5. The King Won't Last

Many of the Englishmen too got the wind of this discontent; but they didn't think much of it. The Sahib who had started from England with new cartridges reached Calcutta. He met the Governor General.

Twenty days later, the Governor General convened a meeting of all the princes and grandees in the land. Scindias, Holkars, Gaikwars, Prince of Datia, etc were invited. But Nana-Saheb Peshwa, the Queen of Jhansi and Phirozshah of Delhi weren't among them.

So all these men landed in Calcutta, which is a very big city. The Governor General received them duly at the assembly. Then he read out an 84-articled bill of new laws, and said, you would have to accept these. It's a fiat from England. One of the new rules was that Hindus and Mussalmans should be free to convert. For instance: suppose there is a family of four brothers, who have inherited ancestral house. If one of them becomes a Mussalman, he should still get his share of the property, he may very well continue to live under the same roof.

This stunned those present. Hindus thought: several eons must pass before the era of Kali ends, but (by virtue of this new law) religion would be certainly lost. There would be no distinction between a caste and a caste.

The Sahib who had come from England said: You must accept the new cartridges. If not, dissenting soldiers would be transferred to Kabul or Karachi. There would be a punishment for insubordination.

The prince of Ban-pur, who was present, said: Hindustan is the holy land of Hindus. If the God of Hindus has decided to forsake them, then they must follow Sahib's order. But otherwise, the consequence is anybody's guess. If the Sovereign issues anti-religion diktat, people won't obey. 

Then a Mussalman Nabob spoke. He spoke well, saying: This is a holy land where both Hindus and Mussalmans live. If the Emperor undermines the religion, he won't last. When the Muslim Emperor of Delhi tried to wreck Hinduism, he lost his throne. We have seen that.

Then the Sahib from England said: Let's put the new law aside, but cartridges must be accepted.  

4. Ammunition

The old soldier continued: `Last year new muskets came from Europe. They require bullets the size of Jambul seed. Bullets too came from Europe. Soldiers were excited to see them, for these guns have a higher range. The muskets were distributed across the cantonments in Hindustan.'

`The cartridges of the new ammunition have to be bitten off. Government started a cartridge factory at Damdam, near Calcutta. It so happened that one day a Brahmin was filling up his water-pitcher at a pond. A man of cobbler caste came there, and asked for water. The Brahmin told him: If I do that, it would pollute me.'

`The cobbler said: Don't you be so proud. The new cartridges are lined with beef and pork fat. You have to bite them off. You think that doesn't pollute?'

'It led to a fight. People gathered. Some Company soldiers were among them. In a short while the news spread that new cartridges were impure, anti-religion. Hindus thought: We worship cow. Her fat would be in our teeth -- no sin can be greater than that. Mussalmans had a contrary grievance. They consider pig to be impure and haram, so much so that they don't even say the word. So they too were incensed to realize that they would be biting off pig-fat.'

`There was a great hullabaloo in every cantonment. Soldiers felt that Government was out to convert them, by trick, or by force. So the Lord Sahib, who sits in Calcutta, wrote to England. The affair came to be mentioned in the Parliament. One of them, a mighty Lord, said: I have a lot of experience of soldiering. I will proceed to India, and make them accept the new cartridges.'

`Here, the black soldiers were full of suspicion. The news was spreading at unimaginable speed. Soldiers couldn't think of anything else: day and night they pondered how to avoid this calamity -- the impending loss of one's religion.

3. Coup d'état, Three Days From Now

In the morning, Uncle called on the Father. Worry not, he said; Vishnu is like a son to me. The father asked me to find auspicious time to leave.

My mother, that mild and naive lady, was in tears. `I await the day you return,' she said. `I do not say anything further, for I am ignorant.' This moved me. I touched her feet and said: `What worries you is that some temptation would entrap me in the North. But do not worry; I won't be lured,  I swear on your feet. 

I told my younger brother: Take care of the priestly and domestic duties. Be on your guard, always. Do what the Mother bids you to do.  Wash her clothes yourself, because she needs them clean, and she doesn't hand them to her daughters-in-law. Take care of the ladies of the household.

At the day-break, we started.  Reached Pune after two days. We bought some clothes there, and hired another cart for the travel upto Indore.

At Malegaon, we ran into his highness Bapusaheb Sangamnerkar. A very able scholar, he was. A brahmin who was travelling with him was bitten by snake around day-break. He woke up, and aroused others. Treatments were started immediately; some antidote - herbs were brought. He said: I am from Ahmed-nagar. I have a wife, who has just attained puberty, parents, two brothers, and a sister at home. Then he died, and was cremated in the morning.

We resumed the journey three days later and reached the Satpuda hills. Fragrance of newly bloomed trees filled the air. The climate here is mild, rather excellent. The government has built houses every few kilometre, for the opium trade. The hills are rolling, not too steep. They are called Sat-puda, because it takes saat -- seven -- days to cross over. It was a spring-time, and the path was picturesque.

We reached the outskirts of Mahu cantonment, and stayed in a rest-house. Two soldiers were our room-mates. They were natives of Goa, and much pleased to meet us.

The soldiers told us: ` Three days from today, a coup d'état  will occur in the world . Most certainly there would be looting and fighting. You'd better go back.'

We urged them: `Do tell us more.'

The older one of them said: `So far the English government had been ruling well. But now it has lost its head.'

2. Where Men Eat Cannabis

After I was born, my uncle thought of partitioning the joint property. Thus it was done. I was ten years old. Partition impoverished us. Poverty, as though, wedded us thence.

My father taught me alphabet, arithmetic, etc. Should I take a government job? But my father and uncle thought otherwise. I started reading Vedas. A couple of years later I got married. My father had to take out a loan. My brother, sister too got married, and everytime we had to borrow money. Our women were from good families. All the women in the household got along fine, an outsider wouldn't guess which of the young women had married into the family.

I and my brother were like Ram and Bharat. When we were kids, we would share water-jar when going out to discharge night soil. Nothing could spoil the love between the brothers.

At night we would talk about the loan: we saw no way out, barring the providence's intervention. Once we went to Pune, to conduct a ritual. Somebody said in my hearing: Her highness Bayaja-baee Shinde is going to organise Sarvato-mukhi Yagna at Mathura, in the North. Rupees eight lakh would be given away, learned ones have been invited. I, and my younger uncle -- Ram -- decided to travel there.

The father didn't approve. He said: There in the North, men drink cannabis, and their women enchant and enslave men with their cunning; so I have heard. You wont' return, I fear.

I said: Do not worry yourself. I do not go to delight in pleasures of flesh. I swear on oath - I won't, probably, succumb to glances of women. Nor would I eat cannabis. Uncle is with me, all I need is your blessings, and rupees ten. Thus the night passed, and it was decided by the day-break that we would go.

1. The Village

In Alibag district, in the tehsil of Pen, there is a village called Varsai. It's at the foot of a hill, by a river. Several Chitt-pavan Brahmin families live there.

Ours was a family of pundits; but my father was a family-man. Vinchurkars, who were the grandees in the court of prime minister Bajirao (II), were his patrons. When the Maratha state went into decline, and his highness set out for the North, leaving Pune, my father went with the army up to the Narmada. Then he became very weak, and caught fever. So came to Varsai in Shak 1739. He decided he wouldn't take government service; he would spend his life here, as a Brahmin. My mother was a virtuous lady, devoted to her husband.

Later, I was born.