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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

'.'^j li ddgLc L^ilii T li ;u I

The Idle

auTiits diro .

FEm(a).'T6,

13LVi:i

RAMBLES AND
RECOLLECTIONS AN INDIAN OFFICIAL.

BY
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL W. H. SLEEMAN,
"I
OF THE BENGAL ARMY.

' The proper study of mankind is man." Pope.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
^STO^ VOL. I.

LONDON:
J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY.
1844.

LONDON :
PRINTED BY u. J. PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

DEDICATION.

My dear Sistee,
Were any one to ask your countrymen in India
what has been their greatest source of pleasure while
there, perhaps nine in ten would say, the letters
which they receive from their sisters at home. These
of all things, perhaps, tend most to link our affec
tions with home by filling the landscapes, so dear to
our recollections, with ever-varying groups of the
family circles, among whom our infancy and our boy
hood have been passed ; and among whom we still
hope to spend the winter of our days.
They have a very happy facility in making us
familiar with the new additions made from time to
time to the dramatis personcB of these scenes after
we quit them, in the character of husbands, wives,
children, or friends ; and while thus contributing
so much to our happiness, they no doubt tend
to make us better citizens of the world, and ser
vants of government, than we should otherwise

] V dedication.
be : for in our " struggles through life" in India,
we have all, more or less, an eye to the approbation
of those circles which our kind sisters represent —
who may, therefore, be considered in the exalted
light of a valuable species of unpaid magistracy to
the government of India !
No brother has ever had a kinder or better
correspondent than I have had in you, my dear
sister; and it was the consciousness of having
left many of your valued letters unanswered in the
pressure of official duties, that made me first think
of devoting a part of my leisure to you in these
" Rambles and Recollections" while on my way from
the banks of the Nerbudda river to the Himmaleh
mountains, in search of health, in the end of 1835
and beginning of 1836. To what. I wrote during
that journey, I have now added a few notes, obser
vations, and conversations vdth natives, on the sub
jects which my narrative seemed to embrace ; and
the whole will, I hope, interest and amuse you
and the other members of our family ; and appear,
perchance, not altogether uninteresting or unin
structive to those who are strangers to us both.
Of one thing I must beg you to be assured, that I
have nowhere indulged in fiction, either in the nar
rative, the recollections, or the conversations. What
I relate, on the testimony of others, I believe to be
true ; and what I relate upon my own you may rely
upon as being so. Had I chosen to write a work of
fiction, I might possibly have made ifc a good deal

DEDICATION. V
more interesting ; but I question whether it would
have been so much valued by you, or so useful to
others ; and these are the objects I have had in
view. The work may, perhaps, tend to make the
people of India better understood by those of my
countrjonen whose destinies are cast among them,
and inspire more kindly feelings towards them. Those
parts which, to the general reader, will seem dry
and tedious, may be considered, by the Indian states
man, as the most useful and important.
The opportunities of observation which varied em
ployment has given me, have been such as fall to the
lot of few ; but although I have endeavoured to
make the most of them, the time of public servants
is not their own ; and that of few men has been more
exclusively devoted to the service of their masters
than mine. It may be, however, that the world, or
that part of it which ventures to read these pages,
will think that it had been better had I not been
left even the little leisure that has been devoted to
them. Your ever affectionate brother,
W. H. SLEEMAN.

CONTENTS
OF VOLUME THE FIEST.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE
Annual fairs held upon the banks of sacred streams in India 1
CHAPTER II.
Hindoo system of religion .... fS2
CHAPTER III.
Legend of the Nerbudda River .... 11,
CHAPTER IV.
A Suttee on the Nerbudda . . . .23
CHAPTER V.
Marriages of trees — The tank and the plaintain — Meteors —
Rainbows . . . . . .45
CHAPTER VI.
Hindoo marriages . . . .51
CHAPTER VII.
The purveyance system . . .50

vm CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
Religious sects — Self-government of the castes — Chimney
sweepers — Washerwomen — Elephant-drivers . . 60
CHAPTER IX.
The great Iconoclast — Troop routed by hornets — The Ranee
of Gurba — Hornets' nests in India . . .69
CHAPTER X.
The peasantry and the land settlement . . .76
CHAPTER XI.
Witchcraft . . . . . .89
CHAPTER XII.
The silver tree, or kulpa briksha — The Singhara, or trapa
bispinosa, and the Guinea worm . . .97
CHAPTER XIII.
V Thugs and poisoners . . . . .103
CHAPTER XIV.
Basaltic cappings of the sandstone hills of Central India —
Suspension bridge — Prospects of the Nerbudda valley —
Deification of a mortal . . . . .120
CHAPTER XV.
Legend of the Sauger Lake — Paralysis from eating the grain
of the Lathyrus sativus , . .129
CHAPTER XVI.
Suttee tombs — Insalubrity of deserted fortresses . . 139

CONTENTS. IX
CHAPTER XVII.
Basaltic cappings — Interview with a native chief — A singular
character . ..... 145
CHAPTER XVIII.
Birds' nests — Sports of boyhood . . 151
CHAPTER XIX.
Feeding pilgrims — Marriage of a stone with a shrub , 156
CHAPTER XX.
The men-tigers . . . . . .161
CHAPTER XXI.
Buming of Decree by a freebooter — A Suttee . 1 68
CHAPTER XXII.
Interview with the Rajah who marries the stone to the shrub
—Order ofthe Moon and the Fish . . .172
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Rajah of Orcha — Murder of his many ministers . 180
CHAPTER XXIV.
Corn dealers— Scarcities — Famines in India . .190
CHAPTER XXV.
Epidemic diseases — Scape-goat .... 209
CHAPTER XXVI.
Artificial lakes in Bundelcund — Hindoo, Greek, and Roman
faith .  224

X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Blights  . 248
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Pestle and mortar sugar-mills — Washing away of the soil . 267
CHAPTER XXIX.
Interview with the chiefs of Jansee — Disputed succession . 270
CHAPTER XXX.
Haunted villages ...-•• 285
CHAPTER XXXI.
Interview with the Rajah of Duteea — Fiscal errors of states-
i men — Thieves and robbers by profession . . 294
CHAPTER XXXII.
Sporting at Duteea — Fidelity of foUowers to their chiefs in
India — Law of primogeniture wanting among Mahomedans 306
CHAPTER XXXIII.
BhoomeeawTit . . . . . .318
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The suicide — Relations between parents and children in
India  328
CHAPTER XXXV.
GwaUor plain once the bed of a lake — Tameness of peacocks 335
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Gwalior and its government . . . 34 0

CONTENTS. XI
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Contest for empire between the sons of Shah Jehan . .3."i I
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Ourungzebe and Moorad defeat their father's army near
Ojeyn . . . . . . .369
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Dara marches in person against his brothers, and is defeated 374
CHAPTER XL.
Dara retreats towards Lamore — Is robbed by the Jats — Their
character . . . . . .383
CHAPTER XLI.
Shah Jehan imprisoned by his two sons, Ourungzebe and
Moorad . . . . . .389
CHAPTER XLII.
Ourungzebe throws off the mask, imprisons his brother
Moorad, and assumes the govemment of the empire . 397
CHAPTER XLIII.
Ourungzebe meets Shoojah in Bengal and defeats him, after
pursuing Dara to the Hyphasis . . . 407
CHAPTER XLIV.
Ourungzebe imprisons his eldest son — Shoojah and all his
family are destroyed . . .415
CHAPTER XLV.
Second defeat and death of Dara, and imprisonment of his
two sons .... . 426

xu CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XLVI.
Death and character of Ameer Jumla . . . 452
CHAPTER XLVII.
Reflections on the preceding history . • . 458
CHAPTER XLVIII.
The great diamond of Kohinoor . . . .473

EEEATA TO VOL. I.

I'iige -15, line 2, /or get, read got.
49 — 1, for camp, read lamp.
(i9 — 2, and throughout the chapter, for Ranee of Gurba, read Ranee uT
Gurha.
i!4 — 5, aud other places, /or Jungbar, rearf Jungbaz.
U3 — 6, for tree, rea^i trees.
130 — 24, /or Assa Sahib, read Apa Sahib.
l.'iO — 18,/or to leave much of the little, rearf for to lonve Luulone much ofthe
little.
158 — 15, and in other places, for Sudora, read Ludora.
158, last line of verse, /or Soha, read Loha.
163, note, for Aggere, read Aggerere ; for Chaudium, read Claudiuui ; fur tot in
vita fari nova, read tot inrita facinora.
168, line 11, /or Rajah Urpin Sing, read Rajah Urgun Singh.
1G9 — 15, /or Lieutenant, 7-ead Sureemunt.
185, at bottom of page, for three lacks of rupees, or one-fourth, read two Ineks of
rupees, or one-third.
188, line 3, and in other places, for Chundele.s, read Dhundeles.
192 — 29, for burra^ rea^ buna.
201 — 17, for Colonel, read Cotroal.
202 — 17> for recoled, read recoiled.
209 — 12, for or, read roo.
212 — 2, for Lohore, read Lahore.
234 — 13, /or were, read have been.
239 — 9, for Thausee, read Jhansee.
242 — £2, for he, read she.
243 — 20, for rate, read rule.
246 — 5, and 21, /or Jhausee, read Jhansee.
247 — 7, /o^J" Duttua, read Duteea
,, — 18, /or Jhause, read Jhansee.
258 — 4, for teitwa, read tutwa.
,, — 16, /or angels, read angles.
260 — 3, for employment, read enjoyment.
261 — 17» and 265, -Idy for Ameer, read Amecn.
262 — 19, 21, 26, /or Hooghly, read Hooly.
26S — 7» for pair, read pan.
270 — 3, for Bytuntcc, read Byurintee.
27^, tnote, far deenall, read deenaee.
297> line 11, and 31G, 5, /or grain, read gram.
298 — 26, for to pay as high a rate of rent as before tillage, read to puy as high
a rate of rent as those before in tillage.
3^u — 27, for Nonnere, read Nownere ; for Signee, read Jignee ; for Belfliieo,
read Bilchree-
324, — 17, for forty, read sixty.
3:27 — 5, for amiable, read animal.
346 — 2, /or lands, read lends.
349 — 9, 17, 27, /or Gond, read Gohud.
356 — 25, for Miher Omiasa Begum, read Jlehevon Nissu Begum.
357 — 22, for swear, read swore.
371 — 2, for empire, read Emperor.

y ERRATA TO VOL. I.
Page 571> line 29, fm' retrace, read retrieve.
372 — 1 of note, /or training, read taunting.
375 — 5, for Chumpul, read Chumpet.
s, — 28, and in note, /or Samsugur, read Samongur.
376, ''note, for Birmir, read Bernier.
377j vide mistake at notes. The lower note to be placed above to correspond
with the star •, the upper one to be placed beneath it, so as to cor
respond with the cross +.
379, line 4, and 26, /or quarran, read quoran.
.*381 — 23, /or Moosalman, read Mausoleum.
385 — 11, for Purmez, read Purvez.
387 — 3, for enemies, read armies.
390 — 17, /or ndolent, read insolent.
392 — 28, f07 mies, read crimes.
400 — 27, for really, read usually.
403 — 7, for long life to the Ourungzebe, read long life to Ourungzebe.
404 — 1,/or Emperor, read Empire.
,, — 16, for Pidac Klian, read Fidae Khan.
405 — 9, for the Emperor, read Ourungzebe.
409 — 28, 445—17, and 448— 19,/or Suleengurh, read Suleemgur.
415 — 1,/or Sending Ameer Jumla and his son Mahomed, read Sending
Ameer Jumla and his own son Mahomed.
" — 5» fo^}' and to the latter he said at parting, read and to the Prince he said-
at parting.
422 — 1 8, /or Pugan, read Pegu.
4.':i — 6, for Doodeechund, read Dooleechund.
,, — 28, 444—25 ; 445—2, and 450— 25. /or Sureenugiir, read Samongur.
436 — 24, for with the daughter, read with ber daughter.
443 - 22. The following should be placed in a note at the foot of page:—
f Sipeher Shekoh was taken out of prison in the fifteenth year of
Ourungzebe's reign; and in the sixteenth of his reign, was married to
Ourungzobe's daughter Zebonnissa.
445 — 8, for his, read the.
448 — 13, /or Jehanara, read Jehanzebe.
452 — 14, /or Ameer of Omura, read Ameer ol Omura.
454 — 12, /or Ameer, read Ameen.
460 — ]n,/or defeat, read defect.
476 — 22, for legal, read Kegal.

BAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

CHAPTER I.
ANNUAL FAIRS HELD UPON THE BANKS OF SACRED
STREAMS IN INDIA.
Before setting out on our journey to\rards the
Himmalah we formed once more an agreeable party
to visit the marble rocks of the Nerbudda at Bera-
ghat. It was the end of Katick (October) when the
Hindoos hold fairs on all their sacred streams, at
places consecrated by poetry or tradition as the
scene of some divine work or manifestation. These
fairs are at once festive and holy — every person
who comes enjoying himself as much as he can, and
at the same time seeking purification from all past
transgressions by bathing and praying in the holy
stream, and making laudable resolutions to be better
for the future. The ceremonies last five days, and
take place at the same time upon all the saci-ed
rivers throughout India ; and the greater part of the
whole Hindoo population, from the summits of the
Himmalah mountains to Cape Comorin, will I
believe, during these five days, be found congregated
VOL. I. B

z rambles and recollections.
at these fairs. In sailing down the Ganges one may
pass, in the course of a day, half a dozen such
fairs, each with a multitude equal to the population
of a large city, and rendered beautifully picturesque
by the magnificence and variety of the tent equi
pages of the great and wealthy. The preserver of
'^e universe (Bhugwan) Vishnoo is supposed, on
the 26th of Assar (June), to descend to the world
below, (Putal,) to defend Raja Bull from the attacks
of Indur, to stay with him four months, and to come
up again on the 26th Katick (October). During
his absence almost all kinds of worship and festivi
ties are suspended ; and they recommence at these
fairs, where people assemble to hail his resur
rection. Our tents were pitched upon a green sward on
one bank of a small stream running into the Ner
budda close by, while the multitude occupied the
other bank. At night all the tents and booths are
illuminated, and the scene is hardly less animating
by night than by day ; but what strikes an European
most is the entire absence of all tumult and disor
der at such places. He not only sees no disturbance,
but feels assured that there will be none ; and leaves
his wife and children in the midst of a crowd of a
hundred thousand persons all strangers to them, and
all speaking a language and following a religion
different from theirs, while he goes off the whole
day, hunting and shooting in the distant jungles,
without the slightest feeling of apprehension for

annual fairs. 3
their safety or comfort. It is a singular fact which
I know to be true, that during the great mutiny of
our native troops at Barrackpore in 1824, the
chief leaders bound themselves by a solemn oath
not to suffer any European lady or child to be
injured or molested, happen what might to them
in the collision with their officers and the go
vernment. My friend Captain Reid, one of the
general staff, used to allow his children, five in
number, to go into the lines and play with the
soldiers of the mutinous regiments up to the very
day when the artillery opened upbn them ; and of
above thirty European ladies then at the station,
not one thought of leaving the place till they heard
the guns. Mrs. Colonel Faithful, with her daugh
ter and another young lady who had both just
arrived from England, went lately all the way
from Calcutta to Lodheana on the banks of the
Hyphasis, a distance of more than twelve hundred
miles, in their palankeens with relays of bearers, and
without even a servant to attend them. They were
travelling night and day for fourteen days without
the slightest apprehension of injury or of insult.
Cases of ladies travelling in the same manner by
dak immediately after their arrival from England
to all parts of the country occur every day, and I
know of no instance of injury or insult sustained by
them. Does not this speak volumes for the character
of our rule in India ? — would men trust their wives
and daughters in this manner unprotected, among
b2

4 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
a people that disliked them and their rule? We
have not a garrison, or walled cantonments, or forti
fied position of any kind for our residence from one
end of our Eastern empire to the other, save at the
three capitals of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.
We know and feel that the people every where look
up to and respect us, in spite of all our faults, and
we like to let them know and feel that we have
confidence in them.
Sir Thomas Munro has justly observed, " I do not
exactly know what is meant by civilizing the people
of India. In the theory and practice of good go
vernment they may be deficient ; but if a good sys
tem of agriculture — if unrivalled manufactures — if
a capacity to produce what convenience or luxury
demands — if the establishment of schools for reading
and writing — if the general practice of kindness and
hospitality — and above all, if a scrupulous respect
and delicacy towards the female sex are amongst the
points that denote a civilized people ; then the
Hindoos are not inferior in civilization to the people
of Europe." The Bishop Heber writes in the same
favourable terms of the Hindoos in the narrative of
his journey through India ; and where shall we find
a mind more capable of judging of the merits and
demerits of a people than his ?
The concourse of people at this fair was, as usual,
immense ; but a great many who could not afford
to provide tents for the accommodation of their fami
lies were driven away before their time by some

ANNUAL FAIRS. .5
heavy showers of, to them, unseasonable rains. On
this, and all similar occasions, the people bathe in
the Nerbudda without the aid of priests, but a num
ber of poor Brahmans attend at these festivals to
receive charity, though not to assist at the ceremo
nies. Those who could afford it gave a trifle to
these men as they came out of the sacred stream
but in no case was it demanded, or even solicited
with any appearance of importunity, as it commonly
is at fairs and holy places on the Ganges. The first
day, the people bathe below the rapid over which
the river falls after it emerges from its peaceful
abode among the marble rocks ; on the second day,
just above this rapid ; and on the third day, two
miles further up at the cascade, where the whole
body of the limpid stream of the Nerbudda, con
fined to a narrow channel of only a few yards wide,
falls tumultuously down in a beautiful cascade into
a deep chasm of marble rocks. This fall of their
sacred stream the people call the Dhovandhar, or
the smoky fall, from the thick vapour which is al
ways seen rising from it in the morning. From
below, the river glides quietly and imperceptibly
for a mile and a half along a deejj and, according to
popular belief, a fathomless channel of from ten to
fifty yards wide, with snow-white marble rocks rising
perpendicularly on either side from a hundred to a
hundred and fifty feet high, and in some parts fear
fully overhanging. Suspended in recesses of these
white rocks are numerous large black nests of hor-

6 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
nets ready to descend upon any unlucky wight who
may venture to disturb their repose ; and as the
boats of the curious European visitors pass up and
down to the sound of music, clouds of wild pigeons
rise from each side, and seem sometimes to fill the
air above them. Here, according to native legends,
repose the Pundooas, the heroes of their great Home
ric poem, the Mahabhurat, whose names they have
transferred to the valley of the Nerbudda. Every
fantastic appearance of the rocks, caused by those
great convulsions of nature which have so much
disturbed the crust of the globe, or by the slow and
silent working of the waters, is attributed to the
godlike power of those great heroes of Indian ro
mance, and is associated with the recollection of
scenes in which they are supposed to have figured.
The strata of the Kymore range of- sand-stone
hills, which runs diagonally across the yalley of the
Nerbudda, are thrown up almost perpendicularly in
some places many hundred feet above the level of
the plain, while in others for many miles together
their tops are only visible above the surface. These
are so many strings of the oxen \^hich the arrows of
Arjun, one ofthe five brothers, converted into stone;
and many a stream which now avaters the valley
first sprang from the surface of the earth at the
touch of his lance, as his troops -wanted water. The
images of the gods of a former day, which now lie
scattered among the ruins of old cities, buried in
the depth of the forest, are nothing less than the
7

ANNUAL FAIRS. 7
bodies of the kings of the earth turned into stone
for their temerity in contending with these demi
gods in battle. Ponds among the rocks of the Ner
budda, where all the great fairs are held, still bear
the names of the five brothers, who are the heroes
of this great poem ; and they are every year visited
by hundreds of thousands, who implicitly believe that
their waters once received upon their bosoms the
wearied limbs of those whose names they bear. What
is life without the charms of fiction, and without the
leisure and recreations which these sacred imaginings
tend to give to the great mass of those who have
nothing but the labour of their hands to depend
upon for subsistence ! Let no such fictions be be
lieved, and the holidays and pastimes of the lower
orders in every country would soon cease, for they
have almost every where owed their origin and sup
port to some religious dream which has commanded
the faith and influenced the conduct of great masses
of mankind, and prevented one man from presuming
to work on the day that another wished to rest
from his labours. The people were of opinion, they
told me, that the Ganges, as a sacred stream, could
last only sixty years more, when the Nerbudda
would take its place. The waters of the Nerbudda
are, they say, already so much more sacred than
those of the Ganges, that to see them is sufficient
to cleanse men from their sins, whereas the Ganges
must be touched before it can have that effect.
At the temple built on the top of a conical hill

8 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
at Beraghat overlooking the river, is a statue of a
bull carying Sewa, the god of destruction, and his
wife Parbuttee seated behind him : they have both
snakes in their hands ; and Sewa has a large one
round his loins as a waistband. There are several
demons in human shape lying prostrate under the
belly of the bull, and the whole are well cut out
of one large slab of hard basalt from a dyke in the
marble rock beneath. They call the whole group
" Gouree Sunkur^' and I found in the fair, exposed
for sale, a brass model of a similar one from Jypore ;
but not so well shaped and proportioned. On
noticing this we were told, " that such difference was
to be expected, since the brass must have been made
by man, whereas the Gouree Stinkur of the temple
above was a real Py-Khan, or a conversion of living
beings into stone by the gods ; they were therefore
the exact resemblance of living beings, while the
others could only be rude imitations." Gouree, or
the Fair, is the name of Parbuttee, or Davee, when
she appears with her husband Sewa. On such
occasions she is always fair and beautiful. Sunkur
is another name of Sewa — or Mahadeo — or Rooder.
On looking into the temple at the statue, a lady
expressed her surprise at the entireness, as well as
the excellence of the figures, while all around had
been so much mutilated by the Mahomedans. " They
are quite a different thing from the others," said a
respectable old landholder, " they are a conversion
of real flesh and blood into stone, and no human

ANNUAL FAIRS. 9
hands can either imitate or hurt them !" She
smiled incredulously, while he looked very grave, and
appealed to the whole crowd of spectators assem
bled, who all testified to the trutli of what he had
said ; and added, " that at no distant day the figures
would be all restored to life again — the deities
would all come back without doubt and reanimate
their old bodies again !"
All the people who come to bathe at the fair
bring chaplets of yellow jasmine, and hang them as
offerings round the necks of the god and his con
sort : and at the same time tbey make some small
offerings of rice to each of the many images that
stand Avithin the same apartment ; and also to those
which, under a stone roof supported upon stone
pillars, line the inside of the wall that surrounds
the circular area, in the centre of which the temple
stands. The images inside the temple are those of
the three great gods, Brihma, Vishnoo and Sewa,
with their primeval consorts ; but those that occupy
the piazza outside are the representations of the
consorts of the different incarnations of these three
gods, and these consorts are themselves the incar
nations of the primeval wives, who followed their
husbands in all their earthly ramblings. They have
all the female form, and are about the size of
ordinary women, and extremely well cut out of fine
white and green sand stone; but their heads are those
of the animals in which their respective husbands
became incarnate, such as the lion, the elephant.

10 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
&c., or those of the Bahuns, or animals on which
they rode, such as the bull, the swan, the eagle, &c.
But these, I presume, are mere capricios of the
founder of the temple. The figures are sixty-four
in number, all mounted upon their respective Bahuns,
but have been sadly mutilated by the pious Maho
medans. The old Mahunt, or high priest, told us, that
Mahadeo and his wife were in reality our Adam
and Eve ; " they came here together," said he, " on
a visit from the mountain Khylas, and being ear
nestly solicited to leave some memorial of their
visit, got themselves turned into stone." The
popular belief is, that some very holy man, who had
been occupied on the top of this little conical hill,
where the temple now stands, in austere devotions
for some few thousand years, was at last honoured
with a visit from Sewa and his consort, who asked
him what they could do for him. He begged them
to wait till he should bring some flowers from the
woods, to make them a suitable offering. They
promised to do so ; and he ran down, plunged into
the Nerbudda and drowned himself, in order that
these august persons might for ever remain, and do
honour to his residence and his name. They however
left only their " mortal coil ;" but will one day re
turn and resume it. I know not whether I am sin
gular in the notion or not, but I think Mahadeo
and his consort are really our Adam and Eve;
and that the people have converted them into the

ANNUAL FAIRS. 11
god and goddess of destruction, from some vag-ue
idea of their original sin, which involved all their
race in destruction. The snakes, which form the
only dress of Mahadeo, would seem to confirm this
notion.

12 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

CHAPTER IL

HINDOO SYSTEM OF RELIGION.

The Hindoo system is this. A great divine
spirit or essence Brimh, pervades the whole uni
verse ; and the soul of every human being is a drop
from this great ocean, to which, when it becomes per
fectly purified, it is reunited. The reunion is the
etemai beatitude to which all look forward with
hope ; and the soul of the Brahman is nearest to it.
If he has been a good man, his soul becomes ab
sorbed in the Brimh ; and if a bad man, it goes to
Naruk, hell ; and after the expiration of its period
there of limited imprisonment, it returns to earth, and
occupies the body of some other animal. It again
advances by degrees to the body of the Brahman ;
and thence, when fitted for it, into the great
Brimh.* From this great eternal essence emanate
* Men are occasionally exempted from the necessity of becom
ing a Brahman first. Men of low caste, if they die at particular
places, where it is the interest of the Brahmans to invite rich
men to die, are promised absorption into the great Brimh at

HINDOO SYSTEM OF RELIGION. 13
Brimha, the creator, whose consort is Saraswatee ;
Vishnoo, the preserver, whose consort is Lukshmee ;
and Sewa, alias Mahadeo, the destroyer, whose
consort is Parbuttee. According to popular belief,
Jumraj is the judicial deity who has been appointed
by the greater powers to pass the final judgment
on the tenor of men's lives, according to proceedings
drawn up by his secretary Chuttergopat. If men's
actions have been good, their souls are, as the next
stage, advanced a step towards the great essence
Brimh ; and if bad, they are thrown back, and
obliged to occupy the bodies of brutes or of people
of inferior caste, as the balance against them may be
great or small. There is an intermediate stage, a
Naruk or hell, for bad men, and a Bykout, or para
dise, for the good, in which they find their felicity
in serving tbat god of the three to which they have
especially devoted themselves while on earth. But
from this stage after the period of their sen
tence is expired, men go back to their pilgrimage
on earth again.
There are numerous Deos, or good spirits, of
whom Indur is the chief ; and Dyts, or bad spirits ;
and there have also been a great number of incarna
tions from the three great gods and their consorts, who
have made their appearance upon the earth when
once. Immense numbers of wealthy men go every year from
the most distant parts of India to die at Benares, where they
spend large sums of money among the Brahmans. It is by their
means that this, the second city in India, is supported.

14 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
required for particular purposes. All these incarna
tions are called Outars, or descents. Vishnoo has
been eleven times on the globe, in different shapes,
and Sewa seven times. The outars of Vislmoo
are celebrated in many popular poems, such as the
Rumaen, or history of the rape of Seeta, the wife
of Ram, the seventh incarnation,* the Mahabhurut,
and the Bhagiout, which describe the wars and
amours of this god in his last human shape. All
these books are believed to have been written
either by the hand or by the inspiration of the
god himself thousands of years before the events
they describe actually took place. " It was, they
say, as easy for the deity to write or dictate a battle,
an amour, or any other important event ten thou
sand years before, as the day after it took place ;
and I believe nine tenths, perhaps ninety-nine
in a hundred, of the Hindoo population believe
implicitly, that these accounts were all so writ
ten. It is now pretty clear that all these works
are of comparatively recent date — -that the great
poem of the Mahabhurut could not have been written
before the year 786 of the christian era, and was
probably written so late as A. d. 1157 — that
Krishna, if horn at all, must have been born on the
7th of August A. D. 600, but was most likely
a mere creation of the imagination to serve the
purpose of the Brahmans of Ojeyn, in whom the
* Seeta was an incarnation of Lukshmee, she became incarnate
again many centuries afterwards, as the wife of Krishna, another
incarnation of Vishnoo.

HINDOO SYSTEM OF RELIGION. 1.5
fiction originated — that the other incarnations were
invented about the same time, and for the same
object, though the other persons described as in
carnations were real princes, Pursaram before
Christ 1176, and Rama bom before Christ 961. In
tlie Mahabhurut Krishna is described as fighting in
the same army with Judishter and his four brothers.
Judishter was a real person who ascended the
throne at Dehlie 575 b. c, or 1175 years before
the birth of Krishna.
Bentley supposes that the incarnations, particu
larly that of Krishna, were invented by the Brali-
mans of Ojeyn with a view to check the progress
of Christianity in that part of the world — see his
historical view of the Hindoo astronomy. That we
find in no history any account of the alarming pro
gress of Christianity about the time these fables
were written, is no proof that Bentley was wrong.
When Mons. Thievenot was at Agra 1666, the chris
tian population was roughly estimated at twenty-
five thousand families. They had all passed away
before it became one of our civil and military
stations in the beginning of the present century,
and we might search history in vain for any men
tion of them, — see his travels in India, part three.
One single prince well disposed to give Christians
encouragement and employment might, in a few
years, get the same number around his capital ;
and it is probable that the early Christians in
India occasionally found such princes, and gave

16 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
just cause of alarm to the Brahman priests who
were then in the infancy of their despotic power.
During the war with Nepaul in 1814 and
1815, the division with which I served came upon
an extremely interesting colony of about two thou
sand christian families at Beteeah, in the Tirhoot
district on the borders of the Turac forest. This
colony had been created by one man, the Bishop,
a Venetian by birth, under the protection of a small
Hindoo prince, the Rajah of Beteeah. This holy man
had been some fifty years among these people, with
little or no support from Europe or from any other
quarter. The only aid he got from the Rajah was a
pledge that no member ofhis church should be subject
to the Purveyance system, under which the people
every where suffered so much ; and this pledge,
the Rajah, though a Hindoo, had never suffered
to be violated. There were men of all trades
among them, and they formed one very large
street remarkable for the superior style of its build
ings, and the sober industry of its inhabitants. The
masons, carpenters, and blacksmiths of this little
colony were working in our camp every day, while
we remained in the vicinity, and better workmen
I have never seen in India; but they would all
insist upon going to divine service at the prescribed
hours. They had built a splendid pucka dwelling
house for their bishop, and a still more splendid
church, and formed for him the finest garden I have
seen in India, surrounded with a good wall, and

HINDOO SYSTEM OF RELIGION. 17
provided with admirable pucka wells. The native
Christian servants who attended at the old bishop's
table, taught by himself, spoke Latin to him ; but
he was become very feeble, and spoke himself a
mixture of Latin, Italian, his native tongue, and
Hindoostanee. We used to have him at our mes
ses, and take as much care of him as of an infant,
for he was become almost as frail as one. The
joy and the excitement of being once more among
Europeans, and treated by them with so much re
verence in the midst of his flock, were perhaps too
much for him, for he sickened and died soon after.
The rajah died soon after him, and in all proba
bility the flock has disappeared. No Europeans ex
cept a few Indigo planters of the neighbourhood
had ever before known or heard of this colony ; and
they seemed to consider them only as a set of great
scoundrels, who had better carts and bullocks than
anybody else in the country which they refused to let
out at the same rate as the others, and which they
(the indigo lords) were not permitted to seize and
employ at discretion, Roman Catholics have a greater
facility in making converts in India than Protestants,
from having so much more in their form of worship
to win the affections through the medium of the
imagination.

VOL. I.

18 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

CHAPTER III.
LEGEND OF THE NERBUDDA RIVER,
The legend is, that the Nerbudda which flows
west into the gulf of Cambay was wooed and won
in the usual way by the Sohun river, which rises
from the same table land of Omurkuntuk, and flows
east into the Ganges and Bay of Bengal. All the
previous ceremonies having been performed, the So
hun came with due " pomp and circumstance" to
fetch his bride, in the procession called the Burraet,
up to which time the bride and bridegroom are sup
posed never to have seen each other, unless per
chance they may have met in infancy. Her
majesty the Nerbudda became exceedingly impatient
to know what sort of a personage her destinies
were to be linked to, while his majesty the Sohun
advanced at a slow and stately pace. At last the
Queen sent J hola, the daughter of the barber, to
take a close view of him, and to return and
make a faithful and particular report of his person.

LEGEND OF THE NERBUDDA RIVER. 19
His majesty was captivated with the little Jhola,
the barber's daughter, at first sight ; and she " no
thing loath," yielded to his caresses. Some say
that she actually pretended to be Queen herself;
and that his majesty was no further in fault, than
in mistaking the humble handmaid for her noble
mistress ; but, be that as it may, her majesty
no sooner heard of the good understanding be
tween them, than she rushed forward, and with
one foot sent the Sohun rolling back to the east
whence he came, and with the other kicked
little Jhola sprawling after him : for, said the
high priest, who told us the story, "you see what
a towering passion she was likely to have been in
under such indignities, from the furious manner in
which she cuts her way through the marble roeks
beneath us, and casts huge masses right and left as
she goes along, as if they were really so many cocoa-
nuts !" "And was she," asked I, "to haveflovra eastward
with him, or was he to have flown westward with
her ?" " She was to have accompanied him east
ward," said the high priest ; " but her majesty,
after this indignity, declared, that she would not go a
single pace in the same direction with such wretches,
and would flow west, though all the other rivers in
India might flow east : and west she flows accord
ingly a virgin queen!" I asked some ofthe Hindoos
about us why they called her Mother Nerbudda, if she
was really never married. " Her majesty," said they
with great respect, " would really never consent to
c 2

20 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
be married after the indignity she suffered from her
affianced bridegroom the Sohun ; and we call her
mother because she blesses us all, and we are anx
ious to accost her by the name which we consider
to be at once the most respectful and endearing."
Any Englishman can easily conceive a poet in his
highest" calenture of the brain," addressing the ocean
as " a steed that knows his rider," and patting the
crested billow as his flowing mane : but he must
come to India to understand how every individual
of a whole community of many millions can address
a fine river as a living being — a sovereign princess,
who hears and understands all they say, and exercises
a kind of local superintendence over their affairs,
without a single temple in which her image is wor
shipped, or a single priest to profit by the delusion.
As in the case of the Ganges, it is the river itself
to whom they address themselves, and not to any
deity residing in it, or presiding over it — the stream
itself is the deity which fills their imaginations, and
receives their homage.
Among the Romans and ancient Persians rivers
were propitiated by sacrifices. When Vitellius
crossed the Euphrates with the Roman legions to
put Tiridates on the throne of Armenia, they pro
pitiated the river according to the rites of their
country by the suovetaurilia, the sacrifice of the hog,
the ram, and the bull. Tiridates did the same by
the sacrifice of a horse. Tacitus does not mention
the river god, but the river itself, as propitiated.

LEGEND OF THE NERBUDDA RIVER. 21
See b. vi. chap. 37. Plato makes Socrates condemn
Homer for making Achilles behave disrespectfully
towards the river Xanthus, though acknowledged to
be a divinity, in offering to fight him ; and towards the
river Sperchius, another acknowledged god, in pre
senting to the dead body of Patroclus the locks of
his hair which he had promised to that river.
The Sohun river, which rises near the source of
the Nerbudda on the table land of Omurkuntuk,
takes a westerly course for some miles, and then
turns off suddenly to the east, and is joined by the
little stream of the Jhola before it descends the
great cascade ; and hence the poets have created this
fiction, which the mass of the population receive as
divine revelation. The statue of little Jhola, the
barber's daughter, in stone, stands in the temple of
the goddess Nerbudda at Omurkuntuk, bound in
chains. It may here be remarked, that the first
overtures of marriage in India must always be made
through the medium of the Barber, whether they be
from the prince or the peasant. If a sovereign prince
sends proposals to a sovereign princess, they must be
conveyed through the medium of the Barber, or
they will never be considered as done in due form,
or as likely to prove propitious. The prince will, of
course, send some relation or high functionary with
him ; but in all the credentials the Barber must be
named as the principal functionary. Hence it was
that her majesty was supposed to have sent a Barber's
daughter to meet her husband.
The Mahatum (greatness or holiness) of the

22 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Ganges is said, as I have already stated, to be on the
wane, and not likely to endure sixty years longer ;
while that ofthe Nerbudda is on the increase, and in
sixty years is entirely to supersede the sanctity of her
sister. If the valley of the Nerbudda should con
tinue for sixty years longer under such a govemment
as it has enjoyed since we took possession of it in
1817, it may become infinitely more rich, more po
pulous, and more beautiful than that of the Nile
ever was ; and if the Hindoos there continue, as I
hope they will, to acquire wealth and honour under
a rule to which they are so much attached, the
prophecy may be realized in as far as the increase
of honour paid to the Nerbudda is concerned. But I
know no ground to expect that the revenue paid to
the Ganges will diminish, unless education and the
concentration of capital in manufactures should work
an important change in the religious feelings and
opinions of the people along the course of that river;
although this, it must be admitted, is a consumma
tion which may be looked for more speedily on the
banks of the Ganges than on those of a stream like
the Nerbudda, which is neither navigable at present,
nor in my opinion capable of being rendered so.
Commerce and manufactures, and the concentration
of capital in the maintenance of the new communi
ties employed in them, will, I think, be the great
media through which this change will be chiefly
effected ; and they are always more likely to follow
the course of rivers that are navigable than that of
rivers which are not.

23

CHAPTER IV.

A SUTTEE ON THE NERBUDDA.

We took a ride one evening to Gopalpore, a small
village situated on the same bank of the Nerbudda,
about three miles up from Beraghat. On our way
we met a party of women and girls coming to the
fair. Their legs were uncovered half way up the
thigh ; but as we passed, they all carefully covered
up their faces. " Good God," exclaimed one of the
ladies, " how can these people be so very indecent !"
They thought it, no doubt, equally extraordinary,
that she should have her face uncovered, while she
so carefully concealed her legs ; for they were really
all modest peasantry, going from the village to bathe
in the holy stream. Here there are some very pretty
temples built for the most part to the memory of
widows who have burned themselves with the
remains of their husbands, and upon the very spot
where they committed themselves to the flames.
There was one which had been recently raised over

24 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the ashes of one of the most extraordinary old ladies
that I have ever seen, who burned herself in my
presence in 1829. I prohibited the building of any
temple upon the spot, but my successor in the civil
charge ofthe district. Major Low, was never, I believe,
made acquainted with the prohibition nor with the
progress of the work ; which therefore went on to
completion during my absence. As suttees are now
prohibited in our dominions, and cannot be often seen
or described by Europeans, I shall here relate the cir
cumstances of this as they were recorded by me at
the time ; and the reader may rely upon the truth
of the whole tale.
On the 29th November, 1829, this old woman, then
about sixty-five years of age, here mixed her ashes
with those of her husband, who had been burned
alone four days before. On receiving civil charge
of the district (Jubbulpore) in March, 1828, I issued
a proclamation prohibiting any one from aiding or
assisting in suttee; and distinctly stating, that to bring
one ou^ice of wood for the purpose would be consi
dered as so doing. If the woman burned herself
with the body of her husband, any one who brought
wood for the purpose of burning him, would become
liable to punishment ; consequently the body of the
husband must be first consumed, and the widow
must bring a fresh supply for herself. On Tuesday,
24th November, 1829, 1 had an application from the
heads of the most respectable and most extensive
family of Brahmans in the district, to suffer this old

A SUTTEE ON THE NERBUDDA. 25
widow to bum herself with the remains of her hus
band, Omed Sing Opuddea, who had that morn
ing died upon the banks of the Nerbudda. I threat
ened to enforce my order, and punish severely any
man who assisted ; and placed a police guard for
the jjurpose of seeing that no one did so. She re
mained sitting by the edge of the water without
eating or drinking. The next day the body of her
husband was burned to ashes in a small pit of about
eight feet square, and three or four feet deep, before
several thousand spectators who had assembled to
see the suttee. All strangers dispersed before even
ing, as there seemed to be no prospect of my
yielding to the urgent solicitations of her family,
who dared not touch food till she had burned herselfj
or declared herself willing to return to them. Her
sons, grandsons, and some other relations, remained
with her, while the rest surrounded my house, the
one urging me to allow her to burn, and the other
urging her to desist. She remained sitting upon
a bare rock in the bed of the Nerbudda, refusing
every kind of sustenance, and exposed to the intense
heat of the sun by day, and the severe cold of the
night, with only a thin sheet thrown over her shoul
ders. On Thursday, to cut off all hope of her being
moved from her purpose, she put on the Dhujja, or
coarse red turban, and broke her bracelets in pieces,
by which she became dead in law, and for ever ex
cluded from caste. Should she choose to live after
this, she could never return to her family. Her

26 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
children and grandchildren were still with her, but
all their entreaties were unavailing ; and I became
satisfied, that she would starve herself to death if not
allowed to bum, by which the family would be dis
graced, her miseries prolonged, and I myself rendered
liable to be charged with a wanton abuse of autho
rity, for no prohibition of the kind I had issued had as
yet received the formal sanction of the government.
On Saturday the 28th, in the morning, I rode out
ten miles to the spot, and found the poor old widow
sitting with the dhujja round her head, a brass plate
before her with undressed rice and flowers, and a
cocoa-nut in each hand. She talked very collectedly,
telling me, that "she had determined to mix her ashes
with those of her departed husband, and should par
tiently wait • my permission to do so, assured that
God would enable her to sustain life till that was
given, though she dared not eat or drink." Looking
at the sun, then rising before her over a long and beau
tiful reach of the Nerbudda river, she said calmly,
" My soul has been for five days with my husband's
near that sun — nothing but my earthly frame is left ;
and this I know you will in time suffer to be mixed
with the ashes of his in yonder pit, because it is not
in your nature or your usage wantonly to prolong the
miseries of a poor old woman." " Indeed it is not,
— my object and my duty is to save and preserve
them ; and I am come to dissuade you from this idle
purpose — to urge you to live, and to keep your family
from the disgrace of being thought your murderers."

A SUTTEE ON THE NERBUDDA. 27
" I am not afraid of their ever being so thought
• — they have all, like good children, done everything
in their power to induce me to live among them ;
and if I had done so, I know they would have loved
and honoured me ; but my duties to them have now
ended. I commit them all to your care, and I go to
attend my husband, Omed Sing Opuddea, with whose
ashes on the funeral pile mine have been already
three times mixed."
This was the first time in her long Mfe that she
had ever pronounced the name of her husband, for
in India no woman high or low ever pronounces
the name of her husband — she would consider it
disrespectful towards him to do so ; and it is often
amusing to see their embarrassment when asked the
question by any European gentleman. They look
right and left for some one to relieve them from
the dilemma of appearing disrespectful either to
the querist, or to their absent husbands — they per
ceive that he is unacquainted with their duties on
this point, and are afraid he will attribute their silence
to disrespect. They know that few European gen
tlemen are acquainted with them ; and when women
go into our courts of justice, or other places where
they are liable to be asked the names of their hus
bands, they commonly take one of their children or
some other relation with them to pronounce the words
in their stead. When the old lady named her husband,
as she did with strong emphasis, and in a very delibe
rate manner, every one present was satisfied that she
10

28 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
had resolved to die. " I have," she continued,
" tasted largely of the bounty of govemment, having
been maintained by it with all my large family in
ease and comfort upon our rent-free lands ; and I
feel assured that my children will not be suffered to
want : but with them I have nothing more to do,
our intercourse and communion here end. My soul
(prau) is with Omed Sing Opuddea ; and my ashes
must here mix with his." Again looking to the sun
— " I see them together," said she, with a. tone and
countenance that affected me a good deal, " under
the bridal canopy !" — alluding to the ceremonies of
marriage ; and I am satisfied, that she at that moment
really believed that she saw her own spirit and
that of her husband under the bridal canopy in para
dise. I tried to work upon her pride and her fears. I
told her that it was probable that the rent-free lands
by which her family had been so long supported
might be resumed by the government, as a mark of
its displeasure against the children for not dissuading
her from the sacrifice — that the temples over her
ancestors upon the bank might be levelled with the
ground, in order to prevent their operating to induce
others to make similar sacrifices ; and lastly, that not
one single brick or stone should ever mark the place
where she died, if she persisted in her resolution.
But if she consented to live, a splendid habitation
should be built for her among these temples — a
handsome provision assigned for her support out of

A SUTTEE ON THE NERBUDDA. 29
these rent-free lands — her children should come
daily to visit her, and I should frequently do the
same. She smiled, but held out her arm, and said
— " My pulse has long ceased to beat — my spirit
has departed — and I have nothing left but a little
earth that I wish to mix with the ashes of my hus
band — I shall suffer nothing in burning ; and if
you wish proof, order some fire, and you shall see
this arm consumed without giving me any pain." I did
not attempt to feel her pulse, but some of my people
did, and declared that it had ceased to be perceptible.
At this time every native present believed that she
was incapable of suffering pain; and her end con
firmed them in their opinion.
Satisfied myself that it would be unavailing to
attempt to save her life, I sent for all the principal
members of the family, and consented that she
should be suffered to burn herself if they would
enter into engagements that no other member of
their family should ever do the same. This they
all agreed to, and the papers having been drawn
out in due form about mid-day, I sent down no
tice to the old lady, who seemed extremely pleased
and thankful. The ceremonies of bathing were
gone through before three, while the wood and
other combustible materials for a strong fire were
collected, and put into the pit. After bathing, she
called for a pawn (betel leaf) and ate it, then rose
up, and with one arm on the shoulder of her eldest
son, and the other on that of her nephew, ap-

30 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
proached the fire. I had sentries placed all round,
and no other person was allowed to approach within
five paces. As she rose up, fire was set to the pile,
and it was instantly in a blaze. The distance was
about one hundred and fifty yards — she came on
with a calm and cheerful countenance — stopped once,
and casting her eyes upward said — " Why have they
kept me five days from thee, my husband !" On*
coming to the sentries her supporters stopped — she
walked once round the pit, paused a moment ; and
while muttering a prayer threw some flowers into
the fire. She then walked up deliberately and
steadily to the brink, stepped into the centre of the
flame, sat down, and leaning back in the midst as if
reposing upon a couch, was consumed without utter
ing a shriek or betraying one sign of agony ! A
few instruments of music had been provided, and
they played as usual as she approached the fire, not
as is commonly supposed, in order to drown screams,
but to prevent the last words of the victim from
being heard, as these are supposed to be prophetic,
and might become sources of pain or strife to the
living. It was not expected that I should jdeld, and
but few people had assembled to witness the sacri
fice, so that there was little or nothing in the cir
cumstances immediately around to stimulate her
to any extraordinary exertions ; and I am persuaded
that it was the desire of again being united to her
husband in the next world, and the entire confidence
that she would be so. if she now burned herself,

A SUTTEE ON THE NERBUDDA. 31
that alone sustained her. From the morning of the
day he died, Tuesday, till Wednesday evening, she
ate pawns or betel leaves, but nothing else : and
from Wednesday evemng she ceased eating them.
She drank no water from Tuesday. She went into
the fire with the same cloth about her that she had
worn in the bed of the river ; but it was made, wet,
from a persuasion, that even the shadow of any im
pure thing falling upon her when going to the pile
contaminates the woman, unless counteracted by
the sheet moistened in the holy stream. I must do
the family the justice to say, that they all ex
erted themselves to dissuade the ,widow from her
purpose ; and had she lived, sh9 would assuredly
have been cherished and honoured as the first fe
male member of the whole house. There is no
people in the world among whom parents are more
loved, honoured, and obeyed, than among the Hin
doos ; and the grandmother is always more honoured
than the mother. No queen upon her throne could
ever have been approached with more reverence by
her subjects than was this old lady by all the mem
bers of her family as she sat upon a naked rock in
the bed of the river, with only a red rag upon her
head, and a single white sheet over her shoulders !
Soon after the battle of Trafalgar I heard a young
lady exclaim, " I could really wish to have had a
brother killed in that action." There is no doubt
that a family in which a suttee takes place feels a
good deal exalted in its own esteem and that of the

32 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
community by the sacrifice. The sister of the Ra
jah of Rewa was one of four or five wives who
burned themselves with the remains of the Rajah
of Oodeepore ; and nothing in the course of his life
will ever be recollected by her brother with so much
of pride and pleasure, since the Oodeepore Rajah is
the head of the Rajpoot tribes.
I asked the old lady when she had first resolved
upon becoming a suttee, and she told me, that
about thirteen years before, while bathing in the river
Nerbudda, near the spot where she then sat, with
many other females of the family, the resolution had
fixed itself in her mind as she looked at the splendid
temples on the bank of the river, erected by the
different branches of the family over the ashes of her
female relations, who had at different times become
suttees. Two, I think, were over her aunts, and one
over the mother of her husband. They were very
beautiful buildings, and had been erected at great cost
and kept in good repair. She told me that she had
never mentioned this her resolution to any one from
that time, nor breathed a syllable on the subject till
she called out S7dh, suth, suth ! when her husband
breathed his last with his head in her lap on the
bank of the Nerbudda, to which he had been taken
when no hopes remained of his surviving the fever of
which he died.
The following conversation took place one morn
ing between me and a native gentleman at Jub
bulpore soon after suttees had been prohibited by
government.

A SUTTEE ON THE NERBUDDA. 33
" What are the castes among whom women are
not permitted to re-marry after the death of their
husbands ?"
" They are, sir, Brahmans, Rajpoots, Buneeas
(shopkeepers), Kaets (writers)."
" Why not permit them to marry now that they
are no longer permitted to burn themselves with
the dead bodies of their husbands?"
" The knowledge that they cannot unite them
selves to a second husband without degradation from
caste, tends strongly to secure their fidelity to the
first, sir. Besides, if all M'idows were permitted to
marry again, what distinction would remain between
us and people of lower caste ? We should all soon
sink to a level with the lowest !"
" And so you are content to keep up your caste
at the expense of the poor widows ?"
" No : they are themselves as proud of the dis
tinction as their husbands are."
" And would they, do you think, like to have the
good old custom of burning themselves restored ?"
" Some of them would, no doubt."
" Why?"
" Because they become re-united to their hus
bands in paradise, and are there happy, free from
all the troubles of this life."
" But you should not let them have any troubles
as widows."
" If they behave well, they are the most honoured
members of their deceased husband's families ; no-
VOL. I. D

34 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
thing in such families is ever done without consult
ing them, because all are proud to have the me
mory of their lost fathers, sons, and brothers so
honoured by their widows. But women feel that
they are frail ; and would often rather burn them
selves at once than be exposed all their lives to
temptation and suspicion."
" And why do not the men burn themselves to
avoid the troubles of life ?"
" Because they are not called to it from Heaven, as
the women are."
"And you think that the women were really
called to be burned by the Deity ?"
" No doubt : we all believe that they were called
and supported by the Deity ; and that no tender
beings like women could otherwise voluntarily un
dergo such tortures — they become inspired with
supernatural powers of courage and fortitude ! When
Dhoolee Sookul, the Sehora banker's father, died, the
wife of a Lodhee cultivator of the town declared, all
at once, that she had been a suttee with him six
times before ; and that she would now go into para
dise with him a seventh time. Nothing could dis
suade her from burning herself. She was between
fifty and sixty years of age ; and had grandchildren ;
and all her family tried to persuade her that it must
be a mistake, but all in vain. She became a suttee,
and was burnt the day after the body of the
banker !"
" Did not Dhoolee Sookul's family, who were

A SUTTEE ON THE NERBUDDA. 35
Brahmans, try to dissuade her from it, she being a
Lodhee, a very low caste ?"
"They did ; but they said all things were possible
with God ; and it was generally believed, that this
was a call from heaven."
" And what became of the banker's widow ?"
" She said that she felt no divine call to the
flames. This was thirty years ago ; and the banker
was about thirty years of age when he died ."
" Then he will have rather an old wife in pa
radise ?"
" No, sir ; after they pass through the flames
upon earth, both become young in paradise."
" Sometimes women used to burn themselves with
any relict of a husband who had died far from home,
did they not ?"
" Yes, sir, I remember a fisherman, about twenty
years ago, who went on some business to Banares
from Jubbulpore, and who was to have been back in
two months. Six months passed away without any
news of him ; and at last the wife dreamed that he
had died on the road,/_and began forthwith, in the
middle of the night, to call out Sut, Sut, Sut!
Nothing could dissuade her from burning ;Jand in the
morning a pile was raised for her, on the north
bank of the large tank of Hoonooman, where you
have planted an avenue of trees. There I saw
her burned with her husband's turban in her arms —
and in ten days after, her husband came back !"
" Now the burning has been prohibited, a man
cannot get rid of a bad wife so easily ?"
D 2

1/

36 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" But she was a good wife, sir, and bad ones do
not often become suttees."
" Who made the pile for her ?"
" Some of her family, but I forget who ; they
thought it must have been a call from heaven, when,
in reality, it was only a dream."
" You are a Rajpoot ?"
" Yes."
" Do Rajpoots, in this part of India, now destroy
their female infants ?"
" Never : that practice has ceased everywhere in
these parts ; and is growing into disuse in Bundel
cund, where the Rajahs, at the request of the Bri
tish government, have prohibited it among their sub
jects. This was a measure of real good. You see
girls now at play in villages, where the face of one
was never seen before, nor the voice of one heard."
" But still those who have them grumble, and
say that the government which caused them to be
preserved should undertake to provide for their mar
riage. Is it not so?"
" At first they grumbled a little, sir ; but as the
infants grew upon their affections, they thought
no more about it."
Goorchurn Baboo, the principal of the little Jub
bulpore College, called upon me one forenoon, soon
after this conversation. He was educated in the
Calcutta College ; speaks and writes English exceed
ingly well; is tolerably well read in English literature,
and is decidedly a thitiking man. After talking over

A SUTTEE ON THE NERBUDDA. 37
the matter which caused his visit, I told him of the
Lodhee woman's burning herself with the Brahman
banker at Sehora ; and asked him what he thought
ofit. He said, " That in all probability this woman
had really been the wife of the Brahman in
some former birth — of which transposition a sin
gular case had occurred in his own family. His
great-grandfather had three wives, who all burnt
themselves with his body. While they were
burning, a large serpent came up, and ascend
ing the pile, was burnt with them. Soon after, an
other came up, and did the same ! They were seen
by the whole multitude, who -were satisfied that they
had been the wives of his great grandfather in a for
mer birth, and would become so again after this
sacrifice. When the Suradh, or funeral obsequies,
were performed after the prescribed intervals, the
offerings and prayers were regularly made for six
souls instead of four ; and to this day every member
of his family, and every Hindoo who had heard the
story, believed that these two serpents had a just
right to be considered as among his ancestors, and
to be prayed for accordingly in all Suradh !"
A few days after this conversation with the prin
cipal of the Jubbulpore College, I had a visit from
Bholee Sookul, the present head of the Sehora banker's
family, and youngest brother of the Brahman with
whose ashes the Lodhee woman burned herself. I
requested him to tell me all that he recollected

38 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
about this singular suttee, and he did so as fol
lows ; —
" When my eldest brother, the father of the late
Dhoolee Sookul, who was so long a native collector
under you in this district, died about twenty years
ago at Sehora, a Lodhee woman, who resided two
miles distant in the village of Khittolee, which has
been held by our family for several generations, de
clared that she would burn herself with him on the
funeral pile ; that she had been his wife in three
different births, had already burnt herself with him
three times, and had to burn with him four times
more. She was then sixty years of age, and had a
husband living about the same age. We were all
astounded when she came forward with this story;
and told her that it must be a mistake, as we
were Brahmans, while she was a Lodhee. She said
that there was no mistake in the matter ; that she,
in the last birth, resided with my brother in the
sacred city of Banares, and one day gave a holy
man who came to ask charity, salt, by mistake, in
stead of sugar with his food. That, in consequence,
he told her she should, in the next birth, be sepa
rated from her husband, and be of inferior caste ;
but that, if she did her duty well in that state, she
should be reunited to him in the following birth.
We told her that all this must be a dream ; and the
widow of my brother insisted that if she were not
allowed to burn herself, the other should noi be
allowed to take her place. We prevented the

A SUTTEE ON THE NERBUDDA. 39
widow from ascending the pile, and she died at a
good old age only two years ago at Sehora. My bro
ther's body was burned at Sehora, and the poor Lodhee
woman came and stole one handful of the ashes
which she placed in her bosom, and took back with
her to Khittolee. There she prevailed upon her hus
band and his brother to assist her in her return to
her former husband and caste as a Brahman. No
soul else would assist them, as we got the then
native chief to prohibit it ; and these three persons
brought on their own heads the pile on which she
seated herself with the ashes in her bosom. The
husband and his brother set fire to the pile, and she
was burned."
" And what is now your opinion, after a lapse of
twenty years ?"
" Why, that she had really been the wife of my
brother ; for at the pile she prophesied that my
nephew Dhoolee should be, what his grandfather
had been, high in the service of the government ;
and, as you know, he soon after became so."
" And what did your father think ?"
" He was so satisfied that she had been the wife
of his eldest son in a former birth, that he defrayed
all the expenses of her funeral ceremonies ; and had
them all observed with as much magnificence as
those of any member of the family. Her tomb is
still to be seen at Khittolee, and that of my brother
at Sehora."
I went to look at these tombs with Bholee Sookul

40 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
himself some short time after this conversation ; and
found that all the people of the town of Sehora and
village of Khittolee really believed, that the old
Lodhee woman had been his brother's wife in a for
mer birth, and had now burned herself as his widow
for the fourth time. Her tomb is at Khittolee, and
his at Sehora.

41

CHAPTER V.

MARRIAGES OF TREES  THE TANK AND THE PLAINTAIN —
METEORS  RAINBOWS.
Before quitting Jubbulpore, to which place I
thought it very unlikely that I should ever return, I
went to visit the groves in the vicinity, which, at the
time I held the civil charge of the district in 1828,
had been planted by different native gentlemen upon
lands assigned to them rent free for the purpose,
on condition that the holder should bind himself to
plant trees at the rate of twenty-five to the acre, and
keep them up at that rate — and that for each grove,
however small, he should build and keep in repair
a well lined with masonry for watering the trees, and
for the benefit of travellers.* Some of these groves
had already begun to yield fruit, and all had been
* In planting mango groves, it is a rule that they shall be as
far from each other, as not to admit of their branches ever
meeting. " Plant trees ; but let them not touch." " Aum
lugow — nais lugee nuheen," is the maxim.

42 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
married. Among the Hindoos, neither the man who
plants a grove nor his wife can taste of the fruit till
he has married one of the mango trees to some
other tree (commonly the tamarind tree) that grows
near it in the same grove. The proprietor of one of
these groves that stands between the cantonment
and the town, old Berjore Sing, had spent so much
in planting and watering the grove, and building
walls and wells of pucka masonry, that he could not
afford to defray the expense of the marriage cere
monies till one of the trees, which was older than
the rest when planted, began to bear fruit in 1833 ;
and poor old Berjore Sing and his old wife were iu
great distress, that they dared not taste of the fruit
whose flavour was much praised by their children.
They began to think that they had neglected a
serious duty, and might, in consequence, be taken off
before another season could come round. They there
fore sold all their silver and gold ornaments, and bor
rowed all they could ; and before the next season
the grove was married with all due pomp and cere
mony, to the great delight of the old pair, who tasted
ofthe frait in June 1834.
The larger the number of Brahmans that are fed
on the occasion ofthe marriage, the greater the glory
ofthe proprietor of the grove; and when I asked
old Berjore Sing, during my visit to his grove, how
many he had feasted, he said, with a heavy sigh,
that he had been able to feast only one hundred and
fifty. He showed me the mango tree which had

MARRIAGES OF TREES. 43
acted the part of the bridegroom on the occasion ;
but the bride had disappeared from his side. " And
where is the bride, the tamarind ?" " The only tama
rind I had in the grove died," said the old man, " be
fore we could bring about the wedding ; and I was
obliged to get a jasmine for a wife for my mango.
I planted it here, so that we might, as required, cover
both bride and bridegroom under one canopy during
the ceremonies ; but after the marriage was over, the
gardener neglected her, and she pined away and died."
" And what made you prefer the jasmine to all other
trees after the tamarind ?" " Because it is the most
celebrated of all trees save the rose." " And why not
have chosen the rose for a wife ?" " Because no one
ever heard of a marriage between the rose and the
mango ; while they take place every day between the
mango and the chumbaelec (jasmine)."
After retuming from the groves, I had ' a visit
after breakfast from a leamed Mahomedan, now
guardian to the young Rajah of Oocheyrah, who re
sides part of his time at Jubbulpore. I mentioned
my visit to the groves, and the curious notion of the
Hindoos regarding the necessity of marrying them ;
and he told me, that among Hindoos, the man who
went to the expense of making a tank, dared not
drink of its waters till he had married his tank to
some banana tree, planted on the bank for the pur
pose. " But what," said he, with a smile, " could you
expect from men who believe that Indur is the god

44 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
who rules the heavens immediately over the earth ;
that he sleeps during eight months in the year, and
during the other four his time is divided between
his duties of sending down rain upoh the earth, and
repelling with his arrows Rajah Bull, who by bis
austere devotions (Tupaseea) has received from the
higher gods a promise of the reversion of his do
minions. The lightning which we see," said the
learned Moulavee, " they believe to be nothing more
than the glittering of these arrows, as they are shot
from the bow of Indur upon his foe Rajah Bull."*
" But, my good friend, Moulavee Sahib, there are
many good Mahomedans who believe that the me
teors, which we call shooting stars, are in reality
stars which the guardian angels of man snatch from
the spheres, and throw at the devil as they see him
passing through the air, or hiding himself under one
or othef of the constellations. Is it not so?"
" Yes, it is ; but we have the authority of the
holy prophet for this, as delivered down to us by his
companions, in the sacred traditions ; and we are
bound to believe it. When our holy prophet came
upon the earth, he found it to be infested with a host |
* There is a sublime passage in the Psalms of David, where
the lightmng is said to be the arrows of God. — Psalm Ixxvii.
" The clouds poured out water : the skies sent out a sound :
thine arrows also went abroad.
The voice of thy thunder was in tlie heavens : the lightnings
lightened the world : the earth trembled and shook."

METEORS. 45
of magicians, who, by their abominable rites and
incantations, ji^t into their interests certain devils,
or demons, whom they used to send up to heaven,
to listen to the orders whicli the angels received
from God, regarding men and the world beloAv. On
hearing these orders they came off, and reported
them to the magicians, who were thereby enabled
to foretel the events which tlie angels were ordered
to bring about. In this manner they often over
heard the orders which the angel Gabriel received
from God ; and communicated them to the magi
cians as soon as he could deliver them to our holy
prophet. Exulting in the knowledge obtained in
this diabolical manner, these wretches tried to tum
his prophecies into ridicule ; and seeing the evil
effects of such practices among men, he prayed to"
God to put a stop to them. From that time guardian
angels have been stationed in different parts of the
heavens, to keep off the devils ; and as soon as one
of them sees a devil sneaking too near the heaven of
heavens, he snatches the nearest star, and fiings it at
him." This, he added, was what all true Mahomedans
believed regarding the shooting of stars. He had read
nothing about them in the works of Plato, Aristotle,
Hippocrates, or Galen, all of which he had care
fully studied ; and should be glad to leam from me
what modern philosophers in Europe thought about
them. I explained to him the supposed distance and
bulk of the fixed stars, visible to the naked eye ;

46 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
their being radiant with unborrowed light, and pro
bably every one of them, like our own sun, the great
centre of a solar system of its own ; embracing the
vast orbits of numerous planets, revolving around it
with their attendant satellites — the stars visible to the
naked eye being but a very small portion of the whole
which the telescope had now made distinctly visible
to us ; and those distinctly visible being one cluster
among many thousand with which the genius of
Galileo, Newton, the Herschells, and many other
modern philosophers had discovered the heavens
to be studded I remarked, that the notion that
these mighty suns, the centres of planetary systems,
should be made merely to be thrown at devils and
demons, appeared to us just as unaccountable as
those of the Hindoos regarding Indur's arrows.
" But," said he, " these foolish Hindoos believe
still greater absurdities. They believe that the
rainbow is nothing more than the fume of a large
snake, concealed under the ground ; that he vomits
forth this fume from a hole in the surface of the
earth, without being himself seen; and when you
ask them, why, in that case, the rainbow should be
in the west while the sun is in the east, and in the
east while the sun is in the west, they know not
what to say."*
* Nine Hindoos out of ten, or perhaps ninety-nine in a hun
dred, throughout India, believe the rainbow to arise from the
breath of the snake, thrown up from the surface of the earth,
as water is thrown up by whales from the surface of the ocean.

METEORS. 47
" The truth is, my friend, Moulavee Sahib, the
Hindoos, like a very great part of every other na
tion, are very much disposed to attribute to super
natural influences effects that the wiser portion of
our species know to rise from natural causes."
The Moulavee was right. In the Mishcatol Ma-
sabeh, the authentic traditions of their prophet, it
is stated, that iEsha, (the widow of Mahomed,) said,
" I heard his majesty say, the angels come down to
the regions next the world, and mention the works
that have been pre-ordained in heaven; when the
devils, who descend to the lowest regions, listen to
the words, and hearing the orders predestined
in heaven, carry them to fortune-tellers, who found
upon them a hundred lies of their own."
Abu Abas states : " One of the holy prophet's
friends informed me, that while he was sitting one
night with his majesty, in company with several
other friends, a very bright star shot. ' What,' de
manded the prophet, ' did you say in the days of
ignorance, when a star shot like this?' They re
plied, ' God and his messenger know best ; but we
used to say, that a great man was born to-night, or
a great man died.'* ' There,' said his majesty,
* In Sparta, the Euphori, once every nine years, watched the
sky during a whole cloudless, moonless night, in profound si
lence ; and if they saw a shooting star, it was understood to indi
cate that the kings of Sparta had disobeyed the gods, and their
authority was in consequence suspended till they had been puri
fied by an oracle from Delphi or Olympia.

48 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
'you mistake — the shootings of these stars are
neither for the life nor the death of great per
sons. When our cherisher orders a work, the
bearers of the imperial throne sing hallelujahs, and
the inhabitants of the nearer regions repeat it,
till it reaches the lowest regions. After that the
angels, which are near the bearers of the imperial
throne, say, " What did your cherisher order ?"
Then they are informed ; and so it is handed
from one region to another, till the information
reaches the people of the lowest. Then the devils
steal it, and carry it to their friends the magicians;
and the stars are thrown at these devils, and not for
the birth or death of any person. Thus the things
which the magicians tell, having heard them from
the devils, are true ; but they add lies of their own,
and exaggerate everything they hear.'
The prophet declared, " God has created stars for
three uses; one of them as a cause of ornament of
the regions ; the second, to pelt the devils with ;
the third, to direct people going through forests and
on the sea. Therefore, whoever shall explain them
otherwise does wrong, and loses his time, and speaks
from his own invention, and embellishes."
Ibu Abas. " The prophet said, whoever attains to
the knowledge of astrology, for any other explanation
than the three afore-mentioned, then verily he has
attained to a branch of magic. An astrologer is a
magician, and a magician is a necromancer, and a ne
cromancer is an infidel !" (Book i. chap. 3 ; book

THE DEVILS. 49
r
xxi. chap. 3. Mishcatol Masabeh, or the Camp of
the Companions of the Prophet.) This work con
tains the precepts and sayings of Mahomed, as
declared by his companions, who themselves heard
them ; or by those who heard them immediately
from those companions ; and they are considered
to be binding upon the faith and conduct of Mussul
mans, though not all delivered from inspiration.
Everything that is written in the Koran itself, is
supposed to have been brought direct from God by
the angel Gabriel.*

o^

* But the prying character of these devils is described in the
Koran itself. According to Mahomedans they had access to
all the seven heavens, till the time of Moses, who got them
excluded from three ; Christ got them excluded from three raore;
and Mahomed managed to get them excluded from the seventh
and last! " We have placed the twelve signs in the heavens,
and have set them out in various figures for the observation of
spectators, and we guard them from every devil driven away with
stones ; except him who listeneth by stealth, at whom a visible
flame is darted." — Chap. xv. " We have adorned the lower
heaven with the ornament of stars, and we have placed therein
a guard against every rebellious devil, that they may not Usten
to the discourse of exalted princes, for they are darted at from
every side, to repel them, and a lasting torment is prepared for
them ; except him who catcheth a word by stealth, and is pur
sued by a shining flame." — Chap xxxvii.

VOL. I.

50

CHAPTER VI.

HINDOO MARRIAGES.

Certain it is that no Hindoo will have a mar
riage in his family during the four months of the
rainy season; for among eighty millions of souls,
not one doubts that the Great Preserver of the
universe is, during these four months, down on a
visit to Rajah Bull, and, consequently, unable to
bless the contract with his presence. Marriage is a
sacred duty among Hindoos, a duty which every
parent must perform for his children, otherwise they
owe him no reverence. A family, with a daughter un
married after the age of puberty, is considered to
labour under the displeasure of the gods ; and no
member of the other sex considers himself respect
able, after the age of puberty, till he is married. It
is the duty of his parent or elder brothers to have
him suitably married ; and if they do not do so, he
reproaches them with his degraded condition. The
same feeling, in a less degree, pervades all the

HINDOO MARRIAGES. 51
Mahomedan community ; and nothing appears so
strange to them as the apparent indifference of old
bachelors among us to their sad condition ! Mar
riage, with all its ceremonies, its rights and its du
ties, fills their imagination from infancy to age ; and
I do not believe there is a country upon earth in
which a larger portion of the wealth of the commu
nity is spent in the ceremonies, or where the rights are
better secured, or the duties better enforced, not
withstanding all the disadvantages of the laws of
polygamy. Not one man in ten can afford to main
tain more than one wife, and not one in ten of
those who can afford it Mdll venture " upon a sea of
troubles," in taking a second, if he has a child by
the first. One of the evils which press most upon
Indian soeiety, is the necessity which long usage has
established of squandering large sums in marriage
ceremonies. Instead of giving what they can to
their children to establish them, and enable them to
provide for their families, and rise in the world, pa
rents everywhere feel bound to squander all they
have, and all they can borrow, in the festivities of
tlieir marriage. Men in India could never feel se
cure of being permitted freely to enjoy their pro
perty under despotic and unsettled governments, the
only kind of governments they knew or hoped for ;
and mueh of the means, that would otherwise have
been laid out in forming substantial works, with a
view to a retum in income of some sort or another,
for the remainder of their own lives, and for those
E 2

52 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of their children, were expended in tombs, temples,
suraes, tanks, groves, and other works, useftil and
ornamental, no doubt, but from which neither they
nor their children could ever hope to derive income of
any kind. The same feeling of insecurity gave birth,
no doubt, to this preposterous usage, which tends so
much to keep down the great mass of the people of
India to that grade in which they were born, and in
which they have nothing but their manual labour to
depend upon for their subsistence. Every man feels
himself bound to waste all his stock and capital, and
exhaust all his credit, in feeding idlers during the
ceremonies which attend the marriage of his chil
dren, because his ancestors squandered similar sums,
and he would sink in the estimation of society if he
were to allow his children to be married with less.
But it could not have been solely because men could
not invest their means in profitable works, with any
chance of beinglongpermitted to enjoy the profits under
such despotic and unsettled governments, that they
squandered them in feeding idle people in marriage
ceremonies; since temples, tanks, and groves se
cured esteem in this life, and promised some ad
vantage in the next, and an outlay in such works
might therefore have been preferred. But under
such governments a man's title even to the exclu
sive possession of his wife, might not be considered
as altogether secure under the mere sanction of re
ligion ; and the outlay in feeding the family, tribe,
and neighbourhood, during the marriage ceremony,

HINDOO MARRIAGES. 53
seems to have been considered as a kind of value in
exchange given for her to society. There is nothing
that she and her , husband recollect through life with
so much pride and pleasure as the cost of their mar
riage, if it happen to be large for their condition in
life — it is their Amoku, their title of nobility ; and
their parents consider it their duty to make it as
large as they can. A man would hardly feel secure
of the sympathy of his family, tribe, circle of so
ciety, or rulers, for the loss of " his ox, or his ass,
or anything that is his," if it should happen to have
cost him nothing; and till he could feel secure
of their sympathy for the loss, he would not feel
very secure in the possession. He, therefore, or
those who are interested in his welfare, strengthen
his security by an outlay which invests his wife with
a tangible value in cost, well understood by his circle
and rulers. His family, tribe, and circle, have re
ceived the purchase money, and feel bound to secure
to him the commodity purchased ; and as they are in
all such matters commonly much stronger than the
rulers themselves, the money spent among them is
more efficacious in securing the exclusive enjoyment
of the wife, than if it had been paid in taxes or fees
to them for a marriage licence. The pride of fami
lies and tribes, and the desire of the multitude to
participate in the enjoyment of such ceremonies,
tend to keep up this usage after the cause in which
it originated may have ceased to operate; but it
will, it is to be hojied, gradually decline with the

54 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
increased feeling of security to person, property, and
character, under our rule. Nothing is now more
common than to see an individual in the humblest rank
spending all that he has, or can borrow, in the mar
riage of one of many daughters, and trusting to Pro
vidence for the means of marrying the others ; nor
in the higher, to find a young man, whose estates
have, during a long minority, under the careful
management of government officers, been freed from
very heavy debts, with which an improvident father
had left them encumbered, the moment he attains
his majority, and enters upon the management,
borrowing three times their annual rent, at an exor
bitant interest, to marry a couple of sisters, at the
same rate of outlay, in feasts and fireworks, that his
grandmother was married with.

55

CHAPTER VII.

THE PURVEYANCE SYSTEM.

We left Jubbulpore on the morning of the 20th
November, 1835, and came on ten miles to Bughoree.
Several of our friends of the 29th native infantry
accompanied us this first stage, where they had a
good day's shooting. In 1830, I established here
some venders in wood, to save the people from the
miseries of the purveyance system ; but I now found
that a native collector, soon after I had resigned the
civil charge of the district and gone to Saugor, in
order to ingratiate himself with the officers, and get
from them favourable testimonials, gave two regi
ments, as they marched over this road, free permis
sion to help themselves gratis out of the store-rooms
of these poor men, whom I had set up with a loan
from the public treasury, declaring that it must be
the wish and intention of government to supply
their public officers free of cost ; and consequently
that no excuses could be attended to. From that
time shops and shopkeepers have disappeared.
Wood for all public officers and establishments

56 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
passing this road has ever since, as in former times,
been collected from the surrounding villages gratis,
under the purveyance system, in which all native
public officers delight ; and which I am afraid is
encouraged by European officers, either from their
ignorance or their indolence. They do not like the
trouble of seeing the men paid either for their wood
or their labour; and their head servants of the
kitchen or the wardrobe weary and worry them out
of their best resolutions on the subject. They make
the poor men sit aloof by telling them, that their
master is a tiger before breakfast, and will eat them
if they approach : and they tell their masters, that
there is no getting the poor men to come for their
money till they have bathed or taken their break
fast. The latter wait in hopes that the gentleman will
come out or send for them as soon as he has been
tamed by his breakfast ; but this meal has put him in
good humour with all the world, and he is now no
longer unwilling to trust the payment of the poor
men to his butler, or his valet de chambre. They
keep the poor wretches waiting, declaring that they
have as yet received no orders to pay them, till,
hungry and weary, in the afternoon they all walk
back to their homes in utter despair of getting any
thing. If, in the mean time, the gentleman comes
out and finds the men, his servants pacify him by
declaring, either that they have not yet had time to
carry his orders into effect — that they could not get
copper change for silver rupees — or that they were

THE PURVEYANCE SYSTEM. 57
anxious to collect all the people together before they
paid any, lest they might pay some of them twice
over. It is seldom, however, that he comes among
them at all ; he takes it for granted that the people
have all been paid; and passes the charge in the
account of his servants, who all get what these
porters ought to have received. Or, perhaps the
gentleman may persuade himself, that if he pays his
valet or butler, these functionaries will never pay the
poor men ; and think that he had better sit quiet
and keep the money in his own pocket. The native
police or revenue officer is directed by his superior
to have wood collected for the camp of a regiment or
great civil officers — and he sends out his myrmidons to
employ the people around in felling trees, and cutting
up wood enough to supply not only the camp, but
his own cook-rooms and those of his fiiends for the
next six months. The men so employed commonly
get nothing ; but the native officer receives credit for
all manner of sujierlatively good qualities, which are
enumerated in a certificate. Many a fine tree, dear
to the affections of families and village communities,
has been cut down in spite, or redeemed from the
axe by a handsome present to this officer or to his
myrmidons. Lambs, kids, fowls, milk, vegetables,
all come flowing in for the great man's table from poor
people, who are too hopeless to seek for payment, or
who are represented as too proud and wealthy to receive
it. Such alM^ays have been and such always will be
some of the evils of the purveyance system. Ifa

58 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
police officer receives an order from the magistrate
to provide a regiment, detachment, or individual
with boats, carts, bullocks, or porters, he has all that
can be found within his jurisdiction forthwith seized
— releases all those whose proprietors are able and
willing to pay what he demands, and ftirnishes the
rest, which are generally the worst, to the persons
who require them. Police officers derive so much
profit from these applications, that they are always
anxious they should be made ; and will privately
defeat all attempts of private individuals to provide
themselves, by dissuading or intimidating the pro
prietors of vehicles from voluntarily furnishing them.
The gentleman's servant who is sent to procure
them, returns and tells his master, that there are
plenty of vehicles, but that their proprietors dare
not send them without orders from the police ; and
that the police tell him they dare not give such
orders without the special sanction of the magistrate.
The magistrate is written to ; but declares that his
police have been prohibited from interfering in such
matters without special orders, since the proprietors
ought to be permitted to send their vehicles to whom
they choose, except on occasions of great public
emergency ; and as the present cannot be considered
as one of these occasions, he does not feel authorized
to issue such orders. On the Ganges, many men have
made large fortunes by pretending a general autho
rity to seize boats for the use of the commissariat or
for other government purposes, on the ground of

THK PURVEYANCE SYSTEM. 59
having been once or twice employed on that duty ;
and what they get is but a very small portion of that
which the public lose. One of these self-constituted
functionaries has a boat seized on its way down or
up the river ; and the crew, who are merely hired for
the occasion, and have a month's wages in advance,
seeing no prospect of getting soon out of the
hands of this pretended government servant, desert,
and leave the boat on the sands ; while the owner,
if he ever learn the real state of the case, thinks it
better to put up with his loss than to seek redress
through expensive courts, and distant local autho
rities. If the boat happens to be loaded and to
have a supercargo who will not or cannot bribe
high enough, he is abandoned on the sands by his
crew ; in his search for aid from the neighbourhood,
his helplessness becomes known — he is perhaps mur
dered, or runs away in the apprehension of being so —
the boat is plundered and made a wreck : still the
dread of the delays and costs of our courts, and the
utter hopelessness of ever recovering the lost pro
perty, prevent the proprietors from seeking redress,
and our government authorities know nothing of the
circumstances. We remained at Bughoree the 21st, to enable our
people to prepare for the long march they had
before them ; and to see a little more of our Jubbul
pore friends, who were to have another day's shoot
ing, as black partridges and quail had been found
abundant in the neighbourhood of our camp.

60

CHAPTER VIII.
RELIGIOUS SECTS — SELF-GOVERNMENT OF THE CASTES 
CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS  WASHERWOMEN  ELEPHANT-DRIVERS.
Meer Sulamut Ali, the head native collector of
the district, a venerable old Mussulman, and most
valuable public servant, who has been labouring in
the same vineyard with me for the last fifteen years
with great zeal, ability, and integrity, came to visit
me after breakfast with his two very pretty and inte
resting young sons. While we were sitting together,
my wife's under-woman said to some one who was
talking with her outside the tent door, " If that were
really the case, should I not be degraded ?" " You see,
Meer Sahib," said I, " that the very lowest members
of society among these Hindoos still feel the pride of
caste, and dread exclusion from their own, however
low." " Yes," said the Meer, " they are a very strange
kind of people ; and I question whether they ever
had a real prophet among them !"
" I question, Meer Sahib, whether they really ever
had such a person. They of course think the incar-

RELIGIOUS SECTS. 61
nation of their three great divinities were beings
infinitely superior to prophets, being in all their
attributes and prerogatives equal to the divinities
themselves. But we are disposed to think, that these
incarnations were nothing more than great men
whom their flatterers and poets have exalted into
gods — this was the way in which men made their
gods in ancient Greece and Egypt. These great
men were generally conquerors, whose glory consisted
in the destruction of their fellow creatures ; and
this is the glory which their flatterers are most prone
to extol All that the poets have sung of the ac
tions of men is now received as revelation frora
heaven; though nothing can be more monstrous
than the actions attributed to the best incarnation,
Krishna, ofthe best of their gods, Vishnoo."
" No doubt," said Sulamut Ali ; " and had they
ever had a real prophet among them he would have
revealed better things to them : strange people !
when their women go on pilgrimages to Guya, they
have their heads shaved before the image of their god ;
and the offering of the hair is equivalent to the offer
of their heads ; for heads, thank God, they dare no
longer offer within the Company's territories !"
" Do you, Meer Sahib, think that they continue to
offer up human sacrifices anywhere ?"
" Certainly I do. There is a Rajah at Ruttun-
pore, or somewhere between Mundlah and Sum-
bhulpore, who has a man offered up to Dovy every
year ; and that man must be a Brahman. If he

62 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
can get a Brahman traveller, well and good ; if not,
he and his priests offer one of his own. subjects.
Every Brahman that has to pass through this terri
tory goes in disguise. With what energy did our
emperor Ourungzebe apply himself to put down ini
quities like this in the Rajpootana states — but all in
vain ! If a Rajah died, all his numerous wives burnt
themselves with his body— even their servants, male
and female, were obliged to do the same ; for, said
his friends, what is he to do in the next world with
out attendants ? The pile was enormous : on the top
sat the queen with the body ofthe prince ; the servants,
male and female, according to their degree, below;
and a large army stood all round to drive into the fire
again or kill all who should attempt to escape !"
" This is all very true, Meer Sahib, but you must
admit, that though there is a great deal of absurdity
in their customs and opinions, there is, on the other
hand, much that we might all take an example
from. The Hindoo believes that Christians and Mus
sulmans may be as good men in all relations of life
as himself, and in as fair a way to heaven as he is ;
for he believes, that my Bible and your Koran are as
much revelations framed by the Deity for our
guidance, as the Shastres are for his. He doubts not
that our Christ was the Son of God ; nor that Maho
med was the prophet of God ; and all that he asks
from us is, to allow him freely to believe in his own
gods, and to worship in his own way. Nor does
one caste or one sect of Hindoos ever believe itself

RELIGIOUS SECTS. 63
to be alone in the right way, or detest any other for
not following in the same path, as they have as much
of toleration for each other as they have for us."
" True," exclaimed Sulamut Ali, " too true ! we
have ruined each other : we have cut each other's
throats : we have lost the empire, and we deserve to
lose it. You won it, and you preserved it by your
union — ten men with one heart are equal to a hun
dred men with different hearts. A Hindoo may feel
himself authorised to take in a Mussulman, and might
even think it meritorious to do so ; but he would
never think it meritorious to take in one of his own
religion. There are no less than seventy-two sects
of Mahomedans; and every one of these sects
would not only take in the followers of every other
religion on earth, but every member of every one of
the other seventy-one sects ; and the nearer that
sect is to its own, the greater the merit in taking in
its members ! "*
" Something has happened of late to annoy you
Ifear, Meer Sahib?"
* Meer Sulamut Ali is a staunch Soonnee, the sect of Osman ;
and they are always at daggers drawn with the Sheeas, or the
sect of Ali. He alludes to the Sheeas when he says that one of
the seventy-two sects is always ready to take in the whole of the
other seventy-one. Mahomed, according to the traditions, was
one day heard to say, " The time will come when my followers
will be divided into seventy-three sects — all of them vrill assuredly
go to hell save one." Every one of the seventy-three sects be
lieves itself to be the one happily excepted by their prophet, and
predestined to paradise. I am sometimes disposed to think

64 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" Something happens to annoy us every day, sir,
where we are more than one sect of us together;
and wherever you find Mussulmans you will find them
divided into sects."
It is not perhaps known to many of my country
men in India, that in every city and town in the
country the right of sweeping the houses and streets
is one of the most intolerable of monopolies, sup
ported entirely by the pride of caste among the
scavengers, who are all of the lowest class ! The
right of sweeping within a certain range is recog
nized by the caste to belong to a certain member ;
and if any other member presumes to sweep within
that range, he is excommunicated — no other member
will smoke out of his pipe, or drink out of his jug ;
and he can get restored to caste only by a feast to the
whole body of sweepers. If any house-keeper within
a particular circle happens to offend the sweeper of
Mahomed was self-deluded, however difficult it might be to
account for so much " method in his madness." It is difiicult
to conceive a man placed in such circumstances with more ami
able dispositions or with juster views of the rights and duties of
men in all their relations with each other, than are exhibited by
him on almost aU occasions, save where the question of faith in
his divine mission was concerned.
A very interesting and useful book might be made out of the
history of those men, more or less m,ad, by whom multitudes of
mankind have been led and perhaps governed ; and a philoso
phical analysis of the points on which they were really mad and
really sane, would show many of them to have been fit subjects
for a madhouse during the whole career of their glory !

COMBINATIONS. 65
that range, none of his filth will be removed till he
pacifies him, because no other sweeper will dare
to touch it; and the people of a town are often
more tyrannized over by these people than by any
other. It is worthy of remark, that in India the
spirit of combination is always in the inverse ratio
to the rank of the class — weakest in the highest, and
strongest in the lowest class. All infrinffements
upon the rules of the class are punished by fines.
Every fine furnishes a feast at which every member
sits, and enjoys himself. Payment is enforced by
excommunication — no one of the caste will eat, drink,
or smoke with the convicted till the fine is paid ;
and as every one shares in the fine, every one does
his best to enforce payment. The fines are imposed
by the elders who know the circumstances of the
culprit, and fix the amount accordingly. Washer
men will often at a large station combine to prevent
the washerman of one gentleman from washing the
clothes of the servants of any other gentleman, or
the servants of one gentleman from getting their
clothes washed by any other person than their own
master's washerman. This enables them sometimes
to raise the rate of washing to double the fair or
ordinary rate ; and at such places the washermen
are always drunk with one continued routine of
feasts from the fines levied. The cost of these fees
falls ultimately upon the poor servants or their
masters. This combination, however, is not always for
bad or selfish purposes. I was once on the staff of an
VOL. \, F

66 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
officer commanding a brigade on service, whose
elephant-driver exercised an influence over him that
was often mischievous and sometimes dangeroiis ; for
In marching and choosing his ground, this man was
more often consulted than the quarter-master gene
ral. His bearing was most insolent, and became
intolerable as well to the European gentlemen as to
the people of his caste. He at last committed him
self by saying that he would spit in the face of ano
ther gentleman's elephant-driver with whom he was
disputing. All the elephant-drivers in our large
camp were immediately assembled, and it was deter
mined in council to refer the matter to the decision
of the Rajah of Dhurbunga's driver, who was ac
knowledged the head of the class. We were all break
fasting with the brigadier after muster when the
reply came — the distance to Dhurbunga from Nath-
pore on the Koosee river, where we then were, must
have been a hundred and fifty miles. We saw men
running in all directions through the camp, without
knowing why; till at last one came and summoned the
brigadier's driver. With a face of terror he came and
implored the protection of the brigadier; who got
angry, and fumed a good deal, but seeing no expres
sion of sympathy in the faces of his officers, he told
the man to go and hear his sentence. He was
escorted to a circle formed by all the drivers in camp,
who were seated on the grass. The offender was
taken into the middle of the circle and commanded
to stand on one leg while the Rajah's driver's letter

COMBINATIONS. 67
was read. He did so, and the letter directed him
to apologise to the offended party, pay a heavy fine
for a feast, and pledge himself to the assembled
drivers never to offend again. All the officers in
camp were delighted, and some who went to hear
the sentence explained declared, that in no court in
the world could the thing have been done with more
solemnity and effect. The man's character was
quite altered by it, and he became the most docile of
drivers. On the same principle here stated, of en
listing the community in the punishment of offenders,
the New Zealanders, and other savage tribes who
have been fond of human flesh, have generally been
found to confine the feast to the body of those who
were put to death for offences against the state or
the individual. I and all the officers of my regiment
were at one time in the habit of making every ser
vant who required punishment or admonition to
bring immediately, and give to the first religious
mendicant we could pick up, the fine we thought
just. All the religionists in the neighbourhood de
clared, that justice had never been so well admi
nistered in any other regiment ; no servant got any
sympathy from them — they were all told that their
masters were far too lenient !
We crossed the Herun river about ten miles from
our last ground on the 22nd, and came on two miles
to. our tents in a mango grove close to the town of
Kuttungee, and under the Vindhya range of sand
stone hills, which rises almost perpendicular to the
F 2

68 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
height of some eight hundred feet over the town.
This range from Kuttungee skirts the Nerbudda
valley to the north, as the Sathpore range skirts it
to the south ; and both are of the same sand-stone
formation capped with basalt, ujjon which here and
there is found masses of laterite, or iron clay. No
thing has ever yet been found reposing upon this iron
clay. The strata of this range have a gentle and
almost imperceptible dip to the north, at right
angles to its face which overlooks the valley, and this
face has everywhere the appearance of a range of
gigantic round bastions projecting into what was
perhaps a lake, and is now a well-peopled, well-culti
vated, and very happy valley, about twenty miles
wide. The river crosses and recrosses it diagonally.
Near Jubbulpore it flows along for some distance
close under the Sathpore range to the south ; and
crossing over the valley from Beraghat it reaches the
Vindhya range to the north, at the point where it
receives the Herun river, forty miles below.

69

CHAPTER IX.

THE GREAT ICONOCLAST  TROOPS ROUTED BY HORNETS —
THE RANEE OF GURBA — HORNETS' NESTS IN INDIA.
On the 23rd we came on nine miles to Singram-
pore, and on the 24th nine more to the valley of
Jubeyrah, situated on the western extremity of
the bed of a large lake which is now covered by
twenty-four villages. The waters were kept in by
a large wall that united two hills about four miles
south of Jubejrrah. This wall was built of great cut
freestone blocks from the two hills of the Vindhya
range, which it united. It was about half a mile long,
one hundred feet broad at the base, and about one hun
dred feet high. The stones, though cut, were never,
apparently, cemented ; and the wall has long given
way in the centre, through which now flows a small
stream that passes from east to west of what was
once the bottom of the lake, and now is the site of
so many industrious and happy little village commu
nities. The proprietor of the village of Jubeyrah, in
whose mango grove our tents were pitched, con-

70 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
ducted me to the ruins of the wall ; and told me
that it had been broken down by the order of the
Emperor Ourungzebe, History to these people is all
a fairy tale ; and this emperor is the great destroyer
of everything that the Mahomedans in their fana
ticism have demolished of the Hindoo sculpture or
architecture: and yet, singular as it may appear,
they never mention his name with any feelings of in
dignation or hatred. With every scene of his sup
posed outrage against their gods or their temples,
there is always associated the recollection of some in
stance of his- piety, and the Hindoo's glory ! — of some
idol, for instance, or column, preserved from his fury by
a miracle, whose divine origin he is supposed at once
to have recognized with all due reverence. At
Beragur, the high priest of the temple told us, that
Ourungzebe and his soldiers knocked off the heads,
arms, and noses of all the idols, saying, " that if they
had really any of the godhead in them, they would
assuredly now show it, and save themselves." But
when they came to the door of Gouree Sunkur's
apartments, they were attacked by a nest of hornets,
that put the whole of the emperor's army to the
route ; and his imperial majesty called out, " Here
we have really something like a god, and we shall
not suffer him to be molested: if all your gods
could give us proof like this of their divinity, not a
nose of them would ever be touched !"
The popular belief, however, is that after Ourung
zebe's army had struck off all the prominent features
7

TROOPS ROUTED BY HORNETS. 71
of the other gods, one of the soldiers entered the
temple, and struck off the ear of one of the prostrate
images underneath their vehicle, the Bull. " My
dear," said Gouree, " do you see what these saucy
men are about ?" Her consort turned round his
head ; and seeing the soldiers around him, brought
all the hornets up from among the marble rocks
below, where there are still so many nests of them,
and the whole army fled before them to Teoree, five
miles. It is very likely that some body of troops by
whom the rest of the images had been mutilated,
may have been driven off by a nest of hornets from
within the temple where this statue stands. I have
seen six companies of infantry, with a train of artil- -
lery, and a squadron of horse, all put to the route by
a single nest of hornets ; and driven off some miles
with all their horses and bullocks. / The officers gene
rally save themselves, by keej)ing within their tents,
and creeping under their bed-clothes, or their carpets ;
and servants often escape by covering themselves up
in their blankets, and lying perfectly still. Horses
are often stung to a state of madness, in which
they throw themselves over precipices, and break
their limbs, or kill themselves. The grooms, in try
ing to save their horses, are generally the people who
suffer most in a carnp attacked by such an enemy-
I have seen some so stung as to recover with diffi
culty ; and I believe there have been instances of
people not recovering at all. In such a frightful
scene I have seen a bullock sitting and chewing the

72 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
cud as calmly as if the whole thing had been got up
for his amusement ! The hornets seldom touch any
animal that remains perfectly still.
On the bank of the Beena river at Eerun, in the
Saugor district, is a beautiful pillar of asingle freestone
of more than fifty feet high, surmounted by a figure
of Krishna, with the glory round his head. Some few
of the rays of this glory have been struck off by light
ning ; but the people declare, that this was done by a
shot fired at it from a cannon by order of Ourungzebe,
as his army was marching by on its way to the Deccan.
Before the scattered, fragments however could reach
the ground, the air was filled, they say, by a swarm of
hornets, that put the whole army to flight ; and the
emperor ordered his gunners to desist, declaring " that
he was satisfied of the presence of the god !" There
is hardly any part of India in which, according to
popular belief, similar miracles were not worked to
convince the emperor of the peculiar merits or sanc
tity of particular idols or temples, according to the
traditions of the people, derived, of course, from the
inventions of priests. I should mention, that these
hornets suspend their nests to the branches of the
highest trees, under rocks, or in old deserted temples.
Native travellers, soldiers, and camp followers, cook
and eat their food under such trees ; but they always
avoid one in which there is a nest of hornets, particu
larly on a still day. Sometimes they do not discover
the nest till it is too late. The unlucky wight goes on
feeding his fire, and delighting in the prospect of the

THE RANEE OF GURBA. 73
feast before him, as the smoke ascends in circling
eddies to the nest of the hornets. The moment it
touches them they sally forth and descend, and sting
like mad creatures every living thing they find in
motion. Three companies of my regiment were
escorting treasure in boats from Allahabad to Cawn
pore for the army under the Marquis of Hastings, in
1817. The soldiers all took their dinners onshore
every day; and one still afternoon a sipahee, by
cooking his dinner under one of those nests without
seeing it, sent the infuriated swarm among the
whole of his comrades, who were cooking in the
same grove, and undressed, as they always are on
such occasions. Treasure, food, and all were im
mediately deserted, and the whole of the party, save
the European officers, were up to their noses in the
river Ganges. The hornets hovered over them ; and
it was amusing to see them bobbing their heads
under as the insects tried to pounce upon them.
The officers covered themselves up in the carpets of
their boats ; and as the day was a hot one, their situ
ation was still more uncomfortable than that of the
men. Darkness alone put an end to the confiict.
I should mention that the poor old Ranee, or
Queen of Gurba, Suchmee Koour, came out as far
as Kuttungee with us to take leave of my wife, to
whom she has always been attached. She had been
in the habit of spending a day with her at my house
once a week; and being the only European lady
from whom she had ever received any attention, or

74 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
indeed ever been on teims of any intimacy with,
she feels the more sensible of the little offices of
kindness and courtesy she has received from her.*
Her husband, Nurbur Saw, was the last of the long
line of sixty-two sovereigns, who reigned over these
territories from the year a. d. 358 to the Saugor
conquest a. d. 1781. He died a prisoner in the
fortress of Koorae, in the Saugor district, in a. d.
1789, leaving two widows. One burnt herself upon
the funeral pile, and the other was prevented from
doing so, merely because she was thought too young,
as she was not then fifteen years of age. She re
ceived a small pension from the Saugor government,
which was still further reduced under the Nagpore
govemment that succeeded it in the Jubbulpore dis
trict in which the pension had been assigned ; and it
was not thought necessary to increase the amount of
this pension when the territory came under our
dominion, so that she has had barely enough to sub
sist upon — about one hundred rupees a month. She
is now about sixty years of age, and still a very good-
looking woman. In her youth she must have been
beautiful. She does not object to appear unveiled
before gentlemen, on any particular occasion; and
when Lord W. Bentinck was at Jubbulpore in 1833,
* After we left Jubbulpore, the old Ranee used to receive much
kind and considerate attention frotn the Hon. Mrs. Shore, a very
amiable woman, the wife of the Governor-general's representative,
the Hon. Mr. Shore, a very worthy and able member of the
Bengal civil service.

THE RANEE OF GURBA. 75
I introduced the old queen to him. He seemed
much interested, and ordered the old lady a pair of
shawls. None but very coarse ones were to be found
in the store-rooms of the Governor-general's repre
sentative, and his lordship said these were not such
as a governor-general could present, or a queen, how
ever poor, receive ; and as his own tosbukhana,
(wardrobe) had gone on, he desired that a pair of the
finest kind should be purchased and presented to
her in his name. The orders were given in her pre
sence and mine. I was obliged to retum to Saugor
before they could be carried into effect ; and when I
returned in 1835, I found that the rejected shawls
had been presented to her, and were such coarse
things that she was ashamed to- wear them, as much
I really believe on account of the exalted person
who had given them, as her own. She never men
tioned the subject till I asked her to let me see the
shawls, which she did reluctantly ; and she was too
proud to complain. How the good intentions of the
Governor-general had been frustrated in this case I
have never learned. The native officer in charge of
the store was dead, and the Governor-general's repre
sentative had left the place. Better could not, I
suppose, be got at this time, and he did not like to
defer giving them.

76

CHAPTER X.
THE PEASANTRY AND THE LAND SETTLEMENT.
The officers of the 29th had found game so plen
tiful, and the weather so fine, that they came on
with us as far as Jubeyrah, where we had the plea
sure of their society on the evening of the 24th, and
left them on the morning of the 25th. A great
many of my native friends, from among the native
landholders and merchants of the country, flocked
to our camp at every stage, to pay their respects,
and bid me farewell, for they never expected to see
me back among them again. They generally came
out a mile or two to meet and escort us to our
tents ; and much do I fear, that my poor boy will
never again, in any part of the world, have the
blessings of heaven so fervently invoked upon him
by so many worthy and respectable men as met us
at every stage, on our way from Jubbulpore. I am
much attached to the agricultural classes of India
generally, and I have found among them some of
the best men I have ever known. The peasantry in

PEASANTRY AND LAND SETTLEMENT. 77
India have generally very good manners, and are
exceedingly intelligent, from having so much more
leisure, and unreserved and easy intercourse with
those above them. The constant habit of meeting
and discussing subjects connected with their own in
terests, in their own fields and " under their own
fig-trees," with their landlords and government func
tionaries of all kinds and degrees, prevents their ever
feeling or appearing impudent or obtrusive ; though
it certainly tends to give them stentorian voices,
that often startle us when they come into our houses
to discuss the same points with us.
Nine-tenths of the immediate cultivators of the
soil in India are little farmers, who hold a lease for
one or more years, as the case may be, of their
lands, which they cultivate with their own stock.
One of these cultivators, with a good plough and
bullocks, and a good character, can always get good
lands on moderate terms from holders of villages.
These cultivators are, I think, the best who learn
to depend upon their stock and character for favour
able terms, hold themselves free to change their
holdings when their leases expire, and pretend not
to any hereditary right of property in the soil. The
lands are, I think, best cultivated, and the society
best constituted in India, where the holders of
estates of villages have a feeling of permanent in
terest in them, an assurance of an hereditary right
of property which is liable only to the payment of a
moderate government demand, descends undivided

78 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
by the law of primogeniture, and is unaffected by
the common law, which prescribes the equal subdi
vision among children of landed as well as other
private property, among the Hindoos and Maho
medans ; and where the immediate cultivators hold
the lands they till by no other law than that of com
mon specific contract.
When I speak of holders of villages, I mean the
holders of lands that belong to villages. The whole
face of India is parcelled out into estates of villages.
The village communities are composed of those who
hold and cultivate the land, the established village
servants, priest, blacksmith, carpenter, accountant,
washerman, basket-maker, (whose wife is ex officio
the midveife of the little village community,) potter,
watchman, barber, shoemaker, &c. &c.* To these may
be added the little banker, or agricultural capitalist,
the shopkeeper, the brazier, the confectioner, the iron
monger, the weaver, the dyer, the astronomer, or as
trologer, who points out to the people the lucky day
for every earthly undertaking, and the prescribed
times for all religious ceremonies and observances.
In some villages the whole of the lands are parcelled
out among cultivating proprietors, and are liable to
etemai subdivision by the law of inheritance, which
gives to each son the same share. In others, the
* In some part? of Central and Southern India, the Garpugree,
who charms away hail-storms from the crops, and the Bhoomka,
who charms away tigers from the people and their cattle, are
added to the number of village servants.

PEASANTRY AND LAND SETTLEMENT. 79
whole of the lands are parcelled out among cul
tivators, who hold them on a specific lease for
limited periods, from a proprietor who holds the
whole collectively under government, at a rate of
rent fixed either permanently or for limited periods.
These are the two extremes. There are but few
villages in which all the cultivators are considered
as proprietors, at least but few in our Nerbudda ter
ritories ; and these will almost invariably be found
of a caste of Brahmans or a caste of Rajpoots, de
scended from a common ancestor, to whom the
estate was originally given in rent-free tenure, or at
a quit rent, by the existing govemment for his
prayers as a priest, or his services as a soldier. Sub
sequent governments, which resumed unceremoni
ously the estates of others, were deterred from re
suming these by a dread of the curses of the one and
the swords of the other.* Such communities of cul
tivating proprietors are of two kinds, those among
whom the lands are parcelled out, each member holding
his share as a distinct estate, and being individually
responsible for the payment of the share of the govern
ment demand assessed upon it; and those among whom
* Very often the government of the country know nothing of
these tenures ; the local authorities allowed them to continue as
a perquisite of their own. The holders were willing to pay them
a good share of the rent, assured that they would be resumed if
reported by the local authorities to the government. These au
thorities consented to take a moderate share of the rent, assured
that they should get little or nothing if the lands were resumed.

80 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the lands are not parcelled out, but the profits divided
as among copartners of an estate held jointly. They,
in either case, nominate one of their members to col
lect and pay the govemment demand; or govemment
appoints a man for this duty, either as a salaried ser
vant, or as a lessee, with authority to levy from the
cultivating proprietors a certain sum over and above
what is demandable from htm.
The communities in which the cultivators are
considered merely as lease-holders, are far more nu
merous — indeed the greater part of the village com
munities in this part of India are of this description ;
and where the communities are of a mixed charac
ter, the cultivating proprietors are considered to
have merely a right of occupancy, and are liable to
have their lands assessed at the same rate as those
held on a mere lease tenure. In all parts of India
the cultivating proprietors, in such mixed com
munities, are similarly situated — they are liable to
be assessed at the same rate as others holding
the same sort of lands ; and often pay a higher
rate, with which others are not encumbered. But
this is not general: it is as much the interest of
the proprietor to have good cultivating tenants,
as it is that of the tenants to have good proprietors;
and it is felt to be the interest of both to adjust
their terms amicably among themselves, A\ithout a
reference to a third and superior party, which is al
ways costly and commonly ruinous.
It is a question of very great importance, no less

PEASANTRY AND LAND SETTLEMENT. 81
morally and politically than fiscally, which of these
systems deserves most encouragement — that in which
the govemment considers the immediate cultivators
to be the hereditary proprietors, and, through its
own public officers, parcels out the lands among
them, and adjusts the rates of rent demandable from
every minute partition, as the lands become more
and more subdivided by the Hindoo and Mahome-
daai law of inheritance ; or that in which the govern
ment considers him who holds the area of a whole
village or estate collectively as the hereditary pro
prietor, and the immediate cultivators as his lease-
tenants — leaving the rates of rent to be adjusted
among the parties without the aid of public officei's,
or interposing only to enforce the fulfilment of their
mutual contracts. In the latter of these two sys
tems the lands will supply more and better members
to the middle and higher classes of the society, and
create and preserve a better feeling between them
and the peasantry, or immediate cultivators of the
soil ; and it will occasion the reinvestment upon the
soil, in works of ornament and utility, of a greater
portion of the annual returns of rent and profit,
and a less expenditure in the costs of litigation
in our civil courts, and bribery to our public
officers. Those who advocate the other system, which
makes the immediate cultivators the proprietors,
will, for the most part, be found to reason upon
false premises — upon the assumption that the rates
VOL. I. G

82 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of rent demandable from the immediate cultivators
of the soil were everywhere limited and established by
immemorial usage, in a certain sum of money per acre,
or a certain share of the crop produced from it ; and
" that these rates were not only so limited and fixed,
but everywhere well known to the people," and might
consequently have become well known to the go
vernment, and recorded in public registers. Now
every practical man in India, who has had opportu
nities of becoming well acquainted with the matter,
knows, that the reverse is the case ; that the rate of
rent demandable from these cultivators never was
the same upon any t-wo estates at the same time ; nm'
ever the same upon any one estate at diff'erent times, or
for any consecutive number of years. The rates vary
every year on every estate, according to the varying
circumstances that influence them — such as greater
or less exhaustion of the soil — greater or less facili
ties of irrigation, manure, transit to market, drainage
— or from fortuitous advantages on one hand, or cala
mities of season on the other ; or many other circum
stances which affect the value of the land, and the
abilities of the cultivators to pay. It is not so
much the proprietor of the estate, or the govern
ment, as the cultivators themselves, who demand
every year a readjustment of the rate demandable
upon their different holdings. This readjustment
must take place ; and if there is no landlord to effect
it, government must effect it through its own offi
cers. Every holding becomes subdivided when

PEASANTRY AND LAND SETTLEMENT. 83
the cultivating proprietor dies, and leaves more
than one child; and as the M'hole face of the
country is open and without hedges, the division is
easily and speedily made. Thus the field map which
represents an estate one year will never represent it
fairly five years after : in fact, we might almost as well
attempt to map the waves of the ocean, as field-
map the face of any considerable area in any part of
India. If there be any tmth in my conclusions, our govern
ment has acted unwisely in going, as it has generally
done, into the two extremes, in its settlement of
the land revenue. In the Zemindaree settlement
of Bengal, it conferred the hereditary right of pro
perty over areas larger than English counties on in
dividuals, and left the immediate cultivators mere
tenants at will. These individuals felt no interest
in promoting the comfort and welfare of the village
communities, or conciliating the affections of the
cultivators, whom they never saw or wished to see ;
and they let out the village, or other subdivision of
their estates to second parties quite as little inte
rested, who again let them out to others, so that the
system of rack renting went on over the whole area of
the immense possession. This was a system " more
honoured in the breach than the observance ;" for
as the great landholders became involved in the ruin
of their cultivators, their estates were sold for arrears
of revenue due to government, and thusthe proprietary
right of one individual has become divided among
G 2

84 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
many, who will have the feelings which the larger
holders wanted, and so remedy the evil. In the other
extreme, government has constituted the immediate
cultivators the proprietors; thereby preventing any one
who is supported upon the rent of land, or the profits
of agricultural stock, from rising above the grade
of a peasant, and so depriving society of one of its
best and most essential elements. The remedy of both
is in village settlements, in which the estate shall be
of moderate size, and the hereditary property of the
holder, descending on the principle of a principality,
by the right of primogeniture, unaffected by the
common law. This is the system which has been
adopted in the Nerbudda territory, and which I trust
will be always adhered to.
When we enter upon the government of any new
territorial acquisition in India, we do not require or
pretend to change the civil laws of the people ; be
cause their civil laws and their religion are in reality
one and the same, and are contained in one and the
same code, as certainly among the Hindoos, the Ma
homedans, and the Parsees, as they were among
the Israelites. By these codes, and by the esta
blished usages everywhere well understood by the
people, are their rights and duties in marriage, in
heritance, succession, caste, contract, and all the
other civil relations of life, ascertained; and when
we displace another government, we do not pretend
to alter such rights and duties in relation to each
other, we merely change the machinery and mode

PEASANTRY AND LAND SETTLEMENT. 85
of procedure, by which these rights are secured and
these duties enforced. Of criminal law no system
was ever either regularly established or administered
in any state in India, by any government to which
we have succeeded ; and the people always consider
the existing government free to adopt that which
may seem best calculated to effect the one great
object, which criminal law has everywhere in view
— the security of life, property, and character, and
the enjoyment of all iheir advantages. The actions by
which these are affected and endangered, the evi
dence by which such actions require to be proved
and the penalties with which they require to be,
visited, in order to prevent their recurrence, are, or
ought to be, so much the same in every society, that
the people never think us bound to search for what
Mahomed and his companions thought in the
wilds of Arabia, or the Sanscrit poets sung about
them in courts and cloisters. They would be just
as well pleased everywhere to find us searching
for these things in the writings of Confucius and
Zoroaster, as in those of Mahomed and Menu;
and much more so, to see us consulting our own
common sense, and forming a penal code of our
own, suitable to the wants of such a mixed com
munity. The fiscal laws which define the rights and duties
of the landed interests and the agricultural classes in
relation to each other and to the ruling powers, were
also everywhere exceedingly simple and well under-

86 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Stood by the people. What in England is now a
mere fiction of law, is still in India an essential
principle. All lands are held directly or indirectly
of the sovereign : to this rule there is no exception.
The reigning sovereign is essentially the proprietor
of the whole of the lands in every piart of India,
where he has not voluntarily alienated them; and
he holds these lands for the payment of those pub
lic establishments which are maintained for the
public good, and are supported by the rents of the
lands either directly under assignment, or indirectly,
through the sovereign proprietor. When a Maho
medan or Hindoo sovereign assigned lands, rent free
in perpetuity, it was always understood, both by the
donor and receiver, to be with the small reservation
of a right in his successor to resume them for the
public good, if he should think fit.* Hindoo sove-
* Ameer Khan, the Nawab of Tonk, assigned to his physi
cian, who had cured him of an intermittent fever, lands yielding
one thousand rupees a-year, in rent-free tenure, and gave him a
deed signed by himself and the heir apparent, declaring ex
pressly, that it should descend to him and his heirs for ever.
He died lately, and his son and successor, who had signed the
deed, resumed the estate without ceremony. On being remon
strated with, he said, " that his father while living was of course
master, and eould make him sign what he pleased, and give land
rent-free to whom he pleased ; but his successor must now be
considered the best judge, whether they could be spared or not ;
that if lands were to be alienated in perpetuity by every reigning
Nawab, for every dose of medicine, or dose of prayers, that he
or the members of his family required, none would soon be left

PEASANTRY AND LAND SETTLEMENT. 8/
reigns, or their priests for them, often tried to bar
this right, by invoking curses on the head of that
successor who should exercise it. It is a proverb
among the people of these territories, and I believe
among the people of India generally, that the lands
which pay no rent to government have no Burkut,
blessing from above — that the man who holds them
is not blessed in their retums like the man who
pays rent to government, and thereby contributes
his aid to the protection of the community. The
fact is, that every family that holds rent-free lands,
must, in a few generations, become miserable, from
the minute subdivision of the property, and the
litigation in our civil courts which it entails upon
the holders. It is certainly the general opinion of
the people of India, that no land should be held
without paying rent to government, or providing
for people employed in the service of government,
for the benefit of the people in its defensive, reli
gious, judicial, educational, and other establish
ments. Nine-tenths of the land in these Nerbudda
territories are held in lease immediately under go
vernment by the heads of villages, whose leases
have been renewable every five years ; but they are
now to have a settlement for twenty. The other
tenth is held by these heads of villages interme-
for the payment of the soldiers, or other necessary public ser.
vants of any description." This was told me by the son of the
old physician, who was the person to whom the speech was made,
his father having died before Ameer Khan.

88 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
diately under some chief, who holds several portions
of land immediately under government at a quit
rent, or for service performed, or to be performed,
for government, and lets them out to farmers. These
are for the most part situated in the more hilly and
less cultivated parts.

89

CHAPTER XL

WITCHCRAFT.

On leaving Jubeyrah, I saw an old acquaintance
from the eastern part of the Jubbulpore district,
Kehree Sing.
" I understand, Kehree Sing," said I, " that certain
men among the Gonds of the Jungle, towards the
source of the Nerbudda, eat human flesh. Is it so ?"
" No, sir, the men never eat people, but the
Gond women do."
« Where ?"
"Everywhere, sir; there is not a parish — nay, a
village, among the Gonds, in which you will not
find one or more such women."
" And how do they eat people ?"
" They eat their livers, sir."
" 0 ! I understand ; you mean witches ?"
" Of course ! Who ever heard of other people
eating human beings?"
" And you really still think, in spite of all that
we have done and said, that there are such things
as witches ?"

90 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" Of course we do — do not we find instances of it
every day ? European gentlemen are too apt to
believe that things like this are not to be found here,
because they are not to be found in their own coun
try. Major Wardlow, when in charge of the Seonee
district, denied the existence of witchcraft for a long
time ; but he was at last convinced."
"How?" " One of his troopers one morning, after a long
march, took some milk for his master's breakfast
from an old woman without paying for it. Before
the major had got over his breakfast, the poor
trooper was down upon his back, screaming from
the agony of internal pains. We all knew imme
diately that he had been bewitched ; and recom
mended the major to send for some one learned in
these matters to find out the witch. He did so ; and
after hearing from the trooper the story about the
milk, this person at once declared that the woman from
whom he got it was the criminal. She was searched
for, found, and brought to the trooper, and com
manded to cure him. She flatly denied that she had
herself conjured him ; but admitted that her house
hold gods might, unknown to her, have punished
him for his wickedness. This, however, would not do.
She was commanded to cure the man ; and she set
about collecting materials for the poojah (worship) ;
and before she could get quite through the ceremo
nies, all his pains had left him. Had we not been
resolute with her, the man must have died before
evening, so violent were his torments."

WITCHCRAFT. 91
" Did not a similar case occur to Mr. Fraser, at
Jubbulpore ? How was this ?"
" A Chuprassie of his, while he had charge of the
Jubbulpore district, was sent out to Mundlah with a
message of some kind or other. He took a cock from
an old Gond woman, without paying for it; and
being hungry after a long journey, ate the whole
of it in a curry. He heard the woman mutter
something, but being a raw, unsuspecting young
man, he thought nothing of it; ate his cock, and
went to sleep. He had not been asleep three hours
before he was seized with internal pains, and the
old cock was actually heard crowing in his belly !
He made the best of his way back to Jubbulpore,
several stages ; and all the most skilful men were
employed to charm away the effect of the old wo
man's spell — ^but in vain — he died, and the cock
never ceased crovidng at intervals up to the hour of
his death."
" And was Mr. Fraser convinced ?"
" I never heard, but suppose he must have been."
" Who ate the livers of the victims ? The witches
themselves, or the evil spirits with whom they had
dealings ?"
" The evil spirits ate the livers, but they are set
on to do so by the witches, who get them into
their power by such accursed sacrifices and offerings.
They will often dig up young children from their
graves, bring them to life, and allow these devils to
feed upon their livers, as falconers allow their hawks

92 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to feed on the breasts of pigeons. You sahib loge
(European gentlemen) vrill not believe all this ; but
it is, nevertheless, all very true."*
The belief in sorcery among these people owes its
origin, in a great measure, to the diseases of the
liver and spleen, to which the natives, and particu
larly the children, are much subject in the jungly
parts of central India. From these affections chil
dren pine away and die, Avithout showing any ex
ternal marks of disease. Their death is attributed
to witchcraft ; and any querulous old woman, who
has been in the habit of murmuring at slights and
ill-treatment in the neighbourhood, is immediately
set down as the cause. ^len who practice medicine
among them are very commonly supposed to be at
the same time wizards. Seeking to inspire confi
dence in their prescriptions, by repeating prayers
and incantations over the patient, or over the me
dicine they give him, they make him believe, that
they derive aid from supernatural power ; and the
patient concludes that those who can command
these powers to cure, can, if they will, command
them to destroy. He and his friends believe, that
the man who can command these powers to
cure one individual, can command them to cure
any other ; and if he does not do so, they believe
that it arises from a desire to destroy the pa-
* Of the supposed powers and dispositions of witches among
the Romans we have horrible pictures in the 5th book of the Sth
Ode of Horace, and in the Gth book of Lucan's Pharsalia.

WITCHCRAFT. 93
tient. I have, in these territories, known a great
many instances of medical practitioners having
been put to death for not curing young people>
for whom they were required to prescribe. Several
cases have come before me as a magistrate, in which
the father has stood over the doctor with a drawn
sword by the side of the bed of his child, and cut
him down and killed him the moment the child died,
as he had sworn to do when he found the patient
sinking under his prescriptions !
The town of Jubbulpore contains a population of
twenty thousand souls, and they all believed in this
story of the cock. I one day asked a most respect
able merchant in the town, Naudoo Chowdree, how
the people could believe in such things ; when he
replied that he had no doubt witches were to be
found in every part of India, though they abounded
most, no doubt, in the central parts of it ; and that
we ought to consider ourselves very fortunate in
having no such things in England ! " But," added
he, " of all countries, that between Mundlah and
Cuttuck is the worst for witches. I verily believe
that every old woman has the power of witchcraft in
that quarter. I had once occasion to go to the city
of Ruttunpore on business ; and was one day, about
noon, walking in the market-place, and eating a very
fine piece of sugar cane. In the crowd, I happened,
by accident, to jostle an old woman as she passed
me. I looked back, intending to apologise for the
accident, and heard her muttering indistinctly as

94 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
she passed on. Knowing the propensities of these
old ladies, I became somewhat uneasy ; and, on
turning round to my cane, I found, to my great
terror, that the juice had been all turned to blood !
Not a minute had elapsed : such were the fearful
powers of this old woman. I collected my followers,
and leaving my agents there to settle my accounts,
was beyond the boundaries of the old wretch's influ
ence before dark : had I remained nothing could
have saved me. I should certainly have been a dead
man before morning. It is well known," said the
old gentleman, " that their spells and curses can
only reach a certain distance, ten or twelve miles ;
and if you offend one of them, the sooner you place
that distance between you the better !"
Jungbaf Khan, the representative of the Shahgur
Rajah, as grave and reverend an old gentleman as
ever sat in the senate of Venice, told me one day,
that he was himself an eye-witness of the powers of
the women of Khiloutee. He was with a great
concourse of people at a fair, held at the town of
Raepore ; and while sauntering with many other
strangers in the fair, one of them began bargaining
with twd women of middle age for some very fine
sugar-canes. They asked double the fair price for
their canes. The man got angry, and took up one
of them ; when the woman seized the other end, and
a struggle ensued. The purchaser offered a fair price,
seller demanded double. The crowd looked on,
and a good deal of abuse of the female relations on

WITCHCRAFT. 95
both sides took place. At last a sipahee of the
governor came up, armed to the teeth, and called
out to the man, in a very imperious tone, to let
go his hold of the cane. He refused, saying,
" that when people came to the fair to sell, they
should be made to sell at reasonable prices, or be
turned out." " I," said Jungbar Khan, " thought
the man right, and told the sipahee, that if he took
the part of this woman, we should take that of the
other, and see fair play. Without further ceremony
the functionary drew his sword, and cut the cane in
two, in the middle; and pointing to both pieces, 'there,'
said he, ' you see the cause of my interference !'
We looked down, and actually saw blood running
from both pieces, and forming a little pool on the
ground. The fact was, that the woman was a sor
ceress of the very worst kind ; and was actually
drawing the blood from the man through the cane,
to feed the abominable devil from whom she de
rived her detestable powers. But for the timely
interference of the sipahee, he would have been
dead in another minute ; for he no sooner saw the
real state of the case than he fainted. He had
hardly any blood left in him ; and I was afterwards
told that he was not able to walk for ten days. We
all went to the governor to demand justice, declar
ing that unless the women were made an example
of at once, the fair would be deserted, for no stran
ger's life would be safe. He consented, and they
were both sown up in sacks and thrown into the
10

96 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
river ; but they had conjured the waters and would
not sink — they ought to have been put to death, but
the governor was himself afraid of this kind of
people, and let them off. There is not," continued
Jungbar, " a village, or a single family, without its
witch in that part of the country ; indeed no man
will give his daughter in marriage to a family with
out one, saying, ' If my daughter has children, what
will become of them, without a witch to protect
them from the witches of other families in the neigh
bourhood?' It is a fearful country, though the cheapest
and most fertile in India."
We can easily understand how a man, impressed
with the idea that his blood had all been drawn from
him by a sorceress, should become faint, and re
main many days in a languid state ; but how the
people around should believe that they saw the
blood flowing from both parts of the cane, at the
place cut through, it is not so easy to conceive. I
am satisfied that old Jungbar believed the whole
story to be true ; and that at the time he thought
the juice of the cane red ; but the little pool of
blood grew, no doubt, by degrees, as years rolled on,
and he related this tale of the fearful powers of the
Khiloutee witches.

97

CHAPTER XIL

THE SILVER TREE, OR KULPA BRIKSHA  THE SINGHARA OR
TRAPA BISPINOSA, AND THE GUINEA WORM.
Poor old Salamut Ali wept bitterly at the last
meeting in my tent, and his two nice boys, without
exactly knowing why, began to do the same ; and my
little son Henry caught the infection, and wept
louder than any of them. I was obliged to hurry
over the interview lest I should feel disposed to do
the same. The poor old Ranee too suffered a good
deal in parting with my wife, whom she says she can
never hope to see again. Her fine large eyes shed
many a tear as she was getting into her palankeen
to retum.
Between Jubeyrah and Hurdooa, the next stage,
we find a great many of those large forest trees called
kuUup, or kulpa briksha, (the same which in the
paradise of Indra grants what is desired,) with a soft
silvery bark, and scarcely any leaves. We are told,
that the name of the god Ram, and his consort
vol. I. H

98 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Seeta, will be found written by the hand of God
upon all.* I had the curiosity to examine a good
many in the forest on both sides of the road ; and
found the name of this incarnation of Vishnoo writ
ten on every one in Sanscrit characters, apparently
by some supernatural hand ; that is, there was a soft
ness in the impression, as if the finger of some super
natural being had traced the characters. Nathoo,
one of our belted attendants, told me, " that we might
search as deeply as we would in the forest, but we
should certainly find the name of God upon every
one; " for," said he, " it is God himself who writes it !"
I tried to argue him out of this notion ; but un
fortunately could find no tree without these charac
ters — some high up, and some lower down in the
trunk — some large and others small — but still to be
found on every tree. I was almost in despair, when
we came to a part in the wood where we found one
of these trees down in a hollow, under the road, and
another upon the precipice above. I was ready to
stake my credit upon the probability, that no travel
ler would take the trouble to go up to the tree above
or down to the tree below, merely to write the
name of the god upon them ; and at once pledged
myself to Nathoo, that he should find neither the
god's name nor that of his wife. I sent one man up
* The real kulpa, which now stands in the garden of the god
Indra in the first heaven, was one of the fourteen rarities found
at the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons. It fell to
the share of Indra.

WRITTEN TREES. 99
and another down ; and they found no letters on the
trees ; but this did not alter their opinion on the
point. " God," said one, " had no doubt put his name
on these trees, but they had some how or other got
rubbed off. He would in good time renew them,
that men's eyes might be blessed with the sight of
his holy name, even in the deepest forest, and on the
most leafless tree."* " But," said Nathoo, " he
might not have thought it worth while to write his
name upon those trees which no travellers go to see !"
" Cannot you see," said I, " that these letters have
been engraved by man? Are they not all to be
found on the trunk within reach of a man's hand ?
" Of course they are," replied he, " because people
would not be able conveniently to distinguish them
if God were to write them higher up !"
Sheikh Sadee has a very pretty couplet. " Every
leaf of the foliage of a green tree is, in the eye of a
wise man, a library to teach him the wisdom of his
Creator." I may remark that where an Englishman
would write his own name, a Hindoo would write
that of his god, his parent, or his benefactor. This
* Every Hindoo is thoroughly convinced that the names of
Ram and his consort Seeta, are written on this tree by the hand
of God ; and nine-tenths of the Mussulmans believe the same.
" Happy the man who sees a God employed
In all the good and ill that chequer life.
Resolving all events, with their effects
And manifold results, into the will
And arbitration wise of the Supreme," COWPEH.
H 2

100 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
difference is traceable of course to the difference in
their governments and institutions. If a Hindoo
built a town, he called it after his local govemor ; if
a local govemor built it, he called it after a favourite
son of the Emperor. In well-regulated Hindoo fa
milies, one cannot ask a younger brother after his
children in presence of the elder brother who hap
pens to be the head of the family ; it would be dis
respectful for him even to speak of his children as
his own in such presence — the elder brother relieves
his embarrassment by answering for him.
On the 27th we reached Dhumow, where our
friends, the Browns, were to leave us on their return
to Jubbulpore. Dhumow is a pretty place. The town
contains some five or six thousand people, and has
some very handsome Hindoo temples. On a hill
immediately above it is the shrine of a Maho
medan saint which has a very picturesque appear
ance. There are no manufactures at Dhumow, except
such as supply the wants of the immediate neigh
bourhood ; and the town is supported by the resi
dence of a few merchants, a few landholders, and
agricultural capitalists, and the establishment of a
native collector. The people here suffer much from
the guinea worm, and consider it to arise from drink
ing the water of the old tank, which is now very
dirty, and filled with weeds. I have no doubt that
it is occasioned either by drinking the water of this
tank, or wading in it ; for I have known European
gentlemen get the worm in their legs from wading

WATER-NUTS. lOl
in similar lakes or swamps after snipes, and the ser
vants who followed them with their ammunition ex
perience the same effect. Here, as in most other parts
of India, the tanks get spoiled by the water chestnut,
singhara, (trapa bispinosa,) which is everywhere as
regularly planted and cultivated in fields under a
large surface of water, as wheat or barley is on the
dry plains. It is cultivated by a class of men called
Dheemurs, who are everywhere fishermen and palan
keen bearers ; and they keep boats for the planting,
weeding, and gathering the singhara. The holdings
or tenements of each cultivator are marked out care
fully on the surface of the water by long bamboos
stuck up in it; and they pay so much the acre for the
portion they till. The long straws of the plants reach
up to the surface of the waters, upon which float their
green leaves ; and their pure white flowers expand
beautifully among them in the latter part of the
afternoon. The nut grows under the water after the
flowers decay, and is ofa triangular shape, and covered
with a tough brown integument adhering strongly
to the kernel, which is white, esculent, and of
a fine cartilaginous texture. The people are very
fond of these nuts, and they are carried often upon
bullocks' backs two or three hundred miles to market.
They ripen in the latter end of the rains, or in
September ; and are eatable till the end of Novem
ber. The rent paid for an ordinary tank by the
cultivator is about one hundred rupees a year. I
have known two hundred rupees to be paid for a

102 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
very large one, and even three hundred, or thirty
pounds, a year. But the mud increases so rapidly
from this cultivation, that it soon destroys all
reservoirs in which it is permitted ; and where it
is thought desirable to keep up the tank for the sake
of the water, it should be carefully prohibited. This
is done by stipulating with the renter of the village,
at the renewal of the lease, that no singhara shall
be planted in the tank, otherwise he will never
forego the advantage to himself of the rent for the
sake of the convenience, and that only prospective,
ofthe village community in general.

103

CHAPTER XIII.

THUGS AND POISONERS.

Lieutenant Brown had come on to Dhumow
chiefly with a view to investigate a case of murder,
which had taken place at the village of Soojeina, about
ten miles from Dhumow, on the road to Huttah. A
gang of two hundred Thugs were encamped in the
grove at Hindoreea in the cold season of 1814, when,
early in the morning, seven men well armed with
swords and matchlocks passed them bearing treasure
from the bank of Motee Kocheea, at Jubbulpore, to
their correspondents at Banda, to the value of four
thousand five hundred rupees. The value of their
burthen was immediately perceived by these keen-eyed
spm'tsmen, and Kosuree, Drigpaul, and Feringeea,
three of the leaders, with forty of their fieetest and
stoutest followers, were immediately selected for the
pursuit. They followed for seven miles unperceived ;
and coming up with the treasure-bearers in a water
course half a mile from the village of Soojeina, they

104 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
rushed in upon them, and put them all to death with
their swords. While they were doing so, a tanner
from Soojeina approached with his buffalo ; and, to
prevent his giving the alarm, they put him to death
also, and made off with the treasure, leaving the
bodies unburied. A heavy shower of rain fell, and
none of the village people came to the place till
the next moming early ; when some females passing
it on their way to Huttah, saw the bodies, and
retuming to Soojeina, reported the circumstance to
their friends. The whole village thereupon flocked to
the spot ; and the body of the tanner was burned by his
relations with the usual ceremonies; while all the rest
were left to be eaten by jackals, dogs, and vultures,
who make short work of such things in India.*
* Lieutenant Brown was suddenly called back to Jubbulpore,
and could not go himself to Soojeina. He sent, however, an
intelligent native officer to the place, but no man could be
induced to acknowledge, that he had ever seen the bodies or
heard of the aifair ; though Feringeea pointed out to them
exactly where they all lay. They said it must be quite a
mistake — that such a thing could not have taken place and they
know nothing of it ! Lieutenant Brown was aware that all this
affected ignorance arose entirely from the dread these people
have of being summoned to give evidence to any of our distant
courts of justice ; and wrote to the officer in the civil charge of
the district, to request that he would assure them, that their
presence would not be required. Mr. Doolan, the assistant
magistrate, happened to be going through Soojeina from Saugor
on deputation at the time ; and sending for all the respectable
old men of the place, he requested that they would be under no
apprehension, but tell him the real truth, as he could pledge

CASE OF MURDER BY THUGS. 105
We had occasion to examine a very respectable old
gentleman at Dhumow upon the case, Gobinel Dass,
a revenue officer under the former government, and
now about seventy years of age. He told us, that he
had no knowledge whatever of the murder of the
eight men at Soojeina; but he well remembered
another which took place seven years before the
time we mentioned, at Abhana, a stage or two back,
on the road to Jubbulpore. Seventeen treasure-
bearers lodged in the grove near that town on their
way from Jubbulpore to Saugor. At night they were
set upon by a large gang of Thugs, and sixteen of
them strangled ; but the seventeenth laid hold of the
noose before it could be brought to bear upon his
throat, pulled down the villain who held it, and made
his way good to the town. The Rajah, Duruk Sing,
himself that not one of them should ever be summoned to any
distant court to give evidence. They then took him to the spot,
and pointed out to him where the bodies had been found ; and
mentioned, that the body of the tanner had been burned by his
friends. The banker, whose treasure they were carrying, had an
equal dislike to be summoned to court to give evidence, now that
he could no longer hope to recover any portion of his lost money ;
and it was not till after Lieutenant Brown had given him a similar
assurance, that he would consent to have his books examined.
The loss of the four thousand five hundred rupees was there
found entered, with the names of the men who had been killed
at Soojeina in carrying it. These are specimens of some of the
minor difficulties we had to contend with in our eflforts to put
down the most dreadful of all crimes. All the prisoners accused
of these murders had just been tried for others, or Lieutenant
Brown would not have been able to give the pledge he did.

106 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
went to the spot with all the followers he could
collect ; but he found there nothing but the sixteen
naked bodies lying in the grove, with their eyes
apparently starting out of their sockets ! The
Thugs had all gone off with the treasure and
their clothes ; and the Rajah searched for them in
vain. A native commissioned officer of a regiment of
native infantry, one day told me, that while he was
on duty over some Thugs at Lucknow, one of them
related, with great seeming pleasure, the foUovring
case, which seemed to him one of the most remark
able that he had heard them speak of during the
time they were under his charge.
" A stout Mogul officer of noble bearing and sin
gularly handsome countenance, on his way from the
Punjab to Oude, crossed the Ganges at Gurmuk-
tesur Ghat, near Meeruth, to pass through Moradabad
and Bareilly. He was mounted on a fine Turkee
horse, and attended by his Khidmutgar (butler) and
groom. Soon after crossing the river, he fell in
with a small party of well-dressed and modest-looking
men, going the same road. They accosted him in a
respectful manner, and attempted to enter into con
versation with him. He had heard of Thugs, and
told them to be off. They smiled at his idle suspi
cions, and tried to remove them, but all in vain ;
the Mogul was determined; they saw his nostrils
swelling with indignation, took their leave, and fol
lowed slowly. The next moming he overtook the

CASE OF MURDER BY THUGS. 107
same number of men, but of a different appearance,
all Mussulmans. They accosted him in the same
respectful manner; talked of the danger of the road,
and the necessity of their keeping together, and taking
advantage of the protection of any mounted gentle
man that happened to be going the same way. The
Mogul officer said not a word in reply, resolved to
have no companions on the road. They persisted —
his nostrils began again to swell, and putting his
hand to his sword, he bid them all be off, or he
would have their heads from their shoulders. He
had a bow and quiver full of arrows over his shoul
ders, a brace of loaded pistols in his waist-belt, and
a sword by his side, and was altogether a very for
midable looking cavalier. In the evening another
party, that lodged in the same surae, became
very intimate with the butler and groom. They
were going the same road ; and as the Mogul over
took them in the morning, they made their bows
respectfully, and began to enter into conversation
with their two friends, the groom and the butler,
who were coming up behind. The Mogul's nostrils
began again to swell, and he bid the strangers be off.
The groom and butler interceded, for their master
was a grave, sedate man, and they wanted compa
nions. All would not do, and the strangers fell in
the rear. The next day, when they had got to the
middle of an extensive and uninhabited plain, the
Mogul in advance, and his two servants a few hun
dred yards behind, he came up to a party of six poor
10

108 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Mussulmans, sitting weeping by the side of a
dead companion. They were soldiers from Lahore,
on their way to Lucknow, worn down by fatigue in
their anxiety to see their wives and children once
more, after a long and painful service. Their com
panion, the hope and prop of his family, had sunk
under the fatigue, and they had made a grave for
him ; but they were poor unlettered men, and un
able to repeat the funeral service from the holy
Koran — would his highness but perform this last
office for them, he would no doubt find his reward
in this world and the next. The Mogul dismounted
— the body had been placed in its proper position,
with its head towards Mecca. A carpet was spread
— the Mogul took off his bow and quiver, then his
pistols and sword, and jslaced them on the ground
near the body — called for water, and washed his feet,
hands, and face, that he might not pronounce the holy
words in an unclean state. He then knelt down
and began to repeat the funeral serrice, in a clear
loud voice. Two of the poor soldiers knelt by him,
one on each side in silence. The other four went off
a few paces, to beg that the butler and groom would
not come so near as to interrupt the good Samaritan at
his devotions. All being ready, one of the four, in a
low under-tone, gave the Shirnee, (signal,) the hand
kerchiefs were thrown over their necks, and in a few
minutes all three — the Mogul and his servants — were
dead, and lying in the grave in the usual manner, the
head of one at the feet of the one below him. All the

CASE OF POISONING. 109
parties they had met on the road belonged to a gang
of Jumaldehee Thugs, of the kingdom of Oude. In
despair of being able to win the Mogul's confidence,
in the usual way, and determined to have the money
and jewels, which they knew he carried with him,
they had adopted this plan of disarming him ; dug the
grave by the side of the road, in the open plain, and
made a handsome young Mussulman of the party
the dead soldier. The Mogul being a very stout
man, died almost without a struggle, as is usually
the case with such ; and his two servants made no
resistance." People of great sensibility, with hearts overcharged
with sorrow, often appear cold and callous to those
who seem to them to feel no interest in their afflic
tions. An instance of this kind I will here mention ;
it is one of thousands that I have met with in my
Indian rambles. It was mentioned to me one day
that an old Fukeer, who lived in a small hut close
by a little shrine on the side of the road near the
town of Moradabad, had lately lost his son, poisoned
by a party of Dhutooreeas, or professional poisoners
that now infest every road throughout India. I sent
for him, and requested him to tell me his story, as I
might perhaps be able to trace the murderers. He
did so, and a Persian writer took it down while I
listened with all the coldness of a magistrate, who
wanted merely to learn facts, and have nothing-
whatever to do with feelings. This is his story
literally : —

no

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

" I reside in my hut by the side of the road a
mile and half from the town, and live upon the
bounty of travellers, and people of the surrounding
villages. About six weeks ago, I was sitting by
the side of my shrine after saying prayers, with my
only son, about ten years of age, Avhen a man came
up with his wife, his son, and his daughter, the one a
little older and the other a little younger than my
boy. They baked and ate their bread near my
shrine, and gave me flour enough to make two
cakes. This I prepared and baked. My boy was
hungry, and ate one cake and a half. I ate only half
a one, for I was not hungry. I had a few days be
fore purchased a new blanket for my boy, and it was
hanging in a branch of the tree that shaded the
shrine, when these people came. My son and I
soon became stupified. I saw him fall asleep, and I
soon followed. I awoke again in the evening, and
found myself in a pool of water. I had sense enough
to crawl towards my boy ! I found him still breath
ing ; and I sat by him with his head in my lap, where
he soon died. It was now evening, and I got up,
and wandered about all night picking up straws — I
know not why. I was not yet quite sensible. During
the night the wolves ate my poor boy. I heard this
from travellers, and went and gathered up his bones
and buried them in the shrine. I did not quite re
cover till the third day, when I found that some
washerwomen had put me into the pool, and left me
there with my head out, in hopes that this would

CASE OF POISONING. Ill
revive me ; but they had no hope of my son. I was
then taken to the police of the town ; but the land
holders had begged me to say nothing about the
poisoners, lest it might get them and their village
community into trouble. The man was tall and
fair, and about thirty-five ; the woman short, stout,
and fair, and about thirty : two of her teeth pro
jected a good deal; the boy's eyelids were much
diseased." All this he told me without the slightest appear
ance of emotion, for he had not seen any appear
ance of it in me, or my Persian writer; and a
casual European observer would perhaps have ex
claimed, " What brutes these natives are ! this fellow
feels no more for the loss of his only son than he
would for that of a goat !" But I knew the feeling
was there. The Persian writer put up his paper, and
closed his inkstand ; and the following dialogue, word
for word, took place between me and the old man.
Question. What made you conceal the real cause
of your boy's death, and tell the police that he had
been killed as well as eaten by wolves ?
Answer, The landholders told me that they
could never bring back my boy to life, and the whole
village would be worried to death by them if I made
any mention of the poison.
Question, And if they were to be punished for this
they would annoy you ?
Answer, Certainly. But I believe they advised
me for my own good as well as their own.

112 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Question. And if they should turn you away from
that place, could you not make another ?
Answer. Are not the bones of my poor boy there;
and the trees that he and I planted and watched to
gether for ten years ?
Question, Have you no other relations? What
became of your boy's mother?
Answer. She died at that place when my boy was
only three months old. I have brought him up my
self from that age: he was my only child, and he has
been poisoned for the sake of the blanket ! (Here
the poor old man sobbed as if his heartstrings
would break ; and I was obliged to make him sit
down on the floor while I walked up and down the
room.) Question. Had you any children before ?
Answer. Yes, sir, we had several, but they all
died before their mother. We had been reduced
to beggary by misfortunes, and I had become too
weak and ill to work. I buried my poor wife's bones
by the side of the road where she died ; raised the
little shrine over them, planted the trees, and there
have I sat ever since by her side, with our poor boy
in my bosom. It is a sad place for wolves, and we
used often to hear them howling outside ; but my
poor boy was never afraid of them when he knew I
was near him. God preserved him to me, till the
sio-ht of the new blanket, for I had nothing else in
the world, made these people poison us ! I bought
it for him only a few days before when the rains were

CASE OF POISONING. 113
coming on, out of my savings — it was all I had.
(The poor old man sobbed again, and sat down while
I paced the room, lest I should sob also ; my heart
was becoming a little too large for its apartment.)
" I will never," continued he, " quit the bones of my
wife and child, and the tree that he and I watered
for so many years. I have not many years to live ;
there I will spend them, whatever the landholders
may do — they advised me for my own good, and will
never turn me out."
I found all the poor man stated to be true ;
the man and his wife had mixed poison with the
flour to destroy the poor old man and his son for
the sake of the new blanket which they saw hanging
in the branch of the tree, and carried away with
them. The poison used on such occasions is com
monly the dutora, and it is sometimes given in the
hookah to be smoked, and at others in food. When
they require to poison children as well as grown-up
"people, or women who do not smoke, they mix up
the poison in food. The intention is almost always
to destroy life, as " dead men tell no tales ;" but the
poisoned people sometimes recover, as in the present
case, and lead to the detection of the poisoners.
The cases in which they recover are, however, rare ;
and of those who recover few are ever able to trace
the poisoners ; and of those who recover and trace
them, very few will ever undertake to prosecute them
through the several courts of the magistrate, the
sessions, and that of last instance in a distant dis-
VOL. L I

114 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
trict, to which the proceedings must be sent for final
orders. The impunity Avith which this crime is everywhere
perpetrated, and its consequent increase in every
part of India, are among the greatest evils with
which the country is at this time afflicted. These
poisoners are spread all over India, and are as nume
rous over the Bombay and Madras presidencies as
over that of Bengal. There is no road free from
them, and throughout India there must be many
hundreds who gain their subsistence by this trade
alone. They put on all manner of disguises to suit
their purpose ; and as they prey chiefly upon the
poorer sort of travellers, they require to destroy the
greater number of lives to make up their incomes.
A party of two or three poisoners have very often
succeeded in destroying another of eight or ten tra
vellers with whom they have journeyed for some days,
by pretending to give them a feast on the celebration
of the anniversary of some family event. Sometimes'
an old woman or man will manage the thing alone,
by gaining the confidence of travellers, and getting
near the cooking-pots while they go aside ; or when
employed to bring the flour for the meal from the
bazaar. The poison is put into the flour or the
pot, as opportunity offers.
People of all castes and callings take to this trade,
some casually, others for life, and others derive it
from their parents or teachers. They assume all man
ner of disguises to suit their purposes ; and the habit

SYSTEM OF THE THUGS. 115
of cooking, eating, and sleeping ou the side of the
road, and smoking with strangers of seemingly the
same caste, greatly facilitate their designs upon tra
vellers. The small parties are unconnected with
each other, and two parties never unite in the same
cruise. The members of one party may be some
times convicted and punished, but their conviction
is accidental, for the system which has enabled us
to put doMTi the Thug associations cannot be applied,
with any fair prospect of success, to the suppression
of these pests to society.
The Thugs went on their adventures in large
gangs ; and two or more were commonly united in
the course of an expedition in the perpetration of
many murders. Every man shared in the booty ac
cording to the rank he held in the gang, or the part
he took in the murders ; and the rank of every man,
and the part he took generally, or in any parti
cular murder, were generally well known to all.
From among these gangs, when arrested, we found
the evidence we required for their conviction — or the
means of tracing it, among the families and friends of
their victims — or with persons to whom the pro
perty taken had been disposed of — and in the graves
to which the victims had been consigned.
To give an idea of the system by which the govern
ment of India has been enabled to effect so great a
good for the people as the suppression of these asso
ciations, I will suppose that two sporting gentlemen,
A at Delhi, and B in Calcutta, had both described
I 2i

116 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the killing of a tiger in an island in the Ganges, near
Hurdwar, and mentioned the names of the persons
engaged with them. Among the persons thus
named were C, who had since returned to America,
D, who had retired to New South Wales, E to
England, and F to Scotland. There were four other
persons named who were still in India, but they are
deeply interested in A and B's story not being
believed. A says that B got the skin of the tiger,
and B states that he gave it to C, who cut out two
of the claws. Application is made to C, D, E, and
F, and without the possibility of any collusion, or
even communication between them, their statements
correspond precisely with those of A and B, as to
the time, place, circumstances, and persons engaged.
Their statements are sworn to before magistrates, in
presence of witnesses, and duly attested. C states
that he got the skin from B, and gave it to the
Nawab of Rampore for a hookah carpet, but that he
took from the left forefoot two of the claws, got them
set in gold by a goldsmith in Lucknow, and gave
them to the minister of the King of Oude for a
charm for his sick child.
The Nawab of Rampore being applied to, states
that he received the skin from C, at the time and
place mentioned, and that he still smokes his hookah
upon it ; and that it had lost the two claws upon the
left forefoot. The minister of the King of Oude
states that he received the two claws nicely set m
gold ; that they had cured his boy, who still wore

SUPPRESSION OF THE THUGS. 117
them round his neck to guard him from the evil eye.
The goldsmith states that he set the two claws in
gold for C, who paid him handsomely for his work.
The peasantry, whose cattle graze on the island, de
clare that certain gentlemen did kill a tiger there
about the time mentioned, and that they saw the
body after the skin had been takeu off, and the
vultures had begun to descend upon it.
To prove that what A and B had stated could
not possibly be true, the other party appeal to some
of their townsmen, who are said to be well acquainted
with their characters. They state that they really
know nothing about the matter in dispute ; that their
friends, who are opposed to A and B, are much
liked by their townspeople and neighbours, as they
have plenty of money, which they spend freely ; but
that they are certainly very much addicted to field-
sports, and generally absent in pursuit of wild-beasts
for three or four months every year ; but whether
they were or were not present at the killing of the
great Gurmuktesur tiger they could not say.
Most persons would, after examining this evidence,
be tolerably well satisfied that the said tiger had
really been killed at the time and place, and by the
persons mentioned by A and B ; but to establish
the fact judicially, it would be necessary to bring A,
B, C, D, E, and F, the Nawab of Rampore, the
minister of the King of Oude, and the goldsmith, to
the criminal court at Meeruth, to be confronted
with the persons whose interest it was that A and

118 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
B should not be believed. They would all, perhaps,
come to the said court from the different quarters of
the world in which they had thought themselves
snugly settled ; but the thing would annoy them so
much, and be so much talked of, that sporting gen
tlemen, nawabs, ministers, and goldsmiths, would in
ftiture take good care " to have forgotten" everything
connected with the matter in dispute, should another
similar reference be made to them, and so A and B
would never again have any chance.
Thug approvers, whose evidence we required, were
employed in all parts of India, under the officers ap
pointed to put down these associations ; and it was
difficult to bring all whose evidence was necessary at
the trials, to the court of the district in which the
particular murder had been perpetrated. The vic
tims were, for the most part, money-carriers, whose
masters and families resided hundreds of miles from
the place where they were murdered, or people on
their way to their distant homes from foreign ser
vice. There was no chance of recovering any of the .
property taken from the victims, as Thugs were
known to spend what they got freely, and never to
have money by them ; and the friends of the victims,
and the bankers whose money they carried, were
everywhere found exceedingly averse to take any
share in the prosecution.
To obviate all these difficulties, separate courts
were formed, with permission to receive whatever
evidence they might think likely to prove valuable, at-

SUPPRESSION OF THE THUGS. 119
taching to each portion, whether documentary or oral,
whatever weight it might seem to deserve. Such
courts were formed at Hydrabad, Mysore, Judore,
Lucknow, Gwalior, and were presided over by our
highest diplomatic functionaries, in concurrence with
the princes at whose courts they were accredited ;
and who at Jubbulpore were under the direction of
the representative of the Governor-General of India.
By this means we had a most valuable species of
unpaid agency; and I believe there is no part of
their public life on which these high functionaries
look back with more pride, than that spent in pre
siding over such courts, and assisting the supreme
government in relieving the people of India from
this fearful evil.*
* I may here mention the names of a few diplomatic officers
of distinction who have aided in the good cause : of the civil ser
vice — Mr. F, C. Smith, Mr. Martin, Mr. George Stockwell, Mr.
Charles Fraser, the Hon. Mr. Wellesley, the Hon. Mr. Shore,
the Hon. Mr. Cavendish, Mr. George Clerk, Mr. L. Wilkinson,
INIr. Box ; Majors-General, Cubbon and Fraser ; Colonels, Low,
Stewart, Alves, Spiers, Caulfield, Sutherland, and Wade ; Major
Wilkinson ; and among the foremost. Major Bothwick and Cap
tain Paton.

120

CHAPTER XIV.

BASALTIC CAPPINGS OF THE SANDSTONE HILLS OF CENTRAL
INDIA  SUSPENSION BRIDGE  PROSPECTS OF THE NER
BUDDA VALLEY  DEIFICATION OF A MORTAL.
On the 29th we came on to Puthureea, a consi
derable little town thirty miles from Saugor, sup
ported almost entirely by a few farmers, small agri
cultural capitalists, and the establishment of a native
collector. On leaving Puthureea, we ascend gradu
ally along the side of the basaltic hills on our left, to
the south, for three miles, to a point whence we see
before us this plane of flat basaltic cappings extend
ing as far as the eye can reach to the west, south,
and north, with frequent breaks, but still preserving
one uniform level. On the top of these tables are
here and there little conical elevations of laterite,
or indurated iron clay. The cappings every
where repose immediately upon the sand-stone of
the Vindhya range ; but they have occasional beds
of limestone formed apparently by springs rising

SUSPENSION BRIDGE. 121
from their sides, and strongly impregnated with car
bonic acid gas. For the most part this is mere
travertine ; but in some places they get good lime
from the beds for building.
On the 1st of December we came to the pretty
village of Sunodah, near the suspension bridge built
over the river Beeose by Colonel Presgrave while he
was assay master of the Saugor mint. I was present
at laying the foundation-stone of this bridge in
December, 1827. Mr. Maddock was the governor-
general's representative in these territories, and the
work was undertaken more with a view to show
what could be done out of their own resources
under minds capable of developing them, than to
supply any pressing or urgent want. The work
was completed in June, 1830; and I have several
times seen upon the bridge as many as it could
hold of a regiment of infantry while it moved over ;
and at other times, as many of a corps of cavalry,
and often several elephants at once. The bridge is
between the point of suspension two hundred
feet ; and the clear portion of the platform measures
one hundred and ninety feet by eleven and a half.
The whole cost of the work amounted to about
fifty thousand rupees; and under a less able and
careful person than Colonel Presgrave would have
cost perhaps double the amount. This work has
been declared by a very competent judge to be
equal to any structure of the same kind in Europe ;
and Is eminently calculated to show what genius

122 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and perseverance can produce out of the resources
of a country even in the rudest state of industry
and the arts.
The river Nerbudda neither is nor ever can, I fear,
be made navigable ; and the produce of its valley would
require to find its way to distant markets over the
Vindhya range of hills to the north, or the Sathpore to
the south. If the produce of the soil, mines, and
industry of the valley cannot be transported to distant
markets, the government cannot possibly find in it
any available net surplus revenue in money ; for it
has no mines of the precious metals, and the precious
metals can flow in only in exchange for the produce
of the land and the industry of the valley that flows
out. If the government wishes to draw a net sur
plus revenue from the valley or from the districts
that border upon it, that is, a revenue beyond its ex
penditure in support of the local public establish
ments, it must either draw it in produce, or for what
can be got for that produce in distant markets.
Hitherto little beyond the rude produce of the soil
has been able to find its way into distant markets
from the valley of the Nerbudda; yet this valley
abounds in iron mines ; and its soil, where unex
hausted by cropping, is of the richest quality.* It is
* The soil of the valley of the Nerbudda, and that of the
Nerbudda and Saugor territories generally, is formed for the
most part of the detritus of trap rocks that everywhere covered
the sand-stone of the Vindhya and Sathpore ranges which run
throuffh these territories. This basaltic detritus forms what is

VALLEY OF THE NERBUDDA. 123
not then too much to hope, that in time the iron
of the mines will be worked into machinery for
manufactures ; and that multitudes, aided by this
machinery, and subsisted on the rude agricultural
produce, which now flows out, will invest the value
of their labour in manufactured commodities adapted
to the demand of foreig-n markets, and better able
from their superior value compared with their bulk,
to pay the cost of transport by land. Then, and not
till then, can we expect to see these territories pay
a considerable net surplus revenue to government,
and abound in a middle class of merchants, manu
facturers, and agricultural capitalists.
At Sunodah there is a very beautiful little fortress
or castle now unoccupied, though still entire. It
was built by an officer of the Rajah Chutter Saul, of
Bundelcund, about one hundred and twenty years
ago. He had a grant on the tenure of military
service of twelve villages situated round this place ;
and a man who could build such a castle to defend
the surrounding country from the inroads of free
booters, and to secure himself and his troops from
any sudden impulse of the people's resentment, was
as likely to acquire an increase of territorial possession
in these parts, as he would have been in Europe during
the middle ages. The son of this chief, by name Rae
Sing, was, soon after the castle had been completed,
called the black cotton soil by the English, for what reason I
know not.

124 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
killed in an attack upon a town near Chitterkote ;
and having in the estimation of the people become a
god, he had a temple and a tomb raised to him close
to our encampment. I asked the people how he
had become a god ; and was told, that some one who
had been long suffering from a quartan ague went to
the tomb one night, and promised Rae Sing, whose
ashes lay under it, that if he could contrive to cure his
ague for him, he would, during the rest of his life,
make offerings to his shrine. After that he had never
another attack, and was very punctual in his offerings.
Others followed his example and with like success,
till Rae Sing was recognized among them univer
sally as a god, and a temple raised to his name !
This is the way that gods were made all over the
world at one time, and are still made all over India.
Happy had it been for mankind if those only who
were supposed to do good had been deified !
On the 2nd we came on to the village of Kojun-
pore, (leaving the town and cantonments of Saugor
to our left,) a distance of some fourteen miles. The
road for a great part of the way lies over the bare
back of the sandstone strata, the covering of basalt
having been washed off. The hills, however, are every
where, at this distance from the city and cantonments
of Saugor, nicely wooded ; and being constantly
intersected by pretty little valleys, the country we
came over was picturesque and beautiful. The soil
of all these valleys is rich from the detritus of
the basalt that forms or cajjs the hills; but it is

VILLAGE OF KOJUNPORE. 125
now in a bad state of cultivation, partly from several
successive seasons of great calamity, under which
the people have been suffering, and partly from over
assessment ; and this posture of affairs is continued
by that loss of energy, industry, and character,
among the farmers and cultivators, which must
everywhere result from these two evils. In India,
where the people have learnt so well how to govern
themselves from the want of settled government,
good or bad government really depends almost alto
gether upon good or bad settlements of the land re
venue. Where the government demand is imposed
with moderation, and enforced with justice, there
will the people be generally found happy and con
tented ; and disposed to perform their duties to
each other and to the state, except when they have
the misfortune to suffer from drought, blight, and
other calamities of season.
I have mentioned that the basalt in the Saugor
district reposes for the most part immediately upon
the sandstone of the Vindhya range : and it must
have been deposited on the sand while the latter was
yet at the bottom of the ocean, though this range
is now, I believe, nowhere less than from fifteen
hundred to two thousand feet above the level of the
sea. The marks of the ripple of the sea may be
observed in some places where the basalt has been
recently washed off, beautifully defined, as if formed
only yesterday; and there is no other substance
to be seen between the two rocks. The texture of

126 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the sandstone at the surface, where it comes in con
tact with the basalt, has in some places been altered
by it ; but in others it seems to have been as little
changed as the habitations of the people who were
suffocated by the ashes of Vesuvius in the city of
Pompeii. I am satisfied, from long and careful ex
amination, that the greater part of this basalt, which
covers the table land of central and southern India,
must have been held for some time in suspension in
the ocean or lake into which it was first thrown in
the shape of ashes, and then gradually deposited.
This alone can account for its frequent appearance
of stratification, for the gentle blending of its par
ticles with those of the sand near the surface of the
latter ; and above all, for those level steps, or tables,
lying one above another horizontally in parallel lines
on one range, corresponding exactly with the same pa
rallel lines one above another on a range twenty or
thirty miles across the valley. Mr. Scrope's theory is, I
believe, that these are all mere flowings, or coulees
of lava, which, in their liquid state, filled hollows,
but afterwards became of a harder texture as they
dried and crystallized than the higher rocks around
them ; the consequence of which is that the latter
have been decomposed and washed away, while the
basalt has been left to form the highest elevations.
My opinion is, that these steps, or stairs, at one
time formed the beds of the ocean, or of great
lakes; and that the substance of which they are
composed was, for the most part, projected into the
10

PETRIFIED PALMS. 127
water, and there held in suspension till gradually
deposited. There are, however, amidst these steps
and beneath them, masses of more compact and crys
talline basalt, that bear evident signs of having been
flows of lava.*
Reasoning from analogy at Jubbulpore, where some
of the basaltic cappings of the hills had evidently
been thrown out of craters long after this surface had
been raised above the waters, and become the habi
tation both of vegetable and animal life, I made the
first discovery of fossil remains in the Nerbudda
valley. I went first to a hill within sight of my
house in 1828, and searched exactly between the
plateau of basalt that covered it, and the stratum
immediately below ; and there I found several small
trees with roots, trunks, and branches, all entire, and
beautifully petrified. They had been only recently
uncovered by the washing away of a part of the
basaltic plateau. I soon after found some fossil
bones of animals. Going over to Saugor, in the end
of 1830, and reasoning there upon the same analogy,
I searched for fossil remains along the line of contact
between the basalt and the surface upon which it
* Since vreiting the above, Ihave seen Colonel Sykes' s notes on
the formations of southern India in the India Review. The facts
there described, seem all to support my conclusion ; and his map
would answer just as well for central as for southern India ; for
the banks of the Nerbudda and Chumbul, Sohun and Maha-
nuddee, as well as for those of the Baum and the Beema. Colonel
Sykes does not, I believe, attempt to account for the stratification
of the basalt ; he merely describes it.

128 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
had been deposited ; and I found a grove of silicified
palm trees within a mile of the cantonments. These
palm trees had grown upon a calcareous deposit
formed from springs rising out of the basaltic range
of hills to the south. The commissariat officer had
cut a road though this grove, and all the European
officers of a large military station had been every day
riding through it without observing the geological
treasure ; and it was some time before I could con
vince them, that the stones which they had every day
seen were really petrified palm trees. The roots
and trunks were beautifully perfect.

129

CHAPTER XV.
LEGEND OF THE SAUGOR LAKE  PARALYSIS FROM EATING
THE GRAIN OF THE LATHYRUS SATIVUS.
The cantonments of Saugor are abqut two miles
from the city and occupied by three regiments of
native infantry, one of local horse, and a company of
European artillery. The city occupies two sides of
one of the most beautiful lakes in India, formed by
a wall which unites two sand-stone hills on the north
side. The fort and part of the town stands upon
this wall, which, according to tradition, was built
by a wealthy merchant of the Brinjara caste. After
he had finished it, the bed of the lake still remained
dry ; and he was told, in a dream, or by a priest,
that it would continue so till he should consent to
sacrifice his ovra daughter, then a girl, and the young
lad to whom she had been affianced, to the tutelary god
of the place. He accordingly built a little shrine in
the centre of the valley, which was to become the bed
of the lake, put the two children in, and built up the
doorway. He had no sooner done so than the whole
VOL. L K

130 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of the valley became filled with water, and the old
merchant, the priest, the masons, and spectators,
made their escape with much difficulty. From that
time the lake has been inexhaustible ; but no living
soul of the Brinjara caste has ever since been
known to drink of its waters ! Certainly all of
that caste at present religiously avoid drinking
the water of the lake ; and the old people of the
city say, that they have always done so since they
can remember ; and that they used to hear from
their parents that they had always done so. In
nothing does the founder of the Christian religion
appear more amiable than in his injunction, " Suffer
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not."
In nothing do the Hindoo deities appear more hor
rible than in the delight they are supposed to take
in their sacrifice — it is everywhere the helpless, the
female, and the infant, that they seek to devour —
and so it was among the Phoenicians and their
Carthaginian colonies. Human sacrifices were cer
tainly offered in the city of Saugor during the whole
of the Murhutta govemment up to the year 1800,
when they were put a stop to by the local govemor,
Assa Sahib, a very humane man ; and I once heard
a very learned Brahman priest say, that he thought
the decline of his family and government arose from
this innovation, " There is," said he, "no sin in noi
offering human sacrifices to the gods where none have
been offered ; but where the gods have been accus
tomed to them, they are very naturally annoyed when

LEGEND OF THE SAUGOR LAKE. 131
the rite is abolished, and visit the place and people
with all kinds of calamities." He did not seem to
think, that there was anything singular in this mode
of reasoning ; and perhaps three Brahman priests out
of four would have reasoned in the same manner !
In descending into the valley of the Nerbudda
over the Vindhya range of hills from Bhopaul, one
may see by the side of the road, upon a spur of the
hill, a singular pillar of sand-stone rising in two spires,
one turning above and rising over the other, to the
height of from twenty to thirty feet. On a spur of
a hill half a mile distant, is another sand-stone pillar
not quite so high. The tradition is, that the smaller
pillar was the affianced bride of the taller one, who
was a youth of a family of great eminence in these
parts. Coming with his uncle to pay his first visit
to his bride, in the procession they call the Buraut,
he grew more and more impatient as he approached
nearer and nearer, and she shared the feeling. At last,
unable to restrain himself, he jumped upon his uncle's
shoulder, and looked with all his inight towards the
spot where his bride was said to be seated. Un
happily she felt no less impatient than he did, and
raising " the fringed curtains of her eye," as he
raised his, they saw each other at the same mo
ment. In that moment the bride, bridegroom, aud
uncle were all converted into stone pillars; and
there they stand to this day a monument, in the esti
mation of the people, to warn man and womankind
against too strong an inclination to indulge curiosity !
K 2

132

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

It is a singular fact, that in one of the most exten
sive tribes of the Gond population of central India,
to which this couple is said to have belonged, the
bride always goes to the bridegroom in the procession
of the Buraut, to prevent a recurrence of this cala
mity ! It is the bridegroom who goes to the bride
among every other class of the people of India, as well
Mahomedans as Hindoos. Whether the usage
grew out of the tradition, or the tradition out of the
usage, is a question that will admit of much being
said on both sides. I can only vouch for the exist
ence of both. I have seen the pillars, heard the
tradition from the people, and ascertained the usage ;
as in the case of that of the Saugor lake.
The Mahadeo sand-stone hills, which in the Sath
pore range overlook the Nerbudda to the south, rise
to between four and five thousand feet above the
level ofthe sea; and in one of the highest parts a
fair was formerly, and is, perhaps, still held for the
enjoyment of those who assemble to witness the self-
devotion of a few young men, who offer themselves
as a sacrifice, to fulfil the vows of their mothers !
When a woman is without children she makes votive
offerings to all the gods who can, she thinks, assist
her ; and promises of still greater in case they should
grant what she wants. Smaller promises being
found of no avail, she at last promises her first-born,
if a male, to the god of destruction, Mahadeo. If
she gets a son she conceals from him her vows till
he has attained the age of puberty ; she then com-

HUMAN SACRIFICES. 133
municates it to him, and enjoins him to fulfil it. He
believes it to be his paramount duty to obey his
mother's call ; and from that moment he considers
himself as devoted to the god. Without breathing
to any living soul a syllable of what she has told him,
he puts on the habit of a pilgrim or religious mendi
cant — visits all the celebrated temples dedicated to
this god in different parts of India ; and at the annual
fair on the Mahadeo hills, throws himself from a per
pendicular height of four or five hundred feet, and
is dashed to pieces upon the rocks below ! If the
youth does not feel himself quite prepared for the
sacrifice on the first visit, he spends another year in
pilgrimages, and returns to fulfil his mother's vow at
the next fair. Some have, I believe, been known to
postpone the sacrifice to a third fair ; but the inter
val is always spent in painful pilgrimages to the
celebrated temples of the god. When Sir R. Jen
kins was the Governor-general's representative at the
court of Nagpore, great efforts were made by him,
and all the European officers under him, to put a
stop to these horrors by doing away with the fair ;
and their efforts were assisted by the cholera mm'bu,s,
which broke out among the multitude one season
while they were so employed, and carried off the
greater part of them. This seasonable visitation was,
I believe, considered as an intimation on the part of
the god, that the people ought to have been more
attentive to the wishes of the white men, for it so
happens, that Mahadeo is the only one of the Hindoo

134 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
gods who is rejjresented with a white face. He
figures among the dramatis personse of the great
pantomime of the Ramleela, or fight for the recovery
of Seeta from the demon king of Ceylon ; and is
the only one with a white face. I know not whether
the fair has ever been revived, but think not.
In 1829 the wheat and other spring crops in this and
the surrounding villages were destroyed by a severe
hail-storm ; in 1830 they were deficient from the want
of seasonable rains ; and in 1831 they were destroyed
by blight. During these three years the teoree, or what
in other parts of India is called kesarree, (the lathy
rus sativus of botanists,) a kind of wild vetch, which,
though not sown of itself, is left carelessly to grow
among the wheat and other grain, and given in the
green and dry state to cattle, remained uninjured,
and thrived with great luxuriance. In 1831 they
reaped a rich crop of it from the blighted wheat
fields ; and subsisted upon its grain during that and
the following years, giving the stalks and leaves only
to their cattle. In 1833 the sad effects of this food
began to manifest themselves. The younger part of
the population of this and the surrounding -villages,
from the age of thirty downwards, began tobe deprived
of the use of their limbs below the waist by paralytic
strokes, in all cases sudden, but in some more severe
than in others. About half the youth of this village
of both sexes became affected during the years 1833
and 1834 ; and many of them have lost the use of
their lower limbs entirely, and are unable to move.

PARALYSIS. 185
The youth of the surrounding villages, in which the
teoree from the same causes formed the chief article
of food during the years 1831 and 1832, have suffered
in an equal degree. Since the year 1834 no new
case has occurred ; but no person once attacked had
been found to recover the use of the limbs affected ;
and my tent was surrounded by great numbers of the
youth in different stages of the disease, imploring my
advice and assistance under this dreadful visitation.
Some of them were very fine-looking young men of
good caste and respectable families ; and all stated,
that their pains and infirmities were confined en
tirely to the parts below the waist. They described
the attack as coming on suddenly, often while the
person was asleep, and without any warning symp
toms whatever ; and stated, that a greater portion of
the young men were attacked than of the young
women. It is the prevailing opinion of the natives
throughout the country, that both horses and bul
locks, which have been much fed upon teoree, are
liable to lose the use of their limbs ; but if the
poisonous qualities abound more in the grain than in
the stalk or the leaves, man, who eats nothing but
the grain, must be more liable to suffer from the use
of this food than beasts, which eat it merely as they
eat grass or hay.
I sent the son of the head man of the village and
another, who were among the young people least
affected, into Saugor with a letter to my friend Dr.
Foley, with a request that he would try what he

136 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
could do for them ; and if he had any fair prospect
of being able to restore these people to the use of
their limbs, that measures might be adopted through
the civil authorities, to provide them with accom
modation and the means of subsistence, either by
private subscription or by application to government.
The civil authorities, however, could find neither ac
commodation nor funds to maintain these people while
under Dr. Foley's care; and several seasons of calamity
had deprived them of the means of maintaining
themselves at a distance from their families. Nor is
a medical man in India provided with the means
found most effectual in removing such affections,
such as baths, galvanic batteries, &c. &c. It is
lamentable to think how very little we have as yet
done for the country in the healing art, that art which
above all others a benevolent and enlightened govern
ment should encourage among the people of India.
All we have as yet done has been to ])rovide
medical attendants for our European officers, regi
ments, and jails. It must not, however, be supposed
that the people of India are without medical advice ;
for there is not a town or considerable village in India
without its medical practitioners, the Hindoos follow
ing the Egyptian, (Misreeanee,) and the Mussulmaas
the Grecian (Yoonanee) practice. The first pre
scribe little physic and much fasting ; and the second
follow the good old rules of Hippocrates, Galen, and
Avicenna, with which they are all tolerably well
acquainted. As far as the office of physician goes.

PARALYSIS. 187
the natives of India of all classes, high and low, have
much more confidence in their own practitioners than
in ours — whom they consider too reckless, and better
adapted to treat diseases in a cold than a hot cli
mate. They cannot afford to give the only fees
which the European physicians would accept; and they
see them, in their hospital practice, trust much to
their native assistants, who are very few of them able
to read any book, much less to study the profound
doctrines of the great masters of the science of
medicine.* No native ventures to offer an opinion
upon this abstruse subject in any circle where he is
not known to be profoundly read in either Arabic or
Sanscrit lore ; nor would he venture to give a pre
scription without first consulting, "spectacles on
nose," a book as large as a church bible. The edu
cated class, as indeed all classes say, that they do
not want our physicians, but stand much in need of
our surgeons. Here they feel that they are helpless,
* One of our tent-pitchers one morning, after pitching our tent,
asked the loan of a small extra one for the use of his wife, who
was about to be confined. The basket-maker's wife of the village
near which we were encamped was called ; and the poor woman,
before we had finished our breakfast, gave birth to a daughter.
The charge is half a rupee, or one shilhng, for a boy, and a
quarter, or sixpence, for a girl. The tent-pitcher gave her nine-
pence, which the poor midwife thought very handsome. The
mother had come fourteen miles upon a loaded cart over rough
roads the night before ; and went the same distance vrith her
child the night after, upon the same cart. The first midwife in
Europe could not have done her duty better than this poor basket-
maker's wife did hers.

138 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and we are strong ; and they seek our aid whenever
they see any chance of obtaining it as in the present
case. Considering that every European gentleman
they meet is more or less a surgeon, or hoping to find
him so, people who are afflicted, or have children
afflicted, with any kind of malformation, or mal-
organization, flock round them wherever they go, and
implore their aid ; but implore in vain, for when they
do happen to fall in with a surgeon, he is a mere passer
by, without the means or the time to afford relief.
In travelling over India, there is nothing which dis
tresses a benevolent man so much as the necessity he
is daily under of telling poor parents, who with
aching hearts and tearful eyes approach him with
their suffering children in their arms, that to relieve
them requires time and means which are not at a
traveller's command, or a species of knowledge which
he does not possess : it is bitter thus to dash to the
ground the cup of hope which our approach has
raised to the lip of mother, father, and child ; but he
consoles himself with the prospect, that at no distant
period a benevolent and enlightened government vrill
distribute over the land those from whom the afflicted
will not seek relief in vain.

189

CHAPTER XVI.
SUTTEE TOMBS  INSALUBRITY OP DESERTED FORTRESSES.
On the Srd we came to Behrole, where I had en
camped with Lord William Bentinck on the last day
of December, 1832, when the quicksilver in the ther
mometer at sunrise, outside our tents, was down to
twenty-six degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer.
The village stands upon a gentle swelling hill of
decomposed basalt, and is surrounded by hills of the
same formation. The Dussan river flows close under
the village, and has two beautiful reaches, one above,
the other below, separated by the dyke of basalt,
over which lies the ford of the river. There are
beautiful reaches of the kind in all the rivers in
this part of India, and they are almost everywhere
formed in the same manner. At Behrole there are
a very unusual number of tombs built over the ashes
of women who have burnt themselves with the re
mains of their husbands. Upon each tomb stands
erect a tablet of freestone, with the sun, the new
moon, and a rose engraved upon it in bas-relief, in
10

140 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
one field ; and the man and woman, hand in hand,
in the other. On one stone of this kind I saw a
third field below these two, with the figure of a
horse in bas-relief; and I asked one of the gentle
men farmers, who was riding with me, what it meant.
He told me, that he thought it indicated that the
widow rode on horseback to bathe before she
ascended the pile. I asked him whether he thought
the measure, prohibiting the practice of burning,
good or bad ?
" It is," said he, " in some respects good, and in
others bad. Widows cannot marry among us, and
those who had no prospect of a comfortable provi
sion among their husband's relations, or who dreaded
the possibility of going astray, and thereby sinking
into contempt and misery, were enabled, in this way,
to relieve their minds, and follow their husbands,
under the full assurance of being happily united to
them in the next world."
When I passed this place on horseback with Lord
William, he asked me what these tombs were ; for he
had never seen any of the kind before. When I
told him what they were, he said not a word ; but he
must have felt a proud consciousness of the debt of
gratitude which India owes to the statesman who
had the courage to put a stop to this great evil, in
spite of all the fearful obstacles which bigotry and
prejudice opposed to the measure. The seven Eu
ropean functionaries, in charge of the seven districts
of the newly-acquired territories, were requested.

DESERTED FORTRESSES. 141
during the administration of Lord Amherst, in 1826,
to state whether the burning of widows could or
should be prohibited; and I believe every one of them
declared, that it should not ! And yet when it was put
a stop to only a few years after by Lord William,
not a complaint or murmur was heard. The replies
to the Governor-general's inquiries were, I believe,
throughout India, for the most part, opposed to the
measure. On the 24th we came to Dhamonee, ten miles.
The only thing remarkable here is the magnificent
fortress which is built upon a small projection of the
Vindhya range, looking do-wn on each side into
two enormously deep glens, through which the two
branches of the Dussan river descend over the table
land into the plains of Bundelcund. The rays of
the sun seldom penetrate to the bottom of these
glens, and things are, in consequence, grown there
that could not be grown in parts more exposed.
Every inch of the level ground in the bed of the
streams below, seems to be cultivated with care.
This fortress is said to have cost more than a
million of money; and to have been only one of
fifty-two great works, of which a former Rajah of
Bundelcund, Bursing Deo, laid the foundation in
the same happy hour which had been pointed out
to him by his astrologers. The works form an acute
triangle, with the base towards the table land, and
the two sides hanging perpendicularly over the
glens ; while the apex points to the course of the

142 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
streams as they again unite, and pass out through a
deep chasm into the plains of Bundelcund.
The fortress is now entirely deserted, and the
town, which the garrison supported, is occupied by
only a small police guard, stationed here to see that
robbers do not take up their abode among the ruins.
There is no fear of this. All old deserted fortresses
in India become filled by a dense stratum of car
bonic acid gas, which is found so inimical to animal
life, that those who attempt to occupy them become
ill, and sooner or later almost all die of the conse
quences. This gas being specifically much heavier
than common air, descends into the bottom of such
unoccupied fortresses, and remains stagnant like
water in old reservoirs. The current of pure air
continually passes over, without being able to carry off
the mass of stagnant air below ; and the only way to
render such places habitable is, to make large open
ings in the walls on all sides, from the top to the
bottom, so that the foul air may be driven out by
the current of pure atmospheric fluid, which will
then be continually rushing in. When these for
tresses are thickly peopled, the continual motion
within tends, I think, to mix up this gas with the
air above ; while the numerous fires lighted with
in, by rarifying that below, tend to draw down a
regular supply of the atmospheric air from above for
the benefit of the inhabitants. When natives enter
upon the occupation of an old fortress of this kind,
that has remained long unoccupied, they always

DESERTED FORTRESSES. 143
make a solemn religious ceremony of it ; and having
fed the priests, the troops, and a crowd of followers,
all rush in at once with beat of drums, and as much
noise as they can make. By this rush, and the fires
that follow, the bad air is perhaps driven off; and
never suffered to collect again while the fortress re
mains fully occupied. Whatever may be the cause,
the fact is certain, that these fortresses become
deadly places of abode for small detachments of
troops, or small parties of any kind. They all get
ill, and few recover from the diseases they contract
in them.
From the year 1817, when we first took pos
session of the Saugor and Nerbudda territories,
almost all the detachments of troops we required to
keep at a distance from the head-quarters of their
regiments, were posted in these old deserted for
tifications. Our collections of revenue were depo
sited in them ; and in some cases they were con
verted into jails for the accommodation of our
prisoners. Of the soldiers so lodged, I do not
believe that one in four ever came out well ; and
of those who came out ill, I do not believe that
one in four survived five years. They were all
abandoned one after the other ; but it is painful to
think how many hundreds, I may say thousands,
of our brave soldiers were sacrificed, before this
resolution was taken. I have known the whole
of the survivors of strong detachments that went
in, in robust health, three months before, brought

144 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
away mere skeletons, and in a hopeless and dying
state. All were sent to their homes on medical
certificate, but they almost all there, or in the
course of their journey.

145

CHAPTER XVIL
BASALTIC CAPPINGS  INTERVIEW WITH A NATIVE CHIEF —
A SINGULAR CHARACTER.
On the 3rd, we came to the village of Sowree.
Soon after lea-ring Dhamonee, we descended the
northern face of the Vindhya range into the plains
of Bundelcund. The face of this range overlooking
the valley of the Nerbudda to the south, is, as I
have before stated, a series of mural precipices, like
so many rounded bastions, the slight dip of the strata
being to the north. The northern face towards
Bundelcund, on the contrary, here descends gra
dually, as the strata dips slightly towards the north ;
and we pass down gently over their back. The
strata have, however, been a good deal broken, and
the road was so rugged, that two of our carts broke
down in descending. From the descent over the
northern face of the table-land into Bundelcund, to
the descent over the southem face into the valley of
the Nerbudda, must be a distance of one hundred
miles directly north and south. The descent over the
VOL. I. L

146

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

northern face is not everywhere so gradual ; on the
contrary, there are but few places where it is at
all feasible ; and some of the rivers of the table
land, between Jubbulpore and Mirzapore, have a
perpendicular fall of more than four hundred feet
over these mural precipices of the northern face of
the Vindhya range. A man, if he has good nerve,
may hang over the summits, and suspend in his hand
a plummet that shall reach the bottom.
I should mention, that this table-land is not only
intersected by ranges, but everywhere studded with
isolated hills rising suddenly out of basins or valleys.
These ranges and isolated hills are all of the same
sandstone formation, and capped -with basalt, more
or less amygdaloidal. The valleys and basins have
often a substratum of very compact basalt, which
must evidently have flowed into them after these
islands were formed. The question is, how were these
valleys and basins scooped out ? " Time — time —
time .'" says Mr. Scrope : " grant me only time, and
I can account for everything !" I think, however,
that I am right in considering the basaltic cappings
of these ranges and isolated hills to have once formed
parts of continued flat beds of great lakes. The flat
parallel planes of these cappings, corresponding with
each other, however distantly separated the hills
they cover may be, would seem to indicate, that they,
could not all have been subject to the convulsions
of nature, by which the whole substrata were up
heaved above the ocean. I am disposed to think,

A NATIVE CHIEF. 147
that such islands and ranges of the sandstone were
formed before the deposit of the basalt, and that the
form of the surface is now retuming to what it then
was, by the gradual decomposition and wearing away
of the latter rock: much, however, may be said
on both sides of this, as of every other question.
After descending from the sandstone of the Vin
dhya range into Bundelcund, we pass over basalt
and basaltic soil, reposing immediately upon syenitic
granite, with here and there beds and veins of pure
feldspar, hornblende, and quartz.
Tukut Sing, the younger brother of Urjun Sing,
the Rajah of Shahgurh, came out several miles to
meet me on his elephant. Finding me on horse
back, he got off from his elephant, and mounted his
horse, and we rode on till we met the rajah himself,
about a mile from our tents. He was on horseback,
-with a large and splendidly- dressed train of followers,
all mounted on fine sleek horses, bred in the rajah's
own stables. He was mounted on a snow-white
steed of his own breeding (and I have rarely seen a
finer animal) and dressed in a light suit of silver
brocade, made to represent the scales of steel armour,
surmounted by a gold turban. Tukut Sing was
more plainly dressed, but is a much finer and
more intelligent looking man. Having escorted us
to our tents, they took their leave, and retumed
to their own, which were pitched on a rising
ground on the other side of a small stream, half a
mile distant. Tukut Sing resides here in a very
l2

148 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
pretty fortified castle, on an eminence. It is a
square building with a round bastion at each corner,
and one on each face, rising into towers above the
walls. A little after mid-day the rajah and his brother
came to pay us a visit ; and about four o'clock I
went to return it, accompanied by Lieutenant
Thomas. As usual he had a nautch (dance) upon
carpets, spread upon the sward under awnings, in
front of the pavilion, in which we were received.
While the women were dancing and singing, a very
fine panther was brought in to be shown to us. He
had been caught, full grown, two years before ; and
in the hands of a skilful man was fit for the chase in
six months. It was a very beautiful animal, but for
the sake of the sport kept wretchedly thin. He
seemed especially indifferent to the crowd and the
music, but could not bear to see the woman whirl
ing about in the dance with her red mantle fioating
in the breeze ; and whenever his head was turned
towards her he cropped his ears. She at last, in
play, swept close by him, and with open mouth, he
attempted to spring upon her, but was pulled back
by the keeper. She gave a shriek, and nearly fell
upon her back in fright. The rajah is a man of no
parts or character; and his expenditure being be
yond his income, he is killing his goose for the sake
of her eggs — ^that is, he is ruining all the farmers
and cultivators of his large estate by exactions ; and
thereby throwing immense tracts of fine land out of

A SINGULAR CHARACTER. 149
tillage. He was the heir to the fortress and terri
tory of Gurha Kotali, near Saugor, which was taken
by Scindheea's army, under the command of Jean
Baptiste Felose, just before our conquest in 1817.
I was then with my regiment, which was com
manded by Colonel, afterwards Major-general G — ,
a very singular character. When our surgeon, Dr.
E — , received the newspaper announcing the capture
of Gurhakotah, in Central India, by Jean Baptiste, an
officer of the corps was with him, who called on the
colonel on his way home, and mentioned this as a
bit of news. As soon as this officer had left him,
the colonel wrote off a note to the doctor — " My
dear Doctor, — I understand that that fellow, John
the Baptist, has got into Scindheea's service, and now
commands an army — do send me the newspapers !"
These were certainly the words of his note ; and at
the only time I ever heard him speak on the sub
ject of religion, he discomfited his adversary in an
argument at the mess, by, " Why, sir, you do not
suppose that I believe in those fellows, Luther,
Calvin, and John the Baptist, do you ?"
Nothing could stand this argument. All the party
burst into a laugh, which the old gentleman took
for an unequivocal recognition of his -rictory ; and
his adversary was silenced. He was an old man
when I first became acquainted with him. I put
into his hands, when in camp. Miss Edgeworth's
novels, in the hope of being able to induce him to
read by degrees; and I have frequently seen the

150 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
tears stealing down over his furrowed cheeks, as he
sat pondering over her pages in the corner of his
tent. A braver soldier never lived than old G. ; and
he distinguished himself greatly in the command of
his regiment, under Lord Lake, at the battle of
Laswaree and seige of Bhurtpore. It was impos
sible ever to persuade him, that the characters
and incidents of these novels were the mere
creation of fancy — he felt them to be true — he
wished them to be true, and he would have them
to be true. We were not very anxious to unde
ceive him, as the illusion gave him pleasure and
did him good. Bolingbroke says, after an an
cient author, " History is philosophy teaching by
example." With equal truth may we say, that fic
tion, like that of Maria Edgeworth, is philosophy
teaching by emotion. It certainly taught old G. to
be a better man, to leave much of the little evil he
had been in the habit of doing, and to do much of
the good he had been accustomed to leave undone!

151

CHAPTER XVIIL
birds' NESTS  SPORTS OF BOYHOOD.
On the 6th we came to Seindpore, ten miles, over
an undulating country, with a fine soil of decom
posed basalt, reposing upon syenite, with veins of
feldspar and quartz. Cultivation partial and very
bad ; and population extremely scanty. We passed
close to a -rillage, in which the children were all at
play: while upon the bushes over their heads were
suspended an immense number of the beautiful nests
of the sagacious Baya bird, or Indian yellowham-
mer, all within reach of a grown-up boy, and one
so near the road that a gro^wn-up man might actually
look into it as he passed along, and could hardly
help shaking it. It cannot fail to strike an Euro
pean as singular, to see so many birds' nests, situated
close to a village, remain unmolested within reach
of so many boisterous children, with their little
proprietors and families fluttering and chirping
among them with as great a feeling of security and
gaiety of heart as the children themselves enjoy. In

152 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
any part of Europe not a nest of such a colony
could have lived an hour within reach of such a po
pulation ; for the Baya bird has no peculiar respect
paid to it by the people here like the wren and
robin-redbreast in England. No boy in India has
the slightest wish to molest birds in their nests ; it
enters not into their pastimes, and they have no
feeling of pride or pleasure in it. With us it is
different — to discover birds' nests is one of the first
modes in which a boy exercises his powers, and dis
plays his love of art. Upon his skill in finding them
he is willing to rest his first claim to superior saga
city and enterprise. His trophies are his string of
eggs; and the eggs most prized among them are
those of the nests that are discovered with most
difficulty, and attained with most danger. The same
feeling of desire to display their skill and enter
prise in search after birds' nests in early life, renders
the youth of England the enemy almost of the whole
animal creation throughout their after career. The
boy prides himself on his dexterity in thro-wing a stone
or a stick ; and he practises on almost every animal
that comes in his way, till he never sees one -without
the desire to knock it do-wn, or at least to hit it ;
and, if it is lawful to do so, he feels it to be a most
serious misfortune not to have a stone within his
reach at the time. As he grows up he prides him
self upon his dexterity in shooting, and he never
sees a member of the feathered tribe Avithin shot
without a desire to shoot it, or without regretting

birds' NESTS. 153
that he has not a gun in his hand to shoot it. That
he is not entirely destitute of sympathy, however,
with the animals he maims for his amusement, is
sufficiently manifest from his anxiety to put them
out of pain the moment he gets them.
A friend of mine, now no more. Captain Medwin,
was once looking with me at a beautiful landscape
painting, through a glass. At last he put aside the
glass, saying, " You may say what you like, S  ,
but the best landscape I know is a fine black par
tridge falling before my Joe Manton."
The following lines of Walter Scott, in his
Rokeby, have always struck me as very beautiful :
" As yet the conscious pride of art.
Had steel'd him in his treacherous part :
A powerful spring of force unguessed
That hath each gentler mood suppressed.
And reigned in many a human breast ;
From his that plans the rude campaign.
To his that wastes the woodland reign," &c.
Among the people of India it is very different.
Children do not learn to exercise their powers either
in discovering and robbing the nests of birds, or in
knocking them down with stones and staves ; and
as they grow up they hardly ever think of hunting
or shooting for mere amusement. It is with them a
matter of business ; the animal they cannot eat they
seldom think of molesting.
Some officers were one day pursuing a jackal,
with a pack of dogs, through my grounds. The

154 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
animal passed close to one of my guard, who cut
him in two with his sword, and held up the reeking
blade in triumph to the indignant cavalcade ; who,
when they came up, were ready to eat him alive.
" What have I done," said the poor man, " to
offend you ?"
" Have you not killed the jackal ?" shouted the
whipper-in, in a fiiry.
" Of course I have ; but were you not all trying to
kill him ?" replied the poor man. He thought their
only object had been to kill the jackal, as they would
have killed a serpent, merely because he was a mis
chievous and noisy beast.
The European traveller in India is often in doubt
whether the peacocks, partridges, and ducks, which
he finds round populous villages, are tame or wild,
till he asks some of the villagers themselves, so as
sured of safety do these creatures become, and so -srill-
ing to take advantage of it for the food they find in the
suburbs. They very soon find the difference, how
ever, between the white-faced visitor, and the dark-
faced inhabitants. There is a fine date tree over
hanging a kind of school at the end of one of the
streets in the town of Jubbulpore, quite covered with
the nests of the Baya birds ; and they are seen every
day and all day fluttering and chirping about them
in scores, while the noisy children at their play fill
the street below almost within arm's length of them.
I have often thought that such a tree so peopled at the
door of a school in England, might work agreat revo-
8

PAREEAR DOG. 155
lution in the early habits and propensities of the
youth educated in it. The European traveller is
often amused to see the Pareear dog squatted close
in front of the traveller, during the whole time
he is occupied in cooking and eating his dinner,
under a tree by the road-side, assured that he
shall have at least a part of the last cake thrown
to him by the stranger, instead of a stick or a
stone. The stranger regards him with complacency,
as one that reposes a quiet confidence in his cha
ritable disposition, and flings towards him the whole
or part of his last cake, as if his meal had put him
in the best possible humour with him and all the
world.

156

CHAPTER XIX.

FEEDING PILGRIMS  MARRIAGE OF A STONE WITH A
SHRUB.

At Siedpore we encamped in a pretty little
mango grove, and here I had a "risit from my old
friend Jankee Sawuk, the high priest of the great
temple that projects into the Saugor Lake, and is
called Bindrabun. He has two villages rent free,
worth a thousand rupees a year ; coUects something
more through his numerous disciples, who wander
over the country ; and spends the whole in feeding
all the members of his fratemity, (Byragies,) devotees
of Vishnoo, as they pass his temple in their pilgrim
ages. Every one who comes is considered entitled
to a good meal and a night's lodging ; and he
has to feed and lodge about one hundred a day. He
is a man of very pleasing manners and gentle dispo
sition, and every body likes him. He was on his
return from the tovni of Ludora, where he had been,
at the invitation of the Rajah of Orcha, to assist at

SALIGRAMS. 1 57
the celebration of the marriage of Saligram with the
Toolsee, which there takes place every year under
the auspices, and at the expense of the Rajah, who
must be present. Saligrams are rounded pebbles
which contain the impression of ammonites, and are
washed down into the plains of India by the rivers
from the lime-stone rocks in which these shells are
imbedded in the mountains of the Himmalah. The
Speetee valley contains an immense deposit of fossil
ammonites and belVfimites in lime-stone rocks, now
elevated above sixteen thousand feet above the level
of the sea ; and from such beds as these are brought
down the fragments, which, when rounded in their
course, the poor Hindoo takes for representations of
Vishnoo, the preserving God of the Hindoo triad.
The Saligram is the only stone idol among the
Hindoos that is essentially sacred, and entitled to
divine honours without the ceremonies of consecra
tion ! It is everywhere held most sacred. During
the war against Nepaul, Captain B., who commanded
a reconnoitring party from the division in which I
served, one day brought back to camp some four or
five of these Saligrams, which he had found at the
hut of some priest within the enemy's frontier. He
called for a large stone and hammer, and proceeded
to examine them. The Hindoos were all in a dreadful
state of consternation, and expected to see the earth
open and swallow up the whole camp, while he sat
calmly cracking their gods with his hammer, as he
would have cracked so many walnuts ! The Toolsee

158 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
is a small sacred shrub (the asjrmum sanctum) which
is a metamorphosis of Seeta, the -wife of Ram, the
seventh incarnation of Vishnoo.
This little pebble is every year married to this little
shrub ; and the high priest told me, that on the pre
sent occasion the procession consisted of eight ele
phants, twelve hundred camels, four thousand horses,
all mounted and elegantly caparisoned. On the
leading elephant of this cortfege, and the most
sumptuously decorated, was carried the pebble god,
who was taken to pay his bridal -risit (Barat) to the
little shrub goddess ! All the ceremonies of a re
gular marriage are gone through ; and when com
pleted the bride and bridegroom are left to repose
together in the temple of ^udora till the next season.
" Above a hundred thousand people," the priest said,
" were present at the ceremony this year at the
Rajah's invitation, and feasted upon his bounty."
The old man and I got into a conversation upon the
characters of different governments, and their effects
upon the people ; and he said that bad governments
would sooner or later be always put down by the
deity; and quoted this verse, which I took do-wn
with my pencil. " Toolsee Ghureeh na Sutae
Booree Ghureeh Kee hae ;
Muree Khal Kee phoonksee
~2I»|k>ha Bhussum ho jae !"
" Oh, Rajah Toolsee ! oppress not the poor ; for

GRASSES. 159
the groans of the wretched bring retribution from
heaven. The contemptible skin (in the smith's
bellows) in time melts away the hardest iron."
On leaving our tents in the moming, we found
the ground all round white with hoar frost, as we
had found it for several mornings before ; and a
little canary-bird, one of the two which travelled in
my wife's palankeen, having, by the carelessness of
the servants, been put upon the top without any
covering to the cage, was killed by the cold, to her
great affliction. All attempts to restore it to life by
the warmth of her bosom were fruitless.
On the 7th we came nine miles to Bumhoree over
a soil still basaltic, though less rich, reposing upon
syenite, which frequently rises and protrudes its head
above the surface, which is partially and badly cul
tivated, and scantily peopled. The silent signs of
bad government could not be more manifest ! All
the extensive plains, covered with fine long grass,
which is rotting in the ground from want of domestic
cattle or distant markets. Here, as in every other
part of central India, the people have a great variety
of good spontaneous, but few cultivated, grasses.
They understand the character and qualities of these
grasses extremely well. They find some thrive best
in dry, and some in wet seasons ; and that of inferior
quality is often prized most because it thrives best
when other kinds cannot thrive at all, from an excess
or a deficiency of rain. When cut green, they all
make good hay, and have the common denomination

160 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of Saheea, The finest of these grasses are two, which
are generally found growing spontaneously together,
and are often cultivated together — kele and musele ;
the third, purwana ; fourth, bhowar or gooneear ; fifth,
seyna.

161

CHAPTER XX.

THE MEN-TIGERS.

Ram Chund Roo, commonly called the Suree-
munt, chief of Deoree, here overtook me. He came
out from Saugor to visit me at Dhamoree, and not
reaching that place in time came on after me. He
held Deoree under the Peshwa, as the Saugor chief
held Saugor, for the payment of the public establish
ments kept up for the local administration. It
yielded him about ten thousand pounds a year, and
when we took possession of the country he got an
estate in the Saugor district, in rent-free tenure,
estimated at fifteen hundred pounds a year. This is
equal to about six thousand pounds a year in Eng
land. The tastes of native gentlemen lead them
always to expend the greater part of their incomes
in the wages of trains of followers of all descriptions,
and in horses, elephants, &c. ; and labour and the
subsistence of labour are about four times cheaper
in India than in England. By the breaking up of
public establishments, and consequent diminution of
VOL, I. M

162

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

the local demand for agricultural produce, the value
of land throughout all central India, after the termi
nation of the Mahratta war in 1817, fell by degrees
thirty per cent. ; and among the rest that of my
poor friend the Sureemunt. While I had the civil
charge of the Saugor district, in 1831, I represented
this ease of hardship ; and government, in the spirit
of liberality which has generally characterized their
measures in this part of India, made up to him the
difference between what he actually received and what
they had intended to give him ; and he has ever since
felt grateful to me. He is a very small man, not
more than five feet high ; but he has the handsomest
face I have almost ever seen ; and his manners are
those of the most perfect native gentleman. He
came to call upon me after breakfast, and the con
versation turned upon the number of people that
had of late been killed by tigers between Saugor and
Deoree, his ancient capital, which lies about midway
between Saugor and the Nerbudda river. One of his
foUowers, who stood behind his chair, said, " that
when a tiger had killed one man he was safe, for the
spirit of the man rode upon his head, and guided him
from all danger. The spirit knew very well that the
tiger would be watched for many days at the place
where he had committed the homicide, and always
guided him off to some other more secure place, where
he killed other men without any risk to himself. He did
not exactly know why the spirit ofthe man should thus
befriend the beast that had killed him ; but," added

THE MEN-TIGERS. 163
he, " there is a mischief inherent in spirits ; and the
better the man the more mischievous is his ghost, if
means are not taken to put him to rest." This is
the popular and general belief throughout India ; and
it is supposed, that the only sure mode of destroying
a tiger, who has killed many people is, to begin by
making offerings to the spirits of his victims, and
thereby depriving him of their valuable sei-rices !*
The belief that men are turned into tigers by eating
of a root is no less general throughout India.
The Sureemunt, on being asked by me what he
thought of the matter, observed, " there was no
doubt much truth in what the man said ; but he
was himself of opinion, that the tigers which now
infest the wood from Saugor to Deoree were of a
different kind — ^in fact, that they were neither more
nor less than men turned into tigers — a thing which
took place in the woods of central India much more
often than people were aware of. The only visible
difference between the two," added the Sureemunt,
" is that the metamorphosed tiger has no tail, while
the bora, or ordinary tiger, has a very long one. In the
* When Agrippina, in her rage with her son Nero, threatens
to take her step-son, Britannicus, to the camp of the Legion, and
there assert his right to the throne, she invokes the spirit of his
father, whom she had poisoned, and the manes of the SUani,
whom she had murdered. " Simul intendere manus, aggere
probra : consecratum Chaudium, infernos Silanorum manes in-
vocare, et tot invita fari nova." — Tacitus, lib. xiii. sec. 14.
M 2

164 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
jungle about Deoree," continued he, " there is a root
which, if a man eat of, he is converted into a tiger
on the spot ; and if in this state he can eat of another,
he becomes a man again — a melancholy instance of
the former ofwhich," said he, " occurred, I am told, in
my own father's family when I was an infant. His
washerman, Rughoo, was, like all washermen, a great
drunkard ; and being seized with a violent desire to
ascertain what a man felt in the state of a tiger, he
went one day to the jungle and brought home two
of these roots, and desired his wife to stand by with
one of them, and the instant she saw him assume
the tiger's shape, to thrust it into his mouth. She
consented, the washerman ate his root, and became
instantly a tiger; but his wife was so terrified
at the sight of her old husband in this shape, that
she ran off with the antidote in her hand. Poor
old Rughoo took to the woods, and there ate a
good many of his old friends from the neighbour
ing villages; but he was at last shot and recog
nized from the circumstance of his having no tail.
You may be quite sure," concluded Sureemunt,
" when you hear of a tiger without a tail, that it is
some unfortunate man who has eaten of that root —
and of all the tigers he will be found the most
mischievous." How my friend had satisfied himself of the truth
of this story I know not, but he religiously believes
it, and so do all his attendants and mine ; and out of

THE MEN-TIGERS. 165
a population of thirty thousand people in the town of
Saugor, not one would doubt the story of the washer
man if he heard it.
I was one day talking with my friend, the Rajah
of Myhere, on the road between Jubbulpore and
Mirzapore, on the subject of the number of men who
had been lately killed by tigers at the Kutra Pass
on that road, and the best means of removing the
danger. " Nothing," said the Rajah, " could be more
easy or more cheap than the destruction of these
tigers, if they were of the ordinary sort ; but the
tigers that kill men by wholesale, as these do, are,
you may be sure, men themselves converted into
tigers by the force of their science ; and such animals
are of all the most unmanageable."
" And how is it. Rajah Sahib, that these men con
vert themselves into tigers ?"
" Nothing," said he, " is more easy than this to
persons who have once acquired the science ; but how
they learn it, or what it is, we unlettered men know
not. There was once a high priest, of a large temple,
in this very valley of Myhere, who was in the habit
of getting himself converted into a tiger by the force
of this science, which he had thoroughly acquired.
He had a necklace, which one of his disciples used
to throw over his neck the moment the tiger's
form became fully developed. He had, however,
long given up the practice, and all his old disciples
had gone off on their pilgrimages to distant shrines,
when he was one day seized with a violent desire to

166 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
take his old form of the tiger. He expressed the wish
to one of his new disciples, and demanded whether
he thought he might rely upon his courage to stand
by and put on the necklace. ' Assuredly you may,'
said the disciple ; ' such is my faith in you, and in the
God we serve, that I fear nothing !' The high priest
upon this put the necklace into his hand with the
requisite instructions, and forthwith began to change
his form. The disciple stood trembling in every
limb, till he heard him give a roar that shook the
whole edifice, when he fell flat upon his face, and
dropped the necklace on the floor. The tiger bounded
over him, and out at the door ; and infested aU the
roads leading to the temple for many years after
wards." " Do you think. Rajah Sahib, that the old high
priest is one of the tigers at the Kutra Pass ?"
" No, I do not ; but I think that they may be all
men who have become imbued with a little too much of
the high priest's science — when men once acquire this
science they can't help exercising it, though it be to
their o-wn ruin and that of others."
" But, supposing them to be ordinary tigers, what
is the simple plan you propose to put a stop to their
depredations. Rajah Sahib?"
" I propose," said he, " to have the spirits that
guide them propitiated by proper prayers and offer
ings ; for the spirit of every man or woman who has
been killed by a tiger rides upon his head, or runs
before him, and tells him where to go to get prey,
10

THE MEN-TIGERS. 167
and to avoid danger. Get some of the Gonds, or
wild people from the jungles, who are well skilled
in these matters — give them ten or twenty rupees,
and bid them go and raise a small shrine, and there
sacrifice to these spirits. The Gonds will tell them
that they shall, on this shrine, have regular wor
ship, and good sacrifices of fowls, goats, and pigs,
every year at least, if they will but relinquish their
offices -with the tigers and be quiet. If this is done,
I pledge myself," said the Rajah, " that the tigers
will soon get killed themselves, or cease from killing
men. If they do not, you may be quite sure that
they are not ordinary tigers, but men turned into
tigers, or that the Gonds have appropriated all you
gave them to their own use, instead of applying it
to conciliate the spirits of the unfortunate people !"

168

CHAPTER XXL
BURNING OF DEOREE BY A FREEBOOTER  A SUTTEE.
Sureemunt had been one of the few who escaped
from the flames which consumed his capital of
Deoree, in the month of April, 1813, and were sup
posed to have destroyed thirty thousand souls. I
asked him to tell me how this happened, and he re
ferred me to his attendant, a learned old pundit.
Ram Chund, who stood by his side, as he was himself,
he said, then only five years of age, and could recollect
nothing of it."
" Murdan Sing," said the pundit, " the father of
Rajah Urpin Sing, whom you saw at Seoree, was
then our neighbour, reigning over Gurha Kota ; and
he had a worthless nephew, Zalim Sing, who had
collected together an army of five thousand men, in
the hope of getting a little principality for himself
in the general scramble for dominion, incident upon
the rise of the Pindarees and Ameer Khan, and the
destruction of all balance of power among the great
sovereigns of central India. He came to attack our

BURNING OF DEOREE. 169
capital, which was an emporium of considerable
trade, and the" seat of many useful manufactures, in the
expectation of being able to squeeze out of us a good
sum to aid him in his enterprise. While his troops
blocked up every gate, fire was, by accident, set to
the fence of some man's garden within. There had
been no rain for six months ; and everything was so
much dried up that the flames spread rapidly ;
and though there was no wind when they began,
it soon blew a gale. The Sureemunt was then a
little boy with his mother, in the fortress, where she
lived -with his father and nine other relations. The
flames soon extended to the fortress, and the powder-
magazine blew up. The house in which they lived
was burned do'wn, and every soul, except the lieute
nant himself, perished in it. His mother tried to
bear him off in her arms, but fell down in her struggle
to get out with him, and died. His nurse, Toolse6
the Koormin, snatched him up, and ran with him
outside of the fortress to the bank of the river,
where she made him over, unhurt, to Hureeram,
the Murwaree merchant. He was mounted on a
good horse, and making off across the river he car
ried him safely to his friends at Goorjamur ; but poor
Toolsee the Koormin fell down exhausted when she
saw her charge safe, and died.
" The wind appeared to blow in upon the poor
devoted city from every side ; and the troops of Zalim
Sing, who at first prevented the people from rush
ing out at the gates, made off in a panic at the horrors

170 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
before them. All our establishments had been driven
into the city at the approach of Zalim Sing's troops ;
and scores of elephants, hundreds of camels, and
thousands of horses and ponies perished in the flames,
besides twenty-five thousand souls. Only about five
thousand persons escaped out of thirty thousand, and
these were reduced to beggary and wretchedness bythe
loss of their dearest relations, and their property. At
the time the flames first began to spread, an immense
crowd of people had assembled under the fortress on
the bank of the Sonar river, to see the widow of a
soldier bum herself. Her husband had been shot by
one of Zalim Sing's soldiers in the morning ; and be
fore midday she was by the side of his body on the
funeral pile. People, as usual, begged her to tell
them what would happen ; and she replied, ' the city
will know in less than four hours ;' in less than four
hours the whole city had been reduced to ashes ; and
we all concluded, that since the event was so clearly
foretold, it must have been decreed by God !"
" No doubt it was," said Sureemunt, "how could
it othervrise happen ? Do not all events depend
upon his wiU ? Had it not been his -will to save me,
how could poor Toolsee the Koormin have carried
me upon her shoulders through such a scene as this,
when every other member of our family perished !"
" No doubt," said Ram Chund, " aU these things are
brought about by the wiU of God ; and it is not for
us to ask why."
I have heard this event described by many other

SUPERSTITION. 171
people ; and I believe the account of the old pundit
to be a very fair one. One day in October, 1833, the
horse of the district surgeon. Doctor Spry, as he was
mounting him, reared, fell back with his head upon
a stone, and died upon the spot. The doctor was
not much hurt ; and the little Sureemunt called a
few days after, and offered his congratulations upon
his narrow escape. The cause of so quiet a horse
rearing at this time, when he had never been known
to do so before, was discussed ; and he said, " that
there could be no doubt that the horse, or the doctor
himself, must have seen some unlucky face before he
mounted that moming — that he had been in many
places in his life, but in none where a man was liable
to see so many ugly or unfortunate faces ; and, for his
part, he never left his house till an hour after sun
rise, lest he should encounter them !"
Many natives were present, and every one seemed
to consider the Sureemunt's explanation of the cause
quite satisfactory and philosophical. Some days after.
Spry was going down to sleep in the bungalow where
the accident happened. His native assistant, and all
his servants, came and prayed that he would not
attempt to sleep in the bungalow, as they were sure
the horse must have been frightened by a ghost ;
and quoted several instances of ghosts appearing to
people there. He, however, slept in the- bungalow ;
and, to their great astonishment, saw no ghost, and
suffered no evil !

172

CHAPTER XXIL
INTERVIEW WITH THE RAJAH WHO MARRIES THE STONE TO
THE SHRUB  ORDER OF THE MOON AND THE FISH.
On the Sth, after a march of twelve miles, we
reached Tehree, the present capital of the Rajah of
Orcha. Our road lay over an undulating surface of
soil composed of the detritus of the sienitic rock,
and poor both from its quality and want of depth.
About three miles from our last ground we entered
the boundary of the Orcha Rajah's territory, at the
village of Aslone, which has a very pretty little for
tified castle, built upon a ground slightly elevated in
the midst of an open grass plain. This and all the
villages we have lately passed are built upon the
bare back of the syenitic rock, which seems to rise
to the surface in large but gentle swells, like the
broad waves of the ocean in a calm after a storm. A
great difference appeared to me to be observable be
tween the minds and manners of the people among
whom we were now travelling, and those of the
people of the Saugor and Nerbudda territories.

BEGGARS AND FOOLS. 173
They seemed here to want the urbanity and
inteUigence we find among our subjects in the
latter quarters. The apparent stupidity of the
people when questioned upon points the most in
teresting to them, regarding their history, their
agriculture, their tanks and temples, was most pro
voking ; and their manners seemed to me to be more
rude and clownish than those of people in any other
part of India I had travelled over. I asked my little
friend the Sureemunt, who rode with me, what he
thought of this.
" I think," said he, " that it arises from the harsh
character of the government under which they live ;
it makes every man wish to appear a fool, in order
that he may be thought a beggar, and not worth the
plundering." " It strikes me, my friend Sureemunt, that their
government has made them in reality the beggars
and the fools that they appear to be."
" God only knows," said Sureemunt ; " certain it
is that they are neither in mind nor in manners
what the people of our districts are."
The Rajah had had no notice of our approach till
intimation of it reached him at Ludora, the day be
fore we came in. He was there resting and dis
missing the people after the ceremonies of the
marriage between the Saligram and the Toolsee.
Ludora is twenty-seven miles north-west of Tehree,
on the opposite side from that on which I was ap
proaching. He sent off two men on camels with a

174 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
khureeta, (letter,)* requesting that I would let him
know my movements, and arrange a meeting in a
manner that might prevent his appearing wanting
in respect and hospitality : that is, in plain terms,
which he was too polite to use, that I would consent
to remain one stage from his capital, till he could
return and meet me halfway, with all due pomp and
ceremony. These men reached me at Bumhoree, a
distance of thirty-nine miles, in the evening ; and I
sent back a khureeta, which reached him by relays
of camels before midnight. He set out for his ca
pital to receive me ; and as I would not wait to be
met half way in due form, he reached his palace, and
we reached our tents at the same time, under a salute
from his two brass field-pieces.
We halted at Tehree on the 9th, and about eleven
o'clock the Rajah came to pay his -risit of congratu
lation, with a magnificent cortege of elephants,
camels, and horses, all mounted and splendidly capa
risoned, and the noise of his band was deafening. I
had had both my tents pitched, and one of them
handsomely fitted up, as it always is, for occasions of
* A khureeta is a letter enclosed in a bag of rich brocade,
contained in another of fine muslin. The mouth is tied with a
string of silk, to which hangs suspended the great seal, which is
a flat round mass of seahng-wax, with the seal impressed on each

side of it, thus ^qc ' J This is the kind of letter which

passes between natives of great rank in India, and between them
and the public functionaries of government.

INSIGNIA OF HONOUR. 175
ceremony like the present. He came to within
twenty paces of the door on his elephant, and from
its back, as it sat down, he entered his splendid litter
without alighting on the ground. In this vehicle he
was brought to my tent door, where I received him ;
and, after the usual embraces, conducted him up
through two rows of chairs, placed for his followers
of distinction and my own, who are always anxious
to assist in ceremonies like these.
At the head of this lane we sat upon chairs
placed across, and facing down the middle of the
two rows ; and we conversed upon all the sub
jects usually introduced on such occasions ; but
more especially upon the august ceremonies of the
marriage of the Saligram with the Toolsee, in which
his highness had been so piously engaged at Ludora !
After he had sat vrith me an hour and a half he took
his leave ; and I conducted him to the door, whence
he was carried to his elephant in his litter, from
which he mounted without touching the ground.
This litter is called a Nalkee. It is one of the
three great insignia which the Mogul Emperors of
Delhi conferred upon independent princes of the
first class, and could never be used by any person
upon whom, or upon whose ancestors they had not
been so conferred. These were the Nalkee, the order
of the Fish, and the fan of the peacock's feathers.
These insignia could be used only by the prince who
inherited the sovereignty of the one on whom they
had been originally conferred. The order of the

176 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
fish, or Mahee Moratub, was first instituted by
Khoosroo Purwez, King of Persia, and grandson of
the celebrated Nowsherwan the Just. Having been
deposed by his general, Behram, Khoosroo fled for
protection to the Greek emperor, Maurice, whose
daughter, Sheereen, he married; and he was sent back
to Persia, with an army under the command of
Narses, who placed him upon the throne of his an
cestors in the year a. d. 691.* He ascertained from
his astrologer, Aruz Khushusp, that when he ascended
the throne the moon was in the constellation of the
Fish, and he gave orders to have two balls made of
polished steel, which were to be called Koukubas,
(planets,) and mounted on long poles. These two
planets, with a large fish made of gold, upon a third
pole in the centre, were ordered to be carried in all
regal processions immediately after the king, and
before the prime minister, whose cortege always
followed immediately after that of the king. The
two Koukubas are now generally made of copper, and
plated, and in the shape of a jar, instead of quite
round, as at first ; but the fish is still made of gold.
Two planets are always considered necessary to one
fish ; and they are still carried in all processions be
tween the prince and his prime minister.
* During the time he remained the guest of the Emperor he
resided at Hierapolis, and did not visit Constantinople. The
Greeks do not admit that Sheereen was the daughter of Maurice,
though a Roman by birth, and a Christian by religion. The
Persians and Turks speak ofher as the Emperor's daughter.

PERSIAN ORDER OF KNIGHTHOOD. 177
The court of this Prince Khoosroo Purwez, was
celebrated throughout the East for its splendour and
magnificence ; and the chaste love of the poet,
Furhad, for his beautiful queen, Sheereen, is the
theme of almost as many poems in the East, as that
of Petrarch's for Laura is in the west. Noosamanee,
who ascended the throne of Persia after the Sassa-
nians, ascertained that the moon was in the sign
Leo at the time of his accession, and ordered
that the gold head of a lion should thenceforward
accompany the fishes, and the two balls, in all royal
processions. The Persian order of knighthood is,
therefore, that of the Fish, the Moon, and the Lion,
and not the Lion and Sun, as generally supposed.
The emperors of the house of Timour, in Hindoostan,
assumed the right of conferring the order upon all
they pleased ; and they conferred it upon the great
territorial sovereigns of the country without distinc
tion as to religion. He only who inherits the sove
reignty can wear the order ; and I believe no prince
would venture to wear or carry the order who was
not generally reputed to have received the investi
ture from one of the emperors of Delhi.
As I could not wait another day, it was deter
mined that I should return his visit in the after
noon ; and about four o'clock we set out upon our
elephant. Lieutenant Thomas, Sureemunt, and my
self, attended by all my troopers and those of Suree
munt. We had our silver-stick men with us ; but
still all made a sorry figure compared with the splen-
VOL. I. N

178 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
did cortege of the Rajah. We dismounted at the
foot of the stairs leading to the Rajah's hall of audi
ence, and were there met by his two chief officers of
state, who conducted us to the entrance of the hall,
where we were received by the Rajah himself, who
led us up through two rows of chairs laid out ex
actly as mine had been in the morning. In front
were assembled a party of native comedians, who ex
hibited a few scenes of the insolence of office in the
attendants of great men, and the obtrusive impor
tunity of place-seekers, in a manner that pleased us
much more than a dance would have done. Con
versation was kept up very well ; and the visit passed
off without any feeling of ennui, or any thing what
ever to recollect with regret. The ladies looked at
us from their apartments through gratings, and with
out our being able to see them very distinctly. We
were anxious to see the tombs of the late Rajah, the
elder brother of the present, who lately died, and
that of his son, which are in progress in a very fine
garden outside the city walls, and in consequence
we did not sit above half an hour. The Rajah con
ducted us to the head of the stairs, and the same two
officers attended us to the bottom, and mounted their
horses and accompanied us to the tombs. After the
dust of the town, raised by the immense crowd that
attended us, and the ceremonies of the day, a walk
in this beautiful garden was very agreeable; and
I prolonged it till dark. The Rajah had given
orders to have all the cisterns filled during our stay,

RAJAH OF ORCHa's GARDEN. 179
under the impression that we should wish to see the
garden ; and as soon as we entered, the jet d'eaus
poured into the air their little floods from a hundred
mouths. Our old cicerone told us, " that if we would
take the old capital of Orcha in our way, we might
there see the thing in perfection ; and amidst the
deluges of the rain of Sawun and Bhado, (July and
August,) see the lightning and hear the thunder."
The Rajahs of this, the oldest principality in Bun
delcund, were all formerly buried or burned at the
old capital of Orcha, even after they had changed
their residence to Tehree. These tombs, over the
ashes of the Rajah, his wife, and son, are the first
that have been built at Tehree, where their posterity
are all to repose in future.

N 2

180

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE RAJAH OF ORCHA  MURDER OF HIS MANY
MINISTERS.
The present Rajah, Muthoora-dass, succeeded his
brother, Bikurmajeet, who died in 1834. He had
made over the government to his only son. Rajah
Bahadur, whom he almost adored; but the young
man dying some years before him, the father resumed
the reins of government, and held them till his
death. He was a man of considerable capacity, but
of a harsh and unscrupulous character. His son re
sembled him ; but the present Rajah is a man of mild
temper and disposition, though of weak intellect.
The fate of the last three prime ministers will show
the character of the Rajah and his son ; and the na
ture of their rule.
The minister at the time the old man made over
the reigns of government to his son, was Khaujoo
Purohut. Wishing to get rid of him a few years
after, this son. Rajah Bahadur, employed Mohrum
Sing, one of his feudal Rajpoot barons, to assassinate

RAJAH OF ORCHA. 181
him. As a reward for this service he received the
seals of office ; and the Rajah confiscated all the pro
perty of the deceased, amounting to four lacks of ru
pees ; and resumed the whole of the estates held by
the family. The young Rajah died soon after ; and
his father, when he resumed the reigns of govem
ment, wishing to remove the new minister, got him as
sassinated by Gumbeer Sing, another feudal Rajpoot
baron, who, as his reward, received in his turn the seals
of office. This man was a most atrocious villain, and
employed the public establishments of his chief to
plunder travellers on the high road. In 1833 his
followers robbed four men who were carrying trea
sure, to the amount of ten thousand rupees, from
Saugor to Jansee, through Tehree, and intended
to murder them ; but, by the sagacity of one of the
party, and a lucky accident, they escaped, made
their way back to Saugor, and complained to the ma
gistrate. That minister discovered the nature of
their burdens as they lodged at Tehree, on their way,
and sent after them a party of soldiers, with orders
to put them in the bed of a rivulet, that separated
the territory of Orcha from that of the Jansee Rajah.
One of the treasure party discovered their object ;
and on reaching the bank of the rivulet, in a deep
grass jungle, he threw down his burden, dashed un
perceived through the grass, and reached a party of
travellers whom he saw ascending a hill about half a
mile in advance. The myrmidons of the minister,
when they found that one had escaped, were afraid

182 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to murder the others, but took their treasure. In
spite of great obstacles, and with much danger to the
families of three of those men, who resided in the capi
tal of Tehree, the magistrate of Saugor brought
the crime home to the minister; and the Rajah, anxious
to avail himself of the occasion to fill his coffers, got
him assassinated. The Rajah was then about eighty
years of age ; and his minister was a strong, athletic,
and brave man. One morning while he was sitting
with him in private conversation, the former pretended
a wish to drink some of the water in which his house
hold god had been washed, (the Chunda mirt,*) and
begged the minister to go and fetch it from the place
where it stood by the side of the idol in the court of
the palace. As a man cannot take his sword before
the idol, the mimster put it down, as the Rajah knew
he would, and going to the idol, prostrated himself
* The water of the Ganges, vrith which the image of the god
Vishnoo has been washed, is considered a very holy draught, fit
for princes. That with which the image of the god Sewa, ahas
Mahadeo, is washed, must not be drunk. The popular belief is,
that in a dispute between him and his wife, Parbuttee, alias
Kalee, she cursed the person that should thenceforward dare to
drink of the water that flowed over his images on earth. The
river Ganges is supposed to flow from the top-knot of Sewa's
head, and uo one would drink of it after this curse, were it not
that the sacred stream is supposed to come first from the heel of
Vishnoo, the Preserver. All the httle images of Sewa, that
are made out of stones taken from the bed of the Nerbudda river,
are supposed to be absolved from this curse, and water thrown
upon them can be drunk with impunity.

MURDER AND ROBBERY. 183
before it preparatory to taking away the water. In
that state he was cut down by Beearee, another
feudal Rajpoot baron, who aspired to the seals, and
some of his friends, who had been placed there on
purpose by the Rajah. He obtained the seals by his
service, and as he was allowed to place one brother in
command of the forces, and to make another cham
berlain, he hoped to retain them longer than any of
his predecessors had done. Gumbeer Sing's brother,
Jhoojhar Sing, and the husband of his sister, hearing
of his murder, made off, but were soon pursued and
put to death. The widows were all three put into
prison, and all the property and estates were con
fiscated. The moveable property amounted to three
lacks of rupees. The Rajah boasted to the Gover
nor-general's representative in Bundelcund, of this
act of retributive justice, and pretended that it was
executed merely as a punishment for the rob
bery : but it was with infinite difficulty the mer
chants could recover from him any share of the
plundered property out of that confiscated. The
Rajah alleged, that, according to our rules, the chief,
within whose boundary the robbery might have been
committed, was obliged to make good the property.
On inspection, it was found, that the robbery was
perpetrated upon the very boundary line, and " in spite
of pride, in erring reason's spite," the Jansee Rajah
was made to pay one-half of the plundered trea

sure

The old Rajah, Bikurmajeet, died in June 1834;

184 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and though his death had been some time expected,
he no sooner breathed his last than charges of Dee-
naee, slow poison, were got up as usual in the Zenana,
(seraglio.) Here the widow of Rajah Bahadur, a -rio
lent and sanguinary woman, was supreme ; and she
persuaded the present Rajah, a weak old man, to
take advantage of the funeral ceremonies, to avenge
the death of his brother. He did so ; and Beearee,
and his three brothers, with above fifty of his rela
tions, were murdered. The widows of the four bro
thers were the only members of all the families left
alive. One of them had a son four months old ; an
other one of two years ; the four brothers had no
'other children. Immediately after the death of their
husbands, the two children were snatched from their
mothers' breasts, and threatened with instant death
unless their mothers pointed out all their ornaments
and other property. They did so ; and the spoilers
having got from them property to the amount of one
hundred and fifty thousand rupees, and been assured
that there was no more, threw the children over the
high wall, by which they were dashed to pieces.
The poor widows were tendered as wives to four
sweepers, the lowest of all low castes ; but the tribe
of sweepers would not suffer any of its members to
take the widows of men of such high caste and sta
tion as wives, notwithstanding the tempting offer of
five hundred rupees as a present, and a village in
rent free tenure ! I secured a promise while at
Tehree, that these poor widows should be provided

TOWN OF TEHREE. 185
for, as they had, up to that time, been preserved by
the good feeling of a little community of the lowest
of castes, on whom they had been bestowed as a
punishment worse than death, inasmuch as it would
disgrace the whole clan to which they belonged, the
Purheear Rajpoots.
Tehree is a wretched town, without one respect
able dwelling-house tenanted beyond the palace, or
one merchant, or even shopkeeper of capital and
credit. There are some tolerable houses unoccupied
and in ruins ; and there are a few neat temples built
as tombs, or cenotaphs, in and around the city, if city
it can be called. The stables and accommodations
for all public establishments seem to be all in the
same ruinous state as the dwelling-houses. The
revenues of the state are spent in feeding Brah
mans and religious mendicants of all kinds ; and in
such idle ceremonies as those at which the Rajah and
all his court have just been assisting — ceremonies
which concentrate for a few days the most useless
of the people of India, the devotee followers (Byra-
gees) of the god Vishnoo, and tend to no purpose,
either useful or ornamental, to the state or to the
people. This marriage ofa stone to a shrub, which takes place
every year, is supposed to cost the Rajah, at the most
moderate estimate, three lacks of rupees a-year, or
one-fourth of his annual revenue.* The highest
* Wealthy Hindoos, throughout India, spend money in the
same ceremonies of marrying the stone to the shrub.

186 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
officers, of which his government is composed, re
ceive small beggarly salaries, hardly more than suffi
cient for their bare subsistence ; and the money they
make by indirect means they dare not spend like gen
tlemen, lest the Rajah might be tempted to take their
lives in order to get hold of it. AU his feudal barons
are of the same tribe as himself, that is, Rajpoots ;
but they are divided into three clans — Bondelas,
Powars, and Chundeles. A Bondela cannot marry
a woman of his own clan, he must take a wife from
the Powars or the Chundeles ; and so of the other
two clans — no member of one can take a wife from
his own clan, but mus: go to one of the other two
for her. They are very much disposed to fight with
each other, but not less are they disposed to unite
against any third party, not of the same tribe.
Braver men do not, I believe, exist than the Raj
poots of Bundelcund, who all carry their swords
from their infancy.
It may be said of the Rajpoots of Malwa and
central India generally, that the Mogul Em
perors of Delhi made the same use of them, that
the Emperors of Germany and the Popes made of
the military chiefs and classes of Europe during the
middle ages. Industry and the peaceful arts being
reduced to agriculture alone, under bad government
or no government at all, the land remained the only
thing worth appropriating; and it accordingly be
came appropriated by those alone who had the power
to do so— by the Hindoo military classes collected

FEUDAL TENURE. 187
around the heads of their clans, and powerful in
their union. These held it under the paramount power
on the feudal tenure of military service, as militia ;
or it was appropriated by the paramount power itself,
who let it out on allodial tenure to peaceful peasantry.
The one was the Zemindaree, and the other the
Malgoozaree tenure of India.* The military chiefs,
essentially either soldiers or robbers, were continually
fighting, either against each other, or against the pea^
santry, or public officers of the paramount power,
like the barons of Europe; and that paramount power,
or its delegates, often found that the easiest way to
crush one of these refractory vassals was to put him,
as such men had been put in Germany, to the ban of
the empire, and offer his lands, his castles, and his
wealth to the victor. This victor brought his own
clansmen to occupy the lands and castles of the van
quished ; and as these were the only things thought
worth living for, the change commonly involved
the utter destruction of the former occupants. The
new possessors gave the name of their leader, their
clan, or their former place of abode, to their new
* The paramount power often assigned a portion of its reserved
lands in Jagheer to pubhc officers for the payment of the esta
blishments they required for the performance of the duties, mili
tary or civil, which were expected from them. Other portions
were assigned in rent-free tenure for services already performed,
or to favourites ; but in both cases the rights of the village or
land-ovraier, or allodial proprietors, were supposed to be unaf
fected, as the government was presumed to assign only its own
claim to a certain portion as revenue. 6

188 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
possession, and the tract of country over which they
spread. Thus were founded the Bondelas, Powars, and
Chundeles, upon the ruin of the Chundeles in Bun
delcund, the Boghelas in Boghelcund, or Rewa, the
Kuchwahas, the Sukurwars, and others along the
Chumbul river, and throughout all parts of India.
These classes have never learnt anything, or con
sidered anything worth learning, but the use of the
sword ; and a Rajpoot chief, next to leading a gang
of his own on great enterprises, delights in nothing
so much as having a gang or two, under his patron
age, for little ones. There is hardly a single chief,
of the Hindoo military class, in the Bundelcund, or
Gwalior territories, who does not keep a gang of
robbers of some kind or other, and consider it as a
very valuable and legitimate source of revenue; or
who would not embrace vrith cordiality the leader
of a gang of assassins by profession, who should
bring him home from every expedition a good horse,
a good sword, or a valuable pair of shawls, taken
from their victims. It is much the same in the
kingdom of Oude, where the lands are for the most
part held by the same Hindoo military classes, who
are in a continual state of war with each other, or
with the government authorities. Three-fourths of
the recruits for native infantry regiments are from
this class of military agriculturists of Oude, who have
been trained up in this school of contest ; and many
of the lads, when they enter our ranks, are found
to have marks of the cold steel upon their persons.

NATIVE RECRUITS. 189
A braver set of men is hardly anywhere to be found ;
or one trained up with finer feelings of devotion
towards the power whose salt they eat. A good
many of the other fourth of the recruits for our
native infantry, are drawn from among the Oujeynee
Rajpoots, or Rajpoots from Oujeyn, who were esta
blished many generations ago in the same manner
at Bhajpore on the bank of the Ganges.

190

CBAPTER XXIV

CORN DEALERS  SCARCITIES  FAMINES IN INDIA.
Near Tehree we saw the people irrigating a field
of wheat from a tank, by means of a canoe, in a mode
quite new to me. The surface of the water was
about three feet below that of the field to be watered.
The inner end of the canoe was open, and placed to
the mouth of a gutter leading into the wheat-field.
The outer end was closed, and suspended by a rope
to the outer end of a pole, which was again sus
pended to cross bars, thus :

On the inner end of this pole was fixed a weight of
stones sufficient to raise the canoe when filled with
water ; and at the outer end stood five men who

SCARCITIES. 191
pulled down and sunk the canoe into the water as
often as it was raised by the stones, and emptied into
the gutter. The canoe was more curved at the outer
end than ordinary canoes are ; and seemed to have
been made for the purpose. The lands round the
town generally were watered by the Persian wheel ;
but where it is near the surface this I should think
a better method.
On the 10th we came on to the vUlage of Bilgaee,
twelve miles over a bad soil badly cultivated ; the
hard syenitic rock rising either above or near to the
surface all the way — ^in some places abruptly, in
small hills, decomposinginto large rounded boulders —
in others slightly and gently, like the backs of whales
in the ocean — in others, the whole surface of the
country resembled very much the face of the sea,
not after but really in a storm, full of waves of all
sizes, contending with each other " in most admired
disorder." After the dust of Tehree, and the fatiguing
ceremonies of its court, the quiet moming I spent
in this secluded spot, under the shade of some beau
tiful trees, with the surviving canary singing, my boy
playing, and my wife sleeping off the fatigues of her
journey, was to me most delightful. Henry was ex
tremely ill when we left Jubbulpore ; but the change
of air, and all the other changes incident to a march,
have restored him to health.
During the scarcity of 1833, two hundred people
died of starvation in this village alone ; and were all
thrown into one large well which has, of course, ever

192 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
since remained closed. Autumn crops chiefly are
cultivated ; and they depend entirely on the sky for
water, while the poor people of the village depend
upon the retums of a single season for subsistence
during the whole year. They lingered on in the
hope of aid from above till the greater part had
become too weak from want of food to emigrate.
The Rajah gave half-a-crown to every family ; but
this served merely to kindle their hopes of more,
and to prolong their misery. Till the people have
a better government they can never be secure from
frequent returns of similar calamities. Such secu
rity must depend upon a greater variety of crops,
and better means of irrigation ; better roads to bring
supplies over from distant parts which have not
suffered from the same calamities; and greater
means in reserve of paying for such supplies when
brought — things that can never be hoped for under a
government like this, which allows no man the free
enjoyment of property. Close to the village a large
wall has been made to unite two small hills, and form
a small lake ; but the wall is formed of the rounded
boulders of the syenitic rock, without cement, and
does not retain the water. The land which was to
have formed the bed of the lake is all in tUlage ; and
I had some conversation with the man who culti
vated it. He told me, " That the wall had been
built with the money of sin and not the money of
piety, {pap kee pysa se, na poon kee pysa se hurra,)
that the man who built it must have laid out his

SCARCITIES. 193
money with a worldly, and not a religious mind,
(neeat) ; that, on such occasions, men generally assem
bled Brahmans and other deserving people, and fed
and clothed them, and thereby consecrated a great
work, and made it acceptable to God, and he had
heard from his ancestors, that the man who had built
this wall had failed to do this ; that the construction
could never, of course, answer the purpose for which
it was intended — and that the builder s name had ac
tuaUy been forgotten, and the work did him no good
either in this world or the next !" This village, which
a year or two ago was large and populous, is now
reduced to two wretched huts inhabited by two very
miserable families.
Bundelcund suffers more often and more severely
from the want of seasonable showers of rain than
any other part of India; while the province of
Malwa, which adjoins it to the west and south, hardly
ever suffers at all. There is a couplet, which, like
all other good couplets on rural subjects, is attributed
to Sehdeo, one of the five demigod brothers of the
Mahabhurat, to this effect : " If you hear not the
thunder on such a night, you, father, go to Malwa,
I to Gozerat !" that is, there will be no rain, and we
must seek subsistence where rains never fail ; and
the harvests are secure.
The pro-rince of Malwa is well studded with hills
and groves of fine trees which intercept the clouds,
as they are wafted by the prevailing westerly -winds,
from the gulf of Cambay to the valley of the
VOL. I. o

194 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Ganges ; and make them drop their contents upon a
soil of great natural powers, formed chiefly from the
detritus ofthe decomposing basaltic rocks, which cap
and intersect these hills.
During the famine of 1833, as on all similar occa
sions, grain of every kind, attracted by high prices,
flowed up in large streams from this favoured pro
vince towards Bundelcund; and the population of
Bundelcund, as usual in such times of dearth and
scarcity, flowed offtowards Malwa against the stream
of supply, under the assurance, that the nearer they
got to the source, the greater would be their chance
of employment and subsistence. Every village had
its numbers of the dead and the dying; and the
roads were all strewed with them; but they were
mostly concentrated upon the great towns, and civil
and military stations, where subscriptions were open
for their support by both the European and native
communities. The funds arising from these sub
scriptions lasted till the rains had set fairly in, when
all able-bodied persons could easily find employment
in tillage among the agricultural communities of
villages around. After the rains have fairly set in
the sick and helpless only should be kept concen
trated upon large towns and stations, where little or
no employment is to be found ; for the oldest and
youngest of those who are able to work can then
easily find employment in weeding the cotton, rice,
sugar-cane, and other fields under autumn crops, and
in preparing the lands for the reception of the wheat.

SCARCITIES. 195
grain, and other spring seeds; and get advances
from the farmers, agricultural capitalists, and other
members of the village communities, who are all
glad to share their superfluities with the distressed,
and to pay liberally for the little service they are
able to give in return.
It is very unwise to give from such funds what
may be considered s.full rate of subsistence to able-
bodied persons, as it tends to keep concentrated upon
such points vast numbers who would otherwise be
scattered over the surface of the country among the
village communities, who would be glad to advance
them stock and the means of subsistence upon the
pledge of their future services when the season of
tillage commences. The rate of subsistence should
always be something less than what the able-bodied
person usually consumes, and can get for his labour
in the field. For the sick and feeble this rate will
be enough, and the healthy and able-bodied, with
unimpaired appetites, will seek a greater rate by the
offer of their ser-rices among the farmers and culti
vators of the surrounding country. By this pre
caution, the mass of suffering will be gradually diffused
over the country, so as best to receive what the
country can afford to give for its relief. As soon as
the rains set in, all the able-bodied men, women,
and children, should be sent off with each a good
blanket, and a rupee or two as the funds can afford,
to last them till they can engage themselves with
the farmers. Not a farthing after that day should
o 2

196 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
be given out except to the feeble and sick, who may
be considered as hospital patients.
At large places, where the greater numbers are
concentrated, the scene becomes exceedingly dis
tressing, for in spite of the best dispositions and
greatest efforts on the part of government and its
officers, and the European and native communities,
thousands commonly die of starvation. At Saugor,
mothers, as they lay in the streets unable to walk,
were seen holding up their infants, and imploring the
passing stranger to take them in slavery, that they
might at least live — hundreds were seen creeping
into gardens, court-yards, and old ruins, concealing
themselves under shrubs, grass, mats, or straw, where
they might die quietly, without having their bodies
torn by birds and beasts before the breath had left
them! Respectable famiUes, who left home in
search of the favoured land of Malwa, whUe yet a
little property remained, finding all exhausted, took
opium rather than beg, and husband, wife, and chil
dren, died in each other arms ! Still more of such
famUies lingered on in hope tiU all had been ex
pended ; then shut their doors, took poison, and died
altogether, rather than expose their misery, and
submit to the degradation of begging. AU these
thino-s I have myself kno'wn and seen ; and in the
midst of these and a hundred other harrowing scenes
which present themselves on such occasions, the
European cannot fail to remark the patient resig
nation with which the poor people submit to their

FAMINES IN INDIA. 197
fate ; and the absence of almost all those revolting
acts which have characterized the famines of which
he has read in other countries — such as the living feed
ing on the dead, and mothers devouring their own
children. No such things are witnessed in Indian
famines : here all who suffer attribute the disaster to
its real cause, the want of rain in due season ; and in
dulge in no feelings of hatred against their rulers,
superiors, or more fortunate equals in society, who
happen to live beyond the influence of such calami
ties. They gratefuUy receive the superfluities which
the more favoured are always found ready to share
with the afflicted in India ; and though their suffer
ings often subdue the strongest of all pride, the pride
of caste, they rarely ever drive the people to acts of
violence. The stream of emigration, guided as it
always is by that of the agricultural produce flowing
in from the more favoured countries, must necessarily
concentrate upon the communities along the line it
takes, a greater number of people than they have
the means of relieving, however benevolent their
dispositions; and I must say, that I have never
either seen or read of a nobler spirit than seems to
animate all classes of these communities in India on
such distressing occasions.
In such seasons of distress we often, in India, hear
of very injudicious interference with grain dealers on
the part of civil and military authorities, who contrive
to persuade themselves, that the interest of these
corn-dealers, instead of being in accordance with the

198 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
interests of the people, are entirely opposed to them ;
and conclude, that whenever grain becomes dear
they have a right to make them open their granaries,
and sell their grain at such price as they, in their
wisdom, may deem reasonable. If they cannot
make them do this by persuasion, fine, or imprison
ment, they cause their pits to be opened by their own
soldiers or native officers, and the grain to be sold at
their own arbitrary price. If in a hundred pits thus
opened, they find one in which the corn happens to
be damaged by damp, they come to the sage con
clusion, that the proprietors must be what they have
all along supposed them to be, and treated as sucb,
the common enemies of mankind, who, blind alike to
their own interests and those of the people, purchase
up the superabundance of seasons of plenty, not to
sell it again in seasons of scarcity, but to destroy it ;
and that the whole of the grain in the other ninety-
nine pits, but for their timely interference, must have
inevitably shared the same fate !
During the season here mentioned, grain had be
come very dear at Saugor, from the unusual demand
in Bundelcund and other districts to the north. As
usual, suppUes of land produce flowed up from the
Nerbudda districts along the great roads to the east
and west of the city ; but the military authorities in
the cantonments would not be persuaded out of their
dread of a famine. There were three regiments of
infantry, a corps of cavalry, and two companies of
artUlery, cantoned at that time at Saugor. They

FAMINES IN INDIA. 199
were a mile from the city ; and the grain for their
supply was exempted from town duties to which that
for the city was liable. The people in cantonments
got their supply, in Consequence, a good deal cheaper
than the people in the city got theirs ; and none but
persons belonging bona fide to the cantonments were
ever allowed to purchase grain within them. When
the dread of famine began, the commissariat officer.
Major Gregory, apprehended that he might not be
permitted to have recourse to the markets of the
city in times of scarcity, since the people of the city
had not been suffered to have recourse to those of
the cantonments in times of plenty ; but he was told
by the magistrate, to purchase as much as he liked,
since he considered every man as free to sell his grain
as his cloth, or pots and pans, to whom he chose. He
added that he did not share in the fears of the
military authorities — that he had no apprehension
whatever of a famine, for when prices rose high
enough, they would be sure to divert away into the
city from the streams then flowing up from the valley
of the Nerbudda, and the districts of Malwa towards
Bundelcund, a supply of grain sufficient for all.
This new demand upon the city increased rapidly
the price of grain, and augmented the alarm of the
people, who began to urge the magistrate to listen
to their prayers, and coerce the sordid corn-dealers
who had, no doubt, numerous pits yet unopened.
The alarm became still greater in the cantonments,
where the commanding officer attributed all the evil

200 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to the inefficiency of the commissariat, and the
villany of the corn-dealers ; and Major Gregory was
in dread of being torn to pieces by the soldiery.
Only one day's supply was left 'in the cantonment
bazars — the troops had become clamorous almost to
a state of mutiny — the people of the town began to
rush in upon every supply that was offered for sale ;
and those who had grain to dispose of could no lon
ger venture to expose it. The magistrate was hard
pressed on all sides to have recourse to the old salu
tary method of searching for, and forcibly opening
the grain pits, and selling the contents at such price
as might appear reasonable. The cotwall of the
town declared, that the lives of his police would be
no longer safe unless this great and never-failing
remedy, which had now unhappily been too long-
deferred, were immediately adopted.
The magistrate, who had already taken every
other means of declaring his resolution never to suffer
any man's granary to be forcibly opened, now issued
a formal proclamation, pledging himself to see, that
such granaries should be as much respected as any
other property in the city — that every man might
keep his grain and expose it for sale wherever and
whenever he pleased ; and expressing a hope, that,
as the people knew him too well not to feel assured
that his word thus solemnly pledged would never be
broken, he trusted they would sell what stores they
had, and apply themselves without apprehension to
the collecting of more ! This proclamation he showed

FAMINES IN INDIA. 201
to Major Gregory, assuring him, that no degree of
distress or clamour among the people of the city or
the cantonments should ever make him violate the
pledge therein given to the corn-dealers ; and that he
was prepared to risk his situation and reputation as
a public officer upon the result. After issuing this
proclamation, about noon, he had his police esta
blishments augmented, and so placed and employed
as to give to the people entire confidence in the
assurances conveyed in it. The grain-dealers, no
longer apprehensive of danger, opened their pits of
grain, and sent off all their available means to bring
in more. In the morning the bazars were all sup
plied ; and every man who had money could buy as
much as he pleased. The troops got as much as
they required from the city. Major Gregory was
astonished and delighted; the colonel, a fine old
soldier from the banks of the Indus, who had com
manded a corps of horse under the former govern
ment, came to the magistrate in amazement ; every
shop had become full of grain as if by supernatural
agency. " Kala admee ka akul kahan tuluk chule
ga," said he, " How little could a black man's wis
dom serve him in such an emergency !"
There was little wisdom in all this ; but there was
a firm reliance upon the truth of the general prin
ciple which should guide all public officers on such
occasions. The magistrate judged, that there were
a great many pits of grain in the town known
only to their own proprietors — who were afraid to

202 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
open them, or get more grain, while there was a
chance of the civil authorities yielding to the
clamours of the people and the anxiety of the officers
commanding the troops ; and that he had only to
remove these fears, by offering a solemn pledge, and
manifesting the means and the will to abide by it, in
order to induce the proprietors not only to sell
what they had, but to apply all their means to the
collecting of more. But it is a singular fact, that
almost all the officers of the cantonments thought
the conduct of the magistrate, in refusing to have the
grain pits opened under such pressing circumstances
extremely reprehensible. Had he done so he might
have given the people of the city and the canton
ments the supply at hand ; but the injury done to the
corn-dealers by so very unwise a measure would have
recoled upon the public, since every one would have
been discouraged from exerting himself to renew the
supply, and from laying up stores to meet similar
necessities in future. By acting as he did, he not
only secured for the public the best exertions of all
the existing corn-dealers of the place, but actually
converted for the time a great many to that trade from
other employments, or from idleness. A great many
families, who had never traded before, employed
their means in bringing a supply of grain ; and con
verted their dwelling-houses into corn-shops, induced
by the high profits and assurance of protection.
During the time when he was most pressed, the
magistrate received a letter from Captain Robinson,

FAMINES IN INDIA. 203
who was in charge of the bazars at EUchpore, in the
Hydrabad territory, where the dearth had become
even more felt than at Saugor, requesting to know
what measures had been adopted to regulate the
price, and secure the supply of grain for the city and
cantonments at Saugor, since no good seemed to
result from those hitherto pursued at Elichpore. He
told him in reply, " That these things had hitherto
been regulated at Saugor as he thought they ought
to be regulated everywhere else, by being left en
tirely to the discretion ofthe corn-dealers themselves,
whose self-interest will always prompt them to have
a sufficient supply, as long as they may feel secure
of being permitted to do what they please with
what they collect. The commanding officer, in his
anxiety to secure food for the peojile, had hitherto
been continually interfering to coerce sales, and re
gulate prices ; and continually aggravating the evils
of the dearth by so doing." On the receipt of the
Saugor magistrate's letter, a different course was
adopted; the same assurances were given to the
corn-dealers, the same ability and inclination to
enforce them manifested, and the same results fol
lowed. The people and the troops were steadily
supplied ; and all were astonished that so very simple
a remedy had not before been thought of.
The ignorance of the first principles of political
economy among European gentlemen of otherwise
first-rate education and abilities in India, is quite
lamentable ; for there are really few public officers

204 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
even in the army, who are not occasionally liable to
be placed in situations where they may, by false
measures, arising out of such ignorance, aggravate
the evils of dearth among great bodies of their fellow-
men. A soldier may, however, find some excuse for
such ignorance, because a knowledge of these prin
ciples are not generally considered to form any in
dispensable part of a soldier's education ; but no ex
cuse can be admitted for a civil functionary who is
so ignorant, since a thorough acquaintance with the
principles of political economy must be, and indeed
always is considered, as an essential branch of that
knowledge which is to fit him for public employment
in India.
In India, unfavourable seasons produce much more
disastrous consequences than in Europe. In Eng
land, not more than one-fourth of the population de
rive their incomes from the cultivation of the lands
around them. Three-fourths of the people have in
comes, independent of the annual returns from those
lands; and with these incomes they can purchase
agricultural produce from other lands when the crops
upon them fail. The farmers, who form so large a
portion of the fourth class, have stock equal in value
to four times the amount of the annual rent of their
lands. They have also a great variety of crops ; and
it is very rare that more than one or two of them
fail, or are considerably affected, the same season.
If they fail in one district or province, the deficiency
is very easily suppUed to a people -who have equiva-

FAILURE OF CROPS. 205
lents to give for the produce of another. The sea,
navigable rivers, fine roads, all are open and ready at
all times for the transport of the superabundance of
one quarter to supply the deficiencies of another. In
India, the reverse of all this is unhappily everywhere
to be fiDund ; more than three-fourths of the whole
population are engaged in the cultivation of the
land, and depend upon its annual returns for sub
sistence. The farmers and cultivators have none of
them stock equal in value to more than half the
amount of the annual rents of their lands. They have
a great variety of crops ; but all are exposed to the
same accidents, and commonly fail at the same time.
The autumn crops are sown in June and July, and
ripen in October and November ; and if seasonable
showers do not fall during July, August, and Sep
tember, all fail. The spring-crops are sown in Octo
ber and November, and ripen in March ; and if sea
sonable showers do not happen to fall during Decem
ber or January, all, save what are artificially irrigated,
fail. If they fail in one district or province, the
people have few equivalents to offer for a supply of
land produce from any other. Their roads are
scarcely anywhere passable for wheeled-carriages at
any season, and nowhere at all seasons — they have
nowhere a navigable canal, and only in one line a
navigable river. Their land produce is conveyed
upon the backs of bullocks, that move at the rate of
six or eight miles a day, and add one hundred per
cent, to the cost of every hundred miles they carry

206 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
it in the best seasons, and more than two hundred
in the worst. What in Europe is felt merely as a
dearth, becomes in India, under all these disadvan
tages, a scarcity ; aud what is there a scarcity, be
comes here a famine. Tens of thousands die here
of starvation, under calamities of season, which in
Europe would involve little of suffering to any
class. Here man does everything ; and he must have
his daily food or starve. In England, machinery does
more than three-fourths of the collective work of the
society in the production, preparation, and distribu
tion of man's physical enjoyments, and it stands in
no need of this daily food to sustain its powers ; they
are independent of the seasons ; the water, fire, air,
and other elemental powers which they require to
render them subservient to our use, are always avail
able in abundance.
This machinery is the great assistant of the pre
sent generation, provided for us by the wisdom and
the industry of the past ; wanting no food itself, it
can always pro-ride its proprietors with the means of
purchasing what they require from other countries,
when the harvests of their own faU. When calamities
of season deprive men of employment for a time in
tillage, they can, in England, commonly find it in other
branches of industry, because agricultural industry
forms so small a portion ofthe collective industry of the
nation ; and because every man can, without prejudice
to his status in society, take to what branch of in
dustry he pleases. But when these calamities of
6

ARBITRARY PRICES OF CORN. 207
season throw men out of employment in tillage for
a time in India, they cannot find it in any other
branch, because agricultural industry forms so very
large a portion of the collective industry of every
part of the country ; and because men are often
prevented by the prejudices of caste from taking to
that which they can find.
In societies constituted like that of India, the
trade of the corn-dealer is more essentially necessary
for the welfare of the community than in any other,
for it is among them that the superabundance of
seasons of plenty requires most to be stored up for
seasons of scarcity ; and if public functionaries will
take upon themselves to seize such stores, and sell
them at their own arbitrary prices, whenever prices
happen to rise beyond the rate which they in their
short-sighted wisdom think just, no corn-dealer will
ever collect such stores. Hitherto, whenever grain
has become dear at any military or civil station,
we have seen the civil ftmctionaries urged to pro
hibit its egress — to search for the hidden stores, and
to coerce the proprietors to the sale in all manner
of ways ; and if they do not yield to the ignorant
clamour, they are set down as indifferent to the suf
ferings of their fellow-creatures around them ; and
as blindly supporting the worst enemies of man
kind, in the worst species of iniquity.
If those who urge them to such measures are
asked, whether silversmiths or linendrapers, who
should be treated in the same manner as they wish

208

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

the corn-dealers to be treated, would ever collect and
keep stores of plate and cloths for their use, they
readily answer, no ; they see at once the evil effects
of interfering with the free disposal of the property
of the one, but are totally blind to that which must
as surely follow any interference vrith that of the
other, whose entire freedom is of so much more -rital
importance to the public. There was a time, and
that not very remote, when grave historians, like
Smollett, could even in England fan the flame of
their vulgar prejudice against one of the most useful
classes of society. That day is, thank God, passed ;
and no man can now venture to write such trash in
his history, or even utter it in any well-informed
circle of English society ; and if any man were to
broach such a subject in an English House of Com
mons, he would be considered as a fit subject for a
madhouse. But some who retain their prejudices against corn-
dealers, and are yet ashamed to acknowledge their
ignorance of the principles of political economy, try
to persuade themselves and their friends, that how
ever applicable these may be to the state of society
in European or christian countries, they are not so
to countries occupied by Hindoos and Mahomedans !
This is a sad delusion ; and may be a very mischiev
ous one when indulged by public officers in India.

209

CHAPTER XXV.

EPIDEMIC DISEASES  SCAPE-GOAT.
In the evening, after my conversation with the
cultivator, upon the wall that united the two hills, I
received a visit from my little friend the Sureemunt.
His fine rose-coloured turban is always put on very
graceftiUy; every hair of his jet-black eyebrows
and mustachios seems to be kept always most reli
giously in the same place ; and he has always the
same charming smile upon his little face, which was
never, I believe, distorted into an absolute laugh or
frown. No man was ever more perfectly master of
what the natives call " the art of rising and sittinf —
" Nishust or Burkhaust " — ^namely, good manners. I
should as soon expect to see him set the Nerbudda on
fire as commit any infringement of the convenances on
this head established in good Indian society, or be
guilty of anything vulgar in speech, sentiment, or
manners. I asked him by what means it was that
the old queen of Saugor drove out the influenza that
VOL. I. p

210 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
afflicted the people so much in 1832, while he was
there on a visit to me. He told me, " that he took
no part in the ceremonies, nor was he aware of them
till awoke one night by the noise, when his attendants
informed him that the queen and the greater part of
the city were making offerings to the new god, Hur-
doul Lala. He found next morning that a goat had
been offered up with as much noise as possible, and
with good effect, for the disease was found to give
way from that moment. About six years before,
when great numbers were dying in his own little
capital of Pithooreea, from a similar epidemic, he
had he said tried the same thing with still greater
effect ; but, on that occasion, he had had the aid of
a man very learned in such matters. This man
caused a small carriage to be made up after a plan
of his own, for a pair of scape-goats, which were har
nessed to it, and driven during the ceremonies to a
wood some distance from the town, where they were
let loose. From that hour the disease entirely ceased
in the town. The goats never returned : " had they
come back," said Sureemunt, " the disease must have
come back with them ; so he took them a long way
into the wood — indeed, he believed, the man, to
make .sure of them, had afterwards caused them to
be offered up as a sacrifice, to the shrine of Hurdoul
Lala, in that very wood ! He had himself never seen
a pooja, religious ceremony, so entirely and imme
diately efficacious as this, and much of its success
was, no doubt, attributable to the science of the man
6

EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 211
who planned the carriage, and himself drove the pair
of goats to the wood ! No one had ever before heard
of the plan of a pair .of scape-goats being driven in
a carriage ; but it was likely, he thought, to be ex
tensively adopted in future."
Sureemunt's man of affairs mentioned, " that when
Lord Hastings took the field against the Pindarees,
in 1817, and the division of the grand army under
his command was encamped near the grove in Bun
delcund, where repose the ashes of Hurdoul Lala,
under a small shrine, a cow was taken into this
grove to be converted into beef for the use of the
Europeans. The priest in attendance remonstrated,
but in vain — the cow was killed and eaten. The
priest complained, and from that day the cholera
morbus broke out in the camp ; and from this cen
tral point it was, he said, generally understood to
have spread all over India.* The story of the cow
travelled at the same fime, and the spirit of Hurdoul
Lala was everywhere supposed to be riding in the
whirlwind and directing the storm ! Temples were
everywhere erected, and offerings made to appease
* The people in the Saugor territories used to show several
decayed mango trees in groves where European troops had en
camped during the campaigns of 1816 and 1817, and declare that
they had been seen to wither from the day that beef, for the use
of these troops, had been tied to their branches. The only coin
cidence was in the decay of the trees, and the encamping of the
troops in the groves — that the withering trees were those to which
the beef had been tied, was of course taken for granted !
P 2

212 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
him ; and in less than six years after, he had himself
seen them as far as Lohore, and in almost every vil
lage throughout the whole course of his journey to
that distant capital and back." He is one of the
most sensible and freely spoken men that I have met
vrith. " Up to within the last few years," added he,
" the spirit of Hurdoul Lala had been propitiated
only in cases of cholera morbus ; but now he is sup
posed to preside over all kinds of epidemic diseases,
and offerings have everywhere been made to his
shrine during late influenzas."
" This of course arises," I observed, " from the in
dustry of his priests, who are now spread all over the
country ; and you know that there is hardly a vil
lage or hamlet in which there are not some of them
to be found subsisting upon the fears of the people."
" I have no doubt," replied he, " that the cures
which the people attribute to the spirit of Hurdoul
Lala often arise merely from the firmness of their
faith (Itakad) in the efficacy of their offerings ; and
that any other ceremonies that should give to their
minds the same assurance of recovery, would be of
great advantage in cases of epidemic diseases. I
remember a singular instance of this," said he.
" When Jeswunt Rao Hoolkar was flying before Lord
Lake to the banks of the Hyphases, a poor trooper
of one of his lordship's irregular corps, when he tied
the grain-bag to his horse's mouth, said, ' Take this
in the name of Jeswunt Rao Hoolkar, for to him
you and I owe aU that we have !' The poor man

EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 213
had been suffering from a severe attack of ague and
fever ; but from that moment he felt himself relieved,
and the fever never returned. At that time this
fever prevailed more generally among the people of
Hindoostan than any I have ever known, though I
am now an old man. The speech of the trooper, and
the supposed result, soon spread ; and others tried
the experiment with similar success ; and it acted
everywhere like a charm. I had the fever myself,
and though by no means a superstitious man, and
certainly no lover of Jeswunt Rao Hoolkar, I tried
the experiment, and the fever left me from that day.
From that time, till the epidemic disappeared, no
man, from the Nerbudda to the Indus, fed his horse
without invoking the spirit of Jeswunt Rao, though
the chief was then alive and well. Some one had
said he found great relief from plunging into the
stream during the paroxysms of the fever; others
followed the example, and some remained for half an
hour at a time, and the sufferers generally found re
lief. The streams and tanks throughout the districts
between the Ganges and the Jumna became crowded,
till the propitiatory offering to the spirit of the living
Jeswunt Rao Hoolkar were found equally good, and
far less troublesome to those who had horses that
must have got their grain, whether in Hoolkar's
name or not."
There is no doubt that the great mass of those who
had nothing but their horses and their good blades to
depend upon for their subsistence, did most fervently

214 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
pray, throughout India, for the safety of this Mah
ratta chief, when he fled before Lord Lake's army ;
for they considered, that vrith his fall the Company's
dominion would become everywhere securely esta
blished, and that good soldiers would be at a dis
count ! " Company ka amul men kooch roozgar
nuheen hy ;" — " there is no employment in the Com
pany's dominion," is a common maxim, not only
among the men of the sword and the spear, but
among those merchants who lived by supporting na
tive, civil, and military establishments, with the
luxuries and elegancies which, under the new order
of things, they have no longer the means to enjoy.
The noisy poojah, (worship,) about which our con
versation began, took place at Saugor in April, 1832,
while I was at that station. More than four-fifths
of the people of the city and cantonments had been
affected by a violent influenza, which commenced
with a distressing cough, was followed by fever, and
in some cases terminated in death. I had an appli
cation from the old Queen Dowager of Saugor, who
received a pension of ten thousand pounds a year
from the British government, and resided in the city,
to allow of a noisy religious procession, to implore
deliverance from this great calamity. Men, women^
and children, in this procession, were to do their
utmost to add to the noise by " raising their voices
in psalmody," beating upon their brass pots and pans
with all their might, and discharging fire-arms where
they could get them ; and before the noisy crowd

EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 215
was to be driven a buffalo, which had been pur
chased by a general subscription, in order that every
family might participate in the merit. They were
to follow it out eight miles, where it was to be
turned loose for any man who would take it. If the
animal returned, the disease, it was said, must re
turn with it, and the ceremony be performed over
again. I was requested to intimate the circumstance
to the officer commanding the troops in cantonments,
in order that the hideous noise they intended to make
might not excite any alarm, and bring down upon
them the visit of the soldiery. It was, however,
subsequently determined, that the animal should be
a goat ; and he was driven before the crowd accord
ingly. I have on several occasions been requested
to allow of such noisy poojahs in cases of epidemics ;
and the confidence the people feel in their efficacy has
no doubt a good effect.
While in civil charge of the district of Nursing-
pore, in the vaUey ofthe Nerbudda, in April, 1823,
the cholera morbus raged in almost every house of
the towns of Nursingpore and Kundelee, situated
near each other, and one of them close to my dwell
ing-house and court. The European physicians lost
all confidence in their prescriptions, and the people
declared that the hand of God was upon them, and
by appeasing him could they alone hope to be saved.
A religious procession was determined upon ; but the
population of both towns were divided ui)on the
point, whether a silent or a noisy one would be most

216 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
acceptable to God. Hundreds were dying around
me when I was appUed to, to settle this knotty point
between the parties. I found that both in point of
numbers and respectability the majority was in favour
of the silent procession, and I recommended that
this should be adopted. The procession took place
about nine the same night, with aU due ceremony ;
bat the advocates for noise would none of them as
sist in it. Strange as it may. appear, the disease
abated from that moment ; and the great majority of
the population of both towns believed that their
prayers had been heard ; and I went to bed with a
mind somewhat relieved by the hope, that this feel
ing of confidence might be useful. About one
o'clock I was awoke from a sound sleep by the most
hideous noise that I had ever heard ; and not at that
moment recollecting the proposal for the noisy pro
cession, ran out of my house, in expectation of see
ing both towns in flames. I found that the advo
cates for noise, resolving to have their procession,
had assembled together about midnight ; and appre
hensive that they might be borne do-wn by the ad
vocates for silence, and my police establishments,
had determined to make the most of their time, and
put in requisition all the pots, pans, shells, trumpets,
pistols, and muskets that they could muster ! All
opened at once about one o'clock ; and had there
been any -rirtue in discord, the cholera must soon
have deserted the place, for such another hideous
compound of noises I never heard. The disease,

EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 217
which seemed to have subsided with the silent pro
cession before I went to bed, now returned with
double violence, as I was assured by numbers who
flocked to my house in terror ; and the whole popu
lation became exasperated with the leaders of the
noisy faction, who had, they believed, been the means
of bringing back among them all the horrors of this
dreadful scourge !
I asked the Hindoo Sudder Ameer, or head na
tive judicial officer at Saugor, a very profound Sans
crit scholar, what he thought of the efficacy of these
processions in checking epidemic diseases. He said,
" that there could be nothing more clear than the
total inefficiency of medicine in such cases; and
when medicine failed, a man's only resource was in
prayers : that the diseases of mankind were to be
classed under three general heads ; first, those suf
fered for sins committed in some former births ;
second, those suffered for sins committed in the pre
sent birth ; third, those merely accidental. Now,"
said the old gentleman, " it must be clear to every
unprejudiced mind, that the third only can be cured
or checked by the physician !" Epidemics, he thought,
must all be classed under the second head, and as
infiicted by the Deity for some very general sin ;
consequently, to be removed only by prayers ; and
whether silent or noisy, was, he thought, matter of
little importance, provided they were offered in the
same spirit. I believe that among the great mass
of the people of India, three-fourths of the diseases

218 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of individuals are attributed to evil spirits, and e-ril
eyes ; and for every physician among them there
are certainly ten exorcisers ! The faith in them is
very great and very general ; and as the gift is sup
posed to be supernatural, it is commonly exercised
without fee or reward. The gifted person subsists
upon some other employment, and exorcises gratis.
A child of one of our servants was one day in con
vulsions from its sufferings in cutting its teeth. The
civil surgeon happened to call that morning, and he
offered to lance the child's gums. The poor mother
thanked him ; but stated, " that there could be no
possible doubt as to the source of her child's suffer
ings — that the devil had got into it during the night,
and would certainly not be frightened out by his
little lancet ; but she expected back every moment
my old tent-pitcher, whose exorcisms no devil of
this description had ever yet been able to withstand !"
The smaU-pox had been raging in the to-wn of
Jubbulpore for some time during one hot season that
I was there, and a great many children had died
from it. The severity of the disease was considered
to have been a good deal augmented by a very unto
ward circumstance that had taken place in the family
of the principal banker of the town, Khoshal Chund.
Sewa Ram Seith, the old man, had lately died, leav
ing two sons. Ram Kishen, the eldest, and Khoshal
Chund, the second. The eldest gave up all the ma
nagement of the sublunary concerns of the family,
and devoted his mind entirely to reUgious duties.

EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 219
They had a very fine family temple of their own, in
which they placed an image of their god Vishnoo, cut
out of the choicest stone of the Nerbudda, and con
secrated, after the most approved form, and with
very expensive ceremonies. This idol, Ram Kishen
used every day to wash with his own hands with
rose-water, and anoint with precious ointments. One
day, while he had the image in his arms, and was
busily employed in anointing it, it fell to the ground
upon the stone pavement, and one of the arms
was broken. To live after such an untoward acci
dent was quite out of the question, and poor Ram
Kishen proceeded at once quietly to hang himself !
He got a rope from the stable, and having tied it
over the beam in the room where he had let the god
fall upon the stone-pavement, he was putting his
head calmly into the noose, when his brother came
in, laid hold of him, called for assistance, and put
him under restraint. A conclave of the priests of
that sect was immediately held in the town, and
Ram Kishen was told that hanging himself was not
absolutely necessary — that it might do if he would
take the stone image, broken arm and all, upon his
ovra back, and carry it two hundred and sixty miles
to Benares, where resided the high priest of the sect,
who would, no doubt, be able to suggest the proper
measures for pacifying the god.
At this time, the only son of his brother Khoshal
Chund, an interesting little boy of about four years
of age, was extremely ill of the smaU-pox ; and it is

220 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
a rule with Hindoos never to undertake any journey,
even one of pilgrimage to a holy shrine, while any
member of the family is afflicted with this disease ;
they must all sit at home clothed in sackcloth and
ashes. He was told that he had better defer his
journey to Benares till the child should recover;
but he could neither sleep nor eat, so great was his
terror, lest some dreadful calamity should befall the
whole family before he could expiate his crime, or
take the advice of his high priest, as to the best
means of doing it; and he resolved to leave the
decision of the question to God himself! He took
two pieces of paper, and having caused Benares to
be written upon one, and Jubbulpore upon the other,
he put them both into a brass vessel. After shaking
the vessel well, he drew forth that on which Benares
had been written. " It is the will of God !" said Ram
Kishen I All the family who were interested in
the preservation of the poor boy, implored him not
to set out, lest Davey, who presides over smaU-pox,
should become angry. It was all in vain ! He would
set out with his household god ; and unable to carry
it himself, he put it into a small litter upon a pole,
and hired a bearer to carry it at one end, while he
supported it at the other. His brother, Khoshal
Chund, sent his second wife, at the same time, with
offerings for Davey, to ward off the effects of his
brother's rashness from his child. By the time the
brother had got with his god to Adhartal, three miles
from Jubbulpore, on the road to Benares, he heard

EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 221
of the death of his nephew ; but he seemed not to
feel this slight blow in his terror of the dreadful
but undefined calamity which he felt to be impending
over him and the whole family, and he trotted on
his road. Soon after an infant son of their uncle
died of the same disease ; and the whole town be
came at once divided into two parties — those who
held that the children had been killed by Davey as a
punishment for Ram Kishen's presuming to leave
Jubbulpore before they recovered; and those who
held that they were killed by the god Vishnoo him
self, for having been so rudely deprived of one of his
arms. Khoshal Chund's wife sickened on the road,
and died on reaching Mirzapore, of fever; and as
Davey was supposed to have nothing to do with
fevers, this event greatly augmented the advocates
of Vishnoo. It is a rule with Hindoos to bury, and
not to burn, the bodies of those who die of the small
pox ; " for," say they, " the smaU-pox is not only
caused by the goddess Davey, but is, in fact, Davey
herself; and to burn the body of the person affected
with this disease is, in reality, neither more nor less
than to burn the goddess ! "
Khoshal Chund was strongly urged to bury, and
not burn his child, particularly as it was usual with
Hindoos to bury infants and children of that age, of
whatever disease they might die; but he insisted
upon having his boy burned with all due pomp and
ceremony, and burned he was accordingly. From
that moment, it is said, the disease began to rage

222 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
with increased violence throughout the town of Jub
bulpore. At least one half of the children affected
had before survived; but from that hour at least
three out of four died : and instead of the condo
lence which he expected from his fellow-citizens,
poor Khoshal Chund — a very amiable and worthy
man — received nothing but their execrations for bring
ing down so many calamities upon their heads ; first,
by maltreating his own god, and then by setting fire
to theirs !
I had a few days after a visit from Gungadhur
Row, the Sudder Ameer, or head native judicial
officer of this district, whose father had been for a
short time the ruler of the district, under the former
government ; and I asked him whether the small-pox
had diminished in the town since the rains had now
set in. He told me that he thought it had ; but
that a great many children had been taken off by
the disease.
" I understand. Row Sahib, that Khoshal Chund,
the banker, is supposed to have augmented the
virulence of the disease by burning his boy: was
it so?" " Certainly !" said my friend, with a grave, long
face ; " the disease was much increased by this man's
foUy !"
I looked very grave in my turn, and he continued.
" Not a chUd escaped after he had burned his boy.
Such incredible folly ! To set fire to the goddess in
the midst of a population of twenty thousand souls ;
it might have brought destruction upon us all !"

EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 223
" What makes you think that the disease is itself
the goddess ?"
" Because we always say, when any member of a
family becomes attacked by the smaU-pox, ' Davey
Nikulee ;' that is, Davey has shown herself in that
family, or in that individual. And the person affected
can wear nothing but plain white clothing — not a
silken or coloured garment, nor an ornament of any
kind ; nor can he or any of his family undertake a
journey, or participate in any kind of rejoicings,
lest he give offence to her ! They broke the arm of
their god ; and he drove them all mad. The elder
brother set out on a journey with it, and his nephew,
cousin, and sister-in-law fell victims to his temerity ;
and then Khoshal Chund brings dovra the goddess
upon the whole community by burning his boy ! No
doubt he was very fond of his child — so we all are —
and wished to do him all honour ; but some regard
is surely due to the people around us, and I told him
so when he was making preparations for the funeral ;
but he would not listen to reason !"
A complicated religious code, like that of the
Hindoos, is to the priest, what a complicated civil
code, like that of the English, is to the lawyers. A
Hindoo can do nothing without consulting his priest ;
and an Englishman can do nothing without consult
ing his lavpyer !

224

CHAPTER XXVI.

ARTIFICIAL LAKES IN BUNDELCUND  HINDOO, GREEK, AND
ROMAN FAITH.

On the llth we came on twelve miles to the town
of Bumhoree, whence extends, to the south-west, a
ridge of high and bare quartz hills, towering above
all others, curling and foaming at the top, like a wave
ready to burst, when suddenly arrested by the hand
of Omnipotence, and turned into white stone. The
soil all the way is wretchedly poor in quality, being
formed of the detritus of sienitic and quartz rocks,
and very thin. Bumhoree is a nice little town,
beautifully situated on the bank of a fine lake, the
waters of which preserved during the late famine the
population of this and six other small towns, which
are situated near its borders, and have their lands
irrigated from it. Besides water for their fields, this
lake yielded the people abundance of water-chesnuts
and fish. In the dryest season the water has been
found sufficient to supply the wants of all the people

BOW OF PURSORAM. 225
of these to'wns and villages, and those of all the
country around, as far as the people can avail them
selves of it. This large lake is formed by an arti
ficial bank or wall, at the south-east end, which rests
one arm upon the high range of white quartz rocks,
which runs along its south-west side for several miles,
looking down into the clear deep water, and forming
a beautiful landscape.
From this pretty town, Sodora, where the great
marriage had lately taken place, was in sight, and
only four miles distant. It was, I learnt, the resi
dence of the present Rajah of Orcha, before the
death of his brother called him to the throne. Many
people were returning from the ceremonies of the
marriage of Saligram with Toolsee; who told me
that the concourse had been immense — at least one
hundred and fifty thousand ; and that the Rajah
had feasted them, all for four days during the
progress of the ceremonies, but that they were
obliged to defray their expenses going and coming,
except when they came by special invitation, to do
honour to the occasion, as in the case of my little
friend the Saugor high priest, Jankee Sewuk. They
told me that they called this festival the Dhunuk
Jug ; and that Junuk Raj, the father of Seeta, had
in his possession the Dhunuck, or immortal bow of
Pursoram, the sixth incarnation of Vishnoo, with
which he exterminated all the Kshatryas, or original
military class of India, and which required no less
VOL. I. Q,

226

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

than four thousand men to raise it on one end.*
The prince offered his daughter in marriage to any
man who should bend this bow. Hundreds of heroes
and demigods aspired to the hand of the fair Seeta,
and essayed to bend the bow ; but all in vain, till
young Ram, the seventh incarnation of Vishnoo, then
a lad of only ten years of age, came ; and at the touch
of his great toe the bow flew into a thousand pieces,
which are supposed to have been all taken up into
heaven ! Seeta became the wife of Ram ; and the
popular poem of the Ramaen describes the abduction
of the heroine by the monster king of Ceylon, Rawun ;
and her recovery by means of the monkey General
Hunnooman. Every word of this poem the people
assured me was -RTitten, if not by the hand of the
Deity himself, at least by his inspiration, which was
the same thing, and it must, consequently, be true.f
* The tradition is, that a prince of this military class was sport
ing in a river vrith his thousand wives, when Renuka, the wife of
Jamadagni, went to bring water. He ofi^ended her, and her
husband cursed the prince, but was put to death by him. His
son, Pursoram, was no less a person than the sixth incarnation of
Vishnoo, who had assumed the human shape merely to destroy
these tyrants. He vowed, now that his mother had been insulted
and his father killed, not to leave one on the face of the earth.
He destroyed them all twenty-one times, the women -with child
producing a new race each time.
\ When Ram set out with his army for Ceylon, he is sup
posed to have worshipped the little tree called Cheonkul, which
stood near his capital of Ajoodheea. It is a wretched httle thing,
between a shrub and a tree ; but I have seen a procession of

8

HINDOO CREDULITY. 227
Ninety-nine out of a hundred, among the Hindoos,
implicitly believe, not only every word of this poem,
but every word of every poem that has ever been
written in Sanscrit. If you ask a man whether he
really believes any very egregious absurdity quoted
from these books, he replies with the greatest naivete
in the world, " Is it not written in the book ; and
how should it be there written if not true ?" The
Hindoo religion reposes upon an entire prostration
of mind, that continual and habitual surrender of
the reasoning faculties, which we are accustomed
to make occasionaUy, while engaged at the theatre,
or in the perusal of works of fiction. We allow the
scenes, characters, and incidents to pass before " our
mind's eye" and move our feelings, without asking,
or stopping a moment to ask, whether they are real
or true. There is only this difference, that with
people of education among u.s, even in such short
intervals of illusion or abandon, any extravagance in
the acting, or flagrant improbability in the fiction,
destroys the charm, breaks the spell by which we
have been so mysteriously bound, stops the smooth
current of sympathetic emotion, and restores us to
reason and to the realities of ordinary life. With
the Hindoos, on the contrary, the greater the impro
bability, the more monstrous and preposterous the
fiction, the greater is the charm it has over their
more than seventy thousand persons attend their prince to the
worship of it on the festival of the Dusebra, which is held in
celebration of this expedition to Ceylon.
Q 2

228

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

minds ; and the greater their learning in the Sanscrit
the more are they under the influence of this charm.
Belie-ring all to be -written by the Deity, or by his
inspirations, and the men and things of former days
to have been very different from the men and things
of the present day, and the heroes of these fables to
have been demi-gods, or people endowed with powers
far superior to those of the ordinary men of their
O'wn day, the analogies of nature are never for a
moment considered ; nor do questions of probability,
or possibility, according to those analogies, ever ob
trude to dispel the charm with which they are so
pleasingly bound. They go on through life reading
and talking of these monstrous fictions, which shock
the taste and understanding of other nations, without
once questioning the truth of one single incident, or
hearing it questioned. There was a time, and that
not very distant, when it was the same in England,
and in every other European nation ; and there are, I
am afraid, some parts of Europe where it is so still.
But the Hindoo faith, so far as religious questions
are concerned, is not more capacious or absurd than
that of the Greeks and Romans in the days of
Socrates and Cicero — the only difference is, that
among the Hindoos a greater number of the ques
tions which interest mankind are brought under the
head of religion.
There is nothing in the Hindoos more absurd than
the piety of Tiberius in offering up sacrifices in the
temple, and before the image of Augustus, while he

THE LAKE. 229
was solicited by all the great cities of the empire, to
suffer temples to be built and sacrifices to be made to
himself while still living ; or than Alexander's attempt
to make a goddess ofhis mother, while yet alive, that
he might feel the more secure of beingmade a god him
self after his death. In all religions there are points
at which the professors declare that reason must stop,
and cease to be a guide to faith. The pious man
thinks, that all which he cannot comprehend or re
concile to reason in his own religion, must be above
it. The superstitions of the people of India will
diminish before the spread of science, arts, and lite
rature ; and good works of history and fiction would,
I think, make far greater havoc among these super
stitions even than good works in any of the sciences,
save the physical, such as astronomy, chemistry, &c.
In the evening we went out with the intention of
making an excursion on the lake, in boats that had
been prepared for our reception, by tying three or
four fishing canoes together; but on reaching the
ridge of quartz hiils, which runs along the south-east
side, we preferred moving along its summit to enter
ing the boats. The prospect on either side of this
ridge was truly beautiful. A noble sheet of clear
water, about four miles long by two broad, on our
right, and on our left a no less noble sheet of rich
M'heat cultivation, irrigated from the lake by drains
passing between small breaks in the ridges of the
hills. The Persian wheel is used to raise the water.
This sheet of rich cultivation is beautifuUy studded

230

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

with mango groves and fields of sugar-cane. The
lake is almost double the size of that of Saugor, and
the idea of its great utility for purposes of irriga
tion, made it appear to me far more beautiful ; but
my little friend the Sureemunt, T^'ho accompanied us
in our walk, said, " that it could not be so handsome,
since it had not a fine city and castle on two sides,
and a fine government house on the third."
" But," said I, " no man's field is watered from
that lake!"
" No," replied he, " but for every man that drinks
of the waters of this, fifty drink of the waters of
that ; from that lake thirty thousand people get
' arani (comfort) every day !"
This lake is called Kewlus, after Kewal Brim, the
Chundelee prince by whom it was formed. His
palace, now in ruins, stood on the top of the ridge of
rocks in a very beautiful situation. From the sum
mit, about eight miles to the west, we could see a
still larger lake, called the Nundunwara Lake, ex
tending under a similar range of quartz hills run
ning parallel with that on which we stood. That
lake, we were told, answered upon a much larger
scale the same admirable purpose of supplying water
for the fields, and securing the people from the dread
ful effects of droughts. The extensive level plains
through which the rivers of central India generally
cut their way have, for the most part, been the beds
of immense natural lakes ; and these rivers sink so
deep into these beds, and leave such ghastly chasms

GRACEFUL CUSTOM. 231
and ravines on either side, that their waters are hardly
ever available in due season for irrigation. It is this
characteristic of the rivers of central India that makes
such lakes so valuable to the people, particularly in
seasons of drought. The river Nerbudda has been
known to rise seventy feet, in the course of a couple
of days, in the rains ; and during the season, when
its waters are wanted for irrigation, they can no
where be found within that of the surface ; while a
level piece of ground fit for irrigation is rarely to be
met with within a mile of the stream.
The people appeared to improve as we advanced
farther into Bundelcund in appearance, manners, and
intelligence. There is a bold bearing about the
Bondelas, which at first one is apt to take for rude
ness or impudence, but which in time he finds not to
be so. The employes of the Raja were everywhere
attentive, frank, and polite ; and the peasantry seemed
no longer inferior to those of our Saugor and Ner
budda territories. The females of almost all the
villages through which we passed came out with
their kuilus in procession to meet us — one of the
most affecting marks of respect from the peasantry
to their rulers or their superiors that I know. One
woman carries on her head a brass jug, brightly
polished, full of water ; while all the other families
of the village crowd around her, and sing in chorus
some rural song, that lasts from the time the re
spected visitor comes in sight, till he disappears.
He usually puts into the kuilus a rupee, to pur-

232

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

chase goor, (coarse sugar,) of which all the females
partake, as a sacred offering made to the sex. No
member of the other sex presumes to partake of it ;
and during the chorus all the men stand aloof in re
spectful silence. This custom prevails all over India,
or over all parts of it that I have seen ; and yet I
have witnessed a governor-general of India with all his
suite, passing by this interesting group without know
ing or asking what it was. I lingered behind, and
quietly put my silver into the jug as if from the
Governor-general. The man who administers the govei'ument over
these seven villages in all its branches civil, criminal,
and fiscal, receives a salary of only two hundred
rupees a year ! He collects the revenues on the
part of government ; and, with the assistance of
the heads and the elders of the villages, adjusts all
petty matters of dispute among the people, both civil
and criminal. Disputes of a more serious charac
ter are sent to be adjusted at the capital by the
Rajah and his ministers. The person who reigns
over the seven villages of the lake, is about thirty
years of age, of the Rajpoot caste, and I think one of
the finest young men I have ever seen. His ances
tors have served the Orcha state in the same station
for seven generations ; and he tells me, that he hopes
his posterity Mill serve them for as many more, pro
vided they do not forfeit their claims to do so by
their infidelity or incapacity. This young man
seemed to have the respect and the affection of every

LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE. 233
member of the little communities of the viUages
through which we passed ; and it was evident, that
he deserved their attachment. I have rarely seen
any similar signs of attachment to one of our own
native officers. This arises chiefly from the circum
stance of their being less frequently placed in autho
rity among those upon whose good feelings and
opinions their welfare and comfort, or those of their
children, are Vikel-j permanently to depend. In India,
under native rule, office became hereditary, because
officers expended the whole of their incomes in reli
gious ceremonies, or works of ornament and utility,
and left their families in hopeless dependence upon
the chief in whose service they had laboured all
their lives, while they had been educating their sons
exclusively with the view to their serving that chief
in the same capacity that their fathers had served
him before them. It is in this case and this alone
that the law of primogeniture is in force in India.
Among Mahomedans, as well as Hindoos, all property,
real and personal, is divided equally among the chil
dren ; but the duties of an office will not admit of
the same subdivision ; and this therefore when here
ditary, as it often is, descends to the eldest sou with
the obUgation of providing for the rest of the family.
The family consists of all the members who reniain
united to the parent stock, including the widows and
orphans of the sons or brothers who were so up to
the time of their death.*
* But it is only the smaller local, ministerial officers who are
secure in their tenure of office under native governments ; those

234 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
The old Chobdar, or sUver-stick bearer, who came
-with us from the Rajah, gets fifteen rupees a month ;
and his ancestors have served the Rajah for several
generations. The Deewan who has charge of the
treasury receives only one thousand rupees a year, and
the Bakshee, or paymaster of the army, who seems
at present to rule the state as the prime favourite,
the same. These latter are at present the only two
great officers of state ; and though they are no doubt
realizing handsome incomes by indirect means, they
dare not make any display lest signs of wealth
might induce the Rajah or his successors to treat
them as their predecessors in office were treated for
some time past. The Jageerdars, or feudal chiefs,
as I have before stated, are almost all of the same
family or clan as the Rajah ; and they spend aU the
revenues of their estates in the maintenance of mUi
tary retainers, upon whose courage and fideUty they
can generally rely. These Jageerdars are bound to
attend the prince on all great occasions, and at
certain intervals ; and are made to contribute some
thing to his exchequer in tribute. Almost all live
beyond their legitimate means, and make up the
deficiency by maintaining upon their estates gangs
of thieves, robbers, and murderers, who extend their
depredations into the countries around; and share
on whose efficiency the well-being of village communities depends.
The greatest evils of governments of the kind is the feeling of in
security in such tenures which pervades all the higher officers of
government ; and the instability of all engagements made by the
government with them ; and by them with the people.

CHARACTERISTIC INCIDENT. 235
the prey with these chiefs and their officers, and
under-tenants. They keep them as poachers keep
iheir dogs; and the paramount pftwer, whose subjects
they plunder, might as well ask them for the best
horse in the stable as for the best thief that lives
under their protection !*
I should mention an incident that occurred during
the Rajah's visit to me at Tehree. Lieutenant
Thomas was sitting next to the little Sureemunt, and
during the interview he asked him to allow him to
look at his beautiful little gold-hilted sword. The
Sureemunt held it fast, and told him, that he should
do himself the honour of waiting upon him in his
tent in the course of the day, when he would show
him the sword, and tell him its history. After the
Rajah left me, Thomas mentioned this, and said he
felt very much hurt at the incivility of my little
friend; but I told him, that he was in everything
he did and said so perfectly the gentleman, that
I felt quite sure he would explain all to his satis
faction when he called upon him. During his visit
to Thomas he apologized for not having given over
his sword to him, and said, " You European gentle
men have such perfect confidence in each other, that
* In the Gualior territory, the Mahratta arnils, or governors
of districts, do the same, and keep gangs of robbers on purpose to
plunder their neighbours ; and if you ask them for their thieves,
they will actually tell you, that to part with them would be
ruin, as they are their only defence against the thieves of their
neighbours !

236 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
you can at all times, and in all situations, venture to
gratify your curiosity in these matters, and draw
your swords in a crowd just as well as when alone ;
but had you drawn mine from the scabbard in such
a situation, with the tent full of the Rajah's per
sonal attendants, and surrounded by a devoted and
not very orderly soldiery, it might have been at
tended by very serious consequences. Any man out- '
side might have seen the blade gleaming ; and not ob
serving distinctly why it had been drawn, might have
suspected treachery, and" called out to the rescue,
when we should all have been cut down — the lady,
child, and all !" Thomas was not only satisfied with
the Sureemunt's apology, but was so much delighted
with him, that he has ever since been longing to
get his portrait ; for he says it was really his in
tention to draw the sword had the Sureemunt given
it to him ! As I have said, his face is extremely
beautiful — quite a model for a painter or a statuary ;
and his figure, though small, is handsome. He
dresses with great elegance, mostly in azure-coloured
satin, surmounted by a rose-coloured turban, and a
waistband of the same colour. All his motions are
graceful, and his manners have an exquisite polish.
A greater master of all the converiances I have never
seen ; though he is of slender capacity, and as I have
said, in stature less than five feet high.
A poor half naked man, reduced to beggary by the
late famine, ran along by my horse to show me the
road ; and to the great amusement of my attendants

THE PATRIOT BEGGAR. 237
exclaimed, " That he felt exactly as if he were always
falling down a well," meaning if he were immersed
in cold water. He said, " That the cold season was
suited only to gentlemen who could afford to be well
clothed ; but, to a poor man like himself, and the
great mass of people, in Bundelcund at least, the
hot season was much better." He told me, " That the
late Rajah, though a harsh was thought to be a just
man ;* and that his good sense, and above all his
good fortune, (Ikbal,) had preserved the principality
entire ; but that God only, and the forbearance of
the honourable company, could now save it under
such an imbecile as the present chief." He seemed
quite melancholy at the thought of living to see this
principality, the oldest in Bundelcund, lose its inde
pendence. Even this poor, unclothed, and starving
wretch had a feeling of patriotism : a pride of coun
try, though that country had been so wretchedly
governed, and was now desolated by a famine.
Just such a feeling had the impressed seaman who
fought our battles in the great struggle. No nation has
ever had a more disgraceful institution than that ofthe
press-gang of England. This institution, if so it can
be called, must be an eternal stain upon her glory
— posterity will never be able to read the history of
her naval victories without a blush — without reproach-
* My poor guide had as httle of sympathy with the prime
ministers, whom the Tehree Rajah put to death, as the peasantry
of England had with the great men and women whom Harry the
Eighth sacrificed.

238 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS,
ing the lawgivers who could allow them to be pur
chased with the blood of such men as those who fought
for us the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar. " Eng
land expected every man to do his duty on that day ;"
but had England done her duty to every man who was
on that day to fight for her ? — was not every English
gentleman of the lords and commons a David send
ing his Uriah to battle ?
The intellectual stock which we require in good
seamen for our navy, and which is acquired in scenes
of peril " upon the high and giddy mast," is as much
their property as that which other men acquire in
schools and colleges ; and we had no more right to
seize and employ these seamen in our battles upon
the wages of common, uninstructed labour, than we
should have had to seize and employ as many clergy
men, barristers, and physicians. When I have stood
on the quarter-deck of a ship in a storm, and seen the
seamen covering the yards in taking in sail, with the
thunder rolling and the lightning flashing fearfully
around them — the sea covered -with foam, and each
succeeding billow, as it rushed by, seeming ready to
sweep them all from the frail footing into the fathom
less abyss below — I have asked myself, " Are men
like these to be seized like common felons — torn
from their wives and children, as soon as they reach
their native land — subjected every day to the lash,
and put in front of those battles on which the wealth,
the honour, and the independence of the nation
depend, merely because British legislators know, that

RAJPOOT L.'\.NDHOLDERS. 239
when there, a regard for their own personal character
among their companions in danger, will make them
fight like Englishmen !" This feeling of nationality
which exists in the little states of Bundelcund,
arises from the circumstance, that the mass of the
land-holders are of the same clan as the chief
Bondelas ; and that the public establishments of the
state are recruited almost exclusively from that mass.
The states of Thausee and Jalone are the only ex
ceptions. There the rulers are Brahmans and not
Rajpoots, and they recruit their public establishments
from all classes, and all countries. The landed aris
tocracy, however, there as elsewhere, are Rajpoots,
either Powars, Chundeles, or Bondelas.
The Rajpoot landholders of Bundelcund are linked
to the soil in all their grades from the prince to the
peasant, as the Highlanders of Scotland were not
long ago ; and the holder of a hundred acres is as
proud as the holder of a miUion. He boasts the
same descent, and the same exclusive possession of
arms and agriculture, to which unhappily the indus
try of their little territories is almost exclusively con
fined, for no other branch can grow up among so
turbulent a set, whose quarrels with their chiefs or
among each other are constantly involving them in
civil wars, which render life and property exceed
ingly insecure. Besides, as I have stated, their pro
pensity to keep bands of thieves, robbers, and mur
derers in their baronial castles, as poachers keep
their dogs, has scared away the wealthy and respect-

240 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
able capitalist, and peaceful and industrious manu
facturer. All the landholders are uneducated, and unfit to
serve in any of our civil establishments, or in those of
any very civilized governments ; and they are just as
unfitted to serve in our military establishments,
where strict discipline is required. The lands they
occupy are cultivated because they depend almost
entirely upon the rents they get from them for sub
sistence ; and because every petty chief and his
family hold their lands rent free, or at a trifling quit-
rent on the tenure of miUtary ser-rice, and their resi
due forms all the market for land produce which the
cultivators require. They dread the transfer of the
rule to our government, because they now form
almost exclusively all the establishments of their
domestic chief, civil as well as military, and know,
that were our rule to be substituted they would be
almost entirely excluded from these, at least for a
generation or two. In our regiments, horse or foot,
there is hardly a man from Bundelcund for the
reasons above stated ; nor are there any in the Gualior
regiments and contingents, which are stationed in
the neighbourhood, though the land among them is
become minutely subdivided, and they are obliged
to seek service or starve. They are all too proud
for manual labour, even at the plough. No Bun
delcund Rajpoot will, I believe, condescend to put
his hand to one.
Among the Mahratta states, Seiks and Mahome-

OPINIONS OF THE PEOPLE. 241
dans there is no bond of union of this kind. The
establishments, military as well as civil, are every
where among them composed for the most part of
foreigners ; and the landed interests under such
governments would dread nothing from the prospect
of a transfer to our rule ; on the contrary, they and
the mass of the people would almost everywhere
hail it as a blessing.
There are two reasons why we should leave these
small native states under their own chiefs, even
when the claim to the succession is feeble or defec
tive ; first, because it tends to relieve the minds of
other native chiefs from the apprehension, already
too prevalent among them, that we desire by degrees
to absorb them all, because we think our govern
ment would do better for the people ; and secondly,
because, by leaving them as a contrast, we afford to
the people of India the opportunity of observing the
superior advantages of our rule.
" 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view" in
governments as well as in landscapes; and if the
people of India, instead of the living proofs of what
perilous things native governments, whether Hindoo
or Mahomedan, are in reality, were acquainted with
nothing but such pictures of them as are to be found
in their histories and inthe imaginations of their priests
and learned men, (who lose much of their influence
and importance under our rule,) they would certainly,
with proneness like theirs to delight in the marveUous,
be far from satisfied, as they now are, that they never
VOL. I. R

242 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
had a govemment so good as ours, and that they never
could hope for another so good were ours removed.
For the advantages which we derive from leaving
them independent, we are, no doubt, obliged to pay
a heavy penalty in the plunder of our wealthy native
subjects by the gangs of robbers of all descriptions
whom they foster ; but this evil may be greatly
diminished by a judicious interposition of our autho
rity to put down such bands.
In Bundelcund, at present, the government and
the lands of the native chiefs are in the hands of
three of the Hindoo military classes, Bundelas,
Dhundelas, and Powars. The principal chiefs are of
the first, and their feudatories are chiefly of the other
two. A Bundela cannot marry the daughter of a
Bundela ; he must take his -wife from one or other of
the other two tribes ; nor can a member of the other
two take his wife from his own tribe, he must take
her from the Bundelas, or the other tribe. The
wives of the greatest chiefs are commonly from the
poorest families of their vassals ; nor does the proud
family from which he has been taken feel itself ex
alted by the alliance ; neither does the poorest vassal
among the Powars and Dhundels feel that the
daughter of his prince has condescended in becoming
his wife. All they expect is a service for a few
more yeomen of the family among the retainers of
the sovereign.
The people are in this manner, from the prince to
the peasant, indlssolubly linked to each other, and to

NATIVE MILITIA. 243
the soil they occupy ; for where industry is confined
almost exclusively to agriculture, the proprietors of
the soil and the officers of government who are main
tained out of its rents, constitute nearly the whole
of the middle and higher classes. About one-half
of the lands of every state are held on service-
tenure by vassals of the same family or clan as the
chief; and there is hardly one of them who is not
connected with that chief by marriage. The revenue
derived from the other half is spent in the main
tenance of establishments formed almost exclusively
of the members of these families.
They are none of them educated for civil offices
under any other rule, nor could they for a generation
or two be induced to submit to wear military uni
form, or learn the drill of regular soldiers. They
are mere militia, brave as men can be, but unsuscep
tible of discipline. They have, therefore, a natural
horror at the thought of their states coming under
any other than a domestic rate, for they would have
no chance of employment in the civil or military
estabUshments of a foreign power ; and their lands
would, they fear, be resumed, since the service for
which they had been given would be no longer
available to the new rulers. It is said, that in the
long interval from the commencement of the reign
of Alexander the Third to the end of that of Da-rid
the Second, not a single baron could be found in
Scotland able to sign his own name. The Bundel
cund barons have never, I believe, been quite so bad
R 2

244 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
as this, though they have never yet learned enough
to fit them for civil offices under us. Many of them
can write and read their own language, which is that
common to the other countries around them.
Bundelcund was formerly possessed by another
tribe of Rajpoots, the proud Chundales, who have
now disappeared altogetherfrom this province. If one
of that tribe can still be found, it is in the humblest
rank of the peasant or the soldier ; but its former
strength is indicated by the magnificent artificial
lakes and ruined castles which are traced to them ;
and by the reverence which is still felt by the present
dominant classes of their old capital of Mahoba.
Within a certain distance around that ruined city no
one now dares to beat the nagara, or great drum
used in festivals or processions, lest the spirits of the
old Chundale chiefs, who there repose, should be
roused to vengeance ; and a kingdom could not
tempt one of the Bundelas, Powars, or Chundales, to
accept the government of the parish in which it is
situated. They will take subordinate offices there
under others with fear and trembling ; but nothing
could induce one of them to meet the governor.
When the deadly struggle between these tribes took
place cannot now be discovered. In the tinie of
Akbar, the Chundales were powerful in Mahoba, as
the celebrated Dhurghoutee, the queen of Gurhee
Mundula, whose reign extended over the Saugor and
Nerbudda territories and the greater part of Berar,
was a daughter of the reigning Chundale prince of

ROYAL HEROINE. 245
Mahoba. He condescended to give his daughter
only on condition that the Gond prince who de
manded her should, to save his character, come with
an army of fifty thousand men to take her. He did
so, and " nothing loth," Dhurghoutee departed to
reign over a country where her name is now more
revered than that of any other sovereign it has ever
had. She was killed above two-hundred and fifty
years ago, about twelve miles from Jubbulpore while
gallantly leading on her troops in their third and
last attempt to stem the torrent of Mahomedan in
vasion. Her tomb is still to be seen where she
fell, in a narrow defile between two hills ; and a pair
of large rounded stones which stand near, are, accord
ing to popular belief, her royal drums turned into
stone, which, in the de^d of the night, are still heard
resounding through the woods, and calling the spirits
of her warriors from their thousand graves around her.
The travellers who pass this solitary spot, respect
fully place upon the tomb the prettiest specimen
they can find of the crystals which abound in the
neighbourhood ; and with so much of kindly feelings
had the history of Dhurghoutee inspired me, that I
could not resist the temptation of adding one to the
number when I visited her tomb some sixteen years
ago. I should mention that the Rajah of Sumpter, in
Bundelcund, is by caste a Gojur ; and he has not yet
any landed aristocracy like that of the Bundelas about
him. One of his ancestors, not long ago, seized

246 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
upon a fiue open plain, and built a fort upon it ; and
the family has ever since, by means of this fort, kept
possession of the country around, and drawn part of
their revenues from depredations upon their neigh
bours and travellers. The Jhausee and Jhalone
chiefs are Brahmans of the same family as the
Peshwa. In the states governed by chiefs of the military
classes, nearly the whole produce of the land goes to
maintain soldiers, or military retainers, who are always
ready to fight or rob for their chief. In those
governed by chiefs of the Brahmanical class, nearly
the whole produce goes to maintain priests ; and the
other chiefs would soon devour them, as the black
ants devour the white, were not the paramount
power to interpose and save them. While the
Peshwa lived he interposed ; but all his dominions
were running into priesthood, like those in Saugor
and Bundelcund ; and must soon have been swal
lowed up by the military chiefs around him had we
not taken his place. Jhalone and Jhausee are pre
served only by us, for with all their religions it is
impossible for them to maintain efficient military
establishments ; and the Bundela chiefs have always
a strong desire to eat them up, since these states
were all sliced out of their principalities when the
Peshwa was all powerful in Hindoostan.
The Chutturpore rajah is a Powar. His father
had been in the service of the Bundela rajah ; but
when we entered upon our duties as the paramount

CHUTTURPORE RAJAH. 247
power in Bundelcund, the son had succeeded to the
little principality seized upon by his father ; and on
the principle of respecting actual possession, he was
recognized by us as the sovereign. The Bundela
Rajahs, east of the Dussan river, are descended from
Rajah Chuttursaul, and are looked down upon by the
Bundela Rajahs of Orcha, Chunderee, and Duttua,
west of the Dussan, as Chuttursaul was in the ser
vice of one of their ancestors, from whom he wrested
the estates which his descendants now enjoy. Chut
tursaul, in his will, gave one-third of the dominion
he had thus acquired, to the strongest power then
in India, the Peshwa, in order to secure the other
two-thirds to his two sons, Hirdee Sa and Jugut Raj,
in the same manner as princes of the Roman empire
used to bequeath a portion of theirs to the emperor.
Of the Peshwa's share we have now got all except
Jhalone. Thause was subsequently acquired by the
Peshwa; or rather by his subordinates with his
sanction and assistance.

248

CHAPTER XXVII.

BLIGHTS.

I HAD a visit from my little friend the Sureemunt,
and the conversation turned upon the causes and
effects of the dreadfiil blight to which the wheat-
crops in the Nerbudda districts had of late years
been subject. He said that " the people at first at
tributed this great calamity to an increase in the
crime of adultery which had followed the introduc
tion of our rule, and which," he said, " was under
stood to follow it everywhere ; that afterwards' it was
by most people attributed to our frequent measure
ment of the land, and inspection of fields, with a view
to estimate their capabilities to pay ; which the people
considered a kind of incest, and which he himself, the
Deity, can never tolerate. The land is," said he, "consi
dered as the mother of the prince or chief who holds
it — the great parent from whom he derives all that
maintains him — his family and his establishments.
If well treated she yields this in abundance to her
son ; but if he presumes to look upon her with the
eye of desire, she ceases to be fruitful ; or the Deity
sends down hail or blight to destroy all that she

BLIGHTS. 249
yields !^._ The measuring the surface of the fields, and
the frequently inspecting the crops by the chief him
self, or by his immediate agents, were considered by
the people in this light ; and in consequence he never
ventured upon those things. They were," he thought,
" lully satisfied that we did it more with a view to
distribute the burthen of taxation equally upon the
people than to increase it collectively : still," he
thought, " that either we should not do it at all, or
delegate the duty to inferior agents, whose close in
spection of the great parent could not be so displeas
ing to the Deity." *
Ram Chund Pundit said, " that there was no
doubt much truth in what Sureemunt Sahib had
stated ; that the crops of late had unquestionably
suffered from the constant measuring going on upon
the lands ; but that the people, as he knew, had now
become unanimous in attributing the calamities of
season, under which these districts had been suf
fering so much, to the eating of beef- — this was," he
thought, " the great source of all their sufferings !"
Sureemunt declared, " that he thought his Pundit
was right, and that it would, no doubt, be of great
advantage to them and to their rulers if government
could be prevailed upon to prohibit the eating of
beef — that so great and so general were the suffer
ings of the people from these calamities of seasons,
* We are told in 2 Samuel, chap, xxiv., that the Deity
was displeased at a census of the people, taken by Joab by the
order of David, and destroyed of the people of Israel seventy
thousand, besides women and children.

250 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and so firm, and now so general the opinion, that
they arose chiefly from the practice of killing and
eating cows, that in spite of all the other superior
blessings of our rule, the people were almost be
ginning to wish their old Mahratta rulers in power
again." I reminded him of the still greater calamities
the people of Bundelcund had been suffering under.
" True," said he, " but among them there are
crimes enough of every day occurrence to account for
these things ; but under your rule the Deity has only
one or other of these three things to be offended with ;
and of these three it must be admitted, that the eat
ing of beef so near the sacred stream of the Ner
budda is the worst !"
The blight of which we were speaking had for se
veral seasons, from the year 1829, destroyed the
greater part of the wheat-crops over extensive dis
tricts along the line of the Nerbudda, and through
Malwa generally ; and old people stated, that they
recollected two returns of this calamity, at intervals
of from twenty to twenty-four years. The pores
with which the stalks are abundantly supplied to ad
mit of their readily taking up the aqueous particles
that float in the air, seem to be more open in an
easterly wind than in any other ; and when this wind
prevails at the same time that the air is filled with the
farina of the small parasitic fungus, whose depreda
tions on the corn constitute what they call the rust,
mildew, or blight, the particles penetrate into these
pores, speedily sprout and spread their small roots

BLIGHTS. 251
into the cellular texture, where they intercept and
feed on the sap in its ascent ; and the grain in the
ear, deprived of its nourishment, becomes shrivelled,
and the whole crop is often not worth the reaping.
It is at first of a light, beautiful orange colour, and
found chiefly upon the ulsee, (linseed,) which it does
not seem much to injure ; but about the end of Fe
bruary the fungi ripen, and shed their seeds rapidly ;
and they are taken up by the wind, and carried over
the corn-fields. I have sometimes seen the air tinted
of an orange-colour for many days by the quantity of
these seeds which it has contained ; and that without
the wheat-crops suffering at all, when any but an
easterly wind has prevailed : but when the air is so
charged with this farina, let but an easterly wind blow
for twenty-four hours, and all the wheat-crops under
its influence are destroyed — nothing can save them !
The stalks and leaves become first of an orange-
colour, from the light colour of the farina which ad
heres to them ; but this changes to deep brown. All
that part of the stalk that is exposed seems as if it
had been pricked with needles, and had exuded
blood from every puncture ; and the grain in the ear
withers in proportion to the number of fungi that
intercept and feed upon its sap ; but the parts of the
stalk that are covered by the leaves remain entirely
uninjured ; and when the leaves are drawn off from
them, they form a beautiful contrast to the others,
which have been exposed to the depredations of these
parasitic plants.
Every pore, it is said, may contain from twenty to

252 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
forty of these plants, and each plant may shed a hun
dred seeds, so that a single shrub, infected with the
disease, may disseminate it over the face of a whole
district ; for in the warm month of March, when the
wheat is attaining maturity, these plants ripen and
shed their seeds in a week ; and, consequently, in
crease with enormous rapidity, when they find plants
-with their pores open ready to receive and nourish
them. I went over a rich sheet of wheat cultivation
in the district of Jubbulpore, in January, 1836, which
appeared to me devoted to inevitable destruction.
It was intersected by slips and fields of ulsee, which
the cultivators often sow along the borders of their
wheat-fields, which are exposed to the road, to pre
vent trespass. All this ulsee had become of a beau
tiful light orange-colour from these fungi ; and the
cultivators, who had had every field destroyed the
year before by the same plant, surrounded my tent
in despair, imploring me to tell them of some re
medy. I knew of none ; but as the ulsee is not a
very valuable plant, I recommended them, as their
only chance, to pull it all up by the roots, and fling
it into large tanks that were everywhere to be found.
They did so, and no ulsee was intentionally left in
the district, for, like drowning men catching at a
straw, they caught everywhere at the little gleam of
hope that my suggestion seemed to offer. Not a
field of wheat was that season injured in the district
of Jubbulpore; but I was soon satisfied that my
suggestion had had nothing whatever to do 'with their
escape, for not a single stalk of the wheat was, I

BLIGHTS. 253
believe, affected ; while some stalks of the affected
ulsee must have been left by accident. Besides, in
several of the adjoining districts, where the ulsee re
mained in the ground, the wheat escaped. I found
that about the time when the blight usually attacks
the wheat, westerly winds prevailed, and that it
never blew from the east for many hours together.
The common belief among the natives was, that the
prevalence of an east wind was necessary to give full
effect to the attack of this disease, though they none
of them pretended to know anything of its modus
operandi — indeed they considered the blight to be a
demon, which was to be driven off only by prayers
and sacrifices.
Itis worthy of remark, that hardly anything suffered
from the attacks of these fungi but the wheat. The
ulsee upon which it always first made its appearance,
suffered something certainly, but not much, though the
stems and leaves were covered with them. The grain
(cicer arietinum) suffered still less — indeed the grain
in this plant often remained uninjured, while the
stems and leaves were covered with the fungi, in
the midst of fields of wheat that were entirely de
stroyed by ravages of the same kind. None of the
other pulses were injured, though situated in the
same manner in the midst of the fields of wheat that
were destroyed. I have seen rich fields of uninter
rupted wheat cultivation for twenty miles by ten, in
the valley of the Nerbudda, so entirely destroyed by
this disease, that the people would not go to the
trouble of gathering one field in four, for the stalks

254 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and the leaves were so much injured that they were
considered as unfit or unsafe for fodder ; and during
the same season its ravages were equally felt in the
districts along the table lands of the Vindhya range
north of the valley, and I believe those upon the
Sathpore range, south. The last time I saw this
blight was in March, 1832, in the Saugor district,
where its ravages were very great, but partial ; and
I kept bundles of the blighted wheat hanging up in
my house, for the inspection of the curious, tUl the
beginning of 1835.
When I assumed charge of the district of Saugor,
in 1831, the opinion among the farmers and land
holders generally was, that the calamities of season
under which they had been suffering were attributa
ble to the increase of adultery, arising, as they thought,
from our indifference, as we seemed to treat it as a
matter of little importance ; whereas it had always
been considered, under former governments, as a
case of life and death. The husband or his friends
waited till they caught the offending parties toge
ther in criminal correspondence, and then put them
both to death ; and the death of one pair generally
acted, they thought, as a kind of sedative upon the
evil passions of a whole district for a year or two.
Nothing can be more unsatisfactory than our laws for
the punishment of adultery in India, where the Ma
homedan criminal code has been followed, though
the people subjected to it are not one-tenth Maho
medans. This law was enacted by Mahomed, on the
occasion of his favourite wife, Aesha, being found

BLIGHTS. 255
under very Suspicious circumstances with another
man. A special direction from heaven required that
four witnesses should swear positively to the fact.
Aesha and her paramour were of course acquitted ;
and the vritnesses being less than four, received the
same punishment which would have been inflicted
upou the criminals, had the fact been proved by the
direct testimony of the prescribed number — that is,
eighty stripes of the kora, almost equal to a sentence
of death. (See Koran, chap. xxiv. and chap, iv.)
This became the law among all Mahomedans.
Aesha's father succeeded Mahomed, and Omur suc
ceeded Aboo Bakur. Soon after his accession to the
throne, Omur had to sit in judgment upon Mogheera,
a companion of the prophet, the governor of Busara,
who had been accidentally seen in an awkward posi
tion with a lady of rank, by four men while they sat
in an adjoining apartment. The door or window
which concealed the criminal parties was flung open
by the wind, at the time when they wished it most
to remain closed. Three of the four men swore
directly to the point. Mogheera was Omur's favourite,
and had been appointed to the government by him.
Zeead, the brother of one of the three who had
sworn to the fact, hesitated to swear to the entire
fact, " I think," said Omur, " that I see before me a
man whom God would not make the means of dis
gracing one of the companions of the holy prophet."
Zeead then described, circumstantially, the most
6

256 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
unequivocal position that was, perhaps, ever described
in a public court of justice ; but still hesitating to
swear to the entire completion of the crime, the
criminals were acquitted, and his brother and the
two others received the punishment prescribed. This
decision of the Brutus ofhis age and country settled
the law of evidence in these matters ; and no Ma
hommedan judge would now give a verdict against
any person charged with adultery, without the four
witnesses to the entire fact, Noman hopes for a con
viction for this crime in our courts ; and as he would
have to drag his wife or paramour through no less
than three — that of the police officer, the magistrate,
and the judge — to seek it, he has recourse to poison,
either secretly or with his wife's consent. She will
commonly rather die than be turned out into the
streets a degraded outcast. The seducer escapes
with impunity ; while his victim suffers all that
human nature is capable of enduring. Where hus
bands are in the habit of poisoning their guilty
wives from the want of legal means of redress, they
will sometimes poison those who are suspected upon
insufficient grounds. No magistrate ever hopes to get
a conviction in the judges' court, if he commits a cri
minal for trial on this charge, (under Regulation 17, of
1817,) and therefore he never does commit. Regular
tion 7, of 1819, authorises a magistrate to punish
any person convicted of enticing away a wife or un
married daughter for another's use ; and an indig
nant functionary may sometimes feel disposed to

BLIGHTS. 257
stretch a point, that the guilty man may not altoge
ther escape.
Redress for these wrongs is never sought in our
courts, because they can never hope to get it. But
it is a great mistake to suppose that the people of
India want a heavier punishment for the crime than
we are disposed to inflict — all they want is a fair
chance of conviction upon such reasonable proof as
cases of this nature admit of, and such a measure
of punishment as shall make it appear that their
rulers think the crime a serious one, and that they
are disposed to protect them from it. Sometimes
the poorest man would refuse pecuniary compensa
tion ; but generally husbands of the poorer classes
would be glad to get what the heads of their caste
or circle of society might consider sufficient to de
fray the expenses of a second marriage. They do
not dare to live in adultery — they M^ould be outcasts
if they did ; they must be married according to the
forms of their caste ; and it is reasonable that the
seducer of the wife should be obliged to defray tlie
costs of the injured husband's second marriage. The
rich will, of course, always refuse such a compen
sation, but a law declaring the man convicted of
this crime liable to imprisonment in irons at hard
labour for two years, but entitled to his discharge
within that time on an application from the injured
husband, or father, would be extremely popular
throughout India. The poor man would make the
application when assured of the sum which the
VOL. L s

258 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
elders of his caste consider sufficient ; and they would
take into consideration the means of the offender to
pay. The woman is sufficiently punished by her de
graded condition. The teitwa of a Mahomedan law
officer should be dispensed with in such cases.
In 1832 the people began to search for other
causes. The frequent measurements of the land,
vrith a view to equalize the assessments, were thought
of ; even the operations of the trigonometrical survey,
which were then making a great noise in central
India, where their fires were seen every night burn
ing upon the peaks of the highest ranges, were sup
posed to have had some share in exasperating the
Deity ; and the services of the most holy Brahmans
were put in requisition, to exorcise the peaks from
which the engineers had taken their angels, the mo
ment their instruments were removed. In many
places, to the great annoyance and consternation of
the engineers, the land-marks which they had left, to
enable them to correct their work as they advanced,
were found to have been removed during their short
intervals of absence, and they were obliged to do
their work over again. The priests encouraged the
disposition on the part of the peasantry to beUeve,
that men who required to do their work by the aid
of fires lighted in the dead of the night upon high
places, and work which no one but themselves seemed
able to comprehend, must hold communion with
supernatural beings — a communion which they thought
might be displeasing to the Deity.
5

BLIGHTS. 259
At last, in the year 1833, a very holy Brahman,
who lived in his cloister, near the iron suspension-
bridge over the Beeose river, ten miles from Saugor,
sat down with a determination to wrestle with the
Deity till he should be compelled to reveal to him
the real cause of all those calamities of season under
which the people were groaning. After three days
and nights of fasting and prayer, he saw a vision
which stood before him in a white mantle, and told
him, that all these calamities arose from the slaughter
of cows — and that under former governments this prac
tice had been strictly prohibited, and the returns of
the harvest had, in consequence, been always abun
dant, and subsistence cheap, in spite of invasion from
without, insurrections within, and a good deal of
misrule and oppression on the part of the local go
vernment. The holy man was enjoined by the vision
to make this revelation kno'wn to the constituted
authorities, and to persuade the people generally
throughout the district, to join in the petition for the
prohibition of beef eating throughout our Nerbudda
territories. He got a good many of the most re
spectable of the landholders around him, and ex
plained the wishes of the -rision of the preceding
night. A petition was soon drawn up and signed by
many hundreds of the most respectable people in the
district, and presented to the Governor-general's re
presentative in these parts, Mr. F. C. Smith. Others
were presented to the civil authorities of the district,
and all stating in the most respectftil terms, " how
s 2

260 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
sensible the people were of the inestimable benefits
of our rule, and how grateful they all felt for the
protection to life and property, and to the free em
ployment of all their advantages, which they had
under it ; and for the frequent and large reductions
in the assessments, and remission in the demand on
account of calamities of seasons. These, they stated,
were all that government could do to relieve a suf
fering people, but they had all proved unavailing ;
and yet under this truly paternal rule the people
were suffering more than under any former govern
ment in its worst period of misrule — the hand of an
incensed God -was upon them ; and as they had now
at last, after many fruitless attempts, discovered the
real cause of this anger of the Deity, they trusted
that we would listen to their prayers, and restore
plenty and all its blessings to the country by prohi
biting the eating of beef! All these dreadful evils
had, they said, unquestionably originated in the
(Sudder Bazar) great market of the cantonments,
where, for the first time, within one hundred miles
of the sacred stream of the Nerbudda, men had
purchased and eaten cows' flesh !
These people were aU much attached to us, and
to our rule, and were many of them on the most
intimate terms of social intercourse with us ; and at
the time they signed this petition, were entirely
satisfied that they had discovered the real cause of
all their sufferings, and impressed with the idea that
we should be convinced, and grant their prayers.

BLIGHTS. 261
The day is past. Beef continued to be eaten with
undiminished appetite — the blight, nevertheless, dis
appeared, and every other sign of vengeance from
above ; and the people are now, I believe, satisfied
that they were mistaken ! They still think that the
lands do not yield so many returns of the seed under
us as under former rulers ; that they have lost some
of the burkut (blessings) which they enjoyed under
them — they know not why. The fact is, that under us
the lands do not enjoy the salutary fallows which fre
quent invasions and civil wars used to cause under
former governments. Those who survived such
civil wars and invasions got better returns for their
seed !
During the discussion of the question with the
people, I had one day a conversation with our Sudder
Ameer, or head native judicial officer, whom I have
already mentioned. He told me, " that there could
be no doubt of the truth of the conclusion to which
the people had at length come ! There are," he said,
" some countries in which punishments follow crimes
after long intervals, and, indeed, do not take place
till some future birth ; in others they follow crimes
immediately ; and such is the country bordering the
stream of Mother Nerbudda ! This," said he, " is a
stream more holy than that of the great Ganges
herself, since no man is supposed to derive any be
nefit from that stream, unless he either bathe in it
or drink from it ;/but the sight of the Nerbudda from
a distant hiUjcould bless him, and purify him. In

262 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
other countries, the slaughter of cows and bullocks
might not be punished for ages ; and the harvest, in
such countries, might continue good through many
successive generations, under such enormities : in
deed, he was not quite sure that there might not be
countries in which no punishment at all would in
evitably follow ; but so near the Nerbudda this could
not be the case ! Providence could never suffer beef
to be eaten so near her sacred majesty without visit
ing the crops with blight, hail, or some other cala
mity ; and the people -with cholera morbus, smaU-pox,
and other great pestilences. As for himself, he
should never be persuaded that all these afflictions
did not arise wholly and solely from this dreadful
habit of eating beef I declare," concluded he, " that
if govemment would but consent to prohibit the
eating of beef, it might levy from the lands three
times the revenue that they now pay."
The great festival of the Hooghly, the saturnalia of
India, terminates on the last day of Phagoon, or 1 6th
of March. On that day the Hooghly is burned ; and
on that day the ravages of the monster (for monster
they will have it to be) are supposed to cease. Any
field that has remained untouched up to that time is
considered to be quite secure from the moment the
Hooghly has been committed to the flames. What
gave rise to the notion I have never been able to
discover ; but such is the general belief I suppose
the silicious epidermis must then have become too
hard, and the pores in the stem too much closed

BLIGHTS. 263
up to admit of the further depredation of the
fiingi. In the latter end of 1831, while I was at Saugor,
a cowherd, in driving his cattle to water at a reach
of the Beeose river, called the Nurdhardhar, near the
little -rillage of Jusruttee, was reported to have seen
a vision, that told him the waters of that reach, taken
up and conveyed to the fields in pitchers, would effec
tually keep off the blight from the wheat, provided
the pitchers were not suffered to touch the ground
on the way. On reaching the field, a small hole was
to be made at the bottom of the pitcher, so as to
keep up a small but steady stream, as the bearer car
ried it round the border of the field, that the water
might fall in a complete ring, except at a small open
ing, which was to be kept dry, in order that the
monster or demon blight might make his escape
through it, not being able to cross over any part
watered by the holy stream. The waters of the
Beeose river generally are not supposed to have any
peculiar virtues. The report of this vision spread
rapidly over the country ; and the people who had
been suffering under so many seasons of great calamity
were anxious to try anything that promised the
slightest chance of relief. Every cultivator of the
district prepared pots for the conveyance of this
water, with tripods to support them while they rested
on the road, that they might not touch the ground.
The spot pointed out for taking the water was im
mediately under a fine large peepul-tree which had

264 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
fallen into the river, and on each bank was seated a
Byragee, or priest of Vishnoo. The blight began to
manifest itself in the ulsee (linseed) in January, 1832,
but the wheat is never considered to be in danger till
late in February, when it is nearly ripe ; and during
that month and the following the banks of the river
were crowded -with people in search of the water.
Some of these people came more than one hundred
miles to fetch it ; and all seemed to feel quite sure
that the holy water would save them. Each person
gave the Byragee priest, of his own side of the river,
two half-pence, (copper pice,) two pice weight of
ghee, (clarified butter,) and two pounds of flour, be
fore he filled his pitcher, to secure his blessings from
it. These priests were strangers ; and the offerings
were entirely voluntary. The roads from this reach
of the Beeose river, up to the capital of the Orcha
Rajah, more than a hundred miles, were literally
lined with these water-carriers ; and I estimated the
nuniber of persons who passed with the water every
day, for six weeks, at ten thousand a day. J
After they had ceased to take the water, the banks
were long crowded with people who flocked to see
the place whose priests and waters had worked such
miracles, and to try and discover the source whence
the water derived its virtues. It was remarked by
some, that the peepul-tree, which had fallen from
the bank above many years before, had still con
tinued to throw out the richest foliage from the
branches above the surface of the water. Others de-

BLIGHTS. 265
clared that they saw a monkey on the bank near the
spot, which no sooner perceived that it was observed
than it plunged into the stream and disappeared.
Others again saw some fiights of steps under the
waters, indicating that it had in days of yore been
the site of a temple, whose God, no doubt, gave to
the waters the wonderful virtues it had been found
to possess. The priests would say nothing, but " that
it was the work of God ; and, like all his works, be
yond the reach of man's understanding." They made
their fortunes, and got up the vision and miracle, no
doubt, for that especial purpose. As to the effect, I
was told by hundreds of farmers who had tried the
waters, that though it had not anywhere kept the
blight off entirely from the wheat, it was found that
the fields which had not the advantages of water
were entirely destroyed ; and where the pot had
been taken all round the field without leaving any
dry opening for the demon to escape through, it was
almost as bad ; but when a small opening had been
left, and the water carefully dropped around the field
elsewhere, the crop had been very little injured,
which showed clearly the efficacy of the water, when
all the ceremonies and observances prescribed by
the vision had been attended to !
I could never find the cowherd who was said to
have seen this vision; and in speaking to my old
friend, the Sudder Ameer, learned in the shastres, on
the subject, I told him that we had a short saying

266 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
that would explain all this — " a droviiiing man
catches at a straw."
" Yes," said he, without any hesitation, " and we
have another just as good for the occasion : ' Sheep
will follow each other though it should be into a
weU.' "

267

CHAPTER XXVIII.
PESTLE AND MORTAR SUGAR-MILLS  WASHING AWAY OF THE
SOIL.
On the 13th we came on to Burwa Saugor, over
a road winding amongst small ridges and conical
hills, none of them much elevated or very steep ; the
whole being a bed of brown syenite, generally exposed
to the surface in a decomposing state, intersected by
veins and beds of quartz rocks, and here and there a
narrow and shallow bed of dark basalt. One of these
beds of basalt was converted into grey syenite by a
large granular mixture of white quartz and feldspar,
with the black hornblende. From this rock the people
form their sugar-mills, which are made like a pestle
and mortar, the mortar being cut out of the horn
blende rock, and the pestle out of wood, thus :

268 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
We saw a great many of these mortars during the
march, that could not have been in use for the last
half-dozen centuries, but they are precisely the same
as those still used all over India. The driver sits
upon the end of the horizontal beam to which the
bullocks are yoked ; and in cold mornings it is very
common to see him with a pair of good hot embers
at his buttocks, resting upon a little projection made
behind him to the beam for the purpose of sustain
ing it. I am disposed to think that the most pro
ductive parts of the surface of Bundelcund, like that
of some of the districts of the Nerbudda territories
which repose upon the back of the sandstone of the
Vindhya chain, is fast flowing off to the sea through
the great rivers, which seem by degrees to extend
the channels of their tributary streams into every
man's field, to drain away its substance by degrees,
for the benefit of those who may in some ftiture age
occupy the islands of their delta. I have often seen
a valuable estate reduced in value to almost nothing,
in a few years, by some new antennce, if I may so
call them, thro-wn out from the tributary streams of
great rivers into their richest and deepest soils. De
clivities are formed, the soil gets nothing from the
cultivator but the mechanical aid of the plough, and
the more its surface is ploughed and cross-ploughed,
the more of its substance is washed away towards
the Bay of Bengal in the Ganges, or the Gulf of
Cambay in the Nerbudda. In the districts of the
Nerbudda, we often see these black hornblende

PESTLE AND MORTAR SUGAR-MILLS. 269
mortars, in which sugar-canes were once pressed by
a happy peasantry, now standing upon a bare and
barren surface of sandstone rock, twenty feet above
the present surface of the culturable lands of the
country. There are evident signs of the surface on
which they now stand having been that on which
they were last worked. The people get more juice
from their small straw-coloured canes in these pestle
and. mortar mills, than they can from those with
cylindrical rollers in the present rude state of the
mechanical arts all over India ; and the straw-
coloured cane is the only kind that yields good sugar.
The large purple canes yield a watery and very in
ferior juice ; and are generally, and almost univer
sally, sold in the markets as a fruit. The straw-
coloured canes, from being crowded under a very
slovenly system, with little manure and less weeding,
degenerate into a mere reed. The Otaheitie cane,
which was introduced into India by me in 1827, has
spread over the Nerbudda, and many other territo
ries ; but that that will degenerate in the same man
ner, under the same slovenly system of tillage, is too
probable.

270

CHAPTER XXIX.

INTERVIEW WITH THE CHIEFS OF JANSEE  DISPUTED
SUCCESSION.

On the 14th we came on fourteen miles to Jan
see. About five miles from our last ground we
crossed the Bytuntee river over a bed of syenite.
At this river we mounted our elephant to cross, as
the water was waist-deep at the ford. My wife re
turned to her palankeen as soon as we had crossed,
but our little boy came on with me on the elephant,
to meet the grand procession which I knew was ap
proaching to greet us from the city. The Rajah of
Jansee, Ram Chunder Row, died a few months ago,
lea-ring a young widow and a mother, but no child.
He was a young man of about twenty-eight years of
age, timid, but of good capacity, and most amiable
disposition. My duties brought us much into com
munication ; and though we never met, we had con
ceived a mutual esteem for each other. He had been
long suffering from an affection of the liver, and had

RAJAH OF JANSEE. 271
latterly persuaded himself that his mother was prac
tising upon his life, with a view to secure the go
vemment to the eldest son of her daughter, which
would, she thought, insure the real power to her for
life. That she -wished him dead with this view,
I had no doubt ; for she had ruled the state for se
veral years up to 1831, during what she was pleased
to consider his minority ; and she surrendered the
power into his hands -with great reluctance, since it
enabled her to employ her paramour as minister, and
enjoy his society as much as she pleased, under
the pretence of holding privy councils upon affairs of
great public interest. He used to communicate his
fears to me; and I was not without apprehension
that his mother might some day attempt to hasten
his death by poison. About a month before his
death he wrote to me to say, that spears had been
found stuck in the ground under the water where he
was accustomed to swim, with their sharp points up
wards ; and had he not, contrary to his usual prac
tice, walked into the water, and struck his foot against
one of them, he must have been killed. This was,
no doubt, a thing got up by some designing person,
who wanted to ingratiate himself with the young
man ; for the mother was too shrewd a woman ever
to attempt her son's life by such awkward means.
About four months before I reached the ca
pital, this amiable young prince died, leaving two
paternal uncles, a mother, a widow, and one sister,
the -wife of one of our Saugor pensioners, Moreesur

272 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Row. The mother claimed the inheritance forher grand
son by this daughter, a very handsome young lad, then
at Jansee, on the pretence that her son had adopted
him on his death-bed. She had his head shaved, and
made him go through all the other ceremonies of
mourning, as for the death of his real father. The
eldest of his uncles, Rogonath Row, claimed the in
heritance as the next heir ; and all his party turned
the young lad out of caste as a Brahman, for daring
to go into mourning for a father who was yet alive,
one of the greatest of crimes, according to Hindoo
law and religion, for they would not admit that he
had been adopted by the deceased prince. The ques
tion of inheritance had been referred for decision to
the supreme government through the prescribed
channel, when I arrived ; and the decision was every
day expected. The mother, vrith her daughter and
grandson, and the widow, occupied the castle situated
on a high hill overlooking the city; while the two
uncles of the deceased occupied their private dwell
ing-houses in the city below. Ragonath Row, the
eldest, headed the procession that came out to meet
me about three miles, mounted upon a fine female
elephant, with his younger brother by his side. The
minister, Naroo Gopaul, followed, mounted upon
another on the part of the mother and widow.
Some of the Rajah's relations were upon two
of the finest male elephants I have ever seen;
and some of their friends with the buckshee,
or paymaster, (always an important personage,)

ROGONATH ROW. 273
upon two others. Rogonath Row's elephant drew
up on the right of mine, and that of the minister on
the left ; and after the usual compliments had passed
between us, all the others fell back and formed a
line in our rear. They had about fifty troopers
mounted upon very fine horses in exceUent condi
tion, which curvetted before and on both sides of us ;
together with a good many men on camels, and
some four or five hundred foot attendants, all well
dressed, but in various costumes. The elephants
were so close to each other, that the conversation,
which we managed to keep up tolerably well, was
general almost all the way to our tents ; every man
taking a part as he found the opportunity of a pause
to introduce his little compliment to the honourable
Company or to myself, which I did my best to answer
or divert. I was glad to see the affectionate respect
with which the old man was everywhere received,
for I had in my own mind no doubt whatever that
the decision of the supreme government would be in
his favour. The whole cortege escorted me through
the town to my tent, which was pitched on the other
side ; and then they took their leave, still seated
on their elephants, while I sat on mine, with my boy
on my knee, till all had made their bow and departed.
The elephants, camels, and horses, were all magni
ficently caparisoned ; and the housings of the whole
were extremely rich. A good many of the troopers
were dressed in chain-armour, which, worn outside
VOL. I. T

274 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
their light-coloured quilted vests, look very like
black gauze scarfs.
My little friend, the Sureemunt's o'wn elephant,
had lately died ; and being unable to go to the cost of
another with all its appendages, he had come on thus
far on horseback. A native gentleman can never
condescend to ride an elephant 'without a train of at
least a dozen attendants on horseback — he would
almost as soon ride a horse without a tail. Having
been considered at one time as the equal of all
these Rajahs, I knew that he would feel a little
mortified at finding himself buried in the crowd and
dust ; and invited him, as we approached the city,
to take a seat by my side. This gained him con
sideration, and evidently gave him great pleasure.
It was late before we reached our tents, as we were
obliged to move slowly through the streets of the
city, as well for our o'wn convenience as for the
safety of the crowd on foot before and around us.
My wife, who had gone on before to avoid the crowd
and dust, reached the tents half an hour before us.
In the afternoon, when my second large tent had
been pitched, the minister came to pay me a visit
'with a large train of followers, but with little dis
play ; and I found him a very sensible, mild, and
gentlemanly man, just as I expected from the
high character he bears with both parties, and with
the people of the country generally. Any unre
served conversation here in such a crowd was of

6

THE MINISTER. 275
course out of the question, and I told the minister,
that it was my intention early next morning to visit
the tomb of his late master ; where I should be very
glad to meet him if he could make it convenient to
come without any ceremony. He seemed much
pleased with the proposal ; and next morning we
met a little before sunrise within the railing that
encloses the tomb or cenotaph ; and there had a good
deal of quiet, and, I believe, unreserved talk about
the affairs of the Jansee state, and the family of
the late prince. He told me, that a few hours before
the Rajah's death, his mother had placed in his arms
for adoption the son of his sister, a very handsome
lad of ten years of age — but whether the Rajah was
or was not sensible at the time he could not say, for
he never after heard him speak ; that the mother of
the deceased considered the adoption as complete,
and made her grandson go through the funeral cere
monies, as for the death of his father, which for
nine days were performed unmolested ; but when
it came to the tenth and last — which, had it
passed quietly, would have been considered as com
pleting the title of adoption — Rogonath Row and
his friends interposed, and prevented further pro
ceedings, declaring that while there were so many
male heirs no son could be adopted for the deceased
prince, according to the usages of the family.
The widow of the Rajah, a timid, amiable young
woman, of twenty-five years of age, was by no means
anxious for this adoption, having shared the sus-
T 2

276 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
picions of her husband regarding the practices of his
mother ; and found his sister, who now resided with
them in the castle, a most violent and overbearing
woman, who would be likely to exclude her from all
share in the administration, and make her life very
miserable were her son to be declared the Rajah.
Her wish was to be allowed to adopt, in the name of
her deceased husband, a young cousin ofhis, Sadasoo,
the son of Nana Bhow. Gungadhur, the younger
brother of Rogonath Row, was exceedingly anxious
to have his elder brother declared Rajah, because he
had no sons, and, from the debilitated state of his
frame, must soon die, and leave the principality to
him. Every one of the three parties had sent agents
to the Governor-general's representative in Bundel
cund, to urge their claim ; and till the final decision,
the widow of the late chief was to be considered as
the sovereign. The minister told me, that there
was one unanswerable argument against Rogonath
Row's succeeding, which, out of regard to his feel
ings, he had not yet urged ; and about which he
wished to consult me, as a friend of the late prince
and his widow : this was, that he was a leper, and
that the signs of the disease were becoming every
day more and more manifest. I told him, that I
had observed them in his face, but was not aware
that any one else had noticed them. I urged him,
however, not to advance this as a ground of exclusion,
since they all knew him to be a very worthy man,
while his younger brother was said to be the reverse ;

FAMILY SCANDAL. 277
and more especially I thought it would be very cruel
and unwise to distress and exasperate him by so doing,
as I had no doubt that before this ground could be
brought to their notice, government would declare
in his favour, right being so clearly on his side.
After an agreeable conversation with this sensible
and excellent man, I returned to my tents, to pre
pare for the reception of Rogonath Row and his
party. They came about nine o'clock with a much
greater display of elephants and followers than the
minister had brought with him. He and his friends
kept me in close conversation till eleven o'clock, in
spite of my wife's many considerate messages, to say
breakfast was waiting. He told me, that the mother
of the late Rajah, his nephew, was a very violent
woman, who had involved the state in much trouble
during the period of her regency, which she managed
to prolong till her son was twenty-five years of age,
and resigned with infinite reluctance only three years
ago — that her minister, during her regency, Gungad
hur Moolee, was at the same time her paramour, and
would be surely restored to power and to her embraces,
were her grandson's claims to the succession recog
nized — that it was with great difficulty he had been
able to keep this atrocious character under surveil
lance pending the consideration of their claims by
the supreme government — that by having the head
of her grandson shaved, and making him go through
all the other funeral ceremonies with the other
members of the family, she had involved him and his

278 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
young innocent wife (who had unhappily continued to
drink out of the same cup with her husband) in the
dreadful crime of mourning for a father whom they
knew to be yet alive, a crime that must be expiated
by the praschut,* which would be exacted from the
young couple on their return to Saugor before they
could be restored to their caste, from which they
were now considered as excommunicated. As for
the young widow, she was everything they could
wish ; but she was so timid, that she would be go
verned by the old lady if she should have any osten
sible part assigned her in the administration.!
I told the old gentleman, that I beUeved it would
be my duty to pay the first -risit to the widow and
mother of the late prince, as one of pure condolence ;
and that I hoped my doing so would not be consi
dered any mark of disrespect towards him, who must
now be looked up to as the head of the family. He
* The praschut is an expiatory atonement, by which the per
son humbles himself in public. It is often imposed for crimes
committed in a former birth, as indicated by afflictions suflfered
in this !
t The poor young widow died of grief some months after my
visit : her spirits never ralUed after the death of her husband ;
and she never ceased to regret, that she had not burned herself
with his remains. The people of Jansee generally believe, that
the prince's mother brought about his death by (deenall) slow
poison ; and I am afraid that this was the impression on the mind
of the poor widow. The minister, who was entirely on her side,
and a most worthy and able man, was quite satisfied that this
suspicion was without any foundation whatever in truth.

RIGHTS OF MOTHERS. 279
remonstrated against this most eamestly; and at
last tears came into his eyes as he told me, that if I
paid the first visit to the castle he should never again
be able to show his face outside his door, so great
would be the indignity he should be considered to
have suffered ; but rather than I should do this he
would come to my tents, and escort me himself to
the castle. Much was to be said on both siSes of
the weighty question ; but at last I thought that the
arguments were in his favour — that if I went to the
castle first, he might possibly resent it upon the poor
woman and the prime minister when he came into
power, as I had no doubt he soon would ; and that
I might be consulting their interest as much as his
feelings by going to his house first. In the evening I
received a message from the old lady, urging the neces
sity of my paying the first visit of condolence for the
death of my young friend, to the widow and mother.
" The rights of mothers," said she, " are respected in
all countries ; and in India, the first -risit of condo
lence for the death of a man, is always due to the
mother, if alive." I told the messenger that my reso
lution was unaltered, and would, I trusted, be found
the best for all parties under present circumstances.
I told him, that I dreaded the resentment towards
them of Rogonath Row, if he came into power.
" Never mind that," said he ; " my mistress is of too
proud a spirit to dread resentment from any one —
pay her the compliment of the first visit, and let her
enemies do their worst !" I told him that I could

280 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
leave Jansee without -risiting either of them, but
could not go first to the castle ; and he said, that my
departing thus would please the old lady better than
the second visit ! The minister would not have said
this — the old lady would not have ventured to send
such a message by him — the man was an under
strapper ; and I left him, to mount my elephant and
pay my two -risits.
With the best cortege I could muster, I went to
Rogonath Row's, where I was received with a salute
from some large guns in his courtyard, and enter
tained with a party of dancing girls and musicians
in the usual manner. Ottar of roses and pawn were
given ; and valuable shawls put before me, and re
fused in the politest terms I could think of, such as,
" Pray do me the favour to keep these things for me
till I have the happiness of visiting Jansee again,
as I am going through Gwalior, where nothing valu
able is a moment safe from thieves." After sitting an
hour, I mounted my elephant, and proceeded up to
the castle, where I was received with another salute
from the bastions. I sat for half an hour in the hall of
audience with the minister and all the principal men
of the court, as Rogonath Row was to be considered
as a private gentleman till the decision of the
supreme government should be made known ; and
the handsome young lad, Krishnu Row, whom the
old woman wished to adopt, and whom I had often
seen at Saugor, was at my request brought in and
seated by my side. By him I sent my message of

CASTLE OF JANSEE. 281
condolence to the widow and mother of his deceased
uncle, couched in the usual terms, that the happy
effects of good government in the prosperity of this
city, and the comfort and happiness of the people,
had extended the fame of the family all over India ;
and that I trusted the reigning member of that
family, whoever he might be, would be sensible, that
it was his duty to sustain that reputation by imitating
the example of those who had gone before him.
After ottar of roses and pawn had been handed
round in the usual manner, I went to the summit of
the highest tower in the castle, which commands an
extensive view ofthe country around.
The castle stands upon the summit of a small hill
of syenitic rock. The elevation of the outer wall
is about one hundred feet above the level of the
plain ; and the top of the tower on which I stood
about one hundred feet more, as the buildings rise
gradually from the sides to the summit of the hill.
The city extends out into the plain to the east
from the foot of the hill on which the castle stands.
Around the city there is a good deal of land irri
gated from four or five tanks in the neighbourhood,
and now under rich wheat crops ; and the gardens
are very numerous, and abound in all the fruit and
vegetables that the people most like. Oranges are
very abundant and very fine; and our tents bave
been actually buried in them, and all the other fruits
and vegetables which the kind people of Jansee
have poured in upon us. The city of Jansee con-

282 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
tains about sixty-thousand inhabitants ; and is cele
brated for its manufacture of carpets. There are some
very beautiful temples in the city, all built by Goosa-
ens, one of the priests of Sewa, who here engage in
trade and accumulate much wealth.* The family of the
chiefs do not build tombs ; and that now raised over
the place where the late prince was bumed is dedi
cated, as a temple, to Sewa ; and was made merely
with a view to secure the place from all danger of
profanation. The ashes themselves were taken to the
Ganges, and deposited in the holy stream with the
usual ceremonies.
The face of the country beyond the influence of
the tanks is neither rich nor interesting. The cul
tivation seemed scanty and the population thin,
owing to the irremediable steriUty of soil from the
poverty of the primitive rock, from whose detritus it
is chiefly formed. Rogonath Row told me, that the
wish of the people in the castle to adopt a child as
the successor to his nephew, arose from the desire to
escape the scrutiny into the past accounts of disburse
ments which he might be likely to order. I told
him, that I had myself no doubt that he would be
declared the Rajah ; and urged him to turn all his
thoughts to the future ; and to allow no inquiries
to be made into the past, with a view to gratify
* These buildings are both tombs and temples ; the Goosaens
of Jansee do not burn but bury their dead, and over the grave,
those who can afford to do so, raise a handsome temple, and dedi
cate it to Sewa.

LEPROSY. 283
either his own resentment or that of others ; that
the Rajahs of Jansee had hitherto been served by
the most respectable, able, and honourable men in
the country, while the other chiefs of Bundelcund
could get no man of this class to do their work for
them — that this was the only court in Bundelcund in
which such men could be seen, simply because it was
the only one in which they could feel themselves secure
— while other chiefs confiscated the property of
ministers who had served them with fidelity, on the
pretence of embezzlement ; the wealth thus acquired,
however, soon disappearing, and its possessors being
obliged either to conceal it or to go out of the coun
try to enjoy it. Such rulers thus found their courts
and capitals deprived of all those men of wealth and
respectability who adorned the courts of princes in
other countries ; and embellished not merely their
capitals but the face of their dominions in general
with their chateaus and other works of ornament and
utility. Much more of this sort passed between us,
and seemed to make an impression upon him ; for he
promised to do all that I had recommended to him.
Poor man ! he can have but a short and miserable
existence, for that dreadful disease, the leprosy, is
making sad inroads upon his system already.* His
uncle, Rogonath Row, was afflicted with it ; and
having understood from the priests, that by drown
ing himself in the Ganges, (taking the sumad,) he
* This chief died of leprosy in May, 1838.

284 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
should remove all traces of it from his family, he
went to Benares, and there drowned himself, some
twenty years ago. He had no children, and is said
to have been the first of his family in whom the dis
ease showed itself.*
* Rogonath Row was the first of his family invested by the
Peshwa with the government of the Jansee territory, which he
had acquired frora the Bundelcund chiefs. He went to Benares
in 1 795 to drown himself, leaving the government to his third
brother, Sewram Bhow, as his next brother, Luehmun Row, was
dead, and his sons were considered incapable. Sewram Bhow
died in 1815, and his eldest son, Krishnu Row, had died four
years before him in 1811, leaving one son, the late Rajah, and
two daughters. This was a noble sacrifice to what he had been
taught, by his spiritual teachers, to consider as a duty towards his
family ; and we must admire the man, while we condemn the reli
gion and the priests. There is no country in the world where
parents are more reverenced than in India ; or where they more
readily make sacrifices of all sorts for their children, or for those
they consider as such. We succeeded in 1817 to all the rights of
the Peshwa in Bundelcund ; and with great generosity converted
the viceroys of Jansee and Jhalone into independent sovereigns
of hereditary principalities, yielding each ten lacs of rupees.

285

CHAPTER XXX.

HAUNTED VILLAGES.

On the 16th, we came on nine miles to Amabae,
the frontier village of the Jansee territory, border
ing upon Duteea, where I had to receive the fare
well visits of many members of the Jansee parties,
who came on to have a quiet opportunity to assure me,
that, whatever may be the final order of the supreme
government, they will do their best for the good of
the people and the state, in whose welfare I feel
great interest, for I have always considered Jansee
among the native states of Bundelcund as a kind of
oasis in the desert — the only one in which man can
accumulate property with the confidence of being
permitted by its rulers freely to display and enjoy it.
I had also to receive the visit of messengers from the
Rajah of Duteea, at whose capital we were to en
camp the next day ; and finally, to take leave of my
amiable little friend the Sureemunt, who here left
me on his return to Saugor, with a heavy heart I
really believe.

286 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
We talked of the common belief among the agri
cultural classes, of villages being haunted bythe spirits
of ancient proprietors, whom it was thought neces
sary to propitiate. " He knew," he said, " many in
stances where these spirits were so very froward,
that the present heads of the villages which they
haunted, and the members of their little commu
nities, found it almost impossible to keep them in
good humour ; and their cattle and children were, in
consequence, always liable to serious accidents of one
kind or another. Sometimes they were bitten by
snakes, sometimes became possessed by devils ; and
at others, were thrown down and beaten most un
mercifully." Any person who falls dovra in an
epileptic fit, is supposed to be thrown down by a
ghost, or possessed by a devil. They feel little of
our mysterious dread of ghosts — a sound drubbing is
what they dread from them ; and he who hurts him
self in one of these fits is considered to have got it.
" As for himself, whenever he found any one of the
villages upon his estate haunted by the spirit of an
old patel, (village proprietor,) he always made a
point of gi-ring him a neat little shrine ; and having it
well endowed and attended, to keep him in good
humour : this he thought was a duty that every land
lord owed to his tenants !" Ramchund, the pundit,
said, "That villages which had been held by old
Gond (mountaineer) proprietors were more liable
than any other to those kinds of visitations — that it
was easy to say what village was and was not haunted ;

HAUNTED VILLAGES. 287
but often exceedingly difficult to discover to whom
the ghost belonged ! This once discovered, his
nearest surviving relation was, of course, expected
to take steps to put him to rest ; but," said he, " it
is wrong to suppose that the ghost of an old pro
prietor must be always doing mischief — he is often
the best friend of the cultivators, and of the present
proprietor, too, if he treats him with proper respect ;
for he will not allow the people of any other village
to encroach upon their boundaries with impunity ;
and they will be saved all the expense and annoyance
of a reference to the Adawlut (judicial tribunals)
for the settlement of boundary disputes. It will not
cost much to conciliate these spirits ; and the money
is generally well laid out !"
Several anecdotes were told me in illustration ;
and all that I could urge against the probability or
possibility of such visitations appeared to them very
inconclusive and unsatisfactory ; they mentioned the
case of the family of village proprietors in the Saugor
district, who had for several generations, at every new
settlement, insisted upon having the name of the
spirit of the old proprietor of another tribe inserted
in the lease instead of their o'wn, and thereby secured
his good graces on all occasions. Mr. Fraser had
before mentioned this case to me. In August, 1834,
while engaged in the settlement of the land revenue
of the Saugor district for twenty years, he was about
to deliver the lease of the estate made out in due
form to the head of the family, a very honest and

288 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
respectable old gentleman, when he asked him, re-
spectfullj^ in whose name it had been made out?
" In yours to be sure ; have you not renewed your
lease for twenty years ?" The old man, in a state of
great alarm, begged him to have it altered imme
diately, or he and his family would all be destroyed
— that the spirit of the ancient proprietor presided
over the village community and its interests ; and
that all affairs of importance were transacted in his
name. " He is," said the old man, " a very jealous
spirit ; and vrill not admit of any living man being
considered, for a moment, as a proprietor or joint
proprietor of the estate ! It has been held by me
and my ancestors immediately under government for
many generations ; but the lease deeds have always
been made out in his name ; and ours have been in
serted merely as his managers, or bailiffs — were this
good old rule, under which we have so long pros
pered, to be now infringed, we should all perish under
his anger." Mr. Fraser found, upon inquiry, that
this had really been the case ; and, to relieve the old
man and his family from their fears, he had the
papers made out afresh, and the ghost inserted as the
proprietor ! The modes of flattering and propitiating
these beings, natural and supernatural, who are sup
posed to have the power to do mischief, are end
less. While I was in charge of the district of Nursing
pore, in the valley of the Nerbudda, in 1823, a culti
vator of the village of Bedoo, about twelve miles

HAUNTED VILLAGES. 289
distant from my court, was one day engaged in the
cultivation of his field on the border of the village
of Burkhara, which was supposed to be haunted by
the spirit of an old proprietor, whose temper was so
froward and violent that the lands could hardly be
let for anything ; for hardly any man would venture
to cultivate them lest he might unintentionally incur
his ghostship's displeasure. The poor cultivator,
after begging his pardon in secret, ventured to drive
his plough a few yards beyond the proper line of his
boundary, and thus to add half an acre of the lands
of Burkhara to his ovra little tenement, which was
situated in Bedoo. That very night his only son
was bitten by a snake, and his two bullocks were
seized with the murrain. In terror he went off to
the village temple, confessed his sin, and vowed not
only to restore the half acre of land to the village of
Burkhara, but to build a very handsome shrine upon
the spot as a perpetual sign of his repentance. The
boy and the bullocks all three recovered, and the
shrine was built ; and is, I believe, still to be seen as
the boundary mark !
The fact was, that the village stood upon an ele
vated piece of ground rising out of a moist plain, and
a colony of snakes had taken up their abode in it.
The bites of these snakes had, on many occasions,
proved fatal ; and such accidents were all attributed
to the anger of a spirit which was supposed to haunt
the village. At one time, under the former govern
ment, no one would take a lease of the village
VOL. L u

290 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
on any terms ; and it had become almost entirely
deserted, though the soil was the finest in the whole
district. With a view to remove the whole preju
dices of the people, the govemor, Goroba Pundit,
took the lease himself at the rent of one thousand
rupees a year; and in the month of June went
from his residence, twelve miles, with ten of his
own ploughs, to superintend the commencement
of so perilous an undertaking. On reaching the
middle of the village, situated on the top of the
little hill, he alighted from his horse, sat down upon
a carpet that had been spread for him under a large
and beautiful banyan tree, and began to refresh him
self with a pipe before going to work in the fields.
As he quaffed his hookah, and railed at the foUies of
men, " whose absurd superstitions had made them
desert so beautiful a village with so noble a
tree in its centre," his eyes fell upon an enormous
black snake which had coiled round one of its
branches immediately over his head, and seemed as
if resolved at once to pounce down and punish him
for his blasphemy ! He gave his pipe to his atten
dant, mounted his horse, from which the saddle had
not yet been taken, and never pulled rein till he got
home. Nothing could ever induce him to visit this
village again, thpugh he was afterwards employed
under me as a native collector ; and he has often
told me, that he verily believed this was the spirit of
the old landlord that he had unhappily neglected to
propitiate before taking possession !

HAUNTED VILLAGES. 291
My predecessor in the civil charge of that district,
the late Mr. Lindsay, of the Bengal civil service,
again tried to remove the prejudices of the people
against thc occupation and cultivation of this fine
village. It had never been measured ; and all the
revenue officers, backed by all the farmers and cul
tivators of the neighbourhood, declared that the spirit
of the old proprietor would never allow it to be so.
Mr. Lindsay was a good geometrician, and had long
been in the habit of superintending his revenue sur
veys himself; and on this occasion he thought him
self particularly called upon to do so. A new
measuring cord was made for the occasion, and with
fear and trembling all his officers attended him to
the first field ; but in measuring it the rope, by some
accident, broke ! Poor Lindsay was that morning
taken ill, and obliged to return to Nursingpore, where
he died soon after from fever. No man was ever
more beloved by all classes of the people of his dis
trict than he was ; and I believe there was not one
person among them who did not believe him to have
fallen a "rictim to the resentment of the spirit of the
old proprietor. When I went to the viUage some
years afterwards, the people in the neighbourhood
all declared to me, that they saw the cord with
which he was measuring, fly into a thousand pieces
the moment the men attempted to straighten it
over the first field.
A very respectable old gentleman from the Concan,
u 2

292 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
or Malabar coast, told me one day, that every man
there protects his field of corn and his fruit tree by
dedicating it to one or other of the spirits which
there abound, or confiding it to his guardianship.
He sticks up something in the field, or ties on some
thing to the tree, in the name of the said spirit, who
from that moment feels himself responsible for its safe
keeping. If any one, without permission from the
proprietor, presumes to take either an ear of corn
from the field, or fruit from the tree, he is sure to be
killed outright or made extremely ill. " No other
protection is required," said the old gentleman,
"for our fields and fruit trees in that direction,
though whole armies should have to march through
them. I once saw a man come to the proprietor of
a jack tree, embrace his feet, and in the most piteous
manner implore his protection. He asked what was
the matter. ' I took,' said the man, ' a jack from
your tree yonder three days ago, as I passed at
night; and I have been suffering dreadful agony
in my stomach ever since. The spirit of the tree is
upon me, and you only can pacify him.' The
proprietor took up a bit of cow-dung, moistened it,
and made a mark with it upon the man's forehead
in the name of the spirit, and put some of it into the
knot of hair on the top of his head. He had no
sooner done this, than the man's pains all left him,
and he went off, vowing never again to give similar
cause of offence to one of these guardian spirits."

HAUNTED VILLAGES. 293
" Men," said my old friend, " do not die there in the
same regulated spirit, with their thoughts directed
exclusively towards God, as in other parts ; and
whether a man's spirit is to haunt the world or not
after his death all depends on that."

294

CHAPTER XXXL

INTERVIEW WITH THE RAJAH OF DUTEEA  FISCAL ERRORS
OF STATESMEN  THIEVES AND ROBBERS BY PROFESSION.
On the 17th, we came to Duteea, nine miles, over
a dry and poor soil, thinly and only partially covering
a bed of brown and grey syenite, with veins of quartz
and feldspar, and here and there dykes of basalt, and
a few boulders scattered over the surface. The old
Rajah, Paureechut, on one elephant, and his cousin,
Duleep Sing, upon a second, and several of their
relations upon others, all splendidly caparisoned,
came out two miles to meet us, with a very large
and splendid cortege. My wife, as usual, had gone
on in her palankeen very early, to avoid the crowd
and dust of this istakbal, or meeting ; and my little
boy, Henry, went on at the same time in the palan
keen, having got a slight fever from too much ex
posure to the sun in our slow and stately entrance
into Jansee. There were more men in steel chain
armour in this cortege than in that of Jansee ; and

INTERVIEW WITH THE RAJAH OF DUTEEA. 295
though the elephants were not quite so fine, they
were just as numerous, while the crowd of foot
attendants was still greater. They were in fancy
dresses, individuaUy handsome, and collectively
picturesque; though, being all soldiers, not quite
pleasing to the eye of a soldier. I remarked to the
Rajah, as we rode side by side on our elephants,
that we attached much importance to having our
soldiers all in uniform dresses, according to their
corps, while he seemed to care little about these
matters. " Yes," said the old man, with a smile,
" with me every man pleases himself in his dress ;
and I care not what he wears, provided he is neat
and clean." They certainly formed a body more
picturesque, from being allowed individually to con
sult their own fancies in their dresses, for the native
taste in dress is generally very good. Our three
elephants came on abreast; and the Rajah and I
conversed as freely as men in such situations can
converse. He is a stout, cheerful old gentleman, as
careless apparently about his own dress as about
that of his soldiers ; and a much more sensible and
agreeable person than I expected ; and I was sorry
to learn from, him, that he had for twelve years been
suffering from an attack of sciatica on one side,
which had deprived him of the use of one of his
legs. I was obliged to consent to halt the next day,
that I might hunt in his preserve (rumna) in the
morning, and return his visit in the evening. In
the Rajah's cortege there were several men mounted

296 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
on excellent horses, who carried guitars, and played
upon them, and sang in a very agreeable style. I
had never before seen or heard of such a band ; and
was both surprised and pleased.
The great part of the wheat, grain, and other ex
portable land produce which the people consume, as
far as we have yet come, is drawn from our Ner
budda districts, and those of Malwa which border
upon them ; and par consequent, the price has been
rapidly increasing as we recede from them in our
advance northward. Were the soil of those Nerbudda
districts, situated as they are at such a distance from
any great market for their agricultural products, as
bad as it is in the parts of Bundelcund that I came
over, no net surplus revenue could possibly be drawn
from them in the present state of arts and indus
try. The high prices paid here for land produce,
arising from the necessity of drawing a great part
of what is consumed from such distant lands, enables
the Rajahs of these Bundelcund states to draw the
large revenue they do. These chiefs expend the
whole of their revenue in the maintenance of public
establishments of one kind or other ; and as the
essential articles of subsistence, wheat and grain, &c.,
which are produced in their own districts, or those
immediately around them, are not sufficient for the
supply of these establishments, they must draw them
from distant territories. All this produce is brought
on the backs of bullocks, because there is no road
from the districts whence they obtain it, over which

FISCAL ERRORS. 297
a wheeled carriage can be drawn with safety ; and
as this mode of transit is very expensive, the price
of the produce, when it reaches the capitals, around
which these local establishments are concentrated,
becomes very high. They must pay a price equal
to the collective cost of purchasing and bringing this
substance from the most distant districts, to which
they are at any time obliged to have recourse for a
supply, or they -will not be supplied ; and as there
cannot be two prices for the same thing in the same
market, the wheat and grain produced in the neigh
bourhood of one of these Bundelcund capitals, fetch
as high a price there as that brought from the most
remote districts on the banks of the Nerbudda river ;
while it costs comparatively nothing to bring it
from the former lands to the markets. Such
lands, in consequence, yield a rate of rent much
greater compared with their natural powers of ferti
lity than those of the remotest districts whence pro
duce is drawn for these markets or capitals ; and as
all the lands are the property of the Rajahs, they
draw all these rents as revenue.*
Were we to take this revenue, which the Rajahs
now enjoy, in tribute for the maintenance of public
establishments concentrated at distant seats, all
these local establishments would of course be at
once disbanded ; and all the effectual demand which
* Bundelcund exports to the Ganges a great quantity of cotton,
which enables it to pay for the wheat, grain, and other land pro
duce which it draws from distant districts.

298 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
they afford for the raw agricultural produce of
distant districts, would cease. The price of this
produce would diminish in proportion ; and with it
the value of the lands of the districts around such
capitals. Hence the folly of conquerors and para^
mount powers, from the days of the Greeks and
Romans down to those of Lord Hastings and Sir
John Malcolm, who were all bad political economists,
supposing, that conquered and ceded territories could
always be made to yield to a foreign state the same
amount of gross revenue as they had paid to their
domestic government, whatever their situation with
reference to the markets for their produce — whatever
the state of their arts and their industry — and what
ever the character and extent of the local establish
ments maintained out of it. The settlements of the
land revenue in all the territories acquired in central
India during the Mahratta war, which ended, in
1817, were made upon the supposition, that the
lands would continue to pay the same rate of rent
under the new, as they had paid under the old
government, uninfluenced by the diminution of all
local establishments, civil and military, to one-tenth
of what they had been ; that, under the new order of
things, all the waste lands must be brought into
tillage, and be able t6 pay as high a rate of rent as
before tillage ; and, consequently, that the aggregate
available net revenue must greatly and rapidly in
crease ! Those who had the making ofthe settlements,
and the governing of these new territories, did not

FISCAL ERRORS. 299
consider, that the diminution of every establishment
was the removal of a market — of an effectual demand
for land produce ; and that when all the waste lands
should be brought into tillage, the whole would dete
riorate in fertility, from the want of fallows, under
the prevailing system of agriculture, which afforded
the lands no other means of renovation from over
cropping. The settlements of the land revenue
which were made throughout our new acquisitions
upon these fallacious assumptions, of course failed.
During a series of quinquennial settlements, the
assessment has been everywhere gradually reduced
to about two-thirds of what it was when our rule
began ; and to less than one-half of what Sir John
Malcolm, and all the other local authorities, and
even the worthy Marquis of Hastings himself, under
the influence of their opinions, expected it would
be. The land revenues of the native princes of
central India, who reduced their public establish
ments, which the new order of things seemed to
render useless, and thereby diminished their only
markets for the raw produce of their lands, have
been everywhere falling off in the same proportion ;
and scarcely one of them now draws two-thirds of
the income he drew from the same lands in 1817.
There are in the valley of the Nerbudda, districts
that yield a great deal more produce every year than
either Orcha, Jansee, or Duteea; and yet, from
the want of the same domestic markets, they do not
yield one-fourth of the amount of land revenue. The

300 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
lands are, however, rated equally high to the assess
ment, in proportion to their value to the farmers and
cultivators. To enable them to yield a larger re
venue to government, they require to have larger
establishments as markets for land produce. These
establishments may be either public, and paid by go
vernment, or they may be, private, as manufactories,
by which the land produce of these districts would
be consumed by people employed in investing
the value of their labour in commodities suited to
the demand of distant markets, and more valuable
than land produce in proportion to their weight and
bulk. These are the establishments which govern
ment should exert itself to introduce and foster,
since the valley of the Nerbudda, in addition to a
soil exceedingly fertile, has in its whole line, from
its source to its embouchure, rich beds of coal re
posing for the use of future generations, under the
sand-stone of the Sathpore and Vindhya ranges ; and
beds no less rich of very fine iron. These advantages
have not yet been justly appreciated ; but they will
be so by-and-bye.
About half-past four in the aftemoon of the day
we reached Duteea, I had a visit from the Rajah,
who came in his palankeen, with a very respectable,
but not very numerous or noisy train ; and he sat
with me about an hour. My large tents were both
pitched parallel to each other, about twenty paces
distant, and united to each other at both ends by
separate kanats, or cloth curtains. My little boy

GIGANTIC PALACE. 301
was present, and behaved extremely well in steadily
refusing, without even a look from me, a handful of
gold mohurs, which the Rajah pressed several times
upon his acceptance. I received him at the door of
my tent, and supported him upon my arm to his chair,
as he cannot walk without some slight assistance,
from the affection already mentioned in his leg. A
salute from the guns of his castle announced his de
parture and return to it. After the audience. Lieu
tenant Thomas and I ascended to the summit of a
palace of the former Rajahs of this state, which
stands upon a high rock close inside the eastern
gate of the city, whence we could see, to the west of
the city a still larger and handsomer palace standing.
I asked our conductors, the Rajah's servants, why it
was unoccupied. " No prince of these degenerate
days," said they, " could muster a family and court
worthy of such a palace — the family and court of
the largest of them would, within the walls of such
a building, feel as if they were in a desert ! Such
palaces were made for princes of the older times, who
were quite different beings from those of the present
days." From the deserted palace, we went to the new
garden which is preparing for the young Rajah, an
adopted son of about ten years of age. It is close to
the southern wall of the city, and is very extensive
and well managed. The orange-trees are all grafted,
and sinking under the weight of as fine fruit as any
in India. Attempting to ascend the steps of an

302 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
empty bungalow, upon a raised terrace at the southern
extremity of the garden, the attendants told us re
spectfully, that they hoped we would take off our
shoes if we wished to enter, as the ancestor of the
Rajah, by whom it was built. Ram Chund, had lately
become a god, and was there worshipped I The roof
is of stone, supported on carved stone pillars. On
the centre pillar, upon a ground of whitewash, is a
hand or trident. This is the only sign of a sacred
character the building has yet assumed ; and I found
that it owed this character of sanctity to the circum
stance of some one having vowed an offering to the
manes of the builder, if he obtained what his soul
most desired ; and, having obtained it, all the people
believe that those who do the same at the same
place, in a pure spirit of faith, will obtain what they
pray for !
I made some inquiries about Hurdoul Lala, the
son of Birsingdes, who built the fort of Dhumoree,
one of the ancestors of the Duteah Rajah, and found
that he was as much worshipped here, at his birth
place, as upon the banks of the Nerbudda, as the
supposed great originator of the cholera morbus.
There is at Duteea a temple dedicated to him, and
much frequented ; and one of the priests brought me
a flower in his name, and chanted something indi
cating that Hurdoul Lala was now worshipped even so
far as the British capital of Calcutta ! I asked the
old prince what he thought of the origin of the wor
ship of this his ancestor; and he told me, "that

TOWN OF DUTEEA. 303
when the cholera broke out first in the camp of Lord
Hastings, then pitched about three stages from his
capital, on the bank of the Sinde, at Chandpore So
nari, several people recovered from the disease im
mediately after making votive offerings in his name ;
and that he really thought the spirit of his great
grandfather had worked some wonderful cures upon
people afflicted with this dreadful malady !
The town of Duteea contains a population of be
tween forty and fifty thousand souls. The streets
are narrow — for in buildings, as in dress, the Rajah
allows every man to consult his own inclinations.
There are, however, a great many excellent houses
in Duteea ; and the appearance of the place is alto
gether very good. Many of his feudatory chiefs re
side occasionally in the city, and have all their esta
blishments with them — a practice which does not, I
believe, prevail anywhere else among these Bundel
cund chiefs ; and this makes the capital much larger'
handsomer, and more populous than that of Tehree.
This indicates more of mutual confidence between
the chief and his vassals, and accords well with the
character they bear in the surrounding countries.
Some of the houses occupied by these barons are
very pretty. They spend the revenue of their distant
estates in adorning them, and embellishing the capital,
which they certainly could not have ventured to do
under the late Rajahs of Tehree, and may not pos
sibly be able to do under the fiiture Rajahs of Du
teea ! The present minister of Duteea, Gunesh, is

304 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
a very great knave, and encourages the residence
upon his master's estate of all kinds of thieves and
robbers, who bring back from distant districts every
season vast quantities of booty, which they share
with him. The chief himself is a mild old gentle
man, who would not suffer violence to be offered to
any of his nobles, though he would not, perhaps,
quarrel with his minister for getting for him a little
addition to his revenue from without, by affording
a sanctuary to such kind of people. As in Tehree,
so here, the pickpockets constitute the entire popu
lation of several villages, and carry their depreda
tions northward to the banks ofthe Indus, and south
ward to Bombay and Madras. But colonies of
thieves and robbers like these, abound no less in our
o-wn territories than in those of native states ; there
are more than a thousand families of them in the
districts of Mozuffeernugur, Saharunpore, andMeerut,
in the upper Dooab, all well enough known to the
local authorities, who can do nothing with them.
They extend their depredations into remote dis
tricts, and the booty they bring home with them they
share liberally with the native police and landholders
under whose protection they live. Many landholders
and police officers make large fortunes from the
share they get of this booty. Magistrates in our dis
tricts do not molest them, because they would despair
of ever finding the proprietors of the property that
might be found upon them ; and if they could trace
them, they would never be able to persuade them to

ROBBERS AND GODS. 305
come and " enter upon a worse than sea of troubles,"
in prosecuting them. These thieves and robbers of
the professional classes, who have the sagacity to
avoid plundering near home, are always just as secure
in our best regulated districts, as they are in the worst
native states, from the only three things which such
depredators care about — the penal laws, the odium
of the society in which they move, and the vengeance
of the god they worship ; and they are always well
received in the society around them, as long as they
can avoid having their neighbours annoyed by sum
monses to give evidence for or against them in our
courts. They feel quite sure of the good will of the
god they worship, provided they give a fair share
of their booty to his priests ; and no less secure of
impunity from penal laws, except on the very rare
occasions when they happen to be taken in the
fact, in a country where such laws happen to be in
force !

VOL. I.

306

CHAPTER XXXII.

SPORTING AT DUTEEA  FIDELITY OF FOLLOWERS TO THEIR
CHIEFS IN INDIA  LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE WANTING
AMONG MAHOMEDANS.
The morning after we reached Duteea, I went
out with Lieutenant Thomas to shoot and hunt in
the Rajah's large preserve ; and with the humane and
determined resolution of kiUing no more game than
our camp would be likely to eat ; for we were told
that the deer and wild hogs were so very numerous
that we might shoot just as many as we pleased.
We were posted upon two terraces — one near the
gateway, and the other in the centre of the preserve ;
and after waiting here an hour we got each a shot at
a hog. Hares we saw, and might have shot ; but
we had loaded all our barrels with ball for higher
game. We left the Rumna, which is a quadrangle of
about one hundred acres of thick grass, shrubs, and
brushwood, enclosed by a high stone wall. There is
one gate on the west side, and this is kept open

SPORTING. 307
during the night, to let the game out and in. It is
shut and guarded during the day, when the animals
are left to repose in the shade, except on such occa
sions as the present, when the Rajah wants to give
his guests a morning's sport. On the plains and
woods outside we saw a good many large deer, but
could not manage to get near them in our own way,
and had not patience to try that of the natives, so that
we came back vrithout killing anything, or having
had any occasion to exercise our forbearance. The
Rajah's people, as soon as we left them, went about
their sport after their own fashion, and brought us a fine
buck antelope after breakfast. They have a bullock
trained to go about the fields with them, led at a
quick pace by a halter, with which the sportsman
guides him as he walks along with him by the side
opposite to that facing the deer he is in pursuit of
He goes round and round the deer as he grazes in
the field, shortening his distance at every circle till
he comes within shot. At the signal given the bul
lock stands still ; and the sportsman rests his gun
upon his back and fires. They seldom miss. Others
go with a fine buck and doe antelope, tame, and
trained to browze upon the fresh bushes, which are
woven for the occasion into a kind of hand-hurdle,
behind which a man creeps along over the fields to
wards the herd of wild ones, or sits still -with his
matchlock ready and pointed out through the leaves.
The herd, seeing the male and female strangers so
very busily and agreeably employed upon their ap-
x2

308 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
parently inviting repast, advance to accost them, and
are shot when they get within a secure distance. The
hurdle was filled with branches from the dho-w
(Lythrum fructuosum) tree, of which the jungle is
for the most part composed, plucked as we went
along; and the tame antelopes, having been kept
long fasting for the purpose, fed eagerly upon them.
We had also two pairs of falcons ; but a knowledge
of the brutal manner in which these birds are fed
and taught, is enough to prevent any but a brute
from takiug much deUght in the sport they afford.
The officer who conducted us was evidently much
disappointed, for he was really very anxious, as he
knew his master the Rajah was, that we should have
a good day's sport. On our way back I made him
ride by my side, and talk to me about Duteea, since
he had been unable to show me any sport. I got
his thoughts into a train that I knew would animate
him, if he had any soul at all for poetry or poetical
recollections, as I thought he had. " The noble works
in palaces and temples," said he, "which you see around
you, sir, mouldering in ruins, were built by princes
who had beaten emperors in battle ; and whose spirits
still hover over and protect the place. Several
times, under the late disorders which preceded your
paramount rule in Hindoostan, when hostile forces
assembled around us and threatened our capital with
destruction, lights and elephants innumerable were
seen from the tops of those battlements, passing and
repassing under the walls, ready to defend them, had

FEUDAL FIDELITY. 309
the enemy attempted an assault. Whenever our
soldiers endeavoured to approach near them they dis
appeared ; and everybody knew that they were spirits
of men like Birsing Deo and Hurdoul Lala that had
come to our aid, and we never lost confidence !"
It is easy to understand the devotion of men to their
chiefs, when they believe their progenitors to have been
demigods, and to have been faithfully served by their
ancestors for several generations. We neither have,
nor ever can have, servants so personally devoted to
us as these men are to their chiefs, though we have
soldiers who will fight under our banners with
as much courage and fidelity. They know that
their grandfathers served the grandfathers of these
chiefs, and they hope their grandchildren will serve
their grandsons. The one feels as much pride and
pleasure in so serving, as the other in being so served ;
and both hope that the link which binds them may
never be severed. Our servants, on the contrary,
private and public, are always in dread that some
accident — some trivial fault, or some slight offence,
not to be avoided — will sever for ever the link that
binds them to their master.
The fidelity of the military classes of the people of
India to their immediate chief, or leader, whose salt
they eat, has been always very remarkable, and com
monly bears little reference to his moral virtues,
or conduct towards his superiors. They feel that
it is their duty to serve him who feeds and pro
tects them and their families, in all situations, and

310 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
under all circumstances ; and the chief feels, that
while he has a right to their services, it is his impe
rative duty so to feed and protect them and their
families. He may change sides as often as he pleases,
but the relations between him and his followers re
main unchanged. About the side he chooses to take
in a contest for dominion, they ask no questions, and
feel no responsibility. God has placed their destinies
in dependence upon his ; and to him they cling to
the last. In Malwa, Bhopal, and other parts of cen
tral India, the Mahomedan rule could be established
over that of the Rajpoot chiefs, only by the entire
annihilation of the race of their followers. In no part
of the world has the devotion of soldiers to their im
mediate chief, been more remarkable than in India
among the Rajpoots ; and in no part of the world has
the fidelity of these chiefs to the paramount power
been more unsteady, or their devotion less to be re
lied upon. The laws of Mahomed, which prescribe
that the property in land shall be divided equally
among the sons, leaves no mle for succession to ter
ritorial or political dominion. It has been justly ob
served by Hume — " The right of primogeniture was
introduced with the feudal law ; an institution which
is hurtful, by producing and maintaining an unequal
division of property ; but it is advantageous in ano
ther respect, by accustoming the people to a pre
ference in favour of the eldest son, and thereby
preventing a partition or disputed succession in the
monarchy."

PRIMOGENITURE. 311
Among the Mahomedan princes there was no law
that bound the whole members of a family to obey
the eldest son of a deceased prince. Every son of
the Emperor of Hindoostan considered that he had
a right to set up his claim to the throne, vacated by
the death of his father ; and, in anticipation of that
death, to strengthen his means of establishing such
claim by negociations and intrigues with all the ter
ritorial chiefs and influential nobles of the empire.
However prejudicial to the interests of his elder
brothers such measures might be, they were never
considered to be an invasion of his rights, because
such rights had never been established by the laws
of their prophet. As all the sons considered that
they had an equal right to solicit the support of the
chiefs and nobles, so all the chiefs and nobles consi
dered that they could adopt the cause of whichever
son they chose, without incurring the reproach of
either treason or dishonour. The one who succeeded
thought himself justified by the law of self-preserva
tion, to put, not only his brothers, but all their sons
to death ; so that there was, after every new succes
sion, an entire clearance of all the male members of
the imperial family ! Ourungzebe said to his pe
dantic tutor, who wished to be raised to high station
on his accession to the imperial throne, " Should not
you, instead of your flattery, have taught me some
what of that point so important to a king, which is,
what are the reciprocal duties of a sovereign to his
subjects, and those of the subjects to their sovereign ?

312 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
And ought not you to have considered, fhat one day
I should be obliged, with the sword, to dispute my
life and the crown with my brothers ? Is not that
the destiny almost of all the sons of Hindoostan ?" *
Now that they have become pensioners of the British
government, the members increase like white ants ;
and, as Malthus has it, " press so hard against their
means of subsistence," that a great many of them are
absolutely starving, in spite of the enormous pen
sion the head of the family receives for their main
tenance !
The city of Duteea is surrounded by a stone wall
about thirty feet high, with its foundation on a solid
rock ; but it has no ditch or glacis, and is capable of
little or no defence against cannon. In the afternoon
I went, accompanied by Lieutenant Thomas, and fol
lowed by the best cortege we could muster, to return
the Rajah's visit. He resides within the walls of the
city in a large square garden, enclosed with a high
wall, and filled with fine orange trees, at this time
bending under the weight of the most delicious fruit.
The old chief received us at the bottom of a fine
flight of steps leading up to a handsome pavilion,
built upon the wall of one of the faces of this garden.
It was enclosed at the back, and in front looked into
the garden through open arcades. The floors were
spread with handsome carpets of the Jansee manu
facture. In front of the pavilion was a wide terrace
of polished stone, extending to the top of the flight
* Bernier's Revolution of the Mogul Empire.

CITY OF DUTEEA. 313
of steps ; and in the centre of this terrace, and directly
opposite to us, as we looked out into the garden,
was a fine jet d'eau in a large basin of water in
full play, and with its shower of diamonds, showing
off the rich green and red of the orange trees to the
best advantage.
The large quadrangle thus occupied is called the
killah or fort, and the wall that surrounds it is thirty
feet high, with a round embattled tower at each
corner. On the east face is a fine large gateway for
the entrance, with a curtain as high as the wall itself.
Inside the gate is a piece of ordnance painted red,
with the largest calibre I ever saw. This is fired
once a year, at the festival of the Dusecra. Our
arrival at the wall was announced by a salute from
some fine brass guns upon the bastions near the
gateway. As we advanced from the gateway up
through the garden to the pavilion, we were again
serenaded by our friends with their guitars and ex
cellent voices. They were now on foot, and arranged
along both sides of the walk that we had to pass
through. The open garden space within the walls
appeared to me to be about ten acres. It is crossed
and recrossed at right angles by numerous walks,
having rows of plantain and other fruit-trees on each
side ; and orange, pomegranate, and other small fruit
trees to fill the space between ; and anything more
rich and luxuriant one can hardly conceive. In the
centre of the north and west sides are pavilions with
apartments for the family above, behind, and on each

314 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
side of the great reception room, exactly similar to
that in which we were received on the south face.
The whole formed, I think, the most delightfiil re
sidence that I have seen, for a hot climate. There
is, however, no doubt that the most healthy stations
in this, and every other hot climate, are those situated
upon dry, open, sandy plains, with neither shrub
beries nor basins.
We were introduced to the young Rajah, the old
man's adopted son, a lad of about ten years of age,
who is to be married in February next. He is plain
in person, but has a pleasing expression of coun
tenance ; and if he be moulded after the old man,
and not after his minister, the country may perhaps
have in him the " lucky accident " of a good go
vernor.* I have rarely seen a finer or more prepos
sessing man than the Rajah, and all his subjects
speak well of him. We had an elephant, a horse,
abundance of shawls, and other fine clothes placed
before us as presents ; but I prayed the old gentle
man to keep them all for me tili I returned, as I
was a mere voyageur without the means of carrying
* This lad has since succeeded his adoptive father as the chief
of the Duteea principality. The old chief found him one day
lying in the grass, as he was shooting through one of his pre
serves. His elephant was very near treading upon the infant be
fore he saw it. He brought home the boy, adopted him as his
son, and declared him his successor, from having no son of his
own. The British government, finding that the people generally
seemed to acquiesce in the old man's wishes, sanctioned the mea
sure as the paramount power.

HINDOO FLATTERY. 315
such valuable things in safety ; but he would not be
satisfied till I had taken two plain hilts of swords,
and two spears, the manufacture of Duteea, and of
little value, which Lieutenant Thomas and I pro
mised to keep for his sake. The rest of the presents
were all taken back to their places. After an hour's
talk with the old man and his ministers, ottar of
roses and pawn were distributed, and we took our
leave to go and visit the old palace, which, as yet, we
had seen only from a distance. There were only two
men beside the Rajah, his son, and ourselves, seated
upon chairs. All the other principal persons of the
court sat around cross-legged on the carpet ; but
they joined freely in the conversation. I was
told by these courtiers how often the young chief
had, during the day, asked when he would have the
happiness of seeing me ; and the old chief was told,
in my hearing, how many good things I had said
since I came into his territories, all tending to his
honour and my credit. This is a species of bare
faced flattery, to which we are all doomed to submit
in our intercourse -with these native chiefs ; but still,
to a man of sense, it never ceases to be distressing
and offensive ; for he can hardly ever help feeling
that they must think him a mere child before they
could venture to treat him with it. This is, however,
to put too harsh a construction upon what, in reality,
the people mean only as civility ; and they who can
so easily consider the grandfathers of their chiefs as
gods, and worship them as such, may be suffered to

316 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
treat us as heroes and sayers of good things vrithout
offence !
We ascended to the summit of the old palace, and
were well repaid for the trouble by the view of an
extremely rich sheet of wheat, grain, and other spring
crops, extending to the north and east, as far as the
eye could reach, from the dark belt of forest, three
miles deep, 'with which the Rajah has surrounded
his capital on every side, as hunting grounds ! The
lands comprised in this forest are, for the most part,
exceedingly poor, and water for irrigation is unat
tainable within them, so that little is lost by this
taste of the chief for the sports of the field, in which,
however, he cannot himself now indulge.
On the 19th we left Duteea, and after emerging
from the surrounding forest came over a fine plain
covered with rich spring crops for ten miles, till we
entered among the rarines of the river Scinde, whose
banks are like those of all rivers in this part of India,
bordered to a great distance by these deep and ugly
inequalities. Here they are almost 'without grass or
shrubs to clothe their hideous nakedness, and have
been formed by the torrents which, in the season of
the rains, rush from the extensive plain as from a
wide ocean, down to the deep channel of the river in
narrow streams. These streams cut their way easily
through the soft alluvial soil, which must once have
formed the bed of a vast lake. On coming through
the forest, before sunrise, we discovered our error of
the day before, for we found excellent deer shooting

WHOLESALE SPORT. 317
in the long grass and brushwood which grow luxu
riantly at some distance from the city. Had we
come out a couple of miles the day before, we might
have had noble sport, and really required the for
bearance and humanity, to which we had so magna
nimously resolved to sacrifice our " pride of art," as
sportsmen ; for we saw many herds of the neelgae,
antelope, and spotted deer, browsing within a few
paces of us, within the long grass and brushwood on
both sides of the road. We could not stay, how
ever, to indulge in much sport, having a long march
before us.

318

CHAPTER XXXIII.

BHOOMEEAWUT.

Though, no doubt, very familiar to our ancestors
during the middle ages, this is a thing happily but
little understood in Europe at the present day.
Bhoomeeawut, in Bundelcund, signifies a war or
fight for landed inheritance, from Bhoom, the land,
earth, &c. ; Bhoomeea, a landed proprietor.
When a member of the landed aristocracy, no
matter however small, has a dispute with his ruler,
he collects his followers, and levies indiscriminate
war upon his territories, plundering and buming his
towns and villages, and murdering their inhabitants,
till he is invited back upon his own terms. During
this war, it is a point of honour not to allow a single
acre of land to be tilled upon the estate which he
has deserted, or from which he has been driven ; and
he will murder any man who attempts to drive a
plough in it, together with all his family, if he can.
The smallest member of this landed aristocracy of

BHOOMEEAWUT. 319
the Hindoo military class, will often cause a terrible
devastation during the interval that he is engaged
in his Bhoomeeawut ; for there are always vast num
bers of loose characters floating upon the surface of
Indian society, ready to " gird up their loins" and
use their sharp swords in the service of marauders of
this kind, when they cannot get employment in
that of the constituted authorities of govern
ment. Such a marauder has generally the sympathy of
nearly all the members of his own class and clan,
who are apt to think that his case may one day be
their own. He is thus looked upon as contending for
the interests of all : and if his chief happens to be on
bad terms with other chiefs in the neighbourhood, the
latter will clandestinely support the outlaw and his
cause, by giving him and his followers shelter in their
hills and jungles, and concealing their families and
stolen property in their castles. It is a maxim in
India, and in. the less settled parts of it a very true
one, that " one Pindara or robber makes a hundred ;"
that is, where one robber, by a series of atrocious
murders and robberies, frightens the people into non-
resistance, a hundred loose characters from among
the peasantry of the country 'will take advantage of
the occasion, and adopt his name, in order to plunder
with the smallest possible degree of personal risk to
themselves. Some magistrates and local rulers, under such cir
cumstances, have very unwisely adopted the measure
8

320 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of prohibiting the people from carrying or ha'ring
arms in their houses, the very thing which, above all
others, such robbers most wish; for they know,
though such magistrates and rulers do not, that it is
the innocent only, and the friends to order, who will
obey the command. The robber will always be able
to conceal his arms, or keep with them out of the
reach of the magistrate ; and he is now relieved alto
gether from the salutary dread of a shot from a door
or window. He may rob at his leisure, or sit down
like a gentleman, and have all that the people of the
surrounding towns and villages possess brought to
him, for no man can any longer attempt to defend
himself or his family.
Weak governments are obliged soon to invite back
the robber on his own terms, for the people can pay
them no revenue, being prevented from cultivating
their lands, and obliged to give all they have to the
robbers, or submit to be plundered of it. Jansee
and Jhalone are exceedingly weak governments, from
having their territories studded with estates held
rent-free or at a quit-rent, by Powar, Bondela, and
Dhundele barons, who have always the sympathy of
the numerous chiefs and their barons of the same
clans around.
In the year 1832, the Powar barons, of the estates
of Nonnere, Signee, Odegow, and Belchree, in Jan
see, had some cause of dissatisfaction with their chief,
and this they presented to Lord William Bentinck
as he passed through the province in December.

BHOOMEEAWUT. 321
His lordship told them, that these were questions of
internal administration which they must settle among
themselves, as the supreme government would not inter
fere. They had therefore only one way of settling such
disputes, and that was to raise the standard of Bhoo
meeawut, and cry, " To your tents, 0 Israel." This
they did ; and though the Jansee chief had a mili
tary force of twelve thousand men, they burnt down
every town and viUage in the territory that did not
come into their terms, and the chief had possession
of only two — Jansee, the capital, and the large com
mercial town of Mow, when the Bondela Rajahs of
Orcha and Duteea, who had hitherto clandestinely
supported the insurgents, consented to become the
arbitrators. A suspension of arms followed, the
barons got all they demanded, and the Bhoomeeawut
ceased. But the Jansee chief, who had hitherto
lent large sums to the other chiefs in the province,
was reduced to the necessity of borrowing from them
all, and from Gwalior, and mortgaging to them a
good portion of his lands.
Gwalior is itself weak in the same way. A great
portion of its lands are held by barons of the Hindoo
military classes, equally addicted to Bhoomeeawut,
and one or more of them is alM^ays engaged in this
kind of indiscriminate warfare ; and it must be con
fessed, that unless they are always considered to be
ready to engage in it, they have very little chance of
retaining their possessions on moderate terms, for
VOL. I. Y

322

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

these weak governments are generally the most rapa
cious when they have it in their power.
A good deal of the lands of the Mahomedan so
vereign of Oude are, in the same manner, held by
barons of the Rajpoot tribe ; and some of them are
almost always in the field engaged in the same kind
of warfare against their sovereign. The baron who
pursues it with vigour is almost sure to be invited
back upon his own terms very soon. If his lands
are worth a hundred thousand a year, he will get
them for ten ; and have this remitted for the next five
years, till ready for another Bhoomeeavnit, on the
ground of the injuries sustained during the last, from
which his estate has to recover. The baron who is
peaceable and obedient soon gets rack-rented out of
his estate, and reduced to beggary.
In 1818, some companies of my regiment were,
for several months, employed in Oude, after a young
Bhoomeeawutee of this kind. Sew Ruttun Sing.
He was the nephew and heir of the Rajah of Pertab-
gur, who wished to exclude him from his inheritance
by the adoption of a brother of his young bride.
Sew Ruttun had a small village for his maintenance,
and said nothing to his old uncle till the governor of
the province, Gholam Hoseyn, accepted an invita
tion to be present at the ceremony of adoption. He
knew that if - he acquiesced any longer he would
lose his inheritance, and cried, " To your tents, O
Israel." He got a small band of three hundred

BHOOMEEAWUT. 323
Rajpoots, with nothing but their swords, shields, and
spears, to follow him, all of the same clan, and true
men. They were bivouacked in a jungle not more
than seven miles from our cantonments at Pertab-
gur, when Gholam Hoseyn marched to attack them
with three regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and
two nine-pounders. He thought he should surprise
them, and contrived so that he should come upon
thera about daybreak. Sew Ruttun knew all his
plans. He placed one hundred and fifty of his men
in ambuscade at the entrance of the jungle, and kept
the other hundred and fifty by him in the centre.
When they had got well in, the party in ambush
rushed upon the rear, while he attacked them in
front. After a short resistance, Gholam Hoseyn's
force took to flight, leaving five hundred men dead
on the field, and their two guns behind thera. Gholara
Hoseyn was so ashamed of the drubbing he got, that
he bribed all the news writers, within twenty railes
of the place, to say nothing about it in their reports
to court, and he never made any report of it him
self. A detachment of my regiment passed over the
dead bodies in the course of the day, on their return
to cantonments frora detached coraraand, or we
should have known nothing about it. It is true, we
heard the firing, but that we heard every day ; and I
have seen from ray bungalow half a dozen villages in
flaraes, at the sarae tirae, from this species of contest
between the Rajpoot landholders and the govem-
Y 2

324 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
ment authorities. Our cantonments were generally
full of the women and children who had been burnt
out of house and home.
In Oude such contests generally begin with the
harvests. During the season of tillage all is quiet ;
but when the crops begin to ripen, the governor
begins to rise in his demands for revenue ; and the
Rajpoot landholders and cultivators to sharpen their
swords and burnish their spears. One hundred of
them always consider theraselves a match for one
thousand of the king's troops in a fair field, because
they have all one heart and soul, while the king's
troops have many.
While the Powars were ravaging the Jansee
state with their Bhoomeeawut, a merchant of Saugor
had a large convoy of valuable cloths, to the amount,
I think, of forty thousand rupees, intercepted by
them on its way from Mirzapore to Rajpootannah.
I was then at Saugor, and wrote off to the insurgents
to say that they had mistaken one of our subjects for
one of the Jansee chiefs, and must release the
convoy. They did so, and not a piece of the cloth
was lost. This Bhoomeeawut is supposed to have
cost the Jansee chief above twenty lacs of rupees,
and his subjects double that sum.
Gopaul Sing, a Bondela, who had been in the ser
vice of the chief of Punna, took to Bhoomeeawut, in
1809, and kept a large British force employed in
pursuit through Bundelcund and the Saugor territo-

BHOOMEEAWUT.

325

ries for three years, till he was invited back by our
government, in the year 1812, by the gift of a fine
estate on the banks of the Dussan river, yielding
twenty thousand rupees a year, which his son now
enjoys, and which is to descend to his posterity,
many of whom will, no doubt, animated by their for
tunate ancestor's example, take to the same trade.
He had been a man of no note till he took to this
trade, but by his predatory exploits he soon became
celebrated throughout India ; and when I came to
the country no other raan's chivalry was so much
talked off.
A Bondela, or other landholder of the Hindoo
military class, does not think himself, nor is he in
deed thought by others, in the slightest degree less
respectable for having waged this indiscriminate war
upon the innocent and unoffending, provided he has
any cause of dissatisfaction with his liege lord — that
is, provided he cannot get his lands or his appoint
ment in his service upon his own terms — because all
others of the same class and clan feel more or less
interested in his success. They feel that their tenure
of land, or of office, is improved by the raischief he
does ; because every peasant he murders, and every
field he throws out of tillage, affects their liege lord
in his most tender point, his treasury ; and indisposes
him to interfere with their salaries, their privileges,
or their rents. He who wages this war goes on mar
rying his sisters or his daughters to the other barons
or landholders of the same clan, and receiving theirs

326 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
in marriage during the whole of his Bhoomeeawut, as
if nothing at all extraordinary had happened, and
thereby strengthening his hand at the garae he is
playing. Omrow Sing, of Jaklone, in Chunderee, a district
of Gwalior, bordering upon Saugor, has been at this
game for more than fifteen years out of the last
twenty, but his alliances among the baronial famiUes
around have not been in the slightest degree affected
by it. His sons and his grandsons have, perhaps,
made better matches than they might, had the old
man been at peace with all the world, during the
time that he has been desolating one district by his
atrocities, aud demoralizing all those around it by
his example, and by inviting the youth to join him
occasionally in his murderous enterprises. Neither
age nor sex is respected in their attacks upon towns
and villages; and no Mahomedan can take more
pride and pleasure in defacing idols — the most
monstrous idol — than a Bhoomeeawutee takes in
mairaing an innocent peasant, who presumes to drive
his plough in lands that he chooses to put under the
ban. In the kingdom of Oude this Bhoomeeawut is a
kind of nursery for our native army, for the sons of
Rajpoot yeomen, who have been trained in it, are
all exceedingly anxious to enlist in our native in
fantry regiments, having no dislike to their drill or
their uniform. The same class of men in Bundel
cund and the Gwalior state, have a great horror of

BHOOMEEAWUT.

327

the drill and uniform of our regular infantry ; and
nothing can induce them to enlist in our ranks.
Both are equally brave, and equally faithful to their
salt — that is, to the person who eraploys them ; but
the Oude Rajpoot is a rauch raore tameable amiable
than the Bondela. In Oude, this class of people
have all inherited from their fathers a respect for
our rule, and a love for our service. In Bundelcund
they have not yet become reconciled to our service ;
and they still look upon our rule as interfering a
good deal too much with their sporting propensi
ties.

328

CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE SUICIDE  RELATIONS BETWEEN PARENTS AND
CHILDREN IN INDIA.
The day before we left Duteea, our cook had a
violent dispute with his mother, a thing of almost
daily occurrence ; for though a very fat and hand
some old lady, she was a very violent one. He was
a quiet man, but unable to bear any longer the abuse
she was heaping upon him, he first took up a pitcher
of water and flung it at her head. It missed her,
and he then snatched up a stick, and, for the first
time in his life, struck her. He was her only son.
She quietly took up all her things ; and walking off
towards a temple, said she would leave hira for ever ;
and he having passed the rubicon declared, that he
was resolved no longer to submit to the parental
tyranny, which she had hitherto exercised over him.
My water carrier, however, prevailed upon her with
much difficulty to return, and take up her quarters
with him and his wife and five children in a small
tent we had given them. Maddened at the thought

THE SUICIDE. 329
of a blow from her only son, the old lady about sun
set swaUowed a large quantity of opium ; and before
the circumstance was discovered, it was too late to
apply a remedy. We were told of it about eight
o'clock at night, and found her lying in her son's
arras — tried every remedy at hand, but without
success, and about midnight she died. She loved
her son, and he respected her ; and yet not a day
passed without their having some desperate quarrel,
generally about the orphan daughter of her brother,
who lived with them, and was to be married as soon
as the cook could save, out of his pay, money enough
to defray the expenses of the ceremonies. The old
woman was always reproaching him for not saving
money fast enough. This little cousin had now
stolen some of the cook's tobacco for his young assist
ant ; and the old lady thought it right to admonish
her. The cook likewise thought it right to add his
admonitions to those of his raother ; but the old lady
would have her niece abused by nobody but herself,
and she flew into a violent passion at his presuming
to interfere. This led to the son's outrage, and the
mother's suicide. The son is a mild, good-tempered
young man, who bears an excellent character among
his equals ; and is a very good servant. Had he
been less mild it had perhaps been better ; for his
raother would by degrees have given up that despotic
sway over her child, which in infancy is necessary,
in youth useful, but in manhood becomes intolerable.
" God defend us from the anger ofthe mild in spirit,"

330 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
said an excellent judge of huraan nature, Mahomed,
the founder of this cook's religion; and certainly
the mildest tempers are those which become the most
ungovernable when roused beyond a certain degree ;
and the proud spirit of the old woman could not
brook the outrage which her son, when so roused, had
been guilty of. From the time that she was disco
vered to have taken poison till she breathed her
last, she lay in the arms of the poor raan, who be
sought her to live, that her only son might atone for
his crime, and not be a parricide !
There is no part of the world, I believe, where
parents are so much reverenced by their sons as
they are in India in all classes of society. This is
sufficiently evinced in the desire that parents feel to
have sons. The duty of daughters is frora the day
of their marriage transferred entirely to their hus
bands and their husbands' parents, on whom alone
devolves the duty of protecting and supporting them
through the wedded and the widowed state. The
links that united them to their parents are broken.
AU the reciprocity of rights and duties which have
bound together the parent and child from infancy, is
considered to end with the consummation of her
marriage; nor does the stain of any subsequent
female backsliding ever affect the family of her
parents — it can affect that only of her husband,
which is held alone responsible for her conduct. If
a widow inherits the property of her husband, on
her death the property would go to the widow of her

PARENTS AND CHILDREN. 331
husband's brother, supposing neither had any chU
dren by their husbands, in preference to her own
brother : but between the son and his parents this
reciprocity of rights and duties follows them to the
grave. One is delighted to see in sons this habitual
reverence for the mother ; but, as in the present
case, it is too apt to occasion a domineering spirit,
which produces much mischief even in private famiUes,
but still more in sovereign ones. A prince, when he
attains the age of manhood, and ought to take upon
himself the duties of the governraent, is often obliged
to witness a great deal of oppression and misrule
from his inability to persuade his widowed mother to
resign the power willingly into his hands. He often
taraely submits to see his country ruined, and his
family dishonoured, as at Jansee, before he can
bring himself, by some act of desperate resolution,
to wrest it from her grasp. In order to prevent
his doing so, or to recover the reins he has thus
obtained, the mother has often been known to poison
her o-wn son ; and many a princess in India, like
Isabella of England, has, I believe, destroyed her
husband, to enjoy more freely the society of her
paramour, and hold these reins during the rainority
of her son.
In the exercise of dominion from behind the cur
tain (for it is those who live behind the curtain that
seem most anxious to hold it) woraen select rainisters
who, to secure duration to their influence, become
their paramours ; or at least make the world believe

332 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
that they are so, to serve their own selfish purposes.
The sons are tyrannised over through youth by their
raothers, who endeavour to subdue their spirit to the
yoke, which they wish to bind heavy upon their necks
for life; and they remain through manhood timid,
ignorant, and altogether unfitted for the conduct of
public affairs, and for the government of men under
a despotic rule, whose essential principle is a salutary
fear of the prince in the minds of all his public
officers. Every unlettered native of India is as sen
sible of this principle as Montesquieu was ; and will
tell us, that in countries like India, a chief, to govern
well, must have a smack of the devil (shytan) in him ;
for if he has not, his pubUc servants will prey upon
his innocent and industrious subjects. In India
there are no universities or public schools in which
young men might escape, as they do in Europe, from
the enervating and stultifying influence of the
Zunana. The state of mental imbecility to which a
youth of naturally average powers of mind, born to
territorial dominion, is in India often reduced by a
haughty and ambitious mother, would be absolutelyin-
credible to a man bred up in such schools. They are
often utterly unable to act, think, or speak for them
selves. If they happen, as they sometimes do, to
get well informed in reading and conversation, they
remain Hamlet-like, nervous and diffident ; and how
ever speculatively or ruminatively wise, quite unfit
for action, or for performing their part in the great
drama of life.

SLEIGHT OF HAND. 333
In my evening ramble on the bank of the river,
which was flowing against the Avind, and rising into
waves, my raind wandered back to the hours of in
fancy and boyhood, when I sat with my brothers
watching our little vessels as they scudded over the
ponds and streams of my native land ; and then of
my poor brothers John and Louis, whose bones now
lie beneath the ocean. As we advance in age the
dearest scenes of early days must necessarily become
raore and more associated in our recollection Avith
painful feelings ; for they who enjoyed such scenes
with us must by degrees pass away, and be remem
bered with sorrow even by those who are conscious
of having fulfilled all their duties in life towards
them — but with how much more by those, who can
never remember thera without thinking of occasions
of kindness and assistance neglected or disregarded !
Many of thera have perhaps left behind them widows
and children struggling with adversity, and soliciting
from us aid which we strive in vain to give.
During my visit to the Rajah, a person in the dis
guise of one of my sipahees went to a shop and pur
chased for me five and twenty rupees worth of fine
Europe chintz, for which he paid in good rupees,
which were forthwith assayed by a neighbouring gold
smith. The sipahee put these rupees into his own
purse and laid it down, saying, that he should go and
ascertain frora me whether I wished to keep the
whole ofthe chintz or not; and if not he should re
quire back the sarae money — that I was to halt to-

334 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
morrow, when he would return to the shop again.
Just as he was going away, however, he recollected
that he wanted a turban for himself; and requested
the shopkeeper to bring him one. They were sitting
in the verandah, and the shopkeeper had to go into
his shop to bring out the turban. When he came
out with it, the sipahee said it would not suit his
purpose ; and went off, lea-ring the purse where it
lay ; and cautioning the shopkeeper against changing
any of the rupees, as he should require his O'wn iden
tical raoney back if his master rejected any of the
chintz. The shopkeeper waited till four o'clock in
the aftemoon of the next day without looking into
the purse. Hearing then that I had left Duteea, and
seeing no signs of the sipahee, he opened the purse
and found that the rupees were all copper, with a
thin coating of silver. The man had changed thera
while he went into the shop for a turban ; and sub
stituted a purse exactly the sarae in appearance.
After ascertaining that the story was true, and that
the ingenious thief was not one of ray followers, I
insisted upon the man's taking his money from me, in
spite of a great deal of remonstrance on the part of
the Rajah's agent, who had come on with us.

335

CHAPTER XXXV.
GWALIOR PLAIN ONCE THE BED OF A LAKE  TAMENESS
OF PEACOCKS.
On the 19th, 20th, and 21st, we came on forty
miles to the village of Antree in the Gwalior terri
tory, over a fine plain of rich alluvial soil under
spring crops. This plain bears manifest signs of
having been at no very reraote period, like the
kingdom of Bohemia, the bed of a vast lake, bounded
by the ranges of sandstone hills which now seem to
skirt the horizon all round ; and studded with innu
merable islands of all shapes and sizes, which now
rise abruptly in all directions out of the cultivated
plain. The plain is still like the unruffled surface of
a vast lake ; and the rich green of the spring crops,
which cover the surface in one wide sheet uninter-
sected by hedges, tends to keep up the illusion,
which the rivers have little tendency to dispel ; for
though they have cut their way down imraense
depths to their present beds through this soft alluvial
deposit, the traveller no sooner emerges from the

336 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
hideous ravines which disfigure their banks, than he
loses all trace of them. Their course is unmarked
by trees, large shrubs, or any ofthe signs which mark
the course of rivers in other quarters. The soil over
the vast plain is everywhere of good quality, and
everywhere cultivated, or rather worked, for we can
hardly consider a soil cultivated which is never
either irrigated or manured, or voluntarily relieved
by fallows or an alternation of crops, till it has de
scended to the last stage of exhaustion. The prince
rack-rents the farraer, the farmer rack-rents the
cultivator, and the cultivator rack-rents the soil.
Soon after crossing the Scinde river we enter upon
the territories of the Gwalior chief, Sindheea.
The villages are everywhere few, and their cora
munities very small. The greater part of the pro
duce goes for sale to the capital of Gwalior, where
the money it brings is paid into the treasury in rent,
or revenue to the chief, who distributes it in salaries
among his establishments, who again pay it for land
produce to the cultivators, farraers, and agricultural
capitalists, who again pay it back into the treasury
in land revenue. No more people reside in the
villages than are absolutely necessary to the culti
vation of the land, because the chief takes all the
produce beyond what is necessary for their bare sub
sistence ; and out of what he takes, maintains esta
blishments that reside elsewhere. There is no
where any jungle to be seen, and very few of the
villages that are scattered over the plains bave any

TAMENESS OF PEACOCKS. 337
fruit or ornamental trees left ; and when the spring
crops, to which the tillage is chiefly confined, are
taken off the ground, the face of the country must
have a very naked and dreary appearance. Near
one viUage on the road I saw some men threshing
corn in a field, and among them a peacock (which of
course I took to be doraesticated) breakfasting very
comfortably upon the grain as it flew around hira.
A little farther on, I saw another quietly working
his way into a stack of corn, as if he understood it to
have been made for his use alone. It was so close
to me as I passed, that I put out my stick to push
it off in play ; and to my surprise it flew off in a
fright at my white face and strange dress, and was
followed by the others. I found that they were
all wild, if that term can be applied to birds that
live on such excellent terras with mankind. On
reaching our tents we found several feeding in the
corn-fields close around them, undisturbed by our
host of camp followers ; and were told by the villa
gers, who had assembled to greet us, that they were
all wild. " Why," said they, " should we think of
keeping birds that live among us on such easy terms
without being keptf I asked whether they ever
shot them ; and was told, that they never killed or
molested thera; but that any one who wished to
shoot thera raight do so, since they had here no reli
gious regard for them. Like the pareear dogs, the
peacocks seem to disarm the people by confiding in
them — their tameness is at once the cause and the
VOL. I. z

338 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
effect of their security. The members of the Uttle
coramunities, among whom they live on such friendly
terras, would not have the heart to shoot them ; and
travellers either take them to be domesticated, or
are at once disarmed by their tameness.
At Autree, a sufficient quantity of salt is raanu
factured for the consuraption of the people of the
town. The earth that contains raost salt is dug up
at sorae distance from the town, and brought to
sraall reservoirs raade close outside the walls. Water
is here poured over it as over tea and coffee. Pass
ing through the earth, it flows out below into a
small conduit, which takes it to small pits some
yards distance, whence it is removed in buckets to
small enclosed platforras, where it is exposed to the
sun's rays till the water evaporates, and leaves
the salt dry. The want of trees over this vast plain
of fine soil from the Scinde river, is quite lamentable.
The people of Antree pointed out the place close to
ray tents where a beautiful grove of mango trees
had been lately taken off to Gwalior for gun carriages
and fire wood, in spite of all the proprietor could
urge of the detriment to his own interest in this
world, and to those of his ancestors in that to which
they had gone ! Wherever the army of this chief
moved they invariably swept off the groves of fruit
trees in the same reckless manner. Parts of the
country which they merely passed through have re
covered their trees, because the desire to propitiate
the Deity and to perpetuate their name by such a

POPULAR OPINION. 339
work, will always operate among Hindoos as a suffi
cient incentive to secure groves wherever raen can be
made to feel that their rights of property in the
trees will be respected. The lands around the
village, which had a well for irrigation, paid four times
as much as those of the sarae quality which had
none, and were made to yield two crops in the year.
As everywhere else, so here, those lands into which
water flows frora the to'wn, and can be raade to
stand for a tirae, are esteeraed the best, as this water
brings do'wn vrith it raanures of all kinds. I had a
good deal of talk with the cultivators as I walked
through their fields in the evenings ; and they seeraed
to dwell much upon the good faith which is observed
by the farmers and cultivators in the honourable
Company's territories ; and the total absence of it in
those of Sindheea's, where no work, requiring an
outlay of capital upon the land, is, in consequence,
ever thought of, both farmers and cultivators en
gaging frora year to year, and no farmer ever feeling
secure of his lease for more than one.

z 2

340

CHAPTER XXXVI.
GWALIOR AND ITS GOVERNMENT.
On the 22nd, we came on fourteen miles to Gwa
lior, over some ranges of sandstone hills, which are
seemingly continuations of the Vindhya range.
Hills of indurated brown and red iron clay repose
upon and intervene between these ranges, with strata
generally horizontal, but occasionally bearing signs of
having been shaken by internal con-vulsions. These
convulsions are also indicated by some dykes of
corapact basalt which cross the road.
Nothing can be more unprepossessing than the
approach to Gwalior; the hills being naked, black, and
ugly, with rounded tops devoid of grass or shrubs, and
the soil of the valleys, a poor red dust without any
appearance of verdure or vegetation, since the few
autumn crops that lately stood upon them have
been removed. From Antree to Gwalior there is no
sign of any human habitation, save that of a mise
rable police guard of four or five, who occupy a
wretched hut on the side of the road raidway, and

GWALIOR AND ITS GOVERNMENT. 341
seem, by their presence, to render the scene around
more dreary.* The road is a mere footpath unim
proved and unadorned by any single work of art ;
and except in this footpath, and the sraall police
guard, there is absolutely no single sign in all this
long march to indicate the dominion or even the
presence of man ; and yet it is between two conti
guous capitals, one occupied by one of the most
ancient, and the other by one of the greatest native
sovereigns of Hindoostan. One cannot but feel,
that he approaches the capital of a dynasty of bar
barian princes, who, like Attila, would choose their
places of residence as devils choose their panderao-
nia, for their ugliness ; and rather reside in the
dreary wastes of Tartary than on the shores of the
Bosphorus ! There are within the dominions of
Sindheea seats for a capital that would not yield to
any in India in convenience, beauty, and salubrity ;
but in all these dominions there is not, perhaps,
another place so hideously ugly as Gwalior, or so hot
and unhealthy. It has not one redeeming quality
that should recoraraend it to the choice of a rational
prince, particularly to one who still considers his
capital as his camp, and makes every officer of his
army feel, that he has as little of permanent interest
in his house as he would have in his tent.

* Johnson, in his joumey to the westem islands, observes,
" Now and then we espied a little corn-field, which served to im
press more strongly the general barrenness."

342 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Phool Bag, or \}ne flower-garden, was suggested to
me as the best place for my tents, where Sindheea
had built a splendid summer-house. As I came over
this most gloomy and uninteresting march, in which
the heart of a rational man sickens as he recollects
that all the revenues of such an enormous extent of
dominion over the richest soil, and the most peace
able people in the world, should have been so long
concentrated upon this point, and squandered with
out leaving one sign of human art or industry, I
looked forward with pleasure to a quiet residence in
the flower-garden, with good foliage above, and a
fine sward below, and an atmosphere free frora
dust, such as we find in and around all the resi
dences of Mahoraedan princes. On reaching ray
tents I found them pitched close outside the flower-
garden, in a sraall dusty plain, without a blade of
grass or a shrub to hide its deformity — just such a
place as the pig-keepers occupy in the suburbs
of other towns. On one side of this little plain,
and looking into it, was the summer-house of the
prince, without one inch of green sward, or one small
shrub before it. Around the wretched \\tW.e flower-
garden was a low, naked, and shattered mud wall,
such as we generally see in suburbs, thrown up to
keep out and in the pigs, that usually swarm in such
places — " and the swine they crawled out, and the
swine they crawled in !" When I cantered up to my
tent-door, a sipahee of my guard carae up, and re
ported, that as day began to dawn a gang of thieves

UNIVERSAL THIEVES. 343
had stolen one of my best carpets, all the brass
brackets of my tent-poles, and the brass bell with
which the sentries on duty sounded the hour ; all
Lieutenant Thomas's cooking utensils, and many
other things, several of which they had found lying
between the tents and the prince's pleasure house,
particularly the contents of a large heavy box of
geological specimens ! They had, in consequence, con
cluded the gang to be lodged in the prince's pleasure-
house. The guard on duty at this place would make
no answer to their inquiries, and I really believe
that they were themselves the thieves. The tents of
the Rajah of Raghoghur, who had come to pay his
respects to the Sindeea, his liege lord, were pitched
near mine. He had the day before had five horses
stolen from hira, with all the plate, jewels, and
valuable clothes he possessed ; and I was told that I
must move forthwith from the flower-garden, or cut
off the tail of every horse in ray camp. Without
tails they might not be stolen — -with them they cer
tainly would ! Having had sufficient proof of their
dexterity, we moved our tents to a grove near
the residency, four miles from the flower-garden and
the court.
As a citizen of the world, I could not help think
ing that it would be an imraense blessing upon a
large portion of our species if an earthquake were
to swallow up this court of GwaUor, and the army
that surrounds it. Nothing worse could possibly
succeed ; and something better might. It is lament-

344 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
able to think how much of evil this court and camp
inflict upon the people who are subject to them. In
January, 1828, I was passing with a party of gen
tlemen through the town of BhUsa, which belongs
to this chief, and lies between Saugor and Bhopaul,
when we found, lying and bleeding in one of the
streets, twelve men belonging to a merchant at Mir
zapore, who had the day before been wounded and
plundered by a gang of robbers close outside the
walls of the town. Those who were able ran in to
the Araib, or chief of the district, who resides in the
town ; and begged hira to send some horsemen after
the banditti, and intercept thera as they passed over
the great plains. " Send your own people," said he,
" or hire men to send ! Am I here to look after the
private affair of merchants and travellers, or to col
lect the revenues of the prince?" Neither he nor
the prince himself, nor any other officer of the public
establishraents, ever dreamed that it was their duty
to protect the life, property, or character of travel
lers, or indeed of any other human beings, save the
merabers of their own farailies. In this pithy ques
tion, the Araib of Bhilsa described the nature and
character of the govemraent. All the revenues of
his immense dominions are spent entirely in the
raaintenance of the court and carap of the prince ;
and every officer employed beyond the boundary of
this court and camp, considers his duties to be limited
to the collection of the revenue. Protected frora all
external enemies by our railitary forces, which sur-

FAVOURABLE CONTRAST. 345
round him on every side, his whole army is left to
him for purposes of parade and display ; and having,
according to his notions, no use for them elsewhere,
he concentrates them around his capital, where he
lives among them in the perpetual dread of mutiny
and assassination ! He has nowhere any police, nor
any establishment whatever, for the protection of the
life and property of his subjects ; nor has he, any more
than his predecessors, ever, I believe, for one moment
thought, that those from whose industry and frugality
he draws his revenues have any right whatever to ex
pect frora him the use of such establishraents in re
turn. They have never formed any legitimate part
of the Mahratta government, and, I fear, never will.
The misrule of such states, situated in the midst
of our dominions, is not without its use. There is,
as Gibbon justly observes, " a strong propensity in
huraan nature to depreciate the advantages, and to
magnify the evils of the present times ;" and if the
people had not before their eyes such specimens
of native rule, to contrast with ours, they would think
more highly than they do of that of their past Ma
homedan and Hindoo sovereigns ; and be rauch less
disposed than they are to estimate fairly the advan
tages of being under ours. The native governments
of the present day are fair specimens of what they
have always been — grinding military despotisms —
their whole history is that of " Saul has killed his
thousands, and David his tens of thousands ;" as if
rulers were made merely to slay, and the ruled to be

346 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
slain ! In politics, as in landscape, " 'Tis distance
lands enchantments to the view," and the past might
be all couleur de rose in the imaginations of the people,
were it not represented in these ill-governed
states, where the " lucky accident " of a good
governor is not to be expected in a century ; and
where the secret of the responsibility of ministers to
the people is yet undiscovered.
The fortress of Gwalior stands upon a table land,
a mile and a half long by a quarter of a mile wide, at
the north-east end of a small insulated sandstone hill,
running north-east and south-west, and rising at both
ends about three hundred and forty feet above the
level of the plain below. At the base is a kind of
glacis, which runs up at an angle of forty-five from
the plain to -within fifty, and in some places within
twenty feet, of the foot of the M'all. The interval is
the perpendicular face of the horizontal strata of
the sandstone rock. The glacis is formed of a bed
of basalt in all stages of decoraposition, with which
this, like the other sandstone hills of Central India,
was once covered, and of the debris and chippings
of the rocks above. The walls are raised a certain
uniform height all round upon the verge of the pre
cipice, and being thus made to correspond with the edge
ofthe rock, the line is extremely irregular. They are
rudely built of the fine sandstone of the rock on which
they stand, and have some square and some semi
circular bastions of different sizes— few of these
raised above the level of the wall itself On the

TOWN OF GWALIOR. 347
eastern face of the rock, between the glacis and foot
of the wall, are cut out in bold relief, the colossal
figures of men sitting bareheaded under canopies,
on each side of a throne or temple ; and in another
place, the colossal figure of a man standing naked,
and facing outward, which I took to be that of
Boodh. The town of Gwalior extends along the
foot of the glacis on one side, and consists of a single
street above a raile long ; there is a very beautiful
mosque, with one end built by a Mahomed Khan,
A. D. 1665, of the white sandstone of the rock above
it. It looks as fresh as if it had not been finished
a month ; and, struck, as I passed it, with so noble
a work, apparently new, and under such a govern
ment, I alighted from my horse, went in, and read
the inscription, which told me the date of the build
ing and the name of the founder. There is no stucco-
work over any part of it, nor is any required on such
beautiful materials; and the stones are all so nicely cut,
that cement seems to have been considered useless.
It has the usual two minarets or towers, and over the
arches and alcoves are carved, as custoraary, passages
frora the Koran, in the beautiful Kufik characters.
The court and carap of the chief extends out frora
the southern end of the hill for several railes.
The whole of the hill on which the fort of Gwa
Uor stands, had evidently, at no very distant period,
been covered by a mass of basalt, surmounted by a
crust of indurated brown and red iron clay, with
lithomarge, which often assumes the appearance of

348 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
common laterite. The boulders of basalt, which
still cap some part of the hill, and form the greater
part of the glacis at the bottom, are for the most part
in a state of rapid decomposition ; but some of thera
are still so hard and fresh, that the hammer rings
upon them as upon a bell, and their fracture is bril
liantly crystalline. The basalt is the same as that
which caps the sandstone hills of the Vindhya range
throughout Malwa. The sandstone hills around
Gwalior all rise in the same abrupt manner from the
plain, as those through Malwa generally ; and they
have alraost all of them the same basaltic glacis at
their base, with boulders of that rock scattered over
the top, all indicating that they were at one time
buried in the same manner, under one great mass of
volcanic raatter, thrown out from their submarine
craters in strearas of lava, or diffused through the
ocean or lakes in ashes, and deposited in strata. The
geological character of the country about Gwalior is
very similar to that of the country about Saugor ;
and I may say the same of the Vindhya range ge
nerally, as far as I have seen it, from Mirzapore on
the Ganges, to Bhopaul in Malwa — hills of sand
stone rising suddenly from alluvial plain, and capped,
or bearing signs of having been capped, by basalt,
reposing iraraediately upon it, and partly covered in
its turn by beds of indurated iron clay.
The fortress of Gwalior was celebrated for its
strength under the Hindoo sovereigns of India ; but
was taken by the Mahoraedans after a long siege.

FORTRESS OF GWALIOR. 349
A. D. 1197. The Hindoos regained possession, but
were again expelled by the Eraperor Alturaash, a. d.
1235. The Hindoos again got possession, and after
holding it one hundred years, again surrendered it to
the forces of the Eraperor Ibraham, a. d. 1519. In
1543 it was surrendered up by the troops of the
Emperor Hoomayoon, to Sharekhan, his successful
competitor for the empire. It afterwards fell into
the hands of a Jat chief, the Rana of Gond, from
whom it was taken by the Mahrattas. While in
their possession, it was invested by our troops under
the command of Major Pophara ; and on the 3rd of
August, 1780, taken by escalade. The party that
scaled the wall was gallantly led by a very distin
guished and most promising officer. Captain Bruce,
brother of the celebrated traveller. It was made
over by us to the Rana of Gond, who had been our
ally in the war. Failing in his engageraent to us, he
was afterwards abandoned to the resentment of
Madhajee Sindheea, chief of the Mahrattas. In
1783, Gwalior was invested by Madhajee Sindheea's
troops, under the command of one of the most ex
traordinary men that have ever figured in Indian his
tory — the justly celebrated General Duboine. After
many unsuccessful attempts to take it by escalade, he
bought over part of the garrison, and made himself
master of the place. Gond itself was taken soon
after, in 1 784 ; but the Rana, Chuturput, raade his
escape. He was closely pursued, made prisoner at
Kuroube, and confined in the fortress of Gwalior,

350 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
where he died in the year 1785. He left no son;
and his clairas upon Gond devolved upon his
nephew, Keerut Sing, who, at the close of our war
with the Mahrattas, got frora Lord Lake, in lieu of
these claims, the estate of Dholepore, situated on the
left banks of the river Chumbul, which is estimated
at the annual value of three hundred thousand, or
three lacks of rupees. He died this year, 1835, and
has been succeeded by his son, Bhugwunt Sing, a
lad of seventeen years of age.

351

CHAPTER XXXVII.
CONTEST FOR EMPIRE BETWEEN THE SONS OF SHAH JEHAN.*
Under the Emperors of Delhi, the fortress of Gwa
lior was always considered as an imperial state prison,
in which they confined those rivals and competitors
for dorainion whora they did not like to put to a
violent death. They kept a large raenagerie, and
other things, for their amusement. Among the best
of the princes, who ended their days in this great
prison, was Sooleeman Shakoh, the eldest son of the
unhappy Dara. A narrative of the contest for em
pire between the four sons of Shah Jehan, may, per
haps, prove both interesting and instructive ; and as
I shall have occasion often, in the course of my ram
bles, to refer to the characters who figured in it, I
shall venture to give it a place.
* The following twelve chapters contain an historical piece, to
the personages and events of which the author will have frequent
occasion to refer ; and it is introduced in this place from its con
nexion with Gwahor — the state prison in which some of its actors
ended their days. 6

352 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Shah Jehan, who built at Agra the celebrated
raausoleura, now called after the wife over whose
remains it was erected, the " Taj Beebee ka Ronza,"
or the Tomb of the Crowned Princess, had four sons
and three daughters. The eldest son was Dara
Shakoh. He is considered to have been one of the
handsomest men in the empire. His figure was majestic,
his countenance noble, his manners dignified, his dis
position kind and benevolent, and his spirit full of
generous impulses, but not sufficiently under control ;
and his deportraent towards the Mahomedan nobi
lity was often too haughty and imperious. Many of
those, whose good opinions and feelings it was raost
his interest to conciliate, were alienated from him
by harsh expressions, which, though always un
premeditated, and often deeply regretted, left a
strong feeling of resentraent upon their minds ;
and also of apprehension, that the man who so
used them while merely looking forward to the
throne, would be likely to add injuries to insults
when firmly seated upon it. He had studied
carefully the religious systeras of both the eastern
and western world, and was supposed to have become
at last a convert to Christianity. Certain it is, that
he cultivated the society of the European gentleraen
about his court raore than of others, and by that
means he gave great umbrage to the Mahomedans.
The Jesuits who resided at his court were persuaded
of his conversion, and felt assured that, if he carae
to the throne, their religion would soon spread

DARA. 353
throughout the east. But Dara resembled his great
grandfather, the Emperor Akbar, in that spirit of
universal benevolence which made him tolerant of
all religions. He really believed what Akbar always
seemed to believe, that every nation had its book
given to thera from above for their special guidance ;
and that if these books were studied in a proper
spirit, they would all be found tending to the same
great end — the promotion of justice, charity, and
benevolence araong raen, and the worship of one
God, the creator and preserver of the universe. He
found the European gentlemen at his father's court
better informed than any others with whom he could
at that tirae associate on intimate terms ; and he gave
them raore of his time and attentions. The Jesuits
were the persons whom he seemed raost to esteera
among the Europeans ; and araong the Jesuits, those
raost in his confidence were the fathers Stanislaus
Malpica, a Neapolitan, Pedro Juzarti, a Portuguese,
and Henry Busie, a Fleming. All the artillery, not
only in the imperial, but in every other army through
out India, was at that tirae served and conducted al
most entirely by Europeans or Christians. They had
churches and church establishments in all parts of
the empire ; and had Dara succeeded to the throne,
our religion would, no doubt, have had everywhere
great encouragement.
Jehanara Begum, the eldest of three daughters,
was older than Dara. She was a person of great
beauty, wit, and accomplishments ; and so much after
VOL. L A A

354 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
her brother Dara's o-wn heart in all things, that she
supported his interest with all her unbounded in
fluence over her father, as long as he reigned. Sultan
Shoojah was neither so handsome, so liberal, so high-
minded, nor so well-informed as Dara ; but he was
equal in courage, enterprise, and natural abilities,
and never subject to those fits of passion by which his
brother had alienated from him many of those who
could best have served him in time of need. He
had, too, less scruple than Dara in employing the
means necessary to win men over to his interest in
such a struggle as was about to take place between
them for dominion. He had changed his sect frora
that of Soonnee, or the Turks, to that of Sheea, or
the Persians, with a view to conciliate the Persian
nobleraen, who then filled alraost every great office
in the erapire, civil and railitary ; and he was in cor
respondence with the king of Persia. The adven
turers frora Persia in those days had alraost as great a
raonopoly of offices as the Europeans in the present,
because they were really the only Mahoraedans of
education in India, and of that address which fitted
thera for courts and court favour.
Ourungzebe, well known to my countrymen as the
father of " Lalla Rookh," was the third son. He was
of middle stature and slender figure, long features,
particularly the nose ; but with an expression of
countenance peculiarly mild and pleasing, though
always sedate. His complexion was pale, his eyes
were a good deal sunk ; and as his conversation ge-

OURUNGZEBE. 355
nerally turned on the subject of the religion and
laws of his prophet, it was commonly believed that
his thoughts dwelt more on his interests in the next
world than in this. A more perfect master of the
art of dissimulation than Ourungzebe perhaps never
existed. He generally appeared thoughtful ; and
nothing was ever seen to disturb the calm serenity of
his temper. He always carried the Koran under his
arm, and was observed regularly at the prescribed
five times in the day at his prayers, which he repeated
with a loud and singularly raelodious voice. He was a
rigid religionist, according to the sect of the Soonnees,
and never appeared in public except in a clean white
dress, unadorned by any of those jewels and expen
sive ornaraents, worn by the other raembers of the
imperial family. He had inscribed his name among
the Fuquers, or religious mendicants, lived altogether
like one, upon rice, roots, and water ; and never in
dulged in wine, or any other luxury whatever of the
table. Frora his tenderest years he seeras to have
been strongly irapressed with the conviction, that on
the death of his father, his life raust depend upon
his ability to conquer and destroy all his brothers, or
to persuade them that he sought nothing but a
peaceful, religious retii-ement near the tomb of his
prophet. His youngest brother became his dupe,
but his eldest brother, Dara, knew him well, and
used always to say, " Of all my brothers, I fear only
that man of prayers," (Nimazee,) and Shoojah was
A A 2

356 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
just as well aware of the true nature of his cha
racter. Roshunara Begum was the second daughter, and
fifth child of Shah Jehan. She had less of natural
ability, of beauty, wit, and accompUshments than
her eldest sister, Jehanara ; but she had infinitely
raore of artifice and cunning. In raind and disposi
tion she resembled Ourungzebe as much as Jeha
nara resembled Dara ; and in the same manner she
devoted herself entirely to the interests of the bro
ther she so much resembled. She became his spy ; ,
and kept him always ftiUy informed of everything
that occurred at court which could be useful for him
to know.
Moorad Buksh was the fourth and youngest son, a
brave headstrong man, who devoted all his tirae to
the sports of the field, to military exercises, and the
pleasures of the table. He prided himself upon his
strength, courage, and frankness; and seemed to
think these were the only qualities worthy of being
cultivated by a prince who aspired to an empire.
He had a good deal of generosity, and was very
honest in his profession of the Mahoraedan faith,
though much addicted to wine.
Miher Omissa Begum was the youngest child;
she had little to attract or interest in her mind or
person. Her dress, her ornaments, and the trifling
amuseraents of the seraglio, engaged all her atten
tion ; and she never was known to take the least

POSITION OF THE PARTIES. 357
interest in any of the different factions that distracted
the rest of the court and empire.
Dara was made Viceroy of Cabul and Lahore, with
permission to reside at the capital of Delhi, and
assist his father in the conduct of affairs, as the de
clared heir apparent to the throne. Shoojah was
made Viceroy of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. Ourung
zebe, of all the Deccan or imperial dominions
south of the Nerbudda river; and Moorad Buksh,
of the provinces of Gozerat and Malwa. The Em
peror Shah Jehan was, at the time of these appoint
ments, (1651,) at Cabul with his court ; Moorad set
out for his government of Gozerat alone. Shoojah
and Ourungzebe took leave of their father on the
same day, and proceeded together to Delhi, where
they remained together six days. Ourungzebe passed
three days -ndth his faraily in his brother Shoojah's
tents ; and on that occasion Shoojah's eldest son was
betrothed to Ourungzebe's eldest daughter, and his
eldest daughter to Ourungzebe's eldest son. Up to
this time they had been fond of each other ; and they
now swear upon the holy Koran to remain the same
through life.
In the year a. d. 1658, Shah Jehan became sud
denly and dangerously ill — for some time he was
supposed to be dead ; and the four sons all prepared
for that contest which was to give them a throne or
a grave. Ourungzebe easily managed to persuade
Moorad, avhose viceroyalty adjoined his own, aud

358 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
who had married a younger sister of his wife,*
that he had no wish but to put him on the throne
with the view to revenge the death of their poor old
father, who had evidently been poisoned by Dara, and
to preserve the law and true religion of their great
prophet, now endangered as well from Dara, who
had become an unbeliever, as from Shoojah, who had
become a heretic. " As soon as they had, by their
united efforts," he said, "effected these two great objects,
he should, with his permission, retire and spend the
rest of his days near the torab of their prophet, and
in the raeantime consider him, Moorad, as the real
Eraperor of Hindoostan, and obey hira accordingly."
He sent him a few hundred thousand rupees for imme
diate use, and recommended him to replenish his
treasury by taking the great commercial city of
Surat. This headstrong young man fell into the
snare — ^marched to the attack of Surat, and took the
city after a siege of a month, by means of a mine
under the wall, which his troops were taught to make
and spring by the Hollanders, who worked his artil
lery. He found less treasure than he expected ;f
but the reputation of having taken a place of such
* The Sultan Shoojah, the fourth competitor for the throne,
had married a third sister. All three were the daughters of
Shahnewag Khan, of Gozerat.
f Over and above the pubhc treasure, which fell into his hands
in the fortress, he got from the merchants of the city, whom he
put into rigorous confinement, a ransom of five hundred thousand
rupees.

AMEER JUMLA. 359
note, by means of blowing the walls into the air, and
the supposition that the treasure found had been
enorraous, were of great advantage to his enterprise.
His wise brother, Ourungzebe, had calculated upon
the moral effect of this, and cared little about the
money. From Surat he marched his army to Mandoo, the
ancient capital of Malwa, near the river Nerbudda,
where his brother, Ourungzebe, was to cross it on his
way up from Doulatabad. Here the brothers met,
and the two armies joined. Ourungzebe had lately
taken leave of the most extraordinary person of that
age in India, Mahomed Mouzzim Ameer Jumla,
whose advice had been to him, and still continued to
be, of raore importance than the services of a third
array, though he had left hira a prisoner in the
Deccan. Araeer Jumla was a native of Persia : his per
son was handsome, his manners graceful, and his mind,
naturally of uncomraon powers, had been well stored
by early studies with all the knowledge that a Per
sian education could impart. In the language of
Bernier, " he was a raan of alraost unimaginable ca
pacity," He came to southern India in the quality
of an attendant upon a Persian merchant, and en
tered the service of the king of Golconda. Here he
soon became Viceroy over the richest province of
the kingdom, comraander-in-chief of the armies, and
sole paramour to the mother of the king, who had
been, and was still, a beautiful woman. Possessed
of the mines of Golconda, which lay within his vice-
7

360 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
royalty, he soon became possessed of immense wealth;
and, discovering a design on the part of the king to
seize this wealth, and to banish him for the intrigue
with the queen mother, he instigated Ourungzebe
to the conquest of Golconda, as the surest road to
the throne of his father. Dara became alarmed, and
Golconda was saved at the interposition of the Em
peror, when the king had been reduced to the last
extremity in the citadel, and his kingdora was on the
point of falling into the hands of Ourungzebe. The
eldest daughter of the king was united to the eldest
son of Ourungzebe, Sultan Mahoraed, in spite of
his plighted faith to the daughter of Shoojah, with a
pledge that he should succeed to the crown of Gol
conda on the death of the king his father-in-law.
The king was obliged to consent to allow Ameer
Jumla to depart with Ourungzebe, and to take with
him all his family, private property and troops ; and,
above all, his artillery, which had been brought to
greater perfection, under the superintendence of
Europeans, than any other artillery in India ever
had been.
As a commencement, Ourungzebe, through the
intrigues of his sister Roshunara, (or Rozanara,) ipre-
vailed upon the Emperor to invite Ameer .lumla to
his court at Delhi, whither he repaired with his
family, the better to deceive Dara and Jehanara.
He took with him raany valuable presents, which he
presented to Shah Jehan ; and araong thera was the
great diaraond, known since by the narae of Kali-

CELEBRATED DIAMOND. 361
noor, or the mountain of light, which he had got
from one of the Golconda mines. He was soon after
appointed to the office of prime rainister, vacant by
the death of SoduUa Khan; and he persuaded
Shah Jehan that there were raany such diamonds as
this to be found in the principalities of the Deccan,
and that he had only to entrust him with the cora
mand of an army for their conquest, to become master
of sources of unbounded wealth. The Emperor was
become exceedingly avaricious, and he immediately
ordered an efficient army to be placed at his dis
posal; but Dara and Jehanara saw that such an
army, under such a leader, added to the forces al
ready under the command, and devoted to the in
terests of Ourungzebe, would be sufficient to give
hira the empire whenever he might wish to seize
upon it ; and they urged their father not to be caught
in the snare that had been so manifestly laid for him.
He was at that time angry, however, with Dara for
having, as he believed, caused to be poisoned his minis
ter, SadooUakhan, one ofthe best and ablest men inthe
empire, to whom he had been fondly attached; and his
cupidity had been inflamed by the pictures which the
Ameer drew of the treasures of the yet unconquered
kingdoras of the south of India. Unable to prevent
the Emperor from sending this army, or entrusting
the Ameer with the command of it, they persuaded
hira to raake his coraraand entirely independent of
Ourungzebe, to confine this prince merely to the
civil govemment of the states already conquered.

362 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and to insist upon the Araeer leaving his wife and
children at court as hostages for his fidelity. The
Ameer hesitated to accept the command upon this
last condition ; but at length the Emperor prevailed
upon him to yield the point, to calra the anxieties of
his eldest son and daughter, under a promise that he
would undertake very soon to send his wife and
children after him. His eldest son, Mahraood Araeer,
was appointed to his office of prime minister during
his father's absence. The king of Beejapore having
had the misfortune to displease Ourungzebe, or excite
his cupidity, he obtained the Emperor's permission to
invade the kingdora. He had taken Kaleeanee, and
reduced Beejapore itself to extremities, when he
heard of his father's iUness. He now accepted the
one million of money that had been offered, raised
the siege, and retired to Ourungabad.* Ameer
Jumla w-as engaged in the siege of Kulburga, and
Ourungzebe sent his eldest son, Mahmood, to en
treat the Araeer to join him. Dreading that his
wife and children would be all put to death by Dara,
if he did so, he declined. The second son, Mou-
zim, was sent, and he came.f It was planned that he
* Adil Shah, the then king of Beejapore, had before sent a pre
sent to the imperial court at Delhi, consisting of forty lacs of
rupees and forty elephants, ¦with gold and silver housings, for
Shah Jehan ; fifteen lacs of rupees, fifteen elephants, and jewels,
for Dara Shakoh ; and five lacs of rapees and five elephants for
his sister Jehanara.
t Mouzim, the second son of Ourungzebe, was then only

DAY-DREAMS OF AN ARMY. 363
should be there seized, put in HiXwer fetters,* and kept
a close prisoner in the fort of Doulatabad. This was
done to make it appear that he had been forced, and
thereby save his wife and children from the resent
ment of Dara. " We must," said Ourungzebe, " kill
the snake, without breaking the stick that we do it
with." All his army, knowing or suspecting the mo
tive, were easily persuaded to join that of Ourung
zebe, whose ambition and capacity were well known
to thera. They calculated not only upon placing him
upon the throne ; but upon following him after they
had done so, to the conquest of Persia, China, and a
variety of other places that enter iuto the dreams
of a successful army so circumstanced and com
manded. Ourungzebe, who now always addressed Moorad
with the title of your imperial majesty, got off his
elephant and walked some distance to meet him, at
their first interview, in front of the whole army, and
played the saint so admirably, that in spite of the
seventeen years of age. He had all the address of his father,
without any of his bad qualities ; while Mahmood had all the im
petuosity of Dara, vrithout any of his good qualities. In the
struggle for the throne, made by the four sons of Ourungzebe on
his death, Mouzim carried oflf the -victory. Mahmood had long
before died.
* When Richard Coeur de Lion of England took the king of
Cyprus prisoner, he put him in silver fetters, which flattered the
old man's vanity very much. He had behaved extremely ill to
the shipwrecked family of Richard, on their way to the holy
wars — his wife and sister, the widowed queen of Sicily.

364 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
constant warning of his affectionate and faithful fol
lower, Shahabas, Moorad resigned hiraself into his
hands, with entire confidence in the sincerity of his
professions and devotion. He wished nothing but to
revenge the death of his good old father, and to re
lieve the religion of their holy prophet and the em
pire of Hindoostan, frora the iraraediate danger with
which they were threatened by the unbelieving Dara,
and the heretic Shoojah. He knew perfectly well
ere this, from his sister, and other friends at court,
that his father had been long out of all danger, and
almost restored to health ; but he took care that
Moorad should get no letters from Delhi or Agi-a.
Khuleeloolah, and other secret friends of his about
Dara, persuaded that prince to get Ourungzebe's able
agent at court, EesaBeg, dismissed by the Emperor on
the pretence that he was conveying intelligence to
his master; and by this means they contrived to
convey to him all the information he most wanted,
without the risk of having it intercepted. There
was at this time hardly a man of any influence or
note in the empire, with whom Ourungzebe was
not in correspondence ; and thirty thousand of the
finest troops which Dara was preparing to send
against him, were devoted to his interest. Such
were his industry, sagacity, and vigilance, that he
seemed to those about him to control all events,
from being so much more able to foresee, or becoraing
so rauch sooner acquainted with thera, than any other
person. But the qualities that stood him in raost

SHOOJAH. 365
stead, were the quick and almost intuitive percep
tion he had of the capacities, characters, and disposi
tions of men ; and the ability to inspire all those
who were able to serve him, with the desire to
do so. He never left a service unrecorapensed ;
and every man who had proved himself worthy
of his confidence, felt that he possessed it. Justice
was never more vigilantly or more rigorously admi
nistered than in the countries comraitted to his
charge ; and he always considered a reputation for
strictness in that respect as no less necessary to his
cause than one for undeviating piety ; the raore espe
cially as the jurisprudence and the religion of the Ma
horaedans are alike derived frora the sacred code.
An army was first sent by Dara against Shoojah,
who was advancing upon the capital frora Bengal.
Shoojah's -riceroyalty was by far the richest. His
cavalry alone amounted to forty thousand men ; and
he carried money enough in gold upon camels for
the payment of his troops during the campaign.
On raounting his horse to make his first march upon
the capital, Shoojah exclaimed, " Death or the throne ;"
and this was always his motto. He caused it to be
proclaimed as he advanced, that the Eraperor had
died of poison administered by his perfidious and un
believing brother, Dara ; and that he was hastening
to revenge the raurder of the best of fathers. The
coraraand of the array employed against Shoojah
was given to Sooleeman Shakoh, the eldest son of
Dara, then in his twenty-fifth year. He was as hand-

366 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
some as his father; and had all his father's good
without any of his bad qualities. He was frank,
generous, and affable ; and beloved by all who ap
proached him. Anxious to prevent a battle between
his son and grandson if possible, the Emperor ap
pointed, as Sooleeman's lieutenant, the Rajah Jysing,
of Jeypore, who comraanded the Rajpoot troops, and
was esteemed one of the ablest men in the empire,
and Dulele Khan, who commanded the Afghans.
He ordered them to do all in their power to
persuade Shoojah to retire into Bengal, without
committing himself in an action with the troops of
his father, who, they were to assure hira, was now
quite well, and as capable as ever of conducting the
affairs of the governraent, and punishing his rebel
lion, should he persist in it. The armies met near
the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna, at Alla
habad. The two lieutenants found it impossible to
restrain the fire and impetuosity of the young Soolee
man, who burned with the desire to distinguish
himself in the service of his insulted grandfather ;
and Shoojah could not be persuaded to avoid the
action, as he knew that a great struggle was about
to take place between Dara and the other two
brothers ; and a victory over the young Sooleeraan
raight, probably, enable him to seize the capital
and Emperor before the successful party could be
prepared to march and intercept him. The action
commenced with some discharge of artillery on both
sides, and concluded with the retreat of Shoojah.

CRIMINALITY OF MUSIC. 367
His array would have been entirely destroyed had
the two lieutenants supported the young prince vigo
rously in the pursuit ; but they knew that the Erape
ror was unwilling that he should either be taken
prisoner or entirely ruined. Sooleeman was arrested
in his pursuit of his uncle at Mooghere by news
from court, that his two other uncles were advancing
rapidly frora the Nerbudda towards Agra, where his
father required the aid of his victorious troops. He
had taken nearly all his uncle's artillery, with forty
elephants, and a great nuraber of prisoners; and
ha-ring sent the whole off to his grandfather, he
marched as fast as he could to support his father ;
but his two lieutenants did everything they could to
retard his moveraents ; Jysing, because Dara had, in
one of his fits of passion, called him a music raaster ;*
* In the trial of one of the Roman consuls elect, L. Mursena,
for his scandalous mode of life, and for bribery and corruption,
his accuser Cato, as the most monstrous of his manifold wicked
nesses, charged him with dancing. Cicero, who had undertaken
his defence, replied to this charge thus : " I admonish you, Cato,
not to throw out such a calumny so inconsiderately, or to call the
consul of Rome a dancer ; but to consider how many other
"Crimes a man must needs be guilty of before that of dancing can
be objected to him ; since nobody ever danced even in solitude,
or in a private meeting of friends, who was not either drunk or
mad ; for dancing is the last act of rioting, banqueting, gay
places, and much jollity. You charge him, therefore, -with what
was the effect of many vices, yet with none of these vrithout
which that vice could not possibly subsist — with no scandalous
feasts, no amours, no nightly revels, no lewdness, no extravagant
expenses, &c." The Hindoo prince was just as much exaspe-

368 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and Dulele Khan, because he thought it to be his
interest to support in all things the views of his
friend the Rajah Jysing.
rated at being charged with ha-ring takeu a part in a concert, as
the Roman consul was at being accused of taking one in a
quadrille. I really believe that any native gentlemen in India,
Mussulman or Hindoo, would rather be accused of murder than of
dancing. In the same speech Cicero implores Cato not to use
his influence to deprive the people of their much-loved amuse
ments of gladiatorial exhibitions, for though dancing was no
doubt very atrocious, there could be no harm in putting three
or four hundred couple of these people to murder each other on
the stage for their amusement ! Telemachus had not then raised
his christian voice, nor were there Walter Scotts or Maria Edge-
worths among them to disseminate that philosophy which teaches
by emotions.

309

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
OURUNGZEBE AND MOORAD DEFEAT THEIR FATHEr's ARMY
NEAR OJEYN.
Shah Jehan, unable to persuade Ourungzebe and
Moorad to retire by orders written with his own
hand, sent a force to arrest their progress, under the
coramand of Kasim Khan, who revered the Eraperor,
but disliked Dara ; and Jeswunt Sing, the Rajah of
Joudpore, who had married the daughter of Chutter-
saul, the Rajah of Hurrouthee or Kotah Kasim Khan,
was appointed viceroy in Gozerat, in succession to
Moorad, who was transferred to the viceroyalty of
Berar. Jeswunt Sing was appointed viceroy of
Malwa, with orders to see that Moorad obeyed and
raade place for Kasira. The Emperor commanded
them, when they took leave, to prevail upon his sons,
if possible, to return voluntarily to their govern
ments before it should be too late. As they ad
vanced, they sent messengers -with letters to both
Ourungzebe and Moorad, coraraunicating the com
mands of their father; but Ourungzebe found little
VOL. I. B B

370 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
difficulty in persuading his brother, that these two
chiefs were entirely in the interest of Dara, and
not to be at all relied upon. It had been the in
tention of Jeswunt Sing to dispute the passage of the
Nerbudda with Ourungzebe, and prevent the junc
tion of the two brothers ; but Ourungzebe, after
giving his troops two days' repose, crossed the Ner
budda on the Oth April, 1658; and on the 15th of
that month the two armies joined. Jeswunt Sing
advanced to the bank of the little river Gumbeer,
ten miles south of Ojeyn, and about midway between
that place and Debalpore, where the brothers had raet.
Jeswunt Sing called in all his detachments from
Dhar and other places, and raade the best arrange
ments he could for the action. Ourungzebe tried to
corrupt him, but in vain ; although he is thought to
have succeeded better with his colleague, Kasim Khan,
who is supposed to have been won over. Jeswunt
Sing felt that he depended upon the courage of his
brave little band of eight thousand Rajpoot cavalry.*
Mahoraed Sultan crossed over at the head of his party,
and the division of Kasim Khan, composed entirely of
Mahomedans, gave way before his charge. Jeswunt
Sing was left alone araidst his faithful Rajpoots, who
fought desperately, in the hopes that Kasim Khan
would rally his men, and retum to the field. All
* Mahomedan historians relate, that when a son of a Rajpoot
fell in this battle, the father was seen to dip his finger in his
blood, stain his own forehead with it, and then rush furiously
upon the enemy to revenge his death.

JESWUNT SING. 371
their efforts were vain ; and Jeswunt Sing, ashamed
to show his face to the empire, retreated towards his
own capital with less than one-fourth of his force,
the rest ha-ring been all left dead or disabled on the
field of battle, which took place on the 17th of April,
1658. Oumngzebe built a fine mosque, and a cara^
vanserae on the ground, to commemorate this action ;
and rested a few days to refesh his soldiers.* Jes
wunt Sing, when he reached the gates of his own
capital, found them shut against him. His wife
declared that he could not be her husband. " It is
irapossible that Jeswunt Sing, if defeated, as he is
reported to have been a,t Ojeyn, can be still alive ; he
must have died by the hands of the enemy in the
midst of his brave followers, or by his own hands ;
and in either case my duty is clear. I can follow
him to the next world upon the funeral pUe, but I
can never meet him again in this." The funeral pile
was prepared, but she could find no relict of her
husband to burn herself with — for nine days she was
inexorable. " A daughter of Chuttersaul," said she,
" cannot be the wife ofa craven !" At last her mother
persuaded her that her husband had been betrayed
by the traitor Kasira Khan ; that he had fled not from
Ourungzebe, but merely retired to raise new levies
to fight him with, and to retrace for the Emperor
the advantages he had lost ; and that the honour and
* In a letter to the king of Beejapore, announcing this victory,
Ourungzebe says that six thousand of the enemy had been
killed.
B B 2

372 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
interests of their family and the state depended upon
the support he raight now be able to give to the
Eraperor and his eldest son, betrayed, as they ap
peared to be, by all the Mahomed chiefs of the
army.* She thereupon consented to see him ; and he
was soon again in a condition to take the field.
As soon as Shah Jehan heard of this defeat, he
raised his eyes to heaven and exclaimed, " 0 Lord,
thy will be done ; it is for my sins that I am afflicted,
and much heavier punishments have they merited."
Dara broke out into the most ungovernable fits of
passion ; ^nd demanded vengeance upon the family
of Ameer Jumla. He wished to have the heads of
his wife aud son struck off ; and his daughters sent
to the bazaar, and sold to prostitutes, as he was, he
said, the great author of all these calamities, since
he furnished his rebellious brothers with the men,
money, and cannon, that were the sole sinews of
their strength. Shah Jehan would not suffer them
to be molested, saying, " That the Ameer must have
been betrayed and seized by violence, as he had too
* Mahomedan historians relate instances of the training of the
female members of his family. On one occason he remarked
that some jessamine flowers which his wife held in her hand had
less odour than usual. She sharply replied, " That the odour
was the same, but his sense of smell had been impaired ever since
he put his foot wpon his nose" — that is, ran away. His cook one
day excused himself for delaying to bring dinner, by saying, " That
he had been obliged to cook it in iron utensils instead of brass."
"Impudent knave," said his sister, "how dare you mention iron
before his highness. Do you not know how much he abhors it?"

CONFIDENCE OF DARA. 373
much good sense voluntarily to expose the merabers
of his family to so much danger ; and he was himself
probably suffering from his misplaced confidence in the
honour of Ourungzebe, and now languishing in a dun
geon with fetters upon his legs like a comraon felon !"
The Eraperor now proposed to take the field, and
command the array in person, though still very weak
from sickness ; but Dara was afraid that he should
sink into insignificance if his father comraanded, for
he was idolized by the people ; and he used all his
efforts to dissuade him. In these efforts he was
joined by the princess Roshunara, Khuleeloolah
Khan, and other friends of Ourungzebe, who feared
that Moorad would retire with his army the moraent
he found his father was really moving in jierson
against him, and that all the old chiefs of the empire,
who had already been brought over by Ourungzebe,
or were wavering in their fidelity, would at once
rally round him. Yielding to their earnest, and
apparently honest solicitude, the Emperor intreated
Dara at least to wait for his son Sooleeman, who was
on his way back from Mooghere -with an army of
tried courage and fidelity ; but Dara was too con
fident of success, or unwilling that his son, already
covered with laurels as he was by the defeat of
Shoojah, should share in the renown of conquering
the two other brothers.

374

CHAPTER XXXIX.

DARA MARCHES IN PERSON AGAINST HIS BROTHERS,
AND IS DEFEATED.

He left Agra at the head of an army consisting of
one hundred thousand horse, fifty thousand foot, and
about a thousand pieces of artillery. Almost all the
large guns were served by Europeans. There were
sixty small pieces of artillery mounted on the backs
of sixty elephants ; and innumerable camels with
similar but smaller pieces. The private camp equi
page of Dara, who had the folly to take all his family
with him, was carried upon the backs of five hundred
camels. He proceeded in five days to the banks of
the Chumbul, where they were to dispute the passage
of that river with the rebels ; and here he fortified a
strong position on its north bank about twenty-five
railes from Agra, on the 25th of May, 1658. Ourung
zebe came up a few days after with an army almost
worn down with the fatigues of such long marches
in the hottest season of the year ; aud deeming it

A TRAITOR. 375
too dangerous to attempt the passage of this large
river in the face of an eneray fresh from the capital, and
more than three tiraes the amount of his own, he
purchased by large bribes from a Hindoo prince,
Chumpul, whose territories lay along the bank of this
river, permission to raarch through these territories
during the night unmolested, and cross the river at a
good ford about fifteen miles to the east of Dara's
camp. Eight thousand raen were sent on to take
possession of the ford ; and when the two brothers
received intelligence that this had been effected, they
broke up their carap soon after dark, and moved
with so much secrecy and celerity, that they had
nearly crossed the river before Dara was aware that
they had left their ground. He sent on a division
of the army under Khuleeloolah Khan, to check the
passage of the eneray till he could bring up the main
body; butthis chief had been corrupted by Ourungzebe,
and did all he could to facilitate his passage. As soon as
the raain body of daring and devoted Rajpoots came
up, Ram Sing urged Dara to attack the eneray before
they could entrench theraselves ; but his advice was
overruled by Khuleeloolah the traitor, who urged
the danger of an immediate attack, and the advan
tage of waiting. The enemy were allowed to ad
vance to Samsugur on the bank of the Jumna,
within ten miles of Agra; and there to entrench
themselves.* Dara placed himself between them
* Samsugur was from that time named Futtehabad or the
town of victory, the 7th June, 1658.

376 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and the capital ; and the armies remained within
sight of each other four days without an action.
The Emperor wrote to urge Dara still to wait the
arrival of the array under his son, and sent him a
present of the iraperial sabre, but -was told in reply,
that before this army could join him his raajesty
might expect his two rebellious sons in chains at his
feet !
Dara drew up his army in order of battle on the
1st of June. He had ascertained from a Byragee,
a Hindoo mendicant, called Purangeer, the lucky
hour to begin the battle ! Khuleeloolah had com
mand of the right wing, consisting of thirty thou
sand Mogul troops, having been raised to the rank
of a captain-general of the cavalry in the place of
Danishmund Khan, who had recently resigned that
post in disgust at the treatment he received from
Dara.* The left wing was commanded by Rostum
Khan, and the Rajah's Ramsingf and Chuttersaul of
Hurrouthee. The centre by Dara himself. Moorad
commanded the right wing of the rebel army,
Ourungzebe the centre, and Mahomed, his son, the
left wing. The right wing did nothing under the
traitor Khuleeloolah, who assumed authority over the
officers of artillery, and by his manoeuvres rendered
* The French physician Birmer was in the service of this
Danishmund Khan.
t Ramsing is commonly called the Roteelee ; and he is sup
posed to have been a son or nephew of the Hurrouthee or Kotah
chief, Chuttersaul, the father of Jeswunt Sing's wife.

BATTLE OF FUTTEHABAD. 377
their fire entirely useless. The centre division under
Dara fought bravely, and carried everything before
thera ; while Ram Sing, with his devoted body of
Rajpoots in the left wing, cut his way through the
right wing of the enemy, up to the high elephant on
which its leader, Moorad, was seated with his son.*
Moorad received three arrows in his face ; and his
elephant-driver being killed, he was obUged to guide
it himself with one hand, while he defend ed himself
and his son with the other. Unable to reach him
frora his horse, Rara Sing leaped frora his saddle, and
attempted with his sword to cut the ropes which
supported the castle in which he sat, and throw
him to the ground. Moorad stabbed him with a
javelin frora above ; and the enraged animal dashed
him to pieces against the ground. Rostum Khan
had before been killed by a cannon shot, while
the youngest son of Dara, Sipeher Shekoh, sat
by his side ;f but Chuttersaul, with his five thou
sand horse, was still a rallying point for the Raj-
* On the death of Rostum Khan, this youth was taken to his
father Dara, with whom he remained during the rest of the
action. These princes took their sons with them in action to
show that they were confident of victory ; and thereby to inspire
their soldiers with courage. This Rostum Khan built the city
of Moradabad, in Rohilcund, while he was governor of the pro
vince, and called it after Moorad, the youngest son of his master,
the Emperor Shah Jehan, to whom he was now opposed.
f This was Eezud Buksh, the son of Dara, whom Ourung
zebe took out from the fort of Gwalior and married to his daugh
ter, Mihoronnissa, in the 1 Sth year of his reign.

378 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
poot soldiers, who seemed to bear down all before
them. The battle seeraed now lost to Ourungzebe, who
was obliged to give way before Dara, though sup
ported gallantly by his son, Mahomed Sultan, but
at this moment the traitor Khuleeloolah, as a last
desperate effort, to which he was animated by his
knowledge of the impetuous character of the prince,
rode up to Dara, told him that the enemy had given
way throughout the line, and implored him to raake
the raost of the victory which God had given hira,
descend frora his elephant, which moved so slowly,
mount his horse, and seize Ourungzebe, who would
other'vrise make good his retreat, and get back to his
government in the Deccan ! This unfortunate
prince, who in times of peace could never tolerate
the advice of any man, again lost his only chance of
victory by resigning hiraself blindly to the prepos
terous councils of a traitor ! His raajestic presence
upon his elephant, waving on his raen in the front of
the battle, had animated them to fits of irresistible
enthusiasra. The moment that his troops saw his
place upon this elephant vacant, the cry ran through
the ranks like an electric shock, that Dara was
killed, and from that moment they ceased to fight,
for they had no longer anything to fight for. Dara
rushed upon the enemy on horseback, but soon saw
his error. The traitor had left his side for that of
Ourungzebe ; and carried over with him his best
Mogul troops. Dara tried to rally his forces, but in

VICTORY OF OURUNGZEBE. 379
vain ; the panic and flight had become general, the
defeat irretrievable. The action had lasted from
seven in the morning till five in the afternoon.
Ourungzebe sat on his elephant with his quarran in
his arms, animating his soldiers by his presence in
the scenes of greatest danger ; and always repeating,
" God guides you, my brave soldiers, God guides
you ;" and all orthodox Mahomedans of the soonnee
sect to this day believe, that God did really guide
them, and confound Dara and his army ; for they
conceive that their religion was never in greater peril
than on that day, when Ourungzebe, a devoted
Mahomedan of their sect, was opposed to his
brother, an unbeliever. This battle was fought on
the eighth of the month of Ramzan, during all
which raonth Mussulmans fast from the dawn of
day till sunset ; and when, as on this occasion,
Ramzan occurs in the hottest season of the year,
and in the longest days, they all become very weak
and spiritless.
Ourungzebe took possession of the tents and bag
gage of the imperial army ; and placing Moorad in
the tent of Dara, retired to a sraall hut, where he re
mained a long time in prayer, offering up thanks to
God for this great victory ! From this hut he
emerged like a man inspired, and with the quarran
pressed in his bosom, and the prayers still flowing
from his lips, he entered the apartment of Moorad,
and presented to him the traitor Khuleeloolah. " It
is," said he, " to Heaven, to your majesty, and to this.

380 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the most able and faithful of your friends, that we
are indebted for this victory I I have done my first
duty in returning thanks to the great eternal God,
who to day interposed his arm for the protection of
the law of his prophet ! My second is to prostrate
myself before my earthly raaster, and to offer him
ray congratulation. By your unexampled behaviour
you have, with troops worn down by fatigue, and ex
hausted by privations, defeated and dispersed the
most splendid army that ever took the field in India !
I have now only to solicit your favour for our friend,
who has aided in this fortunate commencement of
your reign ; and who will always be found worthy to
fill a post of honour in that empire of which you
are now become the master. As for me, my des
tiny is about to be accomplished. As soon as a
third victory shall have placed you upon the
throne you so rauch raerit, I shall go and reign over
my passions in solitude, whilst you maintain the
religion of the one God over all the regions of
Hindoostan." By placing near his brother this traitor, who was
devoted to his interests, he was sure to be made ac
quainted with all that was said or done in his camp ;
and while he treated his brother as his master, he
was in communication with his sister Roshunara,
and several other influential persons about his father,
and with almost every viceroy and officer of any note
in the empire, who all looked up to him as the
master spirit that must ultimately have to decide

THE MASTER SPIRIT. 381
u])on their destinies. All his nights were spent in
these coramunications ; and while to the careless he
appeared to think of nothing but a future state, the
more observing saw, that his was the only raind in
the army that knew no rest from worldly cares. He
wrote to the two lieutenants under Sooleeman,
Jysing and Dulele Khan, to tell them of the defeat
of Dara ; and to command thera to put their prince
to death, or to bring him in chains to the feet of
the conqueror Moorad Buksh. Though he always
pretended to be acting for his youngest brother,
Moorad, he wished the people to know, that the
power and the wisdom on which the struggle of this
great contest was to depend, were his — that if his
brother should really be suffered to reap the fruit, it
would be by his forbearance ; and that if he should
choose to grasp the helm himself, they might all be
found willing to subrait to the guidance of a pilot
whose skill had been tried in such a tempest. Shaesta
Khan, the brother of the mother of all the children
of Shah Jehan, (who now lies buried by her husband's
side in the most splendid of all the tombs of the
earth, the Moosalman at Agra, and had died long
before the struggle for empire began,) was con
sidered as the raost accomplished writer at that
time in Hindoostan; and he, like, Khuleeloolah,
had been exasperated against Dara by some sup
posed indignity, or by a deportment which showed
too plainly that Dara's accession to the throne
must tend greatly to diminish his power and in-

382 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
fluence. He now employed the power for which
he had been so much distinguished, to gratify
his revenge, by forming parties to support the cause
of Ourungzebe in every quarter of the empire.

383

CHAPTER XL.

DARA RETREATS TOWARDS LAHORE  IS ROBBED BY THE
JATS — THEIR CHARACTER.
As soon as Jysing and Dulele Khan received
Ourungzebe's letters, it was determined that they
should be shown to the young prince, that he might be
induced to fly from the army, and thus save them from
the dilemma of either supporting the weaker side, or
seizing and delivering the raost amiable and most
popular member of all the imperial family into the
hands of the victor, who would probably some day
himself, out of policy, punish them for having pre
sumed to lay violent hands upon his person. Be
sides, the prince was a favourite among the soldiers ;
and they would not allow him to be taken without
much bloodshed. Under these considerations Jysing,
to whom Dulele Khan was entirely subservient from
views of interest, took the letters open in his hand
to that prince, who had himself just heard of his
father's defeat and flight ; and urged him to leave
the army forthwith and seek an asylum with Prithee

384 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS,
Sing, the Rajah of Seereenuggur in the Himmalah
mountains, who would receive him hospitably, and
in his fastnesses be able to defend him against all the
armies in the world. Sooleeman soon saw, that in
all the array he had so successfully comraanded
against his uncle, now that his father had been de
feated and driven frora the capital, he could calculate
upon the fidelity of only a few personal friends ; and
with these he set out under a solemn pledge from
the two lieutenants, that they would protect him in
his flight, and secure the safety of all the property
he took with him. He had an elephant loaded en
tirely with gold coins ; and this, with the greater
part of all the other valuable property, was soon
taken from hira by detachments sent secretly after
him for the purpose by these two traitors. By these
parties and the militia of the great landholders along
the road, who always seized with avidity the oppor
tunity of plundering flying armies, or detachments
of whatever party, he lost almost all his baggage ;
while many of his remaining followers were killed in
the attempt to defend it ; and still more discouraged
from following him to the end of his journey. He
reached at length the capital of the Rajah, lying on
the banks of the Aluknunda river, thirty miles above
its junction with the Ganges ; and only six stages
from Hurdwar, where the united streams emerge into
the great plains of India. He had his wife and child
with him. The Rajah received him with all honour,
and cordial hospitality; and assured him that he

THE JATS. 385
would be there as safe, and he hoped as happy, as if
he was himself sovereign of the country.
Dara, after his defeat, was asharaed to see his
father, but he had an interview with his sister,
Jehanara, as he passed through Agra in his retreat
towards Delhi. His father tried, through her and
other confidential messengers, to inspire him with
hopes ; and sent him one hundred camel loads of gold
and silver coin, to assist him in raising new levies.
He took with him his wife, who was the daughter of
his uncle Purmez, his daughters, and his youngest
son, Sipeher Shekoh, and about four hundred persons,
all that still remained faithful to him in his misfor
tunes ; but he expected to be joined at Delhi by
the army of his son Sooleeman, on whose fidelity
he thought he could still rely, but by which that
son had been already actually deserted, plundered,
and driven a fugitive to the mountains. On his
way from Agra to Delhi he was attacked by the
Jats, a tribe known up to that time only as peasants
and robbers. They plundered hira of alraost all his
valuable property ; and among other things took the
hundred camel loads of gold and silver with which
he had been provided by his father. The fruits of
this and other similar attacks .upon traveUers and
remnants of armies, were laid out in the construction
of the mud forts of Bhurtpore, Hatras, Deeg,
Gohud, &c., which enabled their leaders to make
depredations on all the surrounding territories, and
retain garrisons that were long considered impreg-
VOL. I. c c

386 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
nable by the natives, and afterwards found very for
midable even to our own armies.
The spirit of union, which animated and strength
ened them in their infancy, as mere bands of robbers,
fostered and supported their growth to the mature
age of formidable principalities, when it became
dignified with the name of patriotism, or national
feeling. They continued, what they had always
been, cultivators of the soil and robbers ; only they
now robbed upon a large scale ; and had not two
powerful rivals appeared, in the English and Mah
rattas, the Jats would probably have soon become
sole masters of the empire of Hindoostan. Out of
the nuclei of these bands of robbers, grown into prin
cipalities and converted to the religion of Nanuk
Shah, extending from the Jumna to the Indus, was
formed, by one raaster spirit, the empire of the Seiks.
The unconverted Jats along the Jumna and Chum
bul, virtually wielded the power of the house of
Tymoor on the throne of Delhi, when those two
rivals entered the arena; and they waited only for
the same master spirit, the Runjeetsing, to unite their
efforts upon more distant expeditions, with the name,
pomp, and circumstance, of glorious war ! Along the
Jumna and Chumbul they have now, under a govern
raent that can effectually prevent their indulging
their old sporting propensities, sunk quietly down
into peaceful subjects and industrious peasantry,
and between the Jumna and the Indus, it is to be
hoped they will, at no distant period, sink to the

THE JATS. 387
same state under the sarae beneficent rule. There
is this difference between the two. The Gangs or
eneraies of both were composed almost exclusively of
raembers of the same faraily or tribe, Jats or Seiks,
(which the Jats easily becarae, having no recognized
caste of their own among Hindoos;) but the conquest
and occupation of Cashmere, Peshawar, and Mooltan,
augraented the Seik array so rauch, that it absorbed
all the raerabers of the tribe over the country they
occupied; their ploughshares were all converted
into swords ; and every Nanuk Shahee Jat became a
soldier. Their places in agriculture were filled by
men of other castes ; and the Seiks became segre-.
gated frora the soil, and frora the raass ofthe peace
ful and industrious over whora they tyrannized, and
with whora they have never since had any bond of
union or syrapathy — " a breath may mar thera as a
breath hath made." The Jats along the Chumbul
and the Jumna, on the contrary, were never united
under any conqueror, whose ambition could combine
and direct their powers to foreign conquests, and
keep them up as a standing army employed exclu
sively in military duties for his service. They con
tinued to drive their own ploughs while they fought
their own battles ; or their families drove them for
thera, like the Roraans in the early periods of their
history. Dara had orders frora his father to the
governor of Delhi, to furnish him with all the ele
phants and horses in the imperial stables, which
would of theraselves have been sufficient to mount a
c c 2

388 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
considerable force ; but this governor, who had been
in correspondence with Ourungzebe, knew that
Sooleeman had fled to the mountains, and left all
his array to the victor ; and he refused to allow Dara
to enter into the citadel, or to take anything frora
the treasury, arsenals, or stables of his father. Dara
now, deserted by all the chiefs whom he had insulted
in his days of pride and power, proceeded by a rapid
march to Lahore, accompanied by about ten thousand
men, mostly new levies.

389

CHAPTER XLI.

SHAH JEHAN IMPRISONED BY HIS TWO SONS, OURUNGZEBE
AND MOORAD.
On the 3rd of June, 1658, Ourungzebe and
Moorad raarched their arraies to Agra, and encamped
about two railes frora the fortress in which stood the
palace of their father. Shah Jehan tried all he
could to persuade his two sons to pay him a visit
unattended ; and for several days the people of
the capital were amused with the preparations
for the interview. It was Shah Jehan's intention
to have them both seized and put to death, or con
fined in prison, by means of a band of masculine
Calmuck women, whom he kept well armed in the
seraglio. All that he did and intended to do was
raade known to Ourungzebe, by his sister Roshunara,
and other friends with whom he kept up a close corres
pondence. Jehanara, however, steady to the interests
of her father and Dara, entered into the scheme ; and
did air she could to persuade Ourungzebe to come

390 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
into the citadel, and becorae reconciled to his father.
Two plans had been proposed and deliberated upon
after the defeat of Dara. One, for the Eraperor to
take the field, and rally round him all the chiefs and
forces that he could ; the other to inveigle the rebel
brothers into the fortress, and there to dispose of
them. Ourungzebe was made every day acquainted
with these deliberations ; and afraid that the Emperor
raight be terapted to adopt that plan which would
still give hira a chance of success, he made his sister
Jehanara believe, that he was really impatient to
throw himself at his father's feet, and implore for
giveness for the past, if she could only secure to him
protection against the resentment of his two brothers,
the ambitious Moorad and the haughty Dara ! All
this she believed, because she wished it ; and because
Moorad had insulted her by the indolent manner in
which he received her advances. Moorad never
knew how or when to suppress his emotions, or sub
due his passions. Jehanara, hating as she did her
brother Ourungzebe,* paid her first visit to Moorad,
pretending that she believed Ourungzebe had been
honest in considering him as the Commander-in-chief
Moorad, knowing how much she was devoted to
Dara, and opposed to them, treated her with indig
nity ; and she was leaving the camp in disgust when
Ourungzebe rushed out bare-footed, and holding one
of the legs of her palanqueen in his right hand, ran
along by her side, and entreated her to honour his
tent with her presence, if but for a moment. She

FORGERY OF OURUNGZEBE. 391
was pleased with this mark of homage from the real
commander of a victorious array in the raidst of his
soldiers ; and went back to his tent, where she was
flattered into the persuasion, that Ourungzebe was
really the raan he pretended to be, and deterred
frora seeking a reconciliation with his father raerely
by the dread of the resentment and ambition of his
brothers ! Full of this persuasion, and pleased with
the notion that she had herself inspired him with
these better feelings, she retumed to her father to
raake arrangeraents for the expected interview.*
Shah Jehan was by this raeans prevented from
taking the field, or appearing out of the palace,
where he waited day after day expecting the pro-
raised visits of his sons. Oumngzebe deferred his
visit on various pretences, till at last an intercepted
letter was brought to hira in open council, addressed
frora the Eraperor to Dara, commanding hira to ad
vance no further than Delhi, as he was about to re
ceive a visit from his two brothers, and should take
good care that they never stood in his way again.
This letter had been forged by Ourungzebe himself
for the occasion ; but the thing had been so well
contrived and executed, that hardly any person in
the army but this prince himself and Shaestakhan
knew the secret ; and the sympathy for the father,
which had begun to be felt by all classes of people
* Jehanara's visit took place on the 12th of June, 1658, and
Ourungzebe and Moorad went and took possession of the palace
of Dara on the 15th.

392 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
through the army and city, was in sorae measure
transferred to the two rebel sons. " The bird that
escaped the net is about to be caught again," was
the expression in this letter, which was sent by a fast
runner well known, and called Nadir DU. It was in
tercepted by one of Shaestakhan's troopers. The for
tress was surrounded by the two armies, and the prince
Mahoraed had erected his batteries ready to blow
down the waUs, when his grandfather consented to
receive him as the representative of his father
Ourungzebe, who pretended to be extremely ill.
This prince contrived to gain over the soldiers on
duty at the gates, who adraitted a considerable body
of select armed followers. Advancing with them to
the interior apartments of the palace, he put to death
every man he met, without distinction. Soldiers,
slaves, eunuchs, and woraen, were all indiscrirainately
murdered. Shah Jehan sat on his throne ready to re
ceive him, araidst the presents of inestiraable value,
which had been prepared as a bait for his father. The
Emperor was mad with rage when he found himself
foiled at his own game, and actually a prisoner in the
hands of his grandson, with his attendants cut down
and massacred at his palace doors. In his passion
he sent to the young soldier, and invited him to
come in and ascend the throne at which his father
was aiming, but which he would disgrace by his
armies. He offered to swear solemnly on the Koran,
to bestow that throne on him, and maintain him upon
it, if he would only set himself up as the defender

IMPRISONMENT OF SHAH JEHAN. 393
of his old grandfather against his rebellious sons.
' Such an action would," he said, " secure to hira the
blessing of heaven, and establish him in the affec
tions of all good men, who would applaud the deli
very of his grandfather from a vile prison, and the
punishment of two rebellious sons."
Had Mahomed consented to be made the means
of avenging the old man's injuries upon his two sons,
he might possibly have attained the throne ; but dis
trusting his grandfather's designs, and dreading his
father's powers and abilities to frustrate them, should
they be honest, he declined the invitation, and de
manded the key of every gate of the fortress, that
his father might come with full assurance of safety
to throw himself at his feet! For two days Mahomed
waited with all his men under arms to receive the
keys, till at last Shah Jehan, seeing all the guards, one
after the other, withdrawn from the small gates that
led to his apartments, delivered up the keys to
his grandson, who conveyed thera to his father.
Ourungzebe sent in Etbar Khan, as teraporary go
vernor of the fortress ; and he shut up the Eraperor
and his eldest daughter, and all his women, in their
apartments, causing all the gateways, doors, and
windows that were not indispensable, and well-
guarded, to be walled up, to prevent any communi
cation between them and the people without, except
through him.* Ourungzebe wrote at the same time a
short letter addressed to his father, excusing himself
* The Emperor was put in prison on the 16th of June, 1658.

394 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
for proceeding to such lengths against his august person,
on the ground of his evident determination to sacrifice
all his other sons to the passions and ambition of
Dara, as evinced in the intercepted letter, and the
necessity they were under to provide for their own
safety. " Had it not been for these, his father's de
signs against his life, he should," he said, " have paid
his respects to him on the first day of his arrival ;
and as soon as he should have put it out of Dara's
power further to prosecute his evil designs, he would
still come, open the gates to him, throw hiraself at
his feet, and implore his forgiveness and blessing.
He took care that copies of this letter should be cir
culated through the armies, and sent to all the pro
vinces of the empire ; but it is believed he never sent
it to his father, as it was no longer a matter of any
importance to him what he might think or feel upon
the subject of his conduct towards him.
The family of Araeer Jurala had been set at
liberty when the victors first entered Agra ; and he
was now sent off as the viceroy of Moorad, to Go-
zarat and Khandeish. The treasures found in the
palace were, to all appearance, divided equally araong
the brothers ; but it was Ourungzebe's policy to
allow much to be concealed, where he was sure here
after to find it ; and of what was taken, the greater
part went unperceived to his coffers. He appointed
their uncle, Shaestakhan, in whose devotion and
ability he could entirely rely, as governor of the city ;
and all the great officers of state now flocked about

IMPOLICY OF THE EMPEROR. 395
him to tender their services. The Emperor, who
had suffered himself to be thus shut up in his own
apartment, was no longer thought of Had he, in
stead of attempting to contest with his wary son,
Ourungzebe, at his own game, and trying to inveigle
him into his power, boldly shown himself among
his troops a few days before, the armies which he
had created and comraanded with brilliant and un
interrupted success for thirty years, would still, it is
thought by most people, have supported him ; and
his sons raight have been ashamed openly to fight
against their venerable father. Their only hope,
at first, lay in his being unable to show hiraself at
the head of his troops in tlie field, or being per
suaded to reraain at home by Dara ; as this was the
only thing that could give a colour to their irapu
dent pretence, that he was a prisoner in the hands of
his eldest son, and not a free agent, and that they
had really taken up arms to rescue and avenge him.
But after they had got to the capital, and Dara had
fled before them, it was, perhaps, too late for him to
do so, with a fair chance of success. Many of the
most powerful leaders, who knew perfectly well that
the Emperor was all along a free agent, had com
promised themselves by openly joining the rebel sons ;
and like these sons theraselves, they all felt that
they had gone too far to recede — that they must
now crush the Emperor or perish. It is thought
that the old man would have made the attempt, had
not Ourungzebe managed to persuade his sister
5

396 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Jehanara, that he would really wait upon his father,
and throw himself at his feet. She certainly pre
vailed upon her father to rely upon her assurance,
that Ourungzebe would come ; and the father knew
the incapacity of Moorad too well to care whether
he carae or not.

397

CHAPTER XLIL

OURUNGZEBE THROWS OFF THE MASK, IMPRISONS HIS
BROTHER MOORAD, AND ASSUMES THE GOVERNMENT OF
THE EMPIRE.

Having secured the person of the Emperor, and
provided for the fidelity and tranquillity of thc
capital, the two armies commenced their march in
pursuit of the fugitive Dara — Ourungzebe's arm)'
keeping on the right, and Moorad's on the left bank
of the river Jumna. Ourungzebe crossed the river,
and passed much time with his brother every day,
talking chiefly on the subject of his coronation, which
he had resolved should take place near the old
mosque at Mathara, but his real design seemed clear
to everybody but his infatuated brother himself
He was advised to remain at the capital, since he had
been declared Emperor, and to permit. Ourungzebe
to pursue Dara alone ; but his desire for miUtary
farae would not permit him to see his armies led to
further victories by another. His favourite attendant,

398 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the eunuch Shah Abas, every day urged upon him
the necessity of guarding himself against the designs
of his brother, which had becorae evident to every
body but himself; but nothing could awaken the
suspicions of Moorad, who saw the preparations that
his brother was making for his coronation with un
disguised delight, and entirely relied upon his affec
tion, and professed desire to devote himself entirely
to religion, and to see on the throne the man who
was most likely to enforce its observances. Before
the armies left Agra, that of Moorad clamoured for
arrears of pay, and he tried in vain to persuade the
bankers of that city to send him the means to defray
them. Ourungzebe's army had been regularly paid,
and he now lent Moorad money enough to pay his
their arrears. During the whole march to Mathara,
discipline had been entirely disregarded in Moorad's
army. The tents of the prince were scenes of per
petual debauchery ; and riot and disorder filled his
camp. In Ourungzebe's, on the contrary, the strictest
discipline was observed ; the whole army went to
their morning, evening, and midday prayers, with as
much regularity in camp as in quarters. Councils
were regularly held ; and all the principal officers
were made to feel that they had the confidence of
their prince, and could entirely rely upon hira as long
as he should be able to rely upon them. This con
fidence in the capacity of their leader, and his ability
to discern merit and reward services, the officers im
parted to their men ; and, in spite of all his crimes

/

INFATUATION OF MOORAD. 399
and dissimulations, no raan ever commanded an army
more devoted to his service.
The preparations for the coronation of Moorad
being ready, the day for the ceremony, after consulting
the stars, was fixed for the 27th of June, 1658. The
spot chosen was the great plain in front of the old
mosque. Tents, formed of the richest gold brocade,
were pitched all round this plain ; and the whole
area within was covered with canopies of rich co
loured cloth, supported upon poles fastened to the
ground by ropes of silk. Upon a throne, under these
magnificent canopies, and in the midst of the arraies,
Moorad was to receive the turban and the imperial
sabre from the hands of the great Quazee, or chief
priest ofthe Mahomedan religion. The day before the
cereraony was to have taken place, Ourungzebe was
unable to pay his usual evening visit to Moorad, in
consequence of sudden indisposition ; and, as it was
necessary once more to consult the astrologers about
the suitableness of the day fixed upon, he begged
Moorad would come and sup with him. Shah Abas
again urged his prince not to put hiraself in the
power of his brother, but in vain. They were fol
lowed by only a few of his household troops. As he
landed on the right bank of the river, he raet an old
acquaintance, Ibrahim Khan, now an officer in his
brother s army. Shocked to see the generous prince
so infatuated, he seized his horse by the bridle, and
exclaimed, " Whither are you going, my prince, and
what evil star leads you to Ourungzebe?"

400 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" I go, Ibrahim, to fetch the crown ; it is from the
Quazee's hands that I am to receive it."
Ibrahim retired, and turning away his face, wiped
a tear from his eye, for he had received from him
much kindness, though he was now in the service of
another. The Quazee, from whom he was to receive
the imperial ensigns, met him at the door of Ourung
zebe's tent, and tried to put him on his guard by
greeting him with these words — " Your entrance is
fortunate, my prince. May it please the Almighty
that your departure may be so likewise ! "
There was so much of kindness, affection, and re
spect in the manner with which Ourungzebe received
his brother, that all feelings of distrust were reraoved
in their cordial embrace, not only from Moorad's
own bosom, but from that of every one of his fol
lowers, save the trusty Shah Abas, who gave his mas
ter up as lost. Ourungzebe, while he embraced him
with all the warmth of a brother's affection, addressed
him with all the respect of a subject. After em
bracing hira, he, with the feelings of the tenderest
solicitude, gently passed his handkerchief over his
face, and wiped off the dust and perspiration of this
journey ; for the weather had become intensely hot,
and the roads were very dusty. He had arranged
everything with Ameer Khan, and a few other of his
confidential officers, who really supped with him;
and when the wine began to circulate, he begged his
brother to permit hira to take a little repose, as he
was still weak, and in a good deal of pain ; and wished

SEIZURE OF MOORAD.

401

to prepare for the august ceremonies of the corona
tion, which was to take place the next morning.
The wine of Shiraz circulated freely. Moorad got
drunk, and fell asleep upon the carpet. All the rest
retired. All Moorad's officers had, by Ourungzebe's
orders, been entertained by the principal officers of
his suite -with the same exceUent wines. Shah Abas
and the other attendant, when they found their
master left alone, went in and sat by hira as he slept ;
but about midnight Ourungzebe ordered them out,
that his brother might sleep the more quietly. He
had then his sword and poniard removed, as if they
incommoded him ; and shortly after going in him
self, he put on an air of great indignation, and spurned
Moorad with his foot. " What shame, what infamy
are you bringing upon us and our cause ? An em
peror of the Moguls to be lying drunk upon the
floor ! What will be said of us ? Take this infa
raous raan," exclaimed he, in a seeming transport of
rage, " this beastly drunkard, who thus violates the
laws of God and his holy prophet, and throw him
into yonder dark room to sleep out his wine unseen
by man!"
Six men rushed in well armed, with silver fetters.
Moorad awoke, stood up, and, not finding his sword,
called out lustily for help. " Let him die if he re
sists," said his brother. The fetters were soon put
upon his legs ; and he was thro-wn into a separate
tent, and well guarded. The rausic continued to
play as if nothing had interrupted the festivity ofthe
VOL. I. D D

402 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
two brothers ; and the friends of Moorad, roused by
his shouts, were rushing towards him, when they were
assured that their master, in a fit of drunkenness, too
common to hira, had been abusing everybody, even
his own brother ; and was now put to bed that he
raight repose, and be ready for the ceremonies in the
morning. Shah Abas was at the same time pinioned
and thro-wn into another tent. Men were sent
through the whole camp with the same story about
Moorad's drunken fit, and with handsome presents
to all the principal officers ; and promises of increased
pay and promotion to the whole army, as a reward
for the value of their past services. In the morn
ing the greater part of Moorad's array came across
the river to see the ceremony of the coronation, all
unarmed, according to orders, as it had been pre
tended, that on the occasion of such tumultuous re
joicings, it might be dangerous to allow the multi
tude to be armed. Almost all the officers had ex
pected this event, and the greater part of them de
sired it, as they considered Ourungzebe to be the only
man who could lead thera safely through the perilous
enterprise in which they had all embarked their
hopes, and only dreaded that he might be honest
in his professed desire of a life of religious retire
ment. Moorad and his faithful follower. Shah Abas, had
before daylight, on the morning that he was to have
been crowned, been placed in two close litters, and
sent off upon the backs of two elephants towards

CORONATION OF OURUNGZEBE. 403
Delhi, where they were iraprisoned in the small fort
of Suleengurh, situated upon an island in the Jumna.*
Some of the most trusty of the troops of Ourungzebe
were placed all around the enclosure ; and when the
armies had assembled to witness the coronation, some
persons, placed near the platform on which it was to
take place, called out, " Long life to the Ourungzebe !"
This was echoed by other persons placed in different
parts of the area, and by the armed squadrons out
side, and soon after shouted with an enthusiasm
throughout the whole multitude ; and when Ourung
zebe, who waited only for this signal, showed him
self upon the platform where his brother was to have
been crowned, he was received with tumultuous
shouts of applause, as if but one uncontrollable feel
ing of delight animated the whole raass. He seated
himself for a moraent upon the throne, and then re
tired. There was not the slightest appearance of a move
ment in favour of his brother, or a change in the
minds of the people ; they had lost their norainal, but
retained their real head ; and they all felt, that in
reality there had been a change for the better, that
they were under the undisguised coraraand of a raan
capable of conducting them to wealth, honour, and
glory ; and bound to wear the crown they should win
* Moorad was put in prison on the 27th of June, 1658,
Ourungzebe was formally crowned Emperor on the 23rd of July,
1658 ; and the day after set out in pursuit of Dara. The coro
nation took place in the Shalamar garden, near Delhi.
DD 2

404 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
for him, or perish. " The Emperor became," says a
sensible Italian narrator of these events, " the fruit
of an intrigue the best sustained, and most ably con
ducted of any recorded in history." Ourungzebe
was now forty years of age ; his father. Shah Jehan,
sixty-seven. Ourungzebe now left Mathara at the head of both
armies, and proceeded to Delhi in search of Dara,
who, hearing of his approach, left that city, and took
the road to Lahore, raising troops and levying con
tributions for their payraent as he advanced. Soolee
man, at the head of seven thousand men, whom he
had coUected around him in the mountains, descended
into the plains at Hurdwar to join his father ; but
Ourungzebe, calculating upon the probability of this
attempt, had pushed on Fidac Khan, at the head of
fifteen thousand veteran troops, who soon dispersed
the new levies of the young prince, and he was
obliged to return to the mountains. Dara passed
the Sutlege at the head of thirty thousand men;
crossed the Bea, and leaving there a large force, under
the command of Daood Khan, to defend the passage
against his brother, went on to Lahore.
Ourungzebe, six days after the coronation, on the
29th of July, set out in pursuit of Dara. The solsti
tial rains had set in heavily, and the countries over
-which the armies passed were for the most part
under water. He knew the danger of giving repose
either to Dara or his own troops. He was often
alone many miles in advance of his troops, eating

FLIGHT OF DARA.

405

nothing but dry unleavened bread, drinking nothing
but water, and reposing, when he reposed at all,
under a tree with nothing but his shield for a pillow,
like the humblest soldier in his army. Daood Khan
had taken up a strong position on the Bea, had for
tified it well, was devotedly attached to the cause of
Dara, and so strong in force, that he could have effec
tually kejit Ourungzebe in check several months.
The Eraperor saw this, and having endeavoured in vain
to corrupt him, he managed, through his friends in
Dara's camp, to circulate reports so much to his pre
judice, that Dara commanded hira to abandon the
post, and join him at Lahore ! He did so with great
reluctance. Ourungzebe passed the Bea without
opposition, and continued the pursuit. Dara should
have retreated from Lahore upon Cabool, where
Mohubbut reigned as viceroy, was much beloved by
the army and the people, and devotedly attached to
the cause of Shah Jehan and Dara. He coramanded
the Khyber Pass between Cabool and Lahore, and
the Bholan Pass between Bukkur and Candahar;
which passes have always been considered the keys of
Hindoostan to the westward, and might have been
easily defended against Ourungzebe by a very small
force. The traitor, Khuleeloolah, however, who de
serted hira on the Churabul, and others who had been
sent on in advance, in pursuit of him, were too close to
give him rauch time for deUberation ; and in an evil
hour he determined to take the road through Mool
tan to Gozerat. His troops, finding that they had

406

RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

nothing to hope, and everything to fear from the
guidance of such a man, who never seemed to know
what to do, or whom to trust in time of difficulty,
now deserted him in crowds.

407

CHAPTER XLIIL

OURUNGZEBE MEETS SHOOJAH IN BENGAL AND DEFEATS HIM,
AFTER PURSUING DARA TO THE HYPHASIS.

Ourungzebe pursued him so far as Mooltan, and
there, finding that he was no longer forraidable, and
that his brother Shoojah was in full march from
Bengal to Delhi, with the pretended desire to re
lease their father and Moorad frora prison, he left
the pursuit to a division under the command of his
foster brother, Meer Baba, and retraced his steps
with the rest of his army towards Delhi.* Between
Mooltan and Lahore, while, as usual, several miles in
advance of his troops, he suddenly and unexpectedly
met the Rajah Jysing, at the head of six thousand
Rajpoot cavalry. Jysing was following up with the
design of siding with the strongest, for he was at
tached to the old Emperor, Shah Jehan, and would
have been glad of an opportunity of rescuing him
* Ourungzebe left Mooltan, on his return, on the llth of Oc
tober, 1658.

408 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
from prison, though he disliked Dara, from the affront
he had passed upon him in calling him a music-
master. When he saw Ourungzebe advancing to
wards him on his elephant, almost alone, he con
cluded that he had been defeated, and was retreat
ing ; and at first resolved to seize him, take him a
prisoner to Agra, and restore the old Eraperor to
liberty and erapire. Ourungzebe saw his danger,
and warded it off with his usual address. Going up
boldly to Jysing, he exclaimed — " My friend and
father, you are come in good time — Dara is lost : he
is a wretched fugitive in the deserts, -without money
or troops ; and I have left a handful of men under
Meer Baba to pursue him, that I may go back and
settle affairs at Agra. I ara afraid that his deserters
raay be raaking disturbances at Lahore. My army
is a good deal fatigued, and does not corae on fast
enough ; yours is fresh ; go, for God's sake, and take
care of that city and province. I raake you governor
of them !" Saying this, he took from his own neck
a string of pearls of iramense value, and put them
over the neck of the Rajah, saying — " Your conduct
towards Sooleeman Shekoh has made me for ever
your debtor : to such a friend I can entrust any
thing. But Dulele Khan is not with you ! I shall
be revenged upon him. Farewell, my best of friends!"
Saying this he passed on, and the Rajah, with all his
troops, followed in his train. Had he faltered, or
hesitated a moment, he would have been a prisoner,
and taken off to Agra by the Rajpoot cavalry, be-

birth-day festival. 409
fore any of his troops could have been brought up
to his rescue.
Jeswunt Sing followed up with his new levies to
support the cause of Dara, should he find him in a
condition to make a stand against his brother ; but
discovering that he had been deserted by his armies,
he tried to make a virtue of necessity, and joined
Ourungzebe, who received him coldly. Ourungzebe
entered Lahore on the 25th of October, and Delhi
on the 21st of November. Here he halted three
days, and celebrated his birth-day, being in his forty-
first year. All the most able chiefs of the empire
assisted at this ceremony ; and among the rest Daood
Khan, the last of the great men who deserted the
cause of Dara. Finding him determined to persist
in his resolution to take the road through Scinde to
Gozerat, he gave up his cause in despair, and offered
his services to Ourungzebe, who, aware of his abili
ties, received him with great distinction.
Araeer Jumla, who had been sent to the govern
ment of Gozerat and Khandeish, after his release
from prison, was now ordered to join Ourungzebe
with all the troops that he could bring from these
pro-rinces, to assist in the carapaign against Shoojah.
Having reinforced the troops under Shaesta, at Agra,
to enable hira to meet any attempts on the part of
young Sooleeraan frora the mountains ; and sent his
brother Moorad from Suleengurh a prisoner to
Gwalior, Ourungzebe now set out, on the Srd of
December, to meet his brother Shoojah, who was

410 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
advancing frora Bengal at the head of an army far
more powerful than he had yet had to encounter,
because better organised and disciplined, and more
united in feelings of attachment and fidelity to their
chief. He took the Rajah Jeswunt Sing with hira.
Not one man in the army of Shoojah could be pre
vailed upon to betray him, so much had he made
hiraself beloved and respected in his governraent.
Mahomed, the eldest son of Ourungzebe, had been
appointed governor of Mooltan, and he was now
ordered to join his father with four thousand horse
from that province. Ourungzebe, to enable him and
Meer Jumla to join him, moved down slowly be
tween the Ganges and Jumna. Shoojah, having re
freshed his army a few days at the city of Allahabad,
which stands at the junction of these two rivers,
moved up seventy railes to the town of Kujwa, where
he took up an excellent position on the bank of a
large reservoir of fine water, without wood or water
beyond it for raany railes, to afford shade or refresh
ment to an army.
This position he fortified strongly, placing his bat
teries on a rising ground, with entrenchments all
round; and Ourungzebe was obUged to encamp
several miles distant, from the want of water. Ameer
Jumla, who had pushed on before his forces from
Khandeish and Gozerat, and joined him a few days
before, suggested a plan to draw Shoojah from his
strong entrenchments by a feigned retreat. The
arraies were drawn out for action on the 6th of
10

BATTLE OF KUJWA. 411
January, 1659 ; but after a few discharges of artil
lery both retired. During the following night Ameer
Jumla got forty guns well placed, and chained to
each other, so that no cavalry could charge through
them. He was all night eraployed in preparing this
artillery, and encouraging the troops for the coming
conflict ; while Ourungzebe reraained all night fer
vently at jirayers, iraploring the Deity to grant him
victory. Just before dawn, and while he was still at
his prayers, horrible screams were heard from the
rear, where the families of Mahomed Sultan and the
chief nobility had been placed ; and it was found
that Jeswunt Sing, with all the Rajpoot cavalry,
twenty thousand in number, had treacherously at
tacked the rear of Ourungzebe's camp, and were
cutting up raen, woraen, and children, and carrying
off all the valuables they could collect. Jeswunt
Sing had the evening before sent word to Shoojah,
that he should do this, in order to give him an op
portunity to attack his brother, in the midst of the
disorder. This he was prevented from doing by
Ameer Jumla's judicious disposition of the artillery.
Ten thousand men were sent back to defend the
baggage and camp followers ; and raany officers of
distinction who were among them with their fol
lowers, either went off to the enemy or returned to
their homes, for the defection of twenty thousand
Rajpoot cavalry at such a critical time, and the dis
order which followed, seemed to leave Ourungzebe
no chance of victory, for none of Ameer Jumla's

412 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
troops had yet come up from Gozerat. Not more
than half his array reraained when the rising sun saw
their chief, with his usual serenity of countenance,
marshalling them for action, and assuring them of
divine protection ; and, above all, they saw Araeer
Jurala by his side.
Shoojah had two sons in the action. Zyaoddeen,
the eldest; and Balund Akhteer, the youngest.
Ourungzebe had his eldest son, Mahoraed Sultan.
The elephant on which Shoojah was raounted was
the largest and boldest in the field ; and seeing
Ourungzebe in the midst of his troops, he pushed
the animal on upon him, in the hope of deciding
the battle by bearing hira down before hira. Pre
ceded by some squadrons of his guards, he made his
way up to the spot on which he stood, urging on his
troops ; but one of Ourungzebe's officers seeing his
intention, pushed his elephant in between thera. His
elephant was overthrown in the shock, but he saved
that of his master ; and Shoojah's was so stunned
that he stood trembling in every limb. One of
Shoojah's officers now pushed his elephant upon
Ourungzebe's, which in the shock fell upon his knees,
and the girths of the castle giving way at the same
time, it was nearly coming to the ground. None of
the horses could be brought up to join in the strife,
and Ourungzebe had put one foot out of the castle
to descend, when Araeer Jumla called out to hira
from a distance, with a stentorian voice, " Where is
the Deccan now ! Where is the Deccan now !"

elephant CONFLICT. 413
Meaning there is no retreat now. He drew back his
foot, and sat down again ; the girths, though loosened
by the shock, held on. The adversary's elephant
still pressed him, when the man who sat behind
Ourungzebe shot the driver ; but the animal still
pressed on, till the driver of Ourungzebe's elephant
managed to spring upon his neck, and force him off.
His place was supplied by the man behind the prince,
who now got over upon the neck of his elephant, and
made him retire. The day seemed lost to Ourung
zebe, when AUa Verdee Khan carae up to Shoojah,
who was unable to urge on his elephant after the
shock in which he had been so rauch stunned, and
entreated him earnestly not to sit there idle, as dark
ness was coraing on, and the enemy must escape
under it if he did not descend, mount his horse, and
pursue them. He addressed him almost in the same
words that Khuleeloolah had addressed to the un
fortunate Dara in the battle of the Chumbul —
" Come down, in the narae of God, frora that un
wieldy beast, and mount your horse. God has made
you sovereign of India. Let us pursue the fugitives
that Ourungzebe may not escape us !"* He had no
sooner descended frora his elephant, in the dusk of
* Alia Verdee Khan was no traitor. He thought this the
only way to secure the person of Ourungzebe and the imperial
crown for Shoojah ; but after the battle he was put to a cruel
death by the prince he intended to serve for this supposed
act of treason ! He had his tongue pulled out by the roots at
Rajmahal. A son of his was put to death at the same time.

414 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the evening, than a report spread quickly through
his army, that their chief had been slain. A panic
seized the whole ; and they retreated with precipita
tion from the field, of which they had only a few
minutes before been the acknowledged masters. The
camp was given up to plunder, but Ourungzebe
got one hundred and fourteen guns, the treasure
chest and wardrobe, as his share of the spoils.
As soon as Jeswpnt heard the unexpected news
of Shoojah's army flying from the field, he set out
towards Agra with the treasure. It had been his
intention to make as good terras as he could with
Shoojah, should he gain the victory; but he now
made the best of his way home through Agra. News
had gone before hira, that Ourungzebe had been en
tirely defeated ; and when he reached Agra it was
supposed that he came to release Shah Jehan, and put
him once raore upon the throne. Shaestakhan, the
governor and uncle of the contending princes, at
tempted to take poison, knowing that he had no
mercy to expect either from Shoojah or his father,
should the defeat of Ourungzebe leave either of them
his master. He was prevented by his wife; and
Jeswunt Sing's rapid retreat through Agra restored
the drooping spirits of Ourungzebe's party at the
capital.

415

CHAPTER XLIV.

OURUNGZEBE IMPRISONS HIS ELDEST SON  SHOOJAH AND
ALL HIS FAMILY ARE DESTROYED.

Sending Ameer Jumla and his son Mahomed in
pursuit of Shoojah, Ourungzebe returned to Agra;
and on the way the Rajah Jysing joined hira. Ameer
Jumla was promised the government of Bengal, with
the reversion of it to his son ; and to the latter he
said at parting — " Thou art the first born of my chil
dren ; and it is for thine own interest that thou
figh test. Much hast thou done ; but all must count
as nothing, unless Shoojah, the most powerful, and
most able of all our enemies, is overcome!" He
kept, as hostages for their fidelity, the only son of
Jumla, ostensibly that he raight look after his edu
cation, and the wife of his son Mahoraed, the daughter
of the king of Golconda, on the pretence that the
wife of the heir apparent ought not to be again ex
posed as she had been at the battle of Kujwa.
Shoojah had retreated to Mongheer, where he hoped

416 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to defend hiraself against Jumla. He was afraid to
move the war further down, lest the Rajahs of Lower
Bengal should take part with his brother against
him ; but he soon found that Mahomed and Jumla,
leaving part of their army, -with the artillery and bag
gage, to come down by water, had passed his flanks
vrith their light troops, and were actually attempting
to cut off his retreat by rapid maches upon Rajraahal !
He now moved his army down -with all possible
haste, and reached that place before them.
In a few days all Shoojah's defences were beaten
down by the enemy, and he was obliged to retreat
across the river Ganges at night. Jumla intended
to follow in the morning, but the rains set in that
night in torrents, and he and the young prince
were obliged to take up their quarters for that season
where they were. The prince had never forgiven
Jumla for refusing to come to his father when he was
sent for hira, and coraing afterwards, when his younger
brother, Mouzzim, was sent ; and to the personal
dislike arising frora this cause, was now added a
feeling of jealousy at the superior reliance which his
father seeraed to place in Jumla's abilities for the
successful terraination of hostilities against Shoojah.
He became every day more haughty and insolent,
and boasted continually of having given the crown
to his father. Jumla, fully conscious of his own
merits and abilities, and of the confidence reposed in
him by Ourungzebe, found his conduct altogether
unsupportable, and reported it to his father. He

MAHOMED AND AESHA. 417
was severely reprimanded ; and fearing that Jumla
had orders to arrest him, he went over to his uncle,
to whose eldest daughter he had in his boyhood been
affianced. From their infancy, Mahomed and Aesha
are said to have been fond of each other ; and it was
with great reluctance that he yielded to the injunc
tions of his father, to unite himself to the daughter
of the king of Golconda, with a view to the inhe
ritance of that kingdom. Shoojah and his daughter
were aware of this, and the prince was received with
much kindness ; but the wary Ourungzebe, by letters
addressed to the young prince himself, which he
knew would be intercepted, soon caused it to be
strongly suspected that he was there by his advice ;
and Shoojah refused, in consequence, to entrust
him with any important command. Unable to re
main where he knew he had become an object of
suspicion, he returned to the carap of Jumla, who
received him kindly, and promised to intercede with
his father for his pardon. He was, however, by per
emptory orders frora Ourungzebe, sent off towards
the capital with a strong escort ; but on the way he
was transferred to another, which took hira, in a
covered litter on an elephant, to the fortress of
Gwalior.* Bernier, who was at that time at the
* In the fifteenth year of Ourungzebe's reign, Mahomed
Sultan was taken out of prison, and married to the daughier of
the unfortunate Moorad Buksh. He died six years after the
marriage. His intellects had been impaired by his captivity, and
he lived a secluded life.
VOL. I. E E

418 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
court of Delhi, in the capacity of physician to
Danishmund Khan, states, that Ourungzebe, when
he heard of his eldest son Mahomed being safely
lodged in the fortress of Gwalior, observed to his
second son, the young but sagacious Sultan Mouzzim,
who had been raarried to the daughter of Rajah
Roopsing — " To reign securely over such an empire
as that of Hindoostan, a sovereign needs, my son, to
be jealous even of his own shadow ; and if you are
not more discreet than your brother has been, the
sarae fate which has now befallen hira, raust befal
you, for you must know that your father, Ourung
zebe, is not a raan likely to suffer his sons to do to
him what his father. Shah Jehan, did to his father,
Jehangeer, and what you have seen done to your
grandfather, Shah Jehan. If," adds the physician
" this son continue to deport himself as he hath
hitherto done, Ourungzebe will never have any cause
to suspect him, or to be in any way dissatisfied with
him, for no slave can be more tractable than he is ;
and Ourungzebe hiraself never appeared more care
less of worldly greatness, nor more entirely given up
to religious devotion than he does ! Yet I know
men of great parts who believe that he is not at
heart so pious and disinterested, and that he puts on
the appearance of these virtues, like his father, out
of policy, to serve his own arabitious purposes." In
a struggle, sirailar to that which I now narrate, be
tween the four sons of Ourungzebe, which took place
forty years after. Prince Mouzzira attained the throne

FORTUNES OF ZEENODDEEN. 419
by the destruction of all other competitors. But his
piety was nevertheless sincere, and he is considered
to have been the raost amiable of the brothers.
Shoojah, after many unsuccessful battles, was driven
from place to place along the line of the Ganges by
Jumla, whose armies were reinforced by all the
means which Ourungzebe could spare frora time to
time as he mastered Dara, and got young Sooleeman
into his power ; and they kept up the pursuit with
great activity and skill on both sides of that great
river. On reaching the city of Dacca, he sent off
his eldest son, the Sultan Zeenoddeen, to the Rajah
of Aracan, to request that he would afford him and
his family an asylura in his dorainions till the season
should be favourable for him to erabark with thera
for Aracan, whence he intended to proceed to Persia
or Turkey. The young prince was well received at
Aracan, and proraised all that his father asked. He
received orders frora the Rajah to take what vessels
he required for his father's conveyance from Chittar
gong, a place then within the territories of this
Rajah, and occupied exclusively by a colony of
christian pirates, from Portugal, Holland, and other
parts of Europe, who resided here under his pro
tection, and ravaged all the coast of Bengal and
Coromandel, taking the ships and selling the
crews as slaves to hira and other chiefs along the
Aracan coast. In these vessels Shoojah embarked
with his wife, three sons, and three daughters, and a
few faithful followers. He took all his raost valu-
E E 2

420 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
able property with him; and it is said that the
pirates designedly sank one vessel, containing money
and other valuables not likely to suffer from the
water, knowing that the prince would be afraid to
reraain long enough to recover it, while so closely
pursued by the enemy ; and that they should be able
to secure it for themselves on their return.
His force, after his departure, went over to Jumla,
who was glad to receive them all on favourable
terras, that they might not disperse, and create dis
orders in the province for whose good government
he was in future to be alone responsible. Shoojah
and his family were hospitably received in Aracan,
and allowed to remain there in security, though
Jumla often attempted by large proraises to prevail
upon the Rajah to deliver them into his hands.
When the season for sailing to Arabia arrived,
Shoojah demanded frora the Rajah the ship he had
promised to provide them with for the passage ; but
he was put off from day to day, and month to month,
with vain promises, till the season had passed away ;
and it becarae evident, that the Rajah had no in
tention to suffer thera to depart from his coast.* He
had determined to possess himself of the treasures of
which Shoojah and his family were in the habit of
making too ostentatious a display. The Rajah com-
* Tavemier says, " That Shoojah here married one of the
daughters ofthe Rajah, and had a son by her." Para. 2, Book ii.
I don't find this mentioned in any other author, either native or
European.

FATAL GENEROSITY. 421
plained at last that Shoojah had never honoured his
palace with a visit. It was not usual for the sons
of the Emperors to return the visits of men of his
rank ; and Shoojah was, besides, afraid to entrust
himself so entirely to the power of this chief It
was suspected, that he had a design to get hold of
him quietly, make him over to Ameer Jumla, destroy
his faraily, and possess hiraself of all his treasures.
Shoojah, therefore, sent his eldest son to pay his
respects to the Rajah, and request him to excuse his
father's not coraing, on the plea of indisposition, and
urge the fulfilraent of his proraise, to provide thera
with a ship for their passage to Arabia. The young
prince ostentatiously scattered gold and silver coin
among the crowd assembled round the Rajah's
palace, and along the road leading to it. Coming
before the Rajah, he placed before him presents of
great value in gold brocades, and the rarest and
richest embroideries of the east, and raagnificent
gold ornaraents set with precious stones. All these
things are supposed to have kindled the avidity of
the chief, who proraised to have the ship prepared
forthwith for their conveyance ; but took good care
that none should be forthcoraing.
Five days after the visit of the prince, his father is
said to have received a message from the Rajah,
demanding from him one of his daughters as a wife.
This demand Shoojah rejected with indignation;
and in despair of ever being able otherwise to get
out of the power of the Rajah, he forraed the reso-

422 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
lution to destroy him and aU his family, and get
himself declared king of Aracan. About three hun
dred of his old companions in arms had followed him
to Aracan; and they now formed his guards. A
great many Mahomedans from Bengal had got into
the service of the Rajah, and still more had been
captured by the Christian pirates of Chittagong, and
sold as slaves. All these people were found ready to
join in the enterprise; and everything being prepared,
the day was fixed for carrying it into effect. Sultan
Shoojah and his sons were in person to have led the
guards, and all the Mahomedans that should be found
ready to join them, at the palace, where they were
to have put the Rajah and all his family to the
sword. The day before this was to have been done,
however, the plot was discovered and made known to
the Rajah. Shoojah Mith his faraily and followers
attempted to escape through the forests to Pugan,
as it was now the cold season, when no danger was to
be apprehended frora sickness in passing such dense,
and at the other seasons deadly jungles ; but they
were the sarae day pursued by all the troops the
Rajah could coUect, They came up with them in a
narrow defile on the 7th February, 1660, and attacked
them on all sides. Shoojah and his followers fought
bravely, and slew a great many of the enemy ; but
they were at last overpowered by numbers. All his
followers were killed or disabled ; and his eldest
son, Zeenoddeen, was knocked down senseless by a
large stone thrown upon him from the hill above.

CATASTROPHE. 428
Sultan Shoojah was hiraself knocked down in the
same manner ; but a faithful eunuch who attended
him, raised hira from the ground in his arras, bound
up his head in his handkerchief, and enabled hira to
climb to the sumrait ofthe precipice, where he hoped
still to rally some few of his followers ; but they had
all been overpowered and taken, with his wife and
his children. One female attendant and the eunuch
were the only persons who reached the surarait of
the hill with him. Darkness came on, they plunged
into the thickest of the forest, and were never after
seen! The sword and dagger of the prince were
afterwards found in the forest, and it is supposed
that all three were destroyed by wild beasts. The
chief of the Dutch factory, in a letter which Bernier
himself saw, declared, that the body of the prince
had been found among the slain ; and this was con
firmed to Bernier by some who were in the action »
but others, who were there also, and whose testimony
he seems to have valued more, declared that he
escaped from the action in the manner above related,
and was never afterwards seen.
His wife and children were taken back to Aracan,
where they were all thrown into prison, and treated
with great harshness, till the eldest daughter con
sented to become the wife of the Rajah, when they
were indulged vrith more liberty. Zeenoddeen^
however, managed to get around hira some desperate
characters of his own faith, who prevailed upon the

424 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Mahomedans of the country to join them in another
conspiracy. On the very day the attack was to
have been made on the palace, one of the conspi
rators, in a fit of intoxication, fancying himself all-
sufficient for the purpose, fell to some hours before
the sigaal was to have been given. The guards got
ready, and the conspirators were all secured before
they could begin to act in concert. The Rajah be
carae so exasperated by this second atterapt, that he
determined to guard against all dangers from the
same source by exterminating the whole family save
the daughter he had married. Zeenoddeen and his
two young brothers had their heads cut off with
rude axes ; and the widow of Shoojah, with her two
young daughters, were mured up in walls of masonry,
where they perished miserably of hunger.* For
many years after, the capital of Delhi was often
agitated with rumours of Shoojah's being still alive.
At one time he was in strong force with the kings of
Golconda and Beejapore, ready to march towards
Delhi. At another time, he had been seen passing
the coast of Malabar, in sight of Soorat, -with two
ships bearing the red flag of Pegu, or Siam. At
another, he had been seen at the court of Persia on
his return from Constantinople ; and was now actu-
* Tavernier says, " That the daughter who had been married
to the Rajah himself, was included in the general massacre,
though pregnant at the time." Bernier says, she was spared,
and he is perhaps the better authority.

MOT OF OURUNGZEBE. 425
ally marching at the head of an immense army
through Candahar to Cabool. Ourungzebe used
facetiously to say, " That his good brother the Sul
tan Shoojah had become the most indefatigable of
pilgrims !"

426

CHAPTER XLV.

SECOND DEFEAT AND DEATH OP DARA, AND IMPRISONMENT
OP HIS TWO SONS.
Dara, after Ourungzebe had given up the pursuit
on the Indus at Mooltan, passed down the left bank
of that river to the strong fortress of Bukur, which
lies on a small island in the raidst of the stream.
This fortress he confided to his faithful follower the
eunuch, and he left with him for its defence a good
body of Mahomedan infantry, with a great many
artillerymen and engineers. These men he en
tirely confided in, and they deserved his confidence.
It had been his undisguised intention to raise Euro
peans when he attained the throne to the highest
station among the aristocracy, which in India has
always been one exclusively of office ; and the know
ledge of this intention tended perhaps more than
anything else to his ruin. It gave, in the estimation
of all bigoted Mahomedans, a colour of truth to his
brother's pretence of taking up arms merely in de
fence of the reUgion of Mahomed, which had

TOLERANCE OF DARA. 427
become endangered by Dara's obvious preference of
the Hindoos and Christians.* Men always like to be
persuaded, that in serving themselves in the way
they like best, they are serving their God in the way
most pleasing to him, and that the object most suitable
to their interests and inclinations, is the one most
consonant to his will : this sanctifies all manner of
means in the pursuit, and relieves the mind from
all disagreeable scruples in the use of the very worst
and frora much of the fear and uneasiness it would
otherwise suffer in its progress towards the attain
ment. In this fortress of Bukur, he deposited the
greater part of his treasure, and having rested and
refreshed his faraily and followers a few days, he set
out for Tatta, another fortress situated on the right
bank of the river Indus. He was still closely pur
sued by a division of the array under Bahadur Khan ;
and obliged to move from Tatta towards Ahmedabad,
the capital of Gozerat. He had still about him two
thousand faithful followers when the enemy gave up
the pursuit at Tatta. ' Sorae returned to the siege of
Bukur ; while the others, under peremptory orders
from Ourungzebe, hastened back to reinforce the
army which was about to raarch towards Bengal
* Dara had written a book trying to reconcile the Mahomedan
vrith the Hindoo faith, in the hope of thereby making the Mussul
mans less intolerant. This book he called the union of the two
oceans. The learned Abdool Fuzul had before him, in the reign
of Akber, tried in the same manner to show that the Hindoo reU
gion was in reality a pure system of Deism.

428 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
under his personal command against his brother the
Sultan Shoojah.
Dara, with all that still remained faithfiil to him
in his adversities, passed from Tatta over a most in
hospitable country with almost incredible speed ; and
at last reached Ahmedabad. The governor of this
city was Shah Newaz Khan, who had one daughter
married to Ourungzebe, a second to Shoojah, and a
third to Moorad, his brothers ; Moorad had left his
wife with her father when he set out on his enter
prise against Dara, and confided the government of
the province of Gozerat and that of its capital to
him. They had heard of the imprisonment of this
prince ; and in the hope that it might be the means
of his release, his wife now prevailed upon her father
to espouse the cause of the unfortunate Dara, who
showed him letters that he had received from the
Rajah Jeswunt Sing, and other powerful chiefs,
assuring him that he had only to show himself once
more at the head of a well-organized force, to have
round him all the Hindoo chiefs, who had nothing to
hope frora the intolerant bigotry of his brother.
Dara got ten lacks of rupees from Shah Newaz Khan.
He seized upon the commercial city of Soorat, and
got a further supply, and from the militia of the
country whom Shah Newaz brought over to his in
terest, he collected together twenty thousand horse.
When Ourungzebe heard that his brother Dara had
reached Ahmedabad in safety, he was extremely sur
prised and embarrassed; but deeming the case of
8

HINDOO TREACHERY. 429
Shoojah, who had by this tirae passed Allahabad on
his way to the capital, raore pressing, he marched
against him with all his available forces first, and
crushed hira as above related. Jeswunt Sing had
heen in correspondence vrith Dara ; and in the action
•with the other two contending brothers at Kujwa, he
did all he could to cause the ruin of Ourungzebe,
sure of a large immediate booty, and hardly less so
of being able to give Dara the victory over the
vanquished of the two — if he could, as he retired
through Agra, rescue frora prison the old Emperor
Shah Jehan, and put him at the head ofhis army.
In his letters he urged Dara to hasten his raarch
at the head of the best force he could muster, that
they might be ready to meet his rival, the victor,
before he could recover from the loss he must sus
tain in the conflict with the other. Ourungzebe's
unexpected victory, and sudden raoveraent upon
Agra after Jeswunt Sing, disconcerted the plans of
this chief for the release of the Eraperor ; and he
was obliged to retreat precipitately upon his own
capital. He had gone out several marches to meet
Dara, when he received letters frora his friend Jysing,
written at the desire of Ourungzebe, urging hira not
to risk the welfare and existence of his faraily in the
support of a ruined cause ; but to take advantage of
the present occasion, to secure the pardon of the
victor for all his past transgressions. " By deserting
Dara," said Jysing, "and joining rae in support ofthe
cause of Ourungzebe, which, it is clear from so many

430 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
manifest interpositions, has been adopted by Provi
dence,* you will not only save your own house from
impending ruin, but avert ruin from all the Hindoo
principalities in the country ; for if many of these
princes, under the influence of your example, should
flock round the standard of Dara, Ourungzebe 'will
becorae exasperated, and 'wreak his vengeance upon
us all. If, on the contrary, you quit the cause of
the raan whom Providence has so manifestly for
saken, Ourungzebe promises to forgive you all that
has passed, permit you freely to enjoy your large
estates, and all the plunder you obtained from his
camp at Kujwa ; and to confer upon you the govern
ment of Gozerat, which, lying close upon your own
hereditary dominions, cannot fail to be as agreeable
as honourable to you — and for the fulfilraent of this
promise, I most soleranly pledge rayself You have
only to remain neutral in the approaching contest,
for the Eraperor, (for so Ourungzebe was now styled,)
has no wish to employ your arms against his bro
ther." Jes-wunt Sing yielded to these persuasions, and
retired just as Dara, relying entirely upon his cordial
support and co-operation, advanced from Gozerat
towards Delhi with Shah Newaz Khan, and all the
troops he had been able to collect.
Dara had made thirty-five raarches from Ahme
dabad, and was only thirty railes from Joudpore, the
* Shah Jehan is reported to have said about this time, "/
wished Dara to succeed me — the army Shoojah — the people
Moorad ; but the Deity seems to have wished Ourungzebe."

DILEMMA OF DARA. 431
capital of Jeswunt Sing, when he heard of his defec
tion ; and it was now too late to retrace his steps
-with any chance of keeping his array together and in
spirits. He sent his young son, Sipeher Shekoh, to
Jeswunt Sing to urge hira on ; but in vain. He had
before sent their common friend Doodeechund, a
a very able diplomatist. Jeswunt proraised every
thing, but it was clear that he intended to do nothing.
The hot weather was about to set in ; and the roads
over which he would have to pass in his retreat,
would be found devoid of water, while they had, by
his advance, been exhausted of supplies of provisions.
These roads passed through the territories of the
Rajpoot chiefs, who had now so basely deserted hira ;
and they would not fail to take advantage of his
retreat before the arraies of his brother, who was
advancing rapidly from the capital, and harass hira
with continual attacks for the sake of plunder. To
attempt to retreat under so many disadvantages
would be to abandon himself to inevitable ruin — to
advance were at least to put hiraself in the way of
profiting by any accident that the chances of war
might produce in his favour. " He had once been
near his brother in battle ! might not Providence
place him near him again, and give him the oppor
tunity to avenge all his own and his father's wrongs ;
and to efface from his mind the bitter recollection of
his errors and follies at Sureenugur ?" He deter
mined to continue his march upon Delhi ; but on
reaching Ajmere, he intrenched himself in a strong

432 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
position between two hUls, in the beginning of
March, 1659.
Several unsuccessful attempts were made by
Ourungzebe to carry his position. At last Dara is
said to have tried to contend with Oumngzebe at his
o-wn game, and to have invited Jysing to join hira.
This chief proraised to quit the carap at a certain
hour, and make off with all his followers to his lines,
if he would have the gates open to receive them ;
that they might not suffer from the artillery of
Oumngzebe, which would be sure to play upon his
rear.* At the sarae tirae Jysing's cavalry were seen
making at full speed for the lines with the artillery
of Ourungzebe playing upon them from behind, and
the whole camp apparently in pursuit of the fugitives.
The gates were thrown open, and the prince and his
cavalry received vrith shouts of joy ! They had, how
ever, no sooner got inside the entrenchments than
they turned their swords upon the garrison ; and it
was now discovered, that the artillery and all the
rest of Ourungzebe's troops, which had seemed to be
attacking the fugitives in the rear, were in reality
following up to support their assault, and passing in
through the gates, of which they had made them-
* The time appointed was during an attack that was about to
be made by some Rajpoot infantry under Rajah Roopsing, sup
ported by the Moguls, upon the Pohkur Puharee hiU, which
overlooked Dara's position. The attack was made with great
gallantry, and the hill carried with great loss oa both sides, on
the 17th March, 1659.

FLIGHT OF DARA. 433
selves master. Dara's troops were thrown into
great confusion ; and he would himself have been
taken prisoner, had not Jysing advised him to fly
from the field of battle with his wife and family,
leaving all his baggage to divert the enemy from
pursuit. It was not from any regard for Dara that
he gave this advice, for he still remerabered with
feelings of implacable resentment, that Dara had
once called him a music-master ; but he knew, that
if he laid violent hands upon the person of the
prince, it would be one day remerabered to his dis
advantage, however it raight for a time please and
serve the purpose of the new Emperor. Shah Newaz
Khan was killed in the action.*
Dara left the field with his wife, daughter, and
youngest son, Sipeher Shekoh, followed by about two
thousand soldiers, who resolved still to adhere to his
fortunes. Without a tent or accommodations of
any kind, he passed with his family and this small
band of faithful followers, in the hottest season of the
year, through the hottest country in the world, among
people now everywhere hostile to hira. The wild
tribes, who occupy the hilly and woody tract by
which his road was intersected, and live by plunder,
pressed upon his flanks and rear, and robbed and
* Kafee Khan, who is a devoted admirer of Ourungzebe, and
who hardly ever mentions Dara without some opprobrious epi
thet, makes no mention of the simultaneous attack of Jysing, or
the attempt of Dara to corrupt him. Some other narrators of
these events are equally silent upon this point.
VOL. I. F F

434 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
raurdered every person who ventured either by
night or by day to go aside a few paces only frora
the raain body ; for the last few stages of this dis
astrous retreat, the roads were lined with the dead
bodies of men, women, and children, who had 'been
murdered by these savages, or had perished from
hunger, thirst, or fatigue ; and -with the carcases of
elephants, caraels, buUocks, and horses, which had
sunk under the labour and privations of such a
raarch at such a season of the year. Three stages
from Ahmedabad, he met the French physician
Bernier, traveUing from Surat to Delhi in a carriage
drawn by three large bullocks ; and requested him
to attend hira to that city, as he had no raedical
person with him, and his family and followers stood
much in need of one.
On reaching the vicinity of Ahmedabad, the
prince lodged in a miserable open caravanserai ; and
being still pressed by the savage raurderers of the
woods called Bheels, he raade Bernier lodge in the
same court with his family, and bring in his carriage,
lest this should be taken from him, and he be killed in
attempting to defend it. His wife, Nadira, who was
the daughter of Purwez, the eldest brother of the
Emperor Shah Jehan, and his daughter Juhanzebe,
who had both been born and bred with tender care
in the imperial palace, were now concealed behind a
wretched screen tied to one of the wheels of Ber
nier's carriage. Dara sent word to the governor, to
whora he had confided the city and fortress of

ANECDOTE FROM BERNIER. 435
Ahmedabad during the absence of Shah Newaz Khan,
that he should enter the city early the next morn
ing, and hoped soon to be in condition again to take
the field against his brother. This man had, during
his absence, been brought over to the interests of
Ourungzebe; and he sent back to say, that if he
attempted to enter the city he would find the gates
shut, and the people armed against him. This
message was received as the day began to dawn ; and
when it was communicated to the ladies, their cries
and sobs, and those of their female attendants, brought
tears into the eyes of the French physician, and
those of all the rest who were near enough to hear
them. " And now behold," says this physician, " all was
in an unspeakable confusion. Every one looks
upon his neighbour, and nobody knows what to do,
or what will become with him. Soon after we saw
Dara corae forth half dead, now speaking to one,
then to another, even to the raeanest soldier ! He
seeth all astonished, and ready to abandon hira.
What counsel ? Whither can he go ? He raust be
gone instantly. You raay judge of the extreraity he
must needs be in by this small accident I am going
to mention. Of these great oxen of Gozerat, which
I had for my chariot, one died the night before, ano
ther was dying, and the third was tired out, for we had
been forced to march for three days together almost
night and day, in an intolerable heat and dust. What
ever Dara could say or command, whether he alleged
F F 2

436 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
it was for himself or for one of the ladies who had
been hurt, or for me, he could not possibly procure
for me, whether ox, or camel, or horse, so that he
was obliged, to my good fortune, to leave me there !
I saw him march away, and that with tears in his
eyes, accorapanied by four or five hundred cavaliers
at most, and with two elephants that were said to be
laden with gold and silver."
Dara passed into Kutch, where he was at first re
ceived with hospitality by the Rajah ; but this chief
was soon brought over to the interest of Ourungzebe
by letters from Jysing ; and Dara, perceiving the
altered tone of his voice towards him, set out for the
fortress of Bukur, which, under his faithful friend
the eunuch, still held out against the army under
Bahadur Khan. In his passage through the dreary
sandy deserts that lay between Kutch and Bukur,
he lost the greater part of his reraaining followers
and domestics ; and in despair of being able to raise
the siege, or render any assistance to the besieged,
he proposed to strike off at once through the Bholan
Pass and Candahar to Persia ; but his -wife, still
proud in her adversity, said, " that she would rather
perish by poison than run the risk of being, with the
daughter, made the slaves of the heretical sovereign
of Persia."*
* The Persians are all of the sect of Alee, or Sheeas. The
imperial family of Delhi are of the sect of Osman, or Somnees.
Each thinks the other destined to the infernal regions. "We
sometimes see an European gentleman, who is married to a Ma-

ANOTHER HINDOO TRAITOR. 437
Dara then resolved to seek assistance from Jehan
Khan, a Mahomedan chief of a small territory, in his
way to Bukur, whose life he had twice saved. He
had been t-wice sentenced to death for treason and
rebellion, and pardoned by the Emperor at the earnest
sohcitation of Dara, who, with his usual want of dis
crimination, had conceived a liking for him. He
resolved to ask his aid to raise the siege of Bukur,
from which he thought he should be able to take his
treasure and troops — pass through Candahar into
Cabool, and joined by Mohubbut, the governor of
that province, and supported by the Affghans and
Uzbecks, be once more able to meet his brother in
the field. His wife strongly urged him to attempt
the passage to Cabool, without trusting to the grati
tude of a convicted rebel and traitor, or attempting
to raise the siege of Bukur, arguing that such an at
tempt, with the means at his command, could be of
no advantage whatever to the besieged, while it would
deprive him of the only chance now left him of
escape ; that if he crossed the Indus, left Bukur to
the right, and passed into Candahar, he might be
sure that Bahadur Khan, who, by the sagacity and
homedan lady, bargain that the daughters shall all become Ma
homedans, that they may marry respectable Mahomedans, and
the sons all Christians — the mother of course satisfied that she
is sending her sons, and the father that he is sending his daugh
ters, to the same quarters. Protestants and Roman CathoUcs
often, I fear, make the same bargains with the same per
suasions.

438 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
vigilance of the eunuch, was every day alarmed with
the reports of the large force he was bringing up to
raise the siege, would be afraid to move hiraself, or
detach any part of his force after them. Dara,
however, determined to confide in the gratitude of
this traitor, and proceeded to the capital of Jehan
Khan, who received him with great demonstrations
of joy and gratitude, supposing that he had still a
strong force coming up in his rear.
When he found that he had not more than two or
three hundred followers, he determined to make the
most of the occasion — seize upon all the treasures
and valuables he had left, and make him over to the
force before Bukur. Having collected all the armed
men he could, he secured Dara, threw him into prison,
and seized upon his property, and the jewels of
his wife and daughter.* Dara's wife, Nadira, rather
than be exposed to the indignities which she now
thought inevitable, took the poison, which she always
carried about her, and died in the arms of her hus-
band.f Dara and his young son were bound in
fetters, and carried to Bukur on the back of an ele-
* Tavernier says that young Sipeher Shekoh was outside the
house when seized, and that he killed three men with his bow
and arrows before he was secured.
t Nadira was the daughter of Purwez, the elder brother of
Shah Jehan. Her daughter was adopted by Jehanara, and ten
years after married to Ourungzebe's son, Mahomed Azum. She
lived to see him hunted down thirty years after, on the death of
Ourungzebe, in the same manner that her father had been. Her
name was Juhan Zebe, ornament of the world.

LAST SCENE FROM BERNIER. 439
phant, while his daughter was conveyed in a litter.
He was escorted by the traitor, Jehan Khan, who
was commanded by Bahadur Khan to take him on
to Delhi. The sequel of poor Dara's history cannot
be better told than by Bemier, who was at Delhi, on
the staff of one of the chiefs, Danishmund Khan,
when the prince arrived.
" When he was at the gates of Delhi, it was de
liberated by Ourungzebe, whether he should be made
to pass through the midst of the city, or be carried
thence direct to Gwalior. Many did advise that
was by no means to be done ; that some disorder
might arise ; that sorae might come to save him ;
and besides that, it would be a great dishonour to
the family royal. Others maintained the contrary,
riz. that it was absolutely necessary he should pass
through the to-wn to astonish the world, and to show
the absolute power of Ourungzebe, and to disabuse
the people, that might still doubt whether it were
himself, as, indeed, many noblemen did doubt ; and to
take away all hopes from those who still preserved
some affection for hira. The opinion of these last
was followed ; he was put on an elephant, his son,
Sipeher Shekoh, at his side; and behind him was
placed Bahadur Khan, as an executioner.* This was
none of those brave elephants of Ceylon or Pegu,
which he was wont to ride on, with gilt harness and
embroidered covers, and seats with canopies, very
* This was not the Bahadur Khan that commanded the troops
against Bukur.

440 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
handsomely painted and gilt, to defend themselves
from the sun. It was an old caitiff animal, very dirty
and nasty, with an old torn cover, and a pitiful seat,
all open ! There was no more seen about him that
necklace of big pearls which those princes are wont
to wear, nor those rich turbans and vests erabroi
dered. All his dress was a vest of coarse Unen, all
dirty, and a turban of the same, with a wretched
scarf of a Kashmere over his head, like a varlet ; his
son, Sipeher Shekoh, being in the sarae equipage.
In this miserable posture he was made to enter into
the town, and to pass through the greatest merchant
streets, to the end that all the people might see
him, and entertain no doubt any more whether it
were he.
" As for me, I fancied we went to see some strange
massacre, and was astonished at the boldness of
making him thus pass through the town, and that
the more, because I knew that he was very ill guarded;
neither was I ignorant that he was very much be
loved by the lower sort of people, Avho at that tirae
exclaimed highly against the cruelty and tyranny of
Ourungzebe, as one that kept his father in prison, as
also his son. Sultan Mahomed, and his brother,
Moorad Buksh. I was well prepared for it, and
with a good horse, and two good men, I went, toge
ther with two others of my friends, to place rayself
in the greatest street where he was to pass. But not
one man had the boldness to draw his sword, only
there were some of the Faqueers, and with thera

LAST SCENE FROM BERNIER. 441
some poor people, who seeing that infamous Jehan
Khan ride by his side, began to rail and throw
stones at him, and to call him traitor. All the shops
were ready to break for the crowd of spectators, that
wept bitterly ; and there was heard nothing but loud
cries and lamentations, invectives, and curses, heapen
upon Jehan Khan. In a word, men and women,
great and small, (such is the tenderness of the hearts
of the Indians,) were ready to melt into tears for
compassion ; but not one there was that dared stir
to rescue him ! Now, after he had thus passed
through the towm, he was put into a garden called
Hydrabad. " They were not wanting to tell Ourungzebe how
the people at this sight had lamented Dara, and
cursed the Pethan that had delivered him ; and how
the same was in danger to have beeu stoned to death ;
as also that there had been a great apprehension of
some sedition and mischief. Hereupon another
council was held, whether he should indeed be car
ried to Gwalior, as had been concluded before, or
whether it were not more expedient to put him to
death without more ado ? Some were of opinion
that he should go to Gwalior with a strong guard,
and that would be enough ; Danishmund Khan,
though Dara's old enemy, insisting much upon that.
But Roshunara Begum, in pursuance of her hatred
against this brother of her's, pushed Ourungzebe to make
him away, without running the danger there was of
sending him to Gwalior, as also did all his old ene-

442 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
mies, Khuleeloolah Khan, and Shaesta Khan, and
especially a certain flatterer, a physician, who had
fled out of Persia, first called Hakim Daood, and
afterwards, being become a great noble, named
Tukurrub Khan. This -rillain boldly rose up in full
assembly, and cried out that ' it was expedient for
the safety of the state to put him to death imme
diately, and that the rather because he was no true
Mussulman ; that long since he had turned unbe
liever, without religion, and that he would charge
the sin ofit upon his own head!' Of which impre
cation he soon after felt the smart, for within a short
time he fell into disgrace, and was treated like an in
famous fellow, and died raiserably. But Ourungzebe,
carried away by these instances and motives, com
manded that he should be put to death ; and that
Sipeher Shekoh, his son, should be sent to Gwa
lior. " The charge of this great tragical execution was
given to a certain slave, called Nazir,* that had been
bred by Shah Jehan, and was known to have been
formerly ill-treated by Dara. This executioner, ac
companied by three or four parricides more, went to
Dara, who was then himself dressing some lentils
with Sipeher Shekoh his son. He no sooner saw
Nazir, than he cried out to Sipeher Shekoh, ' My
dear son, behold those that come to kill us!' laying
hold, at the same time, of the small knife, which was
* What became of this wretch Nazir, Bernier could never dis
cover. He appears to have been quietly made away with.

LAST SCENE FROM BERNIER. 443
all the arms now left hira. One of these butchers
immediately fell upon Sipeher Shekoh, the others
upon the arras and legs of Dara, throwing him to
the ground, and holding hira under, till Nazir cut his
throat. His head was forthwith carried to the
fortress to Ourungzebe, who presently coraraanded it
to be put iu a dish, and that water should be fetched ;
which, when brought, he -wiped it off Avith a hand
kerchief; and after he had caused the face to be
washed clean, and the blood done away, and was
fiiUy satisfied that it was the head of Dara, he fell a
weeping, and said these words, ' Ah bed bukht ! 0
unfortunate raan ! Take it away, and bury it in the
sepulchre of Hooraaeon, his great-grandfather.'
" At night the daughter of Dara was brought into
the seraglio, and afterwards sent to Shah Jehan and
Jehanara Begum, who asked her of Ourungzebe.*
Conceming Dara's wife, she had ended her days be
fore at Lahore ; she had poisoned herself, foreseeing
the extremities which she was falling into, together
with her husband. Sipeher Shekoh was sent to
Gwalior. Sipeher Shekoh was taken out of prison in
the fifteenth year of Ourungzebe's reign ; and in the
sixteenth of his reign he was raarried to Ourung
zebe's daughter, Zebonnissa; and after a few days
Jehan Khan was sent for to come before Ourungzebe
* Tavernier says that the daughter of Dara was afterwards
made over to Ourungzebe by Shah Jehan. (Part II. book ii.) She
was adopted by Jehanara Begum, and married to Mahomed
Azum, as above stated.

444 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
in the assembly. To him were given some presents,
and so he Avas sent away; but being near his lands,
he was rewarded according to his deserts, being mur
dered in a wood. This barbarous man, not knowing,
or not considering, that if kings do sometimes permit
such actions for their interest, yet they abhor them,
and sooner or later avenge thera !"
No place could be more resolutely defended than
Bukur was. Dara was only a few stages from it when
he resolved to throw himself upon the protection of
Jehan Khan. It was the opinion of all the Euro
peans in the place, that had he gone he would have
entered the fortress without molestation, and raised
the siege ; to such a state of despair, and dread of his
approach, had the besiegers been reduced by the
skill and vigilance of the governor. Orders for the
surrender of this fortress Avere extorted from Dara
while a prisoner, and the governor surrendered it on
condition that the garrison should be permitted to
proceed to their homes with their property unmo
lested. He proceeded to Lahore, and there he and
all his faithful foUowers were treacherously mur
dered, and cut to pieces by the governor, Khuleel
oolah Khan, (the same who had betrayed Dara in
the battle of Sureenugur,) by orders, it was said, from
Ourungzebe, who had heard that they intended to
march to Gwalior and rescue the young Sipeher
Shekoh from prison. The Europeans had all gone
to Delhi, to seek service at the court of the new
Emperor.

SOOLEEMAN SHEKOH. 445
Jysing now wrote pressing letters to the Rajah
of Sureenugur, urging him to surrender up the eldest
son of Dara. Many of the neighbouring chiefs were
at the same time invited to make Avar upon him by
the promise of a grant of his dominions by the Em
peror. At last he was persuaded to give him up for
a grant of the Dehra Doon, or the valley which lies
between his little Sewalik range of hills and the
great chain of the Himmalah mountains, with the
river Ganges floAving across it at the eastem, and the
river Jumna, seventy miles distant, at the western
extremity. Sooleeman Shekoh got intimation of
this bargain, and attempted to make his escape across
the snowy range into Thibet, but was closely pursued
by the son of the Rajah, taken, and made over to the
emissaries from Delhi.* On reaching the capital, he
was confined in the small fortress of Suleengurh,
where Moorad had remained imprisoned till sent to
Gwalior. Ourungzebe coramanded that he should
he brought before him in open court, before all the
assembled nobles, that no person might hereafter
pretend that the real prince had not been secured.
At the gate leading to the great hall of audience, the
fetters, which were of silver gilt, Avere removed from
his feet ; but his handcuffs, of the same material,
were left on.f
* Tavernier says all his followers were killed in defending him,
and that he himself killed nine of the assailants before he was
taken. Bernier makes no mention of it.
t Prethee Sing was the name of the hill Zemindar, of Suree-

446 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" When this proper young man," says the sarae
physician, " so handsome and gallant, was seen to
enter, there was a good number of the nobles that
could not hold their tears ; and, as I was informed,
all the great ladies of the court, that had leave to see
hira come in, fell a weeping. Ourungzebe, who ap
peared himself to be touched at his misfortunes,
began to speak very kindly to him, and to comfort
him, telling him that he should fear nothing, that no
hurt should be done to him ; on the contrary, that
he should be well treated, and therefore be of good
courage ; that he had caused his father to be put to
death for no other reason than that he was turned
unbeliever, and a man without religion ! Whereupon
this young prince returned to him the salaam, and
blessed hira, abasing his hands to the earth, and lift
ing them, as well as he could, to his head, after the
custom of the country ; and told him with resolution
enough, that if he were to drink the poust, he en
treated him, that he raight die presently, being very
willing to subrait to his fate. But Ourungzebe pro
mised him faithfully, that he should not drink of it ;
that he should rest satisfied as to that, and not en
tertain any sad thought about it. This being said,
nugur, who seized Sooleeman Shekoh, and he was escorted to
Delhi by his son Ram Sing. He got the title of Rajah for this
service, and a gift of the valley of the Dehra Doon, which the
family held up to the beginning of this century, when it was
taken from them by the Gorkhas, from whom we took it in
1815.

THE POUST. 447
he once more repeated the salaam ; and after they
had asked him several questions, in the name of
Ourungzebe, touching that elephant which was
charged with rupees of gold, taken frora hira when
he went to Sureenugur, he was sent to Gwalior to
the rest. This poust is nothing else but poppy ex
pressed and infused a night in water. And it is that
potion which those that are kept at Gwalior are cora
monly made to drink — I raean those princes, whose
heads they think it not fit to cut off. This is the
first thing that is brought thera in the raorning, and
they have nothing given them to eat till they have
drunk a great cupful of it ; they would rather let
them starve. This emaciates thera exceedingly, and
maketh thera die insensibly, they losing little by
little their understanding, and growing torpid and
senseless. And by this very means it is said that
Sipeher Shekoh, Moorad Buksh, and Sooleeman
Shekoh, were despatched."
This prince was sent to Gwalior on the SOth of
January, 1661. It is inside the entrance door of
the apartraent where Ourungzebe sat while he passed
the sentence upon his brother Dara, his own son
Mahomed, and his nephews Sooleeraan and Sipeher
Shekoh, that his father. Shah Jehan, inscribed in
black letters upon a slab of alabaster, " If there is a
paradise on earth — it is this — it is this !" Afraid to
leave Moorad Buksh to die by the slow operation
of the poust, a widow was raade to present a peti
tion to Ourungzebe, charging him with having, while

448 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
in power, put her husband to death without trial ;
and claiming his execution by the Mahomedan law
of retaliation ! The case was referred to the chief
justice, who denied her right, or disbelieved the
ground of it. He was made to resign his office, and
another more tractable was appointed. Moorad was
sentenced to death, and executed in the fortress of
Gwalior, where his tomb now stands by the side of
that of his nephew. " I mind not being put to
death," said he, " for that only shortens the dura
tion of my misery here ; but it is hard to be thus
sent out of the world with a blighted reputation!"
Ten years after this, Dara's daughter, Jehanara,
was raarried to Ourungzebe's third son, Mahomed
Azum, with great pomp. Fifteen years after the
death of Dara, Sipeher Shekoh, his youngest son, and
Mahomed Sultan, Ourungzebe's eldest son, were
brought from Gwalior, and confined in the fort of
Suleengurh. Mahomed Sultan was united in mar
riage to the daughter of Moorad Buksh, who got a
dowry of ten lacks of rupees. Sipeher Shekoh was
united to a daughter of Ourungzebe, who got a
dowry of four lacks of rupees. Sultan Eezud
Buksh was taken from Gwalior at the same time,
and married to another of the Emperor Ourung
zebe's daughters. Mahomed Sultan got a pension
of twelve thousand rupees a year, Sipeher Shekoh
one of six thousand, and Eezud Buksh one of four
thousand a year. They vi'ere never, I believe, let
out of confinement.

JEHANARA.

449

Ourungzebe was not unmindful of the assistance
he had received frora his sister Roshunara, who was
long treated with high honour in her splendid seclu
sion, but never suffered to have anything to say or
do in public affairs.* Long before her death he be
came ahenated frora her on account of her ill-dis
guised amours. The princess Jehanara shared the
captivity of her father, and remained with him till
his death. During her seclusion with her father her
time was chiefly occupied in Avriting the lives of the
celebrated saints of the valley of Cashmere ; and on
his death, in 1666, she became reconciled to her
brother Ourungzebe, who restored to her all the
estates and governments she had enjoyed under her
father, yielding a revenue of more than one million
pounds sterling a year, and honoured her with the
title of Shah Begum, or sovereign princess. At the first
visit her brother paid her after their father's death, he
found, spread out to be presented to him, all those
jewels of immense value, which he had tried in vain
to get frora her and his father during his lifetime.
" These," said she, " are all now yours, as the first
surviving representative of the house of Tamerlane.
What has made you so we must now try, if possible,
to forget !"
" The truth is," says Tavemier, " she is a woraan
of prodigious parts, able herself to govern the whole
empire ; and had her father and her brother Dara
* She died in the fourteenth year of Ourungzebe's reigu, six
years after her father, who died in the eighth.
VOL. I. G G

450 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
taken her counsel at the beginning of the war,
Ourungzebe had certainly never been king."
This Oumngzebe knew ; and being satisfied now
that she felt her interest identified with his own, he
paid her all honour, and often consulted her upon
public affairs.
When Ourungzebe felt hiraself secure in his ira
perial throne, by the death or imprisonment, in the
fortress of Gwalior, of all his brothers and their sons,
he sent his second son, the Sultan Mouzzim, to his
governraent of the Deccan, with limited powers
and resources. Mohubbut received the govemment of
Gozerat ostensibly, as a reward for his fidelity to his
benefactor. Shah Jehan, but in reality for some valua
ble presents of Persian rarities he made to Roshunara,
ere her brother had thought her services to him suf
ficiently repaid. Shaesta Khan was raade governor
and commander-in-chief, first in the Deccan, and
afterwards in Bengal. Meer Khan got the govern
ment of Cabool, and Khuleeloolah Khan that of
Lahore ; Meer Baba that of Allahabad, and Lushkur
Khan that of Behar. Danishmund Khan was raade
governor of Delhi, and Deeanut Khan of Cashmere.
Nijabut Khan, who had done great service in the
battles of Sureenugur and Kujwa, becarae overbear
ing, and got no government in consequence. Jeswunt
Sing was sent to the Deccan as coraraandant of
some forces under Shaesta Khan; but justly sus
pected of being in league with the enemy, the cele
brated Sewajee, the founder of the Mahratta empire,
5

DEATH OF JYSING. 451
in his daring attack upon Shaesta Khan, he was re
called, and sent to his own estate in disgrace. Jysing
brought Sewajee under subjection ; and died at Ber-
haunpore, in the Deccan, leaving his large estates
to his eldest son.

G G :i

452

CHAPTER XLVI.
DEATH AND CHARACTER OF AMEER JUMLA.
Ameer Jumla succeeded the Sultan Shoojah in
the government of Bengal, which he wished to form
into an independent kingdom for himself. As a pre
paratory step, he entreated the Eraperor to allow his
wife and children to repair to hira, that he might
enjoy the pleasure of their society in his old age !
Ourungzebe saw through his designs ; and, to prevent
any further attempt to carry thera into execution,
and at the same time to keep on good terms with so
valuable a friend and servant, he sent him his Arife
and daughters, but retained at court his only son, in
whom he knew Jumla rested all his hopes of found
ing a dynasty. He appointed Jumla himself to the
dignity of Ameer of Omura, the highest in the state
next his own, with permission to hold the distant
viceroyalty of Bengal; and he made his son paymaster
general, the third office in the state, but one that
made it imperative on the holder to reside at the

INVASION OF ASSAM. 453
imperial court. Jumla saw the Emperor's object in
these appointments ; and at his suggestion undertook
the conquest of Assam, as a preliminary step to that
of China.
His armies, elate with their recent victories and
conquests, found no difficulty, under such a leader, in
the conquest of this country. They penetrated to
the capital, Goorgon, and took it ; but being obliged
to canton during the season of the rains at Muthura-
pore, in the midst of plains covered with water, a
great part of the array perished from disease ; and
the enemy, recovering spirit, drove in all the detach
ments, and reoccupied the country. They were
driven back to their mountains with great slaughter,
when Ameer Jumla again took the field in Decem
ber; and on the 17th of January, 1662, a peace was
concluded at the foot of the Namroot raountains.
A part of the stipulated tribute or ransom* was paid
in advance, and hostages were given for the payraent
of the balance.f
* The Rajah of Asham, or Assam, was Jydhuj Sing, and the
ostensible cause of the invasion was his having marched an army
into the territory of Kamroop, a dependency of the empire. Tlie
advance of tribute amounted to twenty thousand tolas of gold,
one hundred and eight thousand tolas of silver, twenty ele
phants for the Emperor, fifteen for Ameer Jumla, and five for
Duleer Khan, through whom the negociations were conducted.
t The hostages given on this occasion were a daughter of the
Rajah, a daughter of one of his nearest relations, and four sons
of his principal chiefs and clansmen.

454 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
On the 22nd of January, 1662, Ameer Jurala set
out with the remnants of his array on his return ;
and on the Srd of February he reached Lukhoopore.
He passed through Kujalee and Pandoo, near
Gonputlee, whence he detached a force, under
Rusheed Khan, to Kararoop; and another, under
Asker Khan, to Kooch Behar; and proceeded to
wards Khizerpore. He had been long ill, and within
four miles of that place he died, on the 12th of
April, 1662. The Emperor, in addressing his son at
the first public audience, after the event had been
announced, said — " You, Mahomed Araeer Khan,
have lost an excellent father; and I the greatest,
but, at the same time, the most dangerous friend I
ever had. Be assured that you and your sisters shall
always find in me a father." They did so : he con
tinued him in his office, augraented his pension, and
left them the entire disposal of all their father's ira
mense wealth. With this wealth they retired to the
district of Massulipatam, on the Coromandel coast,
in the kingdora of Golconda, Avhere the son lived to
a good old age, much respected.
The following is a sketch of the character of
Araeer Jurala, while in the service of the king of
Golconda, by Tavemier, who saw him often.
" Meer Goolam was a person of great wit, and no
less understanding in military than in state affairs.
I had occasion to speak Avith him several times ; and
I have no less admired his justice than his dispatch
to all people that had to do with him ; while he gave

AMEER JUMLA. 455
out several dispatches at the same time, as if he had
but one entire business in hand. (Part II. book i.
chap. X.) The 14th of September, 1648, we went
to take our leaves of the Nawab, and to know Avhat
he had further to say to us, concerning the commo
dities we had then shown hira. But then he told us
he was busy at present, with the examination of cer
tain offenders which are brought before him. For it
is the custom of that country never to put a man in
prison, but as soon as the offender is taken, he is
examined, and sentence is pronounced upon hira ac
cording to his crirae, which is immediately executed ;
or if the party taken be found innocent, he is as soon
acquitted. And let the controversy be of whatever
nature it will, it is immediately decided.
" The 15th in the morning we went to wait upon
him again, and were immediately adraitted into his
tent, where he sat with his two secretaries by him.
The Nawab was sitting, according to the custom of
the country, barefoot, Uke one of our tailors, with a
great number of papers sticking between his toes,
and others between the fingers of his left hand, which
papers he drew sometimes from between his fingers
and sometimes from between his toes, and ordered
what answers should be given to every one. After
his secretaries had written the answers, he caused
them to read them, and then took the letters and
sealed them himself, giving some to foot messengers,
others to horsemen — for you must know, that all
those letters which are sent by foot-posts all over

456 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
India, go with more speed than those which are car
ried by horsemen. While we stayed with the Nawab,
certain officers came to tell him, that they had
brought certain offenders to the door of his tent.
He was above half an hour before he returned them
any answer, writing on, and giving instructions to
his secretaries ; but by-and-by, all of a sudden he
commanded the offenders to be brought in, and after
he had examined them and made them confess the
crime of which they stood accused, he was above an
hour before he said a word, still writing on, and em
ploying his secretaries. In the mean while several
of the officers of the army came to tender their
respects to him in a very subraissive manner, all
whora he answered only with a nod. There was one of
the offenders which were brought before hira, had
broken into a house, and had killed the raother and
three children. He was condemned upon the spot
to have his hands and feet cut off, and to be cast
out into the highway, there to end his days in raisery.
Another had robbed upon the highway; for which
the Nawab ordered his belly to be ripped up, and
hiraself to be cast upon the dunghill. I know not
what criraes the other two had coraraitted, but both
their heads were cut off. When we perceived him
at a little leisure, Ave asked hira whether he had any
other coraraands to lay upon us, and whether he
thought our commodities fitting to be shown to the
king. He answered that we might go to Golconda,
and that he would write to his son in our behalf

AMEER JUMLA. 457
and that his letter would be there sooner than we.
And in order to our journey, he ordered us sixteen
horsemen to convey us, and to provide us necessa
ries upon the road." (Part II. book i. chap, xviii.)

458

CHAPTER XLVII.
REFLECTIONS ON THE PRECEDING HISTORY.
The contest for the empire of India here described
is very like that which preceded it, between the
sons of Jehangeer, in which Shah Jehan succeeded in
destroying all his brothers and nephews ; and that
which succeeded it, forty years after, in which Mouz
zim, the second of the four sons of Ourungzebe, did
the same ;* and it may, like the rest of Indian history,
* On the death of Ourungzebe, which took place in the
Deccan, on the 3rd of March, 1707, his son Azim marched at
the head of the troops which he commanded in the Deccan, to
meet Mouzzim, who was viceroy in Cabool. They met and
fought near Agra. Aaim was defeated and killed. The -victor
marched to meet his other brother, Kham Buksh, whom he
killed near Hydrabad in the Deccan, and secured to himself the
empire. On his death, which took place in 1713, his four sons
contended in the same manner for the throne at the head of the
armies of their respective viceroyalties. Moizoddeen, the most
crafty, persuaded his two brothers, Rufee Oshan and Jehan Sheh,
to unite their forces with his against their ambitious brother,
Azeemoshan, whom they defeated and killed. Moizoddeen then
destroyed his two allies !

LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE. 459
teach us a few useful lessons. First, we perceive the ad
vantages of the law of primogeniture, which accus
toms people to consider the right of the eldest son as
sacred, and the conduct of any man who atterapts to
violate it as criminal. Among Mahomedans, pro
perty, as well real as personal, is divided equally
among the sons ; and their Koran, which is their
only civil and criminal, as well as religious code,
makes no provision for the successions to sovereignty.
The death of every sovereign is, in consequence, fol
lowed by a contest between his sons, unless they are
overawed by some paramount power ; and he who
succeeds in this contest finds it necessary, for his own
security, to put all his brothers and nephews to death,
lest they should be rescued by factions, and made
the cause of future civil wars. But sons who exercise
the powers of viceroys, and command armies, cannot,
where the succession is unsettled, wait patiently for
the natural death of their father — delay may be dan
gerous. Circurastances which now seera more fa
vourable to their views than to those of their
brothers may alter ; the military aristocracy around
them depend upon the success of the chief they
choose in the enterprise, and the army more upon
plunder than regular pay ; both may desert the cause
of the more wary for that ofthe more daring ; each is
flattered into an overweening confidence in his own
ability and good fortune ; and all rush on to seize upon
the throne yet filled by their wretched parent, who,
in the history of his OAvn crimes, now reads those of

460 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
his children. Gibbon has justly observed, (chap, vii.)
" The superior prerogative of birth, when it has ob
tained the sanction of time and popular opinion, is
the plainest and least invidious of all distinctions
among mankind. The acknowledged right extin
guishes the hopes of faction ; and the conscious se
curity disarms the cruelty of the raonarch. To the
firra establishment of this idea, we owe the peace
ful succession and mild administration of European
monarchies. To the defeat of it, we must attribute
the frequent civil wars through which an Asiatic
despot is obliged to cut his Avay to the throne of his
fathers. Yet even in the East the sphere of conten
tion is usually limited to the princes of the reigning
house ; and as soon as the more fortunate competitor
has removed his brethren by the sword and the bow
string, he no longer entertains any jealousy of his
meaner subjects."
Among Hindoos, both real and personal property
is divided in the sarae raanner, equally among the
sons ; but a principality is, among thera, considered
as an exception to this rule; and every large estate,
within which the proprietor holds crirainal jurisdic
tion, and maintains a military establishment, is con
sidered a principality. In such estates the law of
primogeniture is always rigidly enforced ; and the
death of the prince scarcely ever involves a contest
for power and dominion among his sons. The feel
ings of the people, who are accustomed to consider
the right of the eldest son to the succession as reli-

FIEFS OP THE HINDOOS. 461
giously sacred, would be greatly shocked at the at
tempt of any of his brothers to invade it. The
younger brothers, never for a raoraent supposing
they could be supported in such a sacrilegious at
tempt, feel for their eldest brother a reverence
inferior only to that which they feel for their father ;
and the eldest brother, never supposing such at
tempts on their part as possible, feels toAvards them
as towards his own children. All the members of
such a family commonly live in the greatest har
mony. In the laws, usages, and feelings of the
people upon this subject, we had the means of pre
venting that eternal subdivision of landed property,
which ever has been, and ever Avill be, the bane of
everything that is great and good in India ; but un
happily our rulers have never had the wisdom to
avail themselves of them. In a great part of India
the property, or the lease of a village held in farm
under govemment, was considered as a principality,
and subject strictly to the sarae laws of priraogeni-
ture — it was a flef held under governraent on con
dition of either direct service, rendered to the state
in war, in education, or charitable or religious duties,
or of furnishing the means, in money or in kind, to
provide for such service. In every part of the Saugor
and Nerbudda territories, the law of primogeniture
in such leases was in force when we took possession,
and has been ever since preserved. The eldest of
the sons that remain united with the father, at his
death succeeds to the estate ; and to the obligation

462 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of maintaining all the widows and orphan children
of those of his brothers who remained united to the
parent stock up to their death, all his unmarried
sisters, and above all, his mother. All the younger
brothers aid him in the management, and are main
tained by him till they wish to separate, when a
division of the stock takes place, and is adjusted by
the elders of the village. The member who thus
separates from the parent stock, from that tirae for
feits for ever all claims to support from the possessor
of the ancestral estate, either for hiraself, his widow,
or his orphan children.
Next, it is obvious that no existing government in
India could, in case of invasion or civil war, count upon
the fidelity of their aristocracy either of land or of office.
It is observed by Hume, in treating of the reign of
King John, in England, " That men easily change
sides in a civil war, especially where the power is
founded upon an hereditary and independent autho
rity, and is not derived from the opinion and favour
of the people" — that is, upon the people collectively,
or the nation ; for the hereditary and independent
authority of the English baron, in the tirae of King
John, was founded upon the opinion and fidelity of
only that portion of the people over which he ruled,
in the sarae raanner as that of the Hindoo chiefs of
India in the tirae of Shah Jehan ; but it was without
reference either to the honesty of the cause he
espoused, or to the opinion and feeling of the nation
or empire generally regarding it. The Hindoo terri-

FEUDALITY IN INDIA. 463
torial chiefs, like the feudal barons of the middle
ages in Europe, employed all the revenues of their
estates in the maintenance of military followers,
upon whose fidelity they could entirely rely, what
ever side they might theraselves take in a civil war ;
and the more of these resources that were left at
their disposal, the raore impatient they became of
the restraints which settled governments imposed
upon them. Under such settled governments they
felt, that they had an arm which they could not use ;
and the stronger that arra the stronger was their desire
to use it in the subjugation of their neighbours. The
reigning eraperors tried to secure their fidelity by
assigning to them posts of honour about their court,
that required their personal attendance in all their
pomp of pride ; and by taking frora each a daughter
in marriage. If any one rebelled or neglected his
duties, he was either crushed by the imperial forces,
or put to the ban of the empire ; and his territories
were assigned to any one who would undertake to
conquer thera. Their attendance at our viceroyal
court would be a sad encumbrance ; and our Gover
nor-general could not well conciliate them by matri
monial alUances, unless we were to alter a good deal
in his favour our law against polygamy ; nor would it
be desirable to " let slip the dogs of war" once more
throughout the land by adopting the plan of putting
the refractory chiefs to the ban of the empire.
Their troops would be of no use to us in the way
they are organized and disciplined, even if we could

464 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
rely upon their fidelity in time of need ; and this I
do not think we ever can.
If it be the duty of all such territorial chiefs to
contribute to the support of the public estabUsh
ments of the paramount power by which they are
secured in the possession of their estates, and de
fended frora all external danger, as it raost assuredly
is, it is the duty of that power to take such contri
bution in money, or the means of maintaining es
tablishments raore suited to its purpose, than their
rude railitia can ever be ; and thereby to impair the
powers of that arm which they are so impatient to
wield for their own aggrandizement, and to the pre
judice of their neighbours ; and to strengthen that of
the pararaount power by which the whole are kept
in peace, harmony, and security. We give to India
what India never had before our rule, and never
could have without it, the assurance that there
will always be at the head of the government
a sensible ruler trained up to office in the best
school in the world ; and that the security of the
rights, and the enforcement of the duties prescribed
or defined by law, will not depend upon the Arill
or caprice of individuals in power. These assurances
the people of India now everywhere thoroughly
understand, and appreciate. They see in the native
states around them that the lucky accident of an
able governor is too rare ever to be calculated upon ;
while all that the people have of property, office, or
character, depends not only upon their governor.

MAHOMEDAN GOVERNMENT. 465
but upon every change that he may make in his
ministers. The government of the Mahomedans was always
essentially military, and the aristocracy was always
one of military office. There was nothing else upon
which an aristocracy could be formed. All high civil
offices were combined with the military commands.
The Emperor was the great proprietor of all the
lands, and coUected and distributed their rents
through his own servants. Every Mussulman with
his Koran in his hand was his own priest and his
own lawyer ; and the people were nowhere repre
sented in any municipal or legislative assembly —
there was no bar, bench, senate, corporation, art,
science, or literature, by which raen could rise to
eminence and power. Capital had nowhere been
concentrated upon great commercial or manufac
turing establishments. There were, in short, no
great men but the military servants of government ;
and all the servants of government held their posts
at the will and pleasure of their sovereign.* Ifa man
* In Rome, as in Egypt and India, many of the great works
which, in modern nations, form the basis of gradations of rank
in society, were executed by government out of public revenue or
byindividuals gratuitously for the benefit ofthe public ; for instance,
roads, canals, aqueducts, bridges, &c., from which no one derived
an income, though all derived benefit. There was no capital in
vested with a view to profit in machinery, railroads, canals,
steam-engines, and other great works which, in the preparation
and distribution of man's enjoyments, save the labour of so
many millions to the nations of modern Europe and America,
VOL. I. H H

466 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
was appointed by the Emperor to the command of
five thousand, the whole of this five thousand de-
and supply the incomes of many of the most useful and most
enUghtened members of their middle and higher classes of society.
During the republic, and under the first emperors, the laws were
simple, and few derived any considerable income from explaining
them. Still fewer derived their incomes from expounding the
religion ofthe people till the establishment of Christianity. Man
was the principal machine in which property was invested with a
view to profit, and the concentration of capital in hordes of
slaves, and the farm of the public revenues of conquered pro
vinces and tributary states, were with the land the great basis of
the aristocracies of Rome, and the Roman world generally. The
senatorial and equestrian orders were supported chiefly by lend
ing out their slaves as gladiators and artificers, and by farming
the revenues, and lending money to the oppressed subjects of the
jirovinces, and to vanquished princes, at an exorbitant interest, to
enable them to pay what the state or its public officers demanded.
The slaves throughout the Roman empire were about equal in
number to the free population, and they were for the most part
concentrated in the hands of the members of the upper and
middle classes, who derived their incomes from lending and em
ploying them. They were to those classes in the old world,
what canals, railroads, steam-engines, &c., are to those of modern
days. Some Roman citizens had as many as five thousand slaves
educated to the one occupation of gladiators for the public shows
of Rome. Julius Csesar had this number in Italy waiting his
return from Gaul ; and Gordianus used commonly to give five
hundred pair for a public festival, and never less than one hun
dred and fifty.
In India, slavery is happily but little known ; the church had
no hierarchy either among the Hindoos or Mahomedans ; nor
had the law any high interpreters. In all its civil branches of
marriage, inheritance, succession, and contract, it was to the

MAHOMEDAN ARMY. 467
pended entirely on his favour for their employment ;
and upon their eraployraent for their subsistence,
Avhether paid from the imperial treasury, or by an
assignment of land in some distant province. In our
armies there is a regular gradation of rank; and
every officer feels that he holds his commission by a
tenure as high in origin, as secure in possession, and
as independent in its exercise, as that of the general
who commands ; and the soldiers all know and feel,
that the places of those officers who are killed or
disabled in action, will be immediately filled by
those next in rank, who are equally trained to com
mand, and whose authority no one will dispute. In
the Mahomedan armies there was no such gradation
people of the two reUgions as simple as the laws of the twelve
tables ; and contributed just as little to the support of an aris
tocracy as they did. In all these respects, China is much the
same ; the land belongs to the sovereign, and is minutely sub
divided among those who farm and cultivate it — the great works
in canals, aqueducts, bridges, roads, &c., are made by govern
ment, and yield no private income. Capital is nowhere con
centrated in expensive machinery ; their church is without a
hierarchy, their law -without barristers — their higher classes are
therefore composed almost exclusively of the public servants of
the govemment. The rule which prescribes that princes of the
blood shall not be employed in the government of provinces and
the command of armies, and that the reigning sovereign shall
have the nomination of his successor, has saved China from a
frequent return of the scenes which I have described. None of
the princes are put to death, because it is known that all will
acquiesce in the nomination when made known, supported as it
always is by the popular sentiment throughout the empire.
H H 2

468 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of rank. Every man held his office at the will of
the chief whom he followed; and he was every
moment made to feel, that all his hopes of advance
ment must depend upon his pleasure. The relation
between them was that of patron and client — the
client felt bound to yield implicit obedience to the
commands of his patron, whatever they might be ;
and the patron, in like manner, felt bound to protect
and promote the interests of his client, as long as he
continued to do so. As often as the patron changed
sides in a civil war, his clients all blindly followed
him ; and when he was killed, they instantly dis
persed to serve under any other leader whom they
might find willing to take their services on the sarae
terms. The Hindoo chiefs of the military class had here
ditary territorial possessions; and the greater part
of these possessions were commonly distributed on
conditions of military service, among their followers,
who were all of the same clan. But the highest
Mahoraedan officers of the empire had not an acre
more of land than they required for their dwelling-
houses, gardens, and cemeteries. They had nothing
but their office to depend upon ; and were always
naturally anxious to hold it under the strongest side
in any competition for dominion. When the star
of the competitor under whom they served seemed
to be on the wane, they soon found some plausible
excuse to make their peace with his rival, and serve
under his banners. Each competitor fought for his

MAHOMEDAN ARMY. 469
own life and those of his children; the iraperial
throne could be filled by only one raan ; and that
man dared not leave one single brother alive. His
father had taken good care to dispose of all his own
brothers and nephews in the last contest. The sub
sistence of the highest as well as that of the lowest
officer in the array depended upon their employment
in the public service ; and aU such employments
would be given to those who served the victor in the
struggle. Under such circumstances one is rather
surprised that the history of civil wars in India ex
hibits so many instances of fidelity and devotion.
The mass of the people stood aloof in such con
tests without any feeling of interest, save the dread
that their homes might become the seat of the war,
or the track of armies which were alike destructive
to the people in their course, whatever side they
might follow. The result could have no effect upon
their laws and institutions ; and little upon their in
dustry and property. As ships are from necessity
formed to weather the storm to which they are con
stantly liable at sea, so were the Indian village cora
munities framed to weather those of invasion and
ciril war, to which they were so much accustomed
by land ; and in the course of a year or two no traces
were found of ravages that one raight have supposed
it would have taken ages to recover from. The
lands remained the sarae, and their fertility was
improved by the fallow; every man carried away with
him the implements of his trade, and brought thera

470 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
back with him when he returned ; and the industry
of every village supplied every necessary article that
the community required for their food, clothings
furniture, and accommodation. Each of these
little comraunities, when left unraolested, was in
itself sufficient to secure the rights and enforce the
duties of all the different members ; and all they
wanted frora their government was, moderation
in the land taxes, and protection from extemal
violence. Arrian says, " If any intestine war hap
pens to break forth among the Indians, it is deemed
a heinous crime either to seize the husbandmen or
spoil their harvest. All the rest wage war against
each other, and kill and slay as they think conve
nient, while they live quietly and peaceably araong
them, and employ themselves at their rural affairs
either in their fields or vineyards." * I am afraid
arraies were not rauch more disposed to forbearance
in the days of Alexander than at present, and that
his followers must have supposed they remained
untouched, merely because they heard of their
sudden rise again from their ruins by that spirit of
moral and political vitality with which necessity
seems to have endowed them.
* Diodorus Siculus has the same observation. "No enemy
ever does any prejudice to the husbandmen ; but out of a due
regard to the common good, forbear to injure them in the least
degree; and therefore the land being never spoiled or wasted,
yields its fruit in great abundance, and furnishes the inhabitants
with plenty of victuals and ah other provisions." Book ii. chap. 3.

MAHRATTA CONFEDERACY. 471
During the early part of his life and reign, Ourung
zebe was employed in conquering and destroying the
two independent kingdoms of Golconda and Beeja
pore in the Deccan, which he formed into two pro
vinces governed by viceroys. Each had had an
army of above a hundred thousand men Avhile inde
pendent. The officers and soldiers of these armies
had nothing but their courage and their swords to
depend upon for their subsistence. Finding no
longer any employment under settled and legitimate
authority, in defending the life, property, and in
dependence of the people, they were obliged to seek
it around the standards of lawless freebooters ; and
upon the ruins of these independent kingdoms and
their disbanded armies rose the Mahratta power,
the hydra-headed monster which Ourungzebe thus
created by his ambition, and spent the last twenty
years of his Ufe in vain attempts to crush. The
monster has been since crushed by being deprived or
its Peshwa, the head which alone could infuse into all
the members of the confederacy a feeling of nati
onahty, and direct all their efforts when required to
one common object. Scindeea, the chief of Gwalior,
is one of the surviving members of this great con
federacy — the rest are the Holcars of Indore, the
Ghoslas of Nagpore, and the Gykwars of Barodah,
the grandchildren of the commandants of predatory
armies, Avho formed capital cities out of their standing
camps in the countries they invaded and conquered
in the name of their head, the Satarah Rajah, and

472 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
afterwards in that of his mayor of the palace, the
Peshwa. There is not now the slightest feeling of
nationality left among the Mahratta states either
collectively or individually. There is not the slight
est feeling of sympathy between the mass of the
people, and the chief who rules over them, and his
public establishments. To maintain these public
establishments, he everywhere plunders the people,
who most heartily detest him and them. These
public establishments are composed of raen of all
religions and sects, gathered from all quarters of
India, and bound together by no coramon feeUng
save the hope of plunder and proraotion. Not one
in ten is frora, or has his family in, the country
where he serves, nor is one in ten of the same clan
with his chief Not one of them has any hope of a
provision either for himself, when disabled from
wounds or old age, frora serving his chief any longer,
or for his family, should he lose his life in his service.

473

CHAPTER XLVIIL

THE GREAT DIAMOND OF KOHINOOR.
The foregoing historical episode occupies too
large a space in what might otherAvise be termed a
personal narrative ; but still I am tempted to append
to it a sketch of the fortunes of that famous diaraond,
called with oriental extravagance, the Mountain of
Light, which, by exciting the cupidity of Shah Jehan,
played so important a part in the drama.
After slumbering for the greater part of a cen
tury in the imperial treasury, it was afterwards taken
by Nadir Shah, the king of Persia, who invaded
India under the reign of Mahomed Shah, in the
year 1738. Nadir Shah, in one of his mad fits, had
put out the eyes of his son Rizakolee Mirza, and
when he was assassinated, the conspirators gave the
throne and the diamond to this son's son, Shahrookh
Mirza, who fixed his residence at Meesheed. Ah-
mud Shah, the Abdalee, commanded the Affghan

474 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
cavalry in the service of Nadir Shah, and had the
charge of the military chest at the time he was put
to death. With this chest, he and his cavalry left
the carap during the disorders that followed the
raurder of the king, and returned with all haste to
Candahar, where they met Turiekee Khan on his
way to Nadir Shah's camp with the tribute of the
five provinces which he had retained of his Indian
conquests, Candahar, Cabul, Tatta, Bukkur, Moultan,
and Peshawar. They gave him the first news of
the death of the king, seized upon his treasure, and,
with the aid of this and the military chest, Ahmud
Shah took possession of these five provinces, and
formed them into the little independent kingdom of
Affghanistan, over which he long reigned, aud from
which he occasionaUy invaded India and Khorassan.
Shahrookh Mirza had his eyes put out some time
after by a faction. Ahmud Shah marched to his
relief, put the rebels to death, and united his eldest
son, Tymoor Shah, in marriage to the daughter of
the unfortunate prince, from whom he took the
diamond, since it could be of no use to a man Avho
could no longer see its beauties ! He established
Tymoor as his viceroy at Heerat, and his youngest
son at Candahar; and fixed his own residence at
Cabul, where he died. He was succeeded by Tymoor
Shah, who was succeeded by his eldest son, Zuman
Shah, who after a reign of a foAv years was driven
frora his throne by his younger brother, Mahmood.
He sought an asylum with his friend Asheek, who

MOUNTAIN OF LIGHT.

475

commanded a distant fortress, and who betrayed him to
the usurper, and put him into confinement. He con
cealed the great diamond in a crevice in the wall of
the room in which he was confined ; and the rest of
his jewels in a hole made in the ground with his
dagger. As soon as Mahmood received intimation
of the arrest from Asheek, he sent for his brother,
had his eyes put out, and demanded the jewels, but
Zuman Shah pretended that he had thrown them
into the river as he passed over. Two years after
this, the third brother, the Sultan Shoojah, deposed
Mahmood, ascended the throne by the consent of his
elder brother, and, as a fair specimen of his notions
of retributive justice, he blew away from the mouths
of cannon, not only Asheek himself, but his wife and
all his innocent and unoffending children !
He intended to put out the eyes of his deposed
brother Mahmood, but was dissuaded from it by his
mother and Zuman Shah, who now pointed out to
him the place were he had concealed the great
diamond. Mahmood raade his escape from prison,
raised a party, drove out his brothers, and once more
ascended the throne. The two brothers sought an
asylum in the Honourable Company's territories ; and
have from that time resided at an out frontier station
of Loodheeana, upon the banks of the Hyphasis,
upon a liberal pension assigned for their maintenance
by our government. On their Avay through the
territories of the Sikh chief, Runjeet Sing, Shoojah
was discovered to have this great diamond, the

476 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
mountain of light, about his person; and he was, by
a little torture skilfully applied to the mind and
body, made to surrender it to his generous host !
Mahmood was succeeded in the governraent of the
fortress and province of Heerat by his son Kamran ;
but the throne of Cabul was seized by the mayor of
the palace, who bequeathed it to his son Dost Maho
med, a man, in all the qualities requisite in a sove
reign, immeasurably superior to any raember of the
house of Ahmud Shah Abdalee. Runjeet Sing had
wrested from hira the province of Peshawar in times
of difficulty ; and as we would not assist him in re
covering it from our old ally, he thought himself
justified in seeking the aid of those who would, the
Russians and Persians, who were eager to avail
themselves of so fair an occasion to establish a foot
ing in India. Such a footing would have been mani
festly incompatible with the peace and security of
our dominions in India, and we were obliged, in self
defence, to give to Shoojah the aid which he had so
often before in vain solicited, to enable him to re
cover the throne of his very liraited number of legal
ancestors. In India, there are a great many native chiefs who
were enabled, during the disorders which attended
the decline and fall of the Mahomedan power and
the rise and progress of the Mahrattas and English,
to raise and raaintain arraies by the plunder of their
neighbours. The pararaount power of the British
being now securely established throughout the

MOUNTAIN OF LIGHT. 477
country, they are prevented from indulging any
longer in such sporring propensities; and might
employ their vast revenues in securing the blessing
of good civil government for the territories, in the
possession of which they are secured by our military
estabUshments. But these chiefs are not much dis
posed to convert their swords into ploughshares ;
they continue to spend their revenues in the main
tenance of useless military establishments for pur
poses of parade and show. A native prince Avould,
they say, be as insignificant without an army as a
native gentlemen upon an elephant without a caval
cade, or upon a horse without a taU ! But the said
army have learnt from their forefathers, that they
were to look to aggressions upon their neighbours —
to pillage, plunder, and conquest, for wealth and pro
motion ; and they continue to prevent their prince
from indulging in any disposition to turn his atten
tion to the duties of civil government. They all
live in the hope of some disaster to the paramount
power which secures the increasing wealth of the
surrounding countries frora their grasp ; and threat
ened innovations from the north-west raise their
spirits and hopes in proportion as they depress those
of the classes engaged in all branches of peaceful
industry. There are, in all parts of India, thousands and tens
of thousands who have lived by the sword, or who
wish to live by the sword, but cannot find employ
ment suited to their tastes. These would all flock

478 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to the standard of the first lawless chief who could
offer them a fair prospect of plunder ; and to thera
all wars and rumours of wars are delightful. The
moment they hear of a threatened invasion from the
north-west, they whet their swords, and look fiercely
around upon those from whose breasts they are " to
cut their pound of flesh." *
* The above history of the Kohinoor may, I believe, be relied
upon. I received a narrative of it from Shah Zuman, the blind old
king himself, through General Smith, who commanded the troops
at Loodheeana ; forming a detail of the several revolutions too
lona; and too full of new names for insertion here.

END OF VOL. L

LONDON:
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