Account of a Journey to Sri Badri Narayan-ji Maharaj

Summary

as composed by His Highness Janab Rao Raja Bhavani Singh-ji sahib bahadur, Ruler of Khilchipur State Bidya Bhushan Press, Muradabad, 1900

Praise Lord Ganesh.

These are the circumstances of my third journey. I was twenty-two years old when the courts [in Khilchipur] stopped conducting their business in Hindi. This resulted in a great turnover among the clerks and other functionaries. The situation was such that any department that did not conduct its business in Persian greatly displeased His Royal Highness. His preference for Persian was so strong, in fact, that Persian-reading munshis and Muslim advisors were beginning to gain access to the highest echelons of government service. By this time I was overcome with worry, for ordinances from the state government, orders from the courts, and documents from the [Central India] Agency, etc., were all in Persian. To be sure, Hindi was still nominally sanctioned for use in the lowest offices, but for how much longer? There was even an assistant literate in Persian there too. Surely the day was not far off when Persian would be adopted everywhere, and it would be no surprise if Hindi were shaken off completely. Forget Persian, if you don’t count Hindi, I was completely illiterate even in Urdu. It seemed that I would soon endure great suffering and immense embarrassment as a result of my ignorance of Persian. If I could not manage to learn Persian, it was crucial that I should at the very least attempt to learn Urdu as best I could. Then, no matter how deficient I might be, I would still be able to read documents sent by the Agency and the courts of the various departments, and also be able to read letters and maps. This was critical. The situation [in the region] was very delicate in those days, and there were all manner of people about.

The only problem was, I was no longer a child. I could not be expected to tolerate so much hard work. Unwilling to commit, a year passed by…. One day [in 1891] I realized that it would be wise to subscribe to the Avadh Akhbar, an acclaimed newspaper from Lucknow that published worthwhile articles on community, national, political, and social issues, so that I could have it read aloud to me during moments of leisure.