Oudh

“ The station, I have said, was straggling, covering, as far as the magazine at its further end, that is, the end nearer to Dehlí, a length of seven miles. The cantonment was open, and possessed no kind of fortification. It was separated by the Ganges from Oudh, and Sir Hugh Wheeler was too experienced in the modes of thought of the natives not to be absolutely certain that in the men of Oudh the English would find their most persistent enemy. He had to choose a spot the situation of which should lend itself easily to succour from the side of Allahábád. ”

“ Rája Hardeo Bakhsh of Katiári is as fine-a specimen of' a feudal chief as Oudh can present. A just and kind landlord, an upright and truthful man, a soldier of approved courage, an adept in all manly exercises, he has also shown himself to be within his small range a statesman of prescience and broad views. He temporised with the rebels during the first months of the mutiny of 1857: he pretended submission to the usurper at Lucknow, knowing that if a sudden attack were made upon him in May or June he could not protect either himself or Messrs. ”

“ It is the general belief among the Paravas that their original country was Ayodhya, or Oudh; and it appears that, previously to the war of Mahābhārata, they inhabited the territory bordering on the river Yamuna or Jumna. At present they are chiefly found in the seaport towns of the Tinnevelly district in the south of India, and also in some of the provinces on the north-west coast of Ceylon. ”

“ Seeing that it was hopeless to expect reforms from the native ruler, a treaty was proposed to the King, by which the civil and military authority of Oudh would be vested in the British Government solely and for ever, and the title of King of Oudh continued to Wajid Ali and his lawful male heirs; it provided for his being treated with due respect, and, under the treaty, he would have retained exclusive jurisdiction within the walls of the palace at Lucknow, except as to the infliction of capital punishment. ”

“ The Kurmi, the Kachhi, the Lodh, the Muráo, the Gújar, are all cultivators. But the complication generally arises from the action upon each other of the two caste factors, the ethnic or national and the trade-union. In Oudh several different kingdoms, which had existed separately for many hundred years during Buddhist times, were crushed together by the pres- sure of Moslem empire. In this the Hindu polity was more or less elabo- rate or wanting ; civilization, the division of labour and trades-unions, were in full force in one and absent in others. ”

“ There is hardly an acre of ground that is not capable of good culture. It is generally well timbered, studded with groves and fine solitary trees in great perfection. The soil is good, and the surface everywhere capable of tillage, with little labour or outlay. Considered generally, however, Oudh surpasses in natural advantages almost every other part of India—having the Ganges running along the whole of its southwest frontier, a varied and fertile soil, a genial though hot climate, and numerous facilities for irrigation and water carriage. ”

“ The Râê Bareli62 tradition brings them from Lucknow, and another account is that they came from Siupur, near Dwârika, to Narkanjhîl, in Cawnpur, and thence to Oudh. The Cawnpur family still recognise the Oudh branch. According to Mr. Carnegy they were originally Bhars.63 It is still less probable that they are the modern representatives of the Ambastha of Manu, descended from a Brâhman father of a Vaisya mother, and practising as physicians. ”

“ Population 3,555, of whom 2,451 are Hindus, 1,104 Musalmans. There are 4 temples and 13 mosques. Colonel Sleeman writes as follows (Tour in Oude, Vol. I, pages 320 to 322) " Meean Almas, after whom this place Meeangunge takes its name, was an eunuch. He had a brother, Rahnaut, after whom the town of Rahmut- ganj, which we passed some days ago, took its name. Meean Almas was the greatest and best man of any note that Oudh has produced. He held for about forty years this and other districts, yielding to the Oude Government an annual revenue of about eighty lacs of rupees. ”

“ It was a system of union between different races, of severance between different trades, followed by natural selection of the fittest, through further combination or division, Thus the Ahirs and the Bhars, the seats of whose nationality were in or near Oudh, had attained it is probable bigher civilization, and a certain division of labour unknown among the Pasis. Each different kingdom had its cultivating class, its shepherd class; in the process of time each bad acquired a distinct name in its own dialect ”

“ They are considered very clever and expert, and more stanch to their oath of secrecy than most other classes' (ibid. p. 97) . At the time referred to Oudh was a separate kingdom, which lasted as such until 1856. A map included in the printed Thuggee papers reveals the appalling fact that the Thugs had 274 fixed burying-places for their victims in the area of the small kingdom, about half the size of Ireland.
14. Fakīr (fakeer) , a religious mendicant. The word properly applies to Muhammadans only, but is often laxly used to include Hindoo ascetics. ”

“ A Rája required by the Chhattri comnunities which had overborne numerous lower costes. When the subject classes the Sudras, or even the conquered twice-born men of other castes were numerous, there was constant danger of a rebellion ; the Lodhs, Bhars, and Pasis repeatedly rose against and overwhelmed the Chhattri communities in Oudh ; the interests of the property were also so complex and troublesome that they required the und ed attention of one able and experienced man ”

“ Jumnapâri, “those beyond the Jumna,” and, most popular of all, Sarwariya, or Sarjupâri, “those beyond the Sarju.”
Names derived from famous cities. 3. Then we have a set of names derived from famous cities which have long sunk into decay, such as Kanaujiya, “those of Kanauj;” Srivastâvya, corrupted into Sibâstav or Bâtham, from Srâvasti, in North Oudh, now represented by Sahet-Mahet. Another of these ruined cities is Sankisa, in the Farrukhâbâd District, which gives its name to the Saksena Kâyasths, and to many other tribal sections. ”

“ A great portion of its lands are held by barons of the Hindoo military classes, equally addicted to bhūmiāwat, and one or more of them is always engaged in this kind of indiscriminate warfare; and it must be confessed that, unless they are always considered to be ready to engage in it, they have very little chance of retaining their possessions on moderate terms, for these weak governments are generally the most rapacious when they have it in their power.
A good deal of the lands of the Muhammadan sovereign of Oudh are, in the same manner, held by barons of the Rājpūt tribe ”

“ In reward for good services during that period, Government conferred the proprietary rights in this and other villages on Captain Orr, who sold them to Rája Amír Hasan Khan, taluqdar of Mahmudabad. The fort was a very strong one, but was abandoned without opposition by the rája on the approach of the English troops. Population Hindus ... 1,869 Musalmans The following is from Sleeman's Tour in Oudh;- "Lonec Sing's estate of Mitholee is in the Mahomdee district, and under the jurisdiction the Amil ”

“ This building, as will be seen from the view, is castellated and surrounded by a deep scarped ditch ; intended evidently for purposes of defence. The structure was commenced by Saadut Ali Khan, and finished by Ghazee-ood-deen Hyder : the purpose that these monarchs had, when design- ing such a palpable stronghold, is difficult to surmise, and a study of their histories fails to show the necessity of such a building ; especially, since the Kings of Oudh declared that they considered their country perfectly secure under the guaranteed protection of the British Government. ”

“ Others suppose Ohod to be one of the six mountains which afforded materials for the Kaabah, viz., Abu Kubays, Sinai, Kuds (at Jerusalem) , Warkan and Radhwah near Yambu'. Also it is said that when the Lord conversed with Moses on Sinai, the mountain burst into six pieces, three of which flew to Al-Madinah, Ohod, Warkan and Radhwah, and three to Meccah, Hira (now popularly called Jabal Nur) , Sabir, (the old name for Jabal Muna) , and Saur. [FN#11] "Ayr" means a "wild ass," whereas Ohod is derived from Ahad, "one,"-so called because fated to be the place of victory to those who worship one God. ”

“ Thousands of men who had not a crust of bread begat legitimate offsprings in the most reckless and profuse manner; and the one man for whom lawful heirs were an absolute necessity and duty obstinately neglected his obligations to family and to the world.
It was possible, even probable, that the last of the Othmars would remain the last of his race.
‘Marry for me,’ said Othmar. ‘I will give all we possess to any cousins you may give me, and keep only enough myself to live peaceably in Arabia Felix. I have always wished to live there; the climate is divine ”

“ In this brief spell of daily increasing twilight the desolate region took on a grey-blue hue; the natives, as they appeared outside their shelters, looked like greyish spectres. Ootah felt the grim grey desolation color his soul.
He had regained his strength, and his wounds had healed with the remarkable rapidity that nature effects in people who lead a primitive life; only the hurt in his heart remained. Annadoah had often visited him, and while he lay on his bed of furs she had boiled ahmingmah meat and made hot water over the lamp very solicitously. ”

“ Besides, you made me so many in Paris, and then you went to the Mongols. I never knew why you went to the Mongols; why did you go?’
‘Wounded brutes always get away somewhere to be unseen as long as their wound bleeds,’ said Othmar, with some bitterness.
‘How Sachs cried for that cartouche-box!’ she said, as she lit a cigarette. ‘His women scolded him, but I said to them, “Why do you scold him? He is a male creature; therefore he must weep for what he cannot get.” Some children cry for the moon; a moon, or a cartouche-box, or a woman, the principle is the same.’
Othmar rose and approached her. ”

“ Ootah's wail of hurt recalled her.
Her eyes sought the igloo wonderingly.
"Thou?" she repeated, dully. "Yea, it is cold here. I am hungry . . . Are there not ahmingmah in the mountains, Ootah? Didst thou not tell me there were ahmingmah in the mountains . . . why do not the men of the tribe seek the musk oxen in the mountains?"
With a sudden start Ootah remembered having told Annadoah of the herd he had found in the inland valley—it was strange, he thought, he had not remembered the herd before. ”

“ Not though Abu Zeyd were here himself the Helali.
For what is Abu Zeyd? Let him help thee, thou dog's daughter !
Let him deliver thee from my hand, thou daughter of Jaber!
Are we not, we the Agheylat, secure in our pastures ?
He, the Helali foe, where is he ? In some far dirra,
Pasturing flocks of his own. He shall not help thee nor succour."
But she, "Yet if God so willed he were here even now upon thee."
And Sahel, " Hold thy peace, for to-night thy life hath ending.
What shall Salame do to thy help in these our pastures ?
The wolf is not as the lion in the manner of his seizing. ”

“ If he revered anything in life, it was the tradition of old Marc Othmar amassing his florins in the half-barbaric city of Agram.
‘For aught we know he was a Tchigan, a Romany,’ his nephew had said to him once; and he had replied angrily, ‘And if he were a gipsy? Is there blood more ancient? Is there a people freer? Is there an intelligence more complex? What are the European races beside the Oriental? But you know very well that he was a pure Croat,’ he had concluded, with intolerable impatience of such depreciation of the founder of their greatness. ”

“ Ootah bent over Annadoah to protect her from the mountainous onslaughts of icy water. His teeth chattered—he suffered agonies. For a long black hour of horror they were driven over the thundering seas and through a frigid whirlwind of snow, sharp as flakes of steel.
The recoiling impetus of the waters gradually increased under them. Ootah knew this indicated an approach to land. The waves came in shorter, but quicker swells. The floe bumped into others. Ootah roused himself and hopefully turned toward Maisanguaq.
"We approach the land," he called. "We must bide our time—then jump." ”

“ She was unwell, and not to be disturbed. The gay Templar was the life of the board.
"Thou carriest a sad brow to-day, Sir Otho," said he; "good faith, thou hast caught it from the air of Liebenstein."
"I have something troubles me," answered Otho, forcing a smile, "which I would fain impart to thy friendly bosom. The night is clear and the moon is up, let us forth alone into the garden."
The Templar rose, and he forgot not to gird on his sword as he followed the knight.
Otho led the way to one of the most distant terraces that overhung the Rhine. ”

“ I supposed Loswa took care of her. He is responsible for her.'
'No,' said Othmar, 'we are responsible. She is in our house, and she came here by your invitation; on your insistence. There is surely the law of hospitality——'
'Among savages,' said his wife, amused. 'I believe it exists somewhere still on the Red River, or amongst the Red Indians; I am not sure which. We know nothing about it. We only invite people because we think they will amuse us, and we usually find that they do not. ”