PEOPLE did not think much of Baburam Babu's _shraddha_. The rain,
as the proverb has it, was out of all proportion to the thunder.
Oil fell on a good many heads that were oiled already, while heads
that were dry and destitute of oil only got cracked. Their
disputation was all the profit that the pandits got. The
uneducated city Brahmans had it all their own way. The harsh
discipline of all kinds to which pandits subject themselves,
creates in them a stubbornness of nature: they follow their own
opinions and do not agree with all and everything they find.
The Brahmans of a lower order, _habitúes_ of the city, suit their
conversation to the minds of the Babus: in the words of the proverb,
they adapt their strokes to the quality of the wood. If it suits
them to be Gosains, Gosains they can be; and the characters they
can assume are as varied as the ingredients of a curry mixture; is
it surprising then that they generally get the best of everything?
The managers of the _shraddha_ had taken every precaution to fill
their own pockets: they were keen chiefly on their own share of
the gifts: what did it matter to them whether the pandits or the
poor received anything worth mentioning? There was a great flourish
of trumpets over things that would be matter of public observation
and could not be avoided, but equal consideration was not shown
throughout. Management such as that is a mere playing to the gallery.
The stir which the _shraddha_ had caused gradually died away.
Bancharam and Thakchacha took to flattering Matilall to an
extraordinary extent, and Matilall, being of a very weak nature,
was enthralled by their seductive language, and thought that he had
no other friends on earth like them. With a view to increasing his
importance they one day said to him:-- "Sir, you are now master:
it behoves you to take your seat on the _guddee_ of the master now
in heaven: how otherwise will his dignity be maintained?" Matilall
was highly delighted at the idea. As a child he had heard bits
of the _Ramayana_ and _Mahabharata_[42], and so it occurred to him
that he would be seated on the _guddee_ with the same pomp and
circumstance with which Yudhishthira and Ram Chandra were anointed
to the throne of their ancestors. Bancharam and Thakchacha saw that
Matilall's face shone again with delight at the suggestion they
had made, so the next day they settled on a date for the ceremony,
and calling together all his kinsmen and friends, seated Matilall
upon his father's _guddee_. In the village the report got about
that Matilall had attained to this honour: The news soon spread:
it was told in the market-place, in the bazar, at the _ghât_, and
in the fields. A choleric old Brahman, when he heard it remarked,
"Oh, he has attained the _guddee_, has he? What a fine expression!
And whose _guddee_, pray? That of the great Jagat Sett[43], or of
Devi Dass Balmukunda?"
When a man of sound sense attains to a high position or to great
wealth, he is not liable to be lightly swayed hither and thither;
whereas a man who lacks solidity of character, should he attain
to a higher position than he is accustomed to, is as unstable
as the waters of a flood. And so it proved with Matilall. Day
and night, unceasing as a torrent, arose the hubbub of boisterous
amusement. His companions did not diminish; on the contrary, their
number daily increased, rapidly as the fabulous _Raktabij_[44]. Was
there anything surprising in this? When rice is scattered there
is no lack of crows, and a whole army of ants will come together
at the scent of molasses.
Bakreswar Baba visited Matilall one day to try and get something
out of him, and used all his arts to fascinate Matilall by his
talk. But Matilall had been acquainted from his boyhood with
Bakreswar's crafty cajolery, and so he gave him this answer:--
"Sir, you have destroyed all my chances in the next world by the
partiality and favour you showed me in the past. I never failed
to give you enough presents when I was a boy: why do you keep
bothering me now?" Bakreswar went away with his head bent low,
muttering to himself. Matilall was now as one inebriated with
pleasure: though Bancharam and Thakchacha went occasionally
to see him, he would have little to do with them in the way of
business. Owing to the power-of-attorney he had given them, they
had entire command over everything, and now and again they made
the Babu a liberal advance, but nothing in the way of detailed
accounts of expenditure was forthcoming from them.
As for the rest of his family, he never took the slightest notice
of them: he never even troubled himself to enquire where they
were or where they went. The ladies endured much hardship on
this account, but Matilall by his riotous living had become so
lost to all sense of shame that he paid no heed to the reports
that reached him on the subject. To have to mourn for a husband
is the greatest affliction that a faithful wife is called on to
endure. It is some alleviation to her in her trouble, if she have
good children; but if on the contrary they disappoint her it adds
intensity to the bitterness of her grief, as melted butter thrown
upon fire. Matilall's evil behaviour was a terrible grief to his
mother, but she never spoke openly of it. One day, however, after
long deliberation, she approached him and said:-- "My child,
what was to be my lot, that has been: now, for the few remaining
days that I have to live, let me not have to listen to this evil
report of you. I cannot lend my ears to people's abuse of you. Have
some little regard for your younger brother, your elder sister,
and your stepmother: they are not getting half enough to eat. Ah,
my child, I ask nothing for myself: I lay no farther burden upon
you." To these words of his mother, Matilall, his eyes inflamed
with passion, replied: "What? will you be always chattering
and abusing me? Do you not know that I am now master in my own
house? What is this evil report about me?" As he said this, he
struck his mother a blow on the face and pushed her down. She
got up from the ground after a short interval, and wiping away
her tears with the border of her _saree_, said to her son: "Ah,
my son! I never heard of children beating their mothers before,
but it has been my destiny for this to happen to me. I have nothing
further to say: I only pray that all may be well with you." Next
day, without saying a word to any one, his mother left the house
with her daughter.
Since the death of his father, Ramlall had made many efforts to
be on good terms with his brother, but had had to suffer many
indignities. Matilall was in constant anxiety lest he should have
to give up the half of the property, and so be unable to continue
his _role_ of the grandee; and as life would be but a sorry farce
if he had to give up that _role_, he must, he considered, take
the necessary steps to mulct his brother of his share. Having
settled on this plan, by the advice of course of Bancharam and
Thakchacha, he forbade Ramlall the house. Thus shut out from the
home of his fathers, Ramlall, after long deliberation, without
having had an interview with his mother, sister, or any one,
proceeded to another part of the country.