The servants and attendants of the lady awaited her without, and
preceded her to the temple, which was situated in a court by itself,--a
small unpretending building, which her son had built at her request.
The usual priests sat by the shrine, feeding the lamps with oil, and
offering flowers and incense for those who needed their services. This,
too, had been a busy day for them, for the Rajah's temple had been
opened to those who came to the fort; and many a humble offering and
donation of copper coins to the priests, from the soldiery, had been
the result. The court had now been cleared of all visitors, and the
doors shut. As the lady advanced and sat down before the shrine, the
priests made the customary libations and offerings, and stood apart,
not daring to speak, for her visions of the goddess were well known,
and much feared, and this might be the occasion of one of them. So, as
she sat down, the priests and her attendants shrank back behind the
entrance to the sanctum, and awaited the issue in silence.
Very different from Tara, as she had sunk down in her strange delirium
before the shrine at Tooljapoor, the Máhá Ranee, as she was called,
but more simply and lovingly the "Lady Mother," was perfectly calm
and self-possessed. A small, grey-headed, slightly-formed woman, of
graceful carriage and shape, which had altered little, if at all,
from the best period of her youth: nor, except in her hair, had age
apparently told much upon her: for the arms were still as round, the
skin of her cheek as soft and downy as ever, and the firm springy tread
of the small naked foot showed no decline of vigour. Her son often told
her she was yet the most beautiful woman in Maharástra; nor indeed, in
the clear golden olive of her skin, in the delicate mould and sweet
expressive character of her features, above all, in the soft lustre of
her eyes, had she many rivals.
She had seated herself directly before the shrine, on which was a
small gold image of the goddess upon a golden pedestal; and the
water-vessels, lamps, and other articles of service were also of gold.
The full light of the lamps within shone out on her, and glistened
on the white silk garment she wore, with its broad crimson and gold
border--upon the jewelled bracelets on her arms--and the large pearls
about her neck. The end of her saree, heavy with gold thread, had
fallen a little aside as she seated herself, and her soft throat, and
a little of the crimson silk bodice below, could be seen--enough to
show that if the face were calm, the bosom was heaving rapidly, and
under the influence of no common emotion. No one dared to speak to
her, or interrupt her thoughts or prayers, whatever they might be; and
when she seated herself before the shrine in this manner, the priests
and attendants knew she expected a "revelation," and had to wait, even
though it might be for many hours, for the issue.
When it came, it was with various effect. At times calm, with
glistening eyes and throbbing bosom, her hands clenched convulsively,
she would speak strange words, which were heard with a mysterious
reverence, and recorded by an attendant priest; at others, the
result was wild delirium, when they were obliged to hold her, and
when the excitement was followed by exhaustion, which remained for
days.[14] Now, however, she sat calmly, her eyes cast down, but raised
occasionally with an imploring look to the image, seldom altering her
position, and seemingly unconscious of the time which passed.
Long she sat there; the shadows of the mountains lengthened, till only
their peaks shone like fire, and then suddenly died out. The moon rose,
and the little court was white under her silver beams, and still the
lady sat and moved not. The chill night breeze at that elevation had
caused an involuntary shiver to pass over her, which her favourite
attendant thought was the precursor of the usual affection, but nothing
followed; and seeing it was caused by cold, had, apparently unobserved,
cast over her a large red shawl, which fell in soft folds round her
person. It was far in the night when she arose from that strange vigil;
and, dreamily passing her hands over her face and neck as if to arouse
herself, sighed, and advancing to the threshold of the shrine, joined
her hands together, and bowing reverently before the image, saluted it,
and silently turned away.
"Not to-night, Bheemee," she said to a woman who approached her bearing
her sandals, and laid them down at the entrance to the temple,--"not
to-night. The Mother bids me go; she is sad, and will come another
time. Hark! what is what?" and she paused to listen.
A hoarse roar, a cry as though of a wail of thousands of voices, came
from all sides at once, floating up the precipices, echoed from the
rocks, and reverberating from mountain to mountain. It seemed to those
present, who were already filled with superstitious expectation, as if
spirits cried out, being invisible, and that some unearthly commotion
was in progress around them. In the pure mountain air, still as it
was, these sounds seemed to float about them mysteriously, now dying
away, and now returning more faintly than before, till they ceased,
or only a confused perception of them remained. The fierce shout or
wail, however, occurred but once; what followed was more diffuse and
undecided.
"Something has moved the people more than ordinarily, lady," said a
priest who advanced from the outer court. "The assembly can be seen
from the bastion yonder, and I have been watching it while you were
within; if you would look, follow me."
She drew the shawl more closely around her, and went with him through
the court to the bastion, which, situated on the edge of an angle of
the precipice, commanded a view of the town and valley below. The moon
shone clear and bright, else she had looked into a black void; but the
air was soft and white, of a tint like opal, as the moon's rays caught
the thin vapours now rising. Some thousands of feet below, was a bright
spot in a dell, filled with torches, which sent up a dull smoke, while
they diffused a bright light on all around. There were many thousands
of people there, mostly men, and there was a glitter as of weapons
among them, as the masses still heaved and swayed under the influence
of some strange excitement. She could make out no particular forms, but
she knew that her son sat in the pavilion at the end, and about that
there was no movement. As she looked, the shout they had first heard
arose more clearly than before--"Hur, Hur, Mahadeo! Dônguras-lavilé
Déva!"[15]
"O Mother," she cried, stretching out her arms to the sky, and then to
the dell below, "enough! thou hast heard the prayer of thy daughter:
thou wast there with him, not with me. Now I understand, and it is
enough. Come, Bheemee, it is cold," she said, after a pause, and in her
usual cheerful voice, "thou shouldst have been yonder in the Kutha,
girl, and all of you. Well, the next, to-morrow night, will be a better
one, and you shall all go, for I will go myself with the Maharaja; come
now, they will not return till daylight;" and descending the steps
of the bastion, she followed her servants, who preceded her, to the
private apartments.
Below, Sivaji had been busy since before sunset. He had descended the
mountain on foot, attended by his body-guard, and a large company of
the garrison of the fort--a gay procession, as, accompanied by the
pipers and horn-blowers of the fortress, it had wound down the rugged
pathway in the full glare of the evening sun; and, amidst the shouts
of thousands, and a confused and hideous clangour, caused by the
independent performances of all the pipers and drummers of the clans
assembled--the screaming, quivering notes of the long village horns,
the clash of cymbals, and the deep tones of some of the large brass
trumpets belonging to the temple, which had been brought down from the
fort,--Sivaji passed on round the village to the spot which had been
cleared for the Kutha.
It was a glen from which all wood had long been cleared away, and
short crisp grass had grown up in its place, which, moistened by the
perpetual drainage of the mountain, was always close and verdant. Near
enough to the village to serve as a grazing ground for its cattle, the
herbage was kept short by them; and the passage round and round its
sides of beasts of all kinds, goats and sheep, cows, bullocks, and
buffaloes, had worn them into paths which formed, as it were, a series
of steps, rising gradually to the edge of the forest above.
In the midst was a bright green sward, soft and close, and of some
extent, and at all times of the year the resort of the village youth
for athletic exercises--wrestling, leaping, archery, shooting with the
matchlock, or, most favoured of all perhaps, the sword-playing for
which the Mahratta soldiery were almost celebrated. A projecting mound,
which might have been artificial, and was possibly the partly completed
embankment of some intended reservoir, stretched nearly across its
mouth, and while its grassy surface afforded seats to many of the
spectators, it shut out the valley beyond, from all observers.
At the upper end of the dell, which in shape was a long oval, and
slightly raised above the level sward, was the Rajah's seat, a platform
of sods and earth, covered with dry grass, and then with carpets from
the fort, upon which the Guddee, or seat of state, was placed. Directly
the Rajah had retired from the morning ceremony, the cushions had been
taken down the mountain and placed on this dais, which afforded room
also for many personal friends and priests who attended the ceremony
with him.
In the centre of the sward, but near the upper end, was the place for
the players. The smoothest portion of turf had been selected, and
around it wattled screens were built, made of leafy branches, for
entrance and exit, and also to allow of changes of dress, rest during
intervals of performance, and the like. The stage, if it might be
called one, was bounded by wild plantain trees cut off at the root,
and set in the ground so that the broad leaves continued fresh and
green; and above these were twined branches of teak with their large
rough foliage, bamboos, and other slender trees readily felled and
transported, while long masses of flowery creepers had been cut from
the forest, and hung from poles at each side above the players' heads
in graceful festoons. Inside all this foliage, were huge cressets of
iron filled with cotton-seed soaked in oil, and all round the area
below, and especially round the Rajah's seat, similar torches had been
arranged, which would be lighted as the ceremony began, and illuminate
the whole.
Before the stage, there was a small altar of earth, on which brightly
polished brass vessels for pouring libations were set out, and above
them, upon a silver pedestal, a small silver image of the goddess had
been placed for worship.
Early in the afternoon, people had begun to assemble there, and after
the Rajah's arrival in the town, a new procession was formed to
accompany him to the place. Thousands had rushed on before it; along
the valley, over the shoulders of the mountain, and as best they could,
so as to secure good places for the sight; and by the time the head of
the procession crossed the little brook which bubbled out beneath the
mound, and ran leaping and tinkling down the valley, and had entered
the glen,--the whole of its sides and the mound had grown into a dense
mass of human beings closely packed together. There were comparatively
few women; those who sat there were for the most part the Rajah's
Mawullees and Hetkurees, armed as if for battle, ready, if needed, to
march thence on any enterprise, however distant or desperate.
A clear space had been left for the advancing procession. In front
the Rajah's pipers, playing some of the wild mountain melodies, which
echoed among the woods and crags above, broken now and then by blasts
of horns and trumpets, and the deep monotonous beat of many large
tambourine drums, the bearers of which were marshalled by the chief
drummer of the fort, who, with his instrument decked with flowers and
silken streamers, strutted or leaped in front of all, beating a wild
march. Then followed Brahmuns, bare-headed and naked to the waist,
carrying bright copper vessels of sacred water, flowers and incense,
with holy fire from the temple on the mountain, chanting hymns at
intervals. After them, the players and reciters, male and female, in
fantastic dresses, wearing gilt tiaras to resemble the costumes seen
in carvings of ancient temples, among whom were the jesters or clowns,
who bandied bold and free remarks with the crowd, and provoked many
a hearty laugh and sharp retort. After these the Rajah's own guard,
some with sword and buckler only, others bearing matchlocks with
long bright barrels, who marched in rows with somewhat of military
organization; then the servants; and last of all Sivaji himself.
Slowly the procession passed up the centre; then the leading portions
of it dividing on each hand, the Rajah, advancing, mounted the small
platform. Ere he seated himself he saluted the assembly, turning to
each side of it with his hand raised to his head, and all rose to
welcome him with clapping of hands and shouts which made the wooded
glen and the precipices above, ring with the joyous sound. Then all
subsided into their seats, and the preliminary sacrifices and offerings
began.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] A series of very curious and most interesting papers on this
subject, by the late Xavier Murphy, Esq., were published some years ago
in the "Dublin University Magazine."--M. T.
[15] "O Mahadeo! the fire has lit the hills!"--the Mahratta invocation
to battle which is used also as the heading to all threatening notices.