GIFT OF HORACE W. CARPENT1EI ' ■ SETH GOBIND DAS, C.S.I. ^1 IC'. tr •ft w Cr OD ("1 £ C-l - GO '— D p ~5 r^ P fTO 3 a o a ^ — p — ' 3 r/3 p .oc£t o GO B" a- S" 3. a P^ D H td p a. • p- co_ — •-■ Hi a t? o € ^ H a- p. *-*" ~ vr br CO — a o a — P |— is p ?r p ^a 3 2. p" CO E" £^» r-^ r-»-t^. O p *" r-s — W GO p~ g! a «i a - S3 ?r — P- B so CO P- 5 p p .a p V< CO a" -a- ft. SB- a 3 > - 3 CO M .0_55 "» a c o CD 43 r'l a- p CO 5" a- -5" tha'kur data. b^m of ha'thras. 17 who, during the early years of British administration, were the two most power- ful chiefs in this part of the country. From a report made by the Acting Collector of Aligarh in 1808, we learn that the Mursan Raja's power extended at that time over the whole of Sa'dabad and Sonkh, while Mat, Maha-ban, Sonai, Raya Hasangarb, Sahpau and Khandauli, were all held by his kinsman at Hathras. Their title, however, does not appear to have been altogether un- questioned, for the writer goes on to say: — "The valuable and extensive par- ganas which they farmed were placed under their authority by Lord Lake, im- mediately after the conquest of these Provinces ; and they have since continued in their possession, as the resumption of them was considered to be calculated to excite dissatisfaction and as it was an object of temporary policy to conciliate their confidence." This unwise reluctance on the part of the paramount power to enquire into the validity of the title, by which its vassals held their estates, was naturally construed as a confession of weakness and hastened the very evils which it was intended to avert. Both chieftains claimed to be independent and assumed so menacing an attitude that it became necessary to dislodge them from their strongholds ; the climax of Daya Ram's recusancy being his refusal to surren- der four men charged with murder. A force was despatched against them under Major-General Marshall, and Mursan was reduced without difficulty. But Hathras, which was said to be one of the strongest forts in the country, its defences having been improved on the model of those carried out by British Engineers in the neighbouring fort of Aligarh, had to be subjected to a regular siege. It was invested on the 21st of February, 1817. Daya Ram, it is said, was anxious to negotiate, but was prevented from carrying out his intention by Nek Ram Sinh (his son by an akiri concubine), who even made an attempt to have his father assassinated as he was returning in a litter from the English camp. Hostilities, at all events, were continued, and on the 1st of March fire was opened on the fort from forty-five mortars and three breaching batteries of heavy guns. On the evening of the same day a magazine exploded and caused such general devastation that Daya Ram gave up all for lost and fled away by night on a little hunting pony, which took him the whole way to Bharat-pur. There Raja Randhir Sinh declined to run the risk of affording him protection, and he continued his flight to Jaypur. His fort was dismantled and his estates all confiscated, but he was allowed a pension of Rs. 1,000 a month for his personal maintenance. On his death in 1841, he was succeeded by his son, Thakur Gobind Sinh, who at the time of the mutiny in 1857 held only a portion of one village, 5 18 R.OX GOBIND SINH OF HATHRAS. Shahgarh, and that merely in mortgage. " With his antecedents," writes Mr. Bramley, the Magistrate of Aligarh, in his report to the Special Commissioner,. dated the 4th of May, 1858, " it would, perhaps, have been no matter for sur- prise had he, like others in his situation, taken part against the Government. However, his conduct has been eminently loyal. I am not aware that he at any time wavered. On the first call of the Magistrate and Collector of Mathuni, he came with his personal followers and servants to the assistance of that gentleman, and was shortly afterwards summoned to Aligarh ; there he remained through- out the disturbed period, ready to perform any services within his power ; and it was in a great measure due to him that the important town of Hathras was saved from plunder by the surrounding population. He accompanied the force- under Major Montgomery to Kol, and was present with his men in the action fought with the rebel followers of Muhammad Ghos Khan at Man Sinh's Bagh on the 24th of August. On the flight of the rebel Governor of Kol, he was put in charge of the town and was allowed to raise a body of men for this service. He held the town of Kol and assisted in collecting revenue and recovering plundered property till September 25th, when he was surprised by a Muham- madan rabble under Nasim-ullah and forced to leave the town with some loss of men. This service was one, I presume, of very considerable danger, for he was surrounded by a low and incensed Muhammadan population and on the high road of retreat of the Delhi rebels, while the support of Major Montgomery's- force at Hathras was distant and liable itself to be called away on any exigency occurring at Agra. " On the re-occupation of the Aligarh district Gobind Sinh resumed his post in the city, and by his good example rendered most important .aid in the work of restoring order. His followers have at all times been ready for any service and have been extremely useful in police duties and in escort- ing treasure to Agra and Bulandshahr ; in guarding ghats and watch- ing the advance of rebels ; in performing, indeed, the duties of regular troops. His loyalty has exposed him to considerable pecuniary loss ; his losses on September 25th being estimated at upwards of Es. 30,000, while his house at Brinda-ban was also plundered, by rebels returning from Delhi, to a much larger amount of ancestral property that cannot be re- placed." In compensation for these losses and in acknowledgment of the very valua- ble services which he had rendered to Government by his family influence and personal energy, he received a grant of Rs. 50,000 in cash, together with a RAJA HARI NARAYAN SINH, OF HATHRAS. bXjX hari kXua'van sinh of hXthras. 19 landed estate* lying in the districts of Mathura and Bulandshahr, and was also honoured with the title of Raja ; the sanad, signed by Lord Canning, being dated the 25th of June, 1858. Raja Gobiud Sinh was connected by marriage with the head of the Jut clan ; his wife, a daughter of Chaudhari Charan Sinh, being sister to Chaudhari Ratan Sinh, the maternal uncle of Maharaja Jasvant Sinh of Bharat-pur. This lady, the Rani Sahib Kunvar, is still living and manages her estate with much ability and discretion through the agency of Pandit Chitar Sinh, a very old friend of the family. At the time of her husband's decease in 1861, there was an infant son, but he died very soon after the father. As this event had been anticipated, the Raja had authorized his widow to adopt a son, and she selected for the purpose Hari Narayan Sinh, born in 1863, the son of Thakur Riip Sinh of Jatoi, a descendant, as was also Raja Gobind Sinh himself, of Thakur Nand Ram's younger son, Jai Sinh. This adoption was opposed by Kesri Sinh, the son of Nek Ram, who was the illegitimate offspring of Thakur Daya Ram. But the claim that he advanced on behalf of his own sons, Slier Sinh and Balavant Sinh, was rejected by the Judge of Agra in his order dated November, 1872, and his view of the case was afterwards upheld by the High Court on appeal. At the Dalhi Assemblage of the 1st of January, 1877, in honour of Her Majesty's assumption of the Imperial title, Raja Gobind Sinh's title was formally continued to Han Narayan Sinh for life. He resides with his mother, the Rani Sahib Kunvar, at Brhida-l>3n, where he has a handsome house on the bank of the Jamuna, opposite the Kesi ghat, and here, on the occa- sion of his marriage in February, 1877, he gave a grand entertainment to all the European residents of the station, including the officers of the Xth Royal Hussars. Though only 14 years of age, he played his part of host with perfect propriety and good breeding — taking a lady into dinner, sitting at the head of his table — though, of course, not eating anything — and making a little speeeh to return thanks after his health had been proposed. The only Muhammadan family of any importance is the one seated at Sa'dabad, This is a branch of the Lal-Khaai stock, which musters strongest in the Bulandshahr district, where several of its members are persons of high dis- tinction and own very large estates. * The estate consists — 1st, of the zarnindari of the township of Kol and some thops and gar- dens at Hathras, valued at Ks. 3,000; 2nd!y, of eight confiscated Giijar villages in the Chhata and Kosi parganas of the Mathura district, now assessed at over Us. 10,000; and 3rdiv, of five villages in the Bulandshahr district, assessed at Bs. 7,000. 20 THE lXl-khXni family. They claim descent from Kunvar Pratap Sinh, a Bargujar Thakur of Rajaur, in Raj pu tana, who joined Prithi R;\j of Delhi in his expedition against Mahoba. On his way thither he assisted the Dor Raja of Kol in reducing a rebellion of the Minas, and was rewarded by receiving in marriage the Raja's daughter, with a dowry of 150 villages in the neighbourhood of Pahasu. The eleventh in descent from Pratap Sinh was Lai Sinh, who, though a Hindu, received from the Emperor Akbar the title of Khan ; whence the name Lal- Khani, by which the family is ordinarily designated. It was his grandson, Itimad R:ie, in the reign of Aurangzeb, who first embraced Muhaimnadanism. The seventh in descent from Itimad Rae was Nahar Ali Khan, who, with his nephew, Dunde Khan, held the fort of Kumona, in Bulandshahr, against the English, and thus forfeited his estate, which was conferred upon his relative, Mardan Ali Khan. The latter, who resided at Chhatari, which is still regarded as the chief seat of the family, was the purchaser of the Sa'dabad estate, which on his death passed to his eldest son, Husain Ali Khun, and is now held by the widow, the Thakurani Hakim-un-nissa. It yields an annual income of Rs. 48,569, derived from as many as 26 different villages. The Thakurani being childless, the pro- perty was long managed on her behalf by her husband's nephew, the late Kun- var Irshad Ali Khan. He died in 1876 and was succeeded by his son, Itimad Ali Khan, who is the present head of the family in this district. Several of bis relatives have other lands here. Thus his uncle, Nawab Sir Faiz Ali Khan, k. c.s.i. , owns the village of Nsinau ; and the villages of Chhava and Dauhai, yielding a net income of Rs. 1,993, belong to Thakurani Zeb-un-nissa, the widow of Kamr Ali Khan, Sir Faiz's uncle. Two other villages, Bahardoi and Narayan- pur, are the property of a minor, Grhulam Muhammad Khan, the son of Hidayat Ali Khan, who was adopted by Zuhur Ali Khan of Dharmpur on the failure of issue by his first wife ; they yield an income of Rs. 3,555. The relationship existing between all these persons will be best understood by a glance at the accompanying genealogical table. The family, in commemoration of their descent, retain the Hindu titles of Kunvar and Thakurani and have hitherto, in their marriage and other social customs, observed many old Hiudu usages. The tendency of the present gene-: ration is, however, rather to affect an ultra-rigid Muhammadanism ; and the head of the house, the Nawab of Chhatari, is an adherent of the Wahabis. Of the smaller estates in the district, some few belong to respectable old families of the yeoman type ; others have been recently acquired bv speculating i? * t-ffi ?E P- 5- 3 3 -. O = ~ 2 .- - -^ o - > Pi - r 1 — < S~ •=: — •r J _ 3 £ -' P S"<3- B SO. N r. >2 ~ 3 EC-. -■> a." a • %%■ i B O B " s - ** S Sad 1 — ~ k« ' '-> p -j - J l^i B* P . B OQ 3 a c B •-r' o fi -) B P 3 ^ P 2 xT ^ ■ g, - ^ 05 B" 5. r J? Q o 3 r3 QC > — O — ■ 3 .- t > p- ^ h- ' C-i - 3 OC r— So*"? B- ■ - S. *J ' o £30 . oc cr r. p*_ w p> -^ C- ST^i? p a. i;* Z_. p* p- - b- 3 >. i Km? P i-4 - as o ht S- o — B" p- B - 3 Q^ 3 b: p tr 1 Jr 1 S C-3» ^ p. p. a _ ? grp 5" ^ JP*e > ^"3 b'S-^2 -*rj o m Sf B ~= S 5 «5" « M N 3 O > ^«l l> w o >■ 3 B o i p P- oo o > b p- a O o 3 ■ a" p 3 3 P jo. •73 TO 3- o •-•9 w t-l s TIIE AGRA CANAL. 21 money-lenders ; but the far greater number are split up into infinitesimal Trac- tions among the whole village community. Owing to this prevalence of the Bhaiyachari system, as it is called, the small farmers who cultivate; their own hinds constitute a very large class, while the total of the non-proprietary classes is proportionately reduced. A. decided majority of the latter have no assured status, but are merely tenants-at-will. Throughout the district, all the land brought under the plough is classified under two heads,— -first, according to its productiveness ; secondly, according to its accessibility. The fields capable of artificial irrigation — and it is the supply of water which most influences tho amount (if produce — are styled chdhi, all others khaki; those nearest the village are known as bard, those rather more remote as manjhd, and the furthest away baihd* The combination of the two classes gives six varieties, and ordinarily no others are recognized, though along the course of the Jamuna the tracts of alluvial land are, as elsewhere, called hhddai — -the high sterile banks are hangar, and where broken into ravines behar ; a soil exceptionally sandy is bluer, sand-hills are pMh, and the levels between the hills pdlaj. The completion of the Agra Canal has been a great boon to the district. It traverses the entire length of Western Mathura, passing close to the towns of Kosi, Sahar, and A ring, and having as its extreme points Hathana to the north and Little Kosi to the south. It was officially opened by Sir William Muir on the 5th of March, 1874, and became available for irrigation purposes about the end of 1875, by which time its distributaries also had been con- structed. Its total length from Okhla to the Utangan river at Bihari below Fatihabad is 140 miles, and it commands an area of three-quarters of a million acres, of which probably one-third — that is 250,000 acres — will be annually irrigated. The cost has been above £710,000, while the net income will be about £58,000, being a return of 8 per cent. It will be practicable for boats and barges, both in its main line and its distributaries, and thus, instead of the shallow uncertain course of the Jamuna, there will be sure and easy naviga- tion between the three great cities of Delhi, Mathura, and Agra. One of the most immediate effects of tho canal will probably be a large diminution of the area under bajra and joar, which, by reason of their requiring no artificial irriga- tion, have hitherto been almost the only crops grown on much of the land. For, * It is exactly the same in Kussia. " All the arable land of the commune is divided into three concentric zones, which extend round the village: and these three zones are again divided into three fields according to the triennial arrangement of crops. More regard is paid to proximity than to fertility, as this varies very little in the same district in. llussia. The zones nearest the village are alone manured." — Lavehye's Primitive Property, 6" 22 IRRIGATION SCHEMES. with water ordinarily from 40 to 60 feet below the surface and a sand}' subsoil, the construction of a well is a costly and difficult undertaking. In future, wheat and barley, for which the soil when irrigated is well adapted, will be the staple produce ; indigo and opium, now almost unknown, will be gradually introduced; vegetables will be more largely cultivated and double-cropping will become the ordinary rule. Thus, not only will the yield per acre be increased by the facili- ties for irrigation, but the produce will be of an entirely different and much more valuable character. A scheme for extending the irrigation of the Ganges Canal through the parganas on the opposite — that is to say, the left — side of the Jamuna has long been held in view. The branch which takes off from the main canal at Dehra in the Merath district has by anticipation been termed the Mat branch, though its irrigation stops short in the Tappal pargana of Aligarh, one distribu- tary only irrigating a few villages north of Noh-jhil. The water-supply in the Ganges Canal is limited, and would not have sufficed for any further exten- sion ; but now that the Kanhpur branch is supplied from the new Lower Ganges Canal, a certain volume of water has become available, a portion of which has been allotted for the Mat branch extension. If the project be sanctioned in its entirety, the existing sub-branch will be widened to carry the additional supply and extended through the Tappal pargana, entering Noh-jhil in the vil- lage of Bhurc-ka. The course of the main supply line will pass along the water- shed of the Karwan and Jamuna Doab to the east of Bhure-ka, and then by the villages of Dandi>ara, Barnaul, Nasithi, and Arua till it crosses the Mat and Biiya road and the Light Railway. Thence it will extend to Karab, South, and Pachawar, where at its 40th mile it will end in three distributaries, which will carry the water as far as the Agra and Aligarh road. The scheme thus pro- vides for the irrigation of the parganas of Noh-jhil, Mat, Maha-ban, and that portion of Sa'dabad which lies to the west of the Karwan nadi. About five miles of the main line were excavated as a famine relief work in 1878; but operations were stopped inconsequence of financial difficulties, and it is doubtful whether they will be resumed. There is also a considerable amount of well- irrigation in Maha-ban and Sa'dabad, which renders the extension into those parganas a less pressing necessity. The district is one which has often suffered severely from drought. In 1813-14 the neighbourhood of Sahar was one of the localities where the distress was most intense. Many died from hunger, and others were glad to sell their wives and children for a few rutees or even for a single meal. In 1825-26 the THE FAMINE OF 1837-38. 23 whole of the territories known at that time as the Western Provinces were afflicted with a terrible drought. The rabi crops of the then Sa'dadad district wer3 estimated by Mr. Boddam, the Collector, as below the average by more than 200,000 mans; Maha-ban and Jalesar being the two parganas which suf- fered most. But the famine of 1837-38 was a far greater calamity, and still forms an epoch in native chronology under the name of ' the chaurdnawe,' or 'the 94'; 1894 being its date according to the Hindu era. Though Matlmni. was not one of the districts most grievously afflicted, distress was still extreme, as appears from the report submitted by the Commissioner, Mr. Hamilton, after personal investigation. About Raya, Mat, and Maha-ban he found the crops scant}-, and the soil dry, and cultivated only in the immediate vicinity of masonry wells. About Mathura, the people were almost in despair from the wells fast turning so brackish ami salt as to destroy rather than refresh vege- tation. " All of the Aring and Gobardhan parganas (he w-rites) which came under my observation was an extensive arid waste, and for miles I rode over ground which had been both ploughed and sown, but in which the seed had not germinated and where there seemed no prospect of a harvest. The cattle in Aring were scarcely able to crawl, and they were collected in the village and suffered to pull at the thatch, the people declaring it useless to drive them forth to seek for pasture. Emigration had already commenced, and people of all classes appeared to be suffering." Of the famine of 1860-61 (commonly called the uth-sera, from the pre- valent bazar rate of eight sers only for the rupee) the following narrative was recorded by Mr. Eobertson, Officiating Collector : — " Among prosperous agri- culturists,'' he says, " about half the land usually brought under cultivation is irrigated, and irrigated lands alone produce crops this year. But though only half the crop procured in ordinary years was obtained by this class of cultiva- tors, the high price of com enabled them, while realizing considerable profits, to meet the Government demand without much difficulty. The poorer class of cultivators were, however, ruined, and with the poorest in the cities, taking advantage of the position of Mathura as one of the border famine tracts, they abandoned the district in large numbers, chiefly towards the close of 1860. Bather more than one-fourth of the agricultural emigrants have returned, and the quiet, unmurmuring industry with wdiich they have recommenced life is not a less pleasing feature than the total absence of agrarian outrage during the famine. The greatest number of deaths from starvation occurred during the' first three months of 1861, when the average per mensem was 497. During 2-4 THE FAMINE OF 1860-61. the succeeding three months this average was reduced to 85, while the deaths in July and August were only five and six respectively. The total number of deaths during the eight months has been 1,758. Viewing the universality of the famine, these results sufficiently evidence the active co-operation in mea- sures of relief rendered by the native officials assisted by the police, and the people everywhere most pointedly express their obligation to the Government and English liberality. No return of the number of deaths caused by starva- tion seems to have been kept from October, 18G0, to January, 1861, but judg- ing by the subsequent returns, 250 per mensem might be considered as the highest average. Thus, the mortality caused by the famine in this district in the year 1860-61 may approximately be estimated at 2,500."* If such a large number of persons really died simply from starvation — and there seems no reason to doubt the fact — the arrangements for dispensing relief can scarcely have merited all the praise bestowed upon them. There was certainly no lack of funds towards the end, but possibly they came when it was almost too late. In the month of April some 8,000 men were employed daily on the Delhi road ; the local donations amounted to Rs. 16,227, and this sum was increased by a contribution of lis. 8,000 from the Agra Central Committee, and Rs. 5,300 from Government, making a total of Rs. 29,528. An allotment of Es. 5,000 was also made from the Central Committee for distribution among the indi- g mt agriculturists, that they might have wherewithal to purchase seed and cattle. At the present time the district has scarcely recovered from a series of disastrous seasons, resulting in a famine of exceptional severity and duration, which will leave melancholy traces behind it for many years yet to come. Both in 1875 and 1876 the rainfall was much below the average, and the crops on all unirrigated land proportionately small. In 1877 the entire period of the ordinary monsoon passed with scarcely a single shower, and it was not till the beginning of October, when almost all hope was over, that a heavy fall of rain was vouchsafed, which allowed the ground to be ploughed and seed to be sown for the ensuing year. The autumn crops, upon which the poorer classes mainly subsist, failed absolutely, and for the most part had never even been sown. As early as July, 1S77, the prices of every kind of grain were at famine rates, which continued steadily on the increase, while the commoner sorts were before long entirely exhausted. The distress in the villages was * Mr. Robertsou'B narrative has been copied from the original paper in the District Office. The other particulars have been extracted fro n Mr. Girdlcstone's ltcpurt on Past Famines, published by Government in isos. THE FAMINE OF 1877-78. 25 naturally greatest among the agricultural labourers, who were thown out of all employ by the cessation of work in the fields, while even in the towns the petty handicraftsmen were unable to purchase sufficient food for their daily subsist- ence on account of the high prices that prevailed in the bazar. In addition to its normal population the city was further thronged by crowds of refugees from outside, from (he adjoining native states, more especially Bharat-pur, who were attracted by the fame of the many charitable institutions that exist both in the city itself and at Brinda-ban. No relief works on the part of the Government were started till October, when they were commenced in different places all over the district under the supervision of the resident Engineer. They con- sisted chiefly of the ordinary repairs and improvements to the roads, which are annually carried out after the cessation of the rains. The expense incurred under this head was Rs. 17,71)2, the average daily attendance being 5,519. On the 25th of November in the same year (1877) it was found necessary to open a poorhouse in the city for the relief of those who were too feeble to work. Here the daily average attendance was 890 ; but, on the 30th July, 1878, the number of inmates amounted to 2,139, and this was unquestionably the time when the distress was at its highest. The maximum attendance at the relief works, however, was not reached till a little later, vis., the 19th of August, when it was 20,483, but it would seem to have been artificially increased by the unnecessarily high rates which the Government was then paying. The rabi crops, sown after the fall of rain in October, 1877, had been fur- ther benefited by unusually heavy winter rains, and it was hoped that there would be a magnificent outturn. In the end, however, it proved to be even below the average, great damage having been done by the high winds which blew in February. Thus, though the spring harvest of 1878 gave some relief, it was but slight, and necessarily it could not affect at all the prices of the common autumn grains. The long-continued privation had also had its effect upon the people both physically and mentally, and they were less able to strug- gle against their misfortunes. The rains for 1878 were, moreover, very slight and partial and so long delayed that they had scarcely set in by the end of July, and thus it was, as already stated, that this month was the time when the famine was at its climax. In August and September matters steadily im- proved, and henceforth continued to do so ; but the poorhouse was not closed till the end of June, 1879. The total number of inmates had then been 395,824, who had been relieved at a total cost of Rs. 43,070, of which sum Rs. 2,990 had been raised by private subscription and Rs. 3,500 was a grant from the Municipality. 7 26 THE FAMINE OF 1877-78. Beside the repairs of the roads the other relief works undertaken and their cost were as follows: the excavation of the Jait tank, Rs. 6,787 ; the deepening of the Balbhadra tank, Rs. 5,770 ; and the levelling of the Jamalpur mounds, Rs. 7,238 : these adjoined the Magistrate's Court-house, and will be frequently mentioned hereafter as the site of a large Buddhist monastery. On tin! 11th of May, 1878, the earthwork of the Mathura and Achnera Railway was taken in hand and continued till the beginning of September, during which time it gave employment to 713,315 persons, at an expenditure of Rs. 56,G39. An extension of the Mat branch of the Ganges Canal was also commenced on the 30th July, and employed 570,351 persons, at a cost of Rs. 43,1-12, till its close on the 16th of October. There should also be added Rs. 6,370, which were spent by the Municipality through the District Engineer, in levelling some broken ground opposite the City Police Station. The total cost on all these relief works thus amounted to Rs. 1,80,630. No remission of revenue was granted by the Government, but advances for the purchase of bullocks and seed were distributed to the extent of Rs. 35,000.* The following tabular statement shows the mortality that prevailed during the worst months of this calamitous period : the total population of the district being 778,839 :— .a 3 ti M £ *4 2 £ rt fa C3 J3 >> fcc > 0> a fa J3 fa fa >> a f-s <* EG O J5 Q 1-5 s <3 s 3 >"5 1877-78.. 373 1,126 932 1,337 1,579 1,373 1,869 1,725 2,018 2,511 2,183 3,672 1878-79... 2,502 2,370 0,579 10,414 8,643 4,710 2,431 1,474 1,143 1,511 1,891 1,661 The metalling of the Delhi road, which has been incidentally mentioned as the principal relief work in 1860, was not only a boon at the time, but still con- tinues a source of the greatest advantage to the district. The old imperial thoroughfare, which connected the two capitals of Agra and Labor, kept closely to the same line, as is shown by the ponderous kos minars, which are found still standing at intervals of about three miles, and nowhere at any great * 1 saw nothing of the famine myself, as I left the district in April, 1S77, before it had begun. Selfishly, I am glad to haye escaped the sight ol so much misery; though, possibly, if I li:t 1 be< ii on the spot, my local experience might have proved useful both to the Government and the people. TTTE DELHI ROAD. 27 distance from the waysid'6. Here was the " delectable alley of trees, the most incomparable ever beheld," which the Emperor Jahangir enjoys the credit of having planted. That it was really a fine avenue is attested by the language of the sober Dutch topographer, John de Laet, who, in his India Vera, written in 1631, that is, early in the reign of Shahjahan, speaks of it in tho following terms : — » The whole of the country between Agra and Labor is well-watered and by far the most fertile part of India. It abounds in all kinds of produce, especially sugar. The highway is bordered on either side by trees which bear a fruit not unlike the mulberry,* and," as he adds in another place, " form a beautiful avenue." " At intervals of five or six coss," he continues, " there are saraes built cither by the king or by some of the nobles. In those travellers can find bed and lodging ; when a person has once taken posses-ion he cannot be turned out by any one." The glory of the road, however, seems to have been of short duration, for Bemier, writing only thirty years later, that is, in 1G63, says : — " Between Delhi and Agra, a distance of fifty or sixty leagues, the whole road is cheerless and uninteresting ;" and even so late as 1825, Bishop Heber, on his way down to Calcutta, was apparently much struck with what he calls " the wildness of the country," but mentions no avenue, as he certainly would have done had one then existed. Thus it is clear that the more recent administrators of the district, since its incorporation into British territory, are the only persons entitled to the traveller's blessing for the magnificent and almost unbroken canopy of over-arching boughs, which now extends for more than thirty miles from the city of Mathura to the border of the Gurganw district, and forms a sufficient protection from even the mid-day glare of an Indian summer's sun. Though the country is now generally brought under cultivation, and can scarcely be described as even well wooded, there are still here and there many patches of w r aste land covered with low trees and jungle, which might be consi- dered to justify the Bishop's epithet of wild-looking. The herds of deer are so numerous that the traveller will seldom go many miles in any direction along a b) r e-road without seeing a black-buck, followed by his harem, bound across the path. The number has probably increased rather than diminished in late years, * In the original Latin text the word is morus, which Mr. Lethbridgc, in his scholarly English edition, translates by ' fig;' but I think 'mulberry ' a more accurate rendering, and that to be the tree intended. It is to this day largely used for roadside planting at Lahor, and still more so in the Peshawar valley and in Kabul and on theOxus. De Laet says it was only like the mulberry, and not that it positively was the mulberry, on account of the difference of the two varieties of the fruit, the Indian and the European, which is very considerable. In the Kashmir valley both are to be seen. 28 de xaet's itinerary. as the roving and vagabond portion of the population, who used to keep them in check, were all disarmed after the mutiny. Complaints are now frequent of the damage done to the crops ; and in .some parts of the district yet more serious injury is occasioned by the increase in the number of wolves. The old Customs hedge, now happily abolished, used to run along the whole length of this road from Jait, seven miles out of Mathura, to the Gurganw border. Though in every other respect a source of much annoyance to the people living in its neighbourhood, the watchmen, who patrolled it night and day, were a great protection to travellers, and a highway robbery was never known to take place ; while on the corresponding road between Mathura and Agra they were at one time of frequent occurrence.* The quautity of sugarcane now grown in this part of the district is very inconsiderable. The case may have been different in De Laet's time ; but on other grounds there seems reason for believing that his descriptions are not drawn from actual observation, and are therefore not thoroughly trustworthy. For example, he gives the marches from Agra to Delhi as follows: — "From Agra, the residence of the king, to Rownoctan, twelve coss : to Bady, a sarae, ten ; to Achbarpore, twelve (this was formerly a considerable town, now it is only visited by pilgrims, who come on account of many holy Muhammadans buried here) ; to Hondle, thirteen coss ; to Pulwool, twelve ; to Fareedabad, twelve ; to Delhi, ten." Now, this passage requires much manipulation before it can be reconciled with established facts. Rownoctan, it may be presumed, would, if correctly spelt, appear in the form Raunak-than, meaning " a royal halting- place," and was probably merely the fashionable appellation, for the time, of the Hindu village of Rankata, which is still the first stage out of Agra. Bady or Bad, is a small village on the narrow strip of Bharat-pur territory which so inconveniently intersects the Agra and Mathura road. There has never been any sarae there ; the one intended is the Jamal-pur sarae, some three coss further on, at the entrance to the civil station. The fact that Mathura has dropt out of the Itinerary altogether, in favour of such an insignificant little hamlet as Bad, * This Inland Customs Line, which had uo parallel in the world except the great wall of China, was about ],2iiO miles in length, from the Tiipti to the Indus, and was maimed by an establishment of between 8,000 and 9,000 officers and men. It consisted of a barrier, chiefly in the form of a, thick, thorny hedge, along which were placed at short intervals more than 1,300 guard posts. The cost was about £100,000 per annum, and the revenue realized about a million sterling ; the yearly import of salt from Kajputana being about 80,000 tons, of which on an average one-half came from the Bharat-pur State. THE IMPERIAL SARA'ES. 2D- is a striking illustration of the low estate to which the great Hindu city had been reduced at the time in question.* Again, the place with the Muhammadan tombs is not Akbar-pur, but the next village, Dotana ; and the large saraes at Ko-i and Chhata are both omitted. These saraes arc tine fort-like buildings, with massive battlemented walls and bastions and high-arched gateways. They are five in number: one at the entrance to the civil station ; the second at 'Azamabad, two miles beyond the city on the Delhi road ; another at Chaumuha ; the fourth at Chhata, and the fifth at Kosi. The first, which is smaller than the others and has been much modernized, f has for many years past been occupied by the police reserve, and is ordinarily called 'the Damdama.' The thn e latter arc generally ascribed by local tradition to Slier Shah, whose reign extended from 1540 to 1545, though it is also said that Itibar Khan was the name of the founder of the two at Mathura and Kosi, and A"?af Ivhan of the one at Chhata. It is probable that both traditions are based on facts : for at Chhata it is obvious at a glance that both the gateways are double buildings, half dating from one period and half from another. The inner front, which is plain and heavy, may be referred to Sher Shah, while the lighter and more elaborate stone front, looking towards the town, is a subsequent addition. As A'saf Khan is simply a title of honour (the ' Asaph the Eecorder' of the Old Testament) which was borne by several persons in succession, a little doubt arises at first as to the precise individual intended. The presumption, however, is strongly in favour of Abd-ul-majid, who was first Humayun's Diwan, and on Akbar's accession was appointed Governor of Delhi. The same post was held later on by Khwaja Itibar Khan, the reputed founder of the Kosi sarae. The general style of architecture is in exact conformity with that of similar buildings known to have been erected in Akbar's reign, such, for example, as the fort of Agra. The Chaumuha sarae| * Similarly, it will be seen that Tavernier, writing about 1650, recognizes Mathura as the name of a temple only, not of a town at all. f A range of vaulted chambers flanking the central gateway were pulled down by the Pub- lic Works Depart icnt in 187G, to make way for some modern buildings intended to answer the Bime purpose, but necessarily of much less substantial construction. The old cells had been rendered unsightly by the mud walls with which the arches ha 1 been closed ; but these excrescences could a!l have been cleared away at very slight expense. % Chaumuha is distorted by Tieffenthaler into Tschaomao. He speaks of its sarae as * : hotellerie belle et commode." 8 30 THE CHATJMTJHi SARAE. is, moreover, always described in the old topographies as at Akbarpur.* This latter name is now restricted in application to a village some three miles dis- tant ; but in the 16th century local divisions were few in number and wide in extent, and beyond a doubt the foundation of the imperial sarae was the origin of the village name which has no-.. I 1 the spot that suggested it. The separate ce of Chaumuha is known to date from a very recent period, when the name was bestowed in consequence of the discovery of an ancient Jain sculpture, supposed by the ignorant rustics to represent the four-headed (chaumuha) god, Brahma. Though these sanies were primarily built mainly from selfish motives on the line of road traversed by the imperial camp, they were at the same time enormous boons to the general public ; for the highway was then beset with gangs of robbers, with whose vocation the law either dared not or cared not to interfere. On one occasion, in the reign of Jahangir, we read of a caravan having to stay six weeks at Mathura before it was thought strong enouo-h to proceed to Delhi ; no smaller number than 500 or 600 men being deemed ade- quate to encounter the dangers of the road. Now, the solitary traveller is so confident of protection that, rather than drive his cart up the steep ascent that conducts to the portals of the fortified enclosure, he prefers to spend the night unguarded on the open plain. Hence it con- 's that not one of the saraes is now applied to the precise purpose for which it was erected. At Chhata, one corner is occupied by the school, another by the offices of the tahsildar and local police, and a street with a double row of shops has recently been con- structed in the centre ; at Chaumuha the solid walls have in past years been undermined and carted away piecemeal for building materials ; and at Kosi, the principal bazar lies between the two gateways and forms the nucleus of the town. Still more complete destruction has overtaken the 'Azamabad sarae, which seems to have been the largest of the series, as it certainly was the plainest and the most modern. Its erection is ordinarily ascribed by the people on the spot to Prince 'Azam, the sou of Aurangzeb, being the only historical personage of * At Akbarpur, by the roadside is a large and very deep bauli approached by a flight of 70 steps, once cased with stone, which has now been almost all stripped ofil and applied by the villagers to other purposes. Immediately adjoining are the ruins of a mosque aud tomb, and masonry tank 12 bighas in extent. The boundary walls of the latter are now for the most part broken down, and of the eight kiosques that crowned the extremities of the ghats only one remains. These extensive work- are said to have been constructed some two centuries ago by a converted Thakur named Dhakmal. A rftjbaha of the Agra Canal passes through the village lauds, an 1 a rest-house is being built at the point where it crosses the high road. the 'azamaba'd sara'e. 31 the name with whom they are acquainted. But, as with the other buildings of the same character, its real founder was a local governor. 'Azam Khan Mir Muhammad Bakir, also called Iradat Khan, who was faujdar of Matlmra from 1642 to 1645. In the latter year ho was superseded in office, as his age had rendered him unequal to the task of suppressing the constant outbreaks against the Government, and in 1648 he died.* As the new road does not pass im- mediately under the walls of the sarac, it had ceased to be of any use to tra- vellers ; and a few years ago, it was to a great extent demolished and the ma- terials used in paving the streets of the adjoining city. Though there was little or no architectural embellishment, the foundations were most securely laid, reaching down below the ground as many feet as the superstructure which they supported stood abovo it. Of this ocular demonstration was recently afforded, for one of the villagers in digging came upon what he hoped would prove the entrance to a subterranean treasure chamber ; but deeper exeava; i showed it to be only one of the line of arches forming the foundation of tlio sarae wall. The original mosque is still standing, but is little used for reli- gious purposes, as the village numbers only nine Muhammadans in a population of 343. They all live within the old ruinous enclosure. * For this and several other facts gathered from the Persian chronicles, I was indebted to the late Mr. Blochmann, the Secretary of the Calcutta Asiatic Society, a gentleman whose know- ledge of Muhammadan history and literature was as unlimited as was the courtesy with which he communicated it. CHAPTER II. mathura' SACKED BY MAHMVJD of ghazni, 1017 A.D. its treatment by the DELHI EMPERORS. RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE JAT POWER. MASSACRE AT MATHURA', 1757. BATTLE OF BARSANA, 1775. EXECUTION OF GHULXM KAdIR, 1788. BRITISH OCCUPATION, 1803. BATTLE OF DtG, 1801. MUTINY, 1857. Atart from inscriptions and other fragmentary archaeological vestiges of its ancient glory, the first authentic contemporary record of Mathura, that we find in existing literature is dated the year 1017 A.D., when it was sacked by Mahmiid of Ghazui in his ninth invasion of India. The original source of information respecting Mahmiid's campaigns is the Tarikh Yamini of Al Utbi, who was himself secretary to the Sultan, though he did not accompany him in his expeditions. He mentions by name neither Mathura nor Maha-ban, but only describes certain localities, which have been so identified by Firishta and later historians. The place supposed to be Maha-ban he calls " the Fort of Kulchand," a Raja, who (he writes) " was, not without good reason, confident in his strength, for no one had fought against him and not been defeated. lie had vast territories, enormous wealth, a numerous and brave army, huge ele- phants, and strong forts that no enemy had been able to reduce. 'When he saw that the Sultan advanced against him, he drew up his army and elephants in a 'deep forest'* ready for action. But finding every attempt to repulse the invaders fail, the beleaguered infidels at last quitted the fort and tried to cross the broad river which flowed in its rear. When some 50,000 men had been killed or drowned, Kulchand took a dagger, with which he first slew his wife and then drove it into his own body. The Sultan obtained by this victory 185 fine elephants besides other booty." In the neighbouring holy city, identified as Mathura, " he saw a building of exquisite structure, which the inhabitant declared to be the handiwork not of men but of Genii. f The town wall was constructed of solid stone, and had opening on to the river two gates, raised on high and massive basements to protect them from the floods. On the two sides of the city were thousands of houses with idol temples attached, all of masonry and strengthened with bars of iron ; and opposite them were other buildings supported on stout wooden pillars. In the middle of the city was a temple, larger and finer than the rest, to which neither painting nor description could * These words may be intended as a literal translation of the name " Mah;'t-lian." •(■ 1'ossibly "Jina," the name both of the Buddhist and Jaini deity, was the word actually used, which was mistaken for the Arabic "Jinn." MAHlltfD's SACK OF MATHURA. 1017 A.D. 33 do justice. The Sultan thus wrote respecting it : — ' If any one wished to construct a building equal to it, lie would not be able to do so without expend- ing a hundred million dinars, and the work would occupy two hundred years, even though the most able and experienced workmen were employed.' Orders were given that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha and fire and levelled with the ground." The city was given up to plunder for twenty days. Among the spoil arc said to have been five great idols of pure gold with eyes of rubies and adornments of other precious stones, together with a vast number of smaller silver images, which, when broken up, formed a load for more than a hundred camels. The total value of the spoil has been estimated at three millions of rupees ; while the number of Hindus carried away into captivity exceeded 5,000. Nizam-ud-din, Firishta, and the other late Muhammadan historians take for granted that Mathura was at that time an exclusively Brahmanical city. It is possible that such was really the case ; but the original authorities leave the point open, and speak only in general terms of idolaters, a name equally appli- cable to Buddhists. Many of the temples, after being gutted of all their valu- able contents, were left standing, probably because they were too massive to admit of easy destruction. Some writers allege that the conqueror spared them on account of their exceeding beauty, founding this opinion on the eulogistic expressions employed by Mahmiid in his letter to the Governor of Ghazni quoted above. It is also stated that, on his return home, he introduced the Indiana style of architecture at his own capital, where he erected a splendid mosque, upon which he bestowed the name of ' the Celestial Bride.' But, however much he may have admired the magnificence of Mathura, it is clear that he was influ- enced by other motives than admiration in sparing the fabric of the temples : for the gold and silver images, which he did not hesitate to demolish, must have been of still more excellent workmanship. During the period of Muhammadan supremacy, the history of Mathura is almost a total blank. The natural dislike of the ruling power to be brought into close personal connection with such a centre of superstition divested the town of all political importance ; while the Hindu pilgrims, who still continued to frequent its impoverished shrines, were not invited to present, as the priest - were not anxious to receive, any lavish donation which would only excite the jealousy of the rival faith. Thus, while there are abundant remains of the earlier Buddhist period, there is not a single building, nor fragment of a building, which can be assigned to any year in the long interval between the 9 34 ITS TREATMENT BY THE DELHI EMPEKOES. invasion of Mahmiid in 1017 A.D. and the reign of Akbar in the latter half of the sixteenth century ; and it is only from the day when the Juts and Mahrattas began to be the virtual sovereigns of the country that any continuous series of monumental records exists. Nor can this be wondered at, since whenever the unfortunate city did attract the Emperor's notice, it became at once a mark for pillage and desecra- tion : and the more religious the sovereign, the more thorough the persecution. Take for example the following passage from the Tarikh-i-Daiidi of Abdullah (a writer in the reign of Jahangir), who is speaking of Sultan Sikandar Lodi (1 188 — 1516 A.D.), one of the most able and accomplished of all the occupants of the Delhi throne : " He was so zealous a Musalmau that he utterly destroyed many places of worship of the infidels, and left not a single vestige remaining of them. He entirely ruined the shrines of Mathura, that mine of heathen- ism, and turned their principal temples into sanies and colleges. Their stone images were given to the butchers to serve them as meat-weights, and all the Hindus in Mathura were strictly prohibited from shaving their heads and beards and performing their ablutions. lie thus put an end to all the idolatrous rites of the infidels there ; and no Hindu, if he wished to have his head or beard shaved, could get a barber to do it." In confirmation of the truth of this nar- rative, it may be observed that when the Muhammadan Governor Abd-un-Nabi, in 1661, built his great mosque as a first step towards the construction of the new city, of which he is virtually the founder, the ground which he selected for the purpose, and which was unquestionably an old temple site, had to be purchased from the butchers. During the glorious reign of Akbar, the one bright era in the dreary annals of Imperial misrule, there was full toleration at Mathura as in all other parts of his dominions. Of this an illustration is afforded by the following incident, which is narrated by Badauui : Among the persons held in high favour at the Court was a Shaikh, by name Abd-uu-Nabi, who occupied the distinguished position of Sadr-us-Sadur. A complaint was made to him by Kazi Abd-ur-Bahim of Mathura that a wealthy Brahman had appropriated some materials that had been collected for the building of a mosque, and not only used them in the construction of a temple, but, when remonstrated with, had, in the presence of a crowd of people, foully abused the Prophet and all his followers. The Brahman, when summoned to answer the charge, refused to come ; whereupon Ab-ul-FazI was sent to fetch him, and on his return re- ported that all the people of Mathura agreed in declaring that the Brahman AURAKGZEB AT MATHURA', 1(358 A.D. 35 had used abusive language. The doctors of the law accordingly gave it as their opinion — sonic that he should be put to death, others that he should be publicly disgraced and fined. The Shaikh was in favour of the capital punish- ment, and applied to the Emperor to have the sentence confirmed : but the latter would give no definite reply, and remarked that the Shaikh was respon- sible for the execution of the law and need not apply to him. The Brahman meanwhile was kept in prison, the Hindu ladies of the royal household using every endeavour to get him released, while the Emperor, out of regard for the Shaikh, hesitated about yielding to them. At last Abd-un-Nabi, after failing to elicit any definite instructions, returned home and issued orders for the Brahman's execution. "When the news reached the Emperor, he was very angry, and though he allowed Abd-un-Nabi to retain his post till his death, which occurred in 1583, he never took him into favour again. Jahangir, on his accession to the throne, continued to some extent his father's policy of religious tolerance ; but in the following reign of Shahjahan, we find Murshid Ali Khan, in the year 1636, made a commander of 2,000 horse, and appointed by the Emperor Governor of Mathura and Maha-ban, with express instructions to be zealous in stamping out all rebellion and idolatry. The climax of wanton destruction was, however, attained by Aurang- zeb, the Oliver Cromwell of India, who, not content with demolishing the most sacred of its shrines, thought also to destroy even the ancient name of the city by substituting for it Islampur or Islamabad. Mathura was casually connected with two important events in this Empe- ror's life. Here was born, in 1639, his eldest son, Muhammad Sultan, who expiated the sin of primogeniture in the Oriental fashion by ending his days in a dungeon, as one of the first acts of his father, on his accession to the throne, was to confine him in the fortress of Gwaliar, where he died in 1665. In the last year of the reign of Shahjahan, Aurangzeb was again at Mathura, and here established his pretensions to the crown by compassing the death of his brother Murad. This was in 1658, a few days after the momentous battle of Samogarh,* in which the combined forces of the two princes had routed the army of the rightful heir, Dara. The conquerors encamped together, being apparently on the most cordial and affectionate terms ; and Aurangzeb, pro- testing that for himself he desired only some sequestered spot where, un- harrassed by the toils of government, he might pass his time in prayer and * Samogarh is a village, one march from Agra, since named, in honour of the event, Fatih- abad, ' the ji'.ace of victory.' 36 REBELLION IN 1668 A.Di religious meditation, persistently addressed Murad by the royal title as the recognized successor of Shahjahan. The evening was spent at the banquet ; and when the wine cup had began to circulate freely, the pious Aurangzeb, feigning religious scruples, begged permission to retire. It would have been well for Murad had he also regarded the prohibition of the Kurdn. The stupor of intoxication soon overpowered him, and he was only restored to consciousness by a contemptuous kick from the foot of the brother who had just declared himself his faithful vassal. That same night the unfortunate Murad, heavily fettered, was sent a prisoner to Delhi and thrown into the fortress of SaHm-garh.* He, too, was subsecpiently removed to Gwaliar and there murdered. In spite of the agreeable reminiscences which a man of Aurangzeb's temperament must have cherished in connection with a place where an act of such unnatural perfidy had been successfully accomplished, his fanaticism was not a whit mitigated in favour of the city of Mathura. In 1(168, a local rebellion afforded him a fit pretext for a crusade against Hinduism. The insurgents had mustered at Sahora,-f a village in the Maha-ban pargana, where (as we learn from the Maasiri-i-Alamgiri) the Governor Abd-un-Xabi advanced to meet them. " He was at first victorious, and succeeded in killing the ring- leaders ; but in the middle of the fight he was struck by a bullet, and died the death of a martyr." It was he who, in the year 1661, had founded the Jama Masjid, which still remains, and is the most conspicuous building in the city which has grown up around it. He was followed in office by Saff-Shikan Khan ; but as he was not able to suppress the revolt, which began to assume formidable dimensions, he was removed at the end of the year 1669, and Hasan Ali Khan appointed Faujdar in his place. The ringleader of the disturbances, a Jat, by name Kokila, who bad plundered the Sa'dabad pargana, and was regarded as the instrument of Abd-un-Nabi's death, fell into the hands of the new Governor's Deputy, Shaikh Razi-ud-din, and was sent to Agra and there * Bernier, on whose narrative the above paragraph is founded, calls Salim-garh by the very English-looking name ' Slinger ;' a flue illustration of the absurdity of the phonetic system. By phonetic spelling I mean any arbitrary attempt to represent by written characters the sound of a word as pronounced by the voice without reference to its etymology. This would seem to be the most natural use of the term ; but as critics have objected, I add this explanation. ■f As is always the case when an attempt is made to identify the local names mentioned by any historian who writes in the Persian character, it is extremely uncertain whether Sahora is really the village intended. The word as given in the manuscript begins with s and ends with a, and has an r in the middle ; but beyond that much it is impossible to predicate anything with certainty about it. DESTRUCTION' OF THE TEMPLE OF KESAVA DEVA, 1669 A.D. 37 executed.* A few months earlier, in February of the same year, during the fast of Bamazan, the time when religious bigotry would be must inflamed, Aurangzeb had descended in person on Mathura. The temple specially marked out for destruction was one built so recently as the reign of Jahangir, at a cost of thirty-three lakhs, by Bir Sinh Deva, Bundela, of Urcha. Beyond all doubt this was the lasi of the famous shrines of Kesava Deva, of which further mention will be made hereafter. To judge from the language of the author of the Maasir, its demolition was regarded as a death-blow to Hinduism. lie writes in the following triumphant strain : — " In a short time, with the help of numerous workmen, this seat of error was utterly broken down. Glory be to God that so difficult an undertaking has been successfully accomplished in the present auspicious reign, wherein so many dens of heathenism and idolatry have been destroyed 1 Seeing the power of Islam and the efficacy of true religion, the proud Rajas felt their breath burning in their throats and became a- dumb as a picture on a wall. The idols, large and small alike, all adorned with costly jewels, were carried away from the heathen shrine and taken to Agra, where they were buried under the steps of Nawab Kudsia Begam s mosque, so that people might trample upon them for ever." It was from tlii- event that Mathura was called Islamabad. In 1707 Aurangzeb died, and shortly after began the rule of the Jats of Bharat-pur. The founder of this royal house was ;l robber chief, by name Chura-mani, who built two petty forts in the villages of Thi'in and Sinsini,f a little south of Dig, from which he organized marauding expeditions, and even ventured to harass the rear of the imperial army on the occasion of Aurangzeb's expedition to the Dakhin. This statement is contradicted by Thornton in his Gazetteer, under the word Bharat-pur ; but his reasons for doing so are not very conclu- sive. He writes : — " Chura-mani did not become the leader of the Jats until after the death of Aurangzeb. Besides, the scene of the operations of the Jats was widely remote from that of the disasters of Aurangzeb, which occurred near Ahmad-nae\ar. According to the Sair-i-Muta-akhkhirin, during the strun-gle between Aurangzeb's sons, 'Azam and Muazzim, Chura-mani beset the camp of the latter for the purpose of plunder." This correction, if it really is one, is so slight as to be absolutely immaterial ; the army, which was led into the Dakhin * His son ami daughter were both brought up as Muhamrnndans, and eventually the girl married Shah Kuli, and the boy, who had received the name of Fiizil, became famous for his skill in reciting the Kuran. f From this place the Bharat-pur Raja's family derives its name of Sinsinwar. 10 38 TILta'R BADAN SLNII. by Aurangzeb, was brought back by 'Azam after the Emperor's decease, and both fatber and sou died within four months of each other. A little later, Jay Sinh of Amber was commissioned by the two Saiyids, then in power at Delhi, to reduce the Jat freebooters. He invested their two strongholds, but could not succeed in making any impression upon them, and accordingly retired : only, however, to return almost immediately ; this time bringing with him a larger army, and also a local informant in the person of Badan Sinh, a younger brother of Chura-mani's, who, in consequence of some family feud, had been placed in confinement, from which be had contrived to escape and make his way to Jaypur. Thiin was then (1712 A.D.) again in- vested, and after a siege of six months taken and its fortifications demolished. Chura-inani and his son Muhkani lied the country, and Badan Sinh was for- mally proclaimed at Dig as leader of the Jats, with the title of Thakur. He is chiefly commemorated in. the Mathura district by the handsome mansion he built for himself at Sahar. This appears to have been his favour- ite residence in the latter years of his lii'e. Adjoining it is a very large tank, of which one side is faced with stone and the rest left unfinished, the work having probably been interrupted by his death. The house was occupied as a tahsili imiler the English Government till the mutiny, when all the records were transferred for greater safety to Chhata, which has ever since continued the head of the pargana, and the house at Sahar is now unoccupied and falling into ruin. He married into a family seated ;it Kamar, near Kosi, where also i~ a large masonry tank, and in connection with it a walled garden containing three Chhattris in memory of Chaudhri Maha Ram, Jat, and his wife and child. The Chaudhri was the Thakurani's brother, and it appears that her kinsmen were people of some wealth and importance, as the Castle Hill at Kamar is still crowned with several considerable edifices of brick and stone where they once resided. For some years before his death, Thakur Badan Sinh had retired alto- gether from public lite. To one of his younger sons, by name Pratap Sinh,* he had especially assigned the newly erected fort at Wayar, south- west of Bharat-pur, with the adjoining district, while the remainder of the Jat principality was administered by the eldest son, Suraj Mall. On his father's death, Suraj Mall assumed the title of Baja and fixed bis capital at Bharat-pur, from which place he had ejected the previous governor, a kinsman. * Two other sons were nimud Sobha 1! iiu and Bir Narayan. MASSACRE AT MATHCRA', 1757 A.D. 39 by name Khoma. The matrimonial alliances which he contracted indicate his inferiority to the Rajput princes of the adjoining territories, for one of his wives was a Kurmin, another a Malin, and the remainder of his own cast.', Jatnis. Yet, even at the commencement of his rule, he had achieved a conspicuous position, since, in 1748, we find him accepting the invitation of the Emperor Ahmad Sluih to join with Holkar, under the general command of the Vazir, Safdar Jang, in suppressing the revolt of the Itohillas. In the subsequent dis- pute that arose between Safdar Jang and Ghazi-ud-din, the grandson of old Nizam, the former fell into open rebellion and called in the assistance of the Jats, while his rival had recourse to the Mahrattas. Safdac, seeing the coalition against him too strong, withdrew to his vice-royalty of Audh, leaving Suraj Mall to hear alone the brunt of the battle. Bharat-pur was besieged, but had not been invested many days when Ghazi-ud-din, suspecting a secret understanding between his nominal allies, the Mahrattas and the Emperor, dis- continued his operations against the Jats and returned hastily to Delhi, where he deposed Ahmad Shah and raised Alamgir II. to the throne in his stead. This was in 1751. Three years later, when the army of Ahmad Shah Durani from Kan- dahar appeared before Delhi, Ghazi-ud-din, by whose indiscretion the invasion had been provoked, was admitted to pardon, in consideration of the heavy tri- bute which he undertook to collect from the Doab. Sardar Jahan Khan was de-patched on a like errand into the Jit territory ; but finding little to he gained there, as the entire populace had withdrawn into their numerous petty fortresses and his foraging parties were cut off by their sudden sallies, he fell back upon the city of Mathura, which he not only plundered of all its wealth, but further visited with a wholesale massacre of the inhabitants. In the second invasion of the Durani, consequent upon the assassination of the Emperor Alamgir II. in 1759, the infamous Ghazi-ud-din again appeared at the gates of Bharat-pur ; this time not with a hostile army, but as a suppliant for protection. By his unnatural persuasions a powerful Hindu confederacy was formed to oppose the progress of the Muhammadan, but was scattered for ever in the great battle of P;inipat, in January, 1761, when the dreams of Mahratta supremacy were finally dissolved. Siiraj Mall, foreseeing the inevitable result, withdrew his forces before the battle, and falling unex- pectedly upon Agra, ejected from it the garrison of his late allies and adopted it as his own favourite residence. Meanwhile, Shah Alam was recognized by the Durani as the rightful heir to the throne, but continued to hold his poor 40 DEATH OF StfRAJ MALL, 17(14 A.D. semblance of a Court at Allahabad ; and, at Delhi, his son Mirza Jawan Bakht was placed in nominal charge of the Government under the active protectorate of the Rohilla, Najib-ud-daula. With this administrator of imperial power, Siiraj Mall, emboldened by past success, now essayed to try his strength. Ho put forth a claim to the Faujdarship of Farrnkh-nagar ; and when the envoy, sent from Delhi to confer with him on the subject, demurred to the transfer, he dismissed him most unceremoniously and at once advanced with an army to Shahdara on the Hindan, only six miles from the capital. Here, in bravado, he was amusing himself in the chase, accompanied by only his personal retinue, when he was surprised by a flying squadron of the enemy and put to death. His army coming leisurely up behind, under the command of his son Jawaliir Sinh, was charged by the Mughals, bearing the head of Siiraj Mall on a horse- man's lance as their standard, the first indication to the son of his father's death. The shock was too much for the Jats, who were put to flight, but still continued for three months hovering about Delhi in concert with Holkar. This was in 17(i4." r In spite of this temporary discomfiture, the Jats were now at the zenith of their power ; and Jawaliir had not been a year on the throne when he re- solved to provoke a quarrel with the Raja of Jaypur. Accordingly, without any previous intimation, he marched his troops through Jaypur territory with the ostensible design of visiting the holy lake of Pushkara. There his vanity was gratified by the sovereign of Marwar, Raja Bijay Sinh, who met him on terms of brotherly equality ; but he received warning from Jaypur that if he passed through Amber territory on his return, it would be considered a hostile aggression. As this was no more than he expected, he paid no regard fo the caution. A desperate conflict ensued ou his homeward route (1765 A.D.), which resulted in the victory of the Kachhwahas, but a victory accom- panied with the death of almost every chieftain of note. Soon after, Jawaliir Sinh was murdered at Agra, at the instigation, as is supposed, of the Jaypur Raja. Siiraj Mall had left five sons, viz., Jawaliir Sinh, Rate Sinh, Naval Sinh, and Ranjit Sinh, and also an adopted son, Eardeva Bakhsh, whom.be is said to have picked up in the woods one day when hunting. On the death of -Jawaliir, iiatn succeeded, buthis rule was of very short duration. A pretended * A magnificent cenotaph was erected by Jawaliir binh in honour of his fattier ou the mar- gin of the Kusuin Sarovar, an artificial lake a short distauce from Gobardhan, and will be des- cribed in connection with that town. THE MAHRATTAS. 41 alchemist from Brinda-ban had obtained large sums of money from the credulous prince to prepare a process for the transmutation of the meaner metals into gold. When the day for the crucial experiment arrived and detec- tion had become inevitable, he assassinated his victim and fled.* His brother, Naval Sinh, succeeded, nominally as guardian for his infant nephew, Kesari, but virtually as Raja. The Mahrattas had now (1768) reco- vered from the disastrous battle of Panipat, and, re-asserting their old claim to tribute, invaded first Jaypur and then Bharat-pur, and mulcted both territo- ries in a very considerable sum. They then entered into an understanding with the Delhi Government which resulted in the restoration of Shah Alain to his ancestral capital. But as the only line of policy which they consistently maintained was the fomentation of perpetual quarrels, by which the strength of all parties in the State might be exhausted, they never remained long faith- ful to one side ; and, in the year 1772, we find them fighting with the Jats against the Imperialists. Naval Sinh, or, according to some accounts, his brother and successor, Ranjit Sinh, laid claim to the fort of Ballabhgarh held by another Jat chieftain. The latter applied to Delhi for help and a force was despatched for his relief; but it was too weak to resist the combined armies of Sindhia and Bharat-pur, and was driven back in disorder. The Mahrattas then pushed on to Delhi ; but finding the Commander-in-Chief, Niyaz Khan, ready to receive them, they, with incomparable versatility, at once made terms with him and even joined him in an expedition to Rohilkhand. Meanwhile, the Jilts, thus lightly deserted, espoused the cause of Najaf s unsuccessful rival, Zabita Khan. But this was a most ill-judged move on their part : their troops were not only repulsed before Delhi, but their garrison was also ejected from Agra.f which they had held for the last 13 years since its occupation by Suraj Mall after the battle of Panipat in 17G1. From Agra the Vazir Najaf Khan hastily returned in the direction of the capital, and found Ranjit Sinh and the Jats encamped near Hodal. Dislodged from this position, they fell back upon Kot-ban and Kosi, which they occupied for nearly a fort- * It was probably this Ratn Sinh, for whom was commenced the large cbhattri near the Madan Mohan temple at Brinda-ban, where it is still to be seen in its unfinished state, as left at the time of his sudden death. t The commander of the Jat garrison in Agra was Dan Sahay, brother-in-law (sala) of Na^al Sinh. 11 42 BATTLE OF BARSA'NA, 1775 AD. night, and then finally withdrew towards Dig ; but at Barsana were overtake! by the Vazir and a pitched battle ensued. The Jut infantry, 5,000 strong, wen commanded by Smnroo, or, to give him his proper name, Walter Reinhard, an adventurer who had first taken service under Ran jit's father, Suraj Mall.' The ranks of the Imperialists were broken by bis impetuous attack, and the Juts, feeling assured of victory, were following in reckless disorder, when the enemy rallied from their sudden panic, turned upon their pursuers, who were too si fcered to offer any solid resistance, and effectually routed them. They contriv- ed, however, to secure a retreat to Dig,f while the town of Barsana, which was then a very wealthy place, was given over to plunder, and several of the stately mansions recently erected almost destroyed in the search for bidden treasure. * He was a native of the Electorate of Treves and came out to India as a carpenter in the French navy. After serving under several native chiefs, but staying with none of them long, he joined one Gregory, an Armenian, who was high in the favour of Mir Kasim, the Nawabof Bengal. It was after the fall of Mongir that he did his employer the base service of putting to death all the English prisontrs who had l>een collected at l'atna ; a deed for which his name will ever be held in abhorrence. He next joined the Bharat-pui chief, and from him finally went over to Najaf Khan, from whom he received a grant of the pargana of Sardhana, then valued at six lakhs a year, and to whom he remained faithful for the rest of his life. He died in 17?8. and was buried in the cemetery at Agra, where is also a church that he built, now disused, adjoining the new cathedral. The Begum, who had livid with him (she is said to have been originally a Kagrniri dancing girl) was recognized as his widow and succeeded to all his estate. In 1781 she was received into the Catholic Church, and in 17'.t2 married a French adventurer, a M. Le Yaisseau. He, however, inade himself so unpopular that her people revolted, under the leadership of a son of Reinhard's, Zafar-yab Khun. By an artifice, that she practised upon her hus- band, the latter was induced to commit suicide, and the disturbance was soon after quelled by the interventi' n of one of her. old servants, the famous George Thomas. In 1802 Zafar-ydb died, having a daughter, whom the Begam gave in marriage to a Mr. Dyce, an officer in her army. The issue was a son and two daughters, of whom the one married Captain Kose Troup, the other the Marquis of Briona. The son, David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, wai adopted by the Begam, an 1 on her de-.th in is:;u, succeeded to the estate. He married Mary Anne, the daughter of VI — count St. Vincent, and die! at Paris, in 1851. His widow, in 1802, married the Hon'ble George C. Weld Forester, who has now succeeded his brother as third Baron Forester. The Begam by her will left to the Catholic Cathedrals of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, and Agra, Rs. 32,000 i:s. 31800, Rs. 31,000, and Rs. 28,700, respectively ; to the Sardhana Cathedral which she herself had built, Rs. 95,000 ; to the school or .seminary there, called St. John's College, Rs. 05 Coo. to the poor of the place Rs 47,800, and to the Merath Chapel, also of her foundation, Rs. 12,50(1; The administration of the Sardhana endowments has for several years past formed the aubject of a dispute between the Roman Catholic Bishop of Agra, who had for some time acted us solo trustee, and Lady Forester, who, as the Begam's legal representative, claims to act as a trustee also: until it is settled the interest on the money cannot be drawn. t According to local tradition, Naval Sinh died some 20 days after the battle of Barsana SIEGE OF AGRA, 1738 A.D. 43 Dig was not reduced till March of the following year, 1776, the garrison escap- ing to the neighbouring castle of Kumbhir. The value of the spoil taken is said to have amounted to six lakhs of rupees. The whole of the country als< was reduced to subjection, and it was only at the intercession of the Rani Kishori, the widow of Siiraj Mall, that the conqueror allowed Eanjit Sinh to retain the fort of Bharat-pur with an extent of territory yielding an annual income of nine lakns. In 1782, the great minister, Najaf Khan, died ; and in 1786 Sindhia, who had been recognized as his successor in the administration of the empire, proceeded to demand arrears of tribute from tin: Rajputs of Jaypur. His claim was partly satisfied ; but finding that he persisted in exacting the full amount, the Rajas of Jaypur, Jodh-pur, and Udav-pur, joined by other minor chiefs, organized a formidable combination against him. The armies met at Lai and a battle ensued which extended over three days, but without any decisive result, till some 14,000 of Sindhia's infantry, who were in arrears of pay, went over to the enemy. In consequence of this defection, the Mahrattas fell back upon the Jats and secured the alliance of Ranjit Sinh by the restoration of Dig, which had been held by the Emperor since its capture by Najaf Khan in 1776, and by the cession of eleven parganas yielding a revenue of ten lakhs of rupees. The main object of the new allies was to raise the siege of Agra, which was then being invested by Ismail Beg, tic Imperial captain, in concert with Zab Khan's son, the infamous Ghulam Kadir. In a battle that took place near Fatihpur Sikri, the Jats and Mahrattas met a repulse, and were driven back upon Bharat-pur ; but later in the same year 1788, being reinforced by troo from the Dakkhin under Rami Khan, a brother of the officer in command of the besieged garrison, they finally raised the blockade, and the province of Agra ao-ain acknowledged Sindhia as its master. Ghularn Kadir had previously removed to Delhi and was endeavouring to persuade the Emperor to break off intercourse with the Mahrattas. Failinc- in this, he dropped all disguise and commenced firing upon the palace, and having in a few days taken possession of the city, he indulged in the most brutal excesses, and after insulting and torturing his miserable and defencele^ sovereign in every conceivable way, completed the tragedy by, at last, with his own dagger, robbing him of bis eye-sight. Sindhia, who had before been urgently summoned from Mathura, one of his favourite residences, on hearing of these horrors, sent a force to the relief of the city. Ghulam Kadir, who a EXECUTION OF GHULXM KXD1R AT MATHURX. atrocities had disgusted all his adherents, fled to Merath, and endeavouring io escape from there at night alone on horseback, fell into a well from which he was unable to extricate himself. There he was found on the following morn- ing by a Brahman peasant by name Bliikha, who had him seized and taken to the Mahratta camp. Thence he was despatched to Sindhia at Mathura, who first sent him through the bazar on an ass with his head to the tail, and then had him mutilated of all his members one by one, his tongue being first torn out, and then his eyes, and subsequently his nose, ears and hands cut off. _ In this horrible condition he was despatched to Delhi ; but to anticipate his death from exhaustion, which seemed imminent, he was hanged on a tree by the road- side. It is said that his barbarous treatment of the Emperor, for which he suffered such a condign penalty, was in revenge for an injury inflicted upon him when a handsome child by Shah Alam, who converted him into a haram page. It was in 1803 that Mathura passed under British rule and became a mili- tary station on the line of frontier, which was then definitely extended to the Jamuna. This was at the termination of the successful war with Daulac Rao Sindhia ; when the independent French State, that had been established by Perron, and was beginning to assume formidable dimensions, had been extin- guished by the fall of Aligarh ; while the protectorate of the nominal sovereign of Delhi, transferred by the submission of the capital, invested the administra- tion of the Company with the prestige of Imperial sanction. At the same time a treaty was concluded with Ranjit Sinh, who with 5,000 horse had joined General Lake at Agra and thereby contributed to Sindhia's defeat. In return for this service he received a part of the districts of Kishangarh, Kathawar, Rewiiri, Gokul and Sahar. In September of the following year Mathura was held for a few days by the troops of Holkar Jasavant Rao ; but on the arrival of reinforcements from Agra, was re-occupied by the British finally and permanently. Meanwhile, Holkar had advanced upon Delhi, but the defence was so gallantly conducted by Ochterlony that the assault was a signal failure. His army broke up into two divisions, one of which was pursued to the neighbourhood of Farrukhabad, and there totally dispersed by General Lake ; while the other was overtaken by General Fraser between Dig and Gobardhan and defeated with great slaughter. In this latter engagement the brilliant victory was purchased by the death of the officer in command, who was brought into Mathura fatally wounded, and TREATY WITH BHARAT-PUR, 1805 AD. 45 survived only a few days. He was buried in the Cantonment Cemetery, where a monument* is orected to his memory with the following inscription : — " Sacred to the memory of Major-General Henry Fraser, of His Majesty's nth Regiment -: Foot, who commanded the British Army at the battle of Deig on the 13th of November, 1804, ml liy his judgment and valour achieved an important and glorious victory. He died in con- sequence of a wound he received when leading on the troops, and was interred here on the a.itb of November, 1804, in the 40th year of his age. The army lament his loss with the deepest sorrow ; his country regards his heroic conduct with grateful admiration ; history will record his fame and perpetuate the glory of his illustrious deeds." Holkar, who had fled for refuge to the fort of Bharat-pur, was pursued by General Lake and his surrender demanded ; but Ranjit refused to give him up. The fort was thereupon besieged ; Ranjit made a memorable defence, and repelled four assaults with a loss to the besiegers of 3,000 men, but finally made overtures for peace, which were accepted on the 4th of May, 1805. A new treaty was concluded, by which he agreed to pay an indemnity of twenty lakhs of rupees, seven of which were subsequently remitted, and was guaran- teed in the territories which ho held previously to the accession of the British Government. The parganas granted to him in 1803 were resumed. Ranjit died that same year, leaving four sons, — Randhir, Baladeva, Harideva, and Lachhman. He was succeeded by the eldest, Randhir, who died in 1822, leaving the throne to his brother, Baladeva. t After a rule of about 18 months he died, leaving a son, Balavant, then six years of age. He was recognized by the British Government, but his cousin, Durjan Sal, who had also advanced claims to the succession on Randhir's death, rose up against him and had him cast into prison. Sir David Ochterlony, the Resident at Delhi, promptly moved out a force in support of the rightful heir, but their march was stopped by a peremptory order from Lord Amherst, who, in accordance with the disastrous policy of non-interference which was then in vogue, considered that the recognition of the heir-apparent during the life of his father did not impose on the Government any obligation to maintain him in opposition to the presumed wishes of the chiefs and people. Vast prepara- tions were made, with the secret support of the neighbouring Rajput and Mahratta States, and at last, when the excitement threatened a protracted war, the Governor-General reluctantly confirmed the eloquent representations of * To judge from the extreme clumsiness both of the design and execution, the irregular spacing of the inscription, and the quaint shape of some of the letters, this must have been one of the very first attempts of a native mason to work on European instructions. t Randhir Siuh and Baladeva Sinh are commemorated by two handsome chhattries on the margin of the Mauasi Ganga at Gobardhan. 12 46 STORMING OF BHARAT-PUR, 1826 A.D. Sir Charles Metcalfe and consented to the deposition of the usurper. After a siege that extended over nearly six weeks, Bharat-pur was stormed by Lord Combermere on the 18th of January, 1826. Durjan Sal was taken prisoner to Allahabad, and the young Maharaja established on the throne under the regency of his mother and the superintendence of a political agent.* He died in 1853 and was succeeded by his only son, Jasavant Singh, the present sovereign, who enjoys a revenue of about Its. 21,00,000 derived from a territory of 1,974 square miles in extent, with a population of 650,000. With 1801 began a period of undisturbed peace and rapid growth of pros- perity for the city of Mathura, which in 1832 was made the capital of a new district, then formed out of parts of the old districts of Agra and Sa'dabad ; nor does any event claim notice till we come down to the year 1857. It was on the 14th of May in that eventful year that news arrived of the mutiny at Merath. Mr. Mark Thornhill, who was then Magistrate and Collector of the district, withGlmlam Husain as Deputy Collector, sent an immediate requisition for aid to Bharat-pur. Captain Nixon, the political agent, accompanied by < 'haudhari Rata Sinn, chief of the five Sardars, and Gobardhan Sinh, the Faujdar, came with a small force to Kosi on the northern border of the district and there stayed for a time in readiness to check the approach of the Mewaris of Gurgaon and the other rebels from Delhi. Mr. Thornhill had meanwhile removed to Chhata, a small town on the high-road some eight miles short of Kosi, as being a place which was at once a centre of disaffection, and at the same time possessed in its fortified sarue a stronghold capable of long resistance against it. The first outbreak, however, was at Mathura itself. The sum of money then in the district treasury amounted to rather more than 5i lakhs, and arrangements had been made for its despatch to Agra, with the exception of one lakh kept in reserve for local requirements. The escort consisted of a company of soldiers from the cantonments, supported by another company which had come over from Agra for the purpose. t The chests were being put * The Iiani of Balavaat Sinh was a native of Dhadhu in the Sa'dabad pargana, where in a garden with a double chhaitri erected by her in memory of two of her relatives. f There were present at the time Mr. Elliot Colvin. the son of the Lieutenant-Governor, xhu had been sent fro n Agra to supersede Mr. Clifford, laid up by severe fever ; Lieutenant ( rraham, one of the officers of the Treasury Guard ; Mr. Joyce, the head clerk, and two of his ibordinates, by name Hashman, As they werecutotf from the civil station by the rebels, who c ccupied fie' intermediate ground, they made their way into the city to the Seth, by whom they were helped on to Mr. Thornhill's camp at Chhata. Mr. Nicholls, the Chaplain, with his w n, and child and a Native Christian nurse, took refuge in the Collector's house, and wailed there for some time in hopes of being joined by the others ; but ou hearing that the jail was broken open, they lied to Agra. OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY, 1857 A.D. 47 on the carts, when one of the stibadars suddenly called out ' hoshiydr, sipdhi,' ' look alive, my man,' which was evidently a preconcerted signal ; and at onco a shot was fired, which killed Lieutenant Burlton, commandant of the escort, dead on the spot.* The rebels than seized the treasure, together with the pri- vate effects of the residents in the station, which were also ready to be trans- ported to Agra, and went off in a body to the Magistrate's Court-house, which they set on fire, destroying all the records, aud then took the road to Delhi. But first they broke open the jail and carried all the prisoners with them as far as the city, where they got smiths to strike off their fetters. Besides Lieutenant Burlton, one of the treasury officials also was killed. An attempt was made to check the rebel body as it marched through Chhata, but it was quite ineffectual, and on the 31st of May they entered the towii of Kosi. There, after burning down the Customs bungalow and pillaging the police-station, they proceeded to plunder the tahsili. But some Rs. 150 was all they could find in the treasury, and most of the records also escaped them. The townspeople and most of the adjoining villages remained well-affected to the Government ; and subsequently, as a reward, one year's revenue demand was remitted and a grant of Rs. 50 made to each headman. Mr. Thoruhill and the other Europeans with him now determined to abandon their position at Chhata and return to Mathura, where they took refuge in the city in the house of Seth Lakhmi Chand. While there a report came that the Jats had set up a Raja, one Devi Sinn, at Raya, on the other side of the Jamuna. His reign was of no long continuance, for the Kota Contingent, which happened to be on the spot at the time, seized and hanged him with little ceremony. But as soon as this was accomplished, they them- selves mutinied ; and Mr. Thoruhill, who had accompanied them to Raya, had to make a hasty flight back to Mathura, bringing some small treasure in tin- buggy with him. On the 6th of July, the mutineers of Montr and Niinach, on their retreat from Agra, entered the city. In anticipation of their arrival, Mr. Thornhill, disguised as a native and accompanied by a trusty jamadar, Dilawar Khan, started to flee to Agra. When they reached Aurangabad, only some four miles on the way, they found the whole country on both sides of the road in * The site of the old Court-house is now utterly out of the beaten track aud is all over- grown with dense vegetation, among which may be seen a plain but very substantial stoue table tomb, with the following inscription : " Sacred to the memory of Lieutenant F. H. C. Burlton, 67th Native Infantry, who was shot by a detachment of his regiment and of the 11th Native Infantry near this spot on the 30th of May, 1857. This tomb is erected by his brother officers." THE EEBELS IN MATHURA". the possession of the rebels. The men whom the Seth had despatched as m escort took fright and decamped ; but the jamadar, by his adroit answers to all enquiries, was enabled to divert suspicion and bring Mr. Thornhill safely through to Agra. On the suppression of the disturbances, he received, as a reward for his loyalty, a small piece of land on the Brinda-ban road, just out- side Mathura, called after the name of a Bairagi who had once lived there, Dudhadhari. Though the rebels stayed (wo days in Mathura before they passed on to Delhi, the city was not given up to general plunder, partly in consequence of the prudent management of Seth Mangi Lai, who levied a contribution, accord- ing to their means, on all the principal inhabitants. At this time Seth Lakh- mi Chand was at Dig, but the greater part of his establishment remained behind and rendered Government the most valuable assistance by the des- patch of intelligence. Order in the city was chiefly maintained by Mir Imdad Ali Khan, tahsildar of Kosi, who had been specially appointed Deputy Col- lector. On the 2Gth of September, the rebels, in their retreat from Delhi, again issed through Mathura. Their stay on this occasion lasted for a week, and creat oppression was practised on the inhabitants, both here and in the neigh- bouring town of Brinda-ban. They were only diverted from general pillage by the influence of one of their own leaders, a subadar from Nimach, by name Hira Sinh, who prevailed upon them to spare the Holy City. For a few days there was a show of regular government ; some of the chief officers in the Collector's court, sueh as the Sadr Kanungo, Rahmat-ullah, the Sarishtadar, Manohar Lai, and Wazir Ali, one of the muharrirs, were taken by force and compelled to issue the orders of the new administrators ; while Maulvi Karamat Ali was proclaimed in the Jama Masjid as the Viceroy of the Delhi Emperor. It would seem that he also was an involuntary tool in their hands, as he was subsequently put on his trial, but acquitted. He is since dead. It is said that during their stay in the city the rebels found their most obliging friends among the Mathuriya Chaubes, who, perhaps, more than any others, have grown rich and fat under the tolerance of British rule. After threatening Brinda-ban with their cannon and levying a contribution on the inhabitants, they moved uway to Hathras and Bareli. Mir Imdad Ali and the Seth returned from Bharat-pur; and in October Mr. Thornhill arrived from Agra with a company of troops, which in the following month he marched up to Chhata. There the rebel zamindars had taken possession of the fortified sarde, and one of its SUPPRESSION OF THE MUTINY. 49 bastions had to be blown up before an entry could be effected: at the same time the town was set on fire and partially destroyed, and twenty-two of the lead- ing men were shot. A few days previously, Mir Imdad Ali with Nathu Lai, tahsildar of Sahtir, had gone up into the Kosi pargana and restored order among the Giijars there, who alone of all the natives of the district had been active promoters of disaffection. While engaged in their suppression, Imdad Ali received a gun-shot wound in the chest, but fortunately it had no fatal result. He is now Deputy Collector of Muradabad, with a special additional allowance of Rs. 150 per mensem, and has been made a C.S.I. By the end of November general tranquillity was restored ; but it was not till July, 1858, that the treasury was transferred from the Seth's house in the city to the Police lines in the civil station.* In Christmas week of the following year, 1859, the Viceroy held a Darbar, in which many honours were conferred upon different individuals, and in particular the ten villages, which the Gujars had forfeited by their open rebellion, were bestowed upon Raja Gobind Sinh of Hiithras, in acknowledg- ment of his distinguished loyalty and good services. The value of this grant has been largely diminished by the persistent lawlessness of the ejected Gujars, who have always sullenly resented the loss of their estates. "Here it remained till after the completion, in 1861, of the new Court-house and district offices, which, with important results to archaeological research, as will hereafter be shown, were rebuilt ou a new site. 13 CHAPTER III. THE STORY OF KRISHNA, THE TUTELARY DIVINITY OF NATHURA'. Of all the sacred places in India, none enjoys a greater popularity than the capital of Braj, the holy city of Mathuni. For nine months in the year festival follows upon festival in rapid succession, and the ghats and temples are daily thronged with new troops of way-worn pilgrims. So great is the sanctity of the spot that its panegyrists do not hesitate to declare that a single day spent at Mathuni is more meritorious than a lifetime passed at Banaras. All this cele- brity is due to the fact of its being the reputed birth-place of the demi-god Krishna ; hence it must be a matter of some interest to ascertain who this famous hero was, and what were the acts by which he achieved immortality. The attempt to extract a grain of historical truth from an accumulation of mythological legend is an interesting, but not very satisfactory, undertaking : there is always a risk that the theorist's kernel of fact may be itself as imaginary as the accretions which envelop it. However, reduced to its simplest elements, the story of Krishna runs as follows : — At a very remote period, a branch of the great Jadav clan settled on the banks of the Jamuna and made Mathuni their capital city. Here Krishna was born. At the time of his birth, Ugrasen, the rightful occupant of the throne, had been deposed by his own son, Kansa, who, relying on the support of Jarasandha, King of Magadha, whose daughter he had married, ruled the country with a rod of iron, outraging alike both o-ods and men. Krishna, who was a cousin of the usurper, but had been brought up in obscurity and employed in the tending of cattle, raised the standard of revolt, defeated and slew Kansa, and restored Ugrasen to the throne of his ancestors. All authorities lay great stress on the religious persecution that had prevail- ed under the tyranny of Kansa, from which fact it has been surmised that he was a convert to Buddhism, zealous in the propagation of his adopted faith; and that Krishna owes much of his renown to the gratitude of the Bnihmans who under bis championship, recovered their ancient influence. If, however 1000 B. C. is accepted as the approximate date of the Great War in which Krishna took part, it is clear that his contemporary, Kansa, cannot have been a Bud- dhist, since the founder of that religion, according to the now most fenerally accepted chronology, died in the year 477 B. C, being then about 60 years of ao-e. THE HISTORICAL KRISHNA. 51 Possibly lie may have been a Jaini, for the antiquity of that religion* is now thoroughly established ; it has even been conjectured that Buddha himself was a disciple of Mahavira, the last of the Jaini Tirthankaras.f Or the struggle may have been between the votaries of Siva and Vishnu ; in which case Krishna, the apostle of the latter faction, would find a natural enemy in the King of Kash- mir, a country where Saivism has always predominated. On this hypothesis, Kansa was the conservative monarch, and Krishna the innovator: a position which has been inverted by tbe poets, influenced by the political events of their own times. To avenge the death of his son-in-law, Jarasandha marched an army against Mathura, and was supported by tbe powerful king of some western country. who is thence styled Kala-Yavana : for Yavana in Sanskrit, while it corresponds originally to the Arabic Yiindn (Ionia) denotes secondarily — like Vildi/at in the modern vernacular — any foreign, and specially any western, country. The actual personage was probably tbe King of Kashmir, Gonanda I., who is known to have accompanied Jarasandha ; though the description would be more applicable to one of the Bactrian sovereigns of the Panjab. It is true thej had not penetrated into India till some hundreds of years after Krishna : but their power was well established at the time when the Mahabharat was written to record his achievements : hence the anachronism. Similarly, in the Bhagavat Purana, which was written after the Muhammadan invasion, the description of the Yavana king is largely coloured by the author's feelings towards the only western power with which he was acquainted. Originally, as above stated, the word denoted the Greeks, and the Greeks only.f But the Greeks were the foremost, the most dreaded of all the Mlechhas (i. e., Barbarians) and thus Yavana came to be applied to the most prominent Mlechha power for the time being, whatever it might happen to be. When the Muhammadans trod in the steps of the Greeks, they became the chief Mlechhas, and they also were consequently styled Yavanas. * The oldest Jain inscription that has as yet been discovered is one from the hill Indra- giri at Sravana Belgola in the South of India. It records an emigration of Jainis from Ujayin under the leadership of Swiimi Bhadra Bahu, accounted the last of the Sruta Kevalis, who was accompanied by Chandragupta, King of Pataliputra. As the inscription gives a list of Bhadra Bahu's successors, it is clearly not contemporary with the events which it records; but it may be inferred from the archaic form of tbe letters that it dates from the third century B. C. f More recent research, however, has revealed the fact that the Gotania Swimi, who was Mahavira's pupil, was not a Ksbatriya by caste, as was Sakya Muni, the Buddha, but a Brahman of the well-known Gautama family, whose personal name was lndra-hhuti. % This, however, is stoutly denied by Dr. Kajendra Lai Mittra. See his IndvAryans. 32 1EGKNDARY AUTHORITIES. Krishna eventually found it desirable to abandon Mathura, and withthe whole clan of Yadavs retired to the Bay of Kachh. There he founded the flourishing city of Dwaraka, which at some later period was totally submerged in the sea. While he was reigning at Dwaraka, the great war for the throne of Indrapras- tha (Delhi) arose between the five sons of P;indu and Durjodhan, the son of Dhritarashtra. Krishna allied himself with the Pandav princes, who were his cousins on the mother's side, and was the main cause of their ultimate triumph.. Before its commencement Krishna had invaded Magadha, marching by a cir- cuitous route through Tirhiit and so taking Jarasandha by surprise : his capital was forced to surrender, and he himself slain in battle. Still, after his death, Kama, a cousin of Krishna's of illegitimate birth, was placed on the throne of Mathura and maintained there by the influence of the Kauravas, Krishna's ene- mies : a clear proof that the hitter's retirement to Dwaraka was involuntary. Whether the above narrative has or has not any historical foundation, it is certain that Krishna was celebrated as a gallant warrior prince for many ages before he was metamorphosed into the amatory swain who now, under the title of Kanhaiya, is worshipped throughout India. He is first mentioned in the Mahabharat, the most voluminous of all Sanskrit poems, consisting in the printed edition of 91,000 couplets. There he figures simply as the King of Dwaraka and ally of the Pandavs ; nor in the whole length of the poem, of which he is to a great extent the hero, is any allusion whatever made to his early life, except in one disputed passage. Hence it may be presumed that his boyish frolics at, Mathura and Brinda-ban, which now alone dwell in popular memory, are all subsequent inventions. They are related at length in the Harivansa, which is a comparatively modern sequel to the Mahabharat,* and with still greater circumstantiality in some of the later Puranas, which probably in their present form date no further back than the tenth century after Christ. So rapid has been the development of the original idea when once planted in the congenial soil of the sensuous East, that while in none of the more genuine Puranas, even those specially devoted to the inculcation of Vaishnava doctrines, is so much as the name mentioned of his favourite mistress, Radha: she now is jointly enthroned with him in every shrine and claims a full half of popular devotion. Among ordinary Hindus the recognized authority for his life and exploits is * Though many episodes of later date have beeu interpolated, the composition of the main body of the Mahabharat may with some confidence be referred to the second or third century before Christ. w P- »1 CD -3 en' P M 1 B II P o CD <3 P H E5" CD CG a B w Q o p c^ t-f B _ II P W hj C o 2. B i-s «. crt- CT* Pv B II ITT p> B to — a* rr a «-T W ,B" CQ B P £ TO p i on C " P- - o- ■'. B* EP p~ — II d p B p < < p ii t> a < So 3 P CD *~ . O — 3<3 -5 — 1 P P p W §• ?• p H P »-« > V! 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In the days when Kama was king of Ajodhya, there stood near the bank of the Jamuna a dense forest, once the stronghold of the terrible giant Madhu, who called it after his own name, Madhu-ban. On his death it passed into the hand of his son, Lavana, who in the pride of his superhuman strength sent an insolent challenge to Rama, provoking him to single combat. The god-like hero disdained the easy victory for himself, but, to relieve the world of such an oppressor, sent his youngest brother, Satrughna, who vanquished and slew the giant, hewed down the wood in which he had entrenched himself, and on its sitet founded the city of Mathura. The family of Bhoja, a remote descendant of the great Jadu, the common father of all the Jadav race, occupied the throne for many generations. The last of the line was King Ugrasen. In his house Kansa was born, and was nurtured by the king as his own son, though in truth he had no earthly father, but was the great demon Kalanemi incarnate. Aa soon as he came to man's estate he deposed the aged monarch, seated himself >n the throne, and filled the city with carnage and desolation. The priests and sacred cattle were ruthlessly massacred and the temples of the gods defiled with blood. Heaven was besieged with prayers for deliverance from such a monster, nor were the prayers unheared. A supernatural voice declared to Kansa that an avenger would be born in the person of the eighth son of his kinsman, Vasudeva. Now, Vasudeva had married Devaki, a niece of King Ugrasen, and was living away from the court in retirement at the hill of Gobardhan. In the hope of defeating the prediction, Kansa immediately summoned them to Mathura and there kept them closely watched. $ From * The Bh&gavat is written in a more elegant style than any of the other Puranas,and is traditionally ascribed to the grammarian Bopadeva, who flourished at the Court of Hemadri, Rr,.ja of Devagiri or Daulatabad, in the twelfth or thirteenth century after Christ. | The present Madhu-ban is near the village of Maholi, some five miles from Mathura and from the bank of the Jamuna. The site, however, as now recognized, must be very ancient, since it is the ban which has given its name to the village ; Maholi being a corruption of the original form, Madhupuri. t The site of their prison-house, called the Kara-grah, or more commonly Janm-bhumi, t> e., '■ birth-place,' is still marked by a email temple in Mathura near the Potara-knnd. 14 54 THE BIRTH CF KRISHXA. year to year, as each successive child was born, it was taken and delivered to the tyrant, and lay him consigned to death. When Devaki became pregnant for the seventh time, the embryo was miraculously transferred to the womb of Kohini, another wife of Vasudeva, living at Gokul, on the- opposite bank of the Jamuna, and a report was circulated that the mother had miscarried from the effects of her long imprisonment and constant anxiety. The child thus marvel- lously preserved was first called Sankarshana,* but afterwards received the name of Balanim or Baladcva, under which he has become famous to all posterity. Another year elapsed, and on the eighth of the dark fortnight of the month of Bhadonf Devaki was delivered of her eighth son, the immortal Krishna. Vasudeva took the babe in his arms and, favoured by the darkness of the night and the direct interposition of heaven, passed through the prison guards, who were charmed to sleep, and fled with his precious burden to the Jamuna. It was then the season of the rains, and the mighty river was pouring down a wild and resistless flood of waters. But he fearlessly stepped into the eddying torrent : at the first step that he advanced the wave reached the foot of the child slumbering in his arms ; then, marvellous to relate, the waters were stilled at the touch of the divine infant and could rise no higher,} and in a moment of time the wayfarer had traversed the torrent's broad expanse and emerged in safety on the opposito shore. § Herej he met Nanda, the chief herdsman of Gokul, whose wife, Jasoda, at that very time had given birth to a daughter, no earthly child, however, save in semblance, but the delusive power Joganidr.'i. Vasudeva dexterously exchanged the two infants and, returning, placed the female child in the bed of Devaki. At once it began to cry. The guards rushed in and carried it off to the tyrant. He, assured that it was the very child of fate, snatched it furiously from their hands and dashed it to the * Signifying • extraction,' ;'. e., from his mother's womb. The word is also explained to mean 'drawing furrows with the plough,' and would thus be paralleled by Balarama's other names of Halayudha, Haladhara, and Ilalabhrit. t On this day is celebrated the annual festival in honour of Krishna's birth, called Janm Ashtami. % This incident is popularly commemorated by a native toy called ' Vasudeva Katora ' ot which i;rcat numbers are manufactured at Mathura. It is a brass cup with the figure of a man iu it carrying a child at his side, and is so contrived that when water is poured into it it cannot rise above the child's foot, but is then carried off by a hidden duet and runs out at the bottom til! the cup is empty. The landing-place is still shown at Gokul and called 'Utt .rcsvar Ghat.' KP.ISHKA AT GOKUL, 55 ground : but how great his terror when he sees it rise resplendent in celestid beauty and ascend to heaven, there to be adored as the great goddess Di Kansa started from his momentary stupor, frantic with rage, and cursing the gods as his enemies, issued savage orders that every one should be put to death who dared to offer them sacrifice, and that diligent search should be made for all young children, that the infant son of Devaki, wherever concealed, might perish amongst the number. Judging these precautions to be sufficient, and that nothing further was to be dreaded from the parents, he set Vasudeva and Devaki at liberty. The former at once hastened to see Nanda, who had come over to Mathura to pay his yearly tribute to the king, and after congra- tulating him on Jasoda's having presented him with a son, begged him to take back to Gokul Rohini's boy, Balaram, and let the two children be brought np together. To this Nanda gladly assented, and so it came to pass that the I brothers, Krishna and Balaram, spent the days of their childhood tog. ' Gokul, under the care of their foster-mother Jasoda. They had not been there long, when one night the witch Piitana, hove : about for some mischief to do in the service of Kansa, saw the babe Krishna lying asleep, and took him up in her arms and began to suckle him with her own devil's milk. A mortal child would have been poisoned at the first drop, but Krishna drew the breast with such strength that her life's blood was drain- ed with the milk, and the hideous fiend, terrifying the whole country of Braj with her groans of agony, fell lifeless to the ground. Another day Jasoda had gone down to the river-bank to wash some clothes, and had left the child asl under one of the waggons. Ho all at once woke up hungry, and kicking out with his baby foot upset the big cart, full as it was of pans and pails of milk. When Jasoda came running back to see what all the noise was about, she found him in the midst of the broken fragments quietly asleep again, as if nothing had happened. Again, one of Kansa's attendant demons, by name Trinavart, hoping to destroy the child, came and swept him off in a whirlwind, but the child was too much for him and made that his last journey to Braj.f The older the boy grew, the more troublesome did Jasoda find him ; he would crawl about everywhere on his hands and knees, getting into the cattle- sheds and pulling the calves by their tails, upsetting the pans of milk and whey, sticking his fingers into the curds and butter, and daubing his face and clothes * The scene of this transformation is laid at the Jog Ghat in Mathura, so called from the child Joganidra. f The event is commemorated by a small cell at Mahaban, in which the demon whirlwind is represented by a pair of enormous, wings overshadowing the infant Krishna. 55 RRISKNA AT BRINDX-BAN. all over; and one day she got so angry with him that she put a cord round his waist and tied him to the great wooden mortar* while she went to look after her house- hold affairs. No sooner was her back turned than the child, in his efforts to get loose, dragged away with him the heavy wooden block till it got fixed between two immense Arjun trees that were growing in the court-yard. It was wedged tight only for a minute, one more pull and down came the two enormous trunks with a thundering crash. Up ran the neighbours, expecting an earthquake at least, and found the village half buried under the branches of the fallen trees, with the child between the two shattered stems laughing at the mischief he had caused, t Alarmed at these successive portents, Nanda determined upon removing to some other locality and selected the neighbourhood of Brinda-ban as affording the best pasturage for the cattle. Here the boys lived till they were seven years old, not so much in Brinda-ban itself as in the copses on the opposite bank of the river, near the town of Mat ; there they wandered about, merrily disport- ing themselves, decking their heads with plumes of peacocks' feathers, string- ing long wreaths of wild flowers round their necks and making sweet music with their rustic pipes.f At evening-tide they drove the cows home to the pens, and joined in frolicsome sports with the herdsmen's children under the shade of the great Bhandir tree.§ But even in their new home they were not secure from demoniacal ression. When they had come to five years of age, and were grazing their * From this incident Krishna derives his popular name of Damodar, from dam a cord, and udar, the body. The mortar, or nlukhula, is generally a solid block of wood, three or four feet high, hollowed out at the top into the shape of a basin. f The traditionary scene of all these adventures is laid, not at Gokul, as might have been anticipated, but at Mahaban, which is now a distinct town further inland. There are shown the jugal arjun k: ihaur, ' or site of the two Arjun trees,' and the spots where Putana, Trinavart, and Sakatasur, or the cart demon (for in the Bhagavat the cart is said to have been upset by the '.itirveution of an evil spirit), met their fate. The village of Koila, on the opposite bank, is said to derive its name from the fact that the ' ashes' from Putana's funeral pile floated down there; or that Vasudeva, when crossing the river and thinking he was about to tink, called out for some one to take the child, saying ' Koi le, koi le.' t From these childish sports, Krishna derives his popular names of Dan-mdli, ' the wearer of a chaplet of wild flowers,' and Bansi-dluir and Murli-dhar, ' the flute-player.' Hence, too, the strolling singers, who frequent the fairs held on Krishna's fete days, attire themselves in high- crowned caps decked with peacocks' feathers. § The Bhiindir-ban is a dense thicket of ber and other low prickly shrubs in the hamlet of Chhihiri, a little above Mat. In the centre is an open space with a small modern temple and well. The Bhandir bat is an old tree a few hundred yards outside the grove. trauma's submission. .37 cattle on the bank of the Jamuna the demon Bachhasur made an open onset against them.* When he had received the reward of his temerity, the demon Bakasur tried the efficacy of stratagem. Transforming himself into a crane of gigantic proportions he perched on the hill-side, and when the cowherd's child- ren came to gaze at the monstrous apparition, snapped them all up one alter fchi other. But Krishna made such a hot mouthful that he was only too glad to drop him ; and as soon as the boy set his feet on the ground again, he seized the monster by his long bill and rent him in twain. On another day, as their playmate Toshf and some of the other children were rambling about, they spied what they took to be the mouth of a great chasm in the rock. It was in truth the expanded jaws of the serpent-king Aghasur, and as the boys were peeping in he drew a deep breath and sucked them all down. But Krishna bid them be of good cheer, and swelled his body to such a size that the serpent burst, and the children stept out upon the plain un- injured. Again, as they lay lazily one sultry noon under a Kadamb tree enjoj their lunch, the calves strayed away quite out of sight.| In fact, the jealous god Brahma had stolen them. When the loss was detected, all ran off in differ- ent directions to look for them ; but Krishna took a shorter plan, and as .-- as he found himself alone, created other cattle exactly like them to take their place. He then waited a little for his companions' return ; but when no signs of them appeared, he guessed, as was really the case, that they too had been stol by Brahma ; so without more ado he continued the work of creation, and call- ed into existence another group of children identical in appearance with the absentees. Meanwhile, Brahma had dropped off into one of his periodical dozes, and waking up after the lapse of a year, chuckled to himself over the for- lorn condition of Braj, without cither cattle or children. But when he got. there and began to look about him, he found everything just the same as before : then he made his submission to Krishna, and acknowledged him to be his lord and master. One day, as Krishna was strolling by himself along the bank of the Jamuna, he came to a creek by the side of which grew a tall Kadamb tree. He * This adventure gives its name to the Bachh-ban near Sehi. f Hence the name of the village Tosh in the Mathura pargana. X The scene of this adventure is laid at Khadira-ban, near lihaira. The kftadira is a species of acacia. The Sanskrit word assumes in Prakrit the form hhmra. 15 58 KBISHNA'S DEFEAT OF THE SERPENT KA'LIYA. climbed the tree and took a plunge into the water. Now, this recess was the haunt of a savage dragon, by name Kaliya, who at one started from the depth, coiled himself round the intruder, and fastened upon him with his poisonous fangs. The alarm spread, and Nanda, Jasoda and Balaram, and all the neigh- bours came running, frightened out of their senses, and found Krishna stiD and motionless, enveloped in the dragon's coils. The sight was so terrible that all stood as if spell-bound ; but Krishna with a smile gently shook off the serpent's folds, and seizing the hooded monster by one of his many heads, pressed it- down upon the margin of the stream and danced upon it, till the poor wretch was so torn and lacerated that his wives all came from their watery cells and threw themselves at Krishna's feet and begged for mercy. The dragon himself in a feeble voice sued for pardon ; then the beneficent divinity not only spared his life and allowed him to depart with all his family to the island of Ramanak, but further assured him that be would ever thereafter bear upon his brow the impress of the divine feet, seeing which no enemy would dare to molest him.'' After this, as the two boys were straying with their herds from wood to wood, they came to a large palm-grove (tal-ban), where they began shaking the trees to bring down the fruit. Now, in this grove there dwelt a demon, by name Dhenuk, who, hearing the fruit fall, rushed past in the form of an ass and gave Balaram a flying kick full on the breast with both his hind legs. But before his legs could again reach the ground, Balaram seized them in his powerful grasp, and whirling the demon round his head hurled the carcase on to the top of one of the tallest trees, causing the fruit to drop like rain. The bovs then returned to their station at the Bhiindir fig-tree, and that very night, while they were in Bhadra-banf close by, there came on a violent storm. The tall dry grass was kindled by the lightning and the whole forest was in a blaze. Off scampered the cattle, and the herdsmen too, but Krishna called to the cowards to stop and close their eyes for a minute. * One of the ghats at Brinda-ban is named, in commemoration of this event, Eali-mardan, or Kali-dah, and the, or rather u, Kadanib tree is etill shown there. f Bliadra-ban occupies a high point on the left bank of the Jamuna, some three miles above Mat. With the usual fate of Hindi words, it is transformed in the official map of the district into the Persian Bahddur-ban, Between it and Bhandir-ban is a large straggling wood called mekh-ban. This, it is said, was open ground, till one day, many years ago, some great man encamped there, and all the stakes to which his horses had been tethered took root and grew up. balara'm. .">9 When they opened them again, the cows wore all standing in their pens, and the moon shone calmly down on the waving l'orest trees and rustling reeds. Another day Krishna and Balaram wore running a race up to the Bhandir tree with their playmate Sridama, when the demon Pralamba came and asked to make a fourth. In the race Pralamba was beaten by Balaram, and so, accord- ing to the rules of the game, had to carry him on his bar!; from the goal to the starting-point. No sooner was Balaram on his shoulders than Pralamba ran off' with him at the top of his speed, and recovering his proper diabolical form made sure of destroying him. But Balaram soon taught him differently, and squeezed him so tightly with his knees, and dealt him such cruel blows on the head with his fists, that his skull and ribs were broken, and no life left in the monster. Seeing this feat of strength, his comrades loudly greeted him with the name of Balaram, ' Rama the strong,'* which title he ever after retained. But who so frolicsome as the boy Krishna ? Seeing the fair maids of Braj performing their ablutions in the Jamuna, he stole along the bank, and picking up the clothes of which they had divested themselves, climbed up with them into a Kadamb tree. There ho mocked the frightened girls as they came shivering out of the water ; nor would he yield a particle of vestment till all had ranged before him in a row, and with clasped and uplifted hands most piteously entreated him. Thus the boy-god taught his votaries that submis- sion to the divine will was a more excellent virtue even than modesty.t At the end of the rains all the herdsmen began to busy themselves in pre- paring a great sacrifice in honour of Indra, as a token of their gratitude for the refreshing showers he had bestowed upon the earth. But Krishna, who had already made sport of Brahma, thought lightly enough of Indra's claims * Balaram, under the name of Belus, is described by Latin writers as the Indian Hercules and said to be one of the tutelary divinities of Mathura. Patanjali also, the celebrated Gram- marian, a native of Gonda in Oudli, whose most probable date is 150 B. C, clearly refers to Krishna as a divinity and to Kansa's death at his hands as a current tradition, both popular and ancient ; the events in the hero's life forming the subject of different poems, from which he quotes lines or parts of lines as examples of grammatical rules. Thus, whatever the date of the eighteen Puranas, as we now have them, Pauranik mythology and the local cultus of Krishna and Balaram at Mathura must be of higher antiquity than has been represented by some Euro- pean scholars. t This popular incident is commemorated by the Chir Ghat at Siyara ; chir meaning clothes. The same name is frequently given to the Chain Ghat at Brinda-ban, which is also so called iu the Vraja-bhakti-vildsa, written 1553 A.D. CO KEISUNA AT GOBARDJIAX. and said to Nanda : — " Tho forests where we tend our cattle cluster round si foot of the hills, and it is the spirits of the hills that we ought rather to worship. They can assume any shapes they please, and if we slight them, will surely transform themselves into lions and wolves and destroy both us and our herds." The people of Braj were convinced by these arguments, and taking all the rich gifts they had prepared, set out for Gobardhan, where they solemnly circumambulated the mountain and presented their offerings to the new divi- tity. Krishna himself, in the character of the mountain gods, stood forth on the highest peak and accepted the adoration of the assembled crowd, while a fictitious image in his own proper person joined humbly in the ranks of tin devotee When Indra saw himself thus defrauded of the promised sacrifice, he was very wrath, and summoning the clouds from every quarter of heaven, bid them all descend upon Braj in one fearful and unbroken torrent. In an instant the sky was overhung with impenetrable gloom, and it was only by the vivid flashes of lightning that the terrified herdsmen could see their houses and cattle beaten down and swept away by the irresistible deluge. The ruin was but for a moment ; with one hand Krishna uprooted the mountain from its base, and balancing it on tho tip of his finger called all the people under its cover. There they remained secure for seven days and nights and the storms of In- dra beat harmlessly on the summit of the uplifted range : while Krishna stood erect and smiling, nor once did his finger tremble beneath the weight. When Indra found his passion fruitless, the heavens again became clear ; the people of Braj stepped forth from under Gobardhan, and Krishna quietly restored it to its original site. Then Indra, moved with desire to behold and worship tin incarnate god, mounted his elephant Airavata and descended upon the plains of Braj. There he adored Krishna in his humble pastoral guise, and saluting him by the new titles of Upendra* and Gobind placed under his special protection his own son the hero Arjun, who had then taken birth at Indra- prasthain the family of Pandu. * The title Upeudra was evidently conferred upon Krishna before the full development oi the Vaishnava School ; for however Pauranik writers may attempt to explain it, the only gram- matical meaning of the compound is 'a lesser Indra.' As Krishna has long been considered much the greater go J of the two, the title h;;s fallen into disrepute and is now seldom used. Similarly with ' Gobind'; its true meaning in not, as implied in the text, ' the Indra of cows,' I ut simply ' a finder, or ' tender of cows,' from the root ' vid.' The Hindus themselves prefer to explain Upendra as meaning simply Indra's younger brother,' Vishnu, in the dwarf incarnation, i ag been born as the son of Kasyapa, who was also Indra's father. KRISHNA AND THE GOPfS. fit When Krishna had completed his twelfth year, Nanda, in accordance with a vow that he had made, went with all his family to perform a special devotion at the temple of Devi. At night, when they were asleep, a huge boa-con- strictor laid hold of Nanda by the toe and would speedily have devoured him ; but Krishna, hearing his foster-father's cries, ran to his side and lightly set his foot on the great serpent's head. At the very touch the monster was trans- formed and assumed the figure of a lovely youth ; for ages ago a Ganymede of heaven's court by name Sudarsan, in the pride of beauty and exalted birth, had vexed the holy sage Angiras, when deep in divine contemplation, by dancing backwards and forwards before him, and by his curse had been metamorphosed into a snake, in that vile shape to expiate his offence until the advent of the gracious Krishna. Beholding all the glorious deeds that he had performed, the maids of Braj could not restrain their admiration. Drawn from their lonely homes by the low sweet notes of his seductive pipe, they floated around him in rapturous love, and through the moonlight autumn nights joined with him in the circling dance, passing from glade to glade in ever increasing ecstasy of devotion. To whatever theme his voice was attuned, their song had but one burden — his per- fect beauty ; and as they mingled in the mystic maze, with eyes closed in the intensity of voluptuous passion, each nymph as she grasped the hand of her partner thrilled at the touch, as though the hand were Krishna's, and dreamed herself alone supremely blest in the enjoyment of his undivided affection. Radha, fairest of the fair, reigned queen of the revels, and so languished in the heavenly delights of his embraces, that all consciousness of earth and self was obliterated.* One night, as the choir of attendant damsels followed through the woods the notes of his wayward pipe, a lustful giant, by name Sankhehiir, attempted to intercept them. Then Krishna showed himself no tirnorous gallant, but cast- ing crown and flute to the ground pursued the ravisher, and seizing him from behind by his shaggy hair, cut off his head, and taking the precious jewel which he had worn on his front presented it to Balaram. * Any sketch of Krishna's adventures would be greatly defective which contained no allusion to his celebrated amours with the Gopis, or milkmaids of Braj. it is the one incident in his life upon which modern Hindu wi iters love to lavish all the resources of their eloquence. Yet in the original authorities it occupies a no more prominent place in the narrative than that which has been assigned it above. Iu pictorial representations of the ' circular dance'or Basmandal, whatever the number of the Gopis introduced, so often is the figure of Krishna repeated. Thus each Gopi can claim him as a partner, while 3gain, in the centre of the circle, he stands iu la^er form with his favourite Kadha. 1G <32 KRISHNA'S COMBAT WITH THE BULL ARISHTA. Yet once again was the dance of love rudely interrupted. The demon Arishta, disguised as a gigantic bull, dashed upon the scene and made straight for Krishna. The intrepid youth, smiling, awaited the attack, and seizing him by the horns forced down his head to the ground; then twisting the monster's neck as it had been a wet rag, he wrenched one of the horns from the socket and with it so belaboured the brute that no life was left in his body. Then all the herdsmen rejoiced; but the crime of violating even the semblance of a bull could not remain unexpiated. So all the sacred streams and places of pilgrim- age, obedient to Krishna's summons, came in bodily shape to Gobardhan and poured from their holy urns into two deep reservoirs prepared for the occasion.* There Krishna bathed, and by the efficacy of this concentrated essence of sanc- tity was washed clean of the pollution he had incurred. When Kansa heard of the marvellous acts performed by the two boys at Brindii-ban he trembled with fear and recognized the fated avengers, who had eluded all his cruel vigilance and would yet wreak his doom. After pondering for a while what stratagem to adopt, he proclaimed a great tournay of arms, making sure that if they were induced to come to Mathuni aud enter the lists as combatants, they would be inevitably destroyed by his two champions Chanur aud Mushtika. Of all the Jadav tribe Akrur was the only chieftain in whose integrity the tyrant could confide : he accordingly was despatched with an invitation to Nanda and all his family to attend the coming festival. But though Akriir started at once on his mission, Kansa was too restless to wait the result : the demon Kesin, terror of the woods of Brinda-ban, was ordered to try his strength against them or ever they left their home. Disguised as a wild horse, the monster rushed amongst the herds, scattering them in all directions. Krishna alone stood calmly in his way, and when the demoniacal steed bearing down upon him with wide-extended jaws made as though it would devour him, he thrust his arm down the gaping throat and, with a mighty heave, burst the huge body asunder, splitting it into two equal portions right down the back from nose to tail.f * These are the famous tanks of Radhu-kund, which is the next village to Gobardhan ; while Aring, a contraction for Arishta-gauw, is the scene of the combat with the bull. t There are two ghats at Brinda-ban named after this adventure : the first Kcsi Ghat, where the monster was slain ; the second Chain Ghat, where Krishna ' rested' and bathed. It is from this exploit, according to Tauranik etymology, that Krishna derives his popular name of Kesava. The name, however, is more ancient than the legend, and ;signifies Bimply the long-haired, ' crinitus,' or radiant, an appropriate epithet if Krishna be taken for the Indian Apollo. Krishna's return to mathura'. 63 All unconcerned at this stupendous encounter, Krishna returned to his childish sports and was enjoying a game of hlind-rnan's buff, when the demon Byom.isur came up in guise as a cowherd .and asked to join the party. After a little, he proposed to vary the amusement by a turn at wolf-and-goats, and then lyino- in ambush and transforming himself into a real wolf he fell upon the children, one by one, and tore them in pieces, till Krishna, detecting his wiles, dragged him from his cover and, seizing him by the throat, beat him to death. At this juncture, Akrur* arrived with his treacherous invitation: it was at once accepted, and the boys in high glee started for Mathura, Nanda also and all the village encampment accompanying them. Just outside the city they met the king's washerman and his train of donkeys laden with bundles of clothes, which he was taking back fresh washed from the river-side to the palace. What bettor opportunity could be desired for country boys, who had never before left the woods and had no clothes fit to wear. They at once made a rush at the bundles and, tearing them open, arrayed themselves in the finery just as it came to hand, without any regard for fit or colour; then on they went again, laughing heartily at their own mountebank appearance, till a good tailor called them into his shop, and there cut and snipped and stitched away till he turned them out in the very height of fashion : and to complete their costume, the mdli Sudaina gave them each a nosegay of flowers. So going through the streets like young princes, there met them the poor hump-backed woman Kubja, and Krishna, as he passed, putting one foot on her feet and one hand under her chin, stretched out her body straight as a dart.f In the court-yard before the palace was displayed the monstrous bow, the test of skill and strength in the coming encounter of arms. None but a giant could bend it ; but Krishna took it up in sport, and it snapped in his fingers like a twig. Out ran the king's guards, hearing the crash of the broken beam, but all perished at the touch of the invincible child : not one survived to tell how death was dealt. When they had seen all the sights of the city, they returned to Nanda, who had been much disquieted by their long absence, and on the morrow repaired to the arena, where Kansa was enthroned in state on a high dais overlooking * Akrur is the name of a hamlet betwsen Mathura and Brinda-ban. t "Kubja's well" in Mathura commemorates this event. It is on the Delhi road, a little beyond the Katra. Nearly opposite, a carved pillar from a Buddhist railing has been set up and is worshipped as Parrati. 04 THE DEATH OF KANSA. the lists. At the entrance they were confronted by the savage elephant Kuvala- yapida, upon whom Kansa relied to trample them to death. But Krishna, after sporting with it for a while, seized it at last by the tail, and whirling it round his head dashed it lifeless to the ground. Then, each bearing one of its tusks, the two boys stepped into the ring and challenged all comers. Chanur was matched against Krishna, Mushtika against Bahrain. The struggle was no sooner begun than ended : both the king's champions were thrown and rose no more. Then Kansa started from his throne, and cried aloud to his guards to seize and put to death the two rash boys with their father Vasudeva — for his sons he knew they were — and the old King Ugrasen. But Krishna with one bound sprung upon the dais, seized the tyrant by the hair as he vainly sought to fly, and hurled him down the giddy height into the ravine below.* Then they dragged the lifeless body to the bank of the Jamuna, and there by the water's edge at last sat down to 'rest,' whence the place is known to this day as the ' Visrant' Ghat.t Now that justice had been satisfied, Krishna was too righteous to insult the dead ; he comforted the widows of the fallen monarch, and bid them celebrate the funeral rites with all due form, and himself applied the torch to the pyre. Then Ugrasen was reseated on his ancient throne, and Mathura once more knew peace and security. As Krishna was determined on a lengthened-stay, he persuaded Nan da to return alone to Brind;i-ban and console bis foster-mother Jasoda with tidings of his welfare. He and Balaram then underwent the ceremonies of caste-initia- tion, which had been neglected during their sojourn with the herdsmen ; and, after a few days, proceeded to Ujjayin, there to pursue the prescribed course of study under the Kasya sage Sandipani. The rapidity with which they mastered every science soon betrayed their divinity ; and as they prepared to leave, their instructor loll at their feet and begged of them a boon — namely, the restoration of his son, who had been engulfed by the waves of the sea when on a pilgrimage to Prabhasa. Ocean was summoned to answer the charge, and taxed the demon Panchajana with the crime. Krishna at once plunged into the unfathomable depth and dragged the monster lifeless to the surface. Then * Kansa's Hill and the Rang-Bhumi, or 'arena,' with an image of IiangCBvar Maliadeva, where the bow was broken, the elephant killed and the champion wrestlers defeated, are still sacred sites immediately outside the city of Mathura, opposite the new dispensary. f The Visrant Ghat, or Resling Gluit, is the most sacred spot in all Mathura. It occupies the centre of the river frost, and is thus made a prominent object, though it has no special architectural beauty. JARA'SANDHA's SIEGE OF MATHtRA'. (J5 with Balaram lie invaded the city of the dead and claimed from Jama the Brahman's son, whom they took back with them to the light of day and restored to his enraptured parents. The shell in which the demon had dwelt (whence his title Sankhasur) was ever thereafter borne by the hern as his special emblem* under the name of Panchajanya. Meanwhile, the widows of King Kansa had fled to Magadha, their native land, and implored their father, Jarasandha, to take up arms and avenge theii murdered lord. Scarcely had Krishna returned to Mathura when the assem- bled hosts invested the city. The gallant prince did not wait the attack ; but, accompanied by Balaram, sallied forth, routed the enemy and took Jarasan- dha prisoner. Compassionating the utterness of his defeat, they allowed him to return to his own country, where, unmoved by the generosity of his victors, •he immediately began to raise a new army on a still larger scale than the pre- ceding, and again invaded the dominions of Ugrasen. Seventeen times did Jarasandha renew the attack, seventeen times was he repulsed by Krishna. Finding it vain to continue the struggle alone, he at last called to his aid King K:ila-yavana,t who with his barbarous hordes from the far west, bore down upon the devoted city of Mathura. That very night Krishna bade arise on the remote shore of the Bay of Kachh the stately Fort of Dvvaraka, and thither, in a moment of time, transferred the whole of his faithful people : the first intimation that reached them of their changed abode was the sound of the roaring waves when they woke en the following morning. He then returned to do battle against the allied invaders ; but being hard pressed by the barba- rian king, he fled and took refuge in a cave, where the holy Muehkunda was sleeping, and there concealed himself. "When the Yavana arrived, he took the sleeper to be Krishna and spurned him with his foot, whereupon Muehkunda awoke and with a glance reduced him to ashes. $ But meanwhile Mathura had * The legend has been invented to explain why the sankha, or conch-shell, is employed as a religious emblem: the simpler reason is to be found in the fact of its constant nse as an auxi- liary to temple worship. In consequence of a slight similarity in the name, this incident is popu- larly connected with the village of Sonsa in the Mathura pargana, without much regard to the exigencies of the narrative, since l'rabhasa, where 1'anchajana was slain, is far away on the shore of the Western Ocean in Gujarat. f The soul of Kala-yavana is Bupposed in a second birth to have animated the body of the tyrannical Aurangzeb. X The traditional scene of this event is laid at Muchkund, a lake three miles to the west of Dholpur, where two bathing fairs are annually held : the one in May, the other at the beginning of September. The lake has as many as 114 temples on its banks, though none are of great antiquity. It covers an area of 41 acres and lies in a natural hollow of great depth, 17 66 KRISHNA AT DWA'RAKA*. fallen into the hands of Jarasandha, who forthwith destroyed all the palaces and temples and every memento of the former dynasty, and erected new build- ings in their place as monuments of his own conquest.* Thenceforth Krishna reigned with great glory at Dwaraka ; and not many days had elapsed when, fired with the report of the matchless beauty of the princess Rukmini, daughter of Bhishmak, king of Kundina in the country of Vidarbha, he broke in upon the marriage feast, and carried her off before the very eyes of her betrothed, the Ghanderi king Sisupal.f After this he contracted many other splendid alliances, even to the number of sixteen thou- sand and one hundred, and became the father of a hundred and eighty thou- sand sons.t In the Great War he took up arms with his five cousins, the Pandav princes, to terminate the tyranny of Duryodhau ; and accompanied by Bhima and Arjuna, invaded Magadha, and taking Jarasandha by surprise, put him to death and burnt his capital : and many other noble achievements did he perform, which are written iu the chronicles of Dwaraka ; but Mathura saw him no more, and the legends of Mathura are ended. To many persons it will appear profane to institute a comparison between the inspired oracles of Ghristianity and the fictions of Hinduism. But if we filled in the rains by the drainage of the neighbourhood and fed throughout the year by a num- ber of springs, which hare their source iu the surrounding sand-stone hills. The local legend is that Raj;i Muchkund, after a long and holy life, desired to find rest in death. The gods de- nied his prayer, but allowed him to repose for centuries in sleep and decree! that any one who disturbed him should be consumed by fire. Krishna, in his flight from Kala-yavana, chanced to paBS the place where the Raja slept and, without disturbing him, threw a cloth over his face and concealed himself close by. Soon after arrived Kila-yavana, who, concluding that the sleeper was the enemy he sought, rudely awoke him and was iustantly consumed. After this Krishna remained with the Raja tor some days and finding that no water was to be had nearer than the Chambal, he stamped his foot and so caused a depression in the rock, which immedi- ately filled with water and now forms the lake. * As Magadha became the great centre of Buddhism, and indeed derives its latter name of Bihar from the numerous Viharas, or Buddhist monasteries, which it contained, its king Ja- rasan.iha and his son-iu-law Kansa have been described by the orthodox writers of the Maha* bh.irat and Sri Bhagavat with all the animus they felt against the professors of that religion, though in reality it had not come into existence till BO;ne 400 years after Jarasandha 's death. Thus the narrative of Krishna's retreat to Dwaraka and the subsequent demolition of Hindu Mathura, besides its primary signification, represents also in mythological language the great historical fact, attested by the notices of contemporary travellers and the results of recent an- tiquarian research, that for a time Brahmanism was almost eradicated from Central India and Buddhism established as the national religion. t Sisupal was first cousin to Krishna; his mother, Srutadcvi, being Vasudeva's sister. X These extravagant numbers are merely intended to indicate the wide diffusion and power of the great Jadava (vulgarly Jadou) clan, CONNECTION OF KRISHNA WITH CHRIST. 67 fairly consider the legend as above sketched, and allow for a slight element or* the grotesque and that tendency to exaggerate which is inalienable from Oriental imagination, we shall find nothing incongruous with the primary idea of a beneficent divinity manifested in the flesh in order to deliver the world from oppression and restore the practice of true religion. Even as regards the greatest stumbling-block, viz., the ' Panchadyaya,' or five chapters of the Bhaga- vat, which describe Krishna's amours with the Gopis, the language is scarcely, if at all, more glowing and impassioned than that employed in ' the song of songs, which is Solomon's;' and if theologians maintain that the latter must be mystical because inspired, how can a similar defence be denied to tho Hindu philosopher? As to those wayward caprices of the child-god, for which no adequate explanation can be assigned, the Brahman, without any deroga- tion from his intellect, may regard them as the sport of the Almighty, the mysterious dealings of an inscrutable Providence, styled in Sanskrit termino- logy mdyd, and in the language of Holy Church sapientia — sapientia ludens Omni tempore, ludens in orbe terrarum. Attempts have also been made to establish a definite and immediate connection between tho Hindu narrative and at least the earlier chapters of S. Matthew's Gospel. But I think without success. There is an obvious simi- larity of sound between the names Christ and Krishna ; Herod's massacre of the innocents may be compared with the massacre of the children of Mathura by Kansa ; the flight into Egypt with the flight to Gokul ; as Christ had a forerunner of supernatural birth in the person of S. John the Baptist, so had Krishna in Balaram ; and as tho infant Saviour was cradled in a manger and first worshipped by shepherds, though descended from the royal house of Judah, so Krishna, though a near kinsman of the reigning prince, was brought up amongst cattle and first manifested his divinity to herdsmen.* The infer- ence drawn from these coincidences is corroborated by an ecclesiastical tradi- tion that the Gospel which S. Thomas the Apostle brought with him to India ♦Hindu pictures of the infant Krishna in the arms of his foster-mother Jasodd, with a glory encircling the heads both of mother and child and a background of Oriental scenery, might often pass for Indian representations of Christ and the Madonna. Professor Weber has written at great length to argue a connection between them. But few Bcenes (as remarked by Dr. Kajendralala Mitra) could be more natural or indigenous in any country than that of a woman nursing a child, and in delineating it in one country it is all but utterly impossible to design something which would not occur to other artists in other parts of the world. The relation of original and copy in such case can be inferred only from the details, the technical treatment, general arrangement and style of execution; and in these respects there is no simU larity between the Hindu painting and the Byzantine Madonna quoted by Professor Weber. 68 SIMILARITY OF NAMES. was that of S. Matthew, and that when his relics were discovered, a copy of it was found to have been buried with him. It is further to be noted that the special Vaislmava tenets of the unity of the Godhead and of salvation by faith are said to have been introduced by Narada from the Sweta-dwipa, an unknown region, which if the word be interpreted to mean ' White-man's land,' might well be identified with Christian Europe. It is, on the other hand, absolutely certain that the name of Krishna, however late the full development of the legendary cycle, was celebrated throughout India long before the Chris- tian era ; thus the only possible hypothesis is that some pandit, struck by the marvellous circumstances of our Lord's infancy as related in the Gospel, trans- ferred them to his own indigenous mythology, and on account of the similarity of name selected Krishna as their hero. It is quite possible that a new life of Krishna may in this way have been constructed out of incidents borrowed from Christian records, since we know as a fact of literary history that the converse process has been actually performed. Thus Fr. Beschi, who was in India from 1700 to 1742, in the hope of supplanting the Kamayana, composed, on the model of that famous Hindu epic, a poem of 8,615 stanzas divided into 30 cantos, called the Tembavani, or Unfading Garland, in which every adven- ture, miracle and achievement recorded of the national hero, Rama, was elabo- rately paralleled by events in the life of Christ. It may be added that the Harivansa, which possibly is as old* as any of the Vaishnava Puranas, was certainly written by a stranger to the country of Braj ;| and not only so, but it further shows distinct traces of a southern origin, as in its description of the exclusively Dakkini festival, the Punjal: and it is only in the south of India that * It is quoted by Biruni (born 970, died 1038 A. D.) as a standard authority in his time. t The proof of this statement is that all his topographical descriptions are utterly irrecon- cilable with facts. Thus lie mentions that Krishna and Balarama -were brought up at a spot selected by Nanda on the bank of the Jamuna near the hill of Gobardhan (Canto 61). Now. Gobardhau is some fifteen miles from the river ; and the neighbourhood of Gokula and Mahaban, which all other written authorities and also ancient tradition agree in declaring to hare been the scene of Krishna's infancy, is several miles further distant from the ridge and on the other side of the Jamuna. Again, Tal-ban is described (Canto 79) as lying north of Gobardhan — ^f^TrT rfrlT CRT l*Q rTT^H S^rl It is south-east of Gobardhan and with the city of Mathura between it and Brinda-ban, though in the Bluigavat it is said to be close to the latter town. 8o also Bhandir-ban is represented iu the Harivansa as being on the same side of the river as the Kali-Jlardan Ghat, being in reality nearly opposite to it. EARLY INDIAN CHRISTIANITY. 69* a Brahman would be likely to meet with Christian traditions. There the Church has had a continuous, though a feeble and struggling existence, from the very earliest Apostolic times*'' down to the present : and it must he admitted that there is no intrinsic improbability in supposing that the narrative ot the Gospel may have exercised on some Hindu sectarian a similar influence to that which the Pentateuch and the Talmud had on the founder of Islam. Nor are the differences between the authentic legends of Judaism and the perversions of them that appear in the Kuran very much greater than those which distinguish the life of Christ from the life of Krishna. But alter all that can be urged there is no historical basis for the supposed connection between the two narratives, which probably would never have been suggested but for the similarity of name. Now, that is certainly a purely accidental coincidence ; for Christos is as obviously a Greek as Krishna is a Sanskrit formation, and the roots from which the two words are severally derived are entirely different. The similarity of doctrine is perhaps a yet more curious phenomenon, and Dr. Lorinser, in his German version of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the most * According to Eusebius, the Apostle who visited India was not Thomas, but Bartholomew There is, however, no earlier tradition to confirm the latter name ; while the' Acts of S. Thomas' — though apocryphal— are mentioned by F.piphanius, who was consecrated Bishop of Salamis about 3GS A.D., and are attributed by Photiua to Lucius Charinas, by later scholars to Bardesanes at the end of the second century. Anyhow, they are ancient, and as it would hare been against the writer's interest to contradict established facts, the probability is that his historical ground- work— S. Thomas' visit to India — is correct. That Christianity still continued to exist there, after the time of the Apostles, is proved by the statement of Eusebius that Pantanus, the teacher of Clemens Alexandrious, visited the country in the second century and brought backwi.h him to Alexandria a copy of the Hebrew Gospel of S. Matthew. S. Chrysostom also speaks of a translation into the Indian tongue of a Gospel or Catechism ; a Metropolitan of Persia and India attended the Council of Nice ; and the heresiarch Mani, put to death about 272 A.D., wrote an Epistle to the Indians. Much stress, however, must not be laid on these latter facts, since India in early times was a term of very wide extent. According to tradition S. Thomas founded seven Churches iu Malabar, the names of which are given and are certainly old ; and in the sixth cen- tury, Cosmas Indico-pleustes, a Byzantine monk, speaks of a Church at Male (Malabar) with a Bishop in the town of Kalliena (Kalyin) w ho had been conscecrated in Persia. The sculptured crosses which S. Francis Xavierand other Catholic Missionaries supposed to be relics of S. Thomas have Pahlavi inscriptions, from the character of which it is surmised that they arc not of earlier date than the seventh or eighth century. The old connection between Malabar and Edessa is proba- bly to be explained by the fact that S. Thomas was, as Eusebius and other ecclesiastical iiistorians describe him, the Apostle of Edessa, while Pahlavi, which is an Aramean dialect of Assyria, may well have been known and used as far north as that city, since it was the language of the Persian Court. From Antioch, which is not many miles distant from ancient Edessa, and to which the E lessa Church was made Bubject, the Malabar Christians have from a very early period received their Bishops. 18 70 CONNECTION BETWEEN CHRIST AND KRISHNA IMAGINARY. authoritative exponent of Vaishnava tenets, has attempted to point out that it contains many coincidences with and references to the New Testament. As Dr. Muir has very justly observed, there is no doubt a general resemblance between the manner in which Krishna asserts his own divine nature, enjoins devotion to his person and sets forth the blessing which will result to his votaries from such worship on the one hand, and the language of the fourth Gospel on the other. But the immediate introduction of the Bible into the explanation of the Bhagavad Gita is at least premature. For though some of the parallels are curious, the ethics and the religion of different peoples are not so different from one another that here and there coincidence should not be expected to be found. Most of the verses cited exhibit no very close resemblance to Biblical texts and are only such as might naturally have occurred spontaneously to an Indian writer. And more particularly with regard to the doctrine of ' faith' bhakti may be a modern term, but sraddha, in much the same sense, is found even in the hymns of the Rig Veda. A striking example of the insufficiency of mere coincidence in name and event, to establish a material connection between the legends of any two reigions, is afforded by the narrative of Buddha's temptation as given in the Lalita Vistara. In all such cases the metaphysical resemblance tends to prove the identity of the religious idea in all ages of the world and among all races of mankind ; but any historical connection, in the absence of historical proof, is purely hypothetical. The story of the Temptation in the fourth Chapter of S. Matthew's Gospel, which was undergone after a long fast and before the commencement of our Lord's active ministry, is exactly paralleled by the cir- cumstances of Buddha's victory over tho assaults of the Evil One, after he had completed his six years of penance and before he began his public career as a national Reformer. But the Lalita Vistara is anterior in date to the Christian revelation, and therefore caunot have borrowed from it ; while it is also certain that the Buddhist legend can never have reached S. Matthew's ears, and there- fore any connection between the two narratives is absolutely impossible. My belief is that all the supposed connection between Christ and Krishna is equally imaginary. CHAPTER I V. THE BRAJ-MANDAL, TIIE BAN-JXTKA, AND THE HOLI. Not only the city of Mathuni, but with it the whole of the western half oi'ili district, has a special interest of its own as the birth-place and abiding home of Vaishnava Hinduism. It is about 42 miles in length, with an average breadth of 30 miles, and is intersected throughout by the river Jamuna. On the risrht bank of the stream are the parganas of Kosi and Ghhata — so named after their principal towns — with the home pargana below them to the south ; and on the left bank the united parganas of Mat and Noh-jhil, with half the pargana of Maha-ban as far east as the town of Baladeva. This extent of country is almost absolutely identical with the Braj-mandal of Hindu topography ; the circuit of 84 kos in the neighbourhood of Gokul and Brinda-ban, where the divine brothers Krishna and Balaram grazed their herds. The first aspect of the country is a little disappointing to the student of San- skrit literature, who has been led by the glowing eulogiums of the poets to antici- pate a second vale of Tempe. A similarly unfavourable impression is generally produced upon the mind of any chance traveller, who is carried rapidly alono- the dusty high-road, and can scarcely see beyond the hideous strip of broken ground which the engineers reserve on either side, in order to supply the soil required for annual repairs. As this strip is never systematically levelled, but is dug up into irregular pits and hollows, the size and depth of which are determined solely by the requirements of the moment, the effect is unsightly enough to spoil any landscape. The following unflattering description is that given by Mons. Victor Jacquemont, who came out to India on a scientific mission on behalf of the Paris Museum of Natural History, and passed through Agra and Mathura on his way to the Himalayas in the cold weather of 1829-30. " Nothing," he writes, " can be less picturesque than the Jamuna. The soil is sandy and the cultivated fields are intermingled with waste tracks, where scarce- ly anything will grow but the Capparis aphi/lla and one or two kinds of zysyphus. There is little wheat ; barley is the prevailing cereal, with peas, sesamum, and cotton. In the immediate neighbourhood of the villages the Tamarix articulata gives a little shade with its delicate foliage, which is super- latively graceful no doubt, but as melancholy as that of the pine, which it strangely resembles. The villages are far apart from one another and present ■every appearance of decay. Most of them are surrounded by strong walls 72 CHARACTER OF THE SCENERY. flanked with towers, but their circuit often encloses only a few miserable cot- tages." After a lapse of 50 years the above description is still fairly appli- cable. The villages are now more populous and the mud walls by which fchej were protected, being no longer required, have been gradully levelled with tho ground. But the general features remain unchanged. The soil, being poor and thin, is unfavourable to the growth of most large forest trees ; the mango and shisham, the glory of the lower Dual), are conspicuously absent, and their place is most inadequately supplied by the nim, fards, and various species ul the tig tribe. For the same reason the dust in any ordinary weather is deep on all tho thoroughfares and, if the slightest air is stirring, rises in a dense cloud, and veils tho whole landscape in an impenetrable haze. The Jamuna, the one great river of Braj, during eight months of the year meanders sullenly, a mere rivulet, between wide expanses of sand, bounded by monotonous flats of arable land, or high banks, which the rapidly expended force of contributory torrents has cracked and broken into ugly chasms and stony ravines, naked of all vegetation. As the limits of Braj from north to south on one side are defined by the high lands to the east of the Jamuna, so are they on the other side by the hill ranges of Bharat-pur; but there are few peaks of conspicuous height and the general outline is tame and unimpressive. The villages, though large, are meanly built, and betray the untidiness characteristic of Jats and Giijars, who form the bulk of the population. From a distance they are often picturesque, being built on the slope of natural or artificial mounds, and thus gaining dignity by elevation. But on nearer approach they are found to consist of labyrinths of the narrowest lanes winding between the mud walls of large enclosures, which are rather cattle-yards than houses. At the base of the hill is ordinarily a broad circle of meadow land, studded with low trees, which afford grateful -hide and pasturage for the cattle ; while the large pond, from which the earth was dug to construct the village site, supplies them throughout the year with water. These natural woods commonly consist of pilu, cJthonkar, and hadamb trees, among which are always interspersed clumps of hard with its leafless evergreen twigs and bright-coloured flower and fruit. Tho pasendit, pdpri, ami, hingot, 'join!:, barna, and dim also occur, but less frequently ; though the last-named, the Sanskrit dhava, at Barsana clothes the whole of the hill-side. At sun-rise and sun-set the thoroughfares are all but impassable, as the strag- gling herds of oxen and buffaloes leave and return to the homestead: for in the straitened precincts of an ordinary village arc stalled every night from 500 or 600 to 1,000 head of cattle, at least equalling, often outnumbering, the human, population. THE SCENERY AT ITS BEST. The general poverty of the district forms the motif of the following popular Hindi couplet, in which Krishna's neglect to enrich the land of his birth with any choicer product than the karil, or wild caper, is cited as an illustration of his wilfulness: ^1T ^W X^^H sift If ^r#T TJTTl I 5FT^ *1 WW cfifT S2T Sal 3H TTlff 1! which may be thus done into English : Krishna, you see, will never lose his wayward whims and vapours ; For Kabul teeu:B with luscious fruit, while Braj boasts only capers. In the rains however, at which season of the year all pilgrimages are made, the Jamuna is a mighty stream, a mile or more broad; its many contributory torrents and all the ponds and lakes, with which the district abounds, are filled to overflowing; the rocks and hills are clothed with foliage, the dusty plain is trans- formed into a green sward, and the smiling prospect goes far to justify the warm- est panegyrics of the Hindu poets, whose appreciation of the scenery, it must be remembered, has been further intensified by religious enthusiasm. Even at all seasons of the year the landscape has a quiet charm of its own ; a sudden turn in the winding lane reveals a grassy knoll with stone-built well and overhanging pipal; or some sacred grove, where gleaming tufts of karil and the white-blossomed ariisa weed are dotted about between the groups of weird pilu trees with their clusters of tiny berries and strangely gnarled and twisted trunks, all entangled in a dense undergrowth of prickly her and tens and chhonkar: while in the centre, bordered with flowering oleander and nivdra, a still cool lake reflects the modest shrine and well-fenced bush of tulsi that surmount the raised terrace, from which a broad flight of steps, gift of some thankful pilgrim from afar, leads down to the water's edge. The most pleasing architectural works in the district are the large masonry tanks, which are very numerous and often display excellent tasti in design and skill in execution. The temples, though in some instances of considerable size, are all, excepting those in the three towns of Mathura, Brinda-ban and Gobardhan, utterly devoid of artistic merit. To a very recent period almosttho whole of this large area was pasture and woodland and, as we have already remarked, many of the villages an' .-till environed with belts of trees. These are variously designated as ghana, jhdri, r.akhyu, ban, or khandi* and are often of considerable extent. Thus, the Koki- * When the last term is used, the name of the most prevalent kind of tree is always added, as for instance Itadamb-hhandi, 19 74 LOCALIZATION OF LEGENDS. Ia-ban at Great Bathan covers 723 acres ; the rakliya at Kamar more than 1,000; and in the contiguous villages of Pisaya and Karahla the rakliya and kadamb-khandi together amount to nearly as much. The year of the great famine, 1838 A. D., is invariably given as the date when the land began to be largely reclaimed ; the immediate cause being the number of new roads which were then opened out for the purpose of affording employment to the starving population. Almost every spot is traditionally connected with some event in the life of Krishna or of his mythical mistress Badha, sometimes to the prejudice of an earlier divinity. Thus, two prominent peaks in tbe Bharat-pur range are crowned with the villages of Nand-ganw and Barsana : of which the former is venerated as the home of Krishna's foster-father Nanda, and the latter as the residence of Badha's parents, Vrisha-bhanu and Kirat.* Both legends are now as impli- citly credited as the fact that Krishna was born at Mathura ; while in reality, the name Nand-ganw, the sole foundation for the belief, is an ingenious substi- tution for Nandisvar, a title of Maha-deva, and Barsana is a corruption of Brahma-sanu, the hill of Brahma. Only the Giri-raj at Gobardhan was, accord- in or to the original distribution, dedicated to Vishnu, the second person of the tri-murti, or Hindu trinity; though now he is recognized as the tutelary divi- nity at all three hill-places. Similarly, Bhau-ganw, on the right bank of the Jamuna, was clearly so called from Bhava, one of the eight manifestations of Siva ; but the name is now generally modified to Bhay-ganw, and is supposed to commemorate the alarm {Ohay) felt in the neighbourhood at the time when Nanda, bathing in the river, was carried off by the god Varuna. A masonry landing-place on the water's edge called Nand-Ghat, with a small temple, dat- ing only from last century, are the foundation and support of the local legend. Of a still more obsolete cultus, viz., snake-worship, faint indications may be detected in a few local names and customs. Thus, at Jait, on the highroad to Delhi, there is an ancient five-headed Naga, carved in stone, by the side of a small tankt which occupies the centre of a low plain adjoining the village. It stands some four feet above the surface of the ground, while- its fail was sup- posed to reach away to the Kali-mardan Ghat at Brinda-ban, a distance of seven miles. A slight excavation at the base of the figure has, for a few years at * Kirat is the only name popularly known in the locality ; in the Padma Purana it appears in its more correct form as Kirttida: in the Brahma Vaivarta she is called Kalavati. Iv may also be mentioned that Vrisha-bhanu is always pronounced Brikh-bhan. t This tank was re-excavated as a famine relief work in the year 187S at a cost of lis. 0,787. EXPLANATION OP LOCAL NOMENCLATURE. 75 least, dispelled the local superstition. So again, at the village of Paigiinv, a grove and lake called respectively Pai-ban and Pai-ban-kund are the scene of an annual fair known as the Barasi Ndga ji mcla. This is now regarded more as the anniversary of the death of a certain Mahant; but in all probability it dates from a much earlier period, and the village name would seem to be derived from the large offerings of milk (payas) with which it is usual to pro- pitiate the Naga, or serpent-god. Till the close of the lGth century, except in the neighbourhood of the one great thoroughfare, there was only here and there a scattered hamlet in the midst of unreclaimed woodland. The Vaishnava cultus then first developed into its present form under the influence of Rupa and Sanatana, the celebrated Bengali Gosains of Brinda-ban ; and it is not improbable that they were the authors of the Brahma Vaivarta Parana,* the recognized Sanskrit authority for all the modern local legends. It was their disciple, Narsiyan Bhatt, who first established the Ban-jatra and Ras-lila, and it was from him that every lake and grove in the circuit of Braj received a distinctive name, in addition to the some seven or eight spots which alone are mentioned in the earlier Puranas. In the course of time, small villages sprung up in the neighbourhood of the different shrines bearing the same name with them, though perhaps in a slightly modified form. Thus the khadira-han, or ' acacia grove,' gives its name to the village of Khaira; and the anjan polJtar, on whose green bank Krishna pencilled his lady's eye- brows with anjan, gives its name to the village of Ajnokh, occasionally written at greater length Ajnokhari. Similarly, when Krishna's home was fixed at Nand-ganw and Radha's at Barsana, a grove half-way between the two hills was fancifully selected as the spot where the youthful couple nsed to meet to enjoy the delights of love. There a temple was built with the title of Radha- Raman, and the village that grew up under its walls was called Sanket, that is, * The Brahma Vaivarta Purana is, as all critics admit, an essentially modern composition, and Professor Wilson has stated his belief that it emanated from the sect of the Vallabhacharis, or Gosains of Gokul. Their great ancestor settled there about the year 1489 A. D. The popular Hindi authority for Radha's Life and Loves is the Braj Bilas of Braj-vasi Das. The precise date of the poem, sambat 1800, corresponding to 1743 A. D., is given in the following line— gp=m Jem titim tjjct sit^t so -o Another work of high repute is the Sir Sagar of Sur Das Ji (one of the disciples of the great religious teacher Ramauand) as edited and expanded by Krishninand Vyasa. 76 OLD LOCAL NAMES. 'place of assignation.* Thus we may readily fall in with Hindu prejudices, and admit that many of the names on the map are etymologically connected with events in Krishna's life, and yet deny that those events have any real connec- tion with the spot, inasmuch as neither the village nor the local name had any existence till centuries after the incidents occurred which they are supposed to commemorate. The really old local names are almost all derived from the physical character of the country, which has always been celebrated for its wide extent of pasture land and many herds of cattle. Thus Gokul means originally a herd of kine ; Gobardhan a rearer of kine ; Mat is so called from mat, a milk-pail : and Dadhigunw (contracted into Dah-ganw) in the Kosi pargana, from dadhi, 'curds.' Thus, too, ' Braj' in the first instance means ' a herd,' from the root vraj, ' ro go,' in allusion to the constant moves of nomadic tribes. And hence it arises that in the earliest; authorities for Krishna's adventures, both Vraja and Gokula are used to denote, not the definite localities now bearing those names, but any chance spot temporarily used for stalling cattle ; inattention to this archaism has led to much confusion in assigning sites to the various legends. The word ' Mathura' also is probably connected with the Sanskrit root math, 'to churn ;' * The temple dedicated to Radha Rauian, which was built by Rup Ram, of Barsana, is in precisely the same style as the one at Nand-ganw, though ou rather a smaller scale. The exterior has an imposing appearance, and is visible from a considerable distance, but there is nothing worth seeing inside, the workmanship being of a clumsy description, and the whole of the clois- tered court-yard crowded with the meanest hovels. There is, however, a pretty view from the top of the walls. The original shrine, which Rup Ram restored, is ascribed to Todar Mall, Akbar's fiinou3 minister. The little temple of Bihari (otherwise called Sija, Mahal), built by a Raja of Bardwan, seems to be accounted much more sacred. It stands in a walled garden, all overgrown with hins jungle, in which is a high J/iuld with several baitkaks and other holy spots marked by inscribed commemorative tablets set up by one of Sindhia's Generals (as at Paitha and other places in the neighbourhood) in sambat 1885. It is here, on the occasion of any jdtra, that ths spectacles of Krishna's marriage is represented as a scene in the Ras Lila. The Krishna-kund is a large sheet of water, fifty yards square, with masonry steps on one of its sides. In the village are three large and handsome dwelling-houses, built in the reign of Siiraj Mall, by one of his officials, Jauhari Mall of Fatihabad, and Baid to have been reduced to their present ruinous condition by the succeeding occupant of the Bharat-pur throne, the Raja Jawahir Sinh. The Vihvala-kuud is a few hundred yards from the village on the road to Karahla. It is of stone, and has on its margin a temple of Devi, built by a Maharaja of Gwalior. The Douian-bau is within the boundaries of Nand-ganw, but is about the same distance from that town as it is from Bijwari and Sanket. It is a very pretty spot, of the same character as Pisaya, and of considerable extent ; the name being always explained to mean ' the double wood,' as if a corruption of do van. At either extremity is a large pond embosomed in the trees, the one called Puran-inasi, ' the full moon,' theother Rundki jhuudki, 'jingle jingle.' A few lields beyond is the Kamal-pur grove. MYTHOLOGICAL DERIVATIONS. 77 the churn forming a prominent feature in all poetical descriptions of the local scenery. Take, for example, the following lines from the Harivansa, 33'J5 : — cf3JFH5TTSHi|?T 3fqH5^I5^m* I n^R^RXfT^ll Sfpfjqi ^HrJ^R II " A fine country of many pasture-lands and well-nurtured people, full ot ropes for tethering cattle, resonant with the voice of the sputtering churn, and flowing with butter-milk ; where the soil is ever moist with milky froth, and the stick with its circling cord sputters merrily in the pail as the girls spin it round." And, again, in section 73 of the same poem — gijTj =q f5TCRJ!J HJRTSKlif^Tl il " In homesteads gladdened by the sputtering churn." In many cases a false analogy has suggested a mythological derivation- Thus, all native scholars see in Mathura an allusion to Madhu-mathan, a title of Krishna. Again, the word Bathan is still current in some parts of India to designate a pasture ground, and in that sense has given a name to two exten- sive parishes in Kosi ; but as the term is not a familiar one thereabouts, a legend was invented in explanation, and it was said that here Balarama ' sat down' (baithen) to wait for Krishna. The myth was accepted ; a lake imme- diately outside the village was styled Bal-bhadra kund, was furnished with a handsome masonry ghat by Riip Ram, the Katara of Barsana, and is now regard- ed as positive proof of the popular etymology which connects the place with Balarama. Of Rup Ram, the Katara, further mention will be made in connec- tion with his birth-place, Barsana. There is scarcely a sacred site in the whole of Braj which does not exhibit some ruinous record, in the shape of temple or tank, of his unbounded wealth and liberality. His descendant in the fourth degree, a worthy man, by name Lakshman Das, lives in a corner of one of his ancestor's palaces and is dependent on charity for his daily bread. The present owners of many of the villages which Riip Ram so munificently endowed are the heirs of the Lala Babu, of whom also an account will be given further on. 2.0 78 EXTENT OF THE BRAJ-MANDAL. In the VaraM Parana, or rather in the interpolated section of that work known as the Mathura Mahatmya, the Mathura Mandal is described as twenty yqjanas in extent. xhi 3^ ^t: ^tht iram s^mcil.: u " My Mathura circle is one of twenty yojanas ; by bathing at any place therein a man is redeemed from all his sins." And taking the yojana as 7 miles and the kos as If mile, 20 yqjanas would be nearly equal to 84 kos, the popular estimate of the distance travelled by the pilgrims in performing the Pari-krama, or ' perambulation' of Braj. It is pro- bable that if an accurate measurement were made, this would be found a very rough approximation to the actual length of the way ; though liberal allowance must be made for the constant ins and outs, turns and returns, which ultimately result in the circuit of a not very wide-spread area. There can be no doubt that the number 81, which in ancient Indian territorial divisions occurs as fre- quently as a hundred in English counties, and which enters largely into every cycle of Hindu legend and cosmogony, was originally selected for such general adoption as being the multiple of the number of months in the year with the number of days in the week. It is therefore peculiarly appropriate in connec- tion with the Braj Mandal ; if Krishna, in whose honour the perambulation is performed, be regarded as the Indian Apollo, or Sun-God. Thus, the magnifi- cent temple in Kashmir, dedicated to the sun under the title of Martand, has a colonnade of exactly 84 pillars.* It is sometimes said that the circle originally must have been of wider extent than now, since the city of Mathura, which is described as its centre, is more than 30 miles distant from the most northern point, Kotban, and only six from Tarsi to the south ; and Elliot in his glossary quotes the following couplet as fixing its limits : — frl cJT^ct f cl %H15 3cl gTJ|q 5RT Ufa II g-31 %ITTCt ifiTS *I *^T TT^ WW II SO " On one side Bar, on another Sona, on the third the town of Surasen ; these are the limits of the Braj Chaurasi, the Mathura circle.'* * Mr. Fergusson, iii his Indi'ln Architecture, doubtB whether this temple was ever really dedi- cated to the sua. In so doing he only betrays his wonted linguistic ignorance. Martand is not, as he supposes, simply a place-name, without aDy known connotation, hut is the actual dedi- cation title of the temple itself. THE RXs-LIXX 79 According to tliw authority the area has been diminished by one half ; as Bar is in the Aligarh district, Sona, famous for its hot sulphur spring*, is in Gur-ganw ; while the ' Surasen ka ganw' is supposed to be Batesar,* a place of some note on the Jamuna and the scene of a large horse fair held on the full moon of Kartik. It might equally mean any town in the kingdom of Mathura, or even the capital itself, as King Ugrasen, whom Krishna restored to the throne, is sometimes styled Surasen. Thus, too, Arrian mentions Mathura as a chief town of the Suraseni, a people specially devoted to the worship of Her- cules, who may be identified with Balarama : and Manu (II., 19) clearly in- tends Mathura by Surasenaf when he includes that country with Kuru-kshetra, Panchala and Matsya, in the region of Brahmarshi, as distinguished from Brakmavarta. But though it must be admitted that the circle is sometimes drawn with a wider circumference, as will be seen in tho sequel to this chapter, still it is not certain which of the two rests upon the better authority. In any case, the lines above quoted cannot be of great antiquity, seeing that they con- tain the Persian word hadd;% and, as regards the unequal distances between the city of Mathura and different points on the circumference, it has only to be remembered that the circle is an ideal one, and any point within its outer verge may be roughly regarded as its centre. As the anniversary of Krishna's birth is kept in the month of Bhadon, it is then that the perambulation takes place, and a series of melas is held at the dif- ferent woods, where the rds-lild is celebrated. This is an unwritten religious drama, which represents the most popular incidents in the life of Krishna, and thus corresponds very closely with the miracle plays of mediasval Christendom. The arrangement of the performances forms the recognized occupation of a class of Brahmans residing chiefly in the villages of Karahla and Pisaya who are called Rasdharis and have no other profession or means of livelihood. The complete series of representations extends over a month or more, each scene * Father Tieffenthaler, in his Geography of India, makes the following mention of Batesar : — "Lieu celebre et bien bati sur le Djemna, 28 milles d'Agra. Une multitude de peuple B'y rassemble pour se laver dans ce fleuve et pour celebrer une foire en Octoljre. On rend un culte ici dans beaucoup de temples batis but le Djemna, a Mahadeo taut revert 1 de tout l'univers adonne a la luxure; car Mahadeo est le Priape des anciens qu'encensent, ah quelle honte! toutes les nations." % It is however possible, though I think improbable, that had may here stand for the Sanskrit lirada, a lake. 80 THE BAN-JA'TRA. being acted on the very spot with which the original event is traditionally con- nected. The marriage scene, as performed at Sanket, is the only one that I have had the fortune to witness : with a garden-terrace for a stage, a grey stone temple for back-ground, the bright moon over head, and an occasional flambeau that shot a flickering gleam over the central tableau framed in its deep border of intent and sympathizing faces, the spectacle was a pretty one and was marked by a total absence of anything even verging upon indecorum. The cost of the whole perambulation with the performances at the different stations on the route is provided by some one wealthy individual, often a trader from Bombay or other distant part of India ; and as he is always accompanied by a large gathering of friends and retainers, numbering at least 200 or 300 persons, the outlay is seldom less than lis. 5,000 or Ks. (5,000. The local Gosain, whom he acknowledges as his spiritual director, organizes all the arrangements through one of the Rasdharis, who collects the troupe (or mandali as it is called) of singers and musicians, and himself takes the chief part in the performance, declaiming in set recitative with the mandaliiov chorus, while the children who personate Rad'ha and Krishna act only in dumb show. The number of sacred places, woods, groves, ponds, wells, hills, and temples— all to be visited in fixed order — is very considerable ; there are generally reckoned five hills, eleven rocks, four lakes, eighty-four ponds, and twelve wells ; but the twelve bans or woods, and the twenty-four upaban.s or groves, are the characteristic feature of the pilgrimage, which is thence called the Ban-Jatra. The numbers 12 and 24 have been arbitrarily selected on account of their mystic significance ; and few of the local pandits, if required to enumerate either group offhand, would be able to complete the total without some recourse to guesswork. A little Hindi manual for the guidance of pilgrims has been published at Mathura and is the popular authority on the subject. The compiler, however great his local knowledge and priestly reputation, has certainly no pretensions to accuracy of scholarship. His attempts at etymology are, as a rule, absolutely grotesque, as in the two sufficiently obvious names of Khaira (for Khadira) and Sher-garh (from the Emperor Sher Shah), the one of which he derives from khedna, ' to drive cattle,' and the other, still more preposterously, from sihara, ijiye dl.ar. 10. A'u/, happiness . 11, Baiyin, for fcdn/i, arm. 12. Khaela, au ornament that hangs percent from the elbow. 13, Muhero, a mess of rice aud sour milk. HOLI SONGS. 9T fq JT?^SR 7K\ ^7T?T tRTT^T *l m ^W^ ^TT mm ^TT II RM II rT of efiifT fftff STOra* 5T»ft ^^ ^ ^ 1 3Tf 2(TT H II 15 II £fi=l R^i^r TAX "3% ^T^I I JlKl^ %T^T H^T^T^T TreXTT^ fa^ =KT^T fll^t II 1© H %Tfi Wr\ XT Tim T.m 33if! I in j*%?\ mj traT t^^^it i fi ^t %m ^z ^iff n t c n ^JT ^ITTl^cin 3JW XW\ WTrft I nT3t ins^ il *si3i% fi ^fT ^ii jtCt ItKt II qa II March 1st, Kosi. — Spend an hour or two in the afternoon as a spectator of the Holi sports at the Goinati-Kund. Each of the six Jut villages of the Denda Pal* has two or more chaupdis, which come up one after the other in a long procession, stopping at short intervals on the way to dance in the manner above described, but several at a time instead of in single pairs. One of the performers executed a pas de seul mounted on a daf, or large timbrel, which was supported on the shoul lers of four other men of his troupe. Bands of mummers (or twangs) were also to be seen, oneset attired as Muhammadan fakirs; another (ghdyalon led sivdng) as wounded warriors, painted with streaks, as it were of blood, and with sword-blades and daggers so bound on to their neck and arms 15. St/ahi, a woman's dopaita. Jliagd, a man's dre6S. 16. Adhbar, in the middle. Bard, an ornament worn by women on the elbow. 17. Suk, the planet Venus, which is regarded as auspicious . Chalan, the same as the more common gauna. 18. Jori, for zori, zabrdasti. Jam, lust, passion. 19. Dyaus, the day-time. Khaddna, a clay pit. * Any subdivision of a Jat clan is called a Pal, and the town of Kosi is the centre of one such sub-division, which is known as the Denda Pal. 25 SS THE HOLANGA MELA.' and other parts of the body that they seemed to be transfixed by them. Some long iron rods were actually thrust through their protruded tongue and their cheeks, and in this ghastly guise and with drawn swords in their hands, with which they kept on dealing and parrying blows, the pair of combatants peram- bulated the crowd. March2nd. — At 2 p.m. ride over toBathen for the Holanga mela, and find a place reserved for me on a raised terrace at the junction of fourstreets in the cen- tre of the village. Every avenue was closely packed with the densest throng, and the house-tops seemed like gardens of flowers with the bright dresses of the women. Most of them were Jats by caste and wore their distinctive costume, a petticoat of coarse country stuff worked by their own hands with figures of birds, beasts, and men, of most grotesque design, and a mantle thickly sewn all ovei with discs of talc, which flash like mirrors in the sun and quite dazzle the sight. The performers in the chaupdi could scarcely force their way through tin- crowd, much loss dance, but the noise of the band that followed close at their heels made up for all shortcomings. There was a great deal of singing, of a very vociferous and probably also a very licentious character ; but my ears were not offended, for in the general din it was impossible to distinguish a single word. Handfuls of red powder (abir) mixed with tiny particles of glistening talc were thrown about, up to the balconies above and down on the heads of the people below, and seen through this atmosphere of coloured cloud, the frantic gestures of the throng, their white clothes and faces all stained with red and yellow patches, and the great timbrels with bunches of peacocks' feathers, artifical flowers and tinsel stars stuck in their rim, borne above the players' heads and now and again tossed up high in the air, com- bined to form a curious and picturesque spectacle. After the music came a posse of rustics each bearing a rough jagged branch of the prickly acacia, stript of its leaves, and in their centre one man with a small yellow pennon on a long staff, yellow being the colour appropriate to the Spring season ami the God of Love. The whole party slowly made its way through the village to an open plain outside, where the crowd assembled cannot have numbered less than 15,000. Here a circular arena was cleared and about a hundred of the Bathen Jatnis were drawn up in a line, each with a long bambu in her hands, and confronting them an equal number of the bough-men who are all from the neighbouring village of Jan. A sham fight ensued, the women trying to beat down the thorny bushes and force their way to the flag. A man or two got a cut in the face, but the most perfect good humour prevailed, except when an VEESES BY StfR D^g. 99 outsider from some other village attempted to join in the play ; he was at once hustled out with kicks and blows that meant mischief. The women were backed up by their own husbands, who stood behind and encouraged them by word, but did not move a hand to strike. When it was all over, many of the spectators ran into the arena and rolled over and over in the dust, or streaked themselves with it on the forehead, taking it as the dust hallowed by the feet of Krishna and the Gopis. The forenoon had been devoted to the recitation of Hindi poems appro- priate to the occasion. I was not on the spot in time enough to hear any of this, but with some difficulty I obtained for a few days the loan of the volume that was used, and have copied from it three short pieces. The actual M.S. is of no greater antiquity than 1776 A. D., the colophon at the end, in the curious mixture of Sanskrit and Hindi affected by village pandits, standing thus : Sambat 1852 Bhadrapad audi 2 dwitiya, rabibdr, likhitam idam pustakam, Sri Gopdl Das CJiaran-Pahari*-madhye parhan drthi Sri Seva Das Bari Bathain vdsi : but probably many successive copies have been made since the original was thumbed to pieces. The first stanzas, which are rather prettily worded, ire, or at least profess to be, the composition of the famous blind poet Stir •Das. II ^ II =3HT^T<3 l^R 3TgJR Rif ^JTT VZ tR II ^urc*i wix zOk^k *z%feM Ck m ii HTW^f Cm ^J7^T XKUT^ *\?m WR ^ II * Charan-Fahfiri is the name of a small detacheil rock, of the same character as the Bharat pur range, that crop* up above the grouml in the village of Little Buthen. 100 VERSES BY DXMODAR DXS. *rc urn?* faf^snir ra^srai ^ vy 5?r ^ " " Thy ways are past knowing, fall of compassion, Supreme Intelligent unapproachable, unfathomable beyond the cognizance of the senses, movin in fashion mysterious. " A lion, most mighty in strength and courage, dies of hunger ; a snake fills his belly without labour and without exertion. " Now a straw sinks in the water, now a stone floats : he plants an ocean in the desert, a flood fills it all round. " The empty is filled, the full is upset, by his grace it is filled again ; the lotus blossoms from the rock and fire burns in the water. " A king becomes a beggar and again a beggar a king with umbrella over his head : even the guiltiest (says Sur Das) in an instant is saved, if the Lord helps him the least." The second piece, in a somewhat similar strain, is by Damodar Das : II V$ II ^1 37^11 T^t f%^ "^T3i TISnTrl ^flff tJc^T II ^5 tR-J^T JJ7SU $T W^T srm ^TTf WIT I T3R T5^ =?ScI HrJT^ ^T^T §TO ^^^T II Translation, "Come, my soul, adore Nand-lala (i. c, Krishna), whether living in the house or in the woods (i. e., whether a man of the world or a hermit), there is no other help to lay hold of. " The Veda, the Pun'mas, and the Law declare that nothing is better than this ; every day honour increases four-fold, like the moon in its degrees.. THE DIVINITIES COMMEMORATED AT THE HOLI. 101 " Who has wealth ? who has house and fortune ? who has son and wife ? says Damodar, nought will remain secure in the world : it is gone in a moment." The third piece, an encomium of the blooming Spring, is too simple to require any translation : ^TT WT II 7m& craft ^cFT a^T^R ^3^ XR3 TEST I ^3^ ^T^f ^^^ S«T TflTft mrf r\ *&\c\^ II ^^^ 3TH 5|cJIT3 SWSiITT ^TCFI =ra^ ^m^ I 5^ wz srI ^rafteRT fl^fi iwra g?i 11 qg^ft oJT% ^T^ »5im3 5FTra5T li f H II The only divinities who are now popularly commemorated at the Holi Festival are Radha, Krishna, and Balarama ; but its connection with them can only be of modern date. The institution of the Ban-jatra and the Ras-lila, and all the local legends that they involve is (as has been already stated) traceable to one of the Brinda-ban Gosains at the beginning of the 17th century A. D. The fact, though studiously ignored by the Hindus of Mathuni, is distinctly stated in the Bhakt-mala, the work which they admit to be of paramount authority on such matters. But the scenes that I have described carry back the mind of the European spectator to a far earlier period and are clearly relics, perhaps the most unchanged that exist in any part of the world, of the primitive worship of the powers of nature on the return of Spring. Such were the old English merry-makings on May Day and, still more closely paral- lel the Phallic orgies of Imperial Rome as described by Juvenal. When I was listening to the din of the village band at Bathen, it appeared to be the very scene depicted in the lines — Plangebant alias proceris tympana palmis, Aut tereti tenuis tinnitus asre ciebant ; Multis raucisonos efflabant cornua bombos, Barbaraque horribili stridebat tibia canta. 26 102 GREEK AND ROMAN PARALLELS TO THE HOLI. Or, again, in the words of Catullus — Leve tympanum remugit, cava cymbala recrepant, Ubi sacra sancta acutis ululatibus agitant, Quatiuntque terga tauri teneris cava digitis: while the actors in the chaupdi with dagger in hand recalled the pictures of the G'orybantes or Phrygian priests of Cybele, the very persons to whom the poet refers. In Greece the Indian Holi found its equivalent in the Dionysia, when the phallus, the symbol of the fertility of nature, was borne in procession, as it now is here, and when it was thought a disgrace to remain sober. In like manner the Gosains and other actors in the Indian show are quite as much inspired in their frenzied action by their copious preliminary libations as by the excitement of the scene and the barbarous music of the drums, cymbals, and timbrels that accompany them. CHAPTER V. THE BUDDHIST CITY OF MATHURA' AND ITS ANTIQUITIES. Apart from its connection with the deified Krishna, the city of Mathura has been a place of note from the most distant antiquity. In Buddhist times it was one of the centres of that religion, and its sacred shrines and relics at- tracted pilgrims even from China, two of whom have left records of their travels. The first, by name Fa Hian, spent, as he informs us, three years in Western Asia, visiting all the places connected with events in the life of the great teacher or of his immediate successors ; his main object being to collect authentic copies of the oldest theological texts and commentaries, to take back with him to his own country. Commencing his journey from Tibet, he passed succes- sively through Kashmir, Kabul, Kandahar, and the Panjab, and so arrived in Central India, the madliya-des of Hindu geographers. Here the first kingdom that he entered was Mathura, with its capital of the same name situate on the bank of the Jamuna. All the people from the highest to the lowest were staunch Buddhists, and maintained that they had been so ever since the time of Sakya Muni's translation. This statement must be accepted with considerable reserve, since other evidence tends to show that Hinduism was the prevalent religion during part of the interval between Buddha's death and Fa Hian's visit, which was made about the year 400 A. D. He assures us, however, that many of the ecclesiastical establishments possessed copper plates engraved with the ori- ginal deeds of endowment in attestation of their antiquity. In the capital — where he rested a whole month — and its vicinity, on the opposite banks of the river, were twenty monasteries, containing in all some 3,000 monks. There were, moreover, six relic-towers, or stiipas, of which the most famous was the one erected in honour of the great apostle Sari-putra. The five other stiipas are also mentioned byname ; two of them commemorated respectively Ananda, the special patron of religious women, and Mudgala-putra, the great doctor of Samddhi or contemplative devotion. The remaining three were dedicated to the cultus of the Abhi-dharma, the Sutra, and the Vinaya divisions of the sacred books, treating respectively of Metaphysics, Beligion, and Morality, and known in Buddhist literature by the collective name of the Tri-pitaka or ' three baskets.' 104 HWEN THSANG's DESCRIPTION OF MATHCRA". Some 200 years later, Hwen Thsang, another pilgrim from the Flowery- Laud, was impelled by like religious zeal to spend sixteen years, from 62i) to G45 A.D., travelling throughout India. On his return to China, he compiled, by special command of the Emperor, a work in twelve Books entitled ' Memoirs of Western Countries,' giving succinct geographical descriptions of all the kingdoms, amounting in number to 128, that he had either personally visited, or of which he had been able to acquire authentic information. After his death, two of his disciples, wishing to individualize the record of their master's adven- tures, compiled in ten Books a special narrative of his life and Indian travels. This has been translated into French by the great Orientalist, Mons. S. Julien. Mathurd is described as being 20 li, or four miles in circumference, and as con- taining still, as in the days of Fa Hian, 20 monasteries. But the number of resident monks had been reduced to 2,000, and five temples had been erected to Brahmanical divinities ; both facts indicating the gradual decline of Buddhism. There were three stupas, built by King Asoka, and many spots were shown where the four former Buddhas hud left the marks of their feet. Several other Mitpas were reverenced as containing relics of the holy disciples of Sakya Muni, viz., Sari-putra, Mudgalayana, Purna-maitrayani-putra, Upali, Ananda, Rahula, Manjusri, and other Bodhi-satwas. Every year (he writes) in the months of the three long fasts (the first, fifth, and ninth) and on the six monthly fasts the religious assemble in crowds at these stupas, and make their several offerings at the one which is the object of their devotion. The followers of Abhi-dharma offer to Sari-putra, and those who practise contemplation (dht/una) to Mudgal- ayana. Those who adhere to the Sutras pay their homage to Purna-maitra- yani-putra ; those who stud}- the Vinaya honour Upali ; religious women honour Ananda ; those who have not yet been fully instructed (catechumens) honour Rahula ; those who study the Maha-yana honour all the Bodhi-satwas.* Banners enriched with pearls float in the air, and gorgeous umbrellas are grouped in procession. Clouds of incense and constant showers of flowers obscure the sight of the sun and moon. The king and his ministers apply themselves with zeal to the practice of meritorious Avorks. Five or six li — i.e., about a mile and a quarter— to the east of the town is a monastery on a hill, the sides of which have been excavated to allow of the construction of cells. The approach is by a ravine. It is said to have been built by the venerable Upagupta. In its centre may be seen a stupa which encloses some nail-parings * A BoJhi-Batwa is defined as a being who haB arrived at Buprenie wisdom (iuaVii), and yet consents to remain as a creature (sadoo) for the good of men. IMPORTANCE OF MATHURA' IN BUDDHA'S LIFETIME. 105 of the Tathagata. At a hill to the north of this monastery is a cave in the rock, twenty feet high and thirty feet broad, where had been collected an immense number of little bambu spikes, each only four inches long. When a married couple, whom the venerable Upagupta had converted and instructed, obtained the rank of Arhat, * he added a spike. But he took no note of other per- sons, even though they had attained the same degree of sanctity. Twenty-four or 25 li to the south-east of this cave was a large dry tank with a stiipa by its side, where it was said that one day as Buddha was pacing up and down, he was offered some honey by a monkey, which he graciously told him to mix with water and divide among the monks. The monkey was so charmed at the condescension that he forgot where he was, and in his ecstasy fell over into the tank and was drowned : as a reward for his meritorious conduct, when he next took birth, it was in human form. A little to the north of this tank was a wood with seyeral stt'ipas to mark the spots that had been hallowed by the presence of the four earlier Buddhas, and where 1,250 famous teachers of the law, such as Sari- putra and Mudgala-putra, had given themselves up to meditation. When the Tathagata (he adds) lived in the'world, he often travelled in this kingdom, and monuments have been erected in every place where he expounded the law. The Lalita Vistara, which is the oldest and most authentic record that the Buddhists possess, gives a most elaborate account of Ssikya Muni's early adventures, and of the six years of preliminary penance and seclusion that he spent in the woods of Uruvilva (now Buddh Gaya) before he commenced his public ministry ; but the narrative terminates abruptly with his departure for Bamiras, which was- the first place to which he betook himself after he had attained to the fulness of perfect knowledge. There is no equally trustworthy and consecutive record of the second and more important half o£ his life — the 40 years which he spent in the promulgation of his new creed — and it is therefore impossible to say at what period he paid those frequent visits to Mathura of which Hwen , Thsang speaks. There is, however, no reason to doubt that they were paid ; for the place was one of much importance in his time and, like every other new teacher, it was the great centres of population that he laboured most, to influence. In Beal's translation of the Chinese ver- sion of the Abhinishkramana Sutra we find Mathura styled the capital of all Jambu-dwipa, and on that account it was one of the first suggested as a fit place for Buddha to take birth in. He rejected it, however, on the ground that the king by whom it was ruled, a powerful monarch, Subahu by name, was a * Aa Arhat is a saint who lias attained to the fourth grade in the scale of perfection. 27 106 TIRST DISCOVERY OF BUDDHIST REMAINS. heretic. The objections to other large cities were, either that the king's pedi- gree had some flaw ; or that he was a Brahman, not a Kshatriya by caste ; or that he had already a large family ; or that the people were insubordinate and self-willed. Bananas and Ujaiyin were considered unworthy for a similar reason as Mathura, viz., that at the former there were four heretical schools of philosophy, and that the king of the latter did not believe in a future state. The use of the word ' heretical ' is to be noted, for it clearly indicates that Buddha did not intend to break entirely with Hinduism ; or rather, like the English ' Eeformers ' of the 16th century, and Dr. Dollinger and his "old Catho- lics" on the continent of Europe at the present day, or Balm Kesav Chandra Sen in Calcutta, or, in short, like all subverters of established systems, he found it politic to disguise the novelty of his theories by retaining the old terminology, and thus investing them with the prestige of a spurious antiquity. In consequence of the changes in religion and the long lapse of time, the whole of the ancient Buddhist buildings described by the Chinese pilgrims had been overthrown, buried, and forgotten, till quite recently, when some fragments of them have been again brought to light. The first discovery was made by ( reneral < 'unningham, in 1853, who noticed some capitals and pillars lying about within the enclosure of the Katra, the site of the Hindu temple of Kesava Deva. A subsequent search revealed the architrave of a gateway and other sculptures, including in particular a standing figure of Buddha, three and-a- half feet high, which was found at the bottom of a well, with an inscription at its base recording the gift of the statue to the ' Yasa Vihara,' or ' Convent of Glory,' which may be taken as the name of one of the Buddhist establish- ments that had existed on the spot. The date of the presentation was recorded in figures which could not be certainly deciphered.'* A far more important discovery was made in 1860, in digging the foun- dation of the Magistrate and Collector's new court-house. The site selected for this building was an extensive mound overhanging the Agra road at the en- trance to the civil station. It had always been regarded as merely the remains of a series of brick-kilns, and had been further protected against exploration by the fact that it was crowned by a small mosque. This was, for military reasons, blown down during the mutiny ; and afterwards, on clearing away the rubbish and excavating for the new foundations, it was found to have been erected, in accordance with the common usage of the Muhammadan conquerors, upon the ruins of a destroyed temple. A number of Buddhist statues, pillars, * Tiiis ttatue was oue of those removed by Dr. l'luyfair to the Museum at Agra. Darvasuj IttL tUa Hans-gwij JolW ENVIRONS MATHUKA Vasje> 106 ■oUactcr's Edi'je- Note.— This sketch has been drawn by eye only, and makes no claim to absolute accuracy j but it is correct enough to be useful for visitors. DATE OP THE INSCRIPTIONS. 107 and basso-relievos, were disinterred ; and the inscriptions, as partially deci- phered, would seem to indicate that the mound was occupied by several dif- ferent monasteries ; three of which, according to General Cunningham, bon the names of Sarrghamittra-sada Yiliara, Huvishka vihara, and Kundokhara,' or as it may he read, Kmida-Suka Vihara. On the pedestal of a sealed figure was found recorded the first half of a king's name, Vasu ; the latter part was broken away, but the lacuna should probably he supplied with the word ' deva," as a group of figures inscribed with the name of King Vasudeva and date 87 was discovered in 1871 at a neighbouring mound called the ' Kankali tila.' The most numerous remains were portions of stone railine of the particular type used to enclose Buddhist shrines and monuments. The whole were made over to the Agra museum, where the railings were roughly put together in such a way as to indicate the original arrangement. The entire collection has since been again removed elsewhere, I believe to Allahabad ; but as there is no proper building for their reception there, nobody appears to know anything about them, and it is very much to be regretted that they were ever allowed to be taken from Mathura. Many of the pillars were marked with figures as a guide to the builder ; and thus we learn that one set, for they were. of various sizes, consisted of at least as many as 129 pieces. There were also found three large seated figures of Buddha, of which two were full, the third a little less than life-size ; and the bases of some 30 large columns. It was liiefly round these bases that the inscriptions were engraved. One of the most noticeable fragments was a stone hand, measuring a foot across the palm, which must have belonged to a statue not less than from 20 to 24 feet in height. Most of the sculptures were executed in common red sandstone and were of indifferent workmanship, in every way inferior to the specimens more recently discovered at other mounds in the neighbourhood. The most artistic was the figure of a dancing-girl, rather more than half life-size, in a tolerably natural and graceful attiiude.f Like the so-called figure of Silenus, discovered by James Prinsep in 1836, of which a detailed description will be given fur- ther on, it was thought that it might have been the work of a Greek artist. This conjecture, though I do not accept it myself, involves no historical diffi- culty, since in the Yuga-Purana of the Gargi-Sanhita, written about the yea* * It must be admitted that Kundokhara, i.e., Kunda-pushkara, is a. very questionable com- pound, since the two members of which it is composed would bear each precisely the same meaning. t Two representations of this figure are given in Cunningham's Archaeological Survey, Vol. I., page 240. 108 mathurX conquered by the greeks. 50 B. C, it is explicitly stated that Mathura was reduced by the Greeks, and that their victorious armies advanced into the very heart of Hindustan, even as far as Patali-putra. The text is as follows: — - clef; ^T^irWT^RJ tt^T^T^ TTZTCfrreiT i " Then those hateful conquerors., the Greeks, after reducing Saketa,* tli- country of Panchala and Mathura, will take Kusuma-dhvaja (Patali-putra) ; and when Pushpa-pura (i. e., Patali-putra) is taken, every province will assuredly become disordered." In close proximity to the mound where the antiquities, which we have des- cribed above were discovered is a large walled enclosure, called the Damdama, for some years past occupied by the reserves of the district police, but originally one of a series of sanies erected in the time of the Delhi Emperors along the road between the two royal residences of Agra and Delhi. Hence the adjoin- ing hamlet derives its name of Sarae Jamalpur ; and for the sake of conver- nience, when future reference is made to the mound, it will be by that title. As it is at some distance to the south-east of the katra, the traditional site of ancient Mathura, and so far agrees with the position assigned by Hwen Thsang to the stupa erected to commemorate Buddha's interview with the monkey, there is plausible ground for identifying the two places. The identification is confirmed by the discovery of the inscription with the name Kundo-khara or Kundasuka ; for, whichever way the word is read, it would seem to contain a reference to a tank (Jmnda), and a tank was the characteristic feature of Hwen Thsang's monkey stupa. It at first appears a little strange that there should be, as the inscriptions lead us to infer, four separate monasteries on one hill, but General Cunningham states that in Parma, where Buddhism is still the national religion, such juxtaposition is by no means uncommon. * The siege of Saketa is ascertained to have taken place early in the reign of Menander, who ascended the throne in the year 144 B. C, Pushpa-mitra being at that time King of Patali- putra. The Girgi Sanhita is an ancient and extremely rare work, of which only five M.SS — all apparently imperfect— are as yet known to be in existence. Three are in European libraries ; one belongs to Dr Kern, who was the first to call attention to the work in the Preface to his edition of Varaha Mihira's ljrihat Sanhita, in which it is frequently quoted; and the fifth haB been recently discovered by Or. B.uhler. THE VIKRAMA'DITYA ERA. 109 Transcripts and translations of many of these inscriptions have been since made by different scholars and have been published by General Cunningham in Volume III. of his Archaeological Survey ; but they are for the most part of a very tentative character and leave much room for uncertainty, both as regards reading and interpretation.* They are all brief votive records, giving only the name of the obscure donor, accompanied by some stereotyped religious formula. The dates, which it would be specially interesting to ascertain, are indicated by figures, the value of which has been definitely determined ; but the era to which they refer is still matter of dispute. Dr. Rr.jendra-lala Mitra has consistently maintained from the first that it is the Saka era, beginning from 76 A. D. ; and if so, the series ranges between 120 and 206 A. D. But the era intended might also be that of Vikramaditya, or of the Seleucida?, or of Buddha's Nirvana, or of the particular monarch whose name is specified. Before the discovery of these and similar inscriptions, the history of India, from the invasion of Alexander the Great to that by Mahmud of Ghazni, was almost an absolute blank, in which however the name of Vikramaditya, the repu- ted founder of the era still most in vogue among Hindus, enjoyed such universal celebrity that it seemed impossible for any question to be raised regarding him. This solitary stand-point has completely given way under the weight of modern researches, and not only Vikramaditya's paramount sovereignty, but even his existence, is now denied, and that by disputants who will scarcely find a single other matter on which to agree. Mr. Fergusson writes t '' No authentic traces exist of any king bearing the name or title of Vikramaditya having lived in the first century before Christ ; nor" — though here his assertion will be disputed — " has it been possible to point to any event as occurring B. C. 56, which was of sufficient importance to give rise to the institution of an era for its commemoration." Similarly, Professor Bhau Daji, of Bombay, declared that he knew of no inscription, dated in this Sambat, before the eleventh cen- tury of the Christian era ; and, though this appears to be carrying incredulity a little too far, General Cunningham, upon whose accuracy every reliance can be placed, says that the earliest inscription of the Vikramaditya era, that he has seen, bears date 811, that is A. D. 754. Now, if the era was really * It may be hoped that Dr. Hoernle of the Calcutta Madrasa will at some time find leisure to revise and translate the whole series of these early inscriptions. There is no one in India, or even among European scholars, who is equally qualified for the task by his knowledge of Sanskrit, of literary Vrakrit and of the modern vernacular, which last is often of the greatest service in supplying parallel examples of colloquial usage. His corrected readings of the inscriptions from, the Bhaihat stupa, as published in the Indian Antiquary, are a triumph of scholarly ingenuity. 28 110 KANISHKA, KING OF KASHMIR. established before the birth of Christ, it is difficult to understand why it should have lain so long dormant and then have become so curiously revived and so generally adopted. Various solutions of the difficulty have been attempted. It has been definitely ascertained that the title Vikramaditya was borne by a king Sri Harsha, who reigned at Ujaiyin, in the first half of the sixth century A. J)., and General Cunningham conjectures with some probability that it was he who restored the general use of the old era (which had been to a great extent superseded by the introduction of the Saka era in 70 A. D.) and made it his own, simply by changing its name to that which it now bears. The king by whom it was really established about the year 57 B. C. he conceives to have been the Indo-Scythian Kanishka. This is a personage who as yet scarcely figures at all in histories intended for 'the general reader ; but it is certain that he was one of the greatest sover- eigns that ever held sway in Upper India and, if not the first to introduce Bud- dhism, was at least the one who definitely established it as the state religion. The Sanskrit Chronicle, entitled the Raja-Tarangini, mentions among the successors of the great Asoka, in the latter half of the century immediately preceding the birth of Christ, three kings of foreign descent named Hushka (or Huvishka), Jushka, and Kanishka. The later Muhammadau writers represent them as brothers : but it is not so stated in the original text, the words of which are simply as follows :— ho/3a\ kcll tov PoaBtos -ny/ds — that is, Kasperia, or Kashmir, at the sources of the Vitasta, the Chandra-bhaga, and the Ravi— and the Kash- peircei, dwelling lower down on the Vindhva range and the banks of the Jamuna, one of whose chief towns was Mathura. For, further, Ptolemy repre- sents ?;' wavlwov X tj^^/^i ^'j * |»^ £ iJ- M ^l C^y* f^~ lj*' u^^u*^ " He is the one who is asked for help and who is constantly worshipped. The famous remains of this ancient shrine in the neighbourhood of Mathnra, the place of pilgrimage from all six quarters, have now been renewed. When the < ID I H < < < > UJ I h R/JA TATNI MALL. L37 old buildings of the Siva tal were restored by that generous and benevolent founder, the goal of good deeds, the b'estower of benefits on all the people of the world, the centre of public gratitude, Raja Patni Mall, Bahadur, fountain of excellent virtue ; then the year pf its construction — for the remembrance of all the world — was found to be 1222. Thought (or the poet Zaka) suggested the following tarikk according to the abjad reckoning [illegible] water of life." The design and execution are both of singular excellence and reflect the high- est credit on the architect whom he employed ; the sculptured arcades, which pro- ject far into the centre of the basin and break up the long flights of steps into three compartments on each side, being especially graceful. The place is visited by a large number of bathers from the neigbourhood every morning and is the scene of an annual mela held on the 11th of the dark fortnight of the month Bhadon. Outside the enclosure is a small temple in the same style of architec- ture dedicated to Mahadeva under the title of Achalesvar. In the Manoharpur quarter oi the city is a large temple of this Raja's foundation, bearing the title of Dirgha Vishnu. The name is unusual and refers to the 'gigantic' stature which the boy Krishna assumed when he entered the arena to fight with Kansa's champions, Chanura and Mushtika. The Raja's dwelling-house is still stand- ing, on the Nakarchi tila, and was recently occupied for a time as a normal school for the training of female teachers. He is further commemorated by another small shrine near the Holi gate of the city, which he rebuilt in honour of Vira-bhadra, the terrible being created by Siva and Devi in their wrath, to disturb the sacrifice of Daksha, a ceremony to which they had not been invited. His great ambition was to rebuild the ancient temple of Kesava Deva, and with this view he had gradually acquired a considerable part of the site. But as some of the Muhammadans, who had occupied the ground for nearly two centuries, refused to be bought out and the law upheld them in their refusal, he was at last, and after great expense had been incurred, reluctantly obliged to abandon the idea. Should a stranger visit the tank early in the morning and enquire of any Hindu he meets there by whom it was constructed, he will find considerable difficulty in eliciting a straightforward answer. The Raja, it is said, was a man of such delicate constitution that he never could take at one time more than a very few morsels even of the simplest food ; hence arises a belief that any one, who mentions him by name the first thing in the morning, will, like him, have to pass the day fasting. From the katra, the centre of all the localities which we have hitherto been describing, a fine broad road has been carried through the high ridge, which 35 138 INSCRIPTION FOUND NEAR THE MANOIURPUR MOSQUE; appears to have been at one time part of the mediaeval city wall, down to the ed<- r e of the river. On the right-hand side is the stone-cutters' quarter with the small old temple of Bankhandi Mahiideva, near which is a high mound, lying back from the main streets between the dispensary and the kotwali, and now crown- ed by a ruinous little shrine dedicated to Bihari ; from this I brought a Bud- dhist pillar, bearing the figure of a dancing-girl, with a leonine monster at her feet and over her head a group representing a teacher of the law seated under an umbrella addressing an audience often persons. To the left of the road is the suburb of Manoharpur, with a mosque which, as we learn from the following inscription over the centre arch, was erected hi the year 1158 Hijri, i. e. 1745 A.D., during the reign of Muhammad Shah : — o •■•; &-. . - , ' S / ' ^_-) kJ " In the reign of Shah Muhammad Shah, Abdurrashid built this mosque : thought suggested the tdrikh, ' He built a beautiful mosque.' '' [A. H. 1158 ;• or A.D. 1745]. From an adjoining street, where it had been built up into a mud wall, I removed to the museum a stone fragment of exceptional interest. It is only a small headless seated nude figure and, to judge from the style of the sculpture and the ill-formed letters in the Pali inscription at the base, is of no very great antiquity. Under it is a row of six. standing figures, three on either side of a central chukra. The inscription records nothing whatever beyond the date, but this is given both in words and figures as follows : Samnatsare sapta panydse 57 hemanta tritiye divase trayadasc asya purvayam, that is to say ' in tin; year fifty-seven (57) on the thirteenth day of the third winter month.' It is curious in two ways : first, because it definitely fixes, beyond any possibility of doubt, the value of the symbol representing 50 ; and secondly, because if the date is really the year 57 of the same era as that employed in the inscriptions of Kanishka and Huvishka, it is the earliest unmistakeable Jaina figure yet found in the neighbourhood. The computation by seasons certainly favours the idea of antiquity and the argument for its modern date, derived from the character of the sculpture and of the lettering, may be deceptive ; for at any period different styles both of carving and writing may exist simultaneously ; yet probably the solution of the difficulty is to be found in Mr. Thomas's theory already mentioned, according to which the date is not given in full, hut specifies only the year of the century, omitting the century itself, as being at the time well known. THE PONTOON BRIDGE. 1S9 Tn the streets are many broken Buddhist pillars and other sculptures. Tho- road was constructed in the collectorate of Mr. Best, and in the progress of the work a column was found bearing an inscription in some ancient character ; to reduce the size of the stone, the inscribed face was ruthlessly cut away, and it was then converted into a buttress for a bridge. As it approaches the river, the road opens out into a fine square, with graceful arcades of carved stone. These are the property of the Maharaja of Bharat-pur and Gosain Purushottam Lai, and, though ordinarily they have rather a deserted appearance, on the ©casion of any great local festival they let for as much as Rs. 2 to 3 each a day- On the other side of the square opposite the road' is a pontoon bridge, which was opened for traffic in 1870. The tolls were farmed for the large sum of Rs. 40,500 a year: whence it is obvious that any reasonable outlay incurred in its construction- would' soon have been repaid. But, unfortunately, everything was sacrificed to a false economy ; it was made so narrow that it could not allow of two carts passing, and so weak that it could not bear even a single cart if heavily laden. Thus it was no sooner opened than it broke down ; and repairs were in constant progress, till the- night of the 13th of August, 1871, when it was completely swept away by a heavy flood. It was immediately re- constructed ; but it is impossible that it should ever present a satisfactory ap- pearance, while at the same time its cost has been excessive. It may be hoped that it will, before many years are over, be superseded by a masonry bridge in connection wath the railway, which at present pays for its use a fixed annual sum of Rs. 4,044 : its original value having been put at Rs. 1,15,566. The city stretches for about a mile and-a-half along the right bank of the Jamuna, and from the opposite side has a very striking and picturesque appearance, which is owing not a little to the broken character of the ground on which it is built. AVere it not for this peculiarity of site, the almost total absence of towers and spires would be felt as a great drawback ; for all the large modern temples have no sikharas, as are usually seen in similar edifices, but are simple cloistered quadrangles of uniform height. The only exceptions- are the lofty minarets of the Jama Masjid on the one side, and the campanile of the English Church seen through the trees in the distance below. Looking up the stream, the most prominent object is the old Fort, or rather its massive sub-structure, for that is all that now remains, called by the people Kans-ka-kila. Whatever its legendary antiquity, it was rebuilt in historical times by Raja Man Sinh of Jaypur, the chief of the Hindu princes at Akbar's Court. At a later period it was the occasional residence of Man Siuh's still more- famous successor on the throne of Amber, the great astronomer Sawai Jay 140 SAW^E JAY SINH OF AMBER. Sinh, who commenced his long reign of 44 years in 1&99 A.D. Till the day of his death he was engaged in almost constant warfare, but is less known to pos- terity by his military successes, brilliant though they were, than by his enlight- ened civil administration and still more exceptional literary achievements. At the outset he made a false move ; for in the war of succession that ensued upon the death of Aurangzeb, he attached himself to prince Bedar Bakht and fought by his side in the fatal battle of Dhol-pur. One of the firsb acts of Shah Alam, on his consequent elevation to the throne, was to sequester the principality of Amber. An Imperial Governor was sent to take possession, but Jay Sinh drove him out sword in hand, and then formed a league with Ajit Sinh of Marwar for mutual protection. From that day forward he was prominently concerned in all the troubles and warfare of that anarchic period, but never again on the losing side. In 1721, ho was appointed Governor of the Province of Agra and later of Malwa ; but he gradually loosened his connection with the Court of Delhi, from a conviction that the dissolution of the Muhammadan empire was inevitable, and concluded terms with the Mahrattas. At his accession, Amber consisted only of the three parganas of Amber, Deosa, and Barsao, as the Shaikhawats had made themselves independent and the western tracts had been attached to Ajmer. He not only recovered all that his ancestors had lost, but further extended his frontiers by the reduction of the Bargtijars of Dcoti and Rajaur and made his State worthy to be called the dominious of a Raja— a title which he was the first of his line to assume. The new capital, which lie founded, he called after his own name Jaypur, and it is still to the present day the only native city in India built upon a regular plan ; the only one also, it must unfortunately be added, in which the street architecture is absolutely bad and systematically false and pretentious ; though it is the fashion for Anglo-Indians to admire it. He is said to have been assisted in the execution of his design by an architect from Bengal. In consequence of his profound knowledge of astronomy, he wasentrusted by Muhammad Shah with the reformation of the calendar. To ensure that amount of accuracy which he considered the small instruments in ordinary use must always fail to command, he constructed observatories with instruments of his own invention on a gigantic scale. One of these was on the top of the Mathura Fort, the others at Delhi, Jaypur, Ujaiyin, ami Banaras. His success was so signal that he was able to detect errors in the tables of De la Hire, which had been communicated to him by the King of Portugal. His own tables wore completed in 172.S and are those still used by native astronomers. He died THE MATHURX OBSERVATORY. Ml in 1743. His voluminous correspondence is said by Tod* still to exist and his acts to be recorded in a miscellaneous diary entitled Kalpadruma and a collection of anecdotes called the Eksau nau I < 2 < T C3 -< DC CO LLl X I- THE VISR^KT GII^T. 143; " Once upon a time there was a Brahman living at Ujjaiyin, who neg- lected all his religious duties, never bathed, never said a prayer, never went near a temple. One night, when out with a gang of thieves, he was surprised by the city watchmen, and in running away from them fell down a dry well and broke his neck. His ghost was doomed to haunt the place, and was so fierce that it would tear to pieces and devour every one who came near it. This went on for many years, till at last one day a band of travellers happened to pitch their tents by the well, and among their number was a very holy and learned Brahman. So soon as he knew how the neighbourhood was afflicte I, he had recourse to his spells and compelled the evil spirit to appear before him. Discovering, in the course of his examination, that the wretched creature had in his lifetime been a Brahman, he was moved with pity for him and promised to do all in his power to alleviate his sentence. Whereupon the ghost begged him to go straight to Mathura, and bathe on his behalf at the Visrant Ghat, 1 for,' said he, ' I once in my life went into a temple of Vi-hnu, and heard the priest repeat this holy name and tell it< wondrous saving power.' The Brah- man had often bathed there and readily agreed to transfer the merit of on" such ablution. The words of consent had no sooner passed his lips than the guilty soul was absolved from all further suffering."* * To a devout Hindu, who believes that Krishna was an incarnation of the Deity, and that he hallowed with his presence the place now called the Visrant Ghat, there is no intrinsic ab- surdity in the legend as above quoted. It can be paralleled in all its particulars by manv that have been recorded for the edification of the faithful by canonized saints of the Church. That the merit of good deeds can be transferred — the point upon which the story mainly turns is a cardinal Catholic doctrine; and as to the dying in Bin and yet being saved through the efficacy of a formal act of devotion, take the following example from the page-: of Ci. Alphonsus Liguori : — " A certain Canon was reciting some prayers in honour of the Divine Mother, and, whilst doing so, fell into the river Seine and was drowned. Being in mortal sin, the devils came to take him to hell. In the same moment Mary appeared and said, 'How do you dare to take possession of one who died in the act of praising me ? ' Then addressing herself to the sinner, she sail, « Now change thy life and nourish devotion to my Conception.' He returned to life and became a Keligious." Here the concluding words correspond precisely with the finale of the story of the barber Tinduk, as told on the next page. In short, the Hindu in his ideas of divine worship, of the religious life, of the efficacy cf faith and good works, of the earnest sympathy of the Divine Being with human distress, and His occasional miraculous intervention for its relief, falls little, if at all, short of Catholic truth. Unhappily he has no clear perception of the true God to whom the devotion, which he understands so well, should alone be paid : yet for all this draw- back, Hinduism remains in one aspect divine, which is more than can be said either of Islam or of Protestantism. They are both essentially human inventions in direct antagonism to the truth, while Hinduism is a genuine natural religion, which only needs to be sustained aud com- pleted by Revelation. Thus S. Augustine says of the heathen of old : " Res ipsa qua; nunc 144 THE TWENTY-FOUR GHXTS. On the other Side of this sacred spot, a number of minor ghats stretch Up and down the river, those to the north being called the uttar kot and those to the south the dakshin kot. They are invariably represented as twenty-four in all, twelve in either set ; but there is a considerable discrepancy as to the parti- cular names. The following list was supplied by a Pandit of high local repute, Makhan Misr, a Gaur Brahman, from whose extensive library of manuscripts I was able to procure almost every Sanskrit work that I had occasion to consult. To the north : Ganes Ghat ; Manasa Ghat ; Dasasvamedha Ghat, under the hill of Ambarisha ; Chakra-tirtha Ghat ; Krislma-Ganga Ghat, with the shrine of Kalinjaresvar Mahadeva ; Som-tirtha Ghat, more commonly called Vasudeva Ghat or Shaikh Ghat ; Brahmalok Ghat ; Ghantabharan Ghat : Dhara-patan Ghat ; Sangaman-tirtha Ghat, otherwise called Vaikunth Ghat ; Nava-tirtha Ghat ; and Asikunda Ghat. To the south : Avimukta Ghat ; Visranti Ghat ; Prag Ghat ; Kankhal Ghat ; Tinduk Ghat ; Siirya Ghat ; Chinta-mani Ghat ; Dhfuva Ghat ; Rishi Ghat ; Moksha Ghat ; Koti Ghat ; and Buddh Ghat. The more common division is to include the Avimukta Ghat in the first, set, from which the Manasa is then omitted ; to except the Visrant Ghat alto- gether from the number of the twenty-four ; and to begin the second series with the Balabhadra and the Jog Ghat. By the former of these two are the Satghara or ' seven chapels,' commemorating Krishna's seven favourite titles, and the shrine of Gata Sram or ' ended toil.' The Jog Ghat is supposed to mark the spot where Joga-Nidra, the infant daughter of Nanda and Jasoda, whom Vasudeva had substituted for his own child Krishna, was dashed to the ground by Kansa and thence in new form ascended to heaven as the goddess Durga. Between it and the Piiig Ghat (where is the shrine of Beni Madho) is one of more modern date called Sringar Ghat, with two temples dedicated respectively to Pipalesvar Mahadeva and Batuk-nath : by Prag Ghat is also the shrine of Ramesvar Mahadeva. Two other ghats occupy far more con- spicuous sites than any of the above, but are included iu no list, as being devoid of any legendary reputation. The first bears the name of Sami Ghat, Christiana religio nuncupatur, erat apud antiquos, uec defuit ab initio generis humani quouBque Christ us veuiret in earue, nude vera religio, quoe jam erat, ccepit appellari Christiana." It is upon this principle that the Church has admitted into the calendar, among her canonized saints, certain worthies of the old dispensation, such as the Machabees, with reference to whom S. Gregory Nazianzen, in a sermon preached on their feast day, declares it to be a pious opinion " ueminem corum, qui ante christi adventum martyrio consumuiati Bunt, id sine fide in Christum consequi potuisse." THE TWENTY-FOUR GHA'TS. 145 not, as might be Supposed, a corruption of swdmi, but of Sdmhne, l opposite,' as it faces the main street of the city, where is a mansion of carved stone built by the famous Rup Ram, Katara, of Barsana. The second is the Bengali Ghat, at the foot of the pontoon bridge and close to a large house, the property of the Raja of Jhalra-patfcan. It is so called from having been built by the Gosain of the temple of Gobind Deva at Brinda-ban, the head of the Bengali Vaishnavas, who has a residence on the opposite side of the street. The end of the ghat adjoining the Raja of Jhalra-pattan's house has been left unfinished, as the right to the <*round forms the subject of ;; dispute between the Raja and the Gosain. Most of the ghats refer in their names to well-known legends and are of no special historical or architectural interest. The list is appropriately headed by one dedicated to Ganes, the god invoked at the commencement of every undertakin ■■- ; the second and third are both sacred to Siva — the one com- memorating the Manasa lake, a famous place of pilgrimage on mount Kailas in the Himalayas ; the other the Dasasvamedh Ghat, the holiest spot in Siva's city of Banaras. The fourth or Chakra-tirtha,. with the hill of Ambarisha, refers to Vishnu's magic discus, chakra, with which he defended his votary Ambarisha against the assaults of the Sivite Durvasas. The hill is between 60 and 70 feet high, and according to popular rumour there is in the centre of it a cave containing an enormous treasure. I did not expect to discover this, but as General Cunningham had told me of a gold coin of Apollodotus that had been found there, I got some men to dig, thinking it not unlikely something might turn up. The only reward for my trouble was a small fragment of Buddhist sculpture representing a devotee under a niche with the rail pattern below and the capitals of the pillars of Indo-Ionic type. This however was sufficient proof of the great antiquity and also of the Buddhist oceupation of the mound. The temple of Mahadeva at the Ganga Krishan Ghat has some very rich and delicate reticulated stone tracery, and all the work about this ghat is exception- ally good, both in design and execution. It was done, a little before the mutiny, under the immediate superientendence of the Brahman then in charge of the shrine, Baladeva Byas by name. The title Kalinjaresvar would seem to be a mistake for Kalindisvar : Kalindi being a name of the Jamuna, which takes its rise in the Kalinda range. A little above the ghat is an old red stone chhattri, which has a singularly graceful finial. A little below the Sami Ghat is a small mosque and group of tombs com- memorating a Muhammadan saint, Makhdiim Shah Wilayat, of Hirat. The 37 146 THE TWENTY-FOUR GHXTS. tombs date apparently from the sixteenth century and the architecture is in all its details so essentially of Hindu design that, were it not for the word ' Allah' introduced here and there into the sculptured decorations, there would be nothing to distinguish them from Hindu chhattris. The Muhammadans call this the Shaikh Ghat, while the Hindus maintain that the word is not Shaikh, but Shesh, the name of the thousand-headed serpent that forms Vishnu's couch and canopy. This is probable enough, for the final cerebral sibilant is vulgarly pronounced and indeed often written as the guttural kh. After long dispute between the two parties as to who should have the privilege of rebuilding the ghat, the work was taken in hand in 1875 by Vilayat Husain, the Seth's house agent, who also added a mosque and gave no little offence thereby. He died in 1871), leaving one minaret of the mosque still unfinished. The word Ghantabharan (which would be derived from glianta, 'a bell. and hharan, 'bearing,') is in the Vraj-bhakti-vilas perhaps more correctly written Ghantabhan, bhan meaning ' sound.' The allusion is to the bell, by ■ the ringing of which Vishnu is roused from his four months' slumber on the 11th of the month Kartik. The name Dkarapatan (from dhard, ' a stream,,' and patan, ' falling,') pro- bably referred primarily to the position of the ghat, which is on a projecting point where it bears the full force of the ' fall of the stream.' But in the Mahat- mya it is explained by the following legend : — " Once upon a time, a woman, whose home was on the bank of tbe Gauges, came on a pilgrimage to Mathura aud arrived there on the 12th of Kartik. As she was stepping into a boat near tlie place where now is the Dhara-patan Ghat, she fell over and was drowned. By virtue of this immersion in the sacred flood, she was born again in an exalted position as the daughter of the king of Banaras, and, under the name of the Rani Pivari, was married to Kshatra-dhanu, the king of Sunishtra, by whom she had seven sons and five daughters. Upon one occasion when the royal pair were comparing notes, it came to light that he too had undergone a very simi- lar experience : for, originally he had been a wild savage who had come over to Mathura from the Naimisha forest and was crossing the Jamuna with his shoes balanced on the top of his head, when they fell off into the water. He dipped down to recover them and was swept away by the torrent and drowned. Every stain of sin being thus washed out of his body, when he again took birth it was no longer as a barbarous Nishadha, or wild man of the woods, but as a noble Kshatriya king." THE DHRUVA TfLA.. 147 Dhruva who gives a name to one of the most southern of the ghats was, according to the legend, the son of a king by name Uttana-pada. Indignant at the slights put upon him by his stepmother, he left his father's palace to make a name for himself in the world. By the advice of the seven great Rishis, Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Kratu, Pulaha, and Vasishta, he repaired to Madhu-ban near Mathura, and there, absorbed in the contemplation of Vishnu, continued for seven years a course of the severest penance. At last the god appeared to him in person and promised to grant him any boon he might desire. His request was for a station exalted above every station and which should en- dure for ever ; whereupon he was translated to heaven as the polar star togethei with his mother Suniti. On the Dhruva tSa, or hill at the back of the ghat, is a small temple, built Samhat 189A, in place of an older shrine, of which the ruins remain close by, dedicated to Dhruva Ji. Here I found a set of Buddhist posts, with the cross rails and top bar all complete, cut out of a single slab of stone, measuring two feet two inches square. The Pujuris, or priests in charge, by name Damodar Das and Chhote Lai, belong to the Sanakadi or Nimbarak Sampradaya of Vaishnavas, and produce a manuscript pedigree in Sanskrit in proof of their direct spiritual descent from Kesava Bhatt, one of Niinbarak's successors, who is regarded as the head of the secular, or Grihastha, sub-division of the sect, as his brother-in-law, Hari Vyasa, was of the celibate, or Virakta, order. In the temple are figures of Radha Krishan, whom the Nimbaraks have adopted as their special patrons. The list of superiors, or Guru-parampara, as it is called, runs as follows : — I.— 1 Hansavatar ; 2 Sanakadi ; 3 Narada; 4 Nimbarak Swami: all deified characters. II.— 1 Srinivasacharya ; 2 Biswacharya ; 3 Purushottam ; 4 Bilasa ; 5 Sariipa ; 6 Madhava ; 7 Balbhadra ; 8 Padma ; 9 Syama ; 10 Gopala ; 11 Kri- pala ; 12 Deva : all distingushed by the title of Acharya. HI.— 1 Sundar Bhatt ; 2 Padma-nabha ; 3 Sri Rama-chandra ; 4 Baman ; 5 Sri Krishna ; 6 Padmakara ; 7 Sravan ; 8 Bhuri ; 9 Madhava ; 10 Syama ; 11 Gopala ; 12 Sn-bal, or Balbhadra ; 13 Gopinath ; 14 Kesava ; 15 Gangal ; 16 Kesava Kashmiri ; 17 Sri Bhatt ; 18 Kesava Bimani : all bearing the title of Bhatt. IV.— 1 Giridhar Gosain ; 2 Ballabh Lai ; 3 Mukund Lai ; 4 Nand Lai ; 5 Mohan Lai ; 6 Rain Ji Lai ; 7 Manu Lai ; 8 Radha Lai ; 9 Kanhaiya Lai ; and 10 Damodar Das : all bearing the title of Gosain. 148 THE SATI BL'RJ. The Nimbaraks have also a temple at Brindaban, dedicated to Rasak Bihari, and some account of their tenets will be given in connection with that town. Their distinguishing sectarial mark consists of two white perpendicular Streaks on the forehead with a black spot in the centre. The natural parents of their founder are said to have been named Aruna Risfbi and Jayanti. The Tinduk Ghat, according to the Mahatmya, is so called after a barber who lived at Kampilya, the capital of Panchala, in the reign of King Devadatta. After losinc all his family, he came to live at Mathura and there practised such rigorous austerities and bathed so constantly in the sanctifying stream of the •Tamuna, that after death he took birth once more as a high-caste Brahman. The legend of the Asikunda Ghat is told on this wise : — A pious king, by name Sumati, had started on a pilgrimage, but died before he was able to com- plete it. His son, Vimati, on succeeding to the throne, was visited by the sage Narad, who, at the time of taking his departure, uttered this oracular sentence : ' A pious son settles his father's debts.' After consulting with his ministers, the prince concluded that the debt was a debt of vengeance, which he was bound to exact from the places of pilgrimages, which had tempted his father to undertake the fatal journey. Accordingly, having ascertained that every holy place paid an annual visit in the season of the rains to the city of Mathura, he assembled an army and marched thither with full intent to destroy them all. They fled in terror to Kalpa-grama to implore the aid of Vishnu, who at last yielded to their entreaties, and assuming the form of a boar joined in combat with King Vimati on the bank of the Jamuna and slew him. In the fray, the point of the divine sword, i a,si, , snapped off and fell to the ground ; whence the ghat to this day is called Asi-kuuda Ghat, and the plain adjoining it Varahu Kshetra, or ' the field of the boar.' Before finally leaving the river-side, one other building claims a few words viz., ' the Sati Burj.' This is a slender quadrangular tower of red sand-stono commemorating the self-sacrifice of some faithful wife. According to the best authenticated tradition, she is said to have been the queen of Raja Bihar Mai of Jaypur and the mother of the famous Raja Bhagavan Das, by whom the monument was erected in the year 1570 A.D. It has, as it now stands, a total height of 55 feet and is in four stories: the lowest forms a solid basement ; the second and third are lighted by square windows and are supplied with an inter- nal staircase. The exterior is ornamented with rude bas-reliefs of elephants and other devices, but -is in a very ruinous condition. The tower was originally < cr D I < DC D DO (- < LU X I- THE TUVER-SIDE. ] 19 of much greater height ; but all the upper part was destroyed, it is said, 1>\- Aurangzeb. The exceedingly ugly and incongruous plaster dome, which now surmounts the building, was apparently added about the beginning of the pre- sent century. It no doubt helps to preserve what yet remains of the original work, but it sadly detracts from its architectural effect. I had hoped that the reigning Maharaja might be induced to undertake the complete restoration of this interesting family monument, and if the matter had been properly repre- sented to him, lie would in all probability have consented to do so. It is not at all likely that anything will be done now ; but the design that I had prepared may be thought worthy of preservation. No small amount of time and thought, was bestowed upon it : and I hoj>e that architects will consider it both a pleasing objeot in itself and also a faithful reproduction of the destroyed original. At the time when it was built, that is, at the end of the 16th century, it may be presumed that, the city of Mathura occupied its old position in the neighbourhood of the katra, and that the river-bank was used as the ordinary place for the cremation of the dead. Several cenotaphs of about the same period still remain, being mostly in old Hindu style, with brackets of good and varied design. The two largest bear the dates 1638 and 1715 Sambat, coresponding to 1 5 S 1 and 1638 A.D. They had all been taken possession of by the Chaubes. who blocked up the arches with mud or rough brick-work and converted them into lodging-houses, which they rented to pilgrims. In 1875 I had them all opened out when widening and paving the street along the river-bank. This work was left unfinished, but enough had been done to ren- der the street, though still narrow, the most picturesque in the city. Many of the ghats had been repaired, while the removal of a number of obstructions had opened out a view not only of the river but also of the houses and temples on the land site. Some of these are very graceful specimens of architecture, in particular the house of Purnshottam Lai, the Gokul Gosain, close to the Bengali ghat, which has a most elaborate facade and a balcony displaying a great variety of patterns of reticulated tracery. Immediately below the last of the ghats and opposite (lie Sadr Bazar, which has a population of some 6,000 souls and forms a small town by itself, entirely distinct both from the city and the European quarter, are two large walled gardens on the river-bank. One of these, called the Jamuna bagh, is the property of the Seth. It is well kept up and contains two very handsome chhattris, or cenotaphs, iu memory of Parikh Ji, the founder of the family, and m 150 COLONEL SUTHERLAND. Mani Ram, his successor. The latter, buffi; in the year of the chauranawe famine, 1837 A.D., is of exceedingly beautiful and elaborate design : perhaps the most perfect specimen ever executed of the reticulated stone tracery, for which Mathura is famous. It has been purposely made a little lower and smaller then the earlier monument, the eaves of which at one corner complete- ly overhang it. The adjoining garden, which may be of even greater extent,, has a small house and enclosed court-yard, in the native style, on the bank of the river, and, in the centre, an obelisk of white stone raised on a very high and substantial plinth of the same material with the following inscription : " Erect- ed to the memory of Robert Sutherland, Colonel in Rlaharaj Daulat Rao Scin- dia's service, who departed this life on the 20th July, 1804, aged 36 years. Also in rememberance of his son, C. P. Sutherland (a very promising youth), who died at Hindia on the 14th October, 1801, aged 3 years. " The monu- ment is kept in repair by the grandson, Captain S. S. Sutherland, of the Police Department. Colonel Sutherland was the officer whom De Boigne, on his retirement in 1795, left in command of the brigade stationed at Mathuni, one of three that he had raised in the service of Madho Ji Sindhia. The Mahratta Commander-in-Chief, who also had his head-quarters at Mathura, was at that time one Jagu Bapu, who was probably the Senapat of whom local tradition still speaks. In 1797 he was superseded by Perron, to whom Daulat Rao had given the supreme command of all his forces and who thereupon establish- ed himself at Kol, as virtual sovereign of the country. In the following year he discharged Sutherland for intriguing with the other Mahratta chiefs, but not long after he recovered his post through the interest of his father-in-law, Colonel John Hessing, to whose memory is erected the very fine monument in the Catholic cemetry at Agra, which Jacquemont considered superior to the Taj. In 1813 Sutherland, like the other British officers in Sindhia's service, received a pension from the Government, but he lived only one year to enjoy it. On a rising ground in the very heart of the city stands the Jama Masjid, erected in the year 1661 A.D., by Abd-un-Nabi Khan, the local Governor. The following inscription seems very clearly to indicate that it was erected on the ruins of a Hindu temple : — I^JJ liJj.*-» i_— Jj l_£>;«! J^ ti-AJyA * il*J|j ^iJt^iK vjCJU sU &f)U L>j t\Sl~..* ^yj\ Uj Si. ^lik^XAJI^^ jl iS * JUL.- .|jj| ei~-| ^WJ | 1. l\lay this Jama Masjid of majestic structure shine forth for ever like the hearts of the pious ! 2. Its roof is high like aspirations of love ; its court-yard is wide like the arena of thought. * The founder is first mentioned by tho Muhammadan. historians as fighting, on the side of Dara Shikoh at the battle of Samogarh in 1(>58. About a week after the defeat, he joined Aurangzeb and was immediately appointed faujdar of Itawa. This office he retained only till the following year, when he was transfered to Sirhind and thence, after a few months, to Mathura. Here he remained from August, 1660, to May, 1068, when, as we have already mentioned, he met his death at Sahora, a village in the Maha-ban pargana on the opposite side of the Jamuna, while engaged in quelling a popular dmeute. The author of the Maasir-i-Alamgiri says of him: — " He was an excellent and pious man, and as courageous in war as successful in his admin- istration. He has left a mosque in Mathura as a monument, which, for a long time to come, will remind people of him. Muhammad Anwar, his nephew, received from His Majesty a mourning dress of honour ; but the property of the deceased lapsed (according to custom) to the State, and the Imperial Mutasaddis reported it to be 93,000 gold muhrs, 13,00,000 rupees, and * For this and other translations from, the Persian I am indebted to the kindness of the late Mr. Blochmann, whose immense fund of information was always at the service of all eaquirers, and whose untimely death is an irreparable loss to the Calcutta Branch of the. Asiatic Society, of which he was for many years the Secretary. 152 EARTHQUAKE OF 1803 A. D. 14,50,000 rupees' worth of property." The architecture of his mosque is not of particularly graceful character, but there are four lofty minarets, and as these and other parts of the building were originally veneered with bright- coloured plaster mosaics, of which a few panels still remain, it must at one time have presented a brilliant appearance.* It was greatly injured by an earthquake which took place, strange to say, in 1803, the very year in which the country was first brought under British rule. The following account of this most exceptional event is copied from pages 57 and 58 of ' The Asiatic Annual Register ' for 1804 : — Dreadful Earthquake. Mathurd, September 24, 1803. " On the night between the 31st August and the 1st of September, at half-an-hour after midnight, a severe shock of an earthquake was felt at this place, which lasted for many minutes and was violent beyond the memory of man. Probably not a living creature in the place but was roused from his slumbers by the alarm and felt its effects. Many of the pucka buildings were cast down and zans'.nas, hitherto unassailed by violence were deserted, and their fair inhabitants took refuge in the streets and in the fields, seek- ing protection with men, whose visages it would otherwise have disgraced them to behold. The night was calm and enjoyed the full influence of a bright moon. " In the morning very extensive fissures were observed in the fields, which had been caused by the percussion of the night before, through which water rose with great, violence and continues to run to the present date, though its violence has gradually abated. This has been a great benefit to the neighbour- ing ryots, as they were thence enabled to draw the water over their parched fields. * Father Tieft'enthaller, who visited Mathura in 1745, after meutioniug the two mosques, says that Abd-un-Nabi was a convert from Hinduism, a statement for which there seems to be no authority. He describes the mosaics as " un ouvrage plombe en diverscs eouleurs et incruste i la manure dont sont vernis les poeles in Allemagne." " La ville," he says, " est entoure d'une levee de terre, et obeit aujourdhui an Djit. Auparavant elle etait sous lea ordrea du Raja di Djepour a qui I'empereur Mogo) en avait confie le gouvernement :" i. e., Raja Jay Sinh, who died 1743. He goes on to describe the streets as narrow and dirty and most of the buildings as in ruins; the fort very large and massive, like a mountain of hewn stone, with an observa- tory, which was only a feeble imitation of the one at Jaypur, but with the advantage of being much bitter raised. The only other spot that he particularises is the Viarant ghat. Jaeque- mont's description is in very similar terms : be Bays : " The streets are the narrowest, the crook- edest, the steepest aud dirtiest that 1 have ever seen.'' ABD-UN-NABI THE FOUNDER OF MODERN MATHTRA'. 153 " The principal mosque of the place, erected on an eminence by the famous Ghazi Khan, as a token of his triumph over the infidelity of the Hindus, has been shattered to pieces, and a considerable part of the dome was swallowed up during the opening of the earth. "Several slighter shocks have since occurred, but I do not hear they have occasioned any further damage."* The above description certainly exaggerates and also to some extent mis- represents the effects of the shock upon the mosque. The gateway was cracked from top to bottom, the upper part of one of the great minarets was thrown down and one of the little corner kiosques of the mosque itself was also destroyed, but the dome was uninjured. In 1875 the Sa'dabad family started a sub- scription for the repairs of the building and over Rs. 5,000 were collected. This sum I expended on the restoration of the fallen minaret andkiosque and of the two hujras or alcoves at the sides of the court-yard. Several of the shops that disfigured the approaches were also bought up and demolished. As soon as I left, the work came to a standstill. The mosque now appears out of place as the largest and most conspicuous edifice in what is otherwise a purely Hindu city, and there is also every rea- son to suppose that it was founded on the ruins of a pagan temple. But at the same time it should be observed that all the buildings by which it is now surrounded are of more modern date than itself. It was not planted in the midst of a Hindu population ; but the city, as we now see it, has grown up under its shadow. Old Mathura had been so often looted and harried by the Muhammadans that, as has been noted in other parts of this work, it had actually ceased to exist as a city at all. It was a place of pilgrimage, as it had ever been ; there were saraes for the accommodation of travellers and ruins of temples and a few resident families of Brahmans to act as cicerones, living for the most part in the precincts of the great temple of Kesava Deva, or still further away towards Madhuban ; but it was as much a scene of desolation as Goa with its churches and convents now is, and on the spot where the pre- sent Mathura stands there was no town till Abd-un-Nabi founded it. The whole of the land was in the possession of Muhammadans. The ground, which he selected as the site of his mosque, he purchased from some butchers, and the remainder he obtained from a family of Kazis, whose descendants still occupy what is called the Kushk Mahalla, one of the very few quarters * For the knowledge of thiB curious letter I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. A. Constable, of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway, who sent me a copy of it. 39 154 PROPRIETORY RIGHTS IN THE CITY. of the city that are known by a Persian name. They continued to be regard- ed as the zamindars of the township till the time of the Juts, when Saiyid Bakir, their then head, quarrelled with the local governor, and being afraid of the consequences made over all his rights to some Chaubes and others. When the English Government took possession, the Chaubes' title was alone recognized and the first settlement was made with one of their number, Shio Lai, as mukaddam. A claim was brought forward by Imam Bakhsh, a son of the Saiyid abovenamed, but he died before it could bo heard, and the suit thus faHing through has never since been revived. In 1812, the then Ghaube land- holders, Bishna, Ajita, Shio Lai, Ghisa and Jwala, styling themselves mukad- dams, made over their rights to the Lala Babu, who engaged to pay them Rs. 150 a year and 5 per cent, on his collections. The area so transferred, according to the settlement of 1841, was only 568 bighas 11 biswas ; but in the revision of records the Lala Babu's widow had herself entered as owner of every rood of land, excepting only such as was or had been rent-free, and the agreement was with her as sole zamindar of the township of Mathura. On the strength of this she claimed to exercise over the whole city the same rights that a zamindar can claim in any petty village ; but, after oft>renewed litigation, these extravagant claims have been set aside, and by the new settlement the property of her heirs is shown as a separate thok, the muafi and resumed muafi grants forming another, while the Jamuna sands, used for melon cultiva- tion, all nazul lands and the streets and city generally are shown as Govern- ment property.* From the mosque as a central point diverge the main thoroughfares, lead- ing respectively towards Brinda-ban, Dig, Bharat-pur.f and the civil station. They are somewhat broader than is usual in Indian cities, having an average breadth of 24 feet, and were first opened out at the instance of Mr. E. F. Taylor hi 1843. A number of houses were demolished for the purpose, but, in every instance, all claim to compensation was waived. Seth Lakhmi (Jhand's loss, thus voluntarily sustained for the public good, was estimated at a lakh of rupees, as he had recently completed some handsome premises, which had to be taken down and rebuilt. * Vide a report on the Proprietory Rights claimed by the heirs of the Lala Babu, drawn up by Mr. Whiteway, Settlement Utfieer, in 1875. •f Close to the mosque on the left-hand si.io of the Bhsrat-pur gate bazar is a high hill with very stefp ascent, all built over. On the summit, which is called Sit.ila ghat, may be seen many fragments of Bu-idhist pillars and bas-reliefs, and an armless seated figure, the size of life. THE CITY STREETS. 155 These streets have now, throughout their entire length and breadth, been paved by the municipality with substantial stone flags brought from the Bharat- pur quaries.* The total cost has been Rs. 1,38,663. Many of the towns- people and more particularly the pilgrims, who go about barefooted, are by no means pleased with the result ; for in the winter the stone is too cold to be pleasant to tread upon, while in the summer again, even at sunset, the streets do not cool down as they used to do aforetime, but retain their heat through the greater part of the night. As is the custom in the East, many mean tumble down hovelsf are allowed here and there to obtrude themselves upon th>- view ; but the majority of the buildings that face the principal thoroughfares are of handsome and imposing character. With only two exceptions all have been erected during the seventy years of British rule. The first of the two exceptional buildings is a large red sandstone house, called Chaube Ji ka Burj, which may be as old as the time of Akbar. The walls are divided into square panels, in each of which, boldly carved in low relief, is a vase filled with flowers, executed in a manner which is highly effective, but which has quite gone out of fashion at tho present day, when pierced tracery is more appreciated. The second is a temple near the turn to the Sati Burj. This is remarkable for along balcony supported on brackets quaintly carved to represent elephants. Many of these had been built up with masonry, either by the Hindus to protect the animal form from iconoclastic bigotry, or else by the Muhammadans themselves to conceal it from view. This unsightly casing was at last removed in 1875. In all the modern buildings, whether secular or religious, the design is of very similar character. The front is of carved stone with a grand central archway and arcades on both sides let out as shops on the ground floor. Storey upon storey above are projecting balconies supported on quaint corbels, the arches being filled in with the most minute reticulated tracery of an infinite variety of pattern, and protected from the weather by broad eaves, the under- surface of which is brightly painted. One of the most noticeable buildings in point of size, though the decorations perhaps are scarcely so elegant as in some of the latter examples, is the temple of Dwarakadhis, founded by the Gwaliar treasurer, Parikh Ji, and visited in 1825 by Bishop Heber, who in his journal describes it as follows .■ — " In the centre, or nearly so, of the town, Colonel • This important work was commenced in November, 1857. t As an indication that many of the houses are not of the most substantial construction.it may be observed that, after three days of ex. tptionally heavy rain in the month of August, 1873 , aB many as 6 OOD were officially reported to have come down; 14 persons, chiefly children, having been crushed to death under the ruins. 156 THE SETH'S TEEPLE OF DWXRAKXDHIS. Penny took us into the court of a beautiful temple or dwell'ng-house, for it seemed to be designed for both in one, lately built and not yet quite finished, by Gokul Pati Sinh, Sindhia's treasurer, and who has also a principal share in a great native banking-house, one branch of which is fixed at Mathura. The building is enclosed by a small but richly carved gateway with a flight of steps which leads from the street to a square court, cloistered round, and containing in the centre a building, also square, supported by a triple row of pillars, all which, as well as the ceiling, are richly carved, painted, and gilt. The effect internally is much like that of the Egyptian tomb, of which the model was exhibited in London by Belzoni ; externally, the carving is very beautiful. The cloisters round were represented to me as the intended habitations of the Brah- mans attached to the fane ; and in front, towards the street, were to be apart- ments for the founder on his occasional visits to Mathura." To show how differ- ently the same building sometimes impresses different people, it may be men- tioned that Jaequemont, only four years later, describes the temple as like no- thing but a barrack or cotton factory : but possibly he may have seen it soon after the festival of the Diwali, when, according to barbarous Hindu custom, the whole of the stone front is beautified with a thick coat of whitewash. This gentleman's architectural ideas were, however, a little peculiar. Thus he says, of the Jama Masjid at Agra, that the bad taste of the design and the coarseness of the materials are good reason for leaving it to the ravages of time ; that the tomb of Itimad-ud-daula is in the most execrable taste ; that the Taj, though pretty, cannot be called elegant ; and that the only building in Agra which is really a pure specimen of oriental architecture is the tomb of Colonel Hessing in the Catholic cemetery, the work of ' a poor devil' called Latif. His theolo- gical views would seem to have been equally warped, for in another place he thus expresses himself.- — " Of all the follies and misfortunes of humanity, reli- gion is the one which is the most wearisome and the least profitable to study."' The Dwarakadhis temple has always been in the hands of the Vallabha- eharyas, the sect to which the founder belonged. It is now administered by the Grosain who is the hereditary lord of the much older and yet wealthier shrine with the same name at Kankarauli in Udaypur (see page 130). Hitherto the expenses of the Mathura establishments have been defrayed by annual grants from the Seth's estate; but the firm has lately made an absolute transfer to the Gosain of landed property yielding an income of Rs. 2-5,000 ; thus religiously carrying out the intention of their ancestor, though in so doing they further the interests of a sect not a little antagonistic to the one of which they themselves are members. < CI Z> I I- < UJ < LU I h THE HOLI GATE. 157 On the opposite side of the street is the palace of the princes of Bharat-pur. The lofty and highly enriched entrance gateway was added by Raja Ralavant Sinh, and the magnificent brass doors by the present Raja. Close by is the mansion of Seth Lakhmi Chand, built at a cost of Rs. 1,00,000. The latest of the architectural works with which the city is decorated, and one of the most admirable for elegance and elaboration, is a temple near the Chhata Bazar built by Deva Chand Bohra, and completed only at the end of the year 1871. What- ever other buildings there are of any note will be found enumerated in the list at the end of the next chapter. In most cases the greatest amount of finish has been bestowed upon the street front, while the interior court is small and con- fined ; and the practice of having only a single gate both for entrance and exit occasions great, and sometimes dangerous, crowding on high feast days. It is, as before remarked, a peculiarity of the Mathura temple architecture to have no tower over the seat of the god. If the new city was ever surrounded by walls, not a vestige of them now remains, though the four principal entrances are still called the Brinda-ban, Dig, Bharat-pur, and Holi gates. The last-named is the approach from the Civil Station, and here a lofty and elaborately sculptured stone arch has been erected over the roadway, in accordance with an elegant design in the local style, sup- plied by Yusuf, the municipal architect, a man of very excepiional tasto and ability. As the work was commenced at the instance of the late Mr. Bradford Hardinge, who was for several years Collector of the district, and took a most lively interest in all the city improvements, it is named in his honour* ' tho Hardinge arch," though it is not very often so called. Since his death, it has been surmounted by a cupola, which was intended at some future time to receive a clock, with four corner kiosquas, the cost of these additions being Rs. 3,493. Two shops in uniform style were also built in 1875, one on either side, at a further cost of Rs. 1,<521, in order to receive and conceal the ponderous staged buttresses, which the engineers in the Public Works Department had thought it necessary to add. The expenditure on the gate itself was Rs. 8,617, making a total of Rs. 13,731. As may be inferred from the above remarks stone-carving, the only indi- genous art of which Mathura can boast, is carried to great perfection. All the temples afford specimens of elegant design in panels of reticulated tracery [j'ili), as also do the chhatris of the Seth's family in the Jamuna bagh. The * The littic marble tablet, on which the name has been inscribed iu the straightest and most uncompromising Kom n capitals, is a conspicuous disfignrement and looks exactly like an auction ticket. The Engineer who inserted it cannot have had much of an eye for harmony oi effect. 40 158 LOCAL MANUFACTURES. only other specialities are of very minor importance. One is the manufac- ture of little brass images, which, though of exceedingly coarse execution, com- mand a large sale among pilgrims and visitors, especially the religious toy called Vasudeva Katora (described at page 54); the other the manufacture of paper. This is made in three sizes. The smallest, which is chiefly in demand, is called Man-Sinhi and varies in price, according to quality, from Rs. 1-8 to Rs. 2-6 a fjaddi or bundle ; the medium size, called Bichanda, sells for Rs. 4 a g-addi ; and the larger size, called Syalkoti, for Rs. 10. The factories are some 100 in number and can turn out in the course of the day -150 gaddis, every ftaddi containing 10 dastas of 24 takhtas, or sheets, each. There is also a kind of string made which is much appreciated by natives. It is chiefly used for lowering lotas, the ordinary brass drinking cups of the country, into wells to draw water with. The price is about three or four anas for 40 yards. A coloured variety is made for temple use. CHAPTER VII. The City of Mathura' {concluded) : its European institutions and MUSEUM. A light railway, on the metre gauge, 29i miles in length, which was opened for traffic on the 19th of October, 1875, now connects the city with thi East India Line, which it joins at the Hathras Road station., The cost was Rs. 9,55,868, being about Rs. 30,000 a mile, including rolling stock and every- thing else. Of this amount Rs. 3,24,100 were contributed by local shareholders, and the balance, Rs. 6,31,763, came from Provincial Funds. Interest is guaranteed at the rate of 4 per cent, per annum, with a moiety of the surplus earnings that may at any time be realized. The line has proved an unques- tionable success and its yearly earnings continue to show a steady increase. But the principal shareholders — including the Seth, who invested as much as a lakh and-a-half in it — were certainly not attracted by the largeness of the pecuniary profit ; for 12 per cent, is the lowest return which Indian capitalists ordina- rily receive for their money. They were entirely influenced by a highly com- mendable public spirit and a desire to support the local European authorities, who had shown themselves personally interested in the matter.* The ultimate success of the line has now been secured by its junction with the Rajputana State Railway. The distance being only some 25 miles, the earthwork was car- ried out during the late famine, and the scheme is now completed but for the bridge over the Jamuna. In the design that has been supplied there are 12 spans of 98 feet each, with passage both for road and railway traffic and two foot-paths, at an estimated cost of Rs. 3,00,000. As the receipts from tolls on the existing pontoon bridge are about Rs. 45,000 per annum, even a larger expenditure might safely be incurred. Cross sections of the river have been obtained, and a series of borings taken, which show a flood channel of 1,000 feet and clay foundations underlying the sand at 33 feet. The site is in every way well suited for the purpose and presents no special engineering difficulties ; but the construction of so large a bridge must necessarily be a work of time, and before it is completed it is probable that the line will have been extended from its other end, the Hathras terminus, to Farukhabad and so on to Cawnpur, the * Next to the Seth — longo intervallo — the largest number of shares were taken up by my- self ; for at that time I never expected to be moved from the district. 160 THE MATHURA' municipality. groat centre of the commerce of Upper India. As yet, the line labours under very serious disadvantages from being so very short and from the necessity of breaking bulk at the little wayside station of Mendu, the Hathras Road junc- tion. Consequently, traders who have goods to despatch to Hathras find it cheaper and more expeditious to send them all the way by road, rather than to hire carts to take them over the pontoon bridge and then unlade them at the station and wait hours, or it may be days, before a truck is available to carry them on. Thus the goods traffic is very small, and it is only the passen- gers who make the line pay. These are mostly pilgrims, who rather prefer to loiter on the way and do not object to spending two hours and fifty minutes in travelling a distance of 21)^ miles. As the train runs along the side of the road, there are daily opportunities for challenging it to a race, and it must be a very indifferent country pony which does not succeed in beatino- it. The Municipality has a population of 55,7u'3, of whom 10,00(> are Muham- madans. The annual income is a little under Rs. 00,000 ; derived, in the absence of any special trade, almost exclusively from an octroi tax on articles of food the consumption of which is naturally very large and out of all proportion to the resident population, in consequence of the frequent influx of huge troops of pil- grims. The celebrity among natives of the Mathura peri, a particular kind of sweetment, also contributes to the same result. Besides the permanent main- tenance of a large police and conservancy establishment, the entire cost of pav- ing the city streets has been defrayed out of municipal funds, and a fixed pro- portion is anually allotted for the support of different educational establish- ments. The High School, a large hall in a very un-Oriental style of architecture. was opened by Sir William Muir on the 21st January, 1870. It was erected at a cost of Hs. 13,000, of which sum Rs. 2,000 were collected by voluntary subscription, Rs. 3,000 were voted by the municipality, and the balence of Rs. 8,000 granted by Government.* The City Dispensary, imme- diately opposite the Kans-ka-tila and adjoining the Munsif's Court, has accommodation for 20 in-door patients ; there is an ordinary attendance per * The School, Court-house, and Trotestant Church are — fortunately, as I think — the only local buildings of any importance, in the construction of which the Public Works Department has bad any hand. I have never been able to understand why a large and costly staff of European en<*i- mcrs should be kept up at all, except for Bueh Imperial undertakings as Railways, Military Roads air I Canals. The finest buildings in the country date from before our arrival in it, and the descend- ants of the men who designed and executed them are still employed by the natives themselves for their temples, tanks, palaces, and mosques. If the Government utilized the same agency, there would be a great saving in cost and an equal gain in artistic result. -< '*;5' <*^* (J^^* ^fr- * u: ^* , *'5 ; *>s~«»j ^&* ■=£*"] ^>\ (J'****] li33 ^ & j.^ao ^=5 ij.j a i^t^jj.jj.i'.^.^a law # jC-d i_jU».!y| o.y^ ,W.*J $ ^s ';; U>; ^j*^- 1 i-i-j jj^J rfJ lOjjy* "^ y^« * «g^ l*i A-i;^^.-! i i2*$y& jC*d ^J •=■> ,»*«•** I A 1 i^w JUas IMC ii- " The State having thought good to promote the ease of its subjects, gave intimation to the Magistrate and Collector, ; who then, by the co-operation of the chief men of Mathura, had this house for travellers built with the choicest carved work.* Its doors and walls are polished like a mirror ; in its sculpture every kind of flower-bed appears in view ; its width and height were assigned in harmonious proportion ; from top to bottom it is well shaped and well balanced. It may very properly be compared to the dome of Afrasyab, or it may * Upon the word munubbat, which is used here to denote arabesque carving, the late Mr. Blocumunn communicated the following note:— "The Arabic nabata means 'to plant,' and the intensive form of the verb has either the same signification or that of 'causing to appear like plants' : hence munabbat comes to mean ' traced with flowers,' and may be compared with mus- hajjar, ' caused to appear like trees,' which is the word applied to silk with tree-patterns on ii," like the more common ' biita-ddr.' ORDINARY FATE OF ANCIENT INSCRIPTIONS. 105 justly bo styled the palace of an emperor. One who saw its magnificence (or the poet Shaukat on seeing it) composed this tarikh, so elegant a rest-houso makes even the flower garden envious. " As the building afforded such very scant accommodation, I proposed to make it not a general, but simply an architectural and antiquarian museum, arranging in it, in chronological series, specimens of all the different styles that have prevailed in the neighbourhood from the reign of the Indo-Scythian K.i- nishka, in the century immediately before Christ, down to the Victorian period which would be illustrated in perfection by the building itself. It cannot be denied that it is high time for some such institution to bo established ; for in an ancient city like Mathura interesting relics of tho past, even when no definite search is being made for them, are constantly cropping up ; and unless there is some easily accessible place to which they can be con- signed for custody, they run an imminent risk of being no sooner found than destroyed. Inscriptions in particular, despite their exceptional value in the eyes of the antiquary, are more likely to perish than anything else, since they have no beauty to recommend them to the ordinary observer. Tims, us already mentioned, a pillar, the whole surface of which is said to have been covered with writing, was found in 18(!0 in making a road on the site of the old city wall. There was no one on the spot at the time who took any interest in such matters, and the thrifty engineer, thinking such a fine large block of stone ought not to be wasted, had it neatly squared and made into a buttress for a bridge. Another inscribed fragment, which had formed the base of a large seated statue, had been set up by a subordinate in the Public "Works Department to protect a culvert on the high road through cantonments, from which position I rescued it. It bears the words Ma/idrajasya Deva-putrasya Humshkasya rdjya sam. 50 lie 3 di 2, and is of value as an unquestionably early example of the same symbol, which in tho inscription of doubtful age given at page 138 is explained in words as denoting ' fifty.' A third illustration of official indiffer- ence to archaeological interests, though here the culprit was not an engineer, but the Collector himself, is afforded by the base of a pillar, which, after it had been accidentally dug up, was plastered and whitewashed and imbedded in one of the side pillars of the Tahsili gateway, where I re-discovered it, when the gateway was pulled down to improve the approach. The words are cut in bold clear letters, which for the most part admit of being deciphered with certainty, as follows: Ayam kumbliaka ddnam bhikshunam Survyasya Buddha- mkshitasya clia prakitakdnam. Anantyam(!) deya dharmma pa nam. Sarvasa prakitakdnam arya dakshitaye bhavatu. The purport of this would be: 42 166 the pa'li-khera sculpture. " This base is the gift of the mendicants Surya and Buddha-rakshita, pra7iita- kas. A religious donation in perpetuity. May it be in every way a blessing to the prahitakas." A question has been raised by Professor Kern, with reference to another inscription, in which also a bhikshu was mentioned as a donor, on the score that a mendicant was a very unlikely person to contribute towards the expenses of any building, since, as he says, ' monks have nothing to give awav, all to receive.' But in this particular instance the reading and meaning are both unmistakeably clear, nor is the fact really at all inconsistent with Hindu usage. In this very district I can point to two large masonry tanks, costing each some thousands of rupees, which have been constructed by men- dicants, bairagis, .nit (if alms that they had in a long course of years begged for the purpose. The word prahitaka, if I am right in so reading it, is of doubtful signification. It might mean either ' messenger' or ' committee-man ;' a com- missioner or a commissionaire. The other inscriptions have for the most part been already noticed in the preceding chapters, when describing the places where they were found. As a work of art, the most pleasing specimen of sculpture is the Yasa-ditta statue of Buddha, noticed at page 115 ; but archteologically the most curious object in the collection is certainly the large carved block which I discovered at Palikhera in the cold weather of 1873-74. On one side is represented a group of six persons, the principal figure being a man of much abdominal development, who is seated in complete nudity on a rock, or low stool, with a large cup in in his hand. At his knee is a little child ; two attendants stand at the back ; and in the front two women are seen approaching, of whom the foremost bears a cup and the second a bunch of grapes. Their dress is a long skirt with a shorter jacket over it ; shoes on the feet and a turban on the head. The two cups are curiously made ; the lower end of the curved handle being attached to the bottom of the stem instead of the bowl. On the opposite side of the block the same male figure is seen in a state of helpless intoxication, supported on his seat from behind by two attendants, the one male, the other female. By his right knee stands the child as before, and opposite him to the left was apparently another boy, of somewhat larger growth, but this figure has been much mutilated. The male attendant wears a mantle, fastened at the neck by a fibula and hanging from the shoulder in vandyked folds, which are ven suggestive of late Greek design. The stone on which these two groupsare carved measures three feet ten inches in height, three feet in breadth and one loot lour inches in thickness, and the top INTENTION OF THE SCt'LPTURE. 167 has been scooped out so as to form as it were a shallow circular basin. A block, of precisely the same dimensions ami carved with two similar groups, was discovered somewhere near Mathura, the precise locality not having been placed on record, by Colonel Stacy in the year L836, who deposited it in the < lalcutta museum, where it still is. His idea was that the principal figure represented Silenus, that the sculptors were Bactrian Greeks, and that their work was meant to be a tazza, or rather a pedestal for the support of a tazza or large sacrificial vase. These opinions were endorsed by James Prinsep, and have prevailed to the present day. I believe them however to be erroneous, though not unnaturally suggest- ed by a general resemblance to some such a picture as is given in Woolner's Pygmalion of — " Weak-kneed Si'e iub puffin?, on both sides Uph lil by grinning slaves, who plied the cup Wherein two nymphs squeezed juice of dusky grapes." Of the two groups on the Stacy stone one represents the drunkard after he has drained the cup, and is almost identical with that above described. The other exhibits an entirely different scene in the story, though some of the characters appear to be the same. There are four figures— two male and two female — standing under the'shade of a tree with long clusters of drooping flow- ers. The first figure to the right is a female dressed in a long skirt and upper jacket, with a narrow scarf thrown over her arms. Her right hand is grasped by her male companion, who has his left arm round her neck. He is entirely naked, save for a very short pair of drawers barely reaching to the middle of the thigh, and a shawl which may be supposed to hang loosely at his back, but in front shows only the ends tied loosely in a knot under his chin. Behind him and with her back to his back is another female dressed as the first, but with elaborate bangles covering nearly half the fore-arm. Her male companion seems to be turning away as if on the point of taking his leave. He wears light drawers reaching to the ankles and a thin muslin tunic, fitting close to the body and terminating a little below the knees. On the ground at the feet of each of the male figures is a covered cup. As to the names of the personages concerned and the particular story which the sculptor intended to represent, I am not able to offer any suggestion. Pro- bably, when Buddhist literature has been more largely studied, the legend thus illustrated will be brought to light. The general purport of the three scenes appear to me unmistakeable. In the first the two male conspirators are per- suading their female companions to take part in the plot, the nature of the plot being indicated by the two cups at their feet. In the second the venerable Il58 NATIONALITY OF THE SCULPTORS. ascetic has been seduced by their wiles into tasting the dangerous draught; one of the two cups is in his hand, the other is ready to follow. In the third one, of which there are two representations, the cups have been quaffed, and he is reeling from their effects. Obviously all this has nothing to do with Silenus ; the discovery of the second block, which supplies the missing scene in the drama, makes it quite clear that some entirely different personage is intended. The tazza theory may also be dismissed ; for the shallow bason at the top of the stone seems to be nothing more than the bed for the reception of a round pillar. A sacrificial vase was a not uncommon offering among the Greeks ; and if the carving had been shown to represent a Greek legend, there would have been no great improbability in supposing that the work had been executed for a foreigner who employed it in accordance with his own national usage. But in dedicat- ing a cup to one of his own divinities, he would not decorate it with scenes from Hindu mythology ; while, on the other hand, the offering of a cup of such dimensions to any monastery or shrine on the part of a Buddhist is both unprecedented and intrinsically improbable. Finally, as to the nationality of the artist. The foliage, it must be ob- served, is identical in character with what is seen on many Buddhist pillars found in the immediate neighbourhood and generally in connection with figures of Maya Devi ; whence it may be presumed that it is intended to represent the sal tree, under which Buddha was born, though it is by no means a correct representa- tion of that tree. The other minor accessories are also, with one exception, either clearly Indian, or at least not strikingly un-Indian : such as the earrings and bangles worn by the female figures and the feet either bare or certainly not shod with sandals : the one exception being the mantle of the male attendant in the drunken scene. Considering the local character of all the other accessories, I find it impossible to agree with General Cunningham in ascribing the work to a foreign artist, " one of a small body of Bactrian sculptors, wdio found employ- ment among the wealthy Buddhists at Mathura, as in later days Europeans were employed under the Mughal emperors. " The thoroughly Indian character of the details seems to me, as to Br. Mitra, decisive proof that the sculptor was a native of the country ; nor do I think it very strange that he should represent one of the less important characters as clothed in a modified Greek costume, since it is an established historical fact that Mathura was included in the Bactrian Empire, and the Greek style of dress cannot have been altogether unfamiliar to him. The artificial folds of the drapery were probably borrowed from what he saw.on coins. , 1. BACCHANAL AN SCULPTURE FROM PALI-KHERA 2. BACCHANALIAN SCULPTURE FROM PALI-KHERA. OTHER BACCHANALIAN BOTJLPT1 I IGtJ Ih th'e Hindu Pantheon tlie only personage said to have been of wine-bib- Biiig propensities is Balar&ma himself, one of the tutelary divinities of Ma- th ura ; and it is probably he who was intended to be represented by a second Bacchanalian figure included in the museum, collection. This is a mutilated statue brought from the village of Kukargama, in the Sa'dabad pargana.* He stands under the conventional canopy of serpents' heads, with a garland of wild-flowers (ban-main) thrown across his body ; his right hand is raised above his head in wild gesticulation and in his left hand he holds a cup very similar to the one shown in the Pali-khera sculpture. His head-dress closely resem- bles Krishna's distinctive' ornament, the mukut ; but it may be only the spiral coil of hair observable in the Sanchi and Amaravati sculptures. In any case, the inference must not be presed too far ; for, first, the hooded snake is as con- stant an accompaniment of Sakya Muni as of Balarama ; and secondly, a third sculpture of an equally Bacchanalian character is unmistakeably Buddhist. This is a rudely executed figure of a fat little fellow, who has both his hands raised above his hand, and holds in one a cup, in the other a bunch of graj The head with its close curling hair leaves no doubt that Buddha is the person intended ; though possibly in the days of his youth, when " ho dwelt still in his palace and indulged himself in all carnal pleasures."' Or it might be a cari- cature of Buddhism as regarded from the point of view of a Brahmanical iscetic. *At Kukargama is an ancient shrine of Kukar Devi, where a incla is held on the festival of the Phul-dol, Chait badi 7. Though in a dilapidated condition, the building is quite a modern cue, a small dome supported on plain brick arches; but on the floor, which is raised several feet above the level of the ground, is a plinth, 4 feet 8 inches square, formed of massive blocks of a hard and closely grained grey stone. The mouldings are bold and simple, like what may be seen in the oldest Kashmir temples. One side of the plinth is imperfect an 1 the stone has also been removed from the centre, leaving a circular hollow, which the villagers think was a well. But more probably the shrine was originally one of Mahadeva, an 1 this was the bed in which a round lingam had been set. In a corner of the building were two mutilated sculptures of similar design, and it was the more perfect of these two that I removed to Mathura. A sketch of it may be seen in Volume XLIV. of the Journal of the Calcutta Asiatic Society's Journal for ISTo. A few paces from the shrine is a small brick platform, level with the grouud, which is said to cover the grave of the dog (Kuhura) from whom the village is suppose 1 to derive its name : and pc-r-ons bitten by a dog are brought here to be cured. The adjoining pond called Kurha (for Kuhum-ha) is said to have been constructed by a Banjara. Very large bricks are occasionally dug up out of it, as also from the village Khera ; one measured 1 foot 5 inches in length by 10 inches in breadth and :s in thickness, another 1 font 7 inc'ies x 9 inches x 2\ inches. It is of interest to observe that on the west coast of the Gulf of Cambay, 20 miles south of Bhaonagar,- is another place now called Kukar, the ancient name of which, as appears from an inscription found there, was. Kokata; but the derivation is uncertain. The old Jit zaminiars are Gahlot, or Sisodiya, Thakurs from Sahpau. 43 170 CORRUPTION OF BUDDHISM. However, Buddhism itself, thoagh originally a system of abstractions and negations, was not long before it assumed a concrete development. In one of its schools, which from the indecency of many of the figures that have been discovered would seem to have been very popular at Ma- thura, debauchery of the most degrading description was positively inculcat- ed as the surest means for attaining perfection. The authority for theso abominable doctrines, which, in the absence of literary proof might have been considered an impossible outcome of such teaching as that of Sakya Muni, is a Sanskrit composition called Tathdgata Guhjnka, or Guhya sama.' gha, 'the collection of secrets,' of which the first published notice is thai given by Dr. Rajendra Lala Mittra in the introduction to his edition of the Lalita Vistara. He describes it as having all the characteristics of the worst specimens of the Hindu Tantras. The professed object, in either case, is devotion of the highest kind — absolute and unconditional — at the sacrifice of all worldly attachments, wishes, and aspirations ; but in working it out theories are indulged in and practices enjoined, which are at once the most revolting and horrible that human depravity could imagine. A shroud of mystery alone seems to prevent their true character from being seen ; but divested of it, works of this description would deserve to be burnt by the com- mon hangman. Looking at them philosophically, the great wonder is that a system of religion, so pure and so lofty in its aspirations as Buddhism, could lie made to ally itself with such pestilent dogmas and practices. Perfection is described as attainable not by austerity, privations and painful rigorous obser- vances, but by the enjoyment of all the pleasures of the world, some of which are described with a minuteness of detail which is simply revolting. The figures of nude dancing-girls in lascivious attitudes with other obscene repre- sentations, that occur on many of the Buddhist pillars in the museum, are clear indications of the popularity which this corrupt system had acquired in the neighbourhood. The two figures of female monsters, each with a child in its lap, which it is preparing to tear in pieces ami devour, are in all probabi- lity to be referred to the same school : though they appear also in the Hindu Tantras and under the same name, that of Dakini. In the oldest sculptures the figures are all decently draped, and it has been the custom to regard them only as Buddhist, and all the nude or otherwise objectionable representations as Jaini. But this is an error arising out of the popular Hindu prejudice against what they call in reproach ' the worship of the naked gods.' The on, cry is simply an interested one and has no foundation in fact : for though many Hindu temples, especially in Bengal, are disfigured by horrible obscenities, EARLIER STYLES OP ARCHITECTURE. 171 I know of no Jaini templo in which there is anything to shock the most sensitive delicacy ; while the length to which some of the recognized followers of Buddha could go in the deification of lust has been sufficiently shown by Dr. Mitra's description of the Guhya samagha. And this, it should be added, though hitherto almost unknown to European students, is no obscure treatise, but is one of the nine most important works to which divine worship is con- stantly offered by the Buddhists of Nepal. Of the different styles of architecture that have prevailed in the district, the memory of the earliest, the Indo-Greek, is preserved by a single small fragment, found in the Ambarisha hill, where a niche is supported by columns with Ionic capitals.' Of the succeeding style, the Indo-Scythian, there are a few actual architectural remains and a considerable number of sculptured representa- tions. No complete column has been recovered ; but the plain square bases, cut into four Mops, found at the Chauwara mounds, belong to this period, as also the bell-shaped capital, surmounted by an inscribed abacus with an ele- phant standing upon it, brought from a garden near the Kankali tila. It is dated the year 39, in the reign of Huvishka. In the sculptures, where an arcade is shown, the abacus usually supports a pair of winged linns, crouch- ing back to back ; but in a fragment from the Kankali tila, where the column i.s meant for an isolated one, it. bears an elephant. In this last example the shaft appears to be round, but it is more commonly shown as octagonal. The round bases, of which such a large number were unearthed from the Jamalpur mounds, many of them inscribed with the names of the donors, would seem to have been used for the support of statues. The name by which they are designated in the inscriptions is Kumbhaka. The miniature pediments, carved as a diaper or wall decoration, show that the temple fronts presented the same appearance as in the Nasik caves. This was peculiarly the Buddhist style and died with the religion to whose service it had been dedicated. After it came the mediaeval Brahmanic style, which was prevalent all over Upper India in the time of Prithi Raj and the Muhamnradan conquest. In this the bell- shaped capital appears as a vase with masses of dependent foliage at its four corners. These have not only a very graceful effect, but are also of much constructional significance, since they counteract the weakness which would otherwise have resulted from the attenuation of the vase at its base and neck. The shaft itself frequently springs from a similar vase set upon a moulded base. In early examples, as in a pair of columns from the Kankali tila and a fragment from Shergarh, the shaft has a central band of drooping lily-like flowers, with festoons dependent from them. Later on, instead of the band 172 THE BOIiECTIC STYLE OF THE lC'I'H • CEKTCJHTv a frrotesque face is introduced, with the moustaches prolonged into fanciful arabesque continuations, and strings of pearls substituted for the festoons, or a knotted scarf is grasped in the teeth and bangs half down to the base with a bell attached to its end. < tecasionally the entire shaft or some one of its faces is enriched with bands of foliage. Probably for the sake of securing greater height, a second capital was added at the top, either in plain cushion shape, or carved into the semblance of two squat monsters supporting the architrave on their head and upraised hands. For still loftier buildings it was the prac- tice to set two columns of similar character one on the other, crowning the uppermost with the detached capital as above described ; and afterwards it became the fashion to make even short columns with a notch in the middle, so as to give them the appearance of being in two pieces. Examples of this peculiarity may be seen in the Chhatthi Palna at Maha-ban and the Dargah at Noh-jhil. The custom, which prevailed to a very late period, of varying the shape of a shaft by making it square at bottom, then an octagon, and then polygonal, is probably of different origin and was only a device for securing an appearance of lightness. From about the year 1200 A.D. the architectural history of Mathura is an absolute blank till the middle of the 16th century, when, under the beneficent sway of the Emperor Akbar, the eclectic style, so characteristic of his own religious views, produced the magnificent series of temples, which even in their ruin arc still to be admired at Brinda-ban. The temple of Radha Ballabh, in that town, built in the next reign, that of Jahangir, is the last example of the style. Its characteristic note can scarcely be defined as the fusion, but rather as the parallel exhibition of the Hindu and Muhammadan method. Thus in a facade one story, or one compartment, shows a succession of multifoil saracenic arches, while above and below, or on either side, every opening is square-headed with the architrave supported on projecting brackets. The one is purely Muham- madan, the other is as distinctly Hindu ; yet, without any attempt made to disguise the fact beyond the judicious avoidance of all exaggerated peculiarities in either style, the juxta position of the two causes no sentiment of incongruity. If in any art it were possible to revive the dead, or if it were in human nature ever to return absolutely upon the past, this style would seem to be the one for our architects to copy. But simple retrogression is impossible. Every period has an environment of its own, which, however studiously ignored in artificial imitations, must have its effect in any spontaneous development of the artistic faculty. The principle, however, is as applicable as ever, though it will deal with altered materials and be manifested in novel phenomena. Indian architecture, as 5 3 UJ Z < u. o 0. 3 O cc o THE JXT STYLE OF AliCniTECTUKZ. 173 now in vogue at Mathura, is the result of Muhammadan influences working upon a Hindu basis. The extraordinary power that resulted from the first introduc- tion of the new element is all but exhausted ; the system requires once more to be invigorated from without. A single touch of genius might restore it to more than all its pristine activity by wedding it to the European Gothic, to which it has a strong natural affinity. The product would be a style that would satisfy all the practical requirements of modern civilization, and at the same time display the union of oriental and western idea, in a concrete form, which both nationalities could appreciate. The combination of dome and spire, the dream' of our last great Gothic architect, but which he died without accomplishing, would follow spontaneously ; and Anglo-Indian architecture, no longer a bye- word for Philistinism and vulgarity, might spread through the length and breadth of the empire with as much success as Indo-Greek art in the days of Alexander, or Hindu-Saracenic art in the reign of Akbar. The eclecticism of the last-named period, which has suggested the above remarks, was followed by the Jat style, of which the best examples are the tombs and palaces erected by Suraj Mall, the founder of the Bharatpur dynasty, and his immediate successors. In these the arch is thoroughly naturalized ; the details are also in the main dictated by Muhammadan precedent, but they are carried out with much of the old Hindu solidity and exuberance of fanci- ful decoration. The arcade of the Ganga Mohan Kunj at Brinda-ban is a very fine specimen of this style at its best. In later buildings, as in those on the bank of the Manasi Ganga at Gobardhan, the mouldings are shallower and the wall-ornamentation consists of nothing but an endless succession of niches and vases repeated with wearisome uniformity. The Baugala, or ob- long alcove, with a vaulted roof of curvilinear outline, is always a prominent feature iu this style and is introduced into some part of every facade. From the name it may be inferred that it was borrowed from Bengal and was pro- bably intended as a copy of the ordinary cottage roof made of bent bainbus. It does not appear in Upper India till the reign of Aurangzeb ; the earliest example in Mathura being the alcoves of the mosque built by Ahd-un- Nabi in 1661 A.D. The style in vogue at the present day is the legitimate descendant of tho above, and differs from it in precisely the same way as Perpendicular differs- from Decorated Gothic. It has greater lightness, but less freedom : more elabora- tion in details, but less vigour in conception. The panelling of the walls and piers is often filled in with extremely delicate arabesques of intricate design ; 44 174 THE STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE NOW IN VOGUE. but the effect is scarcely in proportion to the labour expended upon them ; for the work is too slightly raised and too minute to catch the eye at any distance. Thus the first impression is one of flatness and a want of accentuation ; artis- tic defects for which no refinement of detail can adequately compensate. The pierced tracery, however, of the screens and balconies is as good in character as in execution. The geometrical patterns are old traditions and can be classi- fied under a few well-defined heads, but they admit of almost infinite modi- fications under skilful treatment. They are cut with great mathematical nicety, the pattern being drawn on both sides of the slab, which is half chiselled through from one side and then turned over and completed from the other. The temples that line both sides of the High Street in the city, the monument to Seth Mani Rain in the Jamuna bagh and the porch of the museum itself are fine specimens of the style, and are conclusive proofs that, in Mathura at all events, architecture is, to this day, no mere galvanized revival of the past, but is still a living and progressive art. If a model of some one of the best and most typical buildings in each of the late styles were added to the museum collection of antiquities, as was my intention, the series would give • a complete view of the architectural history of the district, from which a student would be able to gather much instruction. A specimen of modern official architecture (?), as conceived by our Engineers in the Public Works Department, should further be placed in juxtaposition with them, as a model also, but a model of everything to be avoided. Immediately opposite the museum is the Public Garden, in which the museum itself ought to have been placed. It contains a considerable variety of choice trees ami shrubs, but unfortunately it has not been laid out with much taste, and its area is too large to be kept in good order out of the funds that are allowed for its maintenance. It was extended a few years ago, so as to include the site of a large mound and tank. The former was levelled and the latter filled up. During the progress of the work a number of copper coins were dis- covered, which may very possibly have been of the same date as the adjoining Buddhist monastery ; but being of no intrinsic value, there was no one on the spot who cared to preserve them. A little further on is the Jail, constructed on the approved radiating principle, and sufficiently strong under ordinary circumstances to ensure the safe-guard of native prisoners, though an European would probably find its walls not very difficult either to scale or breakthrough. This exhausts the list of public institutions and objects of interest ; whence it may be rightly inferred that the English quarter of Mathura is as dull and common-place as most other Indian stations. Still, in the rains it has a GOVERNORS OF MATHURA' IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 175 pleasant park-like appearance with its wide expanse of green sward, reserved for military uses from the encroachments of the plough ; its well-kept roads with substantial bridges to span the frequent ravines ; and the long avenues of trees that half conceal the thatched and verandahed bungalows that lie behind, each in its own enclosure of garden and pasture land ; while in the distant back-ground an occasional glimpse is caught of the broad stream of the Jamuna. NOTES ON CHAPTER VII. I.— 'List of Governors of Mathura' in the 17th Century. 1629. Mirza Isa Tarkhan ; who gave his name to the suburb of Isa- pur (now more commonly called Hans-ganj), on the opposite bank of the river. 1636. Murshid Kuli Khan, promoted, at the time of his appointment, to be commander of 2,000 horse, as an incentive to be zealous in stamping out idolatry and rebellion. From him the suburb of Murshid-pur derives its name. 1630. Allah Virdi Khan. After holding office for three years, some disloyal expressions to which he had given utterance were reported to the emperor, who thereupon confiscated his estates and removed him to Delhi. 1642. Azam Khan Mir Muhammad Bakir, also called Irsidat Khan. He is commemorated by the Azam-abad Sarae, which he founded (see page 31), and by the two villages of Azam-pur and Bakir-pur. He came of a noble family seated at Sawa in Persia, and having attached himself to the service of Asaf Khan Mirza Jafar, the distinguished poet and courtier, soon after became his son-in-law and was introduced to the notice of the Emperor Jahangir. He thus gained his firsr appointment under the Crown ; but his subsequent promo- tion was due to the influence of Yamin-ud-ilaula, Asaf Khan IV., the father of Mumtaz Mahall, the favourite wife of Shahjahan. On the accession of that monarch he was appointed commander of 5,000, and served with distinction in the Dakhiu in the war against the rebel Khan Jahan Lodi and in the opera- tions against the Nizam Shahi's troops. In the fifth year of the reign, he was made Governor of Bengal in succession to Kasiin Khan Juwaini. Three years later he was transferred to Allahabad, but did not remain there long, bein"' moved in the very next year to Gujarat, as Subadar. In the twelfth year of Shahjahan his daughter was married to prince Shuja, who had by her a son named Zain-ul-abidin. From 1642 to 1645 he was Governor of Mathur&, but 176 THE CITY MADALLAS. in the latter year, as he did not act with sufficient vigour against the Hindu malcontents, his advanced age was made the pretext for transferring him to Bihar. Three years later he received orders for Kashmir ; but as he objected to the cold climate of that country he was allowed to exchange it for Jaun-pnr, where he died in 1648, at the age of 7(3. He is described in the Naasir-ul- I'mara as a man of most estimable character, but very harsh in his mode of collecting the State revenue. Azamgarh, the capital of the district of that name in the Banaras Division, was also founded by him. 1645. Makramat Khan, formerly Governor of Delhi. 1658. Jafar, son of Allah Virdi Khan. 1659. Kasim Khan, transferred from Muradiibad, but murdered on his way down. 1660. Abd-un-Nabi, founder of the Jama Masjid (see page 150). 1668. Saft-Shikan Khan. Fails in quelling the rebellion. 1669. Hasan Ali Khan. During his incumbency the great temple of Kesava Deva was destroyed. 1676. Sultan Kuli Khan, II. — Names of the City Quarters, or Mahallas. 1 Mandavi Rani. 20 2 Bair&g-pura. 21 3 Khirki Bisati. 22 4 Naya-bas. 23 5 Arjun-pura. 24 6 Tek-narnaul. 25 7 Gali Seru Kasera. 26 8 Gali Ravaliya. 27 9 Gali Ram-pal. 28 10 Tek Rami Khati. 29 11 Gali Mathura Me- 30 gha. 31 12 Bazar Ohauk. 32 13 Gali Bhairon. O 9 66 14 Gali Thathera. 34 15 Lai Darwaza. 35 16 Gali Lohiva. 36 17 Gali Nanda. 37 18 Teli-para 38 19 Tila Chaubc. 39 Brindaban Darwaza, Gher Gobindi. Gali Gopa Shah. Shah-ganj Darwaza Halan-ganj. Chakra Tirath. Krishan Ganga. Go-ghat. Kans k;'i kila. Hanuman tila, Zer masjid. Kushk. ^;imi Ghat. Makhdiim Shah. Asi-kunda Ghat. Visrant Ghat. Kans-khar. Gali Dasavatar. Gor-para Gosain (J hat. 40 Kil-math. 41 Syam Ghat. 42 Ram Ghat. 43 Ramji-dwara. 44 Bihari-pura. 45 Ballabh Ghat. 46 Maru Gali. 47 Bengali Ghat. 48 Kala Mahal. •19 Chuna kankar. 50 Chamarhana. 51 Gopal-pura. 52 Sarai Raja Bha- dauria. 53 Sengal-pura. 54 Chhonkar-para, 55 Mir-ganj. 56 Holi Darwaza. 57 Sitala Gali. 58 Kampu Ghat. PRINCIPAL BUILDINGS IN THE CITY OF MATHTHA'. 177 II. — Names of the City Quarters or Mauallas — {concluded). 39 Dharmsala Raja 76" Gujarhana. / 93 Manik chauk. Awa (built by Raj6 77 Roshan-ganj. 94 Gaja Paesa. Pitambar Sinh). 78 Bhar-kigali. 95 Ghati Bitthal Rae. 60 Dhruva Ghat. 79 Kliii-ki Dalpat Rao. 96 Sitala Ghati. i;i Dhruva ti'la. 80 Taj-pura. 97 Nakarchi tila. 62 Bal tila. 81 Chaubachcha. 98 Guiar Ghati. 63 Bar.'i Jay Kam Das. 82 Sat Ghara. 99 Gali Kalal. til General-ganj. 83 Chhathi Bazar. 100 Kaserat. 65 Anta-parfi 84 Gali Pathakan. 101 Gali Durga Chand. 66 Gobind-ganj. 85 Mandar Parikh Ji. 102 Bazaz.i. 67 ( Ihhagan-purai 86 Kazi-para. 103 Mandavi Ghiya. 68 Santokh-pura. 87 Nava Bazar (from 104 Gali Dhiisaron ki. 69 Chhah kathauti. Mr. Thorn ton's time). 105 Manohar-pura. 70 Kotwali. 88 Ghati chikne r >at- 106 Ka~-ai-]iara. 71 Bharatpur Darwaza. haron ki. 107 Kesopura, 72 Lala-gnnj. 89 Gali Gotawala. 108 Mandavi Ram D 73 Sitala Paesa. 90 Gata sram. 109 Matiya Darwaza. 74 Maholi Pol. 91 Ratn kund. 110 Dig Darwaza. 7.5 Nagra Paesa. 92 Chhonka-par.'i. Ill Mahalla khakroban. III. — Principal Buildings in the City of Mathura'. 1. Hardinge Arch, or Holi Darwaza, forming the Agra gate of the city, erected by the municipality at a cost of Rs. 13,731. 2. Temple ofRadha Kishan, founded by Deva Chand, Bohra, of Tenda- Khera near Jabalpur, in 1870-71. Cost Rs. 40,000. In the Chhata Bazar. 3. Temple of Bijay Gobhid, in the Satghara Mahalla, built in 1867 by Rijay Ram, Bohra, of Dattia, at a cost of Rs. 65,000. 4. Temple of Bala Deva, in the Khans-khar Bazar, built in 1865 by Kush- ali Ram, Bohra, of Sher-garh, at a cost of Rs. 25,000. 5. Temple of Bhairav Nath, in the Lobars' quarter, built by Bishan Lai, Khattri, at a cost of Rs. 10,000. It is better known by the name of Sarvar Sultan, as it contains a chapel dedicated in honor of that famous Muhammadan saint, regarding whom it may be of interest to subjoin a few particulars. The parent shrine, situate in desert country at the mouth of a pass leading into Kandahar, is served by a company of some 1,650 priests besides women and children ; who, with the exception of a small grant from Government yielding an annual income of only Rs. 350, are entirely dependent for subsistence on the charity of pilgrims. The shrine is equally reverenced by Hindus, Sikhs, and Muhammadaus, and it is said to be visited in the course of a year by as many 45 178 PRINCIPAL BUILDINGS IN THE CITY OF MATuTr.X. as 200,000 people of all castes and denominations, who come chiefly frdm the Panjab and Sindh. The saint in his lifetime was so eminent for his universal benevolence and liberality (whence his title of sakki) that he is believed still to retain after death the power and will to grant every petition that is present- ed to him. A,t the large fair held in February, March and April, the shrine is crowded with applicants, many of whom beg for aid in money. As the shrine is poor and supported by charity, this cannot be given on the spot ; but the petitioner is told to name some liberal-minded person, upon whom an order is then written and sealed with the great seal of the temple and handed to the applicant. When presented by him to the person, on whom it was drawn, it is not unfrequently honoured. Such a parwiina, drawn on one Muhammad Khan Afghan, was found on the fakir Nawab Shah, who in 1871 made a murderous attack on the Secretary of the Labor Municipality. A report on the peculiar circumstances of the case was submitted to Government, and it is from it that the above sketch has been extracted in explanation of the singular fact that a Muhammadan saint has been enthroned as a deity in a Hindu temple in the most exclusive of ad Hindu cities. f!. Ternple of G-ata-sram, near the Visrant Ghat, built by Pran-nath Sastri, at a cost of Es. 25,000, about the year 1800. 7. Temple of Dwarakadhis commonly called the Setlvs temple, in the Asikunda Bazar, built by P;irikh Ji, in 1815, at a cost of Ks. 20,000. 8. House of the Bharat-pur Rajas, with gateway added by the late Raja Balavant Sinh. 9. House of Scth Lakhmi Chand, built in 1845 at a cost of Rs. 1,00,000. 10. Temple of Madan Mohan, by the Sami Ghat, built by Seth Anant Ram of Chiiri by Ram-garb, in 1859, at a cost of Rs. 20,000. 11. Temple of Gobardhan Nath, built by Seth Kushal, commonly called Seth Babti, kamdar of the Barodara Raja, in 1830. 12. Temple of Bihari Ji, built by Chhakki Lai and Kanhaiya Lai, bankers of Mhow near Nimach, in 1850, at at a cost of Rs. 25,000, by the Sami Ghat : has a handsome court-yard as well as external facade. 13. Temple of Gobind Deva, near the Nakarchi tila, built by Gaur Sahay Mall and Ghan-Syam Das, his son, Seths of Chiiri, in 1848, with their resi- dences and that of Ghau-Syam's uncle, Ramchandra, adjoining. 14. Temple of Gopi-nath, by the Sai.ii Ghat, built by Gulraj and Jagan- nath, Seths of Chun, in 18(>6, at a cost of Rs. 30,000. FESTIVALS "OBSERVED IN MATRTRA'. 17'.' 15. Temple of Baladeva, near the Hardinge Arch, built by Bala, Ahir, a servant of Seth Lakhmi < 'hand, an a dwelling-house, about the year 1820, at a cost of Rs. 50,000, and sold to Rae Bai, a baniya's wife, who converted it into a temple. 16. Temple of Mohan JSin the Satghara Mahalla, built about 70 year-- ago by Kripa Ram, Bohra : more commonly known as Daukala Kunj, after the Chaube who was the founder's purohit. I 7. Temple of Madan Mohan, in the Asikunda Mahalla, built by Dhanraj, Bohra, of Aligarh. 18. Temple of Gobardhan Nath, in the Kans-khar, built by Devi Das, Bohra, of Urai. 19. Temple of Dirgha Vishnu, by the street leading to the Bharat-pur gate, built by Raja Patni Mall of Banaras. 20. The Sati Burj, or ' faithful widow's tower,' built by Raja Bhagavan Das in 1570. 21. The mosque of Abd-un-Nabi Khan, built 1662. 22. The mosque of Aurangzeb, built 1669, on the site of the temple of Kcsava Deva. IV. — Calendar of Festivals observed in the City of Mathura\ Chait Sudi [April 1-15). 1 . Chait Sudi 8. — Durga Ashtami. Held at the temple of Mahavidya Devi. •>. Chait Sudi 9. — Ram Navami. Held at the Ram Ji Dwara. Baisdkh {April — May). 3. Baisdkh Sudi 14. — Nar Sinh lila. Held at Gor-para, Manik Chauk, and the temple cf Dwarakadhis. 4. Baisdkh full moon. — Perambulation of Mathuni, called Ban-bihar, start- ing from the Visniut Ghat; tho only one made in the night. 5. Jeth Sudi 10. — The Jeth Dasahara. In the middle of tho day, bath- ino- at the Dasasvamedh Ghat ; in the evening kite-flying from the Gokarnes- var hill. 6. Jeth full moon.— Jal-jatra, All the principal people bring the water for the ablution of the god into the temples on their own shoulders in little silver urns. ISO FESTIVALS OBSERVED IN MATnTIU. Asdrh [June — July)\ 7. Asdrh Sudi 2. — Rath-jatra. 8. Asdrh Sudi 11.— Principal perambulation of Mathura and Brinda-ban before the god takes his four months' sleep ; called jugal jori ki parikramd. The people start early in the morning either from the Visrant, or some other Ghat nearer their home, and after passing by the Sarasvati kund continue their way for about a mile along the Delhi road. The majority then make a straight cut across to Brinda-ban, while the others go on first to the Garur Gobind shrine at Chhatikra. This is the longest perambulation made and is said to be of 20 kos. All return to Mathura the same day ; any one who fails to do so being thought to lose the whole benefit of his pilgrimage. !>. Asdrh full moon. — Byas-puno. In the morning the Guru is formally reverenced ; in the evening there are wrestling matches, and the Pandits assemble on the hills or house-tops for the ; pavan pariksha,' or watching of the wind ; from which they predict when the rains will commence and what sort of a season there will be. When tho wind is from the north, as it was in 1879, it is thought to be a good sign ; and certainly the rain that year superabundant. Srdvan (July — August). lOi Srdvan Sudi 3. — Commonly called Tij ka mela. Wrestling matches near the temple of Bhiitesvar Mahadeva. 11. Srdvan Sudi 5. — The Panch Tirath mela begins. A pilgrimage starts from the Visrant Ghat for Madhu-ban ; proceeds on the next day to San- tanu kund at Satoha and the Gyan-bauli near the Katra; on the third day to Gokarnesvar ; on the fourth to the shrine of Garur Gobind at Chhatikra* and on the fifth to the Brahm kund at Brinda-ban, 12. Srdvan Sudi 11.— Perambulation of Mathura and Pavitra-dharan, or offering of Brahmanical threads to the Tliakur. 13. Srdvan full moon. — The Saluno or Raksha-bandhan. Wrestling matches in different orchards near the temple of Bhutesvar. Bhddon (August — September). 14. Bhddon Badi 8.— Janni Ashtami ; Krishna's birthday. A fast till midnight. * Chhatikra, on the Dehli road, was founded by Maim, Jam.i, mid Ror, three Kachwahas, who are said to have come from Rjl fourteen geuerations, i.e., about 300 years ago. Their FESTIVALS OBSERVED IK MATHURA*. 181 15. Bhdilon Sudi 11. — A special pilgrimage to Madhu-ban, Tal-ban, and Kumud-ban. The general Ban-jatra also commences and lasts for 15 days. 16. Bhddon Sudi 14. — The Anant Chaudas. The Pairaki, or swimming festival, is held every Thursday in Sravan and Bhadon, but the principal day is the last Thursday before the Anant Chaudas, when there is a, very great concourse of people, occupying the walls of the old fort and all the river-side ghats. Then" is no racing : but the swimmers, almost all of whom have with them large hollow gourds, or inflated skins for occasional support, perform a variety of strange antics in the water ; while some are mounted upon grotesque structures in the shape of horses, or peacocks, or different kinds of carriages. The scene, which is an amusing one, is best witnessed from a barge towed up the stream to the highest ghat near Jaysinghpura, where the swim- mers start, and allowed to drop down with the current to the pontoon bridge. About sunset there is a rude display of fireworks accompanied with much smoke and noise ; but the swimmers remain in the water some two or three hours longer, when the proceedings terminate with music and dancing in the streets of the city. Kuvdr ( September — October). 17. Kuvdr llnli 8. — Perambulation of the city followed by five days' festi- vities, during which it is customary to make a great number of little pewter descendants now retain only 1 i biswa, the rest having been sold to the mahant of the temple of Syam Sundar at Brinda-ban, who is also muafidar. They say that the name of the place, when their ancestors first occupied it, was the same as now, and that it refers to the six (chlta) sakhis, or companions of Kadha, whose gupt bhavan, or unseen abode, is one of the sites visited by pilgrims. Another local explanation of the name is that it refers to the six villages, each of which had to cede part of its land to form the Kachhwahds' new settlement. There is a rakhya, wherein the trees are chiefly kadambs of small growth, though old, mixed with dhak, nirn, karil, and hins, and in it is a highly venerated shrine, dedicated to Garur Gobind. The present building, which is small and perfectly plain, enshriaes a black stone image of the god Gobind mounted on Garur. Close by is a cave with a longish flight of winding steps simply dug in the soil, but no one can penetrate to the end on account of the fleas with which the place swarms. On Sivan Sudi 8. during the panch lirat/t ki mela, the temple is visited by the largest number of pilgrims. There is a second fair on the day after the Holi, and a third on the full moon of Jetli. The revenue of the village all goes to the temple of Syam Sundar at Brinda-ban. The local shrine Inn no endow- ment. In a field immediately adjoining the homestead are some fragments of Buddhist rails. These were probably brought from the Gobind-kund, about a mile away, where some ancient building irust once have stood. For digging the foundations of the small masonry ghat there, 20 years or so ago, it is said that some large sculptures were discovered ; but as they were muti- lated, no one took the trouble to remove them. I told Kurha — the Pujari— to let me know when the tank was dry enough to allow of excavations being made, but I left the district before any such opportunity occurred. 46 182 FESTIVALS OBSERVES IN JfATHURA'. figures called sdnjhi, representing Krishna and the GopiS, in whose honour also there are performances, all through the night, of the Ras dance. 18. Kuvdr Sudi 8. — Meghnad Lila, or representation of the death of Ba- van's son Megh-nad". This is the first of the three great days of the Ram Lila, which is held on the open plain near the temple of Mahavidya. The entire series of performances, which commences from the new moon, includes most of the leading events in the Biimayaua, such as the tournament, the defeat of Taraka, the departure into exile, Bharat's expedition to Chitra-kiit, the mutilation of Surpa-nakha, the rape of Sita, the meeting with Sugriv, and the building of the bridge. A separate day is assigned to each incident, but the first six or seven acts of the drama are not invariably the same, and it is only on the 8th, 9th, and 10th days that many people assemble to see the show. 19. Kuvdr Sudi 9. — Kumbhakaran Lila, with representation of the death of Ravan's brother, Kumbhakaran. 20. Kuvdr Sudi 10. — Last day of the Dasahara, with representation of Rama's final victory over Ravan. Though this fete attracts a large concourse of people, the show is a very poor one and the display of fireworks much inferior to what may be seen in many second-rate Hindu cities. 21. Kuvdr Sudi 11. — Bharat Milap. A platform is erected in the street under the Jama Masjid, on which is enacted a respresentation of the meeting at Ajudhya between Prince Bharat and Rama, Sita and Lakshman, ou their re- turn from their wanderings. For the whole distance from that central spot to the Holi Gate not only the thoroughfare itself, but all the balconies and tops of the houses are crowded with people in gay holiday attire ; and as the fronts of all the principal buildings are also draped with party-coloured hang- ings, and the shops dressed up to look their best, the result is a very picturesque spectacle, which is more pleasing to the European eye than any other feast in the Hindu calendar ; the throng, however, is so dense that it is rather a hazardous matter to drive a carriage through it. 22. Kuvdr full moon — Sarad-puno. Throughout the night visits ace paid to the different temples. Kdiiik (October — November). 23. Kdrtik neio moon— Diwali, or Dip-dan — feast of lamps. 24. Kdrtik Sutli 1. — Anna-kut. The same observances as at Gobardhan, but on a smaller scale. FESTIVALS OBSERVED IN MATIIURA'. 183 25. Kdrtik Sitdi — Dhobi-maran Lila. Held near the Brinda-ban gate to commemorate Krisbna'a spoliation of Kansa's washerman. 2G. Kdrtik Sudi 8. — Gocharan, or pasturing the cattle. Held in tho evening at the Gopal Bagh on the Agra Eoad, 27. Kdrtik Sudi 9.— Akhay-Navami. The second great perambulation of the city, beginning immediately after midnight. 28. Kdrtik Sudi 10. — Kans badh ka mela, at the Rangesvar Mahadeva, Towards evening, a large wicker figure of Kans is brought out on to the road, when two boys, dressed to represent Krishna and Baladeva, and mounted either on horses or an elephant, give the signal, with the staves all wreathed with flowers that they have iu their hands, for an assault upon the monster. In a few minutes it is torn to shreds and tatters by the Chaubes and a proces- sion is then made to the Visrant Ghat. 22. Kdrtik Sudi 11. — Deotthan. The awakening of the god from his four months' slumber. A similar perambulation as on Asarh (Midi 1 1. Mdgh (January — February) . 30. Magh Sudi 5.— Basant Panchami. The return of spring ; correspond- ing to the English May-day. Phdlgun (February — March). 31 Phdlgun full moon. — The Holi, or Indian saturnalia. Chait badi (March 15— DO). 32, Chait Badi 1. — Gathering at tho temple of Kesava Deva. 33. Chait Badi 5.— Phul-dol. Processions with flowers and music ami dancing. CHAPTER VIII, brinda-ban and the vaishnava reformers. Some six miles above Mathura is a point where the right bank of the Jamun4 assumes the appearance of a peninsula, owing to the eccentricity of the stream, which first makes an abrupt turn to the north and then as sudden a return upon its accustomed southern course. Here, washed on three of its sides by the sacred flood, stands the town of Brinda-ban, at the present day a rich and prosperous municipality, and for several centuries past one of the most holy places of the Hindus. A little higher up the stream a similar promontory occurs, and in both cases the curious formation is traditionally ascribed to the resentment of Baladeva. He, it is said, forgetful one day of bis habitual reserve, and emulous of his younger brother's popular graces, led out the Gopis for a dance upon the sands. But he performed his part so badly, that the Jamuna could not forbear from taunting him with his failure and recom- mending him never again to exhibit so clumsy an imitation of Krishna's agile movements. The stalwart god was much vexed at this criticism and, taking up the heavy plough which he had but that moment laid aside, he drew with it so deep a furrow from the shore that the unfortunate river, perforce, fell into it, was drawn helplessly away and has never since been able to recover its original channel. Such is the local rendering of the legend ; but in the Puranas and other early Sanskrit authorities the story is differently told, in this wise ; that as Balarama was roaming through the woods of Brinda-ban, he found concealed in the cleft of a kadamb tree some spirituous liquor, which he at once con- sumed with his usual avidity. Heated by intoxication he longed, above all things, for a bathe in the river, and seeing the Jamuna at some little distance, he shouted for it to come near. The stream, however, remained deaf to his summons ; whereupon the infuriated god took up his ploughshare and breaking down the bank drew the water into a new channel and forced it to follow wherever he led. In the Bhagavata it is added that the Jamuna is still to be seen following the course along which she was thus dragged. Professor Wilson, in his edition of the Vishnu Purana, says, " The legend probably alludes to the construction of canals from the Jamuna for the purpose of irrigation ; and the works of the Muhammadans in this way, which are well known, were no Ion lii proceded by similar canals dug by the order of Eindo princes." Upon this THE ROAD BETWEEN MATni'RA' AND BRINDA'-BAN. 1S5 suggestion it may be remarked, first, that in Upper India, with the sole excep- tion of the canal constructed by Firoz Shah (1351-1388 A.D.) for the supply of the city of Hisar, no irrigation works of any extent are known ever to have been executed either by Hindus or Muhammadans : certainly there are no traces of any such operations in the neighbourhood of Brinda-ban ; and secondly, both legends rrpn -nit the Jamuna itself as diverted from its straight course into a single winding channel, not as divided into a multiplicity of streams. Hence it may more reasonably be inferred that the still existing involution of the river is the sole foundation for the myth. The high road from Mathura to Brinda-ban passes through two villages, Jay-sinh-pur and Ahalya-ganj, and about half way crosses a deep ravine by a bridge that bears the following inscription : — Sri. Pul Banwdyd MaMrdj Dex mukh Bdld-bai Sahib beti Mahdrdj M&dho Ji Saindhiya Bahadur Ki ne marfat KhazdncM Mdnik Chand ki, Jisukh kdrkun, ffumdshta Mahtdb Rde ne sambat 1890, mahina asdrh badi 10 guruvdsare. Close by is a masonry tank, quite recently completed, which also has a commemorative inscription as follows: Taldb banw&yd Laid Kishan Ldl beta Fakir Chand Sahukdr, jdt Dhusar, Rahnewala Dilli ke ne, sambat 1929 mutabik san 1872 Tsvi. That the bridge should have been built by a daughter of the Maharaja of Gwaliar and the tank constructed by a banker of Delhi, both strangers to the locality, is an example of the benefits which the district enjoys from its reputation for sanctity. As the road between the two towns is always thronged with pilgrims, the number of these costly votive offerings is sure to be largely increased in course of time ; but at present the country on either side has rather a waste and desolate appearance, with fewer gardens and houses than would be expected on a thoroughfare connecting two places of such popular resort. An explanation is afforded by the fact that the present road is of quite recent construction. Its predecessor kept much closer to the Jamuna, lying just along the khddar lands — which in the rains form part of the river bed — and then among the ravines, where it was periodically destroyed by the rush of water from the land. This is now almost entirely disused ; but for the first two miles out of Brindaban its course is marked by lines of trees and several works of considerable magnitude. The first is a large garden more than 40 bighas in extent, surrounded by a masonry wall and sup- plied with water from a distance by long aqueducts.* In its centre is a stone temple of some size, and among the trees, with which the grounds are ever- * By some extraordinary misconception Dr. Hunter in his Imperial Gazetteer speaks of this garden aqueduct as if it were an elaborate system of works for supplying the whole town with drinking-water; 47 18G ETYMOLOGY OF BITAT-ROND AND BIUXDA'-BAN. crowded, some venerable specimens of the khirni form an imposing avenue. The garden bears the name of Kushal, a wealthy Seth from Gujarat, at whose expense it was constructed, and who also founded one of the largest temples in the city of Mathura. A little beyond, on the opposite side of the way, in a piece of waste ground, which was once an orchard, is a large and handsome bduli of red sand-stone, with a flight of 57 steps leading down to the level of the water. This was the gift of Ahalya Bai, the celebrated Mahratta Queen of Indor, who died in 1795. It is still in perfect preservation, but quite unused. Further on, in the hamlet of Akriir, on the verge of a cliff overlooking a wide expanse of alluvial land, is the temple of Bhat-rond, a solitary tower containing an image of Bihari Ji. In front of it is a forlorn little court-yard with walls and entrance gateway all crumbling into ruin. Opposite is a large garden of the Seth's, and on the roadway that runs between, a fair, called the Bhat-mela, is held on the full moon of Kartik ; when sweetmeats are scrambled among the crowd by the visitors of higher rank, seated on the top of the gate. The word Bhat-rond is always popularly connected with the incident in Krishna's life which the mela commemorates — how that he and his brother Balaram one day, having forgotten to supply themselves with provisions before leaving home, had to borrow a meal of rice {bhdt) from some Brahmans' wives — but the true etymology (though an orthodox Hindu would regard the suggestion as heretical) refers, like most of the local names in the neighbourhood, merely to physi- cal phenomena, aud Bhat-rond maybe translated 'tide-wall,' or 'break- water.' Similarly, the word Brinda-ban is derived from an obvious physical feature, and when first attached to the spot signified no more than the ' tulsi grove ;' brindd and tulsi being synonymous terms, used indifferently to denote the sacred aromatic herb known to botanists as Ocymum sanctum. But this explanation is tar too simple to find favour with the more modern and extravagant school of Vaishnava sectaries ; and in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, a mythical per- sonage has been invented bearing the name of Vrinda. According to thai. spurious composition (Brah. Vai, v. iv. 2) the deified Radha, though inhabit- ing the Paradise of Goloka, was not exempt from human passions, and in a fit of jealousy condemned a Gopa by name Sridama to descend upon earth in the form of the demon Sankhachura. He, in retaliation, sentenced her to become a nymph of Brinda-ban and there accordingly she was born, being, as was supposed, the daughter of Kedara, but in reality the divine mistress of Krishna : and it was simply his love for her which induced the god to leave his solitary throne in heaven and become incarnate. Hence in the following list of Radha's THE TOWN OP BRINDA-BAN QUITE MOriERX. 187 titles, as given by the same authority (Brah. Vai., v. iv. 17), there are three which refer to her predilection for Brinda-ban : — RdrUut, Riiscxniri. HasuriWnu, Rdxikesvari, Krishna-pranddhikd, Krishna-priyd, KrisJina-sicariipini, Krishnd, 1 rinddvani, Vrindd, Vrinddvana-vinodini } Chanddvati, < 'hdndra-kdntd, Sata-chandra-nihhdnand) A rishna- vdmdnga-sambhiHtd, Paramdnanda-rilpini* In the Padma Purana, Radha's incarnation is explained in somewhat differ- ent fashion; thai Vishnu being enamoured of Vrindd, the wife of Jalandhara, the gods, in their desire to cure him of Ids guilty passion, begged of Lakshmi the gift of certain seeds. These, when sown, came up as the tulsi, mdlati and dhdtri plants, winch assumed female forms of such beauty that Vishnu on seeing them lost all regard for the former object of his affections. There is no reason to suppose that Brinda-ban was ever the seat of any large Buddhist establishment ; and though from the very earliest period of Brah- manical history it has eiy'oyed high repute as a sacred place of pilgrimage, it is probable that for many centuries it was merely a wild uninhabited jungle, a description still applicable to Bhandir-ban, on the opposite side of the river, a spot of equal celebrity in Sanskrit literature. Its most ancient temples, four in number, take us back only to the reign of our own Queen Elizabeth; the stately courts that adorn the river bank and attest the wealth and magnificence of the Bharat-pur Rajas, date only from the middle of last century; while the space now occupied by a series of the largest and most magnificent shrines ever erected in Upper India was, fifty years ago, an unclaimed belt of wood-land and pasture-ground for cattle. Now that communication has been established with the remotest parts of India, every year sees some splendid addition made to the artistic treasures of the town ; as wealthy devotees recognize in the stability and tolerance of British rule an assurance that their pious donations will be completed in peace and remain undisturbed in perpetuity. "When Father Tieffenthaler visited Brinda-ban, in 1754, he noticed only one long street, but states that this was adorned with handsome, not to say magnifi- cent, buildings of beautifully carved stone, which had been erected by different Hindu Rajas and nobles, cither for mere display, or as occasional residences, or as embellishments that would be acceptable to the local divinity. The absurdity * " Ridha, queen of the dance, constant at the dance, queen of the dancer ; dearer than Krishna's life, Krishna's delight, Krishna's counter-part; Krishna, Brinda, Brinda-ban born, sporting at Brinda-ban ; moon-like spouse of the moon-like go.l, with face bright as a hundred moons ; created as the left half of Krishna's body, incarnation of heavenly bliss." 1 SS MONS. JACQUEMONT's DESCRIPTION OF BRTNDA'-BAN; of people coming from long distances merely for the sake of (lying on holy ground, all among the monkeys — which he describes as a most intolerable nuisance — together with the frantic idolatry that he saw rampant all around, and the grotesque resemblance of the Bairagis to the hermits and ascetics of the ear- lier ages of Christianity, seem to have given the worthy missionary such a shock that his remarks on the buildings are singularly vague and indiscriminating. Mons. Victor Jacquemont' who passed through Brinda-ban in the cold weather of 1829-30, has left rather a fuller description. Ho says, "This is a very ancient city, and I should say of more importance even than Mathura. It is considered one of the most sacred of all among the Hindus, an advantage which Mathura, also possesses, but in a less degree. Its temples are visited by multitudes of pilgrims, who perform their ablutions in the river at the differ- ent ghats, which arc very fine. All the buildings are constructed of red sand- stone, of a closer grain and of a lighter ami less disagreeable colour than that used at Agra : it comes from the neighbourhood of Jaypur, a distance of 200 miles. Two of these temples have the pyramidal form peculiar to the early Hindu style, but without the little turrets which in the similar buildings at Benares seem to spring out of the main tower that determines the shape of the edifice. They have a better effect, from being more simple, but are half in ruins." (The temples that he means are Madan Mohan and Jugal Kishor). " A larger and more ancient ruin is that of a temple of unusual form. The interior of the nave is like that of a Gothic church ; though a village church only, so far as size goes. A quantity of grotesque sculpture is pendent from the dome, and might be taken for pieces of turned wood.* An immense number of bells, large and small, are carved in relief on the supporting pillars and on the walls, worked in the same stiff and ungainly style. Many of the independent Rajas of the west, and some of their ministers (who have robbed them well no doubt) are now building at Brinda-ban in a different style, which, though less original, is in better taste, and are indulging in the costly ornamentation of pierced stone tracery. Next to Benares, Brinda-ban is the largest purely Hindu city that I have seen. I could not discover in it a single mosque. Its suburbs are thickly planted with fine trees, which appear from a distance like an island of verdure in the sandy plain." (These are the large gardens beyond the tem- ple of Madan Mohan, on the old Delhi road.) " The Doab, which can be seen * The description of the temple of Gobind Deva in Thornton's Gazetteer contains the following sentence, which had often puzzled me. He says: — "From the vaulted roof depend numerous idols rudely carved in wood. " He has evidently misunderstood Mons. Jacquemont's meaning, who referB not to any idols, but to the curious quasi-pendentives, like fir- ;anes, that ornament the dome. CHAUTTAHLE ENDOWMENTS OF BRINDJSi-BAN. 180 from the 'top of'ths temples, stretching away on the opposite side of the Jamuna i.s still barer than the country 0ii 'I'" right bank.' At the present time there are within the limits of the municipality about a thousand temples, including, of course, many which, strictly speaking, are mere- ly private chapels, and thirty-two ghats constructed by different princely bene- factors. The tanks of reputed sanctity are only two in number. The first is the Brahm Kuad at the back of the Seth's temple ; it is now in a very ruinous condition, and the stone kiosques at its four corners have in part fallen, in part been occupied by vagrants, who have closed up the arches with mud walls and converted them into dwelling-places. I had begun to effect a clearance and make arrangements for their complete repair when my transfer took place and put an immediate stop to this and all similar improvements. The other, called Goviud Kund, is in an out-of-the-way spot near the Mathura road. Hitherto it had been little more than a natural pond, but has latclj' been enclosed on all four sides with masonry walls and flights of steps, at a cost of Rs. 30,000, by Chaudharani Kali Sundari from Rajshahi in Bengal. To these may be added, as a third, a masonry tank in what is called the Kewar-ban. This is a grove of pipal, gular, and kadamb trees which stands a, little off the Mathura road near the turn to the Madaa Mohan temple. It is a halting-place in the Banjatra, and the name is popularly said to be a corruption of Tdn vdrl, l who lit it ?' with reference to the forest conflagration, or davdnal, of which the traditional scene is more commonly laid at Bhadra-ban, on the opposite bank of the river. There is a small temple of Davanal Bihari, with a cloistered court-yard for the reception of pilgrims. The Gosain is a Nimbarak. A more likely derivation for the name would be the Sanskrit word kaivalya, meaning final beatitude. Adjoining the ban is a large walled garden, belonging to the Tehri Raja, which has long been abandoned on account of the badness of the water. The peacocks and monkeys, with which the town abounds, enjoy the benefit of special endowments bequeathed by deceased Rajas of Kota ami Bharat-pur. There are also some fifty chhattras, or dole-houses, for the distri- bution of alms to indigent humanity, and extraordinary donations are not unfre- quently made by royal and distinguished visitors. Thus the Raja of Datia, a few years ago, made an offering to every single shrine and every single Brahman that was found in the city. The whole population amounts to 21,000, of which the Brahmans, Bairagis and Vaishnavas together make up about one half. In the time of the emperors, the Muhammadans made a futile attempt to abolish the ancient name, Brinda-ban, and in its stead substitute that of Muminabad ; but now, more wisely, they leave the place to its own Hindu name and devices and 4S IDA THE HTXDt5 'REFORMERS. keep themselves as clear of it as possible. Thus, besides an occasional official, there are in Brinda-ban no followers of the prophet beyond only some fifty fami- lies, who live close together in its outskirts and an* all of the humblest order, such as oilmen, lime-burners and the like. They have not, a single public mosque nor even a karbala in which to deposit the tombs of Hasan and Husain on the feast of the Muharram, but have to bring them into Mathura to be interred. It is still customary to consider the religion of the Hindus as a compact system, which has existed continuously and without any material change ever since the remote and almost pre-historic period when it finally abandoned the comparatively simple form of worship inculcated by the ritual of the Vedas. The real facts, however, are far different. So far as it is possible to compare natural with revealed religion, the course oi Hinduism and Christianity has been identical in character ; both were subjected to a violent disruption, which occurred in the two quarters of the globe nearly simultaneously, and which is still attested by the multitude of uncouth fragments into which the ancient edifice was disintegrated as it fell. In the west, the revival of ancient litera- ture and the study of forgotten systems of philosophy stimulated enquiry into the validity of those theological conclusions which previously had been unhesi- tatingly accepted — from ignorance that any counter-theory could be honestly maintained by thinking men. Similarly, in the east, the Muhammadan inva- sion and the consequent contact with new races and new modes of thought brought home to the Indian moralist that his old basis of faith was too narrow : that the division of the human species into the four Manava castes and an outer world of barbarians was too much at variance with facts to be accepted as satis- factory, and that the ancient inspired oracles, if rightly interpreted, must dis- close some means of salvation applicable to all men alike, without respect to colour or nationality. The professed object of the Reformers was the same in Asia as in Europe — to discover the real purpose for which the second Person of the Trinity became incarnate ; to disencumber the truth, as He had revealed it, from the accretions of later superstition ; to abolish the extravagant preten- sions of a dominant class and to restore a simpler and more severelv intellec- tual form of public worship.* In Upper India the Tyranny of tin' Mahamma- dans was too tangible a fact to allow of the hope, or even the wish, that the con- querors and conquered could ever coalesce in one common faith : but in the *• Thus, as it may be interesting to note, the r.ralitua Sum , i of I le pre.s nt day is no i-olated movement, but only the most modern of a long scries o£ similar reactions against current Buoer- fctitiona. MODERN HINDUISM. UU Dakhin and the remote regions of Eastern Bengal, to which the sword of Islam had scarcely extended, and where no inveterate antipathy had been created, the contingency appeared less improbable. Accordingly, it was in those parts of India that the great teachers of the reformed Vaishnava creed first meditated and reduced to system those doctrines, which it was the one object of all their later life to promulgate throughout Hindustan. It was their ambition to elabo- rate a scheme so broad and yet so orthodox that it might satisfy the require- ments of the Hindu and yet not exclude the Muhammadan, who was to be ad- mitted on equal terms into the new fraternity ; all mankind becoming one great family and every caste distinction being utterly abolished. Hence it is by no means correct to assert of modern Hinduism that it is essentially a non-proselytizing religion; accidentally it has become so, but only from concession to the prejudices of the outside world and in direct opposition to the tenets of its founders. Their initial success was necessarily due to their intense zeal in proselytizing, and was marvellously rapid. At the present day their followers constitute the more influential, and it may be even numerically the larger half of the Plindu population: but precisely as in Europe so in India no two men of the reformed sects, however immaterial their doctrinal differences, can be induced to amalgamate; each forms a new caste more bigoted and exclusive than any of those which it was intended to supersede, while the founder has became a deified character, for whom it is necessary to erect a new niche in the very Pantheou he had laboured to destroy. The only point upon which all the Vaishnavas sects theoretically agree is the rever- ence with which they profess to regard the Bhagavad Gita as the authoritative ex- position of their creed. In practice their studies — if they study at all — are direct- ed exclusively to much more modern compositions, couched in their own verna- cular, the Braj Bhilsha,. Of these the work held in highest repute by all the Brinda-ban sects is the Bhakt-mala, or Legends of the Saints, written by Nabha Ji in the reign of Akbar or Jahangir. Its very first couplet is a compendium of the theory upon which the whole Vaishnava reform was based : Bkakt-bhakti-Bhagavant-guru, chatura mini, vapu ek : which declares that there is a divinity in every true believer, whether learned or unlearned, and irrespective of all caste distinctions. Thus the religious teachers that it celebrates are represented, not as rival disputants — which their descendants have become — but as all animated by one faith, which varied only in expression ; and as all fellow-workers in a common cause, viz., the moral and spiritual elevation of their countrymen. Nor can it be denied that the writing 192 THE bhakt mXlX. •of many of the -actual leaders of the movement are instinct with a spirit of asceticism and detachment from the world and a sincere piety, which are very different from the ordinary outcome of Hinduism. But in no case did this catholic simplicity last for more than a single generation. The great teacher had no sooner passed away than his very first successor hedged round his little band of followers with new caste restrictions, formulated a series of narrow dogmas out of what had been intended as comprehensive exhortations to holiness and good works ; and substituted for an interior devotion and mystical love — which were at least pure in intent, though perhaps scarcely attainable in practice by ordinary humanity — an extravagant system of outward worship with all the sensual accompaniments of gross and material passion. The Bhakt-mala, though an infallible oracle, is an exceedingly obscure one. and requires a practised hierophant for its interpretation. It gives no legend at length, but consists throughout of a series of the briefest allusions to legends, which are supposed to be already well-known. Without some such previous knowledge the poem is absolutely unintelligible. Its concise notices have therefore been expanded into more complete lives by different modern writers, both in Hindi and Sanskrit. One of these paraphrases is entitled the Bhakt Siudhu, and the author, by name Laksliman, is said to have taken great pains to verify his facts. But though his success may satisfy the Hindu mind, which is constitutionally tolerant of chronological inaccuracy, he falls very far below the requirements of European criticism. His work is however useful, since it gives a number of floating traditions, which could otherwise be gathered only from oral communications with the Gosains of the different sects, who, as ;i rule, are very averse to speak on such matters with outsiders. The four main divisions, or Sampradayas, as they are called, of the reformed Yaishnavas are the Sri Vaishnava, the Nirnbarak Yaishnava, the Madhva Vaishnava, and the Vishnu Swami. The last sect is now virtually extinct ; for though the name is occasionally retained, their doctrines were entirely re- modelled in the sixteenth century by the famous Gokul Gosain Vallabhucluirya, after whom his adherents are ordinarily styled either Vallabhacharyas or Gokulastha Gosains. Their history and tenets will find more appropriate place in connection with the town of Gokul, which is still their head-quarters. The Sri Sampradaya was altogether unknown at Brinda-ban till quite re- cently, when the two brothers of Seth Lakhmi Ohand, after abjuring the Jaini faith, were enlisted in its ranks, and by the advice of the Guru, who had re- ceived their submission, founded at enormous cost the great temple of Bang Ji. < < Q z CO _l CL H T h- LU CO LU I I- TWOFOLD DIVISION OF THE snr samit.apXya. i:>,: It is the most ancient and the most respectable of the four reformed Vaishnava communities, and is based on the teaching of Ramanuja, who flourished in the 11th or 12th century of the Christian era. The whole of his life was spent in the Dakliin, where he is said to have established no less than Tim monasteries, of which the chief were al K&nchi and Sri Ranga. The standard authorities for his theological system are certain Sanskrit treatise.- of his own composition entitled the Sri Bh­a, Gita Bhashya, Vedartha Sangraha, Vedanta Pradipa and Vedanta Sara. All the more popular works are composed in the dialects of the south, and the establishment at Brinda-ban is attended exclusively by foreigners, (he rites and ceremonies there observed exciting little interest among the Hindus of the neighbourhood, who are quite ignorant of their meaning. The sectarial mark by which the Sri Vaishnavas may be distinguished consists of two white perpendicular streaks down the forehead, joined by a cross line at the root of the nose, with a streak of red between. Their child' dogma, called A isishthadwaita, is the assertion that Vishnu, the one Supreme God, though invisible as cause, is as effect, visible in a secondary form in material creation. They differ in one marked respect from the mass of (he people at Brinda- ban, in that they refuse to recognise Radha as an object of religious adoration, In this they arc in complete accord with all the older authorities, which either illy ignore her existence, or regard her simply as Krishna's mistress and Rukmini as his wife. Their mantra or formula of initiation, corresponding to the Innomine Patris, &c, of Christian Baptism, is said to be Om R&m&yanarnflh, that is, ' Om, reverence to Rama.' This Sampradaya is divided into two sects, the Tenkalai and the Vadakalai. They differ on two points of doctrine, which however arc considered of much less importance than what seems to outsiders a very trivial matter, viz., a slight variation in the mode of making the sectarial mark on the forehead. The followers of the Tenkalai extend its middle line a little way down the nose itself, while the Vadakalai terminate it exactly at the bridge. The doctrinal points of difference are as follows : the Tenkalai maintain that the female energy of the god-head, though divine, is still a finite creature that serves only as a mediator or minister {purusfta-kdra) to introduce the soul into the presence of the Deity ; while the Vadakalai regard it as infinite and uncreated, and in itself a means (upai/a) by which salvation can be secured. The second point of difference is a parallel to the controversy between the Calvinists and Arminians in the Christian Church. The Vada- kalai, with the latter, insist on the concomitancv of the human will in the work of salvation, and represent the soul that lays hold of God as a young monkey which grasps its mother in order to be conveyed to a place of safety. The 49 194 THF, NlJIl'.XUAK VAtSHNAVAS. Tenkalai, on the contrary, maintain the irresistibility of divine grace and tile utter helplessness of the soul, till it is seized and carried off like a kitten by its mother from the danger that threatens it. From these two curious but apt illustrations the one doctrine is known as the mankata U&hora-nydya, the other as the marjalctrkishora-wyaya : that is to say ' the young monkey theory,' or 'the kitten theory.' The habitues of the Seth's temple are all of the Tenkalai persua- sion. The Nimbarak Vaishnavas, as mentioned in a previous chapter, have one of their oldest shrines on the Dhruva hill at Mathura. laterally interpreted, the word Nimbarak means 'the sun in a nim tree ;' a curious designation, which is explained as follows. The founder of the sect, an ascetic by name Bhaskara- charya, had invited a Bairagi to dine with him and had prepared everything for his reception, but unfortunately delayed to go and fetch his guest till after sun- set. Now, the holy man was forbidden by the rules of his order to eat except in the day-time and was greatly afraid that he would be compelled to practise an unwilling abstinence : but at the solicitation of his host, the sun-god, Suraj Narayan, descended upon the nim free, under which the repasl was spread, and continued beaming upon them fill the claims of hunger were fully satisfied. Thenceforth the saint was known by the name of Nimbarka or Nimbaditya. His special tenets are little known ; for. unlike the other Sampradayas, his followers fso far as can be ascertained) have no special literature of their own> either in Sanskrit or Hindi ; a fact which they ordinarily explain by saying that all their books were burnt by Aurangzeb, the conventional bite noire of Indian history, who is made responsible for every act of destruction. Host of the solitary asci tie.; who have their little hermitages in the different sacred groves, with which the district abounds, belong to the Nimbarak persuasion. Many of them are pious, simple-minded men, leading such a chaste and studious life, that it may charitably be hoped of them that in the eye of God they are Christians "by the baptism of desire, i. e., according to S.Thomas Aquinas, by the grace of having the will to obtain salvation by fulfilling the commands of God, even though from invincible ignorance they know not the true Church. The one who has a cell in the Kokila-ban assured me that tin- distinctive doc- trines of his sect were not absolutely unwritten (as i.-. ordinarily supposed), but are comprised in ten Sanskrit couplets that form the basis of a commentary in as many thousands. One of his disciples, a very intelligent and argumentative theological student, gave me a sketch of his belief which may be here quoted a- a proof that the esoteric doctrines of the Vaishnavas generally have little in lommon with the gross idolatry which the Christian Missionary is too often THE CREED OF THE NIJir.A'RAK VATSTIN'AVAS. 195 content to demolish as the equivalent of Hinduism. So far is this from heing the case, that many of their dogmas are not only ol an eminently philosophical character, bul arc also much less repugnant to Catholic truth than either tho colourless abstractions of the Brahma Samaj, or the defiant materialism into which the greater part, of Europe is rapidly lapsing. Tims their doctrine of salvation by faith is thought by many scholars to have been directly borrowed from the Gospel ; while another article in their creed, which is less known, but is equally striking in its divergence from ordinary Hindu sentiment, is the continuance of conscious individual existence in a future world, when the highest reward of the good will be, not extinction, hut the en- joyment of tin' visible presence of the divinity, whom they have faithfully served while on earth : a stale therefore absolutely identical with heaven, as our theologians define it. The one infinite and invisible God, who is the only real existence, is, they maintain, the only proper object of man's devoul contemplar ' tion. 13 ut as the incomprehensible is utterly beyond the reach of human faculties, lie is partially manifested for our behoof in the book of creation, in which natural objects are the letters of the universal alphabel and express the senti- ments of the Divine Author. A printed page, however, conveys no meaning to anyone hut a scholar, and i< liable to lie misunderstood even by him ; so, too, with the book of the world. Whether the traditional scenes of Krishna's adventures have been rightly determined is a matter oi' little consequence, if only a visit to them excites the believer's religious enthusiasm. The places at-' mere symbols of no value in themselves : tin.' idea they convey is the direct emanation from the spirit of the author. But it may be equally well expressed by different types ; in the same way as two copies of a book may be word for word the same in sound and sense, though entirely different in appearance, one being written in Nagari, the other in English characters. To enquire into the cause of the diversity between the religious symbols adopted by diffei ?nt nationali- ties may be an interesting study, but is not one that can affect the basis of faith. And thus it matters little whether Radha and Krishna were ever real personages ; the mysteries of divine love, which they symbolize, remain, though the symbols disappear ; in tho same way as a poem may have existed long before it was committed to writing, and may be remembered long after the writing has been destroyed. The transcription is a relief to the mind ; but though obviously advantageous on the whole, still in minor points it may rather have the effect of stereotyping error : for no material form, however perfect and semi-divine, can ever be created without containing in itself an element of deception ; its appearance varies according to the point of view and the distance from which. 196 THE MADHVA VAISHNAVAS. it is regarded. It is to convictions of this kind that must be attributed the utter indifference of the Hindu to chronological accuracy and historical research. The annals of Hindustan date only from its conquest by the Muharnmadans — a people whose faith is based on the misconception of a fact, as the Hindus" is on the corrupt embodiment of a conception. Thus the literature of the former deals exclusively with events ; of the latter with ideas. At Bathi another Bairagi of the same Sampradayaj by name Gobardhan Das, who knew most of the Bhagavad Gita by heart, told me that their chief seat was at Salimabad in Jodhpur territory, where the Gosain had a complete library of the literature of the sect. He quoted some of the books by name, the Siddhanta Batnanjali, the Girivajra, the Ratna-mala, the Setukti, the Jahna- vi, and the Ratna-manjusha ; but he could not specify the authors, or give any definite information as to their contents. Neither could he give a clear expla- nation of any difference of doctrine between his own sect and the Sri Vaishnavas. Like Ram Das, the Pandit at Kokila-ban, the great point on which he insisted was that all visible creation is a shadow of the Creator and is therefore true in a measure, though void of all substantial and independent existence. A view which is aptly represented by the lines : — " The -mi, (he moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains? Are not these, soul, the vision of him who reigns ? Is not the vision He ? tho' He be not that which He seems ? Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams ? All we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool :" the illustration given in the last line being the very one which these Hindu dreamers most frequently bring forward. The Madhva Vaishnavas form a scattered and not very numerous commu- nity, and none of their temples, either at Brinda-ban or elsewhere in the district, are of any note. Their founder, Madhvacharya, was a native of Southern India, born in the year 1199 A. D. The temple where he ordinarily resided is still in existence at a place called LTdipi. Here he had set up a miraculous image of Krishna, made with the hero Arjun's own hands, which had been casually thrown as ballast into a ship from Dwaraka, which was wrecked on the Malabar coast. He is said to have been only nine years of age when he composed the Bhasha or commentary on the Gita, which his disciples accept as of divine authority. Their distinctive doctrine is the assertion of an essential Duality (Dwaita) between the Jivatma, or principle of life, and the Paramatma, or Supreme Being. Their scctarial mark consists of two perpendicular white lines TIIE BENGALI VAISHNAVAS. 197 down the forehead, joined at the root of the nose and with a straight black streak between, terminating in a round mark made with turmeric. In addition to these four original Sampradayas, then' are three schools of more modern origin, called respectively Bengali, orGauriya Vaishnavas, liadha Vallabhis and the disciples of Swdmi Hari Das. The first-named community has had a more marked influence on Brinda-ban than any of the others, since it was ( 'haitanya, the founder of the sect, whoso immediate disciples were its first temple builders. He was born at Nadiya in Bengal, in 1485 A. D., and in his youth is said to have married a daughter of VallabMcharya. However that may be, when he had arrived at the age of 24 he formally resigned all connection with secular and domestic affairs and com- menced his career as a religious teacher. After spending six years in pilgrim- ages between Mathura and Jagannath, he finally settled down at the latter place, where, in 1527 A.D., being then only 42 years old, he disappeared from (he world. There is reason to believe that he was drowned in the sea, into which he had walked in an ecstasy, mistaking it for the shallow waters of the Jamuna, where he saw, in a vision, Krishna sporting with the Gopis. His life and doctrines are recorded in a most voluminous Bengali work entitled Chaifcanya Charitiimrita, composed in 1590 by one of his disciples, Krishna Das. Two of his colleagues, Adwaitanand and Nityanand, who, like himself, are styled Maha Prabhus, presided over his establishments in Bangal ; while other six Gosains settled at Brinda-ban. Apart from metaphysical subtleties, which naturally have but little hold on the minds of the populace, the special tenet of the Bengali Vaishnavas is the all-sufficiency of faith in the divine Krishna; such faith being adequately expressed by the mere repetition of his name without any added prayer or concomitant feeling of genuine devotion. Thus roughly stated, the doctrine appears absurd; and possibly its true bearing is as little regarded by many of the more ignorant among the Vaishnavas themselves as it is by the majority of superficial outside observers. It is, however, a legitimate deduction from sound principles .• for it may be presumed that the formal act of devotion would never have been commenced had it not been prompted at the outset by a devotional intention, which intention is virtually continued so long as the act is in performance. And to quote from a manual of a purer faith, " it is not necessary that the intention should be actual throughout ; it is sufficient if we pray in a human manner; and for this only a virtual intention is required; that is to say, an intention which has been actual and is supposed to continue, although, through inadvertence or distraction, we may have lost sight of it." 50 198 THE brindX-ban gosXins. The sectorial mark consists of two white perpend icular streaks down the forehead, united at the root of the nose and continued to near the tip. Another characteristic is the use of a rosary of 108 beads made of the wood of the tulsi. The recognized leaders of the Brinda-ban community were by name Riipa and Sanutana, the authors of several doctrinal commentaries and also, as is said, of the Mathura Mahatmya. With them were associated a nephew, named Jiva, wdio founded the temple of Radha Damodar, and Gopal Bhatt, founder of the temple of Radha Raman, together with some others of less note, whose names vary in different lists.* In the Bhakta Mala they are enumerated as follows : — XllWi ^U3R XliR WZ ^^T: f%cl 5T^I I "T %IT =TTl U^ SIH WR^ I cRWl it^ ^TTrl XfW ~R^m H ^IRsf I Tlfa=fiT^*WT?T ^raT ^T T^T^T st 3l| fa^R gtraTC c^I^q fq^TT T33T *fe f%R f^T HT^ ^TJT ^T I fafa T3^l TH TT4 HT^tT 3tT m^T 3T JT^ TIT ^5RH 3ifl ^RTlti ^tt cfi^ ^1 UH flT5 ^if ^TT flf ^m ^T II 51 202 THE TEMPLE OF EXDhX-VALLABH. Translation. " Would you kuow the one point in a thousand of Sri Hit Ji's ways ? he adored Radha first and after her Krishna. A most strange and unnatural fashion, that none could even faintly comprehend save by his favour. He obli- terated all distinction between obligation and dispensation ; his beloved was in his heart : he lived only as her servant, singing the praises of the divinity night and day. All the faithful know his many edifying and holy actions ; why tell and repeat them, since they are famous already. " He left his home and came ; his passion for Radha anil Krishna had so grown : but you must know Hari had given an order to a wealthy Brahman : ' Bestow your two daughters in marriage, taking my name, and know that their issue shall be famous throughout the world. By their means my worship shall spread among my faithful people, a path for the pathless, of high renown.' Obedient to the loving order he went home ; the delight of all was past telling, for it was more than the mind could even conceive. Radha's dear spouse gave the gracious command : ' Publish abroad my worship and the delights of my sylvan abode.' He drank in with his very eyes the essence of bliss and gave it to every client who supported the cause of the female divinity. Night and day imbibing the honeyed draught of sweet song and cherishing it in his soul, with no thought but for Syama and Syarn. How is it possible to declare such incomparable merit ? the soul is enraptured at the sound more than at that of any other name." By his later wives he had two sons, Braj Chand and Krishan Chand, of whom the latter built a temple to Radha Mohan, which is still in the possession of his descendants. The former was the ancestor of the present Gosains of the temple of Radha Vallabh, the chief shrine of the sect. This was built by one of his disciples, a Kayath named Sundar Das, who held the appointment of treasurer at Delhi. One of the pillars in the front gives the date as Sambat 1683. An earlier inscription, of 1641, was noticed by Professor Wilson, but this would seem to have been over the gateway leading into the outer court, which since then has fallen down and been removed. On the opposite side of the street is a monument to the founder, which however the present generation of Gosains are too ungrateful to keep in repair. They are the descendants of Braj Chand's four sons, Sundar-Bar, Radha Ballabh Das, Braj-Bhukhan and Nagar Bar Ji ; and the heads of the four families so derived are now Daya Lai, Mauohar Ballabh, Sundar Lai and the infant son of Kanhaiya Lai. the rXdhX-sudhX-nidhi. 203 Hari Vans was himself the author of two poems ; the one, the Chaurdsi Pada, or ' 84 Stanzas,' in Hindi ; the other the Rddhd Surf/id Nidhi, or ' Treasury of Radha's Delights,' in 170 Sanskrit couplets. The latter, though not much read, is held in great esteem and, regarded solely as a piece of highly impas- sioned erotic verse, it is a spirited and poetic composition. There is a good Hindi commentary upon it by one Bansidhar, dated Sambat 1820. As MSS. are scarce and Sanskritists may like to see a specimen of the text, I subjoin the first 25 and the last couplet in the original, followed by a translation:— II ^T5R II 1 O "00 ^ n£> s*j ^3W5RTOI^ra^r!Sli|R fi TTf^^T^TJUT^Ri *RXjm II 3 II Cfl nO n^ nO n*> ^ ^> HT ^T^^^ft^SW^: THrlT qR^^FT TTT IWT^tHt II q<= II sO no so X nO ° nO-O THE rXdiiX-stjdh^-nidhi. 205 STTlfaifi clef gpJ^T HoRTIT^j Tl'Sgjm WJfqTR T^Irin^rT^ II ^ II x nO o ^* o x t3^HlTTfcI3i^T%^T?WlT TT^frm^ 7W H^TSra-.gKSTT II ^ « S3 ^rl^TvSa 5R^5B^51Tr^I TflXTrlT ^TC II 1 Q li f%*!^rU ^ITrSTO^raifafa: ^HIW II o || NO G- >. Translation. 1. " Hail to the home of Vrisha-bluinu's daughter, by whom once and again even Madhn-suclan — whose ways are scarce intelligible to the greatest sages — ■ was made happy, as she playfully raised the border of her robe and fanned hirn with its delicious breeze. 2. "Hail to the majesty of Vrisha-bhanu's daughter, the holy dust of whose lotus feet, beyond the conception of Brahma, Siva and the other gods, is alto- gether supcrnaturally glorious, and whose glance moistened with compassion is like a shower of the refined essence of all good things. 3. " I call to mind the dust of the feet of Radhika, a powder of infinite virtue, that incontinently and at once reduces to subjection the great power, that was beyond the ken even of Brahma, Rudra, Sukadeva, Nurada, Bhishnia and the other divine personages. 4. " I call to mind the dust of the feet of Radhika, which the noble milk- maids placed upon their head and so attained an honour much desired by the 52 206 THE RA'DHX-SUDHX-NIDHr. votaries of the god with the peacock crest, dust that like the cow of heaven yields the fullness of enjoyment to all who worship with rapturous emotion. 5. " Glory to the goddess of the bower, who with an embrace the quintes- sence of heavenly bliss, like a bountiful wave of ambrosia, sprinkled and restored to life the son of Nanda, swooning under the stroke of Love's thousand arrows. 6. " When will there visit us that essence of the ocean of delight, the face of Radha with sweet coy glances, bewildering us with the brilliance of ever twinkling sportive play, a store-house of every element of embodied sweetness ? 7. " When shall I become the handmaid to sweep the court-yard of the bower of love for the all-blissful daughter of Vrisha-bhanu, among whose servants oft and again every day are heard the soft tones of the peacock-crested god? 8. " my soul, leave at a distance all the host of the great, and affection- ately hie to the woods of Brindii-ban : here Radha's name is as a flood of nectar on the soul for the beatification of the pious, a store-house of all that is divine. 9. " When shall I hear the voice of blessed Radha, that fountain of delights crying 'Nay, Nay,' with knitted brows, as some gallant suitor, fallen at her feet, begs for the rapturous joy of her embrace ? 10. " When, oh when, will Radhika show me favour, that incarnation of the fullness of the ocean of perfect love, the marvellous glory of the glistening splendour of whose lotus feet was seen among the herdsmen's wives ? 11. "When shall I attain to the blissful vision of the golddess of the- blooming bowers of the woods of Brinda-ban, her eyes all tremulous with love, and the different members of her body like the waves of an overflowing ocean of delight ? 12. "0 queen of Brinda-ban, I betake me to thy lotus feet, fraught with the honeyed flood of love's ambrosia, which planted in Madhu-pati's heart, assuaged by their grateful coolness the fierce fever of desire. 13. " Fain would my soul loiter in the woods sacred to Radha's loves, where the sprays of the creepers have been plucked by Radha's hands, where the fragrant soil blossoms with Radha's footprints, and where the frequent birds are madly garrulous with Radha's praises. 14. " When, daughter of Vrisha-bhanu, shall I experience the conceit induced by excess of voluptuous dalliance, I your handmaid, charged with the message, ' Come and enjoy Krishna's dainties, ' and answered with the smile, ' Only stay, friend, till night comes.' THE RtonX-SUDH^-NIDHI. 207 15. " Ah ! when shall I behold Radha, with downcast eyes,bashfully steal- ing a distant "-lance at the moon-like orb of the face of the lord of lovers, as she trips with twinkling feet, all graceful in her movements, to the music of her own bangles ? 16. " When, Radha, will you fall asleep, while my hands caress your feet, after I have tenderly bathed you and fed you with sweet things, wearied with your vigil through a night of dalliance in the inmost bower, in the delicious embrace of your paragon of lovers ? 17. " that the ocean of wit, the singular ocean of love's delights, the ocean of tenderness, the ocean of exuberant pitifulness, the ocean of loveliness, the ocean of ambrosial beauty and grace, the ocean of wantonness, blessed Radhika, would manifest herself in my soul ! 18. "0 that the daughter of Vrisha-bhanu, looking up all tremulous and glistening in every limb like the flowering champa, would clasp me in her arms, charmed by my chanted praises of Syam-sundar, as she listens for the sound of his pipe ! 19. " Blessed Radhika, cool me with the multiplicity of love that breathes in the swan-like melody of the girdle that binds your loins reddened with dalliance, and in the tinkling of the bangles, like the buzzing of bees, clustered round your sweet lotus feet. 20. " Blessed Radhika, wreathed with the surge of a Ganges wave of heavenly dalliance, with lovely lotus face and navel as a whirl in the stream, hastening on to the confluence with Krishna, that ocean of sweetness, draw near to me. 21. " When, blessed Radhika, shall I rest upon my head your lotus feet, Govind's life and all, that ever rain down upon the faithful abundant torrents of the honeyed flood of the ocean of perfect love ? 22. " When, Radha, stately as an elephant in gait, shall I accompany you to the bower of assignation to show the way, bearing divinely sweet sandal wood and perfumes and spices, as you march in the excitement of love's rapture? 23. " blessed Radha, having gone to some secluded slope of the Jamuna and there rubbing with fragrant unguents your ambrosial limbs, the very life of Love, when shall I see your prince of lusty swains, with longing eyes, mounted on some high kadamb tree ? 208 the chaurXsi pada. 24. "When, blessed Radhika, shall I behold your heavenly face, clustered — as if with bees — with wanton curls, like some lotus blossoming in a lake of purest love, or a moon swelling an ocean of enjoyment, an ocean of delight. 25. " Ah ! the name of Radlni, perfection of loveliness, perfection of delight, sole perfection of happiness, perfection of pity, perfection of honeyed beauty and grace, perfection of wit, perfection of the rapturous joys of love, perfection of all the most perfect that my soul can conceive ! 170. " ye wise, if there be any one desirous of transcendental happiness, let him fill the pitcher of his ears and drink in this panegyric, called the JRasa- sudhd-nidhi, or ' Treasury of Love's delights." The Hindu poem, the Chaurdsi Pada, is much more popular, and most of the Gosains know at least some of its stanzas by heart. There is a commentary upon it by Lok-nath, dated Sambat 1855, and another in verse, called the Rahasya artha-nirujiana by Rasik Lai, written in Sambat 1734. Neither of the two, however, is of much assistance to the student ; all the simple passages being paraphrased with wearisome prolixity, while real difficulties are generally skip- ped. I subjoin the text and translation of the first 12 stanzas: — TW PWW II II % II ill! %T? ^T^T SnT %l| W\k Wll wt ^TT% inf T4l| T4t! 5nT T3TTT I Wirt m W3rfl 3T* XZHTSi ^hlR *j 12JRI VFXTT ^TW AK ^R3i cUT I at ^t r\^ ir vm r infw fnxr ^TR 3UfS3i THHI TflrW flfli WIT I ^ll liH Si*! ^cTCJTR ^?R II THE chaurXsi pada. 209 II 3 II Jiti^ Trains, ff ttt? ruift ^ upt ^ 5W1 srr srw^t n if ssRmfllRBi^r ^^R §=Irl WlfT TTTVJSRRSr^ln W^l JlaPTITi^Rt II II 5 II am *w ^t^ ts Fias *Kci sre Itaf! ^mura i w^s. twI fairer rasm 'srasRicjfsT ^^ira jjrt <*?t^*t?t i v3 ^ O % sTiti rrircsj sr JT3^n Tm *i ^q sfa wfe mwz s^ » vSCn II 8 II ^TST ^T S^rfl FITT ^SR ^T^5 W^T fas^ ^fJTO5& *H3rI *Ttr§ ?f j ^\^ ST^cT ^ §*IR*T ERTfal T^^fofifl ^*U 3^ ^P3i H^ I! ^fa* m^5R ^g fa^cl g??p 3ig f%T ^TJTrf gfafT J?T^T £f ^ 5&W ^R 33K TTUrT Efi^ ^ ^R 3*R 3g=T ^UTrT 51=1 ^ || gnitlT ^ttH rifc u^3 THrrrT =€ft =ra rail ^rirr f%l sci etc } II % II =35^ JWTcl ?mfflf3* *i *TC cRTJcl fllffl 1^ ^TTT^T 3T I * NO S3 N3 ^T^^rin ^w*m vioiflt *&ik Fi3f% xm *Rcf ^r=if% u* I! =K^ Steffi* TT%Irl HMT^f^ *TCcRT2J ^Tl^TH VJTJTCTC | NO NO NO "NO THITT JTO % 3RT Wficl f^cjrl =3rR TSTfflf*!I Vtt 3R II sum ^m 'sriit nfsci sr^i jtr ^tft jm wxn mmx I W »snflrJlRsi^- Tim UtTIR *TT?^ ^fa HT 3<1 R^TrfT It.: 53, 210 THE CHAUE^SI PADA, ii S n 5RH ^c\T ^^rfl TPTOT «1TTW m^rT ^T^ %TT| *R I so SO "" 3^ojffF ^§ra 3* *IR ^I* T*m JTl^ ^*l ^ H VO so so s3T ^trg^ t%TH ^3 ^3H3 ^ i^ I ii xm T^TT3?T II W^\ R^lTSffl ^rt ^^Mtu* ^=Tr M^ITCT I si» ^a ^ii ^jffl *5Rim ^SRTTJT TIT^T* ?RR ^Wcl *TfTFt tlT %ffl || so so SO cs t> ra3*r xfiT3*f TMlra Rfflri ^rc ^^^^^ttit ^ ind i >o Cs %TB^T TSTCFni ^R *PR^ rTT^^ ^JW Rafael *tl€ II so m^R ure hkw tr trcra^ tTm ^t^t brit^ m; ^tCt i ?TK ^fTJT WaT 5R5if TRTfT HT^I *^R ^T^rT Itft II !Rs3* nsjfi: R^fTRi ^^r^t raw ras^ ttr^cT w€t I fgg^ tt^t^ h^t? u^Tfari ftra htM^st orti ri tCt ii ^m %ffl =I=g^rarJ *fR STR ^T^rlTfafsR 3;UfI 3K%rfr I <■ so so so % stiff elf R=I3I cfiTcl 5fir vO NO fci^rew Wai ifiof ^5T hiFhr ^rara^ i^f^ so sO> S3 so so Translation of the first twelve Stanzas of the ChaurXsi pada. I . " Whatever my Beloved doeth is pleasing to me ; and whatever is pleasing to me, that my Beloved doeth. The place where I would be is in my Beloved's eyes ; and my Beloved would fain be the apple of my eyes. My Love is dearer to me than body, soul, or life ; and my Love would lose a thousand lives TOE chaueXsi pada. 213 for me. Rejoice, Sri Hit Hari Vans ! the loving pair, one dark, one fair, are like two cygnets ; tell me who can separate wave from water ?* II. " my Beloved, has the fair spoken ? this is surely a beautiful night : the lightning is folded in the lusty cloud's embrace. friend, where is the woman who would quarrel with so exquisite a prince of gallants ? Rejoice, Sri Hari Vans ! dear Radhika hearkened with her ears and with voluptuous emotion joined in love's delights, t III. "At day-break the wanton pair, crowned with victory in love's conflict, were all-exuberant. On her face are frequent beads of labour's dew, and all the adornments of her person are in disarray, the paint-spot on her brow is all but effaced by heat, ami the straggling curls upon her lotus face resemble roaming bees. (Rejoice, Sri Hit Hari Vans !) her eyes are red with love's colours and her voice and loins feeble and relaxed. IV. " Your face, fair dame, to-day is full of joy, betokening your happi- ness and delight in the intercourse with your Beloved. Your voice is languid and tremulous, your cheeks aflame, and both your weary eyes are red with sleeplessness ; your pretty tiluh half effaced, the flowers on your head faded, and the parting of your hair as if you had never made it at all. The Bounti- ful one of his grace refused you no boon, as you coyly took the hem of your robe between your teeth. Why shrink away so demurely ? you have changed clothes with your Beloved, and the dark-hued swain has subdued you a- completely as though ho had been tutored by a hundred Loves. The garland on his breast is faded, the clasp of his waist-belt loose (Rejoice, Sri Hit Hari Vans !) as he comes from his couch in the bower. V. " To-day at dawn there was a shower of rapture in the bower, where the happy pair were delighting themselves, one dark, one fair, bright with all gay colours, as she tripped with dainty foot upon the floor. Great Syam, the glorious lord of love, had his flower wreath stained with the saffron dye of her breasts, and was embellished with the scratches of his darling's nails : she too was marked by the hands of her jewel of lovers. The happy pair in an ecstasy * That is to say, it is nothing strange that Radha and Krishna should take such mutual delight in one another, since they are in fact one and are as inseparable as a wave and the water of which the wave is composed. t The first line is a question put to Krishna by one of Kadha's maids, asking him if her mis- tress had promised him an interview. The second line is a remark whicli she turns and makes to one of her own companions. 54 214 THE CHAUR^SI PADA. of affection make sweet song, stealing each other's heart (Rejoice, Sri Hit Hari Vans !) the bard is fain to praise, but the drone of a bee is as good as his in- effectual rhyme. VI. " Who so clever, pretty damsel, whom her lover comes to meet, stealing through the night ? Why shrink so coyly at my words ? Your eyes are suffused and red with love's excitement, your bosom is marked with his nails, you are dressed in his clothes, and your voice is tremulous. (Rejoice, Sri Hit Hari Vans !) Radha's amorous lord has been mad with love. VII. " To-day the lusty swain and blooming dame are sporting in their pleasant bower. list ! great and incomparable is the mutual affection of the happy pair, on the heavenly* plain of Brinda-ban. The ground gleams bright with coral and crystal and there is a strong odour of camphor. A dainty couch of soft leaves is spread, on which the dark groom and his fair bride recline, intent upon the joys and delights of dalliance, their lotus cheeks stained with red streaks of betel juice. There is a charming strug- gle between dark hands and fair to loose the string that binds her skirt. Beholdiuo- herself as in a mirror in the necklace on Hari's breast, the silly girl is troubled by delusion and begins to fret, till her lover wagging his pretty chin shows her that she has been looking only at her own shadow. Listening to her honeyed voice, as again and again she cries ' Nay, nay,' Lalita and the others take a furtive peep (Rejoice, Sri Hit Hari Vans!) till tossing her hands in affected passion she snaps his jewelled necklet. VIII. " Ah, red indeed are your lotus eyes, lazily languishing and inflamed by night-long watch, and their collyrium all faded. From your drooping eyelids shoots a glance like a bolt, that strikes your swain as it were a deer and he cannot stir. (Rejoice, Sri Hit Hari Vans !) damsel, voluptuous in motion as the swan, your eyes deceive even the wasps and bees. IX. " Radha and Mohan are such a dainty pair, he dark and beautiful as the sapphire, she with body of golden lustre : Hari with a tilak on his broad forehead and the Fair with a roll streak amidst the tresses of her hair : the lord like a stately elephant in gait and the daughter of Vrisha- bhanu like an elephant queen : the damsel in a blue vesture and Mohan in yellow with a red khaur on his forehead (Rejoice, Sri Hit Hari Vans !) Radha's amorous lord is dyed deep with love's colours. X. " To-day the damsel and her swain take delight in novel ways. What can I say ? they are altogether exquisite in every limb ; sporting Abhut, not created, self-produced, divine. the chaurXsi pada. 215 together with arms about each other's neck and cheek to cheek, by such delicious contact making a circle of wanton delight. As they dance, the dark swain and the fair damsel, pipe and drum and cymbal blend in sweet concert with the tinkling of the bangles on her wrists and ankles and the girdle round her waist. Sri Hit Hari Vans, rejoicing at the sight of the damsels' dancing and their measured paces, tears his soul from his body and lays them both at their feet. XL " The pavilion is a bright and charming spot ; R&dha and Hari are in glistening attire and the full-orbed autumnal moon is resplendent in the heaven. The dark-hued swain and nymph of golden sheen, as they toy together, show like the lightning's flash and sombre cloud. In saffron ves- ture he and she in scarlet ; their affection deep beyond compare ; and the air, cool, soft and laden with perfumes. Their couch is made of leaves and blossoms and he woos her in dulcet tones, while coyly the fair one repulse3 his every advance. Love tortures Mohan's soul, as he touches her bosom, or waist-band, or wreath, and timorously she cries 'off, off.' Pleasant is tho sporting of the glorious lord, close-locked in oft-repeated embrace, and like an earth-reviving river is the flood of his passion. XII. " Come Radhii, you knowing one, your paragon of lovers has started a dance on the bank of the Jamuna's stream. Bevies of damsels are dancing in all the abandonment of delight ; the joyous pipe gives forth a stirring sound. Near the Bansi-bat, a sweetly pretty spot, where the spicy air breathes with delicious softness, where the half-opened jasmine fills the world with overpowering fragrance, beneath the clear radiance of the autumnal full moon, the milkmaids with raptured eyes are gazing on your glorious lord, all beautiful from head to foot, quick to remove love's every pain. Put your arms about his neck, fair dame, pride of the world, and lapped in the bosom of the Ocean of delight, disport yourself with Syam in his blooming bower." If ever the language of the brothel was borrowed for temple use, it has been so here. But, strange to say, the Gosains, who accept as their Gospel these sensuous ravings of a morbid imagination, are for the most part highly respectable married men, who contrast rather favourably, both in sobriety of life and intellectual acquirements, with the professors of rival sects that are based on more reputable authorities. Several of them have a good know- ledge of literary Hindi ; but their proficiency in Sanskrit is not very high ; the best informed among them being unable to resolve into its constituent 216 OTHER POEMS BY HARI VANS'S DISCIPLES. elements ami explain the not very recondite compound suduruha, which will be found in the second stanza of the Radha-sudhi. To indicate the fervour of his passionate love for his divine mistress, Hari Vans assumed the title of Hit Ji and is popularly better known by this name than by the one which he received from his parents. His most famous disciple was Vyas Ji of Orchha, of whom various legends are report- ed. On his first visit to the Swami he found him busy cooking, but at once propounded some knotty theological problem. The sage without any hesitation solved the difficulty, but first threw away the whole of the food he had prepared, with the remark that no man could attend properly to two things at once. Vyas was so struck by this procedure that he then and there enrolled himself as his disciple, and in a short space of time conceived •such an affection for Brinda-ban that he was most reluctant to leave it even to return to his wife and children. At last, however, he forced himself to go, but had not been with them long before he determined that they should themselves disown him, and accordingly he one day in their presence took and ate some food from a scavenger's hand. After this act of social excom- munication he was allowed to return to Brinda-ban, where he spent the remainder of his life and where his samc'ulh, or tomb, is still to be seen. Another disciple, Dhruva Das, was a a voluminous writer and composed as many as 42 poems, of which the following is a list: 1, Jiv-dasa; 2, Baid- gyan ; 3, Man-siksha ; 4, Brindaban-sat ; 5, Bhakt-namavali ; 6, Brihadbaman Puran ; 7, Khyal Hulas ; 8, Siddkant Bichar ; !), Priti-chovani ; 10, Anand- ashtak; 11, Bkajanashtak; 12, Bhajan-kundaliya; 13, Bhajan-sat; 14, Sringar- : 15, Man-sringar; Hi, Hit-sringar ; 17, Sabha-mandal ; 18, Bas-mukta- vali; 19, Ras-hiravali ; 20, Ras-ratnavali ; 21, Premavali; 22. SriPriyaJiki namavali; 23, Rahasya-manjari ; 24, Sukh-manjari ; 25, Rati-manjari ; 26, Nek-man jari : 27, Ban-bihar; 28, Ras-bihar ; 29, Rang-hulas ; 30, Rang- bihar: 31, Rang-binod; 32, Anand-dasa; 33, Rahasya-lata ; 34, Anand-lata; 35, Anurag-lata; 36, Prem-lata; 37, Ras-anand ; 38, Jugal-dhyan; 39, Nirtya- bilas;40, Dan-lila; 41, Man-lila ; 42, Braj-lila. Other poems by different members of the same sect are the Sevak-bani, the Ballabh-rasik ki bani and the Guru-pratap, by Damodar Das; the Hari- nam-mahima by Damodar Swami: the Sri Rap Lai Ji ka ashtaka, by Hit Ballabh ; and the Hari-nam-beli, the Sri Lai Ji badhai ami the Sri Liirili Juki badhai by Brinda-ban Das. swXmi hari dXs. 217 The only one of the three more important modern schools which yet remains to be mentioned is that founded by Swami Hari Das. The Gosains, his des- cendants, who now, with their wives and children, number some 500 persons, own one of the most conspicuous of the modern temples, which is dedicated to Krishna under his title of Bihari Ji, or in more popular phrase Banke Bihari. This is not only their head-quarters, but appears to be the only temple in all India of which they have exclusive possession. It has lately been rebuilt at a cost of Ks. 70,000 ; a sum which has been raised in the course of 13 years by the contributions of their clients from far and near. It is a large square red sand- stone block of plain, but exceedingly substantial, character, with a very effective central gateway of white stone. This has yet to be completed by the addition of an upper story ; but even as it stands, the delicacy of its surface carving, and the extremely bold projection of its eaves, render it a pleasing specimen of the style of architecture now in vogue at Brinda-ban — one of the few places in the civilized world where architecture is not a laboriously studied reproduction of a dead past, but a still living art, which is constantly developing by a process of spontaneous growth. The estate is divided into two shares or bats, according to the descent of the Gosains. Their founder was himself a celibate; but his brother Jagannath had three sons, Megh Syam, Murari Das and Gopinath Das, of whom the third died childless, the other two being the ancestors of the pre- sent generation. As is usual in such cases, the two families are at war with one another, and have more than once been obliged to invoke the assistance of the law to prevent a serious breach of the peace. Beyond the saintliness of their ancestor, but few of them have any claim to respect, either on account of their learning — for the majority of them cannot even read — or for the correct- ness of their morals. There are, however, two exceptions to the general rule one for each bat — in the person of the Gosains Jagadis and Kishor Chand; both of whom are fairly well read, within the narrow limits of their own sec- tarian literature, beyond which they have never dreamed of venturing In the original Bhakt-mala of Nabha Ji, the stanza referring to Hari Das stands as follows: ?^ I ^ST^fefR 3gYcI SRI Tf%=R ^1U lR3ra 3iT II 55 218 swXmi hari da's. »JttTFT gTC 3T3 TW 3T7R ^TSJT <5TO sfi II 3ITWft 3^TrI ER TRW W^ ?K5T^ Sfil II which may be tlms translated: "Tell we now of Hari Das, the pride of Xsdhir, who sealed the list of the saints; who, bound by a vow to the perpetual repetition of the two names of Kunj-bihari, was ever beholding the sportive actions of the god, the lord of the Gopis' delights; who was a very Gandharv in melodious song and propitiated Syam and Syama, presenting them with tbe daintiest food in daily sacrifice and feeding the peacocks and monkeys and fish; at whose door a king stood waiting in hope of an interview; Hari Das, the pride of Asdhfr, who sealed the list of the saints." This is followed by the Gloss, or Supplement of Priya Das: ifagmraf? ^m %tI «mi *rra ml 1 11 ^IZTI $ira TOT BJT^T *tf?l **=* W3JT. ofW ^rczh ^ tr^f^f xii tot f%xr "«mS » onfall Haifa 5B^t h tstoi Hi^rariT si* *lf%5R 3^1TT U3 *m^ STST^ II sO -3irl q^r It Translation. " Why boastest thou thyself, mortal man ? thy body shall be the prey of dogs and jackals, though without shame or fear thou now goest delicately. This is known throughout the world to be the end of all : a great man was the Brah- man Birbar, yet he died, and at his death the Emperor Akbar was sad of heart, nor himself longer lived nor aught availed. When gods or demons breathe out their life, Death holds them in his maw, suspended, neither here nor there, but in an intermediate state. All astray and swelling with pride, on whom is thy trust ? Adore Hari's blessed lotus feet ; to roam and wander about from house to house is all vanity. By the strong aid of Hari Das, Biharini Das has found and laid hold of the Almighty." The founder of the sect has himself left only two short poems, filling 41 leaves, entitled Sddhdran Siddhdnt and Ris he pada. The former is here given both in the original text and in a translation. Most of the habitues of the * One MS. for svasan nikusat reads tras ni/iasi na sukat. f Rtmthna has the same meaning as the more common term jugdli harnd, 'to ruminate,' like a cow. the sXdhXran siddhXnt. 223 temple know the greater part of it by heart, though I have ascertained that very few of them have more than the vaguest general idea of the meaning. Even the best-informed of the Pujaris — Kishori Chand — who went over it carefully with me, supplied an interpretation of some passages which after consulation with other Pandits I could see was quite untenable and was obliged to reject. The connection of ideas and the grammatical construction are often so involved that it is highly probable my version may still be not altogether free of errors, though I have done my best to eliminate them. The doctrine inculcated does not appear to differ in any essential point from the ordinary teaching of the other Vaishnava sects : the great duties of man, by the practice of which he may have an assured hope of attaining to ultimate salvation, being defined as submission to the divine will, detachment from the world, and an unquestioning faith in the mystery of the incarnation. II o || ^ sTt^WTI I^T^flrT fTT^TT^m^ffT T^cT II o || ii ^mriwra II •ggiwr wilt cm Tumii r^iil r^til TTiacli 11 IK II tiK m ^^ ura wi §m 3iiT I\t^ ^ *fe yfix. ii ^qn ii =*m^T *twt fswr ^Tii tit ^R slri %i cm *wt wft n NO fq^TT ^ aRW ^1 rKTJTCTIT *1T Sf%^^I tlficlT3? ZiK II q II ^iTf^T =ra ^tfl HI^lfT fi m^ ^3 1T3 ^TTiHTfT T^IFH II mx mszuinN to^t vuvtv m cfr i iRm ii Sllfl rW^i fir! rniH rW flcT efiU 3S[ ^tr^TTR II so SO so 4Ttfft3T33t ^rtfll 5IITTTl^^f%lTfT JJRfaSi ^T^TTR II * II efic}^ ^[Sli JFR afl s3rl WcT UI^ ^3 5RR ^ ^fa^T WJ II Cv C? so sflrT WTcT mjr\ ^tf% TTWT ^ifl^I T*^ HT ^tf II sO so ifife ^ro^i^^r fgiTfg ?R5ig ^| w\^ UTTO?} ^ iff ti ^TTj ^T^^'^ra 11 a u m Zfi^T <*■% ^fff oII^Trf 'qSlfr fa?*?* I cfiTO || ClU ^Wr\ oT^TTf ^% ^WT *13T l^rfT 5^1^ If 3iTW ^T1R3T?J JTW^W 3RrTT cR^T^T fl| II cl=T cfi^ ^ ^?TfT oT5T ^Tcfct ^d ^ITO II 10 || 3^T f fa FITTR SRT ^U^lfa II swirl ^tii iR^^n^i fqwr ■st^fi if =n~ffa II 3)1 ^I1K5T^ cUIfT TTOfil ^olf^lITt f^rU^fa II 11 II ^st^rIit sr3i=rIt if^mT^ wrei ^Ti^ft n TTI 5tT§H^rei gift ^WrR^T ^R rR ^SR ^ ift^TfJ » sOTlfKSre^ ^W ^TRT ^^II^ITff ^T facl dfl m^T ^TI^fT II I s ? I! II U*I SR53JH WTT^T^HTf ^=1 *sR II ^RJT3 ^T3=m3 TTaW5 ^H lif^T fl 1*1 II ^1 sntftsra xtt f%n 3tt^t ntroiti^i ^ ii ib n Hl| T tffa ^ gift % gm5R=TtiT vfari ^tR ^q'W flCrlR^ gff fl II ^ifa ^ nifg^ 3f ii ^SJUT xffacl J$T=R 3RI "ssii ^IT? ^ elf cl II 4sTr lifl wfaaR %rt 3icT §5f?f T5^r 5RTJT ^T^ ^m tff rl II §fa »!niK3T5 1J?K Uffi H cfifs^ TT 5iR t* f ^ WH Ulcf II 18 || 57 226 the sAdhXran siddhXnt. cTf^ ETC S^JoRT ^TW^n II TTT^n ^ITrT TTlff T^t i ins n f?^ of ira g^ri ^i^^ifi iiifT ^T^r fsR ^T^i II gRl lR3m Jflrl ^T *h ^TI5 II 'cRUS ifT=RH3 TI5W3 W3JT ^PPC Rp*TT5 II BRfl 55TlR2Tg ^T« ^THZWIT SRT^I ^*t TOTTT3 II IS. II iingjj^tra ifw£ lis *nft ^T3 ii THE SiDIIA'RAN SIDDHAXT. 227 ER?1 J5niTT5ra aJTTR 3T^ fifllfl fl^ffl ^ ^T21T3 II '« II Translation of the SiddhXnta of SwA'mr Hari DXs. Rag Bibhds. 1. " Hari, as thou disposest, so all things abide. If I would shape my course in any different fashion, tell me whose tracks could I follow. If I would do my own will, how can I do it, if thou boldest me back ? (The lords of Sri Hari Das are Syama, and Kunj-bihari). Put a bird in a cage, and for all its fluttering it cannot get away. 2. " Bihari, Biharini, none else has any power ; all depends on your grace. Why babble of vain systems of happiness ? they are all pernicious. To him who loves you, show love, bestowers of happiness (the lords of Sri Har Das are Syama and Kunj-bihari), the supporters of all living creatures. 3. " At times the soul takes flight hither or thither ; but it finds no greater joy. Discipline it in every way and keep it under, or you will suffer. Beautiful as a myriad Loves is Bihari ; and Pleasure and all delights dwell in his presence (the lords of Sri Hari Das are Syama and Kimj-bihiiri) be ever contemplating his manifold aspects. 4. " Worship Hari, worship Hari, nor desert him out of regard for thy mortal body. Covet not, covet not the least particle of wealth. It will come to you unsought, as naturally as one eyelid droops upon the other. Says Sri Hari Das, as comes death, so comes wealth, of itself (or like death, so is wealth — an evil). Rag BildvaU. 5. " Hari, there is no such destroyer as I am, and no such restorer as thou art :* betwixt me and thee there is a contest. Whichever wins or loses, there is no breaking of the condition. Thy game of illusion is wide-spead in diverse ways : saints are bewildered by it and myriads are led astray. Says Hari Das, I win, thou losest, but there is no change in thy love. * For a similar expression of the same sentiment compare the following lines of Siir D.is; Mere pdpan so, Hari, hari hau— Main garua, turn men lial tlwra,nthahMii pichimari hau. 'OHari, you are vanquished by my sinfulness ; I am so heavy and you so slight, that you get badly thrown.' 228 the sa'dhXran siddha'nt. (?. " ye faithful, this is a good election : waver not in mind ; enter into yourselves in contemplation and be not stragglers. Wander not from house to house, nor be in doubt as to your own father's door. Says Sri Hari Das, what is God's doing, is as fixed as Mount Sumeru has become. 7. " Set your affection on the lotus-eyed, in comparison with whose love all love is worthless ; or on the conversation of the saints : that so the sin of your soul may be effaced. The love of Hari is like the durable dye of the mad- der ; but the love of the world is like a stain of saffron that lasts only for two days. Says Hari Das, set your affection on Bfhari, and he knowing your heart will remain with you for ever. 8. " A straw is at the mercy of the wind, that blows it about as it will and carries it whither it pleases. So is the realm of Brahma, or of Siva, or this present world. Says Sri Hari Das : this is my conclusion, I have seen none such as Bihari. 9. " Man is like a fish in the ocean of the world, and other living creatures of various species are as the crocodiles and alligators, while the soul like the wind spreads the entangling net of desire. Again, avarice is as a cage, and the avaricious as divers, and the four objects of life as four compartments of the cage. Says Hari Das, those creatures only can escape whoever embrace the feet of the son of bliss. 10. " Fool, why are you slothful in Hari's praises ? Death goeth about with his arrows ready. He heedeth not whether it be in season or out of season, but has ever his bow on his shoulder. What avail heaps of pearls and other jewels and elephants tied up at your gate ? Says Sri Hari Das, though your queen in rich attire await you in her chamber, all goes for nothing when the darkness of your last day draweth nigh. 11. " See the cleverness of these people: having no regard for Han's lotus feet, their life is spent to no purpose ; when the angel of death comes and encompasses them he does what seemeth him good. Says Sri Hari Das : then is he only found long-lived, who has taken Kunj-bihari to his soul. 12. " Set your heart upon securing his love. With water-pot in hand per- ambulate the ways of Braj and, stringing the beads of your rosary, wander through Brinda-ban and the lesser groves. As a cow watches her own calf and a doc its own fawns and has an eye for none other (the lords of Sri Hari Das are Syama and Kunj-bihari) be your meditation on them as well balanced as a milk-pail on the head. the sXdha'ran siddha'nt. 229 Rdfj Kalydn. 13. " All is Hari's mere sport, a mirage pervading the universe without either germ or plant. The pride of wealth, tho pride of youth, the pride i power, are all like the crow among birds. Says Sri Hari Das, know this of a surety, all is but as a gathering on a feast-day, that is quickly dispersed. 14. "0 sister, how happy arc the docs who worship the lotus-eyed, each with her own lord. Happy too tho calves that drink in the melody of his pipe in their ears as in a cup from which no drop can be spilt. The birds too are like holy men, who daily do him service, free from lust, passion, and avarice. Hearken, Sri Hari Das, my husband is a difficulty ; he will not let me go, but holds mo fast. Rdg Bardri. 15. " friend, as I was going along the road, he laid hold of my milk-pail and my dress ; I would not yield to him unless he paid me for luck. ' O clever milk-maid, you have bewitched my boy with the lustre of the go-rochan patch on your forehead' (0 lord of Sri Hari Das), this is the justice we get here ; do not stay in this town, pretty one.* Rag Kanlirau. 16. " clever Hari, thou makest the false appear true ; night and day thou art weaving and unweaving : thou art an ocean of deceit. Though thou afi'ectest the woman f in form and name, thou art more than man. Hearken ye all to Hari Das and know of a truth it is but as when one wakes out of sleep. 17. " The love of the world has been tested ; there is no real accord. See, from the king to the beggar, natures differ and no match can be found. The days of many births are past for ever ; so pass not thou. Hearken to Hari Das, who has found a good friend in Bihari ; may all find the like. 18. " People have gone astray ; well they have gone, but take thy rosary and stray not thou. To leave thy own lord for another is to be like a strumpet among women. Syama declares : those men rebel against me who prefer another, and those too (says Hari Das) who make great sacrifice to the gods and per- form laboured funeral rites for departed ancestors, j * In two of the three MSS. of the poem that I have consulted, stanzas 14 and 15 are omitted and they appear clearly to he an interpolation by some later hand, being quite out of keeping with the context. They must be regarded as a dialogue between two of the Gopis and Jasoda. f In this stanza it is the god's illusive power, or Maya, that is addressed, rather than the god himself. % Thus the Vaishnavas, when they perform a Sraddh, do not repeat the names of their owa ancestors, but substi'ute the names of Krishna, Pradyumna, and Aniruddh. 58 230 THE malt5k dXsis. 19. " Worship Hari from the heart as long as you live ; all thing3 else are vain. It is only a matter of four* days, what need of much baggage. From pride of wealth, from pride of youth, from pride of power, you have lost your- self in mere village squabbles. Says Hari Das, it is greed that has destroyed you ; where will a complaint lie. 20. " In the depth of the delights of an ocean of love how can men reach a landing-place ? Admitting his helplessnessf he cries, What way of escape is open ? No one's arrows fly straight, for all his boasting in street and market- place. Says Sri Hari Das : know Bihari to be a god who overlooks all defects in his votaries." The Maliik Dasis, another modern sect of limited importance, have one of their religious houses at Brinda-ban, with a temple dedicated to Bam Ji, near the Kesi ghat. Their founder, according to the most probable tradition, lived in the reign of Aurangzeb, and was a trader by occupation. He is said to have written a Hindi poem called the Dasratna, together with a few short Sdkhis and Padas in the same language ; but no specimen of his composition has ever been published, nor is it known what, if any, are the distinctive tenets of the sect. Probably, they will be found to differ in no material respect from the doctrines of faith and quietism as inculcated by Hari Das ; though, an impor- tant practical difference consists in the recognition of Bama, rather than Krishna, as the incarnation to be specially worshipped. I had intended to visit their Guru and collect from him the materials for a brief sketch of their history and literature, in order to complete this chapter ; but unfortunately I neglected to do so while at Mathura, and have now lost the opportunity of supplying the omission. Another small and obscure sect, that of the Pran-nathis, is again one of the few, of whose literature Professor Wilson, in his essays on the religion of the Hindus, was unable to furnish a specimen. The sect has a single representa- tive at Mathura, and from him, before I loft, I obtained a copy of one of the poems of Pran-nath himself. It is very curious, both from the advanced liberalism of its theological ideas and also from the uncouthness of the lanffuage, in which tho construction of the sentences is purely Hindi, while tho vocabulary is mainly supplied from * The number ' four ' seems to be an allusion to the four stages of life : childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. t The word btkaryau is doubtful and probably corrupt, though given in all three MSS. THE WORKS OF rRXN-NXTH. 231 Persian and Arabic sources. The writer, a Kshatriya by caste, lived at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and was under the special patronage of Chhattrasal, the famous Raja of Panna in Bundelkhand, who is commonly said by the Muhammadans to have been converted to Islam, though in reality he only went as far as Pran-nath, who endeavoured to make a compromise between the two religions. His followers are sometimes called Dhamis, from Dhdm, a name of the supreme spirit, or Parmatma, and like the Sikhs and several of the later Hindu sects are not idolators, so far that they do not make or rever- ence any image of the divinity, but if they have any temple at all, the only object of religious veneration which it contains is a copy of the works of the founder. His treatises, which, as usual, are ail in verse, are fourteen in num- ber, none of them of very great length, and bear the following titles :— 1, The book of Puis ; 2, of Prakas ; 3, of Shat-rit ; 4, of Kalas ; 5, of Sanandh ; 6, of Kirantan ; 7, of Khulasa ; 8, of Khel-bat ; 9, of Prakrama Illahi Dulhan (an allegory in which the Church, or ; Bride of God,' is represented as a holy city) ; 10, of Sugar Singar ; 11, of Bare Singiir ; 12, of Sidhi Bhasa ; 13, of Marafat Sagar ; 14, of Kiyamat-nama. The shortest is the last, of which I now pro- ceed to give the text, followed by an attempt at a translation, which I am afraid is not altogether free from error, as I am not much versed in Kuranic literature and may have misunderstood some of the allusions. The owner of the MS., Karak Das by name, though professing so liberal a creed, was not a particularly enlightened follower of his master, for I found it impossible to convince him that the Isa of the Kuran, so repeatedly mentioned by Pran-nath, was really the same as the incarnate God worshipped by the English. Like most of the Bairagis and Gosains with whom I have talked, his idea was that the fiery and impetuous foreign rulers of the country were Suraj-bansis, or descendants of the sun, and that the sun was the only God they recognized, as ■was evidenced by their keeping the Sunday holy in his honour. But, without further preface, to proceed to the text of the poem. 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