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OUR TROUBLES IN POONA 
 AND THE DECCAN. 
 
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 THE FRIENDLY CONFERENCE. 
 SIWAJEE AND AFZOOL KHAN, OCTOBER, 1659 A.D. 
 
 (See page no.) 
 
OUR TROUBLES IN POONA 
 AND THE DECCAN 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR CRAWFORD, C.M.G. 
 
 Siwajee on the march. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 
 BV iig \\: :/.lV 
 
 HORACE yAN'RtflTil'. 
 
 WESTMINSTER 
 ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & Co. 
 
 1897 
 
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 Printed in Holland at the Motley Press. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGK3 
 
 CHAPTER I.— Historical Sketch of Poona and its 
 P^NviRONS— Mallojee Bhonslay (Siwajee's grand- 
 father) to MhADAJEE SiNDIA— 15CX), TO I2TH 
 
 February 1794 A.D i— 17 
 
 CHAPTER II.— Historical Sketch— Confim/ed. Nana 
 
 FURNAWEES AND BaJEE RaO, 1794 TO 1799 A.D. . 18— 36 
 
 CHAPTER III.— Historical Sketch— Continued. Death 
 OF Nana, Holkar and Sindia, Treaty of Bassein, 
 1800 TO 1816, A.D 37— 53 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— Historical Sketch— G?;;///^/^^. Down- 
 fall OF THE PeISHWA, BaTTLE OF KiRKEE, BRITISH 
 
 Annexation, 1817 to 1880 A.D 54— 76 
 
 CHAPTER v.— The Poona and Deccan Press . . 77— 81 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— The "Scourge of the Deccan". . 82— 99 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— The Siwajee Revival 100— 112 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— The Deccanee and Deccanised— 
 
 Konkanee Brahmins 113—123 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— The Pure Konkanee Brahmins— A 
 
 Chitpawan Legend 124—133 
 
 CHAPTER X. -The Shenwee Brahmins 134—136 
 
 CHAPTER XL— The Parbhu 137-H1 
 
 CHAPTER XII.— The Mahrattas of the Syadrees— 
 
 OF THE Ghaut Mahta— of the Plains .... 142—154 
 
 221521 
 
vni CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL— The Konkanee Mussulman . . . 155—168 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— The Deccanee Mussulman— /"^r/z. 169—182 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— The Deccanee Mussulman— /^^r/ 2. 183-191 
 CHAPTER XVI.— The Trading Classes. The Agri- 
 cultural AND Labouring: Rural Castes. The 
 
 Artisan Castes 192-213 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.-The Out Castes, The Hill or Wild 
 
 Tribes, The Migratory and Predatory Tribes. 214—226 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII— Aliens 227-241 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.- PooNA Police 242-250 
 
 CHAPTER XX.— Summary and Conclusion . . . 251—253 
 
SYLLABUS OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The City of Poona and its Environs— Historical Sketch (1500 
 TO 12 February 1794 Pages i to 17 
 
 Poona under the Nizam — Shahee Dynasty 15th and i6th Centuries — 
 Mahrattas already troublesome — The Bhonslays of Verole (Ellora) — Mallojee, 
 Siwajee's grandfather, pacified by grant of Poona and Soopa districts, 
 Fortresses of Sewneree and Chakun, with command of 5,000 horse and 
 title of Raja in 1604 — Mallojee succeeded by son Shahjee Siwajee, born 
 at Sewneree, May 1627 — Shahjee builds palace at Poona for Siwajee and 
 his mother, 1637 — Siwajee educated there — Raises father's standard in the 
 Konkan and thence raids the Deccan — Shaisteh Khan ordered to punish 
 him, plunders Poona, occupies Siwajee's palace (1662), but cannot dislodge 
 Siwajee from Singhur — Siwajee's daring exploit — Moguls evacuate Poona, 
 1663 — Siwajee dies, 5th April, 1680 — Succeeded by son Sumbhajee, who, 
 is pursued to Poona by Mogul Viceroy who occupies City (1685) — Bubonic 
 Plague in Deccan and Poona, 1689 — Aurungzebe holds Poona and Deccan, 
 1693 to 1699, from camp at Brimhapooree — Five years' futile efforts to 
 crush Mahrattas in Deccan — Proceeds to Beejapoor to check them in 
 Carnatic, 1705 — Returns and dies at Ahmednuggur, 1707 — Origin and rise 
 of Sindia and Holkar — Ballajee Bajee Rao Peishwa— Proclaims Poona 
 Capital of the Mahrattas (1705) — His struggle with Nizam Ally— Growth 
 of Mhadajee vSindia's power — Alarm of Nana Furnawees, Minister of 
 youthful Peishwa Mhadow Rao — Sindia's grand progress to Poona with 
 Imperial Firmauns — Encamps at Poona, ilth June, 1 791 — The Great 
 Durbar — Sindia's influence over young Peishwa — Despair of Nana — Sudden 
 death of Mhadajee Sindia at Poona, 12th February, 1794 — Character of 
 Mhadajee — Why he failed "to crush the Brahmins." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Historical Sketch— C<?^///;z?/^^ Pages 1 8 to 36 
 
 Suicide of young Peishwa at Poona, 25th October, 1795 — Nana Furnawees 
 distrusting Bajee Rao, intrigues to supplant him — Bajee Rao's counterplots 
 with Sindia and Balloba Tattya are successful — Nana and Bajee Rao swear 
 friendship (1796) and throw over Sindia and his Minister — They march 
 on Poona— Nana feigns to retire from office— but accepts Balloba's plan to 
 depose Bajee Rao and enthrone Chimnajee when adopted by widow of 
 suicide — The puppet Raja at Satara — Mutual distrust of Nana and Balloba — 
 Bajee Rao inveigled into Sindia's camp, is detained prisoner — Chimnajee 
 made Peishwa (25th May, 1796) — Balloba tries to seize Nana— The latter's 
 desperate position — He rises to the emergency — Intrigues with Bajee Rao — 
 
X SYLLABUS OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Balloba decides to send Bajee Rao prisoner to Hindostan in charge of 
 Ghatgay, but Bajee Rao corrupts the latter — Meantime Nana matures his 
 plans — Secures British co-operation^— Arrests Balloba and Chimnajee— Makes 
 treaty with Sindia and Nizam Ally — Resumes Prime Ministership (25th 
 November, 1796) — Reseats Bajee Rao as Peishwa (4th December) — Annuls 
 Chimnajee's adoption — A Mahratta kaleidoscope — Vana's reorganisation — 
 Affray in Poona — Death of Tookajee Holkar — Nana supports youngest son 
 whom Sindia kills at Poona, while two other sons fly for their lives — 
 Sindia interferes in government — Bajee Rao, egged on by Ghatgay, turns 
 against Nana — Arrests him (31st December, 1797) — Lets Ghatgay loose to 
 ravage Poona — ^^Pries but fails to seize Sindia — Bajee Rao allies himself 
 with Nizam Ally — Sindia seeks British mediation— Neglects advice 
 tendered — Bajee Rao plays his best trump — Treats with both Nana and 
 Sindia — The latter banishes Ghatgay— Nana, Bajee Rao, and Sindia 
 reconciled, 1798. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Historical ^k^tcu— Conti?med (1800 to 1816) . . Pages 37 to 53 
 
 Death of Nana Furnawees, 13 March — His character — His Statesmanship — 
 His fear and respect for the English — Baiee Rao and Sindia quarrel over 
 his property — Sindia destroys recently reinstated Shenwee Ministers — 
 Balloba dies in prison — Two others barbarously executed at Poona — Bajee 
 Rao hunts down Nana's friends— His unpopularity — Captures and murders 
 Wittoojee Holkar at Poona — -Jeswant Rao Holkar vows vengeance — Bajee 
 Rao strives to conciliate him — Tries to seize Ghatgay, who escapes to Malwa 
 and defeats Holkar at Indore — Holkar, in 1802, reappears in great force, 
 near Poona — Bajee Rao asks, but is i-efused British aid — Trifles with Holkar — 
 Holkar and Sindia race for Poona — Battle at Poona between Holkar and 
 Sindia, 25 .October, 1802, with British troops and Peishwa looking on — 
 Signal defeat of Sindia— Bravery of Holkar — Flight of Bajee Rao to 
 Konkan — Takes refuge with the British at Bassein — Holkar sets up Bajee 
 Rao's brother, Amrut Rao, who incites Holkar to plunder Poona — British 
 Resident leaves Poona — Visits Bajee Rao at Bassein — Treaty of Bassein, 
 3 December, 1802 — Bajee Rao escorted to Poona by British troops — 
 Reseated on throne, 13 May, 1803 — Holkar and Amrut Rao fly — Treachery 
 of Bajee Rao — Forms Mahratta Confederacy against the British — Fails to 
 dupe Mr. Elphinstone — His infamous favourite, Trimbuckjee Dainglia — 
 Trimbuckjee murders Gungadhur vShastree of Baroda at Punderpoor when 
 under British guarantee — Is seized at instance of Resident — Is imprisoned 
 at Tannah, but escapes — Raises Hill Tribes with Bajee Rao's connivance — 
 Elphinstone insists on surrender of Trimbuckjee — Peishwa temporises — 
 Elphinstone's firmness and 'energy — New treaty with Bajee Rao, 10 May, 
 181 6 — His complete humiliation — Nevertheless he resumes his treacherous 
 intrigues— Sir John Malcolm duped by him — Elphinstone's warning to 
 Sir John. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Historical ^YiETCH— Completed (1817 to 1880) . . Pages 54 to 76 
 
 Singhur, Raighur and Poorundhur restored to Peishwa (August) — General 
 Smith with Deccan Army occupies Chandore range — Bajee Rao at Maholee 
 matures plot against British — Reveals it to puppet Raja — Confines him at 
 Wassota — Trimbuckjee arms Hill Tribes — Bajee Rao's secret missions to 
 Nagpoor, Sindia, Holkar and Pindarrees — Employs Ghoreparay to corrupt 
 
SYLLABUS OF CONTENTS. xi 
 
 British Officers and Troops — Proposes to murder Elphinstone at a conference — 
 Gokhla objects— The Dussera insult to British Troops, which change their 
 position — An anxious night, 28 October— Gokla urges action — Bajee Rao 
 delays — More insults to Resident — The Battle of Kirkee— Signal defeat of 
 Peishwa — Arrival of General Smith — He occupies Poona — Flight and 
 pursuit of Bajee Rao — The Battle of Koreygaum — Renewed flight of Bajee 
 Rao, towards Mysore, back to Sholapoor, to Chandore, to Kopergaum, 
 to Nagpoor territory — Is abandoned by all Chiefs except Vinchoorkur and 
 Poorundharee — Appeals to Sir John Malcolm — Surrenders to Lieutenant 
 Low, 3 June, 1818 — Abdicates— Is pensioned at Bithoor — Adopts the future 
 Nana Saheb — End of the Brahmin Dynasty — British accession — Bajee Rao's 
 character — Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay — Thirty-seven years' peace — 
 The Mutiny years — The Railway opened to Poona — Sir Battle Frere — 
 Prosperity of Poona — Its filthy condition — Its Riots, Dacoities, and Jubilee 
 Murders — To whom ascribable — Inhabitants of Poona law-abiding — Only 
 want governing — Not by Brahmins. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Poona and Deccan Press Pages 77 to 81 
 
 Injustice of stigmatising all the Native Pi-ess as disloyal — Soundness of 
 the Bombay Press — Faults of the Native Press — They exist in England — 
 Good Anglo- Vernaculars — Congress newspapers — Their back-bone black- 
 mail — "Sangvinary Veeds" thriving in high places, must be uprooted — 
 The Law suffices — Temperature Chart of the Native Press. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The "Scourge of the Deccan" ...... Pages 82 to 99 
 
 Saturday Street, Poona — The office of the "Scourge" — Baba Saheb — A 
 sucking Peishwa — His ambition — The Pryvit Saheb— How to start a Native 
 Paper — The Editor's Room — A Brace of Rascals — The Secret Compact — 
 The Babooneese language — Two Editorials in the "Scourge" — End of the 
 Editor — The Snake's Progress— Baba Saheb's brilliant prospects. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Siwajee Revival Pages 100 to 112 
 
 Curious outburst of Brahmin patriotism — Valuable documents — Where 
 Siwajee was burnt at ^Raighur—Siwajee's Durbars — Soyera Bye's Curse — 
 View from Raighur — Afzool Khan and Siwajee — Brahmins arrange a 
 friendly conference — Sivvajee's religious and other preparations — The deadly 
 embrace— Who would have thought it? — Killing no murder — Hurrah for 
 Siwajee! 
 
 . CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Inhabitants of Poona. 
 The Deccannised— Konkanee Brahmins . . . Pages 113 to 123 
 
 Injustice of condemning all Brahmins because there are some malignants — 
 Good specimens — ^Judge Ranade's admirable speech — The malign influence 
 of the Deccan climate on Konkanee Brahmins— Swelled head — A specific 
 for it — An unused Government remedy — Passionate Brahmins prize fowls. 
 
xii SYLLABUS OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Inhabitants of Voo^k— Continued. 
 
 The Pure Konkanee Legend— A Chitpawan Legend. Pages 124 to 133 
 
 Deorookhas and Javvala Brahmins — Chitpawans — Chiploon their place 
 of origin — Why they are 'twice born' — The true Legend — Their Immor- 
 tality — Their Treachery — Indra sees his mistake— Their little game — How 
 Indra paid them out — Hurrah! they die like any Deshast. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Inhabitants of V 00^ p^— Continued. 
 
 The Saraswata, Senoy or Shenwee Brahmin . Pages 134 to 136 
 
 Origin of the Shenwees— Shameful scandal spread by Chitpawans — 
 Shenwees are rivals to them — Their many good traits — Antidotes to 
 Brahmin poison — Perhaps the best of all Hindoos. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Inhabitants of Voo'^^k— Continued. 
 
 The Parbhu— Prabhu— (Anglice) Purvoe. . . Pages 137 to 141 
 
 Their low position in the scheme of mixed castes — Another Brahmin 
 scandal — Their high character — Their tenderness to their women — Their 
 conspicuous gallantry in battle — Three notable instances of it — Siwajee 
 highly valued them — Their decay regrettable. 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 The Inhabitants of V 00^ a— Continued. 
 
 The Mahrattas of the Syadrees— of the Ghaut-Mahta^of the 
 Plains Pages 142 to 154 
 
 The habitat of the Syadree Mahrattas — Their warlike tradition — Are 
 descended from Rajpoots — Wasteful cultivation — Their poverty and sim- 
 plicity — Their mode of life — A terrible domestic tragedy — Father and Son — 
 A grand old man — Ghattees are descendants of Siwajee's Mawullees— How 
 they have been gradually reclaimed and civilised — The Plain Mahrattas — 
 The hereditary Patells or village head-men — Their good work — Their 
 staunchness as soldiers. 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 The Inhabitants of Poona— Contiiiued. 
 
 The Konkanee Mussulman Pages 155 to 168 
 
 The Konkanee Mussulman at home — Their good service after the 
 Peishwa's downfall — Their deplorable decadence — The story of Abdul 
 Farreed — He adopts a waif — Is tried for murder and acquitted — Throws up 
 his appointment — Is pursued into his retreat by Brahmin conspiracies — Is 
 foully slandered about the waif Khatiza — Anonymous accusations— I visit 
 him — He is persuaded to part with Khatiza, who marries — His persecution 
 ceases. 
 
SYLLABUS OF CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Inhabitants of Voo^\— Continued. 
 The Deccanee Mussulman; The Deccan— Actual and Possible. 
 A Study in the Famine Question— /iz/-/ 1. . Pages 169 to 182 
 
 Mr. Geddes' Article on Cyprus — Fitting the Cypriote coat on the Deccanee 
 back — From Poona to Beejapoor — The Arid Zone — How produced — The City 
 of the Dead — The Legend of the Peerstan of Shahpoor — The Peer-Zadah 
 is rescued from penury by Government— Gentlemen of the Deccan apo- 
 strophised — Now is the appointed time — Moral for the Government. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Inhabitants of Voo^k— Continued. 
 The Deccanee Mussulman; The Deccan— Actual and Possible. 
 A Study in the Famine Question— /^<?// 2. . Pages 183 to 191 
 
 The City of the Dead left — The Arid Zone traversed— What might 
 have been — What might yet be done — Disforesting causes dessication — 
 Impoverishment and economic ruin follow — A brighter belt of country — 
 The reason of it — The Well Shaft and water-galleries at Hoongoond — 
 // faut cultiver son jardin — Water mining better than water damming — 
 The result a rise of acre values — Moral for the Powers that be — The 
 Hygiene of Peace. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Inhabitants of Voo^ a— Continued. 
 
 The Trading Classes— Bhattias— Goozurs—Wanees— Marwar- 
 
 rees—Khojahs— Borahs— Miscellaneous Shopkeepers— All live 
 
 AMICABLY TOGETHER— Contented— Industrious— Indifferent to 
 
 Politics— Charitable Pages 192 to 213 
 
 The Agricultural^ Labouring and Rural Castes. 
 
 The Koonbees, Ryots or Cultivators. — Their patience and industry : their 
 condition now and in the old times: their homes. 
 
 Coolies, Bigarrees, Porters, Day Labourers, and odd men. 
 
 Gowlees or Milkmen. — High in vShudra rank: their little weaknesses, 
 
 Mallees or Gardeners. — Are well connected, well to do, well affected. 
 
 Dhungars or Shepherds and Herdsmen. — How they collect their flocks: 
 their progress to their markets: should be well off, but rarely seem so: 
 are quite harmless. 
 
 Nhawees, Hajams or Barbers. — Have the failings of all Figaros: their 
 independence: "Tom the Barber." 
 
 Gabeets, Boodeemars, Fishermen and Divers. — How they net the rivers, 
 and recover drowned bodies: good fellows, but quarrelsome in their cups. 
 
 The Bhundarrees or Toddy-drawers. — Their conceit and vanity : excellent 
 public servants: once your friend always your friend. 
 
 The Artisan classes.— Sonars or Goldsmiths the best of the Shudras: 
 ambitious of admittance as Brahmins: their intelligence: their women 
 educated: their honesty and skill. Miscellaneous Artisans: Carpenters, 
 Blacksmiths, etc. 
 
 Shimpees or Tailors. — Competition resulting from sewing-machines : their 
 enterprise. 
 
 Moochees or Shoemakers.— Skilful but drunken and unreliable : competition 
 of Madrassees and Chinamen. 
 
XIV SYLLABUS OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Out Castes— The Hill or Wild Tribes— The Migratory and 
 Predatory Tribes . Pages 214 to 226. 
 
 The Mliars are the' aboriginals of Maharashtra: are indispensable and 
 ubiquitous: are splendid soldiers, good masons, good servants: shamefully 
 ne.trlected in Poona. 
 
 The Mhangs. — Their foul employment and food: their destitution: their 
 extinction. 
 
 The Hill or Wild Tribes. — Ramooshees of the Ghauts — their bitter 
 poverty: reasons for it: their evil traditions: they are used, cheated, and 
 betrayed by Brahmins: their presence in towns ominous: a Ramooshee 
 Police Corps recommended. — Ramooshees of the Station are a mixed lot: 
 their nocturnal and daily habits: their discretion. — Bheels, Kolees, and 
 Katodees do not come to Poona. 
 
 Brief list of Migratory and Predatory Tribes. — All filthy: all debauched — 
 all thieves, except the Waddars, the Navvies of the Carnatic, who have 
 been reclaimed. 
 
 The Tamasha Wallas or Showmen and Jugglers. Formerly accompanied 
 Mogul armies: their honesty doubtful: they levy blackmail: their sudden 
 disappearance from a city presages disturbance. 
 
 The Gosaees have fought well in old days: ai-e good spies: some are 
 wealthy traders: the ascetics and contortionists probably half witted: 
 Gcsaees needed in the Police. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 The Alien Inhabitants of Poona Pages 227 to 241 
 
 The Parsees. — Their worth: the superiority of their women: some distin- 
 guished Parsees: their benefactions: public spirit; enterprise: their services 
 to the State: weak points of younger generation: exhortation to Parsees. 
 
 The Moodliars (Madrasses). — Their insignificance: are kindly, charitable 
 easy-going, ready dupes: they represent nobody. 
 
 The Izrailies or Oil factors. — Their supposed origin: are good soldiers, 
 mechanics and artificers. 
 
 Goanese and other Eurasians. — Are numerous: harmless, indolent: fond 
 of liquor, poultry, and pork: good musicians: fair artificers: inherit 
 weaknesses of both races. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 The Poona Police Pages 242 to 250 
 
 Are utterly inefficient: sometimes brutal: are shamefully underpaid while 
 heavily tempted. — Urgent need for reform. — Warnings from those who know 
 disregarded. — Failure of Lord Harris's scheme. — Evil traditions of Poona 
 Police: Two infamous Inspectors. — Reform very simple: how to be made: 
 how to be paid for. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Summary and Conclusion Pages 251 to 253 
 
 General disaffection and discontent does not prevail in Maharashtra — 
 Is confined to a small body of one caste — Q.E.D. — The Moral— Hoping 
 against Hope. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 HORACE VAN RUITH. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Conference. {Full Page Frontispiece^ 4 
 
 SlWAJEE ON THE MaRCH, FROM "InDIAN AND ORIENTAL ArMS " 
 
 BY Lord Egerton of Tatton. {Medallion on Title Page) 5 
 
 Parbuttee Temple and Palace. {Full Page.) 9 
 
 Sumbhajee's Day Durbar. {Full Page.) 19 
 
 Office of the "Scourge of the Deccan." {Full Page.) . 83 
 
 The Secret Compact 87 
 
 The Sjjake's Progress. {Full Page.) 95 
 
 Siwajee's Cremation Platform loi 
 
 Siwajee's Nocturnal Durbar. {Full Page.) 103 
 
 The Wagnuk 109 
 
 The Deccan Brahmin 114 
 
 Brahmin Lady 120 
 
 The Konkanastha, or Chitpawan Brahmin 126 
 
 GowALKOTE. Stronghold of the Konkanastha. {Full Page.) 131 
 
 The SnfeNWEE Brahmin 135 
 
 The Parbhu 138 
 
 The Mahratta of the Syadrees 143 
 
 Syadree Mahrattas— Father and Son. {Full Page.) . . 151 
 
 The Konkanee Mussulman 156 
 
 Fort Victoria— Bankote— Home of the Konkanee Mus- 
 sulman. {Full Page.) 165 
 
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Deccanee Mussulman Gentlemen 170 
 
 The Big Dome. (^Full Page?) 175 
 
 The Asar Mahal 179 
 
 The Big Gun. {Full Page:) 185 
 
 The Wanee 193 
 
 The Marwarree 194 
 
 The Khojah 195 
 
 The Borah 196 
 
 The Koonbee 199 
 
 The Coolie 200 
 
 The Gowlees 202 
 
 The Dhungar 204 
 
 The Nhawee 205 
 
 The Gabeet 207 
 
 The Bhundaree 209 
 
 The Sonar 211 
 
 The Shimpee 212 
 
 The Moochee 213 
 
 The Mhar 215 
 
 The Ramooshee of the Station . 217 
 
 The Phansee Pardees. {Full Page) 219 
 
 The Tamasha Wallas. (7^?/// P^^^.) 223 
 
 The Gosaee 225 
 
 Parsees 228 
 
 Lady Jamsetjee's Dam. {Full Page.) 231 
 
 The Moodliar 238 
 
 The Israilee , . . . . 239 
 
 The Goanese 240 
 
 Poona Police . . 243 
 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
 AND AUTHORITIES QUOTED. 
 
 History of the Mahrattas. (Grant Duff) Times of India Press. 
 
 Indian Caste. (John Wilson, D,D., F.R.S.) Ditto. 
 
 History of the Parsees. (Dossaehoy Framjee Karaka, C.S.L) 
 
 Macmillan & Co. 
 The Hindu Pantheon. (Edward Moor). New Edition with Plates 
 
 BY W. O. Simpson. 
 Memoir of C. T. E. Rhenius of Edinburgh. (By his son J. Rhenius.) 
 Mahabharata, Miscellaneous Extracts. (John Muir, D.C.L.) 
 Mahabharata, Further Metrical Translations from the. 
 
 CJoHN Muir, D.C.L.) 
 Indian and Oriental Arms, etc. (The Right Honble. Lord 
 
 Egerton of Tatton.) 
 The Contemporary Review (June 1897). Article by Mr. Patrick 
 
 Geddes. 
 One Hundred Bombay Notes. (Extracts from different 
 
 WRITERS.) 
 
 Early Days of the Bhonslays of Satara. (H. B. E. Frere.) 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 "The news from India is serious, though it must not be 
 exaggerated. It does not follow that because English officers are 
 shot at, the whole of India is in a state of latent rebellion," so 
 said, wisely and temperately— as is its wont,— the Sf. James's Gazette 
 of the 30th June after the Poona Jubilee murders. Would that the 
 rest of the English Press had been as sober, as prudent! Alas! 
 while the whole pack has been in full cry, Mahommedan fanaticism 
 has been dragged, like red herrings tied to Brahminical threads, 
 across the scent.- The pack has broken up. Some couples— the 
 fiercest and the rashest— have run to heel on the line of Native 
 Press Suppression; others have pursued the foul Plague phantom, 
 and mauled brave "Tommy Atkins"; a few still bay at Brahmins 
 good and bad indifferently; while hare-brained Scotch, Irish, and 
 "Padgett" M.P'S have ridden recklessly ahead, scattering on each 
 line abundant lies, provided by cringing Fergusson College Professors 
 and pestilent Deccan "Sabhas." "Filled is the air with barbarous 
 dissonance" and the British public is bewildered. 
 
 There is great present danger that the innocent may be confounded 
 with the guilty: there is greater danger that the guilty may evade 
 detection— as has often happened before— and that the character 
 of harmless classes may be irreparably injured through misappre- 
 hension. There is still greater danger that thus a general feeling 
 of disaffection, which I hope to prove does not yet exist, may 
 actually be produced. 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 At such a time it behoves those who have passed many years 
 in Western India, who know something of the people and their 
 languages, and who feel for their present sufferings from famine and 
 pestilence, to endeavour to prevent the widening of the gulf that 
 must always exist between Asiatics and their British rulers. If 
 anything I have written, or may write, shall awaken keener interest 
 in, diffuse a better knowledge of these peoples and of their real 
 needs, I shall not have laboured in vain. 
 
 There are many books and documents bearing on the subject 
 of this work, to which access has unfortunately been impossible 
 because the India Office Library has been closed since June 1896. 
 I have striven to make the best use of history, (quoting largely 
 from Grant Duff,) of ancient Sanscrit traditions and legends, of the 
 memoirs and researches of distinguished writers, and have ventured 
 to intersperse incidents and experiences in my own life; thus 
 bringing everything up to date, without, I hope, unfair comment, 
 even on those misguided men— a mere handful, after all— who 
 have brought about all the trouble. 
 
 The names of people and places are herein spelt in accordance 
 with their rendering by Grant Duff and other Anglo-Indians before 
 the Hunterian style was invented. Forced down officials' throats 
 by official orders, the system has never been popular with the 
 Services, nor has it ever been fully adopted. 
 
 Wherever Vernacular words or phrases have been used, the 
 meaning or translation follows immediately for the enlightenment 
 of the general reader. 
 
 ARTHUR CRAWFORD. 
 
 Dec. 1897. 
 
■) ■> 1 ) 
 
 OUR TROUBLES 
 
 IN 
 
 POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CITY OF POONA AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 Historical Sketch (1500 to 12th February, 1794). 
 
 Mdllojee Bh6nslay to Mhddajee Sindia. 
 
 The capital of the Deccan was little more than a village 
 in the 15th and i6th Centuries, owing its importance prob- 
 ably to the sanctity of the shrine of Parvatee (Parbuttee) or 
 Bhowanee, built on the hill behind. Old Poona grew along 
 the banks of the river Moota, from the tank at the foot of 
 Parbuttee, and gradually extended over the plain to the East. 
 Poona gave its name to the pergunnah (sub-district or 
 county) which, with all the surrounding region, was subject to 
 the Mahommedan Ahmednuggur Nizam-Shahee (or Byheree) 
 Dynasty. That dynasty fell into decay towards the end of 
 the 1 6th Century when the Mahrattas were already becoming 
 troublesome. Especially did the ** respectable family" of 
 the Bhonslays of Verole (EUora) annoy their rulers. At last 
 Mallojee Bhonslay, the grandfather of the great Siwajee, made 
 himself such a nuisance that the Ahmednuggur Government 
 to keep him quiet, granted him in 1604 the Pergunnahs of 
 
2 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Poona and Soopa in Jagheer, * handed him over the forts 
 of Sewneree and Chakun and raised him to the command 
 of 5,000 horse, with the title of Mallojee Raja Bhonslay 
 (Grant Duff, vol. i, p. "]%). 
 
 From that time the ancestors of Siwajee patronised the 
 small Mahratta town, but it was not till after Siwajee's birth 
 at Sewneree, in May 1627, that his father Shahjee fixed 
 upon Poona as the place where his son should be brought 
 up. In 1637 he caused to be built a large "warra" 
 (Palace) for the residence of his wife Jeejeebye and young 
 Siwajee, where the latter was educated (if education it can 
 be called) under one Dadajee Konedeo, the able Brahmin 
 who administered the revenues of that region and secretly 
 encouraged his ward in all his warhke aspirations. We read 
 little more about Poona till 1662, by which time Siwajee 
 was in the height of his career. In this year Shaisteh Khan 
 (Oomeer-ool Oomrah), Viceroy of the Deccan, was ordered 
 by Aurungzebe to proceed from Aurungabad with a large 
 force, to punish Siwajee for his daring incursions into Mogul 
 territory. Shaisteh Khan, marching by way of Ahmednuggur, 
 easily took Poona which was then scarcely worth plundering, 
 and thence, residing himself in the ''warra" or palace 
 built for Jeejeebye, sent out detachments to take the Fort 
 of Chakun, while Siwajee with his usual audacity made his 
 headquarters at the Fort of Singurh, only eight miles off. 
 Shaisteh Khan faiHng to dislodge Siwajee, *'the mountain 
 rat" (as Aurungzebe contemptuously called him), was super- 
 
 * Service tenure. 
 
SIWAJEE'S DARING EXPLOIT. 3 
 
 seded by Jeswant Sing, who being equally unsuccessful and 
 greatly harassed by the Mahrattas, vacated Poona and 
 returned to Aurungabad in 1663. 
 
 "During Shaisteh Khan's occupation Siwajee executed one 
 of those daring exploits which so endeared him to his followers 
 and which are still the themes of many a Mahratta bard. 
 
 " No armed Mahratta was permitted to enter Poona without 
 a passport, and no Mahratta horsemen were entertained 
 excepting under such chiefs * of their own as held their lands 
 from the Emperor. 
 
 '' Siwajee, watchful of all that passed, resolved to surprise 
 the Khan, and sent two Brahmins to make such arrangements 
 as were necessary to gain admission. When his preparations 
 were complete Siwajee left Singurh one evening in the 
 month of April, a little after sunset, at the head of a consider- 
 able body of infantry, whom he posted in small parties 
 along the road, but Yesjee Kunk, Tannajee Maloosray, and 
 25 Mawulees were all that entered. His emissaries had 
 gained a Mahratta foot-soldier in the Khan's service, who, 
 on pretence of celebrating a marriage, obtained permission 
 to beat through the town with the noisy instruments used 
 on such occasions, and also for some of his companions, 
 who always carry their arms, to join in the procession. 
 Poona being an open town, Siwajee with his party, 
 favoured by the contrivance of his emissaries, easily slipped 
 undiscovered into the crowd, and joined in the moving 
 assemblage. 
 
 * Khafee Khan. 
 
4 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 ^' When all was quiet, Sivvajee and his companions, familiar 
 with every accessible part of the Khan's residence, proceeded 
 with a few pick-axes to the cook-room, above which there 
 was a window slightly built up. Through this place they 
 soon made themselves a passage, but not without alarming 
 some of the women of the Khan's family, who immediately 
 ran and awoke their master. Shaisteh Khan was hurrying 
 out, and in the act of lowering himself from a window, 
 when he received a blow on the hand which cut off one 
 of his fingers. He was fortunate in escaping without further 
 injury, as his son Abdool Futih Khan and most of the 
 guard at his house were killed. 
 
 "Siwajee and his men retired before it was possible to 
 intercept them, and gradually collected their parties on 
 their route to Singurh. When they got to the distance of 
 three or four miles they lighted torches, previously prepared, 
 to occasion deception as to their numbers, and to express 
 their defiance and derision. In this manner they ascended 
 to the fort in full view of the Mogul camp from which 
 they might be distinctly seen." (Grant Duff, pp. 164 to 166.) 
 
 Poona seems to have remained unmolested till 1685 when 
 Khan Jehan, Mogul Viceroy, following up Siwajee's son Sum- 
 bhajee, (Siwajee died 5th April, 1680,) took possession of the 
 town, now grown immensely, and all the adjacent country, 
 which, however, was evacuated directly the Moguls entered 
 on their Beejapur campaign. 
 
 The Plague is no new thing in Poona. In 1689 when 
 Aurungzebe had conquered Beejapoor, a bubonic complaint. 
 
THE PLAGUE IN THE DECCAN. 5 
 
 precisely resembling the plague now prevalent, broke out 
 in his army, swept oft thousands of his troops and spread 
 over the country, reaching Poona in 1690, where, however, 
 having already spent its strength, it did not rage very 
 violently. This epidemic had already been known for some 
 years in the Deccan and Goozerat : ^'Khafee Khan (the histor- 
 ian) describes it, as commencing by a slight swelling under 
 the ear, the arm-pit or groin, attended with inflamed eyes 
 and severe fever. It generally proved fatal in a few hours, 
 and those who did recover, became wholly or partially deaf 
 or blind." (Grant Uuft", vol. i, p. 333.) 
 
 From 1693 to 1699 Aurungzebe overawed the Deccan 
 generally, and remained within striking distance of Poona 
 (the name of which he changed to Moyabad, from a grand 
 cantonment which he built at Brimhapooree, on the Bheema, 
 below Punderpoor). In 1699 the Emperor vacated this camp, 
 to the great regret of the Mogul nobles, many of whom had 
 built palaces there, — and marched past Poona to besiege the 
 fort of Satara. For four or five years more the aged 
 monarch, harassed on all sides by an unwieldy empire 
 and exceptionally corrupt and debauched officers, many of 
 whom while pretending to administer Mahratta Districts were 
 receiving pay from their foes, '' persevered to the last in 
 his fruitless endeavours to stifle Mahratta independence." 
 (Grant Duff", vol. i, p. 339.) At last, in 1705, after having 
 taken Rajgurh and Torna, and after camping in an aimless 
 way for six months near Joonere, the Emperor left the 
 vicinity of Poona for good, and retreated towards Beejapoor 
 
6 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 so as to check the spread of Mahratta disaffection in the 
 Carnatic. Lastly the grand old man returned to Ahmed- 
 nuggur, and on pitching his camp on the same spot which 
 it had occupied with such splendour 21 years before, he 
 predicted that "his end was near, his campaigns finished, 
 his last earthly journey completed." 
 
 After his death (1707) the Mahratta nation began again to 
 throw off the Mogul yoke, and would again have over-run 
 all India but for the restraining influence of the Brahmin 
 Peishwas, who, absorbed in their ambitious projects of 
 retaining all real power in their own hands, while they 
 maintained a descendant of Siwajee as the nominal head of 
 the nation, had no stomach for foreign aggression or the 
 return of an era of rapine. From wise motives of policy 
 as well as from inclination, they devoted much attention to 
 the settlement of the country and the introduction of some- 
 thing hke stable government. For this purpose they utilised 
 two Mahratta chiefs who had come to the front during the 
 long struggle with Aurungzebe, playing one against the 
 other till they were nearly overwhelmed by both, when 
 British power and influence restored their rule. 
 
 The Sindias, for example, claiming to be of Rajpoot de- 
 scent, and with traditions as distinguished warriors in the 
 Bahminee Dynasty, were connected by marriage with the 
 Bhonslays (Siwajee's family, a daughter of the then Sindia, 
 having been given in marriage to Shao, by Aurungzebe, 
 about 1700). This man stuck to the Moguls, and was killed 
 fighting under Azjim Shah at the battle of Agra in 1707. 
 
RISE OF SINDIA AND HOLKAR. 7 
 
 The family then fell into obscurity and even into poverty 
 so abject that Ranojee Sindia, who afterwards restored its 
 prestige, actually carried (so it is said) the Peishwa's slip- 
 pers while he served in the Pagah (or household troops) as 
 a common trooper. Ranojee greatly distinguished himself in 
 certain operations against the Soobadhar of Peishwa in 
 1724. Thenceforward his rise to great power was rapid. 
 He died in 1750. 
 
 In this same campaign Mulharjee Holkar also came to the 
 front. He was of low descent, a ''dhangar" or shepherd 
 of the village of Hohl, of which his father was *'Chowgula" 
 or Deputy Patell. Mulharjee had already done good service 
 with a small body of horse he had himself raised. These 
 two rival powers alternately occupied the city and its envi- 
 rons for thirty years; it was during their time that Poona 
 began to be studded with huge semi-fortified ''warras" or 
 Palaces built by the various Sirdars of the Deccan, each 
 anxious to assert his position in the town which Ballajee 
 Bajee Rao Peishwa proclaimed in 1750 to be "Capital of the 
 Mahrattas." 
 
 Mahommedan power, however, was not yet by any means 
 completely humbled. It was now Hyderabad that threatened 
 Maharashtra, and the short but sharp struggle that followed 
 was complicated by the French successes under Bussy, — 
 with which I need not concern myself, seeing that that 
 nation never reached the city of Poona, and that its hard- 
 won possessions in the Deccan were practically lost after 
 Ballajee Bajee Rao's operations against Nizam Ally in 1756. 
 
8 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN; 
 
 Nizam Ally, appointed by his brother Sulabhut Jung to be 
 Governor of Berar, conceived the audacious plot, to which 
 Ballajee Bajee Rao was doubtless privy, to intern Sulabhut 
 Jung in Dowlutabad, assume the reins of power and to 
 expel the French from the Deccan. In the general scrim- 
 mage that followed, the Brahmin Peishwa had fine oppor- 
 tunities of indulging his passion for intrigue. He set the 
 Mahrattas plundering under Vishwasrao and others, while 
 he pompously made friends with Nizam Ally: he paid 
 court to Bussy directly he appeared on the scene to Sula- 
 bhut Khan's aid with a strong force of European cavalry 
 and infantry : he humbled himself to Hyder Jung and did 
 all he could (but in vain) to induce Bussy to give him 
 Dowlutabad. Finally, he left his quondam friend Nizam 
 Ally in the lurch, and in June 1750, withdrew with his 
 whole army to Poona, employing his leisure in fooling the 
 Bombay Government (Mr. Bourchier and Mr. Ellis) about 
 Surat (March 4th, 1759). 
 
 Nizam Ally was not the sort of man to forgive or forget 
 such treachery. No sooner had Bussy left for Pondicherry 
 than Nizam Ally reappeared stronger than ever at Boor- 
 hanpoor, and, Sulabhut Khan joining him, marched for 
 Poona. Ballajee Bajee Rao in person moved out with a 
 large force to Ahmednuggur to meet him, while Sewdaseo 
 Rao went eastward, encountered and signally defeated the 
 two brothers (Nizam and Sulabhut) near Oordgeer, and 
 forced them to conclude a treaty (1760) by which the 
 Mogul possessions in the Deccan were now confined to 
 
Q 
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 w 
 
 M 
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 p ° 
 
 I-) Q 
 
 si 
 
 H Q 
 
 
 
 
NIZAM ALLY BURNS POONA. ii 
 
 an insulated space, which must, it seemed, be soon over- 
 whelmed. (Grant Duff, vol. i, p. 594.) But Nizam Ally in 
 1763 seized the first opportunity, and evading the two 
 Holkars (Dummajee and Mulharjee), who tried to stop him, 
 marched straight on Poona, which he plundered and burnt, 
 pulling down such "warras" as were not ransomed. The 
 people of Poona at the first alarm skedaddled with as 
 much as they could carry to Singurh and the hill forts 
 of the Konkan, but the pursuit was so rapid that many 
 were overtaken and *' many manuscripts and state papers 
 illustrative of Mahratta history were totally destroyed." 
 (Grant Duff, vol. i, p. 635.) Nizam Ally then withdrew 
 to Aurungabad for the rainy season, whence he soon moved 
 out to join the defeated Mogul army from Hyderabad, which 
 was then being closely pursued by Rugonath Rao. A great 
 battle ensued at Rakisbone on the Godavery, at which 
 Nizam Ally, on the wrong side of the river, had the morti- 
 fication of seeing the flower of his army cut to pieces 
 without being able to succour them; he retreated with the 
 remnants of his band to Aurungabad where the Mahrattas 
 pursued and again attacked him. Nizam Ally then saw the 
 error of his ways, visited Rugonath Rao, and induced that 
 good-natured man to give him 10 lakhs of rupees and to 
 conclude a new treaty with him (October 1763). With 
 Nizam Ally's further career and his treaty with the English 
 on the 1 2th October, 1800, the city of Poona has but little 
 concern. He died at Hyderabad in August 1803. 
 
 In the meantime the Peishwas had their work cut out 
 
12 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 at Poona by the two great Mahratta rivals whom they had 
 raised to power. Mhadajee Sindia, the greatest Mahratta 
 diplomatist and the best administrator the nation ever had, 
 from the outset of his career undoubtedly had secret inten- 
 tions of allying himself with the English, and the Governor- 
 General, Warren Hastings, as well as Mr. Hornby, Governor 
 of Bombay, were disposed to meet him half way, but 
 Sindia played, as usual, a double game and would not 
 declare himself (1778). So matters drifted, and Holkar, 
 ingratiating himself with Nana Furnawees — always the 
 opponent of British influence, — became the chief power at 
 Poona for a time. Had Mhadajee Sindia acted openly, 
 history might have read another way, for *' certain it is 
 that he had in view the control of the Brahmins and the 
 establishment of his own authority at the Peishwa's Capital." 
 (Grant Duff, vol. 2, p. 251.) With characteristic duplicity, 
 however, he obtained from the Emperor of Delhi ''patents 
 constituting the Peishwa '' Wakeel-i-Mootluq" (or chief 
 agent) of the Deccan, but which was now to descend to 
 him as a hereditary office in unahenable '^ enam,'' '^ on 
 condition, however, of his appointing Sindia and his posterity 
 his perpetual deputies." Once at Poona Mhadajee thought 
 to suppress the Brahmins ; whether he would then have 
 been content to remain as Prime Minister of the Raja of 
 Satara, descendant of Siwajee and nominally head of the 
 Mahratta nation, or whether he would have fixed himself 
 as the Ruler of the Empire — who can tell? 
 
 * Hereditary gift. 
 
SINDIA'S GRAND MARCH TO POONA. 13 
 
 Mhadajee Sindia's duplicity defeated itself. Armed with 
 these patents he set out on a long and pompous march to 
 Poona, which is still spoken of with awe and admiration 
 and many ** Wahl Wahsl" under many a village Peepul tree 
 from Burhanpoor to Ahmednuggur. On the way he dallied 
 with Nizam Ally, and pretended to be much hurt because 
 the latter would not give him the fertile district of Bheer 
 and bestow Aurungabad on the Peishwa 1 This potentate, 
 or rather Nana Furnawees, alarmed at his approach sought 
 aid from Lord Cornwallis, who, however, declined to interfere 
 even though Nana offered to subsidise and permanently 
 maintain a detachment of regular troops under a British 
 officer. Arrived near Poona, however, Sindia, to allay Nana's 
 fears, left his main army behind, and with only a few Euro- 
 peans under Hessing, an Englishman, and one regular 
 battalion commanded by Filoze the Neapolitan, encamped 
 on the nth June, 1791, at the junction (known by us as 
 the **Sungum") of the Moota and Moolla rivers. 
 
 Nana Furnawees did all he knew for 9 days to prevent 
 the young Peishwa from accepting the patents and decora- 
 tions from the Emperor of Delhi, brought by Sindia, but 
 the latter persisted, so Nana was compelled much against 
 the grain to pay a formal visit to Sindia, who received him 
 with great outward show of respect and humility. Next 
 day Sindia was admitted to an audience with the Peishwa 
 whom he endeavoured to conciliate ''with numberless rare 
 productions and curiosities from Hindostan." On the fol- 
 lowing morning took place the grand ceremony of investing 
 
14 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 the Peishwa with the title and dignity of '' Wakeel-i-Mootluq." 
 Splendid ''Shamianas" or Durbar tents were pitched, at 
 the end of which was a throne on which lay the Imperial 
 *'firmaun" or patent, the dresses of honour and the decora- 
 tions. Advancing up the Durbar, the Peishwa thrice saluting 
 the throne, deposited on it his ''nuzur" of loi gold mohurs, 
 and seated himself at the left of the throne; the Imperial 
 firmauns were then read, including one which forbade the 
 slaughter of bullocks and cows. The Peishwa then received 
 the ''khillut" or presents, and retiring into a small tent, 
 arrayed himself in the dresses of honour, returned and re- 
 seated himself, whereupon Sindia, Nana Furnavees and 
 other subordinate officers presented their ''nuzurs" to him 
 in congratulation. 
 
 The Peishwa then rose, seated himself in the state " nal- 
 kee" or sedan chair just received, and was carried in 
 great pomp to the city of Poona, followed and fanned by 
 Sindia. Arrived at the Peishwa's Palace, the ceremony of 
 investing Sindia with the Deputyship was duly performed. 
 But on this occasion, as on many others, Sindia overdid 
 his humility, when he begged to be regarded only as a 
 hereditary servant of the Peishwa *' entitled only to carry 
 his slippers" and to be addressed merely as ''Patell." This 
 affectation, intended to please and deceive the Brahmins, 
 did neither, while it disgusted and enraged Sindia's Mahratta 
 followers who had already refused to enter the Imperial 
 Durbar tents, or to present *'nuzurs" to the Peishwa as 
 "Mooktyar-i-Mootluq ". However, Sindia, with the frank bon- 
 
GROWTH OF MHADAJEE SINDIA'S POWER. 15 
 
 hommie he knew so well to put on, soon found favour with 
 the Peishwa Mhadow Rao, was his constant companion in 
 hawking and other field sports, and lost no opportunity of 
 trying to undermine the influence of Nana Furnavees, 
 hinting that he was both able and willing to release the 
 young Peishwa from Nana's irksome control. For a time 
 Sindia made Httle progress, but an imprudence of Nana's 
 giving Sindia an excuse for bringing to Poona another In- 
 fantry Brigade, under M. Perron, and increasing the Euro- 
 peans under Hessing and Filoze, Nana was overawed and 
 Mhadajee Sindia loomed all-powerful in the eyes of Hin- 
 dostan and in the mind of the young Peishwa. 
 
 *' Sindia became all-powerful in Hindostan, but was conscious 
 of his unpopularity in the Deccan, and strove to overcome 
 it. With this view he had, on his arrival at Poona, espoused 
 the cause of the Gaekwar of Baroda, and upon one occasion, 
 when Nana Furnawees, during the minority of the Punt 
 Suchew, assumed charge of his lands, Sindia, who knew 
 that the proceeding met with general disapprobation, inter- 
 posed, conveyed the Suchew to Poona, in opposition to 
 to the orders of the minister, re-established him in his 
 possessions, and dismissed the agent whom Nana had 
 placed in charge of the Suchew's territory. This daring 
 interference gave rise to a quarrel, which was with difficulty 
 appeased; but fresh disputes arose in consequence of Sindia's 
 more undisguised attempts to induce the young Peishwa 
 to seek his protection. On one occasion, in particular, a 
 conversation took place in a boat at Lohgaom, which, being 
 
i6 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 overheard and repeated, caused such alarm in the mind 
 of Nana, that he took the first opportunity of coming to 
 an explanation with the Peishwa. 
 
 ''He addressed himself both to the youth's judgment and 
 feelings ; enumerated the services he had performed for him 
 and for the State; described the views of aggrandisement 
 entertained by Sindia; pointed to his foreign troops, his 
 departure from ancient usage, and his want of connection 
 with the Mahratta people, over whom and the Brahmin 
 sovereignty he was bent on establishing an absolute power. 
 With these observations he contrasted his own situation, 
 his inability to preserve order or to resist the encroachments 
 of Sindia if unsupported by his own prince; and finally, 
 lamenting in tears the probable effects of the evil counsels 
 by which the latter had been misled, he tendered his 
 resignation and declared his resolution to proceed to Be- 
 nares. Young Mhadow Rao was greatly affected. In a 
 transport of grief he begged Nana's forgiveness, entreated 
 him to stay, and promised to be for ever guarded in his 
 conduct. But notwithstanding this re-establishment of Nana's 
 personal influence and the friendship for him of the power- 
 ful Brahmin famiHes and the old " mankurees " or great 
 men, Mhadajee Sindia would undoubtedly have prevailed, 
 but in the midst of his ambitious schemes he was suddenly 
 seized with violent fever which in a few days terminated 
 his existence. He breathed his last at Wunowree, in 
 the environs of Poona, on the I2th February, 1794." 
 (Grant Duff.) 
 
MHADAJEE SINDIA'S CHARACTER. 17 
 
 Thus passed away the only Mahratta Chief who ever 
 seriously set himself, who ever possessed the power, to 
 emancipate his nation from Brahminical thraldom ; who 
 failed because he would not trust the sword by which he 
 had won his way upward, because he would not be honest 
 and frank with his own people, because he thought to 
 beat Brahmins with their own peculiar weapons of intrigue, 
 deceit and bluster. ''In his progress he first assisted one 
 Brahmin against the other, and then attempted to overawe 
 him whom he had raised." He was nearly as well educated 
 as any Brahmin of his day — he wrote well, spoke well, and 
 was a good accountant ; his own kingdom in Malwa was 
 the best managed in Hindostan ; circumstances were all in 
 his favour, especially at the end of his career — but great as 
 was his political sagacity he was ever led astray by a 
 violent temper, by revengeful feelings, by ambition, by 
 distrust of those whom he should have trusted. Had 
 Mhadajee Sindia refrained from quarreUing with Holkar ; had 
 he combined with the Gaekwar, the Powars, the Bhonslay 
 of Nagpoor; had he possessed the moral courage to ally 
 himself with the English in 1792 — to declare himself the 
 champion of '' Maharashtra for the Mahrattas " : a descendant 
 of the house of Siwajee Bhonslay might even now be reigning 
 in the capital of the Deccan. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Historical Sketch — Continued. (1794 to 1799.) 
 
 Suicide of the Peishwa— Plot against Bajee Rao.— Deposition of 
 
 Bajee Rao.— Resignation of Nana P\irnawees.— Restoration 
 
 of Bajee Rao.— Nana again triumphant. 
 
 Mhadajee Sindia's death of course brought the Brahmins 
 again to the front, and Nana Furnawees rose to the zenith 
 of his power. His restraint of the young Peishwa Mha- 
 dow Rao, though he was 26 years of age (1795), so far from 
 relaxing became more rigid, till Mhadow Rao, goaded to 
 madness by the insidious messages of his cousin Bajee Rao, 
 lost his head, was seized with melancholia, and at last (25th 
 Oct., 1795) committed suicide by throwing himself from a 
 terrace of his palace in Poona. 
 
 Frightfully injured, the unfortunate young man lingered 
 for two days and expired in the arms of Baba Rao Phurkay 
 (or Phudkay), expressly enjoining that his cousin Bajee Rao 
 should succeed him. *'This tragedy was an event of awful 
 importance to the political existence of Nana Furnawees." — 
 Before the breath was out of Mhadow Rao's body. Nana 
 summoned Pureshram Bhow to Poona "with every man he 
 could collect", and the day after the funeral obsequies, 
 Rughoojee Bhonslay and Dowlut Rao Sindia were recalled to 
 

 Pi 
 
NANA PLOTS TO HINDER BAJEE RAO'S SUCCESSION. 21 
 
 confer with Nana and Tookajee Holkar who was then resident 
 in Poona. Even from them Nana Furnawees carefully with- 
 held poor Mhadow Rao's dying injunction regarding Bajee 
 Rao, whom he represented as the incarnation of evil, and 
 intimately connected with the English. Holkar and the 
 other chiefs concurring in these views, Nana unfolded his 
 plan, which was simple enough. Yessowda Bye, widow of 
 the suicide, was to adopt a son who should succeed as 
 Peishwa, Nana continuing to govern in his name. Holkar 
 and all the principal chiefs, except Balloba Tattya on behalf 
 of Dowlut Rao Sindia, gave their consent in writing and 
 withdrew from Poona (January 1796); Tookajee Holkar, how- 
 ever, remained behind to back up Nana if occasion should 
 arise. The Bombay Government, informed through Mr. Mostyn 
 (recently appointed first Resident at Poona) of the arrange- 
 ment, saw no reason to interfere. Nana Furnawees' intrigue 
 thus seemed likely to succeed at every point. 
 
 But Nana, much as he feared, and closely as he watched 
 Bajee Rao, was no match for that astute young gentleman, 
 who was regularly informed of all that occurred, and 
 entered into correspondence with Balloba Tattya. Having 
 gained over this minister, Bajee Rao " addressed himself next 
 to Dowlut Rao Sindia, offering him four lakhs of territory 
 and whatever might be the expense of his troops during 
 the time he should require their aid in asserting his lawful 
 succession to the Musnud (throne)." Dowlut Rao Sindia ac- 
 cepted the offer with alacrity, and a formal agreement was 
 drawn up, the ink of which was scarcely dry before its 
 
22 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 contents were communicated to Nana Furnavees. Scared 
 out of his wits, he summoned Pureshram Bhow and they 
 twain concluded that discretion was the better part of valour, 
 that it would be best '*to anticipate Sindia's design to 
 release Bajee Rao, and to declare him Peishwa." So Pures- 
 hram Bhow hied him to the Fort of Sewneree where Bajee 
 Rao was interned— the latter, tolerably sure of Sindia's 
 sticking to his agreement, was not in violent haste to accept 
 the Peishwaship thus offered — he insisted upon many guar- 
 antees, indeed it was not till he had compelled Pureshram 
 Bhow ''to hold on by the tail of a cow and swear by the 
 holy Godavery that no deception was intended" that he 
 would leave the Fort. Arrived at Poona, Nana Furnawees 
 immediately waited on him — when the two arch rascals 
 agreed to bury the hatchet in formal documents. That 
 given by Bajee Rao to Nana ran as follows — I have not 
 traced the other. 
 
 '' In the presence of my God, and from the inmost 
 recesses of my heart, have I rooted out every vestige of 
 any former act; let all your future conduct be guided by 
 the principles of good faith. I will never injure you or 
 yours, by word or deed, by any inward thought or outward 
 act, neither will I allow any other person to do so; so on 
 this point I will be inflexible, and will pay no attention to 
 the suggestions of others. I will not allow your reputation 
 to be sullied, and should any one attempt to instil anything 
 of the kind into my breast, I will point him out to you. 
 I will never release any one from confinement without 
 
RECONCILIATION-PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT. 23 
 
 your advice : all state affairs shall be managed by our con- 
 junct council. From this day all your acts are mine : 
 suspicion is wholly eradicated from my heart." 
 
 The incidents of 1796 show how these solemn compacts 
 were observed, and are illustrative alike of Mahratta and 
 Brahmin character. They are so well related by Grant 
 Duff, that I cannot do better than quote from him, making 
 a few alterations, and omitting certain paragraphs which 
 do not concern Poona, or which introduce persons who 
 are not essential to the Poona narrative. 
 
 '^ Balloba Tattya, on hearing of the step which Bajee 
 Rao had taken, was incensed at his conduct, but deter- 
 mined to counteract the schemes of Nana Furnawees. He 
 therefore persuaded Sindia, then on the banks of the 
 Godavery, to march on Poona with his whole force. Nana 
 Furnawees was dismayed ; Pureshram Bhow advised him to 
 stand firm, to collect the troops, and to give battle; but 
 Nana, deficient in personal courage, was also sensible of 
 the superiority of Sindia's army; he could not trust Bajee 
 Rao, and he was terrified lest he should fall a prisoner 
 into the hands of Balloba Tattya, by whom he beHeved he 
 would be put to death. Having therefore left Pureshram 
 Bhow with Bajee Rao at Poona, he told the latter that as 
 Sindia was advancing with intentions hostile only towards 
 himself, he thought the best means of averting ruinous 
 civil dissensions was for himself to retire from business, 
 and withdraw from the capital. He accordingly repaired 
 first to Poorundhur, and afterwards to Satara. Sindia arrived 
 
24 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 in the neighbourhood of Poona, and had a friendly inter- 
 view with Bajee Rao; but Balloba Tattya, although he 
 affected to meet him with cordiality, could not forget Bajee 
 Rao's behaviour. After considering various plans, Balloba 
 Tattya at last resolved to set aside Bajee Rao, and to 
 raise both a minister and a Peishwa of his own ; for which 
 purpose he proposed to Pureshram Bhow, that Mhadow 
 Rao's widow should adopt Chimnajee Appa ^ as her son, 
 that Bajee Rao should be placed in confinement, and that 
 Pureshram Bhow should conduct the administration. Pure- 
 shram Bhow had begun to despise Nana Furnawees for his 
 pusillanimous conduct, but he still so far respected his 
 wisdom as to ask his opinion. Nana advised him to accept 
 what was proposed, but to take care that Bajee Rao came 
 into his own custody. 
 
 ** To this last essential part of the advice no attention was 
 paid by Pureshram Bhow. Balloba Tattya pretended to be 
 partly influenced in the measure he now pursued, by the 
 hope of rendering it, in some degree, acceptable to Nana 
 Furnawees, lest the latter, in the present state of Dowlut 
 Rao Sindia's inexperience, should form some confederacy, 
 by means of other chiefs, against the house of Sindia. 
 Balloba accordingly, as soon as Nana's assent had been 
 obtained, made overtures for a reconciliation, to which the 
 latter made no objections. 
 
 " Nana's own proceedings in the meantime deserve notice. 
 When he quitted Poorundhur and repaired to Satara, he 
 
 * A brother of Bajee Rao, 
 
NANA AND THE PUPPET RAJA. 25 
 
 entertained some design of emancipating the puppet Raja, 
 and restoring the old form of the government of Siwajee, 
 as a plan calculated to avert the dissensions that had 
 arisen, which were likely to increase in the state; but a 
 very few days convinced him of the futihty of this scheme. 
 Ram Raja, the puppet, in consequence of the treatment he 
 had experienced, had no confidence in him. The Raja's 
 name was sufficiently popular to have brought many of 
 the most warlike Mahratta families to his standard, and to 
 have awakened a powerful interest amongst the descendants 
 of the first followers of Siwajee, residing in the wilds of 
 the Mawuls and Khoras. Ram Raja, though incapable of 
 conducting state affairs himself, was a man of courage, and 
 several of his relations were fit leaders for any desperate 
 enterprise. But Nana's object was to control the chiefs 
 of the empire, not to stir up a power subversive of 
 all order. After a few conferences therefore he desisted, 
 and retired to Waee, a town in the neighbourhood ; but 
 his having entertained such a scheme was so far fortunate 
 for the Raja, that he was indulged in a little more liberty, 
 and treated with greater kindness and consideration. 
 
 ** When Nana Furnawees consented to the proposal of 
 Balloba Tattya for adopting Chimnajee Appa, it became 
 necessary as a matter of form to obtain the Raja's ' khillut ', 
 so he promised that, if he ever had an opportunity, he would 
 endeavour to fulfil the agreement made with Ram Raja in 
 the time of Ballajee Bajee Rao, by putting Raja Shao in 
 possession of the territory promised by the treaty of Sangola. 
 
26 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 "Nana would have proceeded to Poona, but on finding 
 that Pureshram Bhow had allowed Sindia's minister to 
 retain the person of Bajee Rao, he suspected, and with 
 good reason, that the whole was a scheme to entice him 
 into the power of Balloba Tattya; and, therefore, although 
 he forwarded the 'khillut,' he himself remained at Waee. 
 
 *' Bajee Rao was still ignorant of the plot that had been 
 formed against him, and the manner of disclosing it is too 
 characteristic, not only of Brahmins, but of the future ways 
 of the Poona court, to be omitted. Some demands for money 
 on account of Sindia's expenses were made on Bajee Rao, 
 and, upon his expressing inability to comply with them, 
 they were urged in a tone which produced altercation, and 
 Sindia, pretending to take offence at the manner of Bajee 
 Rao's refusal, begged permission to return to Hindostan. 
 Bajee Rao, as had been foreseen, immediately repaired to 
 Sindia's camp for the purpose of privately expostulating; 
 he was there detained in argument until late in the evening, 
 when the conference was suddenly interrupted by intelli- 
 gence of Pureshram Bhow's having carried off Chimnajee 
 Appa; no one, it was pretended, knew whither, but it was 
 supposed to Satara. Bajee Rao, alarmed and astonished, 
 begged of Sindia to pursue them ; but the uncertainty of 
 their route, the strength of their party, and the darkness 
 of the night were urged against this proposal. A request, 
 however, to be allowed to continue under Sindia's protection 
 during the night was readily granted, and next day he discover- 
 ed the snare, being advised to remain, * as any place beyond 
 
CHIMNAJEE APPA'S USURP ATION-NANA'S CRISIS. 27 
 
 the precincts of Sindia's camp was unsafe for his highness.' 
 
 " In the meantime Pureshram Bhow had merely conveyed 
 Chimnajee Appa into the city of Poona; but Chimnajee 
 positively refused to become a party to the unjust usurpa- 
 tion of his brother's rights, and compulsion only induced 
 him to bear his share in it. 
 
 " He was adopted by the name of Chimnajee Mhadow, 
 and formally invested as Peishwa on the 26th May. 
 
 *'The day after the installation of the new Peishwa, 
 Pureshram Bhow proposed that Nana Furnawees should 
 come to Poona, meet and be reconciled to Balloba Tattya, 
 and afterwards assume the civil administration in the New 
 Peishwa's government, whilst the command of the troops 
 and all military arrangements should remain with himself. 
 In reply to this proposal. Nana Furnawees requested that 
 Pureshram Bhow's eldest son, Hurry Punt, might be sent 
 to Waee for the purpose of clearly settHng some preliminaries ; 
 but instead of coming as an envoy. Hurry Punt crossed the 
 Neera at the head of 4,000 or 5,000 chosen horse, a circum- 
 stance that in itself naturally excited Nana's suspicions, 
 which were strengthened by the receipt of a secret letter, 
 advising him to seek his own safety without a moment's 
 delay. 
 
 ** The fortunes of Nana Furnawees were now, in the general 
 opinion, and perhaps in his own, desperate; but on being 
 forced to abandon half-measures, into which he was misled 
 by a timid disposition, the vigour of his judgment, the 
 fertility of his expedients, the extent of his influence, and 
 
28 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 the combination of instruments which he called into action 
 surprised all India, and, from his European contemporaries, 
 procured for him the name of 'the Mahratta Machiavel.' 
 
 '* When he saw the danger imminent, he immediately fled 
 from Waee towards the Konkan, blocked up the passes in 
 his rear, threw a strong garrison into Pertabgurh, and, 
 on arriving at the village of Mhar, his first care was to 
 put the fort of Raigurh in the best state of defence. Bal- 
 loba Tattya proposed that he should be followed up with- 
 out delay, and offered some of Sindia's regular infantry 
 for the purpose ; but Pureshram Bhow, influenced by secret 
 well-wishers of Nana, objected to the employment of coer- 
 cive measures, although his hostility was soon after avowed 
 by his giving up Nana's 'jagheer' lands to Sindia, and 
 sequestrating his houses and property in Poona for his 
 own use. 
 
 "The revolution above sketched naturally tended to 
 unite Bajee Rao and Nana Furnawees ; and a secret 
 intercourse was carried on between them, through the 
 medium of a Mahratta Sillidar, named Ballajee Koonjur, 
 who visited Nana Furnawees at Mhar, and conveyed the 
 most friendly declarations and assurances on the part of 
 Bajee Rao, while begging Nana to exert himself in their 
 mutual behalf. 
 
 "Nana Furnawees, however, already had every engine 
 at work. Baba Rao Phurkay, in command of the Peishwa's 
 household troops, had engaged to bring them over to him. 
 Tookajee Holkar's whole power and influence were ready 
 
NANA'S MARVELLOUS RESOURCES. 29 
 
 at his signal, and Nana had opened a negotiation with 
 Sindia, offering to him the Putwurdhun 'jagheer' and the fort 
 of Ahmednuggur with territory yielding 10 lakhs of rupees, 
 on condition that he would place Balloba Tattya in confine- 
 ment, re-establish Bajee Rao on the * musnud ', and return 
 with his army to Hindostan. 
 
 ** Thus far of his plans Nana Furnawees communicated to 
 Ballajee Koonjur for Bajee Rao's information. 
 
 *' By the aid of Sakaram Ghatgay of Kagul, Nana Furna- 
 wees was successful in gaining over Sindia to his cause, 
 and the party became less circumspect in their prepara- 
 tions. Bajee Rao in the midst of Sindia's camp, assisted 
 by his father's friend, the veteran Manajee Phakray, used 
 supplies of money furnished by Nana Furnawees, in levy- 
 ing troops. 
 
 *' These imprudent proceedings were discovered by Balloba 
 Tattya, who seized some of the leaders and attacked two 
 others, Neelkunt Rao Purbhoo and Mallojee Ghorepuray. 
 They had but a few minutes to prepare for defence, but 
 they repulsed the troops sent to apprehend them, and, at 
 the head of a few followers, made good their retreat from 
 Poona to the strong range of hills south of the Neera. 
 
 *' Bajee Rao's place of encampment within Sindia's lines 
 was then surrounded and the water-supply cut off. The 
 troops he had assembled were permitted to disperse, but 
 Manajee Phakray enjoined them to meet him in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Waee, where they assembled accordingly, 
 and were, promptly joined by Neelkunt Rao and Mallojee 
 
so OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Ghorepuray^ Nana Furnawees supplied them with money, 
 directed them to take up a position at the Salpee Ghaut, 
 where they soon collected 10,000 men, and declared for 
 Bajee Rao. 
 
 *' Balloba Tattya, unconscious of the inextricable and ex- 
 tensive toils which Nana was weaving around him, attri- 
 buted the whole plot to Bajee Rao, and therefore deter- 
 mined to send him off a prisoner to Hindostan. 
 
 '* He was despatched, accordingly, under the care of Sakaram 
 Ghatgay, to whom the command of his escort was entrusted. 
 But Bajee Rao, aware of the most likely means of gaining 
 Sindia, employed all his eloquence to induce Ghatgay to give 
 his beautiful daughter to Sindia in marriage, on condition of 
 Bajee Rao's being elevated to the throne. At last, pre- 
 tending to be won over, Ghatgay agreed to give his daugh- 
 ter on the following conditions : that Bajee Rao should 
 authorise him to promise Sindia two crores of rupees in 
 ready money on his becoming Peishwa ; that, when Peishwa, 
 he should get him (Ghatgay) appointed Sindia's prime 
 minister; and that he should also endeavour to obtain for 
 him the village of Kagul in *enam'. Having assented to 
 these conditions, Bajee Rao feigned sickness, and Ghatgay 
 remained with him on the banks of the Paira. 
 
 ** At Poona great preparations were going forward. H61- 
 kar's and Sindia's troops were held in readiness apparently 
 to oppose Bajee Rao and Nana Furnawees, and after the 
 Dussera, which happened on the nth October, the regular 
 battalions in the Peishwa's service under Mr. Boyd marched 
 
NANA PLOTS IN FAVOUR OF BAJEE RAO. 31 
 
 to the Neera bridge, and a brigade of Sindia's regulars 
 proceeded towards Raigurh. These movements were made 
 by Pureshram Bhow himself, or artfully suggested by some 
 conspirators, in order to veil the deception about to be 
 practised on Balloba Tattya. 
 
 " The schemes of Nana Furnawees were now matured. In 
 addition to what has been explained, he had incited the 
 Raja of Kolapoor to attack the districts of Pureshram Bhow; 
 he had obtained Nizam Ally's approbation of the draft of 
 a treaty, afterwards settled on the 8th October, with Musheer- 
 ool-Moolk, the basis of which was to be the re-establish- 
 ment of Bajee Rao on the *musnud,' and his own re- 
 establishment as minister; for which the territory ceded to 
 the Peishwa by a former convention was to be restored, 
 and the balance of the stipulated money-payment remitted. 
 
 •* A negotiation with Rughoojee Bhonslay had been equally 
 successful. 
 
 "To him Nana promised 15 lakhs of rupees for his 
 immediate expenses, the district of Mundelah, and the 
 fort of Chooreeagurh with its dependencies. Three thousand 
 horse which, by treaty, he was bound to furnish when 
 required, were now only to be called for on emergencies. 
 Some other advantages were also held out, and Rughoojee 
 had solemnly promised his support. 
 
 " The principal powers having been thus secured, the 
 English having also expressed their approbation of Bajee 
 Rao's being elevated to the *musnud,' Sindia on the 27th 
 October, arrested Balloba Tattya, and sent a body of his 
 
32 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 troops, to seize Pureshram Bhow, but the latter was warned 
 through a note brought to him in mistake for Pureshram 
 Bhow Putwurdun. Instantly on reading it, he got ready a 
 body of horse, and taking Chimnajee Appa with him, 
 fled with precipitation to Sewneree; but he was quickly 
 pursued, and compelled to surrender. 
 
 "Bajee Rao was now brought back in triumph, and 
 encamped at Korygaom, on the Beema, 1 8 miles from Poona. 
 
 "Nana Furnawees having joined his own army at the 
 Salpee Ghaut, the infantry under Mr. Boyd having Hkewise 
 placed themselves under his orders, he commenced his 
 march for the capital. But on the route, having received 
 a note from Bajee Rao which hinted at the tardiness of 
 his proceedings, he took alarm, and before he would 
 advance, insisted upon receiving a written declaration from 
 Bajee Rao that he intended no treachery towards him, and 
 that, in case of desiring to resign his situation as minister, 
 he should be permitted to retire where his person and 
 property would be secure. A treaty of guarantee was at 
 the same time entered into by Nizam Ally and Sindia, 
 agreeing to establish Bajee Rao on the ' musnud,' and to 
 reinstate Nana Furnawees as prime minister ; but they also, 
 with a view of securing themselves, agreed to force Nana 
 to fulfil the articles of the respective treaties which he had 
 made with them. 
 
 ** These preliminaries being adjusted. Nana Furnawees 
 returned to Poona, and resumed the duties of prime minister 
 on the 25th November. The insignia of investiture having 
 
BAJEE RAO AT LAST SEATED ON THE THRONE. 33 
 
 been procured from Satara, Bajee Rao was at last seated 
 on the 'musnud', 4th December, 1796. It was declared by 
 a council of Shastrees that the relationship between the 
 late Peishwa, Mhadow Rao Narrain, and the sons of Rugonath 
 Rao, prevented the widow of the former from adopting the 
 second cousin of his father; the adoption of Chimnajee 
 Appa was therefore declared illegal, and annulled ; the 
 Shastrees who had performed the ceremony were expelled, 
 and Chimnajee Appa, though he had acted on compulsion, 
 was obliged to undergo penance to atone for the deed, 
 but was shortly after appointed by his brother to the govern- 
 ment of Guzerat." 
 
 It is impossible in a mere historical sketch of Poona such 
 as this is, to dwell in detail on the stirring events, the multi- 
 tudinous intrigues and counter-intrigues, the incessant treach- 
 eries, by which each party — Brahmin and Mahratta — 
 Peishwa and Prime Minister — Sindia and Holkar pursued 
 their ends between 1797 and 18 17, when the power of each 
 and all was destined to be shattered by the steadfast good 
 faith and indomitable resolution of the British. It is as if 
 one were gazing into a kaleidoscope — anon the terra cotta 
 hue of the Brahmin suffuses the vision — anon it is blurred 
 out by the saffron shade of the true Mahratta — that again 
 is obliterated by the rose-pink of Central India, while Holkar 
 dominates— this deepens into the lurid red of Sindia's times, 
 which is again washed out in rose-colour— that gives place 
 again to the Brahmin brick-dust shade, clouded over and 
 over again by dark shadows of deceit and treachery — 
 
 ^3 
 
34 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 the while, as the hand turns, in each picture appear frag- 
 ments of the Mogul green — until at last all tints blend in 
 bewildering confusion, and the ^'red, white and blue" of 
 the English nation effacing them all, remains permanently 
 reflected by the prismatic glasses. 
 
 In 1797 Nana Furnawees re-organised his ministry^ which 
 had first to deal with a desperate affray between the Arabs 
 of the Moguls and a party of the Peishwa's regulars under 
 the Major Boyd : when one hundred were killed on the spot 
 and the bazars were generally looted. On the 15th August 
 Tookajee Holkar died, and at once dissensions arose between 
 his two legitimate and two illegitimate sons as to the suc- 
 cession. Khassee Rao, the elder of the former, was an im- 
 becile, yet Sindia supported him : but Nana Furnawees 
 secretly favoured the younger Mulhar Rao^ until he was 
 attacked and killed by Sindia in the outskirts of Poona, and 
 his two half-brothers, Jeswant Rao and Wittojee, fled the city. 
 Thus did the house of Holkar for a time become subservient 
 to the house of Sindia; thus did the power of Nana Furnawees 
 receive its death-blow, for Sindia began to interfere in all 
 affairs of state, and Bajee Rao, with fatuous treachery, egged 
 him on through the infamous Ghatgay Shirzee Rao, whom he 
 persuaded that Nana's influence alone stood in the way of 
 his becoming Sindia's prime minister. 
 
 Accordingly on the 3 ist December, Ghatgay caused the old 
 minister, though his personal safety had been guaranteed by 
 Sindia himself, to be seized at a visit of ceremony, with 
 several of his followers. Their palaces were besieged, some 
 
GHATGAY'S ATROCITIES IN POONA CITY. 35 
 
 were plundered, and *'The City of Poona was like a town 
 taken by storm ; the firing continued the whole of the night 
 and the ensuing day". Bajee Rao simultaneously did his 
 part by arresting all Nana's ministers in open durbar. Nana 
 was imprisoned at Ahmednuggur ; and Bajee Rao having thus, 
 as he fancied, got rid of his aged friend, set to work to 
 rid himself of Sindia also. But first of all it was necessary 
 to satisfy some of Sindia's soldiery; to do this Bajee Rao 
 actually consented, if he did not incite, Ghatgay and his 
 ruffians to levy a contribution from the merchants, bankers 
 and all persons supposed to possess wealth in the city. 
 The Ex-Ministers were dragged forth, maltreated, scourged 
 and tortured so that several of them died, and the streets 
 were strewn with dead and wounded. Bajee Rao then fomented 
 discord in Sindia's army, and when he thought it was ripe 
 for revolt, ordered Dowlut Rao Sindia to wait upon him, 
 when it had been arranged that Sindia should be seized. 
 But Bajee's Rao courage, as usual, failed him at the critical 
 moment; Sindia got away to his camp, and continued to 
 oppress Poona, while Bajee Rao raised a rebellion at Satara, 
 which if it had not been quelled by Sindia would have 
 effectually wiped out the Brahmins. 
 
 Then arose the domestic dissensions known as *'the revolt 
 of the Byes or three widows of Mhadaji Rao Sindia, and 
 the Shenwee Brahmin Ministers." Of this, as the principal 
 incidents did not occur in Poona, it is sufficient to say that 
 the immediate result was that Khassee Rao Holkar espoused 
 the cause of the Byes, while Bajee Rao allied himself with 
 
36 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Nizam Ally " through his resident envoys, then at Poona." 
 Sindia, now alarmed, became very desirous of obtaining 
 that mediation which he had before refused from the British 
 Government. Col. Palmer, the British Agent, advised him 
 to restore his Shenwee Ministry, to settle amicably with the 
 Byes, and to submit formally to the authority of the Peishwa; 
 but Sindia saw, or thought he saw a better way, in the 
 release of Nana Furnawees, which he promptly followed by 
 the revocation of the treaty with Nizam Ally. Thereupon 
 Bajee Rao played his trump card by entering into negotiations 
 with both Nana and Sindia, who at last, seriously alarmed 
 at his unpopularity by reason of Ghatgay Shirzee Rao's 
 cruel excesses^ caused that arch-fiend to be captured, and 
 removed, to the intense relief of Poona City. Sindia and 
 Bajee Rao then became reconciled with the full approval 
 of the British Government, which under Lord Mornington, 
 temporarily abandoned the policy of neutrahty in prepara- 
 tion for its great struggle with Tippoo Saheb and his French 
 Allies (1798). 
 
CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Historical Sketch — Continued. (1800 to 18 16). 
 
 Death of Nana Furnawees— Holkar and Sindia— The Battle of 
 
 Poona— Flight of Bajee Rao— Treaty of Bassein no sooner 
 
 signed than Bajee Rao intrigues against it— Trimbuckjee 
 
 Dainglia— Humiliation of Bajee Rao. 
 
 The year 1800 was momentous for the City of Poona. 
 On the 13th March Nana Furnawees died "and with him," 
 truly said Colonel Palmer the British Resident, " departed 
 all the wisdom and moderation of the Mahratta Government." 
 Despite his personal cowardice and his unprincipled 
 ambition, he always displayed great moral courage and a 
 tenacity of purpose which gained for him extraordinary 
 influence over his countrymen, so that at times, and there 
 were many, when his career seemed terminated by the 
 machinations of his secret enemies, he rose to the occasion, 
 and defeated them all. In private, if not in public hfe, he 
 was strictly truthful, humane, frugal and charitable. '' He 
 was a patriot, if ever there was a Brahmin patriot " No 
 matter what the consequences might be to himself person- 
 ally, he always advised Bajee Rao to be moderate and cir- 
 cumspect. His sagacity told him that the only really 
 dangerous foe of the Mahratta Empire was the British 
 Government, which he highly respected for its honesty and 
 
38 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 vigour, but he feared it, for its patience, pertinacity, and 
 indomitable resolution. He never attributed, as most Asiatics 
 are prone to do, its forbearance and moderation to fear. 
 He alone perhaps among all Asiatic statesmen of the time, 
 knew and thoroughly appreciated the English character, 
 and he foresaw that with the rise of English power must 
 decline, not merely Brahminical influence, but the ascen- 
 dency of his nation. '* Nana Furnawees was certainly a 
 great statesman." 
 
 He was scarcely cremated when Bajee Rao and Sindia 
 began to quarrel about the vast riches he was beHeved 
 to have amassed. Sindia promptly seized the dead 
 minister's "jagheer", and urged his widow to adopt a son 
 as the easiest means of securing the treasure and annoying 
 Bajee Rao. Bajee Rao, on the other hand, worked through 
 spies and secret agents and retaliated by inducing Sindia to 
 destroy his recently reinstated Shenwee Ministers. Balloba 
 Tattya was thereupon imprisoned at Ahmednuggur, where, 
 fortunately for himself, he died before he could be tortured, 
 but his brother Dhondeba and the Bakshee (or Commander- 
 in-Chief) were barbarously executed at Poona, the former 
 being blown from a gun, the latter "by being tied round 
 with rockets, which being fired, carried him along, mangling 
 his body dreadfully." As a matter of fact Nana Furnawees's 
 reputed treasures have never been traced to the present day. 
 
 The next act of the vindictive Bajee Rao was to destroy 
 Nana's friends, among them the family of Pureshram Bhow, 
 who had been his own great supporter at most critical 
 
BAJEE RAO MURDERS WITTOOJEE HOLKAR. 39 
 
 times. That did not matter to this incarnate fiend — Pur- 
 eshram Bhow had been the friend of Nana, ergo his family 
 and their friends must be punished ; so he invited them 
 all to his palace at Poona to discuss the question of the 
 widow adopting a son, there seized them and sent them 
 off to various hill forts. 
 
 Towards the end of 1800 Sindia became alarmed at the 
 successes of Jeswant Rao Holkar in Malwa, and left Poona 
 to encounter him : Khassee Rao Holkar, it will be remem- 
 bered, was still in Poona. Here was an opportunity for 
 Bajee Rao to conciliate all parties and thus to re-establish 
 his authority as Peishwa, with the moral and material 
 support of the British Government. But Bajee Rao, left to 
 himself, was incapable of rising to any emergency : his 
 malignant mind was bent only on revenge — he continued 
 to hunt down every high Brahmin family that had even 
 excited his ill-will, the Patwardhans, the Rastias, and the 
 Poorundharees. Thus " the minds of his subjects were 
 alienated, distrust and disaffection toward Bajee Rao's power 
 and government became almost universal," and anarchy 
 spread throughout the country. Wittoojee Holkar, marauding 
 on his brother's account in the vicinity of Poona, was taken 
 prisoner and brought before Bajee Rao, who could not forget 
 that his father Tookajee had been the friend of Nana Furna- 
 wees. Before the palace, Wittoojee, beseeching mercy, was 
 tied to the foot of an elephant and dragged about the yard 
 and into the streets, Bajee Rao the while seated in a balcony 
 drinking in his screams. 
 
40 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Sindia of course was delighted at this removal of one of 
 the Holkar brothers, but Jeswant Rao Holkar vowed ven- 
 geance — whereupon the cowardly Bajee Rao actually opened 
 negotiations with him, promised to recognise him as the 
 head of the house of Holkar, and inveighing against the 
 Shirzee Rao Ghatgay (Sindia's infamous father-in-law before 
 mentioned), tried, but failed, to seize him. Escaping by an 
 act of marvellous daring, Ghatgay encamped outside Poona, 
 which he threatened to sack and burn. Meantime Bajee 
 Rao invoked the mediation of the British Resident with 
 the incensed Sindia, and the latter being sorely in need 
 of his boldest commander, called Ghatgay off to Malwa. 
 The City of Poona was thus at last rid of the fiend who for 
 years had terrorised over everyone, plundered^ tortured, 
 and murdered in it, at his own sweet will. 
 
 Pushing on to Indore (Holkar's capital), Ghatgay signally 
 defeated Jeswant Rao Holkar (October 14th, 1801), but 
 Sindia did not follow up the blow. Jeswant Rao Holkar 
 had time to rally his forces, and within a year an immense 
 force appeared at Poona. Bajee Rao at once sought British 
 aid, but he was so obviously insincere, that it was refused. 
 He then fawned upon Jeswant Rao. "My brother Wit- 
 toojee," replied Jeswant Rao, "is dead, he cannot be 
 restored to me ; but let my nephew Khundee Rao be released, 
 and the family possessions given up." Bajee Rao, to gain 
 time, while he urged Sindia to push on to Poona with all 
 speed, pretended to assent, but really hurried Khundee 
 Rao off to prison in Asseergurh. Sindia and Holkar then 
 
HOLKAR SIGNALLY DEFEATS SINDIA AT POONA. 41 
 
 each raced for Poona, where Jeswant Rao Holkar 
 arrived first, on the 23rd October, 1802, encamping a few 
 miles off at Lonee — Sindia arrived next day, and encamped 
 between the British Camp at Kirkee and the City. 
 
 On the morning of the 25th October, the two great 
 Mahratta Armies confronted each other in battle array. 
 History does not record a stranger scene. On one side 
 lay the City of Poona wherein sat the Brahmin Peishwa, 
 his motley force of Arabs, Moguls, Pathans, half-drilled 
 Mahratta Infantry and mobs of irregular horsemen ready 
 to take part in the battle directly it should turn in Sindia's 
 favour. On the other side drawn up under arms in 
 their cantonment at Kirkee, the handful of well-discipHned 
 British troops under Colonel Close, who — just as " off 
 side" is marked off at the Rugby game of football — had 
 set up the British standard at prominent points round the 
 Residency (at the Sungum) and the Camp. The British 
 Army was not to intervene under any circumstances, but 
 simply to protect its position from both combatants. 
 
 There were English officers commanding in each Mah- 
 ratta army. 
 
 Jeswant Rao Holkar had 14 regiments of regular infantry, 
 divided into three brigades, commanded respectively by 
 Colonel Vickers, Major Harding, and Major Armstrong; 
 five thousand irregular infantry, twenty-five thousand cavalry, 
 and more than 100 guns, were distributed among the 
 three brigades. 
 
 Sindia's army was commanded by Sevvdaseo Bhow 
 
42 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Bhaskur with Captain Dawes his chief of the Staff as it 
 were. Under him were ten regular regiments of infantry 
 — six of them without European officers — four, the old 
 battalions of De Boigne, led by Frenchmen and Neapoli- 
 tans. Sewdaseo Bhow's irregular infantry, cavalry and 
 artillery were more numerous than Holkar's, without the 
 Peishwa's force held in reserve in the City. 
 
 The ball opened by a tremendous but not very deadly 
 cannonade for two and a half hours. Then Holkar 
 launched his Pathan Cavalry at the horse of the Chief of 
 Vinchoor and dispersed them, but his Mahratta cavalry 
 were at the same time repulsed with heavy loss in a similar 
 attack on the Peishwa's ''Hoojrat Pagah " or body-guard. 
 Sewdaseo Bhow followed up this success so vigorously 
 that the defeat of his opponent seemed imminent, when 
 Jeswant Rao Holkar himself sprang on his horse, shouting 
 ** Now or never follow Jeswant Rao," rallied the fugitives, 
 turned on Sindia's horse, and drove them back. 
 
 Meanwhile, Colonel Vickers was defeating Sindia's six 
 regiments without European officers, and Harding and 
 Armstrong were being stoutly resisted by De Boigne's old 
 battalions. At this critical moment, Jeswant Rao, having 
 Just driven off Sindia's cavalry, fell upon them and the 
 supporting artillery, killed three out of the four European 
 officers, took the fourth prisoner, and cut down the gunners 
 at their gnns. A general rout of Sindia's army follow- 
 ed and all his guns and baggage fell into Holkar's 
 hands. Thus ended this remarkable engagement, which 
 
BAJEE RAO FLIES TO THE KONKAN. 43 
 
 resulted in the final withdrawal of Sindia from the vicinity 
 of Poona. 
 
 Bajee Rao had felt confident of Sindia's success, and was 
 ready to fall on Holkar with his reserves when the tide 
 turned in the former's favour, but **the firing frightened 
 him," and he proceeded to the south or safe side of the 
 City, whence he bolted to Singurh directly the rout began. 
 From Singurh he hastily appealed to Colonel Close for 
 protection, forwarding a preliminary treaty by which he 
 engaged "to subsidise six battaHons of Sepoys, and to 
 cede 25 lakhs of rupees of annual revenue for their support." 
 The British Resident, however, preserved his attitude of 
 strict neutrality. Bajee Rao then fled from Singurh to Rai- 
 gurh, from Raigurh to Mhar, whence he besought the 
 British Government to take him by sea. Hotly pursued 
 by Holkar's troops, he fled again to Severndroog (Hurnee) 
 Fort, but again alarmed took ship to Rewadunda, where 
 a British ship put in and took him to Bassein, where for 
 the moment I will leave the coward, to return to the vic- 
 torious Holkar. 
 
 On the morning after his great victory Colonel Close, 
 '' on the urgent invitation of Holkar, visited him in his 
 camp. He found the conqueror in a small tent, ankle- 
 deep in mud, wounded by a spear, and with a sabre cut 
 in the head, which he had received from an artillery man 
 in one of the charges." He was in high spirits, laughed 
 at his wounds, and was particularly cordial to the 
 British Agent, whom he begged to mediate with Sindia 
 
44 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 and the Peishwa, but Colonel Close had not yet received 
 instructions to depart from the policy of neutrality. 
 
 Jeswant Rao, true to the humane traditions of his house 
 in its dealings with the City, placed out-posts around to 
 prevent plundering, was kind and humane to the Peishwa's 
 dependants and sent Bajee Rao many messages to return 
 to Poona. 
 
 The Holkars were always distinguished for comparative 
 moderation in their behaviour toward the defenceless city, 
 and even then, though flushed with victory and compelled 
 by impecuniosity to obtain money to pay his troops, Jes- 
 want Rao made his levies on -the citizens with some regard 
 to fairness and decorum. He also made many improve- 
 ments in the approaches to the city, among them the wooden 
 bridge over the Moolla at Kirkee, which, still standing, is 
 known as " Holkar's bridge". From the Sindias and their 
 myrmidons, on the contrary, the people of Poona never 
 "received other than barbarous and cruel treatment. Yet Sindia , 
 would even now be received with acclamation in the city, 
 while a visit from Holkar would be regarded with indifference I 
 
 When Jeswant Rao Holkar found that Bajee Rao would 
 not return to Poona, he bethought himself of the latter's 
 second brother, Amrut Rao, then at Joonere, sent for him, 
 and with some difficulty persuaded him to assume govern- 
 ment, aided by certain old ministers of Nana Furnawees. At 
 first Amrut Rao refused to ascend his brother's throne or 
 to let his own son be nominated, but when Bajee Rao fled 
 from Mhar and sought British protection he regarded this 
 
AMRUT RAO'S USURPATION -TREATY OF BASSEIN. 45 
 
 as abdication. The Raja of Satara was not easily induced 
 to give his consent, but at last Amrut Rao was installed 
 as Peishwa (end of November, 1802). The first thing he 
 did was to egg on Holkar to plunder Poona, just as his 
 brother Bajee Rao had previously egged on Sindia to rapine 
 through Ghatgay Shirzee Rao. 
 
 The outrages, tortures and murders of the Shirzee Rao 
 were even surpassed, and poor Poona never had a worse time, 
 especially as all exits from the city were closely guarded. 
 The British Resident was detained by the usurpers in the 
 hope that he would mediate with Sindia, and induce the 
 Bombay Government to recognise the usurpation, but Colonel 
 Close left Poona in disgust on the 20th November, and 
 arriving at Bombay on 3rd December, met Bajee Rao when 
 he was landed at Bassein from Rewadunda, and on the last 
 day of the year concluded with him the celebrated Treaty 
 of Bassein which regulated the relations of the Court of 
 Poona and the British Government until the final downfall 
 of the Peishwa in 18 17. 
 
 Bajee Rao, as a matter of course, had no sooner signed 
 than he sought to stultify the Treaty, to conciliate Sindia 
 and Rughoojee Bhonslay, who he knew would not approve 
 of the British alliance. Sindia was asked to proceed to 
 Poona "to punish the rebel Holkar," but Sindia had had 
 enough of that game, and set himself with Bhonslay to 
 organise ''a general confederacy of the Mahrattas against the 
 common enemy" the British Government, Bajee Rao secretly 
 aiding and abetting the scheme. 
 
46 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Ignorant of the conspiracy, the Governor-General began 
 to take measures to reinstate Bajee Rao in accordance with 
 the Treaty. More than 20,000 troops were sent from Hyde- 
 rabad to the Mahratta frontier, and General Wellesley 
 (afterwards Duke of Wellington), the Commander-in-Chief at 
 Madras, hurried up to the Krishna, where he was joined by 
 all the Southern Sirdars, and proceeded to Poona, which he 
 reached on the 20th April, 1803, after a forced march of 
 60 miles in 32 hours, fearing that Amrut Rao and Holkar 
 would burn the city. The usurpers, however, had already 
 made themselves scarce, Jeswant Rao Holkar plundering 
 his way along the Nizam's frontier towards Malwa, while 
 Amrut Rao turned north-west, looting all towns and villages 
 till he reached Nassick ''which he pillaged in the same 
 barbarous manner as he had Poona." This worthy, never 
 reconciled to his brother Bajee Rao, ultimately joined the 
 British armies, with a body of horse, with which he did no 
 great service, but was nevertheless granted the absurdly 
 extravagant pension of eight lakhs of rupees, with which he 
 retired to Benares. 
 
 On the 13th May Bajee Rao, escorted by some 2,500 
 British troops, was reseated on the ''musnud." 
 
 Meantime the Governor-General, apprised of the Mahratta 
 Confederacy, strove to detach Holkar from it, but succeeded 
 only in so far that the latter retreated to Malwa to sit 
 neutral till he saw a fitting moment to chime in. It remained 
 for the Governor- General to attack the other confederates 
 simultaneously from all sides of India. Then followed that 
 
BAJEE RAO RENEWS PLOTS AGAINST THE BRITISH. 47 
 
 splendid series of victories by General Wellesley at Ahmed- 
 nuggur, Assaye, and Asseergurh, and by Lake at Aligurh, 
 Delhi, Agra, Laswarree and Gowelgurh. With these, or with 
 the treaties with the Rajpoot chiefs, or the temporary suc- 
 cesses of Holkar against Monson in the north-west, the city 
 of Poona was only concerned in so far as the general result 
 was necessarily to estabhsh British power more firmly in 
 the Deccan, till the time came when (1809) Jeswant Rao 
 Holkar having become insane, the Shirzee Rao Ghatgay 
 (1809) being at last killed by Sindia's orders, and the British 
 Government having generously interposed to clear Rughoojee 
 Bhonslay's territories of the freebooters (called Pindarrees), 
 a brief lull ensued in which some settlement seemed practic- 
 able. But the Pindarrees soon gathered in greater numbers, 
 and practically overran all Central India till they were 
 finally extirpated in 18 16 by British armies, never having 
 ventured nearer Poona than the Berars. 
 
 We left Bajee Rao (1803) re-established at Poona as Peishwa 
 by British arms and influence, but already casting about 
 in his mind how he might secretly, if not openly, nullify 
 the Treaty of Bassein with the Power that had befriended him. 
 
 Grant Duff suggests that he was actuated by motives of 
 revenge, but he had no wrongs from the English to avenge. 
 He can only have been prompted, snakelike, by sheer 
 malignity to bite the bosom that cherished him. He main- 
 tained up to the last moment secret relations with Sindia, 
 Holkar and Rughoojee Bhonslay, and instructed his agent at 
 Hyderabad to involve the Nizam in the confederacy against 
 
48 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 the English at the moment they were engaged in the last 
 war with Tippoo Saheb : his machinations might have been 
 successful there if Seringapatam had not speedily fallen and 
 Tippoo been killed. Thus employing, as it were, his leisure 
 moments, he renewed his persecutions of his friends among 
 the Deccan Sirdars; the Rastia family which had served 
 him so well and even now was doing him good service in 
 an insurrection of his troops, was disgraced without reason : 
 the Pritineedhee was driven into rebellion, severely wounded, 
 captured and imprisoned in the City of Poona, his jagheer 
 mostly confiscated, his private property and all his family 
 jewellery appropriated and never accounted for by the 
 Peishwa's agent (Bappoo Gohla) : the persecution of the 
 Putwardhaus was renewed, and no friend or descendant of 
 a friend or adherent of Nana Furnawees was left unmolested ; 
 "whilst thus engaged, Bajee Rao was happy." 
 
 All this time nothing could be sweeter or more seemingly 
 grateful than Bajee Rao's behaviour to the British Resident. 
 He was, he said, fondly attached to Colonel Close personally ; 
 he never did anything— not he — without consulting him; he 
 blessed the British Government for all the benefits it had 
 showered on him, for its hospitality when a fugitive, for 
 its countenance, moral and physical support, and for its 
 restoration of him to the **musnud." To some extent he 
 may have imposed on Colonel Close, but it was otherwise 
 with Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone who succeeded to the 
 Residentship in 1810. Mr. Elphinstone had been Colonel 
 Close's assistant at the end of the preceding century ; he 
 
MR. ELPHINSTONE NOT DECEIVED BY BAJEE RAO. 49 
 
 had been attached to General Wellesley's staff in 1803; 
 he was one of the old " Char durwaza koola '* (the four- 
 doors-open School), who saw and communicated with all natives 
 himself. A man of high culture and great literary ability, 
 he knew the languages well, had studied the histories of 
 all the great families, was versed in native character and 
 especially knew his Brahmin down to the ground : Bajee 
 Rao never deceived him for a moment; with marvellous 
 sagacity he saw through all his schemes, with incredible 
 patience he tracked or anticipated his intrigues and quietly 
 frustrated them. He was ably seconded by his friend and 
 Assistant, Capt. Grant Duff, the historian, who had Mahratta 
 history at his finger's ends. 
 
 It was easy for such a master-mind afterwards to see through 
 Bajee Rao's attempts to corrupt his Parsee confidential Agent, 
 Khoosroji Moodhee (of whom more anon), and to perceive 
 the Peishwa's object in appointing him to the Government 
 of a Mahratta Province ; but Mr. Elphinstone was powerless, 
 when the Parsee's downfall came, to prevent the nomina- 
 tion of the infamous Trimbuckjee Dainglia as his successor. 
 This man, originally a spy or messenger, who had 
 ingratiated himself with Bajee Rao when he fled to Mhar 
 (in 1802), by carrying a letter to Poona and bringing back 
 an answer in an incredibly short time, was attached to 
 the Peishwa's person. Possessed of extraordinary energy and 
 intelligence, and absolutely unscrupulous, Trimbuckjee pander- 
 ed to his vices and, as he once told Mr. Elphinstone, " if his 
 master ordered him he would kill a cow," — about as strong 
 
5o OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 an impious declaration of servility as a Mahratta could 
 make I From the Government of the Carnatic Trimbuckjee 
 soon rose to be the Peishwa's representative minister at 
 the British Residency ; murder, torture, and abduction were 
 his pastimes, and Bajee Rao connived at all. So great became 
 his influence that he got himself made " Sur-Soobbedar " 
 (or Governor-General) of the Peishwa's districts in Guzerat; 
 this brought him into collision with the important minister, 
 Gungadhur Shastree, who, imprudently venturing to Poona, 
 was decoyed to Punderpoor and there treacherously murdered 
 by Trimbuckjee, undoubtedly under Bajee Rao's instructions. 
 This was more than the British Resident could bear, and 
 he compelled Bajee Rao to deliver up his favourite Trim- 
 buckjee, who was then imprisoned in the British Gaol Fort 
 at Tannah ; but on the I2th Sept., 1816, the monster cleverly 
 escaped, took to the Syadree Hills between Poona and 
 Nassik, raised the Ramoosees, Bheels and Mangs, with money 
 lavishly supplied by Bajee Rao, and began to plunder the 
 country-side. 
 
 Called to account for this rebelHon by Mr. Elphinstone, 
 Bajee Rao at first actually denied that it existed, insisting 
 that the offenders were Pindarree free-booters from Central 
 India. Forced at last to despatch troops to the neigh- 
 bourhood, he sent in false reports that the robbers had 
 been attacked and dispersed; but the Resident was not 
 to be fooled, and at last Bajee Rao could no longer deny 
 the insurrection. He was given every opportunity of repent- 
 ance, and of himself actively suppressing it, but he failed. 
 
THE RESIDENT'S FIRMNESS. 51 
 
 and British troops had to take the field. Just at this 
 time Mr. Elphinstone received a private letter from Calcutta, 
 which mentioned that Trimbuckjee, Dainglia's surrender must 
 be the first step to any further negotiations. A conference 
 was arranged, whereat Bajee Rao exerted all his eloquence 
 in vain; Mr. Elphinstone stood firm, gave Bajee Rao one 
 month to surrender Trimbuckjee, and insisted on the imme- 
 diate delivery to British custody of the three Forts of 
 Singurh, Raigurh and Poorundhur. Bajee Rao still tempo- 
 rised, unable to beHeve that the Resident would fulfil his 
 threats, hoping to gain time for the Mahratta confederacy 
 to open hostilities. Mr. Elphinstone, however, was not to 
 be denied. On the 7th May he informed Bajee Rao that 
 he was about to surround the City of Poona. Bajee Rao 
 still held back, and Mr. Elphinstone promptly carried out 
 his threat, whereupon, Bajee Rao at last caved in, sent out 
 his orders to the Killadars (Fort Governors) to give up 
 the Forts, and proclaimed a reward of two lakhs of rupees 
 and a village in '*enam" of Rs. 1000 for the apprehension 
 of Trimbuckjee Dainglia alive or dead. 
 
 On the loth of May the Governor-Gejierars instructions 
 reached Mr. Elphinstone. In pursuance of them a new 
 Treaty was executed in which Bajee Rao had (first) to 
 admit that Trimbuckjee Dainglia had murdered Gungadhur 
 Shastree while '' residing under the guarantee of the British 
 Government within the Peishwa's territory " : (secondly) 
 to give up Trimbuckjee's family as hostages till the 
 monster himself should be arrested: (thirdly) to bind 
 
52 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 himself to hold no communication with any foreign power, 
 and, " as head of the Mahratta Empire", to renounce all 
 dominions beyond the Nerbuddah and Toongbuddra rivers : 
 (fourthly) to settle with the Gaekwar as stipulated : (fifthly) 
 to cede territory yielding 34 lakhs to pay for a contingent 
 of 5,000 Horse and 3,000 Infantry: (sixthly) to cede the 
 Fort of Ahmednuggur and all his rights to territory north 
 of the Nerbuddah: (seventhly) to observe the settlement 
 of 181 2 with his Jagheerdars, which meant restitution to 
 most of them, including the much wronged Rastia family : 
 (eighthly) to vacate certain places on the Mogulai or 
 Nizam's frontier, which his troops had wrongfully occupied 
 since 181 1. 
 
 The humiliation of Bajee Rao was complete, and it was 
 confidently believed that he would observe this Treaty. 
 He began by reducing his cavalry, but it was afterwards 
 discovered that their disbandment was only nominal. What 
 he really did was to grant the Silladars (Commandants) 
 seven months' leave on full pay in advance, with strict 
 injunctions to remain at home and be ready to join him 
 with all troopers at a moment's notice ! Bajee Rao, availed 
 himself of the earhest opportunity of interviewing Sir 
 John Malcolm, then holding the high office of Political 
 Agent of the Governor-General. The conference took place 
 at Maholee, near Satara, when Sir John Malcolm — ''douce 
 mon" — was so completely taken in by his protestations of 
 gratftude, his promises of amendment and his lamentations, 
 that he went to Poona and urged Mr. Elphinstone to treat 
 
MR. ELPHINSTONE'S REMARKABLE SAGACITY. 53 
 
 the poor Peishwa with confidence, and to let him increase 
 rather than disband his troops 1 Mr. Elphinstone smiled 
 grimly as he promised ''to keep kind" on Bajee Rao, but 
 he pointed out that his game was to take advantage of 
 the main British Force under Colonel Smith being at a 
 distance, while only a handful of British troops remained 
 at Poona. Mr. Elphinstone further warned Sir John what 
 would certainly happen in a few weeks. His predictions 
 were literally fulfilled — how, I will relate as far as possible 
 in Captain Grant Duff's own words. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Historical SkQich—Cojupleted. (1817 — 1818.) 
 
 The Downfall of the Peishwa.— The Battle of Kirkee. — British 
 annexation. — The Infamy of Bajee Rao, 
 
 The forts of Singurh, Raigurh, and Poorundhur were 
 restored to the Peishwa during the month of August. The 
 excessively heavy rains of this season, prolonged to an 
 unusually late date, delayed the advance of the whole 
 Deccan (British) army. Brigadier-General Smith had trans- 
 ported his division across the Ghauts by the 9th October, 
 and by the 20th occupied convenient positions close to the 
 Chandore range of hills, with a view of advancing into 
 Khandeish, as soon as it should appear requisite. A bat- 
 talion of light infantry, with some auxiliary horse, were left 
 between Seroor and Ahmednuggur; one auxiliary battalion 
 was stationed for the protection of the Seroor cantonment, 
 and the Peishwa's own corps, consisting of from 400 to 
 500 men, remained at Dapooree in its first cantonment, a 
 few miles to the north-west of Poona. The Company's 
 European regiment from Bombay was to be held in read- 
 iness to join the brigade at Poona about the end of October. 
 
 The Peishwa did not return to his capital until the end 
 
BAJEE RAO'S PLOT AGAINST THE BRITISH. 55 
 
 of September. During his stay at Maholy he was most 
 actively engaged in the schemes he had long meditated 
 against the British Government; but, by the advice of 
 Bappoo Gokla, he had determined on changing his plans 
 of covert hostility to an open attack, as soon as he should 
 be prepared. 
 
 The recommendation of Sir John Malcolm to recruit his 
 army, for the purpose of aiding in the Pindarree war, 
 afforded an excellent cloak to his designs. Gokla was now 
 the leader of all his measures, and Bajee Rao was induced 
 to give him a formal writing under his own seal, which he 
 confirmed on oath, binding himself to be implicitly directed 
 by his counsel, and investing him with the full powers of 
 his government. This measure seems to have been adopted 
 not merely as a security to Gokla, but as a means of 
 allaying the mistrust which the commandant sillidars enter- 
 tained towards Bajee Rao, and was the condition on which 
 several of the Jagheerdars and chiefs pledged themselves to 
 stand by him. This circumstance, though reported in the 
 country, was not fully ascertained until after the com- 
 mencement of hostilities. Bappoo Gokla received ten 
 millions of rupees — nearly a million sterling — to assist in 
 the expense of preparation. From the time of his first 
 determination to break with the English, Bajee Rao had 
 restored the lands of many of his jagheerdars, and for 
 several years had been endeavouring to render himself 
 more popular with all classes of his subjects. He unfolded 
 his intention of going to war with the English to the Raja 
 
56 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 of Satara, and, while he exacted from him and his mother 
 an oath of secrecy and support, he sent them and all their 
 family into strict confinement in Wassota. His recruiting 
 went forward with remarkable activity, his forts also were 
 garrisoned, stored, and repaired ; and orders issued to 
 prepare his fleet. 
 
 Many Bheels and Ramoosees were engaged in his inter- 
 est by Trimbuckjee Dainglia; and special missions were 
 despatched to Nagpoor and the camps of Sindia, Holkar, 
 and Umeer Khan, the Pindarree leader ; the schemes which 
 Bajee Rao personally directed were the seduction of the native 
 troops and the assassination of the Resident. ' His plan of 
 corrupting the troops extended even to the European 
 officers ; and the agent employed for the latter purpose 
 was one Jeswunt Rao Ghorepuray, who for many years had 
 resided at Poona, was intimately acquainted with many of the 
 officers, and received a pension from the British Government. 
 
 Bajee Rao, judging the opportunity favourable, sent for 
 Jeswunt Rao, and, after many promises, exacting an oath 
 of secrecy, communicated the plan for corrupting the 
 European officers — a commission which Jeswunt Rao, 
 although he well knew its futility, like a true Mahratta, 
 readily undertook, upon receiving an advance of 50,000 
 rupees. So far he kept his oath as to say nothing of these 
 circumstances; but Jeswunt Rao had a great personal 
 regard for Mr. Elphinstone, and, throughout the rise and 
 progress of the Peishwa's preparations, gave early and 
 constant warning of what might be expected. 
 
BAJEE RAO'S BLOOD-THIRSTY DESIGNS. 57 
 
 The reports of corrupting the troops were brought from 
 all quarters; some of the sepoys indignantly refused what, 
 to them, were, splendid offers, and others, pretending to 
 acquiesce, communicated the circumstances to their officers. 
 But the extent of the intrigues could not be ascertained, 
 and they at last became alarming even to those who knew 
 the fidelity of the Bombay sepoys, from the circumstance 
 of the Peishwa having many of their famiHes and rela- 
 tions in his power, against whom he commenced a system 
 of persecution, which he threatened to perpetuate if the 
 sepoys refused to desert the British service. 
 
 It was the Peishwa's wish, previous to the commencement 
 of hostilities, to invite Mr. Elphinstone to a conference, 
 and murder him ; but this plan was opposed by Gokla, who, 
 though he concurred in the plan of corrupting the sepoys, 
 and was most sanguine in his belief of complete success, 
 disdained to perpetrate so base a crime, especially as 
 Mr. Elphinstone had more than once proved himself his 
 friend. But Bajee Rao was unwilling to rehnquish a 
 favourite scheme of personal revenge, and proposed to 
 assassinate the Resident as he rode out ; or, should that 
 fail, to get Trimbuckjee, with a body of Bheels, to endeavour 
 to surprise the Residency by night, whilst a simultaneous 
 attack should be made on the cantonment. 
 
 The last interview that took place between Mr. Elphin- 
 stone and the Peishwa was on the 14th of October, when, 
 although the latter adverted to the loss of territory and 
 reputation he had suffered by the late treaty, he continued 
 
58 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 to express grateful ackowledgments for the former friend- 
 ship of the British Government. On Mr. Elphinstone's 
 mentioning how anxiously the advance of the troops was 
 desired, Bajee Rao repeated the assurances which he had 
 of late frequently made through his ministers, that his own 
 troops should be sent to the frontier to co-operate against 
 the Pindarrees immediately after the Dussera. 
 
 The festival of the Dussera took place on the lOth Octo- 
 ber, and was the most splendid military spectacle ever wit- 
 nessed since the accession of Bajee Rao. Two circumstan- 
 ces were particularly observable on this occasion; ist, a 
 marked degree of slight towards the British Resident; 2nd, 
 at the moment of the Peishwa's quitting the ground, a large 
 mass of horse, under one Naroo Punt Aptey, galloped 
 down, as if to charge the flank of the British troops, but 
 wheeled round as they came near. The intention of this 
 manoeuvre was to show the British sepoys their insignifi- 
 cance when compared to this host of Mahratta spears. It 
 was supposed it would have effect in aiding the Peishwa's 
 intrigues. It would have been difficult to convince the 
 Mahrattas, in that vaunting moment, that of the three weak 
 battalions then peaceably and unsuspectingly standing before 
 them, one, in less than three months, would repulse their 
 whole army 1 
 
 After the Dussera every day became more interesting, 
 and by the 25th parties of the Peishwa's troops were 
 coming into Poona from all quarters, by day and night. 
 General Smith's force was still at a distance, and the Euro- 
 
THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM. 59 
 
 pean regiment from Bombay could hardly be expected in 
 less than ten days. The position occupied by the British 
 brigade almost joined the northern environs of Poona; it 
 had been originally taken up by Sir Arthur Wellesley for 
 the protection of the city, but circumstances were now re- 
 versed. Gardens and enclosures with prickly-pear hedges 
 ran in many places within half musket-shot of the lines, 
 affording not only every advantage for the attack of the 
 Arabs and irregulars, but, in case of disaffection amongst 
 the sepoys, every facility to desert. Small parties of horse 
 came out of the city and encamped round the British can- 
 tonment; in a few days they augmented to large bodies, 
 whilst a strong corps of Gosaveen infantry occupied a posi- 
 tion on one of the flanks. 
 
 The Sungum being at some distance from the canton- 
 ment, the Vinchoorkur's horse, v/ith some infantry and guns, 
 coolly encamped between the Residency and the village of 
 Bambooree; but besides these preparations, all reports con- 
 curred in representing that an immediate attack was meditated. 
 
 For several nights the Peishwa and his advisers had 
 deliberated on the advantage of surprising the troops before 
 the arrival of the European regiment; and for this purpose, 
 on the 28th October, their guns were yoked, their horses 
 saddled, and their infantry in readiness. This intelligence 
 was brought to Mr. ELlphinstone a little before midnight of 
 the 28th, and for a moment it became a question whether 
 self-defence did not require that the attack should be anti- 
 cipated. 
 
6o OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 It was an hour of anxiety: the British cantonment and 
 the Residency were perfectly still, and the inhabitants slept 
 in complete repose, inspired by confidence, in that profound 
 peace to which they had been long accustomed ; but in 
 the Peishwa's camp, south of the town, all was noise and 
 uproar. Mr. Elphinstone had as yet betrayed no suspicion 
 of the Peishwa's treachery, and, as he now stood listening 
 on the terrace, he probably thought that in thus exposing 
 his troops to be cut off without even the satisfaction of 
 dying with arms in their hands, he had followed the system 
 of confidence, so strongly recommended, to a culpable ex- 
 tremity. But other motives influenced his conduct at this 
 important moment. He was aware how little faith the 
 Mahratta princes placed in Bajee Rao, and that Sindia, 
 who knew him well, would hesitate to engage in hostilities 
 until the Peishwa had fairly committed himself. Apprised 
 of the Governor-General's secret plans, and his intended 
 movements on Gwalior — which many circumstances might 
 have concurred to postpone — Mr. Elphinstone had studi- 
 ously avoided every appearance that might affect the negoti- 
 ations in Hindostan, and any preparation that might give 
 Sindia's secret emissaries at Poona reason to believe that 
 war was inevitable. To have sent to the cantonment at 
 that hour would have occasioned considerable stir; and in 
 the meantime, by the reports of the spies, the Peishwa 
 was evidently deliberating; the din in the city was dying 
 away; the night was passing, and the motives which had 
 hitherto prevented preparation, determined Mr. Elphinstone 
 
BAJEE RAO STILL HESITATES. 6i 
 
 to defer it some hours longer. Major J. A. Wilson, the 
 officer in command of the European regiment on its march 
 from Bombay, had already been made acquainted with the 
 critical state of affairs, and was hastening forward. 
 
 Next morning, however, the officer in command of the 
 brigade at Poona was requested to keep the men ready 
 in their lines, but with as little appearance of bustle as 
 possible. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Elphinstone 
 sent a message to the Peishwa, mentioning that his High- 
 ness' s horsemen were crowding in upon the position of the 
 brigade, that such a mode of encamping had never been 
 practised or permitted by British troops, and therefore the 
 commanding officer confined his men to their cantonment 
 until those of his Highness should be withdrawn, lest, by 
 their contiguity, disputes might arise between them. This 
 message was delivered by Captain Ford, and created a 
 great sensation. 
 
 Gokla recommended that the attack should not be delayed, 
 but the Peishwa hesitated, stating that he wished a little 
 more time to make sure of corrupting the sepoys; the 
 European regiment was still, as he beheved, at a great 
 distance, and every hour was adding to his own army. 
 Another night was thus wasted in consultation, and at 
 four o'clock of the following afternoon (30th October) the 
 European regiment by great exertions marched into the 
 cantonment. Mr. Elphinstone now determined on removing 
 the troops from their unsafe position to another in many 
 respects more eligible, at the village of Kirkee, four miles 
 
62 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 distant, which had been early pointed out by General 
 Smith as the proper one to be occupied in case of an 
 apprehended rupture. The troops accordingly took up their 
 ground at Kirkee on the ist November, and the Residency 
 being close to the town, 250 men were sent for its protection. 
 The Peishwa was apprised of the intended movement; but 
 his army supposed that the British troops had withdrawn 
 from fear, and was much encouraged in consequence. 
 
 The vacated cantonment was plundered ; an officer, on 
 his route to Bombay was attacked, wounded, and robbed 
 in open day; the language of the Peishwa's ministers was 
 most slighting ; his troops everywhere began to insult passers-by, 
 while they continued defiantly to push forward. They began 
 to form a camp betwixt the old cantonment and the new 
 position, and a party of their horse moved down to the spot. 
 A second message was therefore sent to the Peishwa, begging 
 that the motives of the British movement might not be 
 misconstrued; for if the British troops were pressed upon 
 as in the old position, those of his Highness must be 
 treated as enemies. The Peishwa now believed, from the 
 reports of his emissaries, that the British sepoys were 
 completely seduced. On the 4th November, Moro Dixit, 
 a minister who had formed an attachment to Major Ford, 
 and was anxious to save him, communicated this intelligence, 
 adding that his master was determined to cut off the 
 British detachment without sparing a man. 
 
 On the 3rd November Mr. Elphinstone directed the light 
 battaHon and a party of auxiliary horse stationed at Seroor, 
 
BAJEE RAO'S IMPUDENT DEMANDS REJECTED. 67, 
 
 to move to Poona. As soon as the news of these arrange- 
 ments reached the Peishwa, he determined to delay the 
 attack no longer. His preparations began about seven o'clock 
 on the morning of the 5th; but in the early part of the 
 day he sent out several messages calculated to lull the 
 Resident's suspicions; such as, ''his troops were alarmed 
 by hearing that those at Kirkee were under arms"; — ''he 
 was about to perform a religious ceremony at the temple 
 of Parbuttee, and the troops were drawn out, in honour 
 of the occasion, to form a street as he passed." In 
 the afternoon, when all was in readiness, his principal 
 officers having assembled at his palace, Wittoojee Gaekwar, 
 a personal servant of the Peishwa, was despatched to 
 Mr. Elphinstone, by Gokla's advice, to inform him that 
 the assembly of troops at Poona was very offensive to the 
 Peishwa; to desire him to send away the European regi- 
 ment — to reduce the native brigade to its usual strength, 
 when it must occupy a position which the Peishwa would 
 point out, and that if these demands were not complied 
 with he (the Resident) could withdraw from Poona and 
 never return! Mr. Elphinstone denied the Peishwa's right 
 to require the removal of the European regiment, explained 
 the reason of his having called in the light battalion, and 
 recommended that the Peishwa should send his troops to 
 the frontier as he had promised, in which case all cause 
 of complaint would be removed. Much more passed, 
 as the conversation on the part of the messenger was 
 intended to engage as much attention as possible; but he 
 
64 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 at last withdrew, warning the Resident of the bad conse- 
 quences of his refusal. In the meantime the Peishwa's 
 officers at the palace were despatched to their troops; 
 Bajee Rao in person proceeded to the Parbuttee Temple 
 and Palace; and Wittoojee Gaekwar had scarcely quitted 
 the Residency when intelligence was brought that the 
 Peishwa's army was moving out on the west side of the city. 
 There was a momentary consultation about defending 
 the Residency, but it was instantly abandoned as impracticable, 
 and it was determined to retire to Kirkee, for which purpose 
 the nature of the ground afforded great facility. The river 
 Moola betwixt the Sungum and the village of Kirkee forms 
 two curves like the letter S inverted. The Residency and 
 the village were both on the same side of the river, but 
 at the former there was a ford, and near the latter a bridge 
 (Holkar's) ; so that a party, by crossing at the ford, had the 
 river between them and the Peishwa's troops the greater 
 part of the way. From the Residency no part of the 
 Mahratta army was visible excepting bodies of infantry, 
 which were assembled along the tops of the adjoining 
 heights, with the intention of cutting off the Residency from 
 the camp, and having this object in view, they did not 
 molest individuals. On ascending one of the eminences on 
 which they were forming, the plain beneath must have 
 presented at that moment a most imposing spectacle. This 
 plain, then covered with grain, terminates on the west by 
 a range of small hills, while on the east it is bounded by 
 the city of Poona and the small hills already partially 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE. 65 
 
 occupied by the infantry. A mass of cavalry covered nearly 
 the whole extent of it, and towards the city endless streams 
 of horsemen were pouring from every avenue. 
 
 Mr. Elphinstone had personally reconnoitred the ground 
 in front of the village of Kirkee, and ascertained that there 
 was a ford between that village and Dapooree, which, al- 
 though difficult, was practicable for six-pounders, three of 
 which, manned by native artillerymen, belonged to the 
 auxiliary force and was attached to Captain Ford's corps. 
 It had been arranged, in case of an attack, that Captain 
 Ford was to join the brigade under Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Burr; and Mr. Elphinstone had been at pains to explain 
 to all concerned the advantage of always acting on the 
 offensive against Mahrattas. When the party was fording 
 at the Residency, a messenger was despatched to warn 
 the troops of the approach of the enemy. Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Burr, wished to act on the defensive; but as the 
 message required him to move down and attack the 
 Peishwa's army, he immediately sent the 2nd battalion, 
 6th regiment, to protect the stores, ammunition and fol- 
 lowers in the village of Kirkee, left his camp standing, 
 and instantly marched down by the high road for about 
 a mile; then wheeling to the right, he moved in the 
 direction of Dapooree to facihtate junction with Captain 
 Ford's corps, and bring his front parallel to that of the 
 enemy. In a few minutes the expected corps was seen 
 approaching; the Resident's party had joined it, and Colonel 
 
 Burr advanced to the attack. The Mahrattas, who had sent 
 
 5 
 
66 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 on their skirmishers, some of whom had already suffered 
 from the fire of the light infantry, were surprised by this 
 forward movement in troops who they had been encouraged 
 to believe were already spiritless ; and a damp, which had 
 been spreading over the whole army by the accidental 
 breaking of the staff of the " Juree Putka," or Mahratta Standard, 
 before they left the city, was now much increased. Gokla, 
 with the true spirit of a soldier, was riding from rank to 
 rank, animating, encouraging and taunting as he thought 
 most effectual ; but the Peishwa's heart failed him, and after 
 the troops had advanced, he sent a message to Gokla, 
 desiring him, **to be sure not to fire the first gun." At 
 this moment the British troops were halted, their guns were 
 unlimbering, — it was the pause of preparation and of anxiety 
 on both sides ; but Gokla, observing the messenger from the 
 Peishwa, and suspecting the nature of his errand, instantly 
 commenced the attack by opening a battery of nine guns, 
 detaching a strong corps of rocket-camels to the right, and 
 pushing forward his cavalry to the right and left. The 
 British troops were soon nearly surrounded by horse; but 
 the Mahratta infantry, owing to this rapid advance, were 
 left considerably in the rear, except a regular battalion 
 under a Portuguese named De Pinto, which had marched 
 by a shorter route, (concealed for a time under cover of 
 the enclosures,) and were now forming, with apparent steadi- 
 ness, immediately in front of the ist battalion, 7th regiment, 
 and the grenadiers of the 2nd battalion, 6th. No sooner, 
 however, were their red coats and colours exposed to view 
 
MAHRATTA CAVALRY CHARGE REPULSED. 67 
 
 of the English sepoys, than the latter, with one accord, 
 pushed forward to close, and, in their eagerness, got 
 detached from the rest of the line. Gokla, hoping that they 
 might either be disposed to come over, or that he might 
 be able to take advantage of their impetuosity, prepared 
 a select body of 6,000 horse, which accompanied by the 
 ''Juree Putka," and headed by several persons of distinc- 
 tion, had been held in reserve near his left, these were 
 now ordered to charge. The Mahratta guns ceased firing 
 to let them pass; and they came down at speed, in 
 a diagonal direction across the British front. Giving 
 their fire, and receiving that of the hne, they rode right 
 at the 7th. Colonel Burr was the first to perceive the 
 moving mass ; he had just time to stop the pursuit of De 
 Pinto's battalion, already routed, and to call to the men, 
 who could not be dressed in line, to reserve their fire, 
 and prove themselves worthy of all his care. Fortunately 
 there was a deep slough, of which neither party was 
 aware, immediately in front of the British left. The foremost 
 of the horses rolled over, and many, before they could be 
 pulled up, tumbled over those in front; the fire, hitherto 
 reserved, was now given with great effect, numbers fell, 
 the confusion became extreme, and the force of the charge 
 was completely checked : a very small proportion came in 
 contact with the bayonets, a few continued the attack in 
 the rear, but many turned back; some galloped round the 
 left as if to plunder tne camp, but they were driven off 
 by a few shots from two iron guns at Kirkee, and the 
 
68 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 sepoys had nearly repulsed the attack before a company 
 of Europeans could arrive to their support. This failure 
 completely disconcerted the Mahrattas ; they began to drive 
 off their guns ; their infantry retired from the distant position 
 they occupied, and upon the advance of the British line 
 the whole field was cleared. The brigade returned to its 
 position at Kirkee after nightfall, and the light battalion 
 and auxiliary horse joined it next morning. The report of 
 their arrival, and the effect of the forward movement, 
 deterred Gokla from renewing the attack. The Mahrattas 
 in Captain Ford's battalion deserted, and a part of the 
 newly raised auxiliary horse were, at their own desire, permit- 
 ted to quit the British camp ; but not one sepoy of the 
 regular service left his colours. The number of the British 
 troops engaged at the affair of Kirkee, including Captain 
 Ford's battalion, was 2,800 rank and file, of whom about 
 800 were Europeans. Their loss was comparatively trifling, 
 amounting only to 86 men in killed and wounded, 50 of 
 whom were of the sepoys on the left. The Mahratta army 
 consisted of 18,000 horse and 8,000 foot with 14 guns. 
 They suffered considerably, having lost 500 men in killed 
 and wounded ; and though the proportion of horses killed 
 on the spot was inconsiderable, a very great number were 
 disabled. Amongst the slain was the minister, Moro Dixit, 
 who, by a strange fatality, was mortally wounded by a 
 grape-shot from one of the guns attached to the battalion 
 of his friend Captain Ford. 
 
 Hostilities were no sooner commenced than the ferocious 
 
BAJEE RAO'S ATROCITIES. 69 
 
 and vindictive character of Bajee Rao's previous orders 
 became apparent from the proceedings in every direction, 
 probably before he had time to stop them. The Residency 
 was plundered and burnt, and of the Resident's library and 
 private apartments not one stone was left upon another; 
 the families and followers of the troops who fell into the 
 hands of the Mahrattas were robbed, beaten and frequently 
 mutilated; gardens were destroyed, trees were torn from 
 the roots, and graves dug up. An engineer officer on survey 
 was attacked and killed; two brothers of the name of 
 Vaughan, one of them a captain in the Madras army, were 
 taken while travelling between Bombay and Poona, near 
 the village of TuUygaom, and though they made no resist- 
 ance, were most barbarously hanged under the superinten- 
 dence of a Brahmin, named Babjee Punt Gokla. 
 
 As soon as General Smith found the communication cut 
 off, he advanced on Poona. From the time his division 
 quitted Seroor he was followed by flying parties of Mahrattas 
 who, owing to his want of cavalry, harassed his march. He 
 arrived on the evening of the 13th, and preparations were 
 made to attack the Peishwa before daylight of the 15 th, whose 
 army, having obtained a considerable addition by the junction 
 of most of the southern jagheerdars (chiefs), had come out 
 a few days before, and encamped with its left on the late 
 cantonment of the British troops, and its right stretching along 
 the Hyderabad road for several miles. The intended attack, 
 however, on the morning of the 1 5 th was postponed by General 
 Smith in consequence of unforeseen difficulties at the ford. 
 
70 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 About sunset on the evening of the i6th an advanced 
 brigade was ordered to cross the ford, and take up a position 
 to the east of the Peishwa's army, at the village of Chore- 
 puray, for the purpose of co-operating in an intended attack 
 on the ensuing morning. It was opposed by a body of the 
 Peishwa's infantry, supported by parties of horse and two 
 guns ; but having succeeded in getting to its station, though 
 with the loss of 84 men in killed and wounded, it was no 
 longer molested during the night. In the morning, when 
 General Smith moved towards the Mahratta camp, he found 
 it abandoned, and that the Peishwa had fled towards Satara. 
 During the day the city was surrendered, and the greatest 
 care being taken, on this, as on every occasion, by General 
 Smith for the protection of the peaceable part of the com- 
 munity, order and tranquillity were soon re-established. 
 General Smith remained at Poona for five days, during 
 which time communication with Bombay was opened, and 
 a party being detached for the purpose, succeeded in cap- 
 turing several guns in the neighbourhood of the fort of 
 Singurh. Some of the inhabitants of Poona, who fled, as 
 usual, with their property towards the hill-forts, were sufferers 
 on this occasion, as a great quantity of baggage was taken 
 with the guns, and became the booty of the army. 
 
 General Smith left Poona on the 22nd November in hot 
 pursuit of Bajee Rao, who fled round by Maholee, Punderpoor, 
 to Bahmunwarree near Joonere, where Trimbuckjee Dainglia, 
 joined him with reinforcements, after having stockaded all the 
 passes in that very strong country. Pressed again by General 
 
PURSUIT OF BAJEE RAO. 71 
 
 Smith the Peishwa doubled back towards Poona, but passing 
 the City by, hurried along the Ahmednuggur road with the 
 probable intention of surprising the British Station of Seroor, or 
 at least of intercepting reinforcements on the way at Poona. 
 
 One such reinforcement, 500 infantry, 2 guns and 300 
 irregular horse under Captain Staunton, were on the road, 
 and on New Year's morning, 18 18, after a long night 
 march, were descending to the village of Korygaum to cross 
 the Bheema, when Bajee Rao's army with 25,000 cavalry 
 and 6,000 foot, were descried on the opposite bank. Captain 
 Staunton instantly threw himself into the half-fortified 
 village, which his handful of troops held all day and night 
 without food, almost without water, surrounded on all sides, 
 and constantly engaged in hand-to-hand conflicts with 
 Arabs and Pathans, who effected a lodgement in the very 
 heart of the village. Bajee Rao was a spectator from a safe 
 distance, the Raja of Satara was there also, and Trimbuckjee 
 Dainglia, who twice entered the village sword in hand ; 
 the while Bajee Rao taunted Gokla and his other generals — 
 ''Where were now their boasts of defeating the English 
 when they could not overcome one battalion?" At nine 
 o'clock on the morning of the end, having lost 500 men, Bajee 
 Rao decamped and fled hot foot to the South, pursued by 
 General Pritzler ; while Captain Staunton returned to Seroor, 
 having lost 175 out of his 500 infantry and artillery, while 100 
 out of his 300 cavalry were killed, wounded, or missing, and 
 two-thirds of the British officers were killed or wounded. 
 
 Bajee Rao in his flight southward hoped to reach and get 
 
72 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 aid and shelter from the Raja of Mysore, but he nearly 
 ran into the arms of General Munro, doubled back again 
 over the Salpee Ghaut and away beyond Sholapoor. Generals 
 Smith and Pritzler then joined forces to take up the pursuit, 
 but Mr. Elphinstone formed another plan, and sent one 
 of these armies to reduce all the forts in both the Deccan 
 and Konkan, another to hunt down Bajee Rao. 
 
 The Governor-General, incensed by Bajee Rao's treachery, 
 had determined at last to terminate the Brahmin dynasty, 
 and wisely gave Mr. Elphinstone carte blanche to settle the 
 country as seemed to him good. On the details of the organi- 
 sation and system by which this able administrator reduced 
 anarchy and chaos to stable government, we need not dwell ; 
 but will follow Bajee Rao as he fled north to seek protection 
 from Holkar and Sindia, aye, even from the very Pindarrees ! 
 Holkar this time was already first in the field, and Sindia 
 held back, so Sir Thomas Hislop attacked and completely 
 routed the former at Seeprah on 21st December. After this 
 victory Sindia saw the error of his ways, and the British 
 troops were free to annihilate the Pindarrees under that 
 picturesque freebooter, Cheetoo, who was soon after killed 
 by a tiger below Asseergurh. Sir Thomas Hislop then marched 
 south to find Bajee Rao, who, too late for Holkar's rising, 
 had turned back to Chandore. The Peishwa had scarcely 
 arrived there when, in panic at Hislop's advance, he bolted 
 to Kopergaum ; thence again, finding General Smith ap- 
 proaching him from the south, he rushed off to Chandah in 
 the territory of the Nagpoor Bhonslay, but Mr. Jenkins, the 
 
ABDICATION OF BAJEE RAO. 73 
 
 Resident, sent out a force and turned him back at the river 
 Wardah where he was headed at every point by British 
 detachments. His brother Chimnajee and two of his best 
 generals then fled south and gave themselves up to General 
 Smith. Many of his chiefs and Sirdars deserted, until at 
 last Bajee Rao was left alone with 8,000 men headed hy the 
 loyal chiefs Vinchoorhar and Poorandharee, He had already 
 sent many messages to Mr. Elphinstone offering to treat — 
 absurd proposals which the latter would not notice : he now 
 addressed himself to his old friend Sir John Malcolm at 
 Mhow. Sir John sent out Lieutenant (afterwards Sir John) 
 Low to negotiate, and after much palaver Bajee Rao sur- 
 rendered his sword to that officer (3rd June, 18 18), renounced 
 his sovereignty, bound himself to retire for good to Bithoor, 
 and to give up Trimbuckjee Dainglia, on condition of his being 
 granted the enormous pension of eight lakhs of rupees per 
 annum. The Marquis of Hastings ratified the promise with 
 great reluctance, notwithstanding that Bajee Rao failed to 
 surrender Trimbuckjee Dainglia, who, however, was soon 
 after caught in Khandeish, and imprisoned for life in Bengal. 
 Bajee Rao was conducted to Bithoor and there died, 
 having previously adopted a youth of a respectable Chit- 
 pawan Brahmin family of Sungameshwar in the Konkan, 
 whose memory is execrated by the human race as the 
 demon Nana Saheb of Cawnpoor. 
 
 Thus ended — for ever — the Brahmin dynasty of Poona. 
 The City knew Bajee Rao no more ; but the City of the 
 
74 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Peishwas afterwards received his emissaries, has often 
 harboured those of his descendants, has undoubtedly been 
 visited by the accursed Nana Saheb, certainly prior to the 
 mutiny, probably and not unfrequently, since he was pro- 
 scribed. His venom was of the viscid tenacious kind, it 
 has^adhered to certain of his caste fellows, and ever and anon 
 — as now — produces hideous secondary diseases of the mind. 
 Bajee Rao had not one redeeming point in his character : 
 he had no natural instincts of family affection— he had no 
 bowels of mercy — he had no religious feeling, though he 
 was intensely superstitious. He never had a friend or ally 
 but at some time or other he betrayed, or sacrificed him 
 — he did not know what gratitude meant. He never made 
 a promise or swore an oath that he did not break it — he 
 never entered into a treaty or an agreement that he did 
 not, while he signed, think how he might evade it. He 
 was conceited as a peacock, but feeble at a crisis as a 
 worm— he roared like a lion, but he ran away like a hare. 
 He never told the truth, even by accident, or to him- 
 self. He trusted no one, and, in the worst sense, never 
 let his left hand know what his right hand was doing. 
 Rapacious and miserly as Harpagon, he was yet lavish and 
 reckless in his licentiousness, and even more depraved than 
 Casanova. All the worst attributes of Ahab, Jezebel, Ana- 
 nias and Judas Iscariot were combined in him. In very 
 truth he was an incarnation of evil such as is difficult to be 
 found in the history of mankind. Even the Poona patriots 
 of the present day have hesitated to make a hero of him ! 
 
MR. ELPHINSTONE'S RULE. 75 
 
 Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone remained at Poona for 
 another year, during which he not only settled all the 
 troubles of the great chiefs, rewarded substantially all private 
 persons who had cast in their lot with the British, and pensioned 
 others, but also introduced excellent Revenue, Judicial, 
 Civil and Criminal Codes. On ist November, 18 19, he 
 became Governor of Bombay, leaving behind him in 
 Maharashtra a reputation for honour, humanity, righteous 
 and generous dealing, foresight and sagacity which has 
 never been equalled and never will be effaced. 
 
 For thirty-seven years, from 1820 to 1857, the history 
 of Poona presents no stirring incidents, but the citizens, 
 daily increasing in numbers and prosperity, enjoyed peace 
 and protection of their lives and property such as had 
 never before been experienced. The City was the first to 
 reap the benefits of railway communication, but before a 
 steam engine ran into the cantonment the great Mutiny 
 broke out, and Poona became the focus of all discontent 
 and intrigue. It was not the citizens, however, who busied 
 themselves with sedition, they were generally well dis- 
 posed, it was the emissaries from the north-west, from 
 Central India and the Carnatic, who used the City as their 
 meeting-place. Held in a vice, however, by the prudent 
 military dispositions of Lord Elphinstone, the City passed 
 with comparative ease through the terrible ordeal of 1857 — 58. 
 The Iron Horse soon brought in more population ; and 
 Poona, till the completion of the Bhore Ghaut incHne and 
 the prolongation of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway 
 
76 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 towards Madras, flourished as the chief centre of the Deccan. 
 
 In i860 Sir Bartle Frere came, and with innate taste 
 transformed the suburbs. Rich Bombay citizens built country 
 houses, and cast about for investments of surplus capital in 
 the Deccan. Palatial barracks were erected, roads made in 
 every direction, the river Moota was dammed back and Lake 
 Fife soon poured water round the City, till it is surrounded 
 by sugar cane and highly cultivated gardens. The native 
 industries in silver, brass, copper and iron revived ; gold thread 
 and lace factories and carpet weaving were soon followed 
 by paper and sugar mills, by distilleries and breweries. 
 
 The City itself, originally laid out with some method in 
 Peiths or streets, many named after deities and the days of 
 the week, drained into the Moota River, and will so drain 
 until the Government reHeve a Brahmin-ridden, ignorant 
 and self-sufficient municipality of its powers. Poona City, 
 sufficiently supplied with good water, not over-crowded, 
 enjoying a good cHmate, ought to be the healthiest, not 
 one of the dirtiest of Deccan towns. 
 
 Poona City, like many other towns, has had its riots, 
 its incendiary conflagrations, its robberies and dacoities 
 during the past 20 years : it has just had its Jubilee murders. 
 All these evils have been the work of a handful of malcon- 
 tents and of '' Cranks " whose movements have unwisely been 
 disregarded by the Powers that be. The people of Poona, 
 as history proves and we shall yet see, are timorous and 
 industrious, peaceable and law abiding — they only want 
 governing — not by Brahmins I 
 
 r 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE POONA AND DECCAN PRESS. 
 
 There can be no greater mistake, no greater injustice 
 than to stigmatise the whole Vernacular and Anglo- Vernacular 
 Press of Western India as disloyal. The whole of the 
 Bombay Native Press, all the Guzerathi, and, with a few 
 exceptions, all the Mahommedan newspapers are sound 
 and healthy, are fair and temperate, if sometimes mistaken in 
 their criticism of Governmental measures, and British admini- 
 stration. They are also moderately considerate, and sometimes 
 in the right, when they take individuals to task. They do not 
 always throw mud recklessly in the hope that some of it may 
 stick to the white man's face. They usually refrain from 
 malicious comments on social questions or incidents that they 
 do not understand. In this respect, indeed, they contrast 
 favourably with many Society Journals in England. This may 
 be gall and wormwood to many of my readers, more espe- 
 cially to Anglo-Indians, but it is strictly true. C'est moi qui 
 le ditl No official has been at once more fairly criticised, 
 more foully libelled than the Writer. 
 
 The faults of the Native Press consist, first of all, and 
 
78 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 of course, in ignorance, inexperience, and a want of breadth 
 of view; secondly, in their creduUty — they habitually fail to 
 distinguish between fact and mere rumour, are prone to 
 accept as authentic, and to pubHsh without enquiry, any wild 
 tale, or, as it is termed in India, any piece of " gup " that 
 seems likely to interest their readers and increase their cir- 
 culation. Thirdly, they are not over particular in their 
 selection of matter to fill their columns so long as their 
 columns are filled, for they have not many trustworthy 
 contributors of original matter, nor could they afford to 
 pay them if they existed. How many dozen London jour- 
 nals are there with whom the same faults might be found, 
 but who have not the same excuse? 
 
 On the other hand there are several Vernacular and 
 Anglo- Vernacular papers in Bombay and up country, which 
 can give points to hundreds of London and Provincial 
 papers; Mr. Malabari's weekly "Spectator", for instance, 
 ''Native Opinion", ''The Rast-Goftar" — they have always 
 been good, and every year they are becoming better and 
 setting good examples to the Native Press generally. It is 
 an insult to them to confound them with the Reptile Press 
 of the Deccan. 
 * The seditionmongers of the Deccan — the Poona, Satara, 
 Wai rattlesnakes — have hatched out on the Congress dung- 
 heap within the past quarter of a century; prior to 1875 
 they can hardly be said to have existed. Even when Lord 
 Lytton, irritated by the licentiousness of the Calcutta Baboo 
 Press, unwisely passed his "Gagging Act", the tone of the 
 
THE SEDITIONMONGERS OF THE DECCAN. 79 
 
 then not numerous journals of Maharashtra was not very 
 objectionable. But the Congress, fostered by the only weak 
 Viceroy India has ever had, aided if not invented by one of 
 his secretaries and another hare-brained secretary in Bombay, 
 sprang into life ; forthwith the malcontents at the capital of 
 the Peishwas— young men who could not quaUfy for Govern- 
 ment employ, who failed to effect an entrance by the back 
 door of interest, who owed their free education to Govern- 
 ment Colleges — saw their opportunity. It does not require 
 much capital to start a native press — a thousand rupees goes 
 a long way. The countless petty Chiefs and Sirdars were 
 easily cajoled into subscribing to any scurrilous sheet under 
 the pretext that they were aiding the Congress movement 
 which the Viceroy approved of — or if they held aloof, they were 
 vilified and their administration attacked mercilessly. They one 
 and all gave in, and blackmail was the backbone of Native 
 Press .finance. The history of the ''Scourge of the Deccan" 
 which follows, is nearly the exact history of the ''Mahratta" 
 newspaper whose proprietor and editor, a previous Member 
 of Lord Sandhurst's Legislative Council, already once impri- 
 soned for libel has just been sentenced for seditious writings. 1 
 I have written [vide St. James' Gazette, 30th June) that 
 the Marquis of Ripon is mainly responsible : other writers 
 have said the same. To justify the allegation it is only 
 necessary to go back to 1857, the year of the Mutiny, and 
 1858, the demise of Good John Company, and to pass in 
 review the Proconsuls who have since presided over the 
 destinies of the Bombay Presidency. 
 
8o OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 We thus prepare this Chart. In it we trace without dif- 
 ficulty the growth of the gangrene in the Deccan, and can 
 measure its dimensions. To use Sam Weller's words with 
 reference to the fascinating ''Smangle" in the Fleet — "The 
 late prevailance of a close and confined atmosphere has 
 been rather favourable to the growth of veeds of an alarmin' 
 and sangvinary nature ; but with that ' ere exception things 
 is quiet enough." The exception, however, becomes serious 
 for India when the " veeds " are found thriving not only in 
 the Poona Council Hall, but in special English newspapers, 
 in the very chambers of the House of Commons, of the 
 India Oflfice, on the shelves of the India Ofifice Library, 
 and — incredible though it may seem — in the British Museum 
 Reading Room. The Powers that be incur a heavy respon- 
 sibility by hesitating to cleanse Public Ofifices of this 
 "alarmin' and sangvinary growth." 
 
 As to the seditious native press of Poona and the 
 Deccan generally, it suffices to note that inasmuch as the 
 Penal Code has at last been proved sufificiently com- 
 prehensive to deal with it, no new laws or restrictions are 
 needed. Vigilance is all that is called for. 
 
TEMPERATURE CHART of the NATIVE POONA PRESS, 
 
 1857 TO 1897. 
 
 Patient's Name 
 AND Address. 
 
 GOVERNORS OF BOMBAY. 
 
 Annas 
 
 in 
 Rupee. 
 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 Dushtee Rao, 
 
 Pajee, 
 
 Bancootekar ' 
 
 B.A.,J.P. 
 
 Member of the 
 
 Legislative 
 
 Council 
 
 of 
 Bombay. 
 
 Editor 
 
 and 
 
 Proprietor 
 
 of the 
 
 "Jootkari" 
 
 and 
 
 'The Scourge. 
 
 Former 
 
 Address: 
 
 Government 
 
 House 
 
 or 
 
 Council Hall, 
 
 Poona; 
 
 or, 
 
 Shanwar Peith, 
 
 Poona City. 
 
 Present 
 OR Future 
 Address : 
 Uncertain. 
 
 H 
 
 Blood 
 18 an. 
 
 Eau de luce mixt. 
 Leg. Council draught, 
 by Lord Sandhurst. 
 
 Fever 
 1 6 an. 
 
 Government House Al- 
 cohol in large doses, 
 with rancid butter by 
 Lord Reay. 
 
 Bub- 
 bling 
 
 Sleeping draught, by 
 Sir P. Wodehouse. 
 
 Iced Water, by Lord 
 Harris. 
 
 Palm Oil,by Sir S.Fitz- 
 gerald. 
 
 Smoke 
 6 an. 
 
 Cold Water, by Sir 
 J. Fergusson. 
 
 Steam 
 4 an. 
 
 Hot fomentation, by Sir 
 R. Temple. 
 
 Nor- 
 mal 
 
 Zinc Ointment, by Sir 
 
 G. Clerk. 
 Cold Cream, by Lord 
 
 Elphinstone. 
 
 Zero 
 o 
 
 Vaseline, by Sir B.Frere. 
 
 Remarks 
 
 by 
 
 Matron Britannia, 
 
 July 1897. 
 
 The patient has suffered from the irri- 
 tants exhibited by Lords Reay and Sand- 
 hurst, and needs firm, resolute treatment, 
 and constant watching. Mary Britain. 
 
 Future Treatment. 
 Cautery. Perhaps an operation- 
 
 Anti- Congress Pills. 
 G. Hamilton, 
 
 Ind. Office : Resdt. Surgeon. 
 
 Visiting Surgeon, 
 or Medical Board, 
 or Inspector- 
 General. 
 
 Dr. G. H's treatment approved as proposed. — Why was it not 
 adopted sooner? 
 
 JOHN BULL, Inspector General. 
 
 Dushtee^ treacherous; '-Pajee'' bad character; '■ Banco ote' modern Bankot. 
 
CHAPTER V I. 
 
 THE ''SCOURGE OF THE DECCAN." 
 
 The scene opens in ''Shanwar Peith" or Saturday Street, 
 Poona, where reside philosophers, editors of mighty daily 
 and weekly journals, the local " Pottses " and " Slagges " 
 {^ide Pickwick) of the Deccan. A handsome young Brahmin 
 of the highest caste is seen descending carefully from a 
 ricketty '*pony-shigram ", the "growler" of the city of 
 the Peishwas. His clean-cut features, his arched black 
 eyebrows, with small, well-waxed moustache to match — his 
 forehead clean shaven (the holy caste-mark fresh as paint 
 in the centre above his nose) surmounting a pair of small 
 green-grey eyes, with intelligence and craft in every 
 glance — a valuable pearl in the lobe of each ear — his head- 
 gear a handsome but somewhat large turban of soft grass- 
 green material of many folds, its "kincob" fringe modestly 
 peeping out at the curved peak —a valuable cashmere shawl 
 of the same hue, folded carefully, but seemingly worn 
 carelessly, over his left shoulder — a white calico jacket, 
 wrinkled and extremely tight from elbow to wrist — his 
 **dhotur" made of delicate salmon-pink muslin, with broad 
 phylactery gracefully folded, forming, as it were, richly 
 
■"-53 
 
 H 
 O 
 
 w 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 C/3 
 
"A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOR EVER." 85 
 
 broidered Zouave-like "knickerbockers" (if one may dare 
 so to call them), descending to the knees and passing 
 deftly between his legs, brought tightly round his waist, 
 and again tucked in (Again I ** Maf kara Maharaj ! " — Forgive 
 me, my Lord !) so as to end in a broad flat terminal, decently 
 falling in front. Below the knees — alas I below the knees 1 — 
 this decidedly picturesque bravery terminates in long, white, 
 cotton stockings, baggy, wrinkled and ill-fitting by reason 
 of the wearer's somewhat deficient calves — the great climax 
 being reached by splay feet plunged (I can find no fitter 
 term) into patent leather ankle jacks with elastic sides, of 
 which the tags protruding offensively behind. 
 
 Surely this is some great chief '* incog.'*? No, my readers. 
 Hear his full title — Rao Saheb [self-dubbed) Vinkatesh 
 Mhadeo Phoolmandikar — commonly called '* Baba Saheb" 
 — educated at Yerrowda College — Bachelor of Arts of the 
 Bombay University — aspirant for a fat post in the Political 
 Department; par exemple, the Agency or Tutorship to a 
 minor Mahratta Chief, where there is little to do (but in- 
 trigue, of course) and plenty to get — with a Fellowship, a 
 Rao Bahadurship, Membership of the Legislative Council, 
 and '' Parameshwar " (God) only knows what further honours 
 looming in the distance. 
 
 This is what your true new Brahmin loves and aims 
 at — these are the goals which a few only have reached 
 by hard work, zeal, and means more fair than foul. 
 
 "Baba Saheb" thinks his chances good, he is believed 
 in his own circle, and he really believes himself, to stand 
 
86 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 high in favour at Government House. But if Captain and 
 Rissaldar Major No-bat Khan, the native aide-de-camp who 
 receives him with a covert smile and sends in his private 
 card to the ''Pryvit Saheb " (Private Secretary), would only 
 tell what he knows!! — If the " Pryvit Saheb" could tell, 
 who reads his name with curses not loud but deep, and 
 orders him to be ushered in, simply because he knows if 
 he does not see him then, he will come again next day, 
 and next day, and next, till he obtains admission. It is 
 nothing that it is English mail day, and the " Pry vit Saheb" 
 is writing for dear life — this bore must be seen first, treated 
 patiently and got rid of, or what would Mr. Abel say? — And 
 the globe-trotter, sucking in lies from an eminent Congress- 
 walla in the cosy guest-room upstairs, what would he say? 
 Are not our Aryan brethren to be treated *'with the utmost 
 consideration ? " ( Vide Secretary of State's despatch— I forget 
 the number of it.) So the poor *' Pryvit Saheb " throws down 
 his pen in despair — composes his face into a ghastly smile 
 — wheels round his chair, says to the scarlet and gold Peon 
 in attendance, "■ Ane do (Let him come in) — d — n — 
 ahem! I mean, bless him", and the sacrifice is duly 
 accomplished ! ! 
 
 If *' Pryvit Sahebs " could only divulge their experiences! 
 If Mr. G. W. H. R. H. would only publish all he suffered 
 in days gone-by, the book would be as fascinating as 
 " Greville's Memoirs." 
 
 But to return to the fascinating Baba Saheb! 
 
 We left him on the narrow pathway in Shanwar Peith. 
 
WHERE THE THUNDERBOLTS ARE FORGED. 87 
 
 He stops before a small white-washed house of one upper 
 floor, whence projects a narrow wooden balcony, painted 
 
 THE SECRET COMPACT. 
 INTERIOR OF THE EDITOR'S ROOM OF THE " SCOURGE OF THE DECCAN." 
 
 bright green, architecture decidedly modern Brahminical. 
 The lower part of this enticing dwelHng is nearly covered 
 
88 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 by a huge sign-board — blue ground, white letters — announc 
 ing in Mahratti above and in English below (patriotic this, 
 we observe!) that this is '* The Office of ' The Scourge of the 
 Deccany — (Appropriate title, by the way!) A somewhat 
 dilapidated box with one sound, one broken hinge, and no 
 lock worth mentioning, but coloured green (one coat, 
 from the paint left over from the balcony) — depends from 
 a rusty nail in the door-post. Baba Saheb, taking his 
 turban off carefully, stumbles up a break-neck staircase, 
 makes a peculiar knock at a low door on the landing, 
 bearing a paper notice ''Editors Room. Private^ It is 
 speedily unlocked by an unkempt, dissipated-looking, 
 dirty and somewhat highly flavoured individual — naked to 
 the waist — soiled, once white cotton stockings tumbUng 
 about his ankles, bare-headed and shaven, except as to 
 the whisp of hair on his crown ; which whisp, by the way, 
 a friend of mine accustomed to Hindoo clerks, declares he 
 never can see let down without his fingers itching to take a 
 pull at it ! This charming creature, a Deccan Brahmin by his 
 forehead marks, is Mr. Vishnu Parashram, alias Bhow 
 Saheb, the gifted Editor of " The Scourge of the Deccan!'' 
 The two heroes salute*' more Brahminico ", while they 
 enter the room where Bhow Saheb makes up his scourges, 
 and also apparently drinks strong drinks — for, lo ! a half- 
 empty whisky bottle and a glass on a ricketty table, and 
 several **dead men" rolled into a corner with empty soda- 
 water bottles labelled in Mahratti ''Pure Brdhmin manu- 
 facture y The windows have probably not been opened 
 
A BRACE OF RASCALS-A CONTRAST. 89 
 
 since they were blown in last monsoon. The room abso- 
 lutely reeks of spirits, stale "hubble-bubble" smoke, and 
 other foul human odours. From the atmosphere and 
 Bhow Saheb's appearance there can be no doubt he was 
 beastly drunk last night I 
 
 What a contrast between the two men! Baba Saheb I 
 have already described. The other is short, beetle-browed, 
 bandy-legged, evil-looking, with ferret-like, beady, black 
 eyes that throw malicious glances as he speaks. Hollow- 
 chested, tormented by a hacking cough, again and again 
 he wipes great drops of cold perspiration from his brow on 
 to the floor, with the back of his trembling hand. 
 
 Son of a low-born " koolkarni " (village accountant) in 
 an obscure village near Sholapur— his father had managed 
 to establish a claim of Rs. 10 monthly on the hereditary 
 Patell (Head-man) of his village — blackmail to keep him 
 silent regarding some villainy they had perpetrated together. 
 With this money Bhow Saheb had been clothed, scantily 
 fed and educated (free) at the great Government school in 
 Sholapur City. Developing considerable ability he gained 
 a small Scholarship, and then another. Thenceforward his 
 path was clear — Yerrowda College — another Scholarship 
 with a fair prospect of a University career; but Bhow, 
 alas! fell into evil courses at Yerrowda. Relying for his 
 pocket-money on wages earned by writing letters for igno- 
 rant people, he took to higher flights and was at last 
 detected and expelled for sending anonymous letters. 
 
 Leaving his poor father broken-hearted (for he loved him 
 
90 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 dearly despite his faults— the old man didl), he went to 
 Bombay where he speedily became well known in the 
 purlieus of all the Government Offices as a good man for 
 concocting anonymous letters and petitions. Associating 
 with the reporters of the Reptile Vernacular Press, he was 
 employed as an agent to obtain Government information 
 surreptitiously. Time went on. Bhow Saheb was 27 years 
 old when a secret and highly important despatch from the 
 Bombay Government to the Viceroy somehow found its 
 way into the Native Press. Inquiry followed, and suspicion 
 pointed to Bhow Saheb. Escaping from a Police Warrant, 
 he hid himself about the temples of that hellish town Pun- 
 dapur ; keeping up, however, secret correspondence with, and 
 mildly blackmailing, his old friends of the Vernacular Press, 
 and contributing ''leading articles" and lies, for which he 
 was well paid. 
 
 Halcyon days then fell upon him. The National Congress 
 sprang to existence from the seething mud of discontent 
 and disloyalty. One of its leaders saw his way to a good 
 thing. Thought he, ''Establish a rattling Anglo-Vernacular 
 in the Capital of the Deccan, with capital, part cash down, 
 part promised by terrified Chiefs and Rajahs. Force the 
 circulation by pubHshing all the scandals, social and otherwise, 
 to be gathered against Englishmen in India; let there be 
 no white face but shall be spotted with the mud we shall 
 throw— some of it will stick 1 Fool Mr. A. O. H., Sir W. W., 
 Mr. C. and others of the hated race to the top of their 
 bent. Interfere everywhere and foment discord everywhere. 
 
SUCCESS OF THE SCOURGE OF THE DECCAN. 91 
 
 So shall / gain notoriety and rupees pour into my pockets! " 
 In exactly this way were at least a dozen Poona papers 
 started, some of which flickered for a few years like the 
 numerous exhalations over a pestilential swamp, and then 
 died out. Half a dozen or so remain, Hke the '■'■ Mahrattay' 
 the ''Vaibhow" and the '' Kesarir 
 
 At such a crisis an able editor was naturally needed, and 
 who so fit as Bhow Saheb, the daring, the unscrupulous, 
 the able writer then on the spot in Poona City? Terms 
 were arranged, the mansion in Shanwar Peith engaged, and 
 in due course came out the ''Scourge of India," causing 
 no little sensation by the audacity, insolence, and disloyalty 
 of its tone towards the Government, and its scurrilous 
 imputations against all English gentlemen and ladies within 
 reach. The circulation was considerable for several years; 
 and Bhow Saheb, receiving a handsome salary, Hved like 
 a fighting cock, but unfortunately for his health, also drank 
 like a fish. The native Chiefs and Rajahs paid up regularly, 
 or were forced to do so by threats of exposure of misman- 
 agement of their estates. The proprietor became quite a 
 power in the Western Presidency, bought himself shares 
 in several good cotton mills, invested in a '' Lust garten " 
 or pleasure-garden in the country near Poona, and all went 
 merry as the marriage bells! 
 
 But the reaction after delay — sickening to English minds — 
 set in. The Congress itself began to flag, and, what was 
 of more importance, not to pay its way, despite strenuous 
 endeavours to revivify it by the importation of strange 
 
92 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Presidents for the annual meetings. Naturally the Reptile 
 Press, especially the Vernacular portion of it, was affected — 
 Chiefs and Rajahs ** humped their backs" and swore they 
 would submit to this tyranny no longer. Serious prosecu- 
 tions of, and heavy sentences on, native editors followed. 
 Sedition and scurrilous writing received a crushing blow, 
 and many of the mushroom papers disappeared for the 
 time into outer darkness, till silly Governors shed reays 
 (I mean rays) of encouragement on the native Press. 
 
 Now it is needless to say that a grandee like Baba Saheb, 
 did not seek the Editor of the "Scourge of the Deccan " 
 for nothing! There happened to be at the moment a 
 vacancy pending in the tutorship of the young Maharajah 
 of Trickapore, which Baba Saheb had applied for and believed 
 he would get. He desired the support of the Vernacular 
 Press which (it was then in the halycon days aforesaid) 
 the Government of the day actually placed faith in I He 
 came therefore to Bhow Saheb whom he had known at the 
 College, to secure such aid as he would give in the valuable 
 columns of the " Scourge of the Deccan." Bhow Saheb, on 
 the other hand, was glad to see him because he, too, 
 thought that Baba Saheb, influential as he was with many 
 leading men connected with the Congress, might be able 
 to help him to secure a better paid post, or at any rate, 
 an increase of salary where he was. A conversation then 
 ensued between this worthy pair, which I will briefly relate ; 
 but first of all I must make a small digression. 
 
 People in England are apt to confuse the educated Indians 
 
THE NEW BABOONESE GRAMMAR. 93 
 
 they see from India, and discern no difference between 
 the poHshed, self-possessed and comparatively modest 
 Brahmin, and the impudent, self-assertive Baboo from 
 Calcutta. "They are all Indians," and that is all they think 
 about itl We, in Western India, however, know better. 
 Our educated Brahmins do not misquote Shakespeare and 
 Shelley, or use poluphlosboic polysyllables in converse with 
 each other. They speak, on the contrary, fairly good and 
 well-chosen English, and are not to be contaminated by 
 Baboodom. Talking of Baboodom, I am given to understand, 
 that a Commi|;tee has been formed at the India Office for 
 compiling the new language which the great spread of 
 education in Bengal, and the large influx of Baboos into 
 London has rendered necessary. '* Baboonese," the new 
 language is called! The Committee is composed of Sir G. 
 Goodbird, Mr. Protest, a well-known retired Bombay professor, 
 and the talented author of those amusing Baboo papers that 
 recently appeared in ''Punch". Up to the present the Com- 
 mittee are chagrined to find that the language lacks even the 
 rudiments of grammar, but there is abundant material for 
 a Baboonese "phrase-dictionary" which accordingly will 
 soon be " announced by the Press." 
 
 To proceed. * Quoth Bhow Saheb to Baba Saheb, " You 
 have not been near me to see me for some time past, and 
 I was afraid I had offended you." 
 
 "Oh no," repHed Baba Saheb, "you have always been 
 
 * The enunciation is difficult to render. It is distinct, each syllable being 
 separately pronounced. 
 
94 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 present in my heart, and you know that the other day in 
 a speech I made at the Congress I specially lauded the 
 * Scourge ' and its talented Editor. — Well, to be quite frank," 
 continued Baba Saheb, **I want you in return to do me 
 a little favour now. There is that tutorship at Trickapore 
 soon to be vacant — I have applied for it, and with * Ishwur's ' 
 (God's) and your help I have every hope of obtaining it. 
 Now see here — let's make a bargain. You put in your next 
 issue a nice sugary little paragraph in my favour about 
 this same appointment, and / will undertake to do my best 
 with the Secretaries of the Congress to give you a good 
 turn. What do you say, eh?" 
 
 ** Agreed I" said Bhow Saheb; ***done with you' as they 
 say at the Poona races." 
 
 Here Baba Saheb picked up his turban, and while carefully 
 readjusting it on his head, observed, " I say, Bhow Saheb, 
 ''what in Shaitan's name is that leading article you seem 
 to be racking your brains over?" 
 
 "Well," said Bhow Saheb, "it is causing me too much 
 annoyance — it is about the recent appointment to the Council. 
 It seems to me to be the great job which has never been 
 properly exposed and condemned by any Vernacular 
 Press, and I was just putting finishing touch when you 
 came in." 
 
 "Ah I my friend," said Baba Saheb, "you must not put 
 your finishing touches. Your finishing touches will be not 
 worth much if you go on drinking so much whisky as I 
 see you are doing. Have some ! What! I? Not for a lakh of 
 
52. 
 
'^ r C , ^ ,-( 
 
HOW BHOW SAHEB KEPT THE COMPACT. 97 
 
 rupees 1 As for your article about that appointment, just 
 take my advice, put it in waste- paper basket. It cannot 
 be worth much if you composed it yesterday, old friend — 
 besides, let me tell you, you are altogether wrong — that 
 appointment is very good one, as good as could have 
 been made, and I will sum the whole question up by a 
 little joke, which I thought to send to the Editor of Punchy 
 but will now present to you. Why is the latest appointment 
 to the Bombay Council eminently satisfactory? Give it up, 
 eh ? Because all parties concerned, Secretary of State, Lord 
 Sandhurst and the person nominated, has each got ' OU-e- 
 vant' (Ollivant). Samajla ka?" (Vulg. '*Do you twig?") 
 
 With these words he saluted Bhow Saheb jauntily, and 
 tumbled downstairs as well as he could into the street. 
 
 When he had again locked the door Bhow Saheb sat 
 him down to think, and very bitter indeed were the thoughts 
 that passed through his mind. Here was this young whipper- 
 snapper coming to deride him and give him advice, while 
 at the same time he wanted him to do him a favour! 
 "This is not to be endured. However, I will keep my 
 promise, and give him right good smack on back besides." 
 With that Bhow Saheb, fortifying himself with a stiff glass 
 of "the dog that bit him," sat down and indited, first, one 
 short editorial notice about the vacancy at Trickapore, in 
 which he lauded Baba Saheb, and pressed his claim to the 
 skies. Next he wrote a long leading article against pushing 
 young natives generally, and headed it — "Prevalence of 
 'Khatpat' (Intrigue) at Government House." 
 
98 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 To have done with Bhow Saheb — I may mention that in a 
 few months phthisis and deUrium tremens combined, brought 
 him to a miserable end. 
 
 And now for Baba Saheb. Finding himself in the street, 
 he assumed his most dignified air, while he hesitated in 
 which direction he should bend his steps. He was really 
 due at a High Festival on the top of Parbuttee, * but it 
 was very hot and a good three miles' " shigram " drive ; on 
 the other hand, he could easily stroll down to the Hiria 
 Bagh (Garden) in the shade of the houses, and there, in a 
 little temple close by, go through such religious ceremonies 
 as were still expected from him, though he did not believe 
 a jot in them himself. Accordingly he bent his steps 
 southward, with slow and dignified mien. Many a casement 
 and shutter were slyly opened, and bright female faces 
 with jewelled nose-rings were pressed cautiously forward, 
 that the owner might admire the well-known youth as he 
 passed. As he got into the smaller and more populated 
 lanes, the respect shown to him and his sanctity as a 
 "Chitpawan" Brahmin, became more marked at every step. 
 The inferior castes, ** Sudras " and the like, stood back against 
 the walls and shops lest their foul shadows should fall on 
 and defile him! The basket-women and vegetable sellers 
 shufBed back into the road on their hams, dragging their 
 
 * A Temple on the top of Parbuttee Hill, where are also to be seen the 
 blackened ruins of the palace of the infamous Bajee Rao, the last of the Peishwas. 
 It was from there that Bajee Rao saw his great army defeated at Kirkee. 
 The Jubilee murders were committed near the white house in the valley at 
 the centre of this picture. (^See plate^ p. g.) 
 
COMENG EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOW BEFORE. 99 
 
 baskets away for the same reason ! Even the Mahommedan 
 coffee-seller crying his wares, stopped short, open-mouthed, 
 to gaze on the wonderful being. The very pariah 
 dogs seemed to feel and fear his presence, and, if not 
 forced to do so by sticks, slunk abashed down the nearest 
 pathway. 
 
 A quiet evening, a little sensible reading, and Baba Saheb 
 went to one of the numerous committees of which he was 
 a member, where sedition was openly talked, and the downfall 
 of the British freely predicted. 
 
 He will rise to be a great man, will Baba Saheb, as 
 we shall see, for he moves and lives, is one of the most 
 rising young natives in Poona City! and is ear-marked for 
 the Legislative Council. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SIWAJEE REVIVAL. 
 
 The so-called Siwajee Revival a few years ago was a 
 remarkable circumstance which ought to have attracted the 
 serious notice of the Bombay Government, seeing that it 
 was got up by the Brahmin press, by descendants of the 
 very caste that for their own base ends and by the basest 
 intrigues usurped the power of Siwajee's descendants. The 
 most casual perusal of the history of Maharashtra should 
 have perceived that the Brahmin enthusiasm was feigned, 
 that their pretended patriotism was spurious and without 
 doubt must be displayed with some sinister object, certainly 
 inspired by feelings inimical to the British Raj. Yet His 
 Excellency the Governor — but, let us hope, not his Council — 
 was smitten with admiration, and when a subscription 
 was started to repair Siwajee's tomb or rather the platform 
 on the summit of Raigurh Fort, on which his body was 
 cremated, he eagerly gave his mite and thus expressed 
 his sympathy with **a down-trod nation," his remarkable 
 knowledge of Brahminical character, his abhorrence of the 
 neglect of English officials who had so long left the sacred 
 masonry to crumble 1 
 
VERY INTERESTING DOCUMENTS. 
 
 lOI 
 
 The subscription list must be of such historical value 
 that it should be published, and the original, together with 
 the account showing how much of the amounts promised 
 were actually paid, should be deposited in the archives of 
 the India Office I It would also be interesting to know what 
 caused this touching outburst, why the Peishwa's caste 
 
 THE CREMATION PLATFORM OF SIWAJEE AT RAIGURH. 
 
 have forgotten for 300 years to restore the monument, or 
 even to keep it in repair I Have they ever taken the trouble 
 to recover from Mhar, the Brahmin town at the foot of the 
 fortress, the carved corner-stones^ pillars and wood-work 
 robbed from their hero's residence and Durbar halls to be 
 built into the walls of the houses of the better classes, or 
 into their cow-sheds? 
 
I02 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 The writer of these pages had the good fortune to visit 
 Raigurh in the train of Sir Richard Temple during one of 
 His Excellency's celebrated " Verification tours." 
 
 A mangy, ill-clad, highly flavoured old **poojaree" (wor- 
 shipper) led us to what people call the tomb of Siwajee; 
 an insignificant platform of decaying stones and mortar. 
 We then proceeded to the **chowthara" or plinth — still 
 in fair order — of the great Durbar hall in which it was 
 Siwajee's wont to receive each year his various leaders, to 
 distribute the spoil he and they had collected since last 
 Dussera. The plinth faces east — Sir Richard mounted it, 
 and we all stood around him while he made a heart-stir- 
 ring recitation. I see the scene now vividly before my 
 eyes — seem to hear his very words. He first described the 
 wild Mawalis, and Hedkaris and Pathans armed to the 
 teeth, with shield, spear, sword and dagger, gathered in 
 the Durbar hall and on the steps— bales of spoil scattered 
 about — gold and silver — ^jewels — rich clothing — and cash 
 galore. The great warrior Chiefs gathered in a semi-circle 
 around the Founder of the Mahratta Empire, who, gor- 
 geously arrayed, his good sword ''Bhowanee" lying ready to 
 his hand, sat on the kincob cushions of the throne, award- 
 ing praise or blame as seemed meet. A shortish, wiry 
 man with looks of unusual intelligence, his visage generally 
 displaying frank rough humour — his long ape-like arms 
 (which Grant Duff tells us are thought a great beauty 
 among the Mahratta race) — folded on his knees or held up 
 in gesticulation. The whole scene mayhap was lit by the 
 

"LOOK HERE, UPON THIS PICTURE, & ON THIS." 105 
 
 rays of the rising sun, dispelling the masses of fleecy clouds 
 in the valleys beneath. Or, more likely still, a nocturnal 
 Durbar lit up by waving torches, the back distance all in 
 gloom, cross lights glinting off the polished shields and 
 glittering spoil, — fierce faces appearing and disappearing — 
 the tocsin resounding with enthusiastic cries of ''Jey! Siwajee 
 Maharaj Jey ! " An embroidered " purdah " (curtain) stretched 
 across the back of the hall, from which ever and anon 
 peeped faces of the wives and female members of the 
 family — exultant in the tumult. In the rear — fittest place 
 for them — a few white-clad Brahmins, like snakes in the 
 grass — subservient, humble, treacherous, as was their 
 wont. 
 
 "Anon," declaimed Sir Richard, "the scene changes. 
 "The great Siwajee is dead and burnt on that plateau. It 
 is the craven Sumbhajee, his son, who for the first time 
 ascends his father's fortress, his mind filled with blood- 
 thirsty intent, a discontented soldiery following him, presag- 
 ing evil — with scant spoil to divide — the very crows and 
 vultures seeming to scent blood in the air. The last 
 surviving Queen-mother, Soyera Bye, has been deserted by all 
 but Annaji Dutto and a few faithful adherents. The white- 
 livered Brahmins have long fled, and are endeavouring to 
 make terms for themselves with the nearest party in power 
 by the sale of secrets, by treachery of every kind. Soyera 
 Bye is well-nigh alone when she is summoned to the 
 ghastly Durbar, and foully abused by her stepson. Know- 
 ing . that she has no chance of mercy, in her widow's 
 
io6 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 weeds she ascends the * chowthara,' and then with all the 
 strength given to her at the supreme moment, she holds 
 forth; the craven Sumbhajee the while, cowering on the 
 throne his father has so recently occupied. ' Unworthy- 
 son of the great Siwajee', she screams, raising her shrivelled 
 arm, ' if son thou art, which many doubt — I defy thee ! 
 Do thy worst! Thou comest hither, I know, for my 
 blood and that of thy father's faithful servant: thou art 
 now about to shed it. We die,' — raising both arms with 
 clenched fists to heaven — ' but may the wrath of the great 
 Ishwar, may the curse of Bhowanee descend upon thee and 
 thine!' No cries of *Jey Sumbhajee' then, but a deadly 
 gloom over the whole assemblage — a silence broken only 
 by the guttural curses of the Mawalees and the clash of 
 shields ! (See Plate page ip). 
 
 ** The Royal Widow, her face now veiled, is led away to 
 execution, and the murderer seeks to drown his conscience 
 and allay his fears by revelry and riot." 
 
 Sir Richard's declamation was magnificent, and he never 
 faltered for a word. 
 
 The toil of ascent is at once forgotten by the marvellous 
 beauty of the scenery when looking eastward from the 
 ''chowthara." Pertabghur in its majesty, Torna in its auda- 
 cious lofty isolation, all the peaks bristling around Arthur's 
 Seat, Elphinstone Point, the Saddleback and Mhyputghur 
 in placid slumber, their summits touched by the last rays 
 of the setting sun ; their shadows dark purple, rosy edged, 
 seem within a stone's throw — while the tiny stream of 
 
THE VAIN MOGUL AND THE MOUNTAIN RAT. 107 
 
 the infant Savitree and its numerous petty tributaries glisten 
 like silver threads as they wind about below. 
 
 On the further or eastern side of Pertabghur, in the 
 valley between the Fort and Mahabuleswur, not far from 
 where the travellers' bungalow now stands, is the site of 
 the celebrated encounter between Siwajee and Afzool Khan, 
 the Mogul general. 
 
 In September 1659 the Beejapoor Government, incensed 
 at Siwajee's successes, despatched Afzool Khan, one of their 
 best commanders, with 5,000 horse, 7,000 picked infantry 
 and a strong train of artillery, rockets, and camel guns, to 
 attack Siwajee in his stronghold. The force, owing to the 
 rains, could not reach the Western Ghauts till October. 
 Siwajee left Raigurh and went to Pertabghur to meet it; 
 thence he despatched emissaries to the proud Mogul, pretend- 
 ing to be in great dread, expressing his contrition and 
 beseeching Afzool Khan's mediation for forgiveness. The 
 latter, "vain as a Mogul" and despising "the mountain rat", 
 sent a Brahmin "wukeel", one of his staff, on from Waree to 
 receive Siwajee's submission. Siwajee, after one or two inter- 
 views, visited the Brahmin secretly in the dead of night and 
 made this powerful appeal to him. "You are a Brahmin, 
 my superior in caste, my guide in religion 1 I tell you that 
 all I have done has been for the sake of Hindoos and our 
 Hindoo faith. The great Goddess Bhowanee herself has 
 ordered me to protect Brahmins and cattle, to slay these 
 impious violators of your temples and your Gods, to resist 
 the enemies of your religion. I call upon you, as a 
 
io8 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Brahmin, to help me to obey the Goddess's behests 1 Do 
 this and you shall hereafter live here among your own 
 caste, in your own country, in affluence, honoured above 
 all Brahmins." 
 
 Rich presents followed, and richer promises, and the 
 Brahmin envoy swore by all his gods to do anything that 
 Siwajee might ask. A consultation followed at which Siwajee's 
 confidential adviser, also a Brahmin, assisted, when the Mogul's 
 Envoy suggested that a vain man like his master, might be 
 easily persuaded to meet Siwajee in friendly conference where 
 he could be disposed of. Afzool Khan fell into the trap, 
 and consented to an interview at the foot of Pertabghur. 
 Meantime Siwajee hurried up his trusty Mawulees by thousands 
 and hid them in the jungles. Afzool Khan, leaving the 
 bulk of his army on the other side of Mahabuleshwur, came 
 on with only fifteen hundred men, to within a few hundred 
 yards of Pertabghur, where, at his Brahmin Envoy's sug- 
 gestion, they were halted *^for fear of frightening Siwajee!" 
 What followed is thus graphically told by Grant Duff. 
 
 ** Afzool Khan, a giant in stature, dressed in a thin muslin 
 garment, armed only with his sword, and attended, as had 
 been agreed, by a single armed follower, advanced in 
 his palanquin to an open bungalow prepared for the 
 occasion. 
 
 " Siwajee had made preparations for his purpose, not as if 
 conscious that he meditated a criminal and treacherous deed, 
 but as if resolved on some meritorious though desperate 
 action. Having performed his ablutions with much earnest- - 
 
PRAYER & " DREADFUL NOTE OF PREPARATION." 109 
 
 ness, he laid his head at his mother's feet, and besought 
 her blessing. He then arose, put on a steel chain cap and 
 chain armour under his turban and cotton gown, concealed 
 a crooked dagger, or 'beechwa' (literally, scorpion), in his 
 right sleeve, and on the fingers of his left hand he fixed a 
 'wagnuk', or tiger's claws, a small steel instrument made 
 to fit on the fore and little finger; it has three crooked 
 blades, which are easily concealed in a half-closed hand. 
 
 THE WAGNUK WITH WHICH SIWAJEE SEIZED AFZOOL-KHAN. 
 
 (From '•'■Indian and Oriental Arms^'' etc. 
 By the Right Honourable Lord Egerton of I'atton.) 
 
 '* Thus accoutred, he slowly descended from the fort. The 
 Khan had arrived at the place of meeting before him, and 
 was expressing his impatience at the delay, when Siwajee 
 was seen advancing, apparently unarmed, and, like the Khan, 
 attended by only one armed follower, his tried friend, 
 Tannajee Maloosray. Siwajee, in view of Afzool Khan, 
 frequently stopped, which was represented as the effects 
 of alarm, a supposition more likely to be admitted from 
 his diminutive size. Under pretence of assuring Siwajee, 
 the armed attendant, by the contrivance of the Brahmin 
 Envoy, stood at a few paces' distance. Afzool Khan made 
 
no OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 no objection to Siwajee's follower, although he carried two 
 swords in his waistband, a circumstance which might pass 
 unnoticed, being common amongst Mahrattas; he advanc- 
 ed two or three paces to meet Siwajee; they were intro- 
 duced, and in the midst of the customary embrace, the treach- 
 erous Mahratta struck the wagnuk into the bowels of 
 Afzool Khan, who quickly disengaged himself, clapped his 
 hand on his sword, exclaiming ' Treachery and murder I ' ; but 
 Siwajee instantly followed up the blow with his dagger. ^ 
 The Khan had drawn his sword, and made a cut at Siwajee, 
 but the concealed armour was proof against the blow. The 
 whole was the work of a moment, and Siwajee was wresting 
 the weapon from the hand of his victim before their atten- 
 dants could run towards them. Syud Bundoo, the follower 
 of the Khan, whose name deserves to be recorded, refused 
 his life on condition of surrender, and against two such 
 swordsmen as Siwajee and his companion, maintained an 
 unequal combat for some time before he fell. The bearers 
 had lifted the Khan into his palanquin during the scuffle, 
 but by the time it was over Khundoo Malley and some 
 other followers of Siwajee had come up, when they cut off 
 the head of the dying man, and carried it to Pertabghur. 
 The signals agreed on were now made ; the Mawulees 
 rushed from their concealment and beset the nearest part 
 of the Beejapoor troops on all sides, few of whom had 
 time to mount their horses or stand to their arms. Nettajee 
 Palkur with the Mawulees gave no quarter ; but orders were 
 
 * Fzc/e Frontispiece. 
 
SIX OF ONE, HALF A DOZEN OF THE OTHER, in 
 
 sent to Moro Punt to spare all who submitted ; and Siwajee's 
 humanity to his prisoners was conspicuous on this as well 
 as on most occasions." 
 
 This graphic description is now shewn on very excellent 
 authority to be not quite accurate — not quite fair to Siwajee. 
 Mr. R. P. Karkharia, a Parsee historian of high repute, 
 has hunted out old **bakhars" (documents) of undoubted 
 authenticity, and proves, in an able pamphlet on Pertabghur 
 (or as he calls it Pratapgurh), that Afzool Khan was only 
 deceived so far as to believe that Siwajee was really in 
 dread of him, that he came to the conference prepared not 
 only to encounter treachery, but to employ it himself if 
 opportunity offered. Afzool Khan meant to surprise and 
 seize, doubtless to kill, Siwajee, if the latter had not killed 
 him, but he foolishly despised his enemy. Whatever treach- 
 ery there was on both sides, was suggested by Brahmins, 
 prepared by Brahmins — that much is certain ! 
 
 The incident reads like one of the chapters in Fennimore 
 Cooper's Red Indian Novels — we seem to see an encounter 
 between the Crow Chief " Clawing Catamount" (Siwajee) 
 and the Delaware leader "Big Bull" (Afzool Khan), 
 and we admire Siwajee's pluck, cunning, and superior 
 military skill. 
 
 The mode of warfare, the morals of those years gone 
 by are not to be judged by Exeter Hall standards of the 
 present day. We have been dealing with times when armed 
 and desperate men struggled daily to take each other's 
 lives and snuffled not about murder. We may well cry. 
 
112 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 and let Mahrattas still cry, "Jey! Siwajee Maharaj ! " * — for 
 he was a fine fellow; but when a handful of the treach- 
 erous caste that nullified his patriotism, suggested all his 
 crimes, and compassed the downfall of the Empire he had 
 raised, use his name for the furtherance of seditious plots 
 against ourselves, 'tis surely the time to scotch the rep- 
 tiles, not to subscribe to their schemes? 
 
 * Hurrah ! (or victory) for Siwajee Maharaj 
 
 r^ 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE INHABITANTS OF POONA. 
 
 The Deccanee and Deccanised-Konkanee Brahmin. 
 
 Just as it is unfair and unjust to condemn the entire 
 Native Press because there are some seditious Vernacular 
 and Anglo- Vernacular newspapers, so it is cruel and thought- 
 less to inveigh against all Brahmins because there are some 
 Brahmin malignants. A caste that has produced the noble 
 family of Vinchoor, the late Rao Saheb V. N. Mandlik, 
 the Hon. Justice Ranade, the Barwes, the Atlays, Messrs. 
 S. H. Chiploonkur, and K. N. Bhangaokur, has many claims 
 on our regard, and must have much good in it. 
 
 Let us take the case of the Vinchoorkur who has indepen- 
 dent civil and criminal jurisdiction in some hundreds of 
 villages in the Nassick District. 
 
 The Chief, disgusted with the treachery and cowardice of 
 Bajee Rao, yet faithful to the very last, cast in his lot with 
 the British after the Peishwa's abdication in 1818, and was 
 of great service to Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone in the paci- 
 fication of the Deccan. Mr. Elphinstone confirmed him in his 
 Jagheer (Chieftainship) and gave him jurisdiction over all his 
 towns and villages except the walled town of Yeola. This place, 
 too, he promised should be restored to him when the 
 
114 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 country should be settled down. The Vinchoorkur family 
 have consistently administered their Jagheer with prudence, 
 intelligence and uprightness, and have furnished several 
 
 THE DECCAN BRAHMIN. 
 
 excellent servants to the British Government. No Chiefs 
 have deserved so well at our hands, none have been so 
 ill rewarded. It is not yet too late to restore Yeola to 
 them, and it will be a disgrace if it be not restored. Had 
 
NOTABLE DECCANISED-KONKANEE BRAHMINS. 115 
 
 Yeola been under Vinchoor it would, I am very sure, have 
 maintained its high character, and there would have been 
 no riots or disaffection there as of late. 
 
 Thus we snub, sit upon, humiliate, and deceive the loyal 
 and influential classes, while we pet, pamper, and '*kow 
 tow " to the reptile Vernacular Press, owned and edited by 
 nameless upstarts, whom we have seemingly educated for 
 the purpose! We see the result now in Poona! Such is 
 the outcome in India of the "policy of scuttle," which gave 
 India Lord Ripon, which has ofttimes sent poor Bombay 
 inexperienced, ignorant, and weak Pro-consuls because Party 
 supporters must be provided for at any hazard : which will 
 lose India for us if it can. 
 
 Could there be named a better specimen of the Deccanised 
 Chitpawan or Konkanee Brahmin than the late Rao Saheb 
 V. N. Mandlik, the friend of Sir Bartle Frere, Sir Barrow 
 Ellis and many other distinguished Anglo-Indians? 
 
 What of the Honourable Justice Ranade, a Deccanized- 
 Konkani Brahmin? He has won his way up to the top- 
 most rung of the ladder by sheer merit and ability; of 
 unblemished character and integrity — a very Sagamore 
 among his caste fellows— he has saved many a young man 
 from egregious folly, has repressed judiciously and system- 
 atically the dangerous aspirations of pseudo-patriots by 
 whom he has been surrounded all his life. These gentry, 
 after the manner of such scum, now dare to revile and 
 taunt him. His speech at the Jubilee meeting of the Elphin- 
 stone College is such a model of good taste, wisdom 
 
ii6 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 and good feeling that I cannot resist reproducing it here. 
 The Hon. Mr. Justice M. C. Ranade said : " Mr. Principal 
 and Professors, Ladies and Fellow-students, the only claim 
 I have to speak at this gathering on behalf of the students 
 both old and new, is that I am perhaps the oldest Elphin- 
 stonian present here to-day, having joined the College 
 nearly 40 years ago. If not the oldest, I can certainly 
 claim to be one who stayed longest within these walls; 
 for, as student and as teacher, I was associated with the 
 College for nearly fourteen years with one slight interrup- 
 tion. There are times, ladies and gentlemen, when our 
 hearts are too full to permit of our giving adequate 
 expression to the feelings which move us. This is just one 
 of those occasions when all over the world, and notably 
 in this country, in all our towns and villages, as well as 
 in these busy Presidency centres, there is one central 
 dominating idea exciting the imagination of millions in a 
 way that cannot be easily compared to any similar event 
 in our past history. Of course our past history furnishes 
 a parallel of Sovereigns ruling over vast territories for more 
 than half a century, and ruling over many millions of 
 subjects with beneficence and wisdom. But nowhere except 
 in the remotest part of mythical story, was there a commemo- 
 ration so unique and universal as that which we witness 
 before our eyes, not merely in the British Isles, but in all the 
 great Colonies and dependencies in the four great continents, 
 which own allegiance to the rule of our Empress-Queen. As 
 students of history we should try to understand what lies at 
 
A REMARKABLE SPEECH. 117 
 
 the root of all these wonderful manifestations of the devotion 
 of millions and millions of men of all creeds and races to 
 a ruler whom they perchance have never seen and will 
 never see. Mere length of life cannot explain these phe- 
 nomena, for, after all, long life is an accidental advantage 
 which it is not given to man to command. The possession 
 of power and of a world-wide empire by itself, whatever 
 fear it might inspire, can never succeed in winning the 
 hearts of milHons over whom that power is exercised. 
 There is something deeper than these possessions and 
 accidents, which at the present time has thrown a spell 
 over all of us, brought us together here to commemorate 
 the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty's reign. There is 
 a moral element at the base of all this display of force, 
 and it is the triumph of this moral principle which alone 
 has the power to move the hearts of millions in one unison 
 of loyal and grateful sentiment. The Queen-Empress typi- 
 fies in her person the ascendency of the reign of law in 
 all departments of State activity. Herself a woman, she 
 sits enthroned as the responsible head of the mightiest 
 empire the world has yet known, and her personal charac- 
 ter has enabled her to realise her responsibility as a con- 
 stitutional ruler in a way which no mere paper constitu- 
 tions, however skilfully framed, can ever secure. Some of 
 you might think that, after all, law is but the expression of 
 the Sovereign's will, which differentiates it in degree or 
 kind from other expressions of her will, which we distinguish 
 as orders and rules meant for executive convenience. To 
 
ii8 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 those who feel this difficulty I would suggest that they 
 should turn their eyes inside into the recesses of their own 
 hearts and see, if they can, if there is any law which is 
 enthroned in their own hearts with authority, if not power, 
 to rule over their own multifarious nature, passions, appe- 
 tites, loves, hatreds. Their weakness is greatest when they 
 yield obedience to these lower powers and disown the 
 command of the law imprinted on their hearts. 
 
 '* Their strength is irresistible when they regulate and sub- 
 ordinate their faculties and possessions to the rule of the 
 Sovereign law enthroned in their hearts. The difference 
 between man and man is a difference between obedience 
 and disobedience to this law. 
 
 ** What is true of the individual is if possible still more 
 true in the case of collective bodies of men known as 
 nations and empires. The British nation has its own faults 
 and foibles, but there can be no question that in spite of 
 these faults and foibles, their national character has been 
 formed by ages of struggle and self-discipline in a world 
 which illustrates better than any other contemporary power, 
 the supremacy of what I have characterised as the reign 
 of law. Just as in the individual the will when counselled 
 and perfected by discipline and struggle, becomes the law 
 for the man who listens to it, so in the collective nation 
 it is when the Sovereign's will is similarly counselled and 
 perfected by the advice of the estates and the free expres- 
 sion of public opinion, it becomes the dominant power in 
 the land, to which every other subordinate power has to 
 
NOBLE SENTIMENTS. 119 
 
 yield obedience, and which it has to carry out ungrudg- 
 ingly. This is the secret of the moral force which sanc- 
 tifies the sway of Britain over one-fifth of the globe and 
 its entire population. In the absence of such a discipline 
 mere power and fortune has a tendency to make men feel 
 giddy, till oftentimes their very greatness helps to precipi- 
 tate them into ruin. It is this moral principle which is the 
 source of British greatness, and its armour and protection. 
 It is also this same moral element which inspires hope and 
 confidence in the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain, 
 that whatever temporary perturbations may cloud the judg- 
 ment, the reign of law will assert itself in the end. The 
 long reign of Her Majesty has tended to strengthen the 
 hold of this principle on the national mind, and her great 
 personal ascendency is never so keenly appreciated as 
 when she announces her determination to hold fast to this 
 source of strength and to sympathise with the weakness, 
 sorrows and sufferings of all her subjects. There have been 
 in our own country good and beneficent Sovereigns, but 
 their good and beneficent work has died with them. It is other- 
 wise where impersonal law presides and rules over the destinies 
 of men. There are of course ebbs and tides and temporary 
 disturbances and even storms, but these only serve to bring 
 into greater relief the calm majesty of the law overriding 
 power and possession, more especially when this law is 
 administered by the womanly instincts of one who has 
 known sorrow and affliction herself This is the moral secret 
 of the charm which has endeared her home to millions and 
 
I20 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 millions who have never seen her. This is why all the 
 colonies and dependencies join with the British Isles in this 
 commemoration, and this is the lesson which, on an occasion 
 like this, I would ask the students of this college to take 
 with them as the memory of an event which cannot fail 
 
 BRAHMIN LADY. 
 
 to be remembered as a red-letter day on our country's 
 annals. On behalf of the students I have great pleasure 
 in thanking the Principal and Professors of the College for 
 their kindness in inviting us all to take part in this com- 
 memorative gathering, and I hope such occasions will be 
 
"MAY IT BURN, BUT PRODUCE." 121 
 
 far more frequent than they have hitherto been." (Loud cheers). 
 There are Brahmins and Brahmins. Methinks that the 
 hot winds of the Deccan are deleterious to Brahminical 
 morals. Certainly the Chitpawan in the Konkan is usually 
 a good man all round; as certainly the Deccan Brahmin, 
 with rare exceptions, like the chief of Vinchoor, is inferior 
 to all of the caste. Certainly the Konkanee Chitpawan 
 deteriorates morally when he settles above the Ghauts. 
 The process can be watched in many a Chitpawan 
 family, part settled in Poona, part resident in the narrow 
 strip of beautiful country won by Indra's prowess from 
 Samudra (Neptune) at their duel at Helwak on the 
 Koombarlee Ghaut. The legend is that when Indra came 
 back with Luxmon a few billions of years afterwards to 
 inspect his conquest, the latter insolently threw off his 
 allegiance directly the pair stepped down on the red laterite 
 soil of the Konkan — that Indra (Maha, or the great Indra) 
 thereupon by a simple test * proved to Luxmon that his 
 traitorous fit was due to the treacherous soil — that there- 
 upon Luxmon pettishly exclaimed "Jalo ! " (" May it burn 1 "), 
 but that Maha-Indra, with his usual magnanimity, qualified 
 the curse — "Jalo pun peeko " ("May it burn^ but pro- 
 duce "). The fable, as time has proved, is clearly a 
 libel on the Konkan and all Konkanees, whether Brahmins, 
 Mahrattas or Mahommedans. But while change of climate 
 does not demoralise either the second or third race (as 
 
 * By making Luxmon walk over a few yards of a path sprinkled with 
 laterite soil. 
 
122 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 witness the thousands of Konkanee Mahrattas in mills and 
 factories, on railways, in public and private service — as 
 witness Konkanee Mahommedans in highest places of trust 
 and power, on the Bench, in Baroda and elsewhere), it does 
 in a curious way demoralise the Konkanee Brahmin. Like 
 the sap of the India-rubber tree when vulcanised, in 
 moderately moist air it is supple, elastic, very useful, and 
 fairly reliable. Expose it for any time, however, to the dry 
 blasts of the Deccan and it loses tone, becomes brittle 
 and unreliable — " Dekkan hawachee goon ahe" [''It is the 
 effect (or influence) of the Deccan climate! "]; Bajee Rao, Nana 
 Saheb, Tantia Topee, were all Konkanee Brahmins. It is 
 quite conceivable that if they had lived out their lives at 
 Sangameshwar, or wherenot below the Ghauts, they might 
 have shone in history as humane, benevolent administrators, 
 but unfortunately their forbears would go to Poona and the 
 Deccan, so their progeny developed into traitors and murderers 1 
 
 There is something in the air of Poona, too, which produces 
 that (to beholders) distressing disease, called " swelled-head " in 
 America, just as the cHmate of the Straits brings on "elephan- 
 tiasis" and "beri-beri." Young Brahmins are very subject to 
 it. Take a modest Chitpawan youth from Chiploon, locate 
 him at the Deccan College, and almost to a dead certainty, 
 he will, in a few months become bumptious and overbearing. 
 Young Deccan Brahmins are almost all so afflicted — " Dekkan 
 hawachee goon ahe" — there is the solution in a nutshell I 
 
 The complaint is very difficult to eradicate in the Chit- 
 pawan — it may be said to be incurable in the " Karradee " 
 
HOW TO TREAT "SWELLED-HEAD." 123 
 
 or ''Deshast." The treatment found most efficacious is a 
 strong infusion of ridicule, exhibited in large doses, as 
 publicly as possible, and as often as one can catch the 
 patient. This medicine has a marvellous effect on all Orientals, 
 but somehow it operates immediately on Brahmin cases, seems 
 to reduce the swelling and to purify the blood, just as mouldy 
 ''soopari" (betel) nut clears any dog of worms 1 All Anglo- 
 Indian officials should keep a few bottles on their office desks. 
 
 The Government of India have another remedy in their 
 pharmacopoeia, if they would but use it. It acts like caustic 
 and burns up proud flesh, thus allaying surrounding inflam- 
 mation. It is a compound of bitter contempt and icy language 
 — no butter or oleaginous substance must be mixed with it. 
 Viceroys and Proconsuls, though they should not ignore 
 the National Congress and Congress-wallas, should not 
 encourage the movement. Rather should they show by 
 cool contempt that they disapprove. Congress-wallas should 
 be struck off Government-House lists, systematically kept 
 out in the cold, and, no matter how they may otherwise be 
 distinguished, should not be patted on the back, anointed in 
 Government Resolutions, or buttered up in speeches, still less 
 should they be made Honourables in the Legislative Council. 
 
 One other Brahmin point, and we will drop the sacred 
 thread for the present. A hot-tempered, passionate Brahmin, 
 be he Deccanee or Konkanee, is a rare bird — a prize fowl. 
 When you find one, stick to him — he will stick to you — 
 he is always a good fellow, usually a sharp and reliable 
 servant. Verb. sat. sap. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 INHABITANTS OF POONA. — Continued. 
 
 The pure Konkanee Brahmins. A Chitpawan Legend. 
 
 The principal Konkanee Brahmins are (i) the Konkanas- 
 thas commonly called the Chitpawans, (2) the Deorookhas, 
 (3) the Jawalas. * For convenience' sake we will dispose 
 of the two last first. 
 
 The Deorookhas take their name from a beautiful village 
 and subdivision of that name in the Ratnagiri district; 
 they abound in and about the old trading port, Rajapoor. 
 The Peishwas encouraged them to settle further north, in 
 Kolaba and Tannah, some of them even went as far as 
 Baroda. They do not seem to have done much in Poona 
 or the Deccan. Dr. Wilson mentions that they are consid- 
 ered unlucky, and that Chitpawans, therefore, are shy of 
 sitting in the same line with them. They are not well-to- 
 do ; though they are good farmers, they are, in the writer's 
 experience, harsh landlords. 
 
 The Jawalas' claim to be Brahmins is not generally 
 
 * I purposely omit * the Lingayet Brahmins whose stronghold is in the 
 Carnatic. Those in Poona are mostly in Government service. They are great 
 rivals of the pure Brahmins. They are more courageous, somewhat more 
 reliable, but even more vindictive. 
 
THE CHITPAWAN BRAHMIN MIND. 125 
 
 recognised by Chitpawans, who allege that they were origin- 
 ally **koonbees" or cultivators, and that Pureshram Bhow 
 Putwurdhan, the Peishwa's powerful relative, " made them 
 Brahmins for his own convenience." They used to eat 
 fish, but are giving up the practice. They are especially 
 numerous around Hurnee or Severndroog, where they hold 
 some of the fattest rice lands. They have always been 
 numerous in and near Poona, but have rarely occupied 
 any exalted position. 
 
 The Chitpawans are probably the fairest race in Hindoo- 
 stan, often with blue or green-grey eyes; small, delicately 
 formed hands and feet; well-cut, intellectual features; and 
 generally a look of breeding that distinguishes them in 
 any company. They have always been notable for 
 intelligence and administrative ability, and number more 
 men of mark in their history than all other castes put 
 together; but they are innately cruel — they were the last 
 and most bigotted supporters of "Suttee" (widow-burn- 
 ing). They are vindictive, treacherous, intriguing and un- 
 truthful, but mild, pleasing (or, rather, plausible) and cour- 
 teous in manners. They are still, it is to be feared, as 
 Messrs. MountstuartElphinstoneand Chaplin recorded in 181 8, 
 ''generally discontented, and only restrained by fear from 
 being treasonable and treacherous." Their best men are 
 passionate, like Raja Sir Dinkur Rao — their worst are smooth 
 and plausible, like Bajee Rao, the last Peishwa, and Nana 
 Saheb. 
 
 Most Anglo-Indians, however long they may have studied 
 
126 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 their Chitpawans will agree with the great missionary Rhenius, 
 (Memoir, p. 187) that "nothing is so difficult to be under- 
 stood and fully comprehended as a (Chitpawan) Brahmin's 
 mind." 
 
 THE KONKANASTHA OR CHITPAWAN BRAHMIN 
 
 IN HIS k6nkan home. 
 
 Chitpawans pretend to a superiority over other Brahmins 
 in descent as in physique and intellect, but they cannot 
 justify their claim. They contend that ''Chitpawan" is syn- 
 onymous with " Chitpohle ", which literally means " searing of 
 
WHAT CHITPAWAN MEANS. 127 
 
 the heart," and that they thus spoke of themselves as 
 ** heart-seared " or ** heart-stricken", because the god Puresh- 
 ram (Indra) did not grant all their prayers. The expres- 
 sion was not thought respectful by the god, so they changed 
 it to '* chitpawan " or "pure-hearted," or ** sinners pardon- 
 ed". Their head-quarters, now called Chiploon, was orig- 
 inally Chitpohlna. Other Brahmins, and indeed Mahrattas 
 generally, believe in a much less exalted tradition about 
 them. Chitpawan also means "a dead body raised." The 
 legend is interesting. The author had the good fortune, 
 nearly forty years ago, to make the acquaintance of an old 
 ''Bhutt" or Brahmin bard at Chiploon: the old gentleman 
 produced with some reluctance three Sanscrit ''pothees" 
 or pamphlets, which no doubt were fragments of a work 
 called "The Syadree Kind", which the Chitpawan Peishwas 
 suppressed or destroyed when they could get hold of them. * 
 The first of these pamphlets related to the conquest of the 
 Konkan from the sea by Vishnoo (in his incarnation as 
 Indra or Pureshram), which is briefly referred to at page 1 2 1 
 of this work. The second described the origin of the 
 Chitpawans and their immortality : the third showed how 
 they doubted and treacherously deceived their god, and 
 how Pureshram punished and made them mortal. 
 
 The author of this work does not profess to be a Pundit, 
 nor is he writing for a Pundit public, he therefore repro- 
 duces the legend in a popular form, premising that he 
 
 * About 1814 Bajee Rao ruined and disgraced a respectable Deshast Brahmin 
 of Waiee found in possession of a copy of "The Syadree Kind." 
 
128 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 writes from memory, but that he had the books read and 
 expounded to him by the aged bard aforesaid. 
 
 When Brahma, the Supreme Being, had finished off 
 creation by creating man, assuming human form he 
 descended into the world as Vishnoo, also called Indra 
 or Pureshram. For countless ages he waged war against 
 the "Kshetriyas" or Hindoo Titans; it was a heavy under- 
 taking. Twenty-five times did he believe that he had 
 utterly destroyed them: twenty-five times did they reappear 
 smiling: at the twenty-sixth engagement, however, he utterly 
 exterminated them. Then he gave their territory, all Asia, to 
 the Brahmins, but they were ungrateful and refused to let 
 him abide among them. The disgusted Indra then hied him 
 with Luxmon to the edge of the Syadree mountains, to Helwak, 
 just above Chiploon. '^ Samudra," the Hindu Neptune, then 
 washed the summits of the range — witness marine shells in the 
 face of the cliffs below the hill-fort of Wassota. Indra insolently 
 ordered the Ocean to retreat and give him territory to live 
 in. Samudra refused. A duel a Voutrance was arranged, 
 and Neptune, knowing and fearing Indra's powers with his 
 bow, employed the interval in bribing the carpenter bee to 
 bore through the centre of the weapon, so that when Indra, 
 fitting his arrow, drew the bow it broke. So great, however, 
 was Indra's strength that the arrow nevertheless flew but 
 and dropped i8 koss (36 miles) into the Ocean's bosom, and 
 Samudra acknowledging himself defeated, retreated that far. 
 
 Fairly content with his victory, Indra left his new kingdom 
 to dry up, while he swaggered off on some other murderous 
 
THE CHITPAWAN LEGEND. 129 
 
 business in Southern India. Returning with his brother and 
 disciple Luxmon a (qw ages after, he sat him down at Helwak, 
 (as described at page 121), descending to Chiploon, he beheld 
 the country that it was exceeding fair to look upon, it 
 only wanted peopling. This small matter was easily arranged. 
 Neptune in derision cast up on the sands 14 dead bodies, 
 probably of Arabs, which Indra promptly resuscitating, 
 installed at Chiploon as Brahmins, instructing them to build 
 a shrine to him on a neighbouring hill, since called " Maindra " 
 (Maha Indra) or Pureshram. **I shall come there when I 
 want rest," the god said, *'and my spirit will always be 
 there to protect you ; meantime I give you these ' Sat 
 Mullas, Sat Tullas,' (seven fat valleys, and seven tanks) where- 
 from to irrigate them. Increase and multiply! Worship 
 me and prosper I You shall never die like those Deccan 
 rascals 1 Ram! Ram! Keep kind!" 
 
 So the god "took his hook" as the Baboos gracefully 
 say, and left the immortal " twice-born " to their own devices.. 
 
 For centuries the Chitpawans did increase and multiply, 
 for, sure enough, they never died. Becoming prosperous, 
 they waxed bumptious, as Brahmins are apt to do, and 
 became a nuisance to mankind. The birds brought Indra 
 inteUigence of their oppressions and licentiousness. He saw 
 he had made a great mistake, and, to rectify it, he bethought 
 himself of instilling some of the " goon " or spirit of the 
 red soil into the Chitpawan mind. Accordingly, at the next 
 meeting of the Brahmin Elders under a certain wide-spread- 
 ing Banian tree, when the conversation turned on their 
 
 9 
 
I30 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 wondrous prosperity and immunity from death, he put it 
 into the heart — or stomach (which is synonymous) — of an 
 old gentleman to observe, ** ' Tis all very well, my brethren 1 
 True that none of us have yet died like those Deshast 
 Brahmins above Ghauts, or these impure Shudras (working 
 men) round about us," (Here he spat vigorously on the ground.) 
 "but what security have we after all that we never shall 
 die, eh?" Animated discussion followed, in the course of 
 which it was determined to test the god's good faith in 
 this way : One of the party should sham dead, they would 
 carry him up to the temple on the hill, and there extort 
 some guarantee from the deity. No sooner said- than done : 
 the counterfeit corpse, decently laid out on a bier, his face 
 besmeared with ochre and red pigment, was carried toil- 
 somely up to the shrine, escorted by a posse of caste 
 mourners, naked to the waist, "oogada bodka" (bareheaded), 
 swinging pots of burning incense, and making the welkin 
 ring with their wail ''Are NarrayenI Narrayenl " Depositing 
 the burthen before the idol and ringing the bell overhead 
 to attract the god's attention, an old grey-beard took up 
 the parable ** Are, Deoba ( '' Look here^ old god), you promised 
 we should never die, but see what we have brought youl" 
 (Pointing to the shammer.) " What security will you give us 
 that death shall not again visit us?" A solemn silence 
 followed, broken only by the muttered ''muntrees " (impre- 
 cations) of the Poojarree (priest) as he walked round and 
 round the altar, ever and anon dropping flowers on the idol 
 and sprinkling it with holy water. Lo 1 the blossoms drop with- 
 
2 B 
 
 u 
 
 (JOS 
 
 S| ^ 
 ^f "I. 
 
 o ^ 
 P 
 
 2 o 
 
 go 
 
 M 
 H 
 
"VISHNOO BE PRAISED I-THEY DIE." 133 
 
 ered — will not rest on the idol I The water evaporates in steam I 
 Horror of horrors I The priest faints, and pitchy darkness 
 fills the shrine-room 1 Suddenly a terrific flash of Hghtning 
 reveals the deity to the terror-stricken conspirators, and a 
 voice thunders, '* Treacherous and accursed racel the cup 
 of your iniquities is filled to overflowing (apale pap bharile 
 gele) 1 Ye ask a sign 1 Take it from that bier 1 So shall ye 
 all die in future 1" Behold the shammer was as dead as 
 any Deshastl 
 
 "The story is quite true, Saheb," said the old bard. 
 " There is the Banian tree out there by the tank; there are 
 the seven 'Mullas' and 'Tullas,' still so registered in the 
 Revenue Register of the town, and Chitpawan Brahmins 
 die — Vishnoo be praised 1 — like other people." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE INHABITANTS OF POONA. — Continued. 
 The S^rasawata, Senoy, or Sh^nwee Brahmins. 
 
 This important caste of the Panch-Gauda Brahmins take 
 their name from the Saraswatee river (shewn as the Cagger 
 in old maps) which, belonging to the North-Western system 
 of rivers rising in the Siwalik range, flows past Thanesur 
 and loses itself in the sands **on its .approach to the (non- 
 Aryan) Nishadas." (Vol. i, p. 251, of the " Mahabharata ".) 
 They are found in the Punjaub, Sinde, Rajpootana, Guzerat 
 and the Konkans above Goa. According to the learned 
 Doctor Bhow Dajee — who was a Shenwee — they have only 
 been settled in the Konkans for about 700 years. "• Shenwee," 
 according to the Reverend Dr. Wilson, is probably a mali- 
 cious nick-name given by the Chitpawan Brahmins, who 
 affirm that they are descended from a lascivious Chitpawan, 
 who finding a low-caste girl gathering '^Shen" or cow-dung, 
 made her a mother. The other derivation suggested by the 
 reverend gentleman seems much more probable — viz., that 
 Shenwee is an abbreviation of a Kanarese word, " Shanbog," 
 which means a scribe or village accountant. 
 
 From time immemorial Shenwees have been distinguished 
 
THE SHfeNWEES' GOOD QUALITIES. 
 
 135 
 
 at the desk, on the field of battle, in diplomacy and 
 government, in commerce, and latterly in literature and 
 science, especially medicine and surgery. The Sindias' minis- 
 tries were almost entirely composed of Shenwees, who 
 proved always staunch and reliable in a crisis, sagacious 
 
 A SHfeNWEE STUDENT. 
 
 in council, courageous in action. Balloba Tattya, many 
 times referred to in my historical sketch, was a typical 
 Shenwee of his times. During the present century, despite 
 the jealousy and virulent opposition of the Brahmins, they 
 have steadily risen in all branches of public life; for they 
 
136 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 are not vindictive, they ar enot over-bearing, nor cruel when 
 in power, they are not rapacious nor miserly, but generous 
 and fair in their dealings, and they are the best of friends. 
 It has been the fashion to say that they are not so 
 astute as the Brahmins. They may not be so quick and, 
 in so far as astuteness means cunning, they are certainly 
 incapable of those intricate intrigues which are the very 
 life of many of the cleverest Brahmins. They may not be 
 so quick at discerning character, but their judgment is 
 sounder and more charitable. They are known to fame on 
 the Judicial Bench (witness Justice Telang) — they are 
 sound lawyers (witness Shantaram Narrayen)— they are 
 eminent educationists (witness Professor Bhandarkar). They 
 are shrewd and enterprising merchants (witness Rugonath 
 Narrayen Khote and Narrayen Wasoodeo Dabholekar). The 
 list of scientific men is full of Shenwee names (witness 
 Drs. Bhow and Narrayen Daji, Dadoba and Atmaram 
 Pandoorung). They are imbued with true public spirit 
 and have furnished some of Bombay's best citizens. In 
 short, they are a class of which any country might well be 
 proud. In the Shenwees the Government will always find 
 the best antidote to Brahminical poison, for they are perhaps 
 the most loyal and reliable of all Hindoos. 
 
 There are many, but not enough of them in State employ. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE INHABITANTS OF POONA. — Continued, 
 The Parbhu— Prabhu— (Anglice) Purvoe. 
 
 According to Brahminical views the Parbhu or Prabhu 
 ranks lower than the Shudra (working-man) in the scheme of 
 mixed castes : he may be a Kayastha, descended from a 
 Vaidehikar (or Vaidy) father and a Mahishya or Joshi mother 
 — or from a Kayastha father and a Kayastha widow— or 
 from a Vratiya Prabhu brother and a Prabhu sister by 
 incestuous intercourse, as vilely insinuated by Brahmin 
 writers, Kayasthas or Parbhus being from the early days 
 of Maharashtra down nearly to the present day "great 
 rivals in the matter of office employment" [Vide Dr. Wilson, 
 ^''Indian Caste '\ Vol. i, page 66). 
 
 They entered the British service in great numbers from 
 the very beginning of the rise of our power, as clerks, 
 secretaries, and confidential agents, so that, in the military 
 departments especially, they occupied all the office stools, 
 and office clerks were generally called Purvoes. 
 
 They still fill most military posts, but in Civil depart- 
 ments, even in the Secretariat where they have deservedly 
 occupied positions of great trust, they are gradually being 
 
138 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 ousted by Brahmins, not by any means to the advantage 
 of the State. 
 
 They are a pecuHarly inoffensive, quiet, well-conducted 
 caste, with a high reputation for fidelity and integrity. 
 They are very tender in their treatment of their women, 
 
 THE PARBHU. 
 
 who are rarely permitted to soil themselves in domestic 
 drudgery. Many Prabhu ladies were highly educated ere 
 ever female education found favour with the Brahmins. They 
 seem to have gradually lost energy during the last fifty 
 years, and their decadence is much to be deplored. 
 
A GALLANT PARBHU. 139 
 
 That they are innately courageous and were possessed of 
 no little military skill, is proved by Mahratta history. 
 
 When Siwajee, in 1655, stormed the Fort of Rohira, Bajee 
 Parbhu Deshpandye, of Hurdas Mawul, headed the defenders 
 with such gallantry that Siwajee, out of admiration, not only 
 confirmed him in all his hereditary offices and possessions, 
 but taking him into his service, placed him in command 
 of a large body of his Hedkaree and Mawulee infantry. 
 Well did Bajee requite this confidence! In September 1660, 
 when Siwajee, finding himself shut up by Fazil Khan and 
 the Seedees Johur and Uzeez in Panalla, escaped and was 
 pursued to Rangna, he placed Bajee Parbhu with a body of 
 Mawulees in a pass six miles from the fort, with orders to 
 hold it at any cost until he heard the signal of five guns, 
 which should announce that Siwajee with the main body of 
 his followers were safe in Rangna. Bajee first drove back the 
 cavalry with great slaughter, two assaults by fresh infantry 
 were similarly repulsed, but about midday the son of Afzool 
 Khan headed a third desperate attack with overwhelming 
 numbers, when Bajee, having lost half his little band, re- 
 treated, after hearing the signal given from Rangna. He 
 was killed immediately afterwards and died expressing his 
 satisfaction. *'The Mawulees proved their regard for him, 
 as well as their own steadiness, by bearing off his body 
 in the face of their numerous pursuers." There is no more 
 stirring incident in Siwajee's wonderful career. 
 
 Another Bajee Parbhu Deshpandye, of Mhar, — no 
 relation, however — in the same year heroically defended 
 
I40 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Poorandhar for a long time against Dilere Khan, the 
 Mogul general, and repulsed his Pathans and Afghans, 
 " when Dilere Khan, having marked the conspicuous 
 conduct of their leader, with his own hand pierced him 
 with an arrow and killed him on the spot" (Grant Duff, 
 vol. I, pages 174, 176). 
 
 Ballajee Aujee Chitnees also was a Prabhu so highly 
 esteemed by Siwajee that he offered to make him one of 
 his Council of Purdhans. Ballajee, probably foreseeing that 
 he would soon fall a victim to Brahmin intrigue, refused 
 the honour. He remained staunch to Soyera Bye, Siwajee's 
 widow, after Siwajee's death, and when this lady was murdered 
 by Sumbhajee (see page 106) he, his son Samjee, Annajee 
 Dutto, and many of the Shirkay family strove their utmost to 
 support Raja Ram, her son, and to avenge her death. Sum- 
 bhajee discovering their intrigues, trapped them all at Pan- 
 alla (in 1681), and caused them to be trampled under the 
 feet of elephants. 
 
 It was a Prabhu again who defended the Fort of 
 Satara against Aurungzebe himself in 1699. Prayagjee 
 Parbhu, who had risen to note under Siwajee, com- 
 m anded the gallant garrison^ who rolled down huge stones, 
 which "were as destructive as artillery " (Grant Duff, pages 
 334 to 336). In 1700 the Moguls exploded several mines 
 at the foot of the scarp, one of which exploding outwards, 
 destroyed 2,000 of the besiegers. Another exploded inwards 
 and Prayagjee Parbhu was buried in the ruins, close to a 
 temple of Bhowanee, but, to the delight of the garrison, 
 
PARBHU COURAGE AND FIDELITY. 141 
 
 was dug out alive. Starved out, he capitulated at last with 
 all the honours of war. I have been unable to trace Pray- 
 agjee further. 
 
 These are only a few illustrations from ancient history of 
 the courage and fidelity of Parbhus. There are many others 
 in our own rule in Western India. There are few Parbhus 
 in Poona City besides the employes in Government ofiices. 
 They have not much influence there, but what little they 
 possess is certainly exercised for good. 
 
CHAPTERXII. 
 
 THE MAHRATTAS OF THE SYADREES, OF THE GHAUT MAHTA, 
 OF THE PLAINS. 
 
 In a future chapter I shall deal with the pure type of 
 Konkanee Mahommedan to be found settled as small farmers 
 and land-owners near the foot of the Syadree Range, mostly 
 between the Savitree and Washistee rivers. Even more 
 interesting are the few Mahratta families in their immediate 
 neighbourhood, who are to be found still further eastward, 
 in villages and hamlets perched on the great spurs running 
 down from the Ghauts, or nestling in the stupendous ravines 
 that penetrate to the very foot of the range, from Mhyput- 
 ghur, near Mahabaleshwur, as far as the Phonda Ghaut, one 
 hundred and twenty miles southward, where they come in 
 contact with the Sawants and other Mahratta families of 
 inferior descent who have spread upwards from Sawantwaree. 
 
 The Syadree type of Mahratta differs entirely from the 
 ordinary Mahratta one is familiar with in the Deccan, and 
 few specimens are to be met in or about Poona. They 
 become more numerous, however, to the North and East 
 of Khandeish, in Malwa, and in the Central Provinces, and 
 branches of the leading famihes have long been settled in the 
 
NOBLE SPECIMENS. 143 
 
 Gaekwar's, Sindia's and Holkar's dominions. Instead of 
 being swarthy and short, they are nearly as fair-skinned 
 as Brahmins of the higher castes, and, for Hindoos, they 
 are of lofty stature, well but sparely built, with regular 
 and often very handsome features. They carry themselves 
 
 THE MAHRATTA OF THE SYADREES. 
 
 with great native dignity, and though habitually reserved 
 and somewhat abrupt in manner, there is an indescribable 
 air of refinement and high breeding in all they do or say. 
 Their traditions are essentially warHke, and the surnames 
 they bear, *'Shirke", " Malusray ", ''Mankar", and the 
 
144 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 like, recall many a stirring incident in Mahratta history. 
 Martial spirit exists as strong as ever it was amongst 
 them, and will never die out ; but for some reason or other 
 they have generally been disinclined to take service in the 
 British Army. Their young men early seek, and readily 
 obtain, employment in the forces maintained by the principal 
 Mahratta States, and the heads of the families resident 
 along the Syadrees are military pensioners of, or draw some 
 small allowance from, some native *'Raj" or other. 
 
 There are various theories as to their origin. Some 
 authorities beUeve them to be descendants of leaders of 
 Siwajee's "Hedkarees", who were rewarded for services in 
 the field by grants of lands and villages along the Ghauts — 
 much as the Brahmin hangers-on of the Peishwas subse- 
 quently received villages in " Khotee " ; other authorities 
 insist that they made their appearance on the Western 
 Ghauts long after the rise of the Peishwas; they them- 
 selves, however, mostly claim to be of Rajpoot descent, 
 and to have originally ruled as petty Rajahs and Chieftains 
 down to the coast itself, retreating with their followers step 
 by step eastward into the fastnesses of the Ghaut range, 
 as trade, and then piracy, advanced from the seaboard. 
 
 To them, and the cultivators who followed them, is 
 probably due the denuded condition of the Ghaut spurs, 
 which has had such serious results, and is so justly 
 and bitterly bewailed by enthusiasts of the Forest Depart- 
 ment. We know that originally the western slopes of 
 the whole length of this mountain range must have been 
 
WHAT "KUMREE" CULTIVATION MEANS. 145 
 
 clothed with dense jungle, often with large-tree forest, 
 which has almost entirely disappeared. On the sheltered 
 side of ravines tree vegetation certainly does still exist in 
 places, but it consists only of small teak, "ain", and 
 "kinjal" trees, annually lopped and pollarded to provide 
 that '*rab", * without which the miserable soil will produce 
 no crops. The slopes, plateaux and undulations are as 
 bare as the back of one's hand I The ancestors of the 
 present inhabitants adopted a very simple expedient for 
 clearing the ground ; they fired the forest in the hot season : 
 for every acre they wanted they burnt ten, fifteen or a 
 hundred acres of good forest, and no doubt raised some 
 plenteous crops of ^' naglee " and " waree " (coarse millet) while 
 the virtues of the ash remained in the soil. When the soil was 
 exhausted, they simply burned a little more forest and 
 shifted their huts. Bands of " Oopree ", or wandering culti- 
 vators, came up from the lowlands, engaged with the " Raos ", 
 or Mahratta village headmen, to stay two, three or four 
 years on payment of an almost nominal grain rental, with 
 the understanding that they should clear so much jungle 
 while in the neighbourhood. As the cultivators moved on, 
 abandoning the worn-out land behind them, it gradually 
 became covered again with dense scrub, which in the 
 course of a decade was again burnt. Thus the wasteful 
 system of what is called " Kumree" cultivation went merrily 
 on, and all large forest growth was destroyed. Exposed 
 to a rainfall of three and four hundred inches, with no 
 
 * Brushwood and leaves which are spread over the seedbeds and then fired. 
 
 10 
 
146 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 undergrowth to retain it, the soil has been carried away, 
 and the silt has gone to enrich the valleys, or choked up 
 the heads of large estuaries, leaving what were large trading 
 ports, such as Chiploon, Sangameshwur, Rajapur, and 
 Kharepatan, high and dry, or only accessible by vessels of 
 very small draft. 
 
 It will be gathered from the above that there cannot 
 be much prosperity along the Ghauts. In i860 I was 
 directed for a special purpose to visit as many of these 
 mountain villages as I could during the cold weather, 
 between Poladpur and Chiploon. A fair view of the 
 ground traversed can be seen from Bombay Point, at Maha- 
 baleshwur, looking south over Mhyputghur, Sumarghur, and 
 Ressalghur. As everything had to be carried in head loads, 
 and the population is scanty, I travelled as Hghtly as 
 possible, trusting to the heads of villages to run me up 
 some temporary shelter from the sun and dew when there 
 was no decent shed or verandah available. I crossed the 
 spurs from village to village when I could, or when the 
 hills were too precipitous I went round by the valleys. I 
 had to live on milk, eggs^ *'chuppatis" * and the inevitable 
 "sudden death", f or such doves and pigeons as I could 
 shoot. It was hard work and a rough Hfe, but I can truly say 
 I never enjoyed a trip so much as this. So far as I could 
 learn only two Europeans had then ever been in those parts 
 before, and I was received with the utmost hospitality and 
 
 * Unleavened cakes, 
 f Chicken. 
 
HOW " RAOS " AND " RYOTS " STARVE TOGETHER. 147 
 
 civility — not servility — in every village, and had great 
 difficulty in inducing the "Rao" to accept payment for 
 supplies. 
 
 In the good old days I wot of the **Raos" led a truly 
 patriarchal life, rarely leaving their village to visit the 
 towns in the lowlands. Their word was law to their Koonbee 
 cultivators. Every local dispute was referred to and settled 
 by them. Moneylenders or shopkeepers there were none 
 in these Mahratta villages, and there was no need of them. 
 The harvest yielded sufficient grain to pay the "Rao" his 
 rent in kind, and to support the cultivators. Now and 
 again a trader (usually a Mahommedan) found his way up the 
 valley with a string of pack ponies or bullocks laden with 
 salt, salt fish, coarse cloth, "kumblies" (blankets), oil, and 
 the Hke, which he bartered away for grain, at the same 
 time purchasing most of the "Rao's" grain stock for cash 
 to enable him to pay his Government assessment. The 
 "Raos" helped their ryots to get along from harvest to 
 harvest, and if a bad year came they helped each other 
 or starved together courageously. I remember reporting 
 to Government during the great famine of 1877, that there 
 were few years in which the denizens of these Ghat villages 
 did not suffer privations that would be termed famine in 
 the Deccanl 
 
 I found that in some of these villages, where there was 
 more than one branch of a "Rao" family, they put their 
 grain into a common stock, and lived almost together, 
 most amicably. In others they had either divided the lands 
 
148 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 among themselves, or had divided the ryots; in hardly 
 any case was there any dissension among the co-sharers. 
 The Government revenue was recognised as the first liability, 
 and it was, as a rule, paid with exemplary punctuality. 
 The vice of drunkenness was unknown — indeed, there were 
 no liquor shops. Such a thing as civil process was unheard 
 of. There were no criminal classes, and property of every 
 kind was safe. Occasionally, however, there was a boun- 
 dary dispute between one village and another, when a free 
 fight would occur, in which the ''koiti" or bill-hook was 
 sometimes used with fatal effect. Otherwise the people 
 were peaceable and law-abiding in a remarkable degree. I 
 remember only one dreadful tragedy, which I will relate. 
 It occurred in one of the largest villages I camped in; 
 Dhamansee was, I think, its name. When I arrived the 
 wedding of the eldest son of the senior ''Rao" was being 
 celebrated with much rejoicing. There were two ''Raos", 
 brothers, who owned the village, both old men who had 
 in their youth served in Sindia's army. They lived together 
 in the principal house in the village, and between them 
 performed such duties as appertained to the office of police 
 ** karbharee" or patell. In those days, I may mention, the police 
 patells (headmen) in the Konkan received no remuneration 
 whatever, and it was a matter of course for the head or 
 heads of the village to hold the office. Ramajee Rao, the 
 bridegroom, was a strapping young fellow of about four 
 and twenty, already a naique at Gwalior, whence he had 
 obtained long furlough to marry a girl of about fifteen 
 
A DOMESTIC TRAGEDY. 149 
 
 years of age belonging to a neighbouring good family. 
 His father and uncle were delighted at the match; the 
 villagers kept high festival, and I was right glad to get 
 away from the incessant din of the tom-toms and the bray 
 of the ''shingaras" (long curly horns). Shortly afterwards 
 I was transferred to the southern part of the district, and 
 having to come up to head-quarters to give evidence in a 
 Sessions case, I learnt to my horror that young Ramajee 
 Rao was to be tried for the murder of his wife! 
 
 It came about in this way. The newly married couple 
 resided as a matter of course in the family dwelling at 
 Dhamansee till the time came for him to rejoin his regiment 
 at Gwalior. Katurally he wanted to take his wife with him, 
 but her parents, on the other hand, wished her to return 
 to them for a time. The girl herself wanted to go with 
 Ramajee Rao, but was over-persuaded by her mother, and 
 refused. Ramajee Rao became incensed, and on one or two 
 occasions chastised her somewhat brutally. His father and 
 uncle — who had till then taken his part, then turned against 
 him, and at almost the last moment it was decided in 
 family conclave that the girl should return with her parents 
 to her own village on the following morning, and that 
 Ramajee Rao should return alone to Gwalior. Ramajee Rao 
 seemingly was pacified. He and his wife retired as usual 
 to sleep in an inner chamber, while the father and uncle 
 rolled themselves up in the verandah. In the middle of 
 the night the father was awakened by some curious noises 
 in the inner room. CaUing out and receiving.no answer, 
 
150 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 he groped his way into the room, and felt himself kicked, 
 as it were, in the face. His shouts brought in his brother 
 and the household, with lights, when the almost lifeless body 
 of Ramajee Rao was found suspended to a beam. He was 
 promptly cut down, and with much difficulty resuscitated. 
 His first ejaculations led the bystanders to look for his 
 young wife, whose existence had been quite forgotten during 
 the excitement. She was found in a corner of the room, stone 
 dead, with protruding eyes and tongue, having evidently 
 been strangled by Ramajee Rao before he hanged himself. 
 
 In nine such cases out of ten I venture to affirm that 
 the first thoughts of the relatives would be to hush the 
 matter up if possible. The brave old father and the uncle, 
 however, never hesitated for a moment; they bound 
 Ramajee Rao hand and foot; the old uncle called two 
 Mhars and set off then and there for a ten miles' trudge 
 to report the occurrence at the nearest police post, while 
 the old father sat him down and kept guard over his son 
 till the police came and took charge of him 1 
 
 I could not bring myself to hear the trial, but Mr. Claude 
 Erskine, the Judge who tried it, and was deeply affected, 
 afterwards told me that he never witnessed anything like 
 the fortitude with which those two grand old fellows gave their 
 evidence. A death sentence was passed of course, but the 
 Sudder Court mercifully commuted it to transportation for Hfe. 
 
 The incident will serve to show the kind of stuff of 
 which these fine old Mahrattas are made. I much fear 
 that what with Revenue Survey Settlements, Forest Demar- 
 
SIWAJEE'S MAWULLEES CIVILISED. 153 
 
 cations, Civil Procedure Codes, Khotee and Ryots Protection 
 Associations, to say nothing of vakils, liquor shops, and 
 moneylenders, the Arcadian state, which I have attempted 
 to depict has long since disappeared. 
 
 THE MAHRATTAS OF THE GHAUT — MAHTA AND THE 
 MAWULS — " GHATTEES ". 
 
 These are undoubtedly the descendants of Siwajee's redoubt- 
 able Mawullees — of medium height, well-knit powerful frames, 
 they are capable of incredible and sustained exertion. For 
 many years they have thrown away the sword and devoted 
 themselves to the more peaceful pursuits of civilisation. 
 They worked splendidly in large gangs on the tunnels, rock 
 cuttings, and viaducts on the Bhore Ghaut Railway Incline. 
 Thence they migrated almost in a body to Bombay to the 
 reclamation and dock works. It was marvellous to see 
 with what ease and skill they transported and placed in 
 situ the huge granite blocks for the dock sills and gates. They 
 are among the best labourers in the world. As they work 
 hard they live well — generally in messes of ten or twenty — 
 and devour vast quantities of mutton and fish. They drink 
 hard of course, and their innate fierceness breaks out in 
 their quarrels over their cups. Earning the highest wages 
 of unskilled labour, they have no inclination to return to 
 their mountain homes, where want would soon drive them 
 to violent lives. Many of them have risen to be wealthy 
 sub-contractors on public works — of these a few reside in 
 Poona. All bear a character for integrity and fairness in 
 
154 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 their dealings. It has been a wonderful reclamation of a 
 turbulent, high-spirited, absolutely fearless race, to the paths 
 of peace, and respect for law and authority. 
 
 THE MAHRATTAS OF THE PLAINS. 
 
 The typical Mahratta of the "Desh" or plains of the 
 Deccan is the Patell or hereditary headman of his village — 
 the large farmer and land-holder — a breeder of good horses — 
 vying with his neighbours in rearing fine horned cattle. 
 Centuries of misrule under governments constantly changing — 
 centuries of oppression and anarchy — have not spoilt him 
 or weakened his influence, which is usually exercised for 
 good. No other country can show a peasantry so well 
 controlled by hereditary village petty magistrates, and that 
 at an almost nominal cost — in no other country are the 
 government dues so easily or so punctually collected. This 
 is all the work of the Muccadum or officiating police and 
 revenue headmen, many of whom are now entrusted with 
 extended magisterial powers, and exercise them at least as 
 well as the majority of the unpaid magistracy in English 
 rural districts. Education, it is true, has made slow progress 
 among the ''Desh" Mahrattas, but this has not been so 
 much their fault as the result of Brahmin efforts to prevent 
 it. What progress has been made has at any rate been 
 sound and healthy, and tended to the better administration 
 of the country-side. Meantime many of the oldest families 
 are represented, many have gained distinction, in the army, 
 both horse and foot, and all are faithful to their salt. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE KONKANEE MUSSULMAN. 
 
 The Konkan Mahommedanee occasionally settles in the 
 Deccan; he is to be found at Poona, but is to be seen 
 at his best in a comparatively small region, to wit, the 
 Khed and DapooHe Talukas, sub-districts of Ratnagiri. There 
 will be found a few small clusters of villages, situate not 
 only" on the borders of the Jogbarree and Washistee rivers, 
 but lying well inland also, which, with the exception of 
 just enough Mahratta cultivators to carry on farm labour, 
 and a few Mhars to act as watchmen, guides and mes- 
 sengers, are entirely peopled by Mahommedans, who at once 
 impress the observer as worthy of special study. Their 
 dress, to begin with, .is remarkable, inasmuch as they sur- 
 mount the usual Mahommedan jacket, shirt and pyjamas, 
 with a large Brahminical turban, casting a scarf or shawl 
 round their necks, very much in the fashion of that worn 
 by Brahmins in gala dress. Somehow the costume, incon- 
 gruous as it may appear from this description, goes exceed- 
 ingly well with the grave demeanour, handsome features, 
 and dignified bearing of the wearers. They are usually 
 rather above the average height and always well built, 
 with small, well-proportioned hands and feet ; their profiles 
 
156 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 are clear cut, the nose generally aquiline ; full frank eyes, 
 and massive foreheads; the whole betokening their descent 
 from the best Mahommedan blood in Northern India. Their 
 presence as superior landowners in this out-of-the-way part 
 of Western India, is very difficult to account for ; but prob- 
 
 THE KONKANEE MUSSULMAN. 
 
 ably their ancestors received grants of their lands for services 
 performed during the Mogul and Beejapur dynasties. Judging 
 from the number of ruined mosques and '* Peer's" (saint's) 
 tombs scattered about, there must have been rather a large 
 Mahommedan population in that neighbourhood at some time 
 
KONKANEE MAHOMMEDANS. 157 
 
 or other before the Peishwa's raj. Large numbers of them, 
 however, abandoned their lands and villages as they became 
 surrounded by Brahmin and Mahratta Khotes. "^ A few of 
 the wealthier of the best old famiHes only remain now, and 
 many of these are dying out or have been driven by adverse 
 circumstances to seek a livelihood elsewhere. Mahommedans 
 are invariably kind and liberal landlords, but they are 
 shockingly bad farmers and cultivators, and their personal 
 expenditure is lavish and extravagant compared with that 
 of their Hindoo neighbours. As a natural consequence, 
 they fall an easy prey to local usurers, who are the real 
 owners of most of their villages now. 
 
 Great numbers of these Konkanee Mahommedans flocked to 
 the service of the British Government during the settlement 
 of the Konkan after the overthrow of the Peishwa : they 
 were largely employed in the Customs Department, and 
 many of the first Mamlutdars f and Mahalkarees were 
 taken from the old Mahommedan families at and near Bankote 
 and the Khed subdistrict, where the Parkars, Potricks, Saja- 
 nees and others were very influential and very deservedly 
 respected. The chief revenue official in 1820 was a splendid 
 old gentleman, the head of the Parkars of Bankote, who, 
 despite his advanced age, insisted on leading the stormers 
 at the capture of several forts by Colonel Prothero and 
 other commanders. Several of his descendants rose to high 
 official rank in various departments, and one of them was, 
 
 * Middlemen or Farmers of Revenue, 
 t Subdistrict Officers. 
 
158 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 very many years ago, State Karbharee § to the late Nawab 
 of Jinjira. When I first went to Ratnagiri in 1859 — 60, 
 Mr. Turquand's "chitnis" (secretary) was a Mahommedan : 
 there were also two Mahommedan Mamlutdars and several 
 Mahalkarees. Gradually the Brahmins have shouldered them 
 out of every post : impoverished and apathetic, their families 
 have been indifferently educated, so that they have never 
 qualified for Government service, except in the lower grades 
 of the police. ' Tis a thousand pities I For the Konkanee 
 Mussalman is intelligent, resolute, faithful, and thoroughly to 
 be depended upon in an emergency. 
 
 Somewhere about 1850 there was in the Revenue Depart- 
 ment a very promising young Mahommedan gentleman, whom, 
 for certain reasons, I will call Abdul Farreed. He belonged 
 to one of the best of the old families I have alluded to 
 above. He had entered the Revenue Department as a mere 
 Karkun or clerk, and forced his way upwards by dint of 
 sheer ability and energy till he was made a Mahalkaree. At 
 that time there was a great scarcity of food grains in the Kon- 
 kan, a scarcity such as in the present day would be called a 
 famine, and Khan Saheb Abdul Farreed greatly distinguished 
 himself by the efforts he made to obtain food through his 
 relatives and friends in Bombay, and to distribute supphes 
 to the poor people of all creeds and castes in his jurisdiction ; 
 so much so, that he received on more than one occasion 
 the thanks of the Government. It was a common thing 
 then for parents reduced nearly to starvation to expose 
 
 § Prime Minister. 
 
ABDUL FARREED'S MISFORTUNES. 159 
 
 their infants in spots where they would be soon discovered, 
 in the hope that some charitable persons might find, take 
 charge of, and rear them. In this way a little girl about 
 eighteen months old was found at the roadside in Abdul 
 Farreed's jurisdiction, and brought to him. He took the 
 infant into his family, and his women folk cherished and 
 brought her up. Fearful that his conduct might some day 
 be misrepresented, he reported to his official superior what 
 he had done, and that it was his intention to bring the 
 child up as a member of his own family. He received 
 in due course the commendations of Government for his 
 charity. Time passed, and he was promoted to a '* Mamlat " 
 (subdistrict) at a distance. There he incurred the enmity 
 of the Brahmins, who lost no opportunity of trying to 
 injure him in the eyes of the Collector and the Magistrate. 
 Anonymous letters accusing him of every crime under the 
 sun poured in. Conspiracies innumerable were got up 
 against him, but Khan Saheb Abdul Farreed, though he 
 continued to triumph over his enemies, and retained the 
 full confidence of his chief, became disheartened. His request 
 to be transferred to some other district where he hoped 
 to encounter less hostility, was refused. Abdul Farreed, 
 who had some private means, thereupon tendered his 
 resignation on the ground that he could not hope to prevail 
 always against the secret machinations of his enemies. 
 His chief refused to accept his resignation, and with much 
 difficulty persuaded him to stay on and not give his 
 detractors the satisfaction of having driven him away. 
 
i6o OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 This chief not long afterwards left the District, and was 
 succeeded by a gentleman who knew not Abdul. This was 
 the opportunity his enemies desired. In a marvellously 
 short time they concocted a diabolical conspiracy, with 
 the aid of some of his own Mahratta peons. The body 
 of a Brahmin widow was found in a well, and Khan Saheb 
 Abdul Farreed was anonymously accused of having had her 
 brought to his house by certain peons, and finally, after 
 violating her, of having with the aid of other peons, caused 
 her to be thrown into the well. He was suspended from 
 office, committed to the Sessions, and after lying in jail 
 for nearly six months, was arraigned for murder. He had 
 not the means to engage an English barrister — in fact, 
 there were very few in those days who would undertake 
 a case out of Bombay. He would not trust any Brahmin 
 pleader, and there was no Mahommedan Vakil, so he defended 
 himself. After a long and patient trial, in which he very 
 ably exposed certain discrepancies in the evidence of the 
 peons, he was acquitted. He would no doubt have been 
 reinstated had he cared to petition, but he felt himself to 
 be hopelessly disgraced, and preferred to retire to his native 
 village, where he shut himself up and lived a life of complete 
 seclusion with his family, rarely permitting even his brothers 
 to visit him. 
 
 As a matter of fact Abdul Farreed had had no acquaintance 
 whatever with the family of the deceased widow, whom he 
 had never even seen ; and circumstances afterwards came 
 to light which proved beyond doubt that the unfortunate 
 
THE BRAHMIN CONSPIRACY COLLAPSES. i6i 
 
 woman when drawing water from the well had accident- 
 ally overbalanced herself, fallen in, and been drowned. 
 This collapse of the case against Abdul Farreed, so far 
 from discouraging his enemies, emboldened them to enter 
 upon a fresh system of persecution. Abdul Farreed was 
 pursued into his retirement a hundred and fifty miles distant, 
 by continuous accusations of corruption and malversation 
 of public monies, in all of which, however, he came out 
 triumphant. Then, for about two years, with the exception 
 of scurrilous anonymous letters to himself and petitions to 
 the magisterial authorities— none of which were ever traced 
 to their source — Abdul Farreed was left in comparative 
 peace. He built a wall round his property to secure 
 privacy, and devoted himself to the observances of religion, 
 and to horticulture, of which he was passionately fond. 
 He also devoted much of his leisure time to preparing a 
 series of notes on the subjugation of the Konkan, which 
 would have been of great value had they ever seen the light. 
 In the meantime the little waif, whom he had charitably 
 taken into his family some years before, arrived at a 
 marriageable age. She had been named *'Khatiza", had 
 been cherished and educated in his Zenana, and taught 
 to regard him as her father. It was known among the 
 Mahommedan gentry throughout the country-side and in the 
 neighbouring Mahommedan State of Habsan, that he was 
 trying to obtain a suitable husband for her, and was pre- 
 pared to give her a very handsome dowry, considering 
 what his own means were. It would be difficult, one would 
 
i62 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 have thought, to distort his admirable behaviour in regard 
 to this poor child into a ground for accusing him of any- 
 fresh crime ; but his enemies were as unscrupulous as they 
 were remorseless. They had, of course, made themselves 
 fully acquainted with his early history, in the hope of find- 
 ing some vulnerable point on which they might attack him, 
 and they knew of the incident of the discovery of the in- 
 fant girl Khatiza, and of her having been adopted into 
 Abdul Farreed's family. 
 
 So long as she was a child there was nothing that he 
 could be accused of in regard to her; but it was different 
 when she arrived at maturity. They could then — and in 
 their diabolical hatred of him they did — make all kinds of 
 infernal suggestions. Anonymous letters were constantly 
 received by the authorities warning them that a fresh and 
 terrible tragedy was impending at Abdul Farreed's house : 
 that he had given way to drink; that he had evil designs 
 on Khatiza ; that she was only saved from his violence by 
 the ladies of his own Zenana, who shielded and protected 
 her; that these ladies sought to place her with one of his 
 elder brothers for safety, "lest there should be a repetition 
 of his former crime," but that they could not break through 
 the restrictions with which he had surrounded his prison- 
 like house. 
 
 The Magistrate was besought to surround and search 
 the house, to summon the ladies, and take their evidence, 
 to release Khatiza at all hazards : the writers knowing that 
 no greater indignity could be offered to a Mahommedan 
 
RENEWED BRAHMIN DEVILRIES. 163 
 
 gentleman than the searching of his house, or the summon- 
 ing of his womankind for any purpose. Needless to say 
 that these anonymous communications were treated with 
 contempt, though they were filed, and enquiries made in 
 the hope of tracing the writers. 
 
 I myself received, month after month, documents of this 
 kind, and having struck up a warm friendship with Abdul 
 Farreed's eldest brother, consulted with him as to the best 
 mode of terminating once and for ever this particular form 
 of persecution. Mahomed Farreed was advanced in life, a 
 man renowned for his blameless life ; he had always shown 
 the greatest sympathy for his younger brother, who, how- 
 ever, had repulsed all his advances. After many consult- 
 ations it was agreed between us that there was but one 
 way of checkmating Abdul Farreed's enemies, so far at 
 least as the insinuations regarding Khatiza were concerned. 
 Abdul must be persuaded to let her leave his house and 
 be placed under Mahomed's protection till she was married, 
 as it was hoped she soon would be. My friend Mahomed 
 tried in vain to induce his younger brother to assent, telling 
 him of the interest I took in the matter and my object; 
 he showed Abdul also some of the vile letters I had received, 
 but these only made him more obdurate. Finally, I resolved 
 on making an attempt to see Abdul myself, and not long 
 afterwards I visited the village of the Farreeds, told Maho- 
 med what I was about to do, and myself went and asked 
 to see Abdul at his own house. As may be imagined, 
 there was much commotion when I knocked at the gate- 
 
i64 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 way: an ordinary visitor would have been treated very 
 unceremoniously, but I sent in my name with a note from 
 Mahomed, and simply asked to see Abdul for a few moments 
 at the gateway, adding that I should not go away till I 
 did see him. 
 
 After a considerable interval, the gate was opened by 
 as fine a specimen of the Mahommedan race as it has ever 
 been my good fortune to see. Nearly six feet high, and 
 broad in proportion, erect in carriage, with a long beard 
 that fell nearly to his waist, clear-cut but massive features, 
 with intelligent eyes, and an expression in them of deep 
 despair, yet of resignation : it was impossible to associate 
 such a man with violence or depravity. A few hurried 
 words passed between us: I apologising for my intrusion, 
 and striving to excuse it — he, with the tears streaming 
 down his face, trying to maintain a qalm appearance, 
 while in broken words he said, " I never thought to see a 
 Saheb's face again." We seemed to take to each other 
 at once. With all the grace and dignity which distinguish 
 a well-born Mahommedan, he asked me into his house, 
 into a handsomely furnished room, fitted as a library, 
 where for nearly two hours we discussed his past history 
 and most unfortunate position. I told him that his brother 
 was the most intimate native friend I possessed — that 
 I had made it my business to master all the details 
 of the infamous conspiracy of which he had been a 
 victim, in the hopes of being able by some means or 
 other to reach the authors of it. I recounted to him the 
 
ABDUL FARREED PARTS WITH KHATIZA. 167 
 
 hideous case of Vinayek Deo, the ** would-be parricide," 
 which I have published separately, ^ and which I had just 
 before disposed of. I impressed upon him the great 
 importance, for the sake of his family, of his coming out 
 again into the world and showing his enemies that they 
 had not utterly broken him down; but it was all of no 
 avail, so far as his own personal feeling was concerned. 
 He persisted that he was a broken-hearted man, hopelessly 
 disgraced in the eyes of the world, and all he desired was 
 to be permitted to die in peace. I then gradually brought 
 the conversation to the question of the girl Khatiza, told 
 him what his enemies were insinuating about her and him, 
 and suggested that the one way to stop these attacks, and, 
 above all, to protect her fair fame, was to place her in his 
 brother Mahomed's family and let her be thence married. 
 He was deeply moved, declaring that the child was to him 
 in truth a daughter (he was, I may mention, childless). He 
 went out and brought her in to see me — a bright-eyed, 
 delicate-looking child of about thirteen years of age appeared, 
 whose deep filial affection for him was apparent in every 
 gesture. When she had gone he told me he would follow 
 the advice given by his brother and myself, and would 
 lose no time in placing Khatiza under the latter's protection. 
 Mahomed, who lived close by, was sent for, and in my 
 presence accepted the trust, and in the course of a few 
 days the girl was installed in his house, from which in 
 the course of a few months she was well married to a 
 
 * "Reminiscences of an Indian Police Official," Chapter I. 
 
i68 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 notable in the Habsan State. In the meantime we decided 
 that the Farreed family should offer a large reward (five 
 hundred rupees I think was the sum) for any information 
 that would lead to the discovery of the writers of the 
 latest anonymous letters. The chief Magistrate's consent 
 was obtained to my officially publishing the notification. 
 Of course we had little hope that any reward would have 
 results, but at any rate the notification showed that the 
 authorities were in earnest, and that it would no longer be 
 of any use to send anonymous letters about Abdul Farreed, 
 while Khatiza being no longer under his roof there could 
 be no foundation for fresh accusations. I frequently visited 
 Abdul Farreed afterwards, and for several years afterwards, 
 when I had left the District, we kept up a correspondence. 
 When he was dying, some twelve years ago, he sent me a 
 farewell message, telling me that, ''thanks to me," he should 
 die in peace. I may mention that when in great affliction 
 about nine years ago, I received a charmingly sympathetic 
 letter from Khatiza, who is the happy mother of a large 
 family. 
 
 The description I have above given of the character of 
 the Konkanee Mussulman appHes fairly well to those settled 
 in the Deccan, but I deal with the race very fully in the 
 two chapters that follow. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE DECCANEE MUSSULMAN; THE DECCAN — ACTUAL 
 AND POSSIBLE. 
 
 A Study in the Famine Question. — Part I. 
 
 I TAKE for my text the remarkable article on Cyprus 
 by Mr. Patrick Geddes, which appears in The Contemporary 
 Review for month of June last. 
 
 I wonder how many Anglo-Indian officials have taken the 
 trouble to glance through it, much more to study and apply 
 it to the unhappy arid zone, to the miserable population now 
 starving in it, kept alive only by the exertion of a humane 
 Government and the lavish generosity of the British Public. 
 
 Most Anglo-Indian students of contemporary literature 
 especially those who, like myself, had to do with the 
 Famine of 1877 — 78 and the Locust Plague that followed — 
 will probably have pished and pshawed testily as they 
 came to Mr. Geddes' thoughtful paper; for they loathe — not 
 without reason — the very name of Cyprus, associated as 
 it is in their minds with locust driving, locust beans, carob 
 seed, and the cultivation of mulberry trees for the revival 
 of silk-worm breeding and silk manufacture. "Can anything 
 good, or useful, or practical come out of Cyprus?" they 
 say, as they skip the article. Confound historic Paphos! 
 
 n 
 
170 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 *'Did they (the Secretary of State for India in Council, 
 Men entendii) not send us a youthful expert from the 
 Island to teach us how to scratch up locust eggs — to 
 circumvent the wily, agile ''hoppers" before they got their 
 wings, with trenches and sticky screens — to beat them down 
 by myriads ere their wings had strength for flight — to 
 
 DECCANEE MUSSULMAN GENTLEMEN. 
 
 drive ofl" the swarms of full-grown insects when they settled, 
 on sexual pleasures intent, on the boughs of trees, with 
 kettledrums, tom-toms, pipes, shawms, dulcimers and every 
 kind of music? Were we not also told to take example 
 from the Wadhars, Mhars and Mangs * of the Southern 
 Maratha Country, and from the Katkarees and forest tribes 
 
 * Low-caste tribes. 
 
"CONFOUND CYPRUS!" 171 
 
 of the Konkan who ate and fattened on locust pastry- 
 dried by the sun's powerful rays. 
 
 ''Behold! it is meat for an Emperor's table," we were 
 told — "all the same, like shrimp paste!" Did not our expert 
 worry us with instructions innumerable? Did not a credulous 
 Government applaud, reel off yards of Government Resolu- 
 tions, dated from Bombay Castle, and revel in teaching 
 their intellectual and more experienced equals, if not superiors, 
 their favourite game of "How to suck eggs"? Did not the 
 young expert settle with other official locusts at Maha- 
 baleshwur till domestic affliction drove him to Europe, having 
 taught us — nothing? And then a strong east wind blew 
 all night, as in the time of Pharoah the stiff-necked, and 
 our infernal locust pests were swept into the Indian Ocean ! 
 May the devil so fly away with their successors! and with 
 Accountants-General and the pestilential Shylock Department, 
 who. instantly began to pester us with objections to this or 
 that item of an expenditure which we in our hearts knew 
 to be futile, but which His Excellency the Governor in 
 Council hounded us on to incur ! Again we say, " Confound 
 Cyprus! we'll have no more on't." 
 
 Gently, my irate friends ; "be asy " — as Pat says. 
 Remember Kane O'Hara's appeal to the shrieking beldame 1 
 
 "Pray, reader, please to moderate the rancour of your tongue. 
 
 Why flash those sparks of fury from your eyes ? 
 
 Remember when the judgment's weak, the prejudice is strong!" 
 
 Behold there is not one single word about the L. Ferox horri- 
 diis in all the Geddes article ! Cest moiquile dit—VwQ read it I 
 
172 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 The paper you will find contains sentence after sentence 
 strictly, marvellously applicable to the arid zone of the 
 Deccan in which all District Officials are now, as in 1877 — jZ, 
 wearing out their hearts, destroying their health, shortening 
 their Hves, with no hope of receiving commendation, inspired 
 only by duty and the dictates of humanity. In so far as 
 their efforts may be successful, all these devoted servants of 
 their Queen and country, all these true, best friends of the 
 suffering peoples committed to their charge, know well that 
 the credit will be monopolised by His Excellency the Governor, 
 his Members in Council and any Secretariat understrappers 
 possessed of enough impudence to push themselves for- 
 ward—not one of the whole crew from H. E. downwards 
 having had actual personal famine experience, but nevertheless 
 guarding jealously all channels of communication with the 
 Viceroy and the Secretary of State. 
 
 The paper also contains numerous valuable suggestions, 
 and teems with advice, of which all in authority respon- 
 sible for the management of the present calamity, respon- 
 sible for the expenditure of public money and private 
 subscriptions to the best advantage for the relief of the 
 sufferings of to-day, for the prevention of like calamities 
 in future, should take serious note. 
 
 By a few alterations, a few amendments, and some 
 additions, it is easy to fit the Cypriote coat on the 
 Deccan back; I do not doubt that the talented designer 
 will excuse the use to which I am putting his brilliant gar- 
 ment. Mr. Geddes starts from Larnake to Nicosia : let us 
 
DENUDATION MEANS DESSICATION. 173 
 
 start from Poona to Beejapoor and traverse by road and 
 rail Maharashtra's arid zone. En route I 
 
 Up from Poona, the present capital of Maharashtra, to 
 Beejapoor, the ancient Mogul capital, the journey most of 
 the way is more desolate than beautiful. Yet before hur- 
 rying on, let us pause for a moment to interpret it. This 
 desolation is the work not of nature but of man. That 
 brazen, pitiless sky — that undulating plain o'er which ever 
 and anon sweep fierce dust-storms in hideous mockery — 
 that dry torrent bed — these barren hill- slopes — these skele- 
 ton hills : all go back for their explanation to the always 
 wasteful and often wanton destruction of forest growth, 
 which has been the crime of almost every successive race. 
 Nowhere better can we see the lamentable way in which 
 in these once smiling countries man has turned the forces 
 of nature to the destruction of his home. How far the 
 desolation and decadence so manifest in every Deccan 
 District from the Syadrees to the Mogulai, from Belgaum to 
 Khandesh, is the fault of man, how far also a natural 
 process, are questions hard to settle in exact proportion, 
 and still likely to be long under debate; but there is no 
 doubt of the co-operation of both destructive agencies. 
 
 Thus it is no longer a matter of speculation, but of 
 geographical fact, that a comparison of maps and of the 
 
 A 
 
 history of the vast area under the sway of the Adilshahee 
 Dynasty a few hundred years ago, with those of to-day, 
 shows a lamentable shrinking of tillage; vast spaces of 
 what was then good pasture, fair arable or even rich corn 
 
174 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 land, being now represented by noxious acres of spear 
 grass studded with exuberant clumps of poisonous cacti 
 and stunted, profitless acacias and thorns. " How this means 
 for the surrounding regions still hotter winds, still scantier 
 rainfall, need hardly be explained. And though in this 
 climatic change the ancient cycle of Mean years and fat 
 years' is discernible, record and observation alike show 
 how the evil accumulates — the lean ever devouring the fat." 
 How this continuous desiccation of the arid zone of this 
 Presidency reacts and must continue to react on Maha- 
 rashtra, alike in cHmate and in history, would need a volume 
 to follow out, rather than a sentence ; but broadly we may 
 state the thesis that behind the Sirkar's (Government's) 
 prestige, behind the anxious Empire, behind the puzzled 
 politicians and globe-trotters of the hour, behind the dra- 
 matic detail of Famine horrors and attendant epidemics, 
 there is going on now, as of old, the cosmic drama of 
 geologic and cHmatic change. *'We see how the peasant 
 suffers from drought, but we forget that the shepherd suf- 
 fers even more ; we see them both driven from their ancient 
 farms and pastures by the flaming sword of drought, the 
 pitiless arrows of the desert sun. And as men's philosophy 
 is the generalisation of their Hves ; as their religion, their 
 theology, express its ideals, we see how there must needs 
 have arisen in the world two main classes of religious Hfe- 
 theories, active and passive, as well as of life-occupations. 
 We understand better the active Aryan, who would fain 
 react against nature and conquer her, so that for Zoroaster 
 
t 
 
THE CITY OF THE DEAD. 177 
 
 he that plants a tree or digs a well fights with Ormuzd 
 against the desert Ahriman; but we understand better, 
 also the passive submission to destiny of the Oriental reli- 
 gions proper, as the inevitable philosophy of the pastoral 
 Nomad, the resignation of the peasant and the Dhangar 
 (shepherd) overpowered by nature." 
 
 Meantime a new landscape is opening. We have crossed 
 the hilly country, and the great Beejapoor plateau lies 
 around us, with the dome of Sultan Mahmoud's stately 
 tomb towering high above the landscape in solitary grandeur, 
 just within the outer forty-mile circle of the city walls, 
 keeping, as it were, watch and ward over the picturesque 
 ruins of the famous City that was founded, built, flourished 
 and destroyed within two hundred years. A date palm or 
 two, an occasional oasis of '* babul" (acacia) trees lighten 
 the monotonous foreground. All around in the hazy distance 
 crop up chains of strange little flat-topped hills, scarped away 
 from the surrounding plateau. To the east of the squalid 
 modern town, buried and choked in by the largest and 
 most encroaching of the cactus tribe, rises a soHtary 
 conical hill, capped by battlements still standing in excel- 
 lent preservation; at its summit a courtyard containing a 
 handsome **peerstan" or tomb of a Mohammedan ''Peer" or 
 Saint, who first burst on an astonished world in the days 
 of Aurungzebe, a 24 months' posthumous child (so runs the 
 legend), full grown, bearded like a pard, clad in armour, 
 armed to the teeth I Toiling up a long steep flight of steps 
 cut in the solid rock, through two handsome gateways, we 
 
178 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 are received in state by the present Peer-Zadah, or descendant 
 of the Saint, a tall, strikingly distinguished-looking personage 
 with the courteous high-bred mien that marks the high- 
 born Moslem the world over. He cordially permits us 
 to ascend to and make the circuit of the highest battlement, 
 whence we look down on every side on as fair a view as the 
 eye could wish to gaze upon. But 'tis a City of the 
 Dead ! Far away the circle of outer fortifications ; to the 
 West, looking towards distant Satara, the Mahratta Gate 
 commanded by the monster cannon *'Malik-ool-Moolk" * 
 (''The Lord of the World"), mounted on a lofty bastion, 
 pointing toward the Mahratta foe ; to the North, and stretch- 
 ed at our feet, the ruined walls and enclosed gardens of 
 the old Cavalry Suburb, the favourite resort of the nobles 
 in the good old days, studded with tombs of celebrated 
 Commanders of the Faithful, mosques of all sizes and 
 paved praying-places. Eighty thousand horse — history tells 
 us — were oft-times picketed to the north, in the lines within 
 the fortifications, and two hundred and fifty thousand people, 
 warriors, camp-followers, grass-cutters, dancing girls, and 
 musicians, lived a Hfe of reckless dissipation in this suburb 
 of Shahpoor, now overgrown with rank vegetation — with 
 groves of large mangoe trees, countless wild pomegran- 
 ates, guavas, corrinda bushes, date palms and prickly 
 pear. To the East the great Dome looming as if quite 
 close at hand; to the East again, on the horizon, a long 
 low chain of laterite hills which form the frontier of the 
 
 * See Plate, page 185. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE DHON. 
 
 179 
 
 territory of the Nizam of Hyderabad ; to the south-east, 
 far bey nd the outer walls, the fertile valley of the river 
 Dhon, which, tradition alleges, supplied the city of a miUion 
 inhabitants with food grain in such abundance that a 
 Mahratta ballad says, "When the Dhon harvest is scanty, 
 who shall eat? When the Dhon is plenteous, who can eat 
 
 THE ASAR MAHAL. 
 
 it?" To the South, below us, the Arkilla or Inner Fortress, 
 encircled by a broad moat — the Sat-Manzla or Seven-storied 
 Palace towering above the battlements — the graceful, ornate 
 '' Roza" (tomb and mosque) of Ibrahim Adil Shah, retired in 
 solitary dignity, to the right, beyond it. Southward again, the 
 outer circle of fortifications, and then the long shallow lake 
 
i8o OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 which in old times amply supplied the City with water 
 under high pressure, so that a grateful fountain spouted 
 before the Jumma Musjid, five miles distant. The glint of 
 the sun's rays on the placid surface dazzles our vision. The 
 broad sheet of water seems to wink in derision, as if to 
 say, ''If ye Kafirs, ye callow Civil Engineers from Cooper's 
 Hill only knew our hidden secrets, the mysteries of our 
 network of subterranean ducts, then would the dead City 
 Hve again and flourish! But ye know not the things 
 belonging to our place, and the Government of India will 
 never give rupees enough to pay the coolies on the 
 works, as pay them now ye mustl — By the sacred hair 
 from the Prophet's beard preserved in Asar Mahal" (the 
 Hall of Mirrors, or Delight) ''over yonder! 'Twas little we 
 Adilshahee Moguls paid for anything in our good old times 1 
 We were 'na sae blatt' — pas si bete, as ye say in Europe." 
 
 Biting our hps, with impatience and vexation, we turn 
 to feast our eyes on the mid-distance with its wealth of 
 stupendous yet graceful tombs of Kings, Mosques, Palaces, 
 Arches, their countless domes and minarets glittering where'er 
 we gaze. City of the Dead 1 we leave you with reluctance. 
 
 At my first visit to the Peer-Zadah, I ascertained that he 
 was in absolute penury, too proud to solicit aid, starving 
 himself to satisfy a host of rapacious usurers, who in his 
 father's time had gradually got hold of all the hereditary 
 lands and allowances of the family. My informant was the 
 hereditary Karkoon or Secretary to the ^^ Peerstdn'\ an 
 aged Brahmin devoted to his master, and smarting under 
 
"NOW IS THE APPOINTED TIME." i8i 
 
 the indignities heaped upon his honoured Chief by local 
 Shylocks. He convinced me that with a comparatively 
 small sum of ready money, all claims could be bought up, 
 or compromised, and the lands being freed, the income from 
 them would suffice in a few years, not only to pay off the 
 loan, but to leave a sufficient income for the support of 
 the Peer-Zadah in dignity and comfort. Accordingly I sub- 
 mitted a proposal to the Government of Sir James Fer- 
 guson, who advanced the needful at small interest : the 
 Assistant Collector was directed to superintend the manage- 
 ment of the Estate, and to settle with all creditors; the 
 Peer-Zadah must long ago have been clear of debt. There 
 are hundreds of Mahommedan gentlemen in the Deccan who 
 could be as easily, and who ought to be, similarly succoured. 
 
 From what has preceded, the author would apostrophise 
 the Mahommedan gentlemen of the Deccan somewhat in 
 this fashion. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Deccan ! Fanatics by religion ! Fatalists 
 by creed ! Capable of truly noble and courageous deeds, 
 yet apathetic, slothful and inert when the moment for action 
 arises I Rouse yourselves now! Now is the appointed time 
 to show yourselves superior in nobility and honour, equal 
 in intellect and enterprise to the venomous clique who, 
 taking advantage of your facile, listless character, are raising 
 themselves on your degradation. They are using while they 
 secretly abuse you. 
 
 They taunt you with lack of courage 1 By Allah I 'tis a 
 shameful tale ! Arise I shake off these snakes and trample 
 
i82 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 them to the dust while you appeal to your true friends, 
 the British people, who, however they may lament your faults 
 of fanaticism and weakness, are honestly desirous of seeing 
 you reoccupy your proper position — whose official represent- 
 atives will find the means to help you if you are not too 
 proud to state your wants. Prepare — each family — a schedule 
 of your liabihties and your assets. Keep nothing back. 
 Assemble at Beejapoor and memorialise the ''Sirkar" to 
 adopt for you — as it has for other communities — such mea- 
 sures as may be necessary for your relief from the state of 
 impoverishment in which you have so long, so painfully 
 existed. Then educate your youth to be useful members 
 of society. So shall you resume your honoured place in that 
 Deccan where you have such honourable traditions. 
 
 The Moral for the Government is obvious. A counter- 
 poise to Brahminical influence is needed — you have it, it is 
 ready to your hand. Trace out the old Mahommedan 
 families of the Deccan, and as you have restored the 
 ancient ruined families of Guzarat, as you have helped the 
 Peer-Zadah of Shahpoor, so help them, and restore an 
 ancient aristocracy who shall in any crisis stand you in 
 good stead, whose healthful influence shall be an antidote 
 to Brahminism. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE DECCANEE MUSSULMAN (continued); THE DECCAN— 
 ACTUAL AND POSSIBLE. 
 
 A Study in the Famine Question. — Part 2. 
 
 We have left the "City of the Dead" with reluctance, 
 as I have said above; for nowhere in all Asia better than 
 in Beejapoor can we see the stately Mogul world with its 
 piety and fanaticism, its culture and barbarism, its ambition 
 and heroism ; for nowhere stand nobler mosques and tombs 
 within more skilfully designed, more gallantly defended 
 walls. Nowhere, alas I more clear are the lapsed ideals, 
 the corresponding material squalor of modern life, than in 
 the hideous — where not numerous — hovels of the Deccan 
 village, shrinking within the city walls or in the sordid 
 lanes and shops of the modern, half Mahommedan, half 
 Hindoo townlet spreading without, jumbled up as they are 
 with arches that still spring light and true from noxious 
 undergrowth and prickly pear, as from the Mogul work- 
 man's hands ; and one sees with fresh clearness that archi- 
 tecture is not a function of paper plans, as unrolled by those 
 clerky gentlemen we call architects in the west, for their 
 drilled mechanics to copy, but that the masons themselves 
 
i84 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 built, like bees, without architects, because they were archi- 
 tects, to this day the freemasons of old. There can be 
 few more pleasing sights for any who know and care for 
 traditional craft and individual skill. This arch-building one 
 can see anywhere in Beejapoor. No modern British archi- 
 tect has possessed the genius or the audacity to emulate it. 
 
 We are gradually descending southward from the Beeja- 
 poor plateau as we traverse a desolate tract where the 
 squalor of the villages is almost as closely associated with 
 the prickly pear as Irish poverty with the potato. Leaving 
 this inhospitable belt, we ride for many miles over a friable 
 brown soil, obviously washed down from the naked hills 
 and spurs around, of no great depth at any point, but 
 fairly productive of the coarser food grains. The plain is 
 dotted here and there with rich green oases of garden land, 
 irrigated from wells and quarry holes, sunk with little labour 
 or outlay wherever the village astrologer advised that a 
 boring should be made. At every step we perceive what 
 might have been, what might yet be done; and again, in 
 the countenances and demeanour of the half-starved inhabi- 
 tants we note that with the advance of disforesting and 
 desiccation, of mutual impoverishment, comes on economic 
 ruin. 
 
 A few miles further we encamp in a luxuriant region; 
 fine old mango, babul, banyan trees rear themselves in 
 and around fat arable fields and teeming gardens, grateful 
 for the moisture that cools and nourishes their wide spread- 
 ing roots. Such a place is Hoongoond, where we shall be 
 
X 
 
 U '^ 
 
 ^ oo 
 < t^ 
 
 ^ S 
 
 2 ^. 
 
 H ^ 
 I ^ 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 o 
 o 
 
"IL FAUT CULTIVER SON JARDIN." 187 
 
 taken by the impoverished descendants of a shrewd Mahom- 
 medan gentleman, to a well-shaft, driven to no great depth 
 into solid rock till water was struck — then galleries or tun- 
 nels were driven for hundreds of yards to all points of the 
 compass from the bottom of the shaft walls, and thus an 
 abundant perennial supply of water was obtained. There 
 are many such shafts and galleries in the neighbourhood, 
 we are told, and it is plain that for many square miles 
 there lies beneath the soil a water-bearing — one might al- 
 most term it a water-logged — rock stratum. We note the 
 improved appearance of the villages and hamlets, the com- 
 paratively cheerful demeanour of the people, and perceive 
 that " with water of irrigation goes ever the water of a 
 bettered social individual life, that where there are practic- 
 ally no manufactures, and commerce turns on agricultural 
 output, all reforms must come down to agriculture. So our 
 Eastern question is ultimately an agricultural question I We 
 see more and more clearly with Candide, ^ II faut cultiver 
 son jardin\ " Around our gardens, too, there is ample 
 room for the roaming flock, the half-wild shepherd. But, 
 first of all, we must reopen ruined wells, mend broken 
 cisterns, sink new shafts, drive new galleries into water- 
 bearing strata, invoke the aid, profit by the advice of our 
 Geological Department — not sneer at it and pigeon-hole 
 its papers. ^^ II faut cultiver son jar din I'' 
 
 ''Thus we may read, and, if it may be, write, in silent 
 yet living and spreading symbol, what is so hard to say 
 in these days of futile word and unrest, that the future of 
 
i88 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 the Deccan lies not in the struggle, not in the victorious 
 or beaten isolation of its contrasted races, but in their co- 
 operation as complementary races; not in the conflict, but 
 in the synthesis, of its fragmentary philosophies, in such 
 union of labour and thought as may again literally lead 
 from the ruined well its life-giving waters, and melt also 
 from these frozen reHgions their imprisoned water of Hfe. 
 For wherever at this moment two Easterns are quarrelling 
 in their poverty, four or six or ten might soon be co-oper- 
 ating in wealth and peace. At once the actual cleansing 
 and reopening of the ruined wells of each oasis will demon- 
 strate this; with proportionally trifling outlay the water- 
 supply well-nigh doubles, and with this appear new possi- 
 bilities of fertility and, of course, a corresponding rise of 
 acre-values as well," wherein a wise and liberal Sirkar 
 (state) will benefit exceedingly, the sordid Sowkar (usurer) 
 be discomfited, while the pestilent agitator will be deprived 
 of his lever, the National Congress will shut up shop, the 
 poisonous Deccan Brahmin in his proper degraded position 
 must feed on his own venom and sell his secret printing- 
 press for bread. So shall peace and contentment reign 
 throughout the land, and the prosperity of the multitude 
 advance by leaps and bounds. So mote it be! Viceroys, 
 Proconsuls — ''prancing" or otherwise, Divisional Commis- 
 sioners, hard-working Collectors and Assistant Collectors, 
 toiling with aching hearts, choked with red tape, discour- 
 aged by apathy and pig-headedness in highest quarters: 
 cannot this be compassed? 
 
LET ACRE VALUES RISE. 189 
 
 To you, Ministers of Indian Finance, who hold the purse- 
 strings and guide your Shylock Department, with sardonic 
 smiles, it may be said, Look ahead I Open your eyes 
 bedazed with figures. Hearken to the words of the wise 
 man and deep thinker whose paper I am so freely para- 
 phrasing. "For the purpose of investment even, it is high time 
 to contrast this water-mining, for which hardly any one at 
 present cares, with the gold-mining over which all the world 
 has run mad; time to prove, by actual results, that while 
 the latter is on all fours with the lottery and gambling- 
 house — in which, on the aggregate, the players and the 
 community lose, no matter who here and there may win, 
 and so is socially the least profitable as well as the most 
 demoralising of all great industries, — the former is the most 
 profitable, and that the most steadily and surely so ; the 
 most civilising and humanising also." You preen your 
 feathers when you have floated a new loan favourably, or 
 "converted" an old one. Strive rather to pay off old loans, 
 by cordially encouraging schemes that palpably must lead 
 to a "rise of acre values" and a corresponding rise in 
 land revenue, the backbone of your finance schemes, that 
 will prove preventives of the famines that disconcert all 
 your well-laid plans. So will you at last produce what you 
 have never yet attained to — a Financial Equilibrium. 
 
 To Viceroys, Governors and all Executive and Engineer- 
 ing Officers we will say — " Be not over ambitious ; ponder 
 on these words of experience. Help forward the incipient 
 reaction towards a renewal of ancient, simple and econ- 
 
I90 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 omic irrigation methods, away from undue dependence on 
 gigantic and costly engineering works. ''This reaction is 
 beginning, for instance, to be expressed by CaHfornian or 
 Dakotan irrigation engineers, who, after long dependence 
 on mighty reservoirs and costly dams, on expensive artesian 
 wells, have of late been rediscovering for themseWes that 
 * underflow' on which most of the simple, effective and 
 economical irrigation of antiquity and the Middle Ages 
 was wont to depend in Cyprus and through the East." 
 
 To the present able Secretary of State for India it may 
 be humbly suggested : Send mining geologists to note 
 from village to village throughout the famine- stricken 
 area, who can employ and thus teach its men to clear 
 their own wells, to open out their springs. Send more agri- 
 culturists out, consign new seeds — [not through your Store 
 Department). You Httle know what good has been done 
 in this way before — ^^ II faut cultiver son jar din.' 
 
 " Ask yourself — ' For social health, as for individual health, 
 must not the essential matter be hygiene.? II faut cultiver 
 son jar din. That is the hygiene of Peace.' 
 
 ** Readers 1 there is no novelty in these views. Of such 
 statements there is no lack, but one may suffice; one tra- 
 ditionally credited to a long and full life spent in its vortex, 
 a life rich in observation and deep in feeling, and whose 
 experience of action ranged from shepherd to cultivator, 
 from victor to fugitive, from servant to king. Hear, then, 
 the antithesis of paradise lost and paradise regained. 
 
THE HYGIENE OF PEACE. 191 
 
 I. 
 
 "He turneth rivers into a wilderness and the water-springs 
 
 into dry ground, 
 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that 
 
 dwell therein. 
 
 II. 
 
 "He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry 
 ground into water-springs, 
 
 And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may pre- 
 pare a city for habitation; 
 
 And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield 
 fruits of increase." * 
 
 * "Contemporary Review" — ^June 1897. Article on " Cyprus" by Mr. Patrick 
 Geddes. 
 
CHAPTERXVI. 
 
 THE TRADING CLASSES —THE AGRICULTURAL AND 
 RURAL, THE ARTIZAN CASTES. 
 
 The trading classes naturally include Hindoos from all 
 parts of Hindostan : bankers and money-lenders, all known 
 as Sowkars, who may be Brahmins of any sect ; or Goozurs 
 and Wanees from Guzarat; or Bhattias from Kutch; or 
 Marwarrees from Kathiawar and Rajpootana. All these 
 undertake ordinary banking business; all deal in agricultural 
 produce ; all lend money on usury ; of all, worse even than 
 the Marwarree, the Brahmin is the closest-fisted, the greatest 
 skinflint, while he is the most timid of traders. 
 
 The Brahmin Sowkar finds time to engage in a hundred 
 intrigues, domestic, legal, social and political, while he 
 retains a merciless grip on the luckless peasantry. 
 
 The Goozar or Wdnee is absorbed in money-getting — 
 he cares naught for politics — he goes to law to recover 
 money or money's worth — he intrigues to make money and 
 for nothing else — he has some bowels of compassion for 
 his creditor, and is proverbially charitable. 
 
 The Bhattia is usually the representative or agent of 
 some large wholesale firm in Bombay, and has again his 
 
GOOZURS, BHATTIAS AND WANEES. 193 
 
 petty agents, brokers and ''dulals" buying up produce or 
 ''placing" bales of piece-goods with retail dealers in every town 
 and hamlet. He is absolutely, blissfully ignorant of politics — 
 his eye is fixed on the markets ; he rarely troubles the 
 Civil Courts, seeing no wisdom in throwing good money 
 
 THE WANEE OR GOOZUR. 
 
 after bad. He too is very charitable, usually kind, often 
 indeed generous, to his employes. 
 
 The Marwarree is a curious combination of Shylock and 
 Harpagon. All is fish that comes to his net - he is a bold 
 speculator and will venture his money to people of all 
 races and castes, long after other Sowkars have refused 
 
 13 
 
194 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 credit; he exacts his pound of flesh to the last shred and 
 is therefore a great patron of the law Courts; he takes 
 care to be well informed of the trend of public feehng, 
 
 THE MARWARREE. 
 
 not that he cares a jot for politics, but because well he 
 knows that should disturbances arise, he will probably be 
 the first to suffer in person as well as property. Marwarrees 
 
MARWARREES ALIEN USURERS. 
 
 195 
 
 are really aliens of Poona and Maharashtra because they 
 have their homes in Marwar Rajpootana and Central India, 
 and take or remit their savings to those homes. They 
 are traders, some of them on a large scale, in cloth and 
 grain, in gold and silver, but the majority of them are 
 usurers pure and simple. 
 
 THE KHOJAH. 
 
 Taken as usurers they are not bad fellows — at least they 
 compare favourably with your English Kirkwoods et hoc 
 genus: they usually syndicate their loans, especially when 
 their client is a European : they never charge less than 24 
 per cent, often 60 per cent, and they usually get paid. 
 They do pawnbroking on a small scale, and will speculate 
 
196 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 in anything that promises a quick return. They are not 
 charitable, though they have been known to be guilty (from 
 their point of view) of very generous dealings, especially 
 towards Englishmen. 
 
 In common with all traders they rub their noses, remember- 
 ing how in the good old days Raghojee Bhangria and 
 
 THE BORAH. 
 
 Bhagojee Naique used to send them by scores to the 
 hospital with no nasal organs worth mentioning. 
 
 THE SHOPKEEPING CLASSES. 
 
 Shopkeepers are shopkeepers all the world over, but in 
 the City of Poona it is remarkable how Mahommedans, 
 
SHOPKEEPERS OF ALL KINDS. igy 
 
 and Hindoos, Khojahs and Borahs, " Moochees" (Shoemakers), 
 Chambars or Curriers, Katiks or Mahratta Butchers, Sweetmeat 
 sellers and petty grocers, work amicably together. Above 
 all, the hardware dealers have flourished exceedingly during 
 the past 40 years. The writer remembers the time that the 
 only hardware retail shop in the Western Presidency was 
 that of Mr. Walker, the well-known "Tom Cringle" of 
 Bombay journaHsm. Now there must be at least fifty 
 Khojah and Borah firms with their own travellers on the 
 continent, so articles ''made in Germany" are very 
 numerous, cheap — and flimsy. These followers of the Prophet 
 are very charitable to their own people — but the charity 
 of the Wanee, Bhattia and Goozar shopkeeper is extended 
 to all classes. 
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL AND LABOURING AND RURAL CASTES. 
 THE 'KOONBEES', 'RYOTS', OR CULTIVATORS. 
 
 Megasthenes, a writer quoted by Strabo and Arrian, 
 who was an attache of Syburtius, Governor of the Ara- 
 chosii on the Saraswatee more than three thousand years 
 ago, described the husbandman or Koonbee "as amongst 
 the most numerous and mildest of all classes, who do not 
 resort to cities, or take part in public tumults. It there- 
 fore frequently happens that at the same time and in the 
 same part of the country, one body of men are in battle 
 array, while others are ploughing and digging in security, 
 leaving the soldiers to protect them. The' whole of the 
 territory belongs to the King (or ruler) ; the husbandmen 
 
198 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 cultivate it, on paying three-fourths of the produce." * This 
 description holds good now, except that the Koonbee only 
 pays one-sixth of the produce (or its value) to the State, 
 and that he does now sometimes enlist in the army and 
 engage as labourer in mills and other industries. 
 
 Koonbees usually do not marry till some time after 
 puberty : their attachment to their homes, to their own 
 particular fields is proverbial : whatever a Koonbee away 
 from home can manage to scrape together he brings or 
 sends to his family in his native village. Frugal, industri- 
 ous, patient and long-suffering, he toils from dawn to sun- 
 down in all weathers, while his women-folk grind the poorest 
 grains, bake the coarse cakes, collect sticks, manufacture 
 cow-dung cakes for fuel, and fetch water all the day 
 long from year's end to year's end, only visiting the towns 
 or cities on market days to dispose of their surplus pro- 
 duce, to buy or sell a bullock, to pay the Sowkar (or 
 money-lender) or to pass another bond. Then the wife 
 buys perhaps a cheap ''sarree" or petticoat, perhaps a 
 few glass bangles or brass ornaments, may be a scarlet 
 jacket for little Bappoo making dirt pies at home. There 
 is mirth and contentment that night in the dearly loved 
 mud hut, unless indeed — as now too often happens — the 
 husband has taken a little too much "phenee" (native 
 liquor), when the Bye's (wife's) shrill voice will be heard 
 in objurgation till the neighbours make peace between the 
 hapless pair. 
 
CULTIVATORS ARE NOT DISCONTENTED. 199 
 
 On the whole the Koonbees, if they do not Hve a very 
 eventful life, if their household property consists only of 
 a few brass pots and pans, their furniture one "charpoy" 
 or four-footed cot, a couple of low stools and perhaps a 
 swing in the verandah, pass fairly happy — certainly con- 
 
 THE KOONBEE OR RYOT, IN THE RAINS. 
 
 tented — lives. Their wants are very small in food or raiment, 
 their shelter is their own ; they have not the constant dread 
 — as their forefathers had — of being looted by this or 
 that official, by the ruffians fighting for neighbouring chief- 
 lets, or by other bands of robbers ; they live in peace, 
 their chief anxiety being how to stave off the rapacious 
 
200 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Sowkar, how to find cash to pay the Sirkar's next revenue/ 
 instahnent. Though they no longer bury their surplus grain 
 in pits because they cannot sell it — for they now have easily/ 
 accessible markets by good roads — they have wonderfuj 
 staying power in bad seasons, and if the worst comes to 
 
 COOLY, BIGARREE, OR PORTER. 
 
 the worst and famine threatens, they now know by expe- 
 rience that the Sirkar (Government) will do its level best 
 to mitigate their sufferinga^Let no 6ne"m' England believe 
 that this class, "the most numerous and the mildest" in 
 Maharashtra, are discontented or ripe for rebellion. 
 
HOW MILK IS PURVEYED. 201 
 
 THE COOLIES, BIGARREES, PORTERS AND DAY-LABOURERS. 
 
 This useful class are usually Koonbees, but those employ- 
 ed about the market are mostly Mhars. 
 
 The capacious baskets which they carry on their heads 
 will hold anything, from a live sheep to a dozen tins of 
 groceries and a pile of fruit and vegetables — when the load 
 is larger, as a portmanteau or box, the basket is clapped 
 on the top. They will work about your garden or in your 
 house by day or hour, are often very handy, like the 
 **odd men" of England, but much more wiUing, honest, 
 and hard-working. 
 
 THE GOWLEES OR MILKMEN. 
 
 The Gowlee or Milkman because of his association with 
 the sacred animal, naturally occupies a high position 
 among the Shudras, taking rank immediately below the 
 Koonbee in the orthodox scheme of castes. The consumption 
 of milk in all its forms in and around the City of Poona 
 must be enormous, seeing that at least half the population 
 consume it largely as milk, in curds or buttermilk, as 
 ghee or clarified butter. It is drawn principally from 
 buffaloes, large herds of which are tended in the environs 
 of the City. The fluid is brought in morning and afternoon 
 from the grazing grounds, in large brass "lotahs" (crocks), 
 placed one atop of another and then attached to each end 
 of a stout pole, which the Gowlee, balancing on his shoulder, 
 trots off with to the City, — frothing or spilling being 
 
202 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 prevented by a wisp of straw, grass or herbs stuck in the 
 pot. The milk is sold off at once, and boiled by the 
 purchaser. 
 
 They are many thousands of milch buff'aloes round Poona, 
 and half as many men and women are engaged in the 
 trade. The Gowlee has not the best of reputations for 
 honesty, and is believed, not without reason, to be in the 
 
 GOWLEES OR MILKMEN. 
 
 habit of poisoning the cattle of rival dealers or of private 
 individuals, especially Europeans, Parsees and Mahomme- 
 dans, who keep their own cattle so as to be sure of 
 sweet new milk. The writer has never heard that the 
 Gowlees have been concerned in anything more heinous, 
 or that they are discontented. They certainly have no cause 
 to be so. 
 
FRUITERERS-FLORISTS-SHEPHERDS. 203 
 
 THE MALEES OR GARDENERS. 
 
 With a population like that in Poona, needing fruit and 
 flowers in every domestic ceremony, for offerings to the 
 gods, for garlands and nosegays for every guest, for presents 
 to superiors : with a strong local and commercial demand 
 for sugar, and an insatiable market for fruit and vegetables 
 in the great city of Bombay, it follows that the Malees 
 are well-to-do. Most of them are Mahrattas of the upper 
 classes— many of them are connected with the best Mahratta 
 families— not a few of them are wealthy to a moderate 
 extent— all are contented, and are incapable of harbouring 
 seditious thoughts. 
 
 THE DHUNGARS OR SHEPHERDS AND HERDSMEN. 
 
 The Shepherd begins his season after the rains, about 
 the Dussera, when he betakes himself far away into the 
 Mogulai or Nizam's country where he begins to form the 
 nucleus of a flock of sheep and goats, or to buy to replenish 
 that he has been grazing on waste lands or as best he 
 could near home during the hot weather. Gradually increasing 
 his stock, he drives slowly down to Poona, or by Nassick to 
 Bombay, grazing the flocks as they go and being paid in 
 grain — a seer or two per score or hundred — till he reaches 
 rice stubble-lands, where he not only feeds but pens on selected 
 seed plots, for which he is paid right well. He buys a 
 pony here and a bullock there, till he reaches a good 
 grain market, with quite a little train of pack animals 
 
204 OUR TROUBLf:S IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 heavily laden with grain of all sorts ; then he sells the lot, 
 grain and beasts, and hies him to Bandora slaughter-houses 
 with his bleating flock. He is probably under contract with 
 commissariat agents at Poona or Egutpoora, and drops them 
 the fattest animals as he passes. He is also probably under 
 advances from Bombay butchers. The writer has often met 
 
 THE DHUNGAR OR SHEPHERD. 
 
 him in the Konkan, with two or three thousand rupees in 
 currency notes. Heaven knows what he does with his money, 
 for he is always as Mr. van Ruith here depicts him, seemingly 
 as poor as Job I He encamps on the outskirts of Poona 
 City and never enters it but to sell his grain and to buy 
 some condiments or strong drinks. He is quite harmless — 
 rather a misanthrope withal, and certainly the very last 
 
THE INDIAN FIGARO. 205 
 
 man to mix himself up with poUtics, or Deccan Sabha 
 movements. 
 
 There are besides, the Dhungar herdsmen who graze herds 
 of horned cattle on the mountains and forests, but these 
 never come to Poona at all. Reducing the milk to ''ghee" 
 or clarified butter, and storing it in leathern "dubbas" or 
 jars, they sell it to dealers with whom they are usually 
 under contract. 
 
 THE NHAWEE— HAJAM— OR BARBER. 
 
 The Nhawees of the city and the Hajams of the civil 
 and military station are of the same caste, but the latter 
 from their association with Europeans are the better men. 
 They have latterly been carrying on a kind of revolt 
 against the Brahmins, the precise nature of which I have 
 forgotten, but it has something to do with their caste 
 
2o6 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 ceremonies and Brahmin fees, and it is, or was, headed 
 by a very independent Nhawee family in Joonere, near 
 Poona. They are inteUigent, and. Hke Figaros all the world 
 over, garrulous, the purveyors of all the gossip of the coun- 
 tryside. The Nhawees are much belied if they do not, 
 like the barber of Seville, act as go-betweens in many a 
 love intrigue. The Hajams, on the other hand, are ex- 
 tremely proper and often amusing. When one does 
 not expressly stipulate that one's hair is to be cut in 
 solemn silence, one will be regaled with something like the 
 following: — ''Smith Saheb's Mem's Ayah run away last 
 night, with Bootler (butler) — take all mem Saheb's jewels 
 and Saheb's guns. Poona Polis never catch, they all pajee 
 fellows (rogues themselves);" or, ''General Saheb very 
 'ghoossa' (angry) on parade this morning. Sepoy Phul- 
 thans (Regiments) not 'chul' (march) quick! Colonel Sa- 
 heb's much wigging get. Sepoy leave stop — this bazaar 'gup' 
 (rumour)," and so on as long as the patient chooses. But 
 who does not know good Old Tom the Barber! Tom, by 
 the way, is the very last person to communicate anything 
 but stale news of the City, for the best of reasons — he 
 never hears any till 'tis stale! 
 
 THE GABEETS— FISHERMEN — BOODEE-MARS OR DIVERS. 
 
 These are very numerous in and around Poona by reason 
 of the two rivers Moota and Moolla, in which there are 
 deep "dows" or reaches teeming with fish, large and 
 small. Some of them, mostly the old men and boys, con- 
 
CATCHING FISH WHOLESALE. 
 
 207 
 
 tent themselves with casting, purse, and spoon nets, in 
 which they catch the smaller fry at the mouths of brooks, 
 or at any point where the stream narrows or can be con- 
 tracted into a rapid. The able-bodied, fine, well-grown 
 jovial fellows work in large gangs with long deep nets. 
 
 Their mode of proceeding is as follows : — Selecting a 
 suitable point in a ''dow", they net it across from bank 
 to bank, and then forming in line at the head of a pool, 
 
 each man with a long pole, and with inflated skins under 
 his arms, they advance shoulder to shoulder towards the 
 net, treading water and striking their poles down vertically 
 on the bed of the river. Thus they disturb the large fish 
 at the bottom and drive them forward to the net, which 
 has one or more long purses. When close to the net, dis- 
 carding their floats and poles, they dive and kill the fish 
 entangled in the meshes : finally, the whole length of the net. 
 
2o8 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 which is a cross between the drag net and flue used in 
 England, is hauled up on one bank, and the purse emptied 
 of its finny contents. The fish, most of them of the carp and 
 barbel species, run to an enormous size and realise good 
 prices in the City. 
 
 In much the same way they are employed by the author- 
 ities to recover the bodies of persons drowned — they never 
 fail to find where the drags have been unsuccessful. 
 
 The Mucheemars are good fellows, good-tempered and 
 law-abiding, quarrelsome only in their cups, and then only 
 among themselves. 
 
 THE BHUNDAREES OR TODDY DRAWERS. 
 
 These come from the Konkan, where they tend the 
 cocoanut and betel (sooparee) palms, but numbers of them 
 have spread into the Deccan. They are employed on the 
 railways as porters and gatekeepers, and in the police, but 
 they rarely enlist in the regular army, possibly because 
 most of them, though broad in the chest and with immense 
 muscular development of the legs and arms, are below the 
 military standard in height. They are a somewhat stolid, 
 but good-natured race, very active and industrious, fairly 
 intelligent and notoriously trustworthy and honest. 
 
 If they do not wear much clothing when cUmbing up 
 and down their trees, it is because clothes would be in the 
 way. Off duty they are particularly fond of bright colours 
 and finery. A Bhundaree decked out in his gala dress, with 
 
BHUNDAREES ARE BUMPTIOUS. 
 
 209 
 
 a turban as broad as a cartwheel set jauntily on one side 
 of his head, heavy ear-rings, broad silver "kirgootee" 
 or waist-belt, and a showy shawl, is a goodly sight; 
 
 BHUNDAREES. 
 
 Their women are quite as addicted to gaudy decoration, 
 and are said to be particularly virtuous. 
 
 Bhundarees, however, are decidedly but harmlessly bump- 
 tious and conceited : so there is a Mahratta saying, " Bhun- 
 
 14 
 
2IO OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 daree zateet akud pharl" which means "There is much 
 coxcombry in the Bhundaree caste"; or, ^'Bhundarees are 
 very cocky." 
 
 A Bhundaree once your friend is always your friend, 
 once put in a position of trust he never betrays it, and he 
 is truthful as Hindoos go. 
 
 THE ARTISAN CLASSES. 
 
 "Sonars" or goldsmiths head the artisan classes. From 
 a Brahmin by a "Shudra" wife was born a " Nishada " or 
 goldsmith, so says the Reverend Dr. Wilson ; but he adds 
 in a note (vol. i, page 56): "The Bombay goldsmiths, 
 however, do not like to be associated with the Nishadas, 
 and plead for being considered a sort of sub-Brahmin. The 
 * Syadree Khanda ' gives to the Sonar more than the religious 
 status of a Shudra. It denominates him as a ' Mahashudra ' 
 or great Shudra." Sonars are far and away the best of 
 the Shudras : from time immemorial they have been 
 renowned for their shrewdness and integrity, for the beauty 
 and vivacious intelligence of their women, whom they have 
 always educated and treated as equals. Some of the caste 
 have risen, are still rising, and will continue to rise in the 
 social scale. Jugonath Sunkersett of Bombay, the great 
 philanthropist, was a Sonar, who earnestly hoped that he 
 would be admitted to the Brahminical caste. Many of 
 them are in the Government service, and the State never 
 had a more able financier and accountant than Nagoba 
 Sonaba, whom the writer first knew as head accountant at 
 
SONARS THE BEST OF ALL SHUDRAS. 
 
 211 
 
 Satara, 40 years ago. The working goldsmith whom my 
 friend Van Ruith depicts, is of a humbler class. He is to 
 be trusted with untold wealth, and with the simple imple- 
 ments around him it is simply marvellous what exquisite 
 and artistic work he will produce. There are those among 
 
 WORKING SONAR OR GOLDSMITH. 
 
 them who have been led away to copy European designs 
 which are, no doubt, faithful copies, but they are not art. 
 
 ** Tambhars 
 ** Kansars " 
 " Lohars " 
 *'Sootars" 
 
 Coppersmiths, 
 Braziers, 
 Blacksmiths, 
 Carpenters 
 
 may all be classed together— with the note that " Lohars " 
 
212 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 and ''Sootars" intermarry; in fact it is not uncommon to 
 find both carpenters and blacksmiths in the same family. 
 The metal work now executed in Poona cannot be 
 excelled even in Benares — but the fear is that, like Benares, 
 Poona may adopt the emasculated models supplied by 
 
 THE SHIMPEE OR TAILOR. 
 
 Birmingham. Many of these castes are becoming good 
 mechanics and engineers in the railway and mill workshops. 
 
 SHIM PEES OR TAILORS. 
 
 Time was — not so many years ago — when the Shimpee 
 was an honoured and influential personage in the City ; 
 there are still many of tho old school as depicted above, 
 
HAND-MADE CLOTHES AND SHOES. 213 
 
 who work themselves, with only male assistants, and 
 fashion the quaint garments that still adorn old-fashioned 
 people, but they are being superseded by operators on 
 "Singers " and other sewing-machines, which will be heard 
 at work in every street. It is in India, however, as it is in 
 England : ask any native which he prefers, which is more 
 
 M6OCHEE OR SHOEMAKER. 
 
 durable, the machine-made garment or the hand-stitched? The 
 answer will be the same. There are many Shimpees in Poona 
 who have amassed wealth and are held in high consideration. 
 
 MOOCIIEE OR SHOEMAKER. 
 
 These are low castes, of course, from the nature of their occu- 
 pation necessitating the handhng of dressed skins. They earn 
 good wage and would be well off but that they drink heavily 
 and can never be depended on to finish a job. Madrassees and 
 Chinamen now compete keenly with them in all large towns. 
 
CHAPTER XVI I. 
 
 THE OUT CASTES.— THE HILL OR WILD TRIBES. 
 THE MIGRATORY OR PREDATORY TRIBES. 
 
 OUT CASTES.— THE MHARS. 
 
 Without doubt the Mhars are, as they claim to be, 
 the aboriginal inhabitants of Maharashtra, though Brahmins 
 assert otherwise. It would be difficult even now for 
 the country to get on without them. The Mhar — 
 sometimes called the Dher, ^'Bhoomia" or guide, Yeshkur 
 or watchman, *' Tural " or gatekeeper — is the very first man 
 appealed to, whether it be about a murder or robbery, a 
 burglary, or a boundary dispute. He is the incarnation 
 of the traditions and history of his village, and though he 
 is despised, condemned to hve outside the village, and 
 fearful of letting his defiling shadow fall on the Brahmin, 
 the latter well knows he can do nothing without him. He 
 holds lands — the worst in the village — on hereditary tenure : 
 he is entitled by prescription (which has often been affirmed 
 in the Law Courts) to certain grain allowances, of which 
 he is as often as not deprived. A stranger or a traveller 
 comes — ** Mharala Bolawa " (call the Mhar). A robbery 
 occurs — "Mharas wichyara" (ask the Mhar). Who owns this 
 
THE INDISPENSABLE MHAR. 215 
 
 field? What are the boundaries? " Mharas mahit ahe " 
 (the Mhar knows) — and so on. 
 
 In all Maharashtra there is no class on the whole so 
 reliable, so trusty, so honest, so hardworking as the despised 
 Mhar. Look at the records of old Infantry Regiments — 
 look at some of the muster rolls now— look at the pension 
 
 MHARS. 
 
 rolls, and you will find the names of Soobedur Majors, 
 Sirdar Bahadoors — Ramnaks — Yesnaks — Bhagnaks and all the 
 **Naks." Ask in the Konkan, *' By whom was this road 
 made? by whom this bridge, this school, or rest-house, or 
 Saheb's bungalow built?" The answer will be— "By Mhars." 
 Ask any British officer of any service, who makes the best 
 *'ghorawalla" or horsekeeper? who was his most rehable 
 
2i6 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 servant in any arduous expedition? The answer will be 
 **Baloo Mhar." 
 
 In large cities they are the scavengers— are shamefully 
 neglected and left to rot and die, as in the city of Poona 
 at the present moment. 
 
 THE MHANGS. 
 
 The Mhang is the lowest of the low, and is — or was — 
 often driven to dacoity by starvation. He gets the hides of 
 dead animals, (he eats the carcases,) and makes raw-hide ropes 
 and reins, and thongs of whips for cartmen. It was his duty 
 in old days to carry out executions, and if no one else were 
 available (a Chinaman, to- wit) in a gaol, he would be the 
 hangman now. He will disappear as the world grows older. 
 
 THE HILL OR WILD TRIBES. — THE RAMOOSHEES OF THE 
 GHAUTS AND OF THE EUROPEAN STATION. 
 
 The Ramooshees of the Ghauts are a hill-tribe, inhabiting 
 the sterile spurs and valleys on the western face of the 
 Syadrees, near Poona. They are not now naturally badly 
 disposed, and they are as easily influenced for good as for 
 evil, but they are bitterly poor, — bad cultivators, the land 
 they cultivate is heart-breakingly unproductive. Their tradi- 
 tions are of robbery and rapine, committed often to get the 
 means to live ; as often as not they are the tools of dishonest or 
 vindictive Brahmins and receivers, who select their victims 
 
RAMOOSHEES OF SORTS. 217 
 
 for them, receive their booty, cheat them in paying for it, 
 ajid when a crisis comes, betray them to the poHce. They 
 do not ordinarily visit the City of Poona, nor are many 
 of them resident on its outskirts, but when any considerable 
 number are observed in Poona, the authorities ought 
 to be very sure that some desperate enterprise is afoot. 
 There have been useful Ramooshee semi-police corps, and 
 
 RAMOOSHEE OF THE STATION. 
 
 one might be raised again and employed at a distance 
 from their homes, where they must always be at starvation 
 point for three or four months preceding the first harvest 
 of their poor hill crops. The Ramooshees of the civil 
 station and cantonment are another sort of watchmen. 
 Certain it is that if you do not keep a Ramooshee for 
 night guard round your house, you run a great risk of 
 being robbed. He may be a Purdasee, a Mhar, a low-class 
 
2i8 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Mussulman, or even a Mhang, but have one you must. 
 Enveloped in a thick '^kumblee" or coarse blanket, with 
 the dirtiest wisp of cloth wound round his head, some 
 Saheb's old waistcoat or jacket on his body, a *4angoti" or 
 loin cloth, perhaps a pair of Saheb's breeches- — perhaps 
 not — and a pair of sandals, he perambulates your garden 
 with a long staff in hand, striking it anon on the ground, 
 and giving vent at intervals to a sepulchral cough. Dogs 
 do not bark at him, cats flee from him, owls and bats 
 wheel famiUarly round his head; your ''nokar log" (servants) 
 to a man and woman — keep on the best of terms with 
 him by reason of his knowing of all their little nocturnal 
 games and peccadilloes. 
 
 He learns and knows many secrets, does the Ramooshee, 
 and, like Mr. Tulkinghorn, he dislikes to share them with 
 anybody. 
 
 So soon as it is daylight he rolls himself up in some 
 shed or outhouse for two or three hours of solid sleep, 
 after which he may be seen — and heard - gurghng and 
 clearing his throat cheerfully in the shadow of his lair. 
 He is as honest as may be, at any rate he prevents any 
 outsider from robbing you. 
 
 I purposely refrain from describing the Bheels, Kolees, 
 and Katodees of the Ghauts, because the two first tribes 
 inhabit the Syadrees to the North of the Ramooshees ' hills ; 
 and the last the Western or Konkan side of the great 
 range of mountains — none of them frequent the city of 
 Poona. 
 
A THOROUGHLY BAD LOT. 221 
 
 THE MIGRATORY AND PREDATORY TRIBES. 
 
 Their number is legion. 
 
 " Oochlias " * and " Bamptias ". — Thieves and pickpockets, 
 who do nothing but steal, and never will do anything else. 
 
 " Kaikdris''* and " Booroods'\ — Basket-makers and mat- 
 weavers, who do some work, and the latter are fairly honest. 
 
 " Beldars'' and " Patroo1s'\ — Quarrymen and stone-dres- 
 sers, who are expert burglars, but very hardworking. 
 
 " Phdnsi Pdrdees'' or game snarers, who snare game; 
 they may be met with poles on which are perched rows 
 of live pea-fowl with their eyes sewn up, and baskets of 
 live quail and partridges. They are the abomination of the 
 sportsman, and know no seasons. 
 
 " Wadddrs'' or earth workers — the navvies of Western and 
 Southern India, who have made most of the earth embank- 
 ments of all the railways. These have been reclaimed 
 from evil courses by honest and highly remunerative 
 industry; they take petty contracts by the thousand ''bras" 
 or 100 cubic feet. They have an honourable future, and 
 are on the whole good fellows. 
 
 There are a host of others — some workers — some altogether 
 thieves — all horribly filthy in their habits, in their persons 
 and .in their food. All their women are prostitutes of the 
 very lowest type, and loathsome diseases decimate them, 
 for they all drink. They are not permitted to enter any 
 town or village, so camp outside, and let loose their donkeys 
 
 * From "Oochalne" — "to pick up." 
 
222 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 and buffaloes at night to graze at their sweet will on the 
 people's crops. Catch them who can! the beasts are as 
 knowing as their owners, and village pounds will not hold 
 them. These various races, who do not intermarry, are 
 dying out — may we say "a good riddance of bad rubbish"? 
 
 TAMASHA WALLAS OR SHOWMEN. 
 
 Jugglers, Acrobats, Conjurers, Dancers and Musicians are 
 of course very numerous around (for they rarely camp in) 
 the City of Poona. Mr. Van Ruith has given a charming 
 picture of a gang about to begin business in a suburb. 
 There are of course musicians and dancers of a much 
 higher class who are regularly employed in the City for 
 " nautches " and other high-class entertainments ; of their 
 morals the less said the better. Not much more can be 
 said of the women-kind of the lower classes who purvey 
 for public amusement. The honesty of all is decidedly 
 questionable; they are educated enough to make a good 
 deal of money occasionally by blackmailing respectable or 
 ostensibly respectable citizens. 
 
 In olden days these people used to follow in the rear 
 of Mogul armies and have what " 'Arry " calls *'a 'igh old 
 time "1 In a defeat they changed sides easily and marched 
 with the victors. In the present day, should these festive 
 gangs somewhat suddenly leave the City, let the Police be 
 on the qui vive, for most certainly there is going to be a 
 riot or a row of some kind. 
 
MORE HOLY THAN RIGHTEOUS. 225 
 
 THE GOSAEES OR RELIGIOUS DEVOTEES. 
 
 I purposely include these among the Predatories because 
 they mostly prey on other people for their subsistence. Other- 
 wise they are very holy men, and are regarded with great 
 veneration, or rather with superstitious dread, by all classes. 
 
 A g6saee. 
 
 They are followers of " Mhadeo ". The majority of them 
 
 are by no means ascetics ; on the contrary, some are very 
 
 wealthy traders and bankers. They have played an 
 
 important part in Mahratta history, and have fought like 
 
 tigers on many occasions, notably in Sindia's armies. 
 
 15 
 
226 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 They were also invaluable as spies and informers in days 
 gone by. An interesting history of a Gosaee is to be found 
 in Sir Bartle Frere's " Pandoorang Hurree", and Meadows 
 Taylor often mentions them also. The individuals who distort 
 and contort their limbs and voluntarily undergo incredible 
 torture are probably half-witted fanatics. An efficient detective 
 police force ought to have several Gosaees in its ranks 
 and in its pay. The indecent and very mal-odorous gentle- 
 man depicted on the preceding page will be recognised by 
 many Anglo-Indians. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE ALIEN INHABITANTS OF POONA. — THE PARSEES. 
 
 The history of this enterprising race is well worthy of 
 study. In this notice, however, I must necessarily confine 
 myself to their connection with Poona and the Deccan 
 where they have settled and are prospering in considerable 
 numbers. Their "prosperity may be said to date from 
 their first connection with the English, and still more pre- 
 cisely from the time of their settlement in Bombay", in 
 1668. There were energetic Parsees, however, in Bombay 
 before the island was given by the King of Portugal to 
 England as the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, on her 
 marriage with Charles 11. ; for one Kharshedji Panday con- 
 tracted with the Portuguese Government for men and 
 materials for the Bombay fortification. 
 
 The first Parsee who appears in the history of the Deccan 
 was Kharshedji Jamshedji Modi* — he originally came from 
 Cambay, and as a young man was taken into his ofifice by 
 Colonel Close, the Resident at Poona; exceptionally 
 intelligent and energetic, and possessed in an eminent 
 degree of that tact which enables Parsees under any circum- 
 
 * Otherwise called Khoosroojee Mody. 
 
228 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 stances *' to live on good terms with other races with whom 
 they happen to be brought in contact, no matter how 
 different their creeds and customs," Karshedji Modi was 
 promoted in 1 809 to the post of native agent. In this capacity 
 he necessarily had much intercourse with Bajee Rao, the last 
 of the Peishwas ; and Bajee Rao, not only consulted him on 
 
 PARSEES— LADY AND GENTLEMAN. 
 
 all important questions, but also appointed him, with a large 
 salary, to the post of Sur-Soobha or Governor of the Car- 
 natic, a post which he held at the same time as he filled 
 that of native agent under the English Resident. 
 
 Modi in this extraordinary dual position of trust, was 
 thoroughly faithful to both the British and to the Mahratta 
 
ACCOUNT OF KHARSHEDJI MODI, MINISTER. 229 
 
 Court. He built himself a house on the edge of a water- 
 course, half-way between the 'Sungum" (British Residency) 
 and the walls of Poona city. It was at this very nullah 
 or watercourse, and all around the Modi's bungalow, that 
 Bajee Rao's cavalry under Phadkay, were checked in their 
 charge on the little British Force assembled on the battlefield 
 of Kirkee, behind it. It was within a few yards of this bun- 
 galow that poor Mr. Rand and Lieutenant Ayerst were 
 treacherously done to death on the Diamond Jubilee night. 
 ( Vide Illustration, page 9 — Modi's house is visible to the right.) 
 "It was of course impossible in any native Government 
 for an alien to hold high office without exciting the envy 
 of the officers of the State, and one of the Peishwa's Sar- 
 dars, Seodaseo Bhow Mankeshwur, preferred charges against 
 Kharshedji Modi, of corrupt practices in the affairs of his 
 Government, but the Peishwa took no steps to investigate 
 them. Another of Bajee Rao's Sardars, the infamous Trim- 
 buckjee Danglia, informed Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, who 
 was then Resident at Poona, that Kharshedji was conspiring 
 with Bajee Rao against the English." Mr. Elphinstone justly 
 considered that Kharshedji's position at the Residency was 
 incompatible with his appointment as Governor of a Mah- 
 ratta province, and he was called upon to resign the one 
 or the other. Kharshedji knew what was good for an honest 
 man, and he stuck to his less lucrative post in the English 
 service, and resigned the higher office under the Peishwa." 
 The intrigues against him were renewed in different forms, 
 and he was at length removed from the Residency, but 
 
230 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 with a handsome provision for him in his native country. 
 Before he could leave Poona, however, he died (1815) of 
 poison, but whether administered by others or taken by 
 himself, was never ascertained. 
 
 After the battle of Kirkee (18 18) Parsee traders of all 
 kinds came up to the Deccan from Bombay and Guzerat. 
 One family, the Cursetjis, had already accompanied (1803) 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley to, and settled at, Ahmednuggur as 
 merchants and shopkeepers. They have now branch estab- 
 lishments at Kirkee and all the principal towns. The best 
 Police Inspector in the Deccan was Khan Bahadoor Framji 
 Cursetji of Ahmednuggur City. Cursetji and Sons for nearly 
 a century past have been the best friends of poor English 
 officers, their wives and families, in the hour of need or 
 sickness. God reward them 1 
 
 The Viccaji family, hailing from Tarapur in the Thanah 
 District, after farming the land and sea customs in the 
 Konkans (1836) took up similar farms in Poona, Sholapar, 
 Ahmednuggur and Khandeish. Members of the family had 
 already found their way into the Nizam's dominions. They 
 were the first (1825 — 26) to export cotton from the Berars. 
 They erected the first cotton screws and presses at Khan- 
 gaum and in the neighbouring cotton districts. They made 
 cart roads over the Ghauts, and built bridges on the route 
 from the Deccan to the coast. Finally, under the Nizam's 
 Prime Minister, Raja Chandoo Lai, they established their 
 banking firm of "Pestomji Viccaji" at Hyderadad, and 
 financed the Nizam's Government for many years ; the State 
 
< 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 PL, 
 
 Q Si 
 H -So 
 
 < 
 
o. <■ r": o V , • « 
 
THE JEEJEEBHOY AND VICCAJI FAMILIES. 233 
 
 Mint at Aurungabad was under their charge. Within one 
 decade (1835 to 1845) they advanced more than a million 
 sterling to the Nizam. Chandoo Lai retired from office in 
 1845, ^^^ his successor, Raja Rambax, refusing to settle 
 with the Viccaji Firm for the modest sum of three hundred 
 and seventy-five thousand pounds, proceeded in true Mogu- 
 lai fashion to sequestrate the Provinces that had been mort- 
 gaged to them. The Firm of course appealed, first to the 
 Government of India, then to the Court of Directors, lastly 
 to the House of Commons, and were as a matter of course 
 refused redress, on the sound principle, applied to the 
 case of the Palmers (also large creditors of the Nizam), 
 that British subjects advanced moneys to Native States 
 at their own risk, and must not expect the British 
 Government to aid them in recovering their debts. The 
 family were practically ruined from that time, but Sir Salar 
 Young, with characteristic nobility, took several of its mem- 
 bers into the Nizam's employ, and made a sufficient provi- 
 sion for the family from the State Exchequer. 
 
 The Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy family, the acknowledged heads 
 of the Parsee race, of course soon made their mark in Poona. 
 It was in 1841 — 42 that Lady Jamsetji expended some 
 ^16,000 on the Bund or Dam over the river Moolla, which 
 has saved so many lives and contributed in no small 
 degree to the health of the City of the Peishwas. ( Vide 
 Illustration, p. 231.) 
 
 The Padamji family rose later to eminence. The founder. 
 Khan Bahadur Padamji Pstomji, is the actual head of the 
 
234 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Parsee Community in Poona. His great services as Mail 
 Contractor during the Mutinies were appropriately rewarded 
 by the Viceroy by a gold medal and the title of Khan 
 Bahadur, and in latter years by the enrolment of his name 
 among the first-class Sardars of the Deccan. His sons 
 have trodden successfully and honourably in their father's 
 footsteps, have been distinguished in science and photo- 
 graphy, have founded and managed the Poona Paper Mills, 
 and Mr. Dorabji Padamji for many years held his own as 
 one of the best rifle shots in India. 
 
 Parsee ladies, wherever they are to be found in the 
 Deccan, as in Bombay, are distinguished for their refine- 
 ment and culture, for their virtue and domesticity, as for 
 their beauty. It is beheved that they deeply deplore the 
 gulf that has been opened between their people and their 
 best and oldest friends, the English, by reason of the folly 
 of a few of their younger male relatives who have been 
 led away to join the National Congress. The writer knows 
 that Parsee ladies have striven to restrain and to reclaim 
 the headstrong youths, and that it is their influence 
 that prevents the spread of Brahmin poison among 
 their race. 
 
 Needless to say that no Parsee name is to be found at 
 the foot of the seditious so-called petitions and memorials 
 which preceded the Jubilee murders; the Poona and Dec- 
 can Anglo-Parsee Press has always been admirable in its 
 tone, if somewhat weak in its language. It is capable in 
 able Parsee hands, of exercising a very powerful influence 
 
WHAT HAVE PARSERS TO DO WITH POLITICS? 235 
 
 for good in the Deccan, as it already does in Bombay 
 and Gujerat. 
 
 The author would earnestly exhort the Parsee race some- 
 what in the following terms : — 
 
 ** Citizens of the world ! Pioneers in distant lands, 
 in commerce, in manufacture; far-seeing, enterprising; 
 liberal and generous in promoting every scheme that 
 holds out fair promise of developing the resources of 
 the countries you explore, of benefiting the human race — 
 and filling your own pockets bien entendu ! * Your race can 
 still play a much nobler part in cosmic history. Train your 
 young men to agriculture, to geology, to water-mining, as 
 you already train them to trade, to mechanics, to engin- 
 eering. Leave law, license of speech, evil speaking (and 
 writing), lying and slandering to that knot of wily Brahmins 
 licensed to these pursuits by Secretaries of State, Viceroys 
 and Governors ! Let these dogs of the Deccan delight to 
 bark and bite, but do not bay with them ; rather aid the 
 Sirkar to hunt them down in their lairs! Eschew Poli- 
 tics! Think of your history, past and present! What 
 possible concern have Parsees with Politics? What business 
 have they to join National Congresses? Withdraw your 
 few names from this roll of rascals ere it be too late and 
 your vast majority of loyal British subjects become befouled 
 by Brahminical influences ! Misguided few ! attracted by a 
 treacherous will-o '-the-wisp exhaling from the foetid swamp 
 of 'twice-born' discontent. Can you not see, triple asses 
 
 * Why noti^ 
 
236 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 that you are! that you are being made cat's-paws of by 
 these green-eyed monsters, who bite the hand that educated, 
 fed and fondled them, who systematically repay benefits 
 by treachery, rear their heads defiantly when they dare, 
 fawn, flatter and intrigue when they dare not. Leave them 
 to God: He will. He is punishing that venomous cHque. 
 It is doomed to decay, disgrace, destruction, like Sodom 
 and Gomorrah of old ! " 
 
 A few words of humble counsel of the Powers that be as 
 to their treatment of Parsees of the present generation. 
 
 If you have on the roll of your officials young Parsees 
 who have displayed National Congress proclivities, give them 
 their conge. They cannot be trusty servants of the State. 
 
 On the other hand, relax your rigid rules for admission 
 into the Revenue and Magisterial service. The Government 
 never had a better Revenue officer than the late Pestomji 
 Jehanghir, not to mention many other Parsee gentlemen, 
 some few of whom are still languishing in subordinate 
 Revenue posts. 
 
 Recruit your higher Police grades from Parsees — especially 
 your Detective department zvhen you have one *. Khan 
 Bahadur Framji Nusserwanji Cursetji of Admednuggur : Khan 
 Saheb Framji Narimon of Kolaba, Habsan, and Belgaum — 
 the Inspector Bucket of the author's time — would long ago 
 have run in the Jubilee murderers and their instigators. 
 Parsees possess the requisite qualifications of detectives in 
 an eminent degree, by reason of their tact and energy, 
 
 * When will that be? See Chapter XX. 
 
MADRASSEE MOODLIARS ARE NOBODIES. 237 
 
 because (as their historian aptly puts it) "they invariably 
 live on good terms with other races, no matter how 
 different their creeds and castes," because they *' always 
 adapt themselves to circumstances," because they <■' possess 
 the happy knack of getting on well with everybody." 
 (Vide Introduction of the admirable History of the Par sees ^ 
 by Dossabhai Framji Karaka, p. xvii.) 
 
 THE MOODLIAR (MADRASSEE.) 
 
 There are but few families of these Madrassee gentle- 
 men resident in Poona, as bankers or merchants : they 
 would not be noticed but for the fact that an amiable and 
 respectable, but not too intelligent member of the little 
 community signed that notable memorial previous to the 
 Jubilee murders, which certain members of Parliament cited 
 as proving that the people of Poona had been driven to 
 desperation by the plague operations. The signatory was 
 afterwards stated by the eccentric member for Banffshire 
 to belong to one of the richest mercantile firms in the 
 City (which was inaccurate) and to possess great influence 
 (which he does not). The ''Pooh-pooh Swamys" have no 
 influence and represent nobody. The Moodliars settled in 
 Poona as Commissariat and Military Transport Contractors, 
 in which capacities they did excellent service, and amassed 
 moderate fortunes. They are kindly, charitable, easy-going, 
 anxious to show public spirit, but, lacking backbone, they are 
 certain to be fooled by local agitators, like others who cannot. 
 
238 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN 
 
 like them, plead ignorance. It was crafty, Brahmin-like of the 
 Poona Sabha to get this signature as one of the five members 
 of the Memorial Committee ; but the falsity of this document 
 
 THE MOODLIAR. 
 
 has been so thoroughly established that further reference 
 to it would be like flogging a dead mule. 
 
 THE IZRAILIES. 
 
 They are commonly called "Talees" because they are, 
 throughout Western India, mainly engaged in oil (Tale) 
 
THE LOST TRIBE OF IZRAEL. 
 
 239 
 
 pressing. As a matter of fact they are Jews, belonging, 
 it is supposed, to the ''lost tribe of Izrael" who, somehow, 
 found their way first to Cochin on the Malabar coast, and 
 then spread over the country. There is a tolerably large 
 community of them in the City of Poona, who do not by 
 
 THE TALEE. 
 
 any means confine themselves to oil pressing, but are good 
 mechanics, carpenters and artificers of all kinds. Many 
 Takes or Jews are in the army, many also are in the 
 Police, where such men as the late Abraham David of the 
 Ahmednuggur Police did rare good work. The more there 
 
240 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 are in the Police or. for the matter of that, in Government 
 Service, the better for the State. 
 
 THE GOANESE (PORTUGUESE HALF-CASTES) AND 
 OTHER EURASIANS. 
 
 r 
 
 There is a large Goanese Community, harmless, indolent 
 people not remarkable for abstention from strong drinks, 
 breeders of poultry of all kinds, and pork; most of them 
 are musicians, and many are in the native regimental 
 
 OL 
 
HALF-CASTES OF ALL KINDS. 241 
 
 bands. Some are petty shopkeepers, bakers and confec- 
 tioners, many more are domestic servants, a few are 
 carpenters and machinists. All are devout Roman Catholics ; 
 they have no sort of sympathy with the Brahmins, who 
 despise them. They have all the weakness of character 
 of both the races from whom they are descended, vanity, 
 love of dress, loquacity; like most mixed Eastern races, 
 they are deficient in physique and perhaps in courage. 
 
 The other Eurasians of the present day resemble them 
 in many ways, but the older families often contain fine 
 specimens of the human race, possessed of much energy 
 and endowed with courage. They join the Volunteer Corps, 
 and would no doubt be staunch in action. 
 
 16 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE POONA POLICE. 
 
 In the present troubles the Poona PoHce have been 
 conspicuous not only for doing nothing, but for having, as 
 a body, sedulously withheld from their superiors all inform- 
 ation regarding the seditious conspiracy that has notoriously 
 been working almost openly in the City. There cannot be 
 a shadow of doubt that not a few of the City Police were 
 privy to the Jubilee crimes to the extent that they knew 
 that certain persons were banded together to commit 
 some bloodthirsty outrage that should make the denizens 
 of Government House quake in their shoes. There are, 
 unquestionably, men in the Force who could at any moment 
 have revealed the plot and pointed out the criminals, but 
 it has been made much better worth their while to hold 
 their tongues, especially as the Government, with fatuous im- 
 becility, followed up its offer of an excessive reward 
 by a second proclamation particularly stipulating that 
 the Police shall not share in it 1 
 
 In the 26th Chapter of my " Reminiscences of an Indian 
 Police Official" (1894), I described the PoHce of the Western 
 Presidency as follows. 
 
SHAMBLING SCARECROWS. 243 
 
 " Of all sorts, sizes, and heights, the men present the 
 appearance of a collection of shambling scarecrows. They 
 are willing (as I have shown) and fairly honest, but fifty 
 per cent of them, or more, are illiterate. Their antecedents 
 are not usually bad (it is true), and many of them strike 
 
 POONA POLICE. 
 
 out to the front, and earn their small pensions meritoriously. 
 But oh 1 they are so miserably paid ! Horse-keeper — gardener 
 — cow-men — the very cooly, or labourer, who works by the 
 day — turns up his nose at the pittance the blue-coat 
 Policeman receives. He is respected, because he is a man 
 clothed (literally) in authority, but it is certain that he uses 
 
244 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 this authority in many petty ways to eke out his slender 
 means." 
 
 On page 276 I pointed out that the deficiencies of the 
 Police ''cannot be supplied, and that their general inorale 
 can never be improved till they are sufficiently paid." 
 Again, at page 278, I observed ''The inevitable question 
 will be asked — 'Why should these things be?' 'Are 
 there not District Magistrates and Commissioners to point 
 out the need of reform, and to suggest a remedy?' The 
 answer is, that these officers, for many years past, have 
 never ceased pressing the question of police reform on 
 reluctant Governments. The pigeon-holes of the Secretariats 
 must be full of printed and unprinted matter on the subject. 
 Secretaries to Government must have written reams, clerks 
 must have compiled hundredweights of 'precis ', and Honour- 
 able Members of Honourable Boards must have racked 
 their brains in writing lucid Minutes on Police Reform. 
 Lest I should be accused of exaggeration, I may mention, 
 after counting each time, that the papers I alluded to — 
 ignoring all that had passed before — began on the 22nd 
 November, 1888, and terminated on 3rd February, 1894, 
 thus covering five years and three months. The papers laid 
 on the Editor's table (see the "Mahratta" of i8th February) 
 enumerate seventeen letters, two telegrams, and four resolu- 
 tions. Heaven only knows how many memos, and cross- 
 memos, must have passed besides I " 
 
 To the second inevitable question — " Why, then, has 
 nothing been done? " — I explained (p. 281), " The question of 
 
WHY THE POLICE ARE AS THEY ARE. 245 
 
 Police Reform, like a hundred questions of more or less 
 importance, has been from time to time shelved, to make 
 room for whatever at the moment seemed the more pressing 
 matter of the day. Famines, and kindred calamities, have 
 stood in its way. Irrigation Works ; Famine Relief Railways 
 and their Feeders ; Education, the great cormorant — with 
 its technical and other greedy progeny ; all these have come 
 from time to time — most unrighteously — in the way of 
 Police Reform, in truth, the greatest, the most important 
 of them all. 
 
 " But Governors want to make their mark, not so much 
 in India as in England, where their career, if they are 
 ever to have any career, will be. They have a short 
 term of office, and at least the first half of it is occupied 
 in learning some smattering of the people they are gov- 
 erning. Pageants and tours take up a great deal of time, 
 and they are naturally wary of indentifying themselves 
 with reforms which they think will have only local bear- 
 ing, and not tell effectively in their gubernatorial career 
 as a whole. 
 
 ''Thus has the question of Police Reform been systematically 
 'shunted', though several Governments, including Bombay, 
 are understood to be strenuously striving to set their 
 houses in order. It is a matter, moreover, which unquestion- 
 ably involves increased expenditure; and for many years 
 past, with the rupee steadily falling in value, there has 
 been little to spare : no Governor would have dared to 
 propose a substantial advance for Police purposes. Sir 
 
246 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Richard Temple — who has done more for Western India 
 than can be accounted in millions sterling in the one 
 matter of Forest organisation — would certainly have brought 
 Police Reform to the front had he but stayed. But there 
 are not many Indian Administrators possessed of Sir 
 Richard's energy and experience." 
 
 Since my work was published — in fact while it was in 
 the Press — a Bombay Police Reform Scheme was sanctioned 
 and *' placed on the Editor's table". It showed a vigorous 
 attempt by Lord Harris to right a great wrong, but, alas ! 
 the monetary difficulty was against him 1 The pay of the Armed 
 Police has been left untouched. A dangerous experiment 
 has been tried with unarmed police on comparatively high 
 pay. I need not indicate to any Anglo-Indian who has 
 worked outside the Secretariat, what that has meant. Lord 
 Harris's laudable but emasculated scheme now three years 
 in operation, has evidently failed so far as Poona City is 
 concerned. 
 
 r There are other reasons for the failure in the City of 
 the Peishwas. The cost of living there, for example, is 
 perhaps double what it is elsewhere; the temptations are 
 a hundredfold greater because the serious crimes of con- 
 spiracy, sedition, forgery and the like, are the inheritance 
 of a certain wealthy clique who can well afford, not 
 only to pay bribes and hush-money with lavish hands, but 
 also to pay for the propagation of their peculiar patriotic 
 programme. 
 
 Add to this that traditions of Gassee Ram, Kotwal or 
 
TWO INFAMOUS POONA INSPECTORS. 247 
 
 Police Inspector of the City of Poona, under Bajee Rao 
 the last Peishwa (1800), and of the infamous Trimbuckjee 
 Dainglia, Bajee Rao's prime pimp and favourite, have not 
 yet died out. No instance of greater neglect on the part 
 of an administration, or of more extraordinary criminality in 
 a subordinate officer, is recorded in the annals of any 
 state than the case of Gassee Ram, Kotwal or Police 
 Inspector of the City of Poona. This man, a Brahmin 
 native of Hindostan, '* employed the power with which he 
 was vested in perpetrating the most dreadful murders. 
 People disappeared, and no trace of them could be found. 
 Gassee Ram was suspected, but Nana Furnawees refused 
 to listen to complaints, apparently absurd from their un- 
 exampled atrocity. 
 
 *' At last, it being suspected that Gassee Ram was starv- 
 ing a respectable Brahmin to death, Mannajee Phakray 
 headed a party of the people, broke open the prison, and 
 rescued the unfortunate Brahmin, which led to the detection 
 of the monster's crimes ; and he fell a victim to the venge- 
 ance of the exasperated populace, by whom he was stoned 
 to death. Trimbuckjee Dainglia was immediately appointed 
 to the vacant office. Trimbuckjee was originally a jasoos 
 or spy, and brought himself to the Peishwa's notice when 
 he fled to Mhar from the power of Holkar, by carrying 
 a letter to Poona and bringing back a reply in a very 
 short space of time. Being afterwards entertained on the 
 personal establishment of the Peishwa, his activity, intel- 
 ligence and vigour soon became conspicuous; and by 
 
248 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 unceasing diligence, and, above all, by being pander to 
 his vices, never hesitating to fulfil his wishes whatever they 
 might be, he gradually gained the confidence of his master, 
 and was the only man who ever obtained it." 
 
 The Poona PoHce have often and often been more than 
 suspected of torturing their prisoners ; subornation of wit- 
 nesses — *' tutoring", as the Judges term it — has long been 
 reduced to a science and studied in the "Scotland Yard" of 
 Poona City, a spacious fortified palace in the very heart of 
 the city, the only entrance by a well-guarded gateway, 
 the Police Lines placed well away from the lock-ups, to 
 which no one has access but the chief police officials and 
 persons brought by them to interview the prisoners. Who 
 can say how many captives have been, nay, even now 
 may be subjected to cunning modes of torture which leave 
 no trace .^ Who doubts — do not the records of fifty per 
 cent of the Poona Sessions and the Magisterial cases 
 prove it.? — that in this hotbed of intrigue, false evidence.? is 
 systematically got up, and good evidence in weak cases 
 bolstered up by bad .? 
 
 As if all this was not bad enough, the personnel of the 
 city Magistrates, the very office establishment of the Police 
 Superintendent, aye ! of the Commissioner of Police are in 
 league. Any high official has only to indicate that a 
 certain person is offensive to him, and a dead set is at 
 once made against that unfortunate, who sooner or later 
 will be "run in", or disgraced, or ruined. 
 
 The reform of the Poona City Police being now a measure 
 
WHAT THE POONA POLICE SHOULD BE. 249 
 
 that must not be deferred, the direction which reform should 
 take is simpHcity itself. 
 
 The City contains 118,000 souls; it is encompassed 
 by well-defined limits — the river, fortified gateways, and 
 "nullahs" or water-courses banked with prickly pear 
 surround it; the MiHtary Cantonment — British and Native 
 Regiments — lie within hail under its walls. Ergo no armed 
 police are needed within the City; they dare not fire if 
 firearms are needed, they would not fire if they dared. 
 
 It follows that the Police should be baton-armed con- 
 stabulary and horse patrols (Sowars) for the streets, with 
 the reserve in Scotland Yard, with a carefully organised 
 detective establishment selected from all classes, creeds and 
 castes, whose names need not be published to the world. 
 The Superintendent should reside in Scotland Yard — a salu- 
 brious, even a pleasant spot, where there is enough cut- 
 stone lying loose to build him a little palace at small 
 cost. Assistant to the Commissioner of Police ex officio, he 
 should also have authority on emergency to communicate 
 direct with His Excellency the Governor. His house should 
 be connected by wire or telephone with Government House, 
 the residences of the Commissioner of the Central Division, 
 the Commissioner of Police and the Ofificer commanding 
 at Poona. A secret code should be prepared by which he 
 can communicate secretly by wire or letter to either of 
 these high officials ; this code should not be known to any 
 other person. In a few years he would repay his cost 
 by the detection and prevention of crime, not merely in 
 
25o OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 Poona, but all over India, for Poona City is the very 
 navel of crime, the favourite resort of Hindoo criminals, as 
 Bombay City is that of Mahommedans. He should be a 
 picked man, as is the Commissioner of the Bombay Police 
 — well paid and permanently appointed — not a youngster — 
 not owing his promotion to mere seniority. 
 
 So shall the City of the Peishwas be efficiently policed 
 and the Brahmin cobra be scotched. Let the Secretary of 
 State for India see to this; it is almost a matter of Impe- 
 rial importance. 
 
 The cost can be easily provided. Let the Government 
 grant in aid to F'ergusson College be wholly withdrawn, 
 let the grants for Deccan Higher Education generally be 
 docked till the money needed is found. This will be more 
 sensible, juster, and withal more practicable than imposing 
 the cost of a Punitive Police Post on an innocent population. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 It is plain from all that has preceded — from history, 
 from traditions, from the writings of learned men from 
 the earliest down to the latest days, from current events — 
 that a spirit of general disaffection does not prevail in 
 Maharashtra, but is confined to a small body of evil-disposed 
 persons belonging to an astute caste who, till British rule 
 came, possessed all material power, wielded it for their own 
 aggrandisement : who writhe now at the consciousness of 
 having lost it by their treachery towards their rulers and 
 themselves, while they strive, and will never cease to strive, 
 to recover influence by any means, fair or foul. 
 
 Outside this caste, from the warlike Mahratta now fighting 
 by our side, to the peasant and the petty trader, all Hindoos 
 in the Western Presidency are, as in the nature of things 
 they must be, well disposed towards the only Government 
 that has ever given them security of life and property, that 
 has ever reduced their burthens, fostered their trades, 
 attempted to ameliorate their condition, that is even now 
 labouring, as it has always, and will always labour, to 
 mitigate the calamities of famine and pestilence. 
 
252 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. 
 
 And as to Mahommedans, they know full well that they 
 owe their decadence, primarily, to Brahmin influence and 
 ambitious intrigues : secondarily, to their own apathy and 
 indolence. Not a fragment of evidence has yet been adduced, 
 or will ever be found, that there has been any connection 
 between Brahminical conspiracies and Mahommedan fanati 
 cism, while there is abundant and recent proof, in the 
 riots that have occurred throughout the land, of the mutual 
 hostility between the ** twice-born " and the followers of the 
 Prophet. Mahommedans may not love us, may despise us 
 for our fatuous folly in dealing with our real enemies, but 
 they hate the Brahmins with an intensity that cannot be 
 gauged by European standards. They would join with 
 alacrity in any measure likely to weaken Brahminical influ- 
 ence, for they deplore, for their own sakes, the blind confi- 
 dence with which we have played into the hands of the 
 one sect against which history warns us. 
 
 The moral to be drawn is obvious ; the course of wisdom 
 is plain, if the powers that be will only pursue it. Let 
 the caste in question be repressed not pampered. Let the 
 public service be rendered more accessible for other castes 
 and races, not kept well-nigh closed for all but Brahmins. 
 
 No private person limits his cutlery to carving-knives, or 
 replaces tried or well-worn blades by razors. That is 
 what we have done, and so we have cut our fingers to the 
 bone. Weaken Brahminical influence by raising the status 
 of the Mussulman ; let the one counterpoise the other, but 
 let neither party dominate. Look to the Educational Depart- 
 
HOPING AGAINST HOPE. 253 
 
 ment; overhaul objectionable text books; withdraw or 
 reduce grants for higher education, and devote the money 
 to Mahommedan and lower-class schools and colleges. 
 Watch the native Press vigilantly, and promptly punish 
 seditious writings; the law has now been proved sufficient 
 for its control without resort to insane suppression. Reform 
 the Police from top to bottom and infuse therein the 
 detective element it lacks. Try to rescue the peasantry 
 from their indebtedness, and to extend irrigation by means 
 that exist, without resorting to ambitious and costly schemes, 
 which in most parts of Maharashtra cannot be remunerative ; 
 resort rather to water-mining than to water-damming. 
 Above all, govern Bombay, and Madras also, through 
 experienced Lieutenant-Governors who know their India, 
 not by placemen who have to learn its alphabet. Alas ! 
 this last and most essential of reforms is the most hopeless, 
 for it touches patronage, which will doubtles's continue to 
 send out weak, ignorant, apathetic, or prancing proconsuls 
 to the end of time.. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 REMINISCENCES 
 
 OF AN 
 
 INDIAN POLICE OFFICIAL 
 
 2nd Edition (The Roxburghe Press) Price 7s 6d. 
 
 With a new Preface^ & fresh illustrations 
 by Horace van Ruith. 
 
 SOME PRESS NOTICES OF 1st EDITION. 
 
 "The Times," 7 June, 1894. 
 
 "Indian Crime afifords many striking illustrations of native character 
 and many episodes of a more or less dramatic complexion, and the 
 Author's long experience enables him to turn these elements to a very 
 good account . . . ." 
 
 "The Standard," 18 July, 1894. 
 
 " The Author does justice to the many good qualities which have 
 survived the centuries of anarchy, superstition, and oppression through 
 which the native races have passed . . . ." 
 
 Athenaeum," 4 August, 1894. 
 
 " There are (Indian) publications so good in the matter and so agree- 
 able in manner as to justify their appearance; and amongst them we 
 are glad to include the Reminiscences of an Indian Police Official . . . . 
 
 "The various stories are humorously told, even when the Author 
 was victimised .... This interesting volume is well printed and the 
 illustrations by Van Ruith deserve commendation . . . ." 
 
 "Westminster Gazette," i August, 1894. 
 
 "We take it that not many (Indian Officials) have his facile pen. 
 He contrives while bringing out the dangers and difficulties which, 
 beset our Indian rule, to fascinate the reader by his inimitable powers 
 of story telling." 
 
 "The speaker," 14 July, 1894. 
 
 "The English reader is introduced to sundry scenes and characters 
 possessing the two qualities, not often combined, of novelty and 
 authenticity .... The book opens out to us a glimpse of Indian life 
 and manners from a point of view well worth taking." 
 
St James's Gazette," 7 July, 1894. 
 
 " The book is readable and interesting from beginning to end .... 
 (The Author's) reminiscences may be added to those which, like Forbes' 
 "Oriental Memoirs", give us a true and vivid conception of Indian life 
 and character, such as can only be imparted by those who have studied 
 the people with sympathy and insight. 
 
 St James's Budget," 13 July, 1894. 
 
 "The compressed incidents above related can give one but an 
 
 inadequate idea of the interest and attraction attaching to these stories 
 
 The book is illustrated with many views of local scenery and native life." 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette," 17 July, 1894. 
 
 "The stories are too long to quote or analyse, but they should be 
 carefully studied by those who imagine that our country's veneer of 
 civilisation has made any fundamental change in the leopard's spots .... 
 They are all told in a clear, animated, and attractive fashion." 
 
 The Saturday Review," 7 July, 1894. 
 
 " The Author was quite justified in giving us the seamy side of Asiatic 
 life .... and he is careful to note all the pleasing traits in native 
 character .... A conversation between an English loafer and the Patel, 
 with the bad Hindostani of the one and the utter bewilderment of the 
 other, is, in its way, nearly equal to Mr. Rudyard Kipling. Several of 
 the illustrations are very good." 
 
 "The Daily Chronicle," 6 June, 1894. 
 
 "Altogether we have to thank the author for a very interesting and 
 informing book, the illustrations to which are instinct with life and 
 reality." 
 
 "The Daily Graphic," 7 July, 1894. 
 
 "The book, while it ostensibly deals only with the criminal aspects 
 of Indian Society, throws side-lights upon certain out-of-the-beaten- 
 tracks phases of native life that will be both novel and interesting to 
 most English readers .... The chapters quoted are among the most 
 interesting of a very interesting book . , . ." 
 
 "North British Daily Mail," 16 August, 1894. 
 
 "This is a volume of some interest. ... by one who knows what he 
 is talking about .... Very interesting chapters . . . ." 
 
 "Scotsman," 11 June, 1894. ^ -' . - -^ 
 
 ''^Reminiscences of an Indian Police Official -w'l^X be found even better 
 than such books as ' Pandoorung HuiTee,' (by Sir Bartle Frere), or ' The 
 Adventures of a Thug' (by Meadows Taylor), The tales are mostly 
 brief and very well written .... full of incident and abounding in local 
 colour. This book may be confidently recommended to general readers 
 as well as to those specially interested in our Indian Empire . . . ." 
 
Morning Post," 17 July, 1894. 
 
 " This is a remarkable work as a study of Indian character and crime, 
 based on the personal experiences of a keen observer. A very readable 
 volume .... Throughout admirably illustrated by Horace van Ruith." 
 
 " Black and White," 23 June, 1894. 
 
 "These grim studies of Asiatic M^ickedness are impressive from the 
 very simplicity of the method in vv^hich they are told .... The Author 
 relies on laconic veracity for his effect, and wins complete success." 
 
 The Globe," 30 August, 1894. 
 
 "The Reminiscences of an Indian Police Official have both interest 
 and value and are to be welcomed, they are the cream of thirty- 
 five years' experience .... and furnish data of which politicians, and 
 Statesmen even, may be glad to make public and practical use .... They 
 are adorned by many graphic drawings." 
 
 "Morning Leader,' 21 July, 1894. 
 
 "Mr. Arthur Travers Crawford is a man with a distinct literary gift, 
 and his Reminiscences of an Indian Police Official^ are marked by an 
 energy and vivacity, that makes them very excellent reading." 
 
 "The Field," 4 August, 1894. 
 
 "The incidents of which the author gives particulars in no way 
 resemble the sensational tales with which the public have been made 
 familiar by detective geniuses .... The book is nicely illustrated and 
 contains much that will be interesting to the general reader." 
 
 "The Times of India," 18 June, 1894. 
 
 " Graphic and fascinating stories of Indian crime and Indian criminals — 
 worked out with fine dramatic instinct .... It would be odd indeed if 
 the volume were not one of the most interesting of the season .... The 
 book in short is a delightful one from cover to cover, and the illus- 
 trations by Van Ruith are very charmingly and very effectively 
 reproduced." 
 
 "The Friend of India," 10 July, 1894. 
 
 "There is much of real value in this book .... written with consider- 
 able dramatic effect, and with some literary skill .... should be most 
 valuable to Members of Parliament." 
 
 "The Englishman," 3 July, 1894. 
 
 *' A book of very deep, if painful interest .... We have to thank 
 the Author for a very interesting and informing book, the illustrations 
 to which are instinct with life and reality." 
 
■^F CALIFORNT. 
 
 14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWBU 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed books are subjert to immediate recall. 
 
 RtCE;jvE;D 
 
 
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 LOAN DEPT, 
 
 
 JUN 11 1978 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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