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THE LIFE OF BABA NANAK.
OCTOBER, 1874.]
the sap of both cocoanut (Coros nucifera) and toddy palms (Borassus flabelliformis) for the purpose of alcoholic fermentation, which right was eventually ceded to the said Company. The annual rent of this bandrastal amounted to 2,000 xerafins.
from the class of Bhandaris, who eventually sank the latter name and assumed the warlike one of Bhangulis or Trumpeter Chiefs. They were subdued by the Muhammadans, and when in 1533 the Portuguese took possession of the islands of Bombay and Mahim they were follow
Bandrastal, it appears, was originally derived ing the peaceful profession of toddy-drawers.
THE LIFE OF BABA NANAK, THE FOUNDER OF THE SIKH SECT.*
By R. N. The life of a person, who by his actions and precepts has influenced the ideas and consciences of a large number of his fellow-creatures, both during his lifetime and for centuries after his death, can never be devoid of interest. When that influence has not been owing to his wealth, rank, or power, but simply to his own merits, that man must be called truly great; and when we find that his motives were unselfish, that after a long life devoted to the instruction of others in the paths of virtue and moral purity he died poor, and delegated his office, not to his children, but to that one of his disciples whom he considered most virtuous, that man must be considered truly good, as well as truly great.
Such was B&b & Nanak, the first teacher and founder of the Sikh tenets. However much we may differ with him in many of his doctrines, we cannot but admit that he was one of those on whom the Almighty has vouchsafed special blessings for during a long life of seventy years he laboured unceasingly at one object, viz. to reform the lives and religion of his countrymen, to break through the tyranny of priestcraft, outward ritual, and caste. He taught that purity of thought, word, and deed, abstinence from lust, anger, and avarice, were better than feeding Brahmans or making offerings at temples. He tried to amalgamate the Hindu and Muhammadan religions, and convince all that they were really brothers, descended from one Father. He lived long enough to see the seed which he had sown bring forth fruit: that in afterages the plant has been choked by the thorns of worldly cares and corruptions is owing to the imperfection of all things human;-that he made the noble attempt, that he set the example in his own life, and partially succeeded, is his greatest praise.
There are some who have tried to impose upon the ignorant by asserting that Nanak was an incarnation of the Deity, and that he worked miracles... The same assertions are made in favour of every person who is renowned for sanctity or virtue.
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Reprinted, with slight abridgment, from an educational tract published at Lahor about fifteen years ago. It also
CUST, B.C.S.
In that province of British India which, from the circumstance of its being traversed by five large rivers, is called the Panjab, in the division and district of Lâhor, in the parganah of Sharakpur, in the tract betwixt the rivers Ravi and Chenâb, called the Rechna Doab, near the banks of the Degh Nalâ, there was a village named Talwandi, the property, as it is still, of a tribe of Muhammadan Rajputs who had emigrated from the sandy regions between the Jamnâ and Satlej, known as Bhattiana. The time of our narrative is the year 1469 of the Christian era, corresponding to Samvat 1626. This part of India was then governed by the dynasty of Lodhi Pathans, whose name still lives in Lodhiânâ, on the Satlej. Four hundred years had elapsed since the first Muhammadans had invaded India, and their power was firmly seated in Northern India: the great Timur the Lame had sacked Dehli, and his great grandson Båber, who was destined to be the founder of a line of emperors, was still a child in the countries beyond the river Oxus, and the valley of Kashmir. The country round Talwandi was wild, badly cultivated, and covered with brushwood: it is at the edge of the great jangle waste or Bar which occupies the vast space betwixt the Ravi and Chenâb, containing many million acres of uncultivated land. Two religions appeared to meet here also, for the industrious and settled Jâts, who were Hindus, here came into contact with the idle and migratory Bhattias, who had adopted the new religion of Muhammad. In those days persecution on account of religion was very common, and many changed their faith from base motives; bitter feelings existed between the Muhammadans and Hindus there, as elsewhere. No roads traversed this savage region: it was then, as it is now, in a corner, and when, many years after, this neighbourhood passed into the hands of independent Sikh chiefs, they assumed the name of Nakya from this circumstance. . .
The Muhammadans were always desirous of mak. ing converts, and succeeded in so doing by force, appeared in the Oriental Christian Spectator, Mar. Apr. 1863.
