_Benares--Cashmere Mull's House--The Chouk--The Bisheshwan Temple, and
Maido Rai Minar--Jung Bahadoor in Benares--A Rajah's visit--The marriage
of Jung Bahadoor--Review of the Nepaul Rifle Regiment--Benares College_.
Whatever may be said of the large salaries of the Bengal civilians, they
certainly deserve great credit for the praiseworthy employment of their
wealth; and making amends as it were for the backwardness of India as
regards hotels, they supply their places to the friendless traveller, in
a way which our frigid friends at home might imitate with advantage. I
look back upon my stay in Benares with the greatest pleasure, and shall
long remember the kindness I there experienced.
There is much to be seen in the Holy City, and the means of locomotion
which I should recommend the sight-seer to adopt are Tom Johns, or chairs
swung upon poles, with or without hoods, as the case may be. Upon
arriving at the Chouk or Market-place, we hired two of these conveyances
and started to see the residence of Cashmere Mull. But first I must make
an attempt, however unsuccessful, to describe the Chouk: it is a large
square, studded with raised oblong platforms without walls, the roofs
being supported by fluted Ionic columns. The Police Court, in which a
Native magistrate presides, forms one side of the square. On the
platforms sit the vendors of shawls, skull-caps, toys, shells,
sugar-cane, and various other commodities; but to enumerate the
extraordinary diversity of goods exposed for sale, or to describe the
Babel of tongues which confound the visitor as he wanders through the
motley crowd, would be impossible.
We turned out of the Chouk down a narrow street about three feet broad,
gloomy from the height of the houses, and unpleasant from the great crowd
and close atmosphere; every now and then we got jammed into a corner by
some Brahminee bull, who would insist upon standing across the street to
eat the fine cauliflower he had just plundered from the stall of an
unresisting greengrocer, and who, exercising the proud rights of
citizenship, could only be politely coaxed to move his unwieldy carcase
out of the way.
We wended our way through pipe bazaars and vegetable bazaars, where each
shopkeeper has a sort of stall, with about three feet frontage to the
street, but of unknown depth, and a narrow balcony supported by carved
wood-work over his head, out of the latticed windows of which bright eyes
look down upon the passengers. Whenever there is a piece of wall not
otherwise occupied in this compact and busy city, you see depicted, in
gaudy colours, elephants rushing along with dislocated joints in hot
pursuit of sedate parrots, or brilliant peacocks looking with calm
composure upon camels going express, who must inevitably crush them in
their headlong career, but the vain birds, apparently taken up with
admiration of their own tails, are blind to the impending danger, thereby
reading a good lesson both to the passers-by and to the shopkeepers
opposite. Now a sudden jerk prevents you from further moralizing, as you
find that you are going round a corner so sharp that you must get bumped
either before or behind. There are ugly women carrying brass
water-vessels, rich merchants on ponies, sirwahs on horses, here and
there in the wider streets a camel or an elephant, but very seldom, as
few streets would accommodate either of them; finally there are
chuprassies who disperse the crowd with their swords in a most peremptory
manner, smiting everything indiscriminately, except the Brahminee bulls,
which, although they are much the most serious impediments, are left
"alone in their glory."
By the exertions of these city police we reached Cashmere Mull's house,
noted as a specimen of antique Oriental architecture.
The court-yard into which we were first ushered reminded me of an old
English "hostelrie;" it was small and uncovered, and round each story ran
a curiously worked balcony, on to which opened doors and windows, carved
with strange devices, and all the nooks and crannies formed by so much
intricate carving were filled with dust and cobwebs. Passing up a
narrow, dark, and steep stone stair, we reached a second court-yard, upon
the balcony of which we emerged, and which was so very like the last,
that I imagined it to be the same, until I remarked that it was smaller,
and, if possible, more dirty. We thence ascended to the flat roof of the
house, and on our way looked through half-open doors into dark dungeons
of rooms, which one would not for the world have ventured into at night.
There was a raised stage with steps up to it, which we ascended and found
ourselves on a level with a great many similar stages on the tops of a
great many similar houses. A stone parapet about 8 feet high, with
beautiful open carving, enclosed this stage, so that we could inspect our
neighbours through our stone screen with impunity. On the next roof to
where we were was a boy training pigeons, and the numerous crates or
frames on the surrounding house-tops showed this to be a favourite
amusement. The young gentleman in question certainly made his flock obey
him in a wonderful manner, his chief object being to take prisoner a
pigeon from his neighbour's flock. He directed their gyrations by loud
shrill cries, and, as there were numbers of other members of "Young
Benares" employed in like manner, it seemed wonderful how he could
recognize his pigeons, or they their master.
Leaving this antique specimen of a nobleman's town house, we passed
through a maze of narrow streets; and bobbing under low archways at the
imminent peril of fracturing our skulls, we arrived at the Bisheshwan
Temple, which was crowded with Hindoos worshipping the Lingum,
representations of which met the eye in every direction.
A well in the yard behind the temple was surrounded by worshippers of the
god, who is supposed to have plunged down it and never to have come up
again. If so, he must find the smell of decayed vegetation very
oppressive, as garlands of flowers and handfuls of rice are continually
being offered up, or rather down, to him. From this well we had a good
view of the temple, which was covered with gold by Runjeet Singh, and
presents a gorgeous and dazzling appearance.
In close vicinity to this temple is a mosque built by Arungzebe to annoy
the Hindoos. I ascended the Maido Rai Minar or minaret, and from its
giddy height had a magnificent panorama of the city and its environs,
with the Ganges flowing majestically beneath, its left bank teeming with
life, while the opposite bank seemed desolate.
The observatory, or man mundil, is on the river's bank, and affords a
pretty view from its terraces, which are covered with disks and
semicircles and magical figures cut in stone.
Gopenate Dore Peshad is the great dealer in Benares embroidery, as well
as its manufacturer. We paid him a visit and were delighted with the
rich variety of embroidered goods which were displayed; we saw pieces
valued at from 10,000 rupees downwards: magnificent smoking carpets,
housings and trappings for horses, shawls, caps, kenkabs, and other
articles of eastern attire, were spread out before us in gorgeous
profusion. After eating a cardamum, and touching with our
pocket-handkerchief some cotton on which had been dropped otto of roses,
we ascended to the house-top, and found it built upon much the same plan
as Cashmere Mull's, without its antique carving and quaint appearance.
We were not a little glad when the bustle and heat attendant on so much
sight-seeing was over, and we forced our way back through the crowded
streets.
The population of Benares is estimated by Mr. Prinsep at nearly 200,000;
its trade consists chiefly in sugar, saltpetre, indigo, opium, and
embroidered cloths; besides which, the city has advantages in its
position on the great river, making it, jointly with Mirzapore, the depot
for the commerce of the Dukkum and interior of Hindostan.
General Jung Bahadoor had reached Benares a few days before I arrived
there, and I found him installed in a handsome house, the envy of all
rajahs, the wonder of the natives, and the admiration of his own
countrymen, some thousands of whom had come thus far to meet him. If he
had been a lion in London, he was not less an object of interest at
Benares--his house was always crowded with visitors of high degree,
Indian and European; one old native rajah in particular was frequently to
be seen in close conference with him; and the result was, that the Prime
Minister of Nepaul became the husband of the second daughter of his
Highness the ex-Rajah of Coorg. Upon the day following his nuptials my
friend and I called upon him, and to our surprise he offered to present
us to his newly wedded bride. We, of course, expressed our sense of the
honour he was doing us; and had just reached the balcony, the stairs
leading up to which were on the outside of the house, when our friend the
bridegroom perceived his father-in-law, the Coorg rajah, coming in a most
dignified manner down the approach. Like a schoolboy caught in the
master's orchard, he at once retreated and unceremoniously hurried us
back--and just in time, for no doubt, if the old Coorg had detected him
thus exhibiting his daughter the day after he had married her, he would
have mightily disapproved of so improper a proceeding. This incident
shows how utterly Jung despised those prejudices which enthralled his
bigoted father-in-law. He was, in fact, the most European Oriental, if I
may so speak, that I ever met with, and more thoroughly unaffected and
unreserved in his communication with us than is the habit with eastern
great men, who always seem afraid of compromising themselves by too much
condescension. An instance of this occurred during another visit. While
we were chatting on indifferent subjects a native rajah was announced, as
being desirous of paying a visit of ceremony. Jung immediately stepped
forward to receive him with much politeness. The rajah commenced
apologising for not having called sooner, excusing himself on the plea of
the present being the only auspicious hour which had been available since
his Excellency's arrival; a compliment which the latter returned by
remarking that it was unfortunate that his immediate departure would
preclude the possibility of his returning his visit, which he the more
regretted, as he was at present most particularly engaged in matters of a
pressing nature with the English gentlemen, and he therefore hoped he
would be excused thus abruptly, but unavoidably, terminating an interview
which it would otherwise have given him the greatest pleasure to have
prolonged. Thus saying, he politely rose and led the rajah in the most
graceful manner to the front door, which was no sooner closed behind him
than he returned, rubbing his hands with great glee, as he knowingly
remarked, "That is the way to get over an interview with one of these
natives."
A detachment of a regiment had come to Benares to escort the General on
his journey to Katmandu, and he accordingly determined to favour the
inhabitants generally, and the English in particular, with a review.
The men were tall and well-made, and were dressed in a light-green
uniform with yellow facings. They went through various evolutions with
tolerable regularity; but the performance which excited the most interest
was the platoon exercise, no word of command being given, but everything
done with the utmost precision at different notes of the music, the men
beating time the whole while and giving a swaying motion to their bodies,
which produced a most curious effect. The origin of this novel
proceeding, his Excellency told us, was a request by the Ranee that some
other means should be invented of putting the men through their exercises
than by hoarse shouts, which grated upon her ear. The minister
immediately substituted this more euphonious but less business-like
method.
At this review Jung Bahadoor and his brothers were dressed in the costume
they wore when in England: the handsome diamonds in their turbans
glittering in the sunshine.
I accompanied him one day on a visit to the Benares college, a handsome
building in process of erection by the Indian Government. The Gothic and
Oriental styles of architecture are most happily combined, and there is
an airiness about the building; but this did not in any way detract from
its solidity. The cost of the college and professor's house is not to
exceed 13,000 pounds; the length of the large school-room is 260 feet,
its breadth 35; and there are six large class-rooms on each side.