Tara: A Mahratta Tale Read online

  CHAPTER VII.

  After preparations for the Shastree's marriage had been activelycommenced on both sides, there was no further hindrance. Moro Trimmulhaving been made known to the Shastree by Anunda, as she had promised,the two men soon found a day in the calendar, so far unexceptionableas regarded planetary influences, that they at once fixed upon it; andthe ladies, having been consulted, declared there were no objections orhindrances now, for on both sides of the houses everything was prepared.

  Meanwhile his new acquaintance was a delightful addition to VyasShastree's circle of friends. Who more accomplished for his age thanMoro Trimmul, more fascinating in manner, or astute in argument andjudgment? He had not the refined beauty of his sister, except thathis eyes were, like hers, large, soft, and very black, with the samehabit of dilation, relaxing into an almost womanish tenderness: butwhen aroused, their excited expression was infinitely more fiercethan Radha's, even to savage cruelty. The mouth was always coarse andsensual, but there was at least good-humour about it if he were notangered, and a strength of character in the countenance which couldnot be mistaken. Now, nothing occurred to cause even a passing cloud,and the days which intervened between the betrothal and the marriagewere pleasantly spent by all. Even Radha was interested, and clungmore closely to Tara than ever; for with Anunda, as with her aunt, shepreserved the habitual reserve and respect required by their positions.

  "I will go to the temple, daughter," said Anunda one evening, "and keepthy father there. Do thou bring Radha here, and let her look at thedresses and jewels: if there is anything she wants in addition, tellme, and we will get it." The good lady could not do too much.

  Kind Anunda! it was so considerate. Could any doubt of her ultimatehappiness remain in the girl's heart? What other "sister wife" wouldhave cared so for her?

  Oh, the girl's delight at those gorgeous clothes and jewels! She hadheard of splendid gifts at marriages, and there was one at Wye inwhich she had helped to deck the bride; and when she had seen her--shewas but a mere child--dressed in a brocade garment stiff with gold, shehad wondered whether it would ever be possible to possess one like it.There were several--green and gold, crimson and gold, purple and gold.The most glossy of Pyetun silks, soft muslin sarees from Narrainpettand Dhunwar, of which she had heard, but had never seen; they did notcome to her country: all were beautiful.

  Then the ornaments. There were massive gold chain anklets, with smallbells to them, armlets, bracelets, ear-rings, necklaces. There wasthe sacred "talee," which would be tied round her neck. Tara showedthem all as they were laid out in cotton upon a tray covered with redmuslin. How beautiful they were! and all would belong to her; theywould be put on her the day of the ceremony, and her own taken off asshe entered the house. Then the place where she was to be bathed anddressed was newly coloured and plastered, and the comfort of the houseand its pretty decorations--all satisfied the girl's longing. It waswhat she had pictured to herself; and Tara said her father was kind, sokind--he would love his little wife after his quiet fashion, and denyher nothing.

  So it was not to be wondered at if any repugnance which she had feltwas fast passing away, and if, when her brother asked her whether shewould be content, she told him she was grateful for what he had done;and for the time perhaps she was so.

  Sukya Bye had told her nephew of Radha's visit to the Shastree's houseby stealth with Tara: she was afraid he might hear of it otherwise,perhaps through the servants or Gunga, and was rejoiced that heconsidered it a happy circumstance. "She will be satisfied with thewealth," he said, "and all that she sees will excite the desire formore, and so, aunt, we shall best hold her to our purposes. She cannotrecede now; and, while moulding the Shastree to her will, by-and-by sheneed not forget Sivaji Rajah." But he did not tell this to Radha; andneither by her brother, nor Sukya Bye, was any reference made to thepast. When all was beyond chance of disturbance, he would set her towork to compass his own ends.

  The Shastree and Pundit were of different schools of philosophy; theformer, as we know, belonged to the ancient, and, as he considered,orthodox, Vedantic school of Veda Vasa; the Pundit to the more modernMimansa school of Jomiai, and to the doctrines and mythologicalhistories of the Poorans. So they had discussions, in which otherBrahmuns of the town joined, while the ladies sat behind a screenand heard their disputations, and Tara explained to them what shecould follow. Or the friends played at chess, both having excellentskill;--the Shastree calm and steady, the Pundit fiery and impetuous,as were their natures; and so they had many an earnest battle.

  It was not long before the politics which then agitated the countrybegan to be discussed between them. They lived under the sameMahomedan government, that of Beejapoor: but while Tooljapoor and thedistricts around it were as yet in entire subjection, those to thewest--particularly the wild rugged country beyond Wye, the Mawuls ormountain-valleys of the Ghauts, stretching into the Dekhan--owed buta slight allegiance to the Mahomedan dynasty, and perhaps had neverbeen completely subdued. Here it was that many of the oldest Mahrattafamilies had taken refuge after the overthrow of the Hindu dynasty ofDeogurh, the modern Dowlutabad, and the subsequent subjection of thecountry by the Mahomedan Emperors of Delhi; and it was among thesefamilies, the Bhoslays, Nimbalkurs, Morays, Ghoreparays, and others,that the germs of that combination to resist--to them an oppressive andcorrupt government--existed, which was presently to be ripened into asuccessful revolution.

  On the other hand, this dynasty of Beejapoor had already beenattacked by the immense power of the Emperors of Delhi; and whilethe independent kingdom of Ahmednugger--itself at one period littleinferior in splendour to that of Beejapoor--had been entirelysubdued, and the princes of its house annihilated by the Moghuls, anycombination to resist them by the two states had not only been renderedimpossible, but it was clear that Beejapoor would follow its example:and those were not wanting who hoped, under a new power, to regain manyprivileges which hitherto had been withheld from them.

  But it was in the antagonism of the two contending Mahomedan powersthat the Hindu families of the Dekhan saw the means of emancipationfrom both. It might be a work of time, and of immense labour and skill:but the opportunity seemed to present itself; and while feigningsubmission alike to the Moghuls, as after the conquest of Ahmednuggertheir forces were poured into the provinces which had formed thatkingdom, and, on the other hand, to the older-established dynasty ofBeejapoor, a stirring spirit began to be aroused among the Mahrattas;and that secret combination silently progressed, of which Moro Punditwas one among many other agents employed by Sivaji, the prince to whomall now looked as the present head, if not the instigator, of themovement.

  It had, in fact, already been some time covertly in progress. ShahjiBhoslay, the father, of Sivaji, had commenced it in a series of wildirregular forays and raids from his patrimonial estate, which wassituated among the Mawuls west of Poona, against the Mahomedan postsand garrisons of the western provinces of Beejapoor. For a time hewas successful, but only as a mere freebooter; and in the end he wasdefeated, taken prisoner, and confined in a dungeon in Beejapoor forseveral years by the monarch Mahmood Adil Shah, the father of the kingreigning at Beejapoor at the period of our tale. But Mahmood was notimplacable. On the intercession of his mother, by whose wise counselshe had often been guided, Shahji was not only released but raised to ahigh command, and during the subsequent invasion of Beejapoor by theMoghuls did good service, and so the progress of the Mahratta power wasstayed.

  Of his two sons, Sivaji early took the lead, and, encouraged by hismother, a lady of high family and ambition, and admirable judgment,he aspired to be the head of a Mahratta confederacy. What progress heeventually made is already matter of history, which will have no recordin these pages; but at the time of which we write, he was strengtheninghimself in his own wild country, collecting adherents, canvassing thosewho still held aloof, fortifying rugged and inaccessible strongholds,and, by the suddenness and successful issue of his continuous forays,was rendering himself famous in the eyes of t
he people. While hetreated with both of the rival Mahomedan powers by turns, he took hisown course; and yielding alternately to each whenever their force waslocally in excess of his own, was in reality faithful to neither.

  To Sivaji, also, belonged the prestige which none else had dared toassume--that of receiving aid from heavenly powers. The goddess Bhowaniwas the tutelar deity of his family; and it was the popular belief thatshe had chosen his father as the champion of her faith, but that he hadtransgressed warnings and visions, and, implacable as she was believedto be, she had cast him off. It was otherwise, however, with his secondson Sivaji. She had chosen him to be the scourge of the cow-slaying,impure, and licentious Mahomedans. The cries of her votaries had arisento her, and the land was to be purged of uncleanness. Temples would beagain filled with Brahmuns, and the sweet incense of pure sacrificewould ascend to her. The mother of Sivaji, it was reported, saw andrecorded visions, too glorious to relate, in which her son was avictorious conqueror, and the infidel Mahomedans were slain in tens ofthousands by the Mahratta people in those great battles which were toensue. And these visions were believed.

  As yet these prophecies were circulated privately among the people,but there was not a Mahratta, far or near, who did not know of them.Ballads were written about them, and sung at fairs and markets. Womencomposed and chanted extempore verses as the household mills flewmerrily round in the early morning. Men sang them to their oxen asthey ploughed, or drew water from their wells; and so a spirit spreadthrough the people which eventually became irresistibly powerful.

  In this excitement, too, existed the incentive to the worship ofBhowani at all her most celebrated shrines; and everywhere--to gatherher votaries together, to excite them to action, and to warn them tobe ready when the time arrived--were agents such as Moro Trimmul,despatched by the young chieftain. Nothing appeared on the surface.Experience had taught extreme caution. There were no assemblies ofarmed men, no displays of force: an occasional successful raid orresistance by Sivaji kept up what might well be called the nationalspirit; but all delayed to strike, till, in the expressive Mahrattaphrase, Donguras, lavile Deva, "the fire was on the hills."

  Very dexterously, therefore, and after having prepared him for thecommunication, did Moro Trimmul confide to the Shastree some ofthe popularly-reported plans of his friend and prince, and soughthis counsel and assistance, and partly also the purport of his ownmission. He asked information as to the families of the Bala Ghaut,the Nimbalkurs of Wasi, the Kallays of Nelinga, the Bhoslays andGhoreparays of Akalkote, all neighbours; and also respecting thewealthy yeomen and farmers of the country. He did not mention PaharSingh, with whom, through the Gosaees of Kullianee, and their agency atTooljapoor, he had already opened negotiations, and found the robberchieftain fickle and undecided, extravagant in his demands for estates,for high command, and other rewards.

  Nor did he disclose that weightier secret, known to his prince andhimself, on which, for the present, the success of their enterpriserested. Khan Mahomed, the Wuzeer, or Prime Minister, of Beejapoor,might be detached, it was said, from the royal interest of his house;and he was then, with a large army, lying at and about Nuldroog, littlemore than twenty miles distant from Tooljapoor. To this man, at hisown request, in phrases only to be interpreted by himself, a letterhad been forwarded through the Gosaee banker's agent at Tooljapoor;but no reply had been received. Nor was Moro Trimmul sanguine on thesubject, for reports of the Wuzeer's intrigues in other quarters werein men's mouths. No; it was from the Mahratta families alone that hehad expectations; and he knew that at the ensuing festival, all or mostof the province would assemble at Tooljapoor.

  To say that he found a zealous coadjutor, or hoped for one, in theShastree, would not be correct. The Shastree was not ambitious. Heenjoyed already, as we know, a very lucrative and prominent position,in which he was honoured and respected. He avoided all Mahomedans uponprinciple; but the governors of the province often sought his adviceand assistance in civil and judicial matters regarding Hindus, andhe was not only never molested, but, on the contrary, respected andtreated with consideration, and had even been invited to court. Hehad, therefore, no quarrel with the Mahomedans, and he well knew theirpower. He had watched Shahji's failures, and he had noted the effect ofSivaji's efforts; still he admitted there was more chance of successnow than before; and he agreed to assist Moro Trimmul, by bringinghim into communication with the gentry of the province, provided hewere not required to take any prominent part in what should follow.To say that Vyas Shastree was indifferent in this matter, would beincorrect; but to anticipate enthusiasm or personal zeal would havebeen impossible from his character, and Moro Trimmul did not expectthem.

  "After the ceremony," he said to the Shastree, "Radha, of course, willremain with you. Sukya Bye will return to Wye with the servants. Giveme, then, letters to the Nimbalkurs of Wasi, and to such others as youplease, and I will go alone. Introduce me as a reciter of plays, andI will make my own way unnoticed and unsuspected. Here I can be of nouse, and may even attract suspicion."

  To this plan Vyas Shastree gave his cordial consent. Moro Trimmul wouldgo before the Now Ratree, and return for the festival.