Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, vol. 2 of 3, by James Tod

The Mughals and Krishna Worship.

—Jahangir, by birth half a Rajput, was equally indulgent to the worship of Kanhaiya: but Shah Jahan, also the son of a Rajput princess, inclined to the [523] doctrines of Siva, in which he was initiated by Siddhrup the Sannyasi. Sectarian animosity is more virulent than faiths totally dissimilar. Here we see Hindu depressing Hindu: the followers of Siva oppressing those of Kanhaiya; the priests of Jupiter driving the pastoral Apollo from the Parnassus of Vraj. At the intercession, however, of a princess of Udaipur, he was replaced on his altar, where he remained till Aurangzeb became emperor of the Moguls. In such detestation did the Hindus hold this intolerant king, that in like manner as they supposed the beneficent Akbar to be the devout Mukund in a former birth, so they make the tyrant’s body enclose the soul of Kalyavana the foe of Krishna, ere his apotheosis, from whom he fled to Dwarka, and thence acquired the name of Ranchhor.^[56]

The Image of Krishna removed to Mewār. Founding of Nāthdwāra.

—When Aurangzeb proscribed Kanhaiya, and rendered his shrines impure throughout Vraj, Rana Raj Singh “offered the heads of one hundred thousand Rajputs for his service,” and the god was conducted by the route of Kotah and Rampura to Mewar. An omen decided the spot of his future residence. As he journeyed to gain the capital of the Sesodias the chariot-wheel sunk deep into the earth and defied extrication; upon which the Saguni (augur) interpreted the pleasure of the god, that he desired to dwell there. This circumstance occurred at an inconsiderable village called Siarh, in the fief of Delwara, one of the sixteen nobles of Mewar. Rejoiced at this decided manifestation of favour, the chief hastened to make a perpetual gift of the village and its lands, which was speedily confirmed by the patent of the Rana.^[57] Nathji (the god) was removed from his car, and in due time a temple was erected for his reception, when the hamlet of Siarh became the town of Nathdwara, which now contains many thousand inhabitants of all denominations, who, reposing under the especial protection of the god, are exempt from every mortal tribunal. The site is not uninteresting, nor devoid of the means of defence. To the east it is shut in by a cluster of hills, and to the westward flows the Banas, which nearly bathes the extreme points of the hills. Within these bounds is the sanctuary (saran) of Kanhaiya, where the criminal is free from pursuit; nor dare the rod of justice appear on the mount, or the foot of the pursuer pass the stream; neither within it can blood be spilt, for the pastoral Kanhaiya delights not in offerings of this kind [524].^[58] The territory contains within its precincts abundant space for the town, the temple, and the establishments of the priests, as well as for the numerous resident worshippers, and the constant influx of votaries from the most distant regions,

who find abundant shelter from the noontide blaze in the groves of tamarind, pipal, and semal,^[59] where they listen to the mystic hymns of Jayadeva. Here those whom ambition has cloyed, superstition unsettled, satiety disgusted, commerce ruined, or crime disquieted, may be found as ascetic attendants on the mildest of the gods of India. Determined upon renouncing the world, they first renounce the ties that bind them to it, whether family, friends, or fortune, and placing their wealth at the disposal of the deity, stipulate only for a portion of the food dressed for him, and to be permitted to prostrate themselves before him till their allotted time is expired. Here no blood-stained sacrifice scares the timid devotee; no austerities terrify, or tedious ceremonies fatigue him; he is taught to cherish the hope that he has only to ask for mercy in order to obtain it; and to believe that the compassionate deity who guarded the lapwing’s nest ^[60] in the midst of myriads of combatants, who gave beatitude to the courtesan ^[61] who as the wall crushed her pronounced the name of ‘Rama,’ will not withhold it from him who has quitted the world and its allurements that he may live only in his presence, be fed by the food prepared for himself, and yield up his last sigh invoking the name of Hari. There [525] have been two hundred individuals at a time, many of whom, stipulating merely for food, raiment, and funeral rites, have abandoned all to pass their days in devotion at the shrine: men of every condition, Rajput merchant, and mechanic; and where sincerity of devotion is the sole expiation, and gifts outweigh penance, they must feel the road smooth to the haven of hope.

Benefactions to Nāthdwāra.

—The dead stock of Krishna’s shrine is augmented chiefly by those who hold life “unstable as the dew-drop on the lotus”; and who are happy to barter “the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind” for the intercessional prayers of the high priest, and his passport to Haripur, the heaven of Hari. From the banks of the Indus to the mouths of the Ganges, from the coasts of the Peninsula to the shores of the Red Sea, the gifts of gratitude or of fear are lavishly poured in; and though the unsettled aspect of the last half-century curtailed the transmission of the more bulky but least valuable benefactions, it less affected the bills of exchange from the successful sons of commerce, or the legacies of the dead. The safe arrival of a galleon from Sofala or Arabia produced as much to the shrine as to the insurance office, for Kanhaiya is the Saint Nicholas of the Hindu navigator, as was Apollo to the Grecian and Celtic sailors, who purchased the charmed arrows of the god to calm the troubled sea.^[62] A storm accordingly yields in proportion to its violence, or to the nerve of the owner of the vessel. The appearance of a long-denied heir might deprive him of half his patrimony, and force him to lament his parent’s distrust in natural causes; while the accidental mistake of touching forbidden food on particular fasts requires expiation, not by flagellation or seclusion, but by the penance of the purse.

There is no donation too great or too trifling for the acceptance of Krishna, from the baronial estate to a patch of meadowland; from the gemmed coronet to adorn his image, to the widow’s mite; nor, as before observed, is there a principality [526] in India which does not diminish its fisc to add to his revenues. What effect the milder rites of the shepherd-god have produced on the adorers of Siva we know not, but assuredly Eklinga, the tutelary divinity of Mewar, has to complain of being defrauded of half his dues since Kanhaiya transferred his abode from the Yamuna to the Banas; for the revenues assigned to Kanhaiya, who under the epithet of ‘Yellow mantle’^[63] has a distinguished niche in the domestic chapel of the Rana, far exceed those of the Avenger. The grants or patents of Hindupati,^[64] defining the privileges and immunities of the shrine, are curious documents.^[65]

Rights of Sanctuary.

—The extension of the sanctuary beyond the vicinage of the shrine became a subject of much animadversion; and in delegating judicial authority over the whole of the villages in the grant to the priests, the Rana committed the temporal welfare of his subjects to a class of men not apt to be lenient in the collection of their dues, which not unfrequently led to bloodshed. In alienating the other royalties, especially the transit duties, he was censured even by the zealots. Yet, however important such concessions, they were of subordinate value to the rights of sanctuary, which were extended to the whole of the towns in the grant, thereby multiplying the places of refuge for crime, already too numerous.

Violation of Sanctuary.

—In all ages and countries the rights of sanctuary have been admitted, and however they may be abused, their institution sprung from humane motives. To check the impulse of revenge and to shelter the weak from oppression are noble objects, and the surest test of a nation’s independence is the extent to which they are carried. From the remotest times saran has been the most valued privilege of the Rajputs, the lowest of whom deems his house a refuge against the most powerful. But we merely propose to discuss the sanctuary of holy places, and more immediately that of the shrine of Kanhaiya. When Moses, after the Exodus, made a division of the lands of Canaan amongst the Israelites, and appointed “six cities to be the refuge of him who had slain unwittingly, from the avenger of blood,”^[66] the intention was not to afford facilities for eluding justice, but to check the hasty impulse of revenge; for the slayer was only to be protected “until he stood before the congregation for judgment, or until the death of the high-priest” [527], which event appears to have been considered as the termination of revenge.^[67] The infraction of political sanctuary (saran torna) often gives rise to the most inveterate feuds; and its abuse by the priests is highly prejudicial to society. Moses appointed but six cities of refuge to the whole Levite tribe; but the Rana has assigned more to one shrine than the entire possessions of that branch of the Israelites who had but forty-two cities, while Kanhaiya has forty-six.^[68] The motive of sanctuary in Rajasthan may have been originally the same as that of the divine legislator; but the privilege has been abused, and the most notorious criminals deem the temple their best safeguard. Yet some princes have been found hardy enough to violate, though indirectly, the sacred saran. Zalim Singh of Kotah, a zealot in all the observances of religion, had the boldness to draw the line when selfish priestcraft interfered with his police; and though he would not demand the culprit, or sacrilegiously drag him from the altar, he has forced him thence by prohibiting the admission of food, and threatening to build up the door of the temple. It was thus the Greeks evaded the laws, and compelled the criminal’s surrender by kindling fires around the sanctuary.^[69] The towns of Kanhaiya did not often abuse their privilege; but the Author once had to interpose, where a priest of Eklinga gave asylum to a felon who had committed murder within the bounds of his domain of Pahona. As this town, of eight thousand rupees annual revenue belonging to the fisc, had been gained by a forged charter, the Author was glad to seize on the occasion to recommend its resumption, though he thereby incurred the penalty for seizing church land, namely “sixty thousand years in hell.” The unusual occurrence created a sensation, but it was so indisputably just that not a voice was raised in opposition.

Endowments of Nāthdwāra.

—Let us revert to the endowments of Nathdwara. Herodotus ^[70] furnishes a powerful instance of the estimation in which sacred offerings were held by the nations of antiquity. He observes that these were transmitted from the remotest nations of Scythia to Delos in Greece; a range far less extensive than the offerings to the [528] Dewal of Apollo in Mewar. The spices of the isles of the Indian archipelago; the balmy spoils of Araby the blest; the nard or frankincense of Tartary; the raisins and pistachios of Persia; every variety of saccharine preparation, from the shakkarkhand (sugar-candy) of the celestial empire, with which the god sweetens his evening repast, to the more common sort which enters into the peras of Mathura, the food of his infancy;^[71] the shawls of Kashmir, the silks of Bengal, the scarfs of Benares, the brocades of Gujarat,

all contribute to enrich the shrine of Nathdwara. But it is with the votaries of the maritime provinces of India that he has most reason to be satisfied; in the commercial cities of Surat, Cambay, Muskat-mandavi, etc., etc., where the Mukhyas, or comptrollers deputed by the high priest, reside, to collect the benefactions, and transmit them as occasion requires. A deputy resides on the part of the high priest at Multan, who invests the distant worshippers with the initiative cordon and necklace. Even from Samarkand the pilgrims repair with their offerings; and a sum, seldom less than ten thousand rupees, is annually transmitted by the votaries from the Arabian ports of Muscat, Mocha, and Jiddah; which contribution is probably augmented not only by the votaries who dwell at the mouths of the Volga ^[72] [529], but by the Samoyede ^[73] of Siberia. There is not a petty retailer professing the Vishnu creed who does not carry a tithe of his trade to the stores: and thus caravans of thirty and forty cars, double-yoked, pass twice or thrice annually by the upper road to Nathdwara. These pious bounties are not allowed to moulder in the bhandars: the apparel is distributed with a liberal hand as the gift of the deity to those who evince their devotion; and the edibles enter daily into the various food prepared at the shrine.

Food offered to Deities.

—It has been remarked by the celebrated Goguet ^[74] that the custom of offering food to the object of divine homage had its origin in a principle of gratitude, the repast being deemed hallowed by presenting the first portion to him who gave it, since the devotee was unable to conceive aught more acceptable than that whereby life is sustained. From the earliest period such offerings have been tendered; and in the burnt-offering (hom) of Abel, of the firstling of the flock, and the first portion of the repast presented by the Rajput to Annadeva ^[75] ‘the nourisher,’ the motive is the same. But the parsad (such is the denomination of the food sacred to Kanhaiya) is deemed unlucky, if not unholy; a prejudice arising from the heterogeneous sources whence it is supplied—often from bequests of the dead. The Mukhyas [530] of the temple accordingly carry the sacred food to wheresoever the votaries dwell, which proves an irresistible stimulus to backward zeal, and produces an ample return. At the same time are transmitted, as from the god, dresses of honour corresponding in material and value with the rank of the receiver: a diadem, or fillet of satin and gold, embroidered; a dagla, or quilted coat of gold or silver brocade for the cold weather; a scarf of blue and gold; or if to one who prizes the gift less for its intrinsic worth than as a mark of special favour, a fragment of the garland worn on some festival by the god; or a simple necklace, by which he is inaugurated amongst the elect.^[76]

Lands dedicated to the Shrine.

—It has been mentioned that the lands of Mewar appropriated to the shrine are equal in value to a baronial appanage, and, as before observed, there is not a principality in India which does not assign a portion of its domain or revenue to this object. The Hara princes of Kotah and Bundi are almost exclusive worshippers of Kanhaiya, and the regent Zalim Singh is devoted to the maintenance of the dignity of the establishment. Everything at Kotah appertains to Kanhaiya. The prince has but the usufruct of the palace, for which £12,000 are annually transmitted to the shrine. The grand lake east of the town, with all its finny tenants, is under his especial protection;^[77] and the extensive suburb adjoining, with its rents, lands, and transit duties, all belong to the god. Zalim Singh moreover transmits to the high priest the most valuable shawls, broadcloths, and horses; and throughout the long period of predatory warfare he maintained two Nishans,^[78] of a hundred firelocks each, for the protection of the temple.temple. His favourite son also, a child of love, is called Gordhandas, the ‘slave of Gordhan,’ one of the many titles of Kanhaiya. The prince of Marwar went mad from the murder of the high priest of Jalandhara, the epithet given to Kanhaiya in that State; and the Raja of Sheopur,^[79] the last of the Gaurs, lost his sovereignty by abandoning the worship of Har for that of Hari. The ‘slave’ of Radha ^[80] (such was the name of this prince) almost lived in the temple, and used to dance before the statue. Had he upheld the rights of him who wields [531] the trident, the tutelary deity of his capital, Sivapur, instead of the unwarlike divinity whose unpropitious title of Ranchhor should never be borne by the martial Rajput, his fall would have been more dignified, though it could not have been retarded when the overwhelming torrent of the Mahrattas under Sindhia swept Rajwara.^[81]

Grants to the High Priest.

—A distinction is made between the grants to the temple and those for the personal use of the pontiff, who at least affects never to apply any portion of the former to his own use, and he can scarcely have occasion to do so; but when from the stores of Apollo could be purchased the spices of the isles, the fruits of Persia, and the brocades of Gujarat, we may indulge our scepticism in questioning this forbearance: but the abuse has been rectified, and traffic banished from the temple. The personal grant (Appendix, No. XI.) to the high priest ought alone to have sufficed for his household expenditure, being twenty thousand rupees per annum, equal to £10,000 in Europe. But the ten thousand towns of Mewar, from each of which he levied a crown, now exist only in the old rent-roll, and the heralds of Apollo would in vain attempt to collect their tribute from two thousand villages.

The Appendix, No. XII., being a grant of privileges to a minor shrine of Kanhaiya, in his character of Muralidhar or ‘flute-player,’ contains much information on the minutiae of benefactions, and will afford a good idea of the nature of these revenues.

Effects of Krishna-worship on the Rājputs.

—The predominance of the mild doctrines of Kanhaiya over the dark rites of Siva, is doubtless beneficial to Rajput society. Were the prevention of female immolation the sole good resulting from their prevalence, that alone would conciliate our partiality; a real worshipper of Vishnu should forbid his wife following him to the pyre, as did recently the Bundi prince. In fact, their tenderness to animal life is carried to nearly as great an excess as with the Jains, who shed no blood. Celibacy is not imposed upon the priests of Kanhaiya, as upon those of Siva: on the contrary, they are enjoined to marry, and the priestly office is hereditary by descent. Their wives do not burn, but are committed, like themselves, to the earth. They inculcate tenderness towards all beings; though whether this feeling influences the mass, must depend on the soil which receives the seed, for the outward ceremonies of religion cost far less effort than the practice or essentials. I have often [532] smiled at the incessant aspirations of the Macchiavelli of Rajasthan, Zalim Singh, who, while he ejaculated the name of the god as he told his beads, was inwardly absorbed by mundane affairs; and when one word would have prevented a civil war, and saved his reputation from the stain of disloyalty to his prince, he was, to use his own words, “at fourscore years and upwards, laying the foundation for another century of life.” And thus it is with the prince of Marwar, who esteems the life of a man or a goat of equal value when prompted by revenge to take it. Hope may silence the reproaches of conscience, and gifts and ceremonies may be deemed atonement for a deviation from the first principle of their religion—a benevolence which should comprehend every animated thing. But fortunately the princely worshippers of Kanhaiya are few in number: it is to the sons of commerce we must look for the effects of these doctrines; and it is my pride and duty to declare that I have known men of both sects, Vaishnava and Jain, whose integrity was spotless, and whose philanthropy was unbounded.

2. [The practice of a devotee weighing himself against gold was common in ancient Hindu times, was known as tulāpurushadāna, and is still performed by the Mahārāja of Travancore (Thurston, Tribes and Castes of S. India, vii. 202 ff.; BG, i. Part ii. 415; Forbes, Rāsmāla, 84). Akbar used to have himself weighed against precious substances twice a year, on his solar and lunar birthdays, the articles being given to Brāhmans, and Jahāngīr followed the same custom (Āīn, i. 266 ff.; Elliot-Dowson v. 307, 453; Memoirs of Jahāngīr, trans. Rogers-Beveridge, 78, 81, 111, 183).]

5. “Saint Eucher, évêque d’Orléans, eut une vision qui étonna les princes. Il faut que je rapporte à ce sujet la lettre que les évêques, assemblés à Reims, écrivent à Louis-le-Germanique, qui étoit entré dans les terres de Charles le Chauve, parce qu’elle est très-propre à nous faire voir quel étoit, dans ces temps-là, l’état des choses, et la situation des esprits. Ils disent que ‘Saint Eucher ayant été ravi dans le ciel, il vit Charles Martel tourmenté dans l’enfer inférieur par l’ordre des saints qui doivent assister avec Jésus-Christ au jugement dernier; qu’il avoit été condamné à cette peine avant le temps pour avoir dépouillé les églises de leurs biens, et s’être par là rendu coupable des péchés de tous ceux qui les avoient dotées’” (Montesquieu, L’Esprit des Lois, livre xxxi. chap. xi. p. 460).

14. These worshippers of God and Mammon, when threats fail, have recourse to maiming, and even destroying, themselves, to gain their object. In 1820, one of the confidential servants of the Rana demanded payment of the petty tax called gugri, of one rupee on each house, from some Brahmans who dwelt in the village, and which had always been received from them. They refused payment, and on being pressed, four of them stabbed themselves mortally. Their bodies were placed upon biers, and funeral rites withheld till punishment should be inflicted on the priest-killer. But for once superstition was disregarded, and the rights of the Brahmans in this community were resumed. See Appendix to this Part, No. I [p. 644].

15. “Mais le bas peuple n’est guère capable d’abandonner ses intérêts par des exemples. Le synode de Francfort lui présenta un motif plus pressant pour payer les dîmes. On y fit un capitulaire dans lequel il est dit que, dans la dernière famine, on avoit trouvé les épis de blé vides, qu’ils avoient été dévorés par les démons, et qu’on avoit entendu leurs voix qui reprochoient de n’avoir pas payé la dîme: et, en conséquence, il fut ordonné à tous ceux qui tenoient les biens ecclésiastiques de payer la dîme, et, en conséquence encore, on l’ordonna à tous” (L’Esprit des Lois, livre xxxi. chap. xii.).

16. These lay Brahmans are not wanting in energy or courage; the sword is as familiar to them as the mala (chaplet). The grandfather of Ramnath, the present worthy seneschal of the Rana, was governor of the turbulent district of Jahazpur, which has never been so well ruled since. He left a curious piece of advice to his successors, inculcating vigorous measures. “With two thousand men you may eat khichri; with one thousand dalbhat; with five hundred juti (the shoe)” Khichri is a savoury mess of pulse, rice, butter, and spices; dalbhat is simple rice and pulse; the shoe is indelible disgrace.

17. Manu, in his rules on government, commands the king to impart his momentous counsel and entrust all transactions to a learned and distinguished Brahman (Laws, vii. 58). There is no being more aristocratic in his ideas than the secular Brahman or priest, who deems the bare name a passport to respect. The Kulin Brahman of Bengal piques himself upon this title of nobility granted by the last Hindu king of Kanauj (whence they migrated to Bengal), and in virtue of which his alliance in matrimony is courted. But although Manu has imposed obligations towards the Brahman little short of adoration, these are limited to the “learned in the Vedas”: he classes the unlearned Brahman with “an elephant made of wood, or an antelope of leather”; nullities, save in name. And he adds further, that “as liberality to a fool is useless, so is a Brahman useless if he read not the holy texts”: comparing the person who gives to such an one, to a husbandman “who, sowing seed in a barren soil, reaps no gain”; so the Brahman “obtains no reward in heaven.” These sentiments are repeated in numerous texts, holding out the most powerful inducements to the sacerdotal class to cultivate their minds, since their power consists solely in their wisdom. For such, there are no privileges too extensive, no homage too great. “A king, even though dying with want, must not receive any tax from a Brahman learned in the Vedas.” His person is sacred. “Never shall the king slay a Brahman, though convicted of all possible crimes,” is a premium at least to unbounded insolence, and unfits them for members of society, more especially for soldiers; banishment, with person and property untouched, is the declared punishment for even the most heinous crimes. “A Brahman may seize without hesitation, if he be distressed for a subsistence, the goods of his Sudra slave.” But the following text is the climax: “What prince could gain wealth by oppressing these [Brahmans], who, if angry, could frame other worlds, and regents of worlds, and could give birth to new gods and mortals?” (Manu, Laws, ii. iii. vii. viii. ix.).

26. That is, with one (ek) lingam or phallus—the symbol of worship being a single cylindrical or conical stone. There are others, termed Sahaslinga and Kotiswara, with a thousand or a million of phallic representatives, all minutely carved on the monolithic emblem, having then much resemblance to the symbol of Bacchus, whose orgies, both in Egypt and Greece, are the counterpart of those of the Hindu Baghis, thus called from being clad in a tiger’s or leopard’s hide: Bacchus had the panther’s for his covering. There is a very ancient temple to Kotiswara at the embouchure of the eastern arm of the Indus; and here are many to Sahaslinga in the peninsula of Saurashtra. [Bacchus has no connexion with a Hindu tiger-god.]

28. In this sacrifice four altars are erected, for offering the flesh to the four gods, Lakshmi-Narayana, Umamaheswar, Brahma, and Ananta. The nine planets, and Prithu, or the earth, with her ten guardian-deities, are worshipped. Five Vilwa, five Khadira, five Palasha, and five Udumbara posts are to be erected, and a bull tied to each post. Clarified butter is burnt on the altar, and pieces of the flesh of the slaughtered animals placed thereon. This sacrifice was very common (Ward, On the Religion of the Hindus, vol. ii. p. 263). [Balidāna, ‘an offering to the gods.’]

29. First a covered altar is to be prepared; sixteen posts are then to be erected of various woods; a golden image of a man, and an iron one of a goat, with golden images of Vishnu and Lakshmi, a silver one of Siva, with a golden bull, and a silver one of Garuda ‘the eagle,’ are placed upon the altar. Animals, as goats, sheep, etc., are tied to the posts, and to one of them, of the wood of the mimosa, is to be tied the human victim. Fire is to be kindled by means of a burning glass. The sacrificing priest, hota, strews the grass called dub or immortal, round the sacred fire. Then follows the burnt sacrifice to the ten guardian deities of the earth—to the nine planets, and to the Hindu Triad, to each of whom clarified butter is poured on the sacred fire one thousand times. Another burnt-sacrifice, to the sixty-four inferior gods, follows, which is succeeded by the sacrifice and offering of all the other animals tied to the posts. The human sacrifice concludes, the sacrificing priest offering pieces of the flesh of the victim to each god as he circumambulates the altar (ibid, 260).

32. In June 1806 I was present at a meeting between the Rana and Sindhia at the shrine of Eklinga. The rapacious Mahratta had just forced the passes to the Rana’s capital, which was the commencement of a series of aggressions involving one of the most tragical events in the history of Mewar—the immolation of the Princess Krishna and the subsequent ruin of the country. I was then an attaché of the British embassy to the Mahratta prince, who carried the ambassador to the meeting to increase his consequence. In March 1818 I again visited the shrine, on my way to Udaipur, but under very different circumstances—to announce the deliverance of the family from oppression, and to labour for its prosperity. While standing without the sanctuary, looking at the quadriform divinity, and musing on the changes of the intervening twelve years, my meditations were broken by an old Rajput chieftain, who, saluting me, invited me to enter and adore Baba Adam, ‘Father Adam,’ as he termed the phallic emblem. I excused myself on account of my boots, which I said I could not remove, and that with them I would not cross the threshold: a reply which pleased them, and preceded me to the Rana’s court.