APPENDIX C. EXTRACTS FROM TREATIES BETWEEN THE EAST INDIA COMPANY AND THE NIZAM OF HYDERABAD, AND BETWEEN THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND AND THE NIZAM. Extract from a Treaty between the East India Company and the Nizam, dated the 21st May, 1853. (See Aitchison's "Treaties, Engagements and Sunnuds," vol. v., pages 104, 105.) ARTICLE 6. For the purpose of providing the regular monthly payment to the said contingent troops, and payment of Appa Dessaye's chout and the allowances to Mohiput Ram's family and to certain Mahratta pensioners, as guaranteed in the 10th Article of the Treaty of 1822, and also for payment of the interest at six per cent. per annum of the debt due to the Honourable Company, so long as the principal of that debt shall remain unpaid, which debt now amounts to about fifty lakhs of Hyderabad rupees, the Nizam hereby agrees to assign the districts mentioned in the accompanying Schedule marked A, yielding an annual gross revenue of about fifty lakhs of rupees, to the exclusive management of the British Resident for the time being at Hyderabad, and to such other officers, acting under his orders, as may from time to time be appointed by the Government of India to the charge of those districts. ARTICLE 8. The districts mentioned in Schedule A are to be transferred to Colonel Low, C.B., the Resident, immediately that the ratified Treaty shall be received from Calcutta ; and that officer engages on the part of the British Government that the Resident at the Court of Hyderabad for the time being shall always render true and faithful accounts every year to the Nizam of the receipts and disbursements connected with the said districts, and make over any surplus revenue that may exist to His Highness, after the payment of the contingent and the other items detailed in Article 6 of this Treaty. Extract from a Supplemental Treaty between Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and the Nizam, ratified by Lord Canning on the 31st day of December, 1860. (See Aitchison's "Treaties," &c., vol. v., pages 115 and 116.) ARTICLE 2. The Viceroy and Governor-General in Council cedes to His Highness the Nizam in full sovereignty the territory of Shorapore. ARTICLE 3. The debt of about fifty (50) lakhs of Hyderabad rupees due by the Nizam to the British Government is hereby cancelled, ARTICLE 4. His Highness the Nizam agrees to forego all demand for an account of the receipts and expenditure of the assigned districts for the past, present, or future. But the British Government will pay to His Highness any surplus that may hereafter accrue after defraying all charges under Article 6 and all future expenses of administration, the amount of such expenses being entirely at the discretion of the British Government. ARTICLE 5. The Viceroy and Governor-General in Council restores to His Highness the Nizam all the assigned districts in the Raichore Doab and on the western frontier of the dominions of His Highness adjoining the Collectorate of Ahmednuggur and Sholapore. ARTICLE 6. The districts in Berar already assigned to the British Government under the Treaty of 1853, together with all the Surf-i-khas talooks comprised therein, and such additional districts adjoining thereto as will suffice to make up a present annual gross revenue of thirty-two (32) lakhs of rupees currency of the British Government, shall be held by the British Government in trust for the payment of the troops of the Hyderabad Contingent, Appa Dessaye's chout, the allowance to Mohiput Ram's family, and certain pensions mentioned in Article 6 of the said Treaty. ARTICLE 7. The Surf-i-khas talooks and additional districts mentioned in the foregoing Article are to be transferred to the Resident as soon as this Treaty is ratified. APPENDIX D. DEATH OF PRINCESS KISHNA, THE FLOWER OF RAJASTHAN, TO SAVE HER COUNTRY FROM CIVIL WAR. KISHNA KOMARI BAE, the Virgin Princess Kishna,' was in her sixteenth year: her mother was of the Chawura race, the ancient kings of Anhulwara. Sprung from the noblest blood of Hind, she added beauty of face and person to an engaging demeanour, and was justly proclaimed the 'flower of Rajast'han.' When the Roman father pierced the bosom of the dishonoured Virginia, appeased virtue applauded the deed. When Iphigenia was led to the sacrificial altar, the salvation of her country yielded a noble consolation. The votive victim of Jephtha's success had the triumph of a father's fame to sustain her resignation, and in the meekness of her sufferings we have the best parallel to the sacrifice of the lovely Kishna: though years have passed since the barbarous immolation, it is never related but with a faltering tongue and moistened eyes, albeit unused to the melting mood.' The rapacious and bloodthirsty Pat'han, covered with infamy, repaired to Oodipoor, where he was joined by the pliant and subtle Ajít. Meek in his demeanour, unostentatious in his habits, despising honours, yet covetous of power, religion, which he followed with the zeal of an ascetic, if it did not serve as a cloak, was at least no hindrance to an immeasurable ambition, in the attainment of which he would have sacrificed all but himself. When the Pat'han revealed his design, that either the princess should wed Raja Maun, or by her death seal the peace of Rajwarra, whatever arguments were used to point the alternative, the Rana was made to see no choice between consigning his beloved child to the Rahtore prince, or witnessing the effects of a more extended dishonour from the vengeance of the Pat'han, and the storm of his palace by his licentious adherents :-the fiat passed that Kishna Komari should die. But the deed was left for women to accomplish-the hand of man refused it. The Rawula* of an eastern prince is a world within itself; it * Harem. is the labyrinth containing the strings that move the puppets which alarm mankind. Here intrigue sits enthroned, and hence its influence radiates to the world, always at a loss to trace effects to their causes. Maharaja Dowlut Sing, descended four generations ago from one common ancestor with the Rana, was first sounded "to save the honour of Oodipoor;" but, horror-struck, he exclaimed, "accursed the tongue that commands it! Dust on my allegiance, if thus to be preserved!" The Maharaja Jowandás, a natural brother, was then called upon; the dire necessity was explained, and it was urged that no common hand could be armed for the purpose. He accepted the poniard, but when in youthful loveliness Kishna appeared before him, the dagger fell from his hand, and he returned more wretched than the victim. The fatal purpose thus revealed, the shrieks of the frantic mother reverberated through the palace, as she implored mercy, or execrated the murderers of her child, who alone was resigned to her fate. But death was arrested, not averted. To use the phrase of the narrator, "she was excused the steel-the cup was prepared," and prepared by female hands! As the messenger presented it in the name of her father, she bowed and drank it, sending up a prayer for his life and prosperity. The raving mother poured imprecations on his head, while the lovely victim, who shed not a tear, thus endeavoured to console her: "why afflict yourself, my mother, at this shortening of the sorrows of life? I fear not to die! Am I not your daughter? Why should I fear death? We are marked out for sacrifice* from our birth; we scarcely enter the world but to be sent out again; let me thank my father that I have lived so long!+ Thus she conversed till the nauseating draught refused to assimilate with her blood. Again the bitter potion was prepared. She drained it off, and again it was rejected; but, as if to try the extreme of human fortitude, a third was administered; and for the third time nature refused to aid the horrid purpose. It seemed as if the * Alluding to the custom of infanticide-here, very rare. With my mind engrossed with the scenes in which I had passed the better part of my life, I went two months after my return from Rajpootana, in 1823, to York Cathedral, to attend the memorable festival of that year. The sublime recitations of Handel in "Jephtha's Vow," the sonorous woe of Sapios' "Deeper and deeper still," powerfully recalled the sad exit of the Rajpootani; and the representation shortly after of Racine's tragedy of "Iphigénie," with Talma as Achille, Duchesnois as Clytemnestre, and a very interesting personation of the victim daughter of Agamemnon, again served to waken the remembrance of this sacrifice. The following passage embodying not only the sentiments, but couched in the precise language in which the "Virgin Kishna" addressed her fatherproving that human nature has but one mode of expression for the same feelings-I am tempted to transcribe: "Mon père, Cessez de vous troubler, vous n'êtes point trahi. fabled charm, which guarded the life of the founder of her race, was inherited by the Virgin Kishna. But the bloodhounds, the Pat'han and Ajít, were impatient till their victim was at rest; and cruelty, as if gathering strength from defeat, made another and a fatal attempt. A powerful opiate was presented-the Kasoomba draught.* She received it with a smile, wished the scene over, and drank it. The desires of barbarity were accomplished. "She slept!" a sleep from which she never awoke. The wretched mother did not long survive her child; nature was exhausted. In the ravings of despair she refused food, and her remains in a few days followed those of her daughter to the funeral pyre. Even the ferocious Khan, when the instrument of his infamy, Ajít, reported the issue, received him with contempt, and spurned him from his presence, tauntingly asking, "if this were the boasted Rajpoot valour?" But the wily traitor had to encounter language far more bitter from his political adversary, whom he detested. Sangram Suktawut reached the capital only four days after the catastrophe-a man in every respect the reverse of Ajít-audaciously brave, he neither feared the frown of his sovereign nor the sword of his enemy. Without introduction he rushed into the presence, where he found seated the traitor Ajít. "Oh, dastard! who has thrown dust on the Seesodia race, whose blood which has flowed in purity through a hundred ages has now been defiled! this sin will check its course for ever; a blot so foul in our annals, that no Seesodia will ever again hold up his head! A sin to which no punishment were equal. But the end of our race is approaching! The line of Bappa Rawul is at an end! Heaven has ordained this; a signal of our destruction." The Rana hid his face with his hands, when turning to Ajít, he exclaimed, "thou stain on the Seesodia race! thou impure of Rajpoot blood, dust be on thy head, as thou hast covered us all with shame. May you die childless, and your name die with you! Why this indecent haste? Had the Pat'han stormed the city? Had he attempted to violate the sanctity of the Rawula? And, though he had, could you not die as Ma vie est votre bien. Vous voulez le reprendre, Et respectant le coup par vous-même ordonné, Vous rendre tout le sang que vous m'avez donné." * The Kasoomba draught is made of flowers and herbs of a cooling quality, into this an opiate was introduced. The simple but powerful expression of the narrator. |