CHAPTER 4
Beniprasd Dube defined himself first as a Brahmin, second as an official of the government and thirdly as a Hindu. It never occurred to him to think of himself as an Indian. To his mind India was either a religious idea or a political abstraction. As far as the first went it was better defined by Hinduism, and as far the second was concerned he left such abstract notions to the Congresswallas who were infected with imported political concepts and had no idea of practical reality.
The Tehsildar’s ancestral house and properties were situated in the village of Neelkant, across the river in the state of Ratangarh, where his forefathers had been official astrologers in the court of the Rajah. The Rajahs had rewarded their court astrologers with the grant of rich farmlands as well as the right to collect the revenues of the large village of Neelkant. This village, which was also well known for its famous temple of Shiva dating from the twelfth century, stood within sight of the river Narmada; which was a triple blessing to a Hindu and an orthodox Brahmin. First the river was so holy that its very sight confrere salvation, to be able to bathe in its sacred waters was a second blessing and when the time came to take leave of this world, there was the final consolation of being cremated near its banks, another ritual which made salvation double sure. His house was the largest in the village, as befitting his status. It was a house with a high enclosing wall pierced by a large gateway in front. These portals led to a small patio, thence to an open quadrangle with cloisters and then to dwelling quarters at the back. Further back still, in the rear quadrangle were cattle barns. This was the way houses of the rural gentry were built in this area, and the Tehsildar’s house was no exception, only being distinguished from steers of its kind by being a little bigger and grander. It was to this that the Tehsildar was travelling.
The village was a few miles upstream of Hoshangabad and it was by boat that the Tehsildar travelled, with his son and a party of sturdy oarsmen, which sent the boat scudding up the river. The Tehsildar looked at his son with indulgent eyes. This young man had fine upstanding figure-he was already taller and stronger than most men, he was, though the Tehsildar, almost as tall as Mr. Bains the Collector. In his eyes the Collector was the paragon of manly beauty. Bains was perhaps a little bigger but the youth’s wide shoulders, narrow waist, and long sinewy forearms showed that there was immense strength in the wiry frame. He stood motionless in the bows of the boat, looking straight ahead like the figurehead on the prow of a vessel. Then he looked back at his father, the level brown eyes lighting up twitch a smile. “Why this sudden visit to Ratangarh sir? I was there only last month.
“This time we are going there with a reason.”
“What reason?”
“We have to find Maan Singh.”
“Maan Singh!” the start of surprise was genuine,” but father, how are you going to find him if the police can’t”
“That is where you come into the picture son.”
“Me, but I don’t understand. How can I help when the police of three states have failed, to say nothing of the efforts of Mr Macgregor, our redoubtable Superintendent of Police.”
The Tehsildar stepped across the seating planks in the both and come close the his son. He lowered his voice to a conspirator whisper, “Special Branch have good reason to believe that this bandit Maan Singh has been seeing your cousin Sunanda. All that you have to do now is to find out this whereabouts form Sunanda and lead us to him.
The young man laughed heartily at this. “Father, even if I accept all this as true, which I don’t do you think Sunanda will meekly tell me all that she knows. You know her as well as anyone else, she has a mind of her own and is not a person who can be made to do anything against her will.”
“This is no laughing matter son. I know Sunanda will not willingly tell you anything if you ask her directly. But I am not asking you to do that. All that you have to do is to keep a watch on her. See if she meets anyone who is even remotely suspicious. Keep track of her comings and goings. You know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean, you are asking me to spy on her and I won’t do it.”
“You misunderstand me son, all that I am asking you to do is to help us rid the district of a dangerous outlaw. It is your duty, as much as it is mine, to help the government in this matter. And if your cousin has fallen into his clutches through her misguided notions, it is also your duty to save her form her own wild and fanciful ideas. Is it not so?”
“First of all I don’t agree that he is a bandit. This is only government propaganda. He calls himself a revolutionary and a freedom fighter and that is how the people seem to look upon him. They consider him as a messiah who will deliver them from the rule of the firanghis.”
“Deliver them from British rule, this half-wit criminal. Can’t you see through these silly boasts. Why, even Gandhi and his Congresses can’t do it, let alone this petty outlaw with his home-made bombs and incendiary rhetoric. And let us not forget that the British have given us the best government we have ever had. If you want to look at the alternative only turn your eyes across the river at the dominions of our friend Rajah Pradyuman Singh and you will see what I mean. No son, the British Raj is an unmitigated blessing and let us never forget that.”
“At least Pradyuman Singh is an Indian.The people of his state can see and recognize their ruler, while we are ruled in the name of a King-Emperor who lives thousands of miles away and knows nothing about India, and cares even less.”
“If you are going to prefer that moth-eaten kingdom of infamy to the British Raj it is pointless to argue with you.” So saying the Tehsildar turned his face resolutely away and went to sit on a plank in the stern of the boat, while his son stood staring ahead as before.
The village of Neelkant was soon reached, and the boat tied to upended log which served as a bollard. Their landing place was close to the bathing ghat, with masonry steps similar to the bathing ghat, with masonry steps similar to the one at Hoshangabad.
There was the usual outcrop of small temples shaded by giant peeul trees, their original stonework effaced by a patina of whitewash, and there was the usual throng of women worshipping or taking their bath. Their approach at this make shift jetty had been observed and they soon way a young lady running down the steep path that led up to the village, her sari help up at the ankles by one hand. She also waved at themes she came skipping down the deeply rutted path which also served as a rain channel during the monsoons. It is not easy to run down a steep watercourse in a sari, yet the young woman managed to look graceful even while she did so.
“Uncle! Shekhar! What a nice surprise. But why didn’t you tell us you were coming. I would have come to the railway bridge at Budni to pick you up in the trap.”
“Its much better by boat, my dear girl. Which is not to say that you are not good at driving a phaeton, you are.” Said the Tehsildar, as they walked up the path. “How imposing the old house looks from here.”
They looked up at the house, which stood on a sort of headland, commanding a view of the ghats and the river. It was a long rambling structure, whose whitewashed walls and the tall gateway in the middle gave it the appearance of a fortified dwelling. Sunanda led them through the gateway to the courtyard where a very old man sat in a chair placed in the shade along one side of the quadrangle. This was pandit Vasudev Dubey the patriarch of the clan, the Tehsidar’s father and the grandfather of the two young persons. The Tehsildar touched the old man’s feet, followed by Shekar and both were given the ritual blessing, “be long lived!”
“So you remembered your old father Beni. Or are you here to talk about Sunanda’s marriage. If the latter you are wasting your time, for she wouldn’t’ hear of it.”
“She would father, if you tell her to.”
“Haven’t I done so already, and not once, aye, but a thousand times, but does she listen. She is used to having her own way, that girl, and when the time comes for her to get married, why then she will get married. Don’t forget I am an astrologer. I believe everything happens at the appointed time. So if the stars decree that Sunanada shall get married, she shall.”
Sunanda’s parents had both died when she was young. She had been brought up by her grandfather, who had been her father as well as her nursemaid, and thus was naturally inordinately fond of her.
“But you haven’t answered my question.”
“No father, it isn’t Sunanda’s marriage that has brought us here, though that has always been on my mind. I just wanted to see how you are getting along, and look around the old place. I get so little time to come here these days.”
“Well, I will believer it you if you say so,” said the old man, his shrewd little eyes glittering.
Exactly in the middle of the courtyard was a small temple dedicated to the river deity and it was here that the Tehsildar and his son went to make their customary obeisance after paying their respects to the old man. Now that her grandfather was too old to do the job, it was Sunanda who officiated as priest here and it was she who offered them the Prasad and charanamrit.
“You must be the second female priest in the state of Ratangarh,” said Shekhar as he took the chranamrit in his cupped palm.
“Yes, and a fine job she makes of it too, Do you know people come from all corners of the state to be blessed by her. They believe it will cure them of all ailments from small pox to goitre,” said the old man.
“Oh! Come Baba, they are only simple folk looking for someone to offer them a bit of hope and comfort. They get so little of it in their life.”
“All right, all right, now you run along my dear, and see that your uncle and cousin are given comfortable rooms. Have you decided which rooms you will allot them.”
“Yes Baba, I am going to put up uncle in the large room in the tower because that is the quietest part, where he can watch the sun rising over the river. Shekhar, I will put up in the central wing, close to my own room, because I want to show him my new house and other animals.”
After Sunanda had left, the three men sat down to talk. “So you will not tell me Beni, what brings you here. Well, no matter, I am still glad that you have come. I have been getting increasingly worried.”
“What about, is it Sunanda.?”
“Yes, what else do I have to worry, about. You know how I love the child. When her parents died I had to be her nursemaid and her father. I have rocked her cradle when she was an infant, bless her! What a lovely child she was. Later when she grew to be school-girl infrocks and pony tails I was her teacher. Now that she is grown up I am worried about her.”
“But what is there to worry about, Baba. She is the most beautiful girl in all the state as well the most courageous. She has only to say the word and a hundred young men will line up to claim her hand.”
The old man shook his head mournfully. “I am afraid that is not what the stars foretell. You know I am an astrologer and have spent all my life calculating whether the planets are in square, opposition or trine. I know she is beautiful and intelligent, but is all her beauty and her wit before the inexorable decree of the stars.”
“Why, what dreadful things do the stars foretell?” asked Shekhar.
“To begin with there is KalsarpaYoga in her horoscope.”
“What does that mean.”
“It means there is neither wealth nor official position inher life, though she will remain in the public eye and be recognized.”
“We, that’s not so bad, it means she will not be rich but famous. I wish I could be famous,” said Shekhar.
“It is no laughing matter son. Kalsarpa Yoga is the harbinger of misfortune, though some authorities do not agree, But there is much worse to follow, Saturn in conjunction with Rahu is sitting in her seventh house, which means she will either never marry, or if she does, some terrible misfortune will befall her husband.”
“That is indeed unfortunate father,” said the Tehsildar, “but perhaps we can find some remedy to pacify the malefic stars. There is always some remedy available in astrology. Isn’t that so.”
“Yes there is, but there is much worse in store. The most worrying thing about her horoscope is the conjunction of six planets in the sixth house. Do you know what that means.”
“No.”
“It means she will see God!.”
“What!” both father and son were momentarily taken aback.
“But that’s wonderful,” said Shekhar, recovering first,” isn’t that the ultimate goal of life. The height of good fortune.Why should you be so mournful about it Baba.”
“You don’t understand child,” said the old man dolefully. “to see God means to renounce all worldly ambition, to give up all attachments and to follow a lonely and perilous path. It is the negation of all that binds us to this world, all that mere mortals like you and me hope and live for.In a worldly sense there can benothing more unfortunate.”
“Father is right, but surely there must be some remedy against this too. Some ritual, some remedy against this too. Some ritual, some mantra, some precious stone that will negate the malefic effects of the stars and bring her back to the world.”
The old man shook his head even more dolefully.
“There is not remedy against God.”
“Why are you all looking so glum?” said Sunanda who had joined the party after making sure that the rooms were the visitors were to be lodged were ready to receive them.
“We are discussing your horoscope cousin, and Baba has just made some very dire predictions about your future” said Shekhar.
“Tchah! Don’t tell me you believe in all that rigmarole Shekhar, you being a science student and all that.”
“Did you hear that, she calls the ancient knowledge of astrology, rigmarole. It is that English teacher at the degree college, Mr Bradley, who is putting all this nonsense into her head,” said the old man.
“I believe, as Mr. Bradley says, that character is destiny and destiny is character,” said Sunanda with a toss of her head.
“No my girl, for all your fancy notions, the decrees of fate are inexorable, as you shall know to your grief, though, sad to say, I would not be alive to see them through to the end.
“Oh come Baba, if it is my destiny to see God, so I shall, why should that make you so melancholy. Personally I think, it should be wonderful, a great lark.”
“It is nothing of the kind, girl.”
“Now, now, this kind of wrangling will not get us anywhere. Sunanda my dear, come show me to my room. Or better still, let us take a turn around the old house. There are things that I want to discuss with you.”
They walked down the corridors that ran round the courtyard, with rooms opening out on them like cloisters in a monastery. Sunanda took him to a room that stood over the portals of the house at one corner, in a squarish tower-like structure. It was a large whitewashed room with a four-poster bed and a row of windows looking out to the south at the fine prospect of the river with blue wooded mountains on the far horizon. There was an old chest of drawers in the room, a deep armchair sat in one corner, a kerosene lamp with a long glass chimney was placed on a gate-legged table, and on one wall hung a mirror framed in an ornate teak-wood frame now blackened with age. It was a cosy room and the Tehsildar loved it more than any other room in the house, because it was in this room that his son shekhar had been born. “Why this room looks just as it did thirty years ago, does it not.”
“I don’t know uncle, I wasn’t born thirty years ago.”
“I know. But it is remarkable, how little things change. Is it not”.
“Yes, things do not change so much, it is we who change.”
“Is this also one of your new-fangled maxims.”
“No, it isn’t, it is only what the Buddha says. Ancient wisdom you know.”
“I see, but you have certainly changed my dear, from the little girl I used to know. You are a woman now and a beautiful woman at that. It is time we started thinking of your marriage.”
“Well, Baba talks of nothing else. As if marriage were the finest thing under the Sun, only,--- only Mr Bradley doesn’t seem to think so.”
“Why, what does he say.”
“He says marriage is a…
“You mustn’t take everything said by Mr Bradley seriously. He is an Englishman after all, and much as I admire them. I don’t think they have any understanding of the Indian mind or any idea how personal affairs should be ordered.”
“Oh, I don’t mind getting married uncle, if it comes to that, only there is one condition.”
“What condition.”
“I will only marry a person who can speak Sanskrit as well as Baba and English as well as Mr. Bradley. And he mush ride a house with the same ease as my cousin Shekhar.”
“Your conditions my dear, are difficult but not impossible, Let us walk about the grounds and talk this over as we walk. I haven’t been around the old place for years.”
They walked across to the rear quadrangle which had an opening on its far side. The two lateral wings contained godowns for the storage of grain and straw. This is where the servants also had their quarters. Chaff cutters, sickles, harrows, ploughshares, and other agricultural implements were piled up in one corner, and near them, on one side, stood a massive cylindrical stone silo which was used for storing wheat. A very old and very large tamarind tree, growing at the back had now spread some of its branches over the quadrangle and these formed a tented shade over this part of the house. Behind the rear wall of the quadrangle was a square of compacted earth where the cattle were tied up in byres and a stone trough for feeding and watering the cows rain along one length of this wall. The cows lowed softly in recognition, as Sunanda reached among them, licking her hands, the bells around their necks tinkling softly in recognition, as Sunanda reached among them, licking her hands, the bells necks tinkling softly. She knew all the cows by name and was on friendly terms with all of them.
“How these animals love you Sunanda.”
“I love them too uncle,” said the girl, putting her arms around a young calf that lowed with delight at her embrace. “Oh uncle, did you hear the that!” she said as a cuckoo began her whistling song form somewhere deep in the branches of the tree and suddenly after a few piping strains feel silent. Her eyes were shining as she spoke and they seemed to be saying, ‘how could anyone be sad or melancholy after hearing these quicksilver bursts of pure melody.’
Behind the house was a small pond, the water now almost covered with pink and white water lilies, and around this pond the giant bamboo grew thickly, making a small wilderness. Round about the house stood old tree, of giant size and noble aspect, one old bunyan with its enormous girth and root buttresses and flying roots being so venerable that the villagers had started worshipping it. This rambling old house, almost embowered in trees had become so much a centre of the natural life that flourished around it that it was hard to believe that there was a larger world beyond its confines. Coming under its spell the Tehsildar forgot that he had come to the house with a specific reason.
