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·DAWN OF NEW INDIA BY BRAJENDRANATH BANERJI Author of Begam Samru, etc. WITH A FOREWORD BY SIR EVAN COTTON. Kt., C.I.E. M. C. SARKAR & SONS CALCUTTA 1927 ·Published by S. C. SARKAR of M. C. SARKAR & SONS, 90/2A, Harrison Road, Calcutta, Copyright by the author. Printer: S. C. MAJUMDAR, SRI GOURANGA PRESS, 71/1, Mirzapur Street, Calcutta, Calcutta, ·This book is dedicated Το KEDARNATH CHATTERJI, ESQ., B.Sc. (London), A.R.C.S. (London) by his friend and admirer, the author . Acc. : 18271 954 D:: Cai Bi. ini, Checki new

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·FOREWORD There would not, at first sight; appear to be any substantial connection between the three subjects which Mr. Brajendranath Banerji examines and discusses in the course of the following pages. In fact, however, they form part of a great epoch. The suppression of the gangs of fighting Sannyasis during Warren Hastings' early Governorship of Bengal was à necessary prelude to the establishment of settled government in the territories over which the East India Company had elected to "stand forth as Dewan.” Equally necessary as the second stage was the rectification of the administration of justice : and herein due account is taken of the labours, not only of Sir William Jones and Colebrooke, but of the eminent pandits, such as Jagannath Tarka-panchanan, without whose assistance the digest of Hindu law would not have taken adequate shape. In his article on the College of Fort William, Mr. Banerji illustrates the ·vi operation of the third stage. The time was passing when the civil servant of the Company fitted himself for his duties (as Thomas Palmer, the uncle of Lord Chancellor Selborne did, as late as 1790) by preliminary training in a counting house at Rotterdam. Wellesley's conception was too grandiose to appeal to the limited outlook of the Court of Directors and it underwent considerable modification. It was, however, the parent of Haileybury: and to Haileybury-men India owes a debt that is apt to be too lightly regarded in these days of haste and hurry. It will be seen, therefore, that the three episodes are historically linked : and researches such those which Mr. Banerji has undertaken should be welcomed by students, and observers of contemporary events in India. I will go further and say that his patient and careful investigations should stimulate others to follow in his steps. They may rest assured of results as fruitful as those which he has obtained. There is much rich material in the Records which he has laid under contribution :- and it will amply repay the labour bestowed as upon it.

·vii Readers of Mr. Banerji's previous works, and in particular his history of the Begam Samru, will have learned what to expect from him. Speaking for myself, I can testify that I have derived both pleasure and profit from the three articles which he now offers to the public. It is in the hope that the opinion which I have formed may be shared by others that I gladly accede to my friend's request to write these few words. EVAN COTTON ·PREFACE The historical studies contained in this book were originally published in the Modern Review and have been revised for the present edition. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. S. N. Roy, I.C.S., late Deputy Secretary to the Political Department of the Government of Bengal, for the special facilities which he accorded to me for working among the records of the Bengal Government. My grateful acknowledgments are due to Messrs. K. Bose, Superintendent, Imperial Records Department, and S. C: Roy, Keeper of the Records of the Government of Bengal, for material assistance. Finally, I shall be failing in my duty if I do not express my heartfelt thanks to Sir Evan Cotton, Kt., C.I.E. for his unfailing kindness, and for readily consenting to write an intioduction to the book. BRAJENDRANATH BANERJI 14, Parsi Bagan, CALCUTTA, July, 1927.

·Buriá lloren brunkage. 1 College Row: Cabretta, THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL CHAPTER I THE SANNYASIS, THEIR ORIGIN AND APPEARANCE IN BENGAL The dim twilight between the passing away of the old order and the dawn of the new in the middle of the 18th century was a period of peculiar misery to Bengal. This province, blessed with natural fertility, had thriven greatly from the peace and order which the strong rule of Murshid Quli Khan and other Nawabs had enforced throughout the country. Other parts of Northern India used to be annually ravaged by Marathas and Sikhs, Rohilas and Jats, but Bengal had during the first half of the 18th century enjoyed security from such organized raiders, except in the long narrow tract in the Bardwan and Midnapur districts through which the Nagpur Maratha army made its five incursions.

·2 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. I But a new era began with the fall of the Nawab's power at the battle of Plassey and the inauguration of our alien masters, who did not at first openly assume full responsibility for their charge, but tried in vain to continue the old system of administration as long as possible, with a minimum of change by the addition of English supervision at the very top. This paralysis of the ostensible royal power in Bengal naturally invited a most dangerous class of brigands into our rich but weak province.. They were various bands of Hindu monks called Sannyasi faqirs. The success of the Nagpur Maratha raiders had spread through the bazars and hamlets of Upper India tales of the fabulous wealth and military weakness of Bengal and excited the cupidity of all men naturally disposed to robbery. This spirit was accentuated by the news of Plassey and the supposed downfall of all regular government in Bengal. Now was 'the time to gather a rich loot without fear. The genius of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, in what may rightly claim to be his greatest novel, has invested the Sannyasis with a false halo of glory. We have no right to quarrel ·CH. I THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 3 with a writer of fiction for idealizing truth beyond recognition and creating a picture which is false to history; his duty is to be true to nature and not to produce a correct record of the past. His Ananda-math, as a masterpiece of art, does not suffer in the least for its violation of historic truth. But that truth ought to be made known to the public of Bengal, and it can be established on the unassailable basis of the accurate contemporary records (letters and reports) of the East India Company's officers posted in the region of the operations of the Sannyasis. These sources leave us no choice but to reject, as completely untrue, the novelist's assertions (1) that the Sannyasis weré Bengali Brahmans and Kayasthas and (2) that their movement sprang up as the natural reaction against the Bengal Famine of 1769-1770 and the fiscal oppression of the Company's heartless underlings. No. The true facts are that the Sannyasis were up-country Hindu monks (from Western, Bihar and the adjacent parts of the U. P.)- the very brethren of the Bhojpuris who practised dacoity as a profession, the Buxarias who hired themselves out as mercenary ·4 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. I soldiers and guards, and the Poorbias who flocked to lower Bengal for a career. Fighting monks had been long known in India, as Dr. J. N. Farquhar has shown in his brilliant paper on the Fighting Ascetics of India. Even now the Naga Sannyasis and the battalions of chelas of Shaiva Mohants of the Giri order, create uneasiness in the minds of the police of every British district which they visit. In Western India, and even in the environs of Delhi, the Gosains were a recognized class of mercenary soldiers of great fighting value, as the English knew in their wars with the Marathas down to the very last (1817). The Sannyasis who infested Bengal were Shaiva monks of the same typė. Their earliest recorded raid was in 1769, long before the famine of 1769-70 and the revenue tyranny of Warren Hastings's days, as the following narrative will show. A truth that comes out like a ray of sunshine through this dark record, is the sense of duty of the English governors and their wise organization and determined effort to put down the Sannyasi pest. Though the forces ki? at their disposal were very small, English ·CH. 1 THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 5 discipline, energy and perseverance triumphed in the end, and thousands of households in Purnea, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Bogra, Dacca and Mymensingh were at last saved from plunder, burning, and captivity. It is a record of which any administration may be justly proud. The suppression of the Sannyasis was a task of peculiar difficulty from the character of these robbers and their mode of operations. First, they had a great advantage over regular troops by reason of their superior speed, on which they entirely relied for their safety; they had neither camp equipage nor even clothes to retard their flight, nor would they stay long in one place. Hence, it was scarcely practicable for the Company's infantry to overtake them. Next, they had no fixed place of residence in or outside the borders of British India, which might be captured by way of reprisal. They passed rapidly over the country like a desolating blast, looting and burning villages and levying contributions from the helpless peasants and zamindars. British administration was not yet well organized in the interior of Bengal. In many of the districts ·6 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. I ravaged by these bandits, the means of communication were then very defective, the police force was not sufficiently large and well distributed to form an effective barrier; the zamindars were in a state of primitive ignorance and helplessness, as they had then ceased to be the powerful jagirdar-nobles of the Mughal period but had not yet become the rich and permanent landed aristocracy that Cornwallis was to make them. The result was that in spite of strict orders issued by the Collectors, the peasants and landlords could neither make a stand against these robbers nor give the English authorities prompt news of their approach, so that the banditti sometimes advanced into the very heart of the province before the Government agents knew anything of their movements. Nor can it be denied that the Sannyasis exercised a great influence upon our villagers, through terror or superstition, with the result that their movements were usually kept very secret from the Government. But in time the genius of Warren Hastings triumphed over all these difficulties. A net-work of police and armed forces was established ·CH. 1 THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL in North Bengal with a system of close inter-communication, and a body of cavalry was raised to neutralize the superior mobility of the robbers. These means succeeded in the end, and British India came to enjoy peace from these far-roving brigand bands. These Sannyasis should be carefully distinguished from the other gangs known in our unhappy province for many years afterwards, such as the settled bands of Sannyasi faqirs, who fortified their hermitages and combined the business of moneylending with dacoity.1 For instance, Majnun Shah faqir-a turbulent bandit, whose acts of brigandage begin to be noticed in the English' records from 1771 and who had several hundreds of faqirs under his command, became a terror in the Ghoraghat chakla of the Rangpur district. Bhawani Pathak (a native of Bhojpur) was also a noted leader of dacoits and had been in league with Devi Chaudhurani, a female dacoit who used . 1 The disturbances created by the settled Sannyasis in the Mymensingh district during the early British period have been dealt with by Babu Jamini Mohan Ghosh in his Sannyasis in Mymensingh.

·8 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. 1 to live in boats. Other captains of this class were Musa Shah faqir and Pharagul Shah.? But they will not be treated of in this book. 2 For the exploits of Majnun Shah, etc., see Public Cons. 15-3-1783 (No. 13), 24-3-1783 (No. 15); Bengal Dist. Recordo Dinajpur, vol. 1;, Glazier's Report on the District of Rangpur; Procdgs. of the Comptrolling Council of Revenue at Murshidabad, ix. 78-82, 102-3, 114-15, 117-18. G. G. P. 22 Oct., 1776, Nos. 2, 3. Two of Rennell's letters (dated 10th Feb. and 1st March 1771) in Bengal : Past and Present, x. 150-51. Another dacoit leader is mentioned under the name of Cheragh Ali Shah.

·CHAPTER II EARLY SANNYASI RAIDS IN BENGAL AND BIHAR The earliest of these raids that we find on record was in 1763, when a band of “faqirs” (as they are called) attacked the English Factory at Dacca. Its Chief—Mr. Leycester-- saved himself by abandoning the Factory, which contained a very considerable proportion of the Company's treasure and merchandise, to the plunderers. The place was, however, recovered in the same year and the faqirs who were then taken prisoner, were employed as coolies in the repair of the buildings !3 The next mention of the Sannyasis occurs in February 1766, when James Rennell, the father of modern geography, was surrounded on the south frontier of Kuch Bihar by some seven hundred of these up-country robbers, passing themselves off as religious mendicants. These men, taking advantage of the confusion 3 Long's Selections from the Unpublished Records of Govern. ment for 1748-1767, p. 342.

·10 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. II in the affairs of the Kuch Bihar State owing to disputed succession, had recently overrun that country, and even occupied the town of Balarampur, from which they used to issue forth for their raids. This made the march of a British force to north Rangpur necessary. Rennell, joining the small detachment under his friend Lt. Morrison, attacked the brigands in the village of Dinhata, in the fork between the Dharla and the Brahmaputra rivers (20th February). In the skirmish that followed Rennell was severely wounded in many places and barely escaped with his life. His brother officer, Richards, was slightly wounded, his Armenian assistant was killed, and the sepoy adjutant much wounded. But many of the Sannyasis were slain and the rest broke up in small parties and spread over the country, some retiring towards Ulipur. In April 1767 five thousand Sannyasis in a 'oody entered the district of Saran (Chapra). 4 For a full account of the skirmish, see The Journals of Major James Rennell, ed. by T. H. D. La Touche (1910), pp. 72-74; Sir Clements Markham's Major James Rennell and the Rise of Modern English Geography (1895), p. 47; "James Rennell" by A. K. Jameson in Bengal : Past and Present, vol. xxvii (1924), pp. 1-11.

·CH, II THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL Two companies of sepoys, under a European sergeant,“ were sent by the faujdar to chastise these people; but in the skirmish that ensued the Sannyasis stood their ground and charged the sepoys who had nearly exhausted their ammunition, killed many, and put the rest to flight. The presence of the Sannyasis in the district terrified the villagers and greatly affected the revenue collection. The Chief of Patna was, therefore, obliged to detach Capt. Wilding at the head of all the sepoys he could spare in order to rid the country of these pests. Thereafter the incursions of the Sannyasis became annual episodes and the records are fuller of detail about them. In 1769 they made a successful raid on the northern districts 5 Twenty-three firelocks and a horse, a saddle pistol and two fowling pieces, said to have belonged to the late Ensign Keith who was unfortunately cut off on the borders of Morang, were recovered at Faizabad from some faqirs who had arrived there. "The people who came to Faizabad were a few who, it seems, had been sent from their main body to sell their plunders, whilst they continued their route from Gorakhpur (in which province they destroyed and plundered several villages) by the range of hills to the northward until they gained the Rohilas country."-Select Committee Procdgs. 19 July 1770, pp. 525-27. 6 Letter, dated 20 April 1767, from Thomas Rumbold, Chief of Patna.-Ibid., 30 April, 1767, p. 198.

·12 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. II of Bengal, and the Rangpur Supravisor wrote to the Resident at the Darbar : . We should be ready to receive the Sannyasis or any other vagabond plunderers that may make an inroad into this country--which is not improbable considering the success the Sannyasis met with last year, which gives many people here reason to imagine, they will make another effort of this kind." (20 April 1770).? Nor was the forecast wrong, for April 1770 saw the return of two bodies of the Sannyasis to Dinajpur, one of whom took the road to Purnea, but the other was driven away. In the beginning of 1771 the Supravisor of Dacca felt the necessity of applying to the Council of Murshidabad for two more companies of sepoys to suppress the Sannyasis, who were occupying the northern parts of Dacca and the adjacent borders of Rajshahi. As he wrote: "The northern parts of this province and the adjacent borders of Radshy (Rajshahi) are inhabited by 7 Bengal District Recordo Rangpur, i. vi. 8 Letter, dated Rangpur 24 April 1770, from John Grose, to Richard Becher, Resident at the Darbar.-The Letter Copy Books of the Resident at the Darbar at Marshidabad, 1769-70, pp. 1-2.

·CH. II THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 13 great numbers of Sannyasis. It is well known that these people make their peregrinations annually during the fair season. They travel, it is said, upon religious purposes, yet they go in large bodies and mostly armed. Last year they levied pretty considerable sums from different districts, and, as they were not opposed, we are not surprised that they should make their appearance again. I have intelligence that they are assembled to the number of about fifteen hundred and have raised contributions in Jafarshahi to the amount of three thousand Rupees, and further that they have sent to demand a sum of five thousand from the zamindars of Alapsingh."9 Animated by the hope of loot, bands of up-country Hindu monks became eager to flock to Bengal. We have it on record that in November 1770 as many as 10,000 armed Sannyasi faqirs assembled at Benares with the object of making an attempt on Bengal. But the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Robert Barker, received early intimation of their intention and, being well aware of their depredations in the previous year, prevented their 9 Letter, dated Daoca 5th Feby. 1771, from Tho. Kelsall, to Samuel Middleton, Chief &ca Council of Revenue at Muxadavad. Procdge. of the Comptrolling Council of Revenue at Murshidabad, iii. 155.

·14 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. II >> passage through the province of Bihar. It was rightly held by Cartier, the then Governor of Bengal, that the presence of such a large body of armed men, "who were not come with religious motives or with an intention of merely purchasing Bengal manufactures," might have proved dangerous to the inhabitants of Bengal.10 But the Sannyasis could not be long held in restraint. Several bodies of them, totalling three to four thousand, moved from the west and suddenly swooped down upon Purnea; they scattered among the villages of the district, plundering them and exacting contributions from the inhabitants.11 Never did they stay long in one place, and their movements were so rapid that Capt. Sinclair, who was sent in pursuit of them with a party of about two companies of sepoys, failed to overtake them. Mr. Ducarel, the Collector of Purnea, concluded from the best intelligence available that the Sannyasi faqirs would pursue their route, according to their annual 10 Select Committee Procdgs. 29 Dec. 1770, pp. 791-92, 822. 11 Committee of Circuit Procdgs. 2 Jany. 1773 (Bengal Govt. Records).

·CH. II THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 15 custom, through Dinajpur and Rangpur, to the Brahmaputra river for performing their ablutions. This inference was proved true. The dacoits next entered Dinajpur, while one party of them even plundered Bhawaniganj, a cutchery in the district of Rangpur (Dec. 1772). Capt. Thomas and his company, strengthened by some other sepoys, marched from Rangpur on the morning of 29th December 1772 to Jafarganj in order to intercept the Sannyasis.12 A hot action ensued near Rangpur on the following morning, which lasted some hours, and the disastrous result of which is thus described by Mr. Purling, the Collector of Rangpur : “Having received intelligence that there are three large bodies of Sannyasis down to Bhawaniganj and are plundering the places thereabouts I have been directed by Mr. Dacres13 to come 12 Letter from P. M. Dacres, President, Committee of Circuit, to the Hon'ble Warren Hastings, dated Rangpur 30 Dec. 1772.Public Procdgs. 11 Jany. 1773, pp. 19-20. 13 In 1771 the Court of Directors decided that the Company should 'stand forth as Diwan. The Committee of Circuit was established under a resolution of the Comptrolling Committee of Revenue, dated 14th May 1772, for settling the land revenue of the various districts on the spot. This Committee consisted of the Hon. Mr. Warren Hastings, as President, and Messrs. Middleton, Dacres, ·16 DAWN OF NEW INDIA #CH. R send a company of sepoys (which were sent from Dinajpur to reinforce Capt. Jones) against them under the command of Capt. Thomas who went away this morning. This plea of coming down is to assemble about this time upon some religious occasion upon a hill called Mustaun-garh, 8 kos to the southward of Govindganj. They were kept in some order last year by my sending Capt. Thomas with a company of sepoys to Govindganj and writing to the heads of them that I should consider them as enemies if they were guilty of the smallest oppression. But I really think it advisable to level to the ground any buildings that they may have upon that hill which furnishes them with an excuse for assembling there as they are in fact dens of thieves. "I have just received the melancholy intelligence that Capt. Thomas and the company of sepoys who were yesterday sent after the Sannyasis were this morning cut off to a man. One man only, who was Capt. Thomas's orderly, has returned who told us that the body of Sannyasis were about fifteen hundred and that Capt. Thomas attacked them a little before daylight, that he at first made them give way, that the party expended their ammunition by which time the Sannyasis O Lawrell & Graham as members. Latterly Mr. Dacres acted as President, Hastings having left for the Presidency. The Committee existed from 14 May, 1772 to Feby. 1773.

·CH. 11 THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL .17 had surrounded them, that Capt. Thomas ordered the sepoys to charge upon them with their bayonets which they refused to do and that he wanted Capt. Thomas to mount his horse which he would not, that Capt Thomas had received one wound by a ball through the hand which he tied up and that he saw him cut down before he left him and that not a man besides himself is saved.' We have Aying reports of their being near Rangpur and have 40 men in garrison and the Committee about 40 more. We intend being under arms tonight. The Sannyasis were met by Capt. Thomas in the direct way to Rangpur from Consummah, the place we heard of them at first. The melancholy death of Capt. Thomas has been confirmed by the coming in of several straggling sepoys most of whom are wounded. We have now about 80 sepoys the Committee having left us this morning and having received information that no less a body than 4000 Sannyasis are within fourteen kos of us and having a full treasury, I have thought proper to detain as many barkandazes as I can pick up for a day or two until I am, joined by the Rangpur sepoys who are with Capt. Jones as well as those of the Committee who have been sent to him. "I forgot in my other letter to mention to you that the battle with the Sannyasis was in a plain by Samganj in the pargana of Sarup-pur. Capt. 2 ·18 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. 11 Thomas pursued them into a jungle where the sepoys expended all their ammunition without doing the least execution, that when they perceived the ammunition spent the Sannyasis rushed in upon them in very large bodies from every quarter, about 12 men are come in all wounded excepting those which were left with Capt. Thomas's tents, that the ryots were so far from giving in assistance that they joined the Sannyasis with lathies and they shewed the Sannyasis those whom they saw had concealed themselves in long grass and jungle and that if any of the sepoys attempted to go into their villages they made a noise to bring the Sannyasis and that they had plundered the sepoys' firelocks. . Sarup-pur is in Rajshahi. Should the firelock be found upon any of these ryots it will be a great pity they should escape punishment. "Immediately after receiving the intelligence yesterday I sent out four different harkarahs not one of whom are returned. I made a prisoner of one Sannyasi wbom I found within the town and gave orders for the seizure of as many as could be laid hold of, but notwithstanding there could not have less straggling about whom we had all seen than one or two hundred, they have all disappeared and the country people seem totally averse to meddling with them. I shall tonight be under arms myself together with the whole garrison.

·CH. II THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 19 some *P. S. I wish for some means to avenge Capt. Thomas's death and the destruction of their places of rendezvous and for severe measures to prevent the Sannyasis entering these countries. The revenues must ever be at stake while it is permitted. They have nothing to control them now. One of Capt. Thomas's bearers is just returned with his hand cut very much, because he could not inform them of Capt. Thomas's money."14 14 Extracts from Mr. Purling's letters to W. Hastings, dated 29th, 30th, and 31st December 1772.-Public Procdgs. 11 January, 1773, pp. 20-23.

·CHAPTER III EARLY DEFENSIVE MEASURES OF THE ENGLISH -THE DISORDERS CONTINUE The death of Capt. Thomas, an officer of reputation, and the total defeat of his troops was a matter of surprise and concern to Warren Hastings. The inroads of these banditti were now so frequent and troublesome that Capt. Stuart, with the 19th battalion of sepoys, was ordered to proceed without loss of time to Dinajpur in order to chastise the Sannyasis, drive them out of the country, and then take post at Rangpur for the security of the country against them. Further, it was settled at the Board meeting “that a circular letter15 be sent by the Secretary to the several Collectors acquainting them that from this time they are to keep a particular eye over the 'motions of these people, that they are to spare no pains to procure the most exact intelligence 15 For a copy of the circular letter issued by the Secretary on 21st January, 1773, see Bangal District Recordo Chittagong, i. 71-72, letter No. 111.

·CH. III THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 21 about them and require the assistance of the zamindars, diwans, etc. in obtaining it; that at every chauki they leave strict orders to suffer no person whatsoever to pass with arms but that the chaukidars oblige them to deposit such arms with them and also to give public notice in their districts that all persons or bodies of men travelling armed through the country shall be regarded as regarded as enemies to Government and pursued accordingly."'16 to 16 Public Procdgs. 11 Jany. 1773, pp. 20-23. The Committee of Circuit in their letter, dated Dinajpur 2nd January 1773, made the following suggestions to the Council of Revenue at Fort William for the prevention of the annual incursions of the Sannyasis : "From the best information we have been able to obtain since the Sannyasis have pursued their usual route across the country to the eastward, the plunder they have committed and the contributions they have exacted, we are afraid, may considerably affect the collections but the chief purpose of this address is to represent to you the urgent necessity there is for taking effectual measures prevent the annual incursions of those ravagers who, under the pretended mask of a religious pilgrimage to perform ablutions in the Brahmaputra and worship at the Island of Saugor, make it an uniform practice to oppress and plunder the country, to which they will be now the more encouraged, from the trifling success they have met with in defeating such small parties of our sepoys, as the inconsiderable force in those parts had admitted of sending against them and who have been unable to cope with their numbers. For this purpose we submit it to your consideration whether they should not be effectually opposed at their entry of the provinces by a respectablo 18271 THC RAMAKR'SHNA 113SION INSTITUTE OF ULTURE LIBNANY ·22 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. III no These orders, if enforced everywhere, would have caused widespread inconvenience, as we can see from some of the representations of the Collectors, which also throw a lurid light on the unsettled state of the country. Collector of Lakhimpur :- If this order be carried into execution in its full extent, and in consequence travellers suffered to carry weapons about them for self-defence, that all such travellers will be exposed to continual danger of robberies and other abuses from the number of dacoits that infest these parts above all others in the country who, by such order, when promulgated, may be encouraged to the commission of greater violences from their hopes of certain success in attacking persons they know are prohibited the use of arms to defend themselves."17 Collector of Rajmahal :-"The particular situation of this and the Boglepur [Bhagalpur) province make it absolutely requisite for the safety of all persons passing through them to go armed detachment formed from the brigade stationed in Bihar or whether it may not be adopted as an eligible expedient when they rendezvous at Saugor, their ultimate place of resort, to coop them up in that island and prevent their retreat." Secret Procdgs. 10 March 1773, pp. 132-34. 17 Letter from Wm. Barton to Johor Stewart, Secretary to the Hon'ble President and Council of Fort William, dated Luckipur, 29 January 1773. Secret Con. 10 March 1773, No. 16.

·CH. IH THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 23 are and prepared against the attacks of a numerous banditti who infest the public roads of this neighbourhood."18 Collector of Hughli :-“That security and tranquility which the happy effects of a regular government were never to be depended upon in the interior parts of this country. Individuals have therefore been obliged to arm, for their own defence ; accordingly merchants and bankers, when under the necessity of transporting treasure or goods, never fail to escort it with a party of pikes and barkandazes, and travellers singly or in company are never seen without swords or some other weapon for defending themselves."*19 Resident at Midnapur :-"Almost every man in the country carries a sword. Is the custom to be abolished, or is it to be limited to any particular rank of men? There are 40,000 or 30,000 people who travel annually through the Midnapur province to Jagannath. There are many persons of distinction amongst them; and in the different parties that go there may be some of them who have swords, pikes, or matchlocks, which they carry either for defence state. Many merchants also travel through the province into or 18 Letter from W. Harwood to John Stewart, Secretary, dated Rajmahal 5th February 1773.-Secret Con. 10 March 1773, No. 17. 19 Letter from W. Lushington to John Stewart, Secretary,dated Hughli 24th January 1773.-Secret Procdgs. 10 March 1773, No. 18.

·24 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. It the Maratha districts, and for safety they travel in companies of twenty or thirty together, and none of them without a sword and shield."*20 From these representations the Board considered that “the orders for disarming all travellers without distinction might be dangerous to the safety of merchants and others going through the country on lawful business and consequently exposed to the attacks of the Sannyasis and dacoits.” It was, therefore, agreed that orders be issued immediately "restricting the 'prohibition to Sannyasis only and acquainting that all merchants and others travelling on lawful business should be permitted to carry arms as usual unmolested."21 Flushed with success, the Sannyasis, now two thousand strong, with 100 horse and 80 bullocks laden with ammunition, made their next appearance at Silberis (Bogra) plundering 20 From Edward Baber to John Stewart, dated Midnapur, 6th February 1773.—Price's Notes on the History of Midnapore, p. 117; Bengal Dist. Records Midnapur, iv. 108. 21 Secret Procdgs. 10 March 1773, No. 19. For a copy of the Secretary's circular letter, dated 11 March 1773,-Bengal Dist. RecordChittagong. i. 80, letter No. 121. For a copy of the Board's letter, dated 10 March 1773, to Mr. George Hurst and Council at Patna,Secret Procdgs. 10 March 1773, No. 19.

·CH. III THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 25 several villages on the way, and the Collector was forced to pay them a ransom of Rs. 1,200 before they would retire from the pargana to Shibganj, where they joined another party of about four thousand men. The following letters of the Collector of Bogra describe their doings : *Late last night I received news from Pargana Chowgong of there having arrived upwards of three thousand men armed and that they had confined the chaudhuri's naib until he paid them a sum of money and that they had plundered the several villages which they passed through, in consequence of which news I sent out spies to enquire where they were bound to, and have this instant received advice that they are now at Sherpur about six kos from hence. As I am apt to believe they intend to meet other dacoits at Mustanpur they undoubtedly will take this place in their march and as I have but about five sepoys I thought it my duty to acquaint you and at the same time to inform you I have taken the necessary precautions to secure what cash I have in the treasury." (Dated 6th January 1773).22 *The Sannyasis whom I acquainted you of in a former letter dated the 6th instant arrived here this day, 22 J. M. Hatch, Collector of Bogra, to the Committee of Circuit.- Secret Con. 21 Jany. 1773, No. 2.

·26 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. III in number about two thousand, one hundred horse and eighty bullocks laden with ammunition. As the ryots etc. deserted their houses I thought it the most expedient method to send a vakil on the part of Government accompanied with the two chaudhuris' naibs, to know their intentions, on which they sent word they must have a sum of money paid them otherwise they should remain in the pargana until they had taken a sufficiency to pay their charges, and as they compounded for twelve hundred Rupees which the chaudhuris agreed to pay, the sum advanced out of the Treasury, on receipt of which they passed quietly through the pargana to Shibganj where I hear is another party of about four thousand men. Having near 13,000 Rupees in the Treasury and hourly expecting the rents from Atia, Kagmar and Chowgong I hope the method I have taken, which they gave no time to deliberate upon, will meet with your approbations." (Dated 8th Jany. 1773).23 The Committee of Circuit at once took the matter up. Capt. Edwards, with two companies of sepoys, was deputed from Murshidabad 23 Ibid. No. 3. Similarly, early in February they extorted Rs. 3,000 from the Superintendent of Idrakpur, at Govindganj (in. the Rangpur district), which sum was ordered by Government to be debited to the Public Treasury.-R. B. P. 23 March 1773, Nos. 36, 38 (Bengal Govt. Records).

·CH. HI THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 27 to proceed against the Sannyasis. He reached Dinajpur on 13th January, and on being reinforced left that place in pursuit of the robbers the following morning. The Committee informed the Collector of Bogra that the Captain, at the head of three companies of sepoys, was marching in hot haste to Chilmari and the Collector should send him frequent intelligence of the route the Sannyasis would take, to enable him, if possible, to fall in with them before they crossed the Brahmaputra. From his camp near Chilmari Capt. Edwards reported to the Committee the ravages and acts of violence, committed by the Sannyasis :- "I reached Oliapore with my detachment the 17th instant, and on the following day continued my march to this place, where I was informed that on Tuesday the 12th a small party of the Sannyasis entered this village, carried off the Jemadar, with two of the principal inhabitants to the main body about 4 kos from hence, where they extorted from them thirteen hundred Rupees and dismissed them; that the Sannyasis arrived the next day at Dewanganj, and on the 14th proceeded to Bosnahrur, and traced to Moydapur were ·28 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. III Puckery on the 15th ; that they lay all these villages under contribution. I have not been able to learn where they went to afterwards, but I have dispatched harkarahs and pikes to different quarters for information. I shall proceed to Dewanganj to-morrow, and then direct my motions accordingly to the intelligence I pick up." (Dated 20 Jany. 1773). 24 But Capt. Edwards, although vigilant in the pursuit of the banditti, wherever he could hear of them, was unable to do anything; the Sannyasis were gone before he could reach the places to which he was directed. 24 Committee of Circuit Procdgs. 26 Jany. 1773. (Bengal Govt. Records).

·CHAPTER IV WARREN HASTINGS'S ACCOUNT OF THE SANNYASIS AND HIS PROPOSED PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES The organization and tactics of the Sannyasis, their characteristic qualities and history, the record of their doings, and the counter-measures of the British Government all come out very clearly in the following State-paper written by Warren Hastings in his usual masterly style : "The President reports that also by late advices from Rangpur and the other Northern districts he is informed that the Sannyasis infest the country in great numbers, different bodies of them having entered and ravaged the districts of Rangpur, Ghoraghat, Silberis and Purnea ;-that the Nazir Deo or Minister of Kuch Bihar has 500 of these people in his pay, and is suspected of holding an intelligence with the rest, that it is now become an object of the most important attention to Government not only to repel the present incursions but to adopt such expedients as shall hereafter prevent them, and therefore recommends that an additional force of one battalion of sepoys be ordered on this service from the ·30 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. IV Dinapur Cantonments, which lie the most convenient for securing the districts of Tirhut and Betia from the marauders : that he cannot learn that the Sannyasis have any fixed abode, but that they chiefly frequent the countries lying at the foot of the chain of mountains which separate Indostan from Tibet, Wandeling continually from the Gogra river in the dominions of the Vizier to the Brahmaputra, and from this line occasionally penetrating into Gorakhpur, Betia, Tirhut, Purnea, and Rangpur :--that to pursue them beyond the borders of our own territories would prove of no effect, since it would be scarce practicable for infantry to overtake them, and they have no fixed place of residence where we might retaliate the injuries sustained from them, that having taken some pains to inform himself of the state and institutions of the different sects of these people he finds that, except one sect among them called Hunjooghus who never mix with the hordes which infest their more civilized neighbours, they neither marry nor have families, but recruit their numbers by the stoutest of the children which they steal in the countries through which they pass ; that some among them carry on a trade in diamonds, coral, and other articles of great price and small compass, and often travel with with great wealth, --some subsist "by gratuitous alms and others, the far greater part, by plunder: that the various sects of them travel ·CH, IV THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 31 at fixed periods on religious pilgrimages to the Brahmaputra, Byjeanaut [Baidyanath) and Ganga Saugor, besides those who in all the dry months of the year pass through the provinces on their way to Jagannath,--that individuals of them are at all times scattered about the village and capital towns of the province and where the bigotry of the inhabitants affords them an access to their houses and every right of hospitality, which they are suspected of abusing in the most treacherous manner by recruiting with the corps whenever they enter the country, and giving information both of the most substantial inhabitants, and of the place where their wealth is deposited, a suspicion confirmed by the success which they have met with in their late ravages and ready choice which they have been known to make of the persons who have been the objects of their rapacity ;-that at this time there are many hundreds of them in the town of Calcutta, the roads being thronged with them as must have been apparent to all the members of the Board, that the President has met them on the road armed, they are continually armed with swords, lances and matchlocks and generally loaded with heavy bundles, rice, firewood, and other burthens, which he concludes to be the plunder of the neighbouring villages ; that from all the circumstances premised, it appears that the most innocent of these people are a nuisance ·32 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH, IN to the country, and that in general they do the greatest injury to the population, and revenue of these provinces, and therefore recommends it to the consideration of the Board whether it would not be expedient to pass a general order to banish them from the country, and to forbid their re-admission into it on any pretence hereafter. That if the Board concur in this opinion he further recommends that the following advertisement (translated from and drawn by the Rai-raian (Rajah Rajballav] whose religion and "attachment to the duties of it induced the President to consult him on the subject as the most likely means to secure him from proceeding to a degree of rigour which might prove offensive to the people, or an oppression to individuals) be immediately published at Calcutta and in the Cutchery at every district. *The castes of Ramanandi and Gauria are excepted as they are held in great reverence by the Gentoos, and they are neither vagabonds' nor plunderers, but fixed inhabitants and quietly employ themsetves in their religious functiong. "It will be further necessary. if this regulation should be adopted, that patrols be stationed in different parts of the town to prevent any disturbances which the Sannyasis may be provoked to 'raise in opposition to it, and that their arms be taken from them. ** Secret Con. 21 Jany. '1773, No. 5.

·CH. IV THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 33 "Notice is hereby given to all Bairagis and Sannyasis who are travellers, strangers and passengers in this country, excepting such of the caste of Ramanandi and Gauria who have for a long time been settled and receive a maintenance in land money or gundi from the Government or the zamindars of the province likewise, such Sannyasis as are allowed charity ground for executing of religious offices etc. to leave the town of Calcutta its precincts or any other place of residence in it within seven days from the publication of this advertisement, and depart from the subahs of Bengal and Bihar in two months. "It is further declared that if any of the abovementioned sects shall be found in Bengal or Bihar at the expiration of two months they are to be seized and put on the roads for life made to work at the public buildings and have their property confiscated to the Government. If any one with a view of evading the intent of this publication shall claim donations of land and his claim be falsified, he will be punished as above, directed.''26 26 Secret Con. 21 Jany. 1773, No. 6. 3 ·CHAPTER V ENGLISH DEFENSIVE ARRANGEMENTS AND ENCOUNTERS WITH SANNYASIS, 1773 In order to repress the Sannyasis effectively, the English authorities sent several detachments against them. Capt. Jones was ordered to march through the districts infested by the Sannyasis on his way to Kuch Bihar. Capt. Edwards, with his force of pargana sepoys, was sent to Chilmari. Capt. Stuart, commanding the 19th battalion of sepoys, was directed by the Collector of Rangpur to adopt the following plan against these marauders :- “The Governor having informed me, that he has given you orders to march to Dinajpur for the protection of that and the Rangpur districts from the ravages of the Sannyasis, and having likewise directed me to communicate my sentiments ofor your proceeding, I therefore now inform you that the very body of Sannyasis who cut off Capt. Thomas and his party, and whose numbers are increased to 5,000 have taken possession of a fort at Santoshganj within the district of [Kuch] ·CH. V THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 35 Bihar, the common name of which is Rahimganj. As the Governor expresses a strong inclination to retrieve our military reputation, as well as to punish as effectually as possible any set of armed men entering our districts in so riotous a manner, I am of opinion that you should not march directly to this fort but that you should proceed on the west side of the Tista, until you arrive at a place called Jalpaiguri which is on the skirts of the Baikunthpur district. I mean by this, that you should endeavour by every means to stop their retreat to the westward, they having come in from the Morang Hills. You must inform yourself of all their motions for this purpose. Though my intelligences say, that you have no enemy whatever to cope with, but these Sannyasis who are actually in the pay of the Baikunthpur Rajah against whom an expedition is now on foot after the reduction of Bihar, I would recommend your being constantly on your guard against a surprise, the Sannyasis having great confidence in their numbers and having for some time past given it out that they were coming to this place. "I shall be obliged to you if you will give me constant information by harkarahs across the country, of both of your own and the Sannyasis' motions, that in case your blocking up their retreat to the westward should oblige them to go towards the Brahmaputra, Capt. Jones may be able to act ·36 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. V (Dated 20th Jany. against them from hence.' 1773).27 Warren Hastings ordered up a second battalion from Berhampur to co-operate with Capt. Stuart, but to act separately, so as to have the better chance of falling in with them. At the same time he ordered yet another battalion to march from the Dinapur station, through Tirhut, and by the northern frontier of the Purnea district, following the track usually taken by the Sannyasis, in order to intercept them, in case they marched that way. This battalion, after acting against the enemy, if occasion offered, was directed to pursue their march to Kuch Bihar, where they were to join Capt. Jones, and assist in the reduction of that country.28 We possess much information about the encounters which these various detachments of the Company's troops had with the Sånnyasis. 27 Lettef from Mr. Chas. Purling. Collector of Rangpur, to Capt. Stuart, dated Bihar 20 January 1773.-Committee of Circuit Procdgs. pp. 916-18 (Bengal Govt. Records). 28 Hastings to Sir George Colebrooke, 31 March 1773; Secret Procdga. 11 March 1773, pp. 201-2.

·CH. V THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 37 Capt. Jones came up with the bandits, who had been joined by some of Darpadev's people, at 11 o'clock on 28th January 1773, near Shibganj. The enemy, emboldened by their vast numbers, immediately advanced and tried to surround the British force at a distance. The Captain detached parties on the flanks and rear which defeated the enemy's tactics and forced them to retire beyond the range of the English firelocks. The Company's sepoys with great steadiness kept their ranks and advanced without firing a musket, though the Sannyasis' rockets killed one and severely wounded four of them. Finally, the round-shot of the English had effect and the enemy broke and fled over the country, taking refuge in a fort 8 miles northwards, in Bhutan territory. The English, deeming a pursuit with their small forces to be dangerous, encamped at Shibganj. Next day, all the Sannyasis crossed the Tista river, sank the boats they had used, and thus escaped beyond the reach of the English. On 31st January Jones took possession of the fort of Rahimganj, as a safe base for further operations. His plan was to cross the Tista to Jalpaiguri, then ·38 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. V "a principal fort of Darpadev, where the latter was reported to be inciting the faqirs to make another stand."29 Capt. Stuart was desired by the Committee of Circuit (27 Jany. 1773) to march towards Baikunthpur where the Sannyasis had proceeded with a view to join Darpadev, the zamindar of that place.29a He encountered the army of the allies, and the action which followed is vividly described in the following letter :- “At eight this morning 12 Feby... I had the unexpected happiness to find myself within gunshot of the united army of the Sannyasis and Darap Deo, Rajah of the Baikunthpur country, which I was fortunate enough to rout without firing a shot till after their Alight commenced. They were strongly posted behind bank and presented me with a very extended front imagining, I suppose, that I would according to custom make my attavek upon their centre. ceiving their intention to close me in, I altered my first disposition and marched briskly up to their left Alank which seemed to be their greatest dependence, as their musketry, jinjals, matcha But per- 29 Secret Consultations 17 Feby. 1773, Nos. 6-7. 29a C. C. P. 2 Feby. 1773, p. 1002.

·CH. V THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 39 locks and banns (rockets] played very briskly from that part. My resolve to attack their left proved very lucky and for there the whole Sannyasis, who were the enemies I wanted to meet, and the only ones I had to fear, were posted. They, confiding in their numbers and elated by their former success, showed a boldness that would have done them credit had their subsequent behaviour corresponded with it: indeed, their station was very secure and it was impossible to make any impression on them with my musketry till I carried the bank that covered their front. Perceiving this and determined not to expend a cartridge till I could present it to their breasts on the points of my bayonets, I ordered the battalion to march briskly up with shouldered arms till we were within a very small distance of the bank, when I gave orders for the whole to recover. This motion, together with our observed steadiness and resolution, had the desired effect, and the enemy took to fight with the utmost precipitation ; pursued with the greatest briskness but they used a speed in their flight much superior to our pursuit. We killed fourteen of the enemy upon the field and had, only two sepoys Wounded. Ensign Marshall was slightly grazed by a musketshot upon the right arm. Had the enemy made but one minute's longer stand, we must have made a prodigious slaughter and, if I had been we ·40 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. V as aided but by one hundred cavalry, I would have cut off or taken prisoners the Baikunthpur Rajah, and the whole Sannyasi band. In their Aight the enemy threw away many of their arms : have got five of the muskets taken from Capt. Thomas's detachment, likewise several cartridge pouches and pouches and bundles of English ammunition. "At two in the afternoon I made a second march and took possession, in the name of the Company, of Jalpaiguri, the fortress and capital of the Baikunthpur country, which the Rajah in the height of his consternation evacuated." (Jalpaiguri 2 Feby. 1773). 30 Early in February 1773 a considerable number of the Sannyasis, about four thousand, again entered Silberis and continued their ravages in that district, particularly in the parganas of Atia, Kagmar and Barabaju where they plundered upwards of ten thousand Rupees.31 Their appearance at Kagmar caused alarm to the inhabitants of Dacca, and the people of the neighbouring village of 30 Secret Consultation 15 Feby. 1773, No. 5. 31 Letter from Archd. Staples. Actg. Collector of Dinajpur, to the Committee of Circuit, dated 9 Feby. 1773.-C. C. Con. 15 Feby. 1773, No. 4 (Bengal Govt. Records).

·CH. V THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 41 Dhamrai fled away from their homes, in fear of their approach.32 Capt. Edwards with his detachment set out in pursuit. But owing to the superiority of the enemy's number, he and Captains Jones and Stuart were directed to take effective measures, either separately or in conjunction, to expel them. Capt. Edwards, after a long series of attempts, at last fell in with a party of these robbers in the district of Silberis, and in the engagement that ensued the pargana sepoys, who seemed to have behaved ill,33 gave way, and the Captain lost his life in endeavouring to cross a nullah.34 About 32 Collector of Dacca to Hastings, dated 4 Feby. 1773.- Secret Con. 10 March 1773, No. 5. 33 "Immediately on the receipt of this letter you will be pleased to direct Capt. Forbes to confine Jiram, subahdar of the 14th battalion of sepoys, who commanded the detachment of that battalion which joined Capt. Edwards, and was present at his defeat by the Sannyasis ; and you will order Jiram, subahdar, immediately to be sent under a guard to the presidency to stand his trial before a sepoy general court-martial for having deserted his post in the face of the enemy." -Hastings to Samuel Lewis, Collector at Midnapur, datad 22 June 1773. 34 Hastings to Sir Geo. Colebrooke, 31 March 1773.-Gleig's Memoirs of Warren Hastings, i. 296-98. Bengal letter to Court (Secret Dept.) dated 31 March, 1773.--Monckton Jones's Warren Hastings in Bengal 1772-1774, p. 217.

·42 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. V this reverse Mr. Hatch, the Collector of Bogra, writes :- “I have this instant received the unwelcome news of Capt. Edwards and his detachment being all cut off excepting twelve sepoys, two of which brought me this news and that yesterday morning they overtook the enemy who are about 3,000 in the Pargana Barabaju." (2 March 1773).35 35 Secret Procdgs. 10 March 1773, No. 21.

·CHAPTER VI SANNYASI RAVAGES IN EASTERN BENGAL In this year the Sannyasis appeared unexpectedly in several bands of two or three thousands each, in different parts of Bengal, in spite of the British Government having issued strict orders and threatened the severest penalties to the inhabitants, should they fail to give intelligence of the approach of the brigands. In fact, the whole of Bengal was infested by these pests, and Hastings has truly remarked in one of his letters that in 1773 the Company's provinces wore something of a warlike appearance. The following extracts36. from the letters of Mr. Grueber, Collector of Dacca, clearly describe the situation created by these outlaws in the very large parganas of Alapsingh and Mymensingh, while the Dacta district itself was threatened : “I have this day received a letter of the 6th of Magh from Krishna Roy the zamindar of the pargana of Mymensingh, advising that a body of 5,000 36 Secret Procdgs. 10 March 1773, Nos. 2, 4-7, 9, pp. 150-1.

·DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. VỊ Sannyasis had entered the pargana of Jafarshahi, confined the zamindar's naib of that pargana, and did not release him without extorting from him to the amount of about Rupees 1,600. They afterwards marched to Modepur, from whence they purposed to direct their course to the pargana of Alapsingh and then to Mymensingh, the inhabitants of which pargana were greatly terrified at their approach, insomuch as to begin to desert the villages. The person who heads this body of Sannyasis is named Darseangir. The aforementioned letter further advises that another body of this race of people to the number of 6,000, headed by Moitegir are marching towards the same part of the country and it is not unlikely with a view to join the former. This is the body that determined the fate of Capt. Thomas and overthrew his detachment; therefore, it is not improbable but that they may, elated with success, continue their route into the heart of this province, raising contributions and committing depredations through every place they pass ; and indeed they may even march to Dacca, should they be well informed of the insufficiency of our force." (26 Jany. 1773). "I have received advice from the zamindar of 4 annas of Alapsingh, that a body of 3,500 Sannyasis have plundered the house of Hinhar Sircar, gomastah to the zamindar of 12 annas of the above pargana, and also Ramprasad Roy's and ·CH. VI THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 45. other houses and further that the two zamindars' naibs were under a necessity of sending a vakil to negotiate with them and, in order to withhold their lands from committing further outrages, paid them the sum of Rupees 3,500. By the same channel I am given to understand that they purpose entering the pargana of Mymensingh and expect to be joined by another body of 7,000 men......I have likewise intelligence from the sirdar of Sherpur that a great number of Sannyasis are about Chilmari and that Jurawalgir, one of their leaders, is arrived there at the head of fifteen boats of these people, through dread of whom the zamindar, his family, and many of the inhabitants have fled into the jungles. About a month ago I sent twelve sepoys to Sherpur with a view of preventing as much as possible the incursions of small bodies of Sannyasis in those districts but they have no doubt found themselves unable to cope with so great a number. I have not hitherto heard from the Jamadar that commanded the above party. beg leave to observe that there are a great number of this vagrant race in this city who carry on some trade and it is not impossible that many of them act as spies; therefore, I could wish to be favoured with your advice how I should act towards them; though I should think it, would be imprudent, and answer no good purpose to expel them the city, unless we had ·46 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. VÌ . a force sufficient to rid the province of them, as they are here more immediately under our eye, and consequently less able to do mischief." (29 Jany. 1773). "The Sannyasis have marched to Pattigota and have crossed the river Bangshi near the hills, which situation lies convenient either for retiring to their own country or continuing their course this way. Small parties of them approached within six kos of us, but dispersed yesterday in consequence, I imagine, of their having heard of the preparations that were made here to receive them.... The news of their approach very much alarmed the inhabitants insomuch that many of them deserted their houses, although I gave them every of protection...I have received accounts of very large contributions that have been levied by these people in Alapsingh, Chilmari, Atia, Kagmar, etc., and of very considerable they have plundered from merchants." (6 Feby. 1773). **By a letter from Puccoloe dated 28th Magh at 5 o'clock in the afternoon I am advised that Hanumant-gir at the head of a considerable body of Sannyasis arrived at that place the 25th of º that month from Atia. On the 26th they reached Chandrah, and seized Ram Lochan Bose, a gomastah belonging to gentleman at Dinajpur, from whom they took to the amount of 4,200 4,200 Rupees. They also seized the assurance sums some ·CH. VÌ THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 47 zamindar's vakil and insisted upon his shewing them the way to Dacca. They came on the same day to Bangshihatti from whence, discovering they had a jungly country to pass and likewise hearing of our force at this place, they turned back to Kanchanpur on their way to Pattigota and on the 27th marched towards the hills." (10 Feby. 1773). “The Sannyasis are for the most part retired from this province. There are still, however, about eight or nine hundred on the Bhawal side and another body of the like number about three or four days' march from hence. These no doubt will quickly disperse and therefore supposing your force would admit of it, I should imagine it would be now unnecessary to send a detachment to the enemy.' (20 Feby. 1773). 37 In the early part of March 1773 we find a body of Sannyasis, about 1,500 in number, encamped within four kos of Kumarkhali. Harkarahs brought the intelligence that they were part of the band which had overthrown Capt. Thomas and had afterwards crossed the great river; they were reported to be on their 37 From the Actg. Chief at Dacca to the Actg. Chief at Chittagong.-Bengal Dist. Recordo-Chittagong, i. 74-75.

·48 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. VÌ route through the Mahmudshahi district towards Jessore and to have plundered all the villages they had passed through.38 38 Letter from Wm. Wynne, Collector, to the Hon'ble Warren Hastings, dated Comercolly 11th March 1773. Secret Procdgs. 22 March 1773, No. 1.

·CHAPTER VII W. HASTINGS'S CAREFUL WATCH AND NEWS ORGANIZATION grim However disquieting the reports might have been, Hastings worked on with „determination. In order to free the Company's possessions from the Sannyasi plunderers he proposed to adopt further combative measures, as can be seen from the following minute of his: "The President reports to the Board that he yesterday received advice in a letter from the Collector of Nadia, dated the 13th instant, and confirmed by the reports of the dak harkarahs that a body of Sannyasis consisting of about one thousand seen near Agradip to which place they were going, this being the season of the annual pilgrimage to the pagodas of that town, -that they were armed and committed great depredations in their route. As it seems probable they may continue at Agradip during the usual period of their devotions there, which will last about 10 days longer, the President sent orders to Lt. Col. Galliez, commanding the troops at Berhampur, to consult with Mr. men were ·50 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH, VII Middleton on the most effectual means of destroying or dispersing these plunderers and either to employ the whole, or part of the battalion lately ordered to reinforce Capt. Stuart at Dinajpur on this service, if they shall judge it expedient. That the 12th battalion ordered to replace the 9th at Berhampur will be ready to march (on] the 17th and may also be employed on the same service should the Sannyasis still remain in this part of the province. 39 The Board approved these measures, and each Collector was asked to issue the most express and positive orders to the zamindars and farmers of his district to watch for and send in to him immediate intelligence of the movements of any body of Sannyasis or dacoits which might appear within their limits, with particular information of the routes pursued by them, and the Collector was to signify to the zamindars that they were to attend to this order under pain of the displeasure of the Board, and to the farmers that they would be severely punished for neglect of it. 39 Secret Procdgs. 15 March 1773, No. 1. 40 lbid.

·CHAPTER VIII SANNYASIS IN MIDNAPUR AND WESTERN BENGAL Reports of the presence of the Sannyasis in other districts also continued to reach the Governor in swift succession. An interesting account of their movements in Midnapur is given by Price in his Notes on the History of Midnapore, compiled from the records preserved in the local Collector's office (pp. 118-20): On 3rd February, 1773, some seven or eight thousand of these plunderers reached the neighbourhood of Khirpai. The Calcutta Government immediately ordered the Resident at Midnapur to detach from the battalion of sepoys in that district all the the men not absolutely necessary for the defence of his factory and send them against the Sannyasis, with strict orders not to waste their ammụnition, nor to enter into any parley with the robbers, but to preserve the strictest discipline and exterminate the brigands.41 The Sannyasis, 41 From J. Stewart, Secretary, to Edward Baber, Resident at Midnapur, dated Fort William, 4 Feby. 1773.

·52 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. VIIE however, were clever enough not to stay long in one place, and when the English detachment reached Khirpai, they found that the robbers (about 4,000 strong) had gone off towards Cuttack without committing any disturbance, further than alarming the inhabitants. Their movements were so very rapid and their appearance so unexpected that Mr. Cotes at Khirpai, when asked to inform the Board by what means these people had come into his district' and what route they had taken, could give no reply, even after making very strict enquiries.42 Early in March it was reported43 that a body of 3,000 Sannyasis had gone into Bishnupur with the intention of passing through the Midnapur jungles. A day or two later44 information was received that they were at Raipur, a pargana lying to the eastward of Amainagar and northward of Ramgarh and Jhatibunni, and that they intended apparently 42 Secret Procdgs. 10 March 1773, Nos. 10-11. 43 From Charles Stuart to the Resident at Midnapur, dated Bardwan, 17 March 1773. 44 From the Resident to Capt. Forbes, dated Midnapur, 19 March 1773.

·CH. VIII THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 53 to march that way. Captain Forbes was directed to go after them, and to use every means in his power to drive them entirely out of the Company's districts. The local zamindars were directed to assist Captain Forbes with what forces they could collect. Eventually4 they proceeded from Raipur to Phulkusma, from there to Silda, and thence to Alampur, and thence to Gopiballavpur, bordering on the Nagpur Bhonslé's territory. The raids were renewed at the end of the rainy season. In October4 it was discovered that there were two bodies of Sannyasis within two days' march of Balasore, who evidently intended to come along the Jellasore road. Lieut. Hearsey, commanding at Jellasore, promised to do all in his power to send them back at once, but he also thought that if a gun and a few grape-shot were sent him, they would prove serviceable. 45 From the Resident to the Hon'ble Charles Stuart, dated Midnapur, 20 March 1773. 46 From A. W. Hearsey to Samuel Lewis, Chief of Midnapur, dated Jellasore, 28 October 1773.

·54 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. VIIW a a. The Resident wrote in reply: "I have agreeably to your request, ordered a supply of ammunition. As I think it is very probable the Sannyasis may take the Jellasore road, I have ordered reinforcement of half company, which will, I hope, enable you to give a good account of them should they make their appearance in that quarter."'47 In November 1773 intelligence was received from the thanahdar of Janpur that the Sannyasis had arrived at a place called Kantipur, in the Mayurbhanj district, and that they intended passing through the province by the Janpur road. Captain Thompson was ordered to get4 the battalion ready immediately and proceed to intercept them. Leaving one company of sepoys at Midnapur as guard, he50 took with himself three companies and two field-pieces. In the same month the sepoys came up with a small body of Sannyasis, who t 47 From Samuel Lewis to Lt. Hearsey, dated Midnapur, 30th October 1773. 48 Fran Samuel Lewis to Warren Hastings, dated Midnapur 5th. November 1773. 49 Ftom Samuel Lewis to Capt. Thompsoti, dated Midrapur, 5th November 1773. 50 From Samuel Lewis to Warren Hastings, dated Midnapur, 5th November 1773.

·CH. VÍII THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 55 the enemy to had evidently divided their forces, near Haldipukhar, and halted within three miles of them.51 The Sannyasi camp was pitched in a small village in the Maratha districts, upon which two small sepoy piquets were advanced, but marched away the hills. They consisted chiefly of women and children, their rear not amounting to more than 1,500, who had not attempted to commit any hostilities. The object of their journey had only been to bathe at the conflux of the two rivers at Allahabad. Similarly, the robber bands against which Lieut. Hearsey and Capt. Thompson had been detached eluded the troops and went away elsewhere. Treating of a subject akin to the foregoing, is the following extract from a letter , from Mr. Alleyne at Cuttack :- "I am informed by Kirparam Mullick Sircar, of 1,700 Gosains and 300 faqirs leaving this place (Cuttack), yesterday, destined for Bengal; they travel as beggars, and are gone to rob in their way if they can.''52 51 Fiom R. Hiskith to Samuel Lewis, dated Haldipukhar, 14th November 1773. 52 From Samuel Lewis to John Bathoe, at Bardwan, and John Sumner, at Birbhum, dated Midnapur, 26th October 1773.

·56 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. VIII Accordingly, Mr. Lewis wrote to the head of the Government apprising him of what he had heard. "I have, therefore, sent orders," he added, “to the different detachments out from hence to prevent their entering the Company's territories by this road, and have acquainted the gentlemen at Bardwan and Birbhum of such a party being on their route.”53 Hastings, as usual, took prompt measures against these also. He wrote54 to the Resident at Midnapur :- "As I have reason to suspect some bodies of Sannyasi fagirs will attempt passing your districts, you will please, immediately upon receipt of this letter, to send information to all the zamindars on the several parts of your frontier that if any fagirs are suffered to enter the Company's territories through their respective possessions, or even to approach them, without timely information being given to Government, the persons who have been guilty of this omission shall meet with the severest punishment, even to a dispossession of their lands, if found • to have wilfully offended. 63 From Samuel Lewis to Warren Hastings, dated Midnapur, 26th October, 1773. 64 Warren Hastings to Samuel Lewis, Collector of Midnapur, dated Calcutta, 27 October 1773.

·CH. VIII THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 57 P.S.Since writing this I have received your letter on the same subject. I can only add my desire that you will collect the battalion together and order it to march against the faqirs, and to seize or destroy them if they make opposition." Mr. Lewis also wrote to Lt. Hawkins at Haldipukhar, Lt. Dunn at Manbhum, and Lt. Hearsey at Jellasore,55 “to keep a watchful eye that they do not enter by this province. Should they appear near where you are stationed,” he said, “you will send a man to acquaint them that no collective body of men, either troops or beggars, are permitted to enter these districts, and to desire they will take some other route. Should this have no effect, you will take such measures as you may deem necessary for their dispersion." 56 Samuel Lewis to Messrs. Hawkins, Dunn, and Hearsey, dated Midnapur, 26th October 1773.

·CHAPTER IX SANNYASIS EFFECTIVELY CHECKED, END OF 1773 The effect of the vigorous measures adopted and so long persevered in by the English Government at last began to be felt. We next come across the Sannyasis on 25th November 1773, when two thousand of them with three pieces of cannon on camels, appeared in the Nooni Pargana but were obliged to turn off towards Mulati, on being refused a passage by the thanahdars.66 This band ultimately made its way to Shibganj: "A harkarah belonging to me just returned from Shibganj, brings me an account of the arrival there of a body of Sannyasis well armed, in number about three thousand. He says each man carries a matchlock, spear, two swords, and a rocket, and that they have with them two camels: and ten horses laden with ammupition, rockets etc. This he assures me he saw himself, and learnt by enquiry that they came from Birbhum, 66 Letter from the Asst. Collector of Birbhum to the Resident at: Durbar, dated 25th November 1773.---Letter Copy Books of the Resident at Durbar, ii. 198, letter No. 145.

·CH. * THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 59 had crossed the great river at Sadiganj, and were proceeding with expedition towards the Brahmaputra, that they had not committed any great acts of violence, but levied small contributions from the zamindars' officers and took provisions and necessaries from the ryots. This account of them, their arrival, and their conduct is confirmed to me by a letter under yesterday's date from a gomastah I have at Shibganj. Mr. Middleton happening to be here I have acquainted him of this intelligence and he has in consequence sent intimation . to Capt. Thompson who is, I hear, now at Godagari on his march towards Rangpur.' (Dated 5 Dec. 1773).57 Similar information was also received by Hastings in a private letter from Mr. Pattle, on the receipt of which he immediately wrote to Capt. Thompson ordering him to conform to the information and desire of Mr. Middleton, and to make what enquiries he could after the Sannyasis and attack them. He also gave orders for this purpose to Capt. Crawford, then stationed with his battalion at Birbhum, and to Capt. Forbes at Midnapur, and likewise 57 Letter from T. Pattle, Collector of Luskerpur, to the Hon'ble Warren Hastings, dated Bauleah, 5th Decr. 1773. Secret Prodigo. 9 Decr. 1773, No. 2.

·60 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. IX wrote to the Collectors of Bardwan, Birbhum, and Midnapur to afford those officers every assistance in their power. Reinforcements were also held ready at Berhampur to join them if needed. 58 On 16th December 1773, the Governor asked Chait Singh, the Rajah of Benares, to supply 500 horse (each sawar receiving Rs. 20 a month), to assist the Company in driving away the Sannyasis from Bengal. Capt. Toone, Aid-de-camp to the Governor, was placed at their head, and on 18th December parwanas were issued to the faujdars of Bengal and Bihar, directing them to give all possible help to the Captain who was going to punish the plunderers.59 Hastings left stone unturned to suppress the Sannyasis. He had dissolved the no 68 Secret Procdgs. 9 December 1773, No. 2. 59 Calendar of Persian Corr. iv. 129, Nos. 703, 706-7. "The troops of horse appointed for my (the Governor's] bodyguard is 1773 was raised, formed and disciplined by him [Toone), but did not immediately perform the duty assigned to it by its institution; being first employed on service against the Sannyasis, who then infested the provinces in vast multitudes, committing the most alarming depredations." Forrest's Selections from State-papers preserved in the Foreign Dept., iii. 1132.

·CH. X THE SANNYASİ REBELLION IN BENGAL 61 pargana sepoygó owing to their unreliability and stationed small detachments of brigade. sepoys at proper posts. The banditti, however, paid little regard to the sepoys, having the advantage of speed, on which they entirely relied for their safety; they would not stand an engagement, and had neither camp equipage, nor even clothes, to retard their flight! A party of horse was, therefore, employed to pursue them. The Governor showed a strong determination to proceed more effectually against the ravagers by expelling them from the fixed residences which they had established in the north-eastern quarter of the province, and by making severe examples of the zamindars who afforded them protection or assistance.61 Towards the close of 1773 a party consisting of four companies of sepoys commanded by Lt. Williams fell in with a large body of these people at Dinajpur and totally defeated and dispersed them with great slaughter.62 A 60 They were chiefly employed in the unsoldierly work of tax-gathering 61 Hastings to Laurence Sulivan, 20 March 1774. 62 Bengal Secret letter to the Court of Directors, dated Fort William, 30th December 1773.

·62 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH, TX large force of the banditti next appeared in Purnea, but prompt measures were taken to expel them.63 The Sannyasis could no longer continue their depredations with impunity. Ringed round as they were by the Company's forces, they began to evacuate the English possessions, and from 1774 onwards their incursions became sporadic. In 1775, we find, they devised new tactics and made another attempt to enter Bengal, but without success. Moving from the west, armed with matchlocks and swords, they began to assemble at Allahabad in large numbers, giving out that they were going on a religious pilgrimage, and in order to pass the military station of Chunar unsuspected, they divided themselves into small bodies of less than 50 each. But the commanding officer at Chunar was vigilant and could not be thus imposed upon. As he wrote to Genl. Clavering: "I am now to inform you Sir, that'by comparing the former intelligence I had of their intentions with the advice I have this morning received" of their present route, gives grounds of suspecting 63 Letter Copy Books of the Resident at Durbar, ii. letter No. 159.

·CH. X THE SANNYAŞI REBELLION IN BENGAL 63 some was near that their pilgrimage portends no good ; they have for weeks past given out that their design to bend their route directly homewards from Allahabad, whereas I have this instant most positive advice of their being now in motion to the eastward ; and in order to pass this station in the most private manner, they have divided themselves into small bodies not exceeding 50 whereas report makes them out, when assembled, 20,000." (20th March 1775). 64 The commanding officer, however, did not think himself sufficiently authorized to send any detachment from his garrison against the Sannyasis without application being first made to him by Chait Singh, the Rajah of Benares, for assistance. The Governor-General, theredesired the Rajah to compel the Sannyasis to disband and return from whence they had come, and informed him that should he require help in help in this direction, the commanding officer at Chunar would afford it.Com The Sannyasis were frustrated in their object, fore, 64 Col. Muir, the Commanding Officer at Chunargarh, to Lt. Genl. Clavering.--Secret Procdgs. 30 March 1775, No. 4. 66 Letter to Rajah Chait Singh, dated 3 April 1775. Pers. Corr. iv. 293, No. 1674.

·64 DAWN OF NEW INDIA CH. :x as can be seen from the following letter from Chunar (9th April, 1775): "I now have the satisfaction to inform you, that the plan I had adopted has had the desired effect, for upon their being acquainted with my resolution and my having stationed harkarahs, who had actually stopped the first party amounting to 40 foot and 10 horse, in consequence of which the main body, although they had crossed the Ganges at Allahabad and had begun their march downwards, yet they thought it most prudent, to alter their first intention, and I now have information of their having separated in small bodies, and are bending their route homewards. Your instructions to Rajah Chait Singh must be productive of good effects."*66 The determined and unwearied efforts of Warren Hastings were in the end crowned with success. He was thus able to save the country from the depredations of the Sannyasis, and secure the public revenue which had formerly suffered very much from their ravages, particularly in the northern districts. The suppression of the Sannyasis was an achievement of which the great statesman might well be proud, though it has been scarcely noticed by the historians. 66 Letter from G. Muir, Lt. Col. Commdg. to the Hon'ble Warren Hastings, Governor-General Secret Procdgs. 20 April 1775, No. 2.

·APPENDIX بے even Hastings to Sir George Colebrooke, Fort William, 2nd February, 1773. You will hear of great disturbances committed by the Sannyasis, or wandering faqirs, who annually infest the province about this time of the year, in pilgrimages to Jagannath, going in bodies of 1,000, and sometimes 10,000 men. An officer of reputation (Captain Thomas) lost his life in an unequal attack upon a party of these banditti, about 3,000 of them, near Rangpur, with small party of pargana sepoys, which has made them more talked of than they deserve. The revenue, however, has felt the effects of their ravages in the northern districts. The new establishment of sepoys which is now forming on the plan enjoined by the Court of Directors, and the distribution of them ordered for the internal protection of the provinces, will, I hope, effectually secure thern hereafter from these incursions. (Gleig's Memoirs of Warren Hastings, i. 282). a Hastings to Josias Dupre, Fort William, 9th March, 1773. Our own provinces have worn something of a warlike appearance this year, having been infested by bands of Sannyasis, who have defeated two small parties of pargana sepoys (a rascally corps), and cut off the two 5 ·66 DAWN OF NEW INDIA One was officers who commanded them. Captain Thomas, whom you knew. Four battalions of the brigade sepoys are now in pursuit of them, but they will not stand an engagement, and have neither camp equipage, nor even clothes, to retard their fight. Yet I hope we shall yet make an example of some of them, as they are shut in by the rivers, which they cannot pass when closely pursued. The history of this people is curious. They inhabit, or rather possess, the country lying south of the hills of Tibet from Kabul to China. They go mostly naked. They have neither towns, houses, nor families, but rove continually from place to place, recruiting their numbers with the healthiest children they can steal in the countries through which they pass. Thus they are the stoutest and the most active men in India. Many are merchants. They are all pilgrims and held by all castes of Gentoos in great veneration. This infatuation prevents obtaining any intelligence of their motions, or aid from the country against them, notwithstanding very rigid orders' which have been published for these purposes, insomuch that they often appear in the heart of the province as if they dropped from heaven. They are hardy, bold, and enthusiastic to a degree surpassing credit. Such are the Sannyasis, the gipsies of Hindostan. We have dissolved all the pargana sepoys, and fixed stations of the brigade sepoys on our frontiers, which are to be employed only in the defence of the provinces, and to be relieved every three months. This, I hope, our ·THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL will secure the peace of the country against future irruptions, and as they are no longer to be employed in the collections, the people will be freed from the oppressions of our own plunderers. (Gleig, i. 303-4). Hastings to Sir George Colebrooke, 31st March, 1773. In my last I mentioned that we had every reason to suppose the Sannyasi faqirs had entirely evacuated the Company's possessions. Such were the advices I then received, and their usual progress made this highly probable ; but it seems they were either disappointed in crossing the Brahmaputra river, or they changed their intention, and returned in several bands of about 2,000 or 3,000 each, appearing unexpectedly in different parts of the Rangpur and Dinajpur provinces. For in spite of the strictest orders issued and the severest penalties threatened to the inhabitants, in case they fail in giving intelligence of the approach of the Sannyasis, they are so infatuated by superstition, as to be backward in giving the information, so that the banditti are sometimes advanced into the very heart of provinces, before we know anything of their motions; as if they dropt from heaven to punish the inhabitants for their folly. One of these parties falling in with a small detachment commanded by Captain Edwards, an engagement ensued, wherein our sepoys gave way, and Captain Edwards lost his life in endeavouring to cross a nullah. This detachmént was formed of the very worst of our pargana sepoys, ·68 DAWN OF NEW INDIA who seem to have behaved very ill. This success elated the Sannyasis, and I heard of their depredations from every quarter in those districts. Captain Stuart, with the 19th battalion of sepoys, who was before employed against them, was vigilant in the pursuit, wherever he could hear of them, but to no purpose ; they were gone before he could reach the places to which he was directed. I ordered another battalion from Berhampur to march immediately, to co-operate with Captain Stuart, but to act separately ; in order to have the better chance of falling in with them. At the same time I ordered another battalion to march from the Dinapur station, through Tirhut, and by the northern frontier of the Purnea province, following the track which the Sannyasis usually took, in order to intercept them, in case they marched This battalion, after acting against the Sannyasis, if occasion offered, was directed to pursue their march to Kuch Bihar, where they are to join Captain Jones, and assist in the reduction of that country. Several parties of the Sannyasis having entered into the Purnea province, burning and destroying many villages there, the Collector applied to Captain Brooke, who was just arrived at Panity, near Rajmahal with his new.raised battalion of light infantry. That officer immediately crossed the river, and entered upon measures against the Sannyasis "; and had very near fallen in with a party of them, just as they were crossing the Cosa river, to escape out of that province ; he arrived on the that way.

·THE SANNYASI REBELLION IN BENGAL 69 opposite bank before their rear had entirely crossed; but too late to do any execution among them. It is apparent now that the Sannyasis are glad to escape as fast as they can out of the Company's possessions ; but I am still in hopes that some of the many detachments now acting against them may fall in with some of their parties, and punish them exemplarily for their audacity. It is impossible, but that, on account of the various depredations which the Sannyasis have committed, the revenue must fall short in some of the Company's districts.........Effectual means will be used, by stationing some small detachments at proper posts on our frontier, to prevent any future incursions from the Sannyasi faqirs, or any other roving banditti ; a measure, which only the extraordinary audacity of their last incursions hath manifested to be necessary. This will be effected without employing many troops ; and I hope, that in no future time the revenues shall again suffer from this cause. (Gleig, i. 296-98). Hastings to Laurence Sulivan, Fort William 20th March, 1774. The Sannyasis threatened us with the same disturbances at the beginning of this year as we experienced from them the last. But by being early provided to oppose them, and one or two severe checks which they received in their first attempts, we have kept the country clear of them. A party of horse which we employed in ·70 DAWN OF NEW INDIA pursuit of them, has chiefly contributed to intimidate these ravagers, who seem to pay little regard to our sepoys, having so much the advantage of them in speed, on which they entirely rely for their safety. It is my intention to proceed more effectually against them by expelling them from their faxed residences which they have established in the north-eastern quarter of the province, and by making severe examples of the zamindars who have afforded them protection or assistance. (Gleig, i. 395).

·PANDIT JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN saw The second half of the Eighteenth Century a revolution in India's history. The country changed her masters. But a careful historian can see and clearly distinguish for us the different stages by which this great transition was effected; it was not one simple and single event. Under Clive there was for Bengal the period of conquest, pure and simple, with just the minimum amount of financial supervision by the English necessary for providing the sinews of war. But the battle of Buxar removed the last threat of foreign invasion, and thereafter began the period of pacification and experiment in administration, to which Clive's second governorship and the tenure of Warren Hastings were devoted. But Hastings did his work so thoroughly that, at the end of his career in India, the British Government had committed itself to the planting of laws and institutions in midst. When Qur ·72 DAWN OF NEW INDIA Cornwallis appeared on the scene, the age of conquest had passed away and that of legislation had begun. The aim of our British rulers to make their rule durable and beneficent is clearly seen-for the first timein the activities of Sir William Jones to be described in this paper; these show that the British occupation of India was not meant to be a passing blast. In 1772 Warren Hastings came to Bengal as Governor, determined to reform the government of the country. The administration of justice then in vogue was found by him to be defective. All criminal cases had hitherto been tried according to the Muhammadan law, while civil suits were settled in accordance with the codes of the Muhammadans and the Hindus as the case might be. The former was in the form of a digest-called the Fatawa-i-Alamgiri-compiled by a syndicate of theologians under orders of Aurangzib at a cost of two lakhs of Rupees, but the latter had no existence in the shape of a code of laws,--the usual procedure being that the Brahmans declared the practice in disputed cases. Hastings, who desired to 'found the ·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 73 on authority of the British Government in Bengal its ancient laws', fully realized the necessity of compiling an abstract of Hindu laws from the authentic books of law in their sacred language. He, therefore, set to work in right earnest to promote such a compilation. In May 1773 eleven learned pandits' of Bengal were invited to Calcutta for the purpose. In two years the Sanskrit code compiled by them was ready for delivery to Government, but as at that time no European knew Sanskrit, their work, in order to be used by the English judges, had to be translated into Persian by the interpreters. The Bengal Government felt that a translation of the Persian into English would not only be serviceable in enabling the Members, when acting as Judges of the Sadar Diwani Adalat at Calcutta for civil appeals, to decide with confidence and without reference to others such cases as turned on points of the Hindu law, but might also prove worthy of the were : 1 These pandits Ramgopal Nyayalankar, Bireshwar Panchanan, Krishnajivana Nyayalankar, Baneshwar Vidyalankar, Kriparam Tarka-siddhanta, Krishnachandra Sarvabhauma, Gaurikanta Tarka-siddhanta, Krishna-keshav Tarkalankar, Sitaram Bhatta, Kalishankar Vidyabagish and Shamsunder Nyaya-siddhanta.

·74 DAWN OF NEW INDIA attention of the European public and remove the false prejudices which which seem to have prevailed in England respecting the laws of the natives of India. The task devolved on Mr. N. B. Halhedma civil servant of the Company --who was able to place before the Governor- General his English rendering of the Hindu Code in March 1775.2 Hastings hoped that Halhed's book might 'serve to point out the way to rule this people with ease and moderation according to their own ideas, manners.and prejudices.' But this English version, twice removed from the original sources of Hindu law and written in the primitive stage of Indology, could not be regarded as really satisfactory. A more scholarly work was needed, and that was the achievement of Sir William Jones. Sir William Jones, the founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, is honoured throughout the scholarly world as the father of Oriental studies. As a judge of the Supreme 2 For fuller details, see A Code of Gentoo Laws by Halhed (London 1776); Gleig's Memoirs of Warren Hastings, iii. 156, 158, etc. ; Monckton Jones' Warren Hastings in Bengal 1772-74, pp. 337-38. 3 Hastinge to Lord Mansfield, dated 21 March, 1774.

·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 75. Court and President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in one person, he cherished the lofty ambition of becoming the Indian Justinian. He wrote to a friend in 1786 : “My great object, at which I have long been labouring, is, to give our country a complete digest of Hindu and Musalman law. I have enabled myself by excessive care to read the oldest Sanskrit law books with the help of a loose Persian paraphrase ; and I have begun a translation of Manu into English; the best Arabian law-tract, I translated last year. What I can possibly perform alone, I will by God's blessing perform ; and I would write on the subject to the Minister, Chancellor, the Board of Control, and the Directors, if I were not apprehensive that they who know the world, but do not fully know me, would think that I expected some advantage either of fame or patronage, by purposing to be made the Justinian of India ; whereas I am conscious of desiring no advantage, but the pleasure of doing general good." By his mastery of Sanskrit and Arabic, added to his legal training in England, he was eminently fitted for this work. He therefore took his great task in hand without delay and addressed the following letter to the Governor- General, Lord Cornwallis, in the beginning of ·76 DAWN OF NEW INDIA 1788, fully describing the nature of the undertaking : "It has long been my wish to address the Government of the British dominions in India on the administration of justice among the natives of Bengal and Bihar, a subject of equal importance to the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court at Calcutta, where the judges are required by the legislature to decide controversies between Hindu and Muhammadan parties, according to their respective laws of contracts, and of succession to property.......Nothing indeed could be more obviously just, than to determine private contests according to those laws, which the parties themselves had ever considered as the rules of their conduct and engagements in civil life ; nor could anything be wiser, than, by a legislative act, to assure the Hindu and Musalman subjects of Great Britain, that the private laws which they severally held sacred, and a violation of which they would have thought the most grievous oppression, should not be superseded by a new system of which they could have no knowledge, and which they must have considered as imposed on them by a spirit of rigour and intolerance.... The Hindu and Musalman laws are locked up for the most part in two very difficult languages, Sanskrit and Arabic, which few Europeans will ever learn, because neither of them leads to any advantage ·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 77 'If we as in worldly pursuits : and if we give judgment only from the opinions of the native lawyers and scholars, we can never be sure, that we have not been deceived by them.... had a complete digest of Hindu and Muhammadan laws, after the model of Justinian's inestimable pandects, compiled by the most learned of the native lawyers, with an accurate verbal translation of it into English ; and if copies of the work were deposited in the proper offices of the Sadar Diwani Adalat, and of the Supreme Court, that they might occasionally be consulted a standard of justice, we should rarely be at a loss for principles at least, and rules of law applicable to the cases before us, and should never perhaps be led astray by the pandits or maulavis, who would hardly venture to impose on us, when their imposition might so easily be detected....Our compilation might be completed in a short time, since it would be confined to the laws of contracts and inheritances, which are of the most extensive use in private life, and to which the legislature has limited the decisions of the Supreme Court in causes between native parties ; the labour of the work would also be greatly diminished by two compilations already made in Sanskrit and Arabic, which approach nearly in merit and in method, to the digest of Justinian ; the first was composed a few centuries ago by a Brahman of this province, named ·78 DAWN OF NEW 'INDIA Raghunandan ;... the second, which the Arabs called the Indian decisions, is known here by the title of Fatawah Alamgiri, and was compiled by the order of Aurangzib...they will greatly facilitate the compilation of a digest on the laws of inheritance and contracts; and the code, as it is called, of Hindu law, which was compiled at the request of Mr. Hastings, will be useful for the same purpose...Although Mr. Halhed performed his part with fidelity, yet the Persian interpreter had supplied him only with a loose injudicious epitome of the original Sanskrit, in which abstract many essential passages are omitted: though several notes of little consequence are interpolated, from a vain idea of elucidating or improving the text... Since two provinces are immediately under this government, in each of which there are many customary laws, it would be proper to employ one pandit of Bengal and another from Bihar ; and since there are two Muhammadan sects, who differ in regard to many traditions from their Prophet, and to decisions of their respective doctors, it might be thought equally proper to engage one maulavi of each sect.... "If the work be thought expedient, the charges of it should be defrayed by the Goverment, and the salaries paid by their officers...I should then request your Lordship to nominate the pandits some ·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 79 and maulavis, to whom I would severally give a plan conformable to the best analysis that I could make: and I should be able, if my health continued firm, to translate every morning, before any other business is begun, as much as they could compile, and the writers copy in the preceding day...... (19 March 1788). Lord Cornwallis realized the need of a digest of Hindu and Muhammadan laws for the proper administration of justice to the Indians subject to British rule, and therefore he welcomed the proposal. He replied by telling Sir William Jones that the country was singularly fortunate that a person so eminently qualified for the task as he, should, from principles of general benevolence and public spirit, be engaged in an undertaking, as arduous as it was beneficial.5 On the receipt of this encouraging reply, Sir William communicated to the Government the names of the Hindu and Muhammadan lawyers whom he recommended for * 4 Public Proodge. 19 March 1788, No. 16. This letter has been partly printed in the Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Correspondence of Sir William Jones by Lord Teignmouth (1806), ii. 163-178. 5 Public Con. 19 March 1788, No. 17; Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Correspondence of Sir William Jones, li. 179.

·80 DAWN OF NEW INDIA employment in compiling a digest of their respective laws, and in making copies of these in the Sanskrit and Persian languages : "I have made very diligent enquiries for persons eminently qualified to engage in the work and I beg leave to recommend four whom, partly from my own personal knowledge of them, and partly from the information of those, in whose judgment I have perfect confidence, I believe to be men of integrity and learning. Permit me to name, as the pandit for the province, Radhakanta Sharman, a Brahman of distinguished abilities and highly revered by the Hindus in Bengal for his erudition and virtue, (2) as the pandit for Bihar, Sabbur Tewari (another reading, Sarvoru= Sarvari) who formerly attended the Council at Patna, and is universally esteemed in that province as a lawyer of accurate and extensive knowledge, (3) as the maulavi for the doctrines of the Sunnis, Muhammad Qasim, who has applied himself from his earliest youth to the study of jurisprudence, and has acquired very just fame for his proficiency in it, (4) for the doctrines of the Shiahs, where the two sects differ (and, where they agree both maulavis will unite in compiling approved texts) Siraj-ul-haq, who is an excellent scholar, well versed in law and in many branches of philosophy. As writers of Sanskrit and Arabic I cannot recommend ·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 81 (because I do not believe that all Asia could produce) two men better qualified than Mahtab Rai and Haji Abdullah ; the first, a native of the Deccan, and the second, bom at Medina, but educated at Mecca ; both write beautifully and distinctly, and both are competently skilled in the sevoral languages which they undertake to copy." (13 April 1788). The Board readily confirmed the selection made by Sir William. An establishment of pandits and maulavis was immediately appointed by the Government, and Jones got the work started under his superintendence and direction. Shortly afterwards, Sir William was fortunate enough to come across a Hindu scholar who proved a most valuable acquisition for the prosecution of the undertaking. It was Pandit Jagannath Tarka-panchanan, a native of the village of Tribeni in the Hughli district. A minute of the Governor-General thus describes him : "The Governor-General informs the Board that he has lately conversed with Sir William Jones upon 6 Public Proceedings 14 April 1788. No. 15. 7 Letter to Sir William Jones, dated 14th April 1788. Publie Procdgs. 14 April 1788, No. 16. 6 ·82 DAWN OF NEW INDIA the subject of the work which he has undertaken of superintending the compilation of the Digest of Hindu and Mumammadan Law, in the course of which Sir William recommended to him in the strongest manner, the addition of a person named Jagannath Tarka-panchanan to those already employed. This man is much advanced in years, but his opinions learning and abilities are held in the highest veneration and respect by all ranks of people, and the work will derive infinite credit and authority both from the annexation of his name as a compiler and from his assistance. "The Governor-General further informs the Board that Sir William Jones recommended a salary of Rs. 300 per month, to be allowed to Jagannath Taraka-panchanan, and Rs. 100 to his assistants. "Agreed to, and ordered accordingly.'8 By the end of 1792 Sir William placed before the Board the first fruits of his enquiries in India concerning the Hindu and Muhammadan laws, in the following letter : "I shall be much obliged if you will present in my name to the Governor-General the first fruits of my enquiries in India concerning the laws of the Musalmans and Hindus ; the Arabic original having been printed before the Digest was undertaken, I have printed also the translation and 8 Public Consultation 22 August 1788, No. 28.

·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 83 comment at my own expense. Next summer vacation will, I trust, give me leisure to finish my transcript of the Dharma-shastra which I will have the pleasure of transmitting to you. The whole Digest is completed by the pandits very much to my satisfaction and they are all discharged except Sarvari10 and Radhakanta, whose assistance I still find necessary in collecting and explaining six large volumes in folio." (6th November, 1792).11 True to his expectations, Sir William submitted to the Government on 9th June 1793 his manuscript translation of the Manava Dharma-shastra, or the Institutes of Hindu Law compiled by Manu, (which was published by the Government in February next).12 It was his his hope that two more vacations would enable him to complete the Digest with an Introductory Discourse. But it was ordained otherwise. Sir William Jones died on 27th April 1794. By his death the public lost a translation, from his pen, of the Digest which he had gratuitously 9 This was an English version of the Arabic text of the Sirajiyyah, or Muhammadan Law of Inheritance. 10 Sabbur Tewari's salary was fixed at Rs. 200 a month. 11 Public Procdgs. 9 November 1792, No. 30. 12 Public Procdgs. 11 June 1793, No. 9.

·84 DAWN OF NEW INDIA undertaken as a work of national honour and utility, and the introductory discourse for which he had prepared curious and ample materials. But his benevolent intentions were not to remain unfulfilled. Actuated by a laudable public spirit and hope of distinction, Mr. H. T. Colebrooke, Judge of the Zila Court of Mirzapur, at the instance of Sir John Shore immediately undertook to complete the English translation of the Digest of Hindu Law on Contracts and Succession, and was able to perform the task in little more than two years (Dec. 1796), for which he was given an honorarium of Rs. 15,000 by Government.13 * Mr. Colebrooke, in his preface to the Digest of Hindu Law on Contracts and Successions, makes the following remarks on the merits of Jagannath's work :-- "From various digests, and from commentaries on the institutes of law, the present Digest has been compiled ; and the venerable author, Jagannath has added a copious commentary, sometimes indeed pursuing frivolous disquisitions, but always fully explaining the various interpretations 13 Pablic Con. 6 Feby. 1797, No. 19.

·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 35 of which the text is sersceptible... Among modern digests the most remarkable are the Vivadarnavasetu, compiled bry order of Mr. Hastings ; the Vivada-sararnava, compiled at the request of Sir William Jones, by Sarvoru Trivedi, a lawyer of Mithila ; and the Vivada-bhangarnava, by Jagannath, which is now translated." The following translation of the Preface written by the Hindu compilers of the Digest will be of interest to the modern reader : "Having saluted the Ruler of Gods, the Lord of Beings, and the King of Dangers, Lord of Divine Classes, the Daughter of the King of Mountains, the venerable Sages, and the reverend Authors of Books, I, JAGANNATH, Son of Rudra, by command of the Protectors of the land, compile this book, intitled, The Sea of controversial Waves, perspicuous, diffusive, with its islande and gems, pleasing to the princes and the learned. "What is my intellect, a crazy boat, compared with the sacred code, that perilous ocean? The. 'favour of the Supreme Ruler is my sole refuge, in traversing that ocean with this crazy vessel. “The learned Radhakanta Ganeshprasad, of firm and spotless mind, Rammohan Ramnidhi Chanashyama, and Gangadhar, a league of assiduous pupils, must effect the completion of this work, ·86 DAWN OF NEW INDIA which shall gratify the minds of princes :-of this I have unquestioned certainty. "Embarking on ships, often do men undaunted traverse the perilous deep, aided by long cables, and impelled by propitious gales. “Having viewed the title of loans, and the rest as promulged by wise legislators, in codes of laws, and as expounded by former intelligent authors ; “And having meditated their obscure passages with the lessons of venerable teachers, the whole is now delivered by me."14 Hitherto we have said nothing about the great Pandit Jagannath Tarka-panchanan, who did the real work of compiling the Digest of Hindu Law. He was born at Tribeni in 1695, when his father Rudradeb Tarkabagish was aged 66. Jagannath gave promise of genius at an early age and, while yet a lad in his teens, became a remarkable logician. For his unrivalled knowledge of Hindu law he was often consulted by men like Warren Hastings, Shore, and Harington (Registrar of the Sadar Diwani and Nizamat Adalats). He was held in respect by the highest Hindu 14 Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Correspondence of Sir William Jones, by Lord Teignmouth (1806). ii. 371-72.

·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 87 nobles of the time, who granted him rent-free lands for his support. His memory was wonderful and many stories are still told of his unfailing accuracy in remembering what he had once heard. He was the author of several books, among which Ramcharit, a Sanskrit drama, deserves mention. Jagannath adorned the Sabha (court) of pandits maintained by by Maharajah Navakrishna, the Political Banyan of the English East India Company and the founder of the Sovabazar Raj family of Calcutta, whose home was the favourite resort of men of learning. Navakrishna gave to Jagannath a "taluq yielding a decent income and also the cost of erecting his house. The Maharajah had made to the pandit a very rich offer, namely, [that] of a zamindari yielding a lakh of Rupees a year, but the pandit declined it on the ground that riches were demoralizing and his descendants, if they were wealthy, would not care for learning and would give themselves up to luxury. A smaller gift he accepted. It was through the Maharajah's influence that he appointed by was ·DAWN OF NEW INDIA Government as the Court Pandit and Compiler of Hindu Law."36 The following petition of Pandit Jagannath Tarka-panchanan to Governor-General Shore gives us interesting information as to the extent to which he contributed to the compilation of the Digest of Hindu Law: "That when Mr. Hastings desired your petitioner by Maharajah Rajballav to digest the Hindu Law, your petitioner was not agreed to do it. Then Mr. Hastings desired Ramgopal Nyayalankar, etc., eleven pandits of Nadia to do it which they completed in three years, and transmitted to England, but the Gentlemen thereof on perusing it disapproved because which were not explicitly compiled, since which Mr. Shore informed your petitioner the said disapproving of this digest of the Hindu Law which the said eleven pandits had after great pains completed, also desired your petitioner to do and deliver it to Sir William Jones, Kt. From your petitioner's observation on the continuance of the said eleven pandits' salary after the book is already finished, hoping that your Lordship will also be so favourable to your petitioner as to permit his salary to be 16 N. N. Ghose's Memoirs of Maharaja Nublissen Bahadar, 185, ·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 89 continued to him for ever accordingly, on these considerations your petitioner was agreed to do it, and compiled the book in 800 leaves which costed him an abundance of labour in completing it, which would be duly perceived to your Lordship's wisdom if the book is properly translated. Your petitioner finished and delivered the book to Sir William Jones, Kt. in the month of February last since which the salary, which was allowed by your Lordship to your petitioner, is discontinued. In consequence of which your petitioner most submissively begs leave to represent that formerly your petitioner was capable of subsisting himself, family and pupils, etc. and has now no such ability as to find food for himself and a numerous family and likewise on the 22nd August 1788 your Lordship was pleased to honour your petitioner with a beetle, meaning to be continued in the Hon'ble Company's service, which induced your petitioner to implore the humanity of your Lordship to be so gracious as to order the salary to be continued to him, that through which he may be enabled to subsist himself and a numerous family in this his old age.... '16 The Government of Bengal considered his case favourably and he was granted a pension 16 Public Consultation 11 Jany. 1793, No. 11.

·90 DAWN OF NEW INDIA of Rs. 300 per month for life, as can be seen from the following official letter :- "On our proceedings of the annexed date [11th Jany.) a petition is recorded from Jagannath Sharma, the oldest pandit in Bengal, and a man of great learning and of most respectable character. He represented that although he singly completed the Digest of the Hindu Law, and delivered it to Sir William Jones, his salary was discontinued from the period of the completion of the work, yet the pandits (eleven in number) who, in Mr. Hastings's Government, prepared the first digest, were still in the enjoyment of the pensions, granted them on that occasion and he solicited a continuance of his allowance for the support of himself and his family. "In consideration of the very favourable testimonies, we have received, of the petitioner, his great age, and numerous family, we have granted him a pension of Rs. 300 per mensem, but it is not to be continued after his death to his family or descendants. "'17 Jagannath’s unrivalled intellectual powers remained unimpaired to the last day of his He passed away in 1806 at the life. 17 Bengal Public Letter to the Court of Directors, dated Fort William 29th January, 1793, baras 56-57.

·JAGANNATH TARKA-PANCHANAN 91 patriarchal age of 111, leaving behind him three sons, Kalidas, Krishnachandra and Ramnidhi. His grandson Ghanashyama kept up the family tradition of Sanskrit learning.

·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM THE NEED FOR SUCH A COLLEGE There have been many great empires in the world, but sooner or later they have all perished. The Roman empire lasted long because it was the rule, not of a family but of a whole nation. Such also is the modern British empire in India; it has been created and maintained by the genius, energy and perseverance of the British race. Therefore, the fate of this empire naturally depends upon the intellect and character of the Englishmen, Scotchmen and Irishmen who come out to rule India as civil servants and military officers. The British Indian empire was not, in its origin, a deliberately planned thing. It grew up almost accidentally without any far-sighted preparations at first. But after its establishment, as soon as the neighbouring Powers had been curbed (by Clive), a new administrative system had been set up (by ·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 93 Warren Hastings), and the vexatious question of land revenue settled permanently (by Cornwallis), a great genius and true imperialist came to govern India. He was the Marquis of Wellesley. On the one hand, he greatly expanded the boundaries of the East India Company's dominions and made the British Power paramount over almost all the Indian princes. And on the other hand, he carefully planned to give permanence to that empire by improving the efficiency of the English administrators and thereby enlisting the interest and affection of the people on the side of their foreign rulers. A trading company had suddenly become the ruler of millions of men and thousands of square miles, but its servants were still chosen for the purposes of trade and not trained for the work of government. Wellesley saw this weak point in the British imperialism of his day and set himself to remedy the evil with his characteristic energy. He tried to make the raw young civil and military officers of the Company fit for their task, by first teaching them the laws and languages of the people thoroughly and also improving their general ·94 DAWN OF NEW INDIA education, in a college directly under his control. The internal decay of the Mughal empire and the corruption of the old civilization and government of the country, which reached their climax about the middle of the 18th century, had first tempted the E. I. Company's chiefs in Bengal and Madras to throw away the pen for the sword and to embark on a policy of empire-making which promised to be at once easy and profitable. But this same moral decay of the country threw a heavier burden upon the English administrators who replaced our native rulers. As the authorities in England were slow in directing their agents in India to undertake the open and full government of Bengal and the Company's factors and clerks unfit to act as magistrates, judges and ambassadors,—the newly conquered provinces of Bengal and "Madras had to pass through the terrible misery of a period when the English in India enjoyed "power without responsibility." For the good of the people as well as for the permanence of British rule in India, it was imperatively necessary that India's were new ·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 95 masters should be properly educated. Wellesley's statesmanship lay in seeing this need clearly and carrying out the necessary reform without waiting for the Directors' sanction. · FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM Lord Wellesley came to Bengal in May 1798 as the arbiter of the destinies of millions of people of various languages, manners, usages and religions. The British possessions in India then formed one of the most extensive and populous empires in the world and included Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, and Benares, the Company's jagir in the Carnatic, the Northern Circars, the Baramahal and other districts ceded by Tipu at the peace of Seringapatam in 1792. These most opulent and flourishing parts of India were under the more immediate and direct administration of the European civil servants of the East India Company. But the qualifications of the civil servants in Bengal—and still 7 more in Madras and Bombay, seemed to His Excellency very ·26 DAWN OF NEW INDIA unsatisfactory, and his immediate attention was drawn to their improvement. He felt that the evil arose principally from a defect at the source and fountain-head of the service, viz., the education and habits of the junior civil servants sent to this country. The age at which they usually arrived in India was between 16 and 18 years, and the education received by them at Home was confined to commercial and mercantile studies, so that their ignorance of the languages, laws, usages and customs of the people whom they had to govern was lamentable. As a remedy for these defects Wellesley realized that, in order to qualify for the discharge of their duties, which were of a mixed and complicated nature and involved the combined principles of principles of Asiatic and European policy and government,-the education of the junior civil servants must be of a mixed nature, its foundation must be judiciously laid in England, but the superstructure must be systematically completed in India, The following remarks of the Governor- General on the magnitude and importance of ·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 97 our They are, the duties of the European civil servants are still of interest to us :- “The duty and policy of the British Government in India require that the system of confiding the immediate exercise of every branch and department of the government to Europeans, educated in its own service, and subject to its own direct control, should be diffused as widely as possible, as well with a view to the stability of our own interests, as to the happiness and welfare of native subjects...... The civil servants of the English East India Company can no longer be considered as the agents of a commercial concern. in fact, the ministers and officers of a powerful sovereign ; they must now be viewed in that capacity, with reference, not to their nominal, but to their real occupations. They are required to discharge the functions of Magistrates, Judges, Ambassadors, and Governors of provinces... Their duties are those of statesmen in every other part of the world, with no other characteristic differences than the obstacles opposed by an unfavourable climate, by foreign language, by the peculiar usages and laws of India, and by the marpers of its inhabitants...... Their education should be founded in a general knowledge of those branches of literature and science which form the basis of the education of persons destined ·98 DAWN OF NEW INDIA an to similar occupations in Europe. To this foundation should be added intimate acquaintance with the history, languages, customs and manners of the people of India, with the Muhammadan and Hindu codes of law and religion, and with the political and commercial interests and relations of Great Britain in Asia. They should be regularly instructed in the principles and system which constitute the foundation of that wise code of regulations and laws enacted by the Governor- General in Council for the purpose of securing to the people of this empire the benefit of the ancient and accustomed laws of the country, administered in the spirit of the British constitution. They should be well informed of the true and sound principles of the British constitution, and sufficiently grounded in the general principles of ethics, civil jurisprudence, the law of nations, and general history, in order that they may be enabled to discriminate the characteristic difference of the several codes of law administered within the British Empire in India, and practically to combine the spirit of each in the dispensation of justice, and the maintenance of order and good government. Finally, their early habits should be so formed, as to establish in their minds such solid foundations of industry, prudence, integrity, and ·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 99 religion, as should effectually guard them against those temptations and corruptions with which the nature of this climate, and the peculiar depravity of the people of India, will surround and assail them in every station, especially upon their first arrival in India...nor should any precaution be relaxed in India, which is deemed necessary in England, to furnish a sufficient supply of men qualified to fill the high offices of the State with credit to themselves and with advantage to the public. Without such constant succession of men in the several branches and departments of this Government, the wisdom and benevolence of the law must prove vain and inefficient." The importance of the mastery of Indian languages by the European civil servants was recognized by Wellesley so early that a few months after his arrival in this country he had issued a notification (21st December 1798) directing that from and after the 1st January 1801, no civil servant would be deemed eligible to any of the following offices unless he dead passed an examination in the laws and regulations enacted by the Governor-General and in the languages, a knowledge of which ·100 DAWN OF NEW INDIA an was declared to be indispensable qualification for them :- Persian and Hindustani for the office of Judge or Register (sic) of any Court of Justice. Bengali for the office of Collector of Revenue or of Customs or Commercial Resident or Salt Agent in the province of Bengal or Orissa. Hindustani for the office of Collector of Revenue or of Customs or Commercial Resident or Agent for the provision of opium in the province of Bihar or Benares. The College of Fort William was founded by Wellesley in 1800. He was so eager to see the college at work that he opened it and appointed the teachers without waiting for the sanction of the Court of Directors at Home. The actual opening of the college dates from the 24th November 1800, on which date lectures commenced in the Arabic, Persian and Hindustani languages. The college was installed in a very spacious mansion, situated in the most central part of Calcutta, and let out on lease by a speculating dancing-master named Macdonaldwho had planned and erected it for a Public Exchange. It was 1 Hickey's Memoirs, iv. 237-38.

·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 101 transferred to the Writers afterwards Buildings. THE COLLEGE STARTED The Governor-General was to be the Patron and Visitor Visitor of the college. The members of the Supreme Council and the Judges of the Sadar Diwani and Nizamat Adalats were to be its Governors. The posts of Provost and Vice-Provost were conferred on the Revd. David Brown, and Revd. Claudius Buchanan. The primary duties of the Provost were to superintend and regulate the general morals and conduct of the junior civil servants. The following were the first professors appointed to the college : For teaching the Laws and Regulations enacted by the Governor-General in Council etc., for the civil government of the British territories in India ....G. H. Barlow (J. H. Harington succeeded Barlow in 1801). Hindu Law and Sanskrit H. T. Colebroke Hindustani John Gilchrist ·102 DAWN OF NEW INDIA Persian Language and N. B. Edmonstone Literature Francis Gladwin Arabic and Persian languages and Muhammadan Law Lt. John Baillie Greek and Latin Classics Revd. Claudius Buchanan Bengali and Sanskrit Revd. William Carey appointed 1 May, 1801. Tamil Revd. J. Poezold Natural Philosophy Dr. James Dinwiddie 4 March, 1801. Modern Languages Monsr. Duplessis 5 March 1802. The establishment of maulavis and pandits was on a very liberal scale. The Arabic, Persian, Hindustani and Bengali Departments had each a Chief Munshi on a salary of Rs. 200 a month, and a Second Munshi on Rs. 100 a month. There were besides 50 subordinate munshis:-20 for the Persian Department, 12 for the Hindustani, 6 for the Bengali, and 4 for the Arabic Departments. The teachership of the Braja-bhasha was offered to Lallu Lal Kavi in February 1802, and that of the Marathi language to Vaidyanath—a Maratha Pandit, in February 1804, under the superintendence of W. Carey.

·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 103 ... ... For some important stations in the diplomatic service of the Company, proficiency in Marathi was considered an essential qualification. The Bengali and Sanskrit Department was placed under the following heads :- Professor Revd. William Carey, D.D Chief Pandit Mrittunjoy Vidyalankar Second Pandit Ramnath Bachaspati Subordinate Pandits Shripati Mukherji Ananda Chandra Rajib-lochan Kashinath Padmalochan Churamani Ram-ram Bose. It may interest the reader to know that Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was appointed Sherishtadar of the Bengali Department of this college on 29th December 1841. This was the starting-point in the public career of the greatest educationist of modern Bengal.? The Provost, Vice-Provost and all che professors, after completing 7 years' service in the college, were entitled to pensions, the 2 College of Fort William Proceedings.Home Dept. Miscellaneous No. 574, pp. 22-23.

·104 DAWN OF NEW INDIA amount of which should in no case be less than one-third of their salary, for the rest of their lives. WHO WERE TO BE TAUGHT The benefits of the institution were primarily extended to all junior civil servants newly appointed for the Presidency of Bengal, and to all those on the Bengal Establishment who were of less than three years' standing. They were to spend a term of three years at the college, during which their sole public duty was to undergo the prescribed studies. Similar privileges were given to the junior civil servants of Madras and Bombay as, from considerations of both expense and uniformity, it was thought undesirable to establish similar colleges at Madras and Bombay. Provision was also made for the newly arrived military cadets of the Company to be admitted to the College of Fort William. This was the first step towards the regular instruction in Hindustani of the officers belonging to the native corps. Every student in the college of less than three years' standing used to receive a fixed ·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 105 allowance of Rs. 300 a month, with free quarters and board. The college year was divided into four terms of two months each, with four vacations of one month each. The following list shows the number of students attending lectures in the different subjects in the third term of 1801 : Persian language 36 Arabic 8 Hindustani 32 Bengali 6 Modern languages 6 88 The older civilians and military officers who had mastered the laws and languages of this country were to be selected for diplomatic and judicial appointments. PROMOTION OF LEARNING It was Wellesley's intention to make the study of Oriental literature and law the principal aim of the College of Fort Wifram. In order to facilitate the acquisition of the different Indian vernaculars by the students, text-books in these languages were composed ·106 DAWN OF NEW INDIA and a number of useful Oriental works were published by the college staff, either at the expense of the Government or with the help of subscriptions from it. Learned Indians received money rewards from the College Council for producing useful literary works. A copious library, it was thought, would be of material help to the professors and students alike in promoting the study of the languages. The college collected many valuable printed books in Oriental languages and rare Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit MSS. The downfall of the Mughal empire had led to the masterpieces of eastern learning being dispersed over India and exposed to the ravages of time, accident and neglect. They were now recovered and carefully preserved in the library of the college, where expert Orientalists soon wndertook to edit and print many of them. In this way the college benefited the scholarly world in general, in addition to preparing the Company's officers for their duties. The splendid manuscript collection of Tipu Sultan was originally deposited in the college library, but with the solitary exception of one MS., all the others ·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 107 were afterwards withdrawn from it and transferred to the libraries to the libraries of the India Office, London, and the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In its early days the college used to lend books out, but in consequence of the loss of many volumes the practice was discouraged and on 1st August 1807 a resolution was passed by the College Council imposing restrictions on the borrowers. Such learned natives as had occasion to consult books, or to make extracts, were required to visit the college for that purpose. No book was to be taken away from the library by any native, excepting such works as he might be employed by order of the College Council to translate, and even in that case a special order from the College Council under the signature of the Secretary was required before any book could be issued. In 1835 the number of European printed books was about 5,224, Oriental printed books about 11,718, and Oriental manuscripts --some of which were richly illuminated and of great rarity-4,225.3 3 In 1836 the Oriental MSS. were transferred to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the Society undertaking their upkeep and allowing ·108 DAWN OF NEW INDIA ITS ORIENTAL PUBLICATIONS It may interest the reader to know that Bengali prose began long before Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. To satisfy the curious reader I give below particulars of some of the Bengali books4 which were published under the patronage of this college. 1. Pratapaditya-charitra. History of Rajah Pratapaditya from the beginning of the reign of Akbar to the end of that of Jahangir, by Ram-ram Bose (1801). The author, who was a subordinate pandit in the Bengali Department of the college, received a reward of Rs. 300 for its composition from the College Council. He also published in 1802 Lipimala, an original composition in Bengali prose in the epistolary form. 2. Rajah Krishnachandra-charitra. The History of Rajah Krishnachandra Roy of Krishnagar, containing the correspondence between the Rajah and the English in the early period of their intercourse with Bengal, published by the Serampur the public to consult them. At the same time the European printed books belonging to the college were made over to the newly constituted Public Library. on certain conditions. 4 For a list of the Bengali books patronized by Government for the use of the College of Fort William during the years 1802-1852. see Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal, vol. xi, App, E, p. 318.

·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 109 Mission Press in 1805. The author, Rajib-lochan, was a subordinate pandit in the Bengali Department of the college and was himself a descendant of the Rajah's family. 3. Battrish-singhasan translated from the original Sanskrit by Mrittunjoy Vidyalankar, the Chief Pandit in the Bengali Department of the college (Serampur 1808.) 4. Rajawali, or a history of the Kings of Delhi, and a General History of the Hindus were also composed by Mrittunjoy Vidyalankar. 5. Purusha-Pariksha, or the Test of Man, a work containing the moral doctrines of the Hindus, translated from the Sanskrit by Haraprasad Rai, a pandit attached to the college (1815). 6. Dialogues intended to facilitate the acquiring of the Bengali language (1801), and a Dictionary of the Bengali Language (1815) were published by the Revd. William Carey in 1815. Apart from the grammars, books of fables, ethics, etc., which were specially composed as class-books, other works of great utility and merit in the Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Marathi and other languages were published, and the public are indebted to this institution for much addition to the general stock of knowledge. Many improvements were introduced in the various branches of ·110 DAWN OF NEW INDIA Oriental printing, such as, the casting of a new and improved fount of Devnagari type for the Sanskrit books under the superintendence of Carey. It is with satisfaction that we find among the literary notices of the college, under the date of 26 July 1805, that the Asiatic Society of Bengal went into half shares with the college in granting an annual stipend of $450 to the Protestant Missionaries of Serampur, towards defraying the expenses of publishing the original texts of some of the most ancient and authentic Sanskrit works with English translations. The Ramayana was the first book to be published under this scheme. The following is a list of the more important Oriental works, published under the auspices of the college during the first eighteen years of its existence :-- SANSKRIT Siddhanta Kaumudi by Bhattoji Dikshit (1812). Mugdha-bodh by Bopdev (1807). Amarkosh by Amar Singha, with an English interpretation, annotations and alphabetical index, by H. T. Colebrooke (1808). Hemchandrakosh (1807). Hitopadesh, with introductory remarks, by H. T. Colebrooke (1806). Nglodaya, a ·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 111 celebrated romance in Sanskrit, ed. by Baburam Pandit (1814). Manu-sanhita in the original text, with the gloss of Kulluk Bhatta, ed. by Baburam Pandit (1813). Mitakshara, or a commentary on the legal work of Jagnyabalka, with original text (1812). Dayabhag, or Law of Inheritance of Jimutbahana, ed. by the Pandits of the Sadar Diwani Adalat (1813). Bir Mitrodaya, a digest of Hindu Law on the administration of justice, by Mitra-Mishra, ed. by Baburam Pandit (1815). Dattaka-mimansa and Dattakachandrika-two treatises in Sanskrit on the Hindu law of Adoption (1817). Daya-karma Sangraha, an original treatise on Hindu law of Inheritance in Sanskrit of Shri Krishna Tarkalankar, trans. by P.M. Wynch (1818). Bhagabat-gita (1809). Ramayana of Valmiki, in original Sanskrit, with a prose translation and explanatory notes, by William Carey and J. Marshman (1806, 1808, 1810). Git-govinda or songs of Jayadev (1808). Magha-kavya, with the commentary of Mallinath, ed. by Vidyakara Mishra and Shyamlal Pandits (1815). Megh-dut by Kalidas, translated into English verse, with notes and illustrations, by H. H. Wilson (1813). Kiratarjunia, by Bharabi, with the commentary of Mallinath (1815). HINDUSTANI Hindustani & English Dictionary, compiled by Capt. J. Taylor and revised by W. Hunter, 2 vols. (1808). An English and Hindustani Naval Dictionary of Technical Terms & Sea Phrases, by Lt. Roebuck (1811). Araish-i-Mahfil, a history of the Hindu Princes of Delhi, ·112 DAWN OF NEW INDIA from Judhishthir to Pithora, compiled from the Khulasatul-Hind, etc. by Mir Sher Ali Afsos (1808). Hidayat-ul- Islam, a collection of the forms and ceremonies of the Muhammadan religion in Arabic & Hindustani, translated by John Gilchrist (1804). Guli Bakawali, a tale translated from Persian, by Munshi Nihal Chand (1804). Bagh-o- Bahar, trans. from the Persian tale Qissa-i-Chahar Darvesh by Mir Aman (1804). Betal Pachisi, translated from the Braja-bhasha, by Mazhar Ali Khan & Lallu Lal Kavi (1805). Lataif-i-Hindi, a collection of humorous stories, by Lallu Lal Kavi (1810). The New Testament trans, by the college staff and revised and compared by Dr. William Hunter (1805). The Oriental Fabulist, trans. from Aesop's and other fables (1803). English and Hindustani Dialogues calculated to promote the colloquial intercourse of Europeans, on the most useful and familiar subjects, with the natives of India, upon their arrival in that country, by John Gilchrist. BRAJA-BHASHA Rajniti, trans, from Hitopadesh in Sanskrit, by Lallu Lal Kavi (1809). Satsai of Bihari Lal (1809). KHARI BOLI, or HINDUVI Premsagar, or the history of Krishna, as described in the 10th chapter of Shri Bhagabat of Vyasadev, translated from the Braja-bhasha of Chatturbhuj Mishra, by Lallu Lal Kavi (1810). PURBI BHASHA. 1 Ramayana in poetry by Tulsidas (1811).

·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 115 MARATHI A Grammar and a Dictionary of the Maratha Language, by W. Carey (1805 & 1810). Pratapaditya-charitra, trans. from Bengali, by Vaidyanath Pandit (1816), The Genealogy of Raghuji Bhonsla, by Vaidyanath Pandit (1816). A Collection of original letters in the Maratha Language, by Wm. Carey (1816). PERSIAN on A Grammar of the Persian Language, by Matthew Lumsden (1810). Burhan-i-Qati, a dictionary of the Persian language, ed. by Thomas Roebuck (1818). Anwar-i- Suheli (1805). Dabistan-i-Muzahib, treating the different religions in the world and their philosophy, by Shaikh Muhammad Muhsin (1809). Hidaya corrected and ed. by Md. Rashid, vols. 1-4 (1807-8). This celebrated work on Muhammadan law in Arabic was originally translated into Persian by a society of learned natives under orders of Hastings. (Eng. trans. by Capt. Hamilton). ARABIC A Grammar of the Arabic Language, by Matthew Lumsden (1813). Muntakhab-ul-Lughat, a dictionary of Arabic words, with a Persian translation (1818). Qamus, a well known Arabic dictionary in two volumes by Majd-ud-din Muhammad ibn-Yaqub of Firozabad (1817). Ikhwan-us-safa, a moral and philosophical work (1812). Alif Laila or the Arabian Nights Entertainments, by Md. Shirwani, 2 vols. (1814, 1818). Muqamat-i-Hariri, or the. adventures of Abu Zaid of Sarooj, in 50 stories, by Hariri, 8 ·114 DAWN OF NEW INDIA 2 vols. (1809, 1812). The History of Taimur in Arabic by Ahmad bin Muhammad of Damascus in Syria, (1818). MISCELLANEOUS An Elementary Analysis of the Laws and Regulations enacted by the Governor-General in Council, at Fort William in Bengal, for the civil government of the British territories under that Presidency, by J. H. Harington, vols. 1-3 (1817). Mishkat-ul-Musabi, a collection of the traditions regarding the actions and sayings of Muhammad, translated from Arabic into English, by Capt. A. N. Matthews (1809). A Grammar of the Panjabi language by Wm. Carey (1812). An Ooriya and English Vocabulary, by Mohun Prasad Thakur (1812). A Grammar of the Tilunga Language, by Wm. Carey (1814). A Grammar of the Karnat Language, by Wm. Carey (1817). A comparative vocabulary of the Burma, Malaya and Thace languages (1810). Elements of the Chinese Grammar, by Rev. J. Marshman (Serampur 1814). CONVOCATION On the convocation day, which generally fell in the month of February, disputations in the Oriental languages were held by the students appointed by the College Council. There were one respondent and two opponents. The respondent defended a position asserted by himself in the course of a short thesis, while ·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 115 was the chief opponent advanced four arguments and the second brought two against the respondent's proposition. Each opponent, after he had finished his arguments, had to read a short thesis stating his own opinion on the subject. A professor or examiner appointed as moderator whose duty it was to stand by the respondent, to regulate the discussion in order that it might be conducted with becoming propriety and to confine the parties to the question. It is interesting to note that this was similar to the practice which is still followed by indigenous pandits all over India, and which also used to prevail in the Universities of mediaeval Europe. The subjects of these disputations were very interesting, such as :- BENGALI The distribution of Hindus into castes retards their progress in improvement (1803). The translation of the best works extant in the Sanskrit into the popular languages of India, would promote the extension of science and civilization (1804). A knowledge of the Bengali language is of great importance for the transaction of public business in Bengal (1807).

·116 DAWN OF NEW INDIA HINDUSTANI The suicide of Hindu widows by burning themselves with the bodies of their deceased husbands is a practice repugnant to the natural feelings and inconsistent with moral duty (1803): The Hindustani language is the most generally useful in India (1802). PERSIAN An academical institution in India is advantageous to the natives, and to the British Nation (1802). The Persian language is of more utility in the general administration of the British Empire in India than the Hindustani (1805). Essays or declamations were also pronounced on the Convocation day in Marathi, Sanskrit, etc. In 1806 and 1808 the subjects of the declamations in Marathi were Fall of the Maratha Empire, and The Utility of the study of the Maratha Language respectively. When the . disputations ended, His Excellency the Visitor awarded to the students who had completed their three years' course of study, the Honorary Diploma inscribed on 6 Every student was required to compose one essay or declamation in English during the course of each term, the subject of such essays being proposed by the College Council. The first three essays of qach term and the theses pronounced at the public disputations in the Oriental languages were printed in Calcutta for the years 18024.

·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 117 same. a vellum in the Oriental character, purporting that the students had acquired such proficiency in certain of the Oriental languages as entitled them to a Degree of Honour in the In addition to Certificate of Proficiency and conduct, which every student received from the College Council, Degrees of Honour were considered requisite qualifications for certain high offices. Attested copies of such certificates were required to be submitted to the Visitor to be entered on the public records of Government. After the distribution of prizes and diplomas, the Visitor generally delivered a speech. Wellesley had the satisfaction of being present, as Visitor of the college, at : three annual convocations, when he listened to the public disputations and delivered his own addresses, from which the following interesting extracts are quoted : WELLESLEY'S IDEA ABOUT THE COLLEGE AND ITS FUNCTIONS (AS SET FORTH IN HIS SPEECHES) "In the difficulties and dangers of successive wars, in the most critical juncture of arduous negotiations, in the settlement of Conquered and Ceded Provinces, in the time of returning peace, attended by the extension of ·118 DAWN OF NEW INDIA our trade, by the augmentation of our revenue, and by the restoration of public credit, I have contemplated this institution with conscious satisfaction and with confident hope. Observing your auspicious progress under the salutary operation of the statutes and rules of the college, I have anticipated the stability of all our acquisitions, and the security and improvement of every advantage which we possess. From this source, the service may now derive an abundant and regular supply of public officers, duly qualified to become the successful instruments administering this Government in all its extensive and complicated branches ; of promoting its energy in war ; of cultivating and enlarging its resources in peace ; of maintaining in honour and respect its external relations with the Native Powers : and of establishing (under a just and benignant system of internal administration) the prosperity of our finances and commerce, on the solid foundations of the affluence, happiness, and confidence of a contented and grateful people......... The necessity of providing such a system of education was not diminished by the numerous instances existing in the Company's service of eminent Oriental learning, and of high qualification for public duty. A wise and provident Government will not rest the public security for the due administration of affairs, on the merits of any number or description of its public officers at any period of time. It is the duty of Government to endeavour to perpetuate the prosperity of the State by an uniform ·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 119 as system of public institution ; and, by permanent and established law, to transmit to future times, whatever benefits can be derived from present example, of wisdom, virtue and learning...... It has been a principal object of my attention to consolidate the interests and resources of the three presidencies ; to promote in each of them, a common spirit of attachment to their mutual prosperity and honour; to assimilate their principles, views, and systems of Government; and to unite the co-operation of their respective powers in the common cause, by such means, might facilitate the administration of this extensive Empire in the hands of the Supreme Covt. The professors and teachers of the Persian, Arabic, Hindustani, Bengali, Sanskrit, and Tamil languages, are now diligently employed in composing grammars and dictionaries, and in preparing translations and compilations for the use of the students in their respective departments. The operation of these useful labours, will not be confined to the limits of this institution, or of this Empire. Such works tend to promote the general diffusion of Oriental literature and knowledge in every quarter of the globe." (March, 1803). “Considerable exertions have been employed during the last year in publishing elementary works of general utility in the Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindustani, Arabic and Persian languages. A grammar of the Tamil language has also been composed in this college...Great improvements have been introduced in the art of printing ·120 DAWN OF NEW INDIA the Oriental characters, by native artists ; and several of the learned natives are employed in publishing various works of Oriental literature, under the aid derived from the improved art of printing...... The intention of the Statutes is not only to provide instruction in the Oriental languages, and in the several branches of study immediately connected with the performance of official functions, but to prescribe habits of regularity and good order. My principal purpose in founding this institution was, to secure the junior servants of the Company from all undue influence in the discharge of their official functions and to introduce them into the public service in perfect freedom and independence, exempt from every restraint, excepting the high and sacred obligations of their civil, moral, and religious duty. With this salutary view, the Statutes furnish the means and enforce the necessity of acquiring that knowledge, without which, every public officer must become dependent upon the influence of those whom he is appointed to control...... The high character of the East India Company, the fame and glory of our country in this remote region, demand from you a correct observance of all those rules which have been framed for the purpose of securing you against the evils of ignorance, indolence, and extravagance, and of qualifying you in knowledge, in freedom, in, virtue, and honour, to administer to these populous and opulent provinces the blessings of a just, an honest, a British Government." (September, 1804).

·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 121 **The study of the Muhammadan and Hindu codes of law will be facilitated by the works extant on those subjects, to which the attention of the students should be carefully directed. In the course of the present year, I trust, that a considerable progress may be made with the aid of the learning and skill of the principal judicial officers of this Government, in establishing a regular course of study in the Muhammadan and Hindu codes of law. But the accurate study of the regulations, and laws of this Government, under the guidance of the respectable and learned professor in that department, will afford ample opportunity of advantage and distinction to those students, who shall pursue such a course with diligence and attention...... The due administration of just laws within these flourishing and populous provinces, is not only the foundation of the happiness of millions of people, but the main pillar of the vast fabric of the British Empire in Asia : the mainspring of our Empire is situated here ; and it is supplied and guarded by the laws and regulations of this Government. From the prosperity of these provinces are derived all the sources of our revenue and commerce, and public credit ; and the origin and stability of that prosperity are to be found in the code of laws which you are directed to study, and hereafter destined to administer, to expound, and to amend." (February, 1805). now ·122 DAWN OF NEW INDIA ITS EMINENT SCHOLARS The following is a list of some of the eminent scholars who received their training for public service in the college during its first fifteen years, with short notes on their career : W. B. BAYLEY. Degrees of Honour in Persian, Hindustani, Bengali and Arabic. Left college in 1803. Member of the Supreme Council 1822 ; President of the Council of the College of Fort William 1823; Provisional Governor-General 1828 ; Vice-President and Depy. Governor of Bengal, 1830. C. T. METCALFE (1801). Member of the G.-G.'s Council 1827; Vice-President and Depy. Governor of Bengal 1830; Governor of Agra 1834 ; Provisional Governor-General 1835 ; Lt. Governor of the N. W. P. 1836. H. T. PRINSEP (1810). First in Persian, second in Hindustani, fourth in Bengali. Secy. to the Govt. of India, 1834 ; Member of the G.-G.'s Council 1840 : President of the Council of Education 1842. W. H. MACNAGHTEN. First in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and Hindustani ; third in Bengali (1815). W. W. BIRD. Fourth in Hindustani, fifth in Persian, first in the Laws and Regulations (1806), Depy, Governor of Bengal 1840 : officiated as Governor-General 1844. W. H. SLEEMAN (Mily. student). Degrees of Honour in Arabic, Persian and Hindustani (1814).

·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 123 or THE FATE OF THE COLLEGE The Court of Directors did not possess Wellesley's statesmanship foresight; moreover, their one anxiety was to maintain the financial solvency of British India. They could not fully realize the usefulness and importance of an institution like the College of Fort William which had been founded by Wellesley without any previous reference to them. In their Public letter, dated 27th January 1802, they directed the immediate abolition of the college and the re-establishment, on an enlarged scale, of Mr. Gilchrist's seminary which, it appears, was in existence in 1799. The Court's letter was written under an apprehension of a considerable embarrassment in the Company's. finances, although Wellesley assured the Court in his letter of 30th July 1801 that he had actually provided for the current expenses of the college (estimated at 4 lakhs per annum) by new resources altogether, viz., by the revival of town duties and Government customs. The Court's orders were received by Wellesley with the deepest regret, but he was a strong man and stoutly defended his:

·124 DAWN OF NEW INDIA case in a lengthy letter to the Court, dated 5th August 1802, which he hoped would induce his masters to let the college continue as he had designed it. The Court, however, modified their decision to some extent and on 2nd September 1803 directed the continuance of the college until further orders, the Madras and Bombay writers being excluded from it. According to this reduced scale, which came into force from January 1807, the offices of the Provost and Vice-Provost were deemed unnecessary; "all requisite "all requisite superintendence might be found in the professors or in occasional visitations of the Governor-General or the Members of the Council.” The number of pandits and munshis was curtailed, and the European establishment of the college henceforth stood as follows: Capt. Baillie, Professor of Persian and Arabic, monthly salary Rs. 1,500 Capt. Mouat, Professor of Hindustani 1,000 MW. Carey, Professor of Bengali, Sanskrit and Marathi 1,000 Dr. W. Hunter, Secretary and Librarian 1,000 Mr. Matthew Lumsden, Examiner 500 Lt. Macdougall, Examiner 500 ... .. ...

·THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM 125 The Court of Directors, in their Public letter dated 21 May 1806, declared their intention to found a college at Haileybury near Hertford upon an enlarged scale, where the writers, destined for public service in India, would not only receive instructions in all the most useful branches of European learning, but would also be enabled to acquire a competent knowledge of Oriental languages. But as it might not be practicable for the students at Haileybury to attain as perfect a knowledge of Oriental languages as could be wished for, their education was left to be completed in India, for which purpose the College of Fort William was ordered to be run on a moderate scale of expense. The Directors thought that the writers, after they had gone through a course of education at Haileybury, would be able to complete their studies in the Oriental branches in one year at the College of Fort William, provided they devoted their time and attention exclusively to this object. In accordance with the Court's instructions Mir Abdul Abdul Ali and Mirza Khalil were appointed in 1807 on a yearly salary of £600 and a passage to England to teach Persian and Hindustani at the Haileybury College which continued for nearly half a century.

·126 DAWN OF NEW INDIA Still further reductions of establishment were in store for the College of Fort William. Lord William Bentinck, acting upon the suggestions of the Civil Finance Committee, made a radical change in the system of the college. From 1st June 1830 the establishment of the college was confined for the future to a Secretary and three Examiners (Capt. Price, Lt. Ouseley and Lt. Todd) with the requisite number of pandits and munshis under the Secretary for the instruction of the students. Lectures to the students were discontinued, and the offices of the three professors, together with the munshis and pandits attached to them respectively, respectively, were abolished, Carey receiving a pension of Rs. 500 per mensem. Finally, in January 1854, the college was merged in the Board of Examiners. can 6 For a detailed histow of the College of Fort William, see Proceedings of the College of Fort William.Home Miscellaneous Nos. 559-77 (some of the proceedings volumes are missing, but the information contained therein be supplemented from the proceedings of the General Dept. now in the Bengal Government's Office); Capt. Roebuck's Annals of the College of Fort riam, Calcutta 1819; Rules and Regulations of the College "of Fort William 1841; Martin's Wellesley Despatches; Lt.-Col. Ranking's "History of the College of Fort William" in Bengal : Past and Present, vii (1911), pp. 1-29; xxi (1920). pp. 160-200; xxii (1921), 120-158; xxiii (1921). 1-27, 84-153; xxiv (1922), 112-138. “The College of Fort William"...Calcutta Review, v. 86-123. ..

·BY THE SAME AUTHOR BEGAM SAMRU WITH A FOREWORD BY JADUNATH SARKAR, C.I.E., (Vice-Chancellor, Calcutta University) Pp. 246 and 8 full page illustrations, Rs. 2/8. Begam Samru was a wonderful woman: "A Kashmiri girl who from abject poverty and obscurity rose to the command of a European-drilled brigade, the sovereignty of a territory as large as two English counties, and the honoured position of a shield to the Delhi imperial family, and died in the fulness of her years in the odour of sanctity as the honoured ally of the English rulers and a saint of the Roman Catholic Church."-(SARKAR.) This is the first attempt to write her biography on the basis of a critical study of all the available historical materials in print or MS.,- in English, Persian, Marathi and French, besides the mass of old State-papers in the Imperial Record Office, Calcutta. TIMES.—"Mr. Banerji has been at great pains to collect all the materials possible for his monograph." SIR EVAN COTTON.-"A most readable and valuable book." H. BEVERIDGE.—"The author has written an interesting acros of the Begam, and has given much reliable information about her." PIONEER.-—"A fascinating historical romance of the 18th century... result of patient laborious research...A judicious blending of a powerful romance with true and accurate historical information on the downfall of the Mughal Empire." ..

·RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY'S MISSION TO ENGLAND Based on Unpublished State Records Price Rs. 1/4 (with 4 illustrations) This book throws a food "of new light on the most important chapter in the life of the Maker of Modern India. The unpublished records of the Government of India have been thoroughly ransacked, and the full history of Rammohụn's embassy to England on behalf of the poor Emperor of Delhi,--the obstacles he met with in India, how he overcame them, what he did in England has been here published for the first time. The petition drafted by the Rajah for the Mughal Emperor is a literary treasure written in a masterly style and with the most cogent reasoning, which has been recently discovered by Mr. Banerji and printed in this work. JADUNATH SARKAR, M.A., C.I.E. (Vice-Chancellor, Calcutto University) :-"Brajendranath's devoted search State. papers has yielded rich harvest * * * Eminently readable * To the future biographer of the Prophet of the Indian Renaissance it will remain indispensable as a solid contribution of original information." (Modern Review, July 1926). SIR WILLIAM. FOSTER Kt., C.I.E. (India Office, London) :"I offer you my best thanks for your interesting and valuable monograph. To a very useful piece of work." among our 1 totus wed LIBRARY

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