INDIAN OFFICIAL
BY
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR W. H. SLEEMAN, K.C.B.
REVISED ANNOTATED EDITION
BY
VINCENT A. SMITH
M.A. (DUBL. ET OXON.), M.R.A.S., F.R.N.S., LATE OF THE
INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE,
AUTHOR OF 'THE EARLY HISTORY OF INDIA'
'A HISTORY OF FINE ART IN INDIA AND CEYLON'. ETC.
HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW
NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY
1915
Transcriber's Note
In producing this e-text the numerous notes have been moved to the end of their respective chapters and renumbered. The printed 'Additions and Corrections' have been included in the relevant text.
The map showing the author's route has been confined to the area immediately adjacent to the route, to preserve legibility while maintaining a reasonable file size.
In the printed edition the spelling of certain words is not always consistent. This is especially true of the use of diacritical marks on certain words, even within a single page. This e-text attempts to reproduce the spellings exactly as used in the printed edition.
[AUTHOR'S DEDICATION]
MY DEAR SISTER,
Were any one to ask your countrymen in India what has been their greatest source of pleasure while there, perhaps nine in ten would say, the letters which they receive from their sisters at home. These, of all things, perhaps, tend most to link our affections with home by filling the landscapes, so dear to our recollections, with ever varying groups of the family circles, among whom our infancy and our boyhood have been passed; and among whom we still hope to spend the winter of our days.
They have a very happy facility in making us familiar with the new additions made from time to time to the dramatis personae of these scenes after we quit them, in the character of husbands, wives, children, or friends; and, while thus contributing so much to our happiness, they no doubt tend to make us better citizens of the world, and servants of government, than we should otherwise be, for, in our 'struggles through life in India', we have all, more or less, an eye to the approbation of those circles which our kind sisters represent—who may, therefore, be considered in the exalted light of a valuable species of unpaid magistracy to the Government of India.
No brother has ever had a kinder or better correspondent than I have had in you, my dear sister; and it was the consciousness of having left many of your valued letters unanswered, in the press of official duties, that made me first think of devoting a part of my leisure to you in these Rambles and Recollections, while on my way from the banks of the Nerbudda river to the Himālaya mountains, in search of health, in the end of 1835 and beginning of 1836. To what I wrote during that journey I have now added a few notes, observations, and conversations with natives, on the subjects which my narrative seemed to embrace; and the whole will, I hope, interest and amuse you and the other members of our family; and appear, perchance, not altogether uninteresting or uninstructive to those who are strangers to us both.
Of one thing I must beg you to be assured, that I have nowhere indulged in fiction, either in the narrative, the recollections, or the conversations. What I relate on the testimony of others I believe to be true; and what I relate upon my own you may rely upon as being so. Had I chosen to write a work of fiction, I might possibly have made it a good deal more interesting; but I question whether it would have been so much valued by you, or so useful to others; and these are the objects I have had in view. The work may, perhaps, tend to make the people of India better understood by those of my own countrymen whose destinies are cast among them, and inspire more kindly feelings towards them. Those parts which, to the general reader, will seem dry and tedious, may be considered, by the Indian statesman, as the most useful and important.
The opportunities of observation, which varied employment has given me, have been such as fall to the lot of few; but, although I have endeavoured to make the most of them, the time of public servants is not their own; and that of few men has been more exclusively devoted to the service of their masters than mine. It may be, however, that the world, or that part of it which ventures to read these pages, will think that it had been better had I not been left even the little leisure that has been devoted to them.
Your ever affectionate brother,
W. H. SLEEMAN.
[CONTENTS]
[CHAPTER 1]
Annual Fairs held on the Banks of Sacred Streams in India
[CHAPTER 2]
Hindoo System of Religion
[CHAPTER 3]
Legend of the Nerbudda River
[CHAPTER 4]
A Suttee on the Nerbudda
[CHAPTER 5]
Marriages of Trees—The Tank and the Plantain—Meteors—Rainbows
[CHAPTER 6]
Hindoo Marriages
[CHAPTER 7]
The Purveyance System
[CHAPTER 8]
Religious Sects—Self-government of the Castes—Chimneysweepers—Washerwomen [1]—Elephant Drivers
[CHAPTER 9]
The Great Iconoclast—Troops routed by Hornets—The Rānī of
Garhā—Hornets' Nests in India
[CHAPTER 10]
The Peasantry and the Land Settlement
[CHAPTER 11]
Witchcraft
[CHAPTER 12]
The Silver Tree, or 'Kalpa Briksha'—The 'Singhāra', or Trapa bispinosa, and the Guinea-Worm
[CHAPTER 13]
Thugs and Poisoners
[CHAPTER 14]
Basaltic Cappings of the Sandstone Hills of Central India—Suspension Bridge—Prospects of the Nerbudda Valley—Deification of a Mortal
[CHAPTER 15]
Legend of the Sāgar Lake—Paralysis from eating the Grain of the Lathyrus sativus
[CHAPTER 16]
Suttee Tombs—Insalubrity of deserted Fortresses
[CHAPTER 17]
Basaltic Cappings—Interview with a Native Chief—A Singular Character
[CHAPTER 18]
Birds' Nests—Sports of Boyhood
[CHAPTER 19]
Feeding Pilgrims—Marriage of a Stone with a Shrub
[CHAPTER 20]
The Men-Tigers
[CHAPTER 21]
Burning of Deorī by a Freebooter—A Suttee
[CHAPTER 22]
Interview with the Rājā who marries the Stone to the Shrub—Order of the Moon and the Fish
[CHAPTER 23]
The Rājā of Orchhā—Murder of his many Ministers
[CHAPTER 24]
Corn Dealers—Scarcities—Famines in India
[CHAPTER 25]
Epidemic Diseases—Scape-goat
[CHAPTER 26]
Artificial Lakes in Bundēlkhand-Hindoo, Greek, and Roman Faith
[CHAPTER 27]
Blights
[CHAPTER 28]
Pestle-and-Mortar Sugar-Mills—Washing away of the Soil
[CHAPTER 29]
Interview with the Chiefs of Jhānsī—Disputed Succession
[CHAPTER 30]
Haunted Villages
[CHAPTER 31]
Interview with the Rājā of Datiyā—Fiscal Errors of Statesmen—Thieves and Robbers by Profession
[CHAPTER 32]
Sporting at Datiyā—Fidelity of Followers to their Chiefs in India—Law of Primogeniture wanting among Muhammadans
[CHAPTER 33]
'Bhūmiāwat'
[CHAPTER 34]
The Suicide-Relations between Parents and Children in India
[CHAPTER 35]
Gwālior Plain once the Bed of a Lake—Tameness of Peacocks
[CHAPTER 36]
Gwālior and its Government
[CHAPTER 37] [2]
Contest for Empire between the Sons of Shah Jahān
[CHAPTER 38] [2]
Aurangzēb and Murād Defeat their Father's Army near Ujain
[CHAPTER 39] [2]
Dārā Marches in Person against his Brothers, and is Defeated
[CHAPTER 40] [2]
Dārā Retreats towards Lahore—Is robbed by the Jāts—Their Character
[CHAPTER 41] [2]
Shāh Jahān Imprisoned by his Two Sons, Aurangzēb and Murād
[CHAPTER 42] [2]
Aurangzēb Throws off the Mask, Imprisons his Brother Murād, and Assumes the Government of the Empire
[CHAPTER 43] [2] Aurangzēb Meets Shujā in Bengal, and Defeats him, after Pursuing Dārā to the Hyphasis
[CHAPTER 44] [2]
Aurangzēb Imprisons his Eldest Son—Shujā and all his Family are Destroyed
[CHAPTER 45] [2]
Second Defeat and Death of Dārā, and Imprisonment of his Two Sons
[CHAPTER 46] [2]
Death and Character of Amīr Jumla
[CHAPTER 47]
Reflections on the Preceding History
[CHAPTER 48]
The Great Diamond of Kohinūr
[CHAPTER 49]
Pindhārī System—Character of the Marāthā Administration—Cause of their Dislike to the Paramount Power
[CHAPTER 50]
Dhōlpur, Capital of the Jāt Chiefs of Gohad—Consequence of Obstacles to the Prosecution of Robbers
[CHAPTER 51]
Influence of Electricity on Vegetation—Agra and its Buildings
[CHAPTER 52]
Nūr Jahān, the Aunt of the Empress Nūr Mahal,[3] over whose Remains the Tāj is built
[CHAPTER 53]
Father Gregory's Notion of the Impediments to Conversion in India—Inability of Europeans to speak Eastern Languages
[CHAPTER 54]
Fathpur-Sīkrī—The Emperor Akbar's Pilgrimage—Birth of Jahāngīr
[CHAPTER 55]
Bharatpur—Dīg—Want of Employment for the Military and the Educated Classes under the Company's Rule
[CHAPTER 56]
Govardhan, the Scene of Kriahna's Dalliance with the Milkmaids
[CHAPTER 57]
Veracity
[CHAPTER 58]
Declining Fertility of the Soil—Popular Notion of the Cause
[CHAPTER 59]
Concentration of Capital and its Effects
[CHAPTER 60]
Transit Duties in India—Mode of Collecting them
[CHAPTER 61]
Peasantry of India attached to no existing Government—Want of Trees in Upper India—Cause and Consequence—Wells and Groves
[CHAPTER 62]
Public Spirit of the Hindoos—Tree Cultivation and Suggestions for extending it
[CHAPTER 63]
Cities and Towns, formed by Public Establishments, disappear as Sovereigns and Governors change their Abodes
[CHAPTER 64]
Murder of Mr. Fraser, and Execution of the Nawāb Shams-ud- dīn
[CHAPTER 65]
Marriage of a Jāt Chief
[CHAPTER 66]
Collegiate Endowment of Muhammadan Tombs and Mosques
[CHAPTER 67]
The Old City of Delhi
[CHAPTER 68]
New Delhi, or Shāhjahānābād
[CHAPTER 69]
Indian Police—Its Defects—and their Cause and Remedy
[CHAPTER 70]
Rent-free Tenures—Right of Government to Resume such Grants
[CHAPTER 71]
The Station of Meerut—'Atālīs' who Dance and Sing gratuitously for the Benefit of the Poor
[CHAPTER 72]
Subdivisions of Lands—Want of Gradations of Rank—Taxes
[CHAPTER 73]
Meerut-Anglo-Indian Society
[CHAPTER 74]
Pilgrims of India
[CHAPTER 75]
The Bēgam Sumroo
[CHAPTER 76]
ON THE SPIRIT OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE IN THE NATIVE ARMY OF INDIA
Abolition of Corporal Punishment—Increase of Pay with Length of Service—Promotion by Seniority
[CHAPTER 77]
Invalid Establishment
[Appendix:]
Thuggee and the part taken in its Suppression by General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B., by Captain J. L. Sleeman
Supplementary Note by the Editor
Additions and Corrections
Notes:
1. A blunder for 'Sweepers' and 'Washermen'
2. Chapters 37 to 46, inclusive, are not reprinted in this edition.
3. A mistake. See post, Chapter 52, note 1.
[EDITOR'S PREFACE (1893)[1]]
The Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, always a costly book, has been scarce and difficult to procure for many years past. Among the crowd of books descriptive of Indian scenery, manners, and customs, the sterling merits of Sir William Sleeman's work have secured it pre-eminence, and kept it in constant demand, notwithstanding the lapse of nearly fifty years since its publication. The high reputation of this work does not rest upon its strictly literary qualities. The author was a busy man, immersed all his life in the practical affairs of administration, and too full of his subject to be careful of strict correctness of style or minute accuracy of expression. Yet, so great is the intrinsic value of his observations, and so attractive are the sincerity and sympathy with which he discusses a vast range of topics, that the reader refuses to be offended by slight formal defects in expression or arrangement, and willingly yields to the charm of the author's genial and unstudied conversation.
It would be difficult to name any other book so full of instruction for the young Anglo-Indian administrator. When this work was published in 1844 the author had had thirty-five years' varied experience of Indian life, and had accumulated and assimilated an immense store of knowledge concerning the history, manners, and modes of thought of the complex population of India. He thoroughly understood the peculiarities of the various native races, and the characteristics which distinguish them from the nations of Europe; while his sympathetic insight into Indian life had not orientalized him, nor had it ever for one moment caused him to forget his position and heritage as an Englishman. This attitude of sane and discriminating sympathy is the right attitude for the Englishman in India.
To enumerate the topics on which wise and profitable observations will be found in this book would be superfluous. The wine is good, and needs no bush. So much may be said that the book is one to interest that nondescript person, the general reader in Europe or America, as well as the Anglo-Indian official. Besides good advice and sound teaching on matters of policy and administration, it contains many charming, though inartificial, descriptions of scenery and customs, many ingenious speculations, and some capital stories. The ethnologist, the antiquary, the geologist, the soldier, and the missionary will all find in it something to suit their several tastes.
In this edition the numerous misprints of the original edition have been all, and, for the most part, silently corrected. The extremely erratic punctuation has been freely modified, and the spelling of Indian words and names has been systematized. Two paragraphs, misplaced in the original edition at the end of Chapter 48 of Volume I, have been removed, and inserted in their proper place at the end of Chapter 47; and the supplementary notes printed at the end of the second volume of the original edition have been brought up to the positions which they were intended to occupy. Chapters 37 to 46 of the first volume, describing the contest for empire between the sons of Shāh Jahān, are in substance only a free version of Bernier's work entitled, The Late Revolution of the Empire of the Great Mogol. These chapters have not been reprinted because the history of that revolution can now be read much more satisfactorily in Mr. Constable's edition of Bernier's Travels. Except as above stated, the text of the present edition of the Rambles and Recollections is a faithful reprint of the Author's text.
In the spelling of names and other words of Oriental languages the Editor has 'endeavoured to strike a mean between popular usage and academic precision, preferring to incur the charge of looseness to that of pedantry'. Diacritical marks intended to distinguish between the various sibilants, dentals, nasals, and so forth, of the Arabic and Sanskrit alphabets, have been purposely omitted. Long vowels are marked by the sign ¯. Except in a few familiar words, such as Nerbudda and Hindoo, which are spelled in the traditional manner, vowels are to be pronounced as in Italian, or as in the following English examples, namely: ā, as in 'call'; e, or ē, as the medial vowel in 'cake'; i, as in 'kill'; ī, as the medial vowels in 'keel'; u, as in 'full'; ū, as the medial vowels in 'fool'; o, or ō, as in 'bone'; ai, or āi, as 'eye' or 'aye', respectively; and au, as the medial sound in 'fowl'. Short a, with stress, is pronounced like the u in 'but'; and if without stress, as an indistinct vowel, like the A in 'America'.
The Editor's notes, being designed merely to explain and illustrate the text, so as to render the book fully intelligible and helpful to readers of the present day, have been compressed into the narrowest possible limits. Even India changes, and observations and criticisms which were perfectly true when recorded can no longer be safely applied without explanation to the India of to-day. The Author's few notes are distinguished by his initials.
A copious analytical index has been compiled. The bibliography is as complete as careful inquiry could make it, but it is possible that some anonymous papers by the Author, published in periodicals, may have escaped notice.
The memoir of Sir William Sleeman is based on the slight sketch prefixed to the Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, supplemented by much additional matter derived from his published works and correspondence, as well as from his unpublished letters and other papers generously communicated by his only son, Captain Henry Sleeman. Ample materials exist for a full account of Sir William Sleeman's noble and interesting life, which well deserves to be recorded in detail; but the necessary limitations of these volumes preclude the Editor from making free use of the biographical matter at his command.
The reproduction of the twenty-four coloured plates of varying merit which enrich the original edition has not been considered desirable. The map shows clearly the route taken by the Author in the journey the description of which is the leading theme of the book.