Pandurang Hari, or Memoirs of a Hindoo

Front matter

i "It is easy to exaggerate the merits of a favourite book, and 'Pandu rang Hari ' is the interpreter to me of fitful recollections of my earliest childhood — faces and figures seen at Holkar's capital, and when a playmate of the Begum of Bhopal — attacks by Bheels and murderous village quarrels in Malwa — thirty-five years ago, and remembered but darkly now. But if 'HajiBaba' has been justly called the 'Gil Bias' of the East, Pandurang Hari may be called, with the strictest propriety, the Anasta sius of India. It is not indeed a creation of genius like Anastasius. It is without invention, passion, humour — it is wanting in artistic style and skill even, aud its hero is as weak and despicable as he is wicked, and not the fascinating sinner the impenitent Anastasius is ; but in the startling vicissitudes of his career it unfolds the whole social, political, and religious life of the Mahrattas— when at their lowest fortunes and deer/est degrada tion ; and the author's very incapacity for creative authorship, and want of artistic power and common skill as a writer, impresses one all the more with the conviction of the almost photographic faithfulness of his story to the times it describes.

This is the claim of Pandurang Hari to be kept from being forgotten. India is being transformed with magical rapidity, — ' Be hold, I make all things new.' An old missionary ofthe London Missionary Society, once speaking lo me of the discouragements attending missionary work in India, observed— ' But when I; look back to forty years ago, and compare India (Western India) then, with what it now is, the change seems incredible even to me ; and I can account for it only, as the direct work'— I am quoting his words— 'of the Spirit' But in urging you to reprint Pandurang Hari, I must tell you frankly that it has been already refused by several other publishers."— Dr Bird-wood, in a Utter to Mr Henry S . King, 1871. "An obscure three volume novel .... by an anonymous author, named 'Pandurang Hari' ....

A most accurate and vivid picture of Mahratta life. We wish that Captain Meadows Taylor would look after ' Pandurang Hari,' and see if it would not be worth reprinting."— -FaU Mall Gazette, May 21, 1S69. " A history which is a series of the wildest romances, out of which half a dozen historical novels might be constructed, such as the authors of 'Pandurang Hari,' and 'Tara' wrote for the delight of their day and generation."— At licnœuni, December 2, 1871. OR, MEMOIRS OF A HINDOO. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY

Introduction

. I have been asked to write a short introduction, giving some of the reasons why I think the re-publication of this almost forgotten novel desirable at this present time. When " Pandurang Hari " was first published, nearly a half century ago, the book was received as a late and authentic picture of Native Indian society. I well remember my grati tude to a friend who recommended ittome, with "HajiBaba" and the "Kuzzilbash," as the only books he could find which gave any idea of what would now be called the inner life of Orientals. The works of Morier and Fraser have long since secured a permanent place in Anglo-oriental literature ; but " Pandurang Hari " has been so completely forgotten, that when Dr George Birdwo.od recommended its republi cation, the publishers were indebted to the liberality of-Lord Talbot de Malahide,.for one of the few copies of the book which could be traced by Captain Meadows Taylor in any library, with which he was acquainted, in the United Kingdom.

This neglect was not entirely due to compara- PANDURANG HARl VI tive inferiority in literary merit. It is true that " Pandurang Hari " has no pretensions to the artistic skill and delicate sense of humour, by means of which Mr James Morier made the Persian adventurer a permanent favourite with all English readers. Pandurang himself can hardly be regarded in any sense as an interesting hero, and there are defects in the plot of the book, and in the slovenly execution of many details, which would interfere with its popularity as a mere novel. It possesses, however, merits of a very rare kind as a series of photographic pictures from the past generations of a great Indian nation. Its value in this respect would doubtless have been more permanently recognised, but for the circum stance that the pictures were, for the most part, taken from scenes of which Anglo-Indians in general had seen and heard but little.

To roost men who knew India in the Bengal or Madras Presidencies forty years ago, sketches from the life of a Maharatta adventurer could convey no true picture of Indian life and manners ; but there are pro bably a few whose recollections belong to the Deccan or Malwa, and reach so far back as to include personal acquaintance with actors in the last Maharatta war, who will not fail to recognise, in the adventures of Pandurang, the general features of a mode of life and habits of thought, such as the Maharatta associates of their early days in Poona, Indore, or Hyderabad, delighted to dwell on. I had many opportunities of meeting men of this class in 1S35 and subsequent years in the Deccan, and

INTRODUCTION.

. VII I can testify that there are very few of the scenes or stories contained in Pandurang's narrative, to which I could not find a parallel among the reminiscences I have heard related by old men, whose youth had been passed in Maharatta and Pindari courts or camps during the first twenty years of this century. But a traveller who might now visit, for the first time, the provinces in which the scene of the novel is laid, would meet little to remind him of Pandurang's adventures, or of such characters as he describes. I am convinced, from my own recollections of what I heard when I first knew the Deccan, that Pandurang's descriptions are re markably faithful sketches of the time when the story was laid ; and it is this fact which is one reason for my opinion that the re-publication of the old novel now will be of use to thoughtful Englishmen, as well as Hindoos, who interest themselves with questions relating to the progress, social, political, and moral, of Indian nations in modern times.

The pictures drawn by Pandurang are by no means flattering or pleasing — they describe a state of society so hideously disorganised, and of morals so base, that they seem in credible as related of a period so near to our own, in which they would at once be condemned as enormously exaggerated or entirely untrue. If then Pandurang's pictures be, as I believe them 'to be, substantially correct represen tations of the state of things in those provinces only two generations ago, it is clear that the country and people to which they relate, possess enormous inherent power of reco- - VIII vering from a state of debasement which would shock any educated native at the present moment. A knowledge ofthe greatness as well as the rapidity ofthe change which has taken place, may inspire fresh hope in those who are sanguine re garding the future progress of native society, while the same facts may moderate the self-satisfaction of some of our young native friends, who, not having any personal knowledge of the depth of degradation to which society had sunk during previous generations of anarchy and misrule, are apt to believe intelligent foreigners' estimate of their country and people to be tinged with prejudice or clouded by ignorance.

While, however, I can testify to the general truthfulness of Pandurang's sketching powers, I would by no means assent to his general estimate of Maharatta character. The author appears to have been a keen-sighted, quick-witted man, who readily apprehended the leading characteristics of what he saw and heard ; but who shared, with the great majority of his official countrymen, in the difficulty of arriving at im partial opinions regarding the motives and feelings of his native associates. The Introduction is characteristic of the manner in which but too many of our countrymen have always judged the natives of India. It never seems to strike the author, that the irksomeness to Europeans of the society of natives of India, may be as much due to our ignorance of what interests our native visitors, as to their ignorance of what interests us, and that, without some common topics of real INT ROD UCTION.

IX interest to both parties, there can, in no country, be much pleasure in casual conversation. His description of the motives of those natives who visit the European official in India, has no doubt some foundation of truth in every part of the world, as regards those who seek the acquaintance of men in power, and of those who are the dispensers of patronage. In India, where for generations anything like purity in the administration of justice or the distribution of patronage, had almost ceased to be expected by either the rulers or thejr subjects, the author's estimate of the motives which drew visitors to the doors of official men in India fifty years ago, might be expected to be peculiarly applic able. Yet even there, the author admits that he found one bright exception to the sweeping condemnation which he passes on the general mass of his native acquaintance; and it is observable that, however severe may be the judg ments pronounced by European critics on their native associates in India, the critic, if a man of any experience or real power of observation, rarely fails to check his condem nation of native society in general by describing " the only honest native, sir, I ever knew," or in some other form testifying to exceptions, which, even granting them to be as rare as' such critics imagine, would suffice to prove that whatever the causes of presumed general depravity, the incapacity of the race for good was certainly not absolute nor universal.

X The truth is that, as has been long since pointed out by Shore and others, European critics of Indian society and social morality have generally laboured under such great disadvantages in their limited sphere of observation, as to render anything like judicial accuracy or impartiality a result difficult of attainment and rare in the extreme. How seldom, when we are ourselves judged by foreigners, do we find that they have knowledge of our language and customs sufficient to secure them from the most ridiculous errors. How still more difficult is the task when, as is usually the case in India, the man is the artist who represents his own contest with the lion. We know, in this country, how much allowance should be made in estimating the general standard of social morality from the official experience of those, who see only the criminal classes of our great cities and garrison towns ; and how badly we should ourselves appear, if some of the least prejudiced estimates regarding us were taken from the reports of ministers of religion, who habitually tolerate no standard short of absolute moral perfection.

What large allowance must be made for defective powers and opportunities of observation in any European judgment of native Indian character, will be apparent to any one who reflects how little weight he would attach to unfavourable opinions of his own countrymen, expressed by foreigners of experience as limited in time, or extent of range, as we know must be the case with many Europeans who, from a brief

INTRODUCTION.

. XI tour, or a few years of official experience, pronounce ex cathedra very sweeping judgments on native-Indian society and morals. But as already stated, the real merit of " Pandurang Hari " lies in the general truthfulness of inciden tal sketches and stories. The fidelity of some scenes and portraits may still be recognised by any modern sojourners in the Deccan, but there are others which already seem to belong to a bygone age. I may instance, as one of the minor features of this kind, the position of the Gossein community, and Xh6 extraordinary depravity of some of its members. Modern visitors to Poona might have difficulty in discovering a genuine Gossein, or the habitations of any of the sect. But forty years ago, the gossein warra, or quarter, filled with their semi-fortified and substantially-built houses, was one of the most conspicuous features in the old Maharatta city ; and any one who was fond of talking to the natives regard ing the olden time, was, in those days, sure to hear endless stories of the wealth and the crimes of the original owners and inhabitants of those fortlaces, which a few years ago looked so palatial amid the meaner houses of the surrounding town.

He would be told of the enormous influence of Gosseins in every grade of society during the reign of. Bajee Row, of their secret springs of information, and of the doings, heroic or criminal, of the chosen band of desperadoes of this sect on which Bapoo Gokla, one of the few really patriotic advisers of the last Peishwa, relied PANDURANG hArL XII in his last despairing efforts to retrieve his master's falling fortunes. Again, except to a few adventurers, bear-hunters, or district police-officers, the robber's cave is probably now as obsolete in India as it is in England, or any other country where it has been relegated to the theatrical pro perties of melodramatic managers. But long after peace and uniform Government had been restored to the Deccan, genuine robber's caves, such as are described by Pandu rang, were to be found in many remote districts.

Some of the old Bhuddist cave temples, which are scattered so plentifully along the whole range of the Western Ghauts, were used as robber retreats to within a comparatively recent period, and thirty years ago robber-caves might have been found within a walk or ride of the now fashion able sanitarium of Mahabuleshwar, close to roads now frequented by English nurses and their infantile charges, and within sight of plantations of chincona plants brought from the Andes by Mr Clements Markham. One such cave in the laterite rock, overlooking the ancient road from Waee to the sacred sources of the Krishna and its sister rivers, just where the road branches to the fortress of Pretabghur and to the sea-port of Mhar, though now in the heart of the hill station, was pointed out to me some years ago by one ofthe elders of the Gaolees (hill herds men), as the place where, in his father's time, a robbe. band, with which the poor hill herdsmen dared not meddle,

INTRODUCTION.

. XIII used to watch for pilgrims, merchants, or stray soldiers, and, to pounce on any convoy which appeared, as viewed from their eagle's nest, to be incapable of resistance. The cave was spacious, well furnished with fireplaces and platforms for sleeping — and rude cupboard-like recesses ; and could have comfortably sheltered fifty men unobserved, within watching distance of the ancient track over the hills. Similar caves are found in many parts of the same laterite range, which bounds the well wooded and beautiful valley of the Koina, between Mahabuleshwar and the Chiploon Ghaut ; and some of them as late as 1 846, when the valley was still one of the most secluded in the Deccan, afforded permanent refuge, not often to active robbers, but to fugi tives of society, who found in their recesses the shelter denied to them in more populous districts.

Three or four such solitary outlaws, possibly the last of their kind, were coaxed into Satara by the head man of one of the little forest villages, and furnished with a safe conduct from the Resident, securing them from molestation so long as they obeyed the law. All of these poor creatures had the quick observant glance, the attentive ear, and more or less the general air of wild animals rather than of men. One of them, who told me he believed he had lived in these rocky fastnesses forfourteen years, had fled from his home after slaying a man in a fit of jealousy ; he described his life as one of almost unendurable suffering and privation, dependent for all necessaries of life (beyond what the roots and berries ofthe jungle afforded), on PANDURANG hArI. the precarious hospitality of the poor villages scattered along the banks of the river in the narrow valley.

The villagers, partly probably from fear partly from compassion, never denounced him, and at harvest time always left small offerings of grain, or a cast-off blanket, or pair of sandals within his reach ; but they rarely noticed or spoke to him, and treated him much as one possessed by some evil spirit, whom they hardly dared to aid, still less to drive away. Occasionally a shooting party, in search of bears or sambur deer, would fill him with terror, as he watched them from the rocks overhanging the valley ; but the native beaters made a point of not noticing him, and he had never, till I saw him, confronted a white man close enough to speak to him. Forty years earlier I have no doubt these same rocks would have afforded refuge to such robbers as Pandurang describes ; and all the skirts of the Ghauts, and the Vindya and Santroora ranges, doubtless abound in similar valleys possessed of similar robber-strongholds.

Of detached pictures, such as might have been seen in the Deccan sixty years ago, and of stories such as might have been heard round the village peple-tree of an evening twenty years later, I have met no book which gives so vivid an idea as this almost forgotten and inartistic novel. The "Con fessions of a Thug " incidentally refer to some of the social deformities of the same age ; but it relates merely to one class of criminal society, and that class limited in numbers, though not in range. The same graphic hand has drawn in

INTRODUCTION.

. XV " Tara," a charming picture of some of the most beautiful scenery and pleasing features of native life in the Deccan ; but for a truthful picture of Maharatta life, as it must have appeared in the later and more corrupt days of the Peishwa's government, I have met with nothing equal to the dark bizarre sketches of "Pandurang Hari. " Of the author, Mr Hockley, I have been able to learn little beyond the fact that he belonged to the Bombay Civil Service, and served under the Commissioners in the Deccan, and in the Judge's Court at Broach. He fell under a cloud and left the service, and of his subsequent career I have been able to trace nothing. When I was first at Poona many stories were current of the practical and other jokes, with which he exercised the patience of the older and steadier officers in the Deccan Commission ; but this novel, which was published by Whitaker in 1826, is the only pro duction of his pen which I have met with, and I have not even been able to verify the date of his death.

No altera tion has been attempted in the orthography of proper names — it is not uniform, or in accordance with any regular system ; but is sufficiently consistent to satisfy the general reader, while any attempt to make it conform to more accurate transliteration would have involved other changes for which there is no sufficient warrant. It is obvious, for instance, that some of the names could not have belonged to persons of the caste to which they are attributed ; it is useless to attempt correcting them, and the reader must kindly take PANDURANG HArI. XVI them, like the impossible names in old translations of the Arabian Nights, as belonging to the author's creation, and not to the age or people of which he wrote. The modes of address, moreover, are of an English rather than native fashion, but to have carried out a correct trans lation of native expressions, would have involved alterations in style not justifiable in a reprint. H. B. E. FRERE. Wressil Lodge, Wimbledon, 1872. I

INTRODUCTION.

TO ORIGINAL EDITION. Nothing can be more irksome to the European than the society of the inhabitant of Hindustan. His conversation is monotonous, and little calculated to relieve the tedium caused by that enervating indolence, which, in a tropical climate, overpowers the European, and is also a marked portion of the native character. If a native visit you, his call is not that of friendship, but always has some interested motive at bottom, or the hope of obtaining some personal benefit. The learning, talent, and virtue which a European may possess, are no objects of attraction with him, they are of no value in his eyes ; and the crowd of natives who may flock around his door are drawn thither by the charm of his power, as agent of the Government, as Resident, collector, or judge. If they do not expect, through his means, to obtain some insignificant situation that they may turn to profit, the very circumstance of his admission of them as visitants gives them considerable consequence in the eyes of their countrymen, of which VOL. I. < B they do not fail to take advantage.

Where the will of the ruler is regarded as law (which, from time immemorial, has been the case in the East), power is the great idol of adula tion ; to live in its shadow confers influence ; its smiles are equivalent to the satisfaction of no very limited ambition ; and this holds good, in its degree, as far as regards the lowest officer of the ruling authority. Such is a distinguish ing feature of the natives of India, and of the Mahrattas more especially ; and the characteristic is noticed here, in order to mark an exception to the general rule. The editor of this work, in travelling through the Deccan, had the singular good fortune to meet with a native who possessed but little of the selfish character of his country men. His visits were disinterested in every respect, and they were uniformly met with that pleasure, which, in European society, is always exhibited upon the reception of a generous friend.

In his conversation there was nothing like deceit ; for, ill resembling the generality of his country men, he left his mask at home. There was no affected humility in his manner, no servile and flattering epithets, so disgusting to European minds of any strength : he was, in short, the best specimen of the native character the editor ever saw ; and his society was a thing of value, in proportion to its extraordinary rarity in that part of the world. The name of this native was Nanna, of the family of the indi vidual of that name mentioned hereafter as the friend of Pandurang Had. In the conversations which frequently

INTRODUCTION.

TO ORIGINAL EDITION. 19 took place — conversations which will be remembered to the last hour of life with pleasure — more knowledge of the people of Hindustan was gleaned than could have been acquired by the longest residence in the country, in the character of a simple observer. Speaking one day of the governments of India, and of the number of small states into which it was and is divided, my friend mentioned that the succession to the sovereignty was often a subject of quarrel and bloodshed. Usurpers, persons of the reigning family, and claimants distantly related to a defunct sove reign, by their disputes, had occasioned much unhappiness to the people. Just claims had been made by individuals whose lives were spent in the lowest occupations in search of subsistence, or who had been driven into concealment and obscurity to secure their own existence; the reigning despot endeavouring to keep down all claimants to the throne, or one of them endeavouring to persecute to de struction another who might be nearer than himself to a musnud of which the speedy vacation was expected.

One day this native friend put into the editor's hand a MS., written in the Mahratta tongue, saying, " As you wish to be acquainted with some of the adventures of the better class of natives, and with the Mahratta character in par ticular, this will enable you to form your own opinion, and show them as they are. You will discover the shifts and modes of subsistence which even the higher castes maybe driven to adopt, and the strange vicissitudes of life often j occurring in a country where everything depends upon the will of superiors in power— where, except in religious observances and customs, there is a constant change, and the rajah of to-day may be the ryot of to-morrow." After perusing the MS. of his friend, the editor thought a free translation of it into his own language would not be uninteresting to his countrymen; he therefore set about the task, in doing which he has tried to render the language as simple and unpretending as the original, and to give the story as he received it, neither clothed in picturesque local description, nor heated by passion, beyond that which the languid temperament of the Hindoo will sanction; for even love with him is little more, if anything, than a blind instinct.

The reader must not, therefore, expect to revel in scenes of heroic or chivalric adventure ; but to peruse the history of a distinguished native individual, in its vraisem blance and characteristic simplicity. To render the work as intelligible and clear as possible, advantage has been taken of an editor's license, and alter ations have been made (but only such as appeared abso lutely necessary) to anglicise the narrative. Some of the editor's Indian friends will be able to confirm the truth of many of the leading details, because they must discover allusions to real facts, which have taken place, to their own knowledge, in our Eastern empire. The editor is aware that a description of the Asiatic character has been before now given to the public, and he has

INTRODUCTION.

TO ORIGINAL EDITION. 21 seen the observations of travellers upon it. He knows that the secluded Brahmin has been regarded by the hasty visitant with admiration, and does not, therefore, marvel at the warmth of colouring in which it has been often the fashion to clothe his quiet, and, therefore, as supposed, devoted and virtuous character. It is with astonishment, however, that he has known persons, long resident in India, employ their pens in the same manner; and he wonders how men of talent can have resided years among this people, and have been so completely duped by plausibilities. Perhaps they never were at the pains to penetrate beyond the mere ex ternal picture, and judged of the truth by the appearance. Hindoo simplicity of character has been praised, and the virtue of the women held up as a model to the world (not regarding its powerful protection under a reign of castes); and a picture has been drawn, such as the world never yet saw, and never will see, of a pure, virtuous, opens generous people, inhabiting a country governed for ages by the most despotic barbarians, ground into the dust by a host of lesser native officials, and steeped in the most deplorable ignorance and superstition.

Meanness, cunning, cowardice, and self-interest, are almost necessary, under such a system, to carry on existence, and these have been their resources, accordingly, for ages. The free mountain peasant of Swit zerland is the pure and simple man, because he may live without the necessity of a recourse to such vices; — the Hindoo never can. If the European, who has been deeply conver- PANDURANG hArI. 22 sant with the Hindoo character in all situations, were to speak out, he would confess that the apparent simplicity and humility of the Brahmin is a garb of hypocrisy, to look well among the people, and carry on his influence ; but that he is, in reality, selfish, vicious, and intent only upon blinding the credulous for his own ends. Let the Hindoo be seen at variance with his neighbour, or in any situation where his hatred is excited, and he will be found relentless in his anger and cowardly in his revenge.

Watch him at a moment when he has a chance of turning a single rupee, by almost any means, and let it be said, if his disregard of all but his object, his meanness and duplicity in pursuing it, can be exceeded ! Nevertheless, in a country w-here the law has so long been the strongest, it must be granted that the want of morality and principle is no great phenomenon Englishmen who have written so much in favour of the natives, it may be boldly pronounced, never mingled in situ ations where their private contests and private conduct with each other could be clearly observed. The editor went amongst them prejudiced in their favour : a few j'ears undeceived him. From the rajah to the ryot, with the in termediate grades, they are ungrateful, insidious, cowardly, unfaithful, and revengeful. This much the editor thinks it necessary to say, to account for the colouring and acts of some of the characters in the ensuing narrative, without which its authenticity might be questioned by some who have read the eulogisers of the natives of Hindustan ; but,

INTRODUCTION.

TO ORIGINAL EDITION. 23 most assuredly, an Hindoo would hardly treat as matter-of fact, without comment or apology, many of his own vices, as Pandurang does, if they were not commonplace to him, and inherent in the national character. The editor apologises for saying so much upon this subject. It was needful to say something, and he has been as concise as he well could upon such a topic, and has now no more to do than to beg the reader's indulgence, for the execution of his share of labour in the present publication.