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RETROSPECT OF BENARES.

The city of Benares is certainly the richest, as well as, probably, the most populous in India; it is also the best governed in respect to its police, which is carried on by a sort of national guard, the chuprassies, of whom I have made frequent mention, chosen by the inhabitants themselves, and merely approved of by the magistrates. There are about 500 of these in the city, which is divided into 60 wards, with a gate to each which is shut at night, and guarded by one of these people. In consequence, notwithstanding the vast population, the crowds of beggars and pilgrims of all countries, (of Maharatta pilgrims alone there are generally some 20,000 in the place, many of them armed, and of warlike and predatory habits) robberies and murders are very rare, while the guards being elected and paid by the respectable householders, have an interest in being civil, well-behaved, and attentive.

The army at Secrole is never called in except in cases of extremity, according to an excellent rule laid down and strictly observed by the government of Bengal, never to employ the military force except in affairs of real war, or where an active and numerous police is visibly incompetent to provide for the public safety. Only one instance of the military being called in has occurred at Benares during the last twenty-five years, which was on occasion of the quarrel I have already noticed between the Mussulmans and Hindoos. At that time Mr. Bird was magistrate, and he gave me a far more formidable idea of the tumult than I had

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previously formed. One half of the population was literally armed against the other, and the fury which actuated both was more like that of demoniacs than rational enemies. It began by the Mussulmans breaking down a famous pillar, named Siva's walking-staff, held in high veneration by the Hindoos. These last in revenge burnt and broke down a mosque, and the retort of the first aggressors was to kill a cow, and pour her blood into the sacred well. In consequence every Hindoo able to bear arms, and many who had no other fitness for the employment than rage supplied, procured weapons, and attacked their enemies with frantic fury wherever they met them. Being the most numerous party, they put the Mussulmans in danger of actual extermination, and would certainly have, at least, burned every mosque in the place before twenty-four hours were over, if the Sepoys had not been called in. Of these last, the temper was extremely doubtful. By far the greater number of them were Hindoos, and perhaps one half Brahmins; any one of them, if he had been his own master, would have rejoiced in an opportunity of shedding his life's blood in a quarrel with the Mussulmans, and of the mob who attacked them, the Brahmins, yoguees, gossains, and other religious mendicants formed the front rank, their bodies and faces covered with chalk and ashes, their long hair untied as devoted to death, shewing their strings, and yelling out to them all the bitterest curses of their religion, if they persisted in urging an unnatural war against their brethren and their gods. The

4.30

RELIGIOUS TUMULT.

Sepoys, however, were immoveable. Regarding their military oath as the most sacred of all obligations, they fired at a Brahmin as readily as at any one else, and kept guard at the gate of a mosque as faithfully and fearlessly as if it had been the gate of one of their own temples. Their courage and steadiness preserved Benares from ruin.

One observation of some of the Hindoo Sepoys was remarkable. The pillar, the destruction of which led to all the tumult, had originally stood in one of the Hindoo temples which were destroyed by Aurungzebe, and mosques built over them. In the mosque, however, it still was suffered to exist, and pilgrimages were made to it by the Hindoos through the connivance of the Mussulmans, in consequence of their being allowed to receive half of all the offerings made there. It was a very beautiful shaft of one stone, forty feet high, and covered with exquisite carving. This carving gave offence to several zealous Mohammedans, but the quarrel which hastened its destruction arose as I have stated, from the unfortunate rencontre of the rival processions. Respecting the pillar a tradition had long prevailed among the Hindoos, that it was gradually sinking in the ground, that it had been twice the visible height it then shewed, and that when its summit was level with the earth, all nations were to be of one caste, and the religion of Brahma to have an end. Two Brahmin Sepoys were keeping guard in the mosque, where the defaced and prostrate pillar lay, "Ah,” said one of them," we have seen that which we never thought

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to see, Siva's shaft has its head even with the ground; we shall all be of one caste shortly, what will be our religion then?" "I suppose the Christian," answered the other. "I suppose so too," rejoined the first, "for after all that has passed, I am sure we shall never turn Mussulmans."

After the tumult was quelled, a very curious and impressive scene succeeded; the holy city had been profaned; the blood of a cow had been mixed with the purest water of Gunga, and salvation was to be obtained at Benares no longer. All the Brahmins in the city, amounting to many thousands, went down in melancholy procession, with ashes on their heads, naked and fasting, to the principal ghâts leading to the river, and sate there with their hands folded, their heads hanging down, to all appearance inconsolable, and refusing to enter a house or to taste food. Two or three days of this abstinence, however, began to tire them, and a hint was given to the magistrates and other public men, that a visit of condolence and an expression of sympathy with these holy mourners would sufficiently comfort them, and give them an ostensible reason for returning to their usual employment. Accordingly all the British functionaries went to the principal ghât, expressed their sorrow for the distress in which they saw them, but reasoned with them on the absurdity of punishing themselves for an act in which they had no share, and which they had done their utmost to prevent or avenge. This prevailed, and after much bitter weeping, it was resolved that Ganges

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SITTING DHURNA.

was Ganges still, that a succession of costly offerings from the laity of Benares might wipe out the stain which their religion had received, and that the advice of the judges was the best and most reasonable. Mr. Bird, who was one of the ambassadors on this occasion, told me that the scene was very impressive and even aweful. The gaunt squalid figures of the devotees, their visible and, apparently, unaffected anguish and dismay, the screams and outcries of the women who surrounded them, and the great numbers thus assembled, altogether constituted a spectacle of woe such as few cities but Benares could supply.

Yet even this was exceeded by a spectacle of a kind almost similar, which Benares offered on another occasion. Government had then, unadvisedly, imposed a house-tax of a very unpopular character, both from its amount and its novelty. To this the natives objected, that they recognised in their British rulers the same rights which had been exercised by the Moguls,-that the land-tax was theirs, and that they could impose duties on commodities going to market, or for exportation: but that their houses were their own,-that they had never been intermeddled with in any but their landed property, and commodities used in traffic,-and that the same power which now imposed a heavy and unheard of tax on their dwellings, might do the same next year on their children and themselves. These considerations, though backed by strong representations from the magistrates, produced no effect in Calcutta ; on which the whole population