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General Avitabile and the Vaishnava Establishment at Dhyanpur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

B. N. Goswamy
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Extract

There appears, on the face of it, little that could connect a Neapolitan soldier with a religious establishment in a small village in the Gurdaspur district of the Punjab in India. The connexion appears even more unlikely when that Neapolitan soldier happens to be General Paolo di Avitabile, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, of the Order of Merit of San Ferdinand of Naples, of the Durrani order of Afghanistan, Grand Cordon of the Lion and the Sun and of the Two Lions and Crown of Persia, of the Auspicious Order of the Punjab; and the religious establishment, the Vaishnava gaddī of Dhyanpur on which sat generations of mahants of a retiring disposition. But the connexion is none the less firm, as will be seen in the four documents presented in this article, and becomes easier of comprehension when one knows that General Avitabile was a military adventurer who rose in 1829 to the position of Governor of Wazīrābād in the Punjab under Mahārāja Ranjīt Singh, an area where the gaddī of Dhyanpur held some lands, free of revenue, from the local authority. The position becomes even more intelligible in the light of the fact that the Dhyanpur gaddī was of wide celebrity and had consistently received homage as much from the local population as from the Mahārāja.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 103 , Issue 2 , April 1971 , pp. 156 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1971

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References

1 Besides J. J. Cotton's Life of Avitabile, there is much material available on this ferocious and successful, although highly controversial, adventurer who played such a considerable role in the affairs, both military and civil, in the Punjab under, and after, Ranjīt Singh. Opinions on him vary so sharply that it becomes difficult to believe that the same person is being spoken of. Whatever his other faults or achievements, his governorship of Peshawar—to which position he was appointed in 1835, after a successful five years as Governor of Wazīrābād—is remembered as one of the most ruthless and efficient. General Avitabile returned in 1843 to Europe, where he was much honoured, and died in his native Italy in 1850. For accounts of the General, see, among others, Grey, C., European adventurers of northern India, Lahore, 1929, 117–147Google Scholar; Chopra, G. L., The Punjab as a sovereign state, Lahore, 1928, 185–188Google Scholar; Singh, Khushwant, Ranjit Singh, 1962, 145–146Google Scholar; Waheed-ud-Din, Syed, The real Ranjit Singh, Karachi, 1965, 128.Google Scholar

2 Dhyanpur lies about fifteen miles from Batala in the Gurdaspur district in the direction of the Indo-Pakistan border. The village is small and unpretentious and one comes unexpectedly upon the flourishing establishment of the Vaishnava gaddī in the heart of the village on an eminence. From that remote corner, the Dhyanpur establishment acts as the centre of a network of subsidiary establishments through-out northern India.

3 I wish to acknowledge here, with thanks, the help received from the present mahant of Dhyanpur, Shri Dwārkadāsjī, through whose courtesy I had access to the documents presented here. It is through his efforts that a very considerable amount of historical material has been preserved at the shrine. I also received much help, during my visits to Dhyanpur, from Shri Jeet, whom I wish to thank here for his kindness.

4 The material preserved at Dhyanpur relates mostly to the considerable landed property that is attached to the Dhyanpur gaddī not only at the two places mentioned in these documents but also elsewhere in the districts of Gurdaspur, Sialkot, and Gujranwala. While it certainly is in the interest of the establishment to preserve papers like this, this cannot be said to have been done at many other religious establishments of this kind.

5 I am working on such an account with the help of documents and other related material.

6 A great deal of material has been published in Hindi by the Dhyanpur gaddī itself, including two small histories of the establishment: Bharadwaj's, HarishchandraGurū līlā (Dhyanpur, 1967Google Scholar) and Bhasin's, KrishanDarbār Shri Dhyānpur kī sankshipta jhānkī (Dhyanpur, 1963Google Scholar). A dated document preserved at Dhyanpur goes back to a.d. 1669 and refers to earlier possessions. The oral tradition about the meeting between Dārā Shukoh and Bābā Lāi is insistent. It is of interest to find a Mughal painting of this theme now in the India Office Library, London. See Binyon, Laurence and Arnold, T. W., The court painters of the Grand Moguls, Oxford, 1921, pl. XXII.Google Scholar

7 The dvārā, meaning, roughly, an affiliating establishment, is a recognized unit of activity in Vaishnava organization. The Dhyanpur gaddī is known as “Lāldvārā” much as the Pindori gaddī, also in the Gurdaspur district, is known as the “dvārā of Bhagwān-Narain Ji”.

8 There is a constant flow of pilgrims to the place throughout the year, the crowds increasing on special occasions. The sprawling establishment, the rows of rooms for pilgrims, the size of the langar or common kitchen, are all fair indications of the prosperity of the gaddī.

9 See Grey, op. cit., for an account of his ruthless acts. Even the generally mild Henry Lawrence judged Avitabile sternly, calling him “a savage among men”, and describing him as completely devoid of Christian virtues.

10 I have received kind help in translating and interpreting these documents from Shri D. R. Grover of the Panjab University Library, which I wish gratefully to acknowledge here.

11 The alif of the Mughal documents, which as a superscription, stood for “Allāhu Akbar”, was adopted apparently for Sikh documents in which it came to stand for “Onkār” or “Ek Onkār”. For a brief discussion see Goswamy, B. N. and Grewal, J. S., The Mughal and Sikh rulers and the Vaishnavas of Pindori, Simla, 1969Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as Pindori documents), no. xviii, n. 2. In some Sikh documents the alif stands for “Akāl Purukh”, but there it has some dots following alif, which stand for the pē of Purukh.

12 The seal is of high interest, being very elaborate and invoking the grace of God in much greater detail than the seals of Ranjīt Singh, or those of his sons and functionaries, which use the formula “Akāl Sahāi” or “Satgur Sahāi” for the most part. The seal was apparently struck by General Avitabile when he was appointed Governor of Wazīrābād, for it bears the year of his appointment, s. 1886 (a.d. 1829–30).

13 An ‘āmil, in the Mughal period, was an officer in charge both of the assessment and the collection of revenues. He also maintained accounts. For an account of the ‘āmil's many duties and his position in the financial department, see Goswamy, B. N. and Grewal, J. S., The Mughals and the Jogis of Jakhbar, Simla, 1967 (hereinafter referred to as Jakhbar documents), 63, n. 12.Google Scholar

14 The ta‘alluqa was roughly an administrative unit comprising several villages but its exact connotation in Sikh times is not very clear. For a brief discussion of the term see Pindori documents, no. xxx, n. 1.

15 During the British period, Qila Sobhā Singh, now in Pakistan, was included in the Sialkot district, being five miles to the south-east of Pasrur, a taḥsīl of the same district. The place was founded by Sardār Bāgh Singh (see n. 22 below) and named after one of his sons, Sobhā Singh. The place, according to the Gazetteer of the Sialkot District, 1883–84, p. 109, should not be confused with Qila Sūbha Singh, also in the same taḥsīl.

16 The kārdārs were official nominees of the Government of the day and had multifarious administrative duties to perform. According to Mr. Barnes, “the problem of his life was to maintain cultivation at the highest possible level, and at the same time to keep the cultivator at the lowest point of depression”. See Gazetteer of the Gurdaspur District, 1883–84, p. 16. Also see Pindori documents, no. xxxviii, n. 2.

17 The word used in the original is yak dahana chāh. This literally would mean “a well with one mouth or opening” to be contrasted possibly with a well with two openings or mouths. But I am inclined to believe that the word dahana is not literally meant, being used to connote only a number, much as the word rās is always used when mentioning heads of cattle. Thus, yak rās bhains, meaning “one buffalo”. When we have the description do dahana in the next document, one falling in one village, and the other in another ta‘alluqa, the indication is strong that two different wells are meant and not the same well with two openings.

18 This expression, literally meaning “devoted to religion” or “for the sake of religion”, is used for grants of a religious nature. Its equivalent in the Mughal documents is madad-i ma‘āsh or ā'imma. See Pindori documents, no. xix, n. 2.

19 Mahant Sitaldās is actually recorded as having died in a.d. 1805. His name occurs in this and the other document because the grant of Sardār Bāgh Singh, which is made the basis of the present grant, must have been originally issued in his name. At the time of the issue of the present grant, Mahant Harbhajandās sat on the gaddī of Dhyanpur.

20 This refers obviously to Mahārāja Ranjīt Singh. For the use of the same description, Huẓūr-i-Anwar, for the Mahārāja, see Pindori documents, no. xxxv.

21 The use of this honorific, generally employed before French names, for an Italian here is interesting. It probably came in out of force of habit, several of Ranjīt Singh's military officers being of French origin.

22 Sardār Bāgh Singh Ahlūwālia was one of the many Sikh chiefs, mostly of the Bhangī misl, who helped themselves to territories that fell into Sikh hands after Brij Rāj Dev of Jammu was killed in battle in a.d. 1784. His authority continued till 1810 when the Mahārāja replaced it by his own, first arresting Bāgh Singh with his son and then releasing them and investing them with a small jāgīr. See Gazetteer of the Sialkot District, 1883–84, pp. 18–19; Prinsep, Henry T., Origin of the Sikh power in the Punjab, Lahore, 1897, 66Google Scholar. A grant issued by Bāgh Singh, under his own seal, is also in the Dhyanpur collection.

23 There were many towns and villages of this name. One possibility is of this being the small town of this name in the Gurdaspur district that lay on the road from Amritsar to Dehra Baba Nanak. See Gazetteer of the Gurdaspur District, 1883–84, p. 101.

24 Note the use of the reverential word “Shri” before Dhyānpur here.

25 The implication is that the grant is issued in the name of the Mahant but is meant for the whole congregation of sādhs or holy men in the establishment. The Sikh term sādh-sangat is also used in one of the Pindori documents, no. xliii, n. 4.

26 The term “Khālsa Jīo” applies here, as in the Pindori documents, not to any mystical entity representing the whole Sikh community, as has been believed by many, but clearly for Ranjīt Singh himself. See a discussion on this point in our Pindori documents, Introduction.

27 The expression used in the original would literally mean “the parwāna which has been eaten”, khurda bāshand, but the sense quite clearly is the “produce which has been used as a result of the issue of the grant according to the parwāna of last year”.

28 This is only a mark to connote the end of a document and was in frequent use both in Mughal and Sikh documents. The intention was to prevent by its use any addition to the text after it had been drawn up.

29 These are published in the volumes referred to in the notes above as Jakhbar documents and Pindori documents. This authority, it is clear, was used by Sardār Bāgh Singh in his own name and not in the name of his misl or the Sikh community as a whole. Ranjīt Singh took over the territories of the various Sikh chieftains in this and the other regions one by one.

30 See, for instance, no. ix in our Jakhbar documents, which refers to the restoration of a grant earlier resumed by the Emperor Aurangzeb.

31 See, thus, nos. vii, ix, xiv in our Jakhbar documents.

32 In Jakhbar Documents, i, ii, iii and iv, thus, there is a specific order for the local officials not to demand from the grantees a fresh farmān or parwāna every year.

33 The rapacity of the local officials in Mughal and Sikh times is a fact too well known to need documentation. When orders of this kind are issued, they assume that the local officials must be obstructing or interfering with the enjoyment of grants of this character.

34 Herbert Edwardes, writing of Avitabile's governorship of Wazīrābād, mentions that he introduced books in every village “to prevent extortion on the part of the kardar himself, or any of his officials, wherein the instalments paid were entered up and signed by both parties at the time of payment. These books were afterwards reviewed once or twice in the year at Lahore.” See Grey, op. cit., 127. The Gazetteer of the Sialkot District, 1883–84, pp. 20–21, mentions the money settlement introduced by General Avitabile in areas under his control.