Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s2.t1: The Annakūta Festival
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s2.t1
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The Annakūta Festival
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Of the festivals of Krishna the Annakuta is the most remarkable ; ² when the seven statues were brought from the different capitals of Rajasthan, and mountains (kuta) of food (anna) piled up for their repast, at a given signal are levelled by the myriads of votaries assembled from all parts. About eighty years ago, on a memorable assemblage at the Annakuta, before warfare had devastated Rajasthan, and circumscribed the means of the faithful disciples of Hari, amongst the multitude of Vaishnavas of every region were almost all the Rajput princes ; Rana Arsi of Mewar, Raja Bijai Singh of Marwar, Raja Gaj Singh of Bikaner, and Bahadur Singh of Kishangarh. Rana Arsi presented to the god a tora, or massive golden anklet-chain set with emeralds : Bijai Singh a diamond necklace worth twenty-five thousand rupees: the other princes according to their means. They were followed by an old woman of Surat, with infirm step and shaking head, who deposited four coppers in the hand of the high-priest, which were received with a gracious smile, not vouchsafed to the lords of the earth. “The Rand is in luck,” whispered the chief of Kishangarh to the Rana. Soon afterwards the statue of Hari was brought forth, when the same old woman placed at its feet a bill of exchange for seventy thousand rupees. The mighty were humbled, and the smile of the Gosain was explained. Such gifts, and to a yet greater amount, are, or were, by no means uncommon from the sons of commerce, who are only known to belong to the flock from the distinguishing necklace of the sect.¹
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² [The Annakūta festival, held on the first day of the light half of Kārttik (Oct.—Nov.). This was the old name of the hill which Krishna held aloft to protect his people (Growse, op. cit. 300).]
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¹ Gibbon records a similar offering of 200,000 sesterces to the Roman church, by a stranger, in the reign of Decius [ed. W. Smith, ii. 199].
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Interruption of Worship. — The predatory system which reduced these countries to a state of the most degraded anarchy, greatly diminished the number of pilgrimages to Nathdwara [548]; and the gods of Vraj had sufficient prescience to know that they could guard neither their priests nor followers from the Pathan and Mahratta, to whom the crown of the god, or the nathna (nose-jewel) of Radha, would be alike acceptable : nor would they have scrupled to retain both the deities and priests as hostages for such imposition as they might deem within their means. Accordingly, of late years, there had been no congress of the gods of Vraj, who remained fixtures on their altars till the halcyon days of A.D. 1818 permitted their liberation.²
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² I enjoyed no small degree of favour with the supreme pontiff of the shrine of Apollo and all his votaries, for effecting a meeting of the seven statues of Vishnu in 1820. In contriving this I had not only to reconcile ancient animosities between the priests of the different shrines, in order to obtain a free passport for the gods, but to pledge myself to the princes in whose capitals they were established, for their safe return : for they dreaded lest bribery might entice the priests to fix them elsewhere, which would have involved their loss of sanctity, dignity, and prosperity. It cost me no little trouble, and still more anxiety, to keep the assembled multitudes at peace with each other, for they are as outrageous as any sectarians in contesting the supreme power and worth of their respective forms (rupa). Yet they all separated, not only without violence, but without even any attempt at robbery, so common on such occasions.
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Seven Forms of Krishna. — The seven statues of Kanhaiya were brought together by the high-priest Balba, who established received the adoration of Raja Amaraka, a prince of the solar race who lived in the Satya Yuga, or silver age. The ‘god of the mount’ revealed himself in a dream to his high-priest, and told him of the domicile of this his representative at Kanauj. Thither Balba repaired, and having obtained it from the Brahman, appointed Damodardas Khatri to officiate at his altar.
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The fourth statue, that of Gokulnath, or Gokul Chandrama (i.e. the moon of Gokul), had an equally mysterious origin, having been discovered in a deep ravine on the banks of the river; Balba assigned it to his brother-in-law. Gokul is an island on the Jumna,¹ a few miles below Mathura, and celebrated in the early history of the pastoral divinity. The residence of this image at Jaipur does not deprive the little island of its honours as a place of pilgrimage; for the ‘god of Gokul’ has an altar on the original site, and his rites are performed by an aged priestess, who disowns the jurisdiction of the high-priest of Nathdwara, both in the spiritual and temporal concerns of her shrine; and who, to the no small scandal of all who are interested in Apollo, appealed from the fiat of the high-priest to the British court of justice. The royal grants of the Mogul emperors were produced, which proved the right to lie in the high-priest, though a long period of almost undisturbed authority had created a feeling of independent control in the family of the priestess, which they desired might continue. A compromise ensued, when the Author was instrumental in restoring harmony to the shrines of Apollo.
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¹ [Gokul is not an island, but a suburb of Mahāban in Mathura District.
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The fifth, Yadunath, is the deified ancestor of the whole Yadu race. This image, now at Surat, formerly adorned the shrine of Mahaban near Mathura which was destroyed by Mahmud [550].
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The sixth, Vitthalnath, or Pandurang,² was found in the Ganges at Benares, Samvat 1572 (A.D. 1516), from which we may judge of their habit of multiplying divinities.
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² [Pāndurang is said to mean ‘white-coloured’; but others believe it to be the Sanskritized form of Pandaraga, that is, ‘belonging to Pandargē,’ the old name of Pāndharpur (BG, xx. 423).]
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The seventh, Madan Mohana, ‘he who intoxicates with desire,’ the seductive lover of Radha and the Gopis, has his rites performed by a female. The present priestess of Mohana is the mother of Damodara, the supreme head of all who adore the Apollo of Vraj.
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The Pontiff of Nāthdwāra.—I am not aware of the precise period of Balba Acharya, who thus collected the seven images of Krishna now in Rajasthan; but he must have lived about the time of the last of the Lodi kings, at the period of the conquest of India by the Moguls (A.D. 1526). The present pontiff, Damodara, as before said, is his lineal descendant; and whether in addressing him verbally or by letter he is styled Maharaja or ‘great prince.’ ¹
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¹ Gosain is a title more applicable to the célibataire worshippers of Hara than of Hari—of Jupiter than of Apollo. It is alleged that the Emperor Akbar first bestowed this epithet on the high-priest of Krishna, whose rites attracted his regard. They were previously called Dikshit, ‘one who performs sacrifice,’ a name given to a very numerous class of Brahmans. The Gotrācharya, or genealogical creed of the high-priest, is as follows: “Tailang Brahman, Bharadwaja gotra,* Gurukula,† Taittari sakha; i.e. Brahman of Telingana, of the tribe of Bharadwaja, of the race of Guru, of the branch Taittari.”
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As the supreme head of the Vishnu sect his person is held to be Ansa, or ‘a portion of the divinity’; and it is maintained that so late as the father of the present incumbent, the god manifested himself and conversed with the high-priest. The present pontiff is now about thirty years of age. He is of a benign aspect, with much dignity of demeanour: courteous, yet exacting the homage due to his high calling: meek, as becomes the priest of Govinda, but with the finished manners of one accustomed to the first society. His features are finely moulded, and his complexion good. He is about the middle size, though as he rises to no mortal, I could not exactly judge of his height. When I saw him he had one only daughter, to whom he is much attached. He has but one wife, nor does Krishna allow polygamy to his priest. In times of danger, like some of his prototypes in the dark ages of Europe, he poised the lance, and found it more effective than spiritual anathemas, against those who would first adore the god, and then plunder him. Such were the Mahratta chiefs, Jaswant Rao Holkar and Bapu Sindhia. Damodara accordingly made the [551] tour of his extensive diocese at the head of four hundred horse, two standards of foot, and two field-pieces. He rode the finest mares in the country; laid aside his
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* Bhāradwaja was a celebrated founder of a sect in the early ages. † Guru is an epithet applied to Vrishapati, ‘Lord of the bull,’ the Indian Jupiter, who is called the Guru, preceptor or guardian of the gods. [Brihaspati, ‘Lord of prayer,’ the regent of the planet Jupiter, is confused with Vrishapati, ‘Lord of the bull,’ an epithet of Siva.]
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pontificals for the quilted dagla, and was summoned to matins by the kettle-drum instead of the bell and cymbal. In this he only imitated Kanhaiya, who often mixed in the ranks of battle, and “dyed his saffron robe in the red-stained field.” Had Damodara been captured on one of these occasions by any marauding Pathan, and incarcerated, as he assuredly would have been, for ransom, the marauder might have replied to the Rana, as did the Plantagenet king to the Pope, when the surrender of the captive church-mitant bishop was demanded, “Is this thy son Joseph’s coat?” But, notwithstanding this display of martial principle, which covered with a helmet the shaven crown, his conduct and character are amiable and unexceptionable, and he furnishes a striking contrast to the late head of the Vishnu establishments in Marwar, who commenced with the care of his master’s conscience, and ended with that of the State; meek and unassuming till he added temporal¹ to spiritual power, which developed unlimited pride, with all the qualities that too often wait on “a little brief authority,” and to the display of which he fell a victim. Damodara,² similarly circumstanced, might have evinced the same failings, and have met the same end; but though endeavours were made to give him political influence at the Rana’s court, yet, partly from his own good sense, and partly through the dissuasion of the Nestor of Kotah (Zalim Singh), he was not entrained in the vortex of its intrigues, which must have involved the sacrifice of wealth and the proper dignity of his station [552].
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¹ The high-priest of Jalandharnath used to appear at the head of a cavalcade far more numerous than any feudal lord of Marwar. A sketch of this personage will appear elsewhere. These Brahmans were not a jot behind the ecclesiastical lords of the Middle Ages, who are thus characterized: “Les seigneurs ecclésiastiques, malgré l’humilité chrétienne, ne se sont pas montrés moins orgueilleux que les nobles laïcs. Le doyen du chapitre de Notre Dame du Port, à Clermont, pour montrer sa grande noblesse, officiait avec toute la pompe féodale. Étant à l’autel, il avait l’oiseau sur la perche gauche, et on portait devant lui la hallebarde; on la lui portait aussi de la même manière pendant qu’on chantait l’évangile, et aux processions il avait lui-même l’oiseau sur le poing, et il marchait à la tête de ses serviteurs, menant ses chiens de chasse” (Dict. de l’Anc. Régime, p. 380).
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² The first letter I received on reaching England after my long residence in India was from this priest, filled with anxious expressions for my health, and speedy return to protect the lands and sacred kine of Apollo.