CHAPTER LXIX.
Magnificent as is the scenery of the Western Ghauts of India throughouttheir range, it is nowhere, perhaps, more strikingly beautiful thanin the neighbourhood of the great isolated plateau which--risinghigh above the mountain-ranges around it, and known under the nameof Maha-bul-eshwur, from the temple at the source of the sacredriver Krishna on its summit--is now the favourite summer retreat andsanatorium of the Bombay Presidency. Trim roads, laid out so as toexhibit the beauties of the scenery to the best advantage--prettyEnglish-looking cottages, with brilliant gardens, and a considerablenative town, are now the main features of the place; but at the periodof our tale it was uninhabited, except by a few Brahmuns and devotees,who, attracted by the holiness of the spot, congregated around theancient temple, and occupied the small village beside it. Otherwisethe character of the wild scenery is unchanged. From points near theedges of the plateau, where mighty precipices of basalt descend sheerinto forests of ever-lasting verdure and luxuriance, the eye rangesover a sea of rugged mountain-tops,--some, scathed and shattered peaksof barren rock--others with extensive flat summits, bounded by nakedcliffs which, falling into deep gloomy ravines covered with denseforests, would seem inaccessible to man.
To some readers of our tale, this scenery will be familiar; but toothers it is almost impossible to convey by description any adequateidea of its peculiar character, or of the beauty of the ever-changingaerial effects, that vary in aspect almost as the spectator turns fromone point to another. Often in early morning, as the sun rises overthe lower mists, the naked peaks and precipices, standing apart likeislands, glisten with rosy tints, while the mist itself, as yet denseand undisturbed, lies wrapped around their bases, filling every ravineand valley, and glittering like a sea of molten silver.
Again, as the morning breeze rises in the valleys below, this vapourbreaks up slowly: circling round the mountain summits, lingering inwreaths among their glens and precipices, and clinging to the forests,until dissipated entirely by the fierce beams of the sun. Then,quivering under the fervid heat, long ridges of rugged valleys arespread out below, and range beyond range melts tenderly into a dimdistance of sea and sky, scarcely separated in colour, yet showingthe occasional sparkle of a sail like a faint cloud passing on thehorizon. Most glorious of all, perhaps, in the evening, when, in therich colours of the fast-rising vapours, the mountains glow like fire;and peak and precipice, forest and glen, are bathed in gold and crimsonlight; or, as the light grows dimmer, shrouded in deep purple shadowtill they disappear in the gloom which quickly falls on all.
Westward from this great mountain plateau, and divided from it by abroad deep valley clothed with forests, the huge mountain of Pertabgurhrises with precipitous sides out of the woods and ravines below.The top, irregularly level, furnished space for dwelling-houses andmagazines, while ample springs of pure water sufficed for the use ofa large body of men, by which it could be easily defended. At variousperiods of time--by the early Mahratta chieftains of the country inremote ages, and afterwards by their Mussulman conquerors--walls andtowers had been added to the natural defences of the place, as wellas strong gateways, protected by bastions and loopholed traverses, onthe only approach to the summit--a rugged pathway, which could hardlybe called a road. Under very ordinary defence, the place was perfectlyimpregnable to all attacks by an enemy from without; and, at the periodof our tale, it was held as his capital and choicest stronghold, amongmany such fastnesses in those mountains, by Sivaji Bhoslay, a mandestined to play a conspicuous part in the history of his country andpeople in particular, and of India at large.
We have already informed the reader, in a somewhat desultory mannerperhaps, for we are not writing his history, of the attempts made bySivaji to establish an independent power; and, by taking advantage ofthe weakness and distraction of the kingdom of Beejapoor, of which hewas a vassal, on the one hand, and of the ambitious designs of theEmperor Aurungzeeb on the other, to raise himself to a position inwhich he could secure the actual administration, and eventually thesovereignty, of his native wilds.
Hindu history is in all cases unsatisfactory; and that of the earlyMahratta chiefs and principalities of the Dekhan eminently so. On theinvasion of the Dekhan by Alla-oo-deen, nephew of the then King ofDelhi, in A.D. 1294, the fort and city of Deogurh, now Doulatabad, washeld by Rajah Ramdeo Jadow, who appeared then to have been prince ofthe whole country. Whether he was so or not, whether the chiefs of thewild tracts of the Ghauts and provinces lying on the western sea-coastwere his tributaries or vassals, or whether they were actuallyindependent of each other, has never been ascertained; but, on thedownfall of the princely house of Jadow, no other ruler or chieftainseems to have made any resistance, and the Mahomedans, gatheringstrength, and founding a kingdom at Gulburgah, in the centre of theDekhan, gradually subdued the whole tract, establishing garrisons inthe wildest parts, fortifying hills not already used as strongholds,and improving the defences of others, in that noble and picturesquestyle of fortification which now excites our wonder and admiration.
One of the Mahratta families of ancient native nobility, though notof the highest grade, were the Bhoslays. The Jadows, though no longerpossessing princely power, had descended into the rank of landedproprietors, or hereditary officers, under the ancient Hindu tenure,of the districts over which their ancestors had once held sway. Underordinary circumstances, an alliance between the families would havebeen rejected by the Jadows; but one fell out nevertheless, and after astrange manner.
At the marriage of a mutual friend, Shahji Bhoslay, then a prettyboy, was present with his father, and the head of the family of theJadows with his daughter, Jeejee, a child younger than the boy Shahji.The children began to play together, and the girl's father remarkedjocosely what a pretty couple they would make. The remark was heard bythe boy's father, who claimed it as a promise of betrothal, and, aftersome discussion, and objection as to disparity of rank, the childrenwere eventually married. From these parents sprung Sivaji, who, withhis mother, as remarkable a person in many respects as himself, becamethe originators and leaders of the renewed independence of the Hindusof the Dekhan.
The women of India, particularly those of the higher classes andfamilies, are invariably the treasuries of family events, and of deedsof departed or existent greatness. Jeejee Bye, an ambitious, perhapsunscrupulous woman, strove hard to excite her husband, Shahji Bhoslay,to exertion in the Hindu cause. She filled his mind with legends ofthe Jadows' power; she sought out the histories of his own family; sheurged him to assert his right to districts in sovereignty of which hewas only the official head; and she actively canvassed all the heads ofthe Mahratta families, with a view to a combined resistance against theMahomedan powers, then beginning to show symptoms of a final decadence.
And not without effect. Shahji, the servant and vassal of the Emperorof Delhi as of the King of Beejapoor, rebelled in turn against both;was restless and unfaithful, lacking, while a bold, enterprisingpartisan soldier, the higher qualities which could direct and takeadvantage of such movements. He was frequently imprisoned, fined, andotherwise punished, but nothing checked his wife's ambition. Left toherself during his long absences and captivities with her young sonamong their native wilds, surrounded by rude retainers, she turned tohim as soon as he could comprehend her plans; and by the mother and sonthose designs were sketched out which, in respect of utter hopelessnessat first, and splendid success afterwards, have few comparisons in theworld's history.
As the boy grew up, his immediate retainers joined him in wildenterprises against the Mahomedans, which to the people savouredof madness, but which, as they increased in boldness of design andexecution, were believed to be the deeds of one especially protectedby the Goddess Bhowani, the tutelar divinity of the Jadow family. Hismother, an ardent votary, pretended to be occasionally visited bythe goddess in person, and, filled with her divine afflatus, spokeprophecy. Her son believed in her inspiration: and gradually hisfriends, Maloosray, Palkur, and others, with a superstitious faith,bel
ieved also. Undisciplined, often unarmed men of the Mawuls, ormountain valleys above the Ghauts, who were called Mawullees, andof those below the mountains towards the sea, called Hetkurees,joined the young leader: scaled mountain forts, or descended intothe plains beyond the valleys, gathering arms and booty, occupyingMoslem garrisons, putting their defenders to the sword, and neverrelinquishing what they had obtained.
So year after year passed, and the young Sivaji, as he grew stronger,became more daring and enterprising. Originally a few hundreds ofhalf-naked, ill-armed mountain peasants, his forces of Mawullees andHetkurees at last numbered many thousands of active, determined men. Hehad possession of some of the strongest mountain forts in the WesternGhauts; he had built, and was building, defences to other isolated andnaturally almost inaccessible mountains. He was arming them with cannonpurchased by stealth from the Portuguese of Goa, or cast by his ownskilful artificers; and as he gained more perfect local strength, hewas silently extending his intrigues to all the Mahratta families ofancient Maharastra by agents like Moro Trimmul, and awaiting the timepatiently, till all could rise to overthrow the Mussulman governmentswhich held them in subjection.
Had those governments, after the spirit of the earlier Mussulmaninvaders of the Dekhan, been intolerant of Hindus, denied themprivileges of worship, defiled their temples, confiscated theirancestral rights, or otherwise harassed and oppressed them,--itis probable that Shahji's first attempts towards throwing off theMahomedan yoke would have met with better success. But, on thecontrary, there was now little or no oppression or interference withthem in any way; and many of the Mahratta chieftains not only heldestates in fief for service, but joined the armies of the Mahomedankings, and fought with them bravely and faithfully. We have ourselves acounterpart of this, in some respects, in the Norman occupation of ourown country; inasmuch as, while some Saxon thanes then held themselvesaloof, and retired to the management of their own estates, others werefound who joined the invaders, or, gradually imitating their manners,became incorporated with them.
That Sivaji's prospects had assumed a more encouraging form than anyof his father's, may easily be imagined from the method in which theyhad been maintained. The Dussera, or festival of Bhowani, throughoutMaharastra, of 1657, the year of which we write, was to show, by aprivate muster of the people, what forces were available for a generalrising; and after that it would be determined how they were to beemployed.
We know what the object of Maloosray's mission to Beejapoor hadbeen, and its result. Sivaji had heard already by express from thecapital, of the death of the Wuzeer, the discovery of some of his owncorrespondence by the King, and the acceptance of the gage by AfzoolKhan to undertake a campaign against him with a picked army. He had notheard since, nor had Maloosray arrived; but Sivaji knew that AfzoolKhan was no laggard in war, and that he must prepare himself to meetthe emergency.
A fascination for sacred plays which had possessed him from childhood,was a strange peculiarity of this man's character. As Sivaji grew up,no distance, no personal danger, deterred him from being present atany which could by any possibility be reached. Sometimes openly, andmore frequently in a peasant's or common soldier's garb, the youngprince, with a few chosen associates, would appear at places where hisarrival was incomprehensible, and his disappearance equally abrupt andmysterious. In the latter days, these "Kuthas," as they are termed,became means of assembling his men without attracting suspicion; buthis adherents well knew that the most exciting enterprises immediatelyfollowed them.
Soon after the arrival of the news from Beejapoor, notice of one tobe held at Pertabgurh had been sent through the country, and from theearnestness and celerity with which the orders were circulated fromvillage to village, the people at large were assured of the proximityof some notable event, and hoped, in their own expressive phrase, that,at last, the "fire would light the hills."
With this partial digression, and introduction to the Rajah's play, theday of which had arrived, our history will proceed.
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