Part 39 (1/2)

1. Govardhan is a very sacred place of pilgrimage, full of temples, situated in the Mathura (Muttra) district, sixteen miles west of Mathura, Regulation V of 1826 annexed Govardhan to the Agra district.

In 1832 Mathura was made the head-quarters of a new district, Govardhan and other territory being transferred from Agra.

2. The Puranas, even when narrating history after a fas.h.i.+on, are cast in the form of prophecies. The Bhagavat Purana is especially devoted to the legends of Krishna. The Hindi version of the 10th Book (_skandha_) is known as the 'Prem Sagar', or 'Ocean of Love', and is, perhaps, the most wearisome book in the world.

3. This flight occurred during the struggles following the battle of Pla.s.sy in 1757, which were terminated by the battle of Buxar in 1764, and the grant to the East India Company of the civil administration of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in the following year. Shah alam bore, in weakness and misery, the burden of the imperial t.i.tle from 1759 to 1806. From 1765 to 1771 he was the dependent of the English at Allahabad. From 1771 to 1803 he was usually under the control of Maratha chiefs, and from the time of Lord Lake's entry into Delhi, in 1803 he became simply a prisoner of the British Government. His successors occupied the same position. In 1788 he was barbarously blinded by the Rohilla chief, Ghulam Kadir.

4. Akbar II. His position as Emperor was purely t.i.tular.

5. The name is printed as Booalee s.h.i.+na in the original edition. His full designation is Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdullah ibn Sina, which means 'that Sina was his grandfather. Avicenna is a corruption of either Abu Sina or Ibn Sina. He lived a strenuous, pa.s.sionate life, but found time to compose about a hundred treatises on medicine and almost every subject known to Arabian science. He died in A.D. 1037.

A good biography of him will be found in _Encyclo. Brit._, 11th ed., 1910.

6. Otherwise called Eurasians, or, according to the latest official decree, Anglo-Indians.

7. 'Diplomatic characters' would now be described as officers of the Political Department.

8. These remarks of the author should help to dispel the common delusion that the English officials of the olden time spoke the Indian languages better than their more highly trained successors.

9. The author wrote these words at the moment of the inauguration by Lord William Bentinck and Macaulay of the new policy which established English as the official language of India, and the vehicle for the higher instruction of its people, as enunciated in the resolution dated 7th March, 1835, and described by Boulger in _Lord William Bentinck_ (Rulers of India, 1897), chap. 8. The decision then formed and acted on alone rendered possible the employment of natives of India in the higher branches of the administration. Such employment has gradually year by year increased, and certainly will further increase, at least up to the extreme limit of safety. Indians now (1914) occupy seats in the Council of India in London, and in the Executive and Legislative Councils of the Governor-General, Provincial Governors, and Lieutenant-Governors.

They hold most of the judicial appointments and fill many responsible executive offices.

10. Khojah Nasir-ud-din of Tus in Persia was a great astronomer, philosopher, and mathematician in the thirteenth century. The author's Imam-ud-din Ghazzali is intended for Abu Hamid Imam al Ghazzali, one of the most famous of Musulman doctors. He was born at Tus, the modern Mashhad (Meshed) in Khurasan, and died in A.D. 1111.

His works are numerous. One is ent.i.tled _The Ruin of Philosophies_, and another, the most celebrated, is _The Resuscitation of Religious Sciences_ (F. J. Arbuthnot, _A Manual of Arabian History and Literature_, London, 1890). These authors are again referred to in a subsequent chapter. I am not able to judge the propriety of Sleeman's enthusiastic praise.

11. The gentleman referred to was Mr. John Wilton, who was appointed to the service in 1775.

12. The cantonments at Dinapore (properly Danapur) are ten miles distant from the great city of Patna.

13. The rupee was worth more than two s.h.i.+llings in 1810. The remuneration of high officials by commission has been long abolished.

14. There used to be two opium agents, one at Patna, and the other at Ghazipur, who administered the Opium Department under the control of the Board of Revenue in Calcutta. In deference to the demands of the Chinese Government and of public opinion in England, the Agency at Ghazipur has been closed, and the Government of India is withdrawing gradually from the opium trade. Such lucrative sinecures as those described in the text have long ceased to exist.

15. These Persian words would not now be used in orders to servants.

16. This officer was Sir Joseph O'Halloran, K.C.B., attached to the 18th Regiment, N.I. He became a Lieutenant-Colonel on June 4, 1814, and Major-General on January 10, 1837. He is mentioned in _Ramaseeana_ (p 59) as Brigadier-General commanding the Sagar Division.

17. The King's demand was improper and illegal. The Muhammadan law, like the Jewish (Leviticus xviii, 18), prohibits a man from being married to two sisters at once. 'Ye are also forbidden to take to wife two sisters; except what is already past: for G.o.d is gracious and merciful' (_Koran_, chap. iv). Compare the ruling in 'Mishkat-ul- Masabih', Book XIII, chap. v, Part II (Matthews, vol. ii, p. 94).

18. The colonel's son has succeeded to his father's estates, and he and his wife are, I believe, very happy together. [W. H. S.] Such an incident would, of course, be now inconceivable. The family name is also spelled Gardner. The romantic history of the Gardners is summarized in the appendix to _A Particular Account of the European Military Adventures of Hindustan, from 1784 to 1803_; compiled by Herbert Compton: London, 1892.

19. _Ante_, Chapter 53 text between [2] and [3].

20. Kasganj, the residence of Colonel Gardner, is in the Etah district of the United Provinces. In 1911 the population was 16,429.

CHAPTER 54

Fathpur-Sikri--The Emperor Akbar's Pilgrimage--Birth of Jahangir.

On the 6th January we left Agra, which soon after became the residence of the Governor of the North-Western Provinces, Sir Charles Metcalfe.[1] It was, when I was there, the residence of a civil commissioner, a judge, a magistrate, a collector of land revenue, a collector of customs, and all their a.s.sistants and establishments. A brigadier commands the station, which contained a park of artillery, one regiment of European and four regiments of native infantry.[2]