by Fanny Parkes
Our friend Colonel Gardner is still at Lucknow which, in all probability, will speedily be taken into the hands of the British government for its better protection! The King has lately dismissed a man of great talent who was his prime minister and put in a fool by way of a change. The consequence is already felt in the accounts of the royal treasury. It is said it is impossible to collect the revenue without force, and that where that has been used, his Majesty’s forces have been beaten.
A friend writes from England, ‘I shall always regret having quitted India without having seen Colonel Gardner and the Tāj.’
He is a very remarkable man; his age nearly seventy, I believe. I had a long letter from him two days since, full of all the playfulness of youth and of all kindness. I never met so entertaining or so instructive a companion; his life, if he would publish it, would be indeed a legacy and shame our modern biography.
December 20th – For the first time this year it has been cold enough to collect ice; during my early ride this morning I saw the coolies gathering it into the pits.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE GREAT FAIR AT ALLAHABAD
TALKING TO A MAN WHO IS IN ECSTASY (OR A RELIGIOUS NATURE PRACTISED OR FEIGNED BY FAKIRS) IS LIKE BEATING CURDS WITH A PESTLE
JANUARY 1833 – The burā melā at Prāg, or the great fair at Allahabad, is held annually on the sands of the Ganges below the ramparts of the Fort, extending from the Mahratta Bund to the extreme point of the sacred junction of the rivers. The booths extend the whole distance, composed of mud walls, covered with mats or thatched. This fair lasts about two months, and attracts merchants from all parts of India, Calcutta, Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, etc. Very good diamonds, pearls, coral, shawls, cloth, woollens, China, furs, etc. are to be purchased. Numerous booths display brass and copper vessels, glittering in the sun with many brazen idols: others are filled with Benares’ toys for children. Bows and arrows are displayed, also native caps made of sable, the crowns of which are of the richest gold and silver embroidery.
The pearl merchants offer long strings of large pearls for sale, amongst which some few are fine, round and of a good colour. The natives value size, but are not very particular as to colour, they do not care to have them perfectly round and do not object to an uneven surface. They will allow a purchaser to select the best at pleasure from long strings.
The deep red coral is valued by the natives much more than the pink. I bought some very fine pink coral at the fair: the beads were immense; the price of the largest, Rs 11 per tola; i.e. Rs 11 for a rupee’s weight of coral. The smallest, Rs 6–4 per tola; it was remarkably fine. Some years afterwards the Brija Bāī, a Mahratta lady, a friend of mine, called on me; she observed the long string of fine pink coral around my neck and said, ‘I am astonished a memsāhib should wear coral; we only decorate our horses with it: that is pink coral, the colour is not good; look at my horse.’ I went to the verandah; her horse was adorned with a necklace of fine deep red coral. She was quite right and I made over mine to my grey steed.
Some of the prettiest things sold at the melā are the tīkas, an ornament for the forehead for native women. The tīka is of different sizes and patterns; in gold or silver for the wealthy, tinsel for the poorer classes; and of various shapes. The prettiest are of silver, a little hollow cup like a dewdrop cut in halves: the ornament is stuck with an adhesive mixture on the forehead, just in the centre between the eyebrows. Some tīkas are larger, resembling the ferronière worn by Europeans ladies.
The Allahabad hakāks are famous for their imitation in glass of precious stones. I purchased a number of native ornaments in imitation of the jewellery worn by native ladies, which were remarkably well made and cost only a few rupees. I also bought strings of mock pearls brought from China that are scarcely to be distinguished from real pearls, either in colour or weight.
The toys the rich natives give their children, consisting in imitations of all sorts of animals, are remarkably pretty; they are made in silver and enamelled: others are made of ivory very beautifully carved; and for the poorer classes they are of pewter, moulded into the most marvellous shapes.
At this time of the year lakhs and lakhs of natives come to bathe at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna; they unite at the extremity of a neck of land, or rather sand, that runs out just below the Fort. On this holy spot the Brahmans and religious mendicants assemble in thousands. Each fakīr pitches a bamboo from the end of which his flag is displayed, to which those of the same persuasion resort. Here they make pooja, shave, give money to the fakīr and bathe at the junction. The clothes of the bathers are put upon chārpāīs to be taken care of; for so many paisa. Every native, however poor he may be, pays tribute of R. 1 to Government before he is allowed to bathe.
Two boats, by order of Government, are in attendance at this point to prevent persons from drowning themselves or their children. The mere act of bathing in the waters of the Ganges, on a particular day, removes ten sins, however enormous, committed in ten previous births. How much greater must be the efficacy at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna which the Saraswāti, the third sacred river, is supposed to join underground! The benefits arising from bathing at the lucky moment of the conjunction of the moon with a particular star is very great, or at the time of an eclipse of the sun or moon.
The holy waters are convenient for washing away a man’s sins, and as efficacious as a pope’s bull for this purpose. Groups of natives stand in the river whilst their Brahman reads to them, awaiting the happy moment at which to dip into the sacred and triple waves. They fast until the bathing is over. Suicide committed at the junction is meritorious in persons of a certain caste, but a sin for a Brahman!
The holy men prefer the loaves and fishes of this world to the immediate moksh or beatitude, without further risk of transmigration, which is awarded to those who die at the sacred junction.
Bathing will remove sins, gain admittance into heaven and the devotee will be reborn on earth in an honourable station.
A married woman without children often vows to Ganges to cast her firstborn into the river: this in former times was often done at Prāg, it now rarely occurs. If the infant’s life is preserved, the mother cannot take it again.
Religious Mendicants
The most remarkable people at this melā are the religious mendicants; they assemble by hundreds and live within enclosures fenced off by sticks, a little distance from the booths. These people are the monks of the East; there are two orders of them; the Gosāins, or followers of Shiva, and the Byragies, disciples of Vishnu. Any Mohammedan may become a fakīr, and a Hindu of any caste a religious mendicant. The ashes of cow-dung are considered purifying: these people are often rubbed over from head to foot with an ashen mixture and have a strange dirty white, or rather blue appearance. Ganges mud, cow-dung, and ashes of cow-dung form, I believe, the delectable mixture.
The sectarial marks or symbols are painted on their faces according to their caste, with a red, yellow, white or brown pigment, also on their breasts and arms. Their only covering is a bit of rag passed between the legs and tied round the waist by a cord or rope.
One man whom I saw this day at the melā was remarkably picturesque, and attracted my admiration. He was a religious mendicant, a disciple of Shiva. In stature he was short and dreadfully lean, almost a skeleton. His long black hair, matted with cow-dung, was twisted like a turban round his head – a filthy juta (braided locks)! On his forehead three horizontal lines were drawn with ashes and a circlet beneath them marked in red sanders – his sectarial mark. If possible, they obtain the ashes from the hearth on which a consecrated fire has been lighted. His left arm he had held erect so long that the skin and flesh had withered, and clung round the bones most frightfully; the nails of the hand, which had been kept immoveably clenched, had pierced through the palm and grew out at the back of the hand like the long claws of a bird of prey. His horrible and skeleton-like arm was encircled by a twisted stick, the stem, perhaps, of a thick creeper, the end of whic
h was cut into the shape of the head of the cobra de capello, with its hood displayed, and the twisted withy looked like the body of the reptile wreathed around his horrible arm. His only garment, the skin of a tiger thrown over his shoulders, and a bit of rag and rope at his waist. He was of a dirty-white or dirty-ashen colour from mud and paint; perhaps in imitation of Shiva who, when he appeared on earth as a naked mendicant of an ashy colour, was recognised as Mahadēo the great god. This man was considered a very holy person. His right hand contained an empty gourd and a small rosary, and two long rosaries were around his neck of the rough beads called mundrāsee. His flag hung from the top of a bamboo, stuck in the ground by the side of a trident, the symbol of his caste, to which hung a sort of drum used by the mendicants. A very small and most beautifully formed little gynee (a dwarf cow) was with the man. She was decorated with crimson cloth embroidered with cowrie shells, and a plume of peacock’s feathers as a jika rose from the top of her head. A brass bell was on her neck, and around her legs were anklets of the same metal. Numbers of fakīrs come to the sacred junction, each leading one of these little dwarf cows decorated with shells, cowries, coloured worsted tassels, peacock’s feathers and bells. Some are very small, about the size of a large European sheep, very fat and sleek, and are considered so sacred that they will not sell them.
Acts of severity towards the body, practised by religious mendicants, are not done as penances for sin but as works of extraordinary merit, promising large rewards in a future state. The Byragee is not a penitent, but a proud ascetic. These people bear the character of being thieves and rascals.
Although the Hindus keep their women parda-nishīn, that is, veiled and secluded behind the curtain, the fakīrs have the privilege of entering any house they please and even of going into the zenāna; and so great is their influence over the natives that if a religious mendicant enter a habitation leaving his slippers at the door, the husband may not enter his own house. They have the character of being great libertines.
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January 11th – Some natives are at the door with the most beautiful snakes, two of them very large and striped like tigers; the men carry them twisted round their bodies and also round their necks, as a young lady wears a boa; the effect is good. The two tiger-striped ones were greatly admired as a well-matched pair; they are not venomous. A fine cobra, with his great hood spread out, made me shrink away as he came towards me, darting out his forked tongue.
There were also two snakes of a dun yellow colour, spotted with white, which appeared in a half torpid state; the men said they were as dangerous as the cobra. They had a biscobra; the poor reptile was quite lame, the people having broken all its four legs, to prevent its running away. They had a large black scorpion, but not so fine a fellow as that in my bottle of horrors.
The melā is very full; such beautiful dresses of real sable as I have seen today brought down by the Moguls for sale! Lined with shawl, they would make magnificent dressing-gowns. I have bought a Persian writing-case and a book beautifully illuminated and written in Persian and Arabic: the Moguls beguile me of my rupees.
We are going to a ball tonight at Mr F—’s, given in honour of Lady William Bentinck, who is expected to arrive this evening. The natives have reported the failure of Messrs Mackintosh & Co. in Calcutta; I do not think it is known amongst the Europeans here; the natives always get the first intelligence. I will not mention it, lest it should throw a shade over the gaiety of the party. An officer who got the lakh, and Rs 60,000 also in the lottery last year, passed down the river today to place it in Government security; it is all gone; a note has been despatched to inform him of the failure and save him a useless trip of eight hundred miles; he lost twenty-five thousand only a few weeks ago by Messrs Alexander’s failure. Lackshmi abides not in his house.
January 12th – The ball went off very well, in spite of Messrs Mackintosh’s failure being known; and people who had lost their all danced as merrily as if the savings of years and years had not been swept away by ‘one fell swoop’!
January 20th – It is so cold today I am shivering; the coconut oil in the lamps is frozen slightly; this weather is fit for England. I must get all the bricklayer’s work over before the hot winds, that I may be perfectly quiet during the fiery time of the year.
January 21st – This being a great Hindu holiday and bathing day induced me to pay another visit to the fair. Amongst the sport (tamāshā) at the melā, was a Hindu beggar who was sitting upon thorns, up to his waist in water – an agreeable amusement. One man played with his right hand on a curious instrument, called a been, while in his left hand he held two pieces of black stone, about the length and thickness of a finger which he jarred together in the most dexterous manner, producing an effect something like castanets, singing at the same time. The passers-by threw cowries, paisa (copper coins) and rice to the man.
I purchased two musical instruments called sarinda, generally used by the fakīrs, most curious things; Hindu ornaments, idols, china and some white marble images from Jaipur.
Amongst other remarkable objects of worship which I beheld at the sacred spot was one joint of the backbone of some enormous fish or animal; two great staring circular eyes were painted upon it, and the ends of the bone stood out like the stumps of amputated arms; a bit of ghuwā (red cloth) covered the lower part; and this was an image of Jaganāth! It had worshippers around it; rice and cowries were the offerings spread before it.
On platforms raised of mud and sand, some ten or twelve missionaries were preaching; every man had his platform to himself and a crowd of natives surrounded each orator. Seeing one of my own servants, an Hindu, apparently an attentive listener, I asked the man what he had heard. ‘How call I tell?’ said he; ‘the English padre is talking.’ I explained to him the subject of the discourse, and received for answer, ‘Very well; it is their business to preach, they get paisa for so doing; what more is to be said?’
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CHAPTER XXIV
THE NUT LOG
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FEBRUARY 22ND 1833 – Today is the Eed: it is customary for the Musulmāns to put on very gay new clothes on this day and to go to prayers at the Jāmma Masjid, the large mosque on the banks of the Jumna. A camel is often sacrificed on the Buckra Eed, on the idea that the animal will be in readiness to carry the person who offers it over the bridge of Sirraat, safe to heaven. The poorer classes will offer a goat (buckra), or a sheep, lambs, or kids. This festival is to commemorate Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. The Musulmāns contend it was Ishmael not Isaac who was the offering.
I have lost my companion, my horse Trelawny: he was so quiet and good-tempered and good-looking; he was as pretty a boy as Hindu or Musulmān might look on in the Central Provinces. Poor Trelawny, Jumna-ji rolls over my good steed! He died this morning of inflammation, caused by some internal injury he received when we were plunging together in the quicksands on the banks of the Ganges.
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The Nut Log
April 19th —Yesterday, some wandering gypsies (Nut Log) came to the door; they were a family of tumblers. Nut is the name of a tribe who are generally jugglers, rope-dancers, etc. There was one girl amongst them whose figure was most beautiful and her attitudes more classic and elegant than any I have ever beheld; Madame Sacci would hide her diminished head before the supple and graceful attitudes of this Indian girl.
A man placed a solid piece of wood, of the shape of an hourglass and about eighteen inches in height, on his head; the girl ran up his back and, standing on one foot on the top of the wood, maintained her balance in the most beautiful attitude whilst the man ran round and round in a small circle; she then sprang off his head to the ground. After this she again ran up his back and kneeling on the hour-glass-like wood on his head, allowed him to run in the circle; then she balanced herself on the small of her back, her hands and feet in the air. After that, she stood on her head, her feet straight in the air, the man performing the circle all the time! The drapery worn by
the natives falls in the most beautiful folds and the girl was a fit subject for a statuary: I was delighted.
They placed a brass vessel, with dust in it, behind her back on the ground, whilst she stood erect; she bent backwards, until her forehead touched the dust in the vessel, and took up between her eyelids two bits of iron that looked like bodkins; the brass pan in which they were laid was only about two inches high from the ground! She threw herself into wonderful attitudes with a sword in her hand. A set of drawings illustrating all the graceful positions which she assumed would be very interesting; I had never seen any thing of the kind before, and thought of Wilhelm Meister. The Nut Log consisted of five women, one little child and one man, who performed all these extraordinary feats; another man beat a tom-tom to keep time for them and accompanied it with his voice; the poor little child performed wonderfully well. She could not have been more than six years old; the other girl was, I should suppose, about eighteen years of age.
Another exhibition worth seeing is an Hindustanī juggler with his goat, two monkeys and three bits of wood, like the wood used in England to play the devil and two sticks. The first bit of wood is placed on the ground, the goat ascends it and balances herself on the top; the man by degrees places another bit of wood on the upper edge of the former; the goat ascends, and retains her balance; the third piece, in like manner, is placed on top of the former two pieces; the goat ascends from the two former, a monkey is placed on her back, and she still preserves the balance. I have seen this curious performance many times. The man keeps time with a sort of musical instrument, which he holds in his right hand and sings a wild song to aid the goat; without the song and the measured time, they say the goat could not perform the balance.