Volume 1

Rambles and recollections of an Indian official / [Sir William Henry Sleeman].

  • William Henry Sleeman
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rambles and recollections of an Indian official / [Sir William Henry Sleeman]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    164/492 page 124
    Vindhya range of hills from Bhopal, one may see by the side of the road, upon a spur of the hill, a singular pillar of sandstone rising in two spires, one turning above and rising over the other, to the height of from twenty to thirty feet. On a spur of a hill half a mile distant is another sandstone pillar not quite so high. The tradition is that the smaller pillar w^as the affianced bride of the taller one, who was a youth of a family of great eminence in these parts. Coming with his uncle to pay his first visit to his bride in the procession they call the “ barat,” he grew more and more impatient as he approached nearer and nearer, and she shared the feeling. At last, unable to restrain him- self, he jumped upon his uncle’s shoulder, and looked with all his might tow^ards the spot wffiere his bride was said to be seated. Unhappily she felt no less impatient than he did, and raised “the fringed curtains of her eye,” as he raised his, [and] they saw each other at the same moment. In that moment the bride, bridegroom, and uncle were all converted into stone pillars ; and there they stand to this day a monument, in the estimation of the people, to warn men and womankind against too strong an inclination to indulge curiosity. It is a singular fact that in one of the most extensive tribes of the Gond population of Central India, to which this couple is said to have belonged, the bride abvays goes to the bridegroom in the pro- cession of the “ barat,” to prevent a recurrence of this calamity. 'It is the bridegroom wffio goes to the bride among every other class of the people of India, as well Muhammadans as Hindoos. Whether the usage grew out of the tradition, or the tradition out of the usage, is a question that will admit of much being said on both sides. I can only vouch for the existence of both. I have seen the pillars, heard the tradition from the people, and ascertained the usage; as in the case of that of the Sagar lake. The Mahadeo sandstone hills, which in the Satpura range overlook the Nerbudda to the south, rise to between four
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3