The trial of Maharaja Nanda Kumar : a narrative of a judicial murder / by H. Beveridge.

  • Henry Beveridge
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The trial of Maharaja Nanda Kumar : a narrative of a judicial murder / by H. Beveridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    from the concluding part of the entry that Padrna Mohan appeared on that day, and that either in punishment of his contumacy, or in accordance with the usual arbitrary nature of proceedings in the Mayor’s Court, he was put under arrest. He was, however, allowed to attend to his own affairs under the custody of the Sheriff’s peons. We learn (1024) that Farrer produced an office - copy of an executor’s account delivered in by Padma Mohan on 1st October 1771. (The date 1774 is clearly a misprint.) The next entry is a petition by a Gosain,* who was a legatee under the will, representing that Padma Mohan had lately died, and that Ganga Vishnu was incapable of taking charge of the affairs of Bolaqi Das. This petition is dated 14th January 1772, and harmonizes with a statement of Kista Jiban, that Padma Mohan died 3 years and 7 months before June 1775. The 14th January was the first time that the Registrar was ordered to take charge of the books and papers of Bolaqi Das. It is perhaps worth while noticing here, as an instance of the curious way in which business was done in the Mayor’s Court, that the Gosain’s attorney and the Registrar, or rather Register, was one and the same person, viz., William Magee. The next two entries are dated 21st and 28th January 1773, but I suspect that this is a mistake for 1772, especially as the last entry has the words, “ the first of October last,” which can only refer to 1771. We learn from these entries that the Court was still trying to get in the papers. There is also a curious account about the papers having been deposited in a room in * Gosain (go-swami, lord of cattle or perhaps lord of one’s passions [Wilson], a faqir or jogi, a religious mendicant). Bolaqi left by his will (967) one-sixteenth of his property to the disciples of Gosainji. This may be the Gosain referred to, or it may be Birju Palji, to whom one thirty- second was left. Kista Jiban said (1024) that the Gosain’s name was Birjya (Ibisher ?) Ji, and Mr. Farrer, in his application of January 26th, 1776, spoke of him as Birja Seer (Sri ?) Gosain, and as a legatee named in the will. It would appear from Kista Jiban’s account (1023) that it was Padma Mohan and Mohan Prasad’s quarreling, and their failure to pay the Gosain his legacy, which led the latter to move the Mayor’s Court.
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