William Charles Benett

“ His advice is always sound and unselfish, and no one's aid and society are more welcome in Hardoi, whether to those who follow the chase of the boar or to those who administer justice in the courts. His stalwart form and frank face are well known throughout. Unlike most of his class, his active habits induce him to be constantly on horseback. Noblemen of such ligh character are really a most important and beneficial power in the state. They are loved by their dependants with that fond fidelity which sterling goodness attracts, and which this primitive society is ready to tender. ”

“ There can be few fine spectacles than this half mile of turbid white water presents when lit up by moonlight, or when the forests on either side take fire then the long range of lofty height is soon flaming to the water's edge, the roar of the water is mingled with that of the conflagration, and with the crash of falling trees this often lasts for several days and nights, a huge pall of smoke gathers over the tumultuous scene, and is swept away about noon each day by a cold wind which comes down from the moun ”

“ The one class tells me they must suspend all labours upon the waste lands till they can learn the character of his successor ; and the other, that they must content themselves with the humbler crops till they can see whether the richer and more costly will be safe from his grasp, or that of the agents, whom he may employ to manage the district for him. No man is safe for a moment under such a government, either in his person, his character, bis office, or his possession; and with such a feeling of insecurity among all classes, it is impossible for a country to prosper. ”

“ When they are very thick they resist the wind, which only dimples the serried mass; at other places the reeds bend their silky glories to the earth in great swathes, and toss them about in every gust till they present the appearance of waves in a chopping sea. These sand hills and their grassy brakes aze the haunt of herds of deer, besides sand grouse and pigeons. Soil and subterranean formations.—The soil of Hardoi is lighter than that of perhaps any other district, twenty-seven per cent. being sand, fifty- six per cent. loam, and seventeen per cent. ”

“ For one thousand years not a single man from their body has risen to distinction except one Rája Lone Singh, who was finally transported for life. The peasant points to no bridge or temple as proof that any single man in their many generations ever cared for the people or the country where he ruled. ”

“ Many pensioners of the British Government and former Oudh kings still dwell in the city; it is the centre of modern Indian life, the queen of Indian fashion, and the best existing school of Indian music, grammar, and Moslema theology, at least for the Shias. Lucknow, viewed from a distance, and not too closely scrutinized, is one of the most beautiful and picturesque large cities of the world. There are two noble mosques, one imámbára of imperial dimensions, four tombs of regal splendour—those of Saádat Ali Khan, of Mushid Zádi, of Muham- mad Ali Shah, and Gházi-ud-dín Haidar ”

“ All along the Gumti are high sandy plateaus covered with drifting sands, which only require water to grow green with barley or maize, but no tank or well was constructed for any such humane purpose by the lords of Muhamdi. They built nothing but brick forts, girt with deep ditches and towering turrets, to protect themselves and their servants against an oppressed people. ”

“ Gilt domes, made of copper covered with gold, gilt umbrellas, and balustrades of burnt clay, with gilt spikes, are among the tawdry ornaments which stil Irender a Lucknow view so bright and sparkling. As usual in Indian cities few buildings except mosques or tombs were built by the nobles of the court or the merchants. It was dangerous for any except the king's nearest relatives to build a fine mansion. ”

“ The court of justice, the police officer, the Englishmen at home, with all their defects, their ignorance of the language, their dependence upon their court officers, their lassitude and neglect of duty, their cheroots and brandy, are mercilessly exposed, yet so much verisimilitude is preserved that they are never represented as themselves cruel or corrupt. The practices of thieves, the oppressions of landlords, of native officials, are also favourite subjects of the Lucknow dramatist. ”

“ Lucknow is a large and populous city, but wholly inelegant and irre- gular. The streets are narrow, uneven, and almost choked up with every species of filth. The Gumty, running on the north side of the town, is navigable for boats of a common size at all seasons of the year, and falls into the Ganges between Benares and Ghazepour. ”

“ With the first fall of the rains, when his dominion became an island in the middle of pathless fens and girt by swift deep rivers, he threw off the mask and bade defiance to the rebels. He has been rewarded as he deserved for his unswerving loyalty. ”

“ From some unexplained reason, the belt of villages which lies along the centre of the pargana—Bilwa, Chitaunia, Dheráwán, Gurthemia--most of which are the property of Government, yield a sugar of so great purity that it requires hardly any refining to make the clearest candy, and it bears a considerably higher price than any other in the Shahjahanpur market. ”

“ The only high class cultivation really so is to be found in the goind lands round the villages and hamlets, and it depends generally on the density of the population, and what they can lay out in manure and irrigation, as to whether the goind can be extended or not. As manure and water can be applied to the farthest corners of the village, so will the productive powers of the soil be increased, and a possibility of raising the finer crops exist. ”

“ The Afghans in every part of India began to turn their eyes to him as the leader who at some future time might be destined to restore to them that proud ascendancy of their nation, the loss of which every man of them so deeply deplored. ”

“ It is remarkable that the professions which belong to a higher state of civilization, those of the jewellers, oil-pressers, grain-parchers, washerman, carpenters, blacksmiths, have not each a double or treble set of followers among modern Hindus, and this would show that they did not exist as separate trades in the little rude kingdoms, which were brought under the Hindu system, or else that the trade feeling in these more skilled and technical arts was so strong as to overcome national feeling and combine in one the followers of each trade. ”

“ Geographical distribution is all important, and the Pási is perhaps the best instance, The Pásis.—This ráce is confined to the province of Oudh, the division of Benares and Allahabad, and the district of Shahjahanpur, Their own- traditions are to the effect that Sandíla, Dhaurabra, Mitauli, Rankots in the district of Kheri, Hardoi, and Unao were all seats of their kings and power. Further, they do yet follow all such occupations as are absolutely necessary for the existence of a pastoral and agricultural race in a low state of civilization, and they have no divisions among themselves. ”

“ Perhaps one-quarter of the cultivating houschold will produce more, and one quarter will produce less, but 900lbs. per acre will be the average in soil suitable for wheat. The economical result is that the small farmer, who has no casualties in average years, gets just the price of his daily labour as an unskilled workman on the roads, and interest on his capital at the very lowest rate. It is also probable that if the tenant has to water his whcat threc times, as happens in years when the winter rains are deficient, he will cultivate at an actual loss-a loss which of course he cannot foresee. ”

“ During the ten years ending 1868 the average jail mortality of the province was 85 ju the thousand, but in Kheri jail only 45. The above figures prove conclusively that when men are treated with the care and solicitude which the Oudh administration bestows upon its criminals, then Kheri, or a great part of it, is tolerably healthy, but that even freedom will not compensate for the bad food and clothing which the peasants of backward districts can alone procure. Perhaps it may be urged that 22 per thousand is, after all, no great mortality, and it is only an assumption that 50 per cent. ”

“ In Lucknow, however, the food of the people does not correspond so strictly with the proximate previous harvest as in other districts. There are greater stocks of grain in store, as there is more capital in this district. People eat twice a day. A ser of maize, fourteen chhatáks of peas, or thirteen chhatáks of rice are considered enough for a day's food for an ordinary labouring man, under-sized as they are. Fish is eaten by the majority of the people. ”

“ Lucknow is still a LUC 395 wealthy and voluptuous city; there are plenty of citizens who formerly daily witnessed such performances who have now abandoned them. One reason seems to be that these persons, like the petairac of early Greece, are supposed to be servants of the community or the State ; they attend at public festivals, civil and religious ; they receive a share of the national land; they are not so much attendants upon private wealth as attached to power and to official station; they regard themselves as belonging to the community and to its head, the ruler. ”

“ The native imagination delights in finding derivations more curious than trustworthy for names, and it would be unsafe to build much history on their accounts of the foundation of some of their villages; but from very ancient times the founder seems gene- rally to have given his name to the village. Natural objects are not varied or striking enough to have given much help, though they are readily seized when present—as a tree, or an unusual feature in the soil, or a natural produce. ”

“ Remedies—irrigation, drainage, windmills.—They need not have failed at all if there had been any means of raising water from the numerous rivers, the Kauriala, the Chauka, the Daháwar, and the Suheli, Two- thirds of the land in which the rice crop failed were not twenty feet above the level of ample supplies of the water which would have saved them. The people are not accustomed to irrigate, and indeed they are so weak- ened by fever that hard labour at the wells would be impossible for many during the rains. Moreover excessive rain is more common than drought ”

“ Religion.—The religion of the Hindus of Lucknow does not materially differ from that prevalent in the rest of the province; the high-caste Brahmans, Khattris, Banians, and Rastogis are worshippers of Shiva or of Vishnu, and very rarely of Debi; the total abstinence of the worshippers of these tribes keeps them aloof from professing the worship of a goddess whose chief food is flesh and whose drink is wine. The Káyaths, on the other hand, are mostly worshippers of Debi, The Kashmíri Brahmans are generally devotees Shiva, and not of Vishnu or Debi, The low-caste Hindus mostly worship Debi ”

“ Common rates for average land are six to eight rupees per acre for land near the village suitable for wheat. Sugarcane is generally charged a differential rate (nine rupees per acre is about the present average) , but a pot of molasses and a lot of cane are also taken from every field; this last should be limited to one biswa in every bígha. The lowest rented lands are the outlying patches far from the sites of the villages in Palia, Kukra, and Bhúr; two annas a pakka bigha, or eight annas per acre, is met with, but one rupee an acre is quite common for such lands. ”

“ The depth of water is never more than three it percolates slowly and is soon exhausted, and the well or four feet has constantly to be cleaned of the sand which oozes in with it. Irrigation is effected by an earthen pot worked with a weighted lener, and slow as the work of exhaustion is, there are few chuhas ' which can be worked "continuously the whole day, and the area irrigated is seldom more than two biswas. At this rate it takes about a month to irrigate an acre, and a cultivator can only water about two acres a year. These wells fall in every year and leave hardly any trace behind. ”

“ The temple is supposed to be only the omphalos, or holy of holies, the central spot of a large area of sacred ground. There are four gates on the borders of this holy land, supposed to be at equal distances, twelve kos or eighteen miles from the centre. There are some in Shahjahánpur to the west on the Gumti, Gadai Náth in village Sháhpur, pargana Bhúr to the north, Deokali Náth near Kheri to the east, Barkhár in pargana Muhamdi to the south, or rather south-west. Through these four darwázas or wickets all wealthy persons are compelled to pass before approaching the shrine. ”

“ The five Pándus, who had gambled away their entire estate and even their liberty, had bound themselves by an oath to remain concealed for the thirteen years of their banishment from Hastinapur. They came to Bairátkhera in disguise, and all were taken into service. The eldest, Judhistthir, undertook to teach the king gam- bling, having learned too late the trick by which he had been cheated of his kingdom. Bhím the giant became cook; Arjun, dressed as a eunuch, was admitted as teacher of dancing and singing into the zanána; Nakul becare chief coachman; and Sáhdeo master of the cattle. ”