| 1393 |
Birthday of Bhagat
Ravidaas (1393- see description below) [NOTE: "A Study of Bhakata
Ravidas", by Darshan Singh, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1981.
concludes that Ravidas lived between 1393-1528]
RAVIDAS (1393-1528) - Dr. D.S. Mani, Sardar Bakhshish Singh,
and Dr. Gurdit Singh Guru Granth Ratnavali, page 115.
RAG GAURI
"Griefless" is the name of my town,
Where abide not either pain or care.
No anguish there of tax on goods,
Neither fear, nor error, nor dread, nor decline.
Oh! how wondrous is my fatherland,
where there is always Peace, and Calm, 0 Friend!
And there is not a second nor a third there, by my only Lord.
Populous as ever, its repute is eternal, -
Yea, there abide only the Rich and the Content.
And there men go about as and where they wish.
They know the Mansion of their Lord, so no one preventeth (them).
Ravidas, a mere tanner, hath been emancipated in this land;
and,
he who's his fellow citizen is also his friend.
Like Kabir, Ravidas
was also a resident of Kanshi and came from a cobbler's family.
According to general belief, he was a follower of Swami Ramanand,
but, there is no historical proof about it. In spite of his low
caste, Ravidas rose to a position of great honor through a life
of simplicity and piety. He never felt ashamed of his pedigree and
faced fearlessly the pundits, who were proud of their high caste.
He told them that spiritual greatness is achieved through a loving
devotion to the Lord and the attainment of his grace. He boldly
proclaims:
O people of the city, everyone knows
I am a cobbler by trade and tanner by caste.
One of the low-caste, and yet within my heart
I meditate upon God
Again, he says:
I am haunted day and night by the thought
Of my low birth, society and deeds
O God! the Lord of the Universe!
O Life of my life! Forget me not,
I am ever Thy Slave.
He was such a
faithful bhakt that once he gave a farthing (damri) to some Sadhus,
who were going to Hardwar, requesting them to offer it to Ganga
Mai on his behalf. They say that when the Sadhus, after making their
own offerings presented the damri sent by Ravidas to the holy Ganges,
she stretched out her hands to receive it. That shows that Ravidas
had realized the consummation of his spiritual life. He was greatly
respected during his life-time, to the extent that even the veteran
pundits of Kanshi bowed before him, Tradition has it that Queen
Jhalan of Mewar became a follower of Ravidas. But despite close
contacts with an affluent section of society, he chose to live austerely.
They say that once some one offered him a paras (the philosopher's
stone that turns cheaper metal into gold) and assured him that he
could get any amount of wealth by making use of it. Ravidas asked
him to place it in a corner. When he came to Ravidas again after
some months, he found the saint still lurking in poverty. He asked
the bhakt why he had not utilized the pares. Ravidas remarked that
for him, God's Name alone was the paras, that was the "Kamdhen"
and "Chintamani".
He who is the Ocean of Peace, the Tree which yields all
Fruits,
the wish fulfilling Jewel, the Master of kamadhenu,
In whose hands are the four life-objects, the eighteen
extra-psychic powers and the nine treasures
That Lord thou tellest not with thy tongue.
Because of his
undying devotion he attained a state of unison with his Maker. He
recognized no difference between himself and the Supreme Being.
He proudly said:
Between Thee and me, between me and Thee,
How can there be likeness or difference?
Likeness or difference as between gold
And a bracelet made of it as between water
And the waves. that move on its surface!
Were I not a sinner, O Eternal Lord!'
How couldst Thou have the title of Redeemer of Sinners?
This idea finds
recurrent expression in his hymns as the following passage would
reveal:
O Love, who is it that can do this but Thou?
Yea, the poor are embellished only through Thee,
O my Lord and Master, over whose
Head waves the canopy (of His Grace)
He, whose touch "defileth" others, on him too is
Thy Mercy, 0 God
Yea, Thou Makest the low great and mighty, and Fearest naught.
In Hindi literature,
Ravidas is known as Raidas and his work is found under the title:
Raidas Ji Ki Bani. Forty of his verses have been included in the
Guru Granth Sahib under sixteen different ragas. |
| 1861 |
Maharani Jind
Kaur caught up with her beloved son, Maharaja Dalip Singh, and him
met in Calcutta (see description below on Jind Kaur and Dalip Singh.
NOTE:- further details sought on this event).
==>Maharaja DALIP SINGH, the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit
Singh, who was born in Lahore, on Feb. 1837, to mother Maharani
Jind Kaur. His date of birth is disputed by some and alternately
suggested as Sept. 4, 1838. Many foreign journalists have wrongly
named him as Dhalip Singh and Duleep Singh. However, it should be
noted that his correct name is Maharaja Dalip Singh. He assumed
the Punjab throne as a child, after Maharaja Sher Singh, on Sept.
18, 1843. During his reign several wars were fought with the British.
Unfortunately, he was surrounded by corrupt advisors as illustrated
by the following quote.
"Among
the Sikh barons who stood around the throne of the young Maharaja
Dalip Singh, there was not one, who honestly labored for his country,
or who have made the smallest sacrifice to save her." -
The Punjab Chiefs by L.H. Griffin
The agreement
of March 9, 1846, after the first Sikh war with the British, included
the following conditions:
- There shall
be peace and friendship among Maharaja Dalip Singh and the British
government.
- Lahore darbar
would have to relinquish control of the region between Satluj
and Bias.
- War compensation
of one and a half crore rupees to be paid by Lahore darbar. Since
this amount was beyond the capabilities of Lahore Darbar at that
time, Kashmir region was offered for 75 lakhs. However, Maharaja
Gulab Singh stepped forward and paid this amount to buy back this
region from the British.
- Maharaja Dalip
Singh's forces were restricted to 50 platoons and 12,000 horse-back
soldiers.
- No foreigner
from Britain, Europe, or America could be employed in Lahore Darbar
without explicit permission of the British government.
- British government
shall refrain from interference in the internal affairs of the
Lahore Darbar.
However, towards the end of this year, another set of arrangements
were made, under which a council was established to run the Punjab
affairs. This council was headed by a British Resident. Further,
British forces were brought in to maintain peace in the country.
Lahore darbar was charged 22 lakh annually for the maintenance and
upkeep of such forces.
However, this
arrangement did not last for too long. As in April of 1848, a war
erupted among the Sikhs and British. At the end of this war, Sikh
kingdom was annexed and Maharaja Dalip Singh was sent out of Punjab
to FatehGadh (Uttar Pradesh, dist. Karrukhsbad) under the care of
Sir John Spencer Login.
Maharaja Dalip
Singh was still a child at the time of the annexation of Punjab
and there was no one to dispense any religious education to him.
His companions (AudiyaPrasad, Purohit GulabRai, Fakir Jahurudeen)
had absolutely no interest or sympathy with GurSikh Dharam. As a
result, BhajanLal, a local resident brahmin who had converted to
christianity, was given the responsibilities of Dalip Singh's education.
Under his influence, Maharaja Dalip Singh adopted christianity on
March 8, 1853. A few days prior to adopting christianity, Dalip
Singh had presented his hair as a gift to lady Login.
On April 19,
1858, Dalip Singh left for England and started residing at Elveden
resident in Norfolk. Dalip Singh married a german lady, Bamba Muller
(educated form Cairo missionary school) on June 7, 1864. This marriage
resulted in three sons (Victor Dalip Singh, Frederick D.S., and
Edward D.S.) and three daughters. Two of his sons were brought up
as english gentlemen. The elder, Prince Victor, held a commission
in the 1st Royal Dragoons and married a daughter of the Earl of
Coventry. He died in 1918 at the age of 58. The younger brother,
Prince Frederick was educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge,
where he took history Tripos and later took his M.A. He held a commission
in the Suffolk Yeomanry and then transferred to the Norfolk Yeomanry.
He resigned his commission in 1909 but rejoined the corps in 1914
and was two years on active service in France. He was awarded the
Territorial Decoration. Prince Frederick was deeply interested in
archaeology and became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and
contributed articles to various periodicals on this subject. He
died in August 1926, at the age of 58. One of Maharaja's daughters
married Dr. Sutherland, lived in Lahore, and was popularly known
after her parents as Princess Bamba Sutherland.
Maharani Bamba
died in 1890. Later, Maharaja Dalip Singh married an english lady,
A.D. Etherill, who lived after Maharaja's death. Maharaja's later
years were extremely difficult. He was barred from returning to
Punjab, and his pension severed. He died pretty much as an orphan,
in Oct. 22, 1893 in Grand Hotel of Paris.
-Ref. Mahan
Kosh
The Anglo-Sikh
wars resulted in ultimate liquidation of the Sikh power, and on
30th March, 1849, Maharaja Ranjit Singh's short lived kingdom was
annexed by the British. Maharaja Dalip Singh was taken away to Fatehgarh
in the U.P., and put under the tutelage of Sir John Login of the
Bengal Army., with the result that after two years the young Maharaja
expressed desire to renounce his faith and embrace Christianity.
He was baptised, granted a pension, sent to England and given an
estate in Suffolk. The married Bamba Muller, daughter of a European
merchant and an Abyssinian mother.
Maharani Bamba
spoke and understood only Arabic, and in the beginning the Maharaja
had amusing difficulties when attempting to converse with his fiancee.
She bore him Prince Victor Dalip Singh, (b. 1866, d. 1918), Prince
Fredrick Dalip Singh (b. 1886, d. 1926), Princess Bamba Jindan (b.
1869, d. 1957), Princess Katherine, Prince Albert Edward Dalip Singh
(b. 1879, d. 1893), and Princess Sophia Alexandria (b. 1874, d.
1948). The children of Maharaja Dalip Singh died issueless. Dalip
Singh came to India twice and was reconverted to his paternal faith.
In 1886 he made an attempt to leave England for good and settle
down in Punjab, but his attempt failed and he was not allowed to
proceed beyond Aden. He did not return to England and died in Paris
in 1893.
Princess Bamba
Dalip Singh, who later married an English gentleman Dr. Sutherland,
continued to keep in her custody the collection of paintings and
objects of arts, belonging to her father. She died in Lahore on
March 10, 1957, without having any issue, and thus her death ended
the line of the Sikh ruling dynasty. She bequeathed the collections
to Pir Karim Bakhsh Supra of Lahore who sold it recently to the
Government of Pakistan.
The collection
consists of 18 oil paintings, 14 water colours, 22 ivory paintings,
17 photographs, 10 metallic objects and 7 miscellaneous articles.
Ref. :
-"The Princess Bamba Collection" an official publication
of Department of Archeology, Pakistan.
-"Sikh Portraits by European Artists," by F.S. Aijazuddin,
a comprehensive source of textual and visual information on the
Princess Bamba Collection (Karachi: Oxford Univ. Press)
Maharaja Dalip
Singh's life is a tragedy in the true sense of the word. He was
born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but died very poor in a hotel
in Paris.
Most people do
not know that he wanted to reclaim his kingdom by launching a war
against the British. Although he had become Chritain at one time,
yet he re-entered Khalsa Panth by taking Khade di Pahul (amrit).
Maharaja wrote
the following letter to Sardar Sant Singh who was his relative from
his mother's side. Here is the text of the letter:
Carlton
Club, Pall Mall, S. W.
March 9th,
1886
My Dear
Sirdar Ji,
Wah ! Gooroo
ji dee Futteh.
I am pleased
to receive your letter, but I advise you not to come near me without
the permission of Government as you might get into trouble with
the authorities.
I intend
to leave England with my family on the 31st of this month, but
it is possible a little longer delay may occur.
I need
not tell you how pleased I shall be (if the Government permits)
for you to be present at my receiving Powhl [Amrit] which I trust
my cousin Thakur Singh Sindhaanwalla will administer to me.
I am now
longing to return to India although Government are afraid to let
me reside in the North Western Provinces and desire me to live
at Ootakamand, but I put my faith entirely in Sutgooroo who now
that I turn to Him for forgivenss I know will forsake me.
Your sincere
friend and welwisher
Duleep
Singh Maharaja.
Note: Maharaja
Dalip Singh stayed sometime in Aden. During his stay at Aden, the
Maharaja Dalip Singh was baptised and re-entered the Sikh faith.
He was baptised on May 26, 1886. There is a photograph of Maharaja
with full beard (which is tied back) and beutiful uniform and turban.
In this picture he looks very handsome and a true Maharaja. This
picture must have taken when he was around 35-40. This picture is
not the one that most of us have seen where the handsome Maharaja
is standing with a sword in his right hand.
-Ref. "History
of Freedom Movement in the Punjab - Maharaja Duleep Singh Correspondence,
Vol III," published by Punjabi University Patiala.
==>Maharani
JIND KAUR: was daughter of Sardar Manna Singh Auhlakh, a resident
of village Chandh, district Sialkot, Tehsil Jafarwall. She was wife
of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and mother of Maharaja Dalip Singh. Once
the British government gained control of the Khalsa Raj's affairs,
she was initially kept under house arrest at Saekhupura and subsequently
jailed at Chunar fort (U.P. district Mizapur). However, she escaped
in a beggar's attire and reached Nepal, where she lived with dignity.
In 1861, Maharani Jind Kaur reached England to visit her son Maharaja
Dalip Singh, where she died on Aug. 1, 1863 at the age of 46. Her
body was brought back and cremated in Nasik Nagar, on the outskirts
of Bombay.
On March 27,
1924, Maharaja Dalip Singh's daughter, Bamba Dalip Singh, brought
the ashes of Maharani Jind Kaur from Nasik Nagar and buried it next
to Maharaja Ranjit Singh's samadh. Sardar Harbans Singh Rais of
Atari performed the last rights (antim Ardas) on this occasion.
-Ref. Mahan Kosh (pp. 523)
Here are a few
glimpses of her life from "Maharani Jind Kaur" by Dr.
B.S. Nijjar that also sheds light on the sad, unfortuante affairs
of Sikh state after the death of Sher-i-Punjab, and offers a rare
glimpse of the treachery of some Dogras and Brahmins.
At one time the
Dogras has become so influential that the Raja Hira Singh wanted
to be the king by pushing aside Maharaja Dalip Singh. The Sikh army
did not like him. They liked Maharaja Dalip Singh.
There was a general
discontent among the Sikh army and they were not happy with the
way Rani was behaving. She had became louder in her demands. She
asked for more jagirs for her brothers and more yearly allownaces
for herself. She spoke of the designs against every survivor of
the royal family and of intending flight to the southern side of
Satluj where the English would at least secure for her son, his
father's protected territory. This, of course, was a great miscalculation
on her part.
Rani an Accomplished
Administrator
However, Rani
issued a proclamation praising the fidelity of the Khalsa troops.
She had shown considerable energy and spirit in conducting the State
business, with the courage and determination seldom shown by any
woman in Sikh history. Lord Hardinge had un-willingly praised her
for her regular life and devotion to the State affairs. She commanded
the obedience of regimental committee as well as Sardars, who were
also represented in the Supreme Council of Khalsa. However, she
committed the impardonable sin of compromising with the Army. Several
conferences with the military officers took place and at one of
those, the Sardars said that the army would not let the Government
go on.
Weakness of
Rani
Harding wrote
to Ellenborough about administration of Rani Jind Kaur, on October
23, 1845 A.D., "Rani now reviews the troops unveiled, and dressed
as a dancing woman, which displeases the old but gratifies the yourng;
but her irregularities are so monstrously indecent that the troops
have held her horse and advised her to be more chaste or they would
no longer style her the Mother of all the Sikhs."
The officers
adamantly told the Rani that that army could govern very well for
itself. The demand of the increase in pay was, however, not conceded
nor was it definitely refused. But the troops were declaring loudly
that Rani and her brother were unfit to reign and must be imprisoned
or put to death and Peshaura Singh [son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,
but not of Jind Kaur] be seated on the throne. The general joy expressed
at the death of Hira Singh [son of raja Gulab Singh dogra] and Pandit
Jalla, was thus giving place to appreciation of the order and justice
prevailing under their rule. The Khalsa army now became openly independent
of the Civil authority and almost acted as Kingmakers.
Jawahar Singh
Comes to Power
After the overthrow
of of Raja Hira Singh and his favourite Pandit Jalla, the ministerial
office was not immediately filled and for some time all power of
the Sikh Kingdom remained in the hands of the "Army Panchayat."
In May, 1845, A.D., however, Jawahar Singh brother of Rani came
to power as he was appointed to the exhalted office of Prime Minister
for five months from May 1845 to September 1845 A.D. The Prime Minister
immediately did his best to win over the army. He raised the salary
of the soldiers by half a ruppes and thus consolidate his position.
[An average soldier made about Rs/. 11 a month at that time.]
The Dogra Rajas
could not tolerate the high position of Jawahar Singh and thus spared
no effort to exploit the Khalsa soldiers against him. Raja Gulab
Singh instigated Pishaura Singh, another son of Maharaja Ranjit
Singh to revolt as he was to be fully supported by the former. At
the instigation of the Dogra Rajas, Prince Pishaura Singh revolted
and occupied Attok, but was defeated by Jawahar Singh's forces and
murdered. It was a blunder on the part of Jawahar Singh as the Sikh
army did not appreciate this hasty step of their Prime Minister
and turned against him. Raja Lal Singh, the Commander-in-chief of
the Khalsa Army, all the more, exploited this situation. A meeting
of the Army Panchayat was called and the matter was put before them.
Ultimately Jawahar
SIngh was summoned to appear before the Army Panchayat. Jawahar
Singh was not unaware of the fury of the Army Panchayat. He rather
fully anticipated his fate. Therefore, he took his nephew Maharaja
Dalip Singh with him in the hope that the presence of the Maharaja
might influence the Khalsa troops in his favour in securing a pardon.
But the fierce
and infuriated soldiery sorrounded the elephant on all sides, and
the boy Dalip Singh was rougly snathced from the arms of his uncle.
Jawahar Singh bowed before the troops, and with folded hands, implored
them to hear him for a moment. They, however, would not allow him
to utter a word even. He was stabbed with a bayonet on the left,
and as he bent over on the right, a man sent a bullet through his
brain. Jawahar Singh fell from the 'howdah' a corpse, and his body
was dragged from the elephant and mangled with swords of those who
sorrounded it.
Bawa Rattan Singh
and Bhai Chaittu, the councillors of Jawahar Singh, were killed
without any ceremony, on the same spot. The cash, in gold and silver
coins, which Jawahar Singh and the Rani had brought with them and
their fort, was now plundered by the soldiers, and the Rani and
her slave girls were compelled to retire to the tents which had
some days previously been pitched for their reception. The whole
thing was, thus, well premeditatd and planned. The boy Dalip Singh
was separated from his mother for a while and kept with the soldiery,
fearing that the Rani in her rage and excitement might destroy herself
and her child. When these fears had subsided, the prince was again
made over to his mother. The soldiers. however, kept a strict watch
over Rani's tents the whole night, to prevent any accident. She
passed the night in fearful screams and shrieks, lamenting over
the death of her beloved brother and cursing the Khalsa. As morning
broke, she was permitted to to see the mangled body of her brother.
Her lamentations and painful cries renewed with a violence which
moved the bystanders to pity and melted even the iron hearts of
those who had been instrumental in causing her brother's murder.
Weeping bitterly,
Jind Kaur threw herself and her child on the body of her brother.
When partly by entreaties and partly by force, she was separatd
from the corpse, she rolled upon the ground, tearing her hair and
her clothes. This hearth rending spectacle touched the sympathies
of the most valorous spectators. The scene was terminated at noon,
when the Maharaja with great difficulty, was persuaded to return
to the city. The corpse of the murdered prime minister was also
carried to the city, where his funeral obseques were performed outside
the Masti Gate, in the presence of several Sardars of the court.
From: "Maharani
Jind Kaur" by Dr. B.S. |
