Legends of the Konkan Author : Crawford, Arthur Publisher : Allahabad : Pioneer Press Publication Year : 1909 Pages : 320 Pgs
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िव�ा �सारक मंडळ, ठाणे Title : Legends of the Konkan Author : Crawford, Arthur Publisher : Allahabad : Pioneer Press Publication Year : 1909 Pages : 320 pgs. गणपुस्त �व�ा �सारत मंडळाच्ा “�ंथाल्” �तल्पा्गर् िनिमर्त गणपुस्क िन�म्ी वषर : 2014 गणपुस्क �मांक : 055 LEGENDS OF THE KONKAN. ARTHIIF? C»AWPOI?a cjvtn CORNELK IJNIVERSIIB Cornell University Library GR 305.C89 Legends of the Konkan. 3 1924 007 536 471 LEGENDS OF THE KONKAN BY ARTHUR CRAWFORD C.M.G. (AUTHOR OF " REMINISCENCES OF AN INDIAN POLICE OFFICIAL," " TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE tfEKKHMI," &C.) [Copyrighted by FRAMJEE M. SHROFF] PRINTED AT THE PIONEER PRESS ALLAHABAD ^^ | 1909 a Cornell University y Library The original of tliis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924007536471 DEDICATION (By Special Permission) TQ His Highness the Maharajah SIR SAYAJI RAO HI, G.C.S.I., Gaekwar of Baroda. ; PREFACE. In these legends I have endeavoured to make each tale complete in itself generally giving the English ; translations of vernacular words and phrases. The old Bhutt of Chiploon is not an imaginary personage, introduced for mere literary convenience nor are the seances fictitious. During my twenty years' employment in the Southern Konkan as Assistant Collector and Magistrate, District Collector and Magis- trate, and (finally) as Commissioner of the Southern Division of the Bombay Presidency, my duties necessitated my camping for weeks at a time at Chip- loon, one of the most important towns in the Ratnagiri District. When young in the service (1859 to 1862) I made the acquaintance there of one Raghoba Maha- dewrao, a famous Bhutt, there residing, with the object of continuing my study of Sinscrit and perfecting my- self in the Mar^tha language as spoken by Chitp§,wan Brahmins. He was nearly sixty years of age : he possessed such a collection of ancient Sanscrit sloks (ballads) and tattered manuscripts as would be worth their weight in gold to the Royal Asiatic or any Public Library ; but he would never part with one of them : for example, I offered him as many rupees as would thrice cover a manuscript entitled The True . li Ckitpawan Legend. It was printed by a Poona Deshast Brahmin in (or about) the year 1812 A.D. but, inasmuch as it related the origin of ChitpS- wans to be their miraculous creation by Purshar^m (M3;h&-Indra) from the corpses of Arab sailors stranded by the tide or Samudra*, whereas they claim that the deity created them from the spume of the ocean ; the Peishwah B^ji Eao (himself a Chitp^wan) was so enraged that he ordered all the copies to be called in and burnt by Mhdngs t? decreeing that any person thereafter found to possess a copy should be hanged ; a sentence which was actually sufifered subsequently by one Deshast Brahmin. My friendship for the Bard ripened to intimacy | Many a weary hour did the amiable old gentleman beguile by reciting from his store oi folk-lore. He was wonderfully versed in the tenets of Christianity and our Bible; having attended lectures, and heard sermons by Dr, Wilson, Mr. Bowen, the American Harbour Missionary at Bombay, Padre Ballantine (Sat&,ra American Mission), and other Missionaries (Protestant, Roman Catholic and Lutheran) at Kolha- pur. The old fellow, in fact, was as near being a Christian as a bigotted Brahmin can be : and he deeply deplored the atheistical tendency of young Brahmins • The Indian Neptune. t Usually employed asjjublic executioners. J We corresponded for more than 18 years. iil of his later years, and abhorred Theosophism and all isms. He was poor, and possessed no land : late in life he adopted a young ChitpS,wan of Sungnmeshwur, becoming a Sany^ssi in 1887 (I think) : he died two years later in the odoar of sanctity, and was buried on the sacred hill of Pareshram (also called M^hSindra or M&indra) near Chiploon. I was never able to discover what became of his manuscripts, but I am instituting searching enquiries, and do not despair of tracing them during my approaching visit to that part of the Konkan. —————— CONTENTS. Page. Chapter I Prologue ... ... ... 1 Chapter II— Legend of the Hart-lot Ghaut—Part I . 6 Chapter III Legend of the Hart-lot Ghaut—Part II ... 16 Chapter IV The Chitpawan Legend ... ... 23 Chapter V How Pareshram cursed the Konkan ... 31 Chapter VI Legend of Raighur ... ... 38 Chapter VII The Legend of Wasota ... ... 48 Chapter Vllf The White Tigers ... ... 64 Chapter IX— The Legend of Mhaiputghur Fort ... 78 Chapter X The Legend of Risalghur, Soomalghur'and Mandanghur ... ...'84 Chapter XI Treasure Legends ... ... 90 Chapter XII— The Legend of Jyghur ... ... 94 ——— Page. ChaPteu XIII— The Legend of Dabhol ... ... 102 Chapters XIV and XV— The Legend of Ratnagiri ... 118 & 131 ChsPTER XVI The Mahant Swami of Nepani at Chiploon 139 Chapter XVII— The Mahant Swami at Chiploon, Part II .. 147 Chapter XVIII— The Legend of Bhyrooghur ... 160 Chapter XIX— The Legend of Dhopeshwur ... 175 Chapter XX The Legend of Viziadroog (Gheria). and the Phonda Ghaut ... ... 194 Chapter XXI The Legend of Sindi-Droog .. ... 227 Chapter XXII— My Cousin the Convict ... ... 250 Chapter XXIII— The Kidnapping Nawab ... ... 261 Chapter XXIV— A True Tale of a Persecuted Mussalman Official ... ... ... 277 Chapter XXV— A Terrible Tale of the Sea ... ... 287 Legfends of the Konkan. CHAPTER I. PROLO&UE. INTRODUCES THE OLD BHUTT. The old Bhutt mentioned in the Preface, on the evening he first visited my camp at Chiploon at my special request, brought with him, carefully wrapped up in linen, quite a load of ma,nuscript Sanscrit " pot- his " (poems), which he displayed with pride. By far the rarest " Pothi " (Sanscrit manuscript) in my old friend the Chiploon Bhutt's possession, was a tattered document, most beautifully emblazoned in coloured inks, with marginal pictures of birds, beasts and fishes. The ancient bard himself could scarce decipher it — he had pieced the fragments together with the viscid gum of the milk bush [euphorbium), which had, of course, attracted all sorts of ants, from, whose ravages the horn case in which he carried them was no protection whatever. The old cover, thick as our ordinary mill-board (being made of rice straw), was eaten round the edges, drilled through and through by these voracious insects. In a word, the manuscript B 2 PROLOGUE. was as illegible as the papyrus mauuscripts in the British Museum, and perhaps nearly as old as some. Like all " Pothis " it measured about 12 inches by 4 J inches and had originally been bound in crimson tinted and highly glazed kid skin, of which little remained. I offered the venerable seer as many rupees as would cover it three times over (say Es. 150) for the original. He gravely shook his head " Naheen Saheb, your slave would do almost anything at my lord's command but this must not be done ". " Well," said I, " then let me have a copy of it for Rs. 50, for the Bombay Branch of the Asiatic Society". " Are KhS,wand, be merciful to your poor slave and tempt ' ' him not ! This sacred Pothi was written by your humble servant's ancestor 6ve hundred years ago and more at Mfi,h5,-Indra, which we now call Pareshr^m. It was dictated to him by BrSm Ach^rya Vishn^charya, the famous blind head priest at the sacred shrine, who was then 103 years old and died a few days later. He was the most learned of all the pundits south of Bena- res, and great Ishwar had blessed him with the gift of prophecy. When the dread spirit moved him, he could not help bursting forth into a flood of fell prophecy, no matter where or in whose presence he was. Thus, it befell him at his last visit to Ben§,res when he was in the Golden Temple (the Saheb has seen it I know) in the heart of the Sacred City, when he was called ' upon to divine the omens in the ' holy of holies PROLOGUE. 3 where no la^'man may put foot ; he cast ashes on his bare head, prostrated hjmself before the deity, and in a voice of thunder foretold the coming of white men in thousands and thousands who would wage war upon each other, incite Moguls to attack the people of Bengal, the Mardthas to attack the Moguls, and that the ' Frangistanis ' (the French) should at first prevail in Southern India, but that ultimately the Feringhis (called Angreezis now) should drive them out of India, and overrun Hindostan from the Himalayas to Ceylon, from the Indian Ocean to the confines of China. The assembled people arose as one man to resent this daring sacrilege, the other priest seized and bound him, he was stoned, his poor eyes knocked out ! He was about to be sacrificed to Kali, the dread goddess, when the whole city being in an uproar, a band of at least a thousand pilgrims who hacJiftccompanied him from Maha- rashtra, fought their way to Kali's shrine and rescued him from a cruel death; for his bleeding heart would, in another moment, have been torn from his bosom and offered to the goddess ! It was two years after the marvellous escape by Shri Pareshram's evident inter- vention, Oh ! Saheb ! that the pious Brim Acbdrya's intellect recovered, quite suddenly ; Khawand I these be true words ! anJ "then he remembered nothing of what had happened. True talk this, Saheb. Shall 1 sell my holy ances- tor's pious sayings for silver ? Ndheen ! Oh Protector - 4.