The early history of Sadh Belo is closely connected with that of the famous Swami Vankhandi. Swami Vankhandi had been incarnated once in the seventeenth century, for we find him receiving worship as early as 1710. We, however, are only concerned with his second incarnation, which occurred in or about A.D. 1764. In the later descent on earth he lived and practised yog or asceticism at Muran Jharee in the territory of H.H. The Maharaja of Nepal. While he was still a young man his reputation for holiness spread far and wide; but it aroused the envy and malice of another anchorite of Muran Jharee named Gusai Sanyasi Sadhu. At last Gusai could contain himself no longer and made his way to the court of the Maharaja. There he told his sovereign that a certain sadhu of Muran Jharee had vowed by his austerities to destroy the kingdom. He warned the Maharaja that for several months the Sadhu had touched neither food nor water and he begged his master to destroy the Sadhu before it was too late. The Maharaja was alarmed and sent an army to take prisoner the seditious anchorite and bring him to Kathmandu, the chief town of Nepal. [69]

When the army appeared at Muran Jharee, they found Swami Vankhandi absorbed in contemplation. As they watched him their own warlike spirit ebbed away and they were filled with a great calm; without saying a word they waited until the Swami thought fit to lift his eyes towards them. The Nepal General then told the Swami that he had received orders to take him prisoner and humbly implored his pardon. The Swami forgave him and told him that he would go on ahead of the army and wait for them at Kathmandu. With these words the Swami vanished and although the General and his officers searched for him everywhere, they could not find him. At last they returned to Kathmandu and just outside the walls, they found the Swami sitting in a deep religious trance, in the shade of a banian tree. They did not disturb him but went straight to the Maharaja, to whom they told all that had happened. The Maharaja saw that he had been deceived by the wicked Gusai and drove him from the town; then he asked for the pardon and blessing of Swami Vankhandi. The Swami saw that the Maharaja had truly repented and forgave and blessed him. Then he vanished and in the twinkling of an eye was once more to be seen at his own place in Muran Jharee.

Many and great were the miracles recorded of Swami Vankhandi, but the one that will interest English readers most is the summary way in which he dealt with a certain Captain Pauk Wales, a gentleman whom I have not been able to trace in English works of reference. In 1822 Swami Vankhandi after many pilgrimages to the holy shrines of India came to Sind. Cholera was then raging in Haidarabad, but the Swami’s presence proved sufficient to drive it away. From Haidarabad he went to Khairpur and Rohri and seeing Sadh Belo island in the river Indus near Sukkur resolved to settle there and found a monastery. There he lived for twenty years until such time as Sir Charles [70]Napier conquered Sind and appointed Captain Pauk Wales as Collector of the Shikarpur district. Captain Pauk Wales, wholly ignorant of the power and fame of the Swami, thought that Sadh Belo island would be an ideal place for a collector’s bungalow. With Captain Pauk Wales, action followed swiftly on the heels of thought. He sent for masons and building materials and began to build a bungalow. But every morning that he went to look at the work, he found that during the night it had been levelled with the ground. He was convinced that the masons and the Swami were acting in collusion and he set a guard of English soldiers over Sadh Belo. Although the soldiers never closed their eyes all night, Captain Pauk Wales next day found that not only had the masonry work been thrown down in the night, but that the bricks, mortar and all the building materials collected by him had vanished. In a rage he went up to the Swami and roundly abused him. While Captain Pauk Wales was swearing horribly, the Swami, shocked beyond measure, vanished into thin air. That night both Captain Pauk Wales and his wife were seized with internal pains of an agonising description. After a night of anguish Mrs. Pauk Wales advised her lord and master to beg the Swami’s pardon. For a long time the Swami could not be found, but with the aid of the townspeople, he was eventually traced to a spot outside Sukkur, where he was quietly singing to himself. Captain Pauk Wales threw himself at the Swami’s feet and promised never more to interfere with his holy island.

Swami Vankhandi lived on to the ripe age of a hundred. Feeling himself nigh to death, he sent for his disciples and warned them of his approaching end. He told them that he would hold his breath until his soul departed. When they thought him dead, they should put a pat of butter on his forehead. If it did not melt, it meant that he had ceased to live. They [71]should then throw his corpse into the Indus river. The disciples faithfully carried out their master’s wishes and when the pat of butter did not melt on his forehead, they threw his body into the great river. They had barely done so, when a rich merchant of Shikarpur came to Sadh Belo with a precious necklace of pearls for Vankhandi, of whose death he was unaware. Learning that Vankhandi was no more, the merchant refused to return to Shikarpur and infinitely firm of purpose, he vowed to sit by the edge of the river and neither to eat nor to drink until the Swami came himself to accept the necklace. On the second night the Swami in a dream promised that he would appear before his devoted follower the next day. Fortified by the vision, the Shikarpur merchant sat on by the edge of the stream. At noon the body of the Swami rose out of the Indus and the merchant put the necklace round its neck. The body then lay on the bank and the merchant called to him the anchorites of the place, who once more consigned reverently the body of the Saint into the whirling waters of the mighty river. [73]