by Rosane Rocher
The Age of Partnership: Europeans in Asia Before Dominion, by Blair B. Kling, Michael Naylor Pearson
1979
Pgs. 215-235
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The attitudes of the British in India have been the subject of a vast literature. Most often, the people whose reactions are analyzed were administrators, diplomats, soldiers, missionaries, and their wives -- persons whose avocations and bent of mind did not predispose them to accept their Indian surroundings. Whether in their professional capacity or in fiction,1 they revealed themselves as foreigners on an Indian scene. Orientalists were different: although most of them had come to India in some other capacity, and with no more preparation than their fellow British citizens, they often underwent a process of -- partial -- conversion to things Indian. Their attitudes have been studied at the hand of their scholarly disquisitions.2 The present study follows a different line of approach; it examines productions of an orientalist which are not of a scholarly nature. A picture will emerge of a man who was genuinely fascinated by India, through a medium that does not require the self-conscious drive for objectivity which is the hallmark of scientific activity. The picture may not look as sharp as others; it may appear as a blurred superposition of partial images with different foci. It will reveal the complexity of a man at once attracted and repelled, loving and lordly, and forever at odds with Britain as well as India.
Nathaniel Brassey Halhed (1751-1830) went to India in 1772 for the same reasons others did: to make himself a fortune. He was, however, better educated than most of the young writers in the service of the East India Company. He had studied at Harrow and Oxford. He knew Persian.3 As a poet, he had published jointly -- and anonymously -- with his friend Richard Brinsley Sheridan, a versified English version of Greek erotic prose.4 His first year in Bengal was a miserable experience, as he indicated in the clearest terms in a letter to his friend Samuel Parr on 5 November 1773:
Give me then leave to inform you that India (the wealthy, the luxurious, and the lucrative) is so exceedingly ruined and exhausted, that I am not able by any means, not with the assistance of my education in England, and the exertion of all my abilities here, to procure even a decent subsistence. I have studied the Persian language with the utmost application in vain; 1 have courted employment without effect; and after having suffered much from the heat of the climate, spent whatever money I brought into the country, and seen the impossibility of providing for myself for some years to come, I have taken the resolution of quitting so disagreeable a spot, before the necessity of running deeply into debt confines me here for years (perhaps for life) .... You must grant, as my postulate, that Bengal is beyond conception exhausted .... I say, therefore, that as Bengal is so much altered for the worse that I find it impossible to get my bread, I have formed the plan of leaving it before my health and constitution be totally debilitated.5
Halhed's fate changed dramatically in early 1774. His knowledge of Persian finally paid off when Warren Hastings chose him to translate into English the compendium of Hindu laws which he had commissioned and which had been translated into Persian.6 By the time Halhed had composed a long preface,7 he was a genuine orientalist, curious about Sanskrit language and literature and Hindu antiquities. He was to pursue this interest with a grammar of Bengali8 and several works he did not care to publish.9 Thanks to Hastings' patronage and continuing interest,10 the young man who in November 1773 had been concerned only with making a quick fortune and returning to England as soon as possible became a scholar of considerable merit. Through the vicissitudes of a checkered career, two constants remained unchallenged: his interest in Hinduism and his devotion to Hastings.
The first of Halhed's Indian poems which have been preserved -- most of them are unpublished -- was addressed to Hastings on 22 May 1774 while Halhed was engaged in translation of the Code. It is a panegyric. Hastings is heralded as protector of science, patron of Sanskrit learning, and restorer of the ancient laws -- the sphere of activity in which Halhed had been set to work. He is presented as deeply concerned with the welfare of the people, a "guardian," "the parent, not the ruler of the state." Through Hastings, the role of the British in India is profiled as benevolent paternalism. In the triangle British-Hindu-Muslim, the mission of the British -- and Reason -- is to free Hindus and protect them from the despotic power and bigotry of the Muslims. Under British tutelage agriculture, the rule of law, arts -- and trade! -- will bloom. Even though they may not appreciate it now, the people will one day be duly thankful. Is is characteristic -- though surprising, considering that Halhed read Persian fluently and had but a smattering of Sanskrit -- that the authentic representative of India is the Hindu par excellence, a Brahman. The poem, entitled "The Bramin and the River Ganges," is introduced with a quotation from Virgil: si Pergama dextra / defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent. [Google translate: if Troy's right / could be defended they would have also been defended by this.]11
Silent and sad (where Ganges' waters roll)
A care-worn Bramin took his pensive way.
Proscient of ill, in agony of soul
Tracing his country's progress to decay.
Age on his brow her furrow stamp had wrought,
While sorrow added to th' impression deep:
And melting Nature at each pause of thought
Snatch'd the indulgent interval to weep,
Thus straying, as he wearied out with pray'r
Each fabled guardian of that hallow'd wave;
To soothe the misery of vain despair
The river's goddess left her oozy cave.
"O lost to thought and obstinately blind!
Weak man!" she cried, "thy baseless passion cease:
Rouse from this torpid lethargy of mind,
And wake at last to comfort and to peace.
Smile, that no more ambitious spoilers range
Thy lahour's fruits relentless to devour:
Smile to obey (and hail th' happy change)
The rule of reason for the rod of pow'r.
Hast thou forgot how Tartar fury spurn'd
The suppliant meekness of the patient sage;
How bigot zeal the groves of science burn' d,
While superstition sanctified the rage?
Hast thou forgot each prostitute decree,
Each venal law the plaint Coran sold:
While the fleec'd suitor famish'd on his plea,
And judges wallow'd in extorted gold?
What could Mahommed's race degen'rate teach,
Themselves to spoil alone and ruin taught?
Neglected commerce wept her silent beach,
And arts affrighted distant dwellings sought.
Think then on what ye were -- destruction's prey --
How low, how worthless in the scale of things!
While havock stain'd with Indian gore her way,
And deserts whiten'd with the bones of kings.
Ingrateful Hindus! when a tender hand
Pours balm into your wounds; is't right to weep?
Your guardian's anxious efforts to withstand,
Who wakes to lahour but that you may sleep!
Are murmurs then, and tears the tribute just,
Are plaints, to wisdom and to mercy due,
That rais'd your groveling functions from the dust,
And open'd life and freedom to your view?
The frail exotic might as well accuse
Th' officious kindness of the planter's care,
That shelters it from autumn's sickly dews,
And blunts the keenness of December's air.
Say. is it nought. that no insulting lord
With riotous arms the lab'ring plough impedes?
Nought, to behold your country's laws restor'd.
The moral system of the slighted Vedes?12
Nought, that deliver'd from a tyrant's chain
Diffusive trade re-m s13 the busy strand?
That arts invigorated bloom again,
And favour prospers each inventive hand?
Go, go, vain mourner! thy glad homage show
To Him who broke despotic slav'ry's tie:
Who gave thee, rescued from that bitt'rest woe,
To live uninjur'd, and unplunder'd die:
To Him, who yet hath other gifts in store,
Whom further deeds of worth shall render great:
Who still shall blend humanity with power,
The parent, not the ruler of the state.
Yet, not confin'd to legislation's sphere,
'T is He shall bid fair science too take root;
Shall nurture ev'ry plant that she may rear,
And teach her tender scyons how to shoot:
And haply animate some vent'rous eye
T' explore the mysteries conceal'd so long:
To trace where learning's earliest sources lie,
And ope the fountains of Sanscritian song.
Weep as thou wilt, thy sons will bless his name,
When thou art mingled with thy kindred earth;
And consecrate the happy hour to fame
Of Pollio's14 greatness, and of freedom's birth."15
Halhed left Bengal in 1778 and, back in England, became one of the most vocal defenders of Hastings' Indian policies. He published in 1779 an anonymous tract in defense of Hastings' Maratha policy.16 His involvement with East Indian politics grew even stronger in 1782, when he helped John Scott (Hastings' agent in England) and Joseph Price to wage a press campaign to refute the accusations leveled against Hastings by parliamentary committees. Under the pseudonym "Detector" he published from October 1782 to November 1783 a stream of letters in the Morning Herald17 and in separate pamphlets.18 John Scott described him to Hastings as "indefatigable upon this, as upon every other occasion, and he is esteemed the first political writer in England."19
It is in this atmosphere that our second poem originated. It was written on 8 June 1782 and therefore antedates the war of pamphlets. The combativeness, however, is already present. A paean to Hastings, the poem has a totally different tone from the preceding one. It has no peaceful scenes of flourishing arts and trade, no mention of science and Sanskrit learning; all these concerns are swept aside by a sudden burst of military enthusiasm. Hastings is no longer a "guardian," "the parent, not the ruler of the state," but "great arbiter of Hindostan." Although the lines resound with names of Indian princes and their cities, the mood is not Indian. It is a poem composed in England to extol military victories over barbaric rulers. The feeling emerges that, even though the Indian enemies have been defeated, the battle is not over; the British Commons remains to be conquered. The poem bears no title but announces itself as a paraphrase of an ode by Horace:20
What thanks, O Hastings, from the chair,
What ballot of impartial names,
What vote of commons shall declare
The meed exerted virtue claims?
O first in rank! in merit first!
Whose influence Poona's restless hord,
Alien from law, in rapine nurs'd,
Hath felt, hath trembled, and ador'd.
For late, by thy strong legions back'd,
Hath Goddart21 hewn their armies down:
Where o'er the widely subject tract
Bassein's insulting bastions frown,
Bassein, for long resistance stor'd:
But fenceless to a British foe.
Nor long, ere Coote22 unsheath'd the sword,
And laid the proud Mysorean low.
Eager of fight, how fierce he prest
To struggle in the manly strife;
And harrass out each stubborn breast
Sworn to quit plunder but with life.
Rapid he rush' d resistless forth,
And drove along the surge of war.
Like some black storm, when West and North
Sweep o'er the verdure of Bahar.
As foams swol'n Ganges on the sides
Of some frail bank in rich Nattore.
Sudden it bursts -- th' impetuous tides
Destruction o'er the meadows pour.
So rag'd he 'gainst each adverse line;
Now charg'd the rear, now storm'd the van;
The troops, the auspices were thine,
Thine the campaign's digested plan.
For thee, on that important hour
When Guallior wide its portal threw
(A conquest for an empire's power)
To Popham23 and his daring few,
(While light'ning-wing'd the wond'rous tale
Thro' Asia's farthest regions ran)
Astonished millions join'd to hail
Great arbiter of Hindostan!
The Peshwa trembles at thy nod;
And stubborn Hyder bends the knee;
The Lama, king at once and god,
Hath bow'd to virtue and to thee.
To thee hath roll'd obedient waves
The Ganges of uncertain source;
And frequent Carumnassa laves
Thy laurels in her lengthen'd course.
Thy voice the stern Marattah's hear,
With hands in purple slaughter dy'd:
Fearless of death, yet thee they fear,
"And lay their vanquish'd arms aside.24
Halhed returned to Bengal in 1784 and was supposed to be appointed to the first vacancy on the Council of Revenue. When he reached Calcutta in July, Hastings was on a trip to Oudh and Banaras. He joined Hastings in Banaras in October and learned of his intention to resign and return to England. Hastings, anxious to have several of his supporters accompany him home to help fight the attacks that he knew were to continue, arranged that Halhed be made the agent of the nawab of Oudh in England.25 While Hastings returned to Calcutta, Halhed stayed behind and wrote Hastings three letters,26 all of which contain poems. Two of these poems have Indian themes.27
The letter in which the first "Indian" poem is inserted deals mainly with the technicalities of obtaining the agency for the nawab of Oudh. Toward the end, Halhed is reminded that all these dealings are caused by Hastings' impending departure. He voices concern for India. Hastings -- not any British administration -- is viewed now as India's sole protection against anarchy. Halhed reverts to the tone of the poem, quoted earlier, written during his first sojourn in Bengal: Hastings is again pictured as a considerate parent for India. The poem bears no title but links immediately with the paragraph that precedes in the letter:28
I am rendered exceedingly happy in the observation that each successive packet from England brings an addition of strength, or at least a presumption of such addition to your arm and to your cause. The prospect of daily invigorating influence will at all events throw a brighter lustre on the remaining products of your labours, and cast a rich tint of sunshine on your final arrangements.
But ah! when from the parting vessel's stern,
A nation's woes shall in your bosom burn;
While, as Calcutta fades beneath your eye,
That breast shall heave the last parental sign,
To think that o'er this strife-devoted plain,
So long reposing in your cares -- in vain.
Uprais'd by mammon, and by faction nurs'd,
So soon the storms of anarchy must burst.
Say can a frail exotic's tender frame
Repel the torrent, or defy the flame?
Your gardener hand, dear Sir, first gave it root,29
Your kindly30 influence bade its buds to shoot;
Can it but wither, when those beams are gone,
In air ungenial, and a foreign sun?
The poem included in the third letter, written during Halhed's trip to Oudh, is a very curious production and one in which the scholar comes to the fore. It does not touch upon East Indian politics, either in India or in Britain, but focuses exclusively on India and Hinduism. Although couched in less reserved terms than is usual, it is a fairly representative example of the westerner's uneasiness with popular Hinduism. Modern scholars make a distinction between philosophical and popular Hinduism; eighteenth-century scholars used to posit a historical development: the pure -- and monotheistic! -- religion of pristine ages had been debased to a gross, idolatrous superstition at the hands of a cunning Brahman priesthood. Halhed's tone is all the more raucous, his disgust for the practices he witnessed in Banaras is all the more profound, because he feels genuine admiration for what he considers to be the only real, unadulterated, elevated Hinduism. The Bhagavadgita figures prominently in the poem as the symbol of "the most ancient and pure religious principles of the Hindoos." Halhed's enthusiasm had been fanned by his visit to his friend Charles Wilkins, who was completing his English translation of the text at that precise time.31 The letter in which Halhed forwarded the poem to Hastings is nothing more than a note of explanation -- and apology -- for the theme he struck:
I arrived here at 1 P.M. at Mr. Magrath's bungalow, and scribble a copy of the enclosed while dinner is getting ready. In excuse for it I can only say, that I really intended to speak of the learning, the integrity, the virtue, the philosophy and the disinterestedness of Bramins. But that when I came to "sweep the sounding lyre," the devil of one of them could I find -- and Mrs. Melpomene or whoever is the proper officer on these occasions obliged me to say what I have said. As a poet I might plead the privilege of fiction. But alas it is all sober fact! and therefore I cannot possibly have hit the sublime. I believe there might have been more of it, but the accursed dawk bearers have obliged me to walk so much (not being able even to drag the palanquin after me in some places,) that I was tempted to bestow all my iambics upon them.32
Halhed describes the poem33 as an "ode on leaving Benaras" and dedicates it pointedly to what he considers alternative names for one primordial notion of the divine, now abandoned:
To Brahm or Kreeshna34
Who shall, O Brahm, thy mystic paths pervade?
Who shall unblam'd the sacred scenes disclose,
Where ancient wisdom's godlike sons are laid
Immortal sharers of divine repose?
Om! Veeshnu! Brahm![a] or by whatever name
Primeval Resbees [ b] have thy power ador'd:
They worshipp'd thee, they knew thee still the same,
One great eternal, undivided lord!
Tho' now, in these worn days, obscur'd thy light,
(Worn days, alas, and crazy wane of time!)
Tho' priest-crafts' puppets cheat man's bigot sight
With hell-born mockeries of things sublime,
Ages have been, when thy refulgent beam
Shone with full vigour on the mental gaze:
When doting superstition dar'd not dream,
And folly's phantoms perish'd in thy rays.
Yes, they have been, but ah! how fallen, how chang'd
Behold, on Caushee's [c] yet religious plain,
(Haunts where pure saints, enlighten'd seers have rang'd)
The hood-wink'd Hindu drag delusion's chain.
What boots it, that in groves of fadeless green
He tread where truth's best champions erst have trod?
Now in each mould'ring stump, and bust obscene,
The lie-fraught bramin bids him know a god.
What boots it, that on Gunga's hallow'd shore
He sees Dwypayan's [d] earliest scroll unfurl'd,
Where the proud turrets of Benaras soar,
And boast acquaintance with a former world?
For him, misguided wretch! nor ear nor eye
Perceives in hearing, nor beholds in sight:
Else might he still at Kreeshna's [e] camp supply
His blunted organs with caelestial light.
He rather glories at some flow'r-strew'd fane
Of Hanuman, baboon [f] obscene, to bow:
Or blind his blank existence in the train
Of gaping suppliants to a pamper'd cow!
'T is night -- from yon low door, in hallow din,
Bell, drum, and voice th' affrighted ear assault.
Hush -- 't is a temple -- Doorgah's rites begin:
What pious Hindu hails not Doorgha's vault?
Nich't in an angle of the seven-foot space
Stands a gaunt semblance of th' ill favour'd hag:
Her drizzling carcase and unseemly base
Veil'd in a squalid yard of scanty rag.
A silver'd convex marks each garish eye,
Her hideous visage shines imbrued with ink:
And as the bramin waves his lamp on high
The satisfied adorer sees her wink.
Here, as in silent horror we survey
The priest-rid mis'ry of the blinded throng,
A lip-learn'd yogee opes the choral lay,
And writhes and labours in a Sanscrit song.
Not far, a wretch with arms erect and shrunk
Full thrice-ten-years god's image hath defac'd:
Till like some age-worn Peepul's [g] leafless trunk
His very vegetation is a waste.
Here, in one spot, the dying and the dead
For rites funereal wait their sev'ral turn:
While the yet-gasping victim, from his shed,
Smells the parch'd bones, and sees his brother burn.
Where'er we tread 't is consecrated mould.
Streets choak'd with temples -- God's at ev'ry door --
But canst thou, Kreeshna! not inceas'd behold
Thy bramins grind the faces of the poor?
Thy bramins, did I say? -- degen'rated herd,
Offspring of Narak, [h] lucre-loving race,
Who crush thy Geeta's [ i] more than human word
T'exalt some pagan pootee35 in its place.
Accurst Benaras, wherefore are endus' d
Such foul misdeeds to taint pure Gunga's stream:
Wherefore have idols, heifers, apes, obscur'd
The simple science of the one supreme?
God of all good! yet once events controul!
Snatch yet thy volume from the night of time!
Let not this precious balsam of the soul
Waste all its virtues in a thankless clime!
E' en yet there is, whose spirit soars above
This finite mansion of distemper'd clay: [j]
Who leaves to groveling minds the wealth they love,
Nor stifles conscience in the lust of sway.
Him in thine essence late absorb! and here
lllumine, worthy, with thy truths divine!
So shall thy sastra see-girt nations chear:
So Kreeshna's light in northern darkness shine.
Back in England, Halhed led the easy life of a gentleman of independent means, traveling, appearing at court, and eventually becoming a member of Parliament in 1791. He was, however, deeply disappointed with England, which did not appear to appreciate the achievements of Hastings in Bengal. Together with John Shore, and several other devoted friends of Hastings', he participated in the preparation of his patron's defense presented before the House of Commons in 1786. His rancor kept growing throughout the impeachment, particularly vis-a-vis Edmund Burke, who requited Halhed's hostility.36 Halhed gave vent to his feelings in a series of poems written at every step of the legal proceedings. Although these poems refer to events in India, their theme is the struggle of the Hastings faction in Britain; India is only the background for matters debated at home. These poems are therefore peripheral to the concerns analyzed here.
For Halhed, only a few special people -- not Britain at large -- could understand and carry out the policies that were needed in India. His friend and fellow defender of Hastings, John Shore, was such a person, and Halhed was delighted at his appointment as governor-general in 1792. He wrote on that occasion a congratulatory poem in imitation of an epigram by Martial:37 Halhed's loss will be Indian's gain:
To parch'd Bengal's Brahminical domains,
Where floods of Ganges fertilize the plains,
Go, virtuous Shore! I urge thy journey -- go!
A nation's welfare compensates my woe.
Go! -- I can court regret on such a plea;
The bliss of millions should be bliss to me.
Thy patriot toils a few short seasons claim:
Guard but thyself, and leave the rest to Fame.
Go! -- and imbibe incessant suns once more.
We rate not merit by complexion, Shore.
Nay, if inglorious ease can feel concern,
Thy fairer friends shall blush at thy return:
One British winter Asia's tint shall chase,
And feed thy glory, as it clears thy face.
As the years went by, Halhed's alienation grew. His tragic involvement with Richard Brothers, who prophesized the imminent end of the millennium and destruction of London, completed the process which had been initiated with his bitterness over the trial which Hastings had to endure. Halhed was an object of ridicule for his defense of Brothers and had to relinquish his seat in Parliament. He severed all ties with society and lived as a recluse from 1796 to 1808. He wanted no contact with what he named "Sclerocardia," the hardhearted city of London. Even when he emerged from his self-imposed confinement, he did not make his peace with his British surroundings. His friends, his concerns, even the employment he obtained in the home administration of the East India Company, were all linked to his India days. His letters to Hastings attest to his patient study of the Mahabharata. His intimacy with Hastings and the Daylesford circle became stronger, more exclusive. Halhed was not the only member of the group who dabbled in poetry, but he was the undisputed judge in this field. There were endless exchanges of verses, particularly with Hastings. Halhed usually offered Hastings verses when he arrived for a visit and again when he left. He dedicated poems to him on his successive birthdays. Two such poems, in which the indologist comes to the fore, are published here. They testify to Halhed's continuing captivation with Hinduism.
The poem written to celebrate Hastings' eighty-third birthday uses the theory of yugas, the concept of cyclical time which fascinated Halhed throughout his life, from his first indological publication38 to his last work in manuscript.39 The poem, dated 17 December 1815, is provided with a note of explanation by the author:40
Firm on four feet the Sati-Jug behold!
As symboliz'd (and wherefore?) by a bull!
'Tis Taurus -- whence the sun in vigour full
First through the zodiac his fixt period roll'd,
Op' ning with joy the pristine age of gold.
Trita less stedfast under virtue's rule,
Stands but on three. From these another pull
'Tis Dwapar: -- Kali reels on one, grown old.
To mortals scriptures four-score years assign.
Youth's satya then compute at thirty two
For Trita twenty-four are manhood's due:
Sixteen mark Dwapar, verging tow'rd decline:
Eight the decrepitude of Kali close.
Hastings, at eighty three, a second satya knows.
The poem offered to Hastings on the occasion of his last birthday, on 17 December 1817, draws a simile from the stages of life recommended for the orthodox Brahmans, "the sages whom we both admire." Halhed's admiration for philosophical, monotheistic Hinduism remains intact:41
Hastings! The sages whom we both admire,
Offspring, so fable wills, of Brahma's head,
When of their century the first half is fled, [a]
Narrowing their labours, as the Veds require,
Burst all mundane obstructions, that so higher
Their intellect's expansive force may spread,
Till like the poles, with Brahm [ b]concentrated,
They move in thought the universe entire.
This heav' n-taught Hindus life-directing rule,
Hadst thou, illustrious friend, long since in view,
Renouncing empire's cares at fifty-two,
To dwell with wisdom in her spiritual school.
Tow'rds its true center there thy mind gains way,
Year after year advanc'd -- and eight-five to day.
Some of Halhed's poems appear to be irretrievably lost, together with most of his private papers. According to Grant, Halhed wrote "a series of Sonnets on the ten incarnations of Vishnu."42 Grant prints one of these sonnets as "a specimen of the mode in which he associated our sacred writings with those of the Hindoos,"43 The blending of Christian and Hindu myths was a common preoccupation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and was pursued by Halhed with particular vigor. The trend appears indeed to have grown stronger with the years; the pages of his last work44 are replete with far-fetched parallels between biblical, classical, and Indian data. The only sonnet in the series on the incarnations of Visnu that has been preserved pursues the same line of thought. It is devoted to the dwarf Vamana, the fifth incarnation of Visnu, who is likened to Christ:
Vaman
O'er the three worlds when Vali's45 empire spread,
Vaman, a holy dwarf, before him bow'd.
"Take what thou wilt" exclaimed the monarch proud.
"Space his three steps to cover," were, he said,
"Enough." The sovereign's priest opposed, in dread
Of latent mischief: but the king allow'd.
Vaman strode twice and spann'd (a god avow'd)
The universe. The third took Vali's head.
So Christ, a dwarf in reason's lofty eyes,
Two steps had trod, where Satan's glories swell,
The first, his cross, o'erstriding death and hell;
The next his resurrection clear'd the skys.
For his last step, his second advent know
To bruise the serpent's head, and chain him down below.46
Grant gives no indication as to the date of this series of poems. It is probable that they are late in Halhed's life, possibly in the 1810s, if they are related to his renewed indological activities after his period of reclusion. If this is the case, they would follow the hymns to Hindu deities of Sir William Jones,47 although the latter do not seem to have occasioned them.
Hastings died in 1818. Halhed resigned his post with the home administration of the East India Company less than one year later. His very last poem, entitled "Mes adieux," dated 23 July 1819,48 not only takes leave of the company, but at the same time bids farewell to poetry. Although he lived on for more than a decade, he was not heard from any more. The death of his patron and the end of his involvement in Indian affairs signified the close of his active life. For years his existence had been led under the sign of past Indian days. For better or for worse he was a "Nabob," a returned Anglo-Indian, who never could call England home again.49
_______________
Notes:
1. See the latest addition to the literature on the subject: Benita Parry, Delusions and Discoveries: Studies on India in the British Imagination 1880-1930 (Berkeley, 1972).
2. See, recently, P.J. Marshall (ed.), The British Discovery of Hinduism in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1970), published in a series with the revealing title "The European Understanding of India."
3. William Jones to Viscount Althorp on 18 August 1772: "I do not know whether you ever heard me mention a schoolfellow of mine named Halhed: 1 received a letter from him the other day, partly Persian and partly Latin, dared the Cape of Good Hope. He was in his way to Bengal ..." Garland Cannon (ed.), The Letters of Sir William Jones (Oxford, 1970), vol. 1, pp. 114-115.
4, The Love Epistles of Aristaenetus: Translated from the Greek into English Metre (London, 1771).
5. Samuel Parr, Works; with Memoirs of His Life and Writings and a Selection from His Correspondence, ed. John Johnstone, (London, 1828), vol. 1, pp. 469-470 n.
6. Hastings had it published by the East India Company: A Code of Gentoo Laws, or, Ordinations of the Pandits. From a Persian Translation, Made from the Original, Written in the Shanscrit Language (London, 1776).
7. Reprinted in Marshall, British Discovery of Hinduism, pp. 140-183.
8. A Grammar of the Bengal Language (Hooghly, 1778).
9. British Museum Add. MSS 5657-9; Asiatic Society, Calcutta, MS E. 48.
10. The importance of Hastings' role in this regard has been highlighted recently by P.J. Marshall, "Warren Hastings as Scholar and Patron," Statesmen, Scholars and Merchants: Essays in Eighteenth-Century History Presented to Dame Lucy Sutherland, ed. Anne Whiteman et al. (Oxford, 1973), pp. 242-262.
11. Virgil Aeneid 2.291-292: "If a hand could save Troy, this hand would have."
12. Bedes, corrected into Vedes = Vedas. In 1774, when the poem was written, Halhed consistently reproduced the Bengali pronunciation of Sanskrit. By the time the collection which preserves this poem was made, after Hastings' death, Halhed had occasion to eliminate spellings influenced by Bengali pronunciation.
13. Illegible.
14. Pollio, Roman politician and patron of the arts, friend of Virgil. Here Pollio = Hastings.
15. British Museum Add. MS 39,899, ff. 2-3.
16. A Narrative of teh Events Which Have Happened in Bombay and Bengal, Relative to the Maharatta Empire, Since July 1777 (London, 1779).
17. Morning Herald, 7, 9, 12, 16, 18, 21, 23, 28 October and 1, 2, 11, 18, 20, 25 November 1782; collected and reprinted in The Letters of Detector on the Reports of the Select Committee of the House of Commons Appointed to Consider How the British Possessions in the East-Indies May Be Held and Governed with the Greatest Secureity and Advantage to This Country and How the Happiness of the Natives May Be Best Promoted (London, 1782). Morning Herald, 28 April and 1, 5, 15 May 1783; collected and reprinted in The Letters of Detector, on the Seventh and Eighth Reports of the Select Committee and on the India Regulating Bill (London, 1783). Morning Herald, 17 July and 7 November 1783, the latter also printed as a separate pamphlet and distributed at a meeting of proprietors of East India stock.
18. A letter to Governor Johnstone ... on Indian Affairs (London, 4 January 1783); A letter to the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke, on the Subject of His Late Charges against the Governor-General of Bengal (London, 18 October 1783).
19. British Museum Add. MS 29, 160, f. 170.
20. Horace Odes 4. 14.
21. Thomas Goddard, who defeated Mahadaji Sindhia and captured Bassein in 1781.
22. Sir Eyre Coote, who defeated Haidar Ali at Potto Novo in 1781.
23. William Popham, who Stormed the fort of Gwalior in 1780.
24. British Museum Add. MS 39,899, ff. 4-5.
25. Hastings to his wife on 20 November 1784: "Halhed is at Lucnow, busied in the Execution of a Plan which I have concerted for his Return to England. I wish he was there, but I hope to precede him. His Talents were always of the first Rate; but they are improved far beyond what you knew them, and I shall still require them in Aid of Scott's Exertions." Sydney C. Grier (ed.), The Letters of Warren Hastings to His Wife (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 368.
26. Dated Muzaffarpur, 9 November 1784; Banaras, 12 November; Kanpur, 18 November. Printed in John Grant's "Warren Hastings in Slippers: Unpublished Letters of Warren Hastings," Calcutta Review 26 (1856):76-80. When printing the last letter, Grant omitted -- or did not have -- the poem.
27. The poem in the letter dated 12 November, not reproduced here, is introduced in the following terms: "I have hit upon a source of perpetual amusement on an inexhaustible subject: 'The abuse of language in modern poetry, by introducing the idioms and expressions of the poetic language of the ancients into modern verses.' I have taken the liberty to subjoin a few stanzas by way of specimen: and I hope I am not presumptuous in requesting your assistance, when you feel a necessity of relaxing a little from the toils of empire, in adding to my humble effort, which has only the merit of being so lax and disjointed, that it will admit a stanza on any subject in any part where you may be pleased to put it." Grant, "Hastings in Slippers," p. 77.
28. Grant's article "Hastings in Slippers" is our only source for the text of Halhed's letter. The poem printed in Grant's article, from Halhed's private papers, is also included in the collection which Halhed made of his poems to Hastings "that happen to have been preserved" and offered to Hastings' widow (British Museum Add. MS 39,899. f. 6). There are some variants in the two copies of the poem. The text reproduced here is that in Grant's article; the variant readings in the British Museum manuscript are mentioned in notes. It is probable that, when Halhed collected his poems after Hastings' death, he emended some verses which he felt could be improved. Grant may have committed minor mistakes while copying the poem, but he is not likely to have changed the wording. The version quoted in Grant's article has therefore a better chance to represent the original poem written in 1784.
29. "Your animating hand first gave it root" (British Museum Add. MS 39,899. f. 6).
30. "quick'ning" (British Museum Add. MS 39,899. f. 6).
31. Charles Wilkins, The Bhagvat-Geeta (London, 1785). The letter dedicating the translation to Hastings (reprinted in Marshall, British Discovery of Hinduism, p. 192) is dated 19 November 1784, one day after Halhed wrote his poem.
32. Grant, "Hastings in Slippers," p. 80.
33. Preserved only in British Museum Add. MS 39,899. ff. 6-8.
34. Halhed's spelling of Indian names is not consistent. Since the terms are generally clear, however, it would be superfluous to add to Halhed's glosses (marked a through j):
a. "names of the deity."
b. "saints or prophets."
c. "Benaras."
d. "Dwypayan (i.e. Vyas the great Hindo legislator and hierophant and sacred penman)."
e. "i.e. in the Geeta."
f. "a sacred ape."
g. "a species of tree."
h. "Hell."
i. "a book containing some of the most ancient and pure religious principles of the Hindoos."
j. "a Sanscrit phrase for the body."
35. Book.
36. See a letter from Burke to Dundas dated 7 April 1787: Holden Furber (ed., The Correspondence of Edmund Burke (Chicago, 1965), vol. 5, pp. 323-324.
37. Halhed published, anonymously, Imitations of Some of the Epigrams of Martial (London, 1793-1794). The poem to John Shore, in imitation of Martial Epigrams 10, 12, is published in pt. 4, pp. 23-25. It is also quoted in Lord Teignmouth, Memoir of the Life and Correspondence of John, Lord Teignmouth (London, 1843), vol. 1, pp. 225-226.
38. Preface to the Code of Gentoo Laws (reprinted in Marshall, British Discovery of Hinduism, pp. 158-159).
39. Translations from and notes on the Persian Mahabharata, which he made from 1811 to 1813, with an additional note in 1816 (Asiatic Society, Calcutta, MS E. 48).
40. British Museum Add. MS 39,899, f. 32:
"The proportions of the four Hindu Yugas.
Satya / 32
Trita / 24
Dwapar / 16
Kali / 8
Total / 80."
41. British Museum Add. MS 39,899, f. 37. Halhed provides his poem with explanatory notes (marked a and b):
a. "The quadripartite subdivision of human life -- supposed to consist for each individual among the bramins of a 100 years -- is thus allotted. In the first 25 years the person is a Brahmachari, or pupil; in the next quarter he is called grathasta, or a house-holder; at the close of 50 years he becomes a vanaprasta or a dweller in the woods; and after 75 he is a saniasi or pilgrim."
b. "The One omnipotent."
42. "Hastings in Slippers," p. 137.
43. Ibid.
44. Asiatic Society, Calcutta, MS E. 48.
45. Bali.
46. Grant, "Hastings in Slippers," p. 137.
47. William Jones, Works (London, 1799), vol. 6, pp. 313-392.
48. British Museum Add. MS 39,899, f. 42.
49. I thank the authorities of the British Museum for permission to publish Halhed's poems preserved in manuscript in the Hastings papers in their collections.