Part 47 (1/2)
”My present birth was due to a very grave mistake. The soothsayer explained it. He said that in my last life I was a Rajput. Once I ordered my cook to prepare a gift for some Brahmins, to bake bread for them, and inside the bread I had put gold. It was an act of great merit. But the faithless cook betrayed me. He stole the gold and put stones in its place. The Brahmins were very insulted, but no one ever told me why. Because I had insulted Brahmins, I was reborn as I am. But my next life will be different. I will be rich and have many women.
Like a Brahmin or a Rajput.” Nayka's eyes gleamed in antic.i.p.ation.
”The improvement in money I can understand.” Hawksworth examined Nayka's ragged dhoti. ”But what does it matter when it comes to women?
There seems to be plenty of randy women to go around, in all castes.”
”That's true if you are a Rajput or a Brahmin. Then no woman of any caste can refuse you. But if you are a low caste, and you are caught with a high-caste woman, you'll probably be beaten to death by the Rajputs. They would say you were polluting her caste.”
”Wait a minute. I thought Rajputs would have nothing to do with a low- caste woman.” Hawksworth remembered Vasant Rao's stern denial.
”Who told you that?” Nayka smiled at Hawksworth's naivete. ”I would guess a Rajput. They always deny it to strangers, so you won't form unfavorable ideas about the high castes. Let me tell you that it is a lie, Captain Sahib. They take our women all the time, and there is nothing we can say. But a low-caste man with a high-caste woman is another matter.”
”But what about their 'ritual pollution'? They're not supposed to touch the low castes.”
”It's very simple. A Rajput can take one of our women if he chooses, and then just take a bath afterward and he is clean again.”
”But can't a high-caste woman do the same, if she's been with a low- caste man?”
”No, Captain Sahib. Because they say her pollution is internal. She has the polluting emissions of the low-caste man within her. So there is no way she can be purified. It's the way the high castes control their women. But if you're a man, you can have any woman you please, and there's nothing anyone can say.” Again Nayka's eyes brightened. ”It will be wonderful the day I am reborn. Caste is a wonderful thing.”
Hawksworth studied the half-starved, almost toothless
man who stood before him barefoot, grinning happily.
Well, enjoy your dreams, you poor miserable son-of-a- b.i.t.c.h. I'll not be the one to tell you this life is all you get.
He took a slug of brandy and returned to his dung-flavored lentils.
Taken with some of the charcoal-flavored bread they were actually better than he'd expected.
Vasant Rao had already summoned the Rajputs and made a.s.signments for the evening guard duty. Guards were to be doubled. Hawksworth remained astounded by the Rajput concept of security. A large kettledrum was set up at the head of the camp and continually beaten from dusk to dawn. A detail of Rajputs would march around the perimeter of the camp throughout the night, and on the quarter hour a shout of ”khabardar,”
meaning ”take heed,” would circle the camp. The first night Hawksworth had found it impossible to sleep for the noise, but the second night and thereafter his weariness overtook him.
He poured himself another brandy and watched as Nayka scrubbed out the cooking pans with ashes and sand. Then the driver rolled a betel leaf for Hawksworth and another for himself and set to work erecting the tent, which was nothing more than four poles with a canopy. After this he unloaded Hawksworth's cot, a foot-high wooden frame strung with hemp. None of the Rajputs used cots; they preferred a thin pallet on the ground.
Nayka seemed to work more slowly as he started unrolling the bedding onto the hemp strings of the cot, and he began to glance nervously at the sky. Suddenly he stopped and slipped quietly to where the other drivers were encamped, seated on their haunches around a fire, pa.s.sing the mouthpiece of a hookah. A long discussion followed, with much pointing at the sky. Then Nayka returned and approached Hawksworth, twisting his head in the deferential bow all Indians seemed to use to superiors. He stood for a moment in hesitation, and then summoned the courage to speak.
”It is not well tonight. Sahib. We have traveled this road many times.”
He pointed east into the dark, where new lightning played across the hovering bank of clouds. ”There has been rain near Chopda, farther east where the river forks. In two _pahars_ time, six of your hours, the river will begin to rise here.”
”How much will it rise?”
”Only the G.o.ds can tell. But the river will spread beyond its banks and reach this camp. I have seen it. And it will remain impa.s.sable for three days.”
”How can you be sure?”
”I have seen it before, Sahib. The drivers all know and they are becoming afraid. We know the treachery of this river very well. But the other bank is near high ground. If we crossed tonight we would be safe.” Again he s.h.i.+fted his head deferentially. ”Will you please tell the raja?”
To the drivers, Vasant Rao could only be a raja, a hereditary prince.
All important Rajputs were automatically called rajas.