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...The astonishment of the village may be easily imagined, when (the little
stone having been raised with one wrench of a spade) Mr. Pickwick, by
dint of great personal exertion, bore it with his own hands to the inn,
and after having carefully washed it, deposited it on the table.
The exultation and joy of the Pickwickians knew no bounds, when their
patience and assiduity, their washing and scraping, were crowned
with success. The stone was uneven and broken, and the letters were
straggling and irregular, but the following fragment of an inscription
was clearly to be deciphered:--
X B I L S T
u m
P S H I
S. M.
ARK
Mr. Pickwick's eyes sparkled with delight, as he sat and gloated over
the treasure he had discovered. He had attained one of the greatest
objects of his ambition. In a county known to abound in the remains of
the early ages; in a village in which there still existed some memorials
of the olden time, he--he, the chairman of the Pickwick Club--had
discovered a strange and curious inscription of unquestionable
antiquity, which had wholly escaped the observation of the many learned
men who had preceded him. He could hardly trust the evidence of his
senses.
.....
Mr. Blotton, with a mean desire to tarnish the lustre of the immortal name of Pickwick,
actually undertook a journey to Cobham in person, and on his return,
sarcastically observed in an oration at the club, that he had seen the
man from whom the stone was purchased; that the man presumed the
stone to be ancient, but solemnly denied the antiquity of the
inscription--inasmuch as he represented it to have been rudely carved by
himself in an idle mood, and to display letters intended to bear neither
more or less than the simple construction of--'BILL STUMPS, HIS MARK';
and that Mr. Stumps, being little in the habit of original composition,
and more accustomed to be guided by the sound of words than by the
strict rules of orthography, had omitted the concluding 'L' of his
Christian name.
The Pickwick Club (as might have been expected from so enlightened an
institution) received this statement with the contempt it deserved,
expelled the presumptuous and ill-conditioned Blotton from the society,
and voted Mr. Pickwick a pair of gold spectacles, in token of their
confidence and approbation: in return for which, Mr. Pickwick caused a
portrait of himself to be painted, and hung up in the club room.
...Pickwick Papers
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I was talking of my first trip to Hyderabad, in 1975.
My sisters then told me a highly romantic story about a lady whose name I heard for the first time then...and again the other day after nearly a good 40 years.
My sisters then told me a highly romantic story about a lady whose name I heard for the first time then...and again the other day after nearly a good 40 years.
The lady's name is Bhagmati.
The story (with a movie too to go with it) says that Hyderabad was originally named:
"Bhagyanagar"
after this Bhagmati.
Apparently Quli Qutb Shah, the teenage son of the then ruler of Golconda fell in love with this Hindu lady. To meet her, day in and night out, he had to cross the lovely river Musi (now a dirty stream), perhaps swimming strenuously like Tulsi Das did across Ganga to meet his wife while she was at her mom's place.
His father (Quli's, not Tulsi's) was scared that his fond son may drown in the Musi and so he built the Old Bridge (Purana Phul) that exists even today, to facilitate his escapades.
By and by, the son married Bhagmati (perhaps among many others), became the King of Golconda, and ordered that 1000 horsemen should accompany Bhagmati whenever she attends court. And built a lovely city across the Musi, at her place of residence. And called it Bhagyanagar (Bhagnagar actually, but that unfortunately reminds me of the movie Bhag Milkha Bhag!). He also changed the name Bhagmati to the more sonorous Hyder Mahal.
However their son, the next king, changed the city's name to Hyderabad.
All fine so far.
But I read in the DC the other day that there are serious doubts expressed now about this romantic story among so-called historians and their ilk:
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...On Saturday, Safiullah tried to bust the myth of Bhagmati in a talk
titled The Legend of Bhagmati— Fact or Fiction. Safiullah claimed that
Bhagmati was only a figment of imagination and is not a part of
Hyderabad’s factual history.
He pointed out to the fact that there
are no manuscripts, inscriptions and miniature artworks depicting
Bhagmati. In fact, there isn’t even a marked grave. Therefore, she is
more the product of fiction than fact.
However, other historians did not agree...
.... P. Jogi Naidu, the retired deputy director of the department
of archeology, said, “Bhagmati's tomb is located in Talab Katta, on the
eastern side of Charminar. The then Chichdam village (now known as Shah
Ali Banda) was an important area of the Qutb Shahi dynasty and it was
Bhagmati’s birth place. Some people have removed all the inscription
written on the tomb and do not allow visitors to view the grave. The
Deccan School of Art from 1750 onwards represented her miniatures and
painting and also depicted the events during that era.”
“She was
born a dancing girl and in the medieval period, dancing girls who were
accomplished in music and dance had a high rank in the society,” added
M. Virender, archeologist and deputy keeper of SJM.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
My only worry is, this being Election Time, someone may get the terrific idea that her tomb is actually under the famous Charminar.
And when questioned, they may challenge:
"Let our Archeology Dept dig up Charminar and you will see Bhagmati's tomb under it...without doubt"
And the said Dept may actually do so.
They did dig up Unnao in the fond hope of finding tons of buried gold seen by a famous godman in his dream (or daydream).
Newspapers said that, after a fortnight of serious digging, they abandoned it since there was no trace of gold anywhere.
But Aniket tells me that a famous news portal called Faking News reports that their digging was not all in vain...they found, to their immense relief, Bappida there:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Unnao. After digging for hours to find a hidden gold
treasure, the ASI team has finally unearthed a sleeping Bappi Lahiri
below the Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh’s fort.
“What the hell? Not even the inside of Earth is safe place to hide nowadays,” fumed Bappi.
ASI is elated at the development and congratulated the seer for
being indeed right in dreaming.” The sadhu had dreamt of only 1000
tonnes of gold, but what we have managed to excavate is much more than
that. We have just hit the jackpot,” exclaimed a member of ASI team.
“This discovery has indeed justified our act of believing a seer’s dream and hunting on the basis of it and has also shut mouths of all those who said we were acting on somebody’s superstition. This shows how seriously we take poor people of the country and how we are always ready to act for their benefit on their cue,” a congress party leader said.
Finance minister P Chidambaram too expressed relief and thanked ASI for coming to his rescue and saving him from making another “Don't buy Gold” statement.
But Bappi Lahiri after waking up couldn’t understand what this hullabaloo was all about. “Ever since Gold prices hit the roof and inflation became worse or in short ever since UPA came to power in 2004, I have been residing or rather hiding here trying to protect myself from prying eyes of thieves and jealous people,” told Bappi to reporters gathered there.
However common man is not convinced and attacked Rahul Gandhi for not seeing a single productive dream like this in his entire career so far.
“How come despite dreaming so much, Rahul Gandhi has never had a dream of lacs or crores of tax payer’s money stashed below 10 Janpath,” demanded to know an angry man from Lower Parel, Mumbai.
“This discovery has indeed justified our act of believing a seer’s dream and hunting on the basis of it and has also shut mouths of all those who said we were acting on somebody’s superstition. This shows how seriously we take poor people of the country and how we are always ready to act for their benefit on their cue,” a congress party leader said.
Finance minister P Chidambaram too expressed relief and thanked ASI for coming to his rescue and saving him from making another “Don't buy Gold” statement.
But Bappi Lahiri after waking up couldn’t understand what this hullabaloo was all about. “Ever since Gold prices hit the roof and inflation became worse or in short ever since UPA came to power in 2004, I have been residing or rather hiding here trying to protect myself from prying eyes of thieves and jealous people,” told Bappi to reporters gathered there.
However common man is not convinced and attacked Rahul Gandhi for not seeing a single productive dream like this in his entire career so far.
“How come despite dreaming so much, Rahul Gandhi has never had a dream of lacs or crores of tax payer’s money stashed below 10 Janpath,” demanded to know an angry man from Lower Parel, Mumbai.
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