Cities of India

Front matter

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CORNELL

Preface

THE sketches which are here collected and reprinted were some of the records of many journeys at the time the writer's avocations led him to travel almost yearly across the continent of India. They were labours of love, written during the intervals of graver occupations, and the author trusts that the work may reiiect some of his own keen enjoyment in these cities, and some of their serene charm and Oriental enchantment. He has endeavoured, both by conversation and reading, to enter into the spirit of the times in which each temple or mosque or palace was produced, and into the manners and customs of those who erected it. By selections from the ancient records and old books of travels, and the great Anglo-Indian classics, he has endeavoured to give life to old scenes, and to reproduce sentiments unfamiliar to the present generation. After giving an account of the story of each city, he has referred to the prominent objects of interest in it, and he has borrowed freely from the inquirers of other days whatsoever he considered important, as illustrating their architecture or antiquity. He has endeavoured to acknowledge in all cases the sources of his information, but as some of the papers were written twenty years ago it has not always been easy to trace them. He has also borrowed from the Introductions to the volumes of State Papers edited by him, on the old principle that a man may once say a thing as he would have it said — he cannot say it twice.

vii viii PREFACE

These papers have been selected and arranged so that the ^•olume might adapt itself to the traveller. The visitor, if he starts from Bombay and stays a few days at the cities in the order in which they are given in this book, will see a great deal that is best worth seeing on the continent of India, within moderate compass of time. All he can never see, and there is subject enough for twenty quartos. As a large number of people who must remain at home take an interest and feel a pride in our Indian Empire, it is hoped that these papers may offer them some pleasure and some information. Of their omissions and imperfections, no one can be more conscious than the author.

The papers headed Bombay, Delhi, and Calcutta appeared in the Pall Mall Magazine, and the permission to reprint and use the illustrations is hereby gratefully acknowledged.

It remains to thank those from whom the writer has had the privilege of receiving advice, and who have assisted him in the dull task of proof reading and correction. The spelling of Indian words is bound to cause great difficulty ; but in a book of this kind it would be out of place to follow always too closely the somewhat pedantic official system of transliteration, which has proved a stumbling-block to ordinary English people, and a great non-conductor of interest.

Contents

I. BOMBAY

Appearance from the sea — Occupied by Humphrey Cook, 1663 — Described by J. Fryer, 1673 — Fort described by Captain A. Hamilton — Sir Gerald Aungier's Presidentship — His death — Bombay Green — Admiral Watson visits Bombay, 1774 — Society at Bombay in 1786 described by J. Forbes — Church at Bombay Green — Religious disputes : Chaplain Cobbe and Mr. Braddyll — Statue of Marquis Cornwallis — Statue of Marquis of Wellesley : his relations with the East India Company^The Town Hall — ■ Literary Society of Bombay founded — Public Library — Sir Bartle Frere — Statue of the Queen-Empress — Statue of Edward VII — Wellington Fountain — Policy of General Wellesley — Sailors' Home — Royal Bombay Yacht Club — Secretariat — University — Hindu Burning-ground — Wilson College, and its founder — Malabar Point : described by Lady Caldecott and by Moore — Walkeshwar — The Ladies' Gymkhana — Tulsi Reservoirs — The Towers of Silence : Grose's account — Breach Candy — Mahaluxmee — Parell : Sir James Mackintosh and Mountstuart Elphinston : Lady Falkland — The Victoria Gardens — BycuUa Club — Scenes in the Native City — Elephanta and its sculptures. i

II. SURAT

II

Flaxman : — " As one of the committee appointed for that purpose, I naturally turned my thoughts towards you, for reasons which it might be indelicate to mention to you, and which it must be unnecessary to state to any one else. It is enough to say that I feel very great solicitude to leave to our most distant successors, whoever they may be, not only a memorial of the honour in which we hold virtue, but an example of the progress of Art in England in the beginning of the nineteenth century. The neighbouring subterranean temples of Elephanta, Canari, and Carli contain, perhaps, the most ancient sculptures in the world. Twenty or thirty centuries hence, some native, whose name is now unknown, may compare these works of barbaric toil with the finished productions of the genius and taste of an English artist. Without your help I do not think that the comparison would be fair or the contrast complete."

After this delicate flattery. Mackintosh proceeds to state that the statue is to be of the natural size, or larger than life, with such basso-relievos and subordinate figures as the artist might judge most characteristic and ornamental. " I need not tell you that the character of Marquis Cornwallis was more respectable than dazzling. I am persuaded that you will find pleasure in employing an art, too often the flatterer of tyranny, to give lustre to the virtues most useful to mankind. Prudence, moderation, integrity, pacific spirit, clemency, were very remarkable qualities in Marquis Cornwallis's character. Perhaps his establishment of a system of secure landed property in Bengal — and extended over India — might furnish some hints to your genius. It was a noble measure of paternal legislation, though I know not whether it could be represented in marble."

The Permanent Settlement in Bengal is hardly a theme to fire an artist's imagination, or a subject capable of being represented in marble except in the form of boundary pillars. Flaxman, however, refused to undertake the work, and the statue was executed by Bacon. In the garden there is another statue by the same sculptor, erected by the merchants of Bombay to the honour of the Pro-Consul whose intrepid intellect and lofty ambition consolidated the Empire which the daring genius of Hastings founded ; of whom his illustrious brother said : — " Had he been but a younger son he would ha^•e been the greatest man in Europe." The clean-cut and decisi^•e features of the Marquis of \^'ellesley are rendered with considerable skill. His slight ajid wiry figure rests on a massive marble pedestal, with finely modelled male and female figures in front, and a lifesized lion and tiger behind. The merchants of the East India Company- could not appreciate Wellesley's vigorous and far-seeing policy, and thej- recalled him. Thirty years after, when his despatches, which combine comprehensi^■e and ele^•ated views with so much circumspection and dignit}', were published, the Court of Directors assured him, by a unanimous resolution, " that in their judgment he had been animated throughout his administration by an ardent zeal to promote tlie well-being of India, and to uphold the interest and honour of the British Empire ; and that thejlooked back to tire eventful and brilliant period of his administration with feelings common to their countrymen." They also \-oted him a grant of £20,000, and ordered his statue to be placed in the India Office. But this tardy recognition of his services did not satisfy the great ^larquis, and his closing ^-ears were embittered because the ^Ministry would not create him Duke of Hindustan, the onh- title which would gratify his Imperial soul.

Leaving tlie garden, we come to a stately flight of steps leading to the Town Hall, which mainly owes its existence to the enthusiasm and exertion of James Mackintosh. He was anxious that a building should be erected " for the reception of tlie statues of ilaiquis ComwaUis and Mr. Pitt, and of any future monuments of British Art which public gratitude may bring to Bombay," and " for the accommodation of the Literary Society, and the reception of their valuable and increasing library." Soon after his arrival James Mackintosh held, under his own roof, the first meeting of the Literary Society of Bombay, Jonathan Duncan was present, not as a Governor of Bombay, but as a scholar who had made his mark by contributing some important papers to the Bengal Asiatic Society ; General NicoUs, the Commander-in-chief, a man of science, who had devoted much time to the meteorology of the island ; Boden, the Quartermaster-General, and subsequent founder of the Boden Professorship at Oxford ; and Edward Moore, the author of The Hindu Pantheon, a work of considerable research. The President, in an eloquent address, stated the subjects which he trusted the members would pursue in India, because so much could be found in the land which could be got in no other country : metallurgy, mineralogy, botany and economics were the subjects which he specially brought forward to the notice of the members. The history of the Bombay Asiatic Society is a record of brilliant success. It has done the work for which it was founded — — " the investigation and encouragement of Oriental Arts, Science, and Literature." In 1827 the Society adopted the proposal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland for a union between the two Institutions, and the Literary Society of Bombay became the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

One of the first objects that engaged the attention of the Society was the foundation of a Public Library. Early in 1805 a bargain was concluded for the purchase of an extensive collection of books which had been gathered- together by several medical gentlemen of Bombay. Under the wise administration of Sir James Mackintosh, the library grew, and when he returned to England he sent out, at the request of the Society, a collection of the standard books of the day, and the principal publications as they appeared. It is due to the wide reading and sound literary taste of the author of VindicicB Galliccs that the library of the Bombay Asiatic Society is so rich in the literature of the eighteenth century. The Society has also had frequent gifts of rare and valuable Oriental publications from the Bombay Government and the Government of India, and the library has grown up to be a goodly collection of thirty thousand volumes. Savants who visit India will receive at Bombay a wann and generous welcome from a learned Society, devoted to spreading through the land a spirit of philosophical inquiry and literary research, and owning a library rich in books of solid worth.

Retracing our steps from the Town Hall, we pass the Cathedral, and driving through Church Street we come to a spacious Platz, with a handsome fountain. The name commemorates the services of a great ruler, who, during his five years' tenure of office, changed an Indian city into one of the finest capitals of the Empire. Bartle Frere was appointed Governor of Bombay at the comparatively early age of forty-seven. " God grant you," wrote Lord Canning, " health and strength to do your work in your own noble spirit ! " He did it, in spite of much opposition, in his own imperial spirit ; and no Governor, except Mountstuart Elphinstone, did more to improve the condition of the people, or to increase the prosperity of the great Presidency entrusted to his charge. He won the respect of those he ruled by his courageous temperament, and their affection by his strong human sympathies. Man that is bom of woman hath his faults ; but with all his minor blemishes and infirmities, a high rank must be assigned to Bartle Frere among the great statesmen who served the East India Company.

At the corner of the Platz, where two roads meet, is a fine statue of the Queen-Empress, which stands as a monument of the loyal attachment and admiration of the great Feudatories for the first Sovereign who has, since the dawn of history, ruled over all India. The statue was given to Bombay by the munificent Khandi Rao Guicowar, the ruler of the Baroda state. Her Gracious and Imperial Majesty is represented seated on an elaborately carved state chair, which is placed on a lofty marble platform led up to by steps. In the centre of the canopy is the Star of India, and above it the Rose of England is united with the Lotus of India, and around them are England's old motto " God and my right," and India's watchword " Heaven's light our guide." Leaning against the handsome rails which encircle the statue are a group of rustics. There is the old father and his spouse, a matronly dame, two stalwart sons, black, wiry men from the coast, and their spouses — light-hearted, merry young women, whose crimson, blue, and orange robes fall in graceful folds over their supple figures. They are showing a little girl and a couple of half-naked boys, wearing gorgeous caps embroidered with tinsel, the beauties of the statue, and they are discussing with considerable volubility the Royal lady beyond the sea. Queen Victoria is in India no mythological personage, the wife of " John Company." Three of her sons have visited the land. The Prince of Wales by his gracious tact caused the great chiefs to feel that they are not merely important factors in a vast administrative system, but Royal Feudatories of a great sovereign. The Duke of Connaught has commanded a division in Bengal and the Bombay army ; and in many a distant home, seated of an evening around the village fire, the sepoy on furlough has told his companions about the great Queen's son, who could address them in their own language. The private and personal virtues of the Queen long ago became known, and enthroned Her Majesty in the hearts of many millions of her distant subjects. In a remote village in the north of India a peasant had a grievance, and he called the

i6 village schoolmaster to his aid, and they wrote a letter stating the case, and they addressed it " To the Good Lady in England," and the letter reached Balmoral. To be

known to distant subject races as " The Ciood Lad\- in

England " was an achie\"ement of which an\- monarch might well ha\e been proud.

From the Queen's statue to the statue of His Majesty as Prince of Wales runs a broad road known as Rampart Row, lined by lofty offices and splendid shops, which would do credit to Paris or London. The equestrian statue of the Prince, a good example of Boehm's best work, was the gift of the late Sir A. Sassoon, and commemorates the Heirapparent's visit to the city. On each side of the granite base are two well executed castings, one representing the historic scene of the landing of the Prince at the dockyard, and the other depicting the picturesque episode which lives in the memory of those who took part in it — the presentation of flowers to His Royal Highness by the Parsee children at the great children's fete held in his honour.

Not far from the Prince of Wales' statue is the Wellington fountain, a meretricious structure unworthy of the great name it bears. Colonel Wellesley came to Bombay in 1803, and during the hot nionths of March and April worked with his wonted ardour in getting ready the transports to convey the forces under General Baird to Egypt. It was intended that they should co-operate in the important object of expelling the French from that land, and Colonel Wellesley had been appointed second in command. A severe attack of fever, however, prevented him from accompanying the expedition. He was much disappointed at having lost what seemed a splendid opportunity for active service, but he remained behind to win the decisive battle of Assaye, while the vessel in which he was to sail was lost. On October 2\f|§03, Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay, received a letter from General Wellesley announcing in a few simple words the hard-won contest which made us masters of India.

After his great and decisive victory General Wellesley visited Poona, and descended the Ghauts to Bombay, and the capital received him with due honour. " I was feasted out of Bombay as I was feasted into it," he wrote to a friend. The victor of Assaye was glad to escape from steamy Bombay to the cooler Deccan, where he employed himself in writing State papers, urging a policy of conciliation and moderation. " The Governor-General may write what he pleases at Calcutta, we must conciliate the natives, or we shall not be able to do his business ; and all his treatment, without conciliation and an endeavour to convince the Native Powers that we have views besides our own interests, is so much waste paper."

A short distance from the Wellington fountain is a splendid testimony of the wisdom of the soldier-statesman's policy in dealing with the native powers. The palatial Home for Sailors, whose foundation stone was laid by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, was the gift of the same great loyal Feudatory who caused to be erected the statue of the late Queen. Near to the Sailors' Home is the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, to which ladies accompanied by members are freely admitted, and where the traveller who has the privilege of honorary membership will find every comfort, and from the deep verandah overlooking the harbour will enjoy one of the most beautiful views in the world.

Returning from the Yacht Club, and bearing to the left, we come to a shallow expanse of water, bounded by two tongues of land — Colaba and Malabar Hill. Facing the bay is a line of buildings, imposing as a whole, but too suggestive of modern English taste and conventionalism. The Secretariat, where the offices of the Secretaries to Government are located, is a massi\'e pile whose main features have been brought from VenicCj but all the beauty has vanished in transhipment. It is as lacking in sentiment as the work conducted in it, and is the complete expression in stone of the spirit of an official architect. The University Hall, erected from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott, seems to have been meant for a western College Chapel, and is as exotic as the system of education which we have introduced into the land. A few yards from the Senate Hall is the University Library, designed by the same architect, which seems a

little too small for the lofty clock tower, built after the form

of the campanile of Giotto at Florence, that adjoins it. The

High Court is a large, imposing, ugly Gothic construction,

out of character with the climate ; but the building is

probably not more out of character with the climate than

the mode of administering justice within its walls is out of

character with the habits of the people.

Not far from the University, the home of modern science

and culture, there rises a long black wall, from above which

dense volumes of noisome smoke drift over the road, and

many bright sparks float in the air. This is the Hindu

burning ground, and the smoke and sparks arise from the

funeral fires.

" The Trojan king and Tuscan chief command, To raise the piles along the winding strand ; Thence friends convey the dead to fun'ral fires, Black smould'ring smoke from the green wood expires, The light of Heaven is cloaked, and the new day retires."

From a low and narrow door comes forth a procession of priests in saffron robes, carrying small bundles in their hands : behind them follow a crowd of men and women wailing and beating their breasts. They cross the railway which runs parallel to the beach, and repair to the sea, where, after various oblations and ceremonies are performed, the priests open the little bundles and cast their contents into the waters. They are the ashes of the dead. The mourners sit on the turf by the seashore, and refraining from vain tears they alleviate their grief by reciting after the priests verses culled from the Puranas. " Foolish ashes, who- seeks permanence in the human state, unsolid like the stem of the plantain tree, transient like the foam of the sea. All that is low must finally perish ; all that is elevated must ultimately fall ; all compound bodies must end in dissolution ; and life is concluded with death. Unwilling do the manes of the deceased taste the tears and rheum shed by their kinsmen :

then do not wail, but diligently perform the obsequies of the dead." Under the shadow of the University tower the Hindu diligently performs the obsequies of the dead as they were performed on the winding shore, when " the wood was heaped for funeral," and " apart Achilles stood."

Bombay is the common meeting ground of many different creeds and nationalities. A short distance beyond the burning yard is a long upper-storied building, which a charitable Muhammadan gentleman has built to accommodate the pilgrims proceeding to Mecca ; and facing a sweep of the bay rises Wilson College, which bears the name of its founder, the great Scotch missionary, who made Bombay his home, and devoted a life of strenuous labour to her advancement. A man of most varied acquirements and excellent judgment, Dr. Wilson became a considerable force in the land, and Viceroys and Governors sought his advice on delicate problems of State. Endowed with an unusually attractive and winning character, he won the hearts of all classes, English, Parsee, Muhammadan, and Hindu. The land and its people interested him. He was versed in their ancient literature and philosophy ; he spoke and wrote some of their living languages, and without a tinge of sentimentalism he appreciated their many fine qualities. He freely criticized Hinduism, Muhammadanism, and Zoroastrianism ; but his plain speaking did not impair the affection with which he was regarded, for no man has a keener appreciation of chivalrous honesty than the Oriental.

Beyond the Wilson College the road begins to rise to Malabar Hill, and at intervals along the base of the beetling rocks are patches of trees and groves of lofty palms. On the top of the hill two roads meet ; one follows the crest, and the other leads to Malabar Point, " where the Governor," writes Lady Falkland, " has a residence consisting of several good-sized bungalows." Lady Falkland, who was one of the first to prove, by her bright book Chow Chow, that India

IS not hopelessly dull, was fond of staying at Malabar Point during the time her husband ruled the island. Mountstuart Elphinstone, when Governor, built a bungalow at Malabar Point, on the site of an old temple ; but a residence of some kind had existed before his day, for we read of Malabar Point being, in 1789, " the Governor's occasional retreat." Maria Graham, better known as Lady Caldecott, and the author of Little Arthur's History of England, has the following in her Journal of a Residence in India : —

" August 5, i8og. — After walking nearly two miles through gardens, or rather fields of vegetables, we came to a small hungalo, or garden-house, at the point of the hill, from which there is, I think, the finest view I ever saw. The whole island lay to the north and east, beautifully green with the young rice, varied with hills and woods, and only separated from Salsette and the Mahratta shore by narrow arms of the sea, while the bay and harbour to the south, scattered with beautiful woody islands, reflected the grand monsoon clouds, which, as they rolled along, now hid and now discovered the majestic forms of the ghauts on the mainland. Within a few yards of the bungalo is a ruined temple ; from what remains, it must have been a fine specimen of Hindoo architecture ; almost every stone is curiously carved with groups of figures, animals, and other ornaments. Tradition says that the Portugueze, in their zeal for conversion, pointed cannon against this temple, and destroyed it with its gods ; its widely scattered remains seem to countenance the report. Close to the ruin there is a cleft in a rock, so narrow, that one would wonder how a child could get through it ; nevertheless there are multitudes of pilgrims who annually come to force themselves through, as a certain method of getting rid of their sins."

Moore, in The Hindoo Pantheon, writes : "At the very extremity of a promontory on the island of Bombay, called Malabar Point, is a cleft rock, a fancied resemblance of the Yoni, to which numerous pilgrims and persons resort for the purpose of regeneration, by the efficacy of a passage through this sacred type. This Yoni, or hole, is of considerable elevation, situated among the rocks, of no easy access, and in the stormy season incessantly buffeted by the surf of the ocean." Moore goes on to relate that the famous Brahman Ragoba, tlie father of the last of the Peshwas, was, when he resided at Bombay, in the habit of passing through the cleft ; and that Shivaji, the daring founder of the Mahratta State, had been known to venture secretly on the island of Bombay, " at a time when discovery was ruin, to avail himself of the benefit of this efficacious transit."

About half a mile from Malabar Point is the village of Walkeshwar, one of the most sacred spots in Western India. The name implies Lord of Sand, for legend states that the great god Rama — whose history is familiar to every village child — came to Malabar Point in the course of his travels, tired and thirety, and found no water, so he shot an arrow into the sand on the seashore, and water immediately appeared. Passing through narrow streets, lined with tall, quaint houses, painted all colours, the sacred pool is reached. It is situated in the centre of a \'ast square, entirely surrounded by temples of all sizes and forms — temples shaped like a sugar-loaf, temples ^^•ith domes, temples with pinnacles and turrets, whose niches are filled with small images. Under the trees are small shrines with pointed roofs ; and what Jeremiali the prophet saw and denounced we see around us e\'erywhere : '" And they set them up images and groves on every high hill, and under everj- green tree." Around tire tank are tall white obelisk-shaped pillars, painted n parts red and green, and numerous little altars containing tlie Tulsi plant. Before the temples are placed — carved in black stone — the Sacred Bull, or Xandi. All proclaim the foul worship against which tlie Old Testament is one long protest, and whose s^mibols were the grove, the golden calf, and the brazen serpent. Long flights of steps lead down to tire water's edge, which is some yards below the le^•el of the road. ^len and women in clothes of various colours press round the brink of tlie silent pool : some plunge into, or besprinkle themselves with the sacred liquid ; others kneeling on the steps remain in a state of blessed contemplation ; all are praying with the utmost fervour. Around the tank on worn and ragged mattresses lie a multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered. A scene rises before us : " Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool ; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk ; and immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked." Read in the light of the East, the sacred volume recovers its native colour, and glows with the vigour of new life.

A short walk brings us again to the broad road which runs along the crest of the hill. It is lined with handsome bungalows, with green lawns, and small gardens well kept, with oleander, hibiscus and palms of all varieties. About the end of the ridge, along the brow of a precipitous cliff, are the beautiful grounds of the Ladies' Gymkhana. Sir Henry Yule, in that most delightful work Hobson-Jobson, writes as follows about the word Gymkhana, fast becoming naturalized in England : —

" This word is quite modern, and was unknown twenty-five years ago. It is a fictitious word, invented, we believe, in the Bombay Presidency, and probably based upon " Gend-khana " — ball-house ; the name usually given, in Hindu, to an English racket-court. It is applied to a place of public resort at a station, where the needful facilities for athletics and games of all sorts are provided, including — when that was in fashion — a skatingrink, a lawn-tennis ground, and so forth. The ' gymn ' may be simply a corruption of ' geno ' shaped by ' gymnastics.' The word is also applied to a meeting for such sports ; and in this sense it has already travelled to Malta."

A short distance beyond the Ladies' Gymkhana are the Tulsi Reservoirs and Waterworks, and their situation is exceedingly beautiful. Beneath is a forest of palms, with white houses gleaming among them ; and immediately beyond is an azure bay, with a narrow strip of land running into it covered with massive and lofty buildings. In the far distance rise the high peaks and ridges of the ^•olcanic hills of INIahratta land, and rocks and islets of fantastic nature stud the great inlet of the sea known as Bombay Hai'bour. On one side lies this calm, fairy scene ; on the other stands out the dull, ugly wall which surrormds the Towers of Silence, where the Parsees deposit their dead, to be devoured by vultures. On the trees and on the walls scores of these hideous birds can be seen. Suddenly they rise in the aii- : a bier is being brought up the long flight of steps which leads to the hills on which the Towers are situated. Close by the bier are two bearded men, and behind them follow a train of Parsees, dressed in white robes with their clotlies linked. At tlie door of the Towers the relatives leave the body, and it is taken within by the two priests. Inside the large roofless tower are stages, or stories of stone pavement, slanting dowm to a well, covered with a grating, and on the upper tier are placed, stark naked, the bodies of men : on tlie second tliose of women, and on the tliird those of children. The moment the priests leave the body tlie \-ultures swoop down and strip it of every particle of flesh. The skeleton is left for a few daj-s to bleach in the sun and wind till it becomes perfectl}- dr\- ; then tlie carriers of the dead, who are a separate class and not allowed to have any social intercourse with other Pai-sees, come gloved, and with tongs (for a dead body is regarded as an unclean thing) remove the bones and cast tliem into the well. This mode of disposing of the dead the Parsees have practised from time immemorial. In Grose's T'owigt- to the East Indies, printed in 1772. we have a sensational picture of "'The Parsee repository for the Dead," and the following description : —