Tara: A Mahratta Tale

by Meadows Taylor

  CHAPTER XCIII.

  EPILOGUE.

  Perhaps I ought to have told my fair readers more of the particularsof this double marriage, but I am afraid they would have found them astiresome in the relation, as Zyna and Tara did in actual sufferance ofthe nine days of their continuance. We can at least imagine that, withunlimited means, the jewels and trousseaux provided for both brides bythe lady Lurlee (and these things are as indispensable there as here)were--perfection. And we may also state thus much in confidence, thatparticular friends were admitted to private views of them. The young tobe envious: the old to be congratulatory--envious too, perhaps, whoknows?--for such things happen there as well as here. Then, as marriagegifts were presented by friends, there were trays upon trays from theQueen to both of jewels, brocades, and muslins, which need not bespecified; and the royal lady availed herself of her privilege to seethe brides, and put sugar-candy into both their mouths, wondering atTara's beauty, and heartily wishing them both God-speed on their life'sjourney.

  Did not also the poets of the city write verses, and the singers singthem; and are they not sung there to this day? Were there not poor folkfed by hundreds, Hindus as well as Mussulmans, and clothed too? and wasthere one of the sixteen hundred mosques in the city, where alms andthank-offerings were not distributed in proportion to their importance?"No one else remained to be married," said the lady Lurlee, when shehad collected all the poor couples she could hear of, given themclothes, and had them married with her children. And, Mashalla! of whathad been done, she was in nowise ashamed. No, indeed; and plenteouswere the congratulations and blessings showered upon her, and upon themall, by high and low.

  Vyas Shastree, Anunda, and Radha, remained long enough to seeTara reconciled to her new station in life, and to appreciate howirresistibly charming the quiet natural dignity of the Brahmun girlbecame, among the new society into which her destiny had thrownher. But, beloved as she was by many a sincere friend among her newfaith--as years passed, the devotion borne to her by the retainers ofthe house, the farmers on her husband's vast estates, and the pooreverywhere, was most affecting to witness, and increased with time; andher parents heard with joy and pride, far away in their own home, ofthe bounty of the good lady, Ayesha Khanum.

  They left their daughter, then, at peace; and her last connection withthe temple, where her father served, and where she was long remembered,was the presentation to the shrine, of the necklace she had vowed toit, which was taken there in solemn procession, and hung round the neckof the image. Some time afterwards, and when all expiatory ceremonieswere completed, Radha's first child was born--a son, which Anundaadopted as her own: and in her care for it, found love and occupationto fill her heart and her time, and to supply, in some part, Tara'sabsence.

  Mother and daughter met, however, frequently. No entire year elapsedwithout a reunion, and in the course of time came children too, whoclimbed in turn about the good dame's lap and called her grandmother.Then her heart clave to them--strangers though they were in faith--andafter her own simple fashion she lived much among them during thelatter years of a tranquil and happy life. Sometimes the Shastree camewith her to Beejapoor, but not often.

  Fazil Khan lived in stormy times and bore his part in them. Thedestruction of the force under his father's command had not only beena sore loss to the King's army, both in _materiel_ and in men,[21]but a vital blow at the very existence of the kingdom and of theMussulman power in India. Treacherously as it had been gained, theRajah Sivaji did not slumber on his victory. His people were assured ithad been suggested by divine counsel, and carried out by divine aid,and that their prince thenceforth was an incarnation of divinity. He,perhaps aided by his mother, believed this of himself, propagated thebelief, and acted upon the effect of it. He was everywhere active andpersevering: now invading the kingdom of Beejapoor, plundering up tothe gates of the capital, and inflicting rapid and terrible blows inall directions: now attacking the Moghul posts and forts, and extendinghis authority until, though professing subservience to both, he becamevirtually independent equally of Dehli and Beejapoor, and finallyassumed the state and insignia of a sovereign.

  Fazil Khan had not long concluded his marriage ceremonies, ere he wascalled upon to take the command of part of a new army, with which theKing took the field in person. Tara would not leave him, and shared thefatigue and peril of the new campaign in a manner which called forththe lady Lurlee's warmest approbation. She had not been more, she said,to his father than Tara was to his son, and she always contrasted herpractical usefulness and endurance, with the behaviour of other ladieswho could not leave luxurious palaces, and the state and splendourwhich had greater charms for them, than the rough vicissitudes of camplife.

  For a time the royal forces succeeded in checking the Mahrattaincursions and restoring tranquillity on the borders, and Fazil Khancontinued, like his father, to render service as a commander wheneverhe was called upon; but he could not be induced to take office in theadministration, and as disquiet and intrigue at the capital became moreformidable, retired for the most part to his estate of Afzoolpoor, nearthe Bheema river, and usually lived there, visiting Beejapoor only onoccasions of ceremony. He never married again, as the law would haveallowed, and at his death was buried beside his wife in the mausoleumwhich his father had built at Afzoolpoor, and where such of the remainsof the old Khan as could be afterwards recovered, had been deposited.The mausoleum still exists as perfect as when built, and on the severalanniversaries of their deaths, flowers are strewn by the Mussulmanpriests of the town and by the people over their graves, and prayersare said for the repose of their souls in Paradise.

  We have said that the Mussulmans of India received their first materialcheck in the massacre at Pertabgurh, and we state this advisedly. Thatevent, in 1657, led as directly to their ruin, and the steady rise ofthe Mahrattas, as did the English victory of Plassey, in 1757, to thedestruction of both. For though, by the conquests and subversion ofall the independent Mussulman kingdoms of the Dekhan by Aurungzeeb,the empire of Dehli culminated to its highest splendour,--it was notmaintained: and rapidly fell to pieces under the effects of disastrouscivil wars on the one hand, and the increasing power of the Mahrattason the other. In 1689, Beejapoor was again attacked by the Moghularmies under the Emperor in person, and, surrendering by capitulation,ceased to be an independent kingdom. The rest is matter of generalhistory, with which this particular chronicle has no concern.

  Sivaji died in 1680, after a life which was a stirring romance fromfirst to last, but not before the power he had aroused and created hadbecome for the present invincible--fulfilling his mother's prophecy,that the Hindu war-cry, "Hur, Hur, Mahadeo!" should be shouted invictory throughout the land of Hind, in triumph to the goddess who ledit on, from Dehli to Rameshwur.

  It was singular that Kowas Khan, with his father's tragical fate freshin his memory, should have been unable to resist the same temptationsto treason and treachery. Though he had ceased them for a while, theEmperor Aurungzeeb renewed his intrigues at Beejapoor; for Kowas Khan,who became regent of the State after the King Ali Adil Shah's death,entered into negotiations with the Moghul general, Khan Jehan, whocommanded in the adjoining provinces, to give a daughter of the royalhouse in marriage to a son of the Emperor's, and as the price of this,to hold the kingdom of Beejapoor himself in dependence, which had beenhis father's aim also. The plot was discovered, however, and Kowas Khanwas assassinated, in 1675, eighteen years after the events we haverecorded.

  Some of his lineal descendants still survive, and the memory ofthe lady Zyna and of her beauty lives among them. There is a noblemausoleum on the west side of the town of Suggur, in the province ofShorapoor, which, at the period of which we write, belonged to thisfamily. It was begun by the "Wuzeer" of Beejapoor, and finished byhis son Kowas Khan: and in it the remains of the lady Zyna and herhusband rest, under the care of their descendants, who, now reduced incircumstances, have preserved a small village with its lands, whichadjoins the tomb, as the only remnant of t
he once princely estateswhich were held by their ancestors; and the revenues of this village,which had originally been assigned in payment of oil for the mausoleum,are now their only support. They are, however, most respectable. Thesoubriquet of Wuzeer is still attached to them; and the head of thefamily, Sofee Sahib, still preserves much of the "aristocratic"dignity of descent. The family palace at Beejapoor, though deserted, isstill standing, and is, or was, one of the very few private buildingsthere of which the roof is entire. Perhaps by this time, however, itsowner may have been unable to resist the price he could obtain for itsmassive teak timbers. The roof may have been sold, and the handsomerooms and courts left open, to decay rapidly under the influence of theseasons.

  A few words in relation to some other characters in our history, and wehave done.

  Pahar Singh did not long maintain his promise of abstinence fromviolence. It had become, together with avarice, the ruling passionof his character, and led him on, after a while, to fresh outrages;and though pardoned by the King again and again, in memory of hisstrange services, it was impossible, in the end, to overlook thedaring character of his proceedings, and his occupation of royalterritories. Nor was it long before Kowas Khan discovered the activeshare the robber chief had taken in his father's murder; and though theKing's acquiescence in that deed was more surmised than ascertained,the fact of his being acquainted with Pahar Singh's part in it wasnot afterwards denied. On an occasion, therefore, when, by a morethan usually serious outrage, the King's pardon had been absolutelywithdrawn, his reduction and punishment became unavoidable,--Kowas Khanled an army against the castle of Itga, Pahar Singh was slain in itsdefence, his estates confiscated, and the castle and its walls blown up.

  His nephew escaped, but returned to the village to live as a farmerunder reduced circumstances. When Aurungzeeb conquered the country,he became again "Hazaree," or commander of a thousand, and the titleremained with his descendants, who, however, never abandoned lawlesscourses. Long afterwards, a descendant, also named Pahar Singh, becamea leader of Dekhan Pindarees, or freebooters, after the Mahratta war of1818-19, and when that crime was no longer practicable, took to a minorpractice of it in highway robbery. In 1828-29, the family were found tobe largely connected with Dacoity and Thuggee, and the leading membersof it were tried, convicted of both crimes, and sentenced to variousterms of imprisonment, during which their head, Pahar Singh, died.

  Persevering to the last, the other members, on their release, againtook to highway robbery on horseback, and for a brief period were theterror of certain districts in the Dekhan, extending their operations,too, to distant points; but they were gradually hunted down,[22] andthe last six were brought to justice by the writer of this chronicle in1850, and sentenced to penal servitude for life. One member only of thefamily survives free, and, as late as 1860, was a private in the policeof the ---- district.

  Our friend the Lalla, who played a conspicuous part in the earlyportion of this history, became a prosperous and wealthy man; butthe question of his honesty remained an open one. He sent for hisfamily, and settled at Beejapoor, and his talents gained him lucrativeemployment in the state. He remained attached to Kowas Khan, whom heis believed to have corrupted; and, finally, as the kingdom was onthe point of dissolution, he is said to have made peace with his oldmaster, the Emperor Aurungzeeb, by materially assisting his designs,and tampering with the nobility and officers of the state previous tothe last investment of the city. He probably returned to Dehli with theroyal camp, for no traces of his family are to be found in Beejapoor.

  Bulwunt Rao remained as he was, the leader of a troop of his ownhorses in the Paigah, or household forces of Fazil Khan. When hiscousin and hereditary enemy, Tannajee Maloosray, was killed in thatfamous escalade of Singhur, near Poona, which has furnished thesubject of many a Mahratta ballad, Bulwunt Rao went to Sivaji, andthe circumstances he related being well remembered, he obtainedsubstantial justice in the restoration of his hereditary property.Sivaji offered him service, which was respectfully declined, and themotives for refusal being appreciated, he was honourably dismissed. Hemarried among his kinsfolk, and his wife, a practical woman, kept hishouse well. It is questionable, however, whether his habits were everreclaimed, and he died before the dissolution of the Beejapoor kingdom.His wife, finding the care of the troop-horses irksome, sold them,returned with her children to the family estate, and settled there, andtheir descendants are now connected with many of the noble families ofthe Dekhan.

  The hunchback, Lukshmun, after his return home, took to Itga all thathe had saved, together with a heavy purse of gold which Fazil Khanhad given him, which he buried immediately on his arrival. Somehowor other, however, the fact of this gold being possessed by him, gotwind, and the idea of a mere retainer possessing gold at all, was toomuch to be endured by his avaricious master, who demanded to see it.We are sorry to record, that the poor fellow was obliged to submit tosome rough torture, which was more than he could bear, ere he wouldsurrender it; but Lukshmun always supposed that it was by the desertionof his master at Tooljapoor, rather than by the possession of thegold, that evil eyes fell upon him; and perhaps he was right. The goldwas given up to his chief, and by it the last link between them wasbroken; and profiting by Pahar Singh's temporary absence, Lukshmun,taking his wife and children with him, left Itga one day, and returnedto Afzoolpoor, where Fazil Khan's retainers were stationed, and wasprotected by them. Pahar Singh threatened to burn the town if he werenot given up; but Fazil Khan paid what was demanded for him, and heremained.

  Years afterwards, and as his lord's children grew up, the hunchback wastheir especial favourite. He taught the eldest boys athletic exercises,the use of their weapons, and riding; and as long as any girl wasallowed to go out of the private apartments, he carried her about inhis arms, told charming fairy stories, and manufactured playthings--hisdolls, being of all, the most hideous, and most delightful. Nor wasthere any greater treat to the children possible, than when theirmother sometimes, and especially on certain anniversaries, sent forthe hunchback and Ashruf, now a stout cavalier in the household troop,and having seated them outside a screen, made them sing ballads againas they did once long ago; and of all their store, "The Vow of theNecklace," was ever the greatest favourite with the children, becausetheir mother's name was mentioned in it. With her, because--well, nomatter: we know why, long since, and 'tis now an old story.

  Many years before them, and in all honour among her children, asshe always called them, the lady Lurlee passed away. She never gaveup astrology, and found perpetual occupation in discovering luckydays for her grandchildren's wants, and for all sorts of householdobservances. Not a tooth could be cut, or any ailment of childhoodexist and pass away, without appropriate ceremonials of thanksgiving,in the discovery of proper times for which, the old lady was held to beespecially skilful. Nor in these only. Was she not the authority of theneighbourhood for ascertaining lucky marriages, for deciding the propercolours for proper days of her grandchildren's dresses; and did not shekeep the cords of all their birthdays, and tie the knots in each as theanniversaries returned? Was she not the undisputed director of all suchhousehold family matters, and the universal referee on them by all heracquaintance?

  Her affection for Zyna and her children remained to the last, thoughshe never cordially liked Kowas Khan, or forgave him for being the sonof one who had been a slave. But her love for her own child, Tara--thechild whom God had sent her--transcended that for Zyna. It filled herheart, and overflowed upon her grandchildren, who loved her dearly, anddid with her pretty much what they pleased. After Kowas Khan's deathshe went to Zyna, and lived with her till her son was old enough toprotect his mother; then she settled finally into the place she heldwith Tara and her children; and when she breathed her last, her headlay on Tara's bosom--resting peacefully.

  With her outward conversion to a strange faith, did Tara forgetthe old? No, it was impossible. Though her studious dispositionenabled her to master enough Arabic, under her husband's teaching, tounderstan
d the daily prayers, and some simple ceremonials, yet thegrand old Hindu hymns of the Vedas, and other devotional portions ofthe Shastras, especially the Bhugwat Geeta, were never forgotten;and when the purport of them was explained to her husband, he didnot object to her reading them. She could not either, change herfrugal mode of living; and, to her death, never overcame her naturalrepugnance to animal food. In this respect also, her husband indulgedher; though perhaps the lady Lurlee thought it a sad dereliction oforthodox observances in general, which could only be overcome on thefestivals of the Nowroz or the Bukreed, or other occasions of religiousceremonial.

  When Tara was dying, and the Moollas without were chanting the servicefor her departing soul, her eyes seemed once to flash with a brightradiance, and her husband and children, who, were around her, heard hersay gently, "I come, O Mother," and repeat some Sanscrit words. Thepriests, jealous of her perfect conversion, would have it, that shealluded to Miriam, the Mother of Jesus of Nazareth, for there could beno other Mother. It might, indeed, be so, for she seemed of late tohave taken a peculiar delight and interest in this history, especiallysince some Christian monks from Goa, who had established a mission[23]at the town of Chittapoor, only a few miles distant, had come to begalms of her, and had told her of the purer faith of Christ, and hisloving mother Mary. It might have been that she spoke of this; or,more probable perhaps, that her spirit, trembling on the brink of theunknown world, had wandered back into the old days of her trials anddeliverances, once, ere it departed.

  FOOTNOTES:

  [21] The loss of the Beejapoor army at Jowly was 4000 horses, with allthe guns, elephants, camels, _materiel_, and treasure of the army.

  [22] They were apprehended by the author, committed to the Zillah courtof Sholapoor, and there tried by the judge.

  [23] The mission still exists, and is visited periodically by priestsfrom Goa. There are, or were, about seventy Christians in it who, withan affecting simplicity, preserve their faith in purity. They areshepherds, weavers, and distillers.