The early history of Sadh Belo is closely connected with that of the
famous Swami Vankhandi. Swami Vankhandi had been incarnated once in the
seventeenth century, for we find him receiving worship as early as
1710. We, however, are only concerned with his second incarnation,
which occurred in or about A.D. 1764. In the later descent on earth he
lived and practised yog or asceticism at Muran Jharee in the territory
of H.H. The Maharaja of Nepal. While he was still a young man his
reputation for holiness spread far and wide; but it aroused the envy
and malice of another anchorite of Muran Jharee named Gusai Sanyasi
Sadhu. At last Gusai could contain himself no longer and made his way
to the court of the Maharaja. There he told his sovereign that a
certain sadhu of Muran Jharee had vowed by his austerities to destroy
the kingdom. He warned the Maharaja that for several months the Sadhu
had touched neither food nor water and he begged his master to destroy
the Sadhu before it was too late. The Maharaja was alarmed and sent an
army to take prisoner the seditious anchorite and bring him to
Kathmandu, the chief town of Nepal.
When the army appeared at Muran Jharee, they found Swami Vankhandi
absorbed in contemplation. As they watched him their own warlike spirit
ebbed away and they were filled with a great calm; without saying a
word they waited until the Swami thought fit to lift his eyes towards
them. The Nepal General then told the Swami that he had received orders
to take him prisoner and humbly implored his pardon. The Swami forgave
him and told him that he would go on ahead of the army and wait for
them at Kathmandu. With these words the Swami vanished and although the
General and his officers searched for him everywhere, they could not
find him. At last they returned to Kathmandu and just outside the
walls, they found the Swami sitting in a deep religious trance, in the
shade of a banian tree. They did not disturb him but went straight to
the Maharaja, to whom they told all that had happened. The Maharaja saw
that he had been deceived by the wicked Gusai and drove him from the
town; then he asked for the pardon and blessing of Swami Vankhandi. The
Swami saw that the Maharaja had truly repented and forgave and blessed
him. Then he vanished and in the twinkling of an eye was once more to
be seen at his own place in Muran Jharee.
Many and great were the miracles recorded of Swami Vankhandi, but the
one that will interest English readers most is the summary way in which
he dealt with a certain Captain Pauk Wales, a gentleman whom I have not
been able to trace in English works of reference. In 1822 Swami
Vankhandi after many pilgrimages to the holy shrines of India came to
Sind. Cholera was then raging in Haidarabad, but the Swami’s presence
proved sufficient to drive it away. From Haidarabad he went to Khairpur
and Rohri and seeing Sadh Belo island in the river Indus near Sukkur
resolved to settle there and found a monastery. There he lived for
twenty years until such time as Sir Charles Napier conquered Sind and
appointed Captain Pauk Wales as Collector of the Shikarpur district.
Captain Pauk Wales, wholly ignorant of the power and fame of the Swami,
thought that Sadh Belo island would be an ideal place for a collector’s
bungalow. With Captain Pauk Wales, action followed swiftly on the heels
of thought. He sent for masons and building materials and began to
build a bungalow. But every morning that he went to look at the work,
he found that during the night it had been levelled with the ground. He
was convinced that the masons and the Swami were acting in collusion
and he set a guard of English soldiers over Sadh Belo. Although the
soldiers never closed their eyes all night, Captain Pauk Wales next day
found that not only had the masonry work been thrown down in the night,
but that the bricks, mortar and all the building materials collected by
him had vanished. In a rage he went up to the Swami and roundly abused
him. While Captain Pauk Wales was swearing horribly, the Swami, shocked
beyond measure, vanished into thin air. That night both Captain Pauk
Wales and his wife were seized with internal pains of an agonising
description. After a night of anguish Mrs. Pauk Wales advised her lord
and master to beg the Swami’s pardon. For a long time the Swami could
not be found, but with the aid of the townspeople, he was eventually
traced to a spot outside Sukkur, where he was quietly singing to
himself. Captain Pauk Wales threw himself at the Swami’s feet and
promised never more to interfere with his holy island.
Swami Vankhandi lived on to the ripe age of a hundred. Feeling himself
nigh to death, he sent for his disciples and warned them of his
approaching end. He told them that he would hold his breath until his
soul departed. When they thought him dead, they should put a pat of
butter on his forehead. If it did not melt, it meant that he had ceased
to live. They should then throw his corpse into the Indus river. The
disciples faithfully carried out their master’s wishes and when the pat
of butter did not melt on his forehead, they threw his body into the
great river. They had barely done so, when a rich merchant of Shikarpur
came to Sadh Belo with a precious necklace of pearls for Vankhandi, of
whose death he was unaware. Learning that Vankhandi was no more, the
merchant refused to return to Shikarpur and infinitely firm of purpose,
he vowed to sit by the edge of the river and neither to eat nor to
drink until the Swami came himself to accept the necklace. On the
second night the Swami in a dream promised that he would appear before
his devoted follower the next day. Fortified by the vision, the
Shikarpur merchant sat on by the edge of the stream. At noon the body
of the Swami rose out of the Indus and the merchant put the necklace
round its neck. The body then lay on the bank and the merchant called
to him the anchorites of the place, who once more consigned reverently
the body of the Saint into the whirling waters of the mighty river.