30. Jhansi: Hangings and Auctions

On the eighth day, the English government had it announced that that people may return home, without any fear. Let the corpses be taken away and disposed. Water tankers were brought to douse the fires. Bonfires were lit at the junctions of streets, and corpses were cremated. Pieces of furniture from the houses were taken out to make the bonfires.

After hearing the announcement, four-five of us stepped out to wander. Some stalls of food-stuffs, opium, tobacco, etc had been put up in front of the city governor's office. We bought some rice, tobacco-n-lime. Wind carried the stench of burning flesh around the city. It was very tiring (depressing).

The Queen had escaped, but those who were caught were brought back to the city and hanged. The lady's father, Moropant Tambe, had had his thigh slashed by the sword while fleeing. The thigh had been cut deep, still he ran off on horseback and reached Datiya town by the day-break. It was enemy's town, but he had nowhere else to go. 

His clothes blood-soaked, he reached the town-gate. A coppersmith took him home and later informed the (local) king. The king put Tambe in jail, and handed him over to the English.

He was brought to Jhansi and hanged in the afternoon. Searches were going on in the city, the culprits were hanged forthwith.

There were auctions (of the loot and the royal wealth) every day. Sinde (Scindias), Holkars, Gaiwads etc bought up elephants, horses, camels. Likewise, the royals picked up big pots and pans (from the palace kitchens).

I made a sense of all this: The men of Bundelkhand were impotent. Therefore, or by the virtue of this land, the women here were adulterous.Jhansi was the capital city, and looking at the history -- the affair of Bhangi woman, etc -- this city was awash with sin.

Now the God had willed it, on account of Laxmibai, purified.

I and uncle talked at night. We decided to go to Chitrakoot. 

29. Where Woman Be In Command, King But A Kid

The (English) government apprehended that white soldiers, being robust/bullies, would ravish the women. So every white soldier was accompanied by couple of Indian southerner. The Indians had orders to shoot the white if he so much as touched the women. Hence, there wasn't much rowdyism with women.

That day, after the sunset, we returned to our original quarters. A Karhad-origin Brahmin called Karkare, around 60-65 years old, and his 25 years old son had been shot down by the soldiers in the morning because the two took too long to get out of their house. Their respective wives -- mother-in-law and daughter-in-law -- sat by the dead bodies all day; but as the evening advanced, they were scared. They came to our place and recounted what had happened.  We seven-eight men from the neighbourhood gathered and went to the house. Pyre was set in the backyard -- where (the sacred) basil plant grows. There wasn't enough wood, so the furniture pieces in the house were broken up and added to the pyre. Thus we cremated the Brahmin and his son, and brought the women to our place. What pollution the death was to be for outsiders in that time in Jhansi. Nobody was untouchable.

Too many men died the next day. On being spotted by the English soldiers, they hid in a haystack. The English set it on fire, the men burned down. Several others jumped into wells, but the English watched from above, and fired down whenever a head bobbed up out of the water. The massacre and looting went on for three days.

Streets had turned into graveyards. But the killings ceased after the third day.

There was hardly anything to eat. On the seventh day, it being the summer, it was too hot.  So I had a bath with cold water and did my puja. We had famished, and I despaired, thinking, o God, with what intention we had set out from our homes, and what peril-to-life was visited upon us. Men's endeavour counts for nothing, fate always prevails. An old Sanskrit couplet kept coming back to me:

Where a woman be in command, the king but a kid, and minister an illiterate/ There hope of survival is scarce, no chance of holding onto money at any rate.

The couplet had come true in Jhansi.