makes for the door. Should a last spark of hope

induce him to linger on the threshold and to enumerate his imaginary merits, then fire him out with the proverb "Praised Khijdi sticks to the teeth'* (vakhanani Khijdi dante valge) and the disappointed one will, like Slipper in the adventures of an Irish " R. 11, vanish like^a dream."

II.

SAYINGS OF THE DECCAN.

chapter of this series I ventured to of the more common Kathiawadi

In the
discuss

first

some

proverbs. I would now place before my readers some of the wise sayings of the Deecan and they will probably be struck at the absence of that

resemblance which they might have expected from the common origin of the two languages Marathi

and Guzarathi.

A country so long under orthodox priestly rale as

th

uplands of the Sahyadris not unnaturally possesses several proverba dealing with religion or

IN

WESTERN INDIA

157

The most delightful one to "Laksh pradakshina ani ek paisa my dakshina." It means literally "the going round the idol 100,000 times and at the end a gift of
its

with

ministers.
is

mind

one pice as an offering to the Brahmans/' are ourselves not unacquainted with the type of religious enthusiast

We
in

who may be summed up

:

Mr.

Lewis Carroll's description of the Snark

"

" At charity meetings be stands at the door And collects though he does not subscribe."

" Melya vanchun swarga disat nahin (one cannot reach heaven without dying) expresses an idea " " similar to that in II faut souffrir pour etre beau and we will probably all agree with the excellent maxim" jar man asel changlatar kathavatint Ganga" (if your mind is pure, it is as a good as having Ganges water in your platter). A very common proverb too of this class is "bazarant turi bhat bhatnfla
mari
(the Brahman beat his wife because of the turi The tale runs that a Brah(pulse) in the bazaar). man priest who had by means foul or fair secured

"

little

money wished to
his wife to

and directed
<

give himself a good dinner buy him some pulse in th6

bazaar.

The question arose as to how the pulse should, when bought, be cooked, and an acrimonious discussion terminated with the whacking of the
unruly housewife. The proverb is ordinarily used c in the same sense as Don't count your chickens
before they are hatched.'

the donkey, finds a considerable place in Marathi aphorisms. "Apate " (in our need we call an ass & garje gadhava raje be rendered by necessity makes stowage king) may

The animal kingdom,

especially

158

PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY

bedfellows' "Ghadhavaya pudhen waohali gita kalcha gondhal bara hota " (if you read the Gita before an ass, he will think that yesterday's kick up was better fun). Well perhaps the stes was not quite so wrong, for have we not De La Bochefoucauld's authority for Qui vit sans folie n'eist pas si
*

sage qu'il croit

*

"

Another proverb meaning also

5

Don't cast pearls before swine is "Gadhawas " (an ass will have no relish for golachi chav kay And the poor beast's proper occupation joggery). " is laid down in "Jyacha tyala ani gadhva ojhayala I have (the only utee of an ass is to carry burdens). discovered one which mentions the only saying horse and that is the phrase " ghodya evadi chuk " The mistake must (a mistake as big as a horse). have been a real " howler " and probably occurred in some youthful subaltern's exercise for the Lower Standard Hindustani But there used to be a saying commonly used by grooms to their horses when they refused to drink "Dhanaji wa Santaji " panya madhayen tula distat kay (do you see Dhanaji and Santaji in the water). This saying had a great historical interest for it dated from the time when Dhanaji Jadav and Santaji Ghorpade were
!

the terror of the Grand Army of Aurangzeb, The cow finds a place two or three times. " Gaine gay * implies that one poor wretch cannot phalat nahin
iielp another.

the poor as helps the poor expresses a different point of view. " *f Salyachi gay ani malyache vasru (the weaver's cow and the mail's calf ) implies that a clean sweep
It's
*

Our vulgar saying

foas

been made of everything.

gurun ani oshal

bayako

"

Lastly,
*

"Odhal
is

means

a straying cow

IN WESTERN INDIA
like a shameless wife/

109

No doubt

both

suffer

from

the Tcakoefhes vagandi. The buffalo is honoured by the delightful maxim " Melia mhashila panch sher

dead buffalo always gave five seers 'of reminds one of the story of the lady who milk,) when asked whether she had ever heard of any one
(the
It

dudh "

who was
tantly
!

absolute

perfection,

replied

cons-

she was my husband's first wife/ The the jackal, dog, the camel, the kid, the cat, the crocodile and the ant are honoured by a proverb a " Kolha kakadila raji (a jackal is satisfied piece with a cucumber) may be rendered Hunger is the "Andhala dalato aani kutra pit khato " best sauce.' (the blind man grinds and the dog eats the flour). This saying is generally used of a man whose " " brains have been sucked. Untawaril shahana (he who is on a camel is a wise man) has a story connected with it. A buffalo got its head into an earthen vessel and could not extricate it without breaking the jar which he did not wish to do. All his Mends gave him advice, but a man riding on a camel suggesting cutting off the buffalo's head and thereby saving the vessel. The phrase is used of a " '* foolish busy body Jogyache karde ladke (a yogi's kid is like a daughter to him). So also we * use the Biblical phrase one ewe lamb.' "Matijaras " a mouse as witness for a cat imundir saksh plies that a servant must give evidence as his master pleases and that therefore his testimony is worthless. The crocodile is to be found in "Susatbai tujhi
'

pat phar mau" (0 lady crocodile, your baofc The idea is that by thus flattering is very soft*) the crocodile she may be induced safely to

160

PBOVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY

you across the

river in which she lies. Safely on the other side you send her about her business with a good kick in the stomach. Lastly, the

elephant and the ant find a place in mungi houn sakhar khavi pan hatti houn lakde khaun nayet " (It is all very well for an ant to eat sugar, but an elephant should not live on sticks) ; in other words, one must live according to one's station. This
;

"

idea finds more comic expressions in "nesen tar shalu nesen, nahitar nagvi basen" (If I wear clothes I shall put cloth of gold, if not I shall 5 sit with 'nodings on ). The gender shews that the speaker was a lady.

The time-honoured maxim

spoil the child* finds

Spare the rod and

an equivalent in

"Chhadi
;

" lage chhum chhum vidya yei ghum ghum which we may translate in the following couplet
" The more the urchins feel the whacks The more their little brains they'll tax,"

following three proverbs have their humo" rous side : Doi dharala tar bodaka, hati dharala " tar rodaka (If you try to catch him by the head you will find that he has shaved it ; if you catch
his

The

hand

it will

be so thin as to

slip

through your

The person alluded to must have been as elusive as Mr. Balfour, when many years ago the late Sir William Harcourt described him as 'slipppery " as an eel. Jyachi lage chad to ude tad mad (he who is sought after holds himself as high as a
fingers).
5

toddy palm or a cocoanut tree) describes the condition known in America as a badly swollen head.
Lastly, "gajrachi pungi wajli tar wajli nahitar " can play a tune on a carrot fehaun takli (if you

IN WESTERN INDIA

161

well and good, if you fail you can always eat it) expresses the same idea as the well known Irish " Be aisy, and if you can't be aisy, be as saying as aisy you can." I must however confess that an attempt to play a tune on this vegetable would almost be as good an illustration of nonsense as
that of the youthful essayist c it would be nonsense, Sir, to bolt a door with a boiled carrot/ Two somewhat sad proverbs are " Daiv detopan, karm nete (the gods give, but karma takes away) and " Dushkalacha terava mahina " (a famine year) has always thirteen months). The first because it expresses the terrible idea that no matter how

we

strive

we cannot escape the punishment

in a former existence.

of sins

the second because it alludes to the endless waiting until the next year's monsoon comes to relieve the kunbi's
suffering.

committed

And

Here are two sayings which must respectively have been invented by a pessimist and an optimist. The first is " Udima karitan sola bara sheta " karitan doivar bhara (If you trade you will get 12 annas for every 16 (spent) and if you till you will have to carry loads on your head). The second " runs God karun khaven mau karun nijaven (If it is not sweet make it so and if your bed is not soft make it so). Then come two which must have " emanated from a cynic Labha pekshan bholyachi
asha."

" hopes exceed (possible) gain and bara koshavar paus, shivecha raut, panivathyachi ghagar. (There are 3 things very difficult to get, the rain felling 24 miles away, the village headman and the jar you left at the watering place.)

The

fool's

21

162

PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY
is

Here

a proverb which shows

"

how

well beggars

fare in kindly India Bhikeshwar kinva Lankesh" war/' It is best to be the king of the beggars

" Bail gela ni zhopa kela" (He built a prudence shed after his ox had gone i.e., do not lock the " stable after the horse has bolted.) Pudhchyas thech magcha shahana (The one behind may profit

and next best to be king of Lanka," i.e., Eldorado, for when Eavan ruled there the bricks were all of gold. Then there are two which inculcate homely

by the
Here

tripping of the
is

man

in front),

one very amusing one

Panya madhyen masa Zbop gheto kasa
Javen tyachya vansha

Tewhan

kale

I have translated

as follows : Let him who'd learn how tis that

it
*

sleep

Cometh to little fishes Become a fish and swim the deep He'll learn then when he wishes.

have
this

English

are

in vain sought for proverbs in the subject of adverse

which the

comment,
seditious

and

might be taken to heart by those who

believe that
people.
streets

Poona

is full of

sedition

and

But,

one
:

nursery

in the the may sing following rhyme that dates from the days of the

I believe,

that

sometimes

hear

little girls

conquest

Hattichya sonde van Theveli menbutti

Sarya Punyachi

keli matti
!

Jngrejani, Ingrejani

It

has
is

little

what connection between the elephant and the English,

for

or

no meaning,

IN WffiSTBEN INDIA

163
it ttt
<

takes some thinking out. I translate it as follows :

I

However, such as

Upon the elephant's trunk now sways

the lamp and O the pity, The English and the English ways Have ruined Poona City
!

IILTHE SAYINGS OF THE

It
is

PARSEES.

usually supposed that the language of the is ordinary Gujarati, and, no doubt, in recent years, there have been great and successful efforts on behalf of Parsees with literary tastes to

Parsees

equal the purity of style attained by the Gujaratispeaking Hindus. But the great bulk of the Parsee

community speak a dialect which has marked peculiarities and varies as much from the Gujarati
Kathiavad as Milanese does from Tuscan. And to this dialect the older members adhere with a
of

and resent the use of what they call "bania's lingo*" As an instance of this, I may mention, that a leading Parsee barrister whose children had been educated at Rajkot, told me that when his son visited his aunt she said with some asperity "are tune sun thayun; tu wania jevo bolech.'* (What on earth has happened to you, you are talking In this Parsee dialect have grown like a bania 1)
certain pride

up a number

of proverbs,

many

of

which would be

the course quite unintelligible to a Hindu. In the with to deal I of this paper sayings of propose
this strange

community who

for

many

centuries

havelived together with, yet apart from, their Hindu that all neighbours. I will not guarantee

PBOVEBBIAL PHILOSOPHY
Basiling

aphorisms are

although

many

of

them

are-

peculiar to the Parsees, But all of them are

commonly used by Parsees even if some are not unknown to the Hindus also. The most remarkable trait in these Parsee proverbs
is

the bitterness with which the rival towns

Bombay, Bulsar, Cambay, Surat, Navsari and Broach speak of each other. This enmity between commercial cities is not, however, ttnknown Here is a proverb that must be exin Europe,
tremely galling to Surati pride, kiun Surati ? to bi ' murvat ki murti (What a Surati then (you see) the image of a shameless man). It is the ladies, however, who come in for the severest abuse. The next two proverbs are really delightful. The first is said by a Bombay lady of a Broach woman*
!
!

BharucM Bhaji chapre chapre

nachi,

So chhana baera pan khicbri to kachi ne kachi."

Broach woman jumped from roof, and to roof, although a hundred cow-dung cakes were burnt yet the khichri remained uncooked). In other words, she was a wanton slut. The sting of the " " " and kachi ne kachi. 59 gibe is in the words baera which are Broach colloquialisms. The Broach
(the

woman, however, rose to the occasion and retorted " " Mumbaini modan gharni Dhoban (The great
lady from

Bombay

is

the washer-woman of every

house). Thite is ladies who go out to tea-parties and then, so it Is implied in the proverb, talk scandal. The word

a hit at the Efuropeanfeed Parsee

dhoban "has much the same sense as our expression, "to wash one's dirty linen in public/ *$%&
5

"

Stttat lady is again the victim in the following:

WESTERN IKDIA

166

(" Suratni nari evi sari ke khua kariue kutwa chali)" (The Surat woman is so good that she will commit

murder and then at the ensuing funeral be the loudest mourner present !)* The weak points of the Cambay, Broach, Surat andNavsari ladies find expression
in the following
:

Khambatan khodiyan ne Bharuchi chadlyan

Suratan f ankri ne Nosakri Aakri.

(The Cambay woman is ill-made, the Broach woman is a teU-tale, the Surat woman is a flirt and the Navsari woman is hot tempered). I am told that the only reason why Navsari was left off so lightly was because it is the home of the priests of whom the couplet-maker, perhapk, stood in awe. However, if the rival townsmen said hard things of each others ladies they were quite ready to lavish
5

praise

on themselves*

The

following proverb
:

was

written

by a Bulsar man

of Bulsar

Wadun gam te Valsad saghla gamnu taran

(Bulfear is

" Panaioman Kahanji ne Vanioman 3STaran,"

city, the salvation of all Parsees we have our Ka the other cities. Among ha^i, and among the Banias we have our Naran.) This reminds one of the old Athenian saying that a Corinthian could never travel without for ever " (glorious Corinth). talking of "Dios Korinthos in its heyday* Delhi And did not Bernier, who saw contrast it unfavourably with the splendours of

the

mighty

Paris as seen from the

Pont Neuf

A number of Parsee proverbs deal with

the never-

and the dying feud between the mothe>r-in4aw j of Paretee daughter-ia-law. For the 'belle-mre not Hindu is families, she tradition is, $fi among

166

PBOVEK&IAL PHILOSOPHY

the wife's but the husband's mother.

delightful one.
dahi Jiluetane chhas Gulie tavyun ghi

Here

is

Dime baadhyun

Ne

Sasuji

jame khas.

Did

prepared the curds, Jilu the butter-milk, Guli cooked the ghee, and then the mother-in-law

had a

rare good meal). similar hit at the mother-in-law's gluttony is to be found in the following :

" Juar dali sher ne git gaya ter Sasue muki rotli to ankhe aya pher/'

(She (the daughter-in-law) ground a seer of jowari and while doing so sang thirteen songs. (But) the mother-in-law gave her only one chapatti and

she (the daughter-in-law) felt quite giddy with hunger). The poor thing The point of the thirteen songs may puzzle some of my readers. It lies in the fact that all Indian women sing while grinding grain, and this finds " expression in the Marathi proverb jatyavar baslyas
!

sitting of the passage is that the poor daughter-in-law sat so long grinding that she was able to sing thirteen songs from begin-

git

athavte" (one remembers songs while

at the grinding mill).

The point

ning to end Yet another saying against the mother-in-law

!

is

to be found in*

Ee

*Mari Sasuevibholi nahi dekhade diwali ke

holi,

(My mother-in-law is so good that she show me either diwali or holi). It is necessary to remark that the work good

will

not

scarcely
is

meant

IN WESTEBN INDIA
cc

167

sarcastic/

it

in fairness to the mother-in-law, should be added, that an old-fashioned Hindu

But

Holi festival is not married woman

!

the best place for

a young

" Another rather amusing saying is Sasus bhange " te kahaleda ne wahu bhange tethikra (Whenever the mother-in-law breaks anything it is only "Kahelada," but whenever the wife breaks anything it is a "thikra") "Kahaleda" and "thikra" are " " is the more thikra earthen pots of which the
expensive.

The meaning

is

law minimises her

daughter-in-law's
*

own faults and

for sins she
is

that the mother-inexaggerates her

:

and to use

Butler's words
inclined to

Compounds

By damning
After
all

those she has no xniad to."

law's expense,

nasty remarks at the mother-innot surprising to be told that when a mother-in-law dies then the daughter-in-law attains happiness, (sasu giyi savarat ne vahune
these
it is

avinavarat.)

There are some proverbs, however, which take the side of the step-mother and the mother-in-law. " Sat sok jaje pan be savka por Here are one or two. if na jati" (Be you like) the seventh wife of your husband, but do not enter a house where there " Sasu khadhi sasaro are even two step-children !) ne bar gamna gadheda khadho, khadho gherjamai khadha, to be nahin dharai" (She (the wife) ate

up

(talked to death), her mother-in-law, her fatherin-law, her son-in-law and all the donkeys of twelve
villages

not yet satisfied L e. goes dn talking ). We might compare the English sayan old woman, " She ing sometimes used of

and she

is

168

PBOVEBBIAL PHILOSOPHY
"

talk the hindleg oS a donkey." Then again satwa seta ne barni patli, vahune chatar palang ne sasune

meaningless and like the " "DingdongDell Hickery Dickery-Dock of our nursery rhyme is simply introduced for jingle* The "The wife has a European last line is expressive, bedstead with mosquito curtains, while the motherfirst line is

khatli" The

" "

in-law has a

little

native cot."
felt

like the lady of the Khine,

Ihe mother-in-law no doubt the spretae

injuria formae.
is

The mother-in-law is not the only victim. Here " Kaka one that must excite avuncular disgust.
kekevana
call

mama
must

ne ganthe hoi te levana

"

(you

(paternal uncle) and mama but they will rob you of everything (maternal uncle) " " is the knot at gantha you have). The word

them kaka

the end of the scarf in which natives usually carry their money. The paternal grandmother is chas"Mamai ankhman samai, tised in the following: chulie kapai." (The mother's mother is the bapai apple of my eye, but I could cut up father's mother

with a mutton chopper). If we leave the subject of relatives we find a " Latko matko number of other amusing proverbs. ne soparino larko" (full of flirting and coquetry and worth a bit of betelnut). The lady to whom this was applied must have resembled the heroine of Burns' original version of "coming through the

rye"

Some
rities.

It is said that
<c

sayings illustrate certain national peculiasome Parsees are in the habit

of saying

" " Shu3 shu what, what just as in ** ?" what one hears added wifch* frequently E&glish

"

IN

WESTERN INDIA

160

out cause to the end of a sentence. The retort to such a misuse of language is crushing.
"

Shu, shuna baoha ne lasanni kali, Tari Sasu gadhere chadi. "

(What, whats' children and a piece of garlic, your mother-in-law rode on an ass.) The point of this polite observation is that in Musalman times unchaste women were made to ride with inked

on a donkey and face tailwards. One might compare with this, the French saying used " " to little boys when they say instead of Quoi ? " " comment ?" the politer Quoi, quoi, les corbeaux sont dans les bois." The custom indicated in the following proverb
features

that of old-fashioned Parsees who, invariably when asked after their health, reply that they are
is

feeling rather poorly, just as will always say that he has the
**

an English peasant "

rhelumatiz."

Sasu kanse, vahu karanje ne pel palina petmaa dukhe, ne varo to jetlo ne tetlo uthe/'

(The mother-in-law groans, the wife moans, the maid servant has a pain in her stomach fctat th0 amount of food consumed never varies). Personal peculiarities are the subject of some "Baro bohetar lakhanvalo^ proverbial comment. and * tlmtha* squint-eyed man has 72 tricks)
(tjie

thamko bhari" (a cripples The walks with great airs and graces). man and the one-eyed share the followingJ> " (A verb. Andhlp hikmati ane kaao kepheyati a man full and tricks of full is one-eyed man blind
ni rand ne
of &wi&es).

eye$ ?

man

This idea of the wilmess of the seems tmiversal in India* Colonel

170

PROVEBBIAL PHILOSOPHY
belief as strongly rooted in

mentions the

Rajasthan,

and it finds expression in the following Kathiawadiproverb :

Kanio nar kok sadhu Talio nar kok nirdhan Khokhad danta kuk murkha Danta kok mijhra

(A one-eyed
poor, a

is

rarely a saint, a bald

is

man

is

rarely

man

with projecting teeth

is

rarely a fool

and a man with grey eyes

rarely generous). I tried hard, but in vain, to discover the grounds why these particular qualities were associated with these peculiarities. As a matter of fact, this arbi-

trary association is not entirely confined to the East I have seen used by M. Armand Silvestre " the phrase H riait comme un bossu " i. e. 9 he was laughing outrageously. And yet it is difficult to

understand why the mirth of a hump-backed should be so wholly unrestrained.

man

SAYINGS OF THE MUSULMANS,

the the It is Musulmans* no proverbial sayings doubt true that in no part of the Western Presidency is Musulmani the spoken language of the
to the last of this series
of

I have

now come

bulk of the people. Nevertheless there live, scattered from Cutch to Kanara, countless Mahomedan families who talk amongst themselves some or other dialect of Hindustani, and here and there may be found aristocratic groups whose Urdu may well eompete with that of Delhi or Lucknow. Hindustani, moreover, ftbm its former place in the

IN WESTERN INDIA*

171

of Northern rulers has acquired a pecijliar position as the medium between the master and the servant. well-known Parsi pleader men*

mouths

tioned to me that his father preferred to talk Hindustani to his Ahmedabadi servants, although, the mother tongue of master and man was Gujarati.

found that they better obeyed his orders when delivered in the former tongue. Hindustani has similarly descended as an appendage of Saber's

He

empire to the English rulers. English ladies use no other tongue in Indian households. Every day in Bombay carriages are ordered in a strange jargon, which, if not Hindustani, is certainly nothing else. Thus, if for no other reason, Hindustani may claim a place among Western Indian tongues, as the language of the Mogal and the memsahib of the " " and the " fortissime in re." fortiter in modo
I must, however, forestall criticism by admitting that in many of the proverbs which follow the grammar and the wording are not that of Delhi

Musuhnani sayings as I have I were to alter their phrasing if and heard them, they would no longer belong properly to Western On the other hand, some of the provefos India. are almost pure Persian and should satisfy t&e
I have
collected

highest of high proficiency scholars. I shall begin with a very pretty aphorism which the common French expresses in poetical form

saying "16s grands

petits

hommes

les

grands soucis les

hommes

les petits soucis." Borre burre ko dukh hai Chote 96 dnkh dur
Tare sab nyare rahe Grabs Chandra au? sur

172

PKOVJ3RBIAL PHILOSOPHY
it

I have translated

as follows

He knows not happy, humble one

What great men's sorrows are. Eclipses darken moon and sun And spare the lowly star.

But most of the Musulmani proverbs which I have met contain merely plain household truths. " Nach na jane angan terha " [(the dancing girl) who cannot
dance (complains that) the courtyard is crooked] may be translated * 'a bad workman quarrels with his tools/' " Our proverb " speech is silvern, silence is gold " finds expression in two Hindustani sayings sabse barri
c

ehup (Silence is the greatestof all things.) "Ek chup aur hazarsukh" (one silence and a thousand comforts).

And
"

it may possibly be in unconscious recognition of the advantages of silence that the indignant Englishman is for ever saying to his Aryan brother

Ghup raho

!"

"Where there's a
"

will there's

way

33

finds a neat equivalent in marzi ho to sab kuchh hai" " If there is a will then there is everything,"
is a literal rendering union is strength.' "Awwal sonch pechi bol" "listen first and speak afterwards" contains no doubt sound advice. But in opposition to it may be quoted the 'Gujarati saying ** lat pacchi wat" " kick him first and take his explanation afterwards," and the latter will probably commend itself to the

and "
*

ittifak

kuwvat hai "

of

"strong officer!" ''Kathki handia ekhi dafa charhti " " a wooden pot can only be placed on the had fire once," is a rather subtle way of saying that an impostor is soon found out, and that honesty is the best policy.

" do not count your amusing equivalent for chickens before they are hatched " is to be found

An

IN WESTBBN INDIA
in

173

na kapas kolhuse lath tham latha " (hte quarrelled with his spinning wheel before he had bought either cotton or yarn), naturally the result was disaster. A delightfully elliptical phrase is
sut

"

the following: "In tilon men tel nahin " (In those sesamum seeds there is no oil)." It is used when a beggar tries in vain to get money from a miser and learns too late that it is useless to try to Another reference to a miser is tap that Pactolus found in the following, " damri ki barhai taka sir
!

mundai" "he defended

himself from the charge

of not providing a barber for his mother by saying " why should I pay a taka (1 pice) for shaving the

head of an old woman who

(half a pie)!
53

The

only worth a damri mother-in-law does not receive

is

'

the wholesale abuse showthe Parsees and Gujaratls. But the by following saying, frequently used to the young wife, when she quarrels with her husband's mother " Darya hardly gives a flattering idea of her nature. men rahna aur magar machch so byr" (To live in the sea and to have enmity with the magar
in Hindustani proverbs

ered on her

applied indiscriminately magar to any dangerous aquatic or amphibious animal. And if one complains to an Indian of the bewildering looseness of such an expression he will sooner or later give one politely to understand that for his part it is a matter of indifference whether any a whale, an alligator particular beast is a shark,
or a hippopotamus.

machch). It is impossible accurately to translate " machch " for it is

"

Dudh ka jala chach phunjk phunk kar

pita hai

(He vfho has been scalded by milk blows repeatedly

174

PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY

on buttermilk before he will drink it) is the Hin" dustani rendering of the Kathiavadi proverb sapno karadyo dhori thi bhie." (He who has been bitten by a snake is afraid of a piece of rope). " burnt child dreads Both may be translated as

the

fire."

It

is,

however,

difficult to

Mitha hap hap karwa thu thu." It means that things when sweet were gobbled up but when bitter spat out. The saying is as a rule used to a servant who did not grumble until things went badly, or of a friend who deserted one when
rendering of

give a concise

Perhaps the nearest English equi" rats leave a sinking ship." so Prom among many household proverbs the " Billi ki khwab household animals are not omitted. men chfchre." (In the cat's dreams figure mutton scraps). By day, however, the cat seems to be
trouble came. valent would be
over-sensitive to ridicule

"Khisayni

billi

khamba

noche"

(a cat that

door-post).

The dog
"

has been laughed at scratches the finds a place in the two fol-

lowing proverbs choti kutti jalebiyan ki rakhwali" the little dog as a guard (it is no use appointing "damri ki handia over the sweetmeats); and gaikutte ki zat pahchhan" (only a worthless pot was lost and the dog's nature was recognised). The
latter saying is employed when some servant's fraud has been detected at little cost and the mas" well rid of a rogue." ter is Nor is the snake, the household enemy, overc< looked : sarp nikal gaya lakir pita karo." (The snake has gone, so why puzzle your head about its trail). This proverb has somewhat the same

meaning as

" it

is

no use shutting the stable door

IN
after the horse

WESTERN INDIA

175

lakir ka fakir a man who followingthe expression trail rather than the snake is applied to a blind devotee of ancient rather than modern learning. The

"

has been stolen"; and the derivative "

carrion kite, may, in India, almost be called a household animal and there is no questioning the truth " " of the following chil ke ghonsle men mas kahan (you will not find meat in a carrion kite's nest)* Lastly, the elephant is the hero of a somewhat " Hathi ke dant dikhane ke aur striking aphorism " hain, khane ke aur hain (an elephant has one set of teeth for show and another for use). This saying is curiously enough used of a hypocrite and recalls the biting jest that was made of the shifty and treacherous Duke of Anjou. He was the French Henry IIFs brother and small-pox had left him with two tips to his nose. But as an enemy " Un prince qui avait deux faces devrait observed bien avoir deux nez." Some other Hindustani proverbs are merely amusing while some indicate the national characteristics of the Indian Musulman. Among the former are "khud andha aur aftab siyah" (blind himself he calls the sun black) ; "nange se khuda " khof rakhta hai (God even is afraid of the shame** less man) ; Turn ham razi, to kya kare kotwal aur " kazi (If you and I agree, what harm can the kotwal and the katei do us?). In other words, it " Bare bhai so is better to keep out of chancery. " bare bhaii chote bhai so subhan Allah is a phtase

not infrequently applied to brothers bprn in t&e, elder brother-** purple. It may be translated The elder of an brother? can what well, you expect

$76

PBOYEBBIAI* PHILOSOPHY
brother, well,

and the younger

God be
!

praised

Arcades ambo, id est, blackguards both Among ka." shaitan kam ka thfe second class are "jaldi
is hateful

(To do work quickly is of the devil). Undue haste to the slow and rather pompous Islamite,
is

whose love of vain show

"

indicated in the

two

fol-

Makan men ata nahin aur amma lowing sayings. " (There is no flour in the house puriya pakati hai " Das but mamma pretends she is making cakes) ; " (To beg ghar mangna lekin masalchi rafrhna at ten houses and yet keep a servant). One more saying and I have done* I write it with some reluctance, nevertheless I trust that my
Poona readers
will accept

my

assurance that

it

is

not with any intention of hurting their feelings that I quote a couplet which after all hits my own countrymen as hard as it hits them I only men* tion it because of its historical interest, for it must clearly have been invented sometime when the English ard the Marathas were still contending for the sovereignty of India
"

Aagrez ki siyabi se Hindki gadai bihtar Dakh&ni ghahi so saw foajp &80iu bibtar."
all

over India than be pestered with English ink. Better a hundred times be a butcher than feel the rule of the
Better to be a beggar wandering

"

Deccani" As one reads one wonders from whom the saying first came. Was it some Bohilla Afghan who thought d^i tluef, great and merciless Alla-ud-din, th& Indian, *Sikandar, who conquered Gujarat and Or was it some Ikfogal utterly sacked Chitor ? noble who recalled the lion stock of Zingis and
.

IN

WUSTEBK INDIA

177

Timur the knightly Humayun to whom the Udaipur Queen sent her bracelet, Jehangir, the tojjer feeing, who loved the beautiful Nur Mahal* siiah Jehan the conqueror and the friend of the Sesodia princes and himself the most splendid figure in his owm brilliant court ? In either case what wonder, when the speaker looked to th,e East and South at the two dark thunder clouds of which one or other would
assuredly hide for ever the sun of Islam, if his heart was filled with bitterness to the brim and if, in the

words of the Hebrew prophet, sight of his eyes which he saw

!

he was

mad

for