Indian Antiquary Vol 57

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 94

76
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( APRIL, 1928
vives a short note to help them. No doubt heby her former servant, George Thomas, and soon knows his own people, but I cannot say that Afterwards Zafaryab Khân died. his explanation would help me, were la novice.
Begam Samru had always been a friend of the He says that "some English-speaking people give it
English, but Lord Wellesley so mismanaged his (short a] the sound of English a in man" when
relations with her that she very nearly broke with speaking Sanskrit words. I wonder if such realise
the English, being saved from that disaster just how much they would puzzle an Indian. But the Pro.
in time by his successor, Lord Cornwallis. He fessor is right in his statement. I have heard a
installed her as life ruler under British suzerainty highly educated English Museum official pronounce
of the Principality of Sardhana, as her estate had to another, as though it were the obviously correct
now become in 1805, after the defeat of Mahadji pronunciation, the term Bodhisattva as if it
Sindhia, who had been de facto ruler of the posses. were the English expression "Body bat." In
sions of Shah Alam II. fact one may expect anything from a European or an American when speaking Indian words.
The Begam then dropped out of general politics; R. C. TEMPLE
though she lived 31 years longer to 86 years of age, spending her time in improving and in managing with great skill her principality, and in amassing
enormous wealth. Having BEGAM SAMRU, by BRIJENDRANATH BANERJI, with
no children, she
adopted as her heir, David Ochterlony Dyce, son a Foreword by JADUNATH SARKAR. 1925: Calcutta
of one of her officers, Col. G. A. Dyce. This gentle. Mr. C. Sarkar & Co.
man became afterwards known to history as Dyce Begam Samru's career on the North Indian Sombre. On her death the Sardhana Principality political stage, during the last half of the 18th lapsed to the British Government. Thereafter Century was one that was only possible in the there en ued trouble over the property. anarchical conclitions in India at that time. The The adoption of Dyce Sombre was quite in order daughter of a broken-down Muslim noble, turned
according to Indian ideas. Zafaryab Khan who out of her home near Meerut in childhood by her
had been baptised into the Roman Cathclic Church, step-brother, wandering in Delhi with her mother
a9 above noticed, married Juliana (Bahu Begam), in very low circumstances, she became in the
daughter of Captain Lefevre, and had an only height of her beauty, the wife of tho Gorman mili
daughter, Julia Anne, who marriedl Colonel G. A. tary adventurer William Reinhardt, alias Sombre
Dyce, a Scotchman in the Begam's service. Their or Samru, who had won a jagir from Shah Alam II
son was David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre. They of Delhi in the Gangetic Doab from Aligarh to
had also two daughters; Anne Mary, who married Mozaffarnagar, and had settled at Sardhana in the
Captain Rose Troup, Bengal Artillery, and Georgiana, centre of it.
who married Paul Solaroli, Marquis of Briona, Begam Samru showed that she was a woman both with handsome dowries. The bulk of Begam of parts from the beginning, and at her husband's Samru's fortune went to Dyce Sombre, who proceeded death succeeded to his jágir and the command of to Europe and England to his undoing. In 1838 his troops, as it were naturally, at about 28 years two years after his mother's death, he married in of age in 1778. In 1781 she was baptised as England, the Hon. Mary Anne Jervis, daughter Joanna by Father Gregorio, Roman Catholic of the second Viscount St. Vincent. They did not priest. She proved a good military leader and had agree, and poor Dyoe Sombre was eventually Boveral well-known European adventurers in her locked up as a lunatic, but escaped, and fought for service, including for a time, George Thomas, his property. In the end, however, it went to afterwards the well-known Raja of Hansi. She his wife, who after his death married the third Lord then did some wonderful things, at one time, saving Forester. So the final end of the immense property the feeble Delhi Emperor from Ghulam Qadir, and accumulated by the once pennilesy claughter of an at another from Najaf Quli Khan. Sho thus Indian noble went to the laughter of an English became a prominent figure in Delhi politics. But peer as her sole right. Romance could hardly go in 1790 she did a very foolish thing; for as a woman further. of 40, who should have known better, she married
Begam Samru was wise, gonerous, extraordinarily one of her officers, a Frenchman named Lovassoult,
open-minded and charitable. She gave her money who was entirely unfitted to help her to govern
alike to Roman Catholic and Protestant Christiana her little State, and this affair very nearly put an
and to Musalmans and Hindus, leaving behind a end to her career, as it did to that of her husband.
name blessed by many a poor Indian. Her story It did bring her to grief for a time, as she was in
has been more or less well-known ever since she died, consequence for nearly a year the prisoner of her
but now, owing to the patient research of Mr. step-son, Zafaryab Khân alias Louis Balthazar
Banerji, we have an authentic version culled from Reinhardt, and was disgracefully treated by him.
original sources. From this dangerous position, which only a woman of her calibre could have supported, sho wms saved
R. C. TEMPLE