Mathura A District Memoir Chapter-10
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Mathura A District Memoir By F.S.Growse
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THE town of Maha-ban—population 6,182—is some five or six miles from Mathura, lower down the stream and on the opposite bank of the Jamuna. Though the country in its neighbourhood is now singularly bare, the name indicates that it must at one time have been densely wooded; and so late as the year 1634 A.D. we find the Emperor Shahjahan ordering a hunt there and killing four tigers. It stands a little inland, about a mile distant from Gokul; which latter place has appropriated the more famous name, though it is in reality only the water-side suburb of the ancient town. This is clearly indicated by the fact that all the traditional sites of Krishna's adventures, described in the Puranas as having taken place at Gokul, are shown at Maha-ban; while the Gokul temples are essentially modern in all their associations: whatever celebrity they possess is derived from their having been founded by the descendants of Vallabha-charya, the great heresiarch of the sixteenth century. The existence of Gokul as a distinct town was no doubt long antecedent to its religious aggrandizement, and probably dates from the time when the old Hindu fort was occupied by a Muhammadan garrison and the Hindus expelled beyond its immediate precincts.
Taking, then, Maha-ban as equivalent to the Gokul of Sanskrit literature, the connection between it and Mathura has always been of a most intimate character. For, according to the legend, Krishna was born at the one and cradled at the other. Both, too, make their first appearance in history together and under most unfortunate circumstances, having been sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni in the year 1017 A.D. From the effects of this catastrophe it would seem that Maha-ban was never able to recover itself. It is casually mentioned in connection with the year 1234 A.D., by Minhaj-i-Siraj, a contemporary writer, as one of the gathering places for the imperial army sent by Shams-ud- din against Kalanjar; and the Emperor Babar, in his memoirs, incidentally refers to it, as if it were a place of some importance still, in the year 1526 A.D.; but the name occurs in the pages of no other chronicle; and at the present day, though it is the seat of a tahsili, it can scarcely be called more than a considerable village. Within the last few years, one or two large and handsome private residences have been built, with fronts of carved stone in the Mathura style; but the temples are all exceedingly mean and of no antiquity. The largest and also the most sacred is that dedicated to Mathura-nath, which boasts of a pyramidal tower, or sikhara, of some height and bulk, but constructed only of brick and plaster. The Brahman in charge used to enjoy an endowment of Rs. 2 a day, the gift of Sindhia, but this has long lapsed. There are two other small shrines of some interest: in the one, the demon Trinavart is represented as a pair of enormous wings overhanging the infant god; the other bears the dedication of Maha Mall Rae, ‘the great champion prince,’ a title given to Krishna after his discomfiture of the various evil spirits sent against him by Kansa.
Great part of the town is occupied by a high hill, partly natural and partly artificial, extending over more than 100 bighas of land, where stood the old fort.[१] This is said to have been built by the same Rana Katehra of Mewar to whom is also ascribed the fort at Jalesar. According to a tradition current in the Main-puri district, he had been driven from his own country by an invasion of the Muhammadan, and took refuge with the Raja of Maha-ban, by name Digpal, whose daughter his son, Kanh Kunvar, subsequently married and by her became the ancestor of the tribe of Phatak Ahirs. It would seem that, on the death of his father-in-law, he succeeded to his dominion; for he made a grant of the whole of the township of Maha-ban to his Purohits, or family priests, who were Sanadh Brahmans, of the Parasar clan. Their descendants bear the distinctive title of Chaudhari, and still own two shares in Maha-ban, called Thok Chaudhariyan. The fort was recovered by the Muhammadans in the reign of Ala-ud-din, by Sufi Yahya of Mashhad, who introduced himself and a party of soldiers inside the walls in litters, disguised as Hindu ladies who wished to visit the shrines of Syam Lala and Rohini. The Rana was killed, and one-third of the town was granted by the sovereign to Saiyid Yahya. This share [२] is still called Thok Saiyidat, and is owned by his descendants; the present head of the family being Sardar Ali, who officiated for a time as a Tahsildar in the Mainpuri district. The place where his great ancestor was buried is shown at the back of the Chhatthi Palna, but is unmarked by any monument.
The story as told in different localities is so identical in all its main features that it may reasonably be accepted as based on fact; but it is difficult to determine an exact date for the event, or decide which of the Sissodia Princes of Chitor is intended by the personage styled ‘the Rana Katehra.’ Still, though certainty is unattainable, a conjectural date may be assigned with some amount of probability; for as the Rana Katehra is represented as still living at the time when the fort of Maha-ban was recovered by Ala-ud-din, his flight from his own country cannot have occurred very long previously, and may plausibly be connected with Ala-ud-din's memorable sack of Chitor, which took place in the year 1303. If so, he can scarcely have been more than a cadet of the royal line; for, according to accepted tradition, the actual Rana of Mewar and all his family had perished in the siege, with the exception only of the second son and his infant nephew, Hamir, the heir to the throne, who eventually not only recovered the ancient capital of his forefathers, but made it the centre of a far wider dominion than had ever previously acknowledged the Sissodia rule. The stratagem of introducing armed men disguised as women in closed litters into the heart of the enemy's camp had been successfully practised against Ala- ud-din himself after a former siege of Chitor, and had resulted in the escape of the captured Rana. This may have suggested the adoption of the same expedi ent at Maha-ban, either in fact to the Sufi, who is said to have carried it into execution, or to the local legend-monger, who has used it as an embellishment to his narrative.
The shrine of Syam Lala, to which allusion has been made above, still exists as a mean little cell, perched on the highest point of the fortifications on the side where they overlook the Jamuna. It is believed to mark the spot where Jasoda gave birth to Maya, or Joga-nidra, substituted by Vasudeva for the in fant Krishna. But by far the most interesting building is a covered court called Nanda's Palace, or more commonly the Assi-Khamba, i.e., the eighty pillars. In its present form is was erected by the Muhammadans in the time of Aurangzeb out of older materials, to serve as a mosque, and as at now stands, it is divided, by five rows of sixteen pillars each, into four aisles, or rather into a centre and two narrower side aisles, with one broad outer cloister. The external pillars of this outer cloister are each of one massive shaft, cut into many narrow facets, with two horizontal bands of carving: the capitals are decorated either with grotesque heads or the usual four squat figures. The pillars of the inner aisles vary much in design, some being exceedingly plain and others as richly ornamented with profuse and often graceful arabesques. Three of the more elaborate are called respectively the Satva, Treta and Dwapar Yug; while the name of the Kali Yug is given to another somewhat plainer. All these interior pillars, however, agree in consisting as it were of two short columns set one upon the other. The style is precisely similar to that of the Hindu colonnades by the Kutb Minar at Delhi; and both works may reasonably he referred to about the same age. As is it probable that the latter were not built in the years immediately preceding the fall of Delhi in 1194, so also it would seem that the columns at Maha-ban must have been sculptured before the assault of Mahmud in 1017; for after that date the place was too insignificant to be selected as the site of any elaborate edifice. Thus, Mr. Fergusson's con jecture is confirmed, that the Delhi pillars are to be ascribed to the ninth or tenth century. He doubts whether the cloister there now stands as originally arranged by the Hindus, or whether it had been taken down and re-arranged by the conquerors; but concludes as most probable that the former was the case, and that it was an open colonnade surrounding the palace of Prithi Raj. " If so," he adds, " it is the only instance known of Hindu pillars being left undis turbed." General Cunningham differs from this conclusion, and considers it utterly incredible that any architect, designing an original building and wishing to obtain height, should have recourse to such a rude expedient as constructing two distinct pillars, and then, without any disguise, piling up one on the top of the other. But such a design, however strange according to modern ideas, did not, it is clear, offend the taste of the old Maha-ban architects, since we find them copying it for decorative purposes even when there was no constructural necessity for it. Thus some of the inner columns are really monoliths, and yet they have all the appearance of being in two pieces.
A good illustration of this Hindu fancy for broken pillars may be seen at Noh-jhil, a town across the Ganges in the extreme north of the district. Here also is a Muhammadan dargah, constructed out of the wreck of a Hindu temple. The pillars, twenty in number, are very simple in character, but exceptional in two respects; first, as being all of uniform design, which is quite anomalous in Hindu architecture; secondly, as being, though of fair height, each cut out of a single piece of stone. The only decoration on the otherwise plain shaft consists of four deep scroll-shaped notches half-way between the base and capital; the result of which is to make each column appear as if it were in two pieces. The explanation is obvious. In earlier days, when large blocks of stone were difficult to procure, there was also lack of sufficient art to con ceal the unavoidable join in the structure. In course of time the eye became accustomed to the defect, and eventually required its apparent introduction even where it did not really exist. A similar conservatism may be traced in the art history of every nation, and more especially in religious art. In breaking up his columns into two pieces, and thus perpetuating, as a decora tion, what in its origin had been a signal defect, the Hindu architect was unconsciously influenced by the same motive as the Greek, who to the very last continued to introduce, as prominent features in his temple facades, the metopes and triglyphs which had been necessities in the days of wooden con struction, but had become unmeaning when repeated in stone.
The two ancient Brahmanical temples on the Gwaliar rock, commonly known as the Sas Bahu, illustrate still more remarkably than the Noh-jhil dar gah the way in which what was originally a constructural make-shift has subse quently been adopted as a permanent architectural feature. In the larger of these two buildings the interior of the spacious nave is disfigured by four enor mous columns, which occupy a square in the centre of the area and obstruct the view in every direction. It is evident at a glance that, though the work of the same architect as the rest of the fabric, they are utterly out of harmony with his first design. Necessity alone can have compelled him to introduce them as props for a falling roof; while the shallowness and unfinished state of their sur face sculpture further suggest that they were erected in great haste in order to avert a catastrophe which appeared imminent. They were as little contemplated at the outset as the inverted arches in Wells Cathedral, or as the rude struts in serted by General Cunningham in this very same building to support the broken architraves of the upper story. In the smaller temple, which is of somewhat later date, the internal arrangement follows precisely the same lines, though here the lesser span of the roof rendered the detached pillars unnecessary, the massive walls being quite sufficient by themselves to support the small flat dome and the low tower that surmounted it. The central columns, however, are here so artistically treated, and are in such excellent proportion to the other parts of the building, having been designed with them and not subsequently intruded, that they are really decorative and add beauty to the interior.
Both these temples, like that of Gobind Deva at Brinda-ban, to which they form a most valuable and interesting complement, originally consisted of three compartments—a fact which has not been previously noticed by any archaeologist.
In the larger Gwaliar temple the nave and the choir remain, but the sanctum, as is usually the case, has been totally destroyed by the Muhammadans. That it once existed, however, is evident from the fact that the choir is seen from the interior to have communicated with an apartment beyond, though opening is now closed with blocks of stone. In the smaller of the two temples, the nave alone is perfect: the choir has utterly perished; but the end wall of the sanctum still exists in situ, built up into the ramparts of the fort. Gene ral Cunningham, in describing these. buildings, has followed Mr. Fergusson in using, instead of ` nave,' the misleading word 'porch,' and has thus failed to notice the triple arrangement which otherwise could not have escaped him. [३]
To return to the Chhatthi Palna. On a drum of one of the pillars is an inscription—now upside down—which I read as Ram dasa kas eknavi kam, meaning, it would seem, ‘Column No. 91, the gift of Ram Das.’ This would rather lead to the supposition that the pillars were all originally of one set and belonged to a single building, though it is quite' possible that they may be the wreck of several different temples, all of 'which were overthrown by Mahmud of Ghazni, when he captured the fort in 1017. In either case there can be no questlon as to the Buddhist character of the building, or buildings, for I found let in to the wall a small seated figure of Buddha, as also a cross-bar and large up right of a Buddhist railing. The latter is ornamented with foliated disks, on one of which is represented a head with a most enormous chignon, and—what is unusual—has four oval sockets for cross-bars on either side instead of three . These columns and other fragments had probably barn lying about for centuries till the Muhammadans, in the reign of Aurangzeb, after demolishing a modern Hindu temple, roughly put them together and set them up on its site as a make shift for a mosque. When Father Tieffenthaller visited Maha-ban about the middle of last century, it seems that Hindus and Muhammadans were both in joint possession of the building, for he writes: "On voit a Maha-ban dans une grande maison 'portee par 80 colones, une peinture qui represente Krishna volant du lait en jettant le clair et jouant, avec d'autres. Cet edifice a ete converti en partie en une mosquee, en partie en une pagode." But the connection of the building with Krishna or his worship, even at any earlier period, is entirely fitious. That is to say, so far as concerns the actual fabric and the materials of which it is constructed: the site, as in so many other similar cases, has probably been associated with Hindu worship from very remote antiquity. In Sir John Strachey's time I obtained a grant of Rs. 1,000 for the repair of the building, which had fallen into a very ruinous condition, and in digging the foundations of the new screen-walls (the old walls had been simply set on the ground without any foundation at all) I came upon a number of remains of the true Hindu temple, dating apparently from no further back than about the year 1500 A.D. The Iconoclast would not use these sculptures in the construction of his mosque, since they had too recently formed part of an idolatrous shrine, but had them buried out of sighs; while he had no scruple about utilizing the old Buddhist pillars. Whatever I dug up, I either let into the wall or brought over to Mathura for the local Museum. The roof of the present building, as constructed by the Muhammadans, is made up of any old slabs and broken pillars that first came to hand; but two compartments are covered in with the small flat domes of the old temple, which are similar in character to the beautiful examples at Ajmer and Mount Abu.
Mothers come here for their purification on the sixth day after child birth —chhatthi puja—whence the building is popularly known as the Chhatthi Palna, and it is visited by enormous crowds of people for several days about the anni versary of Krishna's birth in the month of Bhadon. A representation of the infant god's cradle (palna) is displayed to view, with his foster-mother's churn and other domestic articles. The place being regarded not exactly as a temple, but as Nanda and Jasoda's actual dwelling-house, all persons, without regard to the religion they profess, are allowed to walk about in it with perfect freedom. Considering the size, the antiquity, the artistic excellence, the exceptional archaeological interest, the celebrity amongst natives, and the close proximity to Mathura of this building, it is strange that it has never before been mentioned by any English writer.
It is said that whenever foundations are sunk within the precincts of the fort, many fragments of sculpture—of Buddhist character, it may be presumed —have been brought to light; but they have always been buried again or bro ken up as building materials. Doubtless, Maha-ban was the site of some of those Buddhist monasteries which the Chinese pilgrim Fa Hian distinctly states existed in his time on both sides of the river. And further, whatever may be the exact Indian word concealed under the form Klisoboras, or Cliso bora, given by Arrian and Pliny as the name of the town between which and Mathura the Jamuna flowed— Amnis Jomanes in Gangem per Palibothros decur rit inter oppida Methora et Clisobora, Pliny, Hist. Nat. vi., 22—it may be con cluded with certainty that Maha-ban is the site intended [४] Its other literary names are Brihad-vana, Brihad-aranya, Gokula, and Nandagrama; and no one of these, it is true, in the slightest resembles the word Clisobora. But this might well be a corruption of ' Krishna-pura,' the city of Krishna,' a term used by the speaker as a descriptive title—and it would be a highly appropriate one —but taken by the foreign traveller for the ordinary proper name of the place. Colonel Tod thought Clisobora might be Batesar, and most subsequent English topographers seem to have blindly accepted the suggestion. There is, however, really no foundation for it beyond the surmise that Clisobora and Mathura were quoted as the two principal towns in the country, and that Batesar must have been a place of importance, because its older name was derived from the Surasen, after whom the whole people were called Sauraseni. General Cunningham, in his a Ancient Geography,' has thrown out a new theory and identifies Clisobora (read in one MS. as Cyrisoborka) with Brinda-ban, assuming that Kalikavartta, or ‘Kalika's Whirlpool’, was an earlier name of the town, in allusion to Krish na's combat with the serpent Kalika. But in the first place, the Jamuna does not flow between Mathura and Brinda-ban, seeing that both are on the same bank; secondly, the ordinary name of the great serpent is not Kalika, but Kaliya; and thirdly, it does not appear upon what authority it is stated that “ the earlier name of the place was Kalikavartta.” Upon this latter point, a reference was made to the great Brinda-ban Pandit, Swami Rangacharya, who, if any one, might be expected to speak with positive knowledge, and his reply was that in the course of all his reading, he had never met with Brinda-ban under any other name than that which it now hears.
The glories of Maha-ban are told in a special (interpolated) section of the Brahmanda Purana, called the Brihad-vana Mahatmya. In this, its tirthas, or holy places, are reckoned to be twenty-one in number as follows:
Eka-vinsati-tirthena yuktam bhurigunanvitam,
Yamal-arjuna punyatamam, Nanda-kupam tathaiva cha,
Chinta-harana Brahmandam, kundam Sarasvatam tatha,
Sarasvati sila tatra, Vishnu-kunda-samanvitam,
Karna-kupam, Krishna-kundam, Gopa-kupam tathaiva cha,
Ramanam-ramana-sthanam, Narada-sthanam era cha,
Putna patana-sthanam, Trinavarttakhya patanam,
Nanda-harmyam, Nanda-geham, Ghatam Ramana-samjnakam,
Mathuranathodbhavam kshetram punyam papapranasanam,
Janma-sthanam tu Sheshasya, jananam Yogamayaya.
The Putana-patana-sthanam of the above lines is a ravine, commonly called Putana khar, which is crossed by the Mathura road a short distance outside the town. It is a mile or more in length, reaching down to the bank of the Jamuna and, as the name denotes, is supposed to have been caused by the passage of Putana's giant body, in the same way as the Kans Khar at Mathura.
At the Brahmand ghat, where a ras, or 'sacred dance,' is held every Sunday, there is a small modern shrine of Mrittika Bihari and the remains of a chhattri built by one Mukund Sinh, the greater part of which has been washed away by the river. A Jaini sculpture, probably brought from the Chhatthi Palna, is let into the front of the little platform, on which are placed balls of sand in the shape of the pera sweetmeat, to represent the lump of earth that the child Krishna stuffed into his mouth, and which Jasoda saw develop into a minia ture universe. These are called the Brahmand ke pera and are taken away by pilgrims as souvenirs of their visit. A pretty walk under the trees along the high bank of the river leads to the Chinta-haran ghat, a quarter of a mile lower down the stream, a secluded spot, where a Ras is held every Monday. There are no buildings save a Bairagi's cell. The Hindu cicerones never fail to speak with much enthusiasm of the liberality of Mir Sarfaraz Ali, grandfather of Sardar Ali, who never cut any of the timber for his own profit and allowed the pilgrims to make free use of it all: the property has now changed hands and the landlord's manorial rights are more strictly enforced.
Between the town and the sandy expanse called the Raman Reti is a small grove known as the Khelan Ban, with several trees of the Paras Pipar kind, which I have not seen elsewhere in this part of India, though in Bombay there are avenues of it in some of the streets of the city. The largest, which is in front of the Bairagi's cell, flowers profusely in the cold weather from November to February: the flowers, much resembling those of the cotton plant in form, are on first opening yellow and afterwards change their colour to red. The bud is exactly like an elongated acorn; the leaves resemble those of the pipal, but are smaller. On the high bank overlooking the Raman Reti (where is held a fair on the 11th of each Hindu month) are two handsome chhattris to members of Ali Khan's family, of the same design as the one on the other side of the town, but in a more ruinous condition. The well close by is called the Gop Kua. On the opposite bank, on what is an island in the rains, is the Koila Sarae, of much the same size as the one at Chaumuha. The gateways still retain their original wooden doors and are surmounted by corner chhattris as at Chhata. The whole area was occupied till 1871, when it was flooded by the river, which rose to an unusual height and carried away the city bridge,18 pontoons of which were stranded here. Since then the site has been deserted, the villagers having all removed to higher ground. Outside one of the gates is a mosque and there are rains of other edifices also — undermined and partly washed away by the river including a square building said to have been a temple of Mahadeva, erected by Jawahir Sinh of Bharatpur: the foundations have been laid bare to a depth of some six or seven feet.
The principal Hindu festivals observed in Maha-ban are the Ram Lila in the month of Kuvar, first set on foot by a late Tahsildar, Munshi Bhajan Lal; the Putana mela, Kartik Sudi 6th; the Jakhaiya mela, held on the Sundays of the month of Magh (there is a similar festival held at Paindhat in the Mustafabad pargana of the Mainpuri district, which is believed to have great influence on the fall of rain in the winter season) the Raman Reti, held on the sands of the Jamuna, Phalgun Sudi 11th; and the Parikama, or Perambulation, Kartik Sudi 5th; this includes the town of Gokul and village of Raval, at which latter place Radha mother is said to have lived.
The Muhammadan, who are only 1,704 in number, have several small mosques and two festivals. One of these, the Chatiyal Madar, is held on the 3rd of Jamada’l-awwal, in honour of Saiyid Badia-ud-din, better known as Shah Madar, whose principal shrine is at Makhanpur on the Isan. His festivals, wherever held, are distinguished by the name of Chatiyal, meaning ' an open place,' and the hereditary hierophants bear the title of Khalifa. The second Muhammadan melt is the Urs Dargah of Shah Gilan, or Saiyid Makhdum. The dargah was built about a century ago by Nawab Sulaiman Beg.
The town of Gokul—population 4,012—being the head-quarters of the Valla bhacharyas, or Gokulashta Gosains, is throughout the year crowded with pilgrims, of whom the majority come from Gujarat and Bombay, where the doctrines of the sect have been very widely propagated, more especially among the Bhattias and other mercantile classes. In many of its physical characteristics the place used to present a striking parallel to the presumed morality of its habitues, its streets being tortuous and unsavoury, its buildings unartistic, its environs waste and uninviting; while to complete the analogy, though only five or six miles distant from Mathura, it was cut off from easy access by the river, and was thus at once both near and remote, in the same way as its literature is modern and yet obscure. The picturesque appearance, which it presented from the opposite bank, was destroyed on nearer approach. For the temples, though they amount to a prodigious number and are many of them richly endowed, are nearly all modern in date and for the most part tasteless in design; while the thoroughfares were in the rains mere channels for the floods which poured down through them to the Jamuna, and at all other seasons of the year were so rough and broken that the rudest wheeled vehicle could with difficulty make its way along them. Efforts were made for many years to improve its sanitation, but without the slightest result, for the Gosain Muafidars were quite indifferent to any reform of the kind, and were well content to let things remain as they were. However, by personally interesting myself in the matter and putting an active and intelligent Tahsildar in local charge, I succeeded before I left the district in making it by universal consent one of the cleanest and neatest of towns, instead of being as formerly the very filthiest. It may be doubtful how long the reform will last, for constant supervision is necessary in consequence of the number of cattle driven within the walls every night, which render the place really what its name denotes, `a cattle yard,' rather than an abode of men. Its most noteworthy ornament is a spacious masonry tank constructed some thirty years ago by a Seth named Chunna. The trees on its margin are always white with flocks of large water-fowl of a quite distinct species from any to be found elsewhere in the neighbourhood. They are a new colony, being all descended from a few pairs which casually settled there no more than ten or twelve years ago. Their plumage is peculiar and ornamental, but not at all times easy to obtain, as the birds are considered to enjoy the benefit of sanctuary, and on one occasion, when a party of soldiers from the Mathura cantonments attempted to shoot a number of them, the townspeople rose en masse for their protection. Immediately opposite the tank and between it and the river I had a new school built, occupying three sides of a quadrangle with an arched gateway of carved atone on the fourth side facing the street. The cost was Rs. 2,440, the whole of which sum was raised by local subscription save only Rs. 500, which were allotted from the balance of the Government cess. A Sanskrit class has since been started, and so many wealthy pilgrims visit Gokul, who would be glad to spend their money on local institutions, if there were only some one to call their attention to them, that the school might easily be maintained as one of the largest and highest in the district.
The great heresiarch, Vallabhacharya, from whom Gokul derives all its modern celebrity, was born in the year 1479 A. D., being the second son of Lakshman Bhatt, a Telinga Brahman of the Vishnu Swami Sampradaya. By the accident of birth, though not by descent, he can be claimed as a native of Upper India, having been born at Champaranya, a wild solitude in the neigh bourhood of Banaras, whither his parents had travelled up from the south on a pilgrimage. Their stay in the holy city was cut short by a popular emeute, the result of religious intolerance; and the mother, who was little in a condition to encounter the distress and fatigue of so hasty a flight, prematurely gave birth on the way to an eight months' child. Either from an exaggerated alarm as to their own peril, or, as was afterwards said, from a sublime confidence in the promised protection of Heaven, they laid the babe under a tree and abandoned it to its fate. When some days had elapsed, and their fears had subsided, they cautiously retraced their steps, and finding the child still alive and uninjured on the very spot where he had been left, they took him with them to Banaras. After a very short stay there, they fixed their home at Gokul, where the child was placed under the tuition of the Pandit Narayan Bhatt, and in four months', mustered the whole vast range of Sanskrit literature and philosophy. His fol lowers, it may be remarked, are conscientious imitators of their founder in respect of the short time which they devote to their studies; but the result in Chair case is more in accordance with ordinary experience, and their scholarship of the very slightest. When eleven years of age ,he lost his father, and almost immediately afterwards commenced his career as a religious teacher. His ear liest triumphs were achieved in Southern India, where he secured his first con vert, Damodar Das; and in a public disputation at Vijaynagar, the place where his mother's family resided, he refuted the arguments of the Court Pandits with such authority that even the King, Krishna Deva, was convinced by his eloquence and adopted the youthful stranger as his spiritual guide. Thenceforth his success was ensured; and at every place that he visited, Ujaiyin, Banaras, Haridwar, and Allahabad, the new doctrines enlisted a multitude of adherents. A life of celibacy being utterly at variance with his ideas of a reasonable religion, he took to himself a wife at Banaras and became the father of two sons, Gopinath, born in 1511, and Bitthalnath in 1516. His visits to Braj were long and frequent. There, in 1520, he founded at Gobardhan the great temple of Sri-nath; and at Brinda-ban saw in a vision the god Krishna, who directed him to introduce a new devotion in his honor, wherein he should be adored in the form of a child under the title of Balkrishna or Bal Gopal; which is still the cultus most affected by his descendants at the present day. His permanent home, however, was at Banaras, where he com posed his theological works, of which the most extensive is a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, called the Subodhini, and where he died in the year 1531.
He was succeeded in the pontificate by his seeond son, Bitthalnath, who propagated his father's doctrines with great zeal and success throughout all the south and west of India, and himself received 252 distinguished proselytes, whose acts are recorded in a Hindi work called the ‘ Do Sau bavan Varta.’ Finally, in 1565, he settled down at Gokul and, at the age of seventy, breathed his last on the sacred hill of Gobardhan. By his two wives he had a family of seven sons, Giridhar, Gobind, Bal-krishan, Gokulnah, Raghunath, Jadunath, and Ghansyam. Of these, the fourth, Gokulnath, is by far the most famous, and his descendants in consequence claim some slight pre-eminence above their kinsmen. His principal representative is the Gosain at Bombay.
Unlike other Hindu sects, in which the religious teachers are ordinarily un married, all the Gosains among the Vallabhacharyas are invariably family men and engage freely in secular pursuits. They are the Epicureans of the east and are not ashamed to avow their belief that the ideal life consists rather in social enjoyment than in solitude and mortification. Such a creed is naturally destructive of all self-restraint even in matters where indulgence is by common consent held criminal and the profligacy to which it has given rise is so notorious that the late Maharaja of Jaypur was moved to expel from his capital the ancient image of Gokul Chandrama, for which the sect entertained a special veneration. He farther conceived such a prejudice against Vaishnavas in general, that all his subjects were compelled, before they appeared in his presence, to mark their forehead with the three horizontal lines that indicate a votary of Siva. The scandalous practices of the Gosains and the unnatural subserviency of the people in ministering to their gratification received a crushing expose in a cause celebre for libel tried before the Supreme Court of Bombay in 1861, from the detailed narrative of which 1 have borrowed a considerable amount of information.
The dogma of Brahma-Sambandh, or ` union with the divine, upon which Vallabhacharya constructed his whole system, was, as he declares, revealed to him by the Deity in person and recorded word for word as it was uttered. This inspired text is called the Siddhanta Rahasya, and being very brief and of quite exceptional interest, it is here given in full:
श्रावणस्यामले पक्षे एकादश्या महानिशि ।
साक्षाद्भावता प्रोक्तं तदक्षरश उच्यते ।।
ब्रह्मसंबन्धकरणात्सर्वेषां देहजीवयो: ।
सर्वदोषनिवृत्तिर्हि दोषा: पंचविधा: स्मृत: ।।
सहजा देशकालोत्था लोकवेदनिरूपिता: ।
संयोगजा: स्पर्शजाश्च न मंतव्या: कथंचन ।।
अन्यथा सर्वदोषाणां न निवृत्ति: कथंचन ।
असमर्प्पितवस्तूनां तस्माद्वर्ज्जनमाचरेत् ।।
निवेदिभि: समर्प्पैवसर्वं कुर्यादिति स्थिति: ।
न मतं देवदेवस्य स्वामिभुक्तसमर्प्पणं ।।
तस्मादादौ सर्वकार्ये सर्ववस्तु समर्प्पणं ।
दत्तापहारवचनं तथा च सकलं हरे: ।।
न ग्राह्यमिति वाक्यं हि भिन्नमार्ग परं मतं ।
सेवकानां यथा लोके ब्यवहार: प्रसिद्धाति ।।
तथा कार्यं समर्प्यैव सर्वेषां ब्रह्मता तत: ।
गंगात्वं सर्वदोषाणां गुणदोषादिवर्णना ।।
गंगात्वेन निरूप्यंस्यात्तद्वदचापि चैवहि ।
इ श्रीवल्लभाचार्य विरचितं सिद्धांतरहस्यं संपूर्ण ।।
"At dead of night, on the 11th of the bright fortnight of Sravan, what is here written was declared to me, word for word, by God himself. Every sin, whether of body or seal, is put away by union with the Creator; of whatever kind the sin may be whether 1st, original; 2nd, accidental (i.e., born of time and place); 3rd, social or ceremonial (i.e., special offences defined by custom or the Vedas); 4th, sins of abetment; or 5th, sins sensual [५] . No one of these is to be accounted any longer existent; but when there is no union with the Creator there is no putting away of sin. Therefore, one should abstain from anything that has not been consecrated; but when once a thing has been dedicated, the offerer may do with it what he likes: this is the rule. The God of gods will not accept any offering which has already been used by the owner. Therefore, at the outset of every action there should be unreserved offering. It is said by those of a different persuasion, ' what is once given cannot be taken away; it is all God's;' but as is the practice of servants on earth, so would we act in the dedication through which everything becomes God's. Ganges water is full of impurities; and ' the ‘holy Ganges’ may be predicated of bad as well as good. Precisely the same in our case."
The last four lines are rather obscurely expressed. The idea intended is that as servants [६] use what remains of that which they have prepared for their masters, so what we offer to God we may afterwards use for ourselves; and as dirty water flowing into the Ganges becomes assimilated with the sacred stream, so vile humanity becomes purified by union with God.
The practice of the sect has been modelled strictly in accordance with these instructions. A child is Krishna-ed (christened) while still an infant by the Gosain's putting on its neck a string of beads and repeating over it the formula called the Ashtakshar Mantra, sri Krishna saranam mama (Deus adjutorium meum), but before the neophyte can claim the privileges of full communion he has to undergo a rite similar to that of confirmation, and at the age of twelve or thereabouts, when ready to take upon himself the responsibilities of life, he initiates his career by a solemn dedication (samarpana) of all that he has and is to the God of his devotion. This oblation of tan, man, dhan, as it is popularly expressed—that is, of body, soul, and substance—is couched in the following terms:
ओ श्रीकृष्ण: शरणंमम सहस्रपरिवत्सरामितकालसंजात कृष्णवियोगज -
निततापकेशानंततिरोभावोहं भगवते कृष्णाय देहेंद्रियप्राणांऽत:करणत-
द्धर्म्मांश्च दारागारपुत्राप्तवित्तेहपराण्या त्मना सह समर्पयामि दासोहं कृष्ण तवास्मि ।।
Om. The God Krishna is my refuge. Distracted by the infinite pain and torment caused by the separation from Krishna, which has extended over a space of time measured by thousands of years, I now, to the holy Krishna, do dedicate my bodily faculties, my life, my soul, and its belongings, with my wife, my house, my children, my whole substance, and my own self. 0, Krishna; I am thy scrvant." [७]
Now, all this may be so interpreted as to convey a most unexceptionable meaning: that man should consecrate to God, wholly and without reserve, his body, soul, and substance, his every thought, word, and action, and all that he has, or does, or suffers, that such consecration is sufficient to hallow and ennoble the meanest actions of our ordinary life and is an effectual preservative from all evil, while even good works done without such consecration are unprofitable and " have even the nature of sin." [८] This is the doctrine of Christianity, and it may be deduced from Vallabhacharya's revelation without forcing the sense of a single word. But though there may be some slight doubt as to his own views, there can be none as to those entertained by his most immediate succes sors and transmitted by them to his disciples at the present day. For Gokul nath, who is regarded as the most authoritative exponent of his grandfather's tenets, repeatedly insists in all his works, with the moat marked emphasis, on the absolute identity of the Gosain with the Divinity [९] In fact, he goes even a step beyond this, and represents the Gosain as so powerful a mediator that prac tically his favour is of more importance to us than God's: for, if God is dis pleased, the Gosain can deprecate his wrath; but if the Gosain is displeased, God will be affected towards us in the same way, and conciliation will then be impossible. When to this it is added that the Gosain obtains his position solely by birth, and that no defect, moral or intellectual, can impair his hereditary claim to the adoration of his followers, who are exhorted to close their eyes and ears to anything that tends to his discredit [१०] it is obvious that a door is opened to scandal of a most intolerable description. By the act of dedication, a man submits to the pleasure of the Gosain, as God's representative, not only the first fruits of his wealth, but also the virginity of his daughter or his newly-wedded wife; while the doctrine of the Brahma Sambandh is explained to mean that such adulterous connection is the same as ecstatic union with the God, and the most meritorious act of devotion that can be performed. This glorification of immorality forms the only point in a large proportion of the stories in the Chaurasi Varta, or ' Accounts of Vallabhacharya's 84 great proselytes.' One of the most extravagant will be found given in full at the end of this chapter. The work commences with reference to the Revelation of the Siddhanta Rahasya, preceded by a brief colloquy between the Deity and the Gosain, of which the following words are the most important: -
तब श्री आचार्य जी महाप्रभु आप कहैं जो जीव को
स्वरूप तो तुम जानत ही हौ दोषवंत है सो तुम सों संबंध
कैसे होय तब श्रीठाकुरजी आप कहैं जो तुम जीवन कों
ब्रह्म संबंध करावोगे तिनकों हौं अंगीकार करूंगो तुम जीवन
कों नाम देउगे तिनके सकल दोष निवर्त्त होयंगे ।।
"Vallabha.—You know the nature of life: that it is full of defects; how can there be union between it and you ?
"Krishna.— You will effect the union of the divinity with living crea tures, and I will accept them. Yon will give your name to them, and all their sins shall be put away."
Professor Wilson interprets this as merely the declaration of a philosophi cal dogma, that life and spirit are identical; but (it can scarcely be doubted) the passage means rather that human life can only be purified by bringing it into intimate connection with God, or in default of God, with God's repre sentative, the Gosain.
Such being the revolting character of their theological literature, it is easy to understand why the Vallabhacharyas have always shown a great reluctance to submit it to the criticism of the outer world of unbelievers, who might not be prepared to accept such advanced doctrines. Though there are several copyists at Gokul, whose sole occupation it is to make transcripts for the use of pilgrims, they would ordinarily refuse to sell a manuscript to any one who was not of their own denomination; and none of their books had ever been published till quite recently, when two or three of the less esoteric were issued from Pandit Giri Prasad's Press at Beswa in the Aligarh district. However, as in many other forms of religion, and happily so in this case, practice is not always in accordance with doctrine. Though there may be much that is reprehensible in the inner life of the Gosains, it is not at Gokul obtruded on the public and has never occasioned any open scandal; while the present head of the community, Gosain Purushottam Lal, a descendant of Bitthalnath's sixth son, Jadunath,. deserves honourable mention for exceptional liberality and enlightment. He is the head of the temple of Navanit-Priya, popularly called by way of pre-eminence, Raja Thakur [११] and is the proprietor of the whole of the township of Gokul. His uncle and predecessor, Gobind Lal, died, leaving a widow, Janaki Bau Ji, and an only daughter. The latter, according to inva liable custom, was married to a Bhatt, and by him had two sons by name Ran-chor Lal and Gop Ji. But, as by Salic law neither of them could suc ceed to the spiritual dignity, the widow adopted her nephew Purushottam, the son of her husband's brother, Braj Pal. The adoption was disputed by the two sons, who carried their suit in appeal even up to the Privy Council, and there were finally defeated. Under their mother's will, they enjoy a maintenance allowance of Rs 900 a year, paid to the elder brother by the Gosain, and they have further retained—though under protest—all the property conferred by the Maharaja of Jodhpur on their common ancestor Murlidhar, the father of Gobind Lal and Braj Lal, who was the founder of the family's temporal pros perity and was the first muafidar of Gokul by grant from Sindhia.
Gosain Purusottam Lal has one son, Raman Lal, through whom he is the grandfather of Braj Lal and Kanhaiya Lal. The latter of these has been adopted by Lachhman Ji, a descendant of Bitthalnath's fourth son, Gokulnath, and is now the Gosain of the temple bearing that title. Thus the two princi pal endowments have both come into one branch of the family, and the Gosain is one of the very largest landowners and wealthiest residents in the district;
while he wields, at the same time, in virtue of his religious character, an influence which is absolutely unbounded among his own people, and very considerable in all classes of Hindu society. In the official worlds however, he is barely known even by name, as his estates are too well managed to bring him before the Courts, and he is still so far fettered by the traditions of his order that he declines all social intercourse with Europeans, even of the highest rank: so much so, that when the Lieutenant-Governor of these Provinces visited the station in 1873, and being unaware of this peculiarity, expressed in writing a desire to see him, the invitation was not accepted. The compliment was prompted by the Gosain's annual gift of a prize of Rs. 300 for the student who passes first in the general Entrance Examination for the Calcutta University; a donation which, under the circumstances, cannot have been suggested by any ulterior motive beyond a genuine desire for the furtherance of education. He has since converted it into a permanent endowment. In the same spirit, though he makes no claim to any high degree of scholarship himself, he has maintained for some years past in the city of Mathura a Sanskrit school, which is attended by a large number of adults as well as boys, for whom he has secured very competent teachers. He has also contributed freely to the Gokul new school and—as a further proof of the liberality of his sentiments—he gave Rs. 400 towards the erection of the Catholic Church.
At all the Vallabhacharya temples, the daily services are eight in number—viz., 1st, Mangala, the morning levee, a little after sun-rise, when the God is taken from his couch and bathed; 2nd, Sringara, an hour and-a-half later, when the God is attired in all his jewels and seated on his throne; 3rd, Gwala, after an interval of about three-quarters of an hour, when the God is supposed to be starting to graze his cattle in the woods of Braj; 4th, Raj Bhog, the mid-day meal, which, after presentation, is consumed by the priests and distributed among the votaries who have assisted at the ceremonies; 5th, Uttapan, about 3 P. M., when the God awakes from his siesta; 6th, Bhog, the evening collation; 7th, Sandhya, the disrobing at sunset; and 8th, Sayan, the retiring to rest. Upon all these occasions the ritual concerns only the priests, and the lay worshipper is simply a spectator, who evinces his reverence by any of the ordinary forms with which he would approach a human superior.
On the full moon of Asarh there is a curious annual ceremony for the pur pose of ascertaining the agricultural prospects of the year. The priests place little packets of the ashes of different staples, after weighing them, in the sanctuary. The temple is then closed, but the night is spent in worship. In the morning the packets are examined. Should any of the packets have increased in weight, that particular article of produce will yield a good harvest; and should they decrease, the harvest will be proportionately scanty.
As has already been mentioned, none of the buildings present a very im posing appearance. The three oldest, dedicated respectively to Gokulnath, Madan Mohan, and Bitthalnath, are ascribed to the year 1511 A.D. The last named, which is near the Jasoda's Ghat, has a small but richly decorated quad rangle with bold brackets carved into the form of elephants and swans. It is quite uncared for and is rapidly falling into irreparable ruin. The most notable of the remainder are Dwaraka Nath, dating from 1546 A.D., Balkrishan, from 1636, with an annual income of Rs. 4,420; Navanit Priya, or Dau Ji, the latter name being that of the Gosain, whose grandson, Giridhari Ji, is now in possession, with an income of Rs. 9,382; Braj Ratn, under Gosain Gokul Nath Ji, a descendant of Bitthalnath's younger son, Ghan Syam, with an income of Rs. 10,650; Sri Chandra ma, with Rs. 4,050, and Navanit Lal, Natwar, Mathures, Gopal Lal, and Brajeswar; all of these being quite modern. There are also two shrines in honour of Mahadeva, built by Bijay Sinh, Raja of Jodh pur, in 1602. The principal melas are the Janm Ashtami, Krishna's birthday, in Bhadon, and Annkut on the day after the new moon of Kartik. The Trina vart mela is also held, Kartik badi 4th, when paper figures of the demon are first paraded and then torn to pieces. The principal gate of the town is that called the Gandipura Darwaza. It is of stone with two corner turrets, but has never been completely finished. From it a road, about half a mile or so in length, runs between some very fine tamarind trees, which seem specially to affect the soil in this neighbourhood, down to Gandipura on the bank of the river, where is a baoli and a large house built by Manohar Lal,a Bhattia, now personal assistant at the Rewa Court. Below it is Ballabh ghat, with Koila immediately opposite on the right bank of the stream. This road is much frequented by pilgrims in the rains, and I had caused it to be widened and straightened, and the trustees of the Gokulnath temple had promised to metal it; but probably this has not been done.
One small speciality of Gokul is the manufacture of silver toys and orna ments—figures of peacocks, cows, and other animals and devices—which are principally purchased as souvenirs by pilgrims. The designs are very conven tional, and the work roughly finished; but some little taste is often displayed, and when better models are supplied, they are copied with much readiness and ingenuity. The articles being of pure silver, are sold for their weight in rupees with the addition of two anas in the rupee for the work; unless it is exceptionally well finished, when a somewhat higher rate is demanded.
Beside the entire zamindari, the Pandas hold also 255 -1/2 big has in Rirha as muafidars. Of this area, 79 bighas are occupied by buildings, while the remainder is either waste or orchard. As the township has no arable land attached to it, the name Baladeva does not appear at all in the district rent-roll
The temple, despite its popularity, is neither handsome nor well appointed. Its precincts include as many as eleven cloistered quadrangles, where accomdation it provided for the pilgrims and resident priests. No definite charge is levied on the former, but they are expected to make a voluntary donation to their means. Each court, or kunj, as it is called, bears the name acoording of its founder as follows:—1st, the Kunj of Rashk Lad of Agra and Lakhnan, 1817 A, D.; 2nd, of Bachharaj, Baniya, of Hathras, 1825; 3rd, of Naval Karan, Baniya, of Agra, 1868; 4th, of Bhim Sen and Hulas Rai, Baniyas, of Mathura, 1828; 5th, of Das Mal, Khattri, of Agra, 1801; 6th of Bhattacharya of Jaypur, 1794; 7th of Gopal, Brahman, of Jaypur; 8th of Chiman Lal, of Mathura, 1778; 9th, of Sada Ram, Khattri, of Agra, 1768; 10th, of Chunna, Halwai, of Barat-pur, 1808; and 11th, of Puran Chand, Pachauri, of Maha-ban, 1801. The actual temple, built by Seth Syam Das, of Delhi, towards the end of last century,: stands at the back of one of the inner courts, and on each of its three disengaged sides has an arcade of three bays with broad flanking piers. On each of these three sides a door gives access to the cella, which is surmounted by a squat pyramidal tower. In addition to the principal figure, Baladeva ,who is generally very richly dressed and bedizened, with jewels, it contains another life sized statue, supposed to represent his spouse Revati. Apparently she was an after thought, as she is put away in a corner, off the dais. In an adjoining court shown the small vaulted chamber which served the God as a residence for the century after his epiphany. Near the tank is a shrine dedicated by Bihari lal, Bohra, of Mursan, in 1803, to the honour of the god Harideva, and two stone chhatris in memory of the Pandas, Harideva and Jagannath.
Two annual melas are held at Baladeva, the one Bhadon sudi 6th (commonly called Deo Chath), the other on the full moon of Agahn; but there is probably not a single day in the course of the whole year in which the temple courts are not occupied by at least as many as a hundred pilgrims, who come from all parts of Northern India. The cost of the religious ceremonial cannot be much, but a charitable dole of an ana apiece is given to every applicant; and as the Parades with their families now number between 300 and 400 persons, the annual cost of their maintenance must be very considerable. After reasonable deduc tions on these three heads—viz., temple expenses, charity, and maintenance of the priests, the balance of profits is calculated at over Rs. 30,000. There is ordinarily a division among the shareholders at the end of every three months, when they make an allotment into twelve equal portions, that being the num ber of the principal sub-divisions of the clan, and then each sub-division makes a separate distribution among its own members. The votive offerings in the vast majority of cases are individually of very trifling amount; but even so, their collective value is not altogether to be despised. Thus, poorer pilgrims, in addition to a few copper coins, often present a piece of sugar; and the heap of sugar accumulated in three or four days has been sold by auction for as much as Rs. 80. The shrine is a very popular one among all classes; scarcely ever is an important venture made without a vow that the God shall receive a fixed share of the profits, if he bring it to a successful issue; and even casual votaries, who have no special boon to beg, are often most lavish in their donations, either of money, horned cattle, carriages, horses, or other property. For example, a few years ago, Surajbhan, a wealthy merchant of Agra, gave Rs. 4,000 worth of jewellery for the personal adornment of the God.
It is unfortunate that the hereditary guardians of so wealthy a shrine should be such a low and thriftless set as the Ahivasis are. The temple-garden occupies 52 bighas of land and was once a well-planted grove. It is now a dirty, unsightly waste, as the Panties have gradually cut down all the trees for firewood, without a thought of replacing them. They have thus not only dete riorated the value of their property, but also forfeited a grant that used to be made by the Maharaja of Bharat-pur for its maintenance. It is also asserted to be a common practice for the younger members of the clan, when they see any devotees prostrate in devotion before the god, to be very forward in assisting them to rise and leading them away, and to take the opportunity of despoiling them of any loose cash or valuable ornaments that they can lay their hands upon. It is believed that thefts of this kind are frequent; though the victim generally prefers to accept the loss in silence, rather than incure the odium of bringing a charge, that there might not be legal evidence to substantiate, against a professedly religious community. It appears in every way desirable that some extra police should be maintained at the expense of the Pandes, and a constable or two kept permanently on duty in the inner court of the temple. As an illustration of the esteem in which learning is held in this large and wealthy Brahmanical town, it may be mentioned that the school is not only merely a primary one, but is also about the smallest and worst of its class in the whole district.
I. CATALOGUE OF VALLABHACHARYA LITERATURE.
I. Sanskrit works ascribed to the founder himself, divided into two classes: First, commentaries of considerable length on older writings of authority, being four in number, viz., Bhagavata Tika Subodhini, Vyasa Sutra Bhashya, Jaimini aft Bhashya, and Tattva Dipa Nibandha. None of these have I seen. Second ly, seventeen very short original poems entitled—Siddhanta Rahasya, Siddhanta Muktavali, Pushti Pravaha Maryada, Antah-karanah Prabodha, Nava Ratna, Viveka Dhairyasraya, Krishnasraya, Bhakti Vandhani, Jala-bheda, Sannyasa nirnaya, Nirodha-lakshana, Seva-phala, Bal-bodh, Chatur-sloki, Panch-sloki, Yamunashtakam, and Purushottama Sahasra-nama. Of all of these, except the last, I have obtained copies from Gokul.
II. Sanskrit works ascribed to Vallabhacharya's immediate successors. These also are, for the most part, very short. The principal are as follows: Sarvottama-stotram of Agni Kumar, Ratna Vivarna of Bitthalnath, Bhakti Siddhanta Vivriti of Gokulnath, Vallabhashtakam of Bitthalnath, Krishna Premamritam of Bitthalnath, Siksha Patram, Gokulashtakam, Prem-Amritam of Gokulnath, Sri Vallabha-bhavashtakam of Hari Das, Madhur Ashtakam, Saran Ashtakam, Namavali Acharya, Namavali Goswami, Siddhanta Bhavana, Virodha Lakshana, Srinagara Rasamandalu, Saranopadesa, Rasa-Sindhu, Kalpadruma, Mala Prasanga, and Chita Prabodha.
III. Works in the modern vernacular, i.e., the Braj-Bhasha. Such are the Nij Varta, Chaurasi Varta, Do Sau Bavan Varta, Dwadasa Kunja Pavitra Mandela, Purnamasi, Nitya-sevaprakara, Rasa Bhavana Gokulnath, Vachan amrita of Gokulnath, Braj Bilas of Braj-basi Das, Ban-Jatra, Vallabhakyana, Dhola, Nitya-pada, Sri Gobardhan-nath Ji ka Pragatya, Gosain Ji Pragatya, Lila Bhavana, Swarupa Bhavana, Guru Seva, Seva-prakara Mula Purusha, Dasa Marama, Vaishnava Battisi Lakshana, Chaurasi Siksha, Otsava Pada, Yamuna Ji Pada, and others.
II—SPECIMEN OF THE TONE AND STYLE OF POPULAR VALLABHACHARYA LITERATURE
The following story of ‘how Krishan Das showed his devotion to the Go sains' is extracted from the Chaurasi Vida, and is interesting as a specimen both of the dialect and religious superstition of the locality. Though written some two hundred years ago, it might, for all internal evidence to the contrary, have been taken down only yesterday, word for word, from the mouth of a village gossip. It does not contain a single archaic term, and in its unartificial style and rustic phraseology is an exact representation of the colloquial idiom of middle-class Hindus of the present century; yet it has absolutely nothing in common with the language officially designated the vernacular of the country, either as regards the arrangement of the sentence or the choice of words; the latter being all taken from the Hindi vocabulary, with the exception of three only—viz., kaul, a ‘promise;’ sauda, ‘merchandise;’ and khabr, ‘news.’ These are inserted as if on purpose to show that the non-admission of a larger number was a spontaneous and not a pedantic exclusion. As to its purport, the eulogy which it bestows, on the extraordinary sacrifice of personal decency and honour, merely for the sake of procuring the Gosains a good dinner, is so revolting to the principles of natural morality that it condems the whole tenour of Vallabhacharya doctrine more strongly than any argument that could be adduced by an opponent. The style of the narrative is so easy and perspicuous that it can present no difficulty to the student, who alone will take an interest in the matter, and therefore I have not considered it necessary to add a translation:—
References
- ↑ With the exception of the kila, or keep, the rest of the hill is known as the kot.
- ↑
The division of proprietary rights in Maha-ban is of very perplexing character, the several shares being very different in extent from what their names seem to indicate. The total area is 6,529 big has and 10 biswas, distributed as follows :- Bighas. Bis. The 11 biswa Thok Chaudhariyan ... 1,397 10 The 9 ditto ditto ... 703 4 The Thok Saiyidat ... 570 19 Free lands resumed by Government ... 1750 4 Common land ... 2107 13 Total... 6529 10 One-third of the profits of the common land goes to the Saiyids; the remaining two-thirds are them again sub-divided into three, of which one part goes to the 9 blswa thok and two to the 11 biswas. - ↑ I would here notice, as I may not have a better opportunity and it is a fat of interest, that the third of the Gwaliar temples, commonly called the Teli ka mandir, about which General Cunningham hesitates to express an opinion, is certainly a Jain building. This is shown by the enormous height of the doorway, a feature peculiarly unbrahmanical, and by the two upper stories of the tower-as in the Buddh Gaya temple-which no Brahman would ever have thought of allowing over head of the god.
- ↑ Khes is for khwesh, ‘a kinsman’.
- ↑ There is a paraphrase on the Siddhanta Rahasya by Gossain Gokulnath, called Bhakti Siddhants Vivriti; in which with the characteristic fondness of Sanskrit commentators for scholastic refinements, he explaius these terms in a much more narrow and technical sense than that which I have applied to them. As the text contains an uneven number of lines, it would appear at first sight to be imperfect : but this suspicion can scarcely be well founded, since in Gokulnath's time it stood precisely as now
- ↑ Hence sevakan, 'servants,' is the distinctive name for lay members of the Vallabhacharya community. The whole system of doctrine is known as 'Pusti mark,' or way of happiness, and its practice as 'Daivi jivan,' the Divin life. Their sectarial mark consists of two red perpendicular lines down the forehead, meeting in a curve at the root of the nose with a red spot between them
- ↑ This formula, is,I find, based on a passage in the Narada Pancharatra
- ↑ The final climax states the doctrine of the Anglican, but not of the Catholic Church
- ↑ This extravagant doctrine pervades all the later Vaishnava schools, and is accepted by the disciples of Chaitanya no less than by those of Vallabhacharya. The foundation upon which it rests is a line in the Bhagabat, where the Guru is styled Sarva-deva-maya, made up of all divinity.
- ↑ This is considered so essential a duty, that in the Dasa marma, or Vallabhacharya. Decalogue, 'See no faults, ' stands as the Tenth Commandment.
- ↑ He also presides over two temples dedicated to Baladeva and Madan Mohan near the Kankhal Ghat in Mathura, where he ordinarily resides
- ↑ The latter name represents the common pronunciation, which (as in all similar words) has become corrupted by the practice of writing in Persian characters, which are inadequate to express the va termination